The Lesser Kindred

  “Who keeps the Weh?” I called out as loud as I could. The question was echoed round the field, and two names came back to me through Trizhe.

  “Eldest, there are two who keep the Weh, Gyrentikh and Nikis.”

  “Has anyone tried to rouse them?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “You are kin to Gyrentikh, are you not?”

  “Distantly,” said Trizhe, and unexpectedly he grinned. “Though I cannot think I would have fought and laughed with a brother any harder.”

  “Then call him. Do everything in your power to shatter his Weh sleep,” I said fervently. “He took to his Weh chambers some moons since, did he not?”

  “Nearly three moons past, Eldest.”

  “He is young, that should be long enough. Go then, swiftly, stand at his ear and shout if you have to, but wake him!”

  “I go,” he said, though he looked a little dazed as he took to the air.

  I cried out again, thankful for strong lungs and the silence of shock that most of us were in. “Who here is soulfriend to Nikis?” I asked.

  Dhretan, little Dhretan stepped forward. He was the next youngest of us all, last born before my own grandson and barely come of age at just over five hundred winters. He bowed to me, very correctly. I could not help but smile.

  “Eldest Shikrar, I have that honour. I am soulfriend to Nikis,” he said.

  “May I bespeak you?”

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “There is no time for niceties. Understand, Dhretan, I would not break your faith with Nikis, but her life is in danger if we cannot wake her from her Weh sleep. Know you where her Weh chamber is?”

  He looked terribly awkward at the question, as well he might. Unlike the Gedri, we grow larger throughout our lives—I am the largest of the Kantri as well as the Eldest. When our bodies feel the need to grow we are taken by the Weh sleep with very little warning, sometimes a day or two, sometimes only hours. We each have separate Weh chambers, far from our own living chambers, where we go to rest alone. Our old scales flake off and burn to ash, and as we sleep the soft new armour hardens slowly over several months, allowing us to grow without hindrance for that time. In the depths of the Weh sleep we cannot be awakened, and any of our kind who stay near the sleeper are affected and will slumber as well. Therefore we must keep the Weh far from others, and as we are so vulnerable we tend to keep the location of our Weh chambers secret from all save perhaps a mate, or a soulfriend. That secret is given to be kept, not revealed.

  “Dhretan, if it were not a question of saving her life you know I would not presume. For her sake I beg you, take me to her Weh chamber. The two of us will go and between us try to wake her or—or perhaps we shall attempt the impossible, and try to carry her here.”

  Dhretan’s astonishment showed clearly, but he had no choice.

  “I will take you, Eldest,” he said.

  “I thank you. My soul to the Winds, Dhretan, you serve your friend well in this.”

  Before we left, I summoned Idai and Kretissh. Idai was eldest after me, and Kretissh after her.

  “My friends, there is not a moment to lose,” I replied. “I go with Dhretan to waken Nikis, if it may be done, and to bring her here if that is possible. I must leave all else with you. There are five casks fashioned of khaadish outside my chambers, and within them are the soulgems of our Ancestors. Find bearers for them, of your kindness—I had meant to carry the soulgems of the Lost myself, but I may have a greater burden. And I pray you, send another dozen of the swiftest to collect hlansif trees, or seedlings, or whatever they can find. Kédra has thought it best that we arrive with gifts, and he has the right of it.”

  “Arrive where, Shikrar?” asked Kretissh, and around him the question was repeated. “Where do we go? Where is there to go?”

  “There is no choice, my people,” I said. “We must return to Kolmar.”

  “No!” cried a great voice, and I was not overly surprised to recognise it as Rinshir’s. “Are we to beg house-room of the Gedri, Shikrar? The last time we lived there a single Gedri killed fully half of us for no reason! Are we then to return and let them complete the task?”

  “Please, Rinshir,” I said as calmly as I could, fighting back the anger that rose at his words. “I know your objections, but it is not as if we have a choice.”

  “Alas, my father speaks truth, Rinshir,” said Kédra. “Not only did our revered Ancestor Keakhor tell us that there was nowhere else to go; I have set out early and returned only when the light failed, sometimes flying for two long days before I turned back, most days of the last two moons.” He bowed his head. “My people, there is nothing but barren rock, and little enough of that, for many days in any direction save east. There I found a small green island at the limit of two days’ flight. It is barely the size of this field but there is a pool there with sweet water, and room enough to stand. We may at least rest there on our way.”

