‘It’s got inside the Palace somehow.’
She mind spoke Shivan. ‘Get everyone off these rocks and inside. Whatever these are, they are in the Palace. I’ll ask the Dragons to fire this shore. Move!’
Farn returned her to the roof terrace and then flew to join in the fun of fire blasting the beach. Tika dashed inside and faced Sword Master Favrian.
‘Whatever these things are, they are formless at the moment, Sword Master. And they have gained entry somehow. Are there cellars or dungeons anywhere near Lord Dabray’s cavern?’
Favrian frowned and began to shake his head. Then his eyes widened. ‘Drain outlets.’
He called to an officer standing by the inner door and then, with Tika and Sket at his heels, sped down the stairs.
‘It would be quicker to use a gateway,’ he said as they ran.
‘But extraordinarily unwise in these circumstances,’ Tika finished for him.
They passed guards in the lower halls, all battle ready and watchful. Sket muttered about the desirability of a building built all on one level and Tika, despite their situation, gave an appreciative snort of laughter. They swung towards the final steps leading to Dabray’s great chamber and came face to face with ten guards.
Favrian called something but Tika grabbed his arm, hauling him to a standstill. He looked down at her in irritated query. Tika drew her sword. Favrian stared at the sword then back at the guards. There were men and women he recognised among them. At least, he corrected himself, he recognised their faces. Their eyes were totally black, no longer human.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Beyond the wall to their left, they could hear and feel concussive thumps as the engineers threw their poppers around to accompany the blasts of Dragon fire. The stone shivered beneath their feet but they had no time to concern themselves with such minor details. The ten guards moved towards them. Sket came alongside Tika before Favrian could move, and then the guards were upon them. They’d noticed at once that these men walked awkwardly, as though unaccustomed to the simple action. But they knew how to use their arms, and their swords.
Tika found that her words to Shivan had been the simple truth. The sword she’d been given from the Dragons’ treasure cave knew its work, and somehow her hand and arm obeyed its call. Her feet moved as light as a dancer’s, her body swaying and adjusting to each parry and thrust. Two guards went down in front of her and she faced a third. The clash of metal on metal made her ears ring, but she could also hear her own rapid breathing. The men she fought made no noise. They gave no cry, or even grunt of pain when her sword half severed an arm or a hand before she made the killing lunge.
In the panting quiet she heard shouts coming from behind her but she didn’t dare risk a glance back. She was hugely relieved to find one of her own Kelshans charge past to her right: she had feared other Dark guards had been infected by the swarming blackness which she sensed from the guards she fought. Suddenly, there were no more guards in front of her. Tika spun to see Sket, half bent over as he gasped for breath. Even Lord Favrian seemed breathless although she herself was now breathing normally. A Kelshan, Kazmat, was reaching to turn a body over when she snapped an order at him.
‘Leave them. Do not touch any of them and avoid their blood.’
Kazmat straightened and looked at his sword. It was thick with gore and a few loops of entrails swung from it. He glanced back at Tika and bent again to wipe the blade on the back of one of the dead. Tika nodded.
‘When you clean your weapons properly, use thick cloths so that no blood might touch your skin.’
‘What about the bodies?’ Onion enquired from behind Favrian.
Favrian gestured back down the corridor. ‘I can bring fire, intense enough to destroy these completely.’
His gold eyes met Tika’s and he dipped his head slightly.
‘Your sword indeed knows its task Lady Tika.’
She glanced down at her clean and unmarked blade. ‘It drank the blood,’ she realised with some concern.
Favrian smiled. ‘The Dark will make it pure.’
Tika slid the sword into its scabbard. ‘I hope you’re right.’
She stepped carefully over and round the bodies sprawled, so ungainly in death, and retreated some way. Favrian raised his left hand, fingers flickering in a rapid and intricate fashion. Flame streaked from his fingertips. It was a cold fire, no heat touched those watching, or distorted the air around the corpses. Instead, it fed ravenously on the clothes, the flesh, even the metal of their belts and weapons, until a faint film of greasy ash marked a circle on the stone floor.
