by Ian Irvine
‘I have no servants. But when I did, I didn’t beat them.’
‘I’d work all day, every day, and all I’d want is a little tiny room. Ever since Mama died I’ve dreamed about having a room to myself.’
‘Is that your only dream?’
‘I dream about Mama and Papa, but they’re gone. Until I met Tali, nobody cared about me. No one in the world.’
Tobry hugged her and she closed her eyes. Rix looked away, swallowing.
After another mile, ahead of them the land rose several hundred feet to a doorknob-shaped hill whose flanks were covered in grey-leaved bushes, though the knob itself was bare rock the rich, reddish hue of iron ore.
‘From the crest we should be able to see the other track,’ said Tobry.
‘Let’s pray they’ve taken it. If they took some other route, we’ll never find them.’
As they climbed the hill, concealed from the track by tall scrub, Rix felt his pulse rise and the backs of his hands prickle. If they’d guessed wrong, Tali would die in Cython and everything she knew about the enemy would be lost.
‘Rannilt?’ Tobry roused her with a touch on the shoulder.
She woke with a start, flinched as though expecting a blow, then a lovely smile transformed her thin features. ‘Lord Tobry.’ She turned towards Rix and the smile slipped a little, though it did not go out.
Rix felt an ache in his chest, that a child should be wary of him. ‘We’re going to try and rescue Tali now, and you’ve got to stay here.’
Her eyes widened in alarm. ‘Don’t leave me. I can help. I’m quick and quiet.’
And brave, Rix thought, but clumsy. ‘No.’
‘But it’s out there. Huntin’.’
‘What’s out there?’ Tobry said sharply.
‘The thing in the dark. Shadow and shape, shiftin’, always shiftin’.’ She shuddered. ‘Please don’t leave me.’
CHAPTER 46
‘Does she mean a shifter?’ Rix mouthed.
‘I hope not,’ Tobry mimed back. ‘Rannilt, it won’t come in daylight, and we need someone really brave to watch the horses. It’s a vital job. Can you do it?’
Rannilt studied the huge beasts, chewing on her bottom lip. She nodded jerkily. ‘What if — what if you don’t come back?’
‘Can you ride?’ said Rix.
‘Of course she can’t ride,’ said Tobry. ‘There aren’t any horses in Cython.’
He scribbled on a scrap of paper, then laid a hand on his horse’s muzzle, speaking in a low voice. The horse stamped its front feet, one after the other.
‘My horse is called Beetle,’ he said as he shortened the stirrups. ‘If we’re not back by nightfall, Beetle will take you to Caulderon, to a friend of ours, a kind old lady called Luzia. She’ll look after you. Give her this note; don’t lose it.’ He handed the scrap of paper to her. ‘You can ride there in a few hours.’ He gave Rix an anxious glance.
The chances of a despised Pale child making it, through war and the Seethings, was remote. Though not as remote as their attack succeeding.
‘Beetle,’ said Rannilt. ‘That’s a nice name.’
‘He’s very gentle,’ said Tobry. Beetle folded his right ear over. ‘Look, he likes you. But don’t try to ride Leather. She has a very bad temper.’
‘Like Rix,’ said Rannilt, then covered her mouth and turned scarlet.
Tobry snorted. By the words of a child I stand revealed, thought Rix.
Tobry put various items in a small pack and tossed it over a shoulder. They shook her grubby hand, then Rix followed Tobry around the curve to the other side of the knob. When he looked back, Rannilt was a tiny, fragile figure, staring after them.
‘I hate this,’ said Tobry. ‘Leaving her all alone is wrong.’
Rix clasped his shoulder. ‘We’ll make it quick.’
As the light grew they had a good view over the broken landscape to their left — a myriad of lifeless salt lakes and brilliantly blue, boiling pools, each surrounded by a concentric banding of red, orange and yellow crystals.
‘Looks like the Gods vomited the place up,’ said Rix, who had not previously seen the Seethings from on high. ‘Why did the enemy delve Cython here? There are caves aplenty in the mountains.’
‘There’s rich ore under the Seethings. They already had mines here when our First Fleets came.’
