Sword Born ss-5

by Jennifer Roberson

  The contempt was back in his eyes. "I am not immortal," he said. "But I will not intentionally tie a string around my finger so that it may wither and die." He paused. "And you would not be permitted close enough to break my neck."

  "Really?" I grinned toothily at him. "Is that why I’ve dumped you on your rump more than once?" I made a show of examining his soaked but drying person. "And knocked you into the water?"

  Del’s posture was suddenly such that we all became aware of the sheer power of her presence simultaneously. It was a subtle magic she had in good measure, and a power I understood and admired.

  To Nihkolara she said, "You have relied on magic to defeat this man, always. What are you without it?"

  Prima’s sun-coppered brows slid up in startlement. "My, my," she murmured with elegant implication. "So the tiger’s mate defends her male. He has trained you well."

  "Oh, stop," Del said coldly. "You invoke such imagery to provoke, and without cause. You would do precisely the same for Nihkolara, with nothing in it of men and women beyond coincidence of gender. You don’t sleep with him. He can’t sleep with you. Do you then count the binding between captain and first mate, friend and friend, as the lesser because bedding is not involved?"

  Color flared in Prima Rhannet’s face, filling in the spaces between freckles, then ebbed away so thoroughly all one could see were freckles, the angry glitter of her eyes. And yet she offered no answer because there was none that gained the victory.

  Oh, yes. She would defend Nihkolara with her life, and he her with his.

  Nihko recognized challenge no matter the gender. "But I have the magic," he said coolly in answer to Del’s original question, "and only a fool refuses to use an advantage."

  "A fool," I said, "or a madman."

  Nihko turned on his heel and marched away.

  Prima was rigid with surpressed rage. "Perhaps it is time I had you both declawed."

  I spread my hands. "In case you’ve forgotten, captain: None of us has blades with which such a thing might be done."

  Which brought us around all over again to where we’d begun.

  Prima’s chin rose. It jutted the air. "You will have swords," she said, "as the metri has suggested. But if you press Nihko, you may well discover that a blade is no weapon at all." She stared hard at us both. "Now get off my ship."

  We got off her ship. But not before I retrieved the brow ring from the deck. Only a fool refuses to use an advantage.

  And I’m not a madman, either.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Before Del and I had even reached the gate of the front courtyard entrance — the one where the metri had suggested Herakleio and I, wearing plaster and nothing else, should stand on display — Simonides met us. His expression was stern as stone as he put up a hand in a gesture that could be interpreted no other way save stop.

  We stopped.

  Whereupon men arrived from all corners of the courtyard, swarming into industry. A mat was laid down first, then a fine-loomed carpet was unrolled atop it. As men labored to do that, others came to Del and me with amphora, soaps, oil, and linen cloths. Another man, shaven-headed but bearing no tattoos or rings in his flesh — thus not mad, I assumed, only holy; though in my opinion a certain emphatic degree of holiness bears its own weight of madness — waited in the shade of a tree. Other men brought stools upon which Del and I were directed to sit.

  We sat.

  As Simonides looked on in meticulous supervision; as the priest beneath the tree murmured softly to himself; as Del and I stared at one another in baffled astonishment, we were scrubbed nearly raw from the knees down, with particular attention given to the soles of our feet. A harsh soap first, followed by scented; followed by clean rinse water; followed by oil that was, I assumed, blessed, as the oil-men first glanced to the murmuring priest for a nod of permission before pouring.

  It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, having rich oil worked into my flesh, except as the man’s hands rose toward my knees I stiffened a little. A sidelong glance at Del showed me a bemused expression, but she did not appear entirely discontent with the direction of her oil-man’s hands.

  Perhaps it was time I bought my own bottle of oil.

  Once that ritual was completed, we were gestured to rise and stand upon the carpet that was layered over the mat. Simonides escorted us with grave deliberation toward the recessed doorway. I glanced over my shoulder as we stepped out of sunlight into shade, saw the carpet-and mat-men rolling everything away; and then the priest came out from beneath the tree to begin his ritual.

