The Sea of Time

by P. C. Hodgell

  The sky growled and the ground briefly trembled. A trickle of smoke rose on the far horizon from a mountain hidden by the curve of the earth.

  The Karnids stirred and muttered. From where Jame lay, she could see mostly shifting black legs, of horses, of men. All seemed to reach the same conclusion at once. With that, they turned and trudged off westward, away from the battlefield, toward the ruins of their home.

  Jame rose slowly, carefully, as if one joint at a time. Her left arm hung dead at her side and her left shoulder slumped forward within her shell of rhi-sar armor. All around her, Karnids were retreating, skirting the circle of combat as if the ground there were tainted. No one so much as looked at her.

  “That’s it?” she asked Death’s-head.

  The rathorn snorted and shook himself.

  When she turned to the east, the sun blinded her. The two ridges and the gap between them appeared to be full of waving figures. Their voices seemed far away and faint, but she thought that they were cheering. Jame waited for them, holding her arm by the elbow close against her side, feeling cold and sick.

  II

  THE CAMP SURGEON told her that she had broken her collarbone.

  “It’s nothing serious,” he said cheerfully. “A healer could set it right in a few days, but we don’t have one. Say, two weeks in a sling with plenty of dwar sleep, four or five weeks without it.”

  Then he had given her a sleeping draft, which she had hardly needed. It seemed an age since she had last closed her eyes—twenty days, if one went by the calendar.

  Toward dusk, she woke in her dimly lit quarters with Jorin curled up beside her. Rue had propped her upright with pillows to ease the pain in her shoulder. Sounds of celebration filtered through curtains drawn across the windows. She gathered that the rest of the Host had returned to camp during the day, following Harn Grip-hard who had ridden up on a donkey, the only mount he could find, as they had quitted the pass.

  “I see that you’ve done it again,” he had said to her. She still wasn’t sure exactly what he had meant.

  Her mouth was very dry, her lips chapped. “Water,” she croaked, hoping that Rue was nearby. Instead, a dark figure loomed up beside her holding a cup of water.

  “Here. Drink,” said Harn. “I sent your servant off to enjoy the festivities. The Feast of Fools has been going on all day, Overcliff, Undercliff, and in the camp. You, however, got your foolery in early. What possessed you to take on the entire Karnid horde single-handed?”

  Jame thought that she had had her reasons, but none of them sounded convincing now.

  Harn drew up a chair and sat down beside her. Wood groaned under his weight while his knees peaked halfway up his chest.

  “Never had a broken bone before, have you?” he said. “It’s disheartening. Everything will seem worse than it is until you get used to the idea, and by then the bone will have knit.”

  Jame sipped the water, tasting the tang of pomegranate juice.

  “How many casualties?” she asked.

  “In the Betwixt? A dozen wounded, but none killed. The cadets had too strong a position, and their line held. On the other hand, the Karnids must have lost several hundred. We’ll never know for sure since they took their dead with them. Given the way the valley funnels there, most never got within striking distance.”

  Jame regarded him. Everything will seem worse. . . . “You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”

  Harn looked away, then back at her. “While you were gone, I got a message from Blackie. He wanted to know what had happened to Brier Iron-thorn. As far as I knew, nothing had, until I asked her. She said that her bond to the Highlord had broken, and re-formed with you.”

  Jame sighed. She had known this was coming, but had hoped that, somehow, it would never arrive. “It was an accident,” she said. “Brier was very upset when the seeker’s baby died in her arms, and Tori was too far away to help her.”

  “Whereas you were right there. Yes, I understand. Hopefully Blackie will too, when he hears the full story.”

  A moment’s silence fell between them. Both were thinking that Torisen’s responses weren’t always rational, and that this one had sprung from the heart of his deepest insecurities.

  Harn clapped his big hands on his knees with an air of someone facing up to the worst. “There’s more. He’s ordered you to return to Gothregor. Immediately.”

  Jame stared at him. “But I still have sixty days, all of spring, left of my year at Kothifir!”

  “The randon will understand a summons from your lord—I hope. You’ll take Iron-thorn, of course. And your ten-command as an escort, on extended duty. Cheer up,” he added, seeing her expression. “However mad your actions this morning, you aren’t exactly leaving under a cloud.”

  Her eyes dropped to a little pile of paper scraps on the floor. She remembered waking earlier that day to find third-year cadet Char standing by her bed, glowering down at her.

  “D’you still have that note I slipped under your door?” he had asked.

  She had fished it out from under her pillow and mutely handed it to him. He had torn it up. Then he had left without another word. Just now, waking, she had thought that it had all been a dream. Apparently not.

  Harn stood up, seeming to scrape the ceiling and fill the room. “For all Blackie’s histrionics, you needn’t leave until tomorrow. Go back to sleep.”

  In the doorway, he passed Brier. The Southron stepped into the apartment, glanced after him, then raised an eyebrow at Jame.

  “Tell the others to pack,” Jame said, leaning back against her pillows with a sigh. “We’re going home.”

