Fallen Blade 04 - Blade Reforged (22 page)

I leaned forward and looked into Harad’s eyes. For a long time there was nothing.
Then, something shifted. In his irises I saw the same twisting coils I had seen in
the pool. Blue and green and gold all looped around the black pupil where a dragon’s
face appeared for an instant, smiled at me, then vanished into the depths. I leaned
back in my chair and reached for my tea again only to find the cup empty.

“I can make more,” said Harad.

“No, I’ll take that as a sign. Today’s been a disaster all around, and one that might
well have cost me my life without your…without Shanglun’s intervention. I have to
see Maylien. Prixia and the others will tell her what they saw, but I can’t be sure
they saw enough. She needs to know that her uncle carries the same curse her sister
did, and how much harder that’s going to make the job.”

I rose to my feet and bowed to Harad as I would have to one of my masters at the temple,
making sure to look deep into his eyes as I did so. “Thank you, Harad. And thank you,
Shanglun. I owe you both for what you have done for me and for Triss.”

You are welcome,
Shanglun said into my mind,
though I think you would have saved yourself had I not saved you. The cost would have
been greater, but I do not think that you would have failed to pay it.

Triss slipped off the couch and bowed as well, then fell back into my shadow and my
shape as I turned to the door.

T
here
is a weight to emptiness, a weight I felt pressing on me as soon as I entered the
passage to Maylien’s sewer hideaway. Long before I reached the far end and opened
the hidden hatch I knew I would find the chambers abandoned. Darkness filled the tunnels,
and silence, and a sort of loneliness that can only be found where people once were
and now are no longer.

My first concern was that they had been discovered, that one of the members of the
lance I had led and left behind had been tortured into revealing this location before
Maylien and her people had time to scatter. As soon as I conjured up a temporary light,
I knew that wasn’t the case. The old sewer showed signs of hasty departure, but no
evidence of a fight. If any of my lance had been taken alive, they hadn’t yet cracked.
But it was likely only a matter of time. That was why I had come up from the active
sewers below, entering by way of a rabbit run I hadn’t revealed to anyone but Maylien.

Knowing that the forces of the Crown might arrive at any moment, I moved quickly,
heading straight to Maylien’s
quarters to see if she had left me a message. It was low on the back wall, scratched
crudely into the muck to make it look like graffiti. Three lines.

“Under the willow. We set aside many cares. An island in time.”

That was all it said, but that was enough for me. On the night before Maylien challenged
her sister, Sumey, we had shared a brief hour of peace and passion under a willow
tree on a small island in the Earl of Anaryun’s private garden. That was where she
wanted me to look for the next message, but it would have to wait till full dark even
though the earl was one of Maylien’s secret supporters. I destroyed all trace of the
message she’d left me, and then headed back into the sewers.

*

I
slipped off my boots and rolled up my pants before stepping into the cool dark water.
A carefully planted band of lily pads concealed a shallow path that allowed the earl’s
gardeners to tend the island without having to use his personal boat. I moved slowly
and carefully, but couldn’t avoid a bit of splashing.

“Aral?” Maylien’s voice came from beneath the low hanging curtain of willow leaves.

“You shouldn’t be here.” I ducked to enter the hidden bower, using Triss’s senses
to get a read on what lay within as I did so.

“It’s you, all right.” Maylien was seated cross-legged on a thin blanket with Bontrang
perched on a small basket beside her. “Neither Heyin nor Prixia know about this place,
and only one of the three of you would start a conversation with Zhan’s future queen
by telling her what she should or shouldn’t be doing.”

The gryphinx cooed at me as I collapsed my shroud and sat down, putting his head forward
for a skritch under the beak. The moon was nearly full, providing just enough light
for my dark-adjusted eyes to register big details. The oval of Maylien’s face, the
faint glint of her eyes as she shifted
her gaze, the pale outline of the blanket. The spring smells of jasmine and osmanthus
sweetened the air.

“You know what happened at the palace?” I said as I indulged Bontrang with more skritches.

“I know what Prixia saw, and I can extrapolate from there to figure out some of the
things that didn’t make sense to her. My uncle is no more among the living than my
sister was, is he?”

“How did you guess?”

“Prixia told me that she saw the knife in your hand, and saw you strike, but that
Thauvik didn’t fall. She thought maybe he’d twisted aside at the last moment or something.
I knew better. I know you. You don’t miss. But Prixia has never seen a member of my
family take a blade to the heart and keep right on going, whereas I’ve delivered just
such a blow.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wanted to end this without a war. Now, there’s no way. Even
if I could get in close again, I can’t kill Thauvik quickly. And if I can’t kill him
quick, the chances are good I won’t be able to kill him at all. That’s got to be why
the Kitsune hasn’t been coming after you or your people. He’s keeping her close so
that she can defend him. Now that Devin’s arrived, the balance has changed again,
and for the worse. You need to get out of the city and raise an army so you can defeat
him in the field and then execute him.”

“You killed Sumey….”

“I used Devin’s goddess-made blade and I gave it back afterward as I promised.”

“But he’s here, now,” said Maylien. “Couldn’t you steal one of them from him?”

I snorted. “Not without killing him first, and I’m not even sure that would work.
There was a…I don’t know, a special kind of magic involved.” I thought back to the
moment when I had slain Sumey, and the feeling that, if only for an instant, my goddess
had been with me again. My throat tightened. “He gave me the sword of his own free
will. I don’t think it
would work if I had to take it from him by force.” Justice didn’t steal.

“Maybe Triss could throw him into the everdark, like he did that chunk of wall when
you rescued me.”