‘Plus the heatstones they sell us for such usurious prices.’
‘Oh, how House Ricinus would suffer,’ said Tobry, the sarcasm floating light as cobweb, ‘if it didn’t hold a third of the heatstone monopoly.’
‘It’s no good to us now we’re at war.’
‘There’s the path.’ Tobry pointed. ‘They’d better be on it.’
A narrow isthmus meandered between two large, ragged lakes, a faint path running along it then skirting the shore of the larger lake not far below them. Half a mile on, the lake’s outflow passed down a sinuous channel and over a series of cascades into a third, smaller lake, and that into another, and another. Finally, several miles away, the outlet river tumbled over a precipice into Lake Fumerous, which extended north for twenty miles.
‘Unless I’m mistaken,’ Tobry went on, ‘the rock rats should appear from behind that little ridge and pass along the shore below us. And since they’re not in sight and I had no sleep last night, I’m trying for a nap.’
‘How can you sleep?’
‘How can I help Tali if I can’t think straight?’
‘I don’t like it,’ said Rix. The steep slope was littered with broken red rock. ‘There’s nowhere we can wait in ambush; no cover at all.’
‘We’ll have to attack from here.’
‘We’re two hundred yards away. It’s impossible.’
‘I’m too tired to think. Ask me when I wake.’
Tobry pillowed his cheek on his folded arms. Rix longed for a quick nap to freshen his own muddy head, but dared not close his eyes. He pressed himself into a fold in the rock and stared down at the track. How to pull off an ambush from so far away? With his mighty wyverin-rib bow, stronger than any bow made from wood, he could shoot an arrow right over the path into the lake, though not with any accuracy.
He strung the bow, nocked an arrow and drew the string back a few times, aiming at a spot where the track passed this side of a cluster of boulders near the water. He would be lucky to hit a man at such extreme range. Tobry might; he was a better shot, but he was not strong enough to fully draw Rix’s bow.
Tobry grunted in his sleep and kicked both feet. His eyes began to flick back and forth beneath his closed lids in an unpleasantly familiar way, and he began to moan incoherently, n-n-n-n, n-n-n-n.
Rix’s throat went dry. Everyone had nightmares, but why was this one so familiar, so hackle-rearing? He could not remember, could not penetrate the mental fog of exhaustion.
Then suddenly he knew. Tobry had looked like this when the wrythen had been trying to possess him in the caverns. Was it making another attempt? But the mountains were a day’s ride from here; how could it reach Tobry from so far away? And what if it succeeded?
‘Tobe?’ Rix nudged him with the toe of a boot.
Like a cat, Tobry went from sleep to full wakefulness in a second, and sat up. ‘Are they coming?’
‘Not yet. You were having a bad dream, making a racket.’
‘Was I? Don’t remember a thing.’
He did not look troubled, which was comforting. After Rix had one of his doom-laden nightmares he could feel the shudders running through him for hours afterwards. This was just a bad dream, nothing to worry about …
He rubbed his face with his hands. Nothing could have induced him to doze now. What if the wrythen’s power strengthened further? What if it could reach Tobry when he was awake?
Cold sweat trickled down Rix’s sides. If he could not rely on his best friend, if he had to watch his back whenever he was with Tobry, he was bound to fail.
‘Tobe, do you reckon you could shoot a man on the path, from here?’
> ‘Not with my bow.’
‘What about mine?’
‘It takes a gorilla to pull your bow.’
‘Thanks.’ Rix pulled the arrow back a couple of times, straining until his biceps creaked and showing off a little. Right now, his physical strength was the one thing he could rely on. ‘What if I pull it and you aim?’
Tobry snorted. ‘That’d be like two men wheeling a wheelbarrow.’ He sighted along the arrow. ‘Maybe. Bugger of a shot, downhill.’
‘If we can kill their leader without warning, we’ll have a minute to disable the others before they kill Tali.’
Something flashed in Tobry’s eyes. Pain? Regret? ‘It’s possible. Just.’
‘It’d better be. Can you kill Orlyk from here if I draw my bow?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Can you hit her?’
