We had quite a council of war. Jamie wanted Varien and me to stay put in a defensible place, but I did not want to risk the lives of our people and the rest of our horses if I was the one the mercs were after. The argument got quite heated about then. It didn’t help that despite a night’s sleep we were all still exhausted.
“What do you hope to gain by our staying here, Jamie?” I demanded, finally. The four of us, Varien, Jamie, Rella and I, were sat around the kitchen fire drinking chélan and trying desperately to stay awake and make some kind of sense of things. “If whoever it is really wants me, Jamie, they know now where I am and they can send more and more men until either we’re all burned alive or they get what they want. I’d rather lead them a chase and make sure Walther and Alisonde have a chance to rebuild than just sit here and let them find new recruits.” I turned to Rella. “Do you have any idea whose men they are, or how many of them there are?”
“Only an inkling,” she said. She seemed the least affected by the lack of sleep, and was calmly sharpening her knives, some of which she had reclaimed from the site of our battle in the dark. There were quite a few of them. “I followed them for a few days, since we were both coming this way. There were eight of them until yesterday. We buried three this afternoon. That leaves five, not really enough even for desperate and angry men to want to attack a stronghold. But the longer we leave it, Master, the sooner they’ll find reinforcements and be back.”
“And what if they find those reinforcements and come upon us on the road?” asked Jamie angrily. “A man who would use fire would do anything. It’s forbidden, even to assassins. It’s too wild, it can do too much damage. Only rank outlaws would even think of using it.”
“I think Rella’s right, Jamie,” I said quietly. Something about her words had struck a chord. “I think they may be that desperate. You know, for the most part Marik didn’t use force on me, he used amulets and demons. If whoever hired these men is a demon master, maybe those bastards aren’t just working for money. I would guess that demon masters can take quite a price for failure.”
“That’s what I was thinking, lass,” said Rella, impressed. “But such men almost always have protective spells for themselves. These ones died fast. A simple knife wouldn’t touch the demon-protected.”
“Such men never protect their tools,” spat Jamie. “I still say they could find us and kill us all and still get Lanen.”
“Us?” I asked, surprised. “I thought we were talking about Varien and me.”
Jamie snorted. “And how long do you think you two would last on the road with this kind of idiot after you, eh?” he asked angrily. “I let you go once, to my sorrow. I’m not letting you out of my sight again until all this is done.”
“Jamie, you—”
“I’ll brook no argument, my girl.” He put his hand on mine and challenged me with his gaze: his resolve showed in his eyes, strong and sharp as steel. “You are the only daughter I have, Lanen. You’re a good man, Varien, but you are new to the sword and I cannot let my girl go forth again with none to guard her back.”
“I would not gainsay you, Jameth,” said Varien quietly. “In truth I welcome your offer, for if you had not made it I would have asked it of you.”
“Good,” said Jamie shortly. “Then perhaps you will listen when I say we should stay here.”
Rella narrowed her eyes. “You know, Master, if I didn’t know better I’d say you were frightened.”
“Know better, then, woman,” growled Jamie, rising from the bench and starting to pace. “I hate those bastards more with every breath I take, but I was not there to protect Lanen last night. They got past me, the seven-times-damned sons of bitches got past me.” He began to pace, his feet pounding into the floor, shaking the boards. I had seldom seen him so angry; you could feel it coming off him like steam. “They took her from under my nose, Mistress Rella. I’m getting old and slow and stupid. It never occurred to me they’d use fire just for a diversion. The bastards got past me and I never noticed until you brought her back to me. She might have been gone forever and I’d never have lifted a finger to stop them. May all the demons of all the Hells find them some dark night”—he whirled on me—“and you want to go out into the depths of winter, just the three—”
“Four,” said Rella quietly.
“Just the—four of us to face the rest of them and whoever is behind them! I never thought I’d raised an idiot, my lass, but I’m beginning to wonder.”
