The Empress and the Acolyte

by Jane Fletcher

  “That is none of your concern.” Mavek spoke as if to an impudent child. “Go, and take what’s left of the golems with you.”

  The golem that had lost a leg was now lying still. Yenneg moved towards it while gesturing to one of those still standing. Obediently the huge metal figure clumped to his side, bent, and effortlessly picked up its fallen cohort. The other inert golem was similarly dealt with.

  “I’ll take these.” Yenneg jerked his head at the lumps of metal strewn about and grinned at Anid. “You can do the scrap collection.”

  He strolled away before there was time to argue. The two golems with their burdens lumbered along behind him. Anid glared at the departing figures before summoning the remaining intact golem to the task. Within ten minutes it had gathered all the broken pieces big enough to worry about. Anid then set off on the road back to Tirakhalod.

  Jemeryl waited until she was out of sight before turning her attention to Mavek. He was sifting through the wreckage of the guard post in the light of a conjured globe, no doubt searching for the talisman. Given the state of the devastation, he would be at the task for days. He was so weak in the fifth dimension it might take him that long before he realised that she had not died in the building.

  Jemeryl had four options. She could talk to Mavek. She could kill him. She could take him prisoner or she could ignore him. The first two options she dismissed immediately. Talking was pointless, and he had been quite right about her; she could not kill in cold blood.

  Taking him prisoner needed more thought. She could try to exchange him for Tevi—but who would she have to negotiate with? If she overpowered him, it would ruin his pretence of having exceptional powers. Who would care about him enough to want him back? The acolytes would be free to pursue their own ambitions. Without Mavek to stop her, Dunarth might decide to investigate Tevi’s strength by dissection. Or Yenneg might try some more of his recruitment techniques. Jemeryl wanted to get to Tevi as soon as possible. She hoped that Tevi was a prisoner in the castle, but a longer journey might be necessary, and lugging a useless hostage around would only slow her down.

  The first thing was to find out where Tevi was being held. Mavek was unlikely to volunteer the information. Anid would be a more willing talker, especially once she learned that the new Emperor did not have phenomenal magic at his command. But what else might she do? From what Jemeryl had overheard, Mavek was acting like an arrogant dictator. Given that the acolytes had not started out with fond feelings for each other, it was likely Anid would want revenge on Mavek for his contemptuous treatment.

  Jemeryl caught her lip in her teeth. She had hoped to avoid getting involved in the inevitable power battles between the acolytes. Neither had she wanted to play a part in anyone’s death. Yet Mavek had left her with few options. If he had not taken Tevi prisoner and threatened to harm her, then Jemeryl would have left him alone to do whatever he wished in the crumbling Empire. Now she needed an ally. Telling Anid the truth about Bykoda’s murder ought to get her one, and Mavek had no one to blame but himself. Jemeryl just hoped that she would get to Tevi before everything fell apart.

  Mavek’s attention was fixed on the piles of rubble. Jemeryl slipped quietly from her hiding place and followed after Anid. Soon Mavek and the guard post ruins were lost in the dark behind her, while ahead, Anid had conjured a light globe, making her easy to spot even were it not for the thumping of the golem. Jemeryl overtook her half a mile along the road.

  “Anid.”

  She spun around. “Who’s there...who...Jemeryl?”

  Jemeryl walked into the circle of light. “Yep. Me.”

  “But—”

  “I wasn’t in the guard post.”

  Anid’s face shifted through several phases of confusion before settling into a grim smile. “Obviously. Did you know it would explode?”

  “Yes. I rigged it to. Bykoda had left a cache of Mavek’s devices there. I made use of a few.”

  Anid’s gaze shifted back along the road, obviously sizing up the situation. When her eyes returned to Jemeryl, a narrowing revealed more than a shade of concern. “What do you want?”

  “Just to talk. You don’t need to worry.”

  “About what?”

  “I want to tell you how Mavek killed Bykoda.”

  Anid shook her head, but as an expression of confusion, not refusal. “I still can’t get over him doing that. I never guessed that he had that sort of power.”

