He did not reply: what was there to say?
‘I am Tika, daughter of Kija and sister and soul bond to Farn. And Sket is our friend.’
Sket nodded curtly and poured more tea for Rhaki.
‘We have never met, but we have suffered at your orders.’
Rhaki nodded. ‘I know,’ he said simply.
The girl sighed and leaned back against the blue Dragon.
‘I have held a fierce anger and hatred towards you. But I have also had time to think. Other things have happened too, and now I wonder how much of the dreadful things were done by Rhaki, or by someone or something working through you.’
She saw by Rhaki’s blank expression that he knew nothing of what she mentioned. Sket lifted a small bag onto his knee and produced bread and cheese and some dried fruits which he shared among them. Tika watched Rhaki. She could scarcely believe that the monster who had caused such havoc in Gaharn and the Northern Stronghold was this rather tired looking elderly man. She waited until he’d finished eating.
‘Do you remember Bark?’ she asked softly.
She saw tears rise in his eyes and marvelled that this could truly be Rhaki.
‘Kija has told me,’ he replied as quietly. ‘My memory was tampered with, so Kija believes, when I was sent into this body. She has restored most of it I think. And I will have to live with those memories to the end of my days.’
He carefully set aside his tea bowl and stared across the fire at Tika. ‘I can make no excuses, offer no defence. As the things I have done have been shown to me, I would expect to be shunned at the least by all who knew me. But I didn’t remember then what Kija has since shown me.’
His gaze moved to Sket, then to Kija and finally to the young blue Dragon. A piece of wood flared under the pot on the fire and Rhaki saw the long scar winding, bare of scales, down the Dragon’s neck.
‘Because of me,’ he whispered. He looked again at Tika. ‘I thought this was some kind of second chance, but now I know that I do not deserve a second chance.’
The silence stretched on, Rhaki staring down at his square hands that were so different from the hands he remembered. He was startled when the man, Sket, was the one to break the silence.
Sket busied himself making yet more tea as he spoke. ‘This is not the man we fought Tika. Perhaps Lady Emla would remember this one, but it’s my guess he was infected by the Splintered Kingdom, years and years back. This is the man he should have been.’
‘Splintered Kingdom?’ Rhaki was clearly puzzled.
‘A Place Beyond,’ Tika explained.
Rhaki shook his head. ‘I had little interest in such things. Bark was always intrigued by such discussions. But you speak of this – Splintered Kingdom? – as if it is real, present here and now?’
Kija sighed loudly. It looked like being another long night. She leaned her neck along Farn’s back and closed her eyes.
Sket had called a halt to the talking eventually, insisting both Tika and Rhaki got some sleep. With his head churning with the extraordinary things he’d heard, Rhaki didn’t think he could possibly sleep. The fact that he did, was due to Kija’s light touch of compulsion, although it would be some time before Rhaki quite appreciated the way the Dragons could manipulate power.
In the morning, after the briefest flight, they arrived at the lake called Blue Mirror, and Rhaki understood that Kija had halted so close last night simply so that Tika could speak to him in privacy. He wondered if Tika would have killed him herself, if she had so decided, and he rather thought she would. The idea didn’t bother him. He’d received too much unpleasant information and gruesome shocks in the last three days for the thought of his death to seem overly alarming.
Kija began to descend towards a long building on the lake shore. Rhaki saw two more Dragons; an enormous crimson reclining on the short grass between the building and the water. And a much more slender grey Dragon was plunging into the water and then rising with a fat fish in his jaws. Both Dragons watched as Kija and Farn landed and the grey swooped in to settle beside the crimson. Rhaki slid from Kija’s back and stood hesitantly as people in dark blue uniforms, similar to what Tika and Sket wore, came hurrying to join them.
He took a step forward and stopped. The crimson Dragon got to his feet and was pacing directly towards him. Rhaki’s mouth dropped open when the Dragon reared onto his hindquarters and spread his wings wide. Rhaki stared up and met huge glittering eyes, a soft pink shot through with darker scarlet. A voice boomed in his head.
‘I welcome you to our company, Rhaki of Gaharn. I am Brin, son of Fenj.’ The huge creature lowered himself again and his face came close to Rhaki’s. ‘I never thought to welcome you among us, but I find I can because you too have been used by this Crazed One we hunt.’
