by Tom Lloyd
Xeliath was a little way off, delighting in her restored grace and making the most of her time in these dreams, turning cart-wheels, letting her skirts fall about shamefully, swinging from the branches of the trees. She knew well that soon she would have to return to her twisted and damaged true body, but until then she sang with pleasure at the sensation of strong limbs being once again fully under her control. At this moment she was hanging upside-down with her legs wrapped around a bough, crooning softly to herself in the strange language of her people.
‘Are you sure he heard you?’
‘I’m sure.’ Xeliath didn’t turn her head. Her soft chestnut hair hung loose and free. It still struck the witch as strange that the girl’s hair was almost exactly the same shade as her skin. It seemed unnatural somehow, in some ways as disturbing as an albino’s lack of colour. It made Xeliath’s eyes even more striking. A curl of a smile on her lips could be electrifying. Though the girl was normally all youthful innocence, she possessed the arresting presence of a white-eye. ‘The Gods have chosen this one well,’ murmured the witch. As Isak’s queen, Xeliath would have been able to bewitch men with a glance; those who didn’t find themselves hanging off Isak’s every word would tremble when his lady spared them the briefest of moments.
Xeliath stretched out her arms as far as they could go, turning her wrists in circles. The witch blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, Isak was standing directly in front of the brown-skinned girl.
Xeliath squealed with delight and wrapped her arms around the massive scarlet- and gold-clad apparition. Isak started, he’d appeared just a few inches from Xeliath’s face, and was immediately grabbed, but his struggles ceased almost at once as the girl locked lips with his. Her slender fingers gripped a handful of his thick black hair to hold him close.
His passion reflected hers and the massive white-eye lost no time in swinging Xeliath down from the branch and enveloping her in his arms.
‘Where’s a bucket of water when I need one?’ wondered the witch aloud. Isak jumped and tore himself from Xeliath’s arms. Eolis was half drawn before he recognised the speaker.
‘You! What are you doing here?’
‘Waiting for your raging hormones to calm down.’
‘Well, if I’d known there was a queue . . .’ He smirked.
The witch had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of a reaction, but Xeliath was quick to take offence, and though significantly smaller than Isak, the Yeetatchen girl showed no hesitation in reaching up and jabbing him hard.
The witch managed not to smile at Isak’s yelp. The flash of anger faded quickly when he turned back to Xeliath.
The witch made a note of that small detail, tucking it away in a corner of her mind. She would decide later if it was worrying. Xeliath’s charms held Isak in thrall, as they would any other man, but she was cut off from a real life. Outside her excursions into dreams, she was nothing more than an imprisoned, frustrated child. The only thing she might be able to control in her life was Isak . . . the witch wondered if he were the one who would end up determining the course of history.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. ‘We brought you here for a reason,’ she said. ‘There are matters that need your attention.’
‘Matters that need my attention?’ Isak took a step towards her. ‘I’ll tell you what needs my attention: the largest nation in the Land. My investiture ceremony, so that I am legally recognised, and the trial of a daemon-worshipping traitor, and once I’ve got those out of the way, I have a war to prepare for. You’ll forgive me if I don’t feel like sorting out anyone else’s problems, especially when ordered to by someone I’ve hardly met -I don’t even know your name.’
‘Her name?’ Xeliath walked around him and stood next to the witch, her eyes flashing. ‘Don’t you know anything about witches? They give up their names when they stop being apprentices. To give you her name would be as dangerous as you handing cuttings of your hair to any passing mage. As for giving you orders -she’s trying to warn you, that’s all. She’s an ally. You might at least let her finish speaking before you bite her head off.’
‘How do I know she’s an ally?’ Isak said, a little grumpily. He felt like he was being ganged up on.
