Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series, page 26
‘I have lessons to write up for Observer Soosha, if you will excuse me.’
Before Sarryen could question Finn Rah as to whether she was taking Arryol’s medicines rather than Volk’s, Lyeto came into the common room with two other students. All were covered with dust. Finn’s coughing fit subsided and she beckoned Lyeto over.
‘What have you been doing?’ she asked him.
‘Observer Soosha asked some of us to widen the viewing ledge Offering Finn.’
‘Widen the - . But why?’
Lyeto grinned. ‘He believes that the Plavat will come back, and rather than have it perhaps seen wandering around in the ruins above, he wants it to be able to come in here.’
Finn gaped at him in horror. ‘A Plavat? In here? The man’s wits have gone. Where is he?’
‘He said he was going to talk to you, but he was not aware that you would be in here I am sure.’
Finn was already striding out of the door, Sarryen behind her.
‘Finn, slow down. You will only cough again. There. I told you so.’
The Kooshak put an arm around Finn Rah’s shaking shoulders and helped her the rest of the way to Chakar’s sitting room. Soosha was pouring tea when the two women entered and Finn was deposited in an armchair. He gave the Offering a bowl of tea and settled in the chair opposite.
Finn glared first at Sarryen. ‘Those are the four most hateful words in the language – I told you so – you are most hurtful towards an invalid.’
Sarryen grinned unrepentantly.
Finn’s glare shifted to Soosha. ‘And what possesses you to think we should invite a Plavat in here? Plavats live along this coast – why would anyone think it suspicious if one began poking about above us?’
‘Cho Petak is fully aware of Chakar’s interest in birds, and that she raised a Plavat from a fledgling. But why would it stay around here if it could not find her fairly quickly? You know that Plavats do not have much patience, or a great deal of intelligence.’
Finn continued to glare while she mulled over Soosha’s words.
‘You may have a point,’ she finally conceded. ‘But they come only just inside that viewing area. I absolutely refuse to contemplate the idea of those foul birds stalking around the passages.’
‘I hardly think they would particularly want to Finn, and they wouldn’t fit through most of them anyway.’
Sarryen cut across the squabbling between her elders. ‘You really think that a Plavat will return Soosha? Bringing Chakar?’
The Observer raised his shoulders slightly. ‘Yes. I believe a Plavat will come, but whether it will bring Chakar, or Ren, or Voron, I have no idea.’
‘You do not think Babach might be the one to return?’
‘You did not see his injuries Sarryen.’ Soosha spoke in a low voice.
Finn nodded, closing her eyes. ‘He could not have survived the journey from here.’
‘It feels as though we have been here forever.’ The Kooshak clasped her hands round her knees. ‘Everyone has adjusted extremely well, even the children seem content to stay down here.’
‘Do not forget that those children have seen exactly what awaits outside, and I doubt any of them are in a hurry to go back out there.’
Soosha nodded agreement with Finn, adding: ‘Teal is very popular with the children – have you noticed? And how she makes the dough for that delicious bread with those twisted hands, amazes me.’
Finn sighed. ‘Arryol looked at her hands, but he said far too much time has passed since the burning. He gave her balm to make the skin a little more supple and a tincture for when the pain is bad.’
Sarryen bit her lip then plunged ahead anyway. ‘Finn Rah, you are the only one to seem restless, bothered by our confinement. Is there anything that might help you?’
Finn opened her green silvered eyes to glare at Sarryen but then gave a lopsided smile instead.
‘Is it that evident? I do find so many people so closely confined difficult to adjust to, I admit. If I did not have this room to retreat to, I would surely have leapt from the viewing ledge before now.’ She regarded her tea bowl. ‘I had a small balcony at my apartments in the Menedula. I found a small forgotten herb garden I used to visit occasionally, but apart from a modest number of lectures, I was mostly alone.’
Soosha leaned forward. ‘Finn you are gifted with the oldest of magics, and Sarryen’s talent has a broad range. Could you perhaps arrange odd times to risk far seeking back towards the Menedula?’
