The Dead Falcon (The Eastern Slave Series Book 4)

by Victor Poole

  "Have you got incriminating secrets about Tree that you could share with the new Thief Lord?" Ajalia murmured to Isacar. Isacar met her eyes briefly, and nodded. "This is Isacar," Ajalia told Delmar. "He was Tree's servant."

  "I know who that is," Delmar said impatiently. Ajalia nodded to Isacar, who cleared his throat. Rane and Ocher had both looked up when Ajalia had begun to speak; they watched Isacar now with interest. Delmar glanced at the other two men, as though wishing that they were not present to overhear his grandfather's misdeeds. Delmar's beard, Ajalia told herself, was becoming thoroughly perfect, and she imagined what it would be to put her fingers through Delmar's beard. Isacar stood straight, his face like the visage of a statue.

  "Tree kept a record of the living witches," Isacar said to no one in particular. "He collected payments, in exchange for concealing the witch's whereabouts, and he arranged for several witches," he said, seeming to be entirely indifferent to the pallor and shock that were rapidly overspreading the faces of the three men who watched him, "to manage poor tenement buildings, so that they would be free to prey on the children of the residents. Tree had three front men," Isacar said into the quiet air, "who acted as his representatives in these transactions."

  "Who are they?" Delmar demanded, his neck a fiery red, and his cheeks still with rage. Isacar glanced at Delmar, and then at Ajalia.

  "Their names are Pilar, Hargon, and Rane," the young man said. Ocher leapt to his feet, his eyes blazing. Delmar turned, and stared down at the spy from Talbos, who sat utterly still, his eyes fixed on Isacar's mouth.

  THE SHADOW OF BERYL

  "Me?" Rane asked, as though he had not heard correctly. "Did you say my name?" Rane asked. He looked at Ajalia, and then at Delmar. His mouth opened, and then he looked at Ocher. "I'm not," Rane said. "I didn't." Ajalia could see that Rane was struggling for words; he looked very much as though he couldn't think of anything adequate to say. "I didn't," Rane said again, and his voice was not afraid, or angry. Ajalia took Isacar aside, and watched the front door. She wanted to make sure that Delmar did not go into a rage of vengeance, and carry Rane off to be punished before she had gotten to the bottom of things. Ocher and Delmar looked at Rane, and then at each other. As if motivated by the same thought, they went into the inner room, and began to talk in low voices.

  "Did you ever meet these front men?" Ajalia asked Isacar. Isacar's eyes were fixed steadily on Rane; Ajalia was sure that Isacar had not known Rane's face, when he had spoken his name. Isacar looked at Ajalia.

  "I met only Pilar and Hargon," Isacar said. "I was sent with messages," he told Ajalia, "and money, sometimes. I never saw Rane. Is that him?" he asked, nodding to where Rane sat.

  "Is there any chance," Ajalia asked Isacar quietly, "that Tree would want to punish anyone connected to Beryl?" Isacar's eyes cleared at once; he nodded eagerly.

  "Oh, he hated Beryl," Isacar said. "He wanted to kill her, and everyone close to her. He always said he was going to find some way to destroy everyone that Beryl had ever loved. She had a brother," Isacar said. "I never met him, but Tree was out to get him, and talked about hurting him all the time."

  "Rane is Beryl's brother," Ajalia told Isacar. Isacar's eyes widened; he turned on his heel, and fled at once into the farther room, where Ocher and Delmar's hushed voices could be heard. Ajalia heard Isacar making a hurried explanation to the two men, and then she heard them questioning the young man. Ajalia went and sat beside Rane, where Ocher had previously sat.

  "They'll kill me," Rane said blankly to Ajalia. Ajalia thought that he had not heard what she and Isacar had said to each other; he seemed to have retreated into a shell of absolute shock. "It doesn't even matter that it isn't true," he added, his eyes twisting gradually over the things in the room. "It doesn't matter," Rane said again. He took a shuddering sigh. Ajalia turned towards the door to the inner room; when she saw Delmar and Ocher approach, she put up a hand towards them, and met Delmar's eyes. He watched her, and saw that she wanted them to wait. She turned again towards Rane, whose eyes were trawling over Tree's tumbled things without seeing any of them. Rane's breath was shallow, and his bruised face looked wild.

  "I never knew she was a witch," Rane told Ajalia, looking suddenly at her with burning eyes. "I didn't know," he said. "She can't have been, from before," he added.

