Black Sun Light My Way

by Spurrier, Jo

Some of the freed slaves found out we have Delphine. I think they want revenge.

  Oh, by the Black Sun —

  I need help, Sirri!

  Sierra turned to the door, but she stumbled as the woman on the floor cried out with another contraction.

  Mira turned to steady her, grabbing her by the arm. ‘Sirri, where —?’

  ‘Isidro needs help in the installation,’ Sierra said. ‘Some of the freed slaves are going after Delphine.’

  Mira stared at her in shock. ‘They wouldn’t dare.’

  ‘Tigers take them, Mira, I can see it through his eyes. He’s hurt, too …’

  ‘Well, you’re in no shape to go — you’ll fall down that wretched waterfall and break your neck. Is Delphine contained?’

  Sierra nodded.

  ‘Then he just needs some men to help.’ Mira went to the tent’s entrance with Sierra stumbling after her.

  There weren’t many warriors around. Word had spread of what was happening in the tent and the clansmen had made themselves scarce, but Mira spotted one of Ardamon’s cohort slinking past. ‘You there,’ she said. ‘Floren, isn’t it?’

  He bowed. ‘Yes, my lady.’

  ‘Isidro’s having trouble with freed slaves trying to rough up our prisoner. Get some men and go help him sort it out, will you? Go quickly: we can’t have her harmed.’

  ‘Yes, my lady,’ the soldier said, bowing again and turning away.

  ‘And send someone to ask Cam to come find me right away,’ Sierra called after him. Issey? Help is on the way.

  It couldn’t come quickly enough. The men he was facing had produced clubs salvaged from the fallen Slavers. One of them dragged Delphine aside, while the others stalked him like hunters, manoeuvring him away step by step. As they forced him back, the man standing over Delphine drove a fist into her face, and Isidro clenched his teeth in helpless anger. He had made sure Delphine was defenceless. If she was raped down here it would be his fault.

  Sierra hadn’t broken the contact — he could feel her watching, waiting for the men she’d sent to arrive … but moments were streaming past, and there was no sound of anyone rushing to help.

  They’re not coming, Isidro thought. There was only one option left to him. Sirri, can you give me some power?

  Her first reply was a sense of wordless surprise, but she didn’t waste time asking for explanations. She simply opened the connection further and power hit him in a rush, a great surging storm of energy. His heart began to pound, and as the power rippled along his bones and through his flesh Isidro felt as though his blood was boiling.

  Power spilled from his hands in a shower of sparks, minute strands of lightning that dripped and trickled from his fingers with a brilliant blue glow streaked here and there with a sooty red.

  The colour struck him as odd, but Isidro couldn’t spare it a thought. Power coursed through his veins, and as the men facing him recoiled from the sight Isidro summoned it to his fingertips, and then flung it at the nearest man.

  It hit him full in the chest and hurled him back against the wall.

  Since the most he’d ever managed was a shield, Isidro stared for a second at his hand in shock, barely able to believe it had actually worked. The other man advanced swiftly, club raised to swing. Isidro reached for Sierra’s power again, and this time it did form a shield — a glowing blue replica of a warrior’s buckler — perhaps, the dry and analytical part of him considered, because that was the foremost thought in his mind. The club glanced off and Isidro rammed the rim of the shield into the man’s face, a move he’d practised countless times back when he had two good hands. The man stumbled back, his mouth full of broken teeth and blood.

  Isidro cast the shield aside, and it simply vanished as it left his fingers. He snatched up a fallen club and rushed the last man, who was still pinning Delphine to the polished black floor.

  The man had a club of his own, which he was using to punish Delphine for her attempts to kick at him while she lay on her belly on the floor. He raised it, cowering, while Isidro swung; with one blow he knocked the club aside, and with a second he struck the man’s temple and knocked him out cold.

  He shoved the club into his sash and helped Delphine up. Her face was sallow, as near to pale as her dark skin would allow, tears stained her cheeks and she was terrified and gasping for breath.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, leading her back along the hall, and this time she didn’t argue, but stumbled along at his side, glancing fearfully over her shoulder.

  ‘Is there another way out?’

