The Shadowdance Trilogy Read online

  Haern slammed a fist against the pantry door. The motion knocked one of the leaves free from his sleeve, and Delysia watched it fall to the floor.

  “It doesn’t matter. The man I killed was sent to finish the job. With him dead, Thren will send another, and another, until the job is finished. He doesn’t leave things undone. Delysia needs to get out, as fast and secretly as possible.”

  “I think he’s right, Gran,” said Delysia.

  “Of course you do,” Gran said dismissively. “You’re a young girl ready to believe any story a boy tells you. How do we know Thren had anything to do with your father’s death?”

  “You know damn well the Spider Guild is responsible,” Haern said.

  “You watch your tongue with me, boy, or I’ll wash it out with lye!” snapped Gran.

  To both their surprise, Haern shifted from foot to foot and lowered his head.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Well, at least you have some manners,” said Gran. “Though I’m worried that you’re right. That horrible murder in the street was bad enough; having a thief break in is just as bad. I may be old, but I’ve kept enough wits to know that wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “Where can we go?” asked Delysia. She looked close to tears. Given how horrible her day had been, Gran couldn’t blame her.

  “There’s no we in this, child,” the old woman said. “As much as it pains me to say it, we have to put you where not even the sneakiest of thieves can get you. Your father was well respected by the priests of Ashhur. I’m sure if I asked, they would accept you into their care. Once inside their white walls, you’ll be dead to the world for as long as you’re there.”

  Delysia sniffed.

  “But what about Tarlak? Will I ever see him again?”

  Gran pulled her close and kissed her cheek. “I’m sure you will. He’s off safe with that wizard teacher of his. Now we need to make sure you stay safe, otherwise he might find me and turn me into a mudskipper for letting something happen to his dear little sister.”

  “I don’t want to leave you,” she said. Gran gently shook her head.

  “I don’t want to leave you either, but I’ve already lost my son. I couldn’t bear to see Dezrel lose you as well. I’m old, and you’ve got no mother to watch after you. The priests and priestesses will give you a good home. I promise.”

  Delysia returned the kiss, then turned. There was no one there, just a half-closed pantry door. Haern was gone.

  “An odd boy,” Gran said. “I hope he keeps his mouth shut about where you’re going.”

  “I trust him,” Delysia insisted.

  “Trust him? Hah.” Gran laughed until she coughed. “You probably love him, too. Dashing, mysterious boy in a mask. Every damsel wants one of them to come sneaking in through their bedchamber window.”

  Delysia bunched her face and poked her Gran in the side. When Gran poked back, they both broke into laughs.

  “It’s good to see you smile,” Gran said. “I’ll have that one last laugh to keep with me for the end of my days. Now go pack up your things. Not much, now, just what you can carry. I dare not wait a minute longer before bringing you to the temple.”

  Gran watched her hurry back into their bedroom. Gran’s face became a sorrowful mask, her lip quivering and her eyes wet. When Delysia returned, her arms full of dresses, Gran smiled away her tears, hid them with a laugh, and then led her granddaughter out the door and away.

  By the next afternoon, by orders of the king’s advisor, Neldaren soldiers had ransacked half the merchants in the city and carried over a hundred back to overcrowded prison cells. Some had other family members or well-paid guards to protect their merchandise; most didn’t. By the time the first major wave of mercenaries arrived the day after, foodstuffs were already dangerously low. The merchants that did pay their way out of prison doubled and tripled the costs of their goods.

  Mercenaries expecting easy pay found themselves turned away. Some traveled back toward Ker and Omn, but many took to thievery and murder, preferring that to starvation. The thief guilds absorbed the willing into their organizations. Those that resisted, died.

  By that night, the poor western district of Veldaren was primed for a riot.

  It was three days until the Kensgold.

  Pelarak was furious. For two days, he had waited for Eliora and her faceless to return with Alyssa, and for two days, he had not heard a word. He hurried through his morning sermon. He never lost his place or misquoted a scripture, but his mind was elsewhere and his faithful knew it. Anger crept into his words, and his call for penance and destruction of chaos was particularly moving. Afterward he knelt before the great statue of Karak, letting the purple light bathe over him.

