The Invisible Chains - Part 3: Bonds of Blood (64 page)

His love looked up at him.

“I took care of that,” he said simply.

“How?”

Anaxantis sighed.

“Ah, to begin with... Nothing of it was real.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“In a way, it was all you. Your imagination. The chains you kept me in were of solid iron, yours... yours simply weren't there. They didn't exist. That's why you couldn't see tren't n'tu khem. They were invisible, because they were of your own making.”

“How? I don't—”

“To begin with, the renunciation. We, my private secretary and me, we never registered the documents with the Royal Administration in Ormidon. If we were to say it didn't happen or that it was all a ruse of some sorts, well, there is not one officially registered document to contradict us.”

“So?”

“So, you are who you always were. Ehandar, prince of Ximerion.”

It took a while to sink in.

“But, if anything had happened?”

“Go. Go, take the candle on the nightstand and go to the wardrobe and open it.”

Ehandar looked at him, not understanding.

“Go, look,” his brother repeated.

He went over to the wardrobe and opened it.

“Now, look at the bottom. The first plank is loose. Remove it.”

Ehandar suddenly remembered that only a few weeks ago he had clicked it back in place.

“Use the dagger to pry it loose,” his brother said.

Ehandar wrenched the dagger out of the sideboard.

Beneath the plank, the bottom was hollow.

“Go on, empty it,” Anaxantis goaded him on, looking like a little child that has prepared a present for his parents and now is eager to see their face.

Ehandar began emptying the bottom compartment.

“My clothes,” he said surprised. “They were here all along?”

“All the time,” Anaxantis nodded.

“And the eagle flag, my standard, I thought you burned that?”

“We burned an eagle flag. One of the spare ones, out of storage. Your seal ring is there as well, somewhere. I switched them. You saw a fake one being destroyed.”

Ehandar looked at him with open mouth.

“I'm sorry, my love, but, you see, none of it was real. You chained yourself. You drew conclusions.” He bowed his head. “And I... I let you.”

“It still doesn't explain what would have happened.”

“Oh, that. Take the pouch out and look into it.”

Ehandar did so. It was filled with parchments, letters and maps. There was also a purse with gold pieces. He looked at his brother questioningly.

Anaxantis sighed.

“Ah, I forget, there is so much you don't know. Before going on campaign I gave Renda some sealed letters, orders, that she was to use only in the event I would die in battle or if something else would happen that would prevent my return. I had Gorth and Brenx arrested—”

“Rullio? Rullio is here?” Ehandar exclaimed, overwhelmed by the news. “He escaped? And you knew Gorth was in the cavalry in disguise?”

This time Anaxantis looked at his brother's stupefied face and giggled.

“I so did... Anyway,” he continued excitedly, “Renda was to go to the captain of my guard and sxcitedard alhow him my order to release both Gorth and Brenx. There was a letter for them as well. It told them where you were and to go up to our room. They were not to enter, but slip yet another letter under the door. I didn't want to embarrass you. That letter explained about the hidden compartment, where your clothes were, and told you to look at the maps.”

Ehandar took them out of the pouch.

“The first parchment is a plan that shows where the secret exit of Lorseth Castle is, though Gorth knows about it — I found that out as well — and it tells you to go south by the beach, then, after a few miles, climb up the slope and go to a farm, called World's End. I had made arrangements with the owner for three horses to be ready at all times, fully equipped and with fresh food in the saddlebags.”

“A horse for each of us,” Ehandar said.

“Well, actually, at the time I knew only about Brenx. It's a lucky coincidence. I meant the third horse as a spare. Anyway, you would have been fine if I had only arranged for two. The man would have been happy to sell you an additional one, I think.”

“And the others?”

“They're detailed maps of a cross section of the Marches. Very detailed. They show all the secondary, and even tertiary roads to the eastern border. Hiding places, remote farms, a few abandoned villages. I pieced all the details together from different incomplete maps and had some of my scouts check all kinds of details. I couldn't be sure what would happen if I didn't return. How long would my authority survive me? Would the Mukthars overrun the province? So, I thought this was the safest way to go about it. There's quite a hefty sum there. To pay your way. To bribe people if necessary.”

“The other letters?”

“Oh. One for my mother in Soranza. Several for bankers. I moved all our assets — you gave me control over yours, remember? — to the independent city states. Half to Soranza. The rest I divided between two others and Zyntrea. There is also a letter for uncle Kurtigaill.”

Ehandar whistled.

“You planned this thoroughly,” he said.

Anaxantis shrugged.

“I... I wanted you to be safe. And happy. I figured it didn't... that other stuff, none of it mattered very much anymore if I were dead. I thought that at least you would be with your friends. Safe. Safe from all this. Safe from father and our brothers. With no financial worries. I thought you could rebuild your life without me. I thought I could love you...”

“
You thought you could love me, if only you were dead. Safe. Safe from me.”

Ehandar rifled through the maps and paled when he saw a particular one with faint, reddish smudges. He held it up.

“These... These were the maps you were working on, night after night, for so long.”

“Maps are important. I told you. I told you these were especially important,” Anaxantis said, in a soft and apologetic tone. “Won't you come back to bed?” he added, in a small, pleading voice.

Holding him in his arms, Ehandar looked at Anaxantis. He looked so tired. So weighed down by all his responsibilities.

“You should rest more,” he said, “I'm going to see to it that you rest more. And eat well.”

“Oh,ell.��y">, � Ehandar, don't fuss,” Anaxantis said, his voice slightly peevish. But he smiled.

