Sacred Knight of the Veil (20 page)

Kerra studied her wrists, finding that the redness had vanished. "I will wager you would not have hurt her."

"I almost hit her once."

"But you did not."

"Chiana stopped me." He sighed. "Enough questions now, I am tired."

Rolling off the bed in a lithe movement, he stripped the blanket from it and tossed it to her. "Here, now go to sleep."

Kerra pouted, but he blew out the lamp and lay down on the bed, turning his back on her. She spread the blanket and settled on the floor, tossing and turning for a while before sleep claimed her.

Chapter Twelve

The following day, Blade took her to the bathhouse as he had promised. She found the primitive facilities degrading, but it was wonderful to wash off the dirt. The women who used it seemed like slatterns, with their coarse language and bold eyes, but none of them bothered her. The assassin waited at the door when she finished. He took her to a tailor, where he purchased a pair of black trousers and a thick black jacket much like his own, only made of cloth. She retained her riding boots and undergarments, which she had washed in the bathhouse.

They visited an armourer, who repaired the damage to Blade's jacket in a few minutes, then returned to the inn for a meal. Afterwards, he took her to the edge of the forest for her first lesson. She expected him to teach her how to use a dagger, but instead her first lesson consisted of standing with her eyes closed and trying to pin point his location while he walked around her. She failed, and grew impatient with his insistence that she should persevere. It seemed pointless, since she was not a blind person, but he refused to teach her anything else until she had mastered it.

Two more days passed, and she made progress with her lesson, learning to stretch out her awareness to sense his approach. Afterwards, he would do some gentle stretching, and lift weights to strengthen his arms, mindful of his cracked rib. Whenever he did too much, or jolted his injury, he would hold his side, despite the broad bandage with which he had bound it. She decided that it was fortuitous that he was not required to do anything strenuous while his injury healed. Sleeping on the floor still bothered her, and she woke aching and stiff each morning.

On the fourth day, a company of Cotti soldiers arrived and searched the town. Blade predicted some fun, and soon the crooks began to molest the Cotti troops, goading them into brawls in the taverns and ambushing them in dark alleys. The soldiers arrested some of the culprits, but the town lacked a jail or guardsmen, so the prisoners were released after some military-style chastisement. This only made the situation worse, as the criminals retaliated.

Eventually, their search led the Cotti to the tavern where Blade and Kerra resided, but the soldiers barely glanced at her. After they left, the assassin announced that they would be staying in Dramali, which did not please the Queen. She demanded a more comfortable place to sleep, and Blade procured a straw pallet, which helped. Two days later, the Cotti left the city, and Kerra hoped that she was safe until Kerrion found his wife. She longed for the day when she could return to her palace, and her comfortable existence.

The day after the Cotti company's departure, they returned to the usual place for Kerra's instruction, on the edge of the forest through which they had ridden to reach Dramali. Halfway through her lesson, she sensed tension in the air, and opened her eyes to find that Blade had turned away. He stared into the forest, and she followed his gaze. An old man walked towards them, a hawk perched on his shoulder and a wolf at his heels. A bright red adder coiled around his neck, and a grey stallion stood amongst the trees beyond him. A deer watched them from the shelter of a clump of bushes. Kerra gasped, staring at the man, whose snow-white hair and beard framed a lined, nut-brown visage with twinkling green eyes. He wore a robe of animal skins and feathers, and his sandaled feet barely seemed to crush the leaves. She trotted over to Blade, who was the man's destination, arriving at the same time as he did. The assassin regarded the elder with a grim smile, his eyes icy.

"Shamsara."

"Conash." The Idol of the Beasts inclined his head to her. "Kerra."

Kerra smiled, not bothered that he had omitted her title, nor surprised that he had recognised her. Blade shot her a wry look, clearly annoyed.

"What do you want?"

Kerra gasped at his rudeness, but Shamsara smiled, as if expecting it. "Ah, Conash, you still have not forgiven me. It is time you did."

"Why?"

"You will feel better."

"You had no right."

"I had no choice."

Blade gestured. "Well, here I am, doing as you predicted."

