She broke off, laughing.
Pleonim’s lip trembled, but he remained quiet.
‘Here’s the deal,’ Killop said. ‘You have my word that the Severed Clan will not initiate hostilities against the Old Free, but if you invade Slateford, we will destroy you.’
Pleonim nodded.
‘You can call it a truce if you want,’ Killop went on, ‘and you can go back and tell Douanna that, but don’t mistake it for friendliness on our part. The enslavers of our folk are not easily forgiven.’
‘I accept your terms on behalf of the new government,’ Pleonim said, standing. ‘Laodoc once told me that tolerance is learning how to live next to someone you hate, without resorting to bloodshed. If you happen to see him, please tell him that he still has my respect, and it’s not too late for him to return to the right path.’
‘I’ll be sure to pass it on,’ Bridget said, ‘should Laodoc wander by.’
Pleonim smiled.
‘Come, Ruellap…’
The younger man shrugged free of Pleonim’s hand, and strode over to where Bridget and Killop were getting to their feet.
‘What would it take for you to leave?’ he cried. ‘For every Kellach Brigdomin in Slateford to pack up and go home?’
‘We are home,’ Killop said.
‘No!’ Ruellap shouted. Several guards in the room tensed. ‘This is not your home. Go back where you belong.’
Killop squared up to him.
‘Your armies obliterated my home,’ he said, his eyes dark. ‘I watched them do it. This scrap of land is the least of what you owe us, and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take it from us by force.’
Pleonim put a hand on Ruellap’s shoulder. ‘Leave it.’
Ruellap bowed his head.
‘Go back to Douanna,’ Killop said. ‘Tell her we have a truce.’
He stared at the Rahain.
‘And tell her I haven’t forgotten Simiona.’
Chapter 25
The First Cracks
Plateau City, The Plateau – 15th Day, First Third Winter 506
Shella was in bed, dreaming of deep-fried lobster claws served with a mouth-scaldingly spicy sauce when the earthquake struck.
The tremor began as a low grinding, then the ground jolted up, seemed to hover for a second, before crashing back down in a violence of juddering and shaking.
Shella screamed as she was thrown out of bed. A lump of ceiling plaster fell and hit the floor, disintegrating into a white cloud of thick dust. The lamp on the table rolled onto the carpet, setting it alight. Pictures fell from the walls, their glass shattering.
It ended. Shella lay still, her eyes wide in frozen terror. Benel leapt up naked from the floor where he had fallen and stamped out the rug fire with a boot on the end of his arm. Screams and pealing bells came through the broken window, and the room was lit by the low glow of fires burning in the city. Shella pulled herself to her knees, and staggered to the door.
‘Thymo!’ she yelled, pulling open the door to her living room. It was in darkness. She stumbled to the dresser and lit a lamp, her hands shaking. Kalayne came out of his room, a night-robe wrapped around him.
He frowned. ‘That was unnatural.’
She ignored him, and ran for the study. She opened the door, and went in, taking the lamp with her. The little room was in chaos. Bookshelves had upended and toppled their contents to the floor, and half the ceiling had come down, revealing a jagged crack to the attic above. She pushed broken shelves out of her way, and reached the bed.
Empty. She bent over and gazed underneath. Thymo was lying there, curled up and staring at her, his eyes wild.
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘It’s over, we’re all okay.’
She reached out and took his hand in hers. ‘Come on.’
He crept out from under the bed, and she led him into the living room just as someone banged on her door.
She checked that Benel and Kalayne were out of sight and answered it. ‘Daly,’ she said, opening the door. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes, your Highness, you?’
‘We’re fine. Do we need to evacuate the building?’
‘No, your Highness,’ he said. ‘It’s safer to stay indoors. There’s a lot of debris falling in the streets.’
‘Any casualties? Is my brother okay?’
‘A few staff have cuts and bruises, nothing life-threatening,’ he said. ‘Prince Sami is shaken but otherwise in fine health. There are several fires in the city, and I would expect there to have been some fatalities.’
