From Darkness Won (24 page)

Frostbitten fingertips? “Is it painful?”

“No, sir. Can’t feel a thing.”

“And here I thought you’d been playing in the fireplace.”

Matthias giggled. “I know better than that.”

The boy’s contagious laugh made Achan chuckle until Matthias pointed a blackened finger at Achan’s chest.

“What happened to you, sir?”

Achan glanced down. “Oh, a host of things.”

Matthias’s expression fell. Everyone who had seen Achan’s scars was always fascinated—or horrified. Why would little Matthias be any different?

“Pick one,” Achan said, “and I shall tell you the tale.”

Matthias’s eyebrows lifted into a pale arc, and his eyes flickered over Achan’s chest. He pointed to the still purpled scars on Achan’s right side and shoulder.

“Good choice. Those are bite marks,” Achan said in as eerie a voice as he could muster. “A cham tried to
eat
me.”

Matthias’s eyes widened and flicked to Achan’s neck. “Is that why you wear that?”

Achan fingered the claw. “It is.”

“You killed it?” These words were whispered with awe bordering on disbelief.

“With a knife to its throat.” Achan couldn’t help but enjoy the look of admiration on the boy’s face.

“That’s why Sir Shung calls you Little Cham?”

“No. He calls me that because Cham is my surname. Was.” Achan frowned. His answer had clearly confused the boy. Matthias may as well know the full tale if he’d be working with Achan for the rest of his days.

“I grew up as a stray in Sitna Manor,” Achan said. “Worked in the kitchens as the cook’s boy. I milked the goats, got firewood, and kept the hearths hot. One day Sir Gavin offered to train me as a squire. It’s against the law for a stray to serve in the Kingsguard, so I trained in secret. But Lord Nathak found out and banished Sir Gavin. I’d learned enough of the sword by then that Lord Nathak made me one of Prince Gidon’s squires.”

Matthias’s brow crinkled. “But you’re Prince Gidon, sir.”

Achan smirked. “Aye, but only Lord Nathak knew that. And with Sir Gavin gone, I had no choice but to travel with the fake prince to Mahanaim. On the way, Poroo attacked.”

“I’ve never seen a Poroo, sir.”

“Well, they’re ugly to look at, but not the best warriors. Still, they struck me down.” Achan touched a white knot on his shoulder, one of the scars from the Poroo arrows. “I woke in the Mahanaim dungeons. Lord Nathak had accused me of trying to kill the prince, but of course I’d been protecting him. A week later, Sir Caleb broke me out of prison. He and Sir Gavin dressed me in a lot of finery, took me to Council, and revealed the truth.”

Matthias was mesmerized. “What truth, sir?”

“That I was
the
Prince Gidon. That when I was just a babe, Lord Nathak switched me and his son, Esek, branded me a stray, and gave me to his cook to raise.” Achan turned to show Matthias the mark of a stray, an “S” still branded onto the back of his shoulder. “So, though my real name
is
Gidon Hadar, I’ve always been known as Achan, and those closest to me call me such.”

Matthias’s lips turned into a grin. “Father says ‘achan’ when he’s angry.”

“Does he?”
Achan
meant “trouble” in the ancient language. It had humiliated him for years, but now he rather liked it. For Achan planned to cause trouble for any foe who stood in Arman’s way. “It’s never been the kindest of names, but it’s mine.” Achan’s stomach rumbled. “You hungry?”

Matthias nodded.

“Fetch us some breakfast, then. But first we must wake the doorstop. I’d have you pounce on him, but he’s a mean one in the mornings and might wring your neck.”

Matthais’s eyes went wide as he regarded the lump of furs on the pallet by the door.

Achan jumped up in a crouch on his bed and waved to Matthias. “Reach under his pillow and take his knife.”

Matthias hesitated, then padded to Shung’s pallet. Quiet as the mouse Shung had entitled him, he pilfered the knife and backed up against the wall, clutching the bone hilt to his chest with two hands, the shiny steel blade pointed down.

Achan winked at the boy and bellowed a war cry.

Shung sprang into a crouch on top of his straw mattress, arms tense and bulging, brown eyes wide and bleary. He wore
b
lack trousers and nothing else. Curly black hair covered his muscled chest.

Achan pounced from his bed to Shung’s. They slammed into the door, slid along the wall, and tumbled to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. Achan pinned Shung for two seconds before the hairy man flipped him onto his back and pressed his forearm over his throat. “You think you can beat Shung, Little Cham? Where you hide my knife?”

Achan’s eyes rolled back to where Matthias stood.

Shung looked up and laughed. He pushed off Achan and sat with an arm propped over one knee. “Mouse is your new ally, Shung sees.”

Achan scowled. “The lad is hungry, Shung. How is he to eat with your bed in front of the door?”

Shung fumbled along the side of his pallet until he found his shirt. “You must wait for Shung.”

Winking again at Matthias, Achan said, “If I wait for you each morning, I’ll never eat breakfast again.”

