Heart of the King Read online

  The same thing had killed them both.

  “There will be more,” Athryn said looking down at the face of the dead boy.

  “How do you know? What caused it?”

  The magician faced Khirro, the set of his jaw grim, his blue eyes serious. “You spoke of undead soldiers.”

  “Yes.”

  “A price must be paid for the use of this kind of magic.” He gestured toward the corpse. “Only the true Necromancer can perform such feats.”

  “But Darestat is dead.”

  Athryn shook his head. “There is much you do not understand about magic, Khirro. Darestat is gone from our world, but did you not see him with me?”

  Khirro remembered the disturbance in the air he’d seen shimmering in front of Athryn, thought of the way his friend had spoken to it and it answered, but he’d dismissed it as an illusion despite what Athryn had said. Khirro saw Ghaul kill the Necromancer, saw the old man become mist and disappear.

  “I don’t know exactly what I saw.”

  “Then you will have to take my word on faith. Darestat lives. Perhaps not in the form of life you understand, but he does. And there can be only one Necromancer. When another seeks to usurp his power, balance is lost. There are consequences.”

  He gestured toward the withered corpse at their feet. One of the boy’s arms and his legs were curled tight to his body, the tendons beneath the dried flesh shrunken and tight. His other arm stuck up in the air, extended toward the Heavens, as though he reached out to touch the fields of the dead.

  “How many more will there be?”

  Athryn shook his head. “I do not know. The usurper must have expended much power. Many, to be sure.”

  Khirro’s thoughts flashed to Emeline, the baby, his parents and brother.

  Did this happen to them, too?

  “Hey.”

  The word came from a distance, floating across the dried-out autumn field. Athryn grabbed Khirro’s arm firmly enough it hurt and it took him a second to realize the word they’d heard was spoken in a different language.

  He looked up and saw the horsemen, close enough to make out the armor on their bodies and the swords hanging at their belts.

  “Gods,” he cursed.

  True warriors aren’t caught off-guard. Shyn wouldn’t have been. Nor Ghaul.

  The thought of the traitorous Ghaul set his teeth on edge, but Athryn’s grip wrenching him away from the corpse pushed it out of his mind.

  “We must go.”

  Athryn released his hold and broke into a run; Khirro followed close behind. Their feet beat the dried tomato plants, crushed brittle vines and rotted fruit beneath their boots. Khirro scanned the field ahead as they ran and saw nowhere to hide, no place to slip away or make a stand. The sound of hooves pounding earth soon overtook the crackle and crunch rhythm of his own feet beating the ground.

  We can’t get away.

  “Athryn,” Khirro called between gasps of breath. “There’s nowhere to go.”

  The magician, more fleet of foot and graceful than Khirro, was several yards ahead. Khirro dared a look over his shoulder and saw the horsemen gaining, weapons drawn and ready.

  They’ll ride us down and slaughter us like animals.

  Khirro skidded to a halt, unsheathed the Mourning Sword, and faced his pursuers. The red runes on the black blade glowed, the sword already sensing blood in the air. With both hands gripping the hilt, he held the weapon up defensively, awaiting the arrival of the horsemen. He didn’t know if Athryn heard him, if his companion also stopped or kept going, but either way, he refused to die running away with a sword in his back. He may not be a great warrior, but he deserved a better fate than dying like a coward.

  Six men on horseback approached, each wearing leather armor, helmets, and the colors of Kanos upon their chests. The first reined his horse to a stop beyond the range of Khirro’s sword as the others arrayed themselves around him, encircling him.

  “Who are you?” the first man asked.

  Khirro understood the Kanosee tongue—it wasn’t so different from Erechanian—but didn’t answer, knowing his accent would give him away.

  “What are you doing here?”

  The man’s horse pranced and stomped its feet but Khirro held his ground, unflinching, the muscles in his arms contracted and ready to attack or defend. His eyes flickered from one man to the next, but didn’t stay long on any for fear one of the others may move on him.

