“I am—was—Kethan—heir to Car Do Prawn of the Redmantle Keep. What I am now—I do not know.”
I was sure I had seen a fleeting change of expression on his face when I named myself. Had Maughus’s hunters spread so far the news of my escape that it had reached this quiet place? Still I could not accept that this man or woman would yield to any pressure from such as Maughus. For they had about them both, like a cloak about the body in the months of cold, an elusive suggestion of Power. I could feel of them partly as I did toward Ursilla, that they saw and did things beyond the talent of mankind.
“Car Do Prawn,” repeated the man. “Lord Erach rules there, but if you are heir—” He gazed at me interrogatively.
“I am son to the Lady Heroise, his sister.”
“That is a clear human line,” the man continued. “How came you then under the Were spell? Was it laid upon you?”
“By my folly, as Ursilla and my mother said, because of the belt—”
“Let him tell his story later.” The woman interrupted me. “I think it is time for the cordial. He must be strengthened or the moly will fail the sooner.”
I did not understand her meaning. However, when the man aided me to sit up and she brought me a cup of steaming liquid, I obediently emptied that even though the taste was bitter. As I so drank, another came into the chamber.
My Moon Witch! Again she wore the riding garb wherein I had seen her by the river. Behind her trailed two tawny shapes that I knew for wild cats half-grown. That any could tame them was a mystery, for such beasts are noted for their fierce natures. Yet, they rubbed about her ankles lovingly, hindered her so in walking that she must pick up the bolder, holding it within the crook of her arm, fondling its ears.
“There is a pied hawk in the air,” she said. “It has four times circled the garden. I do not think it hunts—but rather watches.”
“So—” The woman nodded, then looked to me.
“The wounds you bear, Clansman. They were scored by a hawk’s talons. What enemy have you?”
“One only with the Power—the Wise Woman, Ursilla,” I mumbled. The girl had been so intent upon her message that she had not looked to me. Now she turned full gaze in my direction. Within me another magic worked, one that bore no kinship with the Power.
I had seen her first in the majesty of one who speaks with what is greater than any of our species, robed herself with the Power. And then again I had seen her through feverish eyes by the river. Three times—still within me it was as if I had known her all my life. Or else had been aware there was such a one in the world and had unconsciously sought her. Yet she looked upon me with indifference. The cub she fondled might be of far greater importance to her.
“The Wise Woman Ursilla—She dwells at Car Do Prawn?” the man asked.
“Since my mother returned from Garth Howel. I do not—” I hesitated. To reveal myself so much less a master of my own destiny in the eyes of the Moon Maid, that was a hard thing. Yet there could only be truth with these three—that I knew.
“Ursilla is not fully my enemy. She would have me do her will. Therefore—her creature (I am sure it was her hawk) took the belt. Now she perhaps seeks me again.”
“Tell me more of this belt,” the man ordered with some of the same authority in his voice as Pergvin used when instructing me in arms.
So I told my tale, of the gift of the belt, the transformation that it wrought in me, of how Maughus had used that to force my flight from the Keep, and the later attack of the hawk.
“Thus without the belt, you believe that you cannot return to man form?” the man asked when I had done.
“I thought not—until now. But—what did you do for me, Lady,” I dared to ask the girl directly, “that made me a man once more?”
She pointed and I looked down to where there swung against my bare breast the small ball of crystal, within it the sprig of green, which to my eyes now did not seem so perfect, having a slightly withered appearance.
“Moly,” the Moon Witch replied. “The herb that can counteract any spell, until it dies. But when it dies,” she shrugged, “you will return to the pard, unless you learn better what can be done.”
It seemed to me that there was a kind of contempt in her gaze, as if I showed such stupidity in my past actions that I was hardly worth any tending. My feeling for her recoiled a little, to be tinged in turn with anger. Who was she to judge me so?
The man paid no attention to her, rather he gave me an order.
“Put forth your hand!”
When I had done so, he cupped his under mine, raising my palm closer to study the lines that met and crossed there. I saw again his faint change of expression.
“It is not the belt that wrought your change.” His words were blunt. “That only provided a key to open the door. Unfortunately, because it was the key, your guess that this Wise Woman can use it to control you now is the truth. And also—if the belt is destroyed—”
“I will be only pard?” I demanded when he hesitated.
“As it now stands, yes,” he admitted.
“And if Maughus gains the belt—then that is what he will do—destroy it!” The strength that had come back into my body made me want to leap from the bed, return forthwith to the Keep. If I fronted Maughus as a man I could challenge him and—But what had the maid said concerning this moly? I peered intently into the globe. There was no mistaking that the sprig within was dying.
“Can I get another?” I held up the globe to demand of the three.
The woman shook her head. “Only once can the spell work for the same person.”
“Meanwhile—” The girl still stroked the cub she held. The other had reared up to paw at her breeches. “The hawk flies overhead. Maybe so some other shall learn who shelters here—”
“Not so—yet.” The woman contradicted her. “I have set the spell—”
“It is not working,” the girl returned flatly. With that report, she startled both her companions.
The woman hurried from the room, the girl after her. I looked to the man for an explanation, to find that he was studying me.
“A spell-tie then,” he said slowly.
“What mean you?”
“Just this—you are tied to the belt. And the belt lies beyond these walls, in the hands of one with Power.”
“So—as long as I am here,” I caught his meaning, “I am a breech in your defenses—?”
“For now it does not matter.” He shrugged as if it really did not. “Tell me more of this wandering trader of yours, this Ibycus. What manner of man was he?”
“My mother said he was more than he seemed. She believed he confided in the Lady Eldris the secret of the belt so she could use it against me. I—I also thought he wore trading for a cloak.”
“If this be so—why then did you accept the belt?”
“Because—once I looked upon it I desired it go greatly I could not help myself.” I told him the truth, even though it might well name me a weakling, easily defeated by my own desires. I did not know why I wished so to stand well in the regard of this stranger. From the first, he had had to save me from the results of my own folly.
That all three of the dwellers within the Star Tower regarded me as a lesser being, whose concerns made them impatient, I guessed. The assessment made me wish for some way in which I could prove to them that I was not the nothing of their accounting.
“The belt—” I put now into words what I had felt. “It made me—free—”
“Still, now it has bound you,” he pointed out “And for such binding there is only one remedy.”
“That being?” To get the belt back from Ursilla? To win my own form again and destroy it? I pelted him with questions.
“The belt is the key, you must learn to use it.”
“How?” I demanded.
“The answer lies within yourself, and only you can seek it.” His answer was ambiguous. “But of this I am sure. Car Do Prawn holds great danger for you.”
“If I would get the belt, then I must return there,” I said slowly. “And if the gift of moly does not hold long enough—” I drew a deep breath as I surveyed the withered sprig within the globe, “then it is as a pard I must go.”