Darksong

by Isobelle Carmody

  ‘React naturally,’ Duran hissed. ‘You are servitors and of course you would be curious to hear an explosion. But you are obedient as well. Stay in an orderly line.’

  Ember turned around and saw an orange glow spreading along the shore. From Duran’s reaction, it was obviously Fridja’s diversion. Soonkar gave an unexpected chuckle.

  ‘What is it?’ Bleyd asked curiously.

  ‘Just that back that way are Coralyn’s personal warehouses. It is an open secret that her agents skim the cream off all cargoes and place it there. If I am not mistaken we are seeing the sight of several considerable fortunes in the process of being burned to soot. They would have it well guarded against robbery but no one would imagine anyone simply burning such rich bounty. Certainly no Iridomi would do such a thing. A torch through a window and some explosive powder would have been enough.’

  Ember could not raise a smile. Pain was beginning to seep through the barrier of lirium.

  Two groups of legionnaires had gone marching double time past them towards the fires back along the shore before they had gone another twenty paces, but none had done more than glance at them absently. All attention was on the conflagration. Ember could hardly believe it when their little line turned unchallenged onto the pier where the Wildwind was tethered, only to find it was the very first ship tied up, and was seemingly unguarded. At least there was no one on the pier watching it. It was impossible to see who was on deck because the ship was riding very high in the water. Soonkar muttered that this was a good sign, because it meant the cargo had been removed since the sounding of the Edict bell, which would make their own errand seem more likely.

  Duran marched them to the bottom of the gangplank leading up to the ship, then turned to motion to Bleyd. They exchanged a few words, then Bleyd passed Duran and took the lead. The myrmidon chieftain followed him quietly up the gangplank, flicking a hand to indicate that the rest of them should follow.

  ‘Curse it,’ Soonkar muttered suddenly, tightening his grip on the box they carried between them, and she followed his gaze to where an Iridomi legionnaire had appeared at the top of the gangway, sword in hand.

  ‘What is all of this?’ he demanded.

  ‘A delivery of replacement cargo, Captain Legionnaire,’ Bleyd answered boldly in the slightly pompous voice of a self-important assistant. ‘I hope the shipmaster is aboard because I have been instructed by my master to get a chit from him detailing these wares. The boxes of fruit collected this afternoon were one short.’

  Ember held her breath, knowing that the man could very well recognise Bleyd, who wore neither mask nor makeup now. In front of her, Duran’s back tensed as three more legionnaires appeared behind the first.

  ‘I was told nothing about any cargo,’ the legionnaire told Bleyd.

  ‘Since when do shipmasters inform legionnaires about their cargo?’ Bleyd asked with a touch of aggression. Ember realised that he and Duran were using every chance to inch forward when Soonkar used the box to push her a little to close the gap that had opened in front of them. Bleyd stopped abruptly when the legionnaire lifted the tip of his sword a little. ‘I do not want any trouble, but I have instructions to bring these boxes to the Wildwind. Let these servitors set them down on the deck and I will show you the note of agreement scribed between my master and the master of this ship. It was signed by the port officials only an hour ago.’

  ‘First show me the papers,’ the legionnaire commanded.

  ‘Very well. Syllan? The papers,’ Bleyd turned to Duran.

  ‘Never fear, I have them,’ Duran answered in the querulous voice of a crone, and she hunched herself over as she pretended to feel in her pockets, keeping the box she carried on her shoulder in front of her face as she moved past Bleyd.

  ‘Well, do you have them or not, sister?’ the legionnaire demanded.

  ‘I have them, master but I cannot seem to lay my hands on them. A moment.’ She bent to put the box down, unobtrusively going a little closer to the legionnaire to do it, and using her supposed search for the papers as an excuse for keeping her head down. The legionnaire’s eyes had narrowed at the unmistakable size of her, but as she babbled on and on in the whining voice she had assumed, Ember saw irritation and impatience replace the suspicion in the man’s face.

  ‘You are a fool, Syllan. The master will cut your tongue off if you have forgotten them,’ Bleyd said.

  Duran was rummaging under the folds of her cloak. Suddenly, in an incredibly swift, smooth movement, she had drawn a short, lethal-looking sword, seemingly from nowhere, and had set the blade of it against the legionnaire’s throat. ‘Order your men to stand back and let us board,’ she commanded softly, rising to her full height.

