One Land, One Duke

by Emerson, Ru

  They reined in and dropped back to ride alongside Jennifer and Dahven as the sun edged off the road and up the trees. “Kind of nice here, you know?” Chris said. “Wouldn't mind having a cabin up here."

  "With your usual?” Jennifer inquired. “A helipad and a copter for transportation back to civilization?"

  He grinned. “Why not?” The grin faded. “Yeah, well. Always thought that was the way to do it. Guess I could still have a hang glider, though, couldn't I?"

  "Big kite you strap yourself into,” Jennifer translated for Dahven. Probably Edrith already knew. “Lets you fly, so long as there's wind. Well, sure. Why not a hang glider? If Caro Ellaway was right about the approximate dates outside of Rhadaz, maybe you can get hold of a hot air balloon."

  "Yeah, the possibilities are just endless, aren't they?” Chris said sourly. “You know,” he went on after a moment, “what honks me most? If we were gonna land in something like this, you know, big conflict and all, why couldn't it have been Middle Earth? Or one of the earlier games I used to play? Everything black and white, no one giving a damn if you just off the bad guys—"

  "I thought you were all for offing the bad guys before Jadek's last little trick,” Jennifer said.

  "Sure I was. I still am. I wanna pull that guy's card so bad I can taste it. And then I listen to Aletto and mom—jeez, how can you be that way? You know?"

  "What way?” Dahven asked. Chris shrugged; Edrith answered for him.

  "Aletto should just flat hate his uncle, you know? Jadek murdered his dad, married his mother, Jadek is likely responsible for his marsh fever. Trying to marry poor Lialla to his cousin—and I can assure you there are plenty of hair-raising stories in certain parts of Sikkre's markets about Carolan and certain of his less attractive tastes."

  "Well, even without that,” Chris said. “I mean, all the crap he's pulled on us, right down to this last stunt with mom? And you know what they're doing up there, right now? Swear to God, Jen, they're coming up with all these reasons why the guy's doing it! Aletto actually said something, oh, hell,” Chris said in disgust. “I forget just what and it doesn't matter, comes down to, he really thinks he can talk to the guy and Jadek will hand over Duke's Fort and go live on an island somewhere."

  "I'm not really surprised,” Jennifer said. “I can't think why you would be."

  "Yeah—Jeez. You know, I can understand mom. She really does think that way—pacifist, no matter what, like no red meat, she doesn't just do it for convenience or when it's easy or the issues are black and white, she really means it. Says you don't kill people, period. Not for any reason.” He brushed a fly from the back of his hand. “So she winds up doing in that wizard guy. Poor old mom, she sure has it tough."

  Jennifer nodded. “Couple of things, though, Chris: Birdy's tough in her own way; she's used to things going wrong. Think how much worse it would be right now if she weren't."

  "Hey. No, thanks."

  "And she's got a decent man for a change."

  "Yeah.” Chris gave her a sidelong, rather abashed grin. “If you'd said that back before Sikkre, I'd've laughed at you, lady. There really was an okay dude under the dweeb exterior, though. I think his uncle has a big surprise coming."

  "No way!” Edrith protested. “All those men of his we've fought? He knows—"

  "Well, sure he knows. Knowing someone's changed that much and actually seeing it's pretty different, though; you wait."

  "I agree,” Dahven said. “Remember I saw him outside Bez after about a month; Jadek last saw a weak, drunken, frightened boy and Aletto's learned more than simply how to use weapons these past days. He's in danger of becoming a decent ruler."

  "Yeah. If he doesn't just knuckle under and tell the guy to keep Zelharri—or offer to share or something else really dumb.” Chris looked from Dahven to Jennifer to Edrith. “Look, I know he can't just take the guy out. The dudes down in Podhru wouldn't like it, and those guys they sent with us wouldn't like it, either."

  "Glad you worked that out, kid,” Jennifer said dryly.

  "Hey. Remember who played the games, all right? Besides, Aletto might alienate people if he went in lopping heads like that. Starting with alienating mom, of course. And probably his own mother. Jeez. Eddie, now I'm starting to sound like both of them."

