by Victor Poole
Ullar looked terrified to be saying this; the woman's cheeks were damp with tears, and covered over with pallor, but her lips, when she spoke again, were firm.
"I did not want my son to be a priest," she told Delmar. "No mother would," she added, glancing to Denai. "Beryl told me that she would keep my son safe. When he was taken by the witches, I thought it was not Beryl. I thought that Beryl was telling the truth. Beryl told me she had placed my son in a quiet house, where it was safe. But she came to me later, and told me that a pair of witches had come, and carried my son away. She told me that they had burned away the flesh of my son. She told me that she, and the others, the witch hunters, would try to catch my son, and destroy him."
Ullar took a shuddering breath, and then she continued.
"When you came," Ullar said to Ajalia, "I thought that you were repeating what some servants have heard. People have gossiped about my son," Ullar said, and she began to cry silent tears again. "They have heard that he is hard to kill. I don't know how. I don't know what the witches did to him. Some time, a couple of years ago, perhaps, Beryl told me that she thought we would be able to save my son. She wanted me to cooperate with them, with her and the witch hunters, and to try to contact Bain. I am sorry," Ullar said. "I am sorry that there is so much to tell. I wish there was less." Ajalia watched, and Delmar folded his arms patiently. Denai was standing quietly in the background. Ajalia saw that the horse trader had a sheaf of papers, and a wrapped bundle in his arms.
Ullar took another shuddering breath, and wiped at her eyes.
"Beryl came, and said that she wanted to help me. She said she wanted to get my son back. Thell had come to see me once, a long time ago. He told me that he knew I had given our son to the witches, and that he would take me to the witch hunters if I didn't help him. I was already working with Beryl, then, of course, so he couldn't do anything. All of the witch hunters, and Beryl, knew that I wasn't a witch. I thought you had heard about my son," Ullar told Ajalia, "and that you were trying to get gossip out of me, or secrets." Ullar glanced at Delmar. "I did not realize that you were with the Thief Lord," Ullar said.
"How did you get with Denai?" Ajalia asked.
"Beryl came to me," Ullar said, "about two years ago. She said that she could help me see my son again, but that I would have to help them as well. Beryl paid my debts, and that is when I started to grow my hair. I married Denai," Ullar said. She glanced at the place where the horse trader stood. "It was one of the old ceremonies," she said, "to bind the spirit. We have never lived together. Denai came to me, and told me what they wanted, and I told him anything that happened. I also," Ullar said hesitantly, "told him about Thell. I felt I had to. Beryl knew, of course, and I explained what Thell had said, and done. I think that Denai went to see Thell sometimes." Ullar glanced doubtfully at Ajalia. "I don't want to be punished," Ullar said. "I thought Beryl was all right. She was the witch-caller, and she was supposed to be straight. You thought she was straight," Ullar added, turning to Denai for support. Denai said nothing, and after a moment, Ullar went on. "I started to hear from my son, only a few days ago," the mother said. "I thought that what Beryl was doing was working. Bain started to leave messages for me, in the air just outside my window. He started to write messages," Ullar said with a shaky laugh, "in scraps of clouds. He told me that he had found someone who could help. I guess he meant you," she added, looking at Ajalia.
"What about the night you came with a metal bar, and followed me?" Ajalia asked. Ullar's face turned quite ashen.
THE
END OF COREN'S COOPERATION
"That was not me," Ullar said at once. "That was someone else. I did not follow you."
"She's lying," Ajalia told Delmar. Delmar nodded. "Denai told me you had started to look for a body," Ajalia said. "Why were you looking for a body?" And why did you want my body, she added in her own mind. Ullar glanced with terror at Delmar, and then she looked again at Ajalia.
"I wasn't looking for a body at all," Ullar said hoarsely.
"I think Beryl told her," Denai said, "about what some of the witches believed. They had never reversed the burning process," Denai explained, "but it is supposed to be possible."
"The old books speak of such things," Delmar murmured.
"I was not looking for a body," Ullar said, her voice climbing in panic. "It wasn't me."
"Did Bain tell you to look for me?" Ajalia asked.
