She wanted to ask more but at that point Wulfthram entered the room. Once he was seated, she placed the jewellery box that she had carried with her on the table.
‘You saw the letter,’ she said to him. ‘So you know about the discovery on the beach. What is in here is my own discovery, one which no one has seen until now. It may be completely unrelated to the man we found, but somehow I doubt it.’
With great care she opened the box and pulled out the stone. Its touch repulsed her but she let it nestle in the palm of her hand as she showed the onlookers.
‘Beguiling, isn’t it?’ she said drily.
‘May I?’ said Ulian. She let him take it from her, though to her surprise she felt a slight reluctance to do so. He held it up to the light. ‘Artorus help us!’ he said softly.
‘You know? You know what it is?’ she asked earnestly.
‘It is just a stone,’ said Wulfthram. ‘Too large to be a precious one at that.’
‘Look closely, Wulf,’ she said. ‘It seems to contain some viscous liquid and yet there is no sign of a seal.’
‘I do not know exactly what it is,’ said Ulian, ‘but there are references in some ancient myths that may be relevant here. How exactly is it affecting you exactly, my Lady?’
Ceriana explained the strange occurrences that had taken place since she had acquired the stone. ‘Another thing,’ she said, ‘it seems to give me some strange dreams, in which I am some great animal hidden underground. The dreams are vivid – I can feel the cold in its cave, smell the damp stone, detect the weariness in its limbs. I can even feel an alien presence in my mind, like this dream creature exists and is inside me. It is very difficult for me to explain to one that has not experienced it.’
‘I cannot give you definite answers,’ said Ulian, ‘but there is a passage in this book that may help to explain it.’ He thumbed through a couple of pages before finding the section he sought.
‘They wish to awaken the ancient dragons from their slumber by discovering the dragon stones, hidden throughout the world and holders of the very essence of these creatures, taken from them when they entered their eternal hibernation countless millennia ago. They believe that the bearer of a stone, if possessing a sensitive mind, can form a link with a dragon and even cause it to awaken. Over time the link becomes stronger and stronger and the two beings become inseparable, their minds coming together so that they become almost one being. The control of a dragon of great power can therefore be used to bring about the Great Cleansing of which they are so fond.’
‘Does it say how such a link is broken?’ Ceriana’s heart was pumping.
Ulian scanned the book, turning more pages and looking up and down each intently. He looked at her. ‘No’ was his final response.
‘You do not know that this object is the stone referred to in the book,’ said Wulfthram. ‘These people are obviously insane and they adhere to beliefs that would get anyone here tied to a stake and torched. There has to be a more rational explanation; maybe this stone is just poisonous or causes hallucinations.’
‘I agree,’ said Ulian. ‘What I am reading here is an ancient account relating to a bunch of fanatics. It ends with them sparing the priest but throwing his crew from the top of the mountain into the sea. They then maroon him in the jungle where he is rescued by a passing Kozean flotilla – a miracle, or so he described it. I think this object needs to be taken from you and studied. The Baron’s theory is a plausible one. We really need to look at this stone further. It is a fascinating object without doubt but one to which one of a thousand explanations could apply.’
‘And yet it was found close to a man in black robes... There is something else I have yet to tell you.’ She related her encounter with the man in Thakholm and then concluded: ‘They at least seem to believe that I have found one of these stones.’
‘And your dreams of the creature,’ said Alys, ‘seem so closely related to the dragon bonding mentioned in the book. Surely the evidence is mounting?’
‘We cannot jump to conclusions,’ Ulian said. ‘Let us take this stone to St Philig’s and inform you of our findings in due course.’
‘But what puzzles me is where would they could have found such a stone in Tanaren,’ Ceriana mused.
‘Maybe in ancient Aelven ruins?’ said Alys. ‘There are plenty on the coast here.’
‘And more in the Morrathnay Forest,’ said Ulian.
