The Heir (Fall of the Swords Book 3) (23 page)

For truly, Seeking Sword shared them too. There were those who would accuse the Tiger Raiders of being disrespectful toward the dead, and those who would question why the Tiger Raiders would stage such a fete but wouldn't help the bands whose leaders were the Heir's likely targets. The Bandit knew that the assassinations and subsequent attacks would have to run their course—like any plague. The Tiger Raiders could do nothing to help.

The young man walked northward on the day of his mating, following the north south road. He didn't find it easy to balance the reconstruction of the Northern Empire with the protection of a few thousand bandits. Glancing over his shoulder at Slithering Snake, he smiled. I won't lack help, Seeking Sword thought.

When the three men were halfway to their destination, Slithering Snake stopped suddenly and looked back toward the fortress. “Lord Sword,” he said, a smile breaking his face wide. “The flow reports that the Heir has returned to Emparia Castle, and Aged Oak's ordered all Imperial Warriors back across the border!”

The Bandit smiled as well, but felt puzzled. “Why? What happened?”

Flashing Blade listened a moment to the psychic flow. “Someone almost assassinated Flying Arrow, Lord Sword. Imperial sources say the assassin was Lofty Lion, former Emperor of the Northern Empire.”

Slithering Snake shook his head. “That can't be right! The image on the flow, Lord Sword, is of your
father
.”

“Eh? You must be wrong!”

“How I wish you had some talent right now,” Slithering Snake said, “so you could see the image. I swear upon the Infinite that the man who tried to assassinate Flying Arrow looks exactly like your father.”

The Bandit felt suddenly faint, and closed his eyes. “What happened to him?”

“A medacor and the General Scratching Wolf found the Emperor and—”

“To my
father
! What happened to my father!”

Slithering Snake frowned. “They captured him, Lord, and are holding him in the dungeons of Emparia Castle.”

Seeking Sword closed his eyes and lowered himself to his haunches, rage building inside him. He wanted to tear off the ceremonial clothes and armor, take his sword from the sectathon, march across the border, take Emparia Castle by siege and rescue his father from the dungeons.

“Lord Sword,” Slithering Snake said gently, kneeling beside the younger man, “what can you do? It's in the hands of the Infinite now.”

The Bandit nodded, his eyes filling with tears. A tight band of muscle cut across his chest like a bow-string. “Who would know, my friend? Who would know if my father was once the former Emperor?”

“I remember talk many years ago,” the sectathon said, “but—”

“Talk? Rumor and speculation? I need
fact
, Lord Snake! Who would know, eh?”

Slithering Snake nodded. “I can understand your need to know the truth. Your father, Guarding Bear perhaps, Flying Arrow, Aged Oak maybe, and quite possibly Leaping Elk.”

“Lord Sword,” Flashing Blade said, “if your father weren't Lofty Lion, how could he get close enough to Flying Arrow to attempt an assassination?”

The Bandit nodded at the pyrathon. “Indeed, Lord Blade.” Standing, he resumed his progress north, his euphoria destroyed, the thought of his father in the dungeons of Emparia Castle casting a pall upon him. The other two men caught up with him.

“What I don't understand,” Flashing Blade said, “is why Lofty Lion and Flying Arrow would meet. What possible business could they have?”

The Bandit didn't know, his thinking sluggish. He realized why his brains felt like mud. Once more his terrible purpose showed him another facet. All the training and teaching that Leaping Elk had ordered for him fell into place. All the attention and honor Scowling Tiger had shown him made sense as well.

If Lofty Lion were his father, then he was heir to the northern lands.

Seeking Sword dropped to his knees and reverently scooped up a double handful of dirt. As he let it sift through his hands, he thought:

This land is mine!

