by K S Nikakis
‘What I believe is irrelevant since she’s unlikely to return.’
‘It will be relevant if she does return and grants me a lein-tryst. And even if she refuses me, Fariye will want her lein.’
‘The elddra wasn’t breathing when the Angellus reclaimed her, Sehereden. I’ll have to tell Fariye if she persists in her belief the elddra’s coming back. As for a lein-tryst … Ataghan’s voice dropped to a hiss. ‘If Ithreya carries, she’ll gift you the child. It’s a certainty few Valen enjoy, and yet you’d risk it all for an elddra who doesn’t know the meaning of truth.’
‘Viv’s secrecy is understandable since she’s from outside The Wheel, and well-founded given what she and Thrisdane have endured.’
‘I have a request of you, Sehereden. In the unlikely event the elddra does return, speak with me before you offer a lein-tryst.’
‘Of course, if that’s what you wish.’
‘It is what I wish. Thank you, lein.’
Ataghan sensed the air of expectation in Esh-accom as they passed the gates and his blood quickened. The crowds may have gone but the stalls of devotional tokens and tryst-bracelets were still busy, as were the semna-firi tents, which now provided private places to gift children, rather than seed them.
When he’d first come to Esh-accom, he’d thought winning the tournaments would be enough to win a child, and then accumulating coin, but come Glimwing and Cadestone, women had gifted their children elsewhere. Perhaps they sensed what he was, and that was the one thing he couldn’t change.
Taris tossed his head and Ataghan sent him soothing thoughts as he led his men across Axian. He could have taken the back streets but wanted to announce his return to any woman who still considered her options, and to any man tempted to persuade them to change their minds.
He was welcomed to his compound by the majellus’s familiar perfume and he noted the bolted shutters with satisfaction. He’d rotate his men through guarding duties, both here and wherever Fariye went, even if she were with Sehereden, and when Cadestone gave way to the undulations of Horse Zadic, he’d take her back to the Scinta Rill.
If Sita couldn’t be reclaimed, he’d let her choose another mare, and they’d journey together to the deepest clefts where parien feathers might still be found. His sett would be a happy place for her again, with many playmates, and if Ithreya came as Sehereden’s si- or lein-tryst, his lein’s child would be akin to a brother or sister for her. Fariye’s memories of the fighting and the elddra would fade, to become no more than a bad dream, obliterated by the bright light of day.
* * *
Viv leapt from the rift and darted behind a tree. She was in the pine-like forest at Stelin Ridge, as she’d known she’d be, and it was dark. This was where she’d all but drowned in her own blood; where Thris had snatched her back; where Baraghan had returned from Ezam. She remembered her last moments in the trees, but the rift’s resonant prints told her the rest. Erath had heightened her sensitivity, and while she had no idea how long she’d been gone, she hoped it was time enough to explain her long hair.
Ya goin’ to need more than long hair to deal with the arsehole, Vivi. She didn’t know what choosing love over hate really meant, but calling Poss’s father arsehole probably wasn’t part of the love bit. She wasn’t ready to call him Ataghan yet so Syld would have to do.
But staying on the side of love was easier in Erath where the only thing to hate had been thorns. She’d been welcomed there too, but Poss was here, and so that was that. The arse—Syld was here as well, unfortunately. Erath had shown her what it was to have a home and, if luck ran her way for once, her mother would be in Astraal, and she’d live there. If the Syld were civil, or at least didn’t try to kill her, she’d see Poss at Esh-accom’s festivities, or visit her at his sett. It would have to be enough. He certainly wouldn’t allow her to live with Poss full-time.
It was scary to think of making a home for herself, but Sehereden was right; she was tired of wandering. Elddra were accepted here, if not welcomed, and if her mother had come here, she’d have probably stayed. And if she hadn’t, Viv could spend the rest of her very long life looking and not finding her.
The forest remained quiet and she crept to the edge of the trees. Darker blotches marked the tunnel entrances but mounds loomed from the night. Viv had no memory of them and then as bones glimmered, she realised they were pyres. Six or seven, she counted numbly. When the arsehole took revenge, he did a very thorough job.
