by Jim Grimsley
He was relieved to hear this, and set the guard as I had requested. Near midmorning, I rode out on Nixva’s back. We cantered through the city streets. Those who saw us coming fell back into their houses, all but a few who bowed their heads and wished me blessings for lifting shadow. I had expected the fear but not the kindness. My heart felt fuller when Nixva carried me across the Osar bridges.
Kindling the ithikan around the horse and me, moving beneath my own veil, I stretched myself outward and upward, entering the dual trance again, so that as I rode, my eye hovered over Laeredon. Now that I had spent more time at fourth level, this was easy. Nixva, with my aid, carried us at enough speed to meet the mounted party near nightfall.
2
He knew me by the shadow of my speed across the plain and rode out to meet me himself. From Nixva’s back I saw the mounted party halt and the Keikin surge free of the rest. Relaxing the ithikan, I slowed us to something less than a blur. I met him as the boy I wished to be, riding the horse he had given me.
We dismounted and he pulled me close, murmuring words in my ear. His heart beat like mine. “Here you are.”
“I thought you’d never call me.”
Holding me at arm’s length, he stroked my hair. “We thought we’d get close to the city, since there’s time. No need to take you too far from the High Place when you worked so hard to win it.”
By now he had felt the splint on my arm beneath the Cloak and his brow furrowed. “Broken?”
“Yes. During the fight. It’s nearly healed now. Bone takes some time.”
A shadow crossed his face and he pulled me close again. He searched my eyes and I could not hide that the fight had changed me. But while he kissed me it was as if there had never been any coldness in my body. I laughed quietly, feeling like a boy again. He asked, “What?”
“Nothing. I’ve missed you, that’s all.”
We set out walking toward the war party, making camp. The royal horses followed behind, reins trailing the grass of the plain. West of us a farmhouse could be seen, anxious figures standing in the yard. “Poor folks, they’ll be wondering what we want on their land. I’ll send someone to talk to them.”
“Who’s with you?”
“Everyone. The twice-named, I mean. Except I left Mordwen Illythin in charge of Inniscaudra and of the Fenax. He didn’t like it but he had to see the wisdom of it in the end. He’s too old for this, he’s in his last life. He’s taking care of Axfel for you, he said to tell you so. Idhril has the Genfynnel garrison. Unril has the army marching east. We’ll join them as soon as we’ve had our council here.”
So I had been right. He’d meant to ride to Genfynnel and then to join the army again. “As far as I can tell the Queen’s army hasn’t moved.”
“Save all that,” he said. “We’ll have time to talk. Right now, all I want to do is feel you breathing under my arm.”
Near the encampment, other figures hurried toward us. Karsten hurled herself around me and Imral gave me that quiet look of pleasure which I had learned to read as his approval. “Here you are,” Karsten said, noting my arm, “but what’s this?”
“My first wound, and it’s a pretty nice one too.”
She looked into me same as Kirith Kirin had. Something in her searching brought out more of the hurt. We passed sentries already posted and Imral led us to the fire he had laid. Pelathayn roamed the other campfires but soon joined us. Kirith Kirin dispatched Gaelex to the farm nearby to ask permission to camp in the broad meadow and to use the creek water. She took two soldiers with her and was gone. Around us tents were going up. The curious were watching our circle. I saw Brun and raised my hand to her. She bowed her head courteously and then touched a finger to her lips.
Imral brought me brandy from his own stock and I thanked him. They drank with me, all of them, and we sat in the grass in the open air.
A change within the Veil warned me that Drudaen, from his southern Tower, sought after my whereabouts; he knew me to be out of the Tower. Reaching into kei, I made a change in Laeredon to show him I still held the place; he would know the change but still would not know my whereabouts. Nor would he see this camp if I could help it. The veil held. This work carried me away from my friends and they waited and watched. Again I was surprised at how much they understood. “He knows I’m on the ground again. I warned him off.”
“He’s in Cunevadrim?” Kirith Kirin touched my cup to remind me to drink, and handed me waycake.
“Yes. He’s been on the High Place worrying over his loss, I guess. And building defenses he never had to build before.”
Karsten laughed. “Not a happy wizard.” With an expectant look, as the rest settled near us in the grass, the fire licking upward, she said, “Well. Tell us the tale.”
Taking a deep breath, I told what had happened. They listened as if wrapped in enchantment and I was proud of what I’d done for the first time. I finished with, “So then I broke shadow as far as I could reach and claimed my ground.”
“How far?” Kirith Kirin asked.
“East to the mountains but not as far south. He still holds the five Towers there.”
“A victory even so,” Imral said.
“Maybe not so much. I took a place from him that he never built. He’ll be sorry he never pulled Laeredon down and built a Tower of his own, which I couldn’t have taken. But he’s sure he’ll get it back, he told me so.”
Kirith Kirin kissed my brow and told me, “Don’t diminish what you’ve accomplished. You’ve made a way south.”
