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  But still, Lyll Allerion managed to evoke smiles from some villagers. Kale thought instantly of Dar’s charismatic appeal. The doneel could charm the most unlikely people. Toopka had some of the same quality in her personality.

  And they seem happier than I am. I’d like to know what makes them different. It can’t just be the smiles.

  They reached Baltzentor’s Pond. The body of water covered almost two acres. A small stream flowed out of one end, and the surface constantly rippled from the pulse of a spring beneath.

  The village men had built several wooden benches around the shore. Many used them for fishing, and some of the fancier ones were used for courting. Bentleaf trees lined one edge, and late-blooming bushes of ernst brightened the view with tiny, starlike, pale yellow flowers. Their cinnamon fragrance mingled with the smell of autumn leaves crunching under the comrades’ feet as they walked.

  Kale thought the scene was as peaceful as she remembered, but the waters looked darker. She glanced at the sky to see if a cloud had cast a shadow on the pond, but the skies were clear.

  Lyll sat on one of the carved benches and pulled Toopka into the seat beside her. Bardon and Regidor stood, but Kale sat at her mother’s feet.

  Lyll smiled at the standing men. “You, no doubt, want to hear all about the battles. For details you’ll have to consult Cam. Of course, Brunstetter and Lee Ark will join us at some time, and they’ll have more precise information. I can tell you that three forces converged on the Creemoor spiders’ favorite haunt and wiped out as many as they could before the creatures disappeared into the depths of the Dormanscz caverns.

  “Now I know from my work in the Creemoor region—mind you, I wasn’t in the mountains but among the populace—that Crim Cropper is intent on developing means to control all beasts. He figured out how to gather the spiders without injuring either those who herded them or the spiders themselves. He bred them in captivity, producing many more than nature would have allowed. You see, as soon as the little spiders emerge from the egg sack, the parents devour them. About one-third escape the feast and skitter off to hide and mature.

  “Much to his disappointment, Cropper couldn’t control them. He wanted them to march as an army under his direction. He got tired of the experiment and decided to be rid of them. But instead of releasing them back into their natural habitat, or slaughtering them, he thought it would be more entertaining to drop them on a city. Then word came that Kale was at The Hall. He chose Vendela, because he didn’t want the Dragon Keeper to interfere with his plans to subvert the dragons.”

  Regidor threw back his cowl. “So it was an attack on Kale.”

  Lyll nodded. “Basically, yes.”

  For a moment, Kale found it impossible to draw a breath. She flexed the fingers of the hand that had been poisoned by the Creemoor spider. Her stomach lurched.

  His plan almost succeeded.

  She turned to Bardon and saw his expression of concern. She swallowed hard but could not speak.

  Bardon—

  He abruptly looked away. “May we ask what your mission involved, Lady Allerion?”

  Kale consciously took a deep breath. Bardon’s question had released the overwhelming grip of fear that had squeezed her lungs.

  “I gathered information, which I sent to Paladin, and I encouraged those few poor souls who follow Paladin in secrecy in that region. Of course, I was imprisoned during my entire service.”

  Kale gasped. “Imprisoned?”

  “Yes, a nasty place. But it was the most wonderful place to foil Cropper’s plans and, of course, Risto’s.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Regidor. “If you were in jail and could not move around the country, how could you be of use?”

  “All the information came to me. Right under Cropper’s nose. None of our underground workers had to figure out where I was. I was always in the same place. Cropper’s soldiers guarding the prison also were a fount of information. Don’t forget that I mindspeak.”

  “Didn’t they realize you were a wizard?” asked Toopka.

  Lyll laughed. “I told them I was Lyll Allerion, a great and powerful wizard, but then when they asked me to do something to prove it, I…well, I just never did. So they thought I was a bit loony. To them I was a meddlesome old lady who liked to visit all the other prisoners.”

  “But why did you have to stay there?” Sympathy crumpled Toopka’s face.

  “Because, as wonderful as Paladin’s army is, they’re woefully inadequate in communication. But then Risto’s forces have the same problem.”

