Wardtown (Teer & Kard Book 1) Read online

  The Spehari crossed the room and picked up the book.

  “Ah. A History of the Spehari Unification,” he read off the title. “I have read it, boy. The author downplays even more than you think.”

  “What, you were there?” Teer snapped.

  “About half of all living Spehari were,” Karn confirmed. “They don’t die of old age, boy.”

  “My name is Teer,” the young Merik snapped. “And you’re not helping your people’s case here.”

  Karn spread his hands wide in apology.

  “That’s fair, Teer,” he allowed. “Now, if I call you by your name, will you tell me why you hate the Spehari so much?”

  “Because the Unity is lying, betraying garbage and it is the child of your people,” Teer growled.

  “That sounds like it has a very specific source, Teer,” the Spehari told him. “Tell me.”

  Teer felt a moment of pressure on his mind, purple light swirling around the book in Karn’s hands as he spoke. He glared back at the man, almost biting his tongue to remain silent despite a sudden urge to speak.

  The purple light faded and Karn put the book down as he studied Teer with an odd look.

  “What are you, Teer?” he asked softly. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose, beyond that you’re a stubborn young man who doesn’t seem to want help.”

  “You can’t help me,” Teer muttered. “No one can. Fifty days in a cell, then the Magistrate hangs me.”

  “Tell me,” Karn repeated. There was no magic this time, no attempt to force Teer to reveal his secrets. Just the soft urging of a man who apparently truly wanted to know.

  “My da was drafted for the war against the Sunset Rebellion,” Teer said numbly, staring at the wall again. “He died. My ma got the pension from the local offices for about two seasons, then a Spehari auditor said there was no proof her husband had ever been a soldier for the Unity. Something had happened to the paperwork, and without the paperwork, the office couldn’t pay the pension.”

  The cell was silent. For the first time since Karn had cast his spell, Teer realized it went both ways. He couldn’t hear anything from outside the cell, either—some of the motes of orange light covered the window too when he looked up.

  “May the Pillars curse them,” Karn muttered. “They couldn’t keep faith with us, but they should have kept faith with you.”

  Teer was confused again—and this time, he understood the words Karn was using.

  “Few fates are set in iron until they’re done,” the Spehari finally told him. “Yours is not one of them. Do you understand me, Teer?”

  “No,” he admitted.

  “Your name is not carved on tablets of prophecy. Your death is not foreordained. There is a way out of the trap you have created for yourself. You have a choice, but I will not lie to you. The life I can offer you is not an easy one or a free one.

  “I can offer you life, Teer, but it is a Spehari’s bargain,” Karn concluded. He gestured to the book he’d put back on the bed. “From how far you’ve made it in that book, you know what that means.”

  A Spehari’s bargain. A bargain that had traps that weren’t clear, that favored one side over the other…a bargain that would give you what you wanted but would never tell you the price.

  Many of the Merik tribes had made bargains with the Spehari invaders. They’d accepted Spehari rule and become the first members of the Unity, gaining gunpowder and machinery and the power to defeat their foes.

  In exchange, they had become merely the best-treated class of slaves. It was Merik soldiers and Merik blood who had forged the Unity for the Spehari, always a second class, always followers. Richer and in better health than ever before, both conquered and conqueror…but never free.

  A Spehari’s bargain.

  “Why would you even care?” Teer demanded. “Why should I trust you?”

  “If you trust me at all, Teer, let it be because I have no reason to care,” the Spehari said with a chuckle. “You are a curiosity to me, nothing more. If I leave you to hang, I will have pangs of guilt for a tenday or two, and then I will mostly forget you ever existed.

  “But it is not my way to embrace unnecessary death. A wise man once told me to do what needs to be done and no more. Hanging you is far more than needs to be done.” He shrugged. “So, I offer a bargain that cannot be fully explained but will save your life.”

  “My other choice is to be hung over a wardstone,” Teer whispered in defeat. “My death would fuel the ward for, what, a turning?”

  “Give or take,” Karn told him. “I cannot tell you all of the prices of what I am offering you. Not yet. Some, not ever. But…”

  Red and purple light flickered above the Spehari’s hand.

