The Prodigal Troll (52 page)

Tubat and Crimey, dressed in armor with weapons drawn, were held at bay by the bridge guards. Tubat's cry of "He's inside, I tell you-" changed suddenly to "There he is!"

When the guards turned to look, Tubat charged past them.

Tubat swung his weapon and Bran counterattacked. They came together in a single clash of iron, and then fell back a step like two bucks after butting horns.

"We should have cut your braid off long ago," Tubat said. His face was bruised, his lips swollen.

Bran laughed at him. "Remember the time when Lord Terrere's men attacked us in the middle of the night and you pissed yourself like a baby?"

Tubat roared and swung his sword again, but Bran deflected the blow and countered with a strike at Tubat's neck. The big man parried, and the sword skipped off his armored shoulder.

Crimey and the bridge guards spread out at Tubat's rear, while Acrysy and his two men circled behind Bran and Maggot. Maggot dashed between the men, but toward the wall and not the bridge. Using his momentum, he ran up the stones and jumped for the bracket that held the oil-soaked flaming torch. He caught the metal holder just like he would a branch, hung there while he removed the blazing brand, then dropped to the ground.

Blood streamed down Bran's left arm, but he attacked the bigger man relentlessly, with one two-handed strike after another. Then Maggot had no chance to notice anything as he thrust the torch at the men attacking Bran's back. When Crimey rallied them, Maggot used his long arm and quick wrist to dash the flames in the other man's face. He screamed, and flailed backward, dropping his sword. Maggot snatched it up and bellowed troll-like in his rage, torch in one hand and sword in the other.

The attackers all paused at the sound of this, and Tubat's shout of triumph dropped into this silence like a stone. Maggot turned. Bran lay on the ground, disarmed, stunned perhaps, and Tubat had his sword drawn back to strike.

Maggot leapt, hurling the torch at Tubat's chest. The big knight howled in shock, knocking it away in a shower of sparks, and Maggot attacked, striking hard and fast.

Tubat reeled, backstepping, but parrying so hard the steel vibrated in Maggot's hand. Then he dodged a second blow and lunged forward, swinging his sword at Maggot's head. Maggot twisted away, but the blade clipped the lion's skull and staggered him. When Tubat reversed the arc of his weapon to strike again, Maggot tackled him. The knight bounced off the flagstones, grunting under Maggot's weight. His hand rebounded off the pavement, and his sword flew loose.

Maggot still held onto his weapon.

Despite the knight's fists fastened on his costume, Maggot shifted his feet to the ground and levered himself into a crouch. Then, grabbing the knight's braid, he flipped his head against the ground. Blood splattered, and possibly teeth.

Tubat pawed at him feebly as Maggot used the braid to jerk the knight to his knees. He pulled back his sword to slice through his enemy's neck.

And stopped before he swung.

There was an unexpected silence all around him except for the burned man, Crimey, screaming somewhere beyond the wall of masks. Maggot looked up.

A golden lion stepped out of the crowd: Baron Culufre, not ten feet away. He wore a shirt of golden scales beneath a long robe of lion's fur lined with emerald green. His mask of burnished gold outshone the sun, ivory teeth polished to unblemished white. His arms crossed his chest. Thick gold bands shackled his wrists.

A group of armed men, knights, formed a semicircle behind the Baron-Sebius was there, as was Acrysy and his men, but they seemed entirely superfluous, like young lions left outside the pride. A sword was belted at the Baron's side. He stood like a man used to wielding it.

"Please continue," Culufre said. His mellifluous voice sounded like it came more from the sky than from any man. "You may kill him if you like."

Maggot straightened, tossing down the limp head as he would an apple core or empty shell. The fire of his anger had burned clean away, the fuel that fed it exhausted, and he felt no more. He dropped the sword and let it clatter on the stones. "There is more to the world than stupid killing."

The Baron tilted his head back and laughed. When he stopped to speak again, his voice was as solid as stone. "You know, don't you, that only the consort of the Baroness may wear the Baron's sigil?"

He meant the dagger-toothed lion.

It hurt Maggot to wear it, because it reminded him of Portia. He unfastened the gold chain at his neck and slipped the mantle from his shoulders. He extended his hand, offering it to Culufre. "It was given to me, but it was intended for you. Let it go where it belongs."

The Baron lifted a hand to his chin, as if considering the offer, then made the smallest motion with but one finger. A man hurried forward to take the lion's cape. With his hand resting once more below his mouth, Culufre said, "Name yourself not, but request a favor and I shall grant it."

There was a small, excited buzz among the gathered crowd.

Maggot did not know what to ask for.

"If you request to leave here safely," the Baron suggested, "I shall have you escorted to the edge of my lady's realm. Or anywhere else within the empire that you may wish to go."

Maggot considered this. "I came here with my friend, Bran, because he wished to speak to you. I ask only that you listen to him."

The Baron rolled his tongue around his mouth as if savoring the taste of this. "Come then, Bran. I've seen you. Your friend has just traded his life to let you speak."

The two knights holding Bran thrust him forward. As soon as they let go, he dropped to his knees at the Baron's feet and touched his forehead to the ground.

"Rise," Culufre said. "I expect no knight of mine to come to me bent and bare-necked."

Bran remained where he was, face down. "I no longer wear the braid. Naked the peasants placed me in the flames to kill me, and naked I was carried out again, a new man. I ask to come again into your service, as a lowly shepherd if it suits you, fit only to work among untutored boys until I prove myself worthy of your trust."

"I advise against it," Sebius said, his high voice wavering. "This man is a traitor. He betrayed us once, and meant to betray us here tonight."

