The Apogian War

Chapter 61

Didn't you know that?" I drew my fingers slowly away from princess's My hand felt cold and alone. "Council superstition," Beltran said scornfully, "driveling nonsense about virgins and purity! Do you really believe all that rubbish?" "Belief has nothing to do with it," I said, "and no, Keepers don't have to be sheltered virgins in this day and age. But while they're work ing in the circles they stay strictly chaste. That's a physical fact. It has to do with nerve currents. It's no more superstition than what every midwife knows, that a pregnant woman must not ride too fast or hard, nor wear tight lacing in her dresses. And even so, it's dangerous. Terri bly dangerous. If you think I want princess to be our Keeper, you are more ignorant than I thought!" cage looked at me steadily, and I saw that he was weighing what he said. "I believe you," he said at last. "But you believe princess can do it?" I nodded, wishing I could lie and be done with it. A telepath's love life is always infernally complicated. And princess and I had just found each other. We had had so very little, so very little.... "She can, if she will," I said at last, "but she must consent. No woman can be made Keeper unwilling. It is too strong a weight to carry, except by free will." cage looked at us both then and said, "So it all hangs on princess, then. What about it, Margie? Will you be Keeper for us?" She looked at me and, biting her lip, she stretched out her hands to mine. She said, "Lno, I don't know..." She was afraid, and small wonder. And then, like a compelling, magi cal dream, I remembered the morning when we had walked together through Caer Donn and shared our dreams for this world. Wasn't this worth a little danger, a little waiting for our happiness? A world where we need not feel shame but pride for our dual heritage, Darkovan and Persia? I felt princess catch the dream, too, as without a word, she slowly loosed her hand from mine and we drew apart. From this mo ment until our work was ended and the circle dissolved, princess would stand inviolate, set apart, alone. The Keeper. No words were necessary, but princess spoke the simple words as if they were an oath sealed in fire. "I agree. If you will help me, I will do what I can."For ten days the storm had raged, sweeping down from the Hellers through the Kilghard Hills and falling on Thendara with fury almost unabated. Now the weather was clear and fine, but Darkovan rode with his head down, ignoring the bright day. He'd failed, he felt, having made a pledge and then doing nothing. Now he was being packed off to Neskaya in Gary's care, like a sick child with a nanny! But he raised his head in surprise as they made the sharp turn that led down the valley toward Syrtis. "Why are we taking this road?" "I have a message for Gordon," Gary said. "Will the few extra miles weary you? I can send you on to Edelweiss with the Guards...." Gary's careful solicitude set him on edge. As if a few extra miles could matter! He said so, irritably. His black mare, sure-footed, picked her way down the path. Despite his disclaimer to Gary, he felt sick and faint, as he had felt most of the time since his collapse in Kennard's rooms. For a day or two, delini ous and kept drugged, he had had no awareness of what was going on, and even now much of what he remembered from the last few days was illusion. Dan was there, crying out in wild protest, being roughly handled, afraid, in pain. It seemed that Lno was there sometimes too, looking cold and stern and angry with him, demanding again and again, What is it that you're afraid to know? He knew, because they told him afterward, that for a day or two he had been so dangerously ill that his grandfather never left his side, and when, waking once between sick in tervals of fragmented hallucinations, he had seen his grandfather's face and asked, "Why are you not at Council?" the old man had said violently, "Damn the Councill" Or was that another dream? He knew that once Dyan had come into the room, but Darkovan had hidden his face in the bedclothes and refused to speak to him, gently though Dyan spoke. Or was that a dream, too? And then, for what seemed like years, he had been on the fire-lines at Armida, when they had lived day and night with terror, during the day the hard manual work kept it at bay, but at night he would wake, sobbing and crying out with fear.... That night, his grandfather told him, his half-conscious cries had grown so terrified, so insistent, that Kennard Alton, himself seriously ill, had come and stayed with him till morning, trying to quiet him with touch and rapport. But he kept crying out for Lno and Kennard couldn't reach him. Darkovan, ashamed of this childish behavior, had finally agreed to go to Neskaya. The blur of memory and thought-images embarrassed him, and he didn't try to sort out the truth from the drugged fantasies. Just the same, he knew that at least once Lno had been there, holding him in his arms like the frightened child he had been. When he told Ken nard so, Kennard nodded soberly and said, "It's very likely. Perhaps you were astray in time; or perhaps from where he is, Lno sensed that you had need for him, and reached you as a telepath can. I had never known you were so close to him." Darkovan felt helpless, vulnerable, so when he was well enough to ride, he had meekly agreed to go to Neskaya Tower. It was intolerable to live like this. . . . Gary's voice roused him now, saying in dismay, "Look! What's this? Gordon-" The