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# Chapter Twenty

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" the richly dressed nobleman asked sardonically as soon as the servant who had ushered Varnaythus into his study departed, closing the door silently behind him.

"I was merely in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by and compare notes with you, Milord Triahm," the wizard-priest said smoothly. He walked across to one of the comfortable chairs which faced the other man's desk and arched his eyebrows as he rested one hand atop the chair back. His host nodded brusque permission, and he seated himself, then leaned back and crossed his legs.

"It's possible things will be coming to a head sooner than we'd anticipated," he continued. "And a new wrinkle has been added—one I thought you should know about. I'm not certain how much effect it will have on your own concerns here in Lorham, but the possibilities it suggests are at least . . . intriguing."

"Indeed?"

The other man ignored his own chair and crossed to prop a shoulder against the frame of the window behind his desk, half-turning his back on his guest. He gazed out through the glass at the gathering dusk. Thalar Keep, the ancestral seat of the Pickaxes of Lorham, loomed against the darkening sky, dominating the view, and his mouth tightened ever so slightly. Varnaythus couldn't see his expression with his face turned away towards the window, but he read the other man's emotions clearly in the tight set of his shoulders.

"Indeed," the nondescript wizard confirmed. "Unless my sources are much less reliable than usual, a new war maid will be arriving in Kalatha sometime soon."

"How marvelous," the nobleman growled, then made a spitting sound. "And just why should the arrival of one more unnatural bitch concern me?"

"Ah, but this particular unnatural bitch is Lady Leeana Bowmaster," Varnaythus purred.

For a second or two, Triahm seemed not to have heard him at all. Then he whipped around from the window, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"You're joking!"

"Not in the least, Milord," Varnaythus said calmly. "It's remotely possible my information is in error," actually, he knew it wasn't; he'd been tracking Leeana in his gramerhain for the last several days and witnessed her arrival in Kalatha the day before, "but I have every reason to believe it's accurate. If she hasn't arrived in Kalatha already, it's only a matter of a day or so before she does."

"Well, well, well," the other man murmured. He moved away from the window and lowered himself slowly into his own chair, never taking his eyes from Varnaythus' face. "That does present some possibilities, doesn't it?"

"I believe you might reasonably say that, Milord," Varnaythus replied in the voice of a tomcat with cream-clotted whiskers.

"Tellian's always been overly soft where those bitches are concerned," Triahm growled. "Probably because his idiot of an ancestor provided them with the initial foothold to begin their pollution of the Kingdom. Personally, that connection would have been enough to make me feel ashamed, not turn me into some sort of lap cat for them. Maybe this humiliation will finally open his eyes!"

"It's certainly possible," Varnaythus agreed. For his part, he'd always found Triahm's blindly bigoted, unthinking hatred for the war maids and all they stood for as stupid as it was useful. He doubted that a man like Tellian would ever fall prey to its like, however.

On the other hand, Tellian was a Sothōii, and now that his daughter had succeeded in reaching the war maids before he overtook her, it was at least possible he would react exactly as Triahm anticipated. Which, after all, was one of the reasons Varnaythus had decided against attempting to intercept and assassinate the girl. Kaeritha's presence was the other reason, he admitted frankly to himself. Champions of Tomanâk were hard to kill, even—or especially—by arcane means. Still, he'd felt sufficiently confident of managing it to have justified the risk of a few proxies, at least.

But however badly her death might have hurt and weakened her parents, the Dark Gods would weaken the kingdom far more seriously if their servants could set the Lord Warden of the West Riding openly against the war maids. Even if Tellian managed to avoid that particular trap, having his only child run away to become a despised war maid was going to cost him dearly in political support from the more conservative members of the Royal Council. Not to mention all of the delicious possibilities for destabilizing the war maids' charter when the question of the Balthar succession was thrown into the mix.

The wizard-priest rubbed mental hands together in gleeful contemplation of the possibilities, but he kept his expression composed and attentive.

"Even if it doesn't," Triahm went on, thinking aloud and unaware of his guest's own thoughts, "this is bound to have a major impact. It's going to drag Tellian right into the middle of Trisu's little difficulties." He smiled nastily. "It should be interesting to see which way that pushes my dear, irritating cousin."

