Shadow of the Serpent

by Shannah Jay

  She cringed and pulled away. 'I'm very good at my trade, sir. I am. But no one can cure everything. Only the Sisters could do that.'

  He cast a quick glance round as if afraid someone might be listening and slapped her face hard. 'Don't even mention those whores in my presence. Let's see you prove what you claim. And remember, I'll be watching you every minute. No tricks. Just use your herbs. Now, shut up and follow me.'

  They walked rapidly through the streets, drawing puzzled glances from those they met. After a while, the man looked sideways at Katia, 'My name's Dennil,' he said abruptly, 'merchant of this town. What's yours?'

  'Kerla,' Katia said. 'And my brother is - '

  'I don't want to know the idiot's name. Just keep him quiet, if you value your life.'

  'Yes, sir.' She pushed Erlic behind her. 'You be quiet, you hear me, boy? Just keep quiet.'

  Erlic nodded and continued to stumble along behind her, tripping now and then, as if he hadn’t full co-ordination of his limbs. His long lashes shaded his eyes from meeting those of passers-by and the lines of pain around his mouth weren’t faked. There was evil in this place, and it wasn’t only the merchant's grandson who was suffering.

  Dennil led them to a large domain near the outskirts of the town, escorted them past the gatekeeper and pointed to a bench outside the door of the main house. 'Wait there!' He thrust the door open and vanished inside, leaving Katia and Erlic to sit there, watched openly by the gatekeeper, who had a suspicious expression on his face.

  When Dennil reappeared, he was accompanied by a woman whose face was drawn by tiredness and whose crumpled clothing bore witness to a night without sleep. She looked at Katia scornfully. 'Surely you don't expect these wandering folk to succeed where our own herbwoman has failed?'

  Dennil shrugged. 'Since our grandson grows worse by the hour, what harm is there in trying? Come, Lellia, it can do no harm.'

  Katia applied a light Compulsion to the woman.

  'Oh, very well. I suppose we can try. You, herbwoman, come this way. But leave that idiot outside.' She turned to go inside.

  'If you please, honoured lady,' Katia dared to pluck at Lellia's sleeve, 'my brother helps me. His touch can sometimes soothe away pain.'

  Dennil stepped forward, 'Let him come in! If we leave him at the door, someone's bound to come along and torment him, and we don't want any noise to disturb our little Yeldo, do we?'

  Katia followed Dennil and his suspicious wife inside, and Erlic stumbled along behind them, clinging to his mother's skirts, his expression blank, yet somehow anxious, too.

  'You'd better wash your hands before you touch the child!' Lellia pointed to a basin on a stand outside the door of one of the bedchambers, then stood with her arms folded, waiting.

  Katia did as she was bidden, and indicated that Erlic should follow suit. She could feel the waves of pain washing out of the bedchamber, but the sick child was now too weak to scream his agony aloud. She didn’t wait to be asked, but walked inside the room, unaware that her face had taken on an expression of authority that sat ill with the character of a wandering herbwoman.

  Lellia noticed, however, noticed and stood for a moment in the doorway, gaping. Her heart began to pound with sudden hope. Was this - could it be – a Sister?

  As she moved towards the bed, a slender dark-haired woman raised a tear-stained face. 'He's worse. Oh, Father Dennil, nothing’s helped! Nothing!'

  Dennil's stern expression crumbled and he shoved Katia closer to the bed. 'See what you can do, woman!

  My son is newly dead and if we lose little Yeldo, too, it'll break all our hearts.'

  Katia drew the mother away and handed her over to Lellia, who put an arm round her daughter-in-law's shoulders. As Katia sat down on the edge of the bed, she laid one hand on the child's forehead. Yeldo sighed and relaxed visibly.

  Dennil started forward. It was obvious that Yeldo was sighing because the pain had eased. As Katia looked up, suspicion began to grow in the grandfather's eyes. 'Have I your permission to help him, Dennil the Merchant?' she asked softly. 'Or shall we let him die?'

  Lellia gasped, then exchanged glances with her daughter-in-law, before stepping forward to take her husband's arm. 'You can't let Yeldo die,' she pleaded huskily. 'Dennil, you can't! He's all we have left of our son.'

