Gate of Ivrel

by C. J. Cherryh

  "I was too pressed to think. I was wrong. I am guilty. I do penance for it."

  "Actually," said Erij, "Kandrys meant to mar you somewhat: he never liked you, not at all. He did not find it to his liking that you were given a place among the warriors: he said that he would see you own that you had no right there. Myself, it was neither here nor there with me; but that was how it was: Kandrys was my brother. If he had decided to cut your throat, he was heir to the Nhi and I would have considered that too. Pity we aimed at so little. You were better with that blade than we thought you were, else Kandrys would not have baited you in the casual way he did. I have to give you due credit, bastard brother: you were good."

  Vanye reached for the cup, swallowed the last, the wine souring in his mouth. "Father had a fine choice of heirs, did he not? Three would-be murderers."

  "Father was the best of all," said Erij. "He killed our mother: I am sure of it. He pushed Kandrys to his death, favoring you as much as he did once.

  No wonder he saw ghosts."

  "Then purify this hall of them. Let me ride out of here. Our father was no better to you than he was to me. Let me go from here."

  "You keep asking; I refuse. Why do you not try to escape?"

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  "I thought that you expected me to keep my given word," he said.

  "Besides, I would never reach the ground floor of Ra-morij."

  "You might be sorry later that you missed the chance."

  "You want to frighten me. I know the game, Erij. You were always expert at that. I always believed the things you told me, and I always trusted you more than I did Kandrys. I always wanted to think that there was some sense of honor in you— whatever it was that he was lacking."

  "You hated the both of us."

  "I was sorry about you; I was even sorry about Kandrys."

  Erij smiled and rose from the table, walked near the fire, where it was warm. Vanye joined him there. Erij still had his cup in hand, and took his accustomed chair, while Vanye settled on the warm stones. There was silence between them for a long time, almost peace. Two more cups of wine passed from Erij's cup, and his tanned face grew flushed and his breathing heavy.

  "You drink too much," said Vanye at last. "This evening and last— you drink too much."

  Erij lifted the stump of his arm. "This— pains me of cold evenings. For a long time I drank to ease my sleep at night. Probably I shall have to stop it, or come to what Father did. It was the wine that helped ruin him, I well know that. When he drank, which was constantly after Kandrys died, he grew unreasonable. When he would get drunk he would go out and sit by his tomb and see ghosts. I should hate to die like that."

  It was the rationality in Erij that made him seem most mad; at times Vanye almost thought him amenable to reason, to forgiveness. A man could not speak so with an enemy. At such times they were more brothers than they had ever been. At such times he almost understood Erij, through the moods and the hates and the lines that began to be graven into his face, making him look several years older than was the truth.

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  "Your lady," said Erij then, "has not quitted Morija as you said she would."

  Vanye looked up sharply. "Where is she?"

  "You might know," said Erij, "since I think you know full well what she is about."

  "That is her business."

  "Shall I recall her and ask her or shall I ask you again?"

  Vanye stared at him, beginning suddenly to see purpose within the madness, the sickly, fragile humors. He liked it no less. "Her business is with Hjemur, and she is no friend of Thiye. Let that suffice."

  "Truly?"

  "It is truth, Erij."

  "All the same," said Erij, "she had not quitted Morija. And all my promises were conditional on that."

  "So were mine," said Vanye, "conditional."

  Erij looked down at him. There was no mirth there at all. Of a sudden it was Nhi Rijan in that look, young and hard and full of malice. "You are dismissed."

  "Do nothing against her," Vanye warned him.

  "You are dismissed," said Erij.

  Vanye gathered himself up and took his leave with a scant bow, maintaining the slender thread of courtesy between them. There were the guards outside to take him— there always were: Myya; Erij trusted no Nhi to do this duty, walking him to and from his quarters.

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  But they had doubled since he had come into the room. There had been two. Now four waited.

  Suddenly he tried to retreat back within the room, heard the whisper of steel and saw Erij drawing his longsword from its sheath. In that instant of hesitation they hauled him back and tried to hold him.

  He had nothing to lose. He knew it, and flung himself at his brother, intent on cracking his skull at least: there should no Myya whelp lord it in Ra-morij, that benefit for the unfortunate Nhi if nothing else.

  But they overhauled him, stumbling over each other and overturning furniture in their haste to seize him; and Erij's fist, guarded by the pommel, came hard against the side of his head, dropping him to his knees.

  * * *

  He knew these nether portions of the fortress, those carved deep into the hill for the holding of supplies in the event of siege, a veritable warren of tunnels and rooms of dripping ceilings, frozen in winter. It was this which made the whole east wing unsafe, so that no one lived there: collapse had been reckoned imminent as long as anyone could remember, though the tunnels were shored up and the storerooms braced with pillars and some filled with dirt. As children they had been forbidden these places: as children they had used the upper storerooms on the safe west for their amusements in the bitter days of winter and the heat of summer. And one time after he came to live in Ra-morij, his brothers had dared him to come with them down to the nethermost depths: they had taken a single lamp and ventured into this place of damp and cold and moldering beams and crumbling masonry.

