Into The Dark Flame (Book 4)

by Martin Ash

  Shenwolf chewed upon his food and swallowed. 'I understand. That is, I do not truly understand what it is that has caused you to doubt me, but I’ve seen that you do. That hurts me, and I want to know why you should feel this way when all I have done has been, as I thought, out of loyalty to you and to King Leth. I’ll gladly answer your questions, as truthfully as I’m able, in the hope that we may by such means dispel all doubts and suspicions. But I must ask you to understand that there are some things I am quite unable to explain. This, one way or another, you will have to accept, as I have had to.'

  Issul frowned. She glanced at Orbelon, who leaned in silence upon his staff, faceless in his mass of rags and indistinct in the deep gloom beyond the fireglow. 'What do you mean?'

  'I mean. . . .' Shenwolf scratched his head. In the ruddy glow of the flames he was haggard. His uniform was scuffed and soiled; dried blood had caked in his hair above one ear. Issul studied him hard. She could not decide what to make of him. So many questions burned in her mind, and behind them the nagging fear that he was not to be trusted, that he might yet be leading her into a trap. For more reasons than she could quantify she did not want this to be so. 'I am not sure what I mean, because I am not sure about many things. I think it will be simpler if I try to explain as I answer your questions.'

  'Very well. Let's start with this afternoon. How did you come to find the chest and blue casket, and then rescue me? Why are you alone? It does not augur well for my company's defence against the grullags.'

  Shenwolf looked grave. 'I’m sorry, but the company was torn to shreds, Majesty.'

  'There are survivors, surely?'

  'As many as twenty were killed, from what I witnessed. Many others took wounds. Perhaps fifteen or so emerged unscathed. It was a very savage attack. Fortunately the grullags withdrew quickly.'

  'With Grey Venger?'

  Shenwolf nodded. 'That was my impression.'

  She watched his face, looking for clues. 'And what then?'

  'When the battle was done I had two concerns. Most urgently I feared for you. But also I was troubled by the knowledge that we had come into conflict. And we had been seen by the men to have come into conflict, and I had been accused by you of some unexplained crime or misdemeanour. I was under suspicion, therefore, and would almost certainly be stripped of my weapons and placed under guard. So in the fog of the battle's wake I elected to come after you alone.

  'You were easy to track,' he continued. 'You had ridden off alone, the ground was soft and damp, and your horse had developed a limp. Hence I had little difficulty in discovering the grove and thicket where you had hidden the chest. The fact that you were not present alarmed me, and I called Orbelon forth and through him learned that you and he had been disturbed and that you had gone off to investigate. I then followed your trail again, saw other footprints and feared the worst. I took the decision to remove Orbelon to another location, as his safety had to be paramount. Then I went back to find you.

  'To be brief, I was able to observe your plight without being observed myself, though it was a close call. Your captors were highly organised and admirably skilled; they had sentries well-concealed. It was sheer luck that I spotted one before he spotted me.'

  Issul nodded, remembering her own humiliating experience when Gordallith's lookouts caught her.

  'When they marched off with you to recover the chest they left one man guarding the horses,' Shenwolf continued. 'I crept down and slew him, took these two horses and freed the others, stripping them of their saddles and equipment that they might run further and freer. Then I went back for you.'

  'Had I not broken free, what would you have done?' Issul asked.

  'I don’t know. It would have depended upon their treatment of you, I think. I didn’t relish trying to tackle them alone.'

  Issul absorbed this. So far it had a ring of plausibility. She knew Shenwolf to be bold and resourceful, and an expert tracker. And as before, at the Karai camp and afterwards, he had demonstrated extraordinary fidelity to her and the Crown. But there was enigma here. Something still glared, and demanded explanation.

  She pulled forth the leather pouch from her tunic and held out the little ivory talisman on the flat of her hand. 'All very well. Now explain this.'

  Shenwolf glanced at the talisman, then lowered his eyes. 'I cannot.'

  'Cannot?'

  'Not entirely. Not satisfactorily.'

  'I do not understand, Shenwolf.' Issul's voice took on a brittle tone. 'You have already admitted that it’s yours, and we know that you gave it to the Child beside the pond. So why can you not tell me now what it is, and why you gave it?'

