Magic Casement (47 page)

“My
father wouldn’t let you do that! “ she said angrily.

“Ah,
yes, the spy,” Sagorn said unpleasantly. “You heard more than you
admitted that day, then?”

Inos
blushed harder and looked furious. Rap felt himself bristle, wishing he could
stop this sinister old scholar from insulting his queen. Whatever the king had said
about him being trustworthy, he had obviously betrayed Rap to Andor.

He
began moving toward the door. “Your father, child, did not have an army
of impish cutthroats coming up the tower after him at the time. Now, did you or
did you not seek my counsel?”

Inos
set her teeth, but obviously she was going to give in and let Sagorn go up the
tower. There was a dead body upstairs, and she had suffered quite enough
already without having to look at that. Rap moved quickly, to reach the doorway
first, and Little Chicken scrambled up and followed.

The
room one floor up was very gloomy, filled with gigantic shadows cast by a
single small candle flame. Rap hurried across to where Yggingi lay, just inside
the other stairwell. The goblin would always extend trash’s duties to
include anything that let him show off his strength, and as soon as Rap took
hold of Yggingi’s ankles. Little Chicken shoved him aside. “Out
window?”

That
gruesome thought had not even occurred to Rap. “Ugh! No. In that closet.”

The
goblin dragged the corpse across the room and tucked it away among the king’s
robes, while Rap dragged a rug over and covered the puddle of blood. He hoped
Inos would not wonder why it was there, and that the blood would not soak
through. By the time he had done, the other three had arrived.

Sagorn
stood a moment, breathing hard. “But you must understand,” he was
saying, “that we have no common purpose except to be released from the
curse, and therefore to seek out more of the words. Otherwise we all go our own
ways.”

“Jalon
soon got lost in the forest, and he called Andor. Andor did not have my
scruples toward your father, and hence his daughter. “ He made a small
bow to Inos and then headed for the couch. “So Andor went to Kinvale to
make your acquaintance. He even dreamed of becoming a king, I regret to say. “

“When
he told us that he brought you back to Krasnegar afterward,” Inos asked, “then
he was sort of telling the truth?” The old man leaned back, chuckling
breathlessly. “Yes, he was, for once. Here he had two words to chase:
yours, when you got it; and Master Rap’s. By the sort of improbable
chance that the words produce, he arrived at Krasnegar just as Rap was revealed
as a seer.”

Rap
closed the down door and bolted it. Little Chicken started playing with the
bolt, flicking it back and forth, showing childish curiosity and delight. Rap
listened to Sagorn’s story with half his head. The other half was
sighting. The imps had already found axes and were breaking down the door into
the robing room. He should be flattered that they were sending a hundred men
after him, he supposed.

“Your
father sank faster than I had expected,” Sagorn continued. “So
Andor decided to go south and fetch you. He was annoyed that he could not charm
Master Rap’s word out of him. Nor would he give it when threatened by the
goblins. How did you escape, young man?”

Rap
told them briefly. Fleabag thumped his tail on the floor at the sound of his
name. Little Chicken scowled, so he must be picking up impish as fast as Rap
had picked up goblin. It would be harder for him, though, for impish was a more
complex dialect.

“Darad
is a fool,” Sagorn said. “I despise his murdering ways, but he is
not even efficient in them. He should have asked the’ goblins to extract
the word from you. They would have been happy to demonstrate their skills.”

Except
that Rap knew no word of power to tell; he shivered. “The imps are almost
through into the robing room, your Majesty. “

Sagorn
sighed and rose from the couch. “Next floor, then.”

“You
chased me down these stairs once, Doctor,” Inos said. “I thought at
the time that you were remarkably unwinded.”

“No.
Thinal did the running for me. The curse does have its uses, I admit.”

Rap
called to Little Chicken for help and began pushing one of the big cupboards
over to the door. Then they fetched another. Those might gain a few minutes-for
what, though? When he crossed to the stairs, Inos’s voice came echoing
eerily down from above.

“...exactly
does it do?”

