Shadow of the Serpent

by Shannah Jay

  'Mine is Mak.'

  Her smile was warm. 'We shall have no trouble remembering such a short name.'

  And so Mak was rescued. But danger still tracked him from the sky, and danger still pursued the Sisters and their young charges through the forests.

  * * *

  Many days later, as the unwieldy column of Sisters and children was making its way slowly northwards, black-clad men erupted from the wildwoods.

  'Surrender, or we'll kill the children.'

  There was nothing the Sisters could do but surrender. They weren’t trained to fight, except in self-defence, and besides, there were only four of them against thirty or more men wielding swords and clubs, men with violence and blood-lust flickering in their eyes.

  'Hazro the Verderer was right,' the leader observed, as he watched the children being rounded up into a sobbing group. At a nod from him, they were slapped into silence and stood there shivering with a terror they’d never known under the Sisters' gentle care. The four Sisters were bound and thrown on the ground before him, and one of the men kicked them as they fell, laughing to see the shock and pain on their faces.

  'It is indeed a group of those she-devils,' the leader said, making no comment on his men's brutal behaviour. His eyes gleamed with triumph and his fingers were tapping a whip handle against his thigh, as if his hand was itching to use it. 'The only question is, shall we kill them now, to be sure of wiping out this nest of perverts, or shall we take them back with us and sacrifice them more slowly in the shrine, to lend power to the Serpent?'

  None of his men was foolish enough to answer that. You didn’t tell an Initiate of the Inner Shrine what to do.

  'Light the incense! I must pray for guidance,' he said at last. When the yellow and orange smoke was rising around them, he pressed his hands together and began to move them up and down in a writhing motion, praying aloud. 'Serpent, guide me now. Serpent, guide your Servant. Serpent, guide me now.' On and on he chanted and the men swayed with him, muttering the same prayer under their breaths.

  When his prayers had died away, his hands continued to writhe as if they had taken on a life of their own and the men stood swaying around him, their eyes glassy, their faces slack.

  The Sisters, bound and helpless, could only summon up the strength to combat the evil miasma that seemed to clutch at them as the drugged smoke wafted around the clearing. At one point, the youngest Sister sobbed aloud and Jandahal murmured a gentle encouragement to her.

  Even Mak, hiding in the undergrowth with Aderon, had trouble resisting the cloying smell that clouded his brain. He and the boy clutched one another in an effort to hold on to their self-control and sanity. He was thankful the boy was so sharp-witted. The two of them had been relieving themselves behind some bushes when the attack occurred and the boy had dragged him backwards to lie underneath a particularly dense bush, instead of going to the Sisters' help. When Mak tried to pull away, the lad clapped one hand over his mouth and whispered in his ear, 'No! We can help them better if we're free.' Because this made sense, Mak lay still and motionless even when the cloying incense drifted around them.

  The leader of the attackers stopped praying and the men waited in absolute silence for his pronouncement.

  'The shrine!' His voice was harsh and his eyes were already weighing up the Sisters. 'The blood of these evil hags will enhance the power of our shrine. But watch them carefully as we traverse the forests, for who knows what tricks the witches will try to play on us. If they escape, you shall pay for it with your own lives.'

  His smile was viciousness incarnate, as he raised his hands to encompass them all. 'When we get back, we shall make a Great Sacrifice in our village. All the women we can find. Every girl of nubile age. All your wives, your daughters, your mothers, too. You shall all gain great pleasure from serving your Lord the Serpent. And their leader,' he pointed to Jandahal, 'shall be the first to shed her blood in the Inner Shrine. That one shall die very slowly indeed.'

  'What about the children, honoured sir?' one of the men ventured. 'Do we kill them now?'

  'Bring them along. They can be set to work on the farms. If any fall behind, kick them to one side. The forest will soon deal with them.'

  As the women were prodded to their feet, Jandahal managed to sweep a quick glance over the captives.

  She gave no indication that she’d noticed Mak and Aderon's absence. She gave no indication of any feelings as she was prodded along like a milk nerid. Nor did her Sisters. The only concern they showed was for the group of terrified children stumbling along under the prodding of the whip, too afraid even to cry out when they fell.