  'She's a Sister,' Dennil said hoarsely. 'She must be. Only a Sister could do that. I should kill her on the spot.

  They probably brought her into town as a trick to test my loyalty.'

  The child's mother pushed forward. 'If you kill her, Father Dennil, I shall kill myself, too. And that’ll destroy your other grandchild. Serrion might be dead, but his seed lives on within me.'

  Lellia put her arm around her. 'Jenna. You didn't tell us.'

  'I wasn't sure at first.'

  'Another child,' breathed Lellia. 'Oh, Dennil, you can't stop this!'

  While Dennil stood hesitating, Katia laid her hands again on little Yeldo. The pain was coming from his belly. It was - she sucked in her breath in shock. 'He's been poisoned!' She stared up at the grandfather. 'Who outside the house has given him food?'

  Lellia's face turned white and she looked at Dennil in terror. 'Shammaz.' Even as she breathed the name, she glanced over her shoulder nervously.

  Without waiting for permission, Katia laid her hand on the child's distended belly and Erlic laid his hands across hers, augmenting her powers. 'Brother, look down!' she murmured. 'Help this child. Poison pass and fade away.'

  'Poison pass and fade away,' Erlic's voice was a silver echo to that of his mother. 'Poison pass and fade away.'

  Together they felt that surge of strange pulsing energy that always accompanied a healing, felt, too, their own bodily energy being depleted. For several moments, they kept their hands in place while the child whimpered and turned, and finally sighed into true sleep, the pain completely gone from his face. Then they let go and turned to face the three people who now held the power of life or death over them.

  'Your son will live,' Katia informed Jenna. 'But keep a careful watch over him. Whoever has given him poison might try again, and Yeldo might not be as lucky a second time.'

  'I can't believe it,' said Dennil, his voice cracking with anguish. 'My brother Shammaz wouldn't - surely even he wouldn't harm one of his own family?'

  'Yeldo is the only one standing between him and a large inheritance now,' Lellia pointed out. She put one hand to her mouth, as if afraid to let her next words out, then removed her hand and put it on her husband's arm as she whispered, 'Who knows how our son perished, even? He was a skilled fighter. How could Serrion die in a minor skirmish with raiders? No one else was killed or even injured.'

  Dennil turned to set his hands on her shoulders and stare her in the eyes. 'You said nothing of that when they brought him back, or when we buried him.'

  'With an Initiate of the Inner Shrine standing there beside me? Jenna and I know better than to utter our feeble women's thoughts in the presence of men.' Scorn throbbed in Lellia's voice.

  Dennil looked at her, stark pain in his eyes, then looked at his grandson and shuddered. 'I bear no love for my brother Shammaz, but I’d never have thought him capable of that. You can’t be sure of it, Lellia.'

  She gave a snort of bitter amusement. 'I can believe it of him. Easily. Shammaz has grown strange lately.

  Evil hangs around him like an aura. Those initiates are - '

  'Watch what you're saying, woman!'

  'Why? Shall you give me to them to kill in the Inner Shrine for speaking my thoughts, you who can't even manage to make sacrifice on the side altars? Shammaz has only saved me from public sacrifice in order to keep a hold over you, and look where placating him has led! I can’t keep silent when my last link with my only son is threatened - and nor should you.' She bowed her head and they all saw the tears falling fast down her cheeks. When she raised her head again, the tears were still there, but anger was throbbing underneath her words, 'I will not endure any more of this insanity, De
nnil. I will not!'

  His face was ravaged by conflicting emotions as he looked first at Katia and then back at his wife. 'Shall you rush to your death, foolish woman?'

  'Shall you condone the murder of your own grandson?' she countered. 'And shall you kill the woman who’s saved him?'

  'I've not said I'll give her up!'

  'See that you don't, Dennil, or I shall follow her and Jenna to their deaths.' Lellia folded her arms, and every line of her body showed determination. 'This has been the last weight on the scales for me. I can’t even pretend to follow the Serpent any longer and if you want me to believe that you can, you shouldn’t talk in your sleep.'

  'Shh!' His face turned white. 'How, then, shall we explain this recovery? If Shammaz did give the lad poison, he'll know that nothing but a Sister's help could have saved him.'

