The Second God

by Pauline M. Ross

  He looked bewildered, but he merely shook his head as if everything was too much for him.

  “Kyra, can you fashion some manacles for Sho, if you please?” Ly said.

  “I’ll need something metal. I can fetch some pots from the kitchen, that would do.”

  “Thank you.”

  She bustled away with Harbrondia, their footsteps echoing at first, then becoming fainter and finally disappearing altogether. We were in the gloomy half-light of just two magely glow balls. Cal and Krant increased the power to give us more light.

  “There is some disruption outside,” Ly said. “The lion guard is in confusion. We will wait a while until— Hey!”

  I didn’t even have time to turn, to see what he’d seen. Something pinged off my defensive shell hard enough to send me spinning and then falling. There was yelling, a scream, and a sizzling bolt of flame shot over my head. The mage lights winked out of existence, plunging us into darkness. Then no sound but the rasping of our breath, accompanied by a strong smell of burning and smoke.

  Someone wailed, a long howl of grief and pain. Then a low groan, and an odd, unnatural gargling sound.

  “Arran? Did you see what happened?”

  “It is Cal,” he said, disbelief in his tone. “Someone has shot him.”

  34: The Scribery

  “Light!” I yelled. “Someone make a light!”

  A wavering glow appeared. Just one, in Krant’s hand, very feeble, but it was enough. Cal was lying not three paces from me, blood silently pooling beside him. An arrow projected from his chest.

  “Ly! Fetch Mother! Now!”

  He ran.

  I crawled to Cal, with some thought in my head that I could protect him from another arrow. Yet it was my fault he’d been shot. The arrow had bounced off me and hit him instead. No more arrows came. Cautiously, I looked all round, but I could see nothing.

  “Where did the arrows come from?” I asked Krant.

  “Over there.” He waved an arm vaguely. “I think we got him with the flames. There’s nothing moving, anyway.”

  Cal wasn’t moving either. Cal! More like a father to me than my real father. He couldn’t die. Mother would be here soon, she would fix him. Yet at the back of my mind I knew that there were some injuries that even Mother couldn’t heal. The heart – if his heart was pierced…

  I took his hand, and he opened his eyes and gave me a wan smile. “Effective… that protection… of yours.”

  Krant knelt at Cal’s head, and rested his free hand on his forehead, chanting a spell. That was the old style of using magic, far less powerful than Mother’s or even Cal’s. Cal! He had his own magic.

  “Cal? Can you heal yourself?” I said. “Use your magic.”

  But he mumbled something incoherent, and his eyes closed.

  “Don’t you dare die!” I yelled at him, but he couldn’t hear me.

  Pay-hoom knelt on Cal’s other side. She’d found material from somewhere, and she started mopping blood around the wound. “I need to remove the arrow,” she said. “Hold him still, while I do this.”

  I translated for Krant, and he held Cal’s shoulders while Pay broke off the tail of the arrow, and then rolled him over so she could pull out the front half. Cal groaned but he was barely conscious. Then Pay pressed on the wound, practical, determined, staunching the blood. But that wouldn’t save him. Where was Mother? If he died while she was off fetching pans from the kitchen…

  “Stay strong,” I whispered. “Mother will be here soon.” But he didn’t answer.

  Gods, if only I could do something, anything, to help! I’ve never regretted so badly my inability to use magic. I sucked it into me, but I couldn’t do a thing with it. My body was swirling with Sho’s magic, but it was useless to me, unreachable. I pressed Cal’s hand to my cheek, wetting it with the tears I couldn’t stop from falling. Not Cal, not Mother’s Cal! He’d always been a part of my life, just there, someone who was always kind to me, even when I was at my childish worst. I couldn’t lose him, I wouldn’t lose him! Surely if wishes had any power, he would survive. I bent over him, my tears falling on his face, and wished with all my strength for him to live.

  He gasped, and his eyes fluttered, although they didn’t open. “Kyra…” he muttered. “Good.”

  “Hush,” I said, sobbing. “She’ll be here any moment now.”