H
ealing Hand knew he might die if the wrong person discovered he had the Medacor Sword. The benefits in his mind outweighed the risks. Before acquiring it, he had already developed his talents to such an extent that they called him the best Wizard-Medacor in all reigns of the seven Emperors Arrow. At seven years old, he and five other Wizards had put to sleep over ten thousand bandits. At twenty-two, with the augmentation of the Medacor Sword, he alone could have done the same to twice that number. The talisman effectively doubled the strengths of his primary talents and made his secondary talents, ones he possessed in only trace amounts, seem like primary ones. For instance, his pyrokinesis was so weak that he could get only a dry pine needle to smolder. With the sword, he could set fire to a wet log in an instant. In addition to invisibility, focus and storage capabilities, the sword had implant-design memory, frequency-scrambling circuits, automatic psychic-energy absorption units, and a psychic signature identification memory, as well as circuits whose purpose Healing Hand hadn't yet determined.—
Wizard and Medacor
, by the Matriarch Rippling Water.

* * *

A silver chain loosely encircling its neck, the grizzly bear reared on its hind legs. Easily taller than everyone present, the animal placed its forepaws on Guarding Bear's shoulders. One paw snagged the links of the gold pendant around the man's neck. The General looked oblivious to the potential danger. The bear snarled and looked as if it were trying to bite off Guarding Bear's ear. Yanking its head backward, the bear broke the gold chain and tossed the pendant away in one motion. The General seemed not to notice.

Snarling Jaguar grabbed a gnarled, calloused hand and wrapped the fingers around the solid silver links so the General in his diminished capacity wouldn't drop the chain. The Emperor then stepped away from bear and man. Unobtrusively, he picked up the gold pendant that the bear had torn from around Guarding Bear's neck.

Stepping forward, the trainer issued telepathic instructions to the bear. Pulling a portable shield from her belt, she set it, hooked the shield to Guarding Bear's sash and stepped away from the pair. The bear dropped to all fours, the silver chain around its neck chinking merrily. The animal stepped northward, pulling the obedient, silver-haired General along.

Snarling Jaguar and a large entourage had accompanied Rippling Water and her small retinue of servants to Swan Valley to make the formal exchange of merchandise, completing the trade as the Matriarch Bubbling Water and the Emperor had agreed sixteen years before. In addition to the inevitable functionaries and sycophants, Snarling Jaguar had brought a detachment of warriors three hundred strong—a small honor guard for an Emperor. The brown and gold garbed guards sat at attention on their haunches in orderly rows, a sword across each warrior's lap.

From Emparia City at Rippling Water's behest had come Guarding Bear and the six children for whom Snarling Jaguar had just exchanged the bear. Standing in a small group near the ranks of Southern Warriors, the siblings were all fifteen years old and all of mixed extraction, some of them as dark as their father the Emperor, some as light as their mother the Matriarch. Each sibling was physically attractive. Each was a Wizard of his or her primary talent. Each was an example of hybrid vigor.

With the retired, insane General and the six progeny of miscegenation had come a surprise. The Medacor Apprentice Healing Hand had accompanied Guarding Bear and the six siblings south, saying when he arrived, “I felt my presence was necessary.”

Rippling Water watched her father blindly follow the bear, her heart breaking. “Lord Emperor,” she asked, turning, “what still needs doing to finish the animal's training? Can a psychological Wizard complete it?”

The Emperor looked at the trainer with a telepathic inquiry. “Yes, Lady Water. Why do you ask?”

“Lord Hand,” she said, looking toward the Wizard-Medacor, standing several paces away.

Healing Hand stepped toward them, one large hand on the haft of the sword at his side. The weapon looked unusual on a man whose vocation was healing. “Yes, Lady Water?” he said, bowing, his demeanor placid and emanations soothing.

“I've found a 'need' for you, my friend,” she said, smiling.

“The trainers haven't fully finished with the bear, Lord Hand,” Snarling Jaguar said. “You're probably more than capable of the work required. The Lord Imperial Trainer will instruct you, if you're amenable to the task.”

“Happily, Lord Emperor, Lady Water.” Healing Hand bowed to them both, then approached the trainer.

At that moment, the news reached them on the psychic flow: Lofty Lion had almost assassinated Flying Arrow.

Rippling Water swayed in place, as though the world had shifted off its axis. Snarling Jaguar, she saw, was rubbing his chest with the palm of his hand. She looked toward her father. Guarding Bear had turned his face up at the sky. She couldn't tell if he was laughing.

Shocked at the assassination attempt, relieved that Flying Arrow was still alive, Rippling Water was also perplexed. “I thought Lofty Lion died almost thirty years ago.”

