Son of the Shadows. Juliet Marillier
much difference really.’
‘Oh!’ It was like arguing with a stone wall. ‘We’re talking of men here, not of animals bred for the pot. Doesn’t it bother you, to have no livelihood but killing? Killing where and how your Chief determines, wherever he can command the best price? One day you may take your instructions from a Briton, the next a lord from Connacht or a Pictish chief. There’s no meaning to it.’
‘Couldn’t take one side or another,’ said Spider, apparently surprised. ‘Not on a permanent basis, you understand. All sorts, we are. Saxon, Pict, Southerner, and some like Gull from places you can’t even say the name of. Mixed bag, that’s us.’
‘But that doesn’t mean you – oh!’ I gave up in frustration.
‘What about Cú Chulainn?’ asked Snake. This was unexpected. ‘He killed his ladyfriend’s father. I wonder what she thought of that? His men killed her father’s army. What for? So he could have a woman, satisfy his lust. So he could show he was the strongest. How different is that from killing for payment? Not so different, I’d say.’
For now, I had run out of answers. Besides, it was time to go back. Dog could not be left in charge of the smith for too long, given his limited nursing skills.
But when we came close to the shelter, the quiet voice I heard was not Dog’s. I motioned Snake to silence.
‘… a man, his name you need not know … from Lundenwic in Wessex across to Gaul … can arrange for you to travel on to … no, don’t mention that, it will be taken care of …’
‘Chief.’ Evan’s reply was weak, but he sounded as if he understood. So he was awake, and his mind was clear again, for now. Snake had retreated further down the bank and busied himself with something or other. I waited, remaining just out of sight, my curiosity getting the better of me.
‘What held you back?’ Evan asked. ‘When you saw what was left of me – what stopped you?’
There was a brief pause.
‘I won’t lie to you, Evan,’ Bran said quietly. ‘I would have done it. And I am not persuaded, thus far, that this is right.’
Again a silence. The smith was growing tired.
‘Bossy little wench, isn’t she?’ he said eventually, summoning a ghost of a chuckle. ‘Likes to take charge. Talked me through it. Couldn’t tell if I was waking or sleeping half the time, but I heard her all right. Told me straight, she did. Arm’s off, she said. Not the end of the world, she said. Told me what I could do without it. Put a few ideas into my head, stuff I’d never have dreamed of. Ask me yesterday, I’d have cursed you for not finishing it then and there. Now, I’m not so sure.’
‘You’d better rest,’ Bran said. ‘Or I’ll be accused of subverting her plans, I’ve no doubt.’
‘Got a mind of her own, that one. Just your type, Chief. Easy on the eye, too.’
It was a little while before Bran answered this. When he did, the warmth had left his voice. ‘You know me better than that, smith.’
‘Uh-huh.’
He was coming out. Suddenly, I was busy spreading out the wet garments to dry on the hawthorn bushes nearby. He halted in the entrance.
‘Where’s Dog?’ I asked without turning.
‘Not far. I will remain until he returns.’
‘You don’t need to,’ I said. ‘Snake is still here. One guard is plenty. I can be trusted not to desert my charge. I would not have agreed to this task if I had intended to turn and run at the earliest opportunity.’
I looked up at him. He was regarding me gravely, and I thought, not for the first time, about his strange two-in-one features. The intricately detailed pattern on the right side gave his eye a look of menace, his nostril an arrogant flare, his mouth a severe, reined-in tightness. And yet, if you took the other side in isolation, the skin was fair, the nose neat and straight, the eye a steady, clear grey like lake water on a winter morning. Only the mouth was the same, hard and ungiving. He was like two men in one body. I was staring again. I made myself look away.
‘Trust?’ he said. ‘That word is meaningless.’
‘Suit yourself,’ I said, and made to go back inside the shelter.
‘Not yet,’ said Bran. ‘You heard, I suppose? Heard the smith talking?’
‘Some of it. I am pleased to hear him lucid. He seems to be improving.’
‘Mm.’ He did not sound convinced. ‘Thanks to you, he sees some hope of a future. You have painted this for him with your words, I imagine, as you did last night for my men. A rosy new beginning, full of love, life and sunlight. You do this, and yet you dare to judge us.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked quietly. ‘I told him only the truth. I did not hide the facts, nor falsify the extent of his injury, and how it would limit him. As I told you before, his life need not be over. There are many things he can do.’
‘False hopes,’ he said bleakly, frowning as he kicked the earth with the toe of his boot. ‘It is no life for an active man. In your soft way you are more cruel than the assassin who takes his victim quickly and efficiently. That prey does not suffer long. Yours may spend a lifetime learning that things can never be the same again.’
‘I have not told him it will be the same. Good, but different, I said. And I have spoken of the need to be strong, strong in mind and will rather than body. The need to fight against despair. You judge me unfairly. I have been honest with him.’
‘You can hardly speak of judgement,’ Bran said. ‘You think me some kind of monster, that is clear.’
I regarded him levelly. ‘No man is a monster,’ I said. ‘Men do monstrous things, that is certain. And I have not judged quickly, as you do. I knew of you before I was rudely snatched and brought here against my will. As you are doubtless aware, your reputation goes before you.’
‘What did you hear, and from whom?’
I was already regretting my words. ‘This and that, around the household,’ I said cautiously. ‘Rumours of killings, seemingly at random, carried out in a way that was both effective and – and eccentric. Tales of a band of mercenaries for hire, who would do anything if you paid them well enough, and who did not let paltry considerations such as loyalty, honour or justice stand in the way of their work. Men with the appearance of wild beasts, or of creatures from the Otherworld. Led by a shadowy chief they called the Painted Man. You’ll hear these tales in many parts.’
‘And what household was this, in which such rumours came to your ears?’
I did not reply.
‘Answer my question,’ he said, still softly. ‘It’s time you told me who you are, and where you come from. My men were strangely vague in their account of how they found you, and who accompanied you on the road. I still await an adequate explanation from them.’
I remained silent, my eyes steady as I looked back at him.
‘Answer me, curse you!’
‘Are you going to hit me this time?’ I enquired, not raising my voice.
‘Don’t tempt me. What is your name?’
‘I thought we had no names here.’
‘You do not belong here, and cannot,’ Bran snapped. ‘I can extract this information from you if I must. It will be easier for both of us if you simply tell me. I am amazed you do not realise the danger of your current situation. Perhaps you are a little slow in the wits.’
‘Very well,’ I said. ‘Fair trade. I’ll tell you my name and where I come from, if you tell me yours – the real one, I mean – and where you were born. Your origins were in Britain, I would guess, though you speak our tongue with fluency. But no mother gives her son