Carnelian grew angry. 'Don't you dare take this out on him, Brin. I was the one who forced him to talk to me. He was all for getting me back to my room.'
Brin grunted, scrunched up her face. The legs of her chameleon tattoo disappeared into the creases in her cheeks. 'Look at the way you're dressed, Carnelian. Do you have any idea at all what might happen if any of the strangers were to see your face?'
Carnelian drew his cloak back to reveal the mask hanging at his hip.
'It's a lot of use there under your cloak. Besides, the Master's command is the Master's command. Go back to your room.' She turned to Keal. 'And you, since you're so easily forced away from your tasks, maybe you'd better give up what you're doing and escort him. Make sure he gets where he's going, then go and tell Grane that I don't want to see you or any of his other boneheads in my kitchen for the rest of the day.'
Keal hung his head. 'Yes, Brin.'
Carnelian lost his anger. He knew Brin was right and already had enough to do without having to run around looking out for him.
'What are you lot gawping at?' bellowed Keal, glowering.
Brin made just enough room to let them pass. The clatter resumed as they fled her disapproval.
For most of the morning Carnelian fretted in his room. Tain went out several times but each time came back with nothing new about the visitors. They both became sullen, infected with the general foreboding.
When the summons came at last, Tain dressed him in the grey robe and handed him the circlet, the Great-Rings. When Carnelian was ready an escort came for him from Grane, gleaming in their polished leather cuirasses, their hair freshly oiled, their blades honed and waxed. Carnelian said he was proud of them and they all beamed. He marched between them through the Hold. Every door, every arch Carnelian saw was warded with a freshly painted eye and the Suth chameleon. Only the three doors that stood on the alleyway's final stretch were any different. They too had the warding eye but below it the cypher of the Master who had taken possession of the halls that lay beyond: Vennel’s disc and crescent evening star, Jaspar's dragonfly, the horned-ring staff of the Lord Aurum.
In the past, Carnelian with the other children had sneaked into those dismal halls with their views of the anchorage and the bay. All his life they had been a haunted, musty hinterland of the Hold. He tried to imagine them transformed into mysterious luxury by the households the visitors had brought with them, and failed. It was far easier to imagine the Masters lying in dusty state like kings in their tombs.
Carnelian was relieved to find his father alone. He formed a pillar of shadow against a rectangle of glowering sky. Carnelian crossed the hall towards the window. A carpet of embers glowed in the round hearth. The nearer he drew to his father, the louder spoke the wind and sea.
'I am come, my Lord, at your command.'
The apparition turned. The face looking down at him was like a lamp. The eyes seemed of a piece with the sky. 'I wished to speak to you before the conclave.' His father turned back to view the sea, a vast slate-green plain stretching off into the south. 'It is likely that we shall be returning to Osrakum.'
That name reverberated through Carnelian like a bell. Visions flashed through his mind with the quickening of his heart. He saw a memory from childhood of his father cupping his small hands in one of his. The little bowl of fingers was Osrakum: a crater hidden within a mountain wall. Circling the inner edge, his father's finger had let him see and feel the coombs cutting into the rim where the Masters lived. Tender pressure for their own coomb. A swirl showed where the sky lake filled the bowl. A touch at the centre where the edges of his palms met allowed him to feel the Isle with its Forbidden Garden within which lay the Pillar of Heaven and the Labyrinth.
Carnelian realized that his father's bright face had turned to him again. The storm eyes were deeper than the sky.
'Long have we lived here remote from the turning of events across the sea. But now they reach out to us and we can no longer remain untouched.' His father became granite. 'A time of peril comes for me ... and for you, my son. In the days to come we will have need of every resource.'
'What danger have our guests brought here?' 'Amongst many, themselves.' 'Lord Aurum?' 'He most of all.'
'Even though he is aligned to us by blood.'
'Blood trade insures neither amity nor alliance. My father gave my sister to be Aurum's second wife because he sought a son to replace the one who died in infancy. She has borne his House three daughters, a vast wealth should they live. But still, he has no son.'
