Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (28 page)

‘Wait. What favour can
you do us?’ Tika stood too, facing the woman.

It took a considerable
effort not to flinch when Ferag moved closer and gazed down into
her face. She extended her hands, one each to Tika and
Sket.

‘I’ll show
you.’

As their hands were
grasped by Ferag’s ice cold fingers, Sket and Tika felt an odd
dislocating wrench. It was gone in a blink, but so was Corman’s
office, Corman, and Sergeant Essa.

They found themselves
on a hillside looking down towards woodland. But it was leeched of
most colour, like a murky twilight. Ferag let go their hands and
began to descend the hill. The air was still and her movement alone
wasn’t enough to make her long red hair swirl round her head and
shoulders as it did. She stopped and looked back.

‘Oh do come along. I
have other matters to attend to you know.’

‘Um, where are we
Mistress Ferag?’ Tika’s voice sounded distant, and very young, to
her own ears.

‘Well in my Realm of
Death of course silly.’

Tika and Sket slowly
followed Ferag until they reached the flatter stretch of grassland
a few paces from the trees. Here Ferag stopped.

‘Well really, I told
him I’d be here. I would have thought – oh there he is. Oh the poor
man is shy. Do come out there’s a good boy. They can’t stay long
you know. I’ll come back for them.’

Tika clutched Sket’s
hand. Ferag had vanished. A figure moved at the edge of the trees.
Tika stared. The figure moved hesitantly from the
shadows.

‘Gan!’

She crossed the space
between them without thinking and hurled herself at the tall thin
man before her. Solid arms went round her and she felt a solid
chest beneath her cheek.

‘How? Why?’ Words
tumbled in an incoherent babble until she finally forced herself a
little away from him and looked up into his face. She couldn’t read
his expression any better now than she could before but she
understood the love in his eyes. He stretched out a hand and pulled
Sket close, then gently released them both. Tika drew in a sobbing
breath and sat down hard. Sket sat too and Gan folded his long body
to join them.

‘My dears.’

It was Gan’s voice but
Tika couldn’t see his face through her tears.

‘Ferag wouldn’t let me
go Beyond. She said I was too angry. And I was. Furious that I’d
failed you. So I’ve been here considering the choices she’s offered
me.’

Gan brushed the tangled
curls off Tika’s forehead and Sket closed his eyes briefly at that
oh so familiar gesture.

‘And what were the
choices she offered you?’ whispered Tika.

‘To continue here
indefinitely, to become a ghost and slowly fade, or to accept the
half death.’

Tika stiffened. ‘The
half death? Like Corman?’

Gan looked puzzled. ‘I
do not know Corman.’

‘No matter. If you
choose half death, what does that mean for you?’

‘Ferag says my service
to you is not yet fulfilled. When it is, I will go Beyond with no
regrets.’

‘And will you come back
to our world?’ Tika could barely restrain her hope.

‘Ferag says I can do
so, within some limits. Is this what you would have me do
Tika?’

‘I would have you do
whatever you choose Gan.’

He nodded slowly. ‘I
have a few days more to decide.’

‘Maressa?’ Tika caught
his hand.

‘Maressa chose the
winds and the air,’ he said sadly. ‘And Ferag knows nothing of
Seela. She’s told me some of what’s happened to you, but not all. I
didn’t believe her when she said she would allow you to visit
here.’

‘This place, is it
dreadful?’

Gan laughed. ‘No. There
are a lot of people here. Some are – strange, but others make fair
company.’

He looked above Tika’s
head. She threw herself on him, knowing that Ferag had appeared to
take them back to Corman’s office.

‘Family Gan?’ she
whispered.

‘Always family,’ he
whispered back.

Icy fingers touched her
hand, a wrenching jolt and she sat, with Sket, by Corman’s desk. Of
Ferag there was no sign.

Essa was white with a
mixture of rage and fear when Tika and Sket suddenly reappeared.
She looked at their faces, both wet with tears. Essa spun round to
glare at Corman.

‘I’ll kill her if she
does that again.’

