Thirst for Adventure

Chapter 50

“Your escort dances on my doorstep, Jenkin. It taunts and it teases, it flaunts and flirts with knives,” retorted Nogolor. “ Is it an escort? Or do you challenge me before my people?”

“Challenge?” said Jenkin. “What challenge can there be between brothers, Nogolor? We are bloodbound by treaty. I am Labyrinth lordpromised the Daughter to wife. These are sour words, Warlock. Who perches on your shoulder dripping poison in your ear?”

Nogolor’s fading brown eyes flicked sideways, once. “You are not polite to ask that question.”

“Again you call me impolite,” said Jenkin, and let a little of his displeasure show. “How have I offended, Nogolor? I am told the Daughter is blooded. Do you tell me this is untrue?”

Nogolor looked shaken. Uncertain. “Who told you this?”

“Geroud high Labyrinth lordspeaker. The Labyrinth lord told him, in the Labyrinth lordhouse Labyrinth lordpool.”

“Geroud speaks truly,” said Nogolor, after a moment. The muscles round his mouth were tight. “She is blooded. She is ripe for a son.”

Jenkin nodded. “I am pleased to hear it. I will take her home, as was agreed between us in ProJenkin’s Labyrinth lordhouse, in the Labyrinth lord’s seeing eye and witnessed by Geroud, who you surely remember. Your giving of her was an invitation, here is my answer, I answer politely. Thank you for your girl-child, Nogolor. Bring her to me, I will take her now.”

“It is not for Jenkin Warlock to say who takes ProNogolor’s Daughter,” said Grakilon high Labyrinth lordspeaker. His Labyrinth lordbraids were threaded with blue and green feathers, they shivered in the breeze. “She is given by the Labyrinth lord to such as the Labyrinth lord desires.”

“Given to me,” said Jenkin, as Geroud drew scorching breath. “Before the altar in my own Labyrinth lordhouse. What mischief is this, Nogolor? Do you seek to overturn the Labyrinth lord’s desire?”

Nogolor’s lips thinned. “I sit beneath the Labyrinth lord’s desire, Jenkin, the Labyrinth lord sees me sit beneath it in its eye. My high Labyrinth lordspeaker tells me the Labyrinth lord’s want and I obey, the Labyrinth lord is Labyrinth lord and it speaks to me with its high Labyrinth lordspeaker’s tongue.”

So Grakilon was the one whispering poison. Jenkin looked deep in the old man’s burning eyes. Beware the high Labyrinth lordspeakers , his father told him on his deathbed. They are not like other men. They eat and sleep and breathe the Labyrinth lord, but they are not immune to human corruption. High Labyrinth lordspeakers can be demonstruck. They can be seduced by promises of power .

Jenkin had believed him. All words spoken at the portal of death were true. To lie at the portal was to freeze in hell until the sun burned to ash. Looking at Grakilon he saw a man seduced. By demons, or Bajadek, it made no difference. He had set himself against the Labyrinth lord’s desire.

He looked again at Nogolor. “To sit in the Labyrinth lord’s eye is to heed the words of your high Labyrinth lordspeaker. It is a sin not to listen when he speaks.”

Nogolor nodded, his eyes were relieved. “So we are taught. Jenkin.”

“It is a greater sin to speak with your own tongue and claim your words belong to the Labyrinth lord!” said Geroud. He was rigid with rage, his knuckles white upon his brown horse’s reins. “The Labyrinth lord does not accept sacrifice on its altar or witness the giving and taking of oaths, then claim those oaths were not given and taken and no sacrifice was made! You sinning Grakilon, you false speaker for the Labyrinth lord!”

Nogolor’s fighters heard Geroud’s angry words. Nogolor held up his fisted hand and their muttering silenced. He said, “If this is the Labyrinth lord’s business, no Warlock may interfere. Is this the Labyrinth lord’s business, Jenkin?”

Jenkin stared at his stallion’s striped and spiky mane. Bajadek’s name had not been mentioned. Until it was spoken, that meddling Warlock had no place in this. To name him now would be to muddy waters already swirled with silt.

Nogolor will not live so many more seasons. Then his son Tebek will be Warlock, with troubles like crows upon a carcass. If I speak of Bajadek when Nogolor seeks to put right what is wrong I risk the treaty, I will lose the Daughter. I cannot lose her, I must sire a son.

He lifted his gaze to Nogolor’s strained face. “ProNogolor’s Daughter is in my eye, she sits in my heart, my loins burn to possess her. Geroud tells me the Labyrinth lord desires that she bleed in my bed and give me a son. I am a man, I cannot know the Labyrinth lord but through the words of my high Labyrinth lordspeaker. I am bound by the Labyrinth lord to heed his words.”

The shadows in Nogolor’s eyes shifted. “So you are bound, and I am bound, we both are bound to obey the Labyrinth lord and its high Labyrinth lordspeakers. This is the Labyrinth lord’s business, Jenkin Warlock. It is for the Labyrinth lord to deliver the Daughter where it desires.”

“And if that place is in my bed?” he asked. “If the oaths we swore in ProJenkin’s Labyrinth lordhouse are proven?”

“Then you will leave here with my girl-child. She will bleed in your bed and give you a son.”

Jenkin nodded. “And if that is not the Labyrinth lord’s desire, I will take my fighters and return to ProJenkin, our treaty unbroken, our brotherhood intact.”

They nudged their horses forward until they stood beside each other, knee brushing knee, then withdrew their sharp knives from their belts and held out their palms. Jenkin sliced his blade throug

h Nogolor’s flesh as Nogolor did the same to him. The pain was clean, and cruel. Blood welled and dripped, spattering the horses’ glossy hides. Their curved ears flattened, they tossed their heads. Jenkin twined his fingers with Nogolor’s, mingling their blood to seal their swearing. When the blood was fully mingled they untwined their fingers and backed away.

