Baron Poll studied him as if he were daft. “You know that Castle Crayden fell six days ago, along with Castle Fells and the fortress at Tal Dur? And two days ago Raj Ahten destroyed Tal Rimmon, Gorlane, and Aravelle. Two hundred thousand of Raj Ahten’s men are marching on Carris and should reach it by dawn tomorrow. You’re heading weaponless into that kind of danger?”
Roland knew little about the lay of the land. Being illiterate, he could not read a map, and until now he had never been ten miles from his childhood home at the Courts of Tide, but he knew that castles Crayden and Fells defended the passes on Mystarria’s western border. He’d never heard of Tal Dur, but he knew of the castles that had been destroyed to the north.
“Can I reach Carris before they do?” Roland asked.
“Is your horse fast?”
Roland nodded. “It has an endowment of stamina and one of strength and metabolism.” It was a lordly animal, such as the king’s messengers rode. After being on the road for a week, Roland had met a horse trader and purchased the beast with money he’d inherited while he slept.
“You should easily make a hundred miles today, then,” Baron Poll said. “But the roads are like to be treacherous. Raj Ahten’s assassins are out in force.”
“Fine,” Roland said. He hoped that his mount would be up to the challenge. He turned to leave.
“Here now, you can’t go out like that,” Baron Poll said. “Take my arms and armor—whatever you want.” He nodded to a corner of the room. Baron Poll’s breastplate was propped against the wall, along with a huge axe, a sword as tall as a man, and a half-sword.
The breastplate was too wide for Roland by half, and he doubted he could even heft the tall sword well enough to use it in battle. Roland was a butcher by trade. The axe was no larger than the forty-pound cleavers that Roland had used for splitting beeves, but he doubted that he’d ever want such a clumsy weapon in a brawl. But there was the half-sword. It was not much larger than a good long knife. Still, Roland could not take such a gift by deception.
“Baron Poll,” Roland apologized, “I fear that you are mistaken. My name is Roland Borenson. I am not a member of the King’s Guard. You mistake me for my son.”
“What?” Baron Poll spat. “The Borenson I knew was a fatherless bastard. Everyone said so. We teased him mercilessly for it!”
“No man is fatherless,” Roland said. “I served as a Dedicate in the Blue Tower these past twenty-one years, giving metabolism in service of the King.”
“But everyone said you were dead! No. Wait… I remember the story better now: They said you were a common criminal, a killer, executed before your son was born!”
“Not executed,” Roland objected, “though perhaps my son’s mother might have wished it.”
“Ah, I remember the harpy well,” Baron Poll said. “As I recall, she often wished all men to death. Certainly she damned me enough.” Baron Poll suddenly blushed, as if embarrassed to pry any further. “I should have known,” he said. “You look too young. The Borenson I knew has endowments of metabolism himself, and has aged accordingly. In the past eight years, he would have aged more than twenty. If the two of you stood together, I think you would look like father and son now—though he would seem the father, and you the son.”
Roland nodded. “Now you have the way of it.”
Baron Poll’s brows drew together in thought. “You’re riding to see your son?”
“And to put myself into service to my king,” Roland answered.
“You’ve no endowments,” Poll pointed out. “You’re not a soldier. You’ll never make it to Heredon.”
“Probably not,” Roland agreed.
He headed for the door.
“Wait!” Baron Poll bellowed. “Kill yourself if you want, but don’t make it easy for them. At least take a weapon.”
“Thank you,” Roland said, as he took the half-sword. He had no belt to hold the scabbard, so he tucked it under his shirt.
Baron Poll snorted, displeased by his choice of weapons. “You’re welcome. Luck to you.”
Baron Poll got out of bed, shook Roland’s hand at the wrist. The man had a grip like a vise. Roland shook hard, as if he had endowments of brawn of his own. Years of knife work had left him with strong wrists and a fierce grip. Even after decades asleep his muscles were firm, his calluses still thick.
Roland hurried downstairs. The common room was full. Peasants fleeing south clustered at some tables, while squires who were heading north with their lords sat at others. These young men were sharpening blades or rubbing oil into leather or chain mail. A few of the lords, dressed oddly in tunics and hose and quilted undermail, were seated on stools along the bar.
