‘Now what?’ he said and guided his horse to where his wife stood, purse-lipped, her riding crop slapping at her thigh.
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Lorys. Go on without me.’
‘What’s happened?’
She explained quickly. The King sighed. ‘Why must you take in every waif, Nyria? Every child in Tal is not your responsibility. What will you do with him?’
‘I don’t know, Lorys, but you can’t just hawk a child around the city until you find someone who may know him. It could take days.’
The King stared into her pale eyes. He knew he could not win this one. When it came to children, Nyria was as soft as butter. Not having one of her own meant she lavished her affection on every child she came into contact with. He pulled gently on the reins to head his dark stallion out of the courtyard.
‘I might ride out a bit further then.’
‘Thank you, Lorys.’
She meant it and showed it by squeezing his gloved hand as they heard Orgo and the child returning. The King departed.
Orgo bowed stiffly. He was not used to such close proximity with the Queen. He cuffed the child on the head to do the same. Nyria kept her polite smile fixed, though she would have liked to tell Orgo what she thought of his gruffness. She was glad to see Prime Herek striding towards them. She liked Herek. He lacked the previous Prime’s charm and dash, but then the boots of Kyt Cyrus would be hard for any man to fill. She often wondered about his curious disappearance.
Herek was bowing. ‘Queen Nyria, may I help?’
‘Yes, thank you, Herek. I’m told this child was tied to the palace gates last night and I wish to know more.’
Before Herek or Orgo could speak, the tall Queen had bent low and was eye-to-eye with the tear-stained face of the boy. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ she said, loosing his elbow from Orgo’s grip.
‘Thank you, Orgo.’ It was a dismissal. Orgo looked uncertainly at the Prime, who nodded for him to leave.
The Queen had not taken her eyes from the boy’s face. There was a familiarity about him which she could not place.
‘My name is Nyria. What’s yours?’
‘I’m Gyl. I’m almost twelve,’ he said and bowed politely which impressed her. ‘Are you really a Queen?’
‘I am the Queen,’ she said, emphasising her importance by arching her eyebrows and making him giggle. ‘Am I the first Queen you’ve ever taken breakfast with?’
‘I’ve had breakfast, your majesty,’ he answered.
‘Well, I have not. Perhaps you’d care to sit with me?’ Nyria took his hand, stood upright again and said to the soldier, ‘We’ll be fine.’
‘My lady, perhaps I should—’
Her look stopped him saying any more. ‘Thank you, Herek.’ Another dismissal.
‘Yes, thank you, Herek,’ Gyl offered. His cheeky grin was not lost on the Prime or the Queen.
Alyssa’s emotions were still churned up from the morning’s activity. Jayn Elkin’s son, runty though he looked, was already suckling and that augured well for mother and child. As she crossed the main courtyard, a page called to her. She stopped whilst he ran towards her.
‘Her majesty wishes to speak with you, Alyssa.’
‘Right now?’
He nodded. ‘I’m to bring you.’
They made their way to the Queen’s chambers on the northern side of the castle. Alyssa desperately hoped Lorys was not anywhere close by.
‘Is the King present?’ she asked casually.
‘No,’ the page replied. ‘He went for his morning ride but is not returned yet.’
Alyssa was led into an antechamber and asked to wait. It was not long before a lady-in-waiting asked her to enter, then left her alone in the Queen’s private sitting room. Nyria stepped in from an adjoining room a moment later.
‘Alyssa. Thank you for coming. Here, please sit with me. I have ordered some lemon tea.’
‘Forgive me, your majesty. I have come directly from Lady Elkin.’
Alyssa felt flustered. The Queen looked elegant as always. Tall and slim, she sat straight-backed so the fine garments, simple but sophisticated, hung gorgeously from her frame. Alyssa felt dowdy by comparison. She wiped her hands on her skirt, more out of embarrassment than need.
‘A fine boy for the Elkins, I’m told.’
