S Farrell - A Magic of Nightfall

They grumbled inaudibly, they frowned, but they all bowed and left the room. Fynn motioned to the servants standing against the walls to bring in refreshments. “So…” Fynn said as they nibbled on breads and meats and drank the wine, “the life of a Hirzg is delightful, isn’t it? All that babbling, on and on and on… I see why Vatarh was always in a sour mood before these briefings.”

“I think Archigos Semini was mistaken,” Jan said. He wasn’t certain why he said that; somehow, he trusted that Fynn would listen. Matarh always lectured him, as if she were teacher and he student; Vatarh was more concerned with his own pleasure than listening to his son’s opinions. Onczio Fynn, on the other hand, had actually listened to him last night at supper, when the others at the table would have preferred he stay quiet. So he spoke his mind now, his voice trembling only a little. “Ca’Weber won’t be named Archigos. The Concord will pick Kenne ca’Fionta.”

Fynn raised a thick, dark eyebrow. “Why do you say that? Semini seemed to think that ca’Fionta was the weakest of the lot.”

“That’s exactly why,” Jan answered, more eagerly now, ticking off points on his fingers. “Archigos Semini is assuming that the Concord A’Teni will think as he would think, and would choose the person he would choose. They won’t. The rest of the a’teni will be worried now-Archigos Ana’s assassination has made them see that a strong Archigos has enemies, and they’re also wondering how long the Faith can remained sundered, now that Archigos Ana is dead. So they’ll choose Kenne: because he is weak, and because he’s older than any of the rest of them, and even if he’s ultimately a bad choice, they won’t have to deal with it for decades.”

Fynn laughed. He clanked the rim of his goblet against Jan’s. Leaning toward Jan, he put a burly arm around his shoulders. “Well spoken, and we’ll see soon enough if you’re right. What else are you holding back? Come on now, you can’t keep the rest from me.”

Fynn was smiling and Jan smiled in return, feeling a warmth toward the man. “Starkkapitan ca’Damont might be right about the war in the Hellins, but he misses the importance of the war. With the Holdings’ Garde Civile concentrating on that struggle and bleeding resources, money, and soldiers every month, they can’t be looking east with any strength. They’re in a weak negotiating position against the Coalition; they’re in an even worse position militarily. A strong Hirzg might take advantage of that, one way or another.”

Fynn’s eyebrows climbed higher. His arm tightened around Jan’s shoulders. “By Cenzi,” he said, “I should make you my councillor, Nephew. You have your matarh’s subtle mind.”

He hugged Jan again one-handed, then sagged back in his chair. “Ah! I like you, Jan! It makes me wonder what I missed with my sister.” Fynn frowned at that and took another gulp of his wine. “Did you know that I wasn’t even aware I had a sister until I was nine or so? Vatarh never once mentioned her to me. Never. Didn’t speak her name once; it was as if she’d never existed for him. Then, when he decided he’d finally ransom her, he sat me down and explained how she’d been snatched away by the Witch Archigos. He didn’t tell me how that ended his war with the Holdings; that I learned much later. Vatarh was always bitter about that, his one defeat. I suppose Allesandra was the symbol of that failure for him-he certainly married her off quickly once she returned. I never really knew her…”

He took another long drink of the wine and slammed the goblet back down on the table so hard that Jan jumped. Wine spilled; the base of the goblet left a crescent-moon divot in the table.

“Now, we hunt!” Fynn declared, pushing back his chair and standing up. “Come on, Nephew. We’re off to Stag Fall.”

If he were dead, the afterlife wasn’t anything like the one the teni had promised to the faithful.

Eneas’ afterlife was illuminated by dim, ruddy light, and it stank of rotting flesh and brimstone. The ground on which he lay was wet and hard, with fists of stone that poked into his back. The teni had always said how all a person’s bodily ills would be healed when he finally rested in Cenzi’s arms, that those who had lost limbs would have them restored, that there would be no more pain.

But Eneas’ breath rattled in his lungs, and when he tried to move, the agony made him cry out.

He heard wings flapping in response, punctuated with hoarse squawks of alarm. Eneas blinked, and the redness moved with his eyelids. He slowly lifted a protesting hand and wiped at his eyes. The red filter cleared somewhat, and he realized that he’d been looking through a film of sticky blood at a moonlit landscape, his head on muddy ground. An umber mountain lifted a scant finger’s distance from him. He blinked again, squinting: a fallen, dead horse: his destrier. Cenzi, you left me alive. As the realization came to him, two clawed feet appeared at the summit of the equine mountain, followed by another irritated squawk, and Eneas moved his gaze to see one of the Hellins’ carrion birds, the creature soldiers called rippers: ugly birds with a wingspan of two mens’ height or more, great hooked beaks set in a featherless, spectrally-white face, expressionless eyes like black marbles, and curved talons to rip open the corpses on which they preferred to feast. There was nothing like these beasts in the Holdings.

The bird stared at him as if contemplating a fine meal set before it. Eneas propped himself up on his elbows; it was the closest he could manage to sitting up; the bird screeched in annoyance and flapped off. Eneas could feel the foul wind stirred by its wings.

Not dead. Not yet. Praise Cenzi.

He tried to remember how he’d come to be here, but it was a muddle in his head. He remembered talking to A’Offizier ca’Matin, and the start of the charge, the rush downhill toward the Westlander force. Then… then…

Nothing.

He shook his head to shake loose the memory. That was a mistake. The world whirled around him, the redness returned, and pain shot through his temples. He caught himself before he fell back down to the ground again and waited for the earth to stop spinning. Again, he pushed himself to a full sitting position and touched his head tentatively; his hair was crusted with dried blood and his fingers could feel the jagged outline of a long, deep cut. Eneas started to feel sick. He let his hand drop, closed his eyes, and took long, slow sips of air until the nausea passed, reciting the Prayer of Acceptance to calm himself. He opened his eyes again, looking carefully around.

There were rippers everywhere; in the dim moonlight, the field seemed alive with them, the ground humped with the black hills of Eneas’ fallen companions and their horses. The sickening, wet, tearing sound the birds made as they fed on the bodies was one he knew would haunt his nightmares forever. Far off, down the slope on which he sat, Eneas could see the gleam of a campfire, and around it the dark shapes of people moving. There was another sound, fainter: singing?

The figures outlined in the flame wore feathered devices on their heads, Eneas saw. They were Westlanders, then. “Tehuantin,” as they called themselves. All the bodies around him wore the gold-trimmed uniforms of Nessantico, black with blood and dim moonlight rather than the brilliant blue they should have been.

We lost. We were slaughtered here, and those in Munereo may not know the outcome yet. Cenzi, is that why You saved me, so I could warn them…?

Eneas tried to move; his legs didn’t want to cooperate, and he realized that one leg was still trapped underneath the horse he’d been riding. As silently as he could, he pushed at the carcass, shoving against it with his good leg, and eventually the leg came free. His ankle was swollen and tender; he wasn’t certain he could walk on it.