  “Something troubles you,” said a man as he joined him on his knees.

  “The world is a troublesome place,” said Pelarak. He opened his eyes, and then smiled when he realized who was with him.

  “Ethric, so good to see you!” Pelarak stood and hugged the man. “I am so glad you came so quickly from the Stronghold!”

  Ethric smiled. He was a tall man, and the only reason Pelarak could throw his arms around him was because Ethric had remained on his knees. He still wore his dark black platemail, having arrived so recently he had no time to remove his armor. A two-handed blade hung from a sheath on his back. He was completely shaven. Across his bald head were a myriad of tattoos dyed in a dark purple ink. They looped and curled in an ill pattern.

  “Your priests make their way to Omn less and less,” said Ethric. His voice was rich and pleasant to the ear. “Carden hurried me off to see how things were going. The troubles between the Trifect and the guilds have lasted so long we’ve heard of it all the way across the rivers.”

  “Come,” Pelarak said. “Are you hungry? Join me in a meal.”

  Deep in the recesses of the temple was a rectangular room bare of decorations. A long table stretched along the center with wooden stools for seats. A mere look from Pelarak sent the staff running, comprised of young priests still in training in their devotion to Karak.

  “It is hard remembering you were such as these boys,” Pelarak said. “I’ve seen so many grow up and take their armor or their robes. Many aspire to greatness, but so few reach it.”

  “I wonder which I will be,” said Ethric as he sat opposite him at the table.

  “A dark paladin every pup of Ashhur learns to fear, if Karak is kind,” Pelarak said.

  Children surrounded them, carrying bowls, spoons, and a large pot of soup. Once they were served, both bowed their heads and prayed silently for near a minute. Ethric dug in afterward with a healthy appetite, while Pelarak only sipped at it occasionally.

  “I must confess, I come here with reasons beyond your warm words and food,” Ethric said when his bowl was half finished. “Though Karak knows I needed both. Haven’t had a solid meal since the Stronghold, and that feels like a thousand miles away after so many months of travel.”

  “Did you encounter any trouble on the road?”

  “A foolish pup thought he could slay me to earn admittance to the Citadel.” Ethric chuckled. “I’d hardly call that trouble, though. More of a nuisance. I was almost to Kinamn, where the pathway winds through all those rocky hills. Imbecile was hiding among the rocks shooting arrows whenever he thought I wasn’t looking. I’m sure he planned a more heroic tale when he brought my head to the Citadel doors.”

  “At least he had more fight in him than Ashhur’s paladins have as of late,” Pelarak said, dropping his spoon. “Though I fear we have too much of that fight in our own ranks here in Veldaren.”

  “Which is why I am here,” insisted Ethric. “You told Carden you were troubled. Tell me what it is so I may scorch it with fire and cut it with blade.”

  “Do you know of the faceless?” asked Pelarak.

  Ethric furrowed his brow as he thought.

  “No,” he said. “I’ve not heard of them.”

  “Come,” Pelarak said as he stood. “Let me sh
ow you.”

  He led him into the deep recesses of the temple, down a flight of stairs, and into a large but cramped storage. Crates piled this way and that, huddled against the walls or the many pillars that supported the ceiling. Pelarak lifted his hand. Purple fire surrounded his fingers, giving them light.

  “About two hundred years ago, the priests of Ashhur succeeded in a massive conversion of our brethren. It was then that our presence in Veldaren weakened, and our kind were banished from the city. We fought them bitterly, as you can imagine, and with heavy hearts. A score of priests repented, sneaking away from Ashhur’s temple and throwing themselves at our temple door in Kinamn.”

  The whole time he talked, Pelarak led them through the maze of old armor, racks of swords, crates of cloth, and jars upon jars of food. He stopped, scratched his chin as he thought, then turned toward a stack of paintings propped against each other. Each of them was rectangular, the length of a man laying on his side.

  “We tested their faith,” Pelarak said as he looked through the paintings. Even though his hand swirled with purple fire, it did not burn the material. “Those that lived were admitted into the priesthood, but not entirely. The high priest at the time was a brilliant man named Theron Gemcroft.”

