26. Lukas
26
LUKAS
A fterwards, Lukas lies on the mattress with Elric in his arms. His body calming, the wild desire from the three love cakes ebbing into a soft feeling of contentment. He is naked, fully naked. He has removed the brace. The harness, the pauldron and the sleeve, all of it. He is skin-to-skin with Elric. He pushes his face up to the nape of Elric’s neck where his bright red hair becomes pale flesh, and kisses there. “How are you,” Lukas says in a soft voice.
“I love you,” Elric says, sleepily.
“I love you too,” Lukas says. The words fall from his lips easily. He kisses Elric’s neck again. “How do you feel?”
“Sleepy,” Elric murmurs. And he certainly sounds it. “Can I sleep?”
“Sadly, no,” says Lukas, kissing again. He would kiss that neck forever. Pale white. Like the neck of a swan. “We have to go to the dockside.”
“Why?” Elric says in a low whine, wriggling against Lukas, which is distracting.
But not so distracting, Lukas forgets what he plans to do next. “I have to meet Trysta.”
“The Plumian woman?” Elric pauses. “Oh. To get her mark on the papers for Abul.”
“I already have her mark,” Lukas says calmly. But he does not feel calm. He has things he must tell Elric. Things that seem strange to speak aloud. “But I need to meet her before I return to the mountains. She told me she has a ship. It’s moored out beyond the horizon. She…” Lukas pauses. He almost dare not say it, “She says my brother Damon is aboard that ship. He lives.”
Elric rolls over in Lukas’s arms to face him. “Damon? Damon Darekul? But how can he be alive? Lukas, I did not lie to you about that.”
“She said she fetched him herself from that isle.”
Elric blinks.
Lukas says, “If I want to go to the ship and see him, I have to meet her before the midnight bell. That is why I had to buy you. If I waited until morning when those soldiers or whoever bought you was done, it’d be too late.”
“You really think,” Elric says, twisting, rolling over in Lukas’s arms to face him. “Damon Darekul is on a ship in Lunatum docks?”
“I do, yes,” says Lukas. And he does. His heart twists. He does. He doesn’t want to believe it. Because if he believes it and it turns out not to be true, he doesn’t know how he will stand it. But he does. He cannot help himself.
“And you will go to him? Will you stay with him? I thought all you wanted was to take control of the Mortingales and lead them to storm the Rose Palace with the Plumians.”
“I do,” says Lukas. “I did. Or, at least, I still want to kill Selim.”
Elric pulls himself up to look down at Lukas. His expression is shrewd. Elric Underlia, Lukas knows now, is a lot sharper than he likes to pretend. “Why do you want that so? For your cause of freedom for Azuria from the rule of the Dareks or simply because you cannot stand that you failed to do so last time?”
“For many reasons,” says Lukas. He can feel them. All the reasons he needs to kill his uncle. “Azuria under Selim is a cruel and brutal place. He uses his faith to impose more repressive laws than the Empire has ever seen. People say my grandfather, Emperor Erond, was cruel and heartless. But Selim is worse. So much worse. And now it's personal. You’ve told me what was done to Damon. Selim sent Damon to his death. Simply for loving a male slave. So I will return to the Rose Palace. I will kill the man who tried to kill my brother.”
“You think Damon will join you in that cause?”
“I hope so,” Lukas says, although he cannot imagine it. Damon was always the one who was loyal to the Empire. Who wanted to be a rich noble. But after what happened to him…?
Lukas wonders what Damon thinks of Selim now.
“But, what about the Mortingales? You have Trysta’s mark? Doesn’t that mean Abul will make you leader if you return?”
“It does but…” Lukas tails off. What does he truly want? He knows not. What did he ever want? “I meant it when I offered to give up the Mortingales and run away with you, Lordling. There is only one thing I am sure I want and I have it right here.”
“You want me more than you want to kill Selim?” Elric says smugly. “I suppose you did come to that auction to buy me. And you offered your mirror and your name.”
“You remember that?” Lukas can barely remember it himself. He had been possessed by a strange fury. But he did do that, didn’t he? “Didn’t work though. I don’t know what I would have done if Perl hadn’t bought you.”
“Perl?” Elric says, sounding as it, until that moment, he had forgotten Perl wholly. “Why was he here? What did he want?”
“He wanted me to retrieve the Blue Blade. That’s why he brought us here. This is my old chamber under the luxoli house.”
Elric moves in Lukas’s arms to look around the room. He looks back at Lukas with a playful expression. “This is…? This is where you lived in Lunatum? A room under a luxoli house. It sounds so romantic, but it’s a dump,” he says, laughing.
“It’s not the Tower of the Heir in the Rose Palace.”
“It is not.” Elric laughs softly, then says, “Why did you come to buy me? You said you needed me before midnight so you could meet Trysta, but why did you come after me at all? You told me you didn’t care where I went after I vanished into Lunatum.”
Lukas shifts against the pillows. It seems amazing he could have ever thought that. But he had. He had been so shocked, so angry. He hadn’t truly understood what Elric was telling him. Elric himself, he is sure, didn’t know the truth of what was happening. “At first because I needed to ask you something. But I am not sure now that was the reason at all. I needed to get you back. Lordling, I tried to tell you before. I’m not sure if you understood me. What happened at the Rose Palace wasn’t your fault. I meant it when I said you were caught up in the schemes of powerful men. After you ran Trysta took me to a safe house. I had to stay hidden and while I waited, I thought about everything. About how Red Wolf claimed to be the spy in the Mortingales and I am not sure that he truly was.”
Elric frowns. “Lukas, I told you the truth. Red Wolf was the spy.”
“It was your truth, but what did you truly know about him, Lordling? You were a concubine who warmed his bed when he came to the Rose Palace. You told me he always brought papers. I thought that was a little strange. Bringing papers is a risk. So there must have been a reason for it. Not everyone did it, you said. Some just met with Vindar and told him what they knew, but others brought papers.”
Elric nods.
“So it would make sense that some of the people you met with were spies. But others, the ones who brought papers, were envoys, bringing information from Vindar’s true contacts.”
“I suppose. Truly I never thought much about it.”
“Why would you? I think all you could be condemned for was that you never thought too deeply about what you were doing. But you were not the one who betrayed me. Nor was Red Wolf. I think the true contact from the Mortingales was too important to travel to Vindar themselves. Red Wolf was an envoy. He was bringing information from someone else in the Mortingales.”
Elric looks at Lukas seriously. “Then there is another spy in the Mortingales. Who?”
“There’s only one person I think it could be but… This is what I needed to ask you. Only you can confirm…”
Lukas tails off. He finds his shirt on the floor with the paper Trysta marked still inside it. He holds it out to Elric. “Do you remember what those papers you read in Red Wolf’s belongings looked like?”
“I do,” Elric says. “My father trained me to remember all I read.”
Lukas nods. “This is from Abul.” He holds out the paper. “See here is his seal.” Lukas points to the wax at the top of the paper, where Abul’s seal is embossed. A black mortingale in flight.
Elric looks at it. “Abul…? And you’re asking me if this seal was on the papers Red Wolf brought to Vindar?”
“I am.”
Elric nods. His face is pale stone. “Yes.” Softly he says. “If that’s Abul’s seal, then Red Wolf’s papers came from Abul.” He looks at Lukas. “So Abul was the real traitor? Sending messages through Red Wolf?”
“I think so,” says Lukas heavily. “He always knew much of what was happening in the Rose Palace. He often gave me news of my family. I never questioned how he knew. But if he was in contact with Vindar, through Red Wolf. Abul used Red Wolf. Just like your father used you. He found a skill and exploited it. Red Wolf was always an arch-diplomat. Abul used to say he would have done well in the Rose Palace. And, just like you, he was always so keen to gain his father’s favour.”
Elric shakes his head. “But Abul is the leader of the Mortingales. Why would he turn traitor?”
Lukas nods. He’s thought a lot about this. Surprised how simply it all fits together. “I don’t think he turned traitor at all. I think he was always a traitor. I think he was always loyal to Azuria. Abul was an Imperial Soldier who left his post to join the Mortingales. I think he was sent to do that. By someone in the Rose Court. It could even have been Vindar. He would have been a young man then, working his way up in the Rose Court. He would have been Under-Chancellor and only a few years from being made Chancellor in his own right when his predecessor died in the same riot that killed Emperor Erond. Vindar has been Chancellor a long time. I think Abul could have been sent by him to infiltrate the Mortingales. Perhaps Vindar never expected Abul to rise so high that he would become leader. But that happened as Vindar was consolidating his power. Not long after that, he made an agreement with my father to take my sister Ferra as wife when she was of age.” The words are sour in Lukas’s mouth. He cannot begin to imagine the depth of Vindar’s scheming or what it might mean.
Elric shakes his head slowly. “But how can Abul have been the traitor, loyal to the Rose Court? He married two Mortingale women. He fathered children. His oldest son died in the raid on the Rose Palace. Why would Abul compromise that raid if it meant his own son died?”
“His oldest son Jon died and Frin died too. Frin was the oldest son of Conwen, Abul’s predecessor. There was also Golt, Little Lamb’s brother and a man called Juniper.”
“You know all their names,” says Elric.
“Of course I do,” says Lukas. “I was with them. But I have wondered about that. Abul was always wary of Frin. He thought him loyal to his dead father and he was popular. Many people thought Frin should have taken over from his father as leader instead of Abul. And Jon and Frin were close. Perhaps he ended up suspicious of Jon too and sent them deliberately. He wanted them gone. And back then, he had other sons.” Lukas pauses considering the horror of this, that Abul sent his own son to die, then says slowly, “Inga always thought Abul refused to let her go on that raid because he didn’t truly value her. Perhaps he refused because he did.”
“So there always was a traitor in the Mortingales who was true to his roots in the Azurian Empire?” Elric says. “It just wasn’t you.”
Lukas nods. “Indeed.”
Elric shakes his head again. “But it can’t be. This can’t be true. What about the purge?” he says. “The purge killed Abul’s wife. And all his other children excepting Red Wolf and Inga…”
“The purge happened later. After Red Wolf stopped coming to you. I cannot believe Abul would have conspired with Vindar to allow the purge. Not the way it happened. But while I was in Lunatum something happened to Abul. Something that truly broke him. I am sure that was the purge. But I think Abul stopped working with Vindar after the Rose Palace raid. Just as Red Wolf did. Perhaps Red Wolf persuaded Abul when he returned, after his own change of heart, that they ought to stop. Red Wolf was always very persuasive. Perhaps the purge was Vindar’s reaction to Abul deciding not to give him any more information. Perhaps the purge was meant to punish Abul.”
“So Abul is no longer a traitor.”
Lukas shakes his head. “I don’t know for sure but, over the last year, since I returned from Lunatum, he seemed different. Broken somehow. I always put it down to what happened in the purge, but it was almost like he was atoning for something.”
“For his loyalty to the Rose Court who killed his wife the moment he stopped behaving the way they wanted?”
Lukas nods.
“The purge could have been more than that,” says Elric.
“What do you mean?”
Elric inhales. “Whose idea was the raid on the Rose Palace, the attempt on Selim? You said they used your knowledge to get inside, but who wanted to do it? Whose idea was it?”
With a strange heavy feeling inside him, Lukas says, “It was mine. But Abul was the one who wanted to do something big. Some great attack on the Empire. I offered my knowledge and the idea we could kill Selim.”
“What if it was Vindar’s idea you ought to do something big?”
“Why would Vindar want us to attack the Rose Palace? To kill Selim?”
“Why would Abul? If he was loyal to the Rose Court?” Elric’s eyes are wide. Emerald bright. “What if the raid was always meant to fail? Would be set up to fail? It wouldn’t succeed, but it would scare Attar. It made the Mortingales a dangerous threat. I think, perhaps, I know more about the Rose Court and their methods under Vindar than you do. I think the Rose Court would have instructed Abul to arrange something big, always meaning for it to fail, so they would have a good reason for the purge.”
“No, Abul would never have agreed to the purge,” Lukas insists. But as he says that, he wonders, did he ever know Abul at all?
“Perhaps he did not know that was Vindar’s reason for the raid. Perhaps he never asked. Or perhaps he did know and thought he could control what happened when it came. That it would be smaller. He had his hiding places ready, didn’t he? But after Red Wolf changed his mind and that meant Vindar only got the information about when the raid was coming because of me, the purge became something more, something far worse than it was ever meant to be. And since then, Abul has been trying to atone, as you suspect, trying to fix things, breaking you out of Lunatum gaol, paving the way for you to take his place.”
Lukas stays where he is on the bed for a long time, arms wrapped around Elric. He feels like everything Elric has just told him is mist in the room. Mist that is slowly settling. Settling inside him. He knows it’s true. All of it is true. How had it taken him so long to see the games that were being played all around him? Games every bit as duplicitous as the ones played in the Rose Palace.
Because those games were being played by the Rose Palace.
Lukas ran away into the mountains to escape the Rose Palace and ended up still ensnared in the filthy heart of it. He looks at his bare wrist.
“Truly,” says Elric, “you forgive me. You forgive me what I did?”
“I told you,” says Lukas gruffly. “You did not know what you were involved in. And the real truth of the matter is, you were caught up in something so much bigger than you. Vindar’s scheming, Abul’s treachery, your father’s ambition. You were the least powerful person involved. Do I wish you hadn’t told them what you read in Abul's papers? Yes, of course I do. But I can’t help thinking that if you hadn’t, something else would have happened. If the Rose Court meant to destroy the Mortingales, they would have done. One way or another.” He pauses. “Oh Zai, Lordling, we must go. We must go now.”
Lukas rolls over and picks up the brace that straps around his chest. He sits up and starts fixing it in place.
“Really. Is it so late? Can’t we stay here a little longer?”
Lukas shakes his head. “There are things I must do before we meet Trysta at the docks. There is something else. Someone I must speak to...”
“Who?”
“We need to go back to Sparrows’ Hall.”
Elric looks at Lukas with wide eyes. “Is that wise? That’s where the enforcers found you. And the whole city will be looking for you now.”
“Not wise,” says Lukas. “Not at all. But it must be done. Because I’m not going back to the mountains. And Sparrows’ Hall is where Inga is.”
“What do you want with Inga?”
“She’ll be making ready to return to the Mortingales. And we need to tell her about Abul,” says Lukas as he pulls on his breeches and fastens them. “I owe her.”
Elric stands up. “Do we have to go back through the auction room?”
Lukas looks at Elric, “Scared of seeing Roc?”
Elric nods. “A little.”
Lukas picks up the sword from the table and slides it into his belt. “I would protect you, Lordling. But do not fear. I know another way out. Now get dressed.”
Lukas rummages around in a pile of his old belongings heaped on a chair. He throws Elric a bundle of clothes. A loose shirt and a pair of breeches so old the knees are patches on top of patches. But they will do.
Elric puts them on. As he does so, he says, “This is your old room. You said you never wanted to come back here, but now you have, is there anything you want to take? Apart from the sword you have been charged by Perl to take with you.”
Lukas looks down at the sword. He had put it into his belt without thinking. It feels right there. “He went to a lot of trouble to make sure I got this sword,” Lukas says.
“Yes,” Elric says, fastening his breeches. “Perhaps more than you know, actually. He was the one who found me in the room upstairs and told Roc I was trading without making it right with her.”
Lukas makes a sharp bark of a laugh. “He used you as bait to get me down here.”
Elric is grinning, “Because you can’t resist me, bastard.”
“Perl claims I’m going to use this sword to kill a demon. Do you think he was some kind of fantasist? Like a Priam?”
“I don’t know. But I think you ought to hang onto the sword. Just in case. If there are demons anywhere in this world, I am sure they will be on the streets of Lunatum. But don’t you want any other of your old belongings?”
