Rai-Kirah - Transformation Part 18

Aleksander snorted in irritation as he stirred himself and began unbuckling the girth straps. "You need have no fear. Dmitri would not allow me to have servants when I was training. I can care for Musa, put on my own boots, and even cook a fair rabbit if there is one in such a frozen desolation as this."

"There should be provision enough in the saddle packs for a few days," I said.

"Good. Can't say I want to go hunting at the moment. In fact, perhaps you had better do this part for me." He nodded to the long leather sheath fastened to his saddle. I removed the sword and the three packs, and Aleksander hefted the saddle to the ground. He took the saddlecloth and rubbed down the handsome bay, talking to it more brotherly than I'd ever heard him address any human.

While he saw to the horse, I gathered wood, piled it behind a sheltering outcrop, and tried to convince my cold fingers to strike the flint. A fire would be welcome. The wind was bitter, and I was guiltily grateful for the wool s.h.i.+rt, thick breeches, and serviceable boots. They fit amazingly well. But for Aleksander's whim, I could be facing frostbite, sepsis, and amputation.

Aleksander flopped down beside my miniscule flame and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. He was quiet, and I went about my business of nurturing the tantalizing wisps of fire. When next I glanced at him, he was trembling, and I thought his clenched fingers might press his eyes all the way into his skull.

"What is it, Your Highness?"

"Unholy ... cursed ... so real I can taste it. Can smell the blood. And when I try to think of something else"-he took a harsh breath-"I think my head is going to crack open and spill out what paltry brains I've got." He shuddered. "Vile."

Setting his jaw, he pushed away the damp hair that had come loose from his braid and plastered itself to his forehead, then started rummaging in the saddle pack, pulling out a tin cup, a packet of dried meat, another of dates, and another that, from his sigh of relief, must be the tannet bark and leaves used to make nazrheel. "Wake me when I can do something with this," he said, tossing me the packet, then rolling up in his cloak and blanket, starting to snore before his last word was out.

"As you command," I said automatically. The words lingered on my tongue, then dropped into my mind like stones into a quiet pond. I gazed on the deserted valley where ice fogs gathered in the low places in the fading light.

The stones were sharp-edged gold, every ridge, corner, and crack shaped by the steep-angled beams. The wind stirred my hair with a frosty finger. Rarely had I ever experienced such a moment of perfect clarity.

I could walk away. I had a horse, clothes, and provisions, and the only man who could prevent me was half-mad with demon visions-oh, yes, I could guess the seductive horrors they were using to torment him. And now he was so deep asleep I could slice his throat if I wished. I could be free. The consideration was overwhelming. I already knew I would not leave him-my oath forbade it-but for an hour, as I fed the newborn flames and grew them into something that could thaw my bones and boil a cup of water, I indulged myself, setting my mind loose to imagine what it might be like.

It was a most discouraging exercise. I couldn't think where I might go or what I might do or even what I might tell the first person who asked about the mark on my face. I had forbidden such thoughts for so long, I couldn't summon them. All I knew was how to be a slave. Perhaps I could neither think nor act unbidden anymore.

When the stars had wheeled a quarter of the way through their night's path, I boiled water in the cup and soaked the tannet bark, leaving the cup near the fire to stay warm. After another hour, I added the leaves, boiled the stuff again, and when the green-black mess was stinking in all its proper glory, I woke the Prince. A proper duty for a slave.

"Well-done, Seyonne," he said, sipping slowly, savoring the nasty, bitter drink. "If you want to sleep, I'll watch for a while. I've had enough dreaming for three lifetimes. Bad enough they come when I'm awake. To sleep is to invite more."

"I slept all day," I said. "I'll do another stint." I stepped away from the fire to relieve myself. In my unaccustomed fumbling with layers of clothes, I found the paper stuck in the pocket of the slave's tunic I still wore underneath my s.h.i.+rt. It was the letter I'd taken from Aleksander's chamber on my way to his tower prison. When I returned to the fire, I gave it to the Prince and told him its history.

"It's from Kiril." He twirled it in his fingers. "Do you know why we always use red wax?"

