Lords of the Sky

by Angus Wells

  “You’ll be Daviot the Storyman, I’d guess,” he said. “I’ve a message for you.”

  I climbed down from the saddle, snatching the gray mare’s bridle as Cuentin made to stroke her neck and she made to bite his hand.

  “She’s of somewhat sour temper,” I warned him. “A message, you say?”

  He nodded, moving a few cautious steps clear of the horse. His eyes were so dark as to be almost devoid of white, but they sparkled with amusement as they studied my face. He said, “From Tryrsbry,” as if he savored his news and would draw its imparting out as long as possible. “From the commur-mage Krystin.”

  I waited with ill-assumed patience. What message would Krystin send? I had not thought to see her or hear from her again. Like all those others from my past, all those who had shaped and formed my life, I had believed her left behind, living only in my memory. I had chosen to look ahead—I was not sure I wanted a message from Krystin.

  Cuentin said, “It appears that the very day you quit Tryrsbry the jennym of Yrdan’s warband was set upon by brigands. Seven or eight, he claims—he was fortunate to survive.”

  I held my face straight. I said, “Seven or eight, eh? He was indeed fortunate.”

  Cuentin said, “Yes,” and I could see he struggled not to laugh. “A very strange attack, it was.”

  I began to like this commur-magus. I chose to play his game and assumed an expression of curiosity. “How so, strange?” I asked him.

  He said, “Well, as the jennym—Barus is his name, but you’d know that, I suppose—has it, he was out riding alone, when these seven or eight brigands sprang from ambush. He gave a fine account of himself, slaying at least three and wounding more, but then he was clubbed down and lost his senses. He remembers nothing after that.”

  “Nothing?” I inquired.

  “Nothing.” Cuentin paused, laughter hidden behind the clearing of his throat. Then he said, “It appears these brigands then secured him on his horse and set the beast free. It returned—by Krystin’s account—to Tryrsbry Keep with the valiant Barus slung across the saddle … How did she put it? Yes—like a sack of potatoes. Now, is that not strange? I wonder why these ferocious bandits let him live? And why they failed to take his horse? Think you there’s a story there, Daviot?”

  Solemnly, I answered him, “It would seem so, Cuentin.” “But you’re southward bound,” he said, “so perhaps you’ll never learn it.”

  “No,” I said. “Likely not.”

  He nodded. “Krystin also said to bid you the God’s speed.”

  I said, “For which, my thanks—to her and you.”

  He smiled wide, his eyes moving from my face to the staff set beside my saddle. “That’s a sturdy pole,” he remarked casually. “I imagine it must serve you well.”

  “It does,” I said. “At need.”

  He said, “Yes,” and began to laugh aloud.

  I could not help but join him, and he took my arm in a companionable way as we traversed the yard. As we came closer to the stables, he stifled his laughter and said more seriously, “I’ve encountered Barus a time or two, and he’s a surly fellow. Still, it does not do to spread rumors about a jennym, so perhaps we’d best keep this tale betwixt we two, eh?”

  “Barus,” I said, “is not a fellow I care to think of much.”

  “No,” Cuentin agreed. “You’ll find our Tevach more genial.” He smiled mischievously. “Perhaps because he’s no desire for me.”

  “Nor I,” I said, not wishing there to be any misunderstanding between us.

  Cuentin took no offense at this, but raised his hands in mock objection. “Fear not,” he said. “I understand from Krystin that your tastes lie elsewhere. Albeit they tend toward we sorcerers, eh?”

  I smiled and nodded, waving back the Changed stableman who came to tend my mare. I warned him of her temperament, and he left me to unsaddle her, contenting himself with the preparation of a stall.

