The Assassins of Tamurin

by S. D. Tower

  “Oh, I taught her, yes. It would be better for her if I had not, but she would not be denied.”

  “She thought it was . . . sweet and gentle, but that’s not what I saw. What was it?”

  Nilang’s gaze became distant. “There is more than one way to call the dead. The one I taught her is powerful but dangerous. If the passions of the summoner are unbalanced, as hers were and are, they may attract entities of cunning and malevolent character. That is what happened—worse, the creature plucked from her mind the appearance and voice of her child and took on both. It has deceived her for years, and its whispers have nourished her hatred, her grief, and her craving for revenge. Her thirst is now too vast for any vengeance to slake it. In that way, you are right. She is mad.”

  In that moment, despite all Mother had done, I ahnost pitied her. “But didn’t you warn her?” I asked.

  “Once. She would not believe me. After that, I kept my silence.”

  “You hate her,” I said. “That’s why you helped me, isn’t it? You hate her.”

  “Hatred is not why I helped you,” Nilang answered. “I helped you because, in turn, I need your help.”

  I could not imagine what use I could be to Nilang. “Why?”

  “Have you not listened? I am bound to her, and I need you to set me free.”

  “You? With your powers? How could she bind you?"

  “She did not. An enemy from my homeland did.” A look of irritation crossed her face. “Must you allow your curiosity to run riot in this manner? Your endless questions are vexatious.”

  “If you want me to help you,” I said, “you’d better answer them. I want to know what I might be getting into.”

  She raised her hands in a gesture of frustration, then let them fall into her lap. “Very well. Years ago, through the machinations of its rivals, my clan fell under accusations of treason and blasphemy. Many were executed. I was among the accused, and with a few of my followers I fled across the sea and came to Chiran. We needed to eat, so I became what you Durdana call a spirit summoner.”

  “And Mother found you.”

  “No, my enemies found me. One was named Aquika, who was my equal as an adept. She was to bring me home to hang, and she had men like Master Aa with her to see that I went.”

  “But you’re a sorceress—”

  “Pah! Sorcery cannot turn aside a blade or a blow, no matter what the stories say. My people and I fought Aquika’s men in Chiran’s streets with steel and other devices, until the uproar brought the Heron Guard down on us. They were too many for even Taweret fighters to resist. So we let them take us all to the Despotana.”

  “I remember,” I said. “I heard talk of it when I first came to Repose. She gave you sanctuary, then threw your pursuers out of Tamurin.”

  “Oh, that was what you heard, was it? There was more to it than that.” Her hands clenched. “The Despotana misses no chance for advantage. She brought Aquika and me before her in secret at night, and told Aquika she could take me away to my death. But when I pleaded for sanctuary, the Despotana appeared to reconsider, and she said I might have it, provided I bound myself to her service—which was what she had intended all along. What choice did I have? I agreed.”

  “What did Aquika do?” I asked. I'd never imagined a drama like this. I saw it in my mind’s eye: Mother’s gold and green audience hall, shrouded in night, the lamp flames reflecting in the white tiles of the floor. Mother on her dais with the alien sorceresses before her.

  Nilang laughed, a low harsh sound. “Aquika did not like it. But she did as much against me as she could, telling the Despotana that I must strengthen my oath of obedience with Taweret magic. That was a circumstance I had hoped to avoid, but what was I to do? It was swear or die, so I swore, and did the ritual and the summoning up of the witnesses, as Aquika demanded.”

  In spite of the fix I was in, these revelations fascinated me. “And what if you try to escape the binding?”

  “It is subtle. If I flee, alone or in company, then within a day I find myself walking in at the same door by which I went out. And if I do not obey the Despotana’s instructions, I must suffer visitations from the Quiet World, to remind me of my oath. The reminders are not gentle, and even I cannot endure them for long. As for betraying her outright or trying to kill her, if I did that, I would die by something worse than wraiths. Nor can Master Aa or my other servants remove her, because they are as bound to me as I am to her, and where I lead they must follow. In consequence, I have always served her to the best of my ability.”

  I frowned. “But telling me all this—^isn’t that against the binding? Won’t you suffer for it?”