  Here they had left him, where his screams could in nowise be heard above.

  And it was into this place that the Myya sealed him, without light and without water, with only his thin shirt against the numbing cold. He fought 131

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  against them, dazed as he yet was, panicked by the fear that they would bind him here as Kandrys had; fled their grasp and meant to fight them.

  They closed the door on him, plunged him into utter dark; the bolt outside crashed across and echoed.

  He tried his strength against it until he was exhausted, his shoulder bruised and his hands torn. Then he sank down against it, the only sure point in this absolute dark, the only place that was not cold earth and stone. He caught his breath and heard for a time only the slow and distant drip of water.

  Then the rats began to stir again, timid at first, stopping when he would make a sound. Gradually they grew bolder. He heard their small feet, both along the walls and overhead, in the maze of unseen beams.

  He loathed them, since that nightmare in the basement of Ra-morij; he hated even seeing them in light, despising them there: the very sight of them brought back the memory, reminding him of dark places where they thrived in numbers, a realm within the walls, under foundations, where they were the terror and he small and helpless.

  He no longer dared lie there. They generally avoided a man who was awake: he knew this sensibly, in spite of his fear; but he had heard too much of what they might do to a man asleep. He paced to keep himself awake, and once, when he did lie down to rest, and felt something light skitter over his leg, he came up with a shuddering cry that echoed madly through the dark, and gathered himself to his feet.

  The sound made a pause in all the scurryings— only a moment. Then they proceeded fearlessly about their business.

  Sometime, eventually, he would have to sleep. There had to be a time that he would fall down exhausted. Already his knees were shaking. He paced until he had to take his rest by leaning against the walls,
until he had long moments of knowing nothing, and woke again in the midst of a fall to the ground, to scramble up again, dusting his hands and shuddering, holding himself on his shaking legs with difficulty.

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  Then, at last, came a clatter in the hall, a light under the door, and it opened, blazing torchlight into his face, dark figures of men. He went to them as to dear friends, flung himself into their arms as into a place of refuge.

  They brought him back upstairs, back to the fine hall that was Erij's apartment. It was night outside the window, so that he knew it had been a night and a day since he had slept; and now his knees were shaking and his hands almost incapable of handling the utensils as he seated himself at the accustomed table opposite his brother.

  He reached for the wine first, that began to take the chill from his belly, but he could not eat. He picked at a few bites, and ate some of the bread, and a bit of cheese.

  The knife clattered from his hand and he had had enough. He shoved his chair back without Erij's leave, withdrew to the warm hearth and lay down there while Erij finished his dinner. His senses dimmed, exhaustion taking him, and he wakened to Erij's boot in his ribs, gently applied.

  He gathered himself up, willing to stave off a return to that place by conversation, by applying himself most earnestly to Erij's humors, but the Myya guards were there. They set hands on him to take him back to that place of darkness and rats, and he fought them and cried aloud, sobbing, clawing free of them: he found the table, snatched a knife and laid a man's arm open with it before they wrested it away from him and pulled him down in a clatter of spilling dishes. A booted foot slammed into his head; when he went down his only thought was that they would take him back unconscious, and that the rats would have him. For that reason he fought them; and then a second blow to the stomach drove the wind from him and he ceased to know anything.

  * * *

  He still lay upon the floor. He knew light and heat and felt carpet with his fingers. Then he felt a cold edge prison one wrist against the floor, and opened his eyes upon Erij, who sat against the arm of the chair; upon the bright length of a longsword that rested over him.

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  "You have more staying power than you used to have, bastard brother,"

  said Erij. "A few years ago you would have seen reason two days ago. Is it so much you owe her that you will not even say why she has come?"

  "I will tell you," he said, "though I myself do not understand it. She says that she came to destroy the Witchfires. I do not know why. Perhaps it is some matter of her honor. But they never were anything but harm to Andur-Kursh; so she is no harm to Morija."

  "And you do not know what gain that would be to her."

  "No. She only says— somehow— she means to kill Thiye, and that is not…" He moved his arm. The blade sliced skin and he decided against it.

  "Erij, she is not the enemy."

  Erij's mouth twisted into a sour smile. "There have been more than Thiye that aspired to what Thiye holds. And none of those have meant us good."

  "Not to possess what he holds. To destroy it."

  The blade lifted. Vanye struggled to his knees, aching in head and belly, where he had been kicked. He met Erij's cynicism with absolute earnestness.

  "Little brother," said Erij, "I think you actually believe the witch. And you have gone soft in the wits if that is so. Look at me. Look at me. I swear to you— and you know that I keep my word— that if you forsake that allegiance in truth, I will not collect the price you owe me." The longsword flicked at his wrist. Vanye snatched it back, horrified. The blade instead leveled at his eyes, holding him like the eyes of a serpent.