"I'd guess it has something to do with blood," I said.

He laughed. "Good guess. When we were boys, we made a blood oath to be closer than brothers. To slay each other's enemies. We cut our palms and put them together as boys do. When Dmitri sent us to opposite ends of the Empire, we started mixing blood in the wax to remind ourselves of our promise. A few years ago we agreed that red wax was sufficient. Do you think that means anything? That our zeal is less true?" He poked up the fire, motioned me closer, and tossed me the letter. "Read it."

I broke the red wax and began.

Zander, If I judge rightly, you should receive this on the eve of your anointing. I trust you have had a merry party and not found the rites too tedious.

You are to be Emperor. Not soon, if the G.o.ds are gracious to your honored father, but you will be the next. We have always talked of it frivolously, but certain events of late have caused me to give it more sober thought, and to hope that amidst the wine and music, women and feasting, you have found time to do the same.

Dmitri has sent me news of your falling out. Zander, you must repair it. You joke about me being his favorite, and in truth, he was never so harsh with me as he was with you. With my own father dead so long and you with a surfeit of fathering-at least in name-perhaps it was his way of balancing our fates. But there was more. Only in these past weeks have I come to understand that his strictness with you was not lack of fondness, rather the opposite. You will be Emperor, Zander, and of all things he wishes you strong enough to survive it and honorable enough to be good at it. I have often said I would not trade parentage with you, and though it means I am a junior dennissar forever, I say it again. There is trouble coming. Dmitri sees it and is afraid that you have not. Even here in my backwater post, I am greatly uneasy.

I told you of my mission to find a residence for Kydon, the Khelid legate here in Parnifour, and of his extraordinary demands for its equipage. I found a place that would suit, got him settled in it, and now as I look on it, I wonder what in Athos' name I've done. The castle is the old frontier fortification in the foothills of the Khyb Rash. This Khelid now lurks on the very border of the Empire.

Since the day Kydon moved in, the Khelid presence in Parnifour has multiplied rapidly. I don't see how it's possible. The legate says they are just his staff, who have been scattered through the town until he got a proper residence. But I cannot believe they have been here all the time. Am I a fool, Zander? I have seen Kydon's hired laborers carting stones and timbers into his new keep. He tells me it is for repair, but when I question the laborers, they say they are carving out new rooms deep under the castle, and that once the rough stonework is done, the Khelid do not allow anyone to go inside them. They say there are more Khelid in the keep even than we see here in the town. And all are heavily armed.

Now Kydon wishes to build a temple to his G.o.ds on the holy mount in the center of Parnifour. The Emperor's warrant specifically states that I am to do everything in my power to make Kydon comfortable. I have sent to the Emperor for instructions as to whether this project fits the warrant, but Kydon is already warning the nearby merchants and householders that the Emperor will soon be telling them to move away from the base of the mount so a wall can be built about this temple. It will be a fortress in the middle of the city.

I don't know what to think of this or to do about it save lay my misgivings in your lap. I have gone on too long. Fond greetings to our uncle. And listen to him.

May the blessings of Athos s.h.i.+ne down on you, cousin. I am ever your sworn and dutiful servant, as well as your devoted kinsman, Kiril The Prince jumped to his feet. "d.a.m.nation! I should have sent Kiril a message the moment I knew. And now he'll hear it from someone else, and that I... oh, G.o.ds! They'll tell him I killed Dmitri. He'll be out for my blood." He paced around the fire, kicking at his saddle pack, at the firewood, at the rocks, at the spikes of dead gra.s.s and anything else his boot could find save me. "I won't fight Kiril. I won't. He was never any good. They won't make me do it.

Everlasting curses on these demons. You will show me how to avenge myself on them, Seyonne."

I saw no point in explaining that there was no such thing as revenge on demons. Demons care nothing one way or the other how things come out.

They feed on pain and terror, and if the source of their sustenance is removed from them, they go elsewhere ... unless they are destroyed by sorcery.

The Khelid, on the other hand ... we were going to have to do some thinking about the Khelid.