"If Tellian does end up at odds with the war maids himself, it's likely to embolden Trisu considerably," Varnaythus pointed out. "I imagine he'll become even more persistent in pressing his claims if he thinks Tellian will openly support him. And I'd be surprised if those claims didn't harden and become more extensive, as well."

"But even if Tellian is gutless enough to swallow the shame, the fact that his precious daughter has seen fit to join one side of the dispute will compel him to be very careful about his own position," Triahm said. "If he supports the war maids, he'll be accused of favoritism."

"Perhaps so," Varnaythus said. "On the other hand, if he openly supports Trisu, at least some people will accuse him of doing so because he's angry with the war maids and wants to punish them."

"Either outcome could be useful to us," Triahm observed, beginning to play with a crystal paperweight from his desk. "His neutrality has worked against us from the start. It throws everything back to the local level and prevents Trisu from acting decisively."

"He won't be able to remain neutral very much longer, whatever happens with his daughter," Varnaythus assured him. "Unless I very much miss my guess, the tension on both sides is rapidly approaching the critical level."

He considered informing Triahm of who had become Leeana's escort to Kalatha, and decided—again—that warning him of the incipient arrival of a champion of Tomanâk in Lorham wouldn't exactly fill him with confidence.

"When it does, it's going to lead to open conflict between Trisu and Kalatha, probably with Quaysar going up in flames at the same time," he said instead, and his smile was even nastier than Triahm's had been. "Once it comes to outright warfare, Tellian's going to be forced to take a position, whether he wants to or not, or be accused of ignoring his responsibility to enforce the King's peace. Under the circumstances, I don't believe he'll have very much choice other than to back his own vassal, Trisu, against Kalatha."

"Only, of course, it won't be Trisu, will it?" An ugly light danced in Triahm's gray eyes, and Varnaythus carefully hid a smile of triumph. The man was so predictable it was pathetic.

"Not if our plans succeed, Milord," he agreed.

"And they will succeed," Triahm said flatly, and gave Varnaythus an ominous glance. "Your man is already in position, is he not?"

"Have no fear, Milord," Varnaythus said smoothly. "My agent—" if Triahm wanted to assume that Varnaythus' assassin (well, Salgahn's, if the wizard-priest wanted to be accurate) was a man, that was fine with him "— is ready to strike when the moment is right. But that moment won't come until we can provoke the proper level of violence between your cousin and Kalatha and be sure suspicion is directed where we want it to go."

"Understood, understood," Triahm said in an irritated tone, waving one hand dismissively. "Of course the timing is critical. But once he's gone, and the blame for his death is laid in the proper quarter, there will be no suspicions of me when I assume the titles which ought to have been mine. And it will give me the excuse I need to burn that cancer at Kalatha out of the flesh of Lorham once and for all!"

"So it will, Milord," Varnaythus agreed. "So it will."

* * *

"He truly is an idiot, isn't he?"

"Triahm?" a soft, throaty contralto said from behind Varnaythus. The contralto's owner laughed. "Are you only just now realizing that?"

"Scarcely, Dahlaha," Varnaythus said dryly. It was his turn to gaze out of a window over the night-darkened streets of Thalar. It was a much nicer window than the one in Triahm's office, although Triahm had paid for both of them.

The wizard-priest craned his neck, gazing up past the luxurious mansion's overhanging eaves at a night sky the color of darkest cobalt and full of stars. There was no moon tonight, which was probably a good sign, he told himself. Then he turned away from the stars and back to business.

His hostess, reclining on the chaise longue across the table from him, was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. He admitted that candidly, yet her beauty didn't really appeal to him. He could appreciate and admire her sleek, golden hair and huge blue eyes, the impeccable bone structure of her graceful, oval face and high cheekbones, and the svelte lines of the richly curved figure which hovered just this side of overripeness. But the pouting mouth that whispered passion to other men whispered to him of corruption.

There was something too perfect about Dahlaha Farrier's sensual beauty. Not even Varnaythus could be certain, but he strongly suspected that her natural appearance had been significantly improved upon. Unfortunately, improving the packaging had made no difference to what lived inside it, which was hardly surprising. Women who turned to Dahlaha's chosen deity were already corrupt, with a soul-deep twistedness, because only a woman who was could endure Her service. Priestesses like Dahlaha could count upon being gifted with eye-catching physical beauty, if they did not already possess it, but no amount of enhanced beauty was going to change that inner distortion.

