Brent Weeks - Beyond the Shadows

Logan Gyre was sitting in the mud and blood of the battlefield of Pavvils Grove when Terah Graesin came to him. It was barely an hour since theyd routed the Khalidorans, when the monstrous ferali forged to devour Cenarias army had turned instead on its Khalidoran masters. Logan had issued the orders that seemed most pressing, then dismissed everyone to join the revelries that were sweeping the Cenarian camp.

Terah Graesin came to him alone. He was sitting on a low rock, heedless of the mud. His fine clothes were so spattered with blood and worse they were a total loss anyway. Terahs dress, by contrast, was clean except for the lower fringe. She wore high shoes, but even those couldnt keep her entirely free of the thick mud. She stopped before him. He didnt stand.

She pretended not to notice. He pretended not to notice that her bodyguardsunbloodied from battlewere hidden in the trees less than a hundred paces away. Terah Graesin could have only one reason to come to him: she was wondering if she was still the queen.

If Logan hadnt been so bone-weary, he would have been amused. Terah had come to him alone as a show of vulnerability or fearlessness. You were a hero today, Terah said. You stopped the Godkings beast. Theyre saying you killed him.

Logan shook his head. Hed stabbed the ferali, and then the Godking had left it, but other men had given it more grievous wounds than he had. Something else had stopped the Godking, not Logan.

You commanded it to destroy our enemies, and it did. You saved Cenaria.

Logan shrugged. It already seemed long ago.

I guess the question is, Terah Graesin said, did you save Cenaria for yourself, or for all of us?

Logan spat at her feet. Dont give me that horseshit, Terah. You think youre going to manipulate me? Youve got nothing to offer, nothing to threaten. Youve got a question for me? Have a little respect and just fucking ask.

Terahs back stiffened, her chin lifted, and one hand twitched, but then she stopped.

It was the hand twitch that captured Logans attention. If she had raised her hand, was that the sign for her men to attack? Logan looked past her into the woods at the edge of the field, but the first thing he saw wasnt her men. He saw his own. Agons Dogsincluding two of the astoundingly talented archers Agon had armed with Ymmuri bows and made wytch huntershad stealthily circled behind Terahs bodyguards. Both wytch hunters had arrows nocked, but not drawn. Both men had obviously taken care to stand where Logan could see them clearly, because none of the other Dogs were clearly visible.

One archer was alternately looking at Logan and at a target in the woods. Logan followed his eyes and saw Terahs hidden archer, aiming at Logan, waiting for Terahs signal. The other wytch hunter was staring at Terah Graesins back. They were waiting for Logans signal. Logan should have known his streetwise followers wouldnt leave him alone when Terah Graesin was near.

He looked at Terah. She was slim, pretty, with imperious green eyes that reminded Logan of his mothers. Terah thought Logan didnt know about her men in the woods. She thought Logan didnt know that she had the stronger hand. You swore fealty to me this morning under less than ideal circumstances, Terah said. Do you intend to keep your troth, or do you intend to make yourself king?

She couldnt ask the question straight, could she? It just wasnt in her, not even when she thought she had total control over Logan. She would not make a good queen.

Logan thought hed already made his decision, but he hesitated. He remembered how it felt to be powerless in the Hole, how it felt to be powerless when Jenine, his just-wed wife, had been murdered. He remembered how disconcertingly wonderful it felt to tell Kylar to kill Gorkhy and see it done. He wondered if he would feel the same pleasure at seeing Terah Graesin die. With one nod toward those wytch hunters, he would find out. He would never feel powerless again.

His father had told him, An oath is the measure of the man who gives it. Logan had seen what happened when he did what he knew was right, no matter how foolish it looked at the time. That was what rallied the Holers around him. That was what had saved his life when he was feverish and barely conscious. That was what had made Lillythe woman the Khalidorans crafted into the feraliturn on the Khalidorans. Ultimately, Logans doing what was right had saved all of Cenaria. But his father Regnus Drake had lived by his oaths, through a miserable marriage and miserable service to a petty, wicked king. He gritted his teeth all day and slept well every night. Logan didnt know if he was as much of a man as his father. He couldnt do it.

So he hesitated. If she raised her hand to order her men to attack, she would be breaking the covenant between lord and vassal. If she broke it, he would be free.

Our soldiers proclaimed me king. Logan said in a neutral tone. Lose your temper, Terah. Order the attack. Order your own death.

Terahs eyes lit, but her voice was steady and her hand didnt move. Men say many things in the heat of battle. I am prepared to forgive this indiscretion.

Is this what Kylar saved me for?

No. But this is the man I am. I am my fathers son.

Logan stood slowly so as not to alarm either sides archers, then, slowly, he knelt and touched Terah Graesins feet in submission.

Late that night, a band of Khalidorans attacked the Cenarian camp, killing dozens of drunken revelers before fleeing into the darkness. In the morning, Terah Graesin sent Logan Gyre and a thousand of his men to hunt them down.

The sentry was a seasoned saceurai, a sword lord whod killed sixteen men and bound their forelocks into his fiery red hair. His eyes probed the darkness restlessly where the forest and the oak grove met, and when he turned, he shielded his eyes from his comrades low fires to protect his night vision. Despite the cool wind that swept the camp and set the great oaks groaning, he wore no helmet that would muffle his hearing. But he had no chance of stopping the wetboy.

Former wetboy, Kylar thought, balancing one-handed on a broad oak limb. If he were still a killer for hire, hed murder the sentry and be done with it. Kylar was something different now, the Night Angelimmortal, invisible, and nearly invincibleand he only served death to those who deserved it.

These swordsmen from the land whose very name meant the sword, Ceura, were the best soldiers Kylar had ever seen. They had set up camp with efficiency that spoke of years of campaigning. They cleared brush that might conceal the approach of enemies, banked their small fires to reduce their visibility, and arranged their tents to protect their horses and their leaders. Each fire warmed ten men, each of whom clearly knew his responsibilities. They moved like ants in the forest, and once they finished their duties, each man would only wander as far as an adjacent fire. They gambled, but they didnt drink, and they kept their voices low. The only snag in all the Ceurans efficiency seemed to come from their armor. With Ceuran bamboo-and-lacquer armor, a man could dress himself. But donning the Khalidoran armor they had stolen a week ago at Pavvils Grove required assistance. Scale mail mixed with chain and even plate, and the Ceurans couldnt decide if they needed to sleep armored or if men should be assigned to each other as squires.

When each squad was allowed to decide for itself how to fix the problem and didnt waste time asking up the chain of command, Kylar knew his friend Logan Gyre was doomed. War Leader Lantano Garuwashi paired the Ceuran love of order with individual responsibility. It was emblematic of why Garuwashi had never lost a battle. It was why he had to die.