by Evie Manieri
‘Come on.’ Faroth grabbed her hand and pulled her down the beach with him, but they had not gone far before Binit appeared, shouldering his way towards them. As soon as he saw Faroth he announced wildly, ‘Here he is, Faroth! We’ve got him!’ Just behind Binit came Daryan, flanked by the rest of Faroth’s crew, with Omir and some of the others from the temple following closely at their heels. But Dramash was not with them.
‘Harotha! Here you are, thank the gods! I was looking all over for you!’ Daryan cried out the moment he saw her. He brushed past Faroth and rushed towards her with his arms outstretched.
Faroth stepped out in front of her. ‘Where’s my son?’
‘Safe,’ he answered, dropping his arms. ‘He’s safe. We got him away from the White Wolf. But he’s not here.’
She groaned softly. Faroth was right: she should have never trusted Daryan; she never should have let Dramash out of her sight. She’d been such a fool.
‘Then where is he?’ Faroth snarled.
Daryan’s eyes hardened. ‘I can’t tell you that.’
‘Give me my son!’ Faroth screamed, and lunged at Daryan in pure blind rage. Omir caught his fist in one of his huge hands and cocked his other arm menacingly. Faroth’s friends tried to pull him back, but he kept on shouting, ‘Curse you, you have no right – he’s my son! I know what you’re trying to do – I see what you are!’
‘That’s enough.’ Daryan’s smoke-darkened voice roared out over the sound of the surf and the murmuring crowd hushed instantly. Faroth’s wrathful glare did not change, but behind it Harotha saw that same strange, dangerous look she had seen a few moments ago.
‘Let him go, Omir,’ Daryan commanded, without taking his eyes from Faroth. Omir hesitated a moment, but then let go of Faroth’s hand. Faroth dropped his arms to his sides and she found herself staring at her brother’s hands, reliving the memory of them pressed around her throat. ‘For the gods’ sake, Faroth, is the White Wolf not enough of an enemy for you that you have to fight me, too?’ he asked rhetorically. He turned a reproachful eye on the rest of the company. ‘Dramash is safe; that’s all I’m going to tell you right now. Now, I have good information that the White Wolf won’t do anything else until sundown tomorrow – we’ve bought ourselves one day. I’m going to get some rest; my head feels like there’s a swarm of bees living in it. Faroth, you keep charge of your own people in the city. Omir, I want you to look after the temple slaves. We’ll all meet at midday, at the palace, and I’ll explain everything. All right? Now, go!’
Faroth held Daryan’s gaze for another moment, his lips pressed together in a thin, hard line. Then he turned without a word and joined the others as they headed back up the beach towards the city. His followers went with him, as silent and stone-faced as their leader.
‘He’s not going to leave it at that,’ Omir commented darkly.
‘I know,’ Daryan sighed. ‘Well, we’ll deal with him when we need to. You should get some rest too, Omir. You must be exhausted.’ He turned to Harotha. ‘What about you, are you all right? You look terrible.’
She didn’t trust her voice enough to speak, but she nodded.
‘Come on, dear,’ he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and turning her towards the water.
‘Daimon, you should have something to eat. We’ll bring you—’ began Omir, but Daryan waved him away.
‘Thanks, Omir, but I’ll take care of that. Don’t let anyone disturb us, all right? I want some time alone with my wife. I’m sure you understand.’ She felt a little pinch on her arm as he made that last remark, and with a shock she realised he was actually teasing her.
A few others among the crowd had hung back, eager for a chance to see or speak to their daimon, but Omir shooed them away.
Daryan led her down towards the water, and in a few moments they were alone. She could see the long white crests of the waves as they crashed down and then ran foaming up the smooth stretch of wet sand towards them. The tide was high, but it had already turned. He brought her around to a little dry hollow on the far side of the rocks, protected from the spray by a jutting outcrop.
‘Holy hells, what a night.’ He exhaled deeply, then dropped down onto the sand and let his back fall against the rock. He stared up at the dark sky. ‘There’s so much space out here. It feels strange, like my eyes don’t quite know how to focus.’ He reached up and ran his fingers along the stone beside him. ‘Odd to think I used to play here with my friends when I was a little boy. I don’t remember it, really. Only the smell. Isn’t it strange how sometimes you can remember a scent more clearly than anything else?’
‘Daryan,’ said Harotha, ‘where is Dramash?’
The moon was behind the rock, shadowing his face. She could not read his expression. ‘You won’t like it, but it’s too late now, anyway. There’s nothing either of us can do about it.’
‘Daryan!’
He sighed. ‘All right. Dramash is still with Rho – in the temple.’
She felt the blood drain from her face. ‘You—’
‘Listen,’ he interrupted roughly, ‘we need allies. We can’t fight Frea alone, or we won’t fare any better against the Dead Ones than our parents did. Rho and I came up with a plan. He’s going to lure Frea and her men out of the stables. Wait—’ He held up his hand as she tried to interrupt. ‘He’s going to let Frea find out that we’re escaping. He’s sure she’ll abandon the stables to chase after Dramash.’
