The Innocent Mage (27 page)

‘Who would?’ said Matt, one eye on the lads. ‘Bellybone!’ he called sharply. ‘You’re dropping hay all over the countryside!’

Bellybone stopped. Looked. ‘Sorry, Matt!’ he shouted, grinning. His skinny arms clutched a hastily stuffed sack of dried grass like it was his last hope of true love. ‘I’ll pick it up directly!’

Despite the cold lump of miserable anger in his gut, Asher smiled. Bellybone was contagious. Always grinning, no matter what, infecting everybody around him with smiles. Even Matt was fighting to keep his face stern.

‘Mind you do!’ the stable meister retorted. ‘Or you’ll find it on your dinner plate tonight and that’s a promise!’ As the other lads hooted and whistled he turned back to Asher. ‘Timon Spake was a fool.’

The brief amusement died. ‘Well, he be a dead fool now,’

said Asher grimly.

Matt’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. ‘It had to be done.’

‘I ain’t sayin’ it didn’t. Just…’

‘Saying it and seeing it are two different things?’

‘Aye.’

Letting his hand drop, Matt stared over the treetops and into the cooling blue sky. Towards the mountains and the indirect cause of Timon Spake’s lonely death.

‘The Wall’s all there is, Asher, keeping us safe. You can’t let misplaced mercy put a whole kingdom at risk.

Not after six hundred years. It’s sad a man died, but if his meddling had brought down the Wall, how many more deaths would there be? It’s one life against tens and tens of thousands, my friend. And anyway, Timon Spake knew the price of law-breaking, just like the rest of us do. Now he’s paid it.’

Asher nodded. ‘That’s pretty much what Dathne said.’

‘Did she? Well, then. You should listen to her. She’s right. And so am I.’

He was really very tired. ‘I know, I know. You’re right, she’s right, the king’s right. Everybody’s right. And that poor bastard’s dead. And Gar …’

Matt picked up an errant stick of straw and began shredding it with his strong, blunt fingers. ‘What about him?’

‘He’s … sorry.’

The stick of straw disintegrated. Matt tucked the tattered remains in his shirt pocket and considered him, ‘And you’re angry.’

Bloody oath he was angry. Despite hours of walking and silent swearing, still angry. He turned away, simmering resentment hunching one shoulder. ‘I agreed to witness the hearing. Nowt more. Weren’t me passing judgement on Spake, eh? Weren’t me had the power to speak up for him and didn’t. That was Gar. He should’ve let me leave with the others. Bastard.’

Matt frowned. ‘Do I have it wrong? Was Spake’s guilt not certain after all?’

‘No. It was as certain as I be standin’ here. He admitted it. And there were sworn witnesses. Two little girls … but sworn, all the same. Their father’s a mayor. He vouched fot ‘em.’

‘So. Spake was guilty. And you agree the law’s got to be upheld?’

Now what was Matt getting at? ‘Course I bloody do! What’s your point?’

‘Then you judged him, didn’t you?’ Matt said gently, using the voice he saved for especially fractious colts. ‘And if you judged him you owed him witness of his death. That’s only fair.’

Because it was Matt, whose opinion he’d come to value, he didn’t swear and stamp off back to the Tower. T s’pose,’ he muttered grudgingly.

‘Tell me something. You say Gar wouldn’t let you leave? Fair enough. You were stuck there. But he couldn’t force you to watch, could he? When the moment came you could’ve closed your eyes. Or looked away. Why didn’t you?’

‘How d’you know I didn’t?’ Matt’s smile was melancholy. ‘It’s written all over your face, Asher.’

He glared at the ground. ‘I couldn’t. The stupid little bastard had guts, didn’t he? Never begged. Just owned up. He… he put his head on that bloody chunk of wood like he was in bed and that were his feather pillow!’ It was an image he knew would haunt him for nights to come. Maybe forever. ‘Sixteen, he was. Not a man, I don’t care what the law says. And he knew he was goin’ to die. But he sang a bloody hymn with Holze and he knelt in all that damn straw and he let ‘em cut his head off with an axe … and he never once said they shouldn’t or begged ‘em not to.’

‘He was brave then.’

‘As brave as he was stupid! And Barl knows he was as stupid as they come. If y’want the truth, Matt, I don’t know if I could’ve been so calm. So I s’pose I — I felt like I owed it to ‘im not to look away.’

‘Despite everything then, Spake was a good lad.’ Matt’s voice was thick with feeling. Shocked, Asher saw tears in his eyes. Matt turned away, embarrassed. Plucked a faded bloom from a nearby rosebush and crushed the wilted petals in his fist. ‘His death’s a stupid, shameful waste. If he’d lived, he might’ve been …’ Unheeded, the ruined rose petals drifted to the ground. His voice fell to a whisper, might’ve been anything.’

