Ascendant (59 page)

“
And I must answer. By all
that is holy, I hate this war!
”
Paedris gave out a heavy sigh.
“
If
Koren has been captured by the enemy, and only if we have no hope of rescuing
him, then, then he must be killed. We must. His power is too great.
”

The night that
Captain Raddick learned the truth about Koren, the young man himself was hiding
between bales of hay in a stable. Getting out of Linden had been easy, he had
hopped aboard an empty wagon that was trundling slowly westward, hiding under
the wagon's canvas cover. None of the guards at checkpoints on the road had
orders to search wagons that were headed away from the capital, so he was not
discovered that night. Before daylight, he had dropped to the ground and dashed
away into a field, then made his way to a wooded area to sleep.

The next
night, he walked west on the road for several miles, alone, before a group of
wagons passed by, but he had no opportunity to hitch a ride, for these wagons
were loaded, and armed guards on horseback patrolled alongside. From a comment
he overheard one of the guards make, Koren guessed the wagons were only going a
short way down the road, before stopping for the night in a village. He let the
wagons pass by, and followed, walking down the road in the dark. His stomach
rumbled, for he had nothing to eat since the afternoon of the day he had
returned to the castle. In a way, he had come full circle in one year; once
again forced to leave a home, tired and hungry, on his own, with few supplies,
and no particular destination in mind. When he neared the village, he burrowed
into a haystack to sleep a few hours, rising with the dawn. In the village, he
bought a rough loaf of bread, a wedge of hard cheese, dried meat and dried
fruit. When the shopkeeper asked whether Koren was with the wagons, Koren
merely grunted, and let the man think what he wanted. Best if the man did not
later remember a boy on his own, passing through the village. He left the
village before the wagons, and hid in a grove of trees as they passed by later.
In a field, he found a discarded, broken hayrake, and he bound it back together
with twine. With the hayrake over his shoulder, he no longer needed to hide
every time a wagon passed by, for to anyone seeing him, he was a farmhand
walking to work. That day was a long, foot-aching walk for a young man who had
grown used to riding a fast horse, but his belly was full and he had enough
food to last the next day. Late in the afternoon, he saw ahead of him a
substantial town, on the banks of a river, with a pair of bridges soaring high
above the river. It looked like a place a young man alone would not be noticed,
and could buy more supplies, although he would need to stash the hayrake
somewhere.

And then an
instinct, perhaps a faint vibration, a sound, maybe a change in the wind, made
Koren look back east behind him. Riders, coming fast. A group of men on
horseback, moving at speed, one of them carrying a royal army banner. Koren
tossed the hayrake aside and simply ran, until he was around a bend in the
road, where he dashed across a field and lay down behind bushes. The soldiers
rode straight by, their horses' hooves pounding the road. After they were gone,
he left the road and entered the town from the north, where he snuck into a
stable near the river. There seemed to be many soldiers in the town, and Koren
could see both bridges were well guarded, with travelers in both directions
being stopped and searched. He could not go further west. He was pondering what
to do, when he heard voices, and two men came into the stable. Scrunching
himself up as small as possible, Koren hid and listened.

"With all
these soldiers and wagon trains, you'd think we'd have more business." The
first man grumbled. "Two horses in here! That barely pays for the hay they
eat."

"Calm
down, Lan, we had eighteen horses last night." The second man responded,
as he settled down with his back against the low wall Koren was hiding behind.
"Comes and goes, it does, comes and goes. Ricker will be back tomorrow,
and we'll be busier than we can handle, so rest yourself tonight."

The two men
were silent, while Koren fought to suppress a sneeze from hay dust, then the
second man spoke again, and made Koren forget all about his itchy nose.
"You hear about the wizard's servant?"

"What's
he to me?" The first man asked, sounded uninterested.

"Tried to
kill the princess, he did."

"What?"
The first man was now interested. "The hell you say."

"It's
true, that's why there are so many soldiers in town. I overheard a group who
arrived this very afternoon talking at the guard post. The wizard's servant is
an enemy assassin, he tried to kill the princess."

