The False Martyr (89 page)

“
My lady,” the governor
kept his voice civil, but Dasen could see his eyes harden. His slim
mouth drew into a line, and his jaw clenched. “Perhaps you should
come in, and we will discuss this like adults. I just finished my
meal and was on my evening stroll – I find it helps me to clear my
mind – but you must be famished. I’m sure we can find you
something.”

“
I do not dine with
monsters,” Dasen yelled, voice rising with his anger. “In fact, I
will not dine again until something is done. You are killing those
people. You might as well line them up and hang them from a
gallows. It would be faster and more merciful than the deaths you
have given them.”

“
Watch yourself, young
lady,” the governor growled. “I am the law here by order of the
Chancellor. I don’t care who your family is or how much money they
possess. I will not be questioned. I do what I do for the good of
all the people of this city.”

“
Then arrest me,” Dasen
yelled. “I am out past your curfew. Send me to the camp to die slow
just like the children I saw today. Children, for the Order’s sake.
You monster! If we cannot find enough to feed our children, then we
deserve to be destroyed by the invaders. We deserve to be
conquered, because this is not a nation worth saving.”

The governor’s eyes nearly
popped from his head. He stammered. His soldiers looked at each
other uncertain. The exception was the old man. He was trying to
hide a smile. The site of it nearly disarmed Dasen. He looked away
from the advisor before he could be drawn into that smile and
focused on the governor. He was clearly trapped in his outrage,
wanting more than anything to have this rebel arrested but
constrained by the uproar he knew it would cause.

Dasen saved him the
trouble. “Well, if you will not arrest me and send me to the camp,
then I shall return of my own freewill. I will go there tomorrow
and every day after. And if there are not wagons of food and clean
water waiting, I will go house to house and beg the people of this
city for contributions. I will forego my own meals and give them to
the people of your camp. And if you try to stop me, I will appeal
to the Chancellor directly. I am sure he will be dismayed to hear
that I have been arrested and placed in your Order-cursed death
camp.” Dasen looked around him, forcing each of the guards’ eyes to
the ground in turn. He spun on his heel. “Goodnight, sir,” he
announced as he strode back down the hill.

No words or guards
followed him, only the murmurs of the counselors. He walked down
the hill much faster than he had ascended, lost in his rage, until
he heard a louder set of murmurs from before him. He broke from a
small clump of trees and saw the temple. Hundreds of people stood
outside it. Silence took them as soon as Lady Esther appeared.
Dasen stopped. He stared at them in shock and fear.

“
Few people know this, but
sound travels down from Gorin Hill with remarkable clarity,” Valati
Lareno whispered in Dasen’s ear. “Standing out here at night, I can
almost hear the governor talking to his advisors. He is a man of
strict schedules, you know. He always passes that same spot at the
same time, and it just happened to correspond today with a bit of a
scare in the temple. It seems a candle was knocked over and started
a small fire.” Dasen looked down at the valati’s smile. It had all
been a ploy. Lareno had orchestrated it all.

Suddenly, Dasen felt light
headed. His knees felt weak. His body trembled. Garth broke from
the crowd and ran toward him. The Morg arrived just in time to
catch him. The crowd gasped.

“
The Lady Esther is fine,”
Valati Lareno said. “She has refused to eat all day. She has
declared that she will not eat again until food, water, and
medicine are provided for our brothers and sisters in the camp
outside of town. She used her own knowledge of herbs to help them
today. She drove herself past anything I have ever seen, as if the
Order itself were working through her. But now, she must rest.” The
valati turned to Garth. “Dear man, please take her to her room. She
has already done more than any could ever expect.”

#

It was late, and Teth had
been pacing outside the door to the Tappers’ residence for what
seemed like hours when Mrs. Tappers found her. “My dear child, what
is the matter?” she asked, taking Teth’s arm and pulling her toward
the door.

“
What are they doing?” she
started almost before she was through the door. “They’re going to
kill him.” She stumbled through the door, out of the hall, and into
the same chair where she had cried a week before.