“A warrior must sleep.” Shung tugged a white shirt over his head and laced it up. “Sleep renews strength.”

“Fine. But must you sleep in front of my door?”

“Shung swore to protect the little cham. Promised—”

The door opened against the pallet. “Your Highness? Are you well?” Sir Caleb’s voice.

Achan bloodvoiced his answer.
I am fine, Sir Caleb. Matthias and I were only trying to wake Shung.

Shung stood, pulled on his black leather jerkin, and pushed his pallet away from the door.

The door swung in, and Sir Caleb stepped inside, followed by Sir Eagan, Sir Gavin, Inko, and Kurtz.

“What in flames is going on?” Sir Caleb asked. “We thought you were being attacked.”

“Not him.” Shung walked to Matthias and snatched his knife away. He pointed the blade from Matthias to Achan. “They attack Shung.” He tucked the blade into the sheath on his boot.

“The troops have arrived from Berland and Tsaftown,” Sir Caleb said. “Matthias, choose the prince’s best ensemble and see that he’s bathed and dressed. Once the soldiers from Zerah Rock arrive, the war council will meet one last time. During the meeting, pack the prince’s armor and clothes. We hope to leave this day.”

“Yes, sir.”

Achan might have glared at Sir Caleb at the mention of the boy bathing and dressing him, but the idea of leaving Carmine banished the thought from his mind.

“Until then, Your Highness, put on a shirt and get back in bed. The duchess wants to share her strategies for storming in the meeting and would like to give you a lesson before then so that you have at least experienced it.”

But the duchess didn’t visit Achan’s chambers this time. He was sitting in bed eating breakfast when her knock came.

Duchess Amal.

Even her voice tangled his nerves.
Yes, my lady?

Good day, Your Highness. Since you will be leaving, I think it wise to begin our instructions in this method, as that is how we shall work together in the future.

Whatever you think best, my lady.

I understand you once stormed someone.

Achan hadn’t thought her statement was a question, but when she didn’t speak, he fumbled for an answer.
Yes, I stormed Sparrow. Uh, Vrell Sparrow, my lady. We were learning to shield our minds. Sparrow knocked without giving her name. Since I didn’t know who she was, I tried to
…
He searched for words to describe what he had done.
Push her away.

That is the basics of storming. You combine your push with the element of surprise. I gather Miss Sparrow was surprised when this happened?

She fainted. Bloodvoicing sometimes makes Sparrow weak. Sir Gavin said that’s what saved her from the Veil that day.

How fortunate for her.

A silence stretched on. Achan shifted in his bed, wondering where Duchess Amal had gone. Matthias shuffled around the end of Achan’s room, stacking mounds of folded clothing into the clothes press Sir Caleb had brought up.

Her voice came again, suddenly, as if she had never left.
The trick to storming is to utilize the moment of surprise. First you must enter the Veil and approach the person you want to storm. Is someone there with you?

Matthias is here. And Shung is on guard outside.

Call another guard so Sir Shung may sit with you.

Achan reached for Shung’s mind.
I need you in here. Find someone else to guard the door and come in.

Shung grunted, and the connection vanished. Shung was the only person Achan had met who grunted with his bloodvoice. The idea made him smile.

His Shield entered the chamber and closed the door.

“Pull up a chair, Shung. You’re to guard my body so no one kills me while I learn to storm.”
Shung is here, my lady.

Good. Your Highness, your responsibility whenever entering the Veil is to be wise. Overconfidence has killed more men than I dare recount. Do not ignore your man. He is there for your safety. Unless it is imperative, do not shut him out. If he is going to help you, he must hear you. Now, I am in my study. Do you remember where that is?

I do, my lady.

Come to me through the Veil. It may take you a while as this is your first attempt alone.

What is the trick to moving faster?

Concentration, mostly. And practice. I am going to sever my contact with you. When you find me, try and storm me.

Isn’t that dangerous, my lady?

I am prepared and fully trained.

Achan’s nerves knotted in his chest.
Very well.

The duchess’s presence vanished from Achan’s mind. He glanced at Shung, who raised a bushy eyebrow.

“Off I go, then.”

Achan closed his eyes and pictured Duchess Amal’s study. He instantly saw the room from the door to the secret chambers. Straight ahead, Duchess Amal sat at her desk, writing on a scroll weighted with an iron figure of a puppy. Anillo stood at the wall behind her. Before Achan finished his thought of getting closer, he was looking over her shoulder.

Lord Levy,

Best wishes on your reassignment. I pray you will be a more hospitable neighbor than Lord Nathak, though I daresay if you are in league with this New Council I doubt your integrity grows stronger.

Your offer to make Sitna the ruling city of Carm is ridiculous. Carmine has ruled Carm since its inception. I see no reason to change that for a usurper who will soon be defeated. I beg you reconsider where your loyalties lie, for
s
oon the true Prince Gidon Hadar will sit on the throne in Armonguard. You would be wise to cast your support with his claim.