Agang, Flora and Fern drew closer to the firewitch, who was gazing down at Leah’s body.
‘Save us, Keira,’ Flora cried, her hands trembling as she crouched by the firewitch’s knee.
‘She can’t,’ Agang yelled. ‘She lost her powers in the earthquake.’
‘What?’ Flora said, her mouth opening.
‘Shut the fuck up,’ Keira said. ‘Look at the three of ye. Cowering and skulking about won’t save yer arses. That prick up there on the walls is going to kill us. You could at least meet death with a bit of fucking dignity.’
Agang felt shame bite him, but his fear was greater, and he stayed where he was, crouching by Keira’s legs next to Flora and Fern as if they were her children. Amid his panic, he noticed that the pain in his knee had disappeared. He glanced up at Keira.
‘Come on then, ya fanny,’ the firewitch cried. ‘Or if ye don’t, I’ll fucking well come up there and…’
Keira choked and put a hand to her throat. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell forward, landing face down onto the bodies of dead Sanang.
Fern screamed, and ran to Keira, but before she got there, the figure on the battlements flicked his hand, and she, Flora and Agang fell, their hearts stopped.
Agang toppled to the ground, his conscious mind in a panic, but his body unresponsive. He lay on the blood-soaked earth, his mouth open, gasping for air. His eyes began to close.
The power within him rose, the power he had known since his teens, the power that had kept him alive countless times since then. His heart beat again, and he took a breath as his life force re-awakened.
He struggled to his knees, and glanced up. The figure on the battlements had gone. Behind the walls, the fires raged on, burning the city, while the heaped piles of headless Sanang carpeted the ground before the battlements.
He crawled over to Keira, and knelt by her body. She looked at peace.
She had been dead for a bare minute or two, but he knew he had to act quickly. Yet still he hesitated. What good would it do? He should conserve his strength, and run back to Sanang, leave this charnel house behind and hide somewhere deep in the forest. And yet.
Kalayne had said that only she could save the world.
He placed his hands on the sides of her head, and focussed. He had only attempted this twice before in his life. The first time had been a disaster, but the second had worked. He calmed his breathing and felt within her, searching through the lifeless nerves and veins. His power entered her heart and he sent a part of his own life into her.
Her heart started beating. He returned his focus to her head, coaxing the air and blood back. He sensed it circulate again, warming her, and bringing life back to every part of her body.
She gasped and shuddered, and Agang withdrew his hands.
Keira opened her eyes and stared at him. She retched, rolled over onto her knees, and vomited over the bloody earth.
Agang tried to get up, but stumbled over the body of a woman.
It was Flora. He gazed at her face, the white paint smeared red with blood. He was exhausted, but had to try. He leaned over, and placed his hands on the Holdings woman’s head. He controlled his breathing, despite the fear and fatigue coursing through him.
Her heart had been stopped for longer than Keira’s, but he could sense no major damage to any of her organs. He fired up her heart with a burst of energy that almost drained him, and he nearly lost his grip on her head.
He clenched his eyes shut, and urged himself to keep going, pulling air into her lungs, and driving blood to every tip of her body.
He blacked out and collapsed to the ground.
His head was lifted, and he awoke as a skin of wine was placed against his lips. He opened his eyes and saw Keira sitting before him, silhouetted in the darkness against the burning city.
‘Is that what you did to me?’ she said.
He gasped, too weak to speak.
‘What you did to Flora,’ Keira went on, glancing at the Holdings woman, who was crouching low next to her, vomit mixed with blood trailing down the front of her leather armour. ‘You did the same to me? You brought us back?’
Agang nodded.
‘Can you do the same for Fern?’
Agang glanced over at the body of the young Sanang woman lying a few yards away.
‘I’ll try.’
He crawled over to Fern, his head spinning, as Keira and Flora followed. He sat by her head, and placed his hands on the girl’s temples. At once he pulled back, flinching. He glanced over at Keira and shook his head.
