Realms of Shadow - Lizz Baldwin [104]
"Yes," the laughing courtier's voice sprang into the uneasy moment of his fellow's stumbling retreat, "you see, we need to see the Royal Mage."
"I fear you have the wrong realm, gentlesirs," Laspeera told them over her shoulder, as she strode on down the passage. "In Cormyr we have a Court Wizard who is also our Royal Magician, also known as the 'Mage Royal.' We have no 'Royal Mage.'"
"Oh, come, come," the laughing courtier demurred. "Lady, you know well to whom we refer!"
Laspeera swung around, a warning in her eyes, and replied, "Yes, as it happens, I do-and am therefore puzzled as to why you've come to me. The Mage Royal grants audiences to all at times well known to you, and more private appointments with her may be made through the clerks of the court. Their offices lie considerably to the south of here."
She leveled a pointing finger through a handy window at the impressive bulk of the Royal Court, then turned on her heel, and strode on.
"Lady!" the mirthful courtier protested, with a derisive little laugh. "We're not children! We-"
"-have gotten lost to the extent of wandering across a wide courtyard into the wrong building for some other reason, lords? Excessive drink, perhaps?" a new voice said smoothly, as its owner stepped out of a doorway to block their pursuit. He was a Ready Sword of the Palace Guard, and he was not alone.
In the space of a swiftly-drawn breath the two courtiers found themselves ringed by unsmiling Purple Dragons. Guardsmen, in fact, who held weapons half-drawn and looked like they had never in all their long, weather-beaten lives known how to smile.
Laspeera allowed herself a satisfied grin at the alacrity of the response to the song of her rising shield, which would have been very loud in that guardroom, but kept it inside. Her face was its usual pleasant mask as she swept past another courtier-a son of the Helmstone noble family, this one, with rather more right to be on this floor of the palace-even before he could look up from the servant he was snarling threats of dismissal at, and cry hastily, "Lady! Lady Wizard!"
Laspeera neither replied nor slowed, and so-of course-he came hopping along in her wake.
"Lady Laspeera, I must speak with you!"
Not letting her sigh reach her tone of voice, she asked, "Must you, Lord?"
"Well, ah, yes, actually."
Laspeera turned a corner without slowing. "Then do so," she replied calmly.
"Here? In the middle of a hallway?"
"Why not, Lord? Do you find hallways somehow… tainted?"
"No, no, you misunderstand me, lady. Why, I almost fear you do so deliberately. I-it's just that the matter I must speak with you about is, ahem, regarding, ah, future actions of some delicacy involving the Lady Caladnei, and-"
"Lord Helmstone," the senior war wizard replied, "I fear discussing a marriage proposal with anyone other than the lady you wish to become attached to is less than prudent-as is considering anything at all of the sort without first acquiring the approval of your rather formidable father."
"Wha-marriage? To such as her? Lady, you wound me deeply-"
"No, Lord, not yet," Laspeera murmured, passing through an archway and rounding another corner. "Not yet."
The younger Lord Helmstone was bustling after her, still sputtering in outrage. "Lady, I protest! Nobles of the realm are not to be trifled with, not even by-"
Laspeera spun around so swiftly that he was forced to snatch at a voluptuous statuette on a pedestal to slow himself, lest he crash into her. Seeing what rondure he'd laid his hand on, he snatched his fingers away in cringing haste.
Her voice was low and calm when she spoke, but it drained the high color entirely from his face nonetheless.
"Young men of even less prudence than manners? I say again, Lord Helmstone: before you open your mouth again in the palace, seek the wise counsel of your father." The War Wizard turned on her heel, stepped through the next archway-and discovered that it was her turn to come to a swift halt.
"He did," a deep voice said, in tones as challenging as a sword-thrust, "and