She shook her head. “Four legions. The north is going to be… well,” she shrugged, “pacified.”
I blinked. Four legions. Over thirty thousand men, and who knew how many battle mages. Enough to do the job and to spare. “How far away are they?”
“A few miles. Close. I think they will close at dawn and attack at once. Where are you?”
“The vaults,” I answered absently. I imagined what would happen. The battle mages would bring down the walls, our soldiers would stream into the breeches. It would be a slaughter. “They know you're coming. Where are the rest of their forces?”
She shook her head, touching my lips to still them. “The Prashuli and Orduli chieftains were killed in battle at Paresh. The bulk of their forces destroyed, the rest fled. Are you alone?”
“No. Sapphire is with me but he is badly hurt,” I told her. “They got as far south as Paresh?”
“Listen to me. Yes, and further. Muria was almost overrun before they were stopped. But I understand that ever since then we have been breaking them and haven't lost an engagement. At Paresh we broke them and their alliance dissolved. It's been mopping up since then. A legion or two breaking off to deal with minor armies as the rest pushed north.”
“The Eyrie is the last?”
“The Orduli and Prashuli have sued for peace, offered terms. Nothing is settled yet but they won't be taking part in the fighting any more. Unless we decide to punish them.”
I nodded, thinking. “And further north? Other tribes to the east and west?”
“I don't know everything, Sumto. I don't. I'm not being told.” She looked fretful.
“What's wrong?”
She looked down, shrugged and looked up at me again, raising her chin. “My family are not happy with me.”
“They should be proud of you. Tell them from me…”
She stopped me. “Tell them yourself, when you are free.” She shook her head, smiling up at me. “My heroic fool, what were you thinking, going after Tahal?”
I shrugged. “I don't know. It seemed like the thing to do. I needed to do something to redeem myself.”
“I wish I could help you.” It was admitting that she couldn't. “If I had known where you were I never would have let them take the greater stone from me,” she frowned.
Just then the shadow moved and I heard something, clearly a voice but nothing distinct enough to understand.
“I have to go. Good luck, my love.”
Well, I thought, when she had gone and I drifted through the fog back to a natural sleep. Love. She didn't mean it, of course. It was surely just a turn of phrase.
113
I don't know what time it was when I woke.
At once I shifted to look down at Sapphire; his breathing had changed, become almost silent. Hoping he hadn't died I peered down at him and saw instantly that he was awake. His cold eyes held mine and I didn't know what to say to him.
“I'm dying,” he told me, his voice emerging not much louder than a whisper.
“No, you are hurt, but you will recover.”
“I know the difference.” He was lying on his side, barely moving his head to look up at me. He spat with careful deliberation, using as few muscles as possible. The blood was pink and flecked with black clots.
“The army is close. Help will be here soon.”
He seemed to think about it, attention focused inward, then said. “Inside an hour?”
I shook my head. “I don't know.” It was a lie even though it was true. The Eyrie might take only an hour to fall but even if they were attacking now it might be too late.
“Liar.” He said without rancor. “I want you to do something.”
“Anything,” I told him, meaning it.
“If you get out of here, go and find the Ku Mirt.” He wasn't seeing me, I could tell. He was seeing something else. Something ugly. “Go and find them,” his voice was a whisper and I could barely hear him. “Go find them all, and kill them.” And then he went still.
The Ku Mirt were the people who had taken him as a child and trained him to kill. He had been a child. I reflected briefly on what it must have been like for him. I couldn't imagine it. Didn't really want to.
“I will, I promise.” I watched him. It wouldn't be long now. His breathing was painful to hear and each breath was longer in coming. There was nothing I could do, I had some stone but no spell I could use, never having spared the money to buy anything useful, saving it all for booze, and then I thought of something and acted without thought or hesitation.
“T'k'la,” I said. “Ichalda, t'k'la!.”
And, for me, she came.
114
Her expression had been unreadable as she looked at me, her faint radiance illuminating the cell, making it feel crowded. I had pointed to Sapphire and asked her again. Slowly, she had turned to look down at him and then it seemed that she seeped into him, that he soaked her up like a sponge. His breathing eased, he groaned in his sleep, then his eyes opened and she looked out at me. I don't know how I knew it was her but it was obvious. He sighed and his eyes closed and she was gone. After that he slept on as though nothing had changed, but when I looked his wounds were closed, his broken arm straightened, and he breathed more easily. He still looked pale from loss of blood, and I remembered Jocasta looking the same, her wounds healed but the body still weak and recovering. It might be some time before he rose and walked again; if he didn't have food and water when he woke he might still die. But at least it would not be now. And I had not done nothing.
Time passed.
There was nothing to do so I did nothing. I wanted a drink. There was none. I was shaking and sweating, the familiar onset of withdrawal symptoms. I knew they would get worse and never seem to stop getting worse. So I watched Sapphire breathe as I shook and shuddered. I cursed occasionally. It didn't help.
I imagined four legions moving to surround the Eyrie, forming up, preparing to attack. Nothing happened so I imagined it again. I was waiting and wasting time. But there was nothing to do. I would be found here after the place was taken, freed, and then what? I'd not succeeded in my bid to do something spectacularly brave. I was doomed to my fate of poverty or exile. There was no way to change it now. Depressed just doesn't cover it. Sick, depressed, and desperate for a drink. Even so I couldn't stop thinking.
To whom did the four legions belong? Three patrons? Four? Who were they? What did each plan when the battle was over? Would they divide, some heading home in triumph while others had other plans? Too many questions. Would one or more go into the mountains and prosecute a punitive war there? Surely someone would want to find out where the Necromancers came from and take vengeance on them? I shrugged the line of questioning off. None of that would help me. I checked Sapphire, still sleeping, leaned back to sweat and shake some more.
I thought about the city; not my ignominious return there; that was something I shied away from. I had raised an army without authority, led it to disaster, they had been slaughtered to a man; and so on and so on. No. I thought about our system of government and tried to think what, if anything, could be improved. It was an abstract, something to think about. We ruled with a light hand, which was good. The patrons were more interested in their own business than the business of government and that was, on the whole, a good thing, I thought. Less bureaucracy, few institutions, no-one meddling in the lives of others. There were kingdoms with vast armies of bureaucrats, enormous administrations, laws for every area of human activity and people to oversee them and
