Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (50 page)

‘Dog fixed this for
me.’

Sket and Tika saw the
straight hilt of a small knife protruded from the girl’s
boot.

‘Dog says it’s a useful
place to keep an extra weapon.’

Tika suspected that she
might possibly grow tired fairly quickly of the words “Dog says”
but simply nodded.

‘They’ve had more
poppers sent up here, but they’re not sure how many you might want
them to take.’

Tika swallowed and
avoided Sket’s eyes. ‘Well, I expect Jemin will tell
them.’

Shea looked surprised.
‘They aren’t under his orders. They answer to you. They told
me.’

Ah, thought Sket, and
so it will go. More and more, looking to Tika as their
authority.

‘Oh. Well then, I
suggest they’ll know best, won’t they.’ Tika hoped she at least
sounded confident.

All three jumped at a
rumbling shout from beyond the trail which led north. Kerris raced
into sight, shrieking with laughter. A heartbeat later, The Bear
appeared, the pack on his shoulder seeming like a toy. Kerris
slowed as she neared and her smiles faded. She stared from Tika, to
Shea, to Sket.

‘It’s all right
Kerris,’ Tika said quickly. ‘We aren’t going to make you leave
here. It is for you to choose.’

Kerris glanced back.
The Bear had reached them and stood beside the child. She slipped a
hand into his massive fist and looked at Shea.

‘I’d like to stay here,
if you please. But if you think I should do something else, then of
course I will.’

The Bear frowned but
said nothing. Shea slid off her rock and crouched by her
sister.

‘From now on Kerris, we
do as we wish. We take no orders.’

The Bear got in before
Tika. ‘Oh yes you do. If I say that Kerris is to tidy her room, or
go hunting with my son, or play a game of snap-the-rat with me,
then so she will.’

Both girls peered up at
the huge man. They saw the frown, and they saw the twinkle in the
dark honey eyes. Shea straightened while Kerris’s smiles
returned.

‘I don’t mind doing
those things,’ she agreed.

‘And you will obey any
order given to you when we are in Kelshan,’ Tika spoke sternly and
fixed Shea with her fiercest glare. She was disconcerted by Shea’s
grin.

Sket had a brief fit of
coughing.

‘Well,’ he finally
managed. ‘If that’s sorted out, perhaps we should find out what the
Prince has planned for us?’

Tika and the girls
began to walk back down to the village, and The Bear gave Sket a
solemn wink. The Bear put a hand on Sket’s shoulder, holding him
back long enough to let Tika and the girls walk out of
earshot.

‘Will she take the
Dragons?’

Sket felt the deep
voice vibrate down The Bear’s arm into his own body.

‘Cyrek says
not.’

The Bear nodded and
resumed walking to the village entrance. ‘Lemos told me they are
spirit bound, Tika and the young blue one. I thought they had to
stay close?’

Sket slowed, watching
Tika cross the open space in front of The Bear’s house.

‘When they were apart
before, it caused them both great distress,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘But Farn is so much calmer since the First Daughter restored him.
And Tika is changed. I have been surprised that Farn goes off so
happily without Tika. I know they can keep in mind contact with
each other at quite long distances, but he would not have left Tika
for whole days before.’

‘I spoke with Gold Wing
and her mage. Gedlin was there too.’

At Sket’s questioning
look The Bear elaborated.

‘Gedlin is the mage of
the Mad Goats. He is considered one of the most powerful among the
tribal mages.’

Sket shook his head,
grinning. ‘I understand Bear tribes, and Eagles, but Mad
Goats?’

The Bear’s laughed
boomed across the rocky ground. ‘They keep herds of goats but there
is a plant – Lemos would tell you what it is – which blooms very
soon after the snows melt. If the goats can get to the flowers
before they have turned to seed and eat them, they go crazy.’ He
shrugged. ‘They are a proud tribe, the Mad Goats, and often over
the many generations, their mages have gained the most
respect.’

‘So what did Gedlin
have to say?’ Sket asked as they continued past the stone
guardian.

‘He said the binding
between them had changed. He said it had both loosened and
tightened.’ The Bear slapped Sket’s back, nearly sending him
sprawling. ‘Mages eh? Love to talk in riddles. But he said she
would triumph eventually.’

Sket snorted. ‘Really
helpful then?’

The Bear gave a roar of
amusement and Sket moved prudently out of reach, just in case the
man decided to slap his back again. He suspected his shoulder
blades might well have been displaced from the first friendly
blow.

‘I will be coming with
you to Kelshan.’

The growl underlying
The Bear’s words made Sket decide to attempt no reply. Instead, he
went back to an earlier comment.

‘The mage said the bond
between Tika and Farn had changed. Would they have noticed
it?’

The Bear paused, his
foot on the steps to his house. ‘Oh yes. Gedlin was clear. Their
binding has altered and they know it. But to what extent that will
change either of them, or their closeness, only they could tell
you.’

He climbed the steps
and disappeared within, leaving Sket to mull over his words. Sket
glimpsed the massive shapes of Menagol and Essa coming up to the
village from the meadow and he decided he would find those three
engineers. He liked their company and exchanging far fetched
accounts of their various battles. He quite liked Dog. She didn’t
terrify him as Essa did. Although, thinking about those poppers
they seemed to love as if they were their children, and having seen
one demonstrated, Sket thought he should perhaps revise that
opinion.

Jemin’s officers had
wandered off in search of a meal while the Prince lingered over
rough maps of the different levels within the Citadel. Gossamer
Tewk strolled in, peered over his shoulder and jabbed a finger onto
the map.

‘That’s wrong. The
stairs are over there.’

Jemin glared at her.
‘General Whilk made no mention of that.

