The Radiant Child

by Duncan Lay

  ‘You must let me in!’

  She recognised the sound of Ezok’s voice but, after he had betrayed her, she just rolled over on the bunk, so she was facing the wall.

  ‘Break down the door!’

  She heard the order but did not stir until the axes began slicing through the timbers of her door. The sound gave her fresh life and she jumped up, eyes blazing, ready to punish whoever came through that door.

  The axes cut through the warped timbers, opening a hole big enough for a man to walk through—then next moment the axemen dropped them with a cry as the weapons became too hot to hold. Karia prepared to give them another surprise but her legs suddenly felt wobbly and she had to sit down. Too late she remembered Barrett’s training and his orders to eat and drink well.

  ‘I’m going in there,’ Ezok told the men with him. ‘Leave us.’

  ‘You are a brave man, sir,’ one of the axemen said, as they gratefully hurried away.

  Ezok inclined his head in acknowledgment, although he knew it was not bravery. It was fear of the alternative. He stepped through the wreckage of the door, a tray of delicacies held before him, like a shield. Food supplies were running low but he had been able to scrounge and steal these.

  ‘We have reached Tenoch. You need to eat and drink,’ he told her gently.

  ‘Why?’ Karia glared at him. She wanted to lie down and sleep but she was ready to do something nasty to him.

  ‘You need to be strong. Your friends are in sight. They are not far behind us now,’ he offered her the tray.

  Despite herself, Karia inspected it. Fresh fried fish, some sort of roast seabird and some fruit in honey.

  ‘You’re lying to me,’ she told him.

  ‘Get your strength back and come up on deck and see. They are closing fast and will probably land no more than half a day behind us,’ he wheedled.

  She stared at him and he kept a light smile fixed.

  ‘I don’t trust you, but I shall do it,’ she declared finally.

  ‘Good.’ Ezok exhaled in relief. ‘Just keep quiet, and healthy, so you can do magic if you need to. The other Fearpriests need to see what you can do, so they will leave you alone. And who knows? By this time tomorrow you could be back with your family.’

  Karia nodded, then began stuffing her face with the food he had brought.

  Ezok smiled in encouragement.

  ‘And can you get me a quill and parchment? I want to leave a message,’ she mumbled through a mouthful of food.

  ‘Of course,’ he agreed. He would tell her whatever she wanted to hear to keep her happy. What he had no intention of telling her was that she would be rushed ahead to Tenoch, along with the Egg, and placed in the Temple of Zorva, right in the middle of the city. Ezok’s future health depended on her being there. The only time he wanted her to see her family was when they were dragged into the Temple to be sacrificed to Zorva to give thanks for a historic victory.

  23

  Gello had been fascinated by the way they had sailed up the River Tenoch. Personally, he would have been happier if the early inhabitants had showed a little more imagination with their place names. Having the continent, its pre-eminent city and the main river all called the same thing was annoying, and a little confusing. He had not seen the city, while little of the continent had revealed itself as yet. But the river was fascinating. It stank—the detritus of a major city saw to that—and strange reptilian monsters lurked on the banks. When one opened its mouth to show long lines of sharp teeth, he eased himself back from the ship’s rail.

  ‘Crocodiles. They can take a man as easily as we would wring a chicken’s neck,’ Onzalez said with relish. ‘They grow fat on those who dare to oppose us.’

  ‘Foul creatures!’ Gello spat.

  ‘They shall help us,’ Onzalez promised. ‘This river has many hidden shallows and rocks. Only someone who knows it well can hope to make their way up its length to the city’s docks. Others strike the shallows and then have to struggle past the crocodiles just to get to the bank. They are likely to be forced to abandon their ships miles away and then try and march through the jungle. Wild animals and quicksands shall take a toll of their numbers and they will take days to reach the safety of the docks.’

  ‘It does not look dangerous to me,’ Gello protested mildly.

  ‘Watch and learn, my friend,’ Onzalez said with relish.

  And so it proved. Using the oars, with Tenochs in the bows of every ship, they rowed carefully up the river, avoiding what seemed like endless hazards.

