Part 47 (1/2)

Barrick laughed, a harsh, wild sound. ”I saw you look at the boats, Vansen. You were already thinking it! Come, while Saqri and the others can yet hold the center and distract them. She has told me that in a moment she will stage her play!”

Vansen had no idea what Barrick meant by that, but the prince was right. They had thought of the same thing. They could not fight their way through the Xixian defense by strength alone, but if someone reached the autarch and put a blade or an arrow in him the day might still be saved.

”Which one, Highness? The one on the end?” Vansen knew that they had to stay as far from the center of the fight as possible. If the riflemen on the far side noticed them floating unprotected, they would never reach the other sh.o.r.e. ”I'll go-but for the love of the G.o.ds, put your helmet back on!”

Vansen and the prince hurried down the sloping sh.o.r.e in a prolonged and painful series of crouches-painful for Vansen, anyway. To his astonishment, Barrick Eddon had not only grown in size, he had grown in strength and grace as well, and even seemed to be freely using the arm Vansen had been told was forever crippled. What had happened to that sulking, red-faced child of a few months ago after Vansen himself had fallen into the dark in Greatdeeps?

He hunched as low as he could while a volley of arrows snapped overhead, the sound of their pa.s.sing made almost inaudible by the clamor of voices and crash of guns in the great cavern. As he did so, a strange, unexpected thought came to him. Despite the terrible danger all around them, Barrick Eddon was alive and well and had returned to Southmarch. Which meant that Ferras Vansen had not not failed Barrick's sister, Princess Briony, after all. He might not have carried the prince to Southmarch all by himself, but he had helped to keep him alive. If Vansen lived, unlikely as that was, one day she might release him from her scorn. failed Barrick's sister, Princess Briony, after all. He might not have carried the prince to Southmarch all by himself, but he had helped to keep him alive. If Vansen lived, unlikely as that was, one day she might release him from her scorn.

Suddenly his heart felt as light as the poets often claimed, light as a bit of down caught on the puff of someone's lips. He had not failed, although so many times he had been certain he had done so. However little Briony Eddon's curses and scorn of him might have meant to her, they had meant the world to Ferras Vansen, had lain upon him as heavily as stone. Now that weight was gone.

”Hurry,” Barrick shouted. ”Saqri has begun!”

A sound rose behind them, a weird and beautiful moan like the howl of a wolf given words. The queen of the fairies had climbed over the backs of her own soldiers to engage the enemy, her sword sparkling and darting like a hummingbird in a pool of sunlight. It was her voice that rose above the clamor of battle. Saqri had become the focus of nearly all eyes. Her long, slender blade struck and struck again. She danced through the Xixians like smoke, and for that moment they fell back from her in astonishment. Through it all, Saqri kept singing.

Vansen heard a noise and dragged his attention back to his own situation. Two Xixian soldiers left to guard the farthest boat were hurrying forward to intercept Vansen and the prince. He ducked a swipe from one guard's sword, stumbled and rolled, then came up to find the man coming back at him again. At that same moment Barrick Eddon dodged past his own man, s.n.a.t.c.hed the rifle from the man's hands just as the Xixian was lowering it to shoot, and then whirled and hit him from behind with the gun hard enough that the man's chin snapped down against his chest. Before that man had even fallen to the ground, Barrick turned and threw the gun at the other guard like a short spear. It hit the southerner in the head and knocked him onto his back, bloodied and dying. Vansen gaped at the men Barrick Eddon had so effortlessly bested as the prince made his way to the grounded reed boat.

”G.o.ds, it's big.” Barrick lowered his shoulder against the bow and began to push. The boat gave a squishy creak but did not move. Vansen came up beside him and began to help him, but it felt like trying to slide a basket of wet clothes the size of a house; Vansen was certain that his own blood was going to burst from his ears before the thing moved even a fingernail's breadth.

At last the boat sc.r.a.ped forward, skidding a few heavy inches. Vansen clenched his teeth until they felt as if they might shatter and pushed harder; beside him he heard Barrick talking quietly to himself. The reed boat shuddered and began to slide, faster and faster until Vansen stumbled trying to keep up with it and found he was already knee high in the silver sea.

”Push a little farther to get it moving,” Barrick said quietly. ”And when you get in, stay low.”

