by Clare Smith
When his apprentice hustled the man in shortly afterwards he was disappointed. He thought the King’s envoy would wear robes studded with precious stones and perhaps have a small crown on his head. Instead Cavanagh looked quite ordinary, and whilst he was neatly dressed they were hardly the garments he expected such a powerful man to wear.
As far as Cavanagh was concerned, the Pyromaster looked ridiculous in his bright blue robes with lightning flashes embroidered on it, but he was careful not to let the contempt show on his face. Instead he bowed low out of respect for the Pyromaster’s position rather than the person who held it, and Kallawassian bowed back. Plinkassian stood to one side and watched them as they bowed to each other and exchanged pleasantries and then hurried forward to pour wine when he was beckoned.
He was pleased to see that they were getting on so well, particularly after Mirralett’s unpleasant visit, as it could only bode well for future supplies of sugar snap. However, he was completely taken by surprise when his master suddenly jumped up from the seat he’d taken and clapped Cavanagh hard on the back.
“Fetch Snap and Peck, Lord Cavanagh has kindly offered to show us all around the Enclave.”
Cavanagh looked nervous. He didn’t recall inviting the menagerie along. “I regret that there won’t be enough room in my coach for all of us.”
“That’s not a problem. Plinkassian and Peck can sit outside with the coachman and my dragon can travel on the floor between us.”
The Chief Councillor would have liked to have protested, but it had taken all his skills of diplomacy to get this far. “Very well then, but you may wish to leave them behind when we reach the Enclave where the roadways are narrow and I cannot guarantee the safety of so many strangers.”
Kallawassian nodded, happy to accept that restriction and ushered the Passonian out of the room whilst he gathered a few things to take with him. Plinkassian hung back as well, waiting until the Pyromaster had everything he needed before approaching him with his request.
“Master, may I change into my own clothes?”
Kallawassian looked at him with a slight air of disdain. “They are your own clothes.”
“Yes, I know, but could I wear what I was wearing before?”
“Are you ashamed to be seen in these robes, Plinkassian? The boy shook his head. “Then enough of this nonsense. You are a Pyromaster’s apprentice so you will wear your robes with pride.”
The Pyromaster turned away and Plinkassian followed behind tugging at the over tight collar and wishing his clothes were a sombre grey instead of bright green with sequins sewn onto it to look like sparks. Outside the coach was waiting, and he helped Cavanagh, his master and Snap inside before climbing up beside the coachman with Peck sitting on his arm. He nearly groaned when he realised how high above the ground he was. Now everyone could see how ridiculous he looked, and the only consolation he had was this wasn’t his home city, so no one would recognise him here.
By the time they’d reached the Enclave, he’d overcome his embarrassment, which was just as well considering all the people who had stopped to gawk at him. All the same he was glad when the ride was over and he could climb down to where he would be less conspicuous. Cavanagh and his master climbed out of the coach leaving Snap asleep inside, and once he had joined them they were surrounded by guards. Peck was nowhere to be seen so he supposed the raven had flown off to take an aerial view of the Enclave.
Cavanagh had told them the Enclave was a dangerous place and they would only be able to enter by the main gate, walk directly through the centre and exit at the North Gate. There the coach would meet them, and they could then drive around the outside of the Enclave’s walls. His master had wanted to see more, but the councillor had assured him that the journey was long enough to access the size and the scope of the problem, whatever that meant.
Once the guards had gathered tightly around them, the gates of the Enclave opened and they stepped inside. With so many guards blocking the view, Plinkassian could see very little, but he didn’t have to see the place to know what the Enclave was like. The place stank of open drains and rotting waste, and over that the air was heavy with the smell of sickness and death. It brought back unpleasant memories which made his stomach turn.
All around was the sound of crying children wanting to be fed, and wailing women who lacked the food to keep their young ones alive. Occasionally there was a shout for silence from an angry man who could do nothing to aid his family, although the quiet which followed rarely lasted long. Amongst the noise was the quiet moaning of sick people and to his left he could hear someone vomiting. He wished he was deaf and blind and far from this place.
He couldn’t escape because of the crowds, but perhaps he could persuade his master to go faster. Easing through a small gap between the guards he tugged on Kallawassian’s sleeve, but his master ignored him, as in front of him Cavanagh was pointing out things of interest. He couldn’t make out what had caught his master’s eye, but when the councillor pointed upwards he could see the tenements rising above him.
The buildings were old and crumbling and there were so many people hanging out of the windows to catch a breath of air that he could imagine just how overcrowded the rooms would be. Cavanagh said something which made his master laugh and then they moved quickly on, but at an intersection close to the North Gate they had to stop again. Here the guards had to use their spears to disperse an angry crowd which was gathering, and for a moment he caught a glimpse of the shelters and hovels which had been hastily erected over open drains.
The looks of despair were everywhere, and he was grateful when the guards opened a way and hurried them forwards. He was even more grateful when they were ushered through the North Gate and it was closed behind them. Once again Cavanagh and his master climbed into the coach and he clambered on top next to the coachman, although there was no sign of Peck which was still off exploring on its own.
