Gathering Voices

by Kris Humphrey

  Mika listened, transfixed. No one knew where the Narlaw had come from, only that Amina had banished them beyond the mountains, creating an immense protective ward that separated Meridina from what was now the Darklands.

  “Do you understand me, Mika? These demons coming through the mountain passes were banished once and are now returning. If my feeling is correct, we have found a way to send them from our world forever. I beg your pardon, Mika … you have found a way to do that.”

  For a moment Mika felt as if she were floating. Her blood thumped noisily in her veins.

  Gone from our world forever.

  Even Queen Amina had not done that.

  Astor’s eyes glittered in the light from the storm lamp. She reached out and touched Mika on the sleeve. “No longer a novice,” she said.

  Mika stared back, stunned into silence.

  “Now, we should rest,” said Astor. “My old bones are weary, and tomorrow we must carry your news to the world.”

  The King’s Keep bristled with guards. They stood sentry at every doorway and two of them flanked Dawn closely as she strode along the broad, torch-lined corridor that led toward the king’s chambers. This was the very heart of the Palace of the Sun, which, in turn, stood at the the heart of Meridar, the capital city of the kingdom of Meridina. As the Palace Whisperer, Dawn had walked these corridors many times before, but she still felt her stomach flutter with nerves.

  The guards’ weapons clanked as they walked. They wore the red and gold of the Guards of the Sun, a reminder – as if Dawn needed one – of the Narlaw spy that had posed as a guard captain and abducted Princess Ona.

  On Dawn’s shoulder, Ebony twitched and eyed the guards warily. Do you think the king will be pleased to see us? she asked.

  Dawn smiled weakly at her raven companion’s grim attempt at humour. The king’s never been pleased to see us, she said. And especially not now.

  As soon as word of Princess Ona’s disappearance reached King Eneron, Dawn had been summoned back to the Palace of the Sun. She had put it off as long as possible, working desperately to find some clue as to the princess’s whereabouts, but eventually the Guards of the Sun had come for her. She had left Guard Captain Valderin in charge of the search. He was a good man and one of her few close allies in the palace.

  Dawn felt a bitter mixture of guilt and frustration. She had come so close to unmasking the demon in their midst and still she had failed. If Ona was harmed it would be her fault. She imagined the terror the princess must be feeling, imprisoned in a trader’s cart and stolen away from her home. As Dawn marched along with her escort of guards, she held on to that feeling of guilt. It would help her. It would be the fuel she needed to find the princess and bring her home.

  They rounded a corner and Dawn was confronted by a line of heavily armed Guards of the Sun. Behind them stood the entrance to King Eneron’s reception rooms, a pair of tall wooden doors, ornately carved and gleaming in the torchlight.

  So this is the welcoming committee, said Ebony.

  “The bird stays outside,” one of the guards proclaimed, stepping forwards and dismissing the two who had escorted Dawn this far with a curt nod of his head. “The king will see you immediately,” he said to Dawn.

  You’d better go, Dawn whispered as the great doors creaked open. See how the search is going. Hopefully I’ll be with you soon.

  Ebony cawed loudly as she stretched her wings to fly and Dawn allowed herself a moment of satisfaction as the leader of the guards flinched away in surprise.

  Don’t forget to curtsey, said Ebony as she swept along the corridor toward an open window, forcing those in her way to press themselves up against the walls.

  I won’t, whispered Dawn. She watched her companion vanish through the window and out into the open sky.

  Dawn knew she would never have made it through the last few months without Ebony. Her companion helped her in so many ways, not least because of her sense of humour. Even Ebony’s good-natured arrogance rubbed off on Dawn, bolstering her confidence at difficult times like this.

  “Please…” said the guard leader.

  Dawn felt a hand on her shoulder, gentle but insistent. She nodded and entered the chambers of the king.

  In the anteroom she was met by Lady Tremaine, the Palace Warden, a woman who had rejoiced in making Dawn’s life difficult since the day she arrived in the capital.

  “Warden,” said Dawn, nodding briskly in greeting.

  The warden inclined her head and shot Dawn a tight, cruel smile. “King Eneron is distraught,” she said. “You have a great deal to answer for, Whisperer.”

