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Retribution	By : SWOTBWOT Category: A through F > Darkover Series Views: 1626 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Darkover belongs to the estate of Marion Zimmer Bradley, not me. I am making no money off this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 3
-oOo-
One evening when an ice storm glazed the windows opaque, Dyan summoned his foster-son to sing after dinner. The music room was empty save for the two of them, and Danilo plucked out a lively tune on the rryl as he accompanied his voice.
“I do not wish you to lose your skill,” said Lord Ardais, “but will you join me in a glass of kirian?” He poured the colorless liquid into a long-handled copper pot, and swirled it before the fire to warm it to blood-heat before decanting it into two glasses.
Danilo was wary. He had no head for wines, and kirian was known for its telepathic enhancing properties. To one with the Ardais gift, it was a deadly drug, lowering all telepathic barriers. Facing a man with the Alton gift—one which could coerce the will--it was even deadlier. Nonetheless, the cold in the room was so severe it was stiffening his fingers, and kirian made him feel warmer. He accepted a glass, though he knew he should not. He told himself that Dyan had changed, indeed, he'd been behaving himself for a long time, or as much as Dyan ever could.
“Sing of love,” commanded Dyan.
/His favorite subject, again? Whyever did I expect anything different?/
Danilo sang. Instead of taking to his usual sofa, Lord Ardais stood directly in front of his foster-son, listening, sipping from his glass with too-intent eyes. Something about his manner was alarming.
When Danilo finished, Dyan took both their glasses and set them aside on a table. “Will you ever change your mind?” asked Lord Ardais.
For a moment, Danilo pretended not to understand. “About what, sir?”
“About me. Do you still think so poorly of me?”
Danilo dropped his eyes to the floor. “Not so much, anymore.”
“That is good. I am glad your education here has included more than books.”
Before he could stop himself, Danilo blurted out, “But there's still one thing I don't understand.”
“What?” Lord Ardais poured himself another glass.
“Why you did it in the first place. Why were you so cruel to me?”
“Ah. You want an answer to that?” Dyan said slowly. He looked away and leaned against a table. “Because I was an utter fool.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, indeed. When you said 'no' to my offer, I could not endure it. I became furious.”
“Was I—the only person you ever--”
“Do not ask me questions about my past. I refuse to answer. I will say this, however. I pride myself on my judgment. That day, when I questioned you in my office, I read your mind. I could tell you were attracted to men. You have a loving heart. I thought--”
Lord Ardais broke off as if the words had become too difficult. “Our kind comes in many varieties. Sometimes, there is little of value to choose from. I have often made do with second or third best, lacking other choices. But when I met you, I thought you were the finest choice any man or woman could make, whatever their preferences.”
Danilo blushed.
Lord Ardais gave him a sidelong look. “That is why I became so unreasonable. I saw what I valued most in life, then lost it--by being too insistent, too hasty with someone who was too young for what I wanted. I was like a beggar with a diamond tossed unexpectedly into my cup. Seeing a luck I never expected, I danced in celebration and accidently dropped my diamond down a street-grate. I went completely mad, wild to gain you by any means.   My madness now has its explanation, but no excuse.”
Danilo was too embarrassed to look up. Lord Ardais, too, refused to meet his eyes.   “My hope is that I can somehow win back your good opinion.”
“You have—certainly improved it,” said Danilo slowly. He had the sudden intuition he'd just made a godawful mistake. He could feel the kirian working, and Dyan's thoughts were intruding into his own. Lord Ardais was very embarrassed as well, somber, struggling to be forthright, and—eager.
“Have your thoughts about me truly changed?” asked Lord Ardais.
“Somewhat.”
“Would you ever reconsider the other part of my proposition?”
Danilo's eyes shot open in alarm. “Sir?”
Dyan hesitated. “Your time here must be lonely, and you are not so young anymore. I could give you something I think you desire, with no conditions attached.” He put down his glass, and stepped in front of Danilo again.
