She stood back to assess the building’s scalability. The marble at the front looked too smooth and well-cut to have footholds in it, but the shops beside it were much more useful for clambering upon. Artemi checked that her sword and blanket were still tied securely to her back, and then took a running jump at the yellow brick of the nearest wall. After some scrambling, and a leap onto the roof of the inn, she found herself hanging from the gutters to look inside the windows.
The shutters, which were very conveniently positioned outside the glass, were easy to prod open as if caught by a breeze. The first window revealed only a sleeping couple, and the second showed her an empty room.
Artemi padded silently to the rear of the building, and tried again. The third window revealed a naked couple making love. Artemi tried not to spend too long looking at them. She’d seen all that before at her home in Allintar. Well, not actually in her home, but shoddily built houses tended to have gaps in their walls, and curious children tended to look through such gaps. Blazes, if anyone caught her doing this, she would have a great deal of excuses to make!
She went to the next window, where she saw the shape of a man in the bed, and a spray of black braids
upon the pillow. Well, well... Not dead, then!
Slowly, carefully, she eased open one shutter and then the window casement behind it so that she could squeeze through the gap. The blanket had to be thrown in ahead of her, but Artemi was just able to slide into the room with a respectable degree of stealth. She crept toward the bed, withdrawing her sword and allowing a huge grin to spread across her face. It was definitely him. She had won!
Artemi lowered the weapon to his neck, and waited for him to feel the cold steel upon his skin. He did, and
rapidly snapped awake, reaching out to clutch at the blade she held.
“I win,” she declared.
“Creeping up to a man in his sleep does not count.”
“You ran out on our fight, I pursued you and gained the opportunity to kill you. I win.”
Morghiad shoved the blade away and sat up in the bed. He was shirtless, which was not a particularly appealing sight. “I did not run.”
“Care to tell me what happened, then?”
He looked confused. “I’m not sure. Let me try it again.” He reached
out to touch Artemi’s hand, but she withdrew it from his reach.
“You do not get to use my power whenever you want. It’s mine.”
“Artemi, the reason there are kanaala is to control idiots like you.”
“No. You are nothing more than the breeding stock necessary to make more wielders. And I cannot think of anyone who would wish to use you for that purpose.”
His dark brows furrowed. “This world will burn when you reach twenty, and I’ll bet you a thousand sovereigns I will be called in to quench you for everyone else’s safety.”
“I’ll hold you to that bet.” Artemi sheathed her weapon and sat on the edge of the bed. “So you stepped into a hole in the sky. Where did you step out?”
He took a deep breath. Unusually for him, he looked thoughtful. “The sort of district you like to haunt. It was cold.” His eyes moved downward to the covers in front of him, and he exhaled slowly. “Very cold.”
“You mean the shanty town?” That area of Hestavos was one she recognised all too well, not because she had lived there, but because she knew
the expressions its people wore upon their faces. It was the same look of determination to survive, the same worry lines that danced about the eyes and the same smile of forbearance that pulled at the lips - expressions she had so often seen on her father. Their houses were nothing more than dried mud and withered bark, only differing slightly from her own in terms of scale.
Morghiad nodded. “I did not choose it. Anyway, enough of that. I would like my sleep. Be a good little peasant and run along so that I may rest.”
“No. It’s warm here. I think I’ll
stay.” She went to the wide armchair and unrolled her blanket on it. The furniture in there did look rather comfortable and plush.
“I’ll call the innkeeper. He won’t like seeing an unpaid-for guest in his rooms.”
“You want him to assume that you have taken a lover, then?”
Morghiad went silent, and she knew that she had won the argument. He would not have been able to bear the shame of her being discovered with him in his current state of undress. True, he could still try to throw her from the window, but that would result
in a great deal of noise.
Artemi curled up in the armchair with her warm blanket, and promptly fell asleep.
When she awoke, Morghiad was looking at her through narrowed eyes that glowed bright green in the sunlight. “Get out,” he said.
“I think I may sleep here a little longer.” After all, it was very comfortable. Artemi closed her eyes again, and feigned sleep. It wasn’t long, however, before she felt a hand grasp her roughly about the arm and haul her from the chair.
“Out,” he hissed at her, “or I
will tell Gilkore you were out of the school all night.”
“You are here too.”
“Yes, but who would believe it? I am far too well-behaved. You are not.” He was right. Morghiad only ever received half the punishments for his misdemeanours that Artemi did. The tutors loved him, he spoke to them with respect and even the other idiot cadets looked up to him for advice on most things. Artemi was the one who made trouble for the blades masters. She could not help it if they sometimes said things that she knew were wrong. And she could hardly blame herself for
trying to correct them at times! Unruly, they always said. But she was not! She was simply right about things.
