David Drake - The Gods Return

Tenoctris said, handing one end to Garric. "Tie this around your wrist. Don't cut your circulation, but it mustn't slip off." She looped the other end about her own left wrist and bent to the task of tying it. Garric looked at the cord, then said, "Ah, Tenoctris? Could it bemy left wrist?" Tenoctris raised her head with a frown of surprise, then smiled brightly. "Ah," she said. "Yes, of course. Since it will apparently make you and your royal ancestor more comfortable."

Garric grinned as he tied a bowline which he then slipped over his left fist and tightened. In this mind the ghost of Carus guffawed and said, "She's bloody well told it'll make me more comfortable. And I suspect she's happier too whatever she says, knowing that you can get to your sword when you need it." Tenoctris had set down her athame in order to tie the cord. She took it in her left hand again and stood, picking up the satchel in her right. The silk connecting her and Garric was an ell long, or almost. "When I walk forward," she said,

"walk with me. Just step normally, but don't lose the cord." "Yes, ma'am," Garric said. He realized he was treating the wizard as the aged woman he'd found on the shore of Barca's Hamlet rather than as she now appeared, an attractive girl only a year or two older than he was. "Which direction will we go, if you please?" "To the temple, Garric," Tenoctris said with a grin that seemed impish on her youthful face. "Across the water. Well, over the water." "Yes, ma'am," Garric said, eyeing the lake again as the wizard began to chant. The water was so clear that he could imagine he was seeing the bottom, but he remembered the stricken face of the swimmer as he sank ever deeper. By the end he'd been antlike and his limbs had ceased to struggle.

"… io mermeri abua…," Tenoctris was saying. Instead of merely bobbing up and down, her athame moved in a sequence as complex as the dance of knitting needles. The spider in the amber blade seemed to be weaving. "… abrasax buthi…" Light quivered in the depths, mimicking solidity. It was only a distortion of the irregularities in the glassy surface, though. "… mermeri…"

Tenoctris stepped off on her left foot. Garric moved with her, his eyes on the temple rather than the glassy water underneath. The surface was as firm as stone. "… rasax buthi…" Side by side they strode toward the island. Garric hadn't meant to look into the water, but at the mid-point instinct drew his eyes downward. He could see to the bottom with impossible clarity, as though the water were a magnifying lens. There were more bodies than he could count, uncorrupt but glaring upward in the final horror of their deaths. With them were all manner of floats and buoys. There was even a boat of shining metal in which three young women lay with expressions of furious disbelief. Their long, blond hair framed their heads in sunbursts. Garric thought of Sharina and grimaced. He was still thinking of his sister and of Liane when his boot came down on sod instead of water with the consistency of granite. He and Tenoctris had reached the island. Before them was a round temple with a gold caryatid on either side of the entrance. Inside the structure was a catafalque on which lay the skeleton of a tall man, clasping a long iron sword. "That is Lord Munn," Tenoctris said as she began to take the cord off her wrist. "Our business is him. Your business, Garric."

Chapter 13 A trumpet calling Assembly awakened Sharina. The weeks she'd spent with the army on campaign made the sound familiar, but hearing it in Pandah threw her tired mind into deeper confusion. She had the odd feeling besides that it was an echo. She got out of bed, wondering what time it was. She hadn't been sure she'd be able to get to sleep again after they'd found Platt's body, but she'd dropped off as soon as her head hit the pillow. Having both her previous responsibilities and Garric's left her exhausted. Besides, she no longer found sudden, horrible death an unfamiliar experience. Another trumpet sounded. There was smoke in the air, drifting through the slatted jalousies. What was going on? Lady, aid us in our time of need . "Your highness?" said Diora, stumbling from her alcove with a bleary expression. She held the lamp she'd borrowed from a hall bracket to replace the one Sharina had smashed into the mass of scorpions. "I just heard a second regiment called to arms," Sharina said. The maid didn't understand military signals; why should she? "That's half the capital garrison. I'm going to check on what's happening." "That's the fourth trumpet, Sharina," said Burne from the floor. "And there've been horns." "Hop up," said Sharina, curving her left arm into a cradle for the rat. She jerked the hall door open. To the waiting guards as well as Burne she said, "We're going to the City Prefect's office at once." Tadai's suite was at the far end of the same corridor. Its outer door was open, spilling light from the interior. A courier tried to exit as the leading Blood Eagles arrived; they pushed him aside without ceremony. Sharina winced, but the courier knew better than to resent it-and in fairness to the soldiers, there wasn't a lot of time for politeness. The waiting room of the large office was already crowded. Tadai sat behind a clerk's desk instead of in his well appointed private chamber. "Lord Quernan," he was saying, "Put three regiments at the disposal of the city watch. They're to be under the command of the district captains, not their own officers, and they're to use only the butts of their spears. They're not to use the points, and they're not to carry swords." "Look here, Tadai!" Quernan said. The military advisor's back was to the door; he didn't see Sharina enter, though Lord Tadai struggled to his feet to greet her.

"First, you're wrong about putting real soldiers under the watch, and second, you can't disarm them in the middle of riots like this. It's not safe!" "Your highness," said Tadai, bowing. He was as close to being disheveled as Sharina had seen since earthquakes and an army of monsters had destroyed Erdin while he was present. "What?" said Quernan, turning. "Oh!" "Lord Quernan," Sharina said, "follow the prefect's direction as to command. The troops are not to use points and edges unless their own lives are endangered, but they'll carry their full equipment including swords. And if you will, don't waste time. It's obvious that things are in a serious state." "Your highness," Quernan muttered as he stumped out of the office with a train of aides following. Lord Tadai grimaced. "Your highness," he said, "if you leave it to the soldiers themselves-" "They'll be making that decision regardless of what their orders are," Sharina said. She realized her mind was the same place it would've been if she'd been discussing how to deal with rats in the inn: weighing alternatives in terms of cost and effectiveness and ignoring all other considerations.

"This way they don't go into action thinking they're under the command of fools." She cleared her throat and added, "Besides, I'm more concerned about the safety of men putting their lives on the line for me than I am of people intent on burning down Pandah. That is what's happening, isn't it?" "Some of them are," Tadai said, sighing. He'd aged noticeably since their recent conversation in Dysart's office.

"There are riots in all parts of the city, and some involve fires. I have twelve separate reports, and there may be more." Sharina gestured Tadai back into his chair. He probably hadn't been to bed tonight, and his duties as prefect required more physical activity than had ordinarily been a part of his life. She said, "What caused the riots?

Do we know?" Tadai settled with another sigh. "According to prisoners from all four districts of the city," he said, "they've heard that you tortured to death a priest named Platt because he refused to recant his belief in Lord Scorpion, the true God." "May the Sister bite me!" blurted Trooper Lires. "Nobodycould think the Princess would do that!"