With frightening ease he got behind the drillmaster, locking his limp arms and forcing him down to the floor. Kaval’s face was agonized as his tendons screamed, but he did not cry out. Enkido was silent as always, his face expressionless.
‘Enough,’ Amanvah said, and the eunuch immediately released the drillmaster and took a step back. Kaval turned to the dama’ting, speaking through his teeth in Krasian. Rojer could not understand what he was saying, but the meaning was clear in the fanatical look in his eyes.
Amanvah responded in Thesan, her voice cold. ‘If you or any Sharum lays so much as a finger on my husband, Drillmaster, you will spend eternity sitting outside the gates of Heaven.’ Kaval’s eyes widened at that. He put his forehead on the floor, but there was still rage on his face.
Amanvah turned to Rojer. ‘And you, husband, will not play that song ever again.’
Rojer did not need to touch his medallion for strength. The flare of anger was enough and more. No one was going to tell him what he could and couldn’t play. ‘The Core I won’t. I’m no Holy Man. It’s not for me to tell folk what to believe. All I do is tell stories, and both of these are true.’
The little vein on Amanvah’s forehead throbbed, signalling anger that did not touch her eyes. She nodded.
‘Then my father will hear of this. Kaval, select your strongest, fastest dal’Sharum. I shall write a letter he is to put in the hand of Shar’Dama Ka and no other. Tell him to take two horses, kill no alagai but those that would hinder him, and that Sharak Ka itself may depend upon his swiftness.’
Kaval nodded and rolled back onto his heels to rise and comply, but Leesha stood and moved in front of him, crossing her arms. ‘He won’t make it,’ she warned.
‘Eh?’ Amanvah asked.
‘I’ve poisoned your Sharum,’ Leesha said, ‘with something that far outlasts the weak antidote I’ve been putting in their soup. You are several days from the nearest ally, and without the antidote, your man won’t last half that time.’
Amanvah stared at Leesha a long time, and Rojer wondered if it was honest word. Surely not. Leesha was capable of many things, but killing with poison? Impossible.
Amanvah’s eyes narrowed. ‘Kaval, do as I command.’
‘I’m not bluffing,’ Leesha warned.
‘No,’ Amanvah agreed, ‘I do not believe you are.’
‘But you will send a man to his death anyway?’ Leesha asked.
‘It is you who have served him death,’ Amanvah said. ‘I am doing what I must to protect his brothers in Everam’s Bounty. I will throw the dice and prepare herbs for him to take, but if you have truly poisoned him and I do not guess the cure, he will go to glory as a martyr, and his soul will weigh against you when you are judged by the Creator at the end of the lonely road.’
‘Neither of us will go to him clean after this,’ Leesha said.
‘You make no difference to these people by frightening them and confusing them with lies and half-truth. When my father chooses to take their lands, they will be taken. These people will be stronger for it, and have a chance at glory and Heaven.’ Amanvah flicked a finger, and the drillmaster was off. A few of the men in the taproom looked like they might hinder him, but Kaval bared his teeth and they wisely stepped from his path.
With a final glare at Rojer, Amanvah and Sikvah stormed off, heading up to their rooms with Enkido in tow. Rojer watched them sadly as they ascended the steps and vanished from sight. It was true he would never stop playing The Battle of Cutter’s Hollow, but he need not have sprung it on them onstage. He knew what it was like, to feel left out in the middle of an act.
When the shock wore off, Rojer realized he and the other Hollowers were completely alone for the first time since the journey began. Wonda and Gared seemed to have more injury to their pride than their bodies, and kept watch as the others spoke.
‘Well that was terrifying,’ Rojer said.
‘You were lucky,’ Leesha said. ‘It’s one thing to use the Song of Waning to tell the locals to get out of the Krasians’ path without their realizing what you’re doing, but quite another to sing of another Deliverer right under their noses. You may as well have spit on everything they believe in.’
‘So we should pretend the Battle of Cutter’s Hollow never happened?’ Wonda demanded. ‘That we fought for nothing? That my da just up and died, rather than went down taking a copse of woodies with him? That the Painted Man didn’t do just what happened in the song?’
‘Gettin’ sick of pretending up is down and black is white,’ Gared said.
‘Of course not,’ Leesha said. ‘But we’re vulnerable on the road. We’ll be back in the Hollow soon enough. Between now and then, I suggest we tread carefully.’
‘Ay, everyone all right?’ the innkeeper asked, bringing over a fresh tray of drinks. He was accompanied by Gery, the Speaker for Northfork, and Nicholl, the Herb Gatherer.
‘Ent been better,’ Rojer said, motioning for them to sit. ‘Night’s got no flavour if I don’t almost get killed.’
Gery blinked, but he and Nicholl took the offered seats. ‘Just what in the Core is going on? You said they were with you, but it looks to me like you’re with them. They holding you prisoner?’
Rojer knew they were expecting him to reply, but he felt numb and cloudy and had no answers. Leesha shook her head, and he was happy to let her have the floor, at least until she spoke.
‘It’s more complicated than that, Speaker,’ Leesha said, ‘and not your concern. We’ll be safe enough. The woman in white is the daughter of the Krasian leader …’
Rojer stiffened and leaned forward. Be careful, he thought.
‘… and married to Rojer. After tonight, none of the warriors will dare harm us without word from the Shar’Dama Ka, and that won’t come quickly. We’ll be safe in the Hollow by then, and better prepared for what’s coming than the people of Northfork.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ the Speaker demanded. ‘You tell us one thing, sing another, and show us a third.’
‘It means the Krasians are coming this way,’ Leesha said. ‘They may not be as brutal as they were with the Rizonans if you aren’t stupid enough to fight, but the effect will be the same. Every boy taken to be trained in demon fighting, every man made a second-class citizen, every woman a third. Your village will be put under an overseer and you will all be subject to Evejan law.’
‘You’re telling us we shouldn’t fight that?’ Gery asked. ‘We should just take it like a mare when they come to stick us?’
‘She’s telling you to run while you can,’ Erny said. ‘You’re right on the road they will march their army through. You’re smart, you’ll harvest whatever’s still growing, pack up everything you can, and get out of their path.’
‘And go where?!’ Gery demanded. ‘My family’s been in Northfork long as anyone can remember, and the same goes for most of the folk here. We should just abandon the place?’
‘Yes, if you value your lives more than the land,’ Leesha said. ‘If you want to keep to your duke, head for Lakton proper, if they’ll have you. I sent word of the threat to them months ago. The city on the lake should be safe, at least for a while.’
‘Only seen the lake once, and it scared the piss out of me,’ Gery said. ‘Don’t think any of us’re suited to living on that much water.’