Stormed Fortress (17 page)

* * *

Soon after Jeynsa s
'
Valerient made her fateful pact with Alestron, the Master of Shadow left the black dunes of Sanpashir behind. He journeyed alone, his mood knife-edged from the delicate persuasion needed to detach his escort of tribal dartmen. Fourteen days on foot through inhospitable terrain had done little to restore his hale strength. Still thin, worn yet in spirit, he bought their protective release by accepting a quiver of darts and a blow-tube. The knife at his belt was for hunting, not ambush. For cover, he preferred to weave shadow.

Few ventured the brush to the east of the waste. Where tribal tradition bordered upon the proscribed territory kept under clan vigilance, the road-bound silk caravans went heavily armed. Town dispatches were carried by pigeon.

Arithon crossed into those wilds, unseen. The dusky weave of his borrowed robe melted into the scrub. He carried his lyranthe slung from a strap and paced his progress with patience. At twilight, he buried the tribe
'
s gifted weapons, and more carefully disposed of the poison phial, transmuting the toxin through magecraft. Then he crouched in a thorn brake, seized his moment, and slipped unnoticed across the baked ruts of the trade-road that carved inland towards the walled settlement at Atchaz.

By nightfall, the evergreen fringes of Selkwood closed over him. The milder breeze lost its flint, reclothed in the pungency of pine resin. Arithon lit no torch. Light-footed by nature, he moved without sound over the dense mat of needles. Such care bought no safety. The most furtive intrusion would draw the rapacious notice of Alland
'
s patrolling clan scouts.

Since Arithon was tired, and efficiency mattered, he leaned on a tree by a game trail and settled to wait.

He was seen by starlight in under an hour, then challenged at weapon
'
s point by three strapping men and a woman bristling with knives. To judge by the game bag bulging with pigeons, the party was inbound from a raid to intercept Alliance dispatches.

Arithon showed empty hands and gave them his name.

The armed scouts stood down. Unlike his previous visits to Shand, his slight stature received their combative respect.

'
Not Kyrialt,
'
they admitted, when he asked whose gossip had made free with his reputation.
'
It
'
s the vixen wife with the runaway tongue. If you
'
re wanting to flay her for that, we
'
ll take wagers.
'

Arithon laughed.
'
With odds on the woman, dare I suggest?
'

A flash of teeth in the surrounding dark, as the rambunctious speaker grinned back.
'
What, trust a redhead for mild behaviour?
'

The ringleader bearing the day
'
s feathered trophies added his rueful shrug.
'
The she-fox has scarcely been married two months. No sign yet, the husband can handle her.
'

Night-singing crickets filled the slight pause. Still being measured, and fighting the stress of foot travel that spent his reserves, the Master of Shadow forestalled further by-play.
'
I bring urgent news for your High Earl. A guide to his lodging at speed would be welcomed.
'

He was not to be humoured. Too many pairs of sharp eyes assessed him. A soft swish of leather bespoke a hand signal exchanged out of sight. Then the ranking scout said. The outpost is four days
'
brisk journey from here. We will rest in the open and send on a runner. Can I hazard a guess that you
'
re famished?
'

Lent such grace, Rathain
'
s prince gave his grateful assent. He managed the league
'
s hike they could not spare, for safety, to a ravine deep enough to risk fire. While the scouts shed their gear, Arithon sat. He fell asleep, tucked up in the folds of his tribal robe, before the coals roasted the day
'
s by-catch of messenger birds.

Much later, he wakened. The rocky surrounds, curtained over with ivy, glinted dull orange by flame-light. His escort of four now had additional company. A milling commotion of horses mingled with the muted talk of the arrivals. They already knew they were hosting a prince: from the awkward instant he opened his eyes, they were on him like hawks, falling over themselves to share their savoury stew and hard biscuit.

'
Luhaine advised us you might not be hale
'
somebody mentioned, then hastened,
'
We have been told, your Grace. The cost of your victory came hard, at Etarra.
'

Arithon recoiled from hands that would help him erect. Swore under his breath and tossed off the blanket a presumptuous nurse-maid left tucked around his thin shoulders. Embarrassed by the attention fixed on him, to see how he meant to respond, he bent his head and accepted the hot food with a nod, since his voice was not going to be trustworthy. Bad enough, that the lady who offered the bowl could not miss the humiliation. His fingers were chilled to the bone, and not steady, despite the sultry air of high summer.

He managed to spoon down the broth without shaking. The meat was fresh venison, not tough shreds of pigeon, which bespoke a skilled hunter
'
s foraging. Only a churl would not finish the meal. When the bowl was scraped clean, the raw streak of dawn glimmered through the trees above the ravine. Eager hands had his lyranthe strapped to a saddle ring. Another scout steadied the horse. Someone else, deferent, hovered nearby should the prince need assistance to mount.

