He did not want any sort of adventure any more. He had had quite enough of that, first with his three months in the wilderness and then with his five assassinations. He wanted to settle down quietly somewhere, with a place of his own and perhaps a family. Not a farm — he had no interest in working the soil and was not fond of tending animals. A shop, perhaps — he knew nothing of the mercantile trades, but they seemed appealing.
His head hurt. He reminded himself that he was still a soldier and that the war was still going on, as it always had. The war would probably be going long after he was dead, even if he lived to a ripe old age. The promise of living forever was still too new and too incredible to accept, after living all his life in the sure knowledge of his own mortality, so he ignored it for the present.
He would be a soldier until he had served his full thirty years if the war went on. He would be forty-six when he was finally discharged, just over twice his present age. That was hard to imagine. Some men were still strong and healthy at that age — General Anaran was fifty or so, but was said to be still in perfect condition. Valder might be equally lucky and emerge still vigorous, ready to start a new career. The army usually offered such men promotions or other incentives to re-enlist, but Valder told himself that he would never be so foolish as to be swayed by such blandishments. He would go and open a shop somewhere, dealing in wines, perhaps. He could leave Wirikidor in a back room and forget about it. Even just working for some wealthy merchant might be enjoyable; every civilian business was always short of men, since the army got first pick.
He had been taking orders all his life — first from his parents and then from his officers. Taking orders from a merchant could be no worse, and he would have none of the risks or responsibilities of running his own business.
On the other hand, he was getting tired of taking orders from anybody and he still had two dozen years to serve. There was no knowing what he would be like at forty-six. People change, he decided, including himself.
He had just reached this profound conclusion when the tent flap swung open and Kelder entered.
Startled, Valder swung his feet to the floor and sat up. Before he could rise, Kelder said, “Don’t get up yet.”
Valder stopped where he was, looking up at the self-proclaimed spy.
“May I sit?” Kelder asked politely.
Valder gestured at the empty cot opposite, and Kelder settled on it. Valder was puzzled; he had assumed when he first saw Kelder that his rest was over and he was going to be sent out to kill another northerner, but in that case, he would ordinarily have been summoned either to Kelder’s tent in Camptown or Captain Endarim’s near the dragon pens for a briefing. He was not sure what to think now; this change in the pattern might mean anything. He tried to decide whether he dared protest again that he did not want to be an assassin; after he had been successful on his missions no one had taken his claim seriously any more.
They had no idea what it was like, alone and terrified in the enemy’s camps and cities, knowing that the only way he would be brought back was if he either completed his task or was seriously injured. He was no hero; he hated the thought of pain and carried out his assassinations as quickly and efficiently as he could so that he could go home that much faster.
Kelder knew his views, but had still sent him out repeatedly. He decided there was no point in rehashing the matter.
“I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you,” he said instead.
“I was away,” Kelder replied. “But now I’m back. I have your new orders.”
“What new orders?”
“From General Gor. I told him about you, and he thinks you’re being wasted here, killing sorcerers and administrators.”
Valder was unsure whether that was good or bad. Much as he hated what he had been doing, it was always possible that what General Gor had in mind for him would be even worse.
He suppressed a slight shiver at the thought of General Gor thinking about him at all. Gor commanded the entire land-based Ethsharitic military west of the Great River’s basin, after all; he was one of the four or five most powerful men in Ethshar, along with General Anaran and General Terrek and Admiral Azrad, and perhaps whoever was the current civilian head of state.
“What,” Valder said at last, “does General Gor have in mind?”
“I wouldn’t presume to guess General Gor’s thoughts, Valder — and I wouldn’t say, even if I did. However, your orders state that you’re to be transferred from General Karannin’s command to General Gor’s personal staff, effective immediately, with the same title and position. It seems to me — though this is strictly a guess, and I’ll deny ever saying it — that our illustrious commander has no objection to your current services other than the choice of targets.”
“More assassinations, then?”
“I would think so.”
“What if I refuse?”
“Don’t be silly, Valder. That would be treason; you know that.”
“But damn it, Kelder, I don’t want to be an assassin! It scares me half to death, and I hate killing people — I get sick to my stomach.”
“There are times when I don’t like being a spy.”
“I wouldn’t mind spying as much, I don’t think. Couldn’t I do that?” “Oh, maybe you will; I can’t say. I’m just here to give you your orders and get you safely to Gor’s headquarters on the coast. It’s too late tonight; we leave at dawn.”
“But...” Valder’s objections trailed off.
Kelder smiled ruefully. “I sympathize, Valder, honestly. You have no choice, though. That hermit trapped you for life when he enchanted your sword; we can’t possibly allow something like that to remain unexploited.”
Valder glared resentfully at Wirikidor where it hung at the foot of his bed.
Kelder stood up and pulled the tent flap open. “We leave at dawn,” he said.
Valder watched him go, then lay back, hoping that somehow dawn would not come.
Dawn came on schedule, however, and they departed.