  Krant chanted, Pay pressed, I wept and wished. Arran was anxiously silent, not distracting me. Sho hadn’t moved, so I ignored him. I wasn’t sure why there’d only been a single arrow. Was someone still lurking behind me, waiting to try again? Or had the mages’ fire done its work? I couldn’t detect anyone, and I wasn’t about to abandon Cal to go looking.

  “Ly! Where are you! Where is Mother?”

  “Cannot find her!” He was panicking again.

  That was something I could help with. I focused my mind – where was Mother? Her magic shone so brightly, I couldn’t mistake it. She was moving slowly. Ly was moving nearby, but—

  “Wrong way!” I yelled into his mind. “Back, and then to your right.”

  Silence, as he ran in the opposite direction. “There is no way through. Ah – got it! Found her!”

  Thank the gods! If only she makes it! I wished even harder, and Cal’s lips twitched in the tiniest of smiles. “Ah, Kyra…”

  She tore in, with Ly and Harbrondia at her heels, pushing me unceremoniously aside to flop down beside Cal and take his hand. His eyes shot open. “Kyra?”

  “Shut up, you stupid man, let me— Oh!” She rocked back on her heels. “Well, you’ve done most of my work for me already. Or was it you, Krant?”

  He shook his head. “I am no healer, as you know. Spells of general well-being and speedy self-healing, no more than that.”

  “Well…” She shot a quick glance at Pay-hoom, still pressing the pad of material – it looked like a curtain – against Cal’s chest. “Does she have healing power?” she said to me.

  “Not that I know of. She took the arrow out very competently, though.”

  “None of our people have healing ability,” Ly said. “Very rarely, a female byan shar will have it, but our magic is not usable in that way.”

  “It must have been Cal, then, with Krant’s help. So you’ll live to torment me again, you idiotic man.” And she burst into tears.

  As Krant and Mother helped Cal sit, propped up against the wall, Harbrondia said quietly, “Whatever happened here? Why is there a smell of burning? And what is that heap of cloth over there?”

  I hadn’t even noticed it, just thankful the shooting had stopped. There’d been a bolt of flame over my head after I’d fallen – one of the mages fighting back against the person firing at us. At me. But who was it, that none of us had been aware of?

  “That is Jes-shafaa,” Ly said quietly. “Sho-heest’s wife. I believe she is dead.”

  Jes, the strange woman that I’d been so suspicious of. With good cause, seemingly. But why? Why would she try to kill me?

  Harbrondia bent over the fallen woman. “She is not dead, but very close to it. I have not the skills for this. Kyra?”

  Mother scrambled across the floor, and tutted at what she saw, shaking her head. “Burns are so tricky, and these are nasty.” There was silence for a long time as she worked her magic. Most Bennamore mages indulged in a certain amount of hand-waving or chanting, rituals to impress those paying good silver for their services. Mother did none of that. She laid her hand on the recipient, closed her eyes and worked her magic invisibly. Yet, despite her quiet methods, she was more powerful than any other mage. Eventually, she sighed. “I can heal the worst of the injuries, perhaps, but she will always bear the scars. Skin is beyond my power to change. And there is damage to the lungs which will need to be tended carefully. We may yet lose her.”

  Sho was sitting with his back to the door, looking bewildered. There were tears on his cheeks, but he wasn’t crying now. He looked so young, like a lost child, not understanding the adult goings on around him.
He was a pitiable sight, and his grief for Jes was palpable.

  I knelt in front of him. “I’m so sorry,” I began, then realised he couldn’t understand me. “Ly, will you tell him we are doing our best to help her, despite what she did. We don’t blame him for Jes’s actions.”

  He came to kneel beside me. “Sho, your wife’s actions are not your fault. We are sorry Jes is hurt. The mages are trying to save her.”

  His head shot up. “She is alive?”

  “Yes, but she is very sick. There is only so much that magic can do.”

  His face drooped again.

  Pay came and took Sho in her arms. “You poor boy. This was a bad idea.” He leaned into her, white-faced and shaking a little, but he didn’t cry again.

  “Is there anywhere more comfortable we can sit?” Ly said. “We need to talk.”

