Idai hissed her amusement. “Rrrellla, the strong arm that kept Llanen safe from her own kind. Yess, I recall you. Well-met, and I thank you for the welcome, but I do not know if it will outlast my first request” She turned to me. “Have you eaten, Hadreshikrar?”
I instantly wished she had not said that, for of a sudden I was aware of my empty belly and a raging hunger surged through me. “No,” I replied shortly, and both Rella and Idai laughed as a noisy rumble from my interior nearly drowned out my answer. “No, I have not eaten, apart from a morsel here and there since I arrived. The prospect of fighting a Raksha has sustained my spirit, but my belly longs for meat.”
“As does mine. We have none of us eaten since we left the Dragon Isle sinking into the sea below us, and we have endured many days of desperate toil. We are hungry and we are weary, Shikrar, and we thirst. Whither shall we go now to find sustenance?”
“This is where I come in useful,” said a quiet voice, and a man with golden hair and light blue eyes stepped forth. He bowed to Idai, his eyes taking in the host of the Kantri behind us. I was impressed that he managed to contain his astonishment as he spoke. “I’m Willem of Rowanbeck, but only my mother calls me Willem, I’m Will. I live near here, and I know of a farmer not ten miles away with a herd of good cattle. If you have anything to trade for them, I suspect Timeth wouldn’t mind being the first in Kolmar to have dealings with dr—with you.”
Idai stood in Concern. “We have brought the lansip trees, Shikrar, they are safe, but they must be planted soon and cared for. When once they are established the leaves and the fruits will serve us for trade—but what we shall do in the meantime I cannot imagine. What else have we to offer the Gedri?”
“There is khaadish, Idai,” said Varien, at the same time that Rella said, “You have gold, don’t you?”
“Khaadish?” asked Idai. Concern flowed into Confusion. “What might be done with khaadish?”
“Even a very little of it can do a great deal, Idai,” said Varien. “It is peculiar, I know, but the Gedri value khaadish greatly. A small quantity, enough only to fit in my hand, will purchase food and a place to rest for us all.” He turned to Will. “Would that suffice for your friend?”
Will raised one eyebrow, and I marvelled again at the mobility of Gedri faces. “I expect he’ll faint dead away. I don’t think he’s ever seen gold before. But his farm is two long days distant, in the steep hills to the north—”
A hiss of amusement from behind me took me unawares, and Kédra, coming up beside me, laughed. “Ah, my father, it is good to know I can still surprise you!” he said. We touched soulgems by way of greeting, as only parent and child ever do. “You are not known to me, friend, but as you stand with Lord Varien and the Lady Rella I trust that you are a good soul. I am called Kédra, the son of Shikrar.”
“Willem of Rowanbeck,” said Will, bowing. “I am glad to meet you, Kédra, and I don’t want to be rude, but we were talking about finding a way to get you and your friends something to eat.”
“That is why I arrived so swiftly to offer my services,” Kédra said, his eyes alight. “I heard your objection. A two-day walk uphill for one of the Gedri is a very, very short way to fly, I suspect. Will you come with me in token of our good faith, and treat with your friend on our behalf? For I have khaadish with me.” He opened his hand, and there between the great claws was a small lump of khaadish, gleaming and pretty enough but useless for most purposes. Why the Gedri value it I will never know.
Will, however, choked. “Sweet Lady! Here, Kédra, Timeth is a friend of mine, but even I won’t lie for him so far!” He bared his teeth in the Gedri expression of friendship. “That would be riches beyond his wildest dreams. Half of it would be very generous payment indeed for his kine and a sure guarantee of a place to rest for the next few months, while he gets his breeding stock back to work. There is a good stream on his land as well. But for pity’s sake don’t offer him that dirty great lump of gold! His heart would stop at the sight of it.”
Kédra bowed, his eyes alight with amusement. “Are you of the kindred of Lady Lanen?” he asked. “Your words remind me of hers. Very well.” He carefully cut the lump of khaadish in half and dropped it in Will’s outstretched hand.
