Witch king, p.35
Witch King, page 35
That was a shock. Kai knew his expression was revealing too much. “You don’t mean…”
Arnsterath’s smile returned. She enjoyed his consternation. “Seven Cold Winds ago, they let me out. I don’t remember what they call the winter here.”
So at least fifty odd years by Arike reckoning, imprisoned.
At a shout from the archway, Dahin twisted around, alarmed. A gap had grown between the doors, not quite enough for one guard to slip through. Kai looked to Ramad, who stood at the edge of the group of mortals. His expression held poorly suppressed alarm.
Narrein listened to someone speaking from inside the stable. Then he turned and called to Shiren, “Be wary. A mortal servant is coming out with a message.”
Kai had no idea what Ziede and Tenes were planning, but clearly they needed more time. He said, “She’s just a mortal child.”
“We won’t kill children,” Shiren said, with a prim air of decision.
Arnsterath’s mouth quirked in amusement, a painfully familiar expression. “Lesser Blessed, don’t pretend you care.”
“You are too used to living among mortal savages,” Shiren said.
Dahin said sourly, “Yes, Immortal savages are so much better.”
Shiren gritted her teeth. “Demon, you should tell the apostate—”
Kai was so sick of Immortal Blessed right now. He said deliberately, “You’re the ones who made him this way, not us.”
Shiren glared, but just then Sanja slipped out between the gap in the doors.
She glanced around with obvious fear. A little too obvious; Kai had seen Sanja afraid and this wasn’t what it looked like. She didn’t seem like she had been hurt; her tunic and pants were mussed and stained, but that was from their boat trip, and probably from moving around in the filthy deserted harbor and stables. She spoke in a tone too low to hear.
Narrein listened, then turned to the raft. “Bring the demon and the apostate here.”
“What about Saadrin?” Kai said. It was a last-ditch effort to get some help or at least distraction from that quarter.
Shiren glanced back into the cabin where Saadrin was still bound and furious. She didn’t looked pleased to be reminded of their other captive. “She will stay where she is.” Shiren motioned sharply with the Well weapon.
Arnsterath didn’t do anything so obvious as shrug, but she tilted her head, indicating Kai should go. As Kai stood, he took Dahin’s hand and tugged him along. They stepped out of the raft and went toward the archway.
Once they were in earshot, Shiren said, “Stop there.”
Sanja kept her eyes downcast, giving the impression she was afraid to look at anyone. Narrein said, “Go on, child, speak.”
Addressing the paving stones, Sanja said, “My master the Witch says she will trade the finding stone for the lives of her companions, if you will first let her use it to locate and release Tahren Stargard.” She added, “She asks Kaiisteron to please cooperate, and to remember how we left the Summer Halls together.”
Kai’s thoughts raced. Cooperate. Not try to stop what was happening, let Ziede—and Tenes and Sanja?—handle it. How we left the Summer Halls together. On a wallwalker? With Bashasa? Ziede and Tahren went separately with Dahin, I came out with Salatel and the cadre … That made no sense; he was missing her meaning.
Frustrated, Shiren said, “We can’t possibly trust her. We must have the finding stone now.”
Gaze still downcast, Sanja sniffed, on the verge of tears. “I can only tell you what she said. Tahren Stargard is her wife, she has to rescue her.”
Narrein said, “We will free the Fallen once she gives us the finding stone.”
That was obviously a lie. Kai didn’t need to see the flicker in Shiren’s expression to know that. Arnsterath watched Sanja with concentration. Her gaze flicked once to Viar, checking to make sure he was still alert for traps.
Was Ziede working on a windstorm, inside the stables? The air was still. She and Tenes might be constructing some destructive cantrip, but Arnsterath could counter it with intentions she probably had already prepared. Viar would be carrying intentions for her as well. An expositor familiar would be so much handier for that than a Witch familiar.
With what Ziede had seen on the raft before she had to seal her mind from Kai, she would know that. And Arnsterath would know she knew it. Unless Tenes had thought of something unexpected. Something that couldn’t be countered.
