by Mike Shevdon
"Is that protection from your own kind, or provided by your own kind?"
"You know very well what I mean." A flavour of menace entered those mellow tones.
"The assignment of the Warders has always been at the discretion of the head Warder, Lord Altair, as you are well aware," said Barthia.
"Of course." Altair sat back and moderated his tone, acceding gracefully. "Whoever you prefer, Garvin. Make your choice." He waved his hand, negligently.
"Mishla will be happy to ensure your safety while you stay, then. He'll be at your disposal."
"Is that acceptable, Mishla? Will you guard me?"
"I will, Lord Altair," said Tate behind me. His voice was flat, without inflection.
Lady Yonna spoke before Altair could make some further remark. "Altair is here for reconciliation talks, Garvin. We are exploring the possibilities of reuniting the courts. It would not be well if those negotiations were coloured by any unfortunate incidents."
"There won't be any, Lady. May I ask if anyone accompanied you on your visit, Lord Altair? Is there anyone else who might be in danger of becoming involved in an unfortunate incident?"
"There are two others here with me," said Altair. "I have asked Mullbrook if he would provide them with quarters near to my own."
"Then I shall ensure that they are also provided with bodyguards to ensure their safety during their stay."
"I'm sure they are quite capable of defending themselves."
"With a Warder in attendance, there will be no need for anyone to defend themselves, I can assure you Lord Altair."
"Very well, Garvin. As you say."
"Thank you, Lord Altair. If that is all, Lords, Ladies, I have arrangements to make."
"Will you leave Fionh with us, please, Garvin?" said Kimlesh, "She can bring word when the discussions are concluded."
"Yes, Lady." Garvin held his fist over his heart and I copied his movement. Then he turned and nodded to Fionh before leading the rest of us back through the door. Fionh peeled off and stood beside the double doors while we filed through, closing them after us as we left the room.
We marched back the way we had come.
"What…?" I was about to ask what my assignment was, but Garvin held up his hand. We went silently until we were back in the training room and the doors closed behind us. For the first time, I noticed that there were no mirrors in the room.
Garvin turned to the Warders. "Amber, Slimgrin, find the other visitors. Mullbrook should know where they are. Don't leave their side. I want to know where they go, what they do, who they talk to. Go now."
They both clasped their hands over their hearts, turned and left.
"Fellstamp, go and get some sleep. You'll rotate in eight hours. Keep the shoulder covered. You'll relieve Slimgrin, then Slimgrin will relieve Amber. Keep it rotating, twenty-four hours."
Fellstamp clenched his fist over his heart, turned and left, leaving me with Tate and Garvin.
"Tate, you'll do twelve and then I'll relieve you for six. I'll watch out for the Lords and Ladies and rotate with Fionh. We don't know how long the wraithkin are staying, but until they leave I want everything locked down. No one in, no one out. Except Niall."
"Why me?"
"You're leaving tonight. Tate, get field kit for Niall, please. Low profile."
Tate placed his hand over his heart, turned and left.
"What about Blackbird? I can't leave her with them here."
"She's safer here than elsewhere. While Altair is on this side of the barrier they can bridge the gap. He can bring in others if he wants to. If she's elsewhere then she's isolated and they can pick her off at leisure. If she's here they'll have to go through one of us to get to her."
"I could protect her."
"If you stay, they will find a way to isolate and eliminate you. It will be an accident, or they'll say they were provoked. Frankly, your existence is enough to provoke them."
"I'll stay out of the way. They won't know I'm here."
"You're not listening. If they're here for peace negotiations then all is well and good. If there's peace, we all benefit. If they leave, even better. If they're not here for peace negotiations then why are they here? What could they want that's here? It's nearly solstice, Niall, the time of balance. Thanks to your efforts in restoring the barrier, this is one of the few times that they can cross from their world into ours. Once the solstice passes they will have to leave or be stranded here, so they have little time to achieve whatever they came for. Whatever that is, you can be sure they're not here by accident."
"What if they're here to prevent Blackbird having the baby?"