I was growing angry myself—I can barely hold back my temper at the best of times—but it was Varien who spoke. “For a people who do not truly breathe fire, you manage to come very close.”
“Hah,” muttered Jamie.
“Do not let your guilt overcome your good sense, Jameth. You are mistaken in this and you know it. We must leave, publicly and very soon. You must not let your fear blind you to truth.”
“I’m not afraid of them!” he growled.
“I did not say that you were,” replied Varien gently.
Jamie stopped then and stared at Varien. “Failure once is seldom true defeat, Jamie,” said Varien. “It is there merely to let the wise soul take note that something is not as it seems to be. I thought I could fly when I had seen but twenty winters; my wings were large and I was strong. When I jumped from the low cliff where those twice my age were taking off, I flapped long and hard and still fell straight into the sea thirty feet below. It was not that flying was impossible, only that there was more to it than I had thought.”
I couldn’t stifle the laugh. “Did it hurt?” I asked, grinning.
“Enough to stop me trying it again that day,” he replied lightly. “Yet I worked on in secret, and in the end flew not five years later, a quarter of a kell before the rest.”
“Spare me your sympathy, dragon,” growled Jamie. He glanced at Rella and frowned. “And why aren’t you asking whether he’s mad or not, talking about flying?”
“Because I saw him just a few hours after he changed and I know all about it,” she said, grinning. “Any more questions?”
“Only to wonder why all of you are so intent on getting killed. You’re good with a blade, mistress, but even I wouldn’t trust myself against as many as may come,” he muttered. “I know my own limitations.”
“Jameth of Arinoc, you are spouting childish nonsense and I’m getting tired of it,” said Rella suddenly. “Don’t be a fool. They are right, and you’re feeling guilty and sorry for yourself. Poor old man,” she taunted, “you’re just not up to it anymore, are you?”
He drew his dagger even as she finished speaking, and even though she knew it was coming Rella was still within his reach. His blade stopped just short of her heart.
She was grinning. “If you’re so slow, idiot, how did you manage to do that? I’m very, very good at what I do, and I am certainly not out of practice.” The rage on Jamie’s face turned slowly to wonder, and she pushed his hand away gently. “Now put that thing down before you hurt someone with it. We need to take Lanen away from here. I’d suggest Sorún, but then I would.”
“Why?” I asked, while Jamie sputtered.
“It’s home. Well, home for the Service,” she said.
I spoke up then, quickly, before Jamie recovered. “There is another possibility. I know it’s a longer trip, but I—we—perhaps we could aim for Verfaren.”
“Hells’ teeth, why Verfaren?” asked Jamie. His voice was rather more normal, which was a relief. He seemed to have a lot on his mind.
“Lanen has told me of the collection of wisdom there, which she called a library,” said Varien. “It is a journey she and I must take at some time or another, and since we must go somewhere it seems as sensible as any other destination.”
We kept arguing.
Four days later we were sitting round a far-too-small fire in a little clearing just inside the Trollingwood. We’d gone straight east from Hadronsstead, telling my cousin Walther we were bound for Sorún and would catch a riverboat all the way down th
e Arlen. It seemed as good a story as any, and to be honest Walther didn’t care in the slightest. He was still mourning the horses and seemed to think that I had got myself attacked just to make his life more difficult. He wished us well and turned at once back to the business of getting the stables cleared of debris so the horses could go back in. I did not think it would be so easy as that, for the dreadful smell of death and burning lingered in the air, lingered in the very ground. If I were a horse I would never go near the place—but that was now Walther’s problem. True, I was Hadron’s heir and the stead was mine by right, but I had arranged it with my cousin half a year before that he and Jamie and I would have equal shares in it all if he would take care of the horses, which was all he cared about in any case. So far it had worked well for all of us.
When we were a day and a bit out from Hadronsstead, Jamie led us slightly north to get into the edge of the great Trollingwood. It wasn’t much shelter but it was a great deal better than nothing. We were still debating where to go.