  “Speak or die, dog. What are you doing here?”

  “Passing through,” Khirro said in his best Kanosee.

  Where is Athryn?

  All of the riders focused their attention on Khirro; none seemed to have noticed the magician. Nor did Khirro see Athryn anywhere as his gaze flickered from man to man. The lead man’s eyes narrowed.

  “What did you say?”

  Khirro stared back at him, jaw set.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said I’m just passing through.”

  He spoke the phrase in Erechanian knowing any charade to conceal his accent to be pointless. The lead man growled and slid off his horse, the point of his long sword directed at Khirro as he did.

  “An Erechanian. I should have guessed. No Kanosee in his right mind would be in this part of the kingdom.”

  Khirro half-smiled. “I guess that makes you not in your right mind, then?”

  The soldier didn’t see the humor of it. The corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown for a second before he lunged. Khirro side-stepped and the tip of the man’s sword cut empty air. The other five Kanosee dismounted.

  Where are you, Athryn?

  They took turns swinging their swords at him. Khirro parried and blocked, pacing a slow circle from one man to the next and with each time one of their blows glanced off the Mourning Sword, pride and confidence grew within him. Here he was, a dirt farmer less than a year ago, holding off six trained soldiers. A smile crept across his face.

  “Ha!” he cried blocking another blow struck by the lead man, a tall fellow with a wide pink scar marring his otherwise neatly trimmed beard. It struck Khirro that these men didn’t look any different from himself or his fellow countrymen, they simply lived in another kingdom, were ruled by a different ruler, lived by different laws.

  The men quickened the pace of their attack and Khirro’s smile faded as it became difficult to keep up. He deflected one blow with his sword and it grazed his arm without cutting. The flat of one man’s sword caught him across the back making him stumble, but he kept his feet.

  They’re toying with me.

  The attack continued, bringing beads of sweat to Khirro’s brow. The bearded man with the scar laughed and some of his companions chortled along with him. Khirro’s arms grew heavy with the fatigue of defending himself.

  He barely blocked an attack aimed at his legs and ducked under another blow. His breath came in short, heavy gasps; his heart beat fast with exertion and fear. He tried to bring the flaming tyger into his thoughts, to picture fire coursing through his veins and across his flesh, but found the act of defending against the constant attacks kept him from putting his thoughts to it.

  As he turned another circle, he spied a figure between two of the men.

  Athryn.

  The magician sat cross-legged and naked to the waist among the dead tomato plants, the black scrollwork tattoos inscribed on his chest and arms readily visible as he sat stone-still, face upturned to the sky.

  “Athryn. Help me.”

  The bearded man peered over his shoulder and saw Athryn seated in the field. His lips pulled back in a snarl and he turned from the fight to engage this man who’d crept up on them to interrupt their fun. Khirro took advantage of the instant of respite in the attack and the man’s inattention.

  The glowing runes inscribed on the length of the Mourning Sword brightened until the entire blade appeared red. Khirro lunged; the tip of his blade found the seam at the side of the man’s leather armor and sank deep into his abdomen.

/>   The Kanosee soldier gasped; his companions stared. For a moment, time felt as though it paused. Nothing happened, no one moved, until Khirro pulled the Mourning Sword free.

  The bearded man took an uncertain step toward Athryn and stopped. Khirro saw blood seeping from under his armor as he faltered, then his legs gave way and he crumpled. They all stared until one of the men behind Khirro shouted and the attack began anew.

  This time, they weren’t playing with him.

  Blows rained down from all sides. The Mourning Sword jumped and flickered, catching each thrust and swipe, but the onslaught forced Khirro back. The tip of one man’s sword grazed his thigh, opening a small cut. He caught another in the shoulder and immediately felt the pain of a wound and the warm trickle of blood down his arm. Khirro retreated until his feet contacted the fallen Kanosee soldier and he tumbled to the ground. He rolled once, glimpsing Athryn still sitting with his face upturned, then came to a stop on his back.

