Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [52]
"My father and Chereth… I wouldn't call them allies," continued Talieth. "Certainly not friends. But they aided one another from time to time when it suited their purposes."
"A servant of the Oak Father does not aid assassins," said Lewan, though that particular truth, as much as he wanted to believe it, suddenly felt like trying to hold water with an open hand.
Talieth chuckled, a low throaty laugh with little kindness or humor in it. "Do you hate us so much, Lewan? You don't know us."
"I know you kill for profit."
"So do kings and khans," said Talieth. "You are too young to remember when Yamun Khahan's horde invaded the west. You think he killed all those thousands of people out of kindness? Kings kill by the thousands. They'll cloak it in glory or some righteous cause, but make no mistake. Profit is the oldest reason for killing, yet it's alive and well. None are better at it than kings. And in his own way, my father was a king."
"It's…" Lewan struggled to find the right word, then decided simple was best. "Evil."
Talieth threw back her head and laughed. "Evil? Your dear master never killed?"
"Never for coins!"
"Never?" She gave him a hard look, the demeanor of a queen displeased at an errant servant.
"You mean Kheil," said Lewan. He chose his words carefully so his voice would not tremble under Talieth's gaze. "You-"
"I know Kheil killed for coins," said Talieth, her voice rising to cut him off. "And many times for far less than that. That man loved blood like some men love wine. No, I am speaking of your Master Berun. He never killed? Nor once?"
Lewan scowled. "Nor for coins."
"Then for what?"
"To protect himself," said Lewan. "To protect others. He-"
"Others? What others?"
"Villagers sometimes hired him to track bandits," said Lewan. "He guarded caravans on the Golden Way a few times."
"And he did this for free?" said Talieth. "Out of the kindness of his heart? Or did he do it for coins?"
Lewan turned his gaze away, unable to stomach her smug expression.
Talieth's voice softened. Not all the way to kindness, certainly, but she no longer seemed on the edge of anger. "Don't misunderstand me, Lewan. You have a code by which you live. Which you honor. I respect that. But we, too, have our code. Do not despise us. Do not judge what you do not know. Would not even your master say such behavior is foolish?"
Lewan could sense the wrongness of her words, but he couldn't reason his way around them. The seed of doubt was not yet sprouted, but it had been planted in fertile soil.
"Chereth," Talieth continued, "what interest he and my father shared… I have no idea. But I do know that something happened between them. Again, here my knowledge is incomplete. All I know is that whatever happened was bad enough that my father sent men to kill the druid. Sent"-Lewan caught the faintest hint of a break in her voice -"Kheil. And you didn't send Kheil for a quiet kill. No. You sent Kheil when you wanted a message sent. When you wanted bloody murder and everyone to know about it. My father sent Kheil and a band to the Yuirwood. They… did not succeed."
"Kheil was killed."
"Yes," said Talieth, her voice carefully controlled. "And I thought him truly dead. I went nearly mad with grief myself. Had I known…" She stopped long enough to compose herself, then continued. "But several years ago, Chereth came here. To the Fortress. He came to kill my father, and it says something about the old druid's power-and perhaps my father's early madness-that he came so close to succeeding. Many of our people died. More than a few of Sauk's scars were earned that night. But my father finally managed to subdue the old druid, and he has held him captive all these years. I only knew that Chereth was the man responsible for the death of the only man I ever loved."
Despite his anger and confusion, Lewan kept his face carefully neutral. It seemed obvious to him that her father was mostly to blame for Kheil's