Snare. Katharine Kerr

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ he told them that he was an enemy of your great chief, and the chief’s assassins had tried to kill him. He kept saying that he wanted to die because he had nothing to live for, but they bound his wounds and told him he’d change his mind later. So then, some of the young men found his horse. It must have fled when its rider fell, you see, and it was wandering around half-starved thanks to those metal bits you people use. Once he had the horse back, this Kazrak suddenly decided he wanted to live after all, because there was a piece of jewellery in his saddlebags that meant the world to him. If he ever said what it was, I never heard.’

      ‘That’s a damned strange story. Was he a travelling merchant, then?’

      ‘Oh no, one of your cavalry officers, which makes it even stranger.’ Apanador paused for a rueful sort of smile. ‘He was still afraid, though, that the great chief’s men would find him and finish their botched job, so when the comnee went east to trade, he found a patron in the Cantons and stayed behind.’

      ‘Well, let’s hope the poor bastard’s happy. He’s a long way from his enemies now.’

      Unless of course one of them was, all unwittingly, coming after him. His superiors would want to know about this Kazrak, Zayn figured: someone who’d angered the Great Khan, someone who should have been killed, but a clumsy paid murderer had let him get away – and then there was that mysterious piece of jewellery.

      ‘Apanador?’ Zayn said. ‘Do you remember when that happened?’

      ‘When Dallador was still a boy.’

      ‘I know, but what year?’

      Apanador blinked at him.

      ‘Sorry,’ Zayn said. ‘How big a boy?’

      ‘Let me think.’ Apanador did just that for a long moment. ‘It would have been right before he gained his rightful name.’

      Dallador laughed. ‘Ask the Spirit Rider,’ he said. ‘She’s the only person I know, anyway, who can reckon years the way you Kazraks do.’

      As soon as Ammadin returned to camp, Zayn jogged out to meet her, catching up to her when she was turning her horse into the herd. She listened patiently while he explained.

      ‘I heard that story at the time,’ Ammadin said. ‘When was it in years, you want to know?’

      ‘Well, if it’s not too much trouble. I’m curious about this fellow.’

      ‘I can’t blame you for that. Carry my saddle back to camp for me.’

      He picked it up, but she took the saddlebags herself. As they strolled back to the tents, she suddenly spoke.

      ‘Ten of your years ago, that’s when.’

      ‘Ah! Thank you. It would have nagged at me, not knowing.’

      ‘Really?’ She stopped walking and turned to consider him.

      ‘Well, yes. I like to get things straight, that’s all. In my mind, I mean.’

      She smiled, shrugged, and resumed walking. As he trailed after, Zayn was considering the date. Ten years ago Gemet Great Khan was purging his bloodlines to remove any disputes about his right to rule. That piece of jewellery might well have been the zalet khanej, the medallion that proved a man had been sanctified as a khan and thus as a rival for the Crescent Throne. Maybe. He knew nothing for certain, but that simple date shone like one of Ammadin’s crystals: hold it up, and it sent light sparkling in all directions.

      When Warkannan and his men had turned east, they had left all of their plausible reasons for being on the road behind. They also traded the public roads for narrow dirt paths, and the constant rise of the land slowed them down as well. As long as they travelled through Kazrajistan proper, they rode at night and by day either camped well off the road or bribed some farmer to let them sleep in his barn. They avoided every town that was more than a village and kept clear of the military posts and courier stations that stood along the Darzet River.

      After some days of this slow riding, they reached Andjaro, a province that had gone from being ChaMeech territory to an independent nation until, a mere hundred years ago, the khanate had decided that an independent nation on its border was a threat. The low hills angled from the north-east towards the south-west, so soft and regular that they reminded Warkannan of the folds a carpet forms when pushed and rumpled by a careless foot. Among these rolling purple downs, Warkannan had allies, and the allies, large landowners all, had private armies. Each night Warkannan and his party stayed in compounds surrounded by thousands of acres of purple grass, dotted with flocks of sheep. At each, Warkannan received coin for the journey, supplies of food and fuel, pack horses when he mentioned needing them, and the assurance that Jezro would have a place to hide when he came home.

      Early on their third day in Andjaro, they crested a down and saw, stretching below them, a valley filled with green, billowing in the wind like clouds. Arkazo reined in his horse and stared, his mouth half-open.

      ‘What is that?’ he stammered. ‘Water?’

      ‘No,’ Warkannan said, grinning. ‘Trees.’

      ‘I’ve never seen so many in one place. All that green! And they grow so close together.’

      ‘How observant of you,’ Soutan drawled. ‘The word for a lot of them in one place is forest. That university of yours seems to have taught you little of value.’

      ‘We studied the works of the Three Prophets,’ Arkazo said. ‘Nothing’s of greater value. Not that an infidel like you would understand why.’

      They had reached the tax forests, stand after stand of true-oak, planted in regular rows and watched over by foresters. As part of their most solemn duty to the Great Khan, the border landowners put as many acres into the slow-growing forests as they could afford – more, in some cases. Although in the volcanic mountains every metal imaginable lay close to the surface in rich veins, fuel for the smelting of it was another thing entirely. So far at least, no one had ever found any of the fabled blackstone or blackwater that were supposed to burn twice as hot as true-oak charcoal. As a result, while any peasant could pan the easily-melted gold from a stream and work it, it took a lot of that gold to buy a little steel.

      ‘It’s a pity about our prospecting venture,’ Soutan remarked. ‘If we’d actually found blackstone we could have been as rich as a khan ourselves.’

      ‘If,’ Warkannan said, grinning. ‘Those maps of yours show likely spots, not sure things.’

      ‘Ah, but they’re copies of ancient maps – spirit maps, the Tribes would call them.’

      ‘Well, Nehzaym will take good care of them. As far as I’m concerned, we’ll have better odds backing Jezro Khan than looking for blackstone.’

      Soutan turned in the saddle and considered him for a moment.

      ‘I’m inclined to agree with you,’ Soutan said at last. ‘Ancient writings exist that present strangely disturbing implications concerning the black marvels.’

      ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

      ‘Your manners are painfully bad, Captain. I see no reason to speak further and be mocked.’

      Soutan kicked his horse СКАЧАТЬ