Peter Brett - The Painted Man

She told them everything. She didn't mean to, but the cold and damp cave became a Tender's confessional of sorts, and once she began, the words overflowed; her mother, Gared, the rumours, her flight to Bruna, her life as an outcast. The Painted Man leaned forward and opened his mouth at the mention of Bruna's liquid demonfire, but he closed it again and sat back, choosing not to interrupt.

'So that's it,' Leesha said. 'I'd hoped to stay in Angiers, but it seems the Creator has another plan.'

'You deserve better,' the Painted Man said. Leesha nodded, looking at him. 'Why did you go out there?' she asked quietly, pointing her chin towards the cave mouth.

The Painted Man slumped, staring at his knees. 'I broke a promise,' he said.

'That's all?'

He looked up at her, and for once, she didn't see the tattoos lining his face, only his eyes, piercing her. 'I swore I would never give them anything,' he said. 'Not even to save my own life. But instead, I've given them everything that made me human.'

'You didn't give them anything,' Rojer said. 'I was the one that took the circle.' Leesha's hands tightened on her bowl, but she said nothing.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'I facilitated it,' he said. 'I knew how you felt. Giving them to you was the same as giving them to the corelings.'

'They would have continued to prey on the road,' Rojer said. 'The world is better without them.'

The Painted Man nodded. 'But that's no excuse for giving them to demons,' he said. 'I could as easily have taken the circle, killed them even, face to face, in the light of day.'

'So you went out there tonight out of guilt,' Leesha said. 'Why all the times before? Why this war on corelings?'

'If you haven't noticed,' the Painted Man replied, 'the corelings have been at war with us for centuries. Is it so wrong to take the fight to them?'

'You think yourself the Deliverer, then?' Leesha asked.

The Painted Man scowled. 'Waiting for the Deliverer has left humanity crippled for three hundred years,' he said. 'He's a myth. He's not coming, and it's time people saw that and began standing up for themselves.'

'Myths have power,' Rojer said. 'Don't be so quick to dismiss them.'

'Since when are you a man of faith?' Leesha asked.

'I believe in hope,' Rojer said. 'I've been a Jongleur all my life, and if I've learned one thing in twenty three years, it's that the stories people cry for, the ones that stay with them, are the ones that offer hope.'

'Twenty,' Leesha said suddenly.

'What?'

'You told me you were twenty.'

'Did I?'

'You're not even that, are you?' she asked.

'I am!' Rojer insisted.

'I'm not stupid, Rojer,' Leesha said. 'I've not known you three months, and you've grown an inch in that time. No twenty-year old does that. What are you? Sixteen?'

'Seventeen,' Rojer snarled. He threw down his bowl, spilling the remaining broth. 'Does that please you? You were right to tell Jizell you were nearly old enough to be my mother.'

Leesha stared at him. She opened her mouth to say something sharp, but closed it again. 'I'm sorry,' she said instead.

'And you, Painted Man?' Rojer asked, turning to him. 'Will you add 'too young' to your list of reasons why I shouldn't travel with you?'

'I became a Messenger at seventeen,' the man replied, 'and I was travelling much younger than that.'

'And how old is the Painted Man?' Rojer asked.

'The Painted Man was born in the Krasian desert, four summers ago,' he replied.

'And the man beneath the paint?' Leesha asked. 'How old was he when he died?'

'It doesn't matter how many years he had,' the Painted Man said. 'He was a stupid, naive child, with dreams too big for his own good.'

'Is that why he had to die?' Leesha asked.

'He was killed. And yes.'

'What was his name?' Leesha asked quietly.

The Painted Man was quiet a long time. 'Arlen,' he said finally. 'His name was Arlen.'

332 AR

When the Painted Man awoke, the storm had broken temporarily, but grey clouds hung heavy in the sky, promising more rain to come. He looked into the cave, his warded eyes easily piercing the dark, and made out the two horses and the sleeping Jongleur. Leesha, however, was missing.

It was early still; the false light before true sunrise. Most of the corelings had likely fled to the core long since, but with the heavy cloud, one could never be sure. He rose to his feet, tearing away the bandages Leesha had tied the night before. The wounds were all healed.

The Herb Gatherer's path was easy to follow in the thick muck, and he found her not far off, kneeling on the ground picking herbs. Her skirts were hiked up far above her knee to keep them from the mud, and the sight of her smooth white thighs made his face flush. She was beautiful in the pre-dawn light.

'You shouldn't be out here,' he said. 'The sun's not yet risen. It's not safe.'

Leesha looked at him, and smiled. 'Are you to lecture me on putting myself in danger?' she asked with a raised eyebrow. 'Besides,' she went on when he made no reply, 'what demon could harm me with you here?'

The Painted Man shrugged, squatting beside her. 'Tampweed?' he asked.

Leesha nodded, holding up the rough-leafed plant with thick, clustered buds. 'Smoked from a pipe, it relaxes the muscles, inducing a feeling of euphoria. Combined with skyflower, I can use it to brew a sleeping potion strong enough to put down an angry lion.'

'Would that work on a demon?' the Painted Man asked.

Leesha frowned. 'Don't you ever think of anything else?' she asked.

The Painted Man looked hurt. 'Don't presume to know me,' he said. 'I kill corelings, yes, and because of that, I have seen places no living man remembers. Shall I recite poetry I've translated from ancient Rusk? Paint for you the murals of Anoch Sun? Tell you of machines from the old world that could do the work of twenty men?'

Leesha laid a hand on his arm, and he fell silent. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I was wrong to judge. I know something of the weight of guarding the knowledge of the old world.'

'It's no hurt,' the Painted Man said. 'I've grown used to being judged.'

'That doesn't make it all right,' Leesha said. 'To answer your question, I honestly don't know. Corelings eat and shit, so it reasons they can be drugged. My mentor said the Herb Gatherers of old took great tolls in the Demon War.

'I have some skyflower,' Leesha went on. 'I can brew the potion when we get to Cutter's Hollow, if you like.'

The Painted Man nodded eagerly. 'Can you brew me something else, as well?' he asked.

Leesha sighed. 'I wondered when you would ask that,' she said. 'But I won't make you liquid demonfire.'

'Why not?' the Painted Man asked.

'Because men cannot be trusted with the secrets of fire,' Leesha said, turning to face him. 'If I give it to you, you will use it, even if it means setting half the world on fire.'

The Painted Man looked at her, and made no reply.

'And what do you need it for, anyway?' she asked. 'You already have powers beyond anything a few herbs and chemics can create.'

'I'm just a man…' he began, but Leesha cut him off.

'Demonshit,' she said. 'Your wounds heal in minutes, and you can run as fast as a horse all day without breathing hard. You throw wood demons around as if they were children, and you see in the dark as if it were broad day. You're not 'just' anything.'

The Painted Man smiled. 'There's no hiding from your eyes,' he said.

Something about the way he said it sent a thrill through Leesha. 'Were you always this way?' she asked.

He shook his head. 'It's the wards,' he said. 'Wards work by feedback. Do you know this word?'

Leesha nodded. 'It's in the books of old world science,' she said.