In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) (8 page)

“I think his exact words, as he cut my good eye, went something like this – ‘If you intend to go out on your own, you’re going to need to improve your appearance. Maybe if I make both sides of your face match, you’ll get a few looks from the boys.’”

Maelgyn winced. He saw a few tears going down her cheeks, and he wiped them off of her face with his thumb. Somehow, as she’d continued telling her story, he’d pulled her into a comforting hug without realizing it. They just sat there while she cried for a bit, but once she had collected herself she continued her story.

“Cawnpore was a lot stronger than I was in those days, and I couldn’t get into the mindset to access my magic. I don’t know what Cawnpore would have done to me, but I wasn’t able to stop him. Thankfully, Ruznak saved me. He heard my screams from out in the street. Cawnpore declared he was going to kill me just like he killed my mother, which I still don’t understand – mother died of a disease, she wasn’t murdered. Ruznak heard the shouting and broke into the house.

“I didn’t see the fight, obviously. Ruznak never explained what he did, exactly, but it must have been pretty bloody considering he was alone fighting an experienced mage. In the end, however, Cawnpore was dead and Ruznak had a new foster daughter.

“Ruznak didn’t just adopt me however, he helped me learn magic. Considering he didn’t know any himself, it was an impressive feat, but he was determined to help me. He found books on magic and read them to me, he figured out a method of ‘seeing’ for me, and he developed ‘tests’ for me to practice my magic with. Eventually, when I was ready for it, he even introduced me to another mage who could refine what I knew into practical use. I’ll never be able to thank Gramps enough for that.”

Maelgyn continued to hold and comfort her, his face taught with conflicting emotions. He was horrified at Euleilla’s plight and wanted to help ease her pain, but he was also angry – angry at Cawnpore for doing this to her, angry at her father for entrusting her to such a man, angry at the assassin who killed that father, angry at the mining company which hired that assassin, even angry at Ruznak for taking away his own chance at vengeance against the drunken mage.

“When this war is all over,” he said, his voice barely under control, “I’ll see to it that all of those people who did this to you and your family have paid the price for it. I swear to you I will, even if I have to raze Sycanth province to do it.”

“No,” she protested, shaking her head against his shoulders. Her tears continued to make her body tremble, but her voice was steady. “I won’t have you taking revenge for me... if you do, someone else will take revenge on you, and then someone else will take revenge for that, and it will keep going in a never-ending cycle. Better that I be the one to suffer and not allow it to reach that point than have others die in my name.”

“You’re wrong there,” Maelgyn said. “If someone gets away with doing something like this to you, then they think they can get away with anything. When they believe that, they grow more corrupt... and as that gets more entrenched in your society, it makes it harder and harder to combat that corruption when someone finally does stand up to them. Do you honestly think you’re the only one they’ve hurt? No. They went too far, and they must be made to realize that.”

“But…”

“Shh,” he whispered, pulling her into an even tighter embrace. “Relax. We’ll talk about it later.” Releasing her, he backed up a bit. It was hard to tell what were tear streaks and what was rain on her face, and there was a trail of blood still running down her face from where she’d hit the tree, so that had to be dealt with first.

“Let’s get you patched up and we’ll talk some more, okay?”

She sniffed slightly, but nodded – the smile back on her face, although it was weaker than it had been.

The questions had been answered for Maelgyn. As he pulled out the bandages and medicine to dress her wounded forehead, he wondered what those answers would mean for them.

The one thing he was damned sure of, though, was that he was keeping his promise to her. The people who hurt her would pay... even if he had to win the war by himself to do it.

Maelgyn had set up the tent and led the both of them inside so that he could finish treating Euleilla’s head injury out of the rain, but that was done and now he wanted to talk some more.

“So,” Maelgyn said, packing up the extra dressings. “Why didn’t you tell me you were blind?”

“I can’t see, but thanks to magic I’m not blind,” she answered emphatically.

