Stones shifted across the Hall with a groan, and out stepped the most beautiful being Eliza had ever seen. He was tall and lithe, with hair bright as spun gold framing the perfection of his face like a halo. His skin was pale and smooth as marble and almost shone from within. He had high cheekbones, a broad clear brow, a noble nose, and full lips. His eyes, large and long-lashed, spun with every colour imaginable. He moved with a lightness of step, an easy grace and perfect control no Di Shang dancer could hope to emulate, and yet even when he moved there was a deep stillness about him. His brightly coloured silk clothes seemed more a part of him than something he only wore, moving with him with startling grace. Flowing from his shoulders was a cloak of brilliant blue-green feathers. He exchanged greetings with the Oracle and then came over to look at the three of them in the web.
“How peculiar! Did you see she has a dragon’s claw? Well, you know where she must have got that from. She certainly hasn’t killed a dragon herself.”
“We will ask her when she comes,” said the Oracle.
“Are you the King of the Faeries?” asked Eliza.
He did not reply, merely gave her a disdainful look and continued speaking to the Oracle. “Where in the worlds did this mangy little thing get the gall to address me? Are you sure she’s a Sorceress? I don’t sense any power at all.”
“I am sure,” said the Oracle. “But it is strange.”
“All the better for us,” said the King of the Faeries. “I’ve had my fill of powerful Sorceresses. A powerless one is quite refreshing for a change.”
The Oracle did not reply to this. Both of them turned as the wall opened again and a familiar figure entered the Hall, spear in hand. Swarn greeted the other two gruffly and then glared directly at Eliza.
Eliza opened her mouth, intending to call out to Swarn, but instead the white tiger inside her opened its mouth and what came out of her was a roar so terrible the web shook and the Hall echoed with the sound of it.
“What was that?” screeched Nell, desperately struggling to turn her head.
The three members of the Triumvira were all instantly alert and cautious. For a moment none of them moved. When she was sure she was in control of her own voice again, Eliza said meekly, “Sorry. That was an accident.”
The King of the Faeries peered at Eliza. It was dizzying looking into his changing eyes. Eliza felt a bit sick and struggled to gather her thoughts so that she could make her plea.
“This girl...Sorceress...whatever she is...has brought her here,” he said, amazed. “How is it possible?”
“This is why you called us?” Swarn asked the Oracle tersely. “I know this girl. She has stolen a book from the Mancers, a book with the power to break barriers, under the thrall of the Sorceress Nia. Her father has been kidnapped, probably killed, and she hopes that the Triumvira will unite against Nia a second time.”
Eliza’s heart sank. “That’s nay...I’m nay...” But she didn’t know how to counter Swarn’s portrayal of her, and none of them were listening to her anyway.
“How is it that the two of you know all about her?” demanded the King of the Faeries.
“I found them in the marsh. The gryphon is a Shade – watch him closely. I sent them to the Wakabu-kraw for a merciful death. I do not know how they escaped.”
“She has a dragon claw, witch!” the King of the Faeries exclaimed. “Given to her by you, no doubt! Obviously, she cut her way out.”
“She would not have known to cut her way out if the Magic had held,” said Swarn. “Something else freed them.”
“Nia,” whispered the Oracle. The other two looked at her a moment.
“Why would you give her a dragon claw if you intended for her to be devoured by the Wakabu-kraw?” demanded the King of the Faeries at last.
“I made a promise once,” said Swarn grimly. “The claw belonged to her.”
“Not that again,” said the King with a roll of his eyes. “If you’ve lost loved ones to Nia, maybe you shouldn’t be giving presents to those obviously under her thrall. As you put it yourself a moment ago.”
“I do not need to explain myself to you,” Swarn flared back. “If giving assistance to Nia is at issue...”
“Well, we shall have to get rid of her,” the King interrupted. “Nia has power over her and an interest in her, for whatever reason. I don’t like it.”
“No!” cried Eliza. “I need your help!”
“They are so entwined,” said the Oracle, staring glassily at nothing. “I cannot untangle their destinies from each other. I had a vision of this girl. Powerless she may be, but she is important somehow. The worlds are changing. Ask me! Ask me how!”
