Tigana by Guy Kay (novel24 txt) 📕

always, it was blue. She filled Devin’s glass in silence. She’d scarcely spoken a word all night, but he felt closer to her than he had in a long time. He drank slowly, watching the cold smoke rise from his glass and drift away in the cool night. The stars overhead were like icy points of fire and the moon was as blue as the wine and as far away as freedom, or a home.

Devin finished his glass and put it down. He reached for his blanket and lay down himself, wrapping it around him. He found himself thinking about his father and of the twins for the first time in a long time.

A few moments later Catriana lay down not far away. Usually she spread her sleeping-roll and blanket on the far side of the fire from where he was, next to the Duke. Devin was wise enough now to know that there was a certain kind of reaching out in what she did, and that tonight might even mark a chance to begin the healing of what lay badly between them, but he was too drained to know what to do or say among all these complicated sorrows.

He said good-night to her, softly, but she did not reply. He wasn’t sure if she’d heard him, but he didn’t say it again. He closed his eyes. A moment later he opened them again, to look at Sandre across the fire. The Duke was gazing steadily into the flames. Devin wondered what he saw there. He wondered, but he didn’t really want to know. Erlein was a shadow, a darker place in the world against the dark by the riverbank. Devin lifted himself on one elbow to look for Baerd, but Baerd had gone away, to walk alone in the night.

Alessan hadn’t moved, or opened his eyes. He was still playing, lonely and high and sorrowful, when Devin fell asleep.

HE WOKE TO BAERD’S FIRM hand on his shoulder. It was still dark and quite cold now. The fire had been allowed to die to ember and ash. Catriana and the Duke were still asleep, but Alessan was standing behind Baerd. He looked pale but composed. Devin wondered if he’d gone to bed at all.

‘I need your help,’ Baerd murmured. ‘Come.’

Shivering, Devin rolled out of his blankets and began pulling on his boots. The moon was down. He looked east but there was no sign of dawn along the horizon. It was very still. Sleepily he shrugged into the woollen vest Alais had sent him by way of Taccio in Ferraut. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep or what time it was.

He finished dressing and went to relieve himself in the trees by the river. His breath smoked in the frosty air. Spring was coming, but it wasn’t quite here yet, not in the middle of the night. The sky was brilliantly clear and full of stars. It would be a beautiful day later when the sun came. Right now he shivered, and did up the draw-strings of his breeches.

Then he realized that he hadn’t seen Erlein anywhere.

‘What happened?’ he whispered to Alessan as he returned to the camp. ‘You said you could call him back.’

‘I did,’ the Prince said shortly. Standing closer Devin could see now how weary he looked. ‘He fought it so hard that he passed out just now. Somewhere out there.’ He gestured south and west.

‘Come on,’ Baerd said again. ‘Bring your sword.’

They had to cross the stream. The icy cold water drove all the sleep out of Devin. He gasped with the shock of it.

‘I’m sorry,’ Baerd said. ‘I’d have done it alone, but I don’t know how far away he is or what else is out here in this country. Alessan wants him back in camp before he revives. It made sense to have two men.’

‘No, no, that’s fine,’ Devin protested. His teeth were chattering.

‘I suppose I could have woken the old Duke from his rest. Or Catriana could have helped me.’

‘What? No, really, Baerd. I’m fine. I’m—’

He stopped, because Baerd was laughing at him. Belatedly Devin caught on to the teasing. It warmed him in a curious way. This was, in fact, the first time he’d ever been out alone in the night with Baerd. He chose to see it as another level of trust, of welcoming. Little by little he was beginning to feel more of a part of what Alessan and Baerd had been trying to achieve for so many years. He straightened his shoulders and, walking as tall as he could, followed Baerd west into the darkness.

They found Erlein di Senzio at the edge of a cluster of olive trees on a slope, about an hour’s walk from the camp. Devin swallowed awkwardly when he saw what had happened. Baerd whistled softly between his teeth; it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Erlein was unconscious. He had tied himself to one of the tree-trunks and appeared to have knotted the rope at least a dozen times. Bending down, Baerd held up the wizard’s waterflask. It was empty: Erlein had soaked the knots to tighten them. His pack and his knife lay together on the ground, a deliberate distance out of reach.

The rope was frayed and tangled. It looked as if a number of knots had been undone, but five or six still held.

‘Look at his fingers,’ Baerd said grimly. He drew his dagger and began cutting the rope.

Erlein’s hands were shredded into raw strips. Dried blood covered both of them. It was brutally clear what had happened. He had tried to make it impossible for himself to yield to Alessan’s summons. What had he hoped for? Devin wondered. That the Prince would assume he had somehow escaped and would therefore forget about him?

Devin doubted, in fact, if what Erlein had done carried any such weight of rational thought. It was defiance, pure and simple, and one had to acknowledge—not even grudgingly—the ferocity of it. He helped Baerd cut through the