The King's Peace (59 page)

"Who knows why those raiders do anything," she said, angrily.

"Come here, Ulf," I said. "You know why raiders do things, tell me why they might have done this." His skin was as whiter than milk as he came forward, and his beard was stained and revolting. He couldn't seem to stop retching, though only air and bile was coming out now. The spasms wracked him. "Drink some water and pull yourself together," I said. "If I can stand to look at this, you can. This was a friend of mine, a holy sister from Thansethan."

Silently ap Padarn gave Ulf his waterskin. Ulf poured it over his head, some of it went in his mouth. "They—they—" and he fell to the ground retching the water out again, lying full length in the loam at my feet. I managed to refrain from kicking him, but it was a close thing.

"Elwith, go and tell ap Erbin we're all right, and get him to bring the troops down to the road.

Then tell him—just him—to come in here and see this. Don't tell the others what we've found. I want everyone to stay calm. Beris, you go with the scout, quietly, and go around this clearing and see if you find anything at all. If you do, come back and tell me, but I'd be surprised. She's been dead all day, and they got back onto that burning ship."

"Nobody would get onto a burning ship," Elwith protested. "Unless the White God struck it by lightning to set it on fire and punish them for their crimes."

It was a better explanation than anything I had. But they had probably left in another ship, whatever their reason for burning that one had been. "If he was going to strike people by lightning it would have been better if he'd done it in time to save Arvlid, not just avenge her," I said. "I think they've gone, but I'm not sure, so keep watching out."

Elwith went back to the horses, and the others left. Ulf lay in the dirt retching helplessly. "Have you any more water?" I asked ap Padarn. He shook his head. "Go back to Mael and get his waterskin," I said.

As soon as he had gone I bent over Arvlid and drew out the piece of cloth I had glimpsed in her hand. It was a torn scrap of light red cloth the color and width of the streamers Ayl used like a banner. It didn't look as if she had clutched at it; it looked as if it had been pressed into her dead fingers. I put it inside my tunic; then I did kick Ulf, just once and not very hard.

"Get up. I know you didn't do it. I don't think it was Jarnish raiders at all. How would they know to come to this place? This is a trap, and if we don't want to be caught by it we have got to talk!"

He groaned. Ap Padarn came back with the water. I poured it over Ulf.

"Never would have thought he had such a weak stomach," ap Padarn said. "Not a pretty sight I'll agree, but you don't see me puking on the ground."

"No," I agreed, crisply. "Go back to Mael, and when the others come remind ap Erbin to come in. Don't spread rumors among the others, and don't tell them what you've seen; we don't want more lost breakfasts."

When he had gone, Ulf sat up. He looked disgusting, splashed with vomit and dirt and with twigs and dirt sticking to his wet hair. He could not meet my eyes, and he looked ashamed to be alive.

"I'm sorry," he said, feebly. "It's just I have nightmares—"

"You didn't do this," I said. He couldn't have done it, but he could have caused it to be done. I
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had believed what he had said in the sight of the gods on Foreth, but I had to be sure. I put my hand on my sword ready to kill him if I had to.

"Of course not," he said. "No. I could never—"

"Someone wanted me to find it and act in fury," I said, as sure of it as I ever had been of anything. I took my hand off my sword and looked down at Arvlid's body. "If I had ridden into Aylsfa and fired the fields in vengeance for Arvlid, Ayl would have fought, and that would have been the end of Urdo's Peace."

"You're not going to, are you?" Ulf asked, groggily.

"Don't be ridiculous, I've never been further from hot fury in my life." In fact I felt as cold and hard and brittle as ice. "But think. Whoever did this aimed it at me like a knife to the heart. They killed Arvlid to break the Peace, I think. Who was it? If this was meant whoever did this knew, Ulf. They knew something only you and I and six dead men know.

Who have you told?"

"Nobody." He shook his head, dazedly, looking up at me. "Nobody, not that they could know to do this. Half the men ofjarnholme know that I was lamed by a woman on a raid in Tir Tanagiri, but I didn't know who you were. I have said nothing to anyone since the judgment."

