Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series, page 29
‘And how long have you believed such utter nonsense?’ snapped a voice in their heads.
Kasheen stopped abruptly. Seela had just squeezed into the narrower passage and Kasheen stared back in her direction.
‘Don’t worry. It was Grek speaking,’ Khosa kindly informed the Emperor of Wendla.
Tika moved past Jakri, Sket close beside her.She gave Kasheen an innocent smile.
‘I forgot to introduce our other friend and companion – Grek. He is unbodied. What you call a spirit I think.’
Imperial Blossom Lytzee was opening the moon door as she spoke and she was fairly sure his plume shivered more noticeably at her words. Kasheen’s face was pale as he searched in vain for Grek. Sariko and Jakri seemed more interested than alarmed.
‘Don’t worry.’ Grek’s voice filled their minds, including the Blossoms standing rigidly to attention along the corridor. ‘As Lady Tika has just told you, I am a friend of this company. I noticed a few faded wraiths in your Garden – I disapprove that you hold them here rather than letting them free to expand.’
Kasheen opened and closed his mouth but Khosa urged him to move on.
‘You can discuss that while we’re eating dear Emperor.’
Wordlessly, Kasheen followed the Blossom between a spaced rank of other such officers. Tika and Sket waited for the Dragons to clear the moon door. Neither Seela nor Brin had trouble with the width but had to crouch to pass beneath the door. The gijan walked daintily beside Seela, occasionally commenting to each other in their own tongue. As Brin’s tail slithered through the door, Tika patted his great shoulder. He lowered his head for a moment, eyes whirring with excitement: adult though he was, he loved new adventures as much as Farn.
Storm had caught up with Navan and seemed intrigued by the Imperial Blossoms they walked past. Farn caused some delay by insisting on waiting until Tika and Sket had caught up with him. Gan watched a Blossom’s eyes widen when Storm paused to peer more closely into his face. Gan rested his hand lightly on Storm’s neck, remembering how the sea Dragon had snarled at Kertiss in the Dome. Storm would be quickest to anger he’d concluded then and had resolved to stay close to him during this visit to Bracca.
The corridors were of white stone: floors, walls and ceiling, lit from a source Tika couldn’t see. It wasn’t long before double doors swung open and they found themselves in a large vaulted chamber. Natural light poured in through windows set high along one wall. A long table was set in the middle of the room, almost insignificant in the otherwise empty space. There was a dais at the furthest end, on which three enormous chairs stood, carved and set with glittering crystals.
Each chair was overhung by a canopy and both Brin and Seela began to huff, advancing on the dais with some speed. Kasheen whirled, saw what was happening and unceremoniously dumped Khosa on a surprised Blossom.
‘It is carving only, great ones,’ he called as he hurried towards them.
Jakri, fully recovered from his earlier nervousness, was enjoying himself hugely now and found it took a considerable effort to hide his smile at hearing the Emperor Kasheen using the term “great one”. Kasheen climbed onto the dais, Seela following him. She reared up to examine the likeness of a Dragon’s head which formed the canopy over the central chair.
‘It is a carving,’ Kasheen repeated. ‘Done with mage craft.’
The others had gathered near the dais now and saw the Dragon’s head was made of crystal. The light refracting through the interstices of melded crystals gave it at one moment a clarity, at the next a milky opacity. The eyes were two fist sized sapphires, cleverly cut so they seemed to blink and move. The jaws were slightly open and crystal fangs protruded, dagger sharp. Seela finally eased herself down the steps of the dais and reclined some paces away.
‘Why should you have a likeness of one of my Kindred in your hall?’ she asked, her gaze still fixed on the Dragon’s head.
‘It is said that in the Time Before, Dragons ruled this land of Wendla.’ The Empress Sariko walked across to Seela, standing fearlessly before her.
Seela lowered her face to study the human female. ‘I have no memories of this land,’ she said, her mind tone flat.
‘Even so Lady Seela, our histories say that Dragons bred with Wendlans and their sons became Dragon Lords who ruled for millennia.’
Kasheen was watching his wife and Seela but Jakri saw the looks of surprise exchanged between the other members of the party.
