Thanks for the Bump, Corwyn. And now, without further ado:You didn't kill him, Eliad, did you?" Nystyra asked anxiously. The Gnome was propped up on the bed in his room, fairly swaddled with bandages. Lord Meiron's Bodyguard, once the surprise had worn off, had not been lenient with him. Only the sudden, puzzling incompetence of the Captain of the Guard had saved him.
"I told ye, Miss Nysytra, I didn' kill him. I scratched him up a fair bit, but..." The normally cheerful Gnome gestured at the bandages. Mathonwy had given his aid to the Gnome, but he had to do it discreetly, and without magic. It would have been far too suspicious for this mysterious figure, wounded by Guardsmen's sword, to be healed in the space of hours by the Seeress's own companion. His disguise had been still with him when they had found him, for he had not been coherent enough to cancel it, so he would have been recognized. It was only now that Nystyra realized just how thin the ice she was treading was.
Not long after their conversation, Nystyra was called upon once more.
"Seeress, your vision is not so clear. I have survived when you said I would have died," Lord Meiron said, almost gloating, but prevented from making any sort of facial expression by the bandage around his brow.
"Question not my vision, Lord Meiron!" Sindell said sharply. "You have survived this once. Thank the Fates for they will surely not be so merciful the next time!"
Lord Meiron sat back, subdued, but Nystyra thought she detected the blossoming of suspicion in his eyes. Quickly, she broke the silence.
"Shall I prophecy for you, my Lord?" she asked innocently
"No prophesy for today, Seeress," Lord Meiron said. "I have questions of state that need answering...questions of...ah...security."
"The more a spider spins his webs, the more he worries for them," Sindell reflected thoughtfully. "You ask, I doubt not, about that one particular item among your personal effects, the one which was paid for in six feet of rope." That last was purely a guess, as Nystyra, searching quickly through her mind, came up with that bit of information Eliad had gleaned from a disgruntled servant.
"I, ah, see that your vision is..hmm...improved, Seeress," Lord Meiron said, intrigued.
"Doubt not, O Lord Meiron, that that which was paid for in rope shall be paid yet again, an you be not wary. Only the Keeper of Lover's Secrets shall this one conceal, and only the new moon hide the gallows-debt."
"I do not like to...ah, perforate my gardens, Seeress, yet your advice is good," Lord Meiron said. Whatever could be said of his personal habits, or his manner of dressing, he had a sharp mind. Nystyra was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea, one of a series which had led her to this point.
"Lord Meiron, a Seeress has eyes only, not ears to hear secrets nor a voice to speak them. On the night of the new moon, I shall lay such a spell upon your gallows-debt that mortal tongues shall never again speak of it, unless you yourself reveal it. Scorn not my aid, Lord Meiron, for wise men never spurn powerful allies," she said, crossing her fingers and hoping Lord Meiron agreed.
"I shall...consider it," Lord Meiron said, a crafty glint coming into his eyes.
Later that night, the night of the new moon, Nystyra and Eliad were concealed in some bushes in Lord Meiron's gardens. A life-size statue of a naked woman - the Keeper of Lover's Secrets, as some called the sculpture that had stood mute witness to so many trysts and romances - gazed down at them with lidded eyes. It was almost completely dark, but the Fey blood that ran in the veins of both Nystyra and Eliad allowed them to see fairly well regardless.
They waited an hour, then two, then three. Nystyra stretched her legs, trying to banish a sharp cramp. As she shifted uncomfortably, there was a sudden noise and a gleam of light. Lord Meiron, dressed in dark purple overcoat and breeches, came into view, holding a candle and arguing with a Bodyguard.
"What do you mean, you couldn't find her? My Seeress has not betrayed me, I trust?" he said, in an outraged squeal.
"Your Grace, I could not..." the Bodyguard began, but Lord Meiron cut him off.
"Ooh, just shut up! I have such a headache...you did let my messenger through the front gate, did you not? Good. You are dismissed...I said - "
"He said you are dismissed, soldier," said a woman's voice from right behind Lord Meiron's shoulder. He turned around with a start.
"My lady Sindell! What an...ah, pleasant surprise," he said, his voice courteous, but strained.
As he had been speaking to the hapless Bodyguard, Nystyra had slipped noiselessly out of the bush (a trick the Gnome had taught her), and crept up behind Lord Meiron silently. In her black robes, she appeared almost sepulchural, enough to make Lord Meiron shiver.
When she made no reply, Lord Meiron turned around and applied his shovel to the ground under the feet of the Keeper of Lover's Secrets. When he had a sufficient hole, he drew a small ironbound cask from his wig, and placed it in the hole. Shovelling dirt over it, he turned around and squinted impatiently at Sindell.
"Well? Are you going to...ah, cast your spell," he asked. Sindell said nothing, but nodded her head.
"Well goo - "
He got no further than that. Something heavy collided with his skull, and he fell to the ground, his wig falling from his unmoving head.
The Bodyguard that Lord Meiron had been berating earlier came into view again. He looked sternly at the fallen Lord for a minute, then reached up and removed his helmet with a beatific grin. Suddenly, Eliad stood where the Bodyguard had been, holding a suddenly too-large sword with a dented pommel (Lord Meiron had a hard head).
"Oo, Miss Nystyra, but tha' was clever, weren't it? Oo, but I wish I could've seen th' look on his face if he'd seen me! The stupid poof told me everything, thinkin' I was one o' his precious Bodyguard. It's all thanks to Cnorrec, too," he said, stroking the hat Cnorrec fondly.
Nystyra looked at the unconscious form of Lord Meiron. Much to her surprise, he was as bald as an egg under his curly pink wig. Eliad had already retrieved the iron strongbox. For several tense minutes, he worked it with his lockpicks, first whistling happily, then humming perplexedly, then staring angrily, then finally shouting angrily as one of his lockpicks snapped off in the lock, ruining any chance of opening it by the conventional means.
"Iwn Gneauh Cnirri! Oh, Toadstools!" he screamed in rage, using the very worst of Gnmic curses and smashing the strongbox with his Bodyguard's sword. Then, realizing how much noise he was making, and seeing the poisonous glare Nystyra shot him, he covered his mouth, looked horrified, and picked up the strongbox. To his surprise, it fell open, one of its hinges broken, and a sheaf of papers fluttered out. He snatched up all of the them, and was starting to read them, when they heard shouting and the sound of running feet. The Bodyguard had arrived. Clutching the papers, he and Nystyra ran off into the night.
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Well, what do you think? Next update probably tomorrow or Sunday.
