by Peter Newman
‘Please, my High Lord,’ said Chandni, finding her words at last. ‘Satyendra is filling his mind with thoughts of Lord Rochant. He must stay focused. I fear his love for you is such that your presence is overwhelming him.’
Yadavendra’s fingers curled into a fist, which shook, as if he was considering bringing it down on her son’s head. ‘I see. Then I will leave you to your task. Know that I have faith in you, young Satyendra. You will succeed.’ He looked at Chandni, making it feel as if he had delivered a threat rather than an endorsement.
She bowed quickly, pressing herself against the wall as his crystal wings cut the air in front of her nose.
Two of Yadavendra’s hunters went with him, while the other two assumed positions in the corridor, positions that should have been taken by her guards. She could see the potential clash of egos, adding it to the list of things to resolve.
The clump of Bringers opened out into a semicircle, like a great rustling hand preparing to wrap itself around Satyendra.
‘Does the Honoured Vessel have any last words?’ asked one.
Satyendra glanced back at Chandni, his eyes cold and dark. ‘No.’
She watched as the Bringers closed the circle around him, trying to form a memory before he was snatched from view. The great door opened, a heavy disc of stone that swung ponderously, silently. It was dark inside, and the Bringers entered that darkness, the black half of their robes vanishing quickly, the white half shortly after. And then they were gone, and the door closed behind them. Her guards moved forward and sealed it shut. There was no way to open it from the inside. Either the Bringers would give the signal that all was well or it would remain locked, a tomb for an abomination.
Chandni had imagined this moment many times, and had expected to feel grief, pride, perhaps sadness. In her darker moments she wondered if she’d be relieved. But there were none of those emotions. None at all. She was as numb as her arm.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When Sa-at returned to the oak, Eyesore’s body had vanished. Whatever was responsible had left no sign of its passing. This did not surprise Sa-at. He wondered if Crunch had come back for his brother and then wondered if Crunch would come back for him.
His right hand still felt itchy. Ever since he had taken the woman with the golden lips to the Godroad, it had started to complain. In the end it had got so bad he’d just dumped her against the crystal wall, pausing only to tuck her cloak around her with his left hand, leave a feather, and run away. It was easing now, slowly, but it niggled him that he hadn’t had the chance to talk to her.
He went and crouched by the oak’s exposed roots, rubbing three more daubs of his blood into them, before getting Crowflies to seal the cut. Grudgingly, the roots began to move, parting just enough to allow Tal and Rochant to climb out, but not enough to make it easy.
He glared up at the tree, which seemed to do its best to ignore him, and then began the difficult business of dragging Rochant out of the hollow. They were all out of breath by the time it was done.
Tal followed on his hands and knees. ‘I thought we were going to die in there! What took you so long? Are you okay?’
Sa-at thought about the Red Brothers, and the woman with the golden lips, and the fight. He was very aware that Rochant was watching him. ‘Yes.’
‘Did something happen?’
He was wary of answering the question. If he did, they would want to know details, and if Rochant found out he had helped an enemy, it could make him angry. Sa-at did not want to upset his new friend. ‘We should go.’
‘Okay,’ said Tal. ‘Where are my boots?’
‘Oh,’ with a rush of guilt, he realized he’d forgotten all about them. ‘I don’t know.’
‘But I need those boots! You promised you’d bring them back! You promised! Where are they?’
‘Calm down,’ said Rochant. ‘I’m sure that …’ he paused ‘… You never did tell me your name.’
‘My name is Sa-at.’
‘Interesting. I’ve not heard a name like that before in all my lifecycles. Who gave it to you?’
‘Crowflies did.’
‘Who’s Crowflies?’
‘My friend.’ He was about to point it out, but caught himself just in time. Rochant was a Deathless and Crowflies was a demon. They were enemies so he probably shouldn’t tell one about the other. Had he already said too much? Whatever he did, he always seemed to be letting one of his friends down. He bit his lip. This was all so hard!
