Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series, page 21
‘I am afraid that I do Lady.’
The door closed behind the steward and Lallia chewed at her thumb nail. By the time Seboth joined her, Lallia’s nail was beyond repair. The Lord of Far dropped onto the cushions beside his wife with a groan. He slipped his arm round her shoulders and hugged her close, then released her.
‘It is much worse than we feared,’ he said at once. ‘I could not decide if Hargon is overtired and distraught, or if he is suffering from this affliction of which the Lady Emla and Maressa both told us. His eyes are reddened more than one could think normal due to grief or tiredness.’
He reached absently for a pastry. ‘He ordered us to kill anyone we suspect might carry the old blood. He ordered us to kill all Merigs we see. He ordered us to have no contact with Lady Emla and “her cronies” as he so delightfully phrased it. He “ordered” us Lallia!’
‘But did any agree with him?’ Lallia clung to his sleeve in her urgency.
‘Raben of Tagria lost his temper. He said that no one gives Tagria orders except for himself, and Hargon’s orders were mad anyway. That was not well received, as you might guess. Raben stormed out, saying that the circle near his town was his and it would be well protected if Hargon had any foolish ideas of appropriating it.’
Seboth helped himself to another pastry and bit into it thoughtfully.
‘I have never seen Hargon so angry. But the anger was all within – he did not shout back at Raben. His rage was cold, and perhaps more frightening because of it.’
‘What of Andla?’
Seboth shrugged. ‘You know Zalom as well as I. He tries to please both sides in the hope that they will leave him alone to go his own way.’ He frowned. ‘I believe he will not join with Hargon, or with us, until he absolutely has no alternative left. Hargon was annoyed that none of the lower towns sent representatives to his council. Raben has sent men to warn the southerners to beware Hargon – he told me before he rode out.’
‘I presume we stand against Hargon?’
‘Yes of course we do. But whether he will try to change my mind, or attack both Far and Tagria, I couldn’t guess. Although his words greatly angered me, as always I tried to lighten all his worries. Eventually, I had to admit that I did not share a single one of his views and thus I would hold aloof from any of his “orders”.’
‘So he may believe it worth his while to try and persuade you to join with him?’ Lallia studied her husband thoughtfully. ‘What if he comes here with a full complement of armsmen, on the pretext of further discussions? Before, they would have been housed within the town and within this House. Could we risk that now?’
Seboth considered Lallia’s question carefully.
‘No,’ he decided. ‘Hargon, his Armschief and two officers would be permitted within – the town and thence here. His men would have to wait outside the town walls.’
He struggled up from the cushions. ‘I will order it so right now. Who knows when he might choose to descend on us.’
Lallia settled back to wait again for her husband, then sat up suddenly and stared around. Tubs of cream and blue flowers, grown from bulbs, stood against the walls beneath the shuttered windows, but it was not their heady perfume she could smell. She frowned. Surely it was mint?
Three quarters of Hargon’s force of armsmen were encamped at a way station in the low hills less than half a day’s ride south east of Far. The men were unusually quiet, wary of this new Hargon. Their old commander had been harsh but fair in their opinion. Now Hargon was as unpredictable as an untrained konina. There had been mutterings when the armsmen heard that sentence of death had been passed on Navan. The men had willingly followed Navan in everything, whereas to follow Hargon had been merely their duty.
Those who muttered overloud, vanished. They just disappeared from the barracks and were seen no more. The mutters became whispers breathed softly into another’s ear, and to all outward purposes, the men obeyed their officers. Navan’s second officer, Fryss and the veteran officer Tarin, wore similar expressions of blank obedience, but they had let it be known that they were extremely doubtful of Hargon’s command now, and especially of his new Armschief Trib.
The ordinary armsmen found Trib an offence. He was from their ranks, so they knew him rather too well. In various squads, he had been known as lazy, brash, quick to put blame on another man rather than admitting a wrong of his own. Now, as Armschief, he was above officers and men, and took great pleasure in underlining that fact at any opportunity.