"You and
your stories." The first man said, and spat onto the ground.

"I'm
telling you, I heard the new soldiers repeat their orders! This boy is charged
with cowardice, and desertion, and their orders are to capture him if they can,
or kill him if they must. Dead or alive, it's all the same to them. And an
assassin tried to kill the princess, so it can't be a coincidence they're
hunting this boy now, can it?"

"The
princess? You telling the truth?"

"I swear.
Look, these two horses are bedded down for the night, what say we slip across
to the Happy Dragon for a pint? There's always a couple soldiers there, you can
hear it for yourself."

"A pint?
When did you ever stop at one pint?" The first man scoffed, but he was
curious to hear more. An attempt to kill the princess was big news, bad news.
News that could lead towards more war, which was bad for business. "All
right, but we come back in half a glass, mind you, and check on the horses
again."

As soon as the
two men were gone, Koren scrambled out of his hiding place and ran into the
night. Capture him if they can,
or
kill
him
. He was no
longer running only for his freedom, he was running for his very life. Dead or
alive? Probably dead was better, the soldiers would think. Where Koren had been
worried before, now he was terrified. Every shadow seemed like it could be a
soldier seeking him, every sound could be a sword slipping from a scabbard, or
a bowstring being drawn back. The alley behind the stables was dark even to
Koren's eyes, he stumbled over discarded junk while trying to walk quietly, and
lay flat on the ground, sure someone had heard the noise. While he lay on the
ground, two soldiers walked by the street at the end of the alleyway. As the
soldiers were not holding lanterns, and didn't even glance down the alley,
maybe they were off duty, and not looking for a runaway servant? Koren hoped.
There were more voices, and a half dozen men walked by in the opposite
direction, these men were carrying crates or sacks on their shoulders. That
gave Koren an idea. From his pocket, he pulled a handkerchief, and tied it
around his head like some of the men had, tucking his hair up under. From the
alley, he picked up a broken crate, the very item he had tripped over. If he
held the broken part next to his head, no one would likely notice the crate was
empty in the darkness. Hurrying down the alley and onto the street, he caught
up to the men and stayed behind them, just another laborer carrying trade
goods. They walked towards the river, the men ahead of him talking loudly,
until they came to another street, and Koren's heart almost stopped. Two
soldiers were standing under a torch, at the intersection. These soldiers were
on duty, both of them watching everyone who walked by them, hands resting on
the hilts of their swords. Koren reached down to his pant leg, which was muddy,
he scraped away mud with his fingernails, and rubbed it across his cheeks, to
make his face less visible. Imitating the men ahead of him, he leaned to one
side, as if the crate he was carrying was heavy. When the man in the lead
approached the soldiers, he called out a greeting, asking something that Koren
couldn't quite hear. The soldiers laughed, and one of them said something about
rain. For a frightening moment, it looked like the man in the lead was going to
stop and chat with the soldiers, then he laughed loudly, and continued on down
the street. Koren kept his head down as he passed by, the soldiers not paying
him much attention. Either these two soldiers had not yet received orders to
capture, or kill, Koren Bladewell, or they were looking for a boy alone, not
part of a group of laborers. Two blocks later, he could smell the river, and then
they were at the docks. Here, barges loaded and unloaded their cargo at a long
series of warehouses. Further down the docks, there was another group of
soldiers, clearly on patrol, for they all held lanterns, and held them up to
the faces of everyone who passed by. As soon as he could, Koren ducked into an
alley, and set the crate down. He waited a moment for even his excellent night
vision to recover from the torchlight, then walked quietly along the alley
until he found windows, he tried several before finding one that was not
locked. Climbing in the window, he stepped into deeper darkness, and slid the
window closed behind him. The warehouse must hold barrels of liquor somewhere,
for there was a smell of whiskey in the air. Setting his pack down, he was
about to get comfortable, then a whisper made him freeze. "Hey, this is my
spot."

