Swords of Waar (20 page)

The Aldhanan turned on Fancy Hat. “Ru-Ranan, is this not your assistant, Ru-Sul? He who you said was ill and keeping to his bed?”

“By Ormolu, it is!” Fancy Hat pasted on a surprised look and backed toward the Aldhanan, pointing at Ru-Sul like he was seeing a ghost. “Deceiver! Pretending to be devout when all along you were a filthy heretic!” He turned to the Aldhanan. “My Aldhanan, forgive me. I did not—”

And all of a sudden he had a sharp little knife at the Aldhanan’s throat and was hissing around at us all like a cornered cat.

“Drop your weapons! Drop them or the Aldhanan dies!”

The Aldhanan tried to elbow Fancy Hat in the nose, but the old priest was quicker than he looked and got behind him, gashing him good under the chin with the knife. It wasn’t a killing cut, but it was deep enough to make the Aldhanan stay very very still.

He held up a hand as his guards started surging forward. “Stop! Do as he says! Lay down your arms!”

The guards and crossbow guys didn’t look very happy about that, but did as they were told, and the place suddenly sounded like a slot machine paying off, as all their weapons cling-clanged off the stone floor.

Fancy Hat looked at me. “You too, demoness. Ru-Sul, throw the weapons into the pit. The plan can still be salvaged.”

I snorted, disgusted, and was about to what he said, when I got an idea. We were all in the circle, and all standing around the wok-shaped hibachi thing, which was still full of smoking charcoal, and the Aldhanan and Fancy Hat were closer to it than the rest. Hmmm.

I tossed my weapon down like everybody else, but made sure it hit the lip of the hibachi as it fell. Crash! The wok flipped up and over and threw glowing charcoal all over Fancy Hat and the Aldhanan. As I’d hoped, they did the predictable thing, and threw their hands up as all that hot crap came flying at their eyes, and that’s when I stepped past the Aldhanan and punched Fancy Hat square in the face.

He flew back like a broken kite and came down all splayed out and stunned. Behind me, all the guards were shouting again, but I ignored ’em and hauled Fancy Hat up by the neck till his feet were dangling.

“Alright, jack-hole, what’s this all about?”

Captain Eye-Patch shouted in my ear and tried to turn me around, but then somebody else moved him away and stood beside me. It was the Aldhanan. He touched my shoulder, then turned those laser eyes on Fancy Hat.

“Now, Ru-Ranan, answer Mistress Jae-En’s question. What is this about? Who is behind this?”

He choked and sneered. “I… say… nothing. You may… do your… worst!”

The Aldhanan motioned me forward, and I walked Fancy Hat over to the pit and held him out over the edge. “How ’bout now?”

“Never!”

“You sure?” I reached out and twisted his neck, forcing him to look down. “Ain’t a high enough drop to kill you. You’ll just break your legs, then sit there and starve to death.”

“Aye,” said the Aldhanan, smiling. “Alone in the pit at night, with the ghosts of Durgallah’s dead rising from their bones, asking you why you burned them alive. Asking—”

Fancy Hat whimpered and started kicking. “Stop! I will… speak! I… will—”

“Coward! You will not!”

There was a confused shout from the guards and I looked back. Ru-Sul was charging through them, straight for us.

“You will not reveal the master’s plan!”

Me and the Aldhanan dodged left and right to get out of his way, but he wasn’t after us. Instead, he leapt at Fancy Hat and hit him right in the numbers, ripping him out of my grip. The two of ’em flew out over the pit like the instant replay of a QB sack, then bounced off the far wall and dropped to the bottom.

I’d been wrong about the fall not being high enough to kill you. It was plenty high enough, if you hit head first.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BREAK-UP!

E
verybody stood around the edge of the pit for a second, looking down at the bodies, then Wen-Jhai ran to the Aldhanan and started weeping on his chest.

“Oh, Father, it was horrible!”

That broke the moment, and we all looked up and let out a breath and realized it was over. Sai came over and gave me and Lhan a hug. There were tears in his pretty-boy eyes.

“Once again, friends, you have saved my worthless life, and more importantly, the life of my beloved Wen-Jhai, who is my whole world. Thank you. I will not forget.”

I never know what to do when people get all weepy on me, so I just shrugged and looked at my feet. “Aw, come on, Sai. What else were we gonna do?”

