by Tom Lloyd
‘As Ruhen walked out to face the army of daemons, so I shall face our enemies without fear. The Child’s grace shall carry me through.’
‘But in case-’ The soldier didn’t get any further.
Ilstelian raised a hand and cut him off. ‘Come, Children of Ruhen,’ he said, holding his oak staff high, ‘let us visit peace upon these tormented lands.’ And with the rest trailing along behind he headed down the dirt track that led into the heart of the village. A long wicker fence served as the village perimeter, encircling the two dozen houses, while cultivated hedgerows penned several tracts of land beyond.
‘These are honest, Gods-fearing folk, ’ Istelian announced to his followers. ‘Their only loyalty to the distant king will be born of fear.’ He passed through an open gate, crossed the bridge and walked onto the common land, where a cluster of villagers were already awaiting him. Istelian walked up to them, observing the apprehension on their faces with a slight satisfaction. His stature was clear to these people, his purpose obvious in every step he took.
‘Good folk, may I ask the name of this village?’ Istelian asked them loudly.
The villagers glanced at each other like nervous sheep, before one found the courage to speak up. ‘Tarafain,’ said the youngest man, a broad shouldered individual with a rolling local accent.
‘How can we help you, sir?’
‘ Sir’ — these people know their place.
‘I seek the village elders. I would speak to you all of peace.’
The farmer’s eyes widened and he pointed mutely towards a stone fronted building, clearly a tavern, on the far side of the green. There were a handful of people sitting outside and watching life in the village pass by.
With a curt nod to his guide, Istelian continued on.
The tavern was the only two storey-building in the village; blackened beams protruded out from lime-wash walls and smoke rose from a chimney at each end of the building. A youth lounged at the stable door, watching them with an insolent expression on his face.
‘You are the village elders?’ Istelian enquired of the four lounging outside the tavern door.
A middle-aged couple were sitting furthest from him, with an old crone on their right and a greying man opposite her. The elder two seemed to be scowling at him; the woman through poor eyesight, the man perhaps due to the mug of beer he gripped.
‘I’m the headman,’ the younger man said in a deep voice. At last he did stand, and offered a bow of sorts. His wife jumped up beside him, but the other two made no such effort. ‘Hesher Vres at your service.’
‘I am Child Istelian,’ he said, inclining his head to return the greeting. ‘The Gods have favoured me to number among the ranks of Ruhen’s Children. I would speak to you and your vil lage of peace.’
‘Got enough o’ that already,’ the old woman croaked. ‘Don’t need no more; be off with you.’
Istelian turned to regard the crone. She lacked the tattoos or charms he’d expect of a witch, but he knew in rural places those too stubborn to die were permitted much freedom to speak.
‘And you are?’
‘A woman who’s seen enough o’ this Land ta know we don’t want nothing from the east.’
Istelian sniffed. ‘You have no wish for peace? You would prefer King Emin steals your sons for his army of daemons? Are you a heretic?’
The old woman hissed and rapped her knuckles on the tabletop. ‘My sons died in the king’s service,’ she screeched, ‘and I’ll have no false priest diminish their sacrifice!’
‘I am no priest,’ Istelian replied smoothly, ‘and I know your sons served their king faithfully, but it is this king who now betrays those he should protect.’
The older man growled and drained his beer. ‘Better watch your tongue, boy — some folk round here won’t take kindly to you bad-mouthing the king.’
‘I know the thrall you are under, the fear of his armies you all feel.’ Istelian threw out an arm to gesture back the way he had come. ‘But I bring peace in my wake — the word of Ruhen to set you free, his servants to stand beside you against the tyranny of the great heretic.’
‘Great heretic?’ the man echoed, rising from his seat to glare at Istelian eye to eye. ‘That’s the twist o’ your dogma now, is it? Make him out to be Aryn Bwr?’
‘Ruhen’s peace will free you all,’ Istelian insisted. He stepped back and raised his voice so those inside the tavern, no doubt listening intently, could clearly hear him. ‘Ruhen will free you from the cares of this Land, free you from the tyranny of war that has so plagued us, and drive off the daemons that continue to torment us.’