  "Bastard brother," said Erij, "it has taken me these two years to learn some skill with my left hand. All for a careless, useless gesture. Romen's efforts notwithstanding, I lost the fingers. They went before the hand. Need I tell you how I have sworn I would do if ever I had you in reach, bastard brother? Kandrys may have deserved what he had of you; but I only tried to shield him at that moment— only to keep you from striking him again, I 134

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  not even in armor. There was no honor for you in what you did, little brother. And I have not forgiven you."

  "That is a lie," said Vanye. "You would as gladly have killed me, and I was less skilled than either of you: I always was."

  Erij laughed. "There is the Vanye I know. Kandrys would have cursed me to my face and gone for my throat if I threatened him. But you know I will do it, and you are afraid. You think too much, Chya bastard. You always had too keen an imagination. It made you coward, because you never learned to put that wit of yours to good advantage. But I will own you were outmatched then. The years have put weight on you, and half a hand to your stature. I am not sure I should like to take you on now, left-handed as I am."

  "Erij." He cast everything upon an appeal to reason, put utmost heart into his tone. "Erij, will you have this hall reputed like that of Leth? Let me pass from here. I am outlawed. I admit I deserve it, and I was mad to come here asking charity of Father. I would never have dared come if I had known I would have to ask any grace of you. That was my mistake. But Nhi will lose honor for you. You know that Nhi will have no part of it, or else you would not have to use Myya guards with me."

  "For what are you asking me?"

  "To treat me as Nhi, as your brother."

  Erij smiled faintly, drew from his belt the shortsword, the Honor blade, and cast it ringing onto the stones of the hearth. Then he walked out.

  Vanye stared after him, shuddered as the door slammed and the heavy bolt went across. Fear settled into him like an old friend, close and familiar. He did not even look at the sword for a moment. He had not asked for this, but for his release; and yet it honorably answered, more than honorably answered, all that he had asked of Erij.

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  At last he turned upon his knees and sought the hilt of the blade, picked it up and could not find it comfortable in his hand, even less could find the courage to do with it what was required of him to do.

  It was, perhaps, safe refuge from Erij, and Erij's last mercy was this offering: there were pains far worse than the honorable one of this blade.

  But it required an act of will, of courage, toward which Erij challenged him— knowing, thoroughly knowing, that his Chya brother would not be able to do it.

  And Vanye knew well enough that Erij, in his place, could. So might Kandrys, or their father. There was the bloodiness in them; they would do it if only to spite their enemy and rob him of revenge.

  He set it against the floor, at the length of his arms, shut his eyes and stayed there. All that it took from this point was one forward impulse. His arms, his whole body, shook with the strain.

  And after a time he ceased to be afraid, for he knew that he was not going to do it. He let fall the blade and crept over to the fireside and lay down, shivering in every muscle, his stomach heaving, his jaws clamped against the further shame of sickness.

  The daylight found him exhausted and placid in his exhaustion, though he did not truly sleep, save one time in the thickest darkness of the night. He heard steps returning now in the hall and had only one fleeting impulse toward doing belatedly what should have been done in dignity.

  He did not even meditate killing Erij with the blade. It would be in the one case futile, for he would die for it, shamefully; and in the other, the act would be void of any honor or vindication for himself.

  There were several of them that came in. Erij sent the other men away to wait outside, crossed the carpets and gathered up the abandoned blade, returned it to its sheath at his belt.

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  "I did not think you would," he said. "But you cannot complain of me that I disgraced you." And he set his one hand upon Vanye's shoulder and dropped to his knee, took him by the arm and pulled at him, to have him up.

  Vanye
wept: he did not wish to, but like other battles with Erij, this one was futile and he recognized it. Then to his further shame he found Erij's arm about him, offering him shelter, and it was good simply to fall against that and be nothing. His brother's arms were about him after so long without sight of home or kin, and his about Erij, and after a time he realized that Erij also wept. His brother cuffed him to self-control and to sense with a rough blow and held him at arm's length: there was the moisture of tears on Erij's hard face.

  "I am breaking oath," said Erij, "because I swore that I would kill you."

  "I wish that you had," Vanye answered him, and Erij embraced him in his hard grip and treated him like the little brother he had always felt himself to be with Erij, roughed his hair, which was boy's length, and set him back again.

  "You could never have done it," Erij said. "Because you love life too much to die. That is a gift, brother. It makes you a bad enemy."

  Like Morgaine, he thought. Had that come from her? But he had had in the beginning of his wandering the broken halves of his own Honor blade, that his father had shattered; his weakness was not Morgaine's doing, but that he truly did not deserve the honor of an uyo of the Nhi. There were prices of such things, that sometimes had to be paid at the end of possessing them; and he would never be fit to pay such a price.

  And he wept again, knowing that. Erij cuffed his ear gently, made him look at him. "You robbed me," Erij said hoarsely, "of brother, mother, father, and a piece of myself. Do you not owe me some recompense? Do you not at least owe me something for it?"

  "What do you want from me?"

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