Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series, page 32
Having lived all his life within the imperial palace, Akomi was nervous of the space in which he now found himself. He went hunting with Khosa but reluctantly, and returned to their camp with obvious relief to curl up and sleep on Tika’s lap. Khosa sat beside her. Tika stroked the old cat gently.
‘Will he be all right Khosa? I think he may be old for adventuring – like Taseen.’
‘He will manage; I will make sure of it.’ Khosa climbed onto Tika’s knees as well and curled round Akomi.
The Imperial Blossom found it unsettling that no one seemed to use titles or rank in conversation: Tika had already scolded him half a dozen times for calling her “Mistress”. Chimchoo appeared least alarmed by Sket who had now involved him in a complicated discussion of weaponry. Storm and Farn slept, leaning against each other.
‘There will be great trouble in Malesh,’ Seela suddenly spoke in their minds.
‘There will indeed,’ Ren agreed, reaching to stroke her face above him. ‘It might be wiser if you stayed at a distance my dear, while we see what must be done.’
Seela rattled her wings. ‘I will be with you,’ she snapped, moving her head out of Ren’s reach. ‘But I have a bad feeling whenever I think of Malesh.’
‘I can’t say I feel good about it either.’ Grek was present in their minds.
Tika eased the surprising weight of Akomi and Khosa from her thighs. ‘What did you mean Grek, when you said Namolos was engaged with Cho Petak?’
‘I could speak with him only briefly: he could not spare me much time. He lies in a room, guarded by his students and followers but he far travels nearly all the time.’ A note of awed admiration tinged Grek’s tone. ‘He far travels distances beyond belief and in ways I do not begin to comprehend.’
The company were on their way again well before first light and by the time the sun set they landed in front of the house at Green Shade. Maressa came running to meet them and exclaimed at sight of the Imperial Blossom Chimchoo. Tika managed to choke back a laugh when Pallin marched from the side of the house followed by a squad of variously sized children, but Farn’s tact was an erratic matter.
‘Would you like me to inspect your armsmen Pallin?’ he asked, eyes whirring with glee.
Pallin spun round, clearly unaware that his trainee armsmen were behind him. He gave them a ferocious scowl.
‘Why aren’t you abed? Fighters take rest when they can to be fit for whatever the morrow might bring,’ he roared.
The children fled precipitously as Sefri hurried towards the companions.
‘A crow brought a message but you’re back sooner than I’d expected,’ she exclaimed when she’d extricated herself from the gijan’s embraces.
Maressa shook her head slightly at Tika – so, she had not passed on Grek’s reports to Sefri as yet. Tika returned Sefri’s hug.
‘We must rest and tomorrow the Dragons must hunt and sleep. We will tell you our news then.’
‘Welcome,’ called a hoarse voice and the Imperial Blossom Chimchoo paused in mid salute to Sefri.
She smiled up at him. ‘It is many long years since we have seen an Imperial Blossom in Green Shade,’ she said. ‘But I think Star Flower wishes to welcome you all before you sleep.’
They gathered beneath the verandah next morning near the Ship, Star Flower. Tika was alarmed by the way Taseen’s fragility had increased in the few days since she’d seen him and was glad that Mistress Oniko was on her way to keep the ancient mage company. Jakri was fascinated to meet one who had somehow survived the final battle of the Elder Races. Pallin took over from Sket in putting the Imperial Blossom more at ease with involved talk on the subject of military tactics. By midday the general mood was sombre, Sefri, Taseen and Star Flower having been brought up to date on the situation in Malesh.
Sefri offered a small piece of comfort.
‘Star Flower has reinstated some of her transmitter networks and has communicated with some of the Ships in orbit.’
Blank faces met this news.
‘I do not pretend to understand your talk of Bound Ones and the havoc you fear they might wreak, but if absolutely necessary the Ships in orbit have weapons of great power.’
Blank faces brightened into hopeful smiles but Sefri raised her hands.
