Emperor Mage (10 page)

"Mammoths,"
Lindhall told her. "The world used to be much colder, as I'm sure Numair
has taught you. In those days, elephants needed fur."

"I
don't understand. Were these alive once? How are they here, in their skins? Are
they in a magical sleep?"

"They
were brought from ice fields in the distant south," explained the mage.
"They froze to death, and the ice preserved them until we could work the
spells to keep them as they are. I use \ue in a general sense, since they were
found a century to two centuries ago."

Daine
stared at the great animals. "You have such wonders here. I almost wish I
could stay longer and see them all."

"I
noticed you said almost. I can't say that I blame you, though I wish that were
not the case. I have a feeling we could learn as much from you as you might
learn from us."

Daine
laughed at that. "I doubt it, Master Lindhall. I'm just a girl with wild
magic, when all s said and done. When I leave in six days, Carthak wont even
remember I was here."

Lindhall
smiled. "But / will remember, and so will the emperor's birds,"

"I
couldn't ask for more," she said with a grin.

Nightfall
saw her in a lilac muslin dress and the long, sleeveless surcoat that had just
come into fashion in the north. Hers was gold silk, as frail as a butterfly's
wing, with a beaded hem to make it hang properly. The outfit made her nervous.
She was sure that at any moment she would step on the hem and rip it out.

She and
the adults were in a reception room with floors tiled in squares of night-blue
lapis lazuli and white marble. The talks were over for the day. While the
guests sipped fruit juices and nibbled delicacies, Daine waited for Numair to
finish a conversation with the ambassador from Galla. At last that gentleman
bowed to him, and wandered off.

Turning,
Numair smiled. "You're becoming a young lady." He brushed a curl from
her cheek. "If I'm not careful, you'll be grown and married to a deserving
fellow before I realize it."

She
ignored this as being too silly for comment. "When can we talk?" she
demanded. "You've got to find a way, somehow. It may be fair
important."

It may
be ?

"I
don't know. I'm not sure." She thought for a moment and decided she had to
take a chance and give him some clue as to what she wanted. "I spoke to
the badger yesterday."

That
startled him. "Where?"

"Aboard
ship. In my cabin. He was"-—she groped for a phrase—"not himself?'

Long
brows drew together. "Not—" The doors swung open. "Very
well—I'll try to develop some opportunity," he said quickly. "They've
scheduled these meetings so tightly we barely have time to scratch, let alone
talk,"

The
group of people surged forward, taking them with it. In the banquet haU the
emperor waited beside a long, low railing made of gold. Behind it large, open
windows gave a view of the sky and a small lake, Ozorne was as splendid as on
the night before, although his theme now was silver, from the beads on his hair
to the paint on his eyelids. His long underrobe was silver cloth. Over it he
wore a black velvet drape like a cloak that covered his back to the knees and
left one shoulder bare. Strings of flashing opals linked the free end of the
drape to his wrist. He blazed with gems at fingers and toes. Silver armlets
like giant snakes wound about his wrists.

Now,
through the windows, two Stormwings dropped in to perch on the gold bar. One
was an older male with a pinkish-gray face, tight lips, and small brown eyes.
He wore a black iron crown on thinning dark hair. The younger male was
green-eyed and lean-faced. He wore bones braided into his long blond hair.
While Ozorne and the crowned male spoke privately, the younger one shifted from
foot to foot, clearly not pleased to be there.

Numair
frowned "Daine, isn't that—from Dunlath?"

"None
other," she said. The last time she had seen the green-eyed Stormwing, he
had been in her bow sight. "How nice for us all We can have a
reunion."

CHAPTER FOUR

STRANGE CONVERSATIONS

 
Ozorne beckoned everyone forward.
"Honored guests, we present King Jokhun Foulreek, our ally from the Stone
Tree nation of Stormwings, and his vassal, Lord Rikash Moonsword. They will
join us" He didn't seem to care whether or not his guests wished to meet
Stormwings. Coolly he presented each of them to the immortals by name. Duke
Gareth, bowing to them in greeting, caught a faceful of Stormwing odor and
coughed,

Daine
watched the immortals as the introductions unfolded. Jokhun stared at those
being presented, not bothering to speak to them. The only time he showed
emotion was when he saw Kitten: he frowned, and murmured to his companion.
Rikash glanced over. Seeing Kitten, he found Daine and scowled.

"His
face will freeze like that if he isn't careful," muttered Daine, shifting
Zek from the crook of her arm to her shoulder. In Dunlath a year ago, Rikash
had acted for Ozorne in the plot to overthrow King Jonathan, and had lost to
Daine and Numair.

They
were the last of the group to be presented to the immortals. Jokhun paid them
no more attention than he might a fly on the wall, but Rikash bated her.
"We've met," he said coldly.

"Moonsword?"
She had never known his last name. "That's very pretty."

The
Stormwing grimaced. "My ancestors were a sentimental lot. I know you, too,
mage," he told Numair. "I remember the onion bomb you threw at me.

Ozorne
smiled, "Lord Rikash, did you not say the wild animals of Dunlath behaved
oddly?"

"I
certainly did," the Stormwing replied.

"You
have Daine to thank," said the emperor. "She is bonded to animals through
wild magic."

