‘She has been unwell lately, Farn.’
Although nothing had been said, Shea understood that Farn had no idea of the First Daughter’s condition. She wasn’t sure if the information was deliberately being kept from him or people just hadn’t thought to tell him. It was never spoken of, but then, no one seemed to be forbidden access to the First Daughter’s rooms, so it couldn’t be a secret. Akomi’s claws relaxed.
‘Khosa says you could visit her.’ His mind tone was soft with affection.
Farn pushed himself up from his reclined position, his eyes whirring sapphire and pearl. ‘Well why didn’t someone says so?’ he asked indignantly. ‘She must think I don’t care.’
Akomi slid from Shea’s lap as she rose and moved to Farn. She stroked his cheek.
‘She knows you care Farn. She knows we all care.’
Farn huffed and paced after Akomi who sat patiently waiting beside the smaller arched doorway. Shea followed, trusting Khosa and Akomi’s judgement in this, but also apprehensive of the young Dragon’s reaction. Storm remained in the great chamber concentrating on an incredibly brilliant riddle, and was hardly aware that he’d been left alone. Shea slipped in front of Farn, watching nervously as he squeezed carefully beneath the arch.
‘You won’t get stuck will you?’
‘Of course I won’t,’ came his confident reply.
Two elderly Dark healers stood at the foot of a great bed. The bed had a strange cloth roof over it, such as Farn had never seen. He hesitated as Akomi climbed up to settle beside Khosa. One of the men took a step towards Farn.
‘My name is Mull. I welcome you, young one. We hoped you might visit.’
Farn took a cautious pace and ducked his head under the canopy. He became still, utterly still. Shea looked at Mull in consternation but he shook his head, holding his hand out to her. Khosa’s vivid turquoise eyes watched Farn steadily.
‘She is still very far away, Farn, but we keep her company. We hope she will remember, and come back.’
The body on the bed was so frail it barely caused the covers to be raised. The face was a devastation.
‘Because of me?’ Farn whispered in horror.
‘No.’ The other healer, Treska, came round the bed and rested a hand between Farn’s wings. ‘She would have taken this path sooner or later, and your predicament gave her reason to take it sooner. She was glad to have a purpose other than to seek out the Crazed One.’
Farn lowered his face until his nose nearly touched Lerran’s chin. Great tears splashed onto the tusks protruding from her swollen mouth. Very carefully, Farn backed away, turning in a tight circle in the much smaller room. He paced to the door, looking back over his shoulder once before manoeuvring himself out into the passage.
Shea moved to follow him but Mull tightened his hold on her hand.
‘He is calm Shea. He is shocked and grieved, but he remains in control. Tika told us that his mind was fragile before this happened. Somehow, in the Dark, he has found strength.’
Akomi was cuddled up to Khosa, eyes closed, so Shea left him and returned to the great chamber. She was alarmed to see Storm alone, almost entranced with his own composing of devious riddles, but then she saw Farn reclining just beyond the arch to the terrace. She went to him but then didn’t know what to say. His long face swung to study her and she saw tears still rolling down his cheeks.
‘Oh don’t cry,’ she begged, springing forward and using her sleeve to mop his face.
‘She was beautiful,’ he said in her mind. ‘In the Dark place, she looked like Lady Emla, and now. .’
‘Shh.’ Shea put her arms round his neck, hugging him tight. ‘We must believe she will be beautiful again Farn. The healers all think there is hope she will mend.’
Farn rested his chin on Shea’s head and made no reply. The silence was comfortable though, and was only broken by Storm bustling out to ask them the riddle he’d invented. When he finally told them the answer, in great triumph, he was met with blank stares, so it was fortunate perhaps that Kija and Brin arrived at that moment. Storm instantly engaged Brin’s attention but Kija came straight to where Shea still clung to Farn. She spoke to Shea’s mind, her tone filled with concern.
‘What has happened, little one? I sense sorrow from you both.’
‘He went to see the First Daughter.’ Shea knew at once that Kija knew nothing of Lerran’s state, and she wondered why even Tika hadn’t informed her.
‘Make me a picture in your head child, so that I may see.’