  "So," I said to Simonides, "this is why you didn’t want us to walk."

  Simonides said nothing, simply opened the door and stepped away, gesturing for us to enter.

  "Well, look," I told him as I passed into the household, "at least we gave everyone something to do with their afternoon."

  Del produced an elegant little snicker of amusement. Simonides bestowed upon me an almost mournful expression. "The metri sends to say you are to attend her in her bedroom."

  That stopped me. "Her bedroom?"

  "She is abed."

  "That’s a little redundant," I told the servant. "Why is she abed, and why am I expected to attend her while she’s abed?"

  "She has sent to say to me she wishes me to send to say to you —"

  Exasperated by the circuitous manner of speech, I cut him off rudely. "Save your breath, Simonides — just point me in the right direction."

  Quietly, he said, "She wishes to see her grandson."

  The simplicity of the statement rocked me. Even Del marked the implications, glancing to me immediately. I nodded, offering neither commentary nor expression. Simonides led me into the depths of the household even as Del murmured tactfully of a desire to nap, and eventually I was given entry into the metri’s private quarters.

  She was indeed abed, propped into a sitting position by a generous arrangement of embroidered cushions. Silvering hair had been taken from its multiple plaits and loops, freed of decorative baubles, so that it streamed down across the cushions, her shoulders, and the coverlet. It softened the severity of her features. For the first time I saw beyond the metri, beyond the self-proclaimed gods-descended woman born of and into the Eleven Families who ruled in its entirety the wine trade of Skandi, and who needed so desperately to keep every facet of her empire under control, even an individual who merely might be her relative. She was in this moment simply an aging woman who walked the road toward death, and knew the distance left her was shorter than for others.

  "Am I so cruel," she asked, "that you feel you must leave?"

  Not the beginning I expected. In bed with her hair loose, with her body swathed in a coverlet and linens, I had expected to hear a voice to match the impression of weakness. But her voice was the same, her tone identical to the one she used habitually: firm, clear, meticulous in its delicacy of emphasis.

  She was not unlike many of the tanzeers who’d hired me to dance for them. Stern, hard, proud, possessive, but also realistic; what was undertaken was from necessity, not whim. But she was as unlike them as could be: a woman, and possibly my mother’s mother. She was a stranger to me in spirit, in the large and small aspects of the heart, but potentially a woman whose bone was my bone, whose blood was my blood.

  This woman had had no shaping of me, not in the smallest degree, but she could very well be in me. If so, I was as much of her as I was of the Salset. And without the shaping the tribe had given me, I would not stand here today to have this woman speak to me of needs and expectations.

  If I left her, if I left here, I left myself as well.

  Without accusation, I said, "You have no intention of naming me your heir."

  One eyebrow twitched. "Have I not?"

  "I am a tool. An adze to shape the boy you will name your heir."

  She smiled faintly. "Or perhaps a lance point, to jab him where he is most soft."

  "You admit it?"

  "I admit nothing," the metri said, "beyond a promi
se that I will do what I have always done: whatever I perceive is required for the task."

  "And Herakleio is my task."

  "Herakleio is the task I have selected for you, as you have selected none for yourself."

  That stung, as no doubt she intended it to. "Excuse me?"

  "What are you but a man whose home is what he builds of a circle drawn in the sand? No mortar, no bricks, only air. And dreams."

  "And skill."

  "Oh, yes, there is skill; and I believe it not so different from the skill I employ each day for the betterment of my Name."

  "Well, then we share a goal," I threw back at her. "I have a name of my own."

  "Chula," she said gently.

