Keira smirked.
‘The Emperor’s not there though, is he?’ said Kallie.
Flora shook her head. ‘He’s still in the Holdings. Some rumours say he’s up in the mountains, searching for mages, while others claim he’s on his way back, having crushed the rebellion and burnt half the country to ashes.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Kallie said. ‘I hope your family’s alright.’
‘Thanks.’
‘So, what’s the plan?’ Keira said. ‘I reckon we should wait here until His Imperial Arsehole gets back to town, and then we leg it north to the Holdings, and check out the damage. We’ll look for Flora’s folks first, then see if we can find my wee brother.’
‘We don’t even know if he’s in the Holdings,’ said Kallie.
‘It’s the most likely place, but. And we have a lead. The Holdfasts are meant to be a big, important family, right? We find them, we’ll find Killop, if he’s up there.’
Kallie frowned.
‘Ye don’t have to come,’ Keira spat. ‘Ye can stay with Flora when we find her family. I’ll look for Killop on my own.’
‘I’ll help you,’ said Flora. ‘If my family are dead, I’ll have nowhere else to go, and if they’re alive, then they’ll still be alive if I take some time out to help you. They might even know where the Holdfasts are, my Hold followed them in their stupid rebellion after all.’
Kallie said nothing.
‘Aye,’ Keira said. ‘Alright, hen. We’ll look for my wee brother together, and moany-face here will just have to make her mind up about whether she wants to come with us.’
‘I’m feeling a wee bit sick,’ Kallie said. ‘I might have to lie down.’
‘Ach, ye’ll be alright,’ Keira said. ‘Fight it, it’ll pass in a minute.’ She raised an eyebrow at Flora. ‘First-time smokers, eh?’
‘Drink some water,’ Flora said. She leant over, picked up a mug and filled it. Kallie took it from her, and sipped.
‘Pity there’s only fucking water,’ Keira muttered.
Flora smiled. ‘I’m a professional.’ She reached into her pack, and produced a stoppered jug.
‘Ya fucking beauty,’ Keira crowed, as Flora yanked the cork free. She poured a clear liquid into three mugs on the low table.
Keira picked one up and sniffed. ‘White rum?’
Flora shrugged. ‘I didn’t stop to check the label when I snatched it.’
The fire mage took a drink. ‘Ye done good, my wee Flora. Ye done fucking good.’
She put her feet up, and lit a fresh weedstick. ‘This is like a wee holiday.’
Flora picked up her mug. ‘I’m guessing we won’t be moving for the rest of the day, then?’
‘Moving?’ Keira said. ‘Why would we be moving?’
‘To the city.’
Keira snorted. ‘Why the fuck would we go there?’
Flora frowned. ‘Because there’s nothing to eat up here. The Emperor could take days to get back, a third maybe, who knows? If we intend to eat in that time, then the only place where there’s food is the city.’
‘I ain’t going back there.’
‘So you’re going to sit here and starve to death?’
‘I’ll eat Kallie,’ she smirked, glancing at the Kell woman. She was sitting huddled by the stove, the blanket wrapped round her, a green tinge on her face. ‘You alright?’
Kallie nodded, puffing her cheeks.
‘Let us know if yer going to spew,’ Keira said, ‘so I can get out of the way.’ She glanced at Flora. ‘If ye think this is bad, ye should have seen her on the keenweed.’
‘No wonder she’s messed up,’ the Holdings woman said. ‘Anyway, don’t change the subject. We need to talk about going down to Plateau City.’
‘It’s not happening,’ Keira said, ‘and I’m not going to fucking repeat myself again. Take a telling, hen.’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine?’ Keira laughed. ‘What happened to the real Flora? Who is this fucking impostor sitting before me? Yer not telling me that yer giving up on the argument already?’
Flora shrugged, and sipped her rum. ‘All I have to do is wait.’
‘Aye? For what?’
‘For hunger to change your mind.’
‘I’m from fucking Kell. You’ll break long before I do.’
‘Then I’ll see you down there when you arrive.’