Danilo felt near-panic. The more reasonable Lord Ardais was, the more frightening he was. Every one of Danilo's paxman instincts was shouting 'danger.'
“Sir, I am sworn to Regis Hastur. I am totally, completely, his,” said Danilo with emphasis. His face felt molten with heat.
“Regis is a worthy choice. I will not do anything to interfere between you two. But he is not here, and not all attachments need be sworn, or lifelong. Sometimes all one desires is simply someone to ease loneliness for a little while, without regrets the next morning. Two men who can be mature in their agreement for a brief encounter, and who will not quarrel, or feel guilty, or even choose to remember it after, if such is desired.”
Danilo was frozen. “Such things are best left to the experienced,” he said. Despite himself, his voice shook. /If we become any more abstract and evasive, we're flitting off into the aether./
Lord Ardais caught the hint. “Sometimes this arrangement is useful if one wishes to gain experience, and do so with discretion. I never boast about my encounters, and will regard anything you request as sacred. Anything. You can have my eternal silence. If you wish us to go back to what we were tomorrow morning, with nothing between us, we will. You can request anything I know in the arts of love. I will swear an oath. You may turn me out of this castle tomorrow, take all that I have, if I break it.”
He was standing very close to Danilo, speaking with great feeling, his voice scarcely above a whisper.
Danilo reflected that this seduction would not have worked on the boy he had been—his younger self would still have been too scared--and it didn't work very well now. Maybe he did desire Lord Ardais, somewhat. Maybe Dyan had changed. But Lord Ardais was still a fairly obnoxious individual, and Danilo had little taste for the distasteful. Besides, Regis was a telepath, too. If he ever found out that Danilo had voluntarily slept with Dyan, Aldones only knew what would happen. Danilo wasn't sure their love could survive so towering a betrayal.
“I am sorry,”--he had to fight the urge to add 'sir'-- “but I cannot consider doing such a thing to Regis,” said Danilo.
“Not even if he benefitted? No offense, but Regis lives in Thendara with many other prospective bed-partners and distractions. His grandfather, you know, is very eager to marry him off, and the prince will naturally attract ambitious climbers. Do you know how many persons, male and female, must be vying for his sexual favors now that he is of age, and free to choose for himself? Who knows how many have tempted him by now? Sometimes—I do not mean to sound cynical, so pardon me—it is helpful to have the charm of experience, not just the charm of person. Anyone can attract another, but experience is what causes your lover to return for more, and it cements the physical part of the relationship together.”
/Typical Dyan, hoping to play on my fears. He has the bad luck to be dealing with a telepath who can read Regis' mind. Dyan does not comprehend our love, or understand what forged our bond./
“I am sorry, sir. I must turn you down. Despite ourselves, Regis and I will muddle through somehow.”
Lord Ardais reddened. “I see,” he said. He struggled to restrain himself. “Maybe one day you will change your mind, but obviously not now.” He picked up the bottle of kirian and said shortly, “Good evening to you.”
He left the room and did not slam the door, as Danilo expected. Danilo let out a long breath.   Could he trust Dyan to leave him alone? A very proud and arrogant man had just been rejected, not once, but twice. This time, Lord Ardais had been on his best behavior, too. How would he take this wound to his ego?
Danilo shut his eyes tightly, trying to stifle the younger boy inside himself. The last time he'd rejected Lord Ardais, it had been—very bad.
From a distance there came a shattering crash of a bottle being thrown down a flight of stairs.
Danilo's eyes opened. Every instinct told him to leave the castle immediately, but it was impossible. /Dyan is different now,/ he insisted to himself. He will be angry for a few days, then get over it. He is different./
-oOo-
The next morning Danilo was summoned straight from bed because the castle had no water. A new fall of snow had buried the water-pump, and all able-bodied men were needed to shovel out a path to uncover it.
It must have been the coldest day of winter when he joined the workmen. Midway through their shoveling, he discovered something. He'd known about Carlo as well as Garin and Riccardo, but hadn't ever confirmed the rumors of the fourth liaison. He discovered the truth of it by the screams.