  ‘No,’ he said, cocking his head to listen. There were voices drifting down the stairs, but at this point he would trust no one unless it was a face he knew. He thought he heard Nirveli shouting — her tone was high and worried — not a good sign. He tried to listen in on Sierra, and found her arguing furiously with someone telling her Cam couldn’t be disturbed.

  Sirri, you’ll have to find him yourself, Isidro said. Your messages aren’t getting through.

  Still pulling Delphine with him Isidro kicked open doors and peered into chambers, searching for something, anything he could use.

  The last chamber was full of furniture, stacked into the small space in a chaotic jumble. It was not ideal, but it would do.

  He hauled Delphine inside just as the men burst into the hall. ‘There they are!’ one shouted as he slammed the door.

  Unbalanced with her hands still bound, Delphine stumbled and fell. Isidro winced for the new set of bruises it would give her, but he concentrated on shoving trunks and chests over to block the door. Delphine struggled to her feet to help him, pushing with her shoulder.

  Once all the readily movable furniture was piled against the entrance, Isidro beckoned her over. Men began to pound on the door. It was a kind of madness, he supposed, but what was lust for blood and vengeance other than a form of insanity? As much as it revolted him, he could understand why they felt driven to this. If Sierra or Mira had been raped and abused as the other women had, could he honestly say he wouldn’t share their men’s thirst for revenge?

  He checked on Sierra and found her striding up to Cam, so furious that she loosed a shower of sparks with every movement, and had to shout to make herself heard over the buzz and crackle of power in the air.

  Delphine yelped with every thud of wood. ‘Come here,’ Isidro said. ‘I’ll try to free your hands.’

  She came at once, but kept peering over her shoulder to check on his progress. ‘Hurry!’

  ‘I’m trying! The wretched knots have been pulled as tight as they’ll go.’

  ‘Then cut them, you fool!’

  ‘I don’t have a knife! Slaves don’t carry weapons, remember.’ Isidro cursed himself for failing to find one, but it hadn’t occurred to him that he’d need it.

  In the end he used his teeth, and pulled the bonds loose just as the door was torn away in splinters and men began to scramble over the barricade.

  Isidro pulled her to the back of the room. Here there was more furniture piled up — tables, benches and chairs, all heavy and ornate enough to grace a ruling clan’s hall. Dropping to the floor, the two of them wound their way between the legs and cross-pieces. It was wedged together too tightly to be easily dismantled, but that didn’t stop the crazed and rioting former slaves from trying, before those of them with some wits left tried to crawl in after them instead.

  At first Isidro put Delphine behind him, but he soon realised that that was hopeless — they would drag him away and then do as they wished to her. Sirri!

  We’re coming! Cam was following her up the cascade, but at the top they found a cluster of freed slaves, men and women both, blocking their path.

  ‘Black Sun take them all,’ Isidro said. ‘Give me your wrist!’ He started working on the knots that bound the cuff.

  Once she realised what he was doing Delphine started on the other one, trying to loosen them with her teeth as well, but she was shaking so badly she could hardly find the knot.

  The first
bracelet came free and Isidro yanked it from her wrist. It snagged on her soft dark skin, raising beads of blood.

  One of the men reaching through to them seized Delphine’s ankle, and she screamed and clutched at Isidro.

  ‘Hold on!’ Isidro braced his legs against a stout trunk and caught her under the arms with his good arm to steady her until she wrapped her unbound arm around his waist and clung to him, kicking at the grasping hands and sobbing with fear as he worked on freeing the other bracelet.

  He worked the cords loose as a glimmer of blue light played over the nail-heads on the trunk, and a tiny spark jumped from one to the next.

  In the hall, someone screamed as a sheet of lightning swept across the corridor. The tone of the shouting changed, and Isidro heard Cam bellowing his name.

  The clutching hands withdrew as the attackers scrambled away from the crackling strands of light. Delphine collapsed against him, and a moment later Cam’s face appeared where the mad-eyed men had been. ‘Issey? How in the Black Sun’s name did you get yourself into this one?’

  Isidro drew a deep breath, and shifted his grip on Delphine’s wrist. The cords were loose, the bracelet ready to slip free. He clamped his hand over it, pressing the cold, numbing stones against her skin.

