Ishist himself had magicked his own chair to a suitable height and was eating in rather moody silence, using both hands, seeming to be balanced somewhere between annoyance at this folly and tolerant affection for his wife's odd notions.

"This fish is most delicious, ma'am," Rap said.

Athal'rian flashed him a smile of relief and thanked him for the compliment.

He nagged his mind to give him something else to say. He knew how formal affairs should go, because he had watched Holindarn entertain guests at the high table in Krasnegar. Gentlefolk chatted while they ate. They made jokes, and laughed. Jokes about what, though?

Darad must have the right sort of experience in his multiple memory, but his wits were too dim to use it or even see the need. Gathmor's idea of dinner conversation was planning the brawl to follow.

Inspiration came to Rap like a pardon to a felon. "I have never seen so magnificent a chamber, my lady! The king's hall in Krasnegar would fit in here a dozen times."

"Oh, do tell me about it, Master Adept!"

So Rap described the palace in Krasnegar, and if the dragonward's lady somehow a.s.sumed that the raised dais was where he had sat and the servants' end was not, well, that was what she expected, not what he said. Then he asked about dining halls in Hub, and she became quite animated in describing them, ignoring her ironically smiling husband and the chaos of children squabbling amid the gold plate. As daughter of the warden of the south, she had moved in the highest levels of society. At fifteen, she had been presented to the imperor. She knew the Opal Palace itself.

"I hardly think of Hub anymore," she a.s.serted, smiling at her husband, "and I would never dream of going back." They kissed on that.

She could not have been very old when she left, Rap decided, unless her age had been occultly altered. Mentally she was a small child. Was that the reason she now lived as a gnome, or had she been sane when she came here?

Something was licking his toes . . .

Rap slid his plate un.o.btrusively from the table and laid it on his lap. Soon he could hear satisfying sounds of pike bones crunching. When he brought it up again, it had been polished. The two jotnar at his side were chewing grimly, their faces running sweat.

The servants came trooping in again with another course, and Rap found himself facing a stag's head with antlers gilded and a potato in its mouth. He was expected to carve from this, apparently, but the cooks had neglected to skin it before boiling it, and it looked rather too rare, anyway. There was still a reproachful look in its eyes.

In an attempt to seem busy, he ladled out generous heaps of vegetables, comprising unwashed tubers and soft-boiled lemons. The other two nibbled listlessly at them while he prepared to do battle with the stag. He must also continue the insane conversation with the girl-woman at the far end of the table. Yelling over the rioting children between them, she asked about his travels. Rap told a vague tale of being kidnapped by jotunnish raiders, and of shipwreck. Eventually he mentioned that he had visited Faerie and had been a guest of the proconsul. That convenient euphemism caused Ishist's globular eyes to twinkle like cabochons of jet. He must have ransacked all of Rap's memories by now, and probably the others' also.

"I have always wanted to visit Faerie," Athal'rian remarked wistfully, "but of course my husband's duties make it so difficult for us to get away."

Rap thrust his fork into the stag's head, and one of its soggy eyes winked at him. He recoiled and then glared reproachfully at the sorcerer, who seemed to be totally engrossed in biting lumps out of a shapeless ma.s.s that might have been a bird's nest. Ishist, Rap suspected, had a dangerous sense of humor.

Athal'rian had noticed his hesitation. "Is that knife not sharp enough, Master Adept?"

"Quite sharp enough, ma'am! I am letting the pleasures of your conversation distract me from my duties."

"Oo, flattery! But Daddy always says that wit is the finest sauce, and a meal without discourse has no flavor. Let me see . . . Who is proconsul of Faerie at present?"

"Lady Oothiana, ma'am."

"Oh!" Athal'rian seemed taken aback. She glanced uneasily at Ishist, then her eyes wandered briefly over the children. "Don't do that on the table, Shuth. Go to the Mews. Dear Oothie and I took viol lessons together. How is she?"