“
My dear,” Mrs. Tappers
sat next to her and rubbed her back. “What are you talking about?
What could possibly have upset you so?”

“
Lareno! He’s going to
betray us. He . . . he . . . . I heard him talking with Kian. That
day I ran off, I ran up to the temple and overheard him talking
with Kian.” The words tumbled from Teth without any thought of the
consequences. She had been in a frenzy ever since Dasen had
returned and told her everything he’d done: how he’d gone to the
Camp, had treated the people there for the Wasting Death, had used
her knowledge of herbs to do it. And even more that he planned to
defy the governor and go back again, that he would go on a hunger
strike and beg food and bring medicine every day. It had all been
too much for her, so she’d sought the only refuge, the only
confidence she had. “He’s setting Dasen up to take the city, then
he’s going to trade him to the invaders. They think that he will be
more valuable then, that they could even use him to become the
leaders of the Kingdoms. I heard Lareno say it. I know he’s
planning it all. It’s all a trap, but it’s far too risky. Dasen is
going to get killed, or discovered, or arrested, or . . . . I don’t
know, but he’s falling right into it, and I . . . we need to get
him away before it all falls apart.”

Mrs. Tappers put a hand on
her knee to stop her rant. “Thank you for telling me that, Teth. We
knew not to trust Kian, but Lareno has always seemed different. I
thought he would be the voice of reason. I am just glad now that we
never included him in any of this.” She looked off toward the door,
eyes growing distant, then let out a great sigh. “I will tell you.
I agree that Lareno’s plan seems foolhardy, but the man does have
an incredible gift for planning, and I’m not sure there is anything
else we can do. Mark and I are working on something, but it will
probably be some time before we can find a boat, fill it with
supplies, arrange for you to take it. It is a lot to plan,
especially with the city as it is. And if you don’t play along with
their scheme, Kian and Lareno will get suspicious and make it all
the harder. I don’t like it any more than you, but I just don’t see
that we have any other choice right now but to take the risk and go
along. And to pile on even further, I think we may still need more
help. Do you think we can trust Garth?”

Teth was thrown by Mrs.
Tapper’s calm response. In her panic, she had entirely lost track
of the larger scheme, of the fact that Kian and Lareno needed Dasen
alive, that their entire plan revolved around it. Now, her mind
lurched to Garth. The Morg had become more and more engaged with
her training over the past few days. He treated her like a daughter
– or more like a son. He worked her hard, was almost always with
her, repositioning her in his poses, guiding her through techniques
with knife or sword, practicing throws and grapples. “I suppose
so,” she answered. “He certainly doesn’t like Kian, and he’s never
done anything other than protect us.”

“
Can you talk to him? See
if he can help us get Dasen out of the city when the time comes?
Neither Mark nor I are very capable of protecting Dasen or getting
him to a boat, and Kian’s not likely to trust us anyway. With
Garth’s help, however, I’m confident that we can find a
way.”

Teth was wary. This plan
was her only hope to find her release while still protecting Dasen.
If it went wrong, everything would be lost.

“
I know it is hard for
you, my dear.” Mrs. Tappers must have sensed her doubt. “But you
trusted us. We have to have more help, and I think Garth is the one
to give it. I know it’s a risk, but this is a risky thing we are
doing.”

Teth chewed her lip and
picked at her thumb. “I’ll try to talk to him.”

“
Alright,” Mrs. Tappers
sighed in relief. “I should get back before I’m missed. With all
the attention that will be focused on Lady Esther, we can’t
possibly do anything until the city is in disorder. As you saw
today, that is still some ways away. Hold tight until then.
Remember Lareno and Kian need Dasen alive and safe. If something
happens to him, they get nothing. Despite how it seems, they’ll do
everything they can to keep him safe. That said, try to get a feel
for Garth. If we can swing him to our side, then I know we can do
it. Agreed?”

Teth nodded.

