Ivory Lyre Read Free Page A

kind of plan are you cooking? Do you want to be stolen? But what good—”
    Not stolen, Tebriel. You will travel as a
horse trader, and we will be your wares. Such fine mounts as we
should give you entree into any palace on Tirror.
    “And may I ask where I have secured such
horses? And what you mean to do if someone buys you? What—”
    Seastrider’s look silenced him. You will
call yourself a prince from the far southern land of Thedria, which
lies beyond the vast expanse of sea and has no commerce with these
lands. The dark knows little of that place, I think, for we have
sensed no evil from that far continent. You will steal appropriate
clothes for a prince, and you will enter the strongholds of the
dark in style. And, she said, tossing her head, if we are
bought, Tebriel, no matter. No stable or fence or stone prison can
hold us.
    “Well,” he said. “Well. . . all
right. But how have I come to these continents? By rowboat over the
wild seas hauling four horses?”
    By seagoing barge, to barter your horses for
gold. You are the Prince of the Horsemasters of Thedria.
    She had it all worked out. Teb pointed out
to her civilly that he had not intended to go among palaces but to
slip quietly into the cities among the common folk, where he could
gather information unnoticed by the dark rulers. If it was all the
same to Seastrider, he did not want to make himself an object of
immediate observation for the dark.
    But if you are an object of great interest
to the dark, Tebriel, do you not think the underground will be
watching you even more closely? Do you not think they will be more
than anxious to learn about you, and to learn which side you might
favor, this very rich and mysterious prince? It will be much easier
to let the underground soldiers come to you, Tebriel, than to try
to search them out in strange cities.
    Teb sighed again and said no more. The
horses disappeared and the dragons were there, still staring in
that annoying way. He stared back at them crossly, then turned away
to ready his pack.
    He wrapped his mother’s diary in oilskins,
with a few other valuables he would not take, and hid them between
tree trunks in the wall of the nest. He would take the large packet
that contained the white leather from which he had cut Seastrider’s
harness, and the awl he had used to fashion it. He would need more
thread. He slipped the gold coins into his pocket, gifts from the
otter nation. With gold he could steal clothes, yet leave
payment.
    He knew where they would go—they had
discussed it several times: Dacia, which lay far to the north above
a tangle of island nations. Neutral Dacia. They had swung low on
the night wind near to it more than once, and always they could
sense the powers of the dark there. Yet the dark did not rule
Dacia. He didn’t understand how this could be, how that country had
remained neutral. Both dark and resistance forces were strong on
Dacia. He didn’t know what had kept the dark from possessing that
country totally, for the small continent provided good cover for
the dark forces. From that base, the unliving could attack Edain
and Bukla and the tiny island nations of the Benaynne
Archipelago.
    Surely the resistance had a strong spy
network and ways to steal food and weapons from the dark armies.
Perhaps the strength of the resistance alone was what kept Dacia
free, though Teb felt there might be a stronger force at work. He
would be very interested to learn why Dacia was not beaten back by
the dark, yet had not driven it out. Dacia would be a likely place
to find Garit, and maybe Camery, a good place to join the rebels in
any case.
    The truly free countries were very
aggressive in destroying the unliving, for most humans felt only
terror of the wraithlike creatures. The very mention of the leader
Quazelzeg made warriors burn with hatred.
    The slave makers sucked on the suffering of
humans as a leech will suck human blood. Fear in humans
strengthened the un-men, and pain in humans