Tahn (20 page)

Samis pulled the dagger up and raked it across Tahn’s left cheek before sheathing it again.

“I have appreciated your talent,” he said. “But now I shall make of you a grand lesson for any other proud young fool who thinks he can scorn me.” He lifted a farrier’s mallet from the table behind him.

“You could have been my successor one day,” he said.

Tahn closed his eyes, expecting a blow. It came swift and hard to his stomach. He cried out. But Samis hit him again, in the side of the head, and this time the room spun fiercely and then suddenly slipped away.

“Excuse me, my lord.” A soldier stepped in and called Samis’s attention. “A messenger has come from Baron Trent.”

Samis scowled. What could the baron want now? The traitorous devil. He tried to skin him before the people to save his own neck. How dare he petition for anything?

He looked down at Tahn, who now lay so still.

He should have been glad for what I did for him,
Samis thought.
He should have been proud that I trained him to be the best assassin money can buy. I would have made him the next leader, but he’s chosen to be nothing but a treacherous disappointment. I should have left him to die in Alastair.

“Sir?” The soldier at the door interrupted his thoughts. “What shall I tell the baron’s captain?”

Samis turned toward the young man. “You will tell him nothing! I will confront the baron’s fool myself. You will stay here.” He reached down again and slapped at Tahn’s cheek. “Tahn! Look at me!”

But there was no response. Was he already unconscious?
No matter,
Samis decided.
He will still be alive when I bring him before my men. And I will make him pay dearly for what he’s done.

“Stay with him,” Samis commanded his soldier again. “If he wakes, you give him nothing. No water. Do you understand? He will curse the day he chose to cross me.”

Samis went to meet the baron’s representative. And the young soldier stood in the doorway just looking at Tahn. The master had him chained hand and foot, though he’d lost a lot of blood from his injuries and there were men both inside and out.
Samis is getting old,
the young man thought.
That’s why Tahn Dorn is such a threat.

Tahn moaned and tried unsuccessfully to roll. He opened his eyes slowly and met the gaze of the soldier barely older than he was.

“Thought he’d beat you senseless,” the man said.

The room still spun, and Tahn’s head throbbed wildly.
Samis will be back,
he thought.
It’s just beginning. God help me.

“You should have stayed invisible, Dorn,” the soldier told him. “You know he’ll take you apart.”

Tahn just closed his eyes again. Better not to listen to him, not to think about this. He should try to pray. That’s what a believer would do. God be with Vari. God be with Stuva, Doogan, and the lady …

Without a word from his lips, he slipped from consciousness again, and the young soldier stood by the door shaking his head. It was not going to be a pleasant thing to watch the Dorn die.

Far away from them, in the Church of Our Holy Redeemer at Onath, an aged priest knelt before the cross at the front of the sanctuary. He prayed long for the peace of the kingdom, for the souls of his parishioners, and for the missing Netta Trilett. When he had finished, he took fresh oil, a flask of wine, and loaves given to him by a neighbor. He began to descend into the darkness beneath the old church to an underground passageway, known only to a succession of Onath clergy, between the church and the fire-damaged rectory standing nearby.

Moments later, without his bundles, he stepped from the church door, greeted passersby, and then walked to the rectory to inspect the work of the craftsman charged with the supervision of repairs. The clergyman and the craftsman ate their modest meal together.

“They are well?” the craftsman asked with a quiet voice.

“Well enough considering their pain, Tobas.”

“When will they show themselves? Our town does its labors with a broken heart. The Triletts are our soul, Father.”

The priest shook his head. “We have lost far too much. We cannot risk what little is left to us. You must be quiet.”

Tobas bowed his large head. “Is there any way to know the murderers for certain?”

“It is in God’s hands,” the priest replied. “The psalmist wrote that the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. It shall be so, son. And we shall be satisfied.”

14

S
amis stood face to face with the baron’s grim-faced Captain Saud.

“We have worked together for so long it is natural for our men to share knowledge,” Saud insisted.

“Natural for you, perhaps,” Samis said coolly. “But my men report only to me. You will tell me which of them told you of my prisoner or—”

“I neither know the man’s name, nor care!” Saud roared. “But you should thank him for the favor he has done you! The baron is prepared to offer you a generous sum for the true traitor in your midst.”

“Tahn Dorn is not for sale.”

“To a man like you, Samis, anything and anyone is for sale.”

