The woman nodded.
“Let me help you with that, then.”
Tressa looked at him in shock, as he took the bucket from her hands.
The courtyard was an obstacle course of fallen rocks and rushing people, and he dodged his way across to the smithy. The furnace was going. He could see the firelight leaking out from under the door. Inside, he found Roan and the dwarfs working at the polishing table, while Suri and Raithe sat in opposite corners of the room. Malcolm stood near the door.
“They’re attacking,” he announced.
Heads came up, but no one moved.
“Raithe?” Tesh said.
“I know,” Raithe replied.
“They’re forming up in the lower courtyard. What do you want me to do?”
Raithe stood up and walked over. His movements, agonizingly slow, made Tesh want to scream. This was an emergency; seconds counted and his chieftain was meandering his way through the stacks of charcoal and iron.
“We need to talk,” Raithe told him.
“What? Now? The Rhist is under attack. They’ve got bridges. They’re coming over right now. Seven columns!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You know?” Tesh couldn’t see how Raithe could possibly know if he’d been sitting in the smithy.
“This won’t take long.”
“What won’t?”
Raithe lifted his good arm and put a hand on Tesh’s shoulder. “I want you to know that I’m proud of you, and that you’re the closest thing I’ve had to a son. That if I had one, I would have wanted him to be like you.”
“You think we’re going to lose this fight.” Tesh saw the defeat in Raithe’s eyes. He’d already given up.
“No.” Raithe shook his head. “We’re going to be okay. I even think we might win the war.”
Tesh scrunched his face up. “You said this was a lost cause.”
“Changed my mind.”
“Odd time for that.”
Someone outside shouted for more arrows to be brought to the Verenthenon. Tesh looked out at the action of soldiers running and hoped Raithe would hurry up.
“The victory will come at a price.”
Outside, the trumpets blew again, and Tesh imagined that the Fhrey were fighting in the lower courtyard. “We can have this talk later, can’t we?”
“No, we can’t. Tesh, when—if anything happens to me, you’ll be the last Dureyan. You should make sure that our people don’t die with you. You like Brin, don’t you?”
“I really don’t think now is the time—look, I need to get down to the—”
“Now is the perfect time because I don’t want you anywhere near the fighting.”
“What? You can’t be serious! You stopped me last time—and I can help!”
“You can help more by living through this night.”
“What do you want me to do? Cower somewhere?” Tesh exploded. “You’re being stupid. I can—”
“I want you to go to the Kype and protect Brin.”
Tesh remembered his dream and lost some of his anger.
“And when this battle is over,” Raithe said. “I want you to start a family. Raise children, and live a good and happy life—someplace safe and green, like on a high bank overlooking the Urum River. I want you to do what I never could.”
Why is he telling me all this now?
Tesh noticed the others watching them, Suri and Malcolm especially. The tattooed girl had tears glistening on her cheeks. “Why are you—?”
“You have talents, and you’ve learned to use them, but don’t let that be your whole life. Dureyans have always been known as warriors, but you need to change that. Promise me you’ll do something good, that you’ll make your life worth something more than killing.”
“What’s this about?”
“Promise me.”
“But I don’t understand why—”
“Promise me.”
Tesh looked at Raithe. His eyes were desperate.
He thinks he’s going to die tonight. Maybe the mystic had foretold his death. Tesh heard she had magic powers, and Raithe’s eerie calm unnerved him. “Okay, I promise.”
Raithe smiled. “Good. Now go to Brin. Take care of her. Be a good man and a good father.”
Tesh, who had been eager to leave a moment before, lingered a moment longer. He was missing something. There was tension in the smithy, a strange silence.
“What’s going on?”
“You’ll find out,” Raithe said. “For now, your chieftain has given you an order. Get going.”
Tesh stared at him, trying to understand. But it was impossible, and memories of his nightmares pushed him out the door.
* * *
—
Brin couldn’t find Tesh. Minutes felt like hours, and hours turned into an eternity. With each passing second, her desperation grew. When the horns started blowing, she knew her time was up.
With that sound, every man stopped what he was doing and rushed down toward the lower courtyard, forming up. That’s where he’ll go, she realized. He wants to be at the front of the line. The lower courtyard was no place for a Keeper of Ways, but she desperately needed to see Tesh one last time.