Keira shook her head. ‘Ye don’t get it. I cannae go back there.’ She shuddered, as her head filled with memories of standing before the walls as the Emperor annihilated her army, and then struck her down. Even with the bastard out of town, the thought of seeing those walls again set off an alarm in her brain. It was where she had died, and Agang wasn’t around this time to bring her back.
She looked over at Flora, but the Holdings woman was gazing with concern at Kallie, and Keira felt a tightness in her stomach.
‘Maybe she should go to bed,’ Flora said.
‘No,’ said Kallie. ‘I’m fine. Feeling a bit better.’
‘You don’t look it,’ said Flora.
‘Have a drink,’ Keira said. ‘That’ll perk ye up.’
‘Or tip her over the edge.’
‘She’ll be alright,’ Keira said, lifting Kallie’s mug of rum and passing it to her. Kallie took a sip, grimaced, then took another.
Keira belched.
‘Charming,’ said Flora. She crossed her legs, balancing her mug on her right knee as she smoked. ‘When we eventually get to the Holdings, and go looking for the Holdfasts, it might take a while. That’s if any survived the Emperor’s invasion. Their names would have been at the top of his wanted list. I heard a lot in the city about the last rebels fighting it out in the Shield Mountains. If the Holdfasts are alive, that’s where they’ll be.’
‘I thought the Holdings was all flat,’ said Keira. ‘You keep on about the endless fucking plains.’
‘The Holdings is mostly flat, but there’s a long range of mountains in the north, which protect us from the ocean storms. No one lives up there.’
‘You been?’
‘No. I’m a plains girl. Never saw a hill until I first went to the Plateau with the cavalry. When I was little, I thought the whole world was filled with sugarcane, just rows and rows going on forever.’
‘Sugarcane?’ Keira said. ‘Is that some sort of vegetable?’
Flora cackled with laughter. ‘I can’t wait to see your face when you taste it.’
Keira frowned. ‘Unless it’s all been burnt to the ground.’
Flora quietened, her smile fading.
‘Don’t be a cow,’ said Kallie.
‘It speaks,’ Keira muttered.
Kallie straightened, and let out a long breath. ‘Starting to feel normal again. That was fucked up.’
‘I’ve got some dullweed to complete the trio,’ Keira smirked.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ snapped Flora.
‘Ach, come on, it’ll be a laugh.’
‘No, it fucking won’t,’ said Flora. ‘A laugh is the opposite of what it’ll be.’
‘What does dullweed do to ye?’ Kallie said.
‘It numbs you,’ Flora said, ‘kills all feeling, which, you know, is great if you’re wounded and your leg’s hanging off or something. That’s what it’s meant for, it takes away all pain.’
‘All pain?’ said Kallie, taking another drink. ‘I might give it a go. I could do with feeling nothing for a while.’
‘I’m up for it,’ said Keira.
‘No,’ said Flora, ‘you might like it.’
‘Is that not the fucking point?’ laughed Keira.
‘But then you’ll want to do it again and again. Keira, you must have seen the dullweed addicts in Rainsby, the first time we were there.’
‘That was my second time,’ she said. ‘The first time was much worse. Half the Kellach I saw there were wasted out of their fucking minds, lying about like the dead. But I’ve had it a few times, and I’m fine.’
Flora sighed. ‘Do what y
ou like, then.’ She watched as Keira dug about in the weed sack, pulled out a handful of crushed dull-leaf and began to prepare a weedstick.
‘I’ll make some tea,’ Flora said. ‘Anybody want any?’
The Kell women shook their heads. Flora stood, and took an old kettle from the large sink by the window. She filled it with water, and placed it on top of the stove. She dropped some tea leaves into the bottom of a mug, and sat. Kallie glanced over.
‘Were you two talking about going to Plateau City before?’
‘Yeah,’ Flora said. ‘We’ll need to move down there if we want to eat.’
‘Not this again,’ said Keira.
‘I’d quite like to see it,’ Kallie said. ‘It’s meant to be the most beautiful city in the world.’
‘Maybe it used to be,’ Keira said, ‘but it’s not any more.’
Flora smirked. ‘I wonder why that is.’
‘I’d still like to go.’
