Scion of Two Pantheons

by Ted Striker

  “Apparently so,” admitted Bryan.

  Aodhan barreled up. “Where is he? How badly is he hurt?”

  “I’ll be all right,” said Bryan weakly.

  “We can’t leave you alone for a minute without you getting into some kind of trouble, can we? Look at you! Two wounds and a girl!”

  Branna said, “I was just saying that he has a talent.”

  The big redhead laughed. “At least he collects things that are worthwhile. I know a fellow who collects troll’s teeth. How he could go on about the things! Ugly and yellow, most of them. I never understood his enthusiasm.”

  Bryan listened to the chatter around him, even when it blurred into white noise. He felt Afixio’s deft hands touching his head, then inspecting his wounds.

  “Crossbow bolts!” muttered the Healer. “Haven’t you heard of getting out of the way? And these have been only partially Healed! What fool performed this travesty?”

  “Ayabis Healed me as much as she could. We were in the middle of a battle,” said Bryan tiredly. With an effort, he focused on the wizard. “Sometimes you make do with what you can. What I need you to do is fix me up and get me ready to head to Answar.”

  Surprise flashed across Afixio’s face. He checked Bryan’s forehead, then looked into his eyes.

  “What?” Bryan demanded. “You just did that.” He looked around. He was no longer leaning against the tree. Instead, he was in Branna’s bed.

  “Bryan,” said the wizard, “You’re replying to a comment I made two days ago. As for going to Answar, that simply is not going to happen. You need to rest and rebuild your life force, and partly-Healed wounds require a much longer recovery time. I cannot re-heal where the process has already begun, so you will just have to finish healing on your own.”

  Swearing seemed to require too much energy. Bryan leaned his head back on the pillow and thought. Thinking became sleeping, but when he awoke, a clear plan had formed inside his mind.

  {This idea of yours is devious and underhanded,} commented Perkunas.

  {It ought to be, considering the boy’s parentage,} agreed Mebd. {I like it!}

  {So you are both okay that we can do this before we go to Answar?}

  They were.

  At his movements, Branna stirred sleepily next to him, then came alert, her worried hand cupping his forehead. “What’s the matter?” she asked urgently.

  “Nothing’s the matter,” said Bryan. He sat up, was met by a wave of dizziness, and laid back down again. “Damn! I hate being sick!”

  “Afixio said that you’ll be better soon. Ayabis told us what happened. The wizard thinks that you must have used a good deal of life force to defeat the Tierkrieger, and then you ran for most of a day, all after being drugged and beaten. Then you fought off North Keep’s men and were wounded twice. You’re fortunate to be alive. Now rest!” The Wolf Queen belied her imperious command by leaning over to kiss his brow.

  Bryan protested, “But I know how to take North Keep.”

  Chapter 33

  “I know how to defeat King Porvir and retake North Keep.” Bryan made the statement baldly.

  In deference to his healing state, he sat in one of the big chairs in the Conroight council chamber with Connor, Aodhan, Neit, Afixio, and Branna. The scanty remains of enough lunch for ten people were piled beside him. Bryan had wiped out half of what had been brought.

  “You look much better than you did even yesterday,” said Aodhan.

  “His wounds have both closed up,” said Afixio. “The fact that a Healing was only partially performed should have slowed down the process, since part of what Healing does is divert a greater portion of one’s own life force and other resources to the wound. When the healing is partial, it is as if those resources were wasted, and nature must take its slow course in re-healing the wound. You should be in bed, with still open wounds, instead of sitting up conducting a council of war.”

  “I’ve always been a fast healer,” said Bryan truthfully.

  The door opened, and Ayabis and Melthane entered, escorted by guards. Melthane’s scabbard was empty.

  Bryan raised his eyebrow at the Wolf Queen. She returned his look levelly. Of course she was right, he knew. Just because the Queen of North Keep had helped him to get out of the castle and begged to come with him did not mean that Ayabis was trustworthy. And Melthane was the Captain of the Enemy’s guard force, after all.