Finn and Sarryen watched the old Observer get to his feet and pace round the table.
‘The children are there, I am convinced. But they will begin their journey to us within days. We have to know where they are, and lend them what help we can.’
Finn sat in thought. ‘Is there any way from your dreams, that we could get the smallest clue to a mind signature for one or both of the children?’ she asked eventually. ‘Tracing two small children in the vast area between here and the Menedula presents one huge problem without a mind signature to work with.’
‘I will try to ask in the dream,’ said Soosha. ‘I know of no precedent where identity can be confirmed through a dream though.’
‘Well.’ Finn got to her feet. ‘We will have a try right now, from either the viewing ledge or the hillside – which would be best do you think Sarryen?’
‘The hillside,’ the Kooshak replied promptly. ‘To begin with, all the dust no doubt hovering around the ledge, will make you cough enough to fall down the cliff unintentionally!’
‘Oh you make such a fuss! It is a cough, remnant of that disgusting cold we have all endured. That is all.’
Sarryen said no more but caught a brief look of sorrow cross Soosha’s face which sent her heart plummeting. She suspected that Finn was ill, really ill, with something far worse than the residue of a cold. She snatched a cloak from a peg on the wall and hurried after the Offering. It had grown late while they had sat talking in Chakar’s sitting room and the passages were empty, the chambers quiet.
Squeezing through to the outer world, Finn sat on a flat rock and looked up at the sky. She could see only a fragment of the constellation of the Weeping Willow, while the Wolf glittered directly north. She turned to study the sky above the sea and saw the stars which formed the snout of the Resting Dragon were beginning to rise. Sarryen dropped the cloak over Finn’s shoulders and sat beside her.
‘I will far seek Sarryen. You will accompany me if you wish but if you tire, pull back and lend me your strength. Do not try to keep up with me out of any misplaced pride.’
Her smile flashed in the starlight, removing any sting from her words. She reached for the Kooshak’s hand and held it loosely between her own, wriggled her shoulders more comfortably against the lumpy rock, and sent her mind up towards the stars. Experienced though Sarryen was, she was astonished at the speed and skill of such an accomplished far seeker. She knew at once that she should withdraw, expend her own talent on strengthening Finn Rah rather than trying to keep pace with her. Finn Rah squeezed her hand, acknowledging Sarryen’s decision, and raced eastwards alone.
Approaching more populated regions Finn flinched. Pain groaned upwards from the very earth itself. The Offering saw the mass of the Menedula building brooding blackly in the star filled night. Thinning her consciousness to a hairsbreadth, she floated into the structure. Sarryen sensed that Finn was on the brink of great peril and poured ever more of herself into the link between them. The Offering sent tendrils through the corridors and found two humans. One lay mindless on a pallet far below. The other was close by, and was a child.
Finn’s mind hung above the wide bed and saw a white blonde head resting on a pillow. Huge violet silvered eyes stared straight up at her.
‘Who are you?’
‘Finn Rah. You must try to reach us at the Oblaka child. We will do all we can to aid you.’
‘I am called Mena.’
Then something snarled and snagged all around the room and Finn shot back along the line of Sarryen’s mind. Behind her, she felt Cho Petak’s fury blazing and flaming through the Menedula. She implored the Light to keep the child safe from Cho’s demented wrath as she realised her own strength was failing fast.
Sarryen held Finn’s limp body, waiting frantically for the Offering to return. Finn jerked in her arms then bent forward, the cough tearing through her chest. Lyeto appeared behind them and without a word lifted the Offering’s small figure in his arms. He carried her through the passages to Chakar’s sitting room where Arryol and Soosha waited. Arryol pointed to the narrow bed and piled pillows behind Finn’s back. He held crushed leaves beneath her nose while Soosha brought a bowl steaming with a pungent decongestant.
Finn struggled to control the cough briefly.
