The sky growled and the ground briefly trembled. A trickle of smoke rose on the far horizon from a mountain hidden by the curve of the earth.
The Karnids stirred and muttered. From where Jame lay, she could see mostly shifting black legs, of horses, of men. All seemed to reach the same conclusion at once. With that, they turned and trudged off westward, away from the battlefield, toward the ruins of their home.
Jame rose slowly, carefully, as if one joint at a time. Her left arm hung dead at her side and her left shoulder slumped forward within her shell of rhi-sar armor. All around her, Karnids were retreating, skirting the circle of combat as if the ground there were tainted. No one so much as looked at her.
“That’s it?” she asked Death’s-head.
The rathorn snorted and shook himself.
When she turned to the east, the sun blinded her. The two ridges and the gap between them appeared to be full of waving figures. Their voices seemed far away and faint, but she thought that they were cheering. Jame waited for them, holding her arm by the elbow close against her side, feeling cold and sick.
II
THE CAMP SURGEON told her that she had broken her collarbone.
“It’s nothing serious,” he said cheerfully. “A healer could set it right in a few days, but we don’t have one. Say, two weeks in a sling with plenty of dwar sleep, four or five weeks without it.”
Then he had given her a sleeping draft, which she had hardly needed. It seemed an age since she had last closed her eyes—twenty days, if one went by the calendar.
Toward dusk, she woke in her dimly lit quarters with Jorin curled up beside her. Rue had propped her upright with pillows to ease the pain in her shoulder. Sounds of celebration filtered through curtains drawn across the windows. She gathered that the rest of the Host had returned to camp during the day, following Harn Grip-hard who had ridden up on a donkey, the only mount he could find, as they had quitted the pass.
“I see that you’ve done it again,” he had said to her. She still wasn’t sure exactly what he had meant.
Her mouth was very dry, her lips chapped. “Water,” she croaked, hoping that Rue was nearby. Instead, a dark figure loomed up beside her holding a cup of water.
“Here. Drink,” said Harn. “I sent your servant off to enjoy the festivities. The Feast of Fools has been going on all day, Overcliff, Undercliff, and in the camp. You, however, got your foolery in early. What possessed you to take on the entire Karnid horde single-handed?”
Jame thought that she had had her reasons, but none of them sounded convincing now.
Harn drew up a chair and sat down beside her. Wood groaned under his weight while his knees peaked halfway up his chest.
“Never had a broken bone before, have you?” he said. “It’s disheartening. Everything will seem worse than it is until you get used to the idea, and by then the bone will have knit.”
Jame sipped the water, tasting the tang of pomegranate juice.
“How many casualties?” she asked.
“In the Betwixt? A dozen wounded, but none killed. The cadets had too strong a position, and their line held. On the other hand, the Karnids must have lost several hundred. We’ll never know for sure since they took their dead with them. Given the way the valley funnels there, most never got within striking distance.”
Jame regarded him. Everything will seem worse. . . . “You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”
Harn looked away, then back at her. “While you were gone, I got a message from Blackie. He wanted to know what had happened to Brier Iron-thorn. As far as I knew, nothing had, until I asked her. She said that her bond to the Highlord had broken, and re-formed with you.”
Jame sighed. She had known this was coming, but had hoped that, somehow, it would never arrive. “It was an accident,” she said. “Brier was very upset when the seeker’s baby died in her arms, and Tori was too far away to help her.”
“Whereas you were right there. Yes, I understand. Hopefully Blackie will too, when he hears the full story.”
A moment’s silence fell between them. Both were thinking that Torisen’s responses weren’t always rational, and that this one had sprung from the heart of his deepest insecurities.
Harn clapped his big hands on his knees with an air of someone facing up to the worst. “There’s more. He’s ordered you to return to Gothregor. Immediately.”
Jame stared at him. “But I still have sixty days, all of spring, left of my year at Kothifir!”
“The randon will understand a summons from your lord—I hope. You’ll take Iron-thorn, of course. And your ten-command as an escort, on extended duty. Cheer up,” he added, seeing her expression. “However mad your actions this morning, you aren’t exactly leaving under a cloud.”
Her eyes dropped to a little pile of paper scraps on the floor. She remembered waking earlier that day to find third-year cadet Char standing by her bed, glowering down at her.
“D’you still have that note I slipped under your door?” he had asked.
She had fished it out from under her pillow and mutely handed it to him. He had torn it up. Then he had left without another word. Just now, waking, she had thought that it had all been a dream. Apparently not.
Harn stood up, seeming to scrape the ceiling and fill the room. “For all Blackie’s histrionics, you needn’t leave until tomorrow. Go back to sleep.”
In the doorway, he passed Brier. The Southron stepped into the apartment, glanced after him, then raised an eyebrow at Jame.
“Tell the others to pack,” Jame said, leaning back against her pillows with a sigh. “We’re going home.”
