[Shadowed Path 02] - Candle in the Storm (43 page)

Honus had never seen the priest before, but he seemed an important person. He rode a magnificent black horse; his black robes and cloak appeared richly made even from a
 distance; and the iron pendant of the Devourer hung from an elaborate gold chain. The priest’s inclusion in the company made Honus conclude its purpose wasn’t military. The wagon and its accompanying troops headed east, the opposite direction of the Iron Palace.
 
Could Yim have been captured?
 
wondered Honus.
 
Is the wagon meant for her?

Honus wavered over whether he should trail the wagon or continue observing the stronghold. He had few facts upon which to base a decision. All he knew for certain was that a wagon had departed accompanied by troops and a priest. As he speculated on what that signified, Honus worried that if he broke his watch he might miss what he had waited all winter to observe—a sign of Yim’s whereabouts. Yet it was also possible that he had just witnessed that sign, and inaction would doom Yim. If the wagon was intended for her, he had no assurance it would return to the stronghold.

When evening fell, Honus had yet to determine what to do. Though the wagon’s tracks would be easy to follow in a landscape emptied by warfare, he knew he shouldn’t postpone a decision for long. Honus pondered the matter while he made the long trek to tend his stolen horse. He had stabled the steed in a derelict manor house beyond the swamp. The structure was little more than four partial walls, overgrown with vines. Honus visited it only under the cover of darkness, and he reached it a little after midnight.

Honus approached the structure cautiously, for he never knew if its secret had been discovered. When he reached the ruin, he peered through an empty window to check its interior before entering. Someone stood in front of the makeshift stall. Honus could barely make out the person’s form in the darkness. He ducked from sight, and crept to another window for a closer view.

Honus slowly advanced without a sound, but when he raised his head, the figure had moved to within a few paces of where he stood. The form before him was that of a
 dark-haired woman with equally dark eyes. Honus cried out “Yim” in a voice that conveyed alarm, for she was spattered with blood from head to her bare feet. It made her white gown look dark.

The woman shook her head. Then she began to fade as she raised a bloody arm to point eastward. She continued to grow ever more transparent until she vanished altogether, leaving only frost upon the ground to mark her visitation.

Honus immediately knew that he must follow the wagon. The fact that Karm—he felt certain that the woman was the goddess—was covered with blood mystified him, but he pushed it from his mind. His long, lonely vigil was over. Honus fed his horse, saddled it, and led it into the night. He had no intentions of riding in the dark, but he wanted to be far from the stronghold when he rode off in the morning. Honus believed that his whole life had been preparation for the task ahead, and he approached it with single-minded intensity. The odds were overwhelmingly against him, but he had the assurance of a man whose defining moment had arrived. Karm had sent him eastward to manifest her wrath, and he would do his utmost to fulfill his role.

FORTY
-
FOUR

YIM SPENT
four dreary but anxious days within the tent, waiting for something to happen. All that she could do was rebuild her strength in preparation for the trials ahead. At least the soldiers cooperated in that endeavor, and she was no longer famished or exhausted when more men arrived. At first, her ears gave only hints of what was going on. She
 heard hoofbeats, the rumble and creak of a wagon, and the tread of many booted feet. When the commotion stopped, she strained to overhear conversations, but they took place out of earshot. Then the camp grew quiet as if everyone had cleared out. After a spell of silence, Yim heard approaching footsteps. A man’s voice said, “I want to speak to her alone.” Then Yim heard Captain Thak’s voice. “Finar, out of the tent!”

Yim’s attendant departed, and a moment later the Most Holy Gorm entered. He was furious, and he glared at Yim so venomously that she thought he would hit her. Then she watched him restrain his rage. Instead of striking out, he raised her shift to uncover her bulging belly. Clasping it with both hands, he smiled when he felt the chill within her womb. “It’s there.”

“What’s there?” asked Yim.

