Part 28 (2/2)
”Charis?” Avallach lurched closer. His hair hung in lank, ropy strands; his flesh was pale as parchment, his eyes weak and watery.
Charis wanted to run to him, to take him in her arms. But the shock of seeing him so changed kept her rooted to the spot.
”So you have come back.” Avallach lurched closer, breathing heavily, cold sweat glazing his brow.
”Father, what has happened? Where is everyone? You are ill; you should be in bed.”
”You should not have come.” He gasped with the exertion of walking across the floor.
”I had to come,” she said. ”I had to come back to see you. I have been away so long. I wanted...”
”-should not have come,” Avallach repeated. He lifted his head and shouted, ”Lile! My medicine!” The words echoed in the empty hall.
”I brought you something,” said Charis, remembering the present. She lifted the long, thin shape wrapped in oiled leather and lay it across his hands as he balanced on the crutch.
Avallach eyed the object without interest. ”What is it?”
”Let me open it for you,” she said and began loosening the strips. Bright silver flashed under her hands and in a moment the wrap fell away to reveal a fine sword, its elegant length tapering to an imperial point. The hilt was fiery ori-chalc.u.m inset with rubies and emeralds-the eyes of two crested serpents whose entwined bodies formed the grip. It lay across Avallach's palms, glimmering with cold fire.
The blade was decorated with an intricate filigree and engraved with the legend Take Me Up Take Me Up on one side and on one side and Cast Me Aside Cast Me Aside on the other. on the other.
”You mock me with your gift, girl,” said Avallach. He thrust the sword back at her and turned away.
”No, please, I did not mean to”
”Lile!” the king roared again. ”My medicine!”
Presently the door opened and a young woman hurried in.
She bore a silver tumbler on a tray and a long white cloth on her arm. ”Your medicine, my hus” she began. She stopped so suddenly when she saw Charis that she almost sent the tumbler toppling from the tray. ”What are you doing here?”
”I am Charis. I have returned.” She stared at the young woman-pale and slender, with large, dark, almost luminous eyes and long hair that spilled in a dark cascade to the base of her spine. Lile was not much older than Charis herself.
”I know who you are,” Lile replied. She stepped cautiously between Avallach and Charis and offered the king the tray. He seized the tumbler and lifted it to his lips, drinking noisily. ”There, yes,” she told him, ”drink it all.” When he finished, Avallach dropped the tumbler back onto the tray, and Lile dabbed his chin with the cloth as one would a forgetful child.
”Charis,” Avallach said, grinning stupidly, ”did you not know I was remarried?”
”How should I know?” she replied, still looking at the dark-haired woman. ”No one told me.”
”I thought you might have heard,” said Avallach.
”We've been married three years,” added Lile quickly. ”We have a daughter.”
”Oh,” Charis replied. She fought down her roiling emotions and asked, ”Where are my brothers? Where is Guistan, Eoinn, and Kian and Maildun?”
”Where I shall be when I have healed,” growled Avallach. ”Fighting!” He coughed again and Lile blotted his chin with the cloth.
”I see,” said Charis. ”And Annubi?”
”Oh, around... somewhere.” Avallach waved his hand absently. He was looking at his young wife Wearily with cloudy and unfocused eyes. Was the medicine a narcotic?
”Annubi keeps to himself these days,” Lile informed her. ”No doubt you will find him in his stinking cell. You will excuse us... It is time to change the king's bandage.”
Lile took Avallach by the arm and wheeled him around. Charis saw the wound then, or evidence of it, for a watery red stain had soaked through the king's clothing just Below his ribs on the left side. The two shuffled off together and Charis watched them go. Then she turned and fled the room, biting her lip to keep from screaming.
Charis found Annubi where Lile had said he would be-in his cell among the lower apartments. She knocked on the red door and then crept inside without waiting for a reply. He was sitting alone in the light of a single taper, gazing at the Lia Fail before him on the table. His hands were not touching the stone, but were folded one over the other in his lap. His face was lined and tired, but his eyes lit up with the old spark when he saw her.
”I knew you were coming,” he said, his lips curving in a smile. ”Until now I hoped you would stay away.”
”Oh, Annubi...” Charis rushed to him. She fell on her knees beside him and pressed her head against his chest.
The seer put his arms around her and gently patted her. ”It has been a long time,” he said.
”I know. But I am home now.” She raised her head and peered into his tired face. ”Oh, Annubi, what is it? What is wrong here? Where is everyone and what has happened to my father? Who is that woman up there?”
”Lile?” Annubi shrugged. ”The king's plaything. She is nothing.”, Charis rose to her feet. She pulled Annubi by the hand. ”Come with me. We must talk. I want to hear all that has happened since I have been away, but I cannot bear this stuffy room.”
So they left the cell and walked once more among the cool blue shadows of the columned portico as Annubi, speaking slowly, sadly, explained all that had happened.
”It was the war,” he said. ”It was many things: your mother's death, your leaving, Seithenin's wicked treachery- these things weighed terribly on your father. He found solace in the fight, however; he Believed revenge would heal the hurt that had been done to him.
”And indeed the war went well for him at first. His hatred and blood-l.u.s.t alone carried many a battle. But Seithenin and Nestor are skilled in deceit and cunning. When they saw they could not win against him by force-not with Belyn's and Meirchion's forces in support-they contrived to harry Aval-lach. They would not fight him in the open but lay ambush after ambush; they drew him away from positions where he would win, forcing him to give chase. And while he chased, they laid waste to the villages on the coasts and borders.
”Oh, they dared not face him fairly on the field, but they would raze a town and butcher the helpless townsmen as they ran from their home, then disappear to safety again just that quick. It makes me sick to think of what misery they have caused. In short, they forced him to fight with intrigue and guile-two weapons he has never favored and uses not at ail well.”
”How was he wounded? When?” Charis wondered.
”Three years ago. I cannot say just how it happened. After those first successful battles, when the war turned, I did not accompany him again.” The seer sighed deeply. ”But he was riding to the defense of a town on the Coranian border- Oenope, I Believe. He arrived just in time to block Seithenin's retreat. Seithenin was ready; he had held back a force in secret. For once there was a battle and Seithenin won. Aval-lach's men were exhausted from the march and in no shape to go against fresh troops. Nevertheless, they fought and there were heavy losses on each side-the better part of both armies fell that day.
”In the end, Seithenin withdrew and left Avallach on the field-left him for dead. Make no mistake-Seithenin did not know Avallach was wounded, otherwise he would never have left the issue unresolved.”
Charis listened with dread fascination. She had never once imagined that any of this was taking place. Her world of the bullring was so remote from what Annubi was describing, never once did she receive anything but a most vague impression of fighting far away. There was a war, yes, and it was dragging on and on. That was all she knew.
”The king was carried into the town, or what was left of it. There was a house that had escaped the torch, and Avallach was settled there. A merchant's house, it was; his daughter was on hand to look after the king. The wound was not thought to be bad. A day or two to heal and he would ride back to the palace.
”But he did not heal. And by the time Belyn got word and arrived to bring Avallach back, the king, in his weakness, had become infatuated with his young nursemaid.” Annubi paused and lifted his narrow shoulders by way of explanation. ”She has yet to leave his side.”
”She told me they were married.”
”They were. Just after Avallach returned home. She came with him, of course.”
”They have a daughter. That is what she said.”
”Morgian, yes.” Anaubi nodded. ”I keep forgetting about the child.”
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