5.

 

“I have a task for you, now.”

Ayae did not reply to Heast. Instead, she walked beside him, her agreement given through her silent company as the Captain of the Spine limped heavily over the cobbled ground. Behind them, the hospital was lost beneath the glare of the midday’s sun, as if the light itself were trying to obscure their trail and hide from what happened in the room where Illaan lay.

“Where is Fo?” Before they left, Heast had turned to Bau. “He would be able to tell you what this was, yes?”

The Keeper’s shrug was easy, nonchalant. “He comes to the hospital only when required.”

“He is required.”

“I will tell him that he has been ordered then.”

“Do so,” the Captain of the Spine said, a hint of steel entering his tone. “I have no place for either of you if you will not work for me.”

“Captain.” Reila pushed herself hurriedly up from the white linen she sat upon. “We don’t need this right now.”

“I believe what she is trying to tell you,” Bau said, his smile as easy and as confident as his shrug, “is that you do not want to pursue this line if you wish to maintain Yeflam’s support.”

“Yeflam is not supporting me.”

“Not in the way you want, no,” he admitted. “You want Keeper intervention, but you and I both know that will not happen. Yeflam does not go to war. The rules that stop immortal men and women from fighting each other keep the country neutral. Yet we are both interested in the Leeran Army. We have both heard the rumors of priests, and that is why we are here, and why we are sympathetic to your plight. However, if you send Fo and me back because we will not intervene on your behalf with violence, I assure you that you will not have a welcome for your refugees when this city is overrun.”

“If this city is overrun, I would march through those hallowed gates regardless of what you or your kind want.” The Captain of the Spine’s voice did not rise, but behind him Illaan’s body flinched, as if the words pierced him in his delirium.

“I believe you would.” The Keeper’s smile faded. “But before you got there, the roads you carefully cleared and the bridges you quietly mended and reinforced would be returned to their previous state and you would fight a long rearguard action without reinforcement. You would do well to remember that our assistance might not be what you want, but we have not stopped your retreat. And though the following concession is small on my part, you should be pleased Fo is not here to look over your sergeant. The methods he would have used would likely have killed him.”

“You are the Healer, are you not?” Heast replied, still controlled. “What does a man fear with you around?”

“Only death.”

Reila’s hand settled on the captain’s arm. “We should focus on what has made Illaan sick, first,” she said.

“If it is a saboteur responsible for the poisoning, there will be more.” The ease with which Bau changed the subject caught Ayae’s attention, though she could not explain why as she walked down the street. “And while your healer does not agree with me in her diagnosis, we both agree that you will need to find the source of it quickly before it infects others.”

Heast grunted in reply and when he turned, Ayae believed that she could see a hint of cold satisfaction in him.

Later, outside, Heast—silent after Bau’s words but for nods and grunts—waved away the driver of the carriage who turned on the road and returned to The Pale House without its owner.

“Did you hear me, girl?”

She nodded. “Yes,” she said, when she realized he was not looking at her.

“The Keepers have their own game,” he continued. “The heart of it is in Yeflam, but we are a part of it, now.”

She thought of the caged animals that Fo had kept, the mouse he had fed to the snake. Despite that, she said, “Surely they are concerned with the Leeran Army?”

“This is not a battle fought on one side alone.”

She remembered Lady Wagan and Reila and their words to her.

“The Keepers don’t want us in Yeflam, but that is not surprising,” he continued. “No one wants us on their doorsteps.”

The Spine of Ger emerged, an empty tower rising to the left. Months ago, a merchant had run a stall out of the building, banners falling colorfully on each side. Now only a narrow spiral of stairs was there to greet them.

“Mireea has never had an official conflict with Yeflam, nor with any of the other kingdoms, but the loss of our independence would please them more than it would Faaisha. We have been too strong in Yeflam’s eyes since the day the kingdom was established; whereas for Faaisha we are but a trade port on the way to the ocean.” With awkward movements, Heast began to climb the stairs, his metal leg striking harshly with each new step as he lifted it up. “Unfortunately, I do not think that the Enclave wishes to claim Mireea. They are in a struggle for political dominance against the Traders Union and, if it is true that a leadership change has been effected there, then it will no longer be fought in terms of propaganda on the streets.”

“Then that is not our conflict,” she said. “I don’t see why it would impact on us, not now, of all times.”

On the wall, the captain paused, his hand drifting down to the part of his leg where steel and flesh met. A thin sheen of perspiration showed on his face, the exertion of the climb impossible to hide though he made no mention of the toll. Heast was not the kind of man to speak of weakness, to give it voice and strength. Neither did he ignore it. His slow walk to the edge of the wall, to the construction material, where the wooden balustrades and cauldrons of oil had yet to be placed, was an acknowledgment of what he was and was not capable of.

“When we reached out to Yeflam, the first response we received was from the Traders Union,” he said. “They were prepared to offer us aid, to provide refuge for us. Illaan’s father is who responded to us. No doubt, his response had some influence in Fo and Bau coming here, but it was not all. They are naturally curious. Priests are like a red flag. But when the son of a high official is poisoned, the questions it raises are many.”

She stood next to him, her hands on the stone blocks. “If it is the Keepers—”

“It may be the Enclave.” The tone of his voice did not change. “It may be that the political fallout in the Traders Union is larger than we think. If the latter, I doubt either Fo or Bau would lament that, or go out of their way to solve it, which means that we must rely upon ourselves to learn that. You will have to be careful: Illaan’s house will be watched and you will as well. I cannot spare you soldiers at the moment. More so, I cannot spare their gossip, not in this matter. You will have to protect yourself, though, perhaps, I can enlist some help.”

Below, Ayae saw a figure emerge from the trail that led to the funeral pyres. Half naked and with wet hair, she was not sure at first who it was, though Heast’s straightening of his back indicated that he knew. As the figure drew closer and she could see his features, she glanced at Heast and saw that a thin line of dark amusement had creased his lips.

“To think,” the Captain of the Spine said, more to himself than to her, “he only asked for half of a corporal’s daily pay.”