Rap cursed under his breath, feeling he had chosen to ride at a dangerous fence. "She is very well, ma'am."

"I forget if . . . Did she finally marry that musclebound soldier? What was his name? Yodello?"

Tricky takeoff, landing unseen . . . "Yes, she did, ma'am." Athal'rian bit her lip and seemed to slip away into a memory. "He was very pretty. Too pretty for a man, you know."

"Yes, ma'am."

The glorious opal eyes came up to stare along the table at him, and their fires flickered through a mist of tears. "He wanted me to marry him, but Daddy had promised me to Consul Uppinoli's youngest."

Ishist frowned. "My deara""

"How furious he was when I told him I would rather wed a gnome!" She looked hesitantly down at Ishist, and seemed suddenly aghast at what she had said. Then she smiled. "And I was right!" She bent for another kiss.

The conversation ended when two of the smaller boys began to fight over the last rat and then pulled it apart in a tug of war. Darad leaned sideways in his chair and threw up everything, triggering Gathmor's reflexes also. That was bad. Even worse was the way the children all rushed over to clean it up.

5.

The visitors stood while Athal'rian departed with her brood, sent away by an angry-looking Ishist. The table vanished abruptly, and so did all the chairs except the sorcerer's.

Obviously the time had come to talk business. Rap walked forward, aware that his two companions were following closely and leaving everything to him. He was an adept, and they were relying on him to save them. But he was also the cause of their danger, for he had used power against a dragon. He had violated the Protocol that had ruled Pandemia for three thousand years.

He stopped before the foul little sorcerer, who was lounging back in his high chair and picking his teeth with a slender bone. The seat was so much too big for him that his muck-laden bare feet stuck straight out. His bulging black eyes were unreadable.

Gruffly the gnome said, "Thank you, Master Rap. I'm grateful."

That made no sense at all! Rap had done nothing to earn the sorcerer's grat.i.tudea"it must be a trick. Yet why should a sorcerer need to use tricks?

"For what, my lord?" Then Rap remembered that he was not supposed to give the gnome t.i.tles. But apparently it did not matter, for Ishist just shrugged inscrutably and switched his gaze to the two sullen jotnar.

Rap knew how hard this must be for them. They had grown up around gnomes. All the towns and cities in the Impire had gnomes to keep down the vermin and deal with the garbage, and all large ships carried one or two, but there had been none in Krasnegar. He had not met gnomes until he was an adult, and then he had merely filed them away in his mind as another race of people new to him, like fairies or trolls. Gathmor and Darad, humbly waiting to hear their fate from this squat and squalid old ragam.u.f.fin, must be feeling as if a mongrel dog had suddenly ascended the Opal Throne and started barking orders.

Come to think of it, Ishist did rather resemble a pug dog, with his pop eyes and upturned nose, with the bloodstained cake of hair around his mouth and all those teeth he was picking.

With a shiver of fear, Rap realized that the sorcerer might still be reading his thoughts.

The ugly old man flipped his toothpick away and scratched reflectively at the hairy bulge protruding above his belt. "Sailor, you are an innocent mundane caught up in occult matters that do not concern you. You are free to go."

Gathmor scowled, shot a glance at Rap, and said, "I'll wait for my shipmate."

"As you wish."

"No!" Rap said. "For the G.o.ds' sake, Cap'na""

"I'm staying." Gathmor folded his arms and set his jotunn jaw, looking every bit as stubborn as man could be. He stepped back a pace and scowled. Rap saw that argument would be useless, and was again miserably aware that he had led the man into this danger.

The gnome's jet eyes had moved to Darad. "We'll handle the gold problem next. Call Thinal."

Darad grunted in shock and looked reproachfully at Rap.

"He didn't tell me," Ishist said. "If I have to force the change, I may hurt you."

The threat worked. Darad's gown crumpled toward the floor, uncovering Thinal within it. He bent his arms to stop it falling off him completely. Then he just stood there, staring at the gnome in terror. He was bare from the elbows up, hugging himself, and gradually turning pale all over. As usual, he was unshaven and ratty-haired. His teeth chattered with a curiously metallic clink.

