Luthien was up, quick as a cat, but Garth had not the strength to follow. Luthien planted a foot on the fallen man"s chest, and his sword tip came to rest on the bridge of Garth Rogar"s nose, right between his unfocused eyes.
The screams of Elenia and Avonese were surprisingly similar, but the expressions that each wore after the initial outburst certainly were not.
Gahris was truly pleased by the appreciation, even admiration, stamped upon Aubrey"s face, but the eorl"s smile disappeared as Avonese again leaned heavily across his lap, looking at the pouting Elenia with sparkling, wicked eyes.
"Pray offer the down-pointing thumb, Eorl Bedwyr," Avonese purred.
Gahris nearly choked. A down-pointing thumb meant that the loser should be killed. That was not the way on the islands: the fights were for sport and training alone!
Elenia cried out in outrage, which only spurred on the evil Avonese.
"Thumb down," she said again, evenly, looking to protesting Elenia all the while. It wasn"t hard for Avonese to figure out what Elenia had in mind for the barbarian, and stealing her younger rival"s pleasure felt wonderful indeed. "Your son was my champion, he wears my offered pennant, and thus, I am granted the decision of victory."
"But..." was all that stammering Gahris managed to get out before Aubrey reached across and put a hand on the eorl"s shoulder.
"It is her right, by ancient tradition," the viscount insisted, not daring to displease his vicious companion.
"Garth Rogar fought valiantly," Gahris protested.
"Thumb down," Avonese said slowly, emphasizing each word as she shifted her gaze to look right into Gahris"s cinnamon-colored eyes.
Gahris looked past her to see the viscount nodding. He tried to weigh the consequences of his actions at that moment. Avonese"s claim was true enough-by the ancient rules, since Luthien had unwittingly agreed to be her champion, she had the right to decide the fate of the defeated man.
If he refused now, Gahris could expect serious trouble from Montfort, perhaps even an invading fleet that would take his eorldom from him. Ever was Morkney looking for reasons to replace the often troublesome island eorls.
Gahris gently pushed Avonese aside and looked out to the arena, where Luthien was still poised above the fallen Garth Rogar, waiting for the signal to break and the applause both he and the barbarian so richly deserved. Great was Luthien"s astonishment when he saw his father extend his hand, thumb pointing down.
Luthien stood confused for a long while, hardly hearing Avonese"s calls for him to finish the task. He looked down at his friend; he could not comprehend the notion of killing the man.
"Eorl Gahris," prompted an increasingly impatient Aubrey.
Gahris called to the arena marshal, but the man seemed as transfixed as Luthien.
"Do it!" vicious Avonese snapped. "Aubrey?"
The viscount snapped his fingers at one of his cyclopian guardsman behind him, the one with the curious crossbow.
Luthien had stepped back by this point and extended his hand to his friend. Garth Rogar had reached up and taken that grasp, starting to rise, when there came the click of a firing crossbow. The barbarian jerked suddenly, clamping tightly on Luthien"s hand.
Luthien did not at first understand what had just transpired. Then Garth Rogar"s grip loosened, and time seemed to move in slow motion as the proud barbarian slowly slipped back to the dirt.
Chapter 3.
FAREWELL, MY BROTHER.
Luthien started at Garth Rogar in shocked silence, stared at the surprised expression on the flaxen-haired barbarian"s rugged and bruised face. Surprised even in death or, perhaps, because of his death.
"Fly, Death!" Luthien wailed, throwing his sword aside and diving down to kneel beside the man. "Be gone from this place, for here you do not belong! Seek an aged man, or an infant with not the strength to survive in this cruel world, but take not this man, this boy, younger than I." Luthien grabbed up Garth Rogar"s hand in his own and propped the barbarian"s head with his other arm. He could feel the heat leaving Rogar"s body, the sweat the barbarian had worked up in the fight becoming clammy. Luthien tried to stammer more protests, but found his tongue caught in his mouth. What might he say to Death, that most callous of spirits which does not care to hear? What use were words when the heat was fast leaving Garth Rogar"s young and strong body?
Luthien looked back helplessly to the box, his expression a mixture of confusion and boiling rage. But Aubrey"s party, Gahris included, was already gone from sight; further up the stands, Ethan, too, had fled the scene. Luthien"s gaze darted all about. Many of the spectators had departed, but some remained, whispering and pointing incredulously to the man lying in the dirt, and the son of Bedwyr leaning over him.