The smells of fresh bread and meat were inviting enough to make Roland repent of his vow to leave here hungry. He took a vacant stool. Two knights were arguing vigorously about how much to feed a warhorse before charging into battle, and one of the men nodded at Roland, as if encouraging him to enter the fray. He wondered if the fellow knew him, or if he believed Roland was a lord because of the fine new bearskin cloak he wore, and his new tunic and pants and boots. Roland knew he was dressed like a noble. Soon he heard a squire whisper the name Borenson.
The innkeeper brought him some honeyed tea in a mustache mug, and he began to eat a loaf of rye bread, dipping it in a trencher of rich gravy thick with floating chunks of pork.
As Roland ate, he began to muse about the events of the past week. This was the second time in a week that he’d wakened to a kiss. …
Seven days earlier, he’d felt a touch on his cheek—a gentle, tentative touch, as if a spider crawled over him—and bolted awake, heart pounding.
He’d been startled to find himself in a dim room, lying abed at midday. The walls were of heavy stone, his mat of feathers and straw. He knew the place at once by the tang of sea air. Outside, terns and gulls cried as if in solitary lament, while huge ocean swells surged against battlements hewn from ancient rock at the base of the tower. As a Dedicate who gave metabolism, he’d slept fast for twenty years. Somehow, over the many years that he’d slept, Roland had felt those waves lashing during storms, making the whole keep shudder under their impact, endlessly wearing away the rock.
He was in the Blue Tower, a few miles east of the Courts of Tide in the Caroll Sea.
The small chamber he inhabited was surprisingly sparse in its decor, almost like a tomb: no table or chairs, no tapestry or rugs to cover the bare walls or floor. No wardrobe for clothes, or even a peg on the wall where one might hang a robe. It was not a room for a man to live in, only to sleep in for endless ages. Aside from the mattress and Roland, the small chamber held only a young woman who leapt back to the foot of the bed, beside a wash bucket. He saw her by a dim light cast from a salt-encrusted window. She was a sweet thing with an oval-shaped face, eyes of pale blue, and hair the color of straw. She wore a wreath of tiny dried violets in her hair. The touch of her long hair on his face was what had awakened him.
Her face reddened with embarrassment and she crouched back a bit on her haunches. “Pardon me,” she stammered. “Mistress Hetta bade me cleanse you.” She held up a wash rag defensively, as if to prove her good intentions.
Yet the moisture on his lips tasted not of some stale rag but of a girl’s kiss. Perhaps she had meant to cleanse him, but decided to seek more enticing diversion.
“I’ll get you some help,” she said, dropping her rag into the bucket. She half-turned from where she huddled.
Roland grabbed her wrist, quick as a mongoose taking a cobra. Because of his speed, he had been forced to give his metabolism into the King’s service.
“How long have I slept?” he begged. His mouth felt terribly dry, and the words made his throat itch. “What year is it?”
“Year?” the young woman asked, barely fighting his grasp. He held her lightly. She could have broken away, but chose instead to stay. He caught the scent of her: clean, a hint of lilac water in her hair—or perhaps it was the dried violets. “It is
the twenty-second year of the reign of Mendellas Draken Orden.”
The news did not surprise him, yet her words were like a blow. Twenty-one years. It has been twenty-one years since I gave my endowment of metabolism into the service of the King. Twenty-one years of sleeping on this cot while young women occasionally clean me or spoon broth down my throat and make sure that I still breathe.
He’d given his metabolism to a young warrior, a sergeant named Drayden. In those twenty-one years, Drayden would have aged more than forty, while Roland slept and aged not a day.
It seemed but moments ago that Roland knelt before Drayden and young King Orden. The facilitators sang in birdlike voices, pressing their forcibles into his chest, calling the endowment from him. He’d felt the unspeakable pain of the forcibles, smelled flesh and the hairs of his chest begin to burn, felt the overwhelming fatigue as the facilitators drew forth his metabolism. He’d cried in pain and terror at the last, and seemingly had fallen forever.
