The Winter Road

by Adrian Selby

  “Once we might have seen the visit of Crogan Othbutter as a great favour, coming as he does with promise of trade, the support of the citadel and his family. But when were the Othbutters last here? Only their tax collectors bother us, and that regularly enough. But here is the brother of the great chief himself. He came to tell Elder Thende, my own brother, that he must swear fealty to the Othbutters after we have all sworn fealty to our new lord, Samma Khiese.”

  The room was silent now. If there was any lingering hope about us of some sort of escape from Khiese it was gone. A couple of the nearest Seikkersons now noticed I was bleeding, the drip of blood visible to them as it hit the stone floor at my feet. Some others noticed Jeife’s sword was drawn and held point down behind Crogan. Crogan looked about him for his men. Some of those present at the benches began to move, uncrossing legs or reaching for hidden daggers. I still couldn’t find Mosa or Aude.

  “But I have awful news, caused by Othbutter’s visit. Elder Thende is dead, poisoned in his own room.”

  Gasps and murmurs. A couple cried, “No!”

  “It seems Othbutter’s demand to renew his fealty, when his commitment to Khiese already cost this clan and this family so much, cemented my poor brother’s struggle with his honour. He came reluctantly to understand the wisdom of Samma Khiese, as you know. I, your new elder, have no such difficulty understanding who our master is.”

  It was quick, the thrust. He angled the blade up and drove it through Crogan in a swift and fluid movement. The point of the sword forced out the wool of his tunic at the front. Crogan gasped aloud, arms rigid in shock, as though he’d been plunged into an icy pool. Jeife’s other hand held his shoulder to keep him still while he drew out the sword. He pulled Crogan to the floor at his side, Crogan still alive enough to try to sit himself up on quivering arms. Crogan looked over at me, but as he leaned on one arm to reach for me with the other it gave way and he slumped to the floor, dead.

  Jeife turned to me, I was grabbed by the two guards behind me, one squeezing my cut, which made me cry out.

  “Ma!” shouted Mosa, near the back at the main front doors. I saw him then, just about, Aude too. Jem was with them and drawing knives.

  “Captain Eirin, your men are unarmed,” said Jeife. “It would be awful if any attempt to harm me or my people should lead to Amondsen’s death, so I hope they won’t try to leave.”

  He looked at one of the men on a nearby bench, who nodded and gestured to three more, who took up their swords from the floor beneath their table and moved to the main doors.

  “Now, Amondsen, you know the value of your caravan and you know the value of your life and the lives of all those who have brought it to us at Crimore. Your crew may choose to fight, or you can tell them not to. At least that way you get to live and take Crogan’s head back to his brother.”

  I clenched my teeth with the pain in my arm, looked at Aude holding Mosa, Aude’s face aghast, awaiting the killing blow. For my part I saw only Othbutter’s fury should I go back to him with his brother’s head. I saw the requisition of my forts for his use, a compensation I would again be forced to be grateful for against his own threat of my keep’s life, my boy’s life. Still my thoughts revolved, my eyes filling up, a well of anger and helplessness, looking for a proposal, a way through. The soldiers sensed it, gripped me tighter, causing a further spasm of pain. I was kicked in the backs of my knees, dropping me.

  “You see a mercenary’s true colours now, my friends. She’s thinking of how much gold, how much profit she will not now make. She is struggling to decide which to choose, gold or family. This is the girl who disrespected her own family, kept the name of her rope, rightfully her brother’s, left them and the Auksens who had raised her and fed her. We’re grateful to you, Amondsen, the people of Crimore will live well off the supplies, the plant. We should perhaps also consider acquiring your recipes. Where are your drudhas?”

  He looked out at the crowd. In those moments I felt a stillness wash through me, though I cannot tell you why, and I realised both he and I had underestimated us a moment before the arrow hit him. The caffin butter, Thad’s dayer, I struggled to stone it, get it under control. All my feelings and senses overwhelmed me as much as they raised me towards the highest sense of my self. But it meant I was too focused on looking for my own solution, the best action I could take, and I ignored the possible outcomes an experienced and well-paid handful of mercenaries could add, all because the brew narrowed the world to my body’s sense of it and I’d lost the ability to push that back out onto the world, to join and not merely receive its song.

