Shadow of the Serpent

by Shannah Jay

  Carryn started inching backwards, pulling Lerina with her. Evren managed to rouse himself enough to crawl towards them.

  The deleff moved forward a few slow steps that shook the ground, and the wings brushed against the two nearest men. They fell screaming to the ground, rolling about in blind agony. Savnith jumped backwards and pulled out a wicked-looking spike of a dagger, an assassin's weapon. He waited out of reach of the sweeping transparent wings, then suddenly rushed forward between sweeps and with practised skill threw the dagger at the nearest deleff. If it had hit the skin, it would just have bounced off, however sharp the blade, but he was skilled enough in his murderous trade to catch the deleff in the eye.

  It stopped trumpeting and the wings vanished in mid sweep. The noise its companion was making became shriller, a cry of raw pain, but the injured deleff had fallen silent and just stood there swaying, like a great tree about to be felled. A trickle of clear liquid ran down its face from the eye socket. It gave a low throbbing moan, then it raised its snout and began to bugle softly, the sound sweet, almost a melody, almost a plea.

  Suddenly it became difficult to move. It was as if they were all caught in an invisible net. Tears were rolling down Lerina's cheeks and her hands were stretched out towards the injured deleff. Carryn raised an arm which felt unnaturally heavy and put it around her daughter's shoulders. Evren stretched out to clutch at the hem of Carryn's gown.

  The death song echoed around the clearing, and then behind its plaintive melody the air started to throb.

  The noise grew louder by the second as the song faded into a series of minor cadences which were so piercingly sweet that they brought tears to Carryn's eyes. The sunlight began to fade rapidly as great spreading shadows covered the sky.

  Savnith threw back his head and roared in triumph, but his voice stopped abruptly as a finger of the strange shadow reached out to touch him. His body jerked into rigidity and he stood there motionless, imprisoned in a slanting tube of darkness that had reached down from the sky. Through it his face was just visible. The shadow had immobilised him at the very moment when the triumph turned to horror.

  Above them, filling the sky, the outlines of a group of giant deleff had turned day into dusk.

  The last music of the death song faded and the deleff which had received the mortal wound crumpled very slowly to the ground, hitting it as softly as a feather would float and settle. There was no thud, no sound, nothing but a greyness sifting down into the earth's tender grasp. Faint rainbows flickered around the clearing, and as the girls and Evren watched in wonder, the solid grey-covered flesh turned first to dust, then to a grey shadow, then to wisps of smoke-like substance that whirled upwards and blew away into the sky.

  The living deleff brushed its wings across the remaining men, who were standing gaping in open-mouthed terror. They sank to the ground, semi-conscious, moaning in an echo of the deleff's pain, then the remaining deleff turned and left, trampling slowly away through the undergrowth.

  The shadows in the sky faded until the blue colour returned and the late afternoon sun shone down upon them again. For a few moments, the silence in the clearing seemed almost as loud as the bugling sounds had been. Then, as the last trampling faded into the distance, life and sound crept back into the world. Birds began to sing again and insects to hum around the three figures, the only ones to remain standing.

  Only then did the column of darkness around Savnith flicker out of existence and allow his body to tumble to the ground.

  It was a moment before Carryn could gather her wits together. Then she glanced quickly around to take stock of the situation. The verderers were lying unconscious and Savnith was curled up in a foetal position. At first, she thought he was dead, then, as she looked, his thumb crept towards his mouth and he began to suck it like a baby. He showed no interest in what was happening around him and his eyes were blank, as if there was nothing left behind them.

  She looked down at Evren, huddled in a tight ball of pain, his ankles still fettered. They couldn’t get away until she’d removed the chains and presumably Savnith was carrying the key. She picked up a heavy chunk of broken branch to defend herself with and moved across the clearing to him. He showed no sign that he had seen her and his eyes remained blank and unfocused. Even when she fumbled in his belt pouch, he didn’t protest or react in any way. She found the key to the fetters and also a small bottle of colourless liquid and took them both back to Evren.

  She unlocked the fetters, but then had to shake Evren to make him look at the bottle. 'Is this the antidote?'