Alyssa nodded, glad to see the tea arriving with the same lady-in-waiting. They paused whilst the tray was set down. She hoped it would distract the Queen from talk of the morning’s birth.
‘Thank you, Aileen,’ the Queen said. ‘Can I pour you some, Alyssa?’
Alyssa nodded again.
Nyria handed her a beautiful porcelain cup. ‘I’m also told,’ she said, continuing precisely where she had left off, ‘that you did something rather extraordinary today which probably saved both mother and child.’
Damn you, Elsa, Alyssa thought, reddening. ‘Oh, I don’t think I—’
‘No false modesty, please, my child. I’ve lived too long; seen too much cruelty. All of us are in your debt for saving two lives today. Now!’ She clapped her hands as though about to share some great jest. ‘I have been following your progress these past years, Alyssa, and I’ve decided it’s high time we made use of your real skills.’
‘Oh?’ Alyssa really did not know what else to say, so she sipped her tea and waited.
‘Indeed. I am in dire need of a new secretary. I would like you to take up that role and work alongside me.’
Alyssa put her cup down. She could not believe what was being offered.
Nyria held up her manicured hand. ‘There’s more. You will do this work for half the day. For the rest of the time I wish you to start a small school in the palace. I am determined that all the children who live here learn the rudiments of reading and writing. You are more than capable of running my school, so make no feeble protest.’
Alyssa swallowed. This was more than she had ever dared dream. ‘It would be an honour, your majesty.’ She was glad her voice remained steady.
Nyria rang a small bell next to the tray. She looked delighted with herself.
‘And I have your first student,’ she said, standing to greet the child being led into the room. ‘I want you to meet Gyl. Gyl, this is the lady we spoke of.’
Alyssa, who was not very tall, found herself looking directly into the lad’s greyish eyes. He seemed strangely familiar but she could not put her finger on the resemblance. He held his hand out politely and she took it. She looked at the beaming Queen and back at the child.
‘I hear we are starting a school together, Gyl. Will you help me?’
‘I would like that,’ he replied.
2
A Messenger Hastens
The man was sitting in a straight-backed chair he had made himself. His hand rested loosely around the half-empty mug on the rickety side table, also of his own design.
‘I have a secret,’ he said quietly, as he regarded the apparition which floated in front of him.
‘Tell me,’ it whispered, like a sigh on the wind.
‘It’s a terrible secret, Yargo.’ The man paused; his impossibly blue eyes held hers intently. ‘But I need to share it with you.’
He dropped his gaze to stare at the earthen floor. The translucent creature, faintly tinged with green, hovered in silence. She knew when to stay quiet with the man and moments passed whilst her robes billowed around her. They were forever moving and it was hard to tell where they began and her long, silky hair ended.
In almost four summers, she had neither discovered the reason for him being here nor found out anything about his past. It was clear he was educated and his manner suggested courtly training, but he was more closed about his early life than any of the dusty books in this cottage.
He had intrigued Yargo from the moment she had been given the task of watching over him and had drifted gently into his life. She had become much more than an observer, however, which was a clear breach of the rules laid down by the Custodian, Lys, who had sent her
to stay close to this mysterious fellow. Yargo, a young and popular member of the Host, had beseeched Lys to find a task for her when her disgraced husband, a god, had fallen seriously foul of his King. Yargo was determined to make up for her husband’s shame and so Lys had contrived a special role for her in watching over this precious man.
Yargo had fallen in love with him from the second he had turned those clear, sad eyes upon her. It would come to nothing, of course; she was a spiritual creature only in his world, unable to enjoy physical contact. But the fascination she felt for him was as physical as it was mental.
He was strangely tall—too tall, it seemed to Yargo, for most men of this world—and he possessed the broadest of shoulders. His frame had filled out with the manual work he imposed on himself daily. He told her that the physical exertion calmed his mind and prepared it for the equally rigorous study he carried out each day.
