by Ian Irvine
Karan’s throat was so tight she could scarcely draw breath. ‘Where’d they take him?’
Flydd did not reply.
‘I saw a hand. A big, dark hand.’
‘Most of the enemy are big and dark.’
Sulien burst in. ‘What was that noise?’ She looked around. ‘Where’s Daddy?’
‘Don’t – know,’ Karan whispered. The loss of him was unbearable; she could not think; she was lost.
‘He was dragged through a gate,’ said Flydd. His eye drifted to the finger. ‘At least, most of him.’
‘They cut off Daddy’s finger?’ Sulien said shrilly. ‘You’ve got to find him!’
‘We don’t know where to look,’ Karan said numbly. ‘Come here.’
She reached out and Sulien ran to her, clinging desperately. Everything was falling apart. Why had she brought her family to this dreadful future?
Sulien wrenched herself away. ‘Mister Flydd, can’t you do something!’
‘He could be a thousand miles away, child,’ said Flydd. ‘In any direction.’
How had the enemy known he was here? Why had they taken Llian, of all people? And, terrifying thought, they could take Sulien just as easily.
‘Why did they chop Daddy’s finger off?’ said Sulien. She picked up the empty bottles and stacked them near the door. She always tidied when she was upset.
‘I think it was an accident,’ said Karan.
‘Could a healer grow it back?’
‘Not unless we can recover Llian in the next hour,’ said Flydd.
Karan’s bad leg was hurting again. She went to one of the grimy windows, pulled a moth-eaten curtain aside and peered out into the darkness. Even abandoned and crumbling, Thurkad retained an air of ancient wickedness. Now it was home to plunderers picking over the ruins, thieves preying on anyone foolish enough to come back, and outlaws of every description. Plus a brace of ex-scrutators, up to who knew what villainy.
Why had she fought with Llian? Gothryme was gone and there was no going back. To do so would prove that she was in thrall to her heritage. But her love of the land was bone-deep. It was her spirit, her soul, her place. It was her duty to work the land and look after it, and hand it down to Sulien who would love it and protect it in turn, and pass it to her own daughter one day.
She trudged back. ‘Did you have fun with Jassika, darling?’ Karan hoped Sulien had made a friend.
Sulien crashed two round wine bottles together, breaking one of them. ‘She’s very rude.’
M’Lainte burst in, red in the face. ‘The gate scrier’s gone!’
Flydd raced up to the sky galleon. Karan, M’Lainte and Lilis followed.
He was rifling through the storage compartments down below, and cursing. ‘Field scanner’s gone too.’
‘And the spare controller for the sky galleon,’ said M’Lainte. ‘But who –?’
Flydd whirled, eyes glinting. ‘Never trust a man who comes back from the dead.’
‘You sort-of came back from the dead,’ Lilis reminded him. ‘Twice.’
He came up and they returned to the room where they had found Klarm.
‘A life-renewal spell isn’t exactly death.’ Flydd raked his cheeks with hooked fingertips. ‘Though … it’s the most agonising pain the human body can experience.’
Worse than giving birth to Sulien? Surely he was exaggerating. ‘Why would Rulke want those devices?’ Karan said stiffly.
‘How would I know? He’s your friend!’
‘He was never my friend. Rulke was … above friendship, if that makes any sense.’
‘It doesn’t! Now the bastard has gone over to the invaders.’
‘That’s ridiculous. The Charon and the Merdrun have been mortal enemies for aeons.’
‘We only have Rulke’s lying word for that.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Karan said coldly.
Flydd’s craggy face went purple. ‘You’ve got a nerve – after we flew five hundred leagues across Lauralin to rescue you.’
‘We didn’t need rescuing. And your unbelievable negligence has made things disastrously worse.’
Lilis gasped. M’Lainte let her breath out in a hiss.
‘Well, if you don’t like it here, piss off!’ said Flydd.
A reckless urge overtook Karan, to pull down all bridges behind her. ‘I will. We’re going home, right now! Sulien, get your pack.’
M’Lainte caught Karan’s arm in a surprisingly strong grip. ‘No one’s going anywhere. What did you mean about Rulke?’