Shea thought of Lerran lying so still in her great bed, and held it in her mind. A wail began to rise from the golden Dragon but it was instantly cut off. Her eyes whirred a pale creamy yellow as she looked at Shea.
‘I didn’t know she had suffered so to help my child.’
Shea stretched her hand to touch Kija’s chest, holding on to Farn with the other.
‘I think that is why Tika will do whatever they ask of her,’ Shea whispered aloud.
Farn sighed. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And I too will do whatever they wish, if it will make the poor lady well again.’
Within the Citadel, Veranta gave way to yet another bout of temper. She was in the schoolroom in her daughters’ apartments and Mellia had made the bad mistake of speaking to her mother before being spoken to. Kerris shrivelled in her seat but didn’t actually move, her grey eyes wide with fright. Veranta screamed and raged at Mellia’s foolishness, at her stupid questions. Mellia was on her knees at Veranta’s feet, bowed over, hands clutching her cheeks.
As was so often the case, the girls had been left to get on with work set them by Ternik, but Veranta’s raised voice brought the tutor to the room.
‘Something wrong my lady?’ Ternik’s quiet query cut into Veranta’s tirade.
The Imperatrix drew in a deep breath, still glaring down at her cringing daughter.
‘I sought your counsel Ternik, and yet you are absent from your duties.’
‘I had merely gone to fetch a book I needed to help explain some points, my lady.’ Ternik proffered a book as evidence.
Veranta blinked. There was something irritating her eyes of late: shapes seemed to get fuzzy round the edges, as Ternik seemed now.
‘The guards brought in a man several days ago. He had no information of any use, but he mentioned spiders. I noticed it when I was going through the reports just now. That was the third one. Of course, the fool questioners let him die before I’d seen the report.’
Ternik calmly crossed to her chair and seated herself, just in front of Kerris.
‘Three of those put to the question spoke of spiders?’ She raised a brow very slightly. ‘Who were these three – anyone of importance?’
Veranta sat behind Shea’s abandoned desk, feeling a bit queasy. What was wrong with her eyes? She brought her mind back to Ternik’s question.
‘Raffer, the Councillor, was the first. The second was an old woman who has a stall in the lower market. This last was a labourer at the docks.’
‘A fear of spiders is a very common failing,’ Ternik remarked.
‘I thought it might indicate some sort of society, a group of traitors.’ Even to herself, Veranta’s words sounded lame. She stood up. ‘Well, I’ve told the questioners to halt if there is any other mention of spiders.’ Now she sounded defiant. She must see a herbalist, she thought distractedly. Veranta turned to go and nearly fell over Mellia’s crouched figure. She aimed a kick at the girl and passed on without comment, the door slamming behind her.
Kerris stared down at her page of writing, her hands clenched beneath the desk.
‘Do get up Mellia; grovelling is so very unladylike.’
Mellia stood, trembling uncontrollably.
‘Oh dear, we seem to have had a little accident, don’t we. And you so nearly grown up. Go and change.’
Mellia fled sobbing, leaving Kerris and Ternik alone in the schoolroom. Ternik strolled down to stand just behind Kerris’s shoulder. Kerris closed her eyes briefly then forced her right hand to u
nclench and rise above her desk. She picked up her pen, dipped it into the ink pot and continued the sentence she’d left unfinished. She was proud that her hand didn’t shake at all.
‘You are improving child,’ Ternik observed. She pointed to the text book at the top of the desk. ‘Copy the whole of that page and then you can continue with your reading book.’
Kerris wrote on until the door clicked quietly. A quick glance proved Ternik had left and Kerris’s breath heaved out in a gasp. She put her elbows on her desk and clutched her head in her hands as shudders rippled through her. There was something so wrong, so bad, but she didn’t know what it was. She never looked directly at Ternik, not since she’d returned to the classroom after her collapse just after Shea vanished.
There was something nasty inside Ternik and it kept oozing out, a bit at a time, here and there. Mellia was in a permanent state of terror but she let it show, inviting their mother’s wrathful disdain and Ternik’s sugary sarcasm. Kerris was just as fearful but somehow she’d managed to hide it. So far.
