“A nice question,” Hirundo said. “If you start hanging fools, who would dare rebel against you and confess that he’s one of those fools?” He grinned.
“Stop that!” Grus said. “You’re making my head ache, and I couldn’t even enjoy getting drunk first.”
The next morning, the Avornans rode on. The bands of Menteshe had melted away during the night. But for burned-out fields and farmhouses, no one would have known Ulash’s men had come so far. Ahead, though, more plumes of black smoke rising into the sky said they were still busy at their work of destruction. Grus tasted smoke every time he breathed. He felt it in his lungs, and in his stinging eyes.
He sent scouts out by squadrons, fearing the Menteshe weren’t far away. As the main force of Avornans advanced, he waited for one scout or another to come pelting back, bringing word the nomads had attacked his squadrons. He was ready to strike and strike hard.
But, to his surprise and more than a little to his disappointment, nothing like that happened. His army pushed on through the ravaged countryside, hardly seeing any Menteshe at all. Maybe Ulash’s men were fleeing back toward the Stura. Grus wanted to believe they were. He wanted to, but he couldn’t.
It was midafternoon before he realized he hadn’t heard anything at all from one scout squadron since the early morning. He pointed west, where they’d ridden when the army broke camp. “Are things going so very well over that way, do you suppose?” he asked Hirundo.
“They could be,” the general answered. “We’ve had a pretty quiet day.” But he fidgeted when Grus eyed him. “All right, Your Majesty. It doesn’t seem likely.”
“Send out another squadron,” Grus said. “If the first one’s all right, you can call me a fussy old woman. But if it’s not …” If it’s not, it’s liable to be too late to do the men any good. Why didn’t I start worrying sooner?
Off trotted the horsemen. Grus’ unease grew. It reminded him of the feeling he got when someone was staring at him from behind. He wished he hadn’t had that thought. It made him suddenly look back over his shoulder, again and again. Naturally, no one was looking his way—until his antics drew other people’s attention.
After a while, impatient and nervous, the king summoned Pterocles. “Can you tell me anything about those scouts?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, Your Majesty. Let me see what I can divine.” Pterocles set to work, murmuring a charm. Grus recognized the chant; it was the sort of spell wizards used to find lost coins or strayed sheep. He’d thought Pterocles would use something fancier, but if a simple charm would serve.…
Pterocles hadn’t finished the spell when he broke off with a gasp of horror. His long, lean face went white as bone, leaving him looking like nothing so much as an appalled skull. Before Grus could even ask him what was wrong, he doubled over and was noisily and violently ill.
Grus wondered if he’d eaten something bad, or perhaps been poisoned. Before he could do more than stare, galloping hoofbeats distracted him. “Your Majesty!” shouted the leader of the party Hirundo had ordered out after the missing scouts. “Oh, Your Majesty! By the gods, Your Majesty!”
“I’m here,” Grus called, now torn. “What is it? Did you find them?”
The captain nodded. He was as pale as Pterocles, and looked not far from sickness himself. “Yes, Your Majesty.” He gulped and went even paler. “We found them.”
“And?” Grus said.
“I will not speak of this,” the captain said. “I will not. If you order me to, I will take you to them. If you do not order me, I will never go near that spot again. Never!” The last word was almost a scream. He shuddered.
“Whatever this is, I had better see it.” Grus said. “Take me there at once, Captain. At once, do you hear me?”
“I hear you, Your Majesty.” The officer shuddered again. “I do not thank you for the order, but I will obey it. Come, then.”
“Guards,” Pterocles croaked. “Take guards.”
That hadn’t crossed Grus’ mind. It was plainly a good idea, though. A squadron of bodyguards surrounded him as he rode with the officer toward … what?
Coming up over the swell of a low rise, he first saw, from perhaps a quarter of a mile, that the first squadron of scouts and their horses were down, with some of the would-be rescuers still by them. He was braced for that much of a disaster. He hadn’t thought he’d lose a whole squadron of scouts, but it seemed to have happened. “The Menteshe caught them?” he asked.
“Yes.” The captain managed a ghastly nod. “The Menteshe caught them, Your Majesty.”