  “And I will,” said Dawn.

  The kingdom was at war and the princess had been abducted, yet Lady Tremaine still had time to feel smug at Dawn’s expense. For the first time since meeting the warden, Dawn actually felt pity for her. But not enough pity to resist a jibe of her own.

  “If only I’d realized sooner that the demon was hiding here in the King’s Keep,” she said. “Right under your nose.”

  The warden flushed at that. “Tell it to the king,” she sneered, turning on her heel and marching toward one of two doors set in the far wall of the anteroom.

  Dawn stood for a moment, before realizing she was supposed to follow the warden. The time had come.

  In the king’s council chamber sunlight streamed through the row of high windows and striped the room in gold and shadow. King Eneron stood silhouetted against the sun. Dawn squinted to make him out. His back was to the room and the long council table lay between them. As her eyes adjusted, Dawn saw that the king was dressed in battle armour.

  “Your Grace,” said the warden. “The Palace Whisperer is here.”

  Dawn tensed as the king turned to face her. She had never seen him like this before – upright and focused. He had always seemed like a broken man, forever grieving for his dead queen and uninterested in the running of the kingdom. Sunlight reflected off his polished armour and the sword hanging from his hip. Had Ona’s disappearance finally woken him from his stupor?

  “The Palace Whisperer,” he said. His voice was flat and harsh.

  Dawn rushed a curtsey. “Your Grace,” she said, staring at her feet. Fear made her tremble and she felt angry that Lady Tremaine was there to witness her discomfort.

  “You let them take my daughter,” the king said, striding forwards. “You let those demons take my precious Ona!” He slammed a gauntleted fist on the council table and the impact echoed around the room.

  “I’m sorry,” said Dawn, with her eyes still lowered. “But I’ll find the princess. I have the whole palace guard out searching. We’ll find her and bring her back.” She looked up and met the king’s furious gaze. There was a worrying edge of wildness in his eyes.

  “We’ve suffered two Narlaw spies inside the palace in the last few weeks alone,” he said. “Tell me – what use is a Whisperer if she cannot even keep demons out of the palace? Our water supply has been sabotaged. And who knows what else has happened without our knowing?”

  Dawn wished she could leave – just walk out and get back to what really mattered – the search for Ona and the earthstone. Not only was Princess Ona in danger, but the consequences of losing the earthstone would be catastrophic.

  Dawn cursed the fact that she had learned of the stone’s importance too late. If only she had figured out sooner that Princess Ona’s necklace held this relic from long ago, a stone that vastly increased the power of any Whisperer who wielded it. Queen Amina had worn the earthstone in the first Narlaw wars and, although she’d been unaware of its power, it had been decisive in her final victory. But the Narlaw had known of its importance all too well. A Narlaw spy had ransacked the princess’s rooms and kidnapped Ona, who had been wearing the earthstone, before Dawn had had a chance to locate the stone herself.

  The earthstone was Dawn’s only chance of saving the kingdom from the Narlaw. And now, along with the king’s only child, it was gone. If she didn’t manage to get them back from the N
arlaw’s control, the whole kingdom would be overrun and nothing the king was saying would matter at all. But she had to show the proper respect.

  “Your Grace,” she said meekly. “I have done my best in a difficult time. No demons have walked in Meridina for a hundred years. They returned without warning—”

  “Enough!” barked the king. “I didn’t call you here for excuses. You’ve let me down. I expected better from you, Esther, but you have let me down badly.”

  Dawn’s mouth fell open but she couldn’t find the words. She glanced across at Lady Tremaine, the warden, who glared back, but even she couldn’t keep the concern from showing in her face.

  He had called her Esther. Esther, who had been Dawn’s mentor. Esther, who had died almost a year ago.

  “After all the years you’ve served me,” Eneron went on. He shook his head and Dawn finally recognized the emptiness in his gaze, a glistening that suggested tears. The more she looked, the more Eneron seemed like a child dressed up as a king. “It pains me,” he said. “It really does. But unless you find my daughter, you are hereby exiled from Meridar. If you return without her, you will be put in chains and the darkest dungeon cell will be yours for the rest of your days. Do you understand, Esther?”