  Teeth chattering, hands shaking, he nodded and reached out towards it.

  She held the bottle away from his trembling hands, afraid he would drop it. 'How much?'

  'Small sip. D-don't worry. I w-won't drink more than I have to.'

  Always with one eye on the verderers, in case they recovered, she guided his hand to the bottle, supporting it as he drank. Within minutes, he had stopped shaking and stood up.

  'I ought to rest now, but I'd prefer to get as far away as we can while this lot are still unconscious.' He took her hand and raised it to his lips in a courtly gesture. 'Thank you, Carryn nel-Merryan.'

  'Thank the deleff. One of them gave its life for us.'

  'I do honour them for coming to our aid, but I thank you, too. You led us for most of the day and you found the antidote. I'm useless if I don't get it every day. So you saved my life.' He kissed her on each cheek, in a courtly ceremonial gesture. 'If we defeat Those of the Serpent, one day I'll be able to thank you properly.

  And if I ever come into my own, I'll honour you and yours.'

  'When we defeat them,' she corrected. 'Never even voice the idea of failure.' How many times had she heard Herra say that, and now she found herself saying the same thing, in the same calm Sister's voice. Truly, their Brother's Gifts were a wondrous thing.

  Evren cast another anxious glance at the men lying on the ground, but they showed no signs of regaining consciousness. 'We'd better make a move.'

  Carryn nodded. 'Do you know which way to go?'

  He shook his head.

  Lerina stepped forward. 'I do. The deleff told me before it left to mourn its mate.' She pointed back the way they had come. 'We need to return to Tenebrak. Grandfather is searching for us.'

  CHAPTER 16 REBELLION RISING

  By early next morning the three fugitives were walking along a minor track through lush woodland, with only willpower keeping them going. They weren’t even sure whether they were heading in the right direction.

  The deleff might have told Lerina that this track led towards Tenebrak, but Evren and Carryn weren’t sure of anything any more. In spite of the antidote, Evren looked ghastly, his face drawn and white, with sweat pearling his forehead. All three of them were exhausted and kept stumbling as they walked. As the rising sun slanted through the branches, it felt like an adversary stabbing at them.

  'Do you want to rest again?' Carryn asked. They’d alternately walked and rested throughout the night. And it was always she who’d looked after the others and made the decisions.

  Evren was too exhausted to do more than nod and sink down where he stood. Carryn had to persuade him to crawl off the track into the undergrowth and Lerina had to help him hide behind some shrubs.

  The song the dying deleff had sung still seemed to be echoing in Carryn's ears. It had been the most poignant sound she’d ever heard. She hadn’t realised what happened when a deleff died. No one she knew, not even travelling traders, had ever seen a deleff die. Perhaps they usually went back to Dsheresh to die, surrounded by their own kind. Perhaps the song was so sad because the deleff had died alone and before its time. Who could tell?

  Suddenly she jerked her head up. Had she heard something? 'Shh!' She gestured to the others to be quiet.

  After a minute, she whispered, 'Can you hear it?'

  Evren just lay there with his eyes closed, but Lerina nodded. 'It sounds as if some travellers are coming along the track tow
ards us.'

  'We'd better hide, and keep very quiet and still. Let's hope they just pass by.'

  They pushed through the bushes and undergrowth and settled in a small space behind a thick raas tree.

  The spreading foliage and broad leaves provided a good hiding place. They couldn’t see the track from where they sat, but they could hear the rumble of wagon wheels and the drumming hoofbeats of metal-shod riding nerids. Carryn could feel herself tensing. Was this another party sent out by the Lord Claimant to hunt them down? Had they gone through so much only to fall into Benner's hands again?

  The noise stopped and there were excited shouts as the group of people discovered the signs of someone leaving the track recently.

  Carryn dragged her daughter to her feet. 'Run away through the woods, Lerina. I'll try to delay them.'

  But the men were upon them before Lerina had gone more than a few paces. Rough hands grabbed the two women and a voice yelled, 'We've got them! This way, illustrious sir. They're safe.'

