Evil for Evil

by K. J. Parker

  Women, he thought, as he carefully located the hanger-tip over the hollow between the sentry’s collarbones, and leaned on the handle. Miel felt the sentry’s legs kick out and his back squirm, but that was usual, like a chicken beating its wings after its neck’s been broken. The humane dispatch of game is the first duty of the honorable predator.

  “What the hell,” she was hissing at him, “do you think you’re doing?”

  “Killing the prisoners,” he replied.

  “Leave it.” (Like he was a dog with a dead bird he’d picked up; the spaniel, the brachet and the lymer are bred soft-mouthed, to release retrieved game without spoiling it.) “Come on. Now.”

  He ignored her, drew the hanger from the wound and placed its tip delicately in the dead man’s ear. There would be a crunching sound as he put his weight on it.

  She was pulling at him again; reluctantly, he allowed himself to be dragged to his feet. He left the hanger and stumbled after her, clumsy as a drunk.

  She didn’t say anything to him until sunrise, by which time they’d been trudging uphill for hours. He’d quickly lost track of time. In his mind, over and over again, he was running through the killing of the sentry (the rock, the hanger, the two penetrations; the sounds, the feel. They were moments that he was comfortable living in; they nourished him, like supplies sensibly rationed, and he savored them).

  “Where are we?” she said.

  Good point. He stopped and looked round to get his bearings.

  Easy enough. There was Sharra, too far away for them to see smoke rising from the chimneys of the Unswerving Loyalty, but he knew it was there, just below the horizon on the other side. Falling away from it, the long combe in which Framain’s house lay hidden like an embarrassing secret. He considered the merit of heading for it; they might just get there before collapsing from hunger and fatigue, or they might not. There’d be water and shelter there, but probably no food — had the Mezentines set fire to the place when they rounded them up? He couldn’t remember that far back. “I know where we are,” he said.

  She nodded. He looked at her, properly, for the first time. She was dirty, ragged, painfully thin; there was caked blood on her forehead and in her fringe, probably from one of those scalp wounds that bleed like a fountain. “All right,” she said, “which way?”

  That was just a little more than he could take. He sat down awkwardly on the rocks and burst out laughing. When she began swearing at him, he explained (quite patiently, he thought, in the circumstances) that there wasn’t a way, because there was nowhere for them to go.

  25

  It was, ran the general consensus, one mystery too many. Why the Ducas, magnanimously reprieved by special order of the Duke himself (the messenger had been questioned and had vowed repeatedly that he’d delivered the reprieve to the Ducas personally), had seen fit to break out of the stockade, murdering a sentry in the process, nobody could say for sure. It stood to reason, however, that it must be something to do with the treason for which he had originally been condemned. It was remembered that, on the fall of Civitas Eremiae, he hadn’t immediately joined his duke in exile, as was his duty, but had used the resistance as an excuse to stay away, safely out of the reach of justice. It could hardly be a coincidence that he had shown up immediately after the failed Mezentine attack, particularly since, by his own admission, he’d been with the Mezentine garrison at Sharra shortly before the raid took place. There was also the bizarre way in which he’d tried to have Daurenja, the savior of the rear echelon, arrested and condemned for some mysterious crime he was supposed to have committed years earlier. Duke Orsea’s refusal to comment was simply aristocratic rank-closing. It did him credit, to a degree, that he was prepared to cover up for his friend, even though that friend had already betrayed him at least once (and wasn’t there supposed to be something going on between the Ducas and Orsea’s wife? Some business with a letter); in the circumstances, however, his attitude came across as a stubborn attempt to obstruct Valens’ quite legitimate inquiries, and won Orsea no friends among the Vadani. The details were irrelevant, in any case. The Ducas had murdered a Vadani soldier in cold blood. Complex issues of jurisdiction no longer mattered. He was a criminal in the eyes of Vadani law, and would pay the penalty if and when he was caught — though that seemed unlikely if, as was generally believed, he’d returned to the safety of his Mezentine friends at Sharra. Meanwhile, the Vadani had other, more pressing concerns, and delaying the march on account of one fugitive renegade was, naturally, out of the question.

  Four days after the change of course, he found the courage to talk to her.

  They’d stopped for the night in a little combe, not much more than a dent in the hillside. He assumed it had been chosen because of the stand of tall, spindly birch trees, which masked them from sight. It was a dark, cold place; he was sure nothing lived there. She had climbed down from the coach, pleading cramp after a long day. Of course, they couldn’t have a fire, for fear that the smoke would give away their position. She was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, squinting at her embroidery in the thin red light of sunset.

  “Are you still doing that?” he asked.

  She looked up. “Of course,” she said. “It’s nearly finished. I’ve put so much work into it, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it behind.”

  He looked at it: a baldrick, the sort you hang a hunting horn from. A goshawk and a heron; the hawking livery of the Orseoli. She was making it for him, of course.

  “It’s very good,” he said awkwardly. “Can I see?”

  She held it up. “You’ve seen it before,” she said. “I’ve been working on it for three months.”

