by JANRAE FRANK
"Your Red Raven," Hanadi answered. "Hanadi Majios of the Chirakahn Euzadi. Second Lieutenant to the Grand Master. We arrived with Tagalong three days ago."
Aejys started to sink back onto the bed. Instantly Hanadi was there adjusting her pillows so that Aejys could sit supported.
Hanadi stood about five six, which was roughly average height for a non-Sharani woman. Her nose was long, straight and blade thin, her brown skin was a clear creamy matte, her hair, what little showed beneath the blue scarf wrapping her head and throat was heavy, black in shadow and deep auburn in sunlight. The lines of her face were thin, her jaw strong and all assembled into an aristocratic package of proud mien. She appeared to be unarmed, but Aejys knew that for a deception.
"Rest, Lord Mayor," Hanadi said. "We have been hired to protect you and bring your daughter safely here. A strange job for two elite cadres from our guild."
"Set assassins to stop assassins. Lord Mayor?"
Hanadi smiled. "So the nobles and merchants declare you. They wait below to offer allegiance on bended knee. Your seneschal Becca deWythe is hard pressed to keep them out. Your duel with Farendarc has added to your legend."
"I told them no," Aejys said irritably. "You go down and find Thomas Cedarbird and kick his ass out of my building!"
Hanadi lifted an eyebrow. "I do not believe they will listen. But if that is what you wish me to do... I will go kick his ass." Hanadi emphasized the last, running her tongue around the words that conjured interesting images in her literal Euzadi mind.
"No," Aejys reconsidered, "Get Clemmerick to do it. Get them all out of here! And fetch Becca, I've work to do."
"Those wounds are scarcely a week old–"
"I did not ask your advice."
"Oh, but you did. I am your first lieutenant on this job. It is in the contract."
Aejys gave her a long sidewise glance, taking her measure as she spoke. "Second. Tag's my first. Always."
Hanadi gave her a polite smile that said nothing. "After Tagalong Smith. So be it. She has a high reputation with my people. We tried to recruit her, but she had already given her allegiance to a certain paladin. Yourself, I think."
Aejys eased forward and snagged her pipe and tobacco pouch. She settled back, stuffed the pipe and lit it. Tamlestari had reluctantly removed the strapping the day before. She smoked thoughtfully for a moment. "Well," she said quietly. "Are you going to send for Becca?"
"As you wish, mei ajan." Hanadi gave a small bow, turned, and poked her head out the door. She spoke quickly in a language Aejys did not know to someone posted there.
"You set guards?"
"Yes, mei ajan. Farendarc was not working alone. My people are taking care of them. No intelligence shall reach Margrenan brye Rowan from them. In fact no one will hear from them again this side of hell."
Aejys stroked her lip with the pipe. "Good. I want to march in a fortnight. Under my own banner. An Ouroboros and three rowan trees. I started it in early summer, hired half the seamers in Vorgensburg to make surcoats and banners, but I never dreamed I would need them so soon. Have Becca hire the other half."
"As you wish."
"And find Tag. I want her sent to Red Beard's to hire kandoyarin. The elite of his elite. They'll ride under my colors. I want none to know where they come from or what they are. Your folks included."
"This makes me your amanuensis, don't you think?"
"You read and write?"
"Three languages. I speak six."
"Then that is what you are, Hanadi. I will give you an expense account. Buy appropriate clothing and whatever you require for this job. You ride?"
"Hmnph! All Euzadi ride. Our children ride before they walk."
A huge form rose from a corner and approached. It brushed up against Hanadi who put an arm around its neck affectionately.
"Shadow Hound," Aejys gasped.
"You have seen them before?" Hanadi asked
"An artist's rendering."
"Well, now you see the real thing. This is Brundarad. We bonded as children. He has been sleeping off his dinner behind your couch."
"What do you feed him?"
"Anything with flesh. He gluttoned on the Gold Ravens' messenger birds when we tore their lair apart."
"I've heard they will eat people."
"Hmnph," Hanadi snorted. "Brundarad has eaten only two that I know of. They attacked me. He ripped their stomachs out," she added with relish, "then tore off their limbs."
