“Yes,” agreed the tall mage, inclining his head. He smiled reassuringly at Mienthe and went out.
The king said, to Mienthe and Tan and Lord Beguchren, “Come.”
Mienthe thought drearily that the Casmantian king was going to want to go over everything again, and she knew she didn’t want to. This day had been unpleasant enough living through it just once. Tears pressed again at her eyes. Tan tightened his arm around her shoulders, and she thought of his voice asking tartly, Whose cousin are you? She straightened her shoulders, blinked hard, lifted her head, and followed the Arobern.
The king guided them no farther than down a short hall, to a much smaller and less formal chamber with thick rugs on the floor and cushions on the chairs. He waved to the chairs without ceremony and said shortly to Lord Beguchren, as soon as they were all seated, “Well?”
The small lord hesitated. Then he opened his fine hands and said, “From what that… person… described, I surmise it is possible to reorder the natural law of the world to a degree I would have previously believed impossible. I surmise that the honored Tan may be able to effect such a change.”
Tan said sharply, “It would be pleasant to think so, no doubt.” He was rubbing his knee, an absent, unmindful gesture that was utterly out of character. Mienthe guessed by that how very disturbed he was by everything that had happened. She rose from the chair she’d just taken and went to lean on the back of his chair, resting her hand on his shoulder. The muscles were rock-hard under her touch. But he looked up at her and managed a small nod.
Lord Beguchren only said smoothly, “If Tehre’s Wall shatters, then an effort to alter and bind natural law might seem suddenly very wise indeed, no matter with what doubt any of us may now regard the prospect. It does not seem wholly beyond the bounds of possibility that the honored Tan might be able to, if I may be forgiven the term, ‘rewrite’ a certain element of the natural law of the world. A small element, a trivial item that would not disorder the world to any great extent… I wonder, for example, whether he might be able to use this book and the work he holds himself to more thoroughly subordinate fire to earth.”
There was a pause. Tan did not look at the Casmantian lord, or at the Arobern. He looked at Mienthe. She thought he needed something from her, but she had no idea what he wanted her to say and could only gaze back at him.
There was a subdued cough at the door, and a guardsman said apologetically, “Lord King, forgive me. We have had another messenger through the pass. A courier—a royal courier, from Feierabiand.”
The Arobern scowled but laughed at the same time. He waved an impatient hand. “Of course I will see the courier. At once.” He threw a harried glance around the room, ran a broad hand through his short hair, and said to Mienthe, to the rest of them, “Of course you must stay. You must all stay.”
The courier was a young woman, no older than Mienthe, who looked just as tired as Mienthe felt and twice as travel-ragged. She glanced at the rest of them, but was clearly too weary to be curious and turned at once to the Arobern, bowed, and held out her white courier’s wand.
“Yes,” said the Arobern. “I will assuredly hear you. What message does Iaor Safiad send to me?”
“Lord King,” said the courier in a faint voice, then took a breath and continued more strongly, “His Majesty Iaor Safiad sends me to say to you: He believes the Wall will not hold, that it is impossible it should hold, and that as it is the fifth day since the warning was given, we are even now within the period of greatest peril. He bids me say: The griffins have a new king who is furious and intemperate. This king of theirs scorns men and detests all the country of earth. His Majesty says that the king of the griffins will not likely stop in Feierabiand. He warns you to look east as well as north and guard the passes through the mountains.” The woman stopped, swallowed, and added in a faint voice, “That’s all. Will there be a response?”
The Arobern said, “Honored courier, I must consider. If there is a response, I will tell it to you in the morning. Go. Rest. My household will see to your comfort.”
The courier bowed once more—she staggered a little as she straightened—and allowed herself to be led away.
Mienthe stared at the Arobern, stricken and wordless.
“My friend,” the Arobern said to Beguchren Teshrichten, “what is in your mind?”
The elegant lord inclined his head. He said, “Here in this extremity, where fire threatens to burn across all the world, an unlooked-for weapon has flung itself into our hands.” He met Tan’s eyes and went on, quietly, “You are pursued. You have enemies. Well, so do we all. It seems to me we may well consider how we may confound all our enemies at once, and if we also forever shift the balance between earth and fire to favor earth, is that not also very well?” He turned to the Arobern. “Shall we not send agents to recover this book? Shall we not bring it here and see what the honored Tan might make of it?”