The Dark Glory War (45 page)

“We’ll differ over that, but …” Nay nodded and tucked the hilt through his belt. “They’re coming for me now. You did the right thing, Hawkins. Don’t doubt it. See you later.”

I stood there as two other men came and helped him hobble to the aid station, then I slipped from the inner city and wandered north through the ruins of the outer city. All around me were signs of life—curs tearing at corpses, ragged men and women looting bodies, ravens plucking out eyes. Squads of men moved through the city, gathering up bodies and dumping them into piles which were then doused withnapthalm and set alight. I kept upwind of those pyres as well as I could, for the sweet scent of burning flesh made me want to vomit.

I mounted the stairs and climbed to the top of the battlement from which I’d shot the urZrethisullanciri. The dragon had landed in the flooded plain there and lay on its left side, half submerged. Its head had finally flopped down at an angle, so that water lapped at the lower teeth. Its tongue rolled out like a carpet over the right side of its face and disappeared in the water.

Three boys poled a makeshift raft toward it. Dirty water washed over the raft and their bare feet. They quarreled among themselves as to what the best way to approach it might be, with the smallest insisting loudly that they had to go to the half-open mouth because he wanted to crawl inside. The other two, who were larger and larger still, exchanged glances, then sent the raft in that direction, with their smaller companion eagerly waiting at the front of the raft.

It struck me, of course, that those three boys could have been Leigh, Nay, and me, all off on our grand adventure. We had approached it with the same awe these boys did, heedless of the dangers. We’d all accepted the challenge that had been offered to us, not realizing there would be a price to pay for it.

I cupped my hands to my mouth. “Hey, you, boys, don’t go there. Stay away. You could get hurt.”

They turned and looked at me with the sort of contemptuous disregard the young give elders.You might be afraid, their eyes said,but we are not. We are immortal.

Luckily for me, and for them, a gibberer corpse chose that moment to bob up in front of the raft. The smaller boy yelped and leaped back. That knocked the other two into the water. All three of them screamed in terror. The two wet ones crawled onto the raft again and lay there shivering while the currents coming around the dragon slowly pushed them away from it.

“It was a good thing you did that. They might have truly been hurt.”

I spun, then bowed my head. “My lord, I didn’t hear you approach.”

Lord Norrington smiled and rested his left hand on my right shoulder. “You and I have stood back-to-back in battle. We have endured much together, and will endure more. You shall call me by my given name, Kenwick.”

My mouth open with surprise, I looked up. “Thank you, my lord; I mean, Ken— I can’t.”

Lord Norrington’s smile shrank to a bemused grin. “Why-ever not?”

“My father would have my hide off me if he ever heard me address you so familiarly. He’d be hurt and …”

Lord Norrington’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “I understand, Tarrant. Neither of us would ever want to hurt your father. Perhaps, when we are alone, like this, you need not be so formal.”

“As you wish, Kenwick.” I tried his name tentatively and it fit in my mouth without too much trouble. “I think you grant me this reward too freely, however.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean?”

“What I did to your son …”

His head came up and his eyes narrowed, then he nodded.

“You freed him of a curse, Tarrant, and for that I cannot thank you enough. Ever since Atval I have been afraid he would die on this campaign. I know my son is not perfect, but I love him nonetheless. That he is hurt does pain me, but the fact that he will still hurt rather than burn in a pyre, this makes me very happy. He will heal, Tarrant, the Norrington bloodline will continue. Doing what you did preserved our future, so I bear you no ill will at all.”

“You love him and were afraid for him because of the sword, but you let him fight?”

Lord Norrington nodded, then turned and leaned on a merlon to look to the north. “My duty to my nation and to the Council of Kings—indeed, my duty to all civilized peoples—demanded I field the best forces I could for each battle we faced. With the sword, Leigh became the one tool I had to destroysullanciri. As much as I wanted to keep him out of danger, I had to place him in it. I had to hope that the next battle would not be his last.

