Gwenyth laughed at that. “I’ve heard a constant gloom hangs over Docendum, a result of all the magic performed there.”
“True.”
“I’ve heard the apprentices think nothing of turning the servants into ducks for their own amusement.”
“Not true, but only because most of the apprentices can’t manage that sort of magic.” I couldn’t. I’d tried to transform myself into various creatures. I only ever managed to become a hawthorn tree and a wolf.
I was practiced enough now, that I could take on either shape quickly and without summoning the emotions that had first accompanied them, but changing form was only valuable during a mission if I was pursued by dogs following my scent or if a wizard was after me. A disclosing spell cast by a wizard would erase my invisibility enchantment, but it wouldn’t turn me human again if I were in the form of a tree or wolf. A reverse transformation spell was needed, and most didn’t suspect a tree of being anything but a tree.
Gwenyth finished with my sleeves, and I sat by my looking glass so she could fix my hair. She took a section and began plaiting it. “What’s the most exciting thing you’ve done with your magic?”
“You realize lady’s maids aren’t supposed to ask impertinent questions.”
“And I won’t when there’re ears that might overhear. I just want a good story. I’ve never talked to a real wizard before.”
A real wizard. I didn’t consider myself that. I was only a girl who’d stolen magic. “It’s all exciting until I run into someone who wants to hack me into little pieces. Fortunately, I’m good at dodging.”
Gwenyth pinned up the plait and went to work on the second. “When are you going to tell me how Alaric and I are to get daggers? You said you’d let me know before we left.”
Sneaking weapons into the Valistowe was no small task, as upon arrival, guests were required to turn all arms over to the marshal’s men. Each carriage and guest would be thoroughly examined by one of the king’s wizards, and wizards had finding spells to uncover weapons.
Only the king’s knights were allowed to be armed, and they carried their swords on them except while sleeping. Stealing one of those would set off an immediate search. Pinching kitchen knives would be no better as the undercooks counted the silverware daily and missing knives would also set off a search. I’d considered burying daggers on the road to Valistowe and sneaking out of the castle the first night to retrieve them. Unfortunately, not only did a deep moat surround the place, the king’s wizards had created flesh-eating fish to ensure no one swam across it.
I smiled at her. “You didn’t notice the daggers when we packed our things?”
Gwenyth wrinkled her nose. “You hid them in your trunks? What of the wizard’s finding spell?”
“The wizard won’t discover them because they won’t be weapons when I enter Valistowe.” Finding spells had their limitations. Only a whole object would be detected, not the individual parts.
I stood and crossed the room to the chest that held my wardrobe for the trip. On top of folded kirtles, chemises, and gowns, was a box. I pulled the top off with a flourish.
It contained a headdress I’d redesigned. The silver cauls that would cover the plaits of hair on the sides of my head were the same type that many of the highborn women wore, although lacking the pearls or jewels of the truly wealthy. However, the bands that spanned my forehead and the back of my head were dagger blades I’d magicked to bend to the right shape. I’d glued garnets across them to help disguise their true form.
“Do you see any weapons?” I asked.
“No.” She reached out to take the headdress.
“Careful. It has sharp edges.”
Her gaze snapped to the blades’ sides and her eyes widened with understanding. “Ah. That’s what I call cutting fashion.”
“Hopefully not too sharp. I’m going to have to wear this when we ride into the castle. Otherwise, when the soldiers paw through my trunk, they’ll slice their fingers.”
Gwenyth turned the headdress one way and then another. “Where’s the rest of it?”
The bottom half of the daggers had been disassembled into three parts. I took out a yellow brocade gown and shook it out. The brass hand guard sat in the middle of the bodice as though it were a very long brooch. “If you noticed nothing amiss when you packed it, certainly the guards won’t either.” Alaric and I had purposely not told Gwenyth about this deception in order to see if it was as good as we thought.
She gave a short braying laugh, not at all upset at being duped.
I held up a jewelry box with four thick wooden legs. “The dagger handles are the front two legs.”
I opened up the jewelry box and took out the bottom of a dagger’s handle, a round brass pommel with a chain threaded through it. An arrangement of garnets decorated the orb, but it still made a large, ugly pendant. Its twin lay in the box, decorated with amethysts. “If I’m caught, it will be because no one will believe a woman of breeding would wear such tawdry things.”
“I did wonder about those, but I was too polite to question your taste.”
I returned the necklace to the box. “We’ll need to remove the jewels before you use a dagger.” I was counting on the fact that once the daggers were reassembled, no one would connect the pommels to the ugly pendants a few guards saw when they searched through the guests’ luggage.
Gwenyth surveyed the headdress again, touching a caul that hid the tip of one blade and the tang of the other. “I won’t be able to reassemble them, curved as the blades are.”