by Lucy Hounsom
‘We could get a message to Rogan,’ Hagdon mused. ‘Taske says he’s taken control of Cymenza. That presents a few opportunities.’
‘I will leave you now,’ Kyndra said, rising. ‘Who knows what mischief the Lleu-yelin have cooked up in my absence?’
‘Are they wonderful?’ Irilin asked in a soft voice.
‘Moderately,’ Kyndra said and she actually smiled.
The Starborn had been gone only an hour when the call came echoing up the stairwell. ‘Force approaching, Commander.’
Hagdon cursed. He could have done with the intimidating presence of a Starborn. Still, he thought, hurrying towards the battlements, with all the Sartyans garrisoned here, a few hundred intruders wouldn’t present a problem.
‘They look like Alchemists,’ Mercia called down and Hagdon revised his opinion. He felt a frown growing between his brows. It couldn’t be …
Standing on the battlements above Parakat’s great gates, Hagdon narrowed his eyes. A lone horseman rode in the vanguard. A man, he thought, but he couldn’t be sure – the usual silver Alchemist mask obscured his face. He wore a deep cowl and armour constructed of linked leather plates. Crossed straps over his chest held several small vials and a curved scimitar hung at his waist. Something in Hagdon’s stomach began to clench.
‘Definitely Alchemist armour,’ Mercia said.
Kait stood at Mercia’s shoulder, hands on hips, her gaze lingering on the newcomer’s weapon. As he rode up to and across the drawbridge, seeming utterly at ease, she asked, ‘Who are the Alchemists?’
‘A specialist force,’ Mercia told her, ‘presumably under Sartyan control, but everyone knows they have a tendency to go their own way.’ She shook her head, darted a swift look at Hagdon. ‘But they’re based exclusively in the south, a thousand leagues away.’
Hagdon felt his bare fists tighten on the parapet. The rider reined in almost directly beneath him and looked up. ‘What do you do here?’ Hagdon called, the high wind nearly whipping his words away. ‘Parakat is no longer in Sartyan hands.’
‘I was rather counting on it,’ the figure answered in a man’s amused tones. Hagdon’s breath caught.
‘Has it been so long you don’t recognize me, James?’ The rider reached up and, with a nonchalant twist, removed his mask and hood. Dark hair blew around an unshaven face, a face Hagdon hadn’t seen in five years. He gripped the parapet harder, leaned out further. ‘Mikael?’
‘Try not to fall on me, James. Being crushed by my own brother is not the way I’d pictured going.’
He sounded just the same, Hagdon thought, unable to believe it. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘For sands’ sake, if you don’t open this gate right now, I’ll blow it up.’ Mikael tapped a little red bottle in its leather holster. ‘And,’ he added with a backward glance at his fellow Alchemists, ‘you’d better bloody have a keg or two on the side. Talking’s thirsty work and we’ve a lot of ground to cover.’
Mikael threw down his fourth stripped chicken leg and leaned back in his chair. ‘Not a bad spread for a recently captured fortress,’ he said, carelessly licking the grease from his fingers. ‘How many days have you held it? Ten?’
‘Fifteen,’ Hagdon said. He’d barely touched his food. ‘How did you hear about it?’
‘Your banners were sighted by a unit on relief duty,’ Mikael answered between swigs of his ale. ‘We happened upon them a couple of days ago.’
Hagdon grimaced. ‘I think I know the end of this story.’
‘What? You wanted them alive to carry the news to Iresonté?’
‘Iresonté will find out anyway. I’m not in the business of wasting good soldiers. The Republic’s ranks are in need of bolstering.’
Mikael let out a short bark of laughter – so familiar that a memory came to Hagdon of a tall man, arms around each of his sons’ shoulders. The memory was old; his father had had to kneel.
‘With Sartyans?’ Mikael said, snapping him back to the present. ‘All right, who are you and what have you done to my brother?’
Hagdon just looked at him. ‘I’m not sure I know any more.’
‘Sands’ sake, it was a joke, James.’ Mikael pushed away his plate. ‘I don’t think I like you like this. What would Paasa say?’
‘Nothing, since she’s dead,’ Hagdon answered shortly.
Mikael’s smile withered. ‘What?’
‘She and Tristan.’
The air around the table seemed to freeze. Everyone except Kait stared at their plates. When Hagdon glanced at her, she was all unashamed curiosity.