She shrugged, hitching
herself onto a corner of the table. ‘I’d be surprised if a general
really knew all the servants’ staircases and
passageways.’

Jemin’s glare remained.
‘And I would expect him to know every point of access to the
government departments throughout the building.’

Gossamer shrugged
again. ‘Ask Waxin Pule. He’d know. Is he coming with us by the
way?

Jemin shook his head.
‘He is an old man. His years in Kelshan have cost him highly in
regard to his health. Dark healers can alleviate his problems but
not cure them. He has earned a peaceful retirement.’

‘Peaceful retirement?’
Gossamer scoffed. ‘Don’t you understand anything about that
Splintered Kingdom? No one is heading for a peaceful retirement
with that Crazed One interfering more and more in our
lives.’

Jemin regarded her.
She’d spent nearly all her time here sketching and studying the
great mural in The Bear’s den. He had also noticed how she sat
apart from the crowd, but listening and watching. And, he’d wager,
storing away all the information she gleaned for later
consideration. He perched himself on the table as well.

‘Have you reached any
conclusions about that picture?’

She shot a quick glance
at him. ‘Lemos told me there are others. None quite so big as the
one here, but nearly all the tribes have some sort of painting
which they consider illustrates their history. The Eagles’ picture
is in a cave which they regard as sacred to their ancestors. I wish
I’d known that earlier.’

Jemin waited but she
seemed lost in thought.

‘Obviously I don’t
remember, but I did ask General Whilk if there were any like it in
Kelshan.’

Gossamer looked at him
with interest. ‘Are there?’

‘He said there was
something similar in my father’s study, but he’d never paid much
attention to it.’

‘It fascinates me,’
Gossamer admitted. ‘But I feel I’m missing something about it. I
didn’t even notice the Dragons until Emas pointed them
out.’

‘The tribes all say
that once, when time began, there was a Dragon tribe, but all of
them think that is just an invented tale.’

Gossamer pushed off
from the table and began to prowl the room. ‘I asked Tika if there
was anything like it in her lands, but she said not. She said she’s
seen carvings, free standing statues in a few places. But nearly
all decoration in Sapphrea is of patterns – squares, circles,
spirals – made of coloured stones. In some areas she said jewellery
is made but only simple things. She has never seen paintings on
walls and I had to explain the idea of portraits as we have them in
Kelshan.’

‘Did you see any of the
pictures within the Palace?’ Jemin asked.

Gossamer sat back on
the table. ‘Yes. They interested me when I noticed them. I thought
they were like little windows showing the world outside. There was
one, in the bedroom Shea had, of the seashore. That’s the one I
first really looked at. Then I realised they were everywhere,
pictures of all kinds of things. I wish I could make pictures like
that.’ She looked at Jemin, surprised she’d said so much to
him.

‘You could learn. There
are teachers in the Academy in Karmazen.’

‘I’m too old to learn,’
she said dismissively.

But Jemin realised that
somehow he had touched something in this strange woman and she in
turn had allowed him a glimpse of her inner self. He also saw that
she was on the point of withdrawing and he turned casually back to
the maps.

‘So the stairs should
be over here?’ He waved the map under her nose.

‘Yes, along
there.’

She met his eyes. ‘What
will we find in Kelshan?’ She’d lowered her voice although they
were alone in the room. ‘Tika felt the creature was nearby when she
went for Kerris.’

Jemin’s expression was
bleak. ‘I know. But I can wait no longer. That woman will bring
Kelshan to complete ruin. The wild clans are on the verge of
rebellion and several of the states within the Confederacy are
deeply unhappy with the taxes she imposes on their trade goods. She
must be stopped, before all of Kelshan becomes a killing
ground.’

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Hag drifted lazily on
the currents of air in the night sky high above Kelshan. She could
see, far beneath her, the specks of light clustered around the
harbour area. But they didn’t interest her. What she was watching
and waiting for were the sudden bursts of power. She cackled when
she sensed surges of that power in quick succession. She tilted a
wing, coming round in a long looping curve, dropping lower until
she could pick out buildings clearly along the threads of
streets.

A great grey stone
building loomed to the north of the harbour, high above the
surrounding houses. She adjusted her angle of flight and floated
down to land on the pinnacle of one of four towers. She settled her
feathers and waited again. Hag noted that the bursts of magic came
mostly from beyond this building, from the tangled streets of the
lower area. There was something within this place but it was
solitary, insignificant compared to the other magic.

Hag’s blood tingled
with it. She strutted restlessly round the tower and hopped onto
the parapet which enclosed an expanse of flat roof. Her excitement
grew when power burst from a section of the town to her right. She
took flight and swept on her broad wings directly towards the focal
point. She knew she was very close when mist seemed to blur the air
in front of her, buffeting her from her course. She squawked in
both annoyance and alarm. She found herself pushed sideways and
landed awkwardly beside a chimney.

Her beak snapped and
clattered. Hag glared around her, at first seeing nothing. Then she
realised there were ghosts huddled on the roof tiles beside her.
Ghosts had dared interfere with Anfled of the Dark? She began to
puff her chest feathers, ready to give these ghosts a piece of her
mind, when one darted forward. Her beak agape, Hag tilted her head,
a glittering eye fixed on the ghost. She concentrated and
listened.

‘All right. Take me
there.’

The ghosts streamed
away, a line of wispy smoke. Hag followed, watching them dive down
to a house set back from a narrow road amidst an overgrown garden.
Yes, as they’d said, she could sense only one living body
within.

Drengle List knocked
over his chair in his haste to get out of the way when an enormous
black raven glided into the kitchen and landed on the table. Hag
was pleased by the man’s look of terror and she turned to the woman
who still sat at the other end of the table. As she moved she
knocked over a pot with some flowers stuck in it.