Luthien turned back to Garth Rogar. He saw the back tip of the crossbow quarrel protruding from the man"s side, between two ribs, and reached for it tentatively, as if he thought that pulling it free would give Garth Rogar back his breath. Luthien tried to touch the metal shaft, but found that his fingers would not close about it.
A cry made him lift his gaze to see the other warriors fast exiting the tunnel, led by Katerin. She skidded to her knees before the man, and after just an instant, reached up and gently closed his eyes. Her somber gaze met Luthien"s and she slowly shook her head.
Up jumped Luthien, roaring, the cry torn from his heart. He looked around wildly, hands clenched at his side, then found a focus to his rage. He tore Avonese"s kerchief from his hip and flung it to the ground, then stamped it into the dirt.
"On the death of Garth Rogar, friend and fellow," he began, "I, Luthien Bedwyr, do vow-"
"Enough," interrupted Katerin, rising beside him and taking his arm in hers. He looked at her incredulously, hardly believing that she would interrupt at so solemn a moment. When he stared into her face, though, he saw no apology for her unexpected action, only a pleading look.
"Enough, Luthien," she said softly, in full control. "Garth Rogar died as a warrior by the most ancient and hallowed rules of the arena of our people. Do not dishonor him."
Horrified, Luthien pulled away from Katerin. He stared at his fellows, at the fighters who had trained beside him for these last years, but found no support. He felt as though he was standing in a group of strangers.
And then Luthien ran, across the field and into the tunnel, out into the open area near to the harbor and north along the beach.
"It was unfortunate," Gahris began, trying to downplay the events.
"It was murder," Ethan corrected, and his father looked about nervously, as if he expected one of Aubrey"s cyclopian guards to be lurking in the area.
"Strong words," Gahris whispered.
"Often strong is the ring of truth," Ethan said sternly and loudly, not backing off an inch.
"I"ll have no more of it," Gahris demanded. Still he looked about, drawing a disdainful glare from his judgmental son. "No more, do you hear!"
Ethan snorted derisively and stared down at this man, this stranger who could be so cowed. He understood Gahris"s tentative position quite well, understood the politics of the land. If Gahris took any action against Aubrey, or any of Aubrey"s party, then the duke of Montfort would surely retaliate, probably with a fleet of warships. Ethan didn"t care, though, and didn"t sympathize. To the proud young Bedwyr, some things were worth fighting for, worth dying for.
"And what of the Lady Avonese?" Ethan asked, putting a sarcastic tone on his use of the word "lady."
Gahris sighed, seeming very small to his son at that moment, "Aubrey hints at leaving her behind," he admitted. "He thinks that her influence might be a positive thing for Bedwydrin."
"A new wife for Gahris," Ethan spat out sarcastically. "A spy for Morkney in the house of Bedwyr." His father did not reply.
"And what of this woman who would so readily change consorts?" Ethan asked loudly and venomously. "Am I, then, to call her mother?"
A spark of fury ignited within Gahris, and before he could control the emotion, his hand snapped out and slapped the impertinent Ethan across the face.
Ethan didn"t retaliate other than to fix a glare on his father, his striking eyes narrowed.
Gahris had not wanted things to go this far, but there was a danger brewing here, for him and for all the folk of Bedwydrin. In the flash of a pa.s.sing instant, the white-haired eorl remembered his wife, who died in the great plague, and remembered the free time before that, before Greensparrow. But those times were gone, and the thoughts, like the instant, were pa.s.sing, stolen by an unrelenting stare that amply reflected what the pragmatic elder Bedwyr knew he had to do.
Luthien looked back from a high bluff toward the north side of the bay as the last lights went out in the town of Dun Varna. He still could not believe the events of this day, could not believe that Garth Rogar, his friend, was dead. For the first time, the sheltered young man tasted the rotten flavor of life under King Greensparrow and, inexperienced in anything beyond the arena, Luthien did not know what to make of it.
Might this be tied to Ethan"s perpetually sour mood? he wondered. Luthien knew that Ethan held little respect for Gahris-something that the younger Bedwyr son, who saw his father as a bold and n.o.ble warrior, could not understand-but he had always attributed that to a flaw in Ethan"s character. To Luthien, Gahris was above reproach, the respected eorl of Bedwydrin, whose people loved him.