‘She saw me. Her name is Mena, and she could see me.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Orsim and Lashek both recovered fully within two days of their collapse. Neither remembered much of what had happened, nor was there any residual memory for the healers to discover what might have felled them. Both Speakers agreed that they had experienced a sensation of burning within their very brains, followed by a noise like a great rushing wind. Then they had woken in infirmary three in the Corvida. Orsim was the more shaken of the two men. He was deeply affronted that such an attack could be made with absolutely no warning from either his own air mages, or from any in Segra or Parima.
Lashek was more sanguine about the episode and many people noticed that a faint scent of mint clung to him. Most put it down to the fact that both mint and lavender were used in the storing of clothes and assumed the aroma came from such a source rather than from Lashek himself.
On this third day since the killing of the two Firans and the destruction of the creature that had inhabited the third, the Speakers were in Thryssa’s private sitting room. Orsim stood at one of the windows, watching the rain pouring relentlessly down outside. He turned back to the room.
‘This is all wrong.’ He brandished a paper as he rejoined the others by the fire. ‘My mages say that these rain clouds are confined only to this area – Talvo and Fira are having no rain. It is obviously something to do with Kallema, but I would never have thought it possible that her mages could work the weather systems.’
Kwanzi handed him a mug of tea. ‘I agree. Firans can do very small things with air, but to bring a rainfall such as this should be far beyond their capabilities.’
‘But perhaps not beyond the power of Prilla now?’ Lashek raised a brow as he spoke. ‘I have seen through Lori’s mind, as well as Kwanzi’s, what they had to raise threefold power against. If a similar creature inhabits the body of Prilla now, she would be able to do much, much more than even the most senior water mage.’
‘Before you ask,’ Kwanzi smiled at his wife. ‘Neri is recovering well, but he is far older than either Lori or myself – thus he will take longer to regain strength.’
Pajar came into the room, his red hair on end.
‘Water levels in the streams and pools are rising throughout Parima,’ he said without preamble. ‘I have ordered the people at the greatest risk of flooding to move out now.’
Thryssa frowned. ‘Surely there has not been enough rain yet to cause such a rise.’
‘Of course not,’ Orsim snapped. ‘Kallema is drawing water up from deep underground.’
Lashek looked thoughtful. ‘And there are no exits to the outside world are there? Everything was carried in over the rim of Segra when our ancestors arrived here, as I recall from my history studies.’
‘What does that imply?’ Thryssa’s alarmed expression showed that she had realised the implication only too well.
‘The craters will fill of course.’ Lashek smiled without humour. ‘And there is no way we could get all our people safely out.’
Pajar nodded. ‘The water is rising in the pools even as you watch – much too fast for it to be natural.’
‘Is it worth trying to contact Kallema?’ asked Thryssa slowly.
Orsim and Lashek exchanged glances.
‘I would guess that Prilla is in control in Fira now,’ Lashek replied. He shrugged. ‘It may be worth a try.’
‘I will do so now,’ said Orsim. ‘But I would feel safer if we joined minds.’
When the mind link was joined, Orsim sent out a call to Kallema. He became rigid in his chair as did the others in the link. They could see only a wall of fire, and almost believed they could feel its heat. The voice that came from the flames crackled and hissed with amusement.
‘You soon come calling do you not, once you get a little afraid.’
Thryssa overrode Orsim immediately.
‘We are not a little afraid.’ Her mind tone was utterly calm. ‘We are irritated.’
The flames roared higher.
‘You lie. You fear you will all be floating in a world of water, slowly dying.’
‘I repeat, we are not afraid. But to whom do we speak? You are neither Kallema nor Prilla, so who are you to presume to speak for Fira Circle?’
There was a pause during which they could hear only the barely restrained fire.
‘You may call me Zloy. I intend to rule in this place. If you submit to my commands, I may reverse the flow of water.’
‘I must have time to confer with my Speakers and also I need some idea of what your – commands – might entail, before I could agree to anything.’
The fire leaped and raged, its centre glowing almost white hot.
‘You have until darkness to decide whether you live or die. I discuss my plans and intentions with no one.’
‘Did you not discuss anything with your – comrade, whom you sent here Zloy?’