  ‘We have diverted much of the river’s flow for our crops—as a result, the river is not strong enough to scour out the silt and sewage from the city,’ Onzalez pointed out. ‘But it is also an effective defence.’

  Gello could only agree. On either side of them, jungle pressed in tight on the riverbank, tree branches brushing the masts at times if they swung wide at a bend, although it was easily a quarter-mile across, even at its narrowest. The heat was oppressive and he caught glimpses of strange animals high in the trees. Trying to march through this would be a near-impossible task.

  With a last effort, the ships came around a final bend.

  ‘Behold, Tenoch!’ Onzalez said with a flourish.

  Gello inspected the collection of ramshackle wooden jetties and huts with dismay.

  ‘Is that it?’ he gasped.

  ‘No! These are the docks—the city is over there, past the trees!’

  Gello looked up and saw, towering over the trees, the golden towers of a magnificent city. It was still some miles away.

  ‘The river is not navigable further up,’ Onzalez explained. ‘But it is another ten miles our enemies must march and we can make those a misery.’

  The ships were tied up at the jetties, an army of men in mere loincloths rushing to catch the ropes and make fast the ships.

  ‘Bring every wagon you have!’ Onzalez ordered from the side of the ship. The sight of his rust-red robe brought an instant reaction.

  The dockmaster—or so Gello judged by his more impressive clothing—fell to his knees, as did every man in sight.

  ‘Up! We have no time to waste! We must empty these ships and then get everyone to the safety of Tenoch!’ Onzalez clapped his hands.

  ‘At once, High One!’

  The docks burst into frenzied activity, which Gello watched with pleasure.

  ‘Come, my friend. We must move quickly. I need to reach the city before word of our arrival is brought to the Ruling Council. We must not give them the time to prepare for us.’

  Martil watched the Tenoch coast appear with badly concealed impatience. Day after day he had worried about Karia, while his sleep was tormented by fresh nightmares in which he was forced to watch Karia being sacrificed to Zorva, helpless to stop the Fearpriests. In this dream, he fought his way to her side across a mountain of corpses and when he reached her, it was to find her with just enough breath to tell him he had let her down, betrayed her and broken his promises. He would wake, sweating, and pray they reached Tenoch quickly. He did not know whether this dream was coming from the Dragon Sword or his own imagination. He did not want to know. But now they could see Gello’s fleet clearly and, better yet, see how fast they were gaining. Gello’s ships, even powered as they were by sail, oar and Fearpriest magic, could not hope to compete against the dragon’s magic. They were just entering the wide river mouth that broke up the coastline—but that did not mean safety. He estimated they could catch them a few miles upriver. It would make it more difficult to get to Gello’s ship, the Egg and Karia, but he relished the thought of carving his way to her. He could see it now. His ships would speed upriver, powered by magic, to catch Gello’s tired rowers one by one. He would leave each ship piled high with corpses until they begged for the chance to give Karia back to him.

  Then his ship slowed right down, gently yet quickly, so that Martil could hear timbers creaking in protest while the bow wave, that had foamed high for days, dropped away to a trickle. He glanced ar
ound to see every ship in the fleet doing the same thing, and was shocked to see the sails being furled.

  ‘What’s going on? Why are we stopping?’ he roared, storming back towards the stern.

  ‘I ordered it!’ Lavrick shouted back.

  Martil drew the Dragon Sword. ‘So you admit it! You want them to get away! You are in league with Gello and his Fearpriests!’

  ‘No! But we have to stop here!’ Lavrick protested.

  ‘Why? Afraid we might catch your masters and prove you are a traitor?’ Martil snarled.

  ‘It is not safe I tell you! The ships will be wrecked on the river’s hazards!’ Lavrick realised that he was still tied to the wheel as he tried to back away from Martil.

  ‘It’s not safe for you! Now order the sails put back up and follow those ships! We can catch them in a few miles!’

  ‘In a few miles we shall all be wrecked, and probably dead if we go in there too fast,’ Lavrick declared. ‘For Aroaril’s sake, put down your sword! Without me, you have no hope of getting upriver safely and making it to the city!’