Kerris woke next morning to the sound of running feet and urgent cries. She opened her bedroom door a crack to see maids fluttering around Ternik, who stood at the entrance to Mellia’s suite.
‘Cut her down.’ Kerris heard Ternik order. ‘Then send for the Imperatrix. I’ll check the Lady Kerris.’
Kerris shot back to her bed, under the covers, and forced herself to relax and breath as though she still slept. Her door swung open and someone stood by her bed. Then they were gone and her door gently closed. Kerris opened her eyes and stared at the door. She’d understood. Mellia had killed herself. Shea had run away. What could she do? She knew no one at all outside these apartments. Oh why hadn’t Shea taken her too?
Chapter Twenty
Word was out on the streets before the official proclamation announcing the sad demise of the Lady Mellia, eldest daughter of the Imperatrix. She had suffered a short illness and no healers could save her. Unfortunately, one maid had blurted the truth to another in the kitchen of the young ladies’ apartments. Her rapid whisper was not observed by Ternik and the tutor thought the details of Mellia’s suicide successfully concealed once the three maids were disposed of. But word was out, and spread like plague throughout the Citadel and down into the City.
Drengle List heard of it when he visited Snail. The news meant little to him, but he saw that Snail wasn’t her usual self. Her edginess upset him and he didn’t stay as long as usual at her establishment. He helped himself to two pots of Snail’s cosmetics, one a luscious dark purple, the other a brilliant lemon yellow. It showed how preoccupied Snail was that she didn’t check his pockets before he left, as she had learnt to do.
Drengle walked home, humming softly. He used to whistle but having his teeth filed precluded whistling these days. He took a route through alleys. He’d been on the edge of the market when the guards swooped upon it four days past, and watched them drag away a dozen or so people. He knew Gossamer said nothing could hurt him now he was dead, but he didn’t want to put it to the test.
He ambled through the garden to the back door and noticed there were far more ghosts around. He’d even recognised a couple of them. He went into the kitchen and put his two purloined pots on the table. Then he sat and admired them for a while until a whole cloud of ghosts swarmed in. Clearly they were excited about something but he had no idea what it might be. He started to open one of the pots and frowned.
‘Snail said one of the Imperatrix’s girls hanged herself.’
The ghosts became still. Drengle surveyed them. ‘That what’s got you stirred up is it?’
One of the more substantial ghosts pushed closer to Drengle and nodded vigorously. Drengle scratched his chin.
‘Well there’s nothing to be done – girl’s dead.’ He looked from ghost to ghost then a thought occurred. ‘She a ghost now, or gone to Simert?’
More vigorous nods. Drengle scowled. ‘Well which? A ghost?’
Nods of approval. Drengle felt rather proud of himself. ‘So she’s a ghost. She round here then?’
An air of dejection emanated from his audience.
‘At the Citadel?’
The ghost who appeared to be some sort of leader, came even closer, nodding again.
‘Well that’s it innit?’ Drengle looked around the crowded kitchen and began to feel put upon. He stood up, clutching his two pots. ‘You lot stay down here. I’ve got things to do in my room. If you want that girl for some reason, you go and get her. Nothing to do with me.’
He stalked to the stairs and the ghosts trailed after him. But they stayed in the lower hall while he climbed to his bedroom.
Tika and Sket were in Chindar’s room waiting for Daylith. So when the door opened, they were not expecting to see Shea and Corman enter. Shea looked rather pale but there was an ominous set to her jaw. Corman shrugged.
‘Lady Shea says she will be travelling with you.’
Tika could think of a great many reasons why the girl should stay here, but looking at her determined face, she kept those reasons to herself.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ was all she asked. ‘There could be great risk for you if you’re seen.’
Shea snorted, a sound copied from Gossamer Tewk, Tika suspected. ‘No one would know me. I’ve never been outside of the Citadel and I saw only maids, guards and tutors in there. And you will be much more noticeable than me.’
Shea’s pallor vanished under a furious blush and Sket turned away, overcome by a sudden cough. Tika grinned.
‘I wasn’t planning on going out once we’re there, but you have a fair point.’
