Tahn

by L. A. Kelly

  “Do you think the Dorn was upset with us last night?” Stuva asked.

  “No,” Netta answered. “He had to think. Sometimes that’s very important.”

  “What did he have to think about?” Temas asked.

  “About God, dear child. And his love for us.”

  “Are you sure?” Stuva asked skeptically. “He didn’t look too happy with all your Jesus talk.”

  “It’s kind of hard to tell,” Doogan told him.

  “I don’t understand him,” little Rane admitted. “I can’t tell if he’s mad or not.”

  “He’s just the Dorn, that’s all,” Briant explained.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Vari told them. “He’ll be back with a bagful of something soon enough. Let’s get done and go fishing.”

  But Tahn didn’t come back. When fish were caught and the day was old, still he didn’t come. Netta got the children to sleep that night with no answer to Temas’s timid question. “When is Teacher coming home?”

  In the wilderness to the northwest, Samis camped with a group of his men. He had hired a tracker, but Tahn was slippery. He stayed ahead of them and out of sight. If it is possible, Samis thought, I have taught him too well. But he has a fatal flaw that did not come from me.

  “It’s just a matter of time,” said a tall mercenary at his master’s side. “He will have to rest, and then we will cut him down with our swords.”

  “No,” Samis maintained. “You will not catch him that way. Even if you do get close enough.”

  The slender soldier scowled, insulted by his leader’s assessment. “You know I am a match for him, Lord,” he said. “More than a match.”

  “You deceive yourself,” Samis told him. “We need only the proper bait.”

  “What bait will draw the Dorn?”

  Samis did not take long in explaining. “He likes children,” he said. “We will give him one. Go get me a child. I don’t care where and I don’t care its age, so long as it can scream like a demon.”

  The following night, Tahn and Smoke reached Pearl Mountain east of Tamask. He knew he was still being followed. And that someone was tracking very well.

  “I’m glad you’re with me in this, Lord,” he said. “I don’t know why my life continues, but I know now that it’s not mine to take.”

  He stopped beside a stream. “We’ll have to rest, Smoke,” he said and silently dismounted.

  He thought of Stuva, Temas, and the others. He knew that with God’s help, surely Vari and the lady would do well for the little ones. He could trust for that. But he was sorry he could not share it. “God, I pray for Netta Trilett to find a husband like herself,” he said, “strong in faith and kindness. For Vari, the life he has dreamed of, to marry a girl and raise strong children off the bounty of the land. For Temas, Lord, the mother she longs for. And for the boys, the chance to become men of honor and honest means. For all of them, God, I pray a life of safety.”

  He drank of the cool stream. “Let the wrath of Samis be spent in his pursuit of me,” he prayed, “that he forget the children. Lord, let him never murder another soul!” He looked down at his own hands and shook his head in dismay. “Help me, God! Help me, that I not spill blood again.”

  Smoke had wandered off in his grazing, and Tahn sought out a secluded spot in the bushes to try to get some sleep. It is strange, he thought. Now that there is peace in dying, I don’t wish to. I would rather that you make a way, Lord, that I can go back to them.

  In the morning, he crawled to the stream to drink again. He was hungry, but he was so used to the feeling that it was easy to ignore. He had never slept so well in all his life, and he felt strangely happy despite the precarious circumstances.

  He was about to leave when a scream suddenly broke across the quiet valley. Tahn stood and whistled softly. “Smoke,” he said. “You be ready, boy.”

  He mounted quickly and began to ride away from the sound, but it came again, followed immediately by another scream, louder.

  “That sounds like a child,” he said with a sigh. He knew such screams from his years with Samis. Somewhere not far away there would be a terrified child, perhaps hurt. Someone should take pity and respond to those cries.

  Another scream rose in the distance behind him. He knew he was still being hunted. The mercenaries on his trail might even be the cause of those screams. It would not be unlike them. But even so, he should help.

  “Have a mercy for the little one, Lord,” he said and turned his horse toward the sound.