Horrible screams, very young ones, were coming from the stables. The little cluster of men with him ceased their work a moment to listen, but they all seemed to know without words what had happened. They looked at each other, avoided Danilo's questioning eye, and began to dig again without comment. When Danilo started towards the stables one of the men caught the back of his furred jacket with a hard jerk and held him fast.
Lord Ardais came out of the stables a little later, throwing his cloak around himself. As he passed the workmen he met Danilo's eyes with a disturbing smile, carnal, mocking, and scornful. The expression utterly paralyzed Danilo.
It was only the dim telepathic despair of the stableboy, a lad called Rory, that woke him and caused Danilo to remember that he was someone's paxman. He'd taken the oath to Regis Hastur unto death. He was a member of the City Guards, if still only a cadet. Finally, he would one day be a lord to these men standing behind him, too weak and ashamed to act. The people of Ardais had no one left to protect them.
Danilo stabbed his shovel into the snow and went to the injured boy, and found him bleeding. He summoned the castle's healer, Merinna. He got the names of Rory's parents from Ruyvan. Later, after Merinna was done with her work, Danilo led Rory home through the snow on a chervine. Rory's parents were so poor they'd put him out to service at the castle and could not afford to do without his wages, small though they were. Danilo had been given weekly pocket money by Dyan since his arrival, and he'd been saving it up. Fortunately coin went a long way in the Hellers. The parents accepted his gift with gratitude and agreed not to let their son work for Dyan again. To Danilo's dismay, they didn't seem to think Dyan's episode with their son was terribly serious. Either they were stunted in emotion or simply too poor to care.
For the rest of the day Danilo sweated blood. Lord Ardais' face wore a constant glare, emotionless and threatening. After several strained hours during which the servants spoke in whispers and even Garin looked frightened, Lord Ardais signaled for Danilo to join him for dinner. Dyan said not a word the whole time, and waited until the servants had cleared the dishes and left the room before opening the conversation.
“I never let anger spoil a meal. You carry your duties much farther than I intended.”
Whether he did it to make a point, or had simply forgotten, Dyan drew out his dagger to clean his nails. Danilo thought it might be the former. His foster-father was a maker of gestures. The colorless eyes of Lord Ardais looked truly inhuman. “The servants of this castle are not your business. You will not interfere again.”
“Dom Ardais,” Danilo replied tremulously. “You forget one thing. I am a Syrtis. Maybe sometimes we fail to defend ourselves, but we never fail to defend another.”
With no warning, Dyan rammed the point of his knife directly into the tabletop, sending both Danilo and his chair sliding back a foot.
“You will NOT interfere again,” Dyan snarled.
“I make no promises,” replied Danilo. The two stared silently at one another, until Dyan seemed annoyed by the juvenility of it. He wiggled his dagger back out of the table.
“In your arrogance, you have let the family starve. They have no money. I was paying them wages for the boy's services. Are you proud of yourself now?”
For the first time, Danilo's fear receded a little from sheer rage. He leaned forwards, resting his arms on the table. “His name is Rory, if you ever bothered to learn it. Nor should you boast of starving a single one of the Ardais people. Do you expect to impress me by it? I gave them all I had, and am glad I learned the habits of frugality.”
Dyan went still. “All of it? Every coin of your pocket money? Zandru's Hells, you're a Syrtis indeed,” he sneered. “So.” He fixed Danilo with a lizard-like eye. “You wish to interfere with me? Very well. I will not perform--in your sight--any acts that displease you. As for out of your sight--” he smiled mockingly “--try to catch me. Maybe you cannot be intimidated, but you cannot change my nature any more than you can change the course of the sun.”
With this, Lord Ardais threw his knife so close to Danilo's ear that the boy felt the wiff, and flinched aside. The knife lodged in the wall with a loud thonk.
Shaken, Danilo knew then that all his efforts to get along with his foster-father, to view him as a human being, had been a waste.
-oOo-
Continued in Chapter 4.
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Retribution