Orb sceptre throne, p.56
Orb Sceptre Throne, page 56
The upper waters of the River Maiten flowed thick and heavy with silt, almost sluggish, like old blood. The wet silts even gave it a reddish hue. For a time they paced its course, heading north for Darujhistan. Eventually, they came to a nameless hamlet that hugged the river. Here the water allowed farming and animal husbandry. And the river offered some fishing, if only small bottom-dwellers.
Since neither the Seventh nor Lo appeared inclined to approach the villagers regarding hiring a boat, Yusek and Sall headed in to do the honours. Part of Yusek wondered why they were bothering with paying at all when they could just take one of the wretched battered old punts drawn up on the muddy shore. But another part of her understood that Lo and the Seventh had these conceits of honesty and honour that had to be observed.
‘They want coin,’ she told Sall. ‘You have any coin?’
The Seguleh lad drew a small pouch from beneath his cloak. ‘I have these. Our old currency.’
A clinking heap of shiny yellow bars, or wafers, fell into her cupped hands. ‘Osserc’s mercy!’ she exclaimed, pressing the pile to her chest. ‘Where did you get all this?’
The lad seemed unconcerned. ‘As I said. It is our old currency. We don’t use it any more. I keep these as mementos.’
Yusek shuffled them back into the pouch, which she then kept in her fist. ‘They’re gold,’ she hissed.
‘Yes. I know.’
‘Are we going to pay gold for a crappy old boat that can barely hold all of us?’
‘I see no alternative.’
‘Gods. The price of boats is about to go way up.’
‘Pay them – it is of no matter.’
No matter! By the Enchantress! This is part of my fortune I’m throwing away here. ‘Sall – can’t we just threaten them? Just a little?’
The mask faced her square. The hazel and brown eyes grew stern. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘All right, all right!’ Yusek stalked away. ‘Can’t fucking believe I’m handing gold to these stinking hamlet-dwellers,’ she muttered. ‘They won’t even know what they’ve got in their hands …’
A short time later the Seventh pushed off one of the larger of the river boats and took the stern. Lo had the bow while Sall and Yusek sat in the middle. The boat was of hide ribbed with wood. It was without seats; one merely kneeled in the fetid water that sloshed within. At first Yusek held on to a thwart, refusing to let her hide trousers touch the filth. Finally Sall reached up to yank her down.
‘And what do I do?’ she asked, wincing as the cold water clasped her knees.
Sall handed her a cup carved from wood. ‘You bail – or we sink.’
Kiska walked with Tayschrenn over the featureless dunes of black sands. Soon clouds swept in from ahead, which struck her as odd, since no clouds had ever before marred the sky here at the Shores. The shadows of the clouds glided over them, obscuring her vision, and in their wake she found herself walking a night-time landscape of blasted broken rock. Suddenly it was hard going, as the ground was uneven and the sharp stones turned under her feet. She missed the smooth sands, even if they did make walking a chore.
‘Where are we?’
Tayschrenn did not answer. He was peering into the sky. Suddenly he knelt behind a larger boulder, motioning her down. ‘Trespassing, ’ he murmured. She huddled under the cover of the boulder then hissed, jerking away; it was hot to the touch.
‘What is this …’ Then she saw them wheeling in the sky and she stared, astounded and terrified. Winged long-necked beasts flying off in the distance. ‘Are those …’
‘Yes.’
‘Enchantress protect us. What’s going on?’
‘A gathering. A marshalling. Call it what you will.’
‘Is that where we’re …’
‘No. All this regards the past. I prefer to look to the future.’
‘Then what are we doing here?’
The mage struck off at right-angles. ‘As I said, trespassing. This is a short cut.’
A short cut? This? Hate to see the long way round.
Not long after that – at least if you counted time in paces, as she was doing – the landscape changed to a forested verge. The ground became swampy as they entered the woods, and thick vine-laden trunks and ferns blocked all view. Tayschrenn slowed, then came to an uncertain halt.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘We’re being deflected. This is not where I intended to come.’
The very air felt charged to Kiska, vibrating and heavy with potential. ‘Something’s stirring here,’ she whispered. ‘Something awful.’
