Scent of Magic (25 page)

What she held was a mirror of sorts—not burnished metal as was usual, but rather clear crystal. The backing was a slip of night-sky blue. Willadene no longer watched Zuta; rather she concentrated on that scrap of mirror.

What it caught and held first was that shrunken, aged body—a body so old it might have risen lych fashion from a forgotten grave. Then—the greenish tinge about it grew stronger. She actually saw only a shadow, but what seemed like a coverlet or netting had been draped over Zuta. That was feasting—feasting!

Ssssaaa’s hissing arose to an almost deafening crescendo. What she faced, Willadene could not have put name to, but she used the only weapon she could think of—that she had prepared against the green serpent of Prince Lorien’s venture.

Holding tightly to the mirror with one hand so that its crystal was still turned to Zuta, Willadene cried out with all the force she could summon—enough to drown out the hissing.

“By the Star, for the Star, against the Dark that devours and waits, let there be light, let there be life—let there come an ending!”

Reaching forward, over the edge of the circle she touched Zuta’s contorted body. In her other hand the crystal of the mirror appeared to burst into a flame, but there was no heat within it to threaten her hold. Where the stick with its soaked rag had touched there sprang up light.

For a long moment Willadene could smell the fragrance which was part of that which answered her, something not of this world—something that evil could neither taint nor touch.

Zuta had stopped moaning. Suddenly her contorted body stretched out as if she had sought her own bed to rest. They could no longer see through the haze, but below it something liquid spread, smoking, and the flashing of the mirror, although Willadene did not move her hand, caught at that and it was gone.

They heard it go—a blast of air, of smell, of power which bent the ferns before it as it withdrew. Then for a long moment out of the time they knew they saw Zuta, Zuta in all her languorous beauty, lying at her ease. And there was peace about her. Until the haze balled together and when it was gone there was nothing left.

“What—what was it?” Mahart somehow found voice enough to ask.

“By some chance"—Willadene was seeking her own explanation, fitting one scrap of knowledge to another—“your lady lost her youth, her life energy to something—which still waits there.” She nodded toward the fern forest. “Your Grace, we seem to have fallen into a world of legend and ensorcellment which it has been said for generations does not exist.”

Mahart dropped down beside Willadene. “I am Mahart, and you are Willadene. In this strange world you speak of let there be no birth rank, for perhaps with your knowledge you are the stronger of us both. Zuta—” She found it hard to talk now. “She was my own friend for years. Yet there was a part of her, I always felt I never knew, and perhaps she had the same to say of me. That she is
in peace, Willadene, I thank you. The Star Shine grants us much, and more than that final peace we cannot ask for.”

“That you were not also such prey—” Willadene found her hands were shaking now. The rag she had tied about her stick for defense flaked away, burnt so that it was already breeze borne ahead, while the crystal of the mirror was dull and quenched.

“It—it tried. But—come—please come—there is safety here!”

Thus Willadene found herself brought into the garden. Mahart was right—the feeling of safety, of warm and loving enfolding, closed about her. But that did not mean, she was sure, that any battle had been securely won—it was only a skirmish they had survived.

Prince Lorien eyed the rugged escarpment before them now. Unlike the oddly green-veined rock of the other side of this stretch of country, they were facing normal grayish stone as might form a jutting prominence of any normal height. Yet their path had led along the rise of wall ever since they had left the ill-omened and guarded gate.

Their party had grown, as Lorien’s own men drew in to be briefed on what they faced, and with them a handful or so of border rangers who turned to Nicolas for enlightenment. The main difficulty now was the need to know the true nature of the enemy. Twice during the day they had wiped out handfuls of men—badly armed and yet ferociously determined to die if they could take with them at least one of the enemy. Some of them used weapons awkwardly, as if they were more used to the stealthy knife in the back rather than strike of sword blade on sword blade. These, Nicolas was sure, were slinkers from the city who had somehow made common cause with the few outlaws who fought frantically. Their own party took no prisoners, for the enemy refused to either surrender or be taken even when badly wounded. And Nicolas, used to
the wolf-barking cries of the outlaws, was disturbed by the utter silence in which they fought.

