The Deathless

by Peter Newman

  Outside, he could hear a distinctive tapping sound getting closer. Sky-legs? It can’t be. He frowned, aware that Gada was doing the same. Already certain but unable to believe it, he continued to listen, marking the time between each step and matching it to the bouncing stride of the sprung boots. But that would mean he was still in his armour. Why come here armoured unless –

  The doors were flung open by gauntleted hands, booming against the walls to reveal Yadavendra, High Lord of House Sapphire. Clad in his crystal skin, he was forced to duck to enter the chamber, his wingtips sparking against the doorframe. In one hand, he held a staff of gold with a gemstone blade and Vasin could not help but watch the tip as it swung back and forth.

  Gada had not been exaggerating about the High Lord’s mood. His face was ripe with anger, his body radiated it.

  They were all on their feet in seconds, even Umed, contrite under his accusing stare. Vasin bowed deeply, then gave up his place at the head of the table, circling round one side as Yadavendra moved around the other. When he stood with the others, he bowed again.

  ‘Sit,’ said Yadavendra. It was not permission, it was a command.

  Vasin wondered if the chair would be able to accommodate the High Lord’s armoured form but he did not get to find out for Yadavendra had no intention of sitting. ‘So,’ he began, sweeping the head of his staff over their heads. ‘We are all here, save for Lord Rochant.’

  And Mother, you murderous bastard.

  For a moment the High Lord did not speak and Vasin wondered if he’d spoken his thought aloud.

  ‘He will not be joining us, for we have been betrayed. This, I know.’

  But how? thought Vasin as the others gave a credible show of surprise. The only way information could reach Yadavendra from Rochant’s castle so quickly was via a Heartstone, a perfect crystal broken in two, each half able to communicate with the other. But only emotions could traverse between halves, not facts, and no stone had been found in the Rebirthing Chamber or on Rochant’s person. Vasin could see how a Heartstone might alert Yadavendra to there being trouble but no more than that. Was this just the High Lord’s paranoia or had he some other means of gathering information?

  ‘The thing I do not know,’ continued the High Lord, ‘and this vexes beyond imagination, is by whom. Several of our loyal subjects are dead. Lord Rochant’s own children, dead. I am told the ceremony of rebirth was a success and yet there is no sign of Lord Rochant himself, not even a corpse.

  ‘Do you hear me? They walked through our defences, past our guards, shedding Sapphire blood as they went, and then walked out again with Lord Rochant’s body.’ He brought the heel of his staff down so hard the glasses jumped on the table. ‘Have you nothing to say? Not one of you?’

  Apparently, none of them did.

  The High Lord banged his staff a second time. ‘This is an attack at our very heart and we will meet it with full and terrible force, no matter the source.’

  There was solemn agreement around the table. Vasin made sure he joined in, all the while feeling the stab of Yadavendra’s gaze. He knows! thought Vasin. He knows! Sweat began to prickle on the back of his neck.

  Yadva was first to find her voice. ‘Surely someone must have seen something?’

  ‘Many of the guard were killed and the captain has gone missing. The betrayer has covered their tracks well.’

  ‘Do you think another house is behind this, High Lord?’ asked Gada.

  ‘I did not come here for your questions,’ Yadavendra replied in a near shout, ‘I came for answers. Answers! And by the Thrice Blessed Suns you will give them to me or you will know my displeasure!’

  Gada slid from his seat and bowed until his forehead touched the floor.

  ‘There will be a grand hunt. The like of which has not been seen in an age. We will search every inch of road, every settlement, every castle, even the Wild if we must! And we will not stop until Lord Rochant has been found and his assailants destroyed.’

  A bead of sweat ran down Vasin’s back. It was all unravelling. He had to distract the High Lord somehow or it was over. How is the bastard so well informed? What else does he know that he isn’t saying?

  He forced himself to look up and meet the High Lord’s eyes. There was only a narrow window of skin visible but it was enough to shock Vasin. Even the heavy gold could not disguise the black marks there, nor the gauntness of his face. The High Lord looked feverish. It suddenly occurred to him that the armour was a feint, a way to scare them from looking too closely, to hide the weakness of the man beneath.