  The mother stepped forward. 'I could say that Yeldo vomited as soon as he came home from his outing with his uncle. That might explain it.'

  'And these?' Dennil indicated Katia and Erlic. 'How do we explain them? Shammaz is no fool. He'll already know that I brought some wandering folk home with me. The Servants of the Shrine saw me do it.'

  Katia put her hand on the child's brow to check his progress. Yeldo's temperature was normal and all he would suffer now would be a few days of weakness. She raised her eyes again in time to see Lellia place her hands on her hips and stare challengingly at her husband.

  'Well, you’ll have to start the rebellion sooner than you planned, then,' Lellia declared. 'That's our only chance now.'

  Katia sat motionless, watching. This was a crucial moment, a turning point. Could a whole town shake itself free of the influence of the Serpent? And if they did, could she and her companions help them in some way?

  There was complete silence in the room for several long slow minutes. Each face became closed, reflecting nothing of the thoughts that were surely churning within.

  At last Jenna took a deep breath and moved forward, breaking the silence. 'Thank you for healing my son, Sister,' she said, as if she hadn’t heard what Lellia said. 'If I can help you and your poor brother in any way, you have only to say.'

  Katia laid one hand briefly on the other woman's brow and frowned. 'Before you try to help anyone, I think you should lie down and rest, for the sake of the child you carry. Such anxiety isn’t good for either mother or child. Lie here on the bed next to Yeldo. He'll be glad to find his mother beside him when he wakes up.' She strengthened the tone of her voice to a mild Compulsion, 'Lie down, Jenna. Here on the bed.

  Go to sleep for a while. Sleep now.' She saw Lellia watching and was grateful when the older woman didn’t interrupt.

  Jenna did as she was told and as she sighed into sleep, her face lost its lines of pain and showed her to be a pretty woman, even with her eyes swollen and reddened by weeping.

  Katia rested her hands on Jenna's belly and quietened the child within it, which was suffering distress. 'She must rest if she’s not to lose this baby.'

  Lellia came forward to place one hand on Katia's arm. 'Thank you, Sister. For everything. You've put your life at risk to come here.'

  'I couldn't ignore a child's pain.' Katia clasped Lellia's hand. 'Call me Kerla. No need to risk all our lives by using the word Sister.'

  'You deserve that respect.'

  'Times have changed. For Sisters as well.'

  Dennil pulled himself together. 'We must pretend you're still working on the lad. I need some time before I can get things moving. Can you keep him asleep for a while?'

  'Of course.'

  Lellia straightened her shoulders. In better times, she would have been a formidable matriarch of her family domain. In this Age of Discord, she sought only to survive by remaining unnoticed, by keeping herself and her family out of the hands of Those of the Serpent. 'Stay here with Yeldo, then, herbwoman. Don't open the door of this chamber to anyone but me. I'll go and tell the household that the child is barely holding his own.' She paused to stare at them. 'You both look hungry. I'll bring you back some food, shall I? Can your brother here understand plain words?'

  Erlic spoke for himself. 'I can understand you, lady. I'm no idiot. And we are hungry, very hungry indeed.'

  Since they’d been transformed overnight from babies to young adults, he, Alaran and Lerina seemed always to have been permanently ravenous.

  'Keep the servants out of here,' Dennil warned his wife.

  'Do you think I'm a fool? Do what’s necessary to set things in motion and tell me how I can help.'

  'You can help best by acting normally, Lellia. Leave it to me to spread the word and summon the others.'

  'And if Shammaz should come here?'

  'Keep him out of the sick room. Pretend the boy is sleeping. Any excuse. And above all, keep him away from Kerla here.' He jerked his head towards Katia. 'Shammaz would know her for a Sister immediately he saw her.'

  'What if he insists on coming inside to see Yeldo?'

  'Then Jenna must throw hysterics and lock the door in his face.'

  'He'll haul her into the Inner Shrine for that.'

  'No. He won't have the chance. Not if you can manage to delay him for a few hours. 'If I fail,' Dennil's voice faltered for a moment, then strengthened and his face took on a very determined look. 'I'll kill the two of you myself before I'll allow you to be taken into that Inner Shrine. You're right, Lellia. As usual. You have more sense in your head than anyone else I know. No wonder you were named Elder at your Choosing.'