  CHAPTER 4 BLOOD MUST FLOW

  Mak and Aderon lay still until the last sounds of stumbling footsteps had faded into the distance, and even then, Aderon shook his head as Mak started to move. His caution was justified shortly afterwards when a man crept into the trampled space between the great trees and stood there, studying the ground.

  When the man had left, as noiselessly as he’d appeared, Aderon waited a little longer, then nodded and began to wriggle backwards through the thick dark fronds. 'That's a trick they often play,' he whispered,

  'letting someone trail behind the main group.' As he led Mak away through the wildwoods, he frowned at the noise Mak made. 'Can’t you walk more quietly, stranger?'

  Mak stopped and looked down at his feet. He had never felt so useless in his life, and the memory of the Sisters and children being driven away like herd beasts galled him unbearably. 'I don't know how to walk quietly. I've never been in the wildwoods before.'

  'Never?' Aderon goggled at him.

  'No.'

  'Where have you lived, then?'

  'Far away across the sky.'

  The boy's expression showed nothing but incomprehension. 'Beyond the mountains, you mean?'

  'Something like that. Aderon, what can we do to help the Sisters? We can't leave them to die.'

  Aderon's thin shoulders sagged. He looked to Mak to be about ten years old and fear twitched in every muscle of his face. 'I don't know what to do. But it won't help them for us to be captured, too. Perhaps we can find someone to help us save them.' But he didn't sound hopeful, just bewildered. He was a strange boy.

  He had exquisite manners and seemed well-informed. Mak wondered how he’d come into the Sisters' charge, but now was not the time to ask that. Now was a time for action. If they could only think of something to do.

  'There's no one near here to help. We're deep in the wildwoods.' Mak stood thinking for a moment. 'Look, those men talked of going back to their village. Let's follow them there.' He saw the fear on the boy's narrow tanned face turn to terror and added quietly, 'We can keep well back. I'm sorry I make so much noise. I'll try to be quieter, and you must show me what I'm doing wrong as we walk.'

  As they moved through the forest, he thought over what he’d seen and heard. Not all the men in the group which had captured the Sisters had looked happy at the picture their leader had painted of the Great Sacrifice.

  Perhaps something could be made of that, some seed of rebellion sown?

  But even if the Sisters escaped, they couldn’t hope to flee through the wildwoods hampered by so many young children. Already Mak knew better than to think they might be persuaded to leave the children they loved behind and save themselves.

  'Brother, if you really exist, look down and help us now!' he found himself murmuring, then shortened his plea to the ritual phrase, 'Brother look down!' And the boy echoed his words in his high girlish voice. After all, only a miracle could save them now.

  * * *

  Two days later Mak and Aderon stood behind some huge trees and watched the Sisters and the bewildered, exhausted children being driven into a village by the side of a small lake. Some of the older children were carrying the little ones. Even without the Sisters to tell them what to do, they’d made sure no one fell behind. Being alone here would be even more dangerous to a small child than being brought as a prisoner to a serpent-he
ld village. There were no large predators on Sunrise, but there were occasional poisonous plants and creepers with vicious thorns out in the wildwoods, which the farmers eliminated when they settled new land.

  As they grew older, children in the newly-settled areas were taught what to watch out for, but the little children wouldn’t know yet, any more than Mak had at first. He’d found to his cost which plants were dangerous, as the scratches on his body, the rash up one arm and his torn clothing showed.

  Aderon wouldn't permit Mak to go any closer to the village. 'You'll get caught.'

  'You have got caught,' said a voice behind them. 'What are you two doing spying on our village?'

  Mak turned round to see a grizzled man staring at them, a man with well-developed muscles and hands dirtied and callused from working in the earth. There was no sense of evil from him, as there had been from the group which had captured the Sisters. He looked what he probably was, a farmer.

  Mak stared back at him for a minute, then decided on honesty. 'We've been following our friends.' He pointed. 'Some of your friends took them prisoner in the wildwoods.'