  “Why did you get out?” asked Toopka.

  “Because Crim Cropper is brilliant, but not very focused. His wife, Burner Stox, is not quite as smart, but more practical. The last time she visited the southern castle, she noticed me. That was the end of my usefulness.”

  “And the last job you had to do before you could be rescued?” Regidor tilted his head.

  “Arrange for my replacement to be accepted by my network of contacts.”

  A thought invaded Kale’s mind, and she tried to shake it off. She looked to her mother and saw the woman watched her closely.

  “Leetu Bends?” Kale whispered.

  Lyll nodded.

  Kale shivered. She rose to her feet and pulled the moonbeam cape closer.

  “Ugh!” said Toopka. She pointed to the reeds growing at the edge of the pond. “I saw something ugly in there.”

  Everyone turned to look. The water on this side of the pond glinted black like a sheet of rippled ebony. The water on the other side sparkled blue under the sun’s rays.

  The entire pond was dark before, but not as black as it is here.

  Metta, from the nearest bentleaf tree, called out a shrill warning. Gymn echoed the alarm.

  Lyll rose from her seat. “Mordakleeps.”

  Regidor shed his clerical robe and drew his sword. Kale and Bardon also unsheathed their weapons. Lyll took two steps forward, twirling as she did. Her dress transformed into formfitting leggings, tunic, and shirt. Oddly, these garments suited for fighting were still the blushing pink color.

  Kale stared at her mother. Lyll held out her arm as if ready to wield a sword, but her hand held nothing.

  Three creatures sprang out of the water. Black, huge, and menacing, they covered the few feet of grassy bank in a bound.

  “Cut off their tails,” shrieked Toopka as she dove over the back of the bench.

  Regidor and Lyll each fought a monster. The third rushed at Bardon. Kale and Bardon fell into a pattern of synchronized attack. Bardon attracted the mordakleep’s attention and angled it around so that Kale could wield a savage blow to sever its tail. The huge body dissolved into a puddle and disappeared into the ground.

  Another monster loomed out of the pond. Kale ran to confront it. This time, she managed to maneuver the creature so that Bardon had a clear swipe at its tail.

  Regidor danced around his opponent. He flipped into the air, landed behind the monster, and severed its tail. The mordakleep melted away.

  With the stance of a fencer, Lyll approached a mordakleep intent on the o’rant woman’s demise. The lack of a sword diminished her credibility as a warrior. Kale tensed, ready to rush to her mother’s side.

  Lyll leapt forward and swung her arm. A gash appeared on the mordakleep’s hand. Its mouth opened in a soundless roar. Lyll skipped back and circled to the left. She plunged the invisible sword into the monster’s side, then withdrew and circled to the left again. The nightmarish creature turned with her, keeping its tail away from the swift and deadly blade it could not see. Lyll twirled with blurring speed to the right. Her arm swept downward over the snakelike tail. It fell away from the mordakleep’s body. Both the deadly creature and its separated tail oozed into the earth.

  Two more mordakleeps surged out of the watery reeds.

  Kale and Bardon took on one, and by the same method of distraction, killed it. Lyll and Regidor dispatched the other. The four warriors moved to form a group. For a moment
they stood alert and ready.

  Toopka peeked out from behind the bench. “Are they gone?”

  Lyll answered, “For now.” She took out a cloth from a small satchel attached to her belt and made the motions of wiping a blade. It looked as though she laid the sword carefully across her chest, cradled by the other arm. She whirled. When the blur became recognizable again, she wore the dress she had donned that morning.

  Regidor turned to look directly at Lyll and bowed with the same grace Dar often displayed. “I admit I held some doubts as to Lady Allerion’s ability. I beg your pardon.”

  She nodded graciously.

  He paced to the edge of the pond and peered into the reeds. The sandy bottom showed through the water now sparkling and clear. “Although we know the enemy is encroaching upon this territory, with no bodies it will be difficult to convince our hosts that danger is imminent.”