  Footsteps came crashing through the undergrowth and Carryn drew herself up to face her enemy.

  As the undergrowth parted, however, she cried aloud in joy, for it wasn’t Benner running towards her, but her father. She didn’t notice the men's hands release their hold on her; she just threw herself forward and clung to Aharri, shaking with relief, tears streaming down her face.

  'Oh, father, I'm so glad to see you. I thought you were - I thought you were him - Benner.'

  He held her at arm’s length. 'Has he hurt you, child?'

  'No. No, I'm just exhausted. We all are. We've been walking all day and half last night, too.'

  Lerina came up to tug at her grandfather's arm. 'We escaped from the castle. My brother helped us to escape.'

  'Brother?' Only then did he realise who the third figure was and gasped aloud at the realisation. 'Lord Evren!'

  Carryn pulled her father towards the figure on the ground. 'We have Evren to thank for our escape,' she said quietly, and knelt to clasp the hand of the young Claimant Elect. 'He too needs to get away from Benner.'

  'My life and possessions are yours if you need them, Lord Evren,' said Aharri, his tone formal and a certain coolness creeping into his voice. It was impossible to believe that Benner's son would not have some taint from his father's line. 'You've restored my greatest treasure to me.'

  'The only thing I need from you, the thing we all need, is food,' Evren said. With Carryn's help he managed to get to his feet, and stood there, swaying slightly as he spoke. His face was even paler than those of the two girls.

  'How did you find us, grandfather?' asked Lerina, threading her arm through his.

  'The deleff drawing our wagon led us to you. Come. Let's get you all to safety before Benner's men find us.' The Lord Claimant would be hunting high and low for his heir.

  The three climbed on board the great trader's wagon, cramming the journey bread and cheese that Aharri handed them into their mouths, and washing it down with great draughts of apple ale. They were too tired to tell their tale then; all three of them lay down and let the jolting of the wagon lull them to sleep.

  Aharri sat and watched over them, holding back his questions until his daughter and her companions should be in a fit state to answer and hoping the messenger had reached the Hashite Guild in time to prevent Benjan from doing something rash in Tenebrak. Outright war with the Lord Claimant would help no one at this stage. He had too many trained fighting men, not to mention the support of Those of the Serpent.

  The three fugitives didn’t wake until they arrived in Silverhill. Shilla came running out of the domain to fuss over them. Unlike Aharri, she didn’t see Evren as Benner's son, only as a lad just reaching manhood, a lad who was rocking on his feet with tiredness. And when she found that he was the one who’d saved her darling from that fiend, then nothing was too good for him.

  It was long years since anyone had hugged Lord Evren and treated him in such a motherly fashion, and he couldn’t hold back tears as he was wrapped in Shilla's loving concern.

  'There, there, lad,' she said, hugging him again and patting his back. 'We'll look after you now, that we will.

  We'll soon have you feeling better.'

  As soon as she’d bathed and dressed in clean garments, Carryn went to find her father. She found him with company and cried out with joy as she saw who it was.

  Benjan broke off in mid-sentence to stride across the room and enfold her in a hug that spoke his love as clearly as words ever could. And this time, for the very first time, she was conscious of him as a woman senses a man and pressed herself against him, clutching the smoothness of his leather tunic and keeping hold of his hand.

  'Are you all right, little Carryn?'

  She raised one hand to stroke his face and give him a glowing smile, then leaned happily against the strength of his chest. 'Benjan, dearest Benjan, I'm quite safe, just tired still from our journey.'

  'They didn't - ' He broke off, not knowing how to phrase his question delicately. Aharri had assured him that she’d not been touched, but he had to know for himself.

  'No, they didn't use me.' She gave a snort of bitter amusement. 'In fact, this time our noble Lord Claimant wanted to marry me.'

  'What?' Both Aharri and Benjan spoke their shock as one.

  She shrugged. 'It seems I'm the only one who’s provided him with a child since Evren was born. He wanted a son from me, a son to disinherit Evren.'

  'You managed to convince him Lerina is his?' Benjan asked, still holding her arm.