'I did not know the children of the Chosen were so frail?'
'It is a curse of our race that so few come of age. Though the ichor of the Gods is watered down with mortal blood its fire cannot easily be contained by human veins.'
'I suppose it is that fire that kills their mothers too.'
'Your mother would have died a thousand times to give you life,' said Suth, misreading the look in his son's face.
Father and son examined each other's eyes. This was a subject they never spoke of.
Carnelian broke the silence first. 'And if Aurum were to die without a son?'
The second lineage of his House would inherit its ruling and House Aurum would be diminished among the Great.'
Then he should get himself another wife.' 'Do you forget that high blood-rank brides are the rarest commodity?'
'He has daughters that he can trade.' They are too young.' 'Iron then?'
His father's eyes pierced him. 'If he could have used such wealth, he would have.' 'And what of Imago Jaspar?'
'His House once ranked among the highest of the Great. More than two hundred years ago it sold the Emperor Nuhquanya a wife from whom today all those of the House of the Masks descend. Yet in the crisis over the succession of Qusata they lost their ruling lineage.'
'Slaughtered at his Apotheosis?'
His father nodded. 'Many Houses suffered.'
'So we are linked to House Imago's second lineage?'
'For more than a century it has been their first.'
'What is the nature of the linkage?'
'My grandmother was sister to his grandfather.'
'But our blood is purer than his?'
'Not so, in spite of your mother's blood having gifted you a blood-taint almost half of mine.'
Carnelian nodded. Irrespective of her august blood, he valued the father that he knew more than the mother he had never known.
'As you know, like all Chosen of blood-rank two, your taint has zeros in the first two positions. The largest fraction of your blood that is tainted is the eight-thousandth. In this third position you, Aurum and Jaspar have a one in contrast to my three. It is only in the fourth position, or the sixteen-thousandth fraction, that your blood differs from theirs. Whereas you have a nineteen in this position, Jaspar has a sixteen and Aurum has a fifteen.'
'So their blood is purer than mine.'
'Marginally, though neither of them can claim as you can to be the nephew of the God Emperor.'
Carnelian nodded at that familiar evocation of blood pride. 'And Lord Vennel?'
His father looked as if he had bitten into a lemon.
'He is of inferior blood. His father and his uncles, all of blood-rank one, conspired to buy for themselves a bride of blood-rank two. Their House had no blood to barter and little iron coinage and so her bride-price had to be paid with vulgar wealth.'
'Nevertheless, Vennel is of blood-rank two?'
Just, Suth's hand signed with a flick of contempt. 'He has the two zeros but a nineteen in the third. His blood is more than five times less pure than mine; ten times less pure than yours.'
'I like him as little as Aurum, but cousin Jaspar seems amiable enough.'
Suth clamped Carnelian's shoulders with his hands. 'If you think that, then he is to you a greater danger than the others. All who are Chosen are dangerous. In the Three Lands there are no beings so terrible as are we. Few of us know mercy, fewer still compassion. Inevitably, the greatest among us are
the most rapacious. This is a necessity forced on some by the contest of the blood trade, on others by their nature. Constantly we hunt each other. Our appetite for power cannot be sated. We would eat the world though the gluttony destroy us.'
Suth stopped. He could see that he had frightened the boy already more than he had intended.
'Of course, you will think you know this,' he said more gently. 'After all, have we not spoken of it many times before? But accept it when I say that you cannot truly understand, for you have never walked in the crater of Osrakum. This is something that you feel with the fibres of your flesh or not at all. You have heard my words?'
Carnelian swallowed, nodded.
Then believe them.' His father's hands dropped away, his shoulders slumped.
Compassion made Carnelian bold. 'What burden are you carrying, Father?'
The greatest burden. Choice.'
The word was like a gate slamming shut.
They stood in silence. The green glass of the sea swelled up and from several points began to shatter white from side to side. Carnelian watched it, brooding over his father's words. Thoughts of the visitors worked their barbs into his mind. The salt wind blew hard upon his face but was not strong enough to lift his robe's brocades.
