Bendelof lowered her eyes. “Laskenay didn’t make it that far. I’m starting to think, though, maybe that was a blessing in its way. She took her brother’s evil to heart, more than she should have, and a part of me’s glad she didn’t hear the things those people shouted, because they would’ve said the same about her. Worse, if they realized they had Zalski’s sister at their mercy. They’d never have let her live. Even Lanokas would have been helpless to interfere. He’s just one person.”
Kora, who was cutting her meat, set down her utensils at Bendelof’s last words. She had not considered what those people would have done to Laskenay, but Bennie was right. They would not have left a piece of her to be found. A bitter taste filled Kora’s mouth, and she reached for her glass of water, unable to finish what remained of her meal. She had forced herself to swallow one or two pieces of pork, nothing more.
Even so, despite her grief and bruises, an unexpected strength—a will to live for nothing more than the sake of life itself—flowed through Kora’s blood, and she knew that her host’s anger, that this stranger’s fury on her behalf, as hard and scarlet-hued as the ruby on her forehead, would be no less significant in the course of her life than that hellish gem. Drake’s outrage had cauterized her emotional wounds. He reminded her that even in the capital, the seat of Zalski’s power and the center of his oppression, lived people who would distinguish between the sorcerer born into nobility and the girl who hailed from outside the smallest of the kingdom’s major towns. Some small number would recognize the truth about Kora. As for the distant future, who could say how her nation would remember her? Infamy could in no way be assured, though it had seemed that way in the heat of her shame, in the midst of the jeers and threats. The violence of her host’s reaction was of an entirely different type from that which had broken her, and Kora could not help but believe—she had to believe—that Drake’s sense and mercy represented more than just himself. He was nothing remarkable, neither rich nor especially educated. If he held the views he did, there was hope for Herezoth.
I can’t let exile change who I am. I won’t. I won’t be bitter, I…. Kora bit her finger. I won’t be like Zalski. It’s a cycle of hate, that’s what we’re dealing with. They hate me because of Zalski, who hated them because of their, their loathing of the magicked. They turned him into what they dreaded, and then felt justified in what they’d been saying all along, because in their eyes, he proved them right. The same thing could have happened to me, if I’d known all my life what I was. It still could. My God, it still could. I’m not stronger by nature than he was. If I let myself feel victimized, I’ll only continue the cycle. It must be broken. It has to be broken.
“Kora,” said Bennie, “you need to eat. I know it’s hard, but it’s hard for me too. I feel sick. You need to eat.”
Kora managed a few more bites of the meat that sat before her. She sunk her teeth into some bread. Then Drake gave Bendelof a drawstring bag, a small one, but heavy enough to weigh her hand down. He said, “You three will need something to get you started.”
Kora shook her head, and Bennie protested, “I can’t. I can’t take this from you and your wife. It must be a year’s worth of savings.”
“Bendelof, it’s the least the king can do.”
“The king?”
“You think Lanokas won’t pay me back? He’d have given you triple if he didn’t have to send you immediately off. I wish I had more to give you on his behalf. Dresses,” he realized, “you can take some of Grailen’s dresses. I don’t know what she left here…. Damn those people!”
Bennie put a hand on his arm to quiet him. “This is more than enough, Drake. We probably should change clothes though, shouldn’t we? Bless you. And thank Lanokas for his generosity.”
Kora wrote on the slate, “From both of us.”
“And please,” Bennie added, “let him know where I went. He won’t otherwise.”
“I’ll tell him.”
“Tell who what?”
Zacry had returned to the kitchen, toting a sack he must have gotten from Laskenay or Drake. Bennie smiled at him. “Later, remember?”
With an exaggerated scowl, the boy slumped into a chair. “Can I at least eat something before we go?”
“We should have time,” said Bennie. “You can transport us out of the city walls, can’t you? You learned that spell?”
“Most definitely.”