  Marc Toddin prided himself on being the best at what he did, and he didn’t mind being paid well to help catch a killer. He rather enjoyed it. But this with a child, this was different.

  He went to broach the subject with Samis, but before he could say a word, the older man said, “We will not need your services any further, Toddin. You may as well go home.”

  “But what about the girl?” he asked.

  “That is not your concern,” Samis told him, his eyes narrowing.

  Toddin looked long at him and knew better than to say anything more. He had been told the man was an expert with a sword.

  But Toddin was not a man to ride off and leave a girl’s screams behind him. He had three daughters. What sort of a person would kidnap a girl? Even for such a purpose? It made the hunter worse than the hunted.

  He left Samis and went to his horse. One of the young mercenaries was standing nearby. “On your way?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Toddin told him reluctantly. “Samis tells me you won’t be needing a tracker anymore.”

  “I hope he’s right,” the soldier said. “He thinks the Dorn will just come to us now. I’m not so sure. Seems foolish to me.”

  Toddin had been considering the same thing. Much as he’d like to, he didn’t know how to get the girl away from the armed men. Why would a killer like Tahn Dorn take such a chance?

  “When you are all finished with your sport,” Toddin asked, “what will you do with the girl?”

  “I hope we take her with us,” the young man replied. “It’s been a while since we had a girl up there.”

  Toddin frowned, but he mounted his horse without a word lest he betray his anger. He didn’t know what could be done, but he couldn’t just trot off and forget about it. Who were these men who had no more care than this for an innocent child? And why would a killer care if someone screamed? He’d been deceived. If Samis could be so sure his prey would come to them for the sake of the girl, then he hunted a man far better than himself. Angry inside, Toddin rode quickly away. He could do nothing against so many men. He left the mercenary camp behind him, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to turn his horse for home.

  When Tahn was close enough, his heart ached for what he saw. Would it never end? In the middle of a wide clearing with a single tree, two of Samis’s men had a girl of ten or eleven tied by her wrists to a thick, low branch.

  “This is a trap, Lord,” Tahn whispered. “Had they taken her for her own sake, they would be riding for Valhal now, or to some dark corner. They would not be waiting here in the open.”

  The girl was sobbing, and one of the men struck her across the face. Tahn shook his head. “If I ride away, they will keep her, sure as I’m born.” No bushes or rocks were in the clearing for cover, just patches of meadow grass stretching out from the ancient tree. Samis and his men had chosen their spot well. There was no way to come at them unseen. And only two of them? Surely there were others, hiding in the surrounding trees, ready to descend when he showed himself.

  He knew what Lady Trilett would do first, and he knelt down beside Smoke. “Lord, I don’t want to do this,” he said. “But I have no choice. They will use her and then kill her, you know that. Help me give her a chance. Help me, Lord, just to get her away from them.”

  He thought of Netta and the children and how he longed to see them again. But he shook his head and turned his face to the sky. “My life is in your hands,” he whispered, then stood and took Smoke’s reins in his hand. />
  He rode in fast, low to the saddle and straight for the tree. When he was close enough, he leaped from the horse’s back to a branch of the ancient oak and cut the ropes quickly.

  “Get on my horse,” he told the girl. But he knew she was hurt and shaken, so he jumped down to help her. Both mercenaries stood ready. Tahn took the girl’s arm to hurry her to the horse, but an arrow from the trees sunk deep into Smoke’s back, and the animal jumped wildly at the pain.

  “Run for the woods, girl!” Tahn screamed. He drew his sword to cover her trail, but the two warriors were backing away. Tahn turned to run after the girl, but an arrow sunk swiftly into his upper leg and brought him to his knees. The girl stopped and looked behind her.

  “Go on!” he shouted to her. “Run!” She disappeared into the first cover of trees as a second arrow pierced Tahn’s back and felled him to the dirt.

