Anna glanced at Dythya. 'If you would ensure that the captain is conveyed to Arms Commander Hanfor and that arrangements are made for him and his men...?"

"Yes, Regent." Dythya bowed.

"And then you'd better come back. We've a lot more to do." Anna smiled crookedly. "And send in Skent, if you would."

Once the door closed, Anna looked at Jecks, then started toward the chest.

"Regent..." Lejun coughed.

Anna nodded and stepped back.

Lejun opened the chest lid, gingerly. His swallow was more than audible in the silence of the receiving room. A single gold coin slipped from those heaped in the chest and clanked on the stone floor.

Anna swallowed as well. There have to be thousands of them... "You can close it for now, Lejun."

The guard replaced the single missing coin and closed the chest's lid.

Anna looked at the four guards and smiled. "It looks like everyone will get paid."

The faintest trace of a smile appeared on Rickel's face. Giellum looked puzzled.

Lejun and Blaz nodded, if barely.

Anna stepped off the dais and lifted the bell off the conference table, ringing it once.

"Lady Anna?" The dark-haired Skent peered into the receiving room.

"Would you find Arms Commander Hanfor and tell him that I would like to see him once he has settled his business with the Mansuuran lancers?"

"Yes, Lady Anna." Skent flashed a smile before departing and closing the door.

Anna looked at the guards, each in turn. "Thank you all. Lord Jecks and I have some things to discuss." She handed Jecks the Liedfuhr's scroll as the guards walked from the receiving room.

Jecks read the scroll, slowly.

"What do you think?" Anna asked when he had finished."I think that the Liedfuhr is most sincere." Jecks laughed. "Or he is most willing to spend coins on allaying your concerns."

"We'll have to use the scrying pool to see what we can over the next few days."

"That would be wise."

Anna wasn't certain what the pool would show, or if it would show anything.

She'd already discovered that the Mansuuran lancers in Neserea were somewhere in eastern Neserea, but how close they were to Elioch-and Defalk-was another question. Even with the scrying pool, hard information was difficult to come by.

But if they had in fact finally reached Elioch, as reported, were they there to help with an attack on Defalk- or to prevent it?

"Arms Commander Hanfor," announced Skent, his words s.p.a.ced with heavy breathing.

"That was quick," said the Regent, as Hanfor entered the chamber.

"I had Undercaptain Jirsit settle Captain Gisihem and his men." Hanfor bowed, then nodded. His quick eyes ffitted from Anna to Jecks to the chest.

"A gesture from the Liedfuhr," Anna explained. "Several thousand golds, it appears."

Hanfor's eyes narrowed.

The Regent glanced at Jecks. "He should read the scroll."

Jecks extended the message to the weathered senior officer.

Hanfor took longer to read the message, but finally he looked up. "I cannot say.

The Liedfuhr may mean what he says, or he may wish to deceive you. Yet he could deceive with far less than such." Hanfor pointed to the bra.s.s-bound chest.

Anna cleared her throat. "But what if...if he says what he means? Why would he go to such lengths?"

"He has no great fleet, as does Sturinn, or Nordwei," mused Jecks.

"If he must fight you, lady, he would have to move his forces far from Mansuus,"

pointed out Hanfor. "It would take him weeks to return them, more time than it would take the Sturinnese to send a fleet to invade Mansuur."

"Is he that worried about Sturinn?" Anna wondered. "And why would the lancers he sent earlier be in Elioch if he is so worried about the Sturinnese?"

"Perhaps he tells the truth, but wishes that you act otherwise in a manner that will benefit him?" suggested Jecks. "The lancers, they are not under his command, but under his regent's command."

"That's still Nubara, and I trust him less than the Liedfuhr." Anna shook her head, then pulled out her chair at the conference table and sank into it.

"Mayhap..." began Hanfor slowly, "... you should decide what is best for Defalk first"

Far easier said than done. What will benefit Defalk? More war? She snorted. More sorcery? "Best?"

"Each of the Thirty-three would have an answer different from his peers..."

suggested Jecks.His peers? What about "her peers"? "What if I take a few companies-tenscore--- and the players, and lead Hadrenn's forces in support of the freewomen?" asked Anna, her tone almost idle.

"That would be most dangerous, my lady Anna," offered Jecks.

"More dangerous than doing nothing?"

Hanfor offered an apologetic shrug. "Perhaps not, but you have said that young lord Rabyn has placed fiftyscore lancers in Elioch. If he and the Liedfuhr know that you are m Ebra-or making your way there-then they also know that nothing will stand between them and Falcor."

"And if they take Falcor, and I return... then what?"

Jecks smiled wryly. "No one doubts your ability to defeat them, my lady." Jecks smiled wryly. "Many of the Thirty-three might feel that you had sacrificed their lands and crops on behalf of Ebra."

"So if I neutralize Ebra-"

"A year ago, you destroyed the Evult," Jecks replied. "Many thought that would end the threat from the east."

