Darkened Blade: A Fallen Blade Novel (27 page)

I had just started to relax when I heard a chorus of shrieks and the sound of ripping flesh from behind me. In that same instant Triss cried into my mind,
Ware, Aral! Your swords!

I ripped them free of the Son of Heaven’s corpse, spinning just in time to take the head off a madly flailing knight of the Sword. The next few seconds passed in chaos as I fought off the mindless attack of a half dozen of the risen who—impossibly—had not died with their bond-partner and master.

For some time I was too busy staying alive to think, though I came more and more to suspect that something was horribly wrong with the risen as we fought. When the maelstrom slowed I realized what it was. The wild attacks of the dead fell on each other as much as they did me. There was no longer any cohesion or focus to their behavior, nothing but a blood-seeking madness that tore at anything and everything in its path.

Then, almost as suddenly as the mad battle had begun, it ended. I stood alone. It was only then, as the last of them fell away that I realized I had fought them by myself. Knowing what I would see and dreading it, I looked to the last place I had seen Kelos. He was there still, though lying on the floor now instead of standing. He was covered in blood and had too many wounds to count. But against all reason, he was still breathing—if not for very much longer.

Malthiss had spread himself thin, packing as many of the wounds as he could manage with the stuff of shadow, but still they leaked. I had no illusions about Kelos surviving more than a quarter hour more, if that. As I knelt beside him, I saw Faran coming in through the far door. She was limping, but otherwise seemed sound and unbloodied.

I touched Kelos’s cheek and his eyes opened. “Ah,” he said, “we won. That’s good. I was beginning to—uhng—think you didn’t have it in you.” He took a ragged breath and forced it out. Then another—a pain-lessening discipline he had taught to me. “What took you so long?”

“I didn’t want to start the war that is about to consume the East,” I answered.

Oh, my friend . . .

But I didn’t respond to Triss. He would still be there in a few minutes, and so would the coming war. The same could not be said for Kelos. Faran came up beside me then, though she didn’t say a word and remained standing.

“You always were too soft to make the hard choices,” said Kelos.

“I made this one.”

“A bit late for me, that.” He let out a little hiss. “But don’t let it worry you. Whatever you intended, this was always part of
my
plan. I can finally go to face the judgment I so richly deserve.”

“I . . .”

“Really, it’s all right, Aral. I’d have died soon enough anyway. The black fire I set on the dead burns away my soul, too.”

“I wish that—”

But Kelos held up a warning finger and I stopped. “One final lesson, my best student.” And now there was blood on his lips. “You made the right choice. Now tell me you did it for the right reason. Why kill the Son of Heaven?”

“Hope.”

“Hope?” Kelos sounded surprised.

“Yes. When I saw that you were about to be swarmed under, I realized I didn’t want you to die. Not now. Not like this.”

“Don’t you dare forgive me, Aral,” he growled with a tiny bit of his old strength. “I could bear almost anything but that.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“Thank you. Now, hope?”

“I don’t forgive you. I can’t. But when I saw that you were about to die, I realized that I hoped that someday I might. That someday, you might
earn
the forgiveness that I could give no other way. Does that make any sense?”

There was no answer, and when I looked into Kelos’s empty eyes, I knew that there never would be. Faran put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

Though he was dead and gone, I decided that I still needed him to hear my explanation. “It was hope, you see. Hope that was the answer all along. When I realized that I still hoped for us to come to some peace, I knew that hope was the answer to my dilemma about the Son of Heaven, too. Hope is the antidote to fear.”

“Aral,” said Faran. “He’s gone.”

“I know. But I owe him this because it was the last lesson he’ll ever teach me.” I looked down into Kelos’s dead eyes, and continued. “I didn’t want the responsibility for the coming war. I still don’t. But what if you were right? What if this is the one great chance we have to rewrite the way of the world and reach for a deeper justice? I don’t know what will rise after the fall of the kings, but I can hope that you were right, and that it will be something glorious. I thank you for that, Master Kelos. And I honor you for it, even if I can never forgive you for Namara.”

Aral?

Yes?

I was right to believe in you.

Thank you, Triss.

I stood, then swayed and almost fell as the fluttering in my heart turned into something with claws and teeth.

Faran caught me. “Are you all right?”

“I will be, I think. I just need to sit for a moment.”

“Here, lean on your sword for a beat.” I had dropped them when I knelt beside Kelos. Now she handed me one. Then, when she was sure I wouldn’t fall immediately, she leaped up and yanked the Son of Heaven’s corpse from his throne before helping me into it. “There.”