  Had I not already been standing, I’d have leaped to my feet. As it was, all I could do was contain the shame, the shock and outrage her tone and the word engendered by standing excruciatingly still. Because if I moved, if I spoke, if I so much as blinked…

  She gave me no time to respond with anything other than quivering silence. "You are indeed skilled," the metri declared with a quietude that in no way diminished the power of personality, "and it is a skill few men have, the ability to build walls merely of the air and to abide within them, defending those walls against every enemy." One hand moved slightly on the coverlet; fingers spasmed, clenched briefly. "I asked you what you were. I have said what you are, and I will say this as well: you have not been given, nor have you taken, responsibility beyond what is required to keep yourself — and your woman — alive."

  I gifted her with a ghastly grin. "Good enough for me!"

  "But that you have taken no more does not mean you cannot accept more. And so I give you Herakleio, that both of you learn the requirements of responsibility. Because recognizing, acknowledging, and accepting responsibility is the hallmark of adulthood."

  I wanted to smirk, but didn’t; she was deadly serious, and I owed her that much. "Is it?"

  "And because the boy I have given over to you as your task may well be your kinsman."

  I studied her expression very closely. "You admit I am a tool — and seemingly an irresponsible one at that — yet insist I may still be a Stessa? Why? What do you gain?"

  "Leverage," she answered simply.

  Well, that was truth. "Herakleio doesn’t believe any more than you do that I’m your grandson."

  "It doesn’t matter what he believes. All that matters is what I do."

  "But naming a stranger, a foreigner, as heir to the Stessa fortune is not a possibility."

  She shook her head. "You still do not understand."

  "Explain it to me, then."

  "You may indeed not be my grandson. You are a stranger, a foreigner in everything save, perhaps, blood. But neither precludes you from inheriting."

  I blinked. "You’re right. I don’t understand."

  Her eyes were fixed on mine. "I am required only to name an heir. The heir is heir. It is the naming that matters."

  I shook my head slowly. "We know very well what I am, you and I. A Southron barbarian who makes a living in the circle with a sword… a man who builds a home with walls of air. That makes me fit to dance for you, but not to run your household, the vineyards, or the economics of the Stessas — Stessos — which affect the economics of Skandi."

  The metri smiled. "A man who understands the mechanics of ambition is fit to do whatever he wishes to do. He finds ways to deal with such things as he does not know, and learns from those who do."

  "And?"

  "And," she continued pleasantly, "so I am moved to ask you if I am so cruel that you feel you must leave a place in my household, a position for which you are as fit as any man I know, who will learn because it is in him to learn, and who wishes to pay his debts."

  I put a finger into the air. "You’re forgetting: I was just down at the docks checking on the possibility of convincing Prima Rhannet to sail us away from here. Since you so kindly explained how it is no one else on the island will."

  "There is nothing you may offer Prima Rhannet that will convince her of such an undertaking, when I can convince her against it." Her eyes were very calm. "Unless it is your woman."

  "Del is not an issue in this!"

  "Coin is minted in many shapes," she said, "not the least of which is knowledge of what another will accept. You owe me a debt; I have said you may discharge it by teaching Herakleio what it is to be a man. But you have nothing in the world Prima Rhannet will accept, except the companionship of your woman."

  I shook my head again, shoving down the anger so I could be very plain. "Del is not coin. Del is not barter. Del is not in any way an object, nor available for trade."

  The metri’s smile did not reach her eyes. "Whatever it is someone else wants very badly is indeed coin, barter, and object. Availability is the only factor remaining open to negotiation, and subsequent arrangement."

  "I don’t accept that."

  "You may reject the truth as it pleases you to do so. But it alters no part of it."

  I backed away, displaying both palms in a gesture of abject refusal. "This conversation is over."

  She waited until I reached the door. "And so is this test."

  I froze, then swung back sharply even as I released the latch. "This was a test?"

  "All things are tests," the metri said obliquely. "Each day as I rise, offering thanks to the gods for the day, I understand that the hours left to me before I retire again are tests of themselves, of my strength, of my loyalty and devotion, of my will to make certain the Stessa name survives as it was meant to survive: a piece of the gods themselves, made flesh. For they placed here upon the island a woman who was delivered of a child who in turn bore her own, and in turn another was born of that woman, until the day came that I was born to do my mother’s work. It is heritage. It is legacy. It is responsibility: to see that one small piece of the gods, made flesh, remains whole in the world, and alive, lest that world become a lesser place for its loss." She leaned forward then, toward me, away from the cushions. Intently she asked, "Who is to say that if a single candle is blown out, the remainder of the world does not go dark as well?"