I still had no inkling of their relations.h.i.+p with the Gai Kyallet. The Lord of Demons ... everything known of such a being was obscured by a thousand years of speculation. Could it truly command others of its kind to a common purpose? The thought was terrifying, even after dismissing the elaborations of Ezzarian prophecy. If the Prince fell victim to this enchantment, there would be no single field of battle for any mythical warrior-the Empire itself would go up in flames. It was Aleksander's battle that would determine the fate of the world. But his battle with the Demon Lord's enchantment was only part of it; there was also the battle with his own nature-the hand that had beaten me into insensibility and the hand that had lifted me up. His two parts ... two... two souls ...

"Stars of night..." I jumped up from my watch post and started pacing, not believing the fancy that pawed at the doors of my mind like a hungry pup. I had never considered prophecy as absolute truth, only a way of communicating acc.u.mulated wisdom. Prophecies of doom were not a.s.surances. Only possibilities. If one didn't take heed. If one wasn't aware and careful. Prophecies of glory and victory were encouragement to strength and honor and hard work. Prophecies were comfort in times of need, and p.r.i.c.ks of discomfort in times of ease. People could always fit circ.u.mstances to the prediction. Yet never had a man displayed two souls as had Aleksander of Azhakstan.

As I sank back to my rocky perch, I laughed at the outlandish scene my imaginings had conjured. How could anyone ever tell the Ezzarians that the warrior hero who was to fight the Second Battle of the Eddaic Prophecy might be a Derzhi?

Aleksander tried to go back to sleep, but after the third time I heard him cursing quietly under his breath, I knew he was no easier in his mind than I.

We were on the road before sunrise.

We traveled three days northwest, deep into the mountains, avoiding villages, hiding in the trees when the rare traveler would pa.s.s. Aleksander could not say where was our final destination, for the map imprinted on his mind unfolded and changed itself as we traveled. I stood watch in the dark hours that we camped. In the daylight, I clung to the Prince's back and slept. He asked how I could possibly sleep on the back of a horse, and I told him I could sleep anywhere; the trouble was the dreams. On the third day I couldn't shake them, and Aleksander's also seemed to get worse as we went on. Thus it was that we were both awake and unsettled at moonrise on the fourth night from Capharna, when a dark figure stepped out of the shadows and said, "Who are you who have followed the way of the gyrbeast?"

I quickly pulled the hood of my cloak down low over my face. So it had come- more quickly than I expected. Rejoicing and despair and overpowering memory all at once. The first Ezzarian I met, and not only did I know him, but he was bound to me by ties of blood and affection and grief. His name was Hoffyd. My brother-in-law.

My older sister Elen had adored the quiet scholar and lifted him from the depths of failure when she agreed to marry him. He had tried to become a Comforter, one who could touch a demon victim and allow the Aife to work through him even at a great distance, but he had too little melydda and was too shy to be sent into the world. After finding his happiness in Elen, he discovered his calling in his talent for formalizing spells and enchantments, a useful scholarly pursuit.

Hoffyd had fought beside my father and Elen on that last day, attempting to preserve an escape route for our Queen. My brave and lovely older sister had refused to leave with the other women when our last refuge was ready to fall.

Elen, a red scarf in her dark hair, had been waving and smiling at me as she whirled a pikestaff... a pitiful, primitive pikestaff... at an armored Thrid mercenary who took her head without slowing his step. My father had fallen ten seconds later. I had wielded a sword and a knife and every skill I possessed, thinking that somehow I could turn the tide of blood that was drowning us. I had fought for twenty hours straight that day, not understanding how the Derzhi had found us so quickly, in despair because everyone within my sight was dying, and we had nowhere else to run....

Even as I barricaded the doors to that memory yet again, and calmed the shaking sickness that always accompanied it, I blessed Aleksander for making me come. I had seen my father and my sister die, but if Hoffyd yet lived, perhaps others I loved did also. Even if I was dead to all of them, even if they looked through me as though I were a pane of gla.s.s, unworthy of stopping the eye, the possibility that I might see friends alive against all expectation swelled my heart. I experienced such a blossoming of hope as can only be felt by one who has lived a lifetime without.

