‘Where do you want to make for?’ asked Volk. ‘There is a way in through that building at the far end.’ He pointed to a half collapsed stone hut. ‘Or there is a way through the lower hillside.’
‘The hillside.’
‘Shall I take a look at the ledge the people widened for us?’ Kija mind spoke Tika, drifting lazily above the ruins.
Tika considered. ‘Very well. See if you can sense anything, anything at all. We’ll make our way to the other side.’
They had just reached the half hidden slit in the grey rock face when a skinny boy with tousled dark hair came skittering from beyond a pair of large boulders. Tika saw Volk stiffen, then his arms were flung out to the sides and he gave a bellow of joy. The boy hurtled towards Volk, jumping the last paces, up into Volk’s embrace. Tika recalled Sabel saying that he would return to the Oblaka from Blue Mirror, to see if he could find Volk’s young fosterling.
Sabel appeared behind the boy, a broad smile on his face. Volk swung round to Tika, the boy clinging round his neck. Volk’s small dark eyes shone with delight.
‘This is Rivan,’ Volk introduced the lad. ‘My adopted boy.’
Tika was surprised when the boy’s thin face turned towards her: his eyes were the palest blue she’d seen, other than Sergeant Essa’s. There was a flurry of wings before she could speak and boy’s gaze went past her. He grinned and wriggled from Volk’s arms to throw himself at Storm. Storm seemed equally pleased to see the boy again, although Volk looked a little puzzled. Volk reached for Sabel as he joined them, giving him a hug that caused Sabel to groan.
‘I owe you a blood debt, Sabel.’
Sabel scowled. ‘You owe me nothing.’ Clearly embarrassed, he jerked a thumb at the narrow entrance. ‘Are you going to look in there, lady?’
Tika sighed. ‘I suppose so but I’m not over eager. Volk, will you wait with the Dragons please, and catch up with your lad?’
She looked around her company. Onion had more colour in his cheeks and she knew Konya checked his eye socket meticulously, renewing the dressings twice a day. She opened her mouth but Essa got in first.
‘Sorry, but we’re all coming.’
Seeing the determined nods from her companions, Tika gave in. She would be glad of their presence, but she feared for them. She was coming more and more to the conclusion that she really was the specific target of the Crazed One’s attention, and that he would swat anyone near her without a moment’s qualm and with little effort. She looked over their heads as Kija drifted down to land beside the other Dragons.
‘I felt only emptiness,’ she told Tika. ‘No life. No residue of life. Yet there should be.’ Her gold faceted eyes flashed. ‘Life traces remain many days,’ she continued. ‘But if I didn’t know better, I would say that place had not been lived in for a very long age.’ Her tone became wistful. ‘I couldn’t sense Kadi there.’
Tika sent a pulse of affection towards the golden Dragon then faced the entrance again. She knew Sket was right behind her as she drew a breath and squeezed into the back door of the Oblaka complex. The first passageway went upwards and wound round three tight curves. Then Tika felt a breeze and knew she was nearing the large common room with the open ledge opposite, where the Dragons could land.
She looked into the common room on her left and felt a chill. Bowls and plates lay strewn on tables and counters, suggesting the people using them had left hurriedly, just called elsewhere for a while. Tika moved away, towards the ledge, and there was Farn. He was reclining beside the innermost wall, his prismed eyes whirring rapidly. All of Tika’s company felt the agitation coming from their Lady’s soul bonded Dragon. He knew the cave rooms and passages were too narrow for his bulk and he was much disturbed by the thought of his Tika being out of his reach.
Tika went to him, holding him tight and speaking privately to his mind alone. After but a few moments, she released his face and stepped away, walking quickly along the passage and out of his sight, her company close behind. They moved through the winding corridors in silence, all wondering how the soft glow from the ceilings was made. They glanced into sleeping rooms that were little more than cupboards hewn from the rock. Tika stopped suddenly.
‘Shea, where is the room you took me to before?’
Shea squirmed between Geffal and Rhaki. She reached Tika and frowned. ‘It was much further back, not far from the ledge.’