This night Hargon paced. He planned to ride on to Far at dawn, just himself and a minimum escort of twenty armsmen with his officers and Armschief. The main body of men, under third officers, would follow, keeping themselves from view until the last, open league to the town. When the sun reached its zenith, they would attack. He intended that he would have killed Seboth by then and the armsmen of Far would surrender swiftly enough. He needed time to speak with the fool Seboth first though.
He had heard rumours that some of those strangers, including his slave Chena, were still in Sapphrea. He needed to know where they were lurking so that he might dispose of them next. Then he would ride west to destroy Tagria, and more importantly, smash the cursed circle to pieces, as he had already ordered done outside Return. None of these fools realised the danger they were in. Hargon knew beyond question that he had to unite this whole land under his rule and stamp out, once for all, the verminous blood of those who had once nearly destroyed Sapphrea completely.
Hargon turned back into the shelter of the way station. In the dimness, he saw officers Fryss and Tarin sitting silently, staring into the small fire. Trib was not present: no doubt he was throwing his weight about among the men. Hargon had no illusions about Trib’s qualities. For now, he was suitable. He had loyalties only to himself, which was fine with Hargon. For now. Hargon sat down, leaning against the wall by the hearth.
‘You will accompany me at first light,’ he said flatly.
Tarin and Fryss looked up at the Lord of Return and somehow kept their faces expressionless when they saw the flames dancing in his eyes.
Tika followed the others in the direction Storm and Farn led them. It was in truth only a short distance from the caves but further back behind the cliffs. They saw at once that the boulders half covered with sand and salt crystals were not natural rock formations. The lines were too sharp, too straight, for them to have been shaped by wind or water.
Ren knelt by the first tilted block and began shovelling sand clear of its base. Riff and Sket joined him, scooping handfuls away from the sides. Olam and Navan watched, then moved over to help too. Pallin grunted and ambled further along, vanishing behind further boulders. Tika grinned. She would wager he would find himself a cosy place to doze the morning away. She wandered over to the other men and saw that the dry sand had been moved sufficiently already to reveal the darker, damper sand below.
Olam had got to his feet and was running his hands over the upper part of the block. Tika went round the kneeling men to his side.
‘Feel it, Lady Tika,’ he said. ‘It is almost like metal or glass.’
She put her hand on the smooth black surface and found that Olam was right. It did not feel like any stone she had ever touched.
‘What is it made of?’ she wondered aloud. ‘It must have been carried here from far away. And do stop calling me “Lady” Olam. It makes me wonder who you are talking to.’
‘Oh. Erm, well – Tika, I know of no place where such stone as this might be found.’
‘It could well have been changed if there was an explosion and tremendous heat close by.’ Ren’s voice was muffled and they craned round the block to see what he was doing.
The Offering’s head and shoulders were out of sight down the hole they had dug out. He wriggled up and wiped damp sand off his face.
‘It is but one block on its own,’ he announced. ‘I shall try another.’ He trudged on to the next block, but examined the way it protruded from the sand before shaking his head and moving further on among a more densely jumbled heap of odd shaped boulders.
‘What exactly is he looking for?’ Navan asked discreetly as he followed Ren with Tika and Olam.
Tika laughed, green and silver eyes glinting up at him. ‘Stars know Navan. But we had better help him I think.’
She looked round for Gan, spotting him eventually on top of a pile of blocks that resembled a huge version of nursery toys – a tower built with great care, then sent crashing down with a wave of a child’s hand.
Ren was on a patch of ground surrounded by the blocks, talking to Gan who still perched two man lengths or more above him.
‘I will have to see from above,’ Ren was saying.
Tika nudged Navan in glee. ‘Farn would be happy to lift you, however high you wish,’ she offered innocently.
Ren glared. ‘Although I am not as strong with air as Maressa, I am still capable of doing it that way.’
‘But will you not get ill?’ She sounded most concerned.
‘No I will not,’ he snapped. ‘Watch. You might learn something.’
