Land of Night (18 page)

When Liall returned, Dvi had brought a tray to the side of the bed and Scarlet sipped hot che with a thick robe belted around him. Scarlet gave Liall a sour look and eyed the robe that Nenos held out for the prince. Liall stepped into the robe and avoided Scarlet's glance as he took a cup.

Liall sipped it. “Stop being such a prude,” he said lowly. The che was dark and doubly strong, which was welcome.

Scarlet muttered and rose to go to the table. Liall followed, but not before Nenos had pulled him aside and questioned him about the wisdom of taking Scarlet on the hunt.

"He has had no real exercise in months, since before you set out at sea,” Nenos said, his jaw set mutinously and his bright blue eyes sparkling with anger. “If he were my charge alone I would forbid him to go in such a condition. He grows weak and listless in these rooms, and boredom preys on his mind. He has nightmares. Did he tell you that?"

Liall shook his head, shocked. “He has said nothing about nightmares."

"He is in no shape for a bear hunt.” Nenos's tone was truculent and almost rude. “You must forbid this."

If only he knew. “I have tried!"

Nenos glanced at Scarlet worriedly and insisted on getting Liall's promise that Scarlet would be kept in the rear guard of the hunt, and not allowed near the spears.

"He is safe with me,” Liall said, stiff with insult. Nenos turned and spoke in a scolding tone to Scarlet, who did not catch a word of it.

"What did he say?” Scarlet asked, resigned.

"Aside from telling me that Hilurin are reckless, stubborn fools, he says you should listen to me and keep your stubborn arse in this room before you get yourself killed chasing bears."

"He never,” Scarlet scoffed, disbelieving. “He's too polite."

Then Scarlet did an odd thing. When Nenos put the che pot on the table and before he could leave, Scarlet took Nenos's gnarled hand in both of his and pressed it to the side of his face in a very old gesture of gratitude. Only another Hilurin would have understood the gesture fully, but Nenos interpreted it well enough.

Nenos stared at Scarlet, startled, then summoned a smile and patted Scarlet's cheek with his free hand. Liall watched Scarlet thoughtfully as Nenos left.

"Why did you do that?” Liall asked. He had only seen Scarlet do such a thing once before, and the gesture had been offered to Liall himself on the mountain road near Lysia, in gratitude for saving Scarlet's sister from death.

He shrugged. “You probably don't realize it, but that old man could have made my life a misery here. Any good servant knows how to make a guest feel unwelcome. Instead, he went the other road and made me feel like this was my home."

"I thought redbirds had no home."

Scarlet only smiled a little, not answering, and after a long moment Liall leaned over and shoved a plate in front of him.

"Eat,” he commanded. Scarlet dug in, seeming content for once to comply without argument. “How do you know so much about servants? You were a pedlar."

"I had a friend, Kozi, who was a servant in a Morturii house before becoming a pedlar."

"The boy who disappeared one year? Were you close?"

Scarlet speared a piece of the salt fish. “If it's so risky, why is Cestimir going?"

A nobleman knows when a subject has been turned. “Hunts are always perilous, especially with rivals like Vladei and Eleferi skulking about, but if Cestimir is to be king, he cannot sit in his chambers and hide while the world spins around him."

"Is this another thing that only another Rshani would understand?"

"Possibly,” Liall said, nettled at the jibe. “Let me just say the Hunt is a matter of honor, and as matters stand now, well ... Cestimir cannot refuse to go, and neither can I. You could,” he added hopefully.

Scarlet ignored the hint. “Has Cestimir hunted snow bears before?"

"That shocks you?"

"From the way you described the beast, yes. Hard to believe that a fourteen year old, no matter how tall, would be allowed to track and kill it."

Liall nodded. “My mother says that Cestimir has been on many hunts, but not on the spear team."

Scarlet gave him a blank look.

"He rides in the rear of the hunting party and observes, but does not participate,” Liall explained. “Which is where you will be, if you are truly resolved to do this. Jochi will be at your side, and you must stay there."

Scarlet opened his mouth to say something and Liall gave him a black glare that made him shut it quickly. “On this point, I will not yield,” Liall said sternly. “I regret that I have been overprotective and you feel coddled, but I really will have you locked in this room if you do not promise to stay behind the spear line."

