by Garth Nix
“It almost certainly is,” said Touchstone, sighing. “General Tindall believes that Corolini and his Our Country Party are being funded with Old Kingdom gold, though he cannot definitely prove it. Since Corolini and his party now hold the balance of power in the Ancelstierre Moot, they’ve been able to get the Southerlings moved farther and farther north. They have also made it clear that their ultimate aim is to get all the Southerling refugees moved across the Wall, into our Kingdom.”
“Why?” asked Sam. “I mean, what for? It’s not as if northern Ancelstierre is over-populated.”
“I’m not sure,” replied Touchstone. “The reasons they make public in Ancelstierre are populist rubbish, pandering to the fears of the countryfolk. But there has to be a reason why someone here is supplying them with gold—enough gold to buy the twelve seats they’ve picked up in the Moot. I fear that reason may have something to do with the fact that we have not been able to find more than a score of the thousand people who were sent across a month ago, and none of that score alive. The rest have simply vanished—”
“How could that many people disappear? Surely they would leave some trace,” interrupted Ellimere. “Perhaps I should go—”
“No.” Touchstone smiled, amused by his daughter’s obvious belief that she could do a better job than he could when it came to looking for something. The smile faded as he went on. “This is not as simple as it appears, Ellimere. Sorcery is involved. Your mother thinks that we will find them when we least want to, and that they will not be living when we do.”
“This is the heart of the matter,” said Sabriel gravely. “Before we discuss it further, I think we should take further precautions against being overheard. Touchstone?”
Touchstone nodded and stood up. Drawing one of his swords, he concentrated for a moment. The Charter marks on his sword began to glow and move, till the whole blade was wreathed in golden light. Touchstone flicked the sword up, and the Charter marks leapt across to the nearest Great Stone, splashing on it like liquid fire.
For a moment nothing happened. Then other marks caught the light, and the golden flames spread to cover the whole Stone, roaring up like a crown-caught wildfire. More marks leapt to the next Stone till it kindled, too, and then to the next, until all six Great Stones were ablaze, and streams of bright Charter marks flew up and across to weave a tracery of light like a dome above the two barges.
Looking over the side, Sam saw that the golden fire had spread underwater, too, forming a crazy maze of marks that covered the reservoir floor. The four were now completely enclosed by a magical barrier, one that relied upon the power of the Great Stones. He wanted to ask how it was cast, and enquire about the nature of the spell, but his mother was already speaking.
“We can talk now without fear of being overheard, by natural ears or other means,” said Sabriel. She took Sam’s hand, and Ellimere’s, holding them tight, so they felt the calluses on her fingers and palms, the result of so many years of wielding sword and bells.
“Your father and I are certain that the Southerlings were brought across the Wall to be killed—slain by a necromancer who has used the bodies to house Dead spirits who owe him allegiance. Only Free Magic sorcery can explain how the bodies and all other traces have disappeared, unseen by our patrols or the Clayr’s Sight.”
“But I thought the Clayr could See everything,” said Ellimere. “I mean, they often get the time wrong, but they still See. Don’t they?”
“Over the past four or five years the Clayr have become aware that their Sight is clouded, and possibly has always been clouded, in the region around the eastern shores of the Red Lake and Mount Abed,” said Touchstone grimly. “A large area, which not coincidentally is also where our royal writ does not hold true. There is some power there that opposes both the Clayr and our authority, blocking their Sight and breaking the Charter Stones I have set there.”
“Well, shouldn’t we call out the Trained Bands and take them and the Guard and go down there and sort it out once and for all?” protested Ellimere, in the same tone that Sam imagined she had used when she led the Wyverley College hockey team back in Ancelstierre.
“We don’t know where—or what—it is,” said Sabriel. “Every time we undertake to really search the area for the source of the trouble, something happens somewhere else. We did think we might have found the root of it five years ago, at the Battle of Roble’s Town—”
“The necromancer woman,” interrupted Sam, who remembered the story well. He had thought a lot about necromancers over the past months. “The one with the bronze mask.”
