The Redemption of Althalus (20 page)

Oh? How?

“I picked one at random and did the same thing to him that we did to Pekhal a few weeks ago. They got my point almost immediately. Then I unchained them and told them all to go home. They left in quite a hurry.”

Show-off.

“I know the way Arums think, Em. They’re intensely loyal, so I had to do something spectacular enough to dispel that loyalty. I didn’t think we’d want them lurking back in the bushes watching for a chance to ambush us. I managed to get my point across to them.”

Have you got the Knife?

He patted the hilt protruding from his belt. “Right here,” he replied.

Come out into the moonlight,
she told him, leading the way out of the grove.

“What are we doing?”

You’re going to read the Knife.

“I take my orders from you, Em, not from this antique.”

Just a precaution, Althalus. The Knife’ll make sure you don’t lose interest
along the way.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?”

Trust
you
?
Her laugh was sardonic.

“That wasn’t very nice, Em.”

Just take the Knife out and read it, Althalus. Let’s get on with this.

He drew the Knife out from under his belt and held it out in the moonlight. The inscription engraved on the blade was complex and very formal, with interlocking lines that twined around each other. The writing was not the distinctly separated pictographs Althalus had seen in the Book, but seemed somehow to flow together. He had no difficulty picking out one single word, however, since it glowed with a pale light.

What does it say?
Emmy asked intently.

“Seek,” he answered promptly.

There was a soft, musical sound that seemed to soar higher and higher, enclosing, enveloping, almost caressing him. It was so beautiful that it brought sudden tears to his eyes.

And now you are mine,
Emmy gloated.

“I already was, Em. Is the Knife really singing?”

Oh, yes.

“What for?”

To let me know that you’ve been chosen.
And,
of course, that you’ll do
exactly as I tell you to do.
She gave him a sly look.
Sit, Althalus,
she said.

He immediately sat down.

Stand up.

He scrambled to his feet. “Stop this, Emmy!” he said sharply.

Dance.

He began hopping around. “I’m going to get you for this, Em!” he threatened.

No, you won’t. You can stop dancing now. I just wanted to show you what
the Knife can do. You’ll be able to do the same sort of thing with it—just in case
Eliar or any of the others we’ll pick up later start getting out of hand.

“That could come in handy.” He looked even more closely at the Knife’s blade. “That one word is all I can make out. It jumps right out of the middle of those other squiggles.”

The other “squiggles” are intended for others.

“Why can’t
I
read them?”

Nobody can read it all, Althalus. Some of those words were intended for
people who lived thousands of years ago, and others are there to be read by peo
ple who won’t even be born for several thousand more. Our current crisis isn’t
the only one in the history of the world, you know.

“It’s enough to get
my
attention. Did it tell you where we go next?”

That’ll come after Eliar reads
his
instructions. Everything in its proper
time and place.

“Anything you say, dear.” He frowned slightly. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Nobody except certain people can read the Knife, right?”

Exactly.

“Everybody else just sees those squiggles that look like some meaningless decoration?”

Didn’t I already say that?

“What would happen if I showed it to Ghend—or Pekhal, or Khnom?”

The screams would probably be very loud. The sight of the Knife causes
unbearable pain to the agents of Daeva.

“Well, now,” he said, grinning. “Maybe I’d better not use the Knife to cut bacon with, then.”

You
wouldn’t!

“Only teasing, Em. That Knife’s going to be
very
useful, I think. I believe I’ll keep it very close.”

Sorry, pet. You aren’t the one who’s supposed to carry it.

“Who is?”

Probably Eliar.

“Are you absolutely sure I can control him? He
is
a professional killer, Em, so the first thing he’s likely to do if I hand him the Knife is stab me in the belly with it.”

There aren’t really any absolutes in life, Althalus.

“Oh, thanks, Em,” he said sarcastically.

It’s a safe wager. The chance that he’ll kill you is about the same as the one
for the sun coming up in the west this morning.

