A Shout for the Dead

by James Barclay

  'How's Cygalius?' he asked.

  Hesther shook her head and put a hand over her mouth. The scene replayed in front of her eyes and she felt physically sick.

  'I don't know,' she said, swallowing back a sob. 'It all happened so fast.'

  And so it had. The act of what she had thought was mercy for a poor man having a heart attack in the basilica. The deliberate attack. The fists, the feet and the knives. All so fast that the guards could not save Cygalius from massive injuries. The shouting and the roaring in her ears as she tried to drag people away. The thundering of feet as palace soldiers had flooded the basilica. The dust that had sprung up in the courtyard and funnelled around the fountain. Running feet. Pursuit. Choking sounds. All on such a perfect genasrise day. All from nothing but hideously premeditated. The satisfied sneer on Felice Koroyan's face.

  'Where did they all come from?' demanded Arducius.

  'Where they always come from,' snapped Hesther. 'It was a petition day. The Hill is full of citizens. It's open. She, that bitch, she used it.'

  They reached the Chancellery and Hesther saw Ossacer was already in there. His face was white but his blind eyes swam with complex colours. There was a sheen of sweat on his brow and he knelt beside poor Cygahus, waving the guards back.

  'Hot water and clean linen,' he said. He laid his hands on the boy. 'Dear God-surround-me, what have I done?'

  Hesther frowned but ignored the words. So much was said in confusion that made no sense. Instead, she looked at Cygalius. Just seventeen. Just trying to do his best and use his skills to save a dying man. And now look at him. His Ascendancy toga was dark with his blood. His face was battered. His nose, mouth and ears all bled. There was more running down from his scalp under his beautiful brown hair.

  'Do you need me, Ossie?' asked Arducius.

  Ossacer nodded. 'I'll need everything I can get. He's a mess. Eight stab wounds. Skull fracture, broken ribs and jaw. Compressed cheek fracture. Bruising everywhere. Omniscient save us but it was animals did this.'

  'No, just the Chancellor's lackeys,' said Hesther. 'Like I said,' said Ossacer. 'What a fool I am. What a fool.' Under his hands, Cygalius moaned. Blood ran anew from his shattered mouth.

  'Shh,' said Arducius. 'Calm.'

  He placed his hands on the boy too and at once, his body relaxed. 'Thanks,' said Ossacer. 'I'll need your stamina to save him, though.' 'Can you do it?' asked Arducius.

  Ossacer looked at him and the expression on his face was guilt and fear. 'I have to. This is all my fault.'

  'Don't be stupid,' said Arducius. 'Just do everything you can. Tell me what you want of me.'

  'All right,' said Ossacer. 'First we have to stop all the internal bleeding.'

  Hesther couldn't watch. She walked over to a window and looked out across the courtyard to the basilica. Calm was beginning to descend on the scene. The basilica itself was all but clear though she could see some people moving about in it. The Leader of the Estorean Senate,

  Lorim Aurelius was standing on the steps surrounded by guards. He had been taking petitions in the Advocate's stead. An old but strong and competent administrator, he was shaking like a leaf.

  Down in the courtyard and around the fountain, hundreds of palace guard were herding a still angry mob out of the Victory Gates to where thousands more were standing, waving flags, banners and shouting chants. Marcus Gesteris walked with the soldiers, lending his considerable presence and authority to the evacuation. Marshal General Elise Kastenas was with him. Both had been in the basilica answering questions on the invasion, calming fears that had risen with the lighting of beacons across the Conquord and visible to Estorr's citizens.

  The orchestrated demonstration, attack and subsequent semi-riot had been planned terribly well. None of them had seen it coming. Crowds walking under the Omniscient banner had been patrolling the streets for days now. No Ascendant had been allowed to leave the gates. The Chancellor had worked hard on the rumours and intelligence reaching the city and had whipped a good part of the citizenry, mainly the poor and the dispossessed, into an effective disruptive force.

  But they had stayed away from the Hill. Until today, that was.

