Soldier Song (The Teralin Sword Book 6) Page 23

  “Why have you done this?”

  “We have done nothing,” the voice said.

  There was something familiar about it, though it took Endric a moment to place what it was. He had heard the voice before.

  “Master Hames?”

  The old man came close, approaching Endric carefully. He stayed at the edge of his vision, barely in the light coming off the lantern hidden somewhere off to the side, and Endric tried to catch his attention, but he couldn’t see him, not clearly.

  “And who are you?”

  “I’m Benran. I’m Novan’s apprentice.”

  Master Hames laughed softly. “Novan doesn’t take on an apprentice. And he certainly wouldn’t take on someone like you.”

  Endric shook his head. “I am his apprentice,” he said again, trying to be more forceful this time. He didn’t know whether that would be any more effective than merely trying to argue with Master Hames, but he wasn’t going to sit back and just give up. He needed to object, to argue, and to find a way to plead his case.

  Maybe he could convince Master Hames to get close enough that he could grab him. His hand was free enough that if he could get a hold of Master Hames’ shirt, maybe he could jerk him down and force him to let him go free.

  “You were observed coming off an Assal vessel. The Assal are dangerous. Somehow, you have proven yourself to them. There was no mention of Novan.”

  Endric frowned. They had watched him that long?

  How well connected was the guild here? It seemed impossible to believe that they would have been able to keep track of all of the comings and goings throughout the harbor, but if they knew that he had come off the Assal ship, then they had been watching much more closely than he realized.

  They would’ve known about him from the moment he stepped on the shore.

  How?

  Better yet, why?

  For them to have done that, they would’ve had to keep track of everyone moving in and out of here, and he had to wonder what it was that would make him intriguing enough to track. And maybe it wasn’t anything about him. Perhaps they simply didn’t follow everyone who came in and out of the Coamdon harbor, but that seemed excessive, even for the guild.

  “Is this how you treat all apprentices?”

  Master Hames smiled at him. “Only those we have questions about,” he said.

  “Why do you have questions? I’ve told you answers to everything that you’ve asked.”

  He leaned in front of Endric, close enough that Endric could smell his breath but not so close that Endric could grab his shirt and pull him down. The old man was careful, almost as if he knew what Endric wanted.

  “You have passed the testing so far, but even Novan couldn’t have prepared you quite so well. Who are you?”

  Endric closed his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m Benran,” he said. “I am Novan’s apprentice.”

  Once again, Master Hames laughed. He had a dry laugh, and it grated on Endric. “Benran. There has been no word of anyone name Benran joining with Novan.”

  Endric looked over. “And do you think that you have Novan observed quite so closely?”

  Master Hames smiled tightly at him. “Yes.”

  The comment sent a chill through Endric. Was it possible?

  Novan wouldn’t have planned for that possibility, would he?

  Endric’s mind raced with what he could think of Novan, and what Novan might have planned. He would have expected there to be questions about Endric’s serving as his apprentice, but would he have anticipated that the guild would’ve kept an eye on him?

  And what did any of this have to do with the silence coming from the guild?

  Maybe it wasn’t silence. Perhaps it was suspicion.

  “Why would you be watching Novan?”

  “We watch all of the guild members,” Master Hames said.

  “We? I suppose by that, you mean the guild masters.”

  Master Hames smiled. “The guild masters have a responsibility to ensure the integrity of the guild.”

  Endric chuckled. “The same integrity that you allow others to claim? Is it that integrity that you think to defend, the integrity that makes others argue they are a part of the guild to gain its benefits?” The only reason he knew about that was from Urik.

  Master Hames studied him for a moment. “You do have some knowledge of the guild, don’t you?”

  “I keep trying to tell you that I do,” Endric said.

  “And you have some observational ability. You might have made an excellent guild member.”

  There was a certain sense of menace within the comment, and Endric jerked on the restraints, trying to break free, but there was nothing that he could do. If they were teralin, it might be something that he could get out of, but these weren’t. They were iron or steel, some metal that he would have no chance of breaking. He was strong, and his Antrilii heritage made him stronger, but he wasn’t so strong as to be able to tear through iron.

  “Why are you doing this?” he demanded.

  “There is something that I have yet to determine,” Master Hames said. “If given enough time, I suspect that you will crack. You would have no reason to do otherwise.”

  Endric stared at him. “This is an interrogation?”

  He could hardly believe that was what they were trying to pull on him. An interrogation. They were members of the guild; they weren’t soldiers. They weren’t anything other than historians. They shouldn’t pull anything like that.

  “As I said, you will provide answers,” Master Hames said.

  “And what if I don’t have any answers?”

  “That would be unfortunate. Most unfortunate.”

  Endric jerked on the chains again, and as he did, he felt a stirring within him.

  It reminded him of when he felt teralin, but this wasn’t from teralin. This was something from within.

  What was it that he felt?

  Maybe it was his anger at being captured.

