Daughter of Ancients Page 15

  I couldn’t see the second Zhid, as he lay face down on the ground with two villagers sitting on his back, binding his limbs with more of the silver cord; dolemar, it was called, a material enchanted to prevent use of power. While a man in a blacksmith’s apron tried to restrain a wild-eyed horse, two women tended to a groaning townsman with a horrific gash in his side. Dark blood soaked the hard ground beneath him.

  “Come here, little maid, and tell these brutes to leave off,” said the shaggy Zhid, his pale eyes settling on D’Sanya. He snarled and wrenched his shoulders as the townsmen knotted the silver cord about his left wrist and yanked his hand behind him to tie off with the other. “You’ve a pretty face. Won’t you have pity on a ssstarving warrior?”

  “Pity, yes,” she said softly. “What is more pitiable than a being without a soul?”

  “It’s the Lady . . . the princess . . .” I couldn’t see who said it first, for the words swept through the circle of Dar’Nethi like an autumn wind. Some stared. Some bowed. Some dropped to their knees. Eyes flicked from D’Sanya to the growling Zhid and back again, anticipating.

  The burly Zhid scrabbled his feet back under himself and lurched upward, toppling one Dar’Nethi and smashing his captor in the face with his boot. But a wooden club in the gut felled the Zhid warrior instantly and left him in the dirt. The Dar’Nethi rolled him onto his face, jerking brutally on the cord about his wrists and wrapping it around his ankles until his back was arched like a bow.

  D’Sanya flinched at the blows and the vigor of the Dar’Nethi captors. “Careful,” she said. “He is sick and broken, but not irredeemable.”

  “I don’t know, my lady,” said one of the men tightening the cords. “We caught these two at Hy’Tan and J’Kari’s house . . . and the two of them and their two little ones murdered. These damnable creatures were drinking J’Kari’s blood! If Prince Ven’Dar had not commanded us to keep Zhid alive . . .” His voice broke.

  “We’ll drink yours as well before we’re done,” said the second Zhid, a long thin man with a tangled mop of red hair. He lay face down, arms and legs trussed as awkwardly as his fellow’s. “We’ll savor it . . . sssssssavor it . . .” The Zhid’s unnerving expression of disdain issued from him like a viper’s greeting.

  Unlucky that I had stepped up to stand beside D’Sanya, for when a heavy boot rolled him onto his side, the red-haired Zhid’s eyes fell directly on my own. His face brightened in astonishment . . . and then glee. “So it’s true—”

  I bellowed and pounced on the Zhid, throttling him so that he could not utter the words of honor and greeting that sat so eagerly on his tongue. I gripped his head unmoving and locked my eyes on his, forcing my thoughts into the villainous murk that was a Zhid’s mind—especially this particular Zhid’s mind. You will say nothing, warrior. You will neither speak my name nor give the slightest hint that you know me. I am your master, your Lord, and my purposes are beyond your comprehension. You will obey me or I will squeeze the blood from your heart.

  Even as Dar’Nethi hands tugged at my arms, trying to pull me off him, I ripped power from the Zhid’s exhilaration and his fear, and I squeezed his heart with an invisible fist, feeling its pumping stutter, using his pain and the panic of his failing breath to strengthen my hold on his body and mind. Acknowledge my command or die this moment, Gensei Kovrack. You will say nothing of me. You will not look upon me. You will not think of me.

  Of course, Great Lord Dieste . . . we hear your call . . . yes . . . yes . . . as you command . . .

  My hands were shaking as they dragged me off him, hatred and murder flowing through me like a river of fire. I bit my lip and tasted the blood, and the hunger came near choking me. I required every smattering of will I possessed, every scrap of control I could summon, to take my hands from his throat and release his heart without killing him. By earth and sky and all gods, I wanted him dead—Gensei Kovrack, the red-haired Zhid general who had taken me into the desert and taught me the arts of command and torture.

  The eyes of the crowd were hot on my back. An explanation. I needed an explanation. Someone might have sensed the vile enchantment I had worked. No one would guess it mine, not when Zhid were present, but my actions were very un-Dar’Nethi. “I’ve seen him before,” I whispered. I was kneeling in the dirt, five men restraining me. “He slaughtered . . . so many . . . enslaved my father . . . my family . . . so powerful. Don’t trust even dolemar bindings to hold him. I’m sorry . . . so very sorry.”