Tika observed both Favrian’s method of calling power and its result, but only briefly – shouts of alarm were echoing down the stairs. Favrian leaped up those stairs while Tika and Sket toiled up more slowly. Tika’s legs felt heavy and she was all too conscious that her body needed more time to recover from the damage it had suffered by her descent into the Dark. Sket was one stair above her when her arms were caught by Darrick on one side and Kazbeck on the other. At times her feet left the floor as she was helped more rapidly up the too many stairs. She murmured her thanks when they deposited her at the entrance to the lowest hall.
It was all a jumble of black uniforms: until you saw the changed eyes, you couldn’t tell friend from foe. Taking the brief moment to look into someone’s eyes could well be the brief moment it took you to die. Tika tried to feel the area around the hall, probing for a concentration of wrongness, but it was difficult. The mental miasma that seemed to rise from the possessed guards was enough to interfere with her focusing.
Feet pounded along a corridor to her right and weapons were drawn again, but it was Sergeant Essa who rounded the corner with Shivan beside her. She had perhaps half the number of guards that she’d led earlier at her back. Essa reached Tika and bent to shout over the noise of fighting, waving her guards to wait before joining the fray.
‘Sergeant Peach and Captain Domin have engaged a large group towards the western side of the Palace. Their engineers seem to be having the best success. The guards who’ve been changed can fight like I’ve never seen.’
A thought occurred to Tika which made her blood run cold. ‘The people in the town,’ she said urgently. ‘Can you get some of your guards to try to protect them?’
Essa nodded, turned to a woman in the second rank and gave quick precise orders. The woman raced back the way they’d come while Essa turned back to Tika. The fight in the centre of the hall was nearly done: more bodies slumped in unlikely postures within a ring of other black uniformed guards, and several gold eyed Dark Ones. Tika knew that this time unchanged guards had died alongside the others, and for no clear reason, Simert popped into her head. She drew a breath and reached for Sket’s hand.
‘Simert,’ she called loudly.
Faces turned towards her, mostly looking puzzled, but a cone of smoke rose from the floor between where Tika stood and the pile of corpses.
‘Oh my stars,’ Sket muttered as the smoke cleared.
A short, plump, elderly man stood there. He looked weary rather than annoyed but Tika chose to be very cautious and very polite.
‘Greetings Simert.’
Simert turned in a slow circle on the spot, taking in his surroundings. He sighed when he saw the bodies.
‘These are Ferag’s, child. Why didn’t you summon her?’
‘Some – most – of these were used by the Crazed One, or at least by fragments of the Splintered Kingdom.’
Simert frowned. ‘Really? Well I suppose my lot would have better ideas of dealing with them than Ferag’s.’ He glanced at Tika and age dropped from his face as he gave her a mischievous smile. ‘Ferag’s subjects are all a bit limp and lethargic. The Imperatrix for instance. I had my doubts you know, about taking her off Ferag’s hands, but she’s been a tremendous source of entertainment. Oh yes indeed.’
Tika cleared her throat. She really, really, didn’t want to know what might be happening to Shea’s mother, deserved
though it undoubtedly might be.
‘I was wondering, sir, can you actually deal with – active fragments so to speak?’
Simert pursed his lips and clasped his hands over his belly. ‘Well, yes. In a way.’
‘Then why haven’t you?’
Simert looked astonished. ‘But I haven’t been asked, my dear. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off. Busy, busy, busy these days.’
‘But sir, some of those belong here or – erm – with Ferag.’
‘Yes, yes.’ Simert waved an airy dismissal of such mundane matters. ‘I’ll sort ’em out, never fear.’
Simert, and the heap of bodies, vanished.
Tika found herself the target of very curious glances.
‘Who, exactly, was that?’ Favrian demanded.
‘Simert, the Kelshan God of Death,’ Tika snapped back.
She was briefly gratified to see the Sword Master of the Dark Realm momentarily bereft of the power of speech. Before he could regain it, she headed for the stairs.
