A Time of Blood (Of Blood and Bone #2) - John Gwynne Page 0,105

bound and splinted. He introduced himself to Uldin as Kamael.

“Welcome to Drassil, King Uldin,” Hadran said, Uldin grunting a response.

“I am glad to be here,” Uldin said. “My daughter is soon to be married, so all the wild horses of Arcona would not keep me away.”

I wish people would stop talking about my wedding, Bleda thought.

Uldin put a hand to the wound on his forehead. “Though some have tried.”

“Tell us what has befallen you on your journey,” Hadran said.

“First, let an old father greet his daughter.” Uldin stood before Jin and looked her up and down. “Well met, daughter,” he said, offering her his arm. Bleda knew the honour Uldin was giving Jin, knew how she must have felt inside at her father’s gesture of approval, recognizing her as a warrior of the Cheren. Despite that, Jin kept her face perfectly still, clasping her father’s forearm in the warrior grip.

“And I would not have the Sirak say I am rude in my dotage,” Uldin said, moving to Erdene. “Well met, Queen of the Sirak.” He offered her his arm. She also took it in the warrior grip. “It would have been a better journey for your company,” Uldin said to Erdene, “and safer, I don’t doubt, with the might of the Sirak at my side.”

“I brought the Ben-Elim their tithe of flesh from my Clan,” Erdene said, “and knew that you Cheren had not gathered your offering yet. I felt it would have been discourteous to have hurried you in that task.”

Uldin dipped his head. “The flesh tithe of the Cheren will be here soon. I left when I received word from Kol, but the tithe was close to being gathered.” Then he moved to Bleda.

“You mean, the Lord Protector,” Hadran said, correcting Uldin.

“What?” Uldin said.

“Kol is now the Lord Protector of the Land of the Faithful,” the fair-haired Ben-Elim, Kamael, said.

“Ah, that is well. Kol is a strong leader, and these are dark times, as I have just learned.” Uldin moved from Erdene to stand in front of Bleda.

“Ah, so, my future son stands before me,” Uldin said. He looked Bleda in the eye and Bleda returned the gaze unflinchingly.

I have looked Asroth in the eye, what is Uldin of the Cheren to that?

“Are you worthy of my daughter, child of the Sirak?” Uldin asked him.

A silence lengthened, Bleda knowing that he should give a fitting response. But the words choked in his throat. Riv’s face hovered in his mind’s eye. He felt his mother’s gaze, and that of the two Ben-Elim, and most of all, Jin’s eyes burning into him.

“You must be the judge of that,” he finally said.

“Oh, I will be,” Uldin said.

“His arm is strong and his aim is true,” Erdene said. Bleda felt a swell of pride at his mother’s words.

“That is good to hear,” Uldin said. “Because, as I said, these are dark days.”

“Your news?” Hadran asked Uldin.

“Aye, so to it,” Uldin said. “It has been a long, hard journey from Arcona to Drassil. There is much fear in your realm, much talk of the Kadoshim and their blood rites. But worse than that, there is plague.”

“What?” hissed Kamael, the pale-haired Ben-Elim.

“A ten-night ago we stopped at a town for rest and found the place almost empty,” Uldin said. “Those that still lived spoke of a wasting disease, sudden and violent, two, three days until death. We remounted and rode on, only to find all of the other towns and villages telling a similar tale. We camped and slept on the road, thinking it would be safer.” He paused, looked at them all, one by one. “It was not. Half a ten-night’s hard riding from here we were attacked, at dusk, a warband swarming from the darkness of Forn.”

“Who were they?” Hadran asked.

“I saw Kadoshim flying above us like great bats.”

Kamael spat a curse when the Kadoshim were mentioned.

“They were not alone; there were men and women with them, shaven-haired fanatics, but there were other… things… as well. Part man, part beast, that killed with claw and fang, not sword and spear.”

Bleda remembered the Feral beast-men that had attacked Drassil. He remembered putting arrows into one, seeing it fall and rise again, ripping arrows from its body, charging at him in a snarling, berserker rage.

He shivered.

“And there were other things with them. Human in form but, believe me, human they were not.”

“What do you mean? Speak clearer,” Kamael the Ben-Elim said.

“They are difficult to describe, unless you see them, but perhaps this is clear