"Because you need to be here," Anna said sweetly to the uncomfortable captain.

"As my lady wishes."

"Enjoy the food," Anna suggested.

"We can all do that," Jecks said dryly, "especially after all the riding."

"1 had Waerya prepare something special," Wendella said. "An apple-spiced lamb."

The serving girl carried in a large platter. While Anna had feared seeing a whole lamb splayed across the traylike serving dish, the dish contained more than a dozen cylinders of rolled meat covered with a thick brown sauce.

"The lamb is wrapped around the stuffing," Wendella added, "and the sauce is a family specialty-from the days of Suhlmorra." A faint smile crossed her lips as she glanced at Jecks.

"I don't mind food from Suhlmorra," he rumbled, "just those who still want to bring back another realm."

"Even my dear brother would be too wise to attempt that," Wendella answered. "Mietchel will always be loyal to the Lord of Falcor, or any Regency that supports that lord."

Since the serving platter was tendered to Anna, she stabbed one of the lamb rolls and transferred it to her plate, then a second, and a third. The serving girl's brown eyes flickered from Anna to the platter and back to Anna.

"Thank you," the sorceress murmured to the girl.

"Your brother would be wise to remain so," Jecks suggested to Wendella, before stabbing a smothered lamb roll.

"And what if Defalk is ruled by a lady? Say, if Jimbob has only daughters?" asked Anna.

"That would distress him, were he to live so long," answered Wendella.

"How does he feel about lady holders in the Thirty-three?" Anna pursued, almost idly, breaking off a chunk of dark bread. In a way, being Wendella's guest was almost liberating. The Lady of Stromwer didn't like Anna, and yet had to be loyal. So Anna could be more forthright.

"I had thought that there were few. Am I not the only woman holding lands in Defalk? Besides Lady Gatrune," Wendella added quickly.

"Lady Anientta holds the lands for her heirs," Jecks answered for Anna. "And Lady Anna holds Falcor for Jimbob."

"Lady Herene is acting as guardian for Dinfan at Suhl," Anna added.

"You named the daughter as heir?" Wendella asked.

"She is the oldest," Anna answered after swallowing a mouthful of the lamb, dry despite the spices and gummy sauce-gravy. Her own stuffed pork chops or apple crown roast were far better, but whether she could have done so well over an open kitchen fire was another question.

"And," murmured Hanfor, "Lady Anna holds Loiseau and Mencha in her own right."

Wendella laughed softly. "That is almost a fifth of the Thirty-three, and in but a year. No marvel that my late lord feared you, Lady Anna. Or that the Sea-Priests would give a kingdom for your death."

"You know that from what source?" Jecks held a chunk of bread, suspended in a large hand, as his eyes fixed on Wendella.

"None, save my own feelings." Wendella offered a nervous laugh. "Yet I'd wager that feeling against all others."

"So would I," added Liende quietly in the momentary silence.

Alvar swallowed loudly enough to punctuate the chief player's words.

"That will change," Anna said. "The business about women, that is."

"It changes already," Jecks pointed out.

"True enough," Anna interposed quickly. "But that's enough about it." Her eyes went to Wendella. "Lady Wendella, could you tell us, or me, since I know too little about Defalk, where you grew up and how you came to Stromwer?"

After a moment, Wendella began. "I am the youngest child, and the third daughter, of Lord Mietch. The oldest was Mietchel, and he now holds Morra. My eldest sister- that was Haerl-she was consorted to Arkad, but she died with child, and so did the child."

"Was she his second consort?" asked Anna.

"His third." Wendella paused. "When I was young, Morra was a happy place, with the rose trees always in bloom against the garden walls. My sire said the walls dated back to the days when Suhlmorra was great, when Defalk was a poor land but a sliver of its present demesne..."

Anna leaned back slightly in the chair and listened as Wendella detailed her background.

"... And then I came to Stromwer to be Dencer's consort when his first betrothed died of a fever in the year that the Falche flooded all the lowlands. You know the rest." The dark-haired lady shrugged.

"Thank you. I wish we could enjoy this longer," Anna said after a moment of silence. "I need all of you to join me and look at something."

"All of us?" asked Wendella.

"Why not? It concerns all of you." Anna rose, and the others followed her out of the hall and down the corridor to the stone steps. Hanfor ducked away briefly and rejoined the group carrying brown paper and the flat board upon which he sketched battle plans and maps.

Anna nodded to herself. Hanfor and Jecks knew what was coming.

Up in the guest chambers, the five watched, standing in a half-circle around Anna and the wall mirror, as she took out the lutar and retuned it.

Outside the half-opened shutter, There was the ter-whit of a bird that rose momentarily over the hum of insects.

Anna smiled at the lone bird call, cleared her throat, and then sang the spell.

"Mirror, minor, show all to see where Ehara and his forces be..."

The silvered gla.s.s of the wall mirror displayed a line of mounted armsmen heading toward a rocky defile, a long line of armsmen, behind the crimson banners of Dumar. Behind the hors.e.m.e.n were wagons and spare mounts. The road appeared to slope upward.

Wendella nodded. "That looks like the road to Dumar, though it cannot be far."

"How might you know that?" inquired Jecks.

"I once rode with my late lord to Finduma-that is the first trading town inside Dumar. If my memory serves me, that part of the road leads to the Vale of Cuetayl." She shrugged. "That was when first I came to Stromwer, though I think the road has changed little."

Anna was grateful for Wendella's knowledge. "It is clear that Ehara plans to attack."

Yet the spell left so much undetermined. What could she do? In the silence, she launched into an improvised second spell immediately.

