The Third God sdotc-3

by Ricardo Pinto

  ‘I will talk to them, but not until I know more.’

  Her expression softened. ‘Do you want me to go and do what I can to keep them calm?’

  Carnelian shook his head. ‘It’s not safe for you to move through the tower alone. Besides, you would have to go through the stables.’

  She paled, for she knew what was down there.

  ‘Can you please just stay here?’

  When she nodded, he took his leave of them both and, making sure they could not be seen from the hallway, he slipped out. He stood for some moments, his back to the door, telling himself she would be safe, then he advanced on the ladder that led to the roof.

  Aurum was seated with his back to the heliograph, recovering from the ordeal of his climb. Carnelian moved to the edge of the platform and gazed down into the mass of Marula camped at the foot of the tower. In their midst stood the twenty or so black-robed Masters: Aurum’s Lesser Chosen commanders. Carnelian felt as if he had left his heart behind in the cell with Poppy. He feared he might stray into betraying not only her, but also the Lepers and the Plainsmen, by dealing with the monster, Aurum. And it would be not only the living he betrayed, but also the dead.

  Below, Osidian’s dragons were manoeuvring into their positions in the circular rampart they made every night, facing out towards the land. Beyond lay the grey mass of the Lepers huddling down, as the waves of dust beat upon them from the passage of Aurum’s dragons on a course to somewhere beyond the cisterns.

  When Osidian climbed onto the edge of the platform, he dismissed the lookouts from their deadman’s chairs. As he advanced on Carnelian and Aurum, the lookouts clambered down out of sight.

  Aurum, who had risen, bowed as deeply as he could, pulling himself back erect with the help of his staff. ‘Celestial.’

  Though the old man was the taller, it was Osidian who seemed to loom, a black tower crowned by the muted sun of his mask. He reached up and began unfastening it. Masking Law dictated Carnelian and Aurum must do the same. When Carnelian’s face was naked, he watched Aurum attempting to remove his mask one-handed. The bony hand he had ungloved fumbled at the fastening. The joints of his fingers were swollen red. Watching the procedure, Carnelian had to resist an impulse to help him.

  As the gold shell came away, Carnelian stared in horror at Aurum’s face. For a moment it seemed that of one of the Wise looking back at them. Aurum’s wizened, sallow skin looked hardly thick enough to stop his skull tearing out. Cheekbones, chin, the rims of his eye sockets were all a geometry of blades. His lips revealed the pattern of the teeth behind. His eyes, blue ice sunk deep. Ice that had a blinding bloom of frost.

  ‘Why, my Lord, do you defect to me?’

  Carnelian did not turn to Osidian, but kept his gaze upon Aurum’s withered face. He remembered how once it had been cracked like a fine porcelain glaze. Now the cracks had deepened, uniting around the mouth and eyes into fissures resembling those that cut into the margin of the Guarded Land.

  ‘Celestial, I would speak to you alone.’

  Rage rose in Carnelian. Once before he had been excluded from hearing what Aurum had come to say.

  ‘Lord Suth will remain here,’ said Osidian.

  Aurum gave a muted shrug. ‘I have come, Celestial, so that together we can defeat the Ichorian.’

  Shock overturned Osidian’s composure. ‘The Ichorian?’

  ‘Even now it is only days away from here under Imago’s command.’

  ‘Jaspar?’ Carnelian said.

  Osidian’s head cocked to one side as he frowned. ‘Osrakum is undefended?’

  ‘Apparently, the Great have chosen to garrison the Gates with their tyadra.’

  Carnelian imagined his brothers at the Gates with all the other guardsmen of the Great. What part had his father played in these events?

  Osidian’s face pulled back into the shadow of his cowl. ‘How came the Clave to sanction this?’

  Aurum began some vague gesture with his clawed hand. ‘Of course, Celestial, I did not witness their deliberations, but I believe Imago had been urging them to send the Ichorian against you for some time. His thesis seems to have been that, the Lesser Chosen having witnessed your election, the Great dare not trust to them any force dispatched to defeat you.’

  Osidian’s frown deepened.