Karan fought down the rage. She could not afford to close off options now. ‘When Sulien first saw the Merdrun, I lifted the nightmare from her and searched it for clues –’
‘I didn’t know nightmares could be removed and studied,’ said Flydd, calmly now. ‘That’s a useful gift.’
‘And extremely painful; I couldn’t do it with the next nightmare. The one where she saw their secret weakness.’
‘Go on.’
‘Their leader, Gergrig, told his magiz that Rulke was the only person they had ever feared.’
‘But when he came out of stasis,’ said Flydd, ‘and discovered he was the last of his kind, Rulke probably decided to ally with them. They come from the same stock, after all, and blood is thick.’
He turned away. ‘There are beds down the hall. Get some sleep, everyone. We’re got a lot to do before we leave.’
Sulien picked up her pack and went down the corridor. Lilis and M’Lainte followed. Karan did not move.
‘What – about – Llian?’
He sighed. ‘The enemy are slaughtering innocent people in their tens of thousands. I can’t turn my back on them to look for one man.’
‘Then I’ll go looking for him myself.’
‘I’d prefer you didn’t.’
‘Why the hell not?’ she said furiously.
He hesitated for a long time before saying reluctantly, ‘I … need your help.’
‘But you wrote five books about the war. You named hundreds of allies.’
‘The war ended fourteen years ago, Karan, and half of them were killed during the God-Emperor’s ten-year reign of malice.’ Flydd stared into infinite distances, his face rigidly controlled, then shook himself and said quietly, ‘And of those that survived, many have been rounded up already. The Merdrun will torture everything they know out of them, then kill them. Santhenar’s finest gone in a heartbeat, doomed because of my Histories – and I can do nothing to save them.’
Karan could read him now. Flydd was overwhelmed by grief, and guilt.
‘Now Klarm and M’Lainte have to go after my other folly, the spellcaster,’ he went on, ‘and it could take a long time to find it – if they come back at all. Lilis has … her own job to do. My few remaining allies are thousands of miles away, and even in the sky galleon it’ll take days to reach them, since I don’t have the power to make gates anymore.’ Flydd met her eyes, and he was almost begging. ‘Right now, Karan, you’re all I’ve got.’
How could she refuse? ‘As long as you promise to find Llian, the moment we’re done.’
‘I’ll look for him when I can. But you’ll have to send Sulien somewhere safe. It’s too dangerous to take her with us.’
Her knees gave. No, no, no! ‘I did that to her before. I can’t do it again.’
To save Sulien from Maigraith, Karan had entrusted her to the Whelm, who had treated her harshly, then betrayed her to the magiz. Had it not been for faithful, tormented Idlis, Sulien would be dead.
‘It has to be done,’ said Flydd, more kindly.
‘What if I’m killed?’ said Karan.
‘I’ll make arrangements for her to be looked after, just in case.’
With Llian gone, and possibly dead, Karan had no choice. But how was she to tell Sulien? She would feel abandoned all over again. She would be shattered.
Karan lay awake, leafing absently through Llian’s journal, left behind when he had been dragged through the gate. He would
be lost without his precious notes about the Merdrun and their first invasion. They now faced a far worse one, and an enemy so malevolent she could not summon up a smidgeon of hope, because they had no army, no allies and nothing to fight with …
A hand on her shoulder and she was dragged unwillingly from sleep. It took a dozen heartbeats before she recognised the slim figure beside her.
Karan threw herself backwards across her bunk. ‘Maigraith!’ she choked.
Maigraith put a finger to her lips. ‘Don’t wake the child.’
Karan forced herself up in bed, shaking so badly that she had prop herself up. Always, Maigraith exceeded her worst fears. ‘How – how did you find us?’
‘I’m one of the great powers these days.’
‘What do you want?’
‘The coming battle will define us all. Prove us, or destroy us.’
‘Just as you’re planning to destroy my family,’ Karan said bitterly.
‘You haven’t changed at all,’ said Maigraith.
‘It’s only been four days since we fled Shazmak.’