I forced myself not to clutch at my chest, or otherwise betray what was wrong. There were still things to do. Which reminded me. . . . “Do you have any idea what happened with the risen?”

“They died or went mad when you killed the Son of Heaven. The rotted ones went down immediately. The hidden type stayed upright—sustained by soaking in the blood of the living maybe—but they completely lost their wits,
and I suspect all of them will ultimately fail as well, if they haven’t already.”

“Ahh, that makes a certain amount of sense. Thank you.”

“Are you
sure
you’re all right?”

“Again, I think I will be. I need . . . rest. Could you do me a favor?”

“Maybe. What is it?”

“Go grab Devin before he recovers enough to make a run for it. I want him under my thumb.”

She looked concerned. “I don’t want to leave you like this.”

“If we don’t catch him now, we won’t catch him at all. Please.”

“You’re hiding something,” she said, but then she sighed. “All right, but don’t you move off that throne.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

“All right,” she said. “Triss?”

My shadow reshaped itself into the familiar dragon outline. “Yes?”

“Don’t you dare let anything happen to him while I’m gone.”

“I will do my best,” said Triss.

She shook a finger. “You’d better.”

“I will.” He held up one paw as though he were taking an oath.

“Can I at least kill Chomarr on my way to collecting Devin?”

I nodded. “I don’t see why not.”

As soon as she was out of hearing Triss put his front paws in my lap and peered up into my face. “The finger?”

I nodded and pulled it out into the open, setting it on the arm of the throne. The line of rot had passed the bottom edge of the ring and there were only a few hairs’ breadths between it and the ivory plug. The tearing sensation in my heart had increased to the point where I didn’t think I would be able to stand if I tried.

“What are we going to do about it?” he asked.

“Hope,” I said, and then I swung my sword down on the
finger with all the strength I could muster, aiming for that tiny slice of still living flesh.

Lightning flashed across my vision and then darkness swallowed me up.

When it passed, I found myself in the Gryphon’s Head surrounded by my dead. Across the table sat Namara.

“Am I dead?” I asked.

She smiled and shook her head.

“I killed the Son of Heaven, you know.”

“I do.”

“Did I get that right?”

“That is no longer for me to say. Your way is your own, for now and forever. You have transcended your need of me, and for that I am so very, very proud of you.”

“I won’t see you again, will I?”

She shook her head and was gone, taking the bar with her, and leaving behind a sense of peace and well-being like nothing I had felt since the fall of the temple. I had made my goddess proud. When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting on the throne of the Son of Heaven, and the previous occupant lay on the floor at my feet.

“Is this justice?” I asked, but he gave no answer.

I had my own opinions. For him certainly, for the thousands or tens of thousands who would now die in the upheavals to come . . . for that I had only my hope.

I speak to the dead. This time there was no answer.

I think it’s better that way.

I rose from the throne and stepped over the body of the Son of Heaven. There were things to do and the path of justice to follow. As for the future?

I would live in hope.

W
e
burned Kelos’s body high on a bluff above Heaven’s Reach. Then we collected his ashes and put them in an urn and hid it within his fallback. That was three years ago. Three years of blood and death and war. Years in which the mantle of First Blade hung on my shoulders like a cape of lead. Where I wanted nothing more than to hang up my swords and walk away from all of it.

I had come very close to doing just that, to returning to the Gryphon’s Head and going back to being Aral the jack. I had even begun to drink again for a time. But circumstances and Triss’s love had led me away from that place and my own destruction, had put me back on the road I had begun when I accepted the title of First Blade, had brought me here, to a hill above the ruined Temple of Namara.

Across the water, on the island of the goddess, workers were raising a new chapter house for those who now called themselves the Blades of Justice and who looked to me to lead them into the future. It was a fortress and far more defensible than the old temple had ever been. It had to be, for we no longer had the goddess to protect us.

The ruined temple we would leave as a memorial to the fallen, though we’d cleaned up the graveyard and begun to bury our dead there once again. That was what had brought me here today. To bury one of our dead. Rebury, really. We had brought Kelos home. Though we would not place him in the graveyard. Siri and I had agreed that he neither deserved the honor nor would have accepted it.

No, we would bury him in an unmarked grave here on the hillside overlooking the ruin he had wrought. The ruin . . . and the promise.

I turned to Siri then and handed up my shovel. “Do you think he was right?”

