Gathering Voices

by Kris Humphrey

Star scampered back into the courtyard and they hurried on behind, even Astor managing to run. They made their winding way among the homes and stables and workshops, Mika sweeping her surroundings, not leaving anything to chance.

  The city wall is close, said Star. Stay with me. She dodged around an upturned cart into a deeply shadowed alley and Mika followed her in. Houses rose high on either side and there was a smell of dung and old animal odours. Suri’s hooves echoed off the walls behind her.

  Star swerved again, flowing smoothly round a sharp corner. A broad avenue appeared at the end of the alley. Sunlight glowed on the flagstones and glittered in the channel of water at the avenue’s edge – one of the many diverted streams that supplied the city. Star paused before the junction, ears standing tall as she peered out of the alley.

  Mika joined her, squinting across the avenue. Above one final line of houses, stood the city wall.

  There, said Star.

  But Mika did not need to be told. She recognized the tall, smart house diagonally across from them, with its curved terracotta roof. She had visited its grounds many times before with Star and Zabeh. It was the second home of a rich city official, an official corrupt enough to have a secret doorway built into the city wall that bounded the rear garden of his house. He used it for smuggling goods in and out of Rakeen and avoiding tax inspections at the guarded public gates. Star had discovered the doorway years ago on one of her sneaky explorations of the city and it had become a childhood escape route for the three of them, their way out to a world of freedom and make-believe in the wilds beyond.

  I can smell the grass on the hillside, said Star. The junipers and the gojan berries.

  Mika ran her hand down Star’s back. Star snorted excitedly, flicking her bushy fox tail and looking up and down the long, curving avenue, impatient to cross.

  “The secret gate,” said Zabeh, as she arrived at the back of the group.

  Mika nodded. “We’ll pass through the grounds of that town house,” she said to Astor, indicating which one. “There’s a smuggling gate that will take us into the western hills.”

  Astor gave her a disapproving frown. But rather than question Mika on how she knew about the gate, she nodded, then peered over the rooftops at the curving, tree-specked country beyond. “The Bone Hill shrine is close,” she said, breathing raggedly between words, still recovering from the run. “It’s a shame we must go right away. It would do me good to stop there for a while.”

  “We’ll soon be away from the city,” said Mika gently. “There’ll be other shrines on the way.” She knew Astor had suffered badly from the ghost-sleep. Her mentor was no longer young and these dark times were taking a heavy toll.

  “Of course,” said Astor, regaining her composure. “Let’s go on.”

  Star needed no more encouragement. She edged out on to the shaded avenue.

  Mika pushed her senses further, to take in the large open space and the rows of grand houses on the far side. She felt the water trickling through the gutter, the spruce trees swaying in the grounds of the houses, and dust that rose and looped on the wind.

  Is it safe? asked Star. She edged out into the avenue impatiently.

  Wait! said Mika. Star!

  Darkness came at Mika like a racing thundercloud. She heard the clatter of cartwheels from the north, charging downhill along the avenue.

  Narlaw.

  Mika couldn’t tell how many, only that it was the most powerful demon presence she had ever felt. She ducked into the shadows.

  Hide! she hissed. With horror, she realized that Star had trotted out into the centre of the avenue. When the demons arrived, they would see Star, a small but bright white arctic fox, standing there in full view.

  Run! urged Mika.

  Star darted across the avenue, her paws pattering and her tail flashing behind her as she ran, vanishing into the shadow of an archway.

  Mika exhaled with relief and a strange softness settled over her senses. Astor had laid a stealth wish over them – a protective Whisperer ward to make them temporarily invisible.

  Moments later an open-topped wagon swept into view. It was drawn by a speckled white horse, its unearthly grey eyes shining as it dragged a four-wheeled cart laden with bodies.

  Mika hoped those people were sleeping and not worse, but she feared to reach out with her senses to check – riding the cart, standing tall and without reins, was a Narlaw. Its presence was so strong that Mika clutched at her throat to keep from being sick. She watched with terror as it thundered past. Though she knew she couldn’t be seen or sensed through Astor’s ward, she felt herself cowering further into the shade of the alley.