  The arrow come from above, one of the shutters in the roof above this end of the hall. It hit Jeife in his right shoulder, precise, forcing him to drop his sword. I looked up, another shutter was above me, saw Yalle and Sanger. An arrow was loosed straight down into the head of one of the guards behind me. A third arrow then, from one of the bigger shutters open over the firepits, through the neck of another guard stood just behind Jeife.

  As Jeife cried out and the men and women in the hall panicked, Thad stood up.

  “Silence!” In his hands were two thin waxed cotton bags full of coldfire stones. I could faintly smell them with the dayer, an alluring sharp tang at the back of my mouth. He walked to the firepit and held them over it. The hall fell silent but for Jeife whimpering along with the children, whose parents were shushing them.

  “If these bags are dropped into those firepits and the shutters above us are closed, those of us without salve or treated mask will choke and vomit themselves to death. I would hate to kill good people, for none of you have made this terrible mistake.”

  I turned to face the guard who’d been ready to kill me. He dropped his sword.

  “Mercy,” he said. No fucking chance. I threw myself at him, swung a right, which he put his arm up to deflect too late. I caught him clean in the side of the head and put him down.

  “Teyr!” shouted Eirin, who ran over and pulled me off him. I’d got a few punches in before I was hauled up easily by her. She put her face up close to mine. “Stone it, Amondsen. Breathe.” I pushed her back, my hands up to show I’d heard her. The guard flinched when I caught his eye. He had no colour, easy to forget how the nokes can fear us.

  “Someone get this arrow out,” hissed Jeife, looking at me. He’d fallen to his knees in pain. The main doors opened, and Jinsy and the others walked in with the sentries that had been left out on duty in the settlement.

  “Thad will,” I said, “and I hope he takes his fucking time about it. Eirin, get some of your boys to get Crogan out of here, tell Steyning to clean him up.”

  I took Jeife by his wounded shoulder and pulled him up.

  “Ma! No!” shouted Mosa from the back as Jeife cried out.

  It caught me for a moment, like someone had played the right note on a horn but the rest of the players was inside my head filling it with a vicious noise. It give me pause to look out at all these farmers and labourers, sniffers and crafters. Some had risen from their seats, ready to die fighting with their bare hands.

  “I’m not Samma Khiese. Crogan was not Samma Khiese. We both respect the Seikkerson rope. We will not hang you or your sons and daughters from the walls like Khiese. You are free and will come to no harm if you do not resist our leaving. You may well swear Jeife Seikkerson in as chief of these lands. We respect that as well. I cannot make you swear fealty to anyone else. But consider the wisdom of your choice. If I find the Auksen clan are yet free then we may be able to resist this Khiese and you can once again be the masters of Crimore Vale.”

  I found I had nothing else to say. Jeife would win them back because he had a clever tongue, Othbutter’s failings in all but his collection of tax would have been felt in all their purses and harvests over the years. What did he benefit them? I could offer nothing while Khiese was free and dangerous. Some murmuring began and I had lost their attention. Thad moved in to take the arrow out of Jeife and stitch up the hole.

  Eirin ord
ered everyone out of the hall along with the people of Crimore. Jeife grunted but did his best not to show the pain of having an arrow cut out. Thad worked quickly with plant and gut to stitch and poultice the wound it left.

  “What poison is in me?” asked Jeife.

  “None,” said Thad. “We hoped not to have to kill anyone if it came to this, but …”

  He helped Jeife up.

  “We’re leaving,” I said. “You won’t get in our way.”

  “A fine speech, Teyr, but the Auksens belong to Khiese.”

  “I’m sorry to hear it.”

  “Caravan like yours, too big to hide, too small to make a difference. You’re heading to your death, all of you.”

  He gestured to the one guard who remained with him to follow him through to the just.

