Darkness and Steel

by Martin Parece

  She continued, “He couldn’t possibly wield enough power to transform all of the Westerners in Byrverus to Loszians.”

  “You are the expert in such magic, not us,” Cor replied, “but even if he could, I don’t think he would. The trueblood Loszians generally seem to hate the mixed breeds, and they view Westerners as slaves. I think Nadav would view such a thing as a gift, and he’ll carefully choose who it bestows it upon. No, I think he has something else planned.

  “I see no other choice. I’ll go to Byrverus.”

  “No other choice?” Thyss asked incredulously, and everyone in the room flinched as her voice was too loud for the confined area. “Of course you have a choice! Nadav wants you to go to Byrverus, so you do the exact opposite of what he wants!”

  “No,” Cor shook his head as he stood from the floor. “No, I must know exactly what we are fighting, and I won’t unless I see what Nadav has planned for the city. I guarantee that whatever he does in Byrverus he will do to every city in the Shining West.”

  This time it was Paton’s turn to be stunned, and he asked quietly, “You would sacrifice all of those people, just stand by and watch whatever he does to them?”

  “So that I have an idea how to fight him? So that I can save the rest of the Shining West? Yes,” Cor answered stolidly.

  Paton had no reply for the Dahken’s logic, but it was plain that it bothered him greatly. His bearing hardened, and Cor saw the noble strength return. “Then I imagine you will need to leave soon. Shall we say the day after tomorrow?”

  “If Thom is well enough to ride, that is acceptable,” Cor agreed. He knew that Paton would not argue with him further on the morality of his plans, but the lord had just shortened his welcome. “The Dahken, the children are welcome to stay here within the safety of your walls?”

  “Of course, as is Thom’s family. Lord Cor, as soon as you have decided, inform me how many will be in your party so that I may be sure you are properly provisioned.” With that, Lord Paton bowed curtly and stormed from Thom’s chamber.

  With the sudden exit of the lord, Keth peered around the wall into the room. Seeing Cor’s assent, both he and Marya filed quietly into the room to stand at Thom’s left. The three exchanged courteous smiles, though not lacking in warmth, and then looked to Cor and Thyss.

  “You stupid gray skinned, moronic bastard,” she shouted at him, “don’t you get it? He’ll kill you!”

  “No he won’t,” Cor said, sure of himself. “He wants me to see the fate of Byrverus and the Shining West. He wants me to know there’s no hope, and he probably thinks I’ll surrender to him. Regardless, he doesn’t want me dead.”

  Thyss opened her mouth to retort, but then thought better of it. Instead she said, “I’m coming with you. Someone has to keep your idiot head on its shoulders.”

  “I don’t think so, not this time. The journey here wore you out, and Lady Paton told you no more traveling. I won’t risk you and the baby both.”

  “You don’t fucking get it! It’s not your choice! I – am – coming – with – you,” she raged.

  Cor swore he smelled something burning, and he hoped it wasn’t his hair. She challenged him, and with child or not, he knew she was still very much the Thyss with whom he’d fallen in love. From this she would not back down. Cor knew he had no choice but to concede the point and do everything he could to protect them both. He slowly nodded, closing his eyes and sighing as he did so. Knowing she had won, as usual, Thyss stalked from the room.

  Cor glanced at Thom, who stared with a slight smile after Thyss, a stare that seemed to linger too long on her backside. Cor gritted his teeth as sudden jealousy erupted in his gut, and he felt a sudden urge to flatten the Loszian’s pointed nose. He calmed himself for a moment and then looked to his Dahken; they stood quietly, looking at their feet.

  “I was going to go alone with Thom,” Cor said to them, lifting their gazes, “but now I need your help. Your job is to protect Thyss, run with her at the first sign that things aren’t going well.”

  “She won’t like it,” said Marya.

  “She’ll have to live with it. She and the baby are more important than me. I’d sacrifice everyone in the Shining West to protect them.”