  “I know of him,” Ethric said, watching the elaborately framed paintings flip forward one after another. He saw mostly portraits of former high priests, though among them were scenes of warfare, battles between angels of Karak and Ashhur, and even serene depictions of nature. “Forfeited his fortune to devote his life to Karak? Carden was particularly fond of his sayings, and used them often in his sermons.”

  “How is that old goat?” Pelarak asked.

  “Hard as nails and brutal as a mailed fist,” Ethric said with a small smile. “What are we looking for here, my priest?”

  “This,” Pelarak said as he lifted up one of the paintings. Ethric grabbed a corner to help. Together they held the picture and stared. It showed seven men and women, their bodies wrapped in black cloth. Only their eyes were visible through cuts in the wrapping. They held daggers, staves, and swords in hands hidden by waves of shadow that rolled off their bodies like smoke from a fire. At their feet lay over twenty dead paladins of Ashhur.

  “Well painted, if a bit dramatic,” Ethric said.

  “They are the faceless,” Pelarak said, his eyes going distant. “Theron knew that to welcome the traitors back without penalty could weaken us. He also knew that their devotion could be of great use, but only if the traitor-priests were forever reminded of their failure. So he wrapped them in cloth and ordered them to never reveal the flesh of their skin until the end of their days. They slept separate from the rest, dined away from the rest, and eventually attended their own sermons.”

  “This is fascinating, Pelarak, but I’d swear you had a point. I’d love to be patient, but it is too damn cold down here, and the warmth of your soup is wearing thin.”

  Pelarak laughed, but his voice lacked any mirth.

  “My point is that we do not actively recruit faceless. They are a punishment, not an honor. We have only three now, women who let their sex control their actions. Their dissatisfaction with the separation was…most deplorable. Their faith in Karak, however, remained strong, so we left them alone.”

  “They’ve done something,” Ethric said, figuring where the story was going. He looked at the seven in the painting, their bodies bathed in blood and darkness. “They’ve gone feral, haven’t they?”

  “Putting our entire temple in danger,” Pelarak said as he clutched the painting with his burning hand. “They have told me lies and half-truths. They seek to increase their number with recruits, as if it were a privilege to be a faceless. Too many times I have given them orders and watched them disregarded entirely.”

  “You want them killed,” Ethric said. It was not a question.

  “I do,” Pelarak said. The fire on his hand changed from purple to red. The painting began to burn. “I want their bodies nailed from the city gates. They have a captive by the name of Alyssa Gemcroft. She is to be under our watch, but instead Eliora and her sisters have kept her hidden. Find the faceless women and kill them. Alyssa must remain alive. All our plans are naught otherwise.”

  Ethric watched as the fire spread across the painting, not at all bothered by the smoke that washed over his face. When the flame reached his bare hand, he flexed his arm. Black fire swarmed over his fingers. The frame broke, crumpling into ash in his fingers. In one giant whoosh, the painting and its frame were consumed. As the ash rained down to the floor, Ethric drew his sword and made his vow.

  “Until my death, I will hunt them,” he whispered. “No child of Karak is greater than his master.”

  17

  Thren hadn’t felt this good in ages. So far two riots had broken out in southern Veldaren. It wouldn’t be long before the poor and hungry made their way north into the rest of the city. If his spies outside the walls were correct, Laurie Keenan and his family would be making their grand return to the city sometime that afternoon. Hunger riots, jobless sellswords, and overeager castle soldiers demanding taxes was one fantastic greeting.

  Laurie would get the message immediately; Thren controlled the city, not him. If everything went according to plan, their Kensgold would send an even stronger message.

  “Sir,” shouted Kayla hurrying after him. He was on his way to his son’s room, wanting the boy to accompany him on a routine collection of protection money from the merchants still active amid the riots. Given the circumstances, he was certain they’d be eager for all the protection they could get.

  “I am no sir,” Thren said as he turned. “I am no knight, and no noble.”

