The Howling Delve (4 page)

Aazen nodded automatically. He had heard such reasoning from his father before. When he awoke facedown on the floor, of his room with a loose tooth or swollen lips, or when his belly burned from lack of food two days after some transgression, the actions were always justified. “Is Kail… are they dead?” he asked, striving to keep emotion out of the question. “Haig was with us—”

“Haig is dead,” confirmed Balram, “but not by my hand. Dhairr killed him.”

“Why?” Aazen hid his horror beneath confusion, which wasn’t difficult. Morel, kill an ally? It made no sense.

“Haig was a Hatper,” his father explained. “Morel has reason not to care for them. Dhairr still lives, but he is no longer a concern. He is under my control and believes his son to be a traitor. Kali, however, escaped. I do not know where.”

Relief nearly caused Aazen to swoon. His friend was safe. * “Men loyal to me are searching for him right now,” Balram continued. “The boy has seen too much to live.” His gaze fixed intently on his son’s face. “That’s why I need your help, Aazen.”

Aazen’s fear intensified. “What can I do?”

“Nearly all of your time is spent with Kali. You must have secret places, hidden grounds for whatever foolishness the two of you concoct. Do not deny it,” he warned softly as Aazen started to shake his head. “Kali has no other family, nowhere to run except such a place. If we do not find and silence him, if he manages to reach the authorities in Esmeltaran, they will learn what I have done.

“Think, boy,” he said, mistaking Aazen’s hesitation for a Ś lapse of memory. “You must know a place. We have to hurry. If I am caught, I will be killed.”

Aazen frantically searched for a way out of his father’s trap. His heart thudded wildly against his ribs. Betray Kail? It was unthinkable. Yet if he didn’t, his father would be taken away, and it would be Aazen’s fault. “I… I know of a place,” he stammered.

Balram’s face lit with an ugly smile. “Where?”

He would have to tread very carefully, Aazen thought, or his father would sense the ruse. The serpent in his belly threatened to rise up and choke him, but Aazen forced down the fear and guilt. “Near the lake—the Veshpel estate.” He named a house that had burned in mid-Tarsakh. He waited a breath and added, as if it were of no consequence, “Many of us go there to explore the ruins.”

The spark of triumph in his father’s eyes dimmed. “Will it be occupied, at this time of day?” Balram asked.

“Possibly,” Aazen said, and in truth, many of the local boys his age spent their free time among the blackened stones. But Kali would not go there for safety, of that he was certain. The estate was too near Morel house and too open to the world. There were better places to hide.

His father was silent, trying to determine the best course to take. Aazen prayed he would let him act, but that decision depended entirely on how much Balram trusted his son. In his heart, Aazen had always believed his father had little faith in him, and so he was surprised—and shamefully warmed—when Balram said, “Then you will have to do it.” He nodded, the idea seeming to gain merit, the more he considered it. “Kail trusts you. Take my horse. Find Kail in the ruins and draw him out, away from any watching eyes. You need not be the one to slay him,” he assured Aazen, squeezing his sons shoulder briefly. “Draw him away, and we will be waiting.”

Aazen sat silent a long time under his fathers penetrating gaze. This would be the critical test. If he gave in too readily, his father might grow suspicious. Aazen swallowed, hard and audibly in the quiet room. “No.”

Balram’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “No?”

“I can’t betray him, Father.” Aazen put a tremor in his voice, a weak, small titter that his father would not be able to tolerate. His father despised weakness. “Please don’t ask me—”

The slap blurred the edges of Aazen’s vision. His left eye immediately began to throb and water, but the blow had not been debilitating. His father meant only to silence him..

Obediently, he sat, teary-eyed, as Balram rose slowly to tower over him.

“I am asking you, boy,” he said, his breath hot and sour on Aazen’s face. “I am asking you to help me, to protect me, as I would lay down my life to protect you. Do you hate me so much that you would allow me to be taken, to be killed?” His eyes softened. The hurt crept in. The sight of it made Aazen sick to his stomach.

“No, Father!” he cried, “I don’t hate you!” And that was the truth. The only person Aazen hated in that instant was himself. “No, of course not!”