“I suppose I’d risk a little money on that one. Why don’t we wake him up and have him read to us?”

Let him sleep. After he reads the Knife, we’ll find out where we’re sup
posed to go next, and we’ll have to leave immediately. Let’s not start wander
ing around in the dark.

He shrugged. “You’re the one in charge, Em.” Then he looked at her curiously. “What did you do to Andine to bring her around? She didn’t really want to sell Eliar to me.”

I persuaded her to love me more than she hated him.

“I thought you couldn’t do that sort of thing out here.”

I didn’t
create
her love, pet. All I did was encourage it. Andine’s very
young and very passionate. She loves—and hates—with her blood and bones,
and she loves even more intensely than she hates. All I had to do to unleash her
love was to be adorable. I’m an expert at that, if you’ll recall.

“I still think you’re cheating, Em.”

No, not really. Andine’s very pretty, and she smells nice. She’s soft and
warm, and that voice of hers throbs like a bell. She’s very easy to love, and she
responds to love with love of her own. I didn’t cheat her, Althalus. I
did
love
her—and I still do.

“I thought you were supposed to love only me.”

What a ridiculous idea. Just because I love her, it doesn’t mean that I love
you less. My love
is
boundless, you know.

“But now you’ve managed to sneak away from her, and that means that I’ve swindled her out of Eliar, the Knife, and you—all in the same day. I really think we should get out of here, Em—almost immediately.”

She won’t wake up until morning; I’ve seen to that. When she does wake
up, the first thing she’ll do is search her whole palace for me. The idea of send
ing out her soldiers won’t come to her until later.

“Are you sure?”

Trust me.

Eliar woke up just before dawn, and he’d evidently forgotten that he was securely attached to the tree, because he started struggling with his chain before he was fully awake.

“Stop that!” Althalus barked sharply. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Eliar quit fighting. He held up one of his wrists and jingled the chain. “You don’t need to keep me locked up anymore,” he said. “I’ve already told you that if you really
do
have an agreement with my Chief, I’ll do what you tell me to do. If you’re lying about it, you’ll have to answer to him.”

“Now you’re starting to make some sense,” Althalus said approvingly. “I thought I might have to rattle your teeth a little bit before you started to get the point.”

“I’m a good soldier, and I follow my Chief’s orders. I don’t have to get any points or understand anything. I just have to do what I’m told to do.”

“I think we’ll get along just fine,” Althalus said. “Hold out your hands. Let’s get rid of those silly chains.”

Eliar held out his wrists, and Althalus freed him.

Eliar stood up, stretching and yawning. “I didn’t sleep too well,” he said. “Those stupid chains jingled and rattled every time I moved. What am I supposed to call you? Sergeant, maybe? I
won’t
call you Master, no matter what you do to me.”

“If you ever call me Master, I’ll braid all your fingers and toes together. My name’s Althalus. Why don’t you call me that?”

“Is that really your name? There’s an old story in our clan about a man named Althalus.”

“I know. Chief Albron thought it was just a coincidence, but he was wrong.” Althalus made a wry face. “My name’s about the only part of the story your people got right. The rest of it’s the biggest lie I’ve heard in my whole life—and I’ve heard some very big lies in my time. Let’s get it right out into the open, Eliar. I
am
the one who robbed Gosti Big Belly about twenty-five hundred years ago, but Gosti didn’t have any gold in his strong room, just copper and a little brass. He wanted people to believe that he was the richest man in the world, so he spread some wild lies about how much gold I’d stolen from him. You wouldn’t
believe
how much trouble that caused me.”

The boy scoffed. “Nobody can live
that
long.”

“I didn’t think so myself, but Emmy cured me of that. Let’s stick to the point here. Can you read?”

“Warriors don’t waste their time on that nonsense.”

“There’s something you
have
to read.”

“I just told you that I don’t know how, Althalus. You’ll have to read it to me.”

