Some fought on. The latter rallied round the Toal.
Ahlert became magnanimous immediately. He spared anyone willing to rejoin his army.
Gathrid frowned. That man was running against the wind, but he pursued his dream nevertheless.
Loida finally shook her fogginess. She saw Gathrid kneeling over Nieroda. She urged her mount toward him.
"Don't do it, girl," Gacioch croaked. His warning came too late. Gathrid heard the hooves.
Ahlert! he thought. This would be the moment for the Mindak to strike. And this was the moment to end the threat from the east. Nieroda could be hunted down later. She had become the lesser danger.
He let the hooves approach.
Aarant did warn him that Suchara was a jealous mistress.
It was all as inevitable as death itself.
Gathrid whirled. Daubendiek flicked like a serpent's tongue. The youth screamed. Screamed for Loida Huth-sing, who could not scream for herself. The poor girl did not realize what was happening till it was over... .
Gathrid swore he heard Nieroda laughing in the distance.
Chapter Fourteen
Torun Gathrid sat between the corpses of the women. The two long black swords flanked him. Hints of fire rippled along their blades. He rocked slowly and incessantly. His thoughts were so turned in upon themselves that even Tureck Aarant could not penetrate them.
How many more? he wondered. Anyone who would ever mean anything? Was there no way to stop this?
He went hunting the shadows, searching for Loida. He wanted to explain, to apologize, but he could not find her. Like Anyeck, she had burrowed deep and curled around herself like a grub in the earth. There was no sign of her.
He tried to find Anyeck. Surprisingly, he caught a trace here and there. Something had wakened her. When he did make a ghostly contact, she fled with a whimper. For an instant he had an image of her as she had been at Katich, only running away, a gown of moonstuff flying around her calves.
She was Anyeck still, still living in dreams.
"She was a beauty," Aarant murmured.
"Yes." Gathrid was becoming accustomed to these internal dialogs. He was becoming accustomed to Aarant, beginning to like the man. "But she wasn't a good person. Except to me."
"I'm sorry for you. I know how you feel. They made me kill my mother."
"I know. In a way, though ... Anyeck earned what she got. She was looking for it."
"That doesn't make it right. There has to be an end to this cruelty.''
Aarant had tried to broach the topic before. Gathrid had slipped away every time, though he did not know why. He agreed now. He had been thinking the same thing since Anyeck's death. "Look there." The sky had darkened in the east. "See the comet?"
"Yes. The same one foretold the fall of Anderle. It's almost gone. If it goes like before, this mess will turn real bloody once it disappears."
"It's not bloody now?"
"Bloody enough."
A hand touched the youth's shoulder gently. He glanced up into Rogala's eyes, surprised a tender moist-ness there. The dwarf did not look at all well. His face was not suited to a display of compassion.
"We've got to get out of here," Rogala said. "Before the Mindak has a brainstorm and realizes his future would be less complicated without a Swordbearer in it.''
"We've only been allies a little while."
"Long enough. He needed you to beat Nieroda. She's gone. Now he's going to head west. He knows your first loyalty lies there. And that without you the Alliance won't stand much chance. The pragmatic course would be to eliminate you now. That's bound to strike him before long."
Gathrid had a feeling Rogala was telling but a part of the story, but was too distracted to pursue the matter. Ahlert would try, given a chance. That was his nature.
The sun was setting but there was enough light to show prisoners being herded about the grisly field. The Toal and a few survivors were retreating to the southwest. Ahlert would come soon if he came. Aarant agreed with Rogala. "Better move." Aloud, Gathrid said, "I was sitting on this hill when Symen brought the news that Grevening had been invaded." He glanced at Rogala. The dwarf remained pained. "I never thought it would come to this."
"It does begin to grate. Come on. We've got to go."
"All right." Gathrid collected the swords. Rogala had ' brought horses and supplies. "Ever the efficient esquire, eh?"
Gently, the dwarf removed a silent Gacioch from beneath Loida's still form. "I try, son. I try."
He said nothing more till, days later, they neared Katich. Gathrid had only Aarant for company.
"He's changed since before," Aarant observed at one point. Gathrid had been watching the dwarf's back. They were riding single file. "I can't believe he's the same man. The Brothers' War must have had a tremendous impact.''
"How has he changed?"
"He's become unpredictable. And emotional. I don't think I ever saw him show anything but anger before."
"I think he's losing his faith. I don't know how he fits in, but I think he's gotten sick of his part."
"Probably right. It's bad not knowing what it's all about, but maybe it's worse knowing. Maybe there's no point at all and that's what's getting to him."
"I think he believed there was a point, and now he's begun to doubt."
The discussion went on all the while they crossed Gud-ermuth. Gathrid found himself liking Aarant more and more. They were much alike beneath the cruel armor of experience. He suspected they could become friends.
He wondered what it would be like to share his brain with his best friend.
They topped a rise and faced Katich.
"That was needless," Rogala said. For a moment Gathrid thought he meant the destruction of the city. But the dwarf had turned in his saddle and was looking eastward.
"Thank you, Theis." It was the best he would get from the man. Perhaps the best anyone ever had gotten. Aarant again mentioned his astonishment at the changes in Rogala.
Over campfires and during the boring rides across wasted countryside Gathrid often studied the sword he had taken from Nieroda. It had been defeated. It remained bruised and weak. But, like a living thing, it had a capacity for recovery. And it presented him with a moral dilemma.
Could the world endure the existence of another such blade? One seemed curse enough.
What could he do? He did not possess the Power to destroy it. He feared that no one did, not even its crea-trix.
"Keep it," Aarant urged. "I have a feeling about it."
Gathrid, too, felt something. He thought a day might come when he would be glad to have the blade available. On the plus side, it did not have Daubendiek's insatiable hunger. Though hammered on the forges of evil, it was not of itself insane and black of heart. Unlike Dauben-diek, it remained a controllable tool.
It was an infant still. It could become a Daubendiek had it the tutelage of a Suchara.
When Gathrid's thoughts did turn outward he had to face what had happened to Gudermuth. The little kingdom was a state no more. It had become a vast desolation. The native survivors seemed to have become brigands who existed by preying upon one another. Plague and famine had taken up where war had left off. Gathrid wondered if the stolid endurance of the peasant would suffice him during this disaster.
"You think we'll face much trouble?" he asked as he and Rogala crossed the Bilgoraji border, following the Torun road. Even the boundary marker had been destroyed. The waste went on.
Rogala shrugged. "We've yet to be challenged."
"Hildreth might attack us."
"I doubt it. He won't be pleased to see us, though."