“Look who it is!” she said when they came in. “My beloved sister and the queen’s flunkey. I presume this isn’t a social call?”
“No, Nym. I have come to ask you to stop,” Lin said.
“You have wasted your time then. Why in the Longest World would I stop now, just as I’m about to win?”
“Because you know where this ends. You saw what happened to our parents and the same thing will happen to you. The Magical Enforcers will eventually defeat you, then you will spend the rest of your life in prison.”
“Not necessarily,” Nym replied. “And even if I do, at least I’ll have used my powers, not hidden them away like a dirty secret as you do, peddling tricks for pennies.”
“I use my powers to help people,” Lin replied. “Which is how they should be used.”
Nym snorted. “You are living a half-life and you know it. Never really owning up to who you are. Our family were the greatest magicians in the Longest World and you have that skill and ignore it. Is that not a worse crime?”
“I don’t think so,” Lin replied. “You won’t stop then?”
“No. If you want to stop me, you’ll have to fight me.”
“Very well,” Lin replied.
Cass stood back with some apprehension. She had only seen magicians fight in a small way before and was uncertain what to expect. She watched, astonished, as Nym and Lin disappeared, only to be replaced seconds later by black amorphous shapes resembling thick smoke that could transform themselves into different forms. The shapes began as two bulky broad men, like the huge Suma wrestlers from the Farthest Lands. These shadow-wrestlers threw each other violently around the tent but neither appeared to gain the upper hand.
Then one of the shadows tired of that form, turning itself into a long thin tube that hurtled round the neck of the remaining wrestler. The wrestler immediately narrowed into the same form, twisting round the first one, as if it were strangling it. The tubes abruptly dropped down to the ground, changing again into tigers and fighting furiously.
Cass had never seen anything like it and watched with grim fascination as the shapes transformed once more into large orbs that careered into each other. This time though, she could see slowly but surely that one shape was getting the better of the other. But who is it? Cass wondered, praying it was Lin.
The shadows changed again, this time into huge snakes that reared up at each other like giant cobras. Then one pounced on the other, encircling and subsuming it. After a few seconds there was a shout of victory and the shadows were replaced with the figures of the two sisters – Lin was lying motionless on the floor with Nym standing over her.
Cass gasped and ran over to Lin.
“Leave her!” Nym shouted but Cass ignored her. Lin was pale as paper and her breathing was quick and shallow. Alive but only just, Cass thought.
“Leave her!” Nym repeated, grabbing Cass and pulling her to her feet. “Now, I’ve always wanted to see those famous circus skills of yours.”
Nym undid a silk scarf from around her neck and it floated up into the air. Before Cass had time to react, the square of material hurtled itself at her, wrapping tightly around her face. Cass pulled it off but immediately it sprung back on, like a magnet to metal.
Before she could pull the scarf off again, ropes whipped around her, binding her feet and wrists.
“That’s better,” Nym said.
Just then there was a tentative voice from the entrance to the tent. “Your Excellency…” it began.
“Don’t come in!” Nym ordered. “Just tell me what it is.”
“The queen wishes to see you,” the voice replied.
Nym looked annoyed. “Very well, tell her I’ll be along in a moment.” She turned to Cass. “Right, let’s put you where you can’t cause any trouble.” With a slight movement of her finger, Nym flipped Cass upside down and hoisted her to the top of the tent so that she was suspended from the roof by a rope. Her sword slid out of its scabbard and clattered down to the floor.
“Oh, good, I wouldn’t want you able to use that,” she said. Nym looked over at Lin. She clicked her fingers and Lin was encased in a glass coffin.
“All safe and sound,” Nym said with a smirk. “I won’t be long,” she added to Cass as she left the tent.
“No one is to enter under any circumstances,” Cass heard her order the guards.
Being upside down for any length of time is extremely unpleasant as Cass quickly found out. The blood began beating violently in her head and with the scarf pinned to her face, she felt unbearably hot and claustrophobic. My dagger, Cass thought. I have to get to my dagger. It was tucked into the waistband of her trousers and Cass could just reach the very top of its handle if she really strained against the ropes.
