The Hammer and the Blade (25 page)

  "What is that?" Baras asked.

  "It should help," Nix said. He spoke a word in the Language of Creation and the jasper glowed with a faint light.

  "Is there no end to the contents of that bag?" Jyme asked, and thumped him on the back.

  "Oh, there's an end, and it's getting light in there," Nix said.

  In truth, he had nothing magical left in it save his the crystal eye. He looked over to Egil, who watched intently. "No comment on gewgaws?"

  "Is that the only one you have?" Egil asked.

  "Yes," Nix said. "Why?"

  Egil ran his hand over Ebenor's eye. "No reason. Go on. Give it to him."

  Nix nodded, placed the jasper under Derg's tongue, and pushed his jaw closed over it. The gem flared, the flash lighting Derg's face from the inside out.

  "I see movement," one of the guards watching the road behind called out. He crouched and peered off into the darkness.

  "Me, too," said another. "There. I think."

  "Shite," Baras said. Then to Nix, "Did it work?"

  Nix frowned, opened Derg's jaw, looked under his tongue. The jasper was gone, consumed by the magic. "I… think it did."

  "You think?" Baras asked.

  "Sometimes it's hard to tell…"

  "Look at the wound," Egil said, pointing.

  At first Nix thought it was a play of the light, but it wasn't. The black and purple skin around the wound faded to pink as they watched.

  "And sometimes it's not as hard to tell," Nix said to Baras, and winked.

  "Orella be praised," one of the guards said.

  "I also accept praises," Nix said, standing.

  "Well done," Baras said.

  "Agreed," Egil said, gripping Nix by the shoulder. "Now let's get out of here."

  Egil slung Derg over his shoulder, mail and all, and they all climbed back onto the carriage. The horses, shaking from being overstrained, nevertheless lowered their ears, threw their heads, and started moving.

  Minnear shone fat and gibbous over the landscape. With Kulven now new, the Mages' Moon ruled the sky alone. The mountainous wall of rubble loomed before them, growing taller as they closed the distance, stretching off into the darkness.

  The road cut through the wall of stones, the rubble rising high to either side. The walls were thick, more than a hundred paces, and for a time it was as if they walked through a tunnel. No one spoke and the clop of the horses' hooves sounded loud, bouncing off the ancient stone wall. When they emerged from the tunnel of ruins, Nix gasped in awe for the second time that day.

  The walls of rubble formed a circle, ringing a circular expanse several acres in diameter. A shimmering sea of dark glass covered the expanse, its smooth finish reflecting the night sky. The vault of night was at their feet.

  For a long while no one spoke. Everyone stared at the shimmering, glittering spectacle before them. Jyme broke the spell of silence with a whisper.

  "Gods."

  "What is this place?" Nix asked.

  Rakon threw open the carriage door and stepped onto the rock.

  "It's a holy place," Rakon said. "The Vwynn will not come here. That's enough for now. Set camp, Baras. We'll remain here only a short time before continuing to Afirion."

  "A word, lord Adjunct," Nix said to Rakon.

  Rakon eyed him coolly, nodded. They moved to the side.

  "What in the Pits happened back there?" Nix said. "With your sister? With you?"

  Rakon's hooded eyes narrowed, the thoughts visibly turning behind them. "Did you… hear her? What did she say?"

  "She said to kill you."

  Rakon was quiet for a time, then said, "She won't do that again."

  "What was that you gave her? Drugs?"

  "My sisters are dangerous," Rakon said. "I told you that. You have nothing more to fear. Leave me now. I have work I must see to."

  With that, he left Nix. As the guards set up the camp and tended the horses, Rakon walked out onto the glass sea, striding among the stars.

  "I think I'd like to do that," Nix said, watching Rakon.

  They started a fire, placed Derg near it for warmth, ate a meal of cheese, bread, and dried meat, and washed it down with bitter coffee. Baras toasted the men they'd lost, spoke their names, told Egil and Nix of their lives. Rakon remained on the glass throughout. After they'd eaten and honored the fallen, Nix made up his mind.

  "I'm going to go walk on it," Nix said.

  "I'll come," Egil said, grunting as he rose.