  ‘It will not surprise you, Celestial, to hear that the Clave long resisted him. Until, that was, the commanders of Qunoth were brought before them with the forbearance of the Imperial Power. There they claimed you had issued an edict enfranchising all their kind.’

  Carnelian went cold. Was it, then, the act of mercy he had urged upon Osidian that had brought this thing about? He glanced at him, expecting to be accused, but Osidian’s eyes seemed more opaque than Aurum’s. Carnelian felt a need to put fire into their discussion. ‘I had believed Imago’s faction to be weak in the Clave, but if I understand you rightly, my Lord, they have made him He-who-goes-before.’

  Carnelian half expected the old Master to ignore him again, but Aurum turned and seemed almost eager to answer him. ‘He had the support of Ykoriana.’

  ‘He has had that before and it was not enough.’

  ‘He did not before have use of her rings.’

  Carnelian frowned, trying to make sense of this. Aurum was speaking of her voting rings. Surely these could not be used in the Clave?

  ‘She married Imago?’

  Carnelian heard the disbelief in Osidian’s voice, but his face was lit by shock.

  The membranes of Aurum’s lips slid back over his yellowed teeth. ‘Indeed, Celestial, after she had divorced the God Emperor.’

  Carnelian looked from the old man to Osidian, but there were no answers there. He turned back to Aurum. ‘Does she fear Osidian so much?’

  Before Aurum could answer, Osidian spoke. ‘Why would the Wise reveal that I had survived to my mother?’

  The answer to this at first seemed clear to Carnelian: it was the arrival of the Qunoth commanders that had betrayed Osidian’s existence. But then Carnelian recalled that Aurum had claimed the Clave had already been discussing the situation for some time. He followed Osidian’s glare to Aurum’s face. The flame of life in the old man seemed to gutter. For a moment he might have been a Sapient wearing eyes of unpolished sapphire.

  ‘It was the God Emperor who informed her, but it was I who had sent Them a letter.’

  Osidian snorted.

  Aurum came back to life. ‘I will make no apologies, Celestial. After Legions’ schemes failed, I was left in an untenable position. The letter was the regrettable conclusion of calculation.’

  Osidian’s lips curled. ‘I had not assumed you joined me from love. What further calculation is it that brings you here, my Lord? Is it possible you believe that I will triumph?’

  Though Osidian’s stance and tone were communicating contempt, Carnelian knew him well enough to feel certain there was something else underneath. It made him sad. His heart told him Osidian really was hoping the reasons the old monster had come were love and faith in him.

  Aurum had a predatory gleam in his eyes. Detecting Osidian’s weakness, he was devising a way to exploit it. Carnelian sought to cut him off. ‘We know that cannot be why you have come, my Lord. It is some far more squalid motive that impels you.’

  Aurum looked as if he was about to spit venom, but then his face became again an icy mask. ‘Suth Carnelian is correct. It is inconceivable you will triumph, Celestial.’

  ‘So why have you come, Aurum?’ Osidian said, rallying.

  Aurum’s free hand sketched an elegant gesture, but his face grew brittle with malice. ‘I have harboured contempt for those of my peers who saw fit to bow to the Empress and the Wise and conspired with them to send me into exile, but that is nothing to the disgust I now feel that they have become so subservient as to send the Ichorian from the canyon. All my life I have striven to maintain our ancient privileges against the encroachment of the other Powers.’ His hand curled into talons. ‘But I have lost my fait
h in the Great and what I now do I do for my own advantage. I come here because I have made a compact with the Wise.’

  Osidian sneered at the old man. ‘Your speech is filled with patrician pride, my Lord Aurum, but your long service to the Wise makes it clear that your House would be more comfortable among the Lesser Chosen.’

  Some colour oozed into Aurum’s deathly face. ‘I would have thought my Lord would understand how circumstances can conspire to force one into unwanted alliances. I can see in your face how low you have fallen and I already knew what squalid accommodations you have had to stomach.’

  Carnelian stepped between them. ‘My Lords, we have all suffered humiliations, but what shall it profit us to cast these in each other’s faces?

  He was glad to see their composure returning. Aurum made a vague gesture of apology. ‘The Lord Suth is not in error. We have the same enemies and have both been the playthings of the Wise. You have no doubt encountered Grand Sapient Legions?’