“Come on,” she said to herself as her fingers tried to grasp the top of the dagger and draw it ever so slowly and carefully out of its scabbard.
Don’t rush! she warned herself, knowing that one hasty move would mean that it too would fall to the ground. Slowly she inched out the dagger until she had exposed enough to press against a section of rope. She began to gently saw through it.
Yes! she thought triumphantly a few minutes later when the rope came loose and she could free her hands. She pulled the scarf off her face and then, when it was determined to return, she managed to get it to stick to her stomach where it didn’t bother her.
She allowed herself a small sigh of relief; she could breathe, she could see and she had her dagger. But she was still upside down, a couple of metres off the ground.
And that was where her circus training came in. Using all her strength Cass pulled herself up and grabbed the rope above her feet. With one hand holding on higher up, she then sawed through the rope, freeing her feet. Then with two hands back on the rope, she swung it so that she was over Nym’s bed and let herself drop, landing as neatly as a cat on the mattress.
She ran over to Lin. How was she going to get her out of the coffin? And if she did manage it, how was she going to carry her past the guards? Oh, what to do? Cass wondered desperately. Perhaps she should go on her own now and fetch help…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a tut of irritation. Cass spun round to see Nym standing behind her.
“I see you are going to prove troublesome,” she said, transforming herself into a huge mountain lion that roared and sprang at Cass.
Cass leaped to one side and dive-rolled over to her sword. She turned to face the lion, who was roaring furiously at her and pacing up and down, choosing its best means of attack.
Remember you are fighting Nym, Cass told herself, who knows little of tactics. So she launched herself at the lion, and with relative ease fenced it into a corner. It stood there, staring at her with its amber eyes.
I should kill her now, Cass thought. It would mean that she wouldn’t have a trial but it would be just. She has ordered the killing of many people, including Dacha, and her death would prevent a good deal more suffering. Swallowing hard, Cass prepared to do the deed. She pulled back and was about to lunge when in a second the lion disappeared and there was Lion, the boy she had rescued from the pirate ship and loved like a little brother, standing before her.
“Please don’t hurt me, Cass,” he cried, cowering from her. Cass knew it was a trick but she still couldn’t quite bring herself to harm him. She hesitated and the figure changed back into Nym.
“Oh, Cass, please don’t hurt me,” she mocked.
Enough, thought Cass furiously. She lunged at Nym with her sword but the magician disappeared again only to be replaced by the blue bird who shot up into the air. But Cass did just manage to clip her wing with the blade of her sword. The bird squawked and flew on to one of the guy ropes that spanned the tent. There was a moment’s silence as both regarded each other. Then Cass heard a movement behind her and felt the point of a sword in her back.
“Cass, prepare to die.”
Cass spun around to see Idaliz facing her.
“What?!” Cass splutter
ed, looking at her familiar face. She could see that her eyes were clouded and her face was heavy with magic.
“You’ve bewitched her!” she shouted at the bird, who squawked back and then flew down to a chair, reappearing as Nym. The witch was pale and clutching her arm, which was bleeding furiously. I must have hit an artery, Cass thought, feeling a twinge of pleasure.
But despite the pain Nym must have been in, she managed to smirk victoriously. “I know and she’s going to kill you for me. My guards found her trying to cross the border. Enough chat. Idaliz, please finish her off!”
“Prepare to die, Cass,” Idaliz repeated like an automaton.
It was without doubt the hardest fight Cass had ever fought. Idaliz knew Cass’s fighting style so well – her strengths, her weaknesses – and she could fully exploit them. Cass found it almost impossible to attack her with any conviction. Idaliz was her friend, and bewitched by Nym or not she remained that. Cass couldn’t resist the feeling that she would rather die herself than hurt her. So she put up a poor fight and Idaliz soon had her in a bind that she couldn’t escape from.
“Do you wish me to kill her?” Idaliz asked Nym in a strange dead voice.
