Daughter of Independence

by Simon Brown

  ‘It’s inside the dome, isn’t it?’

  Yunara nodded. ‘As we hoped.’

  A hurt, puzzled look crossed her face. ‘Why?’

  Yunara sighed. ‘We needed something to kill you.’ She shrugged then. ‘Something has to. Since we are manifestations of your will we can no more do it than you can order your own heart to stop beating. But the creature who comes had a physical existence before you filled it with the Sefid and is under no such restriction.’

  ‘But why kill me?’

  ‘We are tired of you. We are tired of your sacrifices, your carping, your family and your insanity. We have a foothold in your world now, and will not risk losing it.’

  Lerena’s face went blank. ‘I thought I could not harm you.’

  ‘You can’t. You made us.’

  Lerena shook her head. ‘If you have nothing to fear from me, then I still don’t understand why you have to kill me.’

  ‘Because although you cannot kill us, your own creations, somebody else who can Wield can.’

  ‘But I am the last in my family who can Wield! I have blocked off everyone else!’

  Yunara’s smile was almost sympathetic. ‘My darling sister, if we let you live you might breed another Kevleren. Another Wielder of the Sefid. And that cannot be allowed.’

  *

  The creature was running. The forest seemed to melt away from it. Not far now. Not far at all. It was following the crack in the sky that had started when it broke the glass dome using the bodies of the two guards who had tried to stop it. In its mind it could see a small clearing filled with people, and there among them was a small woman, and as soon as it saw her it knew she had been what it had been searching for all this time. Inside it grew the greatest hunger it had ever known.

  *

  Before Galys could drop the pouch the birth chain had burned through it and seared her hands. She screamed again as the birth chain slipped from her fingers and like a string of small sparkling stars fell to the ground. She fell to her knees, the pain in her hands almost too much to bear. Dimly, through a blur of tears, she saw Kadburn raise his scramasax and lunge at the empress. Almost casually Lerena flicked a hand at him and he was thrown away. Anger and hate and a renewed fire for revenge made Galys stand up again. She looked down at the birth chain at her feet, still glittering, searing the grass underneath it. Galys cried for the pain she knew she was going to experience again and bent over to pick up the chain.

  But another hand picked it up for her.

  *

  Paimer studied the pretty stones. The birth chain did not burn him, but he could feel the power with which Lerena had infested them.

  ‘You!’ Yunara cried.

  Paimer turned to her. ‘I should have known my niece would imagine you.’

  ‘Where is Idalgo?’ Yunara demanded. ‘I have not heard from him.’

  ‘Trapped.’

  Yunara laughed. ‘Like Chierma trapped Englay. We should have known he would tell you what he was planning.’

  ‘Except I did not make Chierma’s mistake of destroying my creation.’

  ‘Lerena’s creation, really. You have not enough influence with the Sefid, something you overlooked in your theorising. Through her we were able to manifest something of ourselves, but only where the need was most grounded.’

  ‘Chierma’s need for Englay, and mine for Idalgo.’

  ‘And eventually her own need for Yunara.’

  ‘Uncle?’ Lerena looked at him, bewildered. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘What are we all doing here, you mean,’ Paimer said, and nodded towards the trail. From the forest appeared their relatives, all twelve of them.

  ‘What a sad gathering,’ Yunara scoffed.

  ‘We were called,’ Paimer told her. ‘We are Kevlerens, and we were called by the Sefid.’

  Lerena screamed and everyone turned in time to see a creature leap from the forest and land only paces from her. She turned to flee, but it jumped on top of her, pulling her to the ground, and buried its face in her neck. Lerena fought back, and Paimer thought he saw claws on her feet raking at the creature’s stomach.

  Several of the cousins rushed to help, grabbing the creature and trying to pull it off, but they could not separate it from its prey, and one by one it threw them off, all the while biting into Lerena, her blood spraying into the air and hanging there like a red mist.

  ‘Yunara!’ Lerena cried. ‘Yunara! Please! Help me!’ Her voice was submerged under a terrible bubbling sound as air escaped through the wound that had been her throat. No normal human would still be alive with those injuries.

