“You don’t seem surprised to see me,” she whispered to Pelmen, wiping her cheeks with the back of a hand.
“I knew you were on your way. My only worry was in getting here before you split this one’s skull.” He jerked his head at Rosha.
“How did you know about that?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.
“The House told me.”
Bronwynn stared at him. “What?” she finally asked.
“This ancestral home of yours is alive, Bronwynn. And it has ways of communicating its thoughts. It watched you climb up through its walls, and gave me a running description of your attack on Rosha as I raced up here to stop you.” Pelmen glanced at Rosha. “It’s fortunate your weeks of inactivity haven’t dulled your reflexes.”
“Reflexes had nothing to do with it. It was my father’s mailed shirt.”
Rosha turned a hard look onto his still-puzzled Princess. “Why did you try to cut me open?”
“They told me you’d gotten cozy with Ligne,” Bronwynn snapped. Then she advanced a step on him, suddenly grim. “Have you?”
“Not by choice,” Pelmen interrupted, squeezing between them to prevent a renewal of hostilities. “Tell me who is they?”
Bronwynn shrugged. “Admon Faye, Flayh, Jagd. All of them.”
“You’ve been with Admon Faye?” Rosha demanded. It Was his turn to be suspicious.
“Not by her choice,” Pelmen said evenly, turning to stare Rosha down.
“Admon Faye helped her escape from this place—”
“How do you know?”
“Serphimera told me.”
“Serphimera!” Bronwynn blurted out. “Is that witch here?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew where Bronwynn was?” Rosha asked stonily.
“Would you two please quiet down?” Pelmen ordered. When they were silent, he turned first to answer Bronwynn, then to Rosha. “Yes, she’s here, but she’s not a witch and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it would help matters any.”
“But if I’d known she was safe, I would have killed Joss days ago.”
“You call being with Admon Faye safety?” Pelmen frowned. “Besides, that’s what I expected you’d do. You might have succeeded in killing him, but neither you nor Bronwynn would have been any better off.”
“It doesn’t matter now, anyway,” Bronwynn whispered. “I’ll take you through the walls and you can kill him while I slaughter Ligne.” Both of the men turned to stare at her. “I think it’s a good plan,” she added defensively.
“Maybe for Admon Faye,” said Pelmen. “Is that what he intended?”
“I never really listened to what he intended.” Bronwynn shrugged. “I was busy planning my own revenge.”
“I can’t believe you really thought I ”
“That’s what Jagd said.”
“When did you speak with Jagd?” Pelmen interrupted. “He’s been inside this castle for weeks.”
“Flayh talked to him Flayh and Pezi. Through the little blue pyramids.”
“You were there? You heard that conversation?”
“Sure.”
Which brings up an important point, said the Imperial House.
“Yes. I hadn’t forgotten.”
“Hunh?” Bronwynn asked.
“Talking to the House,” Pelmen explained. “I’ll go and get it now. I assume there’s a secret way into his room?”
Ask the girl. She just visited it.
“Were you in Jagd’s room a few minutes ago?”
“How did you ”
“I already told you. Can you take me there?”
“Of course, but aren’t we going to make some plan of attack first? I came into this castle to kill a Queen, not to stand around and talk to the walls,”
Rosha’s nose wrinkled as he watched Bronwynn speak. Dressed as she was in close-fitting leather fighting clothes, she looked very little like the girl who’d bid him good-bye in Dragonsgate, less than a year before. Her language was harsher, less thoughtful. He wasn’t sure he liked the change. In fact, he knew he didn’t
“There’s no need for a blood bath,” Pelmen said, “especially not when we could all end up its victims. Bronwynn, you want to murder Joss and Ligne. In spite of your secret panels I consider that no easy task.
Joss is cut of the same cloth as our treacherous Admon Faye; what if he knows of those same secret panels and guards himself against them? Nor does the leopardess Ligne appear the type who would allow herself to be casually butchered in her bed. And should you manage to kill them both, what then? Before tomorrow night you’d discover half a dozen members of the court who deem themselves just as worthy to rule as you, Bronwynn and possibly, they’d have enough friends to make that happen.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Bronwynn demanded. “Patience?” The way she spat out the word indicated how little use she had for it herself.
“I suggest we let the House help us. With its assistance we routed Admon Faye this morning ”
“You routed him?”
“The castle says all but a few of the army we battled are dead or have escaped into the river. I know it could help us to destroy Ligne and her supporters as well.”
“Well, ask it then. I’m ready to get on with this.”
“Be patient, Bronwynn!” Rosha broke in. “There are more people involved than just the three of us.”
“Really?” she said, and she turned back to Pelmen. “Who?”
“A group of old friends I used to perform with, who agreed to fight Admon Faye this morning out of loyalty to you. Who do you think attacked you in the darkness?”
“You… you conquered Admon Faye with a troupe of players?” she asked, incredulous.
They had some assistance, huSed the House.
“The House just reminded you that we had its help, and that made all the difference. It will again, when the time comes to overthrow Ligne.
Because of its help, we lost only one in the caverns this morning. I want the rest alive to see your coronation as well, Bronwynn. So yes be patient. If all goes well, we’ll be out of here tonight, planning your triumphant return.”
And what about the pyramid?
“I was getting to that. I made a deal with the House and I need to hold up my end of it now. Would you show me the way into Jagd’s room?”
Bronwynn nodded. “You’ll need to be careful,” she said. “He’s covered the walls with his clothes you can’t tell from the corridor if he’s in there or not.”
“We’ll let the House worry about that. Rosha, we’ll be right back.”
Pelmen ducked then, and followed Bronwynn into the hidden corridor.
Flayh sat in an armchair and struggled to relax. It was an impossible task. “Where are they?” he demanded of the pyramid that sat before him.
Not here, replied the High Fortress of Ngandib. “I know that. I’m waiting for them to contact me through this pyramid.”
Must you? the Fortress grumbled.
“Yes, I must,” Flayh replied snappishly. “And you’d best accustom yourself to it, for I don’t intend to stop using magic just because it gives you heartburn.”
Yes, master, said the palace. Far below Flayh’s tower, in the slave quarters, a child suddenly got her finger caught in a slamming door and screamed for her mother. The Fortress smiled with satisfaction, wishing only that it dared do the same to Flayh.
“Where are they?” the bald sorcerer roared, pounding an arm of his chair, “Pezi, if you’ve fouled up again ” Flayh cut himself off. There was a flicker of brilliant blue inside the pyramid. The other two must be showing interest in theirs, Flayh thought, and he leaned forward to stare…
“Wayleeth, be quiet,” Tahli-Damen whispered, but his admiring Lady would not be silenced.
“He did it so easily,” she told their dinner guests. “Just walked in one afternoon, and walked out with it that night Just like that.” She snapped her fingers, then turned to hug her blushing merchant’s neck.