“That’s more like it,” said Will.
“And now, Master Willem, will you trust me to bear you?” asked Kédra. “I have flown thus before, carrying one of you Gedri.”
“Aye, and you managed well enough then,” said Rella, her voice light. “You never dropped me once.”
“Mistress Rella!” cried Kédra, bowing to her. “It gives me joy to see you.”
“Same here, my lad. Welcome. You can trust him, I reckon, Will.”
Kédra hissed his amusement. “I thank you for the recommendation. Come, Master Will. Shall we go swiftly? Be assured, I know how to counterbalance with a weight in my hands—and my young son is very, very hungry.”
Will
I couldn’t help it. I knew it was rude, but I hesitated. No matter what Rella said those claws were bloody huge. This one wasn’t nearly the size of Shikrar, thank the Lady, but it was still immense. And it—he—wanted to carry me in those—Hells, it would be like travelling in a cage of swords.
Hmmm. It had carved gold like butter with a single claw.
A cage of sharp swords, wielded by a giant.
Kédra didn’t rush me, though; he just watched and waited. I had come to like his father, Shikrar, over the few days I had known him. For all his overwhelming size and power, I was beginning to see in Shikrar simply another soul. Different, having lived a different life in a very different body, but for all that there were similarities. He had destroyed the Raksha that attacked us up on the High Field in the hills, as we would have if we had had the power; he treated all of us poor weak humans with respect, when clearly he had no need to do so; and it was obvious that he was worried sick about his friend Varien, and about Lanen.
Besides, I had raised my dragon-daughter Salera from her earliest youth, when I found her dam dying in the woods and she so lost and alone. I had fed her and raised her until she had grown to her full stature and left me, but I knew her and loved her as she did me. She trusted Shikrar absolutely. Surely I could trust his son?
And the idea of flying—ah, now. All those dreams of soaring made real. That was temptation.
I swallowed my fear. “Very well, Master Kédra. I’d be pleased to come with you and show you the way.”
Kédra nodded, and it looked very like approval. “It is well. Come apart with me, then, and tell me where this farm lies.”
“Right now? I mean—I—don’t you need to recover a bit first?” I asked nervously. For now it was come to the point, my palms were moist with sweat.
“The need of my son for food is greater than my own need to rest, though I thank you,” said Kédra. I wondered if that was amusement I heard in his voice. “Come, let us go a little apart. I will need room to take to the sky. And perhaps I should warn you, it may be a little violent at first.”
“Aye, well, birds always seem to have to flap harder when they’re taking off, I suppose it makes sense,” I said, only realising that that might come across as an insult after I’d said it—but no, it was much, much worse than an insult. He was curious.
“Flap?” asked Kédra. “What means ‘flap’? I do not know the word.”
“It means to—to—you know, move your wings fast,” I sputtered, gesturing uselessly, trying to avoid what I knew was coming, but Kédra was none the wiser. I sighed. “Like this,” I said, and I swear to you, there in front of all those noble people and ancient dragons I started flapping my arms, as you do with childer, pretending to be a bird.
Great peals of laughter rang out from away behind me, and I swear that wretch Aral’s was the loudest, but Kédra gave a great hiss and nodded. Thank the Lady I’d learned that hissing is the way dragons laugh or I’d have run a league. Hells take it, his teeth were huge.
“It is a good word. Yes.
I shall have to flap harder to leave the ground,” said Kédra. “Shall we go?”
“Aye,” I said. The sniggers coming from the direction of my friends stiffened my backbone as we walked a bit apart from the rest and I pointed out the direction Timeth’s farm lay in and tried to describe the way there. The memory of looking like an idiot helped me steel myself to step on to the palm of Kédra’s hand. His other came around to protect me, and with a sudden leap and a series of wrenching jerks we were in the air.
Blessed Lady aid me, I’m for it now, I thought as I fought to keep my stomach under control. I’m going to have to come back with him, too.
Marik
I went to visit her, the day before it shattered. It would be my last chance. I wanted to gloat.