  Carnelian sensed the old Master was returning to his sly game.

  ‘It was he who forced me to make an appearance of defending Makar. He assured me it would bring you into his power.’ Aurum’s taloned fingers closed into a fist.

  Osidian shrugged and, though he spoke offhandedly, Carnelian felt he was watching Aurum carefully. ‘It was we who took him. Even now he dreams here beneath our feet.’

  Though the old Master appeared uninterested in this, he could not help glancing down as if he might see the Grand Sapient through the watch-tower roof. ‘When he sent me no signal, I guessed he had failed. It was that which made me reconsider my position. I decided it was perilous to continue my alliance with the Wise. In my dealings with them, I had come to suspect that, behind the adamantine unity they present to us, there lie fractures. Though Legions had been for a long time dominant among the Twelve, there were other factions. With him out of contact, who knew what would happen? Certainly, I did not wish to fall victim to their calculations. I risked everything in a direct appeal to the God Emperor.’

  ‘You were a fool to put your trust in my brother. He has always been my mother’s creature. Though I confess to some surprise that being made the Gods has not put iron in his backbone.’

  Aurum nodded. ‘We both have reasons to hate your mother, but not only her. You must be aware of the part Imago played in your abduction.’ The Master glanced at Osidian, perhaps hoping that this was news to him. ‘Though you suffered most from that, Celestial, I too suffered. When your brother cheated you of the Masks, I too was cheated who had risked so much in your cause. Remember, Celestial, that both of us have suffered exile.’ He glanced at Osidian again, but he seemed impassive. ‘So, Celestial, even if only for these reasons, we might both enjoy destroying Imago.’

  Osidian smiled coldly. ‘I can see, my Lord, why you have had need to once more become the tool of the Wise, but you have not yet explained to me why I should share that choice.’

  Aurum grew very still, giving Carnelian the feeling that they were finally coming to the core of his intention. ‘Celestial, even if you did not wish to pull Imago down and, through him, your mother; even if you cared nothing for the way she is subverting the Balance; still you would have no choice.’

  Osidian groaned. ‘Was it the Wise who told you that?’

  ‘Grand Sapient Lands who is now regnant among the Twelve has informed me of his conviction that we can defeat Imago. He bade me tell you that, for all its fearsome reputation, the Ichorian is more accustomed to ceremonial than it is to war. Our two legions of the line would already be more warlike than the Ichorian, but have, besides, the unique experience of having confronted huimur against huimur.’

  ‘I deny none of this, my Lord, but why am I bound to fight?’

  ‘Because, Celestial, it is the only chance you have. You have reached the zenith of your stolen power. If you retreat, your strength will ebb. Defeat will become inevitable.’

  Carnelian looked to Osidian, willing him to deny this, but he seemed peculiarly inert. Carnelian turned his attention back to Aurum. He desired to dull the predacious gleam in his eyes. ‘Why was it that you, my Lord, sharing all my father’s crimes, should be merely exiled, while he was deposed?’

  It took some moments for the Master to disengage his eyes from Osidian. When he turned to Carnelian he seemed to be thinking of something else. He frowned as if he was hearing Carnelian’s question again, but could not understand it. Then, before he could mask it, a sly expression flitted across his skull face.

  Osidian drew the Master’s attention away. ‘My Lord, how far is Imago from here?’

  Aurum shrugged. ‘Two days ago I received communication from him claiming he was in Magayon. I know his courier took two more days to locate me. All in all it would surprise me if he was here within anything less than seven days.’

  ‘He could be here in half that if he marched night and day,’ said Carnelian.

  Aurum shook his head. ‘I believe my Lord Imago will be feeling too confident to incommode himself with night marches.’

  Nodding, Osidian withdrew into himself. Carnelian watched Aurum watching him. At last the old man spoke. ‘I am weary, Celestial. With your leave…?’

  Osidian seemed to wake. ‘I have had a cell prepared for you below.’

  Aurum frowned. ‘I would rather return to my huimur tower.’ His free hand began to make a sign, then stopped. He looked anxious, worn out. ‘I have had it modified for my use. It has been my home for so long.’

