A Path to Coldness of Heart tlcotde-3 Read online

  A Path to Coldness of Heart

  ( The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire - 3 )

  Glen Cook

  At long last, the conclusion to Glen Cook''s Dread Empire saga has arrived! King Bragi Ragnarson is a prisoner, shamed, nameless, and held captive by Lord Shih-kaa and the Empress Mist at the heart of the Dread Empire. Far away in Kavelin, Bragia''s queen and what remains of his army seek to find and free their king, hampered by the loss or desertion of their best and brightest warriors. Kavelina''s spymaster, Michael Trebilcock, is missing in action, as is loyal soldier Aral Dantice. Meanwhile, Dane, Duke of Greyfells, seeks to seize the rule of Kavelin and place the kingdom in his pocket, beginning a new line of succession through Bragia''s queen, Dane''s cousin Inger. And in the highest peaks of the Dragona''s Teeth, in the ancient castle Fangdred, the sorcerer called Varthlokkur uses his arts to spy on the world at large, observing the puppet strings that control kings and empires alike, waiting... For the time of the wrath of kings is almost at hand, and vengeance lies along a path to coldness of heart.

  GLEN COOK

  A Path to Coldness of Heart

  Chapter One:

  Year 1016 AFE (After the Founding of the Empire of Ilkazar)

  The Price of Hubris

  The prisoner clamped his jaw on a shriek. He had moved too suddenly, turning. He did swear softly. He could not work his muscles, could not build the strength to escape if his wounds did not heal. And they would not if he kept trying before the meat was ready.

  A clatter rose outside. This austere suite might be his entire world for the remainder of his existence: a reward for having befriended a woman and having saved the life of a man.

  It was the middle of the night. Darkness with stars fil ed the single foot square window high in the east wal , wel beyond his reach. He should be sleeping.

  He lay in bed, back to the doorway, feigning sleep, when the visitors arrived. Three, from the sounds of it: one large, one smal , one delicate. Female, if fragrance did not lie.

  “He heals slowly,” one said. “The physician blames his despair.”

  That voice belonged to Lord Ssu-ma Shih-ka’i, commander of Shinsan’s Western Army. It was by Shih-ka’i’s grace that the prisoner lived.

  A second familiar voice said, “The physician should look closer. He’s clever. He’l show you what you expect to see til you relax. Then you’l be dead.” The prisoner’s exact strategy. If only his body would heal!

  Shih-ka’i said, “The physician says his wounds pierced his soul. He overreached—and it cost him everything.” Mist, Empress of the Dread Empire, considered before she replied. “It can’t be easy, living on after making so many bad decisions.”

  The prisoner, who thought of himself only as “the prisoner” because of his shame, compel ed himself to relax, to breathe slow and deep. But he could not stop tears from leaking.

  Thousands had died because of his decisions. A kingdom might be destroyed by civil war. His family would be fugitives already. The childwoman he had loved… Who knew? If Sherilee was clever she would insist that she had known him only as someone who visited her friend Kristen, widow of his son and mother of his grandchildren.

  He thought about Inger, his wife and queen, seldom. When he did, though, it was with a grand ration of guilt. That love had died.

  Inger came to mind when the pain was bad. They met the last time he lay just outside the Dark Gate, she a volunteer nurse helping heroes injured while holding the wolves of the Dread Empire at bay. In his loneliness he had asked her to become his wife.

  He had lost another wife, Elana, and another lover, Fiana, before Inger.

  Women who loved him did not fare wel .

  “Were I in charge here,” said the woman who had been a friend, and a wife to his best friend’s wife’s brother, “and I was sure that he would recover, I would brick up the doorway.”

  Lord Ssu-ma said, “I bear the man no love but that is excessive. He’s a cripple. He’l never recover ful y. And he’s nowhere where he can cause any grief.”

  The prisoner had no idea where “here” was. Inside Dread Empire territory, certainly. Though Shinsan had suffered severely lately, not one inch of ground had been abandoned How were Shinsan’s wars coming? He had helped facilitate the conclusion of one and had been the loser in another. The Matayangan front must have turned favorable, too. Mist had time to visit.

