Blood's Pride (Shattered Kingdoms) Read online

  ‘There’s a story I’ve been waiting a long time to hear,’ she said after a moment. ‘I want to hear it now.’

  He went to her as she turned back to the mountains. ‘And then what?’ he asked, standing in front of her. Peering beneath her cowl, he saw her brown eye sweep over the landscape before her, taking in the low mountains that were hiding the little white houses of the city; the temple, carved by ancient hands or even more ancient magic out of a single mass of living rock; and beyond them all, the shining ribbon of the sea.

  ‘I’m going to end it.’

  Chapter Two

  Rho sat on the edge of his cot in their airless barracks room and watched with mild distaste as Daem took yet another candied fruit from the jar, peeled off the leaf, and popped it into his mouth. A drop of purple juice slid down the Eotan crest on his tabard and plopped onto the dusty stone floor.

  Daem quipped, stretching out on his rumpled bed.

  said Rho, pulling himself up from his own cot and ambling over to the room’s one table, taking his boots with him. He lowered himself into what he was convinced was the world’s least comfortable chair, with the possible exception of the three others beside it, and poured himself a cup of wine.

  The syrupy scent of the fruit drifted across the square, low-ceilinged room as he chewed, mixing with the smells of lamp oil and rock dust and sweat.

  From his cot in the far corner of the room, Ingeld called out,

  Rho asked Daem.

  Ingeld rolled over, favoring Rho with a view of his pale, slightly luminous backside. he groused.

  mocked Daem.

  Rho leaned back in his chair and stretched out his long legs. He had never understood the weirdly fanatical loyalty that Frea inspired in the talentless idiots who made up a good portion of the Shadari garrison; after four years, he was nostalgic for the time when he’d still found it amusing.

  Ingeld’s quick anger came at him like the swing of a hammer, but Rho had long ago ceased to take it seriously.

  Daem cautioned genially.

  jeered Ingeld.

  said Daem, cheerfully ignoring Ingeld as he unwrapped yet another sweet,

  <—like flies to shit> Ingeld finished for him.

  The last of Rho’s roommates, Ongen, heaved himself up from his cot and swung his heavy legs over the side. The strap had come loose from his hair while he slept and the tangled white strands clung to his thick neck.

  Daem sat up and said, He trailed off as he fished under his tangled blanket.

  He flung the book across the room at Ongen, but the lack of effort he put into the throw sent it spinning towards the table instead. Rho snatched it out of the air, recognising the plain leather cover; it was the only book Ongen owned, a poorly lettered copy of the battle poems from The Book of the Hall.

  he drawled, pleased to feel Daem’s burst of malicious delight,

  Ongen snapped.

  He bent down to pull on his boots.

 

 

  Ongen argued.

 

 

  The curtain across the chamber’s entrance moved aside and a barefoot slave in a shapeless, undyed robe and a brown head-scarf slipped through carrying a basket of clean laundry.

  <—cut off their hands or just went ahead and killed a few of them for it, they’d stop doing it.> Ongen watched the Shadari girl set the basket down against the wall and move noiselessly to retrieve one full of soiled laundry closer to his cot.

  Daem suggested.

  said Ongen. His silver eyes – too small for his heavy, square face – followed the slave towards the door.

  said Ingeld.

 

  Ingeld replied suggestively.

  asked Daem.

  Rho got up to retrieve his sword; the bickering was beginning to weary him, and it reminded him too much of his brothers.

  Daem asked him.

  sneered Ongen.

  Rho replied, making sure that Ongen felt the full force of his displeasure.

  asked Daem.

  said Ingeld.

  Rho’s own weapon somehow felt heavier than usual as he lifted it up – it was a family sword, ancient and ungainly, with a huge uncut gem like a bird’s egg set in the cross – and settled the scabbard over his shoulders. His four elder brothers had all passed it over in favour of new imperial blades, and he remembered the diligence with which he’d practised wielding it for his own Naming Day. When the day came, his eldest brother Gavin had shown up so drunk he could barely stand, and the whole ceremony had turned into a joke. His brothers had been furious with him when they’d sobered up and found he’d named it Fortune’s Blight.

  ��t mind sparring with Lady Isa one of these days> mused Daem.

  Ingeld complained.

  said Rho.

  He stopped short when he sensed Falkar coming down the hall with an urgency that was hard to ignore. The others felt it too, turning towards the doorway just before the lieutenant – armed, and in full uniform – pushed the curtain aside.

 

  asked Ingeld, bolting up and practically humming with eagerness.

  said Falkar shortly, and left the way he’d come. The instant he was gone, all three of his roommates barraged Rho with questions.

 

  said Ongen, flopping back down onto his cot. The wooden legs of the simple frame creaked under his weight.

 

  As usual, Ongen didn’t get the joke.

  said Ingeld, grabbing a pair of clean leggings out of the laundry basket.

  Daem leaned back against the wall.

  Ingeld vowed as he strapped on his sword: a cheap, newish blade he’d somewhat hilariously named Valour’s Glory.

  Daem yanked his tabard off over his head even as the others were still dressing.

  Rho asked him.

  Daem reminded him.

