Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (45 page)

Veranta ordered a meal
to be prepared for her immediately after her bath. While her maids
hurried to draw the bath, Veranta stood by a window in her sitting
room, staring at the City below. Lights shone from nearly every
building, suggesting that for the citizens, life went on as usual.
Veranta was not blessed with a sharp mind or a keen intellect, but
she was finally realising events had already passed beyond her
control.

Three daughters lost in
ten days. She remained convinced there was a connection between the
disappearance of her middle child Shea, and the old Advisor, Waxin
Pule. What that connection could possibly be, she had no idea.
Kerris? Too similar a vanishing to Shea’s to be mere coincidence,
and Veranta had no belief in coincidence. Mellia. Veranta genuinely
could see no link between her treatment of the girl and Mellia’s
despair. As an over indulged child herself, Veranta had reacted in
a completely opposite way with her own children.

Disciplined, their days
totally organised and regimented, no affection shown them – that
should have strengthened the girls, toughened them. Veranta had
been disgusted by Mellia’s fawning pathetic attitude, strangely
mixed with a haughty arrogance. Ternik had reported with
disapproval on Mellia’s treatment of servants and of her sisters,
but Veranta saw nothing wrong. In fact she rather
approved.

Shea was a lack wit and
thus worthless. Veranta lay back in her bath and tried to recall
Shea’s father. He’d been a handsome young clan warrior, in a party
of delegates visiting Kelshan. He’d seemed witty, intelligent: why
should a child of his be simple minded? Kerris. Veranta scarcely
knew the child, other than as another mousy quiet thing like
Mellia.

Veranta rose from the
bath and stepped into the embrace of a huge towel, held by two
maids who kept their faces averted from the naked form of the
Imperatrix. Veranta had always assumed they did this out of awed
respect, but, as they’d often discussed among themselves, the
Imperatrix nude was a deeply unpleasant sight. When she was dry she
pulled on yet another of the many truly garish dressing gowns she
owned and wandered back to her sitting room for some food. She ate
well as always then retired to her bed chamber.

The Imperatrix lay for
a while, wondering if Beslow’s assessment of the likely outcome of
the attempted invasion of the Dark Realm was correct. She had an
uncomfortable feeling that it was. She considered Ternik’s strange
death, and the survival of one anatomist. Then she
slept.

The anatomist Tomin,
also lay in his bed. He knew he was being spied upon and he lay
relaxed, his breathing regular. At least, the thing that now
possessed his body did so: Tomin himself no longer
existed.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

In the Karmazen Palace,
a young Dark Lord, an apprentice to Coby, was racing down flights
of stairs in search of Corman or Chindar or both. He skidded round
a corner and collided with a very solid figure. Hands grabbed his
shoulders and he looked up into the face of Peshan, brother of the
First Daughter. Peshan raised a brow.

‘In quite a hurry young
man?’ he asked mildly.

‘Sorry Lord Peshan. I’m
looking for Lord Corman or Lord Chindar.’

‘You’re Coby’s
apprentice aren’t you? Well, they were both in Corman’s garden just
a moment ago.’ Peshan frowned. ‘Urgent news?’ he asked.

‘Yes my lord. From the
land across the sea – Sapphrea.’

Peshan released the
young man’s shoulder and hurried with him to the walled garden. By
the light of the moon, Corman was looping long tendrils of a white
blossomed plant through the struts over a bower. He glanced
up.

‘Ruslan,’ he greeted
the young man.

‘Lord Corman. A message
came, sent through a gateway, from Shiral.’

Corman let the plant
trail from his fingers.

‘They have reports of a
creature to the south of their lands. It has a name – Karlesh.
Shiral says it is connected with the Splintered Kingdom, but she
cannot tell much more because of the distance between them. Coby is
still studying the message – it is long and detailed, but that is
the gist of it.’

Chindar, who had been
sprawled comfortably along the bower’s bench, was already making
for the gate, Peshan at his heels. All four hurried back up the
staircases and along passageways to Coby’s rooms. When they arrived
Peshan and Ruslan were both breathless although of course, Chindar
and Corman were unaffected.