  "Before you left Talbos?" Ajalia asked. Rane nodded.

  "They have tests there," Rane told her, "to check for witches. The people here won't use them. They think the tests aren't dignified," he added, his mouth twisting with scorn. "If they'd used any of our tests, from Talbos," he added, "we would have known that Beryl was a witch, and Lilleth."

  Ajalia had never heard anyone else speak of the dead wife of the former Thief Lord by her name, aside from Delmar. Rane's lips, as he formed her name, were angry. He looked as though he were dirtying himself, by speaking of her. Rane glanced at Ajalia. "We call her kind lost," he told her. "They won't destroy the lost ones here. It is why," he added, his face darkening with anger, "there are so many witches in Slavithe."

  "Delmar told me there were no witches left," Ajalia said, thinking of the time she and Delmar had talked to Salla, before the old woman had died. "He told me Salla was the last one," she added. Rane did not ask her who Salla was.

  "They all lie," Rane said, glancing now at Delmar, who was still in the inner doorway with Ocher. Isacar, Ajalia guessed, had taken up his post at the window. The first window, which she had covered with white shining bars of magic, had begun, gradually, to fill with an opaque sliver light. The window looked as though it held a piece of quicksilver where the curtains should have been. Ajalia wondered what would happen, if she touched a finger to that silver shining surface.

  "I'm going to find this Pilar, and this Hargon," Ocher said to Ajalia.

  "No," Ajalia said at once. She glanced at Delmar, who frowned. "I think we have a deeper problem," she told Ocher. Ocher's mouth squeezed; he also glanced at the young Thief Lord. Ajalia realized suddenly that she did not know if Delmar was recognized as the Thief Lord yet.

  "Are you the Thief Lord now?" she asked Delmar. Delmar looked around at Ocher.

  "Well," Delmar said, hesitating.

  "There's no one else," Ocher told Delmar. "Wall has disappeared, and has not the brand."

  "Coren has been sneaking over here at night," Isacar volunteered. The young man had come closer, and he put his face through the inner doorway now. "He's taken several things to hide," Isacar added. "Tree pretended not to see."

  "Go and get Coren," Ajalia told Isacar. "Do what you like to him, but bring everything that he has taken from Tree. And," she added, as an afterthought, "from his father or mother. Or Beryl," she added, thinking of the witch-caller. "Take as long as you need," she told Isacar. She took her full purse from her waist, and passed all of it to Isacar. "Take this as an advance on your pay," she added "and buy anything you need." Isacar's eyes widened an infinitesimal amount when he saw the purse, but he smoothed his expression out at once, and took it from her.

  "I will return, lady," Isacar said, and went efficiently out of the room. Ajalia watched him go, a surge of utmost pleasure in her heart.

  "Why do you look so happy?" Delmar asked her. Ajalia smiled at him. She did not think Delmar would understand if she told him that Isacar made her feel entirely at home. Ajalia had not realized how homesick she was, or how deeply she had missed the order and routine of her Eastern master's house.

  "I like Isacar," she said. "Now," she added, turning back to Rane, "what are these tests for witches?"

  "I thought we were talking about whether I'm the Thief Lord," Delmar put in. Ajalia looked at him, and at Ocher.

  "Are you?" she asked Delmar. Delmar looked at Ocher, who shrugged, as if to say that it was up to Delmar to say when he was.

  "Yes, I'm the Thief Lord now," Delmar said. He looked at Ajalia as though he were waiting for her seal of approval. She smiled at him, and he blushed a little.

  "What are these tests?" Aj
alia asked Rane. Rane seemed to have woken up a little now. He twisted in his chair, and looked at Ocher, and then at Delmar.

  "I thought you were going to kill me," Rane told them. Delmar glanced at Ajalia, and at Ocher.

  "We don't think it's true," Delmar told him. Rane stared at Delmar, deep suspicion in his eyes.

  "Why not?" he asked slowly.

  "Because the young man tells us Tree was plotting to destroy you," Ocher told the spy from Talbos. "And because," he added, "I think you're telling the truth."

  "Tests for witches," Ajalia said again, as though hoping some person in the room would pick up on her cue, and answer her question.

  "The people here don't believe women should do magic," Rane told Ajalia. "Only women can see the colors. You can see colors, can't you?" he asked her. Ajalia nodded. "They can't," Rane said, gesturing at Delmar and Ocher.

  "Can you?" Ajalia asked.

