Tyrant Trouble (Mudflat Magic) by Phoebe Matthews Page A

peninsula.
    He
said, “Tomorrow you will come back and give me answers to all the questions I
ask. If the Daughter of the Sun guides you, you will know the correct answers.”
    And
if I did not?
    Tarvik
must have shared my doubt. He said softly, “My father, no one can know all the
answers to all questions. Even the gods must be puzzled sometimes.”
    “You
think me unfair?” Kovat roared, spinning around on his heel to face his son.
    To
Tarvik's credit, and so far I had seen little of him that I thought merited
credit, Tarvik didn't turn away. He stared in silence at his father, not
blinking.
    Kovat
glared back at him. “No one can say Kovat is unfair, even to his enemies. On
this journey's return I have brought with me a magician of the followers of
Thunder, one of their mad priests. Tomorrow I shall bring him and this - this
-” He turned to me and waved his hand toward me and snapped, “Have you a name?”
    “I
am called Stargazer.”
    “Stargazer.
Tomorrow you and the mad magician will stand before me and I will give
questions about things neither of you know. Let him consult his false god while
you study your stars. We shall see who outguesses who.” To Tarvik he muttered,
“There, princeling, is that fair enough for you?”
    Tarvik
nodded. It did seem to me they might have included me in the decision making,
and if I’d been alone with Tarvik I would have told him so, loudly, but in the
presence of Kovat I did not even twitch an eyelid.
    Kovat
marched out of the room, leaving me alone to turn and meet Tarvik's look.
    He
said softly, “Do you possess the same magic as the Daughter?”
    “I
never knew the Daughter.”
    “I
remember her. She knew magic.”
    He
stepped down from the raised platform and walked over to me, then slowly
circled me, looking up and down in a way that made me rather uncomfortable. It
was one thing to have him staring openmouthed in the temple, where he would do
nothing more than stare. It was another here, where who knew what he had on his
mind.
    “Who
winds it up like that?” He reached out and touched my hair. The guy really was
full of surprises.
    “Nance,
of course.”
    “Yes,
and so added to your lack of skill at cooking, you also cannot dress your own
hair.”
    As
there was no way to answer that comment without starting an argument, and
raised voices in the castle with Kovat the Slayer present seemed unwise, I said
nothing.
    “Then
we must hope that you are clever at this telling fortunes from the stars,
because my father has set great weight on it.”
    His
fingers slid down the side of my face, touching me gently, before he hurried
away from me.
    I
returned to the temple, once again with guards in front and behind me. There
were a few other guards standing around, and servants and slaves hurrying by,
usually with their hands filled with bundles or trays, but if they looked at
me, they did it quickly and secretly.
    Nance
waited, her fingers twisting nervously, a foot tapping with impatience. I
reported the meeting to her while she removed the ornaments from my hair,
helped me out of the robes, brushed them down and hung them away. Then I asked
her for pen and paper.
    She
answered with a blank stare.
    For
a second I’d forgotten these people did not read or write. A face to face visit
with a slayer maybe dulled my memory? Nance had no paper, no pencils, nothing
to use to draw horoscopes.
    “The
walls,” I said finally, thinking of the paintings, “how are those drawings
done?”
    “With
paint or charcoal. I have neither.”
    Only
later, after I had finally calmed Nance and sent her to bed, did I consider
Tarvik and decide he might mean well, but he couldn't save my neck. I had to do
that myself. With only a table top and Nance's face colors as tools, I drew a
horoscope for scary old Kovat. Next, I went out into the courtyard and picked
up pebbles until I had a handful. I brought them back inside and dabbed them
with colors from Nance's small pots of face paint to make