  'What use to be named Elder, when Those of the Serpent permit only men on the Council of Elders?' she asked bitterly. 'And even that's a pretence, for they allow only their own measures to be decided upon.'

  'Maybe we can change that, too, after we've done something about Those of the Serpent.' He put his arm round his wife and brought her close to him in a quick hug. 'Though whether we'll succeed in driving them out of our town, I know not.'

  'We can try.' Her answering hug lasted longer that her hugs usually did, and her eyes were bright with tears as he left the room.

  When Dennil had gone, Katia detained Lellia for a moment to ask, 'Could you tell me where we are?'

  'In Jeddiak.'

  'Of what claim?'

  Lellia gaped at her. 'Why, Dyandra, of course. The High Reaches, near the border with Montandra. How can you not know that?'

  'We were snatched - er - against our will. They brought us a long way, but we didn't know where we were when they left us.'

  'Couldn't you have - stopped them - escaped?'

  'If I’d betrayed that I was a Sister, the raiders would have made very sure we didn't escape. They know how eager the Initiates of the Inner Shrine are to get their hands on Sisters. They’d have been well paid for such as me.'

  'Those raiders have a lot to answer for. Strange. I hadn't heard of any raids nearby.'

  Katia steeled herself to continue lying. 'Well, we've been travelling and living off forest fare for many days now. They could be far away from here by now.'

  'And they took all your herbs and your travel packs?'

  'We were left with nothing.'

  Lellia's face betrayed only warm sympathy. She was too distracted by the danger her husband was in to probe further into Katia's halting explanations. ' I'd better get that food for you - and some clean clothes, too.

  I've got some things that'll fit you, though they'll be a bit short, with you being so tall. Stay here and don't open the door to anyone but me. We must just hope that Shammaz stays away today.'

  * * *

  Quinna prowled outside the town in the shelter of the woodland. When a voice spoke behind her, she swung round, drawing her sword in one swift movement.

  The man was elderly and had his arms spread wide to indicate that he’d no intention of attacking her. 'I said, I don't recognise that gear you're wearing,' he repeated, 'and I thought I'd met every sort of fighter that was ever bred. You're not of the Hashite Guild, not unless they've got a new rank of women fighters.'

&n
bsp; Quinna's eyes brightened, and she made a quick sign with one hand that Benjan had taught her. 'I'm not of the Guild, but I have a good friend who is. He taught me what to do if I met another Guild member.'

  'What's his rank?'

  'Third. Bodyguard mainly. Good swordsman, though he doesn't like starting fights.'

  'His name?'

  'You wouldn't recognise it. He's from Tenebrak.'

  'Hmm. Hard to check him out, then. Still, tell me his name.'

  Quinna considered this, but could see no harm in it. 'He's called Benjan. He's a big fellow. Even taller than me.' Her face clouded. 'We lost track of each other a while back. You know how it is sometimes. I still miss him.' There was no mistaking the sincerity in her voice. Even though she’d only been away from Benjan for a day or so, it seemed much longer to her.

  The old man moved forward. 'He'll have taught you another phrase, then, if he taught you our strangers'

  greeting.'

  Quinna drew herself up. 'Yes. But I'm not shouting it out for all to hear.'

  'Whisper it in my ear, then.'

  She leaned forward to mouth the phrase and felt his body relax as she spoke it. The body jerked into attention again, however, as there was a rustling in the undergrowth and before Quinna had time to move away, there was a knife at her throat.

  'I'm very good with knives,' he said. 'I may be old, but I'm still good enough to slit your throat before you can get out of reach. Tell your friends to show themselves.'

  'It's not friends - ' Quinna's breath whistled in her throat as the knife edge nicked her skin. 'It's an animal!'

  'What sort of animal makes that much noise?' The pressure of steel on her skin eased slightly, but only slightly. 'It's a long time since there have been any lenrils round here.'

  'It's not a lenril. It's a cliff cat.'

  'Oh, yes? And what might that be?' The pressure on the knife increased again.

  'It's a huge cat that comes from the high mountains. We found this one as a kit and cared for it, so it stayed with us.'

  'Call it out of the bushes, then, for me to see. If it tries to jump me, you're dead.'