Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light

by E. M. Sinclair

  She stepped back and half closed her eyes. There was a definite break. It was a matter of the tiniest fraction, but it was there. But for once, Tika hoped a person was with her who might be able to enlighten her.

  ‘Is this gap here to represent your leaving Steadfast?’ she asked.

  There was a considerable pause and Tika looked across at Subaken with some surprise. Finally the heir to the Shadow Realm came closer.

  ‘No,’ she said softly. ‘That is much longer ago.’

  Tika saw both Dromi and Rhaki nod.

  ‘What? What am I missing?’ she demanded.

  It was Shivan who offered an answer. ‘It’s to do with time, Tika. Time turns and turns, repeating some things, like harvest and planting seasons. Some things repeat randomly or perhaps never, like plague or drought.’

  He peered at the wall behind Tika. ‘I would guess that represents a bad time, but not the arrival of the Splintered Kingdom.’

  He glanced at Subaken. She nodded reluctantly, then walked several paces back from Tika’s position and pointed at the wall.

  ‘This is where we left Steadfast. And Lord Shivan is correct. There was another time of trouble for Shadow, which coincided with that period. Only it was three thousand years ago.’

  Tika’s mind began to spin at the idea of, to her, such unimaginable lengths of time. She swallowed. ‘Subaken, how long is it since Mother Dark – what? – came here from another world too? Or has she always been here? How long have you, her children, been here?’

  Subaken began to walk slowly round the walls, her eyes on the enormously detailed painting.

  ‘Our records begin twelve thousand years ago. Or thereabouts. It is possible, like all children, that we spent many more years growing and learning all that we now take for granted. Things such as living in peaceful communities, inventing building, farming, writing. We know there was something here before us, but we have never discovered what or who.’

  ‘Why are there Dragons in the picture?’ Dog asked, when Subaken stopped speaking. ‘I’ve always known that the Lords in my Realm can change into Dragon shape, but Dragons like Farn and Brin have never been seen or heard of there. Shea said she’d never heard tales of Dragons in Kelshan either.’

  ‘We knew of Dragons only from the great painting in Steadfast,’ agreed Dromi.

  ‘But the people of Sapphrea know of Dragons because in the north at least, they can see them. And the people of Malesh revere them as one of the Elder Races.’ Tika added slowly.

  ‘We knew nothing of Dragons until we came to this world.’ Rhaki made his contribution. ‘And we had no idea of their intelligence or of their ability to use power or mind speech until my sister discovered it, scarcely two hundred years ago.’

  ‘I have never heard of Elder Races,’ Subaken frowned.

  Tika formed a mental picture of the gijan Elder, Rainbow, and Subaken blinked.

  ‘Your father said that your people can change their forms. Do you change to Dragons?’

  ‘No. Any other creature, but never the Dragon shape. That was a gift Mother Dark gave only to her First child, Lerran.’

  Tika’s stomach gave an unfortunately loud growl. ‘May we come here again? And I’m ready for some food right now I’m afraid.’

  The slight air of tension which had arisen, dissipated as people smiled in agreement. As they left the courtyard, and Subaken’s power extinguished the light, Tika waited, with her friends. They were making their way back through the corridors when another thought occurred to Tika.

  ‘What does Mother Dark look like? Does anyone know?’

  Subaken didn’t falter but Tika felt – something – from Shadow’s daughter.

  ‘No. No one knows.’

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Tika was restless that night, and when most of her companions were asleep, she crept out into the courtyard garden. Dog propped herself on an elbow.

  ‘She going off with Farn?’ she whispered to Sket.

  ‘I expect so. Too much buzzing through her head I reckon,’ he replied.

  They settled back again, to wait for their Lady’s return.

  Farn followed Tika to the open space in the very centre of the garden.

  ‘Shall we fly, my Tika?’

  She looked up at a sky studded with stars without number, and the light of a half moon to the south. She climbed between his wings and he lifted effortlessly. They flew in a comfortable silence, seeing Kija and Storm asleep in Kija’s hidden glade, but flying on to the beach where Farn had brought both Tika and Subaken. The sand looked silver in the moonlight and each small wave was capped with silver too.