  “Sorry,” Kayla said as she slowed to a quick walk. “I’m not sure what to say that would be seen as respectful.”

  Thren gave her a look of honest confusion.

  “What could be more respectful than my own name?” he asked.

  “Right,” Kayla said. “Anyway, we still have no word from Will.”

  “He’s been gone far too long,” Thren said as he resumed his walk down the hall. “Taking Gerand’s wife shouldn’t have been difficult. I doubt any mercenaries could capture him, not alive anyway. If he’s in hiding, he has a reason, and I’m sure he’ll…”

  He opened the door to his son’s room and took a step inside. Aaron was on his knees, his hands clasped together underneath his chin. His elbows rested on the side of his bed. His eyes were closed, though they snapped open at Thren’s sudden entrance.

  Thren’s jaw dropped. Hanging from a silver chain looped around Aaron’s fingers was a golden pendant of Ashhur.

  Before anyone could react, Thren slammed the door shut, spun, and knocked Kayla out with his fist. As she slumped to the ground, he shouted for his men. The mansion was large, but even so, gray cloaks rushed toward him in seconds.

  “Where’s Senke?” he shouted as the men stared with a mixture of confusion and curiosity at Kayla slumped on the floor.

  “Here,” Senke said, pushing his way to the front of the men.

  “Find Cregon,” Thren said. “I’ll need his spells. And you two,” he said, pointing, “find Robert Haern and bring him to my room. Kayla too. I want them bound tight.”

  Thren reopened the door to Aaron’s room. Aaron sat on the bed. The amulet lay beside him, as if he knew hiding it was a pointless gesture. Thren stepped inside, grabbed the amulet, and then beckoned his son to follow.

  Aaron walked down the halls a step behind his father, feeling his heart race. His stomach roiled as he tried to think of what punishment awaited him. Robert had given him the pendant. Kayla had encouraged him to rebel. There was also the matter of Delysia and Dustin. While he had run off to protect Delysia, Thren had sent for him. So far, he had not demanded an explanation for his absence. Now, it looked like the matter would soon explode in his face.

  “Keep your mouth shut until I ask you a question,” Thren said as they walked.

  If there was anythin
g Aaron was good at, it was keeping silent. He nodded.

  They took a long, looping path toward Thren’s room. Aaron realized his father was buying time, most likely wanting whatever he had prepared ready by the time they entered. The thought was hardly comforting. He felt like throwing up. He’d made a mistake, a stupid one at that. Only twice before had he prayed to Ashhur, and both times he’d felt a combination of silliness and embarrassment. Afterward, he remembered the way Delysia had prayed when he stood unseen before her. Whatever he was doing was not the same, he felt it in his gut.

  So he’d tried again, this time because he’d heard no word either way on whether or not she’d lived. And now he might have endangered her life. If Thren tortured him, he’d talk. He held no delusions about that. Once Thren knew where she was, she would die. Gods damn it all, how could he have messed up so badly?

  “Remember, I do this for your own good,” Thren said when they finally arrived at his room. Two men stood guard before it, bowing respectfully as they passed through.

  Inside the room, Senke had cleared away the chairs of the table. Robert Haern knelt at one end. Kayla knelt on the other, a large bruise spreading across her cheek. Senke stood between them, his hands on the hilts of his swords. Cregon leaned against the bedpost of the extravagant bed, his arms crossed.

  “Stand here,” Thren ordered, pointing beside Senke. When the guildmaster walked over to Cregon and began talking, Senke whispered down to Aaron.

  “What the fuck did you do?” he asked.

  “I prayed,” Aaron whispered back.

  “Shit,” Senke said, then clammed up. Thren was returning with the mage.

  “Stay still,” Cregon said. “All of you. If my concentration breaks, I won’t be able to try again until tomorrow.”

  Aaron entertained shouting out a bizarre stream of cusswords to disrupt the mage, but decided otherwise. Instead, he watched Cregon cast his spell. The man was a poor mage, in both money and abilities, hence his easy recruitment into the Spider Guild. He spent most his days sequestered apart from the rest of the men, reading books and pretending to advance his skills while in reality doing his best to drink the days away.