  Implication: he should’ve recognized it. But one piece of cloth with patterns stitched on it looked very much like all the others; apart from their wedding day, he couldn’t remember seeing her without some rag or other on her knees. It was, after all, what women did.

  “Of course,” he said, “I remember it now. It’s coming on really well.”

  She sighed. “I’ve run out of green silk,” she said. “So I can’t finish the background — here, look, the patch of reeds the heron’s supposed to be flying up out of. I’ve got some other green, but it’s the wrong shade.”

  He frowned. “Couldn’t you turn that bit into a bush or something?”

  “I suppose so. But then it wouldn’t look right.”

  “I won’t mind.”

  She looked up at him, and he realized she wasn’t making it for him. He was the pretext, at best; she had to embroider, and decency required that the fruit of her needle should be some useful object for her husband. Now, because of the Mezentines and the war, she couldn’t finish the work, and it wouldn’t be fitting for her to start something new until the baldrick was completed.Accordingly, here she sat, the workbasket on her knees, the baldrick spread out, but no needle in her hand; like a cow in a crush, waiting patiently because it had nowhere it could go.

  “It’d look wrong,” she said. “I’d have to put something else in the opposite corner to balance it, and that’d mean unpicking what’s there already. Besides, I haven’t got enough brown left.”

  He wanted to say: so fucking what? I’ll never go hunting again, so I’ll never use it. Put the stupid thing away and talk to me instead. What he said was, “Perhaps we’ll run into one of those merchant women on the road. They sell embroidery silks. I remember, we met one a few days ago.” (No; longer ago than that. But each day seemed to fuse with the others, like a good fire-weld.) “If I’d known, I could have asked her.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t suppose she’d have had the right green,” she said. “It’s not a particularly common one. I got what I’ve been using from that woman who used to call at the palace, back in Civitas Eremiae. I don’t know what the chances are of running into her again.”

  Orsea couldn’t think of anything safe to say. He knew the merchant she was talking about. She must’ve been the one who delivered the letters — the letters Valens had
written her, and her replies. Presumably the price of her couriership had been substantial sales of overpriced haberdashery. But there wouldn’t be any more letters, just as there’d be no more cold, bright autumn days after partridges with the falcons. It occurred to him that everything he’d known all his life was gone forever, apart from her; and the irony was, he didn’t know her at all.

  In which case, he might as well say it.

  “I need to talk to you,” he said.

  “Talk away.” She sighed, turned the embroidery over and took a small blue-bladed knife with an ivory handle out of her basket. “You know, I think I will unpick this corner after all. I’ve still got plenty of light blue and white. I could do the sky reflected in a pool or something.”

  She was nicking the tiny loops of the stitches, like a giant cutting the throats of dwarves.

  “I need to ask you …” He stopped. He’d never been particularly good with words anyway. Ideas that were sharp and clear in his mind disintegrated like sodden paper when he tried to express them. The only person he’d ever really been able to talk to was Miel Ducas.

  “Sorry,” she said, “I missed that. What did you want to speak to me about?”

  “I need to know, Veatriz,” he said, and stopped again. It sounded too pompous and melodramatic for words. “You and Valens. The letters.”

  She looked at him so blankly that for a moment it crossed his mind that the whole thing was a mistake; he’d completely misunderstood, and there never were any letters. “What about them?” she asked.

  “Are you in love with him?”

  “No.” She was concentrating on the tip of the knife; a small, dainty thing, presumably Mezentine.

  “Then why did you write to him?”

  She shrugged. It wasn’t an answer. He waited, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Can’t you see how it looked?” he said. “You must have realized.”

  “I suppose so,” she said, and between them there was a wall of iron, like the defenses bolted to the sides of the carts.

  “Then why did you do it?”

  “Does it matter anymore?” She lifted her head and looked at him.

  “Do you still love me?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Do you still love me?”

  “Yes, of course I do.” He said the words like a mother answering a child’s annoying question.

  “Well, then.” She sighed. “What do you think’s happened to Miel?”

  “Don’t change the subject,” he said, but he knew she hadn’t done any such thing. That Miel Ducas should have taken away their sins, like some sacrificial animal, was somehow inevitable: the Ducas lives only to serve the state, and the state is the Duke. That, at least, had never been more true. Orsea had seen to that. He was all that was left of Eremia now; an irrelevant survival. Once, years ago, someone digging in the palace grounds had unearthed a big, crude-looking gold cup. He’d brought it, quite properly, to the Duke, who’d rewarded him suitably with twice its value by weight. Orsea could remember sitting holding it: an ugly thing, badly made, bent and slightly crumpled, valuable only as a curiosity, and because of the material it was made from. Presumably it was very old, made by someone who’d lived there a long time ago, for a rich patron whose name had been forgotten centuries before. There had been a city, with a ruler who employed craftsmen; probably he had a suitable household, faithful courtiers who lived only to serve, a code of honor. Presumably he’d tried to be a good duke, always do the right thing. Inevitably, he would have made mistakes. Now, all that was left of all that was one awkward, stupid-looking gold thing, precious only because of the universal convention by which gold is valuable. If the duke who commissioned the cup had had a wife who loved him once, that was irrelevant now as well. Orsea had given orders for the cup to be put in a safe place where he wouldn’t have to look at it. He imagined the Mezentines had it now, or the fire had melted it.

