Authors: Peter V. Brett
Inevera moved to pull the curtains, and he watched her body through the translucent veils that were all she ever wore anymore. Even at more than forty years of age'she never said for certain'she was the most beautiful of his wives by far, her curves still round and firm, her skin smooth. He was tempted to take her right there, but Inevera was single-minded when the dice were concerned, and he knew she would only rebuff him until they were thrown.
They knelt on the silk pillows, allowing a broad space for the dice to fall. As always, Inevera needed his blood for the spell, releasing it with a quick slash of her warded knife. She licked the blade clean and returned it to her belt sheath, pressing her palm to the wound, and then emptying the dice into it. They glowed fiercely in the dark as she shook her hands and threw.
The demon bones scattered on the floor, and Inevera scanned them quickly. Jardir had learned that the pattern of the fall was as important as the symbols that showed, but his understanding of the dice ended there. He had seen his wives argue many times over the meaning of a throw, though none ever dared question Inevera's interpretations.
The Damajah hissed angrily at the pattern before her, looking up sharply at Jardir.
'You cannot go,' she said.
Jardir scowled, moving to the window and grabbing the curtain angrily. 'Cannot'' he demanded, pulling the heavy drapes aside and flooding the room with bright sunlight. Inevera barely got her dice back in the pouch in time.
'I am Shar'Dama Ka,' he said. 'There is nothing I cannot do.'
There was a flash of rage on Inevera's face, but it was gone in an instant. 'The dice promise disaster if you go,' she warned.
'I tire of following your dice,' Jardir said. 'Especially since they always seem to tell you more than you deem me worthy to know. I will go.'
'Then I am going with you,' Inevera said.
Jardir shook his head. 'You will do no such thing. You will stay here and keep your sons from killing one another until I return.'
He strode up to her and took her shoulder in a firm grip. 'I would have one last taste of my wife, though, before the trek north.'
Inevera twisted, seeming only to tap his arm, but his grip lost strength for an instant, and she stepped away. 'If you go alone, you can wait,' she said, a cruel smile on her face. 'More reason to come back alive.'
Jardir scowled, but he knew better than to try to force the issue, Shar'Dama Ka and husband or no.
Wonda opened the door to Leesha's cottage, letting Rojer and Gared in. Once the girl heard the Painted Man had commanded Gared to guard Rojer, she had insisted on doing the same for Leesha, sleeping at the cottage every night. Leesha had begun assigning her chores to try to dissuade the girl's smothering, but Wonda did the work gladly, and Leesha had to admit she had grown accustomed to her looming presence.
'The Cutters finished felling trees to clear space for the next greatward,' Rojer said as they sat at her table and took tea. 'It's a mile square, just like you asked.'
'That's good,' Leesha said. 'We can start laying stones to mark the edges of the ward immediately.'
'Land's thick with woodies,' Gared said. 'Hundreds of 'em. The cuttin' drew 'em like flies to a dungpile. Oughta gather the town and wipe 'em out 'fore we build.'
Leesha looked at Gared closely. The giant Cutter was always recommending battle, as the notched and dented gauntlets at his belt showed. But Leesha was never certain if it was for love of carnage and the jolt of magic that he acted, or for the good of the town.
'He's right' Rojer added when Leesha remained silent. 'The demons will be pushed to its edges when the ward activates, making them thicker still, ready to kill anyone who stumbles off the forbidding. We should just annihilate them in the open rather than try to hunt them through the trees later.'
'S'what the Painted Man'd do,' Gared said.
'The Painted Man would do half the killing himself,' Leesha said, 'but he's not here.'
Gared nodded. 'That's why we need yur help. Gonna need thundersticks and liquid demonfire. Lots of it.'
'I see,' Leesha said.
'Know yur busy,' Gared said. 'Got folk to do the mixing, if yu'll give 'em the recipe.'
'You want me to give you the secrets of fire'' Leesha barked a laugh. 'I would sooner let the knowledge pass from the world!'