“Of course not,” his father repeated, his tone soothing. “You are becoming a man, a loyal son.” He touched a large hand to Aazen’s head and wiped the moisture away from his reddening

eye. “I will bring my horse, and you will ride. Go swiftly, and do as I instructed. In the morning, all this will be a fading memory.”

A memory, Aazen thought. If only his whole life could be someone else’s memory.

Esmeltaran, Amn

12 Eleasias, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR)

Kail swung off the horse. He seemed to fall a long way to the ground. He felt grass under his feet, and mud. In the colored twilight, he gazed up a steep hill speckled with what looked like small swaying firebrands.

The tangerine rose bushes were seasons old and thriving, planted one each in front of a dozen small headstones. The land he stood on belonged to Morel, the burial plots for servants who, had died without family in his father’s employ. No one passing on the nearby lane would notice the graves, but the expensive flowers—grown for the memory of twelve servants whose names would never be recalled—were sure to be marked by all.

He climbed to the steepest side of the hill, leading Haig’s horse up alongside him. Letting go of the horse’s reins, he dropped to his knees between two markers. He began plucking at the grass, fingers and nails raking, searching for a seam. His father had shown him the place long ago, but Kail remembered this pair of stones clearly. His father had made him memorize the names: Seth Tarin and Rose Olindrake.

Mud and grass stains covered his hands. It was no good— he’d need something to cut through. Reluctantly, Kail stood

and turned to Haig’s horse. He felt around the saddle blanket to the bags draped on either side. He found a knife in one.

Movement from behind set every nerve in his body on edge. Kali spun, slashing blindly with the knife.

Aazen caught Kail’s arm before he could drive the blade into his neck. “It’s me,” he said.

Breathing hard, Kail took a long time to focus on his friend and comprehend that he was not some specter from the surrounding graves. The knife fell forgotten to the grass. “What are you doing here?”

Then it came to him in a rush—Aazen’s washed-out face, his swollen eye, and the grim set to his mouth. “Your father,” Kali croaked. “He—”

“I know.” Aazen nodded. Kali mirrored the gestute. It was all the acknowledgment either seemed capable of giving.

“He will kill you,” Aazen said. “His men are hunting for you now.”

“They don’t know about this place,” Kail said. He retrieved his knife and started digging.

Aazen scraped dirt aside with his hands. “You don’t have much time,” he said. He hesitated, looking at the ground. “These won’t help you.”

Kail’s blade found the niche he’d been looking for, and he peeled the grass back, like slipping the lid off a stubborn box. Beneath lay a hollow space lined with wood and cloth. Two bundles of tightly wrapped linen were nestled on top of this, the larger tied with a rope to be worn on the shoulders. He drew them out reverently, as he’d seen his father do when he’d first shown them to Kali.

“I’m going back,” he said, glaring into Aazen’s skeptical eyes. “If I can just get to Father …”

“Your fathet believes you have betrayed him,” Aazen said bluntly. “He is allowing mine to deal with you, in whatever way he sees fit.”

Kail’s gaze faltered. “You’re lying,” he said automatically. “Father would never believe I betrayed him.”

“He has no say in the matter. Fathet has Morel under his control. I don’t know how…” Aazen’s mind seized on his healed wound. “Magic, perhaps.”

“Magic.” Kail’s forehead wrinkled. Magic was only a vague concept to him, little more than a fixture in the stories his father used to tell of his mother. Fantastic and sometimes brutal as the tales had been, he’d only ever listened to the parts about the woman herself, soaking up every small detail….

No, Kali thought savagely, thrusting the memories away. All that had been a lie. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’ll go back and free him. I have these”—he clutched the bundles—”they have magic. Father told me. I’ll kill Balram!”

The words rang out between them, and Kail sucked in a bteath, watching Aazen, hearing the words and their implications for the first time.

He’d just sworn to kill Aazen’s father. In one day, their worlds had shattered. Nothing would ever be the same for either of them again.

Aazen said nothing at first, only smoothed the dirt and grass back in place over the hole. He looked up as the sun dipped below the horizon. “You have to leave the city. I was sent out to lead Father’s men to wherever you might be hiding. I came to warn you, but I can’t stay here. When Father realizes I’ve put him on a false trail, he’ll be tracking me.” Aazen stated into the distance, as if seeing something frightening in the datk. “I can’t hide for long.”

“He won’t forgive you. He’ll beat you to death and won’t know he’s doing it,” Kali said bitterly. “You have to run.”

