‘That wasn’t my intention,’ she replied. ‘I just—’ She faltered and looked down, annoyed as much as unsettled by the Seer’s close presence and menacing dark eyes.
‘You just what?’ Light persisted.
She lifted her eyes to meet his stern gaze. ‘I just think you’re afraid that a woman might be able to become a Seer.’
Light’s eyes widened, and then narrowed like a cat’s. ‘Little girl, no woman will ever be my equal. Not even your beloved Queen.’ He turned to Diamond. ‘Enough of this nonsense. Turn her out. Give the wretch back to her Queen and let’s have no more of her social experimentation. A woman can never be a Seer. Jarudha will not countenance such heresy!’
Diamond glanced at Onyx. Then, to Meg, he said, ‘Amber, you have made Jarudha’s most holy of sanctuaries unclean for all within it. Scriptural law calls for the cleansing of everything you’ve touched. In older times, it would also have led to a scourging for you—a public whipping—’
‘Except that I will not allow it.’ The intrusion of the Queen’s voice surprised everyone. She entered the room accompanied by three Elite Guards. She hugged Meg, and held her at arm’s length to ask, ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ Meg assured her.
The Queen turned to the Seers, and demanded, ‘Why wasn’t I called the moment this attack occurred?’
‘We were dealing with the matter,’ Light replied, before Diamond could answer, and he started for the chamber door.
‘I did not give you permission to leave,’ the Queen said.
Light stopped, and bowed slightly. ‘I’m not in the habit of asking for permission to serve Jarudha,’ he remarked, as he straightened up. ‘At least, not within His holy temple.’
‘Then you’d better revise your habits,’ the Queen said coolly, ‘because I’m no longer in the habit of countenancing insubordinate subjects.’
Light looked as if he was about to speak, but Diamond butted in. ‘Your Majesty, I’m sure Seer Light is apologetic for his abrupt comment. It’s just that your—protégé—has deliberately flouted the oldest conventions of our Order.’
‘Then he’ll understand how I feel,’ the Queen replied.
Light bowed his head. ‘With Your Majesty’s permission, I wish to see to other, more pressing matters.’
‘What about my necklet?’ Meg asked.
‘What necklet?’ Sunset inquired.
‘He still has it,’ Meg said, pointing to Light.
Light flushed with guilt. He raised his left hand and opened it. ‘This?’ he asked innocently.
‘Yes,’ said Meg.
Light tossed the amber to land at Meg’s feet. ‘My apologies. I thought I could throw better than that.’ Without awaiting the Queen’s response to his initial request, he turned and exited. Thankful for its return, Meg retrieved her necklet and slipped it over her head, tucking it inside her robe.
‘The robe belongs to us,’ said Diamond. ‘It will have to be burned, but you can’t leave with it.’
‘What about her old clothes?’ the Queen asked.
‘They were disposed of,’ Diamond explained. ‘Normally, once someone becomes an acolyte, there is no return to the old life.’
The Queen beckoned to a guard and gave him an order. As he withdrew, she said to Meg, ‘He’ll return with something for you to wear. I will wait for you in my private chamber. Come there immediately.’
‘Your Majesty?’ Diamond asked. ‘Before you leave, I would like a private audience.’
‘What about?’
Diamond flushed. ‘Your Majesty, the matter is private.’
‘Where?’
Diamond indicated for the Queen to follow him from the chamber, saying, ‘Onyx and Vale can see that matters are finalised here.’
Sunset sat opposite Meg. The Queen’s blonde hair shone in stark contrast to the dark tapestry hanging along the wall. ‘You are an enigma,’ she said. ‘What am I going to do with you?’
Meg didn’t know how to answer. Diamond had exposed everything, apparently—the attack, her healing, the pregnancy. The Seers had witnessed her abilities on two occasions, and yet they’d still thrown her out, charging her with being an abomination, a heresy against The Word of Jarudha. ‘Send me home,’ she said.
