Shan tapped the door lightly and entered Emla’s bedchamber. She put a tray bearing herb tea and hot bread rolls beside the bed and stood back. ‘Good morning my Lady. Which robe will you wear today?’
‘Good morning Shan. I think the darker green, with the embroidered sky singers.’ Emla sat against her pillows drinking her tea as her maid went to select the robe from the connecting dressing room. As Shan returned, smoothing the soft fabric as she laid it on a couch, she glanced at Emla through her lashes.
‘What is it Shan?’ Emla smiled. ‘Tell me.’ She patted the side of the bed invitingly.
Shan plumped herself down beside the Lady. ‘Well. Those two guests of yours, not the Dragons.’
‘Go on.’
‘I thought the one called Tika was but a child, maybe nine or ten Cold Seasons old. I could scarce believe it when she said this will be her fifteenth Cold Season!’ Shan drew her legs up on the bed and went on. ‘She is so small Lady, and I do not think she will grow more than another three or four finger at most. Then she said she was human.’ Shan’s eyes were round with the pleasure of gossip. ‘Truly, Lady, I had thought she was a child of your people – she looks so like you, especially. But if she is so small, she cannot be. But I have never met a human like her.’
Emla coughed as tea went down the wrong way.
‘Why, Lady, I was younger than this Tika when you first chose me as your special maid, and I was bigger than her even then. And look how I have grown since.’ Shan leaped from the bed to twirl in front of Emla to underline her point. Her blonde braid swung heavily at her back. It reached to her narrow waist above which swelled a very generous bosom balancing equally generous hips below. Emla knew very well that over the last four or five Cold Seasons, Shan had been happily fending off the attentions of most of the male members of the household staff, probably including old Lorak she thought grimly.
‘Yes indeed Shan, you have certainly grown.’ Emla pushed aside the bedcovers. ‘I will bathe and dress now. Send someone to Lord Kemti please, telling him I will be in the library before breakfast and wish to speak with him there.’
Shortly thereafter, Emla entered the library to find Kemti standing by one of the long windows. He came towards her, asking, ‘What is it Emla? Have you discovered something new?’
‘I do not know,’ she replied. ‘Listen closely.’ Quickly she related Shan’s words. ‘Could it be possible a human has our blood? But it has been forbidden since the beginning. Human females were so damaged if they were bred with us. If they did conceive, most miscarried the offspring and then died themselves, or they bore a weakly child which did not long survive. I have to know if this is a possibility Kemti.’
‘The idea was abandoned so long ago. Who would have considered attempting such crossbreeding again now?’ He frowned, the Guardian uppermost in both his and Emla’s thoughts.
‘I will study the patterns of both young ones. But I will discuss this with no one Emla. I think it best we keep this idea to ourselves until we can be sure, one way or the other.’
Over breakfast, it was agreed that Farn, Ashta and Mim would spend the morning with Gan, as he tried to evaluate their physical strengths and weaknesses. Tika was to go with Iska and Yash, and they would try to discover the extent of her mental differences from humans they had previously examined.
Tika and Mim had slept soundly in the pavilion to which Shan had led them the previous evening. A fire burned cheerfully in a large hearth and glow lamps made the main room bright. There were four sleeping chambers and two washing chambers, with great tubs already filled with hot water, curving behind the main room.
Two very young maids were to attend Tika and two young boys attended Mim, all under Shan’s expert eye. The baths had been a revelation to Tika and Mim. After an initial reluctance to immerse themselves, they had wallowed luxuriously until the water grew cool. They found their clothes had vanished when they emerged from their tubs but were each wrapped in thick woollen robes and taken to the fireside. There they ate a warming supper and then found their heads nodding and their eyes closing. Farn and Ashta already slept on the open sided veranda encircling the pavilion as Mim and Tika sank into comfortable beds. New clothes awaited them when they woke, obviously copied from their old travel worn ones, by someone during the night. Now, breakfast finished, the two Dragons and Mim left with Gan, and Tika looked a little nervous.
‘Why do we not walk a little, so you too can admire Lorak’s work?’ Iska smiled.
‘I know little of plants, Lady Iska,’ replied Tika. ‘I would like to walk though.’
‘You do not have to call us Lord or Lady,’ Yash told her, as he and Iska walked one each side of her. ‘It is a formality but not always necessary.’
They were some distance from the main House by now and Tika suddenly exclaimed at the path they walked on. ‘How are these patterns made? It must have taken a great time to find so many pebbles just the same colour and size.’ Iska and Yash watched as Tika stepped along a line of grey blue stones. She turned with the design, and came back to where she’d started. Then she followed a line of black stones. ‘It’s a spiral, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘It looks so simple, but how hard it must have been to make it just so.’