  Once she was sure that Cal could walk, with Harbrondia’s support, and with Krant to carry Jes’s slight frame, Mother took us upstairs to a private sitting room the mages used when they wanted to escape from the scribes and guards and hangers-on. It was filled with ancient sofas covered with faded velvet and losing their stuffing, with a small kitchen to one side.

  Krant laid Jes down on a sofa, and Mother sat beside her, holding one of her hands. Cal sat on the floor beside Mother, holding her other hand. Harbrondia magicked up some brew and rather stale cakes, and I found wine on a side table.

  Pay and Sho stood uncertainly by the door, Pay gazing round with a worried expression, Sho with drooping head. No one had mentioned manacles again, but he didn’t look likely to run away. In fact, he looked as if the slightest breeze would knock him over.

  “Please come in,” Ly said.

  “Must we?” Pay said. “It’s very… close in here.”

  “I know. So much stone,” Ly said with a wry smile. “I found it oppressive at first. But it’s no different from the castle.”

  Sho’s head flew up. “I hate the castle!”

  “I hate it, too,” Ly said gravely. “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable near the window?”

  Pay nodded, and Ly led them across to an open space near the window, away from the Bennamorians. Sho threw a long glance at Jes, but then followed Ly. I hesitated, not wanting to interfere with Ly’s handling of his rival, but he thought, “Drina? You should be over here. They need to get used to you.”

  There were three mages to tend the injured, so there was nothing else I needed to do. I went down to the window with my wine glass, and sat in a chair a little apart from the others. They were all cross-legged on the floor, Pay and Sho facing Ly. Harbrondia brought beakers of brew for them, but Pay and Sho set theirs down on the floor, untouched. Arran said nothing, but he was alert, not quite relaxed. I wished he could have been there, but knowing he was watching over us was wonderfully reassuring.

  “Now then, let us talk openly,” Ly said. “I came here prepared to kill you.” Pay gasped, but Sho made no reaction. “However, now that I see you, I can’t find it in me to do it. My wife spared my life when I was foolish enough to try to be a war-leader, and now I spare your life, too. Understand that I mean you no harm, either of you, but you can’t be allowed to summon the war-beasts, and do as you please, Sho-heest. What were you thinking? Didn’t you learn anything from my mistakes? You haven’t the strength to control them yet.”

  He said nothing, nodding sadly.

  His mother threw him a glance, and there was a flare of anger in her mind. “I have no idea what he was thinking,” she said in resentful tones. “I told him it was a terrible idea, that he should be breeding his army first, but would he listen? No, he was too thick with her. They always had their heads together, getting up some scheme or other, keeping me out. It’s not right. I’m his mother, he should listen to me first, at his age. But then, I suppose it’s not so surprising, when they’ve been close for so many years. I told him to—”

  “Wait, what?” I said, at the same time as Arran thought, “That is not what she said before!”

  She looked up at me, puzzled. I set down my wine glass on the window sill, and slid off my chair to sit beside Ly on the floor. “She said he’d only met her recently,” I said to Ly. “Jes was in the… brothel place, and they met after he became byan shar.”

  He frowned. “Elder, you told us that Sho only met Jes recently. Why do you now say they’ve known each other for years?”

  She laughed. “Why, because it’s true! I remember…” Her face changed. “Actually, I’m not sure what I remember. But I know…” A frown. “I don’t understand. I was sure I remembered her from years ago, but now…”

  “Is it possible she is a memory spinner?” Ly said.

  “Oh… perhaps… She came from Wild Hunter Clan territory, didn’t she, Sho? There’s a lot of… strangeness out that way. Well, you would know all about that,” she added to Ly. “But she must have been very strong, if she changed my memories.”

  Arran was murmuring in my head, but I hadn’t been paying attention to him. “Arran? What is it?”

  “Ask if they are – were – blood bonded.”

  “Why don’t you ask Ly?”

  “He is concentrating. Controlling the war-beasts, I think. His mind is too full, and I do not wish to disturb him by adding another voice to the discussion.”

  I tugged at Ly’s sleeve. “Can you ask if they were blood-bonded?” He translated it for Pay.

