Part 25 (1/2)
”Word has come from the Dome,” Semlin said, and cleared her throat. ”The Tenebroso is on his way.”
”Sit down, Sem.” Karlyn shoved his paperwork to one side. There would be time to do it once Lok-iKol had come and gone. Both he and Semlin-Nor had received messages from the Dome in the twenty-four hours since Lok-iKol had taken the Carnelian Throne, asking for one thing or another that the new Tarkin had decided he wanted from his own House. A levy of men from Karlyn-Tan, a favorite chair from Semlin-Nor. There were only two things the Tenebroso could not send for, Karlyn thought, and they were both in this room.
Semlin had shaken her head and remained standing, her hands on the high back of the chair across from him. ”Which of us do you suppose he wants?” Semlin's voice was steady and true, but Karlyn-Tan had an idea from the whiteness of her knuckles on the chairback how much that steadiness cost her.
”I can think of no area in which you've failed the House,” he said. ”And I shall say so, should I have the chance.”
”As will I for you,” Semlin said, nodding.
Karlyn looked at her carefully, but there was no insincerity in her face. ”No.” Karlyn leaned back in his chair, tapping his lips with the fingers of his right hand. ”I have reason to believe it will be me. Don't try to s.h.i.+eld me, you can't know the cost.”
The woman across from him took her lower lip into her teeth, shot him a glance from under her brows before focusing once again on the papers which layered the top of his desk. Karlyn raised his eyebrows as awareness dawned.
”How long did you know?” he said, sitting forward again.
”The House knew, and told me.” The words tumbled from her mouth. ”She'd been looking for the golden-haired one, the Lionsmane, for some time. As for the rest,” she spread her hands, ”I keep the Keys, man, how could I not know when food was prepared, when rooms were cleaned and light taken to them? Heat? Bedding? As for the rest . . .” Semlin lowered her eyes, the corners of her mouth turning down. ”I gave the Fallen House my solemn oath to make no mention of it, nor of her plans. The next I knew, she was Fallen, and the Mercenary Brothers were gone.”
”That going will be on my head. As well as the going of the Scholar, and the Lady Mar-eMar. As Keys is your function, so mine is Walls.”
The tightness in Semlin-Nor's shoulders relaxed, but her face did not regain its usual color.
”You'll see I'm right,” he said, getting to his feet, and taking his sword of office down from its bracket on the wall near the door. Might as well be formal, Might as well be formal, he thought, he thought, it may remind Lok-iKol of his obligations to me, as well as mine to him. it may remind Lok-iKol of his obligations to me, as well as mine to him.
When he looked up from the silvered clasp of his sword belt, Semlin was already at the door. Her smile was a mere baring of teeth and her nod set her earrings swinging. There was little that his rea.s.surances could do. She knew as much as he did about what had gone on in Lok's rooms when he was just Kir. Maybe more.
They walked without speaking from Karlyn's tower rooms to the main doors, silent even in those portions of the corridors where they knew they could not be overheard. Semlin-Nor came as far as she could with him, stopping in the outer courtyard, at the lowest steps of the House.
”The Caids bless you,” she whispered through barely moving lips as he stepped off onto the stones of the yard. ”The Sleeping G.o.d keep you in his dreams.”
”And you.”
He could feel her eyes on his back as he crossed the outer courtyard to the gates to greet his House, the new Tarkin.
It was as he'd suspected. It was only Karlyn-Tan that the Tenebroso had asked to accompany him to his workroom. Lok-iKol sat behind his worktable, staring at the sharp nib of a pen as he rolled it between thumb and fingers. For the first time in many years, he had not invited Karlyn-Tan to sit.
”With respect, my lord,” Karlyn said, ”I remind you that they were not in my keeping, and that I know nothing of their leaving.” It was safe for him to say so, as he knew that the keys for Dhulyn Wolfshead's shackles never left Lok-iKol's own hands. ”Mercenaries do not require a.s.sistance in these matters. It is known they cannot be held, if it is their own wish to be gone.”
”And the Scholar, and the Lady Mar-eMar? Were they a.s.sisted?”
”Once more, I remind you, my House, that neither I nor any of my men had orders to prevent any members of this House from proceeding about their affairs. We knew of no reason to prevent them from leaving.”
”You remind me.” Lok-iKol pursed his lips and straightening in his chair, dipped the pen into the open bottle of ink lined up perfectly with the piece of parchment waiting to be written on.
”My mother, the Fallen House, often said that as a young man there was no hunter as skilled as you. You will find my Scholar. You will find the girl, and you will find me the Mercenary woman, the Wolfshead.”
”My hunting days are past, my House. I am Walls now.”
”I know you cannot leave the House,” Lok-iKol said. ”But you will direct the hunt.”
