Promise of Blood

Chapter 29

Taniel listened to the sound of hoofbeats steadily climb the mountainside. He leaned on his rifle and took a sniff of powder. He’d been watching the rider’s approach since the sun began to set over the mountains behind him. The rider was coming up from the Kez advance base. He rode under a white flag of truce.

A messenger.

“Go get Gavril,” Taniel told Fesnik. The young watcher squinted into the dusk and nodded, heading back into the town. Fesnik had drawn lots for the evening watch. Taniel had given him some company, mostly for an excuse to see the engineers and masons at work as they repaired the bastion.

Fesnik’s watch would be over when the last light disappeared from the sky. Taniel would go in then, and was looking forward to a long night’s sleep. If fate was kind, this messenger would say the Kez were pulling back.

The mountains were quiet. Only intermittent sounds drifted up from the massive Kez army below. They weren’t preparing for a push this night, nor any night for the last week. The battle for the bastion had weakened both sides, and they’d spent a week gathering bodies, restocking ammunition and supplies, and trying to get a little rest.

The quiet of the Kez camp made Taniel nervous.

Taniel turned at the sound of footsteps on stone behind him. It was Mozes, musket on his shoulder.

“I’ve got the night watch,” he said.

Taniel stretched. “You can have it.”

Mozes was a quiet man, not often in for a long conversation, but a good drinking companion. They’d spent plenty of hours together at the Howling Wendigo over the last week.

Taniel remained at the bastion wall for a few more minutes. Long enough to watch the rider approach the gates and be admitted and a small group emerge from the town to meet the messenger. The group was led by Gavril, his large silhouette immediately recognizable. The conversation was short, and the rider was soon heading back through the gate.

Taniel nodded farewell to Mozes and headed toward Gavril.

The group was in a quiet conference when Taniel arrived. All heads turned toward him.

“What word from Field Marshal Tine?” Taniel asked.

“He said to consider hostilities resumed,” Gavril said. “Any sign of a nighttime attack?”

Shit. “No movement on the mountainside all day long.”

“The diggers?”

“No sign of them, either.”

The sappers had kept going, even through the week-long truce between the armies. Taniel had wanted to go down and flush them out, but Gavril insisted they keep their side of the truce.

“What are they digging for?” Gavril growled. “They’re too far out to undermine us, and Bo said they haven’t been using sorcery to dig.”

“Have you seen Bo?” Taniel asked. “He’s been feet-up in a mug of ale all week and looks like he’s been to the pit and back. I don’t trust he can tell sorcery from a molehill right now.”

“Oh, come now,” a quiet voice said. “I’m not that bad.”

Taniel turned to see Bo standing a little ways off from the group. Had he been there the whole time? He frowned at his friend. Bo carried a flask, and he was leaning on Katerine. The woman gave Taniel a withering look.

Taniel said, “You need to be sleeping, not drinking.”

“There’s trickery in this,” Bo said, gesturing toward the Kez army. “Who knows what they’re planning?”

“What can we do?” Taniel said. “They’re well covered from artillery fire. When we bombarded the hill above their cave, there was no sign of having collapsed their tunnels. We have no idea how deep those tunnels are, or where they lead to. They could be trying to undermine the bastion, or come up in the middle of the town, or pit, with the help of sorcerers they could be trying to pass under the whole Mountainwatch and come out in Adro.”

“A sobering thought,” Bo said. “But you said you’ve not seen sign of the diggers all day.”

“They’re still going. No doubt about it.”

“That’s why I’ve come to a decision,” Gavril said. They both looked to Gavril. “I’m going to lead a sortie to clear the mine.”

“When?” Taniel took a sniff of powder.

“Tomorrow,” Gavril said. “If I can sober Bo up.”

“I’m plenty sober,” Bo said. He swayed, and would have fallen if Katerine had not been holding him up.

Gavril appeared not to notice. “I want to say it will be a minimum-risk sortie. Their army is hours away. But if Julene is there – or even a couple of lower-grade Privileged – we’ll need more than just Bo.” He looked expectantly at Taniel. “The sortie will be… volunteer.”

Taniel tried to snort. It made his sinuses hurt. He’d done his best to stay off powder for the last week. He’d failed, but at least his nose hadn’t bled for a few days. “I’ll go, of course.”

“Thanks,” Gavril said. He looked somewhat relieved. “It’s not just you I need, though.”

Taniel frowned, and then it dawned on him. “Ka-poel.”

Gavril nodded.

“I don’t know…” Taniel said. “She’s so young.”

“She’s a sorcerer,” Gavril said. “A powerful one. I’ve had a talk with Bo. He’s very interested in her.”

“Very,” Bo said.

Taniel scowled at them both.

Gavril paused for a moment, then added, “Not that way.”

“Of course not,” Bo said.

Taniel still scowled. “Ka-poel is under my protection,” he said. In reality, he was under hers, or so Bo would have him believe. “Sure, she’s helped me track Privileged, been in a scrape or two…” He remembered how she’d thrown herself between him and Julene up on the mountain. She was stronger than she looked.

Bo sighed. “Taniel, she makes most of the Kez Cabal look like children. We’re going to need her.”

