‘Ye’ll forget him soon enough,’ she said. ‘Here, have some of this.’ She passed Dora the weedstick. ‘That’ll shut ye up for a while.’
The afternoon wind picked up as they sat in the corner of the tavern drinking, Flora matching her whisky for whisky. Dora was snoring, her head on the table, as the crowds began to gather to hear Keira speak.
‘What story have you got lined up for them?’ Flora slurred.
‘Fuck knows, hen,’ Keira said. ‘I’ve done the flying carriages to death, and the exploding heads.’
‘Maybe it’s time for something they’ve not heard before.’
‘Aye, or I could just make something up,’ she laughed, filling her whisky glass. ‘The stupid arseholes would never notice.’
Bay approached the table.
‘Hi, Mage,’ she said. ‘Is Dora all right? Is she drunk?’
‘She’s upset about Dean going,’ Flora said.
‘Aye?’ Bay said, sitting. ‘Was that today?’
‘Yeah,’ said Flora, ‘a few hours ago.’
Bay nudged Dora with her elbow, and the snoring ceased.
‘Never knew what she saw in him, to be honest,’ Bay said. ‘He always had his head in a book.’
Keira saw Kelpie over by the bar. The older woman nodded, signalling it was time for Keira to begin.
She banged her glass on the table. ‘Settle down, folks,’ she cried. ‘It’s time for a wee story.’
The crowd quietened, filling every table in the place.
Keira swallowed. Here we go again.
‘I want to tell ye about the time I was leading the Sanang army, and we were attacked by thousands of flying carriages, and…’
‘We’ve heard it a hundred times,’ shouted someone, amid a mummer of agreement.
‘Where’s the old Rahain guy?’ cried another voice.
‘Aye, we want to hear him speak!’
Keira scowled. ‘Well ye’ve got me today. The scaly old bastard’s fucked off, probably for good.’
The faces of the crowd looked disappointed.
‘All right,’ she said, ‘there was the time, back when I was in the alliance army, that we assaulted a gatehouse of the Rahain Capital…’
‘Heard it before,’ cried someone.
Kelpie was giving her worried glances as the crowd grew restless. Keira downed her whisky.
‘Ya bunch of ungrateful bastards,’ she said, refilling her glass. ‘Here’s one ye’ll have not heard before, I promise you that.’
She paused, for a second unsure, then drank her whisky and ploughed on.
‘It was after I had been captured by the Rahain. They kept me chained up, with a bag over my head. My brother was also a prisoner, and they showed him to me, then told me that they were going to kill him if I didn’t do what they said. Then they flew me off, wrapped in chains at the bottom of a flying carriage, with fifty crossbows pointed at my back.’
She took another drink, her head swimming. The crowd remained silent, waiting for her next words.
‘The carriage landed, and I was dragged outside. We were on top of a ridge, overlooking this city. It was weird, they’d told me I was going to see a refugee camp, but this place was built up, bigger than any town in Kell or Domm. Then they told me that everyone in the city was dead, poisoned by chemicals in the water, and all I had to do was burn it all up, purify the land with fire.
‘So I stood there, looking down at the city. It stank. The streets were covered in a thick layer of poisoned mud, but the folk there weren’t all dead. I saw hundreds of them, thousands, diseased and dying, staggering like walking corpses. There were piles of them heaped up on every corner, skeletal and rotten, children…’
She paused again. The tavern sat in absolute stillness, with every eye on her. Flora’s mouth was open.
‘The lizards ordered me to burn the city, and I told them to go fuck themselves, but they said they would kill Killop, and then me, and I looked down into the camp, and the folk there, they were already dying, already as good as dead, and all I was doing was ending their pain, and so I hardened my heart and did it.
‘I burned them,’ she said. ‘I burned an entire city of refugees.’
Some in the crowd stared at her, while many looked away. A few were weeping.
An old woman approached. She shook her head at Keira, spat on the ground in front of her, and walked out of the tavern. Others followed and before long the place was empty and quiet.