Triss slipped out of my shadow and into dragon form, an action more felt than seen.
“Possibly, if he didn’t move away fast enough, but I doubt it. It takes time and effort
to push things into the everdark, and they resist. Smaller things are easier than
big things. Soft things are easier than hard things. Things without magic are much
easier than magical things. The restless dead carry a powerful curse, and Thauvik’s
blood baths make it stronger by far. It would take a very long time for me to force
him out of our world, if I could manage it at all.”

“So much for the easy solutions,” said Maylien. “That basically leaves fire, acid,
and heavy-duty spellwork, all of which require time and some way to prevent my uncle
from getting away.”

“War and execution,” I said. “Which means you need to get on the road, and I need
to figure out what I’m going to do next.”

“Not quite yet. Move over, Bontrang.” She gave the gryphinx an affectionate shove
and he hopped down from the basket with a grumpy
mrp
. She opened it to expose a dim red magelight, shining on several covered dishes and
a small bottle. A faint aroma of ginger and garlic wafted out. “I brought us dinner.”

I raised an eyebrow, then realized she wouldn’t be able to see it. “I’m not sure now
is such a great time for a picnic, Maylien.” Though it smelled wonderful.

“You’re half right,” she said low and wicked, and her teeth flashed in a sudden smile.
“Because I have something else in mind first, but we
are
going to have a picnic after.”

I licked my lips as I tried to figure out what to say to such a mad proposition. “Your
uncle’s forces are looking for both of us. You know that.”

“Yes, and they may well kill one of us before we get the
chance to see each other again. Even if they don’t and we win, I will be a queen,
and things won’t be the same between us. The last time we were here, things were rushed
and muddy and we didn’t know if we’d ever get the chance to be together again. It
was also wonderful. Once more, we don’t know if we’ll ever have the chance again,
but I thought this time we could make up for the rushed and muddy part.” She reached
into the basket and pulled out the little bottle and I tensed as I fought down a bitter
craving for something harder than wine.

“I can’t drink with you.” Not if I wanted to stop, anyway. “And, you should put out
the light.” It wasn’t bright enough to be seen from more than a few yards away, but
even that went against deeply ingrained habits, making me nervous.

“Hush,” she said. “It’s only cold tea. I know you don’t really like the stuff, not
even fresh and hot, but it’s what I could manage under the circumstances and given…”
she trailed off, obviously realizing that what she’d been about to say was impolitic.

“Given my drinking problem, it’s an excellent idea. Thank you, that was thoughtful.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad you didn’t take this the wrong way”—she poured the tea into
a couple of wine cups and handed one to me—“because I really wanted to drink a toast
with you before everything changes.” She raised the cup, and recited the verses she’d
left for me on the wall. “Under the willow. We set aside many cares. An island in
time.”

“An island in time,” I repeated, and we drank.

Later, when we had recovered our composure and our clothes and I had told her what
I needed to, she poured more tea while I unpacked the basket. There were small plates
for each of us and I served up the cold noodle salad and other dishes. It was an excellent
meal, and the company was of the finest. We were almost finished when Triss flickered
into dragon shape. He had disappeared back into my shadow to give us a greater illusion
of privacy.

“There’s something wrong with the shadows on the garden wall where we came in,” said
Triss.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’ve been watching a pale patch among the potsherds—when we came over I broke a bit
off this side of one piece to create a fresh surface that I could watch. It just vanished
and then reappeared.”

Like most serious walls in Tien, the Earl of Anaryun’s was topped with iron nails
and jagged-edged bits of broken pottery, in this case fine porcelain. The better to
show off the earl’s wealth and good taste, I guess.

“Devin?” I rose into a crouch, reaching for my sword rig.

“Perhaps. I can’t tell from here. Could be the Kitsune, or even a common thatchcutter
who just happens to be coming in exactly along our backtrail.”

I glanced at Maylien as I settled my swords into place and whispered, “You need to
get out of here, and not by the path I came in on. Now. Swim if you have to.”

“I borrowed the earl’s boat. It’s on the far side of the island. I left some of my
guard by the house. Should I send them to help you?”

“There’s only been a single occlusion so far,” said Triss.

I added, “If it’s Devin, we can handle it. If it’s the Kitsune, I’d rather not get
anyone else killed. Wait for the sounds of a fight to cover you before you push off.
Go.”

She didn’t argue, just touched a kiss to my cheek, scooped up Bontrang and slipped
out the far side of our little willow tent. That practicality was one of the things
I loved about Maylien. As Triss enfolded me in a shroud of darkness I slid out from
beneath the willow and walked down to the edge of the water to wait.

Whoever it was would have to come at me through the lake and they’d have to do it
slow if they didn’t know where the trail was. That or slip off into deep water. Either
way, I would have a distinct advantage if I attacked them in the last five feet while
they dealt with unknown and slippery footing.

Any chance our shadow trail could be followed across the water?
I sent.
It’s awfully still….

No, not accurately. Not this long after we crossed. If
whoever it is, is foolish enough to try, they’ll end up in deep water.

Good. I wasn’t sure.

Normally the natural movement of the water would quickly erase any remnants of such
a trail, but the earl’s artificial lake looked more like a mirror than living water
at the moment, a fact that registered in Triss’s unvision even more sharply than it
would have to my eyes. I popped the catches that held the hilts of my swords tight
behind my hips and slid the blades free of the sheaths strapped to my back, though
I still held them up and back, to either side of my spine.

Minutes dripped past with no more signs of any trailing presence, far longer than
I would have expected for someone to take simply to get from wall to water. I practiced
stillness, breathing quietly and evenly, schooling my heart to beat in slow time as
I had been taught. Patience is one of the assassin’s most important skills, and I
had spent many frustrating hours as a child mastering the discipline. Flesh, like
stone.