"If Kyrus had started with a fuller mastery of Imperial bureaucracy, he would have not been so concerned about drawing attention to his teacher, and simply created an excuse to nullify the contract. Sending her away broke bond to the Imperial service, and automatically made Hirel Falcy outlaw. That meant being dragged back and a great deal of whipping, in those days. Not so dramatic as the penalty for killing the Emperor, of course. That would have been Hirel Falcy's death, and death to all her family, and death to her line." He cocked his head to one side, meeting Darian Faille's fixed gaze with unimpaired calm. "Unto the seventh generation, which is why, even among a rather long-lived people, this discussion is one of curiosity, not consequence. Is it not?"
The Dezart stood then, nodded politely, and walked off to the little stone shelter.
"Wasn't all this three hundred years ago?" Auri said. "Why are they all so grim? Not that they aren't endlessly grim anyway, and, really, I don't think much of your Duchess' taste. This Kolan's much more interesting."
Kellian often talked in a language of hand signals, so Fallon could not guess what Lieutenant Faral said before she walked off to re-check the horses, but Darian Faille said one thing out loud to her son before following:
"I hope the Rest survives your visitors."
Lord Surclere, expressionless as usual, returned inside, and Auri trailed him, and listened to less interesting conversations until everyone inside went to sleep. Then she again explored that day's bounds of her existence, hunting hidden birds and animals, and making little games trying to jump between branches that barely held any substance for her. And all the while chattering on and on: an eternal, one-sided conversation, heard only in a dream.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
After determinedly avoiding all discussion of Aurai's Rest, Rennyn had not known whether to expect a crude collection of shacks or a fortress. Instead, the road opened upon a garden-festooned hill: an uneven oval narrower and lower to the east, while the west rose to a high, bare crest above steep terraces. Although there were smaller trees, the space was clear of the vast Semarrak oaks, with the hill rising like an island above a sea of gold.
"Glorious," she murmured.
Rennyn felt more than saw Illidian's approval. "Spring and autumn at the Rest are incomparable. I have missed seeing this."
He had been born here. All of the Kellian had been born at the Rest. Even after the majority had chosen to dwell in Tyrland, they travelled to the forest settlement to bear their children, and raise them away from the pressure of people who were afraid of even half-grown Kellian.
It was certainly not a hand-to-mouth childhood. The buildings—finely crafted in stone and wood—clustered down at the eastern end of the hill, and were surrounded not only by crops, but by areas of garden and lawn bounded by the inlaid path of stone that marked a well-maintained protective circle. A river curved close, but of course did not cross the circle, and there was even a water wheel turning lazily.
"How many families live here?" Dezart Samarin asked, drawing his horse level with Illidian's.
"There are eighteen adults and four children," Illidian said, evenly. "But the Rest supported more than thirty families when permission to serve Tyrland was sought from King Theum."
"And you simply keep watch and kill any predators that stray close?"
"If necessary. There are caves beneath the hill, and we bring all the animals into them at night. The buildings are sturdy, and it is only in years where food is particularly low that the slashers or keenwolves will attempt direct assaults."
"How very interesting," Samarin said. "The surveyors who continue to insist that Semarrak is uninhabitable are perhaps broaching a less civilised part of the forest."
He did enjoy fomenting mischief, this peculiar Kolan, who could not be anything but fully aware of how little he was wanted in this place. Illidian had once told her that Tyrland was home to the Kellian, but it had long been clear that Aurai's Rest held an equal claim. Here alone in all the world was a place made by and for them, where no-one would say they did not belong. Why remind them of the Empire's technical claim over the forest?
The tingle of a clear and strong protection distracted Rennyn as they crossed into the settlement circle, and another piece of mischief surfaced in her memory. Breeding for magic.
She set that aside. If she was going to expend her energy on doubt over the reasons for her marriage, her ability to control the Kellian would trump all other factors. Her bloodline had been an unseen keystone since the Kellian had first become a people rather than tools. The Kellian had recoiled from that knowledge, but then adapted and forced themselves to face the ramifications of the Symbolic Magic that defined their core. But Illidian had been drawn to her before he had known what she had inherited, and had not let it keep him from her.
