Retribution

Chapter 4

-oOo-

Spring came.  Danilo rose one day when the snow had melted, the mud finally drying enough to ride out.  He'd been rising too early too often, dogging the footsteps of Lord Ardais, to Dyan's sardonic delight.  Lord Ardais actually seemed pleased to have his suspicious, watchful company.  Even Garin's snide comments about jealous ex-lovers failed to dislodge Danilo from his task.  Lord Ardais had not raped again, as far as Danilo knew—or as far as Danilo's presence was preventing him from doing it.

When his foster-father was heading for a tryst with one of his boyfriends, he would ask Danilo if intended to join them or just watch, and Danilo would flee for his sanity, sickened by the filthy images he caught in Dyan's too-creative mind. 

Spring also brought Regis. 

Bandits had been seen in the mountains, and they robbed the first train of pack horses leaving Ardais for the capital at Thendara.  Regis arrived at Castle Ardais in the company of half-a-dozen guardsmen, dispatched from Thendara to hunt them down.  The party was to be joined by Lord Ardais, Garin, and Danilo before they set off.

Mounted on a chervine, Danilo watched his friend ride up to the castle steps.  Regis was grinning broadly.  When he came alongside, Danilo took a fast look around—the guardsmen were all facing the other way, watching Lord Ardais—and gave Regis a quick peck on the lips.  Then he averted his face as if nothing had happened. 

Surprised, Regis raised a hand to his mouth.  “Dani?”

“That was a kiss of relief!”  Danilo’s eyes were a little panicky.  “I wasn't sure you'd make it through without being attacked.  The road must have been clear of bandits.”

“We did, bredu.  Don’t be upset.  And thank you.” 

“For what?” Danilo knitted his brows. 

“For being relieved,” Regis replied lightly.

Lord Ardais, who was in the middle of giving orders to the Guardsmen, broke off.  When Regis and Danilo turned to see what was the matter, they found Dyan staring at them.  Lord Ardais' pale eyes were expressionless, his face blank.  By now, Danilo knew that facade was a mask for deep emotion.  Worn out by the weeks of his self-appointed chore, Danilo was happy to see that his foster-father could still be wounded.   It was a thought unworthy of a Syrtis, but he was absolutely fed up with Dyan.

-What's going on?- asked Regis.

-I'll explain later.  We must hunt, now.-

After gathering their supplies the party set off, traveling down the narrow trail they called a road in the Hellers.  They scoured the mountainsides for three days, examining all trails, but found nothing.  The Hellers were almost untraversable except for the roads, and Regis concluded the bandits must have fled for the lowlands.  He wrote out a report and added descriptions of the stolen trade goods, and sent a guardsman off to Thendara with the packet of messages. 

Lord Ardais disagreed, his shrewd eye wandering the peaks.  “If they know the Hellers well enough to rob here, they know the mountains well enough to live here.  We will continue.”

“We cannot search forever,” Regis warned.  “We must return before the kireseth blooms, or we will be hallucinating all over the mountainside.  That time is very close.”

Garin was of little use in the search, and the only reason Lord Ardais appeared to have brought him was to keep his bedroll warm.  The cold was still dangerous.  Fires were kept burning all night and Regis and Danilo slept together under brush shelters, wearing all their clothes and piling their blankets on top to stay warm.  Both were too weary for anything except sleep.  One night as they lay huddled and shivering, Danilo told Regis about Rory. 

-Is there anything we can do?- asked Danilo. 

Regis cursed and gave Lord Ardais the evil eye.  -Not in the law.  If the parents sold the child's services and did not lodge a protest over his treatment, we have no recourse.  Damn the man!  Did he do anything else?-

Danilo considered, then decided it was best to speak.  -He tried to seduce me.-

Regis was left gaping.  A tiny mental voice asked, -Did you say no?-

Danilo threw back his head and laughed. -Of course.  Zandru's Hells!  If my choice was between you or Dyan, why do you think I'd pick Dyan?-

Regis made a comical, hurt face.  -Because you keep saying 'no' to me.-

-You are a thousand times the man he is.  And—I must tell you things have changed.  What was distasteful to me—to my younger self—is no longer so.  I will not say 'no' anymore.-

-Do you mean it!?- Regis' thoughts were a blaze of delight.

