Orlad raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You going to look to that job yourself, Big Brother?”
Benard scowled. “I’d break his neck if he weren’t a Werist.”
“Ah, there is that.” The husky young Hero leered through his patchy black stubble. “I’ll help collect your remains for burial, if they’re not too widespread.”
Maybe he did have a trace of humor?
Dantio passed the next draft to Horth.
“In my experience,” the merchant said shyly, “one should always ask for more than one is prepared to settle for, especially when petitioning gods. One usually has to compromise. Frena and I have been released from captivity, so I give thanks for this deliverance, and I beseech the holy ones to bear us safely home and recompense us for all the wealth Satrap Eide and his wife have stolen from us over the years.”
“Home?” Fabia said. “You mean Skjar, but…” She saw the others grinning at her.
“This city of ours, Celebre,” Orlad said. He kept pulling peaches out from somewhere, popping them whole in his mouth, then spitting the pits overboard. Fabia thought it was a disgusting performance, but Ingeld was watching it raptly. “It is ruled by a doge? What is a doge?”
“It is known,” Dantio began, reverting to Witness, “that Celebre is the grandest and richest city of all Florengia, especially now that the war has destroyed so many others. The doge is supreme magistrate, elected for life by the council of elders. The office has been vested in our family for many generations, but succession is not automatically to the eldest son. In the past they have selected brothers, uncles, even sons-in-law. Hence Saltaja’s idea of marrying Fabia to her nephew. Then Stralg would lay his claws on the table, the council would elect Cutrath, all legal, and everyone would be happy.”
Except Cutrath’s wife. For Ingeld’s sake, Fabia did not say so.
Orlad accepted the beaker from Dantio and raised it. “I thank my lord, holy Weru, for today’s victory and beseech Him to show this council of elders that the Hero Celebre is the best one to rule their city.”
Guthlag smirked. Ingeld frowned. Benard scowled. Horth was as noncommittal as the Wrogg. The sun went behind a cloud just then, sending cold tremors down Fabia’s backbone. Orlad could not speak Florengian, Benard was unthinkable as a ruler, and what council would elect a eunuch? While her father’s household was considerably smaller than a city, she did have managerial experience. Of the four of them, she was the obvious choice. Why not a dogaressa regnant?
Dantio smiled. “Don’t make the sauce before you catch the fish, brother!” He refilled the beaker and studied the wine in it for a moment. “I have worked long and hard toward this moment. I have served as a resident Witness in the palace of Kosord, Bena, and knew the anguish you felt every time you set eyes on Ingeld. I watched you put my face on the mural in her chamber and wonder whose face it was. As Urth the slave I carried burdens through the streets of Skjar in the monsoon deluge while Frena Wigson presided over great feasts for Saltaja and other rich folk in Horth’s palace. I even went to Nardalborg once, as an itinerant merchant’s slave. There I watched Orlad being systematically beaten up by his friends and could do nothing to help him. But now the gods have rewarded my efforts and granted us reunion!”
He raised the beaker. “For this I thank Them; and I ask only that I may soon watch Saltaja Hragsdor die.”
A chill wind caught the sail and made it flap. No one commented. The prayers were becoming grimmer, yet who could blame Dantio for cursing Saltaja? As he passed the refilled beaker to Fabia, his sly smile was a secret challenge: To which god would she pray? If she mentioned Xaran, she would be lucky just to be thrown overboard.
“My brothers are kind,” she said, gaining a moment to think. “Orlad has already slain Therek, Benard wants to kill Horold, and now Dantio takes Saltaja. I assume you expect me to get rid of Stralg for you?”
Everyone laughed-Guthlag guffawed as if that was funniest thing he had heard in years. Even Orlad smiled, although mockingly.
She raised the wine. “I give thanks to all the gods for the start They have made in righting the wrongs done to the House of Celebre, and I pray… I pray that They will also lead us home and give the council the wisdom to choose the best qualified candidate for doge.”
“Amen to that!” Orlad shouted.
Dantio said. “There is fighting in Tryfors!”
“Who?” Orlad snapped. “Who is fighting?”
“I can’t tell at this distance. But it has started.”
SALTAJA HRAGSDOR
emerged from her room and told Ern to stay there on guard. Humming happily, she set off in the same direction Fellard had gone. This was going to work out very well, advantage snatched from the jaws of adversity.
Fabia’s escape required a change of plan. In retrospect, Saltaja should have taken the girl into her confidence sooner, but in all her long lifetime, she had never admitted to anyone that she was a Chosen-that was a quick way to a living grave. There had been no way of testing the girl on the river, and it was too late to unchurn that butter now, however helpful it would have been to have a second chthonian in the family. Stralg would have to do the best he could about Celebre without any of the doge’s children-and if the war was heading that way, the city would probably not survive anyway.
No, Saltaja would have to summon Cutrath back from Nardalborg and shape him herself. A wife could have given him the years of care required, but the long journey downstream to Kosord would have to suffice. She chuckled, wondering what her traveling companions would think of a young Werist who sat so close to his dear aunt all day and every day. Cutrath should be happy enough at the change of plan; a Werist would have to be insane to prefer a posting to Florengia nowadays, and her nephew had never struck Saltaja as insane. Petty, mean, and nasty, yes, but not insane. The family was not done for yet-there was the unknown Heth bastard, whom Therek was hiding from her, and probably a few Stralg by-blows growing up in Florengia. Stralg never acknowledged his bastards, but he must have sired a host of them in his time.
She stepped out into the herb garden-sodden, waist-high undergrowth and rain dribbling from foliage overhead, an unmistakable sense of evil. By the time she had forced her way through the jungle to a far corner and found a secluded nook between two trunks, her clothing was soaked through. There she veiled herself, spinning darkness until the court faded into gray around her and no one would notice her unless they actually walked into her. She stripped naked, then knelt and dug her fingers into the soil.
By blood and birth; death and the cold earth. “Most unholy Mother Xaran, accept the sacrifice I bring You to Your glory.” She felt the power flow, the Mother’s attention focus on her. She remained crouched there, patiently waiting, indifferent to the cold and wet, warmed by excitement. The Old One would certainly enjoy this bounty She was about to receive. She would reward Her servant. The earth hungered.
The door opened to admit a dozen Werists in orange-red-black stripes, who proceeded to spread themselves all around the court and crouch down as she had. One of them came so close to her that he was probably heading for the same spot, so she applied Dominance to make him stop. He knelt behind some weeds, grinning with nervy excitement and almost close enough to touch.
Evidently conversation had been forbidden, because only the rain made any noise at all, and that was a fine show of discipline from men facing their first true battle. Saltaja tried to imagine the sound of thirteen hearts beating in unison, very fast. The orange in the men’s palls showed that they belonged to Therek’s host, the red that they were from the Fist’s Own, Fellard’s hunt. The next arrivals were eight men in orange-brown-blue, the incompetents who should have done a better job of guarding Fabia Celebre. Evidently they thought they were on punishment detail, for every one of them carried a shovel or pick and looked furious at this indignity. Fellard was smart enough when he chose to be. Few Werists would have lured their victims here so plausibly.