"So it would seem... yet his brother has garnered some support." Jecks smiled and stopped speaking as he looked down the steps, where Ustal was waiting.The lord-claimant's eyes widened as he saw Anna in the green gown. The lord frankly surveyed the Regent, clearly surprised at her appearance. "I had not expected..."

"A Regent who appeared so young?" Anna smiled politely. "You must have heard the story of what happened at the Sand Pa.s.s." How couldn't he? All of Liedwahr must have heard it by now.

"I had heard, much later, but... the story does not do you justice." Ustal offered a broad smile and a second bow, with a gesture toward the hall, before leading the way into the dark and high-ceilinged room, lit both by wall sconces, and a series of five-branched wrought-iron candelabra set at intervals along a table that stretched nearly ten yards.

Anna could tell that the others had been waiting, and felt guilty for the time it had taken her to dress. Will you ever get over feeling guilty, even for little things?

'This is my consort, Yelean." Ustal inclined his head in the direction of the pale dark-haired woman in green that Anna had observed through the gla.s.s.

"I am pleased to meet you," Anna answered.

"And I, you, your grace." Yelean's smile was shy, almost frightened.

Ustal rattled off a series of names, the only one of which Anna fixed in her mind being that of Weyrt, the chief of arms-men, who was seated directly across the long table from Himar.

Again...you've let your blood sugar get too low... and you're probably dehydrated. Once seated, Anna took a sip, a very small sip, of the red wine from her goblet, wondering whether it would be the swill she'd first tasted at Mencha or the polished vintages of Lerona. It was neither, merely an acceptable red table wine. "The wine tastes good, Lord Ustal."

"Not so fine as those of Lerona or Abenfel I fear, but good for accompanying a meal."

"It is far better than comes from my lands in Mencha," she managed.

A puzzled expression flitted across the blond lord's face.

"Lady Anna is not only Regent, but sole holder of Mencha as well," Jecks said, his voice almost melodious. "She finds herself in the odd position of both paying and receiving liedgeld. She was Lady of Mencha before she became Regent."

As the white-haired lord spoke, Anna heaped her platter with the fowl and with the cheese-clotted potatoes.

"Ah... so she knows some of the troubles of a holder," suggested Ustal.

"My lands are not so rich as yours," Anna said, after swallowing her first mouthful, "and I see them seldom these days. Mencha is farther from Falcor than Fussen is. And your wine is better."

A faint smile crossed Yelean's face.

Ustal's eyes widened as he watched Anna eat everything on the platter and then finish a second helping."I'm sorry, Lord Ustal, but it has been a long ride, and I was more hungry than I'd thought." Anna broke off another small chunk of bread, and nibbled on it.

Amazing what sorcery does to your appet.i.te and metabolism.

"I had heard that sorceresses required... much sustenance...

"It's true." Anna took another sip of wine. For the first time in days, she was beginning to feel she wasn't running on the edge of hunger and fatigue. You've been under-eating again.... Won't you ever learn that being overweight isn't your problem? The sorceress' equivalent of anorexia is. Except old patterns were hard to unlearn. Anna wanted to snort, or something. If she were in a novel, she'd have no problems unlearning old habits. Just recognize them, and they'd be gone. Time to get this back on track. "I did not have the pleasure of meeting your sire. Would you say that you are much like him? Or different?"

There was the slightest of pauses before Ustal set down his goblet. "My sire was well-known for being honorable and for caring for his lands. The vineyards were his doing as a young man. So was the sawmill..."

Anna listened intently, trying to sort out what the words revealed of Ustal and what they told of Lord Vla.s.sa.

"...my younger brother... let us just say that Falar and I differ."

"You would be a lord more like your sire?" suggested Anna.

"Is that not why you are here, honored Regent-to offer your sanction to my succession." Ustal bowed, offering a dazzling smile of perfect white teeth, rare indeed in Defalk.

"I have come to see Fussen," Anna replied, "and to meet you." "You should also meet Falar," Ustal said politely. "That way, you will understand why it is best that matters remain as they are.

"That is a wise suggestion, Lord Ustal," Jecks said smoothly. "But where might one find this brother of yours? Surely, he would not be so foolish as to take quarters close to you?"

A frown flickered across the handsome lord's face and vanished as he turned toward Jecks. "Your prowess in the past struggles of Defalk is well known, Lord Jecks, and we are pleased to see that you remain in good health and wit." The lord paused. "There is a house, an old hold, in Sudborte, which he claims as his. It once belonged to my mother's grandsire, many years ago." Ustal shrugged.