-Yes, but not here.  Even I cannot manage when it's freezing, and with such an audience.- He glanced across on the other side of the fire, where Dyan and Garin were slowly moving together. 

-He certainly doesn't spare us,- thought Regis with annoyance.  Dyan and Garin, undeterred by the weather, had been having sex every night.  The other guardsmen had taken to spreading their blankets as far away as possible from the couple.  Everyone had been doing their best to ignore the pair.  The couple tended to be noisy, though, and Danilo thought it was deliberate.  Lord Ardais was quite irked by the disgust shown by the others—especially Danilo's disgust, and he took much pleasure in the chance to publically display his lovemaking before his foster-son. 

-Dani?  I've come to a conclusion.  We're not finding these bandits and Dyan knows it.  He's keeping us out here deliberately, for scenes such as—the one he's involved in now.  We're going home at the first excuse.-

The next day the cold relented, and they had their excuse.  A few mountain flowers blossomed.  “Dani,” said Regis as they were riding.  “These are kireseth flowers.”  -Zandru's Hells!  We must get out of here.  Pollen always follows the blooms.- 

Danilo drew rein and looked around.  “Just a few of them.  But you're right.  We cannot risk any more patrols.  Even Dyan must see the necessity.”  Quickly, they both soaked handkerchiefs with their water bottles and tied the damp material around their mouths and noses.  Kireseth, fortunately, did not affect chervines.

To their amazement, Lord Ardais would not call off the search.  “We will stay out as long as possible,” he declared during the noon meal.  All the guardsmen had gathered to discuss the situation.  They were dining along a gentle slope next to a steep ravine, with a drop hundreds of feet down.  Unfortunately, this was the safest place they could find for their campsite.  The drop along the other parts of the trail measured in the thousands. 

“Do you think the Hellers has soft, downy meadows?” Lord Ardais continued.  “Look around at our campsite.  The flowers are few, scattered, and harmless.”

“Proximity to a flower is the greatest danger,” Regis protested.  “There are still too many for safety.  The pollen from a single flower is all it takes to drive a man mad.”

“I must correct you,” said Lord Ardais, “a ghost wind is the greatest danger.  The pollen will stay inside the flowers without it.”  The position of cook rotated among them and Dyan had this duty today.  For some time he had been stirring a sauce, browning it carefully to dress some rabbithorns the guardsmen had downed with arrows.  Everyone was sitting on logs, roasting sticks of rabbithorn meat over a pair of fires and sliding the cooked pieces onto their tin plates.  When the sauce was ready they smeared it over their meat.  It was a well-made addition, and Lord Ardais gave Regis and Danilo generous portions of it.  All the diners were covered with damp handkerchiefs, except for Dyan who scorned one, but they had to pull them down to eat. 

About halfway through his meal Danilo began to feel sick, as if he'd drunk too much.  Yet nothing was in his flask save water.  Had the rabbithorn been spoiled?  It had been shot scarcely an hour earlier, so ought to be fresh.  The sauce?  The rich brown sauce was the only culprit left.  Danilo studied his foster-father.  The notion seemed impossible.  Dyan would not have deliberately poisoned everyone, would he?

“What is in this?” he asked his foster-father.  

Garin replied.  “Kirian.  I saw him adding it.”

Danilo stared at his foster-father, aghast.  Kirian was brewed from kireseth flowers.  A small amount of kirian was not dangerous.  A slight exposure to the pollen might not be a threat.  But both together?

Dyan was staring back.  Lord Ardais' eyes were almost too much to bear.  There was nothing sentient in that flat, indifferent gaze, intent as a predator's.  Danilo could not look away.  A weakness ran through him, and his mouth opened as if he couldn't find enough air.

The wind picked up, brushing pine-needles together.  Danilo listened.  There seemed to be voices in the breeze, though he couldn't make out the words.  A pinecone dropped to the forest mast and the sound went on for a very long time, his mind refusing to let it go.  The wind was bad for some reason, but he couldn't remember why.

