The Storm - eARC

by David Drake

  I became aware of the Road, spreading away as I had seen it through the Envoy’s eyes. It twisted and joined and occasionally formed dead ends as it extended in all directions.

  That was just the background, no more than the air which I breathed. My focus was the wall and the cavity I was widening in it despite the cyst’s own efforts to heal.

  Something was fighting me. I wasn’t sure when it began but it was becoming more insistent. It wanted me to allow the wall to close. It was becoming…well, not irritated, because it wasn’t capable of thought; but frustrated, like a male cardinal who keeps attacking his reflection on polished metal.

  I would have laughed if I’d had any consciousness that wasn’t involved with opening the cavity. I could judge the rate at which the will from outside could become stronger than my own will. I couldn’t dismantle the entire cyst in that time, but I could open a hole someone could drive a team of oxen through.

  I wouldn’t be driving the oxen, though. I would never awaken from this trance. I was becoming part of the cyst myself as the fungus attached itself to me and its thoughts slowly submerged my own mind. Until then, I was supreme, and the cavity I was gnawing in the wall continued to grow.

  Something tried to block the path I worked through. Again it amused me, because now I could attack the edges of the cavity from any side or all sides at once. My will moved as it pleased in the fabric of the cyst.

  When I became the core, I would wall us off from all things, Here and Not-Here, much more effectively than a village girl or a young Beast had done. I would not only be the cyst’s core—I would be its ally!

  Something was dragging me, my body. The fungus that I was now part of resisted, but there was a jolt. I was moving again, the fungus had drawn back somehow, and I came out of my trance as though I’d been dropped through a hole chopped in the ice of a pond.

  I jumped up, kicking and thrashing. I’d actually stood upright when my consciousness returned; I immediately toppled over on my side because my left leg didn’t remember how it worked. I fell onto the Road.

  Sam licked my face frantically. I reached around his solid chest and hugged his warmth to me. “It’s all right!” I said but I didn’t know who I was talking to. “It’s all right, don’t worry!”

  “Praise the Great God!” Osbourn said. “You’re all right, Lord Pal?”

  I’ve been saying so, haven’t I? went through my mind, but I couldn’t blame Osbourn if he didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed somebody in the shape I knew I was in.

  “I’m all right,” I repeated, speaking conscious words for the first time. I sat up and immediately put my hands down on the Road to balance me. “Osbourn, you got me out. How did you get me out? Why didn’t the hole close on us?”

  “You’d reopened the wall,” Osbourn said. “Andreas had left the tube on the Road. I just put it back in place and went through to get you, sir. I had to cut away that fuzz to make it release you—”

  He swallowed. I saw a horrified look in his eyes that hinted at how unpleasant that had been.

  “—but it did. And you’re really all right, sir?”

  “I’m a little scattered,” I said, looking down the Road. I didn’t see its branching immensity anymore, but I felt it spreading beyond my sight and even beyond Here. “There’s no physical harm, though. Well—”

  I looked at my forearms which had been bare when the fungus began crawling on me. They looked and felt now like they’d been badly sunburned, and there were abrasions where it had tried to drag me.

  “—nothing worth mentioning.”

  Osbourn handed me back my weapon. “That’s a wonderful piece, Lord Pal,” he said wistfully.

  “It’s all of that,” I said as I dropped it back into my pocket. “As soon as we’re back to Dun Add, I’ll find you something pretty close to it.”

  “Sir,” Osbourn said, drawing himself up straight. “No sir. I can’t pay you for a proper weapon. But thank you.”

  I grinned at him. I was starting to like May’s cousin. “All you have to do to pay me,” I said, “is learn to use the bloody thing. Can you manage that?”

  I swear he stood even straighter than before. He was looking out over my right shoulder where there was nothing I knew about. “Yessir,” he said. “Yes, I’ll practice.”

  I took a deep breath. “All right,” I said. “Let’s go back to the manor and clean things up so we can leave.”

