Darksong

by Isobelle Carmody

  Bleyd gave Ember a look of blank puzzlement, then his gaze fell to the a’luwtha lying atop its padded bag, and his eyes widened in astonishment. ‘It is Alene’s a’luwtha …’

  ‘I played it in front of you on the ship,’ Ember told him quietly. ‘Alene gave that to me before I left Ramidan. I don’t know why.’ It struck her again that the soulweaver had to have known that she was a musician from a vision. But still that did not explain the gifting of the a’luwtha.

  ‘Maybe she just meant me to take it to Darkfall,’ she said to herself, as much as the others.

  ‘Are you mad?’ Virat snarled.

  Bleyd took her by the arm. ‘Look, I do not know how she came to have the a’luwtha, but if she says Alene gave it, it must be so. She would not lie about such a thing.’

  ‘Who is she?’

  ‘A visionweaver who travels to the misty isle at Alene’s insistence.’ Bleyd hesitated, his eyes flicking to the silent Hella.

  ‘To the misty isle?’ Virat echoed, all animosity gone. ‘Then she has soulw–’

  Bleyd laid a hand on her powerful arm. ‘Leave it for now, Virat, will you. I do not myself understand all of this affair, but her presence here is Alene’s doing. Now tell me why you are here and how you found us.’

  ‘You had better introduce me to your Acanthan companion first.’ There was a challenge in the words, but Hella only lifted her chin fractionally.

  ‘Hella, this is Virat, who is a myrmidon second rank. Virat, this is Hella –’ Bleyd began, but Hella threw up a hand.

  ‘I can speak for myself,’ she said coldly. She turned to the myrmidon and said formally, ‘I am Hella, journeyman gemeller and once of Acantha; now septless since my brother was exiled by Jurass for escorting my sister, Flay, to the Darkfall landing. I travelled with this man you call Bleyd and the woman who called herself his sister by chance from Vespi. Until this moment, I believed they were as they had represented themselves.’

  To Ember’s surprise, Bleyd moved to take the Acanthan girl’s hands in his own. ‘Do not be angry at our deception, Hella. It was never intended to hurt you.’

  She wrenched her hands free and said wrathfully, ‘I told you that my sister had given herself to the misty isle, yet you could not tell me that your sister meant to do the same?’

  ‘Ember travels to the misty isle to be healed. The only reason we did not tell you the truth about ourselves was because we were coming here to Iridom, and if we were taken by legionnaires, your ignorance would protect you. I promise that I meant to tell you the truth as soon as we left this place.’

  ‘And what is the truth? Who are you both, that you hide your true names and are the concern of legionnaires and soulweavers?’ Hella demanded.

  Bleyd looked at Ember, who did nothing. He shrugged slightly and, releasing the Acanthan girl’s hands, bowed formally to her. ‘I am Bleyd of Fomhika. Sometime primary heir to the chieftain’s seat on Fomhika and protector of the mermod, my brother.’ A shadow of pain flitted in his eyes, though his words were calm. ‘The same Bleyd accused falsely and tortured to make me confess to a crime I did not commit. Ember is the Sheannite visionweaver who saved Tarsin from drinking poison, and who, with the help of Alene soulweaver and her myrmidon protectors, helped me to escape from the citadel cell where I lay interrogated almost unto death. I remember little of my escape, but when I woke, I was aboard the Stormsong with her and bound for Vespi.’

  ‘But … but the visionweaver accused you …’ Hella stammered, her anger drained away by his words.

  ‘No,’ Bleyd said. ‘The visionweaver saw only that the brew Tarsin would have drunk was poisoned. We were never enemies and, in escaping, we became allies. But perhaps you regret the friendship we have forged, now that you know who we are.’ His words were gravely said.

  Hella flushed. ‘You mock me. It is not for the likes of a lowly gemeller to befriend a future chieftain.’

  Bleyd made a rude sound that contained both laughter and bitterness. ‘It is a fugitive that befriended you, though I would remain a true friend if I inherit the chieftain’s seat. But maybe you would rather walk away from this for I am not a safe person to know at this time.’