  The demon had taken a woman’s form, with black hair cut straight above the shoulders and a long, flowing coat the colour of steel. It raced away, carried by the pounding hooves of the horse-shaped demon at the head of the cart.

  Mika breathed again, but as the cart disappeared into the distance she saw the demon turn its head. A chill swept through her. Could it have seen them? And then the cart was gone around the curve of the avenue.

  Star, Mika whispered.

  Her companion nosed out of the shadows on the far side of the avenue and Mika reached out with her senses to feel the reassuring warmth of their Whisperer bond. She turned to find Astor staring, glassy-eyed, into the street. Suri stood close to Astor, rigidly upright. Behind her Zabeh crouched, sword drawn and a questioning look on her face.

  “A demon of such power,” said Astor, “can only be one of the elder Narlaw.” She shot Mika a grave look. “My stealth wish cannot hold for long. We must leave this place.”

  Mika scanned the avenue and rose on shaky legs. “Let’s go,” she said.

  They crossed the avenue at a flat run and passed into the ornamental garden of the corrupt city official. Mika’s mind raced. An elder demon. She had heard of their existence but never seen or sensed one. She imagined what would have happened if it had seen them. How could such a thing be fought or banished? To go up against it would be like fighting a tornado with your bare hands. She feared more than ever for Guran and the militia.

  Moments later Mika found herself at the wall. Star sat, peering up at the hidden door. It looked like every other section of the wall apart from a near-invisible frame of dark wood that traced the door’s outline.

  Mika and Zabeh reached out and each laid a hand on a specially chosen rock. They nodded and pressed hard in perfect unison.

  Granite slid and scraped, a mechanism clicked within the wall and, with the slightest of creaks, the door unlocked.

  Zabeh pressed her shoulder to the door and it slid forwards roughly on wooden runners, into the metre-thick defensive wall. The door swung as it reached the outside edge of the wall and daylight shone through.

  Mika felt a flood of relief. They had made it out of the city. The first great challenge was over.

  Star was first to go through, scampering out as soon as Mika had scanned their surroundings for demons. Mika ducked through next and surveyed the small flat stretch of muddy ground and the hills and mountains that rose beyond.

  They already had a route in mind – a way toward Meridar that would keep them as sheltered and out of sight as possible. But even at best, the country around Rakeen was exposed. There were no forests here, only scattered copses of trees hardy enough to survive the highland climate.

  Zabeh swung the door shut heavily behind them and they set out west, following the gully of a small stream as it wound between the folds of the hills. The wind blew hard and Mika was glad of her gloves and the thick hood of her coat. Clouds sailed across the sky, threatening rain. She watched Star dart ahead, sniffing the earth, and Astor squint into the wind, testing its direction with the slightest tilting of her head.

  Her mentor glanced often toward the white pinnacle of the wind shrine on Bone Hill – the curved pyramid of the shelter and the bundled cross of the tone-pipes on top. On any other day they would have detoured there to guide the winds through the tone-pipes and take
nourishment from the earth’s powerful breath. Mika strained to hear the tones, but they were too distant, the unchannelled wind too strong in her ears.

  Slowly they climbed until they crested the first shallow hill. They could see the city spread out behind them and Mika fought back her sadness as she turned to look. It was so desolate and silent. She thought of Guran and his warriors. Were they alive or dead? No sounds of battle echoed on the winds. Perhaps they were in the ghost-sleep already.

  “We’ll return,” said Zabeh, as if hearing her thoughts, “and we’ll free them all.”

  Mika wished she shared Zabeh’s certainty. “We should have left sooner,” she said, “but I was afraid to go.”

  Zabeh shrugged. “Maybe,” she said, “but if we hadn’t waited, you would never have discovered your gift.”

  What Zabeh said was true. There was no telling what each day would bring, what disaster might come or what new blessing might spring forth from its ashes.

  Astor climbed slowly up to meet them with Suri by her side. Something in her features seemed wrong. She was trying to speak, out of breath from the climb.

