The Gantean (Tales of Blood & Light Book 1) (24 page)

“Sorry,” he said and promptly tumbled to the floor in a disjointed heap.

“Laith!” I inched over to him. “Are you all right? What happened to you?”

He laughed. “I’m jusht drunk. Drunk as a skunk!”

“Is that…wise?”

“Wise, no. Necesshary, yes.”

I tried to get him into the bed with Miki. Trying to shift tall Laith was similar to gathering up an armload of too many logs. His body had too many points and angles and his limbs got in the way. He fell back to the floor.

“Don’t you want to go to bed?”

“Bed? No. It is so cold. You can’t imagine, sister, the horrors of a cold bed.”

I rolled my eyes. What did Laith Amar know of the cold? “The cold keeps you clear,” I said sternly, echoing a Gantean proverb. “You could use a bit of clarity.”

With a snort he dropped to sleep on the floor. I covered him with his cloak and left him to it.

Dawn came and went, but still Laith slept. Miki paced, restless and eager to depart.

I readied our packs, worrying about Tiriq as I prepared. Where had Ghilene sent him? Who cared for him? Had the nurse gone with him? When Laith still did not rise, I sent Miki to the stables to check on the rented beasts Laith had arranged the day before. I bent over the mage and debated kicking him awake. We didn’t have time for this.

“Laith!” I gave him a brisk shake. “It’s time to go.”

He cracked open a bleary eye without moving. Awareness slid over his face like moonlight over water. He sat up, but then clutched his head and eased back down.

“Amassis preserve me,” he groaned. “The sun is bright!”

“Laith, we meant to be on the road an hour ago.”

Miki crept back into the room, carrying a tray with morning tea. Laith sat up again, this time more carefully, and took a cup, sniffing it with a frown.

“The horses are ready,” Miki announced.

Laith groaned as he gulped tea.

I thrust his rucksack at him. “Let’s go.”

Now that we wore disguises, we could travel by day. Laith preferred to brazen through our passage, using magic to make up the difference if our pretense failed. That day, it mattered not what story we used; we met no one. Rains threatened but never broke through the soggy skies. Miki was silent, Laith, in his disguised face, sullen, and I did not have the will to examine my own contribution to our glum parade.

We arrived at our next inn tired and edgy. Miki pulled me aside for a private conversation. “You’re sure we’re doing the right thing?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“All this.” He waved to encompass Laith and the inn. “There are rumors that a mage betrayed Costas and brought down the magical wards on the High City to allow Ricknagel’s battlemage into Galantia. I heard about it in Herefork before you arrived.”

“You think it was Laith?” I did not believe it.

Miki shrugged. “He was awfully prepared to flee. I don’t trust him. Today he told me he means to take a ship when we reach Hemicylix to search for the Cedna and his brother.”

“What?” Laith had not confided this aspect of his plan to me. He had hinted that he meant to help me find Tiriq. If he wanted to rescue Jaasir and deal with the Cedna, he’d have to help me find my son first.

“It’s not what the Elders would have done.” Miki went on. “Allowing a sayantaq mage to—to manage the Cedna. They’d have wanted it to be Ganteans.” He drew his brows together.

“I don’t know what the Elders would have done, Miki, but I do know the Cedna cannot die without the ritual, and it’s my responsibility to do it. You needn’t worry. I’ll manage that part.” I patted Nautien’s anbuaq on my neck, beneath the smock Laith had made me wear. “I have a Hinge crystal.”

“I saw it, back at the Palace.” Miki stared at me with dark, empty eyes. “But are you prepared, even for the sacrifice, Leila?”

“I’ll do what I must.” But my hand had begun to shake over the anbuaq. I snapped it back down to my side.

“I wish there were an Elder here, to tell us we are doing the right thing,” Miki fretted.

“There won’t be anyone to tell us that ever again,” I muttered as Laith approached. “You can think of it as freedom. The freedom to choose for yourself.”

T
wo
forces pulled on me
: the urgent need to find Tiriq and the weighty responsibility of finding the Cedna. I could not choose—Iksraqtaq duty perfectly balanced my sayantaq mother’s love. Longing for Tiriq paralyzed me. I wanted to beg Laith to help me find him by tracking the bloodcord that still connected us, but I feared his reply to such a request.

