‘Tarquin, tell me exactly what happened. Start at the beginning.’
Tarquin had begun to tremble a little from the stimulant he was drinking. ‘As you may know,’ he said, ‘for some years after I left Jai Khalar I was not entirely in my right mind. I left Everien and travelled in the far reaches of Pharice and beyond. For years I roamed without purpose, until I wandered in the wild lands and lived among the barbarian Clanspeople in the cold wastes of the north, where our distant kinsmen who never descended to Everien scoff at our foolishness in plundering the Knowledge of the ancient Everiens. They say we have stirred up trouble that should have been left to lie beneath the hills, for the Sekk prey even on them sometimes and the wild people blame us. They are rough folk and not easy to know, but in time they became my friends.
‘This spring, Freeze Wasps were raiding the herds of the wild Wolf Clan beyond Everien’s borders, and I set off into the hills to see what I could do. I suspected that a Sekk was behind the Freeze Wasps, which would normally never come down off the heights in summer.’
He paused, sipped.
‘I was looking for Sekk and I found Pharicians. I stumbled upon a reconnaissance patrol of fifteen of them in the hills above the plain of northern Ristale. They were not interested in exchanging news with me.’
‘They attacked you? But you are not identified as Clan. Perhaps they thought you a bandit.’
‘Is this an excuse for fifteen to attack one?’
‘What happened?’
Tarquin looked at the king from beneath heavy lids. There was a silence.
‘You killed them all?’
The yellow robes emitted a squeak, and the king scowled briefly at his secretary. Tarquin said: ‘I traced their trail back to the plain and saw the army from the height. Their formation was the standard Pharician Imperial march. I have seen the Pharicians use this style across their empire. By their standards the army is not the greatest of forces, but it will mean serious trouble for Everien. I have given some thought as to how to deal with the Pharicians. Fortunately, they will never function effectively in the mountains. If you can’t cut them off at the gates to the sea plateau, you can still retreat to the high country, and force them to fight you on your own terrain …’ He broke off, yawning.
The king said, ‘Yanise, send for Mhani! This whole situation in Wolf Country has got out of control. I want to know how an army of any size could have escaped our Sight. Also, bring Sendrigel. He’s supposed to be on top of doings in Pharice.’
‘Mhani is locked in the Eye Tower,’ Yanise replied. ‘The Seers will refuse to disturb her, because—’
‘Shut up. No excuses – get her down here now.’
Yanise bowed twice and backed away. Lerien shuffled papers. He muttered, ‘That schemer Hezene; what’s he up to?’
Until this moment, Tarquin had been singularly unconvinced by Lerien. What kind of a king suffered himself to be managed by clerks and old men, or spent his days sitting on his hindbones and talking when swords were being wielded throughout his land and fires set? What kind of a king said so little and was so weak of eye as to take advice from anyone who offered it? This sudden display of temperament was overdue on Lerien’s part, Tarquin thought. For he measured everyone’s character according to Ysse’s, and Ysse had snarled at people like a wildcat.
Now the king leaped to his feet, throwing papers over his shoulder. He prowled the chamber, weaving among the furnishings with more precision than his bulk would have suggested him capable of. ‘Hezene is supposed to be our friend and trading partner. How many shipments have I sent him from our Fire Houses, craftwork the like of which his country could never produce in a thousand years? And how many of his damned musicians have I housed, raised their bastard children that seem to pop up everywhere in every shade of colour, entertained his traders and sent them home with full purses? Do our treaties mean nothing to him?’ He halted suddenly and drummed his fingers on the sill of one large window, gazing out into the vague green of Everien. ‘Could there be some misunderstanding? Maybe he is mustering troops to go to Jai Pendu.’
He turned to look at Tarquin when he did not reply right away; the need to cling to this one hope was naked on the king’s face.
Tarquin said, ‘Perhaps – but why would he sent his men across the vast plain of Ristale and then down our borders, when they could go directly from Jundun down the Sajaz River to the Floating Lands?’
Lerien turned away abruptly, as if by doing so he could dismiss the remark. Why all this delay? Tarquin thought irritably. By now he could have had twenty messengers out to rally their forces. He could have had a defence plan knocked together. Hell, he could have had the whole country set in motion if the Eyes did what Hanji claimed they did. But Lerien wanted to weigh and consider and confabulate.
