The Godlost Land (18 page)

That in itself was suspicious. Everyone Harl knew had suffered. Most were dead. This man though looked as though he had had an easy life. Perhaps a care free one. And maybe a thoughtless one. If he had wanted to creep away unnoticed after the battle for Cedar Lake, then wearing such expensive clothes had been a mistake.

“He has refused to speak his name. But he casts water and fire according to our sages.”

Water and fire. An unusual combination for a wizard Harl knew. More usually those who cast fire were also gifted with the magics of the sky, lightning and wind, while those who cast water also cast the magics of the land. But it wasn't unheard of. In fact there had been one wizard in Lion's Crest known for that particular combination. Tyriole, or Tyriole the Grand as he'd styled himself. He was a member of the Circle and a man who'd loved to wander around the city dressed in flamboyant robes and a huge shimmering cape.

This man wasn't him. Tyriole would have been over a hundred years old if he still lived, and this man was nowhere near that age. He was perhaps forty. Harl had thought he was older originally, but now that he could see the man relaxing in front of the fire, he knew he wasn't.

But Tyriole had had an apprentice who would be about this man's age, Harl suddenly remembered. One gifted in the same arts, and one who could often be seen by his side. He looked about right too Harl thought. Not the same exactly but close enough. It took a while for the name to come to him.

“Geron?”

Harl spoke the name and immediately the man turned to face him, and in that moment he knew it was him. Fatter than before. Much fatter. More heavily lined. His hair cropped back far more sternly and with a touch of grey here and there. But it was him.

“You know this man?” The dryad rounded on him suddenly, suspicion in her words.

“Geron, apprentice to Tyriole the Grand. He was at Lion's Crest.”

And more importantly he had been there when the city had fallen as far as Harl knew. So how had he survived? Few had got out, and those who had, had run like him. None of them as far as he knew had worked for the temple before the attack. But maybe he'd been captured and turned afterwards? The wizard certainly didn't look as though he'd been doing much running. “He was there when the city fell.”

“And who are you knave that you should name me?” Geron tried to growl at him threateningly, but in the end what came out of his mouth was more bitterness than bile. Disdain too. “The wood nymph claimed you were some wizard in hiding. But clearly she spoke too fondly.”

Wood nymph? The wizard was risking a beating for that. Dryads tended to get upset at being described as any sort of nymph. Nymphs were strange, timid creatures. Sometimes innocent, sometimes licentious, but always simple. There were a few colonies of them about, though none anywhere nearby. Dryads though were far more bold and complex. They lived in towns and villages like most others, not in trees or copses by little lakes. They wore clothes and ate more than just nuts and fruit. They were educated. They had their own realms and their own governments – if that was what the Great Assembly truly was. And above all else they were proud. To be called a nymph was an insult to them, and Harl could see Nyma's jawline stiffening with anger. But he didn't really care about that just then. He had a wizard in front of him who might be able to tell him a few things about the fall of Lion's Crest.

“Only a student and never a true wizard.” Harl wasn't surprised that Geron didn't know him. His few memories of the man were limited, but still they told him of a man of great arrogance. Not someone who paid attention to those around him. Not unless they mattered in some way. He was the sort who sometimes threw coins at boys in the street to do his chores but never actually looked at them as they worked. He just expected them to do as he demanded. And while he might be of an age where most would be masters in their own right, he had still been only an apprentice, though with the arrogance of a master. But then he would no doubt claim to be an apprentice to a Circle wizard, one of the most powerful wizards in all the five kingdoms. Harl decided to use his arrogance.

“But how did you survive the battle Master Geron?” And more importantly why had he then gone to work for the temple? That made no sense when everyone else had been running.

“Through my magic of course.” The wizard humphed at him as if it should be obvious. But it wasn't obvious. More than that though Harl was convinced it was a lie. It wasn't simply that it didn't make sense; there was also something in his eyes. It was in the way they wouldn't hold his that raised his suspicions. Harl suddenly felt the need to challenge him on it.

“I was there with sword in hand when Rickarial fell. And he was a far more powerful wizard than you.”

“He was a fool. And far too proud.”

Geron looked away, apparently unimpressed with the conversation. And the moment he did Harl knew the truth. The dark thought that had been edging around in the back of his mind. It hit him like a charging bull and nearly laid him low. Geron was lying. Lying badly. And lying about far more than just his magic. The wizard hadn't got away at all. He hadn't fought. Because he'd had something to do with the attack. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

This was one of those responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of his people. The loss of his home. The fall of the city. And for the death of his family.

The hatred Harl knew in that moment was beyond anything he had ever experienced. The fury rose in him like a tide. But with it came a strangely clear head. He knew there were answers he needed to get. He also knew how to get them. Though it took every scrap of self control he had, he would not give in to his anger. Not yet. But maybe soon.

“You look cold Master Geron. Allow me to get you a warmer coat as you tell me of any others that might have survived that dark day.”