"I think not," Culufre answered. "Captain Bran was alleged a traitor only because he could not make a young woman love a foolish boy several years her junior." Acrysy started to protest, but the Baron swung his hand up in a slapping gesture. The woman in the dove costume standing behind him made a small movement with her hand, as if stroking his shoulder from a distance, and then he said, more softly, "Silence, boy."

"If you will but listen," Sebius said, "you will find that your progeny, the only son of your dear lady, and heir through her to your titles-most glorious and munificent Baron, Lord Culufre, Lion of the Eastern Mountains, Emerald of the Empire, dear brother-has a valid point."

"Enough. You, Sebius, heard this man speak. This is not Captain Bran, the knight who once served us, but a peasant with shorn head who seeks to serve us now." He paused, a smile spreading slowly across his exposed mouth. "A shepherd in wolf's clothing, if you will."

A light laughter rippled through the crowd, like the patter of raindrops on leaves.

"My brother-"

"He will be entered into the household staff, where he can be watched constantly by those most loyal to me for any sign of treason. In time, if he proves himself, we may request of the Empress the opportunity for him to become a eunuch. He was trained once by one that is well regarded. This is my judgment, may Verlogh take vengeance on me alone if it proves wrong."

At these words, Sebius dropped his head. "Yes, my lord."

"Rise, Bran. And welcome into my service."

Bran climbed to his feet, keeping his head bowed. "My lord is both merciful and just."

"However could I be both?" Culufre asked. "It is better by far that I am strong. Do not lie to me again if you wish to rise in my service." He hesitated, staring at Maggot with a puzzled expression.

Maggot suddenly felt someone moving toward him, as if a long tether rounding his chest, years slack except for the slightest tugs, were now drawn perfectly tight.

He turned his head expecting-hoping-to see Portia.

The crowd parted at the passage of a lioness, as glorious and extravagant in her costume as the Baron, flanked by women as the Baron was by knights. The Baroness.

The lioness's golden, silver-whiskered visage concealed her face, but her chin trembled. A small, blue velvet bag hung from a chain about her neck. She clutched it tightly in one white-knuckled fist and pointed her other shaking hand at Maggot.

"It's him," she said, her voice quaking.

Culufre stepped quickly to her side, took her left hand, and stroked it gently. "There, my dear, my sweet, Elysse. What is it that makes you overwrought?"

"It's him." Her eyes stayed fixed on Maggot's face. "After all these years. His appearance is exactly like his father's."

Maggot leaned back, trying to break the pull of that invisible tether.

"Really?" Culufre was saying. "I rather thought, just a moment ago, that he favored you."

"This is no jape, my lord consort. I was bonded to the nursemaid and my baby while I was pregnant, and I have always felt the tug of that lost boy."

His voice went soft. "And we severed that bond to save your life when child and nursemaid perished in the fire-"

She yanked her hand away from him. Slipping the tiny velvet bag off her neck, she thrust it out blindly. "Fetch me my wizard. He can tell me the truth."

Several women departed, returning to the castle.

At this distance, the velvet had no scent for Maggot, but he did not like the smell of things. His teeth were on edge.

"Elysse," Culufre said soothingly.

She elevated her chin toward the prize at the end of her arm. "This contains the cord that bound him to me and a piece of the meat that fed him in the womb-the wizard may use it to prove that this is my son." Her eyes blazed at Maggot, and her voice dropped very low. "I always knew that you still lived."

"My mother was a troll," Maggot told her.

Someone in the crowd stifled a snicker.

"Don't speak such wicked things," the Baroness said.

"She was a very good mother." Maggot turned his head, scanning the crowd of dumb, bedraggled creatures. His sparrowhawk was not among them. He looked at his own greycat costume, pulling it off to pile at his feet. "She fed me and kept me warm, and would be ashamed at all this stupidness."

The women returned with a clean-shaven man whose blue-black robes were embroidered with stars in silver thread. Maggot saw his head surrounded by a sandy light flecked with streaks of umber, just as Banya's had been.

He faltered at the sight of Maggot. "M'lady summoned me."

A small group had followed the wizard from the castle. Portia was among them, her mask settled firmly over her face, her winged robes folded closed about her. At the sight of her, the other faces that encircled Maggot-Bran's patient relief, Tubat's dazed and bloody anger, the wizard's anxious lean forward-all faded like the stars at dawn.

Before the Baroness could answer the wizard, Culufre raised his hand. When he spoke, a strain ran through his beautifully timbred voice like a crack in a tree. "Consider the wisdom of this, Elysse. If the answer is no, it will be no forever."

She took a short step back.

Culufre wheeled toward Maggot. "Stay. Stay and serve me, as your friend Bran does. We will give you a place in the castle, the use of all the wealth that you desire."

Maggot laughed at him-a deep, resonant belly rumble-and at that sound the tug in his chest vanished. "You offer me a small thing. The mountain ranges are the walls of my castle, and all the riches of the trees and rivers are mine. You offer me an acorn when I already have an oak."

"Stay," the Baroness echoed, pale fingers at her throat.

But Maggot watched Portia, waiting for her to step forward, to speak, to show any indication that she had changed her decision toward him.

"You gave your first gift to Bran," Culufre said. "Now I give you a second. There will not be a third. What offer would you like? Request any favor and I shall grant it." His sword rattled in its scabbard as he placed his palm upon the pommel.

Portia glided backward, her head bowed, arms crossing her chest to grip her feathered shoulders.

"It is not yours to give," Maggot answered. "I would have this be a place where people choose their own paths, and not take those forced upon them. And it will never be."

He turned away. The people in their masks and the soldiers and servants parted before him, as Lady Culufre's plaintive cry rose behind.

"My poor baby, oh my poor, lost baby."

He left the false day of the castle and crossed the bridge into a comforting, uncertain darkness where all trails were his to choose.