‘How did I not hear of this?’ Mikael’s voice had lost all trace of humour. ‘Why did you not send a message?’
‘And what would I have put in it?’ Hagdon was suddenly shouting. ‘That his imperial majesty raped and murdered Tristan, that Paasa hanged herself from the grief – you know how much she loved him, how proud she was when he won a place at court.’ His voice broke. ‘When I won him a place at court.’
The silence was deafening. Hagdon couldn’t look at any of them, but he forced himself to meet Mikael’s eyes. ‘How could I write any of it,’ he whispered, ‘when it was my fault?’
Mikael returned his gaze steadily. ‘Come with me.’
His brother took him outside, where the sky had begun to darken, the snow to whirl in little white tornadoes. ‘When I think of Paasa, I see a girl,’ Mikael confessed as they walked across the upper bailey. ‘That’s how long ago I left. I know I returned when Tristan was born, but my duties called me away again so swiftly that I never really accepted she’d grown up.’ He looked away, into the rising storm. ‘I never knew Tristan.’
‘He was a good boy,’ Hagdon heard himself say. ‘Bright, outgoing, always helpful. Too good for the Sartyan court. He took after her rather than his father.’
‘When did Paasa’s husband die?’
‘Tristan was five. I think he was the only thing that kept her going. She brought him up alone after that.’
‘Sounds like she did a fine job.’
Hagdon said nothing.
‘James.’ Mikael gripped his arm, halted their walk. ‘You can’t blame yourself for their deaths.’
‘If I hadn’t put in a good word with the Relator –’
‘Paasa would have refused to speak to you.’ Mikael shrugged. ‘That’s one thing I remember – her stubbornness. She wanted the best for Tristan. Studying under Relator Shune was the best.’
‘But it put him in the emperor’s path.’ Hagdon found himself gripping Mikael’s arm in turn. ‘I thought he’d be safe, I thought his majesty wouldn’t dare touch Tristan. Not a Hagdon – not after our family’s service.’ He let go, looked away. ‘How short-sighted I was. I’d built my life in the Fist, put loyalty to the emperor above all else. Even family.’ Some part of him was shocked at the words pouring out, but he couldn’t stop. ‘And the worst of it,’ he murmured, looking away into the whirling white, ‘was that I continued to serve him, the man who’d murdered my kin. I’d pledged to protect him.’
‘You weren’t very good at it, then,’ Mikael said drily. ‘A sword through the heart is generally fatal.’
‘You heard about that,’ Hagdon said after a moment.
‘Everyone’s heard about it. Well, they’ve heard the rumour at least.’ He paused. ‘I have to say I’m rather proud of you.’
Hagdon stared. ‘You’re proud to have a brother who committed regicide?’
‘I’m proud to have a brother who avenged my family’s murder.’ Mikael’s expression was deadly serious. ‘I should have been there.’
‘When I killed the emperor?’ Hagdon asked with a frown.
Mikael shook his head. ‘No. For Paasa – I should have been there for her. For you.’
‘Well. You’re here now.’ He smiled weakly. ‘Gods help me.’
29
Kyndra
‘They did what?’
‘I couldn’t stop them,’ Char said, his spiked tail curled defensively. ‘
I don’t have any authority here.’
They stood in one of Magtharda’s plazas. Snow fell thickly, hissing on contact with the ambertrix-heated stone. ‘I leave for two days –’ she felt a rare surge of anger – ‘two days. When did this meeting take place?’
‘A day after you left,’ Char said miserably.
Kyndra clenched her fist. ‘This could jeopardize everything. We were supposed to wait for a sign.’
‘That’s what Arvaka told Sesh. But she said she’d had enough of waiting. She said it was high time we took the fight to the eldest.’
The idea appealed to Sigel. Kyndra could sense its desire to raze the Khronostian temple to the ground, and the eldest along with it.
‘Is it such a bad thing?’ Char asked.
‘Yes,’ Ma said, walking out of the white, ‘when there are children’s lives at stake.’
Char shifted uneasily. ‘Surely Sesh wouldn’t harm innocents.’
‘My people were not so generous,’ Ma said, eyes dark on his face. ‘You are proof of that.’ She grimaced, tugging her hood more closely about her head. ‘Can we get out of this?’