  “My fucking arm hurts,” I said after he’d left.

  “His was the worse wound,” said Thad.

  “How did you know mine wasn’t poisoned?” I knew the answer though, I just wanted it confirmed.

  “I watched you, no sign of any poison from my seeing you walk in until now. Took a moment to notice the stain and the blood, there’s a bit of smoke in here from those pigs.”

  He cut and tore my sleeve and prepared another needle and gut.

  “We’ll take some cuts of pig for the trip out of the valley, make sure everyone’s had something fresh and there might be some scraps to salt.” I was saying that with a few cusses and some moaning as he did a fine job.

  “Cut’s clean, a bit of something on the blade from what I can smell, but if anything the rust would be more deadly.” After he’d finished and packed everything up he took up one of the carving knives and cut a big pile of slices of meat onto a serving tray. He left me to my thoughts as he did it, stopping only to wipe his hands and get his pipe going.

  “You can carry those bags of coldfire stones,” he said when he was done. “We need to talk with Eirin and the others when we find somewhere to stop, Teyr.”

  “I know. I need to think a bit.”

  Outside, all of us was watched by the settlement. I saw Jinsy and Skallern’s crew going door to door and taking arrows from the men and women about us, for they all could use a bow as with all clans about the Circle, being always at each other’s throats as I said before. Thad passed the meat about our crew.

  I went over to where the horses was tied and found Aude and Mosa. Mosa still looked upset and come over to hug me.

  “I’ve got the saddle and bags,” said Aude, but he didn’t stop what he was doing so he was struggling with what had happened.

  “I thought you were going to die, Ma.” Mosa started sobbing into my dress. I ran my fingers through his hair, the heat from his scalp warming my fingertips. I was feeling sleepy, the dayer wearing off and my nerves getting worse, my fingers trembling again. I felt low and a bit ratty. I was grateful for Thad’s mix in the poultice for it felt cool and numb, some part of that the night air on my bare arm too.

  “I was scared too, Mo. But we’ve got good soldiers here. They thought there might be trouble and they sneaked up onto the roof of the longhouse ready to help without being seen.”

  “Your arm’s hurt; will it get better?” He pointed but wouldn’t go near it. “Are you still bleeding, Ma?”

  “Aude?” I said.

  “Let’s talk when we get going,” he said.

  “No, Mo, it’s not bleeding, it’s drying up now. I’ll need to wash it all off soon. Thad has put plant on it and it’ll be healed up in no time.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, before I come into the hall where you were sat with your da, I tried to attack one of them with a knife I had hidden, but she had a sword and she cut my arm. I did it because I thought they was going to kill me.”

  His bottom lip tucked up and his eyes filled and he touched my arm as gently as he could.

  “I know where Da keeps his potsa. You and Da always end up laughing and singing when you drink that. Da will get it, won’t you?”

  “It’s a good idea,” I said, “but I’ll have some later, bluebell. We need to get moving, as we aren’t welcome here no more.”

  There was hollering along the line as the carts was put on the horses and Steyning and Yalle put Crogan’s body onto one of them, dusted and bound. It would be wrong to put him over a horse in front of these people.

  Eirin led us out of Crimore. Jeife watched us from the longhouse doors and his people gazed at us silently as we made our way back to the river and started along the track out of the valley. The younger children waved, one or two had their hands smacked as they did it, but whether this was born out of hostility to us or even respect or sorrow for what happened to Crogan it was hard to say.

  I trotted up and down the line myself to speak to everyone and see that they was good and answer any questions they had, for many of them wasn’t in the hall to see what had happened. When I reached Thad and Eirin near the front, they confirmed Crogan’s cleark’s count of plant and gifts was intact. We took nothing but arrows from Crimore in our own defence, but we would leave them no gifts until their own banner was raised again.

  “How long do we go tonight?” said Thad.

  “Couple of hours should get us out of the mud by the river and up onto harder ground in the hills. At the head of the valley you remember we saw a spot might be worth a camp if we wasn’t so close to Crimore? Feels like a good place to go now and work out our next step,” said Eirin. I went to say something but she held a hand up.