"It could be mine as well as his, but I have suffered to let him claim it. One might find him there."

Anna kept smiling. Careful... arrogant he may be, but he's no fool. "Indeed Lord Jecks has remained most wise and powerful, Lord Ustal, as many younger have discovered. I would that all lords of Defalk were so able with arms and so devoted to maintaining the succession. We will consider your suggestions most carefully."

"I commend him, and you, my Regent, for ensuring that succession. As Lord of Fussen, I, too, support the Regency and hope that the day will not be too distant when Lord Jimbob takes his place in his sire's seat." Ustal frowned. "I had hoped he might grace us with his presence." A smile followed. "Though such is certainly not necessary with your beauty and ability."

"Lord Jimbob visited Cheor earlier this year and will be visiting other holds in the seasons to come," Jecks offered. "He also must learn what any wise ruler must, and study both arms and strategy, and how best to use coins and men.""And his thoughts," Anna added.

"Has he-or you-considered a match for his lordship?"

"Several have been considered," Anna replied, "and I would hope to see him with a consort before he becomes lord." For Lots of reasons...

"So would we all." Ustal paused. "And would you then advise him and his successors?"

Anna made sure her laugh was gentle. "Lord Ustal... a youth spell may allow me to live a few more years, but I don't think I'll be around for very long by the time Jimbob's children are ready to rule." a.s.suming Jimbob is up to it in the first place.

Ustal flushed. "I did not know."

"It isn't that widely known." Anna decided against telling Ustal anything that wasn't fairly common knowledge. He was the type to decide he was more fit to rule than Jimbob, or anyone else. She turned toYelean. "Has it been hard, carrying this child?"

"It would seem hard, lady, but since he is my first. I do not know."

"Usually, the first are the hardest, but my second was."

"You have children?" Yelean barely managed to keep her mouth closed after her question.

"They're all grown, but they're in the mist worlds. My oldest would have been several years older than Lord Ustal, but she was killed in a magic-carriage accident just before I was summoned to Liedwahr..." Anna continued with a very abbreviated version of how she had come to be Regent.

When she finished, Ustal nodded. "So... to keep your powers, you will have no children and support Lord Jimbob."

"No," Anna corrected him. "The youth spell stopped my ability to have children, and it seemed far better to support the current succession than to create even more fighting over who would found a new line. This way, at least some of our neighbors, such as Nordwei and Ranuak, have indirectly provided a.s.sistance, rather than tried conquest."

"You have received a.s.sistance from both?" Ustal's voice was not quite incredulous.

"Yes. As well as most useful information" Anna smiled. "Now... if you would tell me what you know about Neserea that is not widely told. You must, with your experience and living so close."

Anna hoped Jecks wouldn't burst out laughing at the blatant flattery and the warm smile she offered.

Her white-haired and handsome lord merely nodded sagely, and added, "And anything your sire may have pa.s.sed down would also be most helpful."

Ustal squared his shoulders ever so slightly. "It is true that we in Fussen see the Nesereans more closely..."Anna nodded for him to continue, while quietly stifling a yawn, and hoping she could continue to avoid making a direct p.r.o.nouncement on the succession.

17.

After glancing at the mirror on the guest chamber's writing desk that earlier had held her breakfast of an early-ripened apple, bread, and cheese, Anna cleared her throat, then began to sing the spell, accompanying herself with the lutar Show from Fussen, danger to fear, Falar's threats to me bright and clear...

The mirror did not even flicker, remaining a bright blank silver. So Anna tried the follow-up spell.

Mirror, mirror, in your frame, Show me young Falar in his fame, Where'er he may stand or be, Show him now to me.

The mirror silvered, then showed a beardless and slender figure in blue bent over a table writing something. As Anna watched, he pushed back a lock of hair and seemed to sigh before he dipped the quill into the inkwell once more. The small room was empty and lit only by the shaft of early-morning sunlight through the single narrow window.

Anna sang the release couplet, then slowly recased the lutar and the traveling mirror, noting that the finish of the wood framing the gla.s.s was beginning to discolor from the heat created by her scrying spells. The discoloration reminded her again of the difficulty she had in even seeing Elizabetta. You have to be patient...she might not even be able to get to the lake house now... even if it is summer.

After a time, she lifted the lutar case and opened the door, stepping out into the keep's corridor in order to make her way down to the courtyard. Blaz and Kerhor followed her closely, with Rickel trailing.