Rhaki had no idea how one responded to a Dragon’s formal greeting and glanced helplessly to Sket. Sket grinned and moved to slap a hand against the broad crimson chest.
‘The poor man has to get used to you yet, Brin,’ he said aloud. ‘Don’t you tease him.’
Then the uniformed people were around him, eyeing him curiously but with no recognition. He saw a young girl among them, in the same uniform, and, apart from her hazel eyes, she very much resembled Tika. Then a woman approached and he had to tilt his head back to look up into her broad face and her unusually light blue eyes. She grinned and he only just managed to stand his ground. Her filed teeth were stained a delicate purple and he saw more of them as her grin widened.
‘I am Sergeant Essa,’ she said cheerfully. ‘You’ll soon get to know us all.’
And slapped his back in welcome.
Sket helped Rhaki back to his feet and the child popped up beside them.
‘I’m Shea, and I have tried telling Essa not to do that but I think she enjoys it.’
Shea took his arm and led him towards the building. Rhaki saw the uniformed people now surrounded Tika and were listening to her account of where she’d been. Apparently her unannounced disappearance had annoyed them considerably.
A man blocked the door as Shea and Rhaki approached, a burly, bearded man with small dark eyes. Rhaki felt a faint tug in his memory, then it was gone.
‘This is Volk. He brought us here.’ Shea introduced the man.
Rhaki gave a cautious smile.
‘You are not who you seem.’ Volk’s voice was a deep rumble.
Rhaki stiffened. ‘You know me?’
Volk regarded him for a long moment then shook his head. ‘I knew who you were. But that man told me he planned to do this. So no, I do not know you now.’
Volk started to walk past them and Rhaki put out a hand to delay him.
‘I’m sure you’ll think this very odd, but please, please, don’t tell me about him. It is difficult enough.’
Again the dark beady eyes peered intently into Rhaki’s face. Then Volk nodded once.
‘I can imagine that. What is your name now?’
‘Rhaki,’ Shea told him.
Volk turned away. ‘As you say. Rhaki.’
‘I thought you might like some peace.’ Shea tugged Rhaki’s arm. ‘You looked a bit lost out there.’
Rhaki was unable to reply, overcome by this child’s easy kindness. She took him along a corridor and stopped at one of several doors. Carefully, she turned the handle and poked her head inside. Rhaki heard someone chuckle.
‘You surely don’t plan to take more of my fortune from me at this early hour?’
Shea pushed the door wide and pulled Rhaki inside with her. Rhaki saw a frail old man propped in a bed. His grey beard was braided and decorated with beads and shells. His faded blue eyes were surrounded with silver, like Tika’s. But what drew Rhaki’s gaze was the pendant which rested on the thin chest. The old man saw where Rhaki’s gaze was fixed and a shaky hand lifted to cover the pendant protectively.
‘This is Babach,’ Shea announced, plopping onto the side of the bed. She waved a hand at Rhaki. ‘And this is Rhaki.’
‘Why do you stare so?
’ Babach asked, a trace of fear in his voice. ‘Do you know what it is?’
Chapter Six
Tika took some pains explaining just who Rhaki was. She wanted to make the situation absolutely clear to all her company and, after a brief pause, she quietly insisted that she trusted this man and expected them to. While Tika spoke to her friends the Dragons also discussed Rhaki among themselves. Once Storm was reassured that neither Farn nor Kija considered Rhaki a threat in any way, he returned to his game above the lake. Farn chased after him leaving Brin and Kija on the grassy slope by the shore.
‘You are sure of Rhaki?’ Brin asked her directly.
Golden prismed eyes remained calm. ‘I am,’ Kija agreed. ‘He seems quite a pleasant man.’
‘Yet he has been influenced for a thousand winters by the Crazed One.’
Kija extended a wing, the better to soak up the sunshine. ‘Something caused his release. The man whose body Rhaki now wears, found him isolated deep in rocks not far from the Stronghold. There is little enough of that memory left, but I felt Rhaki had been discarded at that point. We may never know whether the real Rhaki escaped, or if the Crazed One rejected him.’
Brin pondered Kija’s words, half listening to Tika at the same time.
