Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses) (40 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses)
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He wondered what it would be like to fear such a touch, which could occur randomly and expose a dangerous secret. He was not used to either secrecy or fear. But his imagination did not entirely fail him in this instance.
During the days, while they rode, and during the nights, while they sat around the campfire, Senneth and Cammon practiced various skills. To judge by the bits of conversation Tayse could overhear, Cammon was becoming rapidly more adept at handling the raelynx, so much so that Senneth felt comfortable giving him entire control of the creature for several hours at a time. None of the rest of them were quite so comfortable. Particularly not after that first night on the road, when Kirra had looked up from the fire and screamed.
The raelynx crouched just outside the circle of firelight, watching them all with a hungry attention.
“Mother defend me,” Senneth swore—and then did something, and the raelynx slunk away. Tayse didn’t even have to look to know that Justin had drawn his dagger for close fighting, as he himself had. But he had no illusions that either of them was fast enough to kill the creature before it killed one of them.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Cammon apologized. He didn’t seem too upset about the incident, so Tayse guessed that his control had been holding well enough to prevent an actual attack—or at least Cammon thought so.
Even Donnal looked a little unnerved. “I didn’t sense it anywhere near us,” he said. “Usually I’m more attuned to the wild creatures.”
Kirra had a hand to her heart, though with her it was hard to tell if that was drama or genuine hysteria. “I feel faint,” she said. “I feel the way a little rabbit must feel upon looking up and seeing the hawk’s wings overhead.”
Tayse looked at Senneth. “How exactly did that happen?”
She met his eyes, complete tranquillity in hers. “A little slip. Everything’s fine.”
“Once we leave Nocklyn,” he said, “we have to seriously consider detouring to the Lirrens.”
“We’d hardly make it through the mountains this time of year,” Senneth said. “But maybe spring will be closer by the time we’re on our way back from Gisseltess. Though—by then—we may be in a hurry.”
No one asked why they might be in a rush. They all worried about what they might find at the end of their journey, in the heart of Gisseltess. They already had plenty of disturbing news for the king; it was clear Senneth was expecting more.
“I won’t slip again,” Cammon said. “You’ll see. I know what I did wrong this time.”
Justin sheathed his dagger. “We’ll see if we aren’t dead,” he said with his usual sarcasm, though he softened his tone a little for Cammon’s sake.
Cammon grinned at him. “Well, I think the creature
is
hungry. Maybe if he eats one of us, he’ll be better behaved.”
“Maybe we’ll let him hunt tomorrow,” Senneth said. “Though we’re in pretty populated territory. I don’t know.”
“Let’s just kill something ourselves and throw it to him,” Justin said. “
I’ll
go out and bring down some game. Anything to keep him from turning his eyes my way.”
But Tayse didn’t want to lose Justin’s sword arm, so the next day they sent Donnal off in search of fresh meat. He returned with enough to satiate the wild creature and add some variety to their own cook pot, and even Justin congratulated him on his success.
They were still sitting around the campfire, having finished their meal, when Senneth said, “All right. All of you watch me for a moment. Cammon, don’t say anything. The rest of you just tell me—well, you’ll know.”
So they all shifted position to stare at her across the low flames. Not for the first time, Tayse had the odd impression that she herself was like a fire—or rather, a long, sturdy candle, her white-blond hair like a lit wick around her face. She shut her eyes and appeared to meditate for a moment, and then she vanished.
“Hey!” Kirra cried, and the rest of them also offered some exclamation of amazement.
Except Cammon, of course, who looked around in bewilderment. “What? What did she do? Did she turn herself into something else?”
“She disappeared, you halfwit,” Justin said in exasperation. “It’s worse than being around a blind man—being around a man who sees things that aren’t really there.”
“She
is
really there,” Cammon said.
Sounding completely normal, which made it even eerier, Senneth’s voice emerged from the vacant space above her bedroll. “So no one can see me but Cammon?”