‘But there is a new Dragon Lord.’ Farn sounded pleased to be helpful. ‘In the north. He is our friend.’
Regardless of imperial protocol, Jakri sat down. What more surprises would he witness this day? The man with the chestnut brown eyes surrounded by silver sat down next to him and gave him a sympathetic smile.
‘Believe me Master Jakri, I know how you feel.’
‘I suggest we all sit down.’ Gan held a chair for Tika and Navan copied his example for the Empress.
The gijan swooped on the dozens of plates and dishes spread along the table, helped themselves to a bizarre mixture of foods and retreated to perch on Brin’s back. Two Imperial Blossoms still stood at attention, awaiting orders. Before Kasheen could dismiss them, Gan suggested politely that they should stay.
‘I would be interested to hear how your armsmen are ordered.’
If Kasheen was startled by the request it was only a minor shock after all the previous ones.
‘Sit, sit,’ he waved the Blossoms to chairs at the table.
With some hesitation they removed their plumed helmets, putting them on the floor behind their chairs and thus revealing shaven skulls. Gan smiled encouragingly.
‘The Emperor called you a first rank officer I believe,’ he asked the one he thought was called Lytzee. ‘What is the rank above you?’
‘Me.’ Kasheen gave a rueful grin, shaking his head. ‘I have to admit that the little you have said knocks most of my beliefs and ideas flat to the ground. Please help yourselves to food.’ He turned to Tika who sat between Sket and Gan. ‘Is your friend Grek here?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Grek replied.
‘Oh.’ Kasheen couldn’t help looking hopefully around the Chamber.
‘If it helps, I will stay at the end of the table.’ It sounded as though Grek’s patience was becoming strained.
‘What did you mean – about faded wraiths?’
‘Spirits should not be held to one place. They either grow melancholy and fade or they become irritable and try to cause trouble. Stars above, you know of the Bound Ones?’
Kasheen nodded.
‘Do you think they’ll be in friendly, kindly moods if they are freed?’
‘But what else could have been done with them except bind them to a place?’
It was Seela not Grek who answered him. ‘They should have been taken to pieces, every particle of them scattered beyond any reuniting. But the mages of the time did not know how to accomplish this disintegration of souls.’
‘Does anyone now?’ Jakri asked aloud.
Khosa hooked a piece of cold fowl from the table to Sariko’s knee where she’d ensconced herself.‘We do.’
‘You do?’ Jakri repeated in awe.
‘We have always believed we must keep our ancestors closely guarded in our Family Gardens so that their spirits will protect the House and guide House members.’ Kasheen frowned, trying to grasp Grek’s contrary view.
‘If you were imprisoned, would you spend eternity protecting and helping your gaolers?’ Grek asked with asperity.
‘The spirits of our ancestors maintain the harmonious balance of our lives. They protect us, we venerate them.’
‘I think I am beginning to understand something,’ Tika interrupted. She met Ren’s eyes and he nodded. She sat back in her chair. ‘Someone said to me that there was stagnation in my lands of Sapphrea which could only be a bad thing. All the people I have met since I soul bonded with Farn, talk of harmony or balance.’
She lifted her hands above the table, holding them level. She dipped one hand lower than the other. ‘I have understood imbalance to be bad, but I wonder if that’s true after all.’
Everyone was listening closely. Tika looked helplessly across the table at Ren.
‘I also was taught that balance was the most important thing but I have realised it means that nothing changes – all must stay the same.’
Silvered eyes met silvered eyes.
‘Slaves must be forever slaves, emperors forever emperors.’
Kasheen stared from Ren to Tika and back. ‘But that is how life, society, survives surely?’
Tika smiled. ‘I am considered the leader of this group of friends.’
Kasheen nodded: that had been plain from the first glimpse he’d had of her in Jakri’s memory.
She shrugged. ‘I am slave born.’
She realised as she said those words that she was at last free. Those four words no longer weighed her down: they were a fact of her past, would always affect the way she acted or reacted in certain situations, but they were no more now than four simple words.
‘I have changed,’ she continued. ‘The gijan changed. My dear friend Mim has changed.’
