Promise of Blood

Epilogue

Bloody pit, Olem thought as they brought in the bodies and laid them before Tamas.

Rain beat down and wind whipped at the canvas tent over their heads. The sounds in the air – screams like banshees that came from no mortal throat – and the smell of sulfur that clogged his senses and made him want to spit every few minutes.

He could see South Pike from time to time through the swaying trees. The whole mountain, no, the whole southeastern sky, glowed like the hillside behind a fire. It made him nervous being this close, no matter what the field marshal said. The mountain had changed. Its familiar rimmed top had collapsed on the southern side, spilling out its fiery guts onto the Kez plains.

Olem hoped it swallowed the whole damned Kez army.

Plumes of ash and smoke as big as Adro floated in the air above them, reflecting the harsh flow of the mountain. The ash rained down, requiring every man to wear cloth over his face. A plume of fire spurted from the southern rim and disappeared, heading toward Kez. Olem shuddered. That one plume was probably big enough to cover a city.

Shouldercrown was gone, swept away when the mountain’s side gave way. The last of the evacuees had just come into Tamas’s camp. It seems that they’d gotten all of the Mountainwatchers out in time. They’d brought with them the survivors of the mountaintop battle along with rumors that could shake a man’s soul.

“Are they dead?” Olem asked. He touched a new cigarette to the brazier and brought it to his lips, pulling in the sweet smoke. Dr. Petrik shot Olem a dirty look. Olem grimaced. He should watch himself. This was the field marshal’s son he was talking about.

There were three bodies, all bundled head to toe to protect them from the falling ash. One of them was alive for certain. He was a medium-sized man, emaciated and frail-looking. He was carried in on a stretcher, and his hands and feet were very clearly bound. His arms stuck out from his body, propped up by a forked stick so that his bare hands could be seen at all times. Privileged Borbador, Olem guessed. The last of the king’s royal cabal. Bo’s eyes searched the room. His mouth was not gagged, yet he did not speak.

The two other bodies belonged to a young man and woman. Soldiers unwrapped the coverings so that Dr. Petrik could examine them. The woman – no, girl, from her size – was a savage with freckled skin and hair that might have been fire red had it not been singed to hardly anything. Olem couldn’t tell if she was breathing. The boy was Taniel. Olem recognized him well enough. All of Tamas’s soldiers did.

Olem sidled up beside the Privileged’s stretcher and pulled up a stool.

“Bad up there?” Olem said. He grimaced at the pain from his chest. The wound from Charlemund had been straight and clean, making it possible for Mihali to heal it with sorcery Olem couldn’t comprehend. Healed it might be, but it still hurt between his ribs.

Bo gave him a glance.

“Cigarette?” Olem wrapped a new cigarette and put it between Bo’s lips. He lit it with a match. Bo breathed in the smoke and coughed. Olem caught the cigarette, put it back in Bo’s mouth. Bo gave a slight nod.

“I hear we got all of our boys out,” Olem said. “Before the mountain fell. That’s lucky.”

Bo said nothing.

“Rumors of a great sorceress up there, duking it out with you and Taniel. She survive?”

“Don’t know.” It was barely a whisper, muttered from between Bo’s clenched lips so the cigarette wouldn’t fall.

“That’s a pity,” Olem said. “If she did, let’s hope she’s on the Kez side of the mountain.”

Bo didn’t respond.

A man came into the tent then. He might as well have been a bear, for his size and the furs on his shoulders. He wore the emblem of the Watchmaster on his vest. Olem didn’t recognize him.

Tamas left his son’s side for a moment. “Jakola,” Tamas said in greeting to the Watchmaster.

“How’s the boy?” Jakola asked.

“Alive. Barely.”

“A miracle,” Jakola said. “You thank that girl, and give her as much attention as you show Taniel. If he survives, he’ll owe her his life. Pit, from what the men are telling me, we all might owe her our lives.”

Tamas looked over to the savage girl. “She clings on even weaker than Taniel. I don’t know what we can do for her.”

“Well, do it,” Jakola said. “You’ve got more surgeons than just this old hoot.” He crossed the room to Tamas’s cot and sat down, producing a flask from his vest pocket.

Olem frowned. Should he rebuke the man? He looked three times Olem’s size. Sabon was the only one Olem had seen speak to the field marshal like that and get away with it.

“Jakola,” Olem said. “That name sounds familiar.”

Bo gave a slight shake of the head. “I know him as Gavril.”

Olem took the cigarette from Bo’s lips and tapped the ashes off. He put it back in Bo’s mouth. “Jakola,” Olem said. “Jakola, Jakola. Hmm. Wait. Jakola of Pensbrook!” He felt his eyes widen. “That’s him?”

“Don’t ask me,” Bo said.

Olem settled back on his stool and smoked his cigarette, trying to remember the rumors passed down through the troops. They said Jakola was one of Tamas’s closest friends. Some said it was his dead wife’s brother. Olem wondered if there was truth to that. Jakola hadn’t been heard from for longer than Olem had been in the army.

Tamas limped over and squatted next to Bo’s cot. He had refused to let Mihali heal him until he had Taniel to safety. His leg was bad, getting worse, but his stubbornness remained.