Cass looked at Nym. She was sitting slumped in a chair, deathly pale, with her clothes soaked in blood. But she managed to say, “Yes, finish her off!”
Cass shut her eyes, preparing to die. She pictured Dacha and her parents. Perhaps I will be reunited with them, Cass thought, and it made her feel better as she braced herself for the pain of death.
But death didn’t come. Nothing happened. Cass opened an eye tentatively and saw Idaliz gazing at her with a look of blank horror on her face. “Where am I? What am I doing, Cass?” she said in her own voice. She dropped her sword to her side. “I’m so sorry,” she stuttered.
“It’s not your fault,” Cass said as she looked over at Nym. She was unconscious in the chair.
Then she heard a faint knocking. Lin had woken up and she gave Cass a weak smile. Cass and Idaliz rushed over, lifted off the heavy glass lid and helped her out.
“Are you all right?” Cass asked anxiously.
Lin was pale and shaken but nodded firmly, saying, “Fine.” She looked over to Nym. “Her power has faltered.”
“Will she die?” Cass asked.
Lin walked over to look at her, but then quite suddenly Nym disappeared. “Oh no!” Lin cried.
“What has happened?” Idaliz said, bewildered. “Where has she gone?”
“She has transformed herself into something minuscule, too small for us to see, so that she can hide away while she recovers from her wound.”
Cass could have wept with frustration. Seeing her face, Idaliz said, “Come, Cass, there was nothing else you could have done.”
“I could have killed her before,” she said, furious with herself.
Idaliz shrugged. “There’s no point thinking such things, Cass. Instead we should focus on getting out of here.”
“Are you strong enough to walk? And to disguise us?” Cass asked Lin. “Idaliz and I can probably fight our way out,” she added.
Lin crossed over to a table where there were various bottles and poured herself a glass of Rimple’s that she drank down. It brought some colour to her cheeks. “No, I should be fine,” she said. “Let’s try.”
The camp was quiet and Lin’s magic held. And the atmosphere in the camp had altered; a strong wind was blowing and the air felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from it. Cass dared to feel slightly optimistic.
“Will you go to the palace and tell Lycus?” Lin asked when they were back in the city. She looked exhausted.
“Yes, of course, you go and rest,” Cass and Idaliz reassured her and she left them to return to the Square of Seas.
“So what happened to you after Enzit? Can you remember?” Cass asked.
“I was captured at the border,” Idaliz replied. “And would have been hung, if Nym had not realized who I was and intervened. I suppose I have to thank her for that. That’s more or less the last thing I can recall. She must have kept me enchanted for the whole time. And what about you?”
Cass told her briefly about their journey down to the border, Dacha’s death and then her parachute jump into Minaris.
“Oh, Cass, I’m sorry about Dacha,” Idaliz said.
“Thank you,” Cass replied, with that same feeling of numbness as before. “I … I … I don’t seem to be able to cry about it. I mean, I could at first but now I just feel … not nothing, but…” Cass petered out, unable to express herself.
“Sometimes that happens when you’ve had a terrible shock,” Idaliz said and she squeezed Cass’s hand. “Don’t be hard on yourself. Your mind will settle in time.”
King Lycus was talking to Princess Taryn, who had arrived an hour before from Metrete with a handful of men. “Idaliz! I’m so pleased to see that you are alive and well,” he greeted her.
“Only just,” she replied. “And largely thanks to Cass. I’m sorry to interrupt, sire, but we wanted to tell you that the witch Nym has fled.”
“Fled?” Lycus replied, looking amazed.
“Yes,” Cass confirmed. “I fought and injured her, and she has retreated.”
“But that’s the most amazing news!” Taryn cried.
“It is indeed good news, but Vegna may still remain set on a battle,” Lycus replied.
“But if she has no magic at her disposal, you can resist her until the Bundish army arrives,” Taryn said. “They will be here in three or four days.”
