Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon Page B

she knew she had to pick it up.
    Yes
, the crown said in her head.
It belongs with us. With you
.
    She reached out; the Marshal-General grabbed her wrist. “Be careful! It might still be—”
    “It’s magical but not evil,” Dorrin said. “I think it will change in my hand—watch—” She plucked the spoon out—heavy silver, it felt like—and her hand and arm tingled as they had before. The spoon squirmed, re-forming into a ring, a sapphire surrounded by diamonds.
    Put it on! Put it on now!
The room filled with light that faded after a few moments when Dorrin made no move to slip the ring onto a finger.
    “It looks like more of the regalia,” Dorrin said when none of the others spoke. “I should take it to the king, to be stored with the rest.”
    No! Put it on!
    Dorrin pulled out the lace-edged handkerchief that went with her court dress and laid the ring in the center; the cloth eased the temptation to put it on.
    “It looks like the same sort of work as that necklace Paks brought,” the Marshal-General said after a moment. “Oktar, did you see that when you were in Fin Panir?”
    “No, only the scrolls. I had heard the necklace might be elf-made.”
    “The elves said no, when I asked them,” the Marshal-General said.“They were quite firm about that, but then they would not say what they thought it was. Typical, I thought. Nor did the dwarves admit to it. They did want to buy it, though, if we chose to sell. The jewels, they said, were from very far away. That was all they could tell us.”
    “Paks wondered if the legends had been wrong and Gird had been crowned King at some time,” Dorrin said.
    “No,” Oktar said. “On that the records are clear. He wanted nothing to do with kings.”
    “We both thought—the colors being blue and white—”
    “Of course,” the Marshal-General said. “But our records tell that the peasants of Gird’s day were not allowed to wear blue. We think blue became his color out of defiance—probably clothes taken from lords during the war.”
    “Blue meant something to the magelords,” Dorrin said, thinking of the jewels and the embroidered cloth around the crown. “Wasn’t there a cloth found in the far west? Paks mentioned it.”
    “Yes … with a star symbol on it.”
    “The scrolls mention a Sunlord,” Oktar said. “It could be a sun symbol.”
    “The same design was on the cloth that wrapped the crown,” Dorrin said. “Paks saw it.”
    “I should look at that,” the Marshal-General said. “But first—what else in this house? Marshal Tamis?”
    “This was the worst upstairs, after the mess in the old Duke’s study. Duke Verrakai said she wasn’t sure she’d gotten all the traps out, but Veksin and I dealt with the bloodstain and removed the symbols of Liart. Haven’t had time to do more, with the coronation yesterday.”
    “The cellar,” Dorrin said. “I haven’t so much as touched the door yet.”
    “Then let us look there,” the Marshal-General said. “We can at least plan for its cleansing, if we can’t do it all today.”

 
    “S hould we call in Marshal Veksin?” Marshal Tamis asked.
    “I don’t think so,” the Marshal-General said. “Duke Verrakai, lead the way if you will.”
    Dorrin led the way downstairs to the alcove near the passage out into the cobbled yard. There two iron-bound doors stood side by side.
    “I think one’s a simple root cellar,” Dorrin said. “The other … not.”
    “Which is which?” the Marshal-General asked.
    “I feel some malice from both, but much stronger here,” Dorrin said, not quite touching the right-hand door.
    The Marshals came nearer, and the Marshal-General nodded. “I agree.”
    “This is very like what we found in various lairs of Liart’s priests,” the Marshal-Judicar said. “And for that we wanted Marshals and knights both. I would recommend calling in another—and Duke Verrakai, are your escort sufficiently skilled in arms, or should we send for city militia or