  "No," Rane admitted.

  "What do you see," Ajalia asked Delmar, turning in her chair, "when you do magic? Can you two come and sit down?" she asked. She heard the clatter of the ladder against the window again. "Will you tell them to stop doing that?" she asked Ocher. "And will you sit down after that?" she added. Ocher smiled at her, and went into the blood-spattered room. Ajalia heard him shouting down at the people in the street, and then she heard the scrape of the ladder as it was pulled away from the wall. A series of crashes and bangs came from the room, and Ocher came back. Ajalia guessed that he had shoved all of the furniture over the opening. He had blood on his hands, and smeared a little over his chest. Ajalia saw him looking at her, and she thought she saw him hoping she would notice his bloodied state, and think well of him for it. Ajalia suppressed a sigh. Delmar had inserted himself into a chair at her side, and he wound his fingers around her hand. Rane was glancing with mild malevolence at the pair of them. Ocher laughed when he saw the look on Rane's face.

  "It's no use," Ocher told Rane. "You'll have to give up on Ajalia. Can I still have a new wife?" Ocher asked Ajalia suddenly. "Since I'm not going to be the Thief Lord anymore," he added, the tips of his ears reddening.

  "I don't see why she shouldn't like me any more than you," Rane told Ocher peevishly. "I understand her better than either of you," he added to Delmar. Rane avoided Ajalia's eyes when he said this.

  "I'll get you a wife," Ajalia told Ocher. "I said I would."

  "Yes, but then Beryl happened," Ocher said. "I didn't know if that would change your mind."

  "If I thought you knew about Beryl," Ajalia told Ocher, "I would not even speak to you now."

  Ocher's face turned a little red; Ajalia saw that she had pleased him. "Now sit down," she told Ocher, "and tell me about what you see when you do magic," she said to Delmar. Delmar looked at her, and then at Rane. Rane shrugged, and Delmar sighed.

  "I don't see anything," he said. "I can see, or I can feel, when the white brand is there, or when it isn't, but I can't see anything when I do the magic. I know when magic is there. I can feel it. When you worked that magic in the square, on Beryl," he added, "I could feel the power in the air." Ajalia stared at Delmar. She could not believe what she was hearing.

  "You don't see any colors?" she demanded. She looked at Ocher, and then at Rane. They looked at her steadily; she was sure that Delmar was not lying to her this time. She hoped, now that his father's shadows were drained from his brain, that Delmar would never lie to her again.

  "What do you see?" Delmar asked Rane. Rane shrugged again. He looked a little uncomfortable, as though they were discussing the pros and cons of his features.

  "Same as you," Rane said.

  "What do you see," Ajalia asked Delmar, "when I do magic? Like this," she added, and she picked up a vein of purple light that was throbbing deeply under the building's foundations. Ocher and Rane both gave out yelps, and jumped a little.

  "You can't do that in here," Ocher said, his eyes turned uneasily towards Ajalia's hand.

  "Do what?" Ajalia asked.

  "That," Rane said, pointing at the air just above Ajalia's hand.

  "What do you see?" Ajalia asked. She twisted the purple cord of power, and watched the light that shimmered over her hand. Rane let out another soft cry, and moved away from her. Even Delmar, Ajalia saw, looked a little uncomfortable.

  "I don't see anything," Delmar told her, "but I can feel power there. It's as though you're trying to kill us," he said. "If you had a blade at my neck, and if you turned it, I would bleed. It feels like that."

  "But I'm not doing anything with it," Ajalia said. She let go of the purple light, and the three men took a visible breath. "I've done magic around you before," she told Delmar. "I don't know why you're acting excited now."

  "I wasn't myself, before," Delmar told her. "And I did get angry," he reminded her, "when you put that power into my hand."

  "Did you see that?" Ajalia asked. She looked below in the earth; she wanted to fine a cord of the golden light.

  "I can see my soul," Delmar said. "The falcon I showed you, and the drops in my hand." He glanced at Ocher and Rane, and Ajalia knew that he was thinking of the magic he had put into her skin so many times. She saw that Delmar did not want Rane or Ocher to know what he had done.

  "But can you see gold light?" Ajalia asked. She found a narrow ribbon of gold below, and she imagined her fingers closing gently around it where it lay.

  "I can," Delmar said. Ajalia filled up her hand with the gold light, and then opened her palm towards the room. Delmar's eyes were fixed on her skin; Rane and Ocher were staring at her, transfixed.