  Edrith shook his head. “You're using logic on a hard problem, isn't that what you said before?"

  Chris was silent for a long moment. “Tell you what. Right now, I don't know if I want logic, this whole thing just plain pisses me off. I don't want to hear about how the guy has his reasons, you know? I don't find it one damn bit useful knowing what Jadek's damn reasons are. He's the bad guy, damnit! If we're gonna land on him and make it count, that's how we gotta think of him, isn't it?"

  He looked at all of them. Jennifer shrugged.

  "I tend to agree with you,” Dahven said. “When the Emperor sent men against the Lasanachi, when they tried to take Dro Pent, no one explained to those men what reasons the Lasanachi might have had for their actions. Ask Gyrdan some time, he knows, he was there; the Lasanachi were called barbarian invaders and men were encouraged to think of them in very black terms. That's necessary. I think even though Aletto hopes to retake the Fort without harming anyone, most of us—the fighting men particularly—need to see the Fort men at least as an active threat. Jadek as a particularly terrible threat, a source of wrong action, if not of evil. Once the Fort is in Aletto's hands, once Jadek is disarmed—let Aletto talk however he will to the man."

  Chris frowned. “Yeah. And then Jadek sweet-talks his way out of everything, right?"

  "I doubt that,” Jennifer said calmly. “I don't have that much faith in Jadek's ability to maintain, as your mother would say, for very long. Afronsan already has a good deal of information against the man; his clerk has more now.” She smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Personally, I doubt he can keep his temper in the same room with me for more than two minutes."

  "Heh, heh.” Chris considered this, shook his head and began to laugh. “Yeah. All we have to do then is worry about how to get your head back where it belongs, right?"

  "I'll worry about my head, kid. And if it makes you feel better, I agree with you: You can understand someone like Jadek all you want—later. It's going to cost us lives if we go at him from your mother's way of thinking. Something else for you to think about, though: Remember what happens when you simply depose someone?"

  "Edward the Second,” he said readily. “Plantagenet England. They imprisoned him but some people wanted to put him back on the throne, so someone on the other side offed him.” He sighed. “All this really reminds me more of Richard the Third, you know? Aletto puts so damn much trust in the wrong people. Except if he gets killed, he'll take mom with him."

  "Richard the Third and Lord Stanley,” Jennifer agreed. “Glad you remember some of the heavier reading I shoved down your throat last year."

  "Hey, that was interesting stuff, Bosworth Field and all, you know?” Chris said. He glanced over at Edrith, who shrugged and shook his head, and at Dahven, who merely looked confused. “King who trusted the wrong guys too many times. This Stanley was one of his generals but he'd already defected. Only he didn't bother to tell the King until halfway through the fight, and then he just started fighting on the other side. The King died and wound up with his head on a pike."

  Dahven looked at Jennifer. “I wondered what you were talking about in Evany's garden. Now it makes a little sense."

  "I don't even remember. Must have been pretty tired."

  They rode into a cool evening breeze. Chris broke what had become a long silence. “I'll tell you one thing. If Lialla has anything to say about it, Jadek is toast."

  20

  They stopped for the night at a place one of Gyrdan's men knew, where there was a firepit, a three-sided shelter for hunters or herders. Chris and Edrith set out toward a meadow they could see well above them and off to the west. Jennifer could hear Chris trying to explain wild strawberries to his co
mpanion, who, having grown up in the middle of the desert, had never eaten or even seen any kind of strawberries. Dahven was up talking to the guard driving the wagon—trying to find out what the man remembered from earlier in the day, perhaps, or possibly apologizing. Jennifer eased down from her horse, stretched out a stiff back and aching knees as well as she could, and went in search of Lialla.

  At first, she couldn't find the woman at all, and no one seemed able to remember the last time they'd been aware of her. If Jadek found a way to manipulate that wad of Light and take her— Jennifer shut that thought off immediately, wrapped arms around herself and hugged hard. He hadn't done such a thing so far. Besides—there was Lialla, finally, her Wielder Blacks a dark blot against the bleached wood of the little shelter. Lialla was seated on a silkcloth, just inside the structure, eyes closed. As Jennifer came near, however, she looked up.

