Rnach supposed there was no point in denying what Acair was saying, though the only reason he had wanted his father's spell had been so he could counter it. The only reason. He might not be able to say anything else in his own defense, but in that, he could defend his motives without hesitation. He shrugged.

"You should have just taken it from my book-oh, wait." Rnach smiled, pained. "You couldn't get past the spell locking those d.a.m.ned pages together, could you?"

Acair threw a rather pointed spell of death at him, but Aisling caught it and spun it around what was left of a small, rickety wooden table. The table made a horrendous squeak as it collapsed in on itself. Rnach looked at Acair. He was gaping at Aisling.

"What . . ."

"Too complicated for you to understand," Rnach said regretfully. "But what you might be able to understand is that you won't have anything from me if I'm dead."

Acair shook his head. "I'm continually baffled as to why I didn't kill you when you were a lad-nay, I know. Because then I couldn't have what I want. Yes, I understand, Rnach. But I'll have it now, I believe."

Rnach scratched his head. "You, against us? How quaint."

"Oh, it's not just me," Acair said softly.

And apparently it wasn't.

Nineteen.

Aisling could hardly believe what she was seeing, but there was no denying it. Rnach's b.a.s.t.a.r.d brother, Acair, stood there, flanked by none other than the Guildmistress and, of all people, Sglaimir the usurping king. Acair nodded crisply to Sglaimir.

"See to them. Or have that horrible woman there do the deed. You said she has magic, though I've seen no indication of it."

"Neither have I," Aisling said before she thought better of it. "I don't think she has any skill but cruelty."

Acair looked at her briefly, then nodded reluctantly. "There is that, and it makes me a little queasy to agree with you on anything, but given that I intend to kill your lover there, perhaps that camaraderie won't last."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l," Sglaimir complained, "do you ever shut up? I'm surprised your father didn't slay you simply to spare himself having to listen to you blather on and on."

Acair looked at him coldly. "You forget yourself, my lad. I am the reason you find yourself on your comfortable perch."

"Lad," Sglaimir echoed in disbelief. "I'm a century older than you are, you idiot!"

"And I was working great magic when you were still trying to set your ugly sister's skirts on fire!"

Sglaimir's mouth fell open. "You wouldn't recognize great magic if it came up to you and bit you on the a.r.s.e!"

The conversation, if that's what it could be called, deteriorated from there. Spells began to fly again amongst the trio in front of her. Or, rather, between Acair and Sglaimir. The Guildmistress seemed to have very little magic of her own, or perhaps she didn't know how to use what she had. Aisling honestly didn't care which it was as long as the woman refrained from any demonstration of what she could or couldn't do.

She found herself catching more than one stray spell on the dagger Soilleir had gifted her, as it seemed to function quite well as a spindle. Rnach absently reached up and batted away everything else that came their way. Obviously his time in the lists with Muinear hadn't been wasted.

Acair's spells were nasty, true, but they were unwieldy and didn't seem to work as he intended them to. Aisling was surprised, but then again, it was Bruadair after all. The only thing she didn't find rea.s.suring was how weak her country's magic was in the garden. She wasn't sure she could count on any of it to aid her.

She leaned closer to Rnach. "What do you think?"

"If the fate of the world weren't at stake, I might be looking for a chair to use whilst watching the spectacle."

She smiled. "What do you think of their spells?"

Rnach seemed to stop just short of stroking his chin. "Standard fare for your country, wouldn't you say? They definitely seem to be expecting different results from what they're getting. You would think by this time they would have realized what they can and cannot do."

"Maybe they've spent too much time talking," she said, "and too little time doing."

He shot her a brief smile. "I think you might be right. I wonder how much longer they're going to go on and what we can do until they stop?"

"I'd sit on the edge of the fountain, but I don't think we dare," she said.

"I don't think so either." He cleared his throat loudly. "Just so I'm clear on it, what is it you're doing here?"

The Guildmistress pointed at Aisling. "We want her."

"Why?" Rnach asked. "What could she possibly have that you want?"

"I don't want her," Sglaimir said bluntly. "I want a throne. Actually, I'll have the one I'm sitting on, the one you promised me, Acair you treacherous b.a.s.t.a.r.d, if I would help you get in and out of the borders."

"You could have done that with just gold," Rnach put in.

