The Briar King

by Greg Keyes

  But Robert seemed determined not to let her.

  “Do you remember how we came up here as children?” he asked. “We used to pretend the tower there was our own castle.”

  “Those were excellent days,” Lesbeth said, around the lump in her throat.

  “I knew you, then,” Robert said. “Or thought I did. I always fancied I knew your least thought, and you mine.” He swallowed another mouthful of wine. “Then.”

  Lesbeth reached for his hand and took his fingers in hers. “Robert, I am sorry. I should have asked your permission to marry. I know that. And I'm asking now.”

  An odd look crossed Robert's face, but he shook his head. “You asked Wilm's. He's the eldest.”

  Lesbeth squeezed his hand. “I know I caused you pain, Robert. It's only that I didn't know how to tell you.”

  “How can that be?” he asked.

  She drew a deep breath. “It is as you say. Once we were so close, one of us could not blink without the other knowing. And now, somehow—”

  “You don't know me anymore,” he finished for her. “We have grown separate. Ever since that day when Rose—”

  “Please, stop!” Lesbeth closed her eyes against the terrible memory, willing it away.

  “As you wish,” he said. “But we never spoke of—”

  “Nor shall we. I cannot.”

  He nodded, and a look of resignation crossed his face.

  “Besides,” she went on. “I know you believe my prince Cheiso insulted you—”

  “I do not believe he did,” Robert said. “I am certain of it.”

  “Please, Robert. He did not mean to give offense.”

  Robert smiled and held his hands up. “Perhaps he didn't,” he allowed. “And so where is he now? I should think he would have come to ask permission—if not from me, then at least from Wilm. Why did he leave you to do it?”

  “He will arrive within a nineday or two,” Lesbeth replied. “He had matters pressing him. He asked me to wait, so we might travel together, but I was impatient. I wanted to share my news.” She turned her head to the side. “Please, Robert. Be happy for me. You are my brother, and I do love you, but after—”

  “After we killed Rose?” he said bluntly.

  Lesbeth nodded silently, unable to go on.

  “It was an accident,” he reminded her.

  Lesbeth didn't remember it that way. She remembered a cruel game, played with a servant, a game that went further than it ever should have. And she remembered knowing that Robert meant for it to go that far, from the very start. After that, she hadn't wanted to know what Robert was thinking anymore.

  But she nodded again, as if agreeing with him. “I cannot speak of this,” she said again.

  “I'm sorry,” he murmured. “I've spoiled our outing. That was not my intention. There are years between us we cannot repair, I know. Silence has worked on us like poison. But we are twins, Lesbeth.” He stood suddenly. “May I show you something?”

  “What is it?”

  He smiled and for a moment looked like the boy she remembered. “A wedding gift,” he replied.

  “Up here?”

  “Yes.” He looked a little embarrassed. “It's something I worked on with my own hands. It isn't far.”

  Lesbeth smiled tentatively. There was so much hurt in Robert, so much broken. She did love him, though. She took his hand and let him pull her up, and followed as he led her into the mostly wild gardens around them. When they had been young, these had been well-tended, but over the years this spot had fallen out of fashion, and the roses and hedges allowed their own way. Now, in places, it was as dense as a true forest.

  Robert did not lead her far. “Here it is.”

  Lesbeth could only stare in dull shock. The sun was shining, flowers were blooming. She was going to be married. How could he do this?

  He had dug up Rose. Her little bones—she had been ten— lay in the bottom of a yawning hole in the earth. Her clothes had gone to rotten rags, but Lesbeth recognized what remained of the blue dress she had last worn.

  “By all the saints, Robert—” The horror choked off anything else she might have said. She wanted to run and scream, and bawl her eyes out. Instead she could only gaze into that hole, into that terrible crime of her past. She had never known what Robert did with the body. They had told everyone Rose had run away.

  I'm sorry, Rose, she thought. Saints of grief, but I'm sorry.

