A Dragon From the Desert, page 25
I noticed the sun was almost down and I suddenly remembered Mistress Iliana’s instructions. “I’d better go,” I said. “Or my mistress will not be happy.”
“Run,” said Jay. “We wouldn’t want that to happen.”
“I thought you would have at least gotten your feet wet,” said Mistress Iliana as I came up to the tent. She lay near the fire, reading by the illumination provided by a small floating ball of light. I knew she had been working with the rune she had showed me first. Somehow, I sensed it. It had a flavour, a tang all of its own."
“We were talking about the lighthouse in Solsburg,” I said. “Jay was telling me it was created by the Solari.”
She closed her book, and the light floating behind her shoulder dimmed. “It was. There is a sunstone in it. A very powerful one.”
“A sunstone, mistress?”
“It’s exactly what you think it is. A large ingot of aurium. It drinks in sunlight during the day and releases it at night.”
“Jay says it keeps the Old Ones at bay and wards off evil magic.”
She laughed. “Perhaps you should become his apprentice, not mine.”
“Is he wrong, mistress?”
“Not entirely. The light does keep the Old Ones at bay. They can endure it no more than they can the light of the Holy Sun itself. But it has the virtues of sunlight and nothing more. It does not prevent evil magic.”
The disappointment must have shown on my face. She said, “It was never intended to. It was intended to guide ships at sea and keep them from crashing onto the rocks near the harbour. It helps illuminate the city and makes it possible to have night markets as well as day markets. It’s the reason that Solsburg is a centre of trade and of the Solar faith.”
“How so, mistress?” I asked.
“It made Solsburg a haven from the Old Ones. The worshippers of the Holy Sun felt secure there and the Lighthouse can be seen even in the darkest night or in the wildest storms. There is a good deep water harbour there as well. All things considered it’s a natural capital for the Duke’s family. They have ruled it for many years.”
Her words brought Lady Alysia to mind. “What will the Old Duke say when he finds out what has happened to his daughter?”
“I doubt he will be happy,” Mistress Iliana said. If she feared that the Duke might blame her, she gave no sign of it. “I don’t know what he’ll be able to do about it unless he finds out who sent the assassins.”
“Couldn’t you do that? Using magic?”
“You have a lot to learn about the limitations of magic,” she said.
“Apparently, I have a lot to learn about everything,” I said.
“Awareness of your own ignorance is the first step to wisdom.”
“What will happen if the Duke does find out who sent the assassins?”
“There will most likely be war. How could there not be? Lady Alysia has been the Duke’s heir since his son Kalum died. An attempt on her life is nothing less than a declaration of war if it has been funded by another noble house.”
“Has any such house claimed responsibility?”
“Of course not. That would be dishonourable.” There was a note of bitter humour in her voice. “No Solari nobleman would hire assassins. Honour does not allow it. At least it does not allow admitting it in public. But they all do it.”
Something in her voice told me that she was speaking from experience and that it had not been a pleasant one. Another thought struck me. “You said funded.”
“It takes a lot of gold to purchase the services of the Crimson Brotherhood. Only a wealthy noble house or a very rich merchant or perhaps an Old One could afford to do such a thing.”
“Whoever paid for the assassins will not be happy to learn that their money was wasted,” I said.
Mistress Iliana laughed. “What makes you think that the Crimson Brotherhood has given up? Do you know something that I don’t?”
It came to me then that I had been lulled into a false sense of security by our journey. I had assumed that we were safe for no good reason as it turned out. “You mean that there might still be assassins out there now and they won’t give up until Lady Alysia is dead?”
“I mean that there might be assassins among the soldiers. It’s possible the only reason that they have not made another attempt is that there waiting to see whether Lady Alysia dies from the poisoned wound.”
“I never thought of that,” I said. For some reason it made me feel obscurely ashamed.
“It’s not your job to think about such things.”
“You think there might be another attack?”
“The Crimson Brotherhood does not like failure. When they accept a contract, they like to succeed. The fact that they are usually successful is what ensures people hire them in the future.”
“So even if Lady Alysia recovers, they will come after her again.”
“Unless the Duke manages to buy them off, if the original contractor does not outbid him.”
“That is horrible,” I said. The idea that someone out there was an organisation that would auction off a person’s life appalled me. “Why does somebody not do something about them?”
“It has been tried in the past,” Mistress Iliana said. “Sometimes it has even appeared to succeed. But the Crimson Brotherhood always returns or at least someone claiming to be them does.”
“You mean it is not the same organisation?”
“If you were going to start an Assassins Guild, wouldn’t it make more sense to use a name already recognised in the field?”
I saw what she meant. There were always going to be those who needed assassins and providing the service was always going to be profitable. Why not claim to be an organisation that everybody already knew?
“How would you go about contacting such people?”
“Do you have someone in mind that you want assassinated, boy?”
“They would have to be careful in order not to be tracked down but at the same time they could not be too hard to get in touch with otherwise no one could ever hire them.”
