Tyrant Trouble (Mudflat Magic) (12 page)

And
somehow makes you invisible to the rest of the world, I thought. “So when you
saw me, you didn't know where I came from but you decided to let me live. Did
you think I came from the gods?”

“Not
that,” he said softly. “I saw you were unarmed and you looked so very fragile
and it seemed to me it would be a terrible thing to harm you.”

The
day had been long and stressful. I had faced the intense questioning of Kovat
the Slayer, not to mention the hysteria of my roommate and the scrutiny of one
too many strangers. Now I was faced with this silly boy who was as bored and
lonely as was his cousin. They both regarded me as entertainment.

“If
you thought that,” I said, holding out my hands and ticking off points on my
fingers, “when you first ordered me to turn around, then took my knife, than
tossed me on a horse, then paraded me in front of your soldiers as your newest
capture, why did you also think the manners of a perfect host included
requiring me to sleep with a sword blade across my throat?”

It
was a long speech and his eyes grew steadily wider. Now it was me who couldn't
seem to shut up. I needed to find a way to even the score between us, and at
the same time, I didn't know what game we were playing.

“Don't
be angry, Stargazer. That's what I am trying to tell you. I want to help you. I
want to protect you.”

“Protect
me? You threatened to make me a slave.”

Was
I supposed to tell him how wonderful he was, that I forgave him for capturing
me and he had no reason to feel guilty? I would do that when he took me back to
the edge of the woods and helped me find the way out. And why did I think that
would not happen soon?

I
said, “So, I know who you are and you know who I am and neither of us really
knows anything at all about the other. It isn't as though we are friends. And I
am sure you trust me as little as I trust you.”

He
stood staring at me, his mouth open, the tip of his tongue touching his upper
lip. He stood there so long, I worried I would never get any sleep that night.

Then
he did that exit thing that left me sputtering speechless. He said, “It isn't
as though we are enemies.” He walked to the gate, opened it, and just before he
pulled it closed he added, “And I do trust you.”

Good
thing one of us trusted me. The more I worked on my charts, the more I doubted
Kovat would be impressed.

CHAPTER
7

Could
have used a wrist watch, but I’d forgotten that right along with a compass. So
I was stuck keeping time by the position of the sun.

When
the sun rose halfway towards the midpoint Kovat the Slayer began his
treacherous game, pitting my astrology against the tricks of the magician.

His
fur-draped chair on its platform was now placed at the center of the dusty
castle courtyard. Tarvik stood slightly behind the chair. The castle dog
lounged to one side, still looking as sleepy and disinterested as it had the
previous night. If it was a watch dog, I had yet to see it actually watch
anything. It glanced briefly at us when we entered, then settled back into a
motionless heap of rather patchy fur and closed eyes.

Nance
and I faced Kovat. In the morning shadow by the wall I saw the magician of Thunder,
a sinewy old man in a ragged cloak, with white hair straggling down across his
chin. Nance had told me the eyes of the magicians contained evil powers
believed to cast spells on one's mind. Did these magicians practice hypnosis? I
kept my gaze on Kovat, on his son, on the ground, anywhere else at all.

When
the magician and I stood in front of Kovat, he said, “I will ask questions of
you both, questions to which none but I know the answer. Prepare whatever it is
you do.”

With
a smug smile twisting his mouth, Kovat relaxed back into his chair. He wore a
sleeveless leather tunic held together with dark brown laces that crisscrossed
the deep scars on his chest. His boots were fur. His arms were covered with
gold bands and over his shoulder draped a fur cape.

Through
half-closed eyes he watched us as though he expected us to put on a fancy
performance.

Unfortunately
for me, I had no such tricks to offer. However, when Nance told me we would be
outside to allow the magician to build a fire, I knew charcoal wouldn't work.
Besides, getting down to draw on the floor was a disadvantage, I mean, how
impressive would I look on my hands and knees, my butt in the air?

