None of this was why he had come to the university. He had wanted to find Senda to ask her to help him find information on Urik. If Elizabeth wouldn’t help with Urik, maybe she’d help there. “I need to find Senda.”
“That is a different conversation.”
“Do you know where I could find her?” He looked back up, this time holding her gaze, refusing to look away.
“If Listain has her out of the city, then he will be the only one who knows where she’s gone.”
“She’s not out of the city. I heard she’s here, in the university. She asked me to find her.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Do you think we would shield her from you, Mr. Verilan?” When he didn’t answer, she shook her head. “She would have other important activities required of her, those where you should not interfere.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“Why? Because you want to learn about Urik? I can confirm that he’s holed up in Thealon. There is nothing the Denraen will be able to do, or the guild, that won’t risk angering the priests, even though you both will have a pissing contest to see who can reach him first. Perhaps if you could step back, you might recognize that he could be useful, find a way to use his planning to your benefit, which is the ploy I intend to take with him.”
“If Urik has planned half as well as you’ve already said he has, how do you think you can use him? He would expect that.”
Elizabeth stared at him for a moment before finally laughing. “Maybe you can learn, Mr. Verilan. No. I do not intend for Urik to know that he’s been used. He can only know what we want him to know. A controlled misinformation, of sorts. That is how you will manage to take care of him. If worked correctly, he will be both useful, and he will get the justice needed for his crimes.”
“I thought you said there were no crimes?”
“You weren’t listening then. There were crimes, only they were not the ones you are so concerned with. He used knowledge that he should not possess, and traded it to those who should not have it, effectively unifying what had intentionally been separated.”
“I…”
She stood. Elizabeth came barely up to his chin, but she somehow made that seem an advantage. “You cannot understand this, Endric Verilan. You are of the Denraen. It is possible that in time, you will understand more, but now is not that time. You do not think of enough possibilities. Learn. Expand your mind, not just your body. Do not rush off without preparation. Otherwise you might find yourself used in ways you do not intend to be.”
She held his gaze, and this time when he looked away, he noted a dark ring on her finger.
He’d seen a ring like that before. Novan had a similar ring.
“You mean like Novan. And the Hunter.”
She offered a hint of a smile. “Already you know more than you should, which is why I’ve shared with you what I would otherwise have not. Know that there are those who work within the world who seek order.”
“Such as Novan.”
“The historian is one.”
“And Brohmin.”
She tipped her head. “The Hunter is unique. If you have met him, then I think you would recognize that.”
Endric nodded. There was little question that Brohmin was unique. “I thought my father was a part of it as well.”
“Dendril once had a role to play, but he elected to back away.”
“And Tresten?” Those were the names that came to mind as he recalled a conversation had months ago.
“Tresten? Ah, yes. Tresten would also have a role.”
“What are we to do?” Endric asked. It felt odd asking Pendin’s mother, but seeing as she seemed to know more than she should, he thought it prudent. He could see the rationale in using Urik, especially if his next move was to go after the Deshmahne. When Endric thought about it, that had been the entire reason that he’d used the Denraen. Urik had wanted to go after the Deshmahne. Endric shared that interest as well. Urik might have sent Andril to his death, but it had been the Deshmahne who had claimed him—and sent his head back to Vasha as a message.
“You? You should return to the barracks. Follow your orders. Learn what Dendril would have you learn. You will be valuable in time, Endric, but for now, you have a different role to play—that of student. Think about what I have told you, and about the ways that you can learn, and you might be useful.”
“And Pendin?”
She sniffed. “Seeing as how you have involved my son, I have little choice but to support it. I would have chosen otherwise for him. There are dangers I thought to protect him from, but they are the same dangers that your friendship has dragged him into. If that is all, I would suggest that you return to the barracks. I will allow this indiscretion to pass, but do not make the mistake of violating the sanctity of the university again.” She turned her attention to Pendin. “You know better. You should have prevented him from coming.”
“He is my commanding officer.”
She sniffed, a sound that was mostly a laugh. “I think he is more than your commander. He will place you in danger, Pendin. Make certain you are prepared for what is to come. I can only protect you so much.”
13
Endric stood in the barracks, watching the troops’ arrangement as they made their way through their movements. Nearly two dozen men marched through formations, each of them precise, practiced in ways that Endric could not repeat. He didn’t have the necessary leadership, and the men didn’t follow him, not as they did even the newly raised sergeants who worked with the troops here.
He had gained some notoriety, but that was for his willingness to face Dendril day after day. There was even some for his willingness to work with Listain. Few of the Denraen spent any time with the spymaster, most preferring others to train them in hand-to-hand combat.
One of the squads marched past, and Endric watched.