"Ohtar, Urdo—nobody else at all? I have never told anyone."

"From what we said on Foreth there would not have been enough to know it was an oak tree—an ash would be the tree for the Raven Lord," Ulf said, slowly, stumblingly. He looked up for the first time and saw the bones and bundles hanging in the branches.

"What is this place?" A few drops of rain came down through the leaves and fell on his upturned face; he brushed them off irritably.

"An old place of worship for my gods, I think, though nobody has been here for a long time, twenty years maybe. Who else could have known? Think!"

He was silent a while. "Nobody," he said. "A handful of Jarnsmen know where. They are all of them in Jarnholme or dead, I think. Ragnald Torrensson and my brother Arling know where and hate you. But they don't know enough to have done this." He gestured but did not look. "Could they not have meant an atrocity for whoever came?"

"Maybe, but this is beyond coincidence, this was aimed at me, or at you and me, by malice."

"Would you have thought, if I had not been here, that I—" He could not go on. Though there was nothing inside him, the noises he made were disgusting.

"No," I said, though I wasn't sure if I would or not. "You spoke the truth on Foreth, and I believe you."

"I didn't tell anyone," he said, gulping air. I gave him the waterskin, and he took a deep draught.

"Nobody could know from me, unless they read my dreams, and such things are only in old stories."

I thought at once of Morwen of Angas, and the thought felt right, though she was dead.

Morwen the witch-queen. "Old stories?" I said. "You should never sleep near people you do not trust, especially if you have screaming dreams that wake up half the camp." I rubbed my eyes and reached out to the Lord of Light for clarity. "Is this very like your dreams?"

I asked. "It does not seem to me as like as all that."

Ulf staggered to his feet and looked at Arvlid, breathing carefully. "We cut your dress off," he said, just loud enough for me to hear. "But in my dreams they pull my tunic up."

I didn't know what to say. Ap Erbin came through the trees a few minutes later to find us standing silently, not looking at each other.

"What's going on?" ap Erbin asked. "Elwith said—" He came forward and knelt beside Arvlid.

"Gunnarsson, go back to the others," I said. Ulf turned and left without a word, not looking at
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me.

"Someone is trying to make me angry," I said to ap Erbin.

"It sounds to me as if they've succeeded," ap Erbin said, looking up at me, puzzled.

"I've never seen you so furious."

"I don't think this is the sort of angry they want," I said. "What do you think of what you've seen?"

"Sullen?"

"Tell me what you think," I said, speaking through my teeth.

"A dead monk, a longship on fire for no good reason—a Jarnish raid, though a bit inland for one. Maybe some kind of ambush somewhere, which is what you thought when you rode down here. Why are you so very upset?"

I took the cloth out again and showed it to him. "This was in her hand."

He gasped and drew back. "Ayl? But why?"

"If I said we were going to ride into Aylsfa and punish this would you come?" I asked. I raised a hand as soon as he started to speak. "Look a bit closer. What is this place? Why here?

Why did they burn the ship? What did they gain by it? How likely is it that she should have torn a banner if she was struggling? A banner of all things, when Ayl only has one? This is a trap, for us and for Ayl. This was done by some enemy of the Peace, and I have to see clearly what to do next."

Ap Erbin frowned and turned the cloth in his hands. "Who could have done it? Why?"

"Someone who hates us and wants dissension. Someone who knew we would be riding down this road today and wanted us to find these things. Who could it be?"

"Arling Gunnarsson? Atha ap Gren?" Ap Erbin's frown deepened as he looked up at the bundles in the trees. "Cinon of Nene? Flavien ap Borthas? Someone who knew the land well."

"The land, of course. That's what to do about it!" I said, interrupting. "Are we in Nene here, or still in Tevin?"

"I think this is actually Segantia,just," ap Erbin said. "We're half a day from Thansethan. Why? What difference does it make?"

