Her Majesty's Wizard #1 (29 page)

   Matt smiled up at him. "I do need something to ride on, don't I? Well, fortunately we have a good supply of sticks."

   "Sticks?" Alisande frowned. "How will you ride sticks?"

   Matt made no answer. He'd found what he was looking for a six-foot stick with a sharp bend in the end, like a giant check mark. With twine twisted out of grass, he lashed on other sticks to form legs, shoving them into the ground to stand firm. With a bunch of dried grass tied on for a tail, Matt had a very rough semblance of a horse.

   He stepped well back from it and chanted:

   "Mock horse made of sticks and straw, To your place your namesake draw! For my needs on mission royal Yield a stallion fierce and loyal."

   In an area around the mockup, haze began to thicken. It turned impenetrable and began to boil upward, mounting far above Matt's head. An elephant would have been lost in it, and Matt frowned. But then it began to clear-and was suddenly gone. Where it had been stood a great chestnut stallion, its neck arched proudly. The horse turned its aristocratic head and looked at Matt.

   But for Matt's needs, he saw that his enchantment was still incomplete. And two others in the party were riding bareback, which was hardly the ideal. He frowned and cobbled together another verse:

   "Let each wear, for riding fair, A bridle and a saddle ready, That the day finds us away Astride our steeds so strong and steady."

   He blinked and saw that the horse stood bridled, with a western saddle on his back. Matt breathed a sigh of relief; at least he could ride in comfort for a change. And he saw that the other mounts now all had saddles, though not in the western style.

   The chestnut walked up to Matt, nickering softly, and butted his head against Matt's chest.

   "Yooo, big fellow!" Matt stroked the warm neck, feeling a strong affection for the beast. They'd get along together.

   "With mine own eyes I saw it," Sir Guy breathed. He'd been staring speechlessly for the past few minutes. "Else could I never have given it credit."

   "Just as well; I'm overdrawn." Matt swung into the saddle, amused at the Black Knight. Sir Guy had seen him make a fairy castle vanish and cause trees to pull up their roots and walk, and the knight had scarcely lifted an eyebrow. But conjure up a horse, and he was awed. Nothing like professional interest ...

   They found the rocks and spring, as the elf-duke had said. And there Matt received a quick lesson from Sir Guy on caring for his horse, before taking the rations handed him and finding a shadowed place to eat them. He found he was missing Stegoman. The stallion was friendly and willing, of course. But the dragon could care for himself, and Matt needed his hard-headed realism to bounce his own ideas off.

   "You may sleep now."

   Matt looked up, surprised to see that Sayeesa had joined him. He shook his head. "Thanks, lady-but first guard shift is mine, and you'd better take your sleep while you can. You'll need it by the time it's your turn."

   She shook her head. "I find I'm not inclined toward sleep. And 'tis folly for two to be waking. Take your rest."

   "I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not sleepy yet, either," Matt told her. Silence fell awkwardly between them. To break the pause, he asked, "Am I wrong, or have you and Alisande grown more friendly?"

   Sayeesa frowned, turning away. "Dislike is fading ... I had thought she loathed me, but I see now I mistook. In some strange manner, she sees something of herself in me and thinks she has no right to even small contempt." She looked back at Matt. "Yet there can never be true friendship. She is, after all, a princess, and I a peasant's daughter."

   "Class barriers!" Matt bit down on a surge of anger. "Why does that nonsense have to foul up a friendship?"

   "You speak with more force than the matter warrants." Sayeesa smiled. "Do you wish to be friends with her?"

   Matt swallowed. "Well, of course! We've got to fight together, so we should be on friendly terms, don't you think?"

   "You scarcely seem enemies."

   "I wouldn't exactly call us bosom buddies, either. You weren't there right after I got her out of jail. She was very warm toward me then-almost respected me, I think." He rolled his eyes up. "Why can't women take us as we are-human, with normal weaknesses?"

