Silk split. With a thin shriek, Rawneth spilled out onto the ground and fled, a black shadow scrambling across the courtyard, out the gate, across the moaning hills, away.
Jame sighed. The battle wasn’t over, for all her brave words, and the adversary far from defeated. Rawneth wasn’t her primary foe. The Kencyrath faced layer upon layer of them, back to Perimal Darkling itself. The mind boggled at that. It was the crush of history.
“We aren’t ready,” Torisen had said, and he was right.
She turned back to the door, but it gaped empty. Her brother had disappeared into the hall.
She entered cautiously, eyes adjusting from dim light to dimmer admitted by two barred windows to the left and right. The smell struck her first, sweet and sickly. Was this the stench of lung-rot, here, in the heart of Tori’s soul-image? Then she saw the tables, and the indistinct, hunched figures sitting at them. A breath of air through the outer door caused the latter to stir and sway bonelessly, ghosts spun of spider silk, echoes of a sick past.
A hoarse voice muttered behind the closed inner door and Torisen sagged against its outer surface, listening:
“You have betrayed me, you, and you, and you. You told the boy to go and he went. Traitors, all of you.”
Kindrie stumbled into the hall, his white hair in wild disarray, a bruise rising on his chin.
“I was frantic,” he panted. “Burr hit me. I think he cracked a tooth. What’s going on?”
“Hush.”
Jame had recognized the scene before her for what it was: her brother’s worst nightmare. Rawneth had assumed that what he most feared was exposure over the rift with his father, but that wasn’t it. He didn’t regret fleeing Ganth’s madness or his dying curse. What ate at his soul was that he had inadvertently left the keep’s Kendar to pay for his escape.
“You, and you, and you,” said that muffled voice again. “In your hands are knives. Turn them on me, or on yourselves to prove your loyalty.”
“No,” whispered Torisen. “These men are . . . were . . . my friends. Anar, tell him!”
“Ah-ha-ha. That feeble excuse for a scrollsman is long since gone, whining. Remember? ‘I was wrong. Nothing outweighs a lord’s authority. Take back the responsibility, child. It burns. Set me free. Free us all.’ But you couldn’t even do that, could you, because here I still am.”
Torisen coughed. “Blood on the floor, on the knife. That’s it, isn’t it? You didn’t just make my friends kill themselves. You tried to blood-bind me as a child. You knew all of this time that you were a binder, a Shanir, and yet you taught me to hate, yes, even my own sister. Damn you, Father, and curse you, always and forever. Leave us alone!”
His hand fumbled on the lock and the door swung open, almost taking him with it. Something black billowed in the narrow way beyond, filling the space from post to lintel to post.
“Oh,” it breathed, and condensed.
A figure stood there, thin and anxious, drained at last of rage. “My son, my child, set me free.”
Torisen drew deep into his ravaged lungs for that last drop of poisoned blood and spat.
The figure disintegrated into a stifling cloud of ash. The wind behind it from above drove it into the hall where the spun ghosts at the table turned black and brittle at its touch before crumbling into dust.
Ahhhhh . . . said the wind.
Torisen crumpled, gasping, to the floor. Jame went quickly to his side. In and out went the wind. Out and in. The rattle on it had died away. Finally, he could again catch his breath. Jame smoothed the hair off his face.
“That’s better,” said Kindrie, looking over her shoulder. “Now, all I need is a broom.”
“Er . . . what?”
“To sweep out this mess, of course. See, there’s one behind the door. Whenever I need a tool in the soulscape, I can find it.”
Torisen’s eyelids fluttered open.
“What happened?”
“Your face is less gray and you can breathe again. I think you’re going to live.”
“Oh. Good.”
Jame settled on the floor and took him into her arms.
“I’m confused,” he said, sinking into her embrace. “That was Father, wasn’t it?”
“I think so. Things in the soulscape don’t necessarily align with reality, but he seemed real enough.”
“Even at the end, asking for release?”
“Yes. Which you granted him. He was always so unhappy, except with her, and that couldn’t last. It’s been awhile since I last thought of him as a monster.”
