In the House of Five Dragons
30. Red Blood
“To all things, there are two faces. Terra and Alterra, day and night, light and dark. Even the gods were born in twins. To all things, there must be two sides. This is the truth of our worlds.”
— From The Books of Surma and Saerus
When he returned to the Star Court that evening, Rikard found Thainna in one of the empty bunk rooms. In his hurry to address the Sun and Moon Courts, Rikard had forgotten all about her.
The Fiori girl sat under the small window and had a waxed board in her lap, scratching at it with a sharpened length of bamboo set into a bone handle. She hummed tunelessly to herself and didn’t seem to notice him at the door.
Rikard realized that he was staring at her. Thainna had lost much of her skeletal, unhealthy thinness, but maintained the whipcord build of her Fiori heritage. The combination of her angular Carcaen features with her strange, snow-white skin and fire-red hair that had so repulsed him upon their first meeting now seemed so familiar, even striking.
A few strands of long, wavy hair had come loose from their coil and spilled down the back of Thainna’s pale neck.
Beautiful.
But it was improper to even think such things about another woman. Laurael waited for him at home. Rikard cleared his throat and Thainna turned around. She put the board down on a desk. What Rikard had first taken for sketches were columns of numbers. Sums?
Thainna stood. “So much for protecting you from the villains of VEIL.”
A delicate brush against her thoughts reassured Rikard that she harbored no resentment. She was teasing him. Thainna was used to being used and overlooked, he realized sadly. He would not do it again.
“I’m sorry, Thainna,” Rikard said aloud. “I was just so tidal… excited, I mean. I didn’t mean to leave you here.”
“It’s alright. Can I ask you about something?”
“Anything. What is it?”
“This morning, you asked the other knights to come heal Tyne’s injuries. Not that I don’t see the point you were making, but why didn’t you do it? It seems like it would have been a better demonstration than the fire.”
Her curiosity felt so much like Stumble that Rikard didn’t answer for a moment. He simply basked in the eager warmth.
“I wanted to, but I couldn’t,” he said at last.
“Why not?”
“The other knights could have because they knew what he was like before, uninjured. They could have remembered him as he was to the Alterra. A sort of young tree… a sort of guide, I mean, to tell them what to fix.”
“But you could see his injuries,” Thainna said. “Isn’t that good enough? You know what lips are supposed to look like when they’re not split open.”
Rikard didn’t want to think about Thainna’s lips.
“Healing is a delicate thing,” he said. “If I didn’t remember him just right, Flickerdim might have rebuilt him wrong. Human bodies are far more mutable than our thoughts to them.”
“I guess I understand…” Thainna shrugged. Her comprehension was inexact, but close enough. “Did the other generals give you any trouble? Since you just got back now, I assume you didn’t really need me for anything.”
“Castor argued with me, of course,” Rikard said. “He thinks that I’m slandering VEIL. And him. The man hates every breath of me, but I hold rank over him now.”
That was still a strange thought.
“What about General Hern?” Thainna asked.
“Nikas is too polite to argue with anyone. He won’t oppose me, but he’s not supporting us, either. I tried to convince him, but it was like… like trying to bend water. The words didn’t come easily and I don’t think I argued very well.”
“No, you didn’t,” a new voice said from behind them.
Gaius stood in the doorway, holding a cup of sharp-smelling liquor. Rikard had been so focused on Thainna that he failed to sense his son’s approach, not even with his ears. Gaius laughed and swayed on his feet. Rikard held out a hand to steady him, but his son ignored him and stumbled over to plop down into the chair next to the desk.
“Have you spoken to General Hern then?” Thainna’s tone was steady enough, but Rikard felt her flicker-prick of apprehension.
“Laura said that she would send you to join me this morning. Where have you been?” Rikard asked.
“Mother and I had some things to talk about,” Gaius answered vaguely. “By the time I drove out here, you were already gone to tear down the Sun Court. When I heard what happened, I went to go see Nikas Hern. That was after you left his archouse, Father.”
“And he wasn’t convinced,” said Rikard.
It wasn’t a surprise. Nikas had been polite but clear in his unwillingness to take sides. Still, Rikard had hoped somehow that Gaius would bring better news.
“Not even one bit. He doesn’t want you cutting new sails, not when he’s done so well in recent days. You’re preaching philosophy to men who want prosperity.”
Rikard frowned. His son was so bitter.