  “We understand.” The hands that held me gradually fell away, a few squeezing my arm tight or touching my back in comradeship and sympathy.

  “I’m sorry. I lost the Way.” That’s what a true Dar’-Nethi would say.

  Two fair hands reached out for me, offering to help me to my feet—D’Sanya’s hands. “Oh, my dear friend.” Her brow knit in worry, sympathy mellowing her eyes, she brushed a hand across my brow. Peace and comfort and care enfolded me . . . smothered me.

  Unfortunately her gifts were designed to soothe a sorrow I did not feel. Hatred and revulsion sat heavy in my belly, and my attention remained on Kovrack, a wily and powerful Zhid. Would he obey? Would he suspect I was no longer what he believed?

  “I must help here,” said D’Sanya, half apologizing.

  “Of course,” I said. “Do what you have to do. I’ll wait. I’m sorry.”

  As D’Sanya knelt beside the wounded townsman who lay in the profound stillness of mortal injury, the youth in bright red and green pelted across the yard toward the growing crowd. Behind him trotted an older man in purple robes, breathing hard.

  I backed into the crowd, feeling an occasional pat on my back or my shoulder. Kovrack’s gaze was pinned to the dirt. I did not take my eye from him.

  “Stand back,” said the man in purple when he came to the center of the crowd. He closed his eyes and threw out his hand as if scattering seeds on a field, and I felt the shivering power of the Word Winder’s cast settling over the two Zhid. An extra binding to prevent their use of sorcery, I suspected. As had every enchantment I had sensed since crossing the Bridge, it abraded my spirit like steel on glass.

  At the same time the afternoon sunlight flickered brighter, almost garish in its orange brilliance. The chattering crowd fell into awestruck silence as D’Sanya breathed into the mouth of the fallen Dar’Nethi. His chest spasmed. One limp hand moved as if to grip the earth itself, and soon his eyes flicked open and color flooded back into his pale cheeks. The two women swooped down on him again, weeping.

  When D’Sanya rose and stepped away from the man, the Word Winder bowed, extending his palms. “My gracious Lady,” he said. “Surely holy Vasrin has sent you to us in our need. Those of us privileged to witness your deeds are blessed.”

  “Good Ka’Ston,” she said, returning his greeting. Then she moved to the two bound Zhid.

  “We thought to send them to Feur Desolé,” said one of the men who had bound the two prisoners. “At the prison, perhaps, a Healer . . .”

  “Let me see what I can do.” As she knelt on the hard dirt between the Zhid, D’Sanya’s eyes met mine. Her expression was solemn, but I could not understand what she was trying to tell me. Then she bent over Kovrack and touched his red hair.

  His head popped up. “What is this?” he said harshly, jerking his head away from her hand. “What are you doing?”

  “Anything broken must be put right,” said D’Sanya, laying a hand on his breast, her gold rings catching the sunlight.

  “Don’t touch me, witch. I am not broken. I am as the Lords of Zhev’Na made me.” He spat and writhed and twisted, his boots scuffing up a cloud of dust as he tried to get away from her, even bound as he was. His attempts at sorcery—virulent, tangled bursts of pain and confusion—fell dead quickly, aborted by the power of his bindings. That he could create anything tangible, even such ephemeral wisps, while under the restraints of dolemar and a Word Winder’s binding spoke a great deal about his age and power.

  Several Dar’Nethi held him sti
ll as D’Sanya placed her hands on his breast and his head and closed her eyes. As her enchantment took shape, the snarling, furious Kovrack riveted his gaze on me . . . expectant. I glared at him, hoping he would remember his oath and my fist on his heart. I dared not plant a thought in his head to reinforce my command, not with D’Sanya so close. And I dared not touch power again.

  “Lord, do not allow—” With a gasp and a shudder, Kovrack’s eyelids dropped shut, and his body relaxed. No one seemed to notice what he’d said.