  “Shikrar, I still do not—” began Rinshir, but I was done with patience.

  “You fool!” I cried, standing in Command. “Our doom shakes the very ground beneath our feet and you waste time on talk. Go then, fly from the fate the Winds place before you, fly south or north or west until your strength fails and the cold sea claims you, but do not hinder those of us who wish to live!”

  “My people,” I continued, raising my voice to carry, “Kolmar was our home for many long lives of our people before we chose exile on this island. I was born here, we all were, and all the lives of our parents before us were passed in this place, but before that we shared Kolmar with the Gedri for all the mingled lives of both our peoples. This very island we named the place of exile. My people, our exile is done. We are going home.”

  “Very good, well said. I think they have understood it at last,” muttered Idai in my ear, “but unless you get moving no one else is going to raise a wing.” I crouched and prepared to go aloft, but Idai stood directly before me for a moment and addressed me silently. “And precisely how do you intend to waken Nikis? You know that the Weh affects all who go too near the one who sleeps.”

  “Idai, that was proven true by one who sat outside a cavern in the sunshine. I suspect there will be enough to think about to keep me wakeful.” I replied. “Still, I would be grateful if you would bespeak me every few minutes, lest the Weh take me unawares.”

  “Humph. So you do have some sense after all,” she said roughly. Her words in truespeech were far kinder. “Go carefully, my friend. We are beset with dangers, and of us all we can least bear to lose you.”

  “I shall take good care of this old hide.” I replied lightly. “Go with the Winds, and get you aloft with as many as will follow you as soon as you can,” I said aloud. “Do not wait for me, Idai. Get aloft, fly high, find the air currents if they are there to be found. East and a little south. Kédra knows the way.”

  I turned to Dhretan. “Let us go,” I said, and leapt into the air.

  “Eldest, a question,” said Dhretan as we flew.

  “Nearly youngest, an answer if I have one,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. He was very young, after all.

  To his credit, his voice was calm. “What shall we do if we cannot wake Nikis?”

  “If we cannot wake her, littling, then I will bear her hither myself. We will not leave her behind.” I said, wondering at my own presumption. Still, it was not the journey from her Weh chamber that concerned me. That, I felt certain, I could do. It had never been done before, but I did not doubt that I could do it.

  How we could bear a full-grown lady on borrowed wings for five long days, however, was another question entirely.

  Rella

  I walked straight down the stairs and out the door. I instinctively avoided making myself obvious, but a lifetime spent in the Service made me notice what kinds of folk were there. Mostly local Merchants of the lesser houses, farmers—oh, and the Healer had stopped for a drink as well—one or two young couples—a minstrel in the corner, playing to no one as
usual—a particular type of nod and gesture from a figure in the corner, that was a colleague, I replied with the “all’s well.” A quiet night, then, with luck.

  All this I noticed while I was hurtling through the common room and out the door. I never cease to be amazed at what one person can do in just a few moments.

  AYE, RELLA YOU IDIOT, LIKE SLAPPING JAMIE. OH, THAT WAS BRILLIANT

  I hate it when that voice in my head starts talking back. I started pacing up and down the street outside the inn, my anger rising nicely to the boil.

  Could have been worse, I told that other voice. I could have really hit him, like I wanted to. Bastard! What brought all that on, anyway? When have I ever played the mercenary since I met—Hells, even since I met Lanen?

  AND HER WITH THE EYES OF MY SWEET THYRIS, MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL, TAKEN FROM ME ALL THOSE YEARS GONE. I KNOW, I WAS LOST. WHEN SHE STARTED BEING KIND TO ME FOR NO REASON, YOU KNOW, COULDN’T TREAT IT LIKE JUST ANOTHER ASSIGNMENT. MARAN’S DAUGHTER AND ALL—POOR MARAN, I’VE HARDLY SENT WORD ONCE A FORTNIGHT, AND THE CONTRACT SAYS FOUR TIMES A MONTH.

