Vengeance

‘And that weird cavern below the stair. What was it for?’

‘Trying not to think about it.’

‘Why?’

‘It didn’t look possible, yet it was there.’

‘It had an odd smell, did you notice?’

‘Sickly sweet,’ said Tobry, ‘but masking something that left a bitter taste in the back of my mouth.’

‘Any idea what it was?’

‘Never smelt it before.’

Rix digested that as they rode. ‘The wrythen recognised my sword.’

‘What?’ Tobry said sharply. ‘When?’

‘After I killed the caitsthe.’

Tobry reined in sharply. ‘You — killed — it? How?’

As Rix explained, Tobry’s mouth turned down. ‘All while I lay unconscious?’

‘Yes,’ said Rix. What was the matter now?

‘And then you fought the wrythen?’

‘That’s right. Anyway — ’

‘Great!’ Tobry said. ‘So when you most needed help — ’

‘He recognised my sword,’ Rix said hastily. ‘Oathbreaker’s blade, he called it. What do you suppose that means?’

‘It means things are a lot worse than my worst imaginings.’

‘I wish you’d explain something,’ said Rix when Tobry did not go on. ‘Anything! ’

‘The moment we get home, I’ll have to go away for a bit. I need to talk to people.’

‘What about talking to me?’

‘You’ve got the portrait to finish,’ said Tobry, deliberately misunderstanding him. ‘And Lady Ricinus to explain to.’

‘You sure know how to ruin my day.’

‘Thought I’d already done that.’ Tobry looked away.

Finally Rix realised what the matter was. Tobry felt that he had let Rix down. ‘It wasn’t your fault a rock knocked you out.’

‘When you needed my magery, it wasn’t there. That was my fault.’

‘If I’d listened to you, we wouldn’t have gone within miles of that place.’

‘I could have stopped you, and I didn’t,’ Tobry said bitterly.

Leaving him to his dark thoughts, Rix looked ahead. Hasp Pass was a vertical slot between white mountains, like a jawbone missing one front tooth, and the wind whistling through it was a wrythen wailing in a boneyard.

His thoughts returned to the sword. Why had it led him to the wrythen’s caverns? Why had the sword attacked the wrythen of its own accord? ‘And what was that opalised figure all about?’

‘Beg pardon?’ said Tobry.

Rix hadn’t realised he had spoken the last thought aloud. ‘Several times, when I’ve touched the hilt, I’ve seen a life-sized sculpture of a man carved from a single piece of black opal. A twisted figure; a man in agony.’

‘I don’t know what that means.’

After a minute or two, Rix said, ‘Why is that quote on my sword notorious?’ He braced himself for another lecture about not paying attention to his tutors.

‘The Immortal Text said that the Herovians were the chosen race and Hightspall was their promised land. That’s why they left Thanneron and sailed here.’

‘I heard they were brawling barbarians, always drunk and fighting everyone.’

‘They were, but in their eyes the book justified their supremacist war against Cythe. And their right to this land.’

A layer of ice formed on the back of Rix’s neck.

‘That’s where the word hero comes from,’ Tobry added. ‘The Five Heroes who led the war were originally called the Five Herovians.’

‘What happened to them?’

‘The Immortal Text disappeared in the Ten Day War. That — was — a — thousand — years — ago,’ said Tobry as if talking to a slow child.

Rix ground his teeth. ‘I know!’

Tobry chuckled. ‘After that, the Herovians faded from view, though there are still plenty of them in Hightspall. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised …’ He stared at Rix for a moment.

‘What?’ said Rix.

‘Nothing.’ Tobry rode ahead.

Rix called out, ‘Why is everyone against the Herovians anyway?’

‘Arrogance and deceit,’ Tobry said over his shoulder.

Rix spurred up to him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘When they landed here and discovered how numerous and strong the Cythians were, the Herovians pretended friendship, but sent a ship racing back to Thanneron, calling thousands of settlers here with the lie that the land was empty. As soon as the Second Fleet landed, they went to war against the Cythians. The people on the Second Fleet had come in peace but they had no choice other than to fight beside the Herovians. And we’ve never forgotten how they lied to us and manipulated us.’

Rix rode on, thoughtfully. It did not answer the main question — how House Ricinus had ended up with the sword.

Directly, they emerged from the slot and headed down. It wasn’t snowing here but a drifting mist obscured the way ahead and covered every surface in tiny droplets. The clammy cold made Rix’s bones ache.

Out in the Seethings, they would be riding over the mines and tunnels of Cython. ‘Why does the chancellor let the filthy rock rats come up onto our land, anyway?’ he said irritably. ‘If I were him, I’d tumble their shaft down on them.’

‘You do know where heatstones come from — like the gigantic one that warms your chambers?’

‘I hate them. I don’t understand why we trade with the enemy for the wretched things.’

Tobry gave him a sideways glance. ‘Don’t you?’

‘The trade should be banned.’

‘Rix,’ said Tobry patiently, ‘House Ricinus holds a third of the heatstone monopoly. Your family has made a fortune from the trade.’

‘I don’t believe it!’ Rix cried.

‘Where do you think your wealth comes from?’

Lady Ricinus was constantly harping on about preparing him for the time when he would be lord, yet kept every detail of House Ricinus’s affairs from him. ‘Our estates, mines and manufactories, of course.’

‘With the ash falls, the creeping cold, the shifter raids and crop failures, your estates lose money one year in two. All the profit is in trade.’

‘We lose money?’ Things must be even worse than Rix had thought.

‘The estates lose money, but most of the losses are made up in trade … and I’ve heard that House Ricinus has other sources of income.’

The track sloped down steeply here, with a sheer drop only two feet to the left and an equally steep rise on the right. Rix held his breath as Leather picked his way around a fallen boulder shaped like his father’s head, complete with the misshapen drunkard’s nose and sagging jaw. A beret of snow crusted its flat top.

‘Like what?’ Rix didn’t much like the way Tobry had said other. ‘What are you hinting at?’

‘You’ll have to ask your parents.’

Rix imagined how that conversation would go. Mother, would you care to tell me about the shady ways House Ricinus makes its money? He would sooner be strapped to the toenail puller in the