Does each fight lead to another? How do you stop that? "How many levies can we call up after harvest?" Anna turned to Jecks.

"If you call them all, perhaps one hundred fifty-score."

"And what if they all were a.s.sembled in Deguic? Would Rabyn attack them?"

"He can muster twice that," ventured Hanfor.

"But would he?"

"You have something in mind, my lady?"

"Well... I really should go tend to my own lands, in Mencha." Anna smiled. And try something else along the way. "Perhaps I should do that, soon, before the Mansuuran lancers reach Elioch."

Hanfor and Jecks exchanged glances, but Anna decided against explaining. Yet...

until you decide for certain.

25.

Anna served herself her usual heaping platter of food-three slabs of meat, plus early potatoes, as well as bread and cheese-then waited for Jecks and her guest as Dalila carried the meat platter to them.

"Are you from Mansuus, Captain Gislhem?" Anna asked.

"Ah... Regent...no. I'm from Aleatur, at the foot of the Westfels." The balding Gislhem limited himself to two slabs of the lamb.

"As you must have heard," Anna continued, "I'm not from Liedwahr, and I don't know a great deal about Mansuur. What is Aleatur like? Is it dry or hot? Or wet?""It's high, Regent, and it rains but infrequently. Most folk are herders, and Aleatur is the market town where they sell their sheep and goats, and they're shipped downriver from there. I couldn't see being a herder...." Gisihem shrugged. "So I learned something about arms from the trade guards, and then made my way to Robur and joined the lancers there. Must have been ten years ago."

"Dry..." Anna nodded. "'Those are like my lands." She took a sip of the amber wine sent to Falcor by Lord Gylaron of Lerona and nodded. It was much better.

than anything else in the cellars of Falcor, not that there was that much of anything.

"Defalk is green once more," ventured Gislhem.

"Most of Defalk is," Anna agreed pleasantly, "but I was talking about Loiseau.

Those are the lands I inherited from Lord Brill."

"The Lady Anna," Jecks added, "is not only Regent, but one of the Thirty-three in her own right."

"I see." Gislhem looked puzzled.

"It's all very confusing, but a Regent-or a lord-of Defalk rules with the consent of the lords and ladies of Defalk, and there are thirty-three of them.

So I only have to get agreement from the other thirty-two." Anna laughed, then asked, "Do you get back to Aleatur often?"

"No, lady. I have not been back since I left."

"It is hard to get to places when you're required to be elsewhere. I'm hoping to go to Loiseau in a few days, and that will be the first time in more than a year. I won't be able to stay long." She offered a crooked smile. "It's hard to be a Regent and a lady at the same time."

"I wouldn't know... Lady Anna. I'm happy enough being a lancer."

"Better than being a herder in Aleatur?"

"Much better," affirmed the captain.

"I don't know," mused Anna. "There are times I wish I could stay in Loiseau, but we can't always do what we like. Still, I will get to see it for a few days."

She hoped she wasn't being too transparent, but she needed the captain to carry back the message that she was going to Loiseau to look after her lands, not because it was on the way to Ebra. She turned to Jecks. "Do you miss Elheld?"

Jecks laughed, and it was clear he understood. "Lady Anna, I often miss Elheld.

But someone made me Lord High Counselor. and that means I must stay in Falcor more than I might wish were matters otherwise."

Anna laughed in return, then glanced at Hanfor, sitting beside Jecks. "Arms Commander, was not your story similar to Captain Gislhem's?"

"Much the same," affirmed the grizzle-bearded arms commander. "My father wished that I follow him...."

Anna took another sip of wine and listened.

26The single scene in the scrying pool wavered, then split into two distinct images, each half-superimposed on the other, although each clearly depicted the front of the chandlery in Pamr. One image was darker, almost sinister, the other brighter, more sunny.

Anna released the spell-image immediately, then walked to the door. "Blaz?" She peered out of the scrying-room door into the corridor.

The guard jumped, and so did Cens, the duty page.

The sorceress repressed a brief smile. She continued to forget that while she was in the room, it seemed empty to anyone looking in. So when she looked out, it appeared to the guards as though she had appeared from nowhere.

"Yes, Regent Anna?" asked Blaz.

"Actually, Cens is the one I need." Anna turned to the youngster. "Would you find Lord Jecks and ask him to join me as quickly as he can?"

Anna left the door open and walked back to the table against the wall, where she stood and lifted a goblet of water, drinking deeply before taking a solid bite out of the chunk of crusty bread that sat in the basket. She had finished the bread before Jecks appeared, following Cens.

Jecks paused outside the open door, his eyes squinting as he peered into the room.

Anna almost laughed at the quizzical expression on the face of the white-haired lord, but walked to the door and stepped into the hall. "I somehow spelled the room when I created it," she explained. "When I'm inside, no one can see anything except the room itself."

Jecks offered a wry smile. "Never will I cease to be amazed, even at the smallest of matters involving you, my lady. You summoned me?"

"Yes." Anna inclined her head toward the pool, and stepped into the room.