Christopher Stasheff

‘And yet you say she loves them, Loguire and Tuan?’

‘Aye; why else such harshness?’

Brom lapsed into silence again. Rod cleared his throat and said,

‘Tuan doesn’t seem to have stayed banished too well….’

‘Aye.’ Brom’s mouth drew back at the corners. ‘The fool would be near her, he swore, though his head should be forfeit. But with a price on his life, he must live like a murderer or thief.’

Rod smiled sourly. ‘And, somewhere, he got hold of the idea that the beggars would cause less trouble if someone took care of them.’

Brom nodded. ‘And thus the beggars became somewhat a power, but Tuan swears he will throw all his forces to guard the Queen’s back. He professes that he still doth love her; that he will love her though she hew off his head.’

‘And she, of course,’ Rod mused, ‘claims there isn’t a reason in the world why he shouldn’t hate her.’

‘And in that she is right; yet I think Tuan loves her.’ They had come to the guard room door; Rod put a hand on the latch and smiled down at Brom O’Berin, smiled and shook his head sadly.

‘Brainless,’ he said. ‘The pair of them.’

‘And most tender loving enemies they are,’ Brom smiled, with a touch of exasperation. ‘And here is your lodging, good night.’

Brom turned on his heel and stalked off.

Rod looked after him, shaking his head and cursing himself silently. ‘Fool that I am,’ he murmured; ‘I thought he stood by her because he was in love with her. Oh, well, Fess makes mistakes too….’

The great candle in the barracks was burned down to a stub. Time in Gramarye was kept by huge candles banded in red and white, six rings of red and six white. One candle was lit at dawn, the other twelve hours later.

According to this candle, it was 3 a.m. Rod’s eyelids suddenly felt very heavy. They seemed downright leaden when he remembered that an hour on Gramarye was roughly equal to an hour and twenty minutes Galactic Standard.

He staggered toward his bunk and tripped. The object underfoot gave a muffled grunt; Rod had forgotten that Big Tom would be sleeping at the foot of the bed, on the floor.

The big man sat up, yawning and scratching. He looked up and saw Christopher Stasheff

Rod. ‘Oh, gode’en, master! What’s the time?’

‘Ninth hour of the night,’ Rod said softly. ‘Go back to sleep, Big Tom. I didn’t mean to wake you.’

”S what I’m here for, master.’ He shook his head to clear it of sleep.

Which was somewhat strange, Rod suddenly realized, since the man’s eyes had been wide awake. A synapse flicked in Rod’s brain, and he was wide awake and wary, once again the subversive agent.

So, to keep from arousing Big Tom’s suspicions, he tried to appear even more sleepy than he had been.

‘It was a great night, Big Tom,’ he mumbled, and fell face forward into his bunk. He hoped Big Tom would leave matters as they were and go back to sleep; but he heard a deep, warm chuckle from the foot of the bed, and Big Tom started pulling off Rod’s boots.

‘A bit of folly in you, hadn’t you, master?’ he muttered. ‘Aye, and a wench or two under your belt, I’ll warrant.’

‘Wake me at the lighting of the candle,’ Rod mumbled into his pillow. ‘I’m to wait on the Queen at breakfast.’

‘Aye, master.’ Big Tom worried loose the other boot and lay down, chuckling.

Rod waited till Tom began to snore again, then propped himself up on his elbows and looked back over his shoulder. Generally, the big oaf seemed thoroughly loyal and superbly stupid; but there were times when Rod wondered…

He let his head slump down onto the pillow, closed his eyes, and willed himself to sleep.

Unfortunately, the mind-over-matter bit wasn’t working tonight.

All his senses seemed boosted past maximum. He would’ve sworn he could feel every thread in the pillow under his cheek, could hear the mouse gnawing at the baseboard, the frog croaking in the moat, the festive laughter wafted on the breeze.

His eyelids snapped open. Festive laughter?

He rolled out of bed and went to the high silt window. Who the hell was partying at this hour of the night?

The moon stood behind the castellated north tower; silhouettes flitted across its face, youthful figures in a three-dimensional dance; and some of them seemed to be riding on broomsticks.

Witches. In the north tower…

Rod climbed the worn stone steps of the tower, toiling up the Christopher Stasheff

spiral. The granite walls seemed to crowd closer and closer the higher he went. He reminded himself that, having been declared a warlock by the elves - unreasonable little bastards I - he quail-fled for membership in this group.

But his stomach didn’t get the message; it was still suing for a Dramamine. His mouth was bone-dry. Sure, the elves approved of him; but had they gotten the word to the witches?

All the old tales of his childhood came flooding back, liberally interspersed with chunks of the witch scenes from Macbeth. Now that he stopped to think about it, he couldn’t remember one single instance of a philanthropic witch, except Glinda the Good, and you couldn’t really call her a witch.

One thing in his favor: these witches seemed happy enough. The music floating down the stairwell was an old Irish jig, and it was salted with laughter, buoyant and youthful.

The wall glowed with torchlight ahead of him. He turned the last curve of the spiral and came into the great tower room.

A round, or rather globular, dance was in progress, a sort of three-dimensional hora. Through the clouds of torch-smoke he could make out couples dancing on the wails, the ceiling, in mid-air, and occasionally on the floor. Here and there were knots of chattering, giggling people. Their clothes were bright to the point Of - well, hell, they were downright gaudy. Most of them held mugs, filled from a great cask near the stairwell.

They were all young, teenagers. He couldn’t spot a single face that looked old enough to vote.

He paused on the threshold, possessed of a distinct feeling that he didn’t belong. He felt like the chaperon at a high school prom a necessary evil.

The youngster tapping the keg saw Rod and grinned. ‘Hail!’ he cried. ‘You are laggard in coming.’ A full tankard slapped into Rod’s hand.

‘I didn’t know I was coming,’ Rod muttered.

‘Be assured that we did.’ The youth grinned. ‘Molly foresaw it; but she said you would be here half an hour agone.’

‘Sorry.’ Rod’s eyes were a trifle glazed. ‘Ran into a couple of delays …

‘Eh, think naught of it. ‘Twas her miscalling, not yours; the wine, no doubt. Yet we have expected you since you set foot in the castle; the elves told us last night you were a warlock.’