  Hella had no chance to answer for Virat said abruptly, ‘No one will be walking away just yet. I am to bring all of you to Fridja’s place, and that is what I will do. What happens after that can be decided then. Now, it is time we returned to the city, for the Olfactors Festival begins officially at dusk and we will be lucky to reach the outskirts of the city before Aden rises. After that, masks are the law. Fortunately I have a good fast carriage …’

  ‘But we came in a carriage …’ Bleyd protested.

  ‘Let us say that your carriage driver has fallen asleep on the job,’ Virat smiled wolfishly. ‘With a little help,’ she patted the stout short stick attached to her belt by a hide thong. ‘Have no sympathy for the wretch. He is part of a ruffian gang. As soon as Fridja received your message saying that you were taking a carriage to the fire falls, she sent me after you.’

  Bleyd shook his head ruefully. ‘I guessed that he was unsavory. But how can such a gang be operating so freely? The legionnaires …’

  ‘The majority of green legionnaires are corrupt and venal,’ Virat snarled. She dropped to her knees and began to re-pack the picnic hamper. ‘The rumour is that ruffians pay tithe to the palace to be allowed to operate without harassment from the legionnaires. Iridom is rife with such plots and subplots and, according to Fridja, all have some link to the palace. Truly these are dark days on Iridom.’

  Bleyd folded the ground sheet, saying in a troubled voice, ‘These are dark days on all Keltor. Yet maybe even this is a sign that brighter times are coming, for is it not darkest before Kalinda dawns?’ His eyes flickered to Hella, but the Acanthan girl remained standing apart, her expression closed and remote.

  ‘Maybe it was a member of this ruffian carriage gang that followed us from the ship?’ Ember asked Virat. She saw Hella stare at her.

  ‘Fridja was just sending out some of her people to investigate your follower when I left.’ Virat lifted the hamper effortlessly onto one broad shoulder and set off, leaving the others to follow. Bleyd fell in behind her and Hella followed on without speaking. Ember brought up the rear, as before, and was soon panting in the heat as they traversed the tree-lined path and then made their way up the slope to the tunnel opening. By the time they reached it, Ember’s head was throbbing and there was a tight, hot knot of pain at the base of her skull; the chill of the tunnel washed over her like the soothing waters of the spring.

  Bleyd began to question Virat. ‘You have not said what you were doing here on Iridom, my friend. I assume that Duran sent you here on myrmidon business?’

  ‘Duran sent herself here as well,’ the myrmidon said. ‘We were with Fridja when your chit arrived.’

  ‘Duran is here!’ Bleyd cried, his astonishment only dimly echoing Ember’s shock at hearing the name of the myrmidon to whom she was supposed to tell her story. But that meeting had been intended to take place on Myrmidor, not on dangerous Iridom.

  ‘Darkfall is desperate for callstones,’ Virat was saying. ‘We had a source who had been secretly supplying us with them on Acantha, ever since Jurass stopped sending any more stones. But there was a chit with the last delivery, saying that no more could be sent, and advising us for the first time that our supplier had been the Shadowman.’ She gave Bleyd a meaningful look over one broad shoulder. ‘You can imagine how that went over on the misty isle.’

  ‘How could Jurass stop sending stones to the misty isle when only soulweavers have the power to tune them?’ Bleyd asked.

  Virat shrugged. ‘It is common knowledge that he has been trying for as long as he has been in power to force the soulweavers to accept coin as payment for tuning, but the soulweavers have held on to their right to a percentage of all they tuned, knowing that his hatred would deprive them of the stones they need. Many thought that Jurass had accepted the way things were, but because tun
ed stones are returned to Acantha for distribution, he has been able to stockpile enough to afford to stop sending raw stones to the soulweavers. Signe believes that Jurass merely wants to humble us, and will resume supply when his stockpile runs out. But Duran believes that, having gone this far, he will not back down.’

  ‘That is insanity,’ Bleyd said. ‘But what has all of that to do with Duran coming here?’ Bleyd asked.

