Binding Spell (Tales of the Latter Kingdoms) (10 page)

What became of this newcomer, I did not know, for even though I left my tower room soon after under the pretense of greeting Kadar as he entered the castle, I saw no sign of the other man. But the Mark appeared in high spirits, meeting me with a grin.

“Do you know what day this is?”

I shook my head.

“Why, it is my birthday. I am told the cooks have prepared a great feast. And we will have dancing again. I hope this time you will be more inclined to stand up with me.”

He appeared the very picture of a man without a care in the world, but something in his manner almost seemed forced. I could not exactly put my finger on why, save perhaps for a certain tautness to his jaw and a tension in the lines of his throat.

It seemed best to play along. “I think that can be arranged. You are remiss, though, my lord.”

“Remiss?”

“If you had provided me with some warning that this was your birthday, I could have gotten you a gift. As it is, I have nothing to give you.”

His smile widened. “As to that, you are gift enough for me.” He took my hand and brought it to his lips. “Wear something festive.”

And with that he left me to watch after him, until the crowds in the corridor obscured him from view. I frowned, wondering where he had gone, and who he had brought back with him. I guessed I would not soon know the answers to either of those questions.

W
e stayed
up into the small hours of the morning, Kadar urging the musicians to play dance after dance. It was a good thing by this time I possessed a pair of properly fitting slippers, or I would barely have been able to put one foot in front of the other by the end of the evening. The company consumed far more game meats and wine than I thought wise, considering we looked to be headed into a harsh winter. Then again, they knew this land far better than I. No doubt Althan and the other household retainers had already calculated the supplies necessary to see us all through the cold months.

As promised, I did stand up with Kadar many times, though I took my turn on the floor with others as well. I thought it prudent to keep him from monopolizing me too thoroughly. Just as well, for as the evening wore on and I drank more wine, I began to enjoy our dances together a little too much. He danced well, but it was more than that. I found myself looking forward to the feel of his fingers against mine, the weight of his hands around my waist as he spun me into place.

The glow in those odd golden eyes as he looked down into my face.

No doubt he thought the evening a great success, my open demeanor one step in a softening process that would eventually lead to my being his consort in more than just name. But as I lay down on the divan and shut my eyes, I berated myself for my weakness. Surely my resolve couldn’t have begun to melt after only a few weeks in his presence?

I drifted off to sleep, no doubt assisted by the wine I had drunk earlier that evening. But at some point my eyes flashed open, as an odd thrill moved through my body.

Someone in the castle was using magic.

In the past I had been able to detect this sort of thing whenever my father cast a spell. The closest I had ever been able to come to describing the sensation was to say that it felt like standing on the deck of a ship floating on a calm sea, only to have a swell lift you up from underneath and shake your balance.

Only this swell was stronger than anything I had ever experienced before. My father’s powers were greater than mine — or at least he had a great deal more practice and control — but the tidal surge of magic that swept over me now made his efforts feel small as ripples in a mill pond compared to surging ocean breakers.

I sat up and clutched the blanket against my breast as the world seemed to rock and sway around me. I had never conceived of such power, never believed it could exist in the present day’s pale remnants of magic.

Somehow I swung my shaky legs over the edge of the divan and stood. The flow of magic called to me, pulled me toward it with the inexorable strength of an unfettered rip tide. I took a few tottering steps toward the door before the surge of power disappeared. With its absence, my sanity returned. What on earth had I been thinking? I wouldn’t have gotten a foot past the doors to our apartments without one of the guards halting me.

I paused in the middle of the sitting room, the only break in the darkness the last glowing embers in the fireplace behind me. My breaths sounded unnaturally loud, as if I had just raced up a steep hill instead of taking a few steps across a level floor.

Who could have been summoning such powers in the blackest hours of the night? Surely no one I had yet encountered in the castle; I would have felt their abilities within a few seconds of meeting them. My thoughts cast back to that afternoon, to the oddly muffled stranger who had ridden into the stronghold with Kadar and his men. It had to have been him.