”Let me speak more plainly, my lord. No, I will not.”
Lok-iKol looked up, lifting the pen from the paper. Karlyn-Tan watched the ink gather into a large drop at the tip of the nib, grow large enough to s.h.i.+ver for a moment in the morning sunlight streaming through the window and fall onto the page beneath. Still he said nothing, waiting for his House to speak.
”I am your House,” Lok-iKol said finally. ”And now I am your Tarkin as well. You are my Walls, and you will do as I ask.”
”I am am the Walls of House Tenebro, my lord.” Karlyn-Tan nodded, looking directly at the man seated at the worktable. ”I am neither yours, nor mine, but Tenebro's. As I have said to you before, I serve only the House, with my own obligations, and my own judgment. It is my judgment that pursuing these Mercenaries will bring danger to the House. As Tenebroso, you may discharge me, but you cannot overrule my judgment.” the Walls of House Tenebro, my lord.” Karlyn-Tan nodded, looking directly at the man seated at the worktable. ”I am neither yours, nor mine, but Tenebro's. As I have said to you before, I serve only the House, with my own obligations, and my own judgment. It is my judgment that pursuing these Mercenaries will bring danger to the House. As Tenebroso, you may discharge me, but you cannot overrule my judgment.”
”Then you are discharged.” Lok-iKol looked down at the page before him, twisting his lips when he saw the stain of ink. ”Be gone by sunset. Take nothing that belongs to me.”
Karlyn fought to keep his knees locked, to keep his hand from reaching for the support of the chairback next to him. It was as though he suddenly found himself on the edge of a chasm, and only firm control would keep him from plunging down. The chasm had always been there, but he had grown so used to it, he had forgotten it could harm him. As he managed to forget, most of the time, that this man was his half brother. A voice inside him, the voice of the boy who had never known any other home but this one, cried out that he should submit, that he should agree to anything, and his lips parted, but the words that came out. . . .
”I'll give you a piece of advice,” he said. ”There'll be no need to hunt for the Mercenaries, Lok-iKol. They will come hunting for you.”
”I am Cast Out.”
She put out a hand for the edge of the table, lowered herself into a chair.
”Do nothing. Say nothing. You are not safe here. Go, we never spoke.” He could not endanger her. He, at least, had seen the outside world, even if not for fifteen years. She had been born in this House, and had never left it. If she were Cast Out, guilty by her a.s.sociation with him, it would destroy her.
Still, he could not help feeling hurt when Semlin ran from the room without further word. The touch on the hand she gave him as she pushed past was not much consolation. He sat down in the chair behind his worktable and let his face fall into his hands. He had until sunset. Until sunset to decide what, if anything, he was allowed to take with him. He had a little money of his own, saved up over the years. A ring and a dagger the Fallen House had given him. They could be considered his. Surely not even Lok-iKol would put him into the street naked, but was there anything in his rooms that was not of Tenebro colors, or which didn't bear the Tenebro crest?
Karlyn took a deep breath and looked up. From the angle of the sunlight on the desk, he'd been sitting here the better part of an hour already. And he had not given any thought to where he would go, once he'd found clothing. Was the Blue Dove Tavern still in business, he wondered, thinking of the last place he had stayed before coming to Tenebro House, and did it still rent rooms cheaply?
Leave the House. The fiery heat of his anger had finally died away, leaving a tightness in his throat and chest. He forced himself to take a deep breath, and then another. A sound made him get to his feet just as the door to the hallway opened. It was not, as he'd expected, Semlin-Nor, or even his a.s.sistant Jeldor-San, having just learned of her unexpected promotion, but the Lord Dal-eDal.
His hands full, Dal-eDal kicked the door shut behind him. In his right hand he carried a bulging saddle pack, and in his left, held by the scabbard, a sword. Both of these he put on the table in front of Karlyn.
”I did not knock, since I have learned that these are no longer your rooms.”
Karlyn-Tan inclined his head.
”I have further learned that you have been told to leave with nothing that the Lord Lok-iKol has given you. Therefore, I have brought you clothing and a sword.”
By the tone of his voice, and the expression on his face, Dal-eDal might have been pa.s.sing Karlyn the bread at a communal table and not the tools that might save his life.
”I may need to report that they come from your hand.”
Dal-eDal shrugged. ”Consider it reported. My cousin has returned to the Carnelian Dome, and I am the heir.”
Karlyn nodded his understanding, feeling a tightness in his shoulders relax. It was to find Dal-eDal that Semlin-Nor had left in such a hurry. ”In that case, I accept.”
It was Dal-eDal's turn to nod. He straightened his cuffs as if searching for something more to say.
”Did he want you to find the Tarkin?”