26
When Lanalor returned to the world he beheld the Unykorn
whom Shenavyre loved,
and was jealous …
LEGENDSONG OF THE UNYKORN
Duran turned to stare at Glynn with accusing, incredulous eyes. ‘Is it true, Glynn Roseberry Flandryfire?’
Hella laughed coldly. ‘Is that what she told you her name was? She is no more Fomhikan than I. I do not know what she is other than a betrayer of friendship.’
Glynn’s head jerked back as if she had been slapped. ‘Hella, I didn’t betray you. I went …’
‘I know very well where you went. You hurried to your mistress to let her know my brother was dead.’
‘But Hella, Solen …’ Duran began, then she stopped and glanced back at Glynn. ‘It is clear you two know one another and I would be told how.’
‘We met on Acantha. She sought my brother’s aid and protection pretending to be Fomhikan and in need. When Solen fled, she bade me pack and meet her so that we could leave Acantha together. I trusted her and I did as she asked. I waited. But she did not return. I did not want to leave without her, but Nema made me, saying she would seek for her and send her on. When I came here, I sought out her family. I wanted to give them news of her, but there was no family. No one had ever heard of her. Then Nema sent word that she was with the Draaka.’
Hella spat out the last words and Glynn was stunned at her rage. Without warning, the door opened and Argon white cloak stepped into the room. He seemed more gaunt and severe than when Glynn had seen him, and there was something hunted in his eyes.
‘Keep your voices down,’ he snapped. ‘You can be heard in the common room shouting.’ His gaze roved over them, seeking the focus of their discord. His eyes widened in recognition when they reached Glynn. ‘You are the girl Solen saved from the great water.’
Duran shook her head and sighed. ‘This story becomes deeper and deeper. Solen saved her?’
‘Aye, and by doing so, made himself her keeper until she healed. She was suffering from extreme exposure and had swallowed enough bittermute algae to paralyse her memory as well as her body and voice. But what is she doing here, for he took her to Acantha? Or did he bring her here as well?’
Duran made a cutting motion with her hand and Argon’s brows lifted at whatever her eyes communicated.
‘She came here with the Draaka,’ Hella snarled. ‘Solen should have let the silfichoke on her.’
Argon looked at Duran swiftly. ‘The Draaka is here?’
The blonde amazon nodded brusquely. ‘Bound for Ramidan at the request of Tarsin, or so she claims.’ Glynn saw a look of anguish fleet across Argon’s face, quickly masked, but there was no space to wonder at it.
‘Silfa heard it spoken of in the common room,’ Duran added. ‘And Hella also …’
‘Donard told me of it just now,’ Hella explained. ‘He arrived too late to sit at his father’s table, but from the edge of the crowd he watched while the Draaka spoke and Poverin allowed it. Maeve left with Rilka while Gedron licked the heels of the Draaka. He said she was there as well.’ She nodded at Glynn as if the mere gesture defiled her. ‘Now I want to know why she is here. What lies has she told and what is she trying to make you do?’
‘I was not trying to make anybody do anything,’ Glynn protested. ‘Sure I lied about being Fomhikan, but only because Solen suggested it. He said since I looked like a myrmidon, I had better say I was Fomhikan while I was on Acantha.’
‘If you are not Fomhikan and you are not a myrmidon, what are you?’ That was Argon, and there was an edge of curiosity in his voice.
‘I don’t know.’ A lie, but what else could she say after what had gone before? ‘I went to the Draaka to try to sell a darklin I had found in the minescrape. I could not sell it anywhere else because I had accidentally let it orientate on me … When I was working in the minescrape, I heard that the Draaka used stones for some sort of ritual, and I thought she might pay for my darklin, even though it was orientated. But then …’ She stopped, not knowing how to explain the feinna.
‘You lie as you breathe,’ Hella hissed. ‘She did not speak of any darklin to me before leaving. Solen gave her shelter and, almost from that moment, things started going wrong for him. Then, the very day after he died, she crept away to the Draaka. No doubt she had belonged to her all along and was praised for her successful part in our downfall. Solen said she was nothing to him, but he was wrong. She was his blackwind.’