  ‘If I was to listen to you, we’d never get upriver!’ Martil retorted, then turned away. ‘I don’t have time to waste on you. I want those sails back up and I want this bastard taken below and chained up!’

  ‘Captain! What are you doing?’ Merren raced on deck, as did almost everyone else.

  ‘This traitor tried to stop our pursuit, delay us so Gello can reach the city safely. I am getting us under way again,’ Martil explained.

  ‘No, he was following my orders. We cannot just sail up that river without preparing for it, or we shall never reach Tenoch. If you had bothered to come along to one of a dozen meetings, you would know that!’

  Martil stared at her. ‘But they’re getting away!’

  ‘We shall catch them,’ she promised. ‘Captain Lavrick, tell Captain Martil why we have slowed down. And Martil, sheathe your sword this instant!’

  Martil reluctantly slid the Dragon Sword back into its sheath and glared at Lavrick, who met his gaze evenly.

  ‘We must be careful when we enter the River Tenoch. It has many hazards that can destroy a ship. We cannot use the sails in there, we have to use oars to move upriver. You must listen to me, listen to my warnings, or the ships will become stuck, and we shall have to march through thick jungle to get to Tenoch,’ Lavrick explained. ‘Even this close to the city, the jungle is dangerous, filled with wild animals and pits of water and sand that can swallow a man whole. We do not want to become mired in there.’

  ‘So we put all our trust in you?’ Martil asked sarcastically.

  ‘If you want to reach the city quickly, then you will,’ Lavrick said calmly.

  ‘He has not done anything to arouse our suspicion,’ Merren pointed out. ‘Beyond your wild accusations, that is.’

  ‘We can’t trust him! He’s Havrick’s brother! This could be the chance he is waiting for! We put ourselves in his hands and we’ll end up in a trap!’

  ‘Listen, I know you fear for your daughter but I have a wife and children waiting back in Worick. I know what is at stake here. If we fail, they will die. I want to get that Egg back as much as you!’ Lavrick snarled.

  Martil started forwards but Merren stepped in front of him. ‘We all know what you are going through but there is plainly no landing site close by. If we do not go up the river, then we face a long delay—perhaps a fatal delay,’ she said softly. ‘Captain Lavrick is our best hope.’

  At last Martil nodded. ‘But I’ll be watching him,’ he said ominously.

  ‘Agreed. But you’ll also be apologising to him if he brings us in safely,’ she warned.

  ‘Apologise? For what?’

  Merren lowered her voice. ‘I need you. But not the man you are now, I need the one who’s calm and controlled and ready to lead this army to victory. We are about to land a small army in a hostile land. We shall be surrounded by enemies. If we are to live, let alone rescue Karia and save the Dragon Egg, we need Captain Martil. Karia needs Captain Martil.’

  Martil glanced over to the thick jungle, which seemed to steam a little in the heat of the day. The wide river mouth stained the seawater, a thick brown discharge of soil, leaves and the detritus of a huge city upriver issuing into the clear seawater and turning it a strange, murky colour. The smell of it, thick and rank, wafting across the water to where the ships waited, seemed to fill his head. His anger, his fear for her swelled with it. Up there was Karia. Up there were the bastards who had taken her. He tried to harness his anger, to direct it towards getting her back, but it felt as if it would get out of control at any moment. Still, he had to give Merren something.

  ‘You shall have him. I will do whatever it takes to get her back,’ he managed to say.

  Merren looked at him critically but decided not to push the point. Seeing him like this was ripping her up inside. She could not shake the thought there was something she could do to help but, try as she might, she could not think what. If only she had never rejected him, sent him away, they could have helped each other. The thought of losing Karia terrified her also but she had to pretend she was in control. There was nothing for it now, no way to change the past. All she could do was press forwards and hope there would be a future—for all of them. Hiding what she was feeling, she turned to Lavrick. ‘Take us in, Captain Lavrick. As quick as you can!’

  But, before he would agree to bring them into the river mouth, Lavrick insisted on making the men practise with the oars. He had them working together, then had them pull against each other, which allowed the ship to pivot one way or the other, almost on the spot. Around the sea he took the fleet of ships, until he was satisfied all could handle them as he wished and respond to his orders. Only when the men were sweating and Martil swearing with frustration did he signal the other ships to follow him into the river mouth.