Koren's hand
flew to a knife, then he relaxed. The voice was a man's, the words somewhat
slurred. Now Koren knew where the smell of whiskey had come from. "Sorry.
Did I step on you?" He whispered back.

"No. You
not here to steal anything, are you? Don't want any trouble."

"I'm not
here to steal anything." Koren said she settled down against the wall.
"I'm only, taking a rest."

The man
laughed softly. "Those soldiers outside wouldn't have anything to do with
it, would they? Don't worry about me, I won't say anything. You look like a
young feller, I headed out on my own too, when I was about your age."

Koren wasn't
sure what to say, but somehow he trusted this man, whose face he still couldn't
see. "I just don't want any trouble. I've caused enough trouble
already." He added, without meaning to speak the words aloud.

"Aye,
know what you mean, I been there myself. Been there myself." The man
repeated his words, and there was a slurping sound, with a strong scent of
whiskey. "Long time ago, that was, long time ago. Caused a lot of trouble,
hurt about everyone close to me. I was in the army, I was, had a wife, and a
little girl. But, I took to drink, and can't shake it. They're better off
without me." Another slurping sound. "Better off without me around,
they are."

Sitting in the
dark, dusty warehouse, listening to the drunken man tell his sad tale, Koren
pulled his knees up to his chest, and thought he had never felt so low in his
life. Where was he going to go? And why? To run away forever? His curse would
follow him wherever he went, hurt anyone around him. What kind of life was he
running toward?

"A good
soldier I was, back then." The man said, as if he needed to fill the
silence with words. Maybe he felt as lonely and hopeless as Koren did right
then. "Was a sergeant in Grand General Daruck's personal guard, under the
old king, way back that was. Too many battles, too many friends lost.
Seen," his voice trailed off, "seen, seen too much. Too much death.
So, I found comfort in the bottle. What about you? You hurt someone, you didn't
mean to hurt?"

"Sort of.
Yes." Koren found himself answering. It was easier to tell a stranger in
the darkness about his sins, easier to tell a man whose face he couldn't see, a
man he didn't know, a man he probably would never meet again. "My parents,
first. They're-" there was a catch in his throat, "they're good
people. They deserved better than me."

In the
darkness, the man reached over and patted Koren's shoulder. "Don't you
worry about it, lad. They're your parents, they love you, they've forgiven you,
whatever you think you did. Anyone else? A girl? I'll bet there was a
girl."

Koren let out
a long sigh. Tried to kill the princess, the guards had said about him.
Tried
,
meant Ariana was alive, his curse had not killed her. "There was a girl,
not
my
girl. She's too good for the likes of me." Did Ariana know
now that his curse had brought the bear to attack her, made her almost drown in
the river, made a stone knock her down, almost kill her? Was she now regretting
the day she invited him to live in the castle? Better that Duke Yarron had
locked him in the dungeon as a poacher and a bandit, than that he be set free,
to cause her nothing but trouble?

"You're
young, whatever you did, you can learn from it, and make it up to them."

Koren choked
on a laugh. He was cursed by God. There would be no making up for that, no way,
as the priest had told him, to make it go away. "It's too late for
that."

The two sat
silent for a while, listening to the sounds on the docks outside; lots of
shouting and cursing from sailors, sounds of things banging and knocking into
each other as the sailors loaded a barge for a trip downriver.

"Where
you going from here?" The man broke the silence.

"I don't
know. I really don't." He truly had no idea where to go. Glumly, he
considered traveling west, if he could get across the river without being
caught or killed by the army. West, toward the Acedor border and war? Change
his name, cut his hair, hire on with the army of some local baron, try to do
something useful with his life, even if it meant constant war? No, that was a
terrible idea. With his curse, the last thing Tarador's army needed was a jinx
fighting on their side.

"Hmm. If I
was a young feller like you, running away from my troubles, why, I'd head out
to sea, to seek my fortune. Get on a barge downriver, to the sea, and sign on
aboard a ship bound for other lands. Go to the exotic South Islands, if you
like, where fruit hangs from every tree, and all the girls are pretty!" He
chuckled to himself.