Blades of the Old Empire (26 page)

Kyth sat on horseback, waiting for his rescuers to approach.

“Thank Shal Addim!” Egey Bashi exclaimed, pulling his horse to a stop.

Raishan dismounted and rushed up to Kyth’s horse, eyes fixed on Mai’s lifeless shape.

“He broke us out,” Kyth said. “But he’s very badly hurt. I think he’s bleeding inside.”

Raishan’s hand shot up to Mai’s neck to feel the pulse. His eyes locked with the Keeper’s.

“I believe I have something that might help,” Egey Bashi said, “but it’ll take some time. Why don’t we get back to our camp?”

Raishan looked back across the Grassland plain. “They might be followed, Magister. If we camp and they catch up with us, I’m not sure I can deal with the Kaddim any better than last time.”

“If we don’t treat these injuries right away, Aghat Mai will die. It may be too late already, but if you want him to have a chance, there’s no other alternative.”

Raishan’s frown deepened as he appeared to consider the options.

“We’ll have to stop anyway,” Egey Bashi pointed out. “If not now then later on. We can’t ride on forever. And from what we’ve seen so far, an entire Cha’ori hort is just as useless against these men as you and I, Aghat.”

“I think,” Kyth said slowly, “I can protect at least one of you from their power. If I do this, do you think you can handle them, Raishan?”

“How many are there?” the Majat asked. “Back in the Cha’ori camp I heard different numbers, from fifty to several hundred.”

“It was about three dozen or so to start with. During our escape Mai took down at least ten, maybe more. He also scared away their horses.”

Raishan nodded. “Should be manageable. If you’re sure you can really do what you say.”

“That’s how we broke out,” Kyth said. “Mai did all the fighting, I just kept their power off him.”

Raishan nodded. His face was grave as he carefully lifted Mai off Kyth’s horse into his own saddle. He rode at a walk, forcing Kyth and Egey Bashi to slow down as they made way to the line of bushes by the river.

The cozy campsite was surrounded by bushes on three sides and open to the river on the fourth. The dying embers emanated warmth, a kettle and two empty bowls scattered around as if abandoned in a hurry. Matted grass marked the places where Raishan and Egey Bashi must have slept, only a short time before spotting Kyth and Mai down on the plains. The sight made Kyth’s tired muscles ache with desire to lie down and rest. He suppressed it. He had to be awake if the pursuit came. Raishan needed him if they hoped to fend off an attack.

Raishan spread his cloak and lay Mai on top of it. After a short survey he took off his belt knife and cut away the remaining strips of the ragged shirt. Then he removed the bandage from Mai’s chest, exposing the ugly wound that looked even worse than Kyth remembered on their first day of captivity. Its leaden color suggested that it was beginning to become infected.

Raishan shook his head as he peeled away the last pieces of pus-soaked cloth. “These men really spared no effort on him, did they?”

Egey Bashi crouched on the ground next to Raishan, taking a small vial from a pouch at his belt.

“The internal bleeding is what’s going to kill him first, unless we do something about it,” he said. “This liquid should help, but he needs to drink it. I can’t just pour it down his throat while he’s unconscious.”

Raishan nodded. He took out a small flask and forced several drops of the substance between Mai’s lips.

After a long moment Mai coughed and opened his eyes. He looked at the faces bent over him, recognition slowly stirring in his gaze. A streak of blood appeared in the corner of his mouth.

“Aghat Raishan,” he whispered, his lips twitching into a ghostly smile. “How the hell–”

“We’ll discuss that later, Aghat. First, Magister Egey Bashi wants you to drink something.”

“It’s going to hurt,” the Keeper warned.

Raishan frowned. “From what I know about injuries this looks bad. He’s had a nasty blow to the head and this wound on his chest is about to poison his blood. Are you sure he can take this treatment of yours?”

“It’s rough, Aghat, I know. But I see no other choice.” Egey Bashi leaned over Mai, holding the vial in his hand.

“You’re bleeding inside,” he told Mai. “This liquid can stop it, but it’s going to hurt. Bad. You must drink it in one gulp.”

Mai met his gaze. He looked very weak, but his eyes still gleamed with mischief.

“Another one of the Keepers’ cures, is it?” He moved to raise up on his elbow, but Raishan held him down.