He glanced at her, surprised. ‘I’d forgotten about your natural sensitivity. Yes. I feel it too. But again, this is not what I have chosen. I could commit myself – attempt to guide things one way or the other. But would it be for the better? Would the outcome be improved by yet another set of meddling hands? No, I think not.’
Kiska used her staff to flick a snake away from the man’s sandalled feet. ‘Perhaps we should be going …’
‘Yes. Let us … no. It is too late.’ He turned to face the darkness between the roots of two immense trunks. Kiska whipped her staff crossways.
A figure arose from the dark. Kiska would have said that this person, a woman, stepped from the darkness, but that was not right. She rose as if she had been crawling. She was tall and wide, wearing layers upon layers of black cloth all dusty and festooned with cobwebs. In contrast, her long black hair hung down past her shoulders, sleek and shimmering. Her complexion was a dark nut brown, her eyes very dark.
Tayschrenn bowed to her. ‘Ardata.’
Ardata? Where had she heard that before? Some sort of sorceress.
The woman stepped forward. She was barefoot and the layers of cloth trailed behind, snagging on brush and roots, unravelling in long threads.
‘Magus,’ she greeted Tayschrenn. Her voice was surprisingly rich and musical. ‘Long have I known of you.’ She circled at a distance. ‘Your acts come to me like ripples in the skein of the Warrens.’ The dark eyes swung to Kiska. ‘And who is this?’
‘She is with me.’
The eyes flared undisguised dismissal and contempt. ‘One of her creatures, I see. The strings are plain to me.’
‘We were just going.’
‘You are? You will not stay? There is much turmoil. Much … opportunity. Who knows what the final outcome may be?’
‘My choice is made. I will lend my strength where I believe I can do the most.’
The lips twisted into a knowing sneer. ‘And not incidentally positioning yourself very neatly.’
‘Or assuring my inevitable dissolution.’
The sorceress laughed and Kiska felt almost seduced by the richness of her voice. ‘We both know you would not allow that. You would not commit fully otherwise.’
‘No. I have found purpose, Ardata. One far beyond the mere amassing and hoarding of power.’
Kiska noted that in her pacing the sorceress had left behind a trail of black threads that now completely encircled them. Halting, Ardata cocked her head to regard Tayschrenn sidelong. ‘This does not sound like the magus of whom I have heard so much.’
‘That is true. I have … changed.’
The woman darted out a hand, pointing to Kiska. ‘And does this one have something to do with that? Is she responsible?’
Tayschrenn moved to stand before Kiska. ‘She was – integral, yes.’
The sorceress held her arms wide. The black shifting cloths hung from them like cowls, spreading. ‘Then I believe you should remain.’
Darkness swallowed them. Blinded, Kiska hunched, holding her staff ready. An inhuman snarl burst around them, enraged and frustrated. It dwindled then snapped away into silence. The ground shifted beneath Kiska’s feet and she stumbled, almost falling. Then the absolute darkness brightened in stages to mere night, but not night as Kiska knew it. Brighter, with the moon larger and two other globes in the starry sky looking like child’s marbles. One tinted reddish, the other more bluish. To her relief Tayschrenn was still with her.
‘Where are we now?’
‘Closer.’
‘That sorceress … she is your enemy?’
Hands clasped behind his back once more, the mage set off through the tall grass surrounding them. Kiska struggled to catch up. A cool wind smelling of pine billowed her cloak and dried her face. ‘Enemy?’ Tayschrenn mused. ‘No, not as such. No, her hostility was directed against someone else, yes?’
‘The Enchantress.’
‘Yes.’
‘What is the Queen of Dreams to her?’
The mage laughed, startling her. The laughter was completely unguarded, open and uninflected. She’d never heard anything like it from him before. ‘What is she to …’ He laughed again, chuckling as if enjoying the sensation. ‘My dear Kiska. Who do you think held the title of Enchantress before your patron showed up? They are rivals. Bitter rivals. Ardata is ancient. The greatest power of her age. Eclipsed now in this time of Warrens and their mastery.’
‘I see. I didn’t know.’