Samis stared angrily at the baron’s captain, who stood before him so boldly. “Why should I not demand a price for your return instead?” he asked. “Why should I not send my men upon the proud baron as I did the house of Trilett, to destroy him? He dares to speak of me to the common people, to rest on me blame for what he hired. He should have known there would be an outcry. He’s a fool, but he shall not make me pay for his ignorance. Why shouldn’t I slay him as he sleeps? Why shouldn’t I strike you down now and any other who dares come to me in his name?”

But Saud stood his ground. “The baron understands your anger, sir. But he is also aware that he is your greatest financier. A war between our regimens would be inexcusably costly to both. Especially now, when our union could become so profitable. He therefore offers you not only a generous sum but a solution to your problem and his among the people.”

Samis shook his head. “I cannot see what profit can remain in working with a man who so stupidly sabotages his own ends. I did my job, but he was the worst kind of fool to think the murder of Triletts would help him gain the throne.”

“It will yet do just that, if you will sell your prisoner. And it is a generous offer indeed, considering the job was never finished.”

Samis scowled. He was very aware of the missing Trilett problem. He also knew that something had stirred the Triletts that night, and crucial surprise had been lost. The Trilett men had been awake, armed, and scattered about, ready to fight. If they had not been so greatly outnumbered, more of them would have survived. Surely Tahn was responsible for that too. He was the only one who had been there early. It was imperative that an example be made. This must never happen again.

“I have told you,” Samis said to the frustrated captain, “Tahn Dorn is not for sale.”

“What can you do with the treacherous devil except kill him?” Saud asked. “And what good is he to you, quietly dead? Let the baron kill him for you publicly where all men may look on and either cheer or fear.”

Samis stroked at his graying beard, newly intrigued at those words. Perhaps it would serve him to hear the details of this plan.

When he returned to Tahn’s side, he was wealthier and well satisfied with a plan to which he could add his own purposes. He was pleased to find his prisoner awake.

“I had thought to burn you alive at Valhal, Tahn,” he said. “With my men looking on. It would have been an appropriate end. But you already know the flames, don’t you? You will do better than that for me.”

Tahn turned his face away, and Samis slapped him viciously. “You forget such an early lesson?” he chided. “Look at me when I speak to you, boy!”

When Tahn met his teacher’s eyes, he could see the cruel confidence in him. Not long before, there had been a fear in Samis, as though he knew his world might topple. But it was not there now.

“I have today to do with you as I will,” Samis was saying. “But in the morning, you belong to the people of our fair kingdom to do what is fit to the murderer of Triletts.”

Tahn stared at him, and his stomach knotted.
Surely not, Lord! I am prepared to bear what will be for what I have done, good or bad. But for what I have not done?

Samis smiled. “You must have thought you’d won. That you had brought doubts about my leadership and the security of Valhal. That you had sabotaged my stainless record of jobs perfectly finished.” He leaned and slapped him again.

“You must have thought you had sown the seeds of my destruction. But Tahn, what a fool you are! You and your students might have inherited Valhal one day. You were that good. But instead, you will be cursed and despised, surrounded by crowds who ask for your death. Think of it, Tahn! None will trouble me when they have such an opportunity to satisfy their lust for revenge. They who love the Triletts shall call me a hero and the baron as good as prince for delivering to them the guilty party for public execution. You shall be to them the man who gathered men to the task. May you burn in hell forever!”

The weight of his words was like another blow. Angry crowds? Like his first memories at Alastair. God have mercy. “I shall be scapegoat for the both of you, then,” he said.

“As well it should be,” Samis laughed. “It fits you. You have been profitable to me in life and in death.”

“The Lord be my help,” Tahn said in a quiet voice. “Thanks be to him that I shall not know that hell forever.”

Samis laughed. “You shall hang, Tahn. You shall suffer what the crowd sees fit to give you. Let God help you if he can. None can save you from the righteous hatred of a people mourning their beloved Triletts. They shall be doing God’s service to destroy you.” He knew he’d made Tahn squirm, for just a moment, and it was enough to delight him.

“The women shall dance in celebration!” he continued his tirade. “We shall parade you through villages before the day, so that all may know who you are and what you’ve done. It is my special hope that your street rats show themselves for the event. It would please me to gather them all and cut their tiny throats. And let the lady show her face! I relish the thought. She shall make a fine slave to me, as I first intended. I imagine her to be warm at night, am I not right?”