Again she glanced at Ren. He was smiling broadly.
‘And change means altering the balance,’ he said. ‘Perhaps for the worst, but it could also be for the better. It could mean progress from the stagnation our world has lived in for the past millennia at least. I have come to think that to maintain an unchanging balance may be highly unwise.’
Gan listened to Ren’s words and Kasheen’s arguments against drastic change, but he was thinking of the girl beside him. He was poorly gifted in the power the Asatarians had believed until recently was unique to them. That was why he had chosen a life in arms, becoming Captain of Lady Emla’s Guards and thus the fighting leader of the Asatarians. But he was still able to sense more than most ungifted humans. He had recognised the importance of Tika’s words: I am slave born. He felt her pleasure and pride in the relinquishing of the resentment which she had used as an armour against the world.
Kasheen and Jakri had listened closely to the exchange between Ren and Tika, both aware of undertones which they did not understand. Kasheen looked down the table at his Blossoms.
‘I have suggested sending warriors to support Malesh instead of attacking it Lytzee. Opinion.’
Both Blossoms stood up.
‘We only exist to obey, Mightiness,’ said the one named Lytzee.
‘No, no, no.’ Kasheen’s fist on the table top set two dishes chiming against each other.
The companions noticed, as the Blossoms stood rigidly to attention, that the plume insignia was etched on Lytzee’s lacquered chest plate: presumably this was the identifying mark of his superior rank.
‘Lady Tika has told of thousands of desert men advancing into Malesh.’ Kasheen hesitated only briefly then fixed Lytzee with the Imperial gaze. ‘The old tales of Bound Ones is true unfortunately, and two at least are close to becoming freed. I do not wish that piece of information spread throughout Wendla, you understand. I repeat, your opinion?’
Lytzee’s eyes had narrowed when Emperor Kasheen spoke of the Bound Ones, but he replied instantly.
‘Mighty One, we are yours to command. My opinion is irrelevant but I think to aid Malesh would be wisest at this time. It would surely be to everyone’s benefit if their mages together with ours could concentrate solely on containing such as the Bound Ones.’
He bowed his head as he finished speaking.
‘Jakri?’ Kasheen turned to the Master of House Jade.
‘I’m sure all the Houses would concur, Greatness. When one considers the numbers of mages alone lost in the battle which bound the Four, it would be best to have every mage attending to the same matter.’
‘Taseen was one of those mages in the last battle,’ Ren interposed quietly. ‘He has survived but his power has not.
Kasheen digested that remark. ‘Second rank officer – your name?’
Lytzee’s companion clasped his hand across his chest in salute. ‘Chimchoo, Gracious Lord.’
‘Send runners to all the Houses. They are to attend the palace with only two senior mages each at the fifth bell.’
Chimchoo reached for his helmet, saluted again and marched from the Chamber. Jakri thanked the spirits that the year hadn’t reached the hot season when most Houses would have departed the swelter of the city for their estates.
‘Forgive me,’ Kasheen inclined his head to Tika. ‘I trust it will be convenient for you to remain for the meeting of Houses?’
‘When is – the fifth bell did you call it?’ Ren asked.
‘Dusk,’ Kasheen replied. ‘Will you stay this night in the palace?’
Tika checked Brin and Seela’s thoughts on the matter and nodded. ‘The Dragons would prefer to rest outside these walls – can we return to your Garden to sleep, or is there another courtyard rather than the place you hold so sacred?’
Kasheen glanced at Jakri who shrugged. ‘If Your Greatness intends the Heads of the Houses and their mages to meet these guests, there will be no need for secrecy.’
The Empress clapped her hands. ‘My private garden is close by – a passage beyond the dais takes you to it. You would be most welcome to use it. And there are bathing and resting chambers adjoining.’
‘Perhaps you could let me see the place?’ Gan stood, taller than the Imperial Blossoms.
‘I’ll show you.’ Sariko seemed delighted that the rigid etiquette of daily life was quite ignored by these people.
Gan waited for Kasheen’s nod of assent and then he followed the tiny figure of the Empress towards the dais.