  'Majesty, it is as I said moments ago. There are some things that I’m unable to fully explain. I will gladly tell you all I can, but that, I fear, will not be enough. When I’m done you will know little more than you know already.'

  'Let me be the judge of that.'

  Shenwolf bowed his head. 'My difficulty is that I know so little myself. You see, in all truth, I have almost no recollection of my past life.'

  'That is indeed unfortunate!' declared Issul scathingly. 'Convenient also, were there something you wished to keep concealed!'

  'If anything is concealed, it is concealed from me also. That is the truth, Majesty. I swear it. I fully believe that no torture known to men could draw from me more about my true background than I am about to reveal to you.'

  'Then what of the story you told me days ago at the inn of the Green Ram in Crosswood?'

  'It hardly constituted a story, as I recall it,' Shenwolf replied. 'I said only that I came from beyond the forest.'

  'And that you were taught martial skills by your father from birth.'

  'That is still very little. I admit, I was evasive. The fact is, I didn’t want to embellish the truth but I was afraid that you would not believe me if I admitted it. What memories I possess are vague, fleeting impressions; hauntings, even.' He put down his trencher and rose, then took several paces across the cave floor, his head bowed and his hands to his temples. 'It is as though my past resides in a haze, impenetrable by me, which, when a stiff breeze blows, fleetingly shows me a glimpse of an aspect of itself, but a glimpse only, then it is gone. Try as I might, I cannot recover it.'

  Orbelon spoke. 'Perhaps, then, you should begin by telling us what you do know, of recent weeks: how you came to meet the Child beside the pond; why you came to Enchantment's Reach; how you came upon this talisman. Can you tell us where you set out from?'

  Shenwolf gave a shake of his head.'No. My first clear perception is of finding myself upon my hands and knees in the forest. A nondescript place; it can’t be more than a few leagues from here. My head was spinning; I was dazed, and for some moments dazzled as if by a bright light. It was, quite genuinely, as though I had arrived there without having been anywhere before, for I knew almost nothing. And I recall . . . it’s hard to explain . . . there was, for a few instants only, a sensation of being surrounding by a shimmering purplish lucency. It faded, and as it did so the forest came into substance around me.'

  'Describe this phenomenon,' said Orbelon.

  Shenwolf swept his hand across his crown. 'There is nothing more I can say. It was the impression of light surrounding me. Perhaps not even light, but a bright, glaring colouration or disturbance of the air. I was dizzy, I recall, and felt that I’d been thrown down upon the ground, as if from quite a height. I can tell you nothing more.'

  Issul glanced again at Orbelon. He made no further comment, so she said, 'Very well. What then? You were alone in the forest. Did you know where you were? What did you do?'

  'I had no notion of my whereabouts, nor how I came to be there, nor where I had come from.'

  'But you knew who you were?'

  'I knew my name, and little else. However, it’s perhaps odd, but I was not at all distressed and only moderately disorientated by this. It did not seem unnatural. When my head had cleared sufficiently I began to walk, taking an upward trail to some high ground. I
ascended as high as I could, then climbed a tall elm to scan my surroundings. I saw nothing but forest in all directions with, occupying the southern range of my vision, the bright blazing peaks which I subsequently learned to be the borders of Enchantment. Those mountains impressed me as daunting - lonely, eerie and inhospitable. So I descended and struck off generally northwards.'

  'And you had not yet acquired the talisman?'

  'Oh yes. I had it with me.'

  'It belonged to you?'

  'I don’t know if it was mine, but I was wearing it around my neck. I remember becoming aware of it and taking it off to examine it.'

  'So it was unfamiliar?'

  'Everything was unfamiliar, and yet, as I say, that did not trouble me. The talisman may have been mine; I simply do not know. Majesty, what is this thing? Why do you place such weight upon it?'

  'Just continue,' replied Issul curtly.

  Shenwolf looked at her for a moment, then said, 'I walked for the better part of a day, and came eventually upon a tiny hamlet called Arklie Hollow. The folk there were wary and fearful, not keen for me to stay. Still, from them I gleaned the name of this land and its king. I learned too of the Karai menace and King Leth's call to arms. Thus informed I set off to become what I have since become, namely a soldier in the King's Army.'