Because Roland was now awake, he knew that Drayden was dead. If a man gave use of an attribute to a lord, then once that lord died, the attribute returned to the Dedicate. Whether Drayden had died in battle or abed, Roland could not know. But now that Roland was one of the Restored, it meant Drayden was certainly dead.
“I’ll go now,” the girl said, struggling just a bit.
Roland felt the soft hairs on her forearm. She had a pair of pimples on her face, but in time he imagined that she would become a beauty.
“My mouth is dry,” Roland said, still holding her.
“I’ll get water,” she promised. She quit struggling—as if by relinquishing she hoped he might let her go.
Roland released her wrist, but stared hard into her face. He was a handsome young man—with his long red hair tied back, a strong chin, piercing blue eyes, and a svelte, muscular body.
He asked, “Just now, when you were kissing me in my sleep, was it me you wanted, or did you fantasize about some other man?”
The girl shook with fright, looked to the small wooden door of Roland’s chamber, as if to make sure it was closed. She ducked her head shyly, and whispered, “You.”
Roland studied her face. A few freckles, a straight mouth, a delicate nose. He wanted to kiss her, just behind her small left ear.
To fill the silence, the girl began to chatter. “I’ve been washing you since I was ten. I… in that time, I’ve come to know your body well. There is kindness in your face, and cruelty, and beauty. I sometimes wonder what kind of man you are, and I hoped that you would awaken before I married. My name is Sera, Sera Crier. My father and mother and sisters all died in a mud slide when I was small, so now I serve here in the keep.”
“Do you even know my name?” Roland asked.
“Borenson. Roland Borenson. Everyone in the keep knows you. You are the father of a captain of the King’s Guard. Your son serves as bodyguard to Prince Gaborn.”
Roland wondered. He’d had no son that he’d ever heard of. But he’d had a young wife when he gave his endowment, though she would be getting old by now. He had not known when he’d given his metabolism that she carried a child.
He wondered if this girl spoke aright. He wondered why she was attracted to him. He asked, “You know my name. Do you also know that I am a murderer?”
The girl drew back in astonishment.
“I killed a man,” Roland admitted. He wondered why he told her that. But although the man had died twenty years ago, for him it had happened only hours ago, and the feel of the man’s guts in his hand was still fresh on his mind.
“I’m sure you had good reason.”
“I found him in bed with my wife. I slit him open like a fish, yet even as I did, I had to wonder why. Ours was an arranged marriage and a poor match by any measure. I did not care for the girl, and she hated me. Killing the man was a waste. I think I did it to hurt her. I don’t know.
“For years you have wondered what kind of man I am, Sera. Do you think you know?”
Sera Crier licked her lips. Now she began to tremble. “Any other man would have lost his head for such a deed. The King must have liked you well. Perhaps he too saw some kindness masked by your cruelty.”
“I see only waste and stupidity,” Roland answered.
“And beauty.” Sera leaned forward to kiss Roland’s lips. He turned his head a bit.
“I’ve given myself,” he said.
“To a woman who disavowed you and married someone else long, long ago…” Sera answered. Roland felt certain that she knew what she spoke of when she mentioned his wife. The news saddened him. The girl had been another butcher’s daughter—and she’d had a wit sharper than her father’s knives. She’d thought him stupid, he’d thought her cruel.
“No,” he answered, feeling that she did not see the deeper truth. “I’m not given to my wife, but to my king.”
Roland sat up in his cot, gazed down at his feet. He was dressed in nothing but a tunic—a fine red cotton garment that would breathe in the moist air. Not the old work clothes he’d worn twenty-one years ago when he gave his endowment. They’d rotted away.
Sera fetched him some trousers and a pair of lambskin boots, then offered to help dress him, though he needed no help. He had never felt so completely rested.
Though today was the second time in a week that Roland had wakened to a kiss, Sera Crier’s lips had been far more desirable than Baron Poll’s.
As Roland ate, a young knight in splint mail came in through the front door. “Borenson!” he shouted in greeting. At the same instant, Baron Poll had just come down the stairs and stood at the landing. “And Baron Poll!” the fellow said in dismay.
