Days Of Light And Shadow (19 page)

“Such noble words from a savage.” Sophelia’s tears dried up quickly, grief replaced by bitter anger, and he understood her completely as she forgot her natural grace. Anger was always easier than pain. “Such lies.”

“I do not lie.” But did he really care what she thought? She was Finell’s cousin. Maybe because she was a frightened woman he could know a little sympathy for her plight. But still her hands could not be completely clean. She had to know what Finell had done.

“All your people lie. It is what savages do.”

Iros could have pointed out the obvious, that he had been abducted from his quarters, thrown in a dungeon, beaten and tortured, all while under the protection of the flag of diplomacy. But there was no point. He understood her pain. And he had his own to deal with. Some physical, though that was fading these days, and some of the heart as he worried what had become of his own. And now he knew that his friends were dead too. If he’d had the strength he would have wept for them as well.

“I am sorry for your suffering lady Sophelia. I will say a prayer for your family. But there is no more that I can do.”

“You could sign this note. You could ask your people to lay down their arms and sue for peace. To stop this evil.” She pulled out a scrap of parchment and set it in front of him. As if he would! As if it would even matter if he did! But in her grief and desperation she could only know her pain. Only see his wrongs. And her people had ever been short sighted when it came to seeing humans anyway. Though perhaps they had hated the dwarves even more. Until now.

“I am imprisoned and under duress. My king knows this. And he knows that any message from me would be suspect. A product of Sandara’s evil. My word, my name means nothing.” Quietly he wondered just how frightened she had to be to have imagined otherwise. It was truly an act of desperation for her to have brought the note to him. Was Herodan truly in danger? Or had she simply gone to her cousin so many times and received no sympathy that this was all she had left? He suspected the latter.

“I can ask no one anything. Before this I sent pigeons daily to beseech King Herrick to sue for peace. I sent Pita to the court here in my place to ask the same of Finell. I asked both to sue for peace, to at least call a truce, to talk. Neither of them listened to me.” And in truth why would they? He was only a minor lord, his only true value in acting as the envoy for the king. Now he was no longer even that. He was just a prisoner, soon to be dead.

“You should have tried harder utra.” Maybe she was right in that. When the elves had attacked the border towns he too had been angry. Too angry. And he had got himself locked away in the mission because of it. But his family came from those lands, Greenlands was a border province, and many of his friends lived in the smaller towns nearer still to the border. Undefended towns. Or they had. He had no idea how many of them still lived. So it didn’t really bother him that she called him a barbarian in her own high tongue. It was better than the alternative, which was that he was a failure.

“May the Mother have mercy on you.” Normally it was a greeting or a phrase of parting, but he suspected that she said it more as an acknowledgement that he would soon be gone from the world. Iros guessed his passing wouldn’t cause her any pain.

“Guards!” She stood up straight and bellowed regally for the warder, done with him. And while maybe he should have thought of asking for her aid, he knew that there was little point. She might not be an enemy, but she was not a friend either. No one in this accursed hell of a town was his friend. Besides at least with her gone he could know a little more peace. A little more sleep.

“The Divines be with you.” He muttered the ancient blessing under his breath, all that he could manage just then, and let the welcoming darkness return.

Chapter Twenty Eight.

It was summer in the garden. The blue blossom trees were showing off their full glory for all to see. The orange trees were loaded down with ripe fruit that should already have been picked. The vegetable gardens were bursting with fresh produce. Flowers were everywhere, and bees flew lazily among them. It was a glorious time to be out. To be helping with the family harvest.

But instead of enjoying his time Tenir was standing out in the garden, desperately trying to remain calm as his daughter Sophelia so brazenly told him of what she’d done as if it was nothing. It wasn’t easy when she’d taken such a terrible risk. She could have so easily been caught and killed, and the thought filled him with horror. While many thought those of House Vora cold and calculating as befitted a trader’s house, they still valued their family above all else. And if she had been killed he could not imagine the terrible hole that would leave in him. In them all. But even worse was the fact that now she had done this foolish thing, she wanted to do things even more foolish. To use what little she had learned from the envoy to pressure Finell into ending the war.

She imagined that Finell cared about Herodan. That he might think to save his life by freeing the human envoy. Such naivety.

She didn’t understand the dangerous waters she was treading. Or the hydra that dwelled in them. She had no thought that Finell cared for no one save himself. But then when she had lived among the beauty and safety of their home all her life, how could she? She had never endured hardship. She had never witnessed evil. She had seen gardens and happy people. She had known the warmth of family. The safety of the walls of House Vora. And as they stood among the peach and blue blossom covered grounds of their home, he was seriously thinking that she should not be allowed to leave those grounds again for some considerable time. He could not risk her doing something foolish.

“We must act to protect Herodan. Father, we must!” By the Mother she could pull at the cords to his heart when she wanted to. One look into her big blue eyes and all he wanted to do was say yes. But he couldn’t. Not when it was his daughter’s life at risk. And the rest of the family with her.

“We must save all our family. And we must trust that Herodan is clever enough to look after himself. And maybe that King Herrick is not such a terrible man as Finell would have us believe.”

“But -.”

“No. The human boy told you of what he sent to his king. And Herodan has long spoken of King Herrick with fine words. We must trust in those words.” Even if that trust tore their hearts to shreds with worry. Because if they tried to do as she wanted, Finell and Y’aris would tear the skin off their bones in that foul prison of his.

“Then we must act to end that prison.”

“No. We must protect our own. Always and ever.” She knew that. Every elf knew that. It was always the family and the house, then the realm.