  "Is that… wise?" Baras asked.

  "Probably not," Nix said with a smile. "But even so."

  He and Egil walked the short distance to the edge of the glass sea, shared a glance, and stepped onto it. Nix's feet tingled and the hairs on his body rose and stood on end.

  "It's enspelled," he said.

  "I didn't need you to tell me that," Egil said.

  They walked gingerly across the glass, treading on stars, noting constellations and planets in reflection. Nix found it surreal.

  "Maybe this is what it would be like to travel night's vault," he said.

  Egil only grunted.

  The glass covered acres. They ranged far on it, though always keeping a good distance between themselves and Rakon. They discovered that other roads like the one they'd traveled cut through the ring of ruins and reached the glass from other directions.

  "Like the cardinal points," Egil said. The priest seemed winded.

  "Aye. And all leading here. Curious." Nix looked over at his friend. "You all right?"

  "I'm all right. Just winded."

  "Had enough, then?" Nix asked.

  "Aye," Egil said. The priest stumbled and nearly fell as they walked back.

  "Mind the smooth surface there," Nix chided with a chuckle.

  They returned to the fire, and enjoyed more coffee with Baras, Jyme, and the other guards. The eunuch emerged from the carriage and took station outside its door, arms crossed over his chest.

  Rakon remained on the glass, and as the night deepened, the sorcerer's voice carried across the mirror of stars, incanting in the Language of Creation. Flashes of green light accompanied his spellcasting. The guards seemed untroubled by the sorcery and fell asleep in their tents, while the eunuch stood forebodingly outside the carriage. Egil and Nix sat around the fire while Rakon continued his exploration of the glass sea.

  "What do you think he's doing?" Nix asked.

  "I don't care," Egil said, worrying at his arm.

  "I do," Nix said, and stood. "Let's go see."

  Egil considered, sighed, stood, and joined his friend.

  They picked their way through the moonlit ruins until they reached one of the highest parts that ringed the glass expanse. Both of them were skilled climbers, and even without gear they reached the peak.

  Nix spotted Rakon out on the glass, walking among the reflected moon and stars. The sorcerer incanted a spell, touched a hand to the glass, and thin veins of green light snaked out from his touch and wormed deeply into the translucent surface of the glass before fading out.

  "Look like feelers almost," Egil said. He was still breathing heavily.

  Rakon rose, moved off twenty paces, and repeated the process. Again jagged lines of sickly green lit up the subsurface of the glass sea.

  "He's searching for something," Nix said. "Something under the glass."

  "Gods," Egil said. His voice sounded tense.

  "I know, it's–"

  "Not that," Egil said, putting a hand on Nix's shoulder and turning him around. "
That
."

  Behind them, lit eerily in the green light of the Mages' Moon, the ruins-dotted ground outside the ring that bordered the sea of glass crawled with so many Vwynn it looked as if the landscape itself was undulating. They prowled through the ruins, lithe, inhuman forms picking their way through the megaliths, their slit eyes always on the circular border of ruins that encircled the mirror. There were thousands of them, a horde of fangs and teeth and scales.

  "Gods," Nix echoed.

  "Indeed," Egil said. "Why do they wait, I wonder?"

  "Rakon said this was a holy place," Nix said. "Maybe they fear it?"

  "They don't seem the religious type."

  Nix chuckled. "Neither do you, and yet your head wears the eye of a god."

  "A dead god," Egil said.

  "Your words, not mine. I'll not blaspheme in this place. That many Vwynn is going to make leaving here a complicated affair."

  "Aye. I need to get down, Nix."

  "Well enough."

  They picked their way back down the mountain of stones, Egil struggling far more than Nix would have expected.

  "What's wrong with you?" Nix asked, when they reached the bottom. "Egil?"

  He took his friend by the arm and recoiled at the febrile heat he felt.

  Egil opened his mouth to speak, but instead sagged to the ground.

  "Egil!" Nix said.

  The priest's eyes rolled in his head and he sagged. Nix caught him to prevent a hard fall, and lowered the priest's limp weight to the ground.

  "Baras!" he called. "Up! Everyone up!"