  “Sorry, Master Amondsen, but this needs a proper talk with all of us settled and thinking right.”

  She was right. I could see even by her lantern she looked worn out, her dayer was taking its toll, but also maybe Crogan’s death had shaken her. It was obvious, thinking back on it as we followed the hill trails, that she was feeling personally guilty for Crogan’s death. I had to make sure Yalle wasn’t going to push her on it, so found her in the line and we had a few words, but she wasn’t interested in badmouthing Eirin, if only because she was paying the dayer too.

  The clearing we had found was likely a spot for those moving herds or else a place to rest for vans that come through going east or west.

  Crimore would be somewhere below us, but the hills was heavily wooded, obscuring it. Skallern put a few soldiers about, and Sanger and Jem went back down the trail to watch for any riders coming out of Crimore. I was hoping they might spot the whiteboy I’d seen, for he had never appeared afterwards.

  Aude put Mosa in Chalky’s wagon with his family for some warmth as the wind had teeth up here, roaring through the trees. I was wrapped in my woollens on the cart that had our things on it among supplies for trading. He patted and spoke to our mares and our packhorse, Thunder, who was called that on account of the time Mosa was stood behind her when she lifted her tail and splattered him with dung. I watched him as he spoke to them. Aude was good with the horses, they loved him and always made for him the moment he was in sight. He come over then and jumped up into the cart with me, undid the clasp on his cloak and put it about our shoulders. We was silent for a bit, arms around each other. He fidgeted like he wanted to say something. I listened to him catch his breath and then try to control his breathing. He was trying not to cry.

  “Sorry, bluebell,” Aude said. “I didn’t want Mosa to see me get in a mess. I wasn’t ready to … Well, Jeife killed Crogan as quick as clicking your fingers, and I saw you were hurt and for a moment I thought I was going to have to—and Mosa was going to have to—watch you die. And …” His eyes filled up. “And I froze, my love. He would have done it and I didn’t shout, I did fuck all.” He wiped his eyes, angry with himself.

  “Ho now, Aude.” I put my arm across his waist and turned into him to cutch him.

  “You told me all those stories from when you paid the colour, the things you did, and I saw that and wanted to be sick. Not much use to you, am I? You were calm as a cow with swords at your back.”

  “It’s the life I had, bluebel
l. Stoning and paying the colour, it changes you.” And I hated that we both was thinking of what I skirted around in what I was saying. I tried to edge my words towards it. “You learn to go cold, keep thinking. Course I was fretful, but it was my worrying for you and Mosa, forcing all this on you. We’re alive. We’ve learned something and we won’t get caught like that again.”

  We was alive. Made it another night, that was what me, Nazz and Ruifsen would have said back in our army days.

  “I expect you’ll be needed by Eirin and Yalle soon, decide what’s to be done with Crogan and this van.”

  I tipped my head to the side so I could rest it against his. “What would you do now?” I said.

  “I’m just sorry this isn’t going as you’d hoped. This Khiese seems like a serious threat. That clan down below us is beaten, in spit and spirit. And your clan too may be the same.”

  “They won’t be. I can’t see it. I know that he pitted the Seikkersons’ families against Thende, but there was always bad blood with the Ironbacks in particular. There’s little vigour in the twist of their ropes. Auksen’s loved by all the Families sworn to his. Doubt they’ll let him down.”

  “The woman I made my keep I love for many reasons, and your reason, your cleverness, is chief among them. So you must think, What if he’s got to my people?”

  “And you, Aude, have lime jam on your tongue, sweet and sharp. Course I’m worried about it a bit. Maybe I don’t know how the family are, but we had good recipes and Auksen was a hard fucker last I saw him, like his da. I have to think that if Khiese walked our sons up to his walls he’d not give up his clan. Thende was a good man, but goodness is wanted in the Old Kingdoms with their laws in writing and their standing militia able to protect it. Out here in the Circle it can be weak.”

  “You’re not ready to give up on it all just now then?”