Bloodsongs (43 page)

“Dear to hell and heaven,” Frost interpreted, at last recognizing the name as a blending of Rhianothan and Esgarian dialects.

“I think he knew from the beginning who I was.” She touched her face hesitantly. “We look so much alike; the conclusion must have been obvious to him.” She stared at her daughter and shook her head slowly. “Then, my speech and my memory returned.” She looked her daughter straight in the eye as she continued, “Then my powers, stronger than ever before. I'm not a witch like you. My magic must come from objects or special words or patterns. But my time in hell had taught me many things.” A faraway look stole into Reimuth's eyes, and Frost wondered at the mysteries her mother must have seen. “Like the Chondite sorcerers, I tried to fight the death god. Orchos was strong, a fearful deity, but I kept my courage and struggled with all my dark might, and I won a partial victory.

“I could not return my spirit to its body, but neither was I trapped in the hell I had earned. I wandered all the nine hells. I saw such wonders, Samidar! And I learned much about the nature of power.” She paused and continued in a more subdued voice, “I used my new abilities to see into Kel's heart and mind, and I saw that what he suspected was true, that he was your son and my grandson.”

Frost stepped up onto the dais and faced her mother across the great chair. “Why couldn't you have been satisfied with that? Why did you send him to ransack Keled-Zaram searching for the Three Aspects? You abhorred war, Mother. Remember how zealously you guarded the peace of Esgaria?” She shook a clenched fist under her mother's nose. “Do you know how many people my son has murdered for you? He claimed the Aspects could restore life, but you already have life!”

Reimuth moved away from the chair and brushed her hand along a tapestry, stirring a cloud of dust. “As a necromancer Kel is very skilled,” she said quietly, “but necromancy has its limitations.” She looked at her daughter and her voice dropped a note. “I am growing weak again and soon will die. Kel's magic gave me only one year of life, and it can give me no more. Time is running out.”

Frost fought against the emotions that churned within her. “So you broke Esgarian law and taught him your sorcery, hoping he could find the means to extend your time.” She couldn't keep the sneer from her voice.

“He already had power,” Reimuth shot back defensively. “I merely refined his abilities. During our studies we learned of the Three Aspects: the Lamp of Nugaril, the Eye of Skraal, and the Book of Shakari. Used in concert these objects could give true life to the dead. But the Chondites had hidden them. It took precious months to discover that all had been secreted in Keled-Zaram.” A wan little smile danced over her mother's lips. “As far as I know, it was coincidence that you chose to settle in the same land. Unless you believe the gods have conspired to bring us back together.”

Frost could barely control her anger. “You sent Kel to find the Aspects, and you didn't care how he got them or what havoc he caused, so long as he won you more life!”

“I didn't send him!” Reimuth answered, matching her fury. “He disappeared one night. Eventually, my magic found him, and I learned he had gone after the Aspects. We communicated, but he refused to come home.”

“Why didn't you go after him? Didn't you see his madness? You might have tempered his actions!”

Reimuth's eyes flashed. “Are you still as ignorant as you once were? Did I teach you nothing? My life-force is bound to this place. Travel to Keled-Zaram? I cannot go even beyond the fortress walls.”

Frost crossed the distance between them with swift strides, backing her mother up against the tapestry. “Don't call me ignorant! I took enough of that from you while you purred over my simpering brother and pampered him.” She caught her mother's thin gown in her fist and dragged her face close to her own. “You encouraged Kel. You're as responsible for his crimes as he is. You used my son!”

Reimuth clamped a hand over her daughter's wrist and pulled her toward a door on the far side of the chamber. She took a torch from a wall sconce. “Come with me,” she demanded.

They plunged into an unlit passage with only the torch to show the way. Reimuth set a brisk pace, never releasing her grip on her daughter. At the end of the dark corridor she flung back yet another door. The interior glowed with warm amber light. “See what your jealousy has wrought, Samidar?” Reimuth snapped.

But it was Reimuth who caught her breath sharply. She stared with widened eyes and clapped a hand to her mouth.

Frost saw at once what had so horrified her mother. She squeezed her eyes shut and hated her son all the more.