  'And along the way it so happened that you met with the Legendary Child and bestowed this talisman upon him!'

  'The Legendary Child? What is this?'

  Could he be bluffing? Issul studied him closely. He was a fine actor, if he was. Still, she was not ready to rule it out. 'You gave this 'ornament' to a child beside a pond. You have already confessed as much.'

  'Yes. Majesty, believe me, that is just how it happened!' Shenwolf's eyes and expression declared him wounded by her tone. 'For three days and nights I walked on, following a woodland path pointed out to me by the folk of Arklie Hollow. At a certain point I was forced to leave the path, as I came upon a family of grullags and felt it wise to give them the widest possible berth. As luck would have it they spied me almost at the same moment that I spotted them, and came in pursuit. I fled rather than face them, and ran for perhaps half a league deep into the forest before finally losing them. It was some hours afterwards that, plying my way in the direction in which I hoped Enchantment's Reach lay, I broke out beside the pond where the old woman, Arene, was with the child and its warden.'

  'And that is it? A simple chance encounter?'

  'Just that.'

  Issul looked sceptically at Orbelon, then thrust her hand at Shenwolf again. 'Then why did you give this to the Child?'

  'I was charmed by him, pure and simple. He was fair, bright-eyed and bonny; I took an instant liking to him and was prompted on the spur of the moment to give him a gift of some kind. This was all I had. But it was a gift, from a stranger to a child, nothing more.'

  Issul peered hard at him. Could this be so? Sheer coincidence and nothing more? It was extraordinary, most especially in the light of Pader Luminis's having identified the talisman as originating within Enchantment, and Orbelon subsequently linking it to his ancient adversary, Urch-Malmain. If Shenwolf were making it up, then it was a most audacious tale, for on the surface it appeared designed to arouse her doubts. But if it were true . . . Issul was almost too thrown by it to gather her thoughts.

  Shenwolf stood forlorn in the dancing fireglow. 'Majesty, I am unsure of what I am being accused.'

  Orbelon glided forward and spoke softly to Issul. 'I think we should discuss this.'

  She nodded. To Shenwolf she said, 'Orbelon and I must confer. Excuse us, please.'

  'I’ll wait outside.'

  'No!' It came out quickly, more staccato than she had intended, and there was no disguising her meaning. She softened her tone, but could do nothing to diminish the force of her message. 'Take yourself off that way, into the cave. Take a torch to light your way.'

  Shenwolf self-consciously lit a brand in the flames of the fire and moved off into the depths of the cave. Issul watched as his silhouetted figure diminished. Lit by the flames of the torch, she saw him seat himself somewhat stiffly upon a low shelf of rock some distance away. She and Orbelon then spoke closely, in undertones.

  'What am I to make of this?' Issul sighed, almost bereft.

  'It is an extraordinary tale,' Orbelon agreed.

  'Do you believe him?'

  The bundled figure shifted. 'It is hard to know what to make of it.'

  'Is it plausible that his meeting with the Legendary Child came about by pure hazard? Can this - ' she held up the little talisman ' - really be without significance?'

  'I would not go that far,' said Orbelon. 'The talisman almost certainly originated from Urch-Malmain, after all, though it may have been many places since. Shenwolf's tale has a ring of convenience, and yet it is imbued with a naivete that makes it almost persuasive, for who would think of making up a tale like this? In himself he is most convincing, also. You have never spoken to him of the Legendary Child, I take it?'

  Issul gave a shake of the head.

  'Well, let us consider the evidence. Shenwolf has rescued you from danger and possible death more than once in recent weeks. Myself also, now. He has placed himself at great risk in doing so. If he acts with ill-intent he has a strange way of showing it.'

  'Even so . . . . And if he truly knows nothing of his past, what might be hidden there? Is he Urch-Malmain's creature?'

  'It may be so,' Orbelon said. 'And if it is, then it is also possible that he genuinely knows nothing of it. Such manipulations are consistent with my recollection of Urch-Malmain's methods.'

  'But his cheerful disposition, his decisiveness, his skills, his acts of heroism - these are not the actions and attributes of a muddled and dispirited amnesiac.'

