The Sacred Band

by David Anthony Durham

  “It’s … armor?” Rialus asked, unable to twin the concept with the way the fabric showed the curve of Sabeer’s hips and the contours of her muscles.

  “Of a sort. It’s flexible, but it can’t be cut. It even absorbs the impact of a blow. You may come away bruised, but that’s better than limbless. The records say that Lothan Aklun bestowed it on us so that we would have a harder time killing each other off. It worked.” She lit up with an idea. “Do you want to try to cut me?”

  He didn’t, but she would not leave off the idea until he had tried several times with an Auldek dagger. It was as she described. He could not cut her. When he tried to stab her square in the sculpted abdomen, he did no more than twist his wrist. She went back on her heels, but that might have been in amusement as much as from the force of his thrust.

  “Has Princess Mena anything like this?”

  Rialus shook his head. The mist’s effects were long gone. Fatigue and depression seeped up inside him again. “No, nothing like it.”

  “Did she really fight an eagle god? What was its name?”

  “Maeben,” Rialus murmured, hoping she did not ask him to retell the tale yet again.

  She folded her arms and stood beside him, close enough to touch him with her hip. They watched Howlk work through some technique with Menteus Nemré. “All the things you have told me about her,” she mused, “I almost don’t want to kill her. Perhaps I won’t. Not straightaway, at least. I’ll cut her legs out from under her. We’ll stop the bleeding somehow and then she and I can talk.”

  “If you’re going to cut anything off, you should start with her sword arm,” Rialus said. He regretted saying it immediately.

  Sabeer grinned and ran a finger up his arm. “There, Rialus, you’re talking again. Good. It’s proof that you love me. You think you want me dead and buried. I see it in your eyes. But you’re not only eyes, are you? Other parts of you like me very much.” She pretended to reach for his groin. She let him squirm away. “Have you decided where you want to live yet?”

  This was one of Sabeer’s favorite topics. Through the many long nights of the trip she had made Rialus detail every locale in the Known World that he could remember. When he grew bored, she had always pressed him to think about where he would want to live once the war was over and he was allowed to live a life of leisure. He had placed himself in a cliffside villa in Manil. He had walked the estates of Bocoum, or lived in a stacked tower surrounded by the teeming life of Alecia. He had taken in the view from Calfa Ven. He had imagined a rustic lodge somewhere in Talay, from which he could watch the sun set into the grasslands and sip cool beverages with his feet up, served for all the rest of his days by a staff composed entirely of brown-skinned women.

  He had even, to his surprise, found himself thinking of Cathgergen. He could not understand why he had been so unhappy there. The idea of being cocooned from the cold, locked inside an immobile fortress of stone far away from the world’s machinations seemed a sort of bliss. Back then, he had compromised nothing. He was just himself, Rialus, a governor with very little actual work to do. He had not yet become a traitor to the realm two times over, a pawn for Maeander Mein, a joke in Hanish’s eyes, slave to the Numrek, now a guide for the Auldek. What a journey his life had been. So full of improbable twists and turns. Would that he wasn’t knotted in the center of it all now, trapped and being dragged forward to a resolution that, no matter what Sabeer claimed, could only be another type of disgrace for him.

  He answered Sabeer’s question. “No, I haven’t decided where to live yet.” He thought, I haven’t decided if I want to live yet.

  This tendency toward morbidity was new to Rialus. He had always valued his life highly. Increasingly, he mused on just giving up. That thought brought him back to Gurta. It seemed important that she and the child he had never met mourn him, but he was no longer sure they would. Gurta could know nothing of his fate at this point. When she found out, it seemed to him, she would reject him out of hand. A traitor. How could he ever have thought she would take him back after he arrived as the mascot of an invading army? Her temperament would never allow her to see beyond appearances. He could describe his heroic dreams all he wanted. But what did you do? she would ask. But what did you do? To have her back, he would have to do something to deserve her.