  The man spat on the ground. 'No friends of mine, that lot.' He too studied the exhausted prisoners, now being herded into an enclosure just outside the village. 'Who are they? We've been warned to keep away from them, threatened with death if we even try to speak to them. Those women are Sisters, aren't they, for all they're wearing forest leathers? Nandaz says they're dangerous, but how can they be? Sisters never harm people. And as for the others, well, they're just children, and small children at that.'

  'Yes, the women are Sisters,' Mak agreed. 'They had to flee from the crèche in Dyandrak, together with the children they were caring for, but now they've been caught by this man you call Nandaz. He's intending to torture and kill them.'

  The man stiffened. 'You're sure about that?'

  'Of course I'm sure. We listened to them planning it.' Mak had to swallow hard before he could add. 'They said they would kill the healer first, make her die slowly in the Inner Shrine. Then they would hold a Great Sacrifice of all the girls and women in the village.'

  There was silence, then the man sighed. 'So, it's come. I hoped I’d never have to shed blood again, but I can't stand by and watch those cursed snake-lovers take innocent lives. Follow me.' He didn’t wait to see whether the two strangers did follow, but set off briskly, walking along the edge of his field in the shelter of a hedge.

  Mak set off after him without hesitation because it felt safe. As he walked he wondered at how he was trusting his feelings, rather than logic. All he knew for certain was that this man seemed sane and honest, and that it made sense to do as he said.

  After a moment, Aderon shrugged and followed the two men, but at a distance, ready to flee if the farmer should prove to be a trickster.

  At the far side of the cultivated strip, their guide paused. 'It'll be better if you crouch down by the side of my cart as we cross this open ground. We don't want anyone from the village noticing you. Wait here until I get the cart.' He paused, then said gruffly, 'My name's Themass,' before walking off across the next field. 'And our village is called Jerhaz Waters,' drifted back to them.

  Once he was out of earshot, Aderon clutched Mak's sleeve. 'It must be a trick. He'll tell them about us.

  You can't trust anyone from a village with a shrine. Let's run away now, while we can.'

  Mak shook his head. 'Where would we run to?'

  'Anywhere.'

  Again Mak shook his head. 'I couldn't live with myself if I let Jandahal and the others die without trying to save them. But if you want to flee, lad, then I shan't stop you.'

  Aderon stared at him, his face streaked with dirt and what looked suspiciously like the traces of tears. 'I'll stay,' he said at length, adding in a despairing whisper, 'I haven't anywhere else to go now.'

  When Themass didn’t immediately return, Mak tried to ease the boy's nervousness by talking to him. 'How did you come to be with the Sisters? You're older than the other children.'

  Aderon shrugged. 'I was fleeing from Dyandrak. Those of the Serpent killed my father. I saw them do it.'

  He sniffed and swiped a dirty paw across his eyes.

  'And your mother?'

  'She died when I was young.'

  'No other family?'

  'No.' Aderon stiffened suddenly and pointed. 'Look!'

  The farmer had come into view again. He was talking to two men.

  Mak could feel the boy's body tensing and indeed, he too had an almost irresistible desire to flee. But where could they go? How find help in time? Besides, something in him still said that Themass was trustworthy. Against all reason he felt that. He laid a hand on Aderon's arm. 'Let's wait just a moment more.

  Themass doesn't seem to be pointing to us. And he doesn't look as if he's happy to be talking to those men, either. Look at how he's standing. He's shaking his head, saying no to something.'

  As they watched, one of the two men punched Themass in the face, sending him staggering backwards.

  Themass fell, but stood up again quickly, as a trained fighter would. Mak had seen Benjan do that several times while he was observing the planet. For a moment, the two hidden watchers saw the burly farmer tense, then he hunched his shoulders and took another pace backwards, staring at the black earth beneath his feet and clenching his great fists by his sides. One of the men laughed, threw something on the ground, then the two of them walked away.

  Only when the men had disappeared into the village did Themass move. He made no attempt to pick up whatever the man had dropped and he didn’t look in the direction of Mak and Aderon. He walked slowly across to his barn and vanished from sight.