‘This is what I surmise,’ said Ceriana thoughtfully. ‘These people discovered the location of one of these stones; they collected it; one of them sought to locate the creature through it but on the voyage home their ship was wrecked and the man drowned. I happened upon the stone and now they want it back. Whether or not it has these powers and I am turning into some sort of dragon woman is immaterial. What matters is that they think it is the stone of which their religion speaks. This puts its possessor in danger. I am secure here surrounded by guards but if you were to take it back to Tanaren City you could be attacked and killed.’
‘I could supply them with an escort,’ said Wulfthram. ‘I think the further away from you this stone is the happier I shall be. It is obviously not good for your health, whatever it is.’
‘This Cedric – would he know more about this stone? Perhaps he would know how to combat its effects?’ Ceriana was looking at Ulian.
‘Very probably. No man alive knows more about the ways of the Wych folk than he.’
‘Then perhaps we could send out messengers and ask this man to come here. More than anything else I want these strange things happening to me to end. Professor Ulian, thank you for coming all this way to talk to me, but I cannot burden you with this thing until I have a greater understanding of what is happening to me. You are both free to leave if you wish, but I will not be surrendering this stone at present. I will not be responsible for you being hunted down and killed far from home.’
Wulfthram looked at her sternly. ‘I could command you to give it to him. My offer of troops still stands and I will repeat my belief that you will be much better off without it.’
‘You could command me, yes. I am grateful for your concern for me but bear in mind that these people are fanatics; they will try anything to get this thing and will not want it to be taken to Tanaren City.’
‘Yet they let you go easily enough in Thakholm.’
‘They have a plan,’ she said. ‘They can track the stone somehow. They let me go because they know its whereabouts. As Ulian said, they are deluded not mad; they have their wits about them.’
‘You have no evidence of this outside of your own suppositions,’ said Wulfthram ‘The stone will go to Tanaren under escort. My word is final.’
She was about to let fly with an angry retort when Ulian stepped in.
‘Perhaps a compromise could be reached here. I have no wish to cause friction between the two of you. Perhaps if we could prevail upon your hospitality for, say, about six weeks, giving time for messengers to go out and return, then maybe – if we have not heard from Cedric – we should return to St Philig’s then.’
Wulfthram thought about it for a second. ‘Very well, six weeks it is then, but no longer. I hope and trust your stay here will be a comfortable one.’
‘Thank you, Baron,’ said Ulian. ‘With your permission I will retire to look at these tomes further; it is always possible that I have missed something.’ The two of them stood, bowed to both host and hostess, and left the room.
‘Angry?’ Wulfthram asked her, his eyebrow raised quizzically, as soon as the two of them were left alone.
She was flushed but didn’t care; her temper was controlling her. ‘What does my opinion matter to you? You will decide whatever you want without my advice – that much is apparent.’
‘And if I told you that I was acting in your own best interests?’
Her hackles rose even further. ‘What do you know of my interests?’ Her voice was rising; she hated how, as it got thinner, she sounded like a raving woman.
‘All
I know is that, if you feel this stone to be the cause of your malady, then we are best rid of it.’
‘You know nothing!’ She stood up, staring at him with her eyes blazing ‘I rather suspect you don’t even believe what I am saying. You probably see me as a spoilt child prone to fantastic hallucinations, that I’m doing this to get the attention that I used to get at Edgecliff.’
He looked at her without answering. She was beyond self-control now.
‘That is what you believe, isn’t it? You ... you cold evil bastard!’
She went to strike him but he blocked her thin arm easily.
‘If you were me, what exactly would you believe? Think about it.’ His dark eyes held her in its grip; her shoulders heaved as she considered his words.
‘Fine,’ she said, regaining her composure slightly. ‘Then lay with me. Stay with me through the night, though it may be abhorrent for you. Eventually something will happen and you will be forced to reassess your opinion of me.’
‘Very well,’ he said. ‘From tonight then.’
She was calmer now. ‘From tonight.’
