Part 59 (1/2)
Only Arlensul's encouragement kept Svavar going. He was ready to put this whole mad world behind. People by the hundred were dying over religious differences he found incomprehensible.
s.h.a.got only added to his misery. Grim seemed incapable of not attracting attention when he was awake. Though that problem did ease once Imperial forces settled east of al-Khazen, content to outwait their remaining enemies.
s.h.a.got was frustrated when he was awake. The Old Ones could not locate or identify the G.o.dslayer, though they were sure he was, probably, in the camp of the Emperor's Episcopal allies.
s.h.a.got was little more than a draug, one of the walking dead from the legends of lands now lost beneath the ice. Svavar used his brother as a device to endear his band to Vondera Koterba and the Emperor.
Arlensul always warned Svavar when enemy patrols were nearby. If s.h.a.got was awake, they would go kill some and take prisoners. Eventually, the enemy stayed away. But powerful incursions of another sort began to occur after dark.
The rumors were true. There were powerful sorcerers in the city. And the Emperor had not equipped himself to deal with them.
The Imperials were being lured to their destruction.
Arlensul planted that notion in Svavar's head. He could not keep that to himself. He told Grim and the rest of their dwindling band.
One by one, the men who had come when they followed the Emperor found an excuse to fade away. Soon there would be none left who could not imagine a better life.
Svavar and s.h.a.got had been noticed up and down the Imperial chain of command. They were too strange and too effective to be overlooked.
Neither Svavar nor s.h.a.got had any experience of sedentary warfare. They did not like it. s.h.a.got wanted to drop everything to go hunt the G.o.dslayer.
”We need to know where he is, first,” Svavar argued. ”What happens if we're wandering around these hills, hunting him, and you fall asleep? I can't protect you by myself. These soldiers won't help us hunt. They don't care. But we're better off here, where misfortune is less likely to find us, till we know where to find our man.”
A MESSENGER FROM VONDERA KOTERBA CAME TO THE Grimrnssons' shelter. He asked Svavar, ”Is your brother awake? The Emperor may need your special skills. It's possible the crown prince has been captured by the Pramans.”
”I'll try to waken him,” Svavar promised. ”How much time do we have?”
”I'm just alerting you.”
Events began to move soon afterward. Another messenger instructed them to join a force a.s.sembling outside the castle where the Emperor and his court had come to rest. s.h.a.got was disinclined to respond.
Arlensul appeared in the doorway, bent because she was too tall. ”He will be there.”
Svavar believed her. When a G.o.ddess told you something you wanted badly to hear, you believed.
”Come on, Grim. We're there. Our man is going to be at the other end of this. Come on. Get up. It's time.”
s.h.a.got responded sluggishly, groggily. He heard but did not believe. He had had no word from the Old Ones.
When they reached the a.s.sembly point it seemed the whole army was on the move. A delegation to the Episcopals that included the crown prince had been overrun by Praman commandos during the night. Details were scant. Most of the party were believed dead, with just a handful captured.
A long column filed through the cold morning and snow, following a route marked by pioneers. Svavar and s.h.a.got were a.s.signed to the vanguard. They would not be cowed by the dark.
The lead troops were Hansel's best. Their progress was quieter than seemed possible, but slow. Svavar told s.h.a.got, ”Those people won't be surprised. We're headed for a trap.”
s.h.a.got grunted. It seemed likely. It seemed so probable, in fact, that Johannes ought not to be falling for it.
Maybe the Emperor knew something no one else did.
The commanders called a halt during the afternoon. Distant fighting could be heard. The crown prince's captors making a fighting retreat, Svavar presumed. But who was harrying them?
The Emperor's scouts reported. Svavar was near enough to eavesdrop.
The crown prince was alive and unharmed. The same could not be said for most of his party. Johannes seemed more interested in the fate of Ferris Renfrow than in that of his son. But Johannes knew his son was all right.
The summons came to Svavar rather than s.h.a.got. Johannes addressed him directly. ”Soultaken, do you understand my situation?”
”I do.” He experienced the thing that made Johannes Ege so much more than a little man who had lucked into a great deal of power. Hansel made people feel that they were fellow conspirators.
The Emperor asked, ”You understand what they want to do to us? That they hope I'll charge into a trap?”
”I see that. And I see you giving them what they want.”
”Not quite.”
”There's a huge acc.u.mulation of dark power behind those walls. The Tyranny of the Night is complete, though the fighters probably don't know.”
”Complete? I doubt that. However. Those forces are unaware of you and your brother.”
Svavar waited, calm and fearless. He felt the proximity of Arlensul. She lent him courage and confidence.
”I understand what you are. You serve the Instrumentalities of the Night. You're here to accomplish a particular task. It has little to do with the ambitions of those holding al-Khazen.”
Svavar did not respond.
”If you help me here, now, I'll throw the weight of the Empire behind you in your mission.”
Svavar felt Arlensul would want him to agree. ”We'll help, then. In exchange. We won't tolerate...”
”Johannes Ege never.... Enough. I need entry into that city. And someone who can distract the powers there while I do what I have to do.”
Svavar c.o.c.ked his head, listening.
Arlensul encouraged him.
”We can do what you want done.”
Whatever the denizens of the city planned, whatever engines of despair lurked behind those walls, a Chooser of the Slain was no part of their calculations.
THE DAUGHTER OF THE GRAY WALKER WAS CLEARLY VISIBLE for half a minute. Imperial soldiers saw her. Praman soldiers saw her. Mute wood and stone beheld her. Svavar worried that far powers in the Great Sky Fortress might mark her presence as well. s.h.a.got might see her. But he had to trust her. Over the months he had become her ally completely.
s.h.a.got remained unaware of her.