Paul Kearney - Corvus

Corvus

The Macht Book 2

Paul Kearney

For Marie

This book wouldnot have existed without patience and hard work of Jon Oliver and John Jarrold,and I am grateful to them both for their encouragement and their sheerprofessionalism

THE SPEAR BY THEDOOR

THEQUIET WATER

AS always, he halted on the crest ofthe last ridge. Leaning on his spear, he looked down in the gatheringblue-shadowed dusk and something like a sigh ran out of him.

Before him, theland poured down in darkening folds and hollows until it met the flat shadow ofthe glen at the river-bottom. A flash of red there, as the river glanced up atthe last light of the sun. Then the mountainsides all around seemed to crowdtogether as if huddling against the night, and the valley was blanked out, likea conjurers trick. But in the midst of that quiet darkness, he could see alight burning, steady and yellow.

The spear creakedunder his weight. The leather straps of pack and shield dug into his shoulders.The heat of the day broke past him, a warm passage of air rushing down to fillup the cool darkness of the river-bottom below. He closed his eyes as the airkissed the glimmering sweat on his forehead, and turned, straightening.

Behind him, on thenorthern slope of the ridge, a long line of men sat by the side of the track.Every one of them was burdened with packed cuirass and strapped shield. Everyone had a spear in his fist. They looked up as he turned to them, and theireyes were pale glitters as the sunset shattered across the mountains behindthem.

This is me, hesaid. I leave you here.

Word went down theline. The men rose to their feet in a ripple of movement, like a snakeshivering itself awake down the length of the track. Three burdened figures attheir head made an arrowpoint of burdened shapes. One of them bore a banner, astaff of yew wood with a tattered flag that rippled idly in the breezes of thedusk. Upon its tattered face could just be made out the snarling, stylizedmuzzle of a dog or wolf.

Well call on youbefore the first snows, the banner-bearer said, a massively built fellow witha battered, craggy forehead and eyes like shards of blue glass below it. Hegrinned, showing broad yellow teeth, some of which had been ornamented withsilver wire.

No, you wont.Youre full of shit, and youve too much gold in your pouch. Dont spend it allat once, Kesero. And keep a wind-eye open for those fellows from Machran;Karnos, especially. The New Year comes, and youre looking for jobs again.

And you, Rictus?another of them said. He was younger, a long, lean, red-haired man who wouldhave been pretty as a girl were it not for the deep scarred hole below his lefteye which dragged the lower lid downwards, unbalancing his face, giving a him alook at once mocking and mournful.

What about me?

Will we be seeingyou after the turning of the year?

Rictus paused. Hisgaze swept down the track over the scores of men who lined it silently, all ofthem looking up the ridge at him. The last of the sun caught his eyes andflashed back out of them in a red glare. He was a big man with a shock ofyellow hair veined grey, broad in the shoulders, long in the arm, and there wasnot an ounce of excess flesh on his face. As his lips thinned, so the outlineof his teeth could be seen behind them, and an old seam of scar tissue paledout from his lower lip and down his chin.

Ill wait for theNew Year, Valerian, and see what Antimone brings me, he said at last, makingthe words lighter with a smile.

Valerian hitchedhis pack up higher on his shoulders. Well then, heres to Hal Goshen, boys,he said, his lop-sided face like two halves of different masks. Heres to redwine and wet women. Ill come up with Kesero, Rictus, and dig you out of yourburrow before the snows bury you too deep.

He raised hisspear above his head and pointed it towards the east. Dogsheads! he cried,and the word was caught up by the mountains and flung echoing around the highcountry. March on we can make ten more pasangs before Phobos rises.

Behind him, thelong files of men started out, taking a stony track along the crest of theridge with the last light of the sun on their backs. Valerian held out a hand,and Rictus shook it. Then the big, crag-faced bannerbearer, Kesero, did thesame. They led the line of burdened figures off, and Rictus stood and watchedthem go. As the men passed him on their way east, they each and every onenodded at him. A few struck their spears against their chests in salute. By thetime the rearguard had gone by it was almost fully dark, and the stars wereglimmering overhead in their tens of millions.

A dark shapeuncoiled itself from the shadow below Rictus and stood to become a compact,black-bearded man with a face as sharp as a foxs nose.

Well, are yougoing to stand there until Phobos finds you, or are we to get on home? the manasked waspishly. He yawned, and rubbed his eyes.

Its all downhillfrom here, Fornyx, Rictus said. Tonight youll sleep in a bed with a fire atyour feet.

The two men setoff down the ridge to the glen below, from which the sound of rushing watercould now be heard. They moved quietly, and their sandaled feet ate up thedownslope with the steady pace of men who have been marching all their lives.

Youre notretiring. You just tell them that to mess with their heads, Fornyx said,picking at his teeth with a thumbnail as he walked.

Rictus strodealong in silence, eyes fixed on the single point of light in the widening glenbelow them.

And if you were,Fornyx went on, Why bury yourself up here in the hills? Its a hard scrabbleup this high, Rictus. When he received no response, he went on, Any city inthe Harukush would shower you in gold just to have your spear planted on theirwalls. You could live like a king, had you a mind to.

We have no kings,Rictus said quickly. And me, Ive no wish to set myself up as one. Damn it,Fornyx, dont you ever shut up? You love these hills as much as I do. Andbesides, theres enough gold buried under Andunnons hearth already.

Fornyx grinned,looking more vulpine than ever. The top of his head barely reached the tallermans shoulder, but the muscles in his arms and legs were like corded wires,and he kept pace with Rictuss long stride without obvious effort.

I findconversation an amusement, and if no-one will talk to me, then Ill amusemyself until they do.

Well, amuseyourself in silence for a moment, will you? Stop here.

They halted,almost on the brim of a mountain river, which fell flashing from a rocky bluffto the west and ran along the bottom of the glen, foaming and purling in itsstony bed. Rictus breathed in the cooling air deeply.

Smell the pines?he asked. Theres still garlic growing on the far bank, and thyme, too. Iwonder how the barley did this year.

The same as itdid last year, I shouldnt wonder, Fornyx said with a snort. Aise and Eunionwill have the place blooming, as they always do. Come, lets cool our feet. Hebegan splashing across the silver-flashing river.

Rictus watched himgo, smiling slightly. In the hanging woods that carpeted the upper sides of theglen, an owl hooted as though it, too, wondered what was keeping him. His handwent up to his neck, and there at the lip of his cuirass it brushed against acord of rawhide upon which hung a wolfs tooth and a rounded fragment of coral.Then Rictus began to wade across the cold, fast-flowing river in Fornyxs wake.

The dogs came . out barking as theyapproached the eaves of the farm, but their barks changed to delighted yips andwhines as they caught the scent of the two men. Big, brindled hunting hounds,they bounced around Rictus and Fornyx like pups, tongues lolling happily. Asquare of light opened into the night, dazzling, wiping out the stars andmaking the glen around them into depthless black space.