Sacrifice

by Christopher Mitchell

  ‘You know,’ said Shella, ‘I suppose I could go down there and kill them all.’

  The others quietened.

  ‘If you want,’ she said.

  ‘Alone?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Well, I’d want a couple of you with me, to give me cover,’ Shella said, ‘but you can leave the killing to me.’

  ‘I’ll go,’ said Agang. ‘I’ll need to borrow one of the Kellach’s shields.’

  ‘Take Dean’s,’ said Dyam. ‘It’s not like he knows how to use it. ’

  Laodoc glanced at the boy, but he said nothing, his gaze on the floor of the wagon.

  ‘I’ll come as well,’ said Lola. ‘I know the way.’

  ‘Alright then,’ said Shella, sighing. ‘Holdings, eh? I hope they have some cigarettes on them. I’ll be needing one later.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Laodoc. ‘Is this the right thing to do? These soldiers have probably been conscripted, and sent out far from their homes and families. It’s not their fault the Emperor is evil.’ He bowed his head. ‘If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t even need a wagon. I’m the one who’ll slow us down if we have to walk, and so I cannot help but feel responsible if you slaughter these Holdings youths.’

  ‘Don’t worry, old man,’ said Shella, touching his arm, ‘there’s no way I’m walking to the Holdings.’

  She jumped down to the ground and strode forwards. Agang took a shield from the back of the wagon, and he and Lola followed the Rakanese mage.

  Shella turned.

  ‘We’ll be back in a couple of hours,’ she shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

  Laodoc nodded, and Shella went through the curtain of water, followed by Agang and Lola.

  Bridget and Dyam glanced at each other, while Dean remained silent in the back of the wagon.

  ‘That’s fucked up,’ said Bridget.

  ‘No shit,’ said Dyam.

  Two hours passed, and Shella had not returned.

  Dyam had kicked Dean out of the wagon, and was sleeping in the back, while Bridget sat up on the driver’s bench next to Laodoc. Dean had disappeared, though Laodoc suspected the boy was sulking in some dark corner of the cavern.

  ‘I hope he’s all right,’ Laodoc said. ‘The boy.’

  ‘What, Dean?’ Bridget said. ‘He shouldn’t have come. It’s my fault, I should’ve been firmer at the start, and said no.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself, Bridget,’ he said. ‘I was there too, and I didn’t object to him coming along either. You and Dyam, you’ve tried your best for him, but the boy’s not suited to magehood.’

  ‘He’s too sensitive,’ Bridget said. ‘Needs to find a nice lassie and settle down.’

  They heard a noise from the waterfall, and turned to see Lola emerge into the cavern.

  ‘It’s done,’ she said.

  Bridget and Laodoc glanced at each other.

  ‘Shella…?’

  ‘She fucking killed them all, just like she said she would,’ Lola said, shaking her head. ‘It was quite a sight.’

  Bridget nudged Dyam awake.

  ‘We’re going,’ she said, then gazed around the cavern. ‘Dean?’

  Dyam rubbed her head and sat up. ‘Where is that boy?’

  ‘He’s down at the Holdings camp,’ said Lola. ‘I thought you’d sent him.’

  ‘No,’ said Bridget frowning, ‘we didn’t.’

  Dyam clambered down from the wagon, and pulled a tarpaulin over the crates and sacks.

  ‘That should keep it dry,’ she said.

  Bridget yanked on the reins, and the two gaien began to lumber towards the waterfall. Lola and Dyam slipped through first on foot, then Laodoc and Bridget closed their eyes and went through. The roar of the water was deafening, and the torrent soaked them as they passed out of the cavern. The wheels of the wagon climbed up a bank, and Laodoc looked around.

  The waterfall fed a sparkling stream that flowed to their right, while around was a forest of tall conifers mixed with spruce. The ground was sloping away in front of them, and a track wound its way down the mountainside. Above them, the sky was blue with patches of white clouds. Bridget shook her head, spraying water over Laodoc as she laughed.

  ‘Welcome to the Plateau,’ smirked Lola from where she leant against a tree. ‘This way. ’

  Lola set off down the track, as Dyam climbed back up onto the wagon, pouring the pools of water from the tarpaulin onto the ground. Bridget pulled on the reins, and they took off, following Lola down the hillside.

