Citadel

by Martin Ash

  There were others in the chamber.

  ‘Water,’ I rasped. Someone moved, took up the pitcher, brought it back, tipped some of its contents over my head, then knelt and put its rim to my lips. I drank greedily and nodded my thanks. It was the nameless steward. He withdrew from my vision.

  ‘Aniba, Aniba. Oh, my Aniba!’ Feikermun halted suddenly, wheeled and rushed towards me. He sank to one knee, his great gurgling belly almost smothering me. A brutal hand gripped my chin and forced my face to look into his. ‘Who is she? What did she say to you? What does she want?’

  ‘My lord, she said little.’ My mind was racing. The fact that I had spoken to her gave me advantage of a kind. But he was insanely jealous and barely in control of his impulses; I walked a fine and precarious line. He wished me alive to find out what I knew and how it was that I could gain access to her, yet his temper might at any time gain the upper hand. My life might end on a raging whim.

  ‘She is Feikermun’s. Do you understand, Cormer of Chol? Feikermun will have her, and no other will touch her!’

  His thumb and fingers squeezed my jaw so hard I thought he would snap the bone. I nodded, somehow. What was I to say to him?

  ‘Who is she? Where does she come from?’

  ‘She dwells within the Citadel, my lord.’

  ‘In the Citadel?’ He looked surprised, even disconcerted at this. Yes, she is within you, somewhere, I thought.

  He released my jaw. ‘Then Feikermun must return. She is the one woman. She must be Feikermun’s.’

  He rose again, and I wondered, What if he finds her? I was already sure. He would destroy her; I believed he was incapable of anything else. No matter how he desired her, he could do nothing except destroy. It might be partially inadvertent, as with the Avari, but he would destroy nonetheless.

  What would that mean? I could not say; I knew only that I had to do all in my power to ensure that Feikermun was prevented from ever finding Aniba.

  ‘The gidsha is good, Cormer of Chol. You were right. Is there

  more?’

  ‘A little,’ I said, fighting hard to recall, for my memory was a blur. ‘I can acquire more.’

  ‘Then you will do so. Feikermun commands. We will return to the Citadel. Your task is to lead Feikermun to Aniba.’

  I said nothing, wondering if there was a way to bend this circumstance to my advantage. Feikermun stared down at me. ‘Now, tell Feikermun everything she said.’

  ‘My lord—’ I began, and was interrupted. A door had opened and a man swept into the chamber. I recognized Hircun, Feikermun’s one-eyed general.

  ‘My lord, they have control of the outer barbican,’ said Hircun. ‘My men have been forced to fall back to defensive positions within the inner ward.’

  ‘I piss on the mad Bitch!’ railed Feikermun. He kicked out at a stool, sending it flying into the wall, then screamed at his general. ‘Does Malibeth think she can overthrow Feikermun so easily? Hircun, are you a mouse? Why have you not crushed her forces? They cannot match the beasts of Feikermun!’

  ‘Lord, their numbers are—’

  ‘Silence!’ Feikermun shrieked. ‘Don’t bring excuses!’ He raised his fists above his head. ‘Malibeth! Malibeth! Feikermun will drink your blood yet! So close, you do not know. You think to overthrow me, but I have the power! Yes, and you will see, very soon, what it means to cross swords with Feikermun. I am the scourge of my enemies and I will treat you until you howl to die!’

  I looked from his wrathful face to that of one-eyed Hircun, and instinct told me that Hircun had the more realistic grasp of the situation. He was worried. Feikermun too, I guessed, no matter his bravado and bombast. But what was I to do now, for I had to ensure that Feikermun did not fall to Malibeth.

  And the amber. How was I to find it in this beleaguered maniac’s den?

  There was beating in the air, coloured wings in the corner of the chamber - then gone. And no one but I saw them. Feikermun stormed out, head down like a charging bull. His last words to me hung harshly. ‘Cormer of Chol, we will go together, and this time I will not leave your side. You will take me to her. Prepare the gidsha now!’