“
And cheer up,” Mrs.
Tappers smiled and wiped a tear from Teth’s cheek. “Lareno is a
smart man, but he can’t control everything. Mr. Tappers and I know
this city better than he ever could, and the Order knows we can be
just as sneaky when the need arises.” The old matron smiled kindly
and patted Teth’s knee with her hand. Teth could not help but
return the smile. She was still not convinced, but if this all
somehow worked, Dasen would escape and the valati would give her
exactly what she wanted. His ambition would turn him against his
own god and provide a way out of the web he’d woven.

Chapter 48

The
39
^th
Day of Summer

It was Rynn. Part of Ipid
wanted to deny it, but it was obvious from the moment his thin face
and long golden hair appeared around the door. His mind flashed to
the last time he had seen Dasen’s best friend, sitting in a corral,
splattered with blood, more animal than man. For some reason, that
shattered version of Rynn was the one that Ipid expected to see,
but the boy who walked through the door looked like he had never
known that grief and terror. Dressed in simple work clothes –
canvas pants, light wool shirt loosely laced at the front, and a
brown felt vest – he looked more like one of Ipid’s village boys
than the son of a Liandrin lord, but he was clean, hair combed,
patchy growth of a beard trimmed as much as possible. He was
painfully thin, but Ipid knew that it was not the result of
starvation – he was as stout now as Ipid had ever seen him. He
looked healthy – skin tanned, movements sure, gaze level, eyes
bright – and showed no signs of abuse – no scars, pain, hesitation,
or fear. At the same time, Ipid knew immediately that this was not
the same Rynn that had travelled with them to Dasen’s joining
ceremony. He was calm, controlled, steady. His eyes were focused
forward. His hands were held before him. His steps were slow and
steady. His mouth was an expressionless line. And most significant
of all, he was quiet.

Following the boy was the
man who had, apparently, managed this transformation where parents,
tutors, teachers, and counselors had failed throughout the entirety
of Rynn’s eighteen years. Shrouded in the te-am ‘eiruh’s
traditional black robes, Rynn’s teacher was a tall man and thin by
the cut and lay of his robes, but Ipid could see nothing more of
him. He had supplemented his hood with a black veil that left his
features as nothing more than hints even in the bright light of
early afternoon. Remaining several paces back from his student, the
man – Ipid assumed it was a man from the height if nothing else –
shambled slowly across the room teetering as if he might fall at
any moment, as if someone should be following to catch him when,
not if, he did.

Before Ipid could say
anything to the new arrivals, Eia brushed past him from the perch
she had taken by the window. “Naidi, I am so pleased to see you
again,” she greeted warmly, using her universal language in the
empty room – it being Teaching Day, Ipid had given the bookkeepers
and secretaries the day off, leaving only a cluster of Darthur
milling by the door. Passing by Rynn as if he were not there, she
placed a hand on the tall man’s arm and looked at him like she was
greeting a favorite brother who’d just returned from war, like she
wanted nothing more than to take him in a crushing embrace but
unsure what that would do to him if she did. Only when he turned
his veiled face from her did she seem to notice the boy who
proceeded him. “Who is it that you have brought with
you?”

“
Rynn,” Ipid supplied the
answer. He finally managed to push his heavy chair back and find
his feet through the shock of seeing a ghost from his past followed
by a man that could have been a real ghost. The pile of reports he
had been reading – primarily so that he would not have to speak
with Eia – tumbled from their stack to litter the floor. Ipid
ignored them. He came around the desk, nearly ran to the boy, and
wrapped his arms around him. The hug that Rynn returned was
tentative, but Ipid paid it no mind. “By the good and holy Order am
I glad to see you.” He held the boy back and examined him from top
to bottom. “It looks like they’ve treated you well
enough.”

“
They have, sir,” Rynn
answered in the Imperial tongue – seemingly having not yet earned
the robes or language of his new masters. His voice was soft and
slow so that Ipid had to look at him twice.

“
So you went to be trained
by the te-am ‘eiruh?” It was the first time Ipid ever remembered
asking Rynn two questions – one was typically more than enough to
fill an afternoon.