and root out once for all the disaffection among the rabble spread by such as Jacques, by exploiting the mightiest means available to us. Magically, by decree of the will, by harnessing supernatural forces, we shall again make Ys the envy of the world!”
A roar of approval followed, and a barrage of clapping. Unnoticed in the shadows, one listener alone did not applaud; instead, he stood leaning on his staff, shaking his head from time to time.
“Let us have news, then – encouraging news of our progress!” Vengis cried. “I call first upon Dame Seulte, around whose home last time I rode by I could not help noticing an aura pregnant with remarkable phenomena.”
Silence. At length a portly woman near the back of the hall rose – with some difficulty, for her weight – and spoke.
“Dame Seulte, as you know, is my close neighbor, and as she is not here I think perhaps I ought to mention that yesterday I found her in high spirits and confident of success in her experiments. She had obtained a freewill gift of a child to offer to – well, to a creature best not named directly. When I met her she was leading the pretty thing home on a leash of green leather. Such a charming sight!”
“Dame Rosa!” said a young man from nearer the front, turning on his chair. “A freewill gift? Are you entirely sure?”
And his companion, a pale girl of no more than eighteen in a brown velvet dress, said doubtfully, “My maid referred to a fire at Dame Seulte’s house this morning …”
Vengis slapped the arm of his throne again, making a sound as sharp as a gavel’s rap. He said sternly, “No more defeatist talk if you please, Lady Vivette!”
“But are you sure it was a freewill gift?” persisted the young man at Vivette’s side.
Dame Rosa said stiffly, “Dame Seulte had promised to treat the child as she would her own, and the parents were poor and hungry; they parted with it willingly. She said so.”
“Then there was undoubtedly a fire at her home this morning,” said the young man, and shrugged. “I warned her – I did warn her, more than once! Our copy of the book she conjured from includes a leaf that Dame Seulte’s lacks, and on it the authorities are cited by the dozen. Ingredients obtained by deception, it states plainly, are of no avail when one strives to bind a pyrophoric elemental.”
There was a stunned pause. Dame Seulte, after all, had only been trying to achieve a comparatively low-grade manifestation.
“I have more cheerful news,” said a sweet enticing voice from the opposite side of the assembly. They turned gratefully; this was Lady Meleagra, whose eyes like sapphires, lips like rose-petals, and skin like fresh snow overlying frozen blood had broken hearts for ten of her twenty-one years. As Eadwil had once done in Ryovora – though she was unaware of that precedent – she had purchased her ability on terms. Herself, she had not yet suffered unduly in consequence; she was, though, constrained to impose a most regrettable proviso on anyone who craved to share the pleasures of her bedchamber. It was an efficacious precaution against undesired supernatural intervention, but it had signally reduced the number of her suitors.
“I sense a change in Ys,” she mused aloud.“A great wonder has overtaken our city. So far I do not know its precise nature, but the fact is indisputable. See!”
She extended one graceful arm, swathed in white lace so fine her skin tinted it pink, and in the central aisle dividing the company a thing appeared. It was dark, and it writhed; apart from that it had no describable attributes save two glowing eyes alive with hatred. It lasted half a minute before it faded, and at its going the air was permeated by a dank steamy odor against which those foresighted enough to have brought them buried their noses in bouquets of flowers.
By degrees a clamor arose, and on all sides the nobles strove to show they had been equally successful. “Look!” cried Messer
A roar of approval followed, and a barrage of clapping. Unnoticed in the shadows, one listener alone did not applaud; instead, he stood leaning on his staff, shaking his head from time to time.
“Let us have news, then – encouraging news of our progress!” Vengis cried. “I call first upon Dame Seulte, around whose home last time I rode by I could not help noticing an aura pregnant with remarkable phenomena.”
Silence. At length a portly woman near the back of the hall rose – with some difficulty, for her weight – and spoke.
“Dame Seulte, as you know, is my close neighbor, and as she is not here I think perhaps I ought to mention that yesterday I found her in high spirits and confident of success in her experiments. She had obtained a freewill gift of a child to offer to – well, to a creature best not named directly. When I met her she was leading the pretty thing home on a leash of green leather. Such a charming sight!”
“Dame Rosa!” said a young man from nearer the front, turning on his chair. “A freewill gift? Are you entirely sure?”
And his companion, a pale girl of no more than eighteen in a brown velvet dress, said doubtfully, “My maid referred to a fire at Dame Seulte’s house this morning …”
Vengis slapped the arm of his throne again, making a sound as sharp as a gavel’s rap. He said sternly, “No more defeatist talk if you please, Lady Vivette!”
“But are you sure it was a freewill gift?” persisted the young man at Vivette’s side.
Dame Rosa said stiffly, “Dame Seulte had promised to treat the child as she would her own, and the parents were poor and hungry; they parted with it willingly. She said so.”
“Then there was undoubtedly a fire at her home this morning,” said the young man, and shrugged. “I warned her – I did warn her, more than once! Our copy of the book she conjured from includes a leaf that Dame Seulte’s lacks, and on it the authorities are cited by the dozen. Ingredients obtained by deception, it states plainly, are of no avail when one strives to bind a pyrophoric elemental.”
There was a stunned pause. Dame Seulte, after all, had only been trying to achieve a comparatively low-grade manifestation.
“I have more cheerful news,” said a sweet enticing voice from the opposite side of the assembly. They turned gratefully; this was Lady Meleagra, whose eyes like sapphires, lips like rose-petals, and skin like fresh snow overlying frozen blood had broken hearts for ten of her twenty-one years. As Eadwil had once done in Ryovora – though she was unaware of that precedent – she had purchased her ability on terms. Herself, she had not yet suffered unduly in consequence; she was, though, constrained to impose a most regrettable proviso on anyone who craved to share the pleasures of her bedchamber. It was an efficacious precaution against undesired supernatural intervention, but it had signally reduced the number of her suitors.
“I sense a change in Ys,” she mused aloud.“A great wonder has overtaken our city. So far I do not know its precise nature, but the fact is indisputable. See!”
She extended one graceful arm, swathed in white lace so fine her skin tinted it pink, and in the central aisle dividing the company a thing appeared. It was dark, and it writhed; apart from that it had no describable attributes save two glowing eyes alive with hatred. It lasted half a minute before it faded, and at its going the air was permeated by a dank steamy odor against which those foresighted enough to have brought them buried their noses in bouquets of flowers.
By degrees a clamor arose, and on all sides the nobles strove to show they had been equally successful. “Look!” cried Messer
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