‘You are suggesting the Crazed One is able to plan far ahead, and to maintain his influence over great stretches of time, Kija.’
Kija yawned, the sun winking on the four great fangs which were normally concealed. ‘He was perhaps more in control of himself then. As you say, a long time has passed. It seems that control is slipping of late.’ She twisted her head back over her shoulder and closed her eyes.
Sket took his half squad of guards off once Tika had finished talking to them for some weapons drill. With the usual exception of Dog, who merely grinned at Sket and ostentatiously rubbed her leg. Tika saw the exchange and smiled innocently at the engineer.
‘If you’re still having trouble with that leg, I can fix it for you.’
Dog’s grin didn’t falter. ‘I wouldn’t dream of bothering you.’
‘Oh no bother at all,’ Tika assured her, but felt her own smile degenerating into a giggle. ‘It is a very crafty excuse Dog,’ she said quietly. ‘You do realise that you’re driving poor Sket crazy?’
‘Of course. That’s the fun of it.’
They were still chuckling when Shivan joined them but before he could speak, Konya arrived at some speed.
‘Tika, Shea took Rhaki to visit Babach.’
Tika frowned. ‘There is no harm in that surely.’
Konya lowered her voice although no one else was near the four of them.
‘He seems to know something about the pendant Babach wears – like yours.’
Tika was running to the house before Konya’d finished speaking. She burst into Babach’s room and found Babach laughing, Shea cross legged on his bed, and Rhaki relaxed in a chair close by. They turned towards her abrupt arrival in some surprise.
‘I just wondered if you – erm – were feeling better Babach,’ was all Tika could come up with.
‘Oh much better, my dear. I’ll be up this afternoon.’
‘For a short while perhaps,’ Konya interrupted.
Babach glared at the healer and repeated his statement firmly. ‘I will be up this afternoon.’ He held a hand out to Tika. ‘I must confess I was somewhat alarmed when Shea told me this was Rhaki.’
Tika perched on the side of his bed and took his hand in hers.
‘I’m sorry Babach. I should have spoken to you but it all happened in rather a hurry and I went off to meet him before Kija brought him here.’
Dog grunted, conveying lingering disapproval of that action.
Shea grinned.
‘Anyway,’ Babach ignored both interruptions. ‘Rhaki knew what this is.’ He tapped the pendant on his chest.
Still holding Babach’s hand, Tika looked at Rhaki. ‘What do you see when you look at the pendant?’ she asked casually.
‘There is a shape inside, like a Dragon,’ Rhaki replied at once. ‘It is a symbol of a soul. A still living soul.’
‘How do you know that? Have you seen such a thing before?’
Rhaki frowned then shook his head. ‘No. I don’t think I have. Is this the only one?’
Tika cleared her throat. ‘No, there are several.’ A vision of that cave, hidden deep in the Domain of Assat, filled floor to roof with countless pendants, all glowing and pulsing, flashed through her mind. ‘There is this one.’
She tugged her pendant free of her shirt collar and held it out. Rhaki leaned forward with interest.
‘Aah,’ he said. ‘This is awake.’
Tika stared at him then turned to Babach. ‘Has that pendant ever grown hot, or burned your skin?’
Babach shook his head and Tika turned back to Rhaki.
‘How do you think they are awoken?’
‘I don’t know.’ He thought. ‘Possibly when they are in contact with the right person?’
Tika looked at the pendant now cupped in her palm. ‘Many people have touched this since I received it,’ she said.
‘But it would have woken when YOU touched it, and it would then remain awake.’
Tika tried to remember Mena’s pendant, now tucked under Sergeant Essa’s shirt. It had pulsed when Essa showed it to her. If Rhaki’s theory was correct, it had woken at Essa’s touch.
‘You have held this one Tika,’ Babach remarked. ‘But it has never changed or glowed, as I have seen yours do.’
Rhaki nodded thoughtfully. ‘There would be only one person to fully awaken one of these souls. Maybe they sense an affinity with the one holding the stone. How many others did you say you know of?’
‘Perhaps ten.’ Tika shrugged, unwilling to speak of the cave the Delvers had protected for millennia.
Babach had removed his pendant, weighing it in his hand. ‘This is but a pretty bauble in my possession.’
