‘I don’t know. I was thinking about Deephaven and Master S-I mean Prince Syannis.’
Talon growled. ‘Mostly I’m spending my time wondering whether Meridian will quietly cut all our throats while we’re conveniently here, and how to make sure that he doesn’t. But I’m also wondering whether the Hawks could take this city.’ He shrugged. ‘I shouldn’t, but I can’t seem to help myself.’
‘I reckon you’d need a trick or two or a good few more men.’
‘Meridian has enough to keep a free company at bay for a while. There might not be many proper soldiers here, but a city like Tethis can raise a militia of a thousand or more if it has warning. Not much use on an open field but give them a wall to hide behind and no place to run and their own homes to defend. . well, then a town militia can grow fierce.’ He clapped Berren on the shoulder and held out a small phial. ‘Is this what you needed?’
Berren took it out of Talon’s hand. He’d seen it before, this very bottle or one exactly like it, carefully packed in a wooden box lined with straw, hidden in a bag in the Hall of Swords with Tasahre standing beside him. There were words carefully etched into the glass. He peered at them, but he already knew what they would say. Poison. Blood of the Funeral Tree. Enough to kill six men. Secrete in food or drink. He shuddered. ‘I didn’t think you’d find it. The soldiers made it sound like a waste of time.’
‘We found the soap-maker’s place but there was no one there.’ Talon sniffed. ‘Looked like it had been abandoned for days. Most of it was cleared out but we found this. It was sitting on a table in plain sight. There wasn’t anything else.’ He wrinkled his nose. ‘The place stank of fish. It was as though we were meant to find it.’
Berren shivered. ‘I keep saying it: Saffran Kuy is playing a game with us.’
‘With us?’ Talon cocked his head. ‘Or with you?’
‘I don’t know.’ Berren looked away. ‘Does it matter? Master Sy’s somewhere not far from here, isn’t he?’
Talon twitched. ‘Never you mind about him. First passage to Brons, you’re on it.’ He frowned. ‘Not that you’ll get a ship from here. Maybe from Forgenver, but the sooner the better. Anyway. .’ He yawned and stretched and then waved cheerily down at the three watchers below. ‘If this is all you need then we can get on and get out of here. Are you sure this will work?’
‘Not really.’ The memory of Kuy making the potion remained clear as crystal. Whatever the warlock had done, he could repeat it. How it worked and what it actually did, of that he had no idea.
‘Tarn’s dying.’ Talon swung himself over the edge of the palisade and slid down the ladder to the ground. ‘He’s dying and he’s my friend. Make it work.’
Berren followed him to the hanging shed. He set about getting ready while Talon shooed everyone else away until only the three of them remained: Berren, Talon and Tarn. Berren laid out the other ingredients the warlock had used. There was already a little fire going and a pot of steaming water hung above it. ‘What if this kills him?’
‘Then he’ll die. But he’ll also die if you do nothing.’
Berren began grinding the salt and the powdered bone together and then mixing them in the boiling water with other powders and oils. He didn’t even have to think about it, as though the warlock’s recipe was in control and he was as much a tool of it as the pot or the pestle or the mortar. Time slipped by without him noticing.
‘I need a little of his blood,’ he said absently.
Talon frowned. ‘Blood?’
‘It is a warlock’s potion, not a healer’s.’
Talon’s frown deepened, but he took a knife to fleshy part of Tarn’s left hand and made a cut and held a cup to the wound. ‘How much?’
‘A thimble will do.’ Berren stirred the pot. Once it was bubbling again, he reached into his pocket and pulled out Talon’s phial. Poison. If anything was going to kill Tarn then it was this. He hesitated. Sure? Am I really sure?
A shadow loomed behind him. When he looked up, Gelisya looked back at him. Her black hair merged into the darkness of the hanging shed while the light of the fire on her face made her eyes seem enormous. The sight of her froze him stiff and the recipe fled from his mind.
‘Two drops,’ she said, after they’d stared at each other for what felt like an age. ‘You need two drops. As soon as it boils.’ She nodded earnestly and then added: ‘It’s boiling now.’
Berren shook himself, tipped in two drops of the poison and quickly put it away.
‘Take it off the fire,’ she said. ‘Let it cool for a minute. It’s nearly done now. It’s very good for a first time.’
And how would you know that? But now there was another distraction: two soldiers at the door, men in shiny silver breastplates and long skirts made of leather strips covered in a deep green lacquer. They were the same soldiers he’d seen in Deephaven on Radek’s ship, and between them stood a silhouette in gleaming white. A woman, slender and slight. He couldn’t stop looking. In another world she could have been Tasahre.
‘You need to put the blood in now,’ said Gelisya in a matter-of-fact voice. Berren nodded, struck dumb, took the cup from Talon and did as he was told. She was right, he knew that. How old was she? He tried to look at her and found he couldn’t meet her eyes.
‘What’s he done to you?’ he whispered, as much to himself as to Gelisya.
‘He showed me the hole in the world,’ she whispered back. She stepped closer and touched Berren’s face and then jumped away as if he’d stung her. ‘Oh! It’s you!’ Her eyes went wide. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were inside! How did you get here?’ Her bottom lip began to quiver as though she was about to burst into tears. Then a blankness passed across her face and her voice changed, went back to flat and toneless. ‘You need to let it cool down. It goes into more of a paste when it’s ready. You fill his mouth and his nose with it so he can’t breathe. You bring him to the brink of death, you see, to drive the bad spirit out. You have to stay with him. You’ll see it when it comes. Then you have to take the paste all out again so he can breathe. You have to do that quickly — and give him lots of water! He’ll probably be sick a lot for a while and then he’ll be better.’
‘What do you mean “It’s you”?’ he asked. ‘Who?’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise. For a moment I didn’t know who you were but now I do. You’re Berren. You took me away from the bad wizard. I have to go now.’ She skipped away towards the door. Berren made to go after her but he was too slow and the soldiers barred his way while Gelisya slipped between them. Took me away. Not rescued, but took me away.
‘Come back!’ he called.
The woman in white pushed between the soldiers. She was robed and veiled and she slapped him in the face. The soldiers stepped away and Berren heard a sharp intake of breath from one of them. He stood there, mute and confused. The woman slapped him again. ‘You bastard,’ she hissed. ‘What do you creatures want with her? She’s just a girl! You make me sick, both of you!’ Berren caught a flashing glimpse of her eyes beneath her veil and the venom glittering within them, and then she turned and walked quickly away.
14
‘Hey!’ Berren stepped forward but the soldiers stood in his way until she was gone. Behind him, Talon let out a long and exasperated sigh.
‘Now I have to find Meridian, except since he and everyone else who matters are off hunting somewhere, I suppose it’ll have to be my retard half-brother.’
‘What?’
Talon came to stand beside him. ‘You’re not from these parts. I keep forgetting. But you can’t stand for that. Even if you wanted to, you can’t.’ He shook his head. ‘Not from a bondswoman.’