   "When did her aspect change?"

   "Right after-well..."

   "Do not seek to spare me." Her voice was gentle. "When she saw you within my palace, was it not?"

   "Yeah. What did she expect me to be-a plaster saint?"

   "Nay." Sayeesa looked directly into Matt's eyes. "But was it your weakness that cooled her toward you then? Or my presence?"

   Matt looked up, startled. Then he turned slowly away, his eyes losing focus as he gazed out over the plain. "That's pretty farfetched, isn't it?"

   "Why should it be?" .

   Matt's lips tightened in exasperation. "I'm not of noble blood. She can't let herself be interested in anyone who isn't potential royalty."

   "Nay." Sayeesa smiled gently. "She might not allow an outcome of such interest-but the interest itself? No woman born can bar its rising."

   Matt looked into her eyes for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly. "I see. When you put it that way, it almost makes her have to be cool to me, doesn't it?"

   Sayeesa's smile broadened as she got up to leave him. "It may be that you're not completely a fool."

   Matt brooded on the idea through his guard shift, then kept himself awake until Sir Guy's was finished and it was time for the princess to take over. After all, any hypothesis should be tested.

   He approached her with more certainty than he felt. "I think I'm beginning to make some progress toward learning your ways, your Highness."

   "Indeed?" Her voice was more brittle and aloof than it had been previously. But the others were asleep now, and he was effectively alone with Alisande. That, he decided, might account for her manner.

   "That dryad wasn't exactly repulsive," he said. "But I thought I bore myself pretty well with her."

   "Did you that?" Alisande turned on him. "Then tell me-how is it you understood the priest so well?"

CHAPTER 13

   Sir Guy's armored hand shook Matt's shoulder, and he came awake. His eyelids felt gummy, and his mouth was dry. Every muscle seemed to ache as he forced himself up and went to join the others in a quick meal before beginning the journey again. A few sips of wine, he decided, were no substitute for coffee.

   The afternoon sun was well down toward the horizon. The landscape stretched away before him, empty to the limit of his vision. Foreboding prickled his back. He turned to the knight. "I don't like the feel of what's ahead, Sir Guy."

   The knight nodded grimly. "Nor do I. We must to horse and rise west with all speed, till we find some refuge."

   They mounted and rode toward the west, alternating between walking and cantering, giving the horses enough rest to maintain their strength. The shadows of late afternoon stretched out toward them. Then the sun slipped below the horizon, fanning glory up into the clouds. As they rode, the sky darkened, and stars came out.

   "What do we do if we don't find a convenient fortress?" Matt called to Sir Guy as they slackened to a walk again.

   "Pray we shall not need one," the knight answered grimly.

   Then, faint and dim, blowing on the night breeze at their backs, came a wild and undulating cry. It was a composite wail, many voices blended into one, a distant clamor that set Matt's teeth on edge and sent a thrill of fear driving up into his hind-brain.

   "'Tis some evil, surely." Sir Guy turned to the ladies, swinging his arm forward. "Ride, for your souls' sakes!"

   They kicked their horses into a gallop and fled across the plain.

   The knight was right, Matt knew. Whatever was making that noise wasn't exactly pursuing them with charitable thoughts.

   They rode across the moor toward the west, the clamor growing clearer behind them.

   "There has to be some kind of cover around here," Matt called to Sir Guy.

   "We may have to fare without it," the knight called back. "Why not rein in, take what precautions we have time for, and meet this evilness in battle?"

   "That doesn't sound like the best of tactics, Sir Knight."

   "There's naught but grass for many leagues, Lord Wizard," the knight answered. "And our horses are too wearied to run throughout the night."

   Matt shook his head doggedly. "I'm not in the mood for a confrontation."

   "You may have it forced upon you," Alisande said acidly.

   "We must stand and fight sometime this night, Lord Wizard," Sir Guy pointed out. "Why not here, while we're still somewhat fresh?"