Now that wall they had followed all day had taken a sharp angle to the north and its rough surface promised for the first time a chance to climb. They had consulted over and over the leaves, and at last Nicolas and the Prince had agreed that they had appeared to reach a point which was marked as the end of the chart they had followed.

However, a climb in coming dark was not indicated—at least for their troop. But Nicolas considered himself free of any allegiance to the Prince’s orders and he had already paced along, spotting this handhold and that toe crevice which could be used.

Somehow he knew well that Willadene had not won to any safe place. This was the end of the second day since she had made her own reckless choice and there was nothing he could do about it—yet.

The Prince moved up beside him, his metal-reinforced glove striking against a knob of rock.

“To go alone—”

“To go alone,” Nicolas answered without turning his head to look at the Prince, “is what I am trained for, Highness. Because I know a little of these powers which Halwice and Willadene appear to be able to summon from what seed, roots, and growth, I believe that the High Lady is here. And for no good purpose. There are forces we have not seen before—”

“Against which steel is no weapon. But then, our schooling has been different, my friend. Nor are you liege man sworn to me. If it is your choice—” He hesitated. “Leave a trail—with morn’s light we shall not be far behind you.”

Nicolas’s choice of weapons were few and certainly not cumbersome. He carried his favorite long belt knife, together with a slightly smaller blade sharing a double sheath, and around his waist was a loop of tough cord,
knotted expertly here and there—a silent killer and a deadly one.

For the rest he depended upon his years of skulking, and those had never been wasted. His body, toughened as well as he could exercise muscles most men did not even guess they might possess, served him well. His side was still tender from the healing wound, but that had united well under Halwice’s tending—in fact so well he found himself believing that the Herbmistress had brought more than the lore of her trade to his aid.

Impatiently he shared the scant rations of the troop, and the dusk was near night when he began his climb. As he had hoped, the surface of the cliff was rough enough to give him good holds and he soon pulled himself over the top, his side aching a little but still able to move with his old agility.

He found a place between two spurs of rock and tried to see what now lay before him. There were stars and a rising moon tonight, and he had always had the gift of keen night sight, even as his namesake, for much of his prying and scouting had always been kept for the dark hours.

Below him was another drop into this mysteriously guarded land. However, surveying as carefully as he could he began to realize that he had not reached the top of a cliff but actually the top of a wall—designed and firmly set by sentient beings for protection.

The crag beside which he had paused was not an out-cropping but the remains of what must have been a watch-tower. So—if there had once been guards here then there must have been a way for them to come and go. Guards—ones such as the man of metal who had held the other approach? He hefted a good-sized rock in one hand and hoped that his tender side would not prevent him from making one of those well-aimed throws he had so often practiced. Then he moved out.

It was the extraordinary silence of the space below
which impressed him first—no drone of insect nor even the sound of a breeze rustling. He might be moving through a place of the long dead. But it was an excellent warning for him to make his progress as silent as possible.

Find the way down to the lower land he did. It lay in the core of the second sentry post he chanced upon—a stair which was hardly more than a ladder of sorts, and which he used with the utmost care though the narrow treads were firm enough. Then he came through an opening in that confining wall into the open of the night.

There was a wide space here, occupied by ruins. He might have dropped into a city such as Kronengred after some major destruction had struck. Here again, all was silent, though he would normally expect to hear the scuttling of night hunters, the cry of a dire hawk, the many other sounds of life.

Instead, there arose ahead of him somewhere the sound of a thin cry—such as sent his hand to knife hilt. And then that was drowned out with a rustle which grew thicker and thicker as if a giant broom were sweeping back and forth across the land ahead.

The ruins gave way. He smelled a scent of fern heavier than he had ever encountered before, and he could catch in spite of the dim light that there were indeed ferns before him but such as he had never seen elsewhere. These were as tall as well-grown trees and seemingly packed so tightly together that their territory could not be invaded.

Nor had Nicolas any wish to attempt that—at least by night. A swift glance right and left showed him that there was a space of fallen and broken rubble along the wall, and he chose to track a way through that.

He had been listening steadily for that distant wail, but it had not sounded again. Willadene— Firmly he closed his mind against fears he could do nothing now to aid and kept on his slow advance through the debris, the wall he had followed from the other side now arising again to guide him.