  “Lord Dahken, there is another problem,” Keth said, and Cor recognized the voice the younger man used when he reasoned through something. “We can’t leave the other Dahken alone. I don’t think Lord Paton would ever hurt them, but should something happen to the rest of us…”

  “There’s no one to help them learn of their powers,” Cor finished the thought, and he sighed. He suddenly felt very tired. “You’re right Keth, and that’s why I need you at my side as we travel to Byrverus. Marya, I need you to stay here until we return. If we don’t come back, take the Dahken and go south, go to Tigol. It’s not safe there, especially for children, but it’ll be safer than the West before too long.”

  Marya’s jaw clenched as he spoke, and she looked none to pleased. “Yes Lord Dahken. May I leave to attend my nursery then?”

  Cor hoped his face did not darken at her tone, and he simply waived her away. “It seems that I can only make them angry,” he said as her boots clopped down the corridor.

  “I am sorry Lord Dahken,” Keth nodded his head slightly as he spoke. “I will speak to her about it.”

  “Leave it be,” Cor said with a shake of his head. “She’s just a girl, and she’s powerful. She wants to use her strength; I understand. Please go let Lord Paton know that there will be four of us, and anything he can do to make Thyss’ travel easier would be appreciated.”

  “Lord Dahken?” Thom said as Keth bowed and exited the room, and Cor had almost forgotten the man’s presence. “Do you think it’s possible I could see my wife?”

  * * *

  Keth and Marya shared a small room and a bed, just like that in which Thom rested. When they had first arrived, Lord Paton had shown them two cells, identical and side by side. Keth started to refuse his room, saying that it was not needed, but the young Dahken was rather coy with his explanation. Marya was much more to the point.

  “Ah!” exclaimed Paton. “Young lovers, and fellow warriors as well! How romantic!” Marya laughed, and Keth merely raised an eyebrow at the odd, scholarly lord.

  “I can’t believe what you’ve done to me,” Marya scolded as they lay on the straw mattress, both unable to sleep.

  “What?”

  “You’re going to leave me to watch after a bunch of kids while you ride off to gods know what,” she said, turning onto her side to face away from him. “The three of you are going to die.”

  “No we’re not.” Keth had that damned tone in his voice. It was not contradictory, but completely calm and rational. “Lord Dahken Cor is right. If the Loszians wanted us dead, they would not have sent Thom to bring us to Byrverus.”

  “Us? What us?” she questioned as she flipped again, this time to face him. “The Loszian emperor himself sent Thom, a Loszian, to bring Cor to Byrverus. They don’t want us.”

  “Cor is Lord Dahken. We go where he leads.”

  “Cor has freed us to do as we will. He’s said it a hundred times, and this is our chance! Keth, we are young, we’re strong and powerful. Let us leave and go south, go to Tigol as he said. We’ll make a life for ourselves there, maybe as mercenaries. Or we’ll strike out on our own adventures, find the riches the world owes us.”

  “Marya,” Keth said slowly as he leaned up on one elbow to look at her. He couldn’t see her face, as she was silhouetted in moonlight. “Lord Dahken Cor needs me, and he needs you too.”

  “Of course he does,” she said with a sound in her voice, almost like contempt. “He couldn’t even defeat that traitor Geoff. He’s not as powerful as he would have us believe, and now he rides to watch an army destroy the largest city in the Shining West, maybe the world. Maybe we should all surrender to the Loszians now, join them even.”

  “Enough!” Keth shouted furiously, and his face twisted so that even Marya sud
denly feared him. “If you dare to walk that path, I’ll kill you myself, just as I should have killed Geoff when I had the chance. That is one mistake I shall not repeat!”

  Marya was so taken aback that she had no response at all. Never once had she seen him react so, and it frightened her in a way she had not thought possible any more. She sat up with her legs crossed on the far end of the straw mattress and simply watched him as he turned onto his side to face the wall. She watched him for an indeterminate time until he began to snore softly.

  “So you are willing to do anything necessary,” she said softly, and she kissed him softly on his temple. She lay down next to him and said, “I love you.”

  14.

