Cormyr_ a novel - Ed Greenwood [84]
Tanalasta's face went as white as new-fallen snow, and her eyes blazed. Vangerdahast saw bright tears well up in her eyes, but she bit her quivering lip and visibly summoned her self-control, drawing in a deep breath and putting her hand out to clasp the back of a nearby chair. In an instant, her slim fingers went white on its gilded curves.
"Loyal sir," she said shortly, "our deep thanks for this news. I'll… consider the matter." Her eyes burned into him as if she heartily wished he'd fall to the floor, blazing, and be gone forever.
Vangerdahast stood unflinching in the face of her royal rage. So the lass did have her father's fire, after all. That was good! He said softly," 'Twould be best for the realm, lady, if you consider not overlong."
"You may go, lord wizard," she replied coldly and flung out her arm to point at the door in the west wall. "And take your war wizard with you."
Vangerdahast bowed. "Bright morning shine upon you, Lady Highness."
Her only reply was a curt nod, her eyes two hard points. The Royal Magician turned and strode toward the door.
"My father still lives, wizard," she growled under her breath behind him, just loud enough for him to hear. "You'd do well to remember that."
"I never presume overmuch, High Lady," he told the door pleasantly as be laid his hand upon it. "The realm can ill afford such presumption." And he went out.
He gave the same pleasant smile to the curious frown that Aunadar Bleth sent his way, then signaled the war wizard Halansalim to accompany him.
Three chambers away, he halted abruptly and told the war wizard, "The crown princess is furious with me just now. Take yourself into yonder robing room and hold this!" And he put an ivory dove figurine into Halansalim's hand.
"I hear voices," the bearded old mage told him.
"Listen to them, and this evening tell me what orders concerning me, the war wizards, or any court officials or changes in rulership the princess utters. The magic will last until highsun, so long as she doesn't remove the ring she's now wearing."
Halansalim bowed silently and made for the door of the robing room. Vangerdahast strode on, heading for the Roaring Dragon Stair at a fast, rolling pace. He had an important appointment to keep.
The broad, sunlit stair led down to the Trumpet Gate of the palace, which faced the sprawling court at the base of the hill, and gave onto the road between them hard by the Crown Bridge. Ahead lay the court stables, and beyond the stables, all along the southern shore of Lake Azoun, sprawled the vast, many-towered bulk of the court. Bhereu had been taken this way already, to lie in state in the busy Marble Forehall, passed by folk crossing and crisscrossing the mirror-polished pavement between the Inner Ward, the Duskene Chamber, the Retiring Rooms, the Rooms of State, no fewer than four grand staircases that all descended into the forehall, and the Sword Portal.
It was the Sword Portal he was heading for now. Most folk in Suzail had stood before those massive double doors at least once in their lives, gaping at the armor plate that sheathed the thick timbers. Everyone in the city knew that the door was as thick as a brawny man's forearm, and everyone in the realm knew what the thick tangle of welded-on swords that covered both doors were: the captured blades of "foes of the Crown." The doors of the Sword Portal opened into the Processional, a long, red-carpeted hallway that led straight to the Approach Chamber, a guardpost of ornate gates and wall-mounted crossbows that in turn opened into the throne room.
What very few folk indeed knew about the Sword Portal was that when it was swung open, the narrow, man-high openings revealed in the thickness of its frame were not only guard niches, though a guard in full armor usually stood in each of them, but also passages that led into a warren of secret ways and closets in the heart of the court.
The Purple Dragon standing guard in the more westerly niche,