‘I was an idiot, Tanner. Tell her that when you see her.’
‘Tell her yourself.’
‘I would, but I’m going out. Lord Naxor has asked me to meet him at the Middle Walls.’
‘Lucky you. Another night on the town, eh?’
‘I hope so. See you later.’
He went back to the stairs and continued down to the lower floor. The carriage had pulled up outside the entrance to the Wolfpack Tower and Corthie got drenched in the five yards it took to climb aboard. He sat down, his hair and clothes dripping, then laughed. Next time he would take the raincoat. The carriage set off, leaving Arrowhead and joining the main road towards the Middle Walls. The rain battered down on the canvas covering, and the inside of the carriage was humid. Corthie wiped the windows with his hand but they steamed up in again in minutes.
He gave up trying to see anything, leaned back into the carriage bench, and closed his eyes.
He awoke with a tap on the side door to see a soldier standing by the carriage with an umbrella.
‘Morning, Pack Leader,’ she said.
Corthie glanced at the dark clouds covering the sky. ‘Is it?’
‘Lord Naxor is waiting inside the gatehouse for you, sir.’
He climbed down and ducked under the umbrella as the soldier closed the door. They half-ran to the gatehouse and Corthie shook the rain from his hair as they entered. He gazed outside at the thundering downpour for a moment, then turned and followed the soldier into the interior of the large building. No one checked his identity any more, he noticed; they all knew his face.
He was led into a room and saw Aila sitting at a table.
His mouth fell open.
‘Here he is, my lord,’ said the soldier, bowing to her. ‘Will that be all for now?’
‘Yes. Leave us.’
The soldier backed out of the room and closed the door. Corthie gazed at Aila for a second, then strode across the floor towards her. He touched her face then leaned down to kiss her.
‘No,’ she said.
‘Oh. Damn it. You’re right.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘I am?’
‘You said so yourself; you said you couldn’t see how it could work.’
‘I did? Why did I say that, again?’
Corthie sat on the table. ‘I look at you, and I want you. When we’re apart I tell myself that the next time I see you, I’m not going to try to kiss you, and it was the first damn thing I did.’
‘Why would you tell yourself that?’
‘Because despite how I feel, we’re not right for each other.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘Why not?’
‘Hang on, it was you who stopped me from kissing you. You said no for a reason I assume?’
‘You idiot, it’s because I look like Lord Naxor to everyone else; what do you think would happen if they came in and saw us kissing?’
‘They’d think that Lord Naxor had excellent taste. Me? Not so much.’
She scowled at him.
‘Not funny? Alright, sorry. Oh bollocks, I’ve screwed this up. Can I come back in and start again?’
‘Just sit down. On a chair.’
He walked back round the table and sat opposite her. She was beautiful, he thought, why couldn’t he have just kept his mouth shut?
‘I, eh, need to tell you something,’ she said.
‘Aye?’
‘Yeah. I did a little digging around into the attack at Redmarket, and it’s led me somewhere unexpected. Not completely unexpected, but it was a surprise, if it’s true.’
‘Let me guess, it was a demigod?’
‘Aim a little higher.’
‘After the God-King and God-Queen, there’s only Khora, isn’t there?’
‘Indeed.’
‘Why would Khora want to kill me?’
‘This is why I needed to see you in person, there’s no one in the City I’d trust with a message. Except you, but that would be stupid, as the message was for you.’ She paused, and rubbed her head. ‘Amalia’s ass, my words aren’t working. Why do you think we’re not right for each other?’
‘Because my sister’s coming, and when she does, she’ll be taking me back with her.’
Aila squinted at him. ‘How long ago was it that you were taken from your home?’
‘About four and a half years.’
‘Well, I hate to be the one who says this, but if she hasn’t rescued you in four and a half years, what makes you think she’ll be here any time soon?’
‘You don’t know her.’
‘Obviously, but I’m picturing some armour-clad warrior goddess. Does she smite?’