Yargo had learned from Lys that the old master sentient, Merkhud, had harnessed this man’s massive power to wrench his spirit free from its body and deposit it into his own frail form, at the same moment throwing his own spirit into the younger man’s body in order to undergo execution by crucifixion and stoning in his stead. It was Merkhud’s choice to take the younger man’s punishment; to save him from death.
Yargo had been given scant additional information. She knew that the spirit of the man in front of her had travelled awkwardly in Merkhud’s body between Tal and the Heartwood, where Arabella the priestess watched over the joining of his spirit with his own broken shell of a body. When spirit and flesh were reunited, Darmud Coril, god of the forest, called down the powers of the Host and together they channelled life back into this man. It was a mighty healing and he was made whole.
It had taken two summers just to get him to talk again. During that time Yargo had watched his damaged emotions mend more slowly than his body. She knew nothing of why his suffering had occurred but instinctively understood that here was a man who had lost everything. He had no reason to live but live he did within a cocoon of silence. It was how he wanted it.
She travelled with him on his long walks, floating swiftly and mostly invisibly alongside while his glorious falcon flew high above. The day he first spoke to her was the happiest she could recall. His voice, scratchy from lack of use, was nonetheless of a gentle pitch and she easily became absorbed in listening to his quiet conversation.
Yargo loved to provoke his smile and thrilled herself if she could cause him to tilt back his head with an infectious and all too rare laugh. He was, quite simply, the most beautiful man she had ever known and she longed with every inch of her insubstantial body to touch him.
She knew she would give her soul to smooth that straight long hair he usually kept neatly tied, or to feel the roughness of the dark beard he trimmed so closely. Beyond this, and far more powerful, was the intense curiosity he stirred in her about the dark past he kept so deeply buried. That intoxicating mysteriousness, combined with a long-held notion that his life may have taken this course because of a woman, constantly fired Yargo’s imagination.
As she mused on this, he spoke in his soft manner again. ‘I need you to be a messenger, dear Yargo.’
He swallowed another mouthful of the sweet berry wine which he kept chilled in the nearby stream.
‘I am listening, Tor.’
Her dreamy tone was soothing and did not betray her anticipation of the secret she had chased all these summers.
‘You must hear my story and then you must go and find some people for me. It may take you a long time. I need you to watch over them and when you sense the sign, as you will, bring them back to Tallinor. You must warn them.’
She drifted across the room. ‘And what must I warn them about?’
‘I’ll come to that,’ he said, running his fingers through his hair.
She noticed he looked tired; too much study perhaps. Or did he look nervous? She could not tell. She floated after him as he moved with his unique economy of motion to the window. His lean frame was silhouetted against the lowering sun and in the silence whilst he gathered his thoughts, she wondered at the beauty of that body which had been delivered to the Heartwood dead and broken.
Yargo had been summoned by Lys when Torkyn Gynt’s life was restored. She recalled exactly what Lys had said to her when she was chosen as his Companion.
‘It will take a long time for his body to recover. It will take even longer for his emotional state to heal. He will demand to be alone but I want you to become his friend. This man is the most precious thing we have in our care. He alone will deliver Orlac. Take it slowly. Between you and the falcon, encourage his conversation, laughter, memories. Together you will heal his mind.’
And it had taken four years.
Tor had ignored her at first. Yargo knew he spoke across a link with the falcon, Cloot. He needed no other company, yet she had persevered. Darmud Coril and the Heartwood had mended the broken body beautifully. Arabella the priestess, Tor’s second-bonded Paladin, had watched over him for many weeks whilst the powerful magics of the Heartwood restored his health.
And when he had finally awoken, the Heartwood and its creatures had rejoiced. As soon as he was strong enough to walk, he had left its sanctuary with no direction in mind. Yargo, following, knew the forest guided him; but Tor seemed not to care. He simply walked, with Cloot ever nearby. Then one day, at the edge of a small copse where a tiny stream ran by, he chose his spot and painstakingly built this humble dwelling. He hunted and foraged for his own food and even made his own wine. They had not seen another person these past four summers, save visits from Arabella.
