The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two

by Egan, Catherine

  Tariro was in any case distracted by other matters and was glad to see them go. Her husband, Nikias, had been summoned with great secrecy by Alvar, Lord of the Faery Guard, and had been gone for two days now. Tariro had invented a pretext to visit Leanda, the wife of the First Advisor Emyr. Leanda told her that Emyr was away tending to business for a short while but Tariro sensed her anxiety. Something was afoot and Tariro hated not knowing what. Her only consolation was that Leanda did not know what it was either.

  Although the Faery Kingdom was very much a patriarchy, Tariro was one of the rare female Faeries to have obtained a degree of power in her own right. Though she did not herself come from an important family, she had made her connections wisely. Her wit, her intelligence and her non-threatening charm won her a place in circles to which someone of her rank would not normally have access. She listened sympathetically as her new friends discussed matters of finance and court intrigue and later she would privately make a suggestion or two that revealed her to be a tactical genius. Many prominent Faeries increased their wealth and stature, or destroyed an enemy, through her counsel and remained grateful thereafter, believing that they alone were the fortunate recipients of her startling wisdom. Because she was a useful friend to have, she was invited to important parties, and exceptions to the usual hierarchies were made to include her. Her friends made her careless promises. She remained gracious, humble, unassuming. Everybody secretly owed her a favour and everybody thought they were the only one. Then, with manoeuvres so subtle that nobody was entirely sure how it had happened, she had taken over the goldmines of Sim and the diamond mines of Harrah, and then all of the silver mines that did not belong to the king, becoming one of the wealthiest and most influential Faeries in the Realm. It was whispered that she had forged allegiances with witches and had access to potions that were strictly forbidden. Besides that, whoever controlled silver was not to be crossed. Her marriage to the High Lord Nikias had confirmed her as a rising star, a fixture in the Faery Court. Though technically she and Nikias should have been allowed only a single son, she was wealthy enough to pay the tax on another. Jalo was born and the odds of a child of hers rising to prominence were increased. Cadeyrn, both in his career and in his marriage to Alvar’s daughter, did her credit. But her younger son, Jalo, had an energy and cleverness to him that made her hope for even greater things. Her ambition for herself and for her sons was boundless. Now it was clear some great intrigue was taking place and that she was excluded from it. As soon as Jalo and his humans had left, she called for her faithful spy, Miyam.

  “What have you heard?” she asked.

  “Madam, all of the High Lords have gathered at Alvar’s Castella.”

  “Does the King know?”

  “The spies he thinks to be his have been in Alvar’s pocket for centuries now. He knows nothing.”

  Tariro breathed a sigh of relief. This sounded to her like treason and Malferio was nothing if not ruthless when it came to treachery. His marriage to Nia three hundred years ago had led to the most terrible purges the Faery Kingdom had ever known as he struggled to hold on to his power. It was bold indeed of him to have married another outsider last year and to declare her Queen. He was over-confident, and something was happening. Nikias was too slow to ensure his own advantage in whatever changes came. He should have consulted her or at least arranged for a spy to bring her word of the proceedings.

  “What are they discussing?”

  “I do not know. Nobody but the High Lords themselves have been present at these meetings. But there is more, My Lady.”

  “Tell.”

  “Alvar has a visitor.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Nobody knows. She has not showed herself but she is staying in His Majesty’s Wing in the Castella.”

  Tariro drew her breath in sharply. Every Castella had a wing for the King, reserved for him alone in case he decided to visit. “You say she. How do you know this?”

  “One of the guards has seen them together.”

  “Is she a Faery?”

  “No. Perhaps human.”

  “Did this guard say what she looked like?”

  “Only that she was very beautiful and she seems to have Alvar’s ear.”