“Yes. Chlorr of the Mask,” replied Sabriel, staring out at the golden barrier, obviously recalling unpleasant memories. “She was very old, and powerful, so I had presumed she was the architect of our difficulties there. But now I am not sure. It is clear someone else is still working to befuddle the Clayr and incite trouble across the Kingdom. There is also someone behind Corolini in Ancelstierre and perhaps even the Southerling wars as well. One possibility is the man you encountered in Death, Sam.”
“The . . . the necromancer?” asked Sam. His voice came out as a pathetic squeak, and he unconsciously rubbed his wrists, his sleeves briefly riding up to show the skin still scarred from the burns.
“He must have great power to raise so many Dead Hands on the other side of the Wall,” replied Sabriel. “And with that power, I should have heard of him, but I have not. How has he kept himself hidden all these years? How did Chlorr hide when we scoured the Kingdom after Kerrigor’s fall, and why did she reveal herself to attack Roble’s Town? Now I am wondering if perhaps I underestimated Chlorr. She may even have evaded me at the last. I made her walk beyond the Sixth Gate, but I was sorely tired, and I did not follow her all the way to the Ninth. I should have. There was something strange about her, something more than the usual taint of Free Magic or necromancy. . . .”
She paused, and her eyes stared out at nothing, unfocused. Then she blinked and continued. “Chlorr was old, old enough for other Abhorsens to have encountered her in the past, and I suspect that this other necromancer is also ancient. But I have found no record of either at the House. Too much knowledge was destroyed when the Palace burnt, and more has been lost besides, simply by the march of time. And the Clayr, while they keep everything in that Great Library of theirs, rarely find anything useful in it. Their minds are too much bent upon the future. I should like to look there myself, but that is a task that would take months, if not years. I think Chlorr and this other necromancer were in league, and may be still, if Chlorr has survived. But who leads and who follows is unclear. I also fear that we will find they are not alone. But whoever or whatever moves against us, we must make sure their plans come to naught.”
The light seemed to darken as Sabriel spoke, and the water rippled as if an unwanted breeze had somehow passed the protection of the golden light around the Stones.
“What plans?” asked Ellimere. “What are they . . . it . . . whatever . . . going to do?”
Sabriel looked at Touchstone, and a brief flash of uncertainty passed between them before she continued.
“We think that they plan to bring all two hundred thousand Southerling refugees into the Old Kingdom—and kill them,” whispered Sabriel, as if they might be overheard after all. “Two hundred thousand deaths in a single poisoned minute, to make an avenue out of Death for every spirit that has lingered there from the First Precinct to the very precipice of the Ninth Gate. To summon a host of the Dead greater than any that has ever walked in Life. A host that we could not possibly defeat, even if all the Abhorsens who have ever lived were somehow to stand against them.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
A Family Conference
Silence greeted Sabriel’s words, a silence that went on and on, as they all imagined a host of the Dead two hundred thousand strong, and Sam struggled not to. A horde of the Dead, a great sea of stumbling, Life-starved corpses that stretched from horizon to horizon, inexorably marching towards him
—
“That will not happen, of course,” said Touchstone, breaking into Sam’s terrible imaginings. “We will make sure that it doesn’t, that the refugees never even cross the Wall. However, we can’t stop them on our side. The Wall is too long, with too many broken gates and too many old Crossing Points on the other side. So we must ensure that the Ancelstierrans don’t send them across in the first place. Consequently your mother and I have decided to go to Ancelstierre ourselves—secretly, so not to arouse alarm or suspicion. We will go to Corvere and negotiate with their government, which will undoubtedly take several months. That means we will be relying on you two to look after the Kingdom.”
More silence greeted this revelation. Ellimere looked deeply thoughtful but otherwise calm. Sam swallowed several times, then said, “What, ah, what exactly do you mean?”