  "I wondered when you'd come,” she said finally.

  "Took me a while to find you. But you looked preoccupied earlier."

  Lialla considered this, nodded. “That would seem as good a word as any. You're curious, aren't you?"

  Jennifer eased herself down, groaning faintly as her knees protested bending again. “I think that's as good a word as any. Do you object? To my curiosity? Because if you'd rather I wait a while—"

  "What, with Duke's Fort just over the hill? And I don't object; I'd be wild with curiosity myself.” Lialla managed a brief smile; her eyes were heavy-lidded, though, and she looked tired. “So. Tell you things, right?"

  "She remembers,” Jennifer said lightly. “What did you do, how?"

  "Oh. If that's all,” the sin-Duchess said dryly. But she obediently began talking, starting with leaving Podhru. “I could feel it even then, you know; not just the Light, but the sense that someone outside of me was trying to touch it. Or, trying might not be the proper word: Knowing Jadek, I think he could have gained as much control of me—of the Light—inside Podhru as he did on that ledge. But he knew I'd know what he was doing.” She swallowed noisily, shrugged.

  "And he thought you'd simply burst into tears and give up,” Jennifer said crisply. “That about it?"

  "Once I might have. Would have,” Lialla amended honestly. “It worked against him this time; knowing upset me but not for myself—not because it was Light, or him. Believe it or not, I didn't even think for the longest time about that man he drained of life out in the desert. I was more worried what he might be able to make me do, if he could use that Light as a control.” She made a tight, dispassionate story of Jadek's attack on her, his attempt at Chris and Aletto, through her. “Only Jadek could think of something so utterly foul, and I knew I couldn't simply fight him off, he'd try again, and again, and another time, I might not win. And then, I was so angry. I should have realized, you know: I know him, better than Aletto who still wants to find excuses for him. I know what he can do. But this! The idea that he'd make me kill Chris, or Aletto! I guess I always knew it, even before you talked to me in Podhru, but—” She shrugged. “I couldn't, until there wasn't anything else left except the Light. I was so scared, so furious, I didn't really care any more what happened to me."

  Silence. “And?” Jennifer finally prompted.

  "Remember what you said, out in the desert, about the nature of Light?"

  "Don't remember.” Jennifer shrugged.

  "Something about it being like Thread—the thing you found in that hut. It seemed to me that the knot I carried was a little like the knot of Thread that marks a bruise. So I went after it that way."

  "And it went?"

  Lialla shook her head. “Oh, no. It broke up, and spread. All through my body.” She was laughing very quietly when she looked up. “You didn't even recoil when I said that. Most would, you know."

  "I told you—"

  "Ideas and reality,” Lialla interrupted her. “Belief in an idea doesn't always hold up well in daylight, you know. My first thought was that surely I had killed myself. But I didn't die and then I realized I felt better. Oh, I could feel it, rather like being warmed by a fire from the inside.

  "It's—there was more instinct, more feeling with it: I knew at once there was nothing left in me for Jadek to catch hold of now. That it wouldn't harm me. All the same, it is very much like Thread. The longer I looked at it the more I could see the individual strands. And yet, it isn't like Thread—but I could still see and feel Thread."

  "That must have been reassuring."

  "Very. And it didn't interfere with Thread, except that it was more difficult to hear."

  "But you don't depend on hearing the way I do,” Jennifer said.

  "Fortunately. Once I was certain I wasn't going to immediately die, I decided I'd better cleanse the fog from my eyes. I went into Thread property, caught hold of—the one Neri showed you, that yellow?"

  "But I tried that yellow on you, in Podhru—"

  "Wrong mix,” Lialla said; her lips twisted. “If you twist that yellow with Light—well, Neri might not approve, but it's quite effective. That man's arm should have given me a good deal of trouble; he doesn't even remember there was damage."

