His words die away in the stiff wind that blows uphill to the palace and eastward across the bluff.

Ba.s.sil waits for what the Liedfuhr may command.

4.

Under gray clouds that appeared to be slowly lifting, Anna looked out over Falcor from the north tower, the one in which she had stayed when she had first come to the liedburg, the one where poor Garreth had sketched that sole image Anna had been able to send across the mists between Erde and earth for Elizabetta. Garreth- tortured by the prophet Behiem's consort Cyndyth, another innocent who had died just because she'd been close to Anna.

Anna shook her head. Now she couldn't use her skills even to see her youngest, much less send anything across the gulf between worlds. Her eyes traveled westward over the roofs of Falcor, seeing what appeared an endless stretch of gray and brown and white. The white was the already melting slush from the first snow seen in Defalk in nearly a decade.

Behind her, Giellum and Blaz stood at the top of the tower stairs. Giellum watched the stairs, Blaz the tower and the grounds.

Several plumes of smoke rose from the chimneys surrounding the liedburg, barely standing out against the morning mist that swathed the brown of the winter fields and that rose around the gray of the walls and roofs of Falcor. Half the city's structures were still vacant, Anna suspected, but she hoped that would change as Defalk recovered.

After a last look across the liedburg and Falcor, Anna turned and headed down the steps of the tower and then down to the main-level receiving room. The candle sconces and mantels on the left side of the hall had been cleaned, but not those on the right. That was some progress.

Menares was waiting for her outside the door. She nodded for him to follow her inside the receiving room.

"Have we had any response to all those scrolls we sent? Or from the Matriarchy about Barjim's debts?"

She slipped the purple regency sash over her green tunic and trousers, wishing she'd thought more about color coordination earlier, but she was stuck with both colors for differing reasons. She even had a purple- and-gold vest that someone had made for her.

Menares shrugged his heavy sloping shoulders. "Lady Aima... with the rains, and now the snow, the roads are muddy swamps. Messengers, wagons, all will be slow for the winter."

How had people on earth dealt with muddy roads? Paved them, but asphalt and cement weren't exactly practical for Defalk. She frowned. Hadn't Brill used sorcery to create a brick road to the fort at the Sand Pa.s.s? And the ancient Romans had built stone roads that had lasted centuries.

Lord, she wished she knew more. "Until when?"

"Spring planting, I would say. The roads might dry sooner. Then they might not. It has been many years since Defalk has had rainfall, Lady Anna."

In short, no one was prepared for mud, and she hadn't even thought about what it would do to roads in poor, backward Defalk.

"Menares. . . go talk to Tirsik. See if he can give the messengers ideas on where and how to travel through this mess more quickly. Then let me know."

Menares bowed and departed.

Anna hoped that Tirsik, the stablemaster, could help Menares out. She looked at the murky water in the pitcher, then sang her water spell, watching as the swirling subsided into a clear whirl, before filling her goblet and taking a long swallow.

The door creaked ajar.

"Arms Commander Hanfor," announced the stocky and blond Cens, another page from the time of Barjim.

"Come on in," Anna said.

Hanfor's weathered face carried a half ironic, half sour expression as he stepped into the receiving room.

"What problems now?" asked Anna.

"There's nothing new, lady."

"You looked so disgusted."

"I feel like a graybeard with that t.i.tle," admitted Hanfor.

"You're more than an overcaptain, and you are the arms commander of Defalk," she pointed out. "Is there some other term of office you'd prefer?"

''The others are worse."

"Then you're stuck being arms commander." Anna gestured to the chair across the table from her and waited for Hanfor to seat himself. "Menares told me the weather had slowed our scrolls and messengers."

"Mud is hard on horses and men." Hanfor added, "Especially those who have not experienced it."

"That's anyone from Defalk who's under twenty," suggested Anna. "What do you suggest?"

"There is little I can suggest. The rain the land needs. The roads.. . they could be better, but one cannot build roads in winter and rain." The arms commander shrugged. "Who would build them? You have given me coins to pay armsmen I do not have, and cannot find. Not enough. If we cannot find armsmen, where will we find those to build roads?"

"Or repair bridges or houses or. . ." Anna shook her head. "Even if our message scrolls do get through, when will craftspeople or armsmen arrive? Next summer?"

"Not before spring for most."

Anna paused, then asked, "What did you want? I just hit you with my problems."

"We still have no weapons smith." Hanfor stroked his beard. "Himar received a scroll from his brother who heard that the Ranuans have a ship loaded with blades that were destined for Elawha."

"How much?"

"I do not know. A good blade fetches a gold, sometimes two."

"We could spare a hundred golds, perhaps two hundred, but wouldn't we have to send a large guard?"

"We could send twenty or thirty golds, and arrange to take the blades in Sudwei." Hanfor laughed. "Now, after the destruction you rained upon Ebra, there cannot be that much of a market for blades there."

Anna chuckled. "Why not? Work out the details with Dythya and have her see me if she has a problem...

or a better way."

"Thank you."

Thank you," she answered. "If what Himar's brother heard is true, it would give us more time to find a weapons smith. If not, we haven't lost anything. Is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment."

"But you're worried about those blades?" Anna smiled.

"Good weapons hard to come by. As hard as to find those who can use them."

Especially in Defalk, thought Anna. "We'll try to purchase what we can."

