Atros spent the rest of the night in sleepless suspense and confusion. Plots to replace Toth-Set-Ra were very far from his mind.
A woman waited to greet them at the stockade gate. She was beautiful, tall and stately as a ship under sail. She was not young, yet not as old as her long white hair proclaimed. As Wiz got closer he saw that the lines around her eyes and mouth were those of one who had lived hard, not long.
She wore a long gown of midnight blue velvet, caught with a silver cord at her waist. The dagged sleeves of her dress fitted her upper arms tightly and swept halfway to the ground at her wrists.
Her right hand rested on the shoulder of a bent, manlike creature with a long sharp nose and huge hairy ears. He was as ugly as she was beautiful, but the contrast was not incongruous.
"Merry met and well come," she said in a voice like ringing silver. "I am Shiara, the mistress of this place, and Heart’s Ease is your home for as long as you care to stay."
"Thank you, Lady," said Moira, curtseying. Wiz hastened to bow.
"Not ’Lady,’ " the woman told her. "Just plain Shiara."
"Not plain either," said Wiz, moved by her beauty.
Shiara smiled but did not look in his direction. She’s blind!, he realized.
"Your companion is gallant," Shiara said to Moira.
"He has his moments," Moira sniffed.
"You are called Sparrow, are you not?"
"Yes, Lady. Ah, yes Shiara."
"Well, merry met at Heart’s Ease, Sparrow," the lady said. "You must both be tired. Ugo will show you to your rooms."
The ugly little creature sniffed and shuffled through the stockade gate without a backwards glance.
The ground within covered perhaps two acres. There were six or eight small buildings, huts and storehouses and a large garden laid out behind. Attached to the base of the stone tower was a large building, also of peeled logs, roofed with shingles and chinked with moss.
"Is she a wizardess?" Wiz whispered to Moira as they came up the flagstone walkway.
"She was of the Mighty," Moira said and motioned him to silence.
Ugo led them into the building and Wiz saw it was a single large room, a great hall with a huge smoke-blackened fireplace in one side and a table big enough to seat twenty people down the center. In spite of its rude exterior, the hall was richly furnished with heavy velvet drapes on the walls and massively carved furniture placed carefully about. The whole effect reminded Wiz of a picture he had seen once of J.P. Morgan’s hunting lodge.
Ugo took them down the hall without pausing and through a low stone door into the tower proper. There was a narrow stair twisting off to the right and climbing so steeply Wiz was afraid he would lose his balance. At the second floor landing Ugo opened a door for Moira and bowed her through. Wiz started to follow but Ugo blocked him with a rough hairy arm.
"Lady’s room," he said gruffly. "Come." He led Wiz on up the stairs to the very top of the tower.
"Your room," Ugo grumbled as he opened the door.
The room was small and simply furnished with a narrow rope bed, a table and single chair. But there was a fire laid in the fireplace and a basin and pitcher of steaming water sat on the table. The bed was covered with a bright counterpane and a snow-white towel lay beside the basin. Against one wall, next to the fireplace, stood a full-length mirror.
"Dinner at sun’s setting," the goblin told him. "Do not be late."
Dinner was simple but savory. Most of the dishes were vegetables and tubers from the castle garden, with wild mushrooms from the forest and forest fruits for dessert. There was very little meat, which suited Wiz.
"Moira has been telling me of your travels," Shiara said. She held a knife in one hand and extended the other hand, palm down and fingertips spread, over the table, finding her plate by the heat from the food.
"It was quite a trip," Wiz said. "Lady," he added hastily as Moira frowned.
"I understand you rescued Moira when you were beset by trolls."
"Well, kinda. Mostly she rescued me."
"Still, from what Moira tells me it was a bravely done deed." She smiled slightly. "Though perhaps charging a troll with a stick is not the wisest move."
"Thank you, Lady," said Wiz, ignoring the second sentence. "Uh, Lady, do you know if they are still looking for us?"
Shiara turned serious. "Somewhat, I understand. Although your guesting the night in an elf hill seems to have thrown them off the scent and dampened the ardor of many of the League’s allies. There are few who would willingly try conclusions with any of the elven kind, much less an elf duke."
"Then are they likely to find us here?"
She considered. "Perchance. But in this quiet place it would be hard. We do not use magic at Heart’s Ease, so they cannot find you directly. There is little magic here to reflect off us and show us those with the Sight. No, Sparrow, if they find you at all it will be by accident.
"Besides," she continued, "finding you and getting here are very different things. In a quiet zone such as this any attempt at magic would be seen instantly by the Watchers and countered. We are a hundred leagues or more from the shores of the Freshened Sea so they cannot come at us overland. The forest creatures are our friends, so they would find it difficult to sneak close.
"All things considered we are safe enough."
"That’s a relief."
"Just do not get careless," Moira said sharply.
"True," their blind hostess said. "Safety is at best relative and we are deep in the Wild Wood. Do not wander off, and leave things you do not understand strictly alone."
There was silence for a bit while they ate.
"Lady, what do we do now?" Wiz asked at last.
"You remain here as my guests while the Mighty consider your situation."
"And Moira?" Wiz asked, dreading the answer.
"I am to remain as well," said the red-haired witch, in a tone that showed she didn’t like it. "In their wisdom the Mighty have decreed that even here you need a keeper." She grimaced. "And I am chosen for the task."
"You don’t have to stay on my account," Wiz protested.
"I stay because the Mighty would have it so."
"Peace, peace," said Shiara. "Lady, I think your quarrel is with those not present, not the Sparrow."
"True, Lady," Moira said contritely. She turned to Wiz. "I am sorry I spoke so."
They contrived to get through the rest of dinner without snapping at each other.
At first Wiz simply luxuriated in life at Heart’s Ease. He had a bed to sleep in, a roof over his head, no one was chasing him and, best of all, he didn’t have to walk all day.
But that palled quickly. There was nothing for him to do. Moira made herself useful, cooking and helping to clean, but Wiz had no domestic skills.
"Is there anything I can do?" he asked Ugo one day as the goblin was sweeping out the great hall.
"Do?" Ugo grunted.
"To help."
Ugo bent to his sweeping. "Don’t need help. Take care of Lady by myself."
It wasn’t that he was interested in doing housework, Wiz admitted to himself; he was bored and he felt completely useless.
He wandered out into the garden where Moira was on her hands and knees weeding an herb border.
"Can I help?"
Moira looked up and did not rise.
"How?" she asked suspiciously.
Wiz spread his arms. "I just want to make myself useful."
Moira snorted skeptically, as if she felt his offer was a ruse to get close to her. Since that was partially true, Wiz reddened.
"Very well, weed that section over there." She nodded her head toward a part of the border on the other side of the garden.