Morghiad was more dishonest. He would ostensibly nod in agreement with his superiors, then be his subversive little selfin secret. Burn him! She thought about using the inn’s register of guests as proof of Morghiad’s absence from the school, but then realised he would have had the sense to use a false name. It was more than a little infuriating.
“You still owe me a swordfight, cheat,” she said as she gathered up her belongings. “Since you ran from
yesterday’s just as you were losing.”
“I was winning.”
“No.” Artemi picked up her things and took a running jump out of the window. She did not care if anyone saw her leaping through the air and then running as if guilty; it would be Morghiad’s problem to explain.
land neatly upon the ground below and then scamper off into the shadows. Anyone could have seen that! Anyone! Renward was ready to leave the inn, and now would have to be the time to do it. Keeping his strides quick but measured, he made his way to the bar on the ground floor, but his efforts at behaving inconspicuously were in vain.
Gilkore stood in the centre of the tavern’s ale room, hands upon hips. “Are the school beds not good enough for you, Lord Calyrish?”
Renward could not think of an excuse quickly enough. He looked to the floor.
“I see. Well, one of my little wrens was missing from the nest last night as well. Do you know where she might have flown to?”
Oh blazes... no. He groaned. The implication was obvious, and he wanted none of it. He was innocent of that!
The captain approached him slowly, with heavy, solid footfalls. “I do hope you haven’t plucked her. I do not appreciate the boys of my school plucking my little birds.” His breath smelled heavily of red leaf cigar smoke, and the odour his body gave off was even less pleasant.
“I haven’t... I don’t – I hate her!” If he had the chance, Renward would have pulled her blazed wings off!
Gilkore cocked his head to one side. “You know what? I believe you, but only because she squawks to me about your misdeeds with such vitriol.” He began laughing.
Renward stood in complete silence. There was nothing he could do to excuse himself. He tried to look apologetic, though he knew the expression did not really suit his face, or ever look convincing.
“Tell you what, my lord. We’ll
have a punishment for you and the girl. First of all, we’ll stop all this Renward business. You and I both know it’s Morghiad, don’t we? Yes?”
Renward nodded slowly. He was Renward! He was! Damn it if Morghiad just... felt right. Damn it to the pits of the hottest fires that ever burned! Morghiad.
“Good. Very good. Now, there is something else...”
Morghiad looked out across the gardens. He was Morghiad, even if it was a stupid name. Sometimes one just has to accept the poor bargains that
the merchants of life offer us, his father often said. Though quite why the name had been a bargain that his father had made was utterly inexplicable. Morghiad sometimes wondered if his life had been one long series of tests set by his father, but he was fast coming to realise that anything difficult could be described as a test. Most often, it was probably just events beyond his control.
Artemi walked out to join him, her expression as sour as any he had ever seen her wear. The girls’ house mistress was with her, holding two pairs of very small scissors. They
looked like the sort a woman would use on her nails.
“This will be your punishment for breaking the curfew,” the woman announced. She had a face that looked like an axe meeting an anvil. “Use these scissors to cut the lawn to three fingers in height. When you have finished, you may come to me and I will inspect your work.” The house mistress handed them their cutting implements. “Begin,” she ordered.
Artemi was the first to drop to her knees and start snipping, almost as if she did not realise the impracticability of the task. Morghiad soon joined her,
and the air was filled with the tiny sounds of miniscule blades upon grass. It was not long before his fingers hurt from the ridiculously small size of the finger holes. He looked up. The house mistress was gone.
“We can use Blaze to do this,” he whispered to Artemi.
“You’re not getting near my power again.”
He reached out to grab her wrist, but she fended him off with a swift boot to the ribs.
“This is stupid. You’re my property, peasant. You can finish this off for me. I’ll wait.” He dropped the
scissors and leaned back in the soft grass, but before he could lie down properly, Artemi had leapt at him.
She kicked him swiftly onto his front, and her hands were claw-like as they gripped his hair to shove his face into the earth. “Peasant, am I? Well, how do you like this?” She pushed his face further into the dirt. “How does it feel to be down in the muck with the commoners? How does it feel, lord?”
If he could have sighed or groaned at that moment, he would have done. His day of punishment was going to be tedious and horrible. So very tedious.
Korali looked wonderful as she slept, like a tigress lounging amidst the grasses of the plains. Not that Tallyn had ever seen a tigress, but she was just how he had imagined one would look. He really ought to have offered to marry her by now, though he knew
such an offer would be pointless with events progressing as they were. He should not have engaged in any sort of relationship with her at all, but she had looked so upset at his initial refusal.
