Sentinelspire (27 page)

“Wh-who are you?” said Lewan. The man did not appear hostile, and Lewan’s hammering heart was beginning to slow. Lewan leaned over, grabbed his trousers, and covered his nakedness.

The man smiled and gave a slight bow. “Forgive me again,” he said. “Though you have been a guest in my home for some days, I have not yet greeted you—though I understand you have been partaking of my hospitality. Well met, Lewan.”

“Your … house?” said Lewan. “You mean, you’re …”

“The Old Man of the Mountain. Master of Sentinelspire.”

Lewan’s mouth went dry, and his heart began to hammer again. “Uh … w-well met, Master. Thank you for your, um … hospitality. Your daughter the Lady Talieth has made me most comfortable.”

“Has she?” The Old Man chuckled. “She does like them young, but I would have thought you were a bit young even for her.”

Lewan blushed and averted his eyes. “That was not my meaning, my lord! I—”

“And now,” the Old Man cut him off, “I must ask your forgiveness a third time. I know what you meant, young man. I was simply having a bit of fun. But I am glad you have met Talieth, for it is she about which we must speak. She and the half-orc and their little … what would be the word?”

“Word, my lord?”

“You and I have just met, Lewan. I am trying to mind my manners, as they say. Put a polite term to their very impolite … plotting.”

“Plotting, lord?”

The Old Man frowned. “Don’t dither with me, boy. You’re an honest young man. Your master brought you up right. Six
days in my fortress, and you are already practicing the arts of deceit. Please allow me to be brutally honest with you, Lewan. You’re no good at it. Don’t try. Remain true to yourself.”

He knows, Lewan thought. Knows it all. Knows Talieth is trying to stop him. Knows Sauk is in on it. Knows I’m helping them. He might even know the bargain I’ve struck. Lewan’s fear paled into something approaching sheer terror at that, and he thought, Oh, Ulaan …

“I’ve not come to kill you, boy,” said the Old Man. “And your girl is safe from me.”

Lewan’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped.

The Old Man threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, dear boy! Don’t look so shocked. I’m no wizard, reading your thoughts like a tome. You wear your thoughts plain on your face. However …” The good humor left the Old Man’s face and he looked down on Lewan with utmost solemnity. “I will not tell you not to fear. Be
very
afraid, Lewan. Talieth and her little conspiracy … well, I’ll forsake politeness for bluntness on this point. They are lying to you. They are
using
you. Do
not
trust them.”

Doubt began to course through Lewan, like a poison slowly working its way through the veins. It occurred to him to wonder why he had never seriously questioned Talieth’s tale or her motives. True enough, a large part of it at first was that he’d believed himself a prisoner without much choice. But there were the earthquakes, that plume of steam from the mountaintop earlier, and the Old Man was a lord of assassins, after all, a master of murderers. Then the obvious question occurred to Lewan.

“Why—?”

“Why haven’t I done something about it?”

Lewan nodded, unable to speak.

The Old Man shook his head. “Well, let me just say that the time is not yet right.”

“The … time?”

“Let me guess,” said the Old Man. “Talieth, Sauk, maybe even a few of the other blades, have told you that I have gone quite mad and am intent on destroying all they hold dear. To assure your sympathies, they have probably even told you that my nefarious plans will destroy all you hold dear as well. Do I hit close to the mark?”

Lewan said nothing and had to force himself not to nod. He didn’t know who or what to believe.

“Truth is a rare gift, Lewan,” said the Old Man, “but I will give it to you now. I am not out to destroy the world, but to save it—save it from Talieth and those like her, whose greed and ambition would destroy anyone and anything that gets in their way.”

The sounds of crickets and night birds began to fill the wood, as Lewan simply sat there, staring into the pool. In the past tenday, his entire world had been cracked. He felt raw, drained, and utterly and completely confused. He put his head in his hands, and without looking up, he said, “Why are you telling me all this? What if I don’t believe you? What—?”

