Waterdance (17 page)

“Why would they do it?” she asked softly. “Why would Sarkond’s mages suck their own land dry of life?”

“Because of a prophecy,” Atheris said, sighing and closing his eyes as if it pained him to utter the words. “A prophecy of our god, Eregis, He Who Sleeps. We were promised that when He woke, His power would deliver us from poverty and hunger, that we would dwell thereafter in lands of plenty. Our priests said that meant that we would conquer the rich lands to the south, and they believed that time had come. The Sign had come to pass, you see—or so we were told by our sources south of the border.”

“The Sign?” Peri asked uncomfortably. Sources south of the border? Traitors. Bregondish or Agrondish traitors. There were whispers in Bregond of a great scandal among the temples shortly after the war. She had asked her mother about it, but High Lady Kayli couldn’t—or wouldn’t—explain.

“The Harbinger,” Atheris said very softly. “Born to nobility, destined to walk between two worlds, embodying both life and death—well, no matter.” He shook his head. “Our priests believed it was the Lady Kayli of Bregond, she who wed to unite Agrond and Bregond and wielded the most potent and lethal fire magic, who fulfilled this prophecy. But she was not the one, and it was not the time, a mistake our warriors and priests did not realize until far too late. Eregis did not wake, and Sarkond was defeated—more, nearly destroyed. By Agrond’s and Bregond’s magic, yes, but even more so by what our mages had done to our country in the hope of that victory.”

Atheris was silent for a long time. When he spoke, his voice was flat and tired.

“Were we betrayed by our god or by our own misunderstanding?” he said. “No one knows. The people could only wait and hold on to the hope of the prophecy, that the Sign had not yet come, that the promise was yet to be fulfilled. And the temples have kept the faith alive. They—we—have ...”

Atheris’s voice trailed off and this time the pain was visible in his eyes.

“And you thought the prophecy was wrong,” Peri said as gently as she could. “You went looking for some other hope for your people, some other answer. And they called you a heretic for it.”

Atheris closed his eyes again and nodded silently. At last he opened his eyes but stared at the floor, not facing Peri.

“Before He slept, Eregis was once called the Father of Waters,” he said. “I thought the answer lay in a symbolic, not a literal interpretation of the prophecy. That by combining the polarities, the magic of man and that of woman, a great power could be wakened to bring life back to our land, just as the joining of man and woman brings new life. My cousin Amis shared this belief, and she was powerful in her healing magic. We hoped to make rain in a desperately dry land—only a first step, but a tangible one, one that must be recognized.”

He grinned rather bitterly.

“I understand your ambition to create a qiva,” he said, shrugging. “What Amis and I attempted was no less presumptuous, and utterly forbidden as well. Not only is the magic of life forbidden to priests, so is the act of life itself.”

“What, sex?” Peri said, taken aback. What a notion! Why, her brother Estann’s Awakening had been celebrated with a festival throughout most of Agrond.

Atheris only nodded, still gazing resolutely at the floor.

“I thought such restrictions mere dogma,” he said. “I was wrong. We raised a power indeed, Amis and I, but not as we meant to do. She summoned up the energies from within her, but I—I did not know how to share, only how to take. I nearly killed her.”

Peri grimaced. Bright Ones, no surprise that only disaster came of a system of magic and religion that so twisted and distorted the natural order of the world. Men’s magic and women’s magic indeed!

Atheris met Peri’s eyes at last.

“Our joining last night was a mistake,” he said quietly.

“It certainly was,” Peri said flatly.

“I have no excuse,” Atheris said, shaking his head. “Eregis forgive me, I should have known better. But Amis was so quiet and tender, vulnerable—and you were so different, strong and full of life, and it felt—”

“—right.” Peri sighed, her skin shivering into gooseflesh and her heart pounding hard at the memory. “Like our fight. Blade meeting blade, not needing to hold back, able to take a chance without having to worry about a misstroke—”

“—or to fear giving harm or receiving it,” Atheris said, his eyes sparkling. “Only the dance—”

“—the kiss of steel—” Peri breathed, her hands trembling.

Slowly, almost unwillingly, Atheris leaned closer.

“—in flesh and—”

And Peri groaned, lost and damned, and pulled him to her.

