Jeffrey Lord Blade 35 Lords of the Crimson River

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hibernation and only a little more intelligent. Grief, anger, and sheer
exhaustion had drained him to the point where he could not spring awake
instantly as he usually did.
"Lord Blade! The-the woman Sarylla from Castle Issos. She is here. She says
she wants to care for the
Lady Miera."
That brought him to full consciousness. "Send her in."
Sarylla must have used the relay stations to get here as fast as she had. She
looked as if she'd been dragged by the horses rather than riding them. She
didn't want to talk about her journey, saying only that she'd had much
valuable help. Blade suspected that she had traded sex for fresh horses, and
didn't want to reveal the names of the men. He dismissed the matter from his
mind. She had done no harm, and if she could actually help Miera...
"I was learning to be an herb woman when my father was taken away," she said.
"After a year in Castle
Issos, I became doctor to the women of the household. I treated many stab
wounds, and more than a few broken heads, when Duke Raskod or other men grew
angry or took pleasure in giving pain. Only two women who were not dead when I
came to them died in the five years I did this work. I do not say that I know
more than the doctors. I do say that I may know some things that they do not,
to help the
Lady Miera."
It was grasping at straws, but when there was nothing else to grasp... "Go and
do your best for her. I
will send word to the doctors that they are to treat you as one of their own."
"Thank you, Lord Blade. I hope-I hope I may do work good enough to pay back my
debt to you."
Now her eyes were on the floor, and Blade could have sworn she was blushing.
"How is Lord Gennar?"
"He is well," said Blade. "He should be returning to Castle Ranit with Duke
Chenosh in a few days." By the time she turned away, Sarylla was definitely
blushing.
Lord Gennar returned to Castle Ranit with Chenosh four days later. So did
Alsin and more than a hundred other Lords. So did Cheeky.
By that time the questioning of the prisoners was finished. For once in his
life, Blade was able to sit and watch men being tortured without feeling
particularly sorry for them. They'd done something monstrously evil, knowing
that it was evil, knowing that it would lead to the deaths of hundreds of
innocent people.
The only way of saving any of those innocents was to learn everything the
guilty ones knew.
By the time Chenosh returned, Blade was able to inform him that at least three
of the six mounted
"Lords" in the plot were friends of Orric. They'd won over the servant who
struck the actual blow by promising to pay his debts to a money lender. The
man had been desperate, so afraid he would have to sell his daughters to a
brothel to raise the money that he'd been easy game.
The guilty "Lord" died under the torture, and Chenosh had his body thrown to
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the dogs. The servant was hanged, and after this execution, Chenosh led the
way to the Sacred Grove for his grandfather's funeral.
Like Blade's wedding, Duke Cyron's funeral rites were performed as quickly as
law, custom, and the dignity of the House of Nainan allowed. The priest threw
the torch onto the pyre less than an hour after the body was laid there. As he
joined in the Chant for the Dead, Blade again saw the flames light up the
metal reflector behind the altar. He'd hoped to return to the Sacred Grove and
speak with the priest about that reflector, thinking that perhaps the old man
could tell him something about its origins. Was it, as he suspected, part of a
spaceship which brought the Feathered Ones to this world?
But now that he had returned to the Sacred Grove and the priest was within
earshot, asking about the reflector was the furthest thing from Blade's mind.
Lord Leighton would doubtless grumble when he heard that Blade put respect to
the dead of Dimension X before research for the Project. Let him grumble. Lord
Leighton had never fought among a strange people, never risking his life and
shedding his blood for them, never loving one of their women and obeying one
of their leaders until he felt himself one of them. He could not understand
how such things seemed to Blade.
At the council of war after the funeral, Chenosh announced that he would ride
to seek aid from King
Handryg of the West Kingdom. "The murderers did not name their paymaster, but
if it was not Fedron of the East I will be greatly surprised," the young Duke
explained. "Handryg has a name for hardness and quick temper, but not for
base, vile treachery. Also, we will be helping him to strike at the East
Kingdom while it is least expecting it. He may take his payment for the war
from the Easterners, rather than from us." He smiled.-"I hope I will not sound [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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