“I hated putting you and Nay in danger the way I did as well, but without the two of you, Leigh would not have acted as he did. Do you know that when he ran through the woods to summon help for you two and Rounce, I think that was the first selfless thing I ever saw Leigh do? Something in him refused to surrender as long as you were in danger. As much as his feet hurt that night, as much as he was exhausted, I could see his concern and pleasure at having acted to save you. In saving you, he took responsibility for you, and throughout this campaign that sense of responsibility drove him on.”

He glanced sidelong at me as I leaned next to him on the merlon. “Someday, Tarrant, when you have children of your own, you’ll see their potential and you’ll see their limitations. You’ll want to steer them toward the things you know they can do and you’ll want to shield them from the things they can’t. The difficulty is that they won’t see things the way you do. They won’t acknowledge the same potential and problems you see. And then, at some point, they will surprise you, going places you never expected. That’s been Leigh, here, on this expedition. Though it did not end as well as it might have, he still lives and can still realize the new potentials he has.”

Another voice broke in, all snarling and harsh. “How dare you, Kenwick Norrington, deny me my right!” Prince Scrainwood stamped his way up onto the battlement, waving clenched fists. “You have denied me a place in your expedition north. And why? So you can take this mongrel who assaulted your son, who assaulted me?”

I frowned. “What?”

Lord Norrington placed his right hand on my chest, holding me back. “You learned this how, my Prince?”

Scrainwood waved a hand back toward the tower. “It’s all over, the gossips have it now. You’ll be leaving me behind, but you’ll take Augustus and the others. I asked Augustus to demand that you take me with you, but he said you had been adamant about my being abandoned here.And equally adamant about taking Hawkins with you.”

“I see.” Lord Norrington’s words came with a coldness to them that made me shiver. “There are a couple of things you should remember, Prince Scrainwood. First and foremost is that I am truly in command of the expedition to destroy Chytrine, not you.”

“Because of that damned elven prophecy.”

“For whatever reason, yes, and do not imagine my experience in leading men had asmall part in that decision. The fact is, Prince Scrainwood, throughout this expedition you have done little more than dispatch the wounded or fall off a horse. Now you may hire bards to create songs that praise your efforts, but you and I and every soldier who has watched you flee knows what I say is true.”

The portion of Scrainwood’s face that remained unmasked went white. “Why that is, that is, that is base slander!” He pointed a finger at me. “He’s filled your head with lies about me. I watched him assault your son and steal his sword. I tried to stop him but—”

“But you failed to do that just as you failed in every other martial endeavor you’ve attempted.” Lord Norrington waved away Scrainwood’s sputtering. “And it’s not Hawkins who has spoken against you, but everyone else. My own son told me what happened in the alley, and even his account does you no credit. Your presence costs lives, my Prince, and I will not put my people in jeopardy to save you. If you press your suit and do come along, you will die. I can all but guarantee that.”

“You threaten me, sir.”

“No, I merely state realities.” Lord Norrington pressed his hands together. “You have a choice. You can have it said that I left you behind here with the Oriosan Scouts to set about the rehabilitation of Fortress Draconis, or I will call together all the armies we have here and denounce you as a coward. Moreover, as a reward for what has been accomplished here, I will demand that your sister is wedded to my son, and that your mother should pass you over and let the crown go to Ryhope. And don’t think for a heartbeat she’d not do it.”

Scrainwood staggered back and pressed his hands to his heart. “You wouldn’t!”

“Without hesitation.” He turned to me. “Fetch me anarcanslata and a magicker to work it.”

“No! Stop, Hawkins; go no further.” Scrainwood’s eyes grew as tight as his voice. “So, this is the way it will be, then? I remain here and you do not denounce me?”

Lord Norrington nodded. “It is more than you deserve, but it does not mean you are fully free. If ever I do not like how you rule Oriosa, my ‘memoirs’ will be distributed and you will be discredited.”

“Will you press for your son to marry my sister?”

Lord Norrington hesitated for a moment. “That is an issue to explore when my son is well again. We will discuss it upon my return.”

Scrainwood’s lips puckered for a moment, then he nodded. “Are you certain you wish to play at being a politician like this?”

“No, but since you wish to play at being a soldier, I have little choice.” Lord Norrington waved him away. “Be gone, my Prince. Annoy someone else.”

