The Invisible Hand

by Chris Northern

  "My eyes," he whispered. "I can't see."

  "My healer will tend to that," I told him, and hoped that I was right. If not, I'd find some other way. Maybe tear those glass eyes out of Caliran's head and give the boy the use of them. If not that, something else. "Just wait here and get yourself ready to move," I turned and left him there, feeling grim about it but knowing I had not much time to waste. Caliran would know something had gone wrong here. The boy had been in the centre of the pattern. Some old man's cataracts had been healed, but not the rest of what ailed him. Caliran would know that something had gone wrong and either come here or send men to investigate. I wanted to be gone or at least ready to go before that happened.

  A moment later I stood over the cage that held Duprane and worked to cut her free. "The centre of the pattern, what does it do?" I thought I knew but wanted to be sure.

  "Merges the whole of one with another," Duprane sounded weak and frail as she answered. "More or less that. Some is left untaken. Skin, veins, blood, sunken eyes, thinned bone. If you want to know all of it go look at some of the remains."

  I didn't. I lifted the lid of the cage and Duprane slowly moved to sit back on her heels. I wasn’t done with my questions and didn't immediately reach to cut her hands free. "If he intended that, if Caliran intended that, how come the boy lost just his sight?"

  She didn't answer. After a moment I gently reached out my hand to her back and pressed her down, back into the cage. “I could leave you here, Duprane. I don't owe you anything."

  Velentin growled close to my groin and I glanced at him. "Do you think you could take Sapphire down, Velentin? Would you care to find out?" The wolf whined, looked across the room to where Sapphire was busy cutting people free, knowing, I supposed, that I wouldn't leave them.

  "Well?" I meant the question for both of them but gave my fullest attention to Duprane.

  With a gasp of pain from her cramped muscles she gave it up. "The segments are active in a sequence across the pattern as the moon moves across the sky, larger and smaller numbers as the moon waxes and wanes, sometimes including the centre, sometimes not. And that is all I'm going to tell you about that."

  "What happens to the... what happens to those who..." I couldn't find a way of saying it and gave up, letting off the pressure on her back so that she could rise.

  "The recipients gain bulk," Duprane said as she sat back on her heels and extended her bound hands for me to cut. "The one at the standing stones would gain some height but more bulk. The boy weighs what? Ten stone? So the recipient would gain maybe nine stone in bulk and maybe as much as a foot in height. The boy is young, so the recipient would become younger, young enough to still be growing." I was almost glad to see her shudder at that. At least she still had some humanity left in her.

  I was done with my questions. I had all I wanted to know. Possibly more. I cut the bonds that held her wrists and gave her the knife. I drew my sword as I crossed to the next nearest cage and began to move faster, just cutting the cage open and moving on. As I moved I counted the cages that I need not bother with. There were seven. At least they would be easy to spot. Whoever they were, that they would accept this was enough to make them enemies of mine and I would see them dead. And Caliran, regardless that that put Silgar in my path.

  Duprane hobbled from cage to cage, following my lead and cutting the bonds of the young men, the boys who were bound within. Sapphire was faster and it wasn't long before I was awkwardly using the edge of my sword to cut bonds rather than open cages. The young men, boys in truth, were all of the Necromancers’ ilk. Thin, short, stunted and doubtless to Caliran's mind, useless and therefore expendable. I'd cut the last one free, a stoic young lad who climbed stiffly from his prison and glared around him, face pale with a mixture of anger and fear. I watched him limp across the room to a cage from which no one need be cut free. He leaned on it looking in. His shoulders heaved once but no sound of a sob came from him. I looked away. Velentin, I saw, had moved to the doorway and stood just outside, head lifted as he scented the breeze.

  "What happened to the rest? The other wolves," I clarified as Duprane turned a puzzled look my way.

  "Dead," she told me shortly. "They died trying to protect me, though I ordered otherwise. Only Velentin was wise enough to obey me."

  I caught a glimpse of Velentin as he looked back at us and then away. "You plan to attack him?"

  Her gaze was fierce but restrained as she looked at me. "No. He has a hundred with him, now with seven merged men. Velentin and I can't touch him. But the Plain Lords are coming, and they are my allies to some degree. With their help, and yours as you have given your word, I'll secure control of my Keep." She straightened her long back and rolled her narrow shoulders. "What do you intend?"

  I glanced at the lad who was bent over one particular cage, a cage that I guessed had held someone he knew and now held nothing human. As my gaze came to rest on him he pushed away and looked about himself. His gaze lit on the body of a guard and he closed the distance purposefully. Still stiff from being bound, he bent and began to unbuckle the sword-belt the guard had worn. His purpose was clear and I left him to it. I turned my attention back to Duprane.

  "I plan to kill the bastard," I told her. "No matter what it takes."

  A low growl sounded from the doorway. I glanced around to see that Velentin backed stiff-legged into the room, hackles raised. Sapphire moved that way, fast and smooth, sword in hand. I glanced about the room, picked out the fourteen lads who stood huddled here and there. Most seemed uncertain of what to do, but two of them had followed the lead of the stocky youth and were arming themselves. The blind lad sat hunched and miserable where I'd left him. Duprane watched me and waited.