  “C’mon girl, over here,” Marc Toddin called out as he saw the girl running into the woods. He pulled the girl up to the saddle behind him and glanced back at the fallen man. The soldiers of Samis were already descending on him like vultures. Nothing could be done for him now. “God rest him,” he whispered and kicked his horse forward to a run with the girl clinging to him desperately, surely hoping that this ride was for home.

  “That’s enough!” Samis was shouting to the archers. “I want him alive!” He walked to his captive with gloating satisfaction. No one had ever successfully turned coat from him. No one ever would.

  Tahn lay on his side, fighting for breath through the pain. Samis looked down at him with a cool smile. “Ah, Tahn,” he said. “A good fool is a fool nonetheless.”

  13

  It had been four days. Netta was tense with the uncertainty of what to do next. The children had never been so quiet since the first day they’d come. She had gone to the stream with them—fishing seemed to be one of the happiest diversions they had. But no one was happy today.

  Finally Temas voiced the subject troubling everyone. “Is Teacher coming back?”

  “I pray that he does soon,” Netta answered. Had he found trouble? Or had he simply had enough of them?

  “Do you think he’s still mad at us?” Doogan asked with a worried expression.

  “He wasn’t mad at us,” Stuva maintained. “He was mad at the lady.”

  “He wasn’t mad at nobody,” Vari insisted.

  Netta turned and looked at him. Something in his voice sounded broken.

  “Do you think he got tired of us, then?” Briant asked sadly. “People do that.”

  “You’re an idiot!” Vari shouted. “You don’t know him at all!” He ran from them, up the hill and away from the stream.

  “Vari!” Netta called after him. “Stay here,” she told the rest, and followed the youth.

  She found him sitting on a rock, his back to her. From the sag of his shoulders, she knew he was on the verge of crying. But he must have heard her behind him.

  “He wouldn’t do it, Lady,” he said. “He wouldn’t just go without telling us.”

  Netta sat beside him. “He is a loner, Vari. A man we cannot predict.”

  “No. Something happened.” He stood and stared down at her. “He’s worked so hard for us, he wouldn’t just leave!” She had never seen tears in any of the children before, but Vari shed them freely now. “I’ve got to find him!”

  Her heart broke for him. “I would gladly agree,” she told him, “had we any idea where to look. But Vari, we don’t know which direction he went, or how far. I’m afraid it is not safe. You know even the weather could be unpredictable soon. I wish I could tell you something different, but you can’t leave the little ones. You know better than I do how to provide for them right now.”

  He looked down at his feet, wishing she weren’t right. But Tahn could be anywhere. There was no way of knowing.

  Far away from them, Samis had his man but was still furious. Some of his own warriors were whispering that the old man had been bested. Tahn Dorn had deceived him, stolen away the children and Netta Trilett too. He had dared to violate the walls of Valhal in defiance and rescue one ordered to die. They were even saying that Tahn could never have been caught without the trap, that Samis himself feared to face him with a sword and so had hidden in the bushes and used arrows.

  Even though he now lay unconscious and in chains, Tahn still posed the greatest threat to Samis’s power that he had ever faced. Tahn had shaken the simple belief that the master was invincible. Without that, the fear would fade away, and Samis’s power would eventually crumble.

  Samis hated Tahn for that, hated that he must now prove himself unmatched again in the eyes of his men. Tahn must pay, and pay openly and powerfully, lest the bloody kingdom Samis had woven for himself begin to unravel.

  He stood watching as Tahn began to stir. They had snapped the arrow shafts short, but no effort would be made to dig the tips from his flesh. Let him carry them to his grave, Samis thought. And it shall not be long in coming.

  When Tahn opened his eyes, he was not sure where he was, only that he had been moved. He saw first the face of his old teacher, and then behind him the interior walls of a modest building.

  “Where is the lady?” Samis demanded.

  Tahn closed his eyes again. His leg was numb, but the wound in his back hurt terribly. He had never felt so weak. But there was no fear in it, no worry. He did not bother to answer.

  Samis had never been a patient sort, but this night he was in no mood to be ignored. He grabbed Tahn by the jaw with one hand and drew out his dagger.