“Well, then, let him go. What else haven’t you told me?”
“A lot. I’m sorry. You didn’t seem ready and then, as Rawneth said, secrets are power.”
“You were afraid that I would use them against you.”
“Wouldn’t you? No. Sorry. It’s in part that I guess things that I can’t prove. Rawneth had that right. If you knew, too, you might feel compelled to act, and we aren’t ready.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“I barely trust myself. Oh, Tori, we come from such a troubled past, and now the future looks pretty murky too. Ancestors know, this move of Caldane’s throws everything at hazard, just when other things are starting to come together. How many lords d’you think will follow his lead?”
“The Randir, probably; others as well, if compelled by need. I can’t tell them to let their people starve.”
“I have some resources now.”
“Enough for all nine houses, or only for us and maybe for our allies? That might only make things worse.”
“Tori, I’m frightened.”
“So am I, and so very, very tired.”
“Rest, then,” she murmured to him, and kissed the white streak at his temple. “I am here, at last, and so is Kindrie, and so are you. We have come home.”
The End
Lexicon
Acon
a Caineron randon officer bound to Tiggeri
Adric
Lord Ardeth
Adiraina
the Ardeth Matriarch
Aerulan
Jame’s dead cousin; Brenwyr’s beloved
Anar
a scrollsman; one of the twins’ teachers in the Haunted Lands keep
Arrin-ken
One of the Three People—cat-like immortal judges
Ashe
haunt singer
Bane
Jame and Torisen’s half-brother
Bark
Gorbel’s servant
Beauty
an unfallen darkling
Bel-tairi (“Bel”)
a Whinno-hir
Beneficent (“Bene”)
a cow
Benj
Caineron yondri speared by Fash, also the name of Must’s baby
Berry
a ten-commander at Tagmeth, also Huckle’s twin sister; fair
Blackie
Torisen’s nickname
Bo
the infant son of Merry and Cron
Brant
Lord Brandon
Brenwyr
Brant’s sister, also the Brandan Matriarch
Brier Iron-thorn
Jame’s marshal and master-ten
Bully
a stray yackcarn bull
Buckle
A ten-commander at Tagmeth, sister of Berry; dark
Burnt Man
Rathillien elemental for fire
Burr
Torisen’s servant
Caldane
Lord Caineron
Cattila
the Caineron Matriarch
Char
a ten-commander at Tagmeth in charge of the herd
Cheva
horse-master at Tagmeth
Chingetai
Merikit chieftain
Chirpentundrum (“Chirp”)
a Builder
Cleppetty
cook at the Res a’Byrr in Tai-tastigon
Commandant, the
Sheth Shar
p-tongue
Corvine
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Cron
a Kendar at Gothregor
Da
a Merikit, mate of Ma
Damson
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Dar
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Dari
currently in charge of the Ardeth keep during its lord’s indisposition
Dark Judge
a blind Arrin-ken
Death’s-head
Jame’s rathorn colt
Dens
one of Damson’s ten-command, second year male cadet
Dewdrop
Lyra’s dappled pony
Dianthe
the Danior Matriarch
Drie
Timmon’s Kendar half-brother, swallowed by the Eaten One
Eaten One
Rathillien elemental for water
Erim
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Falling Man (“the Old Man,” “the Tishooo”)
Rathillien elemental for air
Fash
a Caineron cadet
Fen
Kendar farmer with the Tagmeth garrison
Four, the
Rathillien’s four elementals
Ganth Gray-lord
father of the twins, the former Highlord
Geri
a Danior cadet with a haphazard control over insects
Gerraint
Ganth’s father
Gerridon
the Master, renegade Highlord who caused the Fall
Girt
Benj’s nurse, formerly Mustard’s
Gnasher
the wolver king of the Deep Weald
