Death of the Dragon - Ed Greenwood [106]
Azoun nodded, more soberly, then his eyes flashed again and he barked, "Well? Isn't it a gamble we have to take?"
The Steel Princess nodded. "Of course," she said, then acquired the ghost of a smile and added in a voice of mock doom, "but your majesty forgets the goblins."
Azoun grabbed her shoulders again and drew her close. He kissed her fiercely on the forehead, dealt her shoulders a roundhouse slap, and growled, "Get gone with you, and win this thing!"
Alusair knelt, murmuring in flawless mimicry of a courtier's most fluting and insincere singsong voice, "By your command, O Lion Among Kings."
She bounded to her feet, whirled, and was gone before the king could cuff her again. His laughter rolled out after her like a warm benediction.
31
"Concentrate."
The silver bud began to swing back and forth, and Tanalasta's eyes followed it.
"Picture his face."
Tanalasta tried to recall her husband's face and found it anguishingly difficult. She had been with him barely a month, and now it had been fully seven times that long since she last saw him. She still possessed an almost tangible sense of him, but his face had become a nebulous thing with a cleft chin and dark eyes, surrounded by an even darker mane of unruly hair. How could she lose his face? A good wife knew what her husband looked like, but so much had happened in the last seven months. Their marriage seemed a lifetime ago, and she had good reason for wondering if she were even the same person.
Tanalasta had signed the execution order for Orvendel Rallyhorn just that morning. As she had promised, the boy's death would be both quick and honorable. He was to be smothered in his sleep, then mourned across the land as the brave soul who had shown the Purple Dragons how to capture ghazneths. As badly as she had wanted to commute the sentence, she could not-not in Time of War. The boy's treason had cost too many people their lives and had very nearly cost her father Cormyr itself. Some acts simply could not be forgiven.
"Can you see him?" Owden asked.
Tanalasta raised a finger. "One moment." She glanced around the spacious dining room of the Crownsilver country manor, which the family matriarch had graciously consented to lend the crown for the expected battle. "Is everyone ready?"
As during the capture of Luthax, an entire company of Purple Dragons stood in ambush, with a dozen war wizards and several priests of Tempus in ready reserve. Her "coffin" stood open nearby, as did an iron prison box for each ghazneth. The princess did not expect all five phantoms to arrive at once-at least she hoped they would not-but only the gods knew what would happen when Owden cast his spell. Her magic ban had driven the ghazneths into such a frenzy they had begun to attack noble patrols in the hope of causing a panicked war wizard to fling a spell at them. The tactic worked just often enough to make the phantoms continue, which was as Tanalasta wished. Better to keep them in southern Cormyr and control the magic they received than to let them fly off and seek it elsewhere.
"Do you want to find Rowen or not, Princess?" asked Owden. "I didn't spend half a tenday meditating on this new spell as a leisuretime activity."
Tanalasta returned her attention to the harvestmaster. "I know." She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "I'm having trouble remembering his face."
Owden's scowl softened. "Perhaps you're afraid to know."
"No." Tanalasta shook her head harshly. "If he's dead, I want to know. It's better that than to think of him in some orc slave camp-or worse."
Owden nodded, then reached across the small distance between them and tapped her brow. "You're trying too hard. He's still in there. Remember something you did together. Relax, and let his face come to you."
Tanalasta thought of their first kiss. They had been in the shadow of Anauroch's great dunes, about to distract a ghazneth that had Alusair's company trapped