  47

  WAYFARERS

  The companions returned to the tavern. Fenworth and Cam had taken over the kitchen where they created elaborate culinary delights. Mistress Meiger muttered that she didn’t think her customers would take to such fancy food, but she sat at the table and sampled everything that appeared. Toopka joined her since food always claimed her interest.

  Kale led Bardon, Regidor, and Lyll to a stand of trees near the road. She pointed to an empty field next to the last building, the Widow Ord’s cottage, on the edge of the village.

  “Most wagons stop here, and the people walk into town. This is where the market is held once a month. We can’t see it from here, but there’s a sign facing the road.”

  Twenty minutes later, a colorful wagon rumbled toward the village of River Away. Just as Kale had predicted, the driver pulled the house-vehicle onto the grass and stopped. She had seen these odd wagons before, but they still fascinated her.

  On top of a rectangular wagon bed, a house built like a barrel on its side provided shelter for the peddlers. Red wheels carried the blue box. Yellow stars and blue stripes decorated the rear wheels. Green curlicues adorned the blue box and the driver’s perch.

  The top had windows cut in the side, and elaborate swirls and stars in blue and purple crowded every spare inch. Yellow curtains flapped out of the open windows. In the back, a red door allowed access to the odd home. Beneath this, a pan box hung. Kale knew that the pan box folded down to make a step, but it also held the cook’s instruments for fixing meals over an open fire.

  The driver of the caravan passed the reins to a young man sitting beside him. He stood and stretched before jumping to the ground. He patted the horse closest to him on the rump and walked to its head.

  “The driver certainly isn’t a meech,” observed Bardon from their hiding place behind thick ernst bushes. “Nor the young man. They look like father and son, don’t they?”

  “Has anyone been able to penetrate their minds?” asked Regidor. “I’ve tried with no success. This feels much like the shield around the core of the ship Dar visited.”

  “I can’t get in either,” said Kale. “But I have detected Toopka trying to sneak up behind us.”

  Kale turned and gestured for the little girl to abandon her hiding place.

  “Fenworth said I could come,” she explained as soon as she plopped down beside Kale.

  “You tricked him, then,” said Kale.

  Regidor slanted a disapproving glance Toopka’s way. “Pestered him until he hollered at you to leave?”

  She nodded solemnly, then smiled. She squirmed between Regidor and Lady Allerion, so she could see through the bushes.

  “Where’s the meech?”

  “We haven’t seen him yet,” said Kale.

  “The door’s opening,” said Bardon.

  The older man left the horses and came to the rear of the wagon. He let the fancy steps down, and an older woman with a colorful scarf wrapped around her head climbed out. She looked critically around the open field and spoke. The old man frowned and gestured toward River Away.

  “What are they saying?” asked Toopka.

  “I don’t know,” answered Kale.

  “Just a minute,” said Lady Allerion. “I think I can fix this.” An intent expression invaded her eyes.

  Kale’s efforts to penetrate the shield had been so great that when her mother broke its power, a flood of impressions burst with a clamor into Kale’s mind. She fell backward and landed on her backside. Bardon snickered, and Regidor laughed.

  “Shh!” hissed Lady Allerion. She looked over her shoulder at Kale. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you, Kale.” She cast a look of disapproval at Regidor and Bardon who were still smirking. “We’ll just have to assume that some of us were not as intent on doing our jobs and didn’t need a warning.”

  Kale grinned at Bardon’s look of chagrin and Regidor’s thin-lipped grimace as she returned to her position.

  “Where’s the meech?” asked Toopka, her head still pushed into the bushes. “I don’t see the meech.”

  “I think our meech is now coming out of the wagon,” said Lyll.

  The five became silent. Kale pulled her lips between her teeth and held her breath. A tall woman dressed in a deep purple gown descended the steps. A round hat with a wide brim covered her head. A dark blue scarf draped over the hat, completely covering the woman’s head and shoulders. She wore gloves and carried a small, beaded reticule.

  “Well,” said Toopka. “Where’s the meech?”

  Regidor answered with a whisper of air, “That is the meech.”

  “He’s a girl meech?” Toopka turned unbelieving eyes to interrogate her elders. “How can he be a girl?”