‘And what happened to your border guard?’ Tarquin added. ‘The lands between here and Ristale are empty. Where are all your forces if not protecting the hills from Sekk-controlled monsters?’
‘That is another matter,’ Lerien said. ‘Don’t confuse the issue.’
‘It’s not another matter,’ Tarquin retorted. ‘You’ve been in Jai Khalar too long, Lerien. You’re out of touch with reality.’ He yawned again, spoiling his point.
Yanise slid into the room. Lerien waved him away, saying, ‘Double the guard on the Pharician envoy.’ Then he frowned at Tarquin. ‘I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. Pharician politics are complex, and their centre of power is far away. Yet Pharice is our ally, and we depend on them for trade. I truly thought Hezene’s word was good.’
Tarquin sighed at this display of naiveté. ‘Then maybe they are only coming to help bring in the hay.’
Lerien’s rebuttal was pre-empted by the arrival of food. When it was set before him, Tarquin hesitated. His stomach was making extraordinary sounds. ‘If I eat, I won’t be able to stay awake.’
‘If you don’t eat, you’ll be gnawing the legs off the furniture soon,’ Lerien scoffed. ‘Anyway, you’ve done your duty by bringing me the intelligence. Eat, and Yanise will find a bed for you, and after you’re rested we’ll speak again. I’ll organize a team to go out to the borders immediately with a Carry Eye, so we can see what’s happening for ourselves. If only you had had one with you, you might have saved yourself a brutal journey.’
‘I mistrust the Water of Glass,’ Tarquin said with his mouth full. ‘Tell me why these precious Eyes of yours didn’t See the army or detect signs of trouble in Pharice.’
‘If what you say is true, the Eyes have indeed failed us,’ said a woman’s voice from the doorway. ‘But we have yet to understand why, my lord.’
Tarquin swallowed and got to his feet as Mhani entered the room. She looked at him levelly, and he couldn’t tell what she was feeling. There were streaks of grey in her dark hair, and she was heavier, but her calm, round face was the same. He felt like a barbarian and a miscreant. He had never forgiven himself for Chyko’s death, and he’d barely been able to speak to Mhani when he’d returned from Jai Pendu, alone, with the news of her mate’s loss among Tarquin’s doomed Company. Today he had criticized the Knowledge openly, barged in on her daughter’s petition to the Council, and now cast doubt on her competence – for if she was the foremost Seer in Jai Khalar, it was she who should have detected the Pharician army.
The king glanced from Mhani to Tarquin before saying, ‘Mhani, is it possible the Sekk have some power to interfere with the Eye?’
‘If they do, then the presence of a large army on our border is not the worst news of the day,’ she replied cautiously. ‘I would not like to think what the Sekk might do if they could command the Eye of Jai Khalar to see things that are not there.’
They exchanged glances over his head; Tarquin, having dispatched most of the food within minutes, was now blinking slowly because his eyes burned too much to stay open. Every time he closed them they seemed to glue themselves shut, and his train of thought went swirling off into dream. Rather belatedly, he realized that Mhani’s statement could
be taken to imply that it was he who had seen what wasn’t there.
‘Sleep, Tarquin. You’ve done your part,’ Lerien was saying. ‘Yanise, give us a hand.’
Yanise gripped Tarquin’s shoulder to help him up.
‘Come on then, Tarquin the Free. Your bed is waiting for you.’
Tarquin groaned, finding sentences too demanding. ‘You don’t believe. Rather trust Everien Knowledge than an ordinary man.’
‘I would scarcely call you an ordinary man,’ Mhani said dryly. ‘I don’t want to believe what you’ve said, Tarquin, but if you can provide evidence for it, I will accept it.’
‘No time.’ Yanise was leading him out into an empty white hallway with windows that looked out on to nothing but clouds. Tarquin’s head lolled from side to side. Just before the door closed behind them he heard the king say, ‘Call up the Council. I want an emergency meeting in two hours. Make sure the Pharician representative knows nothing about it. Now, where’s that Sendrigel—’
A Ditch to Sleep in
‘If they’re in there much longer I’m going to scream.’
