I know secrets. Many I did not wish to know.
The Hundred will not follow the son whilst the father stands before them.
Then I should destroy him.
Your father took that path it made you stronger.
He faltered at the last. I looked at my hand, remembering how I had lifted it from my chest, dripping crimson. My blood, fathers knife. He faltered. I will not.
If it had been the dream-witch who drove a wedge between us then he had done his job well. It wasnt in me to forgive my father. I doubted it was in him to accept such forgiveness.
The hidden hands might think two Ancraths will end their power. Me, I think one is enough. It was enough for Corion. Enough for Sageous. I will be enough for all of them if they seek to stop me. In any event, you know in what high esteem I hold prophecy.
Coddin sighed. Harran is waiting for you. You have my advice. Carry it with you. It wont slow you down.
The captains of my armies, nobles from the Highlands, a dozen lords on petitioning visits from various corners of the seven kingdoms, and scores of hangers-on all waited for me in the entrance hall before the keep doors. The time when I could just slip away had just slipped away. I acknowledged the throng with a raised hand.
My lords, warriors of my house, Im off to Congression. Be assured I will carry your interests there along with my own and present them with my usual blend of tact and diplomacy.
That raised a chuckle. Id bled a lot of men dry to take my little corner of empire so I felt I should play out the game for my court, as long as it cost me nothing. And besides, their interests lay with mine, so I hardly lied.
I singled Captain Marten out amongst the crowd, tall and weathered, nothing of the farmer left in him. I gave no rank higher than captain but the man had led five thousand soldiers and more in my name.
Keep her safe, Marten. Keep them both safe. I put a hand to his shoulder. Nothing else needed to be said.
I came into the courtyard flanked by two knights of my table, Sir Kent and Sir Riccard. The spring breeze couldnt carry the aroma of horse sweat away fast enough, and the herd of more than three hundred appeared to be doing their best to leave the place knee-deep in manure. I find that massed cavalry are always best viewed from a certain distance.
Makin eased his horse through the ranks to reach us. Many happy returns, King Jorg!
Well see, I said. It all felt a little too comfortable. Happy families with my tiny queen above. Birthday greetings and a golden escort down below. Too much soft living and peace can choke a man sure as any rope.
Makin raised an eyebrow but said nothing, his smile still in place.
Your advisors are ready to ride, sire. Kent had taken to calling me sire and seemed happier that way.
You should be taking wise heads not men-at-arms, Makin said.
And who might you be bringing, Lord Makin? I had decided to let him select the single advisor his vote entitled him to bring to Congression.
He pointed across the yard to a scrawny old man, pinch-faced, a red cloak lifting around him as the wind swirled. Osser Gant. Chamberlain to the late Baron of Kennick. When Im asked what my vote will cost, Ossers the man who will know what is and what isnt of worth to Kennick.
I had to smile at that. He might pretend it wasnt so, but part of old Makin wanted to play out his new role as one of the Hundred in grand style. Whether he would model his rule on my fathers or that of the Prince of Arrow remained unclear.
Theres not much of Kennick that aint marsh, and what the Ken Marshes need is timber. Stilts, so your muddy peasants houses dont sink overnight. And you get that from me now. So dont let your man forget it.
Makin coughed as if some of that marsh had got into his chest. So who exactly are you taking as advisors?
It hadnt been a difficult choice. Coddins final trip came when they carried him down from the mountain after the battle for the Haunt. He wouldnt travel again. I had grey heads aplenty at court, but none whose contents I valued. Youre looking at two of them. I nodded to Sirs Kent and Riccard. Rike and Grumlow are waiting outside, Keppen and Gorgoth with them.
Christ, Jorg! You cant bring Rike! This is the emperors court were talking about! And Gorgoth? He doesnt even like you.
I drew my sword, a smooth glittering motion, and hundreds of golden helms turned to follow its arc. I held the blade high, turning it this way and that to catch the sun. Ive been to Congression before, Makin. I know what games they play there. This year were going to play a new game. Mine. And Im bringing the right pieces.
2
Several hundred horsemen throw up a lot of dust. We left the Matteracks in a shroud of our own making, the Gilden Guard stretched out across half a mile of winding mountain path. Their gleam didnt survive long and we made a grey troop as we came to the plains.
Makin and I rode together along the convolutions of the track on which we once met the Prince of Arrow, headed for my gates. Makin looked older now, a little iron in the black, worry lines across his brow. On the road Makin had always seemed happy. Since we came to wealth and fortune and castles he had taken to worry.