“Obviously not,” Tayse said.
“Can you hold the illusion if someone touches you?” Donnal asked.
“Ah, there’s a good question,” said the disembodied voice. “Let’s see—”
A little yelp from Kirra, who rubbed her arm and looked in what was surely feigned apprehension at Senneth’s empty blanket. “You
pinched
me! This is very spooky.”
“But you didn’t materialize,” Donnal said. “We didn’t see you even when you put your hand on Kirra. That’s good.”
“
I
saw her,” Cammon said.
“How long can you stay invisible?” Kirra asked.
“I’m not sure. I might practice tomorrow on the road. But now I want to try something else.” Suddenly she was sitting among them again, looking entirely relaxed and more than a little pleased with herself. “Who wants to volunteer?”
There were, for a moment, no takers.
“I will,” Cammon said.
“Not you. Donnal?”
The dark man nodded. “Sure. What do you want me to do?”
“Just sit there. Everyone look at Donnal.”
Tayse obediently bent his eyes in the required direction. He was not entirely surprised when Donnal suddenly seemed to wink out of existence. From the rest came low murmurs of approval or uncertainty.
“I can’t see myself,” Donnal said.
“I can see you,” Cammon said.
With an effort, Tayse restrained himself from telling Cammon to shut up. By the look on Kirra’s face, she was making the same effort.
“Do you have any unpleasant sensations? Do you feel strange?” Senneth asked.
“No, I feel fine. But I have to say it’s a little odd.” Almost on the words, he was corporeal again. He looked down at his body as if to check that no parts were missing. “I wonder how many people you can enchant at a time and how long you can hold it,” he said.
Justin was nodding. “That would be a damn useful skill to have on a battlefield.”
“So far, I don’t think I can work the magic on more than one or two people at a time,” Senneth said regretfully. “And I wouldn’t think I could hold the spell for very long. But I’m convinced it will still come in handy from time to time.”
“But what about your code of honor and all that?” Justin asked. “You know, can’t turn someone else into a wolf, those things Kirra said before.”
Tayse saw the women exchange glances filled with a bit of humor and a bit of rue. “He’s right,” Kirra said. “Though it’s not exactly the same thing, since you didn’t really change him.”
“Now I suppose I’ll have to examine my conscience before I try such tricks again,” Senneth said, but she was laughing. Tayse thought, not for the first time, that her sense of honor was strong but probably a bit adaptable—and that she was not afraid to break rules if the incentives were desperate enough.
“Isn’t all this experimenting giving you a headache?” Tayse asked.
She was laughing again. “No, I think that last time my headache was more a product of fury than magic. Besides, this sort of spell isn’t particularly draining. It’s just—complicated.”
“I wonder if I could learn it,” Cammon said.
Tayse was sure he was not the only one thinking,
You need to learn the spell that strikes you silent,
but no one said it. Senneth grinned at him. “Once you entirely master the trick of subduing the raelynx,” she said, “we’ll work on this one.”
Kirra snapped a stick and tossed it into the fire. “So we’ll be in Nocklyn Towers by tomorrow evening,” she said. “Have you figured out what approach we should take?”
“How well do you know Els Nocklyn?” Senneth asked. “Will he see you if you try to make an appointment?”
Kirra shook her head. “I know him well enough to be able to make conversation if we’re seated next to each other at the dinner table,” she replied. “But I would think—if I said I was in town—well, he would hardly turn me away. He would imagine I come on my father’s behalf.”
Senneth was pursing her lips. “But Darryn Rappengrass said he’s been sick and that his daughter is doing much of the day-today governing,” she said thoughtfully. “Will
she
see you? And do you suppose she’s in residence at Nocklyn Towers?”
“Mayva Nocklyn,” Kirra said. “Oh, yes. She considers herself a friend.”