Scarlet laughed a little. “You could try, but I promise. I'd rather be beside you, though."

"Too dangerous."

Scarlet nodded. “And the queen?"

"She is not well enough to join us.” Liall looked away for a moment. “But I remember a day when she trailed the hunt as fiercely as any warrior. It is difficult to see her so frail.” Then he saw that Scarlet's dark eyes were suddenly misty and sorrowing. “What is it?"

"I was thinking of my mother, Linhona."

Liall took his hand and held it. Linhona and Scarlet's father, Scaja, had both died in the Aralyrin raid on Lysia. He wondered if Scarlet would ever be able to talk about it. Scarlet had not mentioned them more than a handful of times since their murders.

They finished breakfast in silence and washed up before Nenos dismissed everyone and brought the hunting clothes. The servant gave Scarlet a handful of silver ribbons while giving Liall a baleful eye. Liall saw that Scarlet had no idea what to do with the ribbons, so he plucked them from Scarlet's hand.

"Here, turn around,” Liall said brusquely. He was still angry at Scarlet for insisting on going, and resentful at being cast as the villain in the whole affair. “They are meant for your hair,” he said, quickly weaving a ribbon into Scarlet's black locks. Liall caught Scarlet's horrified expression in the mirror and could not repress a sudden smile. “Is this another thing that only women do in Nemerl?"

"You should know,” Scarlet complained. “You were there for, what, how many years? Did you ever see a man in a dress with ribbons in his hair?"

"Never on the street anyway,” Liall chuckled, avoiding the slanted question about his age. “There was a bhoros boy in Rusa, though..."

"I don't want to hear it."

Liall weaved three or four more into his hair. “It suits you.” But when he took Scarlet's shoulders and turned him into the mirror, a chill raced down Liall's back and his smile faded.

"Liall?"

Liall shook his head, trying to clear the vision. “Nothing. A will o'the wisp, nothing more. I fancied for a moment that I had seen you with silver in your hair before."

"Only snow,” Scarlet said, looking at him with puzzlement.

They finished dressing, and Scarlet marveled at the skill of Rshani weavers as he drew on layer upon layer of the thin woolen hunting gear. Over all this went the glittering court vircas of blue and silver and black. Soon, they left the apartments and went down to a lower hall and thence to the courtyard, where Jochi awaited. Scarlet was given a white fur coat to match Liall's and it fit him snug and warm, as well as fur-lined gloves and a conical fur hat that was the standard Rshani outdoor dress. Scarlet examined the hat and saw that it had been thoughtfully embroidered with a little crimson flower with saw-toothed green leaves. Liall wondered who had ordered that, but forgot it when Jochi brought the silks.

"Pull this up to your nose while riding,” Jochi told Scarlet, showing him how to wrap the long length of tightly-woven silk around his neck and the lower part of his face. “It will protect your face from the wind.” The silk was woven of blue and silver—the queen's colors—and also served to denote which team they rode for in the hunt.

"Hunting silks,” Jochi answered Scarlet when he asked. There were others in the hunt wearing similar scarves, but only a handful in these colors. Others were in red and gold or green and silver, which Jochi explained to Scarlet were colors of other noble Rshan houses. Liall was silent while this education progressed, still shadowed by the vision of Scarlet with silver in his hair.

The courtyard was a hubbub of noise as hounds and grooms darted between the horses. A few of the nobles were already mounted. Eleferi and his brother Vladei were in red and gold hunting colors near the head of the line, as were Alexyin and Tesk and also two of the courtiers that Scarlet had spoken to in the library. There were some forty or more horses saddled and ready, splendidly groomed and decked, and twice that many spectators and court ladies and little lads running underfoot everywhere and laughing. The horses were well-trained and did not shy even when one of the children ducked under a horse's belly and shrieked laughter, playing a game of tag with his friend.

A groom marched up to Liall carrying a white-painted wooden pole that was twice his height. One end was blunt and had a wide grip and guard fashioned for the hand, and the other end was sharpened into a point and covered with a thin, beaten layer of silver hardened with nickel and lead. At least twenty other riders were holding similar implements, and Liall accepted his and settled it easily into a grooved slip fashioned into the leather of his saddle.

"What is that?” Scarlet asked in awe, still unmounted. “That's never a spear."