Coby looked up. She sat
at an old scarred table set at one end of the room. On the table
papers were strewn among books and scrolls were jammed between odd
stones. She pushed several rolls of paper towards the
men.

‘Read it all carefully,
then we can decide what we might do.’

‘Do?’ Chindar looked
alarmed. He was finding the sudden breaches in the Dark Realm’s
policy of total seclusion very hard to cope with. He dreaded the
thought that he might have to order open interference in another
land’s problems.

Coby crossed to the
fireplace and pushed more logs onto the fire. She put her hands to
the small of her back when she straightened, stifling a
groan.

‘Shall I make you some
of your special tea?’ Ruslan asked with concern.

‘Not just yet my dear.
It makes me sleepy and I must stay wakeful until this has been
decided on.’

Ruslan nodded but
insisted on settling her in her usual armchair, well supported with
pillows. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes briefly, then
gave him a smile of thanks.

It didn’t take too long
for the three men to read through the message from Shiral. Shiral
had gone back to Sapphrea with Lady Emla for just this purpose – to
convey any warnings that the Crazed One might be active in those
lands again. Corman sent Ruslan in search of Gan Jal Sarl, hoping
he might enlighten them to the identity of this Karlesh.

Corman found the
decanter of blood drink that Coby always kept in her room, and
filled three goblets for Chindar, himself and Gan, who arrived at
that moment with Ruslan. Chindar handed the papers to Gan and
sipped his drink thoughtfully.

‘I’m sure I’ve heard
that name before, in conversation with someone.’ Corman shook his
head. ‘But I can’t think who it was who spoke that name to
me.’

Gan laid the papers on
the table. ‘Tika,’ he said softly.

Corman stared at him.
‘That’s right,’ he exclaimed.

Gan nodded. ‘She told
me of it a few days ago, when I first came here.’

‘Well, I know nothing
of this. Can you tell us?’ Chindar asked.

Gan studied the almost
black liquid swirling in his goblet. ‘Tika “saw” somehow, inside a
hill. A woman we’d met, Orla, had been badly affected by the one
you name Crazed. We knew his name as Qwah. He was said to be a
monstrous cross bred child, one of four the Maleshan mages finally
imprisoned. In some way, he caused Orla to become pregnant, but the
child’s development was greatly accelerated.’

Gan shrugged and looked
up at the faces watching him.

‘Orla carried the child
for maybe a month. Qwah was forcing her to travel north, he knew we
were close on their trail. Orla was in a cave when she began her
labour. Tika saw with her mind as the child chewed its way from
Orla’s body. She said it had tusks rather than teeth, looked like a
two year child rather than newborn, and it grew as she watched.
Tika said she sensed Qwah’s presence, then the child somehow “saw”
Tika. That’s when spears of ice came from the sky and killed
Maressa. And me. And Tika was flung into the Splintered Kingdom.
The child was named Karlesh.’

Coby broke the silence
that fell when Gan stopped speaking.

‘I have some
information on those children you talk of Gan – Qwah and Sekira
were male, Valesh and Taffez female. I have suspected since I first
heard of them that they were fragments of the Crazed
One.’

Gan frowned. ‘Fragments
of him? How can that be?’

‘The Splintered
Kingdom, Gan,’ Chindar replied. ‘The Crazed One himself is in
splinters, fragments. Each piece more powerful than we dare
contemplate.’

‘But if Qwah and
Karlesh are both fragments, and they are together?’ Coby sat up
straight in alarm.

‘No. Tika said she felt
Qwah – vanish. She said Karlesh was contemptuous of Qwah at that
final moment and he dismissed Qwah with a single look.’

Corman began to pace.
‘That was a mistake then. Karlesh may be more powerful than Qwah,
but the two together. .’ He left the sentence
unfinished.

‘In other words,
Karlesh, according to Tika, newly born, acted without thinking of
possible consequences? Are we saying that fragments of the Crazed
One, if that’s what they are, have to learn? Have to grow? Is there
no cohesion at all, nothing linking the fragments.’ Coby drew a
deep breath. ‘If there is no linkage, we must accept there could be
hundreds, if not thousands of separate Crazed Ones. Is that what we
must assume?’

