Traitor's Knot

by Janny Wurts

  Ball-room garments flapped like flags and festooned the verges. Pink, pastel, and puce, draped animals bucked, while their gadded handlers punched and spat irate oaths through sarcenets. Batting tucks and pinched ruffles, or leaping ripped harness straps, the entire troop of veteran guards were thrashed helpless.

  No one noticed as some of the cloth bolts sailed upwards, still neatly bound in their ties. Like the departed coin, the goods crested the sand bluff and vanished from sight, followed, spinning, by the strong-box holding the Tiriac amethysts.

  Above, scarcely able to stifle whooped laughter, the clan scouts from Alland raced to and fro, their shirts stripped off to bag bullion. Others pounced to capture the errant rolls of white silk wheeling air-borne over their heads.

  At Arithon’s side, their jubilant spokesman surveyed the mussed snarl left of the caravan, whose beasts and men, provender and haulage, lay scattered amid a whirlwind morass of ripped shreds. ‘They’ll surely regret they were travelling in state,’ he gasped, choking back his amusement. ‘Why take the white silk adorned with gold tinsel? Do you have a source with a use for it?’

  ‘Another day’s plan,’ Rathain’s prince admitted, engrossed where he knelt, hand thrust in a sack placed before him. By now adept at imprinting his will, he blew on his knuckles. ‘You’re not tired of the fun?’ He released another handful of iyats to disorient a party of cross-bowmen who had somehow kept charge of their weapons. ‘Did I hear mention that Kyrialt’s bride wished to be married in scarlet?’

  The clan spokesman shrugged. ‘She’s said her man gets no welcome in bed if he can’t keep pace with her passion. The red cloth seemed a fitting retort. Those fiends are still taking your detailed instructions?’

  ‘Most of the time. Like the odd ninth wave, they sometimes defect.’ Peering askance through the sheltering thicket, Arithon located an intact bolt the appropriate shade of vermilion. He dispatched another fiend to go fetch. It did not turn errant. His chosen prize arose from the ground, swooped a circle, then zigzagged, and finally lofted over his head.

  While the scouts behind scrambled to catch the bride’s gift, the Master of Shadow tipped a nod towards his feet. ‘These were more difficult. Would you care to collect them? The winners deserve a keepsake for their efforts, which I’d say were no less than splendid.’

  The clan spokesman glanced down and saw the impossible: twelve bloodied darts lately retrieved from the hurtling flanks of the mules. ‘By Ath, you’ll have pulled off this raid, and left not a tell-tale trace of hard evidence!’

  ‘I scarcely expect the silk will be missed until someone sits up and takes inventory,’ Arithon admitted, nonplussed. Deprecation at odds with his piercing glance, he secured his odd sack with its volatile contents. ‘I think we should leave, fast as scuttling rats.’

  This time, the clan spokesman’s smile was genuine. ‘You’re expecting they’ll notice the tribute is gone the moment they start to regroup? No one’s dead. They can quarter the forest for iyats all night, with nary a wee coin to show for it.’

  Wormed out of the brush in time to meet Dakar, just returned, with Fionn Areth trailing behind, Arithon swiped a runner of briar from his sleeve. ‘All accounted?’ he asked, quiet. ‘No bagged scalps for Ganish?’

  The Mad Prophet mopped his soaked face, and huffed, ‘There could be, if we don’t pull out quick with no tracks.’

  Fionn Areth, cheeks glowing, seemed more effusive. ‘Vhandon and Talvish had bets with the scouts. We’d better camp in a secure clearing, they said, so they can get drunk and collect on their winnings.’

  The clan spokesman stared, rendered owlishly speechless until the mismatched pair of liegemen strode in. Though hemmed by the pack of disgruntled dartmen, Talvish’s inquisitive jade eyes stayed half-lidded. The more stolid Vhandon looked dead-pan.

  Behind the grass-lander’s innocent words, the caithdein’s picked emissary understood that his forestborn scouts were being exquisitely mocked. Beyond doubt, their skilled prowess had been upstaged by unmerciful cunning and sorcery.

  In an atmosphere grown too corrosively smug, the royal who held the two liegemen’s loyalty spoke first. ‘I’d sell that pair out, if we weren’t overburdened with fripperies. Who’s left to handle a knife in defence?’