The three strolled on, Tika delighting to find various stone patterns set into the broad paths everywhere two or more paths joined each other. They spoke easily of many things, Iska and Yash changing topics seemingly at random. They reached a meeting place of five paths, in the centre of which was set a low walled, star shaped pool. Tika admired the glazed tiles picking out yet another spiral pattern around the walls before she glanced at the pool itself.
‘Whatever are those?’ She was looking at several very large golden swimmers, lazily finning through the clear water. Iska sat on the wall and dabbled her fingers in the water. The swimmers drifted towards her, gently nibbling her fingers.
‘We call them sunfish. They just seem to float about, eat, and look beautiful. Quite a good life I suppose, but a little boring after a while I would imagine!’
Tika laughed as the sunfish came hopefully to her fingers. Yash joined them on the wall. ‘I was just thinking how nice a cup of tea and a little something to nibble would be, myself.’ He looked questioningly at Tika.
‘Sounds a good thought to me,’ she agreed.
Retracing their steps, Tika stopped suddenly on the middle of one of the stone patterns. ‘That’s what it was,’ she exclaimed. Iska and Yash awaited enlightenment. ‘As we flew in towards the House, it all made a pattern. From higher, you can see the House, and the pavilions set around, and lines of tapisi, and curves of lawn, and clumps of small fruit trees, then single bell trees marking points in the pattern.’
Tika looked at the two Seniors. ‘Of course, you would know all that, knowing this House as you must.’
‘I think I read something about it.’ Yash answered, adding casually. ‘Can you read Tika? Did you have books in the town you lived in – Return, I think you called it?’
Tika seemed uncomfortable with the question. ‘A few people could read. It was said to be a strong magic, too strong for most of us, especially for slaves and women of any class.’
‘But,’ Yash prompted her gently.
‘There was one old woman I had to do certain tasks for quite often. She was a relation of the Lord’s so she was of some rank. She was always reading when I was in her rooms. Sometimes she talked to me, quite kindly, sometimes she read little pieces out loud from her book. She made me stand by her and she would point to the marks as she said the words. One day, I had been cleaning her rooms, and she pointed at some marks and asked if I knew what they meant – and I did! There were several clumps of marks that I had got to recognise.
‘The old woman was very sick though, and the last time I saw her she lay in her bed. She told me to fetch her a book and then to find some of the marks I knew. When I did she took the book away again.’
They had reached the veranda now and Yash and Iska sat on the first step whil
e they waited for Tika to finish. Her voice was low and she looked out over the gardens rather than at the Seniors as she said: ‘The old one said I would be killed as a magic maker if any discovered I could read the marks. I must never let anyone know of it. Then she sent me from her and the overseer came to me later and said she had ordered that I be beaten.’ She drew a shaky breath. ‘When I woke after the beating, I heard someone say the old one had died. I have tried to forget the marks in the books since that time.’
Yash rose to his feet, holding a hand out to pull Iska up. He put his other hand lightly on Tika’s shoulder. ‘Let us find some tea, child, and something to eat.’
Farn and Ashta were demonstrating the strength of their fire to Gan, trying to focus the gout of flame that emerged when they belched. Mim met Tika and the two Seniors as they crossed the entrance hall of the House.
‘The Lord Kemti asks will you go to the library for a few minutes Tika. This one has just come from there now.’ In a tight beam of mind speech directed to Tika alone, he added, ‘He stared at this one for a while and made marks on some parchment. Then he stared some more, then he said this one could go.’
When Tika rejoined the others, the conversation dwelled only on mundane matters – the weather, the gathered crops, the standard of wool from the Lady’s herds of lumen, and the sudden departure of travelling sky singers.
‘Do as you will for a while, young ones. We have tasks we must busy ourselves with. If you need anything at all, do not hesitate to ask any of the house people.’ Iska was following Yash to the door as she spoke.
A great crack, then a crash, shook the room at that moment, and the Seniors were not far behind Tika and Mim as they raced out of the building. ‘Farn!’ screamed Tika’s mind as Mim’s was calling for Ashta.
They found a fair crowd with the two Dragons in an area behind the House – obviously a stable yard. Fengars were shrieking, eyes rolling as they put their heads over half doors. Their fangs were bared and the doors shook as hooves thrashed in frenzied attempts to get out and do battle.