   "A point," Matt admitted, "but whatever's back there, I don't want to face it without some kind of fortification. Let's keep going on the off chance-we might run into a sizable clump of boulders."

   "Or the Stone Ring," Sir Guy said thoughtfully.

   "Stone Ring? Great big slabs of stone standing on end with lintels on top to connect them? And a smaller inner ring?"

   "Quite, save that there's no inner ring." The knight looked up, interested. "Have you, then, been there?"

   "No, but I've read about it." Matt wasn't too surprised to find a Stonehenge in this world; it seemed to go with the magic. "But what kind of feel does the place have, Sir Guy? Evil?"

   "Therein should we pause." Sir Guy's brows knit. "'Tis a place of vasty powers; and as to good and evil, it is either both or neither. It was a temple once for men who worshiped the sun as the source of all good. Their sacrifices, so legend tells, were barley and wheat."

   "Sounds as wholesome as home-baked bread. I assume they weren't the sole tenants."

   "Nay. For that people faded from knowledge; and some centuries later, 'twas found and taken by a people said to worship the Dog Star as the source of all evil. Their sacrifices were human. Later came others..."

   "I get the picture," Matt said grimly. "Anyone know how many cults have used it for a temple?"

   "None have kept count; there are only legends. The place is old, Lord Wizard."

   "So its tenants have alternated between devotion to good and devotion to evil?"

   "Aye. Yet for some centuries, 'twas a place of great learning. Wizards came from the Isle of Doctors and Saints, so they say, when Hardishane's Empire was new. These good and wise men dwelt amidst the stones, teaching all who wished to come to them, and delving into all things, to discover more knowledge."

   "Pure scholars." Matt nodded. "Teaching and pure research, knowledge for the fun of digging it out and learning something new."

   "Aye. But their spirits do not rule there. 'Tis said the place is neither good nor evil of itself; it is what you make of it."

   Alisande had dropped back beside them, listening gravely. "By all accounts, Lord Wizard, the place is quite treacherous; for there has been great fervor poured out by hundreds of thousands of people, as centuries rolled; and great and fell spells have been cast there."

   "But great and good ones, too," Sir Guy reminded her.

   "So this Ring is one great storehouse of power; but the kind of force a man's hit with depends on his own inclination?"

   Sir Guy nodded. "The evil become more evil; the good become saintly."

   Matt wondered what his own inclination really was and suddenly felt very wary of the Stone Ring. "Still, it sounds like our best bet."

   "It is," Alisande said, with that full, unshakable certainty that meant she was discussing a public issue at the moment. "But how come you to know so much of this place, Sir Guy?"

   The Black Knight only smiled. "I am not totally unlettered, your Highness. If we go there, we must bear a bit more toward the north." He clucked to his horse and moved ahead to take the lead.

   Far behind them, the dim clamor united into one huge, hungry baying.

   Alisande shuddered. "To the Stone Ring, Lord Matthew. It cannot be worse."

   "I would not be sure of that."

   Matt looked back over his shoulder toward the voice. Sayeesa rode behind him, hands clasped tight on the reins, eyes huge and haunted.

   Broken teeth jutted up from the moor far ahead, seeming to glow in the moonlight.

   "There it lies!" Alisande cried. "Ride for your souls!"

   The clamor was louder behind them now, much louder; it had separated into growling and howling, baying and barking. Matt kicked his horse into a gallop.

   The stone slabs loomed up before them, rising from silvered mist. Matt became aware of a tingling all about him; it was almost as if he could feel it on his skin. It seemed to sink inside him, stirring in his brain somewhere; something in the ancient stone pile resonated with the pitch and beat of his thoughts. He frowned, tasting the strange sensation, deciding he liked it as the feeling grew stronger with each stride of his horse.

   He dropped back to Sayeesa. She was trembling. "Do not take me here, Wizard, I implore you! There was evil here once, and' its aura still lingers. I know not what I may do here!"