“The knights of VEIL are better men than you credit them to be,” Rikard said. “Fewer than two hundred have left.”
Thainna listened silently. She wanted to say something, Rikard sensed, but would not. Could not, perhaps. Thainna thought of her brother again, the sickly boy with her face. She was afraid for him. That fear was somehow tied to Gaius, but even more to Rikard himself. It wound around her like silk around a spider’s prey.
Gaius snorted. “Count your knights again tomorrow morning. Those who already left are only the first wave, Father. There will be more. Many more. The ones who were too frightened or ashamed today will leave tonight. Tonight, your speeches will fade and more will go. Tomorrow, you’ll start your work. It’ll be too much or too little and more will leave.”
“They are good men. Strong men,” Rikard repeated stubbornly. “Gaius, you’re a knight of VEIL, too. You should have more faith in your brothers.”
“I know them better than you do, Father. By morning, you’ll know I’m right,” Gaius said. He gave his father a suddenly intense, curious look. “I heard something else, too. I spoke with General Darius before I left and he had a very interesting story to tell. I saw something like it at home, in the garden. You summoned that fire without writing a single instruction.”
“Is that strange?” Thainna asked.
“More than a bit. Where did you school, girl? If all fosters have your education, they probably kill more patients than a Rows cutthroat. Father, are you sure you don’t want a new one?”
“No!” Rikard snapped.
Gaius shrugged and returned his attention to Thainna. “It is strange. Blood’s the only thing that shows through the veil, that Alterra can see. If we want something from them, we have to write out instructions. Detailed ones, so there are no… misunderstandings. Whatever the common folk may think, VEIL knights don’t just squirt our blood indiscriminately.”
“We common folk don’t think you bleed at all,” Thainna said.
Gaius gave a short, barking laugh. “Perhaps, but our new legens is here to change all that. Hae, Father? So, how did you summon up Alterran power without writing a full pact? How did the Alterra know what you wanted them to do?”
“They know me. They can feel me, my blood,” Rikard explained. “They know what I need. I don’t have to write instructions anymore.”
“Lucky you,” Gaius said. His voice slurred slightly. “What a great gift for a great man.”
Thainna gave Rikard a sidelong glance. She started to say something, and then closed her mouth again. Rikard touched her mind as lightly as possible, asking permission, and felt Thainna’s hesitant assent.
What? What is it that you want to say but are afraid to?
I’ll never get used to this. Is Thain well? If they hurt him, I’ll… I don’t know. This feels so strange. I feel him inside me. I don’t like it. I like it. Don’t think that, stupid girl! He can hear. Bloody hell, he probably heard that. And that.
Thainna had no practice in sorting her thoughts for another to reach. They were tangled and jumbled like necklaces in an old jewelry box.
You can hear anyone you want to, hae? she thought. You only sometimes stay out of my head because you’re being kind. Why can’t Alterrans do it, just listen in on anyone’s mind they like? Why do knights have to write anything at all?
The knights of VEIL and the Alterra are brothers, but we’re still… very different, Rikard replied as simply as he could, but sensed that the answer didn’t satisfy Thainna. I’m different. I was in their world so long that… that sometimes I’m more Alterran than Terran. You have thought so yourself.
You had a bloody hard time understanding your own kind when you first came home, Thainna pointed out.
I have lived in both worlds and thought both thoughts. The Alterra understand me and… and I hope that the Terrans will, too. But the Alterra can’t do what I do. They can’t hear the things that I do. They need to read the blood pacts to do as a knight asks.
Thainna seemed to understand, so Rikard withdrew from her mind. Unburdened by Terran speech, their conversation had taken only seconds. Gaius didn’t seem to have noticed at all. He yawned and loudly cracked his knuckles.
“Well, that’s enough excitement for one day. I’m going home for some dinner. Are you coming?” Gaius asked Rikard.
“Hae. Thainna?”
The foster nodded and followed him through the archouse to the stables outside. When one of the hostlers had helped Rikard to bridle the kajja, Thainna climbed up into the chariot beside him. He whistled softly at the huge bird and they drove out across the archouse yard. There were still knights at the gate as Rikard passed out into Dormaen.
He let the kajja set her own leisurely pace. The early evening traffic was slow and heavy. There was no point in hurrying, even if he could.
“Why didn’t you want to ask your question with your mouth?” Rikard asked.
Thainna looked up at him suddenly, as though startled. Her mind had obviously been elsewhere. She thought for a moment before answering.