  Dawn turned to the warden again and received nothing but a stony stare. “I’m not Esther,” she said. “I’m Dawn.”

  “I asked you if you understood!” roared the king.

  The warden stepped in. “She understands, Your Grace.”

  “Good.” He turned his back on the two of them and paced over to the window. “Have her escorted to the south gate. Give her a horse and tell the guards that if she’s seen in the city after sundown she’ll be arrested.”

  “As you wish, Your Grace,” said the warden. She bowed and gestured for Dawn to follow her.

  As soon as they were outside the king’s chamber Dawn turned on Lady Tremaine. “Did you hear what he said? He thinks I’m Esther. And you just stood there, going along with it all as if there’s nothing wrong.”

  The warden frowned. “He may be a little confused,” she said, “but the king’s wishes make perfect sense. The fact is, you’ve failed Meridina too many times already. If you find the princess then all may be forgiven, but don’t even think about coming back to Meridar without her.”

  Dawn glowered at the warden as two Guards of the Sun approached. One of them took Dawn by the arm, but Dawn shrugged the hand away angrily.

  “I can make my own way out,” she said.

  In the south of the city, birds wheeled above the crowded streets. Dawn watched as sparrows, finches, pigeons and starlings flocked together in perfect unison. It was a rare and beautiful sight and, for a moment, it distracted her from the urgency of the task at hand.

  She had to bring Princess Ona back safely. Time was already running out and the king’s mad decree had only added to her problems – now she had until sundown to leave the city, regardless of whether or not she had a lead on where Ona had been taken.

  Dawn looked around her. Meridar was in turmoil – a capital city stretched to its limits by the chaos of approaching war.

  High above the rooftops Dawn spotted Ebony, who was leading the flocks in their search for the Narlaw that had taken Princess Ona.

  And the earthstone, Dawn thought. The demon has taken the earthstone, too. Dawn wanted to speak to Ebony, to share with her what had happened in the king’s chambers. But there was no time.

  Nearby on the busy street, a pair of palace guards were stopping as many people as they could to ask about the grocer’s cart Princess Ona had been stolen away in. Guards had been sent all across the city to canvass for information. Hours had already passed since Ona went missing and every further minute that went by made finding her less likely.

  Here, in the south of Meridar, the crowds were dense and people seemed anxious to keep moving. They were refugees from the surrounding countryside and most seemed reluctant to answer the guards’ questions. Dawn didn’t blame them – she wouldn’t have noticed a particular grocer’s cart if she’d just been forced from her home by an army of demons.

  Much of the countryside had been ravaged by the Narlaw. Refugees from the farms, villages and towns were flooding toward the capital, seeking shelter behind the city walls. Dawn was glad of it, because Meridar was the only place in the kingdom with enough soldiers to put up a fight against the Narlaw.

  Unfortunately, all of this panic made the hunt for the princess much more difficult. Even the birds seemed confused by the vast throngs of people below. Birds, like all animals, were sensitive to the presence of demons. With skill and luck, a flock of birds could even sense where a demon had been, tracing the particular taint the demon had left on the world as it passed. So far, Ebony and the city birds had tracked the Narlaw to an area around two gates in the south-west of the city wall. Despite this, there had been no definite sightings so far.

  Dawn approached the pair of guards who were questioning the crowds for information. “Anything?” she asked.

  She got a shake of the head from one guard. The other was still speaking to a frightened-looking man with a huge bundle at his feet. These were probably all the belongings the man could carry, the rest abandoned in his home.

  Carts rumbled by slowly, negotiating their way through the bustling mass of refugees. The citizens of Meridar watched from their windows and shop fronts as the new arrivals flooded in. A siege seemed inevitable now. There were so many Narlaw out there, and so few soldiers and Whisperers to fight them.

  Dawn peered back into the sky as a flock of sparrows swooped and fluttered loudly over the nearby rooftops.

  Ebony, she called. What can you see?

  It took a moment before her companion replied. No sign of the Narlaw, she said. But you have a message from Captain Valderin. Look west.

