The Charnel Prince - J. Gregory Keyes [48]
“Then you don’t trust z’Acatto?”
“I don’t think he would ever betray me, if that’s what you mean,” Cazio said. “But his judgment is sometimes poor. He let my father get killed, after all.”
“How was it z’Acatto’s fault? What happened?”
“I don’t know what happened, but I know that z’Acatto feels guilty about it. It was after that he started drinking all the time. And he doesn’t have to stay with me—I haven’t the money to pay him. Yet he does, and it must be out of guilt.”
“Maybe he stays out of love,” Austra suggested.
“Hah,” Cazio replied, waving the possibility aside with his hand.
“But who is Ospero? I thought he was just our landlord.”
“Oh, yes—he’s landlord for most of the Perto Veto. He also controls a lot of what happens at the docks. And the ladies I escort. They call him zo cassro, around here—’the boss.’ Not a pocket gets picked without him knowing about it.”
“He’s a criminal?”
“No. He’s the prince of criminals, at least in this quarter.”
“What are we going to do?” Anne said.
“Until the right ship comes along, and we have enough to pay passage for it, there’s nothing we can do. They’re looking for you everywhere now. We’re safer here than anywhere. If z’Acatto knows what he’s doing.”
“I’m sure he does,” Austra said.
“Let’s hope so.”
Anne didn’t say anything. She knew very little about z’Acatto other than that he stayed drunk most of the time. Now, as it turned out, Cazio didn’t know as much about the old man as he thought he did.
It might be true that z’Acatto would never betray Cazio. But that didn’t mean Austra and Anne were safe—not in the slightest.
PART II
FRESH
ACQUAINTANCES
The Year 2,223 of Everon
Late Novmen
Prismo, the first mode, is the Lamp of Day. It invokes Saint Loy, Saint Ausa, Saint Abullo, and Saint Fel. It evokes the bright sun and the blue vault of Heaven. It provokes optimism, ebullience, restlessness, brash behavior.
Etrama, the second mode, is the Lamp of Night. It invokes Saint Soan, Saint Cer, Saint Artumo. It evokes the Moon in all of her phases, the starry sky, gentle night breezes. It provokes weariness, rest, and dream.
—FROM THE CODEX HARMONIUM OF ELGIN WIDSEL
Prismo, the first parry, is so called because it is the easiest one to do on drawing the sword from its sheath. The riposte is awkward.
Etrama, the second parry, is named this for no particular reason, but it is a strong parry against flank attacks.
—TRANSLATED FROM OBSAO DAZO CHIADIO (“WORK OF THE SWORD”), BY MESTRO PAPO AVRADIO VALLAIMO
CHAPTER ONE
A JOUST
I THINK THIS MAN wants to kill us, Hurricane,” Neil told his mount, patting the stallion’s neck. Then he shrugged, took a deep breath, and studied the sky.
He’d always reckoned the sky was the sky—changeable with weather, yes, but essentially the same wherever you went. But here in the south, the blue of it was somehow different, bolder. It went with the rest of the strangeness—the rambling sun-drenched fields and vineyards, the white-stuccoed houses with their red tiled roofs, the low, gnarly oaks and slender cedars that spotted the landscape. It was hard to believe that such a region existed in the same world as his cold, misty homeland—especially now, with the month of Novmen half-done. Skern was probably under a kingsyard of snow right now. Here, he was sweating lightly beneath his gambeson and armor.
The wonder of it did not escape Neil. He remembered his awe at first seeing Eslen, how big the world had seemed to a boy from a small island in the Lier Sea. And yet these last months the world had seemed to shrink around him, and Eslen Castle had become little more than a box.
Now the world seemed larger than ever, and that brought for him a sort of melancholy happiness. In a world this spacious, the sadness and fears of Neil MeqVren were not so large a thing.
Even that mixed pleasure