Arithon stood. He shook out his robe, swung astride without help, took the reins with a nod to the handler. He delivered his thanks with a masterbard
'
s tongue. Then he salvaged his chafed dignity by clapping his heels to the gelding and setting a brutal pace.

The forest clans that served Alland
'
s free wilds were practised at seamless efficiency. They kept swift horses, sited throughout the forest for riding fast relays. Noon saw them remounted for the third time, while zealous youngsters stripped the gear from their spent string, now blowing and streaming white lather.

Each rider was handed a pouch of jerked meat and dried fruit. They ate astride and shared a flask of Sanshevas rum, driving on at speed through the sun-slashed pines, with the chatter of sparrows stilled in the midday heat. At the fourth change of horses, Arithon lost his balance on dismount. Only the fist in his mare
'
s steaming mane kept him on his unsteady feet.

'
Your Grace,
'
a deferent voice ventured, behind. Someone else
'
s hand gripped his robe and braced his awkward weight upright.

'
Do you make the same allowance for toddlers?
'
Arithon gasped through clenched teeth.

The scout laughed.
'
Would you rather sit down arse first in fresh horse-piss? I thought not,
'
he added, as the prince
'
s knees gave.

Past rejoinder, the Teir
'
sTfalenn slid into strong arms, dropped as though felled by a potion.

They installed him under the shade of a tent and eased fevered flesh with a compress. An elder whose lineage was practised with herbals was summoned away from the watch-post. She arrived with her remedies, measured his pulse, and, with talented hands, scanned his aura. His collapse was declared the effect of exhaustion, foolishly pushed past the edge.
'
Whoever attended this man in Sanpashir ought to have chained him in bed.
'

'
Tried, no doubt,
'
said the captain of horse, his head poked in through the tent-flap.
'
Simpler to rein in Dharkaron
'
s Black Chariot. If we paused for rest, that devilsome royal threw away sense and outstripped us.
'

The kind, white-haired woman jerked shut the strings on her satchel.
'
Next time, use a net. Bring him down. Such strain as he
'
s seen lays him open to risk. Keep on, we
'
ll be treating an illness.
'

'
I do know my limits,
'
the victim protested, flat prostrate. Eyes shut, he remained wrung ghastly white.
'
We have come halfway. Your scout raiders won
'
t sleep. Or aren
'
t they bearing a hot packet of tidings purloined from an Atchaz guild
'
s dispatches? Among the batch news, your mettlesome High Earl will hear of my presence by sundown. Expect his quick response. Our history
'
s too rife with contention.
'

The healer snorted and made her way out, while the scout at the entry said nothing. His suggestive pause stretched, the hushed calm before thunder-storm.

Then the invalid raised his black eyebrows.
'
You
'
re deaf to the gossip? His lordship
'
s irked with my matrilineal heritage. I dislike the concept of dynastic reign. But the bone in the craw gets picked all the same. My hackles rise with
caithdeinen
who try to impose their crown sovereignty over my choices.
'

Through springing sweat, Arithon
'
s lips flexed.
Almost,
that smile of combative malice matched the warning the scout had been primed to expect.

'
For my part,
'
finished the Prince of Rathain,
'
I
'
ll need the recovery to master your High Earl
'
s fractious audience by morning.
'

'
Maybe Lord Erlien will eat you alive?
'
The watch scout eased back the tent-flap, and chuckled.
'
Ath above, let
'
s see who stirs the pot first. I think we should bet. Odds on, you offer more sport than the vice of the town-born, who bait a chained bear with riled dogs in a pit.
'

* * *

In fact, Arithon was on his feet sooner, arisen in the late afternoon with none of his keepers the wiser. His time in the desert had left him unkempt. Unnerved as he was by the fuss of the scouts, he enforced his preference as initiate master. A moment
'
s working masked him well enough to leave the stifling tent and slip through the wood to a stream-bank. There, he indulged in the solitary ease beyond his reach in the waste of Sanpashir.

The Prince of Rathain slipped off his soiled robe, washed his clothes, and himself, in a trout pool. The languid sun striped his damp skin as he basked.

Firm earth and clean daylight cleared his rifted aura, and burned away the residual imprint of terror. Since wet cloth eased the heat, he donned his sopped robe, then settled beneath an ancient willow, whose thick, gnarled roots laced the river-side. Immersed in healing peace, he let the slow swirl of the current and the breeze through leafed fronds work their effortless tonic upon him.

Whether Arithon intended to fall back to sleep, the lesser warding to hide his presence had not been fashioned to last. Since his secluded hollow was sheltered from the campsite, he did not hear the stir as more horses arrived, hard-ridden as the relay mounts now loosed to graze in concealment. His being stayed wrapped in the calm of the willow; lulled by the eddy of free-flowing water. Vulnerable, he lay oblivious when the woman rounded the tree bole and happened upon him.