  “Think harder, girl. How could I teach you at Three Springs if I could not speak freely? How can you and your sisters work to her best advantage, if you may not talk to each other about your tasks? But we can talk, because your wraith initiations and my binding are our common bond. They keep us from revealing secrets to those who are not initiates, but they must allow us to converse among ourselves. What use to the Despotana is an army of mutes? She knows better than to bind us as tightly as that.”

  A haunted expression passed across her face. “Although I dare not speak too directly, even to you, about what I need. Even to go this far may be a risk. But I must accept it, because it is the only road that may one day take me to my home and to my daughter.”

  I’d thought I was past surprise, but this jolted me. “You have a child?" I asked. I had never, ever, imagined that Nilang might be a mother.

  “Do you think you are the only one who has suffered kin loss? Yes, I have a child. But I have not seen her for sixteen years.” Her face contorted, and for an instant I saw what lay beneath her alien impassiveness: humiliation, sorrow, longing, fury, loneliness.

  “It was because of my daughter that I submitted. I wanted to live, because I hoped that some day I might be with her again. Had it not been for my child, I would have died before submitting to the Despotana.” Her voice rose. “I, bound to an outlander! I, who was sorceress to Tjekert-Rabaka and spymistress of the clan of the Khepekaremun! To put my neck under the heel of a madwoman!”

  She fell silent, and I heard her quick, angry breathing. Then she hissed, “She has stolen my life and kept me from my daughter, and you ask me if I hate her. Can you not determine this for yourself?”

  “So,” I said, “you want me to kill her for you. That's why you saved me.”

  Nilang leaned forward. “I released you from the wraiths, girl, and for that you owe me a life. I cannot advise you to remove the one we speak of, but if her heart stopped, I would be free.”

  “And there’s no other way for you to escape her?”

  “None. 1 cannot lift my binding as I lifted your wraiths. It is irrevocable while she lives.”

  I thought about that, and then I thought about Mother. At some moment in the past few hours I had stopped loving her. Now I wanted revenge for her treachery and I wanted justice for my sister’s murder. And I knew, too, that Terem and I would never be safe until she was dead.

  But I wasn’t the only person she had betrayed. “All this time,” I said, still hardly believing it, “she’s been helping Ardavan, hasn’t she? She told him Terem was marching on Lindu, hoping he might catch us at Bara. Then she told him we weren’t ready for a surprise attack in winter. Father Heaven only knows what else she’s given him. And now she intends to kill Terem and let the Exiles conquer Bethiya. Or am I mistaken in all this?”

  “You are not in the least mistaken.”

  “But why didn’t she order Dilara to kill him at Bara? Ardavan could have wiped out the whole Army of the East.” ‘True. But by the time the news reached the Despotana in Chiran, it was too late to get such an order to Dilara, even by one of my sendings. And I had no authority to order your Sun Lord killed—^that, she has always reserved for herself. But if she’d known his intentions sooner, he would have died at Bara. He moved too fast for her, and that saved him.” “How long has she been allied to Ar
davan? Does he even know she’s helping him?

  “He knows. When he overran Jouhar she saw what he might do for her, and she sent me to speak with him in secret. He was suspicious at first. But he knew what had happened to her family. The Exiles are great believers in blood vengeance, so her offer seemed a likely thing to him. Thus I was able to arrange the agreement between them: together they would destroy Bethiya, and thereafter Ardavan would guarantee the Despotana’s rule over Tamurin.”

  “But that makes no sense,” I protested. “What does it profit her if Ardavan takes Bethiya? There must be more to it than vengeance for her son’s death. And she must know that Ardavan’s guarantees are worthless.”

  Nilang cocked her head. “Ah. Do you remember how I told you she had adopted a formal heir? The girl named Ashken?”

  “I remember, but—”

  “Be still and listen. Suppose Ardavan, by the end of this year, conquers Bethiya and the remaining Exile Kingdoms. Now he sits in Seyhan, supreme lord of all the lands north of the Pearl, from the Juren Gap to the sea. But the Exiles are few and the Durdana are many, and his power will be more secure if he acquires legitimacy in the eyes of the conquered. How better to do this than take a wife from an ancient Durdana family, a wife descended from a great bloodline of the empire, and found a dynasty with her?”