“As far as both our friends and enemies need know, I will be on a diplomatic mission to the barbarian chiefs at their Southern Stop, and Sabriel will be going about her business as mysteriously as she always does,” replied Touchstone. “In our absence, Ellimere will continue as co-regent with Jall Oren—everyone seems to have become accustomed to that. Sameth, you will assist her. But most important, you will continue in your studies of The Book of the Dead.”
“Speaking of such things, I have something for you,” added Sabriel, before Sam could interject. She pushed her pack across with obvious effort. “Look in the top.”
Slowly, Sam undid the straps. He suddenly felt very sick, knowing that he must tell them now or he would not be able to. Ever.
There was an oilskin-wrapped package in the pack. Sameth slid it out slowly, his fingers gone cold and clumsy. His eyes seemed to be strangely blurry, too, and Sabriel sounded as if she were talking from another room.
“I found these at the House—or rather, the sendings had set them out. I don’t know where they found them, or why they’ve got them out now. They are very, very old. So old that I have no record of who bore them first. I would have asked Mogget, but he still sleeps—”
“Except for when I caught that salmon last year,” interjected Touchstone crossly. Mogget, the Abhorsen’s cat-shaped familiar, was bound by Ranna, the Sleepbringer, first of the seven bells. He had woken only five or six times in nearly twenty years, on three of those occasions to steal and eat fish caught by Touchstone.
“Mogget would not wake,” continued Sabriel. “But as I have my own, these are clearly meant for the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. Congratulations, Sam.”
Sam nodded dumbly, the remaining package unopened in his lap. He didn’t need to look to know that wrapped inside the crinkled oilskin were the seven Charter-spelled bells of an Abhorsen.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” asked Ellimere.
“Later,” croaked Sam. He tried to smile but only made his mouth twitch. He knew Sabriel was looking at him, but he couldn’t meet her eyes.
“I’m glad the bells have come,” said Sabriel. “Most Abhorsens before me worked with their successors, sometimes for many years, as I hope we will work together. According to Mogget, my father trained with his aunt for nearly a decade. I have often wished I had had the same opportunity.”
She hesitated again and then said quickly, “To tell the truth, I will need your help, Sam.”
Sam nodded, unable to speak, as the words of his confession dried up in his mouth. He had the birthright, he had the book, he had the bells. Obviously, he just had to try harder to read the book, he told himself, trying to overcome the panic that twisted knots in his stomach. He would become the proper Abhorsen-in-Waiting everyone expected and needed. He had to.
“I’ll do my best,” he said, finally looking Sabriel in the eyes. She smiled, with a smile that made her whole face bright, and hugged him.
“I have to go to Ancelstierre, for I still know their ways much better than your father does,” she said. “And quite a few of my old school friends have become influential, or have married so. But I didn’t want to leave without knowing there was an Abhorsen here to protect the people from the Dead. Thank you, Sam.”
“But I’m not . . .” Sam cried out before he could stop himself. “I’m not ready. I haven’t finished the book, I mean, and—”
“I’m sure you know more than you think,” Sabriel said. “In any case, there should be little trouble now that spring is in full bloom. Every stream and river is flowing with snow-melt and spring rain. The days are getting longer. There never are any major threats from the Dead this late in spring, or through the summer. The most you’ll have to deal with is a rogue Hand or perhaps a Mordaut. I have every confidence you can manage that.”
“What about the missing Southerlings?” asked Ellimere, with a look that spoke volumes about her confidence in Sam. “Nine hundred Dead are a major threat.”
“They must have disappeared into the area around the Red Lake, or the Clayr would have Seen them,” said Sabriel. “So they should be confined there by the spring floods. I would go and deal with them first, but the greater danger lies with the many more Southerlings in Ancelstierre. We will have to trust in the flooded rivers, and in you, Sam.”
“But—” Sam began.
“Mind you, the necromancer or necromancers who oppose us are not to be trifled with,” continued Sabriel. “If they dare to confront you, you must fight them in Life. Do not fight one of them in Death again, Sam. You were brave to do so before, but also lucky. You must also be very careful with the bells. As you know, they can force you into Death, or trick you into it. Use them only when you are confident you have learned the lessons in the book. Do you promise?”