Suddenly the room swirled in commotion. The two lords beside Roland dove to the floor. The knight at the door pulled his sword, ringing from its scabbard. The squires in the corner shouted variations of “Fight!” “Blood feud!” One of the lads flipped a table over and hid behind it as a barricade. A girl who was serving the peasants threw a basket filled with bread loaves into the air and ran for the buttery shrieking, “Baron Poll and Sir Borenson are in the same room!” The innkeeper ran out from the kitchens, face pale, as if hoping to rescue his furniture.
Everywhere Roland glanced, he saw frightened faces.
Baron Poll just stood on the landing, studying the scene, an amused smile playing on his lips.
Roland enjoyed the joke. He furrowed his brow, drew the half-sword, and eyed Baron Poll menacingly. Then he chopped a loaf of bread in half and plunged the sword tip into the counter, so that it stood there quivering.
“It appears the stool beside me has been vacated, Baron Poll,” Roland said. “Perhaps you will join me for breakfast.”
“Why, thank you,” Baron Poll said courteously. He waddled over to the stool, sat down, took half the loaf, dipped it in Roland’s trencher.
The whole crowd gaped in wonder. Roland thought, They’d not look more astonished if Baron Poll and I were a pair of toads flying about the room like hummingbirds, chasing flies with long tongues.
Horrified, the young knight exclaimed, “But you’re not to be within fifty leagues of each other—by the King’s own command!”
“True, but last night, by mere happenstance, Borenson and I were thrust into the same cot,” Baron Poll replied contentedly. “And I must say, I’ve never had a more cordial bedfellow.”
“Nor I,” Roland offered. “Not many a man could warm your backside as well as Baron Poll. The man is as big as a horse and as hot as a smithy’s forge. Why, I suspect he could warm a whole village at night. You could fry fish on his feet or bake bricks on his back.”
Everyone stared at them as if they were daft, so Roland and Baron Poll loudly discussed such mundane topics as the weather, how the recent rains had aggravated the gout that Poll’s mother-in-law suffered from, the best way to cook venison, and so on.
Everyone watched them warily, as if at any moment the truce might break, and the two men would go at it with knives.
Finally, Boren
son slapped Baron Poll on the back, went outside into the early morning light. The village of Hay was aptly named. Haycocks stood everywhere in the fields, and black-eyed Susans grew huge so late in the summer. The margin of the road out of town was a riot of yellows and deep browns. The countryside was flat, and the grass had grown tall in the summer, but now was sun-bleached white and dying.
At the front of the inn, the pigs had wisely fled. A couple of red hens pecked in the dirt by Roland’s feet. Roland waited while a stableboy went to fetch his horse.
He stood looking up into the hazy sky. The air was moist with wisps of morning fog. Volcanic ash drifted in the mist like flakes of warm snow.
Baron Poll came out, stood with him a moment, staring up and stroking his beard. “There’s mischief in this volcano blowing, and powerful magic,” he predicted. “Raj Ahten has flameweavers in his retinue, I hear. I wonder if they’re mixed up in this?”
Roland thought it unlikely that the flameweavers had anything to do with the volcano. It had blown far to the south, and Raj Ahten’s soldiers were converging on Carris a hundred miles north. Still, it seemed ominous.
“What is this about the King’s command?” Roland asked. “Why are you not to get within fifty leagues of my son?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.” Baron Poll grinned with embarrassment. “Old news. I’d tell you the story, but you’ll hear some minstrel sing of it soon enough, I imagine. They get most of it right.” Baron Poll sheepishly glanced at the ground and wiped some fallen ash from his cloak. “I’ve lived in mortal terror of your boy these past ten years.” Roland wondered what his son would have done if he’d wakened in this man’s arms. “But dark times can make even the worst of enemies into friends, eh?” Baron Poll said. “And men can change, can’t they? Wish your son well for me, if you find him.”
His expression begged Roland for forgiveness, and Roland would have been happy to give it to him, but he could not speak for his son. “I’ll do so,” Roland promised.
Brotherhood of the Wolf Page 4