-Regis, I feel strange.-

Next to him, Regis set down his plate on the grass and clutched his head.  -So do I, bredu.  The kirian makes one more open to laran at first, then closed if you have too much.  But this effect is different. I've never felt--

He stood up in realization, swaying.  “Lord Ardais, the pollen has reached dangerous levels.  We must leave immediately.  All of you, cover your mouths!”

Dyan looked up from his plate, undisturbed.  “What is your worry?  I feel nothing as yet.  Do the rest of you feel anything?” he asked the dining guardsmen. 

Something seemed to vibrate in the air and a humming came from all sides as if it was crawling out of the plants.  Lightheaded and faint, Danilo looked around in alarm.  He lost his balance and slid off his log.  Regis turned to him, was bending over him, then he too collapsed.  He fell very slowly right towards Danilo.  Expecting the painful crash of bodies slamming together, Danilo braced himself.  Instead, Regis simply disappeared into the ground.  

Danilo was not sure what happened next, or how much time passed.  He still felt the humming, accompanied by the clatter of forks against tin plates.  Voices spoke, but were too disordered and low-pitched for him to understand them. 

He saw the bobbing motion of someone's head.  He lay in a pool of paralysis, unable to move.  Someone was jerking him from side to side at the hips and for a moment he understood the sensations.  His feet were bare, cold air playing between his toes.  Stones and dirt dug into the back of his nude body.  /This is not real,/ thought Danilo, /this is the hallucination of kireseth./  Harsh, hot breathing pressed right against his genitals, and a man's voice whispered guttural obscenities before pausing to mouth him.  Two calloused fingers stroked up and down his shaft.  Danilo struck out, but this only earned him a squeeze, and the agony felled him.  The grip on him eased, yet stayed taut.  He could feel his blood beating thickly through the pain-wracked flesh in the other's hand.  A huge mouth sucked him in and teeth clamped down, gnawing as if to tear the flesh.  He kicked at the monstrous parasite and the mouth released him. 

Something was standing over him.  To his amazement, he saw it was a chieri.  It was etiolated and wispy, with lean hips and small breasts.  Its hair was as translucent as glass.  Angry, he attacked it.  He sat up and seized its hand, and with a hard yank jerked it down beside himself and rolled over on top of it, parting its legs with an impatient insert and twist of his hand.  He was facing an upside-down triangle, red as blood and too tiny for him.

He didn't care.  Whatever insane mind-set he was in, he didn't care.  He wanted revenge for the pain.  This thing deserved him.  He tried to press himself inside, but his body refused to respond.  Instead, he shoved his palm in its narrow channel, made a fist and pumped hard, repeatedly.  The chieri tried to fight him off, drawing blood as it clawed his face, biting his shoulder with stinging teeth.  He did not care.  Why was he doing this?  He felt no pleasure.  Frustrated, he rolled away from the chieri.  What was he doing?  He didn't want this.  He wanted Danilo.

Confused, Danilo understood his mind was in another's body, then he lost himself again.  Voices were laughing.  -Give him to us,- the wind breathed. -We have his blood, his body.  Die on the knife.  Die on the knife.  Kiss it, eat it with your mouth-

From a bizarre angle he saw Dyan, his face wild with glee, stabbing repeatedly with a knife.  The knife rammed into Danilo's chest with a thump that sent him reeling back several feet, and Lord Ardais jerked the boy back and forth like a rag doll as he struggled to dislodge the blade from between Danilo's ribs.  Knife blow after knife blow landed with the force of punches, knocking Danilo about. 

He couldn't breathe.  His own blood was pouring into his lungs, suffocating him.  The knife sliced into his diaphragm and he could no longer suck in a single breath.  He fell on his back, knowing he was about to die by his foster-father's hand.  Smiling maniacally, Lord Ardais undid his trouser-front and urinated, spraying his victim from head to toe with the marks of his contempt and triumph.  Laughter came from all sides, like the audience enjoying a play.  Then Dyan knelt and shoved back his foster-son's chin, stretching the neck-cords taut.  A knife slit Danilo's throat across in two V-shaped strokes, gouging out a chunk of flesh.  Another cut went all the way to the spine, and a forth stabbed down the point, wiggling back and forth to sever the tough cord.  Strong arms twisted his head impossibly far around, going halfway in a circle, then three quarters.  The cord snapped into two as the cartilage broke.  A final slice took Danilo's head completely off.