  'Were this a case of a man rendered memoryless by shock, a blow to the head or some form of disease, I would expect sluggishness, befuddlement, acute anxiety, yes. But if, as I suspect is the case, Urch-Malmain has refined his techniques of old, he will be more than capable of modifying memory, instincts, urges and even perception, without truly deranging the innate personality.'

  Issul threw a troubled glance across to where Shenwolf sat. 'Then Shenwolf is not truly himself?'

  'It is hard to say precisely what he is, as things currently stand. But let us not leap to conclusions. His story, combined with his being in possession of this talisman, leads me to infer a connection in some form with Urch-Malmain, but I can be no more precise than that. Strange, though. Very strange. More than ever I feel Urch-Malmain's presence; more than ever he works himself upon my mind.'

  'What would be Urch-Malmain's likely goal?'

  'He is, as you know, one of the Highest Ones of Enchantment. Hence his goal is ultimately that of the others: to maintain conflict so that Enchantment may sustain itself and grow; to overwhelm the formed world. The strategies by which he plans to achieve this remain unknowns.' Orbelon paused, then said ruminatively, 'In regard to Shenwolf, there is something else I have noticed.'

  'What is that?'

  'His dedication to you. The very way he looks at you. I don't count myself an expert in these matters, but I think the high regard in which he holds you may extend beyond a soldier's simple desire to serve his queen.'

  Issul lowered her eyes. 'I have felt that, too. That is, I had until this morning. Now, though . . . ?'

  'What of you, Issul? Until this morning you trusted him utterly. You confided in him; in a literal sense you had placed him in physical proximity to you, after a relatively short acquaintance. You had become very close to him, had you not?'

  Issul stood quickly, her cheeks growing warm. 'You are impertinent, Orbelon.'

  'I apologize.'

  'I- I did trust him, yes. He had proven himself over and over. I found his counsel useful and even sometimes wise. He was gallant and personable. He carries with him an air of mystery which is intriguing, I admit. He is also a superb weapons-master and a natural leader who others willingly follow. B
ut that has been the sum total of my regard for him.'

  'I understand.'

  After a brief silence, during which she avoided looking at either Shenwolf or Orbelon, Issul said in a vexed tone, 'But what now? He may yet be my enemy. How am I to proceed?'

  'You carry on, as before. You must. Nothing has changed.'

  'But Shenwolf . . . ?'

  'If he is willing, he should accompany you still.'

  'Orbelon, I’m not sure about this.'

  'If he is your enemy, would you rather have him at your side or trailing you somewhere out of sight? Or do you intend to execute him here and now? I suspect he will raise objections to that.'

  'But do we let him continue with us now to the Farplace Opening?'

  'Can we afford not to? He has been there before, after all.'

  Issul regarded the bundled god pensively. 'You believe in him, don't you, Orbelon.'

  'I think I do. But I think we should talk to him some more.'

  ii

  Little more was said that evening. Orbelon, needing no sleep, offered to keep watch through the night. Issul spread her blanket on the ground to one side of the fire, Shenwolf to the other. In the darkness, as the fire dwindled to embers, Issul lay awake, thinking. Quickly, though, her tiredness overcame her, her thoughts drifted and slid, and before she knew it she was awoken by the sounds of movement inside the cave and birds singing outside.

  Shenwolf had built the fire up and was preparing a breakfast of porridge and fruit. He flashed Issul a wide grin as she sat up blearily. 'Majesty! Good morning! I hope you slept well. There is a little stream fifty yards beyond the cave entrance, if you wish to wash.'

  Issul had slept solidly, despite her concerns, and felt the better for it. She rose now and, accepting Shenwolf's advice, went out to find the stream. The morning was cool but bright, the sky streaked with a few wisps of high white cloud. The sun had not yet risen fully above the trees, so the forest was held in a penumbral light. Issul walked a little distance into the trees and came upon the stream, which flowed without hurry and to a reasonable depth, and could not resist the temptation to bathe. She quickly removed her clothes and immersed herself in the cold water, washing the sweat and grime of travel from her limbs. It was too cold to stay for more than a few moments, and she soon made her way back to the cave. The food was ready. Orbelon waited silently to one side as Issul and Shenwolf ate. Issul gathered her thoughts, but it was Shenwolf who spoke first.