The swishing of the ferns died away and he was aware of his own growing fatigue. He could not keep on without rest, without a small sip at least of the flask of cordial Willadene had provided him with as restorative before they had parted.

It was easy enough to find a place into which he could wedge his body so that no one could come at him from behind or either side, facing out at the ferns. He was used to ranger’s sleep, which consisted more of short dozes and quick awakenings. Thus he established himself within what he was well aware was enemy territory—though no outlaws might prowl it this night.

But if Nicolas slept even this lightly, there was that here which had no wish for rest, for further meddling with its plans, which seethed with rage of what was already lost.

“Willadene?”

She did not feel as if she had really slept on their shared makeshift bed, but now Mahart’s hand on her wrist brought her fully awake—awake enough to feel wary, as if she faced some task she had unfortunately forgotten.

“What is it?” she asked, trying inwardly to trace the cause of that uneasiness.

Mahart sat up. The scanty rags which had given her some body protection had been exchanged for what extra clothing Willadene had brought, though there were still twigs caught in her hair and she was far from appearing the High Lady of the past.

“Do you not feel it?” There was a quaver in that question. They had talked much together since they had won back to the garden—sharing sometimes thoughts they had never believed they could reveal to another. And Willadene knew at once what she meant.

There was a change in their sanctuary. The misty light which one could hardly term day was surely not as bright. As if drawn by a cord Willadene turned toward the water basin. Mahart was already heading toward it. That ever-flowing
water lapping over its sides had stilled; there was no longer any drip from the tip of the crystal.

Yet there was no warning stench of evil. Instead, Willadene breathed deeply, to draw in not only the mingled fragrance of all which grew there but also that of another, far more subtle presence.

Mahart was staring down into the now-quiet bowl. What water remained in it was mirror bright. What did they see there? Neither girl could ever afterward describe it clearly; perhaps the evoked pictures did not even match, altered by their separate natures.

“No,” Mahart voiced in a half whisper, retreating a step back.

“We must!” Willadene answered and knew the touch of fear. For some reason this sanctuary was closing to them; there would be no turning back now.

Willadene reached out and up, daring against instinct to touch the crystal from which the water had trickled, her hand groping as it might for the clasp of a protector.

There was a ringing—a sharp flash of light—as if she had touched the root of a storm. The crystal splintered, its bits falling like hailstones into the basin. But in her fingers remained what she looked upon in amazement, for it might have come out of one of Halwice’s shop drawers—a well-rounded seedpod.

Without conscious thought she held it up between them, and that elusive scent which had tantalized her from her awakening was for a breath or two comfortingly strong.

“Star gift—” Mahart said softly. “Surely Star given.” She reached out as one greatly daring and laid fingertip to the pod. Again that whiff of strengthening fragrance. Then she looked to Willadene.

“So we must serve.” There was that in her voice as strong as any altar-given oath.

They ate, perhaps for the last time, from the bounty of the garden. Willadene shouldered the bag of remedies and they once more climbed over the dip in the wall, rounding
along it until they faced the fern forest from which Zuta had crawled.

Their coming seemed a signal—the ferns swayed apart, opened a path, however, one which would wall in any venturing there. The scent of the ferns was very strong but not enough to cover that other—the rising stench of evil. Underfoot were moss-covered blocks of what once might have been a street, and through the fern veil they saw now and then the loom of ruins.

Mahart looked back over her shoulder, closed her eyes for a moment, and then resolutely faced ahead. The fern way had closed behind them as if they moved through a pocket which adjusted itself to their faring.

So they came out of the misty green of the ferns at last into an open space. If all else here had been age bowed to ruin, this structure rising before them had endured untouched.

Three wide steps led up to a portico with roof-supporting pillars, deeply engraved in some language surely long forgotten in the outer world.

There was a single great door on the portico and from that rolled the evil stench so strong as to be almost visible. Yet what lay beyond and within lacked any light.

Willadene’s hand met Mahart’s, and both their palms closed together about the seed of the fountain.

As armswomen might march on order into battle they climbed die steps. Now the interior before them slowly developed a glow. There was a compulsion urging them forward, and still they must yield to accomplish what they came to do.