* * *

Snarling Jaguar feigned his bewilderment. The news that an Emperor had almost fallen to assassination had shocked and dismayed him, of course. It implied he wasn't invulnerable. That the assassin was Lofty Lion didn't surprise him. He waited patiently while the full report reached them—the extent of the Emperor's injuries, the time and circumstances of the assassination attempt, the fate of the assassin and the weapon he used. Then he stepped up to Rippling Water and whispered, “I didn't tell you the other day that I suspect Icy Wind was once Lofty Lion.”

She glanced around. “My mother thought so too. That's how I concluded that the Bandit
does
have the Sword.”

“I wondered how you derived that conclusion,” Snarling Jaguar whispered. “Listen, Lady Water, my brother told me not long ago that the Bandit doesn't even know what he wields. So to give the Eastern Empire a respite, you'll want to keep this very much to yourself, eh?”

She nodded. “If the Bandit finds out, he'll gather all the bandits and launch a siege against Emparia Castle.”

“Worse than that, Lady Water, if he asks me or the Emperor Condor for help, we'll
have
to commit our help, because legally the Northern Imperial Sword belongs to him.”

“Lord Infinite, help us then!”

“Help who when, Lady Water?” Healing Hand asked, approaching.

“Didn't my mother once give you a lesson in discretion, Lord Hand?”

“Indeed she did, Lady Water.” The Wizard-Medacor smiled. “About an infant girl with a sickness no medacor could cure. I've told no one the cause of it since.”

“Forgive me, Lord Hand. I guess I needed a reminder of your priorities.” Looking around to insure no one would overhear her, she briefed her friend.

“Lord Infinite, help us then!” Healing Hand said. “The bandits have the means to destroy the Eastern Empire—and don't know it!”

“Lord Emperor,” Rippling Water asked, “wasn't the Bandit a member of the Elk Raiders not long ago? I thought so. I feel as if there's a way to resolve everything peacefully. I
know
there is! I just don't have all the details.”

Snarling Jaguar nudged the Wizard-Medacor to indicate they should leave her by herself. Rippling Water seemed to have slipped into a semi-trance. They strolled off together, belatedly following Guarding Bear.

“I hope we find a solution, by the Infinite,” Healing Hand said.

“I hear more fervor than I'd expect from an Imperial Warrior.”

“I'm also Flaming Arrow's Imperial Medacor, Lord Emperor. He too wants to find a peaceful resolution. Besides, I've wanted to meet a man. The reason I haven't is he's a bandit.”

“Someone special, Lord Hand? Your father Easing Comfort, perhaps?”

Healing Hand smiled. “Not exactly a secret, eh Lord? This whole affair has a strange feel to it. Everyone's now referring to Seeking Sword as 'the Bandit' disturbs me considerably. I can hear the emphasis when someone says that, as if it were a title.”

“I too have heard the emphasis—and have adopted it myself,” Snarling Jaguar said, shrugging, his glittering wrists jingling.

“There's more to this strange feeling though, Lord. The Heir, the Bandit, the Heir Swords, the psychic storms, the physical, mental and psychic similarities between the two men. All of it. Have you ever faced a situation that doesn't feel right at the deepest levels of consciousness, Lord Emperor? Somehow, I feel I've made a bad assumption somewhere. If I could only find it, I'd have solved the bandit problem and that of the empty northern lands.”

“I empathize, Lord Hand. I too feel something's not right. As you might already know, I have a trace prescient talent. When the twins were born, something shifted, as if their birth had set the world upon its side. Even before then, when my armies faced those of Guarding Bear that first time, something defying definition lurked in the back of my mind. Consistent with that, I felt relieved when Brazen Bear died. Of the Brothers Bear, he seemed to embody more this unsettling mood, feeling, whatever you call it. My intuition tells me that if the bandits besiege Emparia Castle, all four Empires will crumble until chaos reigns. So a solution must exist. It
must
!”

Silence settled between them as they approached the bear and his General. They stopped at a safe distance. Animal and man bonded inside the barrier of electrical shielding. Any external interference, such as their stepping across the invisible boundary, would have serious consequences for both.