He had always known he was too soft. Too soft to rule and too soft to tell her to go away. The squad is taking a break for the summer, she had said, I am yours for all the months of it. And then she had looked all pretty and alluring at him. A man could not say no to that. Not at the risk of upsetting her.
Tallyn rose from the bed and stumbled onto tired feet. His thoughts
had been fevered of late, and it was beginning to affect his body. He was still naked when he went to sit as his desk. There cannot have been many kings in the world who had conducted their business whilst naked. He chuckled at the thought and began writing.
Dear sister,
I am afraid I must ask you a very great favour...
When he had finished, he folded up the note and sealed it with the sigil
only used for personal communications. She would recognise its importance and know that it came directly from him. The words he used were coded, secret. Not even Silar could have replicated them. Blazes, Silar. Where was he these days? Tallyn cast the question from his mind. He had bigger troubles to concern himself with.
His next task was to bathe, dress and kiss Korali goodbye. She wriggled and groaned in the bed when he did so, but looked quite content with where she was. Tallyn was happy to leave her there for the time being.
He strode out to the offices where he was to conduct his various kingly businesses. There was not too much that day. A few papers required signing; some items of correspondence needed to be replied to. By midday he was done, and in the afternoon he went to his appointment in the forests.
Tallyn carried a ghar-ten with him everywhere he went; a truly wonderful gift from his sister that meant he could wield whenever he needed to. And he had found plenty of opportunity to do just that. He stopped at the clearing, and waited.
For the moment there was
silence, but then the lines of time around him began to warp and distort into thousands of tiny knots. So that’s what it looked like!
“Good evening.”
“Hello,” he said to himself.
“So it worked?”
Tallyn nodded. “I already knew it would.”
“Of course you did, you’re me.”
“But such things had to be proven, and I had to meet you here. Otherwise... well, things might get a bit complicated.”
His other, older self nodded. “Sounds sensible. I know what you’re
thinking. There’s no more advice I can offer you that you haven’t already considered.”
Damn. Death would come from this. He had suspected as much. If it was that easy to remove the shade panther, someone would have already tried it and survived. Tallyn folded his arms. “You know what we have to do now.”
“There’s no other way. I am... detached now. I can feel it.” And he was speaking the truth. There was something different about his eyes. They looked lighter somehow.
inevitable.”
“Good luck, then.”
“Thank you.”
The other, older Tallyn walked back toward the city, his steps noticeably weary. It was a strange thing, he considered, to talk to yourself. But it was proof that he had solved the problem.
Tallyn could bend the lines of time about other people and in parts of the world around him. He could draw events backward a few minutes or hours, and then allow them to re-play out in a different manner. He could twist them as they were twisted around
vanha-sielu, but he could not do one thing: he could not walk through time. When there was too much time to be changed, it would surely have required far less Blaze Energy just to move a single person rather than the whole world about him.
He had tried again and again, but his problem always became obvious when he saw the potential for it to go wrong. His problem was the bane of his entire bloodline. Tallyn was not just Tallyn; he carried The Shade upon his back. It had never troubled him particularly, not like it had his father. There had been a moment after his
parents had died when he had felt it rouse from its slumber, but with Medea or Korali around, it was typically a placid creature.
However, in this it was a handicap. His mother had told him about it being indestructible and eternal – something created by the Lawmakers to act as a guardian. Whenever Tallyn tried to grasp at the lines of time that surrounded himself, the shade panther would reach for them also. It wanted to escape, and Tallyn knew that if it did, the consequences would be disastrous.
When his father had mentioned
the dream he had experienced many decades earlier, Tallyn had been struck by it. Was it not a coincidence that he was able to manipulate some of the elements of time, and that he had also appeared in the past with some very useful information about the location of his mother?
Tallyn had been forced to think upon that question
every night afterwards. If it was possible, then surely he would have done it? If he did not do it, Medea would never have been born and his mother would never have returned from The Crux. Nor would there be a Kalad, and Mirel
would still be roving the world, drunk upon her mindless killing spree.
But Tallyn could not simply pull the monster out of his head and leave it here. He needed help making sure it was under control when he moved through time. It just happened that help was here in the forests of Gialdin. He left his horse where it was, and began walking into the heavy, thick growth of the ferns and brush that sprouted between the tree trunks.
It was not long before they came out to meet him, velvet faces and glittering eyes regarding him in the low light of the afternoon. Tallyn had
discovered quite early on that they would follow him where he asked them to follow. Panthers were most certainly not pack animals, but they would hunt and run together when their need became extreme.
The Fireblade Array: 4-Book Bundle Page 159
