The Sorcerer of the North

22

Alyss listened intently as Will recounted the events of the previous night. Max was obviously paying attention as well, he thought. When he reached the moment where the giant figure had emerged from the mist, he noticed that the musician missed several beats. He smiled ruefully. He didn't blame the other man. He had a distinct memory that his heart had done much the same thing-and had kept on doing it, when he had been in the dark, menacing wood.

As he related his tale, Alyss had jotted occasional notes in a small leather-bound journal. She studied them now, frowning slightly, her chin on her hand. Finally, she looked up at him.

"It must have been terrifying," she said.

"It was." Will had no hesitation about admitting his fear to her. They had known each other too long for him to try to pretend otherwise. In addition, his training and his honest nature compelled him to give a true and accurate account of events-including his reactions to them. She drummed her fingers on the table for a few seconds, studying her notes once more. Then she touched her quill to one of the jotted points.

"Your dog…" she began. "What's her name, by the way?"

Will hesitated. He was getting tired of that question. He racked his brains for a name but inspiration deserted him. "I was thinking of calling her Blackie…" he said.

"Blackie?" Alyss's tone left no doubt that she didn't think too much of his choice.

"But I have a few other ideas as well," Will added hastily. She waved the matter aside. It wasn't important.

"Whatever. You said she growled when you first saw the lights moving?"

He thought back to the scene in the wood, trying to reconstruct exactly what had happened. "Yes," he said finally. "She had her head cocked-the way dogs do when they hear a strange sound."

"Then…" She paused and went back to the notes. "You saw the Night Warrior and then you heard him speak, correct?"

He nodded.

"How long was it between the time you saw the figure and heard him speak? Was there a pause?"

He thought carefully. He knew how important small details could be and he wanted to be absolutely sure he had them correct. "There was a definite pause," he said. "Perhaps twenty seconds. No less then that. It's hard to be accurate; I was a little distracted by what was going on," he added, and she nodded her sympathy.

"I don't blame you. I would have been running, screaming the place down, long before you reached that point," she said. Then she touched on the detail that had been bothering her.

"You said when the figure spoke, the dog jumped up and growled?"

"That's right." And suddenly a light dawned in his mind, a fraction of a second before Alyss stated it.

"So she wasn't bothered by the apparition?"

Will shook his head. "No. She came to her feet and growled when we heard the voice. So when the figure appeared, she must have been lying down… relaxed."

Alyss nodded at him. "So she reacted to the sounds, and the lights-which you'd expect a dog to do if they were real-but when it came to the twelve-meter-high figure of the Warrior…?"

She let the sentence hang and Will completed the thought.

"She didn't see it. Or, if she did, it didn't bother her or threaten her."

Alyss sat back in her chair. "You know, Will, I'm no expert on the paranormal, but I have always heard that animals sense the presence of manifestations long before humans do. Yet the dog simply lay there, doing nothing, while you were seeing a giant warrior in the mist."

"That's the point. I did see it. It was there." Will frowned as he tried to piece together the puzzle.

"I know you saw it. I know you're not the hysterical type. But I'm saying it wasn't a spirit. It was some kind of trick. And the dog ignored it because the dog sensed that it wasn't real. The sounds, the voices, the lights-they were all real, physical events. But the figure was some kind of trick-an illusion of some kind."

There was a long silence while they looked at each other. Will knew they were both thinking the same thought.

"I'm going to have to go back in there and find out, aren't I?" he said, at length.

"We're going to have to go in there and find out," Alyss corrected him. He was grateful for the idea of company-and at the thought that her analytical mind would be applied to the task. But even so…

"This time, I'm going in daylight," he said, and Alyss grinned at him.

"After what you've told me, wild horses couldn't drag me into that wood after dark," she said.

Will played in the dining hall again that night. Alyss, as she had told Orman, stayed in her suite, presumably recovering from her journey, and made no public appearance. There was a good deal of interest in her, particularly among the ladies of the castle. A noblewoman from the south would probably wear the latest in fashion and the local ladies couldn't wait to see it. They were mildly disappointed by her absence and, as a result, it was a low-key night. Orman left the dining hall shortly after the meal was cleared and before Will played. There was no sign of Keren and his entourage, and Will wondered whether the likeable young warrior had been warned off by his cousin as well.

Will's performance was adequate, he thought. He was becoming sufficiently at home as a performer to now be able to gauge the level of his own work. The audience enjoyed themselves without becoming overly enthusiastic, which suited his plans admirably. He and Alyss had arranged to meet early the following morning and he didn't want a late night in the smoky atmosphere of the hall.

Accordingly, an hour after sunrise, he rode out under the portcullis. The massive gate was raised at dawn each day, as soon as it Was evident that there was no sign of enemies in the immediate vicinity. The guard looked up at him as he passed.

"Hunting, jongleur?" he asked, nodding at the small hunting bow Will had slung over his shoulders, and the quiver of arrows hanging from his saddle.

"Nothing like a brace of snowshoe hare or the odd grouse to liven up a meal," Will told him, and the man raised an eyebrow as he indicated the bow.

"You'll need to get mighty close with that bow," he said. "Mind you, there's precious little in the way of game at the moment."

