Wrath of the White Tigress (9 page)

"The way is clear," Jaska said. "They're all dead. You can ride up and get the rest of your supplies now."

Ohzikar left immediately.

"What did you do to their qavra?" Zyrella asked.

"To combat any betrayals, Salahn hid a spell within all the qavra that can stop active magics and cause the qavra to glow and hum. Only Salahn, Mardha, and I and know about it."

"I didn't detect it when I scanned the qavra."

"Only Salahn can see the spell or get rid of it. My original is probably vulnerable as well." Jaska wondered just how many protections Salahn had built up against him. "And I'm sure it probably has additional measures, just in case."

~~~

As they reached Alkrahar Road, riding at a slow canter, Ohzikar said, "Surely we aren't going to attack the enemy head-on?"

"No," Zyrella said. "Salahn has grown too powerful for that."

Jaska made no reply and seemed not to have heard them.
 

"Jaska," Zyrella said, waking him from whatever ill reverie possessed him. "Could you have defeated Salahn a month ago?"

"With surprise, a good plan, and a lot of luck, maybe. But not now."

"And there are hundreds of palymfar to contend with," Ohzikar said.

Eyes narrowed, Jaska replied: "Five hundred and twenty, with nearly a hundred always near Salahn. And he has thousands of Karphon's troops as well. Soon many of those will probably be sent after us. Be assured that the Grandmaster will find us."

"So what do we do now?" Zyrella asked.

"I must go to the Farseer of Vaalshimar because the White Tigress said she could help me."

Ohzikar said, "The Farseer exists?"

"So your goddess claims."

"How will we get there, then?" Zyrella asked. The island of Vaalshimar lay at the mouth of the Gulf of Hareez.

Jaska reined in his horse and searched the horizon as if the answer lay ahead. "We can't risk Kabulsek, that much is certain."

"We could get ship passage from within Epros," Ohzikar said. "Put the mountains between us and the enemy."

Zyrella pulled her hair back and bound it. "His power to scry would fade beyond the mountains, while my powers will strengthen as we near what few allies we have."

"The only other option," Ohzikar said, "is to head due south and get passage from Eskiphaal or one of the smaller ports on the Gulf of Hareez. That would be faster but more dangerous."

Jaska wanted to rush ahead but logic compelled him otherwise. "We won't gain enough speed to make crossing any part of Hareez worth our effort. I think we have a better chance of avoiding capture if we cross the Wedawed Mountains, enter Epros, and go to the city of Hectyra. We can easily set sail from there."

~~~

Guests lined the walls of the great durbar of the Hmyr in Kabulsek. The scents of smoldering opiates, roasted meats, jasmine perfumes, and sweating bodies spread through the hall like a surge of drunken revelers. Silk fabrics imported from the East shimmered beneath hanging lanterns. Drums thundered with wild, vibrant beats that punctuated the spirited music of driving balalaikas, mandolins, trilling flutes, and wordless vocals.
 

A dozen ornately dressed guards stood beside each entrance. Two dozen protected the dais. Dancers whirled between marble columns, their bare feet pattering against the mosaic-tiled floor. Crimson and gold ribbons threaded around their supple, naked bodies. The ribbons fluttered and snaked as the dancers swirled and twisted.

Hmyr Karphon watched without interest, his grey eyes unfocused as he slouched, bearing a resigned expression. He was in his middle years and grey had begun to speckle his tapered beard and long, unbound hair. Karphon would rather be training with his army, in the baths relaxing, or in his apartment sipping wine and reading. He hadn't even attended his harem in two years. When he wanted such pleasures, those given him by Nalsyrra, his bodyguard and astrologer, far exceeded all others.

Nalsyrra stood nearby, with her wild, yellow eyes glinting as she scanned the crowd. She was thin and tall, taller than most men. Permanent black ink stained her entire body, and intricate silver diagrams of linked circles and triangles decorated her chest, back, and legs. A long braid of ebony hair fell down her back. A strip of leather coiled around her torso, barely covering her small breasts. A belt clung to her hips and from it an immodest thong of leather stretched between her legs.
 

