The Sacred Band: The Acacia Trilogy, Book Three by David Anthony Durham

Author:David Anthony Durham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, epic, Action & Adventure, Family Life, General
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-04T03:24:01+00:00

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SEVEN

Delivegu had never been a soldier. He considered himself a dangerous individual, good in a brawl, quick with a knife, capable of staring down the most belligerent of drunken louts, with a sharp enough mind to outwit even an Alecian senatorial whore. He was his own man, and he rather liked things that way. What use was the discipline of the military? Taking orders; chain of command; subservience to officers; blind, meaningless courage in the face of danger? None of that suited him.

But standing near the Santoth sorcerers throughout their exchange with Corinn, jostled by the nobles around him who were bolting for the exit, he would happily have folded himself under the wing of a commanding officer. He would have run away himself, but his scrotum packed up and climbed inside him when Nualo swept Corinn’s spell out across the crowd, ripping people’s skin from them. And when they stood in that terrible circle, Nualo at the center demanding that Corinn give them some book, Delivegu had wanted to shout at the queen to hand it over. Whatever it was, give them the damn thing! He knew there must be some reason not to, but he just wanted them gone.

Relief, then, when she named the place. Calfa Ven. Having been there so recently, he remembered it well. He thought for a moment of Bralyn, but only for a moment.

Nualo stared hard at the queen. “Calfa Ven?”

“You know the place, surely,” Corinn responded, derision twisting around her words.

“We do.”

“Then go! Leave my sight!”

Delivegu had to acknowledge it. If she had looked at him with such complete scorn, he would have withered and skulked away.

The sorcerers did not even notice. Instead, they flashed glances at one another. Nualo scowled and others scowled back, more like animals that communicated through growls and bared teeth than like men. Whatever they had said with those grimaces, they reached consensus quickly.

“No!” The voice boomed up from at the entry causeway. The place was in turmoil, people still trying to flee, trampling one another, but few of them actually getting anywhere.

The one who spoke worked against this. For a moment Delivegu thought he was another Santoth. He dressed similarly, and he moved with inhuman speed. He seemed to run on top of people’s shoulders and heads, light and nimble, his robes flapping behind him. “Noooo! Nualo, hear me! I can get you what you want.”

Nualo just barely held in whatever foulness he was prepared to scream down on the man, letting him come, until the man stood on one of the torch pillars, near enough to be seen clearly. His features were normal, battered and aged, those of a man who had seen most of his living days already.

And who, exactly, are you, old man? Delivegu wondered.

“What, Leeka?” Nualo asked. “What knowledge have you? Speak quickly!”

“Leeka?” It was Aliver, looking more stunned than ever.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, bowing low. “I have been with these ones all these years. I know them well, even if they hid the truth from me.

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