She was instantly aware of the warmth which closed about her, stronger than that given off even by the cone. They did not cross any courtyard but were instantly in a great hall.
But an empty one. Here was none of the coming and going of servants one saw even in a Dales hold. No guards stood by the four curtained doorways—two on either side—past which she was swept.
Nor was there any dais to lift above the general servants and guests the ruler of this place. Instead, as the hall came to a halt, she was left firm-footed on the floor by the disappearance of that trail which had carried her, to discover she was facing something with the appearance of a broad but clouded mirror. She could see something of her own body reflected there, but also there appeared, farther in, dark in which she could not even distinguish any true shape.
“You have a choice, female of this world,” the voice which had been in the cone again rang out. “I can set you—so—”
Instantly Audha was encased in a pillar of ice. And with that about her, her mind seemed to dull; that which she truly was shrank smaller and smaller.
“Or”—so she could still hear the voice—“you can serve me.”
Audha shivered. She had heard all her life of bargains with the Dark and that no one ever won such. The end was always worse than even the stupid fool who fell to the wiles of evil could imagine.
“Serve you how?” She tried to play for time, to learn just how deeply she was now enmeshed with the black power.
“You will give me the use of your body. I do not know what you mean by the ‘Dark’ your kind seem to fear so much. Who judges what is wrong and what is right? I have been caught in a trap and held away from all my kind. To return to them I use what I can of the Powers I know.
“I would learn more of those with you who have Powers of your own. If they are greater than I—then so be it. But if I can summon more and achieve what I would—then who can judge that I am evil ?
Logical enough, but Audha remembered Dargh.
After a moment of silence the voice continued. “So you have ties with others of your kind and you would avenge them. Do you not understand even yet it was because of your hate and anger you opened the door to me? Yes, I loosed the ice upon your ship. That was an enemy—the kind I followed across the Vors Sea before I was trapped. My blood died also in that battle. Your anger I have known, and have learned the folly of it. But it was those of your own kind who brought death to your shipmates. No order from me set it so. My Power moved as I tested it after many years. I saw a ship like unto those which had driven me here to linger alone—and so I shall send them off and away from me.”
“There were other killings,” Audha said hotly. “The camps of the trappers overrun.”
“Power calls and there was something here which was ready to answer my call, though I did not know the nature of it. But enough of this balancing of good and evil. What will you? Remain sealed in the ice for all time, or give me the use of your body that I may safely contact those of Power with whom you travel?”
“So that you can slay them, having learned enough?” demanded the girl.
“Quick thinking, female—but inclined to be stupid. Trust is hard to come by. I have none for those of your kind who manned the ships that drew me here. But…” There was a long silence, and then she spoke again, “Who is the greatest of Power among you?”
Audha wanted nothing more than to deny any answer to that, but suddenly she found that the truth could be pulled out of her whether she wished or not.
“Frost is a witch of Estcarp. No one truly knows the extent of their Power.”
“Then it is she with whom you and I will deal. I wait no longer. If you refuse me entrance, I can force it. Then you shall become as the slogs, a thing to be used only as tool.”
She was right: in her innermost thought the girl knew it. And she also realized that the choice between the pillar and being a slave had been only a choice. One she no longer had time to make even if she chose.
Out of that mirror expanse before her came a thrust of light which struck her full in the face. Before she could even cry out she was whirled into a darkness so deep it was like being smoothed in the very depths of the earth.
41
A Meeting of Powers, North
After such a fall…” Odanki shook his head. “No, you must give up hope, Lady Trusla. Such crevices descend very far into the ice and the cold is such that any so caught are frozen soon. Also—to attempt to climb down in rescue, no and no.”
He was seated with his bandaged leg out before him on the ground while his hands were busy at work all the time he flattened her faint hope of reaching Audha. The great horns Simond and he had discovered had been dragged back to their improvised camp and he was busy chopping and cutting, but what he was working on she had no idea.
“Not so.” Inquit had come up behind them. “She lives.” There was such flat certainty in the shamans voice that Trusla was on her feet, eager to move to prove that statement the truth.
Frost was behind the Latt woman. Her usually impassive face wore the suggestion of a frown.
“There is a ward,” she said slowly, “but not such as are known to those of my talent.”
“She has been taken by the Dark!” Trusla was quick to interpret that. Though she had no strong ties with the Sulcar girl, who had always held aloof even in their small company, she felt a need for haste to free her from whatever dire force held rule in the high rocks and snow above the warm mud pocket.
However, Frost was holding her jewel out, pointing in the general direction which they guessed lay between them and the vanished girl.
That gem which was her guide to the difference between the Dark and the Light had not flared crimson or, the worst of all, smoky black. Nor was it blue, as it would have been had Audha sought a place of the Light. Instead the grayish stone held within its depths a flickering which was greenish in hue, and that pulsed as if to warn them that the talent it revealed was putting some force to work.
They had gathered around, drawn by the sight of the strange color. And now Frost spoke again. “Neither of the Light nor the Dark—something in between.”
“Such a something,” Simond was emboldened to say, “could turn either way.” He did not know why he was so sure of that, but he was. “But that which drove the ship to Dargh certainly was evil. That which brought death to the camps, that which we seek—it is of the Dark.”
Frost still cupped the jewel in her hand. “If we judge by the acts you mention—yes, the Dark waits. But never has the talisman been wrong—and this shows something new.” She extended her hand a short distance toward Inquit. “What say you, sister?”
They were startled by the small creature leaping for the Latt’s shoulder. Kankil’s round head was very close to Inquit’s and she was chirping loudly, certainly in excitement—or warning?
“How strong is that ward, sister?” the shaman asked Frost. “Is it held by some method which you know?”
The witch closed her eyes and raised her gem until it touched her forehead above and between her eyes. She stood, holding all their attention now. Even Kankil had ceased her chittering.
“It is strong,” she said at last. “But it is not of any setting which I know.”
Simond was surprised. Having known the Powers of the witches from his birth, he could not imagine they lacked any such knowledge of what was a relatively simple use of the talent.
“What of yours?” Frost asked, almost sharply, of the shaman.
Kankil slid down the Latt woman’s bulky form but kept tight hold of her at thigh level. Inquit reached out for the edge of her feather cloak and selected, after careful inspection, one of the large quills which fringed it. Twisting that free, she lifted it and sent it gliding, as she might loose a bird. It did not swoop again to earth as they had expected, but rather rose higher and higher, until it was equal in height to the top of the cliff beside them.