Tenes’ affinity was with ground spirits, not much use at sea or on the canals. But here, it would be different. Did Arnsterath know much about Tenes? Would Aclines have wanted himself or his familiar to be anywhere near a powerful demon? He certainly wouldn’t have shared any information with her.
Sanja hadn’t responded, and Narrein added, “Go and tell her, she must give us the finding stone first.”
“Oh.” Sanja lifted her gaze. Her eyes were wide and she did something with her shoulders and the angle of her head that took at least two years off her already slight age. Even distracted, Kai was impressed. “I … But … she’s my master, she doesn’t…”
“Go back and tell her what we’ve said.” Narrein was impatient. “Once she gives us the finding stone, Tahren Stargard will be freed.”
Sanja’s mouth trembled and a tear trickled down her cheek. “I’m afraid, if I go back and tell her you said no, she’ll hurt me.”
Shiren’s lips thinned, but she said without heat, “Child, she sent you to negotiate, just go and tell her—”
Sanja’s eyes welled with tears. “She told me to stay out here. I’m afraid. Please—”
Ziede needs Sanja out here. Because of what’s going to happen inside, Kai thought. Ziede had sent Sanja out here because it was less dangerous for her than what she and Tenes were doing in there.
“Child—” Narrein tried again.
“Blessed lady, please save me!” Sanja had identified Shiren as the one most likely to give in to sentiment, the easiest mark. She took a few stumbling steps forward, holding out empty hands, and then dropped to her knees. It brought her closer to Kai. “Please!”
Kai felt a faint vibration in the paving. Arnsterath lifted her head, alert suddenly. Kai took a step forward and her suspicious attention shot back to him. The Lesser Blessed tensed, watching him warily. He said, “Ziede isn’t known for being reasonable. And she can’t possibly trust you.”
Shiren’s chin went up in disdain. “Unlike mortals and apostates, we do not lie—”
Dahin snorted and stumbled sideways into Kai. “Don’t lie, hah! You were part of a conspiracy to take over the Rising World! I’m sorry, that involved lying.”
Ramad contributed, “And the capture of a cohort and an officer’s cadre.”
They had both clearly gotten the message to stall.
“That too,” Dahin agreed. “And why anyone would believe you—”
The earth pulsed beneath Kai’s feet. The air changed, the omnipresent odor of the canal overwhelmed by something that smelled more like Gad-dazara, like the aftermath of a thunderstorm. That was when Kai knew what Ziede meant. How we left the Summer Halls together. Running from a flood.
Arnsterath didn’t turn toward him. Her arm shot out but Kai lunged forward. The design she flung skimmed past the edge of his senses as it missed him.
He snatched up Sanja and threw her to Ramad. Shiren fired her Well weapon but Dahin stepped into the way, shielding Kai from all but the fringe of the effect. Arnsterath’s hand filled with another intention, guards turned toward them, Dahin started to collapse, Kai sensed an intention from Viar.
A roar sounded from inside the stables. The metal doors burst open and a gray-green wall of water fell out with the force of a collapsing mountain.
Kai didn’t have time to think, just act. As Dahin went down from the force of the Well weapon, Kai grabbed his coat. Then the torrent hit like a flung boulder.
At the first touch of the water, Kai’s Blessed breathing device kicked back on but it didn’t help the weight and force of the flood. He concentrated on keeping his hand clamped on Dahin’s coat and his mouth closed. He wished he had kept the stupid nose plug on.
They tumbled over something rocky and painful, then slammed against a metal railing. The blow would have been stunning for a mortal; Kai knew he had to get to Ramad and Sanja quickly. He pulled Dahin closer, wrapped an arm around his chest, and dragged himself up on the metal rails.
They broke the surface. To Kai’s relief, Dahin started to spit up water and cough, struggling weakly. He grabbed onto a rail and gasped, “Didn’t we do this before?”
“This time we meant to do it,” Kai said. The flood had carried them all the way across the court to the closed outer gate where the bridge had once been. They had fetched up against the rusted bars of the portcullis.