“Don’t play the fool with me.” Gorm removed his hands and gazed at Yim. They locked eyes, and Yim immediately sensed him probing her, seeking to expose her secrets. She veiled her thoughts and began an assault of her own. She held nothing back, but bent her entire will toward wrenching the truth from Gorm. The suddenness and strength of her assault caught her adversary off guard, and Yim was astonished by what she briefly glimpsed. Then Gorm resisted, and his thoughts were hidden from her. Afterward, Yim and the priest engaged in a silent struggle that was motionless, but nevertheless intense.

Gorm broke off the contest first by looking away. “You have some power,” he said. “I expected as much. What you did was no happenstance.”

“I was only an ambitious whore who hoped to bed a lord.”

“Ha! The transparency of your lie. A virginal whore would be quite a novelty. Was the Sarf behind your deed? Tell the truth for once.”

“Pull down my shift, and I will.”

“All right,
 
my lady,”
 
said Gorm, putting a sarcastic edge to his reply. After covering Yim, he said, “Well? The truth.”

“Karm sent me. I have visions.”

“The goddess sent a mere girl? Why not a Sarf?”

“Because she’s wise.”

“Why not say ‘weak,’ for that’s the truth of it. Force requires power.”

During Yim’s brief glimpse into Gorm, she had noted his pride and thought she might goad him into revealing something useful. “Curious words to come from one such as you, a mere priest… a hanger-on… Bahl’s shadow.”

“You understand nothing,” retorted Gorm. “I’m the real power behind Lord Bahl. I created him.”

“Then it was your beard that fooled me,” replied Yim. “I thought you were a man and not Bahl’s mother.”

“Do you imagine that’s what you’ll be? The mother of the next Lord Bahl? You’re but a container, one of no value.”

“Well, you can’t be important either. My visions concerned only Lord Bahl. What tiny part do you play?”

Gorm laughed mirthlessly. “You’re trying to goad me into saying something I’ll regret. It’s an old ruse, one I’ve often encountered. You can’t imagine the depth of my experience. I witnessed the Orc Rebellion. Traveled beyond the Eastern Reach and tutored the first witch king. I was there when Luvein fell. You and I may talk, but don’t presume we’re equals.”

Yim had discovered Gorm’s true age when she had probed him, but she feigned astonishment. “But that would make you centuries old! How can that be?”

“Because I serve a truly potent master,” said Gorm. “My long life and youth are but some of the benefits.”

“But what price was exacted for such favors?”

“I might ask the same of you if visions were truly boons,” said Gorm. “But look where they’ve led you. And Karm’s devotees call visions ‘gifts.’ Ha! The goddess is stingy, and
 gives only those things that suit her purposes. I should know. I once studied to be a Seer.”

“You studied in the temple?”

“One in the north,” replied Gorm. “It’s long gone now. In those days one could present oneself for training, and I wished to learn how to prophesy. What I discovered is that magic doesn’t come from learning. All power derives from the nether realm. A Seer’s ability is a gift from Karm, not the result of learning meditations.”

“That’s no great revelation.”

“Yes, only basic knowledge. The crucial matter is this: What’s the point of glimpsing only what Karm wishes you to see? I wanted to learn things that would benefit me. So I left the temple and sought instruction from another source, a man who’d discovered a means to prolong life. It involved sacrifices that captured the victims’ souls before they reached the Dark Path. By that means, my mentor extended his years.”

“And that’s what you did?”

“No. The process was flawed. The man looked like a sun-dried corpse. His most useful lesson was that Karm is not the only source of magic.”

“He taught you about the Devourer?”

“I devised that name when I created its cult. At first, I knew it only as a being upon the Dark Path. It’s the well-spring of all sorcery, a thing that bestows power upon those who satisfy its needs.”

Its need for slaughter 
, thought Yim, keeping silent to appear ignorant. “And what did you do with that power?”