Late in the night, Peri roused to a faint sound. She lay still, her hand creeping to the hilt of the dagger under the edge of her pallet. There was only a little light from the cooling coals in the brazier, and it took her a moment to realize that the figure moving stealthily through the loft was Atheris. Peri held perfectly still, kept her breathing even. What in the world could he be doing?

He pulled the pouch of gold out from under his pillow, and Peri heard the clink of coins as he withdrew a handful, shoving them into his pocket. He moved to one of the windows, opened the shutters. He climbed quietly out onto the stable roof, closing the shutters behind him but not latching them.

Peri sat up, alarmed, but a quick glance in the corner showed that their packs and sacks were still in place. They had no horses yet; he hadn’t taken anything but his weapons and the gold.

Peri hurried to the window, opened the shutters just a crack. Atheris had climbed down the side of the stable and was working his way up the street toward the market, trying to be stealthy about it, darting from doorway to alley to doorway, but he obviously didn’t know much about cover and evading—rather than fleeing—pursuit. To anybody who had ever done any night hunting he might as well have rung bells as he moved.

Peri quickly retrieved her sword and dagger, pulled on her boots, and slipped out the window. Orren and Lina barred their door, but apparently they’d never considered the possibility of somebody climbing the roof, because it was a simple matter to drop down from the stable roof and wouldn’t be too much more difficult to climb back up.

She set off down the street after Atheris. The streets were empty, eerily so—she’d expected guards, beggars, whores, drunks returning from taverns, or at the very least pilgrims too poor to pay for a room and opting to sleep in doorways instead. But there seemed to be nobody about. Or was there? Once or twice Peri heard scuffling noises from the darker alleys, sounds that she hoped were made by rats or stray dogs but seemed somehow too large—and besides, she’d already noticed the lack of such animals in the city. She peered down one of the alleys and thought she saw someone duck furtively around a corner, but the light was too poor for certainty. Peri took a deep breath and continued on. She couldn’t afford to delay if she wanted to keep up with Atheris.

Speaking of her quarry, he’d nearly reached the market at the center of town. He slowed now, glancing around him nervously, and Peri had to mind her cover as the wider streets and open market area provided more light.

To her surprise, Atheris stopped near the point where she’d almost collided with him, quickly crossing the street; amazingly he approached the fortune-teller’s shop, where the windows were still lit. Peri stopped where she was, blinking in astonishment. He’d done all this, sneaked out here in the middle of the night just to get his fortune told? But sure enough, Atheris knocked on the door, and shortly thereafter it opened, a middle-aged man conversing briefly with him, then stepping aside to let him enter.

Peri waited until the door closed behind Atheris, then crossed the street as quickly as she could. Because of the light in the windows, she was far too visible in the front, and the shops on either side were both closed. She glanced around and saw an alley that looked promising, and ducked into it.

There was almost no light in the narrow space between buildings, but Peri heard none of that eerie rustling here and concluded that she probably wouldn’t encounter anything more deadly than rats and mice. She ran her hand along the wooden wall beside her until a gap indicated a perpendicular alley leading in the right direction; to her relief, dim lights in two windows implied that the fortune-teller’s shop had, as she had hoped, a back door. She crept up as quietly as she could, peering in one window, then the other. There were curtains drawn inside both windows, giving her only a thin line of visibility, and worse, the shop was apparently divided into a front and back room. Fortunately the connecting door was open, probably to heat the front room from the coal stove Peri could see in the back room. She could see a table in the front, and part of the fortune-teller’s shoulder and back, but only the side of Atheris’s head, and the murmur of their voices was muffled.

“Many paths converge in your future,” the stranger said in a louder voice. “You are approaching a point of decision. You see the signs but fear to act. You are the fulcrum, but another is the lever. You are chosen for a great and terrible deed, a betrayal that will bring death and salvation. More than that I cannot see, except that danger approaches rapidly and—”

A crashing sound. Peri saw the fortune-teller bolt to his feet, knocking over the table, but now his back blocked her view. Cries now, thumps. Alarmed, Peri tried the door; it was locked securely, probably barred.

