Darkfall

by Isobelle Carmody

  Tareed looked excited. ‘Remember we asked him about the parcel and he said it had been a fool’s errand? Surely that means he went to get it, but found there was nothing there.’

  ‘Maybe he sent someone else to get the parcel and was told by that person that there was nothing,’ Anyi said.

  ‘No,’ Ember said, and they all looked at her. ‘Asa told Bleyd he had to collect the parcel personally. The shipmaster had orders to deliver it specifically to him. I think he went at once, because Asa told him the ship was to leave that day.’

  ‘Very well. We know that Asa gave a message to Bleyd because Ember heard it. But did Asa deliver the same message that he had been given? Did the legionnaires deliver the message exactly as it had come from the urchin and did Bleyd actually get the parcel?’

  ‘He did not!’ Anyi said coldly.

  Feyt ignored him. ‘We think he did not, because he said it had been a fool’s errand, but we do not know, and if we are to prove him innocent, we must know everything and be able to prove it. We must speak to the legionnaire who gave the message to Asa …’

  ‘That will be difficult because there is a constant turnover of trainee legionnaires from all septs and most often gate guard duty is given to them,’ Tareed pointed out. ‘The one who took the message might easily have returned to his sept by now.’

  ‘If we have to, we will contact all septs and have them question recently returned trainees. If he was Iridomi, we might manage to build a chain of evidence of our own.’

  ‘I doubt Coralyn will have been careless enough to implicate herself or Iridom. Remember such plots are meat and bread to the Iridomi,’ Alene murmured.

  ‘We could offer a reward for the urchin who brought the message,’ Tareed suggested. ‘That way we would know which ship sent it. Maybe it was not even sent from a ship but from someone purporting to be a shipmaster.’

  Feyt snorted. ‘Offer coin for the messenger and we would have every urchin in the street confessing to being the one. We will ask around quietly without mentioning a reward. I suspect we will find that not only did a legionnaire give the message to Asa as he said, but that an urchin brought a message from a shipmaster asking Bleyd to pick up a parcel personally, and that all the messages tally. This plan has been too well designed to allow it to falter on such small points. I think we must concentrate on what happened when Bleyd went to the pier and the easiest way would be to ask him.’

  ‘No one is being allowed access to him,’ Anyi said. ‘Asa says it is because he might incite his comrades to try again.’

  Feyt cursed. ‘Then we must do it the hard way. We must get the pier manifest for the day Bleyd went to the pier so we can see which vessels were in port and question them ourselves.’

  Tareed said, ‘What if we find a ship did carry a parcel for Bleyd but it was only a decoy? Would he not then have called it a fool’s errand? Yet, who would know it contained nothing? We may find we are proving his guilt.’

  ‘It may be that we will have to trace the parcel further back to find out whence it came and by whose hand it was delivered to the ship on Fomhika.’

  ‘What if a messenger delivered it to a ship on the green isle, claiming it was from my father?’ Anyi worried.

  ‘Then perhaps the most we can do is produce a parcel passed mysteriously from messenger to messenger and suggest to Tarsin that the whole thing was a ruse set up to implicate Bleyd. But we have done enough speculating when we have so little time to act. We need to have some facts. Feyt, you will … use whatever sources you must to find the legionnaire and the urchin.’ Distaste showed in her features as she referred obliquely to the Shadowman and his mysterious network. ‘We must get the manifest, and speak to whatever ships now in port are listed on it. If you do not find the ship we will have to contact Fulig. I think I must also get word to Poverin, so that he can see if there has been a trail of evidence against him laid within his own sept.’

  Ember wondered if they weren’t making their search needlessly complicated. ‘Couldn’t Poverin just deny he sent a parcel?’

  Feyt glanced at the tight-lipped mermod before answering. ‘To begin with, if he were guilty, Poverin would deny it anyway. And unfortunately it is well known that he is impatient for Anyi to become the Holder.’

  ‘All this is because of my being the mermod,’ Anyi said miserably.

