The Daylight War (75 page)

The memory of Leesha Paper in the count’s throne room flashed into Renna’s mind as it had been doing for hours. The woman had been bad enough imagined – brave and smart and rich, practically worshipped by the Hollowers – but of course Arlen had never mentioned she was also pretty as a sunrise, with that soft, helpless look men loved. ‘You stayed close so the Painted Man could swoop in and save her like the hero in an ale story?’

Arlen stopped walking and sighed. Then he turned and met her eyes. ‘Make you a deal, Ren. You tell me every last detail of how you shined on Cobie Fisher, and I’ll tell you every bit of how I shined on Leesha Paper.’

Renna felt her anger rise, and saw the ambient magic rush to her, feeding on the emotion and amplifying it. Strong emotions were visible in the aura of magic that surrounded people at night. Her rage was a crackling glow that must have been unmistakable to Arlen, but he only looked at her calmly. He didn’t back down, but neither did he offer further offence, forcing her to simmer.

He was right. She had done things – felt things – with Cobie Fisher that had nothing to do with Arlen, and he didn’t need to know. Wasn’t his business.

But how then could she not grant him the same? He’d left Leesha behind in the Hollow for months to be with Renna, and given her his word in promise. What did it matter what he had felt, or what they’d done?

But it did. ‘Cobie Fisher’s dead,’ she said. ‘Leesha Paper’s inviting us to tea.’

Arlen sighed. ‘What do you want me to do about that, Ren?’

She breathed deeply, in the rhythm Arlen had taught her, embracing the anger as she did pain. Awash in the feeling, she stepped back suddenly and let it go. Her magic cooled.

‘Wern’t fair of me,’ she said at last. ‘This ent easy.’

Arlen laughed. ‘Honest word. Ent no treat for me, either, Ren. Just … don’t hit anybody doesn’t hit you first, all right?’

Renna chuckled. ‘Ay, I can give you that. No promises about anything else.’

‘Good enough,’ Arlen said as they joined another road, this one made up of large squares of fresh-poured crete. Powerful wards had been inscribed in the stone, forbidding access to any corespawn. They glowed softly, drawing the ambient magic venting from the Core.

The wards became more intricate as they drew closer to their destination. The road ended at the entrance to a massive garden, larger than Harl’s entire field, but it wasn’t made up of any edible crops Renna knew. Weeds and herbs only. A Gatherer’s garden.

A dirt path led through the garden, with plants growing in patches throughout the area as it curved this way and that. Painted wardstones circled each patch, warming some plants and cooling others, drawing moisture from the air to nourish roots.

‘Fancy,’ Renna grunted, knowing it was far more than that. There were wardnets too complex for her to understand. Even as she watched the magic ebb and flow, she could only guess at their effects. She hadn’t even been formally introduced to Leesha Paper, yet already Renna didn’t like her. She was like a sorceress from a Jongleur’s tale.

They came out of the garden into a wide yard with a small cottage at its centre. A plain and unassuming place amid all the splendour and beauty. For some reason, this made Renna dislike Leesha Paper all the more.

She shivered though the night was warm, drawing her cloak closer, hating that it had been a gift from
her
.

There was a dizzying blur as a woman stepped out of the shadows, drawing back her own Cloak of Unsight. She held a nocked bow pointed down, and looked different in wardsight, awash with glowing magic, but Renna recognized her. Wonda Cutter, another of Arlen’s apprentices, looking impressive in her new wooden armour.

The young woman loomed over them, taller than any woman had a right to be and twice as wide. She smiled, and the magic around her turned warm and inviting as she bowed deeply. ‘Deliverer.’

‘Told you more’n once I ent the Deliverer, Wonda,’ Arlen said, but the scorn that usually came to his tone at the subject was absent. He liked this young woman. ‘Call me Arlen.’

Wonda shook her head, eyes down. ‘Don’t think I can do that, sir.’

‘Mr Bales?’ Arlen suggested.

Wonda brightened. ‘Ay, reckon that would be all right.’ She turned to Renna, bowing again. ‘Welcome to the cottage, Miss Tanner. Honoured to meet you. Saw what you did to Enkido in the throne room, and I seen him fight before. Hope to be half as good as you one day.’

