by Jane Routley
SHORTLY AFTER WE came out into the open Katti stopped and sniffed the air.
Cat, she said.
“Keep a track on it,” I said. I had given the spear to Shadow to carry and now I pulled my bow off my shoulder and put an arrow in it.
And why would I want to do that? said Katti, sticking her nose sarcastically in the air. She didn’t like obvious advice.
“Oh, forgive me,” I snapped at her. “I’ve had a bad day.”
She flicked her tail at me and looked away.
“Yes, you have, so I see,” said Shadow. “Your hands are shaking.”
“Can’t be helped,” I said. “We have to keep going.”
I wanted to scream at both of them, scream from frustration and shock. So I strode on as fast as I could, making them both run to keep up with me.
Still I couldn’t stop my hands shaking. I knew it was fright over what had happened with Illuminus. And every time I thought of Klea... I tried not to think about her, but thoughts of her and this child kept coming back into my head unbidden. Klea crying and all that stuff she’d asked me about mothers last night. Lady of Light, it must be true. How could she? How could she? What an awful, awful thing to do. A hard core of dismay settled in the centre of my chest, as if a black hole had opened up full of echoing darkness. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forgive such an action. I wasn’t even sure I should try. Had she really done it for money?
After I’d been stomping along for a while, I noticed the ghost was trying to talk to me.
“What?” I snapped.
“Um, So I gather you have to be a mage to be part of the Great Council,” he said.
“That’s right, you have to be noble.”
“And the Empress and the Great Council make most of the decisions.”
“All of them.”
“I suppose they’re the ones with the power, yes?”
“That’s right.”
“So what if you’re rich or powerful in some other way?”
I turned on him. “How is it you’ve got so much breath for questions? Aren’t we walking fast enough for you?”
“I’m trying to understand what happened back there. You and Hagen suspect Klea of selling her child to a family of rich merchants, right? So they will bring her up as one of their own, and if she turns out to be a mage, they will have someone to send to the Great Council to promote their interests. It seems a great risk to take.”
“Merchants have been trying to get more power in the Great Council for a long time. They seem to feel that money should have some say in government—that nobility isn’t enough. Eff would probably agree. She thinks everyone should have a say. Usually merchants sponsor mages. Or try and breed with them. A couple of mages have become consorts to merchants, though it’s social death for the mages.”
“What if this little girl does not turn out to be a mage?”
“Then they’ll have wasted their money, won’t they?”
I could imagine the life of such a child once she had failed the crystal test. The disappointment. Maybe the anger. How could Klea have done it? How could she? Why?
I found my eyes filling with tears and dashed them away.
MAGE COMING!
Katti’s thoughts hit my mind with the warning.
Had Illuminus got away from them? I wasn’t hanging about to find out.
I seized the ghost’s arm and pulled him off the path and into the undergrowth. He had not heard Katti’s warning, but he followed me with only the briefest protest. We dropped down behind some rocks and huddled there with Katti between us. For a short time, we could hear nothing but birdsong and the wind in the trees. Then I saw mage light, less visible in the light of day but still bright enough. A figure shot past us along the path and was gone. Illuminus!
Eff had been right about my family’s priorities. They’d clearly let themselves get distracted by Klea’s mess and given Illuminus the chance to escape. No thought of the damage he might do to people like me.
“What do we do?” hissed the ghost.
“I’m not sure,” I said. I judged we’d come about two miles, less than a third of the way. I examined our options in my mind. There weren’t many. Illuminus was moving round the forest between us and the old mine. If only I could get a message to Bright. But perhaps it was better not to expose him to Illuminus.
This was the only path up the hill and Illuminus could wait anywhere beside it and ambush us as we went past. And he would, too, when he got to the top and hadn’t found us. Climbing up through the scrub would make a very difficult and probably dangerous journey and would be too noisy. Sitting tight seemed to be our only real option. I took the bolt out of my cross bow and slung it over my back.
“Best find a comfy place to hide and wait for him to go away.”
