‘I was ordered to this place, this war. Of the fifty of my clan who originally came with me there’s only Sergeant Tasemu and three others left. The others are the younger brothers and the sons of those who have fallen here.’
Dennis nodded, and said nothing when Alyssa’s hand slipped onto Asayaga’s shoulder.
‘I wish the men of Clan Minwanabi had never come to your keep, that you were living out your days there, that you and I had never met.’ He spat out the last words sharply, so that several of the men sitting to either side fell silent, turning their attention to the two captains. ‘But we have met, your family is dead, my comrades dead, and all that we have left is what is to come of our lives, brief might they be.’
He looked back up and Dennis was stunned to see tears in Asayaga’s eyes.
‘I just wish I could find peace and learn to forget.’
Then Asayaga stood up abruptly and turned his back to the table. More men were falling silent and Dennis looked around the room. The Tsurani were watching their captain, wondering what had just transpired.
Dennis saw Gregory and Tinuva looking at him curiously, Gregory giving the subtle hand signal to ask if there was trouble.
Time seemed to stretch out. He looked the other way. Wolfgar was silent, as if lost in thought. Roxanne, by her father’s side, staring at Dennis, but there was no sarcasm in her gaze this time, but a look of pity and sadness.
Dennis stood up awkwardly, and took his feasting cup. He approached Asayaga, and held out the cup. ‘If I have caused sad memories tonight,’ he said, ‘I apologize.’
Asayaga stared at him and said nothing in return.
‘The men are watching us,’ Dennis whispered. ‘They think we are arguing.’
‘Always the men are watching,’ Asayaga sighed, ‘and we must act accordingly.’
Dennis shook his head. ‘Take the cup, Asayaga: you need a drink.’
There was the flicker of a smile. Asayaga took the cup and drained it. Instantly conversation in the room returned.
‘I suspect, Hartraft, that I’ve just received the most friendly gesture you will ever give to a Tsurani.’
Dennis said nothing. His gaze caught Alyssa’s for a second and he could see the relief in her eyes. He knew as well, at that same instant, that whatever feelings she might have kindled in him were worse than useless. Her attention was fixed on Asayaga and there it would stay.
He returned to his chair, Asayaga sitting beside him, and the two ate in silence, the room around them echoing with laughter, bursts of songs, and a wild eruption of cheers when one of the Tsurani, with a throw of the dice, won a dagger from a Kingdom soldier who grinned when he handed the blade over.
‘Made this bugger as wealthy as a prince in their home lands,’ the soldier laughed. ‘Them with no metal.’
Another soldier simply pulled out his dagger and tossed it to the Tsurani next to him and within seconds an exchange of gifts had ensued – Kingdom troops offering daggers that were far more precious than gold to the Tsurani, who in turn offered back equally precious gems and polished lacquer bracelets.
This exchange caused an almost wild hilarity to set in, and cups were raised, in many cases simply to be upended over the upraised face and open mouth of a nearby companion. Even Dennis had to smile at the foolishness and old Wolfgar stood up, slopping his drink, and began to declaim a ballad, but few if any listened.
And then it happened so fast Dennis barely caught the flash of the blade and spray of blood that exploded.
Sergeant Barry stood up, staggering, holding his right armpit which had been flayed open, arterial blood spurting out.
Dennis and Asayaga leapt out of their seats and raced around either side of the table but could not push their way through the men who were up, backing away, shouting, some still thinking that a joke was being played, others beginning to realize that the two sub-commanders – Barry and Sugama – were fighting.
Sugama stood crouched, a Kingdom dagger in his hand. Barry had snatched a knife from the table and held it in his left hand; poised to pounce, ignoring the rush of blood from inside his armpit.
‘Sugama!’
Asayaga was moving up behind him, but Sugama ignored his commander. Instead he hissed something in Tsurani and several men started to move to join him.
‘The son of a bitch stabbed me!’ Barry roared, and a number of Kingdom soldiers grabbed their weapons as well.
‘Damn it, Barry, don’t move!’ Dennis cried.
‘You drink with these bastards!’ Barry screamed. ‘I even started to trust them and look at what you get in the end!’