But whence he had come, and how he possessed such powers, I of course had no idea. Neither did I know what sort of spell he had cast. And as much as I longed to go forth and find the stranger and see what he had wrought, I knew that was impossible. I had gotten past the guards once, but ever since that day four men kept watch on the doors to our apartments, with more stationed at the entrance to the corridor beyond. There would be no more escapes by the Mark’s consort.

I gritted my teeth and returned to my makeshift bed. Sleep was the furthest thing from my mind at that moment, but I knew I could do little else but try to reclaim my lost slumber. Whatever powers had shaken the castle that night, I would have to wait until the next day to discover their origin.

O
f course
I could make no mention of what I had felt to Kadar. So far I had managed to keep him blissfully unaware of my own small abilities, and I wished for matters to stay that way. At any rate, even if I had been inclined to discuss the situation, his actions prevented such a thing; he only nibbled at his breakfast before uttering a hasty farewell and leaving me alone and still engaged in front of the bedchamber mirror as Beranne finished dressing my hair.

Well, if he had a mage of unknown power secreted somewhere in the castle, I could understand his eagerness to be about his business, but his behavior still nettled me. However, I tried to maintain an aspect of airy unconcern as I rose from the dressing table and told Beranne that I wished to take a turn through the corridors. This was not so unusual a request, since the rain had kept up through the night and a trip to the marketplace was quite out of the question for anyone not wishing to be soaked to the skin. And I wondered then if Kadar did know anything about the mage, or whether he was as unaware of the magic that had surged through the castle the night before as everyone I saw around me.

I could not decide which possibility was worse.

So I roamed the hallways of Kadar’s stronghold, not sure quite what I was looking for, but knowing even as I went from wing to wing that my search would most likely be futile. After all, I did not expect the mysterious stranger to have been housed in one of the empty apartments reserved for visiting dignitaries, and neither did I think he would be loitering in the audience chamber or dining hall. I knew beneath the structure lay a complex warren of storerooms and what used to be a prison, although according to Beranne nothing more dangerous than casks of wine and bags of dried peas was housed there these days.

At length I retired to my quiet tower room, where I picked up the hammers for the little dulcimer Kadar had given me and picked out a tune in a desultory fashion. While I was far from musical, the mechanics of the dulcimer fascinated me, and the Mark had seen to it that I should be given lessons several times a week. I saw no harm in the occupation. If nothing else, my attempts at mastering the instrument provided some diversion to fill up my time.

Beranne took a seat near the harp, where she pulled a piece of darning out of her pocket. She seemed to show infinite patience with my clumsy playing, but I had to admit it was difficult to make the dulcimer sound truly bad. As I plinked away, my thoughts kept worrying at the sensation of magic I had felt, and what on earth I should do about it. I didn’t even know if Kadar had left the castle on some other business, or whether he was still here somewhere with his unknown guest.

From the courtyard outside there came the sound of sudden shouts, accompanied by a jingle of harness and the unmistakable staccato beat of many horses’ hooves. At once I abandoned the dulcimer and went to the window to see what the commotion might be.

A large company rode into the courtyard, their banners brave even in the driving rain. I saw the silver and sable of the Sedassa family colors, accompanied by sky-blue flags of truce and another set of banners in green and gold with a device that looked halfway familiar, although I couldn’t recall in that moment whose it was. I did, however, immediately recognize the tall figure who rode at their head.

My brother Thani had come to North Eredor to rescue me.

H
e had not come alone
. The green and gold banners were from the house of Gahm, and Lord Senric himself rode at Thani’s side.

Their arrival threw the castle into a frenzy, as I found when I descended the stairs from the music room, my heart pounding. Already servants had begun to run to and fro. Naturally such a large party would require accommodations, and it would be on the servants’ heads if those accommodations were not ready when called for.