  I glanced at the pattern and wondered briefly if there was a way to break it. I knew that Duprane would try and stop me even if I could think of a way. And there was no time. I'd done everything I could here. It was time to go. If we could.

  I pointed out the blind lad to Duprane. "Bring him."

  Without waiting to see if she obeyed, I went to the door. Sapphire had slipped through, gone to meet whatever threat approached. Velentin stood back from the doorway. The wolf looked to Duprane, maybe waiting for instructions. We couldn't wait. If we waited we could be trapped here. "We are heading for Darklake," I raised my voice just a little to be sure I was heard. "Keep close and keep moving." I passed the wolf. "Velentin, you are with me." I stepped through the doorway, blade first, and went down the steps as fast as I could, torn between the need for speed and silence. I didn't want to be standing there in full view. I wanted to be hidden in the darkness below, and time for my eyes to adjust. Nor did I want to clatter down the stairs, not knowing how far away any threat might be, or how aware of us they were already. At the bottom of the steps, I slipped into the gardens, straining to hear and see. The light from the doorway pooled around the steps, sent glints of reflection from leaves here and there, gave enough light to allow me to pick out the vague shapes of bushes and shrubs. I stepped among them. Even as I did so, I was aware that there was more light than the burning brands inside the Keep could account for, dancing across the gardens and in the branches of more distant trees. Low voices, footsteps and the jingle of chainmail brought my attention to the corner of the Keep. I couldn't tell how many were coming. Five? Ten? They were beyond the Keep, moving this way, not in any hurry but purposeful. It wouldn't be long before they rounded the corner. There was no sign of Sapphire. Velentin had followed me as far as the bottom of the steps, where he stood and looked back to where Duprane was leading the blind boy, the rest clustered behind her. Too slow.

  "Shit," I hissed. I wasn't fit for this. My sword felt heavy in my hand. My armor weighed heavy on me. The enhancements had used me up and then fled, leaving me weak and shaky.

  Duprane and the blind boy made their way slowly down the steps. I couldn't blame him for his hesitancy, or the fear the newly blind must feel. The others bunched up behind them. Frightened faces turned to the o
ncoming voices. One lad stopped and bent to the dead guard, straightened with a long knife in his hand. He looked at it with fierce intent, then to where the enemy would appear. My heart sank. It wasn't going to happen the way I wanted. They just weren't moving fast enough. Even if they started now it would be too late. The flickering light brightened steadily, voices and footsteps sounding louder by the moment. I could abandon them. I closed my eyes, just for a moment. I remembered the last time I had been here. Horses’ hooves that sounded out, that came closer, signalling a possible threat – but on that occasion it had been Balaran.

  Not this time.

  If I waited here until the enemy turned the corner I could imagine what would happen. Give them a moment to see, another moment to react, then they would fan out and move in. Some of the lads would flee and some would turn to meet them. I could step out of concealment and take one or two, confident that Sapphire would do better, but some would close with the lightly armed lads who suffered still from their cramped confinement. Some of them would die.

  Not this time.

  I gave it up, stepped from my concealment and walked calmly toward where the enemy would appear. My feet crunched gently on the gravel as I walked through a world of shadow bordered by highlights of flickering light. I glanced back over my shoulder as I closed on the corner of the Keep. Duprane had made the bottom of the steps and the rest crowded down them. Not fast enough. Not by far. The low murmur of voices was close now, footsteps crunching on gravel. I put my left shoulder close to the wall then stopped. The light from torches shimmered across the bright gravel, throwing shadows ahead of it. A deep voice rumbled something and was followed by laughter that sounded confident but held an undercurrent of fear. I frowned to hear it. Shook my head, tried to concentrate on voices and footsteps, to guess how many there were. More than five, less than ten. Any moment now. I could practically smell them. I glanced back for the last time. Two of the lads were headed this way, weapons raised. A glimpse of movement to one side might be Velentin. The last of the boys were still at the top of the steps, then, with a nervous glance my way, the boy started down.

  Of Sapphire there was no sign. I turned back. In moments they would be in a position to see me. I set myself. Reached for my resolve and let it fill me just as the first of them came into view, maybe twenty feet out from the corner. He was big, taller than me and heavy. He held a wood axe lightly in one big hand. His gaze flickered to me. He was too far to reach and I could tell already that there were more just around the corner. If I moved I would be exposing my flank to them. I held still, forced myself to wait. Tense. Ready to move as soon as he began to react. The moment seemed to hang forever as he hesitated, failed to react, wasted the moment.

