Mistress of the Catacombs (61 page)

"As fine a job of sharpening as I myself could've done," Carus noted approvingly. "And a working edge, too; not something razor thin that'll turn or break on armor."

"Thank you, Master Chalcus," Garric said, grinning. He slid the blade home again. He didn't notice his pain and stiffness while he handled the sword. "As good a job of sharpening as the finest warrior I know could have done."

"The least I could do for the man who saved our lives, I thought," the sailor said. With a slight extra brightness in his expression he went on, "I was wondering one thing as I watched the fellow dancing across the battle to us—was that you, your highness, or the friend you share quarters with?"

Garric laughed. "The friend, sailor," he said. "And I was glad to know him that day, for I don't expect I'd have done as well at the task."

Chalcus nodded pleasantly. "Aye," he said. "You're a brisk lad and very quick for your size; I'd not choose to fight you. But your friend, now—if I couldn't stab him in the back, I'd lay my sword down and hope for mercy. And I say that knowing the hope would be very slight indeed."

He and Garric both laughed, and in Garric's mind the laughing king said, "But don't be fooled, lad—he wouldn't want to face me, but face me he would. And we'd neither of us be quite sure of the outcome."

The sailor cleared his throat. He looked around the circle, deliberately meeting the eyes of each of the others before saying, "It may be that you think Lady Merota would not have been offered for sacrifice had I not failed my duty to her—"

"You didn't fail, Chalcus!" the child said. "You rescued me!"

"—and you would be right," Chalcus continued. He showed his embarrassment only by the unusual precision of the words; his voice had none of the usual music in it. "I came back from the docks to the room we'd taken at an inn. The child was gone, and everyone there pretended they'd never seen her at all."

"One of the men who took me was a priest!" Merota said proudly. "I could tell from his robes. I cut him with the knife Chalcus gave me!"

"Aye," said Chalcus softly, "and later I cut him worse myself and took his robe, when I'd convinced the innkeeper that he was wiser to fear me than to fear the Mistress. But all that took time; and when I got to where they were holding milady, there was very little time left. Still, I thought since I was there I'd give them reason to wish they'd picked a different victim."

"We can't control results," Ilna said without emotion. "We can only control our own actions."

She looked at Chalcus and went on, "But if I could have controlled the result, it would have been the same as what occurred."

"Oh," murmured Cashel. He gave Sharina an extra squeeze with his arm and rose gracefully to his feet, holding the quarterstaff close to his body. "That's Tilphosa coming. I'll go...."

"And Lord Thalemos," Garric said. "Earl Thalemos now that I've confirmed him as ruler of Laut. He's my old comrade in arms, though he probably doesn't know that."

He looked at Cashel. Sharina was standing now also; her expression was one of ladylike chill. Ilna watched Thalemos and the girl with disinterested assessment, while the grin on Chalcus face indicated he saw the same thing Garric did but was amused by it.

Well, it wasn't Chalcus' sister and closest friend who were in the middle of this tension.

"Ah," said Garric. "I'll of course pass them through, Cashel, but if you'd rather talk to them privately, that's—"

"We'll talk with them here, I think," Sharina said. Garric had heard winter gales that sounded warmer.

Cashel shrugged, looking more resigned than perturbed. "Sure," he said quietly. "If that's all right with you, Garric."

"Let the Earl of Laut and his lady through, Lancar," Garric said. Even Tenoctris was standing now. He thought about rising from the stone bench, but when he'd tensed his muscles enough to realize what it would cost him, he changed his mind. In a few more minutes, perhaps....

Thalemos and Tilphosa were dressed in a style suitable to their station during private functions: overtunics embroidered in gold and silver thread, cutwork sandals of dyed leather. On Thalemos' chest was a gorget knotted from cloth of gold, a placeholder for the ancient regalia of his office which there hadn't been time to cast.

Tilphosa gave Sharina a queenly glance. Thalemos bowed, then stared at Garric in surprise before saying, "Your highness, I, ah... did you have a brother on Laut, by any chance?"