‘I have ten warships ready to sail and another ten being readied. Each carries one hundred warriors, five Imperial Blossoms and three mages.’ The Emperor caught a slight movement from the still standing Lytzee.
‘Speak,’ he commanded.
‘Imperial Wonder, where will we sail for? Harbour City is many leagues from the desert land. I think the captains might be asked to find somewhere to land the warriors on the eastern coast of Malesh.’
Kasheen nodded. ‘Tell the archivist to send maps to me – he may give them to a Blossom outside.’
Navan coughed politely. ‘The Survivor Captain Sefri has maps sir Emperor. Maps of considerable detail of all this world.’
‘Does she indeed? I didn’t know that.’
‘Well you’ve never paid a visit to her have you?’ Tika raised a brow at the Emperor. To her surprise he looked somewhat abashed.
‘I believed she was no more. Although we had heard no word from her, I did send a message when I first ascended the Crystal Throne, but I had no reply.’
‘Her Ship has been close to death,’ said Ren quietly. ‘Captain Sefri dared not leave her since your grandfather’s time I think.’
Gan returned with the Empress. ‘The Lady’s garden will suit,’ he told Tika.
She nodded, pushing her chair back from the table. ‘I should tell you Kasheen, that there are two ships in the river close by Green Shade. Three left Harbour City but one was lost on reefs in a storm.’
Kasheen was interested. ‘Ships of the Maleshan coastal defenders?’
‘Erm, not exactly. The mage Taseen hired them – they are from the pirate islands, under the command of Shipmaster Kasmi. One of the ships was badly damaged and is being repaired now.’
‘I will send one of my fast patrols to see how we may facilitate the repairs. Also, it would be most helpful to have a Shipmaster’s opinion of Maleshan coastal waters.’
‘Taseen told us that ships of Malesh do not venture far up either east or west coasts. He said there were unpredictable weather and sea conditions which made such sailing dangerous.’
Kasheen nodded at Ren’s comment. ‘Do all Maleshan ships carry a mage with them?’
Ren shook his head. ‘Unless a Wind Sister is a mage?’ He gave Tika a questioning look.
‘Maressa said Culinth could ride the air and foresee weather systems but she didn’t think she could manipulate them in any degree. If she could, she would surely have saved Kasmi’s ship wouldn’t she?’ Tika was on her feet, moving towards Farn. ‘Did you know there are other Survivor Captains, other Ships, Kasheen?’ she asked casually.
She was watching both the Emperor and Master Jakri and saw astonishment on both faces.
‘I did not,’ Kasheen replied. ‘I am sure Captain Sefri never mentioned the fact to any of my forebears. There are others then?’
‘Two others that we know of, possibly several more. One is in the city in the desert. The Ship is trustworthy but the Captain is not.’
Gan was opening a large door behind the dais, the gijan following on his heels.
‘I will tell you when the Houses have gathered,’ Kasheen called.
Sariko fluttered behind Sket. ‘And I will make sure you have all you need for your comfort.’
Lytzee had answered a scratch at the further door and now approached the table with several rolls of parchment.
‘May I stay and see these maps sir Emperor,’ asked Navan.
‘A good idea – Navan isn’t it? Sit here and see what you make of them.’
Storm settled back again along the wall: if Navan was staying here, then so was he.
Jakri bowed as Ren made to pass him. ‘I would be grateful for the opportunity to speak with you Master Ren, if you would allow?’
The Wendlan and the Drogoyan followed Brin from the lesser Chamber of Audience, being careful not to step on his tail. They emerged into a courtyard that had an immediately different atmosphere to the Family Garden. That had a stultifying sense of stillness and death: even the plants there had seemed to be struggling.Here, everything was alive and cheerful, reaching up the many stories of the palace to the open sky with an eagerness and vitality utterly lacking in the Family Garden. Windows and doors opened onto this courtyard, although no windows punctuated the walls soaring upwards.
The gijan were delighted to find tiny birds, brilliantly coloured, calling and darting among the trees and shrubs. They were fascinated by clouds of butterflies which drifted over a small pool. While Ren and Jakri made themselves comfortable on cushions beneath a small tree heavily laden with dark pink blooms, Sariko was bowing to Tika.
