Heir of Scars I: Parts 1-8 (64 page)

“You were forewarned...” Adria said, as she wondered at his choice of words, so easily did they echo Shísha’s, and her own. “This is why you are here?”

Tabashi said nothing as he turned back to Preinon.

“It is part of our purpose here, it is true. And I have an offer to make you in return, Moresidhe,” Preinon said evenly. “And I hope you will consider it carefully.”

Tabashi inclined his head a little once more.

Preinon nodded slowly before making his offer in Aeman. “I offer you the full knowledge of the whereabouts and safety of Adria Idonea, Princess of Heiland.”

Adria turned her eyes to Preinon, and then, realizing her mistake, immediately turned back to Tabashi, though she had already missed his reaction. Now, he merely blinked, slowly... measured, even.

He is so careful...

When he spoke, it seemed reasonably nonchalant, and without consideration of her presence. “Do you think this is not something of which I am already aware?”

Preinon nodded. “Of course, and perhaps even it is knowledge you have given our enemy. But what I offer is our recognition of it. This is now knowledge you may barter freely, and without fear of my reprisal.”

Now Adria did not know which of them she should be watching. If there were a language they knew which she did not, they might have been speaking it. Instead of watching them directly, again she half closed her eyes, and unfocused, and let herself breathe the world in a different way.

And it was beautiful, even terrible. Their spirits flared with light, as if a private war raged between them.

No... 
Adria realized as she returned to normal awareness. 
They are in strange concert... it is more like a dance.

“This is your offer?” Tabashi was saying.

“It is,” answered Preinon.

With a single nod, Tabashi rose, then considered Adria for a moment without expression. And then he turned away toward the tent opening, and made his way outside without another word.

Adria looked between the flap and Preinon several times, but could not fully understand what had just happened.

“You have felt that you are protected,” Preinon said, still watching the space the Moresidhe had departed. “You have felt controlled by everyone around you. You feel you have been denied the fullness of your existence, and the choices you have to make.”

She only nodded, feeling somehow ashamed, or guilty, or angry, and somehow also anxious, even exultant.

He nodded slowly, motioning to the opening. “There. I have bartered away your protection for freedom. Anyone with a secret may trade with the Moresidhe for yours. If they mean you harm, they will find you. If they mean you well, they will find you. You are free to live your life as an Aeman or an Aesidhe, as a Hunter or a Runner. What shackles of yours I might have claimed I now have traded. They are melted down for swords.”

She hesitated, still not really understanding all that her uncle meant. “Tabashi... he... accepted?”

Preinon rose and sighed, crossing his arms and considering her for the first time, before turning to follow the Moresidhe into the outside world. “It is not possible for him to refuse.”

It was not until he had left that Adria found something of the answer she was searching for, so she spoke it to no one instead. “What is my freedom, Uncle, when swords and shackles are nearly one and the same?”

Instead of sitting with Preinon beside the fire that evening, Adria followed Mateko as he took watch.

“
You take orders from my uncle, Mateko. Will you take one from me?
”

“
I will not,
” he answered. “
But I will do as you ask, instead.
”

She smiled apologetically, realizing her rudeness. “
Thank you,
Mateko.
Will you follow Tabashi
and deliver a message?
”

He bit his lip and narrowed his eyes worriedly, but nodded.

“
Tell him I wish to meet with him alone,
” she nodded. “
Tell him I have decided.
”

Mateko nodded again. “
It will be as you have asked,
Pukshonisla.”

As he left, the seriousness of his tone settled in Adria, and the realization that he had used her full name, as if they had not been alone.

Falburn is right,
Adria decided, the next time she and Elias shared time on deck.
I have already decided. Elias has given an oath to see us to Kelmantis, and I will take him at his word.

So she shifted in her place as he climbed the stair to the fore deck, her fingers on her belt pouch, considering whether even to reveal the warning to him.

What more could he add,
she reasoned.
And will he see this as a sign of trust, or distrust? Shall I show it to all on board, and wait for someone’s eyes to widen in panic?

Adria smiled a little at herself. Elias saluted her as he passed, then again saluted to a young Knight nearby who was now relieved of his duty and, from what Adria had observed, well ready for his rest.

As Elias took his place, the other Knight shuffled down the stair. He somehow turned a bit early, stumbling off of the last step, and then tripped over a sailor hunched near the railing.

She did not hear the initial exchange, but from the tone it seemed to involve surprised cursing on both parts. Adria stood straight and took a step forward to watch as the altercation developed.

Though Elias watched as well, he merely turned his head, leaning back against the railing without expression. Adria walked over beside him, where they could see to the bottom of the stair and hear clearly.