"No," Ullar said instantly, shaking her head so vigorously that her hair began to come loose from its pins. "No, that was before Bain could speak to me. I mean, it wasn't me," Ullar said, blushing crimson.
"Is that why you wanted to keep the body of the witch, in the tenement?" Ajalia asked. "Were you hoping to make a new body for Bain?"
"No," Ullar said, her voice so dry that it was like the scrape of bones over stone. "No," she said again. Her eyes darted to Delmar. Ullar looked like a great, unhappy dog. Her nose was quivering with grief, and her cheeks were still wet with tears.
"Denai," Delmar said, and Denai breathed in slowly, and a strange white glow began to form all around his body. Ullar began to glow as well, and Ajalia saw that the middle-aged mother could not move her legs.
"Release me, you fool!" Ullar hissed at Denai, but Denai was watching Delmar calmly.
"I have betrayed my Thief Lord once," Denai said, his voice steady, "I will not do it again." Denai held his bundle and the cluster of papers, and watched Delmar expectantly. Ajalia thought that Denai seemed more acclimated to Slavithe than the other spies had been; he seemed far more loyal to Delmar, and readier to see himself as a man who lived in the city, and had some roots there. The other spies, to Ajalia's mind, were like loose stones rolling along the bottom of a river, knocking against things, and never finding a place to rest.
Ajalia watched Ullar struggle to move, as Philas had struggled to get away from the golden binding lights, and she wondered if Delmar had the power to make a similar glowing bind on her own body. She guessed that the form of marriage Ullar had spoken of was the same trading of golden inner lights that Delmar had undergone with her, and she asked herself what she had gotten herself into. She thought that she would have to grill Delmar thoroughly on the powers imbued by this transaction, once Ullar and Philas had been dealt with.
"I can tell you a lot about Bain," Coren said. He had been standing and watching Ullar's recital with something like scorn on his face. "It isn't at all like she said," Coren said. The boy stared at Ullar, and then looked around at Ajalia. "You won't like it, when you hear," Coren warned. "Or you," he said, looking at Delmar.
"Do you know what he means?" Delmar asked the horse trader. Denai raised his shoulders helplessly.
"What I know is what Ullar has said," Denai said. The man's voice was abrupt, and honest. Ajalia was sure that he was telling the truth.
"Well," Delmar said to his little brother, "go on."
"She'll sell me as a slave, when she knows," Coren said. "She told me she would."
"I said that was a path you could choose," Ajalia said. "I said it was up to you." Coren looked at her, and the hardened curve was at the edges of his lips again. The shadow of the uncouth, sarcastic boy he had been so recently showed behind his eyes.
"You won't like it," Coren said again. "I'd rather be sold now. He wouldn't hate me so much." Coren nodded towards Delmar, whose jaw tightened.
"Tell me what it is," Delmar said. Coren sneered a little. Ajalia saw that the boy was terrified, and was hiding it under the pretense of disdain. Coren's eyes wore a white rim of terror around the edges.
"I warned you," Coren said. "You'll be very upset." Delmar waited, his mouth in a line. Ullar, who was watching Coren suspiciously, made a renewed effort to escape the glowing sphere of white light. Coren looked at the woman. "I'm a fool for telling you," Coren said, "but this is what happened. My mother told me when I was very little that she was going to buy a friend for me." Coren glanced at Delmar. "I was not very old," he said. "She said that she didn't like
Delmar anymore, and that she was going to make me into her helper. She said I was going to be very important, and that my father would end up liking me more than the others."
"More than Wall or Delmar?" Ajalia asked. Coren nodded. Coren was addressing most of his speech to her; Ajalia thought that since the great battle that had unfolded in the hall, when she had hidden Coren's eyes from the bloody spectacle, that he had taken a view of her as a sort of surrogate mother. He seemed to think that Ajalia would be more sympathetic to his story than his elder brother would be.
"She took me twice to go and meet Bain," Coren said. "He was a year younger than me, and he was living with his mother then. Ullar claims that Bain was sent away, but I visited their house. They lived in a nicer house then," Coren said. "There was a garden in the back, and a puppy."
Ajalia had seen very few dogs in the city of Slavithe, but she knew that the farmers kept dogs, out in the fertile valley outside the walls.