A little later, Danilo found himself lying face down in the dirt.  The acrid stink of urine and blood flooded his senses, and the muscles of his legs ached badly.  He felt damp and filthy, like he'd run naked through the woods.  

-Dani.- 

The voice sounded like Regis', yet not.

A hand flattened on the small of his back, stroking.  His legs were akimbo, wetness all over his thighs.  He lifted himself to his hands and knees, nauseous, fighting the urge to vomit.  Poison, he reminded himself.  Someone had poisoned him.  A hand shoved between his legs from behind and grasped him too intimately.   Voices were laughing at him again, a ring of mockery that echoed off the mountains.  A tree branch pushed inside him from the rear, opening him wide.  It burned like sandpaper.  A voice was imploring him, let me, let me, let me.  He felt too nauseous to care, vomiting as the branch dug deeper into him.

The pleading voice maddened him with its insistence.  It rocked inside him in time to its begging.  He would have strangled the disgusting voice if he could, throttled the thick thing that scraped in and out of his body.  Then it ceased its movement, and he was awash in its spoutings.  Someone pulled him backwards into a lap, arms going around him with monstrous affection, and Danilo sat frozen in horror, still impaled, certain he would split from the appalling thickness if he moved. 

-Shall I hurt you?  Shall I cut you?-a voice panted eagerly into his ear. -Give my knife a drink of your flesh, just a small delight.- 

A dagger was playing around his genitals.  It nicked him.  Danilo cried out, and managed to knock the dagger spinning from the hand.  A voice laughed.  Blood was all over their laps, smearing the hands of the man who'd sliced him.  The arms let go.  One arm hooked around his knee and turned him like meat on a spit. 

-Ride me, damn you, ride me,- commanded a familiar voice.  -Dani, it's Regis.  I'm nearly there.  Bring me off, I can't stand this one more second.- 

-No, you make me SICK,- Danilo yelled.  The smell of urine was growing stronger by the moment.  The bloody fingers slid up and down his shaft, setting up a brief, exciting rhythm.  The motion stopped.  -Ride, if you want more of this,- the voice leered. 

The sensation was good, though Danilo was in pain.  His mind was away with the winds.  He had no inhibitions, no ability to reason.  An animal grunting came from beneath him—or from himself--as he pleasured the other man.  He rode, pushing himself again and again into the hands.  The other man was good, tightening and loosening the grip, trying to deny his rider until Danilo was crying with frustrated lust.  Finally, a breeze came, and Danilo's madness lifted slightly—but only slightly.

He was completely nude, sweating from head to toe.  His head ached badly and he was breathing with a ragged urgency, his hair all over his face like a madman's.  The guardsmen were still seated on stones and logs, chewing half-charred meat.  A feeling of cold predation rose from every side as the guardsmen watched him.  Laran brought to him their pent-up lusts, their yearning for a sexual quenching however violent, held back to the point of explosion by too long a journey too far away from women.  They were watching him rock atop another's body, drinking in the sight of him in lieu of what they couldn't have.  Faces that he knew well from the barracks had changed into the faces of monsters, men staring at him with desire, gazing with appreciation at his public display of sex.  

He looked down.  He was impaled on another man's cock, soaked with blood and thrusting into the man's hands.  The face below him was lost, mouth wet and slack with pleasure, a bandit's face, black-bearded and lean.  The pale eyes were fixed on his own, open and tender.

His lover was Dyan Ardais. 

A voice whispered inside Danilo's mind.  -Make the noises you want to make, let me hear your hunger for me-

Lord Ardais' bloody fingers moved on him, stroking with another sticky motion that was too slight.  Danilo moaned with longing, his breathing thick and fast as he drove himself harder into Dyan's hands.  This time he came, his arousal held too long.  He wet his foster-father's chest and face, white sprinkles flecking that bandit beard.  Danilo felt the blossom of Dyan's emotions, giddy with joy at finally conquering his foster-son's body.  Everything Danilo felt was gone in the animal sensation of his own orgasm, all traces of civilized feelings blasted aside as he was held, his will locked tight in the powerful grip of Dyan's emotions.  Danilo could not even find his own outrage.  Slowly, Lord Ardais smiled up at him.  It was an expression of long-suppressed gloating, of lazy exultation.  -Clean it up, pretty boy- came the smug mental command, delivered with the force of the Alton gift.  Danilo leaned down, moving his tongue over the coarse hairs of Dyan's beard to take away the stains, and he licked the moisture off his foster-father's chest.