Yargo could tell that Tor carried great grief within his heart. She had wished so many times that she could unlock it and somehow help him. Perhaps now was that time. Staring out of the window as the sun began to sink behind the trees, he began to talk. His normally soft, smooth voice sounded brittle.
‘It is painful for me to remember what has gone before.’
She said nothing.
Shaking his head, he rallied himself. He returned to his chair and settled back with long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. Refilling his cup, Tor began the story. It was the first time he had allowed himself to recall the chain of events leading up to his death, and the only reason he would permit himself to speak of the past now was because of the powerful shift he felt from the Heartwood.
Another Paladin had succumbed.
Recalling his earlier years would be painful; he knew this and it helped immeasurably that he was, for the second time in his life, getting resoundingly drunk as he began his tale. He spoke for hours; sometimes haltingly, at other moments with words spilling over one another. Yargo kept her peace, incredulous at his story.
His quietly spoken words rang in her ears and the scene of his execution played in her mind. Tor told her that at the end he had felt nothing. From behind the eyes of Merkhud, he had been forced to watch his own body spill its lifeblood, knowing that the spirit of Merkhud had died within it.
‘After all his deceits and manipulations, he gave his life for me,’ he said sadly.
She wanted to weep when he admitted it was also his final betrayal of his beloved Alyssa. He had betrayed her the first time by agreeing to leave for Tal as the Royal Physic’s apprentice. The second time he had betrayed her loyalty by leaving her in the forest, and her love and trust by telling her that the son she had birthed had died. He had not said a word to her about the second child.
‘But this was the worst betrayal of all, Yargo. She watched me die. She watched my head split like ripe fruit from the stone of the executioner whilst I hung from the cross. She poured her love towards me and wept tears of despair. And later, stumbling around in Merkhud’s body, I stood close to her and had my chance to give her a sign…anything…but I didn’t. I just allowed myself to betray her once again.’
‘You must not blame yourself.’ The words rang hollow as she spoke them but Yargo was fearful that all the years of effort t
o get him well again might be wasted if he allowed this maudlin mood to overwhelm him. She switched tack. ‘Perhaps you should tell me what you wish of me?’
He did not hesitate. ‘You must find them. Find Sorrel and with her my son and daughter. Bring them back to me, Yargo.’
‘How do you know it is time?’ she asked.
‘There was a shift in the Land’s force this morning. Did you not feel it?’
‘I heard the Heartwood creaking,’ she replied.
‘Well, I felt the Heartwood groan with despair. It means another of the Paladin has died. I felt Orlac’s glee. I wonder whether my children felt it too. We are all connected to the Heartwood—perhaps, wherever they are, they also reacted.’
Yargo did not understand his words, but she knew what he asked of her. She floated until she hovered next to him. ‘And so I must go?’
‘Yes. Track them down. Lys can travel the portals, she will give you passage. Search. Find my children. Look for the Stones of Ordolt: they will call to you. I gave Sorrel these three orbs before she fled with the children.’ He shrugged. ‘I still don’t know what their significance is, but my father gave them to me, told me they were important.’
‘And what do I tell these people should I find them?’
‘When you find them,’ he would allow her no room for failure, ‘tell Sorrel that I require her and my children to return to Tallinor. You must go now.’
‘Perhaps I should consult Lys first.’
‘I already have. She has given her permission for you to do this for me.’
Yargo floated silently in shimmering fluorescence. She was upset and Tor knew it, but he needed her help now. Time worked against them.
Her voice was sad when she finally spoke. ‘I shall leave you then.’
‘I am indebted to you, Yargo,’ he said and watched his Companion’s brightness dull until she was no longer with him.
Tor absentmindedly drummed his fingers on the books as he thought about their contents. When he was packing the cart which carried Tor’s corpse to the Heartwood, Merkhud had taken great care to include his own most precious books. Since his return to life and settling into his hermit’s existence, Tor had devoured their contents.
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