She shook her head. “Say rather that he wasn’t wrong, and you will strike closer to the truth. The Evindine Free State would have made him smile, as would the Republic of Varya, but what happened in Zhan and, even worse, Heaven’s Reach . . .” She shivered a little as she handed me the urn. “Chomarr’s brief reign as the new Son of Heaven was ugly.”

“But Faran did get him in the end,” said Triss.

I placed the urn gently in the bottom of the hole. “That was . . . messy.”

“Poetic,” replied Siri.

I shook my head as I climbed out of the grave. “Not a touch excessive?”

“Richly deserved,” said Triss.

I couldn’t argue with that. Instead, I took the shovel back and started to fill in the grave.

I was just finishing up when Faran came over the crest of the hill. “News from Zhan! Harad sends word that Kaelin Fei has been elected to head the new government in Tien, and that she wants to see you.”

“That’ll be about the warlords on the Chenjou Peninsula, I imagine.”

“Probably,” said Faran. “Do you want me to go instead?”

“Not instead. As well. I could use someone to watch my back, and it’s time you checked in with Harad and Shang again.”

She nodded. “I’ll go get us ready.”

I sighed then and looked down at the grave and shook my head. “Dead three years and still playing us all. I don’t think he was any more right about the way things would play out than the Kitsune would have been, not without us doing everything we could to make the future better than the past.”

Siri squeezed my shoulder. “Funny, isn’t it? He betrayed us all and yet here we are working our hearts out trying to make his mad vision into a bright reality.” Then she followed after Faran.

When she was gone, I stood for a few silent minutes more beside the grave, with Triss wrapped around my shoulders in a shadow’s embrace, then I, too, turned away. I had a world to build and no more words for the dead.

Agutes—
A breed of large domesticated mountain goat, sometimes used for carrying packs.

Alinthide Poisonhand—
A master Blade, the third to die making an attempt on Ashvik VI.

Alley-Knocker—
An illegal bar or cafe.

Altia—
A onetime apprentice Blade, once one of Faran’s closest friends.

Aral Kingslayer—
Ex-Blade turned jack of the shadow trades.

Ashvik VI, or Ashvik Dan Pridu—
Late King of Zhan, executed by Aral. Also known as the Butcher of Kadesh.

Athera Trinity—
The three-faced goddess of fate.

Balor Lifending—
God of the dead and the next Emperor of Heaven.

Blade—
Temple assassin of the goddess Namara.

Blinds—
Charms of confusion and befuddlement, mostly used by thieves in the Magelands.

Buried Gods—
Undead sorcerer gods of the Others, bound into the earth by the forces of Heaven after the godwar.

Calren the Taleteller—
God of beginnings and first Emperor of Heaven.

Chimney Forest—
The city above, rooftops, etc.

Chimney Road—
A path across the rooftops of a city. “Running the chimney road.”

Chomarr—
An officer of the Hand of Heaven.

Corik Nofather—
The Son of Heaven’s birth name.

Corvin
—
A Master Blade of a much earlier era. Slayer of the Necromancer and destroyer of the Necrotariat.

Dalridia—
Kingdom in the southern Hurnic Mountains.

Darkburst—
A lightning-like attack based in the element of shadow, magelightning’s dark twin.

Darksight—
One of the terms used by the Blade to describe the sense that they borrow from their Shade companions.

Death—
A goddess.

Demon’s Brew—
A small river that feeds into the Evindine. It runs hot and smells strongly of sulfur because of its origins in the hot springs of the valley of Demon’s Mouth.

Demon’s Mouth—
A valley full of hot springs and choking fumaroles in the mountains above Varya.

Devin (Nightblade) Urslan—
A former Blade.

Dracodon—
A large magical beast, renowned for the ivory in its tusks.

Durkoth—
Others that live under the Hurnic Mountains. Allied with earth.

Dyad—
A binary entity made up of a human sorcerer and their familiar fused into a single consciousness.

Eavesman—
A spy or eavesdropper.

Eian Elarson—
King of Dalridia and brother to Jax.

Eight Major Elements, the—
Light, shadow, earth, air, water, fire, death, and life. Only the first seven are known to have corresponding elementals.

Elite, the—
Zhani mages. They fulfill the roles of secret police and spy corps among other functions.

Eva—
With Eyn the dual goddess worshiped by the Dyads.

Everdark, the—
The home dimension of the Shades.