  “I love you, Lesbeth,” Robert said softly. “You should have asked my permission. Mine, not Wilm's. Mine.”

  And as she turned to face him, he struck her in the breast, so hard she staggered back and sat down, her skirts billowing around her. She stared up at him, more perplexed than hurt. Robert had never hit her before, ever.

  “Robert, what—” As soon as she tried to speak, she knew something was very, very wrong. Something inside her was all twisted, and her breath hurt like fire. And Robert, standing over her—his hand was still a fist, but there was a knife in it, the narrow bodkin he always wore at his belt, the one Grandpa had given him when he was eleven. It was red to the hilt.

  Then she looked down at the front of her dress and saw the wet redness over her heart. Her hand was sanguine, too, where she had pressed it without thinking against the wound. As she watched, blood actually spurted between her fingers, like a spring bubbling from the earth.

  “Robert, no,” she sighed, her voice high and strange. “Robert, do not kill me.”

  He bent over her, his dark eyes glistening with tears. “I already have, Lesbeth,” he said, very softly. “I already have.” And he kissed her on the forehead.

  Shaking her head, she crawled away, trying to get to her feet, failing. “I'm going to be married,” she told him, trying to make him understand. “To a Safnian prince. He's coming for me.” She could almost see Cheiso, standing before her. “I'll give him children. I'll name one for you. Robert, don't—”

  Sheer panic swept through her. She had to get away. Robert had gone mad. He meant to hurt her.

  But there was no strength in her arms, and something closed around her ankle, and the grass was sliding beneath her, and she was leaving a broad trail across it, like a giant snail, except that the trail was red.

  And then a moment like floating, and Robert's face before her again.

  “Sleep, sister,” he said. “Dream of when we were young, and all was well. Dream of when you loved me best.”

  “Don't kill me, Robert,” she begged, sobbing now. “Help me.”

  “You'll have Rose,” he said. “And soon enough—soon enough, you'll have company aplenty. Aplenty.”

  And he smiled, but his face seemed very far away, retreating. She hadn't felt the fall, but the empty sockets of Rose's little white skull were right next to her.

  Lesbeth heard the music of birds, and a whispering she ought to recognize, words she half understood. They seemed very important.

  And then, suddenly, that was all.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SPENDLOVE

  WHEN STEPHEN DARIGE AWOKE from the grips of Black Mary for the fourth time in one night, he cursed sleep, rose, and crept from the dormitory. Outside, the night was clear and moonless, with a feel like early autumn in the air. He walked a small distance, to where the hillside started its roll down to the pastures, and there sat gazing up at the stars.

  The stars eternal, his grandfather had called them.

  But his grandfather was wrong; nothing was eternal. Not stars, not mountains. Not the saints, nor love, nor truth.

  “Saint Michael,” he murmured. “Tell me what truth is. I don't know anymore.”

  He felt as if there was something spoiled in him, something he badly needed to vomit up. But he feared if it came out, it would take a life and form of its own, and devour him.

  He should have told the fratrex what the scroll was as soon as he understood. He shouldn't have translated it. By the saints, he shouldn't have.

  Now it was too late. Now he had those evil words
in him. Now he couldn't get them out.

  A faint brush of shoes on grass told him someone was behind him. He was sure he knew who it was, and didn't care.

  “Hello, Brother Desmond.”

  “Good morning, Brother Stephen. Taking some air?”

  Stephen turned enough to see the shadow of the man standing against the stars. “Leave me alone or kill me. I don't care which.”

  “Don't you?” It sounded strange, the way he said it, almost like a lullaby. Then a fist knotted in Stephen's hair and yanked him down flat. Desmond dragged him a few feet and then crouched, brought the edge of a broad-bladed knife against Stephen's throat.

  “Don't you?” he whispered again, almost in Stephen's ear.

  “Why?” Stephen managed. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Because. I don't like you. You're going to walk the fanes next month. Did you know that?”

  “What?”

  “Yes. You're done with your translation, aren't you?”

  “What? How did you know that?”

