through it, leaving Brayahs with the rest of his three-man detachment in the hallway.
He was gone for only a few seconds before the door opened once again.
“The Baron says he’ll be most pleased to see you, Master Brayahs,” the sergeant said with a respectful bow.
“Thank you, Sergeant.”
Brayahs returned the bow and stepped past the armsman into Borandas Daggeraxe’s personal office. It was on the fourth floor of the spire-like tower from which Star Tower Castle took its name, and its opened windows looked out over the castle’s courtyard and the green fields beyond. A cool breeze blew through them, setting the curtains dancing in a flicker of sunlight, and Borandas stood behind his desk, holding out his right hand to his cousin with a broad smile.
“Brayahs!” he clasped forearms with the mage, squeezing firmly. “I’m sorry I missed you yesterday.”
“I know you’ve been busy conferring with Thorandas and Sir Dahlnar,” Brayahs replied as he returned the clasp. “And, to be honest, I had some thinking of my own to do.”
“Oh?” Borandas released his arm and stepped back, waving towards one of the unoccupied chairs in front of his desk. Sir Dahlnar nodded to Brayahs with a friendly smile, offering his own hand, and Brayahs reached out to take it. He clasped Bronzehelm’s forearm firmly, looking deep into the other man’s eyes, and his nostrils flared. He held Sir Dahlnar’s arm for an extra moment or two, then released it and sank into his own chair.
“And what were you thinking about?” Borandas inquired. He leaned back in his own chair, clasping his hands behind his head, and regarded his cousin a bit quizzically. “I don’t seem to remember you taking very long to think things over when you were younger, Brayahs!”
“Life was simpler when I was a runny-nosed brat pestering my grownup cousin,” Brayahs replied. “When you have so many fewer thoughts in your head, it doesn’t take as long to sort through them, you know.”
“I’ve heard that,” Borandas agreed, but his eyes also narrowed slightly, as if he’d caught a trace of something unexpected in his cousin’s expression or manner, and he lowered his hands, sitting upright once more. “And now that you’ve sorted through the ones currently rattling around in your head, what conclusions have you reached?”
“I’ve reached the conclusion that I have to take advantage of our kinship,” Brayahs said in a tone which had grown suddenly far more somber.
“Meaning what?” Borandas’ expression turned warier, and Brayahs drew a deep breath.
“Borandas, I’ve been the King’s man for three years now. In all that time, I’ve never approached you as the King’s man or in any way questioned any of the policies you’ve chosen to pursue here in the North Riding. And I have no instructions from His Majesty to do that now. Coming here this morning is my own decision, but I ask you as my kinsman and my Baron to hear me.”
Borandas looked at him silently, and the sounds of birds from beyond the open windows were clear and distinct in the stillness. Seconds trickled away, but then, finally, he nodded.
“Speak.” His voice was cooler, more formal, but he sat regarding his cousin levelly, and Brayahs glanced at Bronzehelm for just a moment. Then he squared his shoulders and faced the baron.
“You know I’m a mage. In fact, you know what my mage talents are.” He paused, and Borandas nodded again, slowly, his eyes suddenly very intent. “Then you’ll understand I know what I’m talking about when I tell you wizardry has been at work here in Halthan,” Brayahs said softly.
“ What? ” Borandas snapped fully upright in his chair, leaning forward, staring at him. Bronzehelm looked at him, as well, equally shocked, and Brayahs nodded.
“How?” the baron demanded. “Where?”
“I can’t say exactly how, or what the spell may have been,” the mage replied. “You know the limitations of my talents, as well. But I can tell you where it was cast.”
“Then tell me!” Borandas more than half-snapped, and Brayahs looked at him sadly.
“There,” he said…and pointed at Sir Dahlnar Bronzehelm.
“Are you certain about this, Brayahs?”
Borandas Daggeraxe’s face was twenty years older than it had been a half hour earlier, his eyes haunted, and Brayahs nodded unhappily.
“I’m afraid I am, and I wish I weren’t. But not as much as I wish I knew what the spell was supposed to do and how in Semkirk’s name anyone got into a position to cast it in the first place.” Brayahs’ jaw clenched. “And not as much as I wish that whoever the bastard is, he’d picked someone besides Dahlnar to cast it on!”
Myacha sat beside her husband, holding his left hand, her amethyst eyes huge and dark. Despite everything, she’d hoped desperately that the suspicion she’d awakened in Brayahs’ mind had been groundless.
“I wish that, too,” the baron said now, his voice grim and harsh. He shook his head. “It’s not Dahlnar’s fault. I know that as well as the gods themselves do! But how can I ever trust him again now that he’s been…tampered with?”
“We’re not positive he has been,” Brayahs said, remembering the look in Bronzehelm’s eyes as he’d been gently but firmly escorted from Borandas’ office by no less than five Halthan armsmen. The seneschal’s shock had been only too evident, and there’d been a sort of ineffable horror under the shock. Yet there’d been no resistance. In fact, he’d been the first to suggest that Borandas had no choice but to confine him to his own quarters until they could determine what had been done to him…and by whom.
“Come now!” Borandas said even more harshly. “You detected the stench of wizardry both on him and in his office!”
“But what I smelled hadn’t been cast directly upon him,” Brayahs pointed out. “He was present when it was worked, and he obviously doesn’t remember it, but I’m detecting no indication he’s been arcanely altered. And you saw his eyes as well as I did, Borandas. He’s more horrified by the possibility that he’s been forced to betray your confidence than you could ever be.”
“Of course he is!” Borandas scowled. “He’s not just my seneschal-he’s my friend, and he would never have betrayed me in any way if the choice had been his! Do you think I don’t realize that?!”
“No, I’m sure you do,” Brayahs replied. “And I think it’s evident he has been influenced-unknowingly and against his will-whether it was done arcanely or not. There are many ways that could have been done by someone who’d managed to gain access to him and worked his way into his confidence, and not all of them require wizardry. If it was done without using sorcery, I think a good mind healer could almost certainly find and repair the damage, now that he knows there’s something there to look for. And if it was done using sorcery, then I think once the Council of Semkirk gets word to Wencit, he’ll be able to undo whatever it was.” He smiled sadly at his cousin. “Dahlnar’s too good a man for us to allow this-whatever ‘this’ is — to take him away from you forever, Borandas. I promise we’ll do everything we can to give him back to you and to himself.”
The baron continued to stare searchingly into Brayahs’ face for a dozen more heartbeats, and then he slowly relaxed-a little-and sucked in a deep, deep breath.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, and turned his head to smile at his wife when Myacha squeezed his hand in both of hers.
“You’re welcome,” Brayahs said, “but we still have to decide what to do about this.”
“‘We’?” Borandas repeated, arching one eyebrow, and Brayahs shrugged.
“ You have to decide what to do here in Halthan, and what the North Riding as a whole is going to do about it, Milord,” he said much more formally. “As the King’s man, I already know what I have to do.”
Borandas grimaced, but he also nodded, and turned back to Myacha.
“I should’ve listened to you, love,” he said, and his expression tightened once more. “And now I have to decide how far I can trust Thorandas, as well.”
His voice hardened with the last sentence, and Myacha’s eyes went dark with distress.
“You don’t know that whatever’s happened has anything at all to do with Thorandas,” she said quickly.
“No?” He looked into those eyes for several seconds, then shrugged. “You’re right, I don’t know anything of the sort, but given how radically Dahlnar’s advice changed-and how strongly he supported Thorandas’ positions after it did change-I have no choice but to consider the possibility that Thorandas was
the one behind it, now do I?”