  Then the rest appeared in a loose group, torches and weapons held casually as they rounded the corner en-masse. Bright light flared in my face and I was face to face with one of them. I was set for him. Ready. Sword point raised. He froze, opened his mouth, tensed to step back. Calmly, almost slowly, I thrust firm and accurate. The point of my blade hit the centre of his throat, slid deep, and met solid resistance as it touched bone. Someone shouted wordlessly. It wasn't him. I forced my gaze to slide from his eyes, widened in shock, somehow knowing he was going to die though he could have felt no hint of pain yet. I shoved him in the chest with my free hand and stepped forward among the suddenly chaotic mass of movement. Careful to keep my back to the wall I took in the enemy as a whole. Spear points dropped to block me. Two men faced me square, reacting defensively. Beyond them the big man had turned his back to me, blood spurted from a long wound across his spine. The rest a sudden riot of movement. I stepped to my right and swept my blade across one spear, knocking it aside and solid step thrust to his face. The point of my blade struck his cheek bone, deflected down and broke a tooth, penetrating his mouth; came free easily as he leaned and then staggered back a step. The point of another spear came fast and low and I turned so that it touched armor and was guided by me. I was too close to use the blade so I hammered a punch into his face, stepped in to follow up as his head jerked back from the blow. Still too close as I completed the step, perfectly balanced, I hesitated while he stepped back half a pace, then kicked him hard in the gut and he folded in front of me to waist level. I brought my blade down hard on the back of his skull, the hilt of my sword touching my own groin. My slight forward momentum tripped me as he fell at my feet in the same moment that I tried to take a step. In an instant I was half kneeling on his back and half staggering as I tried to recover my balance. The breath came out of me explosively in a panicked snort of spittle. Hints of movement close to right and left. Instinct cut in and I gave it up, throwing myself backward, something tearing slightly in my leg. A breath of hot air from a fallen torch, the bright flash of a blade in the reflected light. I was on my back for a moment, surrounded by incoherent movement in the chaotic light. I rolled away and came to my feet. Something moved past me and I slashed at it wildly.

  A frozen instant then. A head leapt into the air. A too small body half completed a step. Blood spurted powerfully in a jet that spattered the head from below as the body of the boy collapsed. A howl that maybe one day I would recognise as something from inside me.

  Whatever happened after that happened in another world. To someone else.

  #

  "We have to move."

  I was nodding. I didn't know why I was nodding. I looked around, barely registering what I saw. Burning brands littered on bright gravel. Bright sheens of blood. There were bodies everywhere. Parts of bodies. I looked away from that. Light reflected from leaves and blooms. I focused on that for a moment. Wondered where I was. The garden. The Keep. I gave one more nod, finally realised that it was Sapphire who spoke and that he stood right in front of me. I saw the blood on his face. Felt the drying wetness on my own. I cleared my throat. It felt raw. The shouting. I heard an echo of my own voice in my mind. Then a cascade of images spilled through me, of a berserk madman filled with a frenzied fury, hacking wildly at anything that moved. Including, at the end, Sapphire, when only he and I were left. My body still ached from it, muscles exhausted.

  I flexed my hands. They were both empty. I didn't want to think about that. In the distance there were shouts. The fighting had been heard. Caliran was reacting. I didn't want to know about that, either.

  "We have to move," Sapphire said again.

  I met his gaze, saw him study me and judge me. Seemingly satisfied, he pressed the hilt of my sword into my right hand. He had taken the sword from me when I had tried to kill him. When only he and I were left alive. I took the sticky hilt and reluctantly firmed my grip on it. Sapphire then laid one hand on my arm and calmly turned me away from the encroaching voices of a closing enemy. "We have to move now," he said.

  I gave one final nod and started to walk away from the light. I went willingly enough, oddly numb, strangely calm. I picked up my pace, focused on the night in front of me and found a way through it. We fled, and part of me knew it wasn't just Caliran that I ran from. Just as part of me knew that you can't run away from yourself.

  #

  "If we stay on the trail they are going to catch up," Sapphire's voice was as calm and certain as ever, both a guide and a comfort.

  I staggered to a ragged halt. He was right and I knew it. I looked around and saw nothing but the darkness pressing in around me. I could hear the slight rustle of a breeze in the trees, the uneven drip of rain on the forest floor. Duprane and her charges were nowhere in sight. Ahead of us or away into the woodland, it made no difference. They were gone and there was nothing to be done about that. She and Velentin hadn't aided us, though; the thought touched my consciousness fleetingly. She had no loyalty to me; owed me nothing. I glanced behind us, saw the shimmer of torchlight, heard the pounding of feet on bare earth. Distant but closing. I was aware of Sapphire's hand on my arm. He held tight. He had been guiding me through the night. Now we faced each other, our breaths mingled with each exhale as he patiently waited. There was
n't time to wait. They were too many to fight. If there had been only one it would have been too many for me. I was a mess. I shivered, limbs weak, fatigue rather than vigour pumped sluggishly through my body. And my mind shied away from the half-formed thought of violence. Without a word, I turned and headed for the forest. At once Sapphire stiffened his grip and guided me away from my blindly chosen course. In a few moments we were through the undergrowth that bunched at the trail’s edge and into the open woodland under the dense canopy. Our footfalls crackled softly on the detritus of the forest floor as Sapphire steered me an uneven path that trended downhill.