‘Our plan is not without risk,’ said Thaulinin. ‘Countless travellers have met their deaths in the Nine Peaks. It is even possible that Macadra has set watchers upon the high road after all. If so we must fight and kill them, and let none escape to sound the alarm. We will also, of course, bear the danger of the Nilstone.’
‘That danger at least we have tried to reduce,’ said Hercól. ‘Go ahead, Sunderling: tell us of your work.’
Big Skip nodded. ‘Time was, the Stone was encased in explosive glass, you know, and the glass embedded in the Red Wolf. Not very practical for travelling. Still, we don’t want any accidents – not when one little touch can kill a man. So Bolutu and I got to talking with the selk, and in the end we gave the Stone a new, thick skin of glass. Selk glass, made from sand drawn from the bottom of that dark lake of theirs. It quiets the Stone down, you might say. You can touch it, although it still burns like a potato fresh from the oven. So we’ve fashioned a box for the Nilstone as well, out of solid steel. The top half screws down and locks against the bottom – and nothing short of Rin’s own hammer and tongs will get to it—’ Skip held up a heavy key ‘—without this.’
‘Needless to say,’ added Bolutu, ‘the key and the Nilstone will be carried separately.’
‘Always,’ said Big Skip, ‘and just in case we need to take the Stone out of the box, the selk blacksmiths gave us a a pair of their own gauntlets. I lifted the Stone myself, wearing ’em. It wasn’t pleasant, but it didn’t kill me either.’
‘That is fine work,’ said Hercól, ‘but let us return to the journey itself, now.’
‘I shall be your guide in the mountains,’ said Thaulinin, ‘and if the stars are willing, I will see you all the way to the Ilidron Coves. There we have a secret harbour, a place of last flight, which long ago we prepared against the day when the selk might be forced to flee like hunted game. The world has changed since we hid those vessels; there are no more selk homelands to be reached by sea. And yet one ship remains: the Promise we call her. She is too small to brave the fury of the Nelluroq, but she can bring you to a rendezvous with the Chathrand, if the latter still awaits you.’
‘And if the Empire’s warships do not sink us first,’ said Cayer Vispek.
‘Five years ago, escape from Ilidron would have been unthinkable,’ said Lord Arim, ‘but today the door stands open a crack. In the Platazcra madness, Bali Adro has slain Bali Adro, and most of her remaining ships have been sent east in the armada, to face the delusional threat from Karysk. Of course terrible forces remain, especially the Floating Fortresses along the Sandwall, but the little Promise may slip away unseen, if only you can reach her.’
‘Lord Arim, how can you give us your escape vessel?’ asked Thasha in distress. ‘Even if your homelands are gone, you might need to flee somewhere.’
Lord Arim shook his head. ‘Not over the waves – not that way, ever again. Nor can we go on risking the lives of those who guard the Promise away in the west. Bali Adro’s star grows dim, Thasha Isiq, but the assault on this peninsula has just begun. New people are coming: refugees from the war, and from the doomed cities of the Imperial heartland. Rogue armies, splinters of the great legions, warlords for whom the only rule is plunder. They will come afoot, or creeping along the shoreline in anything that floats. I cannot say if they will penetrate these inner mountains, but before the tide turns they will almost certainly devour the coast. Our harbour has waited many centuries, but it will not be a secret much longer.’
‘Yet today we still depend on secrecy – and perfect secrecy at that,’ said Ramachni. ‘Macadra cannot guard every port and cove in the Peninsula, but should she learn the path we have taken, she will throw more enemies at us than we can possibly defeat.’
‘We must be nimble and swift,’ said Thaulinin. ‘Just ten selk warriors will accompany us, and we shall all wear white, the better to hide against the snow. We also have some plans for Macadra’s forces. Even now, bands of selk are leaving Uláramyth by several roads. They will try to draw the enemy astray. Nólcindar herself left three days ago, to see what trouble she might stir along the banks of the Ansyndra. If the Ravens and their sometimes-servants the hrathmogs come to blows, so much the better.’
‘My two sons are with her,’ said Valgrif. ‘If their work goes well they may even join us on the Nine Peaks Road.’
‘Us?’ said Myett, looking startled. ‘Then you are going too, Valgrif?’
