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.One thing all the bored archmages collected avidly was gossip."Don't mock me," the mage growled."This hand keeps me awake nights for itching.And you cheated in removing it, I'll remind you.Just as you cheated siccing that Hunt on my barbarian! He's supposed to survive tests of strength, but that was outside the rules!""Oh, come now!" Sysquemalyn, smiling at a young mage who pranced behind a jutting green codpiece and little else, patted her hair into place."We all know that the only rule about magic is that there are no rules.""But there are wagers, and honest bets require honest players.But you—""Honest?" The mage objected loudly."You had him escort a traveling party of delegates! And sent him a raven for a familiar!""The merest buffer because I knew you'd cheat!""So," countered Sysquemalyn, "we're left wondering who cheated first.Which just adds to the game and makes it more diverting.We never know what will happen next.I haven't had this much fun in years, so let's not quit now.I've got something absolutely devilish planned for your barbarian.But excuse me, dear 'Mas, I must prepare for my entertainment.The Great White Cow—excuse me, Lady Polaris—commands, and I obey.Ta ta!"Grumbling, Candlemas realized it was probably Sysquemalyn who had dragged him here.Somehow the chamberlain had offered Lady Polaris an entertainment, and her ladyship had accepted, then commanded Candlemas also to attend.Why, he didn't know.But as he sweated in the heavy clothes and simpered and smiled at his superiors—which included nearly everyone present—he wished he were home in his workshop.There were entertainments going on everywhere, in gardens, drawing rooms, the front lawn, and even on the roof.Some were wrestling contests or fights to the death between slaves hoping to win their freedom, some were ancient plays and some were new ones, anything to keep the bored archmages diverted for even a moment.But Sysquemalyn's entertainment was rumored to be something spectacular, something new, and everyone buzzed about what it might be.So even Candlemas joined the throng jamming the largest drawing room, though he stood at the back wall as befit his station.Lady Polaris swept onto a low dais at the front of the room, white hair and dress glistening in the reflected crystalline light.To polite applause, she announced she had commissioned one of her cleverer charges to produce a work that she herself had dreamed up.The archmage bragged about her cleverness; then she sat in the front row to see just what she'd commissioned.Without any sign of Sysquemalyn, her entertainment began.There was neither curtain nor light bank, but somehow the room went dark.Then, about head-height on the dais, a window into nothing opened, dropped, and became a door.From the door stepped a handsome man, as naked as a baby.Sketching with his hands, the man described more circles, and each opened into another window.From one he drew cloth to wrap himself.From another, a shining sword.A third window opened onto a sylvan glade, complete with waterfall, and this window the man tugged open until the water of the pool spilled over the lip and gushed onto the dais, then the floor, only to disappear.At this trick, the company of archmages oohed like children watching fireworks.In the glade, the man met a woman, equally naked.He retrieved for her a bolt of cloth and wrapped it about her slender form.Arm in arm, they crossed the stage and stepped into a sunny desert.The audience could feel the warm wind and scent of cactus blossoms waft over them, and oohed again.At the rear, Candlemas found himself oohing and aahing along with the rest.Then he shook his head, wondering how Sysquemalyn had contrived these tricks.Typical entertainments were a blend of illusion, sleight-of-hand, distant events viewed magically, and performances by hired actors.Certainly all these elements mingled here, but there was much more magic involved, and he was piqued that he could identify little of it.As he'd guessed it might, the story soon turned tragic.An archmage entered the story, took a fancy to the beautiful woman, and demanded her.The hero resisted, so the girl was spirited away.Journeying through ever-increasing settings—twisted tubes of stone, empty expanses like black glass, tangled forests where the trees attacked, and so on—the hero suffered fear and sorrow, then gained a boon companion only to lose him tragically.The girl, who spurned the archmage's advances, was brutally tortured, both physically and then spiritually, tricked into thinking she'd killed her lover when he entered her room by night.Soon the girl died and spiraled into a pit of hells, each more fearsome than the other.Despairing, the hero killed himself, then flickered through his own hells, drawing gasps and guffaws from the jaded audience.In the end, the lovers were united only to be incinerated in a pit.But the archmage, taking pity on the misguided and headstrong humans, resurrected them as two ash trees at opposite ends of the sylvan glade, yearning to interlink branches, but never quite achieving it.Finally, the scenes were whisked away, and only Lady Polaris was left standing there to bask as the audience roared and cheered and applauded.They demanded she take a bow, which she did, smile gleaming.But Candlemas did not linger.Mopping his brow and yanking at his collar, he staggered past servants and spectators until he reached fresh air at a back door.Of course, he told himself, the moral was clear: mere humans must never defy the whim of an archmage, lest they be racked in every hell imaginable.The audience of archmages had, naturally, loved it.But where, Candlemas asked himself over and over, had Sysquemalyn gotten those magics? And how had she manipulated them?And most importantly, could she really control them?* * * * *In the morning, which Sunbright was moderately surprised to see, the orcish commander took pains to paint a smeary red hand on a curl of birch bark, with his own mark, a tiny red spider, in the corner.This, he explained, would be a safe-conduct to get them past later patrols as they approached Tinnainen."And fortunate you will be to gain audience with the One King, honored be his name.Once you listen to him speak, you will throw off your doubts and join our glorious cause.Maybe soon, I'll see the two of you commanding patrols!" With a gurgly laugh, he waved them along the road and up into the next reach of forest.Barely had they passed the first few trees, though, before Sunbright flung the red-painted pass by the side of the road and scanned the woods to either hand."I reckon the south side will—"Greenwillow cut him off
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