  “You have both been invited to this meeting because Lord Bryan insisted that you both have something to contribute,” said Branna. “Since you did help him to escape, Queen Ayabis, I have decided to humor my friend and allow it. Before anything else, however, I would like you to give us reason to trust your word that you are an ally.”

  On the table was a large sheet of parchment. Using a sharpened piece of charcoal, Ayabis sketched a simple outline map of the castle and surrounding town that showed the main gate, a smaller hidden gate and the bolt-hole’s path into the castle. “We used the bolt-hole to escape,” she said. “It leads from the outside under the town and into the castle kitchens.”

  “Your escape will have put Porvir on notice,” said Connor. “He’ll have that plugged up like an eggbound hen. I hope that this isn’t the only information you have for us.”

  “As I told Lord Bryan, I was also a prisoner at North Keep, in spite of my rank. But please, let me start from the beginning, and you will better understand.”

  The Queen composed herself and began. “The Emperor, when he was born, was sickly and not expected to live. The old Emperor could not father another child, so he commanded his cousin, as the closest male relative, to marry and produce an heir. I was born a little more than a year after that command, and while not as satisfactory as a boy would have been, I was at least healthy enough. My parents and the old Emperor still hoped for a boy, but I never got a brother. For the first ten years of my life, the thought at Court was that my father would succeed as Emperor, followed by myself, if no male heir manifested. Then, mysteriously, the sickly boy Emperor regained his health. Not long after that, the relatives of the boy began to die, starting with the Emperor, his father, who perished gored by a wild bull in a hunting accident. After taking the throne my cousin began to consolidate his position, guided by the Court Sorcerer, Kurash. First one, then another of my uncles were accused of treason and executed or else died under mysterious circumstances. When my third uncle was killed in his own hunting accident, my father saw the way the wind was blowing, so to speak, and he did his best to show that he was no threat. He renewed his oath of fealty to the Emperor and married me to Porvir, a lowly lieutenant in the Imperial Guard, who was immediately assigned to North Keep as Imperial Liaison to King Harald. I was fourteen at the time. Only a year later, my husband murdered the king and took his place by right of challenge and conquest. I am not allowed to have children, although my maid Aradia assures me that I am able. That is why Porvir hates me. He was made sterile so that we could marry, and he has never forgiven me for a decision that wasn’t even mine.”

  “Did your husband murder King Harald on Imperial orders, or simply out of his own dark ambition?” asked Afixio.

  Ayabis’ face clouded with doubt. “I do not know,” she said. “It seems possible. I do know that he was never reprimanded for the act. He sent a large portion of the kingdom’s treasure to the Empire as soon as he became King, and has paid a steep tribute every year in the five years he has been King.”

  Bryan watched the brown-haired woman closely. He wanted her to be on the up-and-up, if only because they had fought together. He doubted that she was a spy, but the fact that she was a free agent now made her potentially dangerous. “This story tells us that you have no loyalty to Porvir or to the Emperor,” he said carefully. “What can you tell us that will show that you are on our side, and not just out for yourself?”

  Ayabis took a moment to consider before answering. Bryan could see the wheels turning behind the pretty eyes. “I am a witch,” she declared. “I learned the arts
from my maid Aradia, a Zathanian captured by the Imperial navy. Magic is a tightly and ruthlessly controlled commodity in the Empire. Only magic users authorized by the Commission of Magic may practice. To do unauthorized magic guarantees that the practitioner will die a horrifying death.

  “My husband allowed me to use my magic to benefit him, but the fact that I am a witch is a death sentence hanging over me. So I live under constant menace for two reasons. If I am perceived as a threat to the Imperial succession, I die. If it becomes known that I am a sorceress, I die by torture. My only hope is to align myself with you.”

  Branna shifted her gaze to Melthane. He was as tall as Bryan with the same whip-cord tautness to him that spoke of a lifetime of familiarity with weapons and fighting. He sported a crooked scar that ran like a lightning bolt from the edge of his graying hairline down beside his left eye and disappeared into the salt-and-pepper beard that covered his cheek. It gave him a rakish look because the scar pulled his left eyebrow up into a perpetual gesture of restrained disbelief. He returned the Wolf Queen’s examination with one of his own.

