The Assassin King

17

Melisande had been traveling for the better part of a day when she began to suspect she was going in circles. She had been traveling for the better part of two when she began to suspect she was being followed. Melisande heard the trickling of water in the distance and urged the horse forward, knowing it was thirsty. Under a tree was a spring-fed pond, partially frozen, that she thought they had paused at the day before; she swallowed her despair and dismounted, leading the horse to the water, then refilled her waterskin while it drank. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw movement, a little more than a stone’s throw away to the north, though when she looked more carefully she beheld nothing but the snowy forest, the evergreens with branches bowed heavy with icy burdens, the bramble and undergrowth frosted with recent snow. Melisande stood erect. She stared harder into the greenwood, but still saw nothing. Still, she drew her knife from the boot sheath and held it out threateningly. “Show yourself,” she demanded of the trees and hillocks. Nothing but the wind answered her. She waited for a long moment, then, feeling foolish, she took a drink from the pond. Fighting the pangs of hunger and desperation, she turned to mount and be on her way again. Standing behind her in a thicket of saplings was a man, a farmer or huntsman by the look of him. He was human, middle-aged and bearded, his expression somber, his face and clothing unremarkable. He wore a brown broadcloth cloak of modest quality and deerskin boots; had he not stepped slightly out of the thicket, she would never have seen him, so plain and colorless were his garments. A long tapering basket of woven reeds and a quiver of arrows were strapped to his back, and he carried a bow, but no other weapon was visible. He said nothing, but watched her with dark eyes that seemed keen and a touch intimidating. Melisande drew her dagger again quickly. “Stay back,” she said, in a voice she had hoped would sound threatening. The stranger did not move. Melisande took hold of the bridle. “Remain still,” she said. The man complied, saying nothing. The girl turned and prepared to mount, then looked at the knife in her grip. She shifted it to the right hand, then reconsidered; should the man attack her, she would be at a disadvantage, as her left hand was dominant. The stranger just watched her as she cogitated. Finally, she stuck the knife between her teeth like a pirate and climbed into the saddle. The man just continued to watch her. Melisande took the knife from her mouth and pulled back on the reins. As she prepared to depart, the stranger finally spoke. His voice was gravelly, as if from disuse.

“Are you injured?”

I certainly wouldn’t tell you if I were, Melisande thought “No,” she said, “but you will be if you try to interfere with me.”

The man shrugged. “You are lost.”

“I am also the Lady Melisande Navarne, and there are by now any number of armed soldiers looking for me” Melisande said, struggling to maintain a brave front. “So be on your way, and I will be on mine.” The man folded his hands. “And where are you going, Lady Melisande Navarne? I can offer directions. Unless you prefer to continue wandering aimlessly in the forest in winter.” The man swallowed, as if so many words at one time had been uncomfortable to produce. Melisande inhaled. She wanted to be able to trust him, but having just experienced the kindness of strangers in the woods, she was afraid to let him get too close to her. “I am on my way to the Circle, to see Gavin the Invoker,” she said at last. The man’s eyebrows drew together. “You are going the wrong way. The Circle is west; you’ve been heading south.” Melisande sighed miserably. “I could take you there,” the man said. The horse danced in place. Melisande shifted on its back, her leg muscles sore and cramping. “Why should I trust you?” she asked, secretly hoping he would provide her a reason to do so. The man turned to go. “Come if you wish. Remain if you wish. If you’re right, your soldiers will find you eventually.” He began walking away through the underbrush. “Have—have you ever been mere?” she called after him. “Where?”

“The Circle? Have you gone there before?” The stranger stopped and considered. “On occasion. Though not often.” Then he turned away again and disappeared between two stands of trees. Melisande hesitated, then, seeing no alternative, urged the horse forward, keeping her distance from the brown figure that blended disturbingly into the woods around them.

Afer several hours, Melisande began to wonder if the stranger was trying to lose her even more deeply in the forest.