  Delphine went stiff and still in his arms. Then Cam reached through and took hold of her, taking the same grip to prevent her slipping free of the restraints.

  Pushed beyond endurance, Delphine didn’t fight him as Isidro crawled out after her, bringing the other bracelet with him. With Sierra standing over them, glowing like a beacon, no one spoke. When Cam set Delphine on the floor and twisted her arm up to slip the bracelet on again, she slumped in a heap of shuddering, heaving sobs.

  Back down in the cavern, it seemed a riot was taking place. Ardamon had summoned the men who had come with him and Cam, but only a handful were free to answer his call — the rest were guarding the surrendered Akharians, who knew something was going on and were growing restless.

  Suddenly Isidro felt very vulnerable. Once they were down the cascade, he fell into step beside Mira, who was leading the still-weeping and near-hysterical Delphine away to have her injuries treated. ‘Mira, how are we for supplies? Can we store some emergency rations in the installation, in case we have to retreat and batten down for a while?’

  She gave him a sharp glance. ‘It’s a good idea,’ she said. ‘I’ll see to it.’

  The freed slaves crowded around, demanding to know what was going on, but Cam ignored their questions while making sure that they stayed well back from the prisoner.

  Perhaps a quarter or a third of the slaves had been involved in the attack, not all of them male. As they’d left the installation the men had been cowed by Sierra’s display of power and her obvious anger, but a few of the women refused to back down, even though Sierra was still wreathed with dancing strands of energy. Instead they had hurled abuse and insults at her, until Ardamon shouted them down and some other women came forward to drag them away.

  Sierra didn’t react, but only looked right through them with an icy gaze. When Isidro dropped back to speak with her, she dismissed the matter with a shrug. ‘They’re angry it took so long to free them,’ she said. ‘I can’t truly blame them. In the camps you live from day to day: it’s hard to see the greater picture. Honestly, Issey, it was worse than Kell’s dungeons sometimes. If you angered the Slavers you’d get a beating, but if you cooperated too readily the other women turned on you …’ She laid her hand on his wrist. ‘Are you sure you don’t need Rhia? I can feel that arm throbbing.’

  ‘It’s nowhere near as bad as it was,’ Isidro said, and then winced as another scream echoed through the cavern. ‘Besides, it sounds like she has her hands full.’ The women who might have put a stop to this mess had been thoroughly distracted — which had played a large part in what happened, Isidro suspected.

  ‘Yes,’ Sierra said. ‘I’d best go back. Not that there’s much I can do besides hold the poor girl’s hand. I know little enough of babies and even less of miscarriage.’

  ‘How did it happen?’ Isidro asked. Knowing how the child had been conceived, he couldn’t bring himself to be sorry for the loss. ‘I didn’t think she was hurt last night.’

  ‘She wasn’t,’ Sierra said. ‘Her old master had a medicine kit, and she found something in it to slip the babe.’

  Isidro still felt guilt for what had happened to Torren’s slave — his refusal to eat had earnt her a beating that night, he was certain. ‘Will she live?’

  ‘Rhia says it looks hopeful, but it’s early yet. I know the others are going to discuss what’s to be done about this Delphine situation. Will you tell me what they decide? I won’t be easy until I know it can’t happen again.’

  ‘I’ll tell you everything, Sirri.’

  She trailed her hand along his arm in farewell, and then hurried back to the tent where she had left Rhia and the labouring woman.

  Since Rhia had more willing hands than she could use, Mira called some of them away and left Delphine under their guard in a separate tent while she joined Cam, Ardamon and Isidro to discuss the matter.

  ‘First of all,’ Mira said, ‘I want to know how in the Black Sun’s name this came to happen. None of them knew that Isidro had taken the woman prisoner, or that he was down there alone —’

  Amaya had been hovering by the door with her face pale with worry, but now she pushed through and knelt on the floor with a stifled sob, keeping her eyes on the ground. ‘My lady, it was my doing. One of the women asked me where Isidro and Sierra were going, and I told her they’d taken madame prisoner. My lady, please forgive me, I never imagined they’d do something like that!’