  Mak put an arm round the boy, surprising himself by the gesture, for he wasn’t usually demonstrative.

  After a stiffening of surprise, Aderon sagged against him and sighed. The two of them continued to watch, and Mak was touched by the small shivering body pressed close to his. He wished suddenly that he’d had a son, but until he fell in love with Soo, he’d not felt the slightest desire to produce any offspring. He did now.

  He wanted children from Soo. But he wanted them born into a peaceful world, not one torn by conflict.

  When Themass re-appeared, leading a bony old nerid harnessed to a ramshackle cart, Mak felt the boy tense up. 'Wait,' he said softly. 'I still think Themass intends to help us.'

  The farmer walked across the field and stopped beside a nearby pile of root vegetables. He began to fork them into the cart and without looking in Mak's direction, he said in a low but carrying voice. 'Stay there till I've got the cart loaded.'

  'Who were those two men?'

  'They were from the Shrine. Servants of the Serpent. They have orders for everyone to attend tomorrow evening. I'm to bring my sister with me. They're going to hold a Great Sacrifice. All the women in the village are to be ready to serve the Serpent. All the men are to make sacrifice as many times as they can. They left me a token to give to the Servants of the Shrine after I've offered sacrifice, so that they'll know every man in Jerhaz Waters has done his duty.'

  He spat on to the ground. 'Just because I've been quiet and kept to myself up till now, they think they have me cowed, they think I'll do as they say. Well, I've never been inside that shrine of theirs and I'm not going there now. Nor I'm not dragging my sister along. Derrall is near fifty years old and recently widowed. She still weeps for her man at night. I won't let them use her on their altar.'

  'You said you’d vowed to shed no more blood?' Mak prompted gently, still crouching out of sight among the bushes.

  'Aye. I was a guard in the old days, before all this trouble started. In Dyandrak. Sergeant, too. It took me a while to realise what Those of the Serpent were doing. They said they meant no harm and all could live together in peace, choosing their own path through life. I believed them at first. So did the Lord Claimant.

  The poor devil paid for that with his life, lord or no, an' now they've got his cousin ruling the c
laim. Rumour says they didn't manage to kill the claimant's son, though. Folk say he escaped, somehow. It was probably the Sisterhood as saved him.'

  Beside him, Mak could feel Aderon wriggling. 'Keep still, lad.'

  Themass continued, words rolling out of him like water long held back and overflowing at last. 'When the temple got cut off behind that invisible wall, Those of the Serpent set us to hunting down the Sisters left outside. They said they were just locking them away for their own safety. Well, I found out different. They were killing them. Slowly. In the Inner Shrine. So I left.' He paused, breathing deeply, 'When I pretended I was injured bad, they told me to get back to my village. They had no place for weaklings. That's all the thanks you get from them sort. The Lord Claimant used to give pensions to those injured in his service. He was all right, he was, though he was a randy devil. Lost count of the women he bedded, we did.' He stopped shovelling, his eyes still dark with anger at the memory of his dismissal.

  'And so you came home?' Mak prompted.

  'Aye. And when I got back here, I found Derrall weeping over her husband's body. He'd been killed by a group of raiders when he went into the next village to sell his stuff at the market. Those Initiates let the raiders go free. Said Vettril deserved all he got. Said he'd provoked them. I knew he wouldn't do that. Peaceful sort of fellow, old Vettril was. Wouldn't even crush a flower if he could avoid it.'

  'So?' prompted Mak

  'So I kept on pretending to be wounded, said I couldn't fight no more, said I'd just stay here to help Derrall look after the farm. I do a bit of fishing in the lake, too. Dry the whitefish we catch. Sell things at market now and then. I pretend my injuries make it hard for me to make sacrifice - those cursed Initiates hate people who're deformed in any way - an' I pay my fines for not attending the shrine, so they mostly leave me alone.

  'I should've knowed it couldn't last. I should've knowed better than to trust them snake-lovers. I did think of going off an' looking for one of them new settlements, one where there wasn't a shrine, but Derrall didn't want to leave. We were born here in Jerhaz Waters, her an' me. Grew up on this very farm. She's right, too.