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implacable as the moon, sat Beleth the Bloodless.
Ranwell, you may go, Orias said. Seere, show Alessa in and shut the door.
Leith will wait outside.
With a compassionate backward glance, Ranwell left me with only the guards for
company. I waited for what seemed like hours. We had nowhere to sit, nothing to eat or
drink. Images danced across my mind s eye Andrey s glassy eyes, hard with rage,
when Ash had put his arm around me. The lamp in Ash s room, flickering dimly, the
only light to be seen. Ash s wolf mask, black and snarling.
Andrey would never touch me again. Never have the chance to claim his prize.
At last, the door opened, and Alessa stepped out, pale and dark-eyed. She turned
to the lady guard. I ve been dismissed. May I go?
She nodded. As long as you can find your own way back.
Alessa I started, but she shook her head, striding off without a word. I
watched her go, from window to window. The moon stood high in the sky now, casting
its lights in knifelike beams through the arrow slits; caught in its light she almost
seemed to glow.
She had left the door open for me. Within I saw the waiting faces of the Fair, dark
and pale in the moonlight.
I stepped within; the door closed behind me. Orias spread his hands and smiled at
me. His was the only smiling face among them.
Leith, he said, you know why we have called you.
Forest of Glass 111
I nodded. Because of Andrey Richalmer.
His throat was cut. Sallos s voice was savage. He was left to bleed to death.
A cold feeling stole through me. I thought of Andrey, with his cruel smile,
bleeding out below the stars. He had not deserved it; his had been a petty sort of
cruelty, played out in pointless little games. It might have earned him a solid blow
square in his thin little grin, but not this. Not a throat slit open and a cold death far from
home.
This was his home, though, I thought. At least he d that comfort. If I died here in
the Citadel, who knew where my ghost would go? Down into the barrows, perhaps.
Down into the earth, among men with diamond teeth and fires that never go out. I
shivered; Beleth s all-black eyes were on me. I wondered if she could read my thoughts.
At the hunt last night, Sallos said, none of mine managed to spear you. You
went with the Bloodless s pet, didn t you?
Courtesy, Sallos, Orias said mildly. In here you will call everyone by the truest
name for them you know.
His laugh was like the bay of a beast. That is his truest name to me.
Beleth held up her hand. Please. We are not here to squabble. She was calmer
than I had ever seen her. Leith, she said, turning her eyes back to me. In the hunt
yesterday, you were captured by Ash, were you not?
Yes, I breathed, not sure whether I should add my lady.
And no other, is that not right?
I nodded.
You were with him all night then?
Yes. All night, I said without hesitation.
A moment later, barely longer than a breath, I remembered waking alone in the
dark and Ash returning softly to his chamber. I knew then that I should tell them that
I should lay his absence before these inquisitors but I remained silent, my face a stone.
112 John Tristan
Well. Orias leaned back in his chair. I think that makes an end to this, my lords
and ladies.
Don t be so sure. Sallos fixed me with a baleful look. The gamekeeper might
have slipped out while the boy was sleeping. Unless he ll have us believe they were at
play through all day and night.
No, my lord, I said, looking at Sallos, but I slept beside him.
These were not lies I told, not really; every word was true in its way. Still, a voice
shrilled in my ear, Traitor, traitor, traitor. I looked toward Beleth. Her dark eyes were
unreadable, but I saw the ghost of a smile. She knows, I thought, but then she turned to
Orias and said, It may have been any of a hundred knives that opened Andrey s
throat, and I doubt our tender prey has knowledge of a one. Send for the others at the
feast, sweet brother. Let us question them instead.
Sallos pounded his fist upon the table. We do not hurt our own!
Andrey had married us, it s true, Orias said, but some might still think he
should have been taken by the old rites.
The blooding the wild hunt. Beleth sounded almost amused. Do any of you
think he was not truly one of us, this unblooded pup?
No. Sallos shook his head. Those are the old ways, the dark ways. It was one of
them did this. I know it. No changeling could have slipped to his chambers unseen.
Unless he had told them the secret way, a fourth among the table said. Andrey
had a prodigious appetite.
Hush, Orias said. These are not words for my little bastard s ears. He smiled
at me, devoid of all suspicion. He does not think me capable of this. Of wielding a knife or
wielding a lie. You may go now, Leith, he said. I will next see you at the feast.
The feast? I did not understand.
You did not think, Beleth said, that we would let one of our own go descend to
hell without a feast? Andrey Richalmer will be our guest of honor one last time.
Forest of Glass 113
I imagined Andrey, a red grin below his own cruel smile, propped up on some
lord s chair while we were made to dance around him, and shuddered. Old ways.
Would they have me kiss him? To give him in death the thing that he could not have in
life?
With that image in my head, they sent me on my way. The guards still waited for
me outside the door, but I told them I needed no company to find my way back.
I didn t, either, but I did not go back to the chamber. Neither did I go down to the
barrows where I had gone so many times before. I climbed higher and higher, alone on
the twisting boughs. I had never passed through this tree s acorn door before, but I
wanted to see what lurked behind it. This, I thought, was the eldest tree of the Citadel.
It had stood before the others were mere seeds. I did not know how I knew it, but I
did as if the tree itself whispered the secret of its ancient age to me. Old ways, dark
ways. The words rang in my head.
I pushed open the door. The wind-shaped dome above the canopy was dark with
a swirl of thunderclouds. Every now and then lightning would flash and cast angry
shadows on the bare ground, here in the cup of the tree s ancient canopy.
The soil was studded with stunted trees. Each stood perhaps as tall as a child, with
pale and empty branches mostly empty, I saw at second glance. Though all were bare [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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implacable as the moon, sat Beleth the Bloodless.