‘Hah!’ spat the old woman, jabbing a thumb at her fellow doubter, ‘he’s already seen those buggers off.’
‘You have faced down daemons?’ Istelian asked, astonished by the outrageous claim.
‘A few,’ the old man confirmed with a deepening scowl. ‘So what’s this peace you offer then? Might it be the rule of the
Knights of the Temples rather than Narkang? Tribunals and inquisitors? Religious law and counter-insurgency? How many’ll die while you enforce your peace?’
‘How dare you make such claims?’ Istelian spat. ‘Ruhen is the emissary of the Gods and I am his mouthpiece. To question me is to question the blessed child, and that is heresy of the foulest kind.’
‘Not allowed questions under your peace, eh?’
‘Honest devotion to the Gods is Ruhen’s way. To accuse and undermine, to whisper and lie, that is the work of daemons and all such heresy must be rooted out.’
The old man scratched his white stubbled-chin. ‘Aye, thought as much.’
Istelian felt the fury erupt within himself; it was all he could do not to strike the man down where he stood. ‘Henceforth this village is under the protection of the Knights of the Temples!’ he declared loudly, ‘and you are all now subject to the laws of the Gods. Rejoice, people of Tarafain, you are free from the tyrant of Narkang and protected by the peace of Ruhen!’
He spun around and snapped at the nearest of the Children behind. ‘You, summon Captain Tachan; inform him there are heretics in his village!’
‘Heretics?’ the old man mused as the Child ran back the way they had come. ‘Well, I must admit, Lord Death weren’t so happy to see me last time He did.’
‘Silence!’ Istelian bellowed and backhanded the old man across the mouth. ‘You dare speak of the Chief of the Gods in such irreverent tones? Headman Vres, this man is a poison thorn within your community. Assemble the village. His re education must be witnessed by every man, woman and child.’
The old man slowly spat a gobbet of bloody spit onto the ground at his feet. ‘Now that weren’t so peaceful.’
‘You are a heretic!’ Istelian hissed, grabbing him by the arm. ‘There can be no leniency shown to the enemies of the Gods — the daemon within you must be scourged from your body!’
The old man gave him a blood-tinted grin. ‘Daemon? Not quite.’ His weathered face twitched strangely, his cheeks shuddering as though something was fighting to escape from within. A white patina appeared on his skin, the lines around his eyes smoothing away as his brow softened and become narrower.
Istelian staggered back into his remaining attendants, one hand raised protectively. ‘What magic is this?’ he screeched. ‘You are damned! Sold to some creature of the Dark Place!’
‘It’s more of a loan,’ the old man said, his voice higher now, almost feminine, ‘and I believe “Goddess” is the appropriate term.’
The man’s pale, ghostly colour increased with every word and as he stepped forward, the fading light seemed all the more pronounced. ‘You claim to speak in the name o’ the Gods, but you know nothing of them,’ the man said in a voice that cut the air like the crash of thunder. ‘The shadows in Ruhen’s eyes are born of Ghenna’s darkness, and I’ll not leave this village to fall under the rule of a shadow. We don’t submit to shadows here.’
Istelian gaped, looking left and right in his astonishment. Faces h
ad appeared at doors and windows, the ignorant rustics all staring at him without any of the respect due to him.
‘You will hang,’ he croaked through the deepening gloom of evening. ‘It’s a crime against the Gods to speak such things. Your tongue will be torn from your mouth and fed to the dogs — your eyes will be put out, your body driven onto a stake. All these torments await you in the next life, and so they will be visited upon you in this one too.’
The sound of running feet seemed to spur him into movement and Istelian straightened up. ‘Captain…’ The words faded in his throat as he saw only one figure approaching.
‘Child Istelian!’ the captain called, sleeves flapping as he made up the ground. ‘They’re gone — the soldiers, all gone!’
The old man stepped forward, a knife appearing from nowhere. Quick as a snake he slashed open Istelian’s cheek, and the preacher fell back with a cry But the old man didn’t follow up his assault; he just stood before the table with a satisfied look on his face, his knife still at the ready.