  Today had been well chosen. Petitions without the Advocate. So much of the senior government absent. And it had been so easy to plant murderous, violent elements in the basilica. Indeed it seemed to Hesther that most of the audience had been given specific roles. She wanted to look in the eyes of the man who had staged the fake heart (attack. She wanted him to see what he had done. '

  A bitter taste rose in her throat. There was the Chancellor. Standing by Aurelius and shaking her head as if .she too could not believe the scenes that had so recently overtaken the Estorean seat of government. She was talking with the senator. Her arms were moving and her hands gesturing. More than once, she pointed to the Chancellery.

  Hesther became aware that people were chanting the Chancellor's name. They had stopped moving toward the Victory Gates on seeing her emerge from the basilica. There was even a move back against the press of guardsmen. The atmosphere changed. From angry pointing to fevered excitement.

  The Chancellor held up her hands and the crowd fell silent. There was pushing and shoving as people struggled to hear what she was saying. Hesther looked quickly at her window. It was sealed and the distance was too great for Koroyan's words to be carried in. Hesther wasn't sure she wanted to hear the lies anyway.

  'Treacherous bitch,' she said. 'Someone needs to get to Aurelius. Tell him what really happened.'

  'What really happened?' asked Arducius.

  Hesther turned from the window briefly. He was watching her. Ossacer was working. One hand was on Arducius's head, the other feeding his healing genius into Cygalius's broken body.

  'She tricked us, Ardu. She arranged the whole thing. She wanted a victim and she knew how to get one. Anything you like, she hoped it was Ossacer who came to help but Cygalius certainly didn't disappoint her.'

  'You think she would do that? Even her?'

  'There is nothing of which she is incapable. Just ask Orin D'Allinnius. God-embrace-me, just trawl your own memories of Westfallen. You think it's coincidence this happened while the Advocate was away?'

  Arducius shook his head. 'Not really. But even so, the mood of the city has been angry ever since first reports came from Atreska and Gestern about the invasion. Lit beacons and battle flags make for scared citizens.'

  'Yes, and she's brilliant at harnessing high feelings and bending them to her own ends. The fear of the Omniscient's wrath on them all is far more powerful than the Advocate's potential retribution on any individuals.'

  'Even so, this is a Tsardon invasion. And you'd think with news of Gorian leaking out, they'd want us to help, not hound us and beat us.'

  'You'd think,' said Hesther. 'But you'd be naive if you did. Sometimes I wonder if you ever listened to what Herine said about the Chancellor. Or to me. She doesn't have reason and logic, she has religion. And she is frightened of losing her power to you. Wake up, Ardu. This is only the beginning.'

  'Can you keep it down?' said Ossacer. it's hard enough without you two chattering on.'

  'How is he?' asked Hesther.

  'With time, I think I can save him.'

  Hesther looked back to the window and her relief fell flat.

  'Be as quick as you can, Ossie. We've got visitors coming.' 'It's her, isn't it?' he said.

  'Who else?' Hesther shook her head. 'Who else?'

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  859th cycle of God, 37th day of Genasrise

  The chanting continued unabated. Though the Victory Gates were closed and the whole palace complex was ringed, inside and out, by Ascendancy and palace guard, the crowd had thickened, not dispersed. Koroyan had what she wanted. The ear of the Senate and the will of the citizenry.

  'You can hear what they're shouting, can't you?' said Arducius. 'How has this got out?'

  Ossacer looked at his feet. He was exhausted but his heart clamoured for at
tention and would give him no peace. He thought he might have saved Cygalius but it was really too soon to tell. And if the boy died, the blame would sit squarely with him. He, Arducius and Hesther were sitting with the other four emerged Ascendants of the tenth strand. All seventeen and all very scared. They were in the Chancellery, which had been cleaned of blood. Cygalius was in the care of the surgeons now and safe from further harm.

  Felice Koroyan and Senate leader Aurelius were having a heated discussion in a chamber just inside the main doors of the Academy. Soldiers of the Armour of God had arrived to ensure her safety and were outside in the courtyard. Arducius reckoned them more likely to be jailers than personal guards.

  'I told her,' whispered Ossacer. 'I told her because you wouldn't listen to me and I had to stop you preaching violence.'