‘I expect so.’
‘Not good enough.’ Rix released the tension on the string. ‘If you can’t be sure of bringing her down, we might as well go home.’
‘I can hit her, just can’t be sure of killing her. A flesh wound won’t stop her from shouting an order to kill Tali. Wait a minute …’ He felt in his pack.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Still got that club-headed arrow?’ said Tobry.
‘Yes, but it doesn’t have the range of the others.’
‘What if you took the head off and put this in its place?’
Tobry handed him the little conical phial of hallucinogenic water he’d collected from the entrance to the wrythen’s caverns.
Rix weighed it in his hand. ‘Stopper’s nicely pointed. But there’s not much water in it …’
‘There’s more than you got on your hand the other day.’
‘True. And it disabled me instantly.’
‘So it should work … as long as I hit her.’
‘Make sure you do.’
Tobry took off the club-head, bound the phial in its place and fixed it with arrowhead gum. His hand had a slight tremor; it took him three attempts to get it right. He checked the balance, adjusted the position of the phial, checked everything again and put the arrow in the sun so the gum would set.
Rix had to forcibly unclench his jaw. It was a lunatic plan that could get Tali killed. The minutes passed.
‘You’re worried about Rannilt, aren’t you?’
Tobry did not answer.
‘I hate waiting,’ said Rix. ‘What if you miss? What if one of the guards cuts Tali’s throat before we can stop him?’
‘It’ll be a better fate than awaits her in Cython.’
Rix had seen throats cut before. That was how thieves in Palace Ricinus were dealt with, and Lady Ricinus required the household to bear witness. His artist’s eye could see bright pearls of blood all over Tali’s luminously pale skin …
‘You’d better not miss.’
‘Shut up, they’re coming,’ said Tobry.
Orlyk, a heavyset, squat woman, was limping along the track towards the nearer end of the isthmus. Behind her came a small sinewy woman wearing a large pack, then a tall male guard, then Tali, her hands bound in front of her, followed by the big man Rannilt called Tinyhead, and another guard.
Tobry cursed. ‘There’s five. Rannilt only said four.’
‘They’re too close together,’ Rix said hoarsely, ‘and Tali’s hands are tied. Even if you take the leader down, any of the others can kill her in seconds. I don’t like the look of that small woman, either.’
‘What don’t you like about her?’
‘Just an instinct.’
‘She doesn’t seem to be armed.’
‘Even more worrying. Get ready, but we don’t shoot until they’re well clear of those boulders or they’ll run for cover.’
Rix laid the phial arrow to hand, plus four ordinary arrows. In practice he could shoot ten arrows a minute, even with the heavy draw of this bow, but with the extreme range, and the awkwardness of him drawing and Tobry aiming, they would be lucky to get three arrows off in that time. And there were five targets.
After firing the arrows they had two hundred yards to run. On level ground he could do that in twenty-five seconds but it would take more than a minute down this rubbly slope. Tali could be dead by then. And what if the wrythen had got to Tobry, and was planning to take command of him at the critical moment? Rix shot a quick glance his way, afraid of what he might see in his friend’s bruised eyes.
‘Something the matter?’ said Tobry.
‘Nah!’
Then it got worse.
‘More of them.’ Tobry was staring to the east. ‘Coming the other way. Hope Rannilt has sense enough to keep out of sight.’
‘It must be the second squad. The ones who were going to kill Tali straight away.’
‘They’re between us and the horses,’ said Rix. ‘Even if we can rescue Tali, how do we get back to Rannilt?’
CHAPTER 47
Mere thought of the Oathbreaker’s Blade froze the wrythen’s plasm. The Immortal Text must be found and destroyed in case the Herovians were rising anew, though he did not know where to look for it.
He dismissed that worry for a more immediate one. He was floating in the white shaft of the Abysm. His nuclix, which was black as a hole in space, kept calling, calling, and the stolen three kept replying, but the master nuclix no longer answered and the wrythen was very afraid.
Had Deroe taken it already? He was growing stronger all the time, feeding on the raw power of the three stolen nuclixes and preparing to break free. The wrythen shivered; the cold radiating from his nuclix seemed to intensify.