The final day on the road to Hemicylix dragged. Miki rode silently, lost in his own thoughts. Laith had managed to stay sober the previous night, due in large part to my timely extraction of him from the inn’s bar, so we set out early. The man who claimed to be my brother did not look well. He was too pale, and he had not spoken a word all morning.

At midday the sounds of hooves pounded behind us. We retreated to the side of the road.

“Damned Amatos, whoever it is, they’re riding hard,” Laith remarked as he drew his turquoise magestone. “I wish we could have made it to Hemicylix before meeting anyone. Pull back. Turn and face east, as though we’re traveling that way on the road. With any luck they won’t have been tracking us. I think I would have felt it.”

Laith’s words did not reassure me, but I led my horse off the road and turned to face east. Miki followed a couple of paces behind.

The oncoming horses raised a cloud of dust that obscured them. Laith saw them first. “They’re Galatien Guards,” he called tersely.

The five riders drew up when they saw Laith. He spoke first. “You might trample travelers, rampaging down a road like that. Is something amiss?”

The leader of the guards spoke. “A mage, are you?” He gave a long look at the magestone in Laith’s hand. “Didn’t your master call you to war?”

“I am my own master,” Laith said. “Imagus Omer el-Esan, of Amar.”

I surveyed the other four guards waiting behind their leader, taut as bowstrings.

“I wouldn’t rush to the High City, if that’s where you’re headed,” the leader told Laith. “The war’s taken a strange turn. You’ll see more riders headed west on the road today. There’s utter chaos in Galantia. Galatien loyalists are making a full retreat to Hemicylix. Ricknagel’s army infiltrated Galantia a few days ago.” He waved to his men; they braced to spur their mounts. “Amassis be with you.”

“Likewise.” Laith, in his unfamiliar face, watched the soldiers tear down the road. I exhaled. I’d worried the soldiers had been sent by Ghilene to hunt us down.

“They were Dragonnaires,” I murmured. “Costas’s men. I saw the magemarks on their arms.”

“I know,” Laith said. “I’m lucky I’m disguised; they would have recognized me otherwise. But all the Dragonnaires went with Costas to the Savalia front. Why would they have returned to Galantia?” Laith pursed his lips. “At least we know Ghilene Entila didn’t send them after us.”

“Xander Ricknagel—could he have defeated Costas?” I asked, thinking through the implications even as my gut rebelled against the notion. “So even Costas’s men from the Savalias are retreating?”

“But the barrier!” exclaimed Laith as we continued down the road to Hemicylix. “How could Ricknagel break through the mage’s barrier on the Savalia front? It’s not possible. Only Ghilene and the Magarch had all the lynchkeys to remove it, and nearly all the Galatien mages contributed to it. Ricknagel didn’t have the magical strength to wear it down. His only battlemage is Taz Ballestos, who was dealing with the barrier in the High City, and by all accounts the Cedna has disappeared like smoke.”

“What’s a lynchkey?” I couldn’t help my question, even though Laith wore an exasperated expression. He had mentioned last night as I dragged him from the inn’s bar that I especially annoyed him with all my “pesky questions.”

“It’s a kind of sigil. In a spell made by many mages it gives control to one or two of them, protecting the work from its many makers. It’s meant to prevent betrayal.” He frowned, his disguised face unfamiliar with his doubt. “Damned Amatos,” he hissed a moment later. “It had to be Ghilene. It’s the only explanation. The little bitch betrayed Costas.”

More hoof-falls approached. Again we pulled to the roadside and watched as another troop of Galatien soldiers, this one larger, flew by us. They didn’t even stop to speak.

Another hour brought us another troop, in a similarly rattled condition. Laith hailed their leader. “What’s happened?”

“Amassis himself probably doesn’t know,” the sergeant said. “Everything went to pieces on the Savalia front. The mage’s barrier was there one moment and gone the next. We were forced to retreat to Galantia, but when we got there, Ricknagel’s army had already taken the city—they were waiting for us. No one knows what’s going on. We’ve been directed to Hemicylix to regroup. That is, if Hemicylix hasn’t been taken, too.”

“How?” Laith asked, sounding like an innocent citizen only curious about the progression of the war. “How could such a thing happen?”

“Treachery, that’s what,” the soldier said. “Someone’s betrayed King Costas. They say that Amarian bastard mage escaped not three days hence. That’s just the right timing. I hear he was a right powerful mage.”

