The Bandit (Fall of the Swords Book 2)

by Scott Michael Decker

  'Healing Hand wasn't any help the next day. Even though I explained that the criminals' lives were forfeit already, he refused to torture any of them. Approving of his decision, I encouraged him to adhere to his scruples. While I was interrogating them, and Whispering Oak executing them, Flowering Pine's mother Rustling Pine was watching from nearby. She approached me later to introduce herself.'

  'She's the Consort's mother? How is Rustling Pine, by the Infinite? I haven't seen her since Smoking Arrow granted me the Caven Hills Prefecture.'

  'Well, that confirms my suspicion!' Bubbling Water replied. 'I met her son Flaming Wolf. She was eager to tell me the Colonel Scratching Wolf was the father of her children. One look at Flaming Wolf, I knew she was lying. He looks just like your brother.'

  'Oh? I didn't know Brazen Bear had any children!' Guarding Bear said.

  'Neither did I, but the resemblance was too true. If you knew her then, chances are your brother did too, eh?' Bubbling Water sent an image of Flaming Wolf.

  'He does resemble Brazen Bear!' Guarding Bear replied. 'Why didn't he ever tell me? Or Rustling Pine tell me, for that matter! Nearly a quarter of my holdings are his by right. I've held Brazen Bear's bequest aside should an heir come forward. Should I contact her? Oh, Lord Infinite, if Flying Arrow finds out Flowering Pine's my niece, he'll expel her from the castle!'

  'But not until after she gives birth, eh?' Bubbling Water sent.

  'It's what I'd do,' he replied, nodding. 'Is Rustling Pine still a seamstress? She designed and tailored my first banner and uniforms. She was very good then.'

  'I didn't ask. All she wanted to discuss was her daughter. “Ask if Flowering Pine needs me in Emparia City for the birth of the Arrow Twins,” she kept saying. I told her I'd ask but couldn't guarantee anything. If Flowering Pine needs her she can certainly summon her. After that, Rustling Pine wanted only to leave. I made her discomfort worse with endless obligatory etiquette. She didn't seem to care much about her daughter, only about the benefits she might accrue from her daughter's good fortune. Conniving snake.'

  'So I always thought,' he replied, washing her legs and starting on her feet.

  “That tickles!” she said aloud, laughing.

  'I'll wager this tickles even more.'

  Gasping, she shuddered with pleasure.

  After a while, he asked, 'What happened to the Wizard who treated me for Lurking Hawk disease just before the negotiations?'

  'I don't know. Why do you ask?'

  'He could have been very helpful in Nest. While he examined me, my shields went up several times. He brushed them aside like curtains in a breeze.'

  'He told me he was available only on an incidental basis, so I doubt he'd have been amenable to helping me clean out Nest. Oh, that feels good!' She moaned as he caressed her, the sponge on the floor.

  'Snarling Jaguar's mice told us about Tumbling Pigeon's execution,' Guarding Bear whispered.

  'I wish we could just talk of pleasantries,' she transmitted, sadness upon her, her arousal leaving her. 'Did you hear Flying Arrow killed their children in front of Trickling Stream? I don't know why I expected better of him. That wasn't any different from his torturing and killing every Northerner in front of Lofty Lion, eh?'

  'It surprises me that he didn't kill her as well. Did she die well when she fell on her knife?'

  'I commanded her to live,' Bubbling Water replied. 'Did Snarling Jaguar tell you of our bargains? The exmatriate for the valley, the consort for you, his seed for the bear?'

  'The first two I knew. A bear?'

  'His trading the tiger to Scowling Tiger gave me the idea. Snarling Jaguar has agreed to find a bear, domesticate it and train it. Frankly, I don't see how he'll do that before you're dead. It takes generations to breed an animal with psychic capabilities. Anyway, I took his seed and six of my ova and—'

  'The nefarious and degrading things you have to do to promote the Matriarchy!' Guarding Bear thought indignantly. 'Having to fornicate with that barbarian.'

  'He's not a barbarian, and I enjoyed it immensely,' she replied. 'Not as much as I enjoy you.'

  Grinning, he washed her again where she liked it most.