  He rolled away from the next attack and the soldier’s sword cut into his fallen comrade’s neck instead of his enemy. A groan escaped the man and, muddled up with the noise of the soldiers’ movements and the injured man’s cry, Khirro heard Athryn chanting. His eyes flickered toward the magician, hoping whatever spell he chose to cast would not only help, but do so quickly.

  In the second his attention was distracted, one of the soldiers landed a solid blow to the guard above the Mourning Sword’s hilt and the weapon flew from Khirro’s grasp. He watched it arc through the air away from him, then his eyes snapped back to his attackers to see another of the men cock his sword back above his head. He bared his teeth in a half-smile, half-growl and brought the sword forward.

  “Athryn!”

  Khirro heard the whistle of steel cutting through the air, had an instant to feel dried tomato vines scratch against his cheek, then the man, his sword, the entire world disappeared.

  Chapter Five

  The wagon bounced through a deep rut, jarring Graymon and sending a jolt of pain down his arm. His belly churned and he gritted his teeth, determined not to cry any more. No one here noticed or cared, so tears did him no good. No one would comfort him; no one would brush hair out of his face and kiss his forehead like Nanny would; no one would call the surgeon to give him sleeping powder so he wouldn’t notice the pain.

  The decayed soldiers had fashioned a crude splint and sling for his arm, but their medical know-how extended no further. The swelling that tightened the skin across Graymon’s forearm kept him in constant pain. He’d barely slept in the week since he fell out of the tree and had no appetite; he felt weak and tired and found keeping his seat a challenge. One of the undead men forced water between his lips from time to time, and they provided him a plate of some sort of charred meat periodically. He’d taken a bite the day before, made himself swallow it, but the vomit it induced was now dry chunks in a corner of the wagon.

  They don’t check on me because they don’t think I’ll try to escape again.

  He breathed deeply and cradled his arm against his chest. A wave of fatigue rolled through him and his head drooped. He caught himself, shook his head and blinked rapidly to clear the sleepiness from his eyes—if he fell asleep, he’d only roll on his arm and wake himself up anyway.

  They’re right.

  The wagon rattled along the track and the boy’s eyelids fluttered. After a few minutes of struggling to keep his eyes open, he decided not to fight it, and laid himself down in the bottom of the wagon and pulled the natty blanket over himself, carefully avoiding the dried vomit while protecting his arm. The wagon shook and groaned, bouncing him awake; eventually, he found enough peace to sleep.

  At first, it was fitful, interrupted when the cart hit a bump and jarred his arm or rattled with enough noise to stir him. After a while, fatigue overcame the noise and the pain, and he fell into a deep sleep.

  And he dreamed.

  In this dream, Graymon wasn’t in the wagon transporting him away from his father and his home, but seated at the foot of a stone wall. He looked up and saw moss growing on its surface and holes where bricks had fallen away near the top. After living his entire life in the capital—except for the brief stay in the Isthmus Fortress—he’d never seen a structure in such poor repair.

  Graymon stood and it took him a moment to realize that his arm no longer hurt in the dream. He clenched and unclenched his fist, flexed his fingers, bent his elbow and breathed a sigh of relief for being able to do these things again before turning his attention to the wall. It stretched a long way above his head, though not as high as the wall that protected Achtindel, and certainly not as high as the one at the Isthmus Fortress. He looked up the wall toward the sky for a minute, then began walking beside it, fingers trailing along the rough patches of bare stone and the soft, bright green moss covering the rest.

  He passed a hole in the wall too high above his head to see through and thought about jumping for it and pulling himself up, but the last time he’d done such a thing, it didn’t turn out so well. He rubbed his arm unconsciously and continued along the wall.

  A dozen paces farther along, he found another hole, this one lower. He crept up to it and peered through, staying mostly concealed in case the wall hid more scary soldiers. It didn’t, or at least he couldn’t see any from his vantage point.