  “I know everything that goes on around here, you little pissant. Why wouldn't I know that?”

  “I haven't told anyone.”

  “Don't worry. I took your notes to the fratrex for you, after I read them.”

  The knife came away, and Brother Desmond stood. Stephen expected a vicious kick, but instead, to his surprise, Desmond sighed and sat next to him on the grass.

  “Wicked stuff,” Spendlove said, almost whispering. “Spells to turn men to jelly, prayers to the Damned Saints. Blood rites, deformation of children. First-rate wicked. Is that why you can't sleep?”

  “You read it,” Stephen said dully. “Can you sleep?”

  Desmond growled up something like a laugh. “I never could,” he replied.

  “Why did you steal my work?”

  “Why not?”

  “But you gave it to the fratrex.”

  “Yes. Believe what you might about me, Brother Stephen, but I do serve my order.” His voice dropped even lower. “Very well I serve it.”

  Stephen nodded. “Well, you've done me a favor. I didn't know if I would have the courage.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Stephen suddenly wished he could see Brother Desmond's eyes. For the first time since they had met, the other man sounded puzzled.

  “You know,” Stephen said. “You know very well I won't be walking any fanes after the fratrex reads what I wrote and realizes what I've done.”

  “You did what he told you to do,” Spendlove replied, and this time there could be no doubt about it, the monk was puzzled, or doing a blessed good imitation.

  “Brother Desmond, the work of the church has always been to destroy such foul texts. The moment I knew what it was, I should have consulted with the fratrex. Instead, I barreled ahead and translated a forbidden scrift. I've probably damned myself, and I will certainly lose my position here.”

  That got a wry chuckle from Spendlove.

  “Brother Stephen, you may think I'm your worst enemy in this place. I'm not. You're your own worst enemy. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.” With that, Brother Desmond stood. “Good luck walking the fanes,” he said. He almost sounded as if he meant it.

  A moment later Stephen was alone again, with the stars.

  The fratrex looked up from a desk cluttered with books, paper, and several inkwells.

  “Eh? Good morning, Brother Stephen.” He tapped some sheets of paper on his desk. “Excellent work, this. Are you quite sure of it all?”

  “Reverend? As sure as I can be.”

  “Well. I am not disappointed in you, I can tell you that.”

  “But, Reverend—” He felt as he had in the woods, when the hounds were coming, and for an instant he really had believed Aspar White's Grim Raver was stooping on him. He had felt the same way when he was halfway through the manuscrift and really understood what he had.

  It was that spinning sensation that came of suddenly realizing he truly didn't understand the world. Of having too many secure assumptions upset at once.

  The fratrex sat waiting for him to continue, one eyebrow cocked.

  “The nature of the scrift,” Stephen explained. “I should have told you as soon as I knew. I should have stopped before I finished it. I'm sorry. I'll understand if you ask for my resignation.”

  “You don't have to tell me that,” the fratrex said. “If I ask for your resignation, I shall get it, and whether you understand or not is entirely beside the point. But why should I ask for it? You did exactly what I requested, and splendidly.”

  “I don't understand, Reverend. Church policy—”

  “Is much better understood by me than by you,” the fratrex finished dryly. “The church has concerns you cannot begin to understand, and which I cannot, at this time, explain to you. Suffice to say that there is evil in the world, yes? And that evil may remain silent for many years, but when it speaks, we should at least know the language. If we do not, it may well talk us all into its spell.”

  The implications of that walked through Stephen like a ghost, leaving chill footprints on his heart.

  “Reverend, may I confide in you?”

  “As in no other.”

  “I heard … things on the way here. On the road. At Tor Scath.”

  “Go on. Please, sit. You look as if your legs are ready to give way.”

  “Thank you, Reverend.” He settled onto a small, hard stool.

  “So tell me these things.”

  Stephen told him the rumors of the greffyn, and the terrible rites on the abandoned sedos fanes. When he was done, the fratrex leaned forward.

