“Carlotta—”
“I didn’t have time to hold your hand! Do you imagine it was easy to leave a false track halfway to Westerin?”
“Uh, no, I would think not.”
“Ha! You don’t think, there’s the truth of it!” Carlotta sprang to her feet, green gown rippling about her as she paced. “How could you be so hopelessly, totally stupid?”
Volmar nearly choked himself in the battle to keep from shouting back at her—”What do you mean?” he managed.
“How could you choose that Arachnia!”
What Arachnia? Surely the woman couldn’t be referring to his seneschal. “D’Riksin?” the count asked warily.
Carlotta waved an impatient hand. “Whatever it calls itself. The Arachnia in Westerin!”
“Ah—Yes.” Coldness settled in Volmar’s stomach. Choosing his words very carefully, he began, “Granted, D’Riksin isn’t always the most reliable of my agents, but—”
“Reliable! D’Riksin is a drunken
“Well, yes, the creature does drink too much. It’s a shame that alcohol affects the Arachniad system as it does our own. But D’Riksin has never failed me before. Besides, it was already in place in Westerin, it had its orders, and—”
“And it ignored them completely! Yes, yes,” Carlotta added impatiently. “I was watching the whole thing with my magic. That stupid drunken insect was supposed to lead the boy and his party away from this castle, not towards it! And it was not supposed to tell them anything about the manuscript!”
Volmar stared in disbelief. Was that a glint of uneasiness he saw in Carlotta’s eyes? Or could it possibly even be ... fear? Just what strange magic was in that manuscript? Frustrating, to have to rely only on one little scrying crystal! Oh yes, the count knew it was as potent an artifact as someone with no innate magical ability could use, but it was still such a maddeningly inferior thing! He’d only been able to guess at what D’Riksin had been babbling. Something about a spell ... a fairy—..
A fairy?
The count stiffened in sudden comprehension. Struggling to keep the shock from his face, he thought, Of course! No wonder Carlotta had been in hiding for so many years! Once she had recovered her strength after the failed attempt on Amber’s life, she would have sensed the existence of the magical manuscript. Ha, how that must have alarmed her! Volmar supposed Carlotta had been struggling to control the thing from afar, terrified that if she came too close she would spark the magic into life and end everything for her.
And then nasty old Master Aidan decided to up the stakes, as the gamblers say, and send forth manuscript. That forced you out of hiding, Carlotta, didn’t it?
Imagine that. All these years he had been wondering at Carlotta’s uncanny, precocious gift for sorcery when the answer had been so very obvious! Her mysterious, unknown mother hadn’t been human at all!
Volmar only barely stifled a triumphant laugh—If news ever got out that the high and mighty princess- sorceress wasn’t truly human, that she was half fairy .... The law stated quite firmly that no one of fairy blood could ever wear the crown. If she were unmasked, it would turn a sure thing into a very dicey proposition.
Well now, isn’t that interesting? I’ll keep your little secret, Carlotta. After all, if you fail, I fail, too.
But once she gained the throne, once he sat beside her, why then some changes would be made. They would, indeed!
Carlotta was still pacing so restlessly Volmar ached to order her to stand still. “You still haven’t found the manuscript,” she said without warning, and he started. “Don’t look so surprised, man. I was watching you, too.”
All at once the sorceress did stop, staring into the flames, eyes fierce with impatience.” 11 has to be somewhere in the library, of course it does, even if we can’t see it There are such things as Spells of Hiding, after all. But what can be enchanted can be disenchanted. With time. And without interference. Such as that fool of a bardling will provide! Damn him! We must keep him away from the casde!”
“But he’s stuck in Westerin,” Volmar soothed. “My hirelings are hunting for him.”
“Ha! That gang of failures! If they’re anything like your Arachnia, they probably can’t find their own feet!”