‘Bloody stairs,’ she muttered, and smiled reluctantly at Sket’s shout of laughter.
By the time they’d reached the topmost floor of the Karmazen Palace, Tika was astonished to realise the sky was beginning to lighten with the first promise of dawn. Dozens of guards patrolled the floor below, all the staircases, and the corridors adjacent to the First Daughter’s rooms. All the groups of guards were accompanied by a Dark One, both male and female.
Kija reclined in the great chamber, her prismed eyes whirring in concern when Tika staggered in. Tika sank onto a couch near the golden Dragon and closed her eyes for a moment.
‘I’ll get some food organised,’ Konya said, regarding Tika with some worry.
Tika opened her eyes. ‘I’d love some tea but I’m not hungry.’
Konya’s huff was matched by a very similar sound from Kija. ‘I don’t much care if you feel hungry or not. You will eat.’
Kija watched the healer march from the chamber. ‘She cares for you, that one,’ she murmured in Tika’s mind.
‘I know, but I don’t understand why.’ Tika winced as she stretched her aching legs out.
‘I have been thinking of that pendant of yours,’ Kija remarked.
Tika sat up straighter, reaching for the pouch at her belt which held that pendant.
‘You were not wearing it today.’
‘No. The burn’s almost healed but there’s still a scab.’
Tika waited. Kija would tell her in her own time whatever it was she needed to impart.
‘There was no attack aimed specifically at you?’ Kija asked.
‘No.’
‘I wonder if that pendant attracts this – thing. But for some reason it seems attuned to you, or protective of you. So while it attracts the creature, it also tries to repel it as well?’
Tika considered Kija’s suggestion. ‘And tonight, because it was in the pouch, the creature couldn’t sense it?’ She shook her head. ‘I usually wear it underneath my shirt. What’s the difference between under a shirt or in a thin leather pouch? No, surely it would be able to sense it.’
‘But in the pouch you wear it at your belt. When you wear it round your neck, it is near your heart. And the chain touches your skin. Perhaps the chain too is special and can pick up your pulse from your neck?’
Before Tika had time to think this over fully, Farn came pacing in from the terrace, his eyes flashing with delight. Tika hugged him, her fingers lingering on that long scar, bare of scales, which twined down his neck. He smelt of sea spray and of smoke and had clearly enjoyed using Dragon fire, which was something Kija took great pains in emphasising should be used sparingly.
‘We can’t feel any of that black stuff anywhere down on the shore now,’ he told them. ‘Brin took Storm to fly over the town, just to make sure.’
‘They won’t use fire near houses or people, will they?’ Tika asked in alarm.
‘Of course they won’t,’ was Farn’s supremely confident reply.
But Tika saw Kija’s eyes change slightly and knew she was sending firm instructions on a thread of thought to Brin.
Tika stirred herself, belatedly realising her Kelshans, engineers and Shivan were gathered across the room. If they were determined to join their fates to hers, they could start by understanding they were first and foremost her friends.
‘Come and sit over here,’ she called.
Hesitantly, they did so, hovering awkwardly by the two Dragons.
‘Oh for stars’ sake, sit down. We are friends, you will not sit apart as though you were servants.’
As they did so, Konya, Shea and Sket returned with half a dozen maids led by Jenniah the Palace-Keeper. Under her instructions, the maids set low stools and tables close to Tika and her companions, and laid out trays, and dishes, and bowls, heaped with food. Tika watched in awe, realising she was in fact ravenously hungry again.
‘It’s still night time really Jenniah, however do you produce food like this at this hour?’
Jenniah blushed with pride. ‘It is our pleasure to serve,’ she replied simply.
Gathering her maids about her like a mother hen her chicks, she left them to their meal.
It was quiet in Lerran’s great chamber. The regular sound of feet marching patrols through passageways outside was soothing rather than an irritation, and most people slept half the morning away. Tika woke first and moved softly to the terrace arch. She breathed in deeply and smelt herbs and grasses rather than the sea as she’d become used to. She looked up at the sky and saw small white clouds hurrying out over the sea and realised the wind was blowing from the land for the first time since she’d been here.