“How are the worlds changing, O Oracle of the Ancients?” asked the King of the Faeries in a bored voice.
The Oracle cocked her head as if she were listening to somebody else speaking the answer. “These are the last days of Tian Di,” said the Oracle. “The gate will close.”
“We knew that already,” said the King. “I think your power is vastly overrated. Now, what are we going to do with her? I vote for some quick beheadings and then we can all go home.”
The gryphon began to struggle again. Eliza shouted, “Please listen to me!”
The Triumvira paused and looked at her. Her heart was leaping in her chest so hard it was difficult to breathe.
“Go on,” hissed Nell, quite unaware that their deaths were being discussed. “Ask them!”
“You fought the Sorceress...Nia...before,” Eliza began. Her voice was shaking. She cleared her throat and continued in a stronger voice: “My da has been snatched...”
“By the Ancients! Is she really here to ask us for help?” asked the King of the Faeries, cutting her off with an impatient wave of the hand. “What makes her think we give a dragon’s fart about her problems? It’s insulting! We ought to kill her for her arrogance alone!”
The Oracle darted over smoothly and silently on her eight golden-haired legs and stared at Eliza through the web, her perfect stony face just inches away. “Ask me a question, Sorceress.”
“Will you help me?” asked Eliza miserably.
The Oracle laughed, her lips drawn back. Eliza was repulsed to see her teeth were as thin and sharp as needles. “Ask a question to which you do not know the answer,” said the Oracle.
Her heart plummeted, but she asked anyway. “Is my da dead?” Speaking the question out loud made her sick with fear.
The Oracle tilted her head, listening. “He lives,” she said.
Her secret dread unraveled and relented. Eliza let out a sob of relief and hot tears poured down her face. The Oracle reached out a slender finger and caught one of the tears as it fell. Her finger was very cold and the touch made Eliza shiver. The Oracle brought the tear to her lips and tasted it. Then she smiled her chilling dagger-point smile again.
“The Faithful have marked you,” she said. “You have life and death in the palms of your hands. You hold joy in one and pain in the other. These are gifts of the Ancients, who live in you still. They have inscribed your destiny on your skin. Shall I tell you what I see for you?”
Eliza could not speak.
“Yours is the lonely road,” said the Oracle. “You will lose all those you love the most.” And she smacked her thin dark lips unpleasantly, as if she had just tasted something delicious. She turned back towards the other two. Swarn looked angry and the King of the Faeries looked bored.
“Nia is present in her,” said the Oracle. “She can see us now through this girl’s eyes.”
The King of the Faeries blanched and stepped further back. “I’ve had enough of this,” he said. “She provides Nia with a link, a dangerous link in my opinion, to the worlds outside her prison. She should be destroyed at once. If we let her go she will end up serving Nia’s ends somehow, I am sure of it.”
“Difficult to say,” said the Oracle. “She might be Nia’s downfall.”
“I find that highly unlikely,” said the King of the Faeries dryly.
<
br /> “I cannot see,” said the Oracle. “I abstain.” She settled down comfortably on her golden legs, looking rather prim and pleased with herself. The King of the Faeries rolled his eyes.
“If you have no objection, Swarn, I will do it myself right now.”
Despair washed over Eliza. Her fear and the skittering in her brain whenever the Triumvira spoke made her nauseous. She hung from the web and tears ran down her cheeks. The gryphon was thrashing wildly and Nell was shrieking questions, but she could not bring herself to speak or fight.
Swarn met Eliza’s eyes briefly. “I should be the one to do it,” she said. “What of the other two?”
“Get rid of all of them,” said the King of the Faeries, glancing at them as if they were cockroaches. “We don’t want them here.”
“The other child is no threat, just a human girl. I will send her back to Di Shang,” said Swarn. “You may do as you like with the Shade.”
“Perhaps I’ll take him back with me,” said the King absently. “Somebody will find a use for him.”
“Swarn,” Eliza managed to say. The witch looked across the hall at her, her expression unreadable. “Please.” She couldn’t say anything else. “Please.”
