the company. It made him easier to listen and talk to.
“Livilla was your uncle’s cousin; she was quite a woman. Had all the power and intelligence of your family, but no pretensions.” He realised how insulting that must sound. “Sorry. No offence meant, but it’s hard to wield infinite power without acquiring a few pretensions. Your uncle was like a brother to me; had been ever since the early days and I spent a lot of time on Isera with him and his court. Well I’m not going into too many details, but Livilla and I were wed in the spring and in the winter I was sent on campaign in the west. When I came back during the thaw I couldn’t help but note a decline in Quintus. He spent a lot of time alone brooding and the palace servants began to disappear. I guess I just kept fooling myself into thinking nothing was wrong. I was distracted at the time, you see, as Livilla and I had a son that month. I called him Quintus after your uncle, you know? They were good days for me, but it didn’t last long. Over the next couple of months things just got too bad and a number of the Emperor’s close advisors began to turn against him. He was seeing plots and conspiracies everywhere and because of the way he reacted to them, they came to be real. The court members who were frightened of your uncle spoke to the senate and they condemned him for a madman; imprisoned him on his own island. The man they sent with an army to deal with him was one of my peers, General Avitus. I was outraged when I heard and I left the training camp at Munda and marched on Velutio with my men. We routed Avitus’ rebels and restored Quintus to the throne in the city. It all looked good again for a month or so, but then even I had to admit there was something very wrong. There were accusations of treason and random executions in the city. People started to live in fear like they had under the Emperor Basianus. That’s when I was sent on a punitive expedition and told to burn a city. I disobeyed my orders and marched back to the city, demanding your uncle withdraw his order, but he wouldn’t. He accused me of conspiring against him and tried to have several senators and senior officers, including me, executed. In the end, I sent my army back to Munda, dismissed the palace guard while he was relaxing in his new Golden Palace and put an end to it. You and your mother were safely away in the city at the time.”
He took a deep breath. Quintillian realised how much speaking of this was hurting the captain and held up his hand. “I’m sorry captain. I shouldn’t…” Kiva waved him aside.
“You should know” he replied, “and I’ve not told the story in two decades. They say a trouble shared is a trouble halved, yes?”
When the lad nodded, Kiva took up the story once more.
“I left the island, probably by the very same route you did, and went back to Serfium. I was quite distraught as you can imagine, and went to spend time with Livilla and the boy. Unfortunately Avitus had been vindicated by what I did and he came back to power very quickly, getting one of the other Marshals on his side. He started killing people off in the city; anyone who opposed him in any way met the sword. I was a recluse while all this was happening but the last Marshal, Covis, took up his troops and went to stop Avitus. They ended up fighting just north of the city around Serfium. I was out at the time…”
Kiva swallowed and Quintillian looked up at him in concern. He was about to ask the captain to stop once more when the story tumbled out again.
“I went for a ride in the hills to think. I only realised something was wrong when I saw all the smoke, so I turned and charged back to the town, but I was too late. Covis’ army were annihilated around the town and the damage was immense. I’m probably selfish to think of it in the terms I do, cos a lot of villas were torched and many of the people in the town itself were killed out of hand, but it was my villa that I couldn’t take my eyes off. It was an inferno when I arrived and Avitus’ troops were marching away. It was nearly four hours before the house was safe enough to get into. They were all there. All of them. The servants, the animals and in one of the dining rooms Livilla and the boy.” Again the captain stopped, his voice having deteriorated to a croak.
Quintillian, his face deadly serious, grasped Kiva’s arm. “I read about the rest, you don’t need to tell me.”
Kiva smiled weakly. “I’ll not go into detail. You know how I fight, so you can picture the scene. I went back to the city. He was still calling himself Avitus then; didn’t change to Velutio until he dismissed the senate a few months later and took control of the city. He’d had most of the people of any power killed, including your mother and, as far as we all knew, you. To be honest, until you mentioned him I’d presumed Sarios to be among the victims. I wonder how many others are still alive on your island that were supposedly killed in the city. Anyway, I sought out Avitus and we fought for quite a time. I was always better than him, but I wasn’t in my right mind at the time and not as capable as I should have been. I let him get the better of me and he stuck me in the gut with a knife. I fell off the wall we were fighting on and somehow managed to land in a midden, so I didn’t hurt myself further. By the time Velutio got down there to finish me off, I’d gone. I made my way back to Serfium and to the temple there. I don’t know how long I spent there, but it was probably a month. The knife came out easily enough, but he’d chipped a shard of bone off my rib and it’d worked its way in to rest on my liver. Never been right since, but I’m still alive.”
He turned and looked down into the boy’s eyes.
“I think that’s pretty much it. You know more now than most people, as much as the rest of the company. Athas found me in the temple, you see. The Wolves had come looking for me after they heard about the fire. After that we left the lowlands and disappeared from the world of Velutio.” He smiled and added “until now.”
Quintillian nodded. “Velutio should pay for everything he’s done. And one day I’ll make sure he does.”
Kiva smiled at him and looked up and around at the outskirts of the village. “Right now let’s get into the inn and have some food. And maybe a drink. I once introduced your uncle to a drink my people make in the mountains. It used to be hard to get, but it’s a lot more common now, so we might get a shot or two.”
Quintillian grinned as they headed for the inn door. “If it’s the stuff that Athas drinks, I’ve tried it. It tastes like it’s already been drunk once.”
As Kiva laughed and opened the inn door a voice from within called “General Caerdin. I thought you must have got lost.”
Chapter XIV
Kiva’s hand went straight to his sword hilt, as did Quintillian’s by his side. The interior of the inn was dark despite the sun still being high, and in the shadows to the side of the door a single figure sat behind a heavy oak table, cradling a glass between his hands. He appeared to be the sole occupant apart from the innkeeper who remained behind the bar, nervously polishing drinking vessels. Kiva allowed a moment for his eyes to adjust and could hear the rest of the Grey Company approaching the door outside. He squinted into the low light and his eyebrow rose in surprise.
The figure at the table was tall and thin, turning the glass back and forth between long elegant fingers. Dressed in a knee-length surcoat and robe of black silk, with a winged horse picked out in gold, he was an imposing sight. His face was swarthy and clean shaven with dark, piercing eyes that peered out beneath straight, perfect brows and Quintillian found it extremely hard to place his age. The stranger’s hair was long, dark and straight, held back from his eyes with a thin, plain coronet of gold. He smiled in a predatory fashion.
Kiva frowned, his hand not leaving the pommel of his sword.
“I thought it might be you when you launched that attack on us back near Acasio. Athas found one of your men’s weapons. You’re as subtle as ever, my Prince.”
The swarthy man nodded slightly.
“And you, Caerdin, are not as subtle as you once were.” The man’s eyes drifted to Quintillian and the smile widened showing perfect white teeth with curiously prominent canines. “And this is the boy. First time I’ve seen him up close.” His accent was noticeably eastern, but with perfect tone. Quintillian spoke to Kiva without tearing his eyes away from the stranger.
“Captain, who is this man?”
Kiva’s gaze also remained on the black figure as he replied, still not smiling.
“This is Prince Ashar Parishid, nephew of the King of Pelasia.”
Quintillian nodded. “I’ve read a lot about Pelasia; used to be one of the Empire’s staunchest allies, yes? I’ve also read a lot of unflattering material.”
Ashar smiled still. “All of it untrue I’m sure.”