  “Forsake the Ancients,” murmured Tariro. “Find a pretext to go to Nikias. I must know everything. And send me the Gem-Weaver.”

  ~~~

  The Faery Mines were legendary throughout Tian Xia. In a Realm of Illusion, they were one of the few realities. The ores and gems within them were the finest in the worlds, both in beauty and in magical properties. As the little group approached the mines, the towering mountains all around them became, in the blink of an eye, rocky hillocks. It did not seem so much a change as a shift in perception, like realizing something you thought was far away is in fact very close, the distant mountain merely a boulder at your feet.

  The mine-openings were guarded by Faeries in black silk with glinting spears. Watchful raptors glided overhead. The guards parted for Jalo, however, and so Nell, Charlie and Ander followed him into the dark tunnels beneath the rock. In one of the mines, gold hung luminous as starlight from the ceiling, like tapered stalactites, and in another, diamonds the size of boulders sparkled in the walls and on the damp stone floors.

  “Still spooked?” Charlie asked Nell quietly.

  “What do you mean?” asked Nell, startled.

  “You said you thought this place had a kind of dark undertone to it, before.”

  “Oh! Yes. Yes. It does.”

  “What did you think I meant?” Charlie sounded hurt.

  “I dinnay know. I’m sorry.” She sighed, wondering what to say to make things normal between them again. Part of her wished she could forget what had happened on the lake. It had been such a strange and powerful feeling and she had been unprepared for it. “I’m glad you showed me, Charlie.” She didn’t have to explain what she meant. But she wasn’t telling the whole truth and he knew it.

  “It’s nay really a big secret. I just thought...because we’re friends...” he trailed off.

  “I know,” she said.

  “Come this way!” called Jalo. “Look!”

  They followed him down a long glittering tunnel made entirely of diamonds.

  “The correct use of diamonds can increase the power of a Curse exponentially,” said Jalo cheerfully, waving his fire stick so the light at the end of it leaped off the glittering walls.

  “Your mother seems partial to them,” said Charlie. Jalo gave him a sharp look. Charlie looked back blankly. His hair had fallen over his eyes again.

  “Are you hungry?” Jalo asked Nell and Ander. “I have heard that humans and animals suffer greatly from hunger and must eat frequently.”

  “That’s true,” said Charlie feelingly. Nell and Ander agreed that they were hungry as well. Jalo led them out of the mine shaft and they found themselves in a clearing at the top of a hill. The hillside was covered with silver-leafed olive trees and the sky was pale blue with wisps of white cloud, like the sky of Di Shang.

  “Does this make you feel at home?” Jalo asked Nell. To her surprise, the familiar sky made her want to weep. She wondered how her parents were. They must be beside themselves with worry for her.

  “Yes,” she managed. “Thank you.”

  A blanket was laid with soft bread and cheese and bowls of olives. There was a jug of wine as well, and four jewelled goblets.

  “Dinnay know that you two should be drinking this stuff,” said Ander to Charlie and Nell as they filled their goblets happily.

  “I’m much older than you are,” said Charlie indignantly.

  Nell sipped at the goblet. The wine was smooth and rich. Every mouthful made her feel warmer, calmer, kinder. She looked at Charlie and felt a smile stretch wildly across her face. He gave a short laugh and looked away, down the hillside.

  They remained there, eating and drinking and talking languidly, until peals of bells broke open the sky. The olive trees swayed and bent as if ben
eath a great wind, though the air was still. Black-clothed guards strode into the clearing. Tariro swept behind them in an elaborate scarlet dress.

  “It’s time,” she said to Jalo, and then looked at the others. “Are you bringing them, too?”

  “I’m sure they would be interested...” Jalo began. Nell watched him a bit pityingly. He seemed afraid of his mother. She couldn’t imagine what that must be like.

  Tariro waved her hand as if to say she didn’t care and just hearing about it was a bother.

  “I’ll arrange for an extra morrapus,” said Jalo humbly.

  The morrapus was an orb of silk fixed around a delicate gold cage the size of a small room. The bottom was filled with cushions for the comfort of the travellers. Snowy-plumed myrkestras pulled it through the air. Jalo rode in his mother’s morrapus. Swarn, Ander, Nell and Charlie rode together in another. It did not feel like flying at all, but more like floating. Ander began to feel quite nauseous as they bobbed through the air and had to huddle at the bottom of the morrapus with his head between his knees.