“I’m sorry,” murmured Swarn, more to herself than to Eliza, or perhaps she was talking to her long-dead friend. Then she raised her spear over her head and sent it hurtling straight for Eliza’s heart.
~ Chapter 15 ~
Eliza had no time to scream. The spear clattered to the ground an instant before it struck her. The walls screamed apart and the Emissariae of the Mancers soared into the Hall on their dragons, landing between the Triumvira and the web. The walls clanged shut again behind them. Eliza gave a gasp. She had never felt so grateful for breath.
The Mancers leaped from their dragons and faced the Triumvira, their eyes beaming light across the Hall. The shining dragons hulked before the web, guarding Eliza from further attack. The Hall trembled with the clash of powerful wills as the great beings exchanged their formal greetings. The King of the Faeries’ lips barely withheld his sneer.
“You have tried to harm what is ours, Swarn,” said Ka, and there was a terrible ferocity behind his words.
“You cannot keep her from harm,” replied Swarn. “She seeks it hard.”
“She is not yours to destroy,” said Ka. “Her power belongs to Di Shang.”
“Power?” exclaimed the King of the Faeries scornfully. “I think you are mistaken.”
“It was her mother that held the Sorceress Nia in single combat for a hundred days while we built her prison.”
“Oh yes, I heard,” said the King of the Faeries. “And then didn’t she get killed?”
Swarn turned a scorching look on him. The Oracle laughed brightly.
“Nia works in her deeply,” said Swarn to the Mancers. “She escaped from you with valuable and powerful objects. She is a danger to us all.”
“She is the ward of the Mancers, her life protected by His Eminence the Supreme Mancer, Kyreth,” thundered Ka. The web shook with the power of his voice.
Hidden from view by the dragons, Eliza, Nell and the gryphon struggled desperately to free themselves. But no matter how they pulled and pushed and wriggled, the web held them fast.
“We do not wish a confrontation,” said Swarn. “Can you guarantee the girl will be kept away from Nia?”
“Who says we don’t want a confrontation?” demanded the King of the Faeries. “Speak for yourself, Witch!”
“They will not be able to hold her,” said the Oracle smugly. “The girl will find her way to Nia if she lives.”
“Then she must die!” cried the King.
“You will peacefully allow us to take her back to Di Shang or suffer the consequences,” declared Ka. “The Mancers have long prepared the Magic we bear with us now.”
“So the Mancers seek a second conflict with the Faeries?” mocked the King. “You are overconfident.”
“It is you who is overconfident,” replied Ka. “The days of Faery dominion are long past.”
For a moment, the King of the Faeries looked as stunned as if Ka had slapped him. Then he began to grow taller and taller, filling the hall.
“I could bury you in a forest of Illusion you would never find your way out of,” he spat. “How dare you speak to me in that way!”
“Do you threaten us?” Ka shot back. “We, who maintain the prison of the Sorceress? If she escaped, how long would it take her to break the spell of banishment keeping her from Tian Xia?”
“We defeated her once and fear her not,” said the King. Swarn had begun to spin her spear on her arm in a threatening way. The Oracle was laughing like a giddy child at a birthday party.
“I need to be able to reach the dragon claw,” Eliza whispered to the gryphon and Nell, confident that none of the other beings in the Hall would be able to hear her over their own noise. “If I can get it in my hand then I can cut us all free. We need to get the web to swing.”
“Count of three and we all push left then right,” suggested Nell. It took them a few tries to get the rhythm right but soon they had the web swaying slightly, a little more with each shove. The gryphon’s weight in particular helped to get the web moving. The dragon claw swung gently around Eliza’s neck. The great beings in the Hall were still talking back and forth, angrily. The claw swung sideways, almost as far as her left hand. They leaned right and then leaned left and the flexible web bent with their bodies. The claw struck her hand and she caught it.
In the Hall, Swarn took the barrier star Eliza had given her from a pocket and hung it around her neck. “My barriers might equal yours,” she told the Mancers. “Think well before you offend me.”