‘You need proof?’ the witch cut in. ‘If I were an enemy, do you think you would so easily have left my domain bearing those gifts from the Knights of the Temples? To be a witch is to be able to feel the heartbeat of the very Land itself, to be part of the patterns and rhythms that bind it. It does not tell me the future, but I can sense something of what that pattern might result in -just as I can sense when there is something wrong in that pattern. ’ She shuddered. ‘What I feel right now is a danger to us all, and it grows with every day. I know this because of what I am, because of what I have sacrificed to become what I am.’
She broke off. There was no easy way to explain what it meant to be a witch. The scent of warm earth and blood, the wind through the trees, the touch of sun and shade upon the skin: these things explained her as much as anything. The people of Llehden knew that. They treated her like a local Aspect, with fearful respect, understanding that she was nothing like them. At times she lived like a noblewoman, with children bringing food and clothes for her, sent to her to see and to know their local witch, to understand what a witch was, as their parents had done, and their parents’ parents. They grew up knowing the witch was beyond normal cares, yet still she cared for them. Like the animals of the forest, the deer and the wolves, she watched over the people who were part of Llehden’s fabric. If the Coldhand folk stole a baby, it was she who would stride off into the night to fetch it back, no matter what the cost. She would face down vengeful spectres and ease difficult births, whichever way they had to go. In some ways she was more similar to Isak than the young man would ever realise; in others, more opposite than seemed possible for allies.
‘What is this danger?’ Isak asked quietly. Xeliath’s words had calmed him, and the witch’s words too had had some effect. He remained silent for a minute, then asked, ‘Don’t you think I have enough troubles to be dealing with?’
‘The danger is not just to you but to us all.’
‘But I’m the one you want to do something about it?’
‘You have been given your gifts for a reason. Such blessings are not random. Whether you choose to be deaf to it or not, your destiny is calling.’ The witch sighed. She could see her manner grated on him, and was reminded briefly of the King of Narkang. King Emin, like white-eyes, had a natural ability to stir emotion in others. Isak and Emin both had a majestic presence that demanded obedience from -or roused antipathy in -those around them. That the witch was obviously immune was clearly nagging at Isak, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.
‘My destiny is calling?’ Isak said. ‘There are quite a few opinions about my destiny, and none of them agree.’
‘Your opinion is the only one that matters,’ the witch said. ’You have broken away from whatever plan any God or daemon had for you, and now all that remains is to find out whether you have the strength to accept the burden of your remarkable abilities.’
Isak looked away from her, silent.
‘And your hand?’ she asked.
Isak instinctively glanced down, sliding the hand slightly into his sleeve. ‘The side-effect of a spell,’ he muttered. ‘I hadn’t realised there would be a price.’
The witch raised her eyebrows. ‘There is a price to everything; even in the unnatural world, as any mage will tell you. The only question is what that price is, and for whom it is worth paying that price.’
‘You want me to judge people’s worth?’ Isak asked in surprise.
‘Absolutely not; help those you can and leave judgment to the Gods.’
‘And that’s why you called me here,’ Isak guessed.
The witch nodded. ‘I have felt a shadow over the Land, a shadow that gathers over a city to your south.’ She saw a bank of wind roll over the wheat behind Isak, as though her words
had caused a shiver in Xeliath’s mind. They felt nothing, though. The breeze itself passed as if it did not exist.
‘Scree?’ Isak said, surprised. ‘That’s where Emin -the King of Narkang -has gone.’
‘How do you know that?’ Xeliath demanded, breaking her silence. She walked back to Isak’s side and took his hand in hers.
The witch watched, thinking for a moment that the girl really was afraid, but as Xeliath ran her fingers down the inside of Isak’s massive palm it was clear that she was just making the most of her restored senses.
‘One of his agents told me,’ Isak admitted. ‘I think Emin wanted me to hold off a full-scale assault until he’s found whatever he’s hunting there.’
‘Do not march your army into Scree at all; there is a scent of madness and pain hanging over that city. Invasion would only worsen it. The shadow hanging over the city—’
‘Shadow?’ Isak interrupted sharply. ‘What sort of shadow?’