  The clan spokesman retorted without humour as the two swordsmen stepped close, a faultless guard at their prince’s shoulders. ‘You want to escape with your care-free necks? Who else do you have to haul your wealth out of here, unless my men act as your pack-mules?’

  ‘But I do need your men.’ The Prince of Rathain succumbed to a hitched breath that stifled indecorous laughter. ‘Relax,’ he gasped. ‘My brief foray is finished. You don’t think there’s bound to be murder to pay?’

  The clan spokesman paused. Then he folded in half, wrecked to tears by the prince’s double entendre. Empty-handed at Southshire, a crack troop of lancers and their company of foot would be forced to explain how they had misplaced the Light’s tribute.

  ‘A plague of rogue iyats?’ The young clansman wheezed, helpless. ‘Ath save the poor fools from an undying shame. They’ll face jail and certain dishonour. Ganish league’s like to gut them for smearing their upstanding character. Fatemaster’s pity! In that captain’s shoes, I’d be quartering these forsaken bluffs until I was half-starved and ragged!’

  ‘Surely’ Arithon grinned. ‘On top of the fact they’ll be questioned as thieves, they’ve got to weather their public arrival exposed in a wretched state of undress.’ He flung out an arm, helped the shattered clan spokesman erect and on stumbling course towards the forest. ‘By all means, have your scouts guide us safely through Selkwood. In friendship, we’ll drink to white silk and gold, and the glory of discord sown through the ranks of the Light.’

  Lord Erlien s’Taleyn, High Earl of Alland and oathsworn caithdein of Shand, was a strapping bear of a man who lived for combative aggression. Within the close grotto used for winter quarters, he could barely stand without bending his neck. The hair Rathain’s prince would remember as dark, licked with silver, now gleamed snowy white in the rush-lit gloom.

  Turquoise eyes that bit like clear sky, the passage of years had not changed. Still fit in trim clothes, just as keen to provoke, the chieftain whose rule enforced old law in Selkwood searched the party of guests just delivered by the picked spokesman he had dispatched with his escort of scouts. That young man’s rankled frown was expected; the other, a masterpiece untouched by time, walked in and stared at his host.

  Mouth hung open, he looked like a creature out of sorts with his natural skin.

  Less nervy, perhaps stockier, he peered upwards. The top of his seal head just barely reached the black pearl strung on the thong at Lord Erlien’s collar-bone.

  Thrilled by the instinct that tagged easy prey, the High Earl of Alland hiked a booted leg over the table-top, perched, and extended his hand. The fingers he offered were sword-callused horn. The force of his grip strangled dignity.

  The creature he tried masked a desperate wince, then stood nursing his savaged forearm.

  ‘Nary the same welcome you’ve brought back to Alland,’ the High Earl announced with contempt. His prowling glance already dismissive, he watched the rest of the royal party squeeze in through the grotto’s entry. Two men-at-arms, the fat, puffing prophet once trained by Asandir, and another, whose face was alike to the one he had just abrasively greeted.

  Except this man’s carriage was quicksilver and light, unchanged, after all, from the searing encounter over crossed sword-blades twenty-six years ago. Lord Erlien beheld the same vision: a grace that could murder packed into a diminutive frame that stood four fingers shorter than the replica standing before him.

  ‘By Ath!’ The earl’s beard cracked to a carnivore’s grin. ‘For a second I thought I could not tell the imposter. Does your half-brother know there are two of you? He’ll split himself once he hears. No doubt that’s precisely what you intend?’

  Arithon Teir’s’Ffalenn smiled in the s
ame feral vein. He paused beyond reach of that badgering wrist shake, though this pass, he was not cut and bleeding. ‘The work isn’t mine. The Koriathain wrought plans with my capture in mind, and the effect is unfortunately permanent.’ He went on to introduce the stunned grass-lands herder to the most powerful authority in Shand. ‘The High Earl bites with all of his teeth. The best tactic you have is to smile, then guard your back like the sting on the hornet.’

  ‘Runt insolence,’ the High Earl declared, never laughing. First-hand impact of Arithon’s longevity scarcely hazed his tough nerves. The eyes of the man, so different, were what vexed. Here walked a contained self-awareness to freeze heat, or stun silence from kindled aggression. ‘Don’t claim you’ve come back to grace my son’s wedding.’