  “Ashken,” I said. “He marries her. That’s part of the bargain.”

  “Yes. Then he proclaims his rule in the old style, and an Emperor and Empress sit again in Seyhan.”

  “But,” I objected, “there’s still nothing in this for Mother.”

  “The story proceeds,” Nilang said. “Ashken is now with child, and the Despotana dispatches ladies-in-waiting from Tamurin to assist her. The Empress bears a son, and soon afterward, Ardavan dies of an illness and the boy becomes Emperor Minor. The Empress is his Dowager Regent, and governs in his name.”

  A small cold smile touched her mouth. “And Ashken summons her beloved adoptive mother, the Despotana of Tamurin, to help her manage the realm. What could be more natural? And with the Despotana come more ladies-in-waiting, all trained at Three Springs, and people who object to the regency experience fatal accidents and lingering illnesses.”

  I closed my mouth, which had fallen open. Then I said, “And Mother rules the empire from behind the dais.”

  “Your perception is commendable,” Nilang said in a sarcastic voice, “if somewhat tardy.”

  “But what if Ashken has a daughter? The Exiles reckon succession only in the male line.”

  “A male child will be substituted, if necessary, in the hour of birth. Remember that Ashken will be attended by your sisters of Three Springs.”

  At first I thought the whole scheme as mad as Mother herself was. But then I thought again, and realized that she could do it. She had achieved so much else, why not this?

  “You helped her plan it all,” I said accusingly. “That’s how you know.”

  Nilang sighed. “Have you not heard me? I had no choice. But in the matter of which I spoke, what is your answer?” Even with what I now knew, I hesitated. Old habits are not so easily broken, and I had loved Mother for a long time. But then I remembered Merihan, and Perin, and Adrine, and all the young men who died at Bara, and I thought of how many more would die if Mother lived.

  “I’ll do it,” I said. “We’ll get to Chiran, somehow, and I’ll do it.”

  “Chiran? There is no need to go to Chiran. The Despotana is not there. She is in Kuijain.”

  I gaped at her in astonishment. “What nonsense is this? Why would she gamble with her freedom by going to Kurjain? She puts herself in Terem’s grasp.”

  “Ah, but she thinks no one knows about her plots and that no one would ever connect her to his assassination. Also she thinks that her presence in Kuijain is unlikely to be detected at all, and so believes herself doubly secure.”

  “But why does she need to be there? Why not stay in Chiran?”

  “Because in Kuijain she is some fourteen days closer to the center of things. She missed killing the Sun Lord at Bara, because of that fourteen days’ delay, and she does not want to miss him a second time. So she came secretly to Kurjain just before the Sun Lord marched to Gultekin, and gave Dilara and myself our orders—Dilara to kill the Sun Lord, me to tell Ardavan that the assassination is at hand. The Despotana will wait in Kuijain, until she receives my sending to tell her that he is dead and that Ardavan is sweeping across Bethiya. Then she will retum to Tamurin, and prepare Ashken to marry the new Exile Emperor.”

  I thought hard. With my waming, Terem might survive Dilara. But he still might lose tomorrow’s battle, and the barbarian darkness would sweep across the world. Killing Mother would not change that.

  Suddenly I sat up straight. Her death was only part of the solution. The rest of the answer was right in front of me.

  I said, “You’re supposed to tell Ardavan that Terem is going to be killed, so he can take better advantage of it in tomorrow’s battle?”

  “Yes. I am to slip across the lines tonight. He knows me from the earlier negotiations, as I told you. I cannot avoid doing this, if that is your plan. She has ordered me to go, and go I must, or suffer.”

  “I understand that,” I said. “Look, I’ll dispose of the Despotana for you, but first you must help me with something else.”

  “And what might that be?”

  “When you go to Ardavan, there’s nothing to keep me from going, too, is there?”

  “No. But to what purpose?”

  “So I can assassinate him,” I said.

  '"Whatl Are you as mad as she is? Suppose you come to grief? Who will dispose of the Despotana then?”