“It won’t work if we do it that way.” Althalus took the Knife out from under his belt and held it out to Eliar. He pointed at the complex engraving on the blade. “What does this say?” he asked.

“I can’t read. I told you that.”

“Look at it, Eliar. You can’t read it if you don’t look.”

Eliar looked at the leaf-shaped blade, and he jerked his head back, startled. “It says, ‘Lead’!” he exclaimed. “I can actually read it!” Then he shrank back as the song of the Knife touched him.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Althalus said.

Emmy had been sitting nearby, watching. She rose and came over to where they were seated. She looked very closely at Eliar, who was still staring at the Knife with a befuddled expression.
Tell him to do something,
Althalus,
she suggested.
Let’s make sure that you can control him before you
give him the Knife.

Althalus nodded. “Stand up, Eliar,” he said.

The boy immediately scrambled to his feet. He swayed a bit and put one hand to the side of his head. “It made me a little dizzy,” he confessed.

“Dance,” Althalus told him.

Eliar started to jig, his feet pattering on the ground.

“Stop.”

Eliar quit dancing.

“Put both hands up over your head.”

“Why are we doing this?” the boy asked, raising his hands.

“Just making sure that it works. You can put your hands down. Did you notice anything peculiar just now?”

“You kept telling me to do things that were sort of silly,” Eliar replied.

“If they seemed silly, why did you do them?”

“I’m a soldier, Althalus. I always do what the man in charge tells me to do. If he tells me to do silly things, he’s the one who’s silly, not me.”

“That sort of takes a lot of the fun out of this, doesn’t it, Em?” Althalus said aloud. “Did the Knife force Eliar to jump around, or was it just his training?”

Eliar gave Emmy a surprised look. “How did your cat get away from Andine?” he asked curiously.

“She’s sort of sneaky.”

“Andine’s going to be
very
angry about that. Maybe we should leave in sort of a hurry—right after breakfast.”

“Are you hungry?”

“I’m always hungry, Althalus.”

“Why don’t we eat, then?” Althalus held the Knife out to the boy. “Here. You’re the one who’s supposed to carry this. Tuck it under your belt and don’t lose it.”

Eliar put his hands behind his back. “You should probably know that I was planning to kill you last night before we got to know each other. You might want to think it over a little before you just hand me back my knife like that.”

“You aren’t going to try to kill me now, though, are you?”

“No. Not now.”

“Why not?”

“You’re the man in charge, Althalus. Your arrangement with Chief Albron sort of makes you my Sergeant. A good soldier
never
tries to kill his Sergeant.”

“Then I haven’t got a thing to worry about. Take the Knife, Eliar, and let’s eat.”

“What a great idea,” Eliar said enthusiastically, tucking the Knife under his belt.

“Bacon? Or maybe ham?”

“Whichever one you can make the quickest.”

Althalus made some ham and a loaf of black bread. Then he produced a very large cup of milk.

Eliar started to eat as if he hadn’t had anything for a week.

Althalus made more.
How long can he keep this up?
he silently asked Emmy.

I’m not really certain,
her reply came back. She watched Eliar eat with a slightly bemused look in her large green eyes.
See if you can distract him
enough to get him to show me the Knife. I need to find out where we’re sup
posed to go next.

“Eliar,” Althalus said, “you can keep chewing, but Emmy needs to take a quick look at your Knife.”

Eliar mumbled something.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Althalus told him. “Just take the Knife out from under your belt and show it to her.”

Eliar shifted the chunk of ham he’d been eating to his left hand, wiped the grease off his right hand on the grass, and drew out his Knife. Still chewing, he held the Knife out to Emmy.

She glanced at it briefly.
Awes,
she said.

Isn’t it in ruins?
Althalus asked.

So?

Just thought I’d mention it, that’s all. I’ll go saddle my horse.

Emmy had gone back to watching Eliar eat.
There’s no real hurry, Al
thalus.
Her silent response sounded slightly amused.
From the look of
things, our boy here’s just getting started.