  “There is a class of individual that Wardkeeper Komo cannot hold prisoner without the direct order of a Spehari Magistrate,” the Spehari continued. “A Bondservant of House Morais is outside his authority, answerable only to myself or the Master of my House.

  “Such a bond cannot be undone,” Karn warned him. “I would claim your life as my own, as the Right of Retribution allows, and you would be as much my slave as my servant. I will not do it without your permission.”

  He shook his head.

  “From what I have sensed of your mind already, I could not do it without your willing submission. I do not know what I will do with a Bondservant,” he concluded with a chuckle, “but that strikes me as a better problem for you than this one.

  “So, answer me this, Teer: are you prepared to become my Bondservant, bound to me by magic and oath until the day you die?”

  “I have no choice,” Teer said, repeating his earlier thought. He rose from the bed for the first time since Karn had come in and studied the other man. “I won’t say I’m eager to be a slave, but I am even less eager to die. I will take your bargain, Spehari. What do I need to do?”

  “Kneel,” Karn ordered. “You resisted the magic before. This time, let it flow through you. The Wardkeeper has ways to know that you are truly bound to me. This must be true and complete.”

  “I understand.” Teer knelt, looking up at the Spehari and hoping he wasn’t making an incredible mistake.

  Purple and red light flickered around Karn’s hands as he stepped closer to face Teer.

  “Do you, Teer, swear to serve me, Kard of House Morais, unto your death?” he asked—and Teer caught the slight change in the name. “Do you swear to serve with true fealty, sustained and bound by the magic of my blood?”

  “I swear.”

  Karn’s—Kard’s?—hands latched on to Teer’s neck and fire burnt into his skin. Teer hadn’t expected the deal to come with a physical brand, but he did as instructed. Magic reached into his skin and into his mind, and he let it in.

  Red and purple light swirled around his head. His neck was burning on both sides and his mind was screaming at the strange intrusion. He could feel Kard’s magic rearranging parts of his head.

  And then suddenly, it was over. He released the breath he’d been holding the entire time and closed his eyes as Kard stepped backward.

  Suddenly, he knew exactly where the other man was. He knew that Kard was fatigued—presumably, the working he’d just done was incredibly draining—but otherwise in good health.

  “I can feel you,” he said aloud.

  “That means it worked,” Kard told him. “That’s part of the bond. You are now magically bound to protect me, though I suspect the compulsion won’t work as well on you as it does on most. I can sense you, too. I can tell if you’re lying, for example.”

  The Spehari coughed.

  “Don’t touch the sides of your neck for the rest of the day if you can manage it,” he instructed, stopping Teer as he reached for the still-sore regions of skin. “You are a cattle man. You know what a brand is.”

  “I wasn’t figuring on one,” Teer admitted.

  “I didn’t tell you everything,” Kard agreed. “The name you swore to? Do not use it until we have left town. You are now, under t
he law of the Unity, my property. Which means that Komo has no authority to keep you here. Come.”

  “Where?”

  “Anywhere but here,” the Spehari told him.

  6

  Komo and Atara were waiting outside the door when Kard opened it—and both of their gazes instantly went to Teer, standing by Kard’s side and feeling utterly awkward.

  “He is leaving with me,” Kard told them. “I have claimed my Right of Retribution after all, Wardkeeper Komo. I have claimed Teer as my Bondservant. His life is mine and I have taken it.”

  “That’s not…”

  “Have you a Crimson Writ, signed by a Spehari Magistrate, to overrule the right of a Spehari to decide the fate of their Bondservant?” the Spehari demanded. “I have made my choice and the wording of the Right of Retribution is clear: his life is mine to claim. I have claimed it in servitude.”

  Komo traded a glance with his lover, then stepped back out of the way.

  “I would never interfere with the rights of a Spehari,” he conceded. “And I won’t pretend I had any desire to hang the kid. I am required to confirm the bond, though.”

  “I know,” Kard told him. “Come, Teer. We will allow the Wardkeeper to do his duty.”