  “When Porvir captured and abused me that day, why did you not take part?”

  The man stood straighter, if that was possible. His upturned eyebrow lent extra pride to his declaration: “I am a soldier, Your Highness. I kill my enemies, I do not torment them.”

  “But you allowed Porvir to do so.” Branna’s observation was royally cool. Bryan was proud of the way she held what must have been a tempest of feelings at bay. She allowed the accusation to hang between them, holding Melthane’s eyes with her own unflinching stare.

  He blinked and lowered his head. “Kings and Queens and Emperors may do as they like, Your Highness… Queen Ayabis’ father, my old commander, ordered me to watch over her when she was sent to be Porvir’s wife. I did a poor job of that, I fear, and that curse has followed me, a dark ghost of ineffectuality, ever since. I am sorry.”

  “Perhaps the curse is not permanent,” said Branna softly. “You are still sworn to Queen Ayabis, true?”

  Melthane shook himself and straightened once more. “Yes, your Highness.”

  “Lord Bryan has brought her out of the trap she was in,” the Wolf Queen continued, “yet she will need a protector still. You have heard her reject both King Porvir and the Emperor. Will you do the same?”

  Melthane looked doubtful. Or maybe it was just his scar. “It is easy to reject Porvir, Your Highness; I only served him because of my promise to protect Ayabis as best I could. But if I reject the Empire I have served since boyhood, to whom will I swear? A soldier like myself is useless out of yoke.”

  “You will swear to me,” answered Branna. “And to Ayabis. You will swear your protection to her, as before, but you will swear to me that you will protect her—”the Wolf Queen turned her gaze to Ayabis –“even from her own follies.”

  Bryan raised both eyebrows at that. Genius! If he knew the mettle of the man, and he thought he did – he had served with enough soldiers to recognize the boy scout type – Melthane would make that oath, and fulfill it well, guarding the former Queen of North Keep in both senses of the word. He glanced at Ayabis.

  The brown-haired woman had schooled her face into blankness, but that told the tale all by itself. She was disappointed, all right. Bryan wondered what she was thinking.

  “I will so swear,” said Melthane after a long pause.

  Branna smiled slightly, and nodded. “I accept your oath, Captain,” she said. “Bring his sword,” she told the guards, “and thanks for your services, lads. Get some ale at the Golden Corn; you no longer need to guard the good Captain. He is our ally, now.”

  Melthane looked over at Afixio, sitting close to Bryan. “I see you survived your encounter with the Wy – Laignach, Priest. I am glad.”

  “No more than I,” answered the wizard. “Welcome to the family.”

  “Finally!” exclaimed Connor. “Now, can we hear Bryan’s grand plan?”

  Chapter 34

  “Let me say before Bryan starts that an assault on North Keep is impossible,” said Neit. “We’ve scouted the town before, and now I’ve been inside the castle. They are both constructed so that just a few men can hold them with little difficulty.”

  “Aye,” said Aodhan. “The castle was built centuries past by a people who have since disappeared from these lands. They built to last, and they had a fine eye toward defense. The castle’s water is provided by a spring on the cliff face above. So long as there is a stock of food, the place is impregnable.”

  “Shut up, both of you!” snapped Connor. “The lad hasn’t even laid the plan out, yet. Let’s hear the thing first before we try to tear it down.”

  “I was there, Neit, and what you say is true,” admitted Bryan. “But the town and castle aren’t the key to taking North Keep. We’re going to mount an insurgency.”

  “What are you saying?” asked Connor.

  Bryan tapped the rough map “I’ve known of a few conflicts like the one I’m planning,” he said, “And the fact is, Porvir may be the king, but he isn’t really governing the kingdom, he’s raiding it to pay the Imperial tribute and to live his kingly lifestyle. His only real supporters are the townspeople and those who are either tied to the Empire financially or benefitting somehow from Porvir’s bad government. All his other subjects are under his boot. They submit to his rule because they don’t have an alternative. If we give them a better choice, we won’t need to attack the town and castle; we’ll just take the rest of the kingdom away.”