‘The power of our technological weapons is indescribable. I would only recommend their use as a last desperate resort.’ She sighed. ‘They can be targeted very specifically but in a close battle situation, they would probably destroy as many of your men as your enemy’s.’
Taseen shook his head. ‘It may come to that Captain Sefri. If an armsman has an infected hand, the only way to save his life may be to remove the whole arm.’
‘Like Jal.’ Farn’s mind tone still reflected the horror he’d felt when he realised Jal had only one arm.
Sket rubbed Farn’s chest. ‘Jal would be dead now Farn, but he lives and no doubt he’s a great help to young Mim in the Stronghold.’
It was obvious that Farn was not reassured but he made no further comment.
‘We will stay here one more full day,’ Tika announced. ‘The Dragons have three more people to carry and so they must feed well and be rested before I will let them face the risk of flying across the sea.’ She glanced at Chimchoo. ‘Do you know how long a patrol boat will take to get to the inlet below?’
He shook his head.
‘We will probably have left by the time Mistress Oniko gets here then.’
She knelt by Taseen’s chair. ‘She brings one of Jakri’s apprentices.’
‘Hiramo,’ Taseen agreed. ‘He has told me of her. She may even be able to far speak you in Malesh.’
Jakri cleared his throat. ‘My mother Oniko is the one to do that.’
Tika remembered Oniko’s words in the Empress’s garden. ‘We should definitely be able to stay in contact then. Maressa and Brin will be able to meet either of their minds halfway I’d guess.’
Pallin stood to attention, his scowl a thin disguise for discomfort.
‘Lady Tika, Olam and Riff are still with Kasmi. The Emperor sent help with the repairs on Spiral Star. I know Olam will want to stay with the star damned floating boxes.’
He stopped and Tika helped him out.
‘Your place must be with Olam of course.’
Pallin sighed in relief. ‘Seboth would skin me if I let anything happen to the boy.’
Tika considered the boy – Olam. He was at least thirty cycles old: boy indeed! But perhaps to one of Pallin’s advanced age, Olam was still a mere boy.
‘To be honest Pallin, I have been worried by the numbers of us the Dragons would have to carry, so three less is a help really.’
By the time Tika and her companions, who now included a Wendlan Mage who was also the Head of a major House left Green Shade, Grek had reported a rapid deterioration in western Malesh and intense fighting in the northern farming communities. Then he departed for destinations unrevealed and the Dragons increased their speed of flight across the sea.
In Harbour City Chevra had ordered his wife and two daughters to return to the Xantip palace. He sent a full squad of armsmen to ensure that Eorlas understood his order was not to be ignored. He had evicted several disgruntled courtesans from his apartments and closeted himself at all hours with his cousin and spymaster Harrip. Piles of ancient tomes and several maps purloined from the archives were now scattered around his study.
Councillor Vorna had not remained long in the palace; had dismissed out of hand the talk of a war with Wendla as trivial and of no concern to her. She had taken Bajal with her this time, since when Fental had secluded himself in his rooms. That left Sheoma, Tavri and Lessna – three out of his seven Mage Councillors. Chevra still had doubts as to Lessna’s loyalties but could not exclude her from discussions without alerting Vorna to his suspicions – if Lessna was in fact allied to her. Harrip had found no evidence either way, but inclined to the worst, citing Tavri’s wariness of Lessna.
This afternoon low clouds rolled in from the sea, blanketing Harbour City in a humid dampness unnoticed by Chevra and Harrip as they finalised the movement of three thousand armsmen towards Vorna’s estates.
‘You would do better to be totally honest with your College of Mages.’ Grek was suddenly inside their heads.
Chevra was still unsettled by the comings and goings of the unbodied entity: Harrip longed to recruit him into his spy network.
‘Why can you do nothing?’ Chevra sounded peevish.
‘I cannot.’ The admission was made quietly but added enormously to the two Maleshans’ worry. ‘I was never what you would call a trained mage. Vorna would be aware of my presence at once. I have warned you, she has a system of defensive wardings the like of which I’ve never come across before. After much thought, and debate with Taseen, we conclude it will take several mages to dismantle her wardings before getting near her. And once the wardings are gone, Vorna herself is probably the single most powerful mage in this land at least.’