  Thom, then a young man of only nineteen, had taken to riding across Aquis and meeting its people when his garrison tours ended for six months at a time. In one of these jaunts, he’d come across a wonderful fishing village on its western coast, and he found the climate there most enjoyable with the cool, salty breeze that always seemed to blow in off the water. He spent a week at the village on his first visit, finding a small but comfortable seaside inn. The innkeeper was a jovial man, and they came to enjoy each other’s company on a daily basis.

  When his week ended, Thom chose to move on and spend his last two months of leave riding the countryside, but he never found a place that brought him equal pleasure and serenity. A simple scout and ranger, he returned to duty at Fort Haldon when his leave ended, and he served with efficiency and pride. His six month duty concluded, he wasted no time returning to the fishing village, and the innkeeper received him as a friend, refusing to take his money.

  It was on this first return trip that Thom met Celia, a tiny slip of a dark haired girl seven years younger than he. The innkeeper’s daughter, she was now old enough to aid her father in the day to day running of the family business, mostly doing menial chores or serving customers. She spoke little to Thom, or anyone else, except when absolutely necessary during her various tasks. She was just a child in his eyes, and he treated her as such, mostly ignoring her, though not impolitely. Over his time there, he came to know the girl better, though she remained very shy, and Thom found her pleasant to be around.

  It took Thom nearly a month to ride from Fort Haldon all the way across Aquis, so as such he managed to spend only four months at a time at his haunt of choice. As the next few years pass, he watched Celia blossom fully into young womanhood, though she always remained much shorter than he at an even five feet. She had a full figure, though not unattractively so, and her hair always remained a brown so dark as to appear almost black. Thom found himself looking forward to seeing Celia more than the village or the inn, and she had come to smile and laugh more easily, especially around him.

  Thom was twenty three and again leaving for Fort Haldon when he told her, “I plan to marry you when I next return.” He looked behind just one time as he rode away to see her standing, watching him leave while still holding the flowers he’d given her as a goodbye.

  Celia had changed somewhat; her full figure had become a bit more rounded. Fifteen years and two baby girls had a habit of doing that to a woman, but Thom never cared. He only loved her more than ever.

  Cor tried to prepare her. He sat next to her on her own borrowed bed and told her that Thom was very much alive and with them. She sat in stunned silence, and seeing that it was no jest, wanted to go to him immediately. She begged Cor to tell her where she would find him, even saying she would search the whole castle herself if necessary. Still young, Cor hadn’t really been prepared for her reaction, and he had to block the door out of the room to slow her down.

  “What is it?” she asked, her suspicion rising. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “It’s hard to explain. The Loszians did something to him.”

  “What do you mean? They tortured my poor husband,” she concluded.

  “In a way, I suppose so. He doesn’t look like he used to; he looks like one of them.”

  “I don’t understand,” Celia said foggily. “Just take me to him. Please.”

  She begged, and Cor relented. He took her up a flight of stairs to the stronghold’s next level, led her down a corridor and stopped outside a door. He began to push it open, but stalled for just a moment. He looked at Celia and said, “You must be strong. He is Thom, your husband, no matter what he looks like.”

  Celia didn’t know what to expect. She thought to see him lying in a bed, perhaps, battered and broken. She expected horrific battle wounds or even massive burns across his face and body. She even thought that he may have lost limbs, but she did not think to see what lay in the bed in the room. A pale skinned Loszian lay within, blue veins easy to see across his face and arms. He was hairless and repulsive, with disgustingly long limbs and fingers with a decidedly spidery appearance. Prepared for the worst, she hardly reacted at all.

  “I…” she stammered, slow to think. “I don’t understand. Where is Thom?”

  “This is Thom,” Cor said gently. “This is what Nadav, the Loszian emperor, has done to him.”

  “I don’t know why you would torture me so!” she wailed, tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to leave, but again Cor blocked her exit.

  “It’s me my love,” Thom said, standing up from his bed, and his voice made her turn to face him. He stood from the bed, naked before her, and told the story of how they met. As he spoke, she slowly approached him, and he finished the tale embracing his wife.