“I devised a set of magic bones by coaxing a bit of the being from the Dark Path into them. It was a perilous thing to do, but it gave the bones the power for augury. Using them, I became a counselor to mighty men. But I sold the bones to a mage.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I sensed a new role for myself. I took the Devourer for my master and became the man who advanced its cause through other men. They suffered the risks; I reaped the rewards. I fully realized the possibilities when someone destroyed the bones and their power entered the mage.”

“I’d think that you would have preferred it enter you.”

“Far from it,” said Gorm. “The mage was burnt and maimed. But he gained the power to control others’ minds. Unfortunately, that power quickly destroyed any mind it ruled. The mage was a failed experiment that I eventually ended. Yet it set me on a path of experimentation that led to the first Lord Bahl, a man whose spirit contained a bit of the Devourer. Bahl became the means for my master to act directly in this world.”

“Why unleash such a thing?”

“Because when it rules the world, I shall be its viceroy.”

“Just a fancy word for ‘servant.’”

“An eternal and omnipotent servant.” Gorm smiled at Yim. “What has your service to the goddess gained you? You’re a prisoner who’ll bear the child of your foe.”

“At least I’ve stopped that foe.”

“You’ve not stopped the Rising. You’ve merely postponed it.”

“The Rising?”

“Yes, Karm’s little harlot, the Rising,” said Gorm. “Bloodshed will usher it in. Upon that day, the Devourer will overwhelm Bahl’s flesh to rule the living world forever.”

“If this rising is so certain, why hasn’t it happened already? There have been many wars and many Lord Bahls.”

“It nearly happened with the first Lord Bahl. The slaughter at Karvakken Pass almost caused it. An invasion of Vinden would have made it surely so. But Lord Bahl raped a woman and lost his powers. At the time, I was unaware of how readily the Devourer forsakes one human body for a new one. It sees us as overly fragile. But my greatest error lay in slaying the woman after she delivered the child.”

“Why did you do that?”

“For revenge. She’d ruined my plans.”

“She ruined them unwillingly,” said Yim. “She was raped.”

“Regardless, she still ruined them. Yet I came to regret my vengeance. Though the child possessed his father’s powers, they were greatly diminished. I didn’t understand how things worked.”

“And how do they work?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Gorm grinned. “But I’ve told you all I intended.”

In a final effort to provoke Gorm, Yim flashed a mocking smile. “But I’ve learned far more than that. I’m not as helpless as you think.”

Gorm merely shrugged. “Empty words. From now on, you’ll be like all the other mothers.”

“No I won’t. I’ve heard they were docile.”

“There’s something to be said for ignorance,” said Gorm. “Their lives at the Iron Palace were contented.”

“But short.”

“No shorter than yours shall be.”

“I understand what’s within me,” said Yim, “and I don’t mean the child. I’ve faced your master at Karvakken Pass and within the ruins of Karm’s temple. It’s an abomination. I didn’t surrender then, and I won’t now.”

Gorm regarded Yim with astonishment. “So, it was you! You’re the foe who entered the temple! You’re the one who enraged my master!”

Yim saw no advantage in denying it. “Yes, I stopped a second massacre, one that would have slain all the priests in the Black Temple. It seems your ‘god’ doesn’t care who dies. The thing you call ‘master’ is ravenous and evil. You’re a fool to worship it.”

“You’re a greater fool to worship Karm,” replied Gorm. “See how she’s abandoned you.”

“My story’s not yet finished. Don’t pretend you know its end.”

“But I do,” replied Gorm. “The mothers always die.”

“Despite your grandiose plans, your story will end likewise, for the Devourer craves death. It’s only a being formed from the memories of slaughter. It’ll turn on you. It has no loyalty.”

“Neither does fire. It burns the careless, but that’s no reason to forgo cooked food and warmth. The Devourer is a well of power, and I’ve learned how to harness it.”

“If you believe that, you’re deluded,” replied Yim. “It’s 
you 
who has been harnessed.”

“You’re a mere girl,” said Gorm. “And a helpless one at that. You’re bound, shackled, and under guard. You’ll say anything in desperation.”