lastkingsamazon (35 page)

“
Then it's settled,” I lied with an easy smile, and raised my glass to it.

#

There comes a point in every one's life when they realize they are stupid. It's a bitter and crushing realization, but unavoidable.

We had been in no hurry, eaten at leisure and made our way down to the garden in good time; the bangs, shouts and crashes of doors being kicked open still in the distance and no immediate threat.

The garden was perhaps thirty yards by forty, the wall seven feet or so high. There was a gate that would lead onto an alley and a way through from the bottom of the two flats, through the kitchen; in fact, half the kitchen was outside.

“
Hold hands and follow me,” Jocasta said.

We formed a line and followed as she walked through the beds of flowers, almost everywhere some were in bloom. Her hand was cool in mine, small and delicate, the stone warm by contrast. Both felt good. There were apple and cherry trees, a vegetable patch and at the far end of the garden a wicker screen covered in clematis, behind which was the usual garden paraphernalia of earth, tools, pots and seeds. Once there Jocasta let go of my hand, a little reluctantly I thought. Wishful thinking, maybe. Still she had traveled five hundred miles for me, stolen from her family, risked her life and ruined her reputation. Well, she couldn't feel nothing for me, could she? Even I'm not that dumb. It was a new thought and I drunkenly puzzled it out. She had nothing to go back for either. Her reputation was shot. No patron would wed her. Her family might disown her to save their own reputations. It wasn't nothing. Not by any means.

“
Now what?” I asked.

“
We wait,” she hissed, “quietly.”

It wasn't what I had meant but I let it go, for now. Sometimes, I decided, it was better to say nothing. She must know that she was as barred from going home as I was, and it struck me that she had not fought very hard against the idea of going north. I looked around for something to sit on and found a pile of sacks of compost. When she gave me a disapproving look I shrugged and raised an eyebrow. Might as well be comfortable, I tried to convey. Dubaku squatted, feet flat on the ground, leaning forward. To me it looked intensely uncomfortable but he seemed happy enough. Sapphire stood stock still. Meran leaned against the wall. After a while, Jocasta shooed me up a bit and I made room for her. I was intensely aware of her hip against mine. She wore thin trousers that put just two thin layers of cloth between me and her soft thigh. Her arm touched mine, shoulder just under mine. She wore a shirt and jacket. Man clothes but I found them enchanting. I could smell her, her hair seemingly just under my nose.

“
You smell nice,” I whispered.

She turned slightly and glared up at me and breathed a word of advice. “Shush, stupid.”

Not exactly the words of endearment my fuzzy brain was hoping for. Still, she did blush a bit, though after I nodded she looked away.

The sounds of the search got closer. We waited, tense. At least I was tense. Everyone else seemed completely at ease. After a time we heard them in the streets about us, at our door, inside the flats. A head peered out a window at us and disappeared. A minute later a barbarian wandered into the garden, looked around aimlessly for a bit and left. A minute later another did the same. Then the search moved on.

I didn't move. Jocasta was still close, I whispered to her. “Is that it?”

“
Wait,” she whispered back, just loud enough for all of us. “Just in case.”

Everything had gone quiet. I didn't like it. I caught Sapphire looking at me and met his gaze squarely. He didn't like it either. The search had stopped. Why?

We waited, tense, doubtful, uneasy. You only stop searching when you have found what you are looking for. I was just about to say so when Ferrian sauntered out into the garden. Behind him were two barbarian guards, just as Gatren always had with him. Big, cruel looking men who had seen a good deal of casual violence in their time, perpetrating most of it. He stopped and looked about the garden frowning. Then walked forward, wandered around aimlessly, not even coming close to us, and stopped facing his two guards. “What happened?” he asked.

They told him.

“
Nice maze, Sumto,” he said turning around and facing us again.

My blood was running cold in my veins and my breath seemed as shallow as a film of water on glass. He knew I was here. How did he know I was here?

“
There are soldiers in all four streets. And beyond. There is nowhere to go. You might as well come out. You and your friend, whoever he is.”

Friend, only one friend, but still he knew I wasn't alone. How did he know I wasn't alone? We'd left no sign in the flat, just in case. How did he know I was here?

“
Well, you can't stay there forever,” he grinned, “you'll get thirsty. Ready for a drink? I have a nice wine with me. Well, it's a filthy wine actually but I expect your palate is a bit dulled by now.”

I wasn't paying attention, I was thinking, looking around for escape, knowing there was none. How did he know? And it was then that I realized I was stupid. It was a disappointment to me. My heart sank a little more as I held up the stone I wore around my neck. 'I harmonized them, so I could find you,' Jocasta had said. I had assumed she meant she had attuned this stone to the one she had sent me. But she hadn't, I knew. She had attuned this stone to mine when she had come with her sister to ask for my aid. I remembered the almost invisible flash, now. And Ferrian now had my ring. And I had this. And now Ferrian had me. I looked at my companions one at a time. They all looked at me. They all had the same tense worried expression, except for Dubaku, who expressed nothing on his face or in his eyes. And Sapphire, who was frowning slightly at me in an irritated sort of way as though it were all my fault, which it was. And Jocasta, whose mouth was open in an oh, her eyes wide with fear as she shook her head, her hand on my arm.