He smiled. ‘Occasionally, but not with a sword. I’ve never seen her hold a weapon in her life. Look, I know how it sounds. I said that I wanted you; I do. But how can I make any promises when I’ve no idea how long I’ll be here?’
‘Wow. This is not how I thought this conversation was going to go.’ She fell into silence, her gaze on the surface of the table. ‘Back to business. I’ll get through this quickly, as I feel a sudden urge to get out of here as soon as I can.’ She glanced back up at him. ‘The source I spoke to said that Khora wants you dead because she sees you as a threat to her.’
Corthie laughed. ‘In what way am I a threat to her?’
‘The source said Khora had learned that Duke Marcus was going to try to remove her from power, and that you would help him do it. Do you know anything about this?’
‘The duke said something to me once.’
She frowned. ‘What?’
‘He was talking about the problems in the Circuit, and how he thought that the tribal militia might not be enough to calm everything down.’
‘And?’
‘He said he might have to take a difficult decision.’
Aila’s face drained of colour, and her hand gripped the top of the table.
‘He wanted to know,’ Corthie went on, ‘if I would be loyal to him.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I told him I was a soldier. Look, if the demigods start fighting among themselves, I’m staying out of it. My job is to fight the greenhides, not help one group of demigods destroy the other.’
‘But you can’t stay out of it. If the duke does what I think he means, and sends Blades into the Circuit again, there will be carnage; and it won’t stop there. He wants power, Corthie, he’s always been jealous that Khora was given the job of ruling. As Michael’s eldest son, he thinks it’s his birthright.’
Corthie shrugged. ‘I don’t like him either, but at least he’s not trying to kill me.’
‘I hate Khora too, but she’s not… not…’
‘Not as bad?’
Aila lowered her head. ‘Neither can be trusted, but we know what Khora’s rule is like. Marcus would be infinitely worse.’ She grimaced as if she hated to say the name. ‘Please trust me.’
‘You’re saying I should side with the one who wants me dead?’
‘Let me speak to her; let me ask her to her face.’
‘And what will you do if she admits it?’
Aila looked into his eyes. ‘Kill her.’
Corthie said nothing and they sat in silence. He glanced at her, and caught her glancing back.
‘No one’s come in,’ he said. ‘We could have kissed and no one would have seen us.’
‘Don’t, Corthie; you’ve already made your feelings clear.’
‘My feelings? My feelings are telling me to pick you up in my arms and run out of here with you; leave this damned City and find somewhere we can be together.’
She reached across the table and pulled him towards her. Their lips touched and he put his hand behind her head, his fingers through her hair, his mind reeling. They could make it work, somehow.
She pushed him away, tears spilling down her cheeks. ‘Right, we kissed; now go, please.’
‘But...’
She sobbed. ‘Go! I can’t see you any more,’ she said, standing and backing away from him.
>
‘Forget what I said before.’
‘No, you were right, though for the wrong reasons; we can’t be together.’
He got to his feet. ‘What are the right reasons?’
‘You’re mortal.’
His heart sank, and his spirits seemed to shrink. ‘Aye, I am.’
‘I can’t do it.’
He tried to smile, but his mouth wouldn’t respond.
‘Go.’
Corthie turned, and left the room.
Corthie lay against Blackrose’s long forelimb, his head leaning on her black scales. The dragon’s head was resting on the ground close by, one eye open a slit.
There was a noise at the gate.
‘I thought I heard you coming in,’ said Maddie, leaning on her crutch. ‘Two visits in three days, we are the lucky ones. What have you been up to then, with all this rain?’
‘Quiet, girl,’ said Blackrose; ‘can’t you see the champion’s love sick?’
‘I am not,’ he said.
‘There you go, being human again with your lies. I can smell it off you. Only a few days ago you weren’t in love, and now you’ve already lost it. How long did the bit in between last?’
‘A few seconds.’