‘As far as the low country, little sister,’ he said. ‘But I must turn back when I smell salt in the air, for I was born with blood-terror of the sea.’
Then a wolf appeared at the stone gate atop the stairs, holding a leather pouch in his teeth. ‘Ah,’ said Lord Arim, ‘here is something I put aside a long time ago, for just such an expedition.’
The wolf descended, and Arim took the pouch and opened it upon the table. Pazel jumped. Within the pouch were a dozen or more scarlet beetles, dry and dead, each one the size of a mussel shell. ‘Zudikrin,’ said Arim, ‘fire beetles from the deep caves under Uláramyth. You must each carry one in your coat, and guard it well. It is a last defence against freezing.’
‘Zudikrin make dangerous gifts, Lord Arim,’ said Thaulinin.
‘So they are,’ said the elder. ‘Use them only in the face of death: if the cold is winning, and your life ebbing away. If that time should come, bite down on the insect, break the carapace – and spit the beetle out. You will be warmed, I promise you.
‘Now,’ Arim went on, ‘there is a custom we must observe. If you would honour your time here, then honour this custom too, even if you cannot see its worth. The matter is simple: for thousands of years we have tried to make a haven of this place. When any living soul comes here in friendship, we name that one a citizen. And we recognize no one’s right to force that citizen to leave, for any cause whatsoever. Therefore I must ask if any one of you feels bound in your heart to remain here and abandon the quest. Silence, silence! Remember my entreaty! And remember too that every trial and hardship you left behind in this vale may come again in the outer world. Fear no shame or censure. Only if you would stay here, for a week or a year, or to the end of your short life, bid your comrades farewell upon this terrace, in the sight of all.’
His words left a silence. Thasha glanced in wonder about the table. It was a strange custom, but a noble one perhaps. All the same it was rather unthinkable that—
‘I will stay,’ said Myett.
There were loud cries. Ensyl, grief-stricken, began to shout in the ixchel tongue the humans could not hear. Arim raised his hands high.
‘No more! The choice is hers alone, and it is for no one to gainsay.’
‘May I speak, my lord?’ asked Myett.
‘If such is your wish,’ said Arim sternly, ‘but you who listen must do so in silence: that is my command, and I will not repeat it.’
Myett looked at her companions with a kind of misery. ‘I would stay, first because I found so few ways to be of use to this expedition. I am not as strong or swift as Ensyl. I can fight, but I was never trained like her, as a battle-dancer. I have been a burden, a thing to be carried, more often than a help. And I would stay because nothing awaits me in the North but solitude. Even if we somehow found the ship, the clan will not have me back. Even if we reach Stath Bálfyr, and find it still a homeland for the ixchel, Lord Talag will poison my name.’
How can you be so certain? Thasha wanted to scream.
Now Myett dropped her eyes, as though too shamed to look at them. ‘On the Chathrand I tried to take my own life,’ she said. ‘I almost succeeded. Since then I have tried to be stronger, to turn my eyes to the sun. But I was failing. I could feel the sadness closing over me again like black water. Until I came here.’
She’s not acting on impulse, Thasha realised. She’s been thinking this over a long time.
‘That is all,’ said Myett, ‘save that—’ She made a gesture of confusion. ‘Lord Taliktrum. He abandoned me without a thought, without even a spiteful go
odbye. If I am to live I must forget that. Please try to forgive me, Ensyl. You will be the last of our people I shall ever see. I will live among the wolves, if they will have me. I do not think I can forget anywhere but here.’
Now Myett forced herself to look each of her comrades in the eyes. ‘You will be stronger without me,’ she said. ‘Farewell.’
‘Come, sister,’ said one of the wolves. Myett leaped to his back. In three bounds the wolf ascended the stair and vanished through the gate. Once again that morning Thasha found herself fighting tears.
‘Guard her spirit if you can, Lord Arim,’ said Ramachni. ‘Your realm’s power is very great, but I do not know if it will pierce the darkness within her.’
‘She will be cared for,’ said the selk, ‘and now we must conclude the business of this council, and you must return to Thehel Urred and rest. Would any of you speak?’
‘Yes,’ said Cayer Vispek. ‘I wish to know if Macadra herself is patrolling the seas off this peninsula.’