‘And you are mistaken – it would not be abhorrent for me; I rather thought that it would be for you.’
She was thrown a little. ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head, ‘maybe we have been at cross purposes. Stay with me, see what happens, see that I am not the needy child you think I am.’
‘I will. I am prepared to learn. Perhaps we both should be.’
He turned and left the room. Ceriana remained motionless, her fists clenched. He would see... Yes, he would see. The thought that she was perceived as a child annoyed her more than anything else, except the thought that she enjoyed sharing her bed with him. She seized a remaining apple from the visitors’ meagre lunch and took an angry bite, before heading to the main door leading outside. Fresh air would cool her temper and she needed it cooled before facing her husband again.
23
They rowed with all the strength they could muster. This was their second day on the water since their battle with the night devils. They had seen nothing of them since that night but their nerves were still frayed. The prow of their boat still held the skull of the Elder but the stern now held another trophy. Cerren had affixed the head of the creature he had killed to it, its dead eyes staring sightlessly at the boat’s wake. There were only three of them rowing. The elder, Tegavenek, had not recovered sufficiently from his wounds to help them; the healing poultices had assisted him to a degree but the wounds on his shoulder and arm had not healed. The other wounded man, Cerren, had brushed off his injury; he was the youngest and strongest there, but even so his wound was still open, too.
They had been travelling east and south and watched the landscape change. The trees had thinned to be replaced by high grasses and banks of reeds and rushes. The river and water courses they travelled along were wider, heavy with brown sediment, and more open to the wind, making the waters choppy and difficult to navigate. Light reflected off them in shifting dappled patterns making it hard to see too far ahead. The crows and small woodland birds had gone, too, replaced by gulls and cormorants sunning themselves on whatever river perches they could find.
‘We are on the right river,’ Fasneterax said from the stern rowing position. ‘It is difficult to judge, but we can only be a short distance away. The sea is close by. Can you taste the salt?’
Cygan had noticed this a while back. As the rivers approached the sea, a large delta was formed, all mud and sand bars. Sometimes they enclosed great lakes such as the one housing the tribe they were now seeking. If a great sea storm arose, it could cause giant waves to crash over these spits of land, sometimes opening these lakes up to the sea or sometimes reshaping the lands to create new lakes. It was anything but a permanent country here and could be treacherous for those unfamiliar with the surroundings.
The land here though was very flat and when they stopped for a brief midday meal they climbed the bank and attempted to see what lay ahead. Cerren pointed through the bright sun.
‘There, he said, ‘I can see a rock sticking out from the water; we could be there in under two hours.’
‘Then we need to make haste,’ said Cygan. ‘We need to see our tribesmen and help the people here if we can. If the worst has happened, then we need to make our own preparations for when night falls. We do not want to be attacked again.’
‘Like we did last night?’ said Cerren gloomily. They had seen no Malaac but had spent the night being eaten by midges and mosquitos.
‘If need be,’ said Cygan. ‘Come, let’s get moving again.’
They continued their journey. The river was so wide here that great flocks of seabirds would sit on it in massive clumps, bobbing up and down on the water, then rising as one with disgruntled shrieks as Cygan’s boat approached them. The weather changed quickly here and they watched with some consternation as slabs of grey cloud came scudding towards them and the wind got fresher causing small waves to come crashing into their prow. The waves were sending plumes of spray up across the boat and soaking Cerren who had the foremost rowing position. After nearly an hour of this he called to the others.
‘Boats! On the river, coming towards us!’
‘How many?’ said Cygan.
Cerren stopped rowing and shielded his eyes. ‘Six, maybe seven; all longboats and all of them full.’
He was quite right. There were seven of them with about six to each boat. As they drew closer they could see the heads of children moving around between the rowers, there were women there too.
‘Is that Vengefarak?’ said Cygan ‘On the lead boat?’
‘Yes,’ said Cerren, ‘And Raduketeveryan on the next boat. Hoy! Radu!’