  Mika stepped toward her, but before she could ask, a troubling presence at the edge of her senses told her what Astor lacked the breath to say. Mika spun to look downhill. There, just a few hundred paces away, was a horse and its rider.

  It was the elder demon.

  Mika stared at the demon and the demon watched her in return. Why wasn’t it coming for them? Its stillness made it even more frightening. She turned to Astor.

  “We have to go,” the older Whisperer said, still gasping for breath. “There’s only one place we can hope to stand against it.”

  Mika gazed up at the wind shrine on the summit of Bone Hill. She nodded.

  “Can you run?” she asked.

  Astor’s face set like granite. “I can try.”

  “Zabeh!” Mika called. Her friend had strayed from her side, peering down the path at the demon. She swung round at Mika’s cry. “We have to get to the shrine!” Zabeh nodded and fell in behind Astor, who was already hurrying along the footpath.

  Mika jogged with Star beside her. The path dipped before climbing once again toward Bone Hill. It quickly grew steeper and Mika looked back to see the elder demon racing across the open ground, its demon-horse devouring the distance between them. Mika peered up at the increasingly rocky path. The shrine looked so far away.

  Can we make it? asked Star.

  Mika felt her fear like a cold needle. I don’t know, she said. Perhaps, but…

  She trailed off and Star remained silent. They both knew their chances were slim.

  Mika started up the first truly steep section of the hill. Gravel slipped away beneath her hands and feet. Her boots thumped into the hard earth. The path was narrow, weaving between hummocks of stiff highland grass. Rain clouds gathered in the sky. She looked back and saw Astor struggling behind her, close by. At the rear came Zabeh, glancing back every second step. Mika swallowed her rising sense of panic. She couldn’t let Zabeh be taken again.

  She clambered over the flat slabs of rock placed at intervals along the path. The wind blasted from the north and the shrine grew closer, but not as quickly as the demon rider. Mika turned and saw that it had reached the foot of the trail. The horse scrambled up the first few paces, then its hooves began to slide. The demon leaped from its back, its face a hollow grey counterfeit of a woman’s.

  It looked up at Mika, and a sickening darkness rushed at her, forcing her to stop and retch violently.

  Mika! Star cried.

  I’m all right, she said, spluttering from the sickness.

  She pulled her Whisperer senses in, closing off her mind as Astor had taught her. The sickness ebbed, but she saw the demon was climbing fast.

  Mika was first to the top and she stood on the level ground reaching out a hand to help Astor as she struggled, gasping on to the windswept summit.

  “We’re almost there!” cried Mika, leading her mentor toward the juniper wood shelter of the wind shrine.

  The tone-pipes on top of the shelter howled discordantly as the wind glanced off them. The hollowed wood rattled in its bindings.

  Inside the shelter, the noise was amplified. Mika helped Astor into a kneeling position on the woven rug floor. She felt the elder demon draw near, the weight of its evil pressing in on her. Through the small, half-moon of the door she saw Star, Zabeh and Suri standing together.

  Star! she called. What are you doing?

  We can slow the demon down, said Star, to give you and Astor time.

  But it’s too powerful! cried Mika. You have to take shelter. All of you!

  Star glared defiantly at Mika.

  Mika had forgotten how fierce her companion could be. Star was a wild fox at heart. She would defend herself and her friends no matter what.

  “Mika,” whispered Astor.

  Mika turned back to her mentor.

  “Bring the south wind,” said Astor. “As we practised. Please.” Her voice came in gasps and she swayed on her knees as if she were about to collapse.

  Mika closed her eyes. Then she heard a crack and glanced outside. Suri was butting one of the waymarker stones with her horns. She charged again and another crack echoed over the sound of the winds. The stone tumbled. Zabeh shouted something, lost in the wind, and Mika fought the urge to reach out to Star, to steady her and comfort her.

  Instead she turned inwards, opened her mind and prepared to channel the winds. This was the only way she could protect Star and the others.

  She felt Astor reaching up into the chaotic winds above, separating them and channelling the strong north wind toward the tone-pipes on top of the shrine. Once the tone-pipes were singing with the channelled wind, Mika and Astor could draw on that concentrated power. But they had never used a shrine for banishment before, only healing. Mika wondered if it was possible to channel enough power to fight the elder demon. She closed her eyes and reached up with her Whisperer sense.