It wasn’t as if I had known her. Hells, I only met her the autumn before, as a grown woman, and I only had the word of Berys’s demon informers that she was my child As far as I was concerned, she was the price to be paid to end my pain and no more.
Don’t ask me why I went down there. Hells knew she’d caused me enough trouble. I think I was just—curious. I expected to find her proud independence laid low by helplessness, and I was looking forward to seeing that. However, as I am not a fool, I took with me one of the large armed guards that Berys had infested the place with. In case she made trouble. I had just enough experience of my daughter to know that she might well try something stupid.
We were, after all, still in the College of Mages at Verfaren, where Berys was the respected Archimage. He did not wish to reveal himself until all was prepared, so he kept Lanen in bespelled silence that she might not cry out and alert some passerby or use Farspeech to call for aid from the damned dragon that was somewhere up in the hills a few miles away. I persuaded Berys to change the nature of her silence at midday that I might speak with her in private. For that brief hour her voice would work as normal within her cell, but nothing she said in Farspeech could get beyond the walls. He didn’t like doing it, but he owed me that much.
I even took her food and drink. Berys didn’t want me to do that, either. He was still nursing a grudge and a sore throat from when she tried to strangle him, but I finally convinced him I needed her alive and healthy to pay off the demons later that night. The College cook was most generous when I requested a tray of hot food to take away to my chambers. The woman seemed pleased that I was finally hungry. I hadn’t been hungry for months. I think I had some idea of a last meal for a condemned prisoner.
I remembered just in time to wear the amulet that Berys gave me to ward off the Rikti he had set to attack anyone who opened the door. The guard took up his station just outside. I left the door a little ajar, in case I needed him: out on the Dragon Isle she had knocked me unconscious with one blow I didn’t care to risk that again.
The cell was small and simple, originally meant for solitary study. Moving the locks from the inside of the cell to the outside had been all that was required to make a serviceable dungeon. Thick stone walls in good order, a tiny window for light and air, a heavy old wooden door bound with iron. It was enough.
She was asleep. Berys’s spell was set to change only when I entered her cell, so she never heard the door being unlocked. I made no sound. The scent of the food must have roused her, or the change in light—in any case, she rose swiftly to her feet, and almost as swiftly staggered back.
I had forgotten until the moment I saw her astonishment that the last she had seen of me was when I was out of my mind. Helpless, in fact. Perhaps there was some symmetry there.
She stood and stared at me, openmouthed, as I put the tray down on the desk where she had been sleeping.
“Marik?” she whispered, and flinched in shock.
At the noise, as it happens.
“Sound—what—VARIEN! VARIEN, TO ME!” she screamed, staring wildly around the room as if she expected to see someone else hidden in the shadows.
“Save your breath,” I sneered, quite pleased at her desperation. “Your voice won’t go beyond these walls. And neither will your thoughts.” She shut up then, staring with wide eyes. “Oh, yes, we know about your Farspeech. Or to be more exact, I know about it.” I grinned at her. “Do you know, your dragon friends did me a great service when they broke open my mind. I can hear them, just like you.” I didn’t bother to tell her that I only heard two of them clearly and could not respond. Only enough information to make her worry harder. “Not that I thank them for it,” I added sourly. “They never damn well shut up.”
She gazed at me for a moment in silence, completely unreadable. It was annoying.
“What?” I snapped.
“I have that problem too. Or I did, before Berys cut me off from sound.” She stood and began to pace. “Goddess above, but it’s good to hear something.”
“Keeping you quiet is no more than a sensible precaution,” I replied, trying to ignore a flash of memory—the vision of a head larger than my body, jaws agape, coming for me. I shuddered in my turn. “I remember that big silver bastard, the one I half killed, coming through the wall. I’d rather not have that happen here.”