What would become of this place, dependent as it was on Kellian speed and instinct, when they tested the boundaries of their existence?
As the inhabitants of Aurai's Rest emerged to greet their arrival, Rennyn leaned back against Illidian's chest, and dropped one hand to the arm curled lightly around her waist. He shifted so he could briefly lace his fingers through hers, squeezing in silent reassurance before they dismounted and faced the business of greetings, and the wary regard of those who had not met her before, and who were trying to be polite, and to hide their horror. There were three non-Kellian among them, working especially hard to keep their expressions welcoming.
After Rennyn had been fully overwhelmed by names and faces, the travellers were shown to rooms, and paused in the business of settling in for Lieutenant Meniar to cast the focus divination yet again, and establish that her Wicked Uncle was still north and east of their location. But certainly not at Aurai's Rest itself.
"How is your strength?" Darian Faille asked, having observed this process without comment. "Do you wish to sleep?"
"I think I'll last until dinner," Rennyn said, taking stock of herself. She had dozed a little on the highly undemanding ride, and at least did not feel like she would drop.
"Then I will show you the Rest."
Was Darian, Rennyn wondered, creating an opportunity for the other Kellian to do much the same thing as the Sentene mages had: talk to Illidian away from the Montjuste-Surclere heir he had so hastily married, to reassure themselves that it was something he had truly chosen? Given that there were many among the Sentene mages yet to be convinced, Rennyn resigned herself to the continuing distrust, and followed her mother by marriage.
Not unexpectedly, Darian was considerate and polite, taking Rennyn on an undemanding tour of the central buildings of Aurai's Rest. The settlement was tidy, most of it arranged around the eastern base of the hill, but while the shared kitchens and dining areas reminded Rennyn of the Kellian barracks back in Asentyr, the creators of Aurai's Rest had imbued everything with an elegance of form and a regard for craftsmanship that elevated the settlement to a precious object in itself.
There continued to be a sense of restraint about Darian, the shadow of words unsaid. Rennyn, aware of unfamiliar awkwardness, sought for a neutral topic.
"Who designed the Rest?"
"The Ten." Darian surveyed the roofs of the main buildings as she led the way up a bricked path. "Veya and Tio in particular."
Rennyn blinked, then counted from one to five in Verisian: "Ala, Tio, Seya, Nal, Veya?"
"Yes. Aurai's response to ten near-identical women who had no names for themselves."
"Was Aurai Verisian?"
"She came from the border country," Darian said, keeping her pace slow as Rennyn followed her up another section of the gently winding path. "Though we still know almost nothing of her family."
Having had Dezart Samarin's revelations passed on to her, Rennyn suspected she understood the troubled note in this last remark. Nor was she surprised when Darian added:
"Illidian looks worn."
"Yes." Pointless to deny such an obvious fact. "Nightmares. And caring for me has been a great deal of work." Rennyn
concentrated on walking, as the gentle climb began to take its toll. "I think that the threat Prince Helecho poses is also weighing on him. There's so little we can do to find him, and yet we cannot be sure he is not hunting us."
"From what I understand, this Eferum-Get Prince's most logical course is to avoid anyone who knows his identity. Is he not more likely to keep safely away from you?"
"He seemed the sort to spend several years looking forward to surprising me at an unprotected moment," Rennyn said judiciously. "But not, perhaps, if he cannot do so without risk. Tyrland was his mother's obsession, and I just entertainment along the way. Though that's perhaps wishful thinking. I don't relish meeting him again, even to put an end to him."
Darian accepted this admission of cowardice without comment, and they walked on for several steps before the Kellian woman, unhurried and unsparing, said:
"I was concerned at the haste of your marriage. Illidian has explained the reason for it. Do you truly believe that Tyrland's Queen would have forced you to wed her heir to gain control of us?"
