"Thank you. That would be good. I won't be long." Anna inclined her head and flicked the reins gently.

Farinelli followed her guidance and carried her to the area before the stable where Hanfor, with the stablemaster standing by the arms commander's mount, directed the armsmen.

"Purple Company-that's the rear section to the right..." Hanfor nodded to Anna, then continued.

"...subofficers check all blades before supper."

The sorceress swung out of the saddle. For a moment, her knees felt like jelly as she stood on the stone.

Then she headed into the stable.

The dark-haired stable boy bowed as Anna led Farinelli through the open sliding door. "Regent and lady, the front corner stall... it is ready."

"Thank you." Anna smiled.

Farinelli whuffed once as Anna stepped into the stall, swept and filled with fresh straw. A bucket of oats also awaited the big horse.

"Grain, too."

"They all respect their regent here," said Jecks with a laugh from the adjoining stall.

"If it weren't required by spells, I'd be happier." Anna loosened the girths, then racked the saddle and hung the saddle blanket next to the saddle. She groomed the big gelding without speaking.

When she was finished, she carried the lutar and scroll across the courtyard and up the steps to the private study, accompanied by Hanfor and Jecks, and trailed as always by a pair of guards, this time Lejun and Rickel. One of the younger guards followed with the leather-cased traveling mirror and her saddlebags.

All three halted and stationed themselves in the dim stone-walled corridor while Jecks and Anna entered the study where Wendella waited.

Anna set the lutar on a chest. Jecks surveyed the study, then nodded at Hanfor who closed the heavy door gently, but firmly.

"You wished my presence, Lady Anna?" asked Wendella, still holding a sleeping Condell.

"I did. I thought you might like to hear what our neighbor Lord Ehara has to say to us.

"Your lands are the closest," Jecks added as a reminder.

The Lady of Stromwer inclined her head.

Anna broke the dark red sealing wax and rolled open the scroll. Her eyes scanned the dark letters and the words quickly, and she nodded as she read, her lips quirked as she discovered that Jecks had indeed understood Ehara.

After she finished, she glanced at Wendella, Jecks, and then Hanfor. 'Here's what he says, the most important parts anyway.

"...Once I might have considered peace, but never can there be accord with a nation that turns the rivers of Liedwahr against her people. Never can there be harmony with a ruler who will not fight in honor and who usurps the very nature of the earth....

"...I will put every woman in Dumar, every woman in Liedwahr in adorning chains, before I will treat with you...

"We march on Dumar, and all the way through it." Anna's voice sounded tired, even to her.

"Narial is gone, and the lower sections of Dumaria are ruins," said Jecks, a quizzical note in his voice.

"You must defeat Ehara, but why would you proceed?"

Anna lifted the scroll and read aloud, "Never can there be harmony..."

"We still have nowhere near the forces Lord Ehara can muster," observed Hanfor, his voice mild.

"I don't intend to fight honorably," snapped Anna. "I intend to win. I intend to gain the pledge of every armsman in Dumar or wipe out everyone who will not be loyal to Defalk, and I intend to destroy every Sea-Priest left in Liedwahr."

Wendella smiled tightly.

Jecks stepped back at the venom in Anna's voice.

The faintest of nods came from Hanfor.

"Are you surprised, Lord Jecks? I won't live forever. You've told me that. Am I supposed to wait until Dumar is strong again and so that I can kill twice as many innocents? I tried reason and scrolls to get a meaningful agreement from Lord Ehara. That was refused-with scorn. Then I tried sorcery to avoid this senseless war, and what happened? More people died. Because they died, Lord Ehara has to kill me or die trying."

Anna paused, finding she was breathing hard. 'I'm tired of this sort of thing. Fine... we're going to stop it all-if I possibly can. Sturinn can't get reinforcements here fast enough, and by then I'll hold Dumar-or be dead. One way or another, no one will have to worry."

They think you're crazy.

Only Hanfor nodded, once more, and for that Anna was grateful. He seemed to understand. Jecks was having trouble in reconciling what he had seen with too many years of tradition-that was what Anna felt.

"I'm going to take a bath, and then we'll eat. After that, we'll discuss exactly how we'll take Dumar."

Anna knew she was sounding imperious, hated herself for it, and hated herself for not saying anything.

But they all want it handled like I happen to be the tooth fairy, like there's no cost to anything.

"Yes, Regent." Jecks bowed Hanfor bowed, half-smile upon his lips.

Wendella bowed. "Supper will be ready as you wisb, Lady Anna. The guest quarters are ready, and there is water in the tub."

'Thank you." Anna turned and walked toward the study door.

94.

Thrap.. . thrap.

The sorceress readjusted her single, spell-cleaned gown and glanced at the closed door to the guest chamber. "Yes?"

"Lord Jecks for you," announced Rickel.

"He can come in."

The door eased open.

"Lady Anna." The white-haired and muscular lord bowed, then smiled. His warm hazel eyes twinkled.

He can be devastating and charming. "Lord Jecks." Until we start discussing the foibles of the Thirty- three and others of privilege...or dancing.

From behind his back, Jecks lifted a circular object, not much more than two full handspans across. "This is a very small shield.'' He smiled again.