  “We can kill him if we act together. You’re always telling me to think, Nilang. Now you do the same. If we remove Ardavan, we wreck Mother’s plans from end to end.” “Wrecking her plans does not interest me. Her death is enough, so I can go home and find my child.”

  “But if you help Terem now, perhaps he’ll help you later. He’s the Sun Lord, Nilang. If any power can reunite you and your daughter, it’s his. He could even bring her here to Bethiya, where you’d both be safe.”

  I had never seen Nilang appear uncertain until now. “But we’ve been his enemies,” she protested. “Once Ardavan is dead, why should he do anything but execute us?”

  “I know him, Nilang.” Or I hoped I did. I was taking a tremendous gamble by expecting to negotiate with him, but he was already hunting us, and it seemed our best chance of survival. “He’s not a tyrant. He’s an honorable man. At the least, he’ll give us our freedom in retum for his victory. And remember, I’ve already told him about Mother, and he wants her dead as much as we do. If I can’t manage to kill her, he will. You’ll be ft-ee either way.”

  She chewed her lower lip, frowning. “I am still bound. If I tell him what I have told you, I will die in torment. You will have to speak for me. And I cannot be present. If I am, the binding will make me try to silence you.”

  “I’ll speak for you, Nilang.” A thought stmck me. “You said she expected a sending as soon as Terem was dead?” “Yes, I am to speak to her through Tossi.”

  “Can you send her a false report that will keep her in Kurjain until we reach her?”

  “That feels too close to betrayal. The binding might strike me down. I dare not.”

  “If she hears nothing, how long before she takes alarm and leaves Kuijain?”

  “I cannot tell. A few days, perhaps.”

  “Then we might just have time to get to her, if Terem helps us. But he won’t do that unless I assassinate Ardavan. What do you want to do, Nilang?”

  After a long silence, she rose to her feet. “Win all or lose all, then,” she said. “Come with me to the King.”

  Thirty

  I lay very still in the brittle winter grass and studied the fires of the Exile camp. Sleet pecked at my cheeks; bad weather had moved in on a freezing wind from the west and shut out the starlight. Wthout the distant glow of the watch
fires I could not have seen my hand in front of my face; Nilang, though she was only an arm’s length to my right, I could not see at all.

  I was lucky to have made her an ally Out of her satchel had come black clothing—she’d come prepared for anything, it seemed—and charcoal dust to darken our faces and hands. There was also a thin Taweret murder blade for me, like the one she carried. Dressed and armed, I slung her rope over my shoulder and we left.

  In the deserted streets we saw none of Terem’s searchers, and we got onto Gultekin’s southeast rampart without incident. There were sentries, but they were staying close to the meager warmth of their cressets, and didn’t see us as we roped down the outer face of the city wall. Getting from the wall to the Durdana camp took little time, but then we had to work our way eastward through our lines without being caught. It was like threading a dangerous maze, for many of the battahons that would fight on the morrow were aheady in position, and the soldiers had ht fires to keep warm. We had to pass so close to them that we could hear the men’s voices as they cursed both the cold and the Exiles and boasted about the enemies they expected to kill. But we moved slowly and carefully, our bellies on the frosty grass, no more than black shadows on the black earth, and no one saw us.

  Eventually the firelight and the voices lay behind. Once in the no-man’s-land between the armies we moved faster; now, as I lay on my belly in the darkness, only a stone’s throw separated us from the Exile pickets. I could see them moving up and down, silhouetted in the glow of their fires. As far as I could judge, it was about midnight.

  I slid closer to Nilang and whispered, “What next?”

  “We try to get in without being killed as spies. I have a pass token, but they must have a chance to see it. Stay behind me and make no suspicious movements.”

  We stood up and approached the black silhouettes ahead. Nilang had something in her hand, which she held out in front of her; it glearned dull gold and ruby in the firelight. Our garb and blackened faces made us hard to see, and the nearest picket still hadn’t noticed us when Nilang called to him in the Exile tongue. Even in the bad light I saw him stiffen with surprise, and then the glint of a spear blade as it swept down to threaten us.