Sunset’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, that is the one thing I can’t do. Someone wants you dead. They’ve tried to kill you twice since your arrival. I’d hoped that sending you to the Seers was a way of giving you a chance to develop your astonishing talent and simultaneously keep you discreetly secure from your enemies. But not so. Whoever is behind these attempts is determined and can even get access into the Jarudhan temple. If I send you back to Summerbrook, you’ll never arrive there.’
‘The Seers thought the attack on me wasn’t really about me, but about them.’
The Queen smiled grimly. ‘They have a point—except you were the target.’ She rose from her chair. ‘Show me this precious necklet of yours again.’
Reluctantly, but knowing Sunset had already seen it, Meg withdrew the amber from under her tunic. It sparkled in the lamplight as she held it up. Sunset took it and let it spin, throwing light shards across the floor. ‘Diamond said this is more valuable than all the Royal riches,’ she murmured. ‘He called it a Conduit.’
‘A what?’
Sunset returned the necklet to Meg and leaned against the table. ‘Oh, he wouldn’t explain. He said that it was sacred knowledge to which only Seers of the highest order were privy. When I pressed him to at least give me a clue, he admitted that even he wasn’t certain of what it really is.’
‘Did he say who would know?’
‘No.’ Sunset laughed. ‘He said it was knowledge passed on only to the sons of fathers within the Holy Order, so one of the Seers would really know what it meant but he would have been sworn to secrecy until he chooses to pass it on to his son.’
‘But I thought the Seers were celibate?’
‘The acolytes,’ Sunset corrected. ‘The Seers can take partners. They can marry, but they don’t have to. They can have multiple women and many children if they choose.’
‘And if the Seer who knows this secret knowledge doesn’t have a son?’
‘Unlikely. But if he does, I assume he’d choose a likely successor and swear them to the secret.’
‘What if the Seer dies before he passes the secret on?’
Sunset laughed again and began to walk away. ‘You really do ask questions, don’t you, Amber?’ She shrugged. ‘Who knows? I bet it would be written somewhere. I don’t really believe Diamond’s explanation. I’m certain he knows exactly what your necklet is. And I suspect it’s the reason why you’re being hunted.’ She stopped to look directly at Meg. ‘My advice? Find a way to hide it or get rid of it. Or learn what it’s for, somehow. I’m going to bed. You will have the chamber next to mine, through that door,’ she said, pointing. ‘In the morning, I’ve arranged for you to be taken to the Royal library to meet someone.’
‘Who?’
‘Get some sleep,’ said Sunset. ‘You’ll need it,’ and she left the room.
Meg caressed the amber sliver pressed against her chest inside her tunic. Because of it, her life had changed dramatically. From her village to the Royal Palace in Port of Joy, from farm girl to holy acolyte, from farmer to hero—all of the legends and ballads she’d learned as she grew up, the stories she enjoyed but also discounted, were now the substance of her life in an astonishingly brief period. And there was the Blessing. Of everything she disbelieved in the old fantasy tales—the dragons, the larger-than-life warriors, the improbable quests—the one aspect she disbelieved most of all was magic. It couldn’t happen. It was impossible. And yet she had seen Emma create magic. And her own power to heal could only be magical.
The Queen’s pageboy, Smallone, entered the room casually, but stopped abruptly when he spotted Meg. ‘I beg your pardon,’ he said, bowing, ‘I thought Her Majesty had retired for the night.’
‘She has,’ Meg told him.<
br />
‘Shall I come back in a while?’
Meg rose from her chair. ‘No. I’m going to bed now, too.’ Smallone’s expression was the surprised curiosity of a person who recognises a familiar face, but also notices the changes, like Meg’s shaved head. ‘Do you like it?’ she asked as she passed him.
‘Yes, Lady Amber,’ the pageboy answered, although his insincerity was too obvious.
‘My name is Meg,’ she said.
Smallone bowed and said, ‘Begging your ladyship’s pardon, but Her Majesty told us all that from now on you are to be addressed as Lady Amber.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes, Lady Amber.’
