As is Kany, really. Though he's loath to admit it. Besides, I can't see that there's any danger in just guarding, but, to be blunt, if there is, I'd rather go with a flourish than a long sigh. Old age doesn't suit me.'
'A long sigh suits me well enough,’ Kany muttered. ‘The desire for death or glory is one of many human traits that I consider myself fortunate not to understand.'
Antyr decided to let the matter lie. Another matter occurred to him.
'What about the Liktors who arrested us?’ he asked Estaan. ‘I'd forgotten about them. I should have mentioned it to the Duke.'
Estaan shook his head. ‘I'm glad you didn't,’ he said with a smile. ‘I don't think he'd be too impressed by my care for your welfare if he heard we'd been arrested for assault and being involved in a suspicious death.'
Antyr was not reassured. ‘Your friend vouching for you only got us Liktor bail, you know,’ he said. ‘We're technically under arrest.'
Estaan laughed. ‘And rightly so too,’ he said. ‘What would you have done with two disreputable individuals found with a dead body and claiming to be there on the Duke's business?'
'Well I suppose…’ Antyr began.
'Don't worry,’ Estaan said dismissively, but sympathetically. ‘I'll sort it all out when I arrange for Nyriall's body to be collected. There'll be no problem.'
The mention of Nyriall's body, however, brought dark thoughts back to Antyr. ‘I find it hard to imagine that he's still alive somewhere, right now, wandering through those sunlit fields, while at the same time he's lying cold and stiff in that poky little room.'
'Do you think they'll still be hunting for him?’ The voice was Grayle's and it was fretful. Antyr reached down and stroked the wolf. ‘I don't think so, Grayle,’ he said. ‘I think that my intervention gave them more serious things to think about. Don't be too concerned. He was pleased at the prospect of a new start in a new world. He said he doubted he could have survived another fog-choked winter.'
A wave of sadness passed over him. It was the wolf's, he knew.
'He was sorry to part from you though,’ he went on. ‘Said he'd miss you a lot and that I was to thank you. He couldn't have had a finer Companion.'
Grayle let out a little whine, and then lay down, resting his head on his forepaws. Antyr continued to stroke him.
'I let him down at the end,’ Grayle said. ‘He slipped from me somehow. I don't know how. He was there, then he was gone. In an instant. Just gone.'
Before Antyr could reply, there was an interruption from Tarrian at a level beyond his awareness. He reached out to them tentatively, then withdrew, leaving the two brothers to their own discourse.
'Well, I suppose the rest of the day's my own,’ he muttered ironically.
Scarcely had he spoken, however, when the door opened and the Duke reappeared. ‘A thought just occurred to me, Antyr,’ he said. ‘I'd like you to watch the Bethlarii envoy's dreams tonight. Is that possible?'
'Yes, sire,’ Antyr said with a slight shrug. ‘Providing he's nearby.'
Ibris nodded. ‘I thought so,’ he said. ‘I'll arrange it.’ He looked at Antyr, stern again. ‘And, Antyr, this concerns the needs of the state. You owe this man no duty of confidentiality. I want to know whatever he dreams about. Does that present you with any difficulties?'
Antyr recalled his protestations to the bodyguard when he had sought out the Duke the previous evening.
'Yes, sire,’ he replied. ‘It does. It's contrary to all my teachings. But war gives me greater difficulties-far greater-and if I can give you information that might prevent one, then I'll do it.'
Chapter 24
Tarrian and Grayle walked some way ahead of Antyr and Estaan through the busy afternoon crowds. Grayle kept a fraction to the rear of his brother, but matched his stride exactly.
Antyr looked up. The grey clouds had been lightening all day and were now breaking up to reveal a watery blue sky. Occasionally, bright waves of light from the low sun washed over the city, patterning the streets with long unsteady shadows and cutting golden chasms through the haze.
The small procession had no goal at the end of this journey. Antyr had expressed a need to walk and think for a while and this was the consequence. Pandra had remained at the palace to rest a little and to luxuriate in the rooms and the new status that had been allotted to him.
Both Antyr and Estaan, however, were now rapt in thought.
Antyr was surprised at his own easy acquiescence with the Duke's suggestion-order-that he spy on the Bethlarii envoy's dreams. Dreamers allowed a Dream Finder access to their deepest and most private thoughts and however the craft might have declined over recent years, the respect for confidentiality was as strong as it had ever been, even gaining protection under Serenstad's law.
And it was deep in Antyr also. That fact he had never doubted throughout his ragged, sour career. The idea of divulging a client's dreams was unthinkable, physically distressing.
Now, quite willingly, he had agreed not only to divulge the contents of a man's dreams, but to enter them unasked; an even greater breach of his craft's time-honoured constraints. What surprised him most, however, was that he felt barely the slightest twinge of remorse or hesitation.
The logic of his case he had stated spontaneously and with great clarity when the Duke asked him to undertake the covert search of the envoy's dreams, but he felt strangely uneasy about the fact that he was suffering no emotional rejection of the idea. Indeed, he was actually looking forward to the venture.
Who am I to set aside the practice of centuries so casually, even for such an important need? he thought.
'Probably the first who's had the chance.’ Tarrian was unequivocal in his opinion. ‘Ibris is nothing if not an original thinker. Besides, what are you fussing about? What he's asked you to do is no different from crawling through hedges and ditches to see the strength and disposition of an enemy's forces. You don't all march to the battlefield wearing blindfolds and then whip them off and start fighting on the stroke of the hour so that no one has an unfair advantage, do you?'
Antyr rebelled at Tarrian's mockery. ‘No,’ he began. ‘It's not the same at all…'
'Of course it is, you jackass,’ Tarrian said brutally. ‘This envoy hasn't asked you to search his dreams so you're not betraying any special confidentiality. You're merely peeping into his documents. Under other circumstances, it'd be tortured out of him, you know that. This is a war you're talking about, and spying's an infinitely lesser evil that fighting. We might find things that'll save hundreds of lives. Look around you. Some of these people-
'Yes, I know,’ Antyr admitted, looking round at the late afternoon crowds. ‘You're only echoing my own thoughts, but it still feels strange that I don't feel strange about it.'
'Too complicated for me, I'm afraid,’ Tarrian said with a dismissive grunt. ‘I suggest you enjoy the fresh air and the walk, it might be a busy night.'
Antyr nodded. There was no point in prolonging the debate, if debate it was, with so little being spoken for the defence of the envoy's rights. He would do what the Duke had asked for many reasons, but high among them was a determination that if he could use his skills to spare others the experiences that he had had on the battlefield then he would. Perhaps, indeed, that was what such skills were truly for.
His left hand moved across to his right, not for the first time, to fiddle with the ring that Feranc had given to him before he had left the palace. ‘This is a token of high office, Antyr,’ he said. ‘Don't hesitate to use it when you need it.’ Surreptitiously, Antyr glanced at it again. It bore the Duke's insignia.
'Yes, you're right,’ he said out loud.
'I beg your pardon,’ Estaan said, starting from his own reverie and turning to him in some surprise.
'No, I beg yours,’ Antyr replied hastily. ‘I was talking to Tarrian privately. I won't do it again. We won't do it