‘Why not?’ she said. ‘You run out of power?’
‘I have enough,’ he said, ‘but it’s too late. It’s been too long, her brain… it’s too late.’
‘Can you not fucking try, but?’
‘I could,’ he said. ‘I could restart her heart, and give her life, but she… she won’t be the same. Her eyes will open, but she’ll be empty on the inside. Believe me, you wouldn’t want to see her like that.’
Flora shuddered. ‘He’s a fucking soulwitch.’
‘And thank fuck for that,’ Keira said. She looked down at the young Sanang woman. ‘Sorry, ma wee Fern.’
She lit a weedstick and inhaled as she gazed around. The fires were still raging in the city, but the battlements were deserted, and the embankment sat in darkness.
She passed the weedstick to Agang. He took a draw and felt his energy levels return.
‘Come on,’ Keira said and, keeping low, she set off, clambering over the heaps of bodies. Flora and Agang followed, staying silent. It grew even darker on the other side of the raised bank, and they picked up their speed. Agang kept pace with the firewitch as she raced through the fields on the eastern side of the city. Flora started to lag behind and between them, Keira and Agang helped her along, until they reached a small patch of forest next to a stream a few miles from the city walls, just as the sky was beginning to lighten to the east. There they halted, and fell down onto the cold ground, a frost covering the hard earth.
Flora passed round a skin of water, and Keira lit another weedstick.
The Holdings woman wiped her face with a towel she had soaked in the stream, removing the white face-paint at the same time as the blood, and revealing her dark skin. She looked younger without the make-up, a young woman instead of the fearsome witch that had cowed the warriors of Sanang.
‘So all this fucking time,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘A soulwitch? Fucksake. You could have killed us any time you wanted.’
‘I wouldn’t have got far,’ he said. ‘Unlike Keira, I can only use my power on one person at a time, by physical contact. And, in Sanang all soulwitches are hunted down and killed.’
‘Kalayne was right, then,’ Flora said. ‘Your secret came out anyway.’
He turned to Keira.
‘Have your powers returned?’
She took a long drag on the weedstick. ‘Aye.’
‘Then we should go back and fight.’
Keira snorted.
‘The old man was right all along,’ Agang said. ‘You were right. I was wrong. The church’s plan must have succeeded, and the Emperor has been given every type of mage power. Earthquakes, fires, the land chewed up, heads exploding, hearts stopping… His power’s unlimited.’
‘Which is exactly why I’m getting the fuck out of here.’
She spat on the ground.
He looked into her dark eyes.
‘What was it like being dead?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘I’m not going back to the city,’ Flora said. ‘A few hours ago there were a hundred thousand Sanang warriors outside the walls, and now…?’ She shook her head. ‘The Emperor thinks I’m dead. He thinks we’re all dead. I’m going to crawl off somewhere, and hide. Forever.’
Agang bowed his head.
‘Look,’ said Keira, passing him the weedstick, ‘I’ve a feeling you might be a useful fucker to have around. You can go back to the city and fight if you want. O
r, you can follow me.’
‘Where?’
‘The only place that’ll have me,’ she said. ‘Home.’
Chapter 36
Separate Ways
Tahrana Valley, Imperial Rahain – 20th Day, Second Third Winter 506
Killop sent a spark from his fingers to the lamp on the bedside table, and the wick ignited. He rolled out of bed and glanced at Karalyn, who was standing up in her cot staring at him.
‘Mama?’
‘Aye, wee bear. We’ll find her.’
A wave of hope and fear from her washed over him. He stooped, and picked up his clothes from the floor. He pulled them on, then reached for the back of a chair where his leathers were hanging. He had said ‘we’ to Karalyn, but knew he should leave her with the clan while he searched for her mother. It would be too dangerous to…
The child’s anger surged through him, and he felt her in his head.
Karalyn go with dada. Karalyn find mama.
He realised that without her, he would have no way of knowing where Daphne was, but she might.
‘Aye, wee bear,’ he sighed, ‘you’re coming too.’