“I don’t trust him. Gaius. Look, Rikard, you can tell me to track ice, but I don’t know about that man.”
“What?” asked Rikard in shock. “Gaius? He’s my son!”
“He was drunk and probably worse. Gaius is jealous and out of control.”
“Thainna!”
The Fiori foster gave Rikard a hard look. “Be angry with me if you want, but you said that you wanted me to tell you the truth.”
Rikard felt a heavy weight of guilt from Thainna with this statement, but it made her no less correct. Rikard tightened his fist on the kajja’s traces, making the leather creak.
“…Hae,” he admitted.
“You heard him in there, Rikard. Gaius isn’t happy for his father or even that curious about how your pacts work… or don’t work. He just wants it for himself.”
“He’s my son,” said Rikard again, but sadly this time.
“How can you avoid knowing these things about him? You can pluck a single thought or feeling from one man in a crowd, but you don’t even seem to know what your own family is thinking!”
“I don’t have to reach for their thoughts! They give to me… I trust Laurael and Gaius.”
“Trust them so much that you haven’t told them that you can do any of this?”
“I never tried to keep it a secret!” Rikard protested.
“Are you going to tell them?” Thainna asked, green eyes wide.
“Soon, I’m going to tell all Carce.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I hope so,” Rikard said.
Thainna didn’t know VEIL or his family like he did, but still… Rikard couldn’t deny that Gaius had some kind of… problem. He was certain that his son understood the depths to which VEIL had fallen. He was always so deprecating, so condescending toward his brother knights.
Is that what’s wrong, why he seeks solace at the bottom of a cup? Is he ashamed? Of them? Of himself?
Perhaps the changes to VEIL would change Gaius, too. Rikard and Thainna rode back to the Everstones in silence, each leaving the other alone with their own thoughts.
The next morning proved Gaius right. He tossed a waxboard to Rikard with a shake of his head.
“The court captains have reported more losses. Another hundred left last night.”
Rikard caught the waxboard, clacking his bloodcap against the wood as he scanned the tallies. Ninety-eight. Not quite a full hundred and not so many in the grander scheme, but it was still a painful blow.
He ran his fingers over the etched wax. It was rough and flexible under his fingers. Every day, it still amazed him to feel such things. This board would remain even after he left the room. The words, the names and numbers would all stay the same until someone heated and smoothed the wax again. So stable, as unchanging as the road he had followed into Dormaen. Yet so changeable… Rikard underscored one of the names with his thumbnail. But it was easier to change a wax board than change a man’s heart.
“A hundred? That’s not so bad,” said Saul. “That’s less than ten percent loss. It’s costing us a few laurels now — I’m not sure how many — but we only have to pay them the once. The Lyceum can’t object too strongly, can they?”
He sat at his desk, looking out from behind leaning towers of other boards and papers, folded or rolled and sealed in wax of all colors. Most of these lay wherever originally set, unopened and unread. As he had himself confessed, Saul Darius was not a natural leader.
“It’s not about money,” Rikard said. He looked over the numbers again. “Most of these are from Sun Court.”
Saul waved one hand dismissively. “Hae, but forget them. You know, pretty much everyone in Carce thinks you’re a hero, Rik. Now more than ever. More than a few civilians have suffered at VEIL hands and they’re praising you for cleaning that lot out…”
Rikard shook his head, unsure what to say to that.
“What have you got planned?” Gaius asked, heaving a great a sigh. “What’s next, great legens?”
Rikard looked up at Thainna. The foster stood at the balcony door, gazing out over the busy Star courtyard and the city beyond the gates. Sensing Rikard’s eyes on her, Thainna turned to face the two VEIL knights.
“Hae?”
“It’s not enough, not yet,” Rikard said. “We still have more work to do.”
Thainna’s pale brow furrowed.
“More? I’m getting tired just listening to you,” said Saul. “What more is there?”
“The House of Five Dragons… Thainna says they had spies in our ranks,” Rikard said. “We must find them, or else they will continue to corrupt VEIL from within.”
Gaius scowled. “The House of Five Dragons? These are not people you want to tangle yourself with. You know what they say: Reach into the dark and you’ll get bitten by the shadows. Or something like that.”
“We can’t let men like that remain a part of VEIL!”
“They’re criminals, Rikard,” Thainna reminded him quietly. “They’ll lie to you. And they’re good at it.”
“They can’t lie to themselves. I will find them.”