  She observed, “O Shing was a cripple.”

  “As you say. Vigilance is required.”

  The night visitors withdrew, to the prisoner’s frustration. He had hoped to hear something more heartening.

  Despair led to self-flagel ation. Then, final y, feigned sleep segued into the real thing.

  ...

  Inger watched her captains bicker over a map. They were getting nowhere. She was too tired to scold them. Too tired to ask what new disasters had them bickering.

  Ethnical y, three were Nordmen from Kavelin’s old ruling class. Two were Wessons, freemen, descendants of long-ago immigrants from Itaskia. Inger was Itaskian-born, as was the sixth man, whom she had borrowed from her cousin Dane. Dane’s little army was wintering fifty miles west of Vorgreberg, too far away to provide quick support.

  Regions nearer the capital were less friendly. Dane’s men suffered virulent guerril a attacks if they moved nearer to Vorgreberg. That forced them to cluster in stronger bands.

  Those became a strain on local resources, which, in turn, left the locals more sympathetic to the rebels.

  Inger refused to let Dane move into the city. She said she did not want to cede the countryside. In truth she did not want her uncontrol able cousin in position to control Kavelin by control ing her.

  He would try, given the chance.

  Power was his reason for having come to Kavelin.

  Power was why she had wed Kavelin’s lonely king.

  Inger sipped scalding tea.

  She was a tal , handsome woman whose blond hair had begun to streak grey. Time was not the thief of her beauty.

  Stress, fear, and lack of sleep were the demons responsible.

  The hot tea wakened her ful y. “Silence! Thank you, gentlemen. Using the term loosely. Mr. Cleary, you talk.

  Everyone else stay quiet.”

  Cleary was the senior Wesson, a stout, sturdy man of thirty-three who had served King Bragi faithful y and remained loyal now that Bragi had fal en. Inger trusted him. The Nordmen and Nathan Wolf, borrowed from Dane of Greyfel s, she trusted not at al . In Wolf ’s case it was no secret that he was here to watch her because Dane no longer had faith in Josiah Gales.

  “Ma’am. Your Majesty. The contention arose because General Liakopulos has gone missing. No one knows where, when, or how. He was pol ing units out west to see where they stand, now. Our discussion concerned possible hows and whys of his disappearance.”

  Inger’s heart sank. This was bad news indeed, though not a surprise. Liakopulos had had little interest in supporting her. He had been Bragi’s man. He considered her incapable of, or uninterested in, pursuing Bragi’s reforms.

  “What are the theories? Mr. Wolf?”

  “He deserted. He didn’t want to be here anymore.”

  “And the rest of you disagree?”

  Two Nordmen, Sir Rengild and Sir Arnhelm, thought the truth more sinister: The Guild General had gone over to the Marena Dimura strongman, Credence Abaca. Sir Arnhelm insisted, “Those two were always cozy.” Which he found repugnant because, as a class, Nordmen considered Marena Dimura less than human woodland savages.

  Colonel Abaca and his henchmen had developed massive pretensions during the reign of the lost king—a savage himself who would not distinguish between noble a
nd ignoble.

  The third Nordmen, Sir Quirre of Bolt, said nothing. With a slight sneer and shake of the head he expressed contempt for his fel ows. He believed in King Bragi’s vision.

  Inger turned to the Wessons. Boyer disagreed completely with Cleary. Neither considered Liakopulos a vil ain. Cleary was sure the General just did not stop heading west when he saw a chance to leave. Boyer was sure that Liakopulos had been murdered. “And rebels didn’t do it. It wil be Greyfel s when the truth comes out. It’s a matter of who stands most to gain, Your Majesty.”

  “Spoken like a true money-grubbing merchant,” Sir Arnhelm snarled. “Everything comes down to a balance sheet.”

  “Yes, it does,” Inger said. There was no love for the General here. Liakopulos had kept these men in check, favoring no one, contemptuous of them al because he considered them adventurers and plunderers who cared nothing for Kavelin. Bragi, Queen Fiana, and her husband the Krief, who died when Fiana was a teen, had al stretched reason to breaking to create a nation in which al the peoples had a stake.

