Only when the door had closed behind them did Bahl sit and look at the other men in the room.
The Suzerains Tehran and Fordan had been summoned to attend this meeting. Kehed Tehran was a regular guest at the palace, for his domain surrounded Tirah's lands. He divided his time between his
family residence and apartments kept for him at the palace; the best doctors were to be found in the city, and Lord Bahl had made it quite clear that one of his most loyal supporters could always rely on his hospitality-
Beside Tehran was his closest friend, Fordan, a belligerent old soldier who sat bolt upright in his chair, bristling with restrained fury. In a corner, perched uncomfortably on hard chairs, were his eldest son and Suzerain Volah's heir, both seventeen summers, who were watching the proceedings with keen interest.
'Scion Tebran, did you meet Karlat Lomin last year at the Festival of Swords?' Lesarl's voice broke the heavy silence and made the young man flinch in surprise. He'd been invited to sit in, and it was a carefully calculated honour. It had been made clear enough by his father that he and Scion Volah, his best friend, were to sit quietly and say nothing.
'I ah, I did briefly, sir,' he said, trying to speak succinctly and fluently. 'He spoke to Sohn- ah, Scion Volah, I mean – for longer; he was too suspicious of me, of course.' The young man tried not to squirm under Bahl's relentless gaze. He looked relieved when it switched to his friend.
'Scion Volah?'
'1 went to his celebration feast, yes, Chief Steward. He threw a ball when his father officially handed over Lomin's Torch to him.'
'A good party?' Isak knew Lesarl well enough now to recognise the edge to that innocent question. He leaned forward and continued to glare at the Scion to distract him further. The Krann and Chief Steward might have been far from friends, but neither had any time for the foppish young aristocrats of high society.
'It was excellent, yes; the best of the festival.'
'I'm glad you enjoyed Duke Lomin's acknowledgement of his terminal illness; I am quite sure he does not. Tell me, at the festival, did you actually do anything other than drink and whore?'
I…we joined in the hunt, sir, like everyone else.'
'So you sat on a horse talking to pretty young girls and drinking brandy. Did you even enter the forest?'
‘Lesarl, now is not the time,' Bahl broke in. He could see Lesarl's questions running for ages, to no useful end. Isak didn't miss the look of relief on Scion Volah's face. 'I'm rather more interested in the death of General Elierl.'
'That witch of a duchess must be behind it!' spluttered Suzerain Fordan. 'I've known Elierl for thirty years; he wouldn't have killed himself. That little bastard probably had him murdered so he could-'
'Enough, Fordan. I don't think the scion would be stupid enough to have him killed, but you are right: driving the general to suicide would take the duchess's hand. However, we are not going to do anything about it.'
'What?'
'There are other matters to consider. Please trust me. Scion Volah, if you find an opportunity to reacquaint yourself with Scion Lomin, you will do so. No doubt he will be keen to host another party once the army arrives – after all, it is not often so many nobles go that far east.
'Isak, you will keep your distance from Lomin. I don't want a duel between the two of you, and frankly, I don't know which of you has the hotter temper.'
It was meant, in part, as a joke, but Isak just scowled and stared at the floor. Since he'd accidentally killed the High Priest a few weeks back, life had been very different. People now stepped around him even more warily, wondering – as Isak himself did – just how danger-ous he really was. What had actually happened remained a mystery to all of them, not least Isak himself, who had no memory of the incident. He recalled the presence of the old man, a dry, calm voice in his head, and then nothing but pain and light, and in the blur that followed, the High Priest had died.
For now, there was no sign that the question would be resolved, but the city was buzzing with rumours of the strange and terrible powers their Krann wielded. The original goal, to gain some measure of control over his magic, had failed completely, and now his frustration and anger had another point of focus. Secretive research in the palace library had revealed that the figure on his chest was an elven rune. Elvish, though the basis and common root of all languages in the Land, was unintelligible to anyone other than scholars. Elvish was built around one hundred and twenty-one core runes, each with a variety of meanings, depending on context. By themselves they were simple angular shapes, set in a circle, if they were single words. The scroll Isak had understood the most said they provided a general concept or idea, in the case of his rune, 'heart' – although Isak had glumly
realised that meanings could range from the stone in a peach to the crux of an argument, or the spirit of a nation.
Nowhere did he find a reason why the rune had been burnt into his chest, and until he could work that out, Isak had no intention of sharing the matter with anyone else. Instead, he'd taken himself off to the palace forge, where the master smith had been delighted to teach the Krann how to forge a sword, one in the elven style, which was far too complex and time-consuming to equip an army, but ideal to keep the Krann busy and out of the way of nervous soldiers and palace staff. The result was a long single-edged blade, balanced in a very different way to a rapier. Kerin had claimed it immediately and set about mastering the weapon: he was like a child with a new toy.
Isak shook himself out of his reverie and started paying attention again as Bahl said, 'Lesarl, make sure the army is ready to march in two days; everything we can put together in that time, and send riders out to every suzerain able to catch up.'
'You're not riding with us?' asked Suzerain Fordan. He was a grandfather, and well past the age that any would expect him to fight a battle, let alone join a forced march in winter, but there was no man in Tirah who would dare to suggest he didn't come.
There is a vampire in the city. I don't intend this one to be given the chance to fly before we catch it.'
The news startled both Isak and the young scions, but the older men had seen it all before. Their expressions turned to sharp interest; they knew well the cat-and-mouse games it would take to catch a vampire.
As unofficial Commander of the Guard, Kerin stood to brief them all. The Swordmaster coughed to clear his throat and tugged the sword at his hip into a more comfortable position. 'We've had killings °n and off for several years,' he began, 'but there is no real pattern or regularity, which is why it went unnoticed for so long. The Guard isn't set up for efficient policing of the entire city.' He paused for a fraction, giving Lesarl a look that was totally ignored before continuing, 'It isn't the same creature we had last time, the one that, unfortunately, escaped us.'
Tebran nodded. 'Ah well, what can I say? The man was a drunken fool he muttered, raising his mug in toast to his father, the man who let the news slip in a tavern one night and caused the beast to flee.
The Swordmaster smiled and continued, 'Most assuredly, but the vampire this time is cunning. That is why you were not told of it earlier, Lord Isak. The last one would have been a good challenge for your growing skills, but we fear this one is greater. Lord Bahl is the only mage we have capable of hunting one down alone.'
Isak nodded, grateful that Kerin had passed over Isak's own inadequacies in front of men he would be leading into battle.
'1 will stay for as long as needed, then catch you up,' Bahl declared then, looking pointedly at Isak, 'Do not get it into your head to look for the creature; you've danger enough waiting for you outside Lomin. In the meantime, you're not to leave the palace without a detachment of Ghosts. I don't want you involved.'