"And we don't really know which to use," Karanissa pointed out. "Since we haven't yet figured out what keeps her alive, we can't be sure of how to kill her."
Lord Torrut stepped into the room at that point and demanded loudly, "What's happening?"
Several people rushed to tell him; he quickly chose one to serve as his spokesman and began quietly absorbing information.
"I wonder where the other conspirators are?" Tobas asked.
Karanissa shook her head, but before she could say anything, Kelder of Tazmor answered quietly, "I don't think there is any conspiracy. I think there's just Tabaea."
"You never found traces of anyone else, did you?" Lady Sarai asked, startled. "She's small enough, and strong enough, and seems to have several different magicks available-how can she do that?"
"There's just Tabaea," Karanissa agreed. "At least, there's just Tabaea and the rabble from the Field."
"It's all just her…" Lady Sarai's voice trailed off; then she asked, "What happens if we can't stop her?"
No one had an answer for that, until Karanissa suggested, "We die, probably."
"There's no need for that," Lord Torrut said, startling the others. "We don't die; we retreat, we regroup, we reconsider our situation, and when we're ready, we retaliate."
"But how…" Sarai began.
"Listen, little Sarai," Torrut said, cutting her off, "you and your father have made fun of me for years for being a warrior with no wars to fight. Well, now I have a war-and by the gods I swear that I'm going to fight it, and I'm going to win it. It's not who wins the first battle that matters, it's who wins the last battle. This Tabaea is going to win the first one, but I intend to make sure it's not the last."
The whispered side conversations had died away as Lord Torrut spoke; now everyone was listening to him.
"This Tabaea doesn't like the overlord-that means we need to get him out of the palace before she gets here, and while we're at it, I think we had better get his entire family out, with him: Ederd the Heir and Zarrea and Edarth and Kinthera and Annara, all of them. If she's lived in the Wall Street Field then she probably doesn't like the guard, and she doesn't like me, and Sarai, she probably doesn't like your father, Lord Kalthon-you'd better get him and your brother out of here, too. And magicians-she doesn't like magicians."
"But where do we go?" Lady Sarai asked, dismayed.
"She's coming from Grandgate, is she? Then we go to Seagate. We put the overlord and his family and anyone who's too old or too sick to fight on a ship, and we sail it out of here, out of her reach."
"How do you know when it's out of her reach?" Tobas asked.
That stopped Lord Torrut for a moment; then he smiled, showing well-kept teeth. "I don't," he said. "I'm guessing. But if she could stop a ship at sea… well, has she shown any sign of being able to affect what she can't see?"
"No," Karanissa said, "not yet."
"How can we fight back from a ship, though?" Lady Sarai protested.
"Until we know how to fight back," Lord Torrut pointed out, "what does it matter where we are?"
Lady Sarai was not entirely satisfied with this, but she could think of no good answer. "I would never have thought a murder case could turn into something like this," she muttered to herself.
No one heard her, as Lord Torrut continued, "I sent that woman Alorria to rouse the overlord. And I'll leave it to this group here to get old Ederd and anyone else who Tabaea might want to kill out of the palace and down to Seagate before she gets here; and while you're doing that, I'll be doing what I can to slow her arrival."
"Then you're not going to flee yourself, Lord Torrut?" someone asked.
"Of course not!" Lord Torrut grinned outright. "At long last, I have a war to fight!"
PART THREE
Empress
CHAPTER 25
Lady Sarai could hear distant shouting as she tucked the blanket around her father; Tabaea and her army must have gotten as far as Quarter Street, at the very least. Kalthon the Younger sat upright at the back of the wagon, looking slightly dazed; Lady Sarai could see his expression clearly in the light of the torch the wagon's driver held.
"Sarai, I don't understand," her brother said again.
"You don't have to," Sarai said. "You just do what I told you."
"But aren't you coming?"
Sarai hesitated. She looked down at her father. He had appeared to be more or less awake when they left the palace, and had moved partly under his own power, but now he gave no sign of consciousness; he probably couldn't hear anything, might well have no idea what was going on around him. "No," she said, "I'm not."
"But why not?" young Kalthon protested. "If this crazy magician would kill us all, won't she kill you, too?"
"Oh, I suppose she will if she catches me and finds out who I am, yes." Sarai attempted a mocking smile, but it didn't work very well-or perhaps her brother couldn't see it in the dark; her face was probably in shadow from where he sat.
"Then shouldn't you come with us?"
"No. " She gave the blanket a final tug, then let herself slide back over the side of the wagon.
"Why not?" Kalthon's wail was heartbreaking. "How am I going to manage Daddy without you?"
"You won't be alone; there will be people to help. The overlord's going, too, and all his family. His granddaughter Annara will help. And Ederd the Heir." She hoped Ederd the Heir would, at any rate; he was a healthy man, not yet fifty, but prone to turn morose and useless at times. His daughter Annara was just a year older than Sarai, though, and still cheerful and energetic.
"But what will you do? Are you staying in the palace? Is this horrible woman going to kill you?"
"No," Sarai said. "No, she won't kill me. I won't stay in the palace. I'll hide somewhere in the city."
"But if you're hiding, why can't you come with us?"
Sarai sighed. "Kallie," she said, "I'm sending you and Dad and the others away so you'll be safe, but someone has to stay here to fight Tabaea, and I 'm going to be the one from our family who does that."
"What about Ederd the Heir, then? Shouldn't he be staying?"
"No, because he's too valuable. He's the overlord's heir."
Kalthon couldn't argue with that, but he still didn't like it.
"I think you should come with us," he said.
"No, Kallie," Sarai said gently. Then she stepped away and told the waiting driver, "Go, quickly!"
He obeyed wordlessly, setting the torch in its bracket and cracking the reins over the horses.
Lady Sarai watched them go, the horses trotting, the wagon bumping its way down Palace Street, toward the docks at Seagate. The torchlight wavered madly with the wagon's motion, sending light and shadow dancing insanely across the darkened housefronts on either side.
Sarai hoped that using horses wouldn't be too conspicuous, especially at this hour of the night; the palace stables had held no oxen, and besides, oxen would be dangerously slow. A few of the richest merchants were using horses to draw their wagons now, weren't they?
She hoped so. Or if not, then she hoped Tabaea wouldn't know any better; it was entirely possible the little thief wouldn't even recognize a horse, or wouldn't know that they were traditionally the exclusive property of the nobility.
The royal family was all safe now, or as safe as she could make them-Ederd IV, his wife Zarrea, his sour old bachelor brother Edarth, the aging son who would one day be Ederd V, his wife Kinthera, and their daughter Annara, all rousted from their beds and sent hurrying on their way to a hastily chartered ship. And now Lady Sarai's own family, her father and brother, were following. Okko, too old to fight-if theurgists could fight, which they generally couldn't-had gone as well.