Valder was startled by the transportation provided. They rode no horses, used no levitation spells; instead, Kelder led him to a small lavender tent in the magicians’ circle, empty save for a rich tapestry that seemed stupendously out of place in a military camp. It hung from a crossbar nailed to the rear tentpole, its ornately fringed lower edge dragging in the dirt, and depicted a seascape seen from a stone rampart.
Kelder calmly walked directly into the tapestry, pulling Valder in after him.
To his astonishment, he found himself standing on the seaward battlement of General Gor’s coastal fortress, Kelder at his side. The salt air washed into his nostrils, and he realized for the first time how accustomed he had become to the stench of General Karannin’s camp, compounded largely of sweat, dust, and cattle. The sun was rising behind him and pouring out across the sea, lighting the wave crests with gold.
He turned around, expecting to see an opening back into the little tent, but instead he saw the upper court of the Fortress.
“Now, that tapestry,” Kelder remarked. “That’s a twelfth-order spell, and it took a very good wizard a year to produce it, but it does come in handy. They carefully avoid changing this section of the ramparts so that it will keep working. It has its drawbacks — you’ll notice that it only works one way and that we had to leave the tapestry behind. It will be shipped wherever it’s needed next. I wanted to get you here immediately, and there simply isn’t anything faster, so I requisitioned the tapestry; nobody else was using it just now, so I was able to get it.”
Valder was still staring about in amazement at the solid stone of the Fortress, trying to convince himself it was not a dream or illusion. “Oh,” he said. Then a thought struck him. “Why did you wait until dawn, if the tapestry works instantly?”
“Because the tapestry depicts this spot just after dawn, of course. We’d arrive at dawn regardless of when we left, and I prefer a good night’s sleep to several hours in some wizardly limbo.
We could have entered the tapestry at any hour, true enough, but we would not arrive here until the hour the tapestry showed, regardless of how long a wait that might require. We wouldn’t have noticed anything; to us the trip would still be instantaneous, but we would actually have lost those nighttime hours. I did that once; it messed up my sleeping schedule for days. And the weather can affect it, too — in fact, we may have missed a day or two if the weather was bad, but the prognostications were all favorable, so I don’t think we have.”
“I never heard of anything like that before.”
“Of course not; it’s a military secret, like almost any useful magic. Only the Wizards’ Guild and important officers know anything about most of the more powerful wizardry. You’d be amazed what wizardry can do; there are spells for any number of things you would never have thought possible.”
“Could they make more tapestries?”
“There are others, but right now no wizard can be spared for long enough to make more.” Valder was over his shock and beginning to think again. “Couldn’t they use them to dump assassins, or whole regiments, behind enemy lines, maybe right in the enemy’s capital?”
Kelder sighed. “It’s a lovely theory, isn’t it? But it won’t work. The wizard making the tapestry needs to see the scene he’s weaving very, very clearly. If it isn’t absolutely perfect, right down to the smallest detail, the tapestry won’t work — or at least won’t work properly. We don’t have any way of seeing clearly enough behind enemy lines; our scrying spells are good enough for most needs, but not for making these tapestries.”
After a moment’s pause he added, “Yet.”
Valder decided against pursuing the matter; instead he looked around the battlements. He had seen this fortress from a distance, assuming that it was indeed General Gor’s headquarters, but he had never before been inside its walls. Tandellin was here somewhere, he remembered.
The place was impressive. The stone walls appeared to be several feet thick, and the outer faces were steep enough that he could see nothing of them from where he stood. He did not care to lean very far out over the seaward parapet; the height was dizzying.
From where he stood, he could see nothing beyond the fortress walls but the sea, the sky, a few gulls, and, very far off in the northeastern distance, a line of dark green hills. The citadel was built atop the highest ground in the area, a jagged cliff that towered above broken rocks right at the ocean’s edge — Valder remembered that from his previous visit.
The wall he stood upon stretched for almost a hundred yards in either direction; behind it, the courtyard was more than a hundred feet across, but long enough that that seemed disproportionately narrow. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people were going about their business there. Men were sharpening swords or practicing their use, women were hanging clothes out to dry, and members of both sexes were sitting or standing in pairs or groups, talking. Off at the northern corner, two sentries peered out over the ocean; to the south, a bend in the wall and a small guardhouse hid the next pair from Valder.
“Well,” Kelder said, “if you’ve finished admiring the view, we have an appointment with one of General Gor’s staff, a Captain Dumery, who is to get you settled in and tell you your next assignment.”
“Oh,” Valder said unenthusiastically. He had no interest in any assignments, and the mere mention of one had ruined his enjoyment of his surroundings.
Kelder ignored the soldier’s tone and led the way to one of the staircases down into the court. They descended and, from the foot of the steps, proceeded across the court, through a vestibule into a corridor, down a flight of stairs, back along another corridor, across a large hall, along still another corridor, down another flight, across yet another corridor into a smaller hall, from there into an antechamber, and finally into a small room lined with tightly packed shelves. Valder was startled to see a small window slit with a view of the ocean; he had gotten turned around and would have guessed that they were deep in the interior of the Fortress, facing south toward the shipyards, and nowhere near the seaward side.
