Crowchanger (Changers of Chandris)
Page 35
His heart sank when news of Jaevan’s death reached him. Such promise lost.
He asked for Sylas in Banunis, drinking in ale houses the lad had frequented, talking to stall holders whose acquaintance he had made. Sylas had died at the Aerie, he was told. Shame. He’d been a nice lad. Yet Sylas had been in Banunis, not at the Aerie. Jesely knew that for a fact. Someone was putting out lies about Sylas, and if that were so, might not the story about Jaevan be a lie, also?
Jesely was one of the faces lining the streets when the funeral procession passed. Marklin was white and drawn—the picture of a boy who had just lost a second brother. Deygan was almost unnaturally composed. Even if he was king first and father second, Jesely would have expected more emotion in his face. And Casian… If Jesely had to describe Casian’s appearance at all, it would have been ‘satisfied.’
He risked everything to let out a tendril of aiea-dera as they passed. His empath talent confirmed his suspicions: raw, visceral grief from Marklin; a certain smug assuredness from Casian; and from Deygan, no hint at all of any loss. A king might school his face to stillness, but he could not hide his emotions, not from an empath.
If Sylas and Jaevan were alive, he would find them. He owed them that much. And if he could be the instrument by which Casian fell from grace, so much the better.
It was almost a relief to Sylas when the blood elder did its worst. Casian saw no reason why they should not carry on the way they had been, but Sylas could not forget what he had done. He loved Casian, but whenever he allowed the Irenthi to take him to his bed, the grief and guilt killed his desire. When he slept, he saw dying changers and Ayriene lying in a pool of blood.
Deygan had ordered the destruction, he told himself. Casian was obeying his king, as he was bound to do. There was nothing evil about Casian. He refused to blame his Irenthi lover for the Aerie, but he could not treat his own crimes with the same leniency. He had thought there was nothing evil about himself either, and yet he had killed Ayriene to save his own skin.
It was hard, living with Jaevan. Every day, seeing that shell of a man and knowing that it was his fault. Jaevan was changing—becoming a man. He had put on several fingers’ width of height while they had been shut away, and his shoulders and chest were broadening. His voice should be deepening too, but the only time Sylas heard his voice was when he screamed.
He had done it once, at Casian’s mother’s house—waking in the night from some dream or nightmare, sobbing and wailing and clinging to Sylas as if to a branch in a whirlpool. And Sylas held him. It was all he could do. Held him and rocked him like a baby and murmured words of reassurance in his ear until he calmed.
So now they were to be held in The Hermitage, not in the relative comfort of the house in Lucranne. Deygan and Casian would visit less often. The king was having the room in which they would be held shelved from floor to ceiling to hold Sylas’s books. All the books on changer lore and healing would be sent there from Banunis Castle’s library—a whole wagon-load, if not more—so that Sylas could continue his studies in the hope of finding a way to reverse Jaevan’s decay. Deygan had kept his promise about that.
Sylas too would keep to his vow. If it took to the end of his days, he would study. He would find what had condemned his friend to a life of silence, and he would reverse it, whatever the cost.
And on the island, the Lady, deprived of the changers to channel away her energy, stored up trouble. Soon the island would realise how much of a debt they had owed to their changer folk. The changers and the volcano—a magical symbiosis of giving and receiving energy—a relationship which had just been catastrophically sundered.
Deep in the Lady, the aiea gathered.
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Glossary: Crowchanger
aiea - the energy emitted by the mountain, Eurna (known by the Chesammos as the Lady), and which is used by the changers.
aiea-bar - the lower order energy, used by the changers and their kye to effect the transformation from human to bird form.
aiea-dera - the higher order energy, used by changer talents when accessing their abilities, and inaccessible to those with no talent.
ashini - Chesammos. Roughly translates as “you understand?” or “OK?”
blood elder - plant used by the changers to suppress changing. The root is stronger, and used to delay a youngster coming to the change. The leaf, which gives off a red sap that gives the plant its name, is used for the marks used to prevent changing in those who have already started the change.
caigani - Chesammos. A form of smallclothes made of a light cloth and knotted at the hip.
caiona - Chesammos. A headscarf wound around the head and across the face to protect from ash and fumes in the desert.
Cellondora - one of the desert Chesammos villages. Centre of the Chesammos rebellion.
cheen - a large, flat hooved animal, used to pull wagons across the desert.
Chesammos - the original inhabitants of Chandris. A peaceful people, they are characterised by their golden skins and dark hair, which is often curly or wavy.
esteia - a desert plant. It produces nut-like seeds, which are deadly poison.
Irenthi - the ruling people of Chandris, who invaded the island centuries ago and have ruled there since. Characterised by their blond hair and fair skin, they usually have blue eyes, but occasionally green.
Irmos - any of the race of people who are of mixed Irenthi-Chesammos blood.
kaba - a plant which produces a sap highly toxic to Chesammos and Irmos, but to which the Irenthi are largely immune, although it will make them very sick.
krastos - the curved blade used by linandra diggers to prise linandra stones from the walls of volcanic vents. It has a blunted edge, but a two-pronged tip for gouging the stones free.
kye - the bird spirits which occupy the world known as the Outlands, and which guide the changers in the use of their power.
Lady, the - the term used by the Chesammos for the mountain Eurna, which they revere as the source of life on the island.
linandra - a pale green crystalline rock, formed in volcanic vents in the ash desert. It is used by the Chesammos to denote a marriageable adult, and also by the changers in their pipes. It is very valuable, and one of the main exports from Chandris.
maisaiea-yelai - Chesammos. “If the Lady wills it” or “The Lady grant that it be so” are the closest translations.
medelerinn - a desert plant, used (in a tisane) as a mild analgesic.
Namopaia - one of the desert Chesammos villages, and home to Sylas and his family.
Omena - a legendary figure to the Chesammos, Omena Stormweaver prevented the first threatened eruption of Eurna after the changers came to the island. Her name is used as a mild oath, in the form “Omena’s wings”.
swanflower - a fleshy desert plant with a tap root long enough to reach water, even in the desert. Used by the Chesammos as famine food, emergency water supply, a salve for wounds, and when brewed, as an alcoholic drink.
tokai - a thorny bush, the spikes from which are used as rough needles by the Chesammos, and by the changers to mark the skin of young changers who are suppressing the change.
zacorro - a highly potent alcoholic drink, brewed by the Chesammos and drunk at their major feasts.
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