And yet, he did not think Deroe had taken the master nuclix. Several times, after burning through his servant’s brain, the wrythen had glimpsed enigmatic flashes of a band of his own people, and behind them the scenery of the Seethings, as though seeing it from another’s eyes — the host’s eyes. He had also seen a scrawny little slave girl and, once, his brain-burnt servant, arms out-thrust as though pleading to his master. Unfortunately, the wrythen had not been able to find them again. Had the host discovered how to block the call?
What else might she do? He could not guess — she was unpredictable. What if she discovered how to use her nuclix to bolster her own magery? That risked everything and could not be allowed.
It was remarkable that his faithful servant had survived at all, but a matter of wonder that he had recovered enough to try and follow the wrythen’s orders. Could he succeed? The wrythen did not think so. The host girl was more than his match. And since he could not contact his servant, it left him no choice.
The facinore was evolving, which made it even more perilous to use, but it was all he had. He would direct it to the place from where the last call had come, and urge it to make haste. The host had to be taken now, or killed if she could not be taken alive. Her death would set his plans back by decades but it was better than the alternatives. If she got out of the Seethings he would lose her, either to his own people or the enemy.
Either alternative would be disastrous.
CHAPTER 48
‘Ready?’ said Tobry. ‘If we can hit Orlyk, and take the others down, we run and … and try to get Tali away before the other squad arrives.’
‘What if we miss?’ said Rix.
Tobry did not answer.
‘We might take down three,’ Rix added, focusing his telescope on the sinewy woman behind Orlyk. Something about her still bothered him, and it wasn’t just her thick glass tube, half the length of a magian’s staff, that was suspiciously yellow at the tip, ‘Though that still leaves two. It only takes one to cut Tali’s throat.’
‘You don’t need to spell it out,’ Tobry said faintly.
He was unnaturally pale. ‘You like her,’ said Rix.
Tobry shrugged. ‘I like lots of people.’
‘No, you really like her.’ Tobry remained friends with all the women he had ever known, though Rix could not recall him really liking anyone before.
‘Do your damned job
and keep your thoughts to yourself!’
Rix managed a smile. They watched the line. Tali was a diminutive figure in the middle, with Tinyhead head and shoulders above her.
‘What’s the tube for?’ said Rix.
‘How would I know?’ Tobry studied the line. ‘Bastard of a shot, side-on, but if we can get Orlyk to stop and turn this way — ’
‘Toss a stone across onto the rubble,’ said Rix. ‘She’ll look up at the noise.’
‘If she knows we’re here — ’
‘Rocks fall down hills all the time. Besides, it’ll take her a few seconds to pick us out among the boulders. By then your arrow will spit her.’
‘It had better.’
‘Don’t suppose you can help it on its way with magery?’
‘My magery isn’t that subtle.’
‘Let’s hope your aim is.’
Rix drew back the phial-headed arrow to the fullest extent of the string and sighted on Orlyk’s middle, then moved his head so Tobry could correct the aim.
Tobry felt the curve of the bow, the tension of the string, then nudged the tail of the arrow slightly down, slightly across.
‘Your hand’s shaking,’ said Rix. Tobry was normally iron in a crisis.
As Tobry steadied his hand, a drop of sweat ran down his cheek.
What if the wrythen can get to him when he’s awake? What if he possesses Tobry now and makes him aim for Tali instead of Orlyk? Rix could not tell from his angle.
Forcing himself to dismiss worries he could do nothing about, he visualised the arrow flying all the way to the target. Tali’s life rested in the steadiness of his hands, possibly the survival of Hightspall as well, and Rix was rock-calm. He might not be the sharpest sword in the armoury but action was what he was made for.
Tobry nudged the arrow with a fingernail. ‘Perfect. Tossing the stone, now.’
It clacked twenty yards across the slope. Orlyk stopped and turned, looking up.
Rix fired, picked up the second arrow in one smooth movement and fixed on the sinewy woman. Tobry adjusted aim for the slightly heavier arrow. Rix fired, took the third arrow, fired again.