“What? That’s it?” said the ghost
“Can you think of better?”
The ghost shrugged.
WONDERING ALL THE time how we would work out when it was safe to go on, I began to consider how we might spend the night out here. We had Katti to tell us if any wildcats were in the vicinity and help us keep warm, but the sky was threatening rain sometime during the night and the surrounding shrubs wouldn’t keep out that out. We needed some tree cover, and the closest one was some distance away through the scrubland.
Keeping low and testing every footstep carefully, and with Katti ahead sniffing, we crept through the prickly undergrowth till we reached the tree.
Its trunk was scrawny, but it had plenty of low hanging branches, and not so low that we couldn’t stand up. The ghost and I stretched our backs up gratefully. The ground was remarkably clear of leaves, so we had no need to worry about snakes or creeping insects.
Yet something worried me about spending the night here. I wasn’t sure why. The branches promised to give good cover from rain.
Katti licked the air, tasting it with her tongue and put my thoughts into words.
Something smells funny.
I stepped around the tree trunk and was brought up short. The tree was growing at the edge of a large pit, probably where the roof of a mine shaft had collapsed. The pit was choked with bushes and vines, but it looked deep enough to for an unlucky fall to break a neck or a leg. The carrion stench I could smell clearly on this side of the tree told of some poor animal that had done just that, lying dead at the bottom. I peered into it to see what was there. Corpse lily vines grew all over the side of the pit, making it hard to see.
Leaves crashed behind me as if in a high wind and suddenly I was engulfed. Something whacked me hard in the back and I lost my balance and stumbled forward.
There was nothing beneath me; I lost my balance and fell. My hands stung as I scrabbled to get a hold on something. For a moment I had a firm hold on a little bush and then it gave, torn out by the roots, and I was falling again and it was dark. With a crashing thud that jarred all my bones, I landed on my hands and knees and slid on something that clattered and was gooey and springy and filled my nostrils with a foul stench.
“Shine!” shouted Shadow. “Shi—” The same crashing of leaves drowned out his call. He screamed. I rolled sideways as he fell at me. He thudded down beside me and let out a yelp.
“Katti, run!” I cried. But she’d already gone safely out of range
“Whahthafah!” groaned the ghost. “Did that tree move?”
“Must be crystal shot. Cursed crystal. Never done me any good. You hurt?”
Up above us the tree was still thrashing about wildly as if a whirlwind had settled on it. Or as if it was doing a victory dance. Hilly always said the still hated the moving, just as the dead hated the living.
“I’m fine. But there’s goo. Juthekiytj! That smell.”
The smell of rotting carrion was so thick it seemed to choke me.
“We’ve landed on its last victim. Think it’s a deer. Ladybless, I hope it’s just a deer!”
I couldn’t make out much in the dim light down here, but I thought I could feel some
kind of hide as I rolled gingerly over.
Mage coming, came Katti’s thoughts from above. Her furry face peered over the edge and was gone. I didn’t need to tell her to hide.
Curse it. Illuminus must have heard us. Our screams had probably echoed for miles. Would he see where we had fallen in? I made for the wall of the pit, which was still covered by vines. As I clattered and slide down the pile of refuse, I remembered my crossbow was still slung over my back. Did I still have bolts? Praise the Lady! Yes.
I could stand up straight against the pit wall. The ghost was still sitting on the enormous pile of refuse in the middle. Belatedly I realised he wouldn’t have heard Katti.
“Quick. Over here,” I hissed. “He must have heard us. He’s coming back.”
As Shadow scrabbled to my side, I pulled the crossbow off my shoulder and loaded it.
Our falls had pulled down some of the vines at the lip of the hole, but here against the opposite wall, they still gave plenty of cover. Around to our right I could make out a darker patch in the pit wall that hinted the possibility of an opening—perhaps the remains of the mine shaft.
Typical. I’d chosen the wrong side. The old mine shaft would have offered a much better hiding place.
Or maybe not. I could see something white squirming in the darkness over there.