Brundarad reared and put his front paws on Aejys' bed. She saw the odd double-handed fore paws: the dog-like primary paw, broad, blunt and strong capable of carrying the creature along swiftly as a horse or leaping deer; the secondary paw, three toed, diverging like a huge thumb, with retractable poison claws.
He put his huge muzzle in her face smelling her breath, then ran his nose over her.
Aejys sat still for his examination, stroking her lower lip with the mouth of the pipe. She sniffed back at him. Brundarad had a warm, pleasant muskiness about him. "I hope I smell as good to you as you do to me," Aejys told him.
"You are a brave one, Aejystrys Rowan," Hanadi said. "I admire that. Most people are frightened when he does that."
"Respect is a better gift than fear. Fear is a wasted emotion which achieves nothing."
A slow true smile lifted Hanadi's lips. "The Lionhawk said that to me last solstice."
"Lionhawk? Then she's alive?" Aejys' face registered surprise and hope that one more of the great military leaders had survived the war; someone she could send for to take her part if all else failed.
Hanadi shook her head. "My Lionhawk is not the same as yours. He comes from your people, but he is a man, not a woman. Chimquar is the half-breed son to our High Shaman."
The fresh hope dropped away and Aejys felt suddenly very tired. Her wounds throbbed and hurt. She laid the pipe aside and closed her eyes.
Hanadi touched her lightly on the shoulder.
Aejys opened her eyes and saw the small glass of holadil the Euzadi extended to her. "Half that much," Aejys told her, "I don't want to spend the day sleeping."
Hanadi quirked an eyebrow and inclined her head politely before pouring half of it back into the bottle. "So be it."
Aejys accepted the glass and drank. The pain receded and soon she felt only a little tired. "Go take care of business, Hanadi."
"It would be better that you were not alone."
"You have set guards, no one will bother me."
Hanadi's expression turned doubtful and her eyes strayed to the window.
"No one is coming through that second story window," Aejys said.
"Hmnph," Hanadi snorted. "It has been done."
"Not here, it hasn't. Now go on, I want some time to myself before Becca and Tag get here."
* * * *
Aejys eased out of bed in the wee hours of the morning while most of the household slept. She pulled on her clothes and boots, working around the strapped down left arm. Tamlestari had restrapped it after seeing the bleeding. Her disheveled black hair, matted from days in bed, framed her haggard, pain-worn face. Her side twinged and hurt with each step and wrong turn. She struggled with the buckle of her sword belt and almost gave up before she succeeded. Aejys limped to her walking staff where it leaned in a corner of the room, then used it to reach the closet where she threw a heavy brown wool cloak around her shoulders. It took two tries to get it on right.
Aejys opened the door and stepped out. The Assassins' Guild guard came to attention. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"That's my business," Aejys told him, pushing past.
"Wait, I'll get someone to go with you."
"I don't want anyone."
Aejys descended the stairs moving gingerly. The guard followed, then turned aside and pounded on Hanadi's door. "Chieftain! Aejystrys has gone out and refuses to take a guard."
Brundarad opened the door, backing up on his hind legs. Hanadi wrapped a dressing robe around herself and stepped out. She glanced down
the hall at Aejys' retreating form. "How like a paladin. Always trying to do it themselves."
"Do you know where she is going?"
Hanadi shook her head. "The tavern master will know. Or Tagalong. Follow our employer discretely. See that no harm comes to her."
Hanadi walked to Tagalong's room and awakened the dwarf. "Where would Aejystrys Rowan go at this hour?"
Tagalong sighed. "The north bluffs. That's where we buried Brendorn."
"Ah. Grief wakes her in the night."
"It's a pattern with her. She's always sorted things out in the wee hours before dawn. Even when we were kids."
"We must get people out to guard her before and behind..." Brundarad grumbled softly at Hanadi's side, pressing against her to gain her attention. "What is that, my friend?"
Brundarad spoke to her in throaty noises, half growling.
"Ahhhhh," Hanadi nodded, responding to Brundarad whom only she could understand because of their bonding, "So be it then. Go, Brundarad, keep her safe."