Varnaythus enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh as much or more than the next man, and he had no inherent objection to corruption. But there was a hunger to Dahlaha's corruption—one as dark as Jerghar's lust for blood, although it yearned for something quite different. Varnaythus had no illusions about what would ultimately happen to any man who surrendered himself to Dahlaha's power.

"Of course I've always known Triahm is a fool," the wizard-priest continued, settling himself into the more conventional chair he preferred to the chaise longues Dahlaha favored. No doubt so that she could display her indisputable charms to best advantage. "If he weren't a fool, he wouldn't be the tool we need. And if stupidity and ambition didn't blind him to everything but what he wants, he might ask himself a few awkward questions about just where and how you were able to find him 'hirelings' with our capabilities. But despite all that, it genuinely annoys me to find myself helping an idiot like that supplant someone who at least has a working brain."

"What's this? The conspirator as philosopher?" Dahlaha laughed again. "Or is it just a case of pragmatic necessity offending your innate sense of artistry?"

"The latter, probably," Varnaythus said. He leaned forward and snagged another apple from the table. It was from the previous fall's harvest, and its skin was wrinkled, but its taste remained pleasantly sweet.

"Say what you will about Cassan," he continued as he chewed, "the man is at least competent within the limits of what he knows is going on. And he has two or three people working for him who are very good at what they do—like Darnas Warshoe." He shook his head and took another bite of apple. "Warshoe's good enough that I actually had to hunt him down and arrange for him to stumble over 'Cathman the Peddler.' "

"Oh?" Dahlaha laughed. "Are you still using that old faker as an alias?"

"It works," Varnaythus replied with a grin. "And even though he's considered a harmless old crank, he does manage to find a few charms and protective amulets that actually work. Fortunately for us, Cassan's one real weakness is an absolute phobia about magi reading his mind." The wizard-priest shrugged. "It's silly of him, of course, but it inspired him to send Warshoe to Cathman for amulets to prevent it as soon as Warshoe reported that Cathman was in Toramos. Amulets of my own design, of course. And the beauty of it is that Cassan insists that all of his closest henchmen wear them at all times, to keep magi from picking their brains, so now I can keep track of all of them without even needing my gramerhain. Which is probably a good thing, given how busy Cassan keeps them—especially Warshoe."

"Well, that's Cassan, not Triahm," she said. "But if it makes you feel better about helping an idiot, just remember how unlikely he is to survive long enough to enjoy his success. As you said yourself, his incompetence was one of the reasons They chose him as Their tool. Do you honestly expect him to be able to navigate the storm we're preparing for him?"

"No, of course not." Varnaythus munched on his apple, then chuckled suddenly. "And you know what? It does make me feel better."

Dahlaha laughed yet again and raised her glass in mock salute. He waved the half-eaten apple at her in response, then applied himself to finishing it off.

"Do you really think that having Tellian's daughter injected into the situation at Kalatha is going to work to our advantage?" his hostess asked after a moment, her tone much more serious, and Varnaythus snorted.

"It's hard to say." he took a last bite of apple, tossed the gnawed core back onto his plate, and then stretched. "With another, more typical Sothōii noble, I'd be more prepared to hazard a prediction. But Tellian is scarcely typical—I suspect that that's the main reason They want him dead, or at least discredited and set at odds with the Crown." He shrugged. "The man loves his wife and his daughter, and I frankly think it's unlikely he'll cut himself off from the girl, whatever she's done. That's the real reason I opposed killing her. If we can get him tangled up in our little web—" Dahlaha's eyes flashed at his choice of noun, as he'd known they would "— it would do far more to destabilize the kingdom as a whole than anything we might achieve locally here in Lorham."

"Don't underestimate what we're doing here, Varnaythus." Dahlaha's husky voice had turned cold and hard, and Varnaythus glanced at her. "My Lady doesn't waste Her efforts on minor projects," she continued. "The web She's weaving here will stretch out to every corner of the Wind Plain. Yes, drawing Tellian into Her toils would make things easier. But in the end, She will achieve her goals even without him."