  Though his own sword dangled uselessly from his fingertips, the legionnaire cried loudly, ‘You are the myrmidon charged with consorting with the would-be assassin of the Holder! Lay down your weapon before my men cut you down!’

  ‘I applaud your courage, but do not be a fool. Instruct your men to stand aside before I slit your throat and then I will deal with your men,’ Duran said with deadly calmness. ‘And if you raise your voice again, I will cut your tongue out.’

  ‘Curse the man. The legionnaires on one of these other ships will have heard him for sure,’ Soonkar muttered. Unobtrusively he set the box aside and took Ember by the elbow. He glanced at the water then said, ‘You can swim?’

  Ember nodded, dry-mouthed with terror at the thought that what had begun in the water might end there. She could swim, but not well, and pain was trickling into her through a dozen cracks, though the lirium was still containing the worst of it. When the drug was gone, she was aware that what waited would be worse than anything she had hitherto experienced on Keltor. She could not endure that and keep herself afloat.

  ‘Stand aside, men,’ the legionnaire captain told his men through gritted teeth.

  ‘Begging your pardon, Captain, but it is more than all of our lives are worth to obey you,’ said the bearded legionnaire directly behind his superior. He moved to the side of his captain and lifted his own sword. ‘Release the Captain and you will not be harmed. But if you try to board, we will cut you to pieces.’

  ‘I doubt that very much, braggart, for it is myrmidons you will face. Whereas you are a hairy faced ratlet hired by the Iridomi strumpet, and as such, you would of course have neither true skill nor loyalty to your comrades,’ Duran mocked.

  The legionnaire flushed with rage. ‘I will cut my name into your heart, myrmidon sow.’ He looked over his shoulder at the other legionnaires. ‘You! Dudyd. Go and sound the ship’s alarm. The rest of you draw your swords and we will take this pathetic crew of women who try to be men.’

  ‘Alive or dead?’ one of the other legionnaires asked, leering at them. ‘It would be a pity not to teach them the proper use for women.’

  ‘It matters not who dies, excepting the myrmidon chieftain and the Fomhikan assassin who stands with her, for the chieftain wants them for questioning and judgement. But the visionweaver is not to be harmed, on pain of death. That is her there, veiled with the halfman holding her arm.’

  Duran turned to Ember. ‘So. You are valuable to them, Visionweaver.’ She glanced at Bleyd, who stood rigid. ‘You did well to kidnap her, my friend.’ Without warning, Duran lifted her sword, swung round and crashed the hilt of it into the temple of the legionnaire captain. As he crumpled, she pushed him hard at the bearded legionnaire, and turned to drag Ember in front of her. Her hands were gentler than they looked as she lifted the knife but Ember felt the coldness of its edge against her own throat with a chill. ‘Now, perhaps, you will allow us aboard, legionnaire.’

  ‘You will not kill her,’ the bearded legionnaire sneered, having pushed his unconscious captain to one side and righted himself. But he was suddenly pale.

  A bell began to toll on the ship and the legionnaire’s eyes lit up, but the knife at Ember’s throat did not waver. ‘Time is running out, man,’ Duran said evenly. ‘You can be sure that I will
kill her, if only to spite your mistress. This lying bitch is nothing to any of us. Now step aside and let us board or I will slit her throat when your comrades arrive and make sure all know you were the reason she died. You alone. I am sure your loyal comrades will throw you to Coralyn as quickly as you abandoned your captain there.’

  The legionnaire glanced at his companions but their expressions seemed to give him no comfort. He stepped back. ‘Come aboard then. It will do you no good.’

  ‘Go,’ Duran barked, and the myrmidons filed past her, excepting Soonkar who remained behind Duran and close to Ember, and Bleyd, who had also drawn a short sword and stood at Duran’s flank with it held ready. As the myrmidons got onto the deck, they quietly set down their burdens and positioned themselves as they had been instructed. From the corner of her eye, Ember saw Audra gravitate to the vacant wavespeaker’s platform. Behind her the sky was now flushed rose and violet and it was clear that Kalinda was seconds from rising.