"He wasn't my brother," said Garric, "and that was a thousand years in the future besides; but I know who you mean, yes. May the Shepherd guard his soul."

"Yes," Thalemos said. "Ah, I'm honored that you've confirmed me as ruler of Laut, but...."

"My chief of staff Lord Tadai will provide some personnel," Garric said, "and Chancellor Royhas in the capital will second some of his clerks shortly as well. You'll have two battalions of the royal army besides, though I don't expect you'll have real problems. The Intercessor, Echeus, died recently—"

Carus chuckled in his mind.

"—and there's been no one in charge since then."

"Yes, ah...," said Thalemos. "Your highness, what I actually came to ask...."

His voice trailed off and he looked at the girl beside him—Tilphosa bos-Pholial, Garric knew, though he hadn't seen the lady before this moment.

"Your highness," Lady Tilphosa said, "you'll find Laut a loyal bastion of your kingdom henceforth. We have one further favor to ask of you, however: in addition to the troops and staff you've offered, will you send Master Cashel or-Kenset with us? I know by experience that Master Cashel is a sturdier support than any number of soldiers."

Thalemos looked at Garric and tried to smile. He wasn't very successful. Garric knew from his life as Gar that Thalemos was a brave boy; but Tilphosa was very much a lady, not a girl.

So, of course, was Sharina.

Garric cleared his throat and said, "Milady, I'm not in the habit of telling my friends what to do. Cashel's free to come and go as he pleases. If he—"

"I don't," Cashel said. He didn't look relaxed, exactly, but neither did he look like anything short of an earthquake was going to move him from where he stood. His left hand was on his staff and Sharina's left hand was on his shoulder.

He nodded to Thalemos and went on, "Mistress—Tilphosa, I mean... I said I'd get you to your Prince Thalemos of Laut if I could. That's where you are, near enough. And I'm where I belong too, back with Sharina and my friends."

Tilphosa said nothing for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, she made a deep curtsey to Sharina. Rising, she said, "Milady, I hope you know what you have."

To Garric she continued, "Your highness, I thank you again for your trust and support. You will not find it misplaced."

She turned and strode quickly out of the guarded circle. Thalemos followed, a little awkwardly because Tilphosa's sudden movement had taken him by surprise. He looked greatly relieved.

"An interesting girl," mused Carus. "Back when I wore flesh, I might have found better use for her than sending her to warm a throne in Laut."

Fortunately, Garric added in the silence of his mind, your descendent is more focused on the provision of able leadership for the separate islands of his kingdom.

Carus laughed in his mind. "Fortunate indeed, lad," he agreed

Sharina watched Thalemos and Tilphosa go, then looked at her brother. "That's Laut," she said, her voice a little sharper, a little more challenging than usual. "And from what I've seen here, it appears that Count Lerdoc will have no difficulty in ordering matters on Tisamur. What about the other rebels?"

Garric shrugged and wished he hadn't. "I'm planning to make a progress of Cordin and Haft," he said, "putting loyal rulers in place. As soon as I can walk without a pair of canes, that is."

"Will they fight, do you think?" asked Chalcus, the lilt back in his voice. He didn't sound precisely hopeful; rather, he was interested the way one male dog becomes when another walks nearby.

"They're fools if they do," said Garric. "Which of course many men are, so I'll be accompanied by as many troops as I brought here to Tisamur; though the mix will be different. It's a good chance to integrate the new companies into their battalions."

Tenoctris had seated herself again, but his younger friends remained standing. After glancing in the direction whence Tilphosa had disappeared, Sharina asked, "Where are you finding the new leaders, Garric?"

"The Tyrant of Cordin ousted the marquis five years ago, Tadai tells me," Garric said. "We're reinstating a nephew of the late marquis, under the guardianship of Tadai's brother-in-law. Here on Tisamur, the Council of Elders will resume the government, with Count Lerdoc's cousin as their liaison with Valles."

"What about Haft, though?" Sharina pressed. "What about our home?"

