Will Shetterly - Witch Blood (24 page)

“Talivane doesn’t like her, but he won’t let anyone else have her.”

I thought I heard regret behind his joking tone. “Not that. What do you think of her?”

“I think she does well in a difficult situation.”

Subtlety was never my strength. “Do you think she’d try to kill Talivane?”

He glanced up. “Why do you care? I thought your bond—” He seemed more curious than annoyed.

“If she tries to kill Naiji as well, I’m concerned.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Someday I’m going to tell someone something, and he’ll say ‘Rifkin, that’s brilliant!’ The shock will probably stop my heart.”

“Hmm.” Dovriex plucked the knife from the chopping block and returned it to its sheath with a spin that, had I tried it, would have opened every vein in my wrist.

I said, “Only the insecure need to show off.”

“True. But when I think of the unkind things you’ve said about my meals—”

“Every one was an understatement.”

“Maybe.” Dovriex smiled, then frowned. “I might understand why Kivakali would kill Talivane. Why Naiji as well?”

A number of wooden mugs were drying on the counter. I picked up three to juggle as I talked. “If only Talivane died, everyone would suspect Kivakali had a part in it.”

“Hmm.” Dovriex stepped back to a basket of eggs. In seconds he had four circling through the air in front of him. “It’s true that if both Gromandiels were killed by the Spirits, no one would suspect Kivakali. But by that argument, why should she stop with Naiji?”

I snatched up another mug and worked it into my juggling. “For economy’s sake,” I said.

“Makes some sense,” Dovriex said. He added a fifth egg to his pattern. “But the other could just as well be Mondivinaw, then.”

“Maybe.” The mugs now went behind my back on every second toss. “Except that an enemy of the witches wouldn’t worry much about an old man.”

“Their mistake.” Dovriex added two more eggs, and I decided not to watch him anymore.

“Perhaps. Perhaps they’ll try to kill Mondivinaw also,” I said. Doubting it was wise, I got a candlestick going with the mugs. The balance was tricky. “Still, Naiji’d be the logical choice to divert suspicion.”

“Granted,” Dovriex said, then added in a softer tone, “Nine.”

“Show-off,” I said. “So what do you think?”

“I think you’ll drop them in thirty seconds, at most.”

“About Kivakali.”

“Oh. I like her. I’d rather—” He began to laugh as the mugs fell. The candlestick was definitely a mistake.

I looked at Dovriex. Nine eggs still circled through the air. Without any encouragement from his hands.

“You bastard,” I said.

He laughed. “Some people can’t take a joke.”

“You lousy witch bastard.”

“Want to see what else I can do with these eggs?”

“Send any this way and I’ll eat them.”

“Oops.” He let them settle back in their basket.

I said, “I thought you couldn’t do tricks like that.”

“I couldn’t, before. I think it’s from the strain of knowing that Komaki’s coming. Everything seems more...” Dovriex held up his hands like he wanted to grab something. “... more intense. Time moves differently, in spurts rather than a flow. Know what I mean?”

“Too well.”

“I started to drop one of those eggs earlier, and it just stopped in midair when I wanted it to. I’ve been studying levitation for years, and today...” Dovriex shook his head. “It worked. Just like that.”

“Great,” I said. “You can throw eggs at Komaki’s men. Hey! Your knives...”

Dovriex nodded. “They’re steel. This must be another exception to the laws of iron, but I don’t know what the trick is. I’ve been near steel, cooking things for years, and all of a sudden, I can do a tiny bit of magic.”

Interesting
, Izla whispered. I bit my lip, then said, “How long until lunch?”

“Who said there was lunch?”

“Oh. Will there be dinner?”

“Yes.” He smiled cruelly. “Warmed—”

“Don’t tell me, man! Let me dream a little, eh?”

“Sure. It’ll be better than—”

I ran from the kitchen with my ears covered. One of the twins walked by, peering at me from the corners of her eyes. “Ah, hello, Sivifal,” I said.

“Livifal.”

“Of course. Sorry.” Feschian was right. I was making quite an impression on the women of this castle.

One task remained. I found the armory, where a glum fellow stood guard. “I’m here to look at the musket,” I told him.

“A student of rust, eh?” He pointed. “So, look.”