  Paimer turned to Yunara. ‘Do something!’

  ‘Why should I? And why do you care? You don’t love her! There is nothing anyone can do.’

  Paimer took a step towards Lerena and her attacker, but even as he did so the empress struggled to her feet, her hands, now claws, straking and gouging the creature’s flank and back. There was the sound of bone breaking and cartilage snapping and Lerena’s head flew into the air, hit the ground and rolled away. Her body collapsed, the creature still feeding off it, her limbs jerking spasmodically.

  ‘Lerena should have destroyed you,’ Paimer said numbly. His face was white with shock.

  ‘She could not, my dear uncle. She could not slay her own creation.’

  Paimer stood straighter. Something like understanding dawned in his expression. ‘But Chierma could slay Englay because she was not his creation but Lerena’s, which means I can destroy you the way Chierma destroyed Englay.’

  ‘There is no fire in this world,’ Yunara said.

  Paimer grinned then and held up the birth chain. ‘Yes, there is.’

  Yunara laughed in his face. ‘You have never had the power to Wield with any strength, and your cousins have nothing to sacrifice even if they could remember how to do it. I don’t think any of you have the will let alone the capacity to Wield. Now Lerena’s dead it’s all over for your family.’

  ‘I don’t need the power,’ Paimer said. ‘Lerena has already given the birth chain all the power it needs. It is all that is left of my mad, lovely niece, the daughter of my sister, and all I need to do is this . . .’ He crushed one of the stones between two of his fingers and closed his eyes in fierce concentration, using the small sacrifice to tap into the much greater power Lerena had poured into the birth chain. The whole universe seemed to waver.

  Paimer’s eyes snapped open. ‘The last time I Wield,’ he said to Yunara. ‘And the best.’ With all his strength he hurled the birth chain at her. There was a flash of terrible white light. Yunara’s mouth opened and she screamed. But there was no sound. The world around him glimmered, shuddered, and the night outside rushed in like water into a sinking ship. The creature that had been feeding on Lerena’s remains leaped to its feet, looked around in panic and burst into flames.

  *

  The Hamilayan infantry did not all surrender at the same time. It started on their northern flank when individuals threw down their weapons and ran away from the battle, scattering in all directions, some even diving into The Wash. Then whole platoons let their weapons simply fall from their hands and sat down, covering their heads with their hands. A core of units, those Rodin himself had rallied before he was killed, resisted until they ran out of gonblack and ammunition, but since the dragoons had destroyed and scattered the supply wagons there was no way of replenishing either and in the end they had no choice.

  When Gos realised what was happening he quickly ordered his own troops to cease fire. When the Hamilayans saw they were no longer being shot at, they all stood with their arms in the air, and the war for the New Land was over.

  *

  Galys felt herself picked up. She did not even know she had fallen over. She was staring into the face of a man who was definitely a Kevleren, but no one she had ever met before. Despite being a Kevleren, he seemed quite pleasant.

  She said the first thing that came into her head. ‘Hello. My name is Galys.’<
br />
  ‘My name is Bayer.’

  ‘Thank you for helping me.’

  ‘It was my pleasure.’

  Galys tried to smile, but the sky above her wobbled, distracting her. She looked around. The world was in trouble. Or rather, bits of the world were in trouble. Half was in night, the other half in the peculiar, pellucid light of the aviary, as if the sun and stars had agreed to divide permanently the world between them.

  ‘What’s happening?’ she asked.

  ‘We were called by the Sefid, you see,’ Bayer said.

  ‘That’s nice. But what’s happening?’

  ‘Lerena spent so much of it on creating this world it drew us in. This is our home, I think. We are meant to be here.’

  ‘Where is “here” exactly?’

  ‘Ah,’ said Bayer, ‘that is an interesting question. Even more pertinent, from your point of view, is where is “here” for you?’

  Galys blinked.

  ‘You see,’ Bayer continued, ‘I don’t think the old world wants us or the Sefid anymore, but I suspect it may still have some claim on you. And your friends.’