When first I tried to honour my bargain with the demons, out on the Dragon Isle, I nearly managed it. Berys’s apprentice, Caderan, had summoned the demon in question, Lanen was given up to it, and I thought all was accomplished—when that bloody great damned silver dragon came through the flimsy wooden wall of the cabin, destroyed the demon, and stole away my sacrifice. Caderan and I ran for safety, but that moment has haunted my nightmares ever since.
“You are right to fear it,” she said, calmly. I was impressed despite myself. “I don’t think you’d live through the experience a second time.”
I laughed in her face. “Forgive me if I’m not impressed by your threats, girl,” I said. “Besides, why are you wasting your time talking? Your supper is getting cold.”
“Do you really think I’m going to eat anything you’ve brought me?”
“Idiot. Why should I bother with drugs or poison? Berys has spells for that.”
“True enough,” she said grudgingly.
“It’s just food. I thought you’d be hungry.”
She frowned her suspicion at me, but I expect the smell rising from the tray soon made up her mind for her. Cutlets of pork in a mushroom gravy. Berys must not have fed her since he captured her two days since, she ate like one starving. It gave me a strange sense of satisfaction to watch her eat. Like feeding the goose you know will soon grace your table at Midwinter Fest.
When she had mopped up the last of the gravy with the last of the bread, and finished the jug of watered wine, she sat back and gazed at me as if waiting for something. After a moment she said, “You know, I find it hard to believe you’ve had a rush of fatherly feeling, Marik,” she said. “Why are you here?”
“Why not?” I replied. “I’m bored, girl.” To my own surprise, it appeared to be true. With Maikel gone, I had no one to talk to apart from Berys, and he was as boring as last week’s soup when he wasn’t indulging in his deep-laid schemes. I didn’t care to spend more time in his company than was necessary. At the best of times Berys made my flesh crawl. Still, he was useful. I would soon be rid of my pain at last! Yes, this girl was going to be of use to me in many ways. I promised the soul of my firstborn to demons before I knew she existed, long years since, when Berys and I created the Farseer. I had been suffering for it ever since. Demons don’t like debtors.
“And so you come to me. Goddess help us all.” She stared at me, shaking her head. “How did you manage to get your mind back? Last time I saw you, you were drooling.”
“Thanks to your scaly friends,” I snapped. “Berys helped me out of that particular hell.”
“Not Maikel?”
“He left me,” I said shortly.
“Wise man,” she said. “I suspect everyone you have ever known has left you. I’m just surprised he stuck around for so long. He was a good man.” She looked straight into my eyes. “And he seemed to be genuinely attached to
you.” When I did not respond, she shrugged. “Ah, well. There’s always one idiot in every crowd.”
I stared back at her and said angrily, “You fool. Have you forgotten that I have been in constant pain since your mother stole that Farseer? I promised my firstborn to the demons as the price of its making, and in a few hours you will pay with your soul.” I felt a nasty grin spread slowly across my face. “There’s a bit of doggerel verse Berys keeps quoting: ‘Marik of Gundar’s blood and bone shall rule all four in one alone.’ You’re quite useful, really. Your soul to demons to ease my pain, your body to wed Berys so the prophecy is fulfilled and he rules with you. So insult me all you like. I win. You and your harlot mother lose.”
I should have known, I had been expecting something of the sort, but I still didn’t see it coming. She stood all in a moment and struck me across the face as hard as she could, which given her height and her strength was impressive. I cried out but was too taken aback to react instantly and she had time for another blow. I reeled, but somehow managed to grab her wrists and stop her before she could land a third. We were both furious, but before I could repay her in kind she arrested my gaze with her own. Her eyes were blazing.
“Is that it, Father?” she asked, her voice a low snarl. “Is that what you wanted? Penance for your evil? Punishment for the blackness of your soul, that would murder an innocent babe without a second thought and deliver the life of your only child to demons? And all as payment for a thing of no use in the world save to make you richer!” She fought to free herself, but I had been battered enough and held her still. “How dare you call my mother harlot, you bastard!” She kicked my shin. The pain made me yell, and the guard opened the door.
“Sir?” he said.
“Will you leave off?” I asked her.