Ash: A Secret History (92 page)

Gelimer said, “But we are not content merely to conquer. We will not merely defeat Burgundy, the most mighty nation.
We will raze Burgundy to the ground.
Our armies will burn their way north from Savoy to Flanders. Every field, every farm, every village, every town, every city – we will destroy. Every cog, carrack and warship – we will destroy. Every heretic lord, bishop and villein, we will destroy. And the great Duke of Burgundy, the great conquering Duke and all his kin – we will kill. He, his heirs, his successors, to the last man, woman and child – we will kill. And with this example, my
amirs
, we shall be the overlords of Christendom, and none will dare dispute our
right.
”

A great roar shocked through her at his last word. Gaiseric grinned, yelling, at her side. The ’
arif
Alderic gave a great shout. Ash winced at the deep noise from thousands of male throats; a shout she has heard on battlefields, but now – hammering back at her from the walls of the dome – it frightens her; twists in her cold belly along with her fear for her life.

Godfrey whispered in her ear, “I see it now. That’s how he got elected. Rhetoric.”

The noise began to die down, echoing away from the throne at the centre of the hall. The men of House Leofric continued to stand stolidly under their banners.

The King-Caliph leaned down towards Leofric. “You see,
Amir
? We have, still, the advice of the Stone Golem: that Burgundy shall be destroyed, as an example to all others. The Stone Golem has been our guide and advisor for many generations of King-Caliphs; for more years than we have had the use of your female general. And as for your
second
slave-bastard – she is not necessary to us at all. Dispose of her.”

The last cold dots of sleet starred Ash’s cheeks, falling from the chasm above her head. The heat of the candles and the cold of the wind from outside set her shivering. A force of emotion grew in her belly; something she knew from experience could turn into paralysing fear, or hypertense readiness to act.

What will they chronicle? ‘
The accession of King-Caliph Gelimer was celebrated by the execution of a forsworn mercenary
—’

“No!” she spat, aloud. “I’ll be damned if I’m dying here as part of someone else’s celebrations! Leofric—”

“Be quiet,” Leofric grated. He smelled of sweat, now, under his fine robes.

Ash began to whisper, “A household troop, swords, glaives; one exit; one woman unarmed…”

Before, it would have been an automatic action, after a decade; to call her voice, for help with tactics.
He cannot stop me asking the Stone Golem questions, he cannot stop it answering me
—

Can he?

The fear-suppressed memory of the sudden silence in her head, riding among the pyramids and sphinxes outside the city, brought a chill fear in her mind.
But I will speak, what other choice is left?

She bit her lip, began to speak – and stopped as Leofric spoke again.

“Very well. If you will have it so. My Lord King,” the elderly lord-
amir
Leofric said decisively, “consider only one thing more, before you give your judgement. If you permit her to make war for you, she will not run. She has nowhere to go.”

“I
have
given my – our – judgement!” Gelimer spoke with asperity, then a weak curiosity. “What do you mean, ‘she has nowhere to go’?”

“I mean, my Lord King, that next time she cannot run back to her company. They no longer exist. They were massacred on the field of Auxonne, three weeks ago. Dead, to a man. There is no Lion Azure company for her to run to. Ash would be – must be – faithful only to you.”

Ash heard the word
massacre.
For a second she could only think, confused,
what does that word mean? It means ‘killed’. He can’t mean ‘killed’. He must be using the wrong word. The word must mean something else.

In the same split second she heard Godfrey’s grunt of pain and realisation behind her; and she spun around to stare at ’
Arif
Alderic, at Fernando del Guiz, at the lord-
amir
Leofric.

The bearded Visigoth commander, Alderic, had his arms folded, his face giving no sign of any emotion.
He was ordered to tell me nothing, is this why? But he wasn’t there, on the field, he wouldn’t know if this is true
—

Fernando only appeared bewildered.

And the startled-owl face of Leofric, pale under his pale beard, showed nothing but an undefined strain.