“Don’t,” he warned. “Or you’ll make it worse.”

Mai lay back and allowed Raishan to lift up his head. But when Egey Bashi put the vial to his lips, he reached out and took it with a weak hand.

“I’ll do it myself, thanks.” He lifted the vial and drank it.

He was still for a moment. Then his body twitched and he collapsed into Raishan’s arms, shaking with seizures. His head fell back. Muscles bulged on his neck, blood running down the side of his face as he thrashed against Raishan’s hold. His eyes rolled, so that only the whites showed through. Kyth could tell it was costing Raishan a lot of strength to hold Mai down.

After a while the shaking stopped and Mai went still.

Raishan removed his hands. “Now what?”

“Now,” Egey Bashi said, “we must wait. In a few hours we’ll know if it worked.”

“
If
it worked, Magister?”

Egey Bashi met his gaze. “Yes.
If.
”

“I
thought
you told me it
was
going to work.”

“I
thought
I told you it might help, Aghat.”

The two men glared at each other. Then Raishan strode over to his horse, took out a blanket and spread it over Mai. Egey Bashi busied himself with starting the fire.

Kyth sat on the ground, looking at Mai’s face. It was pale and hollow. The bruise on his face blackened against the white skin. The bleeding had stopped, which meant that either the Keeper’s substance was working, or Mai was very close to death.

Raishan brought over a kettle of water and carefully cleaned Mai’s chest wound. He used some liquid from another flask at his belt that made the infected flesh flake off in thin white streaks, and spread some gray powder over it that bubbled as it touched the oozing pulp. Mai didn’t seem to feel it, so deeply unconscious it wasn’t even clear if he was breathing.

With deft movements, Raishan dressed the wound with fresh bandages and used another piece of wet cloth and more of his liquid to clean up the cuts on Mai’s face and the gash at his left temple, where his head must have hit a boulder during his violent capture. He spread a different type of powder over those. It was white and soaked right in, stopping the bleeding. His movements were confident and precise, as if he had done such things many times before. His face was calm, but when he finally covered Mai with the blanket and turned back to his companions, Kyth noticed a vertical line across Raishan’s forehead.

“Now,” he said to Kyth. “Let’s look at your wounds.”

Kyth hesitated. “I think I have mostly bruises. They weren’t as rough on me as they were on him.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” The edge in Raishan’s voice left no room for argument.

Kyth winced as Raishan helped him out of his shirt. For the first time since his fight with Mai two days ago he had a chance to look at his own body to survey the damage. A large bruise blackened in the center of his chest where the point of Mai’s staff hit him. Another one colored his left shoulder and the side of his torso into deep blue and purple shades. Raishan frowned over those, and spent another length of time inspecting the base of his throat where Mai’s staff had almost choked him to death. Then he moved around and pulled up Kyth’s hair to examine the wound at the back of his head, where an orben blow had hit him to unconsciousness. Kyth felt a wet cloth on his neck, and then another liquid, light and cool, that stung as it touched the injured skin.

Raishan finished and sat back, looking at him thoughtfully.

“That blow to the back of your head’s healing well. Your hair must’ve cushioned it when the orben hit. But these other bruises – they don’t look like orben blows. How did you get them?”

Kyth’s mouth twitched as he glanced at Mai’s still shape. Memories came back with renewed clarity, making him feel so empty inside that it hurt.

“I… I fought Mai before we got captured. He knocked me down with his staff.”

Raishan’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You did
what
?”

Kyth held his gaze in silence.

“You aren’t joking, are you?”

“No.”

“
Of
course
he knocked you down. What were you thinking, fighting a Diamond?”

Kyth clenched his teeth, forcing himself to keep Raishan’s gaze. “I wasn’t thinking anything. I wanted to kill him.”

“To kill him.”

“Yes.”

“Of all the stupid things…” Raishan paused, studying Kyth intently. “I guess it doesn’t matter now, since you’re obviously still alive. Just tell me one thing. If you wanted him dead so much that you risked your life for it, you could’ve just left him back there in the Grasslands to die, couldn’t you?”

“I could have,” Kyth admitted.

“Yet, you carried him on your horse and risked being caught by your pursuers. So?” Raishan waited, his eyes fixed on Kyth’s face.