"This is only a part of it, a small one for a man of your talents."

"What do you mean?"

"It pains me to make more demands of you, when you so clearly resent what little has already been asked of you. Yet I must. Your destiny shines in my visions like a beacon, impossible to ignore. I had hoped you would realise what was needed of you on your own, but clearly you will not." He paused, eyeing the assassin. "You must go to Cotti and find Kerrion's wife." Shamsara glanced at Kerra, then back at Blade. "Restore her to Kerrion, and do as she bids you."

Blade threw back his head and burst out laughing. Kerra stared at him in confusion and surprise, shooting a glance at Shamsara, who watched the assassin with a gentle smile. Annoyed at being so left out of the conversation, Kerra addressed the Idol of the Beasts.

"It is more important that Blade protect me, Idol. Kerrion will doubtless find his wife."

Shamsara shook his head. "No, he will not, young Kerra. She will die, and Kerrion will go mad with grief. After murdering his brothers, he will fall on his sword, and his kingdom will pass to his half-brother Jovan, brother to Lerton."

Blade sobered, his brow furrowing. "What of Kerrion's sons?"

"An unfortunate accident, arranged by Dravis."

"The war will start again."

Shamsara nodded.

"Damn you and your bloody predictions!" Blade snarled. "Why must it always be me?"

"You are the instrument."

"I am the damned pawn! I am the one who gets kicked around, mauled by dogs, punched in the face and chased by Cotti." He swung away, paced in an agitated circle and confronted the Idol again, tapping his chest. "I am the one who must risk his life. Always me! Why do you not go and pick on someone else? I am doing enough, playing nursemaid to a spoilt child."

Shamsara shook his head. "Sir Raylin and Sir Favan are dead. Kerrion's wife suffers hunger and humiliation, as well as loneliness and anguish. Kerrion drives himself to exhaustion, and Chiana is being tortured even as we speak. Are you sure you are the only one to suffer, Conash?"

"Chiana!" Kerra gasped, clamping a hand over her mouth in horror.

Blade's eyes narrowed. "So, they have all fallen foul of each other's plotting. It is not my problem."

"Come now, you know that is not true."

"It is! If you had not meddled sixteen years ago, none of this would be happening."

The Idol inclined his head. "True. And the war would still be raging."

"I do not care."

"I know. But I am not asking you to do it for nothing."

"There is nothing I want." Blade glared at Shamsara, his nostrils flaring. "The princes will not die, will they?"

"Not if Kerrion's wife is saved. Your former apprentice will fail, but that is as much of that future as I can see at the moment. The course is far worse."

"It is not worth it." Blade shook his head. "Besides, if what you say is true, I could go to Jadaya and kill the bastards myself."

"I have wondered why you have not, considering your hatred for them."

"Kerrion would be blamed. Or Chiana. The other princes would manufacture proof of their guilt."

Shamsara smiled. "But you do not care." The Idol raised his hand as Blade opened his mouth to argue. "I am not offering you the princes' lives, that is not within my power."

"Then what?"

"Something that you lost a long time ago."

Blade frowned. "You will have to be a little more specific."

"I am not called the Idol of the Beasts for nothing. That is within my power."

"What is?"

The Idol smiled. "Come now, Conash, do not pretend to be dense. I know full well that you are not."

Blade studied the old man, only the twitching of a muscle in his jaw betraying his tension. His eyes slid away, becoming blank, as if he gazed into a memory so painful that he had not dared to dwell upon it for a long time.

"If you mean what I think you mean, it is impossible. So is what you are asking, especially with a young girl in my charge."

Shamsara shook his head. "No, you can do it, although it is not certain. We stand at a place where the paths of future diverge, descending into war if you fail, or continuing in peace if you succeed."

"And what are you offering, exactly?"

"Rivan."

Blade shook his head. "Impossible."

Kerra glanced from one to the other, puzzled. "Who is Rivan?"

Shamsara smiled at her. "Conash's familiar."

"He is dead!" Blade snarled.

"At the moment."

"Even you cannot bring back the dead, Shamsara. You lie!"

