Roddy nodded. “That old man. And again not so long ago—a man called Clovis.”
You shouldn’t have followed Piven.
“I couldn’t help it. I had to. I didn’t feel as though I had a choice. It was my magic’s decision, not mine,” Roddy bleated. “Was the old man your friend?”
Why do you ask that?
“You seemed…” Roddy tried to find the right way to describe what he had felt. “To belong together.”
We did, in a way. Yes, he was my friend. My oldest friend.
“I’m sorry for you.” Roddy turned to face the enormous serpent-woman. She was so beautiful, he couldn’t possibly be frightened of her, despite her size and those twisted coils. “Are you my friend, Cyrena?”
She laughed softly. “I do hope you are mine, Roddy. I chose you.”
His fear was lessening by the moment. “Chosen for what?”
“You are on your journey now, Roddy. You took the first steps yourself and now I am going to tell you more. Ask your questions. You do not need Piven to answer them.”
He stared at her, his mind racing to understand. He would have to be smart in how he phrased his questions. “Why am I following Piven?”
“You are right that you are connected to his magic, which has touched yours.”
“My mother has always believed I was touched by the fairies but I think she used that to explain away my tremor.”
“She is right in a way. You have a vast well of magic available to you, Roddy. Magic I have given you. Consider how you track, think about how silently you can move and the extraordinary wealth of information you can take in at a single glance.”
“Is that magical?”
She smiled kindly. “I can assure you, no ordinary person can move as you do or follow a trail so accurately. And certainly no ordinary person has a perfect memory of everything he sees at any time. You do. These are the skills Vested in you by magic. But the rest of the magic you possess is yet untapped.”
“Why me?”
“You were the right soul.”
“What am I to do with this?”
“That’s the important question, Roddy. While the magic is part of you and comes from you, it does not belong to you.”
“It belongs to you?”
“No, there is another.”
Roddy’s face lit up. “Piven!”
“No, Roddy. Piven is no friend to you. He is no longer the person he was.”
“But he saved—”
“I am aware that he saved your life. But that was a personal crusade. He has been fighting demons that take the form of his inclinations. Piven’s magic is dark, Roddy. It is an angry, bitter magic, as you have witnessed for yourself.”
“So who owns my magic?”
Cyrena smiled. “You will know in your heart when you meet. But you must find this one, Roddy. That is what you must do for me. It doesn’t normally work like this but Piven’s rage has changed everything. Ravan will help you.” Roddy glanced at the great black bird. “Trust him,” she assured. “He is your friend.”
“Who is he?”
Cyrena’s coils twisted and her specter shimmered above the cliff. “He is a guide. Ravan is on a special journey of discovery for himself now. A great magic is about to occur and changes will result, especially for Ravan. Truths will be unlocked for him.”
“Will I see you again?”
“I’m not sure, child. The death of Sergius summoned me; I was able to use his moment of death to enter this plane long enough to speak with you. Unless another Valisar is crowned I have little access to the magic that permits me here.” She smiled sadly. “We have not known times like these before. I shall rely on brave souls like yourself to make the right decisions to aid the land of Cormoron the Great. You will make me proud, Roddy.
“Remember, a magic has been unleashed. Sergius asked it of me, and his death has created a rift in the world that has allowed me to make it possible. I can tell you and Ravan only this. Go to the mountains. Ravan.” She turned to regard the bird who had not moved, made no sound during the conversation. “Trust your instincts. Do not be afraid. Trouble is ahead but the Valisars are stronger than their enemies credit them. Make haste to Lo’s Teeth and the Davarigon people. The storm comes.”
Cyrena began to fade.
“Wait!” Roddy begged.
“Farewell, child. The magic has begun,” she managed to say before her light and colors diminished until Roddy found himself blinking, realizing the apparition was no longer there.
Roddy turned to the raven that regarded him. The air around them seemed to sigh and then swell. Roddy felt pressure at his temples and his ears began to throb. He put his hands to them as a great rushing sound overwhelmed him.
He closed his eyes as Ravan began to shriek.
Thirty-Five
Kirin was subdued and Lily felt incredibly awkward. Long before a raven had begun its raucous racket in the far west, he’d spent the last of their coin on a cart and an old nag to pull it, plus some meager supplies. She thought they were on their way to Brighthelm but Kirin had ignored several roads that could have led them into the city. So far she’d left him to his silence, believing he was still smarting over her rejection but over the last two hours she’d realized he wasn’t sulking. Kirin was distracted, deep in thought, but not about her, not even about them. She couldn’t stand the quiet any longer.
“Kirin, are you going to tell me what this is about?”
For a blink he didn’t say anything; then his expression turned to a confused frown of query.
“This hideous silence between us,” she prompted, emotion piling up behind the words she refused to vent because she didn’t want an argument just now. Her throat felt tight and she swallowed hard.
He turned to regard her. “You look very upset.”
“Kirin!”
He flinched.
“What is happening? We were kissing not so long ago and you looked happy. Now you’re—”
“I didn’t want to be reminded about that,” he said sadly.
“Oh really? Well, forgive me. I can’t push it to the back of my mind as easily as you seem able to.”
