The Storm Witch (44 page)

“That is the tradition, yes,” Naxot said. “Honor and fair dealing. There have not been Paledyn on this side of the Long Ocean for generations. But they existed still in Boravia.”

“Well, I didn’t believe in any of that until I met her, but you have to admit, Dhulyn Wolfshead doesn’t strike me as anyone’s cat’s-paw.” Carcali frowned. “That didn’t come out right, but still, you get what I meant.” She lifted her feet and watched the water drops fall back into the pond before submerging them once again.

This time both Xerwin and Naxot recognized they weren’t being asked anything and simply waited for her to continue.

“All right. So the Paledyn shows up, asks the Marked to explain themselves, and suddenly they claim they can find your sister. They know where she is and can get her back. Why now and not before?”

“Dhulyn Wolfshead says she was Seen by the White Twins.”

Carcali looked sideways at him, with her eyebrows raised and her lips twisted. “And who are they? More of these Marked, right? It’s not as though Dhulyn Wolfshead saw your sister herself, is it? I mean, I’d be inclined to believe
her,
who wouldn’t? But these White Twins . . .” She shook her head.

Naxot had found a rock to sit on. “I have never heard that Seers could be used to Find. They See Visions of the future, that is all.”

Carcali was nodding again. “It’s too convenient. It sounds to me as if they’re just trying to get out from under. You know,” she added in response to Xerwin’s look of puzzlement. “Trying to make out that none of this was their fault. And maybe it wasn’t, not really. I mean it was your father scared them into trying something, anything, to get him what he wanted.”

“And what he ‘got,’ as you say, was something that he wanted much more than my sister.” Xerwin took in a deep lungful of air and let it out slowly. “You both make it sound very simple,” he said.

“Well, it is for me, you see. That’s the point.” She twisted, pulling her feet from the pond, until she was facing him directly. He was grateful that she didn’t touch him. “I was there. I’m the only one who really knows. I
know
your sister was nowhere near, and she couldn’t have survived long outside her body, not without the training I’ve had. That’s why it’s simple for me. I
know
.”

Xerwin nodded. What the Storm Witch—Carcali—said made a great deal of sense. Especially since it explained how Dhulyn Wolfshead could still be in the right. He made a decision. He would tell them.

“The Paledyn goes tonight to the Sanctuary,” he said. “To Find my sister, she said.”

“You mean she
believes
so,” Naxot said. “If she is being misled, as
we
think. But we should consider that the Marked are capable of any trickery. They could expel the Storm Witch, and this time permanently.” Naxot swallowed. “And so? We would lose a Weather Mage, a useful person, and gain nothing—or worse.” Naxot looked from Carcali to Xerwin and back again.

Xerwin found himself nodding. Better that some good should come from his sister’s loss. For he found he was convinced, his sister
was
lost. He would go to the Sanctuary himself. He would see what kind of trick the Marked had prepared for the Paledyn, and he would put a stop to it.

And then there would be only the Tarxin to deal with.

“I
CAN’T REMEMBER EVER being in a palace—or castle large or small—where there was not more movement than this during the night.” Parno kept his voice low, though not quite in the nightwatch whisper. Remm Shalyn, in the lead position two paces in front of Dhulyn, would have no trouble hearing him. Parno would rather have walked point himself, but he was the only one of the three of them who had never been to the Sanctuary of the Marked. So Remm walked in front, sword in his right hand, a shuttered lantern giving minimum light in his left. Dhulyn was second, her hands empty, with her sword in its sheath, her wrist resting on the hilt. Parno brought up the rear, with a bare blade and a shuttered lantern of his own.

They walked quietly, but didn’t trouble to keep to the deeper shadows. Back in her rooms, Dhulyn had explained to Remm what the Common Rule had to say about situations like these.

“Attitude is the best disguise,” she had said. “If we come upon anyone who has the authority to stop us—”

“Or who think they have such authority.”

“Or who think so,” she’d agreed, grinning. “You are merely two attendants escorting the Paledyn.”

So far, as Parno had pointed out, they had encountered no one to impress with their charade.

