The Company of Glass

by Tricia Sullivan

  The panicking horses scattered the party as the gigantic avian pulled out of its dive and glided overhead, darkening the ground. Fast on its tail, others appeared in the sky, growing rapidly larger as they dropped from a great height. Each was as large as a Pharician family’s travelling tent, and as insubstantial; wings made of translucent webbing that stretched over delicate fingers of cartilage supported limbless snake bodies with diamond-shaped heads. A whirring sound accompanied them, and a dazzle of sunlight reflected off their bodies.

  ‘What are they?’ Miro shouted in dismay, craning his head back while he reached for an arrow. Instead of fighting his running mount for the bit, Tarquin ripped off his cloak and leaned low over his horse’s neck, slinging the fabric across the animal’s eyes. The horse slowed and then halted in confusion and turned in a circle.

  ‘Don’t fight them!’ Tarquin exhorted. ‘They aren’t attacking, they’re just curious.’

  ‘Curious?’ screamed Ketar, roughly curbing his rearing horse with one hand and drawing his sword. ‘I take no chances with curious!’

  ‘Stop! Sailsnakes are ferocious when aroused. Cover the horses and try to soothe them.’ Tarquin had managed to fix the wrapped cloak such that it acted to block his mount’s view above him and to the rear, and the horse calmed. The sailsnakes swooped and turned almost on their tails, passing overhead with a rush of noise and colour.

  Lerien had quickly adopted Tarquin’s strategy, and his horse also steadied. Kivi had been dumped on the ground and Taro was struggling to nock an arrow even while his horse was bolting; he would already be out of bowshot of the sailsnakes, Tarquin realized gratefully.

  ‘Do not shoot!’ Lerien shouted, ducking in the saddle as one swept over just a few feet above his head. ‘Try to ignore them.’

  Stavel and Ketar looked incredulous but obeyed. The sailsnakes whipped through the air, their heads darting from side to side, their tongues flickering and their gleaming black eyes roving to examine the party. The horses were still nervous, but once their eyes were covered they could be controlled. Kivi’s was half a mile away and still running.

  ‘What is a sailsnake doing so far inland?’ Lerien said to Tarquin, while overhead the creatures turned their wings inside out and rose in acrobatic spirals, light and free as ash released from a flame. Tarquin shrugged and clamped his legs hard against his mount’s ribs, for Jakse’s horse was still acting up and its fear was contagious. Ketar reached out and caught hold of the horse’s bridle while Jakse clung like a burr to its back as it bucked.

  Then, as quickly as they had come, the sailsnakes rose and fled on the wind. Taro set off after Kivi’s horse, and the others reassembled.

  ‘What were those things?’ Jakse asked, obviously shaken.

  ‘They normally live on the sea,’ Lerien replied, shading his eyes and looking after the disappearing sailsnakes. ‘They are equally at home underwater or in the air, but they don’t eat large prey or they’d be too weighed down.’

  ‘I’ve never even heard of them,’ Stavel said.

  ‘There are records referring to them in Jai Khalar. I have never actually seen one either. I would not have identified them if it were not for Tarquin.’

  Tarquin said, ‘I’ve seen them before, in the outer islands. They appear offshore at sunset, if at all. It’s very strange that they should be here, now.’

  ‘Ride on,’ Lerien said. ‘We have a long journey ahead of us, and no time to spare.’

  They rode gently during the heat of the day, Kivi and the king side by side, talking. The road passed through a forest that had reclaimed the once-cultivated fields of Deer Country. At odd intervals, Everien towers punctuated the landscape, rising over the tallest trees like paintbrushes turned on end. Tarquin observed that they no longer held sentries as they would have done in Ysse’s time.

  ‘We have placed monitor Eyes in some of these watchtowers,’ Lerien said. ‘Let’s stop here and check this one.’

  They rode to the base of the tower and Lerien ascended with Kivi while the others rested and ate. Sunlight filtered through the leaves of the trees and the naked scaffolding of the metal tower.

  ‘Why doesn’t Kivi just use his Carry Eye?’ Taro asked. ‘That’s what it’s for, isn’t it?’

  Stavel shrugged. ‘Perhaps, after what’s been happening in Wolf Country, the king doesn’t want to take any chances. And Mhani should have some news from Wolf Country today. I hope.’