The arms commander bowed.

Anna managed another swallow of water after Hanfor departed and before the receiving room door opened again.

"The lady Wendella begs your indulgence," said Resor The last person Anna really wanted to see was Wendella, Lord Dencer's consort, who remained as a hostage because Anna trusted neither Dencer nor Wendella.

"Have Giellum or Blaz escort her in." Wendella deserved an armed guard, if as nothing more than a more blatant reminder of her status.

Resor's eyes widened. "Yes, lady."

The brown-haired woman bowed low, carrying the child in her left arm. "Lady Anna."

Blaz stood behind her.

"You asked to see me," Anna said quietly.

Wendella bowed. "I would ask your indulgence. My son has not ever seen his father, nor have I seen my lord in more than half a year. Nor my brother, the lord Mietchel."

"Lord Dencer is always welcome here," Anna said truthfully. Her brother is a lord? Why didn't 1 know that?

"I would like to return to Stromwer and to my lord. Please, my lady Regent?" Wendella went to her knees.

Anna ignored the gesture, distrusting it, knowing that over the fall and early winter Wendella had continued to bad-mouth Anna to whoever in the south tower would listen, until even the stern Drenchescha had told Wendella to cease her complaining, and the pages had been able to repeat Wendella's words from memory.

"She's a b.i.t.c.h from the mist worlds..." And that had been one of the phrases that people had dared to repeat.

"Lady Wendella," Anna said, "Lord Barjim didn't trust your lord, and nothing you've done-or said- has given me any reason to reject Lord Barjim's opinion. Lord Dencer has continued to court both the Matriarchy and most lately, Lord Ehara of Dumar. I have found, if anything, that Lord Barjim was extraordinarily trusting for a lord of Defalk."

"You are a b.i.t.c.h! Go ahead, flame me! See where that will get you!" Wendella lurched upright, words and spittle flying from her mouth.

"Blaz-" Anna began. Lord, she wanted to fry the impertinent b.i.t.c.h, but she couldn't. That would have been within her rights, especially in Defalk, but it would have freed Dencer to wed someone else and to cause even more trouble.

Blaz stepped forward, and Wendella backed away from the regent.

"I'm going!"

"No. You're not going. Not for a moment." Anna turned and riffled through the spell folder, until she had the sheet she wanted. Then she stood and took the lutar from its case, quickly checking the tuning.

"No!" Wendella turned, then stopped as she saw Giellum at the door, behind Blaz.

"Just see that she stays here," Anna said tiredly, taking the grease marker and altering the speilsong she'd once used on both Madell and Virkan.

"You can't do anything to me. I'm a daughter of the Thirty-three."

Anna continued to mark the margins of the heavy brown paper.

"No!"

"You want to go home to Stromwer. We'll be happy to make that possible." Anna glanced at the notations and hummed through the melody, once, then again. Then she lifted the lutar and strummed the chords.

Wendella lurched toward Anna, for an instant before Blaz grabbed her.

Anna began to sing.

"Wendella wrong, Wendella strong, loyal be from this song.

Wendella young, Wendella old, faithful be till dead and cold."

"Consort of lord, mother of son, woman of means, this be done.

Treachery prevent to all this land with your cunning and your hand."

"Nooooo. . ." As the notes died away, the dark-haired woman collapsed to her knees on the polished stones of the receiving-room floor. "No..." . she sobbed, barely hanging on to the infant in her arms.

Anna felt like she'd been shaken momentarily, and for a few moments, there seemed to be two images of Wendella before her, one colder somehow than the other.

Forcing herself to ignore the strange reaction, Anna lifted the bell and rang it, then set the lutar on the chair beside the one she used. Even after the double image faded-something that hadn't happened to her ever before-her head ached. It had the few times before when she had used personal spells, probably because they were technically Darksong, and Darksong didn't always agree with her bodily harmonics- and probably would less and less, from what she understood. The strange double image confirmed that.

Clearsong would have been easier on her, but it didn't work on people.

"Yes, Lady Anna?" This time Skent was the page who peered into the room, his eyes going from the sobbing form on the floor to the regent.

"Would you have a message sent to Lord Dencer that the lady Wendella and his son and heir are free to return to Stromwer at her and his convenience?"

"Yes.. . Lady Anna."

"If she has the coins for an escort, she may leave immediately. But draft a message for me anyway."

Anna's eyes went briefly to Wendella. "And I'll need something to eat.''

Skent nodded and vanished.

Anna shouldn't have yielded to her temper, but she was so tired of spoiled lords and ladies, some of whom were worse than the most ungrateful students she'd taught, and. that was saying a lot. The headache had not subsided. In fact, it was worse.

"Waaa. . . The child in Wendella's arms began to cry.

"You have killed me... . sobbed Wendella, cradling her son and struggling into a sitting position.

"Why? Because I bound you not to betray me or Defalk? If that's so, Wendella, then you've admitted that my judgment of you and your lord is correct." Anna smiled coldly. "You're going home, and you'd better find a way to keep your lord loyal to the Regency and Jimbob. For your own sake, if not for Defalk's."

"You are cruel.. . so cruel.. "

"I don't have time for games and intrigues." Anna nodded to the guards. "And I have even less for the people who attempt them. Good day, lady."

A stone-faced Blaz took the dark-haired lady's arm and helped her to her feet. Giellum opened the door.