  ‘What is it?’ snarled Yadavendra, and he realized he’d been staring, and not in a respectful way.

  ‘You mentioned Lord Rochant’s captain, High Lord. I have him.’

  He heard Gada’s gasp that somehow managed to convey surprise and hurt, but otherwise the room was suddenly very quiet.

  ‘If he is to be believed, the attack came from House Tanzanite.’

  The High Lord leant towards him until he filled Vasin’s vision. ‘Which Tanzanite led the attack?’

  ‘Lady Pari.’ There was a narrowing of Yadavendra’s eyes but no surprise. ‘I was making preparations to travel with the captain as you arrived. She is rumoured to be ill and in her own bed, far from here, while the captain insists she is trapped in Lord Rochant’s Rebirthing Chamber. I intend to see which is true.’

  Those eyes continued to narrow, becoming slits. ‘Very well done, my young Lord Vasin. Yes, we must get to the truth, whatever the cost.’

  ‘Then, do I have your permission to go?’

  ‘No, that is not a job fit for your skills. I will deal with Lady Pari myself.’

  Vasin desperately tried to think of a reason to dissuade the High Lord but nothing came to mind. Please let her body be dead when he arrives. Please!

  ‘While I go south, Lady Yadva will go east with this guard captain as my envoy to the Tanzanite. He will lay out our grievances and her edge will cut through their protestations. Either they will produce Lady Pari or they will prove their guilt.’ He dismissed Yadva from the room with a glance before returning his full attention to Vasin. ‘No, I have need of you in the Ruby lands. They have presumed to summon me. You will go and find out why.’ There was a soft clink as his staff tapped against the table’s edge. ‘And you can take your –’ he paused to sneer ‘– trophy with you. They are easily impressed by such things.’

  ‘Yes, High Lord.’

  Finally, he turned his gaze away and Vasin realized he was being ejected from his own audience chamber. There was no time for pride however, he had to reach Dil before Yadva did. As soon as Vasin had cleared the doors and moved out of sight, he began to run.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  They stayed as close to the Godroad as they dared, using old paths, overgrown and half reclaimed by the Wild. For the third time, Varg’s wagon was stuck.

  Fortune’s Eye was already above the tree line, gold against the storm-grey sky, while the horizon glowed red with the rising of Vexation and Wrath’s Tear.

  Chandni leaned out to where Varg was cutting clumps of grass from the wheel. ‘We need to hurry.’

  ‘No shit.’

  She didn’t rise to his use of language but her eyes narrowed, first at Varg, and then at the thickening clouds.

  They were on the edge of the forest, the trees rising high on their left. Between those vast trunks were spaces fit to hide all manner of monsters. Chandni fancied that she had already seen a few of them prowling nearby. She hugged her sleeping baby closer.

  ‘How do you know we won’t be attacked again?’

  ‘I don’t.’

  At her sharp intake of breath he held up a hand. ‘Hold on now, better save any shouting for when the baby wakes up. I’m taking a gamble but not a bad one. Sagan has just had a successful hunt so, hopefully, the Wild’ll be quiet for a while yet. But we know those assassins are looking for you and the baby, which means the Godroad’ll be too dangerous. They’ll have eyes and ears all over the bloody
thing.’

  ‘What about the Whispercage?’

  ‘That was … well, the Wild is never completely safe.’ Something in her expression made him straighten and soften his voice. ‘Hey, don’t look like that. We got through it okay. Not many that have been close enough to smell a Whispercage’s tit and come back to tell the tale.’

  ‘If,’ she began, ‘the Whispercage had caught us, what would it have done? Actually, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’

  ‘Look, it’s behind us now. Forget it.’

  ‘What if it comes back?’ She pointed into the trees. ‘What if it’s out there now?’

  He frowned. ‘You seen something?’

  ‘Yes!’ Immediately he was turning towards the trees, which had never looked more empty or sedate. ‘No. Well, I don’t know. I’ve seen things moving out there.’