Kassien flipped his wrist back and released a dart with a little too much thrust: it went high of the mark. The octagonal tower room was full of smoke and sunlight, stale crusts, spilled beer, and bits of discarded uniform. Xiriel had folded his long form into the window ledge, where he pored over a translucent blue stone the size of an apple. Pallo was blowing smoke rings and idly polishing his bow, and Istar was beating Kassien at darts.
‘I’m surprised at you, Kassien,’ said Pallo in his Pharician lilt. ‘Times like this, don’t you soldiers sing songs and slap each other around to combat boredom?’
‘You want to be slapped around? Come here.’
‘Civilians,’ Istar remarked, ignoring their banter, ‘can never do anything quickly. If an arrow’s coming at a civilian he has to stop and discuss the situation with his neighbours before deciding whether to dodge right or left.’
‘You don’t dodge my arrows,’ Pallo said. ‘You don’t hear them or see them coming.’
‘That’s easy to explain. You never shoot anything.’ Kassien flung another dart and hissed when it scored badly again. He scowled. ‘What’s it been? Five hours? Weeks of preparation, days of Istar polishing her speech, we get all decked out in full dress uniform – for what? Tarquin the Free barging in like something someone found in a ditch … I’m going to get reassigned. I know it.’
‘Don’t be so hasty, young man,’ Pallo answered in a high voice. ‘That’s the trouble with today’s young people, always in a hurry to – oh! Good shot, Istar.’
Kassien tossed his last dart and flopped into a chair. ‘You win, Star. I can’t concentrate. Just give me something to swing at, eh? Give me a tent in a field somewhere and a wall to scale. But I can’t take this strange place.’
Xiriel stirred and spoke in a deep voice, still scrutinizing the orb. ‘You really don’t like Jai Khalar, do you?’
‘Do you? Well, I guess you do – you spend all your time here with your nose in old records and your hair standing on end from looking into the Eyes. I keep getting the feeling I’m going to open a door and walk into a room that isn’t there. Like the place could just disintegrate at any second and leave you falling half a mile to earth.’ His finely shaped body gave an exaggerated shudder, and Istar’s eyes lingered on him. When he glanced at her, she looked away.
‘Mhani says that the Knowledge is more real than the earth itself,’ Xiriel replied softly – almost absentmindedly – and rubbed his thumb over the blue surface.
‘Yet she can’t find the troops, or the White Road … meaning no disrespect, Istar.’
‘How did Ysse do it?’ Istar asked suddenly, ignoring Kassien’s remark about her mother.
‘Do what?’
‘Find the White Road? If Jai Khalar didn’t exist then, how did she get across the Liminal?’
‘Eteltar called the White Road for her.’
‘Taretel,’ Istar corrected automatically.
‘Whatever you call him, he was a gifted Animal Magician,’ Xiriel said. ‘He summoned the White Road for Ysse. When she came back from Jai Pendu, the end of the White Road opened on to Jai Khalar and that’s how we penetrated this place. Until then, no one knew it was here. No one could see it.’
‘What about Quintar? Who called the White Road for him? Ysse?’
‘Hanji.’
‘Hanji.’
‘He and Jai Khalar have always had a sort of understanding.’
‘But he can’t find it now,’ Kassien said.
Suddenly Xiriel let out an exclamation. The others stared at him in surprise.
‘Tarquin has told the king that Pharice is attacking us!’
‘Who?’ Pallo squawked.
‘Your countrymen, fool. The king’s trying to confirm it with Mhani. Apparently Tarquin has seen a huge Pharician army at Ristale but the Eyes haven’t picked anything up.’
‘That’s crazy,’ Kassien put in. ‘We just had Hezene’s court musicians here last month. They were full of praise for our hospitality and brought gifts by the cartload. Sendrigel was just telling me the other day how—’
‘Shh!’ Xiriel said. Soft lights reflected from the stone flickered across his excited face. ‘Here, see for yourselves. It’s not the clearest image, but it’s better than nothing.’
The others crowded around. In the stone, represented in miniature, were the king, Mhani, Ajiko, Yanise and Sendrigel. The setting was the Eye Tower.
‘Relax. Let yourself be drawn into the Eye,’ Xiriel advised. ‘If you’re very still, you’ll be able to hear everything they’re saying.’
