The Jessapurians were coming back to the house, muttering among themselves, angry at having lost their quarry. ‘We must wait,’ Sinaclara said. ‘We have waited before. The Crown has been given back to humankind. That was the purpose of your quest. Valraven Palindrake must seek the way of light, for only then can past wounds be healed. Only thenc’ Her voice trailed off.
‘I will return to Akahana,’ Merlan said abruptly. ‘Tayven, will you come with me and report to Maycarpe?’
Tayven nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘And after, will you go to Cos?’
Tayven paused. ‘I feel it is out of my hands.’ He pulled a die from his pocket. ‘Six options, Merlan. Will you name the first?’
Chapter Twenty-Six: Holme
On their way to Cos, Taropat and Shan passed close to the village of Holme. Shan, riding a mare they had purchased from some forest travellers en route, asked if they could visit the site of his family home.
‘Are you sure of this?’ Taropat asked.
‘Yes. Here, my story began. Now I feel as if another story’s just beginning. I want to face the past.’
They rode past Shan’s old home. The site had been claimed by another family, who had built a new house on it. A woman sat in the garden with her baby, peeling potatoes. That could be me, Shan thought, me and my mother.
The woman looked up at them and smiled. Shan was about to say he used to live there, but for some reason didn’t want to bring that dark memory into her innocent, summer garden. He would not be the shadow at the gate for the child playing among her skirts. ‘Is there an inn nearby, madam?’ he asked.
The woman pointed up the road. ‘The Roan and Furrow, just five minutes away. Have you travelled far, sirs?’
‘Yes,’ said Shan. ‘Very far.’
‘Come on,’ Taropat said and clucked to his horse.
The villagers had done much to restore their homes since Shan had left. No one recognised him as he dismounted his horse in front of the small tavern. The church had not been rebuilt and children played, shrieking, among its ruins, which were covered in bright yellow weeds. Poppies grew there also, and foxgloves.
Shan and Taropat went into the tavern and sat drinking cold ale in the shadows. ‘This is a different place,’ Shan said. ‘I don’t know it.’
‘You could find yourself here if you looked hard enough,’ Taropat said, ‘but I don’t think you should.’
‘How do you feel?’ Shan asked, the first time he’d dared pose the question since they’d run from Sinaclara’s house.
Taropat took out his pipe and stuffed it. Shan thought he wasn’t going to answer, then he said, ‘When I took you away from here I had plans for you. Formless, vague, idealistic, perhaps, but not without potential. Seeing Tayven again, the betrayal by my brother, these things were just trials to test my courage and determination. Part of the lakes quest. Part of all we have to do.’
‘But we’ve attained the Crown for them,’ Shan said. ‘It’s such a waste. Will you try to get it back?’
‘It will never be theirs,’ Taropat said. ‘I have that much faith. I could have given myself to Tayven again so easily. It’s what he wanted. Power, control. But some part of me resisted. I’m glad of that now.’
Taropat had left his house in Nip’s charge. She had been confused by their rapid departure, but Taropat would tell her nothing other than that they had business elsewhere and didn’t know how long they’d be away. He seemed serene and confident, but Shan wasn’t sure how reliable this image was. ‘If you are hurt, you should say so,’ he said carefully.
Taropat gave him a hard glance. ‘That’s enough of that, boy. I’m not the lily-livered Khaster who used to mope around, hoping someone else would make his life better. Merlan and Tayven wanted me to be that, but I’m not and that’s all there is to it.’ He lit his pipe with abrupt and jerky movements.
‘If we find Helayna,’ Shan said, ‘and if you can help her build an army, Merlan and Tayven might be your enemies. What if you had to kill to take the Crown?’
Taropat laughed. ‘What is this? Are you trying to be my conscience?’
Shan said nothing.
‘We will both do what we have to do when the time comes,’ Taropat said.
As they rode away from the village, a woman stepped out of a farmyard into their path, trying to shoo a dozen young ducks away from their horses’ hooves. Shan experienced a sickening jolt of recognition. The woman was his aunt. She looked so much older, and one side of her face was drawn down and paralysed, but he still knew her. She looked up at him. ‘Excuse me, sirs, the gate was open. They got away.’
‘Do you know me?’ Shan said.
The woman frowned. ‘No, sir.’
‘She doesn’t,’ Taropat said. ‘Come along. Quickly.’ He urged his horse into a trot and Shan’s animal followed.
‘Butc’ said Shan, pointing behind him. ‘She’sc’
‘Don’t look back,’ Taropat said. ‘People are never how you remember them.’ He kicked his horse to a gallop, and they were flying up the road, away from Holme, from Breeland, to the wild lands of Cos.
Crown of Silence Page 46
