The Bone Shaker by Edward Cox

Author:Edward Cox [Cox, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912950218
Publisher: NewCon Press
Published: 2019-06-17T22:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Darkness

By the time Abildan finished her tale, evening had slipped into night. Mist crept through the forest and fires burned brightly in the Boskan camp.

Abildan fell silent, her fur-covered face turned to the sky and lost to the past. The four knights watched the feliwyrd, waiting for her to reveal more. But she evidently felt no inclination to say anything further.

Vladisal allowed the silence to grow for a moment longer, before saying, “The Wyrd sent you to Uljah to assassinate a princess, but the Ulyyn let you live?”

“Yes.” Abildan’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Luca shook her head. “Not very likely.”

“I’ll say,” Dief added.

“Not only did they let you live, but also rewarded you with a talisman of friendship?” Üban barked a single, derisive laugh.

Her face unreadable, Abildan scanned the camp behind the four knights, and all hint of mockery left her manner.

“I warned you that the Ulyyn were a hard race to understand,” she said, pointedly to Vladisal. “Regardless of my mission, had I not come to the Great Forest then Princess Amyya would have died at the hands of the mad dryad. However inadvertently, I saved her life, and the Ulyyn regard a life-debt as a sacred thing. The leaf talisman honours their debt to me. A strange scenario, yes, but that is the bare truth of it.”

Abildan seemed genuine, but old Üban was not to be convinced.

“You and I have very different understandings of the truth, feliwyrd.”

“You think me a liar, and your convictions are, perhaps, justified to a degree.” Abildan’s tone was detached, her eyes still scanned the camp. “No one was more surprised than I that the Ulyyn spared my life.”

“And so did Mya-Siad,” Luca pointed out. “The Wyrd are famed for many things, but leniency in the face of failure is not among them.”

“This tale grows harder to believe by the second,” Üban growled.

Dief made to say something, but coughed instead, spitting on the ground as though ridding her mouth of a foul taste.

“Ladies, please.” Abildan sighed. “I am feliwyrd. My lot is to serve, not to question, not to understand. I can only presume that my masters foresaw a day when the life-debt owed to me by the Ulyyn would be useful to their plans. Perhaps Mya-Siad foresaw the problem of Dun-Wyrd.”

“Oh, this is rich,” Üban said. She gave a sour chuckle. “The Bone Shakers have sent their monster here because it benefits their dreams of enslaving Earth? Is that it?”

“What else did you expect, Sir Üban?” There was no retort in Abildan’s reply. “The future dreams of the oracwyrd see many things, which only the Wyrd can decipher. Perhaps Dun-Wyrd’s death has to happen. Perhaps the parts played by Elander and the Knights of Boska were also foreseen. Was my failure to kill the princess planned all along? Was gaining a favour from the Ulyyn the real goal of mission? The road to Mya-Siad’s future could take centuries to walk, and no moment of that journey is inconsequential.”

The feliwyrd frowned, seemed troubled. “But then again, it is possible that my failure reaped unexpected benefits.

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