There’s a price
,
Renna thought, but she nodded, looking to Arlen. ‘Had a good teacher.’

Wonda smiled, looking at Arlen with near worship in her eyes. ‘Ay.’ She glanced back at the cottage. ‘Mistress Leesha’s in there with Rojer. You don’t mind waitin’ a moment, I’ll announce you.’

‘Like her,’ Renna said as the young woman moved off.

Arlen nodded. ‘I had a hundred Wonda Cutters at my back, I’d storm the Core itself.’

Wonda appeared at the door an hour after dark. ‘They’re here, Mistress Leesha.’

‘Thank you, Wonda,’ Leesha said. ‘Be a dear and send them in, then walk the yard and make sure we’re left be.’

Wonda nodded. ‘Ay, mistress.’ A moment later Arlen appeared, looking more relaxed than she had ever seen him. Renna Tanner came next, her eyes roaming with predatory suspicion. She caught Leesha’s eyes, and Leesha realized she was staring impolitely.

Elona’s voice rang in her head.
Say
something, idiot girl
.

Leesha shook herself and went over to her. ‘Welcome to my cottage. Renna, I believe?’ Her eyes flicked to Arlen. ‘We were never formally introduced. I’m Leesha Paper.’ She reached to take the young woman’s cloak, only to gasp at the sight. It was the Cloak of Unsight she had made for Arlen.

He
gave
it
to
her
?
There was a flare of anger as she remembered how hard she had worked on that cloak, putting in more effort than on her own and Rojer’s combined. She had wanted so badly to impress him, to show the power of her warding, but Arlen had barely glanced at it as she put it on his shoulders, and hadn’t worn it since.

Was
that
your
promise
gift?
she wondered bitterly. Suddenly their relationship seemed like it very much
was
her business.

‘Know who you are,’ Renna said.

Something about the look she gave made Leesha want to grab Bruna’s stick and thump her, but she kept her smile pleasant. ‘Tea?’

‘Please,’ Arlen said, putting an arm around Renna and steering the women apart.

Rojer rolled from his chair into a handspring, somersaulting into a low leg. ‘Rojer Halfgrip, at your service.’

Renna laughed and clapped her hands, suddenly looking like an innocent girl. ‘Renna Tanner,’ she said as he kissed her hand. ‘Arlen told me all about you.’

‘Don’t believe a word of it,’ Rojer advised with a wink. Renna smiled at him, and Leesha wanted to scream, but she kept a sunny smile on her face.

‘Come help with the tea, Rojer,’ she said. He complied, and as they stood at the counter amid a clatter of cups and saucers, she whispered, ‘Night, whose side are you on?’

‘Oh, there are sides now?’ Rojer asked sweetly. ‘I thought it was none of our business.’ Leesha kicked at him, but he danced away, not spilling a drop of the tea he carried to Renna and Arlen in the sitting room. Leesha brought their cups from the kitchen table and saw Arlen and Renna together on her couch and Rojer on the closest seat. She wondered if the men were purposely trying to keep her and Renna as far as possible from each other.

‘Soooo,’ Rojer said with an exaggerated stretch. ‘Ah. How have you been?’

‘Busy,’ Arlen said. ‘Hollow’s expanding faster every day, swallowing hamlets whole even as folk flock here from all the Free Cities. Work’s started on the pattern of greatwards we plotted over the winter, and already some of them are activating.’

Arlen’s eyes twinkled at her. ‘It’s working, Leesha. Greatwards keep growing, some day fighting demons will be irrelevant. Nothing to fight, they’re all trapped in the Core. This rate, “Count” Thamos will be calling himself duke before long, and Rhinebeck won’t be able to say much about it.’

‘But you will,’ Rojer said.

‘Ent my business,’ Arlen said. ‘Don’t care who sits what throne, so long as the greatwards are built and folk prepared for what’s comin’.’

‘And what is that?’ Leesha asked.

‘War,’ Arlen said. ‘The demons will move to stop us, now, before the greatward system can reach critical mass.’

‘Demonshit.’ Rojer glanced to Leesha, then back to Arlen. ‘Sick of hearing you two say things ent your business even when you’re standing right in the thick of them. Those people are flocking here from the Free Cities, building greatwards and arming themselves, because of you, Arlen Bales, the ripping Painted Man, not Count Thamos.’

