Tahn (36 page)
“I know that, son.”
He looked up at Benn, still unable to believe the nobleman’s reaction. “If my heart troubles her, I will leave.”
“Or at least we will come to manageable terms. I will build you your own quarters, separate from the house.”
“You are sure, sir?”
“I have seen enough of you to be sure. You belong here.” He knelt and put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “The Bible says God puts the solitary in families, Tahn. May he give your heart peace and help you to accept us so.”
L
ucas filled a pitcher from the stream by the millhouse and carried it to Samis’s room.
“Sir, I can’t put it off any longer. I’m going down to Alastair for provisions.”
Samis coughed and sat up in his bed. “Alastair? No, no. We’ve got to get back to Onath. It’s time we settled our business there and then went looking for the rest of the traitors.”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t think you’re ready. I’m going to Alastair. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“I give the orders!” Samis stood up but leaned quickly against the wall. “Whistle for my horse!” he commanded.
“No, sir. You’re not well yet. I wish you would let it go and leave Tahn to whatever life he’s found.” He turned to walk out.
But Samis lunged toward him and grabbed his arm. When Lucas turned around, Samis struck him in the face. “You will not defy me!” he yelled. “As long as you’re here, you will obey my orders!”
Lucas pulled away from his grasp. “Or what? Will you kill me, Master? I don’t fear it anymore.”
Samis’s face reddened. “You have always feared me! You are still here because you fear me. And Tahn fears me too. He knows I will come for him. And I will not disappoint him.”
Lucas sighed. “You’re not as strong as you were, Lord. What would happen if you got to Onath? Tahn would either kill you quickly or walk away in pity and leave you to whatever it is that ails you.”
“I know his weaknesses,” Samis replied. “I can defeat him. And even if I did not, what better way to die?”
Lucas looked at him in surprise. He had never before heard the master concede the possibility of defeat.
Perhaps it is really over,
he thought.
Perhaps he knows that he will not recover from whatever grips him.
“Sir,” he said sadly, “before anything else, we must have the provisions. I am going to Alastair as I said. Rest until I return. We can speak of travel then, if you insist on it.”
Samis sat on the edge of his bed and glared at the younger warrior. “I don’t need you. You don’t think I can manage, but you’re wrong about me. I could kill you if I chose to. But you’ve been loyal. It’s the others who’ve earned death. I will find them. But first the Dorn.”
“Whatever you say,” Lucas muttered. He left the room as Samis lay down again. Shaking his head, Lucas went out and mounted his horse.
“Come on, Danger. Let’s leave him to himself for a while.” He spurred the horse and parted Valhal’s gate for the path to Alastair.
Samis lay on the bed, waiting for nearly an hour, then pulled himself up slowly. Leviathan would be in his usual place. Lucas would know better than to meddle with such normalcy. He must take water, of course. His knives and sword. He dressed quickly and concealed the knives in his clothes. Then he strapped on his sword and looked across the room at the table beside the far wall. Another sword lay there flickering in the light of the oil lamp beside it. It was Tahn’s. And the time had come to return it to him.
He walked slowly across the room. The dizziness was not so bad as it had been, and the blurred vision was gone. He lifted the sword.
Tahn! So often I saw it in you. You would have loved to fight me if only you’d had the proper chance. Now I will give it to you, and you will not be able to turn it down.
With Tahn’s sword in hand he pushed himself through the chamber door to find Leviathan. Tahn would fight him. Surely there was no Name he could now call upon to erase the anger in his heart. Samis smiled, remembering Tahn at seventeen shouting his hatred through locked doors.
“Some day I’ll kill you!” he had raged. “I’ll kill you!” His failure with Netta Trilett had caused his punishment then, just as it had again. The boy should have learned his lesson.
He will have to fight,
Samis reasoned.
And if I cannot best him, I shall win over him another way. He can’t escape what I’ve made of him. He must kill me or die. And because he thinks he’s changed, my blood will haunt him forever.
Hours later, Lucas returned with his bags full. He had taken some of the money Samis had gotten from the young Trent. Why steal if it wasn’t necessary?
But it was a troubling trip. Burle and several men with him were drinking and creating havoc in the town. They bragged openly about stealing from the mercenary on the hill. Valhal was probably not safe anymore, and Burle and his friends had so quickly become a rogue gang of hoodlums and thieves.
He entered Valhal’s gates quietly, struck as he had been before by the barrenness of the place. There was not a sound.
Perhaps he is sleeping again,
Lucas thought. But Samis’s room was empty. His weapons, and Tahn’s, were gone.