  "But…" But. It was a debate in which I was ill-equipped to participate. And yet the argument existed of itself because it could exist.

  No one knew.

  Each time I shut my eyes on the verge of sleep, I gave myself over to trust that I’d awaken again. Because I had awakened each and every day.

  But who was to say I would tomorrow?

  Could you put coin on it?

  No. Only belief in it. Only trust.

  Only faith.

  She leaned back again, abruptly ashen. One hand was pressed to her chest as she labored to breathe. Her lips and nails were blue-tinged. This was not a woman feigning illness or weakness to gain my sympathy. I had seen that look before in men with weak hearts.

  "I’ll call Simonides," I said sharply, and made a hasty departure.

  Herakleio found me out on the terrace, moving through ritual movements designed to condition both body and mind. I had anticipated his arrival, and the accusations. I let him make them without a word spoken to stop him, because he needed to make them. And I, in his place, might well make them, too.

  When he ran out of breath and I was cooling down, I finally addressed him directly. "You’ve said she isn’t in immediate danger."

  "Yes, I said that." He nearly spat the sibilants. "And no, she is not in immediate danger, so the physician says; she should live for another year or more. But she is clearly ill, and weakening."

  "Which is why you’ve come to me now: you view me as a threat. And now a more immediate threat."

  He glared. "And so you are."

  "Unless she has already declared me her heir, I am no threat at all." I was loose, relaxed, sweat drying as the wind snapped against my flesh. "Has she?"

  He remained hostile, if somewhat mollified. "She has not."

  I took up the cloth draped over the low wall and scrubbed at my face, speaking th
rough it. "Then you’re safe. Akritara, the vineyards, the power and wealth… all of it is still meant to be yours."

  He looked away from me then, staring hard across the land that fell away against the horizon, rushing toward the cliff face miles away. "I want it," he said tightly, "but I want her alive, more."

  Prima Rhannet had said it one night in her cups: there was sunlight in him, and stone. She had not said there were tears.

  I flipped the cloth over one shoulder and sat down on the wall. "Truth, Herakleio, in the name of an old woman we both of us respect: my coming here had nothing to do with hoping to replace you as heir. I knew nothing about Skandi at all, let alone that there were Stessoi, or metris, or even vineyards and wealth to inherit."

  He didn’t look at me, nor did he pull wind-tossed hair from his face because such a gesture would remove the shield. "Then why did you come?"

  "To find out…" I let it go, thought it through, began again. "To find out if there was a home in my life where the walls were built of brick and mortar instead of air."

  Herakleio turned sharply into the wind to look at me. "I have heard her say that!"

  I nodded. "She said it to me earlier today, before she became ill."

  He flung out an encompassing hand. "And so you came and found that these walls were made of more than brick and mortar, but also coin and power!"

  "But I didn’t necessarily find my home," I said. "I found a home. Her home. Your home."

  He shook his head vigorously. "But you want it. Now that you know it, you want it."

  I drew in a deep breath, let it fill my chest, then pushed it out again in a noisy sigh of surrender. "There is a part of me that wishes to be of it. Yes."

  "You see!"

  "But being of something is not the same as being that thing," I pointed out. "There is a difference, Herakleio. You are of the Stessoi, and you are a Stessa. You are these walls; your bones are made of them. It’s your home."

  He was clearly perplexed.

  "I am my home," I said. "Where I go, that is my home. My walls are built of air. There is no substance — no brick, no mortar — except the substance I give them, and that is air. A circle drawn in the sand." I hitched a shoulder. "A man born in and of a house doesn’t truly comprehend what it is to be a house. Because there is no need."