  ‘Mhani won’t find anything,’ Ketar said, overhearing. ‘She’s probably not even looking. She doesn’t care about the army, only about the White Road.’

  Tarquin chewed his lunch without comment. Stavel settled in the curve of a tree’s roots and closed his eyes. ‘I wouldn’t say that in the king’s earshot,’ he said mildly.

  ‘I wonder if the Pharicians are really planning to annex us,’ Taro said. ‘I always wanted to go to their land. They say the sky changes colour over Pharice. At night their cities turn the sky red and grey and wipe out the stars. In the day a yellow light lies in the west, over the Khynahi Mountains. They say in the far south the sky is gold all the time, for it reflects the sands which are greater than any ocean.’

  Tarquin chuckled at this romantic description. Miro glanced at him expectantly. ‘You have been there, Tarquin. Tell us.’

  Tarquin frowned, considering. ‘They are a strange people, the Pharicians. They have given over their roaming rights and their land to the Emperor, and in exchange they have got roads and all manner of fine goods acquired in trade or by craft. And they have got order. Things happen on the day they are supposed to happen on, and men place themselves in order with each other, and records are kept of everything that occurs, even the smallest transaction. At first I was fascinated but after a while I saw that the whole thing is a trap. None of them had freedom and their voices all sounded the same. No man had his own speech. They just passed the words back and forth like a sheep’s bladder in a kicking game.’

  ‘Give me a good Clan fire and some dancing girls any day,’ said Ketar. Out of the corner of his eye Tarquin saw him flex his biceps. Ketar was a golden boy if he’d ever seen one: he’d probably never had a day of bad luck in his life. Tarquin didn’t think much of the training that had brought about this attitude, for Ketar was the type to wilt at the first sign of adversity, having never experienced failure. He was spoiled. Tarquin resisted the urge to unspoil him and went on with his narrative. ‘In Pharice they are seldom cold and never hungry, and they are all bound to each other visibly and invisibly. It is a wonder anybody can move at all. They have a rule for everything and so no matter what you do you are either breaking a rule or obeying it, but you can never live to one side of the rules. They are always there and men judge you by your adherence to them, even if you only obey or violate a rule by accident.’

  ‘The Clans have rules as well,’ Taro put in. ‘You could say much the same thing about many of our laws.’

  ‘Yet the Clans also have the provision of freedom, do they not? So I have declared myself exempt from Clan law, and it does not apply to me.’

  ‘True,’ the archer acknowledged. ‘Go on, then. Do they have the Knowledge in Pharice also? I have heard their scholars know things that ours do not.’

  ‘They have no Artifacts that I have ever heard of,’ Tarquin said. ‘They have learning of a kind: how to build machinery, how to calculate numbers of things, how to measure. Their architecture is simple by comparison to Everien buildings, but though I say that, the Clans could not duplicate Pharician buildings. We do not have the art of it; nor would our people bend their backs together the way the Pharicians do. They have complicated codes of behaviour that I never could remember. They line up in rows and act on command. You see this in their armies, too. Each man fights by rote; none has the space for his own style. They deny their fear and comply with their commander. This I will never understand. Whenever I have fought, I have used my fear to build defiance for the enemy – or anyone who stood in my way. If I had to fight like a
Pharician … I could not do it. That’s why Ajiko’s maps and charts disturb me so. They remind me of Pharice, and I would not see the Clans emulate the Pharicians. A hawk does not seek to emulate a pigeon.’

  While he was talking, Lerien and Kivi had descended. Lerien announced, ‘There is smoke in the hills half a day’s ride away, and the troop that is supposed to be responsible for this section isn’t in position.’

  ‘What does Mhani say of Wolf Country?’ asked Stavel, and was ignored.

  ‘We don’t have time to investigate the incident,’ Lerien said brusquely. ‘But keep your eyes open as we ride. We will make straight for the monitor tower above A-vel-Jasse. Let’s go.’

  They hurriedly packed up and set off at the trot on the pitted road. Tarquin noticed that Kivi held his Carry Eye in one hand as he rode, glancing at it from time to time.

  ‘Should you risk dropping it from the saddle?’ he asked the Seer.