“I have some questions for you,” Tamas said.

Olem removed the cigarette from Bo’s mouth so he could answer.

“What happened up there?” Tamas said.

Bo stared glumly at the field marshal. He did not look like he’d speak any time soon.

“I’m not going to execute you,” Tamas said. “Not yet, anyway. This stuff” – he gestured to the ropes – “is a precaution. I suspect the gaes still holds you?”

Bo nodded.

“Then you and Taniel were not able to find a way to destroy it?”

“We’ve spent the last few months trying to throw back the Kez,” Bo said. His voice was rough. “We haven’t had time.”

“When will the gaes kill you?” Tamas said.

“I don’t know.”

Tamas considered this. “For now, you remain as thus. We’ll try to make you comfortable. I know your compulsion to kill me is not your fault.”

Bo didn’t look relieved.

“What happened up there?” Tamas asked again. “Did Taniel really shoot Kresimir?”

“Yes,” Bo said.

“Did you see it happen?”

“I felt it happen,” Bo said. “Every Privileged in the Nine felt it happen. It tore through my soul. Did you feel it?”

Tamas shook his head. “Olem, did you feel anything?”

“No, sir,” Olem said. He puffed on Bo’s cigarette to keep it lit. “Though I might have. Been having indigestion since eating road rations. I miss Mihali’s cooking.”

“You’d have felt it,” Bo said.

Tamas leaned back, wincing in pain. “So Kresimir is dead,” he said. He held on to the edge of the stretcher to stay steady.

Olem frowned. “Where’s your crutch, sir?”

Bo began to chuckle. It was a low sound, quiet and unnerving. It slowly grew louder.

“What’s so funny?” Olem asked.

Bo shook his head. “Nothing’s funny,” he said. “You don’t understand, Tamas. You can’t kill a god.”

Tamas sat beside the body of his son. Taniel clung to life. The doctors said he was in a coma. No telling when, or if, he’d ever come out.

Tamas should have insisted that Mihali come. He swallowed a lump in his throat and hoped Taniel would survive the trip back to Adopest. Surely a god could heal him. Once that was taken care of, he’d let Mihali tend to his leg.

“You’ve done well,” Tamas said, laying a hand on Taniel’s forehead. It was hot to the touch. “Now, don’t die on me. I can’t lose you. I lost your mother. I will not lose you as well.”

The tent flap was pushed back. A large shadow was cast by the fiery mountain outside.

“Your boy is a pit of a fighter.”

Tamas regarded his brother-in-law as the big man swept in and took the only other seat in the room. “Do I call you Jakola or Gavril these days?” Tamas asked. He passed a hand over his face, hoping the man did not see the tears he wiped away.

“Gavril will do,” the Watchmaster said.

Gavril. The name he’d taken to hide from Ipille’s hunters after his and Tamas’s attempt to assassinate the Kez king. That had been a long time ago. A lifetime ago, it seemed. And Gavril had been a drunk since. He seemed sober enough now.

“When we left South Pike, we could see the Kez army heading west,” Gavril said. “Toward the Gates of Wasal.”

“They mean to attack,” Tamas said. “In force. No respite.”

“They have a god on their side now, if what Bo says is true and Kresimir is alive.”

“So do we.”

“What?”

“Adom. Kresimir’s brother,” Tamas said. “Adom is not a violent god. He is not Kresimir. The odds are in favor of the Kez when it comes to war.”

Gavril kicked his legs out, leaned back, and then hurriedly adjusted himself when the chair beneath him began to creak. “A god,” he breathed. “Two gods! And ancient sorcerers. This is not the world we know, Tamas.”

“I can think of nothing beyond this.” Tamas gestured to his son.

Gavril gave him a moment of silence before speaking. “I spent fifteen years grieving my sister’s death,” he said. “If the worst happens, do not make my mistake. I beg of you. And do not grieve him before he has passed.”

Tamas nodded. What else could he say?

“I heard about Sabon,” Gavril said. “I’m sorry.”

“There were traitors among my men,” Tamas said.

Gavril scowled.

“The investigator I trusted to root out the traitor in my council.” Tamas took a deep breath. “He succeeded, but turned out to be a traitor himself, his family held hostage. It got Sabon killed.”

“What will you do with him?”

“Make him answer for his crimes.”

“Don’t let hate consume you,” Gavril warned.

“Not hate,” Tamas said. “Justice.”

Gavril said, “Justice would have seen Kresimir burn all of Adro.”

Tamas pulled himself up and crossed to his traveling case, every step a world of pain. He opened the top and drew out one of the matching Hrusch pistols Taniel had brought him.

“My son lies at death’s door,” Tamas said. He returned to his seat, laying the pistol across his lap. “My wife is long dead, and many of my friends have joined her.” He checked the barrel and drew back the hammer, then aimed the weapon at the tent wall. “I have nothing left to inspire compassion in me. I will meet Ipille’s forces at the Gates of Wasal. I will shove them back. I will route them into Kez and burn my way to Ipille’s door.” Tamas pulled the trigger, heard the hammer click. “I will confront Kresimir and I will teach him about justice.”