Daphne squinted up at the barren mountain range ahead of her, as uninviting and desolate as the Grey Mountains had been. There was no sign of any city, just a few estates dotted about the arid valley floor. The road ran straight along towards the side of the mountains in front of them, before disappearing into the haze.
‘How far away is it?’ she asked. The sun was now past noon, and the early summer afternoon was warm, even in the lengthening shadows of the mountains to their right.
‘We’re almost there,’ Douanna said. ‘Look, the eastern gate is ahead.’
Daphne gazed into the distance, scanning the side of the mountain. The road was aiming towards a dark area, and as they came closer, she saw that it was a large entrance, burrowed into the side of the mountain. The opening was shaped like a horseshoe, and was bordered by a dark green band, set bold against the dull brown rock of the steep hillside.
‘The city is underground?’
‘Of course,’ Douanna said. ‘Naturally there are farms up in the high valleys, but the city itself is built into the mountain, delved out through countless ages. All Rahain cities are such, did I not mention this to you?’
‘You talked about caverns and caves,’ Daphne replied, ‘but I hadn’t really imagined that the whole city had been built inside a mountain, like a coalmine.’
‘Nothing like a coalmine, my dear. And I should know, as I happen to own a few. The cities of Rahain are thousands of years old, and over time enormous airy caverns have been dug out, and houses and buildings constructed within. There are hundreds of light and ventilation shafts, and remember what the Rahain mages can do with stone, my dear. They can carve it, twist it, strengthen it, build with it structures that would be impossible in the Holdings, for all your skill with stone and metal. Slender bridges of onyx, marble as thin as paper, granite compressed into beams to reinforce the ceilings of domes a hundred yards wide. Ahh, Daphne. A coalmine, indeed.’ She shook her head and flickered her tongue in mock outrage.
Daphne laughed.
They joined other traffic at a crossroads about a mile from the entrance, and followed the smooth flagstoned road as it rose up into the foothills of the mountain range. The gate was massive, able to fit six wagons side by side, and was three times as high as it was wide. The solid jade archway was carved in delicate relief, depicting dozens of different images of Rahain at work, builders, miners, farmers, then higher up the arch there were mages, and merchants. At the apex a carved figure sat upon a throne, gazing imperiously down on the travellers below.
‘That,’ Douanna pointed, ‘is the work of the great Toeimus, a renowned master arch-builder from nearly four thousand years ago, during the Second Goanian Tyranny. A terrible time, if the histories are correct, but it was also a period when many of the republic’s greatest architectural masterpieces were created, such as the High Senate in the capital.’
‘I shall have to read some Rahain histories,’ Daphne said. ‘My mind can hardly begin to imagine records from thousands of years ago. I think I’ll start with recent events, and work my way backwards.’
‘Probably a sensible choice,’ Douanna laughed. ‘If you started at the very beginnings of our recorded history, it would take a lifetime’s study to work your way up to the present! But don’t you worry about books, my dear, my husband has a most excellent library.’
‘Your what?’ cried Daphne, a little more loudly than she would have liked.
Jaioun smiled, but remained silent, flicking the reins over the sturdy backs of the lumbering gaien.
Next to him on the wagon’s bench, Douanna fidgeted. ‘Oh dear. Did I forget to mention him?’
‘I think I would have remembered something like that.’
‘I confess that maybe I have been keeping it from you, Daphne dear, though please don’t take offence. It’s just that I thought you might disapprove. I know how Holdings morality on such matters differs from Rahain.’
‘On what matters?’ Daphne asked. ‘Marriage?’
‘Yes,’ Douanna replied. ‘My marriage is one purely of convenience, you see. I married Teolan for his extensive business contacts, and because he was a perfect gentleman, and he married me to earn a little respectability, and to hide the fact that he prefers boys to girls.’
‘Why would he need to hide that?’
‘I’m afraid the republic is not quite as liberal on this point as the Holdings. Of course, nobody cares what the lower classes get up to, but among the better born, the social imperative is to produce children, especially if you are of mage blood. Traditions run deep in Rahain.