  “He hasn’t. It was all a trick.”

  “I was there. I saw—”

  “So was I. But I know how he did it. It was his new inflated cushions. Except Bykoda’s wasn’t. It was deflating. There was a pin fixed inside, coated in some of Dunarth’s new poison. Once the cushion had gone down enough, when Bykoda sat back, it pricked her, and that was all it took. Oh...and he had another trick planned. He’d positioned a mirror outside one of the windows. While everyone was watching Bykoda fall out of her chair, he bounced a bolt off the mirror to bring the crystals down. The rest was all acting.”

  While Jemeryl was talking, Anid’s expression went from disbelief to surprise to a stunned daze as she tried to keep up. “It was all a sham?” she said at last.

  “Yes.”

  Anid drew in a deep breath, frowning. “Bykoda always said he was a pain in the arse.”

  “She was more correct than she knew.”

  “But he must know that he can’t get away with it for long.” Anid’s thoughts were clearly moving on. She looked up. “And why is he after you?”

  “Um...” Jemeryl would rather not get into the details. “He thinks I have something.”

  “Do you?”

  Jemeryl shrugged.

  “Come on. You can’t expect me to take this on trust if you’re going to hold back,” Anid spoke angrily.

  “It’s nothing much.”

  “Something of Bykoda’s?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?” Anid’s face cleared. “Her talisman to change the past?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I know Mavek. He wants to get his family back.”

  Without answering, Jemeryl edged away, ready to react if needed. Anid also had lost her children.

  “You think I might want to do the same?” Anid asked.

  “The talisman won’t work anymore. The temporal forces have become unbalanced. That’s why Bykoda gave it to me. She wanted me to take it to the Protectorate.”

  Anid shook her head. “It wouldn’t matter to me whether it worked or not. I don’t want it. I’m not that sort of coward.”

  Jemeryl studied the other sorcerer. Anid seemed sincere, but Bykoda’s acolytes were all used to playing games of deception. Jemeryl was not about to take the disavowal on trust. “Does courage come into it?”

  “It does where I come from. In the far southwest, we have a saying. Fate rolls the dice. We are the stakes. And only a coward calls cheat. I’ve seen the roll of the dice. I haven’t always liked it, but it’s my life. It’s how I’ve lived it. It’s what makes me who I am, and it’s what I’ll answer for. My mistakes are as much a part of me as my successes, and I won’t give either up.”

  “That isn’t how Mavek sees things.”

  “No he’s a coward and a fool and a cheat and...” Suddenly Anid’s expression hardened. She started to march back towards the destroyed guard post. “And that bastard’s been treating us all like—”

  Jemeryl caught hold of her arm. She was certain that Anid’s last angry outburst had been completely genuine and that Mavek, not the talisman, was her goal. But before Anid charged off, Jemeryl wanted some information. If possible, she would also like enough time to get to Tevi before Mavek was challenged.

  “I’m not going to stop you doing whatever you want, although you might like to take an hour or two to think things through first. But before you go, I want you to tell me where Tevi is.”

  Anid stopped. The anger faded into awkward sympathy. “I...I’m sorry. It’s bad news.”

>   Jemeryl felt her insides clench. “He’s hurt her.”

  “No. Not Mavek, at least not directly.” Anid’s lips tightened. “He had troops taking her north—as far from you as possible. We got news via the message orb an hour ago. The troops were attacked by a dragon.”

  “She...” Jemeryl could not find the words.

  “I know. There used to be some dragons in the mountains, but there’s been no sign of them for decades. One must have come back to its old hunting grounds. Over half the party were killed. Only one of the lieutenants and four soldiers survived. I’m really sorry. Tevi wasn’t one of them.”

  Jemeryl could not believe it. “You’re sure she didn’t escape? She’s resourceful. Maybe she used the attack to get free? It isn’t easy to identify a body after a dragon has burnt it. And she—”

  Anid gripped Jemeryl’s upper arm, breaking her flow of words. “Are you sure you want to know it all?”

  “Yes.”

