by Tom Lloyd
Amber didn’t speak for a while. He looked from Carel to
Ardela, recognising the impatience on the faces of both. The young assassin had proved to be good company on the journey here, keeping her thoughts to herself while Nai chattered away enough for the three of them.
Once back in Kamfer’s Ford Ardela had rejoined her sisters. They had all been marked with tattoos by their priestesses, but she was still an outsider among the nascent Sisterhood, as the soldiers there were quietly calling it. If that bothered Ardela, she wasn’t showing it, but she’d sought out his quiet company most days since.
He’d not asked about the Harlequin’s sword she carried, except to inspect it. It was a beautiful weapon, so balanced and swift through the air he could see why Ardela had taken it, but even so, it was like she was inviting the hatred and contempt of others with such a clear admission that she had been part of that night of murder.
‘That why you’re here?’ Amber asked eventually. ‘To find a death you can be proud of?’
‘I ain’t afraid to die, but I ain’t hunting it either.’
‘And you know why I’m here,’ Ardela added, rubbing her palms together as the tattoos on them continued to itch. ‘My sisters need everyone they can get if we’re not to just fade away.’
‘Nai brought me here to sell me to the king; to use the link they made between me and Ilumene, and that’s not likely to prove useful unless Ruhen leaves the protection of his armies. The only thing that kept me walking was the thought of killing King Emin and now it turns out he wasn’t even responsible.
‘Sure your dead boy would’ve told him, but I know that someone offers you a victory, you don’t get to choose. So now if I’ve got anyone to hate, it’s your boy, Carel, and to hear the King’s Men tell it, he’s more broken than I am.’ Amber sighed wearily. Part of him wanted to lash out at anyone within reach, but mostly he just wanted to sleep for a hundred years and wake when all this was over. Right now when he slept he dreamed of ravens croaking urgently at him.
‘When-’ He winced and rubbed his brow with greasy fingers. ‘When my lord was grieving, I made it my duty to bring him back — nearly broke my neck, he did, but I waited out his rage. Right now I can’t think why I’d ever do something so stupid.’
‘Because you’re not one to abandon your men,’ Carel said. ‘What if your lord was here now — if Nai conjured up his spirit from the Herald’s Hall to ask his orders, what would he say?’
‘How should I know? Never could predict him.’
‘Guess.’
Amber rose and walked to the window, staring out at the street below while jumbled, senseless thoughts clashed in his mind. He tried to recall his lord’s face, but that was lost, like everything else to do with the man. A now-familiar yoke of fatigue settled about his shoulders and wormed its way into his bones, the same insidious wriggle as when the Gods’ spell had entered his mind, leaving him just as hollow. At last he said, ‘He’d say- Ah, he’d tell me not to waste their lives. If we fight on, the only winner is Azaer. The Gods only know what’s happened back home. Azaer’s working towards Godhood, and I saw enough in Byora not to want that. If my duty to my tribe helps prevent that, then all the better.’
He straightened and turned to face them. ‘Nai, tell your new master I’ll do what he asks. Don’t expect them to fight alongside Narkang troops, but they will fight — I promise him that.’
Doranei wriggled through the yew’s branches, doing his best not to shake the spread of branches supporting his body. It was not long after dawn and the ground beyond his vantage point remained blurred by mist, but below him there were signs of a campfire; clearly Doranei wasn’t the first traveller to think this a good spot for the night. He slipped his pack free from the branch and dropped to the ground, covering the fifty yards to their main camp as silently as he could.
The others had woken with the dawn and Daken, Ebarn and Legana were all bent over bowls of porridge as Doranei trotted in. He checked his pace a little to avoid startling the horses, they’d only got them back a few days previously and half of the beasts were still spooked at being led through the wilds by a newly converted vampire. As soon as their belongings had been delivered, Zhia had sent the scowling, snarling former commissar west, not even bothering to discover her reluctant servant’s name before she ordered him to spy on the border and warn her if the Black Swords left Vanach lands.
‘We’ll have visitors soon,’ he announced to the party at large, looking round to check they were all there. Veil and Vesna both were reaching for their weapons when Doranei motioned for them to stop. ‘They’re moving too quick for Black Swords. I reckon it’s the Legion.’