"If they touch Blackbird then they violate the truce. Blackbird is part of Yonna's court and she would demand blood price. That's a lose-lose. You, on the other hand, are a Warder. You're not part of anyone's court and you're in harm's way. You may even be the sole purpose for their visit."
"Why me?"
"You're a half-breed and a wraithkin. That's enough on its own. You restored the barrier, making it harder for them to cross into our world. You're a Warder. There hasn't been a wraithkin Warder since the night they left. All of that makes you a target. I'm just putting you out of harm's way, Niall. It's for your own good."
"I'd rather stay."
"It wasn't a request, Dogstar. You're a Warder. You'll go where you're sent."
I started to protest, but he held up his hand. "I want you out of here by dawn. There's a fishing town on the north-east coast called Ravensby. There are disturbing reports – some are saying it's a rogue fey. None of the courts are claiming it, so it's ours. Go there and find out what's going on. Use the Warder's discretion. It should be right up your street."
Warder's discretion – that meant: do whatever's necessary.
"What do I do when I find out what's going on?"
"Deal with it, but understand your limits. If you need help, contact me and I'll send someone as soon as I can. Keep it low profile. I don't want any more house fires."
"That wasn't…"
He just raised an eyebrow.
I held my fist over my heart. "I'll go and tell Blackbird."
"And lead them straight to her? No, you leave now. Tate will kit you out with what you need. I'll tell Blackbird as soon as there's an opportunity to do it discreetly. I want you out of here now before they can organise something."
"I don't even have any clean underwear."
"The Warders were never prevented from their duty by a lack of underwear, Dogstar. You have your mission."
He stared at me until I clenched my fist over my heart again, accepting his orders. He nodded, sombrely. Tate returned with a plain black holdall.
"What am I supposed to do when I get there?"
"You'll know. Don't fail me. I have arrangements to make so I'll leave you in Tate's hands. Keep safe, Warder, and think before you act. No more accidents."
I nodded and he patted me on the shoulder. I watched him walk across the room and close the door quietly behind him.
"You're going to have your hands full," I said to Tate.
Tate ignored my comment. "No mission for the Warders is ever simple or without danger. Watch your back. We don't know whether Altair will bring any more of his cohort with him. We don't know what hazards are already there."
"Will you look out for Blackbird for me?"
"I'll do what I can. There'll be wards placed around her quarters. We'll know if they get close."
"I don't like leaving her like this."
"She survived for many years without you, Niall, remember that. She's no one's pushover."
"She had her magic before."
"Even so." He handed me a passport, an ID card, a wallet. "You are Neal Dawson, freelance journalist. You're looking for a story. It'll give you an excuse to poke your nose in other people's business."
"I'm not a journalist, Tate, and you know I won't be able to lie about that."
"It's just another label – like Niall, or Dogstar. Neal Dawson is a journalist
. He's filed several stories in the last six months. A couple of them have made the national press. He's been paid for them. He's a member of the National Union of Journalists. He tends to write slightly off the wall, investigative pieces that dig into the facts – story behind the story, that type of thing. You're Neal Dawson. The fact that the stories were ghost-written for you is irrelevant."
"They were written for me?"
"The Warders need to be able to move around in the world, Niall. We all have our aliases, alternative identities. Yours was prepared for you months ago and it will be maintained for you as long as you serve. The stewards aren't just housekeepers, you know?"
"I didn't know, no."
"Preparation is key. Remember that."
"Great. I don't even know what I'm looking for."
"This one's been hanging around for a while, we just haven't had the opportunity to deal with it. It's right up your street."
"That's what Garvin said. What does that mean?"
"If he wanted me to tell you he'd have said so."
"Ever loyal, eh, Tate?"
"I follow orders. So should you. It'll keep you alive."
"Why did Altair call you Mishla?"
"It's my name."
"I thought your name was Tate."
"That's a nickname." He showed me the contents of the holdall: uniform, wash kit, underwear, all in my size.
I refused to be distracted. "What kind of a nickname is 'Tate'?"