  Bubbling Water continued, tremors shivering through her. 'Anyway, I cheated a little. I inseminated Trickling Stream with his seed to increase her value. When I was sure she was pregnant and wouldn't disobey me by taking her life without my permission, I sent her—'

  She shuddered and gasped, his hands knowing where to lavish attention. She lifted herself a foot off the stool with her talent and drew him to her. Their psychic contact dissolved into a chaotic jumble of pulsating sensuosity, the soap serving to smooth the physical contact.

  * * *

  Later, Bubbling Water sat up and looked around, her transcendence giving the physical world the appearance of illusion. They lay entwined in the sunken tub, the hot water lapping at them. The small wooden stool was nowhere around. The towel cupboard was empty, the floor strewn with cloth. Also on the floor were combs, containers, rollers and other articles for hygiene and beautification. She guessed her talent had gotten mischievous.

  Vaguely remembering their immersion, she smiled, surfeit. Gazing into his eyes, she almost lost herself in them. Their pleasures nearly always brought her into communion with the Infinite. Briefly, she wondered why anyone would ever take money for an act that was its own highest reward.

  'By the way,' she informed him, 'I made Running Bear promise to sell his courtesans before you returned. I don't mind his owning the brothel, but I don't want him trafficking in human beings. Besides not reflecting well on either of us, slavery is a cruel practice.'

  Guarding Bear emitted the psychic equivalent of a grunt. 'Is that where he squanders all his time?'

  'And all his seed. When he started this five years ago, I thought he was just disporting himself like any pubescent young man. I thought he'd grow out of his debauchery. He hasn't yet.'

  'Running Bear has delayed his induction long enough, eh?'

  Bubbling Water scoffed. 'That may not help. Warriors are infamous for their wenching and drinking.'

  'True, but in the military, he'll at least learn to balance his debauchery with the responsibilities of work. We've been too lax with the boy.' Guarding Bear sighed. 'He's the antithesis of his older brother, eh?'

  'He is. Rolling Bear couldn't be a better son. I wonder why they're so different. You know how badly I feel that I couldn't rear Flying Arrow to be a decent person. I don't feel the same about Running Bear. There's no cruelty in him, but neither does he have any sense of civic duty.'

  'Maybe he was just born that way. Infinite knows it happens.'

  'True.' Bubbling Water frowned at him. 'Speaking of being born, the bandit's daughter was born the same day as Rippling Water, almost the same minute. Snarling Jaguar thinks you fathered her.'

  'Ridiculous,' Guarding Bear replied.

  'So I told him,' she said, sensing obfuscation but not wanting to believe it, not liking the implications. 'Anyway, after I get reacquainted with you, I think you should go see your brother's widow. Both of you would benefit.'

  'I don't believe in polygyny,' he replied.

  Bubbling Water laughed. 'I'm not saying you should mate her.'

  'How is Fleeting Snow, eh? Beautiful as ever?'

  'Yes, but like us, getting older, perhaps faster than us because of her ordeal with that expatriate. Other than her grief over having to give up her daughter, she seems all right. She didn't leave the fortress with an empty head either.'

  'I've never known her to be empty-headed,' Guarding Bear said. 'What does she know?'

  'Oh, just everything about the entire structure: every floor-plan; every passageway and entrance, secret and public; every water, air and electrical conduit; all the top administrators; all the expatriate's habits. I've been interviewing her for months now and haven't been able to exhaust her erudition. Apparently, she knew she'd have to bargain something of value for sanctuary.'

  'Spies in
Emparia Castle?' Guarding Bear asked. 'Spies in my administration?'

  Bubbling Water nodded.

  'You've recorded all this information, eh? Thought so.'

  'That mind of yours never stops plotting his death, does it?'

  'Why should it? He's always plotting mine. When I first saw the Wizard, I thought, “this looks like one of that expatriate's machinations.” Spying Eagle turned out to be just a good citizen, eh?'

  'He does resemble Melding Mind to a degree,' Bubbling Water agreed. Since the water getting cold and wrinkling them, she lifted them, still entwined. Drying them off with her telekinesis, she carried them into the bedroom.

  There they relaxed in each other's arms, each merely enjoying the touch of the other and the presence of the other.

