The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy Omnibus (224 page)

Verity was here, somewhere. I could sense him like a fragrance that had almost been forgotten until a sly waft of wind brings a hint
of it to the nose. Verity, yes, and others, older and wiser and calm. So calm, the Elders of the Skill-stream. All was peaceful. Then there was a frantic stirring and someone nattering to someone else, speaking so swiftly that I could scarcely follow the thoughts. They were seeking for someone who was lost, a girl, no, a man, no, a girl and a man, carried off by the tide. Such a shame, but nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with me. I wished they would stop their worrying of it and let themselves go and join us. Why did they struggle against such peace and oneness as they could know here?

Shame on you.
He set his teeth in me and worried me wildly.
Shame on you, letting the cub drown. You would have come after me, and I would have come after you. Shame upon you, letting her go. Are we not pack? If you do this, you leave me behind. Do you know that? Do you care? Were you ever a wolf at all?

And that question stabbed me sharper than fangs and woke me to the struggle. Chade and Dutiful and Thick were there, linked as a coterie, searching for us. They were doing it all wrong, like a man bailing the sea with a sieve in hopes of catching a fish. Chade made a random search for Nettle, for none of them save Thick knew well the shape of her in the Skill-current, and neither Chade nor Dutiful had thought to ask the little man to locate her. I struggled to find enough of myself to reach them. It was like working in a dream, where the sequences of events make no sense and every moment the reality changes. I touched Thick at last, a touch like a thread settling on his sleeve and whispered, ‘
Find the woman who helped the kitten. That is what she looks like here. Find her!
’

And he did. We had known he was strong, but we had never measured him here, where his navigation of the Skill was all that mattered. He sang the song that was Nettle, and she coalesced around the notes. He did not seek her so much as summon her to fill the shape that he had made for her. And then, as if he were restoring a glass figurine to a shelf, so he carefully restored her to his dream of her. Had ever a woman been regarded as so precious? For a moment I glimpsed the inside of the travelling wagon and then the kitten on the bed told the limp woman sprawled beside him, ‘
It’s all right. Rest for now. You know the way home from here. Rest for a time, and then go home. You are safe, now. You know I love you.
’

I had only an instant to wonder at what he had done, and so effortlessly. Then he seemed to sense me there and flung me out of his dream. I did not belong there. But even that act of his was a recognition of my shape. He had fixed me into myself again to expel me from their world, and suddenly Dutiful was clutching at me.
Fitz! There you are! We thought you were lost.

Why did you betray us? What have you done? Where is the girl?
Chade demanded.

Nettle is fine. I mended her. Now I’ll mend him back together, too
, Thick suggested pragmatically.

And he slammed me back into my body with no more ceremony than that.

I lay panting on the floor of the ice tunnel. When I found my eyes and opened them, the world was red and black. Then I realized I was looking into the glowing contents of the kettle. I felt the container of powder under my fingers. It rolled under my hand as I scrabbled away from the heat. Thinking about anything seemed like too much trouble. Somewhere, around me and inside me and below me, the dragons spoke to one another. Their communication felt like thunder rolling in my lungs. I did not wish to be a party to that communion. Already I had nearly died of it. I gathered all my strength and managed to pull my knees up under me. Crawling would work, I told myself. I could crawl out.

Three things happened simultaneously. I heard Dutiful shout to me from the entrance of the tunnel. I felt a sudden crack start in the ice beneath my hand. It raced off in a jagged line toward the dawn light that was now seeping into me. And the Pale Woman invaded my mind.

She had the Skill. I had known and should have been more careful. Now she looked through my soul with her colourless eyes and pierced me with her hate. Her words slapped me.
You chose, bastard king. You chose a dragon over your Beloved. And you will live with that choice. As will he. At least, for a short time. Until I let you see what you have chosen!

And then she was gone, leaving me wretched and soiled from that contact with her mind. Such hate and virulence knows no bounds, and I knew that I had won for the Fool every coin of pain
she could wring from him before his mind was gone. My spine turned to jelly, and I sprawled on the ground with neither the will nor the strength to move any further. Again, I felt that vague stirring beneath me, and heard the oddly shrill sounds of complaining ice. Then all was stillness again. I longed to plunge into it as Icefyre had, seeking my death in it, but Dutiful was kneeling by me, shaking me frantically.

