Vaelin turned to Sollis. “Has the Aspect made judgement, Master?”
Sollis glanced at Master Henthal who nodded and left the room. “Judgement is not warranted,” Sollis replied.
“We wounded the King’s soldiers…”
“Yes. If you had been more attentive to my teaching, you might have killed them.”
“The Lord Marshal…”
“Does not command here. Nortah disobeyed instruction for which punishment should be levied. However, the Aspect feels punishment has been levied already. As for you, your disobedience was in defence of your brother. Judgement is not required.”
Master Sollis moved to the far side of the bed and placed a hand against Nortah’s brow. “His fever should fade when the redflower wears off. He’ll feel it though, feel the pain like a knife, sticking in his guts, twisting. Pain like that can either make a boy into a man or a monster. It is my opinion that the Order has seen enough of monsters.”
Vaelin understood it then; Sollis’s anger. It’s not us, he realised. It’s what the King did to Nortah’s father, what that did to Nortah. We’re his swords, he beats us into shape. The King has spoiled one of his blades.
“My brothers and I will guide him,” Vaelin said. “His pain will be ours. We will help him bear it.”
“See that you do.” Sollis looked up, his gaze more intense than usual. “When a brother goes to the bad there is but one way of dealing with him, and brother should not kill brother.”
Nortah came round in the morning, his groan waking Vaelin who had stayed beside him through the night.
“What?” Nortah gazed around with bleary eyes. “What’s this…?” Seeing Vaelin he fell silent, the light of memory returning to his eyes as his hand went to the lump on the back of his head. “You hit me,” he said. Vaelin watched the dreadful knowledge flood back, draining Nortah’s face of colour and making him slump under the weight of his sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Nortah,” Vaelin said. It was all he could think to say.
“Why did you stop me?” Nortah whispered through tears.
“They would have killed you.”
“Then they would have done me a service.”
“Don’t talk like that. I doubt your father’s soul would have dwelt happily in the Beyond knowing that you had followed him there so soon.”
Nortah wept silently for a while and Vaelin watched him, a hundred empty condolences dying on his lips. I don’t have the words, he realised. There are no words for this.
“Did you see it?” Nortah asked finally. “Did he suffer?”
Vaelin thought of the clatter of the trap and the exultation of the crowd. A fearful knowledge to take into the Beyond that so many rejoiced at your death. “It was quick.”
“They said he stole from the King. My father would never do that, he cherished the King and served him well.”
Vaelin seized on the only comfort he could offer. “Prince Malcius said to tell you that he grieves also.”
“Malcius? He was there?”
“He helped us, made the Crows let us go. I thought that he recognised you.”
Nortah’s expression softened a little, becoming distant. “When I was a boy we would ride together. Malcius was my father’s student and often came to our home. My father taught many boys of the noble houses. His wisdom in state craft and diplomacy was famed.” Nortah fumbled for the cloth on the table nearby and wiped the tears from his face. “What is the Aspect’s judgement?”
“He feels you have been punished enough.”
“Then I am not even granted the mercy of release from this place.”
“We were both sent here at the behest of our fathers. I have respected my father’s wishes by staying here although I do not know why he gave me to the Order. Your father also would have had good reason for sending you here. It was his wish in life, it will remain his wish now he is with the Departed. Perhaps you should respect it.”
“So I should languish here while my father’s lands are forfeit and my family left destitute?”
“Will your family be any less destitute with you at their side? Do you have riches that will help them? Think what kind of life you would have outside the Order. You will be the son of a traitor, marked by the King’s soldiers for vengeance. Your family will have burdens enough without you at their side. The Order is no longer your prison, it’s your protection.”
Nortah sank back into the bed, staring at the ceiling in mixed exhaustion and grief. “Please brother, I must be alone for a time.”