SHIANG

by C. F. Iggulden

  Hondo sat up straight when the door to his cell came open, his chest straining against the bonds that held him. Tellius walked in with a bunch of keys held in his hands. He grabbed the first lock and began slotting them into it, one by one.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Hondo asked.

  ‘The city is under attack, Master Hondo. By men from Shiang.’

  The news rocked Hondo, though he tried not to show it. He waited as Tellius found the right key and tossed a padlock aside. Hondo felt the first chain give, but three more needed to go before he could stand up.

  ‘What is that to me? Why free me now?’ he said.

  Perhaps because he had been alone for so long, he found it hard to resist the urge to speak. Tellius removed a second lock and Hondo felt the links by his ankles fall loose. If he’d wanted, he thought he could have stood and grabbed Tellius by the throat at that moment. Was it a trap? A test? Either way, each lock removed was one step closer to freedom. The third lock fell away.

  ‘Are you not afraid I will kill you?’ Hondo asked softly.

  Tellius paused and looked him in the eye. His face was grim.

  ‘Not any longer. One of the men wore a sword with a dark red scabbard and a gold band. A very particular sword, Master Hondo. It used to be worn by my brother, and when he died, it would have been worn by his son.’

  He saw the blood drain from Hondo’s face as he understood. Tellius nodded bitterly.

  ‘That blade is beyond value, Master Hondo. It would never – never – be given to another. If this man carries it, my nephew is dead.’

  ‘That is a lie …’ Hondo said, though he believed the manner of the man he faced as much as the words. Tellius was pale with anger, but also grief, as if he could barely speak.

  The last lock dropped with a rattle and Hondo stood slowly, stretching his limbs. Tellius placed the bunch of keys on the table.

  ‘Why would I lie?’

  Hondo rubbed his wrists.

  ‘Because it suits your cause. If the king is dead, my orders are null. I have no reason to complete the task given to me. For the price of a single lie, you would have me ride away.’

  Tellius shook his head, looking old and tired.

  ‘You haven’t thought it through,’ he said. ‘You told me the king had no brothers and no sons. If he is dead – and by his sword, I know he is – who does the throne fall to then?’

  Hondo stood very still as his world crashed down around his ears. After an age, he spoke again, though his voice shook.

  ‘You cannot expect me to accept this on your word alone.’

  ‘I do not. My city is under attack. When you see the sword, you will know – and in that moment, I will order you to defend me, to defend Darien.’

  ‘You do not have the authority,’ Hondo said immediately, though his voice trailed away as he said the words. If Tellius spoke the truth, the man he had come to bring home as a traitor had all the authority he needed. Hondo ran a hand over his jaw as he thought, suddenly uncertain.

  ‘Have you spoken to Je? What of Bosin?’

  ‘I came first to you, Master Hondo. You can explain to your companion. As for Bosin …’ Tellius winced. ‘I have brought the Canis Stone to this estate. It can heal him.’

  ‘You lied before, then,’ Hondo said, anger rising quickly in him.

  ‘No. I said the price was too high – and in time of peace that was exactly right. In war, everything else goes to hell. A man who can take the royal sword from the king in Shiang will not be easy to stop, if we can stop him at all. Perhaps he is the black wave, I do not know. I do know that we’ll need every master swordsman, including your friend. With your permission, I will have Lord Canis restore him.’

  ‘And the price?’ Hondo asked.

  ‘You will see when you meet Lord Canis. His father used it on him when he was a boy, when his leg was crushed. It saves, but it takes … warmth. I would see that thing ground into dust if I had my way, but if this Bosin is anything like you, I would be a fool to deny his skill to my city, just when we stand against men of Shiang. Do you understand? If your man loses his soul, I would still do it.’

  ‘Bosin vowed to serve,’ Hondo said. ‘He dedicated his life and all his strength to the king.’

  ‘Dying is easy enough,’ Tellius said. ‘This? It might be better to leave him.’