As Grus rode closer, he began to get a better look at how the scouts—and their horses—had died, and how their bodies had been used after they were dead … or while they were dying. “No,” he said, as though someone had told him about it and he didn’t believe the fellow. “No one would do that.” But his eyes, his treacherous, truth-telling eyes, insisted someone had. That they’d been mutilated was bad enough. That the dead men had also been violated …
“You see, Your Majesty,” the Avornan officer said heavily. “I’ve seen, and I wish I hadn’t.”
Grus didn’t answer. He rode through that scene of horror and torture. He felt he needed to see it all. He learned more about cruel ingenuity in those few minutes than he’d ever known, or ever wanted to know. At last, he said, “I didn’t think even the Menteshe did things like this.”
“They usually don’t,” the officer replied. “I’ve served in the south for years. This …” He turned his head away. “There are no words for this.”
“The Banished One,” Grus said in a voice like iron. “This is his doing. He’s trying to put us in fear.”
With a laugh on the ragged edge of hysteria, the Avornan captain said, “He knows how to get what he wants, doesn’t he?”
But Grus shook his head. “No. This—shakes me, but it doesn’t make me afraid. It makes me angry. I want revenge.” He paused. Did that mean paying back the Menteshe in their own coin? Could he stomach ordering his men to do something like this to their foes? If he did that, didn’t he invite the Banished One to take up residence in Avornis? “The best revenge I know is whipping them out of the kingdom.”
“What do we do about … this, Your Majesty?”
“We make pyres. We burn the dead. We’re all equal in the flames.” Grus paused again, then added, “This time, we burn the horses, too. They deserved what the Menteshe did even less than our troopers. They weren’t enemies, just animals.”
As he ordered, so it was done. The smoke of the great pyre mingled with the smoke from burning fields. To his relief, the men who made the pyres and laid the dead on them seemed to feel as he did. The bodies inspired horror and rage, but not fear. “We’ve got to whip the sons of whores who did this,” a soldier said. “We owe it to the dead.”
“We’ll give the Menteshe everything we owe,” Grus promised. “Everything.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
To Lanius’ surprise, he found himself missing King Grus. Yes, he’d chafed when Grus spent his time in the city of Avornis and held the kingdom in his own hands. With Grus down in the south fighting the Menteshe, Lanius pulled a lot of strings himself—but they were mostly the uninteresting strings. He’d wanted to administer Avornis … until he did it for a while. That made him decide Grus was welcome to the day-to-day drudgery.
But Grus was at war, which meant Lanius was stuck with it. He knew he was less diligent about it than Grus. It embarrassed him, even shamed him, to get a reminder from the provinces about something he should have dealt with the first time, weeks earlier. But he didn’t seem able to do anything about such mishaps.
He knew why, too. If he’d given administering Avornis all the time it needed, he wouldn’t have been able to dive into the archives or watch his monkeys or try to figure out how Pouncer kept getting out of its room and into the kitchens. Those were more enjoyable pastimes, and he had trouble thinking of them as less important.
He also would have had less t
ime for amusing himself with maidservants. Keeping track of the kingdom was more important than that, but it wasn’t nearly as much fun. So far, Sosia hadn’t found out about his sport—or rather, hadn’t found out that he’d kept on with it after Grus sent Cristata away. That his wife hadn’t found out helped keep the sport pleasurable.
And he would have had less time for talks with Prince Vsevolod. Having less time to talk with the Prince of Nishevatz, however, wouldn’t have broken his heart. He’d learned less about the Chernagors than he wanted to, and more about the way Vsevolod thought.
“When will war in south be over?” the Prince asked in his blunt, throaty Avornan. He cared nothing about fighting in the war in the south himself, only about how it affected things in the north—things that mattered to him.
“I don’t know, Your Highness,” Lanius answered. “I wish I did. I wish someone did.”
Vsevolod scowled. To Lanius, he looked more than ever like a scrawny old vulture. “He will win war?”
“By the gods, I hope so!” Lanius exclaimed.
“He will win war by wintertime?”