Corman’s mouth
twitched. ‘A pointless exercise Sergeant, and to attempt violence
against Ferag is very badly received.’ He gave his attention to
Tika. ‘I did not know Ferag was going to do that. But was it of any
help to you?’

Tika wiped her sleeve
across her face. ‘She took us to meet Gan.’ She felt exhausted. ‘He
was Emla’s Captain of Guards who travelled with us.’

Corman nodded. ‘And he
was killed when you were dragged into the Splintered
Kingdom?’

‘Yes. He says Ferag has
offered him the half death.’

Corman studied his
fingernails. ‘May I speak to others of your offer to help us?’ he
asked eventually.

‘Of course. Farn has
yet to fly again, but his strength will return fast once he does
so.’

‘You would risk him
again so soon?’ Corman’s voice was a murmur.

Tika’s chin came up.
‘Neither of us would be here or even alive, but for your First
Daughter’s sacrifice. We could do nothing less if it would help her
or her people.’

‘There is to be a
meeting at darkfall. The first guards have moved to the lower
reaches of the mountains. Attend if you wish, and consider how you
might be of help.’

Tika and Sket slept the
afternoon away after Tika had relayed to Kija and Farn the visit to
the Realm of Death. Shea had overheard, and sat silent, thinking
while Tika and Sket slept. Khosa had come in to the chamber several
times whilst Shea was there. Khosa seemed restless and stayed only
long enough to give Akomi’s ears a brisk wash.

Shea studied the
Dragons: they were both asleep too she thought. She slid Akomi onto
a cushion and set off after Khosa. When she entered the First
Daughter’s bed chamber the first person she saw was Alloc. He’d
been kind to her the night they’d got back from that horrible
Splintered Kingdom, and he always had a word for her when he met
her now. Shea saw him before he saw her and was concerned to notice
how very old he looked. But he glanced up and spotted her hovering
by the door, and smiled. The age slipped away from his
face.

It was quiet in here,
very quiet. Shea approached the enormous bed and neither Alloc nor
the woman sitting by the window moved to stop her. The little
orange cat was curled by the pillows, purring steadily. Shea stared
at the First Daughter, her mouth forming a circle of
shock.

There seemed to be no
eyes, the bones of the face pushing up towards her forehead. The
lower jaw appeared dislocated. Shea could see teeth, not normal
teeth, or filed teeth like Essa’s. These were more like tusks,
spearing both up and down outside the stretched skin of the lips.
Beneath the light bed covers, Shea could tell the body was as badly
misshapen as the face. She backed away towards Alloc and stared at
him for answers.

‘It is the price the
body pays, child.’

‘But she will get
better?’

Alloc opened his mouth
to lie, but the woman by the window replied.

‘We don’t know child.
She went so deep into the Dark and for so long. We can only watch,
and wait, and care for her as we can.’

‘Just to find the
Dragon?’ Shea asked.

Alloc hesitated then
shook his head. ‘Truly Shea, I do not know all of it. Perhaps only
Dabray, the First Lord, knows the whole. The First Daughter had to
find the young Dragon and reunite him with his soul bond, Tika, the
woman you helped bring from the Splintered Kingdom. Those two must
be of some great import for the First Daughter to risk so much. But
of that I can tell you nothing, for I do not know
myself.’

Shea looked at the
woman in the bed, then back to Alloc. ‘She healed my shoulder. You
saw, didn’t you?’

Alloc nodded. ‘I saw
what she did and I have no idea what power she used to do it. It
seemed almost an easy task for her, but it looked miraculous to
me.’

Shea gave him a small
smile and left him to the sad task of watching by that bed. Akomi
yawned when she settled beside him, but she stroked him absently.
She watched Tika, curled on cushions against Farn’s
chest.

‘Whatever awful thing
you have to do, I’ll help you,’ she vowed in her thoughts. But it
felt as if something was missing, Something to make her vow really
serious. She remembered what Jemin had told her of her
father.

‘I swear this in my
father’s name: Cawlin of the Weasel Clan.’