  Afixio spoke. “Don’t be so sure that the townsfolk will support Porvir. Even though he is a source of money for them, most are good people who are merely cowed by his brutality. Given the chance, many of them will come out against the tyrant.”

  “There are forty or more towns and villages in the kingdom, and we have barely twice that number of Laignach,” Branna pointed out. “How can we cover all that territory?”

  “We don’t have to be everywhere at once,” Bryan explained. “We’re going to step in and take care of things a little at a time. With eighty Wolves, we can start by protecting the area along the River Road. Didn’t I hear you say, Connor, that there are bandits marauding there? Porvir has ignored that problem. We let the landowners know that we’re going to keep them safe, since North Keep isn’t, and we clean up the bandit problem. As for the rest, Porvir has been taxing these people into poverty so that he can support himself and pay tribute to the Empire. We stop those taxes and help the people to keep their goods. If we do this right, we’ll turn all these landholders from enemies into friends and allies.”

  Ayabis spoke. “That will infuriate my husband.”

  “That’s the idea.” Bryan said. “He will send his forces out to protect the taxes, and we will ambush them.”

  Everyone looked at Melthane.

  The ex-guard commander of North Keep shifted uncomfortably as he felt the eyes of his former enemies turn to him. He had been indoctrinated for years with the idea that the Laignach were more animal than human. Seeing them here in a council of war put them into a whole new light for him. These were obviously much more than mere animals. The red-haired brothers were particularly good tacticians, and the old one, Connor, had an uncanny grasp of politics. He cleared his throat. “The King – er –Porvir, has thirty soldiers left, at most. Between those lost when you first met . . . ah, us and those who perished in the escape last fortnight, Lord Bryan and the W – er – Laignach have claimed some twenty-eight men.”

  “Thirty men could defend the castle handily,” said Neit. “If they have a levy of, say, twenty townsmen with some training, they could defend the town adequately, as well.”

  Melthane said, “For what it’s worth, my opinion is that if your forces pursue the course of action Lord Bryan just outlined, the garrison will not be able to effectively defend against it.”

  “Besides,” added Bryan, “the kingdom won’t be crying out for help from the garrison. Before long, Porvir will have the town and
his castle, but little else.”

  Melthane said, “Wait a moment. In that circumstance, King Porvir will undoubtedly send to the Empire for help. Do you intend to fight the Empire?”

  “Not in a pitched battle,” replied Bryan. “From what I’ve learned, the Imperials consider North Keep to be a buffer between the Empire and undesirables from the frontier –”

  “–As if a castle or a fence or even a wall could keep people from going where they wanted,” said Aodhan with a laugh.

  Bryan ignored the interruption. “–while still allowing some trade and at the same time providing an income through tribute.”

  “Yes, and when word gets to them that King Porvir has lost control of his kingdom and that tribute, they will decide to fortify the garrison,” said the old soldier.

  “Which would be bad for Clan Conroight,” said Connor with a worried frown. “Even a hundred Imperials could force us to our strongholds, and we would lose the towns.”

  “The Empire is fifteen days hard march for a small, self-sufficient group,” said Bryan. “North keep is isolated, with only a few fortified towns located well to the south. Any Imperial force that comes up the River Road will have to travel at a much slower pace, delayed by their supply trains and camp followers. By the time the Empire comes north, they will find that there’s a new King in North Keep.” Bryan straightened up and looked at them all. “We can do this.”

  “This process you describe of turning the people into our allies will take time,” said Connor. “My own plan had been to have you Challenge the King in the traditional way, at the festival of Fómhair. No one would be the wiser until the day of the festival, and then you would do to his champion Thorm what you did to Phelan and become King. One trial by combat against what is sure to be a drawn-out campaign that will inevitably bring the Empire of Man to the North and destroy our way of life. I think that you should consider this carefully before you set your plan in motion.”