  Farn landed and paced along the strand with his soul bond. He couldn’t imagine anything more blissful than having his Tika all to himself, miles from anyone else. But he was not blind to her worries.

  ‘I know there is much too much for you to think of, but what is that keeps you awake tonight?’

  Tika sighed and sat on the sand, which still felt a little warm from the day’s sun. Farn curved himself protectively around her, his chin on the top of her head.

  ‘Mother Dark. She seems to grow bigger in my thoughts every day. And Lord Dabray. Farn, I so need to understand, yet I just don’t know which thread to follow first.’

  As Farn understood practically nothing of the situation, he wisely remained silent. Tika dug in the pocket inside her shirt and removed the two Dragon scales and the tiny shells. The shells she replaced, but after smoothing a patch of sand by her knee, she carefully laid the scales flat. Farn lowered his head to study them as closely as Tika did. Seela’s purple scale looked almost black in the dim light, but Dabray’s scale glittered and shone. Tika stared. She lifted Seela’s scale, brushing the sand from it, and tucked it back inside her shirt. Then she bent back over Dabray’s scale.

  Her pendant dropped free of her collar, dislodged as she delved in the inner pocket. It swung out over Dabray’s opalescent scale and light flashed between the two objects. Tika jerked backwards and Farn pushed himself up in alarm.

  ‘What happened? What was that? Are we all right?’

  Tika gave a gurgle of laughter. ‘Yes dear one. I think we’re all right.’

  She struggled up and, holding the pendant out of the way with her hand, she peered at the scale again. It seemed unchanged, and the pendant remained cold and lifeless.

  ‘Why did it do that?’ Farn asked anxiously.

  ‘But which did what? Or was it both of them?’ Tika wondered.

  She pulled the chain over her head and let the pendant hang at its end, well clear of the scale.

  ‘Farn, watch closely and see if you think it is only one or both.’

  ‘Oh I really don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Farn began, when Tika swung the pendant over the scale.

  There was another needle of white light darting between the two and Tika moved the pendant away.

  ‘Both,’ she said with satisfaction.

  Farn’s eyes whirred rapidly – he was not impressed with either of those startling flashes of light.

  ‘Is that good?’ he asked doubtfully.

  ‘I think it means the pendant recognises Dabray. I’ll check though.’

  She fished out Seela’s scale and swung the pendant over it. Farn flinched but there was no reaction at all from either scale or pendant.

  ‘So what does it mean, that the pendant knows Dabray?’

  ‘Subaken said that Mother Dark gave the gift of Dragon shape only to her first child, or children, and they are the Dark Ones. But they are very different Dragons to you, are they not?’

  Farn huffed and Tika stared up into his face. ‘Well? What does that mean Farn?’

  He huffed again and rattled his wings against his back. ‘They frighten me. Only a bit, but they do.’

  Tika wrapped her arms around his head. ‘Oh Farn, why didn’t you say so before? Are you really frightened of Shivan?’

  ‘Well no, perhaps not Shivan, but Lord Cyrek.’

  Tika felt
a shudder run through Farn’s body and held on to him. ‘Lord Cyrek?’ she prompted.

  ‘We didn’t like him from the first but that was when he was in man shape. When he’s in Dragon shape he is very, very dangerous and scary.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  Farn showed her Kija’s first meeting with Cyrek, at Lady Emla’s House. Tika saw Kija advance on Cyrek, aggression pulsing from her. She saw Cyrek shimmer into Dragon form, revert to human and then approach Kija. Tika gasped aloud when she saw Kija flat on the ground, neck extended, great tears rolling down her golden face.

  ‘Why didn’t you show me this before? And how do you know of it? You were lost in the Dark then.’

  ‘Brin showed me. He doesn’t like Cyrek at all, but he said if mother can be forced to submit like that, it means Cyrek is far too strong for him to fight. My Tika, mother doesn’t know that I know.’

  Tika released her hold on Farn and sat on the sand again. ‘I’ll say nothing, but Cyrek will surely pay for Kija’s humiliation.’