‘However, Daphne,’ Douanna continued, ‘please don’t forget that, even though the queen of the Holdings survived the attempted coup last winter, she is profoundly ill. Consider what will occur when she dies. All those freedoms that your generation have taken so utterly for granted: what you can wear, who you can have sex with, drinking alcohol, ignoring the proclamations of your prophets and priests, it will all come to an end once her brother Prince Guilliam ascends the throne, and the church takes control. On that day Daphne, we can reflect again on which society is the most free.’
Daphne fell silent, thinking of her homeland, and the precarious balance of power that existed there between crown and church. The war in Sanang that was so strongly opposed by the church was entering its fourth year, despite the calamitous end to the previous year’s campaign. With Summer’s Day having passed several days before, the Holdings advance forces would be deep within the Sanang forest. And somewhere, waiting for them, was the warlord Agang Garo, and his army.
She looked up as they passed through the jade archway, and entered a wide tunnel, smooth on all sides, and as wide and high as the entrance. Elegant lamps were suspended from the curved ceiling of the tunnel, while traders lined the walls, with stalls set out for the early evening traffic.
‘Welcome to my city,’ Douanna said. ‘Look up there.’ She pointed to the ceiling.
Daphne craned her neck and followed the line of Douanna’s finger.
‘That’s the seam of jade from where the city takes its name,’ the Rahain woman said. ‘This is where it begins. It stretches throughout the city, in fact the original settlement was planned around this seam, and the oldest streets and caverns follow where it leads.’
Daphne saw it, a dark, jagged smear of polished green stone, running the length of the tunnel.
The wagon climbed the road’s gentle incline, and they came into an enormous cavern, the largest interior space that Daphne had ever seen.
Her mouth opened in astonishment. Inside the cavern were towering spirals of slender stone, light beams of bridges spanning the air, and a clustered mass of houses and buildings, which climbed the walls and rose from the cavern floor like sculpted stalagmites. All of it sparkled and glistened in the evening sunlight which streamed through apertures cut into the cavern roof.
She gasped.
‘Daphne, my dear,’ Douanna said, chuckling to herself, ‘this is merely the entrance hall.’
They travelled along the main road, stopping at a fortified building by the cavern’s exit. There, Douanna had the wagons and carts unloaded, and the cargo stowed into one of the vaults inside the building. She left her own wagon full, stacked high with her most expensive goods. She paid off the guards and the custodians of the warehouse, from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of golden coins she kept in a strongbox under the wagon’s bench.
She retained two guards, and once they had clambered up into the back of the wagon, Jaioun flicked the reins, and they set off again, with Daphne and Jamie alongside.
After a short journey, they passed through a gated and guarded tunnel and emerged into a cavern containing some of the most exclusive addresses in the city. Douanna’s house was piled up the side of the cavern wall, with terraces and balconies, and a light shaft positioned over a walled garden, high up on the fifth storey. The wagon pulled up in front of the main entrance, and Daphne eased herself to the ground.
‘Home ag
ain,’ Douanna smiled, stepping down from the wagon and looking up at the great mansion, its red sandstone blocks towering above them. ‘Go on,’ she said, ‘give your horse to Jaioun. I want to go straight in.’
Daphne handed the reins to the butler, and followed Douanna through an archway into a marble-floored hall. Douanna led Daphne up a wide flight of stairs, and gestured for silence when they came to a doorway. She held up her hand, and counted down on her fingers.
When she got to zero, she flung the door open, and strode into a large bedroom.
‘Greetings, my husband!’ she exclaimed.
From the bed a handsome middle-aged man looked up from a book, a pair of spectacles balanced on his nose. A younger man lay under the blankets next to him, sleeping.
‘Still not mastered the art of knocking I see,’ the older man said. ‘Beloved wife.’
‘It must have slipped my mind, darling. After all, it’s been two years.’
She walked over to the massive, luxurious bed, and sat on the edge. She ran her eyes over the form of the sleeping man.
‘Glad to see your standards haven’t slipped.’
The older man put down his book.