  She was grateful and happy to have him home, having missed him. Their mate-empathy link was very strong, stronger than for most couples mated as long as they. The strength of their link was due to their initial similarity. When they first met, not long after the Caven Hills rebellion, their trace talents were very much alike, they shared almost identical values, and their parents had inculcated into them the arts of government. They'd had so many similarities that their physical and social disparities had mattered very little. Thus their mate-empathy link had grown stronger and faster than comparable mates.

  Bubbling Water sighed, feeling more whole than she had during Guarding Bear's absence. Not that without him she was less than whole, merely that his presence filled a place inside her, a place inaccessible to anyone except him, herself and the Infinite, a place filled by only two things: Sexuality and spirituality.

  For her the two were nearly inseparable.

  Chapter 6

  When the stanchions supporting a life rip away, when the very heart of a person's being collapses in a heap, the rebuilding is often a terrible process. The best approach is, first, to clear away the old wreckage. Salvaging from the wreckage a semblance of loss only results in a greater burden of pain—far better to remove the wreckage completely. Second, erecting a new structure upon the cleared land takes hope for the future. Third and last, occupying the new building takes a commitment to caring, and worse, carries the risk of losing any gains.—The Book of the Infinite.

  * * *

  Brushing the snow off his elkskin parka, Leaping Elk took a last look at the weather. Thank the Infinite the storm held off long enough for me to return home, he thought.

  Dawn was two hours away. Leaping Elk had traveled most of the night, his pace moderate on his return journey from the Tiger Fortress. His breathing still rough from exertion, he realized how good his physical condition was, despite his fifty-five years. He felt too old for his sub-subsistence life.

  My next meal is whatever I hunt down, he thought, and my next sleep on a rickety pallet shoved against a cold stone wall. At least I slept on that pallet last night, he reminded himself. Long had been the years he hadn't lain his head on the same pillow two nights in succession.

  He shook off the memory as he shook off the cold—with a shiver.

  Striding along the narrow, twisting entryway to the caves, Leaping Elk passed two sentries hidden in dark niches above the passageway to stop unwanted intruders. The passage began to ascend, twisting ever upward through volcanic rock. As it ascended, the warmth grew greater. The passage deposited him into the central cavern.

  At its center, the firepit blazed brightly. Who's up at this hour? he wondered, surprised to find the central cavern cheerily warm and light. Usually, no one was awake this time of night, the fire allowed to die and the communal room to darken.

  Laughter from beyond the fire reached his ears. Three night-owls were talking and laughing on the far side of fire. He recognized two voices and, as he approached the fire, two faces as well.

  The woman he didn't know. Her back to him, she was fitting what looked like a new robe onto Slithering Snake. The quality of silk and the cut of the robe were far better than most of the bandits' clothing, the fabric shimmering with reflected flame. Nearby was a stack of raw silk bolts, many colors and prints among them.

  Leaping Elk guessed she was an itinerant seamstress here to sell her wares. How could she carry all that silk? he wondered. Why bring it here? None of his bandits had enough money to buy new robes. Probing her for further information, he met the blank barrier of an electrical shield.

  The unknown woman knelt to adjust the hem.

  Seeing his liege lord, Slithering Snake called him over.

  Looking, she interrupted what she was doing to bow to him.

  Leaping Elk nodded to acknowledge. “Infinite with you be, Lady, Snake Lord, Elephant Lord. Humble bandit from fortress just return.”

  “How's the Lord Tiger, eh Lord?” Slithering Snake asked.

  Leaping Elk didn't answer.

  The seamstress hadn't risen from her bow.

  “What this be, Lady?” he asked, his intuition screaming for caution.

  “Infinite be with you, Lord Leaping Elk,” the woman said flawlessly in the Southern language, easing back on her haunches.

  He looked at her closely.

  Her quality robes were thick with padding to ward off the cold. Her hair was dark brown. Her hazel eyes sat wide on her face. Her features were pretty. Her bosom was ample.

  He was appreciating how ample when he realized she knew he was appreciating. He returned his gaze to her face. She didn't betray she knew, but he knew she knew. All women knew, he knew.

  Other than the girth at her waist, she was beautiful.

  “And with you, Lady Seamstress,” he replied, also in the Southern tongue. “You've come a long way to sell wares to bandits who can't buy them, Lady. I hope one of my more mischievous bandits hasn't lured you here merely to take your silks and robes.”

