Lhind the Thief (26 page)

I followed her through. “So what happened?”

“Sh-h.” She frowned at me. “They’re in that room,” she
whispered, pointing across the carpet at the door on the opposite side, then
opened a door at her right.

I followed her through a small room dominated by a writing
desk and several chairs, then through that room to a glass-paned door that
opened onto a balcony.

Kee stopped there and whispered, “But just a while ago a
messenger arrived. A Djuran soldier, right into the Destination. He had a
message from Dhes-Andis. He said that if we give you up, Dhes-Andis will give
the order for that army to go away. Otherwise, he will send them against Liacz,
and say that it was our prince who paid them to attack so dishonorably.
Everyone knows the Gray Wolves fight for the highest bidder. The messenger will
return tonight for the answer. So now they’re trying to decide what to do, and
I think it’s not fair. You should be there.”

“Well, then I’ll go in and tell them—” I started toward the
window she pointed at, but she caught my arm.

“You are supposed to be safely asleep. It’s because of what
you said about Dhes-Andis being in your mind.” She looked uncomfortable.

“Oh. They don’t trust me anymore.”

“I don’t know what they’re thinking.” But she didn’t look at
me when she said it.

Instead she motioned me to duck down and crawl along the
balcony under the windows of the next room over. We settled underneath the
window that stood partially open. The voices from inside the room came clearly.

“I don’t care what he promises.” I recognized the lovely,
musical voice of Thianra the minstrel. “Even if we could trust the likes of
Jardis Dhes-Andis, which would be a stupid thing to do, I would prefer to take
our chances at holding the mercenaries off, and as for the King of Liacz, I
will go to him myself. If I carry a letter from you, Ilyan, I think he’d
believe the both of us that Prince Geric Lendan had allied with Dhes-Andis over
the fact that you’d suddenly gone mad and were declaring war.”

“Or that I could afford the price of the Duchess of Thann’s
mercenaries.” That was Rajanas’s familiar drawl. “I’ll go to Liacz myself,
soon’s I get rid of Lendan’s wolf pack here. But that is going to take time.”

“Which we do not have,” Thianra murmured.

Rajanas said, “At least Dhes-Andis seems reluctant to send
his own armies over here in force. Yet.”

“He seems to be testing our strength. Everyone’s strength.
One thing I can attest to in my turn is the strength of his magic,” Hlanan
said. “I’ll wager anything he smells a double-cross from either Thann or
Lendan.”

“The first is possible, but the second is almost sure,”
Thianra stated. “You are both ignoring tonight’s time limit in favor of these
longer plans. Does that mean you will surrender Lhind to him?”

“No!” Hlanan sounded hoarse. I wondered how much rest he’d
had while I was quiet under that spell. “But when we say no, we had better be
prepared for some consequences. There will be some. Their magnitude will depend
on how important Lhind is to him. That’s what we’ve got to figure out.”

“How can we?” Rajanas asked. I heard the click of crystal on
wood.

“We can’t,” Hlanan said. “We still have Lendan somewhere
about, possibly in this very city. If I could find someone to transfer us, he
can, too. Or maybe he can do the transfer himself. I am certain now that he got
the book. He could never have managed any of that magic without it. Which is
why I think we should call the Magic Council and surrender Lhind to them.
She’ll be safe with them.”

Silence. My palms were damp. I pressed them against my
sides.

“She won’t want that,” Rajanas said. “From our short
acquaintance, I’d say our little thief values her freedom. If she wanted
interference from your Magic Council—”

“Help,” Hlanan interrupted. “And training.”

“If she wanted any of that, she’d have sought them out
herself. I’d say she’s reasonably competent in getting what she wants.”

“She’s a walking peril,” Hlanan exclaimed. “You didn’t see
her set fire to half a street. And the same thing happened to those pirate
ships. Without any thought at all to the consequences. That was before I found
out about the accursed communications device she’d been playing with. Bespelled
device. Communicating not with just any evil sorcerer, but the
emperor of Sveran Djur.
”

“You think he suborned her,” Thianra said slowly.

“I don’t know. Not consciously, perhaps, but she’s
so . . . oh, so gallant, but so ignorant. Desperately so.” A
sharp sigh followed this. “Look, I hate to see any creature’s freedom
curtailed, but it’s for her own safety. That accursed sorcerer has got to be
after her for a reason, and I’ll gamble my life he doesn’t intend any good by
her.”