  Teer followed Kard. He was hoping to find a bath and a change of clothes somewhere soon. If nothing else, his clothes were still torn from his being dragged to the jail cell. Whoever had brought him in had not been gentle.

  Komo rifled through the cabinet on the side of his office for a minute before removing a particular crystal. To Teer’s eyes, the red stone pulsed with an inner purple light—and he was now wondering how he’d ever missed that he could see the energy in Spehari magical tools.

  Of course, he’d only really seen wardstones and crystal lamps. Those were visible to everyone. He thought. It now occurred to him that others might not be able to see the magical shield that wrapped around a wardtown. They might only see the line in the dirt that marked it.

  The crystal Komo had found was mounted on an iron wand roughly six inches long. Script in the High Spehari language, the one they didn’t teach in Unity schools, was engraved into its side.

  The Wardkeeper studied the script for several seconds, clearly interpreting a language he only barely knew.

  “It’s the right one, Keeper,” Kard told him gently. “I take it your High Spehari is rusty?”

  “I think it might be just rust at this point,” the Keeper admitted. “I can read these labels and that’s about it.”

  He stepped over to the pair with the wand and lifted it.

  “Akadda,” he snapped. The stone burst into brilliant light. Now that Teer knew to look for differences, he could see that this light cast shadows in a way the previous light hadn’t. This one was visible to others.

  The stone glowed pure white for a few seconds, and then Komo put the wand between Teer and Kard. It instantly turned to a gentle blue, pulsing slowly. Pulsing, Teer realized, in time with his heartbeat.

  “Akadda,” Komo repeated. The light faded and he pulled the wand back. “By the testing tools given to me that I may serve the Unity, I confirm the Bond, Lord Karn.” He shook his head. “Your choices are your own, of course, but I will record all of this for the Magistrate. I do not expect him to issue that Crimson Writ, but that is his decision.

  “For now, I have no authority to hold you.”

  He paused and shook his head, relaxing and letting some of the formality leave him as he laid the crystal-tipped wand back on his desk.

  “And no desire, either, Lord Karn,” he admitted. “I…am grateful for your mercy. I hope young Teer appreciates it as he begins his life of service.”

  “It is more than I hoped for or earned,” Teer murmured. He didn’t know how long he’d stay grateful, but right now, he was simply relieved not to be facing a noose.

  “Your horse is in the Wardwatch stables. Your quickshooter and gunbelt are in our cabinet; I’ll have Niles bring you both,” Komo told him. “I presume, Lord Karn, that you wish your servant to be mounted and armed?”

  “I do,” Kard agreed. “How is he to protect me without his weapon?”

  Teer grimaced. He was surprised to hear that the Wardwatch still had Star. That was going to require some explanation to his new Lord—since neither his gun nor Star belonged to him!

  7

  Mounted and armed again, Teer followed Kard carefully. He had no idea what the Spehari’s plan was now, assuming the big man even had one. Neither of them said anything, Kard just glancing back over his shoulder to be sure that Teer was sorted out before kneeing his horse to greater speed.

  It seemed that his initial plan, at least, was to get out of Alvid. Star was easily able to keep pace with the nondescript speckled gelding Kard was riding. Not that Teer could lose the other man now. He only had to think of the man to know the exact direction and distance to Kard.

  They cleared town swiftly enough, drawing eyes all along the way in the midafternoon crowd. Kard kept up a solid canter on the horse for about a quarter-candlemark after that, heading farther east, before Teer finally worked up the courage to say anything.

  “The horse and the gun belong to Hardin,” he told the other man. “I…I need to go home.”

  “You need to say goodbye, if nothing else,” Kard agreed. The formal tones and lilting accent he’d used in town had vanished, replaced by a slow drawl that sounded a lot like Ohlman. “I can’t argue, Teer. We need supplies anyway. I have enough for one for two tendays, but we have work to do.”

  “Work, Lord Karn?” Teer asked.

  The Spehari chuckled bitterly.

