All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

Author:Guy Gavriel Kay [Kay, Guy Gavriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Antenami knew he ought to have died that morning. He was aware of this for the rest of his life. It was the second occasion, in fact, when he might have been killed in an attack, and he was not a man of violence. Theirs was a violent world, however.

One cannot live—or most people cannot—entirely in the shadow of such moments, memories, but it is fair to say they infused his days, and his dreams on many nights.

The idea that every breath drawn, glass of wine sipped or swiftly downed, every woman encountered, sunrise seen, horse ridden, travels undertaken (love revisited, just the once, after a journey) . . . all such things existed for him, going forward from that day and hour, only because della Baiana had screamed from the pulpit and Antenami had moved backwards instinctively, and . . . people had intervened, who ought not to have even been there that morning.

It didn’t save his brother.

Versano Sardi died that day, assassinated in the Sanctuary of Jad’s Mercy, with consequences for Firenta and Batiara and, arguably, the world, since Batiara mattered greatly.

Piero, their father, was the best-guarded of them, and his guards did step forward, and they intercepted three men coming at the Sardi patriarch and . . . one of the guards died, and all three of the would-be assassins. Two of the Briachi, and a Soncino, the latter only fifteen years old. Good with a blade, but not good enough. The Sardi guards were skilled, but the speed and surprise of the attack—in a sanctuary, on a holy day!—had been great. The remaining guardsmen hustled Piero out of the chaos back the way they’d entered, through the door behind the altar. They defended him in that chamber; they guarded the door to it.

As for Antenami, he’d had only one man with him, just as Versano had, not far away. Perhaps a mistake. This was changed, afterwards. Many things changed afterwards.

A Soncino killed Versano Sardi, sword into chest, screaming, “Death to tyranny! Freedom for Firenta!” There were three others of that party there: one plunged an unnecessary, vicious blade into Versano where he lay on the marble floor, already dead. Antenami saw it happen.

Two others came for Antenami, weapons out, also screaming about tyranny.

They never reached him.

One was intercepted and killed outright by a person extremely lethal with a sword. The other died of a dagger thrown, striking him through the eye. But not before that assassin had stabbed someone else, an unarmed man who’d moved quickly forward (foolishly, bravely, recklessly) to block his path, slow him down.

It was established later that the Briachi had expected support, a rallying to their name and cause, once the three Sardis had been killed and word went forth from the sanctuary. Piero Sardi was not loved overmuch, only greatly feared.

Only one of the three was slain, however, and it was not Piero, and so there was no rallying at all, whatever level of unspoken support there might have been.

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