Will grinned easily. "Ah, well, they say hunting is just a way to ruin a pleasant ride," he said, and the sentry smiled at the old joke.

"Good luck, in any event. And be careful. There's talk that a bear's been sighted hereabouts."

"I never eat bear," said Will, completely straight-faced. For a moment, the guard didn't realize he was joking. Then he chuckled as he caught on.

Will took the northwest road away from the castle, reflecting on how his reactions to people had changed since he had assumed an entertainer's role. As a Ranger, he was accustomed to remaining silent around people, and never making an unnecessary remark-certainly never a joke. It was part of the Ranger mystique, he had been taught. There was a practical side to it as well: people who weren't talking found it easier to listen to what others were saying, and information was a Ranger's stock-in-trade. As a jongleur, however, it was totally in character for him to make jokes at the slightest opportunity. Even bad ones. Especially bad ones, he amended.

He went northwest for several kilometers. The dog loped silently along, in the lead as usual, glancing back from time to time to make sure he and Tug were following. The little horse watched their new companion with good-natured tolerance.

They had planned the rendezvous in Alyss's chambers the night before, poring over a chart of the area that she had produced. "I'll leave at first light and go east," she had said. "You go northwest an hour later. Then loop around by this track here and meet me at the edge of Grimsdell Wood."

He found the narrow track she had indicated and turned Tug onto it. It was an overcast day, with a wind keening through the bare treetops, but there were still glimpses to be had of the watery sun. He caught sight of it now and decided he was a little behind schedule A slight pressure with his knees and Tug broke from a trot into a slow canter. The dog, hearing the change in gait, sped up her own pace accordingly. Will looked at her with interest. She showed a great deal of economy of motion, never going faster than necessary. He guessed that, like a Ranger horse, she could maintain that steady pace all day if asked.

It was the dog who first registered Alyss's presence as they approached the outskirts of Grimsdell Wood. The bushy, white-tipped tail began sweeping back and forth in greeting and she ran up to the girl, half-hidden in the shadows beneath a grove of trees. Tug stirred, as if to say I saw her too, and Will patted the little horse's neck.

"I know," he said.

The previous day, Alyss had dressed as a noblewoman, in a fine, fashionable gown. There was no sign of that elegant creature now. Today, she wore a short tunic, gray tights and knee-high riding boots. A waist-length cloak swung from her shoulders and her gleaming blond hair was held in place by a feathered hunting cap. The gray tights showed off her long and very shapely legs to great advantage and Will found he preferred this Alyss to the perfectly coiffed, elegant Lady Gwendolyn. Her long dagger, in a beautifully worked leather scabbard, hung from a wide leather belt that gathered the tunic around her waist. She grinned up at him as he approached.

"You're late," she said, holding up her hand to him. He took hold of her by the wrist and heaved as she sprang up behind him. She settled herself on Tug's withers and put her arms around his waist.

"Where's your horse?" Will asked-not that he minded having her ride with him and not that he minded her arms around his waist either.

"It's riding on with my escort," she said. "And with an excellent dummy of Lady Gwendolyn tied in the saddle, covered with her riding cloak."

Will half-turned to look at her. "Was that totally necessary?" he asked. Alyss shrugged.

"Perhaps not. But shortly after they rode off, a couple of men-at-arms from the castle rode past after them. It might have been coincidence, but who knows? Is this Grimsdell?" She pointed to the grim, dark line of trees in the near distance. Will nodded.

"That's it all right," he said, feeling a tightening in his stomach.

They rode back south along the fringe of the wood until they located the split oak tree that marked the spot where Will had entered Grimsdell two nights previously. By daylight, he felt no need to dismount. They rode into the trees, occasionally bending forward to avoid branches and creepers that grew across the narrow trail, the dog moving silently ahead of them.

Will's training reasserted itself. In spite of his growing nervousness at entering this unfriendly place again, he was able to retrace the path he had taken.

"Where did you see the lights?" Alyss asked, and he hesitated, thinking for a second, before pointing.

"They were moving in that direction," he said. "Hard to tell how far away they were."

Alyss looked critically at the tangle of trees and creepers around them. "Couldn't have been too far or you'd never have seen them through all this. Come on," she added, and slid down from the saddle. Will dismounted and she pointed in the direction he had indicated.

"Let's take a look in that direction," she said. Will signaled for Tug to stay on the track. He clicked his fingers and pointed, gesturing for the dog to move ahead of them, and she slid easily though the undergrowth and beneath the lower branches. The going was harder for Will and Alyss, however, and before long he found it necessary to unsheath his saxe knife and hack a way through the tangle. Alyss smiled quizzically at the way the heavy blade sliced through tough creepers, thick vines and even small saplings.

"That's a handy weapon to have," she said, and Will nodded, grunting as he chopped through a thick branch and tossed it aside.

"It's a weapon and a tool," he said. Then, unexpectedly, the way ahead was clear.

"Well, what do you know?" Alyss said, nodding her head in satisfaction.

The dog waited for them, sitting on a narrow, but unmistakably man-made, track through the woods, running parallel to the main trail they had been following.