The Infernal city

“Well, you have an opportunity to learn now.”

She was silent for a moment. “This person—the spy on the floating island—how do you speak to them?”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Of course I ‘believe’ you, my Pri—ah, Treb. I’m just curious. Do you have some sort of scrying ball, like in the old tales?”

“Something like that,” he replied.

“Very mysterious,” she answered.

“Must keep a bit of mystery,” he replied.

“We certainly must,” she said with a flirty grin.

At noon they stopped to water the horses in the springs near the overgrown ruins of Sardarvar Leed, where the ancient Ayleid elves had once herded his ancestors, bred them for work and pleasure. Attrebus found a quiet spot and took the bird from his haversack.

He saw Annaig’s hands, working at some sort of dough, the cherry red fire pits beyond, and the hellish creatures that swarmed about the place. He dared not say anything now, but something in him needed to see what she saw, to make sure she was alive and well. His father and Hierem were right, in a way; this was in part about Annaig. She’d picked him to send Coo to because she believed in him, because she knew that he would answer her prayers and do this thing that needed doing, even if that meant opposing his own father.

He had no intention of letting her down, and tonight, when they could whisper to each other across the leagues, he would give her the good news that he was on the way.

He was still thinking about that an hour later when he heard a dull whump and half of his men caught fire. For a moment he could only stare, as if watching a theatric. He saw Eres and Klau staggering, beating their hands at the blue flames that engulfed them, their mouths working to produce sounds unrecognizable as human. There was Gulan, not burning but trying to beat the fire off of Pash, but then he suddenly had strange quills growing from his back.

It finally settled through to his brain that they were ambushed, and he drew his sword, looking wildly for the enemy as arrows came whirring from every direction. Radhasa was still next to him, her own weapon drawn and an odd look of joy on her face.

The last thing he saw was her blade swinging toward his head.

He clambered up from black depths, but it was a slippery slope. He had little moments when he thought he was awake, but they were full of pain and strange movement, and in the end might have just been a dream within a dream, a little of the Dark Lady’s whimsy. A little hope before the nightmares had him again.

Finally, though, he opened his eyes, and bright light filled them. His head throbbed furiously, and there was blood caked in his mouth and nostrils. He was facedown in the dirt and one eye was covered tightly by a cloth of some kind.

He tried to push up, but his hands were behind him, and from the pain in his wrists he knew they must be bound.

He tried to call out, but all that emerged was a croak.

“There you are,” a feminine voice said. He flopped his head over and saw Radhasa, sitting against a tree, eating an apple. Her horse was behind her, and so was his, along with a Khajiit and a Bosmer he’d never seen before, speaking in low tones a few yards away.

“You tried to kill me,” he said.

“No, I didn’t. I hit you with the flat. Could just as easily have been the edge.” She smiled. “I was supposed to kill you, though.”

“Why?”

“If I told you that, then I would have to kill you,” she replied. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it, Treb.”

“Where—what happened to the rest?”

“Ah, well, there’s the pity. Some pretty good people just died for you.”

He tried to understand that. “How many, traitor? How many of my people did you kill?”

“Well, unless you still count me—I’m thinking you don’t—I would have to say everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“Yep. Even little Dario.” She licked juice from her fingers.

“He’s just a boy!”

“Not anymore. Graduated with the rest of them.”

“Why?” he sobbed. His eyes stung with tears.

“Again, not telling. A little mystery, remember? Like your bird here.” She smiled. “How does it work?”

“I’m going to kill you!” he screamed. “You hear me?”

He lifted his head to direct his shout to the strangers. “Did she tell you who I am? Do you know what you’ve done?”

Incredibly, they laughed.

“All right,” Radhasa said. “Break’s over. Get him horsed, fellows, and let’s move along.”

He tried to fight, but his head was ringing and his limbs were sapped of energy, but most of all he couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t get his mind to stand still. What was happening? This didn’t happen, not to him. How could all of his friends be dead?

The horse started forward, and, slung over its back, he watched the wheel ruts in the road.

She was lying, of course. Gulan and the rest were probably tracking them. Some of them probably were dead, but most of them must have made it. He’d never lost more than three of his personal guard in one battle anywhere, including the Battle of Blinker Creek.

So she was lying, and they were coming. He just had to stay alive until they found him.

How long had he been out? Where were they?

The immediate answer to that last was that they were on a hunting trail of some sort, surrounded by massive oak and ash trees. The land rolled a bit, so it was a good guess they weren’t in the Niben Valley anymore, which meant that he must have been unconscious for at least a few days.

His best guess was that they were somewhere in the West Weald, and by the sun, traveling mostly south.

So where were they going?

He looked to Radhasa, riding slightly ahead of him.

“You said you were supposed to kill me,” he croaked. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because I’m going to sell you,” she replied. “I know a certain very eccentric Khajiit who collects people like you. He’ll pay more than ten times what I was offered to kill you. So we’re off to Elsweyr. Think of it as a holiday. A really, really long holiday that will be no fun at all.”

“Radhasa,” he said, “that’s insane. People know what I look like. Someone between here and there is going to recognize me.”

“You haven’t seen your face since I whacked it,” she replied. “Looks a little different at the moment. And we’ll keep the bandages on. Once we get you where you’re going, there’s going to be a real limited selection of people you’re likely to meet, and it won’t matter to any of them who you are.”

“My father,” he said. “He’d pay more yet to get me back. Have you thought of that?”

“He might,” she agreed. “But I don’t think I would survive that. Too many resources at his disposal, too many ways to trap us.”

“Those resources are bent on you already.”

“No, not anytime soon, I think.”

“When he finds the bodies—”

“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “It’s covered.” She chuckled.

“What are you laughing about?”

“Good thing you don’t like being addressed as ‘Prince,’” she replied. “Because you’re never going to hear anyone call you that again.”

She snapped her reins and broke into a trot. His horse, leaded to hers, followed suit.

FOUR