Brundarad bounded down the stairs and faded into the night shadows.
"She needs no one else," Hanadi told Tagalong.
Tagalong shook her head. "Don't know about that."
"What is going on?" Cassana walked out beside Tamlestari.
"Aejys has taken off. Gone ta visit his grave be my guess."
Tamlestari looked alarmed, "Be a miracle, Amita Sana, if she doesn't reopen her wounds or worse."
Cassana Odaren nodded, then ran back into her room. She returned, buckling on her sword, a medicine satchel hanging from her shoulder. "All of you stay here, I'm going after her."
* * * *
Josh moved back into the shadows near the end of the hall. The moment that Tagalong first arrived with these newcomers out of Creeya he had begun living in his rooms in the Cock and Boar and never again returned to his boltholes. They gave him the shivers, these paladins of Hadjys the nethergod. They did not call themselves paladins, but that was what they were. The holy avengers of the Dark Judge who cleansed the souls of those who harmed the innocent and helpless through harsh punishment in his nine hells. They had odd auras and shadows. Gray. And that should have been the end of it, but for a fluttering flicker of golden among the gray.
Abelard. Abelard. Abelard.
A scream crept up the back of Josh's throat and hovered at the back, coiling like a snake, pressing upward against the base of his mouth, struggling to escape. He fled into his room, crawled under the blankets, and lay there for several heartbeats. Then his hand stole out to the nightstand and he opened the lower door, taking out his bottle. He sat up and took a series of long pulls before returning the bottle. Josh did not need to hide his bottles any longer, but old habits and fears were hard to break. He constantly felt as if someone would arrive to steal the bottle away at any minute, although it had not happened in nearly five years. His body eased with the liquor, but now his mind danced with images and visions and he could see hordes of sa'necari feeding in arcane rites or simply draining their victims like vampires. Josh stifled another scream and huddled down into the blankets further, praying for sleep.
* * * *
Aejys' black hair hung loose and disheveled about her face and down her back as she rode slowly up the steep rocky path to the bluffs. She leaned her staff against her right knee with one end in the lance cup, her right hand gripping it. She did not need the reins to guide the wynderjyn: her knees and her voice did that. Despite Gwyndar's best efforts he sometimes jostled her and she winced with a sharp intake of breath. The moist air smelled of brine, sweet pine and pungent cedar. Birds sang to the morning trilling and warbling. Dawn stained the sky with pinks and pale orange. A small headstone stood in a clearing dominated by tremendous cedars. Aejys' throat tightened as she paused before it. Gwyndar knelt. She slid out of the saddle, moving gingerly in an effort to minimize the pain in her side and shoulder with limited success. She ignored all but the worst of it. The former Aroanan paladin, leaning heavily on her staff, lowered herself to the earth beside Brendorn's grave. Aejys crossed her legs. She pressed her forehead against the staff, feeling the tightness in her throat, the heaviness in her chest and stomach like a gathering of rocks.
"I sent his soul to hell, Brendorn," Aejys spoke softly, each word catching in her throat. "I have made a mess of every thing I set hand to since Bucharsa..." She heaved a great sigh. "Well, maybe not everything. I have been good to Vorgensburg... I wanted to share it with you and Ladonys."
She stroked her fingers through the earth covering him, creating little mounds, then smoothing it flat again. "I wish Ladonys had come instead of you... She could have held her own with him, I think." Aejys drew a long shuddering breath, her eyes clenching shut. She could feel the grief rising up like a cresting wave. Aejys tried to close it back, to control it lest it overwhelm her.
"I'm going after Laeoli and Ladonys. Nothing, not even the Hellgod himself, will stop me from bringing them out, I swear it!"
Aejys laid her forehead against the headstone, "Oh, god! Why didn't I bring you with me? Why was I such a fool?" The sobs forced their way out, at first dry and rasping, then hard and wrenching. Finally the tears came and she wept freely, alternating between her lament for Brendorn and cursing herself for not bringing her family with her.
Gwyndar whinnied and Aejys looked up. Cassana sat upon Ajandar six yards off.
"I thought I would find you here," Cassana's soft voice interrupted Aejys' weeping. She dismounted, joining Aejys at his graveside.