  ‘Kadburn!’

  Bayer stepped aside so she could see Kadburn. He was sitting half on grass and half on Vardar rock. Sunlight splashed around him, competing with the night.

  ‘He will be all right,’ Bayer said. ‘The Beloveds were a very tough bunch, you know. Your other friend seems completely unhurt.’

  ‘Other friend?’

  Bayer pointed to the chancellor, who stood all in night looking as bewildered as it was possible to be. In the other direction stood a group of Kevlerens, looking almost placid in comparison, their eyes gazing skywards towards the sun.

  ‘Where is Lerena?’ Galys asked. ‘I came to kill her, you know.’

  Bayer sighed. ‘She is gone completely. Eaten alive. Then what ate her was consumed by fire. Now there is no sign of anything that has happened tonight, except this world Lerena created, and I think that will be going soon because there is no longer any Lerena to anchor it here.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘So I suggest you leave while you can.’

  ‘Yes.’

  She went to Kadburn and squatted down next to him. ‘I think we have to move away from here.’

  ‘I would like to,’ he grunted, ‘but I think most of my ribs are broken.’

  ‘Here,’ said another voice. ‘Let me help you.’

  An old man, also a Kevleren, Galys thought, bent down and put a hand under Kadburns arm. ‘I know it will hurt, but it really is time to move away.’

  With stifled cries of pain, and with the man on one side and Galys on the other, Kadburn was able to walk. They made a hundred yards or so before Kadburn sank back to the ground. ‘I’m sorry, I cannot go any further.’

  They were surrounded now entirely by night. Overhead was only night sky, half filled with stars and half filled with smoke.

  ‘That’s all right, young man,’ the Kevleren said. ‘I think we’ve gone far enough.’

  ‘Young man?’ Kadburn said, and a frail laugh somehow squeezed out of him. He glanced up at the Kevleren, nodded his thanks, looked away, then quickly glanced up again. ‘You’re Duke Paimer Kevleren,’ he said. ‘I saw you with my master, Maddyn, many times.’ Kadburn sighed, and shuddered with the pain that sighing caused him. ‘But that was a long time ago.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. And I remember you, too.’

  Bayer joined them, leading the chancellor by the hand. ‘You can let go now,’ Bayer said, and the chancellor let go. Bayer turned to Paimer. ‘It’s time for us to go. The world Lerena created with the help of the Sefid will soon be pulled back to whatever universe the Sefid occupies now that its anchors in this world are gone. Our place is there, I think, with the Sefid. Not here in this place, not any more.’

  ‘I’m not coming, cousin,’ Paimer said softly, regretfully. A part of him recognised that Bayer was now perfectly lucid; he thought he should be surprised, but then realised that after everything that had happened it was perhaps only a minor miracle. ‘You know, I think I am going to like this old world without any other Kevlerens in it.’

  Bayer studied his face for a moment, then nodded. ‘Of course. You always were a man of the world.’

  ‘Goodbye,’ Paimer said.

  Bayer waved and left them. Galys watched him rejoin a group of others who stood entirely in sunlight. Even as she watched the sunlight slowly disappeared as the Sefid finally lost its grip on this world, taking with it all the grass and all the trees. And all the Kevlerens, bar one.

  *

  When the new day came, Galys and Kadburn slowly made their way out of the black ruins that had once been Omeralt. Neither was sure how they would get to Somah, but they would find a way, and once there Captain Squeaving would find them and take them home across the Deepening Sea.

  Mycom had left them before dawn, wandering dazed into the night. They knew not where and cared less.

  Galys did not know if a city would ever again occupy the site of Omeralt, but found herself strangely comforted by the sight of Paimer Kevleren and a Hamilayan officer covered in ash and soot directing confused and dazed survivors into building makeshift shelters and gathering food and water.