"Do you know if your mother took you outside the walls?" Ajalia asked. Coren looked at her, and shrugged.
"I don't remember," he admitted. "I remember a garden, and the little dog. She could tell you, though," he added, with a cruel smile. "After the second time, my mother didn't take me there anymore, but she told me that Bain was going to be my new little brother. She started doing spells on me then. I didn't understand what they were, but she gave me things, to keep me quiet, and told me not to tell anyone."
Ajalia could see that Delmar was trying to understand so far why Coren had thought he would be angry at this story. She was glad that Delmar was not interrupting; she thought that it was difficult for Coren to be saying these things, and that he would clam up easily.
She looked around at Ullar, and saw that the middle-aged mother was opening her mouth, and moving her lips soundlessly. Ajalia looked at Denai, and saw that the horse trader was looking with some concentration at Ullar. She suspected that whatever power was allowing Denai to hold Ullar captive was also making it possible for Denai to keep the woman from speaking. Ajalia began to wonder if she would need to talk Delmar into reversing the old form of marriage that he had practiced with her. She did not like the idea of Delmar being able to force her to hold still and not speak. She glanced at Delmar, and wondered if he had any inkling of the thoughts she was thinking. Delmar was still looking at his little brother, and frowning.
"When I got older," Coren continued, "my mother took me with her, to meet with the witches. A lot of the witches were hunted, and died over the years, but my mother was never caught. I didn't know that Beryl was one, too, but she must have helped make Bain."
"Where was Bain kept?" Ajalia asked. Coren's mouth drew down into a frown.
"He lived with his mother for a long time," Coren said, "all the way until they burned his body away. I wasn't there," Coren said, "but they all talked about it. My mother had had an idea that they could take a part of me, and a part of Bain, and switch our souls. They thought they could make Bain immortal."
"What about you?" Ajalia asked. "Was she going to make you immortal?"
"No," Coren said.
"What was she going to do with you?" Delmar asked. Coren looked up at him, and an unreadable expression was in his eyes.
"I don't know," Coren said.
"Does that mean that you do know, and you don't want to talk about it?" Ajalia asked. Coren made a face at her.
"They wanted to kill me, but my mother didn't think it was necessary. They cut out a part of me, and did the first part of the transplant. I got a part of Bain's soul, and he got a part of mine."
"Why did the other witches want to kill you?" Delmar asked. Denai was standing still, his eyes fixed on Ullar, his lips drawn together in concentration. Ullar was twisting a little, trying to break free of the white glow that held her immobile.
"They wanted to do the transfer all at once," Coren said, "but mother thought it was a waste. She wanted my soul still for her experiments. She wanted to see if she could keep my body alive, with both my and Bain's souls inside. She said it was fair to give Bain the use of my body, because he had given up his body, and I would still be there, even if I was in pieces."
"That's awful," Ajalia said. Coren stared at her.
"Anyway," Coren said, "the transfer made me sick, and I couldn't leave the house for a while. This was last year. They hadn't dared try the magic before that, because I hadn't finished getting my soul colors."
"I thought the witches couldn't see the colors," Ajalia said.
"They can't," Coren said sourly, "but they can smell them. The witches say the colors smell brittle, when they haven't come in all the way."
"Fashel told me the women smell the colors because they're beaten if they see them," Ajalia said suddenly. "Is that true?" she asked Delmar. Delmar shrugged.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I'm not a girl."
"Do you know?" Ajalia asked Denai. Denai looked over at Ajalia, and she thought she saw embarrassment mounting in his cheeks.
"Um," Denai said.
"That means yes," Coren told Ajalia. "Anyway, my colors grew in, and I smelled ripe, so they did the first transfer, and then I was sick. They were going to try another one, before you started messing about with Delmar."
"Is that what your mother called it?" Ajalia asked, amusement lapping at her insides.
"Yes," Coren said, unashamed. "She complained very loudly about how you were turning Delmar into another person. She said he was nice and docile, before you started putting ideas into his head. She thought you were seducing him," Coren said frankly. He looked up at Delmar. "That's why you're going to be angry at me," he said. "You can send me away now."
"I don't care what she thought," Delmar said. "Is there anything else about Ullar?"