"I believe it inevitable that the advantages of such a marriage would have occurred to Tyrland's Court, if not the Queen. How Queen Astranelle would have acted, I cannot say. From what I've seen of her, she is firm on matters of importance, but stays aloof from what she considers minor issues."
Darian fell silent, and did not attempt to continue the uncomfortable and stilted conversation until their path ended at a door framed by an arch set into the hill, the finely-wrought stone shaped into a series of interconnecting leaves. An entrance to one of the caves?
"And yet you left your brother in their control."
Rennyn blinked, and worked to bring her mind to order, resenting the sapping weariness that the short walk had produced. "Seb is far less tractable than he appears."
Darian did not argue the point, instead pulling the door open to reveal a smooth-sided tunnel.
"This is the heart of the Rest," the Kellian woman said, her faint voice thinning further, as if the tunnel was stealing it away. "Ordinarily I would not bring one not of our blood here, but there are more reasons than marriage to make an exception. Will you greet them?"
"If you wish it," Rennyn said, not succeeding in hiding a certain tightness that had crept into her throat. Clearly Darian had a reason for bringing her unprepared to face the women Rennyn's family had abandoned.
The tunnel curved downward, and soon opened out into a much larger space. There was no need to conjure light: a combination of mageglows and braziers picked out the edges of a fan-shaped cave wide enough to hold dozens. It was warm and dry, and the walls had been hung with geometrically patterned cloth, but it was still unmistakably a tomb.
Eleven stone coffins. They were arranged in a semi-circle in the centre of the cave, their stone bases patterned with twists of vine, sprays of blossom, birds. Two were sealed.
Rennyn, overwhelmingly aware of the reason the Kellian had asked her to come Aurai's Rest, stepped forward until she stood at the foot of the seventh coffin in the curve. Creamy linen covered the occupant to the waist and one long, sharp-nailed hand rested on its edge while the second curled against the cheek of its owner in an attitude of deep sleep. A bed of white sand glimmered beneath those fingers, making the container no less a coffin, but at least more comfortable than an uncushioned box of stone.
Looking left, past the sealed central coffin, Rennyn studied with some difficulty faces that seemed to fade in the gentle light. Identical, with only slight variations in hair, and in the positions in which they lay. Not mirrors of Solace: the faces were longer, with a spare and lean aspect that their creator had not owned. But the resemblance was unmistakeable and entirely expected, for these women had been an extension of Queen Solace's body, copies of her, but with Symbolic Magic altering more than just colouring.
"Dew, dawn and cobweb," Rennyn said aloud.
Darian Faille ignored this, filling a small bowl from a bronze jug by the door, and moving to the first of the sleeping women. Dipping her fingers into the bowl, which contained what Rennyn guessed to be honey-water, she transferred a tiny amount. Like Illidian before Solace's attack, Darian did not trim the pointed nails of either hand, and the drops fell from their tips to the woman's mouth.
Rennyn neither spoke again, nor moved to assist, watching instead for any hint of reaction to demonstrate that these women were alive. If they breathed, they did so imperceptibly, but Rennyn noticed a small shift of a head, and a flicker of eyelid. Dreaming?
What would the Ten dream of? Not Tyrland, surely. More likely of raising children in a dangerous and beautiful forest, or even of Aurai, whose centrally-positioned tomb declared her role in the lives of these Kellian.
Darian Faille, returning the bowl to a nook by the entrance, moved to the exit, and Rennyn followed her outside, shivering a little at the late afternoon chill. Darian closed the door, and they stood looking down at the settlement the Ten had created.
"I suspect I would have enjoyed knowing Aurai," Rennyn said. "I am glad the Ten found a friend in her."
"A fortunate encounter," Darian agreed. "There are many who would have used them as tools, but Aurai was by nature a teacher, and became the Ten's guide, never more than suggesting paths. In all the history of the Kellian, we have never elected or acknowledged a leader."
"It seems to me there are some among you who are more inclined to…organise than others," Rennyn said, as neutrally as she could manage.
