Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses) (50 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses)
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He gave a nasty laugh. “The Lestra herself must invite you in.”
Senneth nodded. “Then we will wait.”
She had warned her companions that the wait might be long, for she assumed that Coralinda did not like to stir early in the day. So she held herself relaxed in the saddle and hoped that the other four did as well. Justin particularly. He did not wear his gold lions growling across his chest, but he wouldn’t have to. Anyone who knew there was a Rider in their party would look at the group and instantly be able to pick him out.
They had been sitting there maybe twenty minutes when the massive doors to the convent were flung back and about a hundred women streamed out into the winter sunshine.
Most of them were dressed in white robes, though here and there Senneth spotted clothes of darker hues, indicative of greater levels of devotion, she supposed. In the middle of the pale flood paced a lone figure dressed in silver and black. She moved in a measured, stately fashion, and it seemed to take an hour for her to cross the long distance from the building to the gate. As she walked, the young women fanned around her, a silent, sweet-faced choir of acolytes. They formed a random audience on the inside of the high wall, peering out through the scrolled gate at the heathens come to call.
The woman in black came to a halt when she was just on the other side of the gate. She tilted back her head, so that her gray braid slid across the silk of her gown, and she stared at the mystics with fierce black eyes. She said nothing. The hundred novices, the scattered guards, the party of mystics all waited in silence.
Senneth smiled. “Good morning, Coralinda.”
There was a beat of soundless astonishment across all the people gathered inside the convent, but Coralinda did not flinch or recoil. “Senneth,” she said, in a low, beautiful voice. “I thought it must be you.”
“I’m sure you hoped it wasn’t.”
“I’m hardly afraid of you, if that’s what you mean.”
“Excellent,” Senneth said. “For I am not afraid of you either. Will you let us in? We have something to discuss.”
“Oh, please,” Coralinda said, “step inside.” She nodded to the guards, and two of them instantly went to pull open the gates. Senneth and her companions spurred their horses forward.
“I would welcome you,” Coralinda said in that melodious voice, “but I am not sure you will find your stay very pleasant.”
“It will be brief,” Senneth said. “You have something of mine, and I have come to retrieve it. As soon as it is back in my hands, we will be on our way.”
“As soon as the gates close behind you, you will be prisoners along with the Rider whom we captured yesterday. In fact, I think you will be my guests for some time.”
Senneth smiled. “Do you really think you can hold mystics inside your walls?”
“Do you really think mystics can operate in the compound of the goddess? Even now, you must feel how weak your power grows, as the moonstones seeded into the very earth leach away your sorcerous strength.”
“An odd thing,” Senneth remarked, lifting her arm and shaking her jeweled bracelet. “I am rife with power even when I wear the Pale Mother’s charm around my wrist.”
Coralinda smiled back. “Yet I feel that even a woman made of fire will find little to burn in a small room made of stone.”
“If you harm me,” Senneth said, “everyone in your convent will die within a matter of weeks.”
“Oh come now, Senneth,” Coralinda said in an impatient voice. “Let’s not be melodramatic.”
“I thought I was being practical,” Senneth replied. “I brought with me a most effective weapon, you see.”
And she pulled her horse a little to one side and lifted the veil of obscurity she had dropped down, so that Coralinda and everyone in the compound could see the feral red creature crouched on the ground beside her. Its tufted tail flicked with barely controlled ferocity, and its ears were laid flat against its head. Its hot eyes were fixed on Coralinda’s face.
There was a collective gasp and a few small whimpers, and many of the hundred Daughters scurried backward. A few looked puzzled, a few looked terrified. Coralinda herself appeared to be furious.
“What have you brought to the Pale Lady’s house, Senneth?”
“A raelynx. Do you know much about its kind? A full-grown one might kill a man every two days to feed. This one’s only about six months old, and very hungry. It feeds as often as it can.”
Her voice scarcely raised at all, Coralinda said, “Kill it.” From five directions at once, crossbow arrows drove into the ground where the raelynx had been standing. It had darted away, almost seeming to disappear for a moment; then suddenly it materialized again between Kirra’s and Cammon’s horses.
“Curiously,” Senneth said in a conversational voice, “a raelynx is very hard to kill. It avoids traps, it won’t eat poison, and I’ve never heard of an instance where one was brought down by a hunter. Don’t you know any of the tales, Coralinda? Living so close to the Lirrens, I’d have thought you’d have come across a raelynx or two by now.”
The Lestra’s black eyes were filled with hate as she lifted them to Senneth’s face. “Remove this creature from my sanctuary.”
“No,” Senneth said. “This is its new home. Your novices will be its flesh and its fowl. He will be safe and happy here.”
Coralinda lifted her hand in some prearranged gesture, and another volley of arrows curved through the air. Kirra’s horse shied and whinnied, for the weapons landed very near its hooves, but the raelynx was miraculously unharmed. He had shimmied away at a pace too quick to watch.
Now he was advancing at a slow, predatory crawl toward some of the white-clad girls. They shrieked and tripped over each other to get away from him. A few of them ran back toward the house itself; some raced toward the ornamental trees as if to take shelter in their branches.
“He can climb,” Senneth called out to them. “That’s really not safe.” Two of the girls screamed and ran on toward the fortress.
Coralinda’s fury was obviously growing hotter and darker by the second. Her black eyes bored into Senneth’s face as she snapped, “You control that creature with mystical power, do you not?”
“To some extent,” Senneth said. “But as he grows older, he grows stronger, and I do not know how much longer he’ll respond to my commands.”
“Take him and leave this place. Immediately.”
“Not until you release the Rider you hold.”
“He is mine.”
Senneth shrugged. “Then your girls start dying.”
Coralinda glared. “Oh, no, Senneth, you are not hard enough to make war on innocents. You would not let him feed on my novices.”