Luthien did not know all the ancient rules of the arena, but he did understand that Gahris alone was overseer of the events. Garth Rogar was dead, and his blood was certainly on the hands of Gahris Bedwyr.
But why? Luthien could not understand the reason, the possible gain. He imagined all sorts of wild possibilities-perhaps word had come that the Huegoth barbarians were planning a raid upon Bedwydrin, and it had been learned that Garth Rogar had been acting as a spy. Perhaps Gahris had even uncovered a report that Garth Rogar was planning to a.s.sa.s.sinate him!
Luthien shook his head and discarded the ridiculous thoughts. He had known Garth Rogar for several years. The n.o.ble fighter was no spy and certainly no a.s.sa.s.sin.
Then why?
"Many in the town are worrying about you," came a quiet voice from behind. Luthien didn"t have to turn to know that it belonged to Katerin O"Hale. "Your father among them, I would guess."
Luthien continued his silent stare across, the still waters of the harbor toward the darkening town. He did not move even when Katerin came over to stand beside him and took his arm in her own, as she had done in the arena.
"Will you come back now?"
"Vengeance is not dishonor," Luthien replied with a growl. He deliberately turned his head to stare into Katerin"s face, though he could barely see her in the gloom of the deepening night.
A long moment of silence pa.s.sed before Katerin answered.
"No," she agreed. "But proclaiming vengeance openly, in the middle of the arena, against one who names the duke of Montfort as his friend and relative would be a foolish thing. Would you give the man an excuse to kill you, and replace your father, for a moment of outrage?"
Luthien pulled away from her, his anger now showing that he could not honestly disagree.
"Then I make the vow now," he said, "openly to you alone. On the grave of my dead mother, I"ll repay he who killed Garth Rogar. Whatever the cost, whatever the consequences to me, to my father, to Bedwydrin."
Katerin could hardly believe what she had just heard, but neither could she rightly berate the man for his honorable words. She, too, burned with helpless rage, feeling like a captive for the first time in her life. She had been raised in Hale, on the open Avon Sea. Her life was spent in danger in small fishing craft braving the swells and the fierce whales, living on the very edge of disaster. But Hale was a private place and a self-sufficient one, rarely visited. Whatever the news of Bedwydrin, or of Eriador and Avon beyond that, Hale was oblivious; and so in their ignorance were the proud folk of Hale free.
But now Katerin had seen the politics of the land, and the taste in her mouth was no less bitter than the taste in Luthien"s. She turned the young man toward her fully and moved closer to him, using the warmth of their bodies to ward off the chill winds of the August night.
On the morning winds of the next dawn, the black-sailed ship, proudly flying its pennants of Montfort and Avon, its prow lifting sheets of water high into the crystalline air, charged out of Dun Varna"s harbor.
Katerin had returned to her barracks, but Luthien still watched from the wooded ridge. Long indeed would be his travels if he planned to keep his vow of revenge, he realized as the sails diminished. But he was a young man with a long memory, and up there on that ridge, watching the ship depart, Luthien vowed again that he would not forget Garth Rogar.
He would have liked to remain out of Dun Varna for many more days; he had no desire at all to face his father, for what explanation might the man offer? But Luthien was hungry and cold, and the nearest town, where he certainly would be recognized, was fully a day"s march away.
He had barely walked through the doors of House Bedwyr when two cyclopians came upon him. "Your father would see you," one of them announced gruffly.
Luthien kept on walking, and nearly got past the two before they crossed their long halberds in his path. The young man"s hand immediately went to his hip, but he wasn"t wearing any weapons.
"Your father would see you," the cyclopian reiterated, and he reached up with his free hand and grabbed Luthien"s upper arm hard. "He said to bring you, even if we have to drag you."
Luthien roughly pulled away and kept his unrelenting stare on the brute. He thought of punching the cyclopian in the face, or of just pushing through the two, but the image of him being dragged into his father"s chambers by the ankles was not a pleasant one.
