was the very moment of betrayal, and she didn’t want to be near him when he discovered it.
“It’s a summoner’s cloak,” he called up to her, “the long white mantle of office. How odd.” He bent down to examine the cloak. His own cloak, which he kept wrapped over his shoulders to conceal the crook in them, fell away. He ignored that. Gingerly, almost as if he could not help himself, he reached down to touch the white cloak.
Abruptly the white cloak rose of its own accord and fell about Merlin in tightening folds. He began to cry out some words, perhaps some sort of counterspell. She might have gone to him then, in spite of everything, but Earno was at her side, holding her arm in an unbreakable grip.
The stone began to grate shut over the stairwell. Soon the rock was a single piece again, and Merlin had disappeared underneath it.
She turned on Earno, venting on him the shame and rage she felt for herself. “Liar! You said he wouldn’t be harmed!”
“He hasn’t been,” the stocky red-bearded man replied patiently, deliberately. “Give me a moment and we’ll speak with him.”
He took a piece of silvered glass and a diamond stylus from a pocket in his cloak. He scraped a few symbols on the mirror and muttered some words latent with power. She could feel the spell activate, and the mirror went dark. Somehow, although there was no light in the glass, she could see Merlin in the darkness, struggling with his bonds in the underground chamber.
“Merlin!” Earno called through the glass.
Merlin’s swaddled form grew still. “It is Earno, isn’t it?” he replied, his voice rising through the glass with an odd echoing ring.
“Yes.”
“This trap has been ingeniously prepared.”
“I only had to change the cell slightly. It was a Coranian tomb at one time.”
“And now it is mine. Ironic.”
“On the contrary. I suggest you induce a withdrawal trance until I return with the Two Summoners. It may take some months, as time runs here, to navigate the Sea of Worlds.”
“And if I choose to starve, or die of thirst, instead?”
“Then the partisans of the Ambrosii will mourn, and a terrible danger will have been removed from the Wardlands.”
“Earno! Listen. The Wardlands are in danger. That’s why we need unity. The realm will need to use all its . . . resources with . . . with efficiency—”
“Merlin,” Earno interrupted, “when I was a child my rhetor made me spend a full day justifying the notion of setting a monarch over the Wardlands.”
“And?”
“I liked my arguments. But I didn’t convince my rhetor or myself. Don’t flatter yourself that you will.”
“I am impressed, Earno. I’m sorry now I mocked you.”
“No doubt you are. That woman is here.”
“I don’t wish to speak to her.”
“You should. You will not have another chance for some months.”
“Ah. Of course. She will provide your evidence that I have broken the First Decree.”
“Yes.”
“But . . . I don’t understand. Why did she agree? Can you tell me . . . How did you know she would agree?”
Fear and pain vibrated in Merlin’s glassy voice. Nimue had never heard him speak that way before. She took the mirror from Earno and, ignoring him, told Merlin everything: about her pregnancy, and her fear, and Earno’s promises. They talked a long time, till the sun was westering and a red light filtered through the green trees. Finally, she found herself saying, “But I never promised to testify against you. And I will not.”
After a long pause, Merlin responded, “I can’t say it doesn’t matter. But, of all people, I should understand. This is not the end, not for such as you and me. So.” Another pause. Then, “As to testifying, they will place you on the Witness Stone. It will place you in rapport with the assembled Graith. The questions you are asked will raise memories the Graith can read. Don’t resist. It’s dangerous and will do no good.”
The concern in his glassy fragile voice wounded Nimue deeply with love and anger. “But we must fight them!” she cried fiercely.
Merlin laughed—it sounded as if it hurt him, and it surely hurt her. “Nimue . . . I think we will. With all our strength and sight. At another time. But now you should go. Go away!”
She handed the mirror to Earno and turned away while he broke the glass and the spell.
“We’ll take your horses to the coast,” he said presently. “I have a ship waiting there.”
They turned their back on