The Seven Towers (15 page)

Eltiron hesitated, wondering whether to investigate. Whoever was inside the room would think it very odd to be interrupted by the Prince of Sevairn in the middle of the night. Still, it was far more likely that someone had simply left a lamp burning and forgotten it. Much more likely. Eltiron walked down to the door and pushed it open.

At first he was surprised to find the room unlit; then he realized that this was the first of a series of rooms that might have been originally intended as guest chambers. There were several such odd arrangements in the castle, and as a child Eltiron had spent hours playing in them. The light was coming from the next room in the chain. Eltiron looked at the open doorway for a moment, then shrugged and walked across the room.

The second room was smaller than the one that opened into the hall. It had been furnished with a table and two slightly battered chairs; at the far end of the table, a small lamp was burning brightly. Just opposite Eltiron, another door led into the third and last room of the series. The door was closed, and a small, brown-haired figure crouched in front of it, listening intently.

Eltiron shook his head. “Tarilane, what are you—” The figure turned abruptly, and Eltiron’s jaw dropped.
“Crystalorn?”

“Shhhhhhh!” hissed the Princess. “They’ll hear you!”

“Who?” Eltiron whispered. “And what are you—”

“Quiet! I want to hear this.”

Crystalorn put her ear back to the door. Eltiron watched in utter bewilderment, wondering what he ought to do. Tarilane was the only other person he could imagine finding in a situation like this, and he couldn’t treat a princess the way he would treat Vandaris’s sword squire.

Abruptly, Crystalorn rose. “They’re almost finished,” she whispered as she took the lamp from the table. “Come on, or they’ll catch us.”

Eltiron hesitated, then stepped aside to let Crystalorn come through the doorway. As he did, he heard someone fumbling with the latch of the closed door. Crystalorn muttered something too softly for him to catch it and ducked around the edge of the door frame, out of sight of anyone in the room she had just left. Eltiron followed, and Crystalorn put out the lamp. An instant later, he felt her tug at his arm. Carefully, the two began backing toward one of the dark corners of the room.

Light spilled suddenly through the doorway, and Eltiron heard a sharp voice say, “. . . quite safe. No one will be about at this hour, not after a feast.”

“You may believe that if you will; I’ll not risk this twice,” said a second voice, and Eltiron stiffened.

Terrel again! His head turned involuntarily toward Crystalorn, who shook her head warningly and pulled him toward a long, high-backed seat. She squeezed into the shadows between it and the wall, and motioned Eltiron to follow.

Eltiron had barely reached this rather dubious hiding place when he saw Terrel step into the room, carrying a lamp. He was followed by the short, unpleasant man who had accompanied the Princess to Sevairn—Salentor, that was his name. Eltiron froze as Terrel turned and gestured to the smaller man.

“You may have the privilege of being first to go your way,” Terrel said with a touch of mockery.

“You do not intend to accompany me?”

“On the contrary. I do not want even a guard to see us together at this hour. I have gone to a great deal of trouble to establish my position here; I don’t intend to ruin everything now.”

“As you wish, but I think you are being far more cautious than necessary.” Salentor bowed and left the room.

“Fool!” muttered Terrel. He shook his head, then began to pace. The lamp he held sent shadows leaping around the room as he walked. Eltiron shivered, hoping Terrel would not notice him, and tried to shrink farther back without moving. He did not think he was being particularly successful.

Terrel paced for several minutes, then set the lamp on a small table near the door. Reaching up, he removed the heavy gold chain he was wearing. Eltiron noticed for the first time that the medallion hanging from it was not the seal of office that Terrel usually wore but an intricate web of gold wire with a large amber stone set in its center. Terrel stared at it for a moment, then wrapped the chain around the medallion and put it in his pocket. Absently, he turned out the lamp, and a moment later Eltiron heard him leave.

For several minutes, Eltiron remained where he was. When he was sure that Terrel would not return, he squeezed out of his hiding place and stood up. He heard a rustling as Crystalorn emerged behind him and discovered that he was not sure whether to be annoyed or grateful. Crouching behind a bench to eavesdrop on a pair of courtiers was not only uncomfortable, it was undignified. On the other hand, knowing about Terrel and Salentor might be very useful.

