Of course, none of that matters to Lady Elega quite as much as what her father thought of her boyfriend, but I’ll give her this much; at least she cares what her father thinks now. That’s certainly an improvement. Anyway, from her perspective, her father has done the impossible; he has justified everybody’s faith in him. Lady Elega is a real treat; she admits to herself she was wrong about Joyse, and it the same thought, takes credit for his “return”. Don’t believe me? Well, read this:
Yeah, right. Sounds like revisionist history to me. I agree that the last half was her plan, but she poisoned the water supply (and did just about everything else she did) because not only did she refuse to believe Joyse had a plan; she believed he was an insult to himself and Mordant; a mad, drooling old man who was no longer fit to rule. My personal belief is that she intended to give the throne to her precious Prince Kragen, so they could rule both Alend and Mordant. I guess it’s irrelevant, as Joyse counted on her impatience and ambition to do the very things she did.Her purpose-as distinct from Kragen’s or Margonal’s-had been twofold: to make the forces of Alend wait, withhold their siege, long enough for King Joyse’s plans to ripen; and to put pressure on the King, pressure which would force him to accept an alliance with Alend.
Just as the bodies of the Tor and Ribuld are brought to the grief-striken King, Teresa notices something strange about the battle. It is the Termigan and two hundred of his men, fighting their way through the Cadwals to get to the King. Kragen and his men ride out to assist him (while Elega keeps on blubbering to herself about how worthy he is – babe, nobody ever doubted Kragen’s worthiness; it’s your worthiness we all doubt). Soon they are in front of King Joyse, with two hooded riders, who reveal themselves to be the Lady Myste, and the Congery’s champion, Darsint. After the little family reunion was over, and Kragen admitted he stalled his siege on Orison because “Myste threatened to bring the champion’s fire down on us otherwise” (I told you Elega was full of $hit), Joyse returns to planning the next stage of the battle.
Darsint takes out five of the remaining six catapults in exciting fashion, but his ray-gun runs out of energy before he can destroy the last one. Prince Kragen and the Termigan use the enemy’s hesitation to go out and reinforce their own defenses. Joyse is convinced Eremis will do something extravagant to counter the loss of the catapults, because Joyse believes Eremis is getting desperate. While they wait for the next Cadwal attack, Myste explains the details of her hooking up with Darsint (It’s spectacular; go buy the book and read all about it!). They also discuss the state of the Termigan, and Joyse tells Myste that her “meeting” with Darsint had been augured.
It is at this point that Teresa notices the similarities between the battle and the game of Hop-board (come on, we all know it’s checkers!), and how all the pieces are in place, with the notable exception of Geraden and herself. She realizes there must be something they can do, so she asks:
To which the King replies“What do you want from us?”
At this point, Castellan Norge enters the tent and asks the King to come out and see what Eremis is cooking up.”My lady, I can beat the High King. I want you to defeat Master Eremis.”
Eremis, always one to think big, has conjured a giant worm straight out of an Ed Wood flick to eat the allied armies of Alend and Mordant. King Joyse decides to ride out and face the beast head on; Master Barsonage realizes that Eremis must have made the glass that translated this old, familiar monster that once ate an entire village in the old war. Teresa is still thinking about what she and Geraden can do, however; and now so is Geraden. They decide the best thng they can do is return to Orison, and from there, using the mirror of Havelock’s that Geraden was most familiar with, they will attack Eremis. Barsonage pulls out his “endless ocean” mirror for them to use. Together, hand in hand, they enter the mirror. Instantly translating themselves into…..
....Teresa’s old apartment?!?
I sure hope she paid her rent.
* 
Do NOT make Mr. Fixit angry!