‘No. And I didn’t expect that you should. But the mark of the Queen is upon you, so you ought to know now.’
Yes. Her ‘strings’. Kiska did not like the sound of that. She wondered whether they were knotted. She knew that she would do all she could to tear them off if that should be so.
‘So, just where are we?’ she asked.
‘This is Tellann. We should be safe here – for a time.’
‘Tellann? But that is Imass! How can we be here?’
The mage glanced at her, startled. ‘You keep surprising me with your knowledge of these things. Why is it you never pursued magery? You could have. Thyr, perhaps?’
Kiska shrugged off the suggestion, uncomfortable. ‘Too much effort.’ She slung her staff over her shoulders as she walked.
‘Too much effort? Yet you put yourself through rigorous physical training little different from torture …’
‘I prefer to act.’
‘You prefer to act,’ the mage echoed again, musing. ‘Impetuous still. Not wise.’
She shrugged beneath the staff, flexed her wrists, feeling the bones cracking. ‘That’s how it is.’
Ahead, a rumbling filled the plain. Beneath the night sky a darker cloud of dust approached from one side. As it closed Kiska heard animal snorting penetrating the din of countless hooves hammering the hardpan prairie. A herd thundered across their path. Great woolly front-heavy beasts, some boasting wicked-looking curved horns.
Movement brushed among the tall grass nearby and Kiska whipped her staff to the side to stand hunched, ready, staff levelled, facing two low eyes across a long narrow muzzle. She stared, fascinated, as those frost-blue eyes bored into her and through her. Then they released her, snapping aside as the beast dodged, loping off through the grass. She almost fell when the gaze abandoned her. She felt exhausted, her heart hammering as if she had been running all evening. Is this the fear of the prey in the face of the hunter? Or an invitation?
Tayschrenn’s gaze followed the wolf as it bounded after the herd. He murmured as if reciting: ‘And what are the gods but need writ large?’
‘What was that?’ Kiska asked, still panting. She pressed the back of a glove to her hot forehead.
‘Just some philosopher’s musings. The wolves, Kiska. The wolves. The gods are restless. They are charging now to their destiny, for that is their role. I sense in this a welcome. Come, let us follow. I recognize the old scent now and I accept. It is time for a long overdue reunion.’
He led the way on to the churned up trail. Kiska followed, waving the dust and drifting chaff from her face.
Picker was on watch at the front of K’rul’s bar when a knock on the barricaded door made her jump, so startled that she dropped the crossbow. Spindle jerked up from where he napped on one of the benches. Glaring at him to say anything, just one thing, she picked up the weapon then peered out through the boards.
‘Who’re you?’ she called.
A low voice murmured something. ‘Yeah, he’s here,’ Picker answered. She looked at Spindle. ‘Someone’s got a message for ya.’
He pushed through to peep. He was a tall fellow, lean, hooded. The evening light made his lined face look even more harsh. Spindle raised his crossbow. ‘What d’ya want?’
‘I have a message that I think is for the sapper here,’ he answered.
‘All’s we got is this fella,’ Picker said.
‘I’m trained!’
‘Barely,’ she grumbled beneath her breath.
‘What is it?’
‘The message is – you should consider the peculiar qualities of the white stone. That’s it. The qualities of the stone.’
Spindle raised a fist. ‘Yes! The stones! I knew it.’ He punched Picker’s shoulder. ‘Didn’t I tell you? We’re on to something, I’m sure!’ She gave him an angry stare then turned to the front. ‘Yeah? Who says … damn.’
‘What?’ Spindle looked: gone. He pushed himself from the barricade and heaved up the crossbow to his shoulder. ‘The stones,’ he murmured, musing. ‘I need to take another look.’
‘All buried now, ain’t they?’ Picker said.
Spindle snapped his fingers. ‘I bet there’s still some down by the mole. I’m gonna go.’
‘I’ll go with you,’ Duiker said from where he sat towards the back.
‘What? Why?’
‘You’re only partially trained,’ the old scholar muttered as he eased himself up.
‘You mean partially house-trained,’ Picker sneered. ‘Anyway – you’re not going anywhere.’
‘Why not?’