"Danger near the Vale, soon so near, show me that land bright and clear.."

The gla.s.s shimmered, then slowly rippled silver before fading into a map-picture, displaying a small hamlet and a river that seemed to run east-northeast-at least that was the way Anna interpreted it- toward a larger valley. The valley was divided into three sections by low Y-shaped hills.

"Those hills...Cuetayl was a trading stop in the old days." said Wendella, her voice shaky. "There was a town there, but Uhlan the elder razed it when he could not take Stromwer, and it was never rebuilt."

Anna studied the map-like image in the large wall mirror, wondering where, on the map, might be Ehara's forces. There was no sign of them. She looked more closely at the Vale of Cuetayl. The hills formed a Y that split the lower ground, mostly fields and meadows, into three distinct sections.

"The hills inside the valley control the road to Dumar," observed Jecks, turning to Wendella. "Is there an- other road?"

"There may be tracks, but no roads that any have talked of."

Hanfor kept sketching, his grease marker flying across the wide sheet of brown paper. "You can see where the road from Encora and from Stromwer enters the valley or the vale from the east here." Hanfor's marker ticked off a point on the right hand side of his sketch. "The hills are up-thrust sandstone. They overlook the road."

'If Ehara and the Sea-Priest get there," mused Jecks, "they could use the rocks for cover and blanket the road with arrows."

"You could not see where they might place archers," Hanfor said.

Anna nodded. Even she could see that the terrain would severely limit the use of sorcery-unless she wanted to destroy the who!e valley-if she even could. There had been volcanic activity around Vult, already harnessed by the Evult. By comparison, to her amateur eye, the Sudbergs looked old and decidedly unvolcanic.

Abruptly, she strummed the lutar, trying another variation.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, show us where Ehara's attack will fall...."

The mirror remained blank.

Anna set aside the lutar and reached for the grease-marker and some paper. Improvising wasn't making matters much clearer. After a time, she looked at the next spell, then picked up the lutar.

"Show us in great outline this day, where Dumaran forces ride their way."

The mirror obligingly displayed a close-up of riders in crimson, looking forward over a rider in white and one in red toward the same defile that the first image had displayed.

''That...that is the west entrance to the Vale," said Wendella.

Anna sang the release couplet. As the image faded, she set down the lutar on the chest by the wall. "I need some wine." She poured the dark red wine from the pitcher into the goblet on the writing table, then sat, sipping slowly in the growing twilight. No matter what she tried, there were clearly limits to what the mirror would show- or what she could get it to show. Ehara was headed to the Vale of Cuetayl, and it looked like he wanted to set up an ambush there.

"We'll have to find a way to avoid whatever trap they have in mind, and then make them vulnerable."

"How might that be, Lady Anna?" asked Hanfor.

I wish I knew. "That's something I'll have to think about. I can try another spell. After I rest for a moment." She took another sip of wine, conscious that the others had remained standing, except for Hanfor who sat on the floor cross-legged, continuing to sketch something on the brown paper.

Wendella glanced from Anna's drawn face to Jecks, then to Hanfor.

''Yes, Lady Wendella," Jecks said. "Sorcery can be as tiring as battle. It can be more tiring. We have seen that."

Wendella nodded, almost to herself.

No one spoke.

When Anna finally rose and took up the lutar, all eyes were on the mirror as the sorceress sang.

"Show me now and show me clear a road or trail to avoid this danger near.

Like a vision, like a map or plot..."

Light strobed from the mirror, so brightly that Liende covered her eyes. Anna felt her own eyes watering as she saw vision after vision flash across the gla.s.s so quickly she could not even comprehend one of those images.

Crack! Gla.s.s showered out of the mirror frame, and the wood of the frame steamed.

Anna stepped back involuntarily.

"Oh ..." murmured Liende.

"Are you all fight, lady?" asked Jecks.

Anna looked down. Although silvered gla.s.s lay almost to her feet, none had apparently touched her. "I'm fine. Except I've ruined another mirror."

Hanfor nodded, his face somber.

Wendella kept looking from the darkened and empty mirror frame to Anna and back to the wall.

"I'm sorry about the mirror," Anna told Wendella.

"A mirror is nothing. Lady Anna."

"I'm sorry," Anna repeated. "I have this problem with mirrors." She cleared her throat. "There seem to be many possible roads," she continued, after a moment, trying to inject a dry tone into her voice. "That's one good-thing."

"Many...?" Alvar's voice was shaking.

"That was the problem. The mirror was trying to show us all the trails we could use to avoid that danger."

Anna was glad to explain and felt her voice strengthening as she talked, even if she were uncertain of her explanation. "There were just too many things possible, and they flashed too quickly to see what any of them might be."

Alvar's face retained a puzzled expression.

"We'll see what happens as we near Dumar," Anna said. "That's all we can do." She just hoped she hap- pened to be right.

95.

VALE OF CUETAYL, DUMAR.

The Sea-Priest surveys the hills to the left and to the right, all crested with sloping red sandstone. He coughs and then wipes his forehead. Below him, to the south and overlooking the road, the white-and- green-clad archers set the reddish net blinds that will conceal them. JerRestin nods as the last of the nets are tied into place, and the archers seem to vanish, then shifts his weight in the hard saddle.

"Not so comfortable as on your fine ships, is it, friend?" asks Ehara with a laugh.

"Our ships are never this hot." The Sea-Marshal continues dryly, "But I would take this heat to the cold of the frozen lands below Pelara. There, in winter, when one throws wine into the wind, it freezes before it can strike the ice."