In spite of being on foot while she was riding, the man moved through the greenwood at a much greater speed than she could. Her stomach growled and cramped; she had had nothing to eat since supper the night before she left, and was weak with hunger. When the man finally stopped for the night, she worked up her courage and addressed him as politely as she could. “Have you any—food you could spare?” The stranger turned around and regarded her sharply. Then after a moment he took the reed basket off of his back, fished around inside it, and took out a packet wrapped in cloth. He tore back the wrapping to reveal a small husk of hard-baked black bread, then came forward and offered it to her. Melisande drew her knife quickly. “You eat some first,” she said, brandishing the blade. The man nodded. He took the husk and bit the end off it, chewing and swallowing. He took another bite, and a third, finally popping the last of the husk into his mouth. Then he turned around and headed back off into the forest, leaving the crestfallen girl behind him. Melisande exhaled sadly, then kicked the horse and followed him. Well, that was stupid, she chided herself. Perhaps he has the right idea—I’ll just remain quiet from now on. They continued walking in silence, with no sound except for the winter wind and the noise of the horse’s hooves. As they traveled, Melisande noticed that the forest was changing. At first it seemed brighter, or that there was more snow on the branches and boughs of the trees, but eventually she realized that more of the trees themselves were of white or pale bark— alders, birches, silver maples. She knew from her studies that the prefix gwyn meant white, but until she had seen the place she didn’t realize why it had been so named.

There were also many places where the ground beneath the blanket of snow was black and scorched, where trees showed signs of fire damage. In these places new saplings and scrub were shooting up; the baby trees stood straight against the winter wind, making a place for themselves where disaster had taken their forebears. Melisande felt a kinship with them, the same had been true of her and Gwydion.

Finally, after the sun had begun to set, they came to a large cleared place in the deep forest that appeared to be a woodland village. Throughout the area were many cottages and huts, some of stone and others of earth with turf roofs, or the wattle and dab walls. In addition there were several very large buildings made of wood, with heavy doors and conical thatched roofs. Smoke rose placidly from the hearths of the buildings.

Above the doors of the huts and cottages were brightly col- J ored hex signs of painted or inlaid wood or enamel in complex and beautiful patterns. Most of the dwellings had gardens or kraals in the side or backyards that had been put to bed for the winter, but doubtless would be uncovered in spring as a source of food for the residents of the houses, which had been whitewashed or faced with stone as ornamentation.