This one was led by a man by the name of Carson. He’d been a simple soldier with Endric, and they had occasionally gone on patrol together. There were few who viewed Endric positively since his promotion. Most had little idea of what he had done for the Denraen and thought that he’d only gained his rank through nepotism. There were times Endric thought the same way.
Carson hollered at the men to stop, making a point of doing so directly in front of Endric. Endric considered moving away but decided against it. He would stay, and he would listen. Maybe there was something Carson could teach him, a lesson that he could learn from even the sergeant. Wasn’t that what his father wanted from him?
“Why do we march together?” Carson hollered.
“We are stronger together,” the Denraen yelled in unison.
“What happens when one man thinks himself above the others?”
“He puts the Denraen in danger.”
“What is the purpose of the Denraen?” Carson asked.
“To serve peace.”
“What happens if one man thinks himself above the Denraen?”
“Precious peace may fail.”
Endric resisted the urge to glare at Carson, recognizing how the words were directed at him. This had the sense of a practiced drill, backspace.
Carson glanced over, a stern expression on his face. “March on, soldiers. Stay together. The Denraen are stronger together.”
Carson watched Endric rather than the troops as they departed. There was nothing he could do, and nothing he could say to counter it. Worse, Carson was right. Even though it had been a year since he’d been raised to en’raen, he still struggled with his past mistakes, and he struggled with a reputation that he couldn’t shake.
Would he ever be able to shake it? If he couldn’t, he would never be able to effectively lead.
Endric wasn’t even sure how to lead. He knew what was expected of him, and he knew tactics and drills and formations, but he didn’t know how to influence men and how to win them over. He was skilled with the sword, but not even as skilled as his father. How was he ever going to replace Andril?
He wasn’
t.
As much as he wanted to serve in his brother’s stead, maybe he could not. Maybe the truth of the matter was that his previous transgressions would prevent him from being effective. It might not matter how hard he tried, or how hard he worked, and it might not matter that he had changed. Maybe he did more damage to the Denraen remaining with them, attempting to serve as en’raen.
“Endric.”
Endric tore his gaze away from Carson as he led his squadron of soldiers across the barracks lawn. His father stood behind him, his uniform crisp and his face clouded with irritation.
“Walk with me,” Dendril said.
Endric nodded. Now would be a time for another of his father’s lessons, likely the last before he was deployed from the city, sent away with no way to reach Senda and no way to act on the rumors that had come out about Urik. Would his father require another sparring session with him? Would he think to humiliate him once more, one last time before he left the city? Maybe Endric should summon Carson over and let the other man observe his humiliation. He imagined the sergeant would enjoy it.
Endric started toward the wall of practice staves, but his father shook his head.
“Not today,” he said.
Endric watched as Dendril led him across the barracks, guiding him toward the gate that led from this terrace, granting access to both the third and the first terraces. As they passed through the gate, the men stationed there saluted, paying the most attention to Dendril. Endric was not even worthy of a salute, though he possessed rank and should have been saluted the same as his father.
“You should salute your en’raen as well,” Endric said, directing his irritation to the soldiers. The lack of salute rarely bothered him, and maybe it was Carson’s harassment getting to him. Endric knew that he shouldn’t allow it, and knew that he should hold himself to a higher standard, but it frustrated him.
The men quickly saluted, nodding to him, and then to Dendril as well.
His father watched him with a curious expression, guiding him away from the gate and toward the ramp that led down to the first terrace of the city. “There are better ways to encourage them to salute you,” Dendril said.
“They salute their general. They should salute their officers as well.”
“Do you think to gain their respect by forcing it?” Dendril asked.
Endric sighed. “It doesn’t seem that there is any way that I can gain their respect.”
“None? I suspect if you brought Listain through here, you would see them saluting him.”
“He’s your Raen.”
“You think they salute him because of his position?”
Endric grunted. “They salute because they fear him as spymaster.”
“They salute because they respect him,” Dendril said. “Gain their respect, and you will find them saluting you as well.”
“Is that your lesson before I leave? Is that why you brought me out here, so that you could see how I would interact with the guards at the gate? I’m sorry that I don’t interact with them the same way that you do.”
Dendril snorted. “You most certainly do not. And that’s not the reason I brought you out here, though seeing your interactions has provided me with the insight I had not possessed. While you’re deployed south, you will have an opportunity to interact with Denraen. Practice gaining their respect so that when you return, you can take those lessons and expand upon them. For you to be effective as en’raen, you will need to have men respect you. They cannot simply fear you or fear your title. No one follows the title. They follow the man.”
They stopped along the ramp leading down into the lower section of the city. From here, much of the first terrace spread out below them. The sounds of the city were a mixture of voices and music and hammering and dozens of other sounds, all coming together, all creating a vibrancy that was present upon the first terrace. Smells drifted down from the city to him as well, those he recognized coming from taverns or bakeries, along with other, dirtier scents that managed to reach his nostrils.
