Snare

by Katharine Kerr

  ‘You can’t!’ Soutan’s voice rose to a squeal.

  ‘I know that.’ Warkannan took a deep breath and steadied himself. ‘Let’s get out of this forest, shall we? I’ve come to hate it.’

  ‘On that we agree.’ Soutan managed a sickly smile. ‘Forward!’

  By mid-afternoon the path had brought them free of the trees and back to the east-running road. Farmland stretched out on either side, peaceful and bright in the sunlight, fields of gold wheatian striped with red and orange fields of vegetables. Now and then they passed a windbreak of true-oaks, sheltering white-washed houses and red barns.

  An hour before sunset, Warkannan called a halt. He and Arkazo needed to make their evening prayers, and Soutan announced that he wanted to scan. Warkannan asked Arkazo to hold his horse, then knelt in the dust of the road. Ordinary prayers wouldn’t do, he decided, not with Zahir’s soul hanging in the balance. Words came hard. He could only mutter, ‘Dear God, please!’ over and over. God would know what he meant, he decided, or so at least he could hope.

  All at once, Soutan shrieked, howling in rage. Warkannan finished with a hasty word, then leapt to his feet. At the side of the road the sorcerer was sitting on a strip of purple grass and staring into his crystal. Soutan’s lips moved, but he made no sound, and his head trembled, shaking in a silent no no no.

  ‘What is it?’ Warkannan snapped.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Arkazo said.

  ‘Soutan!’

  The sorcerer looked up, his face dead pale. ‘I cannot believe this,’ he whispered. ‘The comnee. They’re in the compound. They’ve taken over the temple.’

  Warkannan tensed in a surge of hope. Soutan stared at the crystal again and whimpered.

  ‘They’ve got him,’ Soutan went on. ‘I just saw them bringing Zayn outside.’ He looked up, pale, his mouth half-open as if he were too weary to close it.

  Warkannan flung his arms into the air and stared up at the blue dome of the sky. He wanted to speak, could not, but he felt his heart overflow with gratitude towards God, who had His own ways of working mercy. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered; then his voice choked.

  ‘Warkannan, what are you doing?’ Soutan was shrieking again. ‘You’re glad, aren’t you? How can you! This murderous little bastard is going to try to kill the khan.’

  ‘He can try all he wants,’ Warkannan said. ‘I don’t intend to let him.’

  Scowling, Soutan got up, clutching his crystal in both hands. Warkannan stared at him until Soutan looked away with a muttered curse.

  ‘Ah well,’ Soutan said. ‘I have to admit that I’m hoping they’ve killed Father Sharl. At least that would be something to the good.’

  ‘And you’ve got the crystals,’ Arkazo said.

  ‘Yes.’ Soutan’s smile was so joyful that it almost seemed innocent. ‘Four very good crystals indeed.’

  They had all been in the saddle for half a night and most of a day, and the horses were dangerously weary, yet Ammadin and Kassidor agreed that they could never camp safely in that forest. When the warparty left the compound, they dismounted and led their stumbling-tired stock to spare the horses their weight. Once night fell, they might well have lost the trail if it weren’t for Water Woman’s gift of the lightwand. Ammadin used it only when they came to a fork or some other ambiguity in the path, both to save the spirit’s energy and to avoid attracting attention, should Sinyur Alayn’s men be close enough to see it.

  ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do when we reach open country,’ Ammadin said to Kassidor.

  ‘I don’t either.’ Kassidor paused, thinking. ‘But we’ll never get back to Nannes if we don’t stop to sleep for a few hours.’

  Yet when at last they reached the open meadows, they found that safety had come to them. The comnees had left Nannes and set up a camp about a mile east of the forest edge. When they saw the tents Kassidor nearly wept in relief, and the warparty cheered aloud, a peal of noise that woke the comnees. People streamed out to cheer at the sight of Zayn and greet the men who’d gone to the rescue. The women surged forward to take the weary horses and lead them away.

  ‘Listen, Zayn,’ Ammadin said. ‘You go straight back to the tent and wait for me there.’

  ‘Anything you say.’ Zayn was looking around him in a kind of exhausted wonder. ‘I never thought I’d see the comnee again, either.’