"It is. The rider must hold it during the chase, like so.” Liall showed him, one hand on the reins and the other steadying the stake.

"You've got some cheek, calling that a spear,” Scarlet said. “It's a sail mast, at least."

Scarlet did not have to ask what the spears were for, for several of the tips were still stained with old blood the color of rust. This was how the bear would be hunted: ran down with dogs and horses, corralled into some narrow ravine or the base of some hill, and then impaled by many of those great stakes.

"Doesn't seem like much sport to me,” Scarlet commented.

"Then you can rutting well stay behind!” Liall growled in gutter Falx, which bought him a laugh from Scarlet. Not exactly Liall's intended reaction. A groom led another saddled horse up to Scarlet. Liall spoke to the groom in Sinha, wanting the man to double-check the saddle, but Scarlet stepped up and checked it and the bit as well, and then put his foot in the stirrup. He swung up, no easy task for a small rider drowning in fur, and settled himself easily in the saddle. He caught Liall gaping at him.

"What?” Scarlet laughed. “Close your mouth lest something fly in, want-wit."

"I did not know you rode."

"Of course I ride. Well ... at least enough to stay in a saddle. My dad fixed wagons for a living. What do you think pulled them, mice?"

Liall scowled, still wishing there was some way he could forbid Scarlet to go, but it was too late. “You and Jochi will stay in the rear of the hunt, with the watch-riders and youths,” Liall said, bringing his mount alongside Scarlet's and reaching down to check the stirrups of Scarlet's horse one last time. “Neither of you will be hunting today."

"We will still be able to see any excitement,” Jochi reassured Scarlet, and Liall turned to see Jochi mounted on a fine dappled horse.

Liall sighed and glanced at Scarlet a last time. “You look splendid,” he said, suddenly regretful that he had been in such a foul mood. He was also nearly ill with anxiety. All that morning, he had had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, a hole that was slowly being filled with a nameless dread. He felt the shamed urge to pray to gods he didn't believe in, just on the thin chance that it might do some good. Liall mentioned none of this to Scarlet.

"I must join the others,” Liall said unsmilingly. “Jochi, I leave him in your hands."

Jochi inclined his head. “Depend upon me, my prince."

Scarlet gave Jochi a saucy wink. Liall guided his horse through the melee to the edge of the courtyard. He turned and Cestimir was beside him, mounted on a gray horse similar to his own.

"Well, brother,” Cestimir smiled “Are you ready to hunt?"

Red and white, white and red.

The rules of the hunt were that the watch-riders in the rear would not come near the actual kill, but would stay far back from any slaughter or blood, yet Liall kept looking at Scarlet so anxiously that Jochi was moved to gently reassure the prince that he would watch out for the boy, and Liall's heart was eased.

And so, Liall was easy and relaxed when the worst happened, and did not see the yawning edge of death, red-fanged and razor-clawed, until it was too late.

Three bears had been spotted in the hunting preserve during the spring season, and during the night the beaters went out and drove them into the lower preserve closest to the palace, a wide, open expanse of snowy lowland field bordered by a dense forest. It was near the bear's hibernating time, and they would be fattened and irritable and in no mood to tolerate intruders. The dogs, great, thick-furred beasts with sly, slanted eyes blue as a summer sky, would run tandem with the lead horses until they reached the hunting grounds, then given their head to run on and scent out the bear.

The dogs began to bay and growl even before they were really clear of the palace grounds. The huntsmaster sounded a note on a silver pipe and the dogs leaped forward, melting into the looming edge of the forest so fast it tricked the eye into thinking they had vanished. The riders went in after them at a fast trot, cautious and not having that heightened sense the dogs possessed, to let them know by smell how close the bear was. Forty men on horses, twenty of them with stakes, the rest either serving as flanks on the line to keep watch for the bear or bringing up the rear as youths training to the hunt or just observers.

In the twilight gloom, the horses kept pace with the dogs for several minutes, seeing their shadows up ahead, wending in and out of the trees and baying at full throat. Then the dogs surged forward and hunting party lost sight of them, pursuing the animals by sound alone. The huntsmaster blew another note on his pipe, and several of the dogs bayed loudly, signaling their location. The hunters spurred the horses and turned west back towards the open field.