Glynn’s own slow temper flared at the reminder of Solen’s unexpectedly cruel last words to her. ‘Don’t make me your scapegoat, Hella. I played no part in your brother’s downfall. Solen had already done what had been forbidden by your chieftain when he pulled me aboard the Waverider. And your chieftain knew about it already – Nema said so and we heard Jurass say it during the wing hall. Solen offered me shelter because Carick made him, but I was grateful. I did not tell you where I was going that night when we parted because I did not want you to be afraid. You were so upset about Solen’s death.’
‘Liar,’ Hella reiterated.
Glynn’s anger died, leaving her fatalistic. In the face of such bitterness, what could be said? She turned from Hella to Duran.
‘I have told you the truth.’ She had given up all notion of telling the deepest truth about herself. What she had said was true in all that mattered. She was not a spy; she was not allied with the Draaka.
‘Why are you with the Draaka now?’ Duran asked.
Glynn decided there was no use in telling them about the feinna. These amazons spoke of killing so carelessly, what respect would they have for an animal’s life? The amazons would think her a weak fool for not wringing the little animal’s neck to free herself from its bonding. If they even believed her. And would they, given that such a link as had grown between the feinna and herself was supposed to be rare, if not impossible?
‘In the beginning, I had no choice but to work in the haven because, though they would not pay me for the darklin, the draakira said I must pay for the time I had spent there.’
‘You could have paid with the coin you had earned from the minescrape,’ Hella snapped.
Glynn answered the question without turning from Duran. The coin had vanished. There was no longer any pleading in her voice. A simple statement and nothing asked.
Hella snorted in disbelief.
‘Each day I worked to pay for the night before,’ Glynn said to Duran. ‘It was a vicious cycle. Then I found they intended to travel, and I had the chance go with them. I had no way of contacting Hella and so many days had passed. Nema had offered her help and so I could only hope Hella was all right. In any case, I had no real choice. I could stay in the haven working forever, or I could work for the Draaka and leave Acantha as part of her entourage.’
‘But you are not Fomhikan, so why the desire to travel here?’
‘I did not want to come here,’ Glynn said. ‘This is the Draaka’s journey and it was her decision to remain on this island for a night. I want to go to Ramidan.’ She thought fast, foreseeing the next question.
‘Why?’ Argon barked.
Duran gave him a strange look. ‘You do not speak with any courtesy to us,’ she observed. ‘You demand to travel with us to Myrmidor at our not inconsiderable expense, yet you are full of questions about this girl. What is she to you? Do you weave aught of her.’
‘I do not. That is why I am curious.’
Glynn shifted to bring Duran’s eyes back to her. ‘I told you I had accidentally invoked the darklin. In a vision I remembered I have a sister there who is ill. Dying. I don’t know how or why, but she is on Ramidan. I have to get to her and the Draaka offered the quickest way.’
Hella began to applaud. ‘See what a balladeer she is? Once she was a daughter of Fomhika with an uncle who could not sing, and now she has a dying sister on Ramidan. Such tales she weaves us. Such glittering lies.’
Glynn glared at the Acanthan girl, the rotten sweet-wine taste of fury ri
sing in her throat. ‘You think you are the only one who has ever grieved for someone, Hella? You were my friend and I grieved for Solen’s death with you, though I was nothing to him. Yet you laugh at the fact that my sister is dying. You don’t know what friendship is.’
Glynn was sick to death of confrontation and perilously near to tears, which she sensed would not serve her at all with these people. She wanted to tell them to do as they pleased and go to hell, but if they killed her, the feinna would suffer, and Ember. For them, she had to endure, if not for herself.
‘Why did you not tell us you were with the Draaka at once?’ Dolf asked. ‘Why did you come with us?’
‘If you remember, I was somewhat preoccupied when we met in the lane,’ Glynn said tersely. ‘As for tricking you or lying, I did not ask you to bring me here and I have been trying to leave ever since I realised who you were.’
‘She has heard too much,’ Silfa growled, drawing a wicked-looking knife from a belt sheath. ‘We saved her worthless life, now we will take it from her.’
Duran caught hold of Silfa’s arm in a seemingly effortless grip, but the big woman grimaced in pain and let the knife drop out of her hand to the floor.
