Peter Brett - The Skull Throne

Arlen spat on him. “You arrogant bastard, you don’t know that.”

“And you don’t know that I will be what tips you to victory in the Core.” Jardir wiped the spittle away without comment, though it was clear his patience was thinning. “Yet you brought me here and healed my wounds despite what I’ve done. What I’m doing. Because a part of you knows there is more at stake than a few lives. It is the future of the human race, and we must hold every advantage.”

“What advantage does raping and killing and burning bring?” Arlen demanded. “Making folk bow to a different Creator? How does that make us stronger? Folk in the Hollow are every bit as strong as your Sharum, and I didn’t have to destroy their homes and families to get ’em there.”

“Because Nie did it for you,” Jardir said. “I know the tale of your coming, arriving just before the alagai took the tribe forever, like I once did for the Sharach.”

“Hollowers were just the beginning,” Arlen said. “Thousands have joined the Cutters since.”

“Refugees of my coming,” Jardir said. “How many of your chin would take up the spear had I not driven them from their illusion of safety? You told me when we first met that many of your men would not raise a hand against the alagai even when their families were threatened.”

He squinted, reading something on Arlen’s aura. Renna looked at him, but could not understand it as they did.

Yet.

“Your own father,” Jardir said, nodding as understanding came to him. “Shamed himself, watching as the alagai came for you and your mother.”

Renna might not understand the subtler aspects of auras, but even she could not miss the humiliation and anger that washed across Arlen’s.

Yet there was something in Jardir’s aura, too. Pride. Respect. Her senses sharp in the night, she saw the apple of his throat tighten with emotion as he continued to Know Arlen. “It was you who saved her. Barely old enough for sharaj, and you took to the field like a trained Sharum. ”

“Wan’t enough,” Arlen said. “Still lost her. Just not as quick.”

“Do you regret standing in Nie’s path for her?” Jardir asked.

“Not for an instant,” Arlen said.

“This is what it means to be Shar’Dama Ka,” Jardir said. “To make the harsh decisions others cannot. The weak like your father must be shoved aside, that the strong might emerge.”

“Jeph Bales ent weak,” Renna said, drawing both men’s attention to her. “Took his lesson that same night, even if it was fifteen years before the test. When it was me out in his yard, bloody and with demons on my heel, he grabbed a tool and faced them down. Saved my life. You din’t do that, Krasian. Tibbet’s Brook stands tall now, and din’t need half the folk to die to make it happen.”

“ Inevera, ” Jardir said. “It matters not how people come to join in Sharak Ka, only that they come.” He looked to Arlen. “It was you, Par’chin, who said we were beyond such things now. The strike on Docktown was Abban’s plan, and Everam will deem whether he and Jayan or Lakton’s dockmasters will prove the stronger.”

“Never should have trusted that slimy camel-thief,” Arlen growled.

Jardir chuckled. “So I have said to myself many times over the years. The only thing anyone should trust Abban to do is be Abban. He follows his conscience only until there is profit in ignoring it.”

“Got half a mind to skate over to Docktown and knock him and your son on their asses,” Arlen said.

Jardir face darkened. “Do that, Par’chin, and our pact is broken. Do that, and I will return to the Skull Throne and leave you to your mad scheme.”

Arlen’s lip curled, and both men tensed, ready in an instant to resume fighting. They held the pose a moment, then Arlen shook his head. “We’ll see. Meantime, Ren and I need to see to the folk you’ve put out in the naked night.”

“That is not—” Jardir began.

“Shut it!” Arlen roared, so vehement even Jardir twitched. “It’s night, and I won’t see our brothers and sisters face it alone.”

Jardir nodded. “Of course there is no honor in that. I will summon Shanvah and Shanjat, and we—”

“Will stay right ripping here and guard the prisoner,” Arlen snapped.

“We are not your servants, Par’chin,” Jardir said, “to be ordered to gaol duty.”

“Ent no common gaol,” Arlen said. “You know what we’re holding.”

Jardir stiffened at that. “Alagai Ka.”

Arlen gave a curt nod. “I come back and find less than three of you here guarding, and our pact will indeed be broken.”

Jardir bowed. “Do not allow yourselves to be seen. Save your people in the night, but the Daylight War is no longer ours.”

Arlen scowled, but he nodded, turning to hold a hand out to Renna. She took it, holding tight to him even as they dissipated, as intimate as any connection of flesh. Linked, they slipped down a path to skate together.

Renna skated back to the tower, clumsily solidifying a few inches off the ground. Night after night of Drawing and skating had left her dizzy and drained of magic, insides weak and burning from conducting so much power.

The sudden drop twisted her ankle and sent her stumbling, but something caught her before she hit the ground. She tensed, ready to fight.

“Peace, sister,” Shanvah said. “It is only me.”

Renna shook her head, getting her feet under her and pushing away from the woman’s support. “Since when am I your sister?”

“Since we shed blood together in the tomb of Kaji,” Shanvah said. “We are spear sisters now.”

Her ankle throbbed painfully. Renna tried to heal it, but found she did not have the strength. She tried to Draw more power, but it made her whole body seem aflame. Easier to let the ankle throb.

Renna looked to the horizon. The sky was lightening, but dawn was still an hour away. She needed to feed before then, or she would be useless in the coming day. “That only till sunrise, when we go back to being enemies?”

Shanvah shrugged. “If the Shar’Dama Ka commands me to fight you, I will, Renna vah Harl, but it will not be as I would wish it. I see honor in you and the Par’chin, and I think Everam must have a plan for us.”

“Wish it was that simple,” Renna said.

“It is, and it isn’t,” Shanvah said. “Nothing on Ala is simple, or it would be as Heaven. Everam does not show his plan, but we know it is there.”

“Ay,” Renna agreed, though she did not agree at all. The woman was wasting time she needed to hunt, especially on a sore ankle. She drew her knife. “Gonna hunt a bit. Get my strength back.”

Shanvah nodded. “I will accompany you.”

“Core you will,” Renna snapped.

“You’re exhausted, sister,” Shanvah said. “There is safety in numbers.”

Renna shook her head. “Don’t need a sitter. You’d only slow me down.”

“But we …”

Shanvah’s aura blossomed with genuine hurt, and it made Renna angry. “We’re what? Spear sisters? You think that means a corespawned thing to me when I just spent a week trying to save lives you desert rats put out in the night?”

She grabbed at her vest, showing the deep crimson stains. “I’m covered in innocent blood because of your Shar’Dama Ka, Shanvah. Here, in the ripping night. So forgive me if I ent interested in having you at my back.”

She turned away sharply, storming off into the night without another word.

It was nearing dawn when Renna at last caught sight of her prey. The five of them had hunted the area around the tower down to nothing, and even as she ranged farther, many had already slipped back down to the Core’s embrace to shelter them from the sun.