  “My husband,” Celia said, “I can’t believe that it’s you. I can’t believe what they’ve done to you.”

  And something happened for which Cor was wholly unprepared. Thom’s face twisted into a visage of rage, even disgust, and he took Celia by each wrist to fling her back across the room to where Cor stood in front of the door. The action came so quickly and without provocation that Cor barely caught the woman before she barreled into him.

  “Then go you bitch!” he sneered. “Leave me be!”

  Celia wailed, and once she regained her balance, she frantically clawed at the door behind Cor. Stunned, Cor could not even move for a moment as he watched Thom seethe. Finally, he regained his senses and stepped aside, and Celia charged away, sobbing as she went. Cor watched as Thom’s sudden anger faded into despairing realization, and the Loszian sat back on the bed to cover his face with his misshapen hands.

  As they gathered in the courtyard at sunrise two days later, Cor was reasonably pleased to see that the two had made some amends. Cor had spent the better part of that evening holding Celia as she cried and explaining to her that Thom had been through much, through more than they could imagine. He would have scars, even if they were not on his body. The two had spent the entire next day together with their children. Cor knew Thom had other flashes of rage and other dark feelings, but Celia ignored these completely or even embraced her husband until they passed. Cor only hoped that whatever wounds he still bore would heal.

  Thyss looked critically at the accommodations Paton had made for her. Originally, the Lord had just assumed that she would travel in a sort of plush carriage, allowing her to rest instead of exerting herself. Pulled by two good horses, they would still make good time up Aquis’ roads, but Thyss would have none of it. The very thought that she could not ride was an affront to her, at least to her pride.

  Instead, Paton sacrificed one of his wife’s own saddles that she had used during pregnancy. It was an odd, one sided contraption designed such that one would sit side saddle instead of astride the horse. Two stirrups dangled down the horse’s left side, and the seat itself had been padded heavily. It had a low back to provide a woman with child some additional support and relief. The lack of excitement was plain on Thyss’ face, but she climbed atop the horse anyway and found the bizarre saddle oddly comfortable. She nodded her thanks to Lord Paton, who watched from across the courtyard.

  Lord Paton was not the only one who watched the four prepare to leave. In addition to Thom’s wife and daughters, Marya and the other Dahken ha
d arisen to see them off. Cor noted how all of them seemed to be taller than when they had fled Fort Haldon, and somehow he imagined they would look taller still when he returned from Byrverus. If he returned from Byrverus. They milled about, asking questions like, “Why do you have to leave again?” and, “When will you be back?”

  Amidst this chaos, Keth pulled Cor aside, shooing away some of the children so that he may speak to his Lord Dahken in some semblance of privacy. He felt Marya’s suspicious eyes upon him the whole time, and even Thyss, normally well practiced in her apathy, seemed curious.

  “Lord Dahken, we need to change our plans,” he said in hushed tones.

  “Why? What’s wrong?” asked Cor.

  “You should take Marya, leave me here.”

  “Why?” Cor asked again, confusion building. “If this has something to do with what we discussed the other day…”

  “No, no Lord Dahken,” Keth interrupted, and he could see that Cor was losing his patience. “Marya has more to offer you out there than I do. I only fight. Should something befall you or Lady Thyss, Marya has the ability to heal, which I do not. Also, I am the best choice to stay here with the Dahken, to train them and lead them away should things turn against us.”

  “Keth, I need you at my side.”

  “Then you are willing to accept the possibility that Marya will be the next Lord Dahken?” Keth asked, and as Cor was taken aback with the thought, Keth knew that he had struck a fine blow. He pushed on, “Right now, Marya cannot be trusted to do what is best for our people and especially the Westerners. You said it yourself, she is young and powerful, and there is more. She thinks herself better than them.

  “By the gods, I think I love her. The thought of being without her hurts, do you understand?” When Cor nodded, Keth had but one more thing to say. “I trust her fully at my back in battle, but Lord Dahken, I do not trust her to lead wisely. And she will likely never forgive me for what I’ve just done.”