'Why have they come, my Lord?' he said at last.
'You will know that soon enough. Suffice to say that we will return with them to Osrakum.'
Images, hopes, dreams spated through Carnelian's mind. Osrakum, the heart and wonder of the Three Lands. More a yearning than a word. A bleak thought squeezed the vision still.
'Is their ship large enough to take us all?'
His father's eyes were fathomless.
As they looked out, both their faces turned to stone. The ominous movement of the sea seemed a mirror to their thoughts. Neither saw the storm brewing its violence along the southern margin of the sky.
A clanging on the doors called them back.
'Your mask,' his father said in a low voice and Carnelian remembered it and held it up before his face. His father's hand was a heavy comfort on his shoulder. The doors opened remotely and the beings came in, glimmering like dark water, their masks like flames.
Carnelian went with his father to greet them. With a clatter the day was choked out with shutters. They met the Masters by the fire in the crowding gloom.
'We trust you found sufficient comfort in your night's repose?' Suth said.
One of the apparitions lifted a hand like a jewelled dove. Sufficient, it signed.
Carnelian found the sign curious, made as it was by an unfamiliar hand. The Masters had discarded their travelling cloaks and were now clad in splendour. Their haughty faces of gold seemed a gilded part of the long marble swelling of their heads. Each was crowned with dull fire. Each wore many-layered robes, plumaged, crusted with gems and ivories.
'We shall needs be rid of uninvited eyes and ears.' It was Aurum's deep swelling voice.
Suth lifted his hand and at its command shadows flitted along the hem of the hall. The movement passed away. 'We are alone, my Lords.'
They unmasked. Carnelian felt something like surprise that the masks had managed to contain the radiance of their faces.
'Suth, your son is still here,' sang Vennel's liquid voice. Suth's response was cold. 'Is he not at least as entitled to be here as are you, my Lord?'
Vennel’s head inclined back and his eyes flashed. 'He is a child.'
Carnelian glared at Vennel's perfect face and was pleased to find his neck too long.
'In Osrakum, he would already have been given his blood-ring by the Wise,' Suth said.
Carnelian looked at the Masters' hands. Each was knuckled with rings like stars but on the least finger of each right hand there was a dull, narrow band. A ring of skymetal that grew bloody when not oiled. Iron, most precious of substances save only the ichor of the Gods Themselves. It fell from the sky in stones. A gift from the Twins to Their Chosen. The sign of Their covenant.
Jaspar smiled at Carnelian. 'Whether he wears a ring or not, I for one can see no reason to exclude him from our conclave.'
'Nor I,' said Aurum with over-bright eyes. Then let us begin,' said Suth.
Carnelian saw that five chairs had been set in a half-circle round the hearth. There was a hissing of silk as they each sat down. Their faces hung in the gloom like moons. They closed their eyes. Gems in their robes trapped fire-flicker. Carnelian looked down at his hands and wondered what was happening.
'Even now the Heart of the Commonwealth is failing,' Aurum rumbled, making Carnelian jump.
Understanding, Carnelian almost gasped. The God Emperor was dying. He watched his father's hand rise up to make the sign for grief. The other Masters followed him. Carnelian hesitated then copied them. He stared at his hand, making sure the sign was well made. He was relieved when the others' hands flattened to palms. Alone, his father kept his hand raised, but then he too let it go.
This crisis imperils the Commonwealth as it has always done,' said Vermel. 'Her subjects must not know of this ere a new candidate is made ready to receive the Dual Essence.'
'And so we are come with great urgency, to offer the Ruling Lord of House Suth the ring of He-who-goes-before,' said Aurum.
Jaspar fixed unblinking eyes on Suth's face. 'Will you accept it, Lord?'
'Is this the will of the Great?'
'It is,' said Aurum. Their Clave, in formal session, elected you.' 'Why?'
'We were in some disarray, my Lord,' said Vennel.
'More accurately, at each others' throats,' said Jaspar.
Suth smiled though his eyes were flint. That at least has not changed.'