‘I know only that I sense a darkness there.’ The witch frowned. ‘Does it mean anything to you?’
Isak looked uncomfortable as both women looked at him. After a moment he admitted, ‘It’s probably nothing, but—Well, I’m sure there’s been a shadow watching me in the past. And King Emin is preparing to wage war against some shadow-daemon he calls Azaer. Do you recognise the name?’
They both shook their heads. The witch had heard little enough of Azaer, and if the boy already considered the shadow an enemy, there was nothing more for her to tell him.
‘Maybe the shadow is watching me, especially since I was sent to Narkang to forge links between our two nations.’ He stopped and leaned closer to Xeliath. The girl was not the only one to find comfort in their contact, it appeared.
‘What would you have me do?’ he asked eventually. ‘Going to Narkang with only a bodyguard when I was Krann was one thing, but I’m the Lord of the Farlan now. King Emin might be able to manage that, but I’m a little more conspicuous. You might need to find someone else to fight your battles this time -or maybe go yourself.’
‘I am.’ That tripped the great lump, the witch thought with a twitch of satisfaction.
‘You’re going to Scree? Alone?’
‘Not entirely. I have a travelling companion. He is also somewhat conspicuous, but the journey is long and I will need a guardian.’
Isak shifted his feet, keeping eye contact, as if he could see some extra truth in her eyes.
The witch saw he was curious, both about her companion, and about what exactly was going on in Scree. She let the questions bubble in his head, then pressed her point. ‘The shadow over Scree brings a convergence. It draws King Emin in, as it has Siala, and I fear many others.’ And if I had any choice you would be kept far away from that place, but I think it’s gone too far, she thought to herself. It may be that our only chance to stop it is to meet power with power. If that doesn’t work, we must hope that at least it will make you understand the gravity of the situation.
‘What is it that you fear?’ Isak said softly.
The witch hesitated. ‘They are men and women of power in Scree, these mercenaries, mages, lords and warriors. The White Circle will have no choice but to recruit mercenaries to protect the city, unnatural mercenaries, like those that call themselves Raylin, after a long-dead Elven warrior cult. The name flatters them, but they are monstrously powerful warriors, with all manner of magical abilities, and they’re innately drawn to violence. If they are left to run unchecked, they will fuel the destruction.’
‘People like you and your travelling companion?’ Isak gave a rather forced smile. ‘Men like me? Is the only difference the fact that I have a title and the mark of a God on my soul?’
‘I hope the difference is greater than that. These people are savage and brutal -if you were truly one of them, you would be a plague upon the Land.’
‘And have you appointed yourself the Land’s protector?’
The witch froze. How dare this swaggering pup accuse me of that? Her mother had cried the day she told her she was to learn witchcraft. It had sounded exciting then, but years later, the witch understood why her mother had whispered, ‘I’m sorry it must be so, but a witch is needed here, and a witch there shall be.’
She bit her lip. One hot temper was bad enough, and she had two to contend with here. ‘Take care how you insult those who would be your allies,’ the witch warned. ‘You are not the only one appointed to a role in this life, so be thankful you at least are well rewarded.’ She lifted her shirt, exposing her belly and a mess of scar tissue. ‘This is my reward for doing what must be done. This scar was from a colprys; its claws opened me up as I killed it. I had to sew myself back together while lying on the forest floor with scavengers sniffing all around.’
She remembered the weight of the colprys, the talons puncturing her gut. In the forest twilight its rough grey skin had been hard to distinguish; only the hisses and snorts and the tremble of the branches as it moved from tree to tree gave it away. It had so nearly not been enough. The witch shivered. ‘Have you ever stitched yourself together, my Lord? It is far from pleasant. I was not asked to drive the colprys away from that village, because they knew I would not need asking. It is the path I have accepted for this life.’
The massive white-eye dropped his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I can’t help feeling like whatever I do, I’m being forced, guided down paths for someone else’s gain. It makes it hard to take any sort of advice at face value.’ He looked stricken for a moment. ‘I really am sorry.’