It seemed Kadar had not gone so far after all; he almost collided with me as I exited the staircase and began to step into the corridor. I must confess I was rather preoccupied, and not paying much mind to my direction. Of course I had hoped to hear from my family, but I had not expected my brother to come here, especially with Lord Senric in tow. What his presence meant, I couldn’t begin to guess. True, Thani had been part of his household for some seven years, and the Duke had accompanied him to Marric’s Rest so he might be witness to my brother’s claiming of his inheritance, but that somehow didn’t seem explanation enough.

Kadar caught me by the arm. “What are they doing here?”

I lifted innocent eyes to his face, which had flushed with anger. “As I have had no communication with my family, my lord, I cannot say. I’m sure if we go meet them, they’ll be more than happy to explain the exact nature of their visit.”

He let go of me and muttered something in the rough
corraghar
tongue under his breath. I had noticed that whenever he desired to swear he invariably did so in the language of his father’s people. Perhaps he meant only to spare my delicate ears from his invective, but I found his attempts amusing, considering I had grown up on a working vineyard and so had been introduced to some of the more colorful curses at a fairly tender age, thanks to the seasonal workers who came to harvest the grapes. But no doubt Kadar did all he could to ignore my rather plebeian beginnings.

As they had arrived under the blue flag of truce, there was little Kadar could do save meet my brother and Lord Senric in the audience chamber and see how matters progressed from there. While their company had appeared large — some fifty men or so — it was not of a size to offer any real threat. Most likely their number had been chosen to give an impression of how much more Sirlende could throw in North Eredor’s direction if provoked.

Kadar led me down the aisle to the two high seats on the dais. His hand was a firm weight on my forearm, a not-so-subtle reminder to both me and our visitors that whatever they might have to say, I was still legally his wife.

That he had chosen the audience chamber for this confrontation was not lost on me. The simple courtesy due a member of his wife’s family and an exalted guest such as Lord Senric normally dictated a more intimate meeting in one of the smaller receiving rooms, where we could have sat down and taken some refreshment. Moreover, both my brother and the Duke were still soaked from their ride through the rain, their wet hair plastered to their foreheads and their cloaks dripping on the stone floor.

But such niceties had apparently been ignored in the face of the Mark’s displeasure. If either Thani or Lord Senric was annoyed by such high-handed treatment, they did not show it. My brother looked a little grim, but I could see no emotion at all in the correct, impassive lines of the Duke’s face.

“My lords,” Kadar said, after a significant pause.

Both Thani and Lord Senric bowed — if not very deeply. Kadar’s mouth thinned.

My brother spoke. “Your Highness, I have come on behalf of the Sedassa family, and indeed the Imperial court itself, to right the wrong that has been done my sister.”

“‘Wrong’?” The Mark sat up a little straighter and cast a look of practiced confusion in Thani’s direction. “What wrong is this of which you speak?”

I saw my brother set his jaw and couldn’t help but wince a little. I knew that expression all too well; it meant he was angry and likely to grow much angrier, even though he was doing his best to conceal those emotions.

He said, “I will leave aside for now the injuries done to Lady Laranel’s retainers, as they suffered nothing more than a few bumps on the head and are fully recovered. But if you think that the Sedassas will countenance such an affront as the kidnapping of one of their own from her bed in the middle of the night, only to force her into an unlawful marriage — well, then, I think you do not know much of us at all.”

Truthfully, I had not expected Thani to state the matter quite so baldly, but if nothing else the exalted presence of Lord Senric seemed to indicate my family had a good deal of support in Sirlende for attacking Kadar on his own ground.

“I fail to see what is so unlawful about it,” the Mark replied, his tone indicating nothing but puzzlement at Thani’s strong words. Part of me wanted to laugh at his disingenuousness. I wondered briefly if he had been taking lessons in acting from some of Tarenmar’s players. “Perhaps we have been a bit precipitate, but love is often impetuous, is it not?”