-Look,- said Dyan to his fuddled mind.  With a sensation like vertigo, Danilo followed the direction of the other's eyes.  Regis was across from them, getting up from a pool of flayed hair and skin.  He was covered with blood, his pants down around his knees.  He was swaying, his face sick and confused.  Then his eyes landed on Danilo and Lord Ardais. 

Regis turned green and stumbled.  The smell of burning meat came from the fire.  All around them, the guardsmen were squatting half-undressed, still eating half-charred meat.  Regis' bewildered eyes moved over them, and stopped on an object lying nearby. 

It was the severed head of a chieri.  The guardsmen were eating the dismembered alien.

Regis threw up, and Lord Ardais laughed wildly, the sound half-insane. 

“How do you like it, Hastur?  I've taken your boyfriend's virginity, and you've lost yours to a chieri.  Did you eat any of your former lover before she died?”  Dyan's words were fast and vicious.  Possessively, he caressed Danilo's blood-stained flanks. 

In a moment of clarified shock, Danilo drew himself up off Lord Ardais' shaft, bleeding and staggering.  A dagger was lying nearby and he seized it.  Then he flew directly at Dyan, the point aimed at his foster-father's chest.

Regis caught his arm and swung him around in a circle, struggling with him.  “We're all mad from kireseth pollen,” Regis was shouting.  “One has already died, don't make it another.”

“Let go!  Let me kill him!”

“I order you as your lord to PUT THAT DOWN,” Regis ground out. 

-Hastur even now?  With your pants around your ankles?-  Danilo's rage blasted directly into his friend's mind. 

-Yes.- The mental reply was calmer than it should have been, if queasy.

-He deserves death!  You heard his boast.- 

-Don't bother yourself over him,- Regis replied sharply.  -You still belong to me.  Hold still, let me get your bleeding stopped.-  Regis took out his matrix and put an arm around Danilo, holding him close. 

-Regis, I'm hurt.  He hurt me.-  The mental voice sobbed like a child's.

-No, you're not.  Most of this blood belongs to the chieri, not you.  Your mind is still distorted.  He did not maim you.  Your injuries are slight, and I've clotted them already.  You will not suffer from this.  Listen to me, you will not suffer!  Look into the jewel,- Regis commanded.  The hypnotic waves of the blazing blue stone and the physical contact with his friend calmed Danilo a little.  He rested his forehead on Regis' shoulder, and Regis let him shudder there for a few minutes. 

-Dani,- Regis prompted.  -We need to get our clothes on and find out if everyone's here and still alive.  You're still half-mad from the kireseth.  All of us are, including Dyan.-

Danilo was still in shock, his body trembling.  -I do not even know if any of this is real, but I will try to help.-

It took ten minutes to gather their missing clothes and weapons and scout the area.  They found all present, except Garin.  The guardsmen were beginning to recover from their altered consciousness and several vomited when they realized what they had been eating. 

“Get out!” Regis ordered the guardsmen.  “Head for the lowlands as fast as you can and wear your handkerchiefs at all times.  We'll join you when we find Garin.”  Regis and Danilo had already rewetted and donned theirs, though Lord Ardais had not.  The guardsmen quickly headed for their saddles and left.

As Regis and Danilo called for Garin, Lord Ardais straightened his clothes and strolled over to the cooking gear.  Danilo saw him tossing out the rest of the sauce over the grass, and almost went for his knife again.

-Regis, did you see what he did!?-

-Yes.  Maybe you are right and he did drug us.  But he was not responsible for the ghost wind itself.  He was drugged, too.-

They both went silent through the link, realizing what it meant for a man with the Alton gift—a telepathic talent that could coerce the will--to go mad. They'd all become puppets in his fantasy, moved around like chess pieces as his insane mind commanded.  From their mix of confused impressions, they understood he must have murdered the chieri, after forcing Regis to assault it.  Then he'd made the guardsmen eat it while he himself raped Danilo. 