  Osidian regarded him with a frown. ‘Very well. We shall send a signal to your huimur and have it come here to berth alongside this watch-tower. I would not wish to submit my Lord to the inconvenience of having to cross the camp below. However, I will have to insist that once the creature arrives, all its crew should quit it.’

  As Aurum and Osidian negotiated over how many of his household he would be allowed to retain, Carnelian sighed with relief that they were not going to have to share their watch-tower with the old monster.

  Carnelian stood with Osidian at the edge of the platform watching Aurum’s dragon lumbering towards them. They had summoned it with a signal from the heliograph, using the last rays of the sinking sun. Its lurid disc was forcing Carnelian to squint in spite of the mask he was holding up before his face. Aurum had already begun his painful descent to the leftway. Carnelian reassured himself that Poppy was safe in their cell, then he took a step away from the edge so that he could allow his mask to drop. For a while Osidian did not react. Something about his stillness made Carnelian uneasy. ‘Osidian?’

  He still did not move.

  ‘We need to talk, my Lord.’

  At last, he turned. As his mask fell away, his face was revealed. Carnelian’s heart faltered. Such sadness. ‘What ails you?’

  ‘Have you not heard enough to know?’

  ‘I thought you wanted this.’

  Osidian gave a humourless chuckle. ‘Oh, no, not this.’

  ‘Can we even be sure he tells the truth? We only have his word that Jaspar is marching here. Perhaps it is another ruse to take you alive.’

  Osidian shook his head slowly. Carnelian wondered at his fatalistic certainty. ‘And you would trust him enough to have him fight at our side?’

  ‘He is as trapped as are we.’

  Carnelian gazed out over their camp, all washed with gold. Beyond their dragon wall, the Lepers. They would never accept fighting alongside their most hated enemy. ‘How can we ally ourselves with him?’

  ‘How can we not? Can you provide me with another legion, Carnelian? Shall we fight the more than fifty huimur of the Ichorian with but two dozen of our own?’

  Carnelian struggled to find reasons other than the hatred of the Lepers or his own revulsion. ‘If we must use his huimur, can we not strip him of his command?’

  Osidian shook his head and seemed to be seeing someone else before him. ‘There is no time to train their crews to operate without their commanders. We might be able to control the legion through them, b
ut the last time we tried it, you may remember it was not a great success. They are accustomed to taking orders from Aurum. He has been their Legate for years and, as far as they know, has been appointed by the God Emperor.’

  Such logic was unassailable. Carnelian felt cornered. ‘Why fight the battle at all?’

  Osidian frowning, staring blindly, gave Carnelian hope he was considering an alternative. ‘We could retreat back to Qunoth, or down to the Leper Valleys. The longer we deny Jaspar victory, the more time there is for the political situation in Osrakum to destabilize further.’

  Light came back into Osidian’s eyes, as if he had climbed up out of darkness. ‘If Imago secures anything approaching a victory, then not only he but also my mother shall conquer… everything. What would remain to stop her pursuing the Wise for their plotting against her? What was left of the Balance would shatter in her hand. Her power would become absolute.’

  ‘Only in Osrakum,’ said Carnelian. ‘It is the only world that she cares about.’

  ‘Can you be sure of that?’

  Carnelian realized he could not. Apart from himself, or his father perhaps, every Master he had met was so dazzled by Osrakum that, in comparison, the outer world appeared a colourless miasma. Nevertheless, it was likely he and Osidian had drawn Ykoriana’s gaze out past the Sacred Wall. Even if they were delivered to her, could he be certain she would not vent her bile on the subject peoples? Though he might hate the world as it was, how could he be sure the world remade would not be worse?

  Osidian interrupted his thoughts. ‘Even were we to adopt this strategy, it could not hope to work. Wherever we went, the rope would tighten around our throats. We would quickly run out of supplies, without which the huimur would soon lose their strength, their fire. What other forces we had would melt away.’

  Osidian shook his head, sadness ageing him. ‘What power we have now, we must use or let it wither in our hand. The Wise have us in a trap I can see no way to escape.’

  Desperation made Carnelian irritable. ‘Surely it is the Empress who has ensnared us?’

  Osidian shook his head again. ‘It is possible she is as ensnared as we are.’