Well of Shiuan

by C. J. Cherryh

  “I thank you,” he said.

  “Stay armed. I want none of these folk drawing for your naked back; and it would be the back, with them. They are wolves, allies of chance and mutual profit.”

  He hooked it to his belt, pulled the ring on his shoulder belt and hooked that, settling it to a more comfortable position at his shoulder. Her words touched at something in him, a sudden, unbearable foreboding, that even she would say what she had said. He looked up at her. “Liyo,” he said in a low voice. “Let us go. Let us two, together . . . leave this place. Forget these men; be rid of them. Let us be out of here.”

  She nodded back toward the other room. “It is still misting rain out. We will go, tonight, when there is a chance the flood will ebb.”

  “Now,” he insisted, and when he saw her hesitate: “Liyo, what you asked, I gave; give me this. I will go, now, I will find us a packhorse and some manner of tent for our comfort. . . . Better the cold and the rain than this place over our heads tonight”

  She looked tempted, urgently tempted, struggling with reason. He knew the restlessness that chafed at her, pent here, behind rock and risen water. And for once he felt that urge himself, an instinct overwhelming, a dark that pressed at their heels.

  She gestured again toward the room beyond. “The books ... I have only begun to make sense of them...”

  “Do not trust these men.” Of a sudden all things settled together in his mind, taking form; and some were in those books; and more were pent in the shape of a priest, locked in the dark down the hall. She could be harmed by these things, these men. The human tide that lapped about the walls of Ohtij-in threatened her, no less than the qujal-lords.

  “Go,” she bade him suddenly. “Go. See to it Quietly.”

  He snatched up his cloak, caught up his helm, and then paused, looking back at her.

  Still he was uneasy-parted from her in this place; but he forebore to warn her more of these men, of opening the door to them: it was not his place to order her. He drew up the coif and settled his helm on, and did not stay to put on the cloak. He passed the door, between the new guards, and looked at those three with sullen misgivings-looked too down the hall, where the priest Ginun was imprisoned, without drink or food yet provided.

  That too wanted tending. He dared not have the guards wait on that man, a priest of their own folk, treated thus. Something had to be done with the priest; he knew not what.

  In haste he slung the heavy cloak about him and fastened it as he passed the door out of the corridor, uneasy as he walked these rooms that were familiar to him under other circumstances-as he passed marshlanders, who turned and stared at him and made a sign he did not know. He entered the spiral at the core of the keep, passed others, feeling their stares at his back as he walked that downward corridor. Even armed, he did not feel safe or free here. Torches lit the place, a bracket at every doorway, profligate waste of them; and the smallish men of Aren came and went freely up and down the ramp, no few of them drunken, decked in finery incongruous among their peasant clothes. Here and there passed other men, tall and grim of manner, who did not mix with the marshlanders: Fwar’s kindred, a hard-eyed lot; something wrathful abode in them, that touched at familiarity.

  The Barrows and the marshlands, Morgaine had said, naming them that followed her; Barrow-folk, Vanye realized suddenly.

  Myya.

  Jhirun’s kinsmen.

  He hastened his pace, descending the core, the terror that breathed thickly in the air of this place now possessing a name.

  The courtyard was quieter than the keep, a dazed quiet, the misting rain glistening on the paving stones, a few folk that might be Shiua or marshlanders moving about wrapped in cloaks and shawls. There was a woman with two children at her skirts: it struck him strangely that nowhere had there been children among the qujal, none that he had seen; and he did not know why.

  The woman, the children, the others-stopped and looked at him. He was afraid for a moment, remembering the violence that had surged across these stones; but they showed no disposition to threaten him. They only watched.

  He turned toward the pens and the stables, where their horses waited. Cattle lowed in the pens to his right, beasts well cared-for, better than the Shiua. The roofs of the shelters on his left were blackened, the windows eaten by fire. Folk still lived there; they watched him from doorways, furtively.

  He looked behind him when he reached the stable doors, fearful that more might have gathered at his back; the same few stood in the distance, still watching him. He dismissed them from his concern and eased open the stable door, entered into that dark place, that smelled pleasantly of hay and horses.