  Laodoc scanned the ground ahead, but the trees were too thickly spread for him to see much. The ground was piled in brown pine needles, and the wagon was gouging deep ruts in the mud. They carried on down the track for an hour, the gaien slow and awkward on the slope. As they reached an area of flatter ground, Lola turned to them.

  ‘I should warn ye,’ she said, ‘the camp’s just up ahead. It’s not too pretty in there. And there’s something else.’

  ‘What?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Shella and Agang, they took a prisoner,’ Lola said. ‘Some Holdings mage-priest that was with the troopers. They were… questioning him in his tent when I left.’

  ‘And Dean?’ said Dyam.

  ‘The lad was in there with them.’

  Bridget flicked the reins, and they carried on. At the base of a tree, Laodoc caught sight of the first bodies, a pair of Holdings sentries, streams of blood running from their eye sockets. They went another hundred yards, and passed a low embankment marking the edge of the square-shaped camp. On the other side of the bank the scale of the carnage became clear. Dozens of bodies littered the ground, men and women in imperial uniforms. Some were in full armour, while others were half-naked, lying dead at the entrances of their tents.

  Laodoc’s tongue flickered as the wagon stopped, the path ahead blocked by corpses. They climbed down, and made their way on foot towards the large command tent where Lola was leading them. They stepped over and around the bodies. Laodoc tried not to look at their faces, but his sight was drawn. Each had been killed in the same way as the sentries, their eyes gone, the hollow sockets raw, red holes in their faces. Blood streaked their uniforms and the sides of the tents pitched in rows, and had formed into pools on the ground.

  ‘Fucksake,’ he heard Bridget mutter, as they passed a low campfire. It was still burning, and around it lay the bodies of a dozen troopers, some still clutching bowls of food in their dead hands.

  They walked past two dead guards and into the command tent. Inside were tables and chairs, and a row of low camp beds. Bodies lay scattered where they had fallen. At the end of the tent, Laodoc saw Shella and Agang. They were standing in front of a man who had been tied to a chair. His head was lolling forwards, a blindfold covering his eyes, his face a red pulp.

  ‘Shall I heal him again?’ said Agang.

  ‘Nah,’ said Shella. ‘He’s given us everything he’s got.’ She clicked her fingers, and the man in the chair made a choking noise, and his head fell forwards.

  Bridget walked up to the figure in the chair, as Shella and Agang turned.

  Dyam snarled as she spotted Dean, sitting in the corner, his eyes transfixed on the body.

  ‘Get the fuck out of here,’ she said. ‘This is no place for a bairn.’

  ‘What?’ he said, looking up. ‘And out there’s better?’

  Bridget frowned at Shella and Agang.

  ‘Yer a pair of sick wee fucks.’

  ‘Didn’t know you were so sensitive,’ said Shella.

  ‘We got a lot of information out of him,’ said Agang, ‘some good, some not so.’

  Laodoc said nothing.

  ‘I’m going to clear the road,’ said Bridget, ‘so we can get out of here as fast as fucking possible.’

  She left the tent.

  ‘We’ll help,’ said Dyam, grabbing Dean by the collar, and hauling him out after her.

  Shella lit a cigarette, her fingers red.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she said.

  ‘I wasn
’t aware I was looking at you in any particular fashion, madam mage,’ Laodoc said.

  ‘Yeah right,’ she said. ‘You think I’m a cold-blooded bitch. ’

  ‘Why would he think that?’ said Agang. ‘We were only doing what was required. I don’t see the problem.’

  She glanced at him. ‘Maybe in Sanang the torturing of prisoners is routine, but Laodoc lives to a higher standard. It’s fine. Let him have his moment of moral superiority. He’ll still benefit from what we learned.’

  Agang frowned. ‘Say something, my friend.’

  Laodoc let out a long breath. ‘I don’t know what to say. My heart is burning with a fierce mixture of anger and disappointment, and guilt, at my part in this.’

  ‘Grow up,’ said Shella, heading for the entrance to the tent.

  Agang stood for a moment in silence, then followed her out. Laodoc gazed at the body of the dead Holdings mage-priest. He should be feeling glad at the death of an enemy, a member of the church that had brought ruin to his country, but he felt nothing but emptiness.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘Bridget?’ he said.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘I’ve got something to show you.’

  She took his hand and they left the tent. She led him through the rear of the camp, until they came to a clearing where the others were standing.