‘What’s this got to do with my boots?’
Rochant coughed politely, cutting off Tal before he could work himself up again. ‘I’m sure that Sa-at knows where they are. He just needs a moment. Think back, when was the last time you had them?’
A memory came to him, of standing by the oak with the boots under his arm, the Red Brothers looming, trapping him against the tree. ‘There,’ he pointed to the spot.
Tal crawled over to look. Buried beneath a knot of roots was the toe of a boot. ‘The tree’s got them! You have to make it give them back.’
It will want to trade, thought Sa-at miserably.
The oak’s leaves rustled in a rather smug fashion.
‘Please, Sa-at, make it give them back.’
‘We should go sooner rather than later,’ said Rochant. ‘My enemies will still be hunting me.’
In a small voice, Sa-at replied, ‘I don’t know what to do.’
‘Can Tal manage in the Wild without his boots?’
‘No, my lord,’ said Tal.
‘No,’ murmured Sa-at.
‘Then the only question is how you get them back. Do you have something the tree wants that you are willing to give?’
‘It will want more bits of me.’
‘Are you happy about that?’
Sa-at gave a grumpy shrug and muttered under his breath.
‘What?’ asked Rochant. ‘I couldn’t hear you.’
‘It’s not fair.’
‘Life isn’t fair. If you want justice, you have to make it yourself. Would you like my advice?’ Sa-at nodded. ‘It’s easy to be trapped by a situation when you accept things as they are presented to you. Ordinary people react to what they’re given. They’re passive in the way they solve problems, not active. But we are not ordinary people, are we?’
‘I’m ordinary, my lord,’ said Tal.
Rochant chuckled. ‘There is nothing ordinary about a Gatherer making his own way in the Wild.’ And though Tal sat up a bit straighter, a grin splitting his face, Sa-at suspected Rochant was saying and meaning different things again.
He isn’t talking about Tal. He’s talking about me.
‘Tal has only recently started this life, but you haven’t, have you?’
‘No.’
‘You grew up here?’
‘Yes.’
‘And how did you survive?’
‘My friend helped me.’
‘You mean this Crowflies?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s it there, isn’t it? The Birdkin with the white beak.’ Sa-at nodded, wondering how Rochant knew. ‘Can you talk to it?’
‘Yes.’
‘And it can understand you, I’m sure, better than anyone ever has. It knows what you like and what you desire. I’ll bet that when Crowflies wants something from you, it knows exactly how to get you to do it.’
Sa-at frowned. He wasn’t sure what Rochant was saying, and something about it was making him uncomfortable.
‘Do you know what Crowflies likes?’
He smiled. Wormkin. Laughing at people. Being listened to. ‘Yes.’
‘And do you know what the tree likes?’
‘No.’
‘You need to find out. It knows we need the boots, so it has the advantage.’
‘But how?’
‘If you had time you could investigate. As you don’t, you have to fall back on what you can see and what you know.’
‘I know it isn’t very nice.’
Rochant eyes sparkled.
‘And?’
‘It isn’t nice to deal with.’
‘Good. And what do you think it wants?’
Sa-at tried to think. ‘Blood? To make us cry? I don’t know.’
‘All living things, whether human, demon or animal, want to live and to go on living. Demons have ways of prolonging the lifespan of their bodies, Deathless move from one body to another. Everything else lives on through offspring.
‘Look around you, how many oaks can you see?’
He and Tal both did. ‘One.’
‘Exactly, and the trees are packed in close, there’s no room for new saplings to grow here. I know the trees of the Wild move, but I also know that they do not roam far. Offer to take a seed from it and have Crowflies take it to plant somewhere new. Give it what it wants, and you can keep your blood in your veins and the hair on your head.’
Sa-at noticed the tree had gone very quiet. It’s listening! He turned to Crowflies who was perched above them. ‘Would you plant a seed for me, to get Tal’s boots back?’
The Birdkin twitched its head one way, then the other, then gave a reluctant shrug of its wings.