'What's the difference 'tween that and my warded axe'' Gared asked. 'Yu'll trust folk with one and not the other''
'The difference is that your axe doesn't explode and destroy everything within fifty feet if you drop it or leave it out in the sun,' Leesha said. 'My own apprentices will be lucky if I teach
them
the secrets of fire one day.'
'So we should build the refugee town on demon-infested land'' Gared asked.
'It's going to be an extension of the Hollow, not a refugee town,' Leesha corrected, 'and of course not. Draw up a plan, and if it's sound, I'll make what's needed. But,' she added, 'I'll be on hand to make sure no wood-brained idiot sets himself or the ripping woods on fire.'
Gared shook his head. 'Ent safe. Need you at the hospit, case anyone's hurt.'
Leesha folded her arms. 'Then you'll be fighting without the flamework.'
Wonda crossed her arms as well. 'Ent no demon going to lay a claw on Mistress Leesha while I'm around, Gared Cutter, and I don't mean to wait at the hospit, either.'
'We 'll scour in a week,' Leesha said. 'Plenty of time to prepare the land and mix the chemics. Let Benn know, as well. Might as well let the demons charge some glass before we show them the sun.'
Neither Gared nor Rojer seemed pleased, but Leesha knew they had no choice but to nod and agree. Perhaps not as subtle as Duchess Araine, who would have had the men convinced it was their own idea to have her at the scene, but not bad. She wondered if Bruna had secretly been the same, ruling the Hollow from her tiny hut without anyone even realizing.
They galloped across the land on black desert chargers, fifty warriors following Jardir and Ashan on their white stallions. Trailing behind but keeping them in sight, if barely, came Abban on his long-legged camel. They were forced to stop several times to allow him to catch up, usually by a stream where they could water the horses. Such things were almost commonplace in the green lands, something that never ceased to amaze the desert warriors.
'Everam's beard, these roads are stony,' Abban whined when he finally reached one stream. He practically fell from his seat and groaned as he rubbed at his prodigious backside.
'I do not see why we needed to bring the
khaffit,
Deliverer,' Ashan said.
'Because I want someone other than you and I who can count past his toes,' Jardir said. 'Abban sees things that other men do not, and I need to see all in the green lands if I am to make best use of them in Sharak Ka.'
Abban continued to complain at every bump in the road or chill breeze, but Jardir found it easy to ignore the endless tirade as they rode on. He felt freer than he had in a decade, like an incredible weight had been taken from his shoulders. For however long this expedition took, weeks perhaps, he was responsible for nothing except Abban, Ashan, and the fifty hardened
dal'Sharum
at his back. Part of him wanted to keep on riding forever, away from the politics of
chin, Damaji,
and
dama'ting.
They encountered some greenland refugees on the road, but these fled their path, and Jardir saw no gain in pursuing them. On foot and afraid to travel at night, there was little danger of them getting ahead and warning the Hollow, and none of them would dare attack the Spears of the Deliverer. Even the corelings at night shied from their path, for Jardir did not call halt when the sun set. Abban somehow managed to keep up in the night, though. He put his camel right in the center of the warriors, tolerating their jeers and spittle for the succor they offered.
It was on such a night that they came upon the Hollow. Shouts echoed down the road, along with sounds like thunder and great flashes of light.
They slowed their pace, and Jardir turned into the trees to follow the cacophony, his warriors following. Eventually, they came to the edge of a great swath of cleared land filled with the stumps of trees, where the
chin
fought their Northern
alagai'sharak.
Great fires blazed in trenches, and coupled with the constant flare of wards throughout the battlefield, the clearing was lit as if it were daylight and littered with dead
alagai.
The fires and wards funneled demons into places where the Northerners stood ready to cut them to pieces.
'They've prepared their battlefield,' Jardir mused.