With
a long pointed stick that I'd brought with me, I remained standing and drew in
the bare earth the chart for the time of Kovat's birth, with the sun and Aries
at the midheaven and the slower planets in their locations for that day twenty
days past the Equinox thirty-nine years ago come next spring. Saturn was in
Kovat's House of Destiny with a negative aspect to Neptune in the House of
Death. Uranus was in the House of Love, unaffected by aspects.

Jupiter
ruled Kovat's wealth in Tarvik's constellation. I didn't know the exact degree
but it was clear that Kovat valued his son above all else. Okay, I didn't have
to worry about Tarvik at his father's hands. Unfortunately, there was no such
assurance for Nance or myself. Beyond that, Kovat's was the horoscope of a man
who chose his own fate rather than fate choosing him.

While
I worked silently, the magician muttered and coughed and fumbled with a pile of
twigs, building a small, smoky fire a short space away from my circle.

Ignoring
him, I reached into my pocket and the pebbles that I had painted with Nance's
make-up, each a color to match a planet, yellow for Mercury, white for Venus,
red for Mars, blue for Jupiter, green for Saturn, speckled for Uranus and
lavender for Neptune. I had also dug out a penny and a dime from the bottom of
my backpack. Why not a penny sun? Without proper writing implements, it worked
for me. Maybe believers wouldn't think it appropriate that the lowest value
coin represented their Sun god, but they weren't going to be told the value of
a penny.

I
had to crouch down to arrange the stones and coins outside of Kovat's chart,
where they represented the placement of the planets in the sky at the exact
time on this day. I managed to crouch without falling over, and the long robe
kind of added class. Then I straightened and looked up at the man.

Okay,
I was missing Merc, Venus, Mars and the moon inside the circle of his
horoscope, but I knew where they were today.

When
I stepped back from the chart, Kovat growled, “What is that you have drawn?”

“Your
horoscope.”

“My
what?”

Right.
“Your magic circle. The inner circle shows the placement of the stars at the
hour of your birth. The pebbles outside the circle show the placement of the
stars now.”

I
didn't bother with the word planets. To him they were all stars, and I was
trying to convince him that one, he was wise, and two, I was knowledgeable.

He
leaned forward in his chair and peered first at my circle and then at the
magician's fire.

“Well
enough. Tell me this, magician, if you can. How did I get this scar below my
knee?”

Questions
about battles and conquests had all occurred to me, because I've gone to way
too many swashbuckler films, but I gotta confess, I never once considered the
possibility of a question about Kovat's knee. I hoped he would not expect us to
identify every scar, as his arms and legs were covered with them and as for his
face, couldn't guess how it had started out. If the chill that stiffened my
spine also touched the magician, he did not let it cause his voice to falter.

“Tell
us, oh god of Thunder,” he chanted, while reaching into the folds of his long
tunic, “of the injury to the knee of mighty Kovat.” From between his fingers he
dropped yellow dust that hissed at the fire's edge and sent up a sudden,
evil-smelling yellow cloud. Peering into the cloud as though it were a scroll
to be read, he muttered, “The knee of mighty Kovat, ruler of rulers, overlord
of all the lands, I see there the scar and a sword and a great battle, oh
Kovat.”

The
corners of Kovat's mouth remained curled. “And you, Stargazer?”

Was
the old man right? Any fool would guess a scar on Kovat was the result of
battle. Was that why he asked, to lead us into a trap?

I
said, “The stars move in patterns across the sky. They show our fates. Their
meaning is different for each person. To even begin to guess at the cause of
your injury, I need to know the day on which it occurred.”

His
laugh was uglier than his smile. “Very cleverly said, Stargazer. I think I will
not waste a childhood scar from a broken toy on you. Tell me this, you who play
with words and stars. In my seventeenth year, when I was younger than my son is
now, was an event of some importance to me. Do your circles and pebbles show
it?”

His
seventeenth year. I bent over the circle and seeing nothing there, I used a
trick that sometimes works. I moved the sun of his birth time forward a degree
in his horoscope for each of the seventeen years. Oh. Even without knowing
where Venus was, I could see well enough that in Kovat’s seventeenth year the
planet Uranus had opposed his heart, which was represented by the sun. Its
message looked clear enough to me. Yeah, I was betting my life I was right.