‘Looks like your soldiers have learned to fear the ghosts of dusk,’ the old man said evilly, ‘but I think that’d be too easy for you. So let’s find out how strong your faith really is, how much this peace of the shadow’s really protects.’
He grabbed Istelian in a surprisingly powerful grip.
Despite his desperate efforts, he couldn’t break free, and when a second man, barefoot and dressed all in black, took his other arm, Istelian felt the strength drain out of his body. He was dragged back to the gate, and beyond it he saw the horses they had arrived on, those of the preachers and the Devoted soldiers too, all riderless and whickering nervously. The old man and his fellow daemon-worshipper took him past the horses and tossed him down into the dirt beside the road.
‘See the trees?’ the evil old man rasped, his face shining with what looked to Istelian to be a terrible delight. ‘The light’s fading now. Might be you start to see eyes, appearing in the shadows below them.’ He grabbed Istelian’s hand and slapped the bloodied dagger in it, closing it around the grip.
‘There’s your path, back through the trees. Lead your preachers that way and protect them with the peace you offered these folk today. Best you run, though — see if you can outrun ’em — for I swear on my tarnished soul you’ll suffer if you ever come back here.’
He gave Istelian a shove with his boot and sent him sprawling in the dirt.
‘Go!’ the old man roared. ‘Run back to your shadow and tell him we’re coming for him next!’
Vesna watched his friend slump against a tree and sink to the ground, his weight pushing the tip of the black sword a foot into the earth. Their makeshift camp was quiet, a full night and day of travel enough to drain them all. Hulf crept up to his master’s thigh, instinctively wary of the terrible weapon Isak held.
‘Isak,’ Vesna began before tailing off. He squatted down in front of the scarred man and tried to make Isak look at him, but the white-eye stared forward at nothing, while his left hand idly stroked Hulf’s back. The dog’s ears were flat against his head; his whole manner had changed, for he felt the loss of Mihn as deeply as the rest of them.
‘You’ve hardly spoken since we left Vanach,’ Vesna said at last.
In the failing light Isak’s right hand looked excessively shadowed. Perhaps it was just the comparison with his bone-white left, but to Vesna the skin looked darkened beyond the shadows of deep scars. The Mortal-Aspect’s eyes were constantly drawn back to the black sword in Isak’s hand. Nartis’ lightning had burned the colour from Isak’s left arm, imbued the skin with its own colour. Who could say what effect the Key of Magic, Death’s own weapon, might have?
‘There’s nothing to say,’ Isak said, at last looking up at him. ‘He’s gone.’
The sun had gone down and the broad canopy of the fir trees under which they sat advanced the gloom further. Fei Ebarn was in the process of setting a fire while Zhia teased forth the shadows of the forest to hide its light. Isak’s face was blank, drained of anger or any form of animation; that was what Vesna feared more than anything in a white-eye: dull, passive acceptance.
‘You don’t know that,’ Vesna tried, but Isak didn’t even bother responding.
He did know; anyone could just by looking at Hulf, but Isak’s soul had been tied to Mihn, and now the white-eye looked as though it had been cut out. Anger, even violence, Vesna could understand; that was how a white-eye reacted to loss, but not this: quiet surrender was reserved for those last moments of death, when all was done and all that remained was the spark in their eyes to fade. To see Isak so defeated troubled the Iron General side of Vesna as much as Mihn’s loss wounded the mortal side of him.
‘He had his reasons,’ Vesna persisted.
‘Oh good. Reasons.’
Vesna felt his hand start to shake. His grief at Isak’s death had barely started to wane when Tila’s murder gutted him entirely. Only the spirit of Karkarn had kept him moving, driving him to march west with the Ghosts, but the more he numbly obeyed his duty the more he had felt a part of himself wither.
As I hide from the pain, Vesna realised, and put it aside in favour of duty, less of a man is left. I can feel the God inside me swallowing the loss, but it’s an indiscriminate beast. Tila would never forgive me if I let the man she loved slip away. I have to endure this pain somehow, and so must Isak.
‘You had reasons too,’ Vesna said hoarsely, ‘reasons you didn’t share with me. You left me to mourn your loss, to be the one Carel blamed for your death.’
‘I know.’
