Mistress De Lune’s throat felt raw from talking, and she gulped several sips of tea to relieve her discomfort before continuing. Kevin Galwynn forced himself to sit patiently, and wait for the Mistress of Stargazers to resume.
Lady Barbara cleared her throat and recommenced her tale. “My astrologers took the ephemerides from my astronomers. My astrologers scrutinized the ephemerides, and took into consideration the absence of a celestial body from the delicately balanced and counterweighted mechanism that underlies the structure of the heavens. And then they focused their minds and began, quietly, almost in a whisper, to say the sooth.
“One by one,” Lady Barbara said, “I watched my astrologers begin to tremble. And then one by one, I watched them begin to shake. Finally, one of their number could contain himself no longer and cried out, ‘Doom! Doom!! The stars foretell doom! The star-child of Sun and Moon is vanished, and the gods will blame their loss on both Sky and Land. The gods will rage and mete out their vengeance without mercy!
“The grieving Moon will raise tides higher than mountains and drown in a mighty flood the villages and hamlets on coast and strand where most Land Folk dwell! Then the agonized Sun will burn away all the clouds and vaporous seas of Sky until the entire Lower Reaches lay barren. And when there are no clouds left to offer even a trace of shade, the merciless Sun will parch the hills and dales and fertile fields of Land until all that remains is an endless, eternal, desert.
“ ‘Doom! Doom!! Run for your lives,’ my stargazers cried, ‘for we are all doomed!’ ”
Finally, Mistress De Lune slumped back and exhaled exhaustedly. She had been awake all night, her emotions had been twisted and torn, and she wanted nothing so much than to sleep until the world came to an end. But she still had a little more to tell the Master of Enlightenment.
“The sooth had been spoken,” she said. “That is when my stargazers panicked. They ran pell-mell from the observatory; down the tower; out into the courtyard that was occupied by only the night watch and the stargazers’ dozing horses; and then they leapt to their steeds and fled the castle in search of somewhere dark and sheltered that might hide them from the disaster that was destined to come.
“That was only a short while ago, at dawn, not long before you arrived,” said the Mistress of Absent Stargazers. Suddenly, Kevin recalled earlier this morning when he was making his way to Stargazers Tower, and heard the thunder of horses galloping out the East Gate. Now he knew the strike that had caused the thunder.
Lady Barbara said, “Even though the Tower’s night staff didn’t know why their betters were suddenly panicking and taking flight, hysteria spread like a disease and most of the night staff made a hasty departure as well. Only a handful of pages and clerks who were asleep at the time remained, and I pledged them to attend me closely and speak no rumors until I give them leave. Rumors of astronomers and astrologers fleeing the castle at the break of dawn will surely spread anyhow, but without listeners knowing the stargazers’ prediction, the King might be able to contain hearsay and prevent widespread panic.” But then she raised her hands haphazardly and added in a pleading tone, “Cosmos willing!”
Lady Barbara sighed softly. She looked exhausted. “Despite my stargazers running away, they are still my responsibility,” she said, as she crossed one arm, erected the other, and rested her forehead on her upturned palm. “If you had seen them run away in terror, you would have agreed they are too hysterical to fend for themselves in the wilderness. By now, my clerk will have sent my summons to the other Masters so I can tell them what I have told you, my clever boy. But I also beseeched the Master of Swords to send his best trackers and knights to find my absent stargazers, drag them from their hidey-holes, and deliver them safely to the castle’s hospital where they can, at least, babble in peace.”
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