  He didn't need to use the trails to know that they were all staring at him. He could feel the weight of their anger and their surprise like multiple slaps in the face. He didn't expect them to understand or sympathise at this stage but they had to know nonetheless.

  'You idiot,' breathed Arducius eventually. 'What possessed you?'

  Ossacer looked up and let Arducius's outline trace in the brightness of the room. Unfocused blobs of yellow and red around his brother represented other people. But Arducius had gone that horrible calm pulsing deep green he always did when he was beyond furious and had reached a detached calm the other side.

  'I wanted her to know that we weren't all evil like Gorian. That we would be a force for good. We all know there has to be death in war but if we deal it out, it just gives her ammunition to beat us with later.'

  'Unlike what you've done now, of course,' said Arducius. 'I don't believe this. I might wish to see the best in everyone, even her, but I wouldn't go to her and bleat out our plans. You had no business, no right.'

  'Neither did you, agreeing that we should be used as battlefield weapons.'

  A tinge of red had entered Ardu's map now. 'I will not go over this again. I will not remind you what Marshal Vasselis said to you and later to me. I love you for your morals and your principles but I hate you for what you have done to us now. You have betrayed us to Koroyan.'

  Ossacer started and began to protest.

  'Well, what would you call it?' said Hesther, her voice full of fire. 'You might as well have given her the key to the Chancellery again and a knife with which to kill us all.'

  'What exactly did you tell her?' asked Arducius. 'And don't leave out a single detail.'

  Ossacer told them all. He tried to apologise but he could see the lack of forgiveness in the maps of all six of them. He couldn't really blame them. He wanted to tell them he knew how stupid he had been, how acting in frustration and anger had been wrong but it would have done no good. He had acted like a petulant child and brought the house down on top of them all.

  Arducius's voice remained quiet and under control. Ossacer shuddered as he spoke.

  'You told her Gorian could animate the dead, her Omniscient dead, and expected her to react rationally? You told her we were planning to burn and blow up our enemies, and hence her Omniscient dead, and expected her to understand and provide you with her religious support?' Arducius shook his head and put a hand over his mouth. 'I am lost for words to describe your stupidity.'

  'I know ...'

  'Cygalius is—' began another of the Ascendants.

  'I know!' shouted Ossacer. 'Mina, I know. I only wanted us to act in peace and I have brought down violence instead. Believe me, nothing you can say will make me feel any worse. I will go out and face her.'

  'Oh, Ossacer, you don't understand,' said Hesther. 'Cygalius was just a sideshow for Koroyan. She was there to denounce you. She had a petition, and what she wanted more than that was a live example of an Ascendant trying to bring back from the rightful embrace of God, one whose time had come.'

  'But it wasn't—'

  'Dammit, Ossacer, it doesn't matter what it was or wasn't!' Hesther slammed her hand down on the arm of her chair and stood up. Her map was flaring. She might have been old but her energy was still that of a much younger woman. 'She had a room full of her faithful and proved what she believes to be an act of heresy right there in front of them. It doesn't even matter that the man was faking. The point is, Cygalius was ready to save him, using means that she deems against the Omniscient.'

  Ossacer shrugged. 'I taught him. I will face the charge.'

  'Ossie, you are missing the point,' said Arducius. 'That was a way in.'

  He broke off. There were footsteps approaching the Chancellery. Guards opened the door and Aurelius entered. Koroyan had chosen not to accompany him. It was a tiny mercy. Everyone rose to their feet but Aurelius waved them back down with a weary hand and sat himself on a high-backed chair. He had a piece of parchment and he held it up.

  'I can't deny this,' he said. 'It is put together exactly as the law allows and has been presented in public forum with the requisite number of signatures of the citizenry.'

  'What is it?' asked Arducius, though the tone of his voice suggested he already knew.

  'I had better read it to you,' said Aurelius. 'It concerns you all and the entire Academy.'

  Ossacer put his head in his hands. Finally, he thought he understood. Though it was worse even than his new-found comprehension had suggested.

  '"I, Felice Koroyan, Chancellor of the Order of Omniscience and speaker of the faithful citizenry of the Conquord do hereby accuse the under-named, whom I shall group as the Ascendants, of heresy against the Omniscient in two principal counts. In that of using means granted only to God to prolong life that God has deemed complete. And in that of planning to use fire and explosion to destroy innocent citizens of the Conquord on the battlefield, so ending their cycles forever.