Gan was sitting on the ground before Farn and Ashta and looked dazed. Mim felt Ashta’s guilt at perhaps hurting this two-legs, while Tika was swamped by Farn’s embarrassment. ‘I did not wish to damage anything Tika, really!’ Farn said in a rush, eyes whirring frantically. ‘This Gan asked if we could burn stone such as the piece on top of the roof. I said “of course” and I thought he intended me to do so! So I did, and I could, and it fell just beside him. I meant no hurt Tika!’
Tika stroked Farn’s face soothingly. ‘No harm was done – I don’t think.’ She looked at Gan. Several people were assisting him to his feet. He looked at the sculptured figure shattered beside him for a few moments, various expressions chasing across his face. Then he looked at Farn. All shades of blue were whirring in the Dragon’s eyes and he moaned sadly in Tika’s mind. As she continued to calm him, she realised Gan was now staring at her. Eyes as sapphire as Farn’s glared at her furiously.
Tika appealed urgently to Mim and he helped her to repress a terrible urge to shriek with laughter. Then Iska’s head blocked Gan’s stare as she patted dust from the Chief of Guards and asked if he was injured. Voices calling explanations to new arrivals on the scene and the fengars’ continuing cacophony deafened and pained Mim’s sensitive ears badly. He turned away with Ashta’s head at his shoulder and moved towards the gardens. Tika and Farn followed them closely. Tika then led them to the star shaped pool beyond the sight of the House.
She and Mim sat on the wall, mutually agreeing it might be best, given the circumstances, to give Gan adequate time to calm himself somewhat. Farn recovered quickly from his agitation, finally remarking, ‘Of course I knew I was able to knock down stone,’ with his usual innocent self-confidence. Then he went to see what was fascinating Ashta in the pool. He lounged beside her, their chins resting on the wall, as they stared enchanted at the sparkling sunfish.
‘Do humans always talk so loudly?’ Mim asked Tika. ‘This person has only seen a few human hunters passing through the Nagum woodlands, and they were not loud.’ His ears had folded over themselves tightly to protect his highly sensitive hearing. Tika averted her gaze as Mim’s ears slowly and cautiously uncurled and moved, quivering, in different directions. She had seen his strange ears in action before but still found it rather disconcerting.
Tika showed Mim the patterns in the stone paths. Mim was interested, his three long delicate fingers tracing along the patterns. ‘This person thinks they must mean something quite special, so much work to make them. But it is too hard for this one to understand the meanings.’ Tika agreed but then suggested they get the Dragons away from the pool. She had the definite feeling that the sunfish were fascinating them as thoroughly as the sparkling jewels had done in the Treasury collections.
She was right. Neither she nor Mim could distract them through mind speech, resorting eventually to physically pulling and pushing them to get their eyes turned from the swimmers. Some time had passed since the mishap in the stable yard by the time Farn and Ashta were persuaded to move back along the path to the House. Once they were on the lawns, Mim advised the pair to hunt together and then to return quietly to the pavilion where they had spent the night.
Blue and green eyes flashed questioningly. Mim and Tika exchanged glances, then Mim sighed as he explained, ‘When there has been trouble, it is sensible to keep out of the way for a while. If you are seen, it seems to remind the annoyed one to immediately recall the trouble, and to start the scolding all over again.’ Tika nodded in firm agreement. Both Dragons pressed their brows against their riders’ brows, then lifted gracefully from the grass.
‘Should we keep out of the way a bit longer do you think?’ Tika asked Mim.
‘Perhaps we should go to the pavilion,’ he replied. ‘These new clothes seem to have become rather dirty. The Lady and her people appear to set much store on the cleanness of everything. This one’s mother was much the same.’
Tika slipped her arm around Mim’s waist, her dark head reaching his shoulder, nearly. Although he had shown Emla and the Seniors what events had catapulted him out of his woodlands and into this so different world, only Ashta, Tika, and Farn were aware of the terrible, constant pain Mim felt. The deep, abiding pain of such total loss, and also guilt, at not being there to share that horror. He struggled to come to terms with the fact that he alone had survived.
Having tidied their appearance, Tika and Mim sat quietly at the doorway of the pavilion, watching the sky flush with sunset colours. ‘Someone comes,’ Mim warned. Seconds later, Tika heard footsteps pattering along the stone path. Shan burst round the corner and skidded to a halt in front of them.
‘There you are! They are all in a tizz, thinking you had flown away!’ She looked at their slightly worried expressions and laughed merrily. ‘You are in no trouble,’ she said and reached to catch a hand of each. ‘Come quickly, they all wait your presence at the supper table.’ She pulled them along with her at a fast trot until they neared the House. She dragged them to a standstill and straightened their clothes and hair, as if they were mere babies, as Tika vigorously complained. When they apparently met with Shan’s approval, she moved ahead of them to conduct them, as honoured guests, into the dining chamber.
