Duty-Bound [ Lore of Penrua: Book II ]

28

A shadow of foreboding fell upon Mhera, a feeling of unease that went beyond the horror of a young boy's death. As she looked at Uachi's pensive face in the dark, she remembered her own experience as a child of losing someone she loved in a dreadful, violent way. Koreti—the boy Matei had been—had been murdered. That this had been a lie had not diminished the pain of believing it when she was just a girl.

"I knew it was him. He was of a size with my brother, and had the same brown hair. His body was wrapped in linen bandages, binding his limbs so they could carry him easily. When they turned him to place him in a cart standing ready outside the keep, I saw his face. It was black with bruises; had I not known him by the rest, I might not have recognized him, and his marke had been completely obscured. His head hung unnaturally on his neck, but it was him. They had..." Uachi drew a breath, his voice breaking. "They had cut his throat. For the goddess's sake, he was just a boy."

He paused for a moment, his fingers clenching tight on the hilt of the dagger. "They drew another shroud over him and hid his face. I suppose they did not want to look on what they had done. And then, a man in robes came out. He carried a staff, and he stood there, still as a statue, as another came from within, leading a mule. The look on his face was...strange. It was as if nothing in the world could please him.

"They hitched the mule to the cart, and then one of the men called, 'Have you what you need, my lord?' And the man—the mage—said, 'Drive it through the Arcborn quarter to the Rose Road. You: ride ahead to deliver the message.'" Uachi shook his head, a distant look in his eye, as if he were seeing it all over again. "I could do nothing but crouch behind that well and watch as they drove my brother's body away. I never saw him again."

Uachi looked at her at last, and what he saw in her face seemed to surprise him. "Mhera...are you all right?"

She was not all right. The shape of the past had moved as Uachi had told his story; mysteries had trembled and taken new form, and some things had fallen into place with a clarity for which she had been unprepared. But it was not her moment to speak. She shook her head and said, "I will tell you, but first...what happened, Uachi? What happened to you next?"

He gave her a bitter smile. "I left the city...but not before I went back to Lady Aryasa's house. My mother was fast asleep, worn down by her grief. I doubt she ever learned what became of Uaran. But I knew who could be held responsible. When they found her on the cobblestones of her courtyard the next morning, they must have thought she'd leapt out the window of her own accord. And well may she have, had she any conscience at all. Guilt for what she'd allowed them to do to him should have driven her to it. Since it didn't, I helped her along the way."

So there it was: Uachi's first act of violence. The first person he had killed had been a Starborn woman who had caused his family immeasurable suffering. Mhera realized at last that it was not simple hatred of the Starborn and the world as it was that drove Uachi. In a way, it was fear—Aryasa's shadow. Fear was why he had despised Mhera from the start, why he had mistrusted her. Fear was why he had shrank away from her touch and, at first, from her friendship.

Mhera remembered how she had feared Matei and Uachi when first she had met them, thinking that they were responsible for Koreti's death. At long last, she felt she truly knew the man who sat at her side. "Why did you tell me all this, Uachi?" she asked softly.

"It was...time." His gaze flicked down to her throat for an instant; then, he looked away, sliding his dagger back into the sheath at his belt. "I suppose I just wanted someone else to know. You said you trusted me. I felt, perhaps, that I might...trust you."

Mhera was moved by his cautious words. "You can trust me, Uachi. These secrets of yours, I will take to my grave. But have you told no one else? What about Matei?"