Furies of Calderon (25 page)

How would he disrupt the plan in motion, were he in her place?

Fidelias considered it. No. That would be the wrong approach. He preferred short, brutal solutions to such matters, the less complicated the better. Too much could go wrong with finesse in a situation like this.

Amara thought in a far less linear manner. The simplest solution would be to get to the nearest Stead-holder, declare her status, and dragoon everyone she could lay her hands on into spreading word through the valley that some sort of mischief was abroad. In that event, he’d have several dozen wood-crafty holders roaming about the valley, and one of them would almost certainly see something and know it for what it was.

If she did that, identifying herself and her location, matters would be simpler. A swift stroke would remove her from the equation, and he could then muddy the waters until it was too late for the holders to stop matters from proceeding.

Amara would realize the danger of such a course, naturally. She would need to be more circumspect than that. Less linear. She would be improvising as she went along, while he would by necessity play the hunter, beating the bushes to force her to move and then acting swiftly to cut off anything she might attempt.

Fidelias smiled at the irony: It seemed they would both be playing to their strong suits. Well enough, then. The girl was talented, but inexperienced. She wouldn’t be the first person he had outmaneuvered and destroyed. She wouldn’t be the last.

A flicker of motion from Etan warned Fidelias that the three riders were not alone in the grey shadows of the woods. He drew his mount to a stop at once, lifting his hand to signal the others to do the same. There was silence there among the dimness of the evergreens, broken only by the breathing of the three horses, the drip of rainwater from the trees to the forest floor, and the soft sigh of cold northern wind.

Fidelias’s mount threw back its head and let out a short, shrill sound of fear. The other two horses picked up on it, heads lifted high and eyes wide and white. Odiana’s mount threw its head about and danced to one side, nervous and spooky. Fidelias reached out to Vamma at once, and the earth fury acted upon his will, spreading to the beasts around him the soothing calm of the deep earth. Fidelias felt the earth fury’s influence expand like a slow wave, until it rippled over the horses, stealing away the restless agitation and letting their riders bring the beasts once more under control.

“Something watches,” the water witch hissed. She drew her mount close to Aldrick’s side, her dark eyes glittering and agate-hard. “They are hungry.”

Aldrick pursed his lips, then put one hand on his sword. He didn’t otherwise straighten from the relaxed slouch he had maintained during the whole ride.

“Easy,” Fidelias murmured, putting a hand on his horse’s neck. “Let’s move forward. There’s a clearing just ahead. Let’s give ourselves some open space around us.”

They eased the horses forward into a clearing, and though the mounts were under control, they still tossed their heads restlessly, eyes and ears flicking about for some sign of whatever enemy they had scented.

Fidelias led them to the center of the clearing, though it scarcely gave them thirty feet on any side. The shadows fell thick through the trees, the wan grey light creating pools of shifting, fluid dimness between branch and bough.

He scanned the edges of the clearing until he spotted the vague outline of Etan’s form, the squirrel-like shape flickering around the edges of a patch of dimness. Then he nudged his horse forward a step and addressed it directly. “Show yourself. Come out to speak beneath the sun and the sky.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then a shape within that dimness resolved itself into the form of a Marat and stepped forward into the clearing. He stood tall and relaxed, his pale hair worn in a long braid across his scalp and down the nape of his neck. Dark, wiry feathers had been worked into the braid. His wore a buckskin belt and loincloth about his hips and nothing more. He bore a hook-shaped knife in his right hand, gleaming like dark glass.

At his side paced a herd-bane, one of the tall predator birds of the plains beyond. It more than matched the Marat in height, though its neck and legs were so thickly built with muscle as to seem stumpy and clumsy. Fidelias knew that they were not. The bird’s beak gleamed in tandem with the Marat’s knife, and the terrible, raking claws upon its feet scratched through the bed of damp pine needles covering the forest floor and tore at the earth beneath.

“You are not Atsurak,” Fidelias said. He kept his voice measured, clear, his speech almost rhythmic. “I seek him.”

“You seek Atsurak, Cho-vin of the herd-bane Tribe,” the Marat said, his own guttural voice in the same cadence. “I stand between you.”

Fidelias reached up a hand to scratch at his neck, squinting at the Marat. “These three evidently disagree with their Cho-vin. Their chief. They aren’t interested in talking.”

Odiana let out a breathy, “Oh, goodie.”

The former Cursor gripped the hilt of the knife that hung at the back of his neck and whipped his arm forward and down. There was a flicker of grey light on steel, and then the spike-like throwing knife buried itself in the herd-bane, its handle protruding from the bird’s head, just where its beak met its skull. The herd-bane let out a scream and leapt into the air in a great spasm. It fell to the forest floor, screaming still, thrashing viciously in its agony.

From the left and right came a sudden shriek of sound, the war cries of the birds and their masters, one savage paired with a bird rushing the group from either side. Fidelias felt, more than saw, Aldrick slip to the ground and turn to face one pair, but he heard quite clearly the rasp of the man’s sword being drawn. Odiana murmured something under her breath, a soft, cooing sound.

The lead Marat rushed to the fallen herd-bane’s side for a moment and then, with a decisive motion, ripped the hook-shaped knife over the bird’s throat. The herd-bane let out a final, weak whistle and then shuddered to stillness on the ground as its blood stained the earth. Then the Marat turned toward Fidelias with his face set in a flat, murderous rage and flung himself at the former Cursor.

Fidelias barked a command to Vamma and flicked his hand in his attacker’s direction. The ground beneath the Marat bucked in response, throwing him to one side, sending him sprawling. Fidelias took the opportunity to dismount from his increasingly agitated horse and to draw the dagger from the sheath at his hip. The Marat regained its balance and rushed him, aiming to move past his opponent, raking the horrible knife along Fidelias’s belly in passing, disemboweling him.