‘Aye, well,’ said Asher once the silence had stretched good ways beyond comfortable, ‘it’s all over now anyroad and a damn good job too. Reckon I’ve had enough blooi and death to last me a lifetime.’

Matt stared at him, frowning. ‘Well … it’s not quiti over,’ he said, and nodded at the other side of the stable yard. ‘Cygnet’s saddled and waiting for you.’

Following the nod Asher saw his horse’s bridled head poke over its stable door, ears pricked. ‘Why?’

Matt met his challenging stare with a challenge of his own. ‘His Highness rode out of here nearly an hour ago and I didn’t much care for the look of him. I think he was -‘ He reconsidered. ‘He’d been drinking. Said he was going out to Salbert’s Eyrie. You know where that is?’

‘Aye. Bellybone and Mikel took me to see it my second week here.’ Asher thought about that. ‘The Eyrie? And he’s drunk, you say? Sink me bloody sideways! Matt, you don’t reckon he’d do somethin’ daft like —’

‘Would I be standing here if I did? What I think is you should go after him. Forget you’re angry. Forget what you saw. Just… go after him. Now.’

Asher went. Even though it meant leaving dinner behind, Cygnet was glad of the gallop; his enormous strides ate up the eight miles between the Tower and the popular picnic park and lookout over Lur’s deepest, wildest valley gorge.

Nobody was picnicking there now. The Eyrie was deserted save for Gar’s horse Ballodair, tied to a safely distant sapling and dancing at Cygnet’s arrival … and Gar himself. The fool had blithely, stupidly ignored the safety railings ,and the warning signs and perched himself on a rock several feet distant from the official viewing platform. Sighing, Asher tied Cygnet next to Ballodair and joined the prince in his folly.

‘If you be thinkin’ of jumpin’ don’t expect me to follow you down,’ he remarked. ‘I ain’t got no head for heights.’

Gar glanced at him sideways then returned to his contemplation of the bone-breaking drop below them. The valley floor was hidden. All that could be seen was a sharply sloping terrace of boulders, bare dirt, scrubby saplings and tangled undergrowth, then nothing but tree after tree after tree, spreading for miles like a green and leafy ocean.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked the prince. His expression was remote. Uncaring. If he was in his cups the excess alcohol hadn’t spilled out of him yet.

Asher hunkered to his heels cautiously. Peered over the edge of the precipice and pulled a face. ‘Buggered if I know.’ He shrugged. ‘Came to talk, I s’pose.’ ‘How … convivial … of you.’

Moving at a snail’s pace, mindful of the merciless drop mere inches away, Asher sat down. ‘But not prince to fisherman, mind. I’ll tell you straight, I ain’t in the mood for that kind of conversation just now.’ That earned him a dark look. ‘Are you ever?’ So. His Royal Highness was a surly drunk, was he? Well sink that for a load of mackerel. ‘Look. If you don’t want company, Gar, just say so. I ain’t —’

‘Stay,’ Gar said. ‘Please. And we’ll talk like fr— like two men in plain clothes with not a crown in sight.’ Asher stretched out his legs again. ‘Fine.’ ‘Good.’ Reaching inside his black tunic Gar pulled out a silver flask inlaid with mother-of-pearl, unscrewed the lid and trickled something smelling of old peaches into his open mouth.

After a moment, Asher said, ‘My ma always said it were polite to share.’

Gar tipped the flask upside down. It was empty. Asher snorted. ‘Ha. That’d be bloody right.’

Contemplating the wild and unforgiving valley, the flas discarded beside him, Gar said, ‘It’ll be night soon.’

Asher looked at the fading sky, the swiftly sinking sun.’ noticed. Reckon we should think on headin’ home in a bit eh? That ole Darran’s like to be piddlin’ his panties worryin’ on where you’ve got to.’

Frowning now, Gar picked up a handful of pebbles from the rock beside him. Juggled them in his palm. ‘I’ve been wondering. Would it’ve hurt, do you think, to have given Timon Spake one more sunrise?’

Asher shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Would it?’ The pebbles trickled slowly through Gar’s spreading fingers. ‘I think I’d want another one.’

‘And another one, and another one …’ Asher picked up a fist-sized chunk of loose rock and threw it over the edge of the Eyrie. Listened for a moment as it bounced from boulder to boulder below them, rousing echoes. ‘It had to be done, Gar.’

Gar looked at him. Beneath an icy surface his eyes reflected all manner of uneasy things. ‘You can still say that? Even now? Even after seeing … what you saw?’

‘Even after. Though I reckon I’d say the same even if you hadn’t made me stay and watch.’

The prince stared at his booted toes. ‘You’re angry about that.’

Asher sighed. ‘I was. I ain’t so much now.’

‘Why not?’