Chapter 12
Viv turned away. The Iahhel had healed many of her wounds but bloodshed still sickened her, and it was a while before she could look back. Bushes poked through the charred timber, which meant the pyres weren’t recent, and she glanced at the sky, hoping for a zadic, but the stars remained dull. Even if there were a zadic, she’d have to know which one, to know how long she’d been gone. I still need that bloody guide book, Thris.
She set off, keeping to the trees’ margin where the going was easier, and hugged herself to stay warm. Her shirt was halter neck, and her jacket and spare clothes in the Syld’s compound, along with her pack. They were the first things she’d reclaim. It would be quicker to fly but she wanted to reacquaint herself with the feel of The Wheel. Wanting to keep her feet on the ground was probably her Iahhel blood coming out, she concluded cynically.
Essera had wept when Viv left, and Viv had wept too. She was the all the best friends Viv had never had, and it was going to be hard to sleep without Essera’s comfort, assuming sleep didn’t desert her again too.
She reached Esh-accom’s walls as the sun cleared the horizon, and tucked her hair under her shirt collar. She wore the shirt normally, her confined wings, adding to her tension. She wasn’t in Erath’s safety anymore and ahead lay irate traders, elddra intent on hijacking her rift skills, and the man formerly known as the arsehole.
The gates swung open and Viv strolled on across the yard, despite every instinct screaming to sprint for the side streets. There were few people about, but it was early, or it might be due to the festivities being finished. Viv faltered. The Syld and his daughter could be long gone! She trawled through what Sehereden had told her as she walked. They came to Esh-accom at Fire Zadic, and again at Glimwing and Lirium, but what bloody zadic was it now? Viv mulled over her options as she turned up the street to the compound. If the Syld and Poss weren’t here, they’d be back at their sett, if there’d had time to rebuild it.
Poss might be happily settled with her new friends, and Viv’s reappearance dredge up a past best forgotten. She’d pledged to farewell Poss before she left permanently, but she wasn’t leaving permanently. Viv ground her teeth and was no closer to resolving the dilemma when she reached the compound and was annoyed to see it unguarded.
It seemed the Syld had learned nothing from his daughter’s abduction, unless the compound was deserted. She pushed the gate open, pleased to see horses in the stable. At least someone was home, and right on cue, a man stepped from the lee of the compound wall.
‘Your business?’ he demanded. Viv didn’t recognise him and he gave no sign of recognising her, and she wondered whether she’d mistaken the gate.
‘I’ve come to see my lein, the Syld’s daughter. I’m Viv,’ she added, as the man’s hard expression remained unchanged.
‘The Syld orders that no one enters his compound without his permission.’
‘Well, can you tell him I’m here?’
‘The Syld isn’t within.’
‘Is Sehereden here, then?’
‘The Syld orders those of his compound not be discussed.’
‘Fine,’ said Viv. ‘When the Syld comes back, can you tell him the elddra would like to see her lein, unless of course, your orders are not to discuss his former guests.’ The man nodded and Viv stormed out, only to collide with Caibel.
‘Welcome back to Esh-accom, Violet Iris Vacia,’ he said, steadying her.
‘Why are you here?’ she demanded, fuming from her exchange with the guard.
‘Baraghan en-Esh-a
ccom asked me to watch for your return and extend his invitation to you.’
Viv gaped at him. Of course Baraghan was back! His resonance had been in the rift. Caibel waited and Viv collected her wits. ‘How long has Baraghan been back in Esh-accom?’
‘Since late Fire Zadic.’
‘Which zadics have passed since then?’ asked Viv, not caring if Caibel thought her crazy. He wasn’t going to kill her.
‘Ice, Lirium, and Glimwing. We’re in Cadestone now, Violet Iris Vacia,’ he added politely.
‘Call me, Viv,’ she muttered, busy calculating the consequences of being away so long.
‘Baraghan en-Esh-accom instructs us to use your full name.’
‘Us?’
‘Those of his compound.’
‘Weren’t you living with your mother?’
‘I’m living with Baraghan en-Esh-accom now,’ said Caibel proudly. ‘He’s teaching me his surgeon’s skills.’ There was a pause. ‘Do you accept his invitation, Violet Iris Vacia?’
‘What invitation?’
Caibel blushed. ‘Forgive me. Baraghan en-Esh-accom invites you to be his guest during your stay in Esh-accom.’
‘Why would he do that?’
