Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (41 page)

‘Don’t worry. It was
Grek speaking,’ Khosa kindly informed the Emperor of
Wendla.

Tika moved past Jakri,
Sket close beside her.She gave Kasheen an innocent
smile.

‘I forgot to introduce
our other friend and companion – Grek. He is unbodied. What you
call a spirit I think.’

Imperial Blossom Lytzee
was opening the moon door as she spoke and she was fairly sure his
plume shivered more noticeably at her words. Kasheen’s face was
pale as he searched in vain for Grek. Sariko and Jakri seemed more
interested than alarmed.

‘Don’t worry.’ Grek’s
voice filled their minds, including the Blossoms standing rigidly
to attention along the corridor. ‘As Lady Tika has just told you, I
am a friend of this company. I noticed a few faded wraiths in your
Garden – I disapprove that you hold them here rather than letting
them free to expand.’

Kasheen opened and
closed his mouth but Khosa urged him to move on.

‘You can discuss that
while we’re eating dear Emperor.’

Wordlessly, Kasheen
followed the Blossom between a spaced rank of other such officers.
Tika and Sket waited for the Dragons to clear the moon door.
Neither Seela nor Brin had trouble with the width but had to crouch
to pass beneath the door. The gijan walked daintily beside Seela,
occasionally commenting to each other in their own tongue. As
Brin’s tail slithered through the door, Tika patted his great
shoulder. He lowered his head for a moment, eyes whirring with
excitement: adult though he was, he loved new adventures as much as
Farn.

Storm had caught up
with Navan and seemed intrigued by the Imperial Blossoms they
walked past. Farn caused some delay by insisting on waiting until
Tika and Sket had caught up with him. Gan watched a Blossom’s eyes
widen when Storm paused to peer more closely into his face. Gan
rested his hand lightly on Storm’s neck, remembering how the sea
Dragon had snarled at Kertiss in the Dome. Storm would be quickest
to anger he’d concluded then and had resolved to stay close to him
during this visit to Bracca.

The corridors were of
white stone: floors, walls and ceiling, lit from a source Tika
couldn’t see. It wasn’t long before double doors swung open and
they found themselves in a large vaulted chamber. Natural light
poured in through windows set high along one wall. A long table was
set in the middle of the room, almost insignificant in the
otherwise empty space. There was a dais at the furthest end, on
which three enormous chairs stood, carved and set with glittering
crystals.

Each chair was overhung
by a canopy and both Brin and Seela began to huff, advancing on the
dais with some speed. Kasheen whirled, saw what was happening and
unceremoniously dumped Khosa on a surprised Blossom.

‘It is carving only,
great ones,’ he called as he hurried towards them.

Jakri, fully recovered
from his earlier nervousness, was enjoying himself hugely now and
found it took a considerable effort to hide his smile at hearing
the Emperor Kasheen using the term “great one”. Kasheen climbed
onto the dais, Seela following him. She reared up to examine the
likeness of a Dragon’s head which formed the canopy over the
central chair.

‘It is a carving,’
Kasheen repeated. ‘Done with mage craft.’

The others had gathered
near the dais now and saw the Dragon’s head was made of crystal.
The light refracting through the interstices of melded crystals
gave it at one moment a clarity, at the next a milky opacity. The
eyes were two fist sized sapphires, cleverly cut so they seemed to
blink and move. The jaws were slightly open and crystal fangs
protruded, dagger sharp. Seela finally eased herself down the steps
of the dais and reclined some paces away.

‘Why should you have a
likeness of one of my Kindred in your hall?’ she asked, her gaze
still fixed on the Dragon’s head.

‘It is said that in the
Time Before, Dragons ruled this land of Wendla.’ The Empress Sariko
walked across to Seela, standing fearlessly before her.

Seela lowered her face
to study the human female. ‘I have no memories of this land,’ she
said, her mind tone flat.

‘Even so Lady Seela,
our histories say that Dragons bred with Wendlans and their sons
became Dragon Lords who ruled for millennia.’