  '"Furthermore, I accuse the organisation known as the Ascendancy Academy, formerly, the Ascendancy Echelon, of allowing to be born and nurtured, one who would wrest from death those of the faithful rightly gone to the embrace of God, and use them for purposes other than those which God allows. This too, is a heresy against the Omniscient.

  '"Furthermore, on proving the above cases, and securing verdicts and punishments commensurate with the crimes, I further accuse the Advocate, Herine Del Aglios, of dereliction of her appointed duty as divine representative of the Omniscient on this earth. The proving of the former condemns the Advocate to guilt in this matter. I will thereupon issue orders for her removal from the office of the Advocacy whenceforth she too will stand trial for heresy.

  '"We, the undersigned, do hereby give notice of this intent under the laws of the Omniscient and demand proceedings are begun immediately."

  'The list of names is there for you all to read if you have a mind.' Aurelius sighed. 'She further moves that your trial is for the good of the people and cites today's disturbances as reason for your immediate detention in the cells. I refused that demand but I cannot refuse any others. You may all consider yourselves under arrest. No one leaves this building. I am sorry.'

  'This is preposterous,' said Ossacer. 'She can't do this. The Advocate will not allow her to get away with it.'

  'Ossacer, the Advocate is not here. She is not due back until the forty-sixth genasrise. That's nine days from now.' Aurelius shrugged. 'And in matters of heresy, trials are held at the eatliest instance. You have until dawn on the fortieth, three days from now, to prepare your defence. I will make anyone available to you that you think you need.'

  'But she can't,' continued Ossacer, feeling his panic rising, threatening to overwhelm him. He coughed and sensed the sickness within it. 'Surely the Advocate is a witness for us.'

  'You're the one so proud of living by the rules. Well, now we're all going to have to suffer that with you.' Arducius's words held painful venom. 'Senator Aurelius is the Advocate in the eyes of the law because she has placed him in that position for matters not able to await her return. Like this one. So congratulations. In a few days's time, you might not only have managed to get us all put to deat
h, you might also have managed to remove the most successful dynasty the Conquord has seen at the time it can least afford to lose it.

  'With friends like you, eh, Ossie? Gorian will be delighted that you have removed us from his path.'

  Arducius got up and strode out of the room.

  'I'm sorry,' said Ossacer.

  'Sorry gets us nowhere just now,' said Hesther. 'And while you may not be able to burn, I most certainly can and I do not intend to. So let's get to work. We have no Advocate, no Jhered, no Vasselis. Barely any allies at all. Get thinking, Ossacer, and I will calm down Arducius for you.' Hesther came and sat by him, put an arm around his shoulder.

  'You only acted for the good of the Ascendancy because that's the way you always act,' she said. 'And Ardu will come to see that. But if we get out of this one, and I have little confidence that we will, you are going to have to start seeing what the world is really like. Man cannot live by high morals alone.'

  They all left him alone after that; Hesther, Aurelius and the young Ascendants. Left him to ponder and find a dark corner of his mind in which to dwell.

  'Do you believe it, Mother? All this about the Tsardon, the dead and Gorian Westfallen?'

  The carriage rattled along the road around Solastro Lake on its way to its namesake port, and a boat south and east along the River Solas. Rain had arrived as it often did in this lush green land surrounded by mountains.

  Herine Del Aglios had had little sleep. Messages had been reaching the palace. Little more than rumour really but beacon fires had been lit, flags were flying atop watch towers on high peaks and the Conquord, such as it remained, was in a state of agitation. It was amazing how fast rumours spread. Birds flew, people shouted to each other across valleys, horses galloped until they dropped, and there was the delightful desire of the common citizen to be the first to pass on news to as many as he could.

  It meant that little trust could be placed in the words that finally reached her ears. Unless, that is, you had prior knowledge. There was talk of walking dead and of Ascendant treachery. The latter no doubt a lie peddled by the Chancellor but backed by unfortunate truth. Goslanders had reported the movement of a Tsardon force towards their border.