‘Daphne,’ Douanna said, ‘this is my husband, Teolan. Teolan, my dear, this is Miss Daphne of Hold Fast, a companion, and a trusted friend.’
Teolan looked over at her, interest peaking in his eyes.
‘Really?’ he said. ‘Then you’ve told her…’
‘Nothing, beloved husband,’ Douanna cut in. ‘As of yet. Perhaps if you would care to get dressed and meet us downstairs in the dining room? We are most famished, maybe we could talk while we eat?’
Teolan nodded. ‘You two go down. I’ll follow shortly.’
Douanna gestured to Daphne and they went down a flight of stairs to a severe room containing a long dining table, where Jaioun was waiting for them.
‘A feast, if you please,’ Douanna said, ‘and set a place for my dear husband.’
Jaioun nodded and got to work.
Within minutes servants were setting down plates and cutlery, and soon they were served roasted poultry, racks of pork in brandy sauce, piles of warm ryebread, and deep jugs of red wine.
By the time Teolan joined them, Daphne was sitting back, her stomach full. She sipped from her wine glass, enjoying the new taste, but wary of getting drunk. Her mind was turning over on itself after hearing what Douanna and her husband had said. Tell her what?
Teolan poured himself a glass of wine, and picked up a few grapes from a plate.
‘So,’ he said to his wife, ‘business first, I suppose, though I don’t doubt for a second that you have made us even more fabulously wealthy than we already are.’
‘I’m afraid so, dear husband,’ Douanna replied. ‘Such is the burden of being married to me. I estimate somewhere in the region of eight million ahanes in profit, taking into account taxes and insurance.’
Teolan raised his glass, and blew out his cheeks. ‘I’d guessed from your letters that you’d been busy, but eight million? For two years’ work? My gorgeous, most beloved wife, I always knew my mother was wrong about you.’
Douanna smiled, and clinked her glass with his.
Teolan took a drink, then turned to study the Holdings woman.
‘Miss Daphne of Hold Fast,’ he said, looking over the table at her. ‘Tell me about yourself.’
Daphne put down her glass. She was unsure if she should trust this man, but he was married to the only friend she had.
‘I’m a fugitive,’ she said, ‘on the run from the church and crown of the Realm of the Holdings, sentenced to death for disobeying orders while in command of a fort in the middle of the Sanang forest.’ She paused. Teolan said nothing, continuing to stare at her. ‘I did no such thing, of course. I was set up by the church.’
‘Why?’ he said.
‘Because of her father,’ Douanna said. ‘Lord Holdfast is a powerful noble close to the queen. Who is dying, by the way. Daphne has the powers of a Holding mage, and can fight like a jackal. She is perfectly suited to our requirements.’
‘She’s the daughter of a lord?’ Teolan said. ‘Won’t the Holdings come after her? Their embassy in the capital is bound to hear of her presence sooner or later.’
‘And what if they do?’ she said. ‘Their laws do not apply here. We plan on going to the capital next, and I’ll be more than happy to march Miss Daphne right up to the Holdings ambassador, show them that they cannot touch her, not while she is a guest of this household.’
Teolan turned his gaze back to Daphne, eyeing her up and down. ‘What happened to your arm?’
‘Crippled it while fighting the Sanang,’ Daphne said. ‘When I was captured by a warlord.’
‘I shudder to think what a fighter she would be if she had the use of both arms,’ Douanna said. ‘Believe me, husband, she is deadly enough with one.’
‘I’m not sure I can trust someone from the Holdings,’ he said. ‘After all, their culture is so young, they know nothing of the world.’
‘That isn’t true!’ Daphne said.
‘Oh?’ he replied. ‘And how far back does your history go?’
‘Five hundred years,’ she said, ‘from the founding of the Realm.’
‘Five hundred years?’ he smirked. ‘Did you know that there is a journal some eleven thousand years old, that still exists in the Hall of Records in the capital? I know, I have seen it. Eleven thousand years, Daphne of Hold Fast. During the time of the actual Collision.’
‘The what?’
Teolan raised an eyebrow. ‘The Collision, the formation of this continent from the five original subcontinents? Your history tells you nothing of this?’
