David Drake - The Fortress of Glass

For now, though… Garric crawled under Marzan's hut. The clay was damp, but at least there wasn't standing water. Yet, of course.

As Garric turned, trying to find the least uncomfortable position, he heard a whine. A dog snuffled him, then licked his hand and curled up next to him. Back to back with the warm furry body, Garric slept.

He'd been in worse places.

King Cervoran turned toward Cashel. It was his first action since he threw the lantern. He moved with the deliberation of something much larger: a tree falling or the ice covering the mill's roof slipping thunderously when the winter sun warmed the black slates beneath it.

"Where is the diadem?" he asked in his odd, thin voice. "Where is the topaz?"

"You mean the crown?" Cashel said. "Lady Liane took it after Garric, well, Garric disappeared. I guess it's in the room we were in when you came and fetched me."

Without speaking further Cervoran started across the courtyard. The mess was worse than in Fall when sheep were slaughtered so there was enough fodder to winter the rest of the flock. There was blood and frightened bleats then too, but it was sheep, not men.

The oil flames had died, but the remains of the hellplant still smoldered; the air was hazy and rank. Green vegetation always stank when you burned it, but it seemed to Cashel that it wasn't just memory of what the thing was that made this worse'n usual.

Sharina was talking to Waldron and Attaper. Well, they were both talking at her, loudly and not paying attention to what each other said. Cashel started to go to her-but she was all right, he knew that. He wanted to go back into the pantry and fetch his quarterstaff, but that could wait too.

He knew in his heart what he ought to do, so he did it even though it was about the last thing he'd 've done for choice: he went after Cervoran, catching up with him in two quick strides and using the spear shaft to tap folks and make a passage. Anybody who saw Cervoran got out of the way, but in the noisy confusion people weren't paying attention to much outside their own frightened imaginations just now.

It wouldn't do to have the wizard trampled and maybe even killed. He'd been the only one who knew what to do when the plant attacked, and the fact he'd known what to do even before it happened was important too.

There were guards-again-at the door to the conference room, but they stepped out of the way with obvious relief when they saw Cashel. They'd have felt they had to stop Cervoran, and they really didn't want anything to do with a corpse. Maybe Cervoran'd just had a fit, but even now helooked dead.

"Good to see you, milord," said the officer, a man Cashel didn't know. "I didn't see how we were going to handle that thing till you took care of it."

"It was really King Cervoran here," Cashel said, but he opened the door and followed Cervoran into the room without trying to convince the soldiers. They'd believe what they wanted to believe, and theydidn't want to believe a walking corpse had saved their lives.

Liane and civilians travelling with Garric were busy inside. Lord Tadai stood in the middle of a whole handful of clerks from his department. Several of Liane's assistants were waiting for a word too, but she was in a corner of the room talking to a fellow who was dressed like a servant here in the palace. He was a lotsolider to look at than you generally saw carrying trays and announcing guests.

Liane had spies all over the Isles; this man must be another of them. The fact that she was talking with him right out in the open probably didn't please either her or the spy, but at a time like this you might have to do lots of things you weren't happy about.

Everybody looked up when the door opened. They kept on looking when they saw who it was who'd come in.

"Give me the topaz," Cervoran said. His eyes weren't really focused on anybody, but Cashel had the funny feeling that he saw everybody around him. "Give me the jewel Bass One-Thumb took from the amber sarcophagus. It is necessary."

"He wants the crown, ah, Liane," Cashel said in the immediate silence. "Ma'am, he was the one who knew to burn that creature outside."

"It is necessary," Cervoran repeated. His voice hurt to listen to, though it wasn't loud or anything. Cashel wondered if the king had always sounded like that.

"Where do you propose to take the diadem?" Liane said. She sounded calm, but her fingers were hidden in a fold of her sash where Cashel knew she carried a little knife.

"What does it matter where this flesh is?" Cervoran said with obvious contempt. "I will use it here if you like. It is necessary."

"Yes, that will do," Liane said, her expression unchanged. She nodded to the assistant sitting with a velvet-wrapped bundle on his lap.

That fellow hopped to his feet and offered the package to her. "Give it to Lord Cervoran," she said sharply. She was generally polite as could be, but it seemed the things going on were affecting her too.

The clerk twitched. Cashel stepped forward, took the bundle, and handed it to Cervoran. The velvet dropped to the floor; Cervoran stared at the yellow stone as if he was trying to see through it to the veins of the rocks beneath the palace.

"Milady?" said the assistant timidly. "Does hehave to be here?"

"Be silent!" Liane snapped.

Cervoran looked up. "Are you afraid, fool?" he said. His swollen lips spread in a minute grin. "Shall I tell you how you will die?"

The assistant's face went white. He opened his mouth to speak, then toppled forward in a dead faint. Cashel caught him and carried him back to the couch where he'd been sitting.

That was the first really human thing he'd seen Cervoran do since he walked off the pyre. It was a nasty thing to do to the poor clerk, but it was human.

When Cashel turned, Cervoran was looking at the stone again and standing like a wax statue. Tadai and his clerks talked in muted voices, and the spy was whispering to Liane. Nobody was paying Cashel any attention, maybe because he was standing close to Cervoran who nobody wanted to notice.

"Well, I'll go…," Cashel said. "Ah, outside."

Liane nodded as Cashel stepped into the courtyard again, but nobody said anything. He was used to being ignored, of course, though this was a different business from what'd happened in the borough because he was a poor orphan. Everybody here was afraid, and they were afraid to learn anything that they didn't already know.

The bustle around the hellplant was getting organized now. Lord Waldron was giving orders while Sharina looked on at his side and Tenoctris bent over the smoking remains. Ilna was helping the old wizard, prodding layers of sodden greenery apart with the blade of her paring knife.

Cashel would've gone to join them, but his eye caught Prince Protas standing forlornly to the side. The boy's face was formally calm, but he looked awfully lonely. Cashel walked over to him.

"Lord Cashel!" Protas said, suddenly a frightened boy again in his enthusiasm. "Oh, sir, I heard you defeated the monster!"

"Your father knew to burn it," Cashel said. "I just carried the jar. I'll grant it was a big jar."

He spoke quietly, but he knew he sounded proud. He had a right to be proud, but it was true the real credit went to Cervoran.

Though Cashel wasn't completely sure "your father" was quite the right thing to call him now.

"Where did the monster come from, milor-" Protas said. He caught himself and finished, "Cashel, I mean."

Cashel grinned. "I don't know," he said, "but I'll bet if we follow that-"

He pointed the spear shaft toward the hole in the courtyard wall. He wasn't much of a woodsman-picking squirrels off a branch with a hard-flung stone was about as much hunting as he did-but the hellplant's root-like legs had left a track of slime on the ground behind them. It smelled of salt and sour vegetable matter.