“Yes,” Senneth said, “I would. Would you like a demonstration? Tell me, and I’ll release him now from my influence.”
The two women stared at each other, Coralinda bristling with black rage, Senneth showing a countenance that was serene and unruffled. More crossbows creaked and snapped; more arrows flew. The raelynx continued his eager prowling, wholly unhurt.
“He is not real,” Coralinda breathed, still staring at Senneth. “You have devised a most clever illusion to trick me.”
Senneth shrugged. Suddenly, there was an unholy scream, and Coralinda whirled to see one of her novices writhing on the ground, blood streaking her white robe. Other girls clustered around her, kneeling or standing, looking fearfully over their shoulders.
The raelynx crouched a few feet away, licking one paw and then snarling in frustration. Abruptly it let out that disquieting wail, choked off at the end. More arrows fell harmlessly around it.
“No illusion,” Senneth said. “Hesitate much longer, Coralinda, and I swear to you, someone will be dead.”
“Fetch the Rider,” Coralinda snapped over her shoulder, and two soldiers ran with alacrity toward the manor.
“And his horse,” Senneth added.
Coralinda nodded, and another man sped toward the stables. “If you follow us, if you attempt to harass us on the road, we will kill all the men you send after us,” Senneth said, her voice exceptionally cold. “I can see you want war, Coralinda, and I think you even more of a fool than I always did. But if you attack me and mine, I will slaughter any force you send against us. You are not a soft or sentimental woman. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I am.”
“You are an abomination in the eyes of the goddess,” Coralinda spat out.
Senneth laughed. “Which goddess? There is a whole pantheon, Coralinda, and they do not all love your mistress.”
“Only the Silver Lady has any power in Gillengaria.”
Senneth’s attention was fixed on Coralinda, but she could see movement on the periphery of her vision. A horse being led from the stables, a man being led from the manor. “The Silver Lady is restless and vain, and she seeks worship and glory, but she is not the only one with any power,” Senneth replied. “The Bright Mother has put her hand on me, and she is not content to watch her sister overrun the land.”
“I will see you destroyed, Senneth, you and all foul mystics who profane this country.”
“Strange,” Senneth said, “I was going to say much the same thing to you.”
Into the harsh silence of the confrontation came the sound of footfalls and hoofbeats as Tayse and his horse arrived at the same time. The beast was saddled and ready to ride; Tayse’s weapon belts were draped over the pommel. From the corner of her eye, Senneth could see that Tayse’s hands were tied before him, but he looked essentially unharmed—no visible marks on his face, at least. He appeared not to have offered resistance, and the guards seemed to have treated him with some courtesy.
“Release him and let him mount,” Coralinda said. In a moment, Tayse had flung himself into the saddle with as much grace as a bound man could manage. The guards fell back a few paces.
Senneth did not turn to look behind her. “Open the gates,” she said, “and order all your men inside the compound.”
Coralinda looked contemptuous. “We will not attempt to impede your exit.”
“Open the gates,” Senneth repeated, “and bring all your soldiers inside.”
“Do it,” Coralinda directed, and the closest commander bawled out orders. Behind her, Senneth could hear the barred gates swing open and the slow tramp of booted feet cross into the enclosed space.
“Back away—all of you—toward the house and the stables,” Senneth said. “Give us some space.”
“I said that we will not—” Coralinda began, but a disturbing keen rose from near the back of the compound. Coralinda flung her hands into the air. “As she says,” the Lestra ordered with heavy sarcasm, “retreat. Everyone step back till we stand alongside the manor.”
There were a few grumbles, but the guards and what brave novices remained trudged in a sloppy group back across the lawn, away from the gate. Senneth briefly watched them, then returned her gaze to Coralinda, who had retreated along with the novices.
“Cammon,” she said softly. “Are there any guards left outside?”
“No. They’re all in here.”
“Justin. When you judge them safely back, lead the others out. Head east and then south. Travel quickly but stop before sundown. I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can—within a few hours.”
“You leave with us,” Tayse said sharply.
Five minutes out of captivity and he’s already resumed his usual autocratic manner,
Senneth thought. “No,” she said. “They won’t be able to harm me. You go. Justin, take charge.”
She heard the sound of horses turning in a circle. “Pull out,” Justin said. “Donnal, animal shape in the lead. Tayse, take the rear. Let me cut your ropes first.”
“I think Donnal should stay with Senneth,” Kirra said.
“No,” Justin replied. “Ride out!”
She listened to their hoofbeats pounding down the road until the sound was so distant she could not distinguish it at all. And still she waited, sitting solitary between the gates, watching the novices and guards grow restless and begin to disperse. The raelynx paced back and forth on the thin, invisible line that Senneth had drawn for him, maybe ten yards away from the front door. Now and then he leapt and whirled, inches in front of another arrow or thrown dagger. Senneth didn’t even bother to protest the attempts to kill him.
“Leave now, Senneth, or do you plan to hold us hostage in our own house for the rest of the day?” Coralinda called out across the broad lawn.
“I am just waiting for my companions to get safely away.”
“I have told you, I have no plans to send my men in pursuit.”
“I feel so reassured,” Senneth said. “Would you like me to take my raelynx with me or leave him behind?”
The silence was eloquent with fury. Senneth laughed. She closed her attention over the seething mind of the raelynx and forced the creature to turn with a wailed protest away from the spread of humanity. It hissed at her and lifted its paws as if to bat away at an annoying insect, then bounded forward, passed her with two leaps, and headed out to the road.
Senneth backed her horse through the gate, moving slowly, never taking her eyes off Coralinda and her assembled companions. None of them moved, even after she was past the metal scrollwork. She kept backing up, judging her distance, judging her power.

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