  Rialus had just decided that he had stood around long enough to be able to depart when the first explosion shook the station. He thought for a moment that the vehicle was starting to move again, but that was not it. It did not move forward at all, just boomed and then trembled. It reminded him of an earthquake he had once experienced in Aos. Everyone stopped.

  As the stillness stretched, Rialus could almost believe that they had all imagined the sensation. Then another boom came, more distinct this time, followed by shouts and the bellowing of some animals and the long, low groan that was a warning horn sounding.

  The room erupted with motion. The Auldek and the sublime motion grabbed garments, tossed one another weapons, and then careened down the stairs and out into the night.

  Sabeer pulled up just before descending. “Rialus, come!”

  The night smacked him as he stumbled into it, still tugging his outer coat on. The scene that greeted him was utter confusion. Shapes darted around him, nearly knocking him from his feet. An antok roared by, the thick chain that was supposed to bind it skittering across the ice. The sky glowed a strange yellow. When the top of a station a little distance away exploded into flames, Rialus wondered why. There were several such fires blazing up into the night. How such an accident could occur in not one, but two, three—boom!—four different places. It couldn’t, could it?

  “We’re being attacked,” he concluded.

  Sabeer yanked him into motion. They ran between two stations and along a line of frantic oxen, all the creatures pulling at the ropes that bound them, kicking and biting one another. Rialus thought he heard the clash of steel off in one direction, but he could not be sure. They came around a sledge piled high with supplies and stepped into the heat and glare of one station. The entire structure was aflame. It crackled and combusted, seemed to breathe air in and then roar it back out like the embodiment of some fire god. Figures ran around, lit by the blaze, trying to organize some way to fight it.

  Devoth shouted orders, pointing and gesturing, half giving directions and half dancing through fits of rage. “My amulet! Bring it to me!” he shouted.

  His frékete mount, Bitten, seemed just as angry as he was. He clawed the ice, shooting weary glances at the fire. His wings cast evil shadows, the veins in them glowing red when they caught the firelight.

  Right through all this, a snow lioness trotted, a corpse dangling from her jaws. The cat seemed at ease amid the chaos, strolling almost. Sabeer pulled Rialus after it. The body’s hands and feet dragged on the ice. He was not Auldek. That was obvious, but it was not until the lion dropped the body at Devoth’s stomping feet that Rialus got close enough to see more. Devoth gripped him by the shoulder and pressed him closer, kicking others back so that light from the fire illuminated him. “Who is this? Who is this!” he snarled, beastlike himself in his rage.

  On his hands and knees—with the lioness and her bloody jaws just inches away—Rialus peered at the man. He was a stranger. His face was pale, with lean features scarred by frostbite.

  “Who is he?” Devoth asked. “Answer me!”

  “I do-don’t …” Rialus pulled off a mitten, reached out with trembling fingers and drew the man’s stringy golden hair back behind his ear. There was a tattoo on his cheek, a crescent slashed like a tear escaping the corner of his eye. He had seen it once before. “A Scav. He’s a Scav.”

  “You know him then!”

  “No, no, no. I knew some of his people before.” Rialus started to explain that he had only met a few prisoners brought to him at Cathgergen for petty crimes and poaching.

  Devoth was not listening. A slave ran up with the amulet and thick chain he had been shouting for. Devoth wr
enched it from him. Rounding on Rialus, he seized him by the collar of his coat with his free hand. “You didn’t tell me she would do this!”

  “How could I?” Rialus asked. “I didn’t know.”

  “Your princess is a coward who sneaks in the night. She has just made it worse for your people.” The Auldek flung Rialus away, and then strode toward Bitten. The creature bent to accept the chain and amulet that Devoth slung around his neck and fastened. A moment later, Bitten surged upward, one dead-start jump that took him and Devoth up above the height of the flames, where his wings fanned out and lifted them higher.

