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out any liv-ing thing concealed there. Small rodents, insects, and a handful of ground birds scattered
before her power. But there was nothing else.
She turned back finally, vaguely dissatisfied. The clearing was empty of everyone save herself and the
girl. The King's Guards had been turned to stones. The wizard and the dog were gone, never to be seen
again. Everything had happened as she had intended. She was free to continue with her plans.
Still...
She brushed aside her misgivings in annoyance, walked over to the sleeping girl, and stared down at her.
So much to be done with you, little one, she thought in satisfaction. So many lessons to be taught, so
many se-crets to be revealed, so many tricks to be played. Can you hear what I am thinking?
The girl stirred within her blankets, dreaming.
Yes, sleep on, the Witch of the Deep Fell urged si-lently. Tomorrow your new life begins.
She bent down then and lifted the girl into the cradle of her arms. Light, like a feather quilt, she
was. Night-shade stared down at her new child and smiled.
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 Then she turned the air about them to icy mist. A moment later the clearing was deserted.
Challenge
Exactly three days after his first appearance Rydall of Marnhull returned to Sterling Silver. This time Ben
Holiday was waiting.
Ben never doubted that Rydall would come to make good on his promise. The only unanswered
question was, What form of coercion would Marnhull's King employ to persuade Ben to accede to his
ludicrous de-mands? Awake before sunrise, Ben had thought to take a run in an effort to clear his mind.
A carryover from his boxing days, he still trained regularly, a regimen of running, weights, and workouts
on the light and heavy bags. Sometimes he boxed with members of the King's Guards, but there was no
one sufficiently skilled at the sport to give him much competition. Or maybe they thought it better for him
to think as much. So mostly he trained alone. This morning he prepared to run, then lost interest. Instead,
he climbed atop the battlements with Willow and Bunion to watch for the sunrise and Rydall.
The night had been chilly, and when the darkness be-gan to ease to the west and the east to brighten, he
found that during the night a low fog had moved out of the trees and down into the meadow fronting the
castle. It lay across the damp grasses in a thick gray smudge that ran from the woods all the way to the
waters of the lake. When the sun broke against the eastern horizon in a silvery splash, the fog inched
back from the water's edge where the causeway bridged to the castle, and there was Rydall. He sat atop
his charger, all armored and bristling with weapons, his silent black-cloaked companion hunched atop his
own dark steed, the two of them looking just as before, just as if they had never left.
Ben stared down from the castle walls without speak-ing, waiting them out. The gauntlet cast down by
Rydall three days earlier still lay in the center of the causeway. Ben had ordered it removed, but no one
had been able to comply with his demand. It was as if the gauntlet had been nailed to the bridge. No one
could lift it; no one could budge it, for that matter--not even Questor Thews. Some form of magic held it
in place, and noth-ing short of tearing up the bridge was going to get it out of there. Ben was not that
desperate, so the gauntlet had stayed where it was.
It lay there now, gleaming faintly with the damp, a reminder of what Marnhull's King had promised.
"Holiday!" Rydall called out sharply. No use of "King" or "High Lord" this time. No pretense of re-spect.
"Have you given further thought to my demand?"
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 "My answer is the same!" Ben shouted back. He felt Willow move in close beside him. "You knew it
would be!"
Rydall's horse stamped impatiently. Rydall's hand lifted in a dismissive gesture. "Then I must ask you to
change it Rather, I must insist. You no longer have achoice. Things have changed since we last spoke. I
have your daughter."
There was a long silence. Willow's hands fastened tightly on Ben's arm, and he heard her sharp intake of
breath. Ben's throat constricted in response to the words. I have your daughter. But Mistaya was safe.
She was two days gone into the lake country with her grand-father, safely beyond Rydall's reach.
Wasn't she?
"I told you I would find a way to convince you to lis-ten to me," Rydall continued, breaking the
momentary silence. "I think now that you must. Your daughter is important to you, I assume."
Ben was trembling with rage. "This is another of your games, Rydall! I have had just about all of you I
can stand!"
The dismissive gesture came again. "That remains to be seen. I don't expect you to take my word for
what I tell you, in any case. Not you, Holiday. You are the sort of man who demands proof even when
the truth is star-ing him in the face. Very well, then."
He whistled, and a pair of horses appeared from out of the blanket of low-lying fog. Ben felt his heart
sink as they came closer. One was Lightfoot, and the other Owl. There was no mistaking their markings.
They came past Rydall and started across the bridge.
"Send someone down and have them bring you what they find tied to the pony's saddle," Rydall called
up once more.
Page 43
 Ben looked over at Bunion. The kobold raced away instantly, a dark blur against the castle stone.
Unable to speak, burning with anger, Ben stood with Willow pressed close against him. A moment later
Bunion was back. There was no expression on his strange, wizened face. He handed Ben a necklace and
a scarf. Ben stud-ied them closely and, sick at heart, handed them to Willow. They belonged to Mistaya.
She had been wearing them when she had left for the lake country.
"Oh, Ben," Willow whispered softly.
"Where are Questor Thews and Abernathy?" Ben shouted down to Rydall. "Where are the men of the
escort?"
"Safely tucked away," Rydall answered. "Are you ready to hear my demands now, High Lord of
Landover?"
Ben choked back the emotions that threatened to steal away his good sense. He put his arm around
Willow as much to steady himself as to steady her. He was still not willing to accept what he was being
told. It was not conceivable that Rydall could have taken Mistaya so easily. How had he managed it?
How could he have overcome her escort? Questor Thews and Abernathy would have died before giving
her up.
"Rydall!" he called down suddenly, shocking himself with the strength he found in his voice. "I will not
sur-render Landover's throne or her people for any reason. I will not be blackmailed. You seem
comfortable with preying on small children, and that makes me doubt your claims of conquest with armies
numbering in the thousands. I think you are a coward."
Rydall laughed. "Brave words for a man in your po-sition. But I do not begrudge them. Nor, in fact, do I
ex-pect you to hand over the throne now any more than I did before. I took your daughter not to
blackmail you into accepting my demands but to persuade you to hear me out. You would not do so
before. You must now. Listen well, then. You can ill afford not to, I think."
Rydall pointed to the gauntlet. "The challenge I offer is not the one you have anticipated. As I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]