The Rival (44 page)

"We'll find him," Nicholas said, knowing instinctively that the sanity of his son  — maybe of both his sons  —  depended on it.  "And we'll find out what happened."

"Sebastian doesn't need him," Arianna said.  "He has us."

"Sebastian isn't like us," Nicholas said.  "We don't know what he needs."  He took his son's hand.  "Can you get along alone, Sebastian?"

Sebastian bit his lower lip.  More tears fell.  He swallowed, clearly trying to get control of himself.  "Can … we … find … Gift?"

"As soon as possible," Nicholas said.

"Can … we … send … Ari?"

Nicholas glanced at his daughter.  She had her eyes closed.  She didn't want to help with this.

"I think we can," Nicholas said.  "But first we have to deal with the birds below.  The Fey are all over the city.  I can't send her into that.  We don't want something to happen to her, too."

"You'll have to send me into that eventually," Arianna said.  She still had her eyes closed.  Her face was half buried in Sebastian's hair.  "I'm the only one who can tell you how many birds there are.  I'm the only one who can get out of here."

"We don't know that," Nicholas said.  He didn't want her outside.  He didn't want her anywhere near those Fey.

"I can fly out one of the small windows on the north tower.  I can see the whole city and be back here in a very short time. No one else in this palace can."

" … no … " Sebastian whispered.

"Do you want me to find Gift or not?" Arianna asked.

"Don't … leave … me," Sebastian said.

"I have to, if you want me to find him.  But first we have to save ourselves."

" … no … ," Sebastian said.

"I'll be here," Nicholas said.  "One of us will always be with you."

Sebastian raised his shiny face to his father.  " … Pro-mise?"

"Yes," Nicholas said.

Sebastian turned in Arianna's arms.  "You … have … to …  come … back.  Pro-mise … you'll … come … back."

"I promise," Arianna said.  She kissed his cheek, then stepped back.

Nicholas swallowed.  She was really going to leave.  And he needed her to.

She was one of his assets.

The problem was that she was the most valuable.  He couldn't bear to lose her.

"Arianna," he said, not letting any of those emotions into his voice.  "If you see Fey, you cannot attack them."

"The Shaman explained it to me."

"No matter who you see," Nicholas said.  "Demand, if they catch you, to see the Black King.  He will want to see you."

"He won't," Arianna said.  "They'll never figure out who I am.  Trust me, Daddy."

He did trust her.  But he had also learned that life was rarely simple, that the world could change in the space of a heartbeat, that all that was precious could disappear in a moment.

"I love you, honey," he said.

She nodded and smiled.  "I'll take that with me," she said.  "Take care of Sebastian."

"I will."

"I'll be back before you miss me," she said as she ran to the door.

He held his stone son, watching her go, hearing her footsteps echo in the hallway.  She was wrong.  She wouldn't be back soon enough.

He missed her already.

FORTY-EIGHT

"We got holy water but na food.  A man canna drink holy water, and he canna eat it."

Matthias did not open his eyes.  The band he had allied with were still talking.  He didn't know how long he had been out, but his head ached, and his throat was dry.  His back hurt too.  He had passed out leaning against Marly, but she had obviously moved, leaving him on the blanket someone had spread across the cavern's stone floor.

He was warm, though, warmer than he probably should have been given that he was in a damp cavern.  Someone had placed a blanket over him too.  He was using their resources.  No wonder they had complained.

"We need ta send someone back for that food," the voice said.

"We canna.  Ye heard Ubur.  They're burning Jahn."

"It dinna make sense, burning Jahn."

"I seen it.  And the Tabernacle too."

Matthias opened his eyes, and sat up on his elbows.  The movement made him dizzy and pulled on the wounds along his shoulders, but he didn't care.  "The Fey are burning the Tabernacle?"

Yasep smiled with one side of his mouth.  "Tis a shame, holy man.  If ye'd been there, ye'd be dead."

There were two more men in the group, neither of whom he recognized.  They sat near the crates, their faces covered with soot, their clothes old and torn.  One of the men held a knife in his right hand. It still bore fresh blood.

"They be burning all a Jahn," the man without the knife said.

"But why?" Matthias said.

"How should we know?  We just got down here with our lives."