Kirin sighed softly and looked at her gently and she hated herself more for winning his sympathy. “Lily, I have nowhere to put it but the back of my mind. What would you have me do? There is nothing more heart-breaking than unrequited love—I’m sure of that now.”
“Love?”
He looked away, stared off to the side of the road.
“We hardly know each other, we—” she said.
“I don’t need to know anything more about you. I love you.” He shrugged. “But you love someone else and that’s just my bad luck.” He turned back and gave her a sad smile. “My bad luck to love my wife.”
Lily’s heart melted along with her anger. She leaned her head against his shoulder, knowing it was wrong to encourage him but unable to help herself. She liked the way he cared for her and was so gentle around her. He seemed to treasure her in a way whereas Kilt just took her for granted. And he had a manner of talking that she found helplessly appealing. She couldn’t understand it. Kilt’s dry wit was the opposite of Kirin’s studious, often serious way, and one would think she’d like the laughter more, but she was inexplicably enchanted by Kirin’s reflective nature. He did not hide behind humor, as Kilt often would—and despite their closeness and obvious love for one another, Kilt hid from her. She didn’t know why or what his secrets might be, but being shut out hurt far more than the lack of attention or being taken for granted. Kirin did not shut her out…not until today, anyway.
“I thought it was…” She smiled, instantly embarrassed.
“About us kissing? No. That was a wonderful moment I’ll cherish…” and as she started to say something, he added, “and keep secret.”
Lily frowned. “Then why this difficult silence?”
“Something very bad has happened and it’s connected with Clovis.”
“All right
. Can you start from the beginning? I’m really confused, Kirin. I thought we were going to Brighthelm to protect your cover until we work out how to get me back to the north without raising suspicions. Why are we moving west?”
“Did I tell you that Clovis had lost a hand?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I couldn’t understand it so after you pushed me away I went looking for the baker. I wanted to see where Clovis was found. He organized for me to be taken to the spot where his body was discovered.”
“And?”
“And I found the remains of someone’s hand.”
“Ugh,” she exclaimed. “Where?”
“It was in the remains of the fire. The villagers hadn’t even looked at it. I suppose the excitement and terror of finding a murdered man was enough to make them careless.”
“All right, so you found a hand. Why in the fire? Had the killer tried to burn the evidence?”
Kirin gave her a soft look of irony. “Why leave the body of Clovis in plain sight then? No, only a hand was in the fire. Bits had been pulled off.”
Lily felt her stomach turn over. “What do you mean, pulled off?”
“It had been cooked, Lily. Bits of the cooked flesh were pulled from the bones. A finger was missing. I found the bones of that finger in the grass nearby. They were picked at.”
She shrugged. “You’re being ghoulish, Kirin. Couldn’t it have been animals?”
“Animals would have dragged the hand out of the cooled embers, probably eaten most of it. This looked to be carefully done, the hand was left mainly intact, apart from the finger in the grass and the meat that was pulled from it.”
“What are you surmising?”
“The killer did this.”
She looked at him as though he were demented. “The killer ate the flesh of someone’s hand and killed Clovis?” she said, then shook her head. “He must be as mad as you are.”
Kirin looked away, said nothing.
Lily waited but he didn’t respond, just fell silent again. She felt immediately uncomfortable again. “All right. Tell me what you think has occurred.”
“I think I’ll be wasting my time,” he replied.
“No, I need to understand what you believe. I know it’s important to you.” She tugged at his sleeve. “Please, Kirin. I won’t jeer at what ever you say.”
Another thing she liked about Kirin was that he didn’t hold a grudge. Kilt would have gone silent on her for the rest of the journey. Kirin seemed to have the wherewithal to not take her disbelief so personally that he needed to punish her.
“Tell me,” she urged.
“I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of the legend of an aegis?”
She shook her head and frowned. “Should I know it?”
“No, not really. I honestly believed it was just an old story of our ancients. I’ve told you about Freath,” he began. At her nod, he continued, “Well, he believed deeply in the existence of an aegis. So did King Brennus.”
“And an aegis is what?”
Kirin sighed. “It is said that the aegis is one of the Vested; hugely empowered, although you would never know because an aegis would keep that magic secret from everyone.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Yes, very, because it’s so powerful. But he, or she, doesn’t want anyone to know he possesses this. According to legend, it actually belongs to the Valisars…and only the Valisars. It is said there is an aegis born for each heir. If the heir can find an aegis, he can bond him by a rather brutal method known as trammeling. To trammel an aegis requires the Valisar to consume some of him.”
“What? Eat him?”
“I’m afraid so. That’s another reason why a Vested who knows he is an aegis will avoid recognition.”
“Wait, how is he recognized?”
Kirin shrugged. “That’s his only protection—secrecy. He protects his own knowledge if he can. It’s tricky, though, because an aegis is helplessly drawn to the Valisars. It takes enormous will, apparently, to resist the call. I suppose a person who spends years avoiding the city or any place the royals go, becomes more adept as he matures at resisting the urge, or an aegis too young to recognize his inherent skill doesn’t feel the attraction until later.”
“But they’d know from childhood?”