"Shut up," Sglaimir snarled at him before he turned back to Acair. "I have spent years aiding you in this stupid plan to strip Bruadair of its magic, which has done nothing but leave me in an ugly city with no proper subjects to rule over. And all the while I've been waiting for you to find that spell of your father's which I don't believe exists-"

"Oh, it exists," Rnach said.

Aisling elbowed him, then ducked with him as Sglaimir tossed a rather wobbly spell of something their way. Aisling watched it drift past them, then looked at Rnach.

"What was that?"

"I have no idea," he said with a shrug. He looked over his shoulder as the spell fell into the vortex behind them. "I just don't want to follow it to where it's gone. Let's move away from this thing, shall we?"

She was happy to do so, especially given that the two mages standing thirty paces away from them didn't seem to be paying them any heed. She supposed she and Rnach might have even managed to escape the garden if that had been their desire while Acair and Sglaimir continued to argue. Or perhaps not. The Guildmistress sent her a look that had her freezing in her tracks in spite of herself.

The Guildmistress clapped her hands together sharply. "Stop it, you fools," she said. "Have you forgotten what it is we're doing here?"

Aisling watched the two men in front of them snarl out a few more curses before they put up their spells, as it were. Sglaimir was obviously furious at what he no doubt considered being double-crossed. Acair, apparently the perpetrator of that injustice, was looking at the would-be king of Bruadair as if he simply couldn't believe what he was forced to endure. The Guildmistress was one Aisling couldn't quite bring herself to look at too closely. She hoped she wouldn't pay a price for that as time went on.

"My father's spell is more powerful than anything you've ever used," Acair said stiffly.

"It's apparently more powerful than anything you've ever used," Sglaimir shot back, "given that I've waited almost twenty years for you to find someone besides your sire to share it with you!"

"I've been waiting as well," the Guildmistress said, turning to face Acair as she stood alongside Sglaimir. "And perhaps you've forgotten this, but you promised me the throne."

"What?" Sglaimir exclaimed. He turned and glared at the Guildmistress. "You want my throne?"

"Well, why do you think I was allowing you to use my b.l.o.o.d.y garden?" the Guildmistress demanded. "Out of the goodness of my heart?"

Aisling wondered if it would take all day for the three in front of her to wear each other out so she and Rnach could go have a rest. That the battle seemed to be limited to arguing, though, made her a little nervous.

Aisling leaned closer to Rnach. "Does this seem too easy to you?"

"I hate to say it, but it does," he murmured. "Sglaimir's a fool and Acair hot-tempered." He shook his head. "The Guildmistress is the one I don't understand. It doesn't seem as if she has any spells, yet here she is in the company of these two."

Aisling started to agree, then realized that the Guildmistress was watching them as if she had heard everything they'd said. She felt suddenly quite cold, but that could have been from simply being where she was.

Rnach cleared his throat. "And what do you want, Guildmistress," he asked politely. "We know what the lads want and you seem to want the throne as well, but surely that isn't all."

The Guildmistress's smile didn't reach her eyes. "I want power," she said. "As do all good mages."

"A mage," Rnach said with an indulgent smile. "Is that what you call yourself?"

Well, whatever she called herself, she apparently wasn't without spells. Aisling was surprised enough to watch her spew one out to be caught unawares. She almost didn't stop it from wrapping itself around not Rnach, but she herself. She took the first cut of thread, turned it back toward the Guildmistress, and let the spell itself do the work. She was a little surprised to find that Bruadair was only standing by, watching, if she could put a name to what her country was doing. Fortunately, the Guildmistress was also soon standing there, merely watching. Aisling supposed that as long as the woman wasn't moving or speaking, she could be safely ignored for a moment or two.

Aisling looked at the other two in time to watch Sglaimir suddenly strike Acair full in the mouth, sending him sprawling backward. Acair's head made a terrible noise as it struck against a rock. He groaned, then was silent. Sglaimir then turned to Rnach, his chest heaving.

"Shall I do the same to your little wench there," he panted, "or should she just sit to the side and let us be about our business?"

"And what business it that?" Rnach asked politely.

"Why, the business of your father's most famous spell," Sglaimir said. "What else?"

Rnach rolled his eyes. "I wish the d.a.m.ned thing had never been created."