“It
is a last relic of Inisso’s works.” The old man’s voice came
in bursts, now, as if he were very short of breath. “Magic casements-like
talking statues and preflecting pools-are a supreme test of a sorcerer. They
will show the future... and give advice. That is... the scene they show... is a
hint... of the best course to take... a view down the best path... as it were. “

“Why
would my father not let you try it, then?”

Sagorn
had reached the bedroom door and stopped again, wheezing. “If he had, it
might have warned him not to send you to Kinvale, and then this trouble might
have been averted.”

“How
could it have done that? A window do that?”

“It
might have shown you here at Winterfest, perhaps? I admit that it is dangerous.
It drove your great-grandfather mad. “

Rap
did not like the sound of that, remembering the awesome glow he had provoked in
the casement when he went near it-and remembering, also, the strange apparition
who might have been Bright Water, witch of the north. She had gabbled something
about foresight. She had accused Rap of blocking her foresight. Could there be
a connection there?

Inos
hurried across the bedroom, the death chamber. “Let us go straight up,”
she said, and her voice almost cracked.

Rap
felt a mad impulse to run after her and take her in his arms to comfort. He
wanted that so badly that he trembled. He kept remembering how she had kissed
him good-bye, almost a whole year ago now. But queens did not kiss factors’
clerks-or horse thieves.

All
the rest of Krasnegar had spurned him, and she had not. He had never doubted
that she would remain his friend, once she was free of Andor’s witchery.
It was very difficult to remember that she was his queen. If she were wearing a
royal robe and a crown it might be possible, but despite her royal bearing in
that shabby leather riding outfit, with her gold hair flying loose halfway down
her back, she was still too much the companion of his childhood-on horses,
clambering over cliffs...

Sagorn
was still catching his breath.

“You
know I have only been up there once in my life?” Princess Kadolan said.
She was puffing, also, but perhaps that was only from politeness. “My
grandfather died in a fire, I thought.”

The
bedroom was brighter, with more candles still burning in the sconces. Sagorn
went to study the two portraits over the mantel. “Yes, but he was mad
before that. “

“Oh,
dear! You think he saw his death through the casement and the sight drove him
insane?”

The
old man shrugged. “That is what your brother thought, and your father
before him. It is an interesting paradox. The prophecy drove him mad, but had
he not been mad, then he would not have been locked up, so he could have
escaped the flames. Curious, isn’t it?”

Deciding
again that he did not like this sinister, cold-blooded old man, Rap began
heaving a dresser toward the door, and the goblin came to help.

The
imps were into the robing room now, crossing to the stairs that led up to the
antechamber. Once Rap reached the uppermost room, he would be unable to watch
what they were doing. He hoped Inos was right to trust Sagorn, but it was not his
place to advise her, and he had no advice to offer anyway. The situation looked
hopeless. Once the proconsul’s body was discovered, the culprits would be
lucky if they were just thrown in the dungeon and not beheaded out of hand.

With
the goblin at his heels, he followed the others, climbing the last flight
unwillingly, sensing the blankness above him. When his head broke through that
invisible barrier, he felt like a worm coming out of the ground. Again he was
seized by a giddy excitement, an exhilaration stemming from the combination of
great height and occult farsight, producing a divine-a detestableability to spy
on everyone in Krasnegar outside the castle.

Sagorn
was leaning one hand against the wall and breathing hard. Inos held a candle,
standing with her aunt close to the doorway, staring across the empty chamber
at the magic casement. It was dark and seemed no different from the other
windows, except for its greater size. One of the others was rattling in the
wind. Princess Kadolan shivered and hugged herself in the cold. Fleabag was
wagging his tail, sniffing at the bedding and the rest of the two fugitives’
camping equipment, lying in untidy disorder.

Little
Chicken jostled past Rap, saying, “See!” He strode toward the south
window. As before, it reacted to his approach by starting to glow, shimmering
with a reddish-yellow light, and the multitude of many-colored symbols became
visible in its panes. He stopped a few paces away from it, studying the
imperceptible shifting.

“Curious!”
Sagorn said. “Firelight?”

“And
watch what happens when I go near, sir. “ Rap called Little Chicken back,
and the casement became dark. Then Rap moved slowly forward, and the pulsating,
hard white glare came again, the feverish changing of the bright-colored
emblems. He turned around and saw the others illuminated by it, flecks of
rainbow appearing and disappearing on their faces. They all looked worried,
even the old man.

