Part 63 (1/2)

”But you are a cold-blooded little killer. You'd slice a man open from crotch to his sternum, and then slit his throat for dirtying your boots with his blood and his guts.”

He didn't remember drawing it, but his bowie was in his free hand. ”Bet your a.s.s, Tennetty,” he said. ”And not just a man.”

She laughed. It wasn't a pleasant laugh, but that was fair enough, because she wasn't a pleasant person.

And he laughed back the same way.

Durine just looked at them as if they were both crazy.

Bren Adahan hadn't taken a turn, but he had come up on deck to relieve himself, too. He started to go back down, but then shrugged and sat down across from Jason.

”I want to talk to you about your sister.”

Jason thought about telling him to go away, but Bren Adahan had been a good hand with the horses, had them at just the right spot down the road. He'd had them wait a few minutes while he walked back down the road and fastened a blackened rope across the road, at about the height of a rider's neck, and he'd even insisted on riding in front, his own sword drawn and held in front and to the side to at least give them a chance to catch any similar trap that had been set for them.

So Jason said: ”Good idea.”

”I'm a product of my time and place, Jason Cullinane. Don't judge me harshly. In Holtun, a baron has the right to ask. Besides,” he added with a smile that was clearly man to man, ”Jane is awfully attractive, at that.”

”What are you asking me?”

”Don't mention anything to your sister. It wouldn't do any good.”

Jason pretended to think it over, then nodded. ”Perhaps I won't,” he said. I will, he thought. Let Aeia decide whether or not she wanted to take official notice of it. ”No problem, Bren. Go to sleep.”

Betrayal? No. Aeia was family. Family came first.

As dawn broke over the horizon, he felt a familiar presence in his mind.

*Jason, are you all right?* Ellegon was just a speck on the horizon, but the speck grew.

I'm fine. But this thing about the Warriora”

*I knowa”I've got Ahira and your mother with me.*

Jason stood. ”Okay, people. Everybody, wake up,” he called out. He stood, more tired than a sleepless night accounted for. ”It's time to go home.”

PART FOUR.

After the Search.

CHAPTER 27.

”The Warrior Lives”

A Roman, divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, ”Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful?” holding out his shoe, asked them whether or not it was new and well made. ”Yet,” added he, ”none of you can tell where it pinches me.”

a”Plutarch.

Jason stood outside the great hall, waiting, until he decided he'd had enough of waiting. It didn't take long for him to have enough.

There were three ceremonial guards at the door tonight: Durine, Kethol and Pirojil.

”Let's do it,” Jason said.

Pirojil started to protest that it was too early, but Durine shook his head and Kethol rapped the b.u.t.t of his halberd on the stone.

”Ladies and gentlemen, the Heir.”

Jason walked across the carpet, uncomfortable in his velvet finery. It didn't feel right.

But that didn't matter. Got to keep a sense of proportion about everything. Control what you can, and let the rest go.

He paused for a moment at the foot of the table. Mother's chair. He rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment. She was stronger every day. Just have to keep her away from that d.a.m.n magic that threatened to drive her crazy. Her fingers gripped his with surprising strength.

Ellegon, tell my mother that I love hera” He stopped himself. She knew it.

To her right Walter Slovotsky and Kirah sat; to their right was Doria. A few days' rest had done Slovotsky a world of good; he looked a decade younger, and his I'm-so-clever-to-be-Walter-Slovotsky smile was perhaps a degree wider.

Ahira sat next to Doria, and the dwarf smiled broadly at him. He raised a clenched, hamlike fist to chest level, for just a moment, as though to say, Be strong.

Count on it.

Aeia was next to the dwarf. Jason had already talked to her about Bren Adahan; he didn't know what she'd decided to do about it, but that was her decision.

Flame flared noisily in the courtyard outside. *We all have to make our own decisions.*

That we do.

*Thomen is upset that you haven't discussed anything with him.*

Tell him to sit still.

”Good evening,” Jason said as he walked to his seat at the head of the table. He looked over the a.s.semblage of Holtish and Biemish barons, and their advisers. ”Be seated, all. You have a full agenda; I have a short one. I'm going to stand.

”Tennettya”” He tossed her the large bra.s.s key to the strongbox. ”Get it, will you?”