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IN HIS SUBSEQUENT account of the a to the Duke just what he and his ht He said only that they had been returning froreat courtesy, did not ask further Rhion wasn&039;t sure how much either Tally or her sister had confided in their father; but, reuessed it hadn&039;t been ravely, his face crossed by the swift, purposeful shadows in the guest rooht, his physician - a perfectly orthodox, black-robed little representative of Alucca, God of Healing - removed the arrowhead from Jaldis&039; shoulder, and an assistant bound up Rhion&039;s slashed arht have wanted to slay you?" If he did not, Rhion reflected, use the word "murder" - since technically it was not murder to kill a wizard - at least the word he did use was one that applied equally to uest roo to consciousness, white hair spread out over the pillow and voice-box lying under one frail hand Though too weak to use it, he had refused to be parted fro either it or his spectacles, h strength to create replacees, his naked flesh looked alainst knobby bones like dah the tall ere open upon a sarden court, the room, airy and small, smelled of herbed steaiven to counteract the effects of the foxglove he had smelled on the arrowhead, odors which did not quitein his chair of silvered poplar wood The young Captain stepped over from the door where he&039;d stood "Send soe, and Malnuthe the Black - that Ebiatic who lives in the Shambles - and May the Bone-Thrower down in the Kairnside shanties, and let them knohat happened It&039;s frequently the case," he added to Rhion, as the young soldier departed on his errand in a dramatic swirl of crimson cloak, "that when people take it into their heads to hly the sa to make a sweep of it, you know It&039;s happened before, I&039;m sorry to say"
Rhion nodded In their firstfrom another Morkensik wizard in the town that ahad coiven the hadn&039;t contacted either the local Hand-Pricker or the Earth-witch who operated in the same quarter
"Believecame to pass in my real as they use their powers for good and as long as they don&039;t interfere with other ht to live and study free of interference"
Rhion scratched at a corner of his beard "I&039;d be lying if I said I didn&039;t agree with you"
The Duke&039;s eyes twinkled appreciatively "You may have heard that I&039;m a scholar," he said "Or a dilettante, at any rate, who&039;d like to be a scholar and who can now afford to surround himself with scholars"
"No," Rhion said quietly "No - &039;scholar,&039; unqualified, was the word I heard used, actually"
And to his surprise the Duke blushed with pleasure "Well, whether it&039;s true or not it&039;s good of you to say so" He wore a dandy&039;s elaborately ribboned doublet and a broad necklace of gold work and rubies that must have cost the price of a ser and short sword - were by a slance, a man whose fame stemmed not from ornah to know that learning, and the structure of the universe, rather than spells and cantrips, is the true study of wizards, and I also know that a man would be a fool to pass up the chance to taste a little of that knowledge If any person threatens you again, or you have cause to believe yourself in danger - or if you learn who is responsible for the attack upon you tonight - let me know, and believe ain He had his own suspicions about who had been responsible for the attack, but it would hardly do to suggest to the hter had hired assassins in order to prevent blacket her errant husband to sleep with her - particularly if the father was the one who&039;d selected the husband in the first place And besides, as he had told Tallisett, like physicians, the Morkensiks were sworn to secrecy by their vows
So Rhion contented hi carried home in a couple of sedan chairs by the Duke&039;s slaves, escorted by Marc of Erralswan and a handful of guards
By the tiot to Shuttlefly Court, it was close to dawn Most of the prostitutes who hung around the Baths of Mhorvianne on Thione, and the mazes of little courts that made up the Old Toere silent and dark Rhion followed Marc and the two guards who supported Jaldis up the rough ladder to the upper floor and made sure the old man was comfortable in his bed He had a, though he could tell the then the heart and cleanse the blood were sound Jaldis already seeh far too ill to speak
He hiue and the chilled aftermath of shock as he descended once more to the stuffy darkness of the kitchen to see his escort to the door His arm hurt damnably, and the remains of the poultice they&039;d put on the back of his neck where the arrow barbs had cut stung as if they&039;d laid a burning iron in the flesh As the bearer slaves - eight big, strappingup the litter poles to go and the guards were exchanging a few final rehbors who happened to be co home from work at that hour, Marc of Erralswan paused in the patchy, dust-s down to Rhion, whispered, "The Duke irl at Court, one of the Duchess&039; waiting maids I realize you&039;re probably tired now, but if I ca do you ht Rhion laughed, with genuine aed by exhausted hysteria, all the way back up the stairs
The Duke was as good as his word Aday, his stiff politeness speaking volumes for his personal opinion of those hisafter Jaldis&039; health and asking hi week, so that the Duke norance of his subjects "And ht demonstrate his protection, to anyone who is interested, while he&039;s about it," Jaldis h to sit up in bed, his shoulder bandaged and a sheet over his knees
"Well," Rhion commented, perched tailor-fashion on the other bed with the remains of his master&039;s breakfast tray, "he also sent this" He bounced in his hand the sled with the comfortable sweetness characteristic of the nobler et yourself a new robe I wonder e didn&039;t think of hiring assassins to beat us up before?"
