Drenai Saga 02 - The King Beyond the Gate Read Free

cloak and boots and began to rub gently at his calves where the skin was blue and mottled. Turning, he threw a blanket to the girl. “Warm this by the fire,” he said, returning to his work. After a while he checked the man’s breathing: It was deep and even.
    “He is asleep?” she asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Will he live?”
    “Who can say?” said Tenaka, rising and stretching his back.
    “Thank you for helping him.”
    “Thank you for not killing me,” he answered.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Sitting by my fire and waiting for the storm to pass. Would you like some food?”
    They sat together by the blaze, sharing his dried meat and hardcake biscuits and saying little. Tenaka was not an inquisitive man, and Renya intuitively knew he had no wish to talk. Yet the silence was far from uncomfortable. She felt calm and at peace for the first time in weeks, and even the threat of the assassins seemed less real, as if the barracks were a haven protected by magic, unseen but infinitely powerful.
    Tenaka leaned back in his chair, watching the girl as she in turn gazed into the flames. Her face was striking, oval-shaped with high cheekbones and wide eyes so dark that the pupils merged with the irises. Overall the impression he gained was one of strength undermined by vulnerability, as if she held a secret fear or was tormented by a hidden weakness. At another time he would have been attracted by her. But when he reached inside himself, he could find no emotions, no desire … No life, he realized with surprise.
    “We are being hunted,” she said at last.
    “I know.”
    “How would you know?”
    He shrugged and added fuel to the fire. “You are on a road to nowhere, with no horses or provisions, yet your clothes are expensive and your manner cultured. Therefore, you are running away from something or someone, and it follows that they are pursuing you.”
    “Does it bother you?” she asked him.
    “Why should it?”
    “If you are caught with us, you will die, too.”
    “Then I shall not be caught with you,” he said.
    “Shall I tell you why we are hunted?” she inquired.
    “No. That is of your life. Our paths have crossed here, but we will both go on to separate destinies. There is no need for us to learn of one another.”
    “Why? Do you fear it would make you care?”
    He considered the question carefully, noting the anger in her eyes. “Perhaps. But mainly I fear the weakness that follows caring. I have a task to do, and I do not need other problems in my mind. No, that is not true—I do not
want
other problems in my mind.”
    “Is that not selfish?”
    “Of course it is. But it aids survival.”
    “And is that so important?” she snapped.
    “It must be; otherwise you would not be running.”
    “It is important to him,” she said, pointing at the man in the bed. “Not to me.”
    “He cannot run from death,” said Tenaka softly. “Anyway, there are mystics who maintain there is a paradise after death.”
    “He believes it,” she said, smiling. “That is what he fears.”
    Tenaka shook his head slowly, then rubbed his eyes.
    “That is a little too much for me,” he said, forcing a smile. “I think I will sleep now.” Taking his blanket, he spread it on the floor and stretched himself out, his head resting on his pack.
    “You are Dragon, aren’t you?” said Renya.
    “How did you know?” he asked, propping himself on one elbow.
    “It was the way you said ‘my room.’ ”
    “Very perceptive.” He lay down and closed his eyes.
    “I am Renya.”
    “Good night, Renya.”
    “Will you tell me your name?”
    He thought of refusing, considering all the reasons why he should not tell her.
    “Tenaka Khan,” he said. And slept.
    Life is a farce, Scaler thought, as he hung by his fingertips forty feet above the stone courtyard. Below him a huge Joining sniffed the air, its shaggy head swinging ponderously from side to side, its taloned fingers curled around the hilt of the saw-edged