Chevra digested this information, his skin growing cold in spite of the humidity. He glanced at Harrip.
‘Summon the College Administrators if you will. They must work harder now than they’ve probably done for years.’
‘I went only briefly to the north,’ Grek told Chevra when Harrip had gone to pass on the message to a servant. ‘The farmers are surprisingly well organised. The raids they have endured for so many years have led them to take ingenious steps to defend themselves. But the numbers of fighters still pouring south from the desert give the villagers no respite.’
Chevra leaned back in his chair. ‘I know. My wife used to complain that the patrols were too infrequent and that I was wrong to reduce the garrisons. We had problems in the Tooman province which necessitated the use of more armsmen than I’d expected to put the insurgents down.’
‘Your wife and children,’ Grek changed the subject abruptly.
Chevra looked surprised. ‘I have ordered them to return to the palace,’ he said.
‘Send them to Wendla.’
‘Wendla?’ Chevra sat up straight. ‘Why should they be sent away?’
‘They must not be risked here as hostages.’
Chevra gaped but Grek continued inexorably.
‘The boy must be kept clear at the very least, but it would be best if your girls too are in safe keeping.’
Chevra’s thoughts whirled: one daughter was older than Merkas and distressingly like her mother in temperament in his view. The other daughter was barely past her fifth birthday. He had set eyes on neither of them since Eorlas had left the palace three years ago. She would have got Merkas away too if Harrip hadn’t had her watched so closely.
In the great scheme of things, Chevra had no illusions that he was an outstanding ruler. He had kept things running in Malesh, curbed the exigencies of outlying provinces such as the Tooman uprising, and made sure that no one merchant became too much more successful or powerful than any other.
‘Will you help me explain to the Administrators?’ Chevra asked in a humble way such as none of his Councillors would have recognised.
Grek considered the request. ‘I will,’ he agreed finally. ‘I have already assessed your two Administrators and their minds are both strong and sharp. It will not take long to convince them of the peril facing Malesh.’
It was as Grek predicted: Dersu and Fenelon listened without interruption while first Chevra outlined the situation and then Grek filled in many of the gaps with frightening clarity.
The older of the Administrators, Dersu, sniffed. ‘We have had our suspicions for a very long while Grand Harbour Master. Taseen sent warning two years ago of things worsening and we always heed Taseen’s words.’ He mopped his forehead: corpulent as he was, the speed with which he’d been rushed from the College through the palace looked to have exhausted him.
Fenelon paced restlessly. ‘Many of us have been worried by Vorna’s ambitions for much longer than you might think,’ she said. ‘My predecessors left reports of their suspicions and we have tried to monitor her activities. As our invisible friend has said, Vorna has built a myriad of defences.’
‘Can you break them?’ Chevra interrupted.
‘Some of them yes, quite easily,’ Dersu replied. ‘But we are fairly sure that once such warding is broken, another is activated.’
‘And whatever is activated may well be aggressive rather than defensive,’ Fenelon put in. ‘The entire region around Vorna’s estates – a circle between one and two leagues across – is virtually impenetrable to any of us now. And believe me, I have people working constantly on this. It isn’t a massive shielding – the air is somehow wrong, the very particles are misshapen and so far seeing is impossible.’ She bit her lip, glancing at Dersu.
He sighed. ‘Four mages of the third rank have been unconscious for over twenty days since trying to penetrate Vorna’s estates.’
Chevra was deeply shaken. Mages of the third rank were extremely strong – for four of them to be incapacitated to such a degree boded ill indeed for any direct attempt on Vorna.’
‘The Wendlans know of her. They call her the witch woman.’ Grek sounded pensive.