‘Thank you.’
Something had changed about the oak. When Sa-at looked closer, he saw one of the branches was angled lower than before, and that an acorn was hanging from it. He held out his hand underneath. ‘We will plant your seed in return for my friend’s boots. I swear it on my blood and bones.’
A cold wind rustled though the trees, making the branches shake.
With a soft sigh, the acorn fell onto his palm, and when he looked down at the roots, he saw they had retracted into the earth, exposing the boots.
While Tal dug them out, Sa-at handed the acorn up to Crowflies.
‘Sa-aat,’ it crowed with concern.
‘Come back quickly,’ he whispered, and the Birdkin bobbed its head before taking the acorn in its beak and flying off.
Sa-at was glad to leave the oak behind. There was little conversation as they travelled, both of them focused on moving Rochant as quietly as possible. Sa-at thought about what had happened. Rochant’s advice had worked and he had learned something important, a new way to think. He had changed in some way he did not fully understand, and in doing so, the world had changed too. Sa-at found this very exciting.
Wrath’s Tear was well into the sky now, the other two suns not far behind, and the forest was quiet. However, it was not just demons that were hunting them. There was the woman with the golden lips and her knife-wielding companion. The rising suns would do nothing to slow them down.
When they’d put as much distance between them and Sorn as they possibly could, the trio stopped to rest in a spot where the earth had sagged, leaving a grassy nook for them to shelter in. They propped Rochant against the side of the nook, flopping down either side of him so that he wouldn’t topple over. At first all that could be heard was their panting for breath, then came the rumbling of bellies not fed in far too long.
‘Give me a bit,’ said Tal, ‘and I’ll go and find us some food.’
‘Where are we?’ asked Rochant.
‘Safe,’ replied Sa-at.
He closed his eyes. ‘Go on.’
‘Go on where?’
‘You said you’d get me away from my enemies and keep me safe, and you have. That means it’s your turn. Ask your questions.’
‘I want to know about the Corpseman.’
‘You need to be more specific.’
He tried to think about what Murderkind had told him. The demon had wanted understanding about the Corpseman and something about its relationship with the other demons. ‘Why are the other demons flocking on its banner.’
‘To its banner.’
Sa-at frowned at him. ‘I said that.’
‘You didn’t. You said “flocking on”. They don’t land on its banner. The Corpseman doesn’t even have a banner.’ He opened his eyes again. ‘Do you know what a banner is?’
‘No.’
‘Then why are you smiling?’
‘Because I’m going to learn new words.’
Rochant didn’t exactly smile back, but the skin around his eyes crinkled like he was happy with that answer. ‘A banner is a flag, a piece of cloth that bears the sign of a group or a person.’
‘Do you have one?’
‘Yes, every Deathless has their own.’
‘Can you tell me about it?’
‘I’d like to show you one day.’
Sa-at nodded. I’d like that too. ‘What does flocking to a banner mean?’
‘It’s a way of saying that other demons have joined the Corpseman and are fighting with it.’
‘Ah. I want to understand it.’
‘The Corpseman?’
Tal put up a hand. ‘Can we stop saying its name, my lord. If we say it three times, it will come and get us.’
Rochant chuckled, as if he’d been amused by something Tal had said, but Sa-at couldn’t see the joke. ‘We’ve already said its name five times. If it was going to come it would have by now.’ He looked at Sa-at. ‘I can tell you the Corpseman’s story if you want.’ Tal covered his face at the sixth mention of its name, making Rochant chuckle again. ‘It is a story that nobody else has ever heard before, the details known only to me.’
‘Yes,’ said Sa-at. ‘Yes, yes!’
Rochant looked at Tal. ‘You may want to get that food now as I’ll be saying the demon’s name quite a lot.’
Tal seemed torn between wanting to do just that and wanting to stay and listen, but he stood up quickly and bowed. ‘Yes, my lord.’
When he had gone, Sa-at asked: ‘Why did you make him go?’