  “Lord Karn of House Morais,” he recited the name in the lilting accent he’d been using in town, “is a lie, a story. Morais is my house and I hope they don’t draw the link between Karn and Kard. I couldn’t risk giving a name I might not answer to, but…”

  He shrugged.

  “You don’t need to call me lord, either,” he continued. “Kard is sufficient. It’s my name and the only one I’ve used for a long time. I’m known by it in a lot of the Wardtowns. Thankfully, not in Alvid.”

  “I don’t understand,” Teer admitted. “You are Spehari. Why lie?”

  “That is a talk for later, I think,” Kard told him. “For now, know that I will never enter a town under my own face. Lord Karn is a tool I must use at times, but the less I call on my house’s name, the better.”

  “Okay,” the youth agreed. “Can we go to Hardin’s Ranch?”

  “I hope so,” Kard said with a chuckle. “How far off the route did I go?”

  “This is the right road,” Teer told him. “But we’re pretty close to the turn. Follow the track of two hundred cattle.”

  “I’ll admit that’s hard to miss,” the other man replied. “As for work, I act as a bounty hunter for the Unity.” He pulled a rolled-up sheet of heavy paper from inside the gray duster. “Here. You can read, right? You had that book.”

  “I can read, I can write, I can do numbers,” Teer confirmed. “I can manage the books for a ranch of five hundred head of cattle. I could probably work out books for most things from that.”

  “I don’t keep books. Nobody needs to know,” Kard told him. “Take a look at the writ.”

  Teer unrolled the paper and followed the letters with his finger, Star following Kard’s horse without much urging.

  WRIT OF SEIZURE

  The BRIGAND known as BOULDER is to be brought to justice.

  He is known to travel with SIX to EIGHT other BRIGANDS

  The BEARER OF THIS WRIT is authorized

  to use ALL NECESSARY FORCE in pursuit of this man.

  A REWARD of TWENTY STONE will be paid for BOULDER

  LIVING OR DEAD

  A REWARD of FIFTY SHARDS will be paid for each of his BRIGANDS

  LIVING OR DEAD

  A BONUS of TWENTY SHARDS will be paid for each

  DELIVERED ALIVE

  WRIT OF SEIZURE

  “What is this?” he asked alou
d after reading the text. There was a signature and a sequence of numbers on the bottom of the sheet that meant nothing to him.

  “A bounty writ,” Kard told him. “Any Wardkeeper issuing a bounty has a number of them done up. A bounty hunter who wants to hunt a target gets one. Means I don’t have to haul Boulder and his men all the way back to Wardtown Kodiz, almost a hundred miles away. Any Wardkeeper’s office will honor the writ if I deliver Boulder and his men.”

  “How do they know you’re delivering the right people?” Teer asked cautiously.

  “There’s a second sheet with pictures, gives them some idea,” Kard explained. “Plus, a Wardkeeper will use truth stones to confirm that the extras we bring in worked for Boulder. Anything stand out to you?”

  Teer glanced down the page again.

  “The bonus for bringing ’em in alive only applies to the brigands,” he concluded after a moment. “Plus, the bounty on Boulder…that’s almost a tenth of what Hardin’s Ranch brings in in a turning.”

  “Boulder is scum of the worst kind,” the older man told him. “I tracked him this far by the dead bodies he’s left in his wake. Unity likes to bring people in alive. Best case, they can send them north to fight the Kott. Worst case, they feed a wardstone.

  “Bonus for live delivery is normal. A clean writ to bring him in living or dead?” Kard shook his head as he glanced back at Teer again.

  “They want Boulder dead, but the Spehari like to pretend they’re the font of civilization on Aran,” he concluded. “They don’t issue dead-only bounties and I don’t like hauling in corpses. We’ll try and take him alive.”

  “We?”

  “You’re now my Bondservant and this is what I do,” Kard told him. “Welcome to the life, Teer. Come on. I figure Hardin will at least sell me that horse and gun at a discount.”

  There was a small watchtower at the entrance to the main ranch compound, but it was almost never used. Tonight, though, Teer spotted Coral up in the tower as they rode up to the gateway.