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.For a moment he stood, looking down with narrowed eyes at the invader, whose eyes showed white all around the iris now.Then Ohaern dropped to one knee beside him, hauled his head up by the hair and held the kettle under his nose.The Vanyar tried to turn his head away, ignoring the pain in his hair, but Ohaern held him too closely.The captive tried to wrench his head away, but the kettle followed, staying under his nose, and Ohaern laughed.“Why do you seek to avoid it? The scent is pleasant enough!” Then he sang softly in the foreign tongue as he watched the steam waft up into the Vanyar’s nostrils, filling the invader’s head until the fumes thinned and disappeared as the brew cooled.Then Ohaern handed the kettle to Lucoyo and jabbed the Vanyar in the belly, just below the breastbone.The invader’s eyes bulged and his mouth gaped— and Ohaern snatched the bucket, yanked the captive’s head back, and poured the brew in over his tongue.The Vanyar instantly clamped his jaw shut, though his eyes still bulged with pain, but reflex made him swallow.He set his jaw, even though he still struggled for breath, but Ohaern only poured the rest of the brew onto the earth, nodding with satisfaction.He whistled between his teeth until the Vanyar inhaled again with a long, loud gasp, then demanded, “Why did your people take the village of the rivermen?”“Because the traders—” The Vanyar clamped his mouth shut, wild-eyed, shocked at himself—but the words still struggled for escape inside his mouth.“It is none of your doing, but that of the brew,” Ohaern informed him.“Its fumes have settled in your brain, and will ensure that you speak only truth.Tell me, then—why did you take the fishing village?”Still the words struggled, but the Vanyar held his jaw tight against them.Ohaern threw him down in disgust and did not bother replacing the gag.“Now he will not answer at all!”“So much the better; the sound of his voice would sicken us,” Lucoyo replied.“But we must have what he knows!” In a rage, Ohaern turned, dropping to one knee again as his huge fist rose high for a buffet that would surely break the Vanyar’s knee.Or would have, if Lucoyo had not caught that fist and held it back.“No, no, softly, blacksmith, softly! He is not iron, nor is there an anvil beneath him, that you should seek to beat him into a shape more to your liking.After all, what does he know? He is only an ignorant cart rider, and surely holds nothing of any importance in his ugly head!”The Vanyar’s eyes flared with anger at the insult.Ohaern glared up at Lucoyo, but withheld his blow.“Do you know why he has not spoken?” Lucoyo said.“He is ashamed of the sound of his voice, afraid that we will learn that he knows no answers at all!” He gestured at the bound man.“His people are so bestial that they scarcely have gods! Why, he could not even tell you the totem of his clan!”“The viper!” the Vanyar snapped.“I am of the Viper Clan!And beware, soft woodsmen, or my fangs shall pierce your flesh!”Lucoyo laughed in savage mockery.“Fangs, is it? Your fangs are drawn, viper, though I could believe there is poison in you.What else could there be, to make you slay so many good and innocent folk?”“Trade!” the Vanyar cried.“Trade, the word you stupid westerners use for your custom that lets us steal your beads and pots for bits of worthless yellow stone! The traders’ boats come up and down the river three and four times in a moon, and already the Vanyar grow rich from their exchange! These stupid fish catchers only gave them the river’s harvest, taking cloth and iron spearheads in return—and what did they use those spearheads for? Catching more fish!”Ohaern stared, but had the sense to keep his mouth shut and leave the questions to Lucoyo.“Stupid, is it?” the half-elf sneered.“Not so stupid as a cart rider who takes a clay pot for a piece of amber that is worth a thousand pots in Cashalo or Kuru! But godless men would not know that.”“The Vanyar are not godless!” the invader shouted.“And well you know it! We worship the great god Ulahane! The great god who will make yours cower in the dust!”“Cower, forsooth! How can you say that, when you know not who our gods are?”The Vanyar grinned.“I have heard you speak of Lomallin [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]