Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Author:Ed McDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

22

I had friends. That wasn’t normal for me, but there they were. Some nights Esher, Liara and I would sit up when my duties were finished, playing pebble board games, reading to one another, or simply talking. They didn’t seem to want anything from me, and I looked forward to those late-night gatherings. Ovitus was envious, I could see that easily enough, so I made time for him as well when Liara went down to the city to practice for something she kept to herself. Esher knew what it was, and perhaps I felt a little jealous about that, but they’d been friends long before I had arrived.

I was playing a card game with Ovitus in the largest parlour when Ulovar summoned me. The greathouse had a single high tower, a sky-piercing pillar of stone, the vanity of an architect long passed into the grave. Step after step after bloody step up and my legs were aching by the time I’d climbed the seemingly endless stairs. The highest level barely had walls, the conical roof supported by twelve thin columns around the edge. The apprentices went up there to sit and meditate, working their minds through the Path of Awareness and Self as they sought to master the First Gate. But there was no meditation today. At least, not the usual kind.

Ulovar sat with his legs over the edge. Three bottles sat beside him, two of them empty, one rolled onto its side. I could smell the whisky. He muttered to himself, staring out at the city in the valley below. Distantly, the Dead Sister and the Maid lay huge and silent against the lower mountains that flanked them. The view was beautiful, but the night was cold, and the wind whipped my hair across my face.

I had seen little of him lately, though he was confined to Redwinter’s grounds. He didn’t notice me, and I was wary of approaching any drunk man when I was alone. But I’d been called here and I had a task to do, and the biting air insisted that I get on with it.

‘My lord.’

He turned to glance back over one shoulder, red eyes winking in the pale blue-white cadanum lamplight.

‘Raine. Good. I had a task for you. What was it?’

‘I don’t know.’

He laughed, mirthless.

‘Neither do I.’

He was as broad as a bear, but his shoulders were hunched, his shirt untucked. He turned back to look at the city lights, the vast dark shape of the castle dominating the lesser spires.

‘Should I leave you?’

‘No, no,’ Ulovar said. ‘I came up here for some space to think, but it feels like I’ve finished thinking for the moment. Drink never did agree with me.’ He put a fourth bottle down carefully, away from the edge. ‘How has it come to this?’ he said.

I walked to the edge and sat down a few feet from him, hooking my legs out over the wall. I had to admit, the view was majestic. I didn’t know what to say, but I could tell from his tone that Ulovar wanted to talk.

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