Thani looked directly at me. “You’re very silent, Lark — which is quite unlike you. I would like to hear what you have to say about the situation.”

I opened my mouth to speak, only to find my throat dry, the plea I had thought I would make for Kadar to release me from this ridiculous marriage somehow strangled within me. I felt the weight of Lord Senric’s dark eyes on me, puzzled yet concerned. Why could I not say the words I had been practicing for the past month?

Beside me Kadar shifted in his chair. His hand closed around mine, warm and heavy. Was he trying to warn me…or was he attempting to offer some sort of comfort?

My brother did not miss the gesture, I could tell. His voice somewhat harder, he remarked, “I can see my sister fears to speak her mind freely in front of you. Understandable, I suppose. Very well. Then let me be blunt, your Highness. The Sedassa estate is prepared to turn over the sum of ten thousand gold crowns for her safe return. I believe that should compensate you for any inconvenience you might suffer at the loss of your consort.”

A gasp I couldn’t quite hold in escaped my lips. I had known the Sedassa estate was one of the richest in Sirlende, but until that moment I hadn’t quite understood the magnitude of the wealth my family had at their disposal. Especially since my father had steadfastly refused to touch any of that money, and throughout my childhood our fortunes had depended on each year’s harvest, not the Sedassa riches.

Kadar’s fingers tightened on mine, but he kept his gaze fixed forward. “A lofty sum for used goods, don’t you think? Even if I did agree to send her back with you, what man would want her now?”

“I would.” Lord Senric stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with my brother. His gaze was level, direct and unflinching. “I would be honored to take her for my wife — if she will have me.”

It would have been difficult to say who was more dumbfounded by this pronouncement, Kadar or myself. He released my hand as he abruptly stood, while I could only remain rooted in my chair, amazed that one of the greatest lords in Sirlende had offered the disgraced Sedassa daughter an honorable way out of her predicament.

“I would like a word with my wife,” Kadar said, placing particular emphasis on that last word. “You are wet, your lordships, and no doubt wearied from your ride. My servants will see that you are settled.”

“That is not an answer,” my brother replied, and crossed his arms.

“No, it is not. But I would advise you to see to your comfort. It would not do for you to catch a fever because you lingered too long in those wet clothes.”

He clapped his hands, and Althan appeared as if by magic, bowing and pointing toward the wing where the guest chambers were located.

I finally found my tongue. “Do go,” I said. I could not quite meet the Duke’s eyes. “It’s silly to stay in those wet things. We will talk more later.”

“Eminently sensible, as my lady always is,” Kadar chimed in. “You are in good hands with Althan here. We will send word when we desire a further audience.”

And he took me by the arm and raised me from my seat, then led me away from Thani and Lord Senric, both of whom appeared as if they couldn’t quite understand what had just happened. Kadar seemed disinclined to make the full trek back to our apartments, and instead took me into a nearby chamber whose main purpose appeared to be storage for furniture that hadn’t found a home anywhere else in the castle.

As he shut the door behind us, I said, “It’s a princely sum. Probably far more than I am worth.”

At once Kadar came to me and took my hands in his. “No, it is not, not even if it were ten times as much.”

I somehow doubted that, but somehow I found I had little strength to protest. Still, I deliberately untwined my fingers from his before clearing my throat. “Surely you cannot hope for any future cooperation from the Imperial court if you turn down this offer. What good would I be to you then?”

He did not respond immediately, but moved a few paces away, as if our proximity had become painful to him. Golden eyes hooded, he asked abruptly, “What is this Lord Senric to you?”

“The Duke?” I repeated, taken a little off-balance by the brusque question. “I — well, that is, we were in one another’s company as we traveled from his lands to my family’s estate. And my brother has been part of his household for the past seven years.”

“And?”