Lucas ran to Leviathan’s stable. The animal was gone too. Lucas spat into the hay. He had hoped to put off this trip, but the master had a bullheaded determination. He would be on his way to Onath already. And there was only one thing to be done now, like it or not.
Lucas went back to his horse and swung himself into the saddle. He’d have to follow. Burle and his men might kill Samis if they found him alone, and he still couldn’t let that happen.
He hurried through Valhal’s gate again, perhaps for the final time. It made no sense to him why he continued to help the man who had hurt so many. Or why he did not want Samis murdered. If ever a man deserved it! He shook his head. It was a mission that compelled him without reason, but he would obey it until the man was finally dead and he was free of him forever.
A
ll of the boys except Vari gathered with Temas in Netta’s room on their second night. The little girl was afraid to have a room alone, so Netta had set the child’s bed beside hers. Now both beds were full of children, and Netta sat at her dressing-table chair.
“Teacher walks better, but he still hasn’t given us a lesson in all the time we’ve been here,” Doogan pointed out.
“Everything is new,” she told them. “It will take some time to get lessons sorted out.”
“Do you think we won’t need lessons anymore?” Rane asked.
“You will still need lessons. But they will be different, I expect.”
“Why did he go to the guardhouse again to sleep?” Doogan pressed. “Why won’t he come inside?”
Netta tried to smile reassuringly. “It’s only been two days. Give it time.”
“Do you think he’s avoiding us?” Stuva asked.
“No, dear,” Netta answered honestly. “I think he’s avoiding me.”
Temas looked bewildered. “Why would he do that?”
Netta shook her head. “I can’t explain that very well tonight.”
“But he hasn’t even seen our rooms!” Duncan exclaimed. “I want him to see my real bed and everything!”
All of the children were nodding their heads in agreement, and Netta smiled. “Why don’t you go and tell him?”
“You mean right now?” Doogan questioned.
“Sure. You all know the way to the guardhouse.”
“Come with us!” Temas urged.
“No. This is for you to do.”
For a moment they just looked at her.
“He won’t bite,” Briant put in shyly.
Giggles swept over them, and they were soon on their feet and running down the curved oak staircase to the main floor.
At the ruckus, Hildy dashed from the kitchen in time to see them pouring out the front door. “How good it is to have this place rocked with children!” she laughed. “It is almost like Netta and her so many cousins all over again.”
She turned and saw Jarel standing at the top of the stairs.
“One little girl and a crowd of noisy boys, Hildy? Is it just the same?”
“Oh, Jarel.” She stepped toward him. “I’m so sorry. You must miss them terribly.”
“I just don’t understand why of the five boys I’m the one who lives.”
“God has kept you for his purpose, Jarel. I thank God you’re here! Please, join me as I finish up for the night. It’s not good for you to stay to yourself.”
“You love to mother everyone, don’t you?”
“The lot of you need it! Even Benn. And what better calling in life. Now come on, and I’ll spice you a bit of cider.”
Vari sat cross-legged on the floor of the guardhouse entry. Tahn, also on the floor, leaned his back against the wall near him. He knew he needed to discuss Leah, but with the Wittleys in Merinth, there seemed no hurry for that. Vari had other things on his mind anyway.
“You’re better about this place now?” the youth asked.
“Better. You deserve more than a cave.”
“You do too, Tahn. But Jarel doesn’t like us very much.”
“He has nothing against you. He liked his family the way it was before, and he can’t be blamed for that.”
Vari suddenly had a sober expression. “After we met Marcus, Jarel asked me about you and the tincture. Was it hard, Tahn, getting clean?”
Tahn stared at him a moment and suddenly felt like shouting. He’d forgotten all about it!
“Vari, God spared me! Like he spared you! To such an extent, I didn’t even notice. I didn’t feel a thing!”
Suddenly there was a clamor of children outside. They came bursting through the doors in the dim light and nearly tripped over Vari.
Tahn pulled himself to his feet. “What is it? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Teacher,” Rane told him. “We came to get you!”
“Come see our rooms!” Temas begged and reached her little arms around his waist.
“You ran over here in such excitement for that?” Tahn questioned.
“Yes, sir,” Stuva told him with reserve. “You haven’t been in the house. You don’t even know what it’s like.”
He looked at their faces with genuine surprise. “It’s that important to you?”
“We don’t want you to leave us,” Temas said, clinging to him still.
“It’s because of you we’re here,” Tam added. “But you don’t even eat with us now.”