  ‘No,’ Hondo said, making the decision. He had seen Bosin’s strength and the man was right. Bosin unconscious was useless.

  ‘Do whatever needs to be done,’ Hondo said.

  Tellius struggled with himself. He began to turn away and then spat the words that needed to be said.

  ‘Lord Canis strangled his own daughter, years ago. She had cut herself on a thorn-bush and she was crying. When they asked him later why he had done it, he said he’d asked her to stop and she had not. That is what they are like, those healed by the Canis Stone.’

  Hondo looked at him in something like awe. Slowly, in the cramped space, he dropped to his knee and bowed his head.

  ‘You are a good man,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know.’ He hesitated, still reeling from what he had learned. Then his jaw set and his eyes shadowed. ‘But before you do anything you cannot take back, I would like to see the one who carries the royal sword. If I see that, I will allow Bosin to be healed by this stone.’

  Tellius nodded, but it was to confirm his own conclusion, not in agreement.

  ‘There is no time,’ he said unhappily. ‘Lord Canis is here now. Trust me – or do not.’

  He waited while Hondo thought over everything he had said. The man stood absolutely still and Tellius did not try to rush him. He was asking for a fine judgement, but Hondo didn’t have enough information to make it. Trust or not trust. In the end, it always came down to instinct. After an age, the sword saint dipped his head.

  ‘Thank you,’ Tellius said in relief. ‘Very well then. Come with me. The twin is in the cell next to yours. One of those brass keys will open his door. Bosin is further along. I’ll have the guards bring him into the main house.’

  He rushed out, leaving Hondo to stare in amazement. He had risked everything, but the proof that mattered most was that he had been trusted in turn. He looked at the keys to the cells and the open locks in amazement, still reeling from the change in his status. King Yuan-Choji was dead? Hondo clenched his jaw at the thought, feeling himself tremble. If the one who had murdered that young man was in Darien, his duty was clear. He was the sword saint and he would not fail.

  Thump. Gabriel took a sharp breath. Was it a call or a warning? It felt close, as if he could almost see the gleam of the stones. He did not doubt he could find them, if those around him gave him just a moment of peace. Yet they would not – and they were dying because they would not. Sanjin in particular seemed to delight in the violence he could achieve. He made men scream like children, and when Thomas pulled the air from their throats to give them a quick end, Sanjin had glared at him with such rage Gabriel had thought he would turn on them. The man was running mad – and yet Gabriel could sense something coming. It felt like a brightness in the air, a purple heat approaching that point around the north gate. It had to be a stone – what else could evoke such longing in him? Power called to power. He and the others were the Aeris Stone. Perhaps that was why the things had clustered in Darien, brought into proximity by ancestors who never truly understood what they had created.

  Gabriel looked back to where Marias and Lord Ran cowered, hearing her voice cry out even through the screams and crashes of fighting all around him. Thomas had thickened the air, but something had come through in his moment of inattention. Gabriel cared more for the sense of heat building ahead. If he could snatch just one more stone, he would not need Sanjin or Thomas.

  He saw Marias hold up her arm where a bolt had pierced her. He could not let her be killed, but at the same time he knew very well that the thought was not his own. The air itself swirled with broken pieces of wood and sparks of flame, while another stone approached him – and
all the time, he fought an unnatural urge to get Marias to safety. Yet she stood with Lord Ran. If the old man was killed, who knew if a dozen stones would be any use?

  Gabriel cursed and turned back to the pair of them, his steps crunching on mud dried to dust by Sanjin’s wild heat. He put out his hand to Marias as she sank to her knees, blood pouring from her arm. Around them, bolts and spears burned. It was almost beautiful.

  ‘I am here, Marias,’ he said.

  Somehow she heard him. He took her by the other arm and plucked the bolt from her flesh with a single movement, making her take a breath in sudden pain. She still held the leash. The Fool watched them without any sign of understanding, unaware of the danger that surrounded them.

  ‘There, it is better now,’ Gabriel said, touching his hand to the wound.

  She looked at him in wonder.