“It just… it seemed wrong for him to die like that,” Kyth said. “Not when I could do something about it. We can settle the score later, when he’s well.”

“Settle the
score
?”

“Yes.”

Raishan leaned closer. “Before you set out to do a foolish thing like that, perhaps there’s something you should know about him first. He’s a legend in our Guild. To my knowledge, there’s no living man who could settle any kind of
score
with him in an equal fight. I’m sure he wouldn’t fight you again, but if he did, he’d squash you like a fly.”

“In that case,” Kyth said slowly, “I’d die knowing that I tried. There’s no other choice.”

Raishan continued to study his face. “You attacked him because of Kara, didn’t you?”

Kyth’s mouth twitched. A lump in his throat warned him against trying to speak. He glared at Raishan from across the fire.

“Then, you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Kyth’s voice came out hoarse. “He and his accomplice
murdered
her. What else is there to know?”

Raishan let out a sigh. “Mai saved her life. He risked everything to make sure she survived. If our Guildmaster ever finds out what he did–”

“
Survived
?” Kyth’s breath faltered. He stared at Raishan in entranced silence.

“That blow he struck her with – it’s called ‘viper’s kiss’. It looks deadly, but when treated in time the wound can heal without a trace. It touches no vital organs, but disconnects the reflexes, so that the breathing and the heartbeat become very slow, almost undetectable. Do you know how much skill it takes to deliver such a blow against an equal opponent?”

Kyth continued to stare. “But his companion, the archer, checked that she was dead.”

Raishan nodded. “And afterwards, did Mai come and do something to her?”

Kyth thought about it. He remembered how, after the Jade was gone, Mai leaned over Kara and hit her in several spots at the chest and neck. He slowly raised his gaze and looked into Raishan’s face.

“If you had delayed him any longer,” the Diamond said, “you could have ruined everything. No wonder he hit you so hard. If I was in his place, I might’ve done worse.”

Kyth looked down at the black bruises covering his body. He remembered the empty look in Mai’s eyes, the speed of his movements, the strength of the blows that seemed way too much for a man to be capable of. He shivered. To think that he could have ruined everything.

“But why did he have to do this in the first place? Why not just let her go?”

“Because, if his companion – the Jade – had suspected that Mai hadn’t done his job to the end, it wouldn’t have helped Kara. The Guild would have sent Diamonds after both of them. They wouldn’t have given up until the job was done. The Majat Guild doesn’t tolerate disobedience. And, they never give up. They only thing Mai could do was to make the Guild believe she was really dead.”

“But…” Kyth was still trying to make sense of it. “Kara said if they defeated her, they were going to take her back to her Guild. She told me they weren’t going to harm her.”

Raishan looked at him with pity. “If she had told you the truth, would you have been able to stand back as long as you did and not interfere?”

“No,” Kyth said quietly.

Raishan nodded. “If you tried to defend her, you would’ve been killed. Mai had his orders, and Kara knew them well. She wanted to make sure you didn’t die needlessly, that’s all.”

Kyth suddenly felt very weak. “Is she really alive?” he whispered.

Raishan held his gaze. “She needs care. But with proper treatment, she’ll survive. It would be good, though, if we manage to get Mai there in one piece before it’s too late. He struck the blow. I did what I could for her, but he’s the only one who can revive her.”

Kyth sat back. Tears he had not been able to shed before filled his eyes. He wasn’t able to say anything. He just sat there, looking at Mai’s face, so pale and still in the flickering firelight.

He had been hating this man with all his heart. He had wished him dead. If he’d only known what Mai had done.

“Will he be all right?” he asked in a trembling voice.

Raishan followed his gaze, the vertical line back on his forehead. “We’ll see. Even if the Keepers’ cure is as good as the Magister makes us believe, we still have his wound to deal with. It doesn’t look good, I can tell you. What did these men do to him?”

“During our capture, they hit him with an orben, and dragged him behind a galloping horse. I think he almost died. And then, last night, he had to fight all of them to break us out. I’m sure it made things worse.”

Raishan looked at Kyth in grim silence. Then he turned to help Egey Bashi with the fire.

As the water in the kettle started boiling, they heard the sound of galloping hooves, approaching them across the plain. Raishan carefully set down the pouch with tea leaves and drew his sword.