  “Did you have any luck today, preparing the spell?” Nell asked Swarn.

  “What spell?” scoffed Swarn. “There is nothing to prepare. I do not yet know what Nia has done to the Mancers or if I can break it. I must see them before I can try to do anything at all.”

  “But Jalo said they had given you a place to work,” Nell said, perplexed.

  “A polite way of saying they kept me confined. They did not want me wandering freely. You may be considered harmless, but I am not.”

  Swarn’s jaw was set and she did not seem to want to talk any more. Nell pulled the silk away from the gold webbing so she could see out. The sky was full of billowing silken morrapi of every colour imaginable. They flew over narrow spiralling mountains with shining bridges, miles long, slung between them. She could see foaming waterfalls and breath-taking gorges, dark, gleaming lakes surrounded by thick woods, and high in the mountains, hundreds upon hundreds of castles with swooping rooftops, their brilliant tiles shining in the golden light.

  The morrapi were converging on an enormous, sheer white rock that towered over the mountains. Nell felt again that unsettling perceptual shift, as if the mountains were only jagged stones, the castles upon them mere toys. A strangely beautiful structure covered the flat top of the rock, its intricate walls and elegant curved rooftops giving the impression of a giant bird about to take flight. The morrapus landed within the outermost walls, in a crowd of silken orbs and white myrkestras. Jalo rushed to help Nell out. He led her and her companions through the crowds toward a pair of giant crimson doors, Ander staggering queasily, Swarn and Charlie looking guarded. They had to wait to file in past rows of long-legged silver-hounds. Nell felt the cold nose of one of the hounds touch her hand as it sniffed her, searching for silver. She looked into its bottomless eyes and shuddered. The lean hounds moved past them, down the line.

  “It is forbidden for any but the Faery Guard to carry silver,” Tariro explained coolly.

  “As you have seen today, our Kingdom is a place of absolute beauty,” Jalo enthused to Nell, not registering her distaste for the silver-hounds. “And as such, it suits you very well!”

  Nell thanked him and did not say what she thought of that. She noticed Tariro give her a sharp look, however. Through the crimson doors, they followed a long passageway, taking many turns, and then came to another set of giant doors guarded by silver-hounds and guards bearing spears. Beyond this, more twisting corridors led to yet another set of doors and the same thing again. By the time they came to the innermost wall, Nell had no idea how to find her way back out, which was more than a little disconcerting. They entered a vast courtyard full of thousands upon thousands of Faeries standing in orderly blocks. Lily petals covered the ground like snow. A broad petal-strewn path led from the crimson doors, between the Faery formations, to a pyramid of steps lined by rows of the Faery Guard. At the top of the stairs, two thrones stood side-by-side on a platform. This was the High Step, Jalo explained to Nell in a whisper. Slender bridges were slung from the High Step out to separate, garlanded platforms that seemed to hang in the air, forming a semi-circle around it. Each of these platforms held at least thirty or forty Faeries in fantastic, colourful dress.

  “Come, you are guests of my family and you will watch from our dais,” said Jalo. The sky was emptying of the last morrapi as they made their way up the steps of the pyramid to the platform just below the High Step and crossed one of the bridges to a dais shared by several noble families. While Ander, Charlie and Nell attracted a few curious stares, most of the Faeries looked at Swarn. She had refused the fresh attire offered by the Faeries, sticking to her worn leather and wolf-skin vest, though they had not allowed her to bear any weapons to the ceremony. Tariro had somehow ended up walking next to her, as if they were particular companions, and this caused a great deal of whispering. Jalo introduced Nell and the others to his father, Nikias, who struck Nell as rather dunderheaded for a Faery.

  The air crackled and rippling waves of colour swept across the sky, accompanied by music like the song Jalo had sung when they first entered the Realm of the Faeries. Faeries dressed in yellow came around with trays of exotic delicacies and crystal glasses of heady wine. The sky went suddenly black and figures edged in gold danced across it, enacting Faery Legends to the rhythm of a terrifying drumbeat. In one of these displays, Nell thought she was witnessing the Mancers fleeing Tian Xia. In another, a being made of stars gave a Faery two boxes. The Faery opened the boxes and then, across the sky, Faeries danced and fought.