‘That we cannot know, without some sighting of her,’ said Thaulinin, ‘but we have told you already that with stealth we hope to reach the Sandwall unmolested. The Island Wilderness beyond is uncharted by the dlömu, but we selk still recall the way to Stath Bálfyr.’
‘And that is priceless knowledge,’ said Ramachni, ‘and our best chance of catching the Chathrand before she vanishes into the Ruling Sea. For while our friends on the Great Ship blunder about in search of that island, we will be sailing straight.’
Cayer Vispek laughed darkly. ‘Through what gauntlet we know not. After what carnage in the mountains we know not.’
Thasha glanced at him surreptitiously. What’s wrong with him today? Then she saw his eyes dart in Neda’s direction – and Neda look quickly away. Vispek’s part of it. Whatever’s happened to Neda is affecting him too.
‘Lord Arim,’ said Ensyl, still drying her eyes, ‘do my people truly reign on Stath Bálfyr? Do you know?’
‘It has been theirs since my father’s day,’ said Arim, ‘and that was before the first dlömic ships were built, when only selk went to sea, and the Bali Adro were a wild clan upon the Doámm Steppe. But two centuries have passed since any selk made landfall there. I cannot say who rules the island now.’
‘Let us go together and find out, Lady Ensyl.’
The voice came from the stone gate above them, and even before she placed it Thasha felt a thrill of recognition. Everyone rose; shouts of joy and wonder on their lips. Descending the staircase, escorted by four wolves and a joyous Sergeant Lunja, was a tall and beaming dlömic man.
‘Prince Olik! Prince Olik!’
Chairs were overturned in the rush to greet him. And Prince Olik Bali Adro laughed and spread his arms in delight.
‘How by all the roads of twilight did you find your way here?’
For some minutes the war-council collapsed into a joyous reunion. Olik had saved all their lives back in Masalym, and to most of the travellers he had become a cherished friend. He was leaner and harder-looking than Thasha recalled, but his eyes still held that hint of merriment she had first noticed on the deck of the Chathrand. A grey dog walked at his heels, looking as strong and weathered as the prince himself. Behind it, with somewhat less dignity, came Shilu, sniffing and prancing in delight.
‘Welcome, citizen-prince,’ said Lord Arim. ‘I have long been hoping you would return, for your last visit brought hope and song to the Vale, yet you departed in great haste. Do you remember what we were speaking of?’
‘Less well than you, alpurbehn,’ said Olik, ‘for that was twenty years ago. But I swear to you, that neither my first home nor the fairest estates of my family have I yearned for as I have this place. Alas, yearning alone cannot bring one back to Uláramyth. Perhaps nothing can save dire need.’ Then, noticing Ramachni, he said, ‘What is this, friends? You have lost a rat but gained a weasel.’
‘Mink,’ said Ramachni.
‘Mage,’ said Hercól. ‘Sire, this is our leader and our guiding star, Ramachni Fremken, whom the elders of the South call—’
‘Arpathwin?’
Thasha could scarcely believe it: Prince Olik had dropped to his knees. His voice had come out a whisper, and it was scarcely louder when he continued. ‘Arpathwin! You came to us when I was but a child. To our house, to our table, when my cousin the Emperor turned you away. But you were not a mink, in that time. You looked like a human man.’
‘That body perished,’ said Ramachni, ‘but yes, I recall. Your father was far more hospitable than the Emperor himself.’
‘And I was a brat, with no interest in the world beyond myself. But even I could sense that what you spoke of was of the gravest importance. Of course it was the rise of the Raven Society, and the danger it posed to all the South. If only we had heeded that warning!’
‘Your father understood me,’ said Ramachni, ‘but I think the shock of what I told him – the deep decay in the Bali Adro Empire, the lateness of the hour – was more than he could face. A pity: the world might indeed be a very different place today.’
‘But how did you find us, Sire?’
‘My only accomplishment has been to stay alive, and for that I am indebted to Nyrex here—’ he scratched the grey dog’s chin ‘—and to the selk who found us, lost in the forests of the lower Sarimayat.’
‘Your Highness!’ blurted Big Skip. ‘You helped us plan this expedition! How could you stay so blary quiet about wonderful Uláramyth?’
‘You great buffoon, Skip,’ said Bolutu, laughing. ‘It’s the rule of the house; you know that.’