He strapped the sword to his belt and slung his shield over his shoulder. He packed a large bag with their things, and dressed Karalyn in warm clothes.
‘Me do it,’ she squealed as he pulled a woollen hat over her ears.
‘I know, but we’re in a hurry.’
He shoved a few bottles of gin into the bag, picked up Karalyn and the lamp, and opened the tent door. They went out into the open air, and the guard on duty nodded to him.
‘Chief.’
Killop nodded back and walked to Bridget’s tent. He was impatient to be gone, but knew he had to tell someone.
He knocked. When there was no reply, he opened the flap and snuck in. Bridget and Bedig were lying asleep on a low mattress against the far wall, with trunks and cases piled up next to the bed.
Killop put the lamp down on a small table, as Karalyn wriggled in his arms.
‘Bridget,’ he called out.
She turned and stretched.
‘Bidgit,’ cried Karalyn.
She opened her eyes, blinking in the lamplight.
‘Killop?’ she frowned. ‘You’d better have a fucking good reason for interrupting my dream about the party we’re going to have when we get back to Domm. It was just getting interesting.’
‘Daphne’s in trouble.’
She sat up. She lifted Bedig’s arm off her waist and put it down by his side as he continued to sleep.
‘What time is it?’ she said, rubbing her eyes.
‘A few hours after midnight.’
‘I take it Daphne has sent you a message?’
‘Aye. Douanna captured her.’
‘Fuck.’
‘She said she lost her vision powers.’
Bridget raised an eyebrow. ‘Then how the fuck did she communicate with you?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t in my head for long, just a few moments.’
‘Where is she?’
‘At the entrance to the Great Tunnel.’
Bridget sighed. ‘We should send a squad of Brynt’s militia after her.’
Killop said nothing.
‘Fucksake,’ she said, ‘the chief shouldn’t be doing this sort of work. You can’t be running off into the night, trying to be a hero. The clan needs you.’
‘We’ll be back soon.’
‘We?’
‘I’ll be taking Karalyn.’
‘No, you fucking won’t,’ Bridget said. ‘If you have to go, and I get it, she’s your woman and you feel it’s your duty and all that, then you’ll be taking a squad of the meanest bastards we’ve got, not a one-year-old bairn.’
‘I need her to find Daphne.’
‘No fucking way.’
‘I’m not going to argue with you,’ he said. ‘I need a wagon and four gaien, and I’m taking Karalyn. You can send along whoever you like as a guard or whatever, but if they slow me down I’ll leave them behind.’
She got out of bed, her long nightdress reaching the mats covering the ground.
‘It’s more complicated than that,’ she said. ‘I was up past midnight working, and heard the reports from the day scout when he came in. There’s word of a new army being mobilised in Tahrana City. They’re due to march in the direction of Jade Falls in a few days. If you go to the tunnel, then the army might be between you and the rest of the clan by the time you find Daphne. And what if Douanna’s already in the tunnel? The settlement at the entrance is about thirty-five miles from here. Say you leave right away. Then, on a gaien-drawn wagon you’ll reach the tunnel in about five or six hours. Have you any idea of the queues at the fort that build up each morning? The scout said they could be miles long.’
‘We’re wasting time.’
Bridget stifled a sob, a tear escaping from her eye.
‘If you’re going,’ she said, ‘then I want to kiss Karalyn goodbye.’
He frowned. ‘I’m coming back.’
Bridget leaned over and kissed Karalyn on the forehead.
‘I’m coming back,’ he said again.
‘Aye.’
‘You don’t believe it, but.’
She hugged them both, the tears spilling down her face. He put his arms around her. She pulled back from the embrace and rubbed her eyes.
‘You made me cry, you stupid bastard.’
‘If anything happens to me,’ he said, ‘the clan won’t hesitate to appoint you chief. You’re the best of us, Bridget, and I would have been nothing without you. You’ll make a great chief one day.’
She shook her head.
