The Dread Hammer (17 page)

Nedgalvin was as shocked as the Trenchant when Smoke rose up from the dead and attacked. The demon could not have had strength left to stand! And yet Dehan lay dead at his feet and Takis . . . she would be the Trenchant now.

Takis and Tayval and Smoke were all huddled together in the pool of their father’s blood, engaged in some ritual, with no attention to spare for anything around them.

It occurred to Nedgalvin that if only he had a sword, he could destroy the Bidden here, now, once and for all.

The blood was spreading, and the smell of it was making him sick. The weeping of the Binthy girl was grating on him too. She was a pretty thing, but he couldn’t stand a woman’s useless weeping.

Still, he could see why Dehan had kept her.

Nedgalvin valued a beautiful woman. Takis was comely enough, and he’d never had more pleasure in bed, but he would never call her beautiful . . . especially not after seeing the Hauntén woman. Thellan.
She
would be a treasure to lock up on his estate.

He shook his head, trying to banish the thought of her.

His life in the south was gone. He had no estate. His family and friends must believe him dead and even if he returned and proved them wrong, he would be hanged for the disaster at Scout’s Pass.

Why grieve over it? Takis would be Trenchant and rule over the Puzzle Lands while he would rule over her. That was God’s way.

~

S
moke hears prayers and he answers them. Does this make him a god?

When a god kills, is it divine justice? Fate? Or murder?

Takis stood with sword in hand facing down the five top-ranking officers in Samerhen. They had come armed and angry into the family quarters, seeking retribution for the murder of Dehan.

“Let us pass, Takis,” the senior among them insisted. He carried a sword on his back and another at his waist, but he had respect enough not to draw his arms against her.

“Your anger is honorable,” she said softly. “But it’s not for you to kill my brother. He is of the Bidden and we protect one another. It’s our way.”

“Heed us, Takis, and accept the truth. He’s not like you. Smoke is a demon child, corrupted in the womb, born flawed, and dangerous to all of us. The Trenchant used him anyway. He believed he could control him—but look what happened! Dehan is dead. Murdered by his own son.”

“I am the Trenchant now,” Takis reminded him.

The senior officer inclined his head. “We don’t ask you to raise a hand against your brother, only that you let us pass. He needs to be put down, Takis. We will do it for you.”

“You would murder him as he lies helpless and unconscious?”

“Would we have a chance against him otherwise?”

“No. I can’t let you do it. He belongs to the Bidden. Your justice is not for him.”

Smoke smelled first the milk leaking from Ketty’s breasts, and then Smoke woke to find her sitting beside him. Her eyes were red from crying. She looked at him for answers, but he had none. He didn’t even know why he was still alive.

He saw that he was in his own room. Sunlight came in through the window, which meant it was a new day. His left arm was bound tight across his chest, but his right was free. He tried to speak, but he had to swallow first, working moisture into his dry throat before words would come. “Wh-where is Britta?”

“They took her!” Ketty said it with a wolfish snarl. “Smoke, don’t you remember?”

“I do remember. I’ll bring her back.”

Takis spoke from somewhere nearby, her words clipped with cold fury: “Tayval has not saved your life so you can throw it away again.”

Smoke turned his head to look for her, and spied her standing at the door.

She fixed him with an angry glare. “You won’t be able to travel as a spirit into the dark heart. Tayval says the way is closed to you, the threads are tangled—unless you can persuade a traitor to guide you?”

Smoke thought about that word, “traitor.” “I lost Britta because I let them in.”

“That’s right.”

“No!” Frustration fired Ketty’s voice. “The Trenchant left you no choice, Smoke. You did the only thing you could.”

Smoke raised his right hand. Ketty caught it. “I’m sorry, Ketty. I didn’t know they would take her.”

“You should have known!” Takis insisted. “But you chose to bring them here. You lost Britta, and you murdered our father!”

This was too much for Ketty. She turned around in her chair. “You leave him alone! The Trenchant traded our child to save yours. If the Hauntén had known, maybe they would have taken your baby instead!”

“They wanted Smoke’s child, not mine.”

From the way Takis said it, Smoke guessed that she’d said it many times before. “I knew you were in love, Takis, when I saw you in the bath.”