It was not a musket. It was a piece of pipe with a broken wooden stock that had been left on the ground for at least a year before it was brought there. A smith might make a gun of it again, but I suspected the smith would begin by melting it down and reforging it.

“Thanks,” I told the guard.

“S’all right. I was tired of armory duty. It’s nice to be on the museum shift for a while.”

I went to my room and bathed, then dressed again, to nap in my clothes with my weapons at my side. I woke thinking my head was in a kettle and someone was beating on the outside, then realized that the great bronze bell I had noticed in one tower still worked. Someone was ringing the alarm. Komaki was here.

16

I SNATCHED UP
my helmet and axe and swordbelt and ran. “Lady Naiji!” I shouted. She did not answer, so I assumed she was already on the walls. I dashed along the halls and down the stairs and into the courtyard. It was empty. I looked up. The sun had finished three-fourths of her daily trek through the skies. The alarm bell no longer rang. I wondered for an instant if I had dreamt the warning, then looked to my left. Almost all the inhabitants of Castle Gromandiel stood on the parapet by the southwestern wall.

I turned around, thinking this was not how Feschian had planned it. I saw a soldier or two on each of the other walls, and three by the front gate. Someone had probably decided to put as many people as possible where Komaki would see them, to give him a false idea of our strength. I wondered if they expected the Duke to think the helmeted children were dwarfs.

I climbed to join the others. Several nodded to me. Naiji and Talivane stood together, so I walked over to Feschian.

“Morning,” she said to me.

“I was taking a nap.”

“Some of us need all the beauty sleep we can get.”

I looked out. Tents were rising in a field perhaps a quarter of a mile away. “How many do you think?” I asked.

“Enough.”

I glanced at her.

“Over a hundred. Less than two hundred. The Duke may have convinced one of the lords to be his ally, but not the Queen. Not yet, anyway.”

“Will they attack today?”

Feschian looked at the sky. Perhaps four hours of daylight remained. “I would.”

“And we’re ready?”

“You could call it that.”

“Will they send someone to offer terms?”

“Probably. Not that it’ll matter.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

I looked to learn if anyone was missing. Avarineo was absent, but both Livifal and Sivifal were there. The giant was probably at his post by the cliff wall. Fat Cat the shape-changer and Iron Eyes the fencer stood with their arms about each other’s shoulders, as if they might be more than friends. Dovriex was with Naiji and Talivane. I thought he looked odd with a bow rather than kitchen tools in his hands. He still wore his multiple sheath of knives on one hip.

Most of the others were still faces without names to me. I recognized the woman they called the rocksmith, who was hugging the little girl that I thought might be a Master Artist in a few years with perseverance and the right teacher. There was a small boy who always stared at me, making me wonder if I’d spilled something on my pants. There was an older boy of Chifeo’s age who had an odd twitch, and the girl who had flirted with me during my first class. There were some twenty people in all, counting children and babies, and perhaps six or seven at other posts. I wondered how many would still be alive tomorrow morning.

“Where’s Kivakali?” I asked.

“In the main keep. Talivane’s orders.”

I left Feschian. Passing by Iron Eyes and Fat Cat, I heard Iron Eyes say “Be careful, Fat Cat.”

Fat Cat said peevishly, “I wish I could lose that name.”

Iron Eyes smiled. “Lose some weight.”

“Sometimes I wish you’d lose your tongue.”

“No you don’t. Then I couldn’t—”

Feeling like an eavesdropper, I walked faster. Private conversations were going on all around me, though. I could not escape them.

The little blond girl was telling the rocksmith, “But, Mama, I don’t want to stay in the tower with the babies! I want to stay here with you!”

The rocksmith shook her head. “You won’t be staying with the babies, Tikiji. You’ll be there with Sivifal, helping her protect the little ones. Okay? You’ll do this for me?”

“But—”

“Please?”

Tikiji nodded solemnly. “For you, Mama.”

They hugged again, and I walked faster yet.

Naiji and Dovriex both smiled at me, and Talivane sneered. When I said “Surrender,” the smiles disappeared.

“No,” Talivane said, looking out over the field. Two riders were leaving Komaki’s camp and riding toward the road to our front gate.