Conqueror’s Moon: Part One of the Boreal Moon Tale. Julian May
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Zeth!’ Unlike the inexperienced boy, who knew little of magical technicalities and would never have willingly betrayed the prince’s secret, the Doctor Arcanorum was well aware that a Sending could come only to one who was talented. Stergos had harbored suspicions about his brother ever since Conrig and he were accosted — apparently for the first time — by Ullanoth’s double at Brent Lodge. ‘Did you … do your lip-reading trick?’
‘As well as I could, my lord.’
‘Tell me!’ When the boy hesitated, Stergos added, ‘You must. The prince trusts this witch, but I don’t. We may have to protect him from her. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Snudge nodded. Ullanoth made him uneasy, too, and not only because of her magic. Her beauty would inflame a marble statue, and Snudge was not made of stone.
‘His Grace was in the musicians’ gallery looking down on the duke and the others. Ullanoth wore a hooded cloak that concealed her features, so I couldn’t tell what she might be saying. At first, Prince Conrig seemed to be hearing good news from her. He was pleased. Then his mood changed to concern, and he asked her if she could break some spell and discover what they were doing.’
‘They?’ Stergos repeated.
‘I have no idea who he meant. Ullanoth replied in some manner that disturbed the prince mightily. He said,“Must you invoke those dire creatures? Isn’t there any other kind of sorcery that’ll serve our purposes?”’
Stergos drew in a sharp breath. ‘The Beaconfolk! God help us, I tried to warn him that she might use them to implement this scheme. But he would hear nothing against her … What else did you hear, lad?’
Snudge told how Conrig had asked if he should tell the council of war how Ullanoth helped formulate the Edict of Sovereignty, and how he had also said that it would be awkward to explain their friendship to Duke Tanaby and the earl marshal, since the two of them had never truly met face to face.
‘And then came the most puzzling thing. His Grace and the lady spoke of you, my lord.’ Snudge hesitated. ‘The prince said,“My brother will never tell a lie, even for me.” The lady spoke. Then the prince said,“He is my brother. I love him.” And his words seemed weighted with anger and fear.’
‘Damn her!’ the doctor whispered, knowing what Ullanoth must have told Conrig. His face twisted like one in pain. ‘Is there more?’
‘Only that His Grace said he would do what was best. Then the Sending left him … and so I went in search of the second watcher.’
‘A second-!’
‘Aye, my lord. And one who is apparently far more adept than the lady, for he can perform two magical actions at once. He’s hiding somewhere within the castle stables, well-covered by some superior spell so that I was unable to locate him precisely, much less identify him. He watches the council of war.’
Stergos uttered a moan. ‘Oh, God. Oh, God. And I perceived nothing. Nothing! What are we going to do?’ ‘If I may suggest—’
‘What?’ The doctor’s dismay turned to alarm as the boy explained.
‘Let me go down through the ‘tween-wall passages and see if I can find this fellow. Perhaps he’s visible to the naked eye, even though windsight can’t scry him. He may be a wild talent … just like me! He must be someone in the entourage of one of the lords, for you know the duke didn’t allow any casual travelers or other strangers to enter the castle during this secret gathering. Since he’s in the stables, he may be disguised as a horse lackey. If he is visible, he could pretend to be drunk or sleeping and no one would suspect what he was doing.’
‘If he should discover you—’ Stergos broke off fearfully. ‘He must be a talent of great power, Deveron, to exert two magical functions at the same time. Even Ullanoth gave some hint to me of her watching, although I couldn’t be sure of her. But not this unknown — working his sorcery practically on top of us! If he’s spying on the council, he must be a mortal enemy of our prince. He might not hesitate to kill you.’
‘He won’t realize I’m a danger to him. Not if I just seek him out and give him a casual glance. Just another housecarl without an adept bone in my body.’
‘It might work,’ Stergos said grudgingly. It was a sore point to him that Snudge’s wild talent was imperceptible to the anointed of his Mystic Order, to say nothing of the fact that the boy was capable of identifying even the smallest modicum of talent in others.
‘Shall I go, then? I won’t get lost. I’ve already explored most of the passages on this side of the ward. I did it last night, while you were all asleep. I even made a dark lantern for myself out of an old pewter tankard and a candle.’
Stergos sighed. ‘I might have known … Very well. Do your best to find out who the villain is, or who he pretends to be. Be quick about it and don’t take any dangerous chances. His Grace and I will decide what to do about him.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘If only I could watch over you
But that was impossible. Even though Stergos, like most of the Zeth Brethren, had the ability to scry over short distances, Snudge’s wild talent protected him from any sort of magical surveillance, a fact that particularly delighted Prince Conrig at the same time that it dismayed his brother.
‘I’ll take great care, my lord. Don’t worry about me.’
‘Oh, all right,’ the doctor grumped. ‘But if you get into serious trouble, bespeak me at once and I’ll do my best to help you.’
‘Of course, my lord.’ He bobbed his head and slipped out of the cubicle, leaving Stergos full of misgivings but at a loss to know what else to do.
The boy made his way to the area where the armigers had laid their straw-stuffed palliasses. He rummaged in his pack for a moment, then hurried to the opposite side of the tower. Three document presses stood there. The left-hand one had a few ancient crocks of dried-out ink on its lower shelf. Snudge pushed them aside so he could creep in and touch a small stud at the rear of the cabinet, causing a low door to slide soundlessly open. When he was safe inside in the dark he paused for a moment, then struck fire with his talent, lighting the wick of the candle inside his lantern.
It was cleverly made. A fat waxen stub was affixed to the wall of the tankard. Tiny vent holes poked into the base kept the flame burning when the tankard’s hinged lid was shut. If the lid was more or less held open by a thumb, a beam shone out. The only problem with the thing was that a section of the handle tended to get uncomfortably hot after a while; he’d wrapped it with a strip of leather, but he still had to watch how he gripped it.
Snudge crept down the constricted spiral stairway and paused for a moment to look through a peephole into the library. The three Companions were dicing and drinking. Count Sividian cursed his luck while the two younger lords cackled and jeered. The four armigers were out of eyeshot. Snudge prayed that none of them had discovered the library’s own door into the secret passage, and continued down.
He had a fair distance to go. Castle Vanguard was an enormous place, almost oblong in shape, with a tower at each corner and two more sited midway along the extensive northern and southern wings. The repository tower lay across the ward from the kitchen tower, which overlooked the stable area as well as the brewing and baking buildings. In order to reach the stables unseen, he’d have to traverse half the castle’s perimeter, moving through the south wing past the great hall and the south-west tower, then beyond the solar, the west gatehouse, and the chapel, into the north-west tower. From there he would enter the massive north wing, in which the kitchen tower was emplaced. When he emerged at the base of that tower, he’d be forced to abandon the safety of the secret passages and make his way openly to the stables. He was unable to use his talent