The Gods of Amyrantha (62 page)

Arkady was left to puzzle that answer out for the better part of the next hour. The monk fell thankfully silent and Arkady was quite happy to let him stay that way, fearful any attempt at conversation might get him started on the failings of women again.

The reason for his attitude, when it did come, however seemed so blindingly obvious, and so terrifying, she wondered at her own stupidity.

They had reached the other side of the outcrop and were less than a hundred paces from the rocky ledge where Cayal and Tiji waited when the monk stopped and pushed back his hood, uncaring of the sun beating down on him. Barely had Arkady time to register that strange fact, than she spied Cayal clambering down the rock face.

He hit the ground running, coming to a stop when he was within shouting distance.

'Let her go!' he called, still moving toward them, although now he'd slowed to a cautious walk. He was too far away to read his expression, but he didn't sound thrilled to see her arrive with a member of Brynden's order as her escort.

'Why?' the monk called back. 'Does she mean something to you?'

Arkady stared at Cayal and then at the monk for a moment, and then cursed softly under her breath.
Tides, he was right. I am mentally feeble not to have seen this coming.

'She's Kinta's plaything, not mine,' Cayal said, confirming Arkady's stomach-churning suspicion as he got close enough to stop yelling. 'But by all means, piss your girl off again, Bryn, by harming her little messenger. Then she'll take even less convincing the next time to leave you.'

The monk — who clearly wasn't a monk — was silent for a moment and then he turned to Arkady. 'You know who he is, don't you?'

Arkady nodded, seeing no point in denying it.

'And you've met Chintara? You know who she is, too?'

Again she nodded, wondering if Cayal would come to her rescue if Brynden tried to harm her.

But he wasn't, it seemed, in the slightest bit interested in her. 'Get down. Tend to your animal and your Crasii, who I imagine is hiding over there in those rocks somewhere. Cayal and I have things to discuss.'

For the next three hours, from the rocky ledge overlooking the desert, Arkady watched the meeting going on between the two Tide Lords with nervous anticipation. It was a frustratingly uneventful affair. There were no storms whipped up by their rage, no hurling lightning bolts or meteorites at each other in an attempt to settle old scores. The two of them sat cross-legged on the sand, uncaring of the heat, like two old friends, discussing the Tide alone knew what.

'What do you suppose they're talking about?' Tiji asked as she sat herself down beside Arkady with the waterskin, giving voice to the very question Arkady had been asking herself. The chameleon had been on the other side of the ledge for some time now, watching another caravan approach the abbey, this one from the north, which probably meant it had made the much shorter journey from Elvere.

Arkady accepted the waterskin and took a long swallow before she answered. 'I wish I knew.'

Tiji smiled. 'Well, on the bright side, we haven't had a Cataclysm. Yet.'

'Always something to be grateful for.'

The Crasii was silent for a moment, and then she asked, 'Didn't you have
any
idea it was Brynden who was leading your camel?'

Arkady shook her head. 'I'm not like you, Tiji. I can't smell them. I can't sense them. Tides! I can't tell a Tide Lord from a turtle, truth be told. And yet I always imagine I'll know one when I meet them. The Tide knows why. I never suspected Jaxyn of being anything more than an ambitious opportunist. If I'd met Maralyce under any other circumstances, I'd have considered her completely unremarkable. I only learned about Diala because Declan sent you to tell me about her, and I lived in the same house as her for months. If you hadn't arrived, I'd never have learned

the truth about Kinta, either. And I thought Cayal was nothing but a convicted murderer.'

'That's because he
is
a convicted murderer,' Tiji pointed out sourly.

'My point, Tiji,' Arkady continued, ignoring the interruption, 'is there's nothing about them that gives them away. At least not to humans. And not while the Tide is still on the turn. Maybe, once the Tide comes back all the way, the immortals will be considerate enough to glow in the dark or something, which might give those of us who lack your instincts the ability to sense them, but I'm not hopeful.'