"And if a champion of Tomanâk interferes?" Varnaythus asked levelly. There was an odd, greenish flicker at the backs of Dahlaha's eyes, and he felt his pulse quicken with a sudden tingle of something much too much like fear for his taste. But he made himself look into those eyes steadily, and reminded himself that he, too, had his patron.

"Tomanâk!" Dahlaha hissed the hated name. Her long, graceful fingers with their crimson-painted nails flexed like claws, or pincers, and she spat on the floor. "That for your precious champion!" she snarled.

She really didn't look at all beautiful in that moment, Varnaythus reflected.

"That's all very well," he said in a brisk, businesslike voice, "but your Lady is the one who's going to have to deal with this Kaeritha if she gets that far putting things together."

"She won't," his hostess said shortly.

"Dahlaha," he said patiently, "that's exactly the sort of thinking that leads to . . . unfortunate errors. I remind you of what happened to Tharnatus when this same champion and Bahzell came calling in Navahk."

"Tharnatus was a fool, and Sharnā is a coward," she shot back, and her ripe mouth twisted with contempt. "I can't believe your Lady let Herself be roped into that entire mess. One thing Carnadosa has always been is smart, so what was She thinking of to throw good money after bad that way?"

"The Lady of the Wand is smart," Varnaythus agreed. "In this case, though, She had no choice. The decision came from Phrobus Himself."

Dahlaha looked up from her wineglass, her expression suddenly taut. Then she shrugged.

"I still don't understand why Phrobus allowed himself to be convinced to let Sharnā deal with the hradani in the first place. Granted, even He should have been able to handle a horde of ignorant barbarians, but His father must have known He'd think small, as usual. And then He chose Tharnatus as His chief priest. Tharnatus!" She barked a vicious laugh. "He always was as stupid as Triahm, and he certainly proved it in Navahk! First he overestimated his own cleverness and power, and then Sharnā was too terrified of Tomanâk to face him openly when Tharnatus needed Him most. But that won't happen here. My Lady fears no one and nothing! When we require Her aid, She' ll provide it, and spit in Tomanâk's face, if She must."

Varnaythus gazed at her for several seconds, and his stomach muscles tightened at what he saw in her expression. It was more than possible that she was reading too much into her deity's intentions. But it was also possible that she wasn't. Dahlaha's Lady was noted for neither her sense of restraint nor her willingness to accept any limitations upon her power. Or, for that matter, for what most mortals would have called her sanity. The wizard-priest remembered his conversation with Jerghar, and he felt sweat trying to pop out along his hairline.

"I trust it won't be necessary for it to come to that," he said after a moment, choosing his words and controlling his tone rather more carefully than he usually did in conversation with Dahlaha.

"I doubt very much that it will."

She, too, seemed to have stepped back a pace from the intensity of the moment before. She lifted her wineglass and sipped delicately, then set it gently on the table.

"All of the pieces are in place," she said. "When They decided to place this portion of the plan in Her care, They knew what They were doing." Her smile was a thing of ice and old, dried bone. "We've placed Her agents—including the ones who don't even realize they're working for Her—in all of the critical places."

"Including Trisu's household?" Varnaythus asked in a neutral tone, and she grimaced.

"No," she admitted. "Not there." She shrugged irritably. "there's something about Trisu that bothers me. When I look at him, I don't see what I see in other men's eyes."

She picked up the wineglass once more, but this time only to glower down into its depths, not to drink from it, and Varnaythus watched her expression from behind masklike eyes. It was obvious that she resented Trisu's apparent immunity to the allure of her exquisitely maintained beauty and raw sexuality, but there was more to it than simple resentment. There was also uncertainty, almost a trace of fear, and he cocked his head.

"What do you see in his eyes?" he asked finally, and she shrugged again, this time angrily.

"Suspicion," she hissed, like a cat passing a fishbone, and glowered at her fellow conspirator. The green flicker was back in her eyes, although fainter than before, and he could almost physically taste her anger—at him, this time—for forcing her to admit that. But he could stand more than Dahlaha's anger if that was the price of making sure he didn't disappoint Them.

"Suspicion of what?" he asked, quietly, but in a tone whose firmness reminded her that he was her superior—for now, at least—and warned her that he expected an answer.

"I don't know," she admitted, then tossed her head angrily. "I know he knows I'm Triahm's mistress, and he's too straitlaced to care for that. Besides, he likes Triahm's wife, and I'm sure he resents his cousin's infidelity because of that, as well. But there's something else in there, too, and I'm not sure exactly what it is."