“I told you, Your Highness—I don’t know that. I don’t think anyone can. If the gods in the heavens let him do it, he will.” As usual, Lanius said nothing about the Banished One, who had been Milvago. As usual, the not-quite-god who no longer dwelt in the heavens wasn’t far from his mind.
“If Grus does not win war this winter, he fights again in south when spring comes?” Vsevolod persisted.
“I don’t know,” Lanius replied, his patience beginning to unravel. “I wouldn’t be surprised, though. Would you?”
“No. Not surprised,” the prince said darkly. “He cares nothing for Nishevatz, not really. All lies.” He turned away.
Lanius was tempted to kick him in the rear. The king didn’t, but the temptation lingered. If Vsevolod wasn’t the most self-centered man in the world, who was? All he cared about was Nishevatz, regardless of what Avornis needed. More testily than Lanius had expected to, he said, “We’ve been invaded, you know.”
“Yes, you are invaded. Yes, I know. And what of me? I am robbed. I am exiled,” Vsevolod said. “I live in strange place, eat strange food, talk strange, ugly language, with no one to care if I live or die.”
“We do care,” Lanius insisted, though he would have had trouble saying he cared very much himself. “But we have to drive the invaders from our own realm before we can worry about anyone else’s.”
Prince Vsevolod might not even have heard him. “I will die in exile,” he said gloomily. “My city-state will go down to ruin under accursed Vasilko, my own son. I cannot save it. Life is bitter. Life is hard.”
He’s powerless, Lanius realized. He’s powerless, and he hates it, the way I hated it for so long under Grus. And he’s old. He’s used to power, and can’t change his ways now that he doesn’t have it anymore. I’d never had it. I kept wondering what it was like, the way a boy will before his first woman.
“We’ll do all we can for you, Your Highness.” Lanius’ voice was as gentle as he could make it. “Don’t worry. We’ll get Nishevatz back for you. By the gods in the heavens, I swear it.”
“The gods in the heavens are—” Vsevolod violently shook his head. “No. If I say that, if I think that, I am Vasilko. This I never do.” He got to his feet and stomped away, as though angry at Lanius for making him think things he didn’t want to think.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t, Lanius thought. Only he can turn his mind one way or another. Did Vsevolod wonder if the Banished One were more powerful than the gods in the heavens? The king wouldn’t have been surprised. He would have had trouble blaming the exiled Prince of Nishevatz, It still worried him.
Grus relaxed in a roadside tavern. The barmaid, who was a young cousin of the fellow who ran the place, set a fresh mug of wine in front of him. He’d had several already. His men had driven the Menteshe off just as they were riding up with torches in their hands, ready to burn the tavern and everyone inside it.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Grus told the barmaid.
“You’re welcome, Your Majesty,” she answered. “Plenty more where that came from. Don’t be shy.” She wasn’t shy herself. Her name, he’d learned, was Alauda. She was a widow; her husband had laid his leg open threshing grain, and died when the wound went bad. She wouldn’t take any silver for the wine, though Grus had offered. “No,” she’d said, shaking her head. “You saved us. This is the least we can do.”
Hirundo sat on another three-legged stool at the rickety table with Grus. “She’s not bad, is she?” the general said, eyeing her as she went to get more wine.
“No, not bad at all,” Grus agreed. Alauda had a barmaid’s brassy prettiness, wider through the hips and fuller in the bosom than would have been fashionable back in the city of Avornis. Her hair was light brown and very straight. Her saucy blue eyes were probably her best feature; they sparkled with life.
Hirundo was also drinking wine he didn’t have to pay for. “Just how grateful do you suppose she’d be?” he murmured.
“What an interesting question.” Grus glanced toward Hirundo. “You seem to have noticed her first. Do you want to be the one who finds out?”
“And deprive you, Your Majesty? Gods forbid!” By the dramatic pose the general struck, he might have been a soldier in a besieged city offering his sovereign his last bit of bread. But the generous gesture turned out to be not quite as noble as all that, for he went on, “I’ve already found a lady friend or two down here. I don’t think you’ve had the chance yet.”