  ‘Taeshin?’ she said.

  His smile hardened.

  ‘Take Lord Ran and the Fool to safety, Marias. It is too dangerous for you to stand with me.’

  He glanced aside at one of the houses that edged the street. Sanjin was advancing against the ranks of militia attempting to engage them. Gabriel saw Thomas widening his stance, trying to keep them both covered.

  ‘Quickly,’ he said.

  He took short steps and kicked a door right off its hinges, revealing a kitchen and a cowering family. Marias fell to her knees as he pushed her inside. He could feel the thickened air moving away as Sanjin pressed on, drunk on destruction.

  ‘Gabriel!’ Thomas called to him.

  ‘I’m coming,’ he said.

  He pushed the Fool in behind her. In his haste, Gabriel plucked too hard at Lord Ran, so that the man’s shoulder was cruelly wrenched and he cried out. Gabriel swore, bundling him through the doorway even as fresh gunfire sounded behind him.

  He turned around at that. Gabriel wanted to walk towards the new line of men that had appeared on the wall. Their iron pistols offended him, as a swordsman and as a king. Yet he saw shots spark off the stones around him. The protection Thomas gave was fading in his wake and he did not want to waste the tides within on merely healing his own wounds.

  Gabriel turned his back on Marias and felt the resistance vanish in him as he did. She was safe and whatever shadow of Taeshin that remained in his flesh was satisfied. He was quite alone as he walked back to the others.

  In the grey land, Taeshin roared out his displeasure. He stalked the battle lines like a hunting leopard, haranguing them, calling to them, but never daring to pick up one of the swords or the shields that lay scattered on that field. He knew he would be lost if he did, but equally, he knew in despair that he would take a weapon into his hand in the end. There was nothing else in that place. Each morning, he walked down the hill and shouted and sang and capered – anything he could do to catch the attention of the soldiers. Some of them turned to look at him, but they never seemed to understand. Then the horns would sound across the field and they’d all look forward, like dogs called to the hunt.

  He had watched the king brought down by knights. He had seen him cut down in single combat against a champion. More times than not, Taeshin had seen the man win, against the odds. He’d come to understand this king doomed to battle for eternity was not a weakling, whatever sins had damned him to that place. The man was a rare fighter and he looked after those who followed him. More than once, the only reason they’d won was because he’d avoided actions that would have bled them dry on the field. A warrior king did not have to be a good man, but he had to lead – and his men had to want to follow him. Taeshin could see it in their faces as they watched him and smiled, the way a son might smile seeing his father coming along a path in the woods.

  Taeshin watched them march on and this time he did not go with them, but stood, utterly defeated, as they went to death or glory. He’d seen Marias pressed through a doorway, kept safe from the barrage of missiles and stones. The thought made him look down, to where his boots rested on the grey ground. He nudged a stone there and his eyebrows rose in surmise.

  19

  Bracken

  Lord Canis had not moved from the spot when Tellius returned. He stood with no expression at all, though his eyes followed Tellius as soon as he appeared.

  ‘Where is the fellow who is to be healed? Are you wasting my time, Master Tellius?’

  ‘He is being brought up, my lord. There was no room below, for you to tend him. There is also a small chance he will be … hostile. I could not guarantee your safety in his room. If you’ll follow me, I will lead you to the main house.’

  He spoke as if he was reciting a poem and the result seemed to please Lord Canis, who bowed his head a touch further.

  ‘Lead me wherever you wish, sir, but be quick. I cannot dawdle here. This is the limit of my favour, Master Tellius. Neither should you assume your gates hold me here. My will alone holds me here.’

  Tellius bowed deeply, feeling old muscles stretch and ache. He led the way to the estate house of the Sallets, away from the huge doors where the Sallet Greens were being readied to go out. He thought the lady of the house might not appreciate Lord Canis seeing those preparations. Tellius smiled to himself as he entered through the main door into a hall. He had found love, but also loyalty to the lady who shared his bed. It seemed he would bleed green, if the worst happened.