  Looking mystified, she glanced at the stack of bolts and Slithering Snake's new robes. Laughing with the abandon of a child, she shook her head. “No, Lord Leaping Elk, I'm not a merchant seamstress. The Lords Snake and Elephant stole the silk from Burrow last night. I was here when they arrived. Since I'm an adequate seamstress, I volunteered to make robes for them.”

  Obviously not her native tongue, she spoke the language it so fluently it might have been. “Your command of my language is superb, Lady—?”

  She smiled. “When the proper moment comes, this humble Lady would ask to speak with the eminent Lord Leaping Elk.”

  She's wearing the shield to conceal her name, Leaping Elk thought, nodding. “Please, Lady, finish with the Lord Snake's robe, eh?”

  “Thank you, Lord Elk, you're most considerate.” Nodding, she turned back to the hem of the sectathon's new clothing.

  Leaping Elk shot a glance at his lieutenant.

  “How was your trip, Lord Elk?” Slithering Snake asked, shrugging and looking as puzzled as Leaping Elk felt.

  “Uneventful, thank the Infinite,” he replied in the Southern language. He kept his distance from the woman, wondering if she were here to assassinate him. “It's snowing outside now. Looks as if the storm will be a bad one. How were the pickings in Burrow?”

  “Very good, Lord. Five hundred taels in addition to the silk.”

  “Taels and silk?” Leaping Elk grinned. “That's all you brought back?”

  * * *

  Slithering Snake laughed. “I could have brought a few, uh, haunches of deer.” He'd almost said “women” before remembering that one was at his feet: A beautiful woman with the face and body of a Goddess, the carriage of an Empress, and the tongue of a linguist.

  The sentries had informed Slithering Snake upon his return a few hours earlier that she'd arrived the night before. Curious, he'd greeted her and asked her why she'd come.

  To see the Lord Elk, she'd replied with guardedness that insisted he not inquire further.

  So they'd discussed inconsequentials while he and Lumbering Elephant unloaded their packs. She'd admired the silk, so he asked if she knew how to make anything with it, no seamstresses among the Elk Raiders. In minute
s she'd made him a new robe with her trace telekinesis. Soon, they were talking easily while she worked. Already she'd fitted both Slithering Snake and Lumbering Elephant with wardrobes fit for an Emperor.

  I hope when her business with Leaping Elk is done she'll stay for a day or two, Slithering Snake thought. If the rats don't frighten her off.

  While fitting the large levithon earlier, a rat had run past her. Screaming, she'd leaped to her feet, waking nearly everyone in the caves. Suddenly, the rat was a pile of dust. The woman had desiccated it with her talent of dehydration.

  She finished with the hem of the sectathon's robe, the length adjusted perfectly. Getting to her feet, she looked toward Leaping Elk.

  * * *

  The Southerner saw then that her girth was pregnancy. She looked seven, eight months along. “Would you make me a robe, Lady? My clothing is old as well, and it looks as if you're very good.” No, he thought, not an assassin.

  “Of course, Lord Elk,” she said amiably, smiling. “Infinite bless your gilded tongue.” Eyeing him, she unrolled a flap from a bolt. “No, the colors are all wrong. Golds and browns, I think,” she said, looking at his skin and hair.

  “At one time, Lady, but no more, my name was Leaping Jaguar. Anything but the Emperor Jaguar's insignia colors, eh?”

  “Oh, forgive me, Lord, I didn't realize,” she said, unperturbed. “A pity really, because those are your best colors. Let's see. Reds and rusts are a good alternative. I wonder what I can find in here.” After looking through the raw silk, she switched languages. “Lord Elephant, didn't you have a floral pattern with black, rust and sienna?”

  Nodding, he gestured vaguely over his shoulder.

  “Would you be a gentle lord and get it for me, oh please?” she pleaded mockingly, flashing a captivating smile.

  Lumbering Elephant smiled, turning to go.

  Glancing at Slithering Snake, Leaping Elk saw he admired her too. She was very admirable. Of the few women who lived with the Elk Raiders, none was anything like her. Vivacious and animated, she brought light into the Elk Raiders' dark hole. Leaping Elk had forgotten what having an effervescent woman around was like.