The room was inhabited by a small, white-haired man who invited them to sit down. He himself was perched on a stool, so that, when Valder and Kelder took the two low chairs provided, he could, short as he was, still look down on his visitors.
“You’re Valder?” he asked. His voice was thin but steady.
Valder nodded.
“That’s Wirikidor?”
“Yes,” Valder said.
“It works the way Darrend says it does?”
“It seems to.”
“Good. Then we want you to kill the Northern Emperor.”
Valder stared up at the old man in silent astonishment. Kelder started and said, “You’re not serious!”
The white-haired man shrugged. “Oh, well, maybe I’m not. If we can locate him, however, I think this man might be our best shot. After all, that sword is like nothing anyone has ever had before, so far as I know, and they probably have no defense against it. They can defend against just about everything else we throw at them!” He sighed. “Unfortunately, we can’t locate him. Never could. So we’ll be sending you against anyone important we can locate, Valder. Any problem with that?”
“Ah,” Valder said, trying to give himself time to think.
“You know, I assume, that the sword is going to turn on me eventually, after a certain number of drawings.”
“Yes, of course — but you have a long way yet to go. Darrend told me that it would take a hundred or so deaths before it could kill you, and you’ve only used up what, maybe five?”
“Seventeen,” Valder corrected him.
“So many? Ah, well, that still leaves us with eighty-three, give or take a couple.”
Valder was desperately unhappy at the sound of this, but could not think how to phrase a protest. Before he could work out what to say, the white-haired man raised a hand in dismissal. “I’ll call you when we need you,” he said. “My secretary will tell you where to go.”
Valder started to speak, but Kelder shushed him and hurried him out of the room.
CHAPTER 16
While Valder remained inside the fortress walls, life as General Gor’s assassin was not unpleasant. The food was good and plentiful, where the meals in General Karannin’s camp had not been, although a far larger portion of it was seafood than Valder might have liked. The floors were dry stone, rather than dirt or mud, and most of them had some sort of covering, whether carpets, rush matting, or at least strewn straw, so that they were not unpleasantly cold and hard underfoot. He had been assigned his own little room deep in the bowels of the stronghold, with a tiny slit of window letting in air and, for a few hours a day when the sun was in the right part of the sky, light. He could not see out of the opening, which was eight or nine feet from the floor, but he judged it to be facing southwest.
To keep him from being called upon for menial duties, he had been issued new clothing. His worn and weathered old uniform was disposed of, and he was instructed that from now on he was to wear the gray-and-black tunic and black kilt that indicated the wearer to be performing some special service for General Gor. This outfit was more practical for sneaking about at night and had a certain drastic elegance, but Valder thought it uncomfortably reminiscent of northern uniforms; he was reluctant to be seen in it until he had observed other people in the Fortress, including Kelder, similarly attired.
He quickly discovered that the new uniform had one very definite advantage: it attracted women. Valder, unsure just what special services Gor was in the habit of demanding, was not sure why this was so, but it was undeniable that women who had scarcely glanced at him in his old green kilt and battered breastplate now stared at him with hungry eyes and looked for excuses to speak with him. Since he did not know when he might be sent off on a mission that could easily end in capture or mutilation, he refused to make any sort of long-term arrangements, but did spare an hour now and then to accompany a particularly eager or attractive young woman
back to her quarters.
He hoped that such women were not disappointed, that the black-and-gray uniform had not led them to expect something more than an ordinary man.
He had been in the Fortress for almost a day before he managed to find Tandellin. The youth’s barracks was nowhere near the areas Valder found himself frequenting; but once he had taken care of the minimal necessities of settling in, he took the time to track down his former bunkmate.
Tandellin had been permanently posted to the Fortress as part of the garrison; he stood a watch on the ramparts for six hours a day and was on call as a messenger and errand boy for six more. Calls came frequently. Still, he was able to find time for a quiet drink and conversation with Valder in a seldom-used storeroom on the evening of the day following Valder’s arrival.
When they had exchanged a few polite phrases, Valder asked, “How are things going? Still running errands for that wizard?”
“Sharassin? No.”
The answer seemed uncharacteristically brief. “What happened?” Valder asked.
Tandellin grinned crookedly. “If you must know, she found out where I had been spending some of my time when I was off duty and she wasn’t. She didn’t take it well. Just as well; she was transferred out a few days ago, anyway.”
Valder grinned back. “So where were you spending that time — or wasn’t it always the same place?”
“Oh, it was the same place all right. Her name is Sarai of the Green Eyes.”
Valder waited, but Tandellin did not continue. “What’s this?” he asked. “No description? No suggestion that I really must meet her? Could there be something special about Sarai of the Green Eyes?”
Tandellin’s grin turned sheepish. “Maybe there is.”
“Ah, well, congratulations, my boy, if it’s true.” Valder was genuinely pleased. He was a great believer in love and marriage, or so he had always said — though he had, as yet, no particular inclination in that direction for himself. It delighted him to see Tandellin showing signs of settling down, giving up the wildness of youth. The world needed more quietly settled people, he was convinced, something to provide stability and offset the chaos of the eternal war.
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