She had entered the courtyard and almost reached the stable when Ustal appeared, bowing. "Lady Anna."

"Good morning, Lord Ustal."

"And to you. I trust you slept well'

"I did, and I appreciated the breakfast tray. You have been most kind and hospitable."

"One owes one's Regent respect and hospitality." Ustal bowed. "Charming as you are, I could not help but notice that you did not comment on the succession,"

offered the blond as he straightened.

"You suggested I meet with your brother." Anna smiled. "After I do so, I will make a decision. Then I will inform you."

"Caution wars with your image as the decisive and powerful Regent." Ustal laughed lightly.

"Power and caution go hand in hand, Lord Ustal." Anna paused, wondering how she could end the discussion without conflict and get Ustal off her back. Then she almost nodded. "If you have real power, you'd better use it with caution, and ifyou don't, it pays to be twice as cautious." She smiled. "So, you see, I would have to be even more cautious if I weren't Regent."

A ghost of a frown flicked over Ustal's face, as if he were unsure whether he'd been reprimanded. "You do not offer a direct answer, my Regent."

"I will," Anna promised. "As a lot of people have found out, I can be very direct. . . especially if I'm pushed."

Those words did bring a frown, but, again, Ustal seemed to push the expression away. "I look forward to your decision."

'Thank you, Lord Ustal."

"And I will not detain you, but wish you a safe journey, both to Sudborte, and then to Dubaria. If you would convey my regards to Lord Jearle and Lord Nelmor?"

Ustal offered another bow. "Fussen respects and honors its Regent."

"Thank you, and I would be most happy to carry your greetings to Lord Nelmor and Lord Jearle." Anna did not move until Ustal bowed a third time, and slipped away.

Then she lifted the lutar case. Rickel's and Kerhor's boots echoed hers as they walked through the hazy early-morning light toward the stable. The ostlers slipped away when she headed toward the gelding's stall.

Farinelli whuffed as she quickly brushed her mount before saddling him.

"I know. It's clean, but it's not home." She tightened the girths, then checked them again. The last thing she or Farinelli needed was a loose saddle.

Jecks appeared at the end of the stall, and Himar stood behind the white-haired lord.

"Lady Anna," asked Jecks, "if you are near-ready..."

"You can tell everyone to mount up. I'll be right there."

Himar vanished silently, and in moments, Anna could hear the echo of orders in the courtyard, then the sounds of boots and hoofs.

After accepting the saddlebags from Jecks, who in turn had taken them from Kerhor, Anna fastened them behind the saddle, then strapped the traveling mirror and lutar in place before leading Farinelli out into the courtyard, where she quickly mounted.

'The road to Sudborte runs south from the main square of Fussen," offered Jecks, riding his mount up beside Anna and Farinelli.

Himar glanced at the sorceress, and Anna nodded, then flicked the reins gently.

Anna and Jecks led the way out of the keep.

The sorceress waited until the column was well out of Fussen and in good order on the south road before she turned in the saddle and beckoned for her chief player to ride beside her.

Liende eased her mount next to Farinelli, looking at Anna for direction.

"Could you tell how Lord Ustal's players feel about him?" Liende looked back toward Skent and Jecks, then toward Anna, lowering her voice. "He has but three, a flute player, who is barely that, an old violinist, who is as good as Kaseth was, and a younger violinist, who is better than Delvor... and might someday be adequate. They said little, but their words would convey that Lord Ustal is to be preferred to his sire..." Liende let the words hang.

"That sounds like Lord Vla.s.sa was not to be preferred at all," suggested Anna.

"He whipped a cooper to death who protested when his armsmen brought the cooper's consort to Vla.s.sa's bed."

Anna winced. "He wasn't exactly beloved. Anything else?"

"The lady Yelean was promised to Ustal's brother Falar, until Lord Vla.s.sa took to his bed with his last illness."

Worse and worse... "and...?"

Liende shrugged. "None knew... or would say."

"What else?"

"Lord Vla.s.sa could not sing, even the simplest of spells, and so had young Ustal sing them for him." Liende's shrug was expressive. "Many lords have neither seers nor players, you must understand. Only the powerful lands like Fussen."

Anna refrained from wincing. So Ustal has a much longer experience with sorcery and with his father's cruelties.... "Did anyone say anything else about Ustal's brother?"

"Nay, Lady Anna, save the young violino player, who mentioned that Falar rode out of Fussen a half year ago, a week after Lord Vla.s.sa's death, and none in the keep had seen him since."