darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,97

order to set that condition. But, with that one exception, it was a very tight leash indeed that he bound us with. After Aral put me on the wrong side of my first plan, I suddenly found myself in need of a way to slip it.”

“And . . .” said Siri.

“And I still don’t know. I think I’ve found my loophole, but magical loopholes are inherently chancy things. Especially where god-magic is involved. I can’t even see the portion of the spell that the Son arranged through his god, and that means I can’t know if I’ve done the trick entire, short of a working test.”

“Hence the interest in yonder batch of Heaven’s Sword,” said Ssithra.

Kelos nodded. “Exactly. I was rather hoping to take a shot at these charming villains here while I have you all as backup, in case I couldn’t touch them, and when there were miles yet to go to Heaven’s Reach. Or, failing this particular bunch, others in the same sort of case. But if Aral’s going to go all no just cause on us, that will make the testing of things a bit more challenging.”

“I know you,” I said, flatly. “You wouldn’t have stopped experimenting with your spells unless you’d successfully managed some sort of test already. I would bet a pint of my own blood that you killed at least a couple of people wearing the Son’s livery before ever you came looking for the Key of Sylvaras back in the Sylvain.”

“Two Hands, four Swords, and three priests of the Voice.” Kelos nodded.

“Not to mention all those Kvani who invaded Dalridia on hidden orders from the Son,” added Faran.

Kelos shrugged. “Right enough, but every minion of his that I’ve killed has been far from home and short on any direct link to their master’s orders. That tells me that I’ve loosened the leash considerably, but I won’t know if I’m entirely free of it without facing off against someone operating directly under the Son’s orders while wearing his colors openly.”

“That does change the weight of things,” I said. “We need to know what your limitations are before we get someplace where they might cost us the mission.”

I thought the whole thing through again, and again decided against killing the group on the other side of the hill—in part because turning Kelos down would serve as something of a test of how he might react if our purposes eventually crossed for real.

“No,” I said. “This isn’t the time or the place. I still maintain that attacking this group wouldn’t advance justice and, whatever else we are, we are servants of justice first.”

Kelos sighed and nodded. “You always were the most stubborn of my students.”

I let out a little mental sigh of my own at his surrender of the point. That was a good sign, if a small one.

Now to throw him a bone to gnaw on. “Mind you, if it were Lieutenant Chomarr down there instead of some random Hand and her Sword backers, I would happily grant the exception. He seems the perfect test case for you.”

“True that.” Then Kelos grinned. “It’s not like we won’t have plenty more opportunities to eliminate opposition on our way to Heaven’s Reach. I imagine we’ll be tripping over enemies the whole way.”

“Which is exactly why I think we’ll do better taking the water route and the long way around,” I said. “If we go straight across the Kvanas we’re looking at weeks of flatland and little cover beyond the grass sea itself. That would be more than bad enough, given that the whole country is roused against us, and even if you didn’t add in the restless dead. With them? Getting caught out on the flats by the risen will get us all killed, goddess-forged swords or no. Anyone think otherwise?”

Nobody wanted to argue the point, so I continued. “That leaves three options. Skirting the mountains would be fastest, but it’s also what they’ll be expecting since it’d save us at least a month of travel time over the next shortest route.”

“I don’t much like the idea of following the Kvani scarp, either,” said Siri. “Yes, it offers cover on one flank, but it’s flat above and a hard scramble over broken rock below. Add in the Avarsi patrols and fortifications and it’s one of the least hospitable places I can think of.”

Three of the four Kvanas shared a high flat plateau. The scarp ran along its western edge, loosely defining the border between Avars and Radewald