“Still, you did it. And for that, I am—”

Right there in mid-sentence, he started swaying like a palm tree in a wind storm. Lhan and I caught him as he fell and set him down with his head between his legs.

Lhan patted his shoulder. “Easy, Sai. The worst is over.”

“Yeah, we’ll get some food in you. Everything’ll be fine.”

I wasn’t feeling so good myself, what with all the running and getting knocked around by skelshas and cut up by swords, but as I was looking around for someplace to sit down that wasn’t covered in blood or bodies, the Aldhanan crossed to us with Wen-Jhai at his side and Eye-Patch hovering behind like a terminator nursemaid.

The Aldhanan bowed. “Thank you, Lhan-Lar. Thank you, Mistress Jae-En. And allow me to offer you my most humble of apologies. Though in my heart I knew you to be the stoutest of heroes and best of friends, I allowed these knife-tongued priests to convince me otherwise.” He shook his head. “Were it not for your quick wits here today, I would have slain you at their bidding, and then been slain by them in turn. Truly, I am a fool.”

Wen-Jhai took my hand. “We owe you our lives, Mistress Jae-En. And our freedom. Thank you.”

I let Lhan handle the thanks this time. He was way better at that shit than I would ever be.

“It was an honor to serve, my Aldhanan, though we only did what any friend would do in similar circumstance. Thank you.”

The Aldhanan smiled. “Never-the-less, I owe you more than I can ever repay, and will reward you in time, but there is much yet to discuss.” He nodded toward Eye-Patch. “Captain Anan will be dining with me in my cabin once we have sailed. Will you join us?”

“Of course, my Aldhanan.”

I nodded. “Sure.”

“Excellent. Then, rest. I have summoned the surgeons from the ship. Your wounds will be seen to. We leave as soon as all are ready.”

Lhan bowed again. “Thank you, my Aldhanan.”

After that he and Wen-Jhai helped Sai to his feet and led him off, and left me and Lhan standing alone together near the pit. I looked over at him, hoping he’d look back, but he was looking around at all the carnage and the guards like he didn’t know I was there.

“Hey, uh, Lhan?”

He kept scanning around. “Where is the hero?”

“Huh? What hero?”

He lowered his voice. “The secret friend of the church. He who was to have ‘avenged the Aldhanan’ and brought back the news of his death. The
new Aldhanan
.”

Oh yeah. I’d almost forgot. For Ru-Sul’s plan to be complete, there was supposed to be witnesses and a hero. Well, there were plenty of witnesses. There were guards all over the place, but nobody had really stepped up to play the hero, had they? I looked back toward the Aldhanan, frowning. “Uh, Captain Anan, maybe?”

“No. He has no royal blood, nor noble either. He could never be Aldhanan.” Lhan shook his head. “I was certain there would be someone, but…”

“The priest? Ru-whatever his name was?”

“A priest cannot be Aldhanan either. The people would not allow it.” He stepped to the edge and looked down at the bodies of Fancy Hat and Ru-Sul, stroking his goatee. “Can it be the plan was not what I thought? What else could it be?”

He stood there thinking, and I stood there looking at him, my mind drifting away from Aldhanans and heroes. I cleared my throat. He didn’t look around. Oh well, fuck it.

“Uh, you called me beloved back there, Lhan. Does—does that mean—?”

He raised his head, but didn’t look around. “Forgive me. It was
instinct
. Think nothing of it.”

Ouch.

He started picking his way through the bodies toward the tents. “Our clothes must be here. And the water tokens. Rest there. I will find them.”

Not a chance. I wanted to have this out now. I followed him. “What do you want me to say, Lhan? I’m sorry. I’m sorry I picked you up.”

“Are you?”

I sighed. “Are you saying you don’t believe me? I really am sorry.”

He looked at me for the first time. His eyes were like needles. They stabbed right through me. “I do believe you. I also believe that you will do it again—that in the heat of the moment your
instinct
will cause you to once again forget your vow to me, and you will catch me up against my will and at the expense of my dignity.”

I tried to hold his gaze. I couldn’t. I also tried to promise that I would keep my vow next time. I couldn’t do that either. I looked away from him and hung my head.

“You’re right. I would do it again. I’m sorry, but if I saw you were gonna die, I’d grab you every time, vow or no vow.”