  ‘It’s a forest. There’s always some bugger moving about.’

  As he returned to the business of untangling the wheel, dismissive, Chandni felt her temper rise. ‘I’m not talking about some little Flykin. They were big, and they’re watching us.’

  He grunted thoughtfully to himself, and that irritated her too.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I didn’t say nothing.’

  ‘But you thought something,’ she snapped, hating how ridiculous she was sounding but unable to help it. ‘What was it?’

  Varg flicked a glance towards the sky. ‘You won’t like it.’

  ‘Let me be the judge of that.’

  ‘Fine. I’ll tell you if you promise not to get pissy.’

  She could cheerfully have throttled him in that moment but instead she kept her face a mask of calm and said, ‘I promise to be the very picture of serenity.’

  ‘All right. Might be you’ve got Wildeye.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘It happens sometimes when people have a rough experience in the Wild. It’s like if you look at one of the suns for too long and you get that image that haunts your vision for a bit. Only with you it’s not a sun, it’s a Whispercage.’

  ‘Are you saying the Whispercage is inside my eye?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Well,’ she said, shuddering, ‘thank you for your candour.’

  She turned away from Varg to find Glider’s white-furred chin resting on the front of the wagon, her unclouded eye tracking Chandni’s movement.

  ‘You’re not hungry again are you?’

  Glider’s eyebrows raised in surprise, as if the very idea was an affront. Chandni felt a pang of guilt. The Dogkin seemed to be offering her sympathy.

  She leaned out and touched the softness of Glider’s ear but experienced no sensation of contact. The feeling still hadn’t returned to her right hand. She could see her fingers, tiny next to the great flap of fur, could direct them to scratch in a way that made Glider’s eyes close with pleasure, but it was as if she was working a puppet rather than her own limb.

  Don’t think about it.

  But without the distraction of travel, or the imminent threat of attack, she could attend to little else. She nearly woke Satyendra, just to have something to do, but checked that impulse as unworthy.

  Carefully, she arranged Satyendra on her lap, and pulled back her sleeve. The cuts she’d made on her wrist and forearm were still raw, the skin raised and angry. More than the injuries themselves, the misalignment of the marks, the messy nature of them upset her. They were proof of her earlier panic.

  It wasn’t Varg’s fault the Whispercage found us. It was mine. She took a moment to think through how much peril her actions had drawn upon them and was overwhelmed by how close she had been to losing everything. She brought Satyendra’s hand to her lips and kissed it. Oh my sweet, darling boy, I have put you through so much and you have been so brave. Truly, you have the heart of a Sapphire.

  She touched the skin around her injuries, unsure if the numbness was spreading or if it was just the scar tissue. The thought that she might have to cut more flesh away, and soon, made her shiver. There would be too much blood, and with them so close to the Wild, something would come, perhaps the Whispercage. She shook her head. It was too dangerous to do anything on the road. Abruptly, she pulled down her sleeve.

  Later, when Varg climbed into the wagon, Chandni cleared her throat. ‘Before we set off again, I have something to say to you.’ He didn’t answer, but his face set and his jaw clenched, a man about to weather a storm.

  ‘Oh, Varg, am I really that difficult to be around?’

  ‘No,’ he replied, a beat too late to be convincing.

  ‘I know I can be exacting. I’ve always had high standards and …’ She stopped, aware she was in danger of making things worse. ‘That isn’t what I wanted to say. I wanted to thank you. You’ve kept us safe and you’ve been kind.’

  ‘I have?’

  ‘Yes. You have. I didn’t see it at first, but I do now. And I see the wisdom in keeping us off the Godroad. If I was alone, I would have used it, and they would have caught me. As it is, I imagine our pursuers will be well ahead, trying to find a trail that doesn’t exist.’

  He mumbled something, his cheeks going adorably red behind his beard. Was that a thank you?

  ‘If we are going to work together, Varg, and I fear that we will have to for a while at least, then it’s important that we talk. I like to think I can face most things, providing I have a plan. It seems to me that you have one. I’d like to hear it.’