Fidelias was familiar with the technique and countered by facing the Marat squarely, meeting his rush with one boot abruptly thrust out at the Marat’s knee. He felt his foot connect hard, and something snapped in the Marat’s leg. The Marat let out a squall and fell, whipping its knife at Fidelias’s thigh as it did. The Aleran pushed away from the Marat’s body in the same motion, pulling his leg clear a finger’s width ahead of the knife, then turned to face his opponent.

The Marat attempted to rise to his feet, only to have his knee buckle. He fell into the pine needles. Fidelias turned and walked toward the nearest tree, glancing back at the others as he did.

Aldrick stood at the edge of the clearing, facing out, his blade gripped and held parallel to the ground, his arm extended straight out to his side, an almost dancelike pose. Behind the swordsman lay a herd-bane, its head missing, its body flopping and clawing wildly, evidently unaware of its own impending death. The Marat that had rushed Aldrick knelt on the forest floor, its head lowered and swaying, its hands pressing at its belly and stained with blood.

On the other side of the clearing, Odiana sat on her horse, humming quietly to herself. The ground in front of her had, it had seemed, quite abruptly transformed into bog. Neither Marat nor herd-bane could be seen, but the silt and mud before her stirred vaguely, as though something thrashed unseen beneath its surface.

The water witch noticed him looking at her and commented, her tone warm, “I love the way the ground smells after a rain.”

Fidelias didn’t answer her. He reached up, instead, using his knife to make a deep cut, scoring a branch on the nearest tree. He broke it off and, as the others turned to watch him, put his knife away, took the heavy branch in both hands, and, from out of the lamed Marat’s knife reach, methodically clubbed him to death.

“That’s one way to do it,” Aldrick commented. “If you don’t mind spattering blood everywhere.”

Fidelias tossed the branch down to one side. “You got blood everywhere,” he pointed out.

Aldrick walked back to the clearing’s center. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and used it to fastidiously clean his blade. “But mine’s in a pattern. It’s aesthetically pleasing. You should have had me do it for you.”

“Dead’s dead,” Fidelias said. “I can do my own chores.” He glanced at Odiana and said, “Happy now?”

The water witch, still atop her horse, smiled at him, and let out a little sigh. “Do you think we shall have more rain?”

Fidelias shook his head and called out, “Atsurak. You saw what they intended.” He had the satisfaction of seeing Aldrick tense and half-turn to one side, and even Odiana caught her breath in her throat. The former Cursor smiled and took up his horse’s reins, laying a hand on the beast’s neck and stroking it.

From the trees came a gravelly voice, a satisfied-sounding, “Hah.” Then there was the sound of motion through the brush, and a fourth Marat appeared. This man had eyes of glittering, brilliant gold, a match for those of the sleek, swift-looking bird beside him. He wore his knife at his belt, rather than in his hand—and he also carried a sword, bound with a rawhide thong about its hilt and blade and slung over one shoulder. He had a half-dozen grass plaits bound over his limbs, and his face had been rawly abraded, bruised. The Marat stopped several paces from the trio and held up his hands, open, palms toward them.

Fidelias mirrored the gesture and stepped forward. “What I did was necessary.”

Atsurak looked down, at the dead man only a few paces away, whose skull Fidelias had crushed. “It was necessary,” the man agreed, his voice quiet. “But a waste. Had they met me openly, I would have killed only one.” The Marat squinted at Odiana, staring at the woman with a silent, hawklike intensity, before turning an equally intent regard to Aldrick. “Deadlanders. They fight well.”

The Marat took the sword from his shoulder, and with a pair of casual motions, unbound the thong from the weapon. He flicked it forward, so that its point drove into the ground a pace ahead and to one side of Fidelias. “I hunted humans,” Atsurak said, as though Fidelias hadn’t spoken. “Two males, old and young. The old commanded a spirit of the earth. My
chala
, the mate to this one,” he put his hand on the herd-bane’s feathered back, “was slain. Wounded the old one. I hunted them, but the young one was swift and led me from his trail.”

Aldrick stepped forward and took up the sword from the ground. He used the same cloth he had cleaned his own weapon with to brush the mud from the blade. “Legion-issue,” he reported, his eyes distant. “Design from a few years ago. Well cared for. The wrappings are worn smooth.” He took off a glove and touched his skin to the blade, his eyes closing. “Someone with a measure of experience used this, Del. I think he’s a Legion scout. Or was one.”

Fidelias drew in a sharp breath. “Atsurak. These two you hunted. They are dead?”

Atsurak shrugged. “The old one’s blood flowed like a stream. His spirit carried him away, but he was already pouring out into the earth. The young one ran well and was fortunate.”

Fidelias spat a sudden, acid taste out of his mouth and clenched his jaw. “I understand.”

“I have come to look at this valley. And I have seen. I have seen that the Deadlanders wait to fight. That they are strong and watch carefully.”

Fidelias shook his head. “You were unfortunate, Atsurak, nothing more. The attack will be a victory for your people.”

“I question your judgment. The Marat have come. Many tribes have come. But though they have no love for your people, they have little for me. They will follow me to a victory—but not to a slaughter.”

“All is in readiness. Your people will sweep clean the valley of your fathers and mothers, and my lord will see to it that it is returned to you. So he has pledged.”

Fidelias stepped back to his horse and opened one of the saddlebags. From it, he drew Aquaitaine’s dagger, its hilt elaborately worked with gold and with the seal of the House of Aquitaine. He held it up, so that the savage could see the weapon. “Satisfied?”