Free Book 2 - An Ill Fate Marshalling by Glen Cook Page B

hostages to fortune."
    „Can she make a comeback?"
    „I wouldn't know. I don't know what's going on in Shinsan. I don't want to. I want to ignore them, and have them ignore me."
    „But they won't."
    „Of course not. Which brings us to consequences. My feeling is, it won't really matter if she wins or loses. Shinsan is Shinsan, and always was and will be. When the moment comes, it won't matter who rules there. You and Kavelin have earned special attention. Be it tomorrow, or a hundred years from tomorrow, a blow will fall. I think it'll be a while coming. They have to recover from a devastating couple of decades. They have to survive external threats. They have to preserve their new frontiers. They'll be hopping like the one-legged whore the day the fleet came in."
    Ragnarson chuckled and looked at the wizard askance. That was not a Varthlokkur metaphor.
    „Excuse me. You mentioned Mist. That reminded me of Visigodred, which made me think of his apprentice, Marco. I heard Marco say something of the sort once."
    Visigodred was a mutual acquaintance, an Itaskian wiz ard who had helped during the Great Eastern Wars. He was a long-time friend of Mist. His apprentice, a foul-mouthed dwarf named Marco, had perished at Palmisano.
    „Marco. That's funny. Every damned conversation today leads to somebody who died at Palmisano."
    „We left a lot of good people there. A lot of good people. Victory may have cost us more than we could afford. It took the good people and left the blackguards. They'll start their power games before long."
    They were in the back exercise court now, standing over the body. The soldiers had beaten a hasty retreat. Bragi said, „Maybe they've already started."
    „Maybe. Move back. You don't want to be too close."
    „I don't want to be in the same province," Ragnarson muttered. Nevertheless, he seated himself on some steps and waited.
    Varthlokkur did not do anything flashy. He just stood there, head bowed, eyes closed, concentrating. Neither he nor the King moved for twenty minutes.
    Ragnarson felt it before he saw it. He stiffened. His right hand strayed to the sword he always carried. He grimaced. As if mere steel could avail against the Unborn.
    He hated the thing. Created by one of the Princes Thaumaturge, it had been insinuated into the womb of his Fiana. It had grown there, and grown there, and its coming forth had killed her.
    Varthlokkur had delivered that child of evil, had made of it a terrible tool, and had turned the tool upon its creators.
    It drifted over the east wall, looking like some new, bizarre little moon. It glowed softly, palely, the color of the full moon soon after rising. It bobbed gently, like a child's soap bubble drifting on the breeze.
    It settled toward Varthlokkur, becoming more denned as it drew nearer. A luminescent globe about two feet in diameter. Inside, something hunched and curled... . Up close, clearly a fetus. Humanoid. But nothing human. Far from human.
    Its eyes were open. It met Ragnarson's gaze. He battled a surge of hatred, an impulse to hack away with his sword, to hurl a rock, to do something to destroy that wickedness. That
thing
had killed his Fiana.
    Varthlokkur had used it to terrible effect during the war. It kept the Tervola east of the Mountains of M'Hand even now. It was the one weapon in the western arsenal capable of intimidating them. They would find a way of destroying it before coming west again.
    It made Ragnarson secure on his throne. At Varthlokkur's command it would drift through Kavelin's nights routing out every treachery. It could do countless wicked and wonderous things, and was almost invulnerable itself.
    Ragnarson compelled himself to remain seated. He forced his eyes away from the bobbing globe. He did not want to see the mockery in that tiny, cruel face.
    Varthlokkur beckoned his creation down, down, till it hovered over the dead assassin. He murmured. Bragi recog nized the language of ancient Ilkazar. He did not under stand it.