Chris Northern - The Last King's Amulet

“T'k'la,” I said. “Ichalda, t'k'la!.”

And, for me, she came.

Her expression had been unreadable as she looked at me, her faint radiance illuminating the cell, making it feel crowded. I had pointed to Sapphire and asked her again. Slowly, she had turned to look down at him and then it seemed that she seeped into him, that he soaked her up like a sponge. His breathing eased, he groaned in his sleep, then his eyes opened and she looked out at me. I don't know how I knew it was her but it was obvious. He sighed and his eyes closed and she was gone. After that he slept on as though nothing had changed, but when I looked his wounds were closed, his broken arm straightened, and he breathed more easily. He still looked pale from loss of blood, and I remembered Jocasta looking the same, her wounds healed but the body still weak and recovering. It might be some time before he rose and walked again; if he didn't have food and water when he woke he might still die. But at least it would not be now. And I had not done nothing.

Time passed.

There was nothing to do so I did nothing. I wanted a drink. There was none. I was shaking and sweating, the familiar onset of withdrawal symptoms. I knew they would get worse and never seem to stop getting worse. So I watched Sapphire breathe as I shook and shuddered. I cursed occasionally. It didn't help.

I imagined four legions moving to surround the Eyrie, forming up, preparing to attack. Nothing happened so I imagined it again. I was waiting and wasting time. But there was nothing to do. I would be found here after the place was taken, freed, and then what? I'd not succeeded in my bid to do something spectacularly brave. I was doomed to my fate of poverty or exile. There was no way to change it now. Depressed just doesn't cover it. Sick, depressed, and desperate for a drink. Even so I couldn't stop thinking.

To whom did the four legions belong? Three patrons? Four? Who were they? What did each plan when the battle was over? Would they divide, some heading home in triumph while others had other plans? Too many questions. Would one or more go into the mountains and prosecute a punitive war there? Surely someone would want to find out where the Necromancers came from and take vengeance on them? I shrugged the line of questioning off. None of that would help me. I checked Sapphire, still sleeping, leaned back to sweat and shake some more.

I thought about the city; not my ignominious return there; that was something I shied away from. I had raised an army without authority, led it to disaster, they had been slaughtered to a man; and so on and so on. No. I thought about our system of government and tried to think what, if anything, could be improved. It was an abstract, something to think about. We ruled with a light hand, which was good. The patrons were more interested in their own business than the business of government and that was, on the whole, a good thing, I thought. Less bureaucracy, few institutions, no-one meddling in the lives of others. There were kingdoms with vast armies of bureaucrats, enormous administrations, laws for every area of human activity and people to oversee them and make sure they were complied with. Madness. We understood the iron law of bureaucracy and kept our institutions small, breaking them up and forming new organizations every half century regardless of how they were functioning. They became moribund and expensive over time, then sleek as greyhounds with no one involved but those who wanted to get the job done. It was cyclic and if a bunch of parasites who thought the bureaucracy was the purpose of the organization had to find a new living when we stripped the institution down and formed a new one, all to the good.

I looked at each aspect of our society in turn and examined it for flaws. Seeing none worth thinking about I moved on. Only one really came to mind, that we had not held the territories taken and spread our system further.

True, there were foxes and wolves amongst the lions of the patrons, some fools who believed that they knew better than anyone else and wanted to tell everyone else what to do and how to live, but there was no way they could get exclusive power over any but their client states. Some ran social experiments with other peoples, usually with dire consequences. Our system was good, with inbuilt mechanisms for the competent to rise but something about the foxes, the patrons themselves bothered me. 'Born to privilege, what do you know of suffering?' Kukran Epthel had asked. I couldn't help thinking he had a point, but exactly what point I wasn't sure, and so, deciding what might be done about it was…

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a key being inserted into the lock. I had heard nothing, not a single footfall. I sat up straighter, looking at the door as it opened. There was nobody there. Goosebumps rose on my arms. “What the…?”

“Be quiet,” Dubaku instructed me shortly, suddenly visible as he stepped into the cell and pulled the door closed behind him.

“What…? How…?” The answers were obvious so I didn't finish the questions. What are you doing here? Rescuing me, obviously. How did you get here? Invisibly protected by his ancestors. I had seen him pull the trick before. It just hadn't occurred to me that he would do it for me or that he might be close enough to try.

He didn't make any answers to my half formed questions, instead stood intent on Sapphire. “Did she come?”

“You sent her?”

He shook his head. “I do not send, Sumto. I ask. When I felt her stirring, uneasy and dissatisfied, I could feel you had asked and so I asked that she answer, imagined you so she knew who I was asking for. She went from my awareness but she might have moved further from the world, not into it.”

I nodded, knowing I didn't really understand even though what he said made sense. It was the best understanding I would achieve. He could feel the spirits that knew him, had a relationship with them that I could not understand. It didn't matter. What mattered was that she had come at my call and healed Sapphire as best she could. That mattered and I was grateful and said so.

He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment of my thanks. “Jocasta asked me to help you. So I have, and am. What do you want to do?”

I stared at him and he returned my gaze with the by now familiar lack of expression. The question was incredible. What did I want to do? Get out of here, that's what I wanted to do! “I don't know,” I said. “Let me think.”

“Think, then.” He said, sinking to a squat, his feet flat on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees. “The attack will begin soon. Maybe there is no need to do anything but wait.”

Maybe. Dubaku could move unseen but we could not. I was in no state to carry Sapphire, weak and shaky with withdrawal symptoms as I was. Tahal had my ten carat stone, leaving me with only the one carat stone embedded in my skull. Granted, a face full of hot oil would put a man out of action but I didn't see that taking down a few individuals would be enough.

“We should move,” I decided. “Right now they know where to come for us if they want us.”

He nodded. “There is a room nearby where they store beer. We can go there without being seen.”

I blushed to realize that part of my motive had been transparent to him.

The beer tasted good.

Carrying Sapphire had been difficult but I'd stuck with it as we passed through storerooms and down wide corridors half filled with crates and barrels containing whatever they contained. By the time we holed up in the taproom, filled with barrels of beer of all sizes, I was shattered and hurting. We set Sapphire down, made him as comfortable as we could and I found a container and poured a beer.