"It's short for something. This is your codex. It shows the Way-points. If you're wise you'll ward it so no one else can read it."
It was a small, leatherbound book with pages like tissue but made from something stronger. He showed me how the node-points were listed. Each page had a number in the top left corner with notes of what to expect when you reached that place. Sometimes there was a little sketch or a delicately coloured drawing of the site. Below were the page references for other node-points that could be reached from that point and where you might go from there. Tate took me through the journey I was about to make, showing me how the index worked and what to expect on the way.
"There's space to add your own notes at the bottom of each entry. Take my advice, use a pencil. Things change."
"Thanks." I took it from him. "So what's Tate short for?"
He sighed. "The Decapitator."
I was taken aback and he could see it.
He opened the wallet, flicked through the money stuffed into it and handed it to me. "It was a long time ago," he said, "and I keep it as a reminder."
"A reminder of what?"
"If you're going to kill wraithkin you have to get in close. You get one chance or they have you. Tate is to remind me that I only have to get sloppy once and I'm dead."
"You killed a wraithkin?"
"More than one."
"That must make you nearly as much of a target as me."
"I'm a Warder. I do my job. Do yours." He thrust the bag into my hands.
I took it from him and we walked out together towards the basement room where the node for the Way was. As we came out into the hallway, a familiar voice behind me called to me from behind.
"Alshirian Dogstar, they tell me you are a Warder now."
I stopped at the use of my formal court name and turned, suddenly conscious of the weight of the sword swinging from my hip. Walking towards me were two men, shadowed by Amber and Slimgrin. The first was taller, his hair dark and full like my own, but styled in a way that suggested Edwardian gentleman rather than assassin. His face was long, his cheeks carved like mine. In a room of strangers I would have picked him out as a cousin or an uncle, maybe. His smile was filled with warmth, but I knew he hid his feelings well.
"Raffmir, I should have guessed that it would be you accompanying Lord Altair."
His smile widened and he opened his arms as if he might attempt a hug. I let my hand fall to the hilt of my sword and his arms paused and then dropped to his side.
"I asked it of him, as a special favour, so that we might meet again." He bowed extravagantly, allowing me to keep my distance.
I returned the bow with a discreet nod.
"Let me introduce you to Deefnir, another of our kind." The our kind part of the introduction rang sour to my fey hearing.
Like Raffmir's and mine, Deefnir's face was on the long side, his cheeks high and sharp. He looked younger than Raffmir, though perhaps that was his style of dress. His high-collared shirt ruffed out over a brocade jacket that shimmered with green like a scarab's carapace. His silk trousers were tight to his legs and were tucked into black suede boots. A black sash was wound around his waist and was caught with a silver clasp. He took a half step back and bowed slowly.
"I have heard about you, Dogstar." That at least sounded genuine. "From what Raffmir told me, I thought you would be taller."
"Sorry to disappoint." I inclined my head to him in the same way I had to Raffmir. "Welcome, both, to the High Court." I could hear the falsehood in that echoing in my own voice, but I was giving nothing new away. "It will be a brief meeting, I am afraid. I'm not staying."
"I'm saddened by your departure, of course," said Raffmir. "I was hoping we would have time to renew our acquaintance, and speak discreetly, perhaps?" He turned and smiled at Amber, who met his smile with blank eyes.
"I'm really leaving, Raffmir, just as soon as I can gather my things together."
"A shame, truly. And how is your partner, Blackbird the witch?"
"She doesn't like that word," I told him.
"I know, but it suits her, don't you think? I understand she's had further accidents with fires getting out of control."
"Is there something you want, Raffmir?"
"When you see her, please pass on my greeting and remind her of me."
"Do I need to remind you that you are bound by fey law not to cause her harm?"
"As you are bound not to harm me, Dogstar. Are you planning to draw that sword?"
My hand dropped from the hilt. I couldn't use it against him. After the trial by ordeal, we were both bound by fey law not to harm each other. If I violated that agreement then I would be in contempt and he would be free of his obligations. It was better to have us both constrained.