‘That’s all you have to say?’ Vesna asked after a long pause.
‘What else is there? This is a war, people die. It’ll claim more before it ends.’ Isak raised the black sword. ‘I hold death in my hand; can it be much surprise when those close to me are lost?’
‘And you can just accept them?’
‘We’re close to the end now. I’ll have time to mourn when I’m dead.’ He tugged his cloak a little more over himself and Hulf and the dog settled down at Isak’s side to share in the white-eye’s body heat.
‘I’m so tired. Please, just let me sleep.’
A part of Vesna wanted to smash his iron fist into Isak’s face, to wake the monster inside him — anything to dispel this meek, empty shell of a man. But the general at the back of his mind told him it was time to retreat and fight another day; there was no point forcing the issue, not so soon after Mihn’s loss.
Feeling like an old man, Vesna rose and left Isak to his sleep. At the fireside Veil and Doranei huddled together on a fallen tree and warmed themselves. They had watched the exchange without comment.
‘Not what you expected, eh?’ Doranei asked.
Vesna glanced back. ‘What I feared, maybe. Mihn was an anchor for him, just as Tila was for me.’ Even speaking her name twisted like a knife in his gut, but the pain was no stranger to Vesna these days and he wouldn’t hide from it, not any more. ‘And Carel too. Without them, he’s adrift.’
‘If he don’t look dead, he’s angry,’ Veil commented, ‘that’s we always said about Coran, the king’s former bodyguard, when someone asked his mood. True enough for lots o’ white-eyes — but Isak ain’t like most of ’em.’
‘He don’t look either,’ Doranei said, ‘and that makes me worry. We might have the means to kill Azaer, but without the will, that could mean nothing. There’s a lot of death ahead of us yet — a whole lot of death, if what those Byoran soldiers said is true. The shadow won’t care how many die to defend it; whole cities could fall and it’d just make us look like the Reapers or daemons it claims we are.’
Veil clapped his remaining hand on his Brother’s shoulder. ‘Aye and Isak can’t follow your example. There are no wine cellars round here for him to crawl into for a month.’
Doranei shrugged the man off, but he made no retort. He wasn’t proud of how he’d dealt with his own mourning, Vesna knew that, but the look on the faces of both King’s Men showed he wasn’t living i
n shame either. It had happened, then Doranei had found a way through and not let his comrades down. Everything else was just pride.
An object lesson for the rest of us, Vesna thought, seeing once more the last flutter of pain on Tila’s eyelids. Face it all, and overcome. His stomach felt hollow and a sour taste filled his mouth. He fought the urge to bend and retch, to empty a stomach that had barely been able to manage breakfast. The War God’s chosen looked away, hiding the tears that threatened in his eyes as Tila’s voice echoed through his mind.
‘Let’s find some other way then,’ Vesna said in a choked voice, ‘lest the end in sight isn’t the one we’re hoping for.’
Doranei reached into his tunic and pulled out his pack of cigars. He shook out the last one and lit it from the fire. ‘Give him time,’ he said at last. ‘The fire running through him from that damn sword, the shock of mourning — the man needs time. He came back from the Dark Place, that’s a punch none of us could ride so easily. I’ll never bet against him.’
‘In time to win this war? Azaer’s forewarned, and everything you’ve told us says it’s not one for a single, simple plan but has contingencies built into every scheme.’
‘You want to know one reason why we’re so effective? The King’s Men?’ Veil asked abruptly. ‘Sure, we’re good in a fight, and some of us ain’t got a soul, but that’s not the only reason. We live in a different Land to that of ordinary folk, soldiers too: everything we’ve seen and done sets us apart from the people we protect.’
‘We think different,’ Doranei continued. ‘The job makes you think different, and that’s often the edge that counts. We do the unexpected, tackle problems in a way most wouldn’t, and catch ’em unawares.’
Veil pointed towards Isak. ‘Now just imagine how he thinks now, after all he’s gone through. He saw the holes in his own mind and knew them as a weapon to cripple a man he couldn’t beat in combat — a man none of us could, by design of the Gods themselves. Not even Azaer’s seen that. Not even Azaer’ll see him coming.’