“What a sanctuary insanity must be in times like these,” Snarling Jaguar said.

“Indeed, Lord,” Healing Hand said, nodding.

The Emperor looked at him sharply, detecting hesitation and obfuscation. “Oh, master of secrets, Lord Hand, perhaps
you
have the key. Long ago, I recognized that when the Eastern Empire fell, the Southern Empire would be in danger of falling as well. In helping your Empire, I helped my own. When the Northern Empire fell, my brother was already a bandit, living in the Craggy Mountains. I was Emperor, forbidden by law to do anything but hunt him down.” Snarling Jaguar lowered his voice, sadness upon him. “Despite my fervent wish to grant him pardon and bring him home.” The Emperor shrugged. “When Flying Arrow refused to colonize the northern lands, I sent my brother north, declaring to all how much I hated him and wanted him dead.

“When my brother reported this strange old man who possessed a talisman worth an Empire, I concluded as he did that only one Wizard could have fashioned the staff: Lurking Hawk. The Sorcerer wouldn't build such a talisman for just anyone. Therefore, Icy Wind had to be none other than Lofty Lion.

“Tell me, Lord Medacor, how Lurking Hawk died.”

* * *

Not understanding the disjointed progression of the other man's thoughts, Healing Hand wondered which story to tell. The public story—the one he and Flying Arrow had fabricated—was that the infant boy had suffocated in his crib. The real story—the one only he and the Emperor Arrow knew—was that Lurking Hawk had suffocated the boy and then manipulated the other twin.

Deciding to trust this man completely, Healing Hand said, “This is what happened, not the official history:

“Three days after the twins were born, I arrived at the castle for my second day as Medacor Apprentice and discovered that one twin had died in the night. Shortly after I got the Medacor's offices, the Captain in charge of Lurking Hawk walked in. Lurking Hawk was facing charges of trespass, evasion of Imperial authority, psychic assault upon an Imperial officer, possession of a talisman—everything short of treason. The Captain needed a medacor. Since Soothing Spirit was doing an autopsy on the dead twin, another medacor and I went with the Captain. Lurking Hawk and one of his guards were dead. The guard had died an hour or so before his murderer; Lurking Hawk had slit his throat. The Traitor had completely ruptured the pre-frontal lobes of his brain, as well as several other vital cranial organs. Lurking Hawk's abuse of his talents ultimately killed him.

“The hour between the guard's death and Lurking Hawk's death made me suspicious. I found the Sorcerer's blood where I shouldn't have. The Captain showed us the exit leading to the secret passageways. Nearly every noble in the castle had access to them—not much of a secret, eh? I retraced the trail of blood Lurking Hawk had left to the Medacor's offices, to the nursery. I concluded that Lurking Hawk had killed one of the twins.

“The other twin, Flaming Arrow, seemed perfectly healthy when I examined him later. The psychic activity monitors registered nothing, which they had since the twins' birth. I did detect a change, though: He didn't register on my psychic sight. Before, I had been able to probe him, see him, heal him. Then, nothing! As if Flaming Arrow lived in a world without psychic power, without talent.

“I reported my observations to Flying Arrow. He decided to conceal the manner of Lurking Hawk's death. We'd have had to endure so much shame as an Empire if the manner of the boy's death became common knowledge. Few people had seen the twins, so obscuring how he died wasn't difficult. Both the Emperor and I knew though that Lurking Hawk had finally exacted his vengeance.”

Many minutes later, after a long silence, Snarling Jaguar said, “Thank you for trusting me with the truth.”

Content with silence, Healing Hand watched the bear, remembering the stuffed grizzly at the Bear residence in Emparia City.

“The staff itself must have carried the information.”

“What information, Lord Emperor?”

“Where they had hidden the Heir Sword.” The Emperor glanced down at the Wizard-Medacor's hip, at the shiny sword sheathed there. “Beautiful weapon, looks new. Why do you wear it, Lord Medacor?”

“I participated in the siege of Seat, Lord, where they issued it to me. Being a trained warrior, I felt comfortable keeping it.”

The sapphire on the Imperial Sword at Snarling Jaguar's hip began to glow. The Emperor's brow wrinkled. “When did you acquire the talisman, Lord Hand?”