He tossed it suddenly and reflexively Rhaki caught it. He gave a yelp. Light flared from the pendant’s yellow front, coruscating around the obsidian backing. Rhaki let it drop onto his trouser leg and shook his hand in the air. Tika caught his hand, turning it palm upwards. The burn was minor, a perfect oval of red skin which looked scalded rather than burnt. Rhaki looked almost embarrassed.
‘Does that mean this recognises this body, or my soul?’
Tika groaned, seeing his point but unable to see how to resolve that question.
‘It accepts your soul.’ Babach sounded definite. ‘I am convinced of that.’
Rhaki lifted the now quiescent pendant gingerly, holding it by its chain.
Babach sighed. ‘It was a gift from Mim, but clearly it chooses you.’
Slightly alarmed, Rhaki gave Tika a questioning look. She shrugged. Behind her Shivan spoke.
‘Put it on. We’ll pull it off if it sets you on fire.’
Shea giggled and Rhaki looked up into yet another strange pair of eyes. These were gold, as bright as Kija’s and they were set in a young thin face. Warily, Rhaki slipped the chain over his head and let the pendant lie against his shirt. There was only the faintest hint of light within it, to his relief. He watched Tika drop her pendant back beneath her shirt and cautiously followed suit. Tika couldn’t help but smile at his expression when he realised the pendant was cool, not about to blister his skin.
‘Does yours get hot like this one did?’ he asked.
‘It seems worst if I am in danger now. It used to happen when I was trying to work a healing, but now it is whenever it seems to feel there is specific danger. Like danger from the Splintered Kingdom.’ She pursed her lips in thought. ‘I don’t think it would alert me to something falling on my head or anything.’
Dog pushed herself away from the wall she’d been leaning against. ‘I’m sure I can smell food,’ she said, and opened the door.
Shea bounced off the bed and grabbed Rhaki’s hand. ‘Beela is probably the best cook in the entire world,’ she was saying as she towed him through
the door. ‘Well, Jenniah was very good of course.’
Everyone followed, but Tika stayed on Babach’s bed.
‘Have you come across anything – I don’t know – bad, unusual, when you’ve walked through dreams recently?’ she asked.
Babach sighed. ‘Yes. But I cannot say where exactly, or even who. I will try again for you, tonight.’
Tika got to her feet. ‘Be very careful Babach.’
He smiled sadly. ‘I suspect it may now be concentrated at the Menedula.’
Tika didn’t know what she could say. Ren had been Babach’s student for many years and she knew the old man was deeply hurt and shocked by what he saw as Ren’s betrayal. She had no words of comfort to offer because she was unsure herself just how long Ren had been following a different path, and whether it was by his own genuine choice or by the influence of the Crazed One.
That evening Babach walked, slowly, to join the crowd in the large main room. In the few days Tika’s company had been here, the Old Bloods, as they referred to themselves, had mingled with the guards and had begun to relax among them. Helped, Tika knew, by Shivan’s dramatically public transformation to his Dragon form when they’d first arrived here.
Volk’s hulking figure rose at one end of the room and the buzz of conversation died away. A careful check round the faces showed Tika that Hesla was not present. She wondered why. Volk gazed out over the crowd, directly at Tika.
‘Lady Tika, we suspect there is little, if anything, that we can do against the greater evil you have told us of. Word has gone out to all of our people who survived the madness which ravaged these lands last summer. But we here, who still live in these forests, believe we should concentrate on Finn Rah.’
A growl rose from the people listening and Tika experienced a wave of hatred washing through the room. She understood that Finn Rah, as an Old Blood herself, had committed the greatest treachery in the eyes of these people. Not only had she pretended that her abilities were achieved through mage talent, but she had instigated the renewal of Sedka’s purges of all those of Old Blood.
Tika missed Volk’s next words. She was considering Finn Rah. She knew the woman had actually fled the Menedula just before Cho Petak set loose the madness, the fragmented creatures Tika was now convinced originated in the Splintered Kingdom. Had Finn Rah been affected before that event, and in a lesser way, or had it happened when she’d reached the Oblaka? Babach had been unable to tell her just how powerful Finn Rah’s mage talents were: she didn’t recall Ren ever mentioning the matter.
Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light Page 7