Meg smiled at the irony of being renamed by the Seers who now disowned her. Perhaps letting them call her Amber wasn’t as bad as she thought. ‘Lady Amber it is,’ she said, and dismissed the pageboy.
The fair-haired boy smiled at her and she knew instantly that he was her son. She wanted to cross the busy street to pick him up, but her feet were rooted to the ground against her will. A faceless man in a sky blue robe lifted the boy onto his shoulders and carried him into the crowd, and everyone followed, reaching up to touch the fair-haired boy. But her feet were stone.
Waiting in the library in the morning was someone she did not expect. She thanked Smallone, and cautiously approached the Seer. He bowed, and in a quiet voice said, ‘Good morning, Amber.’
‘Good morning, Seer Vale,’ she replied. ‘Pardon my surprise.’
Vale’s squinting brown eyes vanished in smiling creases. ‘I doubt anyone would have expected me,’ he said. ‘But I am here.’
‘Why?’
‘To continue your training.’
‘Yesterday Seer Diamond expelled me.’
‘From the temple? Yes.’ Vale shook his head. ‘But Jarudha is more than a temple and a gathering of disciples, and He has chosen you, Amber, for whatever purpose He has in mind.’
‘Does Seer Diamond know you’re here?’
Vale shook his head again. ‘It’s probably best for all concerned that neither Diamond nor Light know I am here. Their vision of what should be is—I could say limited by their pride. And there are things neither of my brethren need to know.’
Meg had never paid Vale a great deal of attention. The fourth Seer, the quiet one who observed but rarely made comment, he was a short man, with a white beard and long white hair like the others, but his wizened face suggested he was the oldest of the quartet. Yet he also seemed to be the one of least presence and influence. She remembered the Queen’s comments of the previous night, however, and her curiosity sprang to life. She fished inside her black tunic for her amber crystal and held it out. ‘Do you know about this?’
Vale’s face betrayed him as he stared at the charm. He met Meg’s gaze, and asked, ‘How did you come by this?’
‘Perhaps you can show me that I can trust you by telling me what you know about it first.’
The Seer’s expression was static, as if he was decoding her meaning, but then he smiled. ‘I understand. You have no reason to trust me anymore than you would trust Diamond. Or Light. I’m sorry that my colleagues treated you with disrespect. Light suspects that what you have in your possession is what it is. His avarice is almost as unforgiving as his pride. Diamond—he doesn’t know much about a Conduit. His Blessing is with fire and light. That’s been his study. He’s heard that there are Conduits, but he’s never seen one until now, and then he didn’t know what it was until Light told him.’
‘How does Light know?’
Vale shook his head again, an action she assumed was the Seer’s regular habit. ‘Light wants power, and lots of it. He’s read about Conduits and devoted much of his life to seeking one. He knows about the history of the Genesis Stone. He knows that tiny fragments of it were passed down through the generations, and that those fragments have the capacity to magnify a Seer’s Blessing into great power. That is what you have—a fragment of the Genesis Stone. At least that’s what I’m certain it is.’
‘The Genesis Stone?’
He surprised her by taking her hand, instead of answering her question, and leading her along the rows of books. ‘The Royal family gathered this library across several generations and from several lands. As a library, it pales in comparison to the one that was built in the capital of the old Ashuak Empire by the priests of the ancient Khvechevik religion. They were dragon worshippers, but they amassed a library greater than any before or since.’
‘Dragons never existed,’ said Meg automatically.
He stopped and dropped her hand. ‘That’s what is commonly believed, but the more I read the less I’m so sure about that.’
‘Are you telling me dragons really existed?’ she asked in astonishment.
He shook his head. ‘I’m admitting that I don’t categorically believe dragons didn’t exist. The ancient civilisations tell stories and keep records that suggest dragons were a real part of their worlds. The Khvechevik priests used to make annual human sacrifices to the dragons. Until the empire collapsed.’ He walked on, pointing to shelves of books as he spoke. ‘This library has many more books than the one we keep in the temple. On this shelf are mostly stories of journeys. These are geographical works. Those in this row are mostly poetry. Our temple books are religious and philosophical works devoted to the glory of Jarudha, books that are unequivocal in their content and intent.’ He stopped again to remove a heavy tome from the shelf and flipped it open. The inside leaf displayed a stylised dragon. Around it were indecipherable scratchings. ‘Can you read?’
