Sovereign (42 page)

'Which one?'

'The one you sleep with.'

'The one I love.'

'The one you sleep with,' she insisted, the laugh never far from her voice.

'She is wild and beautiful.'

'And she loves you.'

'Yes.'

'Tell me about the other one.'

'The other queen?'

'The other woman. The one you love.'

'No.'

'You will not tell me about her?'

'I do not love her.'

With one long, sharp nail she traced the shape of a heart on his chest. 'Tell me about her.'

'She is in pain all the time. I do not know how to reach her.'

'But you do not love her,' she said, pretending to pout.

'No.'

'Tell me about
her
.'

'The queen or the one I love?'

'The queen who hates you.'

'She is my sister.'

'She is half of you.'

'No.'

'She has half the Keys.' She used her finger to lift the Keys and study them closely. 'Is she beautiful?'

'I do not know.'

'Is she as beautiful as you?'

'I do not know.'

'I need all the Keys. Without them we cannot be together forever.'

'I know. I will kill her for you and take her Keys.'

'Soon,' she said, and then again, drawing out the word, rubbing her thigh against his. '
Soon
, my love.'

'You can have my Keys now,' he said.

She seemed to consider it, but let them drop from her finger. They clinked together. 'No.'

'But—'

She placed her hand over his mouth. 'No.' She lifted her hand and kissed him deeply. His head was filled with the great smell of her, of ancient earth and ancient sex. 'I will not be half complete.' After a long while she pulled back from him. 'I am half of you too.'

'If I am half my sister and half Silona, what is there of Lynan?'

'Nothing at all,' she said, her voice mocking. 'There never was.'

Another time she said to him, 'I will teach you to fly.'

'You will make me like you. I will be like Silona.'

'No one is like Silona,' she said. 'I am the last of my kind. I was here before your people came to Theare. We were hundreds then, each with our own great forest. At night we would fly over the continent and sing to one another. We would take each other on the wing. We had such beauty, such power.'

'Why are you the last?'

'All the others were slain by iron and fire, their forests butchered for farms, their wings turned into cloaks for petty horse-riding chieftains.'

'The Chetts killed your people?'

'You are all Chetts, dear Lynan.'

'Why are you still here?'

'Someone has to sing the song. Someone has to desire more than life.'

Another time she said to him, 'I will teach you pain.'

She held his head in her clawed hands and her nails bit deep into his scalp. His blood ran down her wrists and she licked them clean. She scraped her clawed hands down his chest and thighs until the blood ran down his legs and pooled at his feet and she devoured it all.

The pain was all the ecstasy he had ever known.

'Do you know pain?' he asked her.

'I know only desire,' she said, and he tasted the lie but was afraid to say so.

She saw the doubt in his face and it made her angry, She drew away from him.

'I am sorry,' he said.

She ignored him.

'Come back. I am sorry.'

She was smiling at him now, her face appearing behind branches and leaves. Teasing him.

'I will do anything,' he said.

She drifted towards him, carried on a breeze, her great black wings rippling in the sky. Behind her head the moon gave her a halo.

But there was the moon, above him.

The light behind her flared suddenly. He heard her scream, and the sound of it was like a dagger thrust into his own body.

Night. A single candle flickered on the washstand. Ager seated on his right, his head bowed in sleep. Korigan on his left, her body slumped over the bed, snoring softly.

And himself.

It took a moment, then he remembered who he was. And he remembered
her
.

'How long?' he asked.

He felt his chest and scalp. There was no bleeding, no scars.

'God.'

The light. Its echo still made him blink. What had it been?

He remembered it all. Tears sprang down his cheeks. His stomach roiled.

He wanted to vomit. He wanted to flay off his skin and throw it away. He wanted to cut off his sex. He wanted to dig out his own eyes, slice off his ears, lop off his own hands. He had been so fouled he would never be human again.

And yet he
still
desired her.

He glanced at his friends again. Ager stirred.

'No,' he said firmly. They must not see him or touch him ever again. He would be the cause of their death. He was becoming like her, like Silona, and everything close to him would corrupt. He would be a charnel house.

He wanted to close his eyes but was afraid of what he would see.

'Finish it,' some part of him said.