Abban looked around, finding a suitable space, and staked his camel, removing a portable warding circle from its saddlebags, which he began to set up around them both.
'Even among so many warriors, you must hide behind wards like a coward'' Jardir asked him.
Abban shrugged. 'I am
khaffit,
' he said simply. Jardir snorted and turned back to watch the Northerners fight.
Unlike the
chin
from Everam's Bounty, these Northerners were tall and heavily muscled. The largest of them fought not with spear and shield but with great warded axes and mattocks. The men were of a size with the wood demons, and chopped at them like trees.
The Northerners fought well, but there were hundreds of wood demons coming at them. It seemed the
chin
would be overwhelmed when they broke apart, clearing ground for a line of archers to scour the field.
Jardir gaped to see the archers were clad in the long dresses the Northern women favored, displaying their faces and half their breasts like harlots.
'Their women join in
alagai'sharak
'' Ashan asked in shock. Jardir looked closer at the battlefield and saw that even some of those fighting in close quarters were female.
And there was a great giant, even among these tall people, who led every charge with a bellow that resonated for miles. He swung a great two-headed axe in one hand like a hatchet, and in the other he swung a machete as if it were a pocketknife.
One of the Northerners went down on one knee at the blow of an eightfoot-tall wood demon, and the giant tackled it away before it could land a killing blow. He lost his weapons in the tumble, but it made no difference as the
alagai
leapt at him. With one hand, the giant stopped the demon short, grabbing it, and with the other he landed a blow that flared with magic and sent the
alagai
reeling. Jardir saw he wore heavy gloves banded with warded metal.
The giant gave the wood demon no time to recover, falling on it and pummeling it about the head until he was covered in ichor and the demon lay still. He roared into the night, and with his thick mane of yellow hair and beard, he looked like nothing if not a lion atop its kill.
Another demon approached, but a slender boy with bright red hair and pale skin, dressed like a
khaffit
in a patchwork of bright color, stood before it and put up an instrument of some sort. He made a jarring sound, and the
alagai
grasped its head and shrieked in agony. The noise continued, and the demon fled as if in terror, right into another
chin's
waiting axe.
'Everam's beard,' Abban breathed.
'What magic does that one carry'' Ashan asked.
'We must find out,' Jardir agreed.
'Allow me to kill the giant and bring the boy to you, Deliverer,' Hasik begged, his eyes taking on the mad light they always did before battle.
'Do nothing,' Jardir said. 'We are here to learn, not fight.' He could tell his warriors did not like that answer, but he did not care, because two other figures had caught his eye. One was clearly a woman, carrying no weapon, only a small basket. The other was much larger, and dressed like a man, but carried a bow like the northern women. Her face was demon-scarred.
Both were clad in fine cloaks embroidered with hundreds of wards, and they wandered through the carnage unmolested by
alagai
and given a respectful berth by the other Northerners.
'They are unseen to the
alagai
as if they wear the Cloak of Kaji,' Ashan said.
A demon clawed through the chest of a man, and he cried out and went down, dropping his axe. The cloaked women hurried to the man, the taller one putting an arrow in the demon as the slender one knelt by the man's side. She pulled back her hood, and Jardir saw her face.
She was even more beautiful than Inevera, her skin white like cream, a sharp contrast with her hair, black like the armor of a rock demon.
The woman tore the man's shirt, tending his wound while her female bodyguard stood watch over her, shooting any
alagai
that dared draw close.
'Some sort of Northern
dama'ting
'' Jardir mused aloud.
'A heathen parody of one, perhaps,' Ashan said.
After a moment, the beautiful woman gave a command to her bodyguard, who slung her bow across her shoulders and lifted the wounded man in her arms. The way back out was blocked by a group of
alagai,
but the Northern
dama'ting
reached into her pouch and removed an object. Fire appeared in her hand, setting spark to it, and she drew back her arm and threw. An explosion blasted the
alagai
from her path, leaving them littering the ground, unmoving.