“We left the palace as soon as we came down a level,” Dhulyn said in answer to his observation. “If you think of this as a city, or of each level as a town, you’d be closer to the mark. We’re away from the cliff face here, so this,” she waved around them. “This is a public street in an area where the lesser Houses live. They don’t have grounds, in the sense that we think of in Boravia, so all they need is porters, or door guards. And they’d have little inclination to look outside their doors once night had come.”

“Isn’t it always night here?”

“See those sheets of metal?” Remm Shalyn used his sword to point up at a tall wooden pole. “Shafts are cut in the rock, and when the sun rises, its light is reflected down, across, wherever those mirrors are found, lighting up the whole interior of the City.”

“So all keep the same schedule of days and nights?”

“Those without windows have to wait upon and serve those with,” Remm said. “It follows that they keep the same schedule.”

Having been given these insights, Parno had no trouble recognizing crossroads as they came upon them, or even squares, strangely emptier of life than they would have seemed when out under the stars.

“Odd to think of people setting up their barrows and their market carts here,” he said.

Remm led them around two huge air shafts. Both were lined with windows and balconies all the way down to the bottom, many levels below.

“See those large openings,” Remm said, pointing at several dark areas in the walls of the shafts. “For the circulation of light and air,” he said. “It is a capital offense to block them, or impede them in any way. The Tarxin uses a special squad of slaves to keep them clear and clean.”

“So it would be the slaves who know these ways best,” Dhulyn said.

Remm slowed, looking at her over his shoulder. “And the significance of this?”

“The shafts would be the logical way to get slaves out of the City,” she added.

“You are entirely too clever, Paledyn Dhulyn Wolfshead.” Remm had turned to face front, but Parno would swear the man was smiling.

They were heading across the largest square they’d yet encountered, angling toward the stairs on the far side which would let them down to the level of the Marked Sanctuary. Parno found his eyes drawn to his Partner. Everything about her, the way she moved, the easy swing of her hips, the relaxed set of her shoulder and elbows—everything was familiar, known. And yet, he felt as if he was seeing her for the first time. For a second he thought he was dreaming, that she couldn’t be walking in front of him now as if she had never been gone. He clamped down on his teeth to stop his jaw from trembling, and resisted the urge to speed up and touch her.

“Three men watch us from the shadows to the left,” Dhulyn said softly.

She was speaking to Remm Shalyn, Parno realized, never thinking that she would need to tell him. But the truth was he hadn’t seen or sensed them until she spoke. He shook himself and took a firmer grip on his sword, hoping that Dhulyn hadn’t noticed his abstraction. That was exactly the kind of daydreaming that got people killed—and the kind of daydreaming that was supposed to be impossible for Mercenary Brothers.

#You are well# came a voice in his head. Evidently his uneasiness was sufficient to call the attention of the Crayx.

*Just a little embarrassed* he answered them.

#Sympathetic amusement#

“So long as all they’re doing is watching us.” That was Remm Shalyn, responding to Dhulyn.

“Probably think we can’t see them,” Parno put in.

“Probably hoping we can’t,” Dhulyn said. “Three men in the dark, no lantern, keeping silent? Up to no good, my heart. Up to no good.”

They reached the broad staircase to the lower level without further incident, and from the foot of the steps found their way easily to the gate of the Sanctuary. The gate was shut, but torches in the Sanctuary Hall were lit, as well as the lamps hanging from the ceiling.

“Is this usual?” Parno found the sudden blaze of light unexpected, and anything unexpected had to be treated with suspicion.

“It’s not
un
usual,” Remm said. “I believe some light is always left burning to help anyone who comes seeking a Healer, and the Marked themselves use the Sanctuary Hall as their own Grand Square. The gate is customarily locked, however, and . . .” his voice trailed off as a human shape was silhouetted on the other side of the bars.

“Is it you, Dhulyn Wolfshead?” came a young girl’s voice.

Remm Shalyn stood aside and Dhulyn stepped up to the gate. “It is, Medolyn Mender. Ellis Healer expects us.”

The mechanism of the gate was complicated, but silent. Finally, the left-hand leaf of the iron gates swung open, and Parno followed Dhulyn inside.

The three Marked they’d come to meet were standing off to the right, under a grouping of three oil lamps. They waited there as Dhulyn, Parno, and Remm Shalyn approached them.