From inside, she heard Atheris’s voice raised in a cry that was suddenly cut off. Hurriedly Peri backed away from the door. She’d have to try to break it down and—

Hands grasped her, pulled her backward and off balance. Peri’s head slammed into a wall, half stunning her; before she could regain her balance or her senses, she was jerked backward again, borne down to the garbage-littered soil of the alley under the weight of her assailant. Dazed, she tried to struggle, but strong hands pinned her wrists to the ground. The weight of her attacker’s body settled on her abdomen, and Peri groaned as her bruised ribs protested.

“Careful,” a voice hissed in Sarkondish. “He may be with the other one.”

“What of it?” her assailant answered. “The priest is the one they want. We get no bounty for this one.”

“Who is he?” the first voice asked. Then there was light, suddenly, dazzling Peri’s eyes as a lantern was unhooded, and she heard two gasps, one after the other.

“By Eregis, a Bregond!” the watcher muttered.

The weight on top of her shifted.

“And no man, either,” her assailant said, shock melting into amusement. “Only a girl in man’s clothes.” One hand released Peri’s left wrist and roughly squeezed her breast. “Nay, no girl—a woman, rather. His doxy, no doubt.”

“No doubt,” Peri snarled. One wrist free was all she needed, even though she couldn’t reach her daggers or her sword. Her eyes were still too dazzled to see, but the sound of her attacker’s voice, the location of it, had told her more than enough.

She bent her hand back, smashing the heel up into his nose with all her strength. She felt cartilage and bone shatter and collapse inward, but her assailant only screamed and rocked backward, releasing her other hand—she hadn’t driven the bone up into his brain, only smashed his nose completely. Still, half a victory was better than none; she could see now, and now her other hand was free.

She struck again, this time for his eyes, and this time her aim was true. Her attacker screamed and tumbled backward, rolling over her legs and then away entirely, blood and other fluid running out from under the hands he’d clasped over his eyes. Peri didn’t wait to hear what the other man was doing; she rolled to her feet, knives in hand before she’d even consciously decided that quarters were too close for her sword.

Another sound, behind her, and Peri reacted without thinking; Leaping Wolf, striking out with a lightning kick, the impact and a cry telling her she’d connected, not stopping to see where, flinging one knife at the lantern bearer and readying the second knife. The lantern fell and its bearer stumbled backward, Peri’s blade in his shoulder, but she didn’t pause either to retrieve her knife or finish the job.

No time to bother with the door or windows now; Peri snatched up the fallen lantern—fortunately it hadn’t broken—and darted back through the alleys to the street. The door to the fortune-teller’s shop gaped open, but only a brief glance inside told her that nobody was there but the unconscious or dead proprietor lying limp on the floor. But nobody—not even several people—could travel too fast carrying a body or an unwilling captive, and Peri had time to glimpse several figures disappearing around a corner at the other side of the market plaza. She didn’t worry about stealth now; she lit out after them as fast as her boots would carry her.

She paused at the corner, hooding the lantern and peering around the corner more cautiously. There were four of them, less than she’d feared, and Atheris, carried between them, was beginning to stir. Gods, if she could only get around in front of them, surprise them from an alley—but she knew nothing of this city, and she’d do Atheris no good at all if she lost herself in dark alleys. She couldn’t even follow too closely—the men kept glancing behind them, probably waiting for the other ones who had attacked her in the alley.

Look at what I’m doing, Peri thought wryly. I’m risking my life to save a Sarkond—the SAME Sarkond—again. And why? I’ve got supplies, money, protection from those Bone Hunters’ detection. The horses will arrive tomorrow. I should go back to the loft, get a good night’s sleep, and tomorrow get out of Sarkond as fast as I can ride. Anyone I know—Agrond or Bregond—would say so. I’ve got every reason to go and no reason at all to stay. But no, not me, not the mighty warrior. Tumble a man a couple of times and look what it does to me. I just can’t leave him to die, that’s all. I can’t.

Scuffling noise in the alley. Peri started, then darted into another doorway to hide, then another, following as close to the Sarkonds as she dared. She’d do Atheris no good—nor herself, either—if somebody else managed to sneak up on her tonight.

Atheris’s captors approached another shop with lit windows, a mage’s shop.