‘Of course it’s the Legion,’ Zhia said from the shadow of her small tent. ‘They’ve been covering our retreat since we left Vanach, but we’ll be crossing the hills today.’
A grunt came from Zhia’s left and they all turned to watch Isak flailing weakly at the blanket covering his head. After a few false starts, he managed to free both his arms and head enough to sit up. He stared bleary-eyed at his companions for a long while before he spied the porridge and started to struggle his way to his feet.
‘Piss and daemons!’ Vesna drew his sword and cast around as though someone was charging through the trees towards them. ‘Isak, where is it?’ he cried urgently.
‘Eh? What?’ Isak said, still groggy with sleep.
‘The sword!’
‘It’s in my bloody- Oh.’ Isak blinked down at his right hand and flexed his fingers. ‘Well, that’s weird.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I can still feel it.’ Isak looked between Vesna and Zhia with a puzzled expression. ‘It feels like I’ve still got it in my hand.’
Zhia covered herself in her thick shawl and walked over to him. She frowned as Doranei went to her side, and the air around her fingers shimmered briefly. ‘It’s still there,’ she announced, looking as surprised as Isak. ‘It’s in the stain somehow, Isak; it’s becoming part of you.’
He pushed back the loose sleeves of his shirt and raised his hands. The shadowy stain on his right arm had deepened; the skin there was near-black now. Just as lightning had burned the colour from his left arm, so his right hand and arm appeared to have been washed in soot and left as dark as a charred branch. The scars on his skin remained visible, each ridge and swirl obvious in the dull morning light, but the contrast between his hands couldn’t have been more visible.
‘Take your shirt off,’ Vesna asked, sheathing his weapon. He helped Isak pull his shirt over his head, revealing the man’s brutalised torso. Isak had lost some of his bulk while in Ghenna, but he remained a starkly muscled white-eye on whose skin the old injuries were mere decoration. The black stain on his skin balanced his white arm almost perfectly, reaching to just beyond the shoulder, but instead of stopping abruptly it tapered away.
‘Looks like a rash o’ some sort,’ Daken commented.
Doranei shot him a look, but then realised the other white-eye hadn’t been making a tasteless joke. He realised what Daken meant: it wasn’t like gangrene taking hold of a limb, but it was too close for comfort, and the idea that it might spread further worried him.
‘Can you make the sword manifest?’ Zhia said.
Isak frowned down at his hand, his fingers twitching. For a while nothing happened, then Doranei saw the air start to tremble. He blinked and winced as dark stars began to burst around Isak’s fingers; it was hard to keep his gaze on the soot-stained limb, but he was not faring as badly as the lesser mages among them.
Both Ebarn and Legana had reeled away, assailed by what Isak was doing, while Tiniq’s face tightened with strain and he turned his shoulder towards the white-eye as though facing a gale. Doranei was watching the man so intently he only realised Isak had succeeded from the shock on the ranger’s face.
As Isak stood, Doranei felt Zhia lean back against him, the presence of Death’s weapon a constant discomfort for her. Termin Mystt had reappeared in Isak�
��s fist, point-down, its black surface absorbing the morning light. Isak retrieved the sheath he’d once used for Eolis and carefully slipped Termin Mystt inside. The clips that normally attached it to a belt he hooked around his wrist to hold the sheath in place and keep it from inadvertently touching anyone.
‘The shadow’s retreated,’ Vesna pointed out, moving carefully around Termin Mystt to point at Isak’s shoulder. The fading edge of the mark had moved away from Isak’s neck, leaving the top of his shoulder only a slight shade darker than the rest of his pale Farlan skin.
‘Stain,’ Doranei broke in, prompting a puzzled look from the Mortal-Aspect. ‘Call it a stain, not a shadow — not when Azaer’s our enemy.’
Vesna nodded his assent. ‘Stain it is: your skin’s still darker, though, Isak — manifesting the sword’s only limited the hold it’s taken on you.’
