Стивен Дональдсон - A Man Rides Through

Lebbick kept on walking. When he replied, he hardly cared whether Eremis heard him or not. Primarily for his own benefit, he muttered under his breath, “Laugh now, you goat-rutting bastard. Someday I’m going to learn the truth about you. When I do, I’ll have an excuse to feed you your balls.”

He was so clenched inside himself, so obsessed with his own thoughts, that he didn’t expect a retort. After Master Eremis spoke, the Castellan wasn’t sure that he had heard his companion correctly.

“Try it.”

Behind his bland smile, Eremis looked as eager as an axe.

Grinding his teeth, Castellan Lebbick strode down the corridor toward the Imager’s quarters.

They were reached by a short hall like a cul-de-sac, with servants’ doors on either side and the main entrance at the end. Master Eremis’ ostentatious rosewood door made Lebbick sneer: it was carved in a bas-relief of the Imager himself, representing clearly his sense of his own superiority. But the door itself wasn’t important; it changed nothing. No, what mattered – Castellan Lebbick clung to what mattered with both fists – was that the door was properly closed, and that two reliable guards were on duty in the hall, controlling access to Master Eremis’ chambers.

The guards saluted, and Lebbick demanded a report.

“Underwell and two of our men have been in there all night, Castellan,” the senior guard said. “Nyle must still be alive, or Underwell would have come out. But we haven’t heard anything.”

Master Eremis said, “Good,” but the Castellan ignored him. Brushing past the guards, Lebbick jerked the door open.

Then for a long moment he just stood there and stared dumbly into the room, trying as if all his common sense and reason had evaporated to figure out why the guards hadn’t heard anything. That much carnage should have made some noise.

Behind him, his men stifled curses. Master Eremis murmured, “Excrement of a pig!” and began whistling thinly between his teeth.

There were three men in Eremis’ sitting room, the two guards and Nyle. All three of them had been slaughtered.

Well, not slaughtered , exactly. Lebbick’s brain struggled to function. The dead men hadn’t actually been cut to pieces. The damage didn’t look like it had been done with any kind of blade. No, instead of being victims of slaughter, human butchery, the men resembled carcasses on which predators had gorged. Huge predators, with jaws that took hunks the size of helmets out of the chest and guts and limbs of his guards, his guards . The bodies lay in a slop of blood and entrails and splintered bones.

As for Nyle—

In some ways, he was in better condition; in some ways, worse. He hadn’t been as thoroughly chewed on as the guards. But both his arms were gone, one at the elbow, the other at the shoulder. And his head had been bitten open to the brain: his whole face was gone. He was recognizable only by his general size and shape, and by his position on Eremis’ sumptuous divan.

The Castellan started grinning. He wanted to laugh. He couldn’t help himself: despair was the only joke he understood. Almost cheerfully, he said, “You aren’t going to be seducing any women here for a while, Imager. You won’t be able to get all this blood out. You’ll have to replace everything.”

Eremis didn’t seem to hear. He was asking softly, “Underwell? Underwell?”

Of course, there should have been four men here: Lebbick knew that. His two guards. Nyle. And Underwell. With a feral smile, he sent a guard to search the other rooms. He still had that much self-possession. But he was sure the physician was gone. Why would Underwell want to stay and get caught after committing treachery like this?

For some reason, the fact that what had happened should have been impossible didn’t bother Lebbick.

“Castellan,” the senior guard said in a constricted voice, as if the air were being squeezed from his chest, “nobody went in or out. I swear it.”

“Imagery.” Castellan Lebbick relished the word: it hurt so much that he seemed to enjoy it. “They must have been hit too hard, too fast. Maybe it was that firecat. Or those round things with teeth the Perdon talked about.” The desire to at least chuckle was almost unsupportable. “They didn’t even have a chance to shout. Imagery.”

“I fear so.” Master Eremis’ manner was unusually subdued, but his eyes shone like bits of glass. “Our enemies have been able to do such things ever since the lady Terisa of Morgan was brought here.”

“And in your quarters, Imager.” Lebbick kept on grinning. “In your care. Protected by arrangements you made.”

At that, Eremis’ eyes widened; he blinked at the Castellan. “Are you serious? Do you blame me for this?”

“It was done by Imagery. You’re an Imager. They’re your rooms.”

“He was alive when I left him,” Master Eremis protested. “Ask your guards.” For the first time, Lebbick saw him look worried. “And I have spent all the rest of my time with you.”

The Master’s point was reasonable, but Castellan Lebbick ignored it. “You’re an Imager,” he repeated. As he spoke, his voice took on a slight singsong tone, as if deep inside himself he were trying to rock his hurt like a sick child. “You think you’re a good one. Do you expect me to believe ‘our enemies’ have a flat glass that shows your rooms and you don’t know about it? They made it and then never used it, never gave you any kind of hint, never did anything that might possibly have made a good Imager like you aware of what they had? Are you serious?”

To his astonishment, Lebbick discovered that he was almost in tears. His men had never had a chance to defend themselves, and there was nothing he could do to help them now, no way he could ever bring them back. Grinning as hard as he could, he twisted his voice down into a snarl. “I don’t like it when my men are slaughtered.”

“An admirable sentiment.” Master Eremis’ face was tight; the concern in his eyes had become anger. “It does you credit. But it has no relevance. Our enemies appear to have flat glass which admits them everywhere. If I knew how that trick is done, I would do it myself. But that also has no relevance. Nyle was alive when I left him. A blind man could see that I was with you when he was killed. I am not to blame for this.”

“Prove it,” retorted the Castellan as if he were recovering his good humor. “I know you didn’t do this yourself. The traitors you’re in league with did it. But you set it up. All you did” – with difficulty, he resisted a tremendous impulse to hit Eremis a few times – “ all you did was bring Nyle here so that Gart and Gilbur and the rest of your friends could get at him.”

He wanted to roar, All you did was have my men slaughtered! But the words caught in his throat, choking him.

“Castellan Lebbick, listen to me. Listen to me.” Master Eremis spoke as if he had been trying to get Lebbick’s attention for some time – as if Lebbick were in the grip of delirium. “That makes no sense.

“If you believe I am responsible for Nyle’s death, then you must believe he would not have defended me from Geraden’s accusations. Therefore you must believe I had no reason to take him to the meeting of the Congery. What, so that he could speak against me? I say that makes no sense.

“And if you believe I am responsible for his death, you must also believe I have the means to leave Orison whenever I wish – by the same glass which enabled Gilbur to escape. Then why do I remain? Why did I go to face Geraden before the Congery, when I could have fled his charges so easily? Why have I submitted myself to this siege? Castellan, that makes no sense .