‘Whisper,’ Jewel repeated. ‘Why is she called that?’
‘To be honest, I don’t know,’ Meg confessed. ‘She’s always been called Whisper.’
‘Did you name her?’
‘No. She was given her name by someone else.’
‘Who?’
Meg shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
Jewel slid off Meg’s knee and headed for Whisper, who was perched on a small cupboard shelf—much to Sparkle’s annoyance, who normally killed rats for stealing her chickens’ eggs. Having one in her house didn’t feel right.
Wahim, Chase, Keeper and Cutter chatted together as they ate the meal Sparkle had provided, but Swift remained leaning against the wall. Passion was asleep in Sparkle’s bed in the adjoining bedroom, little Jon curled beside her. The young woman had suffered cruelly during the torture that Fist and his cronies had inflicted on her every day of her incarceration and Meg’s fear was that she may never fully recover. Later, when everyone was asleep, Meg intended to use her healing powers to help the young woman overcome her physical pain. She knew from her own experience that only time could heal the agony churning deep inside.
Right now, Meg was caught between satisfaction and sadness. The satisfaction was due to those surrounding her in Sparkle’s hut. Whether or not she could prove that Chase, Passion and Swift were the children of her long-lost son, Treasure, she believed in her heart that fate had returned her to her lost family. To have two great-grandchildren to dote upon added to her happiness.
The sadness rose from the awareness that she had started a new phase of conflict with the Seers. By rescuing Passion, she had signalled her return and she knew the Seers would be relentless in their pursuit of her. Only this time she would not hide. She had a family to protect—a family she thought she had lost forever—so instead of retreating, as she had always done in the past, this time she would find a way to end the Seers’ megalomaniacal goal to destroy all life in the name of their god. For too long she had let fate keep her imprisoned. I am only a prisoner if I let myself be one, she reflected, remembering the words, written more than three hundred years ago, of a Jaru philosopher named Alwyn.
PART FOUR
‘Find your enemy’s weakness and make it your strength.’
FROM STRATEGY, PRESIDENT A AHMUD KI, OVERLORD OF THE RANU REPUBLICAN PEOPLE’S ARMY
CHAPTER TWENTY
The iron dreadnought sat at the harbour entrance like a grey implacable island, gilded along its extremities by the morning sun rising behind it. Seer Word stood with Seer Law on the stone jetty, studying the ship that had appeared overnight, wondering why the Ranu had come to the Fallen Star Islands. The first ship carrying its euphoria cargo to the mainland was turning to run with the wind out of the harbour entrance, cream sails filling with the gentle morning breeze.
‘Your ship leaves mid-morning I believe?’ Law said, as they turned to head back along the jetty.
‘That’s right,’ Word said. ‘I’ll convey your report to His Eminence. I’m sure that he—’
An echoing boom turned both Seers abruptly back to the ocean in time to witness a plume of water erupting a short distance ahead of the sailing vessel leaving the port. A second puff of smoke burst from the Ranu dreadnought’s foredeck and a spout of water rose and fell near the sailing ship’s bow.
‘In Jarudha’s name,’ Word cried, aghast. ‘What is happening?’
‘The conditions are very simple,’ announced the Ranu ambassador to King Shadow and his assembly. ‘Our president requests that the person, or persons, responsible for the assassination attempt is immediately arrested and presented to our embassy for retribution. The president and the People’s Representative Council consider the assassination attempt tantamount to a proclamation of war between our sovereign nations, unless the Kerwyn king and his advisors can demonstrate no complicity in the act and can produce the perpetrator to face Ranu justice.’
Shadow leaned forward in his throne. ‘Is that all?’
The ambassador blinked as if the question made little sense. ‘I have been advised to await a suitable response, given that Your Highness may well need to seek the advice of your counsellors on matters of state.’
‘And for long how is your esteemed president willing to wait?’ Shadow inquired.
‘I have been advised to allow ten days for you to consider your response, after which I am required to inform our government ministers that you have chosen not to reply, Your Highness.’