“Amarian bastard mage,” Laith echoed. “Do you mean Laith Amar?”

“That’s the one,” the man said. “He’s gone missing.” The guard reined up on his mount and urged the horse into motion. “Good luck,” he called as his whole troop proceeded down the road.

Laith rode silently as we continued at our plodding pace. He looked, if possible, even paler, even more drawn. I considered suggesting a rest, but Laith’s determined expression kept me quiet. By evening, the lights of Hemicylix glowed in the distance. One last party came upon us. They too rode hard, but these soldiers wore the blue uniforms of House Ricknagel. They rode in formation: organized, clean, and disciplined.

“Who are you?” the captain asked curtly, looking us over.

“I am Imagus Omer el-Esan, traveling to take ship in Hemicylix.”

“Have you seen any soldiers on the road today?”

“In patches,” Laith answered warily. “Stragglers, mostly. Nothing like what you’ve got here.” Laith indicated the carefully arranged riders, four to a row and ranked behind their leader in a line extending beyond our vision.

The leader shrugged and frowned at Laith. “You had better ride with us. The road will be unpredictable if there are Galatien soldiers upon it.”

A veiled threat lurked behind the man’s words, and I didn’t like to be absorbed by his troop. Even so, barring action from Laith, I could do nothing. Laith rode beside the captain while Miki and I joined the row behind.

My garment concealed my face, but I still felt the men were too close around me. I cringed behind my shroud, hating the prickle of their stares upon me, the only female in their midst.

We found the gates of Hemicylix barred upon our arrival. The gatekeepers would not open for the Ricknagel soldiers.

“Disobey at your own peril!” warned the captain to the gatekeepers. “This time tomorrow, King Xander Ricknagel will rule, and the lot of you will be traitors. He’s captured Costas Galatien. I’ll give you one more chance to open these gates. You don’t have the numbers to defend yourselves when the rest of my regiment arrives.”

I barely repressed a cry. Had Costas truly been captured by Ricknagel?

The gates opened to the Ricknagel troop after the captain’s threats. We rode briskly through the gaslit streets. To my surprise, the Ricknagel captain let us go after a furtive conversation with Laith. I suspected Laith used magic to decrease the man’s interest in us.

Laith selected a waterside inn as close to the harbor as possible. He wanted us to leave first thing in the morning. People had flocked to the inn’s common room, most of them seeking passage on any available vessel.

“Go on up to the room,” Laith told me. “I’ll be back in an hour or two. I have to visit the Temple.”

“What temple?” I asked.

“The Temple of Amarite, of course. I’m almost tapped. I need to rejuice.”

“I hardly think right now is the best time.” I didn’t like Laith leaving us in this unfamiliar place when chaos seemed to lurk on every horizon.

He insisted, “My aetherlight is sucked dry. I
have
to do this. It’s not that I
want
to. Though I can’t say that I mind. It’s been too long since I had a woman.”

“Do you mean you have to—to lie with a woman to keep being able to do magic?” I had gathered that the Temple of Amarite existed to service mages, but I had not understood the details.

“Of course. Binding-magixe—don’t Ganteans use it? How else can you pay for magic and rebalance the aetherlight? I really shouldn’t wait any longer. I never let myself get this low.”

As he departed, I reflected on his implications. Did he mean he used mating rather than blood to pay for his spellwork? How?

A
s Miki
and I ascended the inn stairs we ran into a familiar figure. “Allian!” I gasped without thinking.

“Who’s that?” he said, wary as he turned.

I grabbed Costas’s man by the arm and dragged him to our rented chamber.

“My lady! You made it out of the High City,” he said. “Thank Amassis! I hear it’s a mess there, that one of the mages betrayed Costas.” His voice deepened with anger.

“We got out very quickly,” I said. “I didn’t see any actual fighting. The mage Laith is with me,” I added.

“Laith Amar?”

I read Allian’s look, remembering what the second group of soldiers had said. “They are saying he betrayed Costas, but I know he didn’t. We left Galantia three days ago. I’ve been with him constantly. Besides, only Ghilene Entila and the Magarch knew all the lynchkeys to the barrier’s magic.” I repeated what Laith had told me.

“Ghilene Entila,” Allian fumed. “I never trusted that girl. I told Costas a hundred times but he just wouldn’t listen—”

“I heard that Costas has been captured,” I interrupted. A horrible thought struck me. If Ghilene had betrayed Costas, what had she done with Tiriq?