  ‘He would spurn my lyranthe?’ Arithon’s regard stayed wide-lashed and open. ‘Then I’ve brought him red silk as a poor consolation.’

  ‘Sopped in how much blood?’ Erlien shoved bolt upright and towered. ‘You high-handed meddler! I called that raid off! For scratching the varnish on one of those tribute chests, you’re asking to get my outlying camps run down and slaughtered for scalps.’

  That moment, an upsurge of commotion from behind, several jubilant scouts from the company shoved through. They all talked at once. The spokesman elbowed his randy fellows aside, also shouting to make himself heard through their clamour. The wild tale of the plunder on the Southshire road emerged in a cacophony of entangled phrases.

  Lord Erlien banged his fist and demanded the tale twice. Assured that no scout took a wound, and no head-hunters chased in hot vengeance, he bent his rampant displeasure aside and dissected the Master of Shadow. ‘ Iyats.’ He coughed back an incredulous chuckle. ‘That’s novel. Ath above, you’ll need worse. I presume you’re informed of the grandiose scheme Avenor is raising against you?’

  ‘Every dazzling detail?’ Arithon back-stepped, and reclaimed his sword from the custody of his blond liegeman. Head bent as his fingers rebuckled his baldric, he said, tired, ‘I’m amazed there’s a man or a woman alive who was born with the blind wits to swallow it.’

  Erlien grunted. His wrestler’s arm reached the shelf where his papers were stored, fished through a sheaf of guild inventory lists, then drew out a state missive with ostentatious gilt ribbons. He passed over the document, silent.

  Arithon’s features stayed blank as he read. The trapped light in the emerald set into his sword-hilt burned a baleful green, never trembling. He absorbed the last line, skipped to the flourished signature, then flipped the leaf over and perused the wax seals.

  ‘I should be impressed?’ he commented finally. ‘World renowned for foul works and mayhem, whether I practise such doctrine, or not? A shame. Shown such vulgar taste, what man with a mind would scarcely wallow to seek further clarity. Sweet faith, bliss, and bathos, it’s an execrable drama. Never mind that the theological concepts are glorified platitudes sprung out of lies.’

  ‘Why have you returned?’ Locked in moist rock and gloom, that peremptory inquiry called due a past debt, left as a torn thread of iniquity: once before, Rathain’s prince had asked the grace of an audience. That time, with no courtesy and no thanks for the law-bound gift of support, or the backing of Shand’s steadfast clans, he had been uncivil, and slipped off like a felon to fight his campaign in the barrens of Vastmark.

  Caithdein to a realm whose best strength had been spurned, the High Earl’s demand brooked no apology. ‘What will you do?’

  ‘About this religion designed for my downfall?’ Arithon cast the creased parchment aside. The froth of sarcasm melted away. Bone and flesh, what stood poised was an initiate master, whose grasp of the mysteries was no figment at all, but the living grace of what lay at the core of clan destiny, and the very marrow of the Fellowship Sorcerers’ guardianship. ‘I intend to oppose this false god with every resource set into my hands. Survive or not, fail or fall short, I will stop this grand edifice of the Light and its splintering disillusionment. If I can.’

  Lord Erlien weighed that claim through a harsh, settled stillness. Then he glanced from the prince pinned before his review and addressed the young clan scout dispatched as his primary spokesman. ‘Kyrialt, would you follow this man’s lead?’

  The vivid person revealed as the High Earl’s blood son returned a spirited shrug. ‘Father, the issue’s a moot point. Because with polite disregard for your orders, in fact, we already have.’

  Arithon’s gaze wavered. As though brushed by a fleeting instant of dizziness, he braced an arm to the wall in support.

  That moment, while some internal landscape threatened to shatter him like hollow glass, the High Earl of Alland made up his mind. ‘Your Grace, I shall grant you the chance to address my clan chieftains. Let them hear you after the wedding. You won’t find Orvandir’s council complacent. They’ve had my consent to place ears in the towns. By my orders, last month, every courier bearing the sunwheel blazon has been stopped, regardless of cost.’