Ranwell, you may go, Orias said. Seere, show Alessa in and shut the door.
Leith will wait outside.
With a compassionate backward glance, Ranwell left me with only the guards for
company. I waited for what seemed like hours. We had nowhere to sit, nothing to eat or
drink. Images danced across my mind s eye Andrey s glassy eyes, hard with rage,
when Ash had put his arm around me. The lamp in Ash s room, flickering dimly, the
only light to be seen. Ash s wolf mask, black and snarling.
Andrey would never touch me again. Never have the chance to claim his prize.
At last, the door opened, and Alessa stepped out, pale and dark-eyed. She turned
to the lady guard. I ve been dismissed. May I go?
She nodded. As long as you can find your own way back.
Alessa I started, but she shook her head, striding off without a word. I
watched her go, from window to window. The moon stood high in the sky now, casting
its lights in knifelike beams through the arrow slits; caught in its light she almost
seemed to glow.
She had left the door open for me. Within I saw the waiting faces of the Fair, dark
and pale in the moonlight.
I stepped within; the door closed behind me. Orias spread his hands and smiled at
me. His was the only smiling face among them.
Leith, he said, you know why we have called you.
Forest of Glass 111
I nodded. Because of Andrey Richalmer.
His throat was cut. Sallos s voice was savage. He was left to bleed to death.
A cold feeling stole through me. I thought of Andrey, with his cruel smile,
bleeding out below the stars. He had not deserved it; his had been a petty sort of
cruelty, played out in pointless little games. It might have earned him a solid blow
square in his thin little grin, but not this. Not a throat slit open and a cold death far from
home.
This was his home, though, I thought. At least he d that comfort. If I died here in
the Citadel, who knew where my ghost would go? Down into the barrows, perhaps.
Down into the earth, among men with diamond teeth and fires that never go out. I
shivered; Beleth s all-black eyes were on me. I wondered if she could read my thoughts.
At the hunt last night, Sallos said, none of mine managed to spear you. You
went with the Bloodless s pet, didn t you?
Courtesy, Sallos, Orias said mildly. In here you will call everyone by the truest
name for them you know.
His laugh was like the bay of a beast. That is his truest name to me.
Beleth held up her hand. Please. We are not here to squabble. She was calmer
than I had ever seen her. Leith, she said, turning her eyes back to me. In the hunt
yesterday, you were captured by Ash, were you not?
Yes, I breathed, not sure whether I should add my lady.
And no other, is that not right?
I nodded.
You were with him all night then?
Yes. All night, I said without hesitation.
A moment later, barely longer than a breath, I remembered waking alone in the
dark and Ash returning softly to his chamber. I knew then that I should tell them that
I should lay his absence before these inquisitors but I remained silent, my face a stone.
112 John Tristan
Well. Orias leaned back in his chair. I think that makes an end to this, my lords
and ladies.
Don t be so sure. Sallos fixed me with a baleful look. The gamekeeper might
have slipped out while the boy was sleeping. Unless he ll have us believe they were at
play through all day and night.
No, my lord, I said, looking at Sallos, but I slept beside him.
These were not lies I told, not really; every word was true in its way. Still, a voice
shrilled in my ear, Traitor, traitor, traitor. I looked toward Beleth. Her dark eyes were
unreadable, but I saw the ghost of a smile. She knows, I thought, but then she turned to
Orias and said, It may have been any of a hundred knives that opened Andrey s
throat, and I doubt our tender prey has knowledge of a one. Send for the others at the
feast, sweet brother. Let us question them instead.
Sallos pounded his fist upon the table. We do not hurt our own!
Andrey had married us, it s true, Orias said, but some might still think he
should have been taken by the old rites.
The blooding the wild hunt. Beleth sounded almost amused. Do any of you
think he was not truly one of us, this unblooded pup?
No. Sallos shook his head. Those are the old ways, the dark ways. It was one of
them did this. I know it. No changeling could have slipped to his chambers unseen.
Unless he had told them the secret way, a fourth among the table said. Andrey
had a prodigious appetite.
Hush, Orias said. These are not words for my little bastard s ears. He smiled
at me, devoid of all suspicion. He does not think me capable of this. Of wielding a knife or
wielding a lie. You may go now, Leith, he said. I will next see you at the feast.
The feast? I did not understand.
You did not think, Beleth said, that we would let one of our own go descend to
hell without a feast? Andrey Richalmer will be our guest of honor one last time.
Forest of Glass 113
I imagined Andrey, a red grin below his own cruel smile, propped up on some
lord s chair while we were made to dance around him, and shuddered. Old ways.
Would they have me kiss him? To give him in death the thing that he could not have in
life?
With that image in my head, they sent me on my way. The guards still waited for
me outside the door, but I told them I needed no company to find my way back.
I didn t, either, but I did not go back to the chamber. Neither did I go down to the
barrows where I had gone so many times before. I climbed higher and higher, alone on
the twisting boughs. I had never passed through this tree s acorn door before, but I
wanted to see what lurked behind it. This, I thought, was the eldest tree of the Citadel.
It had stood before the others were mere seeds. I did not know how I knew it, but I
did as if the tree itself whispered the secret of its ancient age to me. Old ways, dark
ways. The words rang in my head.
I pushed open the door. The wind-shaped dome above the canopy was dark with
a swirl of thunderclouds. Every now and then lightning would flash and cast angry
shadows on the bare ground, here in the cup of the tree s ancient canopy.
The soil was studded with stunted trees. Each stood perhaps as tall as a child, with
pale and empty branches mostly empty, I saw at second glance. Though all were bare [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]