Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon Read Free Book Online Page B

to her aid—and then Banner reared, striking the thing’s abdomen from behind with iron-shod forehooves. Kieri leaned down, stabbing, but Banner’s hooves skidded off that hard carapace, and his stroke missed. The thing whirled, dropping Vardan’s body; Kieri had his sword up again and swept it side to side across the array of eyes. Banner jumped sideways as a gout of venom spurted at them, then in again, and this time Kieri managed to lop off its head.
    With that, the Pargunese stopped. He heard the clatter of their dropped weapons, their shields, and looked around to see them all fall to the ground, as if only a spell had kept them upright. With a triumphant yell, his own troops ran forward, ready to kill.
    “Wait,” Kieri said. Across the scathefire track, his troops were gathering, moving nearer. He spoke to Cern. “Tell them not to kill anyone who does not resist. Most of these men were not willing.” He looked down. Almost under the spider-thing’s body, Vardan lay still, with a cluster of surviving Halverics around her. Blood soaked the trampled snow. “Does she live?” he asked. “She saved my life and perhaps the kingdom.”
    “Not much longer,” said one of the older Halveric veterans.
    Kieri dismounted and knelt by Vardan; one of the Halverics took Banner’s reins. She bore deep wounds in her body; he could not understand how the beast had done so much damage so fast. But her eyes were open and recognized him. Two of the Halverics were trying to staunch her wounds.
    “Sir … king?”
    “It’s dead. We won. You saved us, Sergeant.”
    “Is … good.”
    He put his hands on her shoulder and closed his eyes, reaching for his healing magery, but nothing happened.
    “No,” she murmured. “Not now. Let me … Falk calls me.”
    Kieri opened his eyes; Vardan’s face was peaceful now, and much paler.
    “Tell m’lord Halveric …” she said, and then with no more words, she died.
    “Falk will honor you as you have honored Falk,” Kieri said. He bent and kissed her forehead. “For all your deeds this day, you will be honored both here and there, above and below, and songs will be sung and your bones laid to rest in all ceremony.”
    When he stood again, he saw that all was quiet, but the day was not over. He gathered his Squires and went to look at the Pargunese, now huddled in a group under guard. He had said they had no facilities for prisoners; he had planned to offer no quarter, but he could not in all conscience kill them now they were disarmed and obviously had been forced by enchantment. The old compact he had lived by for so many years, that he and Aliam and Aesil M’dierra had imposed on most of the others, held him now in his own heart.
    He gave his orders: march the prisoners to Chaya, kill only those who try to escape or resist. It took longer than he’d hoped to right the wagons, hitch the teams to them once more, and transfer the wounded—his own and the Pargunese—into them.
    Next morning at dawn he was away to Chaya with his Squires.

 
    W hen Kieri rode back into the palace courtyard, he saw Arian coming down the palace steps to meet him, back in her Squire’s uniform. His breath came short … in his mind he clothed her in a queen’s robe and then wondered if she would be comfortable in it. The rest of his Council, following Arian down the steps with worried expressions in stark contrast to her smile, pushed that question out of his mind.
    “The Pargunese force is gone,” Kieri said. He dismounted and arched his back, stretching. “Our forest rangers, a squad of Halverics who survived, and some Royal Archers mounted an effective defense—all praise to them. They cut the Pargunese numbers by more than half, and the Pargunese came on only because their officers were all servants of Achrya, who held them in thrall. The survivors, no more than thirty, are prisoners now until I decide what to do with them. They’ll be here tomorrow or the next day.”
    “Surely