“Shut up.”

“But you didn’t bind me to him, and I’ll kill him if I can.”

Somewhere behind Smoke, Nedgalvin chuckled. When Smoke heard it, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He dropped Ketty’s hand and flopped over, searching around him for a sword that wasn’t there.

“Stop it, Smoke,” Takis warned. “I will not tolerate any more of your wanton murders!”

Smoke spotted Nedgalvin, sitting in a corner chair behind Ketty. His hair was combed, his beard neatly trimmed. He was dressed in fine clothes and looked very sure of himself. “Maybe someday we’ll finish it, Dismay. But not today. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“I don’t care about fair if the advantage is mine.” Then Smoke’s brow furrowed. He looked at Takis. “Why was I still pinned after the sword came out? Why couldn’t I run the threads?”

“It was the Hauntén blade,” she said, suddenly sounding tired. “The steel was brittle. It crumbled, leaving bits and pieces. Tayval dug out three fragments from your wound.”

Smoke lay back, scowling. Had Tayval gotten them all? He had to know. So he reached out for the threads and to his heartfelt relief he felt his reflection dissolving.

Ketty misunderstood his intention. Her eyes went wide. “Smoke, don’t go!”

He hadn’t been going anywhere; he’d only been trying to see if he could, but Ketty didn’t know that and she lunged at him as if she could hold him in place. Her weight came down on his wounded shoulder.

He cried out as the room around him dissolved in a blur of pain that only eased when Ketty’s sweet lips brushed his cheek. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Don’t go.”

The voices were whispering to him again, calling to him.
Dismay, Dismay
.

Takis spoke to him, sounding closer now. “Smoke? Are you still with us?”

He blinked and saw that she was crouched beside the bed, next to Ketty. She said, “Nedgalvin is our ally now. Dehan accepted him. You will too.”

He shook his head. “He’s Lutawan. He’ll betray you.”

“You’re my brother. You’ve already betrayed me. I guess I’ll have to take my chances.”

“When you want me to kill him, just let me know.”

“Smoke, what about Britta?” Ketty asked.

Smoke caught her hand again; he looked into her eyes. “I’ll find her. I’ll walk into the dark heart if I have to, but I’ll bring her back.”

Takis said, “I can’t let you do it.” She stood up, the better to glare down at him. “We can’t afford a war with the Hauntén.”

“She’s our daughter!” Ketty insisted.

“Even for your daughter.”

Smoke closed his eyes. No point to argue. He would go. It didn’t matter what Takis said. He listened to the voices, entranced by them.

“He’s asleep again,” Ketty whispered.

“I’m not. I’m listening.”

“To what?” Takis asked.

“Prayers.” He opened his eyes again, remembering. “The Hauntén heard
me
praying. It’s why they came. To answer my prayer.”

Takis looked at him as if he were mad. “You prayed to them to break the spell?”

“I prayed to anyone who would listen! Pellas said the price would be high. I thought he meant coin.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “You never understood the value of anything, little brother. Coin least of all.”

“I understand Britta is my daughter and she wasn’t for the Trenchant to sell.”

Nedgalvin rose from his seat and went to the door. “You stand here and argue with him, Takis, but you are Trenchant. What will you do when Dismay refuses your command?”

Takis turned her angry gaze on him, but he was already walking out.

“He’ll betray you,” Smoke warned again.

“Not while Tayval is watching him.” Then she crouched again beside the bed, and in a low voice she said, “I need you, Smoke.”

“What for?”

“When you’re healed, when you can run the threads again, I want you to go with Nedgalvin back to the Lutawan Kingdom. I want you to protect him and help him buy his way back into the ranks. And when the time is right, I want you to kill the king, and put Nedgalvin in his place.”

“That’s completely crazy,” Ketty said.

Takis ignored her. “Smoke, I want to end this endless war, but I need a rational man on the Lutawan throne to do it.”

“Does Tayval think it’ll work?” Smoke asked.

Takis shrugged. “We have to try. Will you do it?”

Ketty’s voice went shrill. “Of course he won’t do it! It’s crazy!”

Smoke closed his eyes. “I have to find Britta first.”

