The air was still cold in Northern Eth
in the first days of May and so Gwyneth had lit the fire in her study at six,
as she got up. She bustled around preparing the room – she could only work in
it when it was tidy. By the time she was happy with it there was tea and toast,
helpfully provided by one of her assistants.
Elizabeth[1]
arrived at six-fifty-five, five minutes early, as for every weekly meeting. She
merely nodded at Gwyneth as she sat down at the heavy oak table; then she
spread her notes out. Gwyneth sat down next to her and pulled a note book out
of her pocket. She dipped a pen in the ink well in front of her and then they
were ready to start. Elizabeth began to read from the papers in front of her.
‘I have three reports
from operatives in Southern Rhylan – they say that levels of nationalist
activities are normal. No enemy
activities have been reported.’
She paused as Gwyneth
took the notes down. Elizabeth had often commented on how much more efficient
employing a secretary would be, but Gwyneth was not the sort to rely on
something as potentially inefficient as a scribe.
And so it went on –
each surveillance sector was described: Northern Rhylan, Southern Rhylan,
Pedamon and the Western Isles, Eth City, Central, East Coast, The Empire, Effaron,
Eastern Barbaria, Kinspit, and Babalia. This formal network of spies was all
Elizabeth’s idea and she was extremely proud of it. There were agents in each
of those ten regions but there was never that much from the last three. Most of
what went on happened in western Eth, but everything had been quiet for some
time.
‘No sign of bigger
prey?’ asked Gwyneth when the dry list of provincial espionage was over.
‘No – there never is.
Wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, they’re far away from our prying
eyes’
Gwyneth was
disappointed. There was never anything about the greatest of their foes, the
archwitches known as Kratos and Bea. They had been humans once, but no-one
really knew what they had now become. They had lived far past
a normal human lifespan and that meant that they must had used powers forbidden
in the civilised world. And they wouldn’t hesitate to use those powers against
anyone who stood in their way.
‘Every week I hope
for just one small lead...’ she said
Elizabeth laughed.
‘They may not be
doing anything: they may be dead or dying.
The privations of necromancy must claim their toll eventually,
surely...’
‘Possibly...’
murmured Gwyneth.
Elizabeth’s
administration skills were formidable, but Gwyneth doubted that she knew
anything much about necromancy, and that was undoubtedly a good thing. Gwyneth
herself, however, knew more than she really wanted to know or would readily
reveal. She knew, especially, that the real attraction of the death magic was
that the only things that suffered a privation were the things that were
sacrificed. That was why it was so seductive to those who had no qualms about
killing.
There was a lull
while Elizabeth tidied up her first set of papers. Gwyneth knew what came next.
She wearily wrote a new heading Court
Matters. She looked up at Elizabeth and said ‘and what from Lady Anne?’
mechanically.
Elizabeth’s eyes lit
up. Gwyneth’s heart sank.
‘I was able to meet
the ambassador from Formor, Count Eigentraub, at a reception this week and he told
me a little more about the resurgence of the crusading spirit in Formor…’
An amusing thought
struck Gwyneth; she couldn’t resist a prod.
‘Why were you at a
political reception?’ she asked, already knowing the answer.
‘I came as Lady
Anne’s companion’
Gwyneth grinned.
Elizabeth, mildly flustered, felt the need to explain.
‘She’s unmarried...so
she needs a “plus one” at times...’
‘So, how do you feel
about being the High Lady’s “plus one”?’
Elizabeth’s face
coloured.
‘She’s the wrong sex,
Gwyn...’
‘Not necessarily...’
Elizabeth shook her
head and frowned.
‘I’m not interested
in another conversation with you where you try to embarrass me with... your
libertine western ways. That’s not how things are done in Eth City. We have a
sense of decorum and no-one thinks twice about two middle-aged women attending
a function together’
Gwyneth held up her
hands to recant her teasing.
‘Tell me something
else, then...’ she said, forcing the grin off her face. It was an effort but,
in her turn, Elizabeth also resumed her professional demeanour.