  Ammadin and Kassidor went looking for the two chiefs and found them in Apanador’s tent. Exhausted though they were, the two spirit riders managed to tell them about the rescue in a reasonably coherent way by taking turns at it. Sammador said nothing, deferring to the older chief, who asked questions now and again.

  ‘Since Zayn killed a chief’s son, we’d better ride back west,’ Ammadin finished up. ‘I don’t want the zhundars coming after Zayn to hang him.’

  ‘Yes, it’s bound to cause trouble,’ Apanador said. ‘If the zhundars don’t try to catch him, the sinyur’s men will.’

  ‘Then we’d better guard the camp tonight,’ Kassidor put in. ‘You’re right, and tomorrow we’ll get on the way early. If the sinyur’s men come, we’ll fight, of course, but the less blood spilled the better.’

  ‘Zayn told us that seven men took him on the road,’ Ammadin said, ‘but some of them were priests. Alayn may have had more men back in his fort, of course.’

  ‘Why did Zayn ride away like that?’ Apanador said. ‘Was he ensorcelled?’

  ‘I doubt it. I intend to make him tell me right now, and then we can decide what to do next. Kasso, do me a favour, will you? Find Dallador and ask him to get another man and stand guard at my tent. If Zayn tries to run, they’ll be there to stop him.’

  Ammadin went back to her tent to find the saurskin panels glowing with light. On the hearth stone under the smokehole two lamps burned. Beside them Zayn was sitting on the floor cloth and looking through his saddlebags, rescued along with the sorrel gelding from the temple stable. When she came in, he began to tie them shut. Ammadin sat down opposite him.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Zayn said. ‘I’ve brought nothing but trouble to the comnee. You should just let me ride off alone. If they kill me, well, so what? It’s better than having some of the other men die to defend me. I’ll just leave the camp and ride off somewhere. Then, if anyone catches up with the comnee, I won’t be there, and they’ll leave you alone.’

  ‘You know something? I’m as sick as I can be of you lying to me.’

  Zayn threw his head up like a startled horse.

  ‘You’ve been lying to me for months,’ Ammadin went on. ‘Not exactly lying, maybe, but bending the truth. Yes, of course, it would be best for the comnee if you were gone, but that’s not why you’re offering. It wasn’t why you crept out of camp last night, either.’

  Zayn winced and looked away.

  ‘Kassidor thinks the sorcerer lured you away,’ Ammadin said. ‘I don’t. Answer me. Did you feel him attacking your mind?’

  ‘No.’ Zayn kept staring at the tent wall.

  ‘Then why? Who are you, Zayn? I’ll bet you were never the cavalry officer you seemed to be. Why do you want to leave us? Don’t you think you owe me and the comnee the truth?’

  Zayn went tense, and his eyes flicked towards the tent flap.

  ‘If you try to run,’ Ammadin said, ‘you won’t get far. Dallador’s out there on guard. Now answer me.’

  Zayn took a deep breath, swallowing his anger, she assumed. He looked away, thought for a moment, then nodded, as if he had agreed with himself about something.

  ‘You do deserve to know,’ he said. ‘But I really was a cavalry officer. I mean, I still am. The flogging, turning me out – that was all false. I belong to –’ he hesitated briefly, ‘I belong to a brotherhood called the Chosen Ones. Have you ever heard of us?’

  ‘No.’ Ammadin could smell that he was telling the truth. ‘Should I have?’

  ‘Not really. It’s only the khanate that concerns us. We’re the Great Khan’s eyes and ears. We keep a lookout for traitors in
the army, malcontents, men like that. And sometimes we investigate civilians, too, looking for anyone who’s plotting against the Great Khan.’

  ‘Ah. You’re spies and informers.’

  ‘If you want to put it that way.’

  ‘What other way is there? You live out a lie and sneak around, spying on people, even on your fellow soldiers. Right?’

  Zayn went stiff in every muscle, as if he were controlling himself only by force of will. His face went bloodless, then flushed with blood under the dark pigment of his skin.

  ‘Interesting,’ she said. ‘You do these things but you’re ashamed of their rightful names.’

  ‘Goddamn it.’ He was more growling than talking. ‘It’s done in service to the Great Khan.’

  ‘If you say so. What are you doing for the Great Khan right now? Why did you lie and get us to take you in?’