"Well, it was and I intend to have it," Sglaimir said angrily, "so you can either hand it over easily or less easily. Your choice."

Aisling felt herself be suddenly robbed of air and only Rnach's quick hands caught her from toppling back into the bottom of a fountain that she realized with alarm had no bottom. Rnach jerked the spell off her-she didn't bother to identify what it was-and pulled her behind him.

"Go, when his attention is on me."

"I-"

"Just out of his sights."

She supposed that since her alternative was to stand behind Rnach and perhaps find herself knocked into that magic sink, shifting off to the side wasn't unthinkable. Besides, if she was out of the way, she might be able to aid in ways she couldn't otherwise.

But it made her uncomfortable to slither off the field, as it were. She stopped next to a pillar, out of the midst of the battle, but didn't care for standing along the sidelines and watching. She wasn't sure how she could possibly help Rnach short of simply standing behind him and adding power to his as Uachdaran had done for her when they had dropped Rnach's magic back into him.

Rnach caught a spell before it struck her, then flung it back at Sglaimir who stumbled backward into the Guildmistress. That seemed to be enough to break her free of what had been binding her. She angrily shoved him away from her.

"Not her," she snarled. "Just kill him."

Sglaimir stopped in mid-spell and looked at the Guildmistress. "What is it with that one? She makes me nervous, but what's the point of her?"

"She ran away from me," the Guildmistress said flatly, "and no one runs away from me."

Aisling supposed that might be enough to send the woman into a frenzy, but she didn't dare hope that was the extent of her interest.

"That's all?" Sglaimir asked incredulously. "That's the only reason you wanted her?"

"I was told to watch her," the Guildmistress conceded. "That she was important, though I wasn't given the reason why."

"What idiot told you that?" he demanded.

"I did," Acair said, cursing as he sat up. He clutched his head and looked blearily at Sglaimir. "Can you possibly be any more stupid? She's important because people want her! Why do you think we marched out into the wilds of this ridiculous country to look for her? Didn't you see the spell that guarded her house? She must have something someone wants and if people want her, I want to get to her first."

Aisling exchanged a look with Rnach. He sighed lightly, then shook his head. She couldn't believe that such a trio had managed to strip Bruadair of its magic, but perhaps they'd been aided by dumb luck.

Sglaimir blinked. "Which people?"

Acair hauled himself to his feet, then leaned heavily against a pillar. "I do business with many, too many to remember ridiculous details such as this. All I know is someone at some point told me to look for a weaver in your guild with odd eyes. She's the only one who fits that description."

"So you're telling me that I've turned my country into this ugly wreck because you thought you found someone important," Sglaimir said slowly.

"Nay, I had you turn this country which was never yours into an ugly wreck because I wanted its magic," Acair said briskly. "That silly wench there is another matter entirely, but since we have her here, I think we should discover who she is."

Aisling found three pairs of eyes fixed on her. She had the first moment of regret she'd ever experienced over not having learned to use her magic in any meaningful fashion. She was tempted to run, but a voice stopped her.

"I know who she is."

She looked past Sglaimir and watched a tall, grey-haired man step out of the shadows. She wondered how long he'd been standing there.

Sglaimir whirled around, then stumbled backward in surprise. "You-"

Aisling almost said the same thing because she recognized the man as well. He was the border guard she and Rnach had given money to on their way into Bruadair. He was also the border guard she had given money to on her way out of Bruadair however many fortnights ago it had been.

The man waved his hand and Sglaimir crumpled to the ground. Aisling didn't bother to look to see if he breathed still. There was something about the older man standing there that made her extremely uneasy.

He looked at the Guildmistress and smiled. "She's the First Dreamspinner, Iochdmhor, and you're a fool."

"The what?" the Guildmistress echoed, looking down her nose at him. "And who are you to insult me that way?"

"I know who he is," Rnach said. "He's Carach of Mig. Unless I'm mistaken."

"Never said you weren't clever, lad," the man said. "But powerful? You are nothing compared to your father."

"I take that as a compliment."

"You shouldn't."

"Who are you," the Guildmistress demanded, "and why have you come to disturb our parley?"

"Oh, I suppose you might call it that," Carach said with a smile, "but I wouldn't bother. To introduce myself, I'll just say that I'm young Sglaimir's grandfather."

"Oh," the Guildmistress said. "I didn't know."