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 It is your chaldra. said Chayin pointedly,
He looked down at the great chald of Silistra and back at Chayin. The wound on
his chest rolled one last tear of blood.
 You know what I wanted. You stalked it for me. What there is left of that
dream, I will take. And I would get out with her, out of the lands of men.
 What will you do? asked Chayin gruffly.
 Hunt, perhaps. I know not.
The grief that shrouded Sereth then made me rock back and forth upon my knees.
Barely could I withstand the impulse to keen. His eyes went over me, in great
detail, as if finally he could fill his hunger replete. When his gaze met
mine, I could not name the emotion there, for it was spawned of owkahen, and
what it had done to us.
 It is my father s sign, I offered, very low, not wavering.
 It is not the marking of the flesh but the marking of the spirit that
concerns me. He rose up. Glowering, he snapped his fingers. I did for him
what he required, as I had for Khys so many times.
 She is truly crell, said Chayin. I saw nothing but the hair fallen around my
face.
 It is not that. It is that she learned it at another s hand, and to a
different taste. Rise up.
I did so, woodenly. He was grinning. He pulled me close. It seemed he touched
every part of me, reacquainting himself. I protested.
Abruptly he spun me toward the cahndor.
 See for yourself, said Sereth to Chayin.
I endured the cahndor s probing, until I could not. Then I struck out with
mind violence, all I could command. Without even a hesitation in what else he
did, he parried the blow.  Do not ... No longer can you hold that above us. At
my convenience, I will take reparation from you upon this account. His dark
eyes had no hint of film.
He pushed me from him. I stumbled, caught myself, straightened, halfway
between them. I saw Sereth s eyes, hard and resentful. But I had seen what
else lurked there. I tore my hair from my face, squared my shoulders under his
scrutiny.
 She called Khys s name when he and I faced each other, Sereth said to
Chayin.
 Crells and owners thus it often is with them. If she had been less to him,
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she would be less to you, opined the cahndor. I heard jiasks, sharp laughter
in the hallway.  But she was not obedient when I bade her stay her hand from
these affairs.
 Shall we take that chald off her? Sereth suggested.
 Immediately, the cahndor agreed.
They cut it from me. I did not object. It was of no value to me. My mind was
full of them, and what they were, and the rightness of Khys s predictions as
regards them. Though I looked at Sereth, all my love offered up with my eyes,
I said nothing. I was his a spoil of the circle, crell, whatever he chose.
That which had driven him to contest with Khys still raged in him. He would
vent his anger on me, doubtless. I stood very still, pliant, that I might not
worsen his temper.
I recalled a time I had seen Sereth and the cahndor match blades. They had
been only working their skills. With weapons, I had never seen better. They
were, perhaps, the best on Silistra. And I considered Khys, who had gone
against Sereth with sword. Knowing his skill, Khys had fought him. And it had
not been as other times I had seen Sereth wield stra. There had been no
skittering of Khys s blade from his grasp upon the first or second stroke.
Khys had chosen his successor. Estrazi had ratified the choice. And Sereth
stood regarding me from under his blood-matted hair, thinking.
 Tell me of your abduction, he ordered.
 Do so, added Chayin from the alcove window.
I thought of what concerned me, and I thought of something else.  Sereth, what
choice will you make? I care not about the rest. My father and Khys both meant
Silistra for your hands. Who will take it up? Chayin cannot, else he be ever
engaged in riding around the perimeters of his holdings. Parsets believe that
to own a thing, one must make use of it.
 Tell me of your abduction, repeated Sereth very quietly, approaching.
 Ask Dellin, who was there with me. Or M tras, whose work it was.
I retreated a step, halted, hopeless. He took hold of my shoulders.  Estri, at
moon s rising you are going to wish Khys yet ruled at the Lake of Horns.
His fingers dug in my flesh.  Sereth, I whispered.  Go into the prisons. See
Dellin and M tras, in keep twelve. Hear what they have to say. See the others,
the killing, the carnage. Then tell me again that we will hunt, away from the
lands of men.
 I will tell you again. We will hunt. But he stuffed Khys s chald in his
breech.
Chayin forsook the alcove in a flurry of cushions. His countenance was grim.
 Let us go and see Dellin and this other. She is, after all, her father s
daughter. Though crell, of course. His eyes, touching mine, softened.
 That is precisely the problem. But we will go. He took up the fallen swords
from the mat. Khys s blade he tossed to Chayin, who found its sheath among the
weapons upon the couch.
I followed the cahndor, thinking of the light blade. He put his arm around my
shoulders.  You are superb, he whispered, then released me. I backed from
him, into Sereth. I shook my head, turning away. But I should have known that
Chayin saw. He, too, had been with Sereth at the sack of Astria. He, as well
as I, knew Sereth. Those three words sustained me, upon our foray through the
halls to the undertunnels, past the groaning and the maimed and those who
could groan no longer, those to whom bodily ills were not pertinent any
longer.
We went the route of Sereth s choosing, down the front stairs and through the
main halls. As we proceeded through that Parset slaughter, his brow grew
furrowed and his hand sought frequent communion with his hilt. Thrice he
stopped and examined men left in the halls, those Jaheil s Parsets had
adjudged no further threat. One man he slew. The second was dead. The third he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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