Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (44 page)

The door flew open and
a grey robed figure hurried out, his sandals flapping against the
floor as he went quickly back along the passage in the direction of
the stairs. A querulous voice barked a command and other feet
approached. Then the door was