Anna laughed softly, wonderingly. "You are a special child... a special young woman."

That brought another smile. "Papa was right to send me here."

"Yes, he was." If not for the reasons he thought.

Secca glanced at the still-burning stick of wood. "Will you let me light the fire sometimes when we play Vorkoffe?"

"Sometimes," agreed Anna, with a smile. "Who taught you to play the mandolin?"

"I asked Palian. She helped me. I made her promise not to tell anyone. She's teaching me how to play the violino, too. When she's here. I didn't tell her why. I didn't tell anyone."

"I'll tell Liende that Palian is to help you learn to play the violino. It can't hurt for a lady to know some sorcery."

"I don't want to be a lady. I'd rather be a sorceress like you."

"I'm both a sorceress and a lady. I don't see why you can't be both-if you work hard." Anna paused. "It works better that way."

"Will you teach me sorcery?"

"Not at first. First, you have to learn how to control your voice all the time.

You shouldn't do sorcery-or not much- until you're as old as... say, Clayre.

That's Lysara's younger sister. She may be coming to Falcor." If Birfels will let her after this mess."That long?"

"That long. You have a lot to learn if you want to do sorcery right" Anna nodded slowly. Will you get to see this redhead grow up? First, Irenia, and then the separation from Elizabetta, and now Lysara nearly being killed... all redheads.

Anna wondered how Elizabetta was doing, in a world that seemed increasingly distant.

Yet, for all the differences between Earth and Erde, she was seeing more clearly how similar the two worlds were behind their superficially different facades.

Was it that you didn't want to see-or didn't have to?

She pushed the thought away, stepping forward to hug the one little redhead she could... while she could.

73.

WEI, NORDWEI.

Only a fraction of the bright afternoon sunlight penetrates the nearly closed heavy green draperies that frame the second-story window of Ashtaar's Council office. The counselor looks at the polished black agate spheroid on the shimmering surface of her table-desk. She does not reach out to touch it, but forces her eyes to the blonde seer sitting in the straight-backed chair across from her. "You were saying. Gretslen?"

Gretslen leans forward. "The Sorceress of Defalk has overreached herself. The harmonies could only have fated it to occur."

The dark-haired Ashtaar continues to look at the head seer. "How has she overreached herself? If you would explain...?"

"When she left Defalk to meddle in Ebra once more, the peasants in Pamr revolted. She put down the revolt, but it cost her two parts in ten of her lancers, and another score to remain and guard the hold. The lord of the north also rebelled, and his efforts took another threescore of the sorceress'

lancers. Rabyn and the Mansuurans now hold much of the Western Marches of Defalk, and the Regent has but half the lancers and armsmen she possessed but a season ago, while young Rabyn has begun to use the drums of Darksong."

"That may be," points out Ashtaar, "but you have told me that Hadrenn has sworn allegiance to Defalk, and that the sorceress-Regent extracted some condition from him regarding Elahwa, for his armsmen have gone to Dolov, but not to the port city. That would seem to ensure that she faces trouble with neither Ebra nor Ranuak."

"She paid a high price for such peace," counters the seer. "More and more of the lords of Defalk have come to despise the sorceress. Lord Jearle has not so much as sent a single armsman against the Neserean invaders. Nor has Lord Ustal. Only Lord Nelmor, and he has been most careful but to harry them, and seems not minded to blunt their advance"

"From this you would conclude what?" asks the spymistress. "The sorceress is greatly weakened, and she will fail." A slow smile creeps across the seer's face.

Ashtaar frowns, and she finally picks up the agate oval, letting its coolness suffuse her without speaking.

"You have doubts?" questions Gretslen."She has gambled, but she is not that weakened yet. We shall see," says Ashtaar politely. "Please keep observing Rabyn and his drums."

"You have doubts... when her land is in revolt and her Western Marches have fallen? She is powerful, but this is the first time she has faced all that a ruler of Defalk must face. No one can rule Defalk. No one ever has."

"You are correct in your second statement. We wili see about the truth of the first." Ashtaar sets aside the black agate. "Be certain that you and your seers scry all that there is to see and not just those events which would support your wishes."

"Yes, Counselor Ashtaar." Gretslen bows her head, as if to conceal a smile. "We shall follow your orders."

"You may go." Ashtaar waits until the door shuts before she sighs.

74.

The paving stones of the liedburg courtyard-wet from the predawn rain-glistened even in the shadows cast by the early-morning sun. Anna strapped the lutar behind the saddle, then patted Farinelli on the neck before mounting. "Easy, fellow. We've got a long way to ride."

"You have the shield enchanted." asked Jecks.

Anna leaned forward in the saddle and touched the open-topped leather carrier that held the small round shield-without straps. The metal rim tingled her fingers. She looked down at Jecks, standing by the stable door. "It's ready."

Not that it's been that much use so far. You've faced about everything BUT enchanted weapons.

"You will scry often for that whelp Rabyn?"

"I will."

"And you will use strong sorcery from the first?"

Anna nodded. She and Jecks had already been through the points he raised, but she knew he was worried. "I can't afford not to."

"So long as you recall that..." Jecks shook his head with an expression that wasn't quite a rueful laugh. "still... much as I must hold here.. would that I could accompany you."