  Hers was the south wind, the only one she had ever mastered. She felt it swirling in the melee up above. She also felt the touch of the demon, but Astor’s channelling gave her strength to withstand it.

  Mika made her mind become like a gentle hand to guide the wind.

  Astor had already channelled the north wind into the tone-pipes, creating a deep, resonant note that rumbled through the shrine’s wooden walls. It was this resonance that would enhance the Whisperers’ power. Mika struggled to do the same with the south wind and she had almost succeeded when a cry from outside dragged her concentration away.

  The elder demon had reached the hilltop.

  Zabeh lay on her back, several paces away. Suri charged the demon and was knocked aside as if she were a leaf on the breeze. Star stood growling, but was ignored.

  The demon came for them, but Astor’s channelling was strong. She sent the full force of the north wind at the advancing creature. The wind sang as it engulfed the demon, turning the creature’s movements back on itself. The Narlaw’s coat flapped wildly and its legs struggled at every step.

  Mika knew she had to help. She glanced once more at Zabeh then closed her eyes.

  It came more easily now. Flowing, obediently almost, the tones began to echo in the shelter – the special chord of the south sounding a perfect complement to the north wind.

  Mika felt the demon stop.

  The strain of the channelling drew sweat to her brow despite the freezing air, and she thought, in terror, that neither she nor Astor could possibly keep this up for much longer.

  “Banish,” Astor whispered feebly to Mika.

  Mika fixed the southern wind in place and reached out. She pictured Zabeh lying there and met the demon with all the anger she felt. She attacked in the same way she had attacked the bonds of the ghost-sleep.

  The demon flinched in surprise and it was all the chance Mika needed. She tore at the demon’s presence. It was a vast, angry core of darkness. It struck back, but the channelled winds
protected Mika. The earth was on her side.

  She felt the demon coil and ready itself to strike. It slipped away from her, but she followed, pushing closer.

  Fear spiked amid her anger.

  Zabeh, she whispered to herself.

  For a long heartbeat Mika felt so much energy in her that it overwhelmed her. The earth’s fury raged and then was gone, sucked away like a fire suddenly deprived of fuel.

  Mika dropped to the floor of the shelter, stunned, but awake. She felt a hand on her arm.

  Astor. “It’s gone, Mika. It’s gone…”

  Mika blinked away the fiery after-image and peered out through the juniper-woven door. There stood Zabeh, breathing hard, her palms resting on her knees. She could feel Star’s presence somewhere close, although she was out of sight. And Suri.

  There was no demon. Only flecks of rain that fell and washed the ground where it had stood.

  Dawn rode her horse slowly through the dim morning light. After a full night of searching it took all her strength not to fall asleep in the saddle. Mud flicked up from the mare’s huge hooves and Dawn peered off into the woodland at the side of the track. She heard a river in there somewhere, but felt no sign of Narlaw.

  Since leaving Meridar, she and the palace guards had gradually spread out and split into smaller and smaller groups. With an hour’s headstart, the demon could have been hiding anywhere. There were so many roads and paths that even the few birds who had followed Ebony out of the city couldn’t hope to cover such a broad area.

  Dawn wished she had Ebony by her side, but her companion had her own search to conduct, roaming the skies with the city birds. Dawn could feel her presence if she reached out, but it was faint.

  She knew the demon would be miles away by now – that the chances of them rescuing Princess Ona before she was handed over to the Narlaw army were incredibly slim. Dawn wished, for the thousandth time, that she had found the Narlaw spy before it had taken the princess – that she had realized the importance of the earthstone before it was too late. King Eneron’s ultimatum echoed in her mind. She was in exile and nothing but the safe return of Princess Ona would change that. If only that were the worst of it, she thought. If she couldn’t find the princess and the earthstone, if she failed again, there would be no palace to return to, no kingdom left to call home. But she refused to give up. No matter how far from Meridar Ona was carried, Dawn would follow. All the way to the heart of the demon army if she had to.