“Then I say we set her free. If she’s not here, we can tell
him she’s not here. As for the other problems, we knew before we ever met Lhind
that we’d be having them sooner or later.” That was Rajanas.

“Can’t you give her at least a start on the training she
needs?” Thianra asked.

“I tried,” Hlanan said dully. “And I’ve failed. Why do you
think I insisted we abduct her in the first place? We make a vow before we ever
leave the School not to leave any lone mages we find without trying to bring
them to accept the Council pledges, if not the training. I don’t know if I’ve
done too much or too little, but I do know I’ve completely failed. Lhind is now
more a danger to the world, and herself, than she was as a thief running around
Thesreve casting illusions. She trusts no one—and we cannot trust her. Lying,
for her, is . . .”

“A game,” Rajanas said. “I distinctly recall a pair of
escaped galley slaves who played that very same game.”

“I call that a habit of survival,” came Thianra’s gentle
voice.

Hlanan gave a sharp sigh. “The point is, I can’t believe
anything she says, though I want to. Maybe that is why I failed, because I want
to . . . but that is my problem to deal with. Right now, we have
Lendan and his book, Dhes-Andis and his threat, and the Wolf Grays up in the
Pass. So I guess that adds the King of Liacz to our problems.”

“That,” Rajanas said wryly, “is nothing new.”

Hlanan went on in a low voice, “I’ve failed in every
possible direction. I think it’s time to call on the Council’s aid, and
quickly.”

Silence.

I knew what it meant.

I backed out from under the window and retreated into the
next room. Like a shadow, Kee joined me, her brow furrowed.

I swallowed something about the size of a sun-fruit that had
suddenly lodged in my throat. “I’m gone.” I hated the way my voice sounded
high. “Soon’s I recover my stash.”

“I know where it is,” she said softly. “I’ll show you.”

We sped through more fancy halls to a small, plain room on
the ground floor. On a table between the windows lay all my burglar tools,
including my empty bag of liref, with Faryana’s diamonds and the few coins and
jewels I had left. I swept them up, hesitating over Faryana’s diamonds.

Did they know what those were? I wondered if I should leave
them, but instinct warned me not to.
I
know you can’t hear the others, and even though you won’t talk to me I’ll see
what I can do to spring you,
I promised the silent diamonds as I dropped
them into the bag.

“I can get you a cloak,” Kee said.

“I’ll wait here.” I tried a jaunty smile. “I can go out the
window when you get back. No one will see me. Thanks, Kee.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t say what for, but departed in haste,
her expression even more troubled.

I wandered around the room, trying to think over everything
I’d learned. Everything I’d done. But my brain didn’t want to work, and all I heard,
over and over, was Hlanan saying,
We
cannot trust her
. Even worse?
I can’t
believe anything she says.

When Kee returned she put a thick, plain-colored folded
cloak in my hands, and then she handed me the pack she’d carried on our
shortened journey. “I don’t think you’d do any magic to hurt any of us,” she
said. “But they’re not asking what I think.”

Without any thought to
the consequences
. “Are you going to get into trouble for this?”

She glanced down at her open hands. “Kuraf will hear me
out.”

“Well,” I said awkwardly. Then, remembering the liref, “What
happened to Rajanas’s Steward? The one who drugged their cider?”

“He disappeared. Just ahead of Lendan’s assassins,
apparently. But he saw to it that his highness escaped first.”

I remembered what Kuraf had said about waiting to hear his
side before judging him. Kuraf, at least, knew that motivations were not all
evil or good, or maybe that people might think their motivations good, but
others would disagree.

I couldn’t get that into words. Thinking that way was too
new. So I stayed with the immediate. “I’ll try to pay you back, Kee. I
promise.”

“If you find a way to help,” she said, earnest as always,
“there will be no debt.” She didn’t wait for an answer, but left.

I opened the window and breathed deeply of the cool, moist
air.

Rain was on the way. I’d best find shelter by night, I
thought as I swung out and dropped into the lacy shrubbery of the garden.
Shelter, and a disguise to cover my hair and tail.

Planning for weather and these other details was better than
hearing Hlanan say over and over
I’ve
failed
. And
Lhind is now a danger to
the world.