  I slumped back as the footsteps of the others passed from the chamber. I had not seen who else had been here with Feikermun. The door slammed shut, the sound tossing me like tortured driftwood on a furious ocean. I settled slowly, my ears ringing. The thought of entering the Citadel again so soon was too much to contemplate. I wanted to sleep, only sleep.

  ‘No, you cannot!’

  ‘Please!’

  ‘We depend on you! We need you!’

  ‘I have no strength. I am but one man.’

  ‘But you are not alone!’

  ‘Who will help me?’

  ‘I will’

  ‘Aniba!’ In pale blue raiment, she knelt beside me.

  ‘I can’t do this.’

  ‘Without you we die. We will all die. And the world and all that has ever been will follow. Nothing will remain, not even that which has not yet been.’

  ‘Are the Scrin truly so powerful?’

  ‘More than you can guess. You have seen of the Scrin only what your imagination can conceive. But with the Avari held captive and the gates to the Citadel of Selph thrown open, the Scrin will surge forth in ways and forms you cannot imagine. They will make monsters of all men, turn you all one upon the other, and then they will follow behind, annihilating all that remains until all that is left to annihilate is themselves, which is what they seek.’

  I closed my eyes, trying to summon strength from somewhere within. ‘Feikermun seeks you,’ I said.

  ‘If he finds me he will destroy me. That is all he is capable of now.’

  ‘Yet you want me to keep him alive.’

  ‘You know why. If he dies we cannot close the gates, nor the doors to all the chambers within. Feikermun is your only access to the Citadel; no one before him has brought it so close to the surface. If he dies it will sink again beyond your reach, but with its gates still wide. The Scrin and all of its contents will still be able to pour forth.’

  I gazed up into her eyes, so tender, so full. I reached up, aching to touch her and draw her to me, but she pulled back and shook her head with a solemn smile.

  ‘Don’t leave me!’

  ‘Bring the amber, Dinbig.’

  ‘I don’t know where it is.’

  ‘Ask Feikermun, then watch. Let him show you.’

  She was gone. I sat up. Much of my pain had passed. I felt clearer, stronger. I brushed the wet hair from my face, drank again from the pitcher, then stood and went to the window. The sun hung low in the afternoon sky. The scene around the palace walls had changed little. Feikermun’s troops lined the parapets, and I could make out Malibeth’s fighters from time to time beyond the wall. Buildings still smouldered, but there seemed to be a lull in the fighting - here, at least. There were sounds of battle further south, uncomfortably close. I wondered, Does Malibeth have any inkling of what is at stake here, or is it coincidence that she has struck now? Almost certainly she was aware of Feikermun’s imminent accession to power, and had made her move now to pre-empt him. But equally I would have wagered that her intention was to kill him, thinking this would end his reign. She was ignorant of what it would ultimately mean.

  I turned away from the window, mindful of Feikermun’s last words. Once again I commenced the preparation of the gidsha. I had barely finished when the steward, accompanied by two guards, came for me. ‘Lord Feikermun summons you now.’

  It was growing dusky. I had been on the verge of lighting candles. My mouth and cheek were painfully bruised from Feikermun’s blows, but I realized suddenly that I was faint with hunger. How long was it since I had eaten? I mentioned this to the steward, who replied that he would arrange for food for me, but that there could be no delay in taking me to Feikermun.

  ‘I must speak to my men next door. They have ingredients that I ran short of for this preparation,’ I lied.

  The steward looked dub
ious. ‘How long do you require?’

  ‘A moment.’

  ‘Very well.’ He led me, with the guards, up the corridor. Inside the chamber Jaktem sat alone. He rose quickly as we entered, his face registering shock when he saw my bruising.

  ‘Has Ilian returned?’ I asked in a low voice, though it was virtually impossible to communicate without being overheard.

  Jaktem shook his head. ‘He’s probably prevented by the fighting.’