  Feyt slung a strong arm about the boy’s skinny shoulders. ‘Anyi, this affair concerns more than the rule of Keltor or even one boy’s life. It is about the very essence of Lanalor’s Charter and control of Keltor. Coralyn wants you out of the way because, like your father, you have made no secret of your loyalty to Darkfall. There are those who, because of that loyalty, will claim you were part of this plot. It may even be suggested that the misty isle is behind it, seeking to bury its errors with the aid of your family.’

  ‘That is true,’ Alene said sadly. ‘Those who hate Darkfall will see what has happened as at least proof of our impotence, if not of outright villainy. I fear my friendship with Bleyd will bring no joy to him now.’

  ‘Alene, we will set in motion our researches, but you must consider that this is not the full extent of Coralyn’s plotting. Think of Iridom’s refusal to supply atar for our javelins. Is it possible she would use Kalide to make war against Darkfall?’

  The soulweaver shook her head. ‘We have spoken at length of this, Feyt, and you know as well as I that Vespi would not countenance such a war. Let us suppose the worst happens: Tarsin is killed and Anyi murdered. Maybe Coralyn could convince Fulig to accept Kalide as an interim Holder, and even allow his ships to carry legionnaires to bring Poverin to justice, leaving Gedron interim chieftain. Gedron is no more for Coralyn than Jurass of Acantha is, but they both despise Darkfall and with the Draaka on her way, maybe they would strike an alliance with the Iridomi chieftain. Iridom is hers already, Ramidan would be in turmoil whatever happened, and all know Sheanna will not fight. Therefore we would stand alone.’

  ‘With Myrmidor,’ Feyt said, deep and soft as if it were an oath.

  ‘I say we and mean Darkfall and Myrmidor for we have stood together since Rhiad swore oath to Danae,’ Alene said gently. ‘But even if all of this came to pass, still Vespi would not allow Coralyn to make war on Darkfall. Though Kalide sat in Tarsin’s place and commanded Fulig to carry his mother’s legionnaires to war, Fulig would not obey.’

  Feyt still looked troubled. ‘Alene, I think you put much faith in Vespi. Fulig is stubborn in his loyalty and his adherence to the old laws, but that is a fault as well as a virtue. Has he not been finessed by his very adherence to the letter of the law into allowing Coralyn to bring so many of her legionnaires here already? Who knows what else he might agree to, if it were put to him in the right way? And if Fulig accepted Kalide as Holder he could legitimately call a quorum which could vote to destroy Darkfall for some trumped-up reason. Fulig would have no choice but to obey.’

  ‘The Charter says that a quorum cannot by law be called except by one who is given the power by Darkfall Decree. You can be sure Fulig will be well aware of that,’ Alene said. ‘But to have Kalide on the throne would be no joke. And I have another thought. Coralyn could use her troops to compel the installation of Kalide as temporary Holder, claiming she did so to prevent anarchy, then argue that Darkfall is empowered only to choose a mermod and, therefore, can only choose a successor to Kalide.’

  Anyi said with sudden anger, ‘I am tired of all this talk of a future in which my brother and my father and I are dead! Coralyn will not find me an easy target and my father will not let Tarsin hurt Bleyd. He will act to stop this.’

  Alene moved to sit by the boy. She took his dirty paw in her white hand and stroked it as if it were a frightened animal. ‘Dear Anyi, I do not know how to say this, and so I say it simply and without sweetening because of who you are and what you will become. Poverin cannot risk Fomhika for Bleyd. He will send a denial of his involvement in this plot but he will not speak for Bleyd in case your brother is judged g
uilty. If Bleyd is to be saved, it is we who must do the saving.’

  Anyi looked stricken ‘What about the note that came with the bottles?’ he whispered. ‘I heard it was from my father, and contained instructions on mixing their contents. It cannot be my father’s hand that scribed it. I can testify to that and even prove it with some old scrolls he sent me.’

  Feyt gave him a pitying look. ‘Do you think Coralyn will not have employed the best forger?’

  ‘It’s so stupid,’ Anyi muttered, his eyes glittering with suppressed tears. ‘My father would never risk Bleyd’s life by making him deliver poison. He loves Bleyd.’

  There was a little silence, for they all heard the words he did not say, though they must have trembled on his lips. He loves Bleyd more than me.

  ‘There are those who would say one son’s life for another’s throne would be a fair trade,’ Feyt pointed out.