  Bosin had been laid on a litter, his weight borne by four big guardsmen. They were red-faced and dusty from efforts Tellius could only imagine. The narrow stairs from the cells had been designed to make a rush of prisoners almost impossible. Manoeuvring Bosin around those corners had left the men perspiring but triumphant, as they placed him on a long table in the day room.

  Hondo and Je took station on each side of their companion. Tellius thought he had never seen a less comfortable pair in all his life. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, he would have laughed at them. Instead, he approached Je confidently, as if the man had not intended to capture or kill him only recently. Tellius watched the young man’s eyes widen as he walked over from the far end of the room.

  ‘Has Master Hondo explained the situation to you?’ he said as he came. ‘About the sword that is now in the hands of one of the men entering this city?’

  Je nodded, resembling a child caught stealing rather than the fearsome warrior he actually was. Both men were nervous as cats, Tellius saw.

  ‘I was sorry to hear you lost your brother,’ he said.

  There was a beat of silence then in the awkwardness between them. Tellius shook himself mentally. All that mattered was that neither of the men of Shiang would attack him. He had blustered his way through a difficult situation, forcing them to take positions before they truly had time to think it through. So far, it had brought Bosin to that room and kept the peace. Tellius had tried to think of every objection, but he knew sooner or later Hondo would ask for his sword to be returned. That would be the true test. With his blade in his hand, Tellius knew very few things could stop a sword saint. The twin pistols concealed beneath his jacket might be one of them, however. He eyed the man who had reached the top of a pyramid made of a hundred thousand swordsmen. He hoped he never had to find out.

  Tellius felt his expression stiffen as Lord Canis examined the enormous swordsman on the table. The man Hondo called Bosin looked swollen around the face and neck, as if fluid had gathered beneath the skin. He had groaned as the Sallet guards brought him in, but there was no sign of life then. His eyelids were bruised and dark and the chest hardly rose or fell. Tellius winced as Canis probed with long fingers, pressing and sniffing as he circled, like some spider that would eventually lay its eggs in the man.

  ‘Master Tellius? Shall I begin?’ Canis called to him.

  Tellius shook himself free of the trance that gripped him. He looked to Hondo. To his credit, the sword saint hesitated, pressing his lower lip between his teeth.

  ‘He will be changed?’ he said.

  Lord Canis raised his eyes to the ceiling, clearly impatient to get on. Tel
lius wondered how many times he had heard some variant of the same question.

  ‘He will be better,’ Canis said.

  Tellius waited, though the city was under attack and he wanted nothing more than to run from that room and watch the defences brought down like a hammer on the intruders. He thanked the Goddess for Lady Forza, but the enemy had come through their new walls. Whatever lay ahead would be settled by steel and guns and the artefacts of Darien. As it should be, he thought.

  Hondo dipped his head and Lord Canis decided he had waited long enough. He reached into the black bag at his feet and withdrew a stone of similar colour, though Tellius thought it was flecked with gold in the depths. It was the fourth stone he had seen – the Sallet, the Forza, the Bracken Stone its lord wore as a bracer and then this, one he had hoped never to lay eyes on. Tellius imagined every noble family in the city had whispered the name of it at some point. They would all rather see it gone. Yet if a choice had to be made between a life marked by that stone, or death without it … It was all too easy to imagine a child lying there. Lord Canis may have been cold, but someone had loved him once.

  With care and concentration, Canis set the stone into a glove of leather and gold wire. Tellius watched the man use one hand to ease the other into the exact position. He could no longer close his fist. The stone was held against his palm like a tumour, polished and gleaming. Canis adjusted a couple of tension bands to his satisfaction, fixing it in place in complete silence. No one in that room dared to speak while he did so. It was as if they had stumbled onto some horrible ritual. Tellius cleared his throat twice as it seemed to swell shut. He tried to remember every detail and at the same time prayed he would never consider using the thing on himself or anyone he loved. He made himself swear he would not, but when death stood in the shadows, who knew what oaths would hold or be broken?