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ingly endless procession of jugglers, acrobats,
dancers, and an illusionist mediocre enough to make
Naitachal snort in contempt. Charina oohed and
ahhed over each performer, applauding vigorously,
jarring Kevin awake every time he started to drift off.
Powers, if this interminable celebration didn't end
pretty soon, he was going to end up snoring away
with his head in the crumbs.
Atlast, though, the ordeal did come to an end. The last
of the performers bowed his way out of the Hall, and
Count Volmar got to his feet, looking as crisp as ever.
"The hour is lace. And so, my friends. I bid you good
night" Beaming, he held up both arms in benediction.
"1 declare a week of celebration!"
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As all the courders cheered, Kevin bit back a groan.
/ don't know if I can survive a week of this!
Struggling not to stagger, the bardling followed a
bevy of obsequious servants back to the guest quarters,
blinking wearily as they fussed over him and removed
his borrowed finery. As they finally left him alone,
188 Mercedes Lackey ^Josepha Sherman
Kevin yawned mightily, sure he was going to fall asleep
the moment he fell into bed.
But of course as soon as he was settled comfortably in
the big, canopied bed, his mind and body, perversely,
woke up. After a time of restlessly tossing about, Kevin
gave up trying to sleep altogether. Pulling back the
canopies so he could get some fresh air, the bardling sat
alone in the dark, puzzling over the weird events of the
day.
Charina free? Himself a hero?
But I haven't done anything!
Nothing made sense. Oh sure, there had been the
fight with the bandits and that necromancer. But
everything else about their quest had been so so
easy, so ridiculously, frustratingly easy that
Kevin froze, listening to the sudden faint creak of
wood. That was the door! Someone was sneaking into
his room.
The bardling shot off the bed, groping blindly for a
weapon. His hand dosed about a heavy candlestick, and
he hefted it experimentally, heart pounding, trying to
figure out exacdy where the intruder might
"Kid? Hey, kid?"
Lydia!
"Come on, Kevin," added a high, shrill voice. "We
know you're in there!"
Wings buzzed in the darkness. Now that had to be
Tich'ki!
Kevin put the candlestick back on the bedside table
from which he'd snatched it and fumbled with flint and
steel till he'd gotten the chick, expensive, beeswax
candle burning. By its flickering light, he saw Lydia
grin and Tich'ki come to a graceful landing on the bed.
Two more figures moved silently out of the shadows:
Eliathanis and Naitachal, the latter nearly invisible,
shrouded once more in his cloak of necromantic black.
"We must talk," the Dark Elf said softly.
CASTLE OF DECEPTION 189
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"We certainly must!" Kevin agreed. "I don't know
about you, but I feel like all this glittery splendor is
going to explode in my face."
Eliathanis grimaced. "Oh, indeed. The whole affair
stinks, as you humans would say, like old boots.*'
Kevin nodded eagerly. "What it is, is that they're all
trying their best to dazzle us."
"But just who are *they'?" the White Elf wondered.
"And why are 'they' doing this?"
"Why, indeed?" Naitachal mused. "I wonder ...
could someone have deceived Count Volmar? Perhaps
told him of heroics we simply didn't do?"
"Why would anyone bother?" Lydia asked. "That
doesn't make sense."
Tich'ki shrugged. "A weird sort of human joke?"
Kevin shook his head. "Not with Charina here. Her
disappearance was hardly ajoke!"
"The only other possibility." Naitachal said slowly, "is
that the count himself is involved."
Lydia stirred impatiently. "Involved in what? All we
know is, he hired us to find his niece. We returned to
find said niece already free. Everyone thinks we're
heroes. Yeah, it's a weird situation, but where's the
crime in it?"
"Oh, Powers..."
"Kevin? What is it?"
He stared at them all. "I just had a horrible thought
Remember what the Arachnia back in Westerin told us?
About Cariotta? Well, what if... what if that isn't Charina
after all. I know she's no illusion, I sat next to her at din-
ner and all, but..." He shook his head in misery.
"You mean," the Dark Elf murmured, "that she
might be no one else but Cariotta in disguise?"
"I d-don't want to believe it, but what if that's the
truth? Then this whole thing, all this ridiculous, empty
celebrating, starts making sense. It could all be part of
her plot."
190 Mewedes Lackey ^Josepha Shernwn
Naitachal swore under his breath. "Could be, no. It
ttl And here I thought I sensed something odd about
that girl, a hint of sorcery hovering about her. But I
told myself no, that couldn't be, I had to be mistaken. 1
let myself get just as bedazzled as the rest of you."
The Dark Elf straightened resolutely. "What hap-
pened. happened. If that really is Cariotta, the count is
almost certainly under her sway."
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"And that means they're both probably waiting for
me to find the manuscript again," Kevin added. "After
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