  Sho’s head lifted. “We were not blood-bonded,” he said. “I know the rules, and I’m not permitted to share my blood, not yet. We’d hoped, in time, to do as you have done, but…” His voice trailed away to nothing.

  “Why did Jes shoot at my wife, Sho?” Ly said softly.

  “She wanted her dead!” he spat. “She was always a threat, always able to take my magic, and render me impotent. Jes thought that with a summoning, she would be bound to come, and then we could be rid of her.”

  “So this was all about me?” I said indignantly. “All those war-beasts summoned, and the only purpose was to kill me?”

  “Say nothing more,” Ly said, but there was affection in his voice. “Let me handle this.” “Sho, you are my wife’s prisoner, do you understand that?” He nodded. “She will take you to Lakeside, for now, and you will do everything she tells you. If you disobey her, or try to escape, or try to harm her or anyone else, I will kill you, is that clear?”

  He nodded again, his eyes wide.

  “How do you feel now?” Ly said. “Better?”

  Sho’s face creased back into bewilderment. “Actually, I do feel better, now. More like my old self.”

  Ly voice softened. “I know what it’s like to allow the power to build up, and then – it’s gone, and you feel completely normal again. I know exactly how you feel, Sho, as no one else can. We should not be enemies, don’t you agree?”

  Another nod, stronger this time.

  Switching to Bennamorian, Ly said, “Drina, I have cleared the path to the bridge. Take these two, and the injured woman and the mages, and go back to Lakeside. Keep Sho well guarded and take no nonsense from Pay. Arran knows enough of the language to translate when you need to talk to them.”

  “What about you?” Sudden fear gripped me. “What are you planning?”

  There was a burst of excitement in his mind. “Yannassia was right about the blood-bonding – she said it had proved its worth because we are constantly in communication. That is something that I had only just begun to think about, but I was not sure I could spare the time to arrange it. A summoning and then an entire moon… but Sho has solved the problem for me. For Bennamore.”

  “I… don’t understand.”

  “Sho’s summoning has brought the lion guard here. They are right where I need them, at exactly the right time – tonight is darkmoon. It is perfect.”

  “The lion guard? What are you going to do with them?”

  He grinned at me. “I am going to blood-bond with them.”

  35: The Lion Guard

  Arran’s indignation was in my head
the entire way back to Lakeside.

  “Does this mean we will have all these men cluttering up our minds the whole time? How many will there be, anyway? And what will happen when we… do things? Will they be involved too? I do not like this, my love. I have no idea how it will work. Ly is very high-handed just now.”

  “I don’t know how it will work, either, darling,” I said, trying not to laugh out loud, because I was not alone. “I trust Ly, though. He wouldn’t do anything that would be difficult for the three of us.”

  “So will it be the same as it was for us? Will he have to… you know, kiss them? All of them? Drina, I can tell you are laughing. This is a serious matter. Well, it is to me, anyway.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just… Look, it’s a different thing altogether with the lion guard. He gives them his blood, but not the other way round. That way, they are subservient to him and he can talk to them whenever he wants. He commands them, in a permanent bonding. It’s not like us at all. We’re equal to him, part of him.”

  Long silence. “That sounds acceptable. How do you know all this? Did Ly tell you?”

  “No. I think it comes from his memories. Somehow, I just know.”

  “Sweetheart, that sounds crazy. It is bad enough when Ly says things like that, but I thought you were the most sensible of us.”

  “I think you could remember things too, if you leave your mind open. It’s probably easier when there’s some physical thing to trigger the memory, but if you think hard enough—” We’d reached the Kellon’s hall. “I have to go, darling. I’ll talk to you later.”

  As always, I had to take a moment to compose myself before I could think coherently. It was glorious to be able to talk to Arran whenever I wanted, even while he was locked away in his dark cell, but sometimes I wanted to hold him and kiss him so badly it hurt. If he were beside me, I could soothe away all his worries with a touch and make him smile again, and the empty ache inside me would be gone.

  Whenever the pain of separation became too much for me, I would dream up ever more ingenious ways I might rescue him, if only I hadn’t given Yannassia my word, if only it wouldn’t endanger the whole carefully contrived plan for the war. There was too much at stake to risk for one man, however precious to me.