  Kivi put the Eye away with a furtive air. He said, ‘It’s acting up a bit, and I was checking it, that’s all.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Tarquin. ‘This is why Lerien stopped at the monitor tower, yes?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kivi admitted. He drew his horse closer to Tarquin’s and glanced around to see that they couldn’t be overheard. ‘But I could not See Mhani from there, either. Don’t tell the others! Lerien is worried.’

  ‘Why don’t the Eyes work?’ Tarquin said. ‘Is this usual?’

  ‘No, but it’s not—’

  ‘Yet he persists in riding to the border when he could take my word that the Pharicians are marching on him.’

  Kivi said, ‘Tarquin, lower your voice. There is nothing wrong with the Carry Eye, or the monitor tower we just left. It’s that Mhani is engaged in work and not responding to us, which is very surprising given that she knows this Eye is being used by the king.’ He started to say more, but Lerien and Ketar had slowed, ahead of them. Kivi clammed up.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Tarquin. ‘Well, your use of these Eyes is a mystery to me. If you told me that the Knowledge only worked when the wind blew a certain way, I would have no way of knowing whether you spoke the truth.’

  ‘But the Eyes are simple,’ Kivi said. ‘It’s where they come from that is hard to understand. We are taught that the Knowledge is just a few principles from Outside the world, bent and shaped into many different forms; but that if you were truly Outside – if you could be Outside which no one can be, not even great Scholars – but if you could, then everything would be of the stuff of the Knowledge and all that we see and know and do would be nothing more than a bit of dirt smudging the Glass of that world.’

  ‘Do you really believe that?’ Ketar said, turning in the saddle and looking irritated.

  ‘It’s the basis of my studies.’

  ‘Do you believe it, my lord?’

  Lerien shook his blond head. ‘I don’t know. No one can go Outside and return, so it seems pointless to me to speculate.’

  ‘No one can go outside and return,’ Kivi repeated under his breath. He was scrutinizing Tarquin, who scowled and reached down to tighten his horse’s girth, even though it had not begun to slip.

  ‘What are you looking at?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Kivi.

  Impressions

  Mhani came to a halt in a swirl of red robes, her hand flying to her throat as she inhaled with a sudden, strangled scream. Two inches beyond her toes the floor simply disappeared. She stood there in shock while below bats spiralled against a background of dim stars. Shaking all over, she backed away from the edge. She had been sprinting along the passage, eager to get back to the Eye Tower, when the floor in front of her had suddenly dissolved.

  ‘Hanji,’ she whispered, fear giving way to anger. ‘This has got to stop.’

  She crept along the passage wall, seeking something to hang on to even though she knew perfectly well that if the Citadel wanted to trap her inside its very walls, it probably could. It was a miracle, she thought, that there hadn’t been a tragedy already, given the way this castle was behaving. She made her way back to the gate, where Ceralse the guard was so preoccupied in looking over the parapet at the departure of Lerien and his riders that he didn’t notice the way Ires the leopard was hunched at the end of his silver tether, lashing his tail and making high-pitched squeaking noises. Around him, just outside the circumference of the rope, were gathered about a dozen mice. If Mhani hadn’t known better she might have believed they were taunting the big cat.

  ‘Mice!’ Mhani cried, and kicked at them to disperse the creatures. Ires strained at his rope, gazing at her appealingly. ‘Why are we inundated with mice lately?’

  Ceralse turned and saluted her.

  ‘Where is old Hanji? The first avenue isn’t safe.’

  ‘He’s gone to the stables. I think he’s trying to fix—’

  She didn’t stay long enough to listen to Ceralse’s explanation. She descended to the undercaves again and made her way to the outermost chambers, the ones that bordered the fields below Jai Khalar on the far side of the stream. The crowd around the entrance cave had cleared; the riders were gone. She swallowed against the lump in her throat and entered the dim stables, wrinkling her nose. She could hear Hanji’s voice.

  ‘Please return the kitchens to the lower annexe,’ he implored. Mhani hurried towards his voice, past girls at work grooming the animals in their stalls, noticing with annoyance that there were too many mice here as well. In one of the largest boxes she found Hanji, blue robes fastidiously held a few inches off the dirty cobbles, addressing a blood-bay mare. The horse stood without an inch of tack on her sleek body, eyes focused somewhere over Hanji’s head in apparent boredom.