The long hall they entered might well be an audience chamber of some Prince. As the light about them brightened gems glowed, metals burned, and there were figures which still appeared blurred as if those must remain hidden from their eyes.

“Well come at last!”

She who sat on the throne near the end of that chamber
leaned a little forward. Her green robe was heavy with gems and silver lining; in fact, it seemed to weigh on her body, just as the youth she wore as a mask was beginning to crack.

“What do you wish of us, Saylana?” Mahart’s voice did not falter. They had come to a pause a little way from the chair. Willadene could see now that there was a body lying limply on the floor on either side of that chair of state, and she recognized death—but death of a new kind which was more to be feared than any sword thrust or poison cup. Yet still she held, knowing that her strength added to Mahart’s, even as Mahart’s helped to root hers.

“What do I wish of you—?” Saylana cackled. No silvery laughter this time. “Life, my sweet, life—yours—and it seems by the grace of the Dark Old Power, you have also brought with you another—this wench who has been given more than any human should rightfully have. Thus, my feasting shall be doubly sweet—” Once more she cackled and then suddenly she half turned her head as if she had heard her name called.

It was at that moment that Willadene, who had been so overwrought by the pressures on her since her awakening, remembered Ssssaaa whom she had not seen since their awakening. However, it was not the Chancellor’s creature who had attracted Saylana’s attention.

She turned back to them, grinning, showing blackened stubs of teeth.

“By Drimon, all things come to them who wait. We shall indeed have a feasting!”

Her right hand moved with a speed Willadene would not have thought possible. Out from her fingers slapped a length of green light. They did not have time to move, but at least this horror was not intended to really bring them down now. Instead, it formed a hoop which grew larger and larger in diameter as it whirled up into the air and then came down to ring them about, while Saylana
nodded and grinned. Both girls could understand that for this moment she considered them safely captive.

Nicolas roused before the first streaks of dawn light cut the sky. And he roused alertly as one battle ready, for he well knew that pinch of awareness which had so often saved him in the past, the premonition that danger waited ahead. He already had knife in hand when that dark line of fur came flowing fluidly among the tumbled debris to leap for him.

“Ssssaaa!” He stroked that head which butted against his chin. He never knew where Vazul had found the creature or how the Chancellor had bonded with her. But her utter faithfulness to those she selected—and such were very few—as well as her service to Vazul Nicolas had understood from their first meeting.

However, now Ssssaaa preceded others by only a few minutes, long enough for Nicolas to leave his improvised shelter. It was no surprise that Lorien led the short file of men along the same general trail he had taken. But the company was a small one, some half dozen of the Prince’s own men and three of the rangers. Catching sight of Nicolas, he joined him quickly.

“There is some power,” he burst forth, “which I do not understand. We began the climb, only these—” he waved at his followers “—could make it. The others were as bound when they tried. If this is Ishbi then we deal with old evil awakened.”

“We deal with those who have the High Lady,” Nicolas returned grimly, and then in a slightly different tone of voice, “also Willadene—”

“But she chose—” the Prince began, and Nicolas laughed grimly.

“Your Highness, no man controls such a woman. She has that in her to make her stand free and go the path she has chosen as rightfully hers. Look you"—he stroked Ssssaaa’s head—"here is one to tell us so. And what she
seeks lies there"—he nodded toward the stands of fern, scowling, as it seemed to him the very air was rotten with their heavy scent.

Making himself head boldly for that green growing wall was one of the hardest things Nicolas believed he had ever done. Yet there was no visible peril ahead. Only those cursed ferns and beyond them—somewhere—the two girls. For he was oath-certain that Willadene had somehow reached Mahart.

“Lord—down with you!”

That shout had come from one of the men slightly behind. The Prince took cover no more quickly than Nicolas, who was berating himself that another had picked up the danger he had not seen.

Over their heads, as they pulled themselves among the scant protection of the crumbling walls, an arrow sang. But that had not been aimed in their direction, rather from behind, flying toward some mark among the ferns.

For a long moment there was utter silence—no foot stumbled among the scattered stones. The ferns stood tall and untouched by any breeze.