-Even if he planned this, I do not think he intended madness on this scale,- said Regis slowly.

-He gave us kirian in the sauce, and guessed the pollen would give us an extra push right over the edge,- Danilo insisted.  -He kept all of us here deliberately, knowing the kireseth would free his Alton gift, and free him from all inhibitions—and from all blame of the consequences.  He was planning to make us his toys, Regis.-

They looked at each other.  -Listen- said Danilo in his most serious tone.  -He cannot be allowed to live.  He has transgressed once too often, and he will never cease.  This time, the Comyn must try him before the Council.  His guilty intentions will be in his mind for a leronis to read.-

Regis glanced away.  -They will not try him, Dani.-

-WHAT?  Why?-

-The law says no one is responsible for what happens under the influence of the ghost wind and kireseth.  Who knows how long he's been breathing the pollen?  We cannot say when he became unhinged, and even a leronis reading his thoughts would find it impossible to tell.  If the issue of premeditation is in doubt, my grandfather is the one who makes the decision.  He will not sacrifice a political ally.- 

-Regis!  He murdered a chieri!-

-Our laws do not protect the chieri.  We do not count them as people, and the slaying of them is not considered murder.  There is nothing that happened here today that the Council can try him for.-

Danilo only stared at his friend, his face going ashen with disbelief. 

-Let's find that idiot Garin and go home before we decide what to do.  None of us can bear any more.-

For the next quarter-hour they searched and called for Garin, but couldn't find him. 

-Do you think he fell into the ravine?- Regis asked.  They both stopped to study the bushes at the bottom, searching for either disturbance or remains.  They clung to each other with laran contact, using the emotional warmth to calm and steady one another. 

-He might, if he was as drugged as ourselves.  We were so close to the edge it's a miracle none of the rest of us fell.-

Danilo's head suddenly cleared and he realized they had an obvious way to find him.  He glared at his foster-father.  “Where is Garin?  Your laran ought to tell you.” 

Dyan was leaning against a tree trunk, arms crossed.  “I do not care where he is,” said Lord Ardais with much contempt, “now that I've cracked the shell of your body.”  He was regarding Danilo with a pleased, lazy smile.  His voice whispered directly into Danilo's mind. -Whatever happens now, I've shaped you forever.  You will always remember I was your first lover.  And neither of us will forget how much you enjoyed it, will we?- 

The whispering became more urgent, intruding and touching everywhere.  -Do you still care to deny me?  Pointless, isn't it?  I've looked into your mind and you cannot hide anymore.  I know how much you've longed for me these past months, and still do, despite yourself, despite Regis.  I am a reasonable man, willing to make bargains.  I agree to share you with Regis, if you also give yourself to me.  We cannot come back to Ardais and simply revert to what we were before.  You understand this.  We are no longer foster-father and foster-son, but lovers, sealed together by the desires of the body.  Do not deny it.-

A stream of obscene images flew into Danilo's mind before he could block them. 

They were of his own body in the act of sex, face distorted with lust.  Sickened, Danilo turned away.  He did not know if this imploring voice was Dyan normal or Dyan insane.  There seemed to be little difference.

“I'm here,” said a flat voice.  It came from above their heads.  Garin was perched in the crotch of a tree, gazing down.  He must have been watching them the entire time.

Unsure of how drugged Garin was, Danilo put a hand to the tree.  “Do you need help getting down?  I can climb up.”  

“Syrtis.” Garin spat the words out.  “Syrtis, so noble all the time.  Even when stealing what doesn't belong to you.” 

Lord Ardais finally deigned to take notice of who was in the tree.  “Garin, you ass.  Come down.  We do not have all day.”

“Fuck you.  Fuck the lot of you.  Fuck you--”  Garin went on in this vein for some time. 

Lord Ardais fixed him with an angry eye.  Garin's words choked off, and the boy began to climb down with nervous motions.

Danilo was surprised by the boy's compliance.  Garin could sulk and quarrel by the hour, and usually did so before obeying.  He felt Regis looking at him and the same thought passed through both their minds.  -Dyan's using the Alton gift to force him down.-

-He's broken the law again,- thought Danilo pointedly. 