‘Was that true?’ said Bay, her eyes wide.
Keira nodded.
Bay stood up and walked away.
‘What the fuck were ye thinking, Keira?’ said Kelpie, marching over.
‘Just giving them what they wanted.’
‘Well if I hear that story again, yer out, understand?’
Keira watched her stride back to the bar, then turned to Flora.
‘It’s just you and me now, hen.’
Chapter 10
Babysitting
Holdings City, Holdings Republic – 13th Day, Last Third Summer 507
‘Come and fly, daddy,’ Karalyn whispered as he slept, and Killop felt his dreaming mind lift into the air and hover over the sleeping citizens of Holdings City. Around him whirled the consciousness of his daughter, laughing and spinning.
He looked down over the Lower City, the streetlamps marking out the main routes and landmarks. The university, the courts and market halls, and the great cavalry fortress, that used to house the garrison of imperial soldiers, and was now home to the army of the new regime. Across the river, the Upper City was bathed in shadow and darkness, with a few lamps marking the royal ramp and Holders Square, close to where he was sharing a room with Karalyn and Daphne. The twin clusters of palace and cathedral sat side by side atop the rocky summit, rivalling each other in bulk and height.
‘Let’s fly,’ urged Karalyn.
‘Shall we wait for mummy?’
‘Mummy not sleeping.’
Killop frowned.
‘All right, wee bear. Let’s fly.’
Karalyn squealed, and took off over the plains at lightning speed, dragging Killop with her. They sped west, crossing fields and plantations, and great herds of cattle.
The air pressure changed, and they slowed as a force began to pull them back the way they had come.
‘Daddy,’ Karalyn cried, as fear shot through him. ‘It’s alright, daddy.’
Their speed increased tenfold, and the land beneath became a blur. They crossed two rivers, then a patch of ocean, then travelled above the spine of a great mountain range running south-east for mile after mile. They slowed as they came out of the mountains, and Killop saw a mighty city lie before him, larger than anything he had believed possible. It stretched out for dozens of miles in each direction, and was criss-crossed by a vast network of canals. Large sections of the city lay unlit and abandoned, with a glow of lights coming only from the centre, where they were headed.
‘Do you know where we’re going, wee bear?’
Karalyn nodded. ‘The bad man.’
Killop frowned. It could only mean the Creator, and they were going in without Daphne.
They hurtled over the canals, and entered a tall brick-built structure. In a large hall a man was seated upon a throne, raised high above the gathered army officers and government officials, and Killop flinched as they passed through his eyes and into his mind.
Killop froze, trying not to breath or make a sound.
He opened his eyes, and saw that he was looking out from the point of view of the man on the throne.
Guilliam? Killop frowned. How was this happening?
‘Your Majesty,’ said the officer on his knees before the throne, ‘yesterday’s casualties from ill health and disease came to five hundred and sixty-two.’
‘An average day, then,’ the Emperor said. ‘Why are you even bringing this to my attention?’
‘But your Majesty, thousands more are sick, and the lack of sanitary conditions endured by the soldiers is sure to mean th
at more will die unnecessarily.’
‘I factored that in, you idiot,’ the Emperor snapped. ‘Why do you think I assembled such a large army? I knew that the feeble constitution of most Holdings soldiers wouldn’t stand up well in the fly-ridden swamps of Arakhanah. I took a guess that maybe half would perish from the conditions alone, and the numbers would seem to bear me out.’
‘Half, your Majesty?’ the officer said. ‘Such a toll.’
‘Soldiers die. Next.’
The officer got up from his knees, bowed, and backed away. An official took his place, kneeling before the Emperor.
‘I bring a message from Lord Chancellor Prior in the imperial capital, your Majesty,’ she said. ‘He advises that troops are required to enforce the blockade of the Old Realm. It appears that the rebel Holds have been successful in smuggling in more arms and supplies to bolster their illegitimate regime.’
‘Tell him no,’ the Emperor said. ‘I can’t spare any troops for him. Once Ghorley has finished recruiting my new army in Rahain, then he will be welcome to some, but until then, no.’