  That Farseer’s not wasted on her. She’ll know what’s going on.

  AYE, AS FAR AS SIGHT WITH NO SOUND CAN TELL HER. I’M THREE REPORTS DOWN. SEND ONE TONIGHT, THAT WAS ONE OF OURS IN THAT CORNER. STRANGE. WHAT’S HE DOING HERE? STILL, ELIMAR’S A BIG PLACE.

  You’re avoiding the issue. Jamie. What are we going to do about Jamie?

  WHAT IS THERE TO DO? ASIDE FROM WANTING TO KICK HIM I CAN’T HELP GETTING FOND OF THE MAN, HE’S A DAMN GOOD FIGHTER. I’VE WATCHED HIM TEACHING VARIEN, HE’S PATIENT AND CLEVER, HE’S A GOOD MAN—.

  The fact that he’s our age and well made and moves like a dancer doesn’t hurt, and he treats us—treated us-like a normal person, and when the light is right he’s quite comely enough to be getting on with—

  AND WE’VE GOT A CROOKED BACK THAT is GETTING MORE PAINFUL EVERY YEAR. HELLS, HE THINKS WE’RE PAID DEMON FODDER, RELLEDA MY GIRL. HE WOULDN’T GIVE US A SECOND GLANCE IF WE WERE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN EVER BORN. BESIDES, HE’S GOT A FLAME IN HIS HEART YET FOR MARAN, DESPITE EVERYTHING SHE HAS DONE TO HIM. I HEARD IT IN HIS VOICE THAT NIGHT.

  Aye, and she has one for him. Remember?

  HARD TO FORGET.

  I suspect I’d have come up with something sensible just then, only somebody tapped me on the shoulder.

  I drew a dagger and whirled, all in a motion, but he wasn’t near enough to hit. There stood Jamie, standing well out of my reach, with the light from a distant doorway just about enough to let me see the laughter in his eyes. Not mocking, just amused.

  “Just making sure you’re not losing your touch,” he said carelessly.

  “If you’d been any closer, you idiot—” I snarled, sheathing the dagger.

  “If I’d been any closer I would be an idiot.” He stood with his hands behind his back. “In fact I’d be a bleeding idiot,” he said with half a smile. It was an old scrapper’s joke and not that funny, but I found the other half of the smile for him. Damn his eyes. I wanted to stay angry, so I stood and faced him there in the street. “What was it you wanted, Master?” I asked, planting my fists on my hips. I’m afraid the anger in my voice might not have been entirely convincing, but it’s hard to fool another of your own profession.

  “To apologise,” he said, and he bowed to me right there in the street. I was starting to feel flattered until I realised.

  “Fine,” I said, angry again. “You can go back to Lanen and tell her you’ve made peace with me. Just let me alone.”

  Jamie smiled then—not a wry grin or a mocking grimace, just a plain smile. Goddess, he had a good smile. “Oh, no. Not yet. You may not know it, Mistress, but for the most part I’m a stranger to the ways of women.”

  “No, really?”

  “Not that I haven’t shared a bed with a few,” he said happily. “I have, and heartily enjoyed it too.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “And I never had any complaints from the other half of the exercise, so you can stop sneering.” He began to walk slowly towards me, like a smug salt-and-pepper cat, and I swear my heart started thumping so loud I expected him to hear it. Rella you ass, you’re over forty, stop this foolishness, I growled at myself, but I didn’t appear to be listening.

  He stopped just a handsbreadth outside my reach with a dagger. Standard practice for personal conversations between fighters. “But I’ve not spent much time with anyone since Maran and I were on our travels,” he said. I’d never noticed how pleasant his voice was, just that trace of a northern accent. Focus, Rella, keep calm—

  “Until now. We’ve been together two full moons now. I’ve come to admire your skills and your courage, and the Lady knows you’re sharper than I am, but you know, I had never seen even a glimpse of your heart before tonight.” His brown velvet eyes were locked on mine. “It’s a damn good one, Rella,” he said, “but I may have the match for it.”

  And he stepped inside my guard.

  Several thousand thoughts clamoured for attention and the trained part of me was yelling Threat! and trying to get me to draw a weapon, but sometimes you just have to ignore your brain and your training and listen to an older wisdom.