  ‘My father would never betray Bleyd! Never!’ Anyi cried.

  ‘There is one thing in our favour,’ Feyt said. ‘Tarsin genuinely wants to know who tried to kill him. He will examine the evidence against Bleyd with a wary eye. Did he himself not doubt Poverin would make such an incriminating gift?’

  Alene sighed. ‘I am afraid it will only be suggested that had the plot succeeded, it would have been investigated by the new Holder: Poverin’s youngest son, who would have been prevailed upon by his father to thwart the inquiry.’

  ‘We really need to talk with Bleyd,’ Tareed said.

  ‘But I told you, no one is allowed to see him!’ Anyi said, his face pinched with exhaustion and streaked with dirt and tears. ‘I hate Tarsin.’

  ‘Hatred is foolish,’ Feyt said sharply. ‘It gets in the way of clear thinking and a Holder must always think before he acts.’

  ‘I am no Holder. I am sorry I was ever chosen!’ Anyi cried, then ran from the room. Alene held up her hand to prevent Feyt from going after him.

  ‘Let him be for now. He needs time alone to come to terms with what has happened. I will go now and send word to Darkfall and Poverin. Tareed, you will come with me, and Feyt, perhaps you can get a copy of the manifest by this evening, and make enquiries about the legionnaire who took the message from the urchin.’

  ‘Will you not … soulweave if all else fails to find out what really happened?’ Tareed asked.

  Alene shook her head regretfully. ‘I love Bleyd but to soulweave here and now would be too great a risk. After all, we know from Ember’s vision who is behind the plot. What we need is proof that it was not Bleyd. Our best chance is to prove there is no physical connection between those bottles and Bleyd. If I soulweave, maybe I could see what happened and find some way to get proof, but the danger would be great. The Void is more unsettled than I have ever known it, making soulweaving difficult and precarious. Even if I managed to segue to the memory I want and return safely, I do not know how long it would take. What would it serve us for me to waken days after Bleyd’s execution with the news that he is innocent? And it will be said that I lie to protect Bleyd no matter what I say.’

  ‘A soulweaver would not lie to protect the would-be murderer of the Holder, no matter who it was,’ Tareed said indignantly.

  ‘In these times, Tar, who will believe that?’

  ‘I would,’ Anyi said. He had come quietly in the door and, though pale, his face was now clean and calm. ‘I am sorry, Alene. I behaved like a stunned aspi. What can I do to help?’

  Alene smiled at him. ‘There is no need for apologies, mermod. You were right in reproaching us for doom-mongering. We are about to begin our investigations. I would like you to remain here with Ember to guard her, since you know the truth about her.’ Ember started at that. ‘And Anyi, keeping yourself safe will be as much a blow against Coralyn as attacking her overtly.’

  ‘Lock the door when we are gone and open to no one,’ Feyt instructed the mermod when Alene and the two amazons were ready to depart. Anyi nodded solemnly, drawing a knife from a sheath at his waist. Ember realised he must have belted it on when he washed his face.

  ‘I will guard Ember with my life,’ he vowed.

  ‘Hopefully that will not be required,’ Feyt said sardonically, closing the door behind her.

  29

  Was my brother’s tale completed in the Legendsong? In as much

  as any story may be said to tell a life, it was. But stories spin

  and are respun across the ages, and who knows where one ends

  and another begins? Endings are, after all, the invention of

  mortals, whereas beginnings are divine. Can the divine be said

  ever to be finished and summed by the mortal? I do not think so.

  THE ALYDA SCROLLS

  Left alone, Ember and Anyi stared at one another.

  ‘I didn’t tell her I had met you,’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ the boy answered. ‘I told her when you were ill. It seemed foolish to keep it hidden after all that has happened, and I was worried for you. Do you mind if we sit on the terrace?’

  Ember nodded and took up her veil. Anyi seemed less a child than he had been on the other occasions when they had been alone. Outside, the sky was fittingly cast over with clouds, and of one accord they sat on the stone bench closest to the edge, side by side, and gazed out over the citadel.

  Talk of Bleyd and proof and plans had kept Ember from dwelling on her own troubles, but now, her mind circled inevitably to the fact that twice that day since her audience with Tarsin, there had been pain and brief periods of blindness.