“You
met a woman then and I think she became your mate.” I paused, unsure if I
should continue.

Tarvik
would have been born three years later, so was it Tarvik's mother? Except, oh,
she left him. Different woman.

I
rather thought he would tell me to cease, but instead Kovat stiffened, leaned
forward, demanded, “Go on.”

So
toss me off a cliff now, because I couldn't think up a story that fast. That
stuck me with what I saw and did he want me telling everyone?

“When
she left you, it changed the direction of your life,” I said.

The
sneer faded. From the folds of lines and scars on his face he stared out at me,
his pale blue eyes dulled with memories he had not thought anyone could guess.

All
he said was, “Tell me of her, magician. I will waste no more than this second
question on you.”

Waving
his hands at the fire, the magician caused the flames to shoot skyward, and a
fountain of red sparks arched overhead. Although I didn't envy the old man, who
obviously was no great whiz at fortune telling, I wished I knew the secret of
his ability to control flames. I'd been stuck in a few situations where such a
trick would have been useful. Like in the back alley behind the dumpster.

“Oh
mighty leader, Thunder blesses your armies and sends strength to your great
heart and success to all your ventures through the constant prayers of myself.
And though my god may not always hand me, a faithful servant, the answer to
every question -”

Kovat
rose to his feet and roared, “Answer me, you tottering fool, or I shall return
you at once to your god!”

The
shaking magician peered into his flames. “She was beautiful, my ruler. I see
her face in the flames, a face of perfection and a heart to match, a kind and
gentle woman, young, comely, graceful -”

“What
other type of woman would I choose?” Kovat growled.

“She
was fair, yes, fair, small, graceful hands, the god of Thunder admires her
purity of heart, my lord -”

“Cease.”
One word. I knew and the magician knew. If that word did no more than toss him
into a dungeon for all eternity, he was probably lucky. “You tell me,
Stargazer.”

“I
can't tell the color of her hair,” I said. “That would depend on the coloring
of her people, not on her stars.”

I
looked again at his signature. The current placement of Venus aspected his
progressed sun in his seventeenth year. And then I saw a pattern that isn’t in
any astrology guidebook. That little glimmer of Mudflat magic, inherited from my
grandmother, kicked in.

I
said slowly, “I don't have her chart, but if I must guess at it from yours, it
seems likely her moon or sun and a powerful star shone through, uh, here, tell
me what this is.”

I
drew the pattern of the stars of Taurus on the ground for him.

“The
Silver Horns,” he said.

Yes,
indeed, the symbol for the bull was its horns.

I
said, “I think she was perhaps stubborn and although she was slow to anger,
once angered she was slower to forgive.”

His
eyes closed. He leaned back in his chair. That his scarred face, hardened by a
lifetime of battles, could register such pain amazed me. Whoever she was, she
must have stomped all over his heart.

Slowly
he said, “Enough, Stargazer. I am satisfied with your magic to see my past. Are
you as able to see my future?”

“That
is what I expected you to ask, not questions about your knee.” The words
slipped out before I could stop them.

His
eyes popped open. Would he laugh or run his sword through me? Behind him, Tarvik's
eyes widened and his face went so pale, the line of freckles across his nose
stood out.

Kovat
leaned forward in his chair and said, “Very well, woman, tell me this. My
recent journey to scout new routes leads me to think I have found a way to conquer
the followers of Thunder. What can your stars tell me of my success?”

Walking
slowly around the chart, I compared the planets of his birth with their current
positions. For a battle forecast I needed the placement of Mars in his birth
horoscope, but I didn't have it. Still, I knew where Mars was today, favoring
his sun but casting unfortunate aspects on his future. A victory was possible
if he reached the battleground before the next full moon. I could see victory
for his army, but I could not see the exact fate of Kovat. I told him so.

“Where
my armies conquer, I rule,” he said.

“I
do not see your rule extended into other lands.”

“But
you do see my armies victorious?”