  Laodoc’s mouth opened. Ahead of them was a paddock, where a dozen winged gaien were chained to posts. Beyond them stood a row of flying carriages.

  Shella nudged Agang. ‘Told you he’d be happy.’

  ‘See, my friend,’ Agang said, ‘with one of these, we could be in Plateau City in days.’

  ‘Plateau City?’ said Laodoc.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Shella. ‘It’s time to kill the Emperor.’

  He glanced at her. ‘But what about Daphne’s child? Don’t we need her protection?’

  ‘Not any more,’ Agang said. ‘Not from what the priest told us.’

  ‘Let’s go back a bit first,’ Shella said. ‘You were right, Laodoc, about Sami. The Emperor read his mind, and found out about Silverstream. He sent these guys out to try to find it, and the mage-priest had to report back to the Emperor regularly. Now, do you want to know what the Emperor’s been doing since he got his powers?

  ‘Indeed,’ said Laodoc.

  She lit another cigarette. ‘He took a Holdings army into Arakhanah City, and annihilated half of my people.’

  ‘Oh Shella, I’m sorry,’ Laodoc said.

  She shook her head, suppressing her tears. ‘He took every mage he could find, but they committed suicide, so in a rage he burned the city to the ground, then broke the sea walls and flooded it.’

  ‘It gets worse,’ said Agang.

  ‘How?’

  ‘After Rakana, he took a Rahain army into the Holdings, after the Holdfasts organised a rebellion against his rule.’

  ‘Fuck,’ said Bridget. ‘Daphne’s family?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Agang, ‘acting with others. The Emperor has only recently returned to Plateau City, leaving the Holdings in smoking ruins.’

  ‘And Daphne?’ said Laodoc. ‘Do we know anything of her?’

  ‘The Emperor destroyed her family,’ he said, ‘then chased her through the mountains. She fell off a cliff and is presumed to be dead.’

  The others stood in silence.

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ Shella said. ‘Not Daphne. She’s alive.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Agang, ‘maybe not.’

  ‘And Karalyn?’

  ‘The priest didn’t know,’ said Agang.

  ‘This is grim news indeed,’ Laodoc said, ‘but it doesn’t explain why you want to go to Plateau City. Shouldn’t we be looking for Daphne?’

  ‘Because now’s our only chance,’ said Shella. ‘The Emperor’s weak after using so much power in such a short time. He over-reached, and exhausted himself. He’s locked up in his fortress in Plateau City, trying to recover.’

  ‘If we hit him now,’ said Agang, ‘we have a chance. But if we wait, he’ll grow strong enough to undertake another ritual. He has all the mages he needs, but he’s too weak to do anything about it. We must strike now. ’

  Bridget frowned. ‘And how would the priest know all that?’

  ‘Like Shella said before,’ Agang said, ‘he was in regular contact with the Emperor. There aren’t many mages of his calibre left, he must have been high up in the imperial government. He was entrusted with finding Shella.’

  ‘And how long will the Emperor take to recover?’ said Laodoc.

  ‘He’ll be back on his feet within a third,’ Shella said. ‘If we fly, we could be there in under ten days.’

  ‘We get as close as possible to the fortress,’ said Agang, ‘then get inside, and destroy him.’

  ‘Alright,’ said Bridget. ‘We’ve come this far, let’s finish it.’

  ‘One question,’ said Dyam. ‘Does anyone know how to fly one of those things?’

  They all turned to Laodoc.

  ‘Me?’ he said.

  ‘Come on,’ said Shella, ‘surely you know?’

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I did some basic training, but it was a long time ago, when I was in the army.’

  ‘You were in the army?’

  ‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘Fifty years ago.’

  Shella laughed.

  ‘Let’s hope you’ve got a good memory.’

  Chapter 32

  The Night Before

  O utside Plateau City, Imperial Plateau – 18 th Day, Second Third Winter 507

  Three horses had died on the way to the imperial capital. Killop had lamed two, and the third had slipped and broken a leg while being ridden by Chane. Daphne had put all three out of their misery, before cutting long strips off their flesh. They had dried out in the sunlight, and Daphne, Killop and Chane had eaten little else in days.

  Daphne slowed her mount to a walk as they approached an abandoned farmstead, four miles from the city. She slung her leg over the saddle and dismounted by a long water trough, tying the reins to a post as the horse drank from the muddy rainwater.