  “Sir?” said Osbourn. “Are we going after Master Andreas?”

  “No,” I said. “We don’t know which way he went.”

  I thought for a moment, then said, “If I run into Andreas later, I suppose I’ll take him to Jon to punish. But I didn’t want the jewel he took anyway. I, well, I kinda liked the guy. He just cared too much for money.”

  “But what he did to us, sir!” Osbourn said. “Are you going to let him get away with that?”

  I shrugged. “We’re all right, aren’t we?” I said. “Like I said, if I run into him, I’ll let the Leader decide what happens. But I’d just as soon that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t strike me that punishing folks makes the world a better place. Just maybe better than if they weren’t punished.”

  “Well, if I meet him,” said Osbourn, “I’ll know what to do with him!”

  I just nodded as we stepped from the Road into Severin’s landingplace. For about as long as I could talk to other people I’d known that a lot of them were certain about things that I couldn’t puzzle out. I didn’t argue with them anymore.

 

  Baga was sitting under a tarp strung from the side of the boat. He stood up as we approached.

  “Has Master Andreas come this way?” I called.

  Baga looked shocked. “No sir,” he said. “Last I saw, he went off with you. Is there a problem?”

  “Not really,” I said, because that was the truth so far as I was concerned. I could manage to get pretty angry about it if I tried, but what good would that do?

  Hemans met us at the door of the manor. I said, “We’re going to go back to Dun Add shortly, but I need to talk to the farm manager—or whoever it is who runs things for Lord Fox. Ran things. Can you fetch him right now?”

  “You mean the reeve, my lord?” the servant said. “Well, that’s Master Patrice.”

  “Good,” I said. Acting exasperated wouldn’t speed the process. “How quickly can you get him here?”

  “Well, just a couple of minutes, my lord. Unless he’s at his dinner.”

  “Lead me to his house, my man!” said Osbourn in a tone of command that I suppose he’d been born to. “His dinner can wait!”

  “We’ll all go if it’s that close,” I said. “There’s not much to pack up here, after all.”

 

  Master Patrice’s house was next door to the manor and very nearly as large. It was built of locally fired bricks rather than stone. A pair of boys who’d been hanging out at the door of the manor ran ahead of us. By the time we arrived at the reeve’s house, an overweight, balding man in a blue tunic was standing under his porch overhang being badgered by the boys’ shouted misinformation.

  “Master Patrice?” I said. “I’m Lord Pal of Beune. We haven’t met—”

  Patrice bowed as best his waistline allowed him to. “Sir, I know who you are,” he said in a breathy voice. “Have I done something wrong? I—”

  “No, no!” I said. “Nothing at all. I’m here as representative of the Commonwealth of Mankind. Since Lord Fox is dead—”

  As I said that, I suddenly wondered if Andreas’s story about the killing was true. I hadn’t doubted it until now.

  “—I’m appointing you as temporary ruler of Severin until a proper administrator arrives from Dun Add with a staff. Do you understand?”

  “What?” Patrice said. Past him through the doorway I could see a woman and two children. The girl of maybe three was clinging to the fringe of the woman’s tunic. “But what am I supposed to do?”

  Nothing, I h
ope, I thought. Aloud I said, “You’re the government until the Leader sends somebody else. Just do the sort of things you’ve been doing as a reeve. Only hold court like the lord would’ve done if he was alive, and anything serious that comes up you keep over till the administrator from Dun Add arrives.”

  The reeve’s eyes were getting glassy. “Look!” I said. “Treat people fairly until the Leader’s man takes over. These are your neighbors.”

  “And remember…” Osbourn put in. “If you’re not fair, you’ll be explaining yourself in Dun Add. Remember.”

  I wouldn’t have said that, but maybe Osbourn’s instincts were better than mine. At least Patrice responded, saying, “Yes, my lords. I’ll be fair. I understand.”

  “Let’s get back to Dun Add and hand this over to somebody who likes the work,” I said.