  Zayn let out his breath in a long sigh. His colour returned to normal. ‘It’s Soutan,’ he said at last. ‘Sorcerers from the Cantons don’t ride to Kazrajistan without some reason. He appeared some months ago, and he got himself hooked up with a bunch of respectable men. My friend – Warkannan – was one of them. They said they were forming an investment group around some maps that Soutan brought with him.’

  ‘Ah,’ Ammadin put in. ‘The blackstone.’

  ‘Right. My superior officers were suspicious. They wanted to question the lot of them. I told them that I couldn’t imagine Warkannan getting mixed up in anything wrong. So they held off, and they sent me to the Cantons to find out more about Soutan.’

  ‘And so you needed a way across the Rift without telling anyone why you wanted one. Yes, that makes sense. Were you right about Warkannan?’

  ‘No.’ He looked away, his face twisted in something like agony. ‘He – they – there’s another claimant to the throne, that Kazraki officer your people found dying in the grass and then saved. Soutan ran across him somehow, and Warkannan’s come to bring Jezro Khan home and lead a rebellion. The Great Khan’s got a lot of enemies.’

  ‘Which is why he needs informers.’

  ‘Damn you! Don’t keep –’ He calmed his voice, but she could see the effort it cost him. ‘Yes, that’s why he needs us.’

  ‘And this Jezro, he’s got a lot of friends? The rebellion could succeed?’

  Zayn nodded and looked away. ‘Do you know what it means if they bring Jezro back to Kazrajistan? Half the khanate goes up in civil war. A lot of men will die, a lot of farms will burn, a lot of innocent townsfolk will starve to death.’

  ‘I know how bloody your wars are, but you’re lying again. You don’t care about the farmers. You’re doing this for reasons of your own.’

  ‘I’m not! It’s for the Great Khan –’ He stopped, and his eyes grew wide, his mouth slack as he stared at the space over her shoulder.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Ammadin made her voice gentle. ‘What do you see?’

  ‘In the Mistlands I saw ghosts,’ Zayn whispered. ‘And I saw –’ He shook himself and spoke normally. ‘But that’s neither here nor there.’

  ‘Of course it is! You know, if you keep lying to me, we could be here all night.’

  ‘Damn it!’ He rose to his knees, then sat back down again. ‘Why don’t you just let me ride out, and if they kill me, they kill me.’

  ‘I won’t because you’re a member of my comnee. You may have been lying to us, but we weren’t lying to you.’

  For a moment he went so ashy-grey that she wondered if he was going to faint. He tipped his head back and stared up at the smokehole, but she could see that his eyes glistened with tears.

  ‘I wasn’t lying,’ he said at last. ‘I wanted to ride with you. I still do. I just can’t. I’ve chosen my road, and there’s nothing else left for me now. Some roads never fork or turn.’

  ‘Now you’re lying to yourself.’

  ‘I’m not, damn it! What can I do? All right, suppose I decide, oh to hell with the Chosen, I’ll just stay with the comnee. They’ll come after me and kill me. It might take them years, but they’ll find me in the end. We’re good at that.’

  ‘I see. The Great Khan you honour so much treats his servants like slaves.’

  Zayn clapped his hand on the hilt of his long knife.

  ‘If you kill me,’ Ammadin said, ‘I’ll haunt you from the Deathworld so badly that you’ll beg to die and join me.’

  ‘Ah may the Lord forgive me!’ Zayn let the knife go. ‘I’d never harm you, Ammi, never.’

  He had used her family name. So! she thought. There’s hope for him yet.

  ‘Look,’ Zayn went on. ‘I meant it when I said I don’t want anyone in the comnee dying with me. I’ll leave tonight. You don’t know how good I am at being on the run. Once I’m alone, they’ll never find me.’

  ‘You’re forgetting the sorcerer. Soutan. He’s done an awfully good job of finding you so far.’

  Zayn’s mouth went slack.

  ‘Think, you idiot!’ Ammadin snapped. ‘Someone told this Sinyur Alayn exactly what road you were travelling on, didn’t he? There you were, out in the middle of nowhere on a dark night, but they knew exactly where to find you. Soutan must have got a new crystal, and he must have scanned you out.’

  For a moment she thought he was going to argue; then he nodded his agreement.

  ‘Now,’ Ammadin went on, ‘I want you to tell me more. Why did your officers send you after Soutan?’

  ‘Just to find out who he was and bring the information back.’

  ‘But now you’ve got this other man to worry about –’

  ‘Jezro Khan, yes.’