  “Maybe it’s a disguise,” suggested Bardon.

  “No,” said Regidor. “He is a she.”

  Lady Allerion eyed her companions. “Let’s gather information before they realize their ring of containment has been penetrated. Kale, you take the woman. Bardon, the two men. Regidor and I will concentrate on the meech. Do not forget to protect your own mind before you delve into theirs.”

  Kale asked for Wulder’s protection and claimed her status as His servant searching for truth. The woman’s anger smacked Kale, and Kale had to mentally back up and approach more cautiously.

  “When did that man stop listening to me? If he’d done what I’d told him, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Don’t deal with that sleazy wizard. Don’t take in that unnatural creature. Have we sold any potion? Not hardly! Not enough to cover our expenses. Yet he thinks we’re going to be covered in money and living in a castle when we finish this ‘job.’ What job? Carting her all over the country?”

  The younger of the two men had unhitched the horses. He constantly turned his eyes to the meech but continued to do his chores. The older man got a padded chair out of the wagon and then placed it in the shade. The woman pulled supplies out of a hidden cupboard beneath the barrel house.

  “Look at those men. Like father, like son. Crazy men! Obeying orders she doesn’t even speak.”

  Kale glanced over at the female meech sitting motionless in the shade. A breeze stirred the scarf veil. The urge to know what the mysterious figure contemplated tempted Kale to abandon the angry woman and explore the meech’s thoughts.

  Toopka sighed. “Aren’t we going to do anything?”

  “Yes, we are,” answered Lyll.

  Toopka’s ears perked up.

  Lyll turned away from the scene of the wagon and its load of villains. “We’re going back to the tavern and report to Wizard Cam and Dar.”

  Toopka’s shoulders slumped. Kale suppressed a giggle when she saw Regidor’s shoulders do the same.

  With Lyll in the lead, the comrades crept out of the wooded area and circled the village to enter from the other side. They found Dar and the two wizards sitting out on the benches in front of the tavern.

  Kale furrowed her brow in puzzlement. Knowing the councilmen of River Away, she couldn’t imagine Dar had been able to bring them to a decision this quickly. Dar lifted a hand in greeting as they approached.

/>   “No, Kale,” he said. “They are not convinced, but Librettowit has taken over for me for the time being. He’s giving them the history of the problem.”

  Kale planted her fists on her hips and turned to Lyll. “Does he read my mind?”

  Lyll laughed, a hearty laugh unlike the musical tinkle of the other mother’s. “I can’t answer that. I will say doneels are not known to be mindspeakers, but are renowned for their diplomatic skills. I imagine their success in diplomacy stems from an acute discernment of others’ temperaments.”

  Wizard Cam laid a hand on the sleeping wizard next to him. “Fen, wake up, old man. We have news of the culprits. You won’t want to miss this.”

  “Who are you calling old?” The voice rumbled out of the leaves, but Fenworth did not resume his manly form.

  “You,” answered Cam. “Come now, Fen. We have work to do.”

  Kale watched as the wizard opened his eyes. His other facial features emerged from the bark, moss turned to hair, sturdy branches to arms and legs. Leaves became cloth and a pointed hat.

  No wonder the mariones of River Away are goosy about having wizards around. Cam leaves a puddle of lake water wherever he pauses for more than five minutes. Fenworth transforms into a tree. And he always has small creatures skittering about, climbing through his hair and clothing, some flying out at unexpected moments. I think a year ago, I would have cowered at the sight of him.

  “Precisely so!” said Fenworth, looking her straight in the eye. “I’m almost as much of an oddity as you are. Tut-tut. How narrow we are in our thinking! Tut-tut, oh dear.”

  “The report?” prodded Dar. “Ladies first.”

  He stood up and gestured for Lady Allerion to take his seat.

  When she was settled, she took Fenworth’s hand as she spoke. She didn’t direct her words to him in particular, but clasped his hand in a friendly manner. The old man beamed at her, and Kale remembered Fenworth had said Lyll had once been his apprentice.