Tika saw large boxes and pots had been placed along the terrace, full of plants, some in tight buds, others shyly unfolding into bloom. She remembered her surprise at seeing all the tiny flowers inside the great chamber. Even though Lerran was unaware, still her wishes were followed and her rooms filled with the flowers she obviously loved. Tika turned back to the chamber, seeing Corman waiting in the shadow of the arch. She stopped beside him.
‘Did you find the others who plotted with Chindar?’
The Dark Lord nodded. ‘Seven.’
‘Do you think that’s all?’
Again he nodded. ‘I believe only Chindar dared contact the Splintered Kingdom and made no mention of it to his friends. The others have been – questioned. They are all adamant the only intention was to put Chindar in Lerran’s place.’
Tika frowned. ‘Surely he could not become First Daughter?’
‘Lerran could survive a long time in the state she was in. He could have spoken on her behalf with complete authority. He was known as her chief advisor. And friend.’ Corman’s expression was bleak. ‘He was the one to argue against any intervention in other lands, although we might have been of some help on occasion. Drogoya, for example.’
‘Drogoya?’
‘We could have warned of the creature’s first appearance there in the form of Cho Petak. And we did not. Lerran was strongly in favour of offering help but Chindar was very persuasive. These things become devastatingly clear with hindsight,’ Corman said bitterly.
‘What will you do with these seven conspirators?’
‘They have received their punishment,’ was all he would say.
‘And the First Daughter. Is she truly close to waking do you think?’
Corman finally brightened. ‘Very close.’
Tika was curious. She had met no Dark Ones, other than Shivan, who used their minds in a similar way to herself and to the Dragons.
‘Does her body change, her breathing or pulse?’
Corman spread his hands helplessly. ‘Our most experienced healers are much practised in supervising the descent and rising of a mind into the Dark. Mull and Cutha both say she is near.’
‘I was going to see her, if that’s all right?’
‘Of course.’
They walked slowly into the great chamber and across to the passage to Le
rran’s room. Corman halted before they entered.
‘May I ask you something, about Shivan?’
Tika returned his gaze steadily. ‘Ask. But I may not give you an answer.’
‘He has always been – different. Since he was a tiny child. Lerran had him here often although the reports from his tutors were always critical, sometimes harsh. Whatever his difference is, you recognise it, don’t you?’
Tika remained silent for a moment. ‘Yes. More I will not say but I will tell you Lord Corman, that if he does not leave this Realm with me, he could destroy it, and all of you. I have seen what happens to a mind like Shivan’s, when it is thwarted and denied.’
Clearly Tika had told Corman far more than he’d expected but he merely nodded.
‘Thank you,’ was his only comment as they continued to Lerran’s bed chamber.
Tika approached the huge canopied bed and nodded to one of the healers, she thought his name was Alloc, before looking at the woman in the bed. She could hardly believe her eyes. The woman, the First Daughter, looked to be in her middle years – perhaps she was in the view of the Dark Ones but their years counted in the thousands rather than in tens.
Only the tips of those terrible tusks showed at the corners of her lower lip. There was the very palest blush of colour across the high cheeks, and the chin was smooth and delicate, no longer jutting aggressively up at the bed’s canopy. Khosa lay curled by Lerran’s shoulder, crooning softly.
‘She is better.’
Khosa’s mind tone was affectionate, warm, and Tika had to struggle to recall the superior and sarcastic comments this cat had delighted in making such a short time ago. She smiled, seeing Akomi on his back between the First Daughter’s side and her arm, deep in blissful sleep. Tika’s hand went to the pouch at her belt. The pendant had helped speed healing for others: did she dare use it for Lerran? No, she decided. If Kija was right, and the pendant attracted the attention of the Crazed One, Lerran was too defenceless to deal with him. She watched the slight rise and fall of the First Daughter’s chest for a short while then made her way back to the great chamber.
Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series Page 45