Kasheen was watching
his wife and Seela but Jakri saw the looks of surprise exchanged
between the other members of the party.

‘But there is a new
Dragon Lord.’ Farn sounded pleased to be helpful. ‘In the north. He
is our friend.’

Regardless of imperial
protocol, Jakri sat down. What more surprises would he witness this
day? The man with the chestnut brown eyes surrounded by silver sat
down next to him and gave him a sympathetic smile.

‘Believe me Master
Jakri, I know how you feel.’

‘I suggest we all sit
down.’ Gan held a chair for Tika and Navan copied his example for
the Empress.

The gijan swooped on
the dozens of plates and dishes spread along the table, helped
themselves to a bizarre mixture of foods and retreated to perch on
Brin’s back. Two Imperial Blossoms still stood at attention,
awaiting orders. Before Kasheen could dismiss them, Gan suggested
politely that they should stay.

‘I would be interested
to hear how your armsmen are ordered.’

If Kasheen was startled
by the request it was only a minor shock after all the previous
ones.

‘Sit, sit,’ he waved
the Blossoms to chairs at the table.

With some hesitation
they removed their plumed helmets, putting them on the floor behind
their chairs and thus revealing shaven skulls. Gan smiled
encouragingly.

‘The Emperor called you
a first rank officer I believe,’ he asked the one he thought was
called Lytzee. ‘What is the rank above you?’

‘Me.’ Kasheen gave a
rueful grin, shaking his head. ‘I have to admit that the little you
have said knocks most of my beliefs and ideas flat to the ground.
Please help yourselves to food.’ He turned to Tika who sat between
Sket and Gan. ‘Is your friend Grek here?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Grek
replied.

‘Oh.’ Kasheen couldn’t
help looking hopefully around the Chamber.

‘If it helps, I will
stay at the end of the table.’ It sounded as though Grek’s patience
was becoming strained.

‘What did you mean –
about faded wraiths?’

‘Spirits should not be
held to one place. They either grow melancholy and fade or they
become irritable and try to cause trouble. Stars above, you know of
the Bound Ones?’

Kasheen
nodded.

‘Do you think they’ll
be in friendly, kindly moods if they are freed?’

‘But what else could
have been done with them except bind them to a place?’

It was Seela not Grek
who answered him. ‘They should have been taken to pieces, every
particle of them scattered beyond any reuniting. But the mages of
the time did not know how to accomplish this disintegration of
souls.’

‘Does anyone now?’
Jakri asked aloud.

Khosa hooked a piece of
cold fowl from the table to Sariko’s knee where she’d ensconced
herself.‘We do.’

‘You do?’ Jakri
repeated in awe.

‘We have always
believed we must keep our ancestors closely guarded in our Family
Gardens so that their spirits will protect the House and guide
House members.’ Kasheen frowned, trying to grasp Grek’s contrary
view.

‘If you were
imprisoned, would you spend eternity protecting and helping your
gaolers?’ Grek asked with asperity.

‘The spirits of our
ancestors maintain the harmonious balance of our lives. They
protect us, we venerate them.’

‘I think I am beginning
to understand something,’ Tika interrupted. She met Ren’s eyes and
he nodded. She sat back in her chair. ‘Someone said to me that
there was stagnation in my lands of Sapphrea which could only be a
bad thing. All the people I have met since I soul bonded with Farn,
talk of harmony or balance.’

She lifted her hands
above the table, holding them level. She dipped one hand lower than
the other. ‘I have understood imbalance to be bad, but I wonder if
that’s true after all.’

Everyone was listening
closely. Tika looked helplessly across the table at Ren.

‘I also was taught that
balance was the most important thing but I have realised it means
that nothing changes – all must stay the same.’

Silvered eyes met
silvered eyes.

‘Slaves must be forever
slaves, emperors forever emperors.’

Kasheen stared from Ren
to Tika and back. ‘But that is how life, society, survives
surely?’

Tika smiled. ‘I am
considered the leader of this group of friends.’