The man had chosen to avoid the main pathways that led through the forest village, but Melisande could see, in spite of the cold, people milling about in robes of wool, some dyed with indigo or goldenrod or engilder leaves to bring forth hues of blue or yellow or green. Others had been soaked in butternut shells or heather, producing tones more earthy, shades of dismal brown and somber gray. These men and women were carrying baskets and tools, and by the descriptions she had heard from her father and Rhapsody, she assumed that they were some of the Filids, the nature priests who worshipped in what they considered a sacred forest and tended to the Great White Tree, the last of the places where Time itself was said to have begun. In addition to the robed clergy were armed men, carrying bows, spears, axes and other weaponry of foresters and scouts, and attired in leather armor. Melisande recognized the clothing of the stranger as being similar to these foresters, and realized that he was probably one like them, or one of them, it made her relax a little; if he served Gavin, or knew him, he was unlikely to do her harm. Just before the sun disappeared below the horizon, they came to a vast meadow in the forest. Towering there, its trunk whiter than the snow, with great ivory branches that spread like immense fingers to the twilight sky, was the Great White Tree. Its pale bark glimmered in the last rays of the setting sun, its sheer size made Melisande pull her mount to a stop and stare at it. It was more than fifty feet across at the base, and the first of its giant limbs was easily more than one hun-dred feet from the ground, leading up to more branches that formed an expansive canopy that reached out over the other trees of the forest, as if sheltering them from the sky. Around its base, set back a hundred yards from where its great roots pierced the earth, had been planted a ring of trees, each one of a different species. Farther back, low stone walls lined winter gardens that were decorated with ribbons and sprays of greenery, undoubtedly in celebration of the coming spring. Melisande sat atop her horse, staring at the overwhelming beauty that had been described to her, but not sufficiently for her to understand until now. How long she remained there, lost in thought, she was not certain; it was almost as if she had fallen asleep sitting up from the exhaustion and the ordeal, and the beauty of what she was witnessing. A voice below her shook her from her reverie. “Child? Can I help you?” Melisande looked down. The man was gone. A woman was standing next to the horse, clad in an indigo-colored robe with a cowl at the neck. She was slender and dark of hair, with slight streaks of silver running through it, and her face and body had many of the same racial features that Rhapsody’s had. She must be Lirin, Melisande noted; she had seen Lirin before, but rarely, and each time she encountered them she thought of her father, who had had a fondness for the race. “Ehm, yes,” she said, struggling to blink away her exhaustion. “I am here to see Gavin the Invoker.” The woman’s eyes widened, and she smiled. “Really? And who are you, child?” Remembering how pompous and silly she had sounded when she first met the man, and how unimpressed he had been, she tried to keep her voice and words more humble. “My name is Melisande,” she said. “Well, Melisande, you appear to be very tired. Here, come down and I will see to your needs. My name is Elara.” The Lady Navarne shook her head. “No, thank you. I really-must see Gavin—I’ve come a very long way to see him, and he’s expecting me.” The woman exhaled. “I don’t even know if he’s here,” she said, looking uncomfortable. “I believe he is gone, actually. But I will send word that you’ve arrived. Do come down; you look like you are ready to fall from the horse.” Gratefully Melisande dismounted; she stumbled upon touching the ground, faint from hunger, her legs weak. The nature priest pet an arm around her and led her to a large building with a conical roof near the outside edge of the winter gardens, from which men and women robed in the colors of the earth were entering and exiting. Elara held open the oddly carved door on which the hex sign displayed above it had been painstakingly rendered in wood and gestured for the child to go in before her. Melisande complied, her head pounding. Inside the wooden building, warmed by a huge hearth on which a fire was roaring, were many long, low tables with short-legged chairs, around which nature priests were sitting, eating, and talking. The room resolved into silence as Elara led her to such a table and bade her sit; then the conversations resumed quietly. “Wait here, and I will get you something to eat,” the priest said. “Please, I must see Gavin,” she blurted, panic rising within her. “Please. You don’t understand; I have to see him.” Elara squeezed her shoulder. “Eat something first,” she said. “I will send word to his house; if he is here, and wants to see you, he will send for you.”

“Thank you,” Melisande said, struggling to keep from crying. She set her teeth and nodded her thanks as the priest brought her a cup of warm spiced cider and a plate of dense dark bread and hard cheese, then spoke softly to a man in a brown robe without a cowl, who stared at her for a moment, then left the building. Elara motioned her to sit again. “How did you come to be here?”

“A man found me in the forest,” the little girl said between sips of the warm cider. “He didn’t say much, but when I told him I needed to see Gavin, he knew where the tree was and brought me here.”

“Probably one of the escort foresters,” Elara said. “They do tend to be rather taciturn and quiet; it’s their job to walk the forest and give aid as needed. So why do you need to see Gavin, Melisande?” A sensation began in the girl’s abdomen not unlike the feeling she occasionally got when ill, before her stomach rushed into her mouth. She tried to keep the tears back, but they cascaded past her defenses and began pouring from her eyes. “We were attacked. The coachmen are dead, the soldiers too, maybe,” the little girl said, hiccoughing. “And maybe—Ger— Gerald. I was sent—to see—Gavin—and—”

The nature priest’s face took on a look of alarm. She put her arm around Melisande again. “Sent by whom, Melisande? Who would send a child to the Invoker of the Filids? Do you understand what it is you are asking? Gavin is the leader of an entire faith of more than three million adherents. It would be like presenting yourself at the basilica in Sepulvarta and asking to see the Patriarch, or going up to the palace and demanding to speak with the Lord and Lady Cymrian.” The little girl put her head down on her arms. “Well, the Lord and Lady Cymrian sent me to him in the first place,” she said miserably. “So I didn’t think it would be this difficult.”

“The—what?” Elara lapsed into speechlessness. She pushed the cider and bread closer, and watched in silence as Melisande ate and drank. The carved door to the building opened again, and the man in the brown robe returned, his eyes wide. He nodded to Elara. The Filidic priest looked down at the little girl and smiled. “Well, your request is about to be fulfilled. Come; I’ll take you to Gavin.”