Tigana by Guy Kay (novel24 txt) 📕

The man on the ground swayed unsteadily on his feet before replying. ‘Because I was born there too, and so I’m immune to the spell, or another victim of it, whichever you prefer.’ Devin heard the tautness in his voice, as of someone holding hard to his self-control. He heard the man called Naddo say, looking up at Alessan, ‘You have been asked for your name, and you only gave him a part. Will you tell us the rest? Will you tell me?’ It was hard to see his eyes now, but his voice told an old story.

Alessan was sitting on his horse with an easiness, even after a day in the saddle, that seemed to deny even the possibility of weariness, or the tension of where they were. But then his right hand came up and pushed once, unconsciously, through his already tangled hair, and Devin, seeing the familiar gesture, knew that whatever he himself was feeling now, it was doubled and redoubled in the man he followed.

And then in the stillness of that pass, with the only other sounds the whistle of wind between the hills and the stirring of the horses on the young grass, he heard: ‘My name is Alessan di Tigana bar Valentin. If you are as old as you appear to be, Naddo di Tigana, you will know who I am.’

With a prickling of hairs on his neck and a shiver he could not control, Devin saw Naddo drop to his knees on the cold ground even before the last words were spoken.

‘Oh, my Prince!’ the wounded man cried in a raw voice. And covering his face with his one good hand, he wept.

‘Prince?’ said Ducas, very softly. There was a restive movement among the outlaws. ‘Sertino, you will explain this to me!’

Sertino the wizard looked from Alessan to Erlein, and then down at the weeping man. A curious, almost a frightened, expression crossed his pale, round face.

He said, ‘They are from Lower Corte. It had a different name before Brandin of Ygrath came. He has used his sorcery to take that name away. Only people born there, and wizards because of our own magic, can hear the true name. That is what is happening here.’

‘And “Prince”? Naddo called him that.’

Sertino was silent. He looked over at Erlein, and there was still that odd, uneasy look on his face. He said, ‘Is it true?’

And Erlein di Senzio, with an ironic half-smile, replied, ‘Just don’t let him cut your hair, brother. Unless you like being bound into slavery.’

Sertino’s mouth fell open. Ducas slapped his knee with his hat. ‘Now that,’ he snapped, ‘I do not understand at all. There is too much of this I do not understand. I want explanations, from all of you!’ His voice was harsh, much louder than before. He did not look at Alessan though.

‘I understand it well enough, Ducas,’ came a voice from behind them. It was Magian, the captain of the group that had driven them into the gap. He moved his horse forward as they turned to look at him. ‘I understand that we have made our fortunes tonight. If this is the Prince of a province Brandin hates then all we need do is take him west to Fort Forese across the border and turn him over to the Ygrathens there. With a wizard to boot. And who knows, one of them probably likes boys in his bed, too. Singing boys.’ His smile was a wide, loose thing in the shadows.

He said, ‘There will be rewards. Land. Perhaps even . . .’

He said nothing more than that. Ever. In rigid disbelief Devin saw Magian’s mouth fall open and his eyes grow briefly wide, then the man slid slowly sideways off his horse to fall with a clatter of sword and bow on the ground beside Erlein.

There was a long-handled dagger in his back.

One of the outlaws from the line behind him, not hurrying at all, dismounted and pulled the dagger free. He wiped it carefully clean on the dead man’s surcoat before sheathing it again at his belt.

‘Not a good idea, Magian’s,’ he said quietly, straightening to look at Ducas. ‘Not a good idea at all. We aren’t informers here, and we don’t serve the Tyrants.’

Ducas slapped his hat back on his head, visibly fighting for control. He took a deep breath. ‘As it happens, I agree. But as it also happens, Arkin, we have a rule here about weapons drawn against each other.’

Arkin was very tall, almost gaunt, and his long face was white, Devin saw, even among the shadows of dusk. He said, ‘I know that, Ducas. It is wasteful. I know. You will have to forgive me.’

Ducas said nothing for a long time. Neither did anyone else. Devin, looking past the dead man, saw the two wizards gazing fixedly at each other in the shadows.

Arkin was still looking at Ducas.

Who finally broke the silence. ‘You are fortunate that I agree with you,’ he said.

Arkin shook his head. ‘We would not have stayed together this long otherwise.’

Alessan neatly dismounted from his horse. He walked over towards Ducas, ignoring the arrows still trained on him. ‘If you are hunting Barbadians,’ he said quietly, ‘I have some idea as to why. I am doing the same thing, in my own way.’ He hesitated. ‘You can do as your dead man suggested: turn me in to Ygrath, and yes, I suspect there would be a reward. Or you can kill us here, and have done with us. You can also let us go our own way from this place. But there is one other, quite different thing you can do.’

‘Which is?’ Ducas seemed to have regained his self-control. His voice was calm again, as it had been at the beginning.

‘Join me. In what I seek to do.’

‘Which is?’

‘To drive both Tyrants from the Palm before this summer is out.’

Naddo looked up suddenly, a brightness in his face. ‘Really,