"Possibly," his ly, "because in ers, once they kneho and ere, would have been likelier to participate in the fray on the side of the assassins"
The dinner was an intimate one, the company comprised of the Duke, his pale, fair-haired Duchess and one of her ladies, Ranley the physician who, like his enuinely interested in the s of the visible world, Tallisett, and Syron, the Duke&039;s thirteen-year-old son and heir "You hter and her husband," his Grace said, seating Jaldis on the spindle-legged chair at his side and hi the supper crown of red anemones on his brow "Her husband, ht, and she has remained with him in his rooms to bear him company"
"And on the whole," Tally murmured as she passed behind Rhion on her way to her own seat beside her brother, "that&039;s probably just as well"
Musicians played through supper, preceding each course with a trilling fanfare; afterward the talk went late The Duchess, who despite her gracious efforts to seeun to wear the frozen-faced expression that co yawns before the fish course was finished, departed with her lady and her son as soon as the slaves had carried out the finger bowls on the heels of the last sorbets "My poor darling" The Duke smiled, when the crimson door curtains had fallen softly shut after them and the pad of their slippered feet had faded on the white honeycomb of the hallway tiles "She is an educated woman and not at all prejudiced, but her tastes run very much to poetry and political philosophy, not to the mathematics of planetary movement or variations in the forms of snails and fish And Syron, of course, isn&039;t interested in anything he can&039;t either ride or e it&039;s natural; all I can do is try to teach him, if not my interest in, at least my tolerance for powers and abilities he can not himself possess"
"Oh, I don&039;t know," Rhion said He&039;d had a long discussion with the boy on the subject of the general irksouised astonishment that a wizard&039;s apprentice had ever been subjected to anything so mundane "He did askto drive away fleas, so it shows he&039;s thinking"
"Is it?" Tally asked curiously "Possible, Icruel in the summer"
"Of course," Rhion said, "The problem is that for the spell to lastand write the runes on its skin, and even then they don&039;t work for s!" Tally laughed, evidently picturing her own red and gold bird-hunters naked and crisscrossed withforward as a slave entered with brazier, grinder, and pot, and the roouorous scent of coffee "I mean, how does a spell like that work and why can&039;t it be made to work indefinitely?"
And while the Duke himself poured out the aromatic liquid into tiny cups, and Jaldis explained the proble was actually made of copper, Rhion&039;s eyes met Tally&039;s across the table in an unspoken comment on the Duke&039;s cook&039;s coffee, and they both had to look aside to keep fro
After that, Jaldis was asked to dine at the palace fairly frequently - as often, Rhion guessed, as the Duke was not required to entertain nobles who ht have objected to the presence of wizards at his board or members of the various priesthoods who most certainly would have done so A noblees frequently ca the wizards&039; powers to oppress his subjects or spy upon his neighbors, just as a business wizardry to ruin his rivals, or a shopkeeper, to cheat his customers And the Duke, tolerant man that he as still a usurper, a e lord, no e had overned He had to be careful what people said
But in private, he did not conceal his interest in Jaldis&039; coe blossoenuine friendship as the suer did not arrive at Shuttlefly Court with a gift: food froae fruits of the south; coffee; so of talisratitude for this, on the last night of April, the night of Summerfire, Jaldis did what he had not done since he&039;d been court reed to use his
To Rhion&039;s surprise and delight, Jaldis abruptly taught him a whole new series of spells of whose very existence he had previously been ignorant, and together the two of the a powder of nitre, crushed herbs, pulverized bone, and silver, which the servants of the Duke then dusted over every tree and shrub in the palace&039;s garden
"What&039;ll it do?" Tally asked, pacing at Rhion&039;s side down the graveled path that skirted one of the garden&039;s canals
Rhion laughed Morning sunlight filtered war lime trees; the small lawns that lay between copses ofanddew Tally had offered to guide hirotto that arden&039;s farthest corner, and on all sides they were surrounded by the bustle of the upcoarlands around the cornices of the little gazebos and shrines, pulling the ubiquitous, spiky leaves of dandelions fro theup tables for buffets or platforruntled air and suspicious care - were dusting the faintlypowder over rosebush, laurel, and linden tree that s of the shaded paths
"Theoretically," he said, "it&039;ll glow It&039;s one of those silly, useless spells that so only a court wizard out to delight the heart of his patron would think up in the first place I&039;ll show you"
Tally led the way down a twisting path that turned frorove and around the side of an artificial hill croith gum trees A tiny pavilion had been built out of one of the hill&039;s sides, its domed roof half-covered withcurtains of flowering vine Doves fluttered, cooing, from beneath the eaves as they entered, and far in the back, where the ave way to rock, cool even in the summer heat, a fountain whispered its secrets to the dark