  Rialus stood there a moment, forgotten even by Sabeer, who had joined the fight against the fire. He knew he should check on his station to make sure his room and all his documents were safe, but he was frozen in place. He had just discovered something. He was sure of it, but he could not quite place what it was. Another station exploded with a concussion of sound and flame, Rialus almost did not notice, so transfixed was he. The Auldek shouted curse-laden orders. Divine children rushed toward the new fires, as if they had anything prepared to fight them.

  And then he had it. Rialus knew he had it because the thought began like a centipede at the base of his spine and ran up his back with a hundred legs. And having the revelation, he knew what he had to do with it.

  CHAPTER

  FORTY-FIVE

  Barad was not familiar with this wing of the palace. He followed the slim shoulders of the young woman who showed him the way, feeling awkwardly massive behind her. How was it that he could live in his body for so many years and still feel an impostor within it? Perhaps Corinn had recognized that in him when she set her curse on him. She made his feeling into a real thing. Turned him into a puppet. Even now she controlled his heart. She must. Why else would he be so driven to learn of her welfare? Why else would he be so hard on the heels of this woman, like a dog running to answer his master’s summons?

  The servant did not look him in the face when she indicated that he should wait in the alcove outside the library door. She pointed at the two couches, the chairs, and even at the tree that grew from a circlet cut in the stone. She left before he could thank her. Barad stood, arms drooping, unsure what to do. He reached for one of the tree’s long, silver-green leaves. Running his finger down it, he wondered how deep the soil in the circlet was. Did the roots run deep, or were they balled in a tiny knot, as he had seen before in potted plants?

  Someone approached from down the hall. Just one person, quick strides of some hard-soled boots. The charlatan Delivegu Lemardine clipped his way into view. Ah, Barad thought, what is with my luck today? One of my least favorite people in the world, and I’m waiting here to speak to my enslaver.

  Delivegu took in Barad without a hitch in his step. He did not even seem troubled by Barad’s eyes, as almost everyone was. Nodding, he slid right past him to the door, which he promptly rapped on with his knuckles.

  The door opened. Aliver leaned out. His gaze touched on Barad, acknowledging him and then settling finally on Delivegu. The man leaned in and whispered something to him. Aliver’s face went slack as he absorbed whatever he had said. Without a word, he beckoned Delivegu inside. The door closed.

  Barad took his seat again.

  The door to the room opened again a few minutes later. Delivegu strode through. He strode away. Aliver stepped into view. He watched Delivegu recede, lost in thought. “Everyone, it seems, has messages for me.” Aliver only noticed the seated man long after the charlatan’s footfalls had faded. “I hope some of them prove true. Barad, do have you a message for me as well?”

  “No, Your—Your Highness, the queen summoned me.”

  He looked surprised. “Did she? And you were brought here?” When Barad nodded, Aliver expelled a surprised breath of air. He stepped back and motioned for him to enter.

  The library smelled strongly of its primary inhabitants: old books, ancient papers, stained sandalwood shelves. Tall windows cast elongated rectangles of red-gold sunrise light, but the room’s candles still burned, thick ones that jutted through the tables like tree trunks and burned with flames the size of spearheads. Prince Aaden sat at one of the long tables in the sunken center of the space, a large book opened before him. The prince looked tiny in comparison. What must he be going through? Barad descended the steps toward him. On reaching his level, Barad hovered near, knowing that despite his kind wishes there was little he could do to comfort him, not with his stone gaze and his bulk and his mouth that he was never sure would speak his mind. He tried just to be near, to fill the space around him with compassion, protection.

  “Is the queen not here?”

  “No, not here. I have not spoken to my sister since the coronation. Not many people know that, but I guess I can tell you. You can’t, after all, say anything the queen would not want you to, can you?”

  Barad felt his pulse quicken. Why that should alarm him he could not say. It was not his doing, after all. He tested his lips. They seemed to obey him. “No, I cannot.”