"I can't hold her for much longer," Denai said. His voice sounded strained. Delmar nodded, and Coren, who was frowning at his brother, opened his mouth.
"We can fight about mother later," Delmar told Coren. "Is there anything else about Ullar?" Coren glanced with distaste at the woman.
"She came to visit with the witches sometimes," Coren said. "They told her that they wanted another body. They thought, without my mother overhearing, or knowing what they were about, that they would be able to split me and Bain into several pieces. They wanted Ajalia. They said she would taste good. Ullar said," Coren added, "that she would bring the witches Ajalia, and they could eat her, and then use the body to stuff with extra pieces from me, or from Bain. My mother would have found out," Coren told Ullar, who was struggling viciously, and who seemed to be gaining some little headway in her fight to free herself from the gentle shell of white.
"Lies," Ullar gasped. Denai let out a grunt, and Ajalia saw him glaring with intent focus at Ullar, his lips pursed hard together. "The boy is lying about me," Ullar said.
"She'll get free in a minute," Denai told Delmar, who nodded.
"If you're lying to me," Delmar told Coren, "or making up stories, I will beat you, and sell you as a slave. I can get Ajalia to find a horrible situation for me. She knows about that kind of thing."
"The king in the far west is always in the market for royalty," Ajalia said to Delmar, but her eyes were fixed on Coren. "I can't tell if he's lying or not," she added. Delmar nodded, and stepped forward to Ullar. He wrapped his hands around Ullar's arms, and restrained her. Delmar gave Denai a swift nod, and the horse trader let out a gasp, and bent down over his knees, breathing hard, the papers and the bundle clutched in his arms.
Ajalia had a thought, and she patted Coren on the arm.
"I'm going to go and get Esther," Ajalia said. "She'll help us know what the witches were planning." Coren, who had, up to this point, looked utterly cool and scornful, started a little. His eyes jittered.
"I'd rather you didn't," Coren said.
"Why?" Ajalia asked. "Because you're lying? You know that if you're telling the truth, Ullar might die."
"No," Coren said nervously. "She'll just go to jail." Ullar, who had been watching this excha
nge closely, and rotating her jaw, laughed.
"The boy lies," Ullar rasped. "He has always been a liar, like his mother. What I told you was not strictly the truth," Ullar told Delmar, "but the boy lies."
"Then what is the truth?" Delmar asked her. Ullar's mouth clammed up.
"Do you know that Bain is dead?" Ajalia asked her. She was growing tired of this scene; she wanted to get back to Philas. Delmar seemed to notice her look of angst, and he jerked his head towards the inside of the temple.
"Philas," Delmar said softly, and Ajalia nodded. She turned and went away, leaving Coren behind. The boy tried to follow Ajalia, but Delmar barked out his name sharply, and Coren stopped, and looked guiltily around. "You are coming with me," Delmar said, his whole body a fixed point of authority and power. Ajalia saw that the boy would not run. Delmar seemed to have mesmerized him into standing, and waiting to be told what to do. Ajalia went towards the room where Philas was bound. She felt an overwhelming desire to curve away into the darkness, and to steal up to her own bed.
Ajalia found that she had been growing tired throughout the whole of this day; she had felt a kind of trembling behind her eyes for some time, but she had ignored it, and told herself that she would wake up from whatever weariness had her in its grip. She found now, as she approached the place where Philas was, that she wanted to run away. She did not want to get away from Delmar, but she wanted to get away from how she felt. Images of the fight between the priests and the witches had been tugging at her, in the back of her mind, for some time, and her whole skin felt jittery.
She was feeling more and more as if she were walking on the edge of a blade, and she felt that if she took a breath wrong, or closed her eyes for a moment, she would topple down, and all that she had seen done so far in Slavithe would tumble down into nothing. She could see that the city was in a state of intense flux; she saw that the priests were weak now, and that the people would be receptive to a purge, or a magic test, to rid the population of the predators that were hiding in plain sight. Ajalia wanted to take a five-minute break; she wanted to stop talking to people, to anyone except for Delmar, and she wanted to curl up against Delmar's chest and make him hold her. She wanted to hear the beating of his heart, and the quiet sound of his breath, and she wanted the whole rest of the world to go away.