  38

  Paimer stayed in the ruins of Omeralt for more than a tenday, helping Commander Salo Mikhel re-establish order and install a rudimentary administration to help deal with the survivors. The morning after revealed that the great fire that had destroyed the city had also destroyed all the walking dead. Paimer’s last action before leaving, his last action as a ruling Kevleren, was to make Mikhel governor of the city and its surrounding region. What would happen in the rest of Hamilay was something the Hamilayans would have to figure out for themselves; Rivald was his home now, and he wanted to return to it as quickly as possible to enjoy in peace whatever years were left to him.

  When at last he returned to Hamewald and related what had happened in Omeralt, Marquella Montranto was tempted to allow him to resume the title of lord protector in gratitude, but as if he could read the commander’s mind, Paimer said that it was his firm view Rivald should not hesitate to claim its independence from Hamilay, and that the country need look no further than the current governor of Hamewald, or perhaps the acting lord protector in Beferen, for a temporary president until some better system could be established.

  Montranto, who after being governor for several tendays in Hamewald had decided he liked the mountain air, suggested Paimer himself travel to Beferen to deliver personally to Avenel Kendy the good news.

  Which Paimer did, and in thanks Avenel’s first official act was to grant Paimer for the duration of his life the estate in Rivald he had taken for himself during his term as lord protector.

  Before he was allowed to retire, however, Avenel had one request of the duke.

  And what was that? Paimer had wanted to know.

  The room upstairs. The one Paimer had explicitly said no one was allowed to go into. Avenel, wringing his hands, explained that for many, many days no one did go into the room, but then, about a month ago, there had come from the room a terrible crashing sound. Before they could remind themselves of Paimer’s injunction, two guards had rushed in.

  And what had they found? Paimer asked.

  Why, Avenel told him, nothing but a pile of rusted iron, and what did Paimer think of that?

  *

  Poloma wondered about the future. It was a complex thing, the future, and dangerous to predict. Two things only were certain, and both were a source of great and constant joy to him. First, that Kydan was free, and although it would never be as strong as the Hamilayan empire, or whatever arose to replace it in the old world, it was a city with strong connections among its neighbours, particularly Sayenna, its sister city, and the folk of the great rivers that ran through the New Land. It would thrive as long as its people remembered the sacrifices that had been made for it, and why, something that would be made easier by the presence of men like Kadburn Ax
kevleren and Gos Linsedd. Kadburn, whom the Assembly confirmed as Warden of the Citadel until the end of his days, spent much of his time writing about his experiences as a slave to the Kevleren family, and although acknowledging his love for his old master Prince Maddyn Kevleren, never hiding the horror the family had brought to both the old world and the New Land.

  And Gos had retired from the army and his beloved dragoons soon after the battle for Sayenna, leaving the latter under the able command of its first native leader, the brother of Canna Westaway, a good match for the native leader of all Kydan’s military, Commander Lannel Thorey. Gos had taken on responsibility for continuing Ames’s work in raising horses for the military and for looking after Ames’s family. His relationship with Canna had become more intimate over time and Poloma knew that would bring Gos unexpected happiness and consolation for the rest of his life.

  The second thing Poloma knew for certain was that his family, the Malvaras, was also free and strong and thriving. Who could have imagined only four years before, when he was the last surviving heir of a great Kydan house, that one day he would have a wife who studied in a Kydan school, a daughter, two sons and . . .

  Well, he was not sure how to describe Arden Hassouly, the grim giant who did not actually seem so grim anymore after surviving his near-fatal fever. But that he was family was undeniable, and now that Quenion, who had also taken the last name Hassouly in recognition of Arden’s work and bravery, was Governor of Sayenna and had Velan Lymok to more than ably assist her in every endeavour, Arden was now where he belonged. In the Malvara house. With Heriot Fleetwood. And Poloma and Sorkro and Berrat and little Arden. On Herris Island. In Kydan.

  *

  Strategos Galys Valera, newly made chancellor of the University of Frey, enjoyed looking out of the windows of the home built for her by the grateful citizens of her spouse, the city of Kydan. Particularly from her study on the third floor, where she could see the river flow into the bay and watch seasons and ships come and go as the world travelled into the future, gently taking her along with it.