  I was glad of the interruption, for Cuentin’s news disturbed me somewhat. Just as I had once before grown aware of societies overlapping one another—of Changed living amongst Truemen, simultaneously seen and invisible—so now I perceived that the sorcerers were a further layer in these complex, secretive strata. I had known my arrival and departure should be reported from keep to keep, but only that. It now seemed the sorcerers exchanged more detailed messages, gossip even. Perhaps it was only Krystin’s fondness for me that had prompted her to tell Barus’s tale to Cuentin, but it came unnervingly fast on the order to quit Tryrsbry, which had come soon after my questioning her about the wild Changed. I wondered if my progress was monitored. Perhaps I traveled under the cloud of my affair with Rwyan, my friendship with Urt. Perhaps the interest in the Changed I had shown in Durbrecht, my disobedience of the unwritten rules, yet branded me a rebel. It was an odd sensation to consider that I might be “watched” in this fashion; it was irksome to think that I could do nothing about it—was my burgeoning suspicion correct, I could hardly question Cuentin or any of his kind. To do so would only reinforce whatever doubts existed about my probity. If such doubts existed and my sudden unease was not solely a product of egotism.

  I set to currying the mare, barely aware of her irritable snapping, instinctively avoiding the sudden lurches with which she sought to trap me against the bars of the stall. I finished tending my ungrateful horse and turned to the patient Cuentin.

  “So,” he said, “do I bring you to Gunnar.”

  I shouldered my saddlebags, took up my staff, and went with him into the tower of the keep.

  By the time we found the aeldor, I had learned that he was wed to Dagma, had three sons—Donal, Connar, and Gustan—and a single daughter, Maere; that Dagma was pregnant, all three sons betrothed, and that Maere possessed a temper of erratic nature. Cuentin was a font of information.

  I found the aeldor and his wife a solemn, even dour couple, and their sons not much different. By contrast, Maere, who was little more than a child, was a lively girl. All were dark, and all save Maere seemed to me of that West Coast character I had, overall, come to expect. Still, they made me welcome enough, and I remained in Cymbry some days.

  While I was there, I was a dutiful Storyman. I asked no untoward questions, pried not at all, but only told my tales and thanked them for their praise. What questions I did ask were entirely within the aegis of my calling. I decided that if I were indeed monitored, it was not by the aeldors but by their sorcerers.

  And if that were the case, Cuentin was a most subtle observer. I spent much time in his company and found him amusing and informative. From him I learned that the Sky Lords’ little airboats were seen with increasing frequency all over Dharbek, seeming not to concentrate on any particular area but randomly across the land, whilst the larger vessels had been seen not at all this year. With the aid of Gunnar’s jennym (who did indeed prove a most likable fellow), Cuentin had slain three groups of Kho’rabi. He spoke openly of the elementals harnessed to the Sky Lords’ purpose, and it came to me that not everyone saw the ethereal creatures so clearly as did I. It was Cuentin’s opinion that the blood gift that made him a sorcerer and me a Mnemonikos also granted us the ability to perceive the aerial spirits more readily. I wondered if that same blood rendered us more aware of the subtle currents flowing through our world, of the existence of societies within societies. That thought I kept to myself.

  I rode once with him and Tevach after word came of a sighting, and I saw the Kho’rabi slain with the same efficiency as Krystin’s band had demonstrated. I once more witnessed the liberation of the elementals, and it was as strange and disquieting an experience as before. I asked Cuentin his opinion of such magic and got back no more answers than before.

  “It lies beyond my ken,” he told me. “Their sorcery takes a weirdling path. And the God knows, do they bring it to full strength”—his lips curved in sour approximation of a smile—“then we shall see the Great Coming, and Dharbek fight for her life.”

  To hear this voiced by one usu
ally so sanguine was somehow more alarming than those predictions issued by folk of more saturnine disposition. I said, “And what of you sorcerers?”

  I realized we had begun to speak in terms of conclusion, not supposition. It was an ugly realization.

  Cuentin shrugged wearily. “Shall we be enough?” he asked. “The God knows, the sorcerous talent is hardly commonplace. The College is already depleted to strengthen the Sentinels; all Dharbek’s scoured for initiates—with not much success. Do the Sky Lords come in force …”

  He shrugged again, letting the sentence tail away like the filthy smoke rising from the pyre. I chose then to take a chance: the moment, and the direction of our conversation, were opportune. I asked him, “What of the Border Cities? Might sorcerers not come from those?”

  He answered me without, I felt, forethought. “And leave the Slammerkin undefended? Unwise, my friend.” Then he broke off, his dark eyes suddenly enigmatic. I could not tell if I had caught him off guard. “There are fewer of us to man the Border Cities now, scarce enough to ward all Dharbek. And as we know naught of the land beyond … What if the Sky Lords grounded across the Slammerkin? What if they established themselves in Ur-Dharbek? We might then face landward invasion from the north, besides the aerial attack. No, better hold the Border Cities manned against that danger than risk the Kho’rabi coming over the Slammerkin.”