The others stared at him suddenly, as if he'd said something completely crazed. But they didn't understand and he paid them no mind as he went to the back room where he stored his wares. It was supposed to be a bedchamber but it wasn't. It had become a storeroom as he simply didn't have anywhere else to put his things. One day he planned on selling them for coin. As crowded as it was he didn't need to light a candle to find what he was looking for. He knew it even in the darkness. He knew its feel in his hands. The thick padded linen and the chain underneath.

A few moments later he returned with the coat in hand, and offered to help the wizard into it. And after a moment's persuasion the others let him untie the cord binding the wizard's wrists as he did so. The cord wasn't really what was holding him. The tea was. Without his magic Geron was vulnerable to anyone with a sword. But then as Harl fastened the clasps holding the front of the coat together the others quickly retied his wrists behind him. They weren't taking any chances. Meanwhile Geron just stood there while he was attended to and no doubt assumed it was all simply what he was due as a powerful wizard. He didn't even think to wonder that the coat could stretch to cover his girth. He was an arrogant fool. But then the two things often went together in Harl's experience.

“Now Geron we should talk.” Harl returned to his seat at the table and tried to keep from smiling as he knew what was coming. Geron naturally enough had no idea.

“Why?” The wizard was suddenly annoyed because the pretence of respect had gone from Harl's words. And he would choose to be uncooperative because of it. But his choices didn't matter any more.

“Because of the coat you just stupidly allowed yourself to be dressed in.”

Harl felt no need to ease into things. Not when the trap had been sprung and he was in its teeth. Of course that just made everyone stare at him suspiciously. The wizard most of all as he suddenly realised he might have done something stupid. He didn't yet know how stupid. But as he suddenly started to struggle – or tried to struggle given that his hands were still bound behind him and he was still weakened by the tea – he surely had to guess that it was too late.

“Wizard?” Nyma looked worried. She had a place for her prisoner to go to, and he assumed she intended for her prisoner to be alive when he got there.

“I'm just going to ask your prisoner a few questions Tree Mother and provided he answers them truthfully everything will be just fine.” Of course if he didn't that was another matter.

“What have you done? What is this?” Geron didn't seem so pleased by the thought. In fact he'd gone a little pale.

“The bonds of truth of course.”

Geron paled a little when he heard that. Then he paled some more. He knew what the garment was, and he knew what it would do to him. Then he foolishly tried to deny it.

“No! That's not possible! There are no more of them!” But even as he said it the coat suddenly tightened a little bit, straightening him up and proving the lie of his words. He knew there were more of them. The torture devices had been highly prized by certain people with a liking for inquisition. It would have been unlikely that someone wouldn't have picked one up. Of course Harl had crafted this particular one, purely as an experiment to see if he could craft the overlapping chain just right and master the complex spells. But Geron didn't have to know that.

“Really? Would you care to say that again? It wouldn't be that you're lying would it?”

“I'm not lying!”

Instantly the coat tightened and Geron screamed. Not in pain yet, just fear. But he was getting the idea. There was no way out of the coat save Harl. The others were starting to understand as well and they were staring nervously at Geron and at him, their eyes darting from one to the other as they tried to work out what to do. To remain calm and listen as he interrogated the prisoner? Or to stop things before the man died? Harl ignored them.

“That's good to know because otherwise you're going to be very thin by the time this is over.” Though in truth that could be a good thing. The lying wizard could use a little thinning down in Harl's view.

“Now let's start with Lion's Crest. You were in the city when it was attacked?”

“No!” The wizard denied it desperately and then screamed again as the coat tightened and rethought his words.

“Yes!” The wizard yelled out the truth. That was enough for the coat to loosen a little. But not as much as it had tightened. It would never loosen that much. Just enough to give the prisoner hope that if he told the truth he would survive. There was a reason the bonds of truth was such a favoured tool of the inquisitor.

“And you fled from the city?”

“Yes!” A heartbeat later Geron screamed and recanted his lie.

“No!” Meanwhile the others were looking on, still nervous but not interrupting. They understood that they were about to learn something. Perhaps something important. And for that reason they were holding back. He wasn't sure that they had ever heard of the bonds of truth before, but they were starting to understand what it could do.

“So you stayed in the city. Did you hide?”

“No.” This time Geron didn't try to lie. He knew what would happen if he did. What the spell and the coat would do to him.

“You didn't run or hide then. Did you fight?” Harl already knew the answer. He could see it in the wizard's frightened face. He could feel it in the rage that was building in his own veins. Boiling behind his eyes.

“No.”

“So.  You didn't run, you didn't hide and you didn't fight. Did you have an arrangement with the attackers?”

“No!” But a heartbeat later Geron screamed. The coat had tightened again and it was starting to bind. Soon bones would start being crushed and breathing would become agony. “Yes.”

Harl took a deep breath to steady his nerves. It was the answer he had expected, but it was never the answer he would have wanted to hear. Not from a wizard. Not even from this one.

“You know that my family were in the city when it fell. My friends as well. My family business. And it was my home. And they're all gone now. You killed them.”

“No!” But of course he screamed in pain the instant the lie left his mouth. “Yes! A little. I didn't know but I helped.” The wizard was babbling hysterically all of a sudden and the coat wasn't tightening.