He half-lifted his right arm, while still warily holding his fighter’s crouch, blade up in his left hand.
Dennis looked over at Asayaga, at the men around him, and he leapt for Barry, trying to pin his arms. He knew Barry was almost as strong as himself, and when moved to a fighting rage, as he now was, he was all but unstoppable.
Barry tried to throw him off and Dennis saw that more than one of his men was standing by, not moving, just watching. And then he saw Sugama make his move, coming in low, realizing that Barry’s arms were pinned. Asayaga was behind Sugama but out of reach. Dennis tried to push Barry out of the way, never anticipating that Sugama would make such a desperate and cowardly attack.
The blade sank to the hilt into Barry’s stomach, even as Dennis tried to push the sergeant out of the way. Barry gasped, doubling up in Dennis’s arms.
Dennis dropped Barry, reaching down to scoop up the blade which the sergeant had let slip. Sugama was backing up with a look Dennis had seen all too many times in a man’s eyes, the realization that death was closing in and that he was the one to deliver it.
‘Hartraft, no!’
It was Asayaga trying to move between them but Dennis ignored his cry. He drove Barry’s dagger into Sugama’s stomach, and letting go, stepped back.
Sugama, with a gasp, collapsed against the side of the feasting table, wide eyes looking down at the dagger in his gut and then he stared accusingly at Asayaga and said something in Tsurani.
‘This is your fault, Asayaga –’ Dennis half-heard Tinuva whispering a translation ‘– you dishonour our ancestors by drinking with our foes. I curse you and all who follow you.’
Dennis turned back to Barry and knelt down by his side. It was obvious that the wound was fatal, and already Barry’s features were taking on the sickly pallor of death.
‘So much for trusting the bastards,’ Barry whispered.
‘I’m sorry,’ Dennis gasped.
‘Stabbed me with my own knife,’ Barry sighed, his words drifting off and then he was still.
Dennis stood up slowly. The room was in deadly silence. Sugama lay on the table, curled up, looking back bitterly at Dennis, several men gathered by his side. In a cold rage, Dennis swept up a knife still on the table and started towards him.
Asayaga moved to get between them.
‘Let me finish the bastard,’ Dennis said coldly.
‘He’s dying already. You’ve given him a warrior’s death.’ Whispering, he quickly added, ‘If you had not struck, I would have hanged him in dishonour, and my men would have come to heel, but now I fear we are beyond that. I cannot let you finish him while he can’t defend himself. Let him die quietly.’
‘To hell with that, he murdered one of my men! Step aside, Tsurani.’
‘No.’
Dennis raised his knife and went into a fighting crouch, and as he did so all the men around them started to back up. He ignored the screams of Alyssa, the hoarse cries of Wolfgar.
‘You could have stopped him but you didn’t,’ Dennis accused.
‘He’s as quick as a viper.’ Asayaga said, ‘I was waiting for the moment to grab him. I didn’t think he’d strike again.’
‘Step aside.’
‘No. I can’t, Hartraft, not with him already dying!’ Asayaga cried. ‘He was unarmed when you stabbed him and if I let you finish him I will lose my men. You must understand th
at.’
‘Then take a blade, Tsurani.’
Asayaga didn’t move.
‘Take a blade!’
Asayaga, eyes fixed on Dennis, held a hand out to his side, and one of his men gave him a dagger.
It was Tinuva who finally moved between them, his back to Asayaga, eyes fixed on Dennis.
‘Out of the way!’ Dennis cried.
‘Look past Asayaga, to the door,’ Tinuva said quietly.
Dennis shifted his gaze and saw that Roxanne was standing by the doorway. Leaning against her was young Richard. For a second he thought that the boy had been injured in the fight as well, then realized that his assigned post for the day was at the northern pass.
All eyes in the room shifted to Roxanne as she helped Richard into the room, leading him around Asayaga, to stand in front of Dennis, and Dennis slowly rose from his fighting crouch.
The boy stiffened, as if trying to come to attention. ‘The moredhel,’ Richard whispered. ‘Sir, the moredhel are through the pass.’
