"I'm sure he would be most pleased. Most pleased."

"I'm hungry." Rabyn gathers the green cloak around him and slips off the gilt throne.

14.

Even with the candles in the wall sconces lit, as well as the lamp on one side of the writing-desk table, Anna's quarters were dim, and the black etched rectangle on the stone outer wall, next to where her replacement scrying minor hung, seemed to shift with the flickering light.

Anna moistened her lips. How long, how many seasons, or years, before she dared to use the mirror to see Elizabetta? Would a spell even work anymore? The last attempt hadn't, and the heat and explosion bad nearly killed her. Would another attempt, after a season or two, be any better? Would the reflecting pool she planned across the hall make it easier? Her eyes dropped to the redheaded child on the other side of the table, a brown woolen shawl wrapped around her narrow shoulders.

Secca looked at the two black stones in her hand, then at the game board with the intertwined lattices, and the grooved slots designed to hold the stones.

Anna glanced from the white stones before her to the window, and the darkness outside the panes she'd installed a season earlier. Sorcery had some benefits. Then her eyes went back to the redheaded fosterling across the table from her. Secca' s hair was the color of Elizabetta' s, but her face was thinner, more intense, and her eyes were amber, unlike the green of Elizabetta's.

Secca stared intently at the game board, then placed her stones in adjacent slots in the lattice at the edge of the board to Anna's far left. "There!" She grinned.

Vorkoffe was similar to NIM or NEM-at least that was what Anna thought it was called. That was the box game Anna had played in college, where whoever got the most boxes completed won, but on earth you'd completed boxes with a pencil. In Liedwahr the object was to distribute stones by twos. Five stones completed a lattice. If you surrounded an opponent's lattice, it became yours.

Tonight, Anna was losing, though she'd held her own recently.

is that because your mind's not on the game? Imagine that. Winning or losing wasn't that big a deal, no great gain or loss, but she hated to seem incompetent Anna put her two stories on the board and completed the big center lattice.

"That's wasn't fair, Lady Anna." Secca offered a hint of a pout.

"You're pouting again." Anna laughed. "Do you know that when I was your age..."

"1 know." Secca sighed. "You put your lip out so far that your mother said she could ride to town on it."

Anna wondered if she were repeating herself too much. Early Alzheimer's? Or stress? "I don't want you to have that lip stuck out all the time."

Secca completed a corner lattice. "There! You need be careful."

"The way you're playing tonight, that's for sure." Anna juggled the two white stones, looking at the ten- year-old who munched on a corner of the dark bread. Secca certainly hadn't wanted to go home to Flossbend- not at all, even with her father ill, and that tended to confirm Anna's suspicions about Anientta..

Anna started a secondary lattice beside the center one by putting one white stone on each of the open side slots.

Secca shivered again.

Anna looked at her. "You're cold?'

"I'll be all right."

Were her lips actually blue? The sorceress stood, and walked over to the hearth, where the wood was stacked, then back to the coiner where the lutar lay on the chest. She began to tune the instrument.

"You shouldn't do sorcery, lady."

"Just a little spell." Anna stepped toward the hearth, then began to sing.

"Fire, fire, burn so bright in this hearth tonight, burn well and warm and light and have the chill within take flight."

The hearth flared into flame, not a roaring blaze, but a warm glowing steady set of flames. Anna smiled to herself "Oh . . . you didn't have to do that," Secca said. '"You're cold. I could tell that." Sparkles flashed before Anna's eyes. One little spell? I can't even do a spell to warm a child? Warning to scream in frustration, instead she turned so Secca couldn't see her face and carried the lutar back to the chest, setting it down gently, despite her trembling hands.

"I wish ..." Secca shook her head.

Anna slipped back to the table, with the game laid out upon it, and eased into her chair, trying not to sit heavily, trying not to show the lightheadedness. Slowly, she reached for the bread and broke off a chunk.

Secca sat up straight in her chair. ''Are you all right, Lady Anna?"

"I'll be fine."

The redhead reached for the pitcher and, standing on tiptoe, refilled Anna's goblet.

"Thank you," Anna said after she swallowed the mouthful of bread. She reached for the goblet.

"Would the cheese help?" Secca's voice was small.