Laughter, loud and maniacal, ripped through their minds.
‘Byess was ever a fool.’ The laughter stopped abruptly. ‘You may think he was easy to deal with. I am a very different opponent. You may tell me your choice when darkness falls.’
Thryssa waited but the creature had released the mind link. She looked at her husband, the two Speakers and Pajar.
‘That was the same kind of mind as the one you dealt with Kwanzi?’
He nodded. ‘But, as he said, much stronger.’
‘Would the shields work against him, the ones made to protect us from the silver one’s bouts of madness?’ Orsim enquired.
Lashek was getting to his feet. ‘We can try. They were formed to cover the four Circles – perhaps we can divert the extra energy from Fira to augment the shield over the other three. I will begin the preparations.’
Orsim turned to Thryssa. ‘Do you think it is monitoring our mind speech? I need to contact my Assembly and if you say you think I should not do so with mind speech, then I must despatch runners at once.’
Thryssa smiled. ‘Whether it can or not, if you keep your messages cryptic enough it should be safe to do so. And at this point we do not dare waste the time it would take runners to reach Kedara or Segra.’
Orsim followed Lashek from the sitting room and Thryssa turned to her first councillor.
‘Send Pachela to me please and order the scribes to begin moving the most precious of the archives up here.’
Kwanzi reached for her hand. ‘I will go and arrange teams of the strongest healers – it will take more than six minds to destroy that thing.’ He leaned to kiss her forehead. ‘I could give Lashek nettle rash, for saying what fun it would be to live in interesting times?’
Thryssa chuckled. ‘I believe you would, too.’
A knock heralded Pachela’s arrival and Kwanzi smiled at her as they passed in the doorway.
‘Gremara has gone,’ Pachela said before Thryssa could ask. ‘She bespoke me last night. She was worried by the creature that pretends to be councillor Prilla, but she said she had to leave as she has far to go.’
Pachela accepted the mug of tea the High Speaker offered her. ‘She did not say where she was going, or why, or how long she might be absent from Talvo.’
‘How much has she passed to Jeela I wonder?’ Thryssa frowned. ‘Jeela is scarcely half a cycle old – a mere infant in Dragon terms, or even in ours come to that. It is a terrible responsibility for one so young.’
Another knock on the door admitted a guard. With admirable aplomb, he saluted the High Speaker.
‘There is a Dragon on the roof Lady.’
Pachela was at Thryssa’s heels as the High Speaker raced up the two flights of stairs to the roof. Opening the access door, they saw Jeela sitting patiently in the rain.
‘What is it my dear?’ Thryssa said to Jeela’s mind.
Prismed eyes reflected the light from behind the two women.
‘You could come inside if you came down to the main entrance.’
Jeela laughed. ‘I do not mind the wet. Gremara has told me more of this thing in the Firan Circle. She says that it is aware that alone, it will not be able to overcome the combined strength of your mages. She thinks it is more than capable of inflicting much damage before it flees. And it will flee. Gremara says that there are two others in these lands – that is partly why she has gone.’
Faceted eyes whirred, water spangled on the long pale lashes.
‘She said that you must remember the story of Cheok.’
‘Did she give no hint as to our best method of dealing with this creature – it calls itself Zloy,’ Thryssa added.
‘Only that you must combine your strength. Separately, the thing could destroy you easily. And she said that it fears fire, despite the fact that it uses fire to conceal itself.’
‘You will be safe in Talvo, will you not Jeela?’ Thryssa felt, with misgiving, mischief lurking in Jeela’s mind. ‘Jeela?’ she repeated more firmly.
‘Oh yes. I will be quite safe,’ Jeela replied airily. ‘Do not forget to think of Cheok High Speaker.’
The ivory wings extended and the small Dragon lifted into the rain filled twilight, arrowing back towards Talvo.
Pachela urged Thryssa back inside and they stood, water dripping from their drenched clothes.
‘Go and change,’ Pachela ordered. ‘I will tell Kwanzi what Jeela has said.’