‘I never expected to master the damn thing, I suppose,’ Isak said at last, ‘even with the Skull this was never going to be longterm.’
‘What happens when it takes over entirely?’ Vesna asked. ‘Do you die? Or become Death’s Mortal-Aspect?’
‘It won’t come to that,’ Isak said firmly.
‘No? Look how far it’s gone already!’
‘Not much a surprise, is it? I’m balancing the scales in my head; the sword in one hand, the Skull of Ruling in my other. One arm’s white — it’s only fair the other balances it out.’
‘Fair?’
Isak waved his free hand dismissively. ‘Not fair then, but fitting, maybe. If you’re worried, we can stop by Llehden on the way back and ask the witch, but I don’t reckon she’ll be surprised. Legana?’
The green-eyed woman observed him for a long while. Her face was as still as a porcelain doll’s and Isak could read nothing in her expression. Eventually she nodded. ‘ You strive for balance,’ Legana said into his mind. ‘ We can’t be surprised if balance is what we get. ’
‘Exactly: so we’ll only start worrying if it goes past that. Now, you said something about visitors, Doranei?’
Before the King’s Man could reply, a guttural voice called out. They all turned, reaching for their weapons.
There were six figures, no more than twenty yards away, each one bearing enormous weapons as pitted and battered as they were themselves. Their leathers were tattered, their mail torn to reveal mortal wounds. What few scraps of plate armour they wore — mismatched pauldrons and vambraces, and one had a holed cuirass — were similarly rusted and ancient.
‘Lord of the Black Sword,’ Zhia said, translating the words for Isak before he could remind himself Mihn was now dead, ‘we honour you.’
Only the colour of their eyes, deep-blue, rusty-brown and amber, stood out against their pale dead skin and mouldering clothes. The colours reminded Doranei that they had been mercenaries somewhere out east, most likely of Menin and Vukotic blood.
Isak advanced to meet the undead mercenaries, Vesna close at his side. If the warriors of the Legion noticed anyone beyond Isak and Zhia, however, they made no sign of it. ‘I thank you for your greeting,’ Isak replied through Zhia, ‘and for hindering the pursuit.’
‘We have pledged ourselves to you,’ one of the mercenaries at the centre of their small group said. ‘We will serve you.’
Doranei gave a start when he realised he recognised the face from Scree: one side of his emaciated face had been mangled by a blow to the head, and his jaw hung loose as though in a mocking grin. The Legion had appeared just before King Emin claimed the Skull of Ruling and left Vorizh’s journal behind, not knowing its value.
Strange, Doranei thought as he, glanced around at the rest of their party, if I’d gone with him into the cellar that night — if I hadn’t been so dazed after we left Rojak to burn — maybe I’d have found the journal and Mihn would still be alive. No way of knowing, but I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
‘Will you obey me now?’
‘We will.’
Isak nodded, his movements as heavy as if he was still asleep and dreaming. ‘Go south then, go to the King of Narkang at Camatayl Castle, and obey his orders as you would mine.’
‘And then you will break our curse?’
‘Your service is required,’ Isak growled. ‘Once our war is over, we will break your curse. Perhaps we will even find a way to pull your fallen comrades from the Dark Place.’
‘Isak,’ Vesna said in a warning voice, ‘don’t.’
‘Don’t what?’
The Iron General turned his back on the undead mercenaries so he was almost face-to-face with his stooping friend. ‘Don’t start thinking that way,’ he hissed. ‘Don’t let yourself get distracted. You barely made it out of Ghenna after careful planning and the loss of Xeliath. Don’t start thinking you can mount a raid on the Dark Place to rescue his soul. Don’t waste what Mihn sacrificed.’
Isak leaned a little closer to the Farlan hero. ‘And you don’t pretend you know what I’m thinking,’ he said angrily. ‘I haven’t forgotten the stakes in this game, but those we can save we’re going to. Their souls are linked by this curse, so might be they can all be saved. But don’t you worry; I’ll see this to the end. Mihn’s sitting on Maram’s bank and I ain’t going in to fetch him.’
He pushed past Vesna and again directed his attention to the undead soldiers. ‘What is your name?’ he asked the one who was speaking for them.