The thought seemed new to me then, though the fight for Laeredon was days old. I had taken a High Place from the Wizard himself. A story had been made that women and men would tell for a long time. I mulled this. Lifting my cup, I said a silent prayer to YY-Watchful.
Talk moved to other subjects. We had come together for council and, when Gaelex returned and got us food, we settled over the fire and the meal. Kirith Kirin told me some of what had happened since I left them. When it was clear I had won my fight, they made strategy, and the result was different from the early plans, as I had seen. Kirith Kirin meant to deal with the Queen’s army in Vyddn before coming to Genfynnel. This had caused some argument, since it would be unprecedented for the Successor to move out of Arthen in that fashion, making war on the army of the Crown. But these were hard times, and no one saw the wisdom of our soldiers marching south with an enemy already at their backs. King Evynar and the Venladrii would follow Kirith Kirin’s lead, and so plans were made to divide the Armies, one part moving to reinforce my presence in Genfynnel and the other part marching in a two-pronged attack on the Queen’s forces in Vyddn.
Karsten questioned me when this much had been told. “Have you seen any movement among the Vyddn troops since Drudaen abandoned them?”
“No. He rode away from them suddenly, as soon as I rode out of Arthen, and I don’t know what contact he’s had with them since. He won’t know what troops are moving in Arthen, but I expect he’ll know about the soldiers moving through the mountains. My veil doesn’t reach as far as that, but his eye does.”
“The Venladrii know how to move hidden,” Imral said. “But if you saw them, I guess he did too.”
“Why would he leave an army there if he knows we’re marching on it?” Pelathayn asked, and then answered himself. “To slow us down.” Nodding his head.
“Troops mean nothing to him now,” Karsten said. “He has more Verm, when he needs them. But with Jessex in the field, he needs time. Will he be able to reach across you to help his folk in Vyddn?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been preparing for that, since I saw the split in the armies. That’s part of why I rode out here to meet you. I can help you from Laeredon, but I didn’t want to move my hand there without leave.”
Silence fell for a time. Imral passed more brandy round, and we drank as sunset approached, shadows lengthening. Gaelex returned with a gift of fresh cheese from the farm and with news of the farm-folk’s joy that it was Kirith Kirin who
camped on their ground. She reported this herself. “They heard a voice out of the clouds to tell them you were riding, sir.” Crafty woman, she managed a glance at me sidewise. “They claim the whole countryside will rise up to follow you if that’s what you need.”
I told that part of the story too, and finished with the settling of the city under authority of Zaevyeth. Kirith Kirin listened carefully to these details and questioned me as to my dispositions. The choice of the Finra pleased him; “That’s an Anyn house,” he said. “Those people will know this isn’t another Jisraegen war against them. You did a good thing there, though I daresay you didn’t realize it.”
“I got the first eligible person I could find who hadn’t fled the place. I’d no idea what else to do.”
“So we’ll find no opposition in the City,” Karsten said.
“None. Most of the Queen’s soldiers surrendered when I made it clear their only other choice was to head for shadow. The Verm left long ago, except for the wounded.”
Karsten gave Kirith Kirin a sharp look. “So they gave up rather than return to her service. I smell a new strategy coming. Maybe we don’t need to fight the Vyddn folk, maybe we can offer them terms.”
“I’d thought of that,” he agreed, and Imral was nodding too. “This is a good piece of news, Jessex. We wondered how much support Drudaen had among the Queen’s soldiers, after shadow. Now we know.”
“The Vyddn army has had a few days of sunlight to think about what’s coming” Imral said, mildly. “That may soften them. That and the fact that their wizard has abandoned them in the field.”
These thoughts lifted their spirits, and so we broke council for a time. The moment of sunset neared and Amri, traveling with this party, stood some distance away with the muuren in her hand. We approached her and listened to the Evening Song. The girl’s voice astonished me, her silver eyes and dark skin glowing in the twilight. The Venladrii have the vocal range as we do. I stood close to Kirith Kirin, a place no one begrudged me. When the song was done, we wandered into the meadow, the whole party of us. The kindling of Kirith Kirin’s spirit was plain. Here he walked, free of Arthen. A journey had begun which might lead him to his Crown.
The farmfolk had come out for the song too, and when it was done, one of them got Gaelex to approach us again. The Marshall strode to us with a wicked gleam in her eye and, head bowed, refusing to look the Prince in the eye, said, “The farmer and her husband beg leave to give their bed to you Kirith Kirin. She says she can’t rest in it herself when the Prince Kirith sleeps on the ground. It would do her honor, by her own words, and she’ll have a story to tell her grandchildren when you’re King.” Here was the part that made Gaelex merry. “I told him that if you accepted the offer, there might be two.”
He allowed himself to raise a brow at her but no more than that. He looked at me. “Well. a bed would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, it would,” I said, my face heating.
No one laughed. Kirith Kirin directed her to accept the generous offer and to post a guard there. “Warn them we’ll be a while at our talk here.”