‘I spoke to Arwyn
Davies, the ECU[2]
Principal...’
Gwyneth knew Arwyn
vaguely – he seemed to be sound.
‘...We have regular
chats... Anyway, he said that the University had approved a small expedition to
Melloreis’
‘I know’ said Gwyneth
Elizabeth’s face
fell; Gwyneth knew that she hated to bring stale information.
‘How do you know?
Arwyn only told me two day ago...’
‘Consul Ridgeway
blurted it out to John’
‘Old fool’ they said,
almost in unison, and then laughed. There was a moment of shared guilt at their
childishness, and then they moved on. Gwyneth was keen to make Elizabeth feel
useful again.
‘So – I’m wondering
why the Emperor had allowed an expedition through the Wall and into lost
territory. How are they even going to get through the wall?’
‘There is a Vyrian
mage with them, Scholasticus Lucius; apparently he has a key to one of the
minor gates’
‘That tells us how
they’ll get through, but still not why...’
‘I think it’s just an excuse to see if the key
still works and do a bit of reconnaissance on the other side of the Wall.
Pallatian is an ambitious ruler’
‘Who are the Ethian
scholars?’
Elizabeth looked down
at her dossier.
‘Dr Fred Eccles... umm...
an architectural historian, and Dr Katherine Fielding, an expert on... Dwarven
magic...’
‘I’ve heard of her’
said Gwyneth, ‘I think she has a good reputation, and she almost works in our
area...’
Elizabeth
half-frowned.
‘Angharad’s area, I
guess, but beyond that nobody else in the council knows much about Dwarven
magic...’
‘True. Does Dr
Fielding teach at the University?’
‘Research position, I
think: I could find out...’
Gwyneth shook her
head slightly. It didn’t seem all that important.
‘Should this
expedition worry us in any way?’ she asked.
‘I doubt it’ answered
Elizabeth, ‘it’s a risky venture and it might be worth getting Stephen to ask
his Imperial contacts what’s behind it all. I don’t think there’s much to worry
about beyond possibly losing the scholars’
‘I’ll let John know
what you’ve told me’ said Gwyneth, ‘he may want to do something behind the
scenes’
Elizabeth shook her
head.
‘Let’s hope he
doesn’t meddle where meddling would be unhelpful... Sometimes the authorities
know what they’re doing. We should only intervene as a last resort’
Gwyneth mostly agreed
with this but her loyalty to her leader overrode her political instincts.
‘I’m sure John will
act according to the principles of the council’
Elizabeth looked
sceptical.
‘Spoken like a loyal
lieutenant...’
Gwyneth knew where
this conversation was going. They had skated round the topic many times.
Occasionally they had stomped right over it.
‘A loyal lieutenant
is what I am’ she said
Elizabeth’s eyes
narrowed,
‘Forever and always?’
she murmured
‘Stop that’ commanded
Gwyneth, ‘I didn’t stand against him then and I won’t stand against him in the
future’
‘Yes, you’ve said
that many times before...’
Stop asking me then thought Gwyneth, I’m not going to
change my mind.
‘You have to get over
this, Liz... I wouldn’t stand, so you stood, and you lost. John got a majority
vote. Discussing it over and over again won’t change anything...’
‘You would have won if you’d stood’ muttered
Elizabeth, ‘and we could have finished the modernisation of the council’
‘You’re wrong’
Gwyneth said, with growing irritation, ‘and you’re unrealistic. I don’t want to
talk about this anymore’
‘But inevitably we
will’ said Elizabeth, darkly.
Gwyneth sighed. She
said nothing more, waiting for Elizabeth’s recurrent annoyances to subside. She
was grateful when she heard her stomach talking to her on a more basic level.
‘We should stop
talking and eat breakfast’ she said, ‘the toast is getting cold’
[1]
A council member of the Hybitor
[2]
Eth City University, the only prestigious place of higher learning in the human
world; distrusted by elves, however, because of some of the unorthodox courses
that it taught. It was tolerated by the Ethian establishment as it is ‘on
balance more useful than dangerous’
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