Maelgyn frowned. “That doesn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you tell me?”

She shrugged, adjusting her damp hair to once again cover her scarred eyes. “Secret,” she muttered, looking distinctly embarrassed

Maelgyn supposed he could understand that, but it still bothered him. “You knew it would make a difference in the route we needed to take, right?”

Euleilla shrugged, her enigmatic smile showing itself in full force once again, masking her earlier unhappiness. “Perhaps.”

“And you decided not to tell me, anyway?”

“No.”

He sighed. “So, back to this ‘one word answer’ thing again, are we?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, letting her smile grow back to what it was before she ran into the branch, starting this whole conversation. Without being able to see the scars thanks to her hair, and with the tear streaks effectively washed off, it was almost possible to forget her as the crying and vulnerable young woman he’d held in his arms just minutes before.

Almost, but not quite. He doubted he’d ever forget that.

“Well, you should have. I wouldn’t have taken you here if I’d known.”

She coughed deliberately. “That’s why.”

“What?”

“I want to cross the mountains,” she explained emphatically, “and I knew you’d never take me.”

“Well, there you were wrong,” Maelgyn snapped. “Don’t assume things about people, good or bad. If I had been the sort of person who would have left you behind because you were blind – sorry, because you ‘can’t see’ – after having seen you handle yourself in the everyday world, well... then you shouldn’t have asked me to guide you in the first place.”

“Didn’t.”

“Didn’t?” he started. “Didn’t what?”

“Ask.”

Maelgyn laughed. “No, you didn’t, at that! But you know what I mean.”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, I’m fairly certain I still would have taken you... but I wouldn’t have taken you by
this
route, that’s for sure.” He finished packing his kit, and sighed. “Which might have been the right call, anyway, in this weather. Unfortunately, this may be the only route through the mountains that isn’t monitored by the Mar’Tok Dwarves. I’ve been trying to make this trip in secret, but humans traveling through Dwarven lands inevitably will attract attention. If we don’t concern ourselves with Dwarven eyes, however, there are several easier ways across than this route. We just have to develop some sort of cover story for why we’re traveling through their lands and we should be all right. Some reason two humans would need to go from Largo to Sopan that wouldn’t reveal to them who I am.”

“Okay,” she agreed simply.

“I’m open to suggestions, by the way,” Maelgyn noted dryly.

“Really?” she said, “smiling” again.

“I’m guessing you don’t have any,” he laughed.

“None.”

“Well, we have some time, yet,” he said. “We need to get back down the mountain – hopefully before it kills us – and then hike up north for a day or two. There’s a small village where we can stay for a bit and sort things out. I believe it’s called Elm Knoll.” He looked outside the tent, and grinned. “The rain’s finally stopped. Let’s break camp and try to get off of this ridge before it starts again.”

She stood up and left the tent, Maelgyn following behind her briskly. With a wave of her hand, the tent came down and folded itself up, the iron tent stakes wrapping themselves around until the tent was ready to be packed up.

“Ready,” she said.

Still shaking his head at her casual use of magic, Maelgyn loaded the tent onto his pack horse. He hadn’t been able to ride his war horse through the mountains and so left it with Ruznak in the Left Foot Inn stable, but there was no better substitute for a pack horse available in the area. A Dwarven settlement might contain llamas – the main beast of burden in the region and a central component of the Dwarven heavy cavalry – and over in the mountains near Sycanth mules and donkeys were heavily relied on, but the only human-trained animals in Largo that could handle the mountains were pack horses.

There had been times on the journey that Maelgyn considered dumping that pack horse, even if it meant having fewer supplies. Traveling through the muck and mud would have been considerably easier without having to worry about it. Now, Maelgyn was glad he hadn’t – if he wound up heading over the mountains by way of the Dwarven roads, a pack horse would be quite useful. Considering how muddy his pack horse had gotten, though, he would need to pay a stablehand to groom the travel-worn animal once they got to Elm Knoll.