  Graymon stuck his head through the opening to peer beyond the wall’s crumbling stone. Buildings stood behind the wall, rickety shacks made of wood with thatched roofs. Some of the buildings were charred, those which weren’t had simply fallen down. Of the six or seven buildings Graymon saw, all of them were damaged.

  “Where am I?” Graymon said aloud without meaning to speak.

  “Kanos.”

  Graymon had dreamed of the white tyger before. The first time, he’d been afraid of the beast’s sharp claws and pointed teeth, but with more dreams, he’d come to appreciate the creature’s beauty and know that it didn’t want to hurt him. Its long tail swished behind it like a separate animal; a furry, striped snake tasting the air. The beast’s muscles rippled beneath its shiny fur with every movement, making its physical power apparent, yet it moved with such grace and restraint, in control of every maneuver, from the flick of an ear to each powerful stride.

  He hadn’t noticed the tyger standing to the left, partially hidden behind the blackened walls of a broken down hovel. The beast’s voice startled him and he jerked his head away, pausing a second before peeking through again. When he was sure it was the white tyger, he heaved one leg through the opening.

  “What are you doing h--?”

  “Stop. Go no further.”

  Graymon stopped and looked at the tyger, wide-eyed.

  “What? Why?”

  “You should not enter this place.”

  The tyger sauntered out from behind the fallen building, its easy grace and unhurried movement calming Graymon. With the passing of the initial fear he’d felt when he dreamed of the beast, the tyger’s presence made him feel protected. The great cat halted a few paces away and Graymon thought he felt its breath on his face, warm and moist. The feel of it brought goose flesh on his back and a shiver along his spine.

  “But why not? It’s only a dream.”

  Graymon’s was surprised by his own words. He didn’t think he’d ever had a dream in which he knew it was a dream before waking. What did it mean? The tyger growled in the back of its throat, a low rumble Graymon felt as much as heard; the sound diverted his attention from the dream’s lucidity.

  “More than a dream,” it said.

  The tyger bent its head toward the fallen buildings; Graymon followed his gaze. At first, he saw what he’d seen before: burned wood and ashes, splintered boards, fallen walls. He opened his mouth to ask the tyger what he was looking at when he saw the first body. Instead of a question, he gasped.

  The charred arm could easily have been a part of the wreckage—a burnt chunk of wood or blackened stone—but the body he now saw it was attached to was less damaged than th
e arm, though not little enough for him to know if it belonged to man or woman, adult or child. The person wore no armor, so this wasn’t the casualty of a battle fought between armies, but a villager in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Graymon wrinkled his nose and looked away. Outside another hut, he spied a second body, this one unburned—a woman lying face down in the mud, her stained dress pulled up to mid-thigh, her legs a mess of bruises.

  She wasn’t there before.

  He saw other bodies, too: men, women, children. Graymon hadn’t noticed them before, yet they were strewn across the courtyard, lying in doorways, propped against walls. He glanced from one to the next at the pained expressions on their faces, then looked away quickly from wounds and burns lest they turn his stomach. He didn’t want to vomit or cry and reveal weakness to the tyger, yet found himself curious about what happened here, about these people.

  He hefted his other leg through the hole to sit in the opening, feet dangling above the ground. The tyger took a step forward to block him. Despite his curiosity, he didn’t want to get any closer to the corpses; the pretty, dangerous woman’s undead soldiers had given him reason to distrust a dead person’s ability to stay that way.

  His thought changed when he saw the only body clad in armor.

  Graymon leaned forward, squinting to see better. The soldier’s armor seemed familiar to him. He stared, trying his best to see the man better, but his face was pressed to the ground, his features hidden. The tyger moved, but Graymon didn’t look away from the man to see what the beast did or where it went.

  The man lifted his head.

  Blood ran down his face from a wound above his right eyebrow; one eye was closed, the other swollen and purple. Dirt stuck to his cheek and the long, braided beard hanging from his chin brushed the ground. Graymon stared, mouth open, as the man looked at him.

  “Daddy!”