They returned to the chamber the Lleu-yelin had set aside for them. The city was eerily silent, muffled in snow and absence. ‘How many went?’ Kyndra asked once the huge dragon-sized doors stood closed between them and the weather.
‘All,’ Char said, shaking the snow off his wings. ‘Save a couple of the younger ones.’ Droplets hit Realdon Shune and the Wielder cursed loudly, leaping, unusually spry, to his feet.
‘Dratted creature.’ He shook the book he’d been reading. ‘Be more careful.’
Char rumbled something that sounded less than apologetic. ‘The old man’s—’
‘– been wondering where you spirited yourself off to,’ Shune snapped at Kyndra. ‘You were the only thing keeping some measure of control here. And now the whole city’s flown off in search of vengeance.’
‘Brégenne called me,’ Kyndra said with a shrug. ‘Nediah was dying.’
Char swung his head to look at her. ‘What?’
‘One of the inmates stabbed him.’
‘Shit,’ Char said, sounding unexpectedly like his old self. ‘What happened?’
‘Brégenne couldn’t heal him because it was day.’
‘So you did?’
She shook her head. ‘Weren’t you listening before? I told you I can’t heal.’
‘But Nediah –’
‘He’s alive,’ she said impatiently. ‘I made it so that Brégenne could use the Solar. She healed him. Almost killed herself in the process. I did warn her.’
‘What’s this?’ Shune looked up, a glitter in his deep-set eyes. ‘You made a Lunar Wielder a Solar?’
‘It’s a simple process of stripping away the barrier between the energies.’
‘Simple for you, perhaps, but –’ Shune ran a wrinkled hand over his face – ‘it’s horrifying. To be ripped open like that.’
‘She asked me to do it, so I did,’ Kyndra said shortly. ‘And she survived. Now can we get back to Khronosta? How long ago did the Lleu-yelin leave?’
Realdon Shune was still staring at her with his mouth open. Char had drawn away slightly, regarding her with some inexpressible emotion. She sighed. ‘Someone answer.’
‘A few hours ago,’ Ma said. She turned her palms up, studied the pale ouroboros that dived in and out of her flesh. ‘I don’t understand why the eldest would move the temple so close to Magtharda.’
Unease prickled over Kyndra’s skin. ‘What?’
‘Sesh’s mate spotted it on his return from a hunting trip. He couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it,’ she added.
‘Unfortunately,’ Char said, ‘the news that the temple was only hours away sent the Lleu-yelin into a frenzy. They called a meeting. Arvaka and I tried to dissuade them, but Ekaar and the others said they wouldn’t get a better opportunity to exact revenge.’
Kyndra began to pace. ‘I don’t like this,’ she muttered. ‘Didn’t any of them stop to think it might be a trap? Or worse – a distraction?’
‘They wouldn’t allow Ma into the meeting,’ Char said with a defensive glance at her. ‘She tried to tell them it was too easy.’
‘I can’t believe Sesh would be so hotheaded,’ Kyndra said and then immediately doubted her own words. She’d heard the Lleu-yelin swear blood-vengeance, her golden eyes shining with resolve.
‘We have to stop them,’ she decided. ‘The Lleu-yelin have a head start, but I can travel faster. I might be able to get there before they attack.’ She paused, looked at Char. ‘But I’ve no real authority over the dragons. I don’t want to fight them.’
‘You could try talking them down,’ Char said, plainly doubtful. ‘Explain that the situation’s delicate.’ He snorted; blue briefly misted the air. ‘They want to stop the eldest, after all, same as us.’
‘But their way is like cracking open an egg with a hammer,’ Kyndra said, her withered arm beginning to throb again. It had done so ever since her sojourn in the past. Although she gritted her teeth and ignored it, a chill voice seemed to whisper that time was running out.
‘I wish to come with you,’ Ma said. ‘They are my people.’
Kyndra was about to shake her head when she recalled how Kierik had used Raad to spirit her away from the Sartyan manor. ‘I might be able to take one of you,’ she said slowly. ‘But definitely not all three, and especially not a dragon.’
‘I suppose we’ll follow along, then,’ Realdon Shune said, with a pained glance at Char’s scaly hide. Char didn’t look particularly pleased at the prospect of being left with the old Wielder either. Shune nodded at Kyndra. ‘But I fear you will have to deal with the Lleu-yelin on your own.’