Fenelon followed his line of thought. ‘Witches and wizards were more common in the Time Before.’ She frowned. ‘Most of them were solitary, individualistic. That was why the College of Mages was founded if the histories are accurate: to bring those individuals with powers into a community where they were encouraged to develop and use those powers for a common purpose.’
Dersu began to nod. ‘But it took a long age to gather in all the talented ones. There are many records of solitary wizards causing untold damage to further their own personal desires – wealth, control of an area, control of a section of the population.’
‘What happened to them?’ Chevra was curious although he had a good idea what Dersu’s answer would be.
Dersu mopped his forehead again. ‘If they refused all overtures from the College they were either stripped of their powers or destroyed.’
Chevra leaned forward eagerly, his hopes rising. ‘You can strip a mage of his powers? I didn’t know that.’
Fenelon gave a harsh laugh. ‘It isn’t something we talk about too often but yes, it can be done. And it is done today if a student is unbalanced or wayward in his use of power.’ She gave Chevra a lop-sided smile. ‘We would never stand a chance of doing such a thing with Vorna.’
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bajal sat in a shadowed corner of Vorna’s library and workroom in an annex of the main building. Vorna’s estates lay some twenty four leagues north west of Harbour City and two leagues from the west coast of Malesh. Bajal’s hands gripped the arms of his chair, the knuckles white. He stared unblinkingly across the large cluttered room at Vorna. The Mage Councillor half lay upon a couch, her eyes closed, a smile flickering across her face. Bajal felt sick but dared not move. A headache had begun to niggle behind his eyes as he and Vorna approached the estate boundary six days ago and had grown steadily with every heartbeat since.
Now, his eyes burned, his throat felt too tight to allow air into his lungs and he knew his head would explode if he moved it too quickly. The very air felt too thin; smelt as though it was somehow burnt, its acrid taint scratching and stinging his skin. He had lost track of time: whether he’d been sitting here for the morning or for several days he had no idea.
Vorna had quite forgotten that Bajal was even in the same room. The Bound One, Valesh, was awake and talking to her. As Vorna had expected, poor Valesh was only saddened by her long imprisonment, not angry, crazed, or vengeful as Taseen and those other fools had predicted. There had been no one left to help Vorna finish her training after the final battle a millennia past and so she had sought a way of her own. No senior mages survived with any power left to speak of – Taseen’s case was not unique though he was the most senior to have survived.
Vorna had searched the unscathed library in Xantip palace and had learned much that she should have remained ignorant of. With no one senior to guide her, she put her own already skewed interpretation on most of her readings. The title the Wendlans gave her – witch woman – was in fact far more accurate than any might have guessed. Vorna had no feeling for any such abstract ideas as community, society, or morality: what she wanted, she went for and got. She had never formed close ties with any other person; regarded the awed respect given her by her students and apprentices through the millennia as only her due.
And she was so close now, she was within reach of gaining control of the phenomenal powers of a Bound One. It never occurred to her that in fact the opposite was true of course. Vorna spent longer and longer in mental communication with Valesh. Valesh had lain Bound and silenced deep beneath the sea since the last battle, until she’d found a way here. She had been Bound after her brother Qwah was trapped in the desert. The human mages had been strong enough to bind her but they were weary from their long struggle and several tiny errors had crept into the spells they cast.
Valesh had been Bound and cast into dreamless, endless sleep – or so the mages believed. But her sleep was not dreamless nor was it eternal. Her dreaming mind had soon found Vorna and immediately she’d recognised the human female’s power, and also her weaknesses. Chief among the latter was Vorna’s overweening sense of her personal superiority.
Valesh struggled hard to rein back her fury: that she should need this pathetic human’s aid enraged her every time she thought of it. She knew her brother Qwah would never have found such patience as she had needed to exercise over these years. She was so close to freedom! She was desperately tempted to force the issue right now but Vorna still had not discovered how to untangle the spell which would keep Valesh tied to this one place. She was sure her mind was nearly loosed enough to lift her essence up through the layers of ensorcelled rock and earth, but until Vorna could undo the placement spells, she would still be trapped in this little part of the world.