The others obeyed, but not before Kassien made a feeble protest. ‘Oh, just give me a ditch to sleep in and flat bread to eat, but not this …’
It was generally believed that the Eye Chamber was located in the highest point of the highest tower of Jai Khalar, but because the structure of the Citadel itself was mysterious and subject to change, no one had ever objectively mapped the place. Only the Seers knew how to find the trick doors that led to the Eye Chamber. Anyone who didn’t know the way would quickly become lost among countless flights of stairs and imperceptibly curving hallways; so those who were not Seers had to take it on faith that the Eye Tower was the very pinnacle of the Citadel.
Wherever it was, the Tower boasted a phenomenal view. The windows opened unobstructed in every direction, even across the eastern mountains that abutted the Citadel. The Eye Chamber was the only room in the tower, whose shape was subtly elliptical. A ledge about a yard wide ran along the inside circumference of the walls; the rest of the floor was drowned in water whose depths probably reached the very foundations of Jai Khalar. This was the Water in its active form, which Quintar had recovered from Jai Pendu as an Artifact made of Glass. Above the Water, Eyes were suspended on wires from the ceiling as globes of varying sizes and colours.
Sendrigel, the minister of trade with Pharice, hovered near the archway that was the only way into the chamber, appearing ill at ease; Yanise stood a little apart from him, watching Lerien. Mhani stood diametrically across from Lerien and Ajiko on the ledge, facing them over the water. Light played across the obsidian hair of her bent head, and her face was smooth with concentration.
Lerien said, ‘Can you See the army that Tarquin speaks of?’
Mhani tilted her head toward a nacreous globe in the ceiling. The colour of its surface flared and shifted like a flame when some reactive element is added.
‘I can see no army,’ she said in a monotone. ‘I will show you what I can see.’
The others gazed down into the water, and a moving image appeared, reflected upon the surface of the pool beneath the globe. Dun grassland, without hill or flower, stretched out beneath the view, which moved as if the Seer were flying. Mhani moved the vision from the edge of the mountains into the plain, scanning from side to side. There were herds of deer and flights of birds, but no people, and surely no army.
Sendrigel let out an audible sigh.
‘Ah, what’s that?’ Lerien exclaimed.
The Eye had steadied on a black horse accoutred in Pharician armour. It bore a woman with red hair and white skin, her every gesture graceful as a dancer’s.
‘We will not look in her face,’ Mhani said in a tight voice. ‘For we cannot be certain she will not Enslave us, even at a distance. Lerien, this is the only person within a week’s ride of the place Tarquin spoke of. As you can see, the Sekk do not interfere with the Eye, or we would not be able to See this one.’
‘What makes you think she is Sekk?’ Lerien asked. ‘We can’t see her face.’
‘I don’t know.’ The Seer’s tone had changed; she sounded confused. ‘I don’t know why I said that. The horse is Pharician, to be sure.’
‘She is either Sekk or Deer Clan,’ Sendrigel said, hitching his thumbs in his belt and rocking back on his heels. ‘She may be in Ristale, and she may ride a Pharician horse but she is too pale to be Pharician.’
‘Pale like Pallo,’ Lerien jested. ‘The boy does not look Pharician, either, but his mother is certainly Ianó, and the Pharician musician she claims is his father acknowledged him.’
‘She never should have sent him to Pharice,’ Mhani said.
‘She saw he would never make a fighter,’ Ajiko said. ‘Better that he should live in a Pharician city like Jundun where they have use of such delicate creatures as Pallo, than to watch him fail at every weapon he tries.’
Istar laid a consoling hand on Pallo’s arm, but he shook it off.
‘Never mind that. What is a lone woman doing on a Pharician battle horse in the middle of nowhere?’ Lerien said. ‘It is not sensible. Show me the rest of the border. Show me the route from Jundun to the Floating Lands.’
Mhani frowned. ‘I cannot. We have no Eye in that region.’
‘Then how can you see Ristale?’ Lerien asked impatiently.
Mhani sighed with the air of one who has had to explain her art to the uninitiated one time too many.
‘There is an Eye among the old Everien buildings on the mountainside overlooking A-vi-Sirinn on one side and Ristale in Pharice on the other. We have tuned it to the Water here. However, there are no Everien remnants in Pharice, so there are no Eyes, which is why we cannot See. In any case, Lerien, there is no army. Tarquin was wrong.’
The Company of Glass Page 5