‘Emma was teaching me,’ she replied.
Vale looked up, his brown eyes wider than normal. ‘Who is this Emma?’
‘She lives in my village. She’s a soothsayer.’
‘What does she look like?’
Meg was instantly wary. ‘Why?’
‘Is her name Emerald Shipswife?’
‘No. Just Emma. She doesn’t have a second name.’
Vale’s expression lost its expectation. ‘How much did this Emma teach you?’
‘Enough to say I don’t recognise anything on this page you’re holding,’ she replied. ‘Who was Emerald Shipswife?’
‘No one important,’ he said quietly. ‘A young woman I knew a very long time ago. You remind me of her.’
‘How?’
‘She wanted to become a Seer, too, but she knew the rules so she didn’t try. Instead she left the city and I never saw her again.’
Meg’s sympathy welled for the old man. ‘Did you love her?’
The Seer looked along the rows of shelves and books, and was silent. Finally, he said, ‘I promised Her Majesty that I would educate you.’ He turned back to Meg, tapping the book. ‘This was written a thousand years ago by a man who was the chancellor to a great king. He writes about dragons, among many other matters. I’ve barely translated a fifth of the book.’
‘What’s it called?’
‘Destinies Determined.’
‘And who wrote it?’
‘A man who called himself A Ahmud Ki.’
‘Strange name.’
Vale closed the book and returned it to the shelf. ‘There are thousands of strange names in these books, Amber. The Queen’s ancestors collected many of them over the past three centuries, but her father brought in the really ancient books like the one I just showed you. Explorers who braved the ocean to travel to other lands in the last fifty years brought back books like these on the express wish of the Queen’s father, and now on her command more books are being collected.’ He lifted another from the shelf, opening its orange leather cover to reveal a page with a delicately painted landscape.
‘That’s beautiful,’ said Meg. She noticed the print, like that in the previous one, was illegible to her. ‘Can you read all the strange writing?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said, head shaking. ‘It takes me a long time to work out the code for the new languages. Some are easier to decode, because they’re like our language. Others—a
nd this is one of them—I can’t decode at all yet.’ He slid the book back onto the shelf.
‘Is this why you are here?’
Vale smiled. ‘When Queen Sunset’s father learned the nature of my Blessing, he employed my services to translate the books in here for him. Queen Sunset has kept me on. Sometimes I can pick up a book in a strange language and its meaning becomes clear very quickly, maybe within a few cycles. A book like that one by A Ahmud Ki took me four years to decode just a small part of it. Sometimes I’m not sure whether I have a blessing or a curse.’
‘Why would anyone want to read all these books? Don’t they all say the same things?’
The Seer laughed quietly.
‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
Vale composed himself, and replied, ‘What you said is, in a way, very true. In the end, most of these books do say the same thing.’
‘Then why bother with reading them? Why not read one and leave the rest?’
‘That’s why you are here. You’re going to answer that question for me.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
She was surprised at how quickly the time passed, and how her body expanded and changed with her pregnancy. Under the close eye of the Elite Guards whenever she exercised in the palace grounds, attended by Smallone and Spring, she lived in a cloistered, secure world. Whisper was returned to her care, and Leader Westridge brought Sunfire for regular visits. And every day she was under Seer Vale’s constant tutelage as he made her read an enormous variety of texts. ‘This one is a treatise by Pen Truebook, a courtier in King Broadarm Royal’s reign with a passion for the art of magic,’ Vale explained, as he opened a new book on the library table. ‘It’s a heretical work because it claims magic is not a blessing from Jarudha but an entity of its own volition. In fact, Truebook suggests that there are several forms of magic.’
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