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Renier stepped forward to take Elaine's arm and Roland motioned him away, irritated at the interruption. He wanted to talk, and the young woman's eyes were red and bruised from crying and the expression in them anything but cruel. "If he loved me how could he betray me?" he asked, hearing the tears in his own voice. "If he loved you, he couldn't," she whispered. Roland hesitated. If his mother had asked it of her, this woman would have flung herself off the roof of the highest tower in the city. She would believe whatever Ravenna had told her to believe. But Ravenna was not here to tell her what to say now. If Elaine was repeating his mother's views, it was only because she believed in them herself. "You were close as boys," Elaine persisted. "I remember it. But didn't he change?" Didn 't he? Roland asked himself. Had the teasing turned to mockery? / know he has a cruel streak. God, he could hardfy hide it. "That was because . . . ," Roland began, and thought, because after I tried to die, he knew how much I needed him, and he thought me pathetic, and it made him feel powerful. He felt anger stir in him, old tired anger. "Yes, he changed." They sat in silence for a time, until a matron who had been one of Ravenna's gentlewomen came for Elaine. She let the older woman lead her away, but reluctantly, with a worried glance back at Roland. The young King stared into the fire alone, conjuring up memories of DenziTs scorn, his disdain, the moments when 366 MARTHA WELLS his carefully buried envy had come too near the surface. But without Elaine's gentle persuasion Roland's thoughts began to go round in the same tired path. But I don't know what the truth is. God, if I could only talk to him . . . The frigid wind tore at Kade's hair, blowing it into her face, and she shook it away irritatedly. "You'll be ready?" The gold and amber fay leaned on his pikestaff and looked down at her with a smile. "If you can flush the birds, my lady, we can chase them." It was late afternoon, the sky a low solid gray like the polished surface of an ancient shield, the housetops around them still sheathed in ice and snow. Kade had left Boliver at Knockma, to help the others pack what was necessary and to take them through the ring to Chariot, another of her mother's enchanted castles. She hadn't been to it for years, so it would not occur to the Host to search for her there. She had little memory of what it was like, except that it was big and old, and hidden rather prosaically in the hills of Monbeaudreux, a province in the south. It was protected from the Bisran border by steadily rising mountains that were too high and rugged to cross except on foot. The summer and spring lasted longer there, and they grew olive trees. At the moment it sounded like heaven. The fay from the Seelie Court, with his white blond hair, delicate features, and the embroidered satin of his doublet and cloak, was unreal in this world of gray and white. "Chase them far," Kade told him. "I don't want them turning back on us. I've paid enough for it." "To the ends of the earth, and that will be a pleasure." The fay swept a bow to her, and suddenly a golden hawk glittered in the air beside her, and with a powerful sweep of its wings, it shot toward the sky. Kade watched him until he disappeared into the clouds. She couldn't afford mistakes, and she wasn't at all sure of herself. She had been lax over the last few years, using what she could of the swift instinctive fay magic, depending on THE ELEMENT OF FIRE 367 glamour and illusion. Swift, and in the end ineffective against the sorcery that was practiced so painstakingly, using as poor a tool as letters from a dead language's alphabet to symbolize concepts that passed understanding. With fay magic it was impossible to attempt something beyond one's skill; with sorcery it was all too possible, and all too deadly. Kade hugged herself and shivered. She hadn't given sorcery the long hours of study it needed. Her efforts seemed so ungainly compared to the elegant and involved work of sorcerers like Galen Dubell and Dr. Surete. Both of whom are dead now, she thought, savagely, and at least I'm alive. But it all came home to rest in the end, and she had taken the easy way out far too often, in her magic and in her life. Kade knew she should have returned to make up with Roland at once after their father had died. She would not have had to stay long, and it might have made the difference in so many things. If she went to him now to tell him about Denzil, he would never believe her. The glass ball Titania had traded her was in a deep pocket of her smock, and when it brushed against her she could feel the warmth radiating out of it even through all her layers of clothing. God, I hope it's contained, she thought. / hope it's not sapping my strength or power, or leaking something into the ether that's going to interfere with the spell. She was not at all sure that what she was attempting would work. She had bought the Seelie Court's help with Knockma, and they would hound the Host from the city, but she would have to stir the creatures out of the palace herself. Kade heard something at the edge of the roof, then saw a small fay with ugly wizened features and cornflower blue hair peering at her over the edge. Its narrow eyes widened at her, and she snarled, "Bugger off." It vanished, and she stretched, easing the tension in her tight shoulders. She was a little shocked to realize it was not the cold that was making her tremble. It's going to work, she told herself. It's not going to work, a little voice answered. I'm going to die. She took out a pinch of the gascoign powder and rubbed 368 MARTHA WELLS THE ELEMENT OF FIRE 369 it into her eyes. Looking toward the palace's towers, she could ; now see the corona of shifting light that played over them, colors touching and fading into one another. There should still | be gaps between the wards high in the air above the palace; j there had not been time for them to draw all the way together, i and the higher they were in the air, the slower they would , move. Here I go, she thought, and flung herself into the sky. , Kade had wings, and for a moment only, an unfamiliar " instinct told her to use them. Colors changed; blurred outlines \ in the distance became sharp and clear. Her vision was incred- j ible. Shadows had edges like razors, and her eyes found } movement the flutter of a curtain's edge through a broken j window, the slight rustle of a frost-covered tree's branches in j a garden court that she would never detect with human 1 sight. i Kade realized she was gliding in a circle over the High ! Minister's house, then she realized she was flying. For a mo- i ment human thought and hawk [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |