The King's Name Read Online Free PDF Page B

I
    know, which is what has kept me alive this far. Beyond that the gods are laughing at me. I broke the curse, and I will die for it. I should have told them my name was Fishface."
    "I'll carry you back there and try my charms," I said. It must have been a heavy blow from on top after he was already unhorsed. It could have been a sword or an ax, there was no way to tell.
    Armor might have helped, but probably not very much. "And anyway, I don't despise you. You infuriate me a lot of the time but I've never despised you."
    "That's good to know," he said, and smiled, gathering together all his charm. "I'd really much prefer it if you took the water to Emer. She may be destined to die as well, but her foot appears to be reattached so there is likely hope for her. Do tell her—well, tell her I love her more than breath, if you would. She will know that I am dead, if she is alive to know it. I grant you it would make a better song if we both die, but I'd really rather she didn't. I suppose as far as songs go it should have been the three of us. Strange that you should be here, after all these stories of terrible debauchery you and I are supposed to have committed. But you prefer leprous female dead cod, I recall." He smiled at me again.
    "You're babbling," I said, gruffly, to hide the lump that had come into my throat. "Hold onto that helmet, I can carry you and it."
    "If you like," he said indifferently. The dawn birds were starting to sing loudly all around us. I took Beauty's head to stop him drinking too much too soon. "When I told my father Black Darag was dead he asked me why, in that case, I was still alive," Conal said meditatively as I bent down toward him. I hoped it wasn't far to where Emer was. I wondered if I could put him up on Beauty.
    "You told me that at Thansethan," I said, getting my arms underneath him.
    "Well, if you get the chance, let him know that I managed to die in a not unworthy cause, nor entirely without dignity."
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    "If I have to," I said, and lifted. Conal laughed and drew breath to say something. Then his bad arm flopped away from his body and a tremendous amount of blood ran out of it, all down my armor and into the stream.
    Beauty made a little whuffle of disgust. I set him down again, gently, though there was no need. He was unquestionably dead.
    I took the helmet and set it carefully on a stone. Then I wiped my armor as clean as I could with the flowing water. Then I filled up my waterskin. There would have been enough water in that for Emer, but somehow taking the wretched helmet had become an obligation I owed to Conal. I led Beauty back down the track.
    That left both my hands full so I had to let my tears run unchecked. It was strange that I wept for Conal; I had not even known I had liked him.
    Emer was sitting propped against a bank. She appeared to be alive but very weak. I gave her the helmet of water.
    Garian's horse was cropping the grass nearby. Garian himself lay on his back. His eyes were wide open, staring at the sky. He had been stabbed through the thigh and his life had run out of him. There were six other bodies in sight, and four dead horses. I looked at the bodies one by one. I recognized all of them as
    Aurien's people. The last of them was Cado, whose father Berth was my trumpeter and whose daughter
    Flerian was one of my scouts. It seemed terribly wrong that he should have been trying to kill me. I stared at him for a moment and then looked back at Emer. She lowered the helmet.
    "Conal?" she asked, as if she already knew the answer.
    "Dead," I confirmed. She closed her eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath. "It was as good a death as any warrior could wish," I said. "He told me to tell you he loved you more than breath. He said it in that way of his but I know he meant it."
    "Much good it does me," she said bleakly. Then, while she wept, I caught Garian's mare. There didn't seem any point in the two of us making a pyre now. If we rode on a few hours to Derwen