“Your grasp of the situation is admirable,” Mistress Iliana said. “But don’t think too hard about this or you may find yourself locked up in a cell or facing the headman’s axe or perhaps getting a knife in the back from your potential competition.”
“I’m not thinking about doing such a thing myself,” I said. Something of my outrage must have shown in my voice because she smiled.
“Just as well. A sorcerer-assassin is a terrible thing.”
“How do you know?”
Her voice was sharp as she replied, “the Lunars train such people. They train many kinds of assassin.”
“Is it possible that the Crimson Brotherhood has some connection with the Old Ones?” It was the first thought that occurred to me when she said those words.
My mistress nodded. “It is very possible. It would give them a source of intelligence within the Sunlands and a way of stirring up mischief at the same time.”
It struck me then exactly how complicated was the world that I had entered. I was glad that I did not have to deal with such things as my mistress did. It was a measure of how naive I was that I could think so.
“It is likely that Lady Alysia will die from her wound, is it not?”
Mistress Iliana made an exasperated sound. “You don’t have much faith in my healing, do you, boy?”
“I have every faith in you, mistress. But you have already told me that healing is not your strong suit.”
“It is more than possible, it is likely.”
“And even if she does not die, she is likely to face the assassins again.” Once again, the horror of Lady Alysia’s situation struck me. She had done nothing to deserve this except to be born who she was. Now she was marked for death by ruthless individuals who would profit from it. Someone was paying to have a girl not much older than me murdered and they hoped to gain something by it.
Perhaps looking at who stood to gain the most would provide a clue as to who was paying them.
“I can tell that another thought struck you, boy. Give voice to it and then be prepared to sleep. Tomorrow we must rise early and be on the road again.”
I told her my ideas and she nodded. Of course, it was something that had struck her long ago, but she seemed prepared to acknowledge the clarity of my thinking. “The problem is that the list of suspects is long. The Duke has many enemies and all of them would gain from the death of his only heir.”
“Do you mean that Lady Alysia will be able to rule the Duchy after the Old Duke dies?”
“In theory, yes. In all likelihood the Duchy will go to the man she marries. And then if she has male children, it will fall to them.”
There was bitterness in her voice when she mentioned male children. I wondered if she had been in a similar position to Lady Alysia. If so, being born a woman would probably not have made any difference anyway. I had never heard of a wizard ruling any place in the Sunlands. It was just not done. Perhaps things were different in the place where the Children of the Moon ruled but that seemed unlikely to. In those lands the Old Ones ruled.
“And now I am tired,” Mistress Iliana said. “I bid you goodnight, boy.”
“Goodnight, mistress.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next day the troops sang their marching songs cheerfully. There were smiles on men’s faces as if they were thinking about seeing their loved ones again. Perhaps they were simply happy with the prospect of a tavern after so long on the road. Even Spider smiled and you did not see that often.
As I drove the wagon, my mistress hummed the same tune as the soldiers. Despite our gloomy conversation of the previous evening I felt my own spirits lift.
Red howled tunelessly and scampered from my shoulder to the back of the wagon then fluttered around our heads. My mistress glanced at him thoughtfully from time to time and I wondered what was going through her mind.
Something about the sight of the little dragon made me happy in the same way as the singing seemed to make everybody else. The only thing that interrupted the good mood was the occasional moans from the coach behind us where Lady Alysia lay in her fever dreams.
The road ran for a time beside cliffs. Their black mass rose ten times the height of a tall man above us. If someone could have scaled them, they could have ambushed us by dropping rocks for the road became very narrow between the cliffs and the sea.
More ships sailed in the same direction as we marched. It did not take much thought on my part to work out that they too were heading for Solsburg.
Eventually the narrow path widened, and fields flanked us. Red took off to hunt for more field mice. Mistress Iliana gave me the nod and took over the reins. I scampered after Red. She seemed concerned for the dragonling’s welfare and that made me wonder about the value she placed on him.
I pushed such thoughts from my mind as I chased the little dragonling through the long grass. I came to the edge of a slope and looked down into a valley. Through it a road ran and along it marched a line of monks garbed in rough brown robes. Cowls hid their faces. Each carried a staff. None of them spoke or sang. A cart piled high with supplies and covered by a tarpaulin brought up the rear.
The sight disturbed Red, for he returned to my shoulder and perched there, watching warily. The path the monks were taking would eventually intersect with our company’s road. I saw how sloppy our caravan had become, because our only scout in this area was me. I wondered whether I should run back and tell somebody.
As the thought passed through my mind, the leading monk beckoned for me to join him. I hesitated. I was on my own aside from Red, and there were at least twenty men down there. They might be holy men but that did not make me any less nervous. I was an apprentice to a sorcerer, which would make me wicked in their eyes.
Of course, they had no way of knowing what I was, but I felt as if my status was branded on my forehead.
Then there was Red. What might these strangers think about him? I remembered the mean look that Todd had given me when I had first found him, and I did not want to take the chance of that recurring where there was no one around to help.