"I will pass on your greeting, Raffmir."
"Tell her…" He paused as if wondering what to say, though I was sure he already knew what it was. "Tell her that I hope to bump into her soon."
Bump into her? Did that mean he knew about the baby?
"Good day, Raffmir." I refused to rise to the bait.
"Good day." He stood there waiting for me to leave.
I bowed more deeply than I had before and they both returned the gesture grandly, then turned and walked back the way they had come, their escorts falling in behind. I watched them go and then followed Tate silently through the halls.
The dream from earlier came back to me. I had been standing in the frozen glade, the place where Raffmir's dead sister had lured me to feed on my life essence. She couldn't be alive, surely? Blackbird had blown her to bits, hadn't she? I had to admit, my memory of those events was incomplete at best. I had been drowning at the time.
We came to the room where the Way-nodes were marked on the floor. The rest of our belongings had been cleared away, probably by the house staff. I was grateful. The fewer clues available for Raffmir to go snooping around, the better.
"Stay safe. You need this node to head north." Tate indicated one of the stars in the pattern on the floor "You can use the codex to find your way from there. Get in touch if you need help."
"I will."
I stood over the point he had indicated and felt beneath me into the rock, orientating myself to the north. The Way was there, vibrating with power. Wrapping myself in concealment so that I would go unnoticed when I arrived, I formed a connection with it, acknowledging its presence and letting it recognise me. I stepped forward. It swelled beneath me and swept me into the stream, taking me far from the basement room. The void, the element of the w
raithkin, echoed around me as I swept across the blue-black emptiness, melting into existence in a darkened room somewhere. It smelled of dust and woodworm.
There was only one line into this node and one out, so I simply stepped again, feeling the rush of the Way as it picked me up and hurled me, like a boardless surfer, across the black.
The next node was a woodland clearing, just an anonymous rise in the middle of a wood. A few yards away, a dog-walker threw a stick out into the trees and her golden labrador romped after it through the bushes of the dawn-light. Neither of them noticed me as I consulted the codex in the growing light and stepped again on to the Way. This time it was harder. The Ways are great for covering large distances in a short time, but using them tires you quickly. I knew to be wary, so when I found my mind drifting to thoughts of Alex and where she might be, I forced myself to concentrate on the node-point, the place where I needed to be. I arrived in a cornfield; a twenty-foot-tall brown stone spike emerged from the gently swaying heads only yards away. Yards away, another finger of stone pointed upwards. The spike was scored with deep marks as if huge claws had scraped down it. Lichen coloured its surface with curly-edged stains of red and amber. I wondered whether the stones were part of the Waynode or here simply to mark its presence.
I consulted the codex and returned to the Way. This jump felt easier, as if I was guided in. When I reached the node a similar stone faced me, even taller than the last. It stood surrounded by gravestones in the middle of a churchyard, the pillars each side of the medieval church dwarfed by the monolith, which must have been there long before Christianity reached Britain. Once again, ancient sites had been adopted and adapted, each generation incorporating the old into the new.
I had one more jump to make, so I steeled myself and focused my intention on the Way, letting it swell under my feet and sweep me onward. I forced myself to focus on my destination, resolutely ignoring the echoes of sounds, like lost voices, that permeated the no-place of the Way. My feet found firm ground and I arrived.
The Way-point was on high ground, as they sometimes are. It sat back from the town in a hollow below the hilltop. There was no sign of a structure or habitation, but then some of them had no human significance. Through the scraggy brush I could see the road leading down through the terraced houses and below that, the streets curving around like giant steps, down to the harbour. It looked tight, enclosed by the hills, everything leading down to the harbour in the centre. Across from me on the opposite hilltop was a large building, its clean new bricks catching the dawn light in a ruddy reflection. The tinted glass and curved terrace design echoed the town, but in a way that emphasised the difference between old and new. I wondered who would have built such a dominating building so high above the town. I was surprised they had got planning consent for such an obvious eyesore.