  ‘I’m taking us to Sagan. I’ve got a place there we can hide until Pari comes to get us.’

  ‘You live in Sagan?’

  ‘Sometimes. People know me there as a trader. I keep myself to myself so we shouldn’t get bothered much.’

  ‘That could work. But what if Satyendra gives us away? A baby crying could raise some awkward questions.’

  ‘I’ll say it’s mine. They know I got a woman that stays with me sometimes.’

  ‘You have a partner living in Sagan too?’

  His laugh was so abrupt that Glider jumped back and started barking at them.

  ‘Suns, no! It’s … actually I can’t say.’

  Chandni folded her arms. ‘You don’t have to. It’s obviously Lady Pari.’

  He looked as if he was about to deny it but then shrugged. ‘Yeah. It’s how I smuggle her in and out.’

  ‘That seems like a lot of effort when she’s welcome to visit Lord Rochant at her leisure.’

  ‘Well, that’s all right for the official visits but sometimes …’ he shrugged again.

  Chandni did not like the implications of what an unofficial visit might entail. It is not my place to judge my lord, she said to herself, aware that she had already come to a conclusion some time ago.

  ‘I think this could work, provided we keep people from visiting. I know my strengths, and pretending to be a villager is not one of them.’

  ‘Pari keeps some paints back there for changing her looks. Might be we could use those.’ He gave her a critical appraisal. ‘You’re right though, it’d take a lot of paint to stop people looking twice at you.’

  ‘Because?’

  ‘Because you got a proper noble face, and your skin is … Anyway, we’d best be going.’ He snatched up the reins, his eyes very much on the road.

  ‘Why, thank you, Varg.’

  She saw him redden again as the wagon began to move forward, and found she was fast becoming fond of the expression.

  The path that wound its way up the side of Mount Ragged towards Lord Vasin’s castle was in full view of the guards, so while Ami and Lan trudged up its gentle slope, Pari had been forced to take an alternative route on the far side of the mountain.

  Unfortunately this meant that the cart, the wonderful, comfortable cart, had to be left behind as well. They’d hidden it off the Godroad at the mountain’s base.

  It had only taken an hour of walking for all of her aches and pains to return. Several hours had passed since then. She needed a rest. Ami and Lan would be needing a rest too. She worried she was
pushing them all too hard.

  The rain was easing now, sputtering its last energies in a series of showers, allowing red glimpses of Wrath’s Tear through clouds, breaking. Though the wind lashed at her, numbing her fingers and nose, she was sweating heavily by the time she reached the top.

  Looking down, she was rewarded by the sight of Ami and Lan waiting below on the last curve of the Godroad before it went on to meet the castle. They had taken off the stolen layers of fine fabric and stood in their own clothes, two scrawny stick figures.

  She gave them the signal. To their credit, neither looked in her direction, simply pressing on towards the bridge of chain and wood that connected one of the mountain’s lopsided shoulders to the castle’s entrance.

  Though it was possible, as Pari had just proved, to climb Mount Ragged without being seen, it didn’t matter. All visitors had to take the long bridge to get from the mountainside to the castle gates, and there were always at least two pairs of eyes on the bridge at all times.

  Pari had thought long and hard about how best to get across but could think of no way that would not catch the guards’ attention. If she had her tools and her health, she might have considered climbing the underside of the bridge, but even so, a sharp pair of eyes would notice the bridge behaving oddly and raise an alarm.

  She shuffled round to watch Ami and Lan making their way up, Ami making a great show of being in pain as Lan dragged her along, calling for aid.

  Two guards came out to meet them, their attitude standoffish, while Lan took Ami off to a thin patch of ground to the side of the bridge in front of the great walls. They tried to wave Lan back but he threw himself down before them, begging for mercy.

  As soon as he had their attention, Pari left her hiding place and stepped onto the bridge. She had to hunch low as she rushed along, keeping her head below the side rail. The odd posture made the muscles in her back threaten to seize but it was far preferable to being seen. Of course, if either guard returned to their post it wouldn’t matter how low she crouched, but Pari tried not to think about that.