  It was a large, rambling structure, seeming to wind irregularly about the keep wall, with most of the stalls empty, save those in the first row. On the right side he counted nine, ten horses, mostly bay; and on the left, apart from the others, he saw Siptah’s pale head, ears pricked, nostrils flaring at the presence of one he knew; in an empty stall farther stood a shadow that was his own Andurin gelding.

  Racks at the end of the aisle held what harness remained: he saw what belonged to Siptah, and reckoned his own horse’s gear would be near it. He delayed at the stalls, offered his hand to Siptah’s questing nose, patted that great plate of a cheek, went further to assure himself his own horse was fit. The black lipped at his sleeve; he caught the animal by the mane and slapped it gently on the neck, finding that someone had been horseman enough to have rubbed both animals down, when he had not. He was glad of this: Kurshin that he was, he was not accustomed to leave his horse to another man’s care. He checked feet and found them sound: a shoe had been reset, not of his doing; it had been well-done, and he found nothing of which to complain, though he searched for it.

  And then he set himself to prepare them. There would be need of grain, that as much as the supplies they would need for themselves: their way was always too uncertain to travel without it He searched the likely places until he had located the storage bins, and then cast about to see whether there was, amid all the gear remaining, a packsaddle. There was nothing convenient. At last he filled his own saddlebags with what he could, and took Morgaine’s gear and his own, and slung it over the rails of the respective stalls, ready to saddle.

  Something moved in the straw, in the shadows. At first he took it for one of the other horses, but it was close. The sudden set of the gelding’s ears and the sound at once alarmed him: he whirled, reaching for the Honor-blade, wondering how many there were, and where.

  “Lord,” said a small voice out of the dark, a female voice, that trembled.

  He stood still, set his back against the rails of the stall, though he knew the voice. In a moment she moved, and he saw a bit of white in the darkness at the racks, where the windows were closed.

  “Jhirun,” he hailed her softly.

  She came, treading carefully, as if she were yet uncertain of him. She still wore her tattered skirt and blouse; her hair showed wisps of straw. She held to the rail nearest with one hand and kept yet some distance from him, standing as if her legs had difficulty in bearing her weight

  He slid the blade back into sheath, stepped under the uppermost rail and into the aisle. “We looked for you,” he said.

  “I stayed by the horses,” she said in a thin voice. “I knew she had come. I did not know whether you were alive.”

  He let go a long breath, relieved to find this one nightmare an empty one. “You are safe. They are Hiua that have this place now: your own people.”

  She stayed silent for a long moment; her eyes went to the saddles on the rails, back again. “You are leaving.”

  He took her meaning, shook his head in distress. “Matters are different There is no safety for you with us. I cannot take you.”

  She stared at him. Tears flooded her eyes; but suddenly there was such a look of violence there that he recalled how she had set out the marshland road, alone.

  And that he must having saddled the horses, go back to Morgaine
and leave the animals in Jhirun’s care, or deal with her in some fashion.

  “At least” she said, “get me out of Ohtij-in.”

  He could not face her. He started to take up one of the saddles, to attend his business with the horses.

  “Please,” she said.

  He looked back at her, eased the saddle back onto the rail. “I am not free,” he said, “to give and take promises. You are Myya; you have forgotten a great deal in Hiuaj, or you would have understood by looking at me that I am no longer uyo and that I have no honor. You were mistaken to have believed me. I said what I had to say, because you left me no choice. I cannot take you with me.”

  She turned her back, and walked away; he thought for a moment that she was going back into the shadows to sit and weep for a while, and he would allow her that before he decided what he must do with her.

  But she did not return into the dark. She went to the harness rack and took bridle and saddle, tugging the gear into her arms and staggering with the weight of it He swore, watching her come down the aisle toward him, dangling the girth in the foul straw and near to tripping on it, hard-breathing with the effort and with her tears.

  He blocked her path and jerked it from her hands, cast it into the straw and cursed at her, and she stood empty-handed and stared up at him, her eyes blind with tears.