Daylith arrived, saving Shea further embarrassment, and she moved closer to Sket and Tika. Daylith glanced at Chindar.
‘Do not stay if you sense any immediate danger to yourselves,’ he said. ‘And we will expect you back here by midday tomorrow, at the latest. Mother Dark bless you and keep you safe.’
They had no time to reply before Daylith plunged them into a Dark gateway. It was Tika and Sket’s first experience of this means of travel: Tika found it as exhilarating as Shea did. Sket felt dreadful. Daylith caught Sket’s arm as they emerged into a comfortable sitting room, and propelled him into the nearest chair. The sound of footsteps on stairs beyond the room brought Daylith in front of Tika and Shea, hand on his sword but the blade still sheathed.
The door opened and a small round woman stood there, breathing heavily. Her fair hair was heaped on top of her head and secured with several long pins which stuck out at odd angles.
‘Mistress Snail?’ Daylith’s low lilting voice seemed almost a caress.
The woman put a hand to her bosom. ‘Who are you?’ She tried to sound calm but the fear underlying her words was apparent even to Shea.
‘I am a second cousin, many times removed, of Seola.’ Daylith replied.
‘And we’re friends of Gossamer Tewk too,’ Shea added with a bright smile.
The woman flopped into a chair opposite Sket. ‘So Seola did take her.’
Daylith nodded. ‘And the herb woman Nenat, Waxin Pule and his apprentice Grent.’
There was a pause. ‘And me,’ Shea added indignantly.
Snail flapped a hand in front of her face to cool herself after her hasty dash up the stairs. ‘And who might you be my dearie?’
‘A friend,’ Daylith said quickly and received a glare from Shea.
‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘Snail is a friend. I am Shea. My mother, unfortunately, is the Imperatrix.’
Snail gaped, stared wildly at Daylith then caught a good view of Tika’s strange eyes. She moaned. ‘I am glad you are well,’ she eventually managed. ‘Gossip had you murdered or kidnapped.’ Her round blue eyes grew even more round. ‘They’ve always said you were simple. Don’t sound simple to me.’
‘I’m not. But I fooled everyone, except perhaps Kerris.’
Snail bit her lip. But Shea had learned a lot, playing dumb, and she narrowed her eyes.
‘What�
�s wrong? Have you heard something of Kerris?’
‘Well,’ Snail looked uncomfortable. ‘Your other sister.’
‘Mellia?’
‘There was a proclamation saying she’d been taken ill, and died.’
Tika put her arm around Shea as the girl stiffened. ‘And was she ill?’
‘A maid who worked for the young ladies, she said, she said. .’
‘She said what?’ Shea insisted.
‘She said they found the Lady Mellia had hanged herself in her bedroom.’
A tremor ran through Shea’s body and Tika held her tighter. ‘Is that something your sister might do, Shea?’ she asked softly.
Shea gave a shuddering sigh. ‘You mean would our mother have ordered her killed, don’t you?’ She stared blankly ahead for a moment, then slowly shook her head. ‘No. She was already arranging a marriage for Mellia. Mellia is – was – scared of her – we all were. But Mellia always tried to please her.’ Shea’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I think Mellia could have done this if she had been frightened enough. Kerris must be scared now. She followed me some nights, when I sneaked off to the library. She never told on me though. And I didn’t even think of her when I ran away. Or Mellia.’
Tika hugged her harder. ‘Then we’ll just have to get her now, won’t we?’
Daylith and Snail wore almost identical expressions of horror but Sket, somewhat recovered from that stars damned gateway, managed a weak grin.
Tika gave Snail a blistering smile. ‘Is there possibly any tea available, Sket will feel so much better if there is?’
Snail struggled out of her chair. ‘The kitchen’s downstairs. Don’t worry, I have no helpers here today. I gave out word I had an ague and was too sick to work.’
She led the way down a narrow staircase. They passed through a long hall with doors to left and right. There was a strong smell of medicinal herbs, and something else. The kitchen they arrived in was lit by two lamps and the glow of a fire from a long cooking range. Heavy shutters barred the windows. Snail swung a large kettle from above the range and saw her guests studying the shutters.
Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series Page 25