Drake clapped his hands together. “Then we should celebrate,” he said, and rifled through the cabinets for a bottle of wine. “We should celebrate, since you can stay for a bit. After all, this is a grand day. A day none of us thought we’d ever see. I’m just sorry that Grailen—that’s my wife, Kora—I’m sorry she can’t be with us. She’s off visiting family with the children, in Yangerton. We figured they’d be safer there, but I thought Zacry would be better off here. He could have been noticed on the journey. He said he could transport, but Laskenay was insistent on no magic.”
“They have three kids,” said Zacry. “Two more or less my age. We had some good times.”
“And now you’re off to explore new places,” Drake told him. “I honestly think I’m jealous. You belong with your family, no doubt of that, but we’ll miss you around here.” He poured three full glasses and a sip-sized portion in a fourth. “A toast,” he said. “To safe and successful travel. To the Crimson League and those you lost, those whose sacrifice gives the name you chose to call yourselves a second and solemn meaning. To the long lives of those who remain to you. To Herezoth and her king.”
“To the king,” Bennie echoed. And they drank.
445
FIRST EPILOGUE
Ten Years Later
The rap on her cottage door made Kora jump, though it was not completely unexpected. She could not be sure of when, but she knew a visitor would come in the next few days. A night arrival, not mid-morning, had seemed more logical, and her unborn child squirmed beneath the weight of the mixed anticipation and dread that had thrown themselves upon her.
That has to be him. The milkman came two hours ago.
For a month now, the city of Triflag, on Traigland’s southern coast, had spoken of little else besides Herezoth’s king and his approaching visit. Kora steadied her heartbeat before opening her home. “I thought you might show up,” she greeted her guest.
Lanokas looked much as she remembered him, only better groomed, with a line or two around his mouth that had not been there before. He even wore normal clothing like he used to, though of the current fashion: a cotton vest over a shirt and pants completely unremarkable. His eyes grew wide at the sound of her voice, and he smiled, the grin of a boy who unexpectedly runs across a silver piece hidden beneath a rock.
“You can talk.”
“I can talk.” Kora ushered him into her parlor, which she had tried to tidy up but still seemed littered, as always, with a mix of blocks and balls and children’s books. They took seats on wooden chairs set opposite her mother’s loom.
“How? Since when?”
“Since that night, that very night. Zacry healed me.”
“But you were still mute when you got on that boat. I had it verified.”
“I pretended for the journey. That merchant would never have taken me if he’d known I could cast spells again. He might have tossed me off the deck, but no, I’d already got my voice back. I wondered if maybe, just maybe, in the heat of the moment, Zalski’d done a sloppy job of his spell and left a piece or two of my vocal cords intact. He had. He left enough, at least, for Zac’s curing spell to work. That spell to heal organs, it can’t create them, so….”
Kora’s voice fell away as she made to clasp her hands and found her abdomen an obstruction.
“You married,” said Lanokas.
“Seven years ago. Like Laskenay said I would. This is my fourth, three months to go. I thought it was a boy at first, because it felt like another boy, but now I’m not sure. I have one daughter, my oldest. She’s five, and she thinks the new addition w
ill be a sister. I named her after Kansten.”
“Not Laskenay?”
“I considered Laskenay. Strongly. The thing is, there are people who knew Laskenay, the real Laskenay. The entire nobility knew her. I was sure they remember her, and fondly. Proudly. They do, don’t they?” Lanokas assured her she was right. “Well, who remembers Kansten, besides us? I’ve never forgotten how she volunteered to come with me to find Petroc. No, volunteered’s not the word.”
“She was going whether you liked it or not.”
“My girl, she’s fierce like her namesake. Fiercely loyal. She doesn’t like people she doesn’t know coming near her brothers. Zacry took them for a walk by the pier.”
“And your boys?”
“The older one’s four. He’s named Walten, after my father. My two-year-old’s Wilhem. That happened to be my husband’s father’s name. My husband, now…. Parker’s a good man. He’s hardworking, an ironsmith, from Yangerton. He’d come to Traigland for a year to apprentice with an uncle when Zalski happened. Since Zalski closed all ports to civilians, he was stuck here and just ended up staying.”
