Return of the Crimson Guard

‘I agree. It would be a great waste.’

‘Waste?’

Tayschrenn merely rubbed his face, gestured for Kiska to continue.

‘Mostly I shadowed a female Claw — or someone who resembled a Claw. She was hunting Avowed. I saw her stalk and kill two, barehanded. I say she looked like a Claw in that their — our — training resembled her skills in the way a child's sketch resembles a masterpiece.’

‘Indeed.’

‘And there was another woman out there as well. One who moved with ease in and out of Warrens. Like nothing I've ever heard of before.’

He stilled, his gaze in the distance. ‘Is that so? Interesting…’

Kiska swung a kick at the planting bed. ‘Is that all you have to say? Interesting? What's going on, damn it all to Trake!’

Dark eyes focused on Kiska; the long shaved jaw writhed, tightening. ‘A trial is approaching us. I ask a difficult thing of you — restraint. I foresee a chance of… chaos… arising out of the coming confrontation. I may have to act quickly and there is someone among us who will try to take advantage. Do you understand?’

Kiska bowed. ‘I will inform Hattar.’

‘My thanks.’ As she turned to go he called after her, ‘Tell me, Kiska, why did you not remain in the Claw? You could be a Hand-commander by now, perhaps more.’

She shrugged. ‘I came to understand that I'd always wanted to serve something greater than myself. It became obvious to me rather quickly that those in the Claw serve only themselves. Why?’

But the tall mage was now bent over regarding his plants. ‘Just wondering.’

Kiska bowed and left. Someone, he says. Well, she had a pretty good idea who that might be. She and Hattar would have to put their heads together to figure out a way to counter that fat conniving priest. As for the Claw who hunted Avowed, Kiska felt a thrill shiver through her. Could it have truly have been her? Tayschrenn hadn't seemed surprised — after all, he'd seen her in action so many years ago. Yet by now everyone seemed to have forgotten, or been deliberately led to forget, that long ago when the fighting had been the thickest, and Dancer guarded Kellanved, it had been Surly, Mistress of the Claw, who had stalked and slain their enemies.

CHAPTER III

See the little blackbird,

Dappled and grey.

See the fallen soldiers,

Dappled and grey.

It hunts a tasty morsel,

Dappled and grey.

It looks in eyes unseeing,

Dappled and grey.

Children's rhyme, Streets of Heng

And so the soldier of light has delivered himself. But just what does he herald? A hand gentle on the Kite's tiller, Ereko looked down at the calm face of the sleeping lad. His gaze travelled to the sword at his side wrapped in its sheath and belt. Even hidden away its power appalled him. A blade too great to be wielded by any being cognizant of its potential. And so an innocent youth carries it — or perhaps it only allows itself to be carried by such a one. Ereko knew only that he dared not touch it. Thinking back to that delicate meeting on the beach he breathed again a prayer of thanks to Goddess Mother that violence had not visited them. That blade is a match for Traveller's — if only in its singleness of purpose. And these clansmen from Assail, they carry secrets that should never have left that land. Rising, his eyes met the bright steady gaze of Traveller across the length of the vessel. And what of you, my friend? Why do I fear for you even more with every passing league? I suspect the full dregs of what you must endure yet await you. So why such a fell gathering of power and pregnant histories? Are we all here to escort you, my friend, or do you escort us? Who is to know save the Enchantress and Queen of Dreams, T'riss, in the arc of whose vision we all act?

The lad shifted, stretched and awoke blinking in the early light. ‘Sleep yet,’ Ereko told him.

Kyle rubbed his eyes. ‘It's all I seem to do these days, sleep.’ He rubbed his arm where Ereko's High Denul had mended torn ligament and ruptured flesh. ‘What of you? You man that tiller day and night. Won't you rest?’

Ereko lightly laughed the suggestion aside. ‘No, lad. I am so old now that sleeping and waking have melded together into one and I know not which I inhabit.’

Watching the lad struggle through that, Ereko shifted course slightly to avoid a looming ice-spire.

Truly? So old? As old as the mountains?’

Ereko raised his brows. ‘Goodness, no. Not that old. Only half so old, I should think.’

The lad pulled his blanket closer, eyed him sidelong as if gauging the degree of his sincerity. Unsure, he raised his chin to the ice-dotted waves. ‘What is that light to the south?’

Ereko did not turn his gaze. Even yet the power of that ritual bruises! ‘That pale bluish light?’

‘Yes.’

‘A great field of ice, Kyle. Quite perilous. To travel there is to risk wandering accidentally into another Realm. A place of eternal cold. The home of another race.’

‘And these ice mountains?’ Kyle indicated the largest one nearest them: a towering peak of deep sapphire blue, wind and water sculpted into sweeping arcs and blade-like curves.

‘Yes. Children of the ice field. They break off and wander the seas. Some say they each carry some small part of the power that binds the ice here in the world. And so does it diminish over the ages.’

‘Well, it's a good thing we have all this ice.’

‘Why?’

‘We're getting low on water.’

‘Burn Forefend, lad! We mustn't touch this ice.’

‘No? Why ever not?’

‘Why ever-’ Ereko ducked his head. Lowering his voice, he continued, ‘Haven't you been listening? Have your people forgotten everything, lad? Don't you know that such ice is the feat of the Jaghut?’

The lad looked away. ‘We know of them.’

‘Yes. Your people are their enemy though they are not yours. In any case, such ice fields on land and at sea are the highest accomplishment of their arts. Omtose Phellack crystallized here upon the world. Your people spread in great migrations over land and sea. Such fields of ice were raised as barriers against your expansion. We skirt now the remnants of one such.’

‘And how do you know this?’ the lad asked with the bluntness of youth.

‘Because I saw it happen.’

A snort confirmed the lad's disbelief. Ereko fully expected the reaction. He shifted into a more comfortable position, crossed his arms on the tiller. ‘I will tell you a story.’ Kyle said nothing but Ereko noted the Assail native, Stalker, shift to turn an ear to the stern. ‘Know you not that Elder Night, Kurald Galain, possesses its children, the Tiste Andii? Well, what of the world and its many races and beings? Who are its children? Are they what some name the “Founding Races”? Or can some other kind lay claim to being the true children of the earth? Myself, I believe the term “founding” refers to those races that established civilizations or societies complete with writing