The Daylight War (118 page)

He looked at the man leading the greenlanders, and despite the changes to his appearance, Jardir knew his
ajin’pal
instantly. The way he sat a horse, his carriage and careful gaze. He, too, had always felt safe at the greenlander’s side, always knew where he stood in the man’s esteem.

Oh, my brother
,
Jardir thought sadly.
Truly
Everam
is
testing
me, if I must kill you twice.

The greenlanders dismounted and tethered their horses on the opposite side of the cliff from the Krasian mounts. Jardir and his seven stood to meet them, their backs to the yawning drop.

‘It has been too long, Par’chin,’ he said when the greenlanders came forward. He could not see into the Par’chin’s heart in sunlight, but Jardir could sense the power in his
ajin’pal
,
contained by the will of a
sharusahk
master. The son of Jeph carried a fine warded spear, but it was plain wood and steel, with none of the innate power of the Spear of Kaji. ‘You look well.’

‘No thanks to you,’ the Par’chin said, ‘and a thousand years is too soon to have to look at your face again.’ He spat at Jardir’s feet, and there was tension in Jardir’s entourage at the insult.

He threw an arm out to stay them, and met the eyes of Jayan, the most volatile of the group. ‘You are here as witnesses, not participants.’

He turned back to the Par’chin, pointedly ignoring the spittle on his boot. ‘You remember my
Jiwah
Ka
,
of course, and Abban, Damaji Ashan, and Shanjat. These,’ he gestured at the others, ‘are Damaji Aleverak of the Majah, and my sons Jayan and Asome.’

The Par’chin nodded. He turned to the woman to his right, whose sparse clothing revealed enough flesh to make even Inevera look demure. She was covered in painted wards as he was. Her eyes were wild, with none of the Par’chin’s control. She looked at him with open hatred. ‘My wife, Renna Bales, and His Highness Count Thamos of Hollow County, brother to Duke Rhinebeck of Fort Angiers. I believe you know the others.’

Jardir nodded. ‘Before we begin, I would speak with my intended privately, to assure myself of her good treatment.’

‘And I, my daughter,’ Inevera put in. Jardir cast an irritated eye at her, but she ignored him.

‘Intended?’ Thamos asked. The look he gave Leesha made Jardir’s eyes narrow.

Leesha came forward without waiting for anyone’s permission, and Amanvah followed a moment later. Jardir took Leesha aside. When they were far enough that their voices would not be overheard, he moved to embrace her. ‘Intended, how I have missed your touch …’

Leesha pulled back, stepping to the side and evading his arms. ‘What is this?’ he demanded. ‘We shared more than a simple embrace the last time we were alone.’

Leesha nodded. ‘But we are not alone, and this is not the time, Ahmann. I won’t have you marking me like a dog. I have already refused your proposal.’

Jardir smiled. ‘Thus far.’

‘No, not thus far,’ Leesha snapped. ‘I lay with you in the pillows, yes, but I am not your property, and I will never wed you. Not if you divorce all your wives and return to the Desert Spear, nor if you kill all the dukes of the Free Cities and name yourself king of Thesa. Never.’

‘And this is why you betrayed me?’ Jardir asked. ‘The warrior you poisoned made it to me alive with Amanvah’s letter. I know what you were doing on the road.’

Leesha’s anger seemed to lessen at that. He had expected her to become defensive, but instead she let out a relieved breath. ‘Oh, thank the Creator,’ she whispered.

‘This pleases you?’ he asked, confused.

‘I don’t have a
dama’ting
’s stomach for poisons,’ Leesha said. ‘And I betray no one by warning my people about the truth of your intentions.

‘Speaking of poisons and betrayal,’ she went on, ‘did your daughter’s letter mention how she herself tried to poison me with blackleaf while we were in the Palace of Mirrors? Or that your wife had me kidnapped and beaten the night after we first made love?’

Jardir could feel his face grow slack at the words. He reached out, taking her hand that he might sense her aura even in the light. He hoped to find proof of the lie, but he sensed beyond doubt that she spoke truth. Anger filled him, but then he sensed something else as well, and his rage was forgotten.

‘You carry a child!’

Leesha’s eyes widened. ‘What? I most certainly do not.’ Jardir did not need to probe these words. The lie was as clear in her eyes as it was in her aura. She was as aware as he of the new life that pulsed in harmony with her own.

Jardir grabbed her arm, squeezing so tightly she flinched in pain as he dragged her into the shadow of the cliff wall. ‘Do not lie to me. Is it that pathetic greenland …’ He looked closer in the shade, examining the life within her. ‘No, the child is mine. It is mine and you sully it by cavorting with this
chin
princeling. Did you mean to hide this from me? Do you think I will let this man, or any man, keep me from claiming what is mine? I will feed his balls to the dogs. I will—’

‘You will do nothing.’ Leesha yanked her arm away, holding the other protectively over her belly. ‘This child isn’t yours, Ahmann!
I
am not yours! We are human beings and do not
belong
to anyone. This is where you fail time and again, and why my people will never bow willingly to you. You cannot own people.’

‘You parse words like a
khaffit
to deny what you know is just,’ Jardir said. ‘Would you deny the child the chance to know its father?’

Leesha laughed, the sound harsh and biting. Her aura coloured with disdain, and it stung to see it directed at him. ‘You have over seventy children, Ahmann, and you barter them like casks of ale. How many of them do you truly know?’