"My name is Pytor," I said, keeping my head down. "My employer was told the way by a slave who took pity on him. The boy said that those who would meet him in this place could take away a demon enchantment."

"And who is your employer?"

"My name is Zander," said the Prince, stepping into the moonlight. The silver beams illuminated his tall form so that one could imagine the feadnach leaking out of his skin. "I am a Derzhi warrior and thus your enemy, but I've come in peace. I've been told you can remove this deviltry."

Chapter 20.

"A Derzhi!" Hoffyd spit at Aleksander's feet. "What makes you think I'll take you one step closer to my people? Did you torture the slave to discover the way?"

I prepared to leap in between them, but Aleksander's clenched fist did not stray from his side. "I was given it freely," said the Prince. "In exchange for my word not to bring the law of the Empire down on your heads."

"The word of a murdering Derzhi."

"I should cut out your tongue for that." Aleksander turned his back to Hoffyd and waved at me. "Saddle our horses."

"Please, my lord, I'm sure the gentleman had no intent to question your honor. The boy swore that these people could help you be rid of this curse."

"Even our enemies know that our word is the water of life to us."

"Please, my lord."

"I will not argue the matter, nor will I beg. Just tell me if my informant was wrong. Do Ezzarians heal demon enchantments or do they not?" The Prince was frosted steel. Though I could well understand Hoffyd's sentiments, I wanted to kick him for his careless speech.

I poked at the fire and it flared up, lighting Hoffyd's round angry face like a second moon. Though he was no more than forty-five, his hair had gone completely gray, and he wore a patch over one eye. That must be a sore trial to him. He had been a voracious reader, managing to get his hands on every book that found its way into Ezzaria within a week of its arrival. His cheeks were flushed, and his chin quivered with indignation. "What demon enchantment could harm a Derzhi?"

They weren't getting anywhere. Aleksander moved toward his horse again, but I grabbed his arm, cringing at my own audacity. "My lord," I said. "Did not the slave tell you another word to say? To convince them of your need?"

Under my breath I whispered it as if Aleksander might remember it from my silent mouthings.

"Fead... something. I don't remember his gibberish. He said I had it along with the enchantment. It sounded like a disease. He said it would make these people listen."

"Fead..." It took Hoffyd a moment to grasp it. I wanted to shake him until the word popped from his tongue. "Not the feadnach? Surely not."

"Yes, that was it, wasn't it, Pytor?"

"Aye, my lord. That was the word. He said you bore this feadnach within you, and that because of it, the Ezzarians could not refuse to help you."

Hoffyd's cheeks sagged. "Someone told you that you-a Derzhi-bore the feadnach? Who was it? What was the name?"

Aleksander glanced at me uncertainly.

"He was a youth captured in Capharna a few weeks ago," I said. "He did not want to say his name."

The Ezzarian closed his eyes for a moment-a silent mourning for Llyr, I guessed-before continuing more quietly. "A Derzhi who bears the feadnach?

Impossible." Hoffyd's disbelief echoed my own. "The boy was not skilled enough. Who knows what he imagined? Perhaps he thought it would save him."

My brother-in-law was likely correct-though Llyr had a Warden's mentor, it was almost certain the boy had not yet been skilled enough to see what I had seen. But the suggestion of it should be sufficient. Hoffyd was not skilled enough, either. He was a scholar who saw patterns in enchantment and natural objects. Only those who had been trained to do so could see into the soul. Someone else would have to judge.

He came to his decision faster than I'd hoped. "I'll take you."

"And my servant will accompany us," said Aleksander.

"Is he enchanted, too?"

"No. But I'll not leave him out here to freeze. He has no horse."

"If we find you've deceived us ..."

"If I did not wish so fervently to be rid of this affliction, I would not ride to so desolate an iceberg to find a whole army of Ezzarians. If you can heal me, I might begin to believe there is some point to your existence." Aleksander at his diplomatic best.

Hoffyd gave his opinion more succinctly. "If you bear the feadnach, I'm a jackal's pup."

"Should I load our things, sir?" I said.

"Best do it quickly. We leave now," said Hoffyd. "Let's get this foolishness over with so we can send you back where you came from."