Anna had to smile at the concern. "I'll have some in a moment." She took a swallow of the water. "The fire does feel good."

"I like fires when it's cold," answered the little redhead, in a voice that reminded Anna all too much of Elizabetta.

"So do I." Anna put a small chunk of cheese into her mouth, wondering how much she'd have to eat to dispel the lightheadedness.

15.

After a last vocalise, the regent and sorceress cleared her throat. She looked down and studied the drawing of the reflecting pool. Then, the sketch in hand, she stepped from her chambers into the corridor.

Lejun and Giellum straightened as she appeared. The five waiting players shifted from one foot to the other on the stone floor tiles in the dimness of the corridor, holding their instruments loosely.

Anna walked past the players, her boots nearly silent on the stones, to the open doorway. She glanced through the squared arch to the piles of granite and limestone resting on the floor stones of the empty chamber that had once been used for guests-or relatives of the lords of Defalk With a nod, she turned to Liende. "Are you ready? The second building song?"

'We are ready, lady." Liende's voice was firm, if by Kaseth, as lead string player, stepped back even with the others. Anna recognized Palian and the thin-faced Delvo The other, a young woman, she did not. All four players lifted their Instruments.

Anna hummed, more to herself, took a last look at the sketch to fix the image of what she warned in her mind then nodded.

The four violins began, then the woodwind, with the smoothness of practice.

Anna began the spell. ( Strophic again) a small voice it her thoughts reminded her. But aren't all spells with more than one verse strophic? She forced her mind to the job at hand, and the words and melody, simultaneously holding the mental image of the reflecting pool.

''Shape this pool in solid granite stone, Ensure its reflection for me alone.

Smooth the base, and let it shine, when the water holds this sorcery's design..."

"Let the water be; let it see.

Keep from others this pool to be..."

A small tremor shivered through the liedburg, and a cloud of dust swirled up, obscuring the former guest room.

Anna staggered slightly, feeling some energy leach out of her, but she straightened immediately. Sorcery was definitely easier with players, and when it was Clearsong. She bowed to Liende.

"Thank you, Liende, Kaseth, Palian.. . all of you." She forced a smile, then stepped forward into the room, looking at the circular pool that rose smoothly from the floor to a height not quite waist-high. The stones were smooth and polished, almost black, although they had been more of a reddish brown when rough-stacked on the floor, and there was no sign of any joints between them. Now she wouldn't have to worry about the heat of far-seeing blistering her mirrors. The water might boil, though, she realized. In time, she might even he able to sneak a look across the worlds at Elizabetta.

Not for a long time. She shook her head and studied the reflecting pool.

The basin, about a yard and a half across, was filled with silvered water that gave a nearly perfect reflection of her as she looked down. Anna frowned, and so did her image. Her face remained too thin, and her eyes, though not sunken, were too dark.

A whispering rose behind her, in the corridor.

"...where did she go..."

"...stepped inside and vanished..."

The sorceress took a deep breath. Once again, whatever she'd done had been more than she had antic.i.p.ated. Slowly, she turned and left what had become her scrying room.

"See!" Delvor closed his mouth sheepishly as Anna stepped through the doorway. He brushed back the lank brown hair from his forehead.

"I didn't mean to surprise you," Anna said. "It turned out just fine." She smiled. "We'll be doing more spells now. Building spells, mostly, I think. Thank you."

Liende offered a smile in return, mostly of relief, Anna suspected. "May we go?"

"Of course. I'll need to talk to you later, Liende, about some more spells."

Anna still felt slightly lightheaded, but nothing like the way she'd felt after rebuilding the bridge. Then the reflecting pool had been much smaller, and accomplished. with players, and she hadn't done any Darksong lately.

She took her time going downstairs to the receiving hall, and the meal that someone-Skent?-had .

ensured was waiting for her. The bread and cheese and the water helped the lightheadedness, enough that she felt almost normal by the time Dythya arrived with the accounting charts and papers.

"Again, I must thank you, lady." Dythya bowed, and added, with a twinkle in her gray eyes, "My father was surprised that he had raised a counselor to the Regent of Defalk."

"So was Menares," Anna said, wondering if Dythya's father Herstat had to be faintly envious. "But you work as hard as he does, and I need you both." Actually, Dythya worked harder, but that wasn't something that needed to be said.