‘He didn’t think you’d want to stay here,’ said Caibel, and blushed again.
Perhaps, but that didn’t mean she wanted to stay with him either. He shared the Syld’s arrogance and she had a feeling he wanted to best the Syld in some way, but she didn’t have a lot of choice. She had nothing to trade and no intention of knocking on Anfarena’s door.
Viv nodded and followed Caibel back towards Axian. The square was busier than near the gate and she kept her head down and quickened her steps until Caibel took the hint and increased his pace too. If Anfarena’s watchers were about, they’d be here, and she wanted to avoid their demands as long as possible. She didn’t want to bump into Sehereden either; her feelings for him harder to deny now she was back. Same with Thris, but she was hardly likely to bump into him. Vivi’s so decisive, sneered Rim’s voice. Yes, I will forget about Sehereden; no, I won’t forget about him; yes, I will.
Baraghan’s compound turned out to be even grander than the Syld’s. A fountain sat in the middle of the yard and the building’s colonnades were heavily carved. Like the other compounds she’d visited, Its rooms were set around an internal courtyard, but in places the passageway’s windows opened directly into it, and Viv stared out in delight.
The courtyard housed a second, larger fountain, and ceramic tubs filled with flowering shrubs. The air was full of sweet scents, and the sound of fountain’s tinkling, and the flutter of red-breasted birds using the fountain as a bath.
‘It’s lovely,’ she breathed.
Caibel nodded. ‘It’s an enormous achievement. The courtyard was bare before Fire Zadic.’ Viv looked at him at astonishment. ‘Baraghan’s changed the building too. Those,’ he said, gesturing to embroidered banners on the wall, ‘were traded only recently.’ Viv wondered if Baraghan’s visit to Ezam had prompted the change, presuming he’d gone to Ezam.
Caibel stopped at one of the carved doors lining the passageway, and opened it. ‘Baraghan en-Esh-accom instructed me to offer you this room and to ensure your needs are met, should he not be here to welcome you himself.’
Viv stepped inside. ‘It’s bloody luxurious,’ she muttered. A sumptuous cover topped a carved bed of the same honey-coloured wood as the chairs, table and clothing chest, and vases of silvery leaves adorned the mantlepiece.
‘Bloodyluxurious?’
‘It has a lot of comforts,’ said Viv, finishing her inspection. ‘Whose room was it?’
‘No one’s. Baraghan en-Esh-accom’s compound has never had many people. There are a lot more of us now.’
‘Since Fire Zadic?’
‘Yes. Do you like the bed cover? It took the cloth-wright over a zadic to weave.’
Viv saw why; it was adorned in angels on a gold and silver background. ‘Angels,’ she muttered, her heart beginning an uncomfortable beat.
‘Angellus,’ corrected Caibel. ‘They came to the sacred lake of Astraal zadicans ago and seeded the Astraali …’ He stumbled to a stop. ‘Of course, you knew that, Violet Iris Vacia.’ He stroked the cover reverentially. ‘The Angellus were normal colours, of course. Baraghan en-Esh-accom asked the cloth-wright to make them prettier for you.’
Grey, yellow, and green angels hovered around the cover’s border but the centre was devoted to a white-winged blue angel, a black-winged gold angel, and bronze-winged gold angel. Baraghan had sent her a message only she would understand.
‘Do you like it?’ repeated Caibel.
‘It’s very beautiful.’
‘But not as beautiful as its new owner,’ said a voice behind her. Baraghan strolled into the room wearing his usual easy smile but there was no mistaking the intensity of his gaze. ‘Welcome back to Wheel Fold, Violet Iris Vacia, and more specifically, welcome to my compound.’
Chapter 13
Thris wrapped his wings about himself and let his thoughts drift. Ash’s music enveloped him as gently as Ezam’s air, and he saw again Beast Fold’s jungles, Hearth Fold’s emerald uplands, and Sand Fold’s deserts. He even saw, without raising his head, the view from his perch on the Blue Helixai: the Thorny Mountains’ crests, and the glimmering spirals of the Red, White, and Green Helixai.