  It was a sound argument, the logic irrefutable. Perhaps—even likely—it was sincere, but for an instant I had thought to see something in his eyes, on his face, that hinted at secrets, at knowledge held back. I was tempted to say something of the wild Changed; I thought better of it.

  If Cuentin guessed I had sought to probe, he gave no sign, and Tevach approached us then to announce his grisly work completed. We mounted our horses and rode away, my curiosity still unsatisfied.

  It continued thus as I progressed southward. I was given ready welcome wherever I halted, and with my sturdy (if still ill-tempered) mare to carry me, I was able to meander between the populous coastal plain and the wilder hinterland much at will. The common folk were not much informed of events in the wider world, nor much interested. They went about their lives as usual, the little airboats considered a nuisance rather than a threat. They had become a thing accommodated into the daily round, much as were the cycles of the Sky Lords’ Comings—a matter for the Lord Protector and his lieutenants, the aeldors and the sorcerers. And as for those authorities—well, their attitude was not, I thought, very different. Engineers sent from Kherbryn appeared in the keeps, supervising the construction of the war-engines, and the aeldors appeared to feel such weapons should combine with the powers of their sorcerers to defeat any attack. I encountered no other sorcerers so open as Cuentin, nor so voluble, and if they—like him—thought the war-engines insufficient to their purpose, they kept that belief from me. As Sastaine came and went, I found no more answers, only more questions.

  And one in particular that set my conscience an agonizing dilemma.

  I had passed several days in Thornbar, some way inland from the coast. It was a town built around a hill, the entire foot ringed with a high palisade, the houses climbing higgledy-piggledy up the slope to break against the stone wall of the keep. That sat atop the apex of the hill like some vast monument. From my chamber I could look out over the town to the distant valley sides. It was, I thought, an eagle’s view.

  I left with my saddlebags stocked well by the aeldor Morfus and the gray mare plumper for the abundance of good oats she had been eating of late. We were both somewhat overfed, and I thought to pare us down a little with more arduous rural wandering. I struck out to the east. There were villages and hamlets in the back country that were seldom visited, isolated places virtually forgotten, even by we Storymen.

  The valley holding Thornbar was wide and steep-walled, and I had lingered over my departure. Consequently dusk caught us climbing the east slope. This was densely wooded, the trail a narrow path of hard-packed dirt flanked by ancient oaks. The night was moonless, and I’d no wish to find myself knocked from the saddle by an unseen branch, that being an occasional device of my faithless steed. I decided that the first decent resting place should be our halt for the night.

  Toward the crest I found a suitable spot. The trees thinned here, allowing grass to grow, and I heard water sounds nearby. I dismounted and led the mare off the trail. There was an open space where a spring bubbled up from a rocky fountain, babbling away into the darkness across a tiny mountain meadow. I let the mare drink and set a hobble on her forelegs. I rubbed her down (I yet hoped such attentions might sweeten her temper) and doled her out some oats. She gobbled them, protesting when I would give her no more, and then grumpily set to cropping grass. I spread my blanket and moved into the trees in search of dry wood for my fire. I had an armful of branches when I saw the light.

  It came from the south, where the valley wall was broken by a shallow cleft. It was not much distance off, and I saw that it should be hidden from Thornbar by the folding terrain. I wondered what it presaged. Perhaps some other travelers; if so, a sizable group, for it was a big fire. I felt no great need or desire for company, but curiosity prompted me to set down my burden and make my way through the trees to discover who lit the blaze. It occurred to me that brigands were not unknown in these parts, and therefore I approached cautiously. I thought that if it were bandits, I would regain my horse and return to Thornbar with word. If it proved no more than some merchant’s caravan, I would, from sense of duty, make myself known and regale them with a tale or two.

  It was neither, but still it was as well I came thieflike.