Peshan got to his feet.
‘That thought truly frightens me. I must go to Lerran now, to sit
with her through the rest of this night.’

The door closed
quietly. A log on the fire split with a loud crack. Ruslan knelt to
brush the sparks off the hearth rung.

‘You really believe
Tika is the key to this Crazed One, don’t you?’ Gan moved to take
the chair Peshan had vacated.

Corman watched him, his
dull gold eyes full of sympathy. ‘Perhaps she is not THE key Gan,
but yes, I think she is one of those keys.’

‘Will you ask her to go
to Kelshan now, or back to Sapphrea?’

Coby raised a hand. ‘If
I may suggest something? We should send word back to Shiral. This
Karlesh should be watched of course, but from as far away as
possible. Nothing should be attempted against him unless he moves
into populated areas. He seems content to remain in lands that are
apparently quite empty and bleak for now. Maybe he needs to grow
physically.’

‘May Mother Dark ensure
it is only physically that he grows,’ Chindar muttered
fervently.

Gan gave a wry smile.
‘So you want Tika to go to Kelshan.’

Corman leaned forward.
‘Tika can deal with this mage tutor for us. I am convinced, from
the bare scraps of information we have about this woman, that she
is directly influenced and empowered by the Crazed One.’

‘But which Crazed One?’
Gan sounded exasperated. ‘From what you’ve said, there could be
hundreds of them.’

Coby reached to put her
hand on Gan’s arm. ‘There may be many parts of him scattered across
this world, but the great mass of his power is still concentrated
within the Splintered Kingdom itself. This we know.’

A window shutter blew
in, the latch falling to the floor. Hag stood in the frame, her
feathers glistening with raindrops. The huge beak gaped in a silent
amusement and she dropped to the floor, strutting towards the
fireplace. Coby glared at the raven.

‘How many times have I
asked you not to do that, wretched bird?’ She waved a hand, fingers
flickering, and the shutter closed, the latch rising and
reattaching itself to the frame.

Corman and Chindar
regarded Coby with horror, but Hag simply shook her feathers, water
droplets hissing onto the fire, clearly not offended by Coby’s
manner of speech.

‘I spoke with Tika.’
Hag turned her back to the fire and surveyed her audience. ‘A
pleasant child.’ Her harsh voice took on an almost purring tone.
‘She will make a good friend. Now, you plan to send her to Kelshan
is my guess?’ She cackled, giving her feathers another
shake.

‘We hope that she may
be able to deal with the mage,’ Coby agreed.

‘Huh.’ Hag strutted
back and forth. ‘Dead.’

‘What?’ Corman asked in
astonishment. ‘The mage?’

‘That’s what I said,’
Hag snapped. ‘Do pay attention, Dark One. The mage died two nights
ago, but what possessed her has – moved.’

The bead bright eyes
glittered and Gan, watching, wondered seriously if the bird was
insane. For a moment Hag’s gaze settled on him, then moved on to
Coby.

‘You mean another
within the Citadel is now working for the Crazed One?’ Coby asked
cautiously.

‘In a way I suppose.
One of their healers or some such. His name is Tomin, but none
suspects what he has become.’

‘What do you mean Hag,
by “in a way”? Do speak clearly,’ Coby sounded
irritable.

Hag tilted her head so
that one eye fixed on Coby. ‘It’s a bit of the Crazed One, but it’s
also mixed with the energy I felt in the far north.’

‘Drogoya?’ asked
Chindar.

‘Namolos?’ asked Corman
at the same moment.

The raven hissed in
annoyance. ‘In Drogoya, yes. Namolos, I don’t think so. That other
thing – Cho Petak, perhaps. Now I have other things to do.’ Hag
turned to the window.

‘Allow me.’ Ruslan
leaped forward to unlatch the shutter and swing it wide.

Hag cackled again.
‘Nice manners. For once.’ And was gone into the wet
night.