Chapter 51. Ama Svenka

ngelo blinked at the iron latticework of the gate, its massive hinges hanging from wrist thick bolts drilled into intricately carved pillars of petrified wood. Echovald was not his idea of a decent forest. It frankly unsettled him and made him long for the real thing. An actual forest allowed sunlight to percolate through its canopy and it was not crawling with all manner of disgusting insects, angry wardens, drudge and hideous oni. The Kurzicks were a gloomy people and he had always wondered why until he visited their homeland.

“Are we there?” Kalydri called to him from the back of the cart. Angelo looked at the map again and at the notes he had written from the people they had met along the way. The name Ama Svenka conjured images of a kindly old grandmother in a quaint thatched roof cottage. The last thing he had expected was a gloomy mansion in the middle of gods only knew where. From either side of the massive pillars a high wall tipped with spear points of rusty iron stretched into the forest and out of sight. Come to think of it, everyone they had talked to in the region knew the way here and a few of them looked a little alarmed.

They were near Aspenwood, perhaps a league or two from the constantly shifting borders of the Kurzick and Luxon battle lines. He imagined the walls were intended to keep invaders out. Oddly, there was no lock on the gate, only a latch. Why build those enormous walls through this gods forsaken wilderness and leave the door open?

He snorted to himself sardonically. A lot of his warrior buddies had accused him of thinking too much. Of course, he was still alive, most of them were dead.

“I think so. I don’t like this,” Angelo rumbled, reflecting that while he did not trust Canthan officials, Kurzick and Luxon nobles made most of them look meek. The two factions seemed bent on mutual destruction and carried on war in much the same spirit as Ascalonians enjoyed sport. Perhaps they had no memory of peace and thus no ability to understand the value of laying aside their arms. However, a small part of Angelo cynically decided long ago that they enjoyed it. Were the gods to descend and take away all their weapons, they would simply clobber each other with whatever was handy.

For this reason, it did occur to him that the gate was, in fact, a trap to kill off foolish Luxons. He gingerly picked up a cobble of petrified wood and flung it at the gate only to jump back in alarm when an enormous white tiger roared and flung itself at the bars. The ox lowed in terror and lumbered backwards while Kalydri shrieked. Angelo grasped the ox’s reins and braced himself to prevent the animal from fleeing. The poor terrified beast rolled its eyes and trembled as the great cat flung itself repeatedly at the bars, its enormous paws sweeping the air beyond them.

Angelo swore, angered and afraid of what might have happened had he opened the gate. Perhaps Kalydri was right, they should just let Bei go and wash their hands of this affair. He turned his head when the tiger’s furious snarls died down and the sounds of its body being flung against the bars ceased. A young ranger strode into view, a black recurve bow in his hand. He was clad in form-fitting leathers festooned with bits of foliage to hide him in the undergrowth. An unpleasant smile curled his lips as he gazed upon them.

“How sad, I thought my Bala would have some Luxons to play with,” the man said, “What brings you here?”

Angelo pulled the letter from Kalydri out of his belt pouch and gingerly handed it through the gate. The ranger casually broke the seal and scanned the text.

“Show me the payment and I’ll let you in,” he said casually.

Angelo nodded and pulled the small velvet drawstring pouch into view, opening it carefully so that he did not lose any of the precious gems. He opened his mailed hand and poured a few out into his cupped palm. The ranger strode forward appraisingly and nodded.

“Tether your beast over there where the tigers will not frighten it. I’ll wait for you here.”

He put the gems away as Kalydri jumped down from the cart. The two of them released the harness traces that attached the ox to the cart. She led the beast to the appointed place amid a stand of young saplings while he moved around to the back of the cart and grasped Bei’s bound ankles and pulled him unceremoniously toward him. The startled man jerked away and tried to kick him but Angelo merely dropped his squirming body head down over his shoulder.

The ranger opened the gate and held it aside for them. Bei fidgeted anxiously, the grating of the metal hinges triggering panic.

“Don’t do this,” the man murmured, “Please, this is a bad place.”

Angelo had to agree as they wound over a moss covered cart track toward the towering form of a massive tree mansion. Its ornate windows glowed golden in the dusky depths of the stony forest. No doubt a Kurzick would wax poetic over its gothic beauty but it put Angelo on edge. He preferred open woodland and sunshine. Like normal people.