“Yes,” said Sam. Somehow or other he barely had breath for that single word. But there was relief in it, for he’d been given a reprieve of sorts. He could probably sort out most of the Lesser Dead with Charter Magic alone. His resolution to be a proper Abhorsen had not banished the fear that still lurked in his heart, and his fingers were cold where they touched the wrapped-up bells.
“Now,” said Touchstone, “I wonder if you have any insights into dealing with the Ancelstierrans, you two, from your schooling there. This Corolini, for instance, the leader of the Our Country Party. Could he be from the Old Kingdom himself, do you think?”
“After my time,” said Ellimere, who had been a whole year out of school and seemed to consider her Ancelstierran days as ancient history.
“I don’t know,” replied Sam. “He was in the newspapers a lot before I left, but they never mentioned where he came from. My friend Nicholas might know, and he would be able to help, I think. His uncle is the Chief Minister, Edward Sayre, you know. Nick is coming to visit me next month, but you should be able to catch him before he leaves.”
“He’s coming here?” asked Touchstone. “I’m surprised they’ll let him. I don’t think the Army has issued a permit in years, apart from that lot of refugees—and that was a political show. The Army didn’t have a choice.”
“Nick can be very persuasive,” said Sam, thinking of various scrapes Nick had talked him into at school—and less often, out of the blame afterwards. “I asked Ellimere to seal a visa for him, for our side.”
“I sent it ages ago,” said Ellimere, with a snide glance at Sam. “Some of us are efficient, you know.”
“Good,” said Touchstone. “It will be a useful connection, and important for one of Ancelstierre’s ruling families to see that we do not invent the stories they hear about the King-dom. I’ll also make sure the Barhedrin Guard Post provides an escort from the Wall. It wouldn’t help negotiations if we lose the Chief Minister’s nephew.”
“What are we negotiating with?” asked Ellimere. “I mean, down in Corvere they like to pretend we don’t even exist. I was always having to convince stuck-up city girls that I wasn’t making the Kingdom up.”
“Two things,” replied Sabriel. “Gold and fear. We have only a modest amount of gold, but it might be enough to tip the balance if it goes into the right pockets. And there are many Northerners who remember when Kerrigor cro
ssed the Wall. We shall try to convince them that this will happen again if they send the Southerling refugees north.”
“It couldn’t be Kerrigor, could it?” asked Sam. “I mean, whoever is behind all the trouble.”
“No,” said Sabriel and Touchstone together. They exchanged a look, obviously remembering the terrible past and what Kerrigor had tried to do, both here in the Old Kingdom and in Ancelstierre.
“No,” repeated Sabriel. “I looked in on Kerrigor when I visited the House. He sleeps still and forever under Ranna’s spell, locked in the deepest cellar, bound with every Mark of ward and guard your father and I have ever known. It is not Kerrigor.”
“Whoever, or whatever, it is, they shall be dealt with,” said Touchstone, his voice powerful and regal. “We four shall see to that. But for now, I suggest we all drink some mulled wine and talk of better things. How was the Midwinter Festival? Did I tell you that I danced the Bird of Dawning when I was your age, Sam? How did you do?”
“I forgot the cups,” said Sam, handing over the still-warm jug.
“We can drink from the jug,” said Sabriel, after a moment when no one chose to answer Touchstone’s question. She took the jug and expertly poured a stream of wine into her mouth. “Ah, that’s good. Now tell me, how was your birthday, Sam? A good day?”
Sam answered mechanically, hardly noticing Ellimere’s rather more pointed interjections. Clearly, his parents hadn’t spoken to Jall yet, or they would be asking different questions. He was relieved when they started questioning Ellimere, gently teasing her about her tennis and all the young men who were trying to learn this new sport. Obviously, gossip about his sister had traveled faster than news of Sam’s shortcomings. He was brought briefly back into the conversation when Ellimere accused him of refusing to make any more racquets, which was a shame because no one else could make them quite so well, but a quick promise to produce a dozen dropped him out again.