There is reluctance in you, Trull. You hide it well enough, but I can see where others cannot. You are a warrior who would rather not fight.
That is not a crime, Trull muttered, then he added: Of all the Sengar, only you and Father carry more trophies.
I was not questioning your bravery, brother. But courage is the least of that which binds us. We are Edur. We were masters of the Hounds, once. We held the throne of Kurald Emurlahn. And would hold it still, if not for betrayal, first by the kin of Scabandari Bloodeye, then by the Tiste Andii who came with us to this world. We are a beset people, Trull. The Letherii are but one enemy among many. The Warlock King understands this.
Trull studied the glimmer of starlight on the placid surface of the bay. I will not hesitate in fighting those who would be our enemies, Fear.
That is good, brother. It is enough to keep Rhulad silent, then.
Trull stiffened. He speaks against me? That unblooded pup ?
Where he sees weakness
What he sees and what is true are different things, Trull said.
Then show him otherwise, Fear said in his low, calm voice.
Trull was silent. He had been openly dismissive of Rhulad and his endless challenges and postures, as was his right given that Rhulad was unblooded. But more significantly, Trulls reasons were raised like a protective wall around the maiden that Fear was to wed. Of course, to voice such things now would be unseemly, whispering as they would of spite and malice. After all, Mayen was Fears betrothed, not Trulls, and her protection was Fears responsibility.
Things would be simpler, he ruefully reflected, if he had a sense of Mayen herself. She did not invite Rhulads attention, but nor did she turn a shoulder to it. She walked the cliff-edge of propriety, as self-assured as any maiden would and should be when privileged to become the wife
of the Hiroths Weapons Master. It was not, he told himself once again, any of his business. I will not show Rhulad what he should already see, Trull growled. He has done nothing to warrant the gift of my regard.
Rhulad lacks the subtlety to see your reluctance as anything but weakness-
His failing, not mine!
Do you expect a blind elder to cross a streams stepping stones unaided, Trull? No, you guide him until in his minds eye he finally sees that which everyone else can see.
If everyone else can see, Trull replied, then Rhulads words against me are powerless, and so I am right to ignore them.
Brother, Rhulad is not alone in lacking subtlety.
Is it your wish, Fear, that there be enemies among the sons of Tomad Sengar?
Rhulad is not an enemy, not of you nor of any other Edur. He is young and eager for blood. You once walked his path, so I ask that you remember yourself back then. This is not the time to deliver wounds sure to scar. And, to an unblooded warrior, disdain delivers the deepest wound of all.
Trull grimaced. I see the truth of that, Fear. I shall endeavour to curtail my indifference.
His brother did not react to the sarcasm. The council is gathering in the citadel, brother. Will you enter the Kings Hall at my side?
Trull relented. I am honoured, Fear.
They turned away from the black water, and so did not see the pale-winged shape gliding over the lazy waves a short distance offshore.
Thirteen years ago Udinaas had been a young sailor in the third year of his familys indenture to the merchant Intaros of Trate, the northernmost city of Lether. He was aboard the whaler Brunt and on the return run from Beneda waters. They had slipped in under cover of darkness, killing three sows, and were towing the carcasses into the neutral Troughs west of Calach Bay when five Korthan ships of the Hiroth were sighted in hard pursuit.
The captains greed had spelled their doom, as he would not abandon the kills.
Udinaas well remembered the faces of the whalers officers, the captain included, as they were bound to one of the sows to be left to the sharks and dhenrabi, whilst the common sailors were taken off the ship, along with every piece of iron and every other item that caught the Edurs fancy. Shadow wraiths were then loosed on the Brunt , to devour and tear apart the dead wood of the Letherii ship. Towing the other two sows, the five Blackwood Korthan ships then departed, leaving the third whale to the slayers of the deep.
Even back then, Udinaas had been indifferent to the grisly fate of the captain and his officers. He had been born into debt, as had his father and his father before him. Indenture and slavery were two words for the same thing. Nor was life as a slave among the Hiroth particularly harsh. Obedience was rewarded with protection, clothing and a dwelling sheltered from the rain and snow, and, until recently, plenty of food.
Among Udinaass many tasks within the household of the Sengar was the repair of nets for the four Knarri fisherboats owned by the noble family. Because he had been a sailor, he was not permitted to leave land, and knotting the nets and affixing weight-stones down on the strand south of the river mouth was as close as he ever came to the open waters of the sea. Not that he had any desire to escape the Edur. There were plenty of slaves in the village all Letherii, of course so he did not miss the company of his own kind, miserable as it often was. Nor were the comforts of Lether sufficient lure to attempt what was virtually impossible anyway he had memory of seeing such comforts, but never of partaking in them. And finally, Udinaas hated the sea with a passion, just as he had done when he was a sailor.