  “There is a legend,” Jalo explained to Nell when she asked him what it meant, “that the Sparkling Deluder in the south long ago gifted the Faeries with Music and Envy, shaping our destiny forever.”

  “What about the Mancers?” asked Nell.

  Jalo smiled wryly. “To you, they are great protectors, but to us, they are something else. They were the scribes of the Faeries in the Early Days.”

  “When humans were slaves,” said Nell.

  “Yes,” Jalo admitted, “but for the Faeries, that time is still widely considered a golden age. The rise of the Mancers as a separate power is regarded as a kind of betrayal.”

  “What do you think?” asked Nell.

  Jalo smiled at her again but he did not have time to reply before a great noise drowned out any possibility of conversation. The sky began to crackle with lights, as if it were splitting open and some heretofore hidden luminescence was breaking through. The Faeries stomped their feet and clapped their hands in unison. The sound was deafening and shook the whole courtyard. Nell put her hands over her ears, looking around her. The dais was shaking and swaying. The Faeries looked transported with an almost mad joy.

  “Welcome the King!” shouted the Faeries. “Welcome the King! Welcome the King! Welcome the King!”

  The crimson doors at the end of the compound swung open and a morappus as bright white as the Di Shang moon came billowing through it behind a huge, gold-eyed myrkestra. The Faeries erupted into applause. Drums thundered and the sky flashed white and gold. The King of the Faeries emerged from the morappus in a cloak of crimson feathers that trailed on the ground. His tunic and pantaloons were made of threads so radiant he seemed to be clothed in light. On his brow sat a band of the finest Faery gold. The King’s new wife stepped out of the morrapus after him and, with hands joined, they proceeded towards the pyramid, climbed slowly to the High Step, then turned and bowed to the shouting mass of Faeries.

  Nell was surprised to see that the Queen did not look like a Faery at all. She was taller than the King and her hair formed a dark halo around her lovely face. In contrast to the fair-skinned Faeries, her skin was black and shone like burnished ebony. She had a regal face – high forehead and slanted cheekbones, a strong jaw and full lips. Her long eyes were the colour of fire. She wore a simple white robe and a shawl of gold thread. The first and second Advisors left their respective daises, crossing the swinging bridges with flawl
ess balance and grace to flank the King and Queen.

  Malferio spoke to the assembled masses, “Since the Ancients Made Tian Di, the Faeries have wrought in the west the first and the only Great Civilization! Poetry, music, beauty, war, all of these belong to us! We, with the power of Illusion, are the true heirs of the Ancients! Still we flourish, and crush all our enemies beneath our heels! On this night, we celebrate the greatness of the Faeries and the inviolable sanctity of the Faery monarchy!”

  Wild applause carried on for several minutes. Then it was Queen Gautelen’s turn to say a few words. Her voice was powerful and carried easily across the grounds.

  “Today you swear allegiance to your King and thus to me, his Queen. You expect that I will make humble thanks for your welcome and express my admiration for the Faeries and my joy at being made your Queen. But I will disappoint you, for my loyalty and my gratitude and my admiration are spoken for already, by my own people. I have been married one year now, but still this King of yours has not fulfilled his promises to me.”

  The King did not immediately register what she was saying. Then his face went white with fury and he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back sharply. Gautelen shouted out the rest while struggling free of his grasp. “Now I demand publicly that his part of our bargain be discharged! A Kingship, recognized by the Faeries, must be given to my father, the wizard of Lil. Immortality must be granted to the Storm Seamstresses of Shol. My people are to be given the protection of the Faery Guard against any outside threat. I am your Queen and I –”

  The King pinned her arms behind her back and hissed a single word in her ear. She fell silent but her look was triumphant. She had said enough. There was an awful hush throughout the courtyard. Nobody dared to make a sound. The King looked out over the crowd, his expression part anger, part incredulity. Emyr, the First Advisor, stepped forward with a slight bow and murmured something in his ear. The King nodded, appearing relieved, and Emyr spoke.