"Ye sure ye weren't followed?" Denl asked.

"Ubur killed the Fey what was closest," said the man without the knife.  The man with the knife, Ubur, nodded.

"I hear they can turn invisible," said Jakib.

"They can do more than that," Matthias said.  "They can take over a man's body, and make him do their bidding. They can even become that man."

"Yer lyin," Yasep said.

Matthias pushed himself all the way into a sitting position.  Some of the dizziness was fading.  He shoved the blanket down, and let the cavern's coolness overwhelm him.  It felt good.  "If you want to take that kind of risk with these two new men, fine," Matthias said.  "You're the leader."

"How can ye tell they're not human?" Jakib asked.

"Holy water, ye fool," said one of the other men.  "A babe'd know that."

"Yer willin to touch holy water?" Yasep asked the two new men.

"Aye," Ubur said.

"Twould na do harm, if'n it makes his lordship happy," the other said.

"Taint no lord," Denl said.  "Tis the Fifty-First Rocaan."

"Naw," Ubur said.  "He's dead."

"Did ye test him with holy water?" the second newcomer asked.

"I did," Marly spoke from behind Matthias.  She was sitting cross-legged near one of the crates, her skirt tugged taunt over her knees.  "I cleaned his wounds with it."

"Ye willin ta take a woman's word?" Ubur asked.

"She's my sister," Jakib said, his voice low.

The newcomers looked at each other.  Finally Ubur lowered his head in acknowledgment.  "Tis sorry I am.  I dinna know."

"Get holy water," Yasep said to one of the men behind him.  He opened a crate and pulled out a vial.  These had come from the Tabernacle, or one of the kirks.  Matthias recognized the type of vial.  They were specially made for the church by glass craftsmen near the Slides of Death.

The man pulled out the stopper and approached the other two.

"Wait," Matthias said.  "Let me make sure that is holy water."

"Oh, n how can ye do that, holy man?"

"It has an odor," Matthias said, "a distinct odor."

The man handed Matthias the bottle.  The man's hands left slimy prints on the bottle's side.  Matthias sniffed.  The water smelled faintly bitter, as it was supposed to.

"This is all right," he said.

The two newcomers held out their hands.  The man poured some water on them. Nothing happened.

"Ye worry fer nothin," Yasep said.

"I worry for good reason.  The Fey infiltrated the Tabernacle in the early years, a number of times.  If they saw someone come down here, they would come too."  Matthias rubbed his face with his clean hand.  His fingernail caught a bandage and pulled on the healing skin, making him wince.

"Dinna do that," Marly said, catching his hand in her own.  "Ye'll hurt yerself.  Takes time ta heal."

"If they're burning Jahn, we don't have time.  Where does the air down here come from?"

The men shrugged. 

"There's a number a openings," Yasep said.  "N parts a the tunnels are gone."

"That's what I'm worried about," Matthias said.  "If water can get in, air can get in.  Smoke can get in.  We might suffocate down here."

"Tis na a small place," Yasep said.  "Ye saw only a tiny passage.  These tunnels run all under the palace side a the city.  A man could live down here for years n no one'd ever find him."

"Is that what you've done?" Matthias asked.

Denl grinned at him. "Makes our business easy."

Matthias had promised himself he wouldn't ask what their business was.  He didn't want to know.  "What's this about food?  Do you have any here?"

"A course we do," Yasep said.

"But na enough fer this many fer verra long," Denl said.

Yasep glared at him.

"Would ye be likin something?" Marly asked.

Matthias nodded, then clutched the side of his head.  Even that simple move made him dizzy.  He might want to heal, but willing himself well would only work so far.

"Water at least," he said.

"N tak?" she asked.

He suppressed a grimace.  He had lived on tak in those horrible days just after he left the Tabernacle.  Tak was dried bread preserved in fish oils.  It tasted both stale and spoiled, and yet somehow was neither.   Travelers often kept plenty of it on hand.

"Sounds fine," he said.

"So yer holiness know tak," Yasep said.

Matthias sighed.  "Of course I do, Yasep.  I am not the kind of protected lord you think I am. I lived outside for five years, and have been without a home for fifteen.  I've eaten more tak than I care to think about."