Her inquisitive step paused. Sultry eyes widened, surveying her find.
'
Fatemaster
'
s blessed weaving of chance!
'

Poised as a vixen, she parted the greenery and dared a stalker
'
s step closer.

To her delight, and his provocation, those exquisite, fine limbs and musician
'
s fingers remained sprawled on the moss in abandon. Arithon
'
s repose stayed unbroken, though she did the unthinkable: invaded his haven and stood over him. The casual drape of the damp, tribal robe hid nothing from her avid stare. Not the bronzed skin of desert exposure, or the welted scars he always kept hidden by natural reticence. His seal-black hair had dried, ungroomed. Tangled strands nested his unshaven cheek, softening his angular profile.

'
Where is your vaunted dignity, prince?
'
Her vibrant smile exposed even teeth. Bold as a weasel, she flicked back fiery hair, crouched at his side, and dared to extend a pared nail to trace the old burn, seared down his right forearm from elbow to wrist by the strike of his half-brother
'
s light-bolt.

Her touch never closed. Aroused and aware, no more dulled by exhaustion, Arithon Teir
'
s
'
Ffalenn opened his eyes.
'
Glendien, for shame! The same tricks, again?
'
With malicious speed, he recoiled, caught the robe closed before she could snatch, then folded his knees and sat up.

She had tiger
'
s eyes, hot for teasing mischief, or else the taste of fresh blood.

Telling which could be murderously difficult. Arithon stifled his first impulse to wound. No grace for surprise, or the awkward timing: he would be a match for her challenge; or not. If their last, memorable encounter had left him the advantage, too apparently his wit still intrigued enough to provoke her.

'
Should a wedding have tamed me?
'
Glendien licked her teeth, her linen blouse halfway unlaced in the heat, and the sweet skin beneath lightly freckled.
'
This round, I
'
m not the one compromised.
'

'
You say
'
Arithon smiled. With enviable quickness, he surged to his feet and offered an open, clean hand.
'
Where do I look for your husband?
'

'
Kyrialt?
'
She accepted his grasp.
'
Too bad he
'
s not here to divert you.
'
Latched hold, she dealt Arithon
'
s knuckles a lingering kiss. Her busy mouth burned, while her loosened hair slithered over his wrist like spilled lava.

'
My dear!
'
chided the Prince of Rathain, his trapped hand unresponsive to her steamy attention.
'
Is there no charity in Alland, that such beauty as yours should go hungry?
'

'
Invalid! You
'
ve been laid so low?
'
Her throaty laugh mocked as he tugged her erect.
'
Or is the excuse to gloss over the claim there
'
s no pith to Rathain
'
s royal lineage? You
'
re still bloodlessly cold as iced fish-bait.
'

'
To a fish, that
'
s a banquet. You have a rank tongue. Here
'
s your husband to lick the sauce off you.
'
And again, his evasion came fast enough. Her lightning pounce missed the robe that protected his modesty.

All insolence, he presented his back just in time to greet the mate who raced to catch up with her.

Glendien
'
s muscled match was distempered and flushed from hard riding. Dark brown hair laced into a traditional clan braid no longer acknowledged the pattern awarded by paternal birthright. Arithon had time to notice that much, as the young man just thrashed through the screening willow fronds slammed to a panting stop.

'
Shame hasn
'
t died. She
'
s been at you again,
'
Kyrialt said, shedding all decorous royal courtesy. Hot, fully armed, he dropped to one knee. The fist at his heart nonetheless gave his liege the welcome his sworn service demanded.
'
Some wicked creatures don
'
t take the hint. You have to give more than a scalding.
'

'
And some, like the salamander, find their piquant sport by taunting the temper of dragons. Which are you?
'
Arithon reached out and raised Kyrialt. Then, his bright glance amused, he seized Glendien
'
s wrist. His sudden yank toppled her forward. Now wickedly smiling, he stepped clear and watched the salvage as the bride stumbled into her husband
'
s embrace.

'
Best leave us,
'
quipped Kyrialt,
'
since this wench seems to want her clothes wrestled off for a dousing.
'

Glendien nipped his ear, tossed back her flame hair, and ducked her shirt off one nubile shoulder.
'
Why struggle at all? I mean to bathe, anyhow.
'

She had pearlescent skin, spangled with sun, and a ripe swell of breast, tipped a delicate, rose-petal pink. Yet if Glendien intended to gripe Rathain
'
s prince, or inflame him red with embarrassment, she failed.

Her sidelong glance met no stunned or admiring eyes. The cool canopy of the old willow was empty. Only her husband succumbed to the lure, which was as she had intended. The game had been about taking the Teir
'
s
'
Ffalenn down a peg. She would not bide content. Not until he acknowledged to her satisfaction that he was male, and no better than fallibly human.