Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (29 page)

‘As you wish Grand
Master. Do you want them ready to sail?’

Chevra glared at him.
‘Well of course I do.’

Commander Bavvis rose,
bowed and departed.

At last Chevra sat down
staring at his six Councillors.

‘I’m surrounded by
idiots,’ he declared loudly.

Vorna had charmingly
invited Lessna and Sheoma to dine with her that evening. Lessna
accepted but Sheoma pleaded lectures to prepare. Vorna accepted her
refusal with a smile but her eyes were calculating. Sheoma kept a
bright expression on her face while a shiver slid down her
spine.

That evening she walked
through the upper corridors of the Councillors Wing of the Palace
to Tavri’s apartments. Perhaps she should have accepted Vorna’s
invitation she mused. But she had arranged to meet Tavri to
consider some means of contacting Taseen.

Sheoma had never much
liked Vorna. The woman always made her feel unsettled. As
apprentices, Sheoma and Lessna had both been approached by Vorna
who offered to take them as her disciples. Sheoma instinctively
declined, although she was wise enough to phrase her refusal in
terms of the deepest regret. Lessna had also refused, citing her
strong calling to the healing arts and botanical sciences. Sheoma
suspected Lessna would have liked to have been Vorna’s disciple –
for the wrong reasons. Vorna was second in age only to Taseen but
was widely considered to be the real source of political and
magical power within the Council.

Lessna found political
power rather tempting but common sense had prevailed. She continued
to work and study under Sula, the highly esteemed healer mage who
had refused a place on the Council years ago. Sheoma paused at
Tavri’s door, glancing down at the young girl beside her. She had
appeared at midday, saying simply that Harrip had sent her. Now she
gave Sheoma a slight nod.

‘Harrip sent one of us
to the Mage Tavri. I will sit with him and wait while you visit
Mage Tavri, if that suits, Mage Sheoma?'

Tavri ushered Sheoma
through to his workroom which adjoined Taseen’s rooms. Sheoma felt
the slight tingle as she broke the warding Tavri had set across the
door. She slumped into a battered armchair and waited as he reset
the minor shielding.

‘A lesser shield?’ she
queried.

He chuckled. ‘That’s
what it seems at a cursory glance. But beneath is a major
shielding.’

Sheoma kicked off her
sandals and tucked her feet beneath her. She grinned
suddenly.

‘Did you see Vorna’s
face when Chevra said he was surrounded by fools?’

‘Taseen was right about
him though, wasn’t he? I never quite believed him.’

‘I have had no luck
trying to back track Vorna’s movements on her estates – have
you?’

Tavri sighed. ‘Not a
thing. Again, Taseen never told me the precise locations of the
Bound Ones but from hints I’m sure one of them must be near Vorna’s
estate. He said to me once, that she made a tremendous effort to
obtain those estates from Xantip the Fifth. The main estate
belonged to Xantip’s third son and when he died of summer ague,
Vorna claimed the estate to be the only suitable place for a Mage
Councillor of her standing.’

Sheoma did some mental
arithmetic. ‘You mean she may have been trying to release the Bound
One for nearly four centuries?’ she asked in horror.

‘It proves how powerful
the spells constructed by Taseen and all those mages who died
actually were,’ Tavri retorted.

‘When did Taseen first
suspect what Vorna was up to?’ asked Sheoma.

‘I don’t know – maybe
less than a hundred years. But so much of his power was dissipated
in that last battle, power he has never regained.’

They sat in silence for
a time, Sheoma imagining, really for the first time, how it must
feel to be Taseen: to have lost that sublime link that connected
mages to an immense living force. She shivered at the thought. How
could he bear it?

‘How much does Chevra
really know?’ Tavri interrupted Sheoma’s reflections. ‘I have to
admit that I don’t think even Taseen suspected Harrip of keeping
Chevra quite so well supplied with information.’

‘Why did he want ships
brought to the Palace wharf?’ Sheoma remembered Chevra’s order to
Commander Bavvis. ‘Would he send someone after Taseen do you
think?’