“Is something moving?” murmured Shadow in my ear. “Snakes?”
“It’s under the tree. I think it might be its roots.
“Moving roots? That’s horrible.”
“All this carrion. Be full of goodness for the tree.”
Stay still. He’s here, came Katti’s thoughts.
Beside me Shadow was scrabbling about in his bag.
“Sshh!” I hissed.
A glimmer of light hit the wall beyond us. Shadow and I crouched in the darkness like frightened rabbits while the light of Illuminus’ crystal played back and forth across the wall above us; he must be peering down into the hole. Hopefully his vision would be obscured by the vines and shrubs. At this point any movement might give us away, so I couldn’t even turn my head to see what he was doing up there. I held my crossbow ready for the moment when I would have to shoot and try and wound my cousin enough for us to get away.
He mustn’t catch us.
The logical thing for him to do would be to lower himself down into the hole and check. Maybe I could get a shot at him then. On the other hand, he could fill the hole with fire to burn away the vegetation and burn us up too. That would be an easier solution, but exhausting. And he would already be quite used up after all his activity back at the house.
Waiting, waiting. Sweat began to drip down my face. The light circled round the side of the pit, dimly illuminating the rocky earthen wall, casting silhouettes of leaves and tangled vines all around us. I could see the shadowy alcove more clearly. It was indeed part of the old mine shaft and it was curtained with white roots that writhed and undulated like fat snakes.
Leaves crashed and something whoomped.
“Argh!” cried Illuminus and the light was gone. I heard him scrabbling amidst crashing leaves and a rush of air blew the vines back against us.
Illuminus was yelling.
“What hap—What? Crystal shot! Curse you, you stupid tree.”
Light burst out and there was an explosion. Fire flickered and the air was full of smoke and bits of burning ash.
A large piece of tree trunk came crashing through the vines and shrubs above and smashed onto the rocks and bones in front of us.
Illy let out a laugh.
“That’ll learn you to whack a mage, you stupid tree.”
The pit was much brighter now and I could see Illuminus quite clearly as he stood, arms triumphantly on his hips at the lip of the hole above us. A group of bats and several large transparent winged insects were streaming up out of the pit and into the sky. From the sounds of it, they all flew into Illuminus’ face. This was the moment. Under the cover of Illuminus’ spluttering and cursing. I took aim with my crossbow and shot.
The arrow connected. I saw a spurt of blood, heard a thud. Illuminus grunted and half-staggered, half-fell backwards, disappearing from sight. Groaning, grunting and the sound of foliage crashing came from beyond the lip of the pit. Then silence.
“Oh, no! I hit him,” I squeaked. The enormity of what I had just done gripped me.
“Didn’t you mean to?”
“I never shot anyone before,” I said. I had a breathless hollow feeling in my chest. “What if I’ve killed him?”
The ghost put his arm around me.
“It was him or you,” he said.
“Yes. Yes, of course. Of course it was.” I shook the ghost off, ashamed at being such a baby. “Come on! Let’s get out of this hole before he recovers.”
With some vines, the remains of the tree and each other, we managed to crawl up from the pit. Katti was crouched beyond the edge waiting for us.
My thoughts were full of questions about Illuminus.
He’s not up yet, but he’s not dead either. Katti sounded disapproving of the latter. I followed her glare and saw Illuminus’ foot sticking out of the scrub. I couldn’t resist. I ran over to check on him and started back in shock. There was blood everywhere. The cross bow bolt was sticking out of the side of his cheek. It’d gone right through his face. His mouth was open and his breath came in gasps. His eyes lids were mostly closed, though I could see the glitter of his eyes beneath.
“Wow! Some shot!” said the ghost. He leaned over and felt Illuminus’ wrist. “He’s still alive. Amazing. I thought there’d be more blood. Pulse is well enough, considering. I think you missed his tongue.”
The word tongue made me squirm inside.
The ghost looked up at me.
“What do you want to do? Should we um... finish him off? I guess I can do it if you can’t.”