Ezam was one of the Rynth’s uncountable folds, and he was one of its uncountable manifestations, no more important than the Beastmen of Beast Fold, or the flowers that turned at his passing in Hearth Fold. Transiting had gifted him an understanding of his smallness, that even the most inconsequential of things, had consequence. Angel caste, human caste, plant caste, animal caste, and all the castes beyond his comprehension were important, not because they served a greater purpose, but because the Great Beyond had brought them into existence.
But nothing existed in isolation. Ezam’s vines must have glis for their journey skywards, and mantises must have scarabs to survive. Yet while vines caused the glis no harm, mantises killed scarabs. He considered the effects of the Host’s hierarchy on Dane and Archae and faltered as he recognised the hurt the powerful could inflict on the powerless. It might be accidental but it might also be deliberate.
The music stopped and Ash’s honeyed breath dusted him. ‘What is it you fear, Thris?’
‘That I’ve hurt others; that I’m still hurting others. I abandoned Viv in a violent fold.’
‘She’s safe with the Iahhel now.’
‘For a while,’ said Thris, and scrambled to his feet. ‘I pledged to keep her safe, to take her to her mother, and yet I linger here.’
‘A lot has happened since you made that pledge. We are changed, you, me, and Ky, perhaps more than our wings show.’
‘Viv changed me when I joined with her,’ muttered Thris.
‘The consequences of joining are unknown.’
‘Not entirely. Archaes Kald and Dejon joined with human caste females and suffered no consequences.’
‘The shekinah’s half angel caste,’ Ash reminded him.
‘Yes, but I wonder if the difference is love. I don’t sense the Archaes loved the human caste they joined with.’
‘The Host is impelled by love, but you speak of sexual love. That is the preserve of human caste.’
‘Human caste? Our joining was a star-storm of beauty; a glimpse of how I imagine the Great Beyond to be. I felt no shame, nor that my chances of ascension were lessened. I felt healed and whole, and since I lost her, incomplete again.’
‘The Great Beyond keeps the Host and the Iahhel separate for good reason,’ said Ash.
‘Does it?’ cried Thris, turning on him. ‘Or is our separation one of the uncountable possibilities of the Rynth?’
‘I …’ began Ash, but bronze wings flashed into view as Ky dropped from above.
They embraced, glad to be together again, but Ky remained unsmiling. ‘I need to speak with you, Thris. I need to know about The Wheel.’
> * * *
The meal Baraghan served was as sumptuous as Viv’s room, although it was Baraghan’s servants who served her and a grey-haired woman who appeared to be the cook. Three younger women, who Baraghan introduced as Mishia, Derisi, and Verena, set the dishes on the table, refilled their goblets, and cleared away their plates while Baraghan kept up a patter of conversation about the pleasant jaunts all within a day’s ride.
He didn’t seem to expect a response which left Viv free to concentrate on the lightly seasoned, tender cuts of meat; greens doused in a citrus sauce; and goblets of mead. The meal was delicious. The final plates were cleaned away, Verena set fresh goblets and a jug of urrut-sa on the table, and the hall fell quiet.
‘I haven’t had a chance to say how relieved I am to see you,’ said Baraghan softly, as he filled her goblet. ‘After Stelin Ridge, I feared the worse.’
‘Thris collected me,’ said Viv, concentrating on her urrut-sa.
‘I was there. I saw him earlier too, in Ezam.’
‘So, you did go there.’
Baraghan grinned. ‘You chose the right rift.’
‘Did Anetherey end up there too?’
‘Anetherey?’
‘An elddra. She leapt after you before I could stop her. The elddra have had me followed since I’ve been here. They want me to show them a rift.’
Baraghan’s brows lowered. ‘They’ve threatened you?’
‘Let’s just say they won’t be happy I’ve been missing and will want to know where I’ve been.’
‘Where you’ve been is no concern of theirs.’
‘I’ll let you tell them that,’ muttered Viv. ‘If Anetherey didn’t exit in Ezam, the rift must have twinned and she’s ended up in some other fold. I just hope it’s kind to her.’
‘Unlike some of the folds you’ve been in, according to Ashdane,’ said Baraghan.
‘You said you saw Thris in Ezam,’ said Viv, ignoring his prompt to share her travels. ‘What did he say?’
‘Nothing. He was still drugged from his time here. I used hareesh to rouse him. The next time I saw him was when he burst from the rift at Stelin Ridge to collect you.’