‘Matt and me had some words. He made sense.’ ‘Don’t you want to know why I made you stay?’ ‘I know why,’

Gar looked at him. ‘Oh?’ ‘Aye.’

‘Well then, don’t stop there. Tell me. Explain. Elucidate. Show me,’ said Gar, savagely, ‘to myself.’

‘All right. Only I ain’t best pleased with you just now so don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

‘I won’t.’

Asher took a deep breath and hissed it out between his teeth. ‘Well then. Why is because misery loves company. Because law or no law you didn’t want Spake to die and I did. Because that made you angry. Because even though you’re a prince and the very important Olken Administrator and you were up on that platform alongside all the most powerful men in this whole bloody kingdom, you were as chained-up and powerless as stupid Timon Spake. And you didn’t like how that felt one little bit. So you turned around and you chained me too. To prove you do have power. To prove you ain’t helpless after all. That’s why.’ Very slowly, Gar turned to look at him. ‘You bastard.’’ ‘Aye.’ Asher raised an eyebrow. ‘But that don’t mean I’m wrong.’

Gar’s eyes glittered. ‘You are if I say you are.’ ‘Oh, here we go.’ Asher pulled an obsequious face. ‘Deary me, Your Highness, that’s a pretty crown. A present from your da, was it?’

With a wordless cry of rage Gar snatched up a nearby shard of rock and flung it into the valley. Sudden fury lent him strength, so that the rock tore through the tops of distant trees and sent birds shrieking into the fading light. ‘It’s Barl who’s wrong! It’s a stupid law!’ he shouted. ‘Olken can no more do magic than I can! They — you — can’t possibly damage the fabric of the kingdom or Barl’s Wall! It’s a stupid, senseless law! And today a man died because of it!’

Behind them the horses’ bits jangled as they threw up their heads, protesting the noise. Asher glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were still secure, because it was a long walk back to the Tower and he had enough blisters to be going on with. Then he looked at Gar. Risked a kindly mocking smile.

‘Prob’ly you shouldn’t go round sayin’ things like that where folks can hear you.’

Breathing heavily, Gar stared. Accepted the mockery ana managed a twisted smile. ‘Yes. Well. You’re folks.’

‘Aye, but I’m different.’

‘You certainly are.’ He glanced longingly at his empty brandy flask, then dragged a hand over his face. ‘He was so brave.’

‘I know,’ said Asher. ‘So what?’

‘So what? So we’ll never know now, will we, what he might have given this kingdom? All his unfulfilled promise has gone to feed the worms!’

‘I know what he gave this kingdom,’ Asher said roughly. ‘Fear and uncertainty and mobs in the street. He was a traitor. He betrayed you, your da and his own people. Your folk and mine might be chalk and cheese, Gar, but we got one thing in common. Lur. Keepin’ it safe. Keepin’ that Wall standin’ strong and shinin’. Where all that’s concerned there ain’t no you and me, there’s just us. Timon Spake? He were the enemy. And you don’t cry for enemies. You kill ‘em.’

Gar stared down into the valley. ‘Yes. We do.’ His face spasmed. 7 do. Well. It’s nice to know there’s one Doranen thing I’m good at anyway. Seems I’m not a complete cripple after all. Although it’s fortunate we used an axe. I couldn’t have killed him if magic was part of the proceedings.’ He laughed. ‘Now why didn’t I think of that before? Damn\ 1 could’ve gone to the king and said, you know, sir, since we Doranen presume to have the right of life and death over our lesser Olken brethren, why not go the whole hog and show them how superior we really are? Why don’t we kill Timon Spake with magic? That’d make those pesky inferior magickless natives sit up and take notice, wouldn’t it? Conroyd would love that. He’d be your new best friend. Oh, and since I’m nothing but a useless cripple, what you might call a walking talking birth defect, I’ll leave the whole trial and execution with magic details to you. All right?’

Appalled, Asher stared. Walking talking birth defect} Where was this coming from? Was it the brandy putting wild words in his mouth or did he really believe … ‘Gar, you’re ravin’! You can’t —’

‘Blessed Barl save me!’ Gar lurched dangerously to his feet. ‘I’m the Olken Administrator! I’m supposed to help your people, Asher, not kill them!’

This was getting out of hand. If Gar wasn’t careful he really would go over the edge of the precipice. Asher stood, slowly, and took the prince by the arm. ‘You do help, Gar,’ he said, and inched him backwards towards safety. ‘You be a fool to think otherwise. That woman in Justice Hall, remember her? She’d be in prison today or ruined or both if it wasn’t for you. Stop frettin’ on stupid Timon Spake! You didn’t kill him. He bloody well killed himself, near enough!’ ‘I know!’ Gar shouted. T know, I know. But I had a chance to speak for him and I didn’t. I’m the Olken Administrator, it’s my job to take care of your people. I could’ve said something in his defence and I didn’t.’