and people shuffling a few inches back as he passed by. It was as though death by Empire was something that could be caught merely by proximity.
If I cried ‘Boo!’ now, I’d make half of them crap themselves. And I’d get shot, too, about nineteen times, so over all not worth it.
‘Emissary!’ He held up the rag tied to his wrist. ‘Sent from Dal Arche of Rhael to Salme Elass of Leose.’ He only hoped he had the province names the right way round. And no wonder his people had renamed most of the places they conquered. The place was easy enough to get lost in, as it was, without all their baffling and oddly pronounced towns and villages.
‘“Dal Arche of Rhael”?’ echoed Salme Elass archly. ‘The villain styles himself thus, does he?’
‘I’d assumed this was the heart of your disagreement,’ Thalric replied easily, as though he was not the focus of such utter fear and hatred. ‘You’ll forgive me, but these Commonweal customs are unfamiliar to me. I merely bring you the message.’
She gave him a calculating look. ‘So this is not the Empire’s fight, then?’ and it was plain that the subtraction of one Wasp-kinden from the equation was greatly to be desired, most especially if that Wasp might then just walk away. ‘What is your name, emissary?’
‘Thalric,’ he stated simply, for the momentary luxury of having an audience to whom it would mean nothing. Then, because he had a reputation to keep up as a figure of terror and nightmare, ‘ Major Thalric.’
Salme Elass affected to look bored. ‘Every Wasp lordling from across the border is a colonel at least.’
‘Whereas I come from the Empire itself, and not your lost principalities, and so am only a major,’ he replied equably. ‘But you’re right: this isn’t the Empire’s fight, nor mine.’ He had to bite his tongue to keep it at that, because the idea of the Empire even noticing this petty little brawl was ludicrous. This was not war. It was barely civil disobedience.
And yet people have died, and will die. It remains to ensure that Che and I are not amongst them.
‘What is your message, emissary?’ Elass snapped.
‘I am sent to invoke an old Commonweal practice, as I understand it. We challenge you.’
An expanding ripple of silence followed his words. When Salme Elass’s only response was to stare at him, he added, ‘Dal Arche challenges Salme Elass or, as tradition will have it, his champion shall meet yours.’
‘And what victory does your bandit-prince offer me, should I lower myself to accept this challenge?’ she hissed.
‘Himself and his followers, with no further loss of life amongst your servants,’ Thalric elaborated. ‘If he wins, he and his are pardoned, absolved, let loose to leave your lands unmolested. I think that’s what they have in mind.’
‘He and his half-dozen are now trapped inside a pile of stones, just waiting for my spears to pry him out, like a snail from its shell,’ she pointed out with a slight smile. ‘Is this the only way he could think of improving his odds? He is no prince, therefore I need accept no challenge. Why should I?’
Even as she said it, Thalric sensed a shifting and a frowning from some quarters, most especially those he had identified as nobles. Dal Arche was indeed beneath a princess’s notice, unfit to clean her boots, let alone challenge her, but, even so, the refusal did not sit well. Perhaps there are simply those who value their followers’ lives more than she does.
‘Why should you?’ Thalric echoed. ‘I’d thought you wanted to see Tynisa’s blood, Princess. How better than if your own Weaponsmaster whittles her down for you? I understand he knows his trade.’ He looked around, spotting the pale-haired old Mantis not far off, and instantly recognizable. ‘Having her spear-riddled corpse dragged before you over a carpet of your own dead soldiers would be less satisfying to you? It would be to me, certainly.’
‘A strange way to speak of your champion,’ she remarked drily.
‘Mine?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘As I said, this is not my fight.’ He felt the tide of honesty rising, and let it take him where it would. ‘I care only for myself and for the Beetle girl I arrived with, Princess. For the others, the brigands, I care nothing. I have no doubt that you feel you’ve just cause to put them on the pikes, or string them up, or however else you like your executions around here. But as for Tynisa, well…’ His grin was harsh. ‘You have no idea how much simpler my life would be without her. If she got carved up by your man, why, I’d be dancing with joy inside. We’ve tried to kill each other enough times in the past, and whenever she had me at her mercy she made me regret it, every punch and kick she did, and even when I did her a good turn, she cast it back in my face with a curse. To have Tynisa dead would be the world’s own gift to me, Princess. Let her come and let her die, and then I shall depart with Cheerwell Maker, and the rest are for your justice. Why would you say no? Why would you wish victory any other way?’
Finishing his speech, he examined his feelings on the matter. And how much of that did I mean, and how much was just for show? He found that he had absolutely no idea. The vein of bitterness he had tapped surprised even himself.
‘Let her come then,’ Elass said, just loud enough for him to hear. ‘I grant this Dal Arche the honour of my agreement to his challenge. Let the murdering bitch come, and my champion will be waiting for her.’
Thalric nodded, then raked his black and gold gaze across the assembled court, seeing plenty of them flinch or drop their eyes rather than meet his.
‘In one hour?’ he suggested.
‘An hour,’ agreed Salme Elass, whereupon Thalric sketched a brief, almost disdainful bow to her, and went to spread the good news.
Gaved the Turncoat darted across the sky, the patchy forest rushing beneath him. For a Wasp he was a fair flier, which made him at best adequate and workmanlike by local standards, and normally he would not have tried to travel these distances trusting to nothing but his Art. He needed his high vantage point from which to search the land ahead, though. A great deal was resting on him just then.
That he was selling out one ally for another was a depressing weight in his stomach. He had tried, sincerely tried, to be an honest man, but nobody in the Commonweal wanted an honest Wasp. He seemed to have spied on everyone for everybody else, told each that they were the only one, like a faithless lover. He had lost track some time ago of precisely where his loyalties were supposed to lie.
The thought that he and Thalric had all this in common was a miserable one.
The weather was taking a turn, he felt – the air become crisp, snow on the way most likely. Just another way for the world to make his life harder just then. Let it snow when Sef and I are out of here. Let it snow all it likes.
And where the pits are they?
He pulled higher in the air, feeling the wind buffet him, taking his bearings, even checking his compass against the landmarks on offer. The Commonweal was so cursed big, and so much of it looked just like this, especially in Elas Mar Province. That was assuming he was still in Elas Mar Province, of course. The bandits’ flight had taken them some way east, and if Gaved had got his compass points wrong he could even be over the border by now.
But there: he saw them now – the riders. They had been a further distraction to the Salmae scouts, or so the word had come to him: a party of riders plainly not under Salmae command, an armed force with unknown intent. When the scouts had gone seriously hunting them, though, no trace had been found. Gaved could only envy the woodcraft.
He dropped down, hoping fervently that nobody was going to shoot him. Bad first impressions were likely to be fatal in this sort of situation. He had his arms out, fists closed, but who knew whether these people remembered civilized conventions like that, any more.
There were a dozen riders there, and the contrast to the Salmae’s people was plain: these were military, or at least the next best thing. There was a quiet discipline to them that put all the posturing of the local nobles to shame. Their armour was more functional than fancy, and they had a feel to them of men who had killed, and would kill again, and were utterly dedicated to their cause.
Gaved did not meet their gaze, because he was most certainly someone they would not hesitate to slay, given the order. Instead he hurried towards their leaders, two men he was at least on speaking terms with, even if those words were just orders that they gave him.
In the face of their stern looks, he had to fight the urge to salute.
‘I must report,’ he told them. ‘Please, hear me. There is a great deal I have to tell you.’
Tynisa stood there in the morning sunlight, feeling the easy weight of her rapier, like clutching the hand of an