  Farn’s agitation didn’t diminish as he sensed the fury within Tika. He watched, feeling how she tamped the anger into a tiny parcel and pushed it into a corner of her mind. She drew in a long deep breath and Farn saw the ice melt from her eyes, and allowed himself to relax again. He, more than anyone, even those Dark Lords, understood just how much Tika’s power had increased since she’d entered the Dark in Kelshan. And he also understood how she feared what losing control over her temper might mean to anyone in her vicinity.

  She had picked up Dabray’s scale, wiping away the few grains of sand that clung to its pearly surface. Carefully Tika put it back in her pocket with Seela’s scale and the two minute Chyliax shells. She hung the pendant around her neck again and cupped it in her hands. She tilted it to catch the best of the moonlight and increased the focus of her vision. The tiny shape deep in the pendant’s heart moved slightly and, for the first time, Tika saw tiny eyes staring directly out at her from the Dragon’s face.

  She held her breath, but it had turned away and then grew still. She continued to stare at it, trying to fathom why it should have reacted to Dabray’s scale as it had.

  ‘Could the pendant have come from the Dark, my Tika?’

  ‘I’m wondering the same. Cyrek handled it and he thought it was merely a pretty bauble. Dromi said much the same, so it’s clear neither of them know of such things. But there were so many of them hidden in that cave in the Domain of Asat.’

  Tika dropped the pendant back under her shirt and got to her feet.

  ‘We should go back Farn, it’s very late.’

  As she climbed between his wings, he sent another thought. ‘Perhaps the pendants are Mother Dark’s own. Things she made, before she had her children.’

  Tika laughed as he rose into the night. ‘Perhaps. But that just gives me more to think of than solving anything for me, my dearest.’

  When the blue gowned women had served breakfast, Tika wandered out of the house to stand near the main double doors of Darallax’s house. She watched the people moving through the narrow streets between the grey white rows. They all wore simple tunics or gowns, occasionally she saw trousers worn by both men and women. All were barefooted. Navan leaned on the wall beside her.

  ‘Odd, how quiet it is. Do you remember how deafening it was in Harbour City?’

  Tika laughed. ‘It made my head spin, and the crowds!’

  ‘Are they using mind speech?’

  ‘I think so, yes. And do you know Navan, I’m not sure which I prefer. The quiet here is nearly as uncomfortable as the noise in Malesh.’

  Navan nodded. ‘I know what you mean.’ He pushed away from the wall and stretched his back until his spine popped.

  ‘I’m going to look at those maps again. You coming?’

  ‘In a moment.’

  Tika stayed where she was, watching people on the other side of the river in the matching half of the town. She heard someone approaching and sighed inwardly, but summoned a smile when Konrik joined her.

  ‘A messenger came last night, from the Dark Realm.’ He handed her a folded paper, sealed with black wax bearing the Dragon insignia. ‘We are warned that Dark watchers sensed the mind signature of the one named Cyrek.’

  ‘Where?’ Tika asked sharply.

  ‘In Kelshan City.’

  Tika turned the paper between her fingers, not yet opening it. She met Konrik’s pale green eyes. ‘Where is Khosa?’

  Konrik leaned more heavily on his staff. ‘She is resting.’

  Tika felt the stirrings of alarm. ‘Why does she need to rest?’

  Konrik slid his free hand under her elbow and gently urged her to walk with him across the grass.

  ‘Did you know she was born human?’

  ‘Yes. She came here with her parents and sister in one of those Ships.’

  Konrik nodded. ‘Somehow her father discovered a way to change body shapes, and he convinced her and her sister to take other forms. Then they were to go into the world as his – representatives.’

  ‘Spies,’ Tika corrected.

  Konrik’s shoulder bumped hers as he shrugged. ‘Whatever. You have been told of the conditions laid on those who change their shape?’

  Tika frowned, unsure of his meaning.

  ‘If we change to the shape of a predator – a wolf, a dog, a cat – it is permissible to hunt prey, and to kill.’

  ‘But not to eat that kill.’ Tika closed her eyes briefly, seeing picture after picture of Khosa returning to camp, a mouse clamped in her jaws.