Lukas looks around. He picks up the dildo and slides it back into its leather pouch. “Perhaps I ought to keep this,” he says with a grin at Elric. “It seems useful. And these.” The second thing he picks up is the wooden box of love cakes. “Oh, and one more thing,” he says, grabbing something else from a heap of miscellaneous belongings beside his bed.
“That’s all?” says Elric, looking around at the shabby room.
Lukas nods. “That’s all.”
Lukas leads Elric back through a maze of torchlit tunnels, to the pillow rooms, most have the doors closed, although clear sounds of lovemaking are audible. Other rooms have the doors left open, so any passersby can see the pairs, or groups of men entwined on the beds.
As they pass a room with the door open, Lukas says, “An open door means any passing luxorite is welcome to join them.”
Elric gasps, “ Zai .”
“And before you say another word, we do not have the time.”
“Silverhand,” Elric exclaims, pressing closer, “I wasn’t thinking about that. Truly you have given me all I need.”
“First time for everything,” Lukas says lightly.
“All I meant, was that I cannot believe this could exist in Azuria.”
“It can’t. Officially,” Lukas says. “Come on. This way.”
They turn a corner into a fresher-smelling passageway. They’re almost at the secret exit here. Lukas stops beside a small alcove.“You’ll like this,” he says as he lifts the candle he brought from his chamber so Elric can see what’s in the alcove.
He almost cries out in fright.
Lukas laughs. In the alcove is a statue. A lewd statue of a male demon, standing with legs spread on either side of a roused cock. The statue is black and so glossy it looks as if it would be wet to the touch. “What is that?” Elric says, awed.
“I don’t know. Some kind of God of luxorites,” says Lukas.
“It reminds me of the statues of Zai,” says Elric thoughtfully, features exaggerated and sharp in the candlelight.
Lukas frowns. “There are no statues of Zai, Lordling. Zai does not take a physical form.”
“No. That’s not true,” Elric says, still staring at the figure. “There are statues of Zai. In Emperor Selim’s private shrine. He always said those were the only ones because Zai’s true form was too powerful for everyone to see. But the ones in Selim’s shrine, they look like this.”
“When were you in Emperor Selim’s shrine?”
“I was his page, for a while. When I was seven summers. It was the first use my father found for me.”
Lukas frowns at him. “You mean you were one of those boys he had sit and watch him chant?”
Elric nods. “I was. It was terribly dull, but my father was delighted.”
“Did he ever wash your feet?”
Elric laughs. “No. Never. I saw him wash a lot of feet though. I once saw him wash Vindar’s.”
Lukas shudders at the thought and turns away, but Elric stops, looking closer at the statue. “Silverhand, bring the candle back.”
Lukas does so, lighting up the statue again. “What is it?”
“There’s something written there,” Elric says, “on the wall beneath the statue.”
“Oh yes, there is. Some old runes, I think.” He lights them with the candle.
Elric gasps. “Oh,”
“What is it?” says Lukas. “Can you read it? It looks a little like Ambolk, but those runes are none I know.”
“It’s Ur-Ambolk,” says Elric.
“You know Ur-Ambolk? Didn’t you tell me the only Ambolk you knew was the words to filthy songs?”
“That was a lie to flatter you, bastard,” Elric says demurely. You know the truth now. My father sent me to many tutors. I learned every language in the Empire. He sent me to a learned acolyte of Zai to be tutored in the runes of Ur-Ambolk. I don’t know much, but I can sound that out.”
“What does it say?”
Elric looks at Lukas’s face, lit eerie by the single candle. “It says Ur-Durik.”
“What?” says Lukas. “This is a statue of Ur-Durik? The demon from the old story? The one Perl was talking about?”
Elric looks at the runs again. “Perhaps I am wrong. I only know the sounds the shapes make. I don’t know any words in Ur-Ambolk. But Perl spoke to me about Ur-Durik too. He told me that story. He said he rises.”
Slowly Lukas says, “Ur-Durik. The last of the Bellator. The demon that I am supposed to fight with all my brothers and this bloody sword.”