‘Oh no,’ said Maddie, limping over towards them; ‘that’s awful. You do look a little forlorn sitting there; it’s the first time I’ve seen you without a smile on your face. Did she break your heart?’
‘No, I’m fine.’
Blackrose lifted her head a little. ‘Your odour tells me something different. Corthie, I say again; stop lying to me; you know it is the one thing I detest most about your kind.’
‘Alright, I feel terrible; is that better?’
Maddie crouched next to him. ‘What did she do? Or was it you? You do have a big mouth sometimes; did you say something horrible to her?’
‘Tell you what, go and get us a bottle of brandy and I might tell you.’
‘Say please.’
‘Please.’
Maddie got up, hefted the crutch under her left shoulder and hobbled off towards the gate.
‘You have no intention of telling her anything,’ said Blackrose.
‘I said “might”, so I wasn’t lying. There was another reason I wanted her out of earshot for a minute, I want to tell you something regarding us getting out of here.’
The dragon came closer.
‘When I arrived in the City,’ he said, ‘I was prepared to be patient. I fought the greenhides, and tried to make the best of it.’
‘You know my opinion of that approach.’
‘Aye, you called it cowardly, and I can see why. It’s a choice I made, but at least I’m still alive to live with its consequences.’
‘And have you had a change of mind? Has your approach altered?’
‘Maybe the time for patience is over. Things in the City are getting worse, and it looks like the demigods are about to start fighting among themselves again. You’ve got Khora and Naxor on one side, and Marcus and Kano on the other, with everyone else picking between them. The problem is, they want me to pick a side too.’
‘So what do you intend to do?’
‘I want to stay out of the fighting, but I’m a Blade, and Duke Marcus is my commanding officer; while it seems it was Khora who was trying to kill me.’
‘You have evidence of this?’
‘No, but someone… close, who was close, told me, and I trust her.’
‘Am I to infer that this is the same woman who has so recently broken your heart? Are you sure that this is not guiding your decisions? One must never rush these things, or make fateful choices when one’s mind is clouded by loss.’
‘Maybe. Maybe I was happy to stay here partly because I was hoping for… something more.’
‘Why did she reject you?’
‘How do you know that? My smell told you?’
‘Yes. You may be immune to the powers of the gods, but my nostrils are working perfectly well.’
His face fell. ‘She’s a demigod; she finished it because I’m mortal.’
‘Ahh, I see. You are a victim of their eternal tragedy.’
He narrowed his eyes.
‘Imagine being one of them,’ the dragon said, ‘imagine falling in love, and then living to see the object of your love wither like a leaf in autumn, and then die, while you remain forever in the bloom of spring.’
Corthie blinked. Is that what had happened?
Blackrose tilted her head. ‘From your expression I assume that this had not occurred to you. Did you think she was rejecting you because you were inferior? Corthie Holdfast, you are in no way inferior to any man. Now, your plan, before Maddie returns.’
‘My plan?’
‘Yes, I assume you have one.’
‘Aye, I do. The only way to avoid getting involved in any new civil war is to leave the City.’ He glanced at her. ‘We need the Quadrant.’
‘Go on.’
‘There’s one problem. If the plan works, and I manage to get my hands on it, I have no idea how to use it.’
The dragon smiled. ‘Leave that to me.’
Corthie left Arrowhead for the second time that day, taking a carriage along the road sunward towards the mighty Fortress of the Lifegiver. The roads were sodden and the wheels got stuck in the mud more than once as the rain clattered down from the skies. He wished he had his mother by his side; her skills would be perfect for what he was planning – she had been an assassin before marrying his father and knew all about sneaking around in the shadows. Corthie was more like his father, a warrior rather than a spy, whose bloody-mindedness and refusal to compromise his principles had often got him into trouble. It was a noble approach, but it had also led to him being murdered by a god, while his mother had survived.