Garric laughed. "Barca's Hamlet never had much to do with the palace in Carcosa, did we?" he said. "I doubt that will change much, at least at first. Formally the island will be ruled from Valles under a nephew of Lord Waldron as Vicar. I'm giving him an advisor, however; not a local man, exactly, but he lived on Haft for a long time and I can trust him."

"You're making our father the real ruler of Haft?" Sharina said in amazement. Garric smiled and nodded.

"Yes," said Ilna while the others stood silent. "Reise is a very trustworthy man. Carcosa won't warm to him, but I think it will learn to obey."

Cashel laughed loudly. He hugged Sharina, then stepped to Garric and clasped arms with him. Garric braced himself for the pain, but Cashel more than most men knew how to be gentle; he'd have broken other people's bones all his life if he hadn't learned that.

"He'll meet us in Carcosa," Garric amplified as his friend swung away again. "I'm looking forward to that."

Garric looked in the direction Thalemos had gone. "Tenoctris," he said, "Lord Thalemos comes from the future—but in his past, Prince Garric died battling the Count of Blaise and waves of Archai conquered all the Isles except for Laut. His past never existed."

Tenoctris pursed her lips. Ilna said in the silence, "Events that aren't on the same thread may be knotted together, Garric. The remainder of their length is separate. Which is just as well in this case."

"Tilphosa thought that the Intercessor Echea planned it all," said Cashel. He shrugged deliberately, working the muscles of his shoulders; his hickory staff gleamed softly from its careful polishing with raw wool rich in lanolin. "That she knew everything that would happen when she made the rings."

"Tilphosa is wrong," Ilna said, her tone coldly analytical. Garric suspected Ilna didn't like Tilphosa—putting Tilphosa in with the majority of humanity—but that wouldn't color her judgment. "The pattern was too complex for any human mind to encompass, let alone plan. The...."

She paused, searching for a word. You didn't often see Ilna indecisive, even about phrasing.

"The weaver, let's say, Ilna," Tenoctris said quietly. "That name will do as well as any other."

"The Weaver, then," said Ilna with a smile so wry it looked bitter, "of this fabric wasn't human. Of that I'm sure."

"I'm not sure there really was an Intercessor Echea," Tenoctris said in the same soft voice as before. "Someone, something, may have walked and talked in the flesh of a person named Echea, but I don't believe the animating force was human."

She smiled and rose. "I think it's time we leave Garric," she said. "It's getting dark, and I suspect I understand better than you younger people how easy it is to become overtired when one isn't in the best condition. Which I haven't been for many, many years."

"Right!" said Cashel, smiling at Sharina. His face sobered and he said, "Ah, Garric? Want me to carry you to your rooms?"

"I'll stay here for a moment to think, if that's all right," Garric said. "I have a litter to ride in. I feel silly, but it's better than crawling—which is the choice."

Laughing, Cashel led them out—Tenoctris between him and Sharina, Merota with Ilna and Chalcus. Ilna looked over her shoulder for a moment; and nodded, and walked on.

Does she guess? Garric wondered.

"If she wants to know, she knows," Carus said. His look was far away, on his own past and a woman there who had died. "Anyway, they'll all know soon."

Garric levered himself to his feet, using the stone railing as a brace. He turned and looked eastward, over the city that had returned to the Kingdom of the Isles for the first time in a thousand years.

The sun had almost set. Streaks of cloud on the western horizon cut its swollen redness into three segments. Light flared onto the bank of clouds far to the east, rosy columns mounting from the sea to the high heavens.

Liane would be coming across the Inner Sea on the squadron that brought Reise. A feeling of warmth eased the pain Garric felt from standing.

"I'm not going to move the capital from Valles back to Carcosa," he said, speaking aloud but in a whisper that only he and the ancient king could hear. "But I think it's a good place to hold the marriage."

"Yes, lad," said the grinning Carus. "It's a fine place for the King of the Isles to wed!"

THE END

For more great books visit
http://www.webscription.net