When the coachman set the horses into a fast trot he hoped they would have a swift passage back to the tower. It wasn’t that he hated people stopping and pointing and staring at him, but he wanted to be alone and have time to think. He was out of luck though, as every so often, Cavanagh would rap on the roof of the carriage and the coach would stop allowing Kallawassian to get out of the coach and inspect the outside wall of the Enclave. He didn’t know what that was about but didn’t think it was anything good.
When they reached the tower he scrambled down from the driving seat and quickly opened the carriage door knowing that Snap was likely to be awake by now and restless. He wasn’t wrong. The instant he opened the door Snap launched itself out of the coach with its tail thrashing angrily and it was all he could do to snatch up the leash of Kallawassian’s dragon and hang onto the creature.
His master, however, was in less of a hurry and stepped out with a surprising amount of dignity considering the confined space and Snap’s lashing tail. He hoped they would be able to escape now, but Kallawassian had turned back again to speak to Cavanagh who was still seated in the coach.
“Thank you for the tour, it was most enlightening.”
“I thought it would be helpful if you could see our problem for yourself, and now you have done so, do you think ten barrels of Devil Fire will be sufficient?”
“Oh yes,” said Kallawassian thoughtfully. “The placement will be important, and it would be better if they were put inside the walls and not outside, but ten barrels will be more than enough in either case.”
“That is excellent, and will you be able to bring the date forward a week as the King has requested?”
He thought about that for a moment. It would be an easy enough thing to do, but it would mean leaving Assimus a week earlier than planned and he was in no hurry to return home. “I’m not sure as I will need to do some more calculations, but I will let you know by this time tomorrow.”
Cavanagh tried to keep the look of disappointment off his face. He wanted to have the answer now whilst he still had some control over the m
an, but supposed he would just have to wait. “Thank you, Pyromaster, I look forward to receiving your answer.”
Kallawassian gave a brief bow and closed the carriage door which was the cue for the coachman to set off again. For a moment he watched the vehicle disappear and then looked down in surprise as Plinkassian tugged at his sleeve.
“Master, what are you going to do for that man?”
“I’m going to help Cavanagh with his problem and burn the Enclave down.”
“Oh. What about the people inside?”
Kallawassian just shrugged. “They too are part of Cavanagh’s problem.” He gave a brief smile and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Come on, let’s go and try some of that cheese which arrived this morning, and fetch a flagon of wine whilst you’re at it, the coach ride has made me quite thirsty.”
Taking Snap’s leash from the boy’s hand he crossed to the tower door and disappeared inside with Snap following behind. That left Plinkassian on his own to stare after him. He felt cold and empty inside as if he’d lost something that was precious to him or his best friend had died, and the thought of food made him feel slightly sick.
Without thinking he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the two sticks of sugar snap. One was shorter than the other where he’d eaten a piece when Cavanagh had first given it to him, but apart from that he hadn’t touched them. He’d been saving them for later when he could eat them in peace without Snap or Peck wanting their share, but now Cavanagh’s bribe and what it had led to made him shudder.
He dropped them onto the cobble stones almost as if they had burnt his hand and then ground them into dust under his boot heel before following Kallawassian into the tower.
*
In the end Kallawassian had to go and fetch the cheese and wine himself which was a bit annoying, but he supposed that Plinkassian had fallen asleep somewhere. That wasn’t surprising as it had been a long walk through the Enclave, and by the time they had returned to the tower the boy had looked pale and tired. He smiled to himself remembering that at Plinkassian’s age he could fall asleep anywhere and often did. His father or one of the servants would find him, cover him with a blanket and leave him where he was until he woke up again.
Still, it was most inconvenient for his apprentice to be asleep when he should have been doing something else and he would have to have words with him about it. With that resolve made he took another piece of yellow, crumbly cheese and was just about to eat it when the door of his room opened and Plinkassian stepped inside. He scowled at the boy and would have reminded him about the need to knock, but he looked somewhat odd.
It took him a moment to realise that Plinkassian was dressed in the sailcloth shirt and trousers that the Kallisian sailors had made for him and not one of the new robes which befitted his position as a pyromaster’s apprentice. The boy stopped in front of him with the robe he’d worn that day hanging limply from his hand.
Plinkassian took a long shuddering breath, looked the Pyromaster in the eye and handed him the crumpled robe. “I don’t want to be your apprentice anymore.”
Kallawassian stared at him in surprise. There were many things he could have said about such a foolish statement, but the only one thing he could think of was “Why?”
“It’s what you’re going to do and all the people who are going to die.”
“They’re just Assimusians, Plinkassian; they mean nothing to you or me.”
Plinkassian shook his head. “That place was like where I was born and the people were like the ones I used to know. I grew up on streets with open drains, where people crowded together in hovels and ate rats to keep from starving.
“My ma was a whore but she cared for me, and when my pa came home from sea he gave us all he earned. When he didn’t come back no more there was no money and we got chucked out of our house, but the neighbours took us in, and when my ma snuffed it they found me a place on a ship. They were poor an’ dirty and ‘ungry but they were good people too, just like them in the Enclave, and they don’t deserve to die.”