Scrainwood clearly did not like being dismissed, but he withdrew. He spared me a last glare, but I met it with expressionless silence. The last I saw of him the smoke from a pyre had settled over him as he stomped off.

Lord Norrington smiled as he turned back toward me. “Well, as you have heard, we will be sending a force north to chase down Chytrine. We will leave in the morning. I want you with me. Seethe, Faryaah-Tse Kimp, and some of the others will be going along.”

“Nay, too?”

“No, I’m afraid he cannot go.” He sighed. “Nay will have magick used to heal his leg. If Chytrine were to employ the spell that canceled the healings while we were in Aurolan, we could do nothing for her victims. We’re making our force out of people whose wounds were so minor they did not require magick to heal. The rest will remain here and serve as part of the garrison, or will be sent back home. Nay will end up back in Valsina.”

“You’ll be sending him with Leigh?”

“Yes.”

I nodded. “How did Chytrine cast that spell?”

He shrugged. “There are many things about magick I don’t understand. All spells, apparently, are akin to knots in ropes. If you know how it was tied, it is easy to untie. Some knots are very complex and therefore hard to undo, but healing spells are relatively simple so many people can master them. It may take years to do so, of course, but Chytrine has had those years and then some. The magickers are convinced the scholars at Vilwan can devise new healing spells she can’t undo, but that will take time.”

“Time we don’t have if we want to catch her.”

“Unfortunately.”

I nodded, then hooked my thumbs in my belt. “If we’re leaving tomorrow, I’d best run and make preparations.”

“Good idea, but it can wait a bit.” Lord Norrington pointed off toward the tower. “Your brother Sallitt came up with the Scouts. I thought you might like to see him before we left, so I have arranged for you to share dinner.”

“You will join us?”

“No. I would love to, but while you spend time with your family, I will spend time with mine.” He pointed a hand idly toward the north. “Get your fill of warm memories, Tarrant, because, out there, they will be few and very far between.”

I was a bit nervous about meeting my brother, and I’m not sure why. I went back to my room in the tower and washed up, then changed into the sort of light clothes Cavarre favored. I knew that I’d not have a chance to wear such things on the road and, somehow, putting on things that had nothing to do with warfare helped convince me that Chytrine’s force reallyhad been broken.

My apprehension at seeing my brother spiked when I found him waiting outside the dining hall in the tower with some of the other Oriosan Scouts. Sallitt looked at me a bit uncertainly, then he cracked a big smile when one of his mates shoved him forward. We hugged each other, slapped each other’s back, then he introduced me to his friends. I promptly forgot all of their names, but it didn’t matter since they excused themselves and left the two of us to get food and find a quiet table—of which there were too many because of the casualties caused by the siege.

Sal looked tired, which made sense since the Scouts had been marching hard for the better part of a month. Still, his hazel eyes remained bright and the sort of animation I was used to returned as we talked. “And when word came through who was leading the expedition, well, Father’s chest swelled fair to bursting. He knew Leigh and you would be along, too, and it was all we could do to get him to remain as Peaceward instead of forming up his own militia company and coming north with us.”

I smiled. “It would have been grand to see him here.”

“It would have.” My brother reached over and patted my left hand. “You’ll be seeing him soon enough when you go back with Leigh.”

I shook my head. “I’m going north with Lord Norrington. Nay will go back with Leigh.”

Sal could tell, given my flat tone of voice, that there was some hardship there, but he didn’t press. “We’re being assigned to garrison duty here for a bit, under Prince Scrainwood.”

“Do yourself a favor, Sal, and don’t let him know you’re my brother. Or, if he finds out, tell him you’ve never liked me.”

“What?” Sal laughed aloud. “Not like you? You’re a hero. You don’t know it, but when we arrived, Captain Cross called me by name and all sorts of folks started cheering for me. They thought I was you, and just the mention of the Hawkins name was enough to put a smile on their faces. What could the Prince have against you?”

I almost told him the truth. “Fact is, Sal, we never got along. I’m just a country bumpkin to him—not even noble. Just avoid him, please.”

My brother studied me for a bit, then nodded. “You’ve grown up a lot, Tarrant and I’m proud of you for that.”