-The problem is, we need the idiot down and safely home.  We'll have to arrest Dyan later.-

-Regis, I don't think we CAN arrest him.  He's an Alton.  He won't let us do it.  If it's us against him, we're losing.  The only other Altons we have to help us are Lew and Dom Kennard, and they're both off-planet.-

-We may have to take him by surprise.-

Garin dropped.  He stood in front of Dyan, saying in a low voice.  “You bastard.” 

“What's the problem, chiyu?” purred Lord Ardais.  “I have never been faithful.  You've always known it.  You knew it before I took you as my lover.”

“Yes, I knew.  I accepted that.  But I didn't know how quickly you could discard,” Garin snarled. 

“You need to be taught a lesson,” said Dyan.  “You took me as your lord and master, whatever my faults.  You do not have the option of being disloyal.  That was not part of our bargain.  Despite what you claim in your jealousy, I do not discard.  GET ON YOUR KNEES.”

Garin's lips made a strangled rictus, but he sank down before Dyan. 

“Lord Ardais,” Regis barked in his best officer's voice.  “This is no time for a quarrel.  We must leave.”

“Then go saddle the chervines,” replied Dyan coldly.  “I need just a minute with Garin here.”

Again, Regis and Danilo exchanged looks.  The preservation of Garin's worthless life may have been their business, but his relationship with Dyan was not. 

“Let's go,” said Regis.  They began to saddle the chervines and tried to ignore the two, until Danilo could not help himself.  “Holy Bearer of Burdens,” he said in wonder when he glanced back.

This caused Regis to peek.  Garin's mouth was sucking away, pleasuring Lord Ardais.  Dyan seemed to care little that he was being watched. 

-Can we kill him now?- Danilo asked wearily.  -I do not think Garin is doing this by his own will.  That's three rapes and a murder today.  -Is it possible the kireseth has damaged Dyan's brain?  He is not usually so mad as this.-

-Are you certain?  What about Rory?-

Danilo hesitated.  -I think you are right.  He was always like this.  He simply kept most of it out of sight.-

Regis cleared his throat, the most awkward throat clearing Danilo had ever heard.  “Dom Ardais, we are ready to leave.”

The only reply was a moan. 

“Dom Ardais?” Regis tried again.  “Damn it all,” he yelled, losing his temper, “stop that and come on.” 

-I think we need to use force,- thought Danilo grimly.  -Let's tie a damp handkerchief on both of them.-

-This has got to be the worst duty I've had so far as a guardsman,- thought Regis to Danilo as they wetted extra handkerchiefs and stalked their prey like loose chervines.  -This is even worse than breaking up that drunken tavern fight with the twenty brawlers.- 

As they approached, they could hear Lord Ardais crooning, “Lick at it, jealous little boy.  Lick up every trace of my foster-son's body.  Ah!”  Dyan threw back his head in ecstatic convulsion.

Distracted by his pleasure, he lost control of the mental grip he was using to force Garin's will.  Freed, the boy whipped out his dagger and stabbed hard.  He was aiming at Dyan's groin, but Lord Ardais jerked aside with faster reflexes and he knocked Garin sprawling with a brutal punch.  Regis and Danilo ran forward. 

“You LITTLE FILTH,” Lord Ardais raged.  The knife was stuck deep into his right thigh and welling blood rapidly around the blade.  He seized a length of bridle lying next to him and quickly tied a tourniquet just above the injury.  “You've severed the artery,” he said to Garin, seething. 

“No more,” said Regis sternly to Dyan.  Danilo moved his own hand surreptitiously to his dagger.

Ignoring them, Dyan's eyes were fixed on the blade protruding from his thigh.  “Get me a bandage,” he snapped at his foster-son. 

Danilo didn't move.

Reaching down, Lord Ardais drew out the blade with a grunt, wincing briefly from the pain.  Then his hazy eyes focused on Garin.  Garin smiled back viciously.  Dyan's eyes narrowed. 

Garin's face went slack and the boy turned, charging for the ravine.  Danilo understood what was happening in almost the same instant and threw himself after while Regis lunged for Dyan.