  “She was still tied to her horse when the dragon hit them. Her horse bolted. The dragon had incinerated most of the troops, but as it flew away, it grabbed her and the horse for its meal. The lieutenant saw it eating them as it flew off.”

  “Someone’s lying.”

  “Believe me. I know how you feel, but no—I swear I’m not lying, and neither was the lieutenant. Mavek was furious. He virtually sucked her brains out through the orb. That was why he attacked you this night. He’d planned to go in at dawn tomorrow, but he was frightened that you had Tevi bound to you in the ether—though you’d always denied it. He thought you might sense she was dead when the bond was broken.”

  “No. It’s not true. She can’t...” Jemeryl felt as if her soul were ripped in two.

  Anid’s eyes met hers in pity. “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

  “I... It...” Breathing was agony. Jemeryl could not frame the words. She sank down onto the road.

  Anid knelt beside her. “Ideally I’d take you back to the castle, keep an eye on you, get you drunk, whatever. But we don’t have that option. You need to get to the Protectorate as quickly as possible. Regardless of what you or I do about Mavek, there isn’t anyone strong enough to hold things together now that Bykoda’s gone. There’s going to be chaos here soon, and the talisman needs to be somewhere safe. Bykoda was a bitch, but she wasn’t any sort of fool. If she thought you should take the talisman to the Protectorate, then I’m prepared to bet that it’s a good idea.” Anid’s hand rested briefly on Jemeryl’s shoulder. “I’ll sleep on what you’ve told me and deal with Mavek tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know about him, and”—she stood up and stepped back—“good-bye.”

  Numb, Jemeryl sat staring at the road long after the acolyte had disappeared into the night.

  Chapter Eleven—The Mountain Lair

  Jemeryl had spent a long time sitting on the ground. At some point, there had been shouts and the sounds of fighting from the north, enough to catch her notice but not her attention. Now there was only the whisper of wind through the grass.

  Tevi was dead.

  “No.”

  She did not know how many times she had said the word, in denial more than disbelief. She could not accept it, even if it were true. Her world was not big enough to contain such a loss.

  Midnight was past. In a few more hours the sun would rise for a day that Tevi would not see. Somehow, Jemeryl had to get through it, and the night that followed, and all the days that would come thereafter. Tears rolled down her face.

  At last, Jemeryl lifted her head. Klara stood nearby in silence. No comfort could be gained from the familiar. No words would help. Jemeryl’s legs were numb. She thought it likely that she was cold. The pain of a stone pressing into her knee was a welcome distraction. She had to move. With the thought came a change of mood. Not only did she have to move, she wanted to move. To do something—any action that she could throw herself into as a substitute for thinking and feeling.

  Jemeryl pushed herself to her feet, staggering as the blood returned to her legs. She took a few seconds to stamp some life back and then turned towards the south and the Protectorate. Klara took the habitual perch on her shoulder, yet nothing else was as it should be.

  Jemeryl’s footsteps beat a fast march on the road, taking her into a future without Tevi. Before long, the ruins of the guard post came into view, where one solitary figure scrabbled through the rubble, too intent on his search to hear her. Mavek. The person who had sent Tevi to her death. The person who knew what had really happened. Jemeryl came to a stop and watched him, her breath shuddering in her lungs.

  Conscious thought played no part in Jemeryl’s actions. She reached through the fifth dimension where Mavek was too weak to sense her attack and blasted into him. The full force of her grief directed the flow of energy through his aura. Mavek’s scream was cut off as he collapsed. By the time he came round, Jemeryl had him bound by the strands of the ether.

  His eyes fixed on her face. Surprise gave way to guilt and fear. “Jemeryl. I—”

  She cut him off. “What has happened to Tevi?”

  “You must believe me. I never—”

  “Where is Tevi?”

  “I never meant it to happen. I swear I didn’t mean it.”

  Lightning shot from Jemeryl’s fingertips, crackling into the helpless prisoner. Mavek cried out while the spasms shook him.

  When he was again still, Jemeryl said remorselessly, “What have you done to Tevi?”