"Menares... he knows the intrigues. I know the accounts." Dythya spread the brown sheets on the table.

Anna wished she had the equivalent of a finance minister or liedstadt accountant. Then, wasn't that what Dytbya had become? Anna still had to make the decisions on how to spend the funds-or how not to- and there was so much that she didn't know.

Anna stood so that she could see the numbers on the charts Dythya had hung from the easels. She forced herself to go over each account slowly, comparing what she had budgeted against current expenditures line by line, Some discrepancies were obvious-such as coins budgeted for the weapons smith the liedstadt still hadn't been able to find.

Then came the revenues. There was no change there. Those who hadn't paid liedgeld the last time, including Lord Arkad of Cheor and Lady Anna of Loiseau, still hadn't paid. Anna hadn't done anything about arranging to have someone manage her lands. Quies and Albero were doubtless trustworthy, but neither had broader experience, and others would resent their being chosen. Gem had some experience as Brill's a.s.sistant, but he was barely more than a boy. She took a deep breath. Perhaps Jecks could recommend someone.

The tax levies on the merchants of Falcor, more like a t.i.the, actually were revenues from Jimbob's holdings. Until Jimbob was of age, Jecks and Anna had agreed that they would be handled as part of the liedstadt accounts, since the Regency was there solely to protect the youth's patrimony-and needed every possible gold to do so. Again, that was something else Anna wasn't totally happy with, but it had been Jecks' suggestion, and she had accepted it, at least until matters improved.

"What isn't in these accounts?" Anna asked warily.

"How many players do you plan to have, Lady Anna?" asked Dythya.

"Players? I'd hoped for at least twelve."

"At what you are paying, that will cost you over a hundred golds a year, and that does not count their food and clothing and any supplies you must provide."

"Two hundred golds we hadn't counted on," Anna admitted.

"I have guessed that a weapons smith will cost fifty golds a year, and another hundred in materials,"

Dythya added. "I did not guess that you would spend two hundred golds on blades."

"Another two hundred," Anna said wearily. "If we actually get them. We still haven't' heard from Ranuak."

"You know about the five hundred for the Ranuan Exchange, and the thousand that must he paid after harvest."

That was almost two thousand golds-and her reserve had been a thousand. Add to that around two thousand golds in liedgeld that had not been paid, and the government of Defalk-the liedstadt-was in big trouble. Unlike the United States, Anna reflected, with currency being solid metal coins, she didn't have the option of printing more money.

She turned to Dythya. "I need two more lists. No, three. One should be a list of all the items we've spent coins on that we didn't budget for. The second is a list of the liedgeld we don't still have, and the third is a list of items where you think we might be able to spend less. You should talk to Lord Jecks, Arms Commander Hanfor, Tirsik, and anyone else who spends coins and might have ideas." Anna paused.

"They'll all tell you spending less is impossible. You tell them that we won't have the coins by the end of the year, and if they make a decision now, then they get to suggest what would be best. Otherwise, I'll have to choose." Anna smiled. "Try to get across the idea that you're looking out for their interests and giving them some advance word."

"Advance word?" asked Dythya, then nodded.

Anna kept forgetting that some expressions didn't translate.

Dythyn was barely out of the receiving room before the door opened again.

"There is another messenger from Synope, my lady," announced Giellum.

"Escort him in." Anna had a feeling about the message and messenger, and seated herself in the official gilt chair on the dais.

The messenger was none other than hatchet-faced Calmut. He bowed and extended a scroll. "Regent Anna, a message from Synope."

"I'm glad to see you in good health, Calmut." Anna nodded to Giellum. Lejun stepped up beside Calmut as the younger guard took the scroll and carried it to the regent.

The sorceress broke the seal and began to read, her eyes catching the important words and phrases.

"Regent Anna, Lady and Sorceress, and Protector of Defalk..."

Anna pursed her lips-still the same sort of flowery opening that meant that the trouble presaged by Calmut's arrival was bad indeed.

"It is with the deepest regret that I must inform you that my lord and consort, Lord Hryding, has pa.s.sed into the harmonies beyond Liedwahr. His last wish was that I again beseech you to honor his requests regarding Secca and the preservation of Elossbend and the lands of Synope...."