Daeghrefn moved between them, his dark horse snorting and capering in the brisk evening air.
"No one will attend you, Verminaard," the knight said. "Laca has not allowed as much."
Verminaard cast a sideward glance at the Lord of Nidus. Daeghrefn cut an imposing figure indeed: the chiseled nose, the dark thick brows above piercing eyes. The boy could understand why the soldiers feared him, why they had followed him out of the Order, become renegades along with their gloomy commander.
He looked closely at his father's face-a frightening, opaque mask of Solamnic instruction. Daeghrefn would show nothing of himself to Laca this evening. But the boy remembered Daeghrefn's smile two nights ago, when the last version of the treaty had reached him by the shaking hands of a Solamnic courier. Then Daeghrefn knew at last that the Lord of East Borders would accept Nidus's terms in the exchange. But now that triumph was contained behind a mask of cold composure.
"What is keeping them?" Daeghrefn muttered, shielding
his eyes and looking into the sunset, into the westernmost reaches of sight. "They ought to be here by now."
"You don't suppose that the Nerakans-" Verminaard began, a dark thought rising in his mind.
"Rest at ease, Brother," Abelaard whispered. "Laca will be as well armed as we are. The Nerakans would not dare cross swords or paths with a Solamnic company."
"'Tis heartening to hear that, Brother," Verminaard replied brightly, though his spirits sank at the words. Of course Laca's forces would be armed, and hundreds strong this far into the mountains. The Nerakans were moving in numbers and with tactics even the oldest men could not recall and had not expected.
Everywhere along the Khalkist Range, from Sanction to Gargath and still north, to where the mountains tumbled into the foothills of Estwilde, the Nerakans threatened the borders of more civilized country. Worse yet, the men of Estwilde and of Sanction had joined with them. The forces arrayed against the Solamnic Knights and their scattered allies were large enough and organized enough to pass for an army. Goblins and ogres even joined the bandit ranks, or so the scouts reported.
So all along the lofty spine of the Khalkists, the border lords were uniting in response, in mutual defense. Whether they were Solamnics or not, whether they were long-time friends or had feuded for years, commanders such as Daeghrefn and Laca formed alliances of blood or honor or urgency. Better to ally with a civilized foe than fall to the relentless, motley onslaught from the east.
It was why men always went heavily armed in the mountain passes. It was why, twelve years after the stormy night of Verminaard's birth, the last alliance would be sealed.
A month ago, after the Nerakans assaulted East Borders and pillaged the homesteads within a mile of Castle Nidus, Daeghrefn and Laca had communicated for the
first time since that ill-omened night, exchanging information, then uncertain tokens, then veiled assurances . . . arguments….
And now sons.
"There they are!" Abelaard exclaimed, pointing to the dark banners weaving through the western pass. The waning sunlight glittered red on their armor, and each crimson standard at the head of the column bore the silver kingfisher of the Order.
Daeghrefn rose in the stirrups, again shielding his eyes against the sunset. "It's Laca on the gray, I'm certain," he pronounced. "And the boy with him, on that horse's twin, must be his son."
He shot a curious glance at Verminaard, who met his gaze eagerly.
Daeghrefn turned away, speaking softly to Abelaard as the Solamnic column approached them in the distance. Verminaard strained to hear the conversation, but the words slid teasingly out of earshot.
Something about intelligence, it was. About couriers and signs.
Then his father sat back in the saddle, his veiled eyes red, as though he had looked too long into the westering sun.
"Where is the mage?" he asked the sergeant beside him, his voice troubled and hoarse. "We needn't linger over ceremony and drama."
Now Verminaard could see them, the two riders at the head of the column, framed by the kingfisher standards. A tall man, bareheaded amid a helmeted escort, his hair as white-blond as Verminaard's own. A small, lithe companion, dwarfed by his own horse. The boy was supposed to be twelve years old, born within minutes of Verminaard himself, in the warmth of the distant castle.
Abelaard had said they had much in common.
"Where is the mage?" Daeghrefn repeated, and the
sergeant wheeled his horse in search of the man in question.
Laca's party arrayed itself along the edge of the chasm, a formidable column of seasoned cavalry. Their commander leaned forward, awaiting some sign from the eastern edge of the gorge, and the slight rider beside him dismounted slowly.
Verminaard started at the touch of Abelaard's hand on his shoulder. His brother drew him close, embraced him. "Be strong," Abelaard whispered quickly, "and remember that whatever comes to pass, whatever befalls, I-"
"The boy is approaching, Abelaard," Daeghrefn interrupted. "There is no need to keep him waiting."
Abelaard nodded and gave his brother a long, encouraging glance. Verminaard leapt from the saddle.
Abelaard looked away, his eyes unreadable as he heard Verminaard's footsteps in the gravel at the bridge's edge. Abelaard had cared for his younger brother ever since his birth. And for Verminaard, it was as though his father had long ago handed him over to Abelaard, like a horse or a hunting dog.
I am going now, Verminaard thought. No matter what, I am going. Must gather myself… must stay under control. Father cannot see me shake … cannot see me …
"Where is the damned mage?" Daeghrefn thundered.
From behind him arose the sound of whispers, of urg-ings. Then the mage, Cerestes, brushed by, the hem of his dusty black robe grazing Daeghrefn's boot. He was young, dark-haired, handsome in a reptilian sort of way, his eyes golden and heavy-lidded.
"Where is Speratus?" Daeghrefn demanded. He little liked mages, keeping one at the castle only for defense. But this was not his archmage, only a mere pupil.
Cerestes presented his hasty services after a short explanation: The old mage, Speratus, had been found at the bottom of the chasm, no doubt besieged when he rode
out alone to prepare the ceremony. His red robe had borne ragged evidence of the furtive, hooked daggers of Ner-akan bandits.
One mage was the same as another, Daeghrefn told himself. This young Cerestes seemed confident, even wiz-ardly. He would do. Anything to be rid of the boy. Solemnly the mage saluted his new employer and ushered Verminaard onto the spindly bridge.
"May the gods speed you, Verminaard," Daeghrefn breathed. He looked past the young wizard to the boy, who looked small and lonely as he neared the crown of the lofty arch. "At last you return to your father."
Abelaard looked up at him with a blank face, as unreadable as the soaring cliff, as the scattered rocks on the floor of the canyon.
The Bridge of Dreed was even more narrow than it appeared from the safety of the bordering cliffs. At the height of its arch, where the gebo-naud-the Solamnic rite of exchange-would take place, there was scarcely room for the two lads to stand side by side.
Verminaard moved steadily out toward the middle of the bridge. The Solamnic boy was less assured. He pulled on his hood and walked, heel cautiously in front of toe, weaving uncertainly, like an amateur ropewalker. As he approached from the west, the autumn winds ruffled his sleeves and the gossamer green of his family tabard.
Cerestes, as surefooted and sinuous as one of the huge panteras that were the bane of mountain herdsmen, followed Verminaard. At the last moment, the mage slipped impossibly past the lad and glided to the center of the bridge. There, standing between the two boys, he raised his hand to begin the incantations of the gebo-naud.
Suddenly there was an outcry from the platform.
Daeghrefn shifted uneasily, his eyes on the two boys.
"What's wrong, Father?" Abelaard asked. He asked again, and again, until Daeghrefn's seneschal, an older
man named Robert, took pity on the lad's persistence.
"It'll be all right," Robert offered, leaning across his mare's neck toward the attentive boy.
"Hush, Robert," Daeghrefn ordered. "The ceremony begins."