‘Yes, your Majesty. However, Lord Chancellor Prior requested that I inform you that he feels that the rebel Holds will be a formidable force militarily if the smuggling is allowed to continue.’
The Emperor snorted.
‘Tell Prior that he worries too much,’ he said. ‘Whatever rabble those rebel bastards are able to assemble will be swept aside once I have finished in Arakhanah. Next.’
The woman got to her feet.
As she was backing away, a soldier ran into the hall, making straight for the throne.
‘Your Majesty!’ he cried, shoving past the official who was next in line.
‘Speak,’ the Emperor said.
The soldier fell to his knees, his eyes cast downwards.
‘The captive Rakanese mages, your Majesty, they are dead.’
Killop felt a surge of rage ripple through the Emperor’s body. He pointed at the soldier, and his head evaporated in a cloud of red mist that covered everything within a five-yard radius. The body slumped to the floor.
The Emperor stood, and stormed down the steps. Guards ran to flank him as he marched from the hall and down a set of stairs to the lower levels of the building. Along the way, soldiers and Rakanese staff cowered out of his path, recoiling in terror.
He reached a large chamber, with barred cells down one side. Within each lay several dead Rakanese.
‘You!’ he shouted at an officer who was present. ‘What happened?’
The officer got down on her knees.
‘Your Majesty,’ she said, trembling, ‘they committed suicide, all at once. We couldn’t stop them.’
‘They were supposed to be chained and bagged,’ the Emperor raged. ‘Did I not give explicit orders?’
‘You did, your Majesty.’
‘And?’
‘The process of securing the captives was still under way when it began, your Majesty. Those unchained first killed the others, and then themselves.’
‘How long have they been dead?’
‘Ten minutes, maybe, your Majesty.’
The Emperor stared at her, then turned. ‘Open up the cells.’
He glanced back at the officer.
‘I shall require a considerable amount of energy for what I am about to do,’ he said, ‘and as this was your mistake, Captain, it seems only fair that you should be the one to pay the price.’
He stepped forwards, and lowered his hand onto the kneeling woman’s head, clasping her skull. Killop sensed a shift of power within the Emperor, and then a sudden and brief surge as he drained the officer. She fell to the floor, dried up and lifeless.
Killop’s mind began to grow dizzy under the weight of energy that the Emperor was carrying within him, and, as the Emperor began walking towards the first open cell, he felt himself whipped out of his head and within seconds he was back in his own bed.
He shot up, sweat pouring from him.
Daphne looked over from the desk where she was working, a solitary candle lighting the room.
Killop rolled off the bed onto his knees and retched, but nothing came. He panted, feeling as if he had run the distance from Rakana. He gazed at the cot. Karalyn was sitting up, smiling and looking at him.
‘You alright?’ Daphne said, walking round to where Killop crouched on the floor.
He glanced up at her, drool running down his chin.
‘Bad dream?’ she said, then turned to Karalyn. ‘Hold on, were you two in the Creator’s head?’
‘Daddy see bad man,’ Karalyn said.
‘Damn it,’ Daphne said. ‘And I was up working. Sorry. So what happened? Did you learn anything?’
Killop fell back into a sitting position.
Daphne filled a mug with ale and passed it to him, then lit a cigarette.
He took a long drink.
‘It wasn’t the Creator,’ he said. ‘We weren’t in the Creator’s mind.’
Daphne frowned.
‘A force took us, just like it did the last time, except we didn’t go upwards. Instead we flew across the mountains to Rakana.’
‘What? Are you sure?’
‘Well, I’ve never been, but I know it was Rakana, because the Emperor and his army were there.’
‘You saw the Emperor?’
‘Saw him? It was his head we were in, Daphne.’
Daphne frowned, and smoked her cigarette.
‘Tell me everything.’
Daphne listened as Killop told his story. Afterwards, she got up and walked to the cot.
‘She’s sleeping again,’ she said. ‘Just like before, she doesn’t seem to take any ill effects from being in his mind.’