I waved to the leading monk and raced back towards the marching column. Red followed me at speed as if frightened I was abandoning him. He fluttered around my head, demanding attention. I stretched out my arm and he landed on it and crawled into his sling as I continued to run.
“What’s got into you?” Mistress Iliana asked, as I reached the wagon, red-faced and out of breath.
I clambered up and told her about the monks. She frowned and beckoned to the riders ahead of us. Spider rode up and she spread my news to him. A minute later a pair of scouts were dispatched in the direction I indicated. Vorster was one of them.
“We have been slacking off,” muttered Mistress Iliana. “We’re too close to home and we’re getting careless.”
“Are you worried about the monks, mistress?” I was not sure what I expected her answer to be. I had a vague suspicion that the presence of churchmen would make her as nervous as they made me.
“There is a monastery nearby,” she said, ignoring my question, “To the Southwest, amid the Grey Hills. They’ve probably come from there.”
“Where would they be going, mistress?”
“On a pilgrimage most likely, either back along the road we just took to Tarnheim or to Solsburg to take a ship to the Holy Island.”
I had seen such pilgrims on the Old Road in the past, when I had herded my father’s meagre flocks. Some had been holy men. Others had been folks in search of salvation, eager to see relics and touch the sublime. Most were older people with death on their minds, worried about the prospects for their soul.
I wondered whether such a pilgrimage could save my soul from corruption. It was something I should investigate. My mistress did not seem like the right person to talk to about it.
Ten minutes later the scouts returned. Spider beckoned them over and Vorster and the other horseman rode up the wagon. It was clear that Spider intended my mistress to hear their report.
“They are monks from the Abbey at Stormstead,” Vorster said complacently. “They are bound for Solsburg and a pilgrim ship to Sunholme on the Holy Island. They are led by Frater Xander. He has asked if they may accompany us. He says there have been reports of banditry between here and Solsburg and he is worried because his people are bearing offerings for their pilgrimage.”
Spider looked at Mistress Iliana. She shrugged as if to say it was his decision. “How many are there?”
“A score, Mistress Iliana,” Vorster said. His tone was flat and neutral, but his eyes were nervous as he glanced at her. “Hardly a threat to a force our size.”
“We can’t afford to offend the Holy Church,” said Spider. Again, his remarks seemed addressed at my mistress.
Once again, she shrugged. “Provide them with an escort then.”
Spider nodded to Vorster. “Take ten men and ride with them. Keep an eye on them until they join up with us and then ride with them on the march. Make sure their blessed offerings are kept safe.”
Soon we reached the place where the path to the monastery joined the Old Road. Looking in the direction I walked earlier I saw Vorster’s troop trotting along. The leader of the monks walked by his side and they seemed to be chatting amiably. My mistress saw me watching and said, “best keep your eyes on the road unless you want to put us in a ditch.”
That night when we camped on a headland overlooking the sea, the camp had a different feel. The presence of the monks put a damper on the high spirits of the soldiers. It was not anything they did or said. It was just that they were there, and they were both holy men and strangers. They sat at their own fire, cooking their own food. Some passed among the men, offering blessings. Mostly they kept apart with one noticeable exception.
Frater Xander was by the fire near the cooking site where Clarin doled out food. He had joined Vorster and Todd and their ilk and chatted away quietly. I did not mean to eavesdrop, but I caught some of what they were saying as the cook ladled out food for the mistress and myself.
“… sorceress, yes,” said Vorster, “and a powerful one. No doubt about it. She blasted those Shadow spawn and no mistake.”
“And yet something about her troubles you, my son,” the Frater said, “I can tell by your tone.”
“No, frater, I am not troubled.” I could almost feel Vorster’s eyes boring into my back. I suspected he would have said something else if I had not been there, but he did not want to risk word of any criticism getting back to Mistress Iliana. “It is the fate of Lady Alysia that worries me. She has been very sick since the events in Tarnheim.”
Clarin provided me with two full bowls of stew and I could not reasonably listen any longer, so I strode off towards my mistress’s tent, carefully avoiding looking in the direction of Vorster and his companions. Red rather spoiled the effect by sticking his head out of his sling and shrieking at them. He did not like Todd much, or Vorster for that matter.
“You look like you swallowed a mouthful of sour-root,” Mistress Iliana said, as I presented her with her food. “Is the cookery not up to its usual high standards?”
I told her of Vorster’s conversation with Frater Xander. I did not mention my suspicions of how he had moderated his remarks because of my presence. I did not have to.
“Men will talk as they sit at campfires,” said Mistress Iliana. “And we can hardly prohibit the soldiers from talking to monks. The Holy Sun alone knows what that might make them think about us.”
The note of irony was back in her voice again, and I saw immediately what she meant. A sorceress could not forbid anyone from talking to holy men without suspicion. She waited as if she expected me to say something. At that moment, Ruth emerged from the gloom, and I was so pleased to see her that I forgot to say anything.
“How is Lady Alysia,” Mistress Iliana asked.
“Quiet, mistress,” said Ruth. “The bitter root appears to be working. She is not so feverish, and she does not babble in her sleep.”
