Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [23]
“I never thought I would ever feel ashamed of my father.” That was another of Katya’s little prods. It struck home with more than one of the youngsters.
“If the old men won’t act, we should,” growled the first boy, and within moments, with a little more prodding on Katya’s part, the young men had withdrawn to where they wouldn’t be overheard by their elders. Katya followed them just long enough to be sure that they were of one mind on going to the shrine in defiance of the witch’s orders. But once she was sure—once she had actually seen them marching out on their way—
She felt a little badly about it; she’d manipulated them shamelessly and now they thought of their own parents and grandparents as cowards. On the other hand…
There was an old man, sick and hurt, who had been trying to take care of himself for far too long now. It was more than time that someone helped him.
As she left the village, slipping silently through the shadows with the cool, damp scent of water strong in her nose, they were on the road back to the shrine. And their elders were still arguing whether or not anyone ought to see if the old priests were all right.
Once she got out of earshot, and down to the banks of the stream she had smelled, she put it all out of her mind. She had far more pressing things to think about.
Now if I were a witch, and I wasn’t planning on fighting my way to power, where would I go?
Chapter 5
At some time near midnight she stopped.
Before her, silver with the moon etching a path across the mirror-smooth waters, stretched a truly beautiful lake.
There was not even a breath of breeze to ripple the glassy surface, and Katya stared at the pure, clean water longingly. It would be cold, of course, but for the Sea King’s children—
Well, they swam through, and fought in the waters of the Arctic. This lake was not that cold. And there would be so very many advantages to being in her proper form, not the least of which was that she would be able to interrogate every water spirit there was hereabouts.
She stared at the moon path for a long time, then sighed. She felt sticky and dirty. It was one thing to be able to disguise one’s self as a person of rank, comfort, and privilege. It was quite another to experience life as a Drylander as a peasant. Not that she hadn’t done that before but…it made the task less of a pleasure and far more like work.
It didn’t take a great deal of thought to convince herself; after a thorough check to make sure she was not being observed, she reverted and slipped under the water.
Quickly, she swam down to conceal herself in a kelp forest and sent out the silent call. As her father’s daughter and a princess of the Royal Blood, she could summon and direct any creature of the water, whether it be natural or magical in nature. Some, she could even coerce, though she rarely did so. Although they were by no means as mobile as air spirits, the little creatures of the water did go many places unseen and unheard, and if the witch was anywhere about, they would probably know something about the creature. Her movements at least, if not her motives.
She expected some information. She did not expect to be virtually mobbed by the little water creatures of this Kingdom.
The moonbeams piercing through the surface of the lake illuminated a horde of creatures large and small, in a bewildering variety of forms, which homed in on her as if she were a loadstone and they were bits of iron. Some were actual fish, frogs, and turtles. Others were pure spirits of the water, tiny water-fairies in the form of impossible fish-like creatures, wildly colored and with a vast variety of fins, spines, and crests. Others were strangely transparent snakes, or miniature dragons.
Some were ghosts—which rather startled her, as in the lands where she was accustomed to walk, ghosts were a rarity. Some of the ghosts were true haunts, spirits that, for whatever reason, were unable or unwilling to pass on—those were generally the spirits of people who