Kallawassian sighed. The boy had a point, but he didn’t understand how things worked. “I’m sorry, Plinkassian, but there is nothing I can do about it. My sect has taken a commission from the King of Passonia to burn the Enclave down, and as the pyromaster chosen personally by the King to carry out the task that is what I must do.”
Plinkassian nodded in understanding. “Yer said I gotta wear those robes wiv pride but I can’t do that. I know yer a pyromaster an’ ‘ave ter do this fing but I ain’t, I’m justa boy.” He turned away and left the room, closing the door behind him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Partings
Fire Mountain
Poddorrin thought that if he climbed up the mountain away from the confines of the cave and spent some time without Tingallent looking over his shoulder and sighing in impatience, he might succeed in calling the dragon spirits to him. It hadn’t worked though, and now he would have to go back and tell Tingallent and Collia that he’d failed again. He could almost see the look on their faces and what they would say, which is why he was reluctant to go back, and was sitting on the rocky outcrop looking at nothing.
It wasn’t all bad though, Todden would be sympathetic. After the others had said their piece and Rabayan had smirked at him, shrugged and walked away, Todden would ask him if he’d seen anything which might be useful when he tried again. He had, but only snatches of the two men he’d tried to call, and they made no sense whatsoever.
The first had been of the one who lived in the palace like building, only this time he wasn’t inside, but walking down the road. He could only see the back of him, but recognised who he was by the strange clothes he wore. He’d called out to him and the man had turned around, but instead of responding, he’d turned back again and had walked faster. When he’d tried again the man had just broken into a run, leaped over a wall and disappeared into a large, stone-built house to get away from him.
After that he’d given up and concentrated on the second spirit, but that image had been even more fleeting. The man had been standing in amongst a copse of thin trees, stretching up as if he was pretending to be one of them. When he’d called to him the man hadn’t even blinked, so he’d given it up as a bad job. He did wonder if the reason he’d only caught fleeting glimpses of the two men was because he was scared to let the dragon spirit within him free, in case it never came back to him and he died.
Whatever the reason for his lack of success that was all he’d seen, and somehow he didn’t think that even Todden would be encouraged by it. Certainly he wasn’t, and he was thinking of giving up the whole stupid idea and telling the others that he’d got it wrong. Feeling demoralised he stood and started to make his way down the path towards the Dragon Watch, rehearsing in his mind what he would say to Tingallent and Collia, and considering what their reaction would be.
Tingallent would explode, there was no doubt about that, and tell him he was a fool who had wasted valuable time and had increased the danger to the Assimusians trapped inside the Enclave. Collia would probably just weep and remind him of all those who were going to die when the ice swallowed Kallisan. He didn’t know what was worse; carrying on and giving them false hope, or telling them the truth.
He’d almost decided to tell them the truth when he’d reached the Dragon Watch. They were waiting for him, and both Tingallent and Collia stood as he approached with a look of anticipation on their faces. Knowing this was going to be very difficult, he held the dragon tooth to give him courage, and instantly changed his mind about what he was going to say. What had he been thinking about? He knew he could bring the dragons back; it was just a matter of time.
“You’ve found something!” said Tingallent, eagerly taking a step forwards. “I can see it in your face.”
Poddorrin stopped. He didn’t realise he’d been smiling. “Not really although I did see two of them again.”
“And they responded?”
“N
o, it was just a glimpse, that’s all.”
“So we’re no further forward?” Collia asked, coming to stand next to the rebel leader.”
“No, I’m afraid not, but at least they are still there and I can see them.”
“Damn it!” snapped Tingallent. “Seeing them is no good, we need them here. This is just a stupid waste of time and your hair-brained scheme is never going to work.”
“Give the boy a chance, Ting,” put in Todden. “He’s doing his best.
“Well his best isn’t good enough. Whilst he’s having day dreams the Passonians are preparing to burn down the Enclave with thousands of my people inside of it. I, for one, have had enough of doing nothing but sitting here with my thumb up my arse whilst he plays games with us, so I’m going to do something about it before it’s too late. Come on, Todden, let’s get out of here.”
Todden remained where he was. “What are you going to do, Ting?”
“I’m going to the Enclave to tell the people there what the Passonians are planning, and when I’ve got them all behind me, I’m going to lead them out of the Enclave and set them free.”
Todden raised his eyebrows and Rabayan gave a cynical laugh. “Don’t be such a fool, Tingallent. You’ll never get anywhere near the Enclave before you’re caught and strung up by your balls, and even if you did, the Assimusians wouldn’t listen to you. They are too downtrodden and too afraid of their Passonian masters to follow one man, particularly you who have a reputation for recklessness and getting other people killed.”
“They’ll listen to me,” snapped Tingallent.
Todden shook his head. “Rabayan’s right, they won’t listen to you. For all your fine words you’re a Northman and not one of them.”
“Fuck you and fuck Rabayan. I’m going to save those people whether you are with me or not.”