“Bright Lady, no! He’s my cousin. Anyway, killing him would bring a world of trouble down on us.”
“I can imagine. Do you want to go back to the house and get help and I’ll go on with Katti?”
“There’s no need,” I said, even though that was precisely what I did want to do. “His magic will heal him. That’s why he’s not bleeding as much as you expect. When he’s healed enough, he’ll come to and be able to take himself home.”
“Really?”
I shot him a look.
“Yes. That’s how it works. It’s the only advantage we mundanes have ever had against the mages. If you can shoot them without their being able to stop your missile and inflict a bad enough wound, their bodies force them to survive by closing down all other activities. They become unconscious until they are healed enough to go on. That’s how mundanes held their own in the civil war and won Shola’s Pact.”
I didn’t tell him that in the old days, people would definitely have inflicted a death blow on a helpless mage.
“How long is he likely to be out?”
“I don’t know. Most of the rest of the day, I suspect. Lying helpless out here with...”
What if a wild animal came and ate him while he lay here? How would his body react?
“It was him or me,” I reminded myself. “He almost strangled me this morning.”
“What?” asked the ghost.
He’s my cousin,” I said. Family. An uncalled-for memory came to me, of Bright and me peering over the balconies of the Family House in Elayison. Down below stood Illuminus and Scintillant and Blazeann back from the college for the Winter Solstice feast all wearing their student uniforms. They’d looked so strong and proud—so lazily, effortlessly powerful—and I’d felt such a glow in my chest at the sight of them. Pride: pride at being a Lucheyart, one of the Imperial family, and connected to these mighty beings. In those days, I’d still believed I would become one of them. Now Blazeann was dead and here was Illuminus horribly wounded at my feet.
The ghost was peering closely at Illuminus’ cheek.
“Hey! This arrow is moving.” he said.
“
Yes. His body is expelling it using magic. Once it comes out, he’ll start to heal much faster.”
“Amazing!”
“Let’s cover him up.” I pulled out my hunting knife and started hacking at the shrubs around me. “Come on, help me. It’ll give him some defence if a cat or a grunter comes along while he’s lying there.”
“Shine, may I remind you he almost killed you earlier!”
“But he didn’t actually do it. Look, I know, but he’s my cousin. I can’t leave him there like that.” I thrust a handful of branches at him. “Come on, put these over him.”
Do not try to reason with her. She is quite mad, said Katti. Pointlessly, since Shadow couldn’t hear her.
I’d toss him in the pit if I were you, she added.
“No one asked you,” I snapped at her.
For once, Shadow didn’t ask me what she’d said.
COVERING ILLUMINUS DIDN’T take long, but with everything that had gone on, it was mid-afternoon before we picked our way back to the path. All the shocks of the day had left me feeling dark and heavy, as if I were bearing an immense burden on my back. I kept up a hard pace as best I could. Shadow kept asking me how I was.
“Fine,” I would mutter, and keep on as fast as I could. We were both panting hard, but I wanted to reach the top of the mountain before dark. I was already feeling shaky and I didn’t want to have to fight grunters or cats in the dark. I also didn’t want to think too much.
I only called a break when we reached the top of the mountain. By then, twilight had put a velvety light over everything. The forest might be dangerous, but it was beautiful too. The creaking sound of crickets and tree frogs filled the air with a quiet murmur. The corpse lilies on the trunks of the tall trees shone with their unearthly light, and their slightly rotten scent had dispersed for the night. Beyond the sweep of velvety forest beneath us, we could see Willow-in-the-Mist, the tower of its Eyrie shining through the trees. The mages hadn’t managed to leave yet.
I was once in the Temple of the Mother of Light in Elayison, rumoured to be the most magnificent temple in all of the Empire. Its pillared walkways were not half as awe-inspiring as the valley at the top of the mountain. Tall pale tree trunks glowed in the lily light and fireflies twinkled across the dark carpet of ferns. Someone—perhaps the miners, perhaps my mad old uncle Batty, who had spent many summers up here—had trained corpse lily vines all along the path.