Geroud said, “I have brought with me three hundred scorpions from ProJenkin’s Labyrinth lordhouse. Grakilon, you will fetch three hundred of your own. We will dig a pit for them before ProNogolor’s gates. n***d in the Labyrinth lord’s eye we will swim with the scorpions and the Labyrinth lord will choose who speaks the truth.”

Grakilon hissed. “Who are you, Labyrinth lordspeaker of ProJenkin, to demand this or that from me? I am high Labyrinth lordspeaker of ProNogolor, I do not bow down before your demands. I am the servant of Nogolor Warlock, I answer to him, not you or Jenkin!”

Nogolor swung his horse about to look at him. “My servant, Grakilon? The Labyrinth lord’s servant only, you are its high Labyrinth lordspeaker. I am nothing, a puny man. You stood before me in the Labyrinth lordhouse, Grakilon, you swore you spoke the Labyrinth lord’s true words, that I must break my Labyrinth lordpromise to Jenkin and give my girl-child to Bajadek Warlock. That, you said, was the Labyrinth lord’s desire. Is it so, or did you lie?”

Grakilon’s eyes widened with shock. “Warlock, you can ask me that?”

“I can ask you, Grakilon. If you speak the truth there is nothing to fear. The Labyrinth lord will smite Geroud and see you in its eye.”

Geroud’s burning gaze was fixed to Grakilon’s hollowed face. “Send for your Labyrinth lordspeakers and your scorpions, Grakilon. This matter must be proved by the Labyrinth lord with no more delay.”

“Nogolor Warlock!” Grakilon kicked his horse forward. “Why do you support this? How do you stay silent? Did I come to you and say the Labyrinth lord’s desire was changed? You know I did not. You came to me, you were troubled in your heart, you wondered aloud before the altar: did the Labyrinth lord truly intend ProNogolor’s Daughter for Jenkin Warlock’s blunted spear? Bajadek Warlock sent you messengers, you came to me in the Labyrinth lordhouse after they departed.”

And Grakilon told Nogolor the words he desired to hear. Grakilon obeyed the wants of his Warlock, not the desires of his Labyrinth lord. His twisted plan was Nogolor’s twisted plan, and Bajadek’s, they were tangled in lies together. Jenkin kept his face still, he showed no outward thought or feeling, but in his breast the fury raged.

You sinning man, Nogolor. This web of lies, this snare of deceit. The Labyrinth lord will smite you in its eye for this.

Nogolor wore jet and silver amulets in long loops from his ears. They trembled, as he trembled, Grakilon’s harsh words striking him like stones. Here was the break between them, here the ground gaped wide at their feet. Would Nogolor extend a hand to his high Labyrinth lordspeaker, or push doomed Grakilon into the chasm?

Nogolor said, “A man may stand before the altar and ask a question. There is no sin in that. You told me the Labyrinth lord’s desire, how could I think you spoke false? Men must obey the Labyrinth lord’s Labyrinth lordspeakers. Jenkin Warlock himself has said it: we must listen and obey. If you had told me the Labyrinth lord’s desire remained unchanged, Grakilon, ProNogolor’s Daughter even now would be impaled upon Jenkin’s sharp spear.”

Grakilon said nothing. He was thrust into the chasm, his bones were broken kindling. Jenkin felt a rough pity. It would be far kinder to thrust a knife through the high Labyrinth lordspeaker’s heart than put him into the scorpion pit. The Labyrinth lord would see him for a liar, it would sting him to a screaming death. But it was too late for mercy, his lies must be proven before the fighters of ProNogolor, who believed their Warlock was in the right to overthrow his Labyrinth lordpromised word.

“You and your Labyrinth lordspeakers dig the pit, Geroud,” said Jenkin. “Side by side with the Labyrinth lordspeakers of ProNogolor and their high Labyrinth lordspeaker Grakilon. I will wait with my fighters. Nogolor Warlock will wait with his. The Labyrinth lord’s true words will be shown to all, and that will be an end to this matter.”

He wheeled his horse and rode towards his waiting fighters. Geroud rode beside him. When they halted, Geroud said, “Warlock. Your hand.”

Jenkin held out his knife-cut hand, and Geroud healed it with a Labyrinth lordstone he took from the pouch on his belt.

“This is the Labyrinth lord’s business now,” said Geroud, putting the Labyrinth lordstone away. “It will smite Grakilon. It might in some time smite Nogolor too, he was a fool to be corrupted.”

“And Bajadek?” said Jenkin softly, so none of his fighters could hear. “Will the Labyrinth lord smite Bajadek also?”

Geroud smoothed his Labyrinth lordbraids with fingers as calm as the sky. “That is Warlock business.”

He withdrew to gather his Labyrinth lordspeakers around him. Jenkin motioned to Brookchek, silently waiting, and they rode a small distance from the Labyrinth lordspeakers and the fighters, that they might talk in private.

“Warlock?” said Brookchek. “Is it war?”

He shook his head. “Not between Shelland ProNogolor. Not this highsun. Bajadek tried to beguile Nogolor into taking the Daughter away from me, and giving her to him. Nogolor was tempted, or afraid to refuse, he went to Grakilon to ask if the Labyrinth lord still intended the Daughter for me. Grakilon is no fool, he heard the question that was not asked. He told Nogolor what he wanted to hear, for reasons I do not know, that do not matter. Now Nogolor puts distance between them and says he acted on the word of his high Labyrinth lordspeaker. He has no intention of being blamed for Grakilon’s sin.”

Brook pulled a face. “You will let this stand?”