  Could she do it? Restore the soul of a Zhid as old and decadent as Kovrack, a general of the Lords’ armies, steeped in their corruption for hundreds of years? And what would come next? If D’Sanya could reawaken his soul, his bond of obedience to the Lords—to me—would be broken, and he could betray me. Ironic that he was more danger to me if he was whole. What would happen if he told these people who I was? The Dar’Nethi believed I should be dead, and to use power to save myself might possibly make me into the very thing they feared.

  D’Sanya’s power swelled, silencing the murmuring onlookers, choking me with her overwhelming enchantment. Unable to analyze the complex threads of her working, I watched her face instead. Intense, devout, passionate. The fiery liquor in my blood began to cool, hatred and self-loathing yielding to feelings that were cleaner, better. Moments flitted past. Almost too soon, D’Sanya straightened her back. If she had failed . . .

  “What place is this?” Kovrack had opened his eyes as well, fixing them first on D’Sanya, who knelt beside him, and then sweeping his gaze about the hovering crowd. Lost, confused, searching, his gaze met mine . . . and passed on to the man next to me without recognition. “Why am I bound? Good mistress, I feel so strangely ill.”

  “Not ill, sir. Not any more.” She beckoned the Dar’-Nethi. “Come, cut him loose. Care for him.”

  “Tell us your name!” I called out. “Who is your master?” Better to know right away. Better to be sure. Zhid were allowed only one answer to that question.

  The red-haired man blinked and looked puzzled. “P’Var, Numerologist of Gladsea, I am. And though I offer service to many who need my skills, I serve no master save the lord Prince of Avonar.” He looked at me and then to the others as if for confirmation.

  A Dar’Nethi woman cut his bonds and helped him to sit up. She didn’t remove the last windings of silver about Kovrack’s wrists and ankles, however, but jumped back to the verge of the watchers. When Kovrack noted the silver cord around his wrists, he jerked his head up and surveyed the crowd again. His sallow face told me in what moment he began to suspect what he had been. Even then he did not look to me. My fists unclenched.

  D’Sanya, smiling, pressed something into his palm and folded his fingers over it. “Take this token, son of D’Arnath, and let it remind you of your goodness and strength.”

  As he opened his palm and stared at a slip of gleaming brass threaded on a silken string, D’Sanya, her skirt red with the dust of the yard, turned to the second Zhid.

  When we left them a short time later, Kovrack sat alone in the middle of the hostler’s yard, his head in his hands. He had refused all help or comfort save the brass lion pendant. P’Var the Numerologist’s home village was long destroyed, and his family seven hundred years dead. For all he or any of us knew, he had killed them himself. The other man was sobbing, leaning on the thick arm of the smith who had reluctantly offered him a straw pallet in his forge for the night. The relieved townspeople had withdrawn in a hurry.

  D’Sanya and I rode out of Tymnath without speaking. The afternoon light sculpted the green hills around us and stretched our shadows long across the path. When we came to a split in the road, D’Sanya surprised me by choosing the longer way, the way that led to the valley called Caernaille and its ponds with their blue herons. Only after we had sat for a while, watching the herons snare the rising fish, did she speak.

  “I’m so sorry it had to be that one,” she said, laying her hand on my knee. “Someone who had hurt you so terribly . . . your family . . . your father. Will you tell me of it?”

  I shook my head, unspeaking. Unwilling to tell her more lies.

  “It’s all right to be angry,” she said, her fingers squeezing my flesh. “You were a child. It was all brutal and unfair. You didn’t kill him today. It’s all right.”

  No, I hadn’t killed him, only done a bit of torture and brutalized his mind. She had given him back his soul. Which of us was corrupt?

  One bright morning in midsummer, D’Sanya and I climbed Castanelle, the highest peak in the range that formed Grithna Vale. As the sun reached its zenith, we sat, tired and hot, on a wind-blasted slope of short grass and rock. A rock-pig whistled from a nearby boulder as D’Sanya chattered, reliving every slope and switchback of the climb. We gazed out across the sunlit world and laughed as a wedge of geese flew past below us, and we sat motionless as a flock of goats with curled horns grazed within ten paces of us.