“I
am no sorcerer,” Sagorn said uneasily. “I have read of these, but
never seen one demonstrated.” He paused. “There is another way of
escape for us, you know.”

Rap
could guess what was coming, but Inos asked eagerly, “What’s that?”

“I
have a word of power. So do you now, ma’am, and so does Master Rap. Three
words will make a mage, a sorcerer-a minor sorcerer, but even a mage would be
strong enough to handle a band of stupid imps, I fancy. We can share.”

Rap
saw Inos bite her lip. “Even Andor told me not to.”

“He
expected to get it out of you, though. When you were alone together. “

“Are
you suggesting that that was the only reason he proposed to me?” she
shouted furiously.

“I
know that was the only reason,” he snapped back. “I have his
memories. Andor uses people like spoons or forks-women for pleasure, men for
profit. He is the ultimate cynic.”

“And
I do not know any word,” Rap said. “So I cannot share. “

Sagorn
studied him, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the casement
at his back. “Jalon did not believe you when you told him that. Nor did
I. Nor did Andor. Nor Darad. Now your life is again in danger, and this may be
the only way to put Inosolan on her throne. Yet you still maintain that you do
not know a word?”

“I
do.”

With
a sigh the old man said, “Then I think perhaps I do believe you, this
time.”

“I
will tell Rap mine if you will!” Inos said.

Rap
gulped in horror. “But these are Imperial legionaries!” he
protested. “Aren’t they reserved to one of the warlocks?”
Sagorn gave him a long, hard stare. “It is true that the Imperial army is
East’s prerogative. Andor thought you were ignorant of such matters. Did
you actually manage to deceive Andor, young man?”

“Andor
began my education!” Rap said hotly.

“Painless
learning may be worthless learning. Anyway, you are correct. To use occult
force against these imps might well call down the wrath of the warlock of the
east-supported, likely, by the whole Council of Four.”

Rap
felt as if he had scored a point, although he did not know what the game was. “Tell
me, then. Had I shared my word with Jalon, or with Andor, would they have
called Darad to kill me?” Sagorn shrugged, uninterested. “Perhaps.
I don’t recall that either of them had decided. But Darad would have been
called sooner or later, when one of us was in trouble. Then he would have come
after you, to get more power; he is a simple soul. There would be more
sorcerers around if sharing were easier, you see. It needs a great trust.”

“And
you could cheat? Tell a wrong word?”

The
old man smiled thinly. “I expect people usually do. “

“And,”
Rap concluded, feeling triumphant, “the Darad problem still exists if we
share now, doesn’t it?”

Sagorn
pouted, emphasizing the clefts that flanked his deep upper lip. “I
suppose it does. Well, Queen Inosolan, shall we try Inisso’s magic
casement instead?”

The
strain of an unbearable day was showing on her face, but Inos raised her head
proudly and said, “If you wish, Doctor. “ Nobody moved. Fleabag was
panting, and the wind moaning around the turret. Very faint thumping sounds
came drifting up from the imps’ axes.

“Well,
this is exciting!” Princess Kadolan said. “I have always wanted to
see some real magic. Who goes first? You, Doctor Sagorn? “

He
glanced at her disbelievingly and then nodded. “I suppose so. Come back
here, Master Rap. “

Rap
walked over to them, and the icy chamber was rapidly plunged into darkness,
Inos’s candle barely visible. Then Sagorn moved slowly toward the
casement. Again light shone on the dusty, footprinted floor and this time it
seemed to be normal sunlight-white, but not the fearsome glare that Rap had
provoked.

Sagorn
went close and studied the emblems on the tiny panes. As before, Rap felt that
they were changing, but could see no transformation actually happen. A red
spiral near the lower left corner was farther to the right than he had thought,
the gold and green seashell higher, a group of silver bells on azure petals...

Then
the gaunt old man seemed to find courage. He reached up and grasped the
fastening in the center, grunted quietly as if it were stiff, and pulled the
two flaps toward him. As he stepped back, the casement swung open.