‘You have good reason to feel that way,’ the witch said, laying a hand on his arm. ‘There were powers planning your birth long in advance. The seeds were planted during the Great War.’ Her anger had subsided; a lifetime of control was not so easily lost, and Isak’s face showed true contrition. He hadn’t been brought up to understand responsibility, the witch reminded herself. This had been thrust upon him, less than a year ago, and now the entire Land looked to him with both expectation and apprehension.
‘Seeds?’
‘The noble warriors you have as your aides might not have mentioned it, but most wars resolve little, and the Great War was no exception. The hatred does not die, and the original causes are often refuelled by the pain and suffering inflicted on both sides. The enmities endure, and all look to the day their chance comes again.’
The witch reached out to take Isak’s white hand in her own. ‘Before your final rest you will walk many paths of the dead. The aftermath of such conflicts requires this, for there is no easy way to lay those ghosts to rest. Our lives are like paths in a forest, choices made at each fork, and sometimes they will lead you to clearings bathed in sunlight, sometimes into shadow. Your path has been walked before, by all those whose mistakes and failures set the course of your life, whose weaknesses have unbalanced the Land.’
‘The paths of the dead.’ Isak nodded to himself, lost in his own thoughts, still gripping Xeliath tightly by the hand. ‘It has felt that way sometimes, as though I can feel the footprints below me and the ghosts alongside.’
‘They are there, never forget that, but they do not own you; not Aryn Bwr, not this shadow Azaer, not even the Gods. You cannot change the past, Isak, but perhaps you can free the future of its shackles. In a land under shadow, you can give the hope of dawn.’
Isak looked humbled by her words. This was a hard thing to lay on someone so young, she knew that all too well, yet there was no other course: she had to trust him, and hope he was strong enough to bear the strain. The choices were ultimately his alone. For all her wisdom, she couldn’t make them for him.
She looked from the hulking lord to the girl intended as his queen. Xeliath had been quiet throughout their exchange, perhaps feeling an echo of Isak’s pain.
‘I hope to see you in Scree, and show you that you will not have to do this all alone. There are those who care, those who will make sacrifices when it becomes necessary. And now—’ she raised an eyebrow in Xeliath’s di
rection, ‘now I should leave you two alone.’
CHAPTER 14
Count Vesna looked out through the trees at the scrappy tufts of grass that were briefly bathed in sunlight as a break appeared in the cloud. Behind him a horse whickered softly. He saw his own horse’s ears twitch, but a reassuring pat on the neck was enough to keep the borrowed animal steady. He shifted his feet slightly, wincing as he accidentally pressed down on his damaged toe, the product of a lucky escape two days past. The little horse turned and inspected the count, nostrils flaring, questing towards his hand in case a treat was on offer. He forced a smile and rubbed its nose affectionately, then sighed and returned to his vigil.
The only sounds came from the river ahead and the small stream to his left that ran into that river. He could hear nothing from the men positioned on the other side of this small wood, something he’d have considered a blessing at any other time this last week. The war had dragged on a long time in Tor Milist and now most of the duke’s soldiers were little more than irregular troops, some no more than bandits enjoying the protection of a banner.
Their commanders exerted no control -indeed, many were worse than their troops -and rape and pillage were more common features of the war than actual battle. It had been a blessing to get away from the drunken louts who were his temporary allies, but Vesna couldn’t shake the feeling that they might have slipped away instead of sticking to the battle plan.
‘You look like a man who’s thinking too hard.’ The speaker, his rough Lomin accent harsh to Vesna’s ears, was a bearded veteran he’d promoted to sergeant-at-arms as soon as he’d met the man. Sergeant Tael was a dour forester in the employ of the Duke of Lomin, whoever Isak decided that was now to be, and one of the few old hands in his regiment. ‘Men who think too hard before a battle don’t come back.’
‘I know that,’ Vesna replied, ‘but I’ve no intention of dying here.’