‘And then what?’
‘With respect, Your Highness, it is not for me to ascertain what action will then be taken by the Council.’
‘Make an educated guess,’ Shadow taunted.
The ambassador shifted his left foot uncomfortably, the only outward sign of his discomfort. ‘With all due respect, Your Highness, I am not employed to make educated guesses. I am only able to communicate facts on behalf of my government.’
Shadow smiled. ‘You are a true diplomat, Razan et Suman, a credit to your race of people.’ He looked at the small assembly of princes and Seers in the throne room before saying, ‘As a sign of our good faith, we will hunt down the perpetrators who dared to attack your esteemed president and we will deliver them into your hands. As a sign of Ranu good faith, we would ask you to convey our request to your Council and president to remove the blockade on our trading route.’
Razan et Suman bowed. ‘I will convey your terms to our Council. When a decision has been made, I will relay it to you, Your Highness.’
Shadow indicated that the exchange was at an end and Suman withdrew from the throne room. When the door was closed, Scripture rose to his feet, voice full of venom.
‘What right do these ungodly creatures have to dictate terms to us? Imprison them and make a spectacle of them to the people!’
‘Sit down,’ Shadow ordered.
‘You cannot order me to sit down,’ Scripture said indignantly.
Shadow stood. ‘I am the king, Jarudha’s chosen leader of the people. You will do as I say.’
‘That is blasphemy!’ Scripture roared.
Shadow strode down the five throne steps and stood before the white-haired leader of the Seers, staring him directly in the face. ‘I am the king, old man. With one word I can have your head removed and your guts fed to the dogs. I am Jarudha’s anointed leader and you will honour that by showing obeisance. Sit down.’
He held Scripture’s angry gaze with cold defiance until the Seer shuffled his feet, arranged his sky blue robe and sat.
Shadow began to pace as he spoke. ‘The Ranu president is evidently alive.’ He stopped and asked, ‘So how have the Ranu implicated us in the assassination attempt?’ No one answered. He took three more measured steps, turned, and said, ‘The Ranu are using this incident to force us into political compliance with them. If we cannot produce believable perpetrators of the assassination attempt who have no connection with our leadership, they will use this as a pretext to invade our country.’
‘What do you propose, Your Highness?’ Seer Creator inquired, glancing at Scripture to make sure that he hadn’t spoken out of turn.
‘We could present to them a believable assassin, someone who would have something to gain from the president’s death and no viable connection with us,’ Prince Gift suggested.
‘Like who?’ Scripture asked. ‘We don’t have such a person. That filth you employed to do the job in the first place wouldn’t be credible as a political assassin.’
‘Oh, we can do much better than that,’ said Shadow. ‘Much better.’ The assembly waited for him to explain. He took another four steps and turned. ‘In fact, we have two scapegoats to choose from. One will be significantly more difficult to catch, but she would be a very credible alternative.’
‘She?’ Prince Gift asked, and looked at the other members of the assembly to see if anyone else understood something he’d clearly missed.
‘The Abomination,’ said Scripture.
‘What better scapegoat?’ Shadow said, his triumphant
expression becoming exaggerated for effect. ‘Not only is she a rebellious remnant of the old Shessian kingdom who wants to supplant the rightful Kerwyn monarchy, but she keeps company with the most notorious assassin in the kingdom, she whose hands are bloodied by the murder of my beloved brother.’
‘Very dramatic,’ Prince Lastchild remarked, smirking at his brother’s performance.
‘An excellent foil!’ Seer Prayer cried.
‘Except you don’t have her,’ noted Scripture sourly. ‘Catching the Abomination, from what I have studied of my brethren’s experiences with her, is like trying to catch the wind.’
‘A good sail catches the wind,’ Shadow responded.
‘And if you can’t convince the Ranu that she was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt against their president?’ Seer Creator asked.
‘Then we blame it on the old Shessian warmaster,’ Shadow said bluntly.
‘How can you?’ Scripture asked. ‘There hasn’t been a warmaster since the fall of the Shessian kingdom to your grandfather.’