Lycus nodded and allowed himself a small smile. “Yes, possibly. Anyway, it is a matter for celebration. Let us all have a glass of winter wine.”
They met at the same point on the plains as before, but this time Vegna’s troops were arranged like toy soldiers behind her. She was on horseback flanked by her captains but Nym’s absence was notable and Cass could see that Vegna, although she tried to disguise it, looked nervous. Her army looked ill shod and ill fed, and many of them were little more than children. There was also a slight air of rebellion coming off some of them now that they weren’t enchanted.
Taryn had ridden out with Lycus, and Cass could see that her presence caused a strong ripple of emotion through the troops. And on Vegna, too; a wave of anger passed across the queen’s pinched face. She greeted her with a curt nod.
“I hear you have lost your witch, Vegna,” Lycus said. “What a blow for you.”
Vegna gave a nonchalant shrug. “She was just one of my weapons. What is your decision, Lycus? Do you wish to surrender?”
“Aunt, can we not stop this?” Taryn said, nudging her horse forwards so she appeared to address not only the queen but also the crowds behind her. “I have spoken to King Lycus and to King Hoff. Everyone is agreed that Veraklia was punished much too harshly after the Magical Wars and they are happy to help us. They will send food supplies, and in the long term help us to mine more gold and give us fairer trading contracts. And Hoff is prepared to discuss a possible solution for Metrete.”
“Oh, how very kind of them!” Vegna sneered. “I don’t need their charity, Taryn. I have made Veraklia great again and I will make it even greater!”
“The Bundish army will be here in a few days,” Taryn replied, again addressing not only Vegna but the troops behind her. “They will take back Minaris and kill much of the Veraklian army in the process. That is not what my father would have wanted,” she continued. “And it is not what I want. I will be of age in a few weeks’ time and the throne is rightfully mine.”
“You’re not in charge yet. You have shown yourself to be weak and disloyal, consorting with Veraklia’s enemies.” Vegna turned her gaze from Taryn as if dismissing her, saying, “So, Lycus, you do not wish to surrender?”
“No,” Lycus replied.
“Very well then,” Vegna replied. “We will take Minaris.”
“If that’s what you want. The matter is settled,” Lycus replied and he began to turn his horse round when something happened.
>
It started with a murmur and shifting of feet in the Veraklian army. Then a single voice shouted, “Taryn!” Another few joined in, then more, and in a matter of minutes the whole army was chanting, “Taryn! Taryn! Taryn!”
Taryn’s face lit up. She smiled and raised her hand in salute to them. Vegna looked furious as her captains tried to keep order. But it was no good, she had lost them and she knew it.
Lycus, careful not to further damage her pride, offered his hand, and without a trace of victory said, “Come, Vegna, and let us discuss matters.”
She paused for a moment, weighing up her options, then gave him a curt nod and together with Arden and Taryn they rode through the army to her tent.
Cass wasn’t involved in the talks that followed. But she learned afterwards that it was agreed that Taryn would become queen, with Sir Drex helping her until she came of age, while Vegna relinquished all power. She would spend the rest of her days with the Mountain Sisters. Substantial aid was to be given by Lycus and King Hoff to the Veraklian people to get them back on their feet, and the most skilled geologists were to be sent to search for new seams of gold in the mountains. Trade agreements were drawn up while the Veraklians dismantled their camp, and a few days later they were gone, with Taryn leading them home. In Minaris, messenger birds were sent to the Islands telling the Minarians that they could return to their city.
“I must be getting to the Farthest Lands,” Idaliz announced to Cass a few days later. She was holding a folded letter in her hands. “China, who heads up the Company at the moment, has written to me saying that the Magical Uprising is as strong as ever, so I’ll join the rest of the group there.”
They were sitting on the same bench in the Quay of Disbelievers that Cass had sat on with Lin previously, drinking glasses of flower beer. The harbour was still fairly empty but a few boats had begun to arrive back from the Islands. “I must start looking for a passage. Will you come with me?” she asked Cass.
The Conspiracy of Magic Page 15