  Endric certainly felt anger, and if he were free, if he had his sword, he would have used it without hesitation, attacking them for their willingness to capture him like this.

  He jerked again, trying to feel that same sense within him. It was there, he was certain of it, but what was it?

  There was nothing, no response that would help him understand.

  He pulled again, this time yanking as hard as he could, putting every bit of energy into it what he could draw, and as he did, that same stirring returned.

  He’d felt it before. There had been other times during this journey that he had experienced that same stirring, and it reminded him of what he had felt while on the Assal ship, fighting with them. Had he not been able to connect to that part of him, he didn’t think that he would’ve been able to withstand their attack.

  Whatever it was made him stronger.

  Endric knew that, even if he didn’t know how.

  Master Hames stood off to the side, working with something that Endric couldn’t quite see. The pungent aroma increased, and Endric picked up on it, taking a deep breath, and thought that he recognized it.

  Poison. He was certain of it.

  It would be the third time he would be poisoned since coming to Coamdon.

  The historian guild wouldn’t use poison, of that he was certain.

  That meant Master Hames wasn’t a part of the guild.

  It meant that none of this was part of the guild.

  And if it wasn’t a part of the guild, then what was it?

  Novan had known about something here. It was the reason they were coming here, and having Endric pretend to be his historian apprentice was part of it, but there had to be something more to it than just that.

  Endric yanked on the chains again.

  He was more confident than ever that they were beginning to come loose. Either that or something within him was making him strong enough to tear free. It seemed impossible to believe that he could break free from metal chains like this, but that was the
only thing that he could think of happening.

  Master Hames continued to work near him. Endric needed to get free before Master Hames finished mixing whatever poison he was using.

  Endric yanked again, and he could feel the chains beginning to wobble.

  “I think we are about ready,” Master Hames said, turning to Endric.

  “Ready for what?” he said.

  “Ready for answers. There is much that you can explain to us, Benran,” he said, smiling.

  As Master Hames turned to him, Endric yanked one more time. He put everything that he could into it, letting this distant sense of power flow through him, and he jerked on the chains.

  The chains snapped.

  He spun his arm around as he sat up, connecting with the side of Master Hames’ head. The man collapsed, and a needle dropped from his hand, rolling across the floor.

  Endric grabbed the chains at his ankles and pulled on them, angrily yanking on them in the same way he had yanked on the chains holding his wrists, and they snapped.

  They were steel. They should be solid, but he had torn through them.

  How was that possible?

  He would have to get answers to that another time, but for now, he would get answers from Master Hames. He moved off the hard cot they had set him on and hoisted Master Hames onto it, not worried about binding him. The old man would pose little threat to him. Endric gathered the syringe that had rolled across the ground. As he picked it up, he examined it. As he suspected, a greenish liquid filled it, and it smelled awful.

  Was this the same poison they had used to sedate him in the first place?

  It would be different than what they had used on him in the tavern. That had only made him nauseated, but would it eventually have caused him to collapse, much like whatever they had used on him as he was attempting to leave the fortress?

  Endric stood off to the side, waiting for Master Hames to come around. He was an old man, and frail, and Endric had not shown any restraint in lashing out at him, having no reason to do so.

  Slowly he came around. He looked over at Endric, his eyes wide as he did. “How did you…”

  Endric shook his head. “You don’t get to ask the questions,” he said.

  Master Hames tried to sit up, but Endric took a step forward, holding the syringe, using it as a threat. He would have no qualms about using the same poison on Master Hames that he had intended to use on Endric.

  “First off, let’s talk about what you intended to use on me. What is this?”

  Master Hames’ eyes drifted to the syringe. They narrowed slightly as he looked on it, and Endric smiled to himself. He was afraid of it.

  That told Endric enough. If Master Hames were afraid of it, then it would be potent—and dangerous.

  Endric took another step forward. He held the syringe out, pointing it at the master. “What is it?”

  “A sedative.”

  “That can’t be all that it is. If it’s only a sedative, you wouldn’t be nearly as terrified of it. I can see it in your eyes. I have some experience with men scared as you.”

  Master Hames looked up at him, his eyes narrowing again. “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I’ve told you. I am Benran, Novan’s apprentice.”

  “No apprentice would make a comment like that.”

  Endric smiled darkly. “He would if he was a soldier before he was apprenticed.”

  Master Hames’ eyes widened. Endric didn’t think that was sharing too much, and even if it was, it no longer mattered. Any attempt that he might have of maintaining the façade for testing was gone.

  And perhaps it should have been gone long before. Endric had known that something was off, and he should have trusted his instinct before, but he was determined to complete this assignment.

  Maybe that was the problem. He wanted to complete someone else’s assignment rather than deciding for himself what he would do.

  The thought made him smile, and Master Hames winced, crawling back on the cot, moving away from Endric, who smiled again. He suspected that he looked terrifying, especially with the grin he could feel spreading across his face. He was determined to understand what was happening here, but he would not do it Elizabeth’s way, and he wouldn’t do it Novan’s way.