Evindine—
A river, the main source of Evenduin, the sacred lake that holds the island of Namara.

Eyespy—
A type of eavesdropping spell.

Eyn—
With Eva the dual goddess worshiped by the Dyads.

Falissil
—
A Shade, companion to Voros.

Fallback—
A safe house.

Fallows, the—
The strip of land that runs on either side of the Wall of the Sylvain. God-magic prevents any construction from happening there.

Familiar Gift—
The ability to soul-bond with another being, providing the focus half of the power/focus dichotomy necessary to become a mage.

Faran Ghostwind—
A onetime Blade trainee, now Aral’s apprentice.

Fire and Sun!—
A Shade curse.

First—
The word the Others use to describe themselves.

Garis—
A Dalridian messenger.

Garret—
A onetime apprentice Blade, once one of Faran’s closest friends.

Ghost, Ghosting—
To kill.

Godwar—
The war between Heaven and those among the Others who sought to rival them.

Gojuru—
Mages smiths of Kanjuri. They have the mage gift but not the familiar gift and they use it to ensoul the living swords used by the Hairi.

Govana—
Goddess of the herds.

Grays—
The traditional garb of the Blade. Usually consists of low boots, flowing pants, a loose shirt, and a yoke and cowl, all dyed in an abstract pattern of dark grays. In colder weather a poncho is added.

Great Khan—
Titular head of all the clans of the Kvanas. In modern times, the great khan has primarily served as a figurehead to be raided or traded along with their court by the high khans in their internal battles.

Greatspell—
A major permanent work of magic, usually tied to a physical item.

Gryphon’s Head—
A tavern in Tien, the capital city of Zhan. Informal office for Aral.

Gryss—
A shade, familiar to Kumi. Takes the form of huge winged rat.

Gulthiss—
A Shade, familiar to Xin. Takes the form of a hump-backed camelopard.

Hairi—
The ruling class of Kanjuri, they have the familiar gift but not the mage gift, and use it to bond with living swords created by the Gojuru mage smiths.

Hand of Heaven
—
The Son of Heaven’s office of the inquisition, and one of five branches of the church hierarchy.

Harad—
Head librarian at the Ismere Library.

Heaven—
The land of the gods, ruled by the Emperor of Heaven.

Heaven’s Reach—
The temple kingdom ruled over by the Son of Heaven.

Heaven’s Shadow—
The name the Son of Heaven has given to his organization of Blade traitors. Their grays are slightly red tinted.

High Khan—
One of the rulers of the four clans of the Kvanas, nominally answering to the great khan, but in effect absolute rulers of their individual domains.

Holy Guard of Heaven—
The security apparatus of the Son of Heaven and one of five branches of the church hierarchy.

Illiana—
A master Blade, killed in a suicide attack at the fall of the temple, one that ended the life of the then Signet.

Inaya—
A onetime journeyman Blade.

Ismere Library—
A private lending library in Tien, founded by a wealthy merchant from Kadesh.

Jack—
A slang term for an unofficial or extragovernmental problem solver; see also, shadow jack, black jack, sunside jack.

Jaeris—
A onetime apprentice Blade, once one of Faran’s closest friends.

Jafsica—
A member of the Dalridian royal house, cousin to Jax.

Javan—
A onetime apprentice Blade.

Jax Seldansbane—
A former Blade and onetime fiancée of Aral’s.

Jealousy, Spirit of—
A demi-deity or greater spirit, part of the pantheon of the eleven kingdoms.

Jerik—
The bartender/owner of the Gryphon’s Head tavern.

Kaelin Fei, Captain—
Watch officer in charge of Tien’s Silent Branch, also known as the Mufflers.

Kayarin Melkar—
A master Blade who joined the Son of Heaven after the fall of the temple.

Kelos Deathwalker—
A master Blade who taught Aral.

Key of Sylvaras
—
A mythical item associated with the god Sylvaras.

Kila—
The spirit dagger of the Blade, symbolizing his bond to Namara.

Kodamia—
City-state to the west of Tien, controlling the only good pass through the Hurnic Mountains.

Kreyn—
The oldest branch of the Others. They live in forest enclaves within the Sylvani Empire. Allied with shadow.

Kuan-Lun—
A water elemental, one of the great dragons.

Kumi—
A onetime journeyman Blade.

Kvanas, the Four—
Group of interrelated kingdoms just north of Varya. Sometimes referred to as the Khanates.

Kyle’s—
An expensive Aveni whiskey.