The torrent poured out through the wide open watergate into the canal almost as rapidly as its unabated rush out of the stable archway. The harbor doors still held, concentrating the initial force of the water; they must be jammed on the inside with the remains of docks and broken boats.
Kai couldn’t spot Ramad and Sanja in the confusion of bobbing bodies and churning water. The ascension raft spun as it floated with the swirling current. It was too buoyant to overturn, though if it kept to its current course, it would sweep out through the watergate. It should come right past them. But as it whirled around, Kai saw Arnsterath was in it, her clothes dripping as she leaned over the rail. She was trying to help her familiar Viar aboard as he clung to the edge of the raft. She must have run for it as soon as she realized the trap, and ordered Viar to come to her.
Dahin snarled, “We need that raft.”
“Get ready.” Kai let go of him and swung higher up on the gate, bracing his feet on the crossrail.
Dahin struggled up after him. “Don’t worry about me, just go.”
As the raft spun nearer, Kai jumped.
He landed on the deck. Behind him, there was a yelp as Dahin hit the side. Arnsterath yanked Viar into the raft, dropped him, and whirled toward Kai.
But Kai hadn’t charged at her.
Viar slumped on the deck, battered by the flood. The gold fillet in his hair might be the token that held the powerful intention that enslaved his mind and body to Arnsterath. But he had lost his coat and the pendant cord around his throat now lay on top of his tunic instead of concealed inside it. The pendant was an old wooden pin, carved into the emblem of the Kanavesi Saredi plainswolf.
Kai dove for Viar instead of Arnsterath. He grabbed the Kanavesi pin and crushed the light wood in his fist. If I’m wrong about this … He just hoped that Ziede and Tenes would be able to find Ramad and Sanja.
Viar jerked away. He looked up, eyes wide open, aware, and furious.
An intention struck Kai’s shoulder, scorched through his sleeve as a burning coal ground into his skin. He staggered back, fighting to dig its tendrils out of him, and fell backward against the bench.
But Viar lunged toward Arnsterath. He plucked intentions off his chest, the ones she had given him to carry, and flung them at her. She scrabbled backward, her hand flailed as she managed to cast an intention at Viar. He reeled, but was too enraged and too desperate to stop. He tackled her and they grappled. With every touch he transferred her own intentions to her, while she pushed others back onto him.
Kai couldn’t stand. He had to get this intention out of his body before it went to his heart. Whether Viar or Arnsterath won, the survivor would go after Kai and he would end up dead or a familiar. Then Dahin dragged himself over the raft’s side, hit the deck, and crawled rapidly into the cabin.
Kai doubled over as more fire shot through his veins. He focused inward and the extra burst of pain and desperation let him grip the design. He clawed it out of his bicep and it dissipated as it left his flesh.
Saadrin tore out of the cabin, prying the metal gag off her mouth.
Arnsterath and Viar slammed back toward the rail, still struggling. Saadrin’s expression was beyond fury, but she hesitated, obviously aware of the cloud of intentions around the demon and the expositor. She looked at Kai. His throat was nearly closed from the heat that had raged through his body but he managed a pushing gesture.
Saadrin nodded grimly and strode forward. The two hit the rail again and grappled, Viar’s back to Saadrin. She grabbed his ankles and lifted and shoved, all in one motion. He cried out and Arnsterath snarled. Both tumbled over the side into the flood.
Dahin staggered across to the steering column and wrenched at it. The raft shot upward out of the water. Kai collapsed on the bench. He just hoped Saadrin wouldn’t decide to throw him off, too. He pulled himself up on the rail, frantic, then spotted Ramad and Sanja.
They perched on the earthwork to the side of the harbor entrance, both drenched but above the rushing water. Sanja must have been able to give Ramad enough warning to get them away from the main force of the torrent, and they had climbed to safety. Kai pointed, and croaked, “There!”
Dahin said, “I see them! Aunt Saadrin, for the shitting Well’s sake, get down! You’re a giant target!”
“Don’t swear at me, child!” But Saadrin ducked. Dahin wheeled the raft and it jolted sideways. Kai sensed a half-formed design narrowly miss them. He touched Ziede’s pearl: Ziede, come out, we have the raft. Arnsterath is in the water with her familiar.