Nicolas put out his hand and touched Lorien’s forearm, nodding toward the wood. He did not doubt that the Prince had indeed a goodly store of woodlore, but this land was his own running place and he was sure no one could put its every advantage to use.

Lorien stared at him fiercely, and Nicolas was sure that the Prince had no wish to surrender any scouting to him. Yet finally Lorien nodded and Nicolas swung to the left, making a bellywise crawl toward the nearest spur of the forest. He tried to shut down all thought, to concentrate only on what he must do. Let Prince Lorien advance as he pleased, he would find Nicolas before him.

He had half expected to be met by a cloud of those tormenting midges which hung thick about normal forests, but there was nothing here. Only—

He flattened himself to the ground, peering through the
fingers he held up to shield his face. His black night-fitting suit had been so well grimed that it was the color of the stones about and he could play one of those rocks with ease.

What he was watching was a man or else a body which had slipped down, half supported by the ferns around. The arrow? No, there was no sign of any shaft—still he was certain the man was dead.

Had that stranger been alone—a solitary guard such as the mailed figure at the first valley entrance? This one wore no armor, and he was curiously drawn together, his knees up to his thin chest, as if he had been huddling hopelessly, waiting to be brought down.

No sounds—just that bundle lying there. But they must learn who or what had killed him or they themsleves could go the same route. Nicolas crept on, the cursed fern scent almost stifling about him.

But—he knew this victim! Not for nothing had he himself prowled the nightways and hidden places of Kronengred as well as the open lands beyond the city. The contorted face, expressing both fear and horror intermingled, he had last seen in the city. Willadene had spoken of him—Figis—a bit of refuse washed up by the plague, kinless and masterless— No! The fellow had been with Wyche when Nicolas had last caught a glimpse of the youth. And as far as they had been able to discover Wyche had disappeared out of Kronengred on the same night the High Lady had been abducted.

Where there had been one man there well might be two. Ssssaaa flashed past Nicolas to the body, sniffed, hissed, and was back again. A promise of no danger here?

However, caution had been too deeply bred into him for him to reveal himself more than he possibly had to. The longer he stared at the dead man’s face the more he was aware of a strangeness. Figis had died in great terror, of that Nicolas was sure, but he still could not see either the sign of a wound or of spilled blood.

And the Figis he had seen before had been young, carrying several years fewer than his own. But in spite of the print of fear on that face there were other marks—deep-set wrinkles on either side of the nose, a shrinking about the mouth. And surely he had had a full head of hair then, much more than the scattered locks now covering part of his head. This was Figis, to that Nicolas would swear, but it was a Figis upon whom age had settled in a matter of a few days.

Ssssaaa was weaving a path back and forth before him as if to urge him on. And one of those swings gave him a glimpse of another figure farther beyond. Nicolas froze. He could not control Ssssaaa as the Chancellor was able to, and she now changed course, heading toward that other shadowy blot. With all the precautions he could summon, Nicolas again followed.

It was Wyche this time, caught among the trunks of the ferns. The huge bag of the man’s paunch and body were shrunken—he could have been a famine victim. Even as Figis, he too wore a look of terror. Death had come hard to Wyche, and perhaps not swiftly.

Both men were clearly dead and their killer or killers made this territory theirs. If Prince Lorien were to come marching in unknowingly he would find no familiar outlaw den but a peril they could neither understand nor foresee.

Yet—Willadene and the High Lady—or were those two already reduced to such papery shells as that which confronted him now? He could always remember the bite of anger, but he had learned early to make it serve his purpose and not lead him to open and unthinking action.

Nicolas returned as quickly as he could and squatted down with Prince Lorien and the squad leader. The thought of a death which could suck a man dry was not encouraging, and he could see the shadows of doubt on the faces before him.

Ssssaaa had followed him back and now gained his shoulder. As she so often did with the Chancellor she
placed her sharp muzzle close to his ear and began a hissing near as low as a whistle. He was trying to guess what message she brought when Prince Lorien spoke.

“We have already discovered something also, Bat. I alone can advance without danger to the edge of the forest; none of these others can.”

“What hinders them?” Nicolas found this new item difficult to fit in with what he had seen—that the fern forest had been clearly penetrated.