  CHARACTERS

  Addy—Shade’s gilded swamp adder, to whom she is bound

  Adric—Lord Ardeth

  Ahack—in the Wastes, the west wind

  Amantine, Princess—Kruin’s sister, Krothen’s aunt

  Amberley—a Kendar, Brier’s former lover

  Anooo—in the Wastes, the north wind

  Apollynes—the mountain range parallel to the Rim

  Arrin-ken—catlike third of the Three People

  Ashe—a haunt singer

  Awl—a Randir senior randon

  Bane—Jame and Tori’s half-brother, who may be alive or dead

  Bear—Sheth’s brain-damaged brother

  Bel-tairi—a Whinno-hir

  Blackie—the common name for Torisen

  Brier Iron-thorn—a Kendar randon cadet, first bound to Torisen and then to Jame

  Burnt Man, the—the one of the Four who represents fire

  Burr—Torisen’s Kendar servant

  Byrne—Gaudaric’s grandson

  Caldane—Lord Caineron

  Cella, Lady—cousin to King Krothen

  Char—a third-year Knorth cadet

  Corrudin—Caldane’s uncle and advisor

  Corvine—a Knorth oath-breaker, bound to the Randir

  Cron—a Knorth Kendar

  Cully—one of Torisen’s first command

  Damson—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Dani—Shandanielle, Lady Professionate

  Dar—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Dari—Lord Ardeth’s would-be heir

  Death’s-head—a rathorn

  Dorin—grandson of the Kothifir high priest

  Ean—Gaudaric’s son-in-law

  Eaten One, the—the one of the Four who represents water

  Erim—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Evensong—Gaudaric’s daughter, Ean’s wife, Byrne’s mother

  Falling Man, the—the one of the Four who represents air

  Fang—a Waster girl who has ended up in Kothifir

  Fash—a Caineron cadet

  Four, the—the elementals of Rathillien

  Frost—the Randir barracks commander

  Ganth Gray Lord—father of Jame and Torisen

  Gaudaric—Master Iron Gauntlet

  Genjar—Caldane’s son, Commandant of the Host

  Gerridon—Master of Knorth, ar
ch-traitor of the Kencyrath

  Gnasher—wolver king of the Deep Weald

  Gorbel—Caldane’s lordan

  Graykin—Jame’s servant, sometime Master Intelligencer

  Greshan—Jame and Tori’s uncle, Ganth’s brother

  Grimly, the wolver—a wolver of the Grimly Holt

  Hangnail—a spy

  Hull—Torisen’s chief forester

  Granny Sit-by-the-Fire—an Old Pantheon goddess of the Wastes

  Harn Grip-hard—commandant of the South Host

  Index—a scrollsman who knows where everything is

  Iron-jaw—first Ganth’s war-horse, then Gerridon’s haunt war-horse

  Ishtier—former high priest of Tai-tastigon

  Jame—Jamethiel Priest’s-bane, sister of Torisen Black Lord

  Jamethiel Dream-weaver—consort of Gerridon, Master of Knorth; mother of Jame and Torisen

  Jedrak—temporary lord of the Jaran

  Jorin—Jame’s ounce

  Kalan—a Kothifiran seeker

  Kells—herbalist at Gothregor

  Kenan—Lord Randir

  Keral—a fallen changer, servant of the Master

  Killy—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Kindrie Soul-walker—a healer; cousin of Jame and Torisen

  Kin-Slayer—Torisen’s sword

  Kirien—a scrollswoman; Lordan of Randir

  Kroaky—young Krothen

  Krothen—god-king of Kothifir

  Kruin—former king of Kothifir; Krothen’s father

  Lady Professionate—Dani or Shandanielle; a guild lord

  Lainoscopes—king of Langadine

  Lanek—young son of Kalan

  Lanielle—a Langadine seeker, granddaughter of Laurintine

  Laurintine—a Langadine seeker

  Lord Artifice—a Kothifiran guild lord

  Lord Merchandy—a Kothifiran guild lord

  Lurcher—Jame’s moa

  Marc—Marcarn, Jame’s Kendar friend

  Mercer—Lord Merchandy

  Merry—one of Torisen’s Kendar

  Mint—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Mother Ragga—the Earth Wife; one of the Four

  Near, Prince—Princess Amantine’s husband

  Needham—Master Silk Purse

  Niall—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Onyx-eyed, Marigold—commander of the Knorth barracks

  Pereden—Timmon’s father; Adric’s son

  Prophet, the—leader of the Karnids

  Quill—one of Jame’s ten-command

  Quirl—Corvine’s son

  Qrink—Master Paper Crown, Kalan’s brother-in-law

  rathorn—a carnivorous bi-corn

  Rain—replacement for Storm

  Rawneth—the Randir Matriarch

  Rose Iron-thorn—a Caineron; Brier Iron-thorn’s mother

  Rowan—Torisen’s steward

  Rue—one of Jame’s ten-command, her servant

  Ruso—Lord Artifice

  Shade—a Randir cadet

  Shandanielle—Dani, Lady Professionate

  Sheth Sharp-tongue—the Caineron war-leader; former commandant of Tentir

  Shrike—a third-year Randir cadet

  Shuu—in the Wastes, the south wind

  Snow—replacement for Rain

  Spare—second-in-command of the Knorth barracks

  Storm—Torisen’s war-horse

  Talisman—Jame’s identity as a Tastigon thief

  Taur—director of Mount Alban, a former randon

  Tenebrae—mountain range to the east of the Wastes

  Timmon—the Ardeth Lordan

  Tishooo—the Falling Man, the Old Man, the east wind

  Ton—prince of Kothifir, son of Amantine

  Torisen Black Lord—Tori, Blackie, Highlord of the Kencyrath

  Trishien—Jaran Matriarch

  Twizzle—Gorbel’s pet pook

  Uraks—mountain range to the west of the Wastes

  Vedia—Kothifiran Old Pantheon goddess of healing

  Whinno-hir—one of the equines who have followed the Kencyrath since the beginning

  Yce—a wolver pup