  Very, very bad, her mind whispered.

  She had tried not to worry about it, knowing there was nothing to be done here. Alene had beggared her power to keep pain from Ember until now, and it seemed only fair that she should endure it herself at last. The pain had been bad, but the worst of it was that she sensed it was only a forerunner of the real thing. She told herself that she would get to Darkfall in time to be healed.

  But underneath was the awareness that if she failed, she would die. It had to be faced, for who could say how much time she had? Not Alene, for all her powers. She wanted to beg Alene to smuggle her off Ramidan, but it was clear the soulweaver was bound by her position in this world above all else and, right now, her attention was focused on proving Bleyd of Fomhika had not tried to poison his ruler.

  If I had not called out, Tarsin would be dead and maybe in the turmoil I could have been sent away, Ember thought. But it was a thought of such manifest selfishness that she was ashamed. There is not just my life at stake and at least I have a chance. In prison, Bleyd has none. That brought her back to Anyi.

  He felt her eyes. ‘A storming is building.’ He nodded to the black horizon.

  ‘Will it come here?’

  He looked up at her then and said, ‘I am sorry I did not tell you who I was before. Somehow it was easier to pretend I was not the mermod because I have never really been able to believe it. It seemed an adventure to make my guards search for me, but in my heart I felt it must be some mistake that they must bow to me when they caught me. How could I be the mermod? Anyi from Fomhika, the youngest and least of my father’s sons?’ He shook his head. ‘I was not even destined to be a chieftain. All the education and training was lavished on Bleyd because he is chieftain successor, and the rest on Gedron because he was such a brilliant scholar and because if anything happened to Bleyd before he had any children, Gedron would have had to be chieftain,’ he added.

  ‘Gedron thinks he should be chieftain because he is cleverer than Bleyd, and he loves power. My father once told Gedron that power was not about ruling people, but about serving them. The truth is, my sister Rilka, although she is a child, would make the best chieftain of us all, for she is both clever and kind. But all of us would have to be dead before that could happen because she is youngest.’ He stopped, as if acknowledging that his and Bleyd’s deaths were not so far from possible. He laughed a trifle bitterly. ‘When I was chosen, it was asked openly why Bleyd had not been named instead, because he
was strong and brave. Or Gedron for his silver tongue and swift wit. Or even my brother Donard, who is handsomest of us all. It seems beauty and strength or at least cleverness are what people want in their rulers.’

  ‘You were the one named by Darkfall Decree, Anyi, and that has to mean something,’ Ember said, though she could see how a father would find it easier to imagine handsome, dashing Bleyd on the Keltan throne than gawky, knock-kneed Anyi.

  The boy shrugged self-deprecatingly. ‘Who knows why Darkfall chooses? I am sure it does not mean the one chosen is better that anyone else. The merest aspi-herder may be chosen over one of noble blood. They chose Tarsin, and look at him. Believe me, Ember, it is no distinction to be the chosen of the misty isle.’

  ‘I’m sure there was a good reason for both Tarsin’s choosing and yours …’ Ember said stoutly, but she wondered suddenly if that was true. Why had Darkfall chosen Anyi, or Tarsin? Why had they refused to revoke their choice of Tarsin when he was so clearly unfit?

  ‘Alene believes that there is a reason for all things,’ Anyi observed. ‘Yet who says it is a reason that would make sense to me? After all, the soulweavers do not choose the mermod for his ability to make stirring speeches, or to ride an aspi or fight or even to rule well and wisely. Everything they do, including the naming of a mermod, is connected to the coming of the Unraveller. Hundreds of mermods have been chosen, yet still the Unraveller does not come. Who can say why any of them were chosen? They lived and died never knowing why. I am no more than another step in a plan of long centuries. Sometimes I wonder if the Draaka is not right in saying the Unraveller will never come.’

  Ember had no idea what to say. Maybe Anyi was just a small expendable pawn in some inexplicable game. She didn’t know enough to judge. As for the Unraveller coming or not, she was hardly an authority on Keltan religions and myths to answer that. In her world there had been lots of stories about legendary figures who were supposed to return.