  ‘You must obey my orders the instant they are given,’ he told the rowers, while ordering the other ships to follow him precisely. ‘Make a mistake and you shall beach your craft, or possibly sink her. So don’t make a mistake.’

  As they eased up the river, working against the current, he had men at the bows taking soundings of the river bottom constantly.

  ‘This is not good country,’ Sacrax muttered to Martil. ‘Too hot, and trees too tall. Smells funny. And look at that!’ He pointed out a large reptile that lay on the bank, mouth open to reveal serried ranks of teeth. ‘It would swallow me whole!’

  Martil just grunted. The smell was the worst thing. The water was brown, filth staining the banks, making it almost impossible to see what was below the surface. He did not want to think about what had made the water that colour.

  He looked over at Lavrick, who alone of those on the ships did not seem to be bothered by the stench of this new land. But the sea captain ignored the stare that Martil was giving him, instead watching closely the river surface, as well as the bends ahead. The ships sailed past the first bend, keeping to the middle of the wide river and away from the forbidding jungle to either side. But as they came to the second bend, Lavrick ordered them to swing wide, to go as close as possible to the right bank.

  Martil did not question it, but made sure he was watching the jungle on that side, just in case. His hand was close to his sword, to use first on any attacker, second on Lavrick.

  ‘Look at that!’ Merren pointed and he whirled—to see the ship glide past several huge underwater rocks, whose presence were only revealed when the wash from the ship’s bow rippled across them.

  He turned again, to see Lavrick looking at him.

  ‘Keep your eyes on the river,’ was all he said.

  At first, every strange noise in the jungle, every manoeuvre Lavrick ordered, every sight of an unfamiliar animal had him reaching for the Dragon Sword. The slow pace had him grinding his teeth in frustration. But as each new hazard of the river was revealed, and Lavrick guided the fleet expertly further upriver, he could not stay on edge. He even joined the men on the oars for a spell,
helping pull the ship past a sandbank.

  And, four turns of the hourglass later, he had to admit Lavrick had done a good job. He had directed the ships past a score of obstacles, any of which could have ripped the bottom out of a vessel, at times forcing the ships to almost turn in a circle to get past them. And only when they were level with, or past, the obstacle could it be properly discerned.

  One final bend was dealt with, and then they were easing towards a ramshackle settlement, where ten ships were already tied up and, in the distance, the towers of a city loomed above the forbidding trees.

  ‘Here are the docks. The river is navigable no further. They told me once you could sail up to the gates but the Tenochs diverted much of the flow for their crops, and what remains is not enough to float a ship. Once the river was twice this wide, with many side channels and tributaries but the jungle has reclaimed the rest as the flow diminished. The city is about ten miles away. The path is well marked, but the first couple of miles will be through jungle, before it opens up into the farmlands and plains around the city of Tenoch,’ Lavrick announced, wiping sweat from his brow.

  ‘Captain, I applaud your efforts,’ Merren congratulated him. ‘I don’t know how we would have made it this far without you!’

  Martil walked over to face Lavrick, who stared him down.

  ‘My thanks.’ Martil held out his hand, but Lavrick ignored it.

  ‘I did what needed to be done. Now you had better earn it,’ Lavrick told him.

  ‘I intend to.’ Martil took his hand back.

  ‘Remember to agree with whatever I say and to show not the slightest hint of doubt or uncertainty,’ Onzalez instructed.

  Gello sucked in a breath. He, Onzalez and Prent, along with a company of his men and the Dragon Egg, had rushed ahead of the others, so that they reached the city before the spies that the Council undoubtedly had working at the docks had a chance to send a warning.

  They had climbed aboard the Tenochs’ strange carts, pulled not by horses or donkeys but by something similar, a strange furred creature with a long neck that Onzalez called ‘alpaca’, which he said came from the continent’s mountainous interior. These may not look like horses but they propelled the carts at a good pace through thick jungle, past woodcutters and vast fields, until they reached the city. Gello had little time to sightsee—he was more interested in the city itself, as well as the reception he expected to get.