Kyrissa—
A Shade, familiar to Siri. Takes the form of a winged serpent.

Loris—
A former Blade.

Mageblind—
Mage term for those without magesight.

Mage Gift—
The ability to perform magic, providing the power half of the power/focus dichotomy necessary to become a mage.

Magelands—
A loose confederation of city-states governed by the faculty of the mage colleges that center them.

Magelights—
Relatively expensive permanent light sources made with magic.

Magesight—
The ability to see magic, part of the mage gift.

Mage Wastes—
Huge area of magically created wasteland on the western edge of the civilized lands.

Magus—
The formal title of the chief mage of the Order of Blade, a member of the shadow council.

Malok—
A onetime apprentice Blade.

Malthiss—
A Shade, familiar to Kelos Deathwalker. Takes the form of a basilisk.

Maryam—
A onetime journeyman Blade.

Maylien Dan Marchon Tal Pridu
—
A former client of Aral’s.

Namara—
The now-deceased goddess of justice and the downtrodden, patroness of the Blades. Her symbol is an unblinking eye.

Nea Sjensdor—
Lady Signet, preceptor of the Hand of Heaven.

Nightghast—
One of the restless dead, known to eat humans.

Night Runners—
Small sampan like smuggling boats, painted dark colors and optimized for speed.

Nima—
Mana, the stuff of magic.

Nipperkins—
Magical vermin.

Noble Dragons—
Elemental beings that usually take the form of giant lizardlike creatures.

Nuriko Shadowfox—
Also known as the Kitsune, a master Blade.

Olthiss—
A Shade, familiar to Altia. Takes the form of a Kvani-style manticore.

Omira—
A onetime apprentice Blade, once one of Faran’s closest friends.

Orisa—
God of sailors.

Oris Plant—
A common weed that can be used to produce a cheap gray dye or an expensive black one.

Others—
The various nonhuman races.

Parsi—
One of the Blades who went over to the Son of Heaven.

Pol—
A master Blade, long since dead.

Qamasiin—
A spirit of air.

Rabbit Run—
An emergency escape route.

Rapportomancer—
A person with the familiar gift but no mage gift.

Resshath—
Shade term of respect meaning, roughly, teacher or sensei.

Resshath-ra
—
Shade term of respect, roughly sensei of sensei, the Shade equivalent of First Blade.

Restless Dead—
Catchall term for the undead.

Risen, the—
A type of restless dead, similar to a zombie.

Roric—
A onetime journeyman Blade, Avarsi by birth.

Seldan, Dukes of—
Varyan nobles, two of whom were executed by Jax.

Serass—
A Shade, familiar to Alinthide.

Shade—
Familiar to the Blades, a living shadow.

Shadow Council—
The ruling organization of the order of the Blade.

Shadow Jack—
A jack who earns his living as a problem solver in the shadow trades.

Shadow of Heaven—
The Blades that went over to the Son of Heaven, and one of five branches of the church hierarchy.

Shadowside—
The underworld or demimonde.

Shadow-Slipping—
The collective name for the various stealth techniques of Namara’s Blades.

Shadow World—
The demimonde or underworld.

Shanglun—
A river dragon.

Shan Starshoulders—
The god who holds up the sky, current Emperor of Heaven, lord of stability.

Shrouding—
When a Shade encloses his Blade in shadow.

Siri Mythkiller—
A former Blade.

Slink—
Magical vermin.

Snug—
A resting place or residence.

Son or Daughter of Heaven—
The title of the chief priest or priestess who leads the combined religions of the eleven kingdoms.

Ssassisshatha
—
A Shade word denoting identity or soul signature.

Ssayath—
A Shade, familiar to Inaya. Takes the form of a tuft-eared lynx.

Sshayar—
A Shade, familiar to Jax. Takes the form of a tiger.

Ssissathshta—
A Shade curse.

Ssithra—
A Shade, familiar to Faran. Takes the form of a phoenix.

Ssolvey—
A Shade, familiar to Roric. Takes the form of an enormous six-legged badger.

Ssuma—
A Shade, familiar to Illiana.

Ssura—
A Shade of an earlier era, before the Blades joined the service of Namara. Familiar to Corvin.

Stone Dog—
A living statue, roughly the size of a small horse. The familiar to the Elite.

Storm Eels—
Huge, sentient, telepathic, freshwater eels.

Sumey Dan Marchon Tal Pridu—
Baroness Marchon and sister of Maylien.