Vansen pushed, walking on his tiptoes, trying not to splash. He was chest high in the silvery liquid now. It was thicker than water but more slippery, s.h.i.+ny and heavy, but less so than actual metal. It was also disturbingly warm. ”We're in it-the silver stuff!” It was all he could do to whisper, so strange did the substance feel where it touched his skin, almost . . . alive.

Barrick scrambled up into the boat, then turned and reached a hand down to help Vansen climb up also. Vansen threw himself down in the bottom of the boat, gasping for breath, and watched the silvery liquid run off him, slithering away into the crevices between the bundled reeds. ”What is it? What is this lake made of?”

Barrick Eddon had stretched out, too, lying on his side near the far side of the boat. His eyes were half-open and fixed on nothing, as though he could see through the bundled reeds of the gunwales, and perhaps even through the stone of the cavern itself. ”You ask, what is the sea made of, Captain? The very last remains of my oldest ancestor.” He smiled a little, but it only made Vansen feel cold. ”You've been splas.h.i.+ng in the blood of a G.o.d.”

38.

A Visitor to Death's Estate ”By the time the Orphan reached the house of Aristas the piece of the sun had burned his hands away to ash. He gave the piece of sun to his friend and then fell down dead at his feet.”

-from ”A Child's Book of the Orphan, and His Life and Death and Reward in Heaven”

EVERYTHING HAPPENED with astonis.h.i.+ng swiftness.

Briony, the Temple Dog soldier, and the Syannese knight Stephanas were making their way silently across the hilly temple yard with nothing but the light of the three-quarter moon, which was just strong enough that Briony didn't notice the lesser light, a dim glow on the overhang at the front of the Eddon family tomb, until they were almost on top of it.

Both fear and fury surged through her. What was Hendon doing in her family's vault?

As she signaled to the Syannese to stay quiet, two soldiers in dark cloaks came up the steps of the tomb together locked in some kind of struggle.

”The dead . . . !” one of them gasped to the other even as he fought with him, so frightened he could barely speak. ”He's trying to bring back . . . !” The terrified soldier at last broke free from the other, who seemed to have been trying to restrain him, and sprinted off across the cemetery grounds to disappear into darkness. The other soldier watched him go for a moment with wide eyes, but he must have heard something closer to hand. He lowered his spear and began inching toward the spot where Briony and Eneas' soldiers crouched behind a stone vault.

”Who is that?” he demanded in a quavering voice. ”Step out, in the name of the lord protector . . . !”

One of Tolly's men, then. Briony nodded to the soldier with a bow, who stood up and loosed his arrow more or less in one motion. Hendon Tolly's sentry looked down at the slender wooden shaft s.h.i.+vering in his gut as though it were the most puzzling thing in the world, then he folded over and dropped noiselessly to the ground.

Briony led Stephanas and the other Syannese soldier down the stairs. To her surprise, the tomb's main vault, the place where her grandfather, mother, and brother had all been laid to rest, was empty except for the coffins that contained them and other recent Eddon ancestors, but she could hear voices-surprisingly loud voices-in the inner vault. She looked to Stephanas and the soldier, raising a finger to her lips.

”The child,” she whispered. she whispered. ”Remember-save the child at all costs.” ”Remember-save the child at all costs.”

And then they stepped through the short pa.s.sage between vaults. When they emerged with weapons raised into the light of the inner tomb, Briony saw several figures, the most startling a man with a long knife about to murder the infant prince on some sort of makes.h.i.+ft altar, but before she said a word her Syannese bowman shot the knife-wielder in the chest. The man spun in surprise and then toppled heavily to the floor, his long dagger clinking on the stones as it bounced away.

Hendon Tolly acted almost as swiftly as the archer. By the time the man with the knife touched the stone floor of the crypt, Tolly had thrown the heavy book he was holding at the bowman, knocking his weapon out of his hands. Hendon's sword hissed out of its scabbard. Briony drew hers, too, but Hendon had no intention of anything so civilized as fighting an armed enemy. His slender blade leaped forward like the tongue of a silver snake and hung, barely wavering, above tiny baby Alessandros, who had begun to cry, a strange, homely sound in the middle of such an unhomely place.

”Well, now,” said Tolly, his eyes wide and bright in the light from the torches burning in the sconces. He moved a step closer to the infant prince, all the time keeping his blade within a few inches of the child's eyes. ”What an interesting evening this has turned out to be!”