  I nodded. ‘I’m being taken to Feikermun again. I require something of yours.’ I cautioned Jaktem with a glance and a raised finger, then went to his saddle-pack and, my back to the steward, pretended to remove something from it and place it in my pocket.

  ‘Let me see!’ demanded the steward. I took from my pocket the phial of powdered muss gum which I had secreted there before leaving my own chamber, and showed it to him. He gave a curt nod. ‘Very well. Is that all?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Then let us go.’

  ‘Jaktem, I would remind you once more that you are under no obligation to me,’ I said loudly. ‘You have performed the duties for which I hired you, and you are free to leave my service at any time.’ I spoke to the steward. ‘This man and his partner owe no allegiance to me. They were employed for a specific task, that being to accompany me to Dhaout. They should not be held against their will.’

  ‘That is for The Excellency to decide. Come!’

  I was marched quickly back to my chamber, where I feigned mixing the muss powder into the new gidsha. Then we left, smartly. Squads of soldiers rushed along the corridors, faces grimly set, heading for battle with Malibeth’s intruders. Through a window I saw injured men being tended in a courtyard. Beyond the nearest buildings smoke rose ominously into the reddened sky, which had now begun to cloud darkly. We ascended to Feikermun’s apartments on the third level. He was absent. Guards stood at the door, inside and out, and beside the windows, which were drawn with heavy drapes. Torches and candles illuminated the chamber. A pair of grey langurs chattered on a table and began leaping about excitedly as we entered. The steward pointed to the remains of a meal upon the table: meat, bread, olives, cheese, some vegetables and fruit. ‘You may help yourself while you await The Excellency.’

  He swivelled on his heel and left. I needed no further bidding, but crossed to the table and fell upon the food. There was wine and water also; my preference was for the former but, with my system already intoxicated and enfeebled, reason bade me choose the latter.

  Feeling moderately better, gnawing upon a rib of pork, I crossed to a south-facing window to assess the extent of Malibeth’s advance from her new breakthrough in the southeast. A guard moved to block my path, features hard-set, a sullen challenge in his eyes. He motioned me back with his weapon. I returned and seated myself at the table, watched by the guards and langurs, idly contemplating the bowl of gidsha. And then I remembered the amber. I cast my eyes quickly around the chamber, but there was no sign of it. I made to move, better to survey the place, but a guard stepped forward, pike crossed before his body, and indicated that I should remain where I was.

  Presently came the sound of Feikermun’s voice in the corridors outside, yelling orders in tones of wrath. It grew louder. ‘I want her head! Bring me her head! No! Better! I’ll have her alive! By morning, d’ye hear me, dogs? By morning, in my hands, or you’ll all die. Ha! Let her know what it means to defy me!’

  Notably, once more, he employed the first person in reference to himself, in contrast to his accustomed usage of the third person. I wondered whether this was significant, a measure of his stress and the threat he found himself under - then my thoughts scattered as he crashed into the room.

  He rammed through the heavy door, almost taking it off its hinges as it flew back and hammered into the wall behind. I jumped violently. The monkeys leapt in terror. Feikermun was a fearsome sight, garbed for battle in red steel breastplate over a mail shirt, mail leggings and vambraces and gauntlets. His genitals were encased in an exaggerated codpiece of figured red iron, and his head was stuffed into a stylized horned helmet with peak and neckguard. With his wild hair contained, the head appeared diminished upon the immensely broad shoulders. His face had been painted in a mad array of colours, similar to when I had first seen him in the Banqueting Hall. Unconsciously I rose from my seat, my heart hammering in my chest.

  ‘Cormer of Chol, let us go!’ He strode menacingly towards me, his eyes flashing to the gidsha bowl. ‘Take me to her, now. She is the last. Her blood is all I require, and then I will return to deal with Malibeth!’

  Aniba’s blood! He believed, had somehow persuaded himself, that this was the final key, the last barrier to his acquiring the power he sought so frenziedly. Love her or not, he wanted her life.