“And nothing.” Perhaps I should have told him I was as startled by the Duke’s offer as he. Oh, he had been gracious and kind during our journey, and I had fancied that several of the glances he’d sent in my direction were more than a little admiring, but that had been the extent of our interactions. Surely it seemed a great leap to go from exchanging pleasantries and comments on the weather or the roads to offering marriage.

“Did you have hopes of marrying him, this lord who is twice your age?”

“I don’t see how that is any concern of yours.”

“It is my concern because I have made it so. I want to know why Lord Senric, a widower who could have had his pick of many other more eligible ladies, decided to make this magnanimous offer.”

I frowned at Kadar, who matched me scowl for scowl. Surely I was flattering myself to think he might be jealous. “Then I think you must ask him, for I fear I can give you no satisfactory answer.”

“I believe his Grace would not be inclined to confide in me.”

“Then I suppose you must be doomed to ponder the matter yourself.”

The room was dim, lit only by one small window. In the half-shadow Kadar’s eyes gleamed, feral as the hunting cats that roamed the hills on Marestal’s borders back in my homeland. “You think I should take the settlement.”

Persuading him to accept the ransom seemed the most reasonable solution. True, the Duke was much older than I, but he was one of Sirlende’s greatest lords, honorable, kind, handsome in his own fashion. Again, though, I experienced that odd dryness in my mouth, that unlooked-for hesitation. After weeks of longing for nothing more than my freedom, why did I now want to clutch my prison’s bars more closely to me?

And then I recalled that swell of power from the night before, the rich surge of magic being performed. How could I ever bring myself to leave with such mysteries yet unanswered? No one with mage-born blood could willingly turn away from such a puzzle.

“You hesitate,” he said. “Why?”

Another pause, while I waged war with the conflicting desires in my heart. Oh, why had Thani come today of all days? Why not tomorrow, or even a week hence? Perhaps then I would have had enough time to discover the identity of the mage who had sent that ripple of power across my consciousness.

Of course I could never confide in Kadar, and so I knew I must come up with a plausible reason to turn away from the prospect of freedom. I managed a brittle laugh and said, “Do you think I am eager to trade one set of chains for another? One husband I do not love in exchange for another? I fail to see the bargain in that.”

His lips thinned at my words. Surely he couldn’t have deluded himself into thinking I was in love with him, but even so he probably was not pleased to hear the truth stated so baldly. “You would be closer to your home and your family if you went with the Duke.”

“Some of my family,” I admitted. “But my true home is in South Eredor, and an almost equal distance separates Duke Senric’s lands from the city where I was born. One exile is like enough to another, I should think.”

A measuring stare then, as if he were trying to use those wolfish eyes of his to penetrate my very soul. What he saw, I could not say, but after the space of a few heartbeats he said, “There is something you are not telling me, but no matter. I daresay I will learn the truth of your decision soon enough — and in the meantime I will admit that I am glad of the choice you have made.”

If only I could tell him he had figured in that decision very little. But such a comment would have wounded his pride and only led to questions I did not wish to answer. I met his gaze as squarely as I could and said, “I think I should speak to my brother now.”

A
t least Kadar
had shown the proper respect for Thani’s rank as the Duke of Marric’s Rest and had housed him in the finest of the castle’s guest chambers. Here, as in my own apartments, the walls were painted in bright frescoes. Warm draperies of wool velvet blocked out any wandering drafts, while a cheery fire blazed in the hearth.

My brother had changed out of his wet things into a formal doublet of deep wine-colored wool, and his damp hair was combed back off his forehead. These improvements in his comfort seemed not to have enhanced his mood, however; he frowned as I entered the room and said without preamble, “What on earth were you thinking, Lark?”

His disapproval hurt only a little less than my father’s would have, but I said mildly enough, “Things are not as clear-cut as you might think.”

“Indeed? Perhaps you should enlighten me. Are you saying Kadar did not have his men kidnap you from your bed?”

“Erm…no.”

“And that he did not marry you against your will?”