Worst of all, what he’d said about trust.

I slunk through the garden. When I reached the fence I
donned the dun-colored cloak, pulled the hood over my head, and slipped into
the city. By midday I was plodding bent-backed behind a long line of carts
going out through the city gates. The watchful Guards on the gate gave me no
more than a glance.

The sun rested atop the highest of the mountains behind me
when I crossed the bridge past the last stone plinth of Alezand. The next
plinth, on a weather-worn ridge above the river that marked the border, said
NAMAS ILAN, and below it, arrows pointing out names of villages or towns, none
of which meant anything to me.

I remembered that Imbradi was situated in the northwestern
portion of the principality.

I looked around slowly, past the slanting shadows cast by
the long prairie grass. Where to go? Behind me lay Imbradi, I’d just stepped
onto the western corner of Namas Ilan, which I knew nothing about, with the
bulk of Liacz above it. South beyond Alezand lay Keprima, and eventually,
Thesreve. Eastward were the nigh impassable Anadhan Mountains, and on their
other side the legendary capital city of Charas al Kherval, Erev-li-Erval.
Either west or east were mountains, among whose peaks it was rumored the Snow
Folk lived. Should I try to find them?

Faryana, are there
Hrethans in the Kertean Mountains?

No answer.

There are, but you
will not find them
, came Dhes-Andis’ voice.
I have not, after considerable hunt.

I jumped, staring around wildly. Then I remembered what had
happened aboard the caravel before Hlanan woke up.
You have my range,
I shaped the words with care, keeping my inner
door shut enough so that no thoughts or images escaped, only the words I meant
to send.
That means you can talk to me
this way, without any aids, clear from Sveran Djur?

Acid laughter tumbled darkly through my mind.
I can, and you will, too. Come, child. I
have been patient, a rarity that carried its own brief interest. You show all
the potential and the prowess that I’d hoped for. Your ignorance is a little
matter requiring time and attention. We will amend that very quickly.

Hoped for?
I
stumbled forward on the road, unable to see the road around me. Images came
with his words, the merest flicker. One a blue-haired woman, the other a tall
pale-haired man. It was the vision of the blue-haired lady that caused me to
stop in my tracks, unable to see, to breathe. “I know her! The Blue Lady.” I
choked on the words.

A triumph of an
alliance, don’t you think? Your remarkable gift for the arts comes from your
mother. She was the best of her kind. But the prowess is part of our
Andis-Sveranji blood.

My world had splintered. I clutched my head, remembering— remembering.
“She was my mother?”

She also bequeathed to
you her regrettable sentimentality,
the cold, stinging voice went on.
But you will unlearn that weakness fast
enough.

Unheeding, I thought,
The
Blue Lady. My mother. Where is she?

She abandoned you and
returned to her own world. You were lost, but now you are found again, and you
are mine. Come to Sveran Djur.

Tears stung my eyes. I thumbed them away. “I don’t care what
you say,” I shouted. “I loved those dreams of her, and I always will. I loved
her. And I don’t like you. I don’t trust you.”

Dhes-Andis’s thought scoured my mind with scornful
amusement.
Trust is the cry of the weak,
and to heed it renders you equally weak. When I give a command my servant has a
choice: obey or be destroyed. I have no interest in their puling opinions of
me. Or in yours either, my ignorant young apprentice.

I won’t,
I cried
in mind. But still I listened.

You remember the fire
spell, don’t you, Lhind?
he continued, giving me back my own image of
drawing fire down from the boiling clouds, and shooting bolts at the frightened
guards who moments before were ready to thrash me.
See? I permit you that absurd diminutive your mother insisted on
calling you, which will suffice until you have learned enough to assume your
real name, your place, your power.
He must have sensed that leap of my
heart at the words ‘real name,’ but he seemed to think my reaction was to the
word ‘power.’
Yes! You sampled power and
if you are not afraid of the real truth you know you want more. You have the
potential to have more. I will train you, and then set you on your own path.
With the words came images, compelling and fascinating: whole rivers set
aflame; mountains smashed, sending boulders sky high; a vast army, glittering
with weapons and chain mail, all kneeling and bowing their heads before me.
Your mother’s blood gave you the ability to
shape magic, but it is your Andis-Sveranji strength that will permit you to use
it.