  “Such rumors are not unknown to us,” he said, in a low voice. “Nor should they be spread any further. Keep them to yourself, and be assured that the church is not complacent in these matters.”

  “Yes, Reverend. It's just that—the sacrifices at the fanes. They resemble certain rites described in the scrift.”

  “I have seen that. What reason do you think I had for wanting this translated?”

  “But—I think whoever is doing these things only half understands what they are about.”

  “What do you suppose they are about?”

  “I'm not sure, but I think they are trying to revive an ancient faneway, one of the forbidden ones. Perhaps the very one that the Black Jester walked to gain his unholy powers. The rites are a sort of test, to help them learn which of the thousand fanes in the forest still have power, and to determine the order in which they ought to be walked.”

  “But they aren't doing the rites correctly, so we have nothing to fear—yet,” the fratrex reasoned.

  “Yet my work would help them,” Stephen said softly. “Some of the missing pieces to their puzzle may lie in what you have before you.”

  The fratrex nodded solemnly. “Of course, we are aware of that. But we cannot risk fighting this enemy in the dark. They have some of the secrets. They got them somewhere. We cannot oppose them when we know nothing.”

  “But, Reverend—” The image of Desmond Spendlove flashed through his mind. “—what if our enemies are in our midst already? In the church itself ?”

  The fratrex smiled grimly. “The surest way to catch a weasel is to set a trap,” he said. “And for a trap, bait is needed.”

  He stood. “I thought I taught you a lesson in humility, Brother Stephen. I wonder now if I succeeded. I am no doddering fool, and the church is too canny to be cuckolded by evil. But your loose tongue and your questions could do a great deal of damage, do you understand? Perform the tasks I set before you. Do not speak of them to anyone but me. Do your best to keep anyone else from seeing your work.”

  “But my work has already been seen.”

  “By Brother Desmond, yes. That was not unforeseen. But do better in the future. Hide your progress. Write faulty translations as well as sound ones.”

  “Reverend? The translation is done.”

  For answer, the fratrex stooped, and from beneath his desk he brought up a
large cedar box.

  “There are more,” he said. “I expect the same alacrity that you have already shown.” He smiled thinly. “And now, I suggest you meditate and prepare. Soon you will walk the faneway of Saint Decmanus, and you must be in the proper state of mind.”

  Stephen knelt and bowed. “Thank you, Reverend. And I apologize for any impertinence. I assure you it comes entirely from concern for the welfare of the church.”

  “In this place, that is my concern,” the fratrex reminded him. He waved the back of his hand. “Go on,” he said. “Put away your worries, and prepare for revelations.”

  But Stephen left feeling that he had already had one revelation too many. He feared another might break him.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE BRIAR KING

  MORNING'S SOFT STIRRING found Aspar still awake, legs cramping beneath him, bow still strung.

  Whatever had come in the night had gone with it, leaving only the memory of its stink. And when Winna began to wake, Aspar stepped cautiously into the light and gazed around him.

  Sun maidens were kissing the leaves high above, and though shadows lay long on the earth, they all pointed back toward the way from which Aspar and Winna had come. Before them, the forest grew thinner, and not far away, Aspar could reckon the end of it, by the open look of the treetops.

  He inspected the damp leaf litter for some sign of what had come stalking the night before, but found no track or spoor, no broken branches, fur or feathers. This left him wondering if his senses hadn't betrayed him, somehow. He was, after all, on a Sefry errand, where truth and lies mixed in the same muddy water.

  “Good morning to you, Aspar,” Winna said. “Didn't you sleep at all?”

  He grinned wryly. “Not likely.”

  “We agreed that we would share the watches,” she reminded him, exasperation in her voice. “You should have waked me.”

  “You can have tomorrow night, then, the whole thing,” he promised. “Anyhow, look, I think we're nearly out of the forest.” He nodded in the direction where the trees thinned.

  Winna stretched and yawned. “Looks the same to me, but I'll take your word for it. Did we have any visitors in the night?”