“I married as well.”
“So I’ve heard. So everyone’s heard. She’s one of Neslan’s cousins, isn’t she? Triflag’s a bit fascinated with your reign, if you didn’t know. They say you have three strapping boys.”
“Truth be told, there are days I think I don’t deserve them. Not after what I did to you.”
“Lanokas….”
The king started. “No one’s called me that in years.”
“Well, that’s how I always think of you. As Lanokas. And Lanokas was just as much a victim of that mob as I was. I don’t know how you screwed up the courage to treat me that way, but the fact is I’m alive, thanks to what you did. I’m more than alive, I’m happy. I’ve built a life, a peaceful one. My mother lives with me, and I wouldn’t have that any other way. I help Zacry with his essays about the nature of magic. I’m actually writing my own about magic history—well, it started as an essay. It’s turning into a book. I just feel that if people could understand how things got so bad, maybe then the hatred wouldn’t be so pronounced. Maybe it would weaken.
“I promise you, I never imagined Herezoth would receive me with open arms. Both Zalski and Laskenay told me as much. I saw Jonson Peare’s prejudice. I learned that Mayven had to disappear after Hansrelto’s revolt. Lanokas, I told you that night outside of Wheatfield where I’d end up.”
“You were astute even then. Wiser than I was, if nothing else. I thought I knew Podrar. Knew its people. I never dreamed they could try to kill someone who….”
“You would have had nightmares about things like that had you been in my shoes. You weren’t, that’s why you didn’t. Your nightmares had more to do with….”
“With anticipating the utter hell of those first months. Trying to stabilize the kingdom without your support, without Neslan…. I was livid with him for dying on me, livid. A moral stand’s all well and good, but I needed his advice, his manner of thought. Hune was supposed to rule, not me. I didn’t have his training, and even if I had, nothing could have prepared me for transitioning a kingdom out of a regime like Zalski’s.
“I never would have lasted without Hayden. Not that he advised me. He knew nothing about politics, and still doesn’t. Just the fact that I could trust him kept me steady. I passed Neslan’s father’s title to him two years ago. He’s a duke now, the Duke of Crescenton, the youngest in the court. If I could have done more for him, I would have.”
Kora put her hand on his. “You’ve done wonders for Herezoth. Wonders. People are prospering again, because of your policies. Crime is as rare as it’s ever been. There’s more violence here in Traigland nowadays. Imagine that, in little old Traigland! I never would have thought it possible.”
“I wanted to leave with you back then. I would have, had there been anyone to trust the kingdom to. I couldn’t abandon it to anarchy when I was largely the reason Zalski’s reign collapsed in turmoil.”
“I never imagined you tossed me aside out of selfishness, that you chose power over a humble life with me. I knew you better than that, and I understand why you’ve never revoked my banishment. You can’t set the precedent of going back on your word, on your rulings, not for anyone. That’s a dangerous road. I don’t want you doing that, not because of me. You understand?”
“I understand perfectly.”
Kora settled back in her chair, a gentle smile on her face. “It’s wonderful to see you. To clear the air, after parting the way we did.”
“I’m more relieved than you’ll ever know, to see you getting on this well. I thought I’d crushed you. Broken you. I should have realized you would prosper.”
“You should have. You and Laskenay taught me to survive, you two and Sedder before you, God rest them both.”
Lanokas rubbed his chin. “It’s interesting you mention Laskenay again. She’s actually the principal reason I’ve come all this way.”
“Besides matters of state, you mean.”
“That’s what I mean. Her son’s thirteen now. I’ve watched over him and Teena, as much as one can do that from the Palace. Vane’s started to comprehend what it means to be a sorcerer. To be Zalski’s nephew.”
Kora shut her eyes. “He’s quite a burden on his back, doesn’t he?”