"I know... but you can't. Someone has to hold Falcor."

"That... that I must accept. I like it not." Jecks forced a smile. "I will be most happy when you return." He paused. "And take care to eat and drink often."

"I will." Her fingers touched the small food pouch that was on the other side of the saddle from the shield case. She smiled. "I need to check with Liende." With a last smile and a nod at the handsome lord, she eased Farinelli around Rickel and his mount to where the chief player stood beside her mare.

Liende looked up, then gestured to the players, each waiting beside a mount. "We are ready, Regent."

"Let's go, then."

"Players, mount up." Liende called."Himar." Anna pitched her voice to carry across the low hubbub in the courtyard.

"Mount up!" ordered the overcaptain.

"...mount up!"

"...up!"

The chain of orders repeated and echoed away from the over-captain like ripples in a pond. Before long, the column began to move from the rear courtyard past the stables and toward the north gates of the liedburg.

Anna looked northward as she rode out through the gates, taking in the city.

Mist rose from Falcor as the sun struck the dark roofs. To the west, the sky was clear, except for a line of white clouds just above the horizon.

"How far will we get today?" Kinor turned in the saddle and asked Liende.

"It took us almost four days last time, but Lady Anna will ride harder, I think," replied the chief player.

"She rides hard all the time," added Jimbob.

"Even the lancers say she rides like a war leader," Kinor said.

Other voices rose over those of the young men.

"...hope it doesn't rain .

"...late in the year for fighting..."

Anna had to wonder, if common wisdom were so against military actions in the late fall, why Rabyn had chosen to invade Defalk. Just because she wasn't nearby... or as a pretext to lure her into a Darksong trap?

Her left hand brushed the top of the spelled shield once more, but she wondered what new threat Rabyn had developed and whether her sorcery could again prevail.

And how many times you can do this.

75.

The rain that had fallen on Falcor had extended less than a day's ride to the west. By early morning of the second day, the land and the road were dry, and the hoofs of the lancers' mounts were lifting thick red dust from the roadway.

Anna's boots and the part of her green trousers below her knees were coated with red, and she was sneezing more than infrequently. Farineili's legs were red as well.

The sun had warmed the day enough that it felt more like late summer than late fall, and Anna found herself drinking-more and more water, blotting her forehead all too frequently, and fanning her face occasionally with the floppy hat. She still struggled to remind herself to eat, but the pouch before her knee helped.

Every so often, she reminded herself to touch the shield at her knee, but it remained quiet, indicating no active sorcery nearby.

The fields to the north of the road held stubble, or a few scattered tan stalks- all that remained from the maize harvest, or in some cases, small potato fields that had not yet been harvested. The slightly hillier ground to the south had fewer cultivated fields, and more woodlots, orchards, and meadows or pastures.A line of trees wound out of the southwest, marking a stream course that angled in a general way toward a low spot in the road about a dek or so ahead of the vanguard. Anna saw a single scout perhaps half a dek ahead of the main column, midway between Anna and her guards and the vanguard. The scout continued to ride eastward. As he neared the first lancers directly ahead of Anna, Himar rode forward to meet him.

The scout reined up, as did Himar. After a brief interchange, Himar turned his mount from the head of the column and rode back, easing his mount around in order to ride alongside the Regent. "The scouts report that there is a stream ahead, Lady Anna, one with a gentle but firm slope to the water."

"You'd like to water the mounts and give the lancers a rest down there?" Anna gestured toward the patch of green that surrounded the bend in the trees ahead.

"And their mounts."

"I can use the time to check and see where we should be going and what Rabyn's forces are doing, and where we should be going once we near Denguic."

"Do you know how far into Defalk the young Prophet has come?" asked the sandy- haired overcaptain.

"Last night, he was almost two days' ride south and east of Denguic." You think... too much of western Defalk looks like the rest of western Defalk.

"More toward Fussen?"

"I think so."

"I will pa.s.s the order to water the mounts." Himar inclined his head to the Regent before riding past her and her guards. "Stand down for water at the stream ahead. Water by companies, blue company first...."

Anna turned in the saddle. "Jimbob, Kinor.. . Liende... I'd like you to join me." She paused. "Kinor, would you find Himar and ask him as well-once he's got the watering organized?"

While the lancers watered their mounts, Anna gathered Liende and Jimbob under an oak whose yellow leaves had begun to fall. She propped the travel mirror between two raised and gnarled roots, then began a series of vocalises.

"He sees theeee..."

Perhaps it was the drying oak leaves, or the residual road dust; but she began to cough immediately and had to stop and cough her throat clear.

Himar and Kinor anived before she began the actual scrying spell, and Anna motioned for them to join her almost directly before the mirror. "You need to see this," she told the overcaptain.

Himar nodded.

Anna cleared her throat and lifted the lutar.

Show me now as clear as it can be, the Neserean forces I would see...

The image in the travel minor centered on a rickety bridge across a narrow gorge. On one side were hundreds of lancers, stretching back along the curvingroad, under both purple and blue banners. The lancers were taking the bridge cautiously, in single file, with no more than two mounts at a time on the span.

"Fussen, I'd wager," murmured Jimbob.