“
Smoke
—”

He kissed Ketty’s hand. “Only when Britta’s safe.”

“I want
you
safe,” Ketty whispered.

Smoke felt himself fading, while the voices that prayed for murder grew louder. He spoke over them, though his voice was only a whisper. “Takis, I don’t think Nedgalvin’s the man you’re looking for. I think he’ll betray you, but for a chance to kill the king? I’ll try it.”

“Very sweet of you,” Takis said. “But you won’t have a chance if the Hauntén have already killed
you
.”

Ketty squeezed Smoke’s hand, and kissed it. “I’ve been thinking about that.”

Smoke opened his eyes again, made suspicious by her tone.

“Smoke, I know that what you know is how to fight and murder . . . but I think Takis is right and the Hauntén
will
kill you if you attack them. So we’ll go together, you and I, and we’ll go in peace, and we’ll
ask
for Britta back. When they understand how much we love her, they’ll let her go.”

Smoke started to chuckle, but it hurt too much. “Oh Ketty, you’re so silly. That would never, never work.”

Ketty dropped his hand. She shoved back her chair and stood. Takis looked up at her with one eyebrow raised while Ketty crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve never had to ask nicely for anything in your life, have you?” she demanded.

Smoke gave her a surly look. “Not until I met you, Ketty of the Red Moon.”

Eventually, of course, he was forced to agree that they would go
in peace
and
ask nicely
because once Ketty set her mind to something it was only ever a matter of time.

Back in her apartment, Takis took on another battle.

“You should kill him!” Nedgalvin told her. “Now. While he’s weak. Once he’s recovered, you won’t be able to control him. Dismay is a threat to you, Takis. He’s a threat to the throne.”

She rolled her eyes, beseeching the Dread Hammer. “Smoke is not a threat to me, and there
is no throne
. This is not a kingdom, Ned. The Trenchant commands the army, but that’s all. The people rule themselves.”

“Whoever rules the army, rules the people.”

“Not here.”

“That can change.”

She walked to the window and looked out at the green pasture of Everwatch Ridge. Of course Smoke was right. He would betray her—if she kept him here. “There’s no room in the Puzzle Lands for your ambitions, my love.”

He drew himself up, even glanced over his shoulder as if he expected a cadre of armed guards to come bursting through the door.

“It's not my ambition to bring you down Nedgalvin, but to raise you up.”

He smiled. “You said those same words that first night we spent together.”

“I want to be a kingmaker,” she went on. “I want you—a rational man—to sit on the Lutawan throne.”

His smile was gone. He was angry again. “You’re sending me away to my death?”

“Maybe,” she acknowledged. “But I hope not. It will be dangerous, but I’m sending my best weapon with you to improve the odds. Smoke has agreed to help you.”

“Dismay?” Nedgalvin was incredulous. “That demon will cut my throat while I’m asleep!”

“No. He’d rather cut the king’s throat than yours, and I promised him he’d have that pleasure when the time was right.”

“And what about his quest for Britta?”

Takis scowled. “He’ll do that first, but he’s promised to do it peacefully—”

Nedgalvin snorted. “And you believe him?”

“—so he might survive. In any case, you can stay here with me awhile longer.”

Nedgalvin looked past her. She could see him weighing things. Finally he said, “So Dismay is going to walk into the land of the Hauntén. You said he can’t travel there as a spirit?”

“That’s right. I imagine he’ll take horses, though. Ketty’s going with him.”

Nedgalvin’s brows rose in surprise and he laughed. “The way northern women command their men will never cease to amaze me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. You’ve enjoyed being told what to do, from time to time.”

He shrugged. “I’ll go with Dismay and help him plead with the Hauntén.”

Takis was blindsided. She looked at him, aghast. “What? Why?”

“If you want me to lead a revolution against the king, I’ll need allies, and what better allies than the Hauntén?”

“The Hauntén don’t make alliances. They protect only what is theirs.”

“I want to meet them anyway.”

Takis weighed the value of arguing with him; she considered forcing him to stay. But he had not earned the rank of general by being compliant. She knew him well enough to know that forcing him to do anything was a dangerous strategy. Better that he was gone, than that she had to kill him.

“All right,” she said coldly. “Please just don’t start a war.”