The
look on Rikash s face was one of mixed rage, chagrin, and laughter. King Jokhun
turned watery eyes on Daine. "Some day we must meet less formally—when you
are not protected by your host." There was an annoying hint of a whine in
the king's nasal voice. "We will discuss a number of Stormwing deaths that
are laid to your account."

"Anytime,"
Daine told him, smiling as sweetly as she could.

Numair
bowed and nudged her to do the same. Once they were away from the emperor and
the immortals, he murmured, "This visit gets better all the time, doesn't
it?"

Daine
nodded. She wasn't sure how she felt about seeing Rikash again. He was a
Stormwing, a race of immortals she hated, but personally he hadn't seemed to be
such a bad sort.

"
There you are." Varice, in a red satin gown that fitted like her skin,
took charge of them. Numair she guided to the very end of the head table, far
to Ozorne's right. The only seat next to his was the one she would occupy
herself. Daine, feeling cross, realized immediately that the woman had arranged
things so that she would have Numair to herself.

With
Numair seated, Varice led Daine to the opposite end of the main board, where
Prince Kaddar waited. Daine curtsied slightly, pleased by the elegant sigh of
her skirts, and once more silently thanked the queen for her wardrobe. She
never could have faced these elegant people in the clothes

she
normally dressed up in—A blue wool gown for winter, and a pink cotton for
summer. Even in these garments, she couldn't hope to match the prince. He was
as finely dressed as he had been on the ship, in a calf-length robe of fine
wool tinted a delicate aquamarine, and a shoulder drape of white silk shot
through with gold threads. He glittered with jewels; against his dark face, his
eyes could easily have been black gems, for all the emotion they showed as he
bowed her to her seat.

"You'll
be fine with His Highness," Varice told Daine, and left them there.

Kitten,
unnoticed by Varice, sat up on her hindquarters and chirped, drawing a smile
from the prince. "I don't know if your food will be very good for
her," he admitted.

"She
eats anything," Daine replied. "Trust me." Kaddar lifted a hand,
and a male slave appeared by his elbow. An exchange of whispers resulted in a
stool being produced for Kitten. Discovering that she could see over the table
if she sat on it, she cheeped and whistled softly.

"She's
thanking you," explained the girL "And so do I. It was a nice thing
for you to do."

A smile
tugged at Kaddar's mouth. "I read that dragons are curious about
everything."

Daine
nodded. "They understand as much as two-leggers. More, because they know
the speech of animals as well as human tongues. I can't speak dragon, but if
she wants me to understand her, she makes her meaning clear."

Ozorne
clapped his hands. Slaves began to move in streams, bringing dishes to the
diners so that they could select what they wanted. Female slaves, wearing
loincloths and nothing else, went from guest to guest, filling wine goblets.

For
Daine and Kaddar, the dragon was clearly a safe topic of conversation. Her
wariness of him began to fade when she found he asked intelligent questions,
and listened to her answers. The moment he felt his friend relax, Zek popped
out of the sleeve where he'd been hiding and climbed onto Daine s shoulder. For
a moment the prince struggled with well-bred dismay, then suddenly grinned, for
the first time looking like a young man not much older than she was.

"Anyone
else?" he asked. "A sparrow in your pocket? A snake as your
belt?"

Daine
blushed and looked down. "No one else. Zek just doesn't like to be parted
from me. I think he's so relieved to be in my care that he doesn't want to let
me out of his sight."

"Understandably,"
replied Kaddar, stretching a hand out to the marmoset. Zek observed his fingers
with the same grave air as he did everything, then climbed on. With that, the
ice was broken between prince and guest. They talked about a number of
subjects, comparing stories of their lives. The only awkward moment came when a
slave arrived with the meat course: antelope steaks.

Daine
swallowed hard. She had managed skewers of roast duck and peppers, smoked
salmon and herring, and tarts filled with cheese and ham. She had even tried
snails in garlic butter. At the risk of giving offense, she could not eat this.
Worse, she knew Kaddar was bound by social custom to eat only the things she
did. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I can't."

Kaddar
frowned. "Please? They're my favorite."

Her
cheeks were hot. "Look—don't mind me. You go ahead."

"It
would be churlish of me to eat something that causes you distress." Kaddar
sighed and shook his head at the slave, who removed the offending dish.
"At least tell me why."

Daine
rubbed her face tiredly. "What do you know about me? About what I can
do?"

"Well,
you heal animals, and talk to them inside your head, and they do your
bidding.**

"You
wont like that,*' Daine told Zek, who was investigating a small dish of hot
peppers. To Kaddar she said, "I ask them to do things, most of the time. I
don't like to order them around. Would your friends like it if you always told
them what to do?*'

Thin
lips twitched, "Point taken. So you ask them to do things and you talk to
them and heal."

"I
can also be them. I learned how to shape-shift a year ago. My first mistake was
when I thought I'd try deer shape, one day last winter. See, I didn't know the
royal huntsmen would be out, looking for some game—

"I
think I can see where this is going" He watched her with interest, leaning
his cheek on one hand. "So you can't eat deer—"

"Last
spring we were rounding up killer unicorns, and bandits cornered me. I'd gotten
separated from Numair and panicked. I changed into a wild goose."
Remembering, she sighed.