"The calm answer to something designed to make us angry is to have a judgment," I said. "This is a murder. I am sure there's something about murder in Urdo's law code, or there will be when it's finished. I want to gather them all here to see justice done to whoever did this. I am angry: I am so angry I want to tear their hearts out. They took Arvlid's life, Arvlid who never did any harm and much good, and they killed her not for anything she was or was not, but just to trick me and break the Peace. I will gather them all here, and I will have the land say who did this."

"Sulien, what are you talking about?" Ap Erbin stood and put his hand on my shoulder.

"You're not making sense."

"Somebody who hates us wanted to goad me into breaking the Peace. They thought that this would do it," I said, as calmly as I could. "It might have worked if they had done it better, if I hadn't seen through it. I need to find out who it was to stop them trying again and doing better next time. I need justice done in the open."

"It could have been raiders. She was always riding out from Thansethan, Elwith said."

"This cloth was prepared in advance," I said, but even as I spoke I remembered Darien's letters, saying he rode out with her. If this was an attack aimed at me, where was he?

"Stay here," I said. "Camp by the river. Keep a guard on this clearing. Send scouts out as far as you can and bring in anyone you find, both directions on the river. I am going to Thansethan, and then to Caer Tanaga. I will come back with Urdo, I should be back in five or six days, or I will send word."

"I don't understand," ap Erbin said, sounding dazed. "You said they wouldn't let you in at
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Thansethan? Why are you going? Calm down a moment."

I took a deep deliberate breath, and then another. I reached out to the Lord of Light and felt calm coming closer to me.

"I need to get Urdo and everyone here," I said. "I need to find out if anyone else has been hurt.

My son is at Thansethan, and he sometimes rode out with Arvlid."

Ap Erbin stared at me a moment. "Send messengers," he said. "Send scouts all round in groups.

You can't do any more than they could. We should set up camp here, by the river. A proper camp with a ditch and rampart. Those raiders or whoever they are have gone somewhere, and not up in smoke."

He was right, and I knew it. I wanted my enemies drawn up in a shield wall before my lowered lance, everything is so easy then. It was the gods' help that gave me the clarity I had, not to go tearing off in my rage and break the Peace myself.

"I'll write the messages. You send out the scouting groups and get the camp started."

"What about—" He gestured to Arvlid's body. "Should we send her back to Thansethan or bury her here?"

"What would be usual in her faith?" I asked. "I only know what they do for people killed in battle. Would it be different for a monk? We're not far from Thansethan: let's just cover her for now and ask them what they want done. And we must keep the armigers away from here: this is a terrible place. Post two guards here, but don't let everyone come and trample about. Let's all get back to the river, and get people out as soon as we can."

—35—

Come little warrior, kick your toes.

Come little shieldman, touch your nose.

Come little warrior, make a fist

Come little shieldman, snatch my wrist.

Come little warrior, duck your head, Fast, little shieldman, fast or dead.

— Jarnish nursery rhyme game

The first report came from the half pennon sent across the river into Aylsfa. They found signs that a group of people, nine or ten, had left the water a little way past the bend downstream and headed off inland. They tracked them for a mile or two cross-country towards a hamlet, but the tracks vanished into a coppice. They thought from the prints there might have been a boy with them, someone with smaller feet. The scout looked wretched and could not meet my eyes when she told me. I sent another group with some of the best scouts out that way, but nobody could pick up any trail after they went into the trees.

I paced in the rain all afternoon and everyone kept clear of me except more scouts bringing inconclusive reports. Everyone was occupied, either scouting or setting up camp under ap Erbin's direction. After a while, when most people were eating, Elidir came up and waited for me to notice her. She had brought some smoked ham and pan bread. I ate it standing up, choking down each mouthful as if it had been an acorn cake.

A party from Thansethan arrived at the camp just before dusk. It was a much larger group than I had been expecting. Ap Selevan's whole pennon was there, with a whole cluster of brown-robed monks riding in the middle. Father Gerthmol was among them, with Raul and nine or ten others.

Ap Selevan came up to me as soon as he had dismounted. "The Queen insisted we all come, Praefecto," he said. "She said she was safe behind strong walls in Thansethan, and you might have need of us."

"May the Lady of Wisdom bless her for her good sense!" I said, really meaning it.