She obviously hated confessing that much, but she made herself meet Varnaythus' eyes steadily, and it seemed to him that she was being honest about her concerns. Or, at least, as honest as it was possible for her to be.

"Well, he obviously doesn't know Who you serve," the wizard-priest observed. "If he did, you'd be dead—or at least fled, with his troops in hot pursuit, which would be almost as bad from Their viewpoint. I wonder . . ."

His voice trailed off, and he gazed into the distance at something only he could see, his fingers drumming absently on his thigh while he thought. Dahlaha stood it in silence for as long as she could, then cleared her throat noisily. His eyes popped back into focus and swiveled to her.

"You wonder what?" she demanded.

"I wonder if he's Gifted," the wizard-priest replied.

"Gifted?" Dahlaha sat up on her chaise lounge, her expression alarmed. "Is that possible?"

"Of course it's possible." Varnaythus grimaced. "He's a Sothōii. Whatever they may have degenerated into since, they're descended from the oldest, highest noble families of the Empire of Ottovar. Some of them probably have traces of Ottovar and Gwynytha's blood in their veins even today. Most of the surviving wizard lords of Kontovar are descended from exactly the same source, for Phrobus' sake. The Art is bred into their bone and blood, Dahlaha. It's our good fortune that their ancestors turned so completely against all forms of wizardry after their escape to Norfressa. There's a very good chance Trisu's bloodline carries the Gift, but there's virtually no chance at all of his knowing it. Still, if it's strong enough, he might well have at least a touch of True Sight. In which case he probably recognizes that there's something hidden behind your outward appearance. There's no way he could know what, not without a great deal of training he can't possibly have had. But many people who possess instinctive True Sight rely on it even if they don't know exactly what it is." He shrugged. "Most of them simply assume that they have unusually accurate 'hunches' and let it go at that."

"You never suggested he might have any abilities like that!"

"I don't recall your ever having asked me what abilities he might have," Varnaythus replied coolly. "As you've pointed out to me several times, this end of the operation is yours—yours and your Lady's. I assumed that if you'd had any reason to believe you needed my assistance, you would have asked for it."

Dahlaha glared at him, obviously looking for a fresh line of attack, but his defense was unassailable. The Lorham and Kalatha portions of the master plan to destabilize the Kingdom of the Sothōii and return it to the Time of Troubles were, indeed, her responsibility.

"Very well," she huffed finally, "be that way. But at least tell me this—is this untrained Gift of his likely to see through Triahm's role playing?"

"It probably already has," Varnaythus said calmly. "Luckily for us, even if he were trained, he wouldn't be able to read minds. He's not a mage, Dahlaha. I'm sure he realized long ago that his dear cousin Triahm hates his guts and resents the fact that a man ten years younger than he is inherited the title he wants so badly. Trisu doesn't trust Triahm as far as he could throw a courser, but aside from helping to confirm that his general suspicions are justified, the True Sight won't help him anywhere else. Although, it's possible that the combination of his distrust for Triahm and any True Sight he might possess could explain why he should have taken his cousin's mistress in such dislike." He flicked one hand in a throwing-away gesture. "On the other hand, does it really matter? Do you really care how much Trisu may dislike you? I mean, you're planning on having the man killed, Dahlaha, so what does it matter if he doesn't particularly care for you?"

"It doesn't matter at all," she said, "except that the eye he keeps on me has prevented me from infiltrating his household the way I managed at Kalatha. I haven't cared to take too many chances, so I've been unable to eliminate or tamper with people like Salthan."

"There's not really any need to put Salthan out of the way," Varnaythus said after a brief consideration. "Or, rather, we can let Triahm deal with it once Trisu's dead. That's the beauty of it. We didn't have to change anything at this end."

"I know. I'd still feel better if I had more positive control of the situation, though."

"There's never any such thing as too much control," Varnaythus agreed. "Still, it sounds as if you have things in hand. What truly matters is goading the war maids into providing the proper provocation, not whether or not Trisu responds to it exactly the way we want him to. After all," he leaned back with an expansive gesture and an icy smile, "when the time comes, what will count isn't what actually happened, but what everyone thinks happened."

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