She held up the stone she wielded, her expression mutating into one of grim determination. I gripped both stone and hand in my fist and shook my head. No. “There will be too many.” I had to come close to her ear, my lips brushing her earlobe, my cheek brushing hers, the scent of her hair in my nostrils. I whispered quickly. “If you are free you can act to free me again. If dead, you are dead. If taken we are lost. Stay free. I'll go.” I stood up. She clutched my arm, desperately I thought. Gently I pulled her hand away and moved before I could change my mind.

Meran made to follow me but, to my surprise, Sapphire gripped his arm and pulled him back hard. I didn't see the rest, I didn't dare stop moving lest I lose all control. Fear, it's too short a word. Too easy to say. I was trembling with it. I knew what I was letting myself in for. Still, I held myself still, walking steadily down one narrow path of the garden toward the man who had become my bitter enemy and whom I would surely kill one day. I caught a glimpse of movement and turned my head slightly. Sapphire was walking another narrow path and there were some pretty pale blue flowers on a bush between us. It's one of those strange contrasting images that will stay with you for a lifetime - the man I had seen murder another man, my eyes locked to his as he twisted the knife into the man's kidney, now seen through a haze of delicate blue flowers as he walked calmly to sacrifice himself for me. And I had no doubt he knew exactly what he was letting himself in for.

#

The biggest problem was that they wanted me to teach magic and I didn't have any to teach. I knew exactly eight spells. I remembered learning them, a loupe tucked firmly into one eye socket as I watched them cast by a sorcerer. This to make a light, this to warm a layer of air close to your skin, this to keep you dry if it's raining, this to make a flame. They were simple spells, easy spells, they were nothing. There cannot be a noble alive who didn't know them. If I cooperated they would soon learn that I knew nothing worth teaching, nothing they wanted to know. Then they would begin asking questions about the loupe; why did I have it? Where did I get it? And I didn't know what to tell them. They would not believe I'd stolen it.

I say that was my biggest problem. I'm not sure it's true. They'd let me keep my stone, after a fashion.

“
We didn't think you could climb down. Didn't think you had it in you, frankly,” Ferrian told me when I was safely ensconced in my room, my cell. “I guess your dangerous-looking friend killed the guards. He'll be an asset, I'm sure, one way or another.”

I didn't see the point in responding.

“
Larner put a ward over the window, so no going out there. It'll hurt and we will know.”

So Larner had been Turned. I'd started to think of it in that way, like a title. The Turned.

“
He'll be along to see you later; talk to you, see what you know. We won't be seeing much of each other, I'm afraid. I have other duties. But I'm sure Larner will look after you admirably; he has one or two ideas.”

I didn't respond. Why bother? They would do what they would do and I would endure as best I could. Jocasta was safe, for now, and free. That mattered. It didn't much matter what happened to me. I was, after all, pretty useless.

He went to the door. “Relax,” he said, “take a drink,” and was gone.

I did. A small brandy. I sipped it slowly and fantasized murder.

Larner strode through the door some time Later. “Ah, our lost lamb returned to the fold. How are you feeling?”

I was sitting up on the bed, still imagining new ways to kill Ferrian. I didn't respond.

“
Not very friendly, Sumto.” He crossed the room to stand by the bed, too close for my liking. “Here, I have a present for you.” He pressed his hand against my forehead, too quick for me to react, and there was a near invisible flash of light. I slapped my hand to my forehead as he stepped rapidly back. “There, perfect. Now we will always be able to find you.”

I probed at my forehead. There was something there, something small and hard and warm. A stone. The stone Jocasta had given me, or mine, it didn't matter which.

“
It's embedded in your skull. I suppose you could cut it out. Well...” he thought a moment. “Yes, I think you do have it in you to do that, so...” He leaned in again and I made a fist, waiting. “I could always bring the guards in here to hold you down. What do you think?”

No. I couldn't win this battle. No point in fighting it. I dropped my hand to my lap and relaxed.

He touched my forehead and there was another flash and pain, sudden flaring pain that was fading even before I could cry out. “Now if you remove it you will burst several blood vessels in your brain. Not a healthy thing to have happen.”

“
What did they do to you?”

He shrugged, face suddenly bitter and angry. “Changed my mind. Opened my eyes, as they will open yours one way or another. It is easier to obey...” he trailed off, then suddenly came to himself. “Now, I have another present for you. Want to see?”

I shrugged. “Do I have a choice?”

“
Not really, no.” He crossed to the window, waved his hand to disable the ward and stepped onto the balcony. I could still see him when he turned back. “Come along, then.”

I followed him. They'd broken him. Somehow. He was not the man I knew, that was for sure. This crazy old man had nothing in common with the Larner I had known in the camp. His false cheer was grating, unnatural. I decided I didn't want to know what had Turned him. Some horrors it's better not to contemplate.

“
There, good,” he said as I joined him. He took my arm and led me to the balcony edge. Once there he pointed into the courtyard. I looked down.

They might have been dogs, once. But the gods alone knew what they were now. They were in the hands of two handlers, and pulled at their leashes. Their fur had gone gray. Terror will do that to you. They strained toward me, snarling and barking madly, jaws spraying spit, muzzles wrinkled. Their handlers were having a hard time holding them back, and they were both big men.