Tigana by Guy Kay (novel24 txt) 📕

Princes. I spoke to you of that once, I think. His name is Erlein. Erlein di Senzio.’

‘Ah!’ said Rinaldo, letting his breath out slowly. ‘I see. A bound wizard and a Senzian. That explains his anger.’ He moved another few steps forward, sweeping his stick over the ground in front of him.

It was in that moment that Devin realized that Rinaldo was blind. Ducas registered it in the same moment:

‘You have no eyes,’ he said.

‘No,’ Rinaldo said equably. ‘I used to, of course, but they were judged inappropriate for me by my nephew, at the suggestion of both Tyrants seventeen years ago this spring. I had the temerity to oppose Casalia’s decision to lay down his Ducal status and become a Governor instead.’

Alessan was staring fixedly at Erlein as Rinaldo spoke. Devin followed his glance. The wizard looked more confused than Devin had ever seen him.

‘I do know who you are, then,’ he said, almost stammering.

‘Of course you do. Just as I know you, and knew your father, Erlein bar Alein. I was brother to the last real Duke of Senzio and am uncle to the craven disgrace who styles himself Casalia, Governor of Senzio, now. And I was as proud to be the one as I am shamed to call myself the other.’

Visibly fighting for control, Erlein said, ‘But then you knew what Alessan was planning. You knew about those letters. He told you. You know what he intends to do with them! You know what it will mean for our province! And you are still with him? You are helping him?’ His voice rose erratically at the end.

‘You stupid, petty little man,’ Rinaldo said slowly, spacing the words for weight, his own voice hard as stone. ‘Of course I am helping him. How else are we to deal with the Tyrants? What other battleground is possible in the Palm today but our poor Senzio where Barbadior and Ygrath circle each other like wolves and my crapulous nephew drowns himself in drink and spills his seed in the backsides of whores! Do you want freedom to be easy, Erlein bar Alein? Do you think it drops like acorns from trees in the fall?’

‘He thinks he is free,’ Alessan said bluntly. ‘Or would be, if it wasn’t for me. He thinks he was free until he met me by a river in Ferraut last week.’

‘Then I have nothing more to say to him,’ said Rinaldo di Senzio, with contempt.

‘How did you . . . how did you find this man?’ It was Sertino, speaking to Alessan. The Certandan wizard still kept to the far side of the room from the Prince, Devin noted.

‘Finding such men has been my labour for twelve years and more now,’ Alessan said. ‘Men and women from my home or yours, from Astibar, Tregea . . . all over the peninsula. People I thought could be trusted and who might have reason to hate the Tyrants as much as I. And a desire to be free that matched my own. Truly free,’ he said, looking at Erlein again. ‘Masters of our own peninsula.’

With a faint smile he turned to Ducas. ‘As it happened, you hid yourself well, friend. I thought you might be alive, but had no idea where. We lived in Tregea on and off for more than a year but no one we spoke to knew, or would say anything about your fate. I had to be terribly clever tonight to lure you into finding me instead.’

Ducas laughed at that, a deep sound in his chest. Then, sobering, he said, ‘I wish it had happened earlier.’

‘So do I. You have no idea how much. I have a friend I think will take to you as much as you will to him.’

‘Shall I meet him?’

‘In Senzio, later this spring, if events fall right. If we can make them fall right.’

‘If that is so, you had best start by telling us how you need them to fall,’ Rinaldo said prosaically. ‘Let me tend to your two wounded while you tell what we should know.’

He moved forward, tapping the ground ahead of him as he came up to Devin. ‘I am a Healer,’ he explained gravely, the sharpness gone from his voice. ‘Your leg is bad and needs dealing with. Will you let me try?’

‘So that is how you knew us,’ Ducas said, wonder in his voice again. ‘I have never known a true Healer before.’

‘There are not many of us and we tend not to announce ourselves,’ Rinaldo said, the empty sockets of his eyes fixed on nothingness. ‘That was so even before the Tyrants came: it is a gift with limits and a price. Now we keep ourselves hidden for the same reason the wizards do, or almost the same: the Tyrants are happy to seize us, and force us serve them until they wear us out.’

‘Can they do that?’ Devin asked. His voice was hoarse. He realized that he hadn’t spoken for a long time. He cringed at the thought of what he would sound like if he tried to sing tonight. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so exhausted.

‘Of course they can,’ said Rinaldo simply. ‘Unless we choose to die on their death-wheels instead. Which has been known to happen.’

‘I will be happy to learn of any difference between that coercion and what this man has done to me,’ Erlein said coldly.

‘And I will be happy to tell you,’ Rinaldo shot back, ‘as soon as I finish my work.’ To Devin he said, ‘There should be straw behind you. Will you lie down and let me see what I can do?’

In a few moments Devin found himself prone on a bed of straw. With an old man’s gingerly caution Rinaldo knelt beside him. The Healer began rubbing his palms slowly against each other.

Over his shoulder Rinaldo said, ‘Alessan, I’m serious. Talk while I work. Begin with Baerd. I would like to know why he isn’t with you.’

‘Baerd!’ a voice interrupted.