‘I will decide this matter, unless you would dispute my authority in a challenge,’ Duran said, in a soft voice that was silk wrapped around stone.
Silfa gave her a wounded look. ‘I only said …’
Glynn moved back against a wall, wondering if she had the slightest hope of making a run for it. She looked over to the door, but it was blocked by Hella and Argon. Hella was talking rapidly to the older man, whose face was virtually expressionless. Silfa and one of the other myrmidons began to argue.
‘Quiet!’ Duran snapped. She looked at Glynn. ‘I do not believe that what we saw was a set-up designed to lure us to take you in. There was too much risk that we would not bother, and no one made us walk that lane at that moment.’ She turned to Gorick. ‘And did she not reject my offering of secrets?’
‘That is true, by the Horn,’ Gorick answered. ‘Yet she heard us speak of the Draaka bitch and said nothing to stop us.’
‘What should I have said?’ Glynn demanded indignantly. Didn’t these people have any imagination? ‘Here I am travelling with the Draaka and I find myself saved by her enemies. Would you have me announce it when there was every likelihood my throat would be slit?’
‘That is fairly put,’ Duran said evenly. ‘But tell me, you said you were not of the Draaka’s order. Are you opposed to her beliefs?’
‘More importantly, is she for Darkfall?’ Gorick said. ‘Ask her that.’
Silfa put her hands on her hips. ‘Do you call it chance, Duran, that brings the servant of an enemy into the midst of our secret meeting? If so, then the Chaos spirit has found a way to make chance its servant.’
‘I am not your enemy!’ Glynn said. ‘I am nothing more than a servitor to the Draaka.’
‘To serve the Draaka is to serve the Chaos spirit,’ Silfa said.
Glynn ignored her, holding the myrmidon leader’s gaze. ‘You saved my life and I’m grateful for that, but it doesn’t mean I want to be part of whatever you are doing or what you believe. I don’t. Nor does the fact that I am working for the Draaka mean I care about her beliefs. What is between you and her has nothing to do with me.’
‘How did she come among you in the first place?’ Argon asked Duran.
‘She was set upon by three ruffians and we intervened,’ Gorick explained.
‘Yet again she is rescued …’ Argon mused.
‘Would that we had urged them on,’ Silfa snarled.
‘I have no quarrel with the rescue, but what possessed you to bring her here?’ Argon asked.
‘It was foolish, in hindsight,’ Duran admitted ruefully. ‘Put it down to her looking so like one of our own younger sisters. She could be my blood sister.’
‘She can not be allowed to report to her Draaka,’ Silfa pointed out.
‘What could I report?’ Glynn snapped ‘Everyone knows the Draaka wants Darkfall closed down. I am sure your being here is no secret nor the fact that you myrmidons hate the Draaka. I have heard nothing that everyone does not already know.’
‘I will deal with her,’ Silfa volunteered. Glynn’s mouth dried out for there was no doubt in her mind that the burly amazon could kill her with ease.
‘No,’ Duran said. ‘It is a twisting of chance that she is here, but chance I believe it was, though a chancing so odd I must believe there is some reason for it. Each thing has its song to sing, and truly, this sings loudly.’ The myrmidon leader ran a rough hand through her dreadlocks, and the silver beads interspersed clicked together.
‘You do not mean to let her go!’ That was an incredulous Silfa.
‘I do,’ Duran said quietly. ‘But think of this after you leave us, Glynna. Frame it how you will, serving the Draaka is serving the Chaos spirit and you are a fool if you think that the battle between the Draaka and Darkfall does not concern you. It concerns every person who yearns to the light. Everyone serves one or the other, and most of us both at some time or another. If you would walk away unscathed from this perilous night, you must serve the light.’
‘What?’ Glynn stammered, for this was unexpected and seemed at odds with everything else the woman had said.
‘Plainly, I will let you go. But only if you will swear to serve us and spy on the Draaka for us.’
