The King's assassin

27

TALON’S OATH

They stripped him naked and threw him into the Pit, the same one he’d seen the night he and the thief-taker had crept in through the secret caves. The lancers didn’t seem to care, but some of the soldiers who made up the new king’s guard had been Hawks. They threw him in because that’s what they’d been told to do, but they didn’t look happy about it. In the days that followed there were no beatings. The water they brought was clean, the food good. On the third day his clothes fell in and no one seemed to notice. Soldiers from the company came by from time to time. Sometimes things fell out of their pockets.

‘It’s making everyone restless,’ Tarn told him one day when Berren had been in the Pit for a week. ‘Talon knows it’s not right.’ He slipped Berren a thick slice of cold beef. The soldiers who were supposed to be guarding him were carefully looking the other way. ‘Everyone knows it’s not right. When the Hawks leave and the season starts again, you’ll be out of here. Talon has sworn it on his father’s soul.’

‘When the Hawks leave?’ Berren laughed bitterly. ‘So much for a few days in the Pit to calm him down then.’ In his mind he saw Syannis with a knife though his heart. Bastard betrayer! To think I came back here for you!

The days dragged to weeks. The soldiers guarding his prison were the same. Tarn and the others still came to visit, but to the rest of the world he seemed forgotten. When he asked Tarn about Talon and Syannis, Tarn only rolled his eyes.

‘Talon paces the castle like a caged animal and can’t wait to be away. King Aimes issues nonsense decrees. Prince Syannis does nothing but complain about money and insist that this, that or the other be stopped. Princess Gelisya’s demands grow ever more endless.’ He sucked a breath between his teeth. ‘Whispers say it’s her that’s keeping you here. She’s got her claws into King Aimes, that one, and she makes sure he won’t allow Syannis to let you go, nor Talon either. She’s not the child she seems. Oh, and that bonds-maid sends a message.’ He handed Berren a crumpled scrap of paper and then watched with interest as Berren peered at it. He laughed. ‘We didn’t know whether you could read. There’s not many of us can, but then there’s not many of us who’ve been taught by priests. What is it you see in her?’

A broken promise, that’s what I see, that’s what he might have said, but Fasha’s note killed the words right there in his mouth. The writing was neat and perfect. The Deephaven priests would have been proud. Still, Berren had to squint and read it several times, frowning over each word until he was sure he understood it.

I am a good slave and I do as I am asked.

I am carrying your child. In time it will show.

I must think for us both. I pray to the sun every night that all will be well.

Berren’s foot began to twitch. ‘What do I see in her? For a start, she can write,’ he hissed. ‘That’s more than you can.’

When Tarn was gone, he paced back and forth, tempted to seize a sword from one of his guards, to run to wherever Syannis was and gut him. For a moment he wondered: would anyone actually stop him? They might wrestle him down, or try to, but what if they couldn’t? What if it did come to swords? Would any of them try to take on the Bloody Judge?

A child? He’d be a father. Something he’d never had, not really.

As the first glimmers of spring broke winter’s grip on the world, Talon and his soldiers quietly made their preparations to leave. There wasn’t much to be seen at first except that their camp grew a little tidier, but the word trickled to Berren in his pit. One morning two fat-bellied ships sailed into Tethis harbour; later that day Berren looked up to see Talon gazing back down at him. Prince Talon now. The last time Berren had seen him had been in Meridian’s throne room.

Talon whispered a few words to the guards. The soldiers nodded and one by one they left their posts until he and Berren were alone, one at the top of the Pit and one inside. ‘Berren,’ he said, and Berren glared back at him, ‘I’m so very sorry for what happened. Syannis never meant you to think you could keep her, only that you would have her for a night.’

‘I think you’re mistaken about that,’ Berren said slowly. ‘I don’t want to call you a liar, Talon, but I think Prince Syannis remembers exactly what he said and has simply changed his mind. Which makes him nothing more than a thief like me.’

Up above him, Talon took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

‘Or was Gelisya supposed to go with Saffran Kuy and have no need for a slave any more? Was that the deal that Syannis made?’

A shadow crossed Talon’s face. ‘I don’t know who’s been telling you such treasonous lies,’ he said coldly. Berren kept silent. Talon probably didn’t know more than a sliver of what passed between Syannis and Saffran Kuy. Probably no one did apart from the two men themselves.

‘I just go by what I see. Does it matter? She’s still here. Maybe that was another promise Syannis broke.’

Talon scowled. ‘You must really like it down there.’

Berren’s last sight of Syannis was a memory he’d carry with him for a long time. The look had been of murder and hate, and Berren knew he’d earned it for what his last words had done to the Princess, not for anything else. ‘I’ve heard it’s Gelisya keeping me down here. I don’t know what she is, Prince Talon, but Saffran Kuy has had a hand in making her.’ He lay down at the bottom of the pit, flat on his back and stared up at the darkness where the ceiling was. ‘I killed a king for Syannis,’ he said. ‘Or maybe for you. Doesn’t matter which, really. It wasn’t so hard. Seems that kings are made of the same flesh and blood as the rest of us. I think I’ve learned a lot about kings these last few months. They don’t seem to me to be so very special.’

Something flew out of the air and struck him on the chest. A purse with a few coins inside. ‘When I found you, Berren, you were a runaway, a ship’s skag. You had nothing. You could expect nothing. Everything since then you’ve had because I’ve given it to you. I gave you clothes and food and money. I gave you a sword. I gave you a life. I gave you respect and honour and a place in the world to be proud of. True or not?’

Berren’s face burned. He couldn’t answer because what he wanted to say was that no, it wasn’t true, but it was.

‘There is your payment as a Hawk for the winter. We will be leaving for clearer air shortly. I will tell you this for free, Berren of Deephaven: I am little happier about what is happening here in Tethis than you are, although our reasons are very different. So we will not be back for quite some time. You must decide whether you are a Hawk or whether you wish to leave my command. If you wish to leave then take your money and I will be gone. You will remain here as I found you. If you decide you are one of us then I will take you away, but you must first swear me an oath and accept one in return. You must swear that you will not seek revenge for any of this. Let it go. Let Syannis go. Let Kuy go. Give up on your bondswoman, or else, if you must have her for that babe of yours that she carries, do what you need to buy her freedom. Princess Gelisya is no longer a child. She will soon tire of her old bonds-maid and demand new ones. People always do, when they are children no more.’

For a long time Berren said nothing. ‘And what’s your oath?’ he asked at last.

‘To see, come what may of you, that the child is cared for. Your child, once it is born.’

Slowly Berren rose to his feet. ‘And how much would it cost for a man to buy her? You told me, a week or two before Syannis broke his promise, that she was worth a half-dozen seasons in the company.’

‘For a good bonds-maid, you’ll pay in gold. For one who has waited on a princess, a lot of gold.’

‘How much gold? I’ll sell my sword. Everything I have.’

He watched as Talon winced. ‘You had nothing when I found you and you have nothing now, save that purse I’ve given you. Everything else has been taken by Princess Gelisya to pay for the damage done to her property.’

‘Damage?’ Berren felt the blood running to his head. He shouted up at Talon, ‘What damage?’

‘Her slave is carrying your child. I thought you knew. It affects her duties.’

‘Sun and Moon! She sent Fasha with a warlock’s love potion to help her bed me! What else have I done? Am I to pay for the arrow I used to kill Meridian?’ If Talon had been standing in front of him instead of looming over the