‘I’ve dealt with worse,’ Kyndra said grimly, remembering Naris and the Nerian. Remembering Kierik’s mad and distant eyes.
Who are you?
If you won’t tell me, Veritan will.
A sudden dizziness took her. If Char hadn’t steadied her in the crook of his leg, Kyndra might have fallen. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, his breath hot on her cheek.
She blinked. ‘I’m … fine.’ For a fleeting moment, she’d felt a terrible weakness sweep through her. Kyndra glanced at her cursed arm. Time truly was running out.
Kyndra and Ma travelled by Raad and the compass stars, weightless, less than light. Kyndra swiftly discovered that extending the stars’ power to include someone else was much harder. And carrying Ma presented its own challenges. She had to concentrate on holding the woman’s pattern together and Ma’s pattern was unlike any human’s Kyndra had seen. It was mutable and multi-stranded, like one of the Khronostian mandalas. Concentrating too hard on it made her seasick.
As they neared the temple, her cursed arm began to throb with the regularity of a pendulum, another distraction. The valley Ma described wasn’t far – about half a day’s flight for a dragon. Kyndra reached it in minutes. Immediately, she saw she was too late; the Lleu-yelin besieged the temple, assaulting its carved walls with their crackling blue breath. The Lleu-yelin riders dug their talons into the carvings, ripping the delicate spirals and numerals to illegibility.
A deep frown split Ma’s forehead. ‘Something’s wrong,’ she breathed. ‘They are not even trying to escape.’ She peered at the building. ‘I can’t sense anything. No dancing, no mandalas. It’s as if they’ve abandoned it.’
‘If that’s the case,’ Kyndra replied, ‘it doesn’t look as though the Lleu-yelin have realized it.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Stop!’ she thundered, Ansu magnifying her voice.
It got their attention. For a moment, everyone froze. And then, to Kyndra’s disbelief, the attack resumed.
Kyndra growled a curse. She and Ma made for Sesh, whose tawny scales were webbed by a fine, glowing mesh of ambertrix armour. ‘Sesh,’ she snapped, donning Tyr like her own set of armour, ‘this is madness.’
‘No,’ the Lleu-yelin replied, fangs bare and topaz-tipped. ‘This is vengeance.’
>
‘Think a moment. Where is the resistance?’ Kyndra gestured at the too-silent temple. ‘Whenever Khronosta comes under attack, it sheds its purchase on time and place to materialize somewhere else. Why is that not happening?’
Sesh dragged her talons through a carved wheel. ‘If they do not wish to defend themselves, they will simply perish all the faster.’
‘No,’ Ma said. Boldly, she stood in front of Sesh, forcing the Lleu-yelin to retract her claws at the last moment. ‘You are not thinking. If the eldest was here, he would defend the temple.’
‘It’s too late,’ Sesh snarled. ‘The blood price has been decided. It must be taken.’
‘I could stop you,’ Kyndra said.
Sesh looked at her. ‘I do not doubt it, Starborn. But earn the enmity of my people? See Orkaan cast into exile? You do not want these things.’
‘Why bring him into it?’
‘He is your friend, even if you cannot see it. He will choose you over us. Ekaar says he has worn the human skin too long.’
‘Call off the attack, Sesh.’
‘No.’
Kyndra was at a loss. Burn them, Sigel sang, and this temple they besiege.
What would that accomplish? she asked, nettled.
None would then remain to defy you.
It was an attractive idea. She was tired of dealing with people who let emotion govern their actions instead of logic. But she didn’t want to earn the dragons’ enmity. ‘Just let Ma and I pass,’ she said. ‘We don’t even know if the eldest is here.’
‘If he is not, then his people will pay the blood price instead.’
‘The children too?’
Sesh hesitated. ‘What do Starborn care for such things?’
Realdon Shune had once asked Kierik the same question as he stood in the hall of the Sentheon. Kyndra swallowed. And, like Kierik had, she ignored it. ‘Haven’t you considered this could be a distraction? To distract Ma, to distract me? While you’re busy attacking an empty temple, the eldest could be preparing to act and we’ll miss our chance to stop him.’
The temple gates gave way with a splintering crash. Just as Kyndra braced herself for the dragons’ charge, Sesh called a halt. ‘Very well, Starborn,’ the tawny Lleu-yelin growled. ‘Go. Discover the truth. But if there’s even one Khronostian left inside, we will claim our debt.’