  'Oh, yes. It wasn't hard. She bears the same birthmark on her shoulder as he does. Evren bears it, too. And besides, Benner has the Gift of recognising truth when it's spoken. A strange Gift for such a twisted man.'

  'Twisted indeed,' said Benjan, letting go of her and turning back to Aharri. 'What I was about to tell you was that Benner has killed the Hashite bodyguards who were watching his son. Killed them very painfully in the shrine, though more rapidly than usual, for fear we might rescue them. And killed those guarding Carryn and Lerina, too. He proclaimed them all traitors, who had gone back on their word - which we would never do. The Hashite Guild has now repudiated all contracts with him, and all Three Ranks stand united against him.'

  Aharri whistled. 'That was a very stupid move. I wouldn't care to incur the enmity of the entire Hashite Guild.'

  Benjan nodded sombre agreement. 'It was more stupid than he realises yet. He’s made enemies who will never, under any circumstances, be reconciled with him. We of the Guild do not forget such betrayals.'

  'Do you intend to fight him openly?'

  Benjan shook his head. 'No. The numbers are against us at the moment. We're evacuating the Guild House, for the first time in our history, and we shall take to the wildwoods. The Sisters were not the only ones with contingency plans. We'll continue to harass him from there.' A slow smile curved across his granite features. 'He'll find us troublesome, I promise you. We’ve never turned our skills to trouble-making, but we shall do now. Before we all leave, though, we must seek those who tortured our kithanfolk. They must suffer for it, and folk must know that we've taken our revenge.'

  Carryn stepped forward, her eyes alight. 'See, Father, how our Brother starts to build up support in Tenebron for the struggle against the Serpent. It's another step in the path.'

  Benjan stared at her in wonderment. 'You sound different, somehow, child.'

  'I'm not a child any more, that's why. I grew up suddenly when Benner captured us. I had to care for Lerina, you see. And besides, he was only a man, whatever he once did to me. A sick, twisted soul who will tumble down the ladder of life when he dies.' Her eyes were warm on Benjan. 'I'm a woman grown now,' she said softly, for his ears only. 'When we’re free of the Serpent, remember that, Benjan Starborn.'

  'I shall indeed remember it, Carryn. I've loved you since I first set eyes on you.'

  'And I you. Though only as a child before.'

  He reached out to grasp her hands and raise them to
his lips.

  Aharri gazed at them in shock. They were most visibly lovers at that moment, whether their love had been consummated or not.

  Benjan let go of Carryn's hand and the smile faded from his face. 'Unfortunately, I must leave you for a time.'

  'Why?' She looked at her father, who had the air of a man waiting to continue a conversation. 'What are you two planning to do?'

  'I'm Craftsman Elect now,' said Benjan, throwing back his shoulders and raising his head proudly. 'I must join my kithanfolk to help take revenge upon Those of the Serpent. For me that's a solemn duty.'

  'But we of the Kindred don't kill!' she protested. 'Benjan, you surely won't jeopardise your soul!'

  'No. I shan’t stoop to killing, however much they deserve it. But I shall have trouble making Those of the First Rank hold their hands in this. I can only do my best. Whatever happens, we'll make sure Benner regrets his hasty actions, and we'll make sure Those of the Serpent understand how much we could do in retribution if we wanted.'

  Carryn opened her mouth to protest about the danger to him, then shut it again without speaking. This was right for Benjan. It was his duty. Unlike the rest of the Kindred, he was a man trained for fighting. 'I shall pray to our Brother to watch over you, then.' And in the sight of all of them, she stood on tiptoe to kiss him on the lips, as a woman kisses the man she loves.

  The imprint of that kiss glowed on his lips for a long time afterwards, as the love for her had glowed in his heart ever since they had rescued her from Benner the first time.

  * * *

  The main shrine in Tenebrak was a hive of activity, as women were brought in to help make sacrifice and lend power to the Serpent. In the bustle, no one paid any particular attention to a large man and his burly female companion as they joined the queue of those waiting to offer willing sacrifice. As they stood there, however, one of the Servants paused, stared and came over to them.