 

 

 

  Ingeld insisted.

  asked Daem.

  Ingeld replied hurriedly.

  added Rho.

  Ingeld, dressed now, had no answer for that; he and Ongen headed for the doorway, both of them grabbing their white sun-proof cloaks on the way out. Rho leaned against the wall and waited patiently for Daem to put his boots on. Then he noticed that once again Ongen had left his book lying on the table. He took the key from its hiding-place under the chair, unlocked the strongbox in the corner, and tossed the volume in with the rest of their books, papers, pens and ink. By that time, Daem was ready to go.

  he told his friend. He hated himself for letting Ongen worry him, but he couldn’t help it.

 

 

  Daem’s sympathy was reassuring. He was still carrying the little jar of candied fruit; he took one out and pressed it into Rho’s hand.

  Amused in spite of himself, Rho tucked the dubious gift into his pocket. he said wryly,

  Chapter Three

  Eofar stood in the middle of his bedroom tipping the little bottle back and forth, watching the red liquid slide from one end to the other. He hadn’t slept. In the darkness of his windowless room, he found it too easy to torment himself with the morbid fantasies he’d built up, layer by layer, over the last five months. Several hours before sunset he’d given up, dressed in the same limp shirt and trousers from the night before and sat back down to berate himself for the fact that after all the elixir had cost him, he lacked the courage to use it.

  First he told himself that taking it would be foolhardy – he had no way of knowing what it would do to him. Even if it was harmless to the Shadari, no one could possibly know what effect it might have on a Norlander; it might even poison him. Then he had told himself that the elixir was too valuable to waste; they would need money to get far enough away to start a new life – the Antinean Islands, maybe, or Prol Irat – and he had spent everything he had acquiring it.

  That had been hours ago, and the longer he hesitated, the less energy he had to deceive himself. He was afraid of the truth – that was the real reason. Everything else was just noise.

  He tore the wax seal from the bottle and threw the pieces onto the stone floor. The cork felt warm to his fingers and the air trapped inside escaped with a faint pop as he pulled it out. A bitter aroma snaked from the bottle’s mouth.

  But at the sound of someone moving beyond the curtain out in the hall, he stuffed the cork back in and thrust the bottle into his pocket. He held his breath, listening: the footsteps were soft. A barefoot slave, perhaps – Daryan, with his clean linen and breakfast? But no, it was too early. Daryan would still be asleep in his little chamber down the hall.

  His eyes strayed for a moment to his sword, Strife’s Bane, hanging in its scabbard on the wall. He had the great honour of being the only other person in the Shadar besides his father to own a black-bladed imperial sword. It was a beautiful thing: twin triffons, worked in silver with shining gold claws and eyes, twined up the hilt and unfurled their wings to form the guard; a row of faceted red calipset stones marked out the crosspiece. His father had commissioned the hilt from Norland especially for him when he was still a boy. When he’d received it he’d thought he could never love anything as much as he loved that sword. His Naming Day had been the first really happy day of his life since his mother’s death. Even Frea hadn’t been able to spoil it for him; she had declared that a real swordsman didn’t need to resort to cheap tricks to win a battle – but her bitter envy had only made him that much more proud.

  Now the very sight of it sickened him.

  Every time he looked at its shiny black blade he saw reflected the gaunt faces of the men who had slaved their lives away in the mines. He saw the hopeless faces of their families lining up for their daily bread, old men and women and children who would starve if their men tried to escape or died or became too sick to work. He thought of the young men and women snatched from the arms of their families and brought here, to the temple, to wait upon Eofar and his family and the garrison’s soldiers, in darkness, for the rest of their lives.

  The blade quivered in its scabbard,
responding to his attention, and the triffons’ wings rattled softly against the stone wall. He decided to leave it where it was; he told himself that taking it down would make a noise, and if someone was spying on him, he wanted to surprise them.

  He made his way past the low dais on which his bed was placed, and then past his few imported pieces of heavy Norland furniture – a carved chair, a small writing-desk, a trunk with a stout lock for his books and papers – until he was close enough to look out from behind the curtain. His chamber lay at the crossing of two passages, one running parallel to his room, north to south; the other beginning at his door and running westwards about twenty paces before it intersected with another north-south passage running the length of the temple’s western wall. That passage, like most of those along the outer walls, was pierced at intervals with small window openings, and from the door of his room Eofar could look straight down to one of these windows.

  That’s where he saw Isa. The shutter was still closed but the latch had been lifted, allowing a tantalising sliver of light, glowing with the depth and colour of a jewel, to creep through a tiny chink.

  She had her hand in the light.

  Eofar cried, springing forward. She snatched her hand away just as tiny tongues of blue flame rippled across her palm and she whirled towards Eofar, her long white hair fanning out around her shoulders. he demanded, grabbing her pale wrist and pulling her towards him as she attempted to conceal her hands beneath the wide sleeves of her gown.

  she demanded imperiously, but he tightened his grip around her wrist and bent closer to examine the flesh. A few blue blotches marked her palm, but nothing worse. The veins underneath her semi-transparent skin shone with a healthy blue glow. There was no sign of the black poison that resulted from a serious burn. she told him.