Shella nodded. ‘Send out some of the uninjured staff to see if our neighbours in the street need any assistance. Everyone else should stay put.’
He bowed. ‘Yes, your Highness. Do you require cleaners or anything urgently repaired?’
‘Nothing that can’t wait until morning,’ she said. ‘We’ll be fine. See to those who need help the most.’
He bowed again, lower. ‘Your Highness.’
She closed the door and bolted it.
‘You can come out.’
Benel emerged from her bedroom, fully dressed.
‘You should take a look out of the window,’ he said.
Kalayne joined them. ‘My room has the best view.’
They went into the old Kell’s room. The window had survived intact, and was wedged open with a coat hanger. They squeezed past his bed, and gazed out at the city, Shella clutching onto Thymo’s shoulder.
The night sky was lit up by flames, all coming from the north-eastern quarter of the city, several hundred yards from the area where the Rakanese Embassy lay.
‘That’s where the cathedral is,’ Benel said.
‘Half the population of the city are on the streets,’ Shella said, ‘along with several thousand roof tiles.’
‘What happened?’ Thymo said.
‘An earthquake,’ Shella said. ‘I didn’t think this area was prone to them.’
‘It’s not,’ Kalayne said. ‘Did you not hear what I said? That wasn’t natural.’
‘Rahain mages?’
‘Maybe the ones imprisoned in the institute rebelled,’ Benel said.
‘I thought you said they were kept in wooden boxes?’
‘I managed to escape.’
‘The more reason to increase security, I’d have thought.’
‘Quiet, you two,’ Kalayne said. ‘I’m trying to listen.’
‘What for?’
Kalayne sighed. ‘When I vision-range in my dreams I can discern a faint vibration whenever mage powers are used. Over decades I have learned to distinguish between the five main strands of magery, and their subtly different frequencies.’
‘Well?’ Benel asked. ‘Can you sense if Rahain powers were used? Did they cause the earthquake?’
Kalayne shook his head as he stared out of the window, his face illuminated in the flickering glow.
‘I have never detected anything like this before,’ he said. He turned to them, his eyes bulging. ‘It’s a blend of all five powers, so far as I can tell. Every mage power has been used tonight.’
‘The institute?’ Shella said.
‘Where else?’ said Kalayne. ‘It has begun.’
The following morning, Shella took a light escort and walked out into the streets. A layer of dust and debris littered the road and the pavements, and she stepped over fragments of roof tiles and shattered window panes as they made their way towards the palace.
Cleaners were sweeping up the roads, filling the backs of large horse-drawn carts. Their eyes were fearful.
Shella raised an eyebrow at Jodie, who was walking next to her.
‘Apparently, your Highness,’ she said, ‘a lot of people believed the fire mage was attacking the city last night. They mistook the earthquake for catapult strikes, and thought the assault had begun. More than a few shops were looted before church wardens could restore order.’
‘The Sanang are still over a third away,’ Shella said, shaking her head. ‘If the populace are this j
umpy already, the city is fucked.’
‘Your Highness,’ a passing noblewoman curtsied. ‘Shocking, all this, isn’t it?’
‘A good test of the city’s preparedness,’ Shella said, a faint smile on her lips. ‘The last time I was in an earthquake, a fire mage arrived ten days later and incinerated my entire city in an inferno. The very same fire mage that now approaches us, I believe.’
The noblewoman’s mouth hung open. ‘Do you think the same thing will happen here?’
‘Can you think of any reason why it won’t?’
The woman stammered, then performed an awkward curtsy and hurried down the street away from Shella and her small entourage.
‘Was that wise, your Highness?’ Jodie said. ‘Inflaming their fears?’
‘They need to realise what’s coming,’ Shella said. ‘A handful of people are alive who saw what Keira did to Akhanawarah City, and I’m one of them. Sami’s the only other one in the city apart from Jayki and me, and he’s not exactly in a fit state to warn anyone.’