  For one fleeting, wracked second, Arithon’s regret showed. Then his piercing stare dropped. He knew, none better, since a red dawn in Riverton: however careful the covering disguise, a clansman caught inside a walled town would not receive trial; only the horror of a public maiming, followed by execution. The document tossed aside on the trestle framed its own desolate statement: Shand’s caithdein had been more than generous with the lives placed at his command. Already his people risked life and limb for a cause that was none of their making.

  Arithon swallowed, glanced up, then offered his wrist with the unmasked pain of his sincerity. ‘I’m grateful you’ve spared me the indignity of asking.’ He did not wince at the crushing grip that sealed pact of honour with the chieftain who had once tested him to death’s edge, at sword-point. The distress that rang through as he closed was profound. ‘This time, to my sorrow, I believe that the stakes on the outcome are greater than all of us.’

  Spring 5671

  Vixen

  Far from the sun-slashed greenwood of Shand, the brisk northern winds howled over the clouded peaks beyond Eastwall. Snow whirled down in glass-tipped flakes. Their icy tap rattled into the panes of the casement window-seat where Elaira curled with a mug of hot tea, a quartz sphere tucked in her lap. Another storm smothered the passes in drifts, again delaying her departure.

  Where once she would have chafed with impatience, this afternoon’s calm retreat reflected the change undergone through her months of reclusive study.

  Five seasons in the company of Ath’s adepts had shifted the range of her knowledge. Now awakened to the inherent design of natural flux and wild forces, she could sense the living coil of energies that presaged the shift in the season. In the deep of the earth, through the whine of the gale, between the restless cycle as frozen water melted to the blazing light of the sun, she heard language.

  The thaws would come, soon. The snowpack would retreat and reopen the road, and the respite she had snatched in the quiet of Ath’s sanctuary would draw to an end. Her decision to leave was not challenged. The adepts’ code of silence honoured free will. If she asked their wise counsel, they answered her need with simple, but searching questions.

  ‘How do you feel? What do you believe? Where does your heart’s whisper lead you?’

  Her careful reflection converged to one thread. She cherished Rathain’s prince and trusted his strength without reservation. Kewar’s maze had affirmed his true quality. As an oathsworn enchantress, Elaira believed—no, she knew— that the sisterhood named her beloved as their inveterate enemy. The Matriarch’s resolve to chase him down would wait only so long, before Elaira’s lapsed charge would be handed off to another, or worse: rechannelled into a fresh avenue of pursuit more insidious than her given assignment. Against certain distrust of the Prime Circle’s intent, Elaira’s self-honest, caring involvement offered Arithon a tenuous stay of protection.

  At least if she failed, and he fell prey to the Koriani design for his capture, she could be present to temper the end
game. Determined, she could try to ensure that he would not be violated in ways that might destroy his inner integrity.

  Her heart’s whisper led her, courageous, to take the steadfast course of firm character. To stay by his side, and not to run, though the razor’s edge her decision must tread threatened to tear her asunder.

  If love were to rule Prince Arithon’s fate, and not hatred, Elaira would leave Whitehaven hostel at thaws. She chose that road with concern and raw dread, but not with self-questioning uncertainty. Attuned with the living pulse of Athera, now trained to partner the awareness of crystals, she had learned to access the mysteries without use of blind force or coercion. Opened to new resource, she sought the midafternoon quiet to measure the storm. Amid the untamed voice of the elements, she listened for the subliminal whisper that spoke of rebirth into spring.

  For Arithon Teir’s’Ffalenn was finally in Shand.

  The burst of excitement raised a tingle of nerves. His landfall that dawn at last opened the way to take charge of the burden that bonded her love to his fate. Selidie Prime’s orders had been known to him since his passage through Kewar’s maze. He had awarded Elaira his firm promise then to share the responsible course of that destiny.

  The enchantress raked back her unruly bronze hair. Pulse racing, she lifted the quartz sphere between her cupped hands.

  ‘Arithon, beloved,’ she whispered. Her mind framed his memory. The sweet wave of longing that swept her, bone deep, became the piercing focus to anchor her line of intent. Permission to stone was asked, and received. The crystal sphere in her clasp warmed and wakened. Long since tuned in concert with her affection, its conscious presence embraced her patterned awareness and amplified her request. Since her tie to Arithon was a sealed conduit, forged through the gate of the heart, the white-out snowfall over the mountains cast no veil of interference. The thread of his life-stream entwined through her being expanded to intimate focus…