‘But then she can follow us down the stairs.’
‘No, no, I was the last one down. Dramash has already closed them. And Rho shut the secret door, so Frea won’t even know we were ever there.’ He paused to yawn. ‘She knows about the secret room, but Shairav always kept the steps hidden. She won’t even know where to start looking.’
‘You can’t be sure of that.’
He frowned at her comment, but continued without addressing it. ‘It will take hours for her to search the temple, and when she finally gives up and goes back to the stables, she won’t be able to get in. All of the entrances will be blocked.’
‘Because Dramash will have caved them in.’
‘That’s right. As soon as the triffons come back, Rho, Dramash and the rest of them will leave. They’ll be long gone before Frea digs her way back in.’
‘What about the Mongrel? Where is she in all this?’
‘I don’t know. I can’t worry about her right now.’
‘That’s your plan?’ she asked, making no attempt to hide her consternation. ‘Not only do you give Dramash to the Dead Ones, but you make it possible for them to get him out of the temple?’
‘To join us at the cave, the one you found,’ he insisted. ‘We’re to meet Eofar and Isa and Rho there, and then go to the palace together. Rho will make a show of returning Dramash to his family – that should be enough to convince everyone that we can trust him.’
‘Listen to what you’re saying! You’ve put our fate in the hands of Frea’s lover! Daryan, you can’t possibly be this naïve. Can’t you see how he’s tricked you? Who knows what he’s really going to do with Dramash, or what he might force him to do?’
‘No, you’re wrong. Rho is on our side. He saved my life – I trust him.’
‘He’s a Dead One!’
‘So is Eofar.’
He said it quite calmly, but it hit her with the blunt force of a fist. ‘That’s different.’
‘No, it’s not,’ he said, ‘it’s exactly the same, and I think you know it.’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘Come on, Harotha. Why aren’t you with Eofar right now, somewhere very far away from here?’ He sat forward and his dark eyes, black in the shadows, held an unexpected challenge. ‘It’s because you don’t really trust him. Hell, I don’t think you’ve ever trusted anyone in your life except yourself. I know you’ve never trusted me.’ He sat back again. ‘Eofar really loves you, Harotha. Believe me, I’m lucky he didn’t murder me after that lie you told him about us. He may be a Dea
d One, but he’s a good man, and he’s my friend. All he wants is to be with you, but you keep pushing him away. I wish you wouldn’t do that to him. He deserves better.’
When she didn’t respond, he stood up and came slowly towards her, but she shrank back.
‘Gods, are you crying? I never thought— I’ve never seen you cry before.’
‘No. I don’t cry.’ Ashamed, she scrubbed at her cheeks with both hands, but he caught her wrists.
‘No, no, don’t do that. Go ahead and cry. Come over here and sit down.’ She allowed him to lead her over to the little hollow in the rock, where there was just enough room for the two of them to sit together side by side. The sand was soft and deep, but it was cool and she shivered.
He put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s get some sleep,’ he suggested, and then he yawned long and loud. ‘It’s a long walk to that cave. Someday you’ll have to tell me how you found it in the first place.’
She leaned forward and reached around her belly, drawing her knees up so that she could massage her swollen ankles. His head nestled against her shoulder. ‘Listen, don’t fall asleep yet,’ she told him urgently. To her surprise she realised she had unconsciously made a decision she had not even known she was considering. ‘There’s more you need to know. I took the elixir, Daryan – the things I saw …’
She wove through the narrative of her visions, censoring nothing, and he listened without interrupting.
When she finally finished, he said thoughtfully, ‘Then you were right, getting Dramash back was more important than fighting Frea. I’m glad you ignored me. Thank the gods my stupid stunt with the fire actually helped you. I just couldn’t think of any other way to distract her so that Isa and Eofar could get out. So you and the ashas did stop it, in the end. They didn’t die for nothing.’
‘It’s not over yet. We still have to keep Dramash away from the White Wolf. We can only hope that Rho lives up to the trust you’ve placed in him.’
‘Yes, well, let’s leave that for tomorrow. I’ll die if I don’t get some sleep. And we’ve got that long walk in the morning.’ He nestled more comfortably against her, and she found herself taking a surprising amount of comfort in the solid feel of his body and the rhythm of his slow, sleepy breathing. Just before they both fell asleep, he added drowsily, ‘I have a lot more to tell you on the way.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Once he was certain no one in the stables could see him, Rho leaned against the wall of the blocked tunnel and reached gingerly underneath his shirt, clenching his stomach muscles tight against the anticipated pain. As soon as he touched the swollen ridge he wanted to pull his hand back, but he forced himself to trace the whole length of the wound. The moisture he felt could have been perspiration – the cavern was still ridiculously hot, even with the fires out – but the throbbing and the feverish heat were harder to dismiss.