“I brought him with me. He needs to meet Zacry—no, not just meet, to get to know him. Truly know him. I’ve read Zacry’s essays, and for Vane to have such a mentor….”
“Zacry would be honored. I’m sure he’ll take the boy in. If he can’t, I will, so the two of them can study.”
“Vane should meet you as well. I can tell him how loyal a friend his mother was, but only you can describe her as a sorceress. You can pass on her standards of magic, her philosophy on its use. If Vane can think of himself as Laskenay’s son, he can accept that his legacy, that he himself, descends from her.”
“And not from his uncle. Lanokas, no one in my life’s done more for me than that woman, except maybe Sedder, and you that last day. I think of her every time I put my kids to bed. Until Kansten came I never understood what a horror she endured, I really didn’t. I know Vane grew up in a loving home, but anything I can do for the boy, at any time….”
“I knew I could count on you. And on Zacry. Whatever you two need to provide for an extra mouth….”
“I don’t need money. I won’t take money, not for this.”
The king stuttered three or four syllables, as though he wanted to insist, but got no further; the stiffness with which Kora shook her head convinced him to change the subject. “All right,” he said. “Are you well known here? Is your story?”
“To a degree. A great degree, but not as much as you’d think. You’re the one who really interests them, you have since you took the throne. I guess the situation Zalski left you with….”
Lanokas let out a mirthless laugh. “Situation’s one word for it.”
“People mainly want to know how you survived those three long years. I try to keep to myself, though.”
“Not if you’re researching that book you don’t. Any work about magic, with a name like yours attached to it, is going to draw notice.”
“I’m writing for Herezoth, not for Traigland. Though I suppose you’re right, I’ll be hard pressed to stop Traigland from reading it.” She paused. “I wasn’t going to mention you or your family’s magic roots. That’s not my place. I don’t want to cause you trouble or put your kids in danger. Maybe revealing that part of your history will fall to your son, or to his.”
“Herezoth isn’t ready now. Suspicions of magic aren’t quite what they were, but they’re still potent. People haven’t forgotten.”
“It hasn’t been that long, not when you consider everything he did. Ten years, it’s a trivial amount of time. I still wake up with a pounding heart every now and then, usually after I dream about…. about back then.” Kora’s lips grew tight. “What did you do with that book?”
“I tied a weight to it and dropped it in the middle of the ocean. As far as the Lifestone goes, I followed the ancients’ example. It’s masquerading as part of a sculpture that’s sitting in my private garden. It’ll be safe there. No one but us knows it even exists.”
“Argint knows.”
“Argint died five months ago. Heart troubles. And Bennie? I always assumed she stayed with you.”
“Bendelof Esper’s the most loyal person in the world. She came to Traigland, but she didn’t like the place. She helped me and Zacry get settled and waited until our mother came. Then she went back, to Yangerton, she works at an inn there. We write letters every month. If she hasn’t tried to contact you, it’s because….”
“She doesn’t want to set foot near the Crystal Palace. To have a blasted thing to do with it. I can’t say I blame her, Kora. I felt that same way. Hell, I still do.”
“Of course you do, practically everyone you loved was slaughtered there. I don’t know how you stand the place.”
“I have to, that’s how. At least I won’t have to dread the vestibule anymore.”
The baby kicked Kora again. Kora stammered, “Can I get you something? A drink? I have crackers and cheese in the kitchen.”
“Don’t trouble yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Are you happy?”
Lanokas let out a slow, deep breath. “Happy’s hard to define. I’d say I am, in most respects. Briefings bore me, some decisions are quite difficult, but it doesn’t have to follow I’m not happy. I’ll tell you this, I don’t understand how anyone could envy what I do, much less kill for the chance to do it. But I’m in a unique position to improve people’s lives, and that heartens me, most of the time. I spend more time with my family than most people would expect—those are the best moments. Some nights I fear it’ll fall apart, every bit of it, like it did before, but everyone’s life has uncertainties.”
The Crimson League (The Herezoth Trilogy) Page 60