Kasheen nodded: that
had been plain from the first glimpse he’d had of her in Jakri’s
memory.

She shrugged. ‘I am
slave born.’

She realised as she
said those words that she was at last free. Those four words no
longer weighed her down: they were a fact of her past, would always
affect the way she acted or reacted in certain situations, but they
were no more now than four simple words.

‘I have changed,’ she
continued. ‘The gijan changed. My dear friend Mim has
changed.’

Again she glanced at
Ren. He was smiling broadly.

‘And change means
altering the balance,’ he said. ‘Perhaps for the worst, but it
could also be for the better. It could mean progress from the
stagnation our world has lived in for the past millennia at least.
I have come to think that to maintain an unchanging balance may be
highly unwise.’

Gan listened to Ren’s
words and Kasheen’s arguments against drastic change, but he was
thinking of the girl beside him. He was poorly gifted in the power
the Asatarians had believed until recently was unique to them. That
was why he had chosen a life in arms, becoming Captain of Lady
Emla’s Guards and thus the fighting leader of the Asatarians. But
he was still able to sense more than most ungifted humans. He had
recognised the importance of Tika’s words: I am slave born. He felt
her pleasure and pride in the relinquishing of the resentment which
she had used as an armour against the world.

Kasheen and Jakri had
listened closely to the exchange between Ren and Tika, both aware
of undertones which they did not understand. Kasheen looked down
the table at his Blossoms.

‘I have suggested
sending warriors to support Malesh instead of attacking it Lytzee.
Opinion.’

Both Blossoms stood
up.

‘We only exist to obey,
Mightiness,’ said the one named Lytzee.

‘No, no, no.’ Kasheen’s
fist on the table top set two dishes chiming against each
other.

The companions noticed,
as the Blossoms stood rigidly to attention, that the plume insignia
was etched on Lytzee’s lacquered chest plate: presumably this was
the identifying mark of his superior rank.

‘Lady Tika has told of
thousands of desert men advancing into Malesh.’ Kasheen hesitated
only briefly then fixed Lytzee with the Imperial gaze. ‘The old
tales of Bound Ones is true unfortunately, and two at least are
close to becoming freed. I do not wish that piece of information
spread throughout Wendla, you understand. I repeat, your
opinion?’

Lytzee’s eyes had
narrowed when Emperor Kasheen spoke of the Bound Ones, but he
replied instantly.

‘Mighty One, we are
yours to command. My opinion is irrelevant but I think to aid
Malesh would be wisest at this time. It would surely be to
everyone’s benefit if their mages together with ours could
concentrate solely on containing such as the Bound
Ones.’

He bowed his head as he
finished speaking.

‘Jakri?’ Kasheen turned
to the Master of House Jade.

‘I’m sure all the
Houses would concur, Greatness. When one considers the numbers of
mages alone lost in the battle which bound the Four, it would be
best to have every mage attending to the same matter.’

‘Taseen was one of
those mages in the last battle,’ Ren interposed quietly. ‘He has
survived but his power has not.

Kasheen digested that
remark. ‘Second rank officer – your name?’

Lytzee’s companion
clasped his hand across his chest in salute. ‘Chimchoo, Gracious
Lord.’

‘Send runners to all
the Houses. They are to attend the palace with only two senior
mages each at the fifth bell.’

Chimchoo reached for
his helmet, saluted again and marched from the Chamber. Jakri
thanked the spirits that the year hadn’t reached the hot season
when most Houses would have departed the swelter of the city for
their estates.

‘Forgive me,’ Kasheen
inclined his head to Tika. ‘I trust it will be convenient for you
to remain for the meeting of Houses?’

‘When is – the fifth
bell did you call it?’ Ren asked.

‘Dusk,’ Kasheen
replied. ‘Will you stay this night in the palace?’

Tika checked Brin and
Seela’s thoughts on the matter and nodded. ‘The Dragons would
prefer to rest outside these walls – can we return to your Garden
to sleep, or is there another courtyard rather than the place you
hold so sacred?’