But Garin was too far ahead.  Before Danilo could grab him, the boy launched himself right over the edge.  Danilo knew he should watch, should trace the boy's fall so they could find his body afterwards, but he couldn't make himself look. 

Regis' own dagger was out.  Lord Ardais' eyes were fixed, studying the ledge where Garin had taken the last step of his life.  He was too distracted to react when Regis slashed the cords of a small bag around his neck with a single motion.  Dyan grabbed for it, but Regis had already thrown himself back out of range.  Danilo watched, squatting on the edge of the ravine.

A normal telepath would have gone mad or died from having his matrix removed from his throat.  But Regis possessed the gift of a natural keeper, and he was holding the stone safely in resonance.  Dyan was breathing hard, still sane and alive, waiting to see what Regis would do.

“You think to take me to Thendara and try me for Garin's murder, for the illegal use of the Alton gift.”  Lord Ardais made a slight noise somewhere between a laugh and a gulp.

“Correct,” said Regis evenly.  “I would advise you not to resist.”

“I would be foolish to attempt to escape with this wound,” said Dyan.  “But you'll need to repair the artery for the ride.  You two should know basic healing from your laran training.”  His face was strained, grimacing with pain.  “Save yourself the trouble and return me to Ardais.  There will be no trial before the Council.”  Dyan managed to smile briefly before the pain caught him again.

“Why not?” exclaimed Regis. 

“Because self-defense is always excusable in the law, and Garin just tried to kill me.  Even an Alton is allowed to kill an assassin with his laran.”

Dismayed, Regis and Danilo exchanged a look.  Lord Ardais was perfectly correct. 

-He cannot go free again.-  There was a finality in Danilo's thoughts. 

Regis opened the bag containing Dyan's matrix and took it out, joining Danilo by the edge of the ravine.  He undid the silk wrapper around the jewel.  Danilo sent no thought, made no sound.  They were in perfect agreement.

With no warning, Regis whipped the stone off the edge, throwing it out as far as he could.

“NO!” Lord Ardais howled. 

Regis' grabbed Danilo's arm in case the storm of an enraged Alton gift hit them. 

But without his matrix Dyan's laran was weak.  After a moment there came a dull shattering noise from the bottom of the ravine.  Lord Ardais howled again, and didn't stop.  His eyes began to run, his mouth to drool, and he fell twitching to the grass.

He had gone mad. 

“Lord of Light,” said Regis as if praying.  “He didn't die.”  They were paralyzed, staring at what they'd wrought.  An insane Dyan, permanently insane, this time.

Danilo took a great breath and raced over to his foster-father.  Quickly, he inserted his dagger into the tourniquet and sliced it through, throwing himself aside from the gouting spray of arterial blood.

“Dani,” said Regis.  He stopped.  Danilo came back and waited.  They both stayed silent.  It took nearly a minute before Dyan bled into unconsciousness.  After five minutes they could tell he had died.

Watching him, they felt too sick to move.  Suddenly they were flooded with the urge to get out of there immediately.  They threw themselves into their saddles and galloped off down the trail, heading for Thendara.

-oOo-

The story they told the Council was that Lord Dyan had died at the hands of his paramour, Garin, who then leapt off a cliff under kireseth madness.  Hastur money, which Regis had access to, shut the mouths of the guardsmen.  Neither Regis nor Danilo ever told anyone the truth of what had happened.  As for Danvan Hastur, he took the news with equanimity, saying that since Danilo was now Lord Ardais, he could only approve of their 'friendship.'  His cynicism made both boys livid, remembering all the trouble Lord Hastur had caused them.

Lord Hastur himself suffered a stroke several months later, and though he survived with most of his wits intact, Regis eased him out of politics. 

The new Lord Ardais found an honest steward and put the man in charge of the icy Domain in the Hellers.  Danilo spent his days in Thendara by Regis' side, and they repaired what had never been broken, though they had their difficulties at first and much to learn.  Despite what had happened with Dyan, they got on with their lives.  In fact, they had many long and happy years ahead of them.

But it was nearly a decade before Danilo could nerve himself to return to Ardais, and only after his memory of his time there grew dim. 

-oOo-

The End