‘Fine,’ Keira said. ‘You two go. I’m sure ye’ll have a lovely time together.’
The kettle whistled, and Flora poured boiling water into her mug.
‘We need to stick together, the three of us,’ she said, ‘and that means Keira should come to the city, and Kallie should help us look for Killop.’
She smiled as the two Kell women scowled at her. She turned to Kallie. ‘Come on. This whole thing with Killop was years ago, wasn’t it? You turn up in the Holdings, and he’ll see that you’re doing fine without him. Maybe it’ll help you get past it.’
‘I am past it,’ Kallie said. ‘I hadn’t thought about him in ages before you lot turned up. No, he and his new woman will just think I’m there because I still love him or something, which is bullshit, cause I don’t. It’ll just be fucking awkward.’
‘But what’s the alternative?’ Flora said. ‘We just leave you somewhere on your own? We can’t do that, not after we’ve come so far. We should agree, right here and now, that we each have one vote when we decide stuff, and if any of us are out-voted two to one, we just have to accept it.’
Keira raised an eyebrow, as she finished making up the stick of dullweed.
‘You’ve out-voted me on smoking that,’ Flora said, pointing. ‘I don’t like it, in fact the thought of you two taking it makes me feel a bit sick, but you know, two against one. I just have to put up with it.’
‘I guess I could agree to that,’ Kallie said.
Flora grinned. ‘So you’ll help us look for Killop?’
‘Fucksake, alright,’ she said, ‘but only if we all agree to this voting thing and Keira comes to Plateau City with us.’
They gazed at the fire mage as she lit the weedstick and took a long, slow drag. She smiled, as all the little aches and pains she had been carrying disappeared into a fug of hazy well-being. Flora was shaking her head at her, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything.
‘I’ll come to the city if it makes ye happy, my wee Flora,’ she said.
The Holdings woman narrowed her eyes. ‘Is this a trick?’
Keira’s brows furrowed. ‘A stick?’
‘A trick, you dozy bitch,’ Flora said. ‘Are you trying to trick me?’
The mage thought for a minute. Why was Flora accusing her? Paranoia seeped up into her mind. She shook it away, then realised she had forgotten what they had been talking about.
‘Are ye going to pass that or what?’ said Kallie.
‘Eh?’
‘The weedstick.’
Flora sighed. ‘You still want it after you see what it’s doing to her?
Kallie plucked it out of Keira’s fingers, and took a sniff.
‘Fucking reeks,’ she said.
Keira settled into her chair, vaguely aware that Flora and Kallie were speaking, but not paying them any attention. Her eyesight focussed on a large knot in the wooden beam over their heads, and she stared at it, the pattern swirling before her. So much complexity in such a tiny piece of wood, and she felt a moment of oneness, with the wood, the world, the universe.
She smiled, her eyelids growing heavier with each passing moment.
When she awoke the kitchen was cold and dark. Kallie sat sleeping in the chair opposite her, her chest rising and falling under the blanket. Next to her, Flora’s seat was empty. Keira rubbed her head, her tongue as dry as a badger’s arse. She picked up the water jug, and swallowed a large mouthful.
She staggered to her feet, nearly knocking over the chair, then stumbled through the darkness to the small room at the back of the kitchen, which had the cottage’s only bed. She pulled off her coat and leathers, climbed over Flora and got in. She pulled the blankets round her, stealing the warmth that Flora’s body had generated, and was asleep within seconds.
‘You two have completely fucking stitched me up,’ Keira said as they stood in the grey light of morning, the rain starting to soak through their clothes.
‘You agreed,’ Flora said, swinging her pack over her shoulders. ‘The two-to-one rule.’
‘Aye,’ Keira said, clutching the weed-sack. ‘So ye say. I cannae mind agreeing to anything, but.’
Flora shrugged. ‘It’s not my fault you were out of your face.’
‘Come on,’ Kallie said, her face lined and weary.
‘How you feeling after yesterday?’ Flora said.
‘Like shit,’ she replied. ‘How long will it take to get there?’