Chapter
Sixteen

By the time the four
scouts reached the village, men had already arrived from outlying
areas. Men who represented villages large and small, and also those
from isolated steadings. Each man was accompanied by two
youngsters, boys and girls: the swiftest and most surefooted of
runners, to relay messages at need. Menagol left Theap to show the
scouts to rooms in the guest house close to The Bear’s own round
house. Menagol made straight for the inner room where The Bear sat
waiting. The Bear grinned.

‘We will fight soon,’
he said by way of greeting. ‘Dark Lords are on their way, so Lemos
says. Have you seen this Kelshan army yourself?’

Menagol shook his head.
‘The scouts say four thousand are advancing. But they have no
knowledge or experience of mountains. I believe the scouts I have
brought here speak truly when they say they have no desire for
warfare with any of this Realm.’

The Bear growled. ‘Then
why are they coming?’

‘Father, I said the
scouts do not wish to war on us. There are officers leading this
army, and probably at least half of the men, who want only to
quench their blood lust and find some treasure to plunder. The
woman who ordered them to do this, is not respected by the scouts
at least. The eldest, Chak, wears a seal stone. He comes from what
he called wild clans who dwell in the far north beyond Kelshan. He
respected the woman’s father, but holds no loyalty to
her.’

The Bear nodded. ‘Lemos
has said the same. And he heard these things from Karmazen. Some of
our warriors leave before darkfall.’ He looked at his son gravely.
‘None of this army is to return to Kelshan.’

‘Is that your decision
father, or Karmazen’s?’

The Bear’s lips peeled
back in a snarl, revealing his teeth. Only the canines were filed,
the rest still strong and square.

‘I have decided this.
Not one man returns to Kelshan I say. Let the rumours increase of
the deadly magic which protects these lands when the Kelshan men
fail to return.’

The door opened and
Emas hurried in, her face white. ‘The Raven is here,’ she
hissed.

A cackle of wild mirth
preceded Hag’s strutting entrance. The Bear got to his feet, a
towering figure beside his son.

‘You bring news
Raven?’

The beak gaped and
feathers rattled. ‘Why do you all think I am merely a messenger?’
Her tone was peevish. ‘I come in anticipation.’ Hag’s eyes
glittered. ‘Anticipation of a feast.’

Still cackling and
muttering, Hag hopped from the room. The Bear scooped his wife
close to his side. ‘The Raven won’t hurt you.’

Emas pushed him away.
‘You heard her. A feast. That’s why she’s here. Bodies for her and
her kin to feed on.’ She turned her glare on her son. ‘And you’ll
be in the thick of it no doubt fool boy, along with your idiot
father. I pray Mother Dark keeps Essa in Karmazen.’

She stormed out,
leaving her two men feeling obscurely guilty. She was skilled at
that.

The Bear sat down
again. ‘I’ll speak with these men you brought in. Lemos will be
with me. If we think them unworthy, they die. Lemos and I will
decide, if they live, whether to keep them together or separate
them. If Lemos says they speak truth, they will be kept back from
the fighting anyway. They may say they have no loyalty to the
Kelshan bitch, but if they see their army, including perhaps men
they know, being killed, they may feel differently.’

He tilted his head to
meet his son’s eyes. ‘Will you take Theap when you go – or leave
him here?’

Menagol’s crimson smile
flashed. ‘Unless you order otherwise, I would have him with me, as
always.’

The Bear laughed. ‘As
you will. Have those scouts brought in to me.’

He was still chuckling
by the time Lemos arrived. Theap had been born the very same day as
Emas’s twins. Theap’s mother died and Theap was a tiny sickly babe
not expected to last the day. But, according to custom, the child
was brought to the chief’s house, and to everyone’s astonishment,
he lived. He grew up with the twins, although he didn’t grow very
far. But his mind was sharp and his loyalty fierce. The Bear and
Emas knew Theap would give his life rather than let harm befall
either Menagol or Essa. Lemos had watched and listened, and he told
The Bear that he had an exceedingly clever foster son in Theap’s
small person.