“Well, no,” Grus admitted. The trouble he’d gotten into over Alca the witch left him leery of angering Estrilda again. On the other hand, Estrilda was far to the north, unlikely to learn he’d tumbled a barmaid.
“Then go on, if you feel like it—and if she feels like it.” Hirundo sounded as predatory here as he did on the battlefield. He might have sounded different if he’d had a wife back in the capital. But he didn’t; he was single. And, knowing him, he might not have, too.
He drank up and strolled out of the tavern, clapping Grus on the back as he went. The king ostentatiously finished his mug of wine, too. When Alauda brought him the fresh one she’d poured, he said, “Drink with me, if you care to.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. Her mouth was wide and generous. “When will I ever get another chance like this? I can bore people with the story until I’m an old granny.” She bent her back and hobbled as she went to get wine for herself. Grus laughed. So did she. He knew then taking her to bed wouldn’t be hard.
When she came back with her mug, he sat her on his lap. She slipped an arm around his shoulder as though she’d expected nothing else. One thing did worry him. Pointing to the tavern keeper, he asked, “Will your cousin there be angry?” He didn’t want an outraged male relative lurking and brooding and maybe trying to stick a knife in him. Sometimes such people tried to kill without caring whether they lived or died, which made them hard to stop.
But Alauda only stared in surprise. “No, Morus won’t mind. It’s not like I’m a maiden. And it’s not like you’re a goatherd, either. You’re the king.”
To make sure Morus didn’t mind, she spoke with him after she’d emptied her cup. He looked from her to Grus and back again. Then he walked out of the tavern and closed the door behind him.
“You see?” Alauda said.
“I see.” Grus got to his feet. The room swayed when he did. He suddenly wished he hadn’t had quite so much to drink. Wine could in-flame desire and ruin performance at the same time—and he wasn’t as young as he had been.
He took Alauda in his arms. She tilted her face up to him—not very far up, for she was a tall woman. Her mouth was sweet with wine. His arms tightened around her. She molded herself against him. The kiss went on and on.
When it finally ended, Grus had a new reason for feeling dizzy. “Where?” he asked.
“Here, this way. Morus has given me a little room in back.”
T
he room couldn’t have been much smaller. It barely held a bed. Grus was sure it had been a closet or storeroom before Alauda came to the tavern. Alauda threw off her tunic and long skirt. Naked, she was as round and ripe as Grus had thought she would be. He bent his mouth to the tips of her breasts. She murmured something wordless. He got out of his own clothes as quickly as he could. They lay down together.
Her legs opened. When he stroked her there, he found her wet and ready. He poised himself above her. “Oh,” she said softly when he thrust home. Her thighs gripped his flanks. Her arms squeezed tight. Their mouths clung.
It seemed more like a frenzy than any sort of lovemaking Grus had done lately. Alauda yowled like a cat. Her nails scored the flesh of his back. She threshed and flailed beneath him. He pounded away until pleasure almost blinded him.
When he returned to himself, he noticed the taste of blood in his mouth along with the wine they’d both drunk. Alauda stared up at him past half-lowered eyelids. “So nice to meet you, Your Majesty,” she purred.
He laughed. When he did, he flopped out of her. Regret flitted across her face, just for a moment. Grus certainly felt regret, too—regret that he wasn’t twenty years younger, so they could have started over again right away. He kissed the smooth, white skin in the hollow of her shoulder. She giggled. He said, “You can bring me my wine—or anything else—any time you please.”
Alauda smiled. But then her expression darkened. She said, “Tomorrow or sometime soon, you’ll be gone, won’t you?”
“I can’t stay here,” Grus answered, as gently as he could. “You know that, dear. I’ve got to drive back the Menteshe.” If I can.
Everything else moved sweetly when Alauda nodded. “Oh, yes. Gods only know what they would have done if your soldiers hadn’t chased them away from this place. That wasn’t what I meant. I hope I’m not that silly. But … couldn’t you take me with you? I wouldn’t be any trouble, and if I did make trouble you could just leave me somewhere. I’d land on my feet. I always have. And in the meantime—” She wriggled to show what they might do in the meantime.
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