Somewhere a dragon roared, and then another.

Thinal choked, worked one hand free of the overlong sleeve, and spat something into it.

"Pa.s.s it over."

Another roar, closer. The little thief shuffled forward with the folds of his robe tangling around his feet. He thrust the gold into the sorcerer's hand, then backed away quickly. Ishist flipped the coin; it rose in a gilded flicker and never came down. The dragon roars died away.

The sorcerer glared very sourly at Thinal for a minute or two. "You have unpleasant ideas about gnomes, guttersnipe. I'm tempted to . . . but then I don't like scroungers skulking around my castle, so it's mutual. Call Andor."

Thinal had just time for a quick nod before he vanished, not having spoken a word. From his point of view he had made a fast escape, which was all he would care about.

Andor raised the gown and adjusted it properly on his shoulders, somehow transforming plain homespun into elegant mens wear in the process. He was clean, freshly shaved, washed, combed. He bowed.

"The honor of meeting the famous dragonwarda""

"Quiet!" The gnome wrinkled his pug nose, causing the entrenched dirt around it to writhe and flake. He glanced at Rap.

"They get worse all the time. Do you want them around, or shall I not bother?"

Rap was befuddled again. "My lord?"

Ishist shrugged and told Andor, "Call Sagorn, then."

Andor stiffened. "Your Omna""

"One more word of flattery and I turn you into a troll."

"But the old man isa""

"I know. Call him."

Andor's mouth opened, then he nodded in understanding. He vanished.

Sagorn's face was the color of wood ash, a shade only a jotunn could ever be, and then only when close to death. He swayed as if about to fall. Before Rap could move to catch him, the sorcerer did so, with magic. The old man steadied. Color flowed back into his cheeks, his eyes flipped open. In a moment he took a deep breath and straightened. His face took on a healthy glow and even seemed to swell, becoming less gaunt and haggard than before. Suddenly Sagorn looked about ten years younger, and fitter than Rap had ever seen him.

He stared at the gnome for a long moment, as if waiting for the transformation to reach completion, or perhaps to see if there was more to come. Then he bowed.

"I am truly grateful, Sorcerer. It feels as if you found every ache and hangnail." His voice sounded stronger, too.

Ishist scratched at his beard, digging stuff out of it. "I found a few problems you didn't even know about. Tumors, for example."

Sagorn bowed again, and there was an ironic amus.e.m.e.nt twinkling in his pale-blue eyes. "I thought the prophecy of the dragon signified my death, but it seems to have brought me a new lease on life. I admit I have been prejudiced against gnomes, Dragonward, but I shall regard them differently after this."

The gnome grunted skeptically. He turned his gaze on Rap. "Sorcerer," Sagorn said hastily. "There is anothera""

"No." Ishist scowled horribly at him. "First of all, I just tried, and I made no impact at all. Your Orarinsagu must have been enormously powerfula"it's much too strong for me. You'll need a warlock or a witch, likely. And second, that would make five of you around underfoot, and your word of power would be shared six ways. So, no." He switched his attention back to Rap again.

"You have demonstrated power within South's sector, boy. By ancient custom, your words belong to him." He waved a black thumb at Sagorn. "His, also, of course."

"I used mine first in the north," Rap said cautiously.

Ishist nodded. "Yes, and in West's sector later. It's very odd that neither of them imprinted you with a loyalty spell. If they did, I can't find it. But you're an odd case all round, lad. Neither of them could foresee you, could they?"

"I don't think Zinixo tried, but Bright Water said she couldn't, my lord."

"Ishist," Ishist said softly, showing his myriad teeth in a smile.

"Ishist."

"That's better! You're an adept, and we sorcerers must stick together! But if Bright Water tried and failed, then I certainly won't succeed. You're the first person I ever met that I can't foresee, though. All I get is a sort of white blur. It hurts! Did she explain?"