Behind him he heard a clinking noise, and then a muffled exclamation from Crystalorn. “What’s the matter?” he whispered.

“I’ve spilled most of the oil out of this lamp. Can you find the other one?”

“It’s right by the door.” Eltiron waited another moment while his eyes adjusted to the darkness, then walked across to the table and picked up the lamp. He gave it to Crystalorn, who pulled something from her pocket and bent over it. Eltiron could not see how she intended to light it, but he turned and closed the door just in case she could manage. After all, it was the light coming through the door that had drawn his attention to the room in the first place, and he certainly didn’t want anyone else to come down the hall and find him now.

As the door swung shut, the lamp lit with a fizzing noise and a bright flare of light. Eltiron blinked and squinted. “How did you do that?”

“Firesticks,” Crystalorn said with satisfaction. “It’s the first time I’ve used them; they work very well, don’t they?”

“Yes. What are they?”

“Sticks for lighting fires. Or lamps. And don’t ask me how they work; Amberglas didn’t tell me.”

“Amberglas?”

“You haven’t met her yet? She came to Sevairn with me. I thought she said something about wanting to talk to you, but I must have been wrong. Which isn’t hard, the way she says things. She gave me the firesticks.”

“Oh.”

Crystalorn looked at him warily. “I think we should go now,” she said after a moment, and reached for the lamp.

“I think you should explain first, Your Highness,” Eltiron said, trying to sound firm.

“I suppose so.” Crystalorn sighed, then smiled reluctantly. “You aren’t at all like what I expected, you know.”

“Neither are you. Why were you following Terrel?”

“I wasn’t following him; I was following Salentor. He’s been twitchy all day, and I wanted to find out why. Besides, I wanted to—” Crystalorn hesitated.

“Wanted to what?”

“I wanted to see if I could.” She looked at him for a moment, then gave him a mischievous grin that reminded him forcibly of Tarilane. “This is a wonderful castle for sneaking around in; I think I’m going to like it.”

“I hope so. Do you do things like this often?”

“Sometimes. How else do you find out what’s really going on?”

“What did you find out this time?”

“Not as much as I thought I would. Salentor and your Lord Terrel are involved in some sort of scheme, but they didn’t talk about it. Mostly they made snide remarks; I don’t think they like each other much. If it weren’t for—” Crystalorn broke off and turned toward the inner door of the room. “I’d almost forgotten! Where does the other door to that last room go?”

Eltiron stared at her with a sinking feeling. “If you mean the room you were listening at when I got here, it only has one door.”

“That’s impossible! Someone was in there with Terrel and Salentor. I heard him leave, and he didn’t come this way, so there must be another door.”

Eltiron went cold. “You’re sure there was someone besides Terrel and Salentor?”

“Of course I’m sure! I’d know both their voices even if your Lord Terrel hadn’t spent the whole evening trying to make me fall in love with him.”

“He’s not
my
Lord Terrel. You mean you don’t like him?”

“Ha! He’s much too sure he’s irresistible,” Crystalorn said. “I don’t like irresistible people; they make me want to shake them or slap them or something.”

“If you ever want to slap Terrel, I won’t object,” Eltiron said absently. He stared at the door on the far side of the room. He was sure that there was no other way out of this chain of rooms. Either someone was still waiting in the last room, or . . . Eltiron remembered the tower top and shivered. There was only one way to find out, and he had to know. “Excuse me, my lady; I have to check that last room.”

“Oh, that’s right; I almost forgot again. If we can find out where that other man went, maybe we can figure out who he is.”

Eltiron picked up the lamp and started forward without replying. Crystalorn followed. When they reached the third room, Eltiron paused in the doorway. The room was empty, but he remained uneasy. The shadows pressed on him, and he thought he could feel a wrongness in the air. He told himself firmly not to be foolish; he was simply imagining things. He felt uneasy anyway.

An impatient finger tapped at his shoulder, and reluctantly he stepped aside to let Crystalorn pass. She looked around, frowning, then turned back to Eltiron. “All right, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said this room only had one door. But there
were
three people talking in here. There must be a secret passage or something.”