‘His mind? Whose, the Emperor’s?’
She turned.
‘The Creator’s. What if the Creator was in the mind of the Emperor when you were there? What if he was watching through Guilliam’s eyes, and you were watching through his?’
Killop frowned.
‘If the Emperor has the skills of every mage, then he must have vision power, all the way up to the ability to talk to the Creator. Their minds must have been bound together when you went in, it’s the only explanation.’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘It felt like the mind we were in was doing all the talking and thinking. I couldn’t sense any other presence there.’
‘If Kalayne were here he might be able to work it out,’ she said. ‘Still, interesting intelligence about the thinking of Lord Chancellor Prior, seems we have him worried. We should step up smuggling operations, send him into even more of a tizzy. And I wonder what happened with the Rakanese mages. How many were there, do you think?’
Killop shrugged. ‘Two dozen, maybe.’
‘What on earth was the Emperor planning to do with two dozen corpses?’
‘Whatever it was, it needed a lot of power. All he could get from that officer he drained.’
‘And she died from it?’
‘Aye. She was all wrinkled up, as if all the liquid had been sucked out of her.’
Daphne grimaced.
There was a knock at the door.
‘Everything all right in there?’ Kylon’s voice called through the door panels.
‘Fine,’ Daphne said, shaking her head. ‘Those two. Insane.’
Killop smiled. ‘At least we’ll always have babysitters.’
Daphne had left for work when Killop next arose. He dressed himself and Karalyn, and went out into the grand reception chamber that formed the heart of the suite of apartments where they were staying. The room had a view of the palace across Holders Square, where companies of Hold militia drilled.
Kylon and Celine were the only others in the chamber, lounging across large couches.
‘You’re a remarkable woman, Celine,’ he heard Kylon say, ‘and you’ve been through so much. I have watched in wonder as you have changed into a confident, smart and hopeful person. It has been a most beautiful transformation to behold.’
/> Celine smirked, then caught sight of Killop and Karalyn.
‘Kara-bear,’ she said, grinning and getting up. ‘How’s my little lady this morning? You hungry for breakfast?’
‘Celine make pancakes,’ Karalyn said.
Celine put her hands on her hips and smiled. ‘Me? My little bear, we’re living like royalty. All we have to do is ask a kind servant, and they’ll make us whatever we like. Shall I show you?’
‘Aye,’ Karalyn cried, jumping up and down.
Celine led her off by the hand to a side door of the chamber.
‘Morning Killop,’ said Kylon.
‘Morning,’ he said, sitting. ‘Is there anything to drink?’
Kylon smiled. ‘Depends what you mean. We’re in the Holdings, where getting drunk before midday is frowned upon, at least in the company we’ve been keeping. But if you want a hot drink, there’s plenty of tea and coffee.’
Killop sighed.
‘Any plans for today?’ Kylon said.
‘Don’t think so.’
Kylon raised an eyebrow.
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Killop said. ‘We have to remember that this conflict is internal to the Holdings, it’s not ours to fight.’
‘So it doesn’t strike you as odd?’
‘What?’
‘That Godfrey Holdfast has not called upon you to serve? I mean, you’ve led armies to victory in battle, Killop, and have as much experience of fighting as anyone else here. You were a chief, for fucksake.’
‘It’s just politics, Kylon. Some of the Holds in the rebel coalition would feel uncomfortable about taking orders from a foreigner, and they can’t exactly put me in the ranks.’
‘They’re a bunch of elitist snobs,’ Kylon said.
‘Daphne also said that it was partly because I couldn’t ride a horse. That’s why I’m taking lessons. If and when the Emperor invades, I’m going to be fighting one way or another, we all will.’
Kylon smiled. ‘Ye see yourself as a cavalryman?’
‘No. I can barely stay on, never mind swing a sword at the same time. You should think about learning.’
‘I already know,’ Kylon said. ‘How do you think I got to the Holdings?’
The Magelands Box Set Page 158