“
What?
” Allian’s face blanched. He had not heard the news then.

“A troop of Xander Ricknagel’s soldiers escorted us into the city. They didn’t know who we were,” I said to his aghast face. “They said Xander Ricknagel captured Costas.”

“Where? How?” Allian’s shock deflated him as he melted into the room’s lone chair.

Miki brought Allian a glass of water from the pitcher on the table by the bed. Allian blinked at him, momentarily flummoxed. “You,” he said, staring at Miki. “What hole did you crawl out of?”

Miki said nothing. My head spun with my own distress.

“I haven’t got any details,” I told Allian. “But I need to find out where Ghilene Entila sent my son. Do you know?”

“Amatos!” Allian ignored my urgent question as he pondered my news. “Hemicylix is going over to Ricknagel, too, aren’t they? We’ve got to get out of here!”

Laith threw open the door, wearing his true, undisguised face. He carried a flagon of spirits—akavit, by the smell of it—in one hand. He groped madly in his pocket—no doubt for his magestone—when he caught sight of Allian.

“Wait!” I screeched, putting myself between the men.

Laith stopped, but eyed Allian warily as he took a swig of his akavit. His appetitive habits annoyed me, and I wished for once he’d opted not to drink as soon as we arrived at an inn.

“Kercheve,” Laith said. “I hardly expected to find you here. Weren’t you with my brother down in the Parting Sea?”

Allian nodded. “I’ve been traveling north in search of your brother. Costas’s orders.” His face darkened. “But now…”

Laith sat heavily on the nearest bed. “Everything’s going to hell.”

“You’re drunk,” Allian said, sniffing.

“Ghilene Entila had to be the one,” Laith said, ignoring Allian. “It was never the Magarch—Vatsar wouldn’t betray the Galatiens, so it had to be her. She brought down the barriers, the one in the Savalias and the one around the High City. It’s the only explanation.”

“Have you got Adrastos Galatien?” Allian demanded, his face creasing with concern. He peered at Miki in the corner as if he might be Costas’s brother in disguise.

Laith shook his head slowly. “Adrastos Galatien. Hells of Amatos. No.”

“Fuck,” said Allian. “Does that mean Xander Ricknagel has him? As far as Xander knows, he’s the damned Galatien heir. I doubt Ricknagel knows about the baby.”

“I have no idea,” Laith said. “But we don’t have Costas’s son, either. Costas acknowledged the baby before leaving for the Savalias, but he trusted Tiriq’s care to Ghilene Entila, of all people. She sent Tiriq north under guard a few days before the High City fell.”

“With whom?” I cried. Laith knew more than he had told me about what had happened to Tiriq.

“It was a suitable entourage. Several Dragonnaires, a nanny, a wet nurse, servants. I checked,” Laith said as though to reassure me.

“Suitable entourage!” I cried. “Ghilene Entila’s betrayed Costas to the Ricknagels, and you expect me to believe she had my son’s best interest in mind when she sent him away? Where did she send him? We must go to him, now!” I poked the center of my chest. “I have a cord, here, a bloodlight cord connecting me to Tiriq.” I turned a hard gaze on Laith. “You could track him by it.”

Laith grimaced. “Tracking’s the fussiest magic there is, especially across great distances.”

“You tracked me. So did the mage Oruscani.”

“It’s unpleasant work. I’d have to hire a contract Source to come with us, and it would take forever. It’s a strategy to use when all other methods have failed. Besides, I need to find my brother and the Cedna.”

“But Tiriq—”

“Listen, Xander Ricknagel is a man of honor, if nothing else.” Allian attempted to interject some calmness into our growing tension. “He won’t harm either child, Adrastos or Tiriq, even if they are his captives. He’s not the type to hurt a child; it would go against everything I know about the man. It’s Costas I’m worried about. Ricknagel has every reason to kill Costas. He believes Costas had his daughter murdered.”

Laith paused—he had been running his fingers through his hair. “Yes, and who
did
kill Stesichore Ricknagel if it wasn’t Costas?”

Allian scowled. “It wasn’t Costas! He’d never harm a woman. Stesichore was at her own family’s manse up at Lake Tashriga. No one knows the exact circumstances of her death. It might not have been an assassination at all. It could have been an illness.”