A charcoal burnoose hung from her shoulders. She seemed only a shadow, except for her vibrant eyes, the tattoos, and the triangular, alizarin qavra embedded on her forehead. The orange-red stone was without doubt one of the finest qavra in existence, and how she had embedded it there was a mystery even to Salahn, who seemingly knew as much about sorcerous matters as any man alive. Nalsyrra wouldn't let them study it, and they wouldn't dare cross her. She had all the skills of a palymfar and commanded strange sorceries unknown in Hareez. She didn't fear Salahn, and Salahn apparently didn't think confronting her was worth the effort or risk involved.

"Nalsyrra, my love."

She faced him and knelt on one knee. "My lord?"

Though he asked often, Karphon didn't know why she served him. He believed she loved him, though she never said so. He made no demands on her, only requests that she could fulfill if she wished. Everything he possessed he owed to her devoted service. She had rescued him from certain death when he was a defeated mercenary captain. With her help, his talent as a military tactician had blossomed. Over the next few years, he had amassed a force of his own and took over village after village then smaller city-states and at last conquered all Hareez, with assistance from the palymfar.
 

"Tell me again, Nalsyrra, why do you serve me?"

She spoke in her strangely accented, sibilant voice. "The Star Spirits said I should, my lord. It is my destiny."

"Entertainments such as this do not satisfy me anymore. Only you. Day by day, my need for you grows. I cannot clear my mind of your presence."

"I am only your humble servant, my lord."

"You are more than that. Far more. You are an…"

"Ojaka'ari," she whispered with reverence.
 

"Yes, but will you at last tell me what that means?"

"I can say only this of my past, my lord, that I hail from the faraway Mountains of the Stars bordering the Yundragos Plain."

The same answer as usual. Every few years, she would give some new detail about herself. Sadly, this wasn't such a time. Karphon took heart, though, that she belonged to him alone. He trusted no one except her, and she guarded him well against betrayal.

Unannounced, Mardha entered the grand durbar and strolled down the center toward the Hmyr. The dancers reeled in confusion as she pierced their circle with her guards brushing them aside. Such entrances were intended to prove that her father wielded more power than Karphon. But that didn't rattle him. In fact, Karphon liked her entrance better than Bavadi's. The Slayer would suddenly appear at the dais, sending Karphon's guards into fits and causing his security officers to rework their plans. Nalsyrra, of course, was never surprised by him. Catching her off guard was impossible.

Bavadi disturbed Karphon. The man had strange manners and an unwholesome gleam to his eyes, even for a killer such as him. When he mentioned this once to Nalsyrra she replied cryptically, "He is a demon of light lost within a great shadow." She had not explained the statement, and the tone she had used still made him shiver.

Mardha and the two masked palymfar accompanying her bowed at the foot of the dais.
 

"What brings you, High Priestess?"

"I'm here to speak with your bodyguard. I have need of her abilities."

"She may serve you in that capacity, but only if she wishes to."

Nalsyrra bowed. "I will look to the stars for you, High Priestess. You have come seeking information about the Slayer. And I can say already that he is not dead."

Mardha frowned, and Karphon nearly leapt to his feet. The Slayer's condition was unknown? There was risk that he had perished? And yet, Mardha didn't look relieved to know that her lover was alive. Had the Slayer betrayed them? Karphon couldn't believe Nalsyrra had not told him of this.

"Are you certain, Nalsyrra?" Mardha asked.

"I have already seen it in the stars, every night for the last week."

"That information would have been helpful to us!"

Nalsyrra shrugged.
 

"What else have you seen?"

"Little that I could understand. But I can check again for you. It is a clear night."

"At your master's convenience," Mardha said tersely.