Three skeletons gleamed in the torchlight. They had been carefully laid out in ceremonial respect on low slabs of stone. Blankets of purple covered two of them to the chests, and the hands had been folded in the traditional manner. Frost knew without asking whose remains she gazed upon.

But from each the skull had been removed. A gold coronet lay discarded on the floor. Reimuth slumped against the jamb, her face twisted with anger.

“The
shimeres
,” Frost said bitterly. “My father, my brother, my teacher. Kel tried to use them to kill me. My own family.” She picked up the coronet, unsure what to do with it. “You see how mad he is?”

Reimuth reacted as if she had been struck. She snatched her husband's coronet and whirled on her daughter. “Madness? You wail about the sendings and what Kel has done. But it's Kel's family—you and that bastard Rholarothan who dares to call him nephew—that hounds him and hunts him like he was a dog!”

Rage heated Frost's cheeks; her hands curled into tight fists. “You didn't see the towns and the bodies he left in his wake as he searched for your Aspects. He murdered his father and killed his own brother!”

“Really?” Reimuth snapped. She turned away long enough to place the coronet in the hands of the middle skeleton. “He takes after his mother, then, doesn't he?”

The torch fire flared and danced wildly as a sudden wind rose from nowhere and swept through the shrine. Frost started, recognizing the cause, and forcibly mastered her fury. She waited for the music within her to fade before she dared to speak again.

“Keled-Zaram has been my home, Mother. My husband is buried there, and Kirigi's ashes are mingled with its soil. I have friends and good memories there.” She fixed the other woman with a hard gaze. “Kel bragged that he intends to return and conquer Keled-Zaram. I won't let him.”

Reimuth made herself equally plain. “I won't let you harm him.”

“He's my son,” Frost said coldly. “Don't interfere.”

“He's my grandchild,” Reimuth countered. “He carries the seed of our family, even if it is through such a tainted vessel as yourself.”

For long moments the only sound was the hissing of the torch fire. The two regarded each other unflinchingly. It was Frost who finally spoke. “How will the Aspects preserve your life-force?”

Reimuth answered without hesitation, “During the new moon I will stand in a golden circle and bathe in the light from the Lamp of Nugaril as it reflects from the faceted Eye of Skraal. All the while, Kel will read from the Book of Shakari; the spell of power is hidden among the written words.”

Frost went to the door, then turned back to her mother. “I'll wait until he finishes the ceremony,” she said quietly, “until you have the life you hunger for. But mark me, Reimuth, when it's over I'm coming for my son, and not all the hosts of hell will keep me from him.”

Reimuth tilted her head and raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Are you challenging me, daughter? Would you repeat your shameful past—fight and slay the only family you have?”

Frost was unmoved. “Don't get in my way, Reimuth. Unless this time you think you can win your match with Orchos.” She left her mother then and made her way back to the entrance hall. Once more she looked around the place where she had so often played and heard childlike laughter from the distant past. Full of regret, she opened the door and went outside.

There was no sign of Telric. Ashur waited at the foot of the long stair. She went to him and stroked him absentmindedly while looking for her friend. She bit her lip, scouring the darkness.
Damn it, I told him to stay close
, she cursed. Leading the unicorn by his reins, she wandered around the courtyard, but there were few places for her comrade to hide.

A fleet shadow moved near the gate. Frost dropped Ashur's reins. Her sword hissed from the sheath, and she ran. At the gate, she stopped again, recalling how Kel had cat-and-moused them to the cemetery. She started to reach inside herself for the note that would tell her where her son was, but before she found it, the shadow moved again.

It was Telric. The Rholarothan stared at her from the edge of the forest. “The mare's gone,” he said as he came toward her. “I thought it might have wandered into the woods.”

She resisted an urge to curse. The missing horse was a problem, but she'd had reasons for telling him to stay with Ashur. With the unicorn beside him there was a measure of safety from Kel or Reimuth. It annoyed her that he had not heeded her advice. Still, he was well enough and no harm had been done. She drew a slow breath and listened to the crash of the sea in the distance.

“Let's go,” she said wearily as Ashur came around the gate.