‘Get up, Fitz. Get up! We have to get out of here. The dragon is stirring and the ice is cracking. He could bring it all down on us. Get up.’

And when I could not, he grasped me by the collar and dragged me, out of the tunnel and into the excavation and up the ramp into the world of light and men.

And when the shepherd turned warrior had wearied himself with whetting his blade on the dragon’s impervious hide, he fell back from him, sweating and panting. Yet the moment he had breath to curse him, he did so again, saying he would take vengeance times three on the creature that had eaten his entire flock.

At those words, the dragon seemed to waken from his sated sleep. Slower than a sunrise, he lifted his head and opened his eyes. He looked down at the man and his blade, and his great green eyes swirled and whirled. Some say they were like whirlpools in the deep, and that they sucked Herderson’s soul down into their depth and made it the dragon’s servant. Others say that Herderson stood firm before the dragon’s gaze, and it was only when Herderson breathed in the dragon’s outblown breath that he became subject to the creature. It is a hard thing to bear true witness to, for those who had gathered to watch Herderson attempt to slay the dragon had come no closer than the edge of his pasture.

Be it his gaze or his breath, it took the man’s heart. He suddenly flung aside both shield and sword and cried out, ‘Forgive me, emerald one, oh creature of jewel and flame and truth. I did not perceive what glory and might was yours when I first approached you. Forgive me, and allow me ever after to serve you and sing your praise.
’

The Tale of the Dragon’s Slave

The world was a bright white place and cold. I found my feet, got them firmly under me and remembered how to make them work. From somewhere, Burrich came, to grab my other arm.
Then Dutiful, Burrich and I were staggering and sliding through the dawn light toward the huddled tents. I saw Chade all but running up the hill toward us. At a considerable distance behind him, Thick trudged along. Longwick and his remaining guardsmen were following them. The Wit-coterie had tumbled half-dressed from their tent, and stood in the snow, pointing up the hillside and shouting to one another as they pulled on their coats and boots. The Hetgurd warriors stood apart and staring, nodding to one another as if they had expected a doom like this all along. Icefyre’s first try at breaking free had felt like a small earthquake, and he continued to make efforts as we hastened away from the excavation. Behind us, we felt as much as heard the dragon shuddering to break free of his icy prison. The cracking ice squeaked and popped and groaned as he fought it. Even so, it seemed to me that each effort was feebler than the first one. Then, when we were halfway down the hill, the creaking of the ice ceased. My Wit-sense of Icefyre remained as strong, but that awareness told me of a creature that had expended tremendous effort and was now on the verge of collapse.

‘It would be ironic,’ I panted to Burrich and Dutiful, ‘if after all these years of longing to die, he finally perished in an attempt to live.’

Burrich snorted. ‘We all perish in our last attempt to live.’

‘What went wrong?’ Dutiful demanded. ‘Why did you wake him instead of just killing him? Did the powder fail? What changed your mind?’

Before I could answer, Chade was upon us. My old mentor stalked toward me, trembling with his outrage. His questions were harsher.

‘How could you?’ he demanded, his voice shaking with passion as soon as he was within range. ‘How could you betray your own blood that way? You were sent to kill the dragon. What right do you have to decide against that? How could you turn on your family?’

‘I haven’t turned on my family. I’ve let the Fool be Forged for the sake of the Farseers,’ I said. Speaking that harsh truth aloud, under the bright morning light, suddenly made it real. I had to take a breath. In a quieter voice, I went on. ‘She’s had us watching the puppets, Chade, until we forgot that she was up there, pulling the
strings. The Pale Woman wishes the dragon killed, yes. Perhaps if we killed him, she even would have given us back the Fool, but only so that he could witness the destruction of all he’d hoped for. Only so he could witness the end of the Farseer line.’

Heedless of the men who were drawing into hearing range, I lined out my logic for Dutiful and him. In their prolonged silence, I heard them trying my reasoning and finding it sound. Into the silence, I said to Dutiful, ‘I’ve broken your promise, and lost you your bride. But I cannot tell you I am sorry to have done so. I fear it would have been a marriage founded on death, and death would be the only fruit of it. For now, at least, we’ve chosen life. Life for the dragon. And possibly a stronger peace between the Six Duchies and the Out Islands than we could have built on the dragon’s death.’