Coming, she sent back. It was so good to hear her voice. Kai wanted to laugh but his throat hurt too much.
The earthwork loomed up. Dahin nearly slammed the raft into the slope, brush scratching against the Blessed metal. Kai tried to get up to help, but Sanja tumbled over the rail and Ramad swung in beside her. As Dahin took the raft up and toward the canal, Kai croaked, “Stay down.”
Sanja sunk to the floor, shivering but grinning. Ramad ducked but made it across the raft to where Kai huddled on the bench. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Where is—”
Ziede dropped down into the raft, an unconscious Tenes in her arms. Kai slid to the floor so Ziede could deposit Tenes in his lap. Both were soaking wet and Tenes had mud ground into her arms up to her elbows.
The raft shot away toward the east. Kai knew they were passing over the concentric moats, following the old route over the destroyed bridge and past the deserted city. This time Kai, gently patting Tenes’ face to revive her, didn’t bother to look back at the Summer Halls.
Dahin laughed, loud and free and without any bitterness at all. “Where to now?”
Saadrin stood up from her crouch near the steering column. There were bloodstains on the light yellow of her tabard, and a fading bruise still discolored the right side of her face. She must have fought the Immortal Blessed Faharin, and probably Narrein and Shiren, too. She said, “Is anyone going to tell me what in the name of Holy Thosaren that was all about? Some mortal conspiracy?”
Ziede didn’t bother to answer. She took the finding stone out of her tunic and said, “We’re going to find Tahren now.”
Sanja sat up on her knees and leaned against the bench beside Ziede. “Can you make it work? Does it need special magic?”
“Anyone can make it work,” Kai told her, not looking up from Tenes. “That’s what made it so dangerous to the Immortal Blessed.”
“They used these stones to keep us under control,” Saadrin said. It was so unexpected, even Dahin turned to look at her. “The Hierarchs. I lied to you, there are none kept at the Conventiculum. We thought they were all destroyed. I had no idea one still existed. It would have given Faharin and the Patriarch he served a great deal of power to have that.”
“I know you lied,” Ziede said. She studied the stone with a frown. Kai sensed another alien itch on the edge of his awareness, a different sort of irritation than the ascension raft. “You can have it when I’m done. Dahin, keep to the east.”
“Yes, no one wants to find you now, we just wish you’d all go away,” Dahin told Saadrin.
Saadrin didn’t answer, watching him with a mix of worry and confusion. Kai would have to try to talk to Dahin, but first he had to take care of Tenes. He thought of Bashasa and felt a deep pulse of loss again; Bashasa had always seemed able to do a hundred things at once; calm the frightened, negotiate with the angry, make plans, strategize. They were all sitting here in sopping wet clothes with no food or water and Kai didn’t even know if there was anything useful on this ridiculous raft.
And he couldn’t help but feel there had been a solution within reach. If the Lesser Blessed had agreed to let Ziede take the stone to find Tahren. If sixty years ago he had thought to search for Arnsterath or any of the other lost demons.
Ramad tried to wipe his face with his wet sleeve. “Did you actually breach the inner wall of the Summer Halls? Tunnel through the earthwork? How was it done?”
Sanja was pleased to explain. “When you left, we started exploring. Mostly in that big stable next to where the boats used to be. It kept going back into the side of the hill, all these rooms, but they were empty except for trash. We got to a place in the very far back with a stone wall, but it was wet. Tenes said she didn’t think this place would last too many more years, that something had gone wrong on the other side and the water was going to push through eventually. I mean, I didn’t understand some of the words she was using, so she had to kind of act it out, but that was basically it.
“Then we heard those people—they must have been searching the docks while we were way in the back—and Tenes made them vomit flowers. We were going to go up and try to warn you but then Ziede came, and Tenes said she could get the dirt spirits to make the holes behind the leaky wall bigger.”
Tenes blinked, gasped, and gripped Kai’s arm. He said, “It worked, you’re with us.”
Her brow furrowed, but the frantic confusion in her gaze subsided to relief and her grip on his arm relaxed.