"Why couldn't he have waited?"
Cassana slipped a strong arm around Aejys. "He had not meant to take on Farendarc alone. It just happened."
Aejys pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes. "What are you saying?"
"Brendorn promised Tag he would run away, not fight Farendarc. Tagalong felt certain we would see him first, or some other member of your household. Even the scullery boy, Zacham, knew to watch for Farendarc. We never dreamed it would be Brendorn, minding his own business, who would come on him first. Everything went wrong from the start. Clemmerick was off on an errand; Tag was sleeping late having searched for Red Ravens till the wee hours. Tamlestari and I were watching the gates. None of us knew he was already in the city. I realize now that we should have considered the possibility," Cassana sighed. "It happened very fast, Aejys. Grymlyken and his cohorts were out of the tavern as soon as we heard the cries ... but Brendorn was mortally wounded before anyone could get there to help him. He was prepared to die, but he was not planning on it."
"I keep thinking if I had just..."
"No!" Cassana interrupted her, "There is nothing you could have done, except maybe die with him. You, I and Tag together. We could have taken him. But no other combination would have worked. Aejys, had that wound been just a little more to the right, we would have been avenging you, not wrapping your wounds. It is luck or god's will that preserved you. Not your skill. That crowd at the dueling grounds would have torn Farendarc apart if you had died there and I don't mean just the members of your household."
"I miss Brendorn," Aejys said softly.
"I miss him too. He was my friend."
"There's a drawer in my desk ... it's full of letters I wrote to him and Ladonys and never sent. So long as he was alive, I could plan and dream about how it would be when I brought them all out. For years I kept reaching for them in the night. I got past it. Then I have one god-blessed night with him ... and I'm feeling for him in my sleep. When I don't find him I come fully awake and remember he's gone. And I cannot find him anymore ... ever again. Even when I bring Ladonys out, there will still be an empty place in a bed that held three."
"That is how I felt after losing Colin. It was years before I stopped expecting to turn a corner and find him standing there. Don't be afraid of the grieving."
"I didn't grieve for my friends... I missed them, but I didn't grieve as others did. I couldn't afford to stop and feel ... not and stay one jump ahead of the Waejontori."
"A
t least you came out of the war with your family intact. Very few did. I lost both my ma'arams and two of my older sisters as well as Colin."
"That does not make it any easier."
"I know it doesn't."
"God damn it all!" Aejys began striking the headstone with her fist until she bloodied the knuckles and Cassana stopped her, caught her hand.
The younger woman pulled a scarf from her pocket and wrapped Aejys' hand. "When I met Colin I was very young, very inexperienced. I hadn't taken so much as a shield mate yet. I had never been beyond the borders of my own land before. Ours was an intense love, physically, emotionally, spiritually. We had three years, running, hiding and fighting alongside Kalestari Desharen. And then he was dead. At least you still have Ladonys. You had triaded before you lost him."
"Oh, god. What will I tell Ladonys..."
Cassana gripped Aejys' arm, "You will find the words, I am sure of it. The war was nearly over when you left Shaurone. But it would only have differed in degree. Do you really believe that it would have been better to have put Brendorn and Laeoli through that?"
"Ladonys, Tag and I – we could have protected them."
"Are you certain of that?"
Aejys' eyes met Cassana's and held them for a long moment, and then the soldier dropped her gaze with a sigh. "No, I'm not certain." Aejys' hand went to her upper chest, applying pressure to the wound that was beginning to hurt.
Cassana opened Aejys' shirt. A small staining appeared on the bandage. "Let's get you home." Cassana's whistle brought Ajandar and Gwyndar to them.
Aejys shook her head. "Why couldn't Ladonys have come instead?"
"Ladonys sent him to me, she felt his woodcraft was a greater advantage in reaching me and then you than her warcraft would have been. Aejys," Cassana leaned close and slipped a comforting arm around the former paladin, "she was right. Ladonys would never have made it as far as we did. Even with all of Brendorn's skills leading us, the three myn-at-arms I brought with us were slain before we got as far as Beltria. The undead are stalking the marches again."