“They’ll be moving into the barn for the night, I think.” Withdrawing in her formal way, she set about making these things happen.
Returning to the fire, the others spoke more on the subject of armies and strategy. Karsten and Kirith Kirin told me what help they might need if there were fighting in Vyddn. We agreed on signs to tell me which of the strategies to follow, and I gave them kirin-stones to use to send me signals. This took more time than the summary of it, and we went late to bed in the farmhouse.
Before we went there, Kirith Kirin took me walking under moonlight in the meadow, away from the encampment. Some distance from the farmhouse stood a duris-nut orchard and we wandered in that, along the stream that traced its path through the place. Silence helped to drive away the thoughts of the council. He slipped his arm around my waist and I did the same for his, liking the taut muscles of his side, the movement as we walked. “I remember that hand,” he said, sighing. “I just wish you had two.”
“I do, but one’s not fixed yet.”
Some heaviness had settled on him, and I waited for him to bring it out. We stepped under low branches, by the flow of water over rounded rock. Tonight we had the red moon, after an absence of many days, and after some time staring at the red reflection in the water, he said, “The night you fought him, I watched. One time, near morning, Ellebren went dark and I thought you were dead.”
I remembered my vision, the lovely face turned to stone. I pulled him close, holding him as hard as I could with the one arm I had. “I didn’t die. Here I am.”
“You came close, You won’t say it, but I can tell. I don’t know what I would have done.”
“You would have gone on being Prince.”
“Forever with a taste of ash in my mouth. And no hope.”
Clumsily, with the splinted arm, I touched his face. “If I lost you I would feel the same. But I haven’t lost you. Here you are. Let this other feeling go.”
He sighed, but the heaviness would not lift. There was something he had not said. I kissed his mouth, the tenderness opening to me. After that I knew where his fear came from, not from reading his mind as magicians can, but from the feeling between us, so new and open. He felt the difference in me. Finally he said it. “He hurt you deeply, I can feel the change. When you left me you were a boy, whole. Now there are wounds in you. I can feel them, little as you make of it.”
“It was a hard fight. But I had to win.”
“I don’t know if I can do this. Her gifts can be so cruel. Here you are, and I love you with all my heart. But I have no choice but send you to fight the one enemy against whom I have no other weapon.”
“I think it was her wisdom made her shape the gift this way. Not cruelty.”
He shook his head, speechless. The hurt ran deeper in him than I guessed. I remembered the moment when lights of Ellebren died. He spoke haltingly. “I’ve known the great magicians, Jessex. I’ve seen what magic does. That was part of my fear and anger, when I saw you that morning with the Sisters.” He searched my face, as if he had lost me. “I don’t want this life for you. But the choice isn’t mine. And it’s too late to take my love back —”
“Please don’t even say that.”
He drew me close, lay his cheek against my neck. It is something when an immortal is tender. I let him stand against me, holding his weight against my slighter frame. “When I was on Laeredon, near the end of the fight, for a while I thought I was lost and my death had come. But I saw your face. You were on the walls at Inniscaudra and you were watching the Tower lights. When they went dark you turned to stone. The terror of that went through me. Maybe without the thought of you I would have died there, who knows? But when I thought of you I remembered I was alive, I remembered I had a heart, and I finished the battle and won.”
“That was the moment. I was there.”
“You see? Maybe YY sent me as she did because only a boy who loved you could fight your enemy well enough.” Trying to smile, I said, “Anyway, I was never a very good archer. I’d probably have gotten killed the first time I took to the field, and then where would we have been?”
He made a sign against the bad luck of chance words, and kissed my brow. “I guess you’d have had to fight one way or the other, same as we all do.”
“I don’t mind what YY made me into. It’s not so bad, as long as there’s someone who won’t run when he sees me.” I told him then about the doctor in Genfynnel, and the feeling afterwards, when I saw the dead.
“Some of the change I feel in you comes from that. Better to feel the weight of what you’ve done than to brag about your killings. We’re what we are, I guess.” He sighed. “Some lovers can at least swear to love each other beyond the grave. We can’t even do that, can we?”
He meant that magicians do not always die with their souls intact. “Listen,” I said, “I promise you this. If he ever comes so close that I thi
nk my soul is in danger, I’ll cut the cord myself, race him to Tornimul and love you forever from beyond the Gates. All right?”
He laughed at my grim scenario. But it did ease him, to think that such an escape might be possible. Kentha had managed it, after all. It is a terrible thing to dream that one you love can die forever, without any hope of birth in the land beyond. “All right. As long as you meet me there when I cross the mountains. Don’t go running off with the first hero who turns your head.”
This was nearly as much as we could do for each other, with words. The moon drew behind clouds and wind blew. Of one mind, we headed to the farm house with its circle of sentries awaiting his approach. “There’s one thing I want to know,” I said, “it’s been on my mind to ask you. When you found me inImith Imril, did you already know I would be there?”
“Yes,” he said, laughing, and we walked side by side across the red-washed meadow.
3