On a bench of green porphyry and bronze that stood near the fountain&039;s ri, and took fro slips of beaten silver inscribed with traced runes; three milky lumps of rose quartz the size of his thulass in which, capped with red wax, tiny rolls of parchment and learner could be seen
"This," he said, "is a talisot it assembled" He knelt beside the bench, and Tally sat on the fountain&039;s ri her hair hang down in a big sloppy fawn-colored braid, like a child&039;s
"After the feast," Rhion went on, "your father&039;s going to announce the oes outside, to find the terrace dark The maskers are assembled just below the terrace steps, and under the terrace itself, in that huge roo the winter, is Jaldis, weaving a spell - and it&039;s not a very complicated one - that will low in the dark"
His hands worked while he spoke, quickly weaving the thin strap work of ensorcelled metal into the proper patterns around the quartz He paused, taking off his spectacles to concentrate, histhe runes, the constellations of power his rave interest For a ti of the fountain; even the stirring in the th Rhion went on "The trumpeters strike up a fanfare, which I&039;ll be able to hear even this far from the terrace Jaldis speaks the word of power, I set the talismanic resonator into life, the resonator creates a field frolow all night And everyone goes ho how clever your father is"
Tally leaned across to pick up and exa the little talisers "Why the resonator? I mean, couldn&039;t Jaldis just put a spell on the powder?"
"He could, but it wouldn&039;t cover anywhere near all the garden, and it probably wouldn&039;t last all night A talismanic resonator expands the area covered by a specific spell, and can be used to lengthen its effects as well, provided it&039;s got taliss" He took the crystal tube froestured to the other talislass and crystal, but little round discs of bone bound in gold, or slips of carved ashwood inscribed with sigils of power
"Resonators," Rhion continued, "draw one hell of a lot of power to keep up a field, even for a piddling little spell like this one" He sketched a small circle of power in silvered chalk on the flat top of the bench, closing in the strange little tangle of silver and stone "That&039;s why it isn&039;t practical politics, for instance, to keep a building illu all night - with one"
"Oh," Tally said, disappointed "Pooh And I thought I&039;d just devised a new source of illumination"
"It&039;s been tried Also, with soet pockets in the field In a house, for instance, illuet places where soet lost, for no reason at all, on the kitchen stairway or on the way down the hall; or places where everyone would get furiously angry at nothing; or drop and break everything they touched Or the pocket ht draw every ant in the city to it or every streetwalker You never know" He set the talismans around the initial circle of power, and was silent for a tireater spell
"Why is that?" Tally asked, when he straightened up again
He readjusted his spectacles "No one really knows My guess - and Jaldis&039; theory - is that it&039;s because of the impurities in the materials A wizard&039;s always at the nifies even the shtest traces of copper or lead in silver Which is the reason wizards have to ith as pure materials as possible"
"Is that the story, then?" a thin, rather cold voice queried fro up, Rhion saw the sliht
He had enmeres two or three ti er, always exquisitely garbed in the height of fashion, with the coldest gray eyes he had ever seen
Rhion&039;s feelings about hi horetched Esrex had made Tally over the previous winter, he had been inclined to dislike him, but sensed in him also the conflict of pride and his desire for his eneuilt at having been instru that pride - probably all that Esrex had left
The sympathy hadn&039;t survived their initial encounter Esrex, coldly handso to betray hi but an i contempt, and Rhion had observed that he treated the palace slaves - and such lesser es were not equal to his - in the same fashion Rhion had been a little curious, up to that tion, but guessed that it, too, was merely a tool
Esrex stood noith his arm possessively around the waist of the pluown and s, only eyed Rhion warily from the pillared porch Rhion wondered whether it was because she guessed that he ht have been the wizard who had woven the love-philter - if the assassins hadn&039;t lied and said they&039;d accoot too close to a nizable - his voice almost certainly would be, if she were at all observant
In any case her bulging eyes followed her young husband apprehensively as he descended the shallow rock-cut steps into the grotto, stepping daintily in his e, curled toes
He stopped before the bench, and stood looking down at the resonator in contempt "Pure silver," he commented
"I&039;d appreciate it if you didn&039;t touch it," Rhion said politely, standing up and regarding the young dandy with a wary eye "Once the spells are in place, if the circles are crossed or broken the whole thing has to be done again"