  Inger covered her forehead with her left palm, rubbed, thumb and little finger massaging her temples. “Jokerst, find Colonel Gales. I want him here for a working breakfast tomorrow.”

  Gales would replace Liakopulos. He had been understudying, with the General’s assistance. The move was expected. And might be what Dane wanted to see.

  Was he behind Liakopulos’s disappearance? He was capable. But would he dare the hostility of the Mercenaries’

  Guild?

  Inability to predict consequences accurately was the bane of the Greyfel s line. Again and again they dropped stones on their own toes while trying to be clever.

  “The rest of you. No more speculation. Get me facts. Find out what actual y happened.”

  Several faces went pale. It was dangerous out there.

  “One thing can’t be denied,” Sir Arnhelm said. “The break with the old regime. Liakopulos was the last.” Inger suspected that pleased the man no end. “Al of you, go away. I need rest before I go mad.”

  They went. She sent for Dr. Wachtel, an overlooked holdover from the old regime. But Wachtel was a holdover from every regime. He was Castle Krief furniture. He had tended Kavelin’s rulers for sixty years, whoever they were.

  The doctor provided a draught to make Inger sleep. The medication sometimes had a harsh side effect. It caused vivid, often prescient dreams, some of which would be nightmares.

  Inger wakened less rested than she had hoped. She did not remember her dreams but met the new day afraid.

  ...

  Credence Abaca’s Marena Dimura partisans kept their political prizes in comfort but there were limits to what could be managed in the wilds of the Kapenrung Mountains.

  Kristen and her companions learned the cost of commitment to a cause, though the privations were social, intel ectual, and circumscription of movement rather than a dearth of food, warmth, or shelter.

  The children, including young King Bragi I , did not mind.

  They ran wild with the Marena Dimura urchins, getting every bit as filthy and bruised while having just as much fun in the ice, snow, and forests. Kristen tried to convince herself that this was good for a boy who would become king of al Kaveliner peoples, including the disenfranchised Marena Dimura.

  Which was their own fault, Kristen believed. They would not leave the wilderness and become part of the nation, though some had done so while Bragi was king. Abaca had been one of the army’s top commanders.

  Kristen and Dahl Haas shared a bench inside a cozy cabin equipped with the blatant luxury of a huge glass window. Kristen often wondered where the forest people had stolen it. Snow fel outside. Big chunks hit the window, melted, slid downward as they perished. “Winter here is harder than it is in Vorgreberg.”

  “Think so? How about during the Great Eastern Wars?”

  “That was one bad winter.” She frowned. It had been more than one winter and had been unimaginably worse than this. Hunger, danger, fear, and sickness had been constant companions.

  Haas leaned close, no longer discomfited by his affection for the girl who had been the wife of his king’s son and who was the mother of Bragi’s legitimate heir. Kristen had abandoned reticence long ago. She knew her father-in-law approved.

  She said, “Sitting here like this, I don’t think this is such a bad life.”

  “How much better the world if everyone were equal y content.”

  “You ought to be content. You’ve got me.”

  “Somebody is getting a big head.”

  Sherilee came for the fire and to watch the snow. The couple said nothing. Speaking to Sherilee gave her license to vent her unhappiness. She could be tiresome.

  Sherilee was young, smal , beautiful, almost porcelain in her perfection. She looked years younger than she was, which was only Kristen’s age. In his absence she had become pathological y enamored of King Bragi, based upon a brief, furtive liaison with a man older than her own father. In her dramatic way she had reconstructed her life around what she thought she had lost when the King had fal en.

  Sherilee sighed dramatical y.

  Her performance drew no response. After further vain sal ies, the tragic dol declared, “There must be something we can do to rescue him.”

  Sherilee was one of a tiny number of people who knew King Bragi was alive and a prisoner.

  Kristen sighed herself, then plunged into the game.

  “Michael Trebilcock and Aral Dantice got away with that once, when they rescued Nepanthe. It won’t work again.