“I honestly don’t know. I think one is born an aegis, so presumably, yes, they’d know of their difference, certainly.”
“But say an aegis can resist the call to the Valisars—can’t he just hide and the royal would be none the wiser?”
“Well, yes, and that’s what most want to do. They don’t want to have bits cut off them and they don’t want to be under someone else’s will. But there’s one more hurdle. Each aegis is marked somehow.”
“You mean like a visible sign—a birthmark or something like that?”
“Indeed, or it could be more subtle. I sound as though I am knowledgeable about this matter but in truth I know little—only what Freath told me and what I vaguely learned from my days at the Academy. My understanding is that if an aegis comes face to face with his own Valisar, both will know it instantly. But let’s say a Valisar stumbled upon an aegis—not his own—then unless he is warned or touched by magic, he wouldn’t necessarily know of the magical connection. I believe that’s how it works. The aegis, however, always knows and so would have to work very hard to keep themselves secret and resist the call of the Valisar.”
“And you say Freath knows more?”
“Yes.” Kirin’s face clouded. “He will be devastated by Clovis’s death. He was clinging to the hope that Clovis would deliver someone very important.”
Lily frowned. “Who? Important how?”
Kirin slapped the reins on the horse’s rump. “It’s a long tale…” He began to tell Lily how he met Clovis, when they were delivered as prisoners to Brighthelm soon after the overthrow of Penraven.
Roddy watched in shock as the raven stretched its neck, its head pulled back. Its shriek turned into a keening that sounded like despair. His head was hurting from the pressure of the air around him, now throbbing with magic, visible magic that appeared to shake the air until it looked as though the world was trembling. He realized he could no longer hear the waves, nor the lonely call of gulls—just Ravan and his terrible cries.
Roddy was beginning to feel dizzy from the pain in his head and the noise. Instinctively he reached out to the bird.
Ravan! Ravan!
And in his mind he heard a groan.
What’s happening? he begged of the bird, who, like the air, seemed to be expanding.
It hurts, Ravan cried.
Buffeted by what seemed to be swirling winds now, Roddy pushed against the air, forcing his way to Ravan. He was shocked to realize that the bird appeared to have swollen to ten times his normal size and was still growing. He could no longer recognize him as the raven; now he looked like a formless dark shape.
The screaming intensified, the pressure became impossibly worse and Roddy began to feel that he was losing consciousness.
Ravan! he yelled. Forgive me.
Roddy’s world turned black.
“Piven?” Lily queried, her tone filled with disbelief. “Leo’s adopted brother?”
Kirin nodded. “Piven, or perhaps someone who is protecting him. It doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“Not at all. Why? More importantly, how? He’s not even Valisar, is he?”
Kirin looked perplexed. “No, you’re right, logic says it can’t be him. He was an orphan child taken in by the Valisars. But, if it was someone else, he couldn’t trammel an aegis.”
“So, logic aside, what makes you think this was Piven’s work anyway? He’d be about…” Lily frowned. “…about fifteen anni or thereabouts.”
Kirin shrugged. “I don’t know—instinct, I think. Clovis had found the lost Valisar, we know that much. I know, I know,” he said, raising a hand against the protestation that he could see leaping to her lips. “But we think of him as
Valisar. Freath and I have held out hope for the child for a decade. Clovis was excited and was going to meet the person he thought was Piven at a small place called Minton Woodlet in the far south. Originally, you see, Freath charged Clovis and me both with finding an aegis and Clovis additionally with finding Piven. Now, ten anni later, Piven is found, Clovis makes contact after a decade of silence, and he’s discovered murdered in a lonely spot with what looks like the remains of a trammeling. Am I imagining it, or is this too close for comfort?”
“The latter,” she said, thoughtfully, her face filled with consternation. “So a Valisar, presumably, has trammeled an aegis.”
“That’s what it looks like. However, that supposition could be wrong. Someone else could have attempted to trammel a Vested. It is possible that the body that owns that hand is lying in the forest somewhere or someone is moving around minus their hand and pretty angry about it.” He shrugged.
“But your instincts scream differently?”
“Yes,” he said, frowning. “Screaming loudly, in fact.”
“Could it be that Leo has found his aegis?”
“How? You said you only left him a day or so ago in the north.”
“Mmm, that’s true,” she admitted. “Who are the other Valisars alive?”
Kirin gave a lopsided grin. “Exactly my point! I keep coming back to Piven. I’ve looked at this every way I can.” He began counting off fingers. “Brennus is dead. Leo is alive but it’s impossible that he could be here. The daughter died soon after being born—we even saw her ashes scattered from the parapet of Brighthelm. There are no heirs left, save Piven.”
“But Piven isn’t Valisar!”
Kirin stared at her, his gaze narrowing.
Lily frowned as she watched him. She knew he wanted her to make some sort of mental leap with him but she couldn’t work it out. An idea slithered through her mind…but that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? She glanced at Kirin. He refused to help, just kept looking at her with a glint of something dangerous in his expression.
“Say it!” he said.
“Say what? I’m not thinking anything.”
“You are. You’re my smart wife, Lily. Say it!”
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