"Na need ta get testy," Yasep said.

"Then stop baitin him," Marly said.  "We all know yer jealous, him being a great man n all, but ye lead this troop and will until ye become stupid, which it seems, yer on the edge of."

"Shut up, woman."

"Dinna talk ta me sister that way," Jakib said.

"I can talk ta her anyway I like," Yasep said.

"See?" she said, pulling a tube of tak from one of the crates.  "Stupid."

"Woman  — "

"Leave her alone," Matthias said.  "You've got enough problems without dividing the troop."

"N how do ye know that?" Yasep said.

"I heard," he said.  He took the tak that Marly offered, ripped off a quarter of it, and handed three quarters back to her.  She frowned at him.  He smiled at her.  He wouldn't eat all their food.  He didn't need to.  He had proven to himself a long time ago that he could survive on very little. 

He took a bite.  Tak tasted as bad as he remembered.  "If there are fires all over Jahn and Fey everywhere, food is going to become scarce quickly.  You'll have to make some decisions about what to do.  If the Fey don't discover these tunnels, you could stay down here indefinitely.  Provided, of course, that you have enough food."

"Ye think ye know everything," Yasep said.

"No," Matthias said.  "I just know that right now my fate is tied to yours.  If these things are taken care of, I'll survive."

"We could take care a ye," Yasep said.  His tone was not pleasant.

"I suppose you could," Matthias said.  "Then I would be dead and you would be in the same situation."

"Yer petty jealousy'll kill us all," Marly said.  "Canna ye see he's right?  Listen ta him, like ye'd listen ta the others."

"I believe," Matthias said softly, "he is listening to me like he listens to the others."

"And ye, yer here causa me.  Dinna abuse that.  I willna defend ye if I think ye'll hurt us all."  She was all fire when she spoke to him, fire and fury.  He liked that.  It put color in her cheeks. 

"Water?" he asked.  The tak was going down hard.

"Oh, aye."  She was back to her old self.  Meeker, less angry.  And it happened with the space of a heartbeat.

That seemed like a good thing to know, her ability to change so quickly, although he didn't know quite why.

"Ye'll na take the leadership from me," Yasep said.

"I already said I wouldn't."  Matthias took the water from Marly, and drank.  It was cool and fresh and tasted wonderful.  It got rid of the last pieces of tak from his mouth.

"But ye are," Yasep said.

Matthias sighed and handed the cup back to Marly.  "No, I'm not," he said.  "Most leaders have advisors who say what they think the leader should do.  The leader chooses to listen or not  — "

"Then I willna listen."

" —  depending, of course, on how sound the leader thinks the advice is, not on whether or not he likes the advisor."

Yasep stared at him for a moment, then turned away. 

"He's gotta point," Jakib said.

"Shut up," Yasep said.

"Twould be good ta listen," Denl said.  "He knows things we dinna."

Yasep sighed. 

"N twould be right ta keep him with Fey all around.  He knows holy water."

"All right then," Yasep said, "yer the leader, as ye wanted."

"I did not want," Matthias said.  "And I will not accept the position.  I don't even know what your business is."

"Tis survival now," Marly said softly.

"Still n all," Yasep said, "yer gonna lead."

Matthias took another bite of tak and nearly choked.  He forced himself to swallow it.  This was how it always happened.  Four times now, ever since he had left the Tabernacle, he had been given the leadership of a group.

The others looked relieved.  They wanted him in charge, and he knew it.  He attracted followers, and he didn't like it.  In his first months away from the Tabernacle, he had a small group of people going everywhere with him, and he never spoke to them.  Not once.

Then he went to the Cliffs of Blood and whole towns would come out whenever he appeared.  Finally he found Yeon who asked him why he was fighting his ability to attract people, why he wasn't using it.

Matthias had said he wasn't used to it, that no one had followed him in the Tabernacle.

 
Funny, ain't it?
Yeon had said.
How God gives us gifts when we dinna need them, and takes em away when we do?

Sometimes Matthias wondered if that's what really happened, or if God had given him the gift after he left to show him that he had to do something different with his life.  What that different thing was, he didn't know.

"Do ye have nothin ta say?"

"I don't want to lead," Matthias said.