His boat pulled up to theirs, and both men grabbed the prows of the other’s boats, pulling them together. Vengeferak trod water next to them. They greeted each other as warmly as possible given the precarious circumstances.
‘We are evacuating the village,’ said Raduketeveryan. ‘It has become too dangerous, The Malaac attacked last night and breached the defences; several were killed. I see you have had similar problems.’ He indicated the head resting on the boat’s stern.’
‘We never even got to the Twin Snake’s main settlement,’ said Cygan, ‘we were forced back. Tegavenek is injured.’
‘We lost Adevenek,’ called out Vengefarak. ‘The Gods here are angry indeed.’
‘Is the village empty now?’ asked Cygan.
‘There was no more space in the boats. In this water any more on board and we could capsize. There are several tribes here; they are taking the evacuees back to their own villages,’ Raduketeveryan replied, not actually answering the question.
‘The Elder and one of the Circle remain,’ said Vengefarak. ‘There were no more boats and they decided to sacrifice themselves to ensure that the others escaped.’
‘Then we will go and get them,’ said Cygan ‘We can take two more.’
‘Cygannan watch over you then. We will see you back at Black Lake.’ Vengefarak spurred his boat onwards and waved them goodbye.
‘Farewell, my friends,’ said Raduketeveryan. ‘You may even catch us up. One boat moves faster than seven.’ He released the prow and the refugee boats continued on their way.
The Black Lake party watched the seven boats until they became indistinct lines on the horizon, then pressed forward.
The river continued to widen. The reeds gradually disappeared, exposing high banks of mud through which the thick roots of tough marsh grass showed – the only thing preventing rapid erosion of the banks here. Now the water was like a brown soup rising and falling in waves which pitched their little boat up and down so that it was now shipping water. Tegavenek stirred himself and did what he could to bail them out. Cygan, though, was thinking how much worse it would get when they started rowing through the lake with two extra bodies on board.
He did not have to wait long to find out. Suddenly the great muddy buttresses of the banks vanished altogether and they w
ere pitched four square on to the lake. Immediately the wind whipped up, flapping at their ears and driving the boat to the right. The waves, too, increased in ferocity, lifting the boat high then slamming it back into the water, kicking up a ferocious spray. Within seconds all four of them were soaked. Tegavenek started scooping out the water with a renewed vigour, fighting the wind and tide as the three other men struggled to right the boat’s course – for directly ahead was the black rock that gave the Jagged Hill tribe its name.
It was under a mile away – it was not a feature of great height, but one that stood out against the low country around it. They could make out the stockade and various dwellings constructed of wood and reeds but little else until they got closer. It was not too far to row but in the difficult conditions it took an eternity. They were fighting waves, wind and tide and, although all three of them were at the peak of fitness, they were soon exhausted. But, little by little, the island edged closer. They could now see the stockade had been flattened in parts and that thatch and wood lay strewn over the open ground. The great house, in the centre of the village, had partially collapsed – its front roof supports lay on the ground and thatch was strewn everywhere and was being whipped up by the wind in great clouds.
As they pulled up alongside the jetty, they started to be hit by large warm droplets of rain driving in from the sea. This, Cygan guessed correctly, lay less than half a mile distant. Cerren leapt out to secure the boat while Cygan and Fasneterax grabbed their spears and headed into the ruined village.
They found the two men sitting inside the ruins of the great house. Skulls, pots and wall hangings lay idly about them. At first they raised their spears and started their battle cries until they realised that the new arrivals were rescuers not enemies.
‘I am Cyganexatavan of the Black Lake. We have one boat and can bring the two of you back to our village. We need to leave quickly so, if there are any belongings you wish to take, get them now and do not tarry.’
‘I am Denekavaxan, Elder of what once was the tribe of Jagged Hill. I thank you for your arrival but if you think you can escape the easier without us then do so. We are happy to give our lives defending our village.’
The Forgotten War Page 35