“We need to learn as much as we can about the Lesser Kindred, Jamie,” I said. “Surely in all this time someone has learned something about them. Wasn’t it you who told me that the great library in the College of Mages in Verfaren is the best place to look for anything?”
“Yes, girl, and he’s right,” said Rella, “but must you go there first? It’s a lot easier to catch a riverboat from Sorún, or even somewhere along the Arlen, than to tramp overland all the way south—and where were you planning to cross the river? Besides,” she said dryly, “I have an errand in Sorún. I have an idea who hired those lads, but I want to find out for certain. The ones who are left will almost certainly be looking for reinforcements.”
Jamie took another small sip of his beer, for we hadn’t brought much. “I wouldn’t worry overmuch about that. He’ll not find anyone hereabouts in any case.”
“There are always idiots for hire,” said Rella sourly.
“Aye, but the idiots are the only ones left,” said Jamie, grinning unexpectedly. “I’ve already found every likely lad for thirty miles around and got them working for me.”
Rella grinned back. “I should have realised. Very well, Master, so they are stuck with the five of them. That’s good. But it’s still more fighters than the four of us.”
“I can take us by roads they will not know,” said Jamie quietly.
“So can I, Master, and the roads have changed since last you travelled them. I know you know the way, but if you follow me we’ll get there faster.”
“And that’s another thing—why do you call me that?”
Rella raised her eyebrows and looked at Jamie. Then she said something in a language I couldn’t understand, but whatever it was it shocked him. I nearly cheered. Jamie was all the better for a shock every now and then.
Jamie
She spoke the tongue of the assassins far too well. “Don’t try to tell me you don’t remember. The Master of Arinoc was a legend when I joined up, and you’d been out of the game for ten years by then. Never missed a kill, never injured, never caught—you were our hero.”
I spat at the ground and answered her in plain speech. I knew the Blood Cant, but I hated it and the memories that came with it. Bad enough I’d had to use it with that mere some days before. “Damn fools. And if anyone ever called me that, it was far enough behind my back that I couldn’t hear them. I never realised you were one of them.”
“So were you and don’t forget it,” she snapped back. “And just because I speak Blood Cant doesn’t mean I go around slaughtering people. Yes, I’ve killed in my time, in fair fight and foul, but seldom for pay and never for pleasure. Don’t you dare to judge me, Jameth of Arinoc.”
I glanced quickly at Lanen. She was staring thoughtfully at the fire, but when she looked up at me the condemnation I dreaded was not in her eyes. She had truly accepted me, then, for what I was and had been. Blessed be the Lady for that at least.
I turned back to Rella. “I would not presume, Mistress Rella. Those in the Silent Service have their own motives and their own sources. And how should I dare to judge you, with my own past laid here before me? No, lady. Rather I pity you from my heart, and for the good you have done my Lanen I can only hope you escape the Service before you die in it.”
She was about to reply when Varien spoke up. I hadn’t been paying attention to him, but he sounded sick to his stomach. “Lady Rella, do you tell me that you have killed others of your kind for khaadish?” It made me believe his story just that bit more. He was too old to be that innocent.
“What?” she said.
“For gold, for money,” said Lanen quietly.
Give her credit, Rella looked him in the eye. “Yes, Varien. I have.”
He stood up quickly, his arms wrapped around him and pacing a little in front of the fire. He favoured the injured arm a little. “And you, Master Jameth. You have done this as well?”
I looked up at him. “The last man I killed died this autumn past, for he would have killed both Lanen and me. Before that I had not put blade to flesh for thirty years, but in those days, yes, to my soul’s darkening I killed for money. It was Lanen’s mother Maran who—” I shook myself. No need to go into that now. “Never mind. Yes, I have done so.”
He turned and walked without another word into the dark wood. Lanen stood, not knowing whether to stay or go.