  Mavek’s expression was now pure panic. “A dragon. There haven’t been any for so long...I never thought that one would...please...I didn’t mean it to happen.”

  Jemeryl knelt and grabbed hold of his hair. She pulled his face closer to her own. “Anid told me, but I don’t believe her. Tevi can’t be dead.”

  “It’s not my fault. I swear it. I wouldn’t have hurt you. That’s why I used the golems. But you...” He was a man drowning in terror. “Please. I’m sorry.”

  Mavek’s aura was open and vulnerable. Coven rules forbade certain forms of assault via the fifth dimension, but Jemeryl did not care. She ripped apart the strands of his aura, tearing and slashing in search of the truth, dissecting his mind.

  She shredded the core of his being. Pain was irrelevant. This attack went far deeper. Mavek retreated, a small wounded animal, screeching as it gave up its hold on the world. Memories burst open. Dreams and desires burned and scattered, like embers on a gale. Nothing of him was left unscoured.

  At first Mavek screamed, then his voice changed to moans and choking, and then to sounds unrecognisable as human. The stench polluted the night air as his bowels and bladder emptied. His heels scrabbled desperately on the ground, but his feet could not carry him away to safety.

  Not until she had clawed through the last fragments of his soul did Jemeryl stop her invasion. Mavek lay twitching but silent. He would live, although there was no saying what incurable damage had been inflicted.

  Jemeryl stood and looked down at him, feeling sick. Full awareness of the crime she had just committed flooded through her. Guilt and horror churned in her stomach as she fought back the urge to vomit. She should not have done to him what she had just done. Already she regretted it deeply. Mavek was not a Protectorate citizen, but the Coven rules still put limits on how he might be treated as a prisoner and as a human being.

  Jemeryl had broken the rules and gained nothing from it. Mavek had been telling the truth, and so had the eyewitness he had questioned. Her conscience was not eased by the knowledge that his interrogation of the lieutenant had not been gentle either.

  And Tevi was dead.

  Jemeryl’s shoulders shook with sobs. She flung her head back to the night sky, but the scream would not come. It would not ease her pain.

  At her feet, Mavek’s breathing became more regular. He was truly unconscious now. Who could say what state he would be in when he awoke? Jemeryl loosened the ethereal bonds that had held him secure. Maybe he would recover, and if he did not, then Anid’s job the next day would
be made easier.

  The road south led over the bridge and off across the plains. Jemeryl knew she had to go that way and take the talisman to the Protectorate. She clenched her teeth. The task was one that she could cope with, a reason to wake up tomorrow morning. And when the talisman was safely delivered, then she could work out how to deal with the rest of her life.

  *

  The world below was laid out in the moonlight. As a child, Tevi had watched seagulls circling high overhead and had dreamed of being one, sweeping through the sky and looking down on tiny trees, huts, and people. Her current view was everything that she had imagined, but she was in no state to appreciate it. They were flying through the mountains and snow glittered blue in the moon’s rays. She was shivering violently, more from cold than fear.

  Her initial blind terror had faded. She knew that she was going to die soon. She had come to terms with the idea. More painful was the knowledge that she would never see Jemeryl again. The hardest thing of all was the guilt. She should not have gone on that last mission. She was going to leave Jemeryl alone, and she would not even have the chance to say sorry.

  The dragon’s claws were not holding her directly. They had impaled the horse with her still sitting in the saddle. During the early part of the flight, Tevi had been ready to dive off if she spotted a lake or river that would give some hope of surviving the fall. Unfortunately, their route had not passed over a waterway big enough to make a feasible target, and any they crossed now would be hard ice. Even so, Tevi still considered throwing herself off the horse. It would be quicker than freezing to death.

  But at the back of her head, insane optimism would not let her give up. Maybe when they landed, the dragon’s hunger would fix on the larger horse, giving her time to...run? Hide? Attack it? Tevi did not know, but she could not give up yet, not completely.

  Countering this hope was another vision, that of a mother bringing home food to a brood of ever-hungry babies. The image of an eagle dropping a half-dead rabbit into its nest would not go away.