‘That’s what I thought.’ Tika studied the rough stone wall beside her. ‘Rhaki, can you feel where spaces have been filled in?’
‘I think so. I’ll check this side if you take that one.’
Shivan stood aside and took position behind Tika and Rhaki as they worked their way back down the corridor. He found this use of power difficult, so he left it to the two who could use it, and held his own power ready to defend them if need be.
‘Here.’ Rhaki spoke quietly, and focused his power, tracing a line in the stone.
There was no sound, but stone dissolved, leaving an open space which led into a small room. Books and papers lay jumbled and tumbled across the one table, and all over the floor. The company peered in.
‘Why seal away a room like that?’ Shea voiced the thoughts of the majority.
They continued slowly along the corridor.
‘Aah.’ Tika concentrated on a stretch of wall. It melted away, revealing another passage.
‘That’s it.’ Shea sounded positive. ‘The room with the painting is just down here.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
The room in front of them was dark, no diffuse glow from the low ceiling. Rhaki tossed a light globe over Tika’s head to hover in the middle of the room. They saw the walls were black rather than the natural grey of the rest of the complex they had so far seen. Tika moved into the room, Essa close behind.
‘Painted,’ the Sergeant muttered.
‘Dark blue, not black,’ Tika agreed, her nose nearly touching a section of wall.
But the little figures depicted all around the walls were extraordinarily similar to the ones she had examined in Essa’s father’s house in the Bear village. Similar, but involved in very different activities. In the Bear village, the picture, far bigger than this one, was almost alive with movement and a sense of joyful celebration. The figures in the picture surrounding Tika now were stiff and uniform, every action rigid, every tree the same size and shape.
Dromi and Rhaki entered the room, although Shea stayed by the entrance with Shivan.
‘It is very like to the one we have in Steadfast Rock,’ Dromi murmured. ‘Although this is but a fraction of the size.’
One man predominated in the many little scenes. The man wore a light yellowish, long shirt, or tunic, over trousers of the same colour. In one scene, he planted a tree: in the next he stood surveying dozens of trees, all in equally spaced straight rows. Elsewhere, the same figure seemed elevated above a watching crowd, clearly exhorting them, a stern look on his face. The crowd had their backs to the viewer but they stood in rows, as equally spaced as the trees. Essa counted them, finding the same numbers each of men and of women.
‘Who is this man?’ Rhaki asked. ‘This looks like his death scene.’
‘Sedka.’ The usually mildly spoken Dromi spat the name. He peered round Rhaki’s shoulder. ‘He travelled far south, to bring those lands under his rule. He was killed by mountain cats.’
Essa glanced over then caught Tika’s eye. There were mountain cats in north Kelshan where Sedka was killed to be sure: there was also a clan of the same name, known as some of the fiercest warriors in the Dark Realm.
‘And they brought his body back here?’ asked Rhaki.
‘No. He was buried where he died. His men brought only the story back with them.’
‘There are tiny Dragons here too, Tika,’ Essa murmured. ‘But they aren’t really part of any of the pictures.’ She stepped back a pace. ‘And the scenes don’t link up in patterns like the one in father’s den.’
‘But what are these?’
Essa and Dromi turned to see what Tika was looking at. She indicated many odd spiral shapes scattered around the individual scenes, never part of those scenes.
‘Sea shells,’ Shivan said from the door space.
Once he mentioned it, it seemed obvious that the spirals could be nothing else. For the first time, Tika lifted her hand and traced a finger lightly over a pale pink spiral.
The floor tilted first one way, then another. The walls bowed inwards, then straightened. Sket shoved into the room to reach Tika. Everything became still again and several people helped each other back to their feet with sighs of relief. Then there came a crashing roar, they heard a Dragon’s scream of rage and fear. Rhaki’s light globe winked out, plunging them into total blackness. When the roar faded, all that could be heard was the sound of their breathing.
‘Was that just one of those ground shake things?’ Onion enquired.