Emla and the Seniors welcomed the two with some relief, and urged them to be seated as servants began bringing in steaming dishes of food. Tika noticed Gan seemed a little remote, his silence a little forbidding. She eventually managed to ignore his coldness and chatted freely with Yash and Kemti.
It was full dark when Emla decided it was time Tika and Mim should retire to bed. They had both been stifling yawns for some time. In the safety of Emla’s House, the fact that they had been living on a great deal of nervous energy in the last moons was apparent in their need to sleep. Emla wished them good night, and again Shan escorted them to the guest pavilion. And again hot tubs awaited them, but this night, they made no attempt to sit up by the fire afterwards. From bath to be
d and dreamless sleep, unaware of the wards of Power Emla had woven around the whole estate, but particularly around their pavilion.
On the veranda, Ashta waited, checking her precious Mim slept peacefully, then that Tika also lay quietly. Satisfied all was well here, and lulled by Farn’s gentle snores, Ashta too closed her eyes. She wondered fleetingly what the Golden Lady and the Seniors had to discuss of such great importance. She had sensed tenseness, excitement, strong in one of the Seniors, when she had peeped in the windows of the dining chamber earlier. She yawned, rested her head on Farn’s back and she too soon slept.
Gan spoke immediately the library door closed behind the manservant. ‘Several saw Linvaks, Lady, the night they went from here. Travelling fast, so the people told my men - with some relief. But travelling beyond Gaharn, along the feet of the Spine Mountains. No one thought to follow of course, so that is all I have discovered. It does seem clear that Yar was deceived. I have sent a small group of my best scouts to see what is to be found, although too much time has been lost for us to be too hopeful.’
‘That is good news though, Gan. We can know for certain the Linvaks were under someone else’s orders. If the taking of the Weight had been their idea, they would have fled to their homeland as was falsely revealed to Yar.’ Emla sank onto her usual fireside stool. ‘I believe Kemti has news for us?’
Iska, Yash and Gan were seated now while Kemti stood before them. He spread his long thin hands almost helplessly. ‘I scarce know how to begin,’ he said. They waited. ‘Emla suggested I examine the patterns of Tika and Mim.’ Yash and Gan looked surprised. ‘I did only a visual testing. If they are agreeable, and you so wish, I can do organic tests tomorrow, but I am convinced personally by the visuals.’ He took a steadying breath, his black eyes shining in the light from the glow lamps.
‘Mim’s pattern shows some Nagum characteristics. It also shows Dragon characteristics.’ All were listening intently now. ‘And Tika – she has human patterns, but also she has markers clearly indicating she shares our blood.’
Gan’s reaction was stunned amazement, Yash looked totally intrigued. Iska nodded. ‘You have not surprised me with this news of Tika. I felt something of this nature would be revealed. But Mim – are you saying Dragon bred with Nagum? Surely neither race would contemplate such a thing?’
Kemti strode back and forth across the library, from pool of glow lamp light through shadow into light again, and back. ‘I have wrestled with this all day. I went over and over the scenes in Mim’s memory when he showed us how he reached the She Dragon Hani’s nesting cave, and I think I have the only explanation.’
‘Well by the stars Kemti, tell us!’ Yash nearly shouted at him.
‘Mim was injured. He had cuts and bruises from his climb and his fall. I believe Hani licked him with her tongue to clean and mend his hurts. It is the only way I can find as being the cause of his having Dragon patterning. Maybe Nagums, or this particular Nagum, was somehow receptive to this sort of implantation. And instead of his body rejecting these new patterns, they were accepted and grew rapidly to the extent I can see so plainly.’
‘Are either of them aware of this?’ asked Emla.
Kemti considered for a moment. ‘No, I believe not.’
‘And what if Mim mates with a Nagum in the future? What offspring will be brought forth?’ Iska sounded disturbed.
‘Seeing what perils lie before them, it hardly seems necessary to consider the distant future he may well not survive to see,’ Gan retorted.
Iska winced at his bluntness but kept silent.
‘We must all think on this,’ said Emla. ‘Consider what it can possibly mean – to Tika, to Mim, to the Dragons, and to ourselves. I will hear your views tomorrow. I think we will discuss it no more tonight – it will only blur the issue. Kemti has given us the facts, and it is these facts I would have you think on.’ Emla stood up, drawing the gold threaded shawl she wore close around her narrow shoulders. ‘I had intended to speak with Mim and Tika tomorrow. I will delay until I have your thoughts on Kemti’s discovery, and on exactly how much you feel these children should be told.’
Chapter Eleven
Soul Bonds: Book 1 Circles of Light series Page 10
