Limits Read Free Page B

are too high for ordinary people.”
     
    There was murky darkness, black with a hint of green. Blocky shapes. Motion flicked past, drifted back more slowly. Too dark to see, but Karskon sensed something looking back at him. A fish? A ghost?
    Karskon opened his good eye.
    Durily was at the window, looking out to sea. Leftward, waves washed the spike of island that had been Crown Hill. “There was grass almost to the top,” Durily said, “but the peak was always a bare knob. We picnicked there once, the whole family—”
    “What else do you remember? Anything we can use?”
    “Two flights of Stairs,” Durily said. “You’ve seen the one that winds up the outside of the tower, like a snake. Snake-headed, it used to be, but the quake must have knocked off the head.”
    “Animated?”
    “No, just a big carving…um…it could have been animated once. The magic was going out of everything. The merpeople were all gone; the mainlanders were trying to learn to catch their own fish, and we had trouble getting food. Nihilil was thinking of moving the whole court to Beesh. Am I rambling too much, darling?”
    “No telling what we can use. Keep it up.”
    “The inside stairs lead down from the kitchen, through the laundry room on this floor, and through Thone’s room on the lower floor.”
    “Thone.” Karskon’s hand strayed to his belt buckle, which was silver, and massive; which was in fact the hilt of a concealed dagger. “He’s not as big as Rordray, but I’d hate to have him angry with me. They’re all too big. We’d best not be caught…unless we, or you , can find a legitimate reason for being in Thone’s room?”
    Durily scowled. “He’s just not interested. He sees me, he knows I’m a woman, but he doesn’t seem to care…or else he’s very stupid about sugge s tions. That’s possible.”
    “If he’s part of a were-lion family—”
    “He wouldn’t mate with human beings?” Durily laughed, and it sounded like silver coins falling. No, he thought, she wouldn’t have had trouble s e ducing a young man…or anything male. I gave her no trouble. Even now, knowing the truth…
    “Our host isn’t a were-lion,” she said. “Lions eat red meat. We’ve brought red meat to his table, but he was eating fish. Lions don’t lust for a varied diet, and they aren’t particular about what they eat. Our host has e x quisite taste. If I’d known how fine a cook he is, I’d have come for that alone.”
    “He shows some other signs. The whole family’s big, but he’s a lot bigger. Why does he shave his face and clip his hair short? Is it to hide a mane?”
    “Does it matter if they’re lions? We don’t want to be caught,” Durily said. “Any one of them is big enough to be a threat. Stop fondling that canape sticker, dear. This trip we use stealth and magic.”
    Oddly reluctant, Karskon said, “Speaking of magic…?”
    “Yes. It’s time.”
     
    “You’re quite right. They’re hiding something,” Rordray said absently. He was carving the meat from a quarter of ox and cutting it into chunks, briskly, apparently risking his fingers at every stroke. “What of it? Don’t we all have something to hide? They are my guests. They appreciate my food.”
    “Well,” said his wife, “don’t we all have something worth gossipping about? And for a honeymooning couple—”
    At which point Estrayle burst into a peal of laughter.
    Arilta asked, “Now what brought that on?” But Estrayle only shook her head and bent over the pale yellow roots she was cutting. Arilta turned back to her husband. “They don’t seem loving enough, somehow. And she so beautiful, too.”
    “It makes a pattern,” Rordray said. “The woman is beautiful, as you n o ticed. She is the Duchess’s lady-in-waiting. The man serves the Duke. Could Lady Durily be the Duke’s mistress? Might the Duke have married her to one of his men? It would provide for her if she’s pregnant. It might keep the Duchess happy. It