The little Crasii shook her head, not able to comprehend Arkady's lack of sensibility when it came to the Tide Lords. 'I really don't understand how you can't tell them from a mortal human, my lady. But it does explain why they're so successful at hiding while the Tide is out.'

'And why it will be such a chore to root them all out before the Tide returns,' she agreed. Then she pointed to the two immortals, who were rising to their feet. 'Looks like the talking's done.'

'Is this where they start chucking mountains at each other?' Tiji asked, climbing to her feet.

'Tides, I hope not.'

Down on the sand, Cayal waved to them, signalling they should come down from the ridge. With more than a little trepidation, the two of them did as he bid, climbing carefully down the rocky slope, before walking across the burning sand to where the Tide Lords waited.

'We've come to an agreement,' Cayal announced as they approached.

'How terribly civilised of you both,' Arkady replied, looking at the two of them warily. For immortals whose last encounter had all but destroyed civilisation, they were showing remarkable restraint.

'Cayal has explained to me his desire to end his life,' Brynden said. 'I have agreed to aid him.'

'Just like that?'

The faintest hint of a smile flickered over the immortal's face. 'It is a situation from which we will both benefit.'

'So you've just decided to help him, have you?' she said to Brynden, deeply suspicious. Then she turned to Cayal. 'And you trust this remarkable act of altruism?'

'There are conditions.'

She rolled her eyes.
'There's
a shock.'

'You will stay here, my lady,' Brynden said, Cayal nodding in agreement. 'Your presence will assure Cayal's swift return. Of course, the Crasii must leave with him and not come back. My cooperation does not extend to harbouring abominations.'

Tiji opened her mouth to object, but Arkady silenced her with a look. Now was not the time to argue about the Crasii with a Tide Lord.

'And where is Cayal going, exactly?'

'To fetch Lukys,' Cayal said. 'He's the only one who can tell us exactly what needs to be done. I'll bring him back here and then you'll be free to go.'

'Does that mean I'm a prisoner?'

'Not at all,' Brynden said. 'I will honour Kinta's request that I offer you sanctuary, in a way that ensures Cayal's ... cooperation.'

'I don't remember volunteering to be a bargaining chip.'

Cayal looked at her askance. 'Did you have some place
better
to be?'

He had a point. Other than staying here at the abbey, Arkady's choices were to return to Ramahn, where Jaxyn's warrant was waiting for her, along with a squad of felines to escort her home, to be tried and executed — if she was lucky. Or she could head for Elvere, maybe even Acern, and take her chances on her own, with only a passing acquaintance with the language and no money or resources to speak of. 'I suppose not.'

'Never fear, my lady,' Brynden assured her. 'I have given Cayal my word you will be alive when he returns.'

Alive,
he said, not alive and
well.
Arkady wondered if she should demand clarification on that small but significant point.

'I won't be long,' Cayal promised. 'A couple of weeks at most. Lukys's place isn't that far from here.'

'What about Tiji?'

'I'll see she gets to Elvere in one piece,' Cayal promised. 'After that, she's on her own.' When Arkady opened her mouth to object, he added, 'She has diplomatic papers that will see her safely home, Arkady. In fact, she's better off than you. And she speaks Torlenian far more fluently than you ever will.'

Sadly, he spoke the truth, and although the Crasii clearly wasn't happy about it, Tiji knew it as well as Arkady.

'Tell Declan what's happened,' she ordered, certain Tiji would understand Arkady didn't just mean she was to tell Declan where she was hiding. 'Tell him everything. He'll fret otherwise.'

Tiji nodded in understanding. 'Don't worry, my lady. I'll make sure he knows.'

That was all she could do for now, Arkady decided. Play along with this, wait for Cayal to return, and then see where the fates took her after that. Cayal might surprise everyone by doing as he promised. Just in case he didn't, she impulsively hugged the Crasii. 'Thank you, Tiji. For everything.'