  ‘My lord, it’s not—’ I began. Feikermun lashed out, a shocking, brutal, upswinging blow that caught me on the side of the head, took me off my feet and knocked me headlong across the table and on to the floor on the other side. Foodstuffs, goblets and plates showered around me. The langurs fled, shrieking. Stunned, I raised myself shakily to knees and elbows, head ringing, world pounding, Feikermun’s voice a roar of outrage. ‘Do not offer opinions, oaf! Feikermun did not ask, he commanded!’

  I was yanked to my feet. Feikermun had me by the shoulder of my tunic. He lifted me single-handed and thrust me on to the table, threw himself on top of me, his face contorted above mine. ‘The gidsha, piss of a dog!’

  I was almost crushed by his great bulk. I nodded feebly and he eased himself off. I heard the slosh of warm liquids in his huge gut. I sat up and reached for the gidsha bowl, took up the spoon beside it and ate the green mush as Feikermun watched. As soon as I had taken enough he snatched the bowl from my hands and devoured half of what remained. Then he strutted across the chamber, taking the bowl, and disappeared through a side-portal in an alcove at one end.

  I sat on the table’s edge, nursing the bruises on my face, looking around again for the amber. The main door opened and Wirm came in. He wore a longsword and a breastplate of studded cuir-bouilli. His features hardened when he saw me. He glanced about the chamber and, seeing that we were alone but for the guards, advanced upon me, pushing his thin face close, eyes staring past mine, and hissed, ‘I warned you there would be a price to pay if you did not leave. You have ignored me. Do not think I will let it pass.’

  Feikermun re-entered, towing his ape on a chain. The ape, like he, was garbed in war gear, and its pelt and skin, where visible, had been dyed in vividly coloured hues. Wirm turned, spreading his hands and bowing from the waist with an obsequious smile. ‘My lord.’

  ‘Are your men assembled?’

  ‘They are. Below.’

  ‘Take them to the South Wing to support Hircun on the ground level. That is where the mad Bitch’s whelps have broken through. Go, now!’

  Wirm bowed again and left the chamber.

  ‘Now, Cormer of Chol, we must travel,’ declared Feikermun. ‘And quickly. I shall bring back a surprise for sweet Malibeth.’ He seized my arm and yanked me from the table. ‘I am coming!’ he screamed. ‘Aniba, Feikermun comes for you now!’

  There was little time. I had to find the amber now, before the gidsha took effect and we were transported again into Selph’s Citadel.

  ‘Ask Feikermun. Watch him,’ Aniba had said. What did she mean? Surely I could not simply ask and expect him to reveal its whereabouts?

  ‘Lord Feikermun,’ I said, ‘I have a boon to request of you.’

  Feikermun started and blinked as if he had received a slap on the cheek. ‘What did you say?’

  I repeated myself. Feikermun stared at me as though unable to grasp my meaning. ‘A boon?’

  I pressed further. ‘Do you recall the piece of rare amber that I presented to you yesterday? I was wondering if I might see it once more.’

  I watched his face carefully, partly to see whether his features betrayed him by revealing that he had gained some inkling of the importance of the amber. I saw mo
unting indignation, irate disbelief, but nothing that would indicate Feikermun’s having grasped the full scope of the situation. But I perceived something else - just a flicker of his eyes, a tiny reflex motion of the head, off to the side in the direction from which he had just come. This was it! He had told me, as Aniba had said he would! The amber was over there somewhere.

  But exactly where? And how could I get to it?

  Feikermun’s veins bulged he struggled to come to terms with the outrageous, the unpalatable, the incredible fact that I had had the temerity to ask something of him. He, the illustrious, the untouchable, the soon-to-be god. Under different circumstances I sensed he would have struck me down instantly, taken my life on the spot without so much as a thought, but now he needed me, or believed he did, and he fought hard to contain his emotions.