Arlen shrugged. ‘Maybe. Or maybe they’re just tired of hiding and want to fight for the chance to be free. I’m a banner to flock to, ay, but that don’t give me a claim to the throne even if I wanted it – and I don’t. Why should I oppose Thamos? Bit taken with himself, but he’s doing what a good Royal should do – building roads and towns, helping folk ward their homes and plant crops, appointing magistrates and ministers to keep peace, collect trash, lend money, and keep everyone fed and working to common good. His taxes are steep but fair, he’s open to new citizens so long as they swear to Angiers, and he doesn’t have enough men to really bully anyone.’

‘I heard he had a thousand Wooden Soldiers,’ Rojer said.

Arlen shook his head. ‘A thousand who can put on a wooden helm and march holding a spear, ay, but he’s got barely two hundred Wooden Soldiers. The rest can put an arrow near a target more oft than not, but they’re mostly Warders, engineers, and construction crew.’

‘And now Gared and the Cutters, thanks to you,’ Leesha said.

Again Arlen shrugged. ‘The count can make better use of them in the day. In return, I get them at night, along with the Wooden Soldiers. Thamos himself even comes out at night, and puts his spear where I tell him.’

‘For now,’ Leesha said.

‘Thamos knows I can kick his keep gate down any time I like,’ Arlen said. ‘So long as I’m around, he’ll keep in line.’

‘And when you’re not around?’ Leesha asked.

Arlen smiled. ‘You’ll have to keep him in line yourself, and not pull a vanishing act like you did at court.’

Leesha fumed silently at his smirk. Her ‘disappearing act’ had been a pretence to meet with Duchess Araine, who was the real power in Angiers – her sons little more than puppets. Arlen’s own meeting with the duke and his brothers had been a sham. But of course, she could say nothing of the sort without breaking Araine’s trust.

I
have
to
let
him
think
me
a
fool
instead.
The thought angered her. ‘What word from Duke Euchor?’ she asked to change the subject.

‘Rhinebeck will never pay the price Euchor demands for aid,’ Arlen said. ‘Not unless the Krasians are massed right outside his walls, and maybe not even then. There will be no alliance.’

The finality of the statement fell on the room like a weight. It meant Angiers would have to face Ahmann alone, which meant in turn that there would be no aid to Lakton before the Krasians turned their eye that way. How long did the Laktonians have now? A year? Three at the most?

‘What did he want?’ Rojer asked.

‘Rhinebeck still has no son,’ Arlen said. ‘Euchor wants him to divorce Duchess Melny and marry one of his own daughters, all of whom have borne sons of their own.’

‘Hypatia, Aelia, and Lorain,’ Rojer said. ‘Famous throughout the Free Cities for being indistinguishable from stone demons. He might as well have asked Rhinebeck to drop his pants and lie over the barrel.’

Arlen nodded. ‘If the Krasians take Angiers, the metal throne will block their path at Riverbridge.’

‘Euchor is a fool,’ Leesha said.

‘More than you know,’ Arlen said. ‘Euchor has the secrets of fire, Leesha, and schematics to turn them into horror like you never dreamed.’ He produced an ancient, leather-bound book and tossed it to her. The cover read:
Weapones
of
the
Olde
Wyrld.

‘Rest up before you read it,’ Arlen advised. ‘Be a week before you can sleep again.’

Leesha took the book, looking into Arlen’s eyes as she did. They seemed so calm, so at peace. The look of a man who had stopped worrying over tomorrow to focus fully on today. ‘You’ve changed so much. The plain clothes, going back to your proper name …’
Your
eyes
,
she wanted to say, but wisely held her tongue.

‘Got back to my roots,’ Arlen said, nodding towards Renna. ‘Ent gonna forget them again.’

‘Get another kicking, you do,’ Renna said, laying a hand on his leg.

Arlen put his hand atop hers, squeezing gently. Such a tiny gesture, but it spoke volumes. Leesha suppressed a shiver as Arlen looked back at her. ‘Know what I am now, Leesh.
Who
I am. No more doubts and worries.’