“Don’t I look fine?” she asked.
Merritt finally smiled. “Yes, you certainly do look fine.” His face reddened. “I mean, you look like you’ve regained your strength.”
Magda smiled at his look of embarrassment.
Truth be told, she didn’t feel at all fine. She was so exhausted that she could hardly put one foot in front of the other, but she was more concerned that the sorceress from the Old World might be executed before they could get to her. It might be their only chance to get information about what the enemy was up to. She couldn’t afford to worry about how tired she was when there was so much at stake.
Despite the late hour, she expected General Grundwall to still be up. She knew him to be ferociously dedicated to his duty of protecting the Keep and those who lived and worked there. She remembered Baraccus often reminding General Grundwall to get some sleep or he wouldn’t be good for anything. The man rarely took the gentle reminders to heart.
By the clusters of men crowded around the archway to the Home Guard’s headquarters, she was sure he would be there. Some of the soldiers in blue tunics and light armor clutched papers or scrolls, waiting to give the general their reports. Other men were gathering for their patrols. The dozens of reflector lamps along the stone walls outside the archway reflected sparkles of light off polished armor and weapons that all the men carried. It was a decidedly male environment that made her feel out of place.
As Magda and Merritt made their way up the corridor, past soldiers coming and going as well as clusters of men discussing their work and their plans for the night, she spotted the general coming out of the arched opening to his headquarters. He was average height, but built like an oak tree, with thick arms and a neck that started flaring right from his ears down into his broad shoulders. She thought that he looked like a man who could shove a mountain aside if it was in his way.
He spoke to various people with brief, direct orders, sending men on specific types of patrols, or telling officers how he wanted watches run, or taking papers with reports from waiting men even as he was talking to others. He scanned each report and thanked the man giving it. Before long he had a sheaf of papers in his big fist.
When General Grundwall spotted Magda weaving her way through the swarm of soldiers, his face lit up with a big grin.
Magda instantly went on alert.
The general smiling like that was out of character. He was a serious soldier, healthy and fit despite the gray at his temples. He often rode with his men or walked miles and miles of patrols through the Keep with them, up and down countless stairs as he checked that his people were safe. He was focused and serious. He was not a man to smile casually.
Since the strange deaths at the Keep, he was, if anything, short-tempered. He felt that the murders reflected poorly on him personally. That the deaths continued put him continually on edge.
But here he was grinning as if he were at a ball and full of wine.
“Lady Searus! So glad to see you,” he said as he rushed up to her.
Merritt, standing beside her, made the general look not nearly as big and muscular as she had always thought of him.
“General Grundwall, can we speak privately? I need to ask you something.”
“Of course, of course,” he said, still grinning as he gestured expansively, urging her into an alcove to the side that held several statues of famous soldiers from history.
Before she could say anything, the general, still grinning, did.
“I must congratulate you, Lady Searus.”
If Magda had been on alert before, now she was alarmed. Again, the general spoke before she had a chance to ask what he meant.
“It’s wonderful news, simply wonderful. Just what the Keep needed. It lifted the gloom.”
Magda was not merely bewildered, she was becoming ever more apprehensive. She thought it best to be as careful as possible.
“And how did you hear the news, General?”
He straightened with a proud grin and hooked his thumbs on his weapons belt. “Prosecutor Lothain told me himself.”
Magda had to force herself not to act startled. “He did?”
General Grundwall nodded. He glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear him.
“I have to say, I’ve been worried about matters here at the Keep, but now, with you to marry our new First Wizard, I have been put at ease.” He held up his hand as he glanced around again. “Don’t worry, I haven’t told my men yet that Lothain is to be named First Wizard. I know that the news is supposed to be saved for an announcement at the council session.
“But the biggest news, as far as I’m concerned, is that you will once again be the wife of our First Wizard. I can’t tell you how relieved I am at that news.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Magda shared a look with Merritt.
She couldn’t help herself. “Why are you relieved?”
His brow lifted. “Lady Searus, you are widely respected. You may not be aware of it, but your word is widely listened to and valued. People know of all the times you have spoken with measured reason before the council, oftentimes being their conscience. You have always spoken for those who have no voice before the council. That has earned you the quiet respect of many people in the Keep.
“A lot of people had doubts about Lothain, and what you had to say about him before, and, well, your words put voice to the concerns of many. At the same time, though, there are others who believe in Lothain, believe that he is our savior for going after all the traitors among us. Those people, who believe in Lothain, would like to cut your throat. I have worried greatly for your safety because true believers are often quite vicious.
“But Lothain explained it all to me. He made it clear how your grief over Baraccus’s suicide weighed terribly on your nerves, that’s all. As he says, such deep grief can make even good people act out in misguided ways and so they must be forgiven.
“But by your marrying him, it will settle the matter and end any misgivings about Lothain being named First Wizard. People will be very pleased to have the reassurance of your confidence in him. After all, you’re marrying him!” He thumped his chest with a fist. “I’m reassured and pleased! I have to tell you, it will really quiet things down in the Keep. I can’t tell you how happy I am for you, and that you once again are to be wife to the First Wizard.”
Magda did her best to conceal her rage.
“And who have we here?” the general asked as his typical suspicious gaze turned to Merritt.
“I’m Merritt,” Merritt said with a pleasant smile, a smile that she could see was forced.
Merritt held out his hand. General Grundwall, still looking suspicious, shook the hand.
“Merritt is a maker,” Magda said, drawing the general’s attention back to her. “Since I have no use for them, I am giving Baraccus’s tools to Merritt, here. He will be able to put them to good use.”
“Ah,” the general said with a nod indicating that his suspicion had been allayed. “Well that’s a nice thing to do. I’m sure that First Wizard Baraccus would have wanted that.”
“That’s what I thought,” Magda said.
General Grundwall leaned close. “Now, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
Magda was taken off guard, and her mind suddenly raced for an answer.
If this man was now on the side of Lothain, she couldn’t very well trust him to take her to see the sorceress that Lothain was intent on putting to death. She momentarily considered taking him into her confidence and telling him that she had no intention, under any circumstances, of marrying Lothain. She was furious at Lothain for having the audacity to tell people that she was going to marry him.
As he stared at her, waiting for her answer, she reminded herself to focus. She couldn’t take the chance of trusting him.