”Don't listen to talk,” Shaso had always told Briony, usually after distracting her into dropping her guard. Shaso had always told Briony, usually after distracting her into dropping her guard. ”It is either foolishness on the part of your opponent, or it is meant to distract. Know where you are.” ”It is either foolishness on the part of your opponent, or it is meant to distract. Know where you are.” Briony did her best to follow that advice, though the sight of Hendon Tolly's smirking face only a couple of yards away made her hand tighten on the hilt of her sword until it ached. Briony did her best to follow that advice, though the sight of Hendon Tolly's smirking face only a couple of yards away made her hand tighten on the hilt of her sword until it ached.

Briony had never been inside this inner vault, with its six walls and narrow shelves and dark, deep corners-a chamber that now seemed full to bursting even without the ancient coffins. Besides herself and the two Syannese, the only ones still standing were Hendon and one of his guards and what appeared to be a hostage, a dark-haired woman Briony recognized after a moment as the Summerfield n.o.blewoman Elan M'Cory, the one who had been so miserable about Gailon Tolly's death. Tolly's other minion, the knife-wielder, was lying facedown on the floor in a small pool of blood. But Hendon's sword so near the young prince's throat trumped any advantage Briony had in numbers.

And it was clear that Hendon knew that. ”Retreat, Briony, or I will kill the child. You will not take me without losing little Alessandros here. I would happily rob you of a brother as I go.” He laughed.

”Is there nothing decent in you?” she asked.

He shook his head. ”This is a pointless conversation. You could not understand me if you lived as long as the fairies do. Go slowly back, out of the tomb. If you let me get the door closed, as I should have been minded to do before, then you can do as you wish.” He laughed again. ”You can call for a battering ram if it pleases you!”

”No. Don't be a fool. I will not leave the child with you.”

”I feared you would be stubborn. It is so like you self-satisfied Eddons.” Hendon nodded slowly, letting his gaze slide to her guards. ”I see you have brought the Syannese to Southmarch.” Tolly raised a mocking eyebrow. ”Which of course means that you have wh.o.r.ed yourself out to young Eneas.” His eyes widened at her expression. ”No? Truly? Well, then, perhaps to the old man himself. Is that it? Did Olin's daughter give herself to the ancient king of Syan to save her people? How n.o.ble!”

It took every bit of strength she had to resist Hendon's goading, to stay where she was. The crying of baby Alessandros was beginning to make her head ache. ”Sir Stephanas,” she said. ”Send your man to find Prince Eneas. Tell him we have Hendon Tolly trapped in my family's vault.”

”No! If he even takes a step toward the outer vault,” Hendon Tolly warned her, ”I will take out this child's eye. The little prince will still be fit for my purposes, but he will scream all the louder.”

”Dog! Is this your idea of honor? To threaten children?”

Hendon Tolly laughed so hard it could be nothing but genuine. ”Honor? What whey-faced nonsense is that? Do you think I care for such things?”

”G.o.ds! You are filth, Tolly. And even if you keep me here for hours, eventually Eneas will come looking for me. There is no way out of here.”

He looked amused at this. ”Truly? Well, that is sad.”

Briony was desperate to shake him from his certainty, to get him away somehow from the child. ”Yes, you are as good as on the headsman's block-and then he'll minister to your treacherous family, too. I will knock down Summerfield House myself and drag your brother and your mother out into the light of day like the creeping things they are. ...”

Tolly nodded. ”If you do, you'll probably find our mother still there, but it's rather a funny story about my brother, Caradon.” He laughed. ”It seems he's found himself a bit short lately. ...”

”For the love of the Trigon, Highness!” said Sir Stephanas loudly. ”Do not waste words on this coward any more. We have him outnumbered!”

”No, Stephanas ...” Briony began.

”She's right, young fellow,” said Tolly with a grin. ”After all, it might seem seem like you have me outnumbered, but there are only two of you and a woman against me-a duo of Syannese, at that. There has never been a day that a few b.u.t.ter-eaters could beat a man from the March Kingdoms . . . !” like you have me outnumbered, but there are only two of you and a woman against me-a duo of Syannese, at that. There has never been a day that a few b.u.t.ter-eaters could beat a man from the March Kingdoms . . . !”