‘Give me half an hour,’ she said. ‘I’ll get everything prepared.’
Killop and Karalyn returned to their tent. He looked through some of Daphne’s things, and filled a second case with her clothes. He found her supply of weed and though he was tempted to leave it, packed it with the gin and cigarettes.
He re-emerged from the tent with Karalyn and the two large bags, to find Brynt standing outside.
‘Chief,’ he said, ‘I’ve got the half-squad Bridget asked for. All tough bastards, just as you wanted. They’re waiting for you over by the road.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Can I ask where you’re going, Chief? Seems an odd hour to be leaving.’
‘I’m meeting Daphne tomorrow in a town close by. Once I pick her up, I’ll be back with the clan in a day or so.’
Brynt nodded, but his eyes were wary. He picked up the two cases.
‘Thanks,’ said Killop. He lifted Karalyn and they walked towards the road to the north.
‘I’ve had three days’ supply of food loaded, Chief,’ Brynt said, his thick arms carrying the two heavy bags without any trouble. ‘Two of the half-squad have longbows, so they’ll be able to hunt if you run short. Bridget also asked me to get some gold from the treasury, and so I’ve got a purse with fifty sovereigns on my belt for you.’
Killop’s mind wandered as the man talked. Bridget had known of his and Daphne’s reluctance to travel to Domm, and she had criticised his decision to station himself at the rear of the convoy, leaving her to lead the way from Slateford. Once he had found Daphne, then his choices would be clearer. Did he want to be chief? Without Slateford, what would it mean to be chief, if the Severed Clan was absorbed into the rest of the Kellach Brigdomin living in the Domm haven? He realised he had never asked Daphne where she wanted to go.
They reached the road.
An open-topped wagon was waiting, with two pairs of gaien attached. Four of Brynt’s militia sat in the back, with another up on the driver’s bench. The squad leader was standing by the wagon. Her eyes were tired, but she wore the expression of someone who had faced worse than being woken in the middle of the night for duty.
‘Chief,’ she nodded.
Brynt passed the two cases up to the four militia on the wagon, who placed them alongside the other luggage and supplies that were piled u
p at the front by the driver’s bench.
Killop looked around for Bridget, but she wasn’t there.
‘At dawn,’ Brynt said, handing him the purse of coins, ‘the clan will be on the road west. I’ll see you in a few days.’
Killop nodded, and passed Karalyn up to the soldiers. He gripped the sideboard and pulled himself into the back of the wagon.
The squad leader climbed up and sat next to him, and the driver cracked his whip. Brynt raised an arm in farewell as the wagon lurched down the road. Killop laid Karalyn down next to him on the bench and wrapped her in blankets.
‘Go to sleep, wee bear,’ he said. He sat back for a moment, watching as the wagon drew away from the camp, and back towards the river crossing.
He settled down next to her, his arm ensuring she didn’t roll off the bench. He glanced up at the squad leader.
‘Wake us when we get to the tunnel.’
The morning sun was shining down on the Tahrana Valley when Killop was nudged by the squad leader. They had stopped at the end of a long line of wagons and carriages, stretching several hundred yards towards the fort where the tunnel began.
‘Here we are, Chief,’ the squad leader said, ‘in the queue to get through.’
The militia were in the back of the wagon sharing a cold meal, and they passed some meat and bread to Killop, along with a mug of ale. He woke Karalyn and changed her nappy. He wrapped her up warm, and tore some food into small pieces for her.
The driver turned his head back to look at them.
‘This’ll take hours, Chief. We’re moving a few yards forward every five minutes. We’re not even in the town yet.’
Killop gazed up as he ate. The first houses of the settlement were a hundred yards away. He glanced down at Karalyn.
‘Where’s mama?’ he said.
The little girl’s eyes clouded over for a moment, then she pointed up the road towards the tunnel.
‘What’s she doing, Chief?’ the squad leader said. ‘How does she know where Miss Daphne is?’
The Magelands Box Set Page 141