“A secret passage?”

“How else could that other person have left? Come on, let’s look.”

“Wait a minute. There are a few things you need to know first.”

Crystalorn looked at him doubtfully for a moment, then nodded. Eltiron stepped back into the second room of the chain and sat down. Crystalorn took the other chair and looked at him expectantly. Eltiron took a deep breath and began to tell her about his experience on the top of the Tower of Judgment.

Crystalorn listened intently. Eltiron soon discovered that he had to do a fair amount of explaining about Jermain in order for his story to make sense. The first time he mentioned the name, Crystalorn’s eyes narrowed and she started to say something, then apparently changed her mind and motioned Eltiron to go on. Eltiron was suddenly certain that she’d heard some of the gossip about himself and Jermain; she’d been in the castle for two days, which was plenty of time to find out what everyone thought of everyone else. He paused briefly, wondering how best to tell her what had really happened, then gave up and favored her with a bald statement of the facts.

When he finished, Crystalorn stared silently at the lamp for a few minutes, then shook herself. “This is getting more complicated than I thought. Would you mind telling all this to Amberglas? I think she should know, and . . . there are other reasons, too.”

“If you wish.” Eltiron did not see what good it could do, but he doubted that it could do any harm, either.

“Good. Now let’s go back and search that room.”

“What? Why?”

“To see if there are any red things or secret passages. We have to at least check.” She stood up, took the lamp, and started for the last room, leaving Eltiron no choice but to follow.

To Eltiron’s relief, they found neither secret passages nor red patches. When they finished their search, they returned to the first room and talked for a long while. Eltiron discovered, to his surprise, that Crystalorn seemed to take him almost as seriously as Vandaris did. Crystalorn insisted on making plans for Eltiron to talk to her friend as soon as possible. After some thought, Eltiron realized that he would have no time at all on the following day, so they arranged the meeting for the afternoon of the day after that.

Finally Eltiron escorted Crystalorn back to her chambers. He made sure that they went past several guards on the way. The castle gossips would certainly have noticed Terrel’s behavior toward Crystalorn at the feast, and they would be quick to conclude that the King’s handsome adviser had made a conquest of Eltiron’s betrothed. But if he heard that Eltiron and Crystalorn had been seen together, late at night, without one of the Princess’s ladies in accompaniment . . . Eltiron grinned to himself. Terrel was not going to be pleased when he discovered that his latest attempt to make Eltiron look bad had failed.

The following day was even busier than Eltiron had expected. It was as much as he could do to snatch a few minutes with Vandaris to let her know the barest outline of the night’s events. Vandaris looked extremely thoughtful, but they were interrupted before she had time to tell him why. He saw Crystalorn several times, but they were always surrounded by a web of protocol and formality, and he could not manage to talk to her privately. By the time he returned to his chambers that night, Eltiron was convinced that the sole purpose of the pomp that surrounded royal weddings was to keep the principals from seeing each other alone.

On the fourth morning after Crystalorn’s arrival in Leshiya, Eltiron awoke early. He dressed hurriedly and went down to the castle garden, hoping for a chance to have a few minutes of solitude. The gardens were empty when he arrived, and with a sigh of relief he sat down on one of the benches to think. If there were only some way he could guess what Terrel was planning . . .

“Dear me,” said a voice from behind him. “How very convenient that you should be here. That is, it’s convenient for me, but only because I happen to be in the same place; if I were somewhere else at the moment, it wouldn’t matter at all. At least, I think it wouldn’t.”

Eltiron turned. A woman stood watching him with an air of intense abstraction. He recognized her at once; she was one of the Princess’s ladies, the one who had seemed entirely unimpressed by Terrel Lassond during the formal welcoming. He rose and bowed. “Good morning, my lady,” he said with more warmth than he had intended.

“Yes, it is, isn’t it? Though of course it’s quite possible that it isn’t nearly as good a morning elsewhere. Shula Mari, for example; I believe it frequently rains in Shula Mari at this time of year, which could be quite depressing, though perhaps it isn’t if one lives there all the day. But then, I haven’t been there yet, so I’m not entirely certain.”