‘No it wasn’t.’
Tika blinked when Rhaki conjured another light ball above them.
‘It’s all dark out here,’ Onion reported from outside the room.
‘Sure you haven’t got your patch over the wrong eye?’ Dog drawled, and Shea giggled.
‘Are you going to tell us where we are Tika, or shall we guess?’ Shivan sounded cheerful at least.
‘Did everyone bring all their gear in here with them?’ Navan’s voice was calm. ‘And I mean food packs too.’
There was a muted chorus of assent.
‘If we’ve vanished, like all the others did, why am I still with you?’ Dromi asked.
‘Ask the Crazed One when we get to meet him,’ Essa suggested.
‘Khosa?’ Tika called.
‘She’s here, in her sack,’ replied Konya, squeezing past Shivan.
Khosa’s face peeked out of the top of her carry sack and she yawned. ‘The picture’s gone.’
Tika stared at the walls. Grey stone surrounded them, not the slightest flake of paint anywhere.
‘Let’s try and go back, towards the ledge.’ Tika spoke as calmly as she could manage.
She didn’t think for one moment that the ledge would be where they’d last seen it. Or rather, they were no longer in the same Oblaka as they had been. This version was somehow within the Splintered Kingdom. Shivan walked a pace in front of Tika now, hand on sword hilt, like everyone else. Rhaki had formed another light globe so that one floated above the companions, the other several paces ahead of Shivan.
‘Too far,’ said Sket. ‘We’ve walked much farther back now than when we came in here.’
As he spoke, Rhaki’s light globe stopped moving. Shivan too came to a halt. The passage they’d been travelling along had met another which crossed in front of them. Shivan stepped aside.
‘Do you think it matters which way we go?’ he asked Tika as she drew level.
Before she could reply, the ceiling to the right began to glow with the same pale light they had become accustomed to earlier. Rhaki reclaimed his light globes and gave Tika a resigned smile.
‘It looks as though we are being given hints about our direction.’
Tika mind spoke Khosa. ‘You don’t seem too bothered. Do you understand what’s happening?’
Khosa had retreated deep into her travelling sack but she did reply. ‘There is no point panicking. We’re here. All you have to do is get us out again.’
Tika snarled, somewhat to Shivan’s surprise, but without explanation she stalked past him, along the lighted corridor. Again, they walked for a considerable time, with no apparent change in the walls on either side. They only paused when Fedran commented on the walls.
‘These walls are smooth, Lady Tika. They were rough stone before, and now they’re smooth and curving. And the floor.’
Navan ran a hand over one wall. ‘He’s right. It’s as smooth as if it has been formed by water.’
The thought of water surging down on them caused mutters.
‘This is silly.’ Tika suddenly decided. ‘Let’s call a halt here and I’ll try to seek. If we are deep inside the Kingdom, I doubt I will get past these bloody walls. If we are only on the edge, I might find something, some clue, or even reach Farn.’
She was unaware that the pain she felt, just speaking the name of her soul bond, was clear under her words. But this relatively new company had learned quickly, and now they made no more comments, just settled on the floor and waited.
‘Rhaki? Will you be my anchor?’ she asked softly.
He nodded, sliding down the wall to sit beside her. Tika centred her thoughts, just as Iska had taught her, and let her mind float free. She looked down and saw her company, all watching her body. A thread far thinner than a spider could produce, led from her body up to her floating mind. A much thicker strand from Rhaki was twisted around hers where it seemed to emerge from her head.
Cautiously, she moved higher, to the ceiling, and pressed against it. But only briefly. Something snapped and sizzled as she touched the stone and she moved lower to try the same thing against the wall. Again, she was pushed away, a threat of serious pain if she should persist. She had the same reaction from the opposite wall and then she let herself sink to the floor.
Without warning, her mind slipped through, down through stone, which gave her a distinctly unpleasant, sticky sort of feeling. Tika wondered if she’d made a serious mistake when the nasty sensation continued rather longer than she’d hoped, but then she popped out of the stone. It was dark, very dark, and she wished she knew how to conjure light as Rhaki did so easily. Even as the thought moved through her mind, she felt Rhaki. He felt a long way away but he pushed at her and there was a tiny flicker of light in front of her.