  "How did you find that?" Rane whispered, his eyes on the gold cord.

  "What do you see?" Ajalia asked Ocher. Ocher's face was stern, and his chin was tucked down against his neck.

  "I see very little," Ocher admitted. "I can see a little flash of gold, like the reflection from a ring." Rane looked around at Ocher in surprise.

  "Really?" Rane demanded. "I can see a long line of light," he told Ajalia, his eyes bright, "and I can see your soul," he added shyly. Delmar looked around at Rane, a crease of anger between his eyebrows. "I can!" Rane said defensively. Delmar looked at Ajalia, as though asking her to check and see if this was true. Ajalia could see that Delmar could not see what Rane said he could see, and that this upset him.

  "What does it look like?" Ajalia asked Rane. Rane looked at her, and at Delmar.

  "Orange," Rane said, "and red." Delmar squeezed Ajalia's hand. She knew he was asking her if Rane was correct. Ajalia looked at Rane, and tried to see why he was seeing what the others could not see. What he said was true; when she looked at herself, she saw long swirls of gold and red, and orange mixed in the edges. There was a swath of green, where Delmar had become part of her, and an extra measure of white over her heart. She saw that when he had given her a part of his white brand, her own glowing shield of white light had gotten thicker, and stronger. Delmar, she saw, had not been lessened by this gift of energy. He somehow remained the same as before.

  Ajalia turned her attention to Rane. Rane was staring at her hopefully, and Ajalia remembered how Delmar had seemed, at times, to be hunting her, and how she had accused him of following her on his mother's behalf. She thought again of Beryl, and of the endless line of bodies that had hung on that witch's dark cord of evil power.

  "Beryl is trying to collect me," Ajalia said. She knew that what she said was true; now that she had said so, Rane's face crumpled, and his eyes got angry, just as Delmar's had turned sharp when she had targeted the ugly white piece of his mother. Ajalia looked at Delmar; she saw that he knew what she meant. Delmar stood, and went to the door. He leaned against the metal door, and folded his arms. Ajalia felt a warm rush of pleasure, just as she had when Isacar had appeared before her. Delmar, Ajalia told herself, was going to be quite a different man now. She suppressed a happy sigh, and looked from Rane to Ocher.

  "Do you know what I am going to do?" she asked. She was glad, for a moment, that Ocher had barricaded the window in the inner
room. She had a kind of vision in her mind, of Rane throwing himself out of that window in order to escape her.

  "What?" Ocher asked her. Ajalia felt the pressure of her knife against her back; she had not needed it, she remembered, when she had cut out the white piece of Delmar's mother. She did not know what Beryl's pieces would be like. The witch-caller, and wife to Rane and Ocher, had not been like Lilleth, Ajalia thought. Rane, she remembered, had called Lilleth lost. She wondered if the people of Talbos killed the lost ones, when they were discovered. She wondered if that was part of why Talbos seemed like a healthier place to live than Slavithe.

  "I'm going to find the piece of herself," Ajalia said, "that Beryl left in you, and I'm going to take it out. And then," she added, looking at Rane, "you're both going to take a cord of blue light from the sky, and you're going to kill her."

  She looked at Rane, and at Ocher. Ocher and Rane stared at her. Ocher smiled.

  "All right," he said. Rane glanced at Ocher, his face a mask of disdain.

  "I'm not letting you do magic to me," Rane said hotly.

  "You don't really have a choice," Ajalia told him. Rane opened his mouth to reply, and then he noticed that Delmar had blocked the door. Rane's face began to grow mottled with anger.

  "This was an awful trick," Rane told Ajalia. "You said, if I brought Ocher and Delmar here, that you wouldn't think I was a sneaking thief. You said you would trust me!" he added, and Ajalia saw tears of panic, and of rage, building behind Rane's eyes.

  "I do trust you," Ajalia told Rane. "I don't cut pieces of witches out of men that I don't trust. Would I?" she asked Delmar. Delmar shook his head, his eyes turned to Rane.

  "I'll go first," Ocher said, standing up.

  "Why are you cooperating with this girl?" Rane demanded, swells of fear coming through his words. "You don't know where she's been, or what she really is," Rane said loudly, and Ajalia thought that she could hear, just at the edge of Rane's voice, the tones of Beryl's loud words. Rane glared mistrustfully at Ajalia, as though she were an unwashed spoon he had found in the street, and was loathe to put into his mouth.