“That belongs to us, Witch!” cried Trahaearn, manipulator of metal, his eyes blazing. Swarn smiled and spun her spear again. Quickly, quickly, Eliza cut away at the cords binding her, freeing her arms and then the rest of her body. The dragon claw passed through the web as if it was water, and the taut, sticky strands fell away. Moving along the web towards her friends was a slow and difficult process, however, since whenever she moved she was stuck anew. She kept her toes and one hand on the web and cut them free again with every step to the side. She cut the gryphon free and he dropped, hovering just behind the web, his wings pumping gently to keep himself in place. Nell made an awkward leap as Eliza cut the last thread holding her, landing on Charlie’s back with a grunt. Eliza followed, but her satchel caught on the web and jerked her backwards so she was splayed on her back now, the dragon claw once more hanging out of reach.
“Stay still, Eliza,” said Nell, quite unnecessarily, since Eliza could not move. Charlie pumped his wings, venturing ever so slightly closer. Nell reached to the side and caught hold of the dragon claw around Eliza’s neck. She cut her friend free quickly and Eliza fell onto the gryphon, landing so awkwardly she almost slipped right off. She righted herself with a gasp.
“Charlie, go!”
The wind that had carried them down to the Hall was against them now. The gryphon strained against it and the two girls pressed themselves flat against his back, the echoes of the angry and powerful beings in the Hall following them all the way to the top of the tower, where the stones grated apart to make way for them.
“Back to the Crossing,” said Eliza.
They shot out of the Hall of the Ancients and into a deep crimson evening sky. The moons were circling together just above the eastern horizon. The gryphon veered south, towards the bright lights of the Sparkling Deluder’s hanging gardens.
~
It was not long before Eliza saw the Mancers in pursuit, five black shapes against the night sky. Something larger and faster overtook the Mancers and was closing fast on the gryphon as he flew pell-mell over the snowy peaks. Swarn’s dragon. When the huge creature was nearly overhead a blade of green fire shot from its mouth. Eliza could feel the heat of it blazing past them as the gryphon dodged. The gryphon was flying for the mountaintops now, as if he thought their chan
ces were better out of the sky, seeking shelter, but there was nowhere to hide. He skimmed a ridge of icy rock and another blade of fire nearly caught them. There was a whistling in the air, and an arrow hissed by Eliza’s neck. They could not evade the more powerful creature, the more powerful being riding it, for much longer.
“Stop,” shouted Eliza. The gryphon swerved and landed suddenly on a plateau that broke off into a dizzying chasm. Eliza and Nell tumbled off his back into the snow. Swarn was standing over the girls before they had a chance to get to their feet, another arrow in her bow already, pointed at Eliza’s heart. Her dragon loomed behind her. Around them mountaintops blanketed in snow were swallowed by the night.
Eliza shut her eyes and threw her arms up before her face. Snow swirled about her, stuck to her cheeks. The wind howled. She could hear Nell weeping raggedly. But nothing happened. She opened her eyes slowly, lowered her arms. Swarn stood unmoving, her bow still pointing at Eliza. Her hands trembled ever so slightly.
“Twice now I have almost killed you and failed,” said Swarn. “I wonder if the universe wishes you to live. Or has Rea found some way to protect you even beyond her death? If I release this arrow, will it find its mark or will the fates intervene again?”
Eliza’s mouth was dry and her voice trembled when she spoke.
“You can help us,” she said to Swarn. “Please.”
Swarn shook her head. “I cannot.”
Over the witch’s shoulder, Eliza could see the shapes of the Mancers approaching in the dark sky.
“If you’re one of the Triumvira, then you fought the Sorceress before and defeated her!” she cried. “You can do it again!”
Swarn shook her head once.
“What if it was somebody you loved?” Eliza begged. “You wouldnay care about anything else except saving them!”
“At the cost of the worlds!” said Swarn in a low voice.
“How can you know what the cost will be? You cannay tell the future! All I know is she has my da and I have to help him. It’s what my ma would have wanted me to do, I’m sure of it.”
Shade and Sorceress Page 19