The Idol looked offended. "I never lie, Conash. Every beast and person is reborn into this world. They do not stay in the Everlasting. I am willing to pray to Tinsharon for Rivan's rebirth now, and to lead him to you when he is born."

"Pray to Tinsharon." Blade's lip curled at the idea.

"I know you have no faith, but he does listen to me on occasion."

"That is like saying you will go digging for gold with which to pay me. What if he does not do as you ask?"

The Idol looked serene. "He will, if you succeed."

"No one has ever been reunited with a familiar that died. If they are reborn, why is that so?"

"Normally I do not meddle, and the reborn have no memory of their past life, so they do not seek their former friend. Only if I bring him to you, will he recognise you. Also, much time must pass between their death and rebirth, by which time their human companion is often dead or aged. To reunite a young familiar with an old companion would condemn the beast to suffer when its friend dies. In your case, three and thirty years have passed since you lost Rivan, but you were just a boy then, so you still have many years before you."

Blade ran a hand over his hair, clearly agitated. He glanced at the Queen, then took her arm and guided her to the edge of the forest. There he stopped and pointed at a distant log visible through the trees, but well out of earshot.

"You see that log over there?"

"Yes."

"Go and sit on it."

Kerra opened her mouth to argue, but his chill glance made her close it with a snap and flounce away.

Blade waited until Kerra was out of earshot, then walked back to the Idol. "Why are you doing this to me?"

Shamsara sighed, reaching up to stroke the adder that was coiled around his neck. "Because only you can do what is needed, Conash."

"And what exactly would that be?"

"Use your special talents and skills to find Minna-Satu. Kerrion has searched every possible hiding place within two tendays ride of Jadaya, and now he waits and hopes that Chaymin's familiar will lead him to her."

Blade shook his head. "Trelath would not have taken her more than a couple of day's ride from Jadaya. Do you know where she is?"

"Not exactly. I only know that my visions become worse as Kerrion waits, which means that Chaymin's familiar will not lead him to her."

"Kerrion is no fool. How could he have missed her?"

Shamsara spread his hands. "I do not know."

"And what do I do once I have found her?"

"She will tell you."

"I am sentenced to death in Cotti."

The Idol nodded. "But right now, Jashimari is a more dangerous place. They are not searching for you in Cotti."

"I had considered that, but it is safe in Dramali."

"That is why I had to come and tell you to find her. If you had gone to Cotti of your own volition, to escape the troops searching for you here, fate would have led you to the Queen. But when you slipped through the Cotti net, I knew you would not go."

"And that is when you concocted your story to persuade me to do this. You knew I would not, otherwise."

The Idol stepped closer and placed a hand on Blade's shoulder, ignoring the assassin's glower. "That was when I decided to offer you the chance to regain your familiar. You lost the three most important things to a man, when you were just a boy. I cannot restore the other two, but I can bring Rivan back to you.

"You were tempered by cruelty to make you what you are, and I regret that I must make you earn the return of something that was taken from you so harshly. It does seem doubly cruel, and I wish I could simply pray for Rivan's return without asking anything of you. But I knew you would not do this for anything less, and it must be done."

"Kerrion found my sister to pay for Ronan's death, and she was killed."

Shamsara shook his head. "I know. But you will not lose Rivan again, I swear."

Blade shrugged off the Idol's hand and moved away. "Even if I believed you, which I do not, I am not fit enough for such an undertaking."

"There is a good healer in Dramali, her name is Crella. Seek her out."

The assassin rubbed his aching ribs and glanced at the distant Queen sitting on the log. Shamsara followed his gaze and smiled.

"Remarkable. She obeys you, even though it humiliates her."

"She is arrogant. And taking her to Cotti would put her in grave danger."

"Yes, but if you do not save Minna-Satu, Kerra will also perish in the turmoil that will follow Kerrion's death, as will your wife."

Blade frowned. "What is Endor doing to her?"

"Not too much as yet, but it will grow worse, and it will only end when Minna is restored to Kerrion."

"What will happen to Endor?"

"He will be ordered to return to Cotti, where Kerrion will wreak such vengeance as he can upon him and Trelath, perhaps Chaymin, too."