“But father, it is monstrous evil. What they have done to that human. To all of them. I cannot hold that one of our house would allow such evil to continue.” He didn’t doubt the horror of what she’d seen, or the evil behind it. It was written in her face. But where was the understanding?

“Continue?” Tenir turned to his daughter his face uncommonly long. “Finell and Y’aris created it.” It was the plain truth, unpalatable as it might be. Finell of House Vora was completely responsible for what happened in that dark place. It made no sense, especially for one of House Vora who should have known the terrible cost to trade of his actions, but it was true.

“But the things they do in there. Acts of such unspeakable evil.” Sophelia suddenly ran out of words. She couldn’t speak such evil. She hadn’t been raised to know that there was such evil in the world. Maybe he and Freylin had cosseted her too much. But how could a father not dote upon his daughters?

“Things that we cannot know about.” If he hadn’t been already, Tenir suddenly became serious. Learning of his daughter’s dangerous if desperate act had shaken him. He was a father, and no father could ever allow his daughter to stand in harm’s way. And he could not let her continue.

“Daughter. You should not have gone to that place. If someone had seen you. If you had been caught.” He choked a little at the thought of what might have happened. The family had already been through so much. He had lost both his brothers, his sisters in law, and his mother in a short time. Then Elwene, possibly the brightest light in the house as she moved towards the Grove, had left them. The first of their family in many years to feel the calling, and a child of nothing but love. Her loss had hit him particularly hard. He could not lose a daughter as well.

“Finell can never know. Y’aris can never know. You understand that they spend their days since this evil war began, hunting for traitors. And it is no longer that they only look among the low born. Many members of the great houses have been taken and questioned. Accosted and beaten in the streets. Some are even in that accursed prison. The elders have been assaulted. And as this madness grows, there will be more. I do not think that my nephew will draw the line at even his own house. And if he learned of your actions, he would regard us all as disloyal.” And even if he wanted to think otherwise, that snake by his side would make certain he didn’t. Y’aris was no friend of House Vora.

“But we must speak out.” Of course she would say that. She was a strong young woman of good heart. And nowhere did he know that better than just there, just then. She had the fire of righteousness within her. Age had not yet replaced it with wisdom.

“No. To speak against Finell is to become an enemy. And he has already been angered by you before.” Yet he was proud of her for speaking her mind. In the court she had spoken clearly and put her arguments forward with reason and passion. She had said what he was forbidden to. But that had been before.

“I’ve spoken only the truth.”

“But not his truth.” Sophelia turned to him, an argument flashing in her blue eyes, and he silenced her with a gesture. Somehow, despite the fact that she was a grown woman, he could still do that. But for how much longer?

“My mind is clear on this. Daughter, you risked not just your safety with this brazen foolishness, you risked all of ours too. You endangered your mother and your sisters. You risked the good name of House Vora, and with it our future. Without our name we are nothing. We could not hold our heads high among the other great houses. We could not trade. You risked your betrothal, and the chances of your sisters to one day be promised. If House Allel learned of your actions they would end your promise in a heartbeat. You even threatened the career of your brother. If Finell had cause to doubt us he would have cause to doubt Herodan as he speaks for him in Tendarin.”

“Finell is without common decency,” Tenir continued. His heart beats basilisk blood. But he is of House Vora. He is an elf. The elf of elves. He is high lord. And we are at war. We must trust in him to do the best for our people.” Even if there seemed to be little hope of that.

“But -.” He knew everything she was going to say before she even began. And he knew that she was right. And it made no difference.

“No. He is high lord. House Vora and Elaris stand and fall with him. We stand with him.” He hated being firm with his daughter, but he had to be. It was a hard lesson for the young to learn, especially in these days when there were so many who no longer belonged to a house, but she had to learn it. All elves did. Elves stood as one. Always. An elf was nobody with out a family. A family was nothing without a house. And a house could not stand outside of the realm.

It didn’t matter that Finell was crazed. He was high lord. They could not stand against him. He could destroy them all in his madness, and he just might. But they could not stand against him.

“You are confined to the house and the gardens from this day forwards.”

“Father!” Sophelia looked upset.

“No daughter. You will do as I say until I say otherwise. You will help your mother with the running of the house. You will help your sisters with their studies. And Master Feria will bring your study materials to the house. And if anyone should ask, you are spending your days at home to work on your studies. Is this clear?”

By the Mother his daughter had spirit, and he loved to see it in her. But not here. Not in such dangerous times. And so he stood his ground, staring straight at her until she had to look away. And slowly he watched her defiance die.

“Yes father.” She bowed her head meekly, and he knew he’d won. He just hoped he hadn’t lost too. Maybe he was becoming soft as he aged. Maybe Freylin had affected him more than he knew over the years.

“Good. Thank you daughter. I regret having to be so firm with you, but in time I hope you will see that it is for the best for all of us. For the family. For the house.”

Sophelia turned to leave him, then abruptly turned back. “Is there nothing we can do?”

Tenir shook his head sorrowfully. “No. The only ones now who can speak against Finell are the elders. And Finell has taken steps to limit their power. I fear that Elaris must be carried on this dark path until the Grove finally decides to act boldly.” And when they did he was worried that House Vora would be broken with Finell. And still there was nothing they could do.

“Now go and visit with your mother and ask her how you can help her.” She finally left him, to do as he asked, but he wasn’t fooled. Sophelia had fire when she thought she was in the right. She would try again, perhaps coming at the problem from a different angle. Maybe she would approach Freylin.

But he could be ready for that. He could never be ready for the loss of a child.