  I thanked the Almighty that I’d refused to become Acting Chancellor when Morseth begged me. I’d been worried about people not taking me seriously when I ordered then to do something. Listening to Patrice, I suddenly realized that the real problem was they wouldn’t hear anything I said.

  We stopped at the manor to gather what we’d brought out of the boat when we arrived. Baga had taken down his tarp and was ready to go.

 

  The gear in the manor was no work to bring back to the boat, and the artifacts I’d marked out in the keep were easy to transfer also. Nobody had touched the things in the years since Master Croft had died, so I didn’t feel that I was stealing them.

  Besides, Severin had now come under direct Commonwealth rule. I could arrange something with the Leader if a question arose in the future.

  The tricky business was moving the Female. I carried her myself. Lord Osbourn said he’d help, but there really wasn’t any need to—the Female was as light as a sick kitten—and the stiffness of Osbourn’s expression made me suspect that he’d rather bathe in a cesspool than touch a Beast.

  Hemans walked along beside us and even entered the boat with me. He carried a covered bowl of gruel.

  I laid the Female down in an empty compartment and straightened. “Now, you’re sure that she’s going to be all right?” the servant asked.

  “I fed a sample of the gruel you’ve been giving her into the boat’s converter,” I said. “And it’ll be warmed just like you said.”

  “And will you hold her up to drink it?” Hemans said.

  I looked at him. “You were happy to slide the bowl in with a pole,” I said. “You did that for years, and she survived, didn’t she?”

  “She’s become very weak,” Hemans said. Then he said, “I pray for forgiveness my every waking moment. I know the wrong I did.”

  He’s serious, I realized. He’s as serious as a heart attack.

  “I’ll feed her,” I said. “And I’ll get her into the hands of her own people as quick as I can. I promise.”

  Hemans fell to his knees in the corridor. He hugged my lower legs and began blubbering. I patted him on the back and gestured Osbourn over to help me lift the old servant to his feet and walk him off the boat.

  We got underway almost immediately. And I spent most of the voyage to Dun Add cradling the Female with one arm and rubbing Sam’s muscular back as he curled up on my other side.

  CHAPTER 17

  Back to Civilization

  I’d intended to discuss Osbourn’s future with him on the voyage to Dun Add, but I didn’t want to do that while I was babysitting the Female. I won’t say Osbourn was afraid, but he was obviously bothered by the creature the way snakes bother some people. We had time.

  Baga opened the hatch on landingplace. The Herald bustled forward, as fat and pompous as he’d been when I first arrived in Dun Add wearing cowhide boots with wooden soles. He was the same oily bully that he’d always been, but when I changed from a wandering peasant to Lord Pal of Beune, who owned a boat of his own, the Herald’s attitude changed.

  We’d had his sort on Beune when I was growing up. Nowadays they didn’t try that on with me and I stopped them if they did it in front of me; but I couldn’t change people from being people. Regret it though I might.

  “Baga?” I said. “Do you need to get off to Maggie right away?”

  “Naw,” he said from the pilot’s chair. “I’m worn down to a nub from so quick a run. You want me to watch—” he jerked his head down the corridor toward the compartment where I’d left the Female “—her?”

  “If you’re willing to,” I said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, but I’ve got to go up to Guntram’s room in the palace.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do it,” Baga said. He laughed raggedly and added, “Boy, they wouldn’t believe it back on Holheim that I was keeping company with a Beast!”

  It’d surprise folks on Beune about me, too, I thought. To Osbourn I said, “Let’s get you checked back in at Aspirants’ Hall. I’ve got some people to see right away, but I’ll meet you in your room as quick as I can. You’ll wait for me?”

  “Yes sir!” Osbourn said. If he kept away from wine—and the sort of folks who prey on drunks—like I thought he would, he was going to be all right.

 

  A young fellow—even younger than me—was at the desk of the Aspirants’ Hell being enrolled. Two personal servants stood with him, though one was probably along just to help with the baggage. The clerk had approved his equipment. From the look of the Aspirant’s clothing and luggage he could afford the best, but money wouldn’t always find you good hardware at a long distance from Dun Add.