Sket scowled but Tika smiled. ‘Very well, we will all watch you Offering.’
She sat on a block and cast her mind outwards, netting the awareness of the five men, then smoothly linking with Ren. Navan and Olam hastily sat beside Tika as, through Ren’s mind, they saw the ground drop beneath them. More unsettling was the fact that they could see themselves, sitting around Ren’s central figure while they floated high overhead. Olam’s mind was suddenly agitated.
‘Calmly Olam,’ Tika’s mind murmured to his. ‘What is it you have seen?’
‘I have seen houses laid out in just this way. A few cycles past, I went to one of the further southern towns, and they showed me such a place. They said that the earth had trembled and shaken and most of the houses in one villages fell down.’
‘Come higher.’ Farn joined the linked minds and Ren ducked instinctively, sending Farn into shrieks of amusement.
Ren’s ire simmered briefly through the link then his equable nature reasserted itself.
‘That was most alarming Farn. Why should I go higher?’
Farn sent a panoramic view of the area and Ren caught his breath. Without another word, he sent his mind to Farn’s height and they all just stared. What had seemed like a few scattered blocks, stretched for leagues inland, and south along the coast.
Tika released the link and stared at Gan. ‘It must have been vast.’
Gan nodded. ‘A dozen times larger than Gaharn,’ he agreed.
Ren opened his silvered eyes and drew a breath.
‘Did you notice anything odd?’ he asked.
‘All fallen the same way,’ Sket volunteered.
Ren beamed at Tika’s personal Guard.
‘They did indeed. The explosion or whatever it may have been, came from the south and everything would have been blown away from it.’ He stared thoughtfully at the block in front of him.
‘These all lie parallel to the coast, so the event would have surely occurred directly south along this shore.’
‘Maressa said there were four big cities by the Bitter Sea,’ said Tika.
‘Did she say what they were called?’
‘The same as the Vagrantian craters – this must be the furthest one north – Segra.’
‘Lashek was the Speaker of Segra Circle was he not?’ Olam enquired. ‘He would love to be here now.’
Farn settled on some of the blocks near Tika.
‘Will you dig in the sand all day my Tika? Why do you not come and play with the water?’
Tika clambered across to the silvery blue Dragon and swung onto his back.
‘A good idea,’ she agreed, then added aloud: ‘Farn wishes me to see something. I will not be long.’
Farn settled upon the wet sand at the water line and Tika slid from his back.
‘Look my Tika! It is not quite as pleasant as the hot pools in the Domain, but it still feels good.’
As Tika watched, in some alarm, Farn paddled out several paces into the water. The waves were pushing against his chest when he sank out of sight. Tika shrieked in horror, bringing the men scrambling down the cliff, when Farn surged up, water cascading from his body. He stretched his wings and disappeared again. Gan and Sket reached Tika as Farn erupted once more, hurling the water on his wings, with great accuracy, straight over them. It was cold. Gan and Sket gasped, but Tika began to laugh.
Farn waded towards them, beating his wings and sending huge showers of water over all three again. Sket and Gan hastily withdrew, leaving Tika, soaked to the skin, giggling helplessly. Farn struggled out of the water and flopped rather than reclined on the sand, his eyes whirring in delight.
‘It is cold at first my Tika, but then it seems warm enough. It is wonderful fun.’
Tika pushed wet hair off her face and grinned at him. ‘Your new friend Storm showed you this game, did he not?’
‘He said he knew you would enjoy it.’ Farn sounded hugely pleased with himself.
‘I am sure he did. I think I may have to have a little talk with him later.’
‘Oh you must,’ Farn agreed. ‘He has many such ideas.’ He looked around the beach and out over the sea. ‘I wonder where he is. He said he would love to see you enjoy this joke.’
‘How very odd that he is not here to enjoy it then,’ said Tika, giving Farn a soggy hug. ‘Why do you not go and find him while we go back to the caves for some food?’
‘I think I will.’ Farn rattled his wings and prepared to rise. ‘It was a good joke, was it not?’