Jodie fell silent. They turned a corner, and began heading north, along a main road away from the palace and towards the cathedral quarter. Traffic was busy, and they had to wait while a convoy of workers on the backs of wagons trundled by, heading towards the damaged neighbourhoods.
‘Should we make preparations to leave the city?’ Jodie whispered as they resumed their way.
‘It’s our job to stay,’ Shella said. ‘We leave when the embassy is overrun with hairy ape-men from the west.’ She raised her right hand. ‘If that happens, remember to stick close to me.’
Jodie gulped, then her eyes narrowed.
‘Stop worrying,’ Shella said. ‘I’ve been practising. My mage powers are ready if need be.’
‘If I may ask, your Highness,’ Jodie said, ‘what have you been practising on?’
‘Rats, mostly.’
Jodie nodded, while failing to hide a grimace.
The scale of the damage increased as they neared the square where the great cathedral sat, half-complete. The houses and shops that lined the road showed signs of subsidence, with cracks running down the height of several blocks, from the tile-stripped roofs to the buckled and broken pavement slabs.
People were gazing up at the damaged buildings, while a squad of Kellach labourers were loading the backs of wagons with the charred remains of a block of houses that had burned to the ground. Corpses were being brought out of the collapsed ruins of the tenement by the entrance to Cathedral Square. Shella had to stop walking, as the road ahead was crammed with people. Jayki began to push his way through, and Shella followed.
‘No further,’ shouted a warden from the One True Path as they reached a line of shields and batons, blocking the way into the square.
‘This area is out of bounds for all citizens,’ the warden cried.
Shella looked around. There was an uneasy gap of about a yard between the swaying crowd, and the four-deep line of wardens. Beyond them, Shella could see nothing of what was happening in the square, although plumes of rising smoke were visible over the wardens’ heads.
She jostled her way towards the nearest warden. ‘I need to speak to the Lord Vicar.’
The warden raised his baton and prepared to strike her. Jayki pushed in front, and as he was putting up his arm to protect her, received a blow to his shoulder. Other wardens lashed out, and Jayki was struck on his back and head.
‘Get away from him,’ Jodie yelled, as he went down.
The crowd roared in anger, and Shella pulled Jayki away as other skirmishes broke out. He groaned as they laid him on the cobbles, the other guards in her entourage forming a tight circle around them as the mob pushed the wardens back.
‘Jayki,’ Shella cried. ‘You stupid bastard, what the fuck were you doing?’
She checked his injuries. The left side of his head was covered in blood from a cut above his ear, and his eyes were closed.
The sound of horses’ hooves rang through the square, but Shella took no notice. She felt a rage within her, and stood. She scanned the street and raised her hand.
She focussed on a warden that was beating a man lying curled up on the ground. As she was about to strike, a troop of horses charged through the crowd, and they parted amid screams. As the flanks peeled off to either side, the central column stopped right before Shella, the lead horse rearing.
Shella stood her ground, her fists clenched.
‘Your Royal Eminence,’ said Arnault from the saddle of the horse. ‘I saw that you were in need of some assistance.’
He jumped off the horse, and the Lord Vicar’s cavalry formed a line across the street, clearing the square of civilians, and pushing them back, leaving Shella’s party isolated deep with the ranks of church wardens.
‘My humblest apologies that you were mixed up in this unpleasantness,’ he said.
‘This mayhem was caused by the One True Path,’ she cried. ‘They’re out of control.’
‘They’re under orders to prevent the public from approaching the cathedral, for their own safety.’
‘So it’s still unsafe?’ she said. ‘Whatever you were up to, it obviously didn’t work.’
Arnault stared at her, his expression growing colder, until she thought he might snap in fury.
‘The research at your institute,’ she went on. ‘I assume that was responsible for the events of last night? How else could an earthquake have occurred?’
His face steadied, but his eyes remained narrow.
‘Let’s talk somewhere more private,’ he said. He turned and signalled to a pair of officers, who wheeled their horses about to form an escort. He re-mounted his own horse, and held his hand out for Shella to join him.