He nodded slowly, like he was thinking through a math problem, then spoke again, staring at the stone floor. “Then I think it best that I release you from your vow, and from our union. It was a great joy to be your Dhan, and to have you as my Dhanshai—one of the greatest of my life—but I believe we are better suited as companions.”

I blinked, trying to sort though all that, then blinked again as I got it. “Wait a minute. Was that some kind of hoity-toity kiss off? Did you just break up with me?”

“Surely you can see ’tis for the best?”

“No, I can’t, actually. I love you. You love me. Everything else is just bullshit rules made up by some jerks who think every woman is a precious little flower and every man is a knight in shining armor!”

Lhan looked over his shoulder at the Aldhanan’s guards, who were doing clean-up behind us. “Jae-En, please. Lower your voice.”

I balled my fists, a gnat’s ass from punching his lights out. Instead I turned away from him.

“You know what? You’re right. I’ve changed my mind. This is a great idea. Why would I want to be with a guy with a stick so far up his ass he can’t bend for love. Go fuck yourself, Lhan.”

“Jae-En, please don’t be angry. I—”

I strode off without looking back, starting for the tents on the other side of the circle, but then I kept going, past the tents and straight for the hole in the wall. I was wound so tight I could barely keep myself on the ground. I wanted to run out into the streets and shout and smash things until all the skelshas in the ruins came looking, then punch every single one of ’em in the teeth.

Well, I got as far as the courtyard on the other side of the hole, then realized I didn’t actually want to get eaten, so I just stomped around in the dust, flailing my arms and having a silent one-sided argument with a guy who wasn’t there, until something through a door in a corner of the yard started winking at me and blinding me every time I stepped past it.

The third time I got a face full of glare I stopped and turned towards it, wanting to smash it and make it go away. What the hell was it anyway? Except for the black glass crater at the far end of town, everything I’d seen in Durgallah so far had been as dry and dull as sandstone. I stepped through the door into what might once have been a stables and saw something about the size of a washing machine hidden under a blanket at the back of a stone stall. It winked again as the never-ending wind blew up a corner of the blanket. I crossed to it and pulled the blanket off and found the stolen water tokens, all still neatly bundled in their satchel, but I only gave them a glance. What the coins were leaning on was way more interesting. It looked like an oversized ice cream maker, but with all the insides showing behind see-through walls. And it was humming like an electric clock.

I stared. The thing looked like it had been made by Westinghouse or Maytag. It was clean and smooth and plastic, and looked as out of place in the ruins as an AK-47 in a cowboy movie. What the fuck was it? And how had it got here?

Well, the second one was easy. The priests had brought it. It had Temple of Ormolu written all over it. The whole design of it, the shininess, the whiteness, all made it look like it came out of the same catalog as the wands of blue fire, and all the hallways and rooms I’d seen inside the temple.

It was more than that, though. The thing actually reminded me of the temple itself, though for a second I couldn’t figure out why. I squatted down next to it, frowning through the glass panels at its innards. There were columns of little fans all around the interior wall of it, mounted behind vents in the plastic exterior, and they were all blowing on a ring of little silver slinkies that corkscrewed down through it from top to bottom. The slinkies kinda looked like the coils in an old electric heater, but cold instead of hot, because there was water condensing on them and running down the corkscrew in slow drips.

They also looked kinda like… Well, duh! This thing looked like a miniature version of that huge room with the turbines in the Temple of Ormolu where I’d run down the steps with all the guards chasing after me. Yes! That’s exactly what it was. But… what was it? What did it do?

I peeked beyond the slinkies, deeper into the machine, and saw a clear tank in the center, half-filled with water. Was it just some kind of glorified water cooler? I looked at the outside of the thing again and sure enough, there was a spigot sticking out of it. I pushed it and took a drink from my hand. It was cool and good, and seemed like overkill. Crazy priests, they couldn’t just carry water around in barrels like normal people. They had to keep it in some kind of space-aged super barrel that—

No. Wait a minute. It wasn’t a barrel, was it? My heart was suddenly thudding so hard I felt it in my ears. I had to tell Lhan.

I stood up and turned back to the temple to find him, but he was already there, standing in the hole in the wall with a bundle on his back that had my sword sticking out of it.

“I have your things, Mistress.”

“Yeah yeah, forget that. Come here.”

“You wish to berate me again?”