“Go after him, girl,” said Rella quietly. “If he doesn’t need you now, he will soon. And don’t let him get far. This isn’t a pleasure trip.”
Lanen rose and followed Varien into the darkness.
“And so, Mistress Rella,” I said, sitting again and warming my hands.
“And so, Master Jameth—though I’ll call you Jamie, if I may.”
“Jamie is just a horseman, Mistress. He’s only ever killed to keep himself alive.”
“That suits me. And I’m just Rella.” She looked over at me. “I’ve only ever had the paid duty once, you know. We are all taught any kind of cant we can learn—I thought that one might stand me in good stead.”
“It’s foul on the tongue and worse on the soul,” I answered. The old familiar darkness was coming over me and I did not welcome it. “I left that life hating myself. If it hadn’t been for Maran I don’t know what I would have done.”
“I know. She told me.”
I didn’t realise my jaw had dropped until Rella told me to close it. She had the grace not to laugh, at least. I finally managed to speak.
“You knew Maran Vena?”
“I still do,” she said, smiling briefly. Against all likelihood she had a good smile. “Why do you think I turned up just in time to save young Varien? I might have done so for friendship’s sake, true enough, or to pay back the debt I owed the two of them, but I wouldn’t have tracked them across the breadth of Kolmar just for the privilege. I’m on duty.”
“Sweet Lady. Maran!” I rose and paced much as Varien had done. “Name of—what’s she doing in all this?”
Rella raised one corner of her mouth. “She is the girl’s mother, after all. Just because she’s not here doesn’t mean she’s not paying attention.”
I stared at Rella and realisation struck me like a blow. “Hells’ teeth. The Farseer,” I breathed. “She’s using it to watch over Lanen, and when she saw her leave Hadronsstead—”
“She hired me. Damn fast, too, and at that I only just made it to the Harvest ship in time.” She winked at me. “You’re sharp. I can see how you earned your reputation. It wasn’t your killing we admired, you know.”
I stood silent, my thoughts racing, my heart full of hope one instant and fury the next. When I finally thought I could speak I was about to ask a question that would tell this woman far too much about me, but I was interrupted by a loud yell from the darkness. We were both moving before the echo stopped; I was the faster, but Rella had had the good sense to grab a burning branch from the fire to bring with us.
Thank the Goddess, Lanen has a good pair of lungs on her.
Lanen
I had followed Varien at a little distance, leaving him to his thoughts. I know how I had felt when I first learned of the darkness that shadowed Jamie, less than a year past, but if Rella was right, I should be near Varien if he needed me. I was about to call out to him not to go further into the wood when I heard his voice in my mind, very quiet, very sad. “Kadreshi? Are you there?”
“I am here close by, dearling. Say something aloud so I know where you are, it’s dark as all the hells out here.” I heard his voice away to my left and I hurried to join him, though it wasn’t easy or fast. There were tree roots everywhere, hidden under a blanket of dead leaves, just waiting to catch an ankle. I all but fell into him in the darkness. He caught me up in his arms and held me close. I didn’t speak, just held him tight to me and kept quiet. This had to come from him.
“By all that’s sacred, Lanen,” he said, his voice deep and rough with the hurt. “Your heart’s father is one who kills for his livelihood. This is a deep evil. I tell you truly, dear one, it weighs on my soul and my sight is darker even than this night. How can you bear it? How can he?”
I was trying to be understanding but it was hard. I knew the Kantri killed my people without a thought. “Varien, you must remember that this all happened long ago. He told you, he gave up that life long since. Surely that tells in his favour? He told me that he was paid very well indeed, he could have lived like a nobleman if he chose, but he did not choose. When he met my mother he had already decided to leave that life.”
Varien stood away from me. “Forgive me, dearling. I knew the Gedri killed one another, those who chose to follow the path of the Rakshasa—but to kill for no reason! To be the claw of another, without even the poor excuse of fury or the saving of one’s own life … name of all the Winds, I cannot bear it.”