“Ye think me apologize,” the sailor protested. “Aye? Why that now?”

“You lurked too close to the stair, you idiot,” the Knight argued. “Apologize, and find a better place to sit idle.”

The sailor crossed his arms, shaking his head a little. “I’m the one bruised cause ye don’ know ‘ow to walk. Dressed alike yer off to storm the castle? It’s a wonder none o’ ya pitched over deck anow…”

“Is that a threat?” the Knight returned. “I’ll pitch
you
over the deck…”

Adria shook her head. “Ah, to be six years old again…”

Elias chuckled. “Perhaps this is some unrequited love between them.”

Adria smiled, but at this point the young Knight in fact lunged at the sailor, who easily avoided the attempted shove, and the Knight struck the railing hard. Thankfully, he did not topple, but when he turned, it was clear he was not about to calm.

Adria took a step forward, but Elias’ hand was in front of her. “Highness, if you will allow me this duty…”

She opened her mouth, prepared to protest, but Elias did not wait for a response.

The young Knight drew his blade. The sailor to his credit, raised his arms and backed away, making no sign of reaching for his own weapon.

“Come on…” the Knight shouted.

Several other sailors now gathered about him, but were also reluctant to draw, though a couple kept their fingers near their hilts.

On the aft deck, Josson hailed them from the wheel, but there was already more clamor than he could easily overcome, and the Knight was certainly not listening to anything beyond the circle closing about him.

The Knight threatened the sailors with his blade, even made a couple of tentative thrusts, but the sailors alternately laughed him off or tried to calm him.

“Come on, man…” and “Watcha tryin’ to stick wi’ that, boy?”

He thrust his way from the railing, as the sailors backed away but circled him. Elias looked for an easy opening to get to the young man, but now the sailors were focused on their game, even calling out an ad hoc shanty.

“Come on, man!”

“Soldier try to stick me…”

“Hey-o-ho, and a where ye try to go?”

This infuriated the Knight, whose half thrusts turned to wide, two-handed arcs of his longsword.

“Shut up, you pirate shites…” His voice sounded shrill, and it was clear now he was afraid. He cried out and spun, and found his blade stuck squarely in the mast.

The sailors’ song erupted into laughter, and finally Elias made his way through them. “That’s enough, lad. Leave it there and find your drink or your bunk.”

The Knight gave the older Knight only the briefetst glance before turning to wrench his blade free. He was shaking with rage and embarrassment, and it wasn’t clear if he was turning the blade upon Elias, but the latter didn’t wait to see.

Elias didn’t unsheathe. He managed two steps, and at once disarmed the young man, knocking him back against the mast like a pillow doll, and smacked him flat in the chest with the lad’s own blade hilt.

“I gave you good counsel.” Elias was calm, but his voice just loud enough for Adria to hear.

“You are not my captain,” the young Knight managed.

“I am not,” Elias nodded. “Perhaps I would be, if I hadn’t thrown a dozen like you overboard before they learned how to follow the good counsel of their elders.”

Elias was believable, and the younger Knight’s breathing slowed, the rage in his eyes softened.

“What do you want to do, lad?” Elias nodded, still not releasing his hold. “Cut me up and fight two dozen sailors? Sail the ship yourself to find your fortune? Swim to Somana and join the circus?”

He shook his head.

“Well?” Elias shrugged.

The Knight swallowed hard. “Maybe find some drink, or my bunk.”

Elias took a step back and offered the Knight his sword again. “That’s a good decision, Sir Gifford. I’ll buy you a pint in Kelmantis myself if you keep yourself alive that long.”

The altercation ended, Sir Gifford going below, the sailors returning to their places with an air of entertainment, and Elias rose again to take his place beside Adria.

If Adria had wanted to speak of assassins and unseen dangers and trust and distrust, the urge was now long gone.

“Well?” she asked simply.

Elias arched his eyebrows. “Well what, Highness?”

“Is that what I’ll have to do for you to buy a lady a drink?”

Part Eight

Hunters of Men

Stalemate

T
onight, we are Hunters...

She stood among flames, a great black tree unburned.

Tonight, we are Runners...

She wandered through smoke, yet breathed.

Tonight, we are Hunters of...

She fell into water, and the storm crows gathered around...

...and Adria’s dream dissolved in sunlight, as the flap of her tent was pulled away, and Mateko beckoned.

“
Awaken, 
Lózha
... I have been scratching at your door too long...
”

She covered her eyes, blinking. “
I... yes, I am with you.
”

Adria tossed her covers aside, and followed Mateko through the Runners camp and beyond, where the Hunters in Rows were gathered around a pair of oaken crates, and her uncle motioned toward two of the stronger among those gathered.