‘And 214 grinding years for me.’
‘You’ve weathered them well enough,’ Karan lied.
Maigraith had aged slowly, as one with her Charon and Faellem heritage must, yet two centuries had greatly changed her. The muscles of her arms had become stringy, her skin was dotted with age spots, and every year of her unhappy and vengeful life could be read in the lines engraved into her thin face.
‘Once set upon a course I follow it to the end,’ said Maigraith. ‘No matter how bitter.’
‘You want revenge on me for escaping to the future.’
Maigraith smiled, a rare and disturbing sight. ‘On the contrary, I admire you – you finally showed some spine. More than two hundred years went by before I unravelled the tangle of lies and misdirections your friends set up, and realised that you three were still alive, but I could not discover which future you’d gone to.’
‘When did you find out?’
‘Half an hour ago, when Flydd called me.’
Karan froze. ‘Flydd ... betrayed us?’ He had called Maigraith here, even knowing she was Karan’s deadly enemy?
‘He was a scrutator,’ said Maigraith. ‘He does what needs to be done.’
‘And here you are, ready to torture us all over again.’
‘Yes, here I am.’
Karan could not go through all that again. Flydd had ordered them to say nothing about Rulke, but damn him!
‘After you hear what I tell you,’ said Karan, ‘you’ll never be interested in Sulien again.’
‘I never give in,’ said Maigraith.
‘Rulke was the love of your life.’
Maigraith wrapped her arms around her chest, hugging her thin body.
‘He’s still alive,’ said Karan.
Maigraith’s remarkable indigo and carmine eyes flashed, her thin-lipped mouth curved down. ‘You’ve been with Llian the Liar so long, you’ve become him.’
‘When Rulke took that fatal wound in Shazmak, 224 years ago, he had a stasis spell ready and cast it on himself. Later Yalkara reinforced it, then put a slow healing spell on him and hid his body inside the granite statue in Alcifer.’
Maigraith went very still, then reached out and touched Karan’s forehead. ‘You ... truly believe the lies you’re telling.’
‘Rulke and Yalkara planned it long ago, in case either of them was mortally injured. It looked as though he had died, but inside he was preserved by the stasis spell, so it and time could heal him.’
‘It’s – not – credible.’ Maigraith wanted to believe it, though. She wanted it desperately.
‘When we were in Alcifer, Sulien sensed someone alive in the statue, and freed him. Ask her. Ask Flydd or Lilis or M’Lainte. We all saw Rulke and talked to him.’
Maigraith’s stern face cracked, her desperate longing breaking through, and for a second or two she glowed. ‘I always felt close to him when I was by his statue.’ But the mask reformed, the elderly woman reappeared. ‘I’ve been disappointed too many times,’ she said stolidly. ‘I can’t bear to hope … How – how was he?’
‘Weak. And still troubled by the healed wound we thought had killed him. But otherwise, like the Rulke of old.’
‘Did he – ask about me?’ Maigraith whispered.
‘No.’
‘But we swore to one another, forever!’ Maigraith twisted the heavy gold ring on her finger. ‘He would never forget.’ She looked up. ‘Where is he?’
Karan shrugged. ‘Seconds before the Merdrun opened the Crimson Gate, he vanished.’
Maigraith smiled enigmatically. ‘He’ll come back for me.’
‘What about Sulien?’ Karan needed assurances.
Maigraith looked over her shoulder at the sleeping child and her hard face softened. ‘If what you say is true, I will renounce all claim on her.’
‘Swear it … on the ring Rulke gave you.’
‘Is my word not good enough for you?’
‘Swear it!’
Maigraith slipped off the heavy gold ring, once Rulke’s, which he had shrunk to fit her finger only weeks before his apparent death. She laid it in the middle of the palm of her left hand, covered it with her right and said, ‘I swear on this ring, the symbol of my undying love for Rulke, that if he is still alive I renounce all claim on Sulien, forever.’
‘What about me? You swore undying revenge on me.’
Maigraith laid her palm on the ring again. ‘I will renounce it, too.’
‘Just like that?’
