Polgara the Sorceress

‘Exactly what is going to happen, Lady Polgara?’

‘You don’t need to know that, my Lord. I want your reactions to be very genuine. If I surprise you, they will be. I’ll be giving you instructions, so just follow them. Under the circumstances, they’ll be completely rational, so nobody’s going to question you. Now go to the throne-room. I’ll be along in just a few moments, and that’s when things will start.’

I want you all to notice that I was very carefully keeping a great many details to myself. Arends have a tendency to want to be helpful, and I didn’t want anybody stepping in to lend a hand at exactly the wrong moment.

I paused for a long moment before leaving Asrana’s apartment, gathering a kind of calmness about me. There were a number of things I had to do in almost the same instant that Lammer’s message reached its mark. Very few in the throne-room were actually privy to our little scheme, and I was going to have to channel everyone else’s thinking in a specific direction. I wasn’t going to leave any openings for speculation. I wanted them all to interpret the event that was about to take place in one specific way.

Then I drew in a deep breath and went out into the corridor that led to the throne-room.

I paused in the shadowy doorway to the great hall to make certain that everyone was in place. Mangaran was near the left side of the throne. Oldoran, his eyes unfocused, sat in his accustomed place. The Murgo in the yellow Tolnedran mantle stood at the befuddled duke’s right elbow with a slightly bored expression on his face. His eyes, however, were moving constantly. I couldn’t see Lammer up in that shadowy gallery, but I wasn’t really supposed to. I sent out a quick, searching thought, and then I relaxed. Lammer was where he was supposed to be. The giddy Asrana was not far from the throne, and she absolutely sparkled. The tension of the moment had made her even more vivacious than usual.

Everything was in its proper place. We were ready.

I stepped into the doorway and paused, looking directly at the fellow in the Tolnedran mantle at the duke’s side. Krachack had known me the instant he’d laid eyes on me, and I was hoping that this Murgo would as well.

Then, while his eyes were still starting out of their sockets, I went on into the plain view of everybody in the room. My gown had been designed to attract attention, and it still worked. Heads swivelled. People broke off what they were saying in mid-sentence to stare at me. Lammer’s bow-string twanged.

The steel-tipped arrow made a crunching sound as it drove directly into the Murgo’s forehead. The distance wasn’t really that great, and Lammer’s bow had strong limbs. The arrow plunged through the Murgo’s brain, and it protruded a foot or more out behind his head. He did look just a bit peculiar with the feathered fletching of the arrow decorating his forehead. His body stiffened as he jerked into an erect position.

‘Assassin!’ I shouted, augmenting my voice so that the sentries on the city wall probably heard me. ‘Get the duke to safety!’

And that’s how I overthrew the government of Asturia. One arrow, one shout, and it was done. The good ones are always simple.

Even as that pseudo Tolnedran slowly toppled backward, Mangaran was moving. ‘To the duke!’ he bellowed. ‘Shield him with your bodies!’

At first the startled courtiers hung back. There was always the possibility of more arrows, and very few in the room were that fond of Oldoran. But Mangaran had already hurled his own body on that of the confused duke, and others rushed forward to join him. Other courtiers were drawing their swords and looking around for somebody to stab.

Asrana was screaming in a masterful imitation of hysteria.

I moved quickly around the outskirts of the crowd to the door behind the throne. ‘This way, my Lord Mangaran!’ I shouted. ‘Bring the duke! The rest of you, guard this door! There’s treason afoot!’ I wanted to nail that down.

Then I cast a hideous illusion directly in front of the stupefied Oldoran’s bleary eyes, and he was the only one who could see it. He began to scream and gibber in absolute terror, even as several courtiers picked him up bodily and followed Earl Mangaran to the doorway where I stood. I intensified the illusion before the duke’s eyes, and his screaming grew even louder as he struggled to free himself. I definitely wanted that screaming to continue.

‘Should I make the announcement?’ Mangaran muttered to me as he led the little cluster of men carrying the duke through the door.

‘Not yet,’ I replied quietly. ‘Let him scream for a while. I’ll be along in a few moments to examine him.’ I let them on through the doorway and then firmly shut the door and set my back against it. ‘Find that assassin!’ I commanded. ‘Hunt him down!’

That gave everyone who wasn’t busy guarding the door something to do. A quick search with my mind had revealed the fact that Lammer had already left the palace grounds and was sitting in a tavern several streets away. The searchers did find his bow and a quiver of arrows up in the gallery, however. Lammer, I noted, was a thoroughgoing professional.

Not everyone in the throne-room joined in that disorganized search for the mysterious bowman, though. About a half-dozen distraught-looking Asturian nobles were gathered around the dead Murgo’s body. Some of them were even wringing their hands, and one was openly weeping. I caught Asrana’s eye and crooked one finger at her.

She came to me immediately. ‘Yes, Polly?’ she said.

‘Wipe that silly grin off your face, Asrana,’ I told her, and I didn’t say it out loud.

‘How are you – ?’ she started.

‘Hush! Listen, don’t talk. Fix the names of those men around the body by the throne firmly in your mind. Those are the ones we’ll have to watch out for.’ Then I spoke aloud to her – just loud enough to be heard by the courtiers guarding the door. ‘Calm yourself, dear,’ I told her. “The duke’s safe, and the Earl Mangaran’s with him.’

‘Did he get hurt?’ she asked, wincing as Oldoran gave vent to a particularly piercing shriek.

‘He’s distraught, Asrana. The shock of this attempt on his life has unsettled him just a bit, I think. Here. Take my place. If anyone tries to rush this door, give up your life to hold them off.’

She lifted her chin and assumed a heroic pose. ‘I will!’ she declared. ‘They’ll have to rip me to pieces and spill out all my blood. They will not pass!’

‘Brave girl,’ I murmured. Then I opened the door and went into the small antechamber where the duke was busy having hysterics. I drew Mangaran off to one side. ‘All right, my Lord,’ I murmured softly to him. ‘Part one is over. Now it’s time to move on to part two.’