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.The marshlanders knew him, and would gladly tear him limb from limb if he fell among them.The khal whipped their horses and thundered through, reckless of human lives, and into a quieter portion of the camp, where demon-helms quickly parted and shut a barricade of brush and sharpened stakes, and backed it with a row of barbed pikes.The mob no longer pursued; the gate sufficed.They slowed, the horses blowing and panting in exhaustion, stretching at the reins and seeking air.They rode slowly up to a sprawling shelter, the largest in the compound.The structure was patched, cobbled together of various bits of cloth and bundles of reeds and grass, and part of it was a tent.Light blazed within, showing through the canvas; and there was music, but not such as the arrhendim had played.They halted there, and guards came to take the horses.They lifted him down from the saddle.“Be careful,” said Shien when one of them jerked at him.“This is a very valuable Man.”And Shien himself took him by the elbow and brought him toward the door of the tent.“You were not wise,” Shien said.He shook his head, uncertain whether he had rejected a trap that would have killed him or whether he had rejected the only hope he had.It was impossible.A khal would scarcely keep faith with khal.That one would keep faith with a Man was not to be believed.He blinked, suddenly thrust into the light and warmth within.Chapter 8Hetharu.Vanye stopped, with Shien at his back, steadied himself on his wounded leg; and of all in that gathering, he recognized that tall, black-clad lord.The music died away with a hiss of strings, and noble lords and ladies of Shiuan stopped what half-dead diversions they were practicing and came to slow, studied attention where they lounged on sacks and cushions within the tent, against walls of bound reeds.Of sacks and brocade cloaks was the throne to which Hetharu settled.A cluster of halfling guards was about him, some far gone in stupor, others alert, armored and armed.A naked woman shrank into the shadows of the corner.Hetharu stared at the intrusion, blank with amazement for the instant, and then pleasure grew on his countenance.thin and shadow-eyed that face, the more startling for the human eyes which looked darkly out from what were otherwise pure qhalur features.His white hair lay lank and silken on his shoulders.His black brocade was somewhat worn, the lace frayed; the ornate sword that he wore still looked serviceable.Hetharu smiled, and about him settled the miasma of all that was Shiuan, drowning and rotting at once.“Nhi Vanye,” Hetharu murmured.“And Morgaine?”“That matter must be cared for by now,” said Shien.Vanye clenched his jaw and stared through all of them, trying to use his wits; but that callous reckoning of Morgaine’s life hit him suddenly with more force than he had yet felt.Kill Hetharu? That was one of the thoughts that he had entertained over recent days; and suddenly it seemed useless, for here were thousands like him.Gain power among them? Suddenly it seemed impossible; he was a Man, and what else was here of humankind crouched naked and ashamed and weeping in the corner.He took a step forward.Though his hands were bound, the guards were uneasy; pikes inclined marginally toward him.He stopped, sure that they would not be careless with him.“I hear,” he said to Hetharu, “that you and Roh have quarreled.”That set them back.There was an instant’s silence, and Hetharu’s face was whiter than usual.“Out!” Hetharu said suddenly.“All of you who have no business here, out.”That included many: the Woman, the majority of the khal who had disported themselves about the fringes of the gathering.One half-conscious lordling reclined at Hetharu’s side, leaning against the sacks and the brocade with unfocused gray eyes and a dreaming smile that mocked all reality.A middle-aged khalur woman remained; and a handful of lords; and all the guards, although some of them were far-departed in dreams, and knelt near Hetharu and about the other lords with their eyes distant and their hands loose on their weapons.Enough still remained who had all their wits about them.Hetharu leaned back in his makeshift throne and regarded him with old and familiar hate.“Shien, what have you been telling this Man?”Shien shrugged.“I have been pointing out his situation, and his possible value.”Hetharu’s dark eyes swept over Shien narrowly.“Knowledge such as Roh has? Is that your meaning?”“It is possible that he has it.He is reticent.”“He,” said the woman suddenly, “might be more reasonable than Roh has been.After all, the human rabble hates him bitterly, and he cannot gain any followers among them.That is one sure advantage over Roh.”“There are personal issues,” Hetharu said, and the lady laughed unpleasantly.“We know the truth of those.Do not waste a valuable source, my lord Hetharu.Who here cares about the past.things done and not done? Shiuan is behind us.Here is important.You have an opportunity to rid us of the so-named halfling and his followers.Use it.”Hetharu was not pleased by that, but the lady spoke as one who was accustomed to be heard, and she was of the old blood, gray-eyed and white-haired, with guards about her none of whom were hazy in their look.One of the hold-lords, Vanye reckoned her: not Sotharra like Shien, but perhaps of Domen or Marom or Arisith.The Shiua lords were not firmly held in Hetharu’s hand.“You are too credulous, lady Halah,” said Hetharu.“This Man is quite capable of turning in the hand that holds him.He surprised Roh, who should know him; and my lamented brother Kithan.And would you not attempt to surprise us in the same way, Man?”Vanye said nothing.Debate with Hetharu could win nothing.The hope was rather in playing one and the other of his subordinates against him.“Of course you would,” Hetharu answered for him, and laughed.“And you plan to.You are not the sort who will ever thank us for the handling you have had.at my hands and now at Shien’s.Beware this one, Shien.He is not hand-broken, though he may try to let you think so.His cousin says that he does not know how to lie; but he does know how to keep secrets, do you not, Vanye of the Chya? Morgen-Angharan’s—” and he used a word that Vanye did not know; but he suspected, and set his jaw the harder, looking through Hetharu.“Ah, glare at me.We are better acquaintances than the others, you and I.So this Morgen is missing.Where?”He did not answer.“Over by the great river,” Shein said.“In the midst of our deepest penetration into the forest, with a Hiua arrow in her.Our riders have her trail, and if they have not found her by now, she will scarcely survive the wound.My lord, there was a khal with her, and another human.And that is another thing this prisoner does not like to talk about.”“Kithan?”Vanye bowed his head and concealed his surprise, for Hetharu’s brother had not come through, then, and he would have reckoned otherwise.my lamented brother, Hetharu had said.He was sorry to know Kithan not in the camp, for with him there might have been some hope; that Kithan would have joined them instead was a natural conclusion for Hetharu.He shrugged.“Find him,” Hetharu ordered.There was a frantic edge to his voice, more disturbance than Hetharu was wont to show [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]