‘It would no longer be relevant.’
‘And Llian?’
‘He aroused my hopes with a despicable lie,’ she grated. ‘Revenge on Llian I will have.’
Karan’s fury flared. ‘You bitch! You’ve cost me my home and my friends. You’re not touching Llian.’
‘I will pay reparation, enough to restore Gothryme, if that’s what you want.’
The abandoned manor and estate buildings were probably in ruins, the land overgrown. It would cost a fortune to rebuild and bring it back into production … but she never wanted to be beholden to Maigraith again.
‘I don’t want your stolen money.’
‘I’m not a thief,’ Maigraith said stiffly. ‘Everything I have, I’ve earned.’
‘The only reparation I want from you is Llian.’ Assuming he still wants me.
‘And if he’s still alive I’ll find him – but not for you.’
7
Don’t Be Such A Sooky Little Baby
Sulien was woken by whispering in the early hours, and the other woman’s voice was so terrifyingly familiar that she almost wet the bed. Maigraith!
Sulien lay there, shivering, until Maigraith was gone, then crept across in the dark and got in with Karan. ‘What are we going to do, Mummy?’
‘You heard?’ Karan whispered, drawing her close. ‘She’s not after you anymore.’
‘I don’t believe her.’
‘It’ll be different now. Rulke’s all she ever wanted.’
Sulien sniffed. That might be true, but she would never trust Maigraith. Never ever! ‘What are we going to do about Daddy?’
After a long pause, Karan said, ‘Why would the enemy want him?’
For revenge, just as Maigraith did. Sulien could not say it aloud; that would make it so much worse. She twisted her fear into a knot and thrust it down deep.
‘Can you find him, Mummy? Through a mind-link or something?’
‘I’ve hardly ever been able to link to Llian … But don’t worry, darling, I’m working on a plan. We’ll get him back –’
Sulien was so annoyed that she wrenched free and stumbled back to her own bed.
‘Sulien, what’s the matter?’ Karan said anxiously.
Sulien pretended to be asleep. Why did grown-ups say such stupid things? No one could make that kind of promise. The Merdrun tortured their prisoners, then killed them –
She had to bite her fingertips, harder a
nd harder until her teeth broke the skin and she tasted blood, to prevent herself from screaming. Karan had no way of finding Llian, and Flydd was far too busy. And if Maigraith found him she would take a terrible revenge.
It was up to Sulien. She had to find Llian first. And she had two advantages no one else had – she could far-see, and somewhere within her was that lost memory about the enemy’s fatal weakness. Could she, dare she use it to bargain for Llian’s freedom?
She nearly choked. It was the most desperate idea she’d ever had, and if Karan even heard a whisper of it … it would be very bad. But Sulien had no choice. If she could not save Llian the enemy would kill him.
But how was she to begin?
A memory popped up, of poor little Uigg, the Merdrun drum boy, and the strange mental connection that had grown between him and herself. Uigg had been so proud, so terrified, so doomed. A tear ran down her cheek.
The connection, the way they had communicated, reminded her of another Merdrun whose mind she had touched.
‘Skald!’ she whispered.
‘What’s that, darling?’ Karan said sleepily.
‘Nothing, Mummy. Go to sleep.’
It was not nothing. When Sulien sensed Skald searching for the amber-wood box at the top of Mistmurk Mountain he had reminded her of someone, and she now realised that it had been Uigg. But why?
Skald wasn’t a powerless kid; he was a tough soldier with a gift for the Secret Art. But he was tormented too, and she had a feeling that it was important. Could she use him to find out where the enemy had taken Llian?
It was a desperately dangerous thing to do. Karan would go out of her mind. But since neither Karan nor anyone else could do a thing for Llian, Sulien had to find a way.
In the morning everyone was frantically busy, and Karan wanted Sulien out from under her feet. ‘Go and play with Jassika,’ she kept saying.
Sulien did not like Jassika, who was loud and rude and bossy, always insulting her own father or making snide remarks about Flydd. She was even rude to Lilis, who was perfectly nice and kind, though she did live in a world of her own.