  ‘What do you imagine this will achieve?’ the legionnaire asked, but his eyes flickered, betraying him, and Duran turned and uttered a curse at the sight of a full troop of legionnaires marching double time along the shore towards them. Without hesitation, Duran stepped forward onto the deck and kicked the gangplank so that it fell into the gap between the ship and the pier. Ember saw Virat and Gorick move swiftly to throw off the binding ropes, unnoticed by the legionnaires whose attention was riveted to Duran.

  Then one of the legionnaires gave a cry, and pointed to the shore, which had begun to recede as the ship drifted with the waves.

  ‘What madness is this!’ the bearded legionnaire demanded, turning about and seeing the binding ropes hanging loose. ‘We must have the shipmaster bring us back to shore lest we strike a shoal.’ But even as he spoke, the ship move purposefully away from the shore. All eyes turned to the shipmaster’s platform where Audra now stood, hands in the wrist stirrups, eyes fast shut.

  ‘Beware!’ cried Soonkar, pointing to the legionnaire captain, who had stealthily drawn a short sword. Bleyd launched himself at the legionnaire, but he was too late. The sword flew through the air to bury itself between Audra’s breasts. She gave a strangled cry and swayed, before toppling sideways to lie motionless on the deck, her hands held up obscenely in a dead parody of pleading.

  Duran gave a cry of anguished rage and released Ember to drag the legionnaire captain to his feet. Unsupported, Ember’s knees gave way and she slid to the ground bonelessly. Soonkar was at her side at once, as the deck erupted into a battleground of myrmidons and legionnaires. The halfman scooped her into his powerful arms and carried her across the deck to an open doorway revealing a timber alcove and steps that led down to cabins. Virat deposited a trembling Hella beside them and drew her own sword before launching herself into the fray.

  ‘What are we to do with Audra dead!’ Hella moaned. ‘The legionnaire was right. As soon as we drift into the currents, the ship will be dashed to pieces on the rocks and the silfiwill rise! We must turn back.’

  ‘I fear there are as many silfiawaiting us on the shore as in the depths,’ Soonkar said, nodding to the legionnaires massing along the pier, pointing and shouting and wielding swords. There were over fifty and more approaching at a run.

  ‘We are doomed,’ Hella whispered.

  ‘Not necessarily. That legionnaire would not have killed the myrmidon unless he knew there was another wavespeaker aboard. Barat must be below.’ As if conjured up by his words, at that very moment, a powerful-looking man with a straggling grey-streaked beard mounted the steps, scowling and cursing ferociously. He reminded Ember of a Viking.

  ‘You are the shipmaster?’ the dwarf demanded.

  ‘I am Barat Wavespeaker, halfman, and what is happening on my ship?’

  ‘A battle, as you can no doubt hear. Fortunately for my friends and I, myrmidons outnumber legionnaires when the numbers are even.’

  ‘I care not who outnumbers whom. Who dared wavespeak my ship?’

  ‘A myrmidon who was once a wavespeaker’s daughter. We were drifting.’

  The shipmaster glared at Soonkar. ‘Are you being deliberately obtuse? Who threw off the tether ropes to let the ship drift? I hope this myrmidon is aware of the severe penalty for breaking Edict? Not to mention the penalty for meddling with the ship of another.’

  ‘I doubt she will care about penalties. She was killed by one of the legionnaires even as she stood with her eyes closed upon the platform.’

  The shipmaster frowned. ‘So. I must return us to the pier. Move out of my way.’

  Soonkar stepped in front of Ember and Hella and they all turned to watch the shipmaster stride across to the wavespeaker’s platform, followed by several of his shipfolk. The battle was all but over and the legionnaires were now either in the process of having their wrists tied or they were lying unconscious on the deck. No one was dead but blood ran from wounds on the limbs and faces of both the conscious and unconscious and the air reeked of sweat.

  Duran spotted the shipmaster and stepped into his path, setting her javelin point casually on the deck between them. ‘Good day, Shipmaster Barat. I am Duran, chieftain of the myrmidons. We have met before.’

  ‘I know it but this is not the moment for niceties. Kindly step aside that I may bring us back to shore. We will then sort this matter out.’