Tiji didn't answer. But she hugged Arkady back and then stood glaring at Brynden, as Cayal went to fetch Terailia, so Arkady could return to the abbey, a virtual prisoner of the Lord of Reckoning.

When he returned, he led the camel forward and handed the rope to Brynden.

'Wait!' Arkady called, as Brynden took her arm. 'When I get to Elvere, how will I find you, Tiji?'

The Crasii looked at the two Tide Lords for a moment, as if debating the wisdom of sharing such information with them and then turned to Arkady when she realised she had little choice. 'There's an inn near the slave markets called The Dog and Bone, my lady. Free Crasii are allowed to stay there. I'll wait for you.'

Arkady nodded and smiled with a confidence she certainly didn't feel. 'I'll see you in a few weeks then.'

Tiji nodded, clearly sceptical of Arkady's optimism, but she said nothing, just stood beside Cayal — who was acting as if Arkady didn't exist — watching Arkady being led away.

CHAPTER 63

With four immortals roaming Herino at will, Declan was forced to operate on the assumption that any and/or all of the Crasii normally on the payroll of either the Cabal or the King's Spymaster had been compromised.

Or they would be, the moment they came into contact with a Tide Lord.

He was further hampered by the fact that he couldn't do anything officially as the King's Spymaster to have Stellan Desean released, nor call on the considerable resources of the Cabal. Freeing Arkady's husband was a favour to Tilly, and something he would not have bothered with, had she not specifically requested his help.

That left Declan only one place to go for assistance.

Although the thieves and extortionists of Herino were hardly an organised force, little or no crime took place in the city without the permission of a shadowy, almost mythical figure known as the Patriarch. Whispered about in hushed, fearful tones, even among the honest citizens of Herino, he was a man who protected his identity better than most lords protected their wives' honour.

Making contact with him was no mean feat, so two days earlier, Declan had ordered a raid on an illegal gaming house not far from the Friendly Futtock, where he and Stellan Desean had rescued Prince Mathu from his own folly almost a year ago. The gaming house, which he'd known about for years, was run by Dodgy

Peet, a portly, jovial man with a fulsome black moustache.

Dodgy Peet was now cooling his heels in Herino prison in a cell one floor below Stellan Desean, awaiting his trial and a lengthy sentence for a long list of misdemeanours that up until now had never seemed to warrant the trouble of arresting him. Dodgy Peet's problem — and the problem for all criminally inclined individuals in Glaeba — was that Glaeban justice was consequential, which meant the worse the perceived consequences of a crime, the stiffer the penalty for the perpetrator.

As Dodgy had been cheating some very reputable people for quite a number of years, there was no shortage of willing witnesses prepared to testify to all manner of dire consequences his house of ill-fortune had visited upon them. The list of minor charges was likely to add up to a considerable amount of time behind bars, once Dodgy's dissatisfied customers got through with him.

Taking a gamble of his own, Declan put the word out that he wished to meet with the Patriarch, to discuss Dodgy Peet's fate.

Dodgy Peet, by no small coincidence, was the Patriarch's nephew.

The Patriarch, who remained hidden in the shadows when Declan was brought before him, even after the blindfold had been removed, had taken surprisingly little persuasion when Declan told him what he wanted. Declan had even told him the truth — up to a point — about why he wanted to free Stellan Desean. It was a favour for a friend, he'd explained, and he couldn't act officially, nor be seen to be involved.

Because he was known to a great many people in Herino and Lebec as someone who'd grown up on the fringes of society, Declan was one of those rare creatures able to straddle both the legitimate and

illegitimate sides of the law with ease. He got away with it, generally, because he didn't bother harassing those whom both he and the Patriarch thought of as 'honest criminals'.

Declan concentrated on the real threats: threats to Glaeba's sovereignty and the occasional murderer or rapist. He didn't order random sweeps of the slums to clean them up, or try to impress the nobility with his arrest record. He left enterprising businessmen free to do their business, and it hadn't escaped the Patriarch's notice.