He is fighting for his political life, to keep his powerbase, which is the Stone Golem and the general – and me – he would say
anything
—

The King-Caliph Gelimer said sulkily, “There has been nothing but cold here since your Christ-forgotten daughter the general went north! We will not bear with this blight, this curse! Not another one. Who knows but she might leave us frozen as the bitter north? No more, Leofric! Execute her today!”

Leofric will say anything.

A voice ripped out of her that she did not recognise, did not know she was going to hear until she found herself screaming.

“What’s happened to my company?”

Her chest burned; her throat hurt. Leofric’s pale face began to turn to her, Alderic’s men moving at the ’
arif’s
snapped command, Gelimer standing up again on the dais.

“
What’s happened to my company?
”

Ash threw herself forward.

Bear-like arms wrapped around her from behind, Godfrey clutching at her, his wet cheek at her cheek. Two of Theudibert’s squad ripped her out of the priest’s arms, mailed fists efficiently punching her in gut and kidney.

Ash grunted, doubled up, held in their grip.

The floor swam under her gaze: muddied stalks of corn, trodden across mosaics of the Boar and Her litter. Tears rolled out of her eyes, snot from her nostrils; she could only hear the noise she was making, the same noise that all men make during a beating.

“What – happened—?”

A metal-wrapped fist struck the side of her jaw. She jolted back, only supported now by the men who held her, Gaiseric, Fravitta; her knees gone rubbery. The huge features of the Green Christ swam in her vision, above her, as she fell back.

They dropped her face-down on the terracotta floor.

Ash, her hands flat against the freezing tiles, lifted her head and stared up at the lord-
amir
Leofric. His pale, faded eyes met hers; nothing in them but a faint condemnation.

In a moment of complete clarity, Ash thought, He could be lying. He could be saying this to persuade Gelimer to let me live. And he could be saying this to persuade Gelimer to let me live because it’s true. I have no way of knowing.

I can ask. I’ll
make
it tell me!

Through split, swollen lips, Ash spoke with an instant, precise accuracy: “The field of Auxonne, the twenty-first day of the eighth month, the unit with blue lion on a gold field, what battle casualties?”

Leofric’s expression turned to one of irritation. “Gag her,
nazir
.”

Two soldiers tried to get hold of her head from behind. Ash let herself fall forward, limp, her body banging shoulders, elbows and knees against the tiled floor. In the few moments as they lifted her up, uselessly boneless, she violently screamed, “Auxonne, unit with a blue lion livery, what casualties?”

The voice sounded sudden and clear in her head:

‘
Information not available.
’

“It can’t be!
Tell me!
”

Ash felt herself supported upright, gripped between two men. Someone’s hand clamped tight across her broken mouth, and tight across her nose. She sucked for air, the candle-dark hall darkening still more in her vision.

The hand clamped over her face, immovable.

Not able to breathe, not able to speak, she raged through crushed lips into the suffocating glove: “You do know, you
must
know! The Faris will have told you—!”

Nothing like a voice came from her throat.

Sparkles danced across her vision, blotting out the court. No voice sounded in her head. She tried to close her jaws. She felt the scrape of metal rings against her teeth. Copper-tasting blood choked in her throat. She coughed, gagged; the men still held her, tight, as she strained, gasping, suffocating.

I
will
know.

If I can’t speak – I’ll listen.

She let fear and futility rush through her, forced herself to be calm, to be perfectly still in the midst of bodily pain and mental agony.

She saw nothing but the pattern of veins inside her eyelids, printed on the world outside. Her lungs were fire.

She made a ferocious effort. An act of listening – no passive thing, something violently active. She felt as though she pushed, or pulled; drew up a rope, or swung down with an axe.

I
will
hear. I
will
know.

Her mind
did
something. Like a broken rope, her whole self jolted; or was it a meniscus, that suddenly gave way, and let her through some barrier?

She felt a wrench, in the part of herself that she had always thought of as being shared by her voice, her saint, her guide, her soul.

A grinding roar shook the world.

The walls of the building moved.

A voice exploded through her head:

‘
NO
!’

The solid floor lifted up, under her feet, as if she stood again on the deck of a ship at sea.