  Konrik squeezed her arm against his side. ‘Just so. She asked us if we could reverse her state. We cannot. She has been changed far, far too long. But she insisted we try, so we did, but if we had continued she would have died. We went further than any of my people truly thought was safe for her. We thought we had lost her in fact, yesterday evening. My master and I used much of our power to hold her and finally stabilise her. It was – not pleasant.’

  Tika stopped. ‘May I see her?’

  She was struck again by how small the Shadow people were. Konrik was barely two finger widths taller than her. He raised his hand and used his thumb to wipe the tears from beneath her eyes.

  ‘She has little strength as yet, but we believe she will live.’

  Tika nodded, and Konrik led her back to the house. He took her through a section she’d not yet seen and then up two flights of stairs. It was very quiet and the few people she saw wore tunics of cream or white. Finally Konrik stopped before a door. He gave her a quick glance, then opened the door for her.

  Tika stepped into a small room which she realised was at the back of the house, sheltered from any bright sunlight. A narrow high bed stood against one wall and a woman in a lilac gown sat on a stool beside it. Tika recognised Subaken’s mother, Rueshen: so this is where she’d been for the last three days or more. Rueshen offered Tika a small smile and held a hand out to her. Tika accepted Rueshen’s hand and drew nearer the bed.

  Khosa lay on her side on the white sheet. She was so thin Tika could scarcely believe she still lived. The orange fur was dull and it looked as though a lot of it had fallen out. The body barely moved to indicate she breathed. Rueshen’s right hand was cupped around Khosa’s skull, one finger gently moving between the cat’s ears. Tika stared. She was afraid to touch Khosa, she looked so frail that a touch might break her. She sent a tendril of thought towards Khosa and felt a tiny response.

  ‘Khosa please, we love you as you are. Take what strength you need from me. Please.’

  She felt the smallest tug on her power and let Khosa draw what she would. Konrik and Rueshen watched. Khosa’s fur brightened, just a little, and – perhaps it was just imagination, but she seemed a tiny bit more solid. Khosa shuddered then her side rose and fell, her breathing stronger.

  ‘Enough for now my dear one. Rest, and I will come again later. And remember, we do love you, and I cannot spare you from my company.’

  Tika moved away, straight to the door, Konrik
at her heels.

  ‘You’ve strengthened her greatly,’ Konrik said as he closed the door behind them.

  ‘I’ve learned that fast healing is not always best. I will return at midday and help her a little more.’

  Konrik followed her down the stairs. ‘It is her mind, as well as her body.’

  Tika glanced back at him and the Chancellor flinched at the raw pain he saw in her green silvered eyes.

  ‘I know. That is why this must be a slower healing. Some of my friends will choose to sit with her. That will help.’

  Konrik was astonished when he and Tika came to the garden room, to find uproar. All four Dragons were crowded at the entrance, eyes flashing and distress pulsing from them.

  ‘What’s happened now?’ Sket demanded, storming to her side and glaring suspiciously at the Chancellor.

  Tika lifted her hands for quiet. ‘Khosa is very sick. She asked the Shadow Ones to return her to human form.’

  Dromi gasped and sat down with a thump.

  ‘They tried, and Khosa insisted they try much further than they thought wise. I cannot heal her quickly, as she is in such despair. I’ve strengthened her a little and I will do more later.’

  Shea pushed up to her, tears streaming down her face. ‘Where is she? I’ll sit with her.’

  Tika brushed her fingers over Shea’s cheek. ‘Thank you. That will help, but do not try to wake her.’

  ‘I’ll come too,’ Sket growled.

  A speechless Konrik led the two off, to show them the way, leaving a stricken company behind them.

  Tika went out to the Dragons, using mind speech to show them Khosa and to try to reassure them. When all four were reasonably calmed, she turned her attention to her company. She spoke to Dromi first.

  ‘Did you not know what she was doing?’

  Dromi looked miserable. ‘I didn’t know she had once been human, my lady. And I have been trying to come to terms with what I’ve learned of my people. Forgive me, I have been far too selfish.’

  ‘Of course you haven’t, Dromi.’ Tika’s answer was brisk. ‘I would ask you to go on with hunting through those archives.’