Dramash slid down against the opposite wall and laid his dirty cheek down against his knee. ‘I’m tired.’
‘Only one more,’ Rho reassured him, ‘but we have to wait.’
‘Why?’
‘We said we’d leave the last one open for King Jachad—’ He cut that explanation short; Dramash wasn’t likely to have forgotten the feel of the Mongrel’s knife at his throat, even if she had let him go without hurting him. ‘Some of our friends aren’t back yet,’ he said instead.
An alliance with the Mongrel was the last thing Rho wanted, but Falkar had dismissed his objections: the mercenary had aligned herself against Frea, and under the circumstances that was enough to make her an ally. Now she and Jachad were keeping Frea and her rebels busy in the tunnels while the loyalists, as Daem had facetiously dubbed them, secured the stables. When they returned, Jachad planned to take one of the triffons and rally his desert people to their cause.
‘And then we’re going home?’
‘When the triffons come back down.’
‘Are they back now?’
‘If they were—’ he began, but again he checked himself. ‘I’ll see. Stay right here.’
He hurried back out into the main cavern to assess the situation. Daem was keeping watch over the last open tunnel and Falkar was overseeing the furious effort to clear the stable floor and dissipate the remaining smoke.
He wanted to tell Falkar that one day this would all be over, that everything would go back to normal, but the wound in his side was sapping all of the energy he needed to lie. He headed back over to Dramash instead.
The ugly yellow flashes around Daem’s words were not a good sign.
Rho thought Dramash had fallen asleep, but when he got a little closer he saw the boy was watching him through bloodshot eyes.
‘You’re going to take me home?’ he asked again.
‘Yes.’
‘To my mama?’
The hilt of Fortune’s Blight scraped against the stone as Rho leaned against the wall. ‘To your father, after we meet some other people first.’
‘Maybe I shouldn’t go.’ Tears welled up suddenly in his round eyes. Rho didn’t really understand crying, but now he wondered if it was strange that the boy hadn’t cried before this. ‘He’s mad at me because I wanted to stay here. Can you take me to Mama instead?’
Rho could feel Daem’s presence sneaking in the background and he strained to keep his panic at bay; he could handle this, just keep talking about his father instead. ‘Your father’s not angry at you – he’s your father, he loves you and he wants you to come home.’
‘Why can’t I stay here and take care of the dereshadi like the White Wolf promised? She said Mama could come here and live with me.’
‘She was never really going to let you do that.’ He didn’t want to upset the boy any further, but he had to get him out of the temple. ‘She brought you here to do things for her.’
‘Bad things?’ he whispered.
‘Yes, bad things.’
Dramash put his head down again and said in a muffled voice, ‘Papa says all the Dead Ones are bad. He wants to hurt all of them, just like he hurt you.’
‘He has his reasons.’ What was taking that cursed Nomas so long?
‘Mama says it
’s wrong to hurt people.’
‘Sometimes you don’t have a choice,’ Rho ventured, but he knew that wasn’t the right answer. He tried again. ‘Sometimes people make mistakes.’
‘Are you going to punish him?’
‘No.’
‘But you’re a soldier.’
‘I would never hurt your father.’
‘Why not?’
For a moment he was at a loss, but when the answer came to him, and it was simpler than he had imagined. ‘Because I know you wouldn’t like it.’
A rush of air warmed his skin as the first triffon spiralled down from above and Dramash sprang up and ran towards it. At the same moment Daem called out, and Jachad, the Mongrel and a string of Norland soldiers came clattering down the narrow tunnel.
‘Come on, Dramash,’ Rho said. ‘Time to go.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
No one came forward as Jachad landed the triffon at the edge of the Nomas camp; an onlooker might have assumed that no one had noticed them, but he knew better. His people were watching, but keeping their distance, at least for the moment. He struggled out of the harness and slid awkwardly down the triffon’s shoulder onto the cold sand. Ah, the sand: he could have dropped to his knees and kissed the ground.
He waited by the beast’s foreleg while Meiran silently undid the buckles, one by one. They had not spoken a word to each other during the journey, or in the temple. She had acquiesced to Rho’s plan with a few terse affirmatives; that was it. He had not asked her to come with him to the desert, but she had vaulted up into the saddle behind him without a word.
And now here they were.
He scanned the vast tent city, the whole Nomas nation in a thousand or more bright dwellings, gathered here from every part of the world. It was past midnight and the children were long abed, no doubt exhausted from a giddy day of chasing each other around the site. The married couples had retired as well, eager to make up for the months they’d spent apart. The fires remaining were mostly tended by young people: girls lounging around one, boys at another, both groups coolly pretending not to notice each other. Jachad smiled nostalgically. Soon one of the girls would stand up and announce that she needed to stretch her legs; then one of the boys would do the same. And in a little while, in some dark spot, that boy would be drowning in the sea-scent of that girl’s hair, and the touch of her hands, and the warmth and softness of her body. How he envied such beautiful simplicity.