  He would do it his way.

  And his way was different.

  That didn’t mean it was any less effective, but Endric was a soldier. Everything that he had experienced told him that. There was no reason for him to try to run from his identity. He was a soldier, and he was incredibly skilled.

  That didn’t mean that he wasn’t something else. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t be the plotter that Urik was, and it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be the observer that Novan was, and it didn’t mean that he couldn’t still serve his role with the Conclave. All that it meant was that he knew his identity.

  He always had.

  Wasn’t that what he had struggled with over the last few years? He had continued to serve, even if it was under his father. Endric had been willing to lead, had taken squads out of the city, and had willingly done what was necessary, but even in that, he had still served. He had followed his father’s orders, taking commands from him rather than finding his own way and making his own decisions.

  And his father had shown him time and again that he was ready to step down. He had said it. That should’ve been enough for Endric to know what he needed to do, but somehow, he had ignored it.

  Even during this journey, Endric had seen evidence of his father’s need to step down. He had seen it in the fact that there were highly skilled men out in the world that Endric, as second-in-command of the Denraen, had no knowledge of. He had seen it in the fact that the Denraen had no real presence in the south. There were the Assal, a potentially dangerous threat who trained with the Antrilii. And he had seen it in the fact that the historian guild—a source of information to the Denraen—had been impacted.

  All of that should have been enough for Endric to know that he needed to challenge his father for leadership, but it was the fact that Endric was ready to lead that mattered most.

  And he was ready.

  “Why are you smiling?” Master Hames asked. He watched Endric, and there was terror in his eyes.

  Endric couldn’t help but feel amusement at the fear he saw. “I finally understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “Understand the reason that Novan wanted me to make this journey.”

  Master Hames watched him for a long moment. “You really do know him, don’t you?”

  “You doubted that I did?”

  “Novan does not take on apprentices,” he said.

  Endric shrugged. “He took me on,” he said. And there was truth in that. Novan had taken him on, and whether it was a formal apprenticeship or whether it had more to do with how Endric could serve the Conclave, Novan was responsible for Endric’s involvement. Wasn’t that an apprenticeship? “And besides, what do you really know about Novan?”

  “We are the guild. We are the—”

  Endric stepped toward him, holding the syringe outward. “Be careful with what you say. Choose your words cautiously. Either you were with the guild and you no longer are, or you aren’t and never have been. I would know the truth.”

  One of them was the key. They weren’t part of the guild now, of that Endric was certain, but there was enough here that made Endric suspect that they once had been.

  Something had changed, and maybe that was what Novan had sent him to investigate.

  “We are the guild,” Master Hames said.

  Endric smiled. He took the syringe, pressing it against Master Hames’ arm, and pushed on the plunger just a little. It was enough to send a droplet, possibly a little more, into the man.

  “I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t know what this poison is, but considering that you intended to use it on me, I have no hesitation to use it on you. Now, if you tell me the truth, I might avoid injecting the rest into you, but
again, I don’t have any real hesitation about doing so. If I need to squeeze the rest of this into you, then I will.”

  He waited. Master Hames looked up at him, as if studying his face to determine whether Endric was telling the truth. Endric stared down at him, giving him his sternest Denraen expression, the one that he knew he needed to master to intimidate soldiers, though Endric wasn’t always that skilled at intimidating soldiers. It wasn’t something that he often wanted to do, preferring to have a rapport with them.

  With Master Hames, he felt differently. He wanted to intimidate him and wanted him to believe that Endric was telling the truth about what he was willing to do.

  And he was telling the truth.

  He leaned forward, pushing on the syringe, and Master Hames raised his other hand. “I will tell you.”

  “You aren’t with the guild.”

  “We are the guild.”

  “You may be a guild, but you aren’t the guild. At least, you aren’t any longer.”

  Master Hames shook his head.

  “And why are you in Coamdon?”

  “Because we are the guild—”

  Endric smiled and squeezed on the end of the syringe a little more. “I believe we’ve already established that you aren’t the guild. Now you will tell me why you are here. Why this building?”

  It hadn’t fit with anything, and Endric had known that it didn’t quite fit, and while he had allowed himself to question, he hadn’t questioned nearly enough.

  “There are those within the guild who view the responsibility differently than others. We have challenged that role.”

  “You will have to be a whole lot more specific than that. Why are you here? What are you after?”

  He stared up at Endric, watching his face.

  “If you’re trying to determine whether or not I will finish this, you should know you wouldn’t be the first man that I’ve killed.”

  Master Hames blinked as he stared at him. “No. I can see that I wouldn’t be.”

  “Now. Why are you here in Coamdon?”

  “To intercept the guild move,” he said.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “The guild changes locations periodically.”

  “Novan has told me that,” Endric said.

  “Then you know that when there is concern about the guild having been compromised, they change locations, bringing resources to a different place, to ensure the safety of the guild records.”