"No."

"I wish I had a preflecting pool handy . . ." The gnome sighed and leaned back to stare up at the ruins of what had once been a magnificent roof. For a moment nothing moved except wraiths of dust, swirled across the floor by eddies of wind. A dragon rumbled in the distance.

Ishist straightened, as if reaching a decision. "Take a seat."

One of the vanished dining chairs magically reappeared at Rap's back. He sat down obediently, aware the Sagorn and Gathmor had been left standing, wondering why the old gnome was favoring him so much over them.

"I'm imprinted, Rap," Ishist said. "You understand that? A votary. Most sorcerers get trapped by their warden sooner or latera"it's why so many of them try to become wardens themselves, instead. Whenever a warlock detects magic at work in his sector, he'll try to track it down and lock it up with a loyalty spell. He may not do anything more about it than that . . . depends how many words and votaries he has already and what his needs are. I'm dragonward for Warlock Lith'rian, and very happy in my work. Perhaps he spelled me to enjoy it. I don't know, but it feels like worthwhile employment, and the quarters are ideal for gnomes." He leered.

Rap smiled, also, thinking of the ancient heroes who had built this enormous redoubt and how appalled they would be to see it now.

The bottomless black eyes fixed on him. "And I'm happily married."

Was that happiness also a spell? "I can see that, Ishist." Rap spoke as matter-of-factly as he could manage. "And Athal'rian seems to be very happy, also. I'm sure you love each other and you're proud of your family. They wouldn't be my choice of children, and I would not be happy living here, but my tastes are differenta"not better, just different . . . That's the best I can do," he added uneasily. Who was he to pa.s.s such judgment?

The gnome chuckled, glancing briefly at Sagorn and Gathmor. "It's a lot better than most can. Yes, she's happy. Misses her family sometimes. Her father hadn't been around for five years or more, but he turned up a few months ago, in a hurry, one evening. Needed a fire chick. None of my business whya"he's the boss. He brought it back the next day. That's the only baby dragon that's left here in years. It was Lily you met."

He waited, giving Rap time to think. The fire chick could hardly have been a gift or a bribe if it had been returned the next day.

So despite what Bright Water had told Zinixo, she must be in league with Lith'rian.

"What exactly does a fire chick do to magic?"

Ishist smiled nastily. "All magic gets unpredictable around all dragons, young or old. You're only an adept, so Primrose ought to have charred you to ash yesterday, yet you almost drove her out of her wits. Poor thing was gibbering when she got back here! On the other hand, the occult fence across the Neck has been there for thousands of years, and all the greatest sorcerers in history have worked on it, yet the worms just seem to eat it. They throw off their bindings sometimes and fly over water. I don't know why Bright Water wanted a fire chick, or why Lith'rian loaned her onea"but I expect they had their reasons." His b.u.t.ton eyes twinkled.

Bright Water had been around for centuries, and must know all the tricks there were to be known. Zinixo, of course, was new to the warlocking business and . . . Rap saw that his reverie was causing the gnome to smirk approvingly. They were on the same track.

"Why can't you foresee me?"

"That I don't know either." For the first time the gnome seemed to hesitate. He turned to look at the jotnar, and they both spun around without a word and walked away. When they reached the nearest window, they stood and stared out at the unworldly scenery, sage and sailor chatting cozily side by side, while the wind ruffled their hair and tumbled the flow of their gowns. Ishist's somber eyes came back to Rap.

"Tell me about this G.o.d who appeared to Inosolan."

Rap frowned. He had almost forgotten that. He could remember sitting on the floor with Inos, holding her hand, in among the old gang and all the dogs, and listening to Jalon singing. In retrospect, that had been the last evening of his childhood.

But that moment had come later, after she'd told him about the meeting with the G.o.d. "I just know what Inos said. They didn't say which G.o.d They were. They told her to try harder. I think that's all."