 
 
THE problem, as Tayse had foreseen all along, was the raelynx. Nocklyn Towers was a bustling city of many thousand souls, and there was no way to attempt to smuggle the cat through the guarded gates and onto the crowded streets. Senneth did not seem entirely certain that Cammon’s hold on the animal was strong enough to endure for more than an hour or two, but their foray into the city was likely to take a full day or even longer. And she was not willing to let Kirra attempt the interview with the Nocklyn family alone.
“I’ll be fine,” Cammon said more than once, as they halted that afternoon within sight of the city gates. “We’ll pull off the road a half mile or so, and I’ll just hold him as tight as I can.”
“So many temptations,” Senneth said, her voice worried. “Hundreds of people use this road every day. It might be more than he can stand, seeing so much prey stroll by.”
“I’ll stay with them,” Donnal said. “I’ll hunt every few hours—bring him back a bird or a squirrel or something. I’ll keep him so full he won’t even want to move.”
“Sounds like our best option,” Tayse said. Senneth reluctantly agreed. They made quick plans for where Cammon should camp and how they should get in touch again if something went awry.
“I’ll be able to tell,” Cammon said.
Senneth nodded. “Send Donnal into the city to find us if something happens. Hawk, jay, some kind of bird shape. One of us will be at the western gates. But I don’t think anything will go wrong here.”
Justin snorted in disbelief, so Tayse didn’t have to.
“We’ll be at the Nockworth Hotel,” Kirra added. When the others gave her questioning looks, she said in a haughty voice, “A Danalustrous
always
stays at the Nockworth when visiting in Nocklyn Towers.”
“Come to the gate first if anything goes wrong,” Senneth instructed Donnal. “And then the Nockworth. But come to the hotel in human form.”
Donnal grinned. “I think I would have figured that out on my own.”
Tayse was getting impatient. Dark was almost upon them, and he wanted to get inside the city while it was still light enough to look around. “Are we ready? Good. See you both in a couple of days.”
They separated, the two mystic men heading off the road, the other four riding forward toward the city. In a few minutes, they had reached the gate and were passed through with only a cursory inspection.
Tayse looked about him with interest as they entered the city. He had been here before, more than once, when escorting King Baryn to some function or another. He remembered it as a prosperous, well-kept place, and it still was—perhaps even more so. There appeared to be many new buildings crowding next to old ones at several intersections, and the streets were thronged with people. The traffic was heavy, even at this time of day, and the profusion of carts and carriages made it difficult for the horses to travel down the streets. All sorts of people could be seen, all at once: rich matrons in their textured silk, Nocklyn soldiers in their formal uniforms, farmers with their wagons, beggars with their bound eyes and truncated limbs, schoolgirls, errand boys, dreamy lovers, angry friends. The city embraced a profusion of humanity and swirled them all together.
“Do you know where this hotel is?” Senneth called to Kirra over the constant rattling and shouting in the streets.
Kirra nodded.
“Then you take the lead.”
It was nearly an hour later, and close to full dark, by the time they had navigated the streets to Kirra’s destination. It had been clear for several blocks now that they were in the most elegant part of town, with broad avenues lined with spacious houses and discreet shops. The hotel Kirra had selected was charming, offering a wide stone sweep of a driveway for carriages to pull through and an ornate fountain before the triple doors. The weather was too cold to allow for running water, of course, so instead the bowl of the fountain was filled with ice sculptures, all of them starting to look a little mushy at the end of a sunny day. Tayse wondered if the hotel proprietors commissioned and installed new ones every morning. He could hardly imagine anything more ridiculous.
He had been paying too much attention to their progress through the streets to give much notice to his companions, but he was not surprised to find both Kirra and Senneth transformed by the time they pulled up in front of the Nockworth. Kirra wore a fine red riding cloak and had her hair held back with ruby clasps. Senneth looked dull but respectable in her ordinary riding clothes and her assumed submissive demeanor. Tayse found himself wondering by what unnoticeable increments they had managed to change their clothes and their features as they made their slow parade through the city.

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