The Twilight herald

'Please allow me to introduce myself,' Rojak said abruptly.

Doranei in turn almost pitched forward in surprise but caught himself in time to step around so he could at last see the minstrel's face.

'That will not be necessary,' growled King Emin quietly. He stopped directly in front of Rojak and, after a moment's appraisal, sheathed his sword.

'No? Well you have put your weapon away at least, that will have to suffice as a politeness.'

'I see no need to be polite,' the king said as he reached into his pocket, 'but I don't need my sword with him there, and a cigar would be welcome to mask your stink.' Emin nodded towards Doranei as he reached into the neck of his tunic and withdrew a stiffened leather packet. The King's Man gestured down to his comrades on the ground and by the time King Emin had withdrawn a cigar and stowed the packet away, Beyn had tossed up a piece of wood, alight at one end thanks to Endine's magic.

'How delightful, your dogs do tricks,' Rojak said hoarsely. Doranei kept his eyes on the minstrel as he reached out so the king could light

his cigar. Rojak's body was rigid, and only his eyes and jaw moved, but Doranei kept his axe ready anyway.

Caution rarely gets men killed, said a memory, the voice of a criminal he'd been apprenticed to as a child.

The firelight brought out more detail, even as it deepened the shad¬ows around Rojak. The skin on his face hung limp and loose, speckled by age and ugly wheals, indicating he was riddled with disease. Doranei held the torch up to illuminate the filthy state of Rojak's clothes. The minstrel had soiled himself, more than once, he thought, and great patches of sweat had stained the once-green tunic, but his eyes still gleamed with ferocious malice. He was both repulsive and pitiable.

'And you must be Doranei,' Rojak croaked. 'Ilumene told me you would be at your king's side; the new favourite, one who could be trusted to be docile and obedient.'

'That Ilumene thinks himself merely disobedient,' the king inter¬jected, 'tells you all anyone needs to know about the man.'

'Undoubtedly true.'

The wheezing chuckle took Doranei by surprise, but he saw no change in his king's expression, which remained fixed and intent.

'I believe Ilumene still harbours a little jealousy towards his replace¬ment for possessing some quality he never had.' Rojak paused for breath, his jaw falling slack, displaying his raw, blistered tongue. 'But what characterises each of us better than our own small faults?'

'Many things,' King Emin replied without hesitation. 'You surround yourself with the broken and the weak, and that is a fault of your own. The weak have nothing but their own failings. Spare us your poisonous, hollow words. They hold no interest for us.'

'Hollow? They are anything but.' Again Rojak laughed, the effort shaking his brittle, rancid frame. After all you have seen in this place of death, and yet still you do not see. You ask me to spare you lies, but all I have is truth, and that is all spoken now. Spoken and recorded; copied, catalogued, translated and analysed; I am the twilight herald and my words for you were done a long time ago.'

'You waited here and let your guards be slaughtered just so you could taunt me one last time?'

'They are unimportant; the service they rendered was at an end.' The whisper was faint now, and Doranei found himself craning for¬ward to catch the words. 'I am here because my quest brings me here, and it amuses me to see the look on your faces. I have passed you by a dozen times and more, so close I could reach out and touch your noble brow; it fills me with mirth to reveal myself only here, when any vengeance you may inflict will only do me a service.'

He tried to lift the hand from his lap, but his clawed fingers failed to move. He gave a gasp of pain. 'Do you see?' he asked through gritted teeth. 'My agony is complete. Your retribution only ends my pain. Ilumene kept nothing private, so I know how that little village's demise affected you both… and now you stand there, powerless.' With a great force of will Rojak managed to raise his hands for a moment. He upturned his palms, like a priest giving thanks. 'Was this how you imagined this moment, with your enemy broken and helpless before you?'

Doranei's throat was dry. He was forced to swallow hard and mois¬ten his lips before starting again. 'I have thought of this moment often enough, and I told Ilumene of it when the memory of Thistledell was still fresh. My mother's family came from there, though I never saw the place until my first mission as a King's Man; my homecoming was to gnawed bones and trails of blood, to the spirits of the trees bloated on the souls of children, and wearing their faces as Ilumene and I killed them.

'Yes, I have thought of this moment, but one thing my king has taught me is that hatred poisons us. I have seen what hatred does to a man, and I will not want to end up that way. The day I arrived in this city, my king told me to ensure that when this day came, it would be about more than vengeance. You say Ilumene is jealous of my qualities. That doesn't surprise me, for though I haven't the strength of body or mind that he has, that is my advantage over him.' He cleared his throat again, aware that the eyes of the two men who had affected his life most were focused on him. 'I understand what it is to be human, and what it is to be lacking. Ilumene has only ever lacked understanding, and that is what makes him less than I, and as empty as you. It didn't take me long to realise that when this day came I would have no words for you because there is nothing to say. There is no justification for what you have done, and no fury of mine, however righteous, could give justice to the i

'I agree,' said King Emin abruptly. He reached for the dagger at his belt and drew it, looking at the engraved hilt for a moment before tossing it to Doranei. 'It is enough that the end is now.'

Doranei looked at the dagger, Engraved into the pommel were the king's initials and emblem, the worker bee that symbolised both piety and endeavour.

And when we do not recognise the weaknesses in ourselves, let us hope we have friends to save us from them. He tossed the blade back. A flash of surprise crossed the king's face, but instead of arguing, he nodded in acceptance.

'It is enough that it ends now,' Doranei said, as he and the king began to walk back towards the stair where Coran was waiting.

As he passed Rojak's chair, Doranei let the burning length of timber fall into the minstrel's lap. The flame gave a crackle as it caught on the stained material.

'Send our regards to the shadow,' he called over his shoulder, cer¬tain that Azaer was watching them only too closely. 'When the time comes we will be there to end that too.'

CHAPTER 32

Isak gave his head a violent shake, almost dislodging his helm in the process, but failing to remove the sweat dripping into his eye. He blinked again, and hissed in irritation, which did even less.

'My Lord,' called Vesna as he barged his way past a pair of Devoted lancers, 'we can't hold out much longer. We don't have the numbers.'

The mob stood some fifty yards away, and whilst they were hardly human any more, showing no sign of noticing the defending soldiers using their last few arrows, some basic instincts remained and they had retreated momentarily from the slaughter. The central phalanx of heavy infantry faced them, ready to return to the killing at a moment's notice, while the remainder were heaping the enemy corpses high, retrieving what arrows and javelins they could and expanding the barricades protecting them.

Still, Isak knew that Vesna was right. There were simply too many of them, and they wouldn't give up, no matter how many died in the process. The weight of armour and weapons was wearing his men down, and they weren't able to kill the mob fast enough to make enough of a difference.