  “Where is she?” he yelled, pressing the point of his weapon at Tahn’s neck. “You know I meant her for myself! Where is she?”

  “You may as well kill me,” Tahn told him. “I will never tell you.”

  “You will tell me all I require, fool, or I shall make you sorry you ever saw the light of day.”

  But again Tahn did not answer him.

  “You will do what I tell you,” Samis insisted. “You will help me find the lady and the children. You know you dare not disobey me again. You know what I will do to you.” He pushed his blade at Tahn’s neck until he’d drawn blood.

  “No,” Tahn told him. “Your dagger will gain you nothing from me.”

  “What if I brought you flames, Tahn?” Samis asked cruelly. “What would you do then?”

  “It doesn’t matter what you do. Because it can’t last forever.” It was such a comfortable, beautiful thought that he couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you, Jesus!” he exclaimed, noticing the chains for the first time as he tried to lift his arms.

  “You’ve gone mad,” Samis said. “It is no wonder you dared challenge me. You’re a raving lunatic.”

  “I am saved by God.”

  “You are dead, and no god can save you.”

  Tahn was surprised at how little he feared what would come. It truly did not matter. Only a few hours or a few days, and all of Samis’s tortures would be gone. He’d be free forever, welcomed by God. Blessed thought!

  Samis pulled the dagger up and raked it across Tahn’s left cheek before sheathing it again.

  “I have appreciated your talent,” he said. “But now I shall make of you a grand lesson for any other proud young fool who thinks he can scorn me.” He lifted a farrier’s mallet from the table behind him.

  “You could have been my successor one day,” he said.

  Tahn closed his eyes, expecting a blow. It came swift and hard to his stomach. He cried out. But Samis hit him again, in the side of the head, and this time the room spun fiercely and then suddenly slipped away.

  “Excuse me, my lord.” A soldier stepped in and called Samis’s attention. “A messenger has come from Baron Trent.”

  Samis scowled. What could the baron want now? The traitorous devil. He tried to skin him before the people to save his own neck. How dare he petition for anything?

  He looked down at Tahn, who now lay so still.

  He should have been glad for what I did for him, Samis thoug
ht. He should have been proud that I trained him to be the best assassin money can buy. I would have made him the next leader, but he’s chosen to be nothing but a treacherous disappointment. I should have left him to die in Alastair.

  “Sir?” The soldier at the door interrupted his thoughts. “What shall I tell the baron’s captain?”

  Samis turned toward the young man. “You will tell him nothing! I will confront the baron’s fool myself. You will stay here.” He reached down again and slapped at Tahn’s cheek. “Tahn! Look at me!”

  But there was no response. Was he already unconscious? No matter, Samis decided. He will still be alive when I bring him before my men. And I will make him pay dearly for what he’s done.

  “Stay with him,” Samis commanded his soldier again. “If he wakes, you give him nothing. No water. Do you understand? He will curse the day he chose to cross me.”

  Samis went to meet the baron’s representative. And the young soldier stood in the doorway just looking at Tahn. The master had him chained hand and foot, though he’d lost a lot of blood from his injuries and there were men both inside and out. Samis is getting old, the young man thought. That’s why Tahn Dorn is such a threat.

  Tahn moaned and tried unsuccessfully to roll. He opened his eyes slowly and met the gaze of the soldier barely older than he was.

  “Thought he’d beat you senseless,” the man said.

  The room still spun, and Tahn’s head throbbed wildly. Samis will be back, he thought. It’s just beginning. God help me.

  “You should have stayed invisible, Dorn,” the soldier told him. “You know he’ll take you apart.”

  Tahn just closed his eyes again. Better not to listen to him, not to think about this. He should try to pray. That’s what a believer would do. God be with Vari. God be with Stuva, Doogan, and the lady …

  Without a word from his lips, he slipped from consciousness again, and the young soldier stood by the door shaking his head. It was not going to be a pleasant thing to watch the Dorn die.