CHARACTERS
Addy—Shade’s gilded swamp adder, to whom she is bound
Adric—Lord Ardeth
Ahack—in the Wastes, the west wind
Amantine, Princess—Kruin’s sister, Krothen’s aunt
Amberley—a Kendar, Brier’s former lover
Anooo—in the Wastes, the north wind
Apollynes—the mountain range parallel to the Rim
Arrin-ken—catlike third of the Three People
Ashe—a haunt singer
Awl—a Randir senior randon
Bane—Jame and Tori’s half-brother, who may be alive or dead
Bear—Sheth’s brain-damaged brother
Bel-tairi—a Whinno-hir
Blackie—the common name for Torisen
Brier Iron-thorn—a Kendar randon cadet, first bound to Torisen and then to Jame
Burnt Man, the—the one of the Four who represents fire
Burr—Torisen’s Kendar servant
Byrne—Gaudaric’s grandson
Caldane—Lord Caineron
Cella, Lady—cousin to King Krothen
Char—a third-year Knorth cadet
Corrudin—Caldane’s uncle and advisor
Corvine—a Knorth oath-breaker, bound to the Randir
Cron—a Knorth Kendar
Cully—one of Torisen’s first command
Damson—one of Jame’s ten-command
Dani—Shandanielle, Lady Professionate
Dar—one of Jame’s ten-command
Dari—Lord Ardeth’s would-be heir
Death’s-head—a rathorn
Dorin—grandson of the Kothifir high priest
Ean—Gaudaric’s son-in-law
Eaten One, the—the one of the Four who represents water
Erim—one of Jame’s ten-command
Evensong—Gaudaric’s daughter, Ean’s wife, Byrne’s mother
Falling Man, the—the one of the Four who represents air
Fang—a Waster girl who has ended up in Kothifir
Fash—a Caineron cadet
Four, the—the elementals of Rathillien
Frost—the Randir barracks commander
Ganth Gray Lord—father of Jame and Torisen
Gaudaric—Master Iron Gauntlet
Genjar—Caldane’s son, Commandant of the Host
Gerridon—Master of Knorth, ar
ch-traitor of the Kencyrath
Gnasher—wolver king of the Deep Weald
Gorbel—Caldane’s lordan
Graykin—Jame’s servant, sometime Master Intelligencer
Greshan—Jame and Tori’s uncle, Ganth’s brother
Grimly, the wolver—a wolver of the Grimly Holt
Hangnail—a spy
Hull—Torisen’s chief forester
Granny Sit-by-the-Fire—an Old Pantheon goddess of the Wastes
Harn Grip-hard—commandant of the South Host
Index—a scrollsman who knows where everything is
Iron-jaw—first Ganth’s war-horse, then Gerridon’s haunt war-horse
Ishtier—former high priest of Tai-tastigon
Jame—Jamethiel Priest’s-bane, sister of Torisen Black Lord
Jamethiel Dream-weaver—consort of Gerridon, Master of Knorth; mother of Jame and Torisen
Jedrak—temporary lord of the Jaran
Jorin—Jame’s ounce
Kalan—a Kothifiran seeker
Kells—herbalist at Gothregor
Kenan—Lord Randir
Keral—a fallen changer, servant of the Master
Killy—one of Jame’s ten-command
Kindrie Soul-walker—a healer; cousin of Jame and Torisen
Kin-Slayer—Torisen’s sword
Kirien—a scrollswoman; Lordan of Randir
Kroaky—young Krothen
Krothen—god-king of Kothifir
Kruin—former king of Kothifir; Krothen’s father
Lady Professionate—Dani or Shandanielle; a guild lord
Lainoscopes—king of Langadine
Lanek—young son of Kalan
Lanielle—a Langadine seeker, granddaughter of Laurintine
Laurintine—a Langadine seeker
Lord Artifice—a Kothifiran guild lord
Lord Merchandy—a Kothifiran guild lord
Lurcher—Jame’s moa
Marc—Marcarn, Jame’s Kendar friend
Mercer—Lord Merchandy
Merry—one of Torisen’s Kendar
Mint—one of Jame’s ten-command
Mother Ragga—the Earth Wife; one of the Four
Near, Prince—Princess Amantine’s husband
Needham—Master Silk Purse
Onyx-eyed, Marigold—commander of the Knorth barracks
Pereden—Timmon’s father; Adric’s son
Prophet, the—leader of the Karnids
Quill—one of Jame’s ten-command
Quirl—Corvine’s son
Qrink—Master Paper Crown, Kalan’s brother-in-law
rathorn—a carnivorous bi-corn
Rain—replacement for Storm
Rawneth—the Randir Matriarch
Rose Iron-thorn—a Caineron; Brier Iron-thorn’s mother
Rowan—Torisen’s steward
Rue—one of Jame’s ten-command, her servant
Ruso—Lord Artifice
Shade—a Randir cadet
Shandanielle—Dani, Lady Professionate
Sheth Sharp-tongue—the Caineron war-leader; former commandant of Tentir
Shrike—a third-year Randir cadet
Shuu—in the Wastes, the south wind
Snow—replacement for Rain
Spare—second-in-command of the Knorth barracks
Storm—Torisen’s war-horse
Talisman—Jame’s identity as a Tastigon thief
Taur—director of Mount Alban, a former randon
Tenebrae—mountain range to the east of the Wastes
Timmon—the Ardeth Lordan
Tishooo—the Falling Man, the Old Man, the east wind
Ton—prince of Kothifir, son of Amantine
Torisen Black Lord—Tori, Blackie, Highlord of the Kencyrath
Trishien—Jaran Matriarch
Twizzle—Gorbel’s pet pook
Uraks—mountain range to the west of the Wastes
Vedia—Kothifiran Old Pantheon goddess of healing
Whinno-hir—one of the equines who have followed the Kencyrath since the beginning
Yce—a wolver pup