Thoughts of his family sent him into a downward spiral of bitter memories. Aila had looked at him with outright scepticism on her face as he had insisted his sister was coming for him. Others had done the same, and it hadn’t concerned him in the slightest, but with Aila it hurt. Was he a fool to believe that Karalyn would suddenly appear, just in time, to carry him off to the safety of his home? Four and a half years he had waited. Every morning in Gadena’s mercenary training camp on Lostwell, he had wondered if that would be the day she would come for him, but it had never happened, and now he was in the City of the Eternal Siege. How would Karalyn know where he was? How many worlds were there? He knew Lostwell was big, and he had only seen one tiny corner of it, maybe she would spend years and still be looking there.
If Aila was right, then he needed to act. If Karalyn was lost or delayed, or even dead, he needed to stop relying on her appearance to rescue him.
He closed his eyes, but the image of Aila in his arms appeared, so he opened them again. The damn dragon was right. A few days before he hadn’t felt like this, he hadn’t been in love, but after meeting Aila at the Middle Walls he felt bereft. It was his fault, and he knew it. He had taken a sledgehammer and wrecked everything to avoid feeling precisely what he felt at that moment. He had hurt her too, with some of the things he had said, he had seen it in her eyes. Had she only ended it with him to avoid the pain his mortal death would bring her?
The carriage passed through one of the massive gatehouses of Lifegiver, and came to a halt in the forecourt close to the Duke’s Tower. A soldier opened the side door, a raincoat keeping the torrential rain off her face.
‘Pack Leader,’ she saluted as he climbed down from the carriage.
‘I want to see the duke.’
The soldier nodded. ‘I’ll take you inside, sir, where you can wait out of the rain.’
He nodded and followed her into the dry, entrance hall of the tower.
‘Has no one issued you with a raincoat, soldier?’ said a sneering voice.
Corthie turned, and saw Lord Kano approach. ’No, I’ve got one, sir. I just like getting wet.’
‘Well, I’m not going to allow you upstairs to drip all over the duke’s fine carpets. I assum
e that’s why you’re here.’
‘It is, sir, aye.’
Kano nodded to the soldier that escorted him in, and she saluted and left.
‘Come with me,’ he said, turning towards a door.
Corthie went through into a warm chamber where garments were drying by a large metal water-heater. Steam misted the air, and water was dripping from the ceiling.
‘Sit,’ said Kano.
Corthie lowered himself into a chair, and Kano sat in another.
‘What do you want?’
‘To speak to the duke.’
‘Yes, I gathered that. However, no one gets upstairs until they’ve been through me first. So, I ask again; what do you want?’
Corthie said nothing for a moment as he glanced at the young-looking demigod. How could this idiot be related to Aila? He saw a very slight resemblance in his eyes and he looked away.
‘Is a civil war about to begin?’
Kano’s eyes widened. ‘What in Malik’s name makes you say that?’
‘Is the duke planning on moving the Blades into the rest of the City to restore order?’
‘That’s enough. These issues are far beyond your understanding. You are a Blade, and you take orders, nothing more.’
‘So why did the duke tell me he wanted to bring me into his inner counsels?’
‘If that is the case, which I seriously doubt, then Duke Marcus will come to you; you don’t just appear at the front door of his tower uninvited. None of this is in any way your business.’
‘No? Then why is Khora trying to kill me?’
Kano stared at him, his eyes tight.
The door to the room opened and a soldier leaned in. ‘Apologies, my lord.’
‘Yes, what is it?’ Kano snapped.
‘The duke, sir.’
‘What about him?’
‘He has asked that the champion be immediately brought upstairs, sir.’
Kano stared at the soldier with withering contempt. ‘Is that it? Why are you still standing there like a fool? Get back to your post.’
The soldier bowed. ‘Yes, sir; sorry, sir.’
Kano turned back to Corthie, the loathing he felt for the champion evident in his eyes.
Corthie got to his feet and smiled at him. ‘You were saying?’
Chapter 23
The Mortal Blade: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Magelands Eternal Siege Book 1) Page 32