“Your companions must wait here, Dhulyn Wolfshead,” the older man said.

“Ellis Healer,” Dhulyn said. “Rascon Mender and Javen Finder. This is my Partner, Parno Lionsmane, called the Chanter. He was Schooled by Nerysa Warhammer. Where I go, he goes.”

Parno pushed back his hood, revealing his Mercenary badge. The woman introduced as Rascon Mender grinned broadly, and nudged the Finder with her elbow. The young girl, Medolyn, lifted her fingers to her mouth.

Ellis Healer looked from one to the other of them with narrowed eyes. “Can this be? There is another Paledyn?”

“I thought he was lost,” Dhulyn said. “But he has been restored to me.”

“We’ve been restored to each other,” Parno corrected with a grin.

Now Ellis Healer was nodding. “The White Twins kept saying, ‘Our friends are coming,’ ‘Our brother and sister come.’ We could not understand it, and no matter how we questioned them, we would receive the same answer. Now it all makes sense, though why they should claim kinship with Paledyns is likely more than any of us will ever know. Of course your brother Paledyn is welcome to join you, but I’m afraid . . .” The Healer’s glance shifted over to Remm Shalyn.

“Not to worry,” the swordsman said. “It was never my intention to attend. I will stay here and help keep watch.”

Parno and Dhulyn were spinning around, swords out, a heartbeat before the sounds from the gate registered on the others. Six men entered. The two in front wore their swords slung at their hip, and from the amount of jewelry they wore, and the length of their kilts, these were nobles. The other four were just as clearly guards, carrying their swords in their hands.

Parno glanced at Dhulyn, but she was watching the newcomers. Six against two, he thought. Against three if they could count on Remm Shalyn. And Dhulyn had said they could. Good odds either way.

Dhulyn did not relax when she saw that Xerwin led the intruders. Parno, she was happy to note, had moved away to her right to give her room to move her sword, but not so far that they could not work in tandem if needed. At least his time among the Nomads had not cost him his sharp edge.

“Tar Xerwin,” she said, as much to inform her Partner as to greet the Tar. “I did not expect you to attend this evening.” She saw Xerwin’s friend’s eyes narrow as he took in Parno’s Mercenary badge. She was weighing the necessity of more introductions when Xerwin spoke.

“I’m not here to join you, Dhulyn Wolfshead. I’m here to stop you. I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want this.”

“
You’ve
changed your mind?” Dhulyn tried hard to keep the surprise out of her voice. Xerwin had been just as inclined to kill the Storm Witch as she had been herself. “And if I haven’t? I have my own reasons to expel the Storm Witch.” And she still did. Not as strong as they once were, perhaps, not as compelling, but the danger from the Storm Witch was still real.

“Your reason stands next to you.” This was the slightly nasal voice of Xerwin’s friend Naxot. “Or did I hear badly a moment ago? Is this not your lost Partner? The man you believed was killed by action of the Storm Witch? If he is restored to you, your need and right for vengeance is gone. As Paledyns, you should protect and support the other Chosen of the Slain God.”

Dhulyn smiled, deliberately letting her lip curl back. “
You
would tell
me
what my responsibilities are? What of the Tara Xendra? Have you forgotten her? At the very least, we must see if she can be restored before we strike bargains with a being who would occupy the body of another.”

Xerwin shook his head as though it were heavy. “My sister is gone. Some good must come from that. The Storm Witch said—”

“Well, I should think she did.” Parno’s tone showed that he had probably rolled his eyes. “What would you expect her to say?”

Xerwin shook his head again, his lips pressed together. “Who am I to trust?” he said in a voice rough with frustration. “The Storm Witch tells me she did not see Xendra, that my sister was not in the spheres and that my sister could not have survived there without a Mage’s power. Is
that
the truth? The White Twins tell Dhulyn Wolfshead that they can See Xendra, and perhaps they can lead a Finder to her. Is that the truth? Who should I listen to? Who can I trust?”

“You must trust someone, Tar Xerwin,” Ellis Healer edged forward and Dhulyn shifted to keep him out of her line of attack. “Whom shall it be?”