She shook her head.
Teolan stood up, and walked to the wall of the room, where books and scrolls lay on dark wooden shelves. He picked up a large scroll, and brought it to the table. He laid it out flat, weighing it down at each corner with an assortment of utensils.
‘This,’ he said, ‘is a map of our world. Our continent, the only one on this world that we know of.’
She gazed upon the large, square parchment. Upon it was the outline of a five-pointed star. The points were all differently shaped, from large and bulbous, to long and spindly. Each point met the centre in a wall of mountains, shaded darker on the map. This created a thick ring encircling a central plateau, with the great Inner Sea at its heart. Daphne leaned closer, to be able to see the tiny script. Rainsby, she read, under a dot on the southern shore of the Inner Sea.
‘The Holdings,’ Teolan said, pointing to the large, almost round mass at the far north of the star. ‘Probably the continent least damaged by the Collision. The Rakanese, on the other hand,’ he said, pointing at the twisted fingers of the ragged area making up the north-eastern point of the star. ‘We think they lost most of their land to the tidal waves and earthquakes that occurred during that period. Their lifestyle restricts them to freshwater wetlands, swamps basically, and the entire population is now crowded into this area of marshland here. A most miserable existence, for a most miserable people. Fortunately, our way to them is blocked by this volcano here, for they would be a nuisance as a neighbour, and their culture has absolutely nothing to recommend it.’
‘A little harsh, husband,’ Douanna said. ‘I met some delightful Rakanese when I visited.’
‘You’ve been?’ Daphne said. ‘I confess I’ve only heard rumours about the frog-people living there.’
Teolan laughed.
‘Please, Daphne,’ Douanna said, ‘promise me you’ll never use that phrase again, especially if you ever meet one. It is true that they are descended from amphibians, as we are from reptiles, just as you Holdings come from apes.’
‘We what?’
‘Don’t confuse her, dear,’ Teolan said. ‘We have thousands of years of science and the study of biology and geology behind us.’
‘Another time, maybe,’ Douanna said, waving away Daphne’s questioning look.
Teolan looked
back at the map. ‘Then, we have Rahain.’ He pointed to the south-eastern point of the star. ‘We suffered greatly in the Collision, with only seven of our once twenty-one cities surviving the catastrophe. However, those that did survive remained relatively intact, sheltered within the mountains, allowing our culture to continue uninterrupted.’
‘And here,’ he said, moving over to the long, thin, spindly peninsula on the south-western corner of the star. ‘The site of our recent conquest,’ he said. ‘Kellach Brigdomin, the southern tribes.’
Daphne looked up, his words triggering a deep memory, of lying in the dark Sanang forest, grievously injured, dying. In her agony she had heard, or thought she had heard, the voice of the Creator in her ear, talking to her of his grief at the wars ravaging the land, and of his wrath at the Rahain aggression against the southern tribes.
She frowned. ‘Is the war over?’
‘War?’ he snorted. ‘It was a slaughter. We estimate that about half a million people of the southern tribes were inhabiting those lands before our soldiers invaded. Now, we think that fewer than one hundred thousand remain.’
Daphne gasped.
‘About one hundred thousand were killed, and about twice that number were put into cages and transported back here as slaves.’
‘I noticed that we don’t seem to have any here,’ Douanna remarked. ‘Pity. I was curious to take a look at one.’
‘Too fierce to be of any use as house slaves,’ Teolan said. ‘I heard that most of them are being sent to the mines, or to the big construction projects.’
He caught Daphne’s expression across the table, despite her efforts at smothering it.
‘Something the matter, miss?’ he asked her.
‘She doesn’t approve of slavery,’ Douanna said before Daphne could respond. ‘Thinks it barbaric. Well, that’s what their holy book says.’
‘It’s not just that,’ Daphne said. ‘We believe it’s wrong to enslave another person.’
Douanna and Teolan shared a glance.
‘What about the rest of the Kellach Brigdomin?’ Daphne went on. ‘You’re still one hundred thousand short.’
The Queen's Executioner Page 5