  Aliver stood over Aaden. He looked down at the open pages of the book as he said, “I didn’t think so. Aaden here was sure of it. It must have been hard for you these past months. I can only imagine that your heart has not been behind the words your mouth has spoken.”

  “Was yours?” Barad asked.

  By the way that Aliver twisted his mouth before answering Barad knew he was not yet free to speak his mind. As if to prove this, he said, “My name is Aliver Akaran. My sister is the queen. The greatest queen the nation has ever known.”

  Barad blinked, unsure what to say. Could they manage to speak in coded messages? How convoluted that would be. How easy to misunderstand each other. He was glad that the prince’s mind seemed intent on other things.

  “We’re trying to understand the Santoth,” Aliver said. “That’s why we’re here, studying these old books. They are not proving helpful, though.”

  “I wish that I could help,” Barad said. “I know nothing of these things.”

  Rhrenna arrived. She stepped inside the door but did not descend toward them.

  “Your Highness,” she said, brittle voiced, “Corinn has sent word. She’s on her way here.”

  “You’ve spoken with her?” Aliver asked. “She told you she was coming?” “No, she wrote a note.”

  “A note?” Aliver looked like he had never heard of such a thing. “And it said that she is coming?”

  “Yes. Right now, I believe.”

  Barad watched the mix of emotions move across Aliver’s face in waves: relief and then worry, happiness and then trepidation and then hope. When he turned to his nephew, it was that emotion that he clung to. “Good,” he said, testing the word and then getting more forceful with it. “This is good. Aaden, your mother …”

  “Is coming here,” the boy finished. “I’m sitting right here, Aliver. I can hear, too.”

  A person appeared in the open door. Corinn. She walked in with a formal posture, with her hands clasped together at her waist. She wore a dress of light blue; she was shapely as ever, distinctive as ever. A knit cowl wrapped around her neck and up over the lower portion of her face, just touching her nose. The ensemble was elegant. She might almost have been dressed to step outside on a breezy winter day, but Barad knew that cowl was not there as a defense against the weather.

  Hanish Mein stepped into view. He slid up beside the queen. He took her by the arm and, whispering in her ear, drew her forward into the room.

  For a long moment the gathered company stared at the queen, not at the ghost that stood with her. It was only when Corinn turned her back to them and withdrew toward the farthest alcove among the stacks that Aaden ran toward her. He dashed through tables, bounded up the steps to the higher landing, and cried for her with his arms outstretched. Corinn spun around. One hand kept the cowl in place and the other palm slammed out toward the others, freezing any movement in the room other than her son’s. Aaden impacted with her at full speed, knocking her back a few
steps. His arms slammed around her and cinched tight. She bent over him, whether with pain or emotion Barad could not tell. Both, most likely.

  Hanish stood with a hand on Corinn’s back. With his other, he wrapped both mother and son into a protective embrace. Father, mother, and son. A triumvirate that only Barad could see. Hanish looked up and sought out Barad’s gaze. “You can hear me, can’t you?”

  Barad moved his stone eyes around the room. Everyone stared at Corinn and Aaden. None of them, he could tell, had any inkling of Hanish being there. They were all silent.

  “You can hear me, yes?”

  Barad nodded.

  “Good. We need your mouth, Barad the Lesser. The queen needs it. She cannot speak to anyone but me. And I cannot speak to anyone but you. That’s why you were summoned, to be the voice that speaks for we who cannot. First, you must know that you are freed. The queen releases you. Right now, as I speak, she is wishing for the ties that bind you to fall away. This is an easy spell for you to break. Simply understand that you are free and you will be. You can feel it, can’t you?”

  It was true. Barad did feel it. It might have just been because of the way Hanish described it, but invisible cords did loosen around his neck and jaw and the crown of his head. They had been there so long, unseen and unfelt, that his skin prickled as it remembered the true touch of the air.

  “I can see that you can feel it. Now, please … in your own words tell them that you can hear the queen’s voice, and that she will speak through you. You need not say anything about me. Please, speak now, Barad.”