‘What if those Seguleh return? And us shorthanded?’
‘Faugh.’ Spindle waved that aside. ‘If they was going to come back they’d have done it already.’ He went for the door but stopped short, staring at the nailed boards and heaped benches. He glanced back to Duiker. ‘I guess we’ll go out the back.’
Out on the streets Spindle felt naked armed only with his little pig-sticker. He was grateful to Duiker, though, for remembering and stopping him at the door. They’d both set aside all their weapons – no sense risking a meeting with the Seguleh.
Nervous, Spindle rubbed his shirt as he walked the street. Anyway, he reflected, he was never entirely helpless. Always had his magics. Not that it ever amounted to much. What use was the ability to drive animals insane? It was just embarrassing, though it seemed to have helped now and then. Saved his life, if only by accident. Like that time the camp was attacked by riders and he raised his Warren, or whatever the Abyss it was, and all the animals went crazy.
Maybe, the thought just struck, it was chaos. Maybe that was the force he raised. Kind of a mental chaos. Now that sounded a lot more proper and menacing, that did. Not just Spindle, the guy who scares rats and cats. And goats and stoats. And horses and … damn, what rhymes with horses?
At his side Duiker cleared his throat, hands hooked in his belt as he walked along. The late afternoon sun shone golden on the walls of the taller buildings. Inns and cafés were doing a brisk early dinner trade with the curfew in force. ‘So what happened down south anyway?’ the old soldier asked.
Spindle waved all that aside. ‘Ach, you don’t want to know. Gates and Warrens and power up for grabs. It was ugly but it came out all right in the end. I don’t rightly know exactly all what happened myself.’
‘Had enough of it down there, though, did you?’
‘Actually I’m thinking of heading back.’
They reached the waterfront close to the paved walk and open green where the mole began. Here the wreckage of the construction site lay abandoned like a demolished building. Spindle was surprised to see that people had moved in, putting up shacks and hanging awnings; the sort who normally would do so outside the city walls at Maiten town or Raven. Usually, he imagined, the city Wardens would’ve rousted them along. Things seemed to have ground down to a standstill all over the city. He searched among the shanty town for any sign of the stone blocks but saw none.
‘There was a bunch of ’em,’ he told Duiker.
The old man frowned at the disheartening sight of the families crouched under canopies. ‘Reminds me of Seven Cities,’ he said to himself.
‘Here we are!’ He’d found a shard. A piece of a broken block about the size of a keg.
Duiker knelt next to him to run a hand over what Spindle knew to be the smooth, almost flesh-like surface. ‘Amazing,’ the man murmured.
‘You recognize it?’
‘Yes. In fact I do. Among my studies were writings of the ancient natural philosophers.’
‘Who?’
‘Never mind. But I know this stone. It’s not marble at all, in truth. It’s a rare mineral. Usually you see it only as small statuettes or figurines. Where did anyone find so much of it?’
‘Don’t know. So, what is it?’
The old scholar sat back on his thin haunches, scratched his beard. ‘Well – there’re many names for it, of course. The name I know is Alabaster.’
Spindle repeated the name, trying it out. It meant nothing to him. Damn. I thought this would be it. That we’d crack it. Hood – maybe it’s nothing after all. Just a dry hunch.
‘Who would use this for construction, though?’ the old man went on. ‘It’s useless for that. It’s much too soft. Among the softest of all stones …’
Spindle threw down a handful of dirt to pace next to the kneeling historian. Dammit! I’m supposed to know my materials. But this is no granite, no limestone. I never studied the rarer minerals.
‘In fact,’ the historian continued, musing, ‘it shouldn’t have even survived submersion in the lake. Some forms of it dissolve in water, you know. It must be inured to it – to all sorts of things.’ He peered up at Spindle. ‘They claim it survived the blast of a cusser. It shouldn’t have at all. Must be hardened to that as well. Through magics and alchemical treatments, perhaps. Yet some forms of it are reputed to be particularly … particularly …’ The old man shot to his feet. ‘Queen forgive me!’ Spindle yelped as the historian suddenly clutched his wrist. ‘The Alchemist!’ he yelled. ‘We have to go to his tower!’