  The cup had survived, but that wasn’t enough. So with love; even if it survives, it’s not enough, shorn of context.

  “I do love you,” she said. An accusation; a reproach. He believed her. If he hadn’t; if she’d said she loved Valens, he’d have given her up without a moment’s hesitation (because he loved her; it would’ve been the right thing to do). He’d been prepared for that, even hoping for it, as a condemned man looks forward to execution as a final end to his misery. No such luck. Love still held them in their places, like the traces that bind the donkey to the treadmill. Love is duty. Miel Ducas could have confirmed that, if only he’d still been there.

  As it was; she could say that to him, and all it did was brace the iron plate between them, tighter than Daurenja’s three-quarter bolts. The fact was that he didn’t deserve her. Valens, swooping down with his cavalry into the ruins of Civitas Eremiae, had snatched her away to safety, like the hawk striking the heron, and it was wrong, against nature, to deny the supremacy of the stronger, the absolute right of conquest. Keeping her (being allowed to keep her) was therefore an abomination; his fault and hers, for which they must inevitably pay a price.

  I could explain all this so clearly, Orsea thought, if there was anybody in the world I could talk to.

  “I love you too,” he said, casually as a sleepy monk making his responses in the middle of the night. “I’m sorry I mentioned —”

  “It’s all right,” she said. “Just, don’t talk about it again. It’s all my fault, all of this.”

  No, he couldn’t have that. “Oh, right,” he said. “It’s your fault we’re both here, alive, instead of being killed when they took the city. Well, that’s what would’ve happened, if Valens hadn’t rescued us, because of the letters.” He smiled, cold as breath condensing on steel. “I really wish there was some way I could thank him, given I owe him my life, but I can’t; how could I? You know what? I should’ve stayed in the city and been killed; I’d have been out of the way then. You and Valens —”

  “Please don’t.” She was right, of course. Just melodrama, a big speech, with no audience. Even a duke can’t make speeches if there’s nobody left to listen to them. “I’m sorry,” he said, and pulled a face that was almost comic in its intensity. “I shouldn’t —”

  He stopped short; someone was coming. An officer and two soldiers, walking briskly, on their way somewhere, with important business to see to. He stepped aside to let them go past, but they stopped. Apparently they had something to say to him.

  “Duke Orsea.” A statement rather than an inquiry.

  “That’s right.”

  “My name is Major Nennius. I have to tell you that you’re under arrest.”

  While they waited, they talked about silver; better and more efficient ways of mining it, smelting the ore, refining the bloom to leach out traces of copper and other impurities. The Mezentines, he said, were capable of producing silver that was ninety-five parts in a hundred pure, although the specification allowed an additional margin of three parts for export work, five for domestic consumption. When the war was over and they opened the mines up again, he’d teach the superintendents how to improve purity and increase production by means of a few simple procedures, which could be incorporated into the mines’ established working practices without the need for significant investment or extensive retraining. Valens replied that he would appreciate any help that Ziani could give them; once the war was over, the cost of reconstruction and making good would inevitably be high, and a quick, efficient recommencement of silver production would make all the difference. Fortuitously, given that nearly all the mine-owners and representatives of the major cartels had been killed, either in the wedding-day raid or the recent battle, obstruction from vested interests ought not to be as much of a problem as it would have been before the war.

  The tent flap opened. Ziani recognized the newcomer, though he couldn’t recall his name; a busy young man who’d been doing rather well during the emergency. He made a mental note to find out more about him, in case he could be made useful.

  “Duke Orsea
,” the young officer said.

  He stood back to let the escort bring Orsea in. Ziani made himself keep perfectly still, and it was probably just as well that Orsea didn’t look at him as he came into the tent.

  “Valens?” he asked mildly. The two soldiers weren’t touching him, but they flanked him on either side, with the officer blocking the doorway to cut off his escape. “What’s going on?”

  There wasn’t the faintest trace of expression on Valens’ face; but he said, “Oh, I think you can probably guess. Sit down, please.”

  But there wasn’t a chair; so the officer (Nennius, Ziani remembered. Recently promoted) had to fetch a folding chair from the back of the tent and set it up. “I’m sorry,” Orsea was saying, “but I really don’t have a clue. Is this something to do with Miel Ducas? I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, but you’ve been so busy.”

  Valens was scowling. “Fine,” he said. “I’m all for proper procedure. That way, everybody knows where they stand.”

  “You’re sounding very official. Is something wrong?” Orsea glanced over his shoulder; he seemed surprised to find that Nennius and the two guards were still there.

  “I have reason to believe …” Valens hesitated, then went on: “I have reason to believe that you’ve been in contact with the enemy. I’d like to hear what you’ve got to say about that.”

  Orsea looked so utterly bewildered that for a moment Ziani held his breath. Then Orsea said: “Contact with the enemy? You mean, in the battle?”