He stopped himself. He’d been about to say,
What if I go back to the fortress and tell Talieth everything—that you are on her trail, aware of her entire conspiracy?
But he caught himself just in time. Saying that would be as much as admitting he was involved, confirming the Old Man’s story, and no matter how sincere the man seemed, Lewan could not ignore the fact that he was sitting naked and alone in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger, one who controlled some of the best assassins in the known world.

“Despite what you may think of me, boy, I hold no ill will toward you, and it grieves me to see you so ill used. Taken from your master, held captive, used as a pawn in Talieth’s game. I am no monster. You have never done me any harm, and as a guest in my home, it is my duty to help you. However, I must confess that my motives and my reasoning for meeting you here are not entirely … altruistic.”

Lewan wasn’t sure what that word meant, but he took the general meaning behind it.

“If Talieth asks you what we spoke about,” said the Old Man, “tell her. Hide nothing. As I said, deceit is not one of your strengths. Do not be ashamed by that. Revel in it. Sauk will certainly ask you. He’s watching us now, I’m sure, though I don’t know if he’s close enough to hear.” He shrugged. “It does not concern me. As soon as I’m gone, I’m sure he’ll be along. Tell him everything. However, to answer your question at last—why I have come to speak to you. To put it plainly: in a short time, I will need your help.”

Lewan chuckled, though it was from sheer exasperation, not humor. He’d been captured, watched his master die, and involved in a conspiracy to depose a supposed mad master of assassins, and now the very man he’d been asked to help defeat was standing here and asking for his help—while Lewan himself was naked and shivering. Lewan felt trapped in some sick bard’s tale, and all he really wanted was to take Ulaan and go far away from all this.

“How could I possibly help you?” he said.

“Nothing too drastic,” said the Old Man. “I’m not expecting you to grab weapons and defend me against the assassins of Sentinelspire. Your word, Lewan, is all I ask. In a short time, I will need your word of support. My plans will still succeed without you, Lewan. But things will go better for a great many people—yourself included—if you speak on my behalf. But don’t worry yourself too much. I am not asking for your false witness. When the time comes, you will want to support me. You will see things my way. All I ask is that you take the courage to do what your heart knows is right.”

Lewan heard the man walk away, and when he looked up a few moments later, he saw no sign of him. The Old Man of the Mountain had faded into the gathering gloom of evening. Something occurred to Lewan in that moment. The Old Man had called him Lewan. Repeatedly. Lewan had never given the
Old Man his name. He was sure of it. Still … Talieth had told him that her father had ways of seeing things beyond spies, and he certainly seemed to know a great deal already. If he knew what had happened to his master, knew of Talieth’s plans against him, knew even of Ulaan, then the Old Man knowing Lewan’s name hardly seemed notable. Still … Lewan could not shake the feeling that there had been something oddly familiar about the Old Man.

W
hen Lewan reached the door to his room, he was breathing heavily and his legs felt like they had turned to granite. After the Old Man had left him on the mountainside, Sauk had come running up, his eyes as large and hard as river stones, and demanded to know what had been said. Lewan told him everything, even that the Old Man told him to tell everyone and that there was nothing Talieth’s conspiracy could do about any of it. When the tale was told, Sauk simply stood there, staring at Lewan and chewing on his bottom lip. Lewan couldn’t tell if the half-orc was furious, or terrified out of his mind. A little of both, he decided.

“Impossible,” Sauk had said, seemingly to himself, then broke into a long string of curses in his own tongue.

The rant seemed to stoke his agitation rather than calm it, and Sauk had ordered Lewan to get his clothes on. Hadn’t even allowed him a moment in the stream to wash the pasty symbols off his skin. Lewan had scarcely pulled on his boots and grabbed Berun’s bow before Sauk was pulling him to his feet and rushing him onward. They’d run the whole way back, even after full dark caught them on the mountainside. Lewan’s boots were scuffed and his toes hurt from bashing into rocks and roots.