Anna looked at the small circlet of bronze and iron.

"You said it had to be small, yet heavy enough to stop anything. And I could not use one with leather."

Anna frowned, then nodded. Still, she tended to forget the limits of Clearsong and Darksong.

Jecks shrugged. "No shield I know can be light and effective."

"All I can do is try," answered Anna. "It was your idea." She added quickly, "I wish I'd thought of it ear- lier." She gestured toward one of the straight-backed chairs, then sat bebind the small writing desk and opened the folder, searching for a blank sheet of paper.

After a time, she dipped the quill into the inkwell and began to write, slowly, almost laboriously, to keep from smudging the local ink that took forever to dry.

Abruptly, she looked up. "Lord Jecks... I think it would be a good idea for Alvar and Liende to join us for meals from now on-even if other lords are guesting us."

Jecks nodded.

"Would you tell them and Lady Wendella while I work on this?" She smiled. "Please? I'm not trying to make you an errand boy. I should have thought of it sooner."

"An errand such as this I would be more than happy to accomplish." Another smile followed the words as be stood, stepping forward and laying the small shield on the corner of the writing desk "If you should need this for your spell..."

"Thank you."

As the door closed, Anna tried to concentrate on the words. For a moment, nothing came, and the fingers of her left hand touched the cool metal rim of the circular shield. The shield did not move as her fingers pressed on the metal. She lifted it, left-handed, surprised at the weight, and lowered it quickly.

"Heavy...." No wonder shields weren't exactly in vogue. She'd hate to have to carry one and a blade. She wondered how Rickel and Fhurgen managed with the bigger shields they used to protect her.

With a slow breath, she picked up the pen once more, adding a few more words to those on the paper.

A finch, or something, chirped outside the window.

Anna set aside the quill and studied the crude spell written on the brown paper.

"Against enchanted weapons be my shield save me from all arms those against me wield.

Perhaps a variation on the flame spell... She stood and took a deep breath, then extracted the lutar from its case and began to tune it. She strummed the flame song, humming the notes as she did and concentrating on the words.

The sorceress shook her head. Not even close, and the note values were stretched too far. She tried several other variations.

"If I untie..." She nodded, and jotted down the tune variation she had in mind, then played it on the lutar once more. That didn't work, either. She went back to the paper and jotted down another variation, then lifted the lutar once more, using nonsense syllables to sing the patterns.

With a relieved smile as she realized that note values and words matched, she replaced the lutar in its case, and the case on the chest set against the outside wall. As she straightened, at the knock on the door, the sorceress looked up. "Yes?"

"Lord Jecks, my lady."

Lately, Jecks had been using the "my lady" phrase. Did he want her to be his lady? Anna frowned. More important, did she want to be? "Come on in."

Jecks was still smiling. ''Your chief player was pleased. Alvar was worried. I took the liberty of informing Hanfor before Alvar."

"Thank you. I should have thought of that." Much as she was sometimes frustrated, by various protocols and customs, Jecks was good at warning her, or, in this case, in simply avoiding the problem. "Hanfor didn't object?"

"No. He said Alvar needed the experience if he were to command larger forces."

Anna laughed. "In short, I should have done it sooner, but Hanfor's too polite to insist" She crossed the room to the writing desk where she glanced from the small shield to the brown paper before her. "I think I have something. We'll have to see once we're headed into Dumar.

"You won't enchant it now?" asked Jecks.

"Not until we leave Stromwer,". Anna said, looking down at the shield again. "I'm pretty sure a spell like this drains energy from me."

Jecks raised his eyebrows.

"That was what happened with the dam. That was part of the reason I was so tired, and it took so long for me to recover." That's what you feel...."That's what I feel, anyway."

"If you feel that, my lady, then that is what must have been."

"Right now," Anna said, "l feel hungry. Shall we go?"

''I could eat," Jecks admitted.

They left the guest chamber, and the guards fell in behind them. Anna wondered, yet again, if she'd ever get used to guards escorting her everywhere.

On the main level, the others were already waiting. Liende wore a dark green gown, slightly wrinkled and probably borrowed, and Alvar his uniform, brushed. Both bowed as Anna and Jecks approached the hall.

Hanfor who had been standing beside Alvar and talking to the captain, also offered Anna a bow.

"You requested my presence?" asked Liende, stepping up to Anna and bowing again.

"I should have requested it far sooner. I'm sorry. Some things I'm just not thinking about"

A puzzled look crossed the chief player's face.

"I need your thoughts, and your advice, but you can't very well give it if you don't see what I see," Anna explained. "Or if the only real time you see me is when we're riding."

Liende nodded. "You honor me.

"Not enough," Anna said quietly. "Not soon enough, either." She raised her voice. "Let's go in and eat."

Wendella stood by the long and dark table that appeared almost as ancient as the aged wooden paneling that covered the stone walls. She gestured to the place at the head. "Regent and sorceress."

"Thank you." Anna gestured to the table. "Please sit."

There were only the six at table-Anna, Wendella, Jecks, Hanfor, Liende, and Alvar. The swarthy Alvar looked down at his plate, as if asking how he had ended up with the arms commander and the local n.o.bility.