He was standing before Gahris soon after, in the study where Gahris kept the few books his family owned (some of the very few books on all the isle of Bedwydrin) along with his other heirlooms. The elder Bedwyr stood hunched at the hearth, feeding the already roaring fire as if a deep chill had settled into his bones, though it was not so cold this day. Mounted on the wall above him was his most-prized piece, the family sword, its perfect edge gleaming and its golden hilt lined with jewels and sculpted to resemble a dragon rampant with upraised wings serving as the formidable cross-piece. It had been cunningly forged by the dwarves of the Iron Cross in ages past, its blade of beaten metal wrapped tight about itself a thousand times so that the blade only sharpened with use. Blind-Striker, it was called, both for its balanced cut and the fact that it had taken the eye of many cyclopians in the fierce war six hundred years before.
"Where have you been?" Gahris asked calmly, quietly. He wiped his sooty hands and stood up straight, though he did not yet turn to face his son.
"I needed to be away," Luthien replied, trying to match his father"s calm.
"To let your anger settle?"
Luthien sighed but did not bother to answer.
Gahris turned toward him. "That was wise, my son," he said. "Anger brews rash actions-oft with the most dire of consequences."
He seemed so calm and so logical, which bothered Luthien deeply. His friend was dead! "How could you?" he blurted, unconsciously taking a long stride forward, hands bunched into fists. "To kill . . . what were you ..." His words fell away in a jumble, his emotions too heated to be expressed.
Through it all, the white-haired Gahris cooed softly like a dove and waved his hand in the empty air. "What would you have me do?" he asked, as though that should explain everything.
Luthien opened his hands helplessly. "Garth Rogar did not deserve his fate!" Luthien cried. "A curse on Viscount Aubrey and on his wicked companions!"
"Calm, my son," Gahris was saying, over and over. "Ours is a world that is not always fair and just, but-"
"There is no excuse," Luthien replied through gritted teeth.
"Not even war?" Gahris asked bluntly.
Luthien"s breath came in short, angry gasps.
"Think not of bloodied fields," Gahris offered, "nor of spear tips shining with the blood of fallen enemies, nor turf torn under the charge of horses. Those are horrors that have not yet been reflected in your clear eyes, and may they never be! They steal the sparkle, you see," Gahris explained, and he pointed to his own cinnamon orbs. Indeed, those eyes did seem without l.u.s.ter this August morning.
"And were the eyes of Bruce MacDonald so tainted?" Luthien asked somewhat sarcastically, referring to Eriador"s greatest hero.
"Filled with valor are the tales of war," Gahris replied somberly, "but only when the horrors of war have faded from memory. Who can say what scars Bruce MacDonald wore in his heavy soul? Who alive has looked into the eyes of that man?"
Luthien thought the words absurd; Bruce MacDonald had been dead for three centuries. But then he realized that to be his father"s very point. The elder Bedwyr went on in all seriousness.
"I have heard the horses charge, have seen my own sword-" he glanced back at the fabulous weapon on the wall "-wet with blood. I have heard the stories-other"s stories-of those heroic battles in which I partook, and I can tell you, in all honesty and with arrogance aside, that they were more horror than valor, more regret than victory. Am I to bring such misery to Bedwydrin?"
Luthien"s sigh this time was more of resignation than defiance.
"Breathe out your pride with that sigh," Gahris advised. "It is the most deadly and most dangerous of emotions. Mourn your friend, but accept that which must be. Do not follow Ethan-" He broke off suddenly, apparently rethinking that last thought, but his mention of Luthien"s older brother, a hero to the youngest Bedwyr, piqued Luthien"s attention.
"What of Ethan?" he demanded. "What part does he play in all of this? What has he done in my absence?"
Again Gahris was cooing softly and patting the air, trying to calm his son. "Ethan is fine," he a.s.sured Luthien. "I speak only of his temperament, his foolish pride, and my own hopes that you will temper your anger with good sense. You did well in walking out of House Bedwyr, and for that you have my respect. We are given a long rein from the duke of Montfort, and longer still from the throne in Carlisle, and it would be good to keep it that way."
"What did Ethan do?" Luthien pressed, not convinced.
"He did nothing, other than protest-loudly!" Gahris snapped back.
"And that disappoints you?"
Gahris snorted and spun back to face the fire. "He is my eldest son," he replied, "in line to be the eorl of Bedwydrin. But what might that mean for the folk?"
It seemed to Luthien that Gahris was no longer talking to him; he was, rather, talking to himself, as if trying to justify something.