“
Tabashi has made good on his word.
” Preinon nodded in satisfaction as the crates were pried open with Moresidhe daggers. The Runners had set their perimeter, the Hunters had set up their tents, and they had dug up the cache that had been left a season before. And alongside the expected water-proofed food provisions and seasoned firewood, they found the crates, filled with carefully wrapped swords.

They were only a mile from the border, where trees became clear cut wasteland, forts, and fields. All were anxious, hushed, Hunters and Runners alike, and this discovery only added to the expectations that had been building for a season now, even longer.

Adria shook her head in awe. “
But how could he have buried all of these here in two days... without even disturbing the ground?
”

“
It is a point he likes to make,
” Preinon smiled grimly. “
Where the Moresidhe are concerned, you will always have more questions than answers.
”

When all had settled and had their meal, Preinon gathered the Hunters, as well as a few of the more eager Runners, and ordered those who had trained with swords to train those who had not.

Adria had practiced a little with longer blades in the years before leaving Windberth, but only now realized that her more recent training was easily combined with what she had learned before. A longer blade felt natural in her hands, and she was surprised at the lightness of the Moresidhe steel.

I slew the Knights in N
á
me’s tent with a sword
, she remembered.

And still she was surprised to soon find herself at the head of a small contingent, showing them adequate ways of fighting with their swords and long knives paired, or with swords and the rudimentary shields some had carved from wood in similar fashion to their canoes.

“Méneshno,” Adria said to one of the newer recruits as practice ended, now realizing she recognized him. “
I… You have joined the Hunters.
”

The Aesidhe nodded slowly, wiping his blade clean before sheathing it ceremoniously. “
I swore to return, even before I found my empty camp.”

Adria nodded grimly, swallowing.
One of only two survivors…

“
It is good to see you,
Méneshno.” She hesitated. “
I… we found another survivor of your tribe. A child.
”

He met her eyes. “
I understand. I had no child of my own.
” He paused. “
It is best this child…
”

Tears came to his eyes, and he looked downward.

She knelt beside him. “
She has found a family, my friend. She will remember, and she will forget. She is home now.
”

He nodded slowly after a long moment, and they did not speak of this again.

When they broke for evening, Mateko found the opportunity to join Adria and further the mystery of Tabashi.

“
He told me that he would meet with you, as you ask.
”

“
That is good
,” Adria nodded her head, frowning, though now the subterfuge began to seem a bit less pragmatic than she had first imagined.

The army had already moved from its prior camp. Still, Tabashi seemed somehow able to guess the army’s path, find its camp, magically produce and then bury several crates of swords, and finally disappear without a trace.

“
When and where are we to meet?
” she asked.

Mateko only blinked and shook his head. “
That is all that he said.
”

“
That is all?
” Adria frowned. “
Are you certain? Did... he give you some kind of... signal?
” There was not a good translation for what she meant.

“
I walked with him awhile, and he said nothing more,
” Mateko answered. “
Finally, I thanked him for his message and made my way here to scout, as
Watelomoksho had asked me.”

“
Came here? You went ahead of Tabashi?
”

Mateko shook his head, not understanding. “
Tabashi was going northwest, and very quickly. I had to turn east to make it here.
”

Adria blinked several times, also not understanding. 
That is why the ground is undisturbed,
 she realized. 
The swords were already buried here.

She tried to formulate some sort of logic in her mind, imagining Preinon and Tabashi planning the whole scenario ahead of time, like some joke at her expense. But it didn’t sound quite right.

Perhaps the Moresidhe have…
 prophets. Perhaps they knew, well before he did, what Preinon would ask. Perhaps he already knows w
here and when we will meet.

Adria shivered, then pushed the possibilities from her thoughts and focused on the present.

“
Thank you,
Mateko,” she said simply.

He bit his lip, tilted his head, and looked up at the sky, hoping to find the half-remembered Aeman answer among the budding stars.

“
You are welcome,
” she whispered.

“Yu ah hwekomuh,” he repeated as best he could, then asked, “
What does this mean?
”

Adria smiled, thoughtfully. “
Actually, it means ‘I am happy for you to be here.’
”

“
That doesn’t make much sense.
” He shook his head, incredulous. “
The people of your birth speak a strange language.
”

“
True,
” she admitted. “
But... much of what
we
say would sound strange to an Other.
”

She thought of Tabashi all that day, as well as Mateko, while they went about separate tasks. Finally, that night, when the last watch had settled, they had a few moments to speak together again, after the late meal, while others told stories or chatted among themselves.

“
There is something I have been wondering...
” she began. They sat beside each other — close, but not so close that anyone gave them knowing looks. Adria had learned that lesson quickly.