‘Hmmph!’ said Skip. ‘Yes, I know. But one little whisper, in private like? It would have made things so much simpler.’
‘It would have made Uláramyth a wasteland, centuries ago, if that rule had been less than absolute,’ said the prince. ‘Yes, silence is the rule of the house, and the selk have many ways of enforcing it. I should like to think that honour sealed my lips, but there are other seals in place as well.’
He swept his gaze over them again. ‘So many fallen! Seven dlömic warriors, two of your Turach marines. And where is my faithful Ibjen?’
When they told him that the dlömic boy had vanished into the River of Shadows, Olik’s pain was clear to all. ‘He was a brave lad, with a clear-thinking mind; there are not many like him. In another time I would have sent him to university, or to Castle Buriav to become a Defender of the Realm. But I have broken up your meeting. Forgive this weary castaway, Lord Arim.’
‘It is for you to pardon us, for bringing you to a war-council within an hour of your arrival,’ said the old selk.
‘Even more to be regretted, Sire,’ said Hercól, ‘is that we must part with you on the morrow, for we dare not delay.’
Prince Olik sighed. ‘I do not doubt you, though it wounds my heart.’
‘We’ll be stronger just for having seen you, Prince,’ said Thasha. ‘If you can escape Macadra all alone, surely we can do it with Thaulinin’s help.’
‘You misunderstand me, lady,’ said Olik. ‘I will be going with you, and will share whatever fate is yours.’
Now there were more cries of joy and amazement. ‘Olik Ipandracon!’ said Thaulinin. ‘We could hope for no better addition to our party than yourself.’
‘But are you rested?’ asked Hercól with concern. ‘Are you ready for the trial of the mountains?’
‘I can fight, and I can march,’ said Olik, ‘but I must beg you to endure my melancholy. Twenty years have I dreamed of stepping once more within these mountain walls, and now I am fleeing them at once. Ah well! I must hope to return before another twenty passes, and I become too old and stiff to make the journey. But as for rest, that I do not want for.’
‘The selk kept His Highness in a safe house, a place like Sirafstöran Torr,’ said Lunja. ‘He was there for a week, until they found a way to come here unobserved.’
‘And then of course, I was carried,’ said the prince.
‘There are no safe houses on the
Nine Peaks Road,’ said Thaulinin. ‘Rested or not, you must all – but what is this?’
He was gazing at the staircase once more. There, abashed and until this moment unnoticed, stood Myett. Ensyl ran towards her, then stopped. The two women exchanged words that Thasha could not hear; then Ensyl leaped up the stairs and embraced her kinswoman.
‘The lady has changed her mind,’ said Prince Olik. ‘Indeed the words I brought her from Lord Taliktrum would change the mind of anyone whose heart still loved.’
‘But where is Taliktrum, Sire?’ asked Thasha.
Olik inclined his head. ‘Somewhere beyond our help,’ he said. ‘We parted on the banks of the Sarimayat, not two days out of Masalym. He told me he had a plan for survival should I be forced to flee downstream, but I never learned what it was.’
With his last remark the prince cast a pensive gaze over the assembly. Thasha looked at him, imagining his calculations, his doubts. A plan of survival, she thought. We left Masalym with one of those. And no one was hunting us then.
The council adjourned, and for the first time since their arrival the entire party returned as a group to the house in Thehel Urred. Thasha realised that she had begun to love it, in the same way that she had come to love the stateroom on the Great Ship: for an exile nothing is more seductive than the idea of home. ‘All these books,’ said Pazel, gazing at the glass cases with longing, ‘I barely touched them.’
‘We barely touched Uláramyth,’ said Hercól. ‘I could read this country for a lifetime and never tire. But that is not our fate.’
Then he bent low beside Myett, and offered his hand like a platform. When she stood upon it he raised her to the level of his eyes.
‘Never hide your darkness from us, sister,’ he said. ‘We will meet it with whatever light we can. There is no shame in sadness. But also, there is no sadness that may claim us as its rightful prey. This lesson I myself struggle to remember. We dwell in pain, and journey from loss to loss, but there is also love and wonder about us, and bright sunlight on the peaks. For today I am merely glad that you choose to carry on at our side.’
The Night of the Swarm (Chathrand Voyage 4) Page 40