Juliet McKenna - The Assassin's Edge

“So did Muredarch.” Guinalle encouraged Yalda’s recollection of a startlingly tall man with wiry black hair and a savage cast to an otherwise handsome face, if you made allowance for the ragged beard and the crow’s-feet of age and disillusion framing his eyes. He’d been down on his luck back then, breeches dirty, shirt stained and boots inadequately patched. He was talking to Darige.

“So much for Emperor Tadriol smoking every Elietimm spy out of his thatch.” I’d always had my doubts about that, hearing Ryshad tell of frustrating pursuits of rumour and suspicion as his prince set him hunting the thieves who’d cut down a younger son of the House for an heirloom ring. He’d only learned later it was a Kellarin artefact when his path crossed mine and Darni’s and Shiv’s.

“Guinalle,” Temar warned.

“Very well.” Her lips narrowed with frustration before she soothed the air to emptiness with a lilting incantation. The sleeping faces vanished and I was abruptly aware of crippling stiffness in my neck and shoulders and the promise of a truly spectacular headache.

“I need some fresh air.” Pered got unsteadily to his feet and Ryshad promptly opened the door.

“I’ll settle for a drink.” Even ’Gren was looking unsure of himself and that was as rare as a moonless night.

Resting my forehead on my upturned palms, I felt Ryshad’s strong fingers rubbing my shoulders. “So what did you see?”

Ryshad took a moment to answer. “Colours, shapes, nothing I could make sense of. ’Sar couldn’t even see that much.”

“Another instance where Artifice and elemental magic don’t mix?” I rubbed my temples with cautious fingertips and squinted up at Ryshad. “What now?”

“Sar’s gone to get the others. Are you all right?” His grimness promised trouble for someone if I wasn’t.

I nodded carefully. “I will be.” Kneeling, he gathered me to him. I laid my head on his shoulder and thought very seriously about going to sleep and leaving everything to the rest of them, at least until the morning.

“Where’s Allin?”

I opened my eyes to see Temar scrubbing his face with the heels of his hands.

“With the rest of the mageborn. They were going to discuss just what wizardry they might venture without risking Elietimm attack.” Ryshad stood and lifted me to my feet before sitting on the stool himself. I sat on his lap, arms loose around his shoulders.

“Usara was saying Aritane’s helped him devise certain defences over the winter.” Guinalle’s voice was weary.

We sat in silence for a short time until Halice kicked open the door to wrestle a cumbersome basket of bottles inside. “If you’re done, let’s hear what you know and make a plan.”

We all winced at the crash and clink of glass apart from ’Gren who perked up immediately. “Always best done with a drink in your hand.” He helped himself to a fat-bellied bottle studded with a blobby wax seal.

Halice handed out a motley selection of wines. “So what did you learn?”

By the time Temar had explained, to no one’s great surprise, that our old enemy was the driving force behind the pirates, the wizards had arrived. Shiv had an arm around Pered, eyes searching for the least hint that Artifice had hurt his beloved. Usara went to press some wine on the largely silent Guinalle with detached courtesy. He had even managed to find a gold-trimmed silver goblet from somewhere.

“Can we get Naldeth out of there?” asked Allin. She’d been preoccupied with the mage’s fate ever since we’d had to leave him behind.

“He’s one of ours, is he?” Sorgrad had helped ’Gren shift the table to the side of the room and the brothers sat on it, swinging their feet idly. He downed a hefty swallow of white brandy.

“Guinalle?” Temar passed Allin his pale green bottle of Caladhrian white and she took a hesitant sip.

“I don’t think we dare try reach him.” The demoiselle sighed with eloquent frustration before looking round at all the mageborn. “You had better limit your magic to things within reach, things you can see. The Elietimm shouldn’t be able to attack you unless you’re seeking something beyond your immediate senses.”

“So we can still blow pirates out of the water with fire and lightning?” Sorgrad winked at Larissa who was standing a little apart from Shiv and Pered, silent and watchful. She smiled shyly back at him.

“Which will be useful,” observed Ryshad drily as he took red wine offered by Halice.

Sorgrad shot him an enigmatic look, which Ryshad met with level imperturbability. With all that had been going on, they’d had no real chance to take each other’s measure as yet but that would happen sometime soon. I took the bottle from Ryshad and swallowed a mouthful of Sitalcan, its bracing bite cutting through the weariness fogging my mind. I’d better make sure I was around to stop my oldest friends and my newest love coming to blows over their undoubted differences. I wasn’t expecting them to like each other but I hoped they’d at least respect each other’s talents.

Halice had other concerns. “We’ll not get rid of those pirates as long as they’ve aetheric magic backing them.”

“We’ve aetheric magic to use against them.” Usara smiled at Guinalle but we could all see the worry in his eyes.

“Are you certain you’re proof against these three? We’re barely adept enough to back you.” Temar sketched a circle to include me, ’Gren and Pered. ”Usara, might that Sheltya woman be induced to help us?”

“Aritane?” Guinalle shook her head regretfully. “Even if she were prepared to leave the sanctuary of Hadrumal, I don’t believe she’s come to terms with Eresken’s betrayal of her and her people. That alone would leave her horribly vulnerable.”

“So we’ve a cursed sight more than pirates to worry about now‘ Ryshad swirled the wine around in his bottle thoughtfully. ”What does Ilkehan want with Suthyfer?”

“Elietimm holding these islands will be a dagger at Vithrancel’s throat and all the Tormalin ocean ports,” glowered Halice.

For some reason, I thought about the Ice Man pruning his creeper. I remembered how my mother had waged constant warfare on knotgrass that had the temerity to continually reappear among the herbs and flowers she cultivated in the modest patch permitted her by the wealthy merchant who owned the big house. Every time my mother thought she had the thing beaten, another stem of jaunty little leaves capped with red-trimmed white flowers would spring up to mock her. As a fat-legged little girl I had played uncomprehending through one long afternoon while my father, on one of his rare and longed-for visits, had carefully dug up every cherished gillyflower and clump of heartsease, each woody sprig of spikenard swathed with leathery green leaves. He’d laid them all tenderly in moist shade before digging out every last root of that cursed knotgrass, following every stubborn rootlet down to its end. I recalled his conspiratorial grin as he lay flat on the black earth to reach as far as he could, soil dusting his coppery hair and smudging his face. Joining him in the normally forbidden delights of digging and dirt, I’d been just as filthy by the time we’d finished but at least my mother had never seen the knotgrass again.

“We have to get rid of Ilkehan.” It was remarkably easy to put such a momentous notion into words. As easy as casting the handful of runes that could make your fortune or break your neck. “Everything leads back to him.”

“When you say ‘we’?” Ryshad inclined his head as he looked at me and I knew he understood.

“Kellarin could never raise an army to fight the Elietimm.” Temar plainly didn’t. “Would the Emperor go to war on our behalf? Could he raise the ships, the men?”