Karphon stood. "The proceedings here can go on without me."

"That is well, my lord, for now is the best hour to view these portents."

A vaulted dome capped the highest tower of the Palace of the Hmyr. On its interior surface were painted the stars and planets of midnight on the Winter Solstice. Along the walls star charts hung between shelves overflowing with scrolls and books. The room possessed no windows, only a single door that led to a balcony. Two small tables sat in the center and were surrounded by plush cushions. Here Nalsyrra studied her secret arts and divined whatever schemes occupied her time while Karphon developed his military stratagems for conquering the East.

Mardha knew her father treasured Karphon. Once, in a good mood, he had remarked that if he could extend immortality to others, Karphon would get it after Mardha and Jaska. No others save Nalsyrra would get this boon, and she would get it only because Karphon depended on her.

Karphon was valuable because he readily turned a blind eye toward palymfar atrocities and administrated Hareez with iron-handed efficiency, something Salahn had no interest in doing. Salahn also valued Karphon's lack of jealousy. An odd sort of tyrant, Karphon seemed to have no trouble sharing power as long as he could freely enjoy those comforts that pleased him most.
 

Mardha and her guards, Nalsyrra, and Karphon stepped out on the ten-foot wide balcony that encircled the tower then climbed a rope ladder to the top of the dome, a flattened surface thirty feet in diameter. The ocean and the nearby marshes scented the cool night air. The vast palace grounds lay quiet below. On a hill a mile away, the Grand Temple of the White Tigress stood out against the night sky, eerily lit from the torches within. The heart of the city lay between them.

While the others crammed into a protective circle near the roof's edge, Nalsyrra stripped. Her inked body disappeared into the night except where it contrasted against the white lines of the pentagram she knelt within. She arched her spine and leaned back with her head tilted up. Mardha had seen Nalsyrra work before, but she still found the bizarre celestial rituals fascinating.
 

~~~

Thousands of stars twinkled above in hundreds of familiar patterns. Nalsyrra chanted for nearly an hour, until her energized breaths rose toward the stars shimmering like heat waves on the desert horizon. Stars swirled and bent, refracted through the waves. The distant, burning orbs shifted into new patterns, forming a script known only to the Ojaka'ari. Nalsyrra read what the stars revealed to her request this night, though she would tell to Mardha only those things she wished Mardha to know. The fulfillment of Nalsyrra's destiny depended on many secrets, and the timing of revelations mattered immensely.
 

Though finished with her reading, she continued to sway and murmur. It was theatre to add to the mystery of her powers. After some minutes more, she turned toward her observers but did not dismiss the lesser Star Spirits whom she had called down to power her ritual.
 

"Jaska Bavadi has not been under the stars for seven days now, but he's alive. The stars have not witnessed the passing of his spirit."

"Is he held captive?" Mardha asked.

"I do not know. He was wounded and dying when taken into a cave by the priestess Zyrella and her templar captain. He has not emerged since."

"Did he see the White Tigress? Did she attack him?"

Nalsyrra knew the truth but didn't speak it. "The stars do not know. It was storming at the shrine when the Tigress was freed."

"What of Jaska's qavra? Does he have it with him?"

"I do not know."

A long silence followed.
 

"What else have the stars whispered to you tonight? Surely there is more."

A slight grin twisted at Nalsyrra's lips. "The stars whispered many prophecies to me this night, some of evil, all of great significance."

"What prophecies?"

"Those which brought me here, those which shall soon culminate."

Karphon froze in shock. The prophecy that had brought her to him would soon come to pass? He had no clue what that destiny might be or whether a new one would take her from him afterward. He feared she would leave. He would give her an equal share of all his titles and power to keep her with him. A greater share. But, of course, that wouldn't work. She already took less than he offered. Besides, her destiny had brought her across a continent to a foreign land to serve a failed mercenary. If the next destiny didn't keep her with him, he would lose her.