“I'm not fussing. You always eat far too little. I understand there was no time to rest much as long as there was the threat of a barbarian invasion, but you should take it somewhat easier now. Slow down a bit.”

“I wish I could, my love, but I can't. Don't you see? It isn't over. Not by a long shot.”

“What do you mean? You wanted to protect the people and you did.”

“Ah, yes, that's what everybody thinks. It's not altogether wrong, you know. At the doctor's I saw this cute, little girl with her doll. Ehandar, she was so happy and carefree. I couldn't stand the thought of her being...

Well, I couldn't have lived with myself if I hadn't done everything in my power to keep her safe.”

“You did keep her safe.”

“But that was not the only reason. I've thought about it a lot and I can't decide which was the more important one. Don't you see? What I did — all I did — it was to keep us, you and me, safe.”

“Us?”

“Yes, us. I wanted to keep us safe. From father. From Tenax and Portonas. From the poisons of the Devil's Crown. It was you who gave me the idea. If only, you said one evening, we could make the Marches into a fort, a safe haven for the both of us. Where they couldn't get at us. And that is what I did. What I am still doing.”

“
I can't begin to imagine what it must have cost you,”
Ehandar thought, holding his love in his arms, “
and
I'm not certain I could have done the same if our roles had been reversed. But one thing I do know,
conquering yourself was a greater victory than the one at the Zinchara.

“
You're a smart little devil. Yet, you are wrong. So wrong. There never was another. There never was
someone called Tarno. It was all me. You split me up so you could hate one part while keeping on loving
another. And all you wanted was to be safe and be loved back. All the time you were only looking for that,
and in doing so you hurt yourself. I was not the only one kept prisoner by invisible chains.

“
It was all my fault. And I will make up for it. Day by day by day. You want Ehandar and I'll give you
Ehandar. I'll be your big brother and your lover. I'll look out for you, and I'll be grumpy and grouchy about
it, because I know you love to be looked after, cared for, although you protest loudly that you hate it.

“
But I know you need Tarno also, so I'll be Tarno as well. Always. Every day again, Tarno will make you feel
safe. Because whatever you tell him to do, he will do. No questions asked. Immediately. Instantly. All of it.

Completely. Whatever it is. So that each day you will grow more certain. With each passing day you will feel,
deep, deep inside you that you are safe. You'll see that what happened, can never happen again, because
you'll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will be enough for you to say one word to make me stop at
once. Whatever it was I was doing.

“
I'll make you so, so sure of this, that you will never be afraid again. And you won't ever have to fear your
monsters either. I'll help you keep them at bay. If that isn't possible anymore, Tarno will always be there to
feed them for you. I'll give them whatever it is they want.”

He felt suddenly very tired, exhausted. He let his head sink heavily on his cushion.

Anaxantis noticed his wearinept" wis wletss.

“Go to sleep, my love,” he said. “We have tomorrow and the rest of our lives.”

Ehandar closed his eyes and felt himself become very, very drowsy.

“Yes, Master,” he whispered, just before falling asleep.

“
No, no, no,”
Anaxantis thought, panicking.

He saw himself at a very young age, standing forlornly, helplessly looking at the shattered figurine he had dropped. A shepherd and his dog, sitting under a tree on a little hill. He had accidentally broken the head off from the boy figure, and in his frantic, futile efforts to stick it back on he had let it slip out of his fingers. The inferior plaster had crumbled and it was beyond repair now.

He had loved that figurine, cheap and gaudy as it was. Why? He didn't know. Maybe more for the dog than the boy. The dog that sat on its hind legs, calmly waiting for his master. Confident that his master knew where they were and when it would be time to go and whereto. Looking out in the same direction as him.

One purpose. No questions. Just unconditional loyalty. Was it that?

“
Tarno,”
he realized, paling.

He looked at Ehandar. Had he broken him?

“
No, no, this, this I can repair. And I'll start first thing tomorrow. I'll make sure you feel loved, loved as you
have never felt loved before. You'll not only know you are loved, but I'll make you feel respected and honored
as well. You will hear it in every word I say and see it in every gesture I make.”

He had planned and schemed so much these last months. His restless mind started planning again as if falling into a familiar routine.

He would ask Renda to cook a meal, and he would invite, unbeknownst to his love, as a surprise, Gorth and Brenx — well, he supposed he should really start calling him Rullio, since he was a friend of his brother after all. He would make some kind of excuse and make himself scarce. No problem there. Enough urgent matters needed his attention. He would ask Renda to stay for the meal. Ehandar would like that. So would Renda. But after the meal she had to excuse herself as well, so that the guys could be amongst themselves. Renda would understand. They must have so much to talk about.

He smiled. He could already see them sitting and talking animatedly at the table, there, drinking and laughing.

And there was the matter of bringing his prince back into public life. He would elaborate on the story of the secret mission. He could, he would find something. Something very convincing. Something incontrovertible.

Something that would explain his long absence. Something so clever, yet so plausible, no, evident, that his love would never be embarrassed by hearing the slightest whisper behind his back. He would make certain of that.

Who would dare gainsay the warlord, the Mukthar Slayer?

Yes, yes. He loved making plans, didn't he? This would be his masterpiece. He could do it.

“
Yes, of course I can do it,”
he thought, smiling confidently in the dark.

“
Am I not, after all, by the Right of Arms and the Grace of the Gods, Anaxantis, Warlord of Great Renuvia?”

Map 1: Renuvian Plains & Northern Border

Map 2: Anaxantis's Defense Plan

Map 3: Disposition and Movements of Troops on May 22nd, 1453

Map 4: Movements of the Ximerionian and Mukthar armies on May 24th, 1453