  “At least when you go,” she said, “you could give me help as far as the road. Or at least do not stop me. You have no right to do that.”

  He stood still. She bent, trying to pick up the saddle from the ground, and was shaking so that she had no strength in her hands.

  He swore and took it from her, slung it up to the nearest rail. “Well enough,” he conceded. “I will saddle a horse for you. And what you do then, that is your business. Choose one.”

  She stared at him, thin-lipped, and then walked to the stall halfway down, laid a hand on that rail that enclosed a bay mare. “I will take her.”

  He came and looked at the mare, that was deep enough of chest, but smallish. “There might be better,” he said.

  “This one.”

  He shook his head, reckoning that she would have what she wished, and that perhaps a girl whose experience of horses extended most to a small black pony judged her limits well enough. He did as she wished.

  And with Jhirun’s mare saddled, he returned to his own horse, and to Siptah-took meticulous pains with their own gear, that might have to stand a hard ride and few rests: he appropriated a coil of harness leather, and a braided leather rope as well; and at last he closed the stalls and prepared to leave.

  “I have to go advise my lady,” he told Jhirun, who waited by her mare. “We will come as quickly as possible. Something might delay us a little time, but not for long.”

  Anguish crossed her face: he frowned at it, turned all the same to leave, reckoning at least that the horses were safe while Jhirun had some gain from aiding them.

  “No,” Jhirun whispered after him, ran suddenly and caught his arm; he looked back, chilled at the terror in her face: a sense of ambush prickled about him.

  “Lord,” she whispered, “there is a man hiding here. Do not leave, do not leave me here.”

  He seized her arm so hard that she winced. “How many more? What have you arranged for me?”

  “No,” she breathed. “One. He-” With her head she gestured far off across the stalls, into the dark. “He is there. Do not leave me with him, not now, with the horses-Kithan. It is Kithan.”

  She stifled a cry; he opened his hand, realizing he had wrenched her arm, and she rubbed the injured wrist, making no attempt to run.

  “When the attack came,” she said, “he came here and could not get out. He has slept-I took a hayfork, and I came on him to kill him, but I was afraid. Now he will have heard us moving-he will come here when he thinks it safe, when you are gone.”

  He slipped the ring of his sword, drew it carefully from sheath. “You show me where,” he said. “And if you are mistaken, Myya Jhirun i Myya-”

  She shook her head. “I thought we were leaving,” she whispered, through tears. “I thought it would be all right, no need, no need for killing-I do not want to-”

  “Quiet,” he said, and seized her wrist, pushing her forward. She began to lead him, as silently as possible, into the dark.

  Small, square windows gave light within the stable, shafts of dusty light, and a maze of aisles and stalls, sheaves of straw, empty racks for harness. The building curved, irregularly, following the keep wall, and the aisles were likewise crooked, row upon row of box stalls, empty-a hay loft, a nesting-place for birds that fluttered wings and stirred restlessly.

  Jhirun’s hand touched his, cautioning. She pointed down a row of stalls, where the shadow was darkest He began to go that way, drawing her with him, watching the stalls on either side of him, aware how easily it could prove ambush.

  A white shape bolted at the end of the stalls, running. Vanye jerked at Jhirun’s wrist, darted into a cross-aisle, into the next row.

  The man raced-white hair flying-for a farther aisle, Vanye let Jhirun go, and ran, pursuing him, in time to see him scale a rail barrier and scramble for open windows. The lead was too great. The qujal disappeared outside, hurling himself through, as Vanye reached the stall railing.

  He stood, cursing inwardly, whirled about on guard as a sound reached his ears; Jhirun came running to him. He let fall his sword arm.

  And outside he heard the hue and cry, human hounds a-hunt, and Kithan loose for their quarry, the whole of Ohtij-in astir: they would not be long in taking him.

  He swore, an oath that he had never used, and shook Jhirun’s fingers roughly from his arm and started back toward the front of the stable, she struggling along beside him, hard-breathing.