  Virat shrugged. ‘There is a shadow market in callstones operating on Iridom, condoned secretly by the police because it is the only way in which Coralyn can sell the stones confiscated from her political prisoners, by which I mean anyone that Coralyn finds inconvenient. Jurass does not object to this shadow market because he knows very well that if there were no outlet for stones, they would appeal to Tarsin to force him to take over control of the minescrapes. In truth the nobles do not mind stones being fantastically costly or difficult to obtain because the more rare they are, the more their status is proven by ownership of them.’

  ‘But again, what has this to do with Duran? If this shadow market is so strictly controlled, no one will sell to her, even if she pretends she is not a myrmidon.’

  ‘An offer was made to her by chit sent in secret to Myrmidor,’ Virat said. ‘The shadow-market operator offered her a stona of callstones, though she would have to pay ten times the price nobles pay.’

  ‘Why would Duran risk herself by coming here to handle the transaction, no matter how important? Why not let Fridja handle it?’

  ‘The shadow-market master insisted that he would deal only directly with Duran.’

  ‘This is obviously a trap!’ Bleyd exclaimed.

  ‘Probably, but Duran decided it was worth a risk to try to finesse the trader.’

  There was a little silence as they digested this and Ember shivered because they had been in the tunnel long enough for the mountain cold to begin to sink into her bones.

  ‘I suppose without callstones you have no news of recent matters on Ramidan?’ Bleyd asked too casually.

  ‘We receive news from travellers, and there are the open callstone bulletins from the palace and from each sept, but we have virtually no stones at our disposal, which means no way of contacting soulweavers like Alene and Faylian.’

  ‘Can not the soulweavers communicate with their sisters within the Void?’ Hella asked, speaking for the first time. But her tone was still cool.

  ‘Ordinarily they can, but for some time now there has been a disturbance of the Void which makes it almost impossible and even dangerous for soulweavers to segue outside of their dreams, let alone to attempt a meeting. Some of us think that Jurass learned of this disturbance and that is what prompted his black ban.’

  Bleyd asked bluntly, ‘Is there … Have you heard anything of Anyi?’

  The myrmidon glanced back. ‘It is said that he lies ill within his palace apartment.’

  ‘What is wrong with him?’ Bleyd demanded.

  ‘Rumour does not say.’

  ‘I do not understand why he is in the palace,’ Bleyd muttered. He glanced back at Ember, and she could not see his expression, though her own face might have been dimly visible. ‘You said they were going to leave for the soulweaver’s hut right after Feyt saw us off to the Stormsong.’

  ‘That is what she said,’ Ember said quietly. ‘Maybe Anyi refused to go to the hut until he was sure you were safely away, and then fell ill.’

  ‘It might even be that Tarsin banned any departures until you were found,’ Virat observed. ‘In which case this illness could be a ruse of Feyt’s to keep the boy safely in his room.’

  ‘Let it be so,’ Bleyd said in a heartfelt voice.

  ‘It might also have something to do with this betrothal of Unys of Iridom to Kerd of Vespi. Do you know aught of it? Many say Kerd offers life bond to that painted little trollop. If it is true, the girl must have practised the wiles she had learned in the Iridomi pleasure gardens on him.’

  Bleyd shook his head. ‘It is true enough that they are to be betrothed, and it may be that he offered her life bond as we surmised. But Unys is a child despite the paint and affectations. If she was trained by the women and men of the pleasure gardens, it was only in the art of flirtation, for her eyes are innocent. This life bond will be Coralyn’s doing. Once she saw, as everyone did, that Kerd was taken with the girl, she set herself to match them. Unys was no doubt commanded to make herself pleasant and receptive, and if Kerd was not so besotted he would see the resentment under her obedience.’

  ‘The fool,’ Virat said in a disgusted voice.

  They came to the end of the tunnel then and, as before, conversation languished when they moved out into the still intense heat of the fading afternoon. It was so late by the time they reached the place where they had left the carriage parked, Ember felt they could not possibly be back in the city by dusk. There was now a second carriage behind theirs, and the aspi from both grazed in a placid group not far away. There was no sign of their driver.

  ‘Do you know how my father reacted officially to my escape?’ Bleyd asked, as they passed the carriage that they had travelled in. The driver lay in the back seat, unconscious. He did not stir and Ember hoped he was only asleep. Unpleasant as the driver had been, she did not want to be the reason for his death.