Tavri handed her a bowl
of tea and sat down opposite her. ‘I cannot see the point of that.
They’d never catch three ships from the pirate islands that have so
many days head start anyway.’

‘May I introduce
myself?’ a male voice asked politely.

Sheoma and Tavri froze.
They could find no mind trace within the room and Tavri’s shielding
was still in place, its alarm not activated.

‘My name is Grek and I
am known to Taseen,’ the voice continued. ‘He asked if I would warn
Sheoma that either a Dragon or the air mage whom I believe you met,
Maressa, will attempt to far speak you. He felt you might be
somewhat alarmed unless you were forewarned.’

‘Erm, yes, I see.
Perhaps I would,’ Sheoma agreed, her eyes wide. ‘Who ARE
you?’

‘I told you. My name is
Grek and I am unbodied. I have no physical body to hold me tied to
any particular place, thus I can travel far and fast. As a matter
of fact, I seem to do little lately except travel far and fast.’
The voice sounded mildly disgruntled.

‘May I ask what
happened to your body?’ Sheoma was sure she was dreaming – this
conversation was not truly taking place. Was it?

‘I was unbodied long
ago but have since shared the bodies of many Sapphreans – the
people beyond the great desert. I did them no harm and they had no
idea I was present within them. Until the last one.’

Now the voice tone was
tinged with – regret? - remorse? Sheoma couldn’t tell.

Tavri finally collected
his wits. ‘Why can you not carry our messages to Taseen
then?’

‘I am not just a
messenger,’ Grek replied frostily. ‘I have other things to do. In
fact I must be on my way now.’

‘But can you not at
least tell us where Taseen is now? Or where you have to
travel?’

Silence met Tavri’s
questions and after waiting in vain for a while, they realised Grek
must indeed have left them. The silence drew out, both mages deep
in their own thoughts.

‘There are too many
strange things happening for them to be coincidence,’ said Sheoma.
‘Gijan, Dragons, the strangers who came through the desert. And did
anyone ever know of the great valley those strangers told of? Why
were they led through it to meet the Ship they spoke of and then
allowed to come to Malesh? But at the last they had to fight the
men sent to guide them. Although why the desert men waited until
they’d nearly left their lands before striking I’m not
sure.’

‘Well obviously it
would look as though the strangers had tried to enter the desert
rather than be leaving it should any find their bodies. I wonder if
that attack was ordered by the man in the Dome or was it just an
impulse?’

‘It was the name Gan
used that worried me most,’ Sheoma frowned. ‘The people call
themselves after one of the Bound Ones – how many times must that
name have been spoken, calling him awake again?’

Tavri rubbed his
forehead. ‘Does Vorna know of the desert valley and its
occupants?’

‘She cannot surely. She
would have got herself up there somehow, long before this, if she
had the faintest inkling of such a place. Tavri, are you sure
Vorna’s estate is close to a Bound One’s prison? Taseen spoke of
one deep beneath the waters between here and Wendla, of one in the
desert. He believes one is in the lands of Drogoya. He said he
thought the fourth was also far north of the desert.’

Tavri stared at her.
‘Taseen was involved with the binding of the one in the desert and
the one in the sea. Then he collapsed. Other mages dealt with the
remaining two.’

‘If Taseen is correct
in his assumption that two children are bound either far north or
on the other side of the world, what could Vorna have disturbed on
her estate? Tavri please tell me there is nothing else as bad as
the Bound Ones – or, gods forbid, worse?’

Before he could answer,
Sheoma stiffened in her chair. ‘Link with me Tavri, someone far
speaks.’

‘I am Brin. Maressa
cannot reach you – we are too distant now. I do not think even I
will reach you after another day. Taseen says he begs you to beware
Vorna. Also to speak with the one named Chevra.’

‘But wait Brin.’
Sheoma’s mind forced itself against Brin’s flow of thoughts. ‘Tell
Taseen we don’t believe Vorna has discovered a Bound One, but we
don’t know what it might be. We shall try to discover more but if
you can’t far speak us for more than another day, how can we
communicate?’