Kill myself
, he thought.
God knows, no one else can
.

'No,' that part of him said again. 'Finish it.'

Finish what
? He hunted down the thought.

Finish Silona. It was the only way he could be saved.

He slid out of the bed and dressed quickly. He found his weapons under his clothes and strapped them on. He stopped at the door. The Red Hands would follow him. They would never let him be. They would die for him.

'No one else will die for me,' he said, and went to the window. He eased it open and lightly jumped outside. He was in the courtyard. He could see Red Hands posted at each corner. It was too dark for them to see him. Slowly, quietly, he made his way from the courtyard to the stables. There were two hands there playing a game under a lantern. They did not hear him. He went behind the stables to the feeding yard and found a good Chett mare. The horse smelled him and started whinnying, but he held its head without hurting it and spoke to it and let it sniff the back of his hand and then his hair. He gathered a second mare the same way. He chose two bridles from some hanging from the yard fence, fitted them around the horses' heads and led them out of the yard. He snuck back into the stable and took a saddle and blanket, returned to the horses, fit one with the gear and mounted. Holding tightly onto the reins of both horses he kicked the one under him into a gallop, charging out of the palace before any of the guards could challenge him.

Through the dark he rode, east and then south, across the Barda River and deep into enemy territory.

'Where is he?' Jenrosa shouted.

Ager and Korigan leapt into the air, both reaching for their weapons. Jenrosa ignored them and rushed to the bed, desperately whipping aside the sheets even though it was obvious even a child could not have been hiding under them.

Jenrosa grabbed Ager by his poncho. The Red Hands looked on in shock and surprise. Surely even the White Wolf would be more careful around the crookback?

'God's death, Ager,' she shouted in his face, shaking him, 'where is Lynan?'

'I…' He looked around, confused. 'I fell asleep…'

Jenrosa turned on Korigan. 'You must have seen him! You must know where he is!'

Korigan looked blankly at her. 'No. He was here.' She looked up hopefully. 'The Red Hands on guard…'

Jenrosa nodded to two of the Red Hands, who looked shamefacedly down at the ground. 'Lynan did not go past them.' She saw the open window and ran across to it. She leaned out, called Lynan's name, anger and panic in her voice. Red Hands gathered from around the courtyard.

Jenrosa turned around and slumped against the sill. 'He's gone. I'm too late.'

Now it was Ager's turn to grab Jenrosa. 'What are you talking about? What's happened?'

She would not answer. To Ager, she seemed to fall in on herself, become at once diminished. He exchanged glances with Korigan.

'Get Gudon,' he commanded one of the Red Hands, then ordered everyone except Korigan and Jenrosa to leave the room. When they were alone, Ager and Korigan guided Jenrosa to the empty bed. Ager got a cup of water and forced some of it down her throat. She gasped and coughed, tried to push him away.

'Now, tell me what's happened,' Ager demanded.

'I tried to break the nexus between Lynan and Silona,' she said wearily.

'And?'

'And I don't know. Something happened tonight. Maybe the nexus was broken.' She rubbed her face with her hands.'Maybe.'

'Then where is he?"

Jenrosa shrugged. 'I don't know.'

Ager threw away the cup. It shattered on the floor. He held her head in his hands and forced her to look at him. 'You
do
know.'

She pulled away from him, slapped at his hands, kicked at his legs. 'I don't know!' she screamed. Ager retreated, surprised.

'I don't understand,' Korigan said, looking between the two.

'Jenrosa used her magik to try and free Lynan from the vampire's grip.'

'But something went wrong?' Neither answered ho 'Is he Lynan again?'

Gudon came in, grim-faced.

'Lynan is miss—' Ager started to explain.

'I know,' Gudon interrupted. 'The Red Hands told me he rode out of the palace.'

All eyes turned to him.

'When?' Jenrosa demanded, getting to her feet.
Maybe there is still time
, she thought.
Maybe if we can find him
…

'They came to me as soon as it happened.'

'Then we have to go after him,' Korigan said grimly, making for the door.

Ager stopped her.

'What are you doing?'

'Jenrosa?' Ager said. 'You know where he is going.'

How much can I tell them? I can't finish this task without their help
. She searched their faces as if she might find the answer there.