‘Oh undoubtedly Farn, a most excellent joke.’
As Farn swept lazily towards the sea Dragons cove, Tika walked up the beach towards the others. Sket was wringing water from his shirt while Navan and Riff attempted to conceal their amusement.
‘It was all a joke, arranged by Storm,’ Tika explained.
Sket merely grunted, but Gan smiled.
‘I suspected as much. That water was very cold though.’
Tika nodded. ‘And it feels sticky, not just wet.’
‘That is because of the high percentage of salt contained in the water,’ Ren told her. ‘It will dry on your skin to tiny crystals – like it is on all the rocks.’
She noticed that the Observer kept his head turned towards the cliffs as he spoke.
‘Do you think that Pallin will have got a meal ready?’ Riff asked from behind Tika and Ren. ‘Where did he go to anyway?’
‘Perhaps he decided to go in search of the plants you and Sket were looking for? What were they by the way?’
Ren extended a hand to pull Tika over a heap of shattered boulders.
‘We were looking for mint. I thought I could smell it the first night we were here, then Sket said he had smelled it as well.’
Tika stopped and stared at him. ‘But I smelled it too, three or four days ago, when we had just arrived on the coast.’
Ren looked back at her for a moment then continued walking. ‘So far we have not found any sign of the plant. But all three of us cannot be imagining it can we?’
Day followed day in similar fashion: the party went further into what was left of the shattered city, but found only endless black blocks. After six days, Farn had begun to fret over Brin’s absence.
‘He said it would be eight days Farn,’ Tika told him for the tenth time that morning. ‘Tomorrow he may be close enough to mind speak us.’
‘I think Storm and I should fly to meet him and that dear girl.’
Tika looked at him sharply. She had hoped he had forgotten his penchant for referring to his dear girls.
‘You will do no such thing Farn.’ She thought rapidly. ‘Who would protect us, protect me, if you were to go off like that?’
There was a long silence. ‘I think you may be right. Unless you would like to come too?’
‘My place is here with our friends Farn, I could not abandon them.’
‘Oh.’ He sighed heavily. ‘Then I will wait with you.’ He lifted into the air to join Storm who was zigzagging high above. ‘I nearly forgot my Tika. The Elder Salt asks to speak with you.’
‘With me, or with all of us?’
‘With you. He said you may go to his cave whenever you wish or he will fly to the beach when the stars appear tonight.’
Tika watched her soul bond racing to intercept Storm. She dug her bare toes into the warm sand and wondered what the Elder might need to speak to her about.
Chapter Nineteen
Cho Petak was slightly perturbed: not worried of course, just perturbed. He had discovered that four of his minions were missing from Drogoya. He was aware that Rashpil was somewhere in the Night Lands – he had sensed his departure from the main part of the horde that descended in such a chaotic fashion days ago. But he had sensed no other such divergence. He sent Grek out a second time, to try to locate the missing three. One truanting servant was quite enough.
He was also bothered by the continuing foul stench that appeared to emanate from the child. He had stood by her door on the second evening and had commanded her to strip and scrub herself clean in front of him. It had made no difference, and apparently neither Krolik nor the child herself seemed to notice it. He could find no disease within her small body, check as thoroughly as he had. On the contrary, she seemed quite disgustingly healthy, a point Cho resented when his own body was so close to disintegration.
Whenever he bothered to overlook her during the day, she was in an untidy garden which Cho did not recall visiting for very many years. Often she sang: nonsense rhymes and nursery songs. He toyed with the idea of forbidding her to go outside but decided against doing so. Her skill at drawing had improved dramatically he had noted, and it amused him to see her growing skill with pens and brushes. She brought twigs, leaves, and odd shaped stones back to her room from the garden and then spent hours trying to copy them perfectly.
Cho had woken yet again from his increasingly brief naps. His mind viewed the town of Syet below the Menedula, then he checked for the child’s mind signature. She was in the garden as usual and Cho dipped back into sleep again.