“
Tell me what you wonder,
” he said. They watched the fire or others around it as they spoke, though she liked to look at him whenever his eyes turned away. But now, she had more serious thoughts.

Strangely, Adria only then knew what she was going to say. She pictured her tent flap opening into sunlight, and...

“
Last night I dreamed of fire, and of smoke, and of falling into water
.
Of a black tree and of crows.
”

He blinked several times, and looked away into the fire.

I understand... 
she realized. 
I cast my bow into... Mateko was the one to…

“
You... saw the last Sun Dance,
” she realized aloud, nervously. He did not react with alarm, so she continued. “
You were there when my father came with his Hunters, at the first great slaughter of the People. You swam across a lake where arrows fell, and if you turned and looked back, you may have seen Fire Heart himself die upon my father’s sword, upon the Holy Tree. You... might have seen the flames, and the smoke...
”

“
It is true,
” Mateko nodded sadly, glancing her direction briefly, then back to the fire.

“
So then I must ask you, Mateko…. do you want revenge?
”

He drew his knees up and rested his chin upon them thoughtfully, nodding as he considered her question.

“
What is revenge?
” he asked finally, frowning and turning to meet her eyes. “
Does it mean I should kill? Whom should I kill? There were... so many soldiers... How many should I kill? How many would be enough? I have hated your father, it is true. I have feared the Others. But I would not become one of them to destroy them.
”

Adria shook her head, a little awed, a little embarrassed now that she had even asked the question, but he turned and leaned over to catch her eyes again, smiling.

“
This is why tribes are turned one upon another and destroyed. This is why the people of your birth live behind walls and in fear. If we take one life, they will take three, and we will take five, and, more... and... more... Is it not so?
”

“
I don’t know the path. I don’t see the ends.
” She shrugged. “
I am torn, always, in waking and in dreams. I have had to choose between my father and my uncle, between the Others and the People. And now, there are Runners and there are Hunters in Rows.
”

“
You think strangely sometimes,
Lilene...” he said, smiling again in the firelight. “
You have mastered the bow and both blades. You can weave baskets and you clap to the music of drums. And still, you forget you have two hands.
”

She blinked, and then laughed. “
Is that
Shísha
speaking with your mouth?
”

He frowned with exaggerated indignity. “
I have grown wise while you’ve been running about making armies.
”

Adria only smiled, then grew overwhelmed, and embraced him suddenly, with a bit more than friendship affection, and no matter who was watching.

For the rest of the season, their camps were fireless, as they stalked back and forth along the border like impatient wolves, making every effort to hide their movement. Rain came, dampening spirits and making the balmy nights even that less hospitable.

Preinon tried for some days to maneuver his army into a striking position, but with little success. It was chess on a grand scale, and coordinating his Hunters and the Runners in the forest against the opposing village militias and Knights on horseback — who held the advantage of mobility in the open fields and roads — proved rather more difficult than it had the season before.

Shísha’s appearance, then, reinvigorated their efforts, and even Preinon, despite their disagreements, gave a steady smile when a scout brought word that she had set up camp nearby.

“She reads the signs before I do. Guesses storms from the sounds of the birds. Thunderheads, hoof beats, marching Knights.” Preinon nodded, considering the message Mateko brought to him from the Lichushegi. “I envy her vision.”

“
She watches the Others still?
” Adria asked. “
I did not think she would support this plan.
”

“I asked her to. She respects that I bury my pride, and answers what I ask,” he answered, shaking his head as he peered out into the forest, as if trying to see through two miles of trees. “
They are moving again
.
Two ways.
”

Adria nodded and sighed.

“
They seem to know when and where we would strike,
” she said, and she remembered Tabashi’s seeming prescience. Still, she said nothing more.

“
I know,
” Preinon replied. “
At first, I believed there to be a spy among us, as impossible as it seems. Now, I think they simply have changed commanders, and this new one knows how to move his contingents and deploy his scouts better than those we have faced before him.
”

A stalemate is the perfect game,
she thought, but instead asked, “
Are you better than this enemy, Uncle?
”

He nodded thoughtfully. “
He is good, but eventually he will make a mistake.
”

“
Perhaps it is a woman,
” she smiled, half-joking, and half wondering if a Sister might be leading them.
...or assisting somehow
, she considered. 
Even as Sh
í
sha assists us. It is said that Taber knows the future, after all. I did not believe as a child, and yet, now…

He shook his head after a moment. “
This one thinks like a man
.”

Adria flushed, though she wasn’t entirely certain why.

Shame? 
she wondered.
Anger?

Regardless, their conversation changed as others approached.

The Hunters are all men now,
 she reminded herself.