The details were many, and often baffling. Only by assuming that Need's assessment of Falconsbane was accurate could Darkwind even begin to understand how the Beast had made so many fundamental blunders. It was incredible, impossible, insane. But, he realized, that described Falconsbane perfectly.
Still, it was terrifying to think what would happen if Falconsbane should happen to change his mind about cooperating with Ancar. The damage that had been wrought without that cooperation was terrible. And the number of successes the army of Hardorn had against Valdemar without Falconsbane's real help was even worse. But with it -
And Falconsbane was capricious. He could change his mind at any time. Their only chance was to strike for him while he was still Ancar's captive, for if he became Ancar's comrade before they reached the capital - the odds in their favor were not good.
The odds for Valdemar would be even worse.
An'desha waited on the Moonpaths; alone this time, for Dawnfire had appeared only long enough to summon him and then had left him. That might mean the old woman wished to speak with him, then. That was good, for An'desha had been keeping Falconsbane annoyed with Ancar, as she had asked him to do, and at the moment it would be more likely for a pig to stoop on a hawk than that Falconsbane should become Ancar's willing helper.
Still, the Adept was a slippery and unpredictable creature. An'desha had been forced to play fast and loose with Mornelithe's mind to stave off the thought that it might not be such a bad thing to cooperate with the King. He'd had to remind Falconsbane of the coercions, and the King's own word that he had no intention of taking them off.
The trouble was that Hulda was still incarcerated. The protections she herself had put on the cell were better than Falconsbane had given her credit for. There was no sign that she was going to come bursting out of there and finish Ancar off any time soon, and the Adept was growing impatient.
He heard footsteps - real footsteps, on the Moonpath to his right. He turned to peer into the glittery fog. It had to be the old woman, for the Avatars had never made the sound of footsteps, and she was just contrary enough to create a sound in a place where such things were superfluous.
The old woman emerged out of the fog; from the set of her jaw, she had much to tell him.
'Well, boy,' she said, stopping within a few paces of him, and looking him up and down as if to take his measure, 'I hope you're as ready for this as your friends think because this is where we gamble everything.'
'Friends?'
'The Avatars.'
A chill of anticipation mingled with fear threaded his veins, for all that his 'veins' were as illusory as the old woman's footsteps. 'I can only try,' he said carefully. 'I have kept Falconsbane at odds with Ancar. He was beginning to think it might be good to ally with King Ancar after all.'
She nodded brusquely. 'That's good. You've done very well, boy. But this is going to take a surer, more delicate touch, and constant work. I mean that. We've come to the real turning point, and there's no way back now. You won't be able to leave him alone for a heartbeat, and you'll have to be absolutely certain he doesn't know you're playing with him. My people aren't more than a day away.'
An'desha felt very much as if he had been suddenly immersed in ice water, but his voice remained steady. 'So, whatever we do, it must be done soon. You have a plan, and its success depends upon my performance. If I fail, we all will lose.'
'Exactly.' She gave him another of those measuring looks. 'This is where we see if you can really come up to what we're going to ask of you. You're going to have to create memories for Falconsbane from whole cloth, boy - memories of one of the servants telling him about the carnival, and that there's a captive cat-woman dancing in one of the tent-shows there. We want him to hear about Nyara, we want him to come after her. We intend for him to walk into ambush. Can you do that?'
Create whole memories...he had been making fragments, adding to things Ancar truly had said so that they could be read as being insulting, for instance. Falconsbane had no idea his memories had been tampered with. An'desha had plenty of memories to use to make this one, memories that featured the servants talking. Was there any reason why he couldn't do this?
'I believe I can, Lady,' he replied, trying to sound confident.
She smiled for the first time in this meeting. 'Good. Then I'll leave you. You're going to need a lot of time to do this right, and I'm only wasting it.'
And with that, she turned and walked off into the mist, and was gone.
Part of the plan, however, was not going to work. Having a servant tell Falconsbane about the carnival was simply not believable, no matter what the old woman thought. No, he thought, as he examined Falconsbane's