"Yes," Darian said. "And in the structures of Tyrland's Sentene some of us are set above the others, but only in the matter of directing the activities of defence, and strictly on the understanding that Kellian can leave the Sentene at any time. Have you considered what a child of your marriage will bring?"
So this was what had been preoccupying the Kellian woman. Rennyn had thought that passing her inherited control to a child born to a Kellian would ease some of their dismay, but it was clear that the idea of a Kellian Surclere dismayed Illidian's mother.
"I am not a leader of the Kellian," she said. "Nor would inherited power make a child of mine the leader of the Kellian."
"But what could be more natural than for other outsiders to treat a Montjuste-Surclere Kellian as pre-eminent? To expect leadership. To be dragged into making decisions on behalf of others. What will that do to the child?"
Rennyn had been standing for too long. Or perhaps she simply had no energy for contemplating problems she could not possibly solve. She looked about, and found a long, flat stone to perch upon.
"Are you suggesting I should not have children?"
"I cannot make such choices for you. But I would be lax not to bring the consequences to your attention."
Which was as close as a Kellian would come to pushing. Rennyn suspected it hadn't been easy for Darian to do.
"Thank you for telling me," she said. "It's not a present concern, since the healers tell me I shouldn't risk trying to have a child unless my health improves, but it's something I'll need to keep in mind." Looking down, she saw that Illidian was approaching, and let out her breath in quiet relief.
"My initial plan was to have nothing to do with the Kellian after Solace had been dealt with," she added. "Thus avoiding a great many complications."
"But perhaps creating new ones," Illidian said, sitting down beside her. "You have been greeting the Ten?"
Rennyn had made no greetings, and did not feel she had conducted herself anything but awkwardly before the sleepers. But she bobbed her head noncommittally, and smiled at Darian as her mother-by-marriage excused herself and walked down the hill.
"Would you want to raise our variously-possible children here?" she asked, knowing Illidian would have heard the discussion as he approached, just as she was aware that Darian would still be in a Kellian's range of easy hearing.
"No. I want to make a home of Surclere. And I am of the opposite view to my mother: I feel that we as a people are still growing, and that contact with humans expands us. While there will undoubt
edly be a weight of expectation placed on a child of yours and mine, it will be unlikely to come close to the pressure you and Sebastian suffered."
This was a most unusual speech for Illidian, and Rennyn leaned into his side, appreciating the intended comfort.
"Tonight all of the Ten's descendants present will sit in vigil at the Heart," Illidian went on. "We will not ask you to wake them until tomorrow."
And perhaps discover that her ability to command Kellian was not enough to wake the Ten. Or learn that the golems did not wish to end their half-life. But most likely tomorrow would be the day that she took nine innocent lives, and faced whatever consequences that brought.
"Do you—if the Ten ask for release, and that breaks the casting that makes you Kellian—do you think you will be able to maintain Aurai's Rest?"
"No. We could defend against most attacks, but there would inevitably be losses, a slow attrition of our numbers. And we could not risk children here. The lesser stalkers cannot bring down an adult, but they hunt from concealment, and we are only able to live here because we can sense when they are nearby."
"A high cost." Not just Aurai's Rest, but a people's sense of self. Rennyn doubted there was a single Kellian who was not dismayed by the possibility of Solace's casting failing, but they would not cling to it at the expense of the nine remaining golems.
"It would uncomplicate other matters."
Rennyn looked up at Illidian, startled. He surely did not think it preferable for the Kellian to cease to be, no matter what the situation in Tyrland—or in their marriage.
"Like uncomplicating a knot by cutting through it?" she asked. "Do we then celebrate the pieces?"
He didn't answer, gazing down at the settlement.
"I've been trying to look at the control ability from different angles," Rennyn said, restively. "That casting on Fallon made me wonder if I could devise something that would stop me from giving any form of command."
Illidian shifted. "That does not seem to me a safe thing."
The Sleeping Life (Eferum Book 2) Page 18