  Chane and Killop followed her lead. Killop groaned as he landed, rubbing his back.

  Daphne smiled at him. ‘We made it,’ she said. ‘There should be no more riding for a bit.’

  ‘My arse will be grateful,’ he said. He gazed up at the sky. ‘It’ll be dark soon. Will we head straight to the city?’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Daphne. ‘We’ve no idea what we’re walking into. I’ll need to scout the city to find out where Karalyn is, and to do that, I’ll need to rest. ’

  Killop nodded. He pulled down the pack from where it was secured by his saddle, and they walked into the empty farmhouse. Half of the roof had collapsed, and there were birds nesting in the beams. Chane kicked off her boots and fell into a creaky old chair.

  ‘I’ve never felt so fucking knackered,’ she said.

  Killop unpacked food onto a table.

  Chane flinched at the sight. ‘I can’t face having horse again. Seven fucking days.’

  She glanced at Killop as he began raking through the kitchen cupboards.

  ‘Don’t know why you’re bothering. This place has been ransacked by every army that’s passed through in the last few years. To be honest, I’m shocked there’s any furniture left.’

  Killop shrugged. ‘You never know.’

  Daphne listened to them from where she stood by a broken window, her gaze on the grassy hillside in front of the farmstead. Somewhere on the other side was Karalyn, and the Emperor. She bit her lip. This was happening. She was going to walk into the heart of the empire… and do what? Rescue her daughter, but then what? Her mind told her to flee. Snatch Karalyn, run north back to the Holdings, and hide. Hide forever.

  ‘Ha!’ cried Killop. He glanced at Chane. ‘Tea. No good to me, but I’ll put some water on to boil for you.’

  ‘Nice one,’ said Chane.

  ‘The armies that passed through were Sanang,’ said Daphne. ‘I
guess they had no use for tea.’

  ‘I surprised they didn’t try to smoke it.’

  ‘They probably did.’ She glanced at Chane. ‘How you feeling about the dullweed? It’s been a while.’

  Chane shrugged. ‘I’m still functioning, I suppose. What about you? I bet you wish you had some keenweed.’

  ‘I’ve told you,’ she said, ‘it helps with the vision powers.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  ‘There’s no point in arguing,’ Daphne said. ‘We haven’t got any, and that’s that. ’

  Chane picked up the sack and took out a pack of cigarettes.

  ‘We do have plenty of these though,’ she said.

  Daphne walked over, and took one. Chane lit hers and Daphne’s as Killop got a stove burning, a small pot of water sitting on the flame.

  ‘What about you, big man?’ Chane said. ‘You must be missing the booze. I know I am.’

  Killop shrugged.

  ‘Maybe we can find a drink in the city,’ Chane said.

  ‘Forget it,’ Daphne said. ‘We can’t afford to screw this up.’

  ‘I meant pick up a few bottles for later,’ she said, ‘for when it’s safe again.’

  ‘Safe again?’ Daphne said. ‘It’ll only be safe again if we kill the Emperor.’

  Chane puffed out her cheeks. ‘You need to think this through. You know the only way to get close to the Emperor is by using Karalyn to shield you.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘There must be another way.’

  ‘You let me know when you think of one,’ Chane said. ‘Until then, it’s a crazy idea.’

  Killop brought over two mugs of hot tea.

  ‘Thanks,’ Daphne said, taking a sip.

  The tea was stale, and bitter without any sugar, but it was still the best thing Daphne had tasted in many days. She leaned against the table, smoking and drinking. She surged a small thread of battle-vision, and felt her energy return. She gazed over at the window. It was getting dark outside, and the interior of the farmhouse was bathed in shadow.

  She stubbed out her cigarette and took a long breath.

  ‘I’m ready,’ she said.

  Chane tossed her the pack of cigarettes.

  ‘Thanks. I’ll be back soon.’

  She kissed Killop, and left through the front door. She passed the horses and continued up the long grassy slope to the top of the bank. In the far distance was the city, discernible with her vision-enhanced eyesight as a faint blur on the horizon. She sat down on the bank, and focussed. She longed to see Karalyn, but knew that the search could take a while. She remembered the look of the building from when she had dream-visioned there before, but it was in a street she hadn’t recognised, and she didn’t know the exact location.