Shadow chuckled and rubbed his trimmed black beard. ‘But there has,’ he said, grinning at the Seer. ‘My grandfather threw him in the Royal Gaol thirty years ago, and my father left him there to rot.’
‘If he’s been locked away all this time he hardly qualifies as a likely assassin,’ Scripture muttered.
‘Ah,’ said Shadow, ‘but, you see, I had him set free a short while ago.’
‘You freed an enemy of the kingdom?’ Scripture challenged.
‘He’s an old man, seventy years or more. He’s harmless.’ Shadow saw the scowl flit across Scripture’s features at his derisive comment about the man’s age and savoured it. ‘I decided he could spend the last years of his life living in the countryside.’
‘What reason would a former Shessian warmaster have to act against the Ranu president?’ Creator asked.
‘We’ll have to create a reason,’ said Shadow. ‘Do I have to do all the thinking?’
‘Where is he?’ Prayer asked.
‘I believe Fist had him delivered a short distance out of the city. He won’t have gone far. The years in gaol haven’t been kind to him,’ Shadow reassured his listeners.
‘From what I know of my predecessors’ struggle with the Abomination, she and this Shessian warmaster were friends,’ Scripture informed the assembly. ‘Perhaps he is the key to trapping her also.’
‘I think we can give our Ranu friends something to keep them busy if we construct this ploy carefully,’ Shadow suggested, reascending the throne. ‘The blockade of the Fallen Star Islands is an unprovoked attack on our sovereignty and should be very quickly brought to an end with this news.’
‘And the Ranu president?’ Scripture asked.
‘We need to be more circumspect and far more precise,’ said Shadow.
Scripture dismissed Creator and Prayer, and waited until he was certain they had retired from the vicinity of his chamber before he went to the small door near his bed and opened it. Word and Law entered the room.
‘I apologise for keeping you both locked away,’ Scripture said, ‘but what you have discovered is far too important to be revealed yet.’
‘How was the assembly?’ Word asked.
Scripture snorted and indicated the two men should sit. ‘Shadow has let his authority go to his head and seems to conveniently forget who put him on the throne. I don’t like his manner. He borders on being heretical.’
‘What is he going to do about the Ranu threat?’ Law asked.
‘Small things for later,’ Scripture said dismissively. ‘Explain once more how you got here.’
‘A door generated by the Blessing,’ Law replied.
‘A portal like the one Creator demonstrated to us,’ Word explained. ‘Your Eminence, the island is like a giant Conduit for the Blessing.’
Scripture’s brow knitted, but his eyes sparkled with curiosity. ‘What do you mean?’
Word nodded to Law. ‘Ever since you posted me to the Fallen Star Islands, I’ve felt my Blessing has become much stronger,’ said Law. ‘I can create light and fire easily, and am able to listen into the thoughts of the workers, although they can sense when I’m doing it and they get angry. In a mood of curiosity I opened a portal on my own, although I have no idea where it leads.’
‘Did you go through it?’ Scripture asked.
‘We sent a volunteer through it,’ Word admitted. ‘He didn’t come back.’
‘But you made a portal to return here,’ Scripture said, looking at Law.
‘We made one together,’ Law explained, looking at Word. ‘Neither of us could generate a portal to a specific place alone, but together, by focussing on the prayer room we both know well, we were able to open a portal to it.’
‘Jarudha be praised!’ Scripture said and made a holy circle before his two colleagues. ‘Jarudha has shown us yet another sign that the Last Days are upon us.’ He stood and rubbed his hands together. ‘Can you make the portal here that you made on the island?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Law. ‘I tried a light spell when you were at the assembly and it was feeble, as it was before I went to the Fallen Star Islands.’
‘Perhaps you didn’t take enough enlightenment,’ Scripture suggested.
Law shook his head. ‘No, Your Eminence, I took the dose Creator recommends.’
‘And we already know we can’t make a return portal to the island,’ added Word. ‘The island acts as a Conduit.’