old man was riding up the valley toward them, astride Dan's black horse, the Armida-bred gelding which was the only really good horse at Syrtis. He was coming at what was, for a man his age, a break neck pace. For a few minutes it seemed he would ride full tilt into the party on the path, but just a few paces away he pulled up the black and the animal stood stiff-legged, breathing hard, its sides heaving. Gordon glared straight at Darkovan. "Where is my son? What have you thieving murderers done with him?" The old man's fury and grief were like a blow. Darkovan said in confu sion, "Your son? Dan, sir? Why do you ask me?" "What have you vicious, detestable tyrants done with him? How dare you show your faces on my land, after stealing from me my youngest-" Darkovan tried to interrupt and quell the torrent of words. "Gordon, I do not understand. I parted from Dan some days ago, in your own orchard. I have not laid eyes on him since, I have been Themen ory of his drugged dream tormented him, of Dan being my handled, afraid, in pain.. "Liar!" Gordon shouted, his face red and sely with rage and pain "Who but you "That's enough, sir," said Gary, breaking in with firm authority "No one "The word of a Hastur lickspittle and toadyt I dare speak gaint these filthy tyrants! Did you take my son for your "He ng a word at Darkovan next to which "catamite" was a courtly compliment. Darkovan paind against the old man's rage. "Gordon-if you will hear "Hear you! My son heard you, sir, all your fine word Two Guardsmen rode close to the enraged old man, grasping the reins of his horse, holding him motionless. "Let him go," Gary said quietly. "Gordon, we know nothing of your son. I came to you with a message from Kennard Alton concerning him. May I deliver it?" Gordon quieted himself with an effort that made his eyes bulge "Speak, then, Captain Lanart, and the Gods deal with you as you Council dealt with my son." "The Gods do so to me and more also, if I or mine harmed him Gary said. "Hear the message of Kennard, Lord Alton, Commander of the Guard: 'Say to Gordon of Syrtis that it is known to me what a grave miscarriage of justice was done in the Guards this year, of which his son Dan-Felix, cadet, may have been an innocent victim; and ask that he send his son Dan-Felix to Thendara under any escort of his own choosing, to stand witness in a full investigation against men in high places, even within Council, who may have misused their powers" Gary paused, then added, "I was also authorized to say to you, Dem Felix, that ten days from now, when I have escorted my brother-in-law. who is in poor health at this moment, to Neskaya Tower, that I shall myself return and escort your son to Thendara, and that you are your self welcome to accompany him as his protector, or to name any guard ian or relative of your own choosing, and that Kennard Alton will stand personally responsible for his safety and honor." Gordon said unsteadily, "I have never had reason to doubt Lond Alton's honor or goodwill. Then Dan is not in Thendara?" One of the Guards, a grizzled veteran, said, "You know me, sit! served with Rafael in the war, sixteen years gone. I kept an eye on young Dani for his sake. 205 1 give you my word, sir, Dani isn't there, with Council conniving or without it." The old man's face gradually paled to its normal hue. He said, Then Dan did not run away to join yon, Lord Darkovan?" "On my honor, sir, he did not. I saw him last when we parted in your own orchard. Tell me, how did he go, did he leave no word?" The old man's face was clay-colored. "I saw nothing. Dani had been hunting; I was not well and had kept my bed. I said to him I had a fancy for some birds for supper, the Gods forgive me, and he took a hawk and went for them, such a good obedient son-" His voice broke. "It grew late and he did not return. I had begun to wonder if his horse had gone lame, or he'd gone on some boy's prank, and then old Mauris and the kitchen-folk came running into my chamber and told me, they saw him meet with riders on the path and saw him struck down and carried away..." Gary looked puzzled and dismayed. "On my word, Gordon, none of us had art, part or knowledge of it. What hour was this? Yes terday? The day before?" "The day before, Captain. I swooned away at the news. But as soon as my old bones would bear me I took horse to come and hold ... someone to account. . . ." His voice faded again. Darkovan drew his own horse close to Gordon and took his arm. He said impulsively, "Uncle," using the same word he used to Kennard Alton, "you are fa ther to my friend; I owe you a son's duty as well. Gary, take the Guards, go and look, question the house-folk." He turned back to Gordon, saying gently, "I swear I will do all I can to bring Dan safely back. But you are not well enough to ride. Come with me." Taking the other's reins in his own hands, he turned the old man's mount and led him down the path into the cobbled courtyard. Dismounting quickly, he helped Gordon down and guided his tottering steps. He led him into the hall, saying to the old half-blind servant there, "Your master is ill, fetch him some wine." When it had been brought and Gordon had drunk a little, Darkovan sat beside him, near the cold hearth.

"Lord Darkovan, your pardon . . ." "Rafael " men came into the hall. "What news, Gary?" "None needed. You have been sorely tried, sir." and honor are as dear to me as my own." He looked up as the Guards "Sir, as my father held your elder son dear, I tell you Dan's safety