  ‘Do you know where he is?’

  ‘Somewhere in Burgunee Canton.’

  ‘And if you find him, what then? Do you just bring the information back?’

  ‘No. It would be my duty to kill him. If he reaches Andjaro Province, if he crosses the border, then it’s going to be too late. I know Andjaro. They’ve hated the throne for a hundred years. They’ll raise troops for Jezro fast enough.’

  ‘I don’t understand why –’

  ‘The khanate conquered them. It’s a strange place, Andjaro, full of hills and forests, an easy place to hide in. The people that live there are mostly big landowners, who keep armed guards around. Well, they call them guards, but they’re soldiers, really.’

  ‘And the landowners will follow Jezro, right? Very well, so you want to ride off, find Jezro, and kill him.’

  ‘I don’t want to. I have to. I know my duty to the Great Khan.’

  ‘And what about Warkannan? If he stands between you and this khan, will you try to kill him too?’

  The tears were back, glistening in his dark eyes, and this time Zayn made no effort to hide them. Ammadin let out her breath in a sharp sigh. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘you’ve got yourself into a really wretched mess, haven’t you?’

  Zayn laughed, a dark mutter under his breath. ‘I like the way you put that,’ he said. ‘And the worst thing is, if I hadn’t told my superiors how much I trusted Warkannan, I wouldn’t be in it. Damn him for turning traitor!’

  ‘Suppose you hadn’t told them. This questioning you mentioned – I’ve heard about your Kazraki courts. They would have put these people to the torture, wouldn’t they, if they didn’t like their answers?’

  ‘Yes. That’s why I spoke up. Most likely they would have questioned Warkannan’s nephew first. Warkannan would betray God Himself to protect him. Idres would have told us everything.’

  ‘That’s really repellent.’ She paused to give her words full effect. ‘Really disgusting! Zayn, how could you? How could you join a group like this? Brotherhood you called it. It sounds like a nest of firesnakes to me.’

  She was expecting anger, but he merely sighed, looking away, nodding a little as if agreeing with her.

  ‘It’s because of the demon blood,’ he said. ‘Every member of the Chosen has some of the forbidden talents. That’s why we’re so good at what we do. The demon blood’s damned us. Why should we care what we
do?’

  ‘But it’s not demon blood, as you know perfectly well, so I don’t suppose anything’s damning you, either. That’s a stupid excuse. I have some of those talents, too. Do you think I serve that – what is he? Prince of demons? Iblish? Something like that.’

  ‘Iblis.’ Zayn whispered the word. ‘The rebel angel. Of course you don’t.’

  ‘Very good! And as I’ve said about fifty times before, there aren’t any demons who can get women pregnant. I don’t know why you and the Chosen have the talents, but I doubt if this Iblis creature has anything to do with it.’

  ‘Ammi, you’re tearing me apart. Do you realize that?’

  ‘Of course. Now, tell me if I’ve got this right. You all grew up terrified, convinced you had demon blood, and that you’d die if anyone found out. What’s more, the blood meant you weren’t even real H’mai, but some kind of outcast to your families, who hated and feared you. So now the men in the Chosen hate everyone in return. You’re getting your revenge.’

  He bit his lower lip so hard it bled. With a curse he wiped the blood off on the back of his hand and glared at her.

  ‘Ah, I’m right,’ she went on. ‘But there are two Kazraks you don’t hate, Warkannan and this Jezro fellow. You did your best to protect Warkannan. The thought of killing Jezro makes you sick to your guts. Well, doesn’t it?’

  He said nothing, kept his hand pressed against his mouth, and stared at her as if he were wishing he could kill her with thoughts alone.

  ‘So, it does.’ Ammadin allowed herself a brief smile. ‘You’re keeping quiet so you won’t have to lie to me, aren’t you?’

  ‘Damn you!’ He let his hand fall into his lap.

  ‘Tell me something, Zayn. Why are Jezro and Warkannan different? Why don’t you hate them?’

  ‘Why the hell should I answer that?’

  ‘Because I’m a spirit rider, and the other men in your comnee risked their lives to save you.’

  He started to speak, merely sighed, looked away, looked back at her. Blood trickled from the cut on his lip. She waited, afraid to speak while his soul tottered on the edge of some inward chasm deeper than the Rift itself.