  Jennifer crossed her legs and began rubbing the insides of her knees. “What you've done,” she said finally. “It's totally new, isn't it? I mean, a Triad wouldn't attempt to combine those two magics, would it? Would anyone?"

  "I wouldn't have, unless I'd really needed to."

  "I wouldn't either,” Jennifer said. “But, how did it feel after? Forgive me, but you don't seem at all worried by it now."

  "Compared to before?” Lialla grinned. “Don't look so unsure of yourself, Jen; I know you're trying to be diplomatic. I wasn't only worried—I was terrified and being horrible to everyone because of it. In your place, I would have dumped me in Evany's pond and left me there. No, I'm not worried. It's—I don't know that anyone's combined the two before, I told you, history isn't a strong interest of mine. All the same, it feels right. As though they belong together."

  "I'm glad,” Jennifer said. Lialla laid a hand over hers and gripped, hard.

  "Thank you."

  "For what?"

  "Because I wasn't afraid to talk to you about it. You don't judge things, the way I'm used to.” Lialla sat up straight once more and folded her hands in her lap. “It's curious, how things happen. I told Merrida so many times that I intended to devote my entire life to Wielding, and I wanted that Silver Sash so badly. Now—” she shrugged. “There isn't a Wielder in all of Rhadaz who'd stay in the same room with me, let alone give me instruction."

  "Not necessarily,” Jennifer said. “Neri, Merrida, anyone like them. There are plenty of Wielders out there, Lialla. I think you might find some, especially among the younger ones in Podhru, who wouldn't be afraid to look at things from a different perspective. Maybe later, when things are more settled, you can find people willing to help you work it out."

  "I doubt that,” Lialla replied. “All the same—I don't truly care about the Silver any more. Because this—there isn't a Wielder in all of Rhadaz who has what I have. Maybe it won't be as safe as Thread, or as easy to control. Maybe anything. It's mine. An entire new way to explore."

  "I'm glad you can look at it that way,” Jennifer said. “Think about the other. It might be something for you to do, once matters are settled for Aletto. You never struck me as someone who'd sit in her brother's court passing teacups.” Lialla grinned, shook her head.

  "There's some things I do know already,” she said at last. “Earlier, while we were riding—and just now? I found a new way to combine and use that red Thread, the finding Thread. I found Duke's Fort, and I'm reasonably certain of two things: Jadek's Triad is gone. And when you and Dahven forcibly ejected him from the guard, and broke that sphere, I think you hurt him. Keep that between us,” she added flatly, “because I'm not entirely sure."

  "I understand that. The Triad: You mean, there's no trace of it anywhere within or around Duke's Fort?"

  "None. Not as far around Sehfi as I could reach, which shou
ld have also included Carolan's estates, where it originally was kept."

  "Maybe he sent it away; there was a chance he was being watched, after all,” Jennifer said. She enumerated on her fingers. “And he might have known beforehand that Afronsan sent an envoy, though I thought I surprised him when I told him that."

  "Mmmm.” Lialla pushed the black fabric off her hair and tugged at an earlobe thoughtfully. “Possible, though I really feel it has been gone for more than a night or so. Also, remember that no one fully understands a Triad, except possibly another Triad."

  "You've said. You think a Triad could have scruples? That your uncle was playing too rough for them?"

  Lialla laughed quietly. “It all sounds like second-guessing to me. Including what I've done; I can't really be certain it worked as I thought it did."

  "You did say a Triad could conceal itself pretty well."

  "I did? I can tell where they were, though. And I can tell where my uncle is, because of his handling of Light. Say,” Lialla added wryly, “that I have an affinity for finding it now. Bad joke, right?"

  Jennifer grinned. “I'll laugh; it's not so bad. I won't say anything; no point in getting any of them overconfident, is there? What you actually did, though: Would you be willing to show me how you do it? Maybe see if I can make it work?"

  "I don't know if I can,” Lialla replied. She considered this, clapped her hands together and laughed. “I'm sorry! I can't think how many times I've said that to you—"