V

The mosaic tiles juddered under Ash’s feet.

‘
WHO IS THIS
?’

‘
IT IS ONE
—’

‘
WE PREVAIL
—’

She lurched, losing her footing, dizzy; vision filled with yellow sparkles. The solid world shook. Through a roaring noise – in her mind? in the world? – many voices slammed into her head:

‘
BURGUNDY MUST FALL
—’

‘
YOU ARE NOTHING
—’

‘
YOUR SORROW
,
NOTHING
!
YOU ARE NOTHING
!’

In that second, Ash realised: Not
a
voice.

Not
a
voice –
voices.
Not
my
voice. Sweet Jesus, I am hearing more than one voice! What’s happening to me?

A grating roar jerked the floor under her as a dog shakes a rat.

She got her arms out from under her entangling cloak, slammed an elbow into Theudibert’s mail-clad ribs, jarring her shoulder. She clawed at the man’s hand across her mouth, breaking her fingernails on the mail of his gauntlets.

‘
WHAT IS IT THAT SPEAKS TO US
?’

‘
IT IS ONE OF THE SHORT-LIVED
,
BOUNDED BY TIME
.’

‘
WE ARE NOT SO BOUNDED
,
SO CONSTRICTED
.’

‘
IS IT THE
MACHINA REI MILITARIST
?’
¹²

‘
IS IT THE ONE WHO LISTENS
?’

The hand clamped over her face suddenly dropped away.

Ash dropped to her knees; sucked in a great, unobstructed breath. The smell of the sea filled her nostrils and mouth: salty, fresh, terrifying.

“Who are you? What is this?” She gulped air; screamed: “What happened to my company at Auxonne?”

‘
AUXONNE FALLS
.’

‘
BURGUNDY FALLS
!’

‘
BURGUNDY MUST FALL
.’

‘
THE GOTHS SHALL ERADICATE EVERY TRACE OF IT FROM THE EARTH
.
WE WILL
–
WE MUST
–
MAKE BURGUNDY AS THOUGH IT HAD NEVER BEEN
!’

“Shut up!”

Ash shrieked, aware that the noise of voices was in her head, and a greater noise was ripping through the hall: a shattering, cracking roar.

“What’s happened to my people?
What?
”

‘
WE SHALL
–
WE
MUST
–
MAKE BURGUNDY AS THOUGH IT HAD NEVER BEEN
!’

“Voice! Stone Golem! Saint! Help me!” Ash opened her eyes, not knowing until then that she had screwed them shut in concentration.

Iron candle-trees tipped over, yellow flames arcing across the vast chamber. Men around her sprang to their feet. Smoke filled the air.

Ash fell, sprawling prone. The buckling tiles shuddered under her hands. She scrabbled one foot under her, flexed her injured knee, came halfway up on to her feet.

A man screamed. Fravitta. The Visigoth soldier threw up his arms and vanished from in front of her. The floor split and opened, mosaic tiles rending raggedly along a line of stone flooring. Fravitta rolled down the floor that suddenly
sloped,
vanished into blackness—

The whole world jolted.

She was instantly in the centre of a pushing, jostling crowd; armed men ripping swords from their scabbards, yelling orders; men of law and men of trade reduced to a mass, clawing to force their way back, away from the throne, away towards the archway exits.

Ash spread her arms wide, flattening herself down on the bucking floor. Black cracks spidered across its vast expanse. Heaps of trodden corn tipped up and slid, with benches, with robed men falling to their knees; slid down slabs of mosaic-covered red terracotta tiles that tilted up with a great rending crash—

Something dark flashed across the air in front of her.

Ash had a second to glance up, one arm going automatically over her head. The Mouth of God opened. Blocks of stone, painted with curling leaves, fell away from the circular rim and tumbled down through the empty air.

On the far side from her, a quarter part of the dome shattered and fell out of the roof.

Horrific, harsh male screams sounded; she could not see where the masonry was landing, but she could hear it, great impacts that vibrated the floor, shook the ground—