[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
to "
"Please, let me finish. There's no point in you going
into danger because well, even if this spell works,
even ifCarlotia is disabled. Count Volmar won't be.
And anyone who's with me is going to be in big
trouble."
"For a change," Lydia said drily.
"Youll be in that trouble, too," Naitachal reminded
thebardling. "I've already... lost... one friend. I don't
want to lose another."
"I don't want to be lost, either' But..." Kevin shook
his head. "To put it bluntly, I'm going to be worried
enough as it is. I don't want to have to worry about
anyone else. Particularly not those I care about. Or
those who've helped us, either."
"The minstrels."
"Exactly. I'd like to travel to the castle with them; it
does seem to be the obvious way back in. But I really
want to keep their involvement in all this to an absolute
minimum." Kevin gave a shaky sigh. "There's not
enough time for anything other than what I think
knights call desperation moves. There won't be any
heroes coming out of this."
file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Me...stle%20of%20Deception%20-%20Bard's%20Tale.txt (181 of 200) [2/2/2004 1:24:48 AM]
file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Mercedes%20+%20Josepha%20Sherman%20-%20Castle%20of%20Deception%20-%20Bard's%20Tale.txt
CASTLE OF DECEPTION
243
"Sounds like you've gained some sense at least," said
a sardonic voice. "Maybe even enough to keep you
from being killed."
Kevin nearly sprained his neck twisting about in
shock. That voice ... It was only Berak who stood
there, and yet...
"Don't you think the masquerade has gone far
enough?" Naitachal asked the minstrel.
Berak grinned. "You knew what I was right away,
didn't you?"
The Dark Elf grinned in return. "Even as you recog-
nized me."
Lydia looked from one to the other. "What are you
talking about?"
"[ust this." Berak murmured a quiet Word. And... it
wasn't so much that his face and form changed as it was
that a masking glamor seemed to fall away. Kevin
stared. How could he ever have missed how high those
cheekbones were» how sharply slanted those eyes? And
that hair was surely far too silky to be human hair
"You're an elfi" Kevin gasped in alarm. "You're all
elves!"
Chapter XXIV
Berak chuckled, "We're all elves," he agreed, "all my
troupe." The minstrel gestured to where they, laugh-
ing, had also shed their glamor of humanity.
Tich'ki wriggled out of hiding. "So that's it!" she
exclaimed. "Clever disguises! So obvious, right under
the humans' noses and not one of them ever noticed!"
Berak's eyes widened ever so slightly at the fairy's
sudden appearance, but all he did was dip his head in
polite acknowledgement and say smoothly, "Humans
do tend to see what they expect to see.**
Lydia snoned. "No wonder Seritha's Power was so
much more than anything a human could master!"
"Exactly."
But Kevin was still staring. "1 know you! You're the
group who surrounded me in the forest that night!
Yes, and scared the life out of me, too!"
"We were trying to scare the life into you, young-
ling," Berak corrected drily. "You were much too cocky
then for your own survival."
"I don't understand something," Naitachal cut in.
file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Me...stle%20of%20Deception%20-%20Bard's%20Tale.txt (182 of 200) [2/2/2004 1:24:48 AM]
file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Mercedes%20+%20Josepha%20Sherman%20-%20Castle%20of%20Deception%20-%20Bard's%20Tale.txt
"You are very obviously White Elves, aD of you, and yet
you never hesitated to help an enemy."
"A Dark Elf, you mean?" Berak raised a brow. "And
are you our enemy?"
"No, of course not. But " Naitachal gave a small
sigh of confusion. "I really don't understand. What
dan are you? What clan can you possibly be that you
don't share the usual prejudice against my kind?"
"No dan at all, or one of our own imagining."
CASTLE OF DECEPTION
245
"And what does that mean?"
Berak smiled. "Simply that we are the bits and tatters
of many dans, the outcasts, the ones who couldn't fit in
with all the staid and somber old traditions. We like to
laugh, to rove, to sing and play our songs for others, elf
or human, and share our joy with them. It amuses us,
just as it amuses us to disguise ourselves as humans."
"My Master knew, though, didn't he?" Kevin asked.
"What and who you really are, I mean.**
"Of course." The green eyes narrowed slightly. "And
it's past time you started thinking about that Master.
We've been crying all this time to track you down!" He
shook his head. "We woke, and you were gone. We
reached Count Volmar's castle, and you were gone
from there, too. We went back to Bracklin, only to leam
you had never returned. Master Aidan has been frantic
with worry. Why, he even considered going after you
and the spell himself, despite his too-sudden age and ill
health."
Ill health? Master Aidan? It was the first Kevin had
heard of that. And yet... with a sudden surge of guilt
he remembered all the times he'd thought the old Bard
lazy or afraid, remembered how he'd seen his Master's
pallor and shrugged it off as the result of too much of
an indoor life. The signs of carefully concealed illness
had been there all along. He'd simply failed, in his
impatience and arrogance, to notice them.
Wait, now, what else had Berak said? "Too-sudden
age?" the bardling asked hesitantly. "I don't "
"Think, boy!" Berak snapped. "Aidan was a young-
ling when he rescued the king, not all that much older
than you. Only some thirty years have passed. Even for
you short-lived humans that's not such a vast span."
"But but he's old!" Kevin insisted. "He's been old
ever since I've known him!"
"Ai-yi, Kevin! Who do you think created that spell to
destroy Cariotta? Bardic Magic is a Powerful, perilous
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]