  ‘I fear that cannot be,’ Duran said calmly. ‘You see if you bring us back to shore, not only will you be breaking the Edict, but the green legionnaires you see clustered there will swarm aboard and arrest us.’

  ‘You have stolen a ship and broken Edict, not to mention breaking other laws upon Iridom. How else should you be treated?’ Barat said coldly.

  ‘I would expect to be treated as Lanalor’s Charter demands: as one who is innocent until proof of my guilt had been laid out and I have been judged by a proper court.’

  ‘That is all very well,’ the shipmaster said haughtily. ‘But my duty is clear.’

  ‘Shipmaster, we are almost in the currents and I can see the shoals,’ said a shipdaughter anxiously. ‘Can we not at least drop anchor?’

  Duran laughed out loud. ‘I am a fool not to have thought of it myself. Girl, where is the anchor?’ The girl looked nervously at Barat, who nodded grimly and, in a short time, the ship was straining against its anchor.

  ‘It will not hold for long in these currents,’ the shipmaster informed them sourly. ‘You had best let me bring you to shore before it breaks. Your crimes are not so bad that they would see you dead. The silfiwill have less mercy.’

  ‘Tell me, Shipmaster Barat, since when did the decks of Vespian ships become Iridomi sept land to be patrolled by Iridomi legionnaires?’ Duran asked conversationally.

  The Vespian flushed slightly. ‘Fulig’s command was for us to obey all lawful sept directions. The legionnaires requested to be allowed to station themselves on the decks of all ships tethered here in order to capture criminals. I thought this a lawful and reasonable request.’

  ‘But did you not inform them of your willingness to cooperate – to hand these criminals over, if we came on board?’

  ‘I did but they … they preferred to keep watch themselves. They said that the Edict would be lifted only after we had agreed to allow our decks to be patrolled.’

  ‘So. It was a matter of maintaining schedules?’ Duran asked pleasantly.

  The shipmaster’s flush deepened. ‘I do not think that you are in any position to moralise to me.’

  Duran laughed suddenly. ‘True enough. Therefore I will desist. Take us to Myrmidor and there I will be judged for whatever crimes I am deemed to have committed. I and my companions will willingly lay down our arms and make ourselves your prisoners if you give your word to take this course.’

  ‘You will give no orders aboard my ship, Myrmidon,’ Barat wavespeaker snapped. He stopped and watched as Gorick and one of the other amazons lifted Audra’s body onto their shoulders and carried her below. ‘So,’ he said and shook his head. ‘Her death will sadden
her mother and brothers and the manner of it will shame them.’

  ‘Rest assured that Audra’s family need feel no shame. She served the soulweavers, and obeyed Lanalor’s Charter honorably,’ Duran announced coldly. ‘It is not her shame that she was killed in performing her duty, but the shame of those that struck such a cowardly blow to a defenceless person. And it is your shame that you have allowed Iridomi legionnaires to rule your deck to avoid any delay in your crossing. I wonder how many of your fellows sank so low.’

  The shipmaster bridled. ‘Do not presume to criticise me, Myrmidon. What makes you think that you can break the law, and then stand upon your oaths to the soulweavers to protect you? This is what comes of the arrogance of a chieftain who will not remain upon her sept.’

  ‘It is less arrogance than need in these troubled times,’ Duran said rather wearily.

  ‘Shipmaster, hear me!’ said the captain of the legionnaires, who stood clasped between two myrmidons. ‘I have the authority to tell you that there is a substantial reward for anyone who aids us in the capture of the Fomhikan who tried to assassinate the Holder.’

  ‘What has this to do with me?’ Barat asked impatiently.

  ‘The assassin is among those who untethered the ship.’

  Barat looked at Duran. ‘Is this true? Is the assassin aboard my ship?’

  ‘There is no assassin aboard,’ Bleyd said softly. Stepping forward, he made a brisk obeisance. ‘There is only an innocent man, wrongly accused. I, Bleyd of Fomhika.’

  ‘If he were innocent, he would have waited for the judgment of the Holder’s court, would he not?’ the captain asked. ‘Yet it is not your duty to judge him, Shipmaster. It is your duty to return us to shore and allow me to do my duty. Do only this and a thousand hacoins will be your reward.’