  “Room Forty-Four,” the clerk called. “Bitongas, take the young gentleman up to Forty-Four.”

  An usher came out from the room behind the clerk’s counter and gestured the Aspirant to follow him up the stairs. The two servants obeyed but the Aspirant himself stayed by the counter and said, “If you don’t mind, good woman, I have a few questions about the room?”

  The clerk ignored him. She’d caught sight of me and called, “Lord Pal! Glad to see you back, your lordship!”

  I walked up to the counter, nodding politely to the Aspirant. He thought he still had business with the clerk, but she didn’t—and her judgment was the one that mattered here.

  “Hi, Elaine,” I said to the clerk. “Lord Osbourn and I are back, so I’m signing him in again. I’m afraid that Master Andreas won’t be returning, however, so you can reassign his room.”

  The clerk made notations in a notebook with wooden covers, then cocked her head up at me. “Trouble, Lord Pal?” she said.

  I shrugged. I could feel Osbourn swelling beside me with his desire to speak. I said, “Master Andreas found a business opportunity that he preferred to going through Aspirants’ training. It isn’t for everybody, you know.”

  “I bloody well do know it!” Elaine said. “Well, you know where the room is.”

  I dropped Osbourn off at Room Thirty-Seven. “I’ll be back as quick as I can be,” I said. “I have to meet somebody at the boat first, though, and I don’t know how long they’ll be. If I’m not back by tomorrow morning, just go about your training like normal. All right?”

  “Sir,” Osbourn said. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore!”

  I shook his hand, thinking, If I was stupid enough to think that, I’d bloody well worry about myself.

  I went up to the top level and stopped in Master Guntram’s suite just long enough to pick up the little jade gong. I carried that back to the boat, where I sent Baga home and tapped the gong with my fingertip.

  Then I waited, sitting in the cabin with the Female beside me and Sam on the grass outside the boat. The Female had begun walking a little, up and down the corridor. I didn’t know what I’d do if somebody caught sight of her through the open hatch. I guessed I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. Not many people came close, of course.

  The Envoy arrived within a half hour of me touching the gong.

 

  She came from an edge of landingplace, not where the Road blended into the node. I’m not sur
e that the Herald saw her. His clerk did, but when he saw that she was coming toward me in the hatch of the boat, he sat back down on his little folding stool.

  “Mistress?” I said. “Where did you come from?”

  The Envoy shrugged and climbed the three steps to enter the boat. “You summoned me,” she said. “What do you want?”

  This was the first time I’d seen her in good light. She was as pale as if she’d been carved from ivory, and her flowing garment gave me the creeps now that I’d seen the fungus which had turned a village into a cyst and wiped out the inhabitants. The fabric that the Envoy wore was the same texture.

  “I have one of your master’s kinsmen to take to him,” I said as I walked down the corridor to the compartment where the Female waited. “Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” said the Envoy.

  The Female rose and took a hesitant step toward us. I slipped past her to get out of the way. The Envoy and the Female embraced and stood looking at one another. I thought more was going on than I could see, but I waited silently.

  After a long moment, the Envoy looked at me and said, “She has been tortured.”

  I swallowed. “She was kept tied tightly for years until we freed her,” I said. “I’m sorry that happened, but I can’t change the past.”

  The woman in white gauze smiled at me. The expression bothered me for reasons I can’t describe. “She was burned with hot iron,” the Envoy said.

  I took a deep breath. “The person who had her tortured is dead,” I said. “Whichever person it was is dead.”

  I didn’t think that Hemans would have been the torturer, unless it was at the orders of someone else—Fox, his uncle Frans, or perhaps Croft himself. “I’m very sorry it happened.”

  The Female turned her head and looked at me. Her voice in my brain said, It doesn’t matter. I am dead.

  “You’re not dead!” I snarled at her. To the Envoy I said, “Mistress, can you get her to her own people?”