  ‘It’s only yourself you’re harming,’ he said to the mare. ‘How are you to get your grass or your exercise if you persist on displacing the first level? I’ll have you confined to your stall. And don’t even think about displacing yourself.’

  The horse sighed gustily and shifted her weight. Her eyelids lowered. ‘What’s going on?’ Mhani said, and Hanji started at the sound of her voice.

  ‘It’s this damn horse. She has some of Ice’s blood in her, don’t you, you wicked thing? She has the Animal Magic and she senses Jai Pendu approaching at the other end of the White Road – and you don’t like it much, do you, my love?’

  Mhani put her hands on her hips and shook her head sceptically. ‘How can you possibly blame the horse for rooms gone missing?’

  ‘It’s a good sign,’ he said. ‘For there are horses on the White Road such as you cannot find anywhere in this world. Perhaps they’re calling her. Perhaps the White Road is not so far away after all.’

  ‘Horses on the White Road? How do you know that?’

  ‘My grandfather taught me. Anyway, you can hear the hoofbeats.’ Hanji stroked the animal’s shoulder and made cooing noises. ‘You’re going to have to go if this doesn’t stop,’ he murmured. ‘We’ll turn you out. Rokko, where are you?’

  ‘Coming!’

  A boy of about ten came feeling his way along the outside of the stalls, head tilted up at an odd angle. Mhani stared for a moment before she realized the boy was blind.

  ‘Rokko, take care of this princess of darkness, will you?’

  The blind boy greeted the mare nose to nose and then wriggled on to her back. ‘I’ll take her out to pasture,’ he said confidently. ‘She’s a very nice horse. She can’t help it if she has demon blood.’

  ‘There are no such things as demons in Everien,’ Mhani said to Hanji in a tone of reprimand.

  The horse comes from Pharice,’ Hanji answered.

  ‘Ah …’

  The mare responded perfectly to the boy’s aids and they left the stables. Hanji opened a stall door and ushered Mhani into a long corridor with no windows and a door at the far end.

  ‘This is starting to get to me,’ she said. ‘There’s a gaping pit in the middle of the First Avenue. Can’t you do something?’

  ‘I’m trying, but I’m only the seneschal, after all �
��’

  She looked at him sidelong. The passage they’d entered seemed endless. ‘Where are we? I have to get back to the Eye Tower.’

  ‘It’s not far,’ Hanji said absently. ‘Mhani, you must be careful. Ajiko is in charge now.’

  ‘Only of the army, and that doesn’t concern me. He can’t very well invade the Eye Tower.’

  ‘If we do not find the White Road soon, we will lose our chance to reach Jai Pendu during this passage. That means another nine years at least before we have another Artifact. Do you think we can stand against Ajiko and his kind for that long? Do you think we can stand against Pharice? For whether or not they are attacking us now, sooner or later they will decide to include Everien in their empire.’

  ‘I have enough to do without worrying about politics,’ Mhani dismissed.

  ‘You have no choice,’ Hanji said, scratching his head and patting himself down. ‘I thought I had a ledger with me when I came down here.’

  ‘My alliance is to the Knowledge itself,’ she said repressively. ‘All I do is dedicated to understanding it. It is not for me to concern myself with power games; not while Everien is in such peril. I could try to open the White Road, but as of now I cannot find it. Perhaps you should ask your horse to help you!’

  ‘No, she is too capricious,’ Hanji muttered, the sarcasm lost on him. ‘Mhani, I don’t think you’re really trying.’

  ‘I am trying, but there are all these problems in Wolf Country, and Ajiko’s looking over my shoulder all the time. Remember, my job is to watch the borders and manage communications. Now let me get back to the Eyes.’ She started to walk faster.

  ‘The Eyes are made to be more than mere monitors,’ Hanji replied, worry making his words rapid and light. ‘That application is for those who walk on the shores of the Knowledge and comb the sands for whatever it casts up. I’m talking about the ones who swim for their lives. I’m talking about the Impressions.’

  She walked faster still but the corridor just kept getting longer and longer and she couldn’t seem to reach the door at its end.