They had no choice. Aazen was right. If Kail went back now, without his father’s aid, he had no hope. It shamed Kail to admit his fear, but stronger than that was the anger, the fury at Balram and all he’d stolen from Kail’s family. Balram wanted him dead. The only action Kail could take right now to thwart him was to stay alive.

Absotbed in thoughts and plans, Kail didn’t notice Aazen’s silence. His friend got to his feet and started walking, out into

the dark. Abruptly, Kail realized what he intended and yelled, “You can’t go back. You’ll die!”

Aazen paused, not looking back. “No. I don’t think … no. I’m all he has. He cares for me.”

Kail’s mouth twisted. “How can he? Your father’s a murderer.”

Aazen said, calmly, “So is yours.”

And then, as if it had been waiting, the scene in the garden broke fresh in Kail’s mind. He saw his father drowning Haig as the sun shone down and insects buzzed around theit bleeding wounds. He’d managed to block it out before, when he’d needed to escape, but Aazen’s woids conjured the memory effortlessly.

Kail put his head in the grass and vomited. Sweat dripped between his shoulder blades, but he was so cold his fingers were numb. He tried to stand, but the sickness racked his body. Aazen made no move to help him.

“You said … you said he was under Balram’s control!” Kali spat and wiped his mouth. “Father would never have killed Haig.”

“Morel hates the Harpers. My father told me yout father had reason to want Haig’s death.” “No!”

Aazen looked down at Kail pityingly. “Get on your horse,” he said. “Don’t come back. Don’t come after Balram. I’ll have to … to kill you, if you do.”

Then Aazen went, his footsteps shuffling dully through the gtass. Kail sat, frozen in shock, but he didn’t call out again. He simply listened, his breath aching in his chest, as his best friend walked away from him.

Finally, his movements wooden, Kail tied the linen bundles on to his back and mounted. He pointed the horse in the direction of the city gates, picking his way in and out of sparse trees, avoiding the open fields of the cemetery wherever possible. After a dozen glances over his shoulder, he left his home behind.

The horse plodded on the road south, and when next Kali opened his eyes, he saw nothing but moonlight on grass and a row of carefully laid stones.

Kail thought he’d turned a complete circle, bringing him back to the same cemetery he’d left earlier that night. No, the stones were different—there were more here, older, and of elaborate design.

He slid down for a closer look, but the family names were none he recognized. A twisted oak overrun by tall grass and brush marked the border of the cemetery. Kali tied the hotse to the tree, out of sight, and settled on the grass.

For a long time he stared straight ahead, listening for the sounds of hoofbeats or footfalls that might indicate pursuit. Hearing none, he untied the bundles from his back and clutched them tight.

His empty gaze focused on one of the unfamiliar markers. The name “Alinore Fallstone” was catved deep into the stone next to some kind of symbol. There were more words written underneath the name in a language Kali did not recognize.

He stared at the symbols, at the incomprehensible language, until the words blurred and darkness fell completely over his mind.

Esmeltaran, Amn

12 Eleasias, the Year of the Sword (1365 DR)

Balram waited at the door to Aazen’s chamber. His gaze flicked briefly to Dencer, who’d found Aazen on the road and escorted him home. “Wait outside,” he said.

Dencer nodded and shut the door, sealing them off from the rest of the house.

Aazen stood in the middle of the room, waiting, while Balram locked the doot and slowly turned. They stared at each other for a quiet breath, measuring, Aazen thought, how much had changed since they’d last spoken in this loom.

“Kail is gone?” his father asked at last. He already had the answer, but Aazen recognized what he really wanted to know.

“Kali is leaving Amn,” Aazen said. “He knows that to stay is to die. Your secret is safe. I made sure of it,” he added, and realized immediately that it was a mistake. He sounded too confident, too powerful, and Balram sensed it.

His fathet’s eyes narrowed and something ugly broke on his calm, inscrutable face. “You made certain. You stood in this chamber and lied to me, took my life into your hands… .” “I protected you.”

“You were protecting Morel’s whelp!” His father took a step

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forward. Aazen flinched. He couldn’t help it. “You gave no thought to me.”

“That’s not true, Father,” Aazen said quietly. “I give evety thought to you, every breath of my life.”