Gorbel
the Caineron lordan
Gran Cyd
the Merikit queen
Granny Sit-by-the-fire
a primordial story-teller
Gray Lands
where the souls of the stranded dead wander
Greshan
Jame and Tori’s uncle
Grimly
a wolver poet
Hatch
a Merikit, in love with Prid
Holly
Hollens, Lord Danior
Immalai
an Arrin-ken
Index
an old scrollsman
Iron-jaw
Ganth’s haunt warhorse, then the Master’s
Jamethiel Dream-weaver
the twins’ mother
Jamethiel Priest’s bane
Jame
Jedrak
traditional name for Lord Jaran
Jerr
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Jorin
Jame’s ounce
Kallystine
Caldane’s daughter, once Torisen’s consort
Karidia
the Coman Matriarch
Kells
a herbalist at Tagmeth
Kenan
Lord Randir
Keral
a darkling changer
Killy
Knorth cadet; five-commander to Char
Kindrie Soul-walker
a healer; Jame and Tori’s cousin
Kirien
a scrollswoman, also the Jaran Lordan
Krothen (“Kroaky”)
King of Kothifir
Languidine
a lost city in the Southern Wastes
Loof
a complaining acolyte
Lordan
a lord’s heir
Lyra Lack-wit
Caldane’s young daughter
Ma
a Merikit
Malignant (“Malign”)
Bene’s calf
Marc, Marcarn, Marcarn Long-shanks
Jame’s oldest Kendar friend
Marigold Onyx-eyed
randon in charge of the Knorth barracks at Kothifir
Master, the
Gerridon
Merikit
a hill-tribe community
Merry
one of Torisen’s Kendar
Mint
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Mirah
Randiroc’s green-eyed mare
Mother Ragga
the Earth Wife
Mustard (“Must”)
an escaped Caineron yondri
New Pantheon
Native gods created in part by the temples’ awakening
Niall
a ten-commander at Tagmeth
Nutley
bake-master at Gothregor, Rowan’s partner.
Oath-breaker
a Kendar sworn to Ganth who didn’t follow him into exile
Odalian
former prince of Karkinaroth
Old Pantheon
The gods before the New Pantheon, risen out of primordial forces
Oreq
an acolyte
Ostrepi
King of a Central Land on the east side of Silver, just above Karkinaroth
Pereden
Timmon’s father
Pook
a very furry small dog, used to track game through the folds of the land
Prid
a Merikit girl; Jame’s lodge-wyf
Pugnanos
Duke on the west side of Silver, blood enemy of Prince Uthecon and King Ostrepi
Quill
Damson’s Five-commander
Quirl
Corvine’s dead son
Rackny
the cook at Tagmeth
Randiroc
the Randir Heir
Rathorn
a carnivorous, ivory armored equine
Rowan
Torisen’s steward
Rue
Jame’s servant
Shade
Lord Randir’s half kendar daughter
Sheth Sharp-tongue
Caldane’s war-leader, also called the Commandant
Spot
Kindrie’s post horse
Swar
Blacksmith at Tagmeth
Talbet
ten commander at Tagmeth
Taur
Director of Mount Alban
Thorns
half horse, half Rathorn, always mares
Tiens
hunt-master at Tagmeth
Tiggeri
one of Caldane’s established sons
Timmon
Lord Ardeth’s heir
Timtom
A part Knorth novice and Shanir, twin of Tomtim
Tirandys
Jame’s uncle and teacher, also a changer
Tirresian
Cyd and Jame’s infant “daughter”
Tomtim
Twin of Timtom
Torisen (“Tori”)
Highlord of the Kencyrath, Jame’s twin brother
Trishien
Jaran Matriarch
Tungit
Merikit shaman
Twizzle
Gorbel’s pet pook
Uthecon
Prince of Karkinaroth
Whinno-hir
an intelligent, immortal equine
Winter
the twins’ wet-nurse and teacher from the Haunted Lands keep
Wort
one of Damson’s ten-command, second-year cadet girl
Yackcarn
a huge, hairy bovine
Yackcow
a cross between a Yackcarn and a cow
Yce
Wolver heir to the Gnasher
Table of Contents
Map
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
<
br /> Chapter XVII
Lexicon
The Gates of Tagmeth (Chronicles of the Kencyrath Book 8) Page 37