Will you miss her? he asked. For an hour just the clip and clop of hooves on stony ground, and then from nowhere, Will you miss her?
I dont know. Id grown fond of my little queen. When she wanted to she could excite me, as most women could: my eye is not hard to please. But I didnt burn for her, didnt need to have her, to keep her in my sight. More than fondness, I liked her, respected her quick mind and ruthless undercurrents. But I didnt love her, not the irrational foolish love that can overwhelm a man, wash him away and strand him on unknown shores.
You dont know? he asked.
Well find out, wont we? I said.
Makin shook his head.
Youre hardly the champion of true love, Lord Makin, I told him. In the six years since we came to the Haunt he had kept no woman with him, and if he had a mistress or even a favourite whore he had them well hidden.
He shrugged. I lost myself on the road, Jorg. Those were black years for me. Im not fit company for any woman Id desire.
What? And I am? I turned in the saddle to watch him.
You were young. A boy. Sin doesnt stick to a childs skin the way it clings to a mans.
My turn to shrug. He had seemed happier when murdering and robbing than he did thinking back on it in his vaulted halls. Perhaps he just needed something to worry about again, so he could stop worrying.
Shes a good woman, Jorg. And shes going to make you a father soon. Have you thought about that?
No, I said. It had slipped my mind. In truth though it surfaced in my thoughts in each waking hour, and many dreaming ones. I couldnt find a way to grip the idea and it did indeed slip from me. I knew a squalling infant would soon appear, but what that would mean to me what it was to be a father I had no hold on. Coddin told me I would know how to feel. Instinct would tell me something written in the blood. And perhaps it would come to me, like a sneeze arriving when peppers in the air, but until it did I had no way of imagining it.
Perhaps youll be a good father, Makin said.
Perhaps youll be a good father, Makin said.
No. Whether I somehow came to understand the process or not I would make a poor father. I had failed my brother and I would doubtless fail my son. Somehow the curse Olidan of Ancrath bestowed on me, and got most likely from his own sire, would infect any child of mine.
Makin pursed his lips but had the grace or the wisdom not to argue.
Theres not much of the Renar Highlands that lies flat enough to grow crops on, but close to the border with Ancrath the land stops leaping and diving long enough for farming and for a city, of sorts. Hodd Town, my capital. I could see the stain of it on the horizon.
Well camp here, I said.
Makin leaned in his saddle to tell Sir Riccard, and he raised my colours on his lance.
We could make Hodd Town, Makin said. Wed be there an hour or so past sunset.
Bad beds, grinning officials, and fleas. I swung out of Braths saddle. Id rather sleep in a tent.
Gorgoth sat down. He let the guard work around him, tethering their horses, organizing their feed, setting up pavilions, each big enough for six men, with two ribbons streaming from the centre-point, the emperors black and gold. Keppen and Grumlow threw their saddlebags beside the leucrota and sat on them to play dice.
We should at least pass through town tomorrow, Jorg. Makin tied off the feedbag on his mounts nose and turned back to me. The people love to see the guard ride past. You can give them that at least?
I shrugged. It should be enough that I keep court in the Highlands. Do you think theyve forgotten that Ive a palace bigger than the whole of Hodd Town down in Arrow?
Makin kept his eyes on mine. Sometimes it seems youve forgotten it, Jorg.
I turned away and squatted to watch the dice roll. The ache in my thighs told me Id been too long in the throne and the bed and the banquet hall. Makin had it right, I should travel my seven kingdoms, even if it were only to spend time on the road and keep its lessons sharp in my mind.
Son of a bitch! Keppen spat. All five of Grumlows dice showed sixes. Keppen started to empty his coin pouch, spat again, and threw the whole lot down at Grumlows feet. I shook my head. It seemed a waste of good fortune to buck such odds for a pouch of coin.
Dont use up all your luck, Brother Grumlow. You might need it later. I stood again, biting back a curse at my legs.
I hadnt wanted to live in the palace Prince Orrin had built for Katherine. I spent a few weeks there after we had secured the allegiance of Arrows surviving lords. The building reminded me of Orrin, austere but splendid, high arches, pillars of white stone, it could have been copied from the ruins of Macedon where Alexander grew to greatness. I rattled around in its many rooms with the brothers as my guards, and my captains planning the capture of Arrows remaining conquests. The palace felt deserted despite a staff of hundreds, strangers all of them. In the end Id been glad to ride out to secure Normardy, somehow a relief though it proved the bloodiest of that springs campaigns.