  ‘This isn’t your fault, Amaya,’ Mira said. ‘I won’t let anyone suggest otherwise.’ She turned to Ardamon. ‘I suppose it must have been decided on the spur of the moment, when Sierra came back and they realised Isidro was there alone.’

  ‘At least it wasn’t planned,’ Ardamon said. ‘That’s marginally better.’

  ‘Ardamon, this cannot be tolerated,’ Mira said. ‘They must be flogged, at the very least.’

  ‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ Cam said. Mira began to protest, but he went on. ‘Oh, they should be punished, I agree, but there were over a dozen men and women involved in that debacle. How’s Sierra going to manage so many being in that kind of pain? Rasten has been helping to control her power, but he has no reason to aid her now. If her power spills and she damages what Vasant built here, then all we’ve gone through will be for nothing.’

  There was a moment of silence as everyone considered his point, and then Mira swore. ‘Oh, by the Bright Sun, Cam, you’re right, we can’t punish them here. We could send them to the surface to be tried by Uncle Dremman, but how will those up above judge this? They’ll say it’s understandable, the anger of men who saw their brothers slaughtered, their homes destroyed and their women raped. They’ll get nothing more than a token stroke of a cane, and then half the men in the army will want to pour them a drink and shake their hand.’

  ‘Even the ones who cursed that lot for attacking Isidro along with the Akharian will already be murmuring of forgiveness,’ Ardamon said, still scowling. ‘I hate to let this go unpunished, but if we act too harshly we risk rebellion.’

  Cam was watching Isidro as he sat gingerly on the furs. Now that they were together again, Isidro regretted they didn’t have the comforts of Mira’s well-appointed tent, and particularly her leather-slung and fur-padded chairs. He was already stiffening up from the fight, and the throbbing of his arm was growing stronger.

  ‘Issey?’ Cam said. ‘Any thoughts?’

  ‘Only that you’re right about the risk to Sierra,’ Isidro said. ‘What does this leave us? Punishment duty? Cut rations?’

  ‘Yes, I suppose so,’ Cam said. ‘We’ll set them to guard the rest of the prisoners. It’s a cold, tedious duty, and it’ll keep them out of trouble if we assign a few trusted men to make sure they don’t start hav
ing fun with the Akharians.’

  ‘They won’t see that as a punishment,’ Mira said.

  ‘Not at first,’ Cam replied. ‘But after a few hours on their feet and on short rations they might feel differently.’

  Isidro was not so sure of that — the former slaves were accustomed to scanty meals and other discomforts — but he said nothing. Their options were limited, and they all knew it.

  Delphine wrapped shaking hands around the tea-bowl, and narrowed her eyes at the woman who had offered it to her. She was Akharian, with tawny hair and lightly bronzed skin, and not so much as a hint of Ricalani blood in the shape of her features. ‘Who are you?’ Delphine demanded in Akharian. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘My name is Rhia,’ the woman replied in the same tongue. ‘I’m a physician in Lady Mira’s service. Drink the tea, it will soothe your nerves and dull the aches. Where are you hurt?’

  Delphine turned away. ‘It’s nothing but bumps and scratches.’

  ‘You’d best let me look them over,’ Rhia said, measuring more herbs into her mortar.

  Delphine felt very strange as she looked around the unfamiliar tent, which smelled of a peculiar mix of male sweat and sharp herbs. She must be numb, she concluded. Never in her life had she been threatened with such violence or felt so much terror. And all after waking alone, confused and with an aching head, bound hand and foot and somehow with no more power than an ordinary person … the events of the morning were nightmarish and overwhelming, and she still couldn’t quite piece together what had happened.

  Once the herbs were steeping the physician moved behind her and prodded at the sore spot on the back of Delphine’s head, and with a hiss of pain she pulled away. ‘Oh, just leave me alone.’

  ‘If you don’t let me examine you, I’ll call Cam in here and he’ll hold you down while I tend your wounds,’ Rhia said. ‘It would be best to let me do my job.’

  Delphine glared at her, and then pointedly looked away. While Rhia cleaned the cuts and scrapes and applied a poultice to the lump on the back of her skull, Delphine ran through the morning’s events once again.