  He’s being held by the Tervola, not some dinkle-brain queen of Argon.”

  She played loosely with history but facts did not matter here. What did was the undeniable futility of any effort to free the King. To start, no one knew where he was being held. Unless, maybe, Michael Trebilcock or Aral Dantice knew. But Michael was out of touch and Aral no longer haunted Kavelin. Trebilcock might be dead. He had not been seen for months.

  But Michael was his own man. He went his own way. And that worried everyone.

  Since coming to Kavelin Michael Trebilcock had created his own hidden realm of dedicated friends and al ies who disdained the smal minded politics of the Lesser Kingdoms. Those people believed in the welfare of the whole instead of that of the partisan.

  Michael Trebilcock had remained faithful to Bragi while Bragi was king but Bragi was never ful y confident of Trebilcock.

  Sherilee asked, “Do you think Aral is in touch with Michael?”

  Those two had been friends since their school days in Hel in Daimiel. They had shared several fierce adventures in Kavelin and abroad. Dantice occasional y visited the Marena Dimura during more clement seasons. He lived in Ruderin nowadays but remained in the family business, being part trader, part smuggler, part gangster. Once upon a time, before the wars, his father had been a trader, too. A more legitimate trader.

  Aral had one foot firmly in the shadows. Many of his associates over there had spied for Michael Trebilcock.

  Dahl said, “Maybe. But Michael would come to him.

  Michael lives in his own secret kingdom of loyal friends. I couldn’t guess their ideology, if they have one. Probably something like what Bragi’s was. They aren’t after power.

  They col ect information, then dispense it where they think it’l do some good. And they hide each other when there’s a need.”

  “He did support the King.”

  “As far as we ever saw, he did. He took extreme risks on Bragi’s behalf but Bragi never trusted him completely. Inger is sure that Michael cleaned out the treasury.” Kristen caught something. “Dahl? You know something about that?”

  “How could I? I was way far away.”

  “Dahl. Talk to me. I’m your Queen Mother, remember?” Sherilee stalked in from the other side, looking ferocious.

  “Talk, soldier boy! This is something you shouldn’t be hiding.”

  “I’m not hiding anything. I don’t know anything. I just remember what cont
ingency plans there were. It’s just a gut feeling.”

  Kristen said, “Talk to me about your digestive troubles.”

  “Michael might not be innocent, but that’s only because he was involved in the planning. Emptying the treasury was up to Cham Mundwil er and Derel Prataxis. A merchant prince and a Rebsamen don with an abiding interest in economics.”

  Both women held their peace but glared in a way that demanded further commentary.

  Dahl said, “Prataxis sometimes talked about how a lack of specie could inhibit economic growth. He believed in a money economy. Meaning he thought we’d al live better if there was a lot of trustworthy coinage circulating. You can’t build a state on the barter system. It always made sense when Derel talked about it. He always had examples.

  Kingdoms like Itaskia, where a lot of money is always in motion, grow strong economical y and militarily. In the Lesser Kingdoms, where there isn’t much money, nothing good happens because nobody can pay for it. Kavelin has been an exception because it controls trade through the Savernake Gap.”

  “We don’t have that trade anymore,” Kristen said.

  “We don’t,” Dahl agreed.

  “The theft of the treasury fits how?” Sherilee asked.

  “Inger doesn’t have a copper to pay her soldiers. And soldiers don’t usual y want their pay in chickens or corn.”

  “Ha-ha,” Kristen said. “That may be. But I haven’t heard of any regiments who declared for Inger fal ing apart because they haven’t gotten paid. And we can’t pay the men who stuck with us.”

  “Troops on both sides are on partial pay donated by the wealthy. The Estates for Inger, the merchants of Sedlmayr and the west for us. Inger claims new money is coming from Itaskia. Our friends say Kavelin’s silver mines are pledged to us. Nobody has been asked to fight. Any showdown between men who fought side by side before wil probably cause mass desertions.”

  Sherilee proved she was not just a gorgeous face and damned fine everything else. “We can’t mine, refine, and mint enough silver to support production and an army, too.”