There was a pause as
though the Dragon was relaying Sheoma’s thoughts.

‘Taseen says we will
have to use Grek. Grek is -’

‘Grek has spoken to us
this evening,’ Sheoma interrupted again. She could sense the Dragon
was tiring and marvelled that he could even manage to send his
thoughts so far.

‘Rest Brin,’ she warned
him. ‘Try once more tomorrow but it will be too dangerous for you
to far speak after that I’m sure.’

She saw Tavri nodding
vigorously, a look of concern on his face.

‘We leave Dawn Island
soon.’ Brin’s mind voice was fading to almost a whisper in their
heads and then the contact was gone.

‘Gods and goddesses
above and below!’ Tavri murmured. ‘What strength the Dragon
has!’

‘Tavri!’ Sheoma hissed
in alarm.

The door wardings
shimmered and wavered, as if some unseen hand pushed at them from
outside. Tavri stood a few paces from the door, head bowed, hands
clasped in front of him as he concentrated. Sheoma caught her
breath: the tiny tendrils of light indicating Tavri’s wardings
flickered across the walls and ceiling. The lights shone brighter
and steadied. Whoever was attempting to invade Tavri’s apartments
was using a huge amount of energy to do so. But while Sheoma
stared, the lights paled and winked out.

Tavri exhaled a gusty
breath and staggered. Before Sheoma could reach him, he groped for
the back of a chair to support himself. He managed a pale smile of
reassurance when she helped him to the armchair and swung the
kettle over the fire.

‘Who was it Tavri? Was
it Vorna?’

Tavri leaned his head
back against the cushions and closed his eyes.

‘Bajal.’

‘Bajal?’ Sheoma gaped
at him. ‘But he is barely average in mage powers; he could not
apply such pressure to your defences!’

Tavri opened his eyes
with an obvious effort. ‘It was Bajal but he was being fed power
from another source.’

‘So it was Vorna.’
Sheoma sat back on her heels by the fire. ‘What now Tavri? Do we
pretend nothing happened, or confront Bajal?’

‘Bajal will be in his
bed for the next two days at least. Vorna used him with no regard
for his weakness. He was simply a conduit. Do you suggest we should
confront Vorna herself?’

Chapter
Seventeen

Unknown to Ren and the
companions on board Spiral Star, Storm was in constant mind
communication with those he called the great ones. The Sapphreans
had been dumbfounded at the first sight of whales breaching once
they had left Dawn Island a day in their wake. Storm was delighted
to find that this group he spoke with knew his Flight. The enormous
female who led them, whose name was Avgoor, said she had spoken
many times with Mist and with Ice when she took her family to the
cold northern waters each year. The other three Dragons and their
riders listened to Storm’s conversation.

��I would know the names
of your friends, little brother,’ Avgoor finally suggested once
Storm’s excitement calmed. ‘They have a different shape against the
Above to any I have seen.’

Storm remembered his
manners and introduced the three great Dragons and Sket, Maressa
and Tika. The whale was surprised to find the Dragons carried
members of the two leg race which accounted for their odd
silhouette against the sky.

‘They had never seen
the great waters before they came to the place where my Flight
spends the warmer time,’ Storm explained.

‘Indeed I had,’ Brin
interrupted. ‘I had told of it to my Treasury although they did not
believe me.’

‘I did.’ Farn was
indignant. ‘And I believed about the snow Dragons.’

‘May I ask something
Avgoor?’ asked Tika politely.

The huge shape below
rose in the sea, spouting a jet of steam and water. ‘You may ask,
but I may choose not to reply.’

‘Do you live all your
lives in the great seas? How do you bear your children or do they
come from eggs?’

Laughter rippled
through her mind, laughter from several sources Tika
noted.

‘But that is three
questions! Well, our children are born breathing from our bodies.
The two who swim beside me are my daughters.’