“Go where?” He turned and watched the forest with a curious expression. “I can't find my horse.”

“You won't find her in this dark,” Frost assured him. “Maybe she'll turn up come morning. But I need sleep, and I won't get it as long as I can see this place. We'll go back down the trail and find a spot on the cliffs.”

They walked back toward the sea. Every rustle of the leaves, every shifting branch, made her jump. Every shadow was another corpse come to claim her, every patch another hole to swallow her up. Not until they rejoined the cliff trail did she realize that she still carried her bared blade. She felt foolish but decided it wouldn't matter if she carried it a while longer.

When the walls of her father's fortress could no longer be seen above the trees, they stopped. There was no clearing and no place to make a safe fire, but Frost didn't care. She thrust her sword into the soft earth and slumped down against an old trunk. Telric sat down beside her; Ashur stood quietly by as if on guard.

The Calendi Sea stretched before them. Rolling wave after wave battered the rocks below, filling the night with a soul-soothing roar.

Yet sleep proved elusive. They talked, instead. She told him of the Three Aspects and the power they possessed. She explained how Kel intended to use them to preserve her mother's life. She couldn't bring herself to move against her son just yet. For some reason she didn't quite understand, she wanted her mother to have that chance to live.

“I have to let him use the Aspects,” she insisted. “I swear I didn't kill my mother, Telric, but I set in motion the events that made her take her life. How can I deny her a second chance?”

“It's unnatural,” he argued, hugging his knees. “What about those creatures that attacked us in the cemetery? Did they deserve another chance to live? When I saw them crawling up from their graves I thought I'd lost my mind. I froze.” He leaned his head back on the rough bark and sighed. “I'm not sure now I haven't lost my mind. None of this can be real.”

She placed a hand on his thigh. “This is real,” she said softly. “Cling to this.” She waited for him to answer, but he just stared up into the star-flecked heavens. Then his fingers intertwined with hers.

“It's so strange,” she whispered, laying her head on his shoulder. “Reimuth is my mother. She even uses the same tone when she talks to me, as if I was still a child. Yet she's
younger
than me, and I feel this queer jealousy.”

He squeezed her hand. Neither spoke for a while, then Telric squirmed uncomfortably. When he spoke, his voice was low and serious. “You haven't said much about Kel.”

She looked away, feeling cold and uncertain. She wished he would stop talking and put his arms around her, hold her and warm her. Her bones ached, and her lids felt so heavy.

“Reimuth was only a child herself when she bore me,” she heard herself say, but the words sounded remote, dreamlike.

Telric stood up suddenly and went to the cliff's edge. He clenched his fists behind his back, then spun around to face her. “What about Kel?” he said irritably. He threw himself down beside her again and took her by the shoulders. “Tell me, Samidar, what we've come all this way to do?”

She pushed him away. “I don't know anymore!” she shouted angrily. “I don't know. Nothing is clear to me. Nothing is simple anymore!” She pressed her head to her knees and hugged herself, rocking back and forth, afraid to look at her comrade, afraid to look inside herself for answers that might be too hard to bear.

“Maybe Kel deserves a second chance, too,” she said at last. “He's insane and dangerous. I know what crimes he's done.” She swallowed and found the strength to look up into Telric's stony face. “But maybe if I stay here, Mother and I can help him or find some way to control him. She loves him, too, despite what he's done. He'll listen to her.”

Telric stared, full of bitterness and anger. Without another word he turned his back on her and strode away.

She called after him, “Telric, he's my son!”

He didn't go far. He leaned wearily against another tree, head down between his shoulders, and Frost heard what must have been a sigh. Still without speaking, he lay down and wrapped his cloak tightly about himself and cradled his head on an elbow.

She stared imploringly at his back. “Telric, everyone deserves a second chance!”

He didn't move, just lay there stiffly facing away, one more shadow on the ground.

He doesn't understand
, she told herself as the stars faded one by one from the sky. Gradually, morning cast a new color over the sea, but still the Calendi roared its hollow, rushing note. She glanced again at Telric's broad back. Though the sun beat down through the leaves, she still felt chilled.
He doesn't know how hard it is for a mother. How can he?