There was stunned silence. Tinuva tried to take the boy from Roxanne, but he refused, struggling to stand alone.
‘Sir –’ His eyes closed for a moment and he collapsed.
Dennis caught him in his arms. Richard opened his eyes again. ‘Sir, I’m sorry about Jurgen. I’m so sorry.’
‘That’s all right, boy,’ Dennis replied. ‘Now tell me what happened.’
‘Jurgen, sir, I’m sorry.’
‘That’s all right boy. Now tell me.’
Richard coughed, bright blood flecking his lips. ‘It was Corwin. Poisoned the others, stabbed me. Sir, he was a spy for the moredhel.’
A murmur ran through the room.
‘Around noon. He stabbed me in the back and left me for dead.’
‘Noon. They could be here any minute,’ Gregory hissed.
Dennis looked up at Gregory who instantly barked a command for the Kingdom troops to get their weapons. An explosion of activity swept the room. Asayaga shouted and his men ran for their gear as well but Dennis stayed with Richard, still holding him.
‘I’m sorry about Jurgen.’
‘That’s all right son,’ Dennis said again softly. ‘He’d have done it for any man.’
‘He rode with me back here,’ Richard said with a soft smile lighting his face. ‘I fell off my horse and wanted to sleep and he woke me up. Said I had to warn you and he would ride with me. He’s waiting outside for me now.’
Dennis could feel the hair rise on the back of his neck and he looked to the open doorway.
‘And sir, I was to tell you –’ Richard closed his eyes again for a moment.
‘Yes?’
The boy stirred. ‘It was Corwin who betrayed your keep.’
‘What?’
‘He murdered the watchers guarding the pass. Bovai sent him to kill you. He couldn’t do that, so he killed the guards, letting the Tsurani in on the night you were married. He was the one who did it. He was the one who fired the bolt that killed your wife as well, though the shot was meant for you.’
Stunned, Dennis leaned back, still holding Richard. His mind flashed back to the night at the keep, and now he realized why Corwin had looked familiar. For the briefest of moments, across from the tunnel exit, he had seen a man at the woodline, holding a crossbow, illuminated by the flickering light of the burning keep. He had been younger, and thinner, but it had been Corwin he had glimpsed as the man turned to flee.
Someone was crying and Dennis looked up to see young Osami kneeling down, reaching out and taking Richard’s hand.
Richard smiled. ‘My friend,’ Richard whispered in Tsurani. He turned his head to look out the open door. ‘Jurgen said for you to live …’ and then he closed his eyes and his spirit slipped away.
‘He’s gone.’
Dennis looked up. It was Roxanne.
‘You must act, Hartraft: the boy is gone,’ she said. ‘There is nothing more to be done for him, poor lad.’
Dennis nodded and released his grasp on the still body. Osami took the burden from him, gently smoothing the tangle of hair from Richard’s brow and weeping.
Dennis stood up. Asayaga was before him. He looked past Asayaga to the body lying on the table. Sugama was dead. Dennis looked back at Barry who was dead as well. Several of his men had ignored the command to gather their weapons and were crouching by the side of the sergeant, eyes filled with hatred for Asayaga.
‘We settle this later, Hartraft,’ Asayaga said coldly.
Dennis nodded.
Tinuva was standing in the doorway.
‘I can hear their horses outside the stockade,’ the elf said. ‘They’re still on the side of the mountain, a half hour, maybe an hour away at most.’
‘We leave now,’ Dennis said.
‘Now?’ Asayaga cried. ‘It’s night. They’ve caught us by surprise. We should barricade and hold this place.’
‘I was caught in a keep once before,’ Dennis replied. ‘I won’t be again. They’ll shower us with fire arrows and burn us out before dawn. We run. It’s our only chance.’ He looked over at Roxanne. ‘Can you guide us to the west pass at night?’
She hesitated, glancing back to her father.
‘She’ll guide you,’ Wolfgar said and Dennis realized he wasn’t talking of her ability, but rather giving her an order.
