“Rann, I’d like you to meet my brother, Keelan.” The good-looking young man grinned up from where he’d landed. Hadrann sheathed his sword hurriedly, then collapsed with a groan of exasperation and chagrin.
IV
Keelan grinned “Good to meet you, aren’t you Hadrann of Aranskeep? I met you last year at Kars.”
Rann nodded, looking bewildered. “I am, but aren’t you Aiskeep’s heir?”
Aisling cut in. “We can talk about that on the way. Kee, why don’t you ride ahead to warn everyone?” She leaned over to stretch out her arms to Wind Dancer. “We’ll follow. Ooof!” The latter exclamation came as the cat landed in her arms, scrambling over her shoulder, and into his carrysack again. Keelan swung his horse alongside after he mounted. His hands went out to rub and scratch the cat around the chin, and Wind Dancer purred blissfully.
“It’s great to have you back.”
“Thank you,” Aisling told him.
“I was talking to Wind Dancer.” He prodded the cat. “Your mother is going to have to talk to you about overeating. If you get any bigger we’ll be able to saddle you.” Wind Dancer reached over to nip his wrist. “Ouch. I take it back.”
Aisling laughed. “More likely he’d be able to saddle one of us.” She patted a strap on the carrysack. “I’m already halfway there. Go on, Kee. Let everyone know. I need to speak to Rann before we arrive.” Keelan looked at her. He nodded, reached over to give her one savage hug, and then he was gone, pushing his horse to a hard gallop as they cleared the upper trail. Behind him Aisling looked at the heir to Aranskeep as they started their mounts moving on at a fast walk after Keelan.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. But when we met I’d just been attacked by two men supposedly sent to meet me. You said to use another name if I was uncertain of you, and I did.” Her gaze met his. “Rann, it was a little too clear what I am. You know how many of the folk in Karsten feel about witches. Even a healer who is too good at her work may run a risk. There’s always the chance it’s because they have the Old Blood.
“If I had told you exactly who I was then, I could have endangered my family. I had to be sure of you. I was sure within a couple of days but I still felt it was safer to be silent in case we were split up, in case one of us was captured. Under truth spell you’d have been shown as ignorant of who I am. At least the duke could not have punished you greatly.”
Her companion made an inelegant sound through his teeth. “Couldn’t he! You forget it was Hilarion’s message that sent me to meet you. How happy do you think our dear duke would be if that came out in his questioning of me? Yes,” he said, in reply to a horrified look from Aisling. “I do have certain protections. How long would they last against Kirion? And even if they did, how long would I survive if he believed me to be involved in your escape whether or not I knew who you were?”
“I’m sorry. I still feel I was right,” Aisling said miserably.
Rann grinned. “You were. I was just paying you back for not trusting me, I guess. And while I’m complaining about that I should live up to my own claim and trust you.” He spread his arms and slowly turned his horse in a circle. “Look like a witch, do I?”
“No, why?”
“Because I’m not, but my brother was.”
It came back to Aisling with a rush. Some talk, half heard, quar-ter remembered, when she was about eleven or so. She spoke slowly trying to recall what she knew.
“Your brother was older. He went to Kars and didn’t come back. He was killed by bandits on the way home.” She was watching Rann’s face as she spoke and saw the terrible look in his eyes.
He spoke evenly. “Not quite. Jasrin was my elder by six years. I loved him. He was my half brother only. Father married his mother, and when she died two years after having Jasrin, father remarried. Mother loved Jas as her own, but she died too when I was five. I followed Jas everywhere after that, and he never said I was a pest or chased me away. I remember him teaching me to ride on his own pony. Father said I was too young to start sword lessons when I wanted, so Jas taught me until Father relented.”
He looked up at her, his eyes blinded with memories. “He was a good, decent man. Then he went to Kars at eighteen. I was twelve and I missed him. He never came home again. During a party Jas said something rude about the way Shastro had come to the throne. He was drunk or he’d never have been so stupid. We heard about it from friends at court. Jas vanished. After the party he’d been seen drinking with one of the duke’s men and was supposed to have gone on to another inn with the man. They found Jas dead in the outer ditch two days later. It was put down to robbers after his money pouch. The duke’s man had disappeared, and no one knew anything.”
Aisling dropped her gaze. The pain in his eyes was deep. Her mind worked quickly, putting together what she knew and what she could guess. Kirion would have had a hand in it. They had probably taken Jasrin, planning to forcibly change his mind about the duke. Once Jas was imprisoned, Kirion would have found that the boy had the gift of the Old Race in his blood, although he couldn’t use it. However Kirion had learned how to drain those unusable gifts. Instead of turning Jas’s mind as the duke had doubtless demanded, he’d drained the boy’s powers, killing him. Kirion would have used scare tactics with Shastro. She could almost hear him.
“The boy was a witch. Did you want someone at court who could overhear your thoughts? Maybe make you do things against your will? Jasrin could have finished up by running Kars while you sat there agreeing with every word. It’s a favor I’ve done you, my Lord Duke.” She said all of this to Rann.
“That’s how I put it together now. So did Father. I think he started quietly working against Shastro from the time he decided the duke had killed Jas. I was told when I turned fourteen. Father gave me the choice to help or simply to stay silent. I loved Jas. He was the best brother a boy could ever have had. I joined the conspiracy. I’m no friend to Estcarp, but they’ve always left us alone when we’ve left them alone. I want to see that’s official policy in Kars.”
“Is that all?”
His tone was hungry. “No, I want to see Kirion and Shastro pay. I want to see a decent ruler on the throne of Kars, I want all these stupid little wars amongst the nobles and clans of Karsten, to stop. We’re bleeding the whole country dry. In a few more generations we won’t have to worry about Estcarp. We’ll have killed ourselves off without their aid.” He swore. “It was that damned fool Pagar and his ‘let’s invade Estcarp.’ So he did, and what did it get him but a really impressive grave.”
Aisling shook her head. “It goes back further, to the Horning, and much of that was Kolder doing. You might as well say we should close our borders to everyone else. Let nothing and no one new in; they bring trouble always. But that’s no solution either.”
“No, it isn’t. Isolate and when the world breaks in, and it will sooner or later, you’re that much less able to deal with what it brings. A static society breaks more easily.” Aisling was listening with some amusement. His face twisted into a sudden grin. “I think I’ve heard my father on the subject once too often. Let’s change the subject. Who are you exactly?”
“Aisling. I’m Kirion and Keelan’s sister. Kirion is nine years older than me, and Keelan’s six. And before you ask, I loathe Kirion and his way of living as much as you do. I was only a child when he tried to kill me. He tormented Kee half of his life and almost destroyed him. Grandfather made Kee Aiskeep’s heir, and Kirion hates us all for that.