 

 

 
 

Nix rolled Egil over onto his back. The priest's eyes were closed, his breathing rapid and shallow. He looked pale. Nix cursed. How had he missed it before? The stumbles, the breathing.

  "Are you sick? Wounded? What?"

  No answer. He tried to imagine his life without Egil and couldn't, no more than he could imagine it without Mamabird.

  Baras, Jyme, and the other guards rushed over, blades drawn.

  "What is it?" Baras asked. "Oh, shite."

  "What happened?" Jyme asked.

  Nix gently tapped his friend's face.

  "Egil? Egil?"

  Egil's eyelids fluttered open. Glassy eyes fixed on Nix and the priest smiled.

  "Bit," the priest said, and tried to lift his left arm. "Like Derg."

  "Shite, shite, shite," Nix said, and pushed up the sleeves of Egil's cloak and shirt. His forearm was black, as big around as Nix's calf. The guards gasped.

  "Why didn't you say something? Godsdammit, Egil!" The priest must have been bitten by the same Vwynn that bit Derg. "We could've used the jasper on you."

  He felt the eyes of Baras and the guards on him but he didn't care. If he'd had to choose between one of them and Egil, it would've been no choice at all.

  The big priest raised his right arm and patted Nix on the shoulder, the gesture sloppy, fading. "That peasant needed the coin more than us."

  At first Nix did not understand Egil's point, and then he remembered the wagon driver outside of the
Slick Tunnel,
the silver pieces Nix had given him.

  Grace, Egil had said. Alms.

  "You fakking idiot. You godsdamned idiot. You're not even a real priest!"

  Egil smiled, closed his eyes. "Do you think I'll see Gretta and Misa?"

  Nix could not bring himself to reply. He sat over his friend, head bowed, mind racing. He had nothing left in his bag of tricks. For once, it'd come up empty.
He'd
come up empty.

  "Maybe we should move him to the fire?" Jyme offered.

  "The fire won't help, you fakkin' whoreson," Nix spat. But maybe the sorcerer could. "Get Rakon, Baras!"

  "What?" Baras asked.

  "Rakon!" Nix shouted. "Get over here right now!"

  The sorcerer was still out on the glass, but not too far from them.

  "Gods, mind your tongue, Nix," Baras whispered.

  "Fak that and fak you! Rakon! Get over here! Now!"

  "My lord!" Baras shouted. "We need assistance!"

  Rakon left off what he'd been doing on the glass and made his way to the gathered men. His face looked drawn, strained. He stared down at Egil.

  "He's wounded?" Rakon asked.

  "He's poisoned," Nix said. "Same as your man, Derg. I used the enspelled jasper on your man and I don't have another. What can you do?"

  Rakon looked taken aback by Nix's directness. "What can I do?"

  "Am I unclear? What can you do to help him?"

  For a time, Rakon did not answer. Again those turning gears behind his eyes.

  "You won't like what I can do."

  "Try me."

  "There's a price."

  "Name it."

  "He's nearly gone. For him to live, someone else must die."

  "A transference," Nix said. He'd heard of such magic.

  "Yes," Rakon said. "A transference. One life for another."

  The guards shifted from foot to foot. Jyme cursed softly.

  Rakon looked meaningfully back to the campsite, a question in his raised eyebrows.

  Nix, too, looked back to the campsite, licked his thin lips.

  Rakon put a voice to Nix's thoughts.

  "Derg may not live anyway. He's not as strong as the priest. You may have given him the jasper too late. Were he the object of the transference…"

  Rakon trailed off, the dark possibility dangling before Nix.

  "What are we talking about here?" Baras asked.

  Rakon continued. "If you'd have known, if you'd have been asked to choose, you'd have chosen Egil."

  "Of course I'd have chosen Egil," Nix said.

  But Egil hadn't chosen Egil. That was the rub. The priest had known what he was doing and had made his decision. That's why he'd asked Nix if he had another stone.

  Alms. Grace.

  Maybe Egil was a real priest, after all.

  But Nix wasn't. He tried to reconcile what he wanted to do with what he knew he should do.

  "Nix…" Baras said, perhaps understanding at last.