Steven Erikson - Forge of Darkness

‘How?’

‘Clean horse tracks on the lane up to and then around the body. Freshly shoed, just like Osserc’s mounts were. Osserc’s probably the strongest man I know, lieutenant. Take all that and add to rumours from a few days ago, about Renarr coming back late from the stream — same track as Osserc rode in on earlier that morning… so you see, right now there’s rumours and just rumours and still plenty of mysteries. It’s a wasp nest no matter which side we kick at it.’

Serap cursed under her breath. ‘That gate guard been talking?’

‘Just to me.’

‘And those horse tracks?’

‘I took note, since I was put in mind of Urusander’s boy riding out. But I don’t think anyone else noticed. Get plenty of riding back and forth, and I obscured the path that went round the body. Scuffed it up, I mean.’

‘I know what you meant,’ she replied, irritated with the detail. ‘Has Lord Urusander been informed of any of this?’

‘Not yet, sir. I was on my way when you arrived.’

‘You could clear Gurren by making him put his left hand round the dead man’s neck — see if the imprint fits.’

‘Yes, sir, I could, though the body’s starting to swell up some.’

‘But if you did and Gurren was cleared of suspicion, you’d be left with one choice-’

‘Yes, sir, and it’s a rumour already out here. Going after Gurren would make it worse, if you see what I mean. Worse for Lord Urusander. Worse for the Legion.’

‘You’ve thought this through, Yeld.’

The sergeant shrugged. ‘We can’t make it go away, sir, but we can let it rust.’

Serap swung into the saddle. ‘I will report all this to Lord Urusander.’

‘All of it?’

‘All that he needs to hear. There’s been a murder. No witnesses and no suspects. The rest is just base speculation. The loss of a mason’s apprentice will be a hardship on the family, and no doubt the mason, too, and we both know that the commander will do what’s necessary to ease their loss.’

The sergeant nodded up at her. ‘Very good, lieutenant. Oh, and welcome.’

She eyed him jadedly at that, but he seemed sincere. She edged her horse past the wagon and then through the crowd. The mood around her wasn’t yet ugly, which was something. She did not envy Yeld and his squad.

Riding on, she drew opposite Gurren’s stone house and reined in. She eyed the shuttered windows, and then the faint wisps of smoke rising from the chimney. Dismounting, Serap left her horse standing on the track and made her way to the front door. She thumped on the blackwood.

There was no response.

Serap waited for a time and then made her way round to the back yard. Pushing through the gate, she saw Gurren hunched over the forge, stirring the coals.

She approached, but from one side, to give him the opportunity to see her. He offered up a single glance then returned to his work.

‘Old Smith,’ she said. ‘We’ve not met, but I know of you and, of course, of your wife. You have my deepest sympathies.’

He made no reply.

‘Gurren, where is your daughter?’

‘In the house.’

‘She does not come to the door.’

‘Ain’t surprised.’

‘Why?’

He faced her. He was not as old as his local title suggested, but he was bowed; the muscles from a lifetime with hammer and tongs were still visible but the skin around them was slack, as if he had been ill for a long time. The watery grey eyes were like broken glass. He spat yellow mucus on to the ground and said, ‘Night before last she barely made it back to the door, beaten half t’death. Witch Hale comes over and works on her, and comes out and tells me. Broken jaw, broken cheekbone; won’t see good outa her left eye ever again.’

‘Someone killed the man who did that, Gurren.’

‘I know. Hale got the girl to talk.’

‘What did she say?’

Gurren’s face was impossibly flat, impossibly empty of all expression. ‘From what Hale could make out, Urusander’s lad plucked her, but tenderly. But Millick saw enough to guess and took the rest out on her. And now Millick’s dead, choked in North Lane last night, and Osserc’s gone.’

‘That’s right,’ Serap said, seeing no need to dissemble. ‘Some rumours are going around that you might have been the one doing the killing.’

Gurren nodded. ‘I set those out, lieutenant.’

‘To muddy the trail.’

He eyed her, and then said, ‘I been holding a long hate for your lord, and your Legion that saw my wife killed, taken from me and Renarr.’

She nodded. ‘Poets have written of Urusander’s grief over your wife’s death.’

‘Poets can go fuck themselves.’

‘Well…’

‘I’m dying,’ Gurren said. ‘Witch Hale says it’s too late. Had my doubts about Millick all along, but she was set on him, you see, and with me leaving and all…’

‘I’m sorry how it turned out-’

‘I’d be a lot sorrier,’ he snapped, ‘leavin’ her to a lifetime of beatings and maybe worse. So it’s like this. I owe Osserc and if I could, why, I’d kneel before him, take that murdering hand of his, and kiss it.’

Serap stared, struck silent.

Gurren turned back to the forge. ‘Tell your lord this, lieutenant. Between us, now, the water is clear.’

‘I will tell him,’ she whispered.

‘But I want my daughter taken care of.’

She nodded. ‘I will swear to that.’

He shot her a hard look. ‘Legion vow?’

‘Legion vow, Gurren.’

The man suddenly smiled, and years vanished from him, despite the sickness behind his eyes. ‘I’ll be seeing my wife soon. There’s nothing like waiting, when the waiting’s about to end. Go on with you, then. I got me some chains to melt down for the nailmonger, and this fire ain’t nearly hot enough yet.’

‘Commander, it is good to see you again.’

Vatha Urusander seemed to study her for a moment before gesturing her to sit. They were in the room Hunn Raal called the Vault. Shelves lined all the walls, reaching to the ceiling. Scrolls, bound books, manuscripts and clay tablets bowed every shelf. A single work table dominated the room. Two chairs were pushed up against it, while the lower, padded chairs they now occupied stood like sentinels to either side of the low doorway.

The positioning was awkward in that Serap could not face Urusander unless she perched sideways on the seat. As expected, the commander seemed indifferent to this detail. There was an air of distraction about him that Serap had seen each time she had visited over the past two years, and she gauged it as the look of a man slowly losing himself. It pained her.

‘How are Sevegg and Risp?’ Urusander asked.

Startled, Serap shrugged. ‘They fare well, sir. Busy.’

‘Busy with what?’

‘Sir, I have news from Kharkanas.’

He glanced away, as if to study the archives lining the shelves opposite. ‘Hunn Raal has sent you.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘And no doubt Risp and Sevegg are running horses into the ground to deliver word to the garrisons.’

‘Sir, there is need, once again, for the Legion. There is need for you.’

‘There will be no invasion from the Sea of Vitr. The very idea is ridiculous.’ He met her eyes and his gaze was sharp and hard. ‘Hunn Raal would have the realm stirred in panic. He sows fear with the sole aim of resurrecting the Legion — not to meet this imagined threat, but to coerce the highborn, Draconus and ultimately Mother Dark. He still bears the wound of our dismissal.’

‘I will not lie, sir, he does bear that wound. We all do.’

‘Old soldiers cannot fit in a peaceful world,’ Urusander said. ‘They feel like ghosts and they hunger for the zeal of life, but the only life they know is one of violence. War is a drug to them, one they cannot do without. And for many others, to see an old soldier is to know of sacrifices they never made, and to feel an obligation they come to resent, and so they would rather not see that old soldier. They would rather forget. For yet others, Serap, an old soldier reminds them of their own losses, and the grief stings anew. It is right that we go away, but more than that, it is right that we embrace silence and solitude. We have devoured horror and now we are as ghosts, because we stand next to death and we cannot leave its side.’