The Kingless Land - Ed Greenwood [89]
Set free at last, Embra turned to face them, white to the lips, and snarled, "The same guises as in Adeln?"
Three nods gave her answer, and she dug out almost the last of the little magics from Silvertree House, in trembling hands, and set to work, touching Hawkril first-the others nodded in approval-then Craer, and then Sarasper. She fell limply against him before she could do any more, and started to slide toward the ground.
Wordlessly Hawkril extended his cloak. Sarasper and Craer wrapped the Lady of Jewels so as to conceal her face, the armaragor lifted her into his arms, and they set off toward the gates of the Glittering City.
Laughter rang off a ceiling in Castle Silvertree. "I can see through both eyes again!" Markoun Yarynd announced triumphantly to the baron, "and more than that: I've just seen, through farscrying, four folk enter Sirlptar-a tall warrior, a short man, and two others, one of them bundled up and being carried!"
Faerod Silvertree smiled. "Our little band of four fools," he purred. "Ingryl, alert my men there. It's time, and past time, for the slaughter of these three men my daughter's acquired. She'll be much more biddable when stripped of them and alone again."
"Done, Lord Baron," Ingryl murmured, turning back to his corner to work the necessary magics.
"'Twere best if the shielding and listening spells were settled on Embra before the blood of her newfound play fellows starts to flow," the baron continued silkily. "See to it, won't you, Ingryl?"
"Indeed," the greatest of his wizards replied, without turning. "Klamantle has been working hard to ensure my success in such matters."
At this barbed comment Klamantle went red, and then white. He'd thought that the mental orders he'd just magically given his own personal agents in Sirlptar-to capture the mysterious third man of the four, for questioning-were his own secret. The accursed Spellmaster must have woven some trickery into the spells that had just restored Klamantle's eyes to be able to read so much.
Fighting to make his face smooth and impassive again, he called up a mind-shielding spell, whispered its casting over the implements on his worktable, furiously wished Ingryl dead… and started to wonder just how to bring that death about.
The gate guards merely looked bored as the three men and their bundle entered; perhaps scores of women wrapped up in cloaks were carried into Sirlptar every day. All three conscious members of the Four had seen the crowded, narrow streets before. They patiently shoved their ways along the lanes, through the busy throngs of folk, in the shadows of the ever-present overhanging balconies, enduring the smells and the din. The Glittering City seemed, if possible, more crowded and frenetic than ever, with many armed men-obvious outlanders among them-shouldering through the thick press of crowds and insistently calling vendors.
Hawkril caught sight of a banner and shook his head. "Bah," he said over his shoulder, as he started to clear a road for the others with his bulk, "you'd think the master bards would choose some quieter place for their Moot."
"Castle Silvertree, for instance?" Craer murmured in arch reply, but the noises around them were so loud that Hawkril heard him not. By unspoken agreement the three were heading for one of the oldest and shabbiest houses of accommodations in Sirlptar, one that welcomed armsmen more than others: the Wavefyre Inn. To fighting-men it had the attractions of good food, reasonable prices, never being quite full, and-for those who knew-of having many side entrances and back ways out. This was the inevitable result of years of success under proprietors who disposed of easy-stolen riches by purchasing the building next door, and then the one beyond that, breaking through walls to string everything together and leaving the ground floors rented to shopkeepers.
There was, however, just one "proper" entrance. As they mounted its worn steps, Sarasper said suddenly, "I hope someone has coins enough for our stay. I've a few oddments from Silvertree House, but