It was some three strange, long days until we reached the Ezzarian hiding place. Three days of paths that seemed to go nowhere, then doubled back on themselves. Of grades so steep we had to lead the horses, and that left us panting for air though we would have sworn we were going downhill all the time. Of turnings and twistings and tunnels and ridges, all of them obscured by fog and mind-haze, so that at the end of the day we could not remember where we'd been.

The journey ended at mid-morning on the fourth day, just as the sun brightened enough to warm my dark cloak. We were sitting on the crest of a ridge overlooking a broad, forested valley, blanketed with snow. A small river wound through the rolling countryside, frozen, and glittering in the sunlight.

Five or six stone houses were cl.u.s.tered in the open beside the riverbank, with a few more scattered along the river course northwards through the valley.

Thin trailers of gray smoke against the clear blue of the sky told me that most of the homes were nestled in the trees, just as they had been in the ancient forests of oak and pine where I had been born. This was a beautiful place, ringed by the snow-covered spires of the mountains, but it was not the soft green bounty of Ezzaria. It was as if a frost giant from a child's nursery tale had blown his cruel breath upon my home, leaving it frozen and sterile.

There could be no melydda bound in those frosted trees, or that ice-clad earth.

Hoffyd led us down a steep trail and along the winding road that took us to the settlement by the river. As I knew he would, he deposited us at a guest house: a small, neat stone cottage at the end of the settlement farthest from the trees.

We had pa.s.sed only a few people on our way. A woman carrying a basket of linen into a house. A man wheeling a barrow of small bags of grain or flour down the road toward the forest. And two running children-a boy and a girl- streaked by us toward one of the houses by the river. I was filled with indescribable pleasure at the sight of them. None of the four were known to me, but they were most certainly Ezzarian. Alive and free.

"We ask that you remain here until someone comes for you," said Hoffyd, pus.h.i.+ng open the door of the cottage. "You're not permitted to walk about the village or speak to anyone without our leave."

"Not permitted? How dare-"

"When will someone come for us?" I interrupted Aleksander before he exploded. "My lord's enchantment is severe."

"If he is demon-afflicted as you claim, then you'll wish us to take our time and do what's best for it," said Hoffyd. "Haste can make it worse."

The Prince threw off his cloak and surveyed the simple furnis.h.i.+ngs of the cottage. He kicked at the narrow bed as if testing whether it might collapse with use, and he ran a finger over the smooth bare pine of the table. "Get someone here. I have important matters to attend."

"Someone will be with you within the hour." Hoffyd was gritting his teeth. I knew the feeling very well. He pointed to shelves beside the hearth. "There's provender here. Be free of it. If you have your own, we ask that you leave no sc.r.a.ps or waste, but rather take them with you when you leave. There's a latrine behind the house. Water for was.h.i.+ng is in the cistern just outside. Water for drinking is in the cask by the door and will be refreshed every morning. These are our ways. Will you abide by them, Derzhi, or shall I take you back the way we've come?"

Aleksander was about to burst. I doubt he had ever been lectured so bluntly by anyone save his father or Dmitri. Certainly not by a commoner who looked like a slightly disreputable shop clerk. He glared at me, then managed to squeeze "I will" past his tight-pressed lips.

"And your servant?"

"Gladly," I said. "We thank you for your hospitality."

"I'll not bid you welcome. It will be a few years yet before we welcome any Derzhi, master or servant." With no further attempt at politeness, Hoffyd slammed the door.

Aleksander flopped on the bed, seemingly a.s.sured of its st.u.r.diness, if not its luxury. "Not exactly a hearty welcome," he grumbled. "Insolent beggar."

I was nervous and apprehensive, in no humor to put up with his willful blindness. "What did you expect? They are a few hundred souls, hiding here in the wilderness. Before the Derzhi decided they need a few more hectares of land, Ezzarians numbered in the thousands and had lived in peace for more than eight hundred years."

"No wonder it took us only three days."

"We were no threat to you! You didn't need our land. You took it only because you could, and you killed thousands of innocents in the taking. Must we love you for it?"