  Despite the perfection of the morning, the blustering wind turned sour and sent us down early. The rain caught us halfway down the mountain.

  “Look, over there,” I said, holding my sodden cloak stretched over D’Sanya’s head. “It’s some kind of shelter.”

  Rain splattered and dripped from the trees. The path was swirling mud, and we were soaked to the skin. Our teeth were chattering. Even the half-collapsed shepherd’s hut looked inviting.

  “At least it has part of a roof,” she said.

  Only the end next to the stone hearth had enough of a slumping sod roof left intact that we could stuff our drenched and shivering selves into it. I gathered a pile of wet wood; D’Sanya set it to blazing with sorcery; and we huddled together to get warm, laughing at the fickle ways of nature, which had tempted us so high only to abandon us so abjectly. While the rain poured and her flames crackled, she talked and I listened.

  It was on that long afternoon, as we grew relaxed and warm in our solitary island in the midst of the storm, that I first realized I loved her. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for my arms to be around her to quiet her shivering, and for her damp, fragrant hair to tickle my nose because her head was resting on my chest. All doubts and confusions were banished with her first sigh of contentment as I held her close.

  “Are you awake?” she asked drowsily, without moving her head from the place I wished it to stay as long as I could persuade her to leave it.

  “Approximately.”

  “I leave tomorrow for Maroth Vale. Will you come?”

  “If you wish it.” She could have asked for me to give her my eyes, and my answer would have been the same.

  “How could I not wish my best friend to be with me?” She nestled closer. “But before we go, friend, there is the matter of one of your secrets that I think we must clarify.”

  For a moment my instincts shouted a warning. But only for a moment . . . until she turned her head just enough that it was the most natural thing in the world to kiss her.

  CHAPTER 11

  Jen

  From the earliest days of my memory, my mother called me her forget-me-not child. I had the annoying habit of remembering every word and image of every story and song I’d ever heard, and neither my parents nor their guests nor their hired Singers or Storytellers dared leave out a single one in hopes of an early release from my attention. This was but an early sign of a certain singleness of purpose which my brothers preferred to describe as “dogged stubbornness akin to that of a particularly unintelligent mule.”

  I had a number of annoying habits when I was a child. I constantly interrupted adult conversations with sober, if ill-informed, opinions. I drove my family frantic by disappearing for long periods of time into a tree or some other hideaway and losing myself in a favorite book, ignoring their calls until they’d rousted the town Watch to find me. And I never tired of filling my brothers’ boots with mud or hiding their school papers or otherwise getting them in trouble, and then playing the innocent girl child while they reaped the consequences of my
tricks. My brothers had fond names for me, too, though certainly less polite than forget-me-not child.

  Fond names for annoying habits are a natural part of a happy childhood, and loving parents always assume that those less-than-desirable traits will fade away as childhood yields gracefully to the passage of time. Perhaps that’s why I never lost my annoying habits. My childhood did not yield gracefully, but was aborted, truncated, sheared off in the span of a single moment as I hid in the boughs of my reading tree and watched the Zhid slit my mother’s throat and drag my father into slavery. And childhood was buried forever one year later when they came back for me and my brothers, the day the cold-eyed boy with the jewels in his ear sealed the slave collar about our necks, while my weeping father was forced to watch in silence. I had thought my life ended on that day, my heart transformed into steel as cold and dead as the collar itself, and it took me many years to discover it was not. But I never forgot.

  It was a true measure of my father’s goodness that he was able to look upon the person who had destroyed his children and caused his own savage torture with anything but hatred in his heart. My brothers had been used to train the beast in swordsmanship and then discarded like so much rubbish when he grew more skilled than they. They were sent into the desert camps and died there, I believed, for they were never found after the war. I was nine years old when the collar of Zhev’Na was sealed around my neck and fifteen when it was removed by a Healer who wept when he saw how young I was.

  To find my father among the pitiful remnants of the thousands who’d been held captive in the Wastes had taken me three months. He lay in a house of healing in the Vale of Nimrolan, scarcely able to walk for the pain of his deformity. But one might say his grievous injuries were fortunate, for the path of life that led to his torture was the same that brought him back to me.