Three Brothers

Listen, my children! Argal and his brothers now had the excuse they needed

and their wickedness flowered. They went among the gods claiming that

Nushash had stolen Suya against her will, and many of the gods became

angry and said they would throw down Nushash, their rightful ruler.

— from The Revelations of Nushash, Book One

"THIS DOES NOT SEEM A GOOD IDEA to me," Utta whispered. "What does he want from us? He is dangerous!"

Merolanna shook her head. "You must trust me. I may not

know much, but I know my way around these things."

"But…!"

She fell silent as the new castellan, Tirnan Havemore, walked into the chamber. He held a book in his hands and was followed by a page carry¬ing more books with-rather dangerously-a writing-tray balanced atop them. Havemore wore his hair in the Syannese style that had swept the cas¬tle, cut high above the ears, and because he was balding he looked more like a priest than anything else-a resemblance, Utta thought, that Have-more was only too eager to encourage. Even when he had been merely Avin Brone's factor he had seen himself as a philosopher, a wise man amid lesser minds. She had never liked him, and knew no one outside of the Tollys' circle who did.

Havemore stopped as though he had only just realized the women were in the room. "Why, Duchess," he said, peering at them over the spectacles

perched on his narrow nose,"you honor me. And Sister Utta, a pleasure to

ve you, too. I am afraid my now duties as castellan have kept me fearfully

busy of late-too busy to visit with old friends. Perhaps we can remedy that

now. Would you like some wine? Tea?"

Utta could feel Merolanna bristling at the mere suggestion that she and this upstart were old friends. She laid her hand on the older woman's arm. "Not for me, thank you, Lord Havemore."

"1 will not take anything, either, sir," the duchess said with better grace than Utta would have expected. "And although we would love to have a proper conversation with you, we know you are a busy man. I'm certain we won't take much of your time."

"Oh, but it would be a true joy to have a visit." Havemore snapped his lingers and waved. "Wine." The page put down the books and the teeter¬ing tray on the castellan's tall, narrow desk, a desk which had been Nynor Steffen's for years and which had seemed as much a part of him as his skin and his knobby hands. Unburdened, the page left the room. "A true joy," I lavemore repeated as though he liked the sound of it. "In any case, I will have a cup of something myself, since I have been working very hard this morning, preparing for Duke Caradon's visit. I'm sure you must have heard about it-very exciting, eh?"

It was news to Utta. Hendon's older brother, the new Duke of Summerfield, coming here? Doubtless he would bring his entire retinue-hundreds more Tolly supporters in the household, and during the ominous days of the Kerneia festival as well. Her heart sank to think of what the place would be like, full of drunken soldiers.

"So, my gracious ladies," said Havemore, "what can I do for you today?"

Utta could not imagine anything that Tirnan Havemore could do for them that would not immediately be reported to Hendon Tolly, so she kept her mouth closed. This was Merolanna's idea; Utta would let the dowager duchess take the lead. Zoria, watch over us, here in the stronghold of our enemies, she prayed. Even if they knew nothing of the astonishing business she and Merolanna had embarked upon, the ruling faction held little but contempt for either of them, for one key reason: neither one of them had anything to bargain with, no strength, no land, no money. Well, except Merolanna is part of the royal family and a link to Olin. I suppose the Tollys want to keep her sweet at least until they've got their claws well into Southmarch.

"But Lord Havemore, you must know what you can do for us," Merolanna said. "Since you called us here. As I said, I don't want to intrude

on your time, which is valuable to all of Southmarch, and especially to Earl Hendon, our selfless guardian."

Careful, Utta could not help thinking. Merolanna had moved and was out of range of an admonitory squeeze of the arm. Don't be too obvious, He doesn't expect you to like him, but don't let your dislike show too openly.

"Hendon Tolly is a great man." Havemore's grin looked even more wolfish than before-he was enjoying this. "And we are all grateful that he is helping to guard King Olin's throne for its legitimate heir."

The page returned with wine and several cups. Utta and Merolanna shook their heads. The page poured only one and handed it to the castel¬lan, then stepped back to the wall and did his best to look like a piece of furniture. Havemore seated himself in his narrow chair, pointedly leaving the dowager duchess standing.

"You mean for King Olin, of course," Merolanna said cheerfully, ignor¬ing the calculated slight. "Guarding the throne for King Olin. The heir is all well and good, but my brother-in-law Olin is still king, even in his absence."

"Of course, Your Grace, of course. I misspoke. However, the king is a prisoner and his heirs are gone-perhaps dead. We would be foolish to pre¬tend that the infant heir is not of the greatest importance."

"Yes, of course." Merolanna nodded. "In any case, leaving aside all this quibbling about succession, which I'm sure is of scarcely any real interest to a scholar like yourself, you did call us here. What have we done to de¬serve your kind invitation?"

"Ah, now it is you who feigns innocence, Your Grace. You asked to speak to Avin Brone, but you must know that he has… retired. That his duties have all been taken up by me and Lord Hood, the new lord consta¬ble. Our dear Brone has worked so hard for Southmarch-he deserves his rest. Thus, I thought I might save him the unnecessary work of trying to solve whatever problem you ladies might have by volunteering my own at¬tention to it, instead." His smile looked like it had been drawn with a sin¬gle stroke of a very sharp pen.

"That is truly kind, Lord Havemore," said Merolanna, "but in truth we wanted-/wanted-to see Lord Brone only out of friendship. For the sake of old times. Why, I daresay Avin Brone and I have known each other longer than you've been alive!"

"Ah." Havemore, like many ambitious young men, did not like being re¬minded of allegiances that predated his own arrival. "I see. So there is noth¬ing I can do for you?"

"You can remember your kind offer to share yourself more with the rest of us castle folk, Lord Havemore." The duchess smiled winningly. "A man of your learning, a well-spoken man like you, should put himself about a bit more."

He narrowed his eyes, not entirely sure how to take her remark. "Very kind. But there is still a question, Your Grace. I can understand your desire to reminisce with your old friend Lord Brone, but what brings Sister Utta along on such a mission? Surely she and Brone are not also old friends? I had never heard that old Count Avin was much on religion, beyond what is necessary for appearances." Havemore smiled at this little joke shared among friends and for the first time Sister Utta felt herself chilled. This man was more than ambitious, he was dangerous.

"I do consider Brone a friend," Utta said suddenly, ignoring Merolanna's flinch. "He has been kind to me in the past. And he is a man of good heart, whether he spends much time in the temple or not."

"I am glad to hear you say that." Tirnan Havemore now looked at Utta closely. "I worked for him for many years and always felt his best qualities were ignored, or at least underappreciated."

Merolanna actually took a step forward, as if to stop the conversation from straying into dangerous areas. "I asked her to come with me, Lord Havemore. I am… I am not so well these days. It makes me easier to have a sensible woman like Utta with me instead of one of my scatterbrained young maids."