There was a look of anguish in her eyes. The old man reached out and gathered her into his arms. ‘Child, all mortals must face this day and we knew it was coming. Life has been good to me, for in the end I was given you and your sister.’ He kissed her on the forehead. ‘You can be as sharp-tongued as a viper, but you can also be as sweet as wild clover honey. I love you and your sister more than my own life. I’d trade all the years with kings for but one more hour with you.’ He squeezed her slightly, then gently pushed her away. ‘Now lead my friends here to safety.’
As he spoke he looked past her to Dennis and Asayaga.
‘Settle your differences later, you two. It was a drunken brawl and men get killed in drunken brawls. Leave the dead here.’
Dennis said nothing.
‘You are a Hartraft, boy,’ Wolfgar admonished. ‘Either command or step aside.’
The words were his grandfather’s and Wolfgar spoke them with a voice that rang with the remembered power of long ago.
Dennis nodded. He shouted for his men to form ranks and prepare to march.
The column headed out of the gate of the stockade and turned south up into the forest where it would eventually pick up the trail that led to the western pass. In the middle of the column were the horses carrying the children and several of the older women. Half a dozen of the old men and women, however, had announced that they would stay behind with Wolfgar, and the partings from their children and grandchildren were bitter.
Torches flickered on top of the stockade gate and along the wall, revealing where several straw dummies had been set up, crowned with helmets. Wolfgar and the others remaining behind would move along the palisades, making as much noise as they could to try to convince Bovai the stockade was still fully manned. The ruse might delay the moredhel for a time as they stopped and deployed out before attempting to storm the stockade.
Tinuva, who had ridden out to scout, came in and urged the group to move, for in a matter of minutes the lead scouts of the enemy would be close enough to see what was transpiring.
The rear of the column passed and Dennis stood watching them. Wolfgar stood by the gate where his daughters were already mounted. They both leaned over, arms around their father, sobbing quietly. He reached up, patted each on the check, then slapped the rumps of their horses, sending them on their way.
Dennis waited for the last to leave, Asayaga standing silently beside him. Looking into the long hall, he saw the three bodies lying on the table amidst upended cups and over-turned platters. It would be their funeral pyre soon and again he thought of Jurgen, picturing him standing within, waiting for the boy to join him on the journey. Somehow he wondered if
in a way the boy was a replacement for himself and for a reason beyond his understanding his eyes filled with tears.
He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. It was Wolfgar.
‘Along with you now, young Hartraft. Take care of my girls.’
Dennis nodded, unable to speak.
‘And you, Tsurani. Marry Alyssa. Grandsons of your blood would bring me honour.’
Asayaga bowed low. ‘Your request honours me, Wolfgar.’ Then he said, ‘And if it were possible, I would ask for she is …’ He let the sentence go unfinished. ‘But on my world she would be a slave, and there is nothing I could do to save her. I will see her safely to Kingdom lines, with my life if needs be.’
Wolfgar said, ‘I thought it might be something like that. Very well. She’ll get over you. Now, hurry along before the bastards catch up with you. And don’t kill each other: it would be a waste of a good friendship.’
The two said nothing.
‘Now go. An actor should know when to leave the stage, a poet when the lay is finished, and a bard when it is time to put aside the lute.’
Asayaga saluted and then hesitated. He reached out and touched the old man lightly on the face and then ran for the gate to catch up with the column. Only Tinuva and Gregory were left, waiting for Dennis.
‘Goodbye, Wolfgar.’
Wolfgar laughed softly. ‘It’d have been nice to have had one more night. I was planning on trying for that lovely redheaded girl, the one that’s taken to the Tsurani lad who’s wounded. Ahh well …’ Still laughing, he patted Dennis affectionately and said, ‘If you had the brains of a sack of rocks you’d marry my Roxanne. She can be a hard one at times, but she has strength and she can love. She would be good for you, lad. She’d heal that wound you’ve been nursing all these years.’
Dennis’s face flushed, and he seemed too embarrassed to speak. He let Wolfgar accompany him to the gate, softly whispering his famous ballad about the shortcomings of the King and the memories it stirred caused Dennis to smile. Wolfgar’s hand slipped away from Dennis’s shoulder.