There were tigers prowling in the undergrowth and he idly wondered how many rangers were hidden amid them awaiting the arrival of hapless Luxons. The man who led them said nothing, his dark eyes scanning the gloomy woodland while his tiger padded silently ahead of them. Kalydri bumped into Angelo twice when he stopped to readjust his grasp on the anxious mesmer. The oppressive place had them all spooked.

A cut of the gems were theirs, he reminded himself and found the thought not at all comforting. He felt like a heel. He could not wait to leave and he wished he had never gotten entangled in this vile political game. Maybe it would have been better to let the poor man die. Bei was trembling with fear.

They arrived at the threshold of the mansion, a looming lancet arch festooned with blank-eyed carvings of fanged beasts. There were two flat pedestals on either side of the entrance and a tiger skull rested on each. The ranger pounded once on the heavy door and stood aside as a smaller inset portal opened. A dagger of golden light shafted out onto the cobbles, framing the slender figure of a woman.

“Ah, I’ve been expecting you,” she purred, raising a pale hand and gesturing with her unnaturally long black nails. The harsh black scars upon her cheeks were reminiscent of the beasts that roamed her domain and her black leathers were edged with stripes of pale bone and tiger teeth. A fetish of yellowed talons curled around her narrow neck and her ashen hair was tightly coifed and drawn over an axe-shaped crest.

Angelo tolerated necromancers at best. This one was more unnerving than usual. Like the beasts she emulated, she was graceful and terrifying as she led them into an entry hall that blazed with iron stands of candles. An enormous hearth faced the entrance and two sturdy doors flanked it. There was no furniture, only a rug formed from the pelt of a hapless white tiger. She drew a dagger from a wrist sheath with a swift flick of her wrist, drawing a startled gasp from Kalydri.

“Darling, Ama Svenka does not harm honored guests,” the woman said, frowning demurely, her black painted lips causing her teeth to flash. She drew the blade under the silken cords binding Bei’s ankles and they popped free with barely a whisper.

“Set him here and let me have a good look at him.”

Bei had gone limp and Angelo feared he had passed out. He set him down gently at the center of the pelt and faced him toward Svenka, prepared to prop him up should he fall. When his feet hit the ground, he rocked onto his heels and stood, swaying slightly as Svenka released the belt above his knees and drew the blankets aside.

“My, Master Bei, you have kept yourself in good trim over the years,” she said, rising now to release the belt around his upper arms and chest. The blankets cascaded to the floor and he stood before her in nothing more than his simple black breeches, the intricate tattoos on his back an echo of the stylized stripes upon the woman’s face. He said nothing, only lifted his chin as if to meet her eyes through the blindfold.

“No pleading? You’re not going to ask old Ama for mercy while you have the chance?”

“I might as well plead to a wall for all the good it would do me.”

Angelo backed away as the woman grasped the brass collar and guided Bei to his knees.

“I require the key and the payment,” Ama Svenka said pointedly, “Then you may go.”

“The deal is off,” Angelo said, his voice harsh now that his mouth was dry.

“Leave me,” Bei said quietly, “It is too late for misgivings.”

She patted Bei’s cheek as she might that of a beloved child.

“Always caring about others to your own detriment,” she laughed, “You should listen to him.”

Angelo reached for his sword and was brought up short by Kalydri’s gasp. He lowered his hand and turned slowly, alarmed to see the poor monk shivering in the hands of an assassin, the sharp edge of a blade pressed to her throat.

“You honestly did not think I let strangers into my home without protection? Give me what I require and be on your way. Ama Svenka is a woman of her word, I will take care of Master Bei and his murder will be averted.”

Angelo tossed the bag of gems and the collar key to her. She poured them out into her hand and nodded.

“A sapphire to each of you, stone of sorrow. Take it and be gone.”

Angelo gingerly reached for a pair of dark blue gems and withdrew, backing toward the door as the assassin released Kalydri.

“Safe journey,” the woman said absently, her dark eyes locked upon Bei.

“I’m damned, aren’t I?” he asked Kalydri as they hurried down the cobbled track toward the ox cart.

She looked upon him with a pained expression, her eyes awash with tears.

“Remind me not to get tangled up in Keisha’s affairs ever again!”

“Duly noted,” he said bitterly.