‘About four hours,’ Flora said, leading off, the two Kell women trudging along the track behind her, the cottage fading into the distance. ‘We should catch sight of the city in three hours or so,’ the Holdings woman went on, ‘but we’ll need to walk round to the other side, to the gate next to the old Kellach quarter. It’s the only one that’ll let us in.’
‘Shit,’ Keira said. ‘You mean we’ll have to walk right past…?’
Flora nodded.
‘Walk past what?’ Kallie said.
Keira spat onto the muddy track.
‘Where the Emperor killed me.’
‘And me,’ said Flora.
Keira glanced at the young Holdings woman.
‘Aye, Flora,’ she said, ‘and you.’
Chapter 26
Loyalty
Shield Mountains, Imperial Holdings – 22nd Day, First Third Winter 507
Killop gazed past the waterfall, his eyes tracking down the rapids to where the wagon had landed. Shattered beams of wood and the spokes from a broken cartwheel were poking up from the white water. He clambered down the slope, keeping to the rocks by the river’s edge, his clothes wet from the spray. A small group of troopers were by the smashed wagon, pulling whatever they could salvage from the water. Large sacks of flour had split open, their contents spilling into the river, while others lay submerged, ruined.
The troopers saluted him as he approached. He leaned over and began to help, lifting a crate from the rushing waters, and carrying it to a dry patch of earth where a sergeant was checking over the pile of salvaged goods.
‘Put it down there, sir,’ she nodded to him, as she inspected the crate he was holding.
‘What happened?’ he said, placing it by some others.
‘Just an accident, sir,’ the sergeant said, looking away. ‘A wheel slipped, and the wagon went off the track.’
‘One slip, and half our flour supply’s gone.’
The sergeant nodded, her eyes examining the crates and sacks.
‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’ Killop said.
She pursed her lips, pretending not to have heard.
‘Sergeant?’
‘I’d rather not say, sir.’
‘Major Chane was over-seeing the supply train,’ he said, ‘wasn’t she?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Anything you’d like to add?’
‘No, sir.’
Killop frowned. ‘Major Chane’s lucky to have you as her sergeant.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘An accident then,’ he said. ‘Get everything you can save back up ont
o the track by noon. There’s a wagon up there waiting for you.’
‘Yes, sir,’ the sergeant said, and Killop turned and walked away. He leapt up the steep path, bounding from rock to rock until he reached the track at the top. An empty wagon was parked there, with a handful of troopers sitting next to it.
‘Where’s Major Chane?’ he asked them.
‘She left while you were down there, sir,’ said one. ‘She’s gone back to the camp.’
He frowned, and the troopers glanced at each other.
‘Wait here for the others,’ he said. ‘They should be finished by noon.’
He turned without waiting for a response, and strode down the track, anger fuelling his steps, as hunger filled his thoughts. He felt sickened by the waste he had just seen. That wagon had been transporting the first supplies they had seen in days, and now half of it was lost. He glanced at the desolate mountains; their bare, jagged flanks a dull grey in the morning light. Little grew up there besides lichen and wiry thorn bushes. The great plains of the Holdings were closer than they had been since they had left Royston at the Red Hills, the lack of food pushing them back towards the lowlands. Though he couldn’t see them, he knew that the plains lay just over the high ridge to his left, less than a day’s walk away.
He veered off the track, keeping to a line of cliffs to his right, and descended a narrow path to a shallow dell, where they had camped. The survivors of the rebellion, less than forty folk altogether, sat around a fire, their heads bowed in hunger and defeat. Next to Daphne crouched Celine and Kylon, while Karalyn sat between them. Baoryn, he noticed, was skulking at the edge of the group, his eyes on the horizon.
Daphne glanced up at him. She stood and walked over, a long winter coat over her shoulders.
‘How bad is it?’ she asked in a low voice.
‘Lost about half.’
‘Damn. Still, half’s better than nothing.’
‘It’s only enough to last us a few days.’
Her face fell.
He frowned. ‘And we need to speak to Chane.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘Was this one her fault too?’
‘Sergeant wouldn’t say.’
‘Let’s deal with it now.’
The Magelands Box Set Page 182