Jardir hesitated, and Leesha’s aura flushed with victory. She gave him a mocking smile. ‘Tell me the name days of all of them, and I will be your wife, here and now.’

Jardir gritted his teeth, flexing his fingers to keep them from curling into a fist.

So
that’s why she smelled different.
Arlen growled low in his throat as he watched Jardir and Leesha, his sharp ears catching every word. He cursed himself. He would have seen it long ago had he Known her like he did everyone else.

Should
have
told
me
,
he thought.
Never
would
have
brought
her
if
I’d known. Probably why she didn’t. Word of this gets out, it could ruin everything.
Not for the first time, he wondered whose side that woman was on.

‘Thought you said there wern’t nothing left ’tween you and Leesha Paper,’ Renna said, snapping him from his musing.

Arlen glanced at her, and then back at Leesha and Jardir. He tensed as Jardir grabbed her arm. ‘Don’t mean I want to see her playing kissy with a man who did his best to murder me.’

Renna grunted. ‘Nothin’ in the plan says you can’t stomp him a bit ’fore you finish things.’

‘Mean to,’ Arlen said, stepping forward. ‘Had your moment, Jardir! Hour’s come to answer for your crimes!’

Jardir released Leesha’s arm. ‘We will speak more of this, after.’

‘Only if you win, Ahmann,’ Leesha said. The words cut him deeply, but he embraced the feeling and pushed it aside, turning to stride over to where the Par’chin waited at the centre of the cliff. The sun still bathed the area, and would until it fully set. His crownsight winked out as he left the shadow of the cliff.

The witnesses gathered around in a semicircle with the cliff wall at their backs. The challenge was simple. They would fight within the ring until one of them surrendered, or went over the cliff. They were allowed only spears and
sharusahk
,
and both men stood with arms raised as Shanjat patted the son of Jeph’s simple clothing for hidden weapons, and Gared did the same for him.

‘No disrespect,’ the giant greenlander said as he went about the business.

‘You have nothing but honour in my eyes, son of Steave,’ Jardir replied.

His sharp ears caught Shanjat’s words to the son of Jeph. ‘You should be thankful for the mercy my master showed you, Par’chin.’

‘And you should be thankful I don’t blame a man’s dogs for who he tells them to bite,’ the Par’chin said.

Shanjat sneered. ‘The Shar’Dama Ka will finish what he started that night, Par’chin. You cannot hope to stand against him.’

‘Then why are you hiding a knife in your sleeve?’ the Par’chin demanded. ‘Use it, if you dare.’

The warrior tensed, and Jardir knew the Par’chin spoke truly. ‘Shanjat!’ he shouted, stealing the moment before his brother-in-law could shame him. ‘Attend me!’

When the
Sharum
seconds retreated, Jardir and the Par’chin bowed, both at a precise angle and duration, giving neither man greater or lesser face before Everam.

‘I have come as you demanded, son of Jeph,’ Jardir said. ‘Speak your accusations for all assembled and almighty Everam, from whom all justice flows, to hear.’

‘The spear you hold is not yours,’ the Par’chin said. ‘I risked my own life to bring it back to the world, and brought it first to you, my brother in
sharak
,
to share its power. But sharing its secrets was not enough for you. The moment you realized its power was true, you conspired to steal it from me, ambushing me at night on the holy floor of the Maze. Your men beat me, and you took the spear, then cast me into a demon pit to die.’

There were murmurs from both sides at this, but Jardir ignored them, letting the Par’chin continue. He had carried these burdens too long in secret.
Let
us
have
it
out, and have it done.

‘When I killed the sand demon and climbed from the pit, I told you you would need to kill me yourself,’ the Par’chin said. ‘But you chose instead to knock me out and leave me on the dunes to die. You should have known then this was coming.’

Jardir nodded. ‘You speak truly, Par’chin. I deny none of these actions, but I do deny the crime. One cannot steal one’s own property from the thief that took it.’

The Par’chin laughed. ‘
Your
property? I found it hundreds of miles from you, in a place no one had been to in three thousand years!’

‘Kaji was my ancestor,’ Jardir said.

The son of Jeph snorted. ‘Your stories are true, he had thousands of children, spread across the land. Got descendants in every sheep-sticking hamlet from here to the mountains of Miln.’

‘But it is we of Krasia who have kept to his word and tradition, Par’chin,’ Jardir said. ‘The holy city of Anoch Sun is sacred. You violated it and stole its treasures.’

‘You attack living cities, yet try to murder me for a crime against a dead one?’ the Par’chin demanded. He narrowed his eyes. ‘Where did you get that crown, my old friend? How much of the holy city did you have to violate to find it?’

Jardir felt his face grow cold, for of course, his army had ransacked the city during their exodus from the desert. But there was no way the Par’chin could know that …

But the son of Jeph smiled, as if he could read Jardir’s mind. ‘I’ve been back there, my friend, and seen how you left things. I treated your “sacred city” with far more reverence than you did, and brought its secrets to you in peace and brotherhood. Even offered to take you back there myself. What has your visit brought the world? Rape, pillage, and murder.’

‘Order,’ Jardir said. ‘Unity. I have made Krasia whole again, and soon the known world.’

The Par’chin shook his head. ‘Once you’re gone, your tribes will be back to slaughtering one another over a bucket of water. Gettin’ rid of you is my last piece of business before I take the fight down to the Core itself.’

Jardir smiled, readying his spear. ‘Whatever on Ala makes you think you can kill me, Par’chin?’