Maelgyn would have liked a hot bath, too, but he had to wonder if a village as small as Elm Knoll could support an inn large enough for such an amenity. He knew they almost certainly wouldn’t have running water – few places in Svieda outside of a Sword’s capital city would have such a thing – but a wash basin, several large kettles, and some labor could become an adequate bath in a pinch... and was a fair bit better than most non-noble families of the land bothered with.

If there was such a service, he figured he’d go ahead and pay for the manager to fill it for both himself and Euleilla. It was unlikely they’d have a hot bath at all, but he hoped they did nonetheless. His skin itched from the mud and sweat of the journey.

He vaguely wondered what the people at the inn would think when he arrived. It wasn’t often that a young man and a young woman who were not related would go traveling alone together unless they were married or about to be. Unmarried young lovers usually managed their rendezvous in their home towns, unattached friends were usually accompanied by a chaperone, and most women in need of bodyguards either hired one woman or several people of either sex.

Occasionally, a professionally licensed courtesan would become the ‘camp follower’ of a nobleman, accompanying him everywhere he went, even when he was unaccompanied by others. In Largo, however, prostitution in all its forms was illegal, so it was unlikely Euleilla would be seen as that.

Maybe they would think of her as Maelgyn’s bride, however. Married couples – especially on their honeymoon – were known to travel together frequently throughout the land. The idea wasn’t entirely unpleasant, to Maelgyn’s way of thinking. After all, she was quite attractive, if you could ignore the few peculiarities associated with her “inability to see,” as she called it – her odd hairstyle and the strangely colored vests. She was certainly intelligent, given how early on in life she had taken an incomplete study of magic and figured out the trick to mastering it and the way she learned to manage her blindness. She had a fairly strong spirit, given how reasonably sane she appeared to be after such a horrid early life. She was powerful, given that her frequent demonstrations of magic showed her to be as strong, if not stronger, than any other mage he had seen. Not that it mattered in his position: As a Sword Prince, he was expected to marry into nobility and not to marry some orphan girl no matter how powerful of a mage she was.

Still, it was likely that the villagers would assume that they were married when they were seen traveling together. It was a better assumption, in his mind, than the alternative – that she was his courtesan. It would be in their best interests to correct any of these assumptions as quickly as possible.

Or would it?

“I have it!” Maelgyn cried out.

“Oh?” Euleilla answered, unruffled despite his sudden outburst.

“Yes. I know exactly what cover to give people... and it’ll be a cover no-one will question, precisely because of who we are,” he grinned. “When we get to Elm Knoll, everyone is likely to think we’re married. We could explain that we weren’t, if anyone asked, but I don’t think we should. Rather, we should
encourage
them to think so. It’s the perfect explanation for why you and I are traveling together: A young, newlywed couple traveling to a new home stopping in a small town or taking a Dwarven road is fairly commonplace. No-one will question us about it, which means no-one will ask any other questions I wouldn’t be comfortable answering, like ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I going to Sopan Province for, anyway?’”

“Newlyweds?” Euleilla repeated, sounding unusually stiff. She was almost holding her breath, in fact, while waiting for him to continue. Maelgyn missed her reaction, though, in his enthusiasm.

“Yeah – we’ll have complete privacy if we stick to that story, as no-one will want to intrude on a pair of newlyweds. We’ll probably have to start our cover at Elm Knoll, though, to keep from being suspected, since I’m told the Dwarves frequent that village for their trading expeditions.”

“Newlyweds?” she once again said.

“Right. Is there a problem?” Maelgyn asked.

He could have sworn she was blushing when she asked, “In Largo? In the inn?”

He frowned. “Yes, in the inn in Largo. In fact, it’s partly
because
we’re in Largo I’m suggesting this. I’d rather not have you arrested on suspicion of being a prostitute just because you travel with me. Ruznak would not be happy if I let that happen.”