Vennel's colourless eyes lingered on Jaspar, who ignored them, saying, 'We need you, my Lord, to speak for the Great in the interregnum before the election of the next Gods.'
The Great must be much diminished if they need seek leadership from one so long away,' said Suth.
'From being so long away, the Ruling Lord Suth might be assumed untainted by narrow factional considerations,' said Aurum.
'From being so long away, the Ruling Lord Suth might be assumed dismissive of all considerations,' said Suth. ‘So it was said,' said Vennel.
Suth looked across the fire at Aurum. 'Was it indeed?'
The Commonwealth must have another God and he who shall be They must be rightly chosen,' said Aurum.
There is, of course, a difference of opinion as to who should be chosen,' said Jaspar. There are two candidates, the Jade Lord twins, Nephron and Molochite.'
'And three factions?' asked Carnelian.
The three visitor Masters looked at him and then inclined their heads.
'Of course, the matter had been decided,' said Vermel.
'But not to the general satisfaction,' said Aurum.
'Certainly not to your satisfaction, my Lord.'
'I am merely one among many. Those whom I represent would feel closer to being satisfied if the Lord Suth were to oversee the election.'
'We must all bow to the will of the Clave,' said Vennel sardonically.
Aurum's head angled in irritation.
'My Lords,' said Suth.
All faces turned to him.
'No more words are needed. I will wear the Pomegranate Ring.'
Jaspar hid his surprise quickly under an idol's smile. Vennel’s face was as blank as a drift of snow but his eyes looked startled.
Aurum's eyes blazed with triumph. Then we must make preparations to return.'
Carnelian watched his father nod slowly, staring into the distance. His face seemed a piece of marble.
'Perhaps we should wait for the clemency of the storms,' said Vennel quickly.
'My Lord knows our purpose can brook no delay, the weather notwithstanding,' said Aurum.
'Still, the baran must be repaired and we require provisions,' said Vennel.
Carnelian's guts wrenched. 'Surely you have supplies upon your ship, my Lords. Here, we have barely enough to last the winter.'
; Aurum fixed him with his glassy gaze. 'You will have enough, nephew, for our needs.'
'For two months, my Lord, we have been upon the sea,' said Jaspar. The provisions that the sea did not spoil were all consumed. The baran's holds are as empty as the stomachs of her crew.'
'Carnelian,' his father said. 'She must be filled up from our storerooms.'
'But our people—'
There is no other way, my son.' His father's eyes dulled. 'Whether we stay or go there will be some who go hungry.'
Jaspar smiled indulgently. 'My Lord does of course realize that the Commonwealth will compensate his House in full measure for any loss?'
'Of course, my Lord,' Suth said quickly, glancing at his son. The boy was holding in his pain as he had taught him, but only just. 'But let there be no talk of compensation till the full cost be known.'
'Wood will be needed, rope, sail parchment, tar,' said Aurum.
'I shall instruct my people to give you access to everything we have, my Lord,' said Suth, and as he spoke his eyes returned to linger on his son's tight, resolute face.
When his father left the hall with the other Masters, Carnelian stayed behind. He stared into the fire and tried to work out what he would say to Tain, his other brothers, his people. No-one must starve. He would not allow anyone to starve. Surely there was time enough to work something out.
He rose and left. Nothing would happen till the morning. He would sleep and rise early. He walked back through eerie quiet. The only sounds were the scuffling of his escort and the whining wind.
Misery was crowding in. He tried to turn his back on it by preparing himself for bed. When Tain appeared complaining that some strange men had come up from the ship, Carnelian told him not to worry.
Tain looked unhappy. 'But they're sticking their noses everywhere. The Master's given them leave to pass our wards.'
'I said things will be fine,' snapped Carnelian. 'Now either go back to your own room or get to bed.'
Tain's cheeks went as red as if he had been slapped.
Carnelian turned away to face the wall. For a long time he could not find sleep. Shadows trembled up the wall like wind-wafted leaves. He could almost feel the ship out there, a cold fist pushing hard against his back.
The Chosen - Stone Dance of the Chameleon 01 Page 4