‘I’d rather walk,’ she said.
He frowned, then kicked his heels, and his mount began to trot towards the cathedral complex.
‘Wait,’ she said. ‘I need some help.’ She pointed at Jayki, who was lying unconscious in Jodie’s arms.
Arnault smiled. ‘Of course.’ He glanced at his escorts. ‘Organise a stretcher for this man, have him seen by the company doctors.’
‘Yes, Lord Vicar,’ they saluted.
‘Now,’ he said to Shella, ‘if you and one other would like to accompany me, your Royal Eminence?’
Shella nodded at Jodie. They left Jayki in the care of her guards, and followed Arnault into the square.
Shella sipped her water and tried to calm her nerves. They were in a dark windowless room, deep within the cathedral complex, clustered on chairs around a small table. Arnault was silent, as if lost in thought, and Shella tried to keep her mind empty. She thought back to her dream of lobster claws, and Arnault frowned.
‘Excuse me, Lord Vicar,’ she said. ‘You’re not trying to read my mind, are you?’
Jodie gasped, and Arnault looked away, his handsome features twisted in anger.
‘I don’t like you,’ he said.
‘Oh boo hoo,’ she said. ‘Do you reckon you could turn my brain to mush before I stopped your heart? Would you like to find out?’
‘Cease the games,’ he hissed. ‘What do you know and what do you want?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said. ‘I’m merely here to enquire after the health of the four Rakanese citizens whom I left in your care.’
‘I’m not at liberty to disclose any information regarding the workings of the institute, or of its inhabitants.’
Shella snorted. ‘You’re the fucking Lord Vicar. You could tell me if you wanted to.’
Arnault shrugged. ‘But I don’t. What I really want to know, I guess, is what you will do if the Sanang arrive at the walls. I harbour some doubts regarding your loyalty to the empire.’
Shella frowned.
‘Do you really believe,’ he went on, ‘that the savages from the west would make better rulers of the world? Are you going to stand by as Keira, the murderer of your people, is proclaimed empress? Imagine the Sanang hordes loose in the streets of the city. Of
course, our rule hasn’t been perfect. We have failed at many things, but we are not like the wild barbarians that are on their way to attempt to destroy us.’
Shella took another sip of water, while Jodie sat in silence.
‘The catastrophe at the frontier wall,’ Arnault said, ‘has cost us dearly. Every family in the Holdings and Plateau City knows of someone who fell. The Kellach community here in the city may never recover from the grievous blow it suffered on Winter’s Day, and every regiment of the old alliance force that we’d withdrawn from Rahain was annihilated.’
He stared at her. ‘Where will you stand when Keira arrives?’
‘It depends,’ she said. ‘Where are the four mages?’
His eyes lit in anger. ‘Do you understand that I have the power to arrest you and hand you over to the institute? Do you think your royal status and diplomatic position will save you if the church has need of your skills?’
‘Try it.’
Arnault rose from his seat in fury.
Shella smirked. ‘You’re acting like a crazy man,’ she said. ‘One minute you’re threatening me, the next you’re begging for my help. Why don’t you sit down and have a drink? I’m sure you have a secret stash hidden away somewhere.’
Arnault sat, glowering and drumming his fingers on the table.
‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ he said. ‘You’re addicted to false pleasures of the flesh, intoxicating your mind and corrupting your soul. Rotting your very being from within. Deprived of them you’re like a cripple without a stick to help them walk.’
‘I always knew your charm was just a front,’ she said. ‘I prefer you like this, unhinged but honest. Now, tell me the state of the four Rakanese mages. Are they alive at least?’
Arnault said nothing, his face distracted as if pondering something.
‘You can go now,’ he said after a while.
Shella opened her mouth to say something, but Jodie pulled at her sleeve.
They rose, and Shella gave a brief nod to the Lord Vicar, who was continuing to stare at the table.
The Magelands Box Set Page 126