‘Fine words!’ Chade fumed. ‘Grand words, but you’ve no idea what you’ve chosen. And neither do I! If that thing breaks out of there and is hungry, will he “choose life” for us? Or a hearty meal? I admit I’ve been short sighted. Perhaps you were wise not to kill him. But that does not mean you were wise to wake him. Who will thank you for this, FitzChivalry, when this long day is done?’

‘FitzChivalry?’ I heard Civil say, striding up behind Chade. ‘FitzChivalry? Is that who he means? Tom Badgerlock is FitzChivalry, the Witted Bastard?’ He turned to clutch Web’s arm incredulously, demanding an answer. His eyes were wide, and he was breathless with shock. Dutiful’s friend stared at me as if he had never seen me before, but there was no admiration in his eyes. He was a man cheated of a legend, shown common earth when he had expected the gleam of gold.

‘Hush.’ It was Web, silencing a secret that had outgrown its shroud. ‘Not now. Later, I’ll explain. There is no time now. He has wakened Icefyre. It’s up to us to free him.’ Web measured me with his eyes and seemed pleased with what he saw. He gave me a nod that was almost a bow, and then strode past us.

For the first time, I noted that the Witted coterie carried their digging tools, shovels and pry bars. A new purpose animated them all. Swift and Cockle were bringing up the sled to haul away the ice. Swift did not look at Burrich or me as he passed. Nonetheless, Burrich was aware of him and undeterred by his son’s cold silence.
‘Be careful, son,’ he admonished him as the boy passed us. ‘No one knows what Fitz has wakened up there, or what his feelings toward us will be.’ Then Burrich turned his gaze to me, and I had not known till then that clouded eyes could still pierce a man. ‘What did you do up there? And why?’

Perhaps it was time for that truth, too. ‘It wasn’t me. Not completely. I knew the dragon was alive, but I couldn’t reach him with my Skill, only my Wit. My Skill wasn’t strong enough. But then, Nettle found me. And –’

‘And Nettle waked him up!’ Thick announced happily as he finally trudged up to us. ‘And I saved her and put her safe. She loves me.’

‘What?’ This burst from Burrich, a cry of outrage and pain. ‘Nettle, my Nettle? Witted? It isn’t possible, it cannot be!’

‘No. Not Witted. Skilled.’ Chade sounded impatient. ‘But untrained. Dangerously untrained. Another consequence for which we must thank Fitz and his whims. We nearly lost her in the Skill-current, but Thick knew her well enough to find her and take her out of it. She’s safe now, Burrich. Probably very confused as to what happened to her just then, but safe.’

‘This is too much. I cannot deal with this.’ Burrich had been holding my arm, but now I was suddenly supporting him. He shuddered out a breath. ‘I suspected she had a touch of Chivalry’s magic. I suspected for a long time and when she told me of her wolf dream … that was when I knew I must go to Kettricken, to find out what it meant and to arrange for Nettle to be taught.’ He gave me a strange smile, torn between pride in her and fear for her future. ‘She was strong enough to wake a dragon?’

Then all of us were rocked by a blast of thought that sent Chade tottering, and then sinking to his knees. It was dragon speech, reaching into our minds. Tintaglia had found us.

Go and help him! Dig Icefyre out, and harm not a scale upon him. I come swift as flame, for by touch of our minds, I know where he is and no longer need the guidance of a bird! I warn you, I am not far away, and when I arrive, I expect to see him standing to meet me. If he is not, woe upon you all!

It was neither the Skill nor the Wit, and yet it struck my mind
with the force of a strong Skill-sending. Icefyre’s recent use of my mind had left me raw to the Skill, and the force of Tintaglia’s thought physically staggered me. I suspect that those of us versed in the Skill were more susceptible to her thoughts than the others. Certainly it staggered Dutiful’s entire Skill-coterie. Those of his Wit-coterie reacted in a variety of ways, some seeming to take the full import of her words, others looking about as if puzzled and Cockle showing no awareness of it at all. Civil raised a shout. ‘You all heard her! Tintaglia commands that we dig Icefyre out! Let’s do it!’ He raced up the hill as if leading a charge against an enemy.