  “Stay here,” he said. “Mind the horses. I am going to Morgaine. We are leaving here as quickly as may be.”

  Chapter 13

  Then was chaos in the courtyard, men raced from doorways. Vanye walked through it, shouldered his way through a press that was coming out of the keep, folk giving back from him in fright when they saw him. He kept his sword, sheathed, in his left hand, and entered the halls of the keep, moving as quickly as he could without running. He would not run: there was panic enough ready to break loose, and he was known as Morgaine’s servant

  He reached the lords’ halls, high in the tower, crossed through to the inner chambers and startled the guards that were on watch there, who snatched at weapons and then confusedly moved out of his path, recognizing his right to pass. He flung the door open and slammed it behind him, for the first time daring draw the breath he needed.

  Morgaine faced him-she standing by the window, her hand upon the sill. Distress was in her look. Distantly the cries of men could be heard from the courtyard below.

  “Thee’s stirred something?” she asked him.

  “Kithan,” he said. “Liyo, the horses are saddled, and we only need go-now, quickly. Someone will come into that stable and see things prepared if we wait overlong, and I do not think long farewells are fit for this place.”

  A cry went up, outside. She turned and leaned upon the sill, gazing down into the yard. “They have taken him,” she said quietly.

  “Let us go, liyo. Let us go from here, while there is time.”

  She turned toward him a second time, and there was a curious expression in her eyes: doubt. Panic rose in him. In one thing he had lied to her, and the lie gathered force, troubling all the peace that had grown between them.

  “I do not think that it would be graceful of us,” she said, “to try to pass them in the hall. They are bringing him into the hold. Doubtless they are bringing him here. -So short a time from my sight, Vanye, and so much difficulty… Was it a chance meeting?”

  He drew breath, let it go quickly. “I swear to you. Listen to me. There are things the lord Kithan can say that do not bear saying, not before these men of yours. Do not question him. Be rid of him, and quickly.”

  “What should
I not ask him?”

  He felt the edge in that question, and shook his head. “No. Liyo, listen to me. Unless you would have all that Roh said made common knowledge in Ohtij-in-avoid this. There can be questions raised that you do not want asked. There is a priest down the hall . . . and Shiua out in the court, and servants, and whatever qujal are still alive . . . that would raise questions if they lost all care of their lives. Kithan will do you no good. There is nothing he can say that you want to hear.”

  “And was it a chance meeting, Vanye?”

  “Yes,” he cried, in a tone that shocked the silence after.

  “That may be,” she said after a moment. “But if you are correct-then it would be well to know what he has said already.”

  “Are you ready,” he asked her, “to leave upon the instant?”

  “Yes,” she said, and indicated the fireside, where her belongings were neatly placed; he had none.

  Outside, in the halls, there was commotion. It was not long in reaching them-the sounds of shouting, the heavy sound of steps approaching.

  A heavy hand rapped at the door. “Lady?” one asked from outside.

  “Let them in,” Morgaine said.

  Vanye opened it, and in his other hand only his thumb held the sheath upon the longsword: a shake would free it

  Men were massed outside, a few of the marshlanders; but chief among them was the scarred Barrows-man, Fwar, with his kinsmen. Vanye met that sullen face with utter coldness, and stepped back because Morgaine had bidden it, because they were hers-violent men unlike the Aren-folk: he surmised seeing them now who had done most of the slaughter in Ohtij-in, that were murder to be ordered, they would enjoy it

  And among them, from their midst, they thrust the disheveled figure of the qujal-lord, thin and fragile-seeming in their rough hands. Blood dabbled the satin front of Kithan’s brocade garment, and his white hair was loose and wild, matted with blood from a cut on his brow.

  Fwar cast the dazed halfling to the floor. Morgaine settled herself in a chair, leaned back, Changeling balanced on her knee, under her hand; she watched calmly as the former lord of Ohtij-in gathered himself to rise, but they kept him on his knees. Vanye, moving to his proper place at Morgaine’s shoulder, saw the force of the qujal’s gray eyes, no longer full of dreams, no longer distant, but filled with heat and hate.