'Jenrosa?' Korigan urged. Jenrosa tried to close out the suffering she heard in that voice.

There's only one way to help Lynan now
, she thought,
and all of us
. She said, 'He must be going to her.'

'What?'

'To Silona. I destroyed whatever direct control she established over him after the battle against Charion's rebels. But her hold over him is still strong. She must have called to him as the connection between them was cut. I think he is riding for the forest where she lives.'

'Then we have to go after him,' Korigan repeated, looking at Ager as if daring him to challenge her again.

'We cannot,' Ager said tightly. 'To do so is to risk losing everything he has fought for.'

'We can't let him face Silona by himself!'

'That is not what I said. But you must stay here. You are the ruler of the Chetts, and in Lynan's absence the commander of all his forces. No one must know that Lynan has left Daavis.'

'But he was seen by the Red Hands—'

'They will not talk about it,' Gudon said over her. 'I will make sure of that.'

'Better, those who were on guard tonight can come with me to bring back Lynan,' Ager said.

'You?' Gudon said. 'Truth, better if I go. You will be missed.'

Jenrosa saw her chance. 'You will all be missed,' she said. 'Only I need go. He needs a magiker, not a warrior.'

'You cannot go by yourself,' Ager said.

'I will bring with me the Red Hands you would have taken.'

'You will need more than a handful of guards to ride through Chandra.'

'I am not going to war, Ager Parmer,' she said. 'As it is, we will not catch up with him before he reaches the forest. He is a lone rider, and a good one. Give me an escort of those Red Hands who were on duty tonight, no more. The rest of you must stay and carry on as if Lynan is still here. By now everyone in the city knows he is ill, so no one will be surprised that he is not seen around the palace. Leave the rest to me.'

The expression on all the faces of the other three showed their apprehension.

'You don't have a choice,' Jenrosa said. 'None of us has a choice any more.'

CHAPTER 26

'You are twisting yourself apart, my lord,' Barys told his master.

King Tomar did not reply. He could not deny it, after all.

'You have, I think, already made a decision,' Barys continued.

'Meaning?'

'That you are afraid to implement it.'

Tomar was not offended. Coming from anyone else, he would have been. With Barys, however, it was an observation, not a criticism. Barys knew the king too well to question his courage, and was not himself ashamed of fear.

'There is something inherently unlikable about irrevocable decisions,' Tomar said.

'You've made those before.'

'Never easily, and never with so much at stake.'

'The future of Chandra,' Barys said heavily.

'The future of all of Grenda Lear,' Tomar corrected him.

They were riding side by side outside the walls of Sparro. Up ahead was a large, level plain called the Field of Spears where Chandra's army traditionally mustered before marching off to war. Gathered there at the moment were the remaining knights of the Twenty

Houses. Without their armour they looked like nothing more than well-trained medium cavalry, but they moved with dash and elan. Many from the court had come to watch and admire their exercises and horsemanship.

'They do sit prettily,' Barys said.

'They fight well, too. I saw them in action once. I think their charge is the most frightening thing I have ever seen. I would hate to be at the receiving end of one.'

'They charged Lynan's lancers in their last major action.'

'And won.'

'Barely.'

The pair exchanged glances and half-smiles. 'The really interesting thing, of course,' Tomar said, 'is the fact that the Chetts have lancers at all.'.

Barys nodded. 'Kumul Alarn's doing, I'd say. He was involved in a similar unit under the General before being promoted captain of the Red Shields.'

'I wonder what else Lynan and his friends have introduced to the Chetts.'

'A great cause. Lynan's.'

They arrived at the field. The knights were practising the charge, starting at one end of the field and making to the other at full gallop. There were three lines. At first the lines stayed straight, but as the charge progressed they became more raggedy. Nevertheless, all the riders would have delivered their spear points against the enemy within one or two seconds of each other. That kind of shock was almost impossible to recover from, save for the best-trained and sturdiest infantry. The knights were battle winners, the final reserve; theoretically that meant they were not used until the final deciding blow was needed. If practice was not so tidy, it was often the fault of the knights themselves, who were ever eager to demonstrate their prowess and bugger the tactics. Tomar remembered that the General refused to use the knights because they were so unreliable.