Scripture studied his younger colleagues. ‘This news we will share with our brother Seers,’ he said, ‘but not yet with the king. Perhaps Jarudha is revealing to us that the island is the key to the Demon Horsemen. We must go to the island, and immediately.’ His expression became grave. ‘And we will do so with or without Ranu permission.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The droning noise drew everyone outside. They looked up in expectation of seeing a Ranu dragon egg. Instead, a smaller dark object appeared in the bright blue sky, dipping and wobbling in an erratic path, but staying aloft determinedly, its noisy buzzing like angry bees caught inside a hive.
‘What is it?’ Jewel asked, looking at Swift.
‘It’s like a Ranu dragon egg without the bag of hot air above it,’ Chase suggested.
‘It doesn’t look very stable,’ said Wahim. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in it.’
Meg watched the object grow steadily larger as it neared the village and she wondered what strange invention the Seers had created to hunt for them. She was about to tell everyone to go inside when the flying machine began an arduous turning circle to take it back in the direction of Port of Joy. She looked up the hill to where Cutter and Keeper were standing under the shade of a tree, staring at the diminishing object.
‘It has wings like a bird,’ said Sparkle.
‘But they’re not flapping,’ Chase added.
‘It seems to move faster than a dragon egg,’ Swift observed.
Once the contraption had gone, the group fragmented, returning to their chores. Meg wandered towards the creek with Whisper in tow and sat under the shade of a gum tree, her back against the cool bark, gazing across the undulating countryside in the direction the strange machine had flown. Whisper allowed Meg to scratch her ears a while, then tired of the contact and started rustling through the grass by the creek in search of insects and worms.
‘So what do we do?’ Meg murmured. ‘Where do we start?’
The flying machine was evidence that the Seers were actively seeking change. The stories Sparkle and the villagers had shared with her regarding the arrival of an acolyte in the village and his readiness to freely distribute euphoria along with Jarudha’s word confirmed what she’d witnessed in the city. For whatever reason, that she couldn’t yet fathom the Seers were determined to convert as many people as possible to their faith. But it wasn’t the new order of living—the tri-daily prayers, the suppression of specific lifestyles and criminal behaviours—in itself that bothered her, even giv
en its repressive nature. She needed to ascertain just how close they had come to releasing the Demon Horsemen. That knowledge would determine what she had to do. Getting close to the Seers may be possible, but they would be heavily guarded, especially as the new king, Shadow, was known to be a devout Jarudhan. She wondered how much more power the Seers had amassed with regard to spell-casting in the passing years. And was there any connection between the Seers’ abilities and the euphoria drug they seemed so keen to control and distribute?
She sighed, distracted by Whisper pouncing on a cricket. Littlecreek was a haven, a place where she could easily hide from the world events that always seemed to envelop her family. The world comes to you, she remembered. Long ago Emma had told her, ‘Sooner or later you will come to terms with what you have and who you really are.’ She’d added, ‘It chooses you. And once you are chosen there’s no hiding from it.’ Emma had been referring to the Blessing, the magical abilities Meg had inherited, but her words had a far greater implication for Meg’s life path, as she had learned with time. There was no hiding from the Seers or their desire to create a new Paradise through the obliteration of the existing world. The Demon Horsemen were much more than a religious concept spawned through devotion to the collected wisdom expressed in The Word. Through A Ahmud Ki and Erin and her reading, Meg knew that the Demon Horsemen were not Jarudha’s angels but a Dragonlord’s magical constructs, designed to destroy life at his whim and command. She had seen them for herself, had summoned them to destroy others, and had narrowly escaped death at their hands. She knew that only she had the power to destroy them before the Seers learned how to release them, but how was she meant to act?
Seer Creator orchestrated the assembly in the central prayer hall of the temple as Scripture had ordered. He ensured every acolyte received a precise amount of the new enlightenment mixture and then he gave each Seer, except Scripture and Word, a phial of the amber liquid. He carefully instructed the assembly of the intention of the exercise and need for every person to open his mind for Law.
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