Tika almost wished the light away when she saw what it revealed. Three bodies, maybe four, so badly rotted she had no desire to look too closely. But obviously they’d lain there for some time. She forced herself to focus on just the one she was closest to and noticed it had only one foot protruding from an unpleasantly soiled trouser leg. A piece of wood emerged from the other. She knew him. He worked in the common room, a man with a wooden peg for a leg and a blind wife. It seemed suddenly important to remember his name, but she couldn’t.
She turned from the tumbled corpses and saw she was in a long narrow room. Then she decided it was simply a section of passageway, sealed off at either side. Tika held her mind steady in the centre of the space and attempted to seek outwards, a rippling movement, like that caused by a pebble thrown into a pool. She sensed resistance, in varying degrees and from various directions. One way seemed wide open, but she was hesitant to follow it. It was far too obvious.
She tested around her again and chose a point opposite the temptingly clear one. Tika steadied herself and then shot forward, visualising herself as an arrow and the rock wall to which she was heading as merely water. She was astounded therefore to find herself actually in water once she was through the stone. Her tiny light had come with her, tied to her power, and it shook and shivered in the eddying water. To her alarm she realised she was completely surrounded by water, with no way of telling just how much was either above or below her. Struggling to contain a rising panic, she swept the area around her yet again and found no barriers.
But which way to go? She thought momentarily of her frightening fall into the Dark, of being too disorientated to be able to distinguish up from down, but she repressed the thought as firmly as she could. Where? Where should she go? Another roaring sound. The water around her seeking mind began to heave and swirl and Tika gave up. Her mind snapped back to her body in an instant and she found herself shivering, more from fear than from cold. She also realised she was as breathless as if she’d really been submerged for too long under water.
Slowly the shivering eased, her breathing slowed, but before she could speak, the roar came again. It reverberated and thundered through the passage, accompanied by a powerful gusting wind. Essa braced herself, with Shivan, across the passage, their backs to the gale. The rest of the company cowered before them, clinging to their boo
ts, legs, clothes and hands. As suddenly as it had arisen, the wind ceased and the companions untangled themselves from each other. Navan checked that his precious scroll case was still firmly fixed to the outside of his pack, then gave Tika a genuine smile.
‘Well, life is never dull when you’re around, is it Tika?’
He looked around at the other members of the company and nodded solemnly. ‘And who should know better than I, my friends? I’ve known her since she was new born. My great grandmother told everyone that she would be trouble.’
Essa laughed and smiles slowly began to replace apprehension on other faces. Navan looked indignant.
‘Laugh all you want. I speak only the truth.’
Tika was grateful for the space Navan had given her to gather her own wits, and for so simply soothing her friends.
‘Shall we walk on for a while?’ she suggested. ‘I will far seek when we stop again, but I found nothing helpful this time.’
And, she realised as they started to walk along the passage, she had made no attempt to seek the Dragons. Something told her they were beyond her reach. There had been no hint of change in the pendant’s temperature, she’d noted, which was more a reason to worry than not. Or did it just mean that in the pendant’s opinion, she’d not been in such great danger? Konya was the one to call a halt. Somehow, the healer had an inner sense of time.
‘It’s after dark outside Tika,’ she said, over the sound of booted feet. ‘I suggest it is best if we try to keep to a normal sort of day.’
Tika stopped immediately. ‘As you say, Konya.’
Navan and Sket began to ready a cold meal, Sket bemoaning the lack of his desperately needed hot tea. Rhaki leaned over Tika.
‘Could I not be the one to seek this time, my dear?’
She gave him a smile, grateful for the offer. ‘I prefer to have you act as my link, Rhaki. I know your seeking ability is strong, but even I don’t yet know how much more strength I have now. I do know it is more than yours, so I will be the one to seek.’
Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light Page 32