Taniel suddenly remembered the day he’d faced off against Rozalia in the museum at Adopest University. She’d been nervous about Ka-poel joining the fight. Had she been able to sense something Taniel hadn’t? “I don’t think she’s that powerful, but let’s say she was – I won’t put her in danger.”

“It’s not up to you,” Gavril said.

“By pit, it’s not.”

“I already asked her. She’s coming with us.”

Taniel leaned back, blinking. “You just went right past me on that?”

Gavril rolled his tongue around in his cheek. He met Taniel’s eyes. “I know the risk we’re taking going down there, and she’s a bigger asset than even Bo at this point. I wanted to know she’d come before I made the decision.”

Taniel glared at Gavril. The big Watchmaster ignored him.

“Tomorrow night?” Taniel asked.

“Tomorrow night,” Gavril confirmed.

Taniel put his hands in his pockets and headed back into the town alone. The days were hot now, and the nights certainly warmer as summer closed in on Adro. This high in the mountains there’d always be a chill in the air when the sun went down. Taniel pulled his buckskin coat tight and listened to the wind as he got closer to the Howling Wendigo. It was an eerie thing, and it made him shudder.

He paused halfway down the street. The howl picked up as he walked toward the Howling Wendigo, but he thought another sound had joined it, then replaced it. It sounded similar, like a beast’s low yowl in the distance. This was… more organic. He shivered and looked around. It came from higher up the mountain, and on a clear night like this, when the stars shone bright overhead, the sound carried. He glanced toward the northeast pass. He rubbed his eyes, looked again. It seemed as if something moved there.

The howl started again, a haunting, feral sound. Taniel remembered reading that there were no wolves on South Pike. Only cave lions. This sounded like no cave lion he’d ever heard. He swallowed and forced himself to look away from the mountain.

A movement in the corner of his eye, someone sneaking up toward him from the side, made him jump. The figure ran. He took off down the road in pursuit. He dashed around a corner, to an alley, and grabbed the side of a building to steady himself.

“Damn you to the pit!” He grabbed Ka-poel by the front of her long duster. His hands were shaking. “Don’t scare me like that.”

She looked up at him with big green eyes that drank in the moonlight. He let go of her jacket and smoothed the front of his own. “Damn,” he said. “You spooked the pit out of me. What are you doing out here?”

Ka-poel pointed to her eyes and then to him.

“Watching me? What in Kresimir’s name for?”

She shrugged.

Taniel cuffed her gently on the back of her head. She’d cut her hair even shorter, almost above her ears. Taniel walked back into the street and sat down on a stoop. Ka-poel made to walk off.

“Get over here,” Taniel said. He made sure his voice was not unkind. She sidled up beside him like a girl whose father had threatened a lashing, but who knew that an innocent smile would get her out of it. “Why didn’t you tell me that Gavril asked you to go on his sortie?”

Ka-poel raised one eyebrow at him. She pointed to her throat.

“Yes, I know you can’t talk,” Taniel said. He rolled his eyes. “You damn well come up with a way to tell me things when you want.”

Ka-poel pursed her lips.

“Don’t play coy with me. You do it all the time. I want an answer.”

She hugged herself, and then pointed to Taniel. Taniel shook his head. She thumped one hand against her chest, over her heart, and pointed to him again. You… love me? No, that can’t be right. He shook his head. Ka-poel sighed. She mimed swinging a sword, and then raised the other arm.

“Shield?” Taniel said.

She nodded, and pointed at him.

“Shield me? Protect me? You want to protect me? What the pit? You’re what, fifteen years old? You shouldn’t be trying to protect me. You’re barely past playing with dolls. Well…” Taniel remembered the doll she made of Julene, and what it did. “You still play with dolls. Dangerously. But you shouldn’t be protecting me.”

Taniel imagined himself at fifteen. A headstrong, lanky boy with straight black hair and just the beginnings of a beard. He had filled out since then, grown stronger, taller, and already bore the scars of a seasoned soldier. He felt old and he was barely twenty-two.

Ka-poel turned her back on him.

“Hey, don’t…”

She folded her arms.

Taniel stood up, came up behind her. She flashed her fingers at him rapidly.

“What?”

She did it again.

“Nineteen? Oh, you? You’re nineteen.” Taniel was taken aback. “I always thought you were a kid. Dynize are married off by sixteen.”

She shook her head, still not looking at him, and pointed at herself.

“Not you, eh?”

She nodded.

“Well, damn it, I don’t care how old you are, I don’t want you protecting me.”

She turned around suddenly. Their faces were close enough for him to smell her breath. It was sweet, like honey, and Taniel wondered absently what she’d been eating.

Too bad, she mouthed.

Taniel squared his jaw. Damned girl. “Why are you so worried about me?” he asked slowly.

She leaned in closer to him, their lips almost touching. He searched her dark eyes. They caught the starlight. There was mischief in those eyes and a smirk on her lips. Taniel felt his heart thump. She whirled and was gone, racing down the street.

Taniel inhaled sharply, watching her go. “What was that?” he said quietly. He licked his lips and wondered what she tasted like. He pushed the thought from his mind. She was a servant, an uneducated savage. He shoved his hands in his pocket and headed down the street, hoping that she wouldn’t be there when he got back to his room at the officers’ barracks.