“What do you see?” Dendril asked.
Endric grinned. “I see this part of the city.”
“What about it do you see?”
Endric frowned at his father. “Is there something in particular you expect me to observe?”
“Just answer. Tell me what you see.”
Endric studied the city. There were dozens upon dozens of shops. In the distance, he could make out the Urmahne temple, its shape attempting to mimic that of the Tower of the Gods found in Thealon, though Endric’s memory of the tower was that it was an enormous and impressive structure. The temple was a pale replica. Beyond that, he could make out the beginning of the University.
Endric shrugged. “I see shops. The temple. The University. What is it that you want me to see?”
“The University.”
Endric’s heart started to hammer, and a bead of sweat formed on his brow that he resisted wiping away. His father knew. “Father—”
Dendril stared into the distance, not turning toward him. “When Elizabeth sent word to me that you made your way to her, I was surprised.”
“Dendril—”
“Then I heard how you managed to make your way into the University. You use your connections to your steward and forced your way through tunnels that had been closed.”
Attempting to use his lie about finding the gate unlocked would not work with Dendril, not any longer. Endric suspected that he knew the truth and that what he said now mattered greatly.
“General—”
His father turned to him, his face a mask of fury that Endric had known all too well in his days growing up in the city. It was one that was a mixture of anger and disappointment, an expression that Endric had grown accustomed to seeing, though he had not seen it often during the last year. That had been the greatest change between them.
“Did I not warn you to not worry about word from Urik?”
“You warned me. That wasn’t the reason I went to the University.”
“Elizabeth says otherwise.”
Endric swallowed. “By the time I reached her, it was what I wanted to know, but it was more about finding Senda and leaving word with her that I had been deployed from the city.”
“Did you doubt that you could leave word in the barracks?”
Endric glanced down. “One of her informants told me that she could be found in the University.”
“And you went looking for her.”
“I did,” Endric said, meeting his father’s gaze. “Elizabeth is a part of the same organization as you and the historian. I saw the ring.”
“There are many who are part of it. She serves in a different way than I do.”
“She feels Urik did a service drawing the attention of the Deshmahne.”
Dendril held his gaze and had Endric not known him as well as he did, he might have missed the flicker of anger that crossed his eyes. “Not all share the same philosophy.”
“She tells me that Urik will have planned for anything we might have done.”
Dendril nodded. “That is likely true.”
“Then why send Listain away? I understand getting rid of me. I don’t like it, but Listain can help, especially when you get word of Urik.”
Dendril pressed his lips together, considering Endric for a long moment. “Do you think that you know better than your general?”
Endric shook his head quickly. “Not better. I’m only making a suggestion.”
“The last suggestion you made was for me to pursue more information about the Deshmahne. Now you would have me do otherwise?”
It was a difficult choice. He had wanted the Denraen to pursue the Deshmahne. That was the reason he had challenged his father in the first place. Now he was being offered the opportunity to head south, into the Deshmahne lands, and see what he might understand and learn from them. Why was it that he struggled with it now?
“I will follow my orders.”
“Good. Listain will need you to
follow him. Where you’re going will lead you into danger.”
“How many men will come with us?”
“Enough men will go.”
Endric watched his father before turning his gaze away and looking down into the city, drawn toward the University in the distance. “And Urik? What do you plan to do about him?”
“I intend to do what must be done. I know where he is, and that’s enough. Let me worry about Urik while you worry about following your commander and gaining the trust of the men beneath you. Can you do that, Endric? Can you follow your commands?”
“You know that I can.”
A hint of a smile spread across Dendril’s face. He never smiled. “Do I? I know that you take your own counsel over others’. In this, I would have you follow your orders.”
“I will follow Listain, Father. I will follow my orders. I will ignore my desire to discover what Urik has been up to, and do what the Denraen need of me.”
Dendril nodded, as if there had been no doubt in his mind. “You will have to. Now that you are en’raen, you need to serve as an example. Only then can you be the Denraen you want to be. Only then can you understand what is necessary for you to lead.”
He turned and marched back to the barracks, leaving Endric watching him depart and feeling like the same soldier he had been a year ago, back before his brother had died, and back before Endric had helped save the Denraen.
Endric had thought himself changed, but maybe he wasn’t changed as much as he believed. If he had, he would never have forced his way into the university.
For the first time in a long time, Endric began to wonder whether he was suited to lead or if he should find a way to return to serving as nothing more than a soldier. Watching his father’s broad back as he departed, he had no answers, only more questions.
The one person he wanted to ask those questions to was missing. He had to rely upon his own decisions, and he’d learned that they were not always the right ones, especially not for the Denraen. It left him feeling as if he disappointed Andril yet again, and he had always hated that feeling.
Soldier Sword (The Teralin Sword Book 2) Page 12