  Dawn did so, craning to see down a shadowy side street. Captain Valderin, the head of the Palace Guard, had taken his own group of guards to the west. Ebony must have spotted one of his messengers.

  Dawn saw a female guard dodging through the crowded alley and held up a hand to greet her.

  “News from Captain Valderin,” the guard said with a small bow. “The cart was sighted near the stonecutters’ gate less than an hour ago. It left the city on the four-counties road. The captain sent four of his fastest riders in pursuit and he’s waiting at the gate for you now.”

  “We’re sure it was the right cart?” Dawn asked, trying to suppress her excitement.

  The woman nodded. “A local trader tried to stop the cart and buy some fruit. He was almost knocked over as it passed. His description of the cart matches perfectly.”

  “Sounds like our demon,” said Dawn. Finally, this was what she needed! But she was an hour behind already. A cart could go a long way in that time, even on the busy roads. “Take me to Valderin.”

  The woman nodded and Dawn called for the other two guards to follow her.

  The stonecutters’ gate rumbled with the sound of angry voices. Everyone entering the city was being stopped by the palace guard. There was a huge trail of people threading away beyond the city wall – impatient, scared people who had travelled a long way to get there. But Dawn knew the road block was necessary. Some of these refugees must have seen the Narlaw’s cart as it left the city along the four-counties road, heading south-west.

  Dawn crossed the broad square that led to the gate itself. This was a busy trading district and guards could be seen at every door, questioning and re-questioning the owners and customers. Dawn spotted Captain Valderin near the gate. Through the tall arch she could see a jam of carts and foot travellers.

  “Dawn,” said Valderin as she approached. “We should set off right away.”

  “Do we have horses?” she asked.

  Valderin nodded to one side where a group of guards stood ready with horses that looked fresh from the palace stables. “It seems like the demon’s avoiding the main south road,” he said. “The Narlaw army’s in that direction –
near Altenheim – but the south road’s also where we’ve stationed most of our lookouts.”

  Dawn nodded. “These refugees are going to make it hard to get anywhere with a cart. We may stand a chance of catching up if we move quickly.” She glanced at another thunderous passing of birds overhead. Among them was Ebony’s familiar presence.

  We’re leaving, Dawn whispered. Can you lead the birds out of town?

  Ebony flapped down with a long, throaty caw and gripped Dawn’s shoulder hard. I’ll try, she said. But they won’t be happy about it. These birds don’t like the wilds much. Too many predators out there.

  You can do it, said Dawn. You have to. We can’t lose Ona and the earthstone like this. If we don’t bring them back, it will all be over. Please…

  Panic rose up inside her and she felt her breathing quicken. It would all be over. Everything.

  Ebony shifted position on Dawn’s shoulder, her claws pinching through Dawn’s coat.

  We’ll find them, said Ebony. I promise we’ll find them. And I’ll do my best to convince the birds – but even a superior raven like me can’t herd sparrows and pigeons very far across the wilderness.

  Dawn smiled. Her anxiety subsided just a little. Who ever said you were superior?

  It’s a fact, said Ebony. No one needs to say it. She flapped her huge black wings and Dawn flinched away, still smiling.

  Just do your best, said Dawn, hoping desperately that their best would be good enough.

  Ebony cawed and lifted herself into the air with long, powerful wing strokes.

  Dawn glanced around at the chaos. There was no doubt that war was coming to Meridar. She only wished that they’d been ready – that they’d had more time to prepare for the invasion. But Dawn would defend Meridina as best she could – starting with finding Princess Ona and bringing her back with the earthstone.

  She had to.

  “Ready?” Valderin called. He was mounted on his horse, the dark bay mare he had ridden into battle at Altenheim.

  Dawn nodded and took the reins of another horse as they were passed to her: a beautiful, copper-coloured mare with a mane and tail that shone almost silver in the sunlight. She swung up into the saddle and felt the animal’s presence beneath her – brave and dependable. She had barely ridden since leaving the Southlands, and as they set off on the trail of the Narlaw, Dawn felt the freedom of travel mix strangely with the terrible uncertainty of what lay ahead.