  The myrmidon ignored him. ‘Poverin made no official response other than to criticise the legionnaires for laxity in allowing a prisoner to be taken from them. But unofficially we know that Donard has gone to Ramidan.’

  ‘Was my father informed of the truth about my “escape”?’

  Virat looked uncomfortable. ‘I am not sure, but no doubt the scarcity of callstones …’

  Bleyd sighed. ‘More like it was a deliberate omission, given my father’s tendency to speak unwisely and loudly into the wrong ears. And Feyt would not have risked letting Anyi call him from the citadel. That means Donard will have been sent to find out what happened to me.’ He fell morosely silent as the myrmidon ushered them all into the carriage and heaved the hamper onto the roof.

  All of the aspi came trotting amiably over to Virat when she gave a soft melodic whistle, and Ember was startled to see how gently the big woman handled them; how softly and sweetly she crooned as she brought her own team into the weathered harnessing. She fastened straps and buckles, clicking and muttering to the creatures all the while, and when she was finished, she lowered her head as if in prayer and each aspi in turn craned its neck and butted her gently, brow to brow. Then she turned to caress the aspi from the other carriage, ending with the same brow-to-brow salute before they went back to grazing. Neither Bleyd nor Hella seemed to find this extraordinary ritual worthy of more than a glance, so Ember tried not to gape.

  Finally the myrmidon climbed into place on the carriage driver’s seat and the carriage jerked forward. The creaking noise of the ancient carriage precluded conversation, for Virat’s idea of speed differed considerably from that of the other driver. Ember gave up worrying about the time and began to wonder if they would actually make it back to the city in one piece.

  21

  I fear what I must do, and yet there is no other way. The portal is

  complete now and I pray that I have been both wise and sly enough. But

  nothing is certain. Only death, and for me not even that. Now do I enter

  the twilight of existence of a soul without a body …

  LANALOR FRAGMENT

  The carriage rattled through the city gate on dusk. The city was still enveloped in the heavy yellowish mist, but it had deepened to a sepia murk. They had perhaps half an hour before the mask rule of the festival came into play, Virat said when she had stopped to let the aspi drink at a stone trough. Plenty of time for them to cross the city. Ember drank thirstily, feeling that she had eaten several bottles worth of dust.

  ‘This is not the way to the nightshelter,’ Hella said suddenly, when they had gone a little way.

  Virat glanced over her shoulder. ‘I told you that I am taking you to one of Fri
dja’s refuge houses where Duran will tell you if it is safe for you to go to the nightshelter.’

  ‘I doubt that I will be in any danger there,’ Hella said in a tight voice. ‘Not if I go there alone.’

  ‘That might have been true,’ Virat responded cheerfully, ‘if you had not been seen arriving with these two, and leaving for the falls with them. Even if I had not been commanded to bring you to Duran, I am afraid I could not take the risk that you would remain silent about your companions under torture.’

  Hella paled. ‘What of our bags?’ she asked faintly. ‘I have my gemelling tools and a number of cut stones, as well as other possessions of value.’

  ‘Have no fear. Your bags will be brought to you.’

  Hella might have said more, but the myrmidon made a sudden clucking noise and the aspi swung away from the main route they had been following into a small street, and then into successively smaller lanes until all of a sudden they emerged on a wide main road again. Ember wondered, with a flash of irritation, why they had diverted into a minor labyrinth rather than staying on the main roads in the first place. Then the answer struck her. Virat was making sure that they were not followed.

  The green moon, Aden, had just risen, when the aspi trotted obligingly into a yard with a high though battered fence. The gates that they passed through were sagging on their hinges and streaked with greenish mould. But once the carriage had passed through them, they swung soundlessly closed. The aspi came to a halt and, climbing out, Ember noticed that the big woman was again stroking and caressing each of the animals as she unharnessed them. Another tall woman emerged from the low dark building at the end of the yard, clad in the same rough clothes as Virat, but her head was bare and the exposed dreadlocks glimmered with the silver and jewelled cuffs that myrmidons favoured as hair ornamentation.