  I could see the fire clearly through the oaks, growing ever larger as I drew nearer. Sparks climbed the sky in fiery echo of the stars. I saw the ground break up before me, forming a rocky bowl, at the bottom of which the blaze was built. Light reflected off the stone, and I counted four figures, which was not many for so large a conflagration. I could see no horses. I halted on the edge of the timber, hugging the shadows. I cursed myself for leaving my staff. I dropped onto my belly and crawled to the rim of the bowl. Boulders and trees hid me as I peered down. I stifled a gasp of surprise as I realized the figures below were not Truemen, neither honest merchants nor ill-purposed outlaws, but Changed. I frowned, wondering what they did, building such a blaze here, and from where they had come. I could think only that they were indentured to Thornbar, to the keep or the town, and had slipped away. For what purpose, I had not the least idea. Perhaps some secret ceremony known only to their kind? I knew from Urt that the Changed met away from the eyes of men, that there were rituals they performed in private—marriages and the like—but not of any that would bring four Changed into the hills by night to build a fire.

  Then something turned my gaze skyward. Perhaps it was some sixth sense; perhaps some shifting of the air, a pressure so subtle as to be felt only by instinct. I know only that I looked up and saw an airboat descending. Almost, I rose and fled. Certainly I felt sweat burst hot on my brow, and then immediately cool so that I shivered. I tensed, a hand clamping about a gnarled root. I swallowed, willing my body to blend with the ground, with the shadows. The Kho’rabi wizards were able to sense the presence of magic, that I knew. Could they also sense me? I think that had the airboat not been so close, I should have taken to my heels. But it was, and I knew that if I fled now, the Sky Lords must surely see me and pursue me; and slay me. For a moment I was a child again, returned to the beach of Whitefish village: I longed to void my bowels. Those, too, I willed to silence and stillness.

  The skyboat came from the east, silent as a hunting owl. The fire’s glow lit its underside. I thought of burning blood. I could see very clearly the elementals that sported about the craft. They seemed better defined in the fire’s light. I counted faces in the black basket hung beneath: ten, as before, lit ruddy. I watched the boat come down to hover awhile. It was on a level then with my position, and I thought—I knew!—the Kho’rabi looked directly at me. I held my breath. I soug
ht to make myself one with the rock, a shadow amongst shadows. I closed my eyes an instant, and when they opened, I saw the vessel sink, close by the fire. The basket touched ground, and the occupants sprang clear. The Kho’rabi wizard raised his hands, chanting in that odd, almost-understandable language. Then he joined the others, who faced the four Changed.

  They spoke together.

  It was a while before that sank in. I huddled, watching them, listening. The fire—a guiding beacon, I realized—lit them clear, and the stone bowl magnified their speech. I heard the Kho’rabi speak and the Changed respond, but long moments passed before that fact registered on my bewildered senses. I could not decipher what they said, and it seemed they had some difficulty, as if one side or the other spoke a learned tongue. But converse they did, which was another oddity in this night of amazements.

  They seemed not quite friendly, somewhat wary of one another, but nonetheless it was obvious an alliance existed here. I watched as the Changed prepared food and all sat down to eat; and after, the Changed brought out sacks that were stowed on board the airboat. I had no sense of time’s passing, nor was I any longer aware of my fear. It remained with me, but it was dulled, pressed down into unimportance under the tremendous weight of my curiosity. What I witnessed was unprecedented. I prayed to the God I doubted that I might live to tell the tale.

  I heard a wolf howl far away across the hills, the call answered by another that was closer. I heard an owl. Indeed, for some time the bird perched close by, studying me as if uncertain whether I was a living man or carrion. After a while it launched itself, swooping across the bowl. The Kho’rabi were on their feet at that, for all the bird’s passage was almost soundless. Those black-armored warriors, however, came upright on the instant, and I saw that three held nocked bows of dark, lacquered wood. I felt my heart thunder then, watching their eyes scan the slopes. I thought that if they chose to investigate, I would run. Perhaps in the darkness amongst the trees they would miss me. A pessimistic voice whispered in my ear, telling me I was a fool, that the time to flee was long gone, and were I spotted only death awaited. I farced myself to breathe evenly and did not move. The Kho’rabi wizard said something, answered by one of the Changed, and the bowmen eased their strings and settled back by the fire. The shadows filled, thickening, as the night grew older. I felt my muscles stiffen. The ground felt cold.