In the Ruins

Page 21

Eldest Uncle and the young warrior were the same man, but one was old and one was young.
Eldest Uncle covered his eyes and trembled. The other shook his head like a madman.
“Brother!”
“How can this be?”
It was only a whisper. Two whispers. She did not know which one spoke. Buzzard Mask released his hold on the old man, and the young one took a step toward the old one and as of one thought they embraced, holding tight, two creatures who in their hearts are one.
“Do you understand it yet?” asked Sanglant’s mother. As she came up beside Liath, she indicated the men with a lift of her chin. She laughed, but not kindly, sensing Liath’s bewilderment.
“Why do you dislike me so much?” Liath asked her.
“I don’t know. I just do.”
“How can you dislike someone you don’t know?”
“I had to listen to my son talk on and on about you in the days we were together—you, and battle. Those are the only two things he’s ever thought deeply about, if a man can be said to think deeply where his cock is concerned.”
“You don’t like your own son?”
“He’s not what I wanted.”
Liath smiled sharply, wishing she could intimidate others with clever words and the stiffening of her shoulders, as Sanglant could. “He’s what he is, no more and no less than that. If you don’t like it, you missed your chance to make him something else, didn’t you? He is Henry’s son, not yours.”
“Born of humankind,” said Kansi with a sneer.
“Look!” cried Falcon Mask from the wall. She had braced herself with one hand on the highest course of stone as she rose, balancing precariously with drops before and behind. She pointed at the heavens.
The two men released each other, stepping back from the embrace to stare as one at the cloudy sky. How strange it was to see a man both old and young, the same man, as if time had split him into two parts and in its circular discursion finally caught up with itself. There was a wink of light against the clouds as quickly gone.
“We saw two griffins,” said the young man. “But our arrows scared them off.”
Hope leaped in Liath’s heart, but she said nothing.
Eldest Uncle rested a hand on the other one’s shoulder, taking strength there, and gazed at the procession waiting on the White Road. “Who are these? Where have you all come from?”
“We were caught between the worlds in ancient days. Now you have returned, and we are released from the shadows.”
“There are more of you?”
“I was with one group, but we met up with many others. There are more, still, coming this way.”
“All those sent to the frontier before the end,” said Eldest Uncle.
“What do you mean?” asked Sanglant’s mother and Buzzard Mask at the same time.
“I must sit down,” he said apologetically, but it was the young one who helped him up to the tower most solicitously, who sat beside him, staring intently at his face as though to memorize every wrinkle and crease.
“I never thought to see you again,” said the young one. “I thought you were lost to me.”
“I, too. I despaired, but then I lived.” They had an easy way of touching, a hand placed carelessly on the other’s knee or shoulder. It was as though there was a misunderstanding between them and they had forgotten that normally there is an infinitesimal space between one body and the next, that which separates each solitary soul from another.
“You are old.”
“I am eldest.”
“Not bad looking, for an old man! Not like that warty, flabby old priest of a Serpent Skirt.”
They laughed together, almost giggling, suddenly younger than their years, boys again. Brothers. Twins.
“Don’t you see what this means?” demanded Sanglant’s mother with fists on hips, looking disgusted as she watched them slap each other’s arms. “More will come from the north! Cat Mask’s army will grow. We need not fear our enemies any longer, not with such a force.”
“Cat Mask’s army?” asked the young one, turning away from his brother. “Who is Cat Mask? What has he to do with me?”
“Hsst! She-Who-Creates has much to answer for! Will you strut and preen like the rest of the young men and fight for command like so many pissing dogs?”
His eyes narrowed. “You are my daughter by blood. My niece. Do not speak so to your elders, young one!”
“You are younger than I am! I have a grown son! I can speak any way I please!”