‘Because you traded for this, not him.’
‘I don’t mind if he hears it.’
‘How can you say that? You don’t even know what I’m going to tell you yet.’
Sa-at stopped to think. Talking with Rochant was making him think a lot. It was great! ‘You don’t want Tal to hear the story. You want to keep it a secret from him.’
‘I want you to make your decisions actively, not passively. Don’t take an action because it’s easy or because your friends want it, take the right action, the one that serves you best.’
‘Why?’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’
‘Why do you want me to be like this?’
‘Because I think you have potential.’
‘Potential?’
‘I think you could be more than you are. Much more.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes. You have a spark, something that reminds me of myself when I was young. If you let me, I could help you grow into something amazing.’
Sa-at couldn’t help but grin. ‘You can tell the story now.’
‘Get me some water, and I’ll begin.’
Varg grumbled all the way to Sagan, Glider growling along with him. They sound like an old couple, thought Pari. If she hadn’t been so worried about her brother, she might have found it amusing.
‘Not sure about that Sapphire knowing about me either,’ Varg continued.
She looked at Lord Vasin moving effortlessly ahead of them in great bounding glides. How is he getting so much height so easily? ‘He doesn’t care about you, Varg. And besides, we have nothing to fear from that quarter.’
‘That makes one of them.’
‘Quite. Now do stop talking, I’m trying to think.’
With the unexpected excitements in the Wild, Pari was hours later than she’d planned. She worried about what Arkav had done in that time. Had he managed to maintain the ruse that she was still in the carriage or had the servants found out? Had he stayed in Sagan or continued on their mission to bring the Sapphire High Lord to justice, or had he abandoned the mission entirely to search for her?
Just so long as he hasn’t had another another episode. Anything but that.
They met a patrol of guards who were much more polite than the last ones she’d encountered, even offering to provide escort. An unexpected side benefit of
travelling with a Sapphire Deathless. Pari noted their faces with distaste. Something in them spoke of meanness, and a delight in petty power. She felt a moment’s pity for the other traders that would have to come this way and almost asked Vasin to bring the guards along, if only to get them out of other people’s business for a time. However, the risk of being identified was too great and so she remained in the back of the wagon, hidden.
Not long after, they arrived outside Sagan. Things appeared quiet, enough to give her hope, and she saw that the Tanzanite carriage was parked on the Godroad. The Dogkin had been untethered and had taken off, and only one servant remained, suggesting that Arkav and the others had gone into Sagan itself.
She came to sit next to Varg. ‘It looks like I won’t be needing you for a while. Check the house here is still intact and then get back on the road.’
‘You said you were going to go past Lord Rochant’s castle.’
Here we go. ‘I did.’
‘Does that mean I can go up and see her?’
‘Hmm,’ she said, drawing it out a little. ‘I suppose so. But don’t get too distracted. I want you on hand when we confront Yadavendra, just in case things don’t go to plan.’
‘Things never go to plan.’
She admonished him with a finger. ‘You’re starting to sound like Sho.’
‘Reckon that’s a good thing.’
‘Ha! Perhaps it is.’ An image of the old seneschal came to mind. She’d seen a lot of different servants in her lifecycles. Most were lost to the grind of time but some managed to haunt her long after they were gone. Sho would be one of those. She knew it.
‘Lord Vasin,’ she called, and the Deathless landed by the wagon instantly. ‘Might I ask you to honour Sagan with a visit?’
‘I could,’ he replied, ‘but it will seem strange. The elders of Sagan will be unsettled.’
‘All the better to allow me to slip back within my entourage unnoticed.’
‘Very well, but I need a reason to be here.’
‘Tell them you’re watching out for their wellbeing during Lord Rochant’s absence. Or tell them you’re here to see Lord Arkav Tanzanite. Or tell them nothing. After all, the Sapphire are known for keeping their own counsel.’
He turned away from her. ‘Were we always like this, Lady Pari? I’m sure things used to be better. Less … broken.’