Glynn bit her lip. It would be easy enough to say yes, and safer, but she hesitated. She did not want to lie to Duran, and she had no intention of getting mixed up any deeper in Keltan politics. She was fairly certain that Duran believed her, and decided to risk the truth. ‘I will not spy for you,’ she said. ‘It’s got nothing to do with her cause or yours. It wouldn’t be right to take her pay and work for you. I told the Draaka’s people I would work for them until we reach Ramidan and that is what I mean to do. Work for them. Fetch and carry. If you have to kill me for that, then do it because I’m sick of all this talking.’
To her surprise, Duran smiled. ‘Spoken with the impatience and the honour of a myrmidon. Know this, Glynna. Had you agreed to spy for us, I would have let Silfa follow you and slit your throat, for someone who would serve two masters will betray either. It seems my instincts did not mislead me after all.’
‘I … I don’t understand,’ Glynn said, feeling sick all over again at the thought of Silfa creeping after her in the dark.
‘You are honest, girl, and to a fault. But it has saved you. Would that you saw all things as clearly as you see your honour. Tell me, would you judge me honest?’
Bewildered, Glynn nodded.
Duran’s smile broadened. ‘Well, then I suggest a different pact. We will let you go free, and you will forget you met us, or, at least, you will not speak of this meeting to the Draaka.’
‘Agreed,’ Glynn said, wishing all over again she had not got on the wrong foot with the myrmidons, and that she might have put her troubles into Duran’s capable hands. But it was too late now. Silfa’s black look told her that, and Hella was still glaring at her.
Duran held out her hand and Glynn took it in a firm grip. ‘Very well. Argon will take you back to the main streets.’
‘Do you presume to order me?’ Argon snapped.
Duran gave him a level look. ‘Take it as a request from one of whom you have made demands this day which some might say you have no right to make, Argon soulweaver.’
Argon bridled, then nodded curtly and made a gesture towards Glynn. She obeyed with alacrity, not wanting to give Duran time for second thoughts. She did not look at Hella. Argon ushered her back through the crowded kitchen and into the leafy lane.
‘Little sister!’ Duran called.
Glynn turned to see that the leader of the amazons had come to the door. ‘When first I saw you, I thought you were a young myrmidon. If ever you would join us, or decide to align yourself with Darkfall, seek out the myrmidons and say my name, Duran, and they will help you.’
G
lynn did not have to know much about this woman to sense that she did not offer such things lightly. ‘Th … thank you,’ she stammered, but Duran had already gone inside, closing the door behind her.
‘Where are you staying?’ Argon demanded.
Glynn told him the name of the nightshelter, and he nodded and set off quickly, taking the road. She trotted after him, her mind reeling with all that had happened, but she was also curious about Argon. Aboard the Waverider he had spoken savagely against Darkfall, yet now here he was with the myrmidons. Since they had only just arrived, he must have been here all this time. Nema must have sent Hella here, and Donard dwelt here as the son of Poverin. Yet there was some reason they all met, and Duran had spoken of secrets. Glynn had said she did not want to hear any secrets, but she could not help but be curious what would have been said if Hella had not come. Soberly she reflected that, if she had heard those secrets, Duran might well have let Silfa slit her throat, so in a sense Hella had saved her life.
Glynn felt a pang of hurt at the Acanthan girl’s words even so. Hella had found it easy to assign to her the worst motives. Between Solen’s cold dismissal of her only hours before his suicide and this, Glynn was forced to realise how little she meant to anyone in this world.
They reached the leafy poles outside the nightshelter just as clouds reconformed to unsheathe and frame the green moon. Glynn thought how cold and remote it was. She turned to Argon whose eyes were fathomless in his gaunt face.
‘Thank you for bringing me.’
Argon did not respond to her polite words. ‘There is some deep mystery in you, girl,’ he said softly. ‘I said nothing of it to Duran for I am no more friend to the myrmidons than they are to me. They see me as a betrayer and a deserter and, by their lights, I am. They would not bring me with them to Myrmidor except that I laid the friendbinding upon them. I give you these words of warning. Do not seek out Duran, for the ties that bind the myrmidons to the soulweavers are deep and far-reaching and they will ensnare you as well. Once Darkfall has your life in its hand, it will never relinquish you.’ His voice was as bitter as it had been on the Waverider.
Darkfall Page 44