The Seven Towers Read Free Page B

believe me. Terrel and Eltiron made it seem that Ranlyn lied and that I wanted war only to serve my own ambition.”
    “How very sad,” Amberglas said absently. “Did you?”
    “No!” Jermain almost shouted. “If Sevairn doesn’t join Mournwal, the Hoven-Thalar will sweep right over it, and Sevairn will be next! Even with Gramwood and Tar-Alem to help, it would take luck to stop a determined movement north. And the Hoven-Thalar are determined, believe me. I’ve spent the past six months in the south with Ranlyn, to see for myself. Does that sound like personal ambition?”
    “Not precisely, though sometimes it’s hard to tell,” said Amberglas, even more absently than before. She tilted her head to one side. “You’re quite certain Marreth won’t change his mind?”
    Jermain’s lips tightened. He shook his head, and his voice was harsh as he said, “You saw those men. Marreth couldn’t quite justify killing me publicly, but now that I’m safely forgotten, he’s willing to send his men to murder me in secret. Marreth can’t bear to be wrong; he won’t change.”
    “Dear me. He must not like you at all.” Amberglas rose from her chair and began gathering up the piles of plants. “I suppose it is entirely possible that you are mistaken, although I must admit it doesn’t seem like it. But then, of course, it wouldn’t. People who are very sure of themselves never sound as if they are mistaken. I met a girl once who insisted that she was the Queen of the Thieves. Really, she was very bad at stealing. But very good at making up stories. She was quite convincing, if you didn’t know better.”
    “Who was she?” Jermain asked, half from curiosity and half from a desire to turn the conversation in a new direction.
    “The Princess of Barinash,” Amberglas said. “But she promised not to do it anymore—tell people she was a thief, I mean—so it’s quite all right now, though not exactly the same as being mistaken, now that I come to think of it.”
    Amberglas finished gathering up the plants and started for the stairs. She stopped at the bottom step to look back at Jermain. “I really do think you had better lie down and rest a little more. That was quite a bad wound in your side; in fact, it still is, though I’ve seen worse, but only on people who had been in battles, and I don’t believe you can call a fight with Sevairn’s Border Guard a battle. At least, you could call it that, but it wouldn’t really be proper.”
    Depression and weariness swept over Jermain in a sudden wave. “Perhaps you shouldn’t have stopped them,” he said.
    “If you mean that I should have let them kill you, you are being exceedingly silly,” Amberglas said. “I certainly should not, which ought to be plain even if you are feverish. Though I had rather hoped you wouldn’t be; still, it’s not surprising considering the blood loss and the damp ground and those extremely rude people.”
    Jermain shook his head. Amberglas frowned in his direction. “I have no intention of allowing you to die here,” she said severely. “If you really want to, you’ll simply have to do it somewhere else, which of course you can’t until you are well enough to leave. So you had very much better stop this foolishness and rest instead.”
    Amberglas started up the stairs. Jermain lay back, watching her with weary bewilderment. She moves with grace, he thought. Marreth’s ladies would envy her. Who is she, and why is she helping me? Amberglas’s silent tread upon the stone stairs gave him no answer, and presently he slept.
    The next two days brought Jermain no closer to understanding Amberglas’s motives. He found it hard to believe that she could be a sorceress, but how else could she have saved him from the Border Guard? Jermain was certain he had not imagined the brown fog that had come from nowhere to engulf Morenar and his men. He tried, once, to ask her about it, but Amberglas’s answer—which involved mist, the River