The journey through the statue-haunted passageway had been the worst. Sauk had clutched Lewan’s wrist and
dragged him through the maze. He’d been none too careful, and they’d brushed up against several statues. More than once, Lewan could have sworn he’d felt a stony hand or claw reach out and brush his shoulder. But perhaps that had simply been his fear and exhaustion overtaking him in the dark.

Back at the fortress, Sauk had barreled through the guards at the gate, knocking one man flat on his behind. He’d pushed Lewan up the stairs to the tower, opened the door, told him, “Get to your rooms and stay there!” then bounded off.

Lewan watched him go until he was little more than a blur in shadows between pools of lamplight. Then he’d made the climb to his room.

He stood before the door—his hair, skin, and clothes drenched with sweat, dust caking him, his chest heaving, and his legs feeling as if they were about to collapse. Lewan was not soft. He’d lived in the wild most of his life, running for miles without rest. But the day had drained him. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually, he was spent. He scarcely had the energy to twist the knob of his door.

Lewan stepped inside, and an array of scents hit him like a blow—spiced candles, cherry wood burning in the hearth, expensive oil burning low in two lamps, an array of blossoms strewn about the room and on the bed, and set in the middle of the floor between the miniature oak and holly, a huge brass tub. Ulaan, wearing a blue silk gown, her hair loose and flowing down her torso, stood next to it. She saw him and smiled.

“Lewan! Oh, you look ready to fall over.” She went to him, pulled him into the room, and shut the door behind him. “I’ve had a bath brought into the room tonight. I knew you’d be tired after a day out on the mountain with Sauk.” She dropped her eyes and smiled. “And I thought we might not want to have to walk so far from the bath to bed tonight.”

Lewan took her hands and pulled them off him. “Ulaan … I must speak to you.”

He saw a slight widening of her eyes, a quick intake of breath—but she hid it quickly. “What is it, Lewan?” she said carefully.

He looked to the bedside table. A platter of food—fruits, bread, white cheese, wine—waited there. She’d even found a sprig of red holly and put it on the edge of the platter. He walked over, threw the bow on the bed, then poured the wine into a goblet and drained it in one gulp. As the warmth began to suffuse his head, he looked to Ulaan, put all the gentleness into his voice he could, and said, “Don’t look so worried.”

She would not look at him. “Do I have reason to be?”

Lewan put the empty goblet on the platter. He saw that his hand was trembling. “I’m not sending you away if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Ulaan did look up then, her eyes rimmed with tears. She smiled and rushed at him with open arms.

Lewan took a step back and placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her at arm’s length. Even through the grime coating his fingers, he could feel how thin her dress was and how soft the skin beneath.

Her eyes narrowed, not so much in hurt as confusion. “Lewan, I …”

“Please, Ulaan. You must listen. We …” Lewan swallowed and took a deep breath. Damn it all! Exhausted as he was, he was still blushing like a little boy. “We cannot … be together. At least not for a while.”

“I don’t understand. You said you weren’t sending me away! You said—”

“No!” Lewan shook his head, cutting her off. “I mean, we can’t … you know. Love.”

Ulaan sat on the bed. “You don’t love me.” She seemed to be talking more to herself than him. “Earlier today, I
thought … when the Lady Talieth interrupted, I was so sure you were about to tell me y—”

“I love you, Ulaan.” There, he had said it, and he felt a surge of pride that he’d said it, plain and simple, no hesitation. “I do. But you must understand. I—”

“If you love me, then why can’t we share our love? You said—”

“Ulaan, please!” He said it with more force than he’d intended. “I’m sorry, Ulaan. I’m just so tired, so confused. I can barely think. You must understand, my faith … the ways I was taught, the path of the Oak Father I have sworn to follow …”

He trailed off, struggling for the right words to make her understand. They wouldn’t come to him. His exhaustion was pulling him down, and the wine wasn’t helping, either.