  I can’t remember who started kissing whom, but after a very short while it ceased to matter.

  xii

  Of True Names and the Web of Fate

  Salera

  I knew great pleasure in those days. I had never thought there were so many like to me. Waking each morning was great joy, flying at dawn with brothers and sisters I had never known. It was food for my hungry heart and balm to my lonely mind, and for a brief time I did not think of Him. However, one day near noontide one of the two-legs walked through the gap on the side of sunrise. It was scrawny and it made a loud noise when it saw us and then it ran away, the smell of its fear strong on the air behind it. Its fear confused me. What were we, to be afraid of?

  The others did not share my confusion. They seemed content enough that it had left, even pleased. I knew frustration again such as I had not felt for many years. I wanted to know what my kinsfolk were thinking, why they were pleased to see the two-legged one run away in fear.

  I had no words but I wanted desperately to talk to them.

  I remembered again the voice of the one I loved most in the world. It was deep and pleasing, and it shaped sound. He was not much of a singer, but he made pleasant noises and I missed his voice. However, there were two shaped sounds he had made the same way over and over, until I understood.

  I suppose it is not true, then, to say I had no words at all in those days. I knew two sound shapes and I kept the memory of them close in my heart, trying to make the sounds myself when I was alone. The short one was the harder, for though I did not realise it, the sounds were made for a different mouth than mine. The other was the sound He used when he was talking to me, and I knew it was the sound that bound me to him.

  Sah-rair-ah. He shaped it so, and I had practiced it again and again through the years, until I could nearly make the sound the same way. It made me think of him.

  It wasn’t quite right, but it was as close as I could come at the time.

  Berys

  I was disappointed that they didn’t take the horses, but it didn’t matter. Erthik and Caillin were found dead, none had seen or heard a struggle, therefore they must have been killed by those they knew.

  Aral and Vilkas were outlawed by early evening. To have killed not just two people, not just two of the Magistri, but Erthik, their great proponent and mentor! It was monstrous.

  Obviously.

  It was Rikard, oddly enough, who made most trouble at the Assembly. He suggested that it was not clear exactly how they had died and perhaps we should consider a spirit summoning. He was shouted down by the others, who of course consider that procedure demonic. I did not bother to join in the debate, for unlike the others I knew that there were only a few hours after death in which such a summoning would work, and that the time was long past.
I would have been happy to attempt to summon that which would not come.

  Once the Assembly was over and Vilkas and Aral charged with murder, I retired sorrowfully to my chambers and begged to be left alone with my grief. I closed the door behind the departing Magister, locked it and cast a spell of silence on my room.

  Only then could I laugh. Ah, what a splendid day it has been! It is no use sending Maikel after him now, for Vilkas’s powers are intact. And because Vilkas is too strong and too used to dealing with the Rikti for one of them to concern him, I have sent a score. It did not take long or cost overmuch in the way of lansip, and it will be worth it to me to know that he is dead at last. The end of their price is the delivery of his head. I have a special box all prepared.

  And to cap this delightful day, I have the final drop of good news I have needed. The Healers from Kaibar have sent word and a scrap of cloth by Rikti messenger—the cloth she left behind in the inn where she was staying.

  Poor thing, she must have been bleeding badly, for it soaked into the cloth and stained it.

  Blood from the one sought. This is what I have needed so desperately. Lanen is mine, and behold, there is my weapon ready to hand. I will set Maikel onto her this very night. Soon I will have in my hands that which I have sought for so long. I shall have to tell Marik his daughter will be here soon.

  However, the deepest hours of night approach. I have renewed the players’ paint on my face and hands and thrown the residue into the fire. No more. This night I will complete the work I have planned for so many years and set in motion nearly two moons ago. I will need to rest after this summoning, but on the third day Berys will be dead at last. Malior, Master of the Sixth Hell, will then rise triumphant with the fate of the world in his hands, and woe to those who would hinder me.

  Will

  There was no warning. One moment we were sitting discussing what to do, the next Vilkas had disappeared under a frantic crowd of demons, biting, tearing, fighting one another to get at him.