‘Ozhern.’
Isak inclined his head to them, and was rewarded with a stiff, wary bow from the soldiers of the Legion.
‘I am Isak Stormcaller, and I require your swords for half a year. Go ahead of us to the King of Narkang, Ozhern, and tell him I come in your wake. We will cross the Crag Hills by mirror-magic and continue south, but you can travel faster and without rest; you will reach the king first.’
‘It is agreed, but mark this,’ Zhia reported back, ‘before six months are out, the Lord of the Silent Castle will return to the west. If you betray us, he will lead our vengeance.’
‘I understand.’
The undead mercenaries turned without further comment and ran back the way they had come, moving in near-silence and with a speed that belied their unhurried movements. The grass was barely disturbed by their passage and the six figures looked like ghosts as they headed back towards their comrades and quickly disappeared from view.
‘Will the king thank me for that?’ Isak wondered aloud.
‘He will,’ Doranei assured him. ‘If the Devoted mobilise against Narkang, he’ll need every soldier he can get — he’ll find a use for them all, even those without their humanity.’
Isak nodded and went to gather up his possessions, any thoughts of breakfast vanished on the wind. Doranei left him to it, knowing Isak wouldn’t want anyone taking Mihn’s place and fussing over him. Instead he went to help his Brother, for Veil was similarly encumbered and unable to tie his belongings to his saddle. As he did so Doranei caught sight of Legana, stepping in to help Isak; he saw the conflict on his face as she did so.
Legana was unsteady at times, unreal and ethereal all the time, and so dramatically changed from the tough young woman he’d first met that Doranei found it hard to remember the two were the same person sometimes. She had been beautiful; she was even more so now, in a terrifying way, and she carried the same weight of centuries that Zhia did. He secured the last of Veil’s saddlebags as Legana ignored Isak’s hesitation and inexpertly gathered his belongings. They were a strange pair together, each marked by the events they were caught up in.
They were all marked, by Mihn’s tattoos and Xeliath’s rune. Legana didn’t quite treat Isak with reverence, but her manner had once been of veiled and indiscriminate contempt towards everyone. Now there was a patient acceptance that the old Legana had never known: they were family now, bound by the magic that had marked them.
You don’t have to be friends too, Doranei thought as Hulf came bounding up to Isak, returned from his regular dawn wanderings. S ome things you do for family and it’s a tie that’
ll live with you for ever. He looked down at the owl tattoo on the palm of his hand. And this makes us family, maybe with Legana playing mother to us all. He laughed out loud at the thought, receiving a slap round the head a moment later.
It was Veil, peering at him strangely. ‘You still asleep there?’
‘Eh?’
‘Your mistress calls,’ Veil explained with a nasty grin, ‘but you were daydreamin’ about Legana by the looks of it.’
Doranei turned to where Zhia was standing looking impatient. ‘Just as well we’re family,’ he grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head and headed over.
‘Climb this branch for me,’ Zhia commanded before he’d even reached her. ‘I want you to loop a rope around the end.’
‘Eh?’ Doranei looked up at the small tree, an elderberry with long, slender branches.
‘Was that too complicated a request?’ Zhia said sharply. ‘Climb, tie, try not to fall on your head.’
‘Not sure it’ll take my weight so well.’ He turned away from her stern expression and fetched Isak’s massive horse instead. The branch was higher than a man could reach, but from Megenn’s back he found it a simple enough task to tie the rope on as ordered. Slipping down, he offered her the rope.
‘Put a stake in the ground and tie it down,’ she said, ignoring the proffered rope. ‘We need an archway big enough to allow horses through.’
Doranei didn’t bother asking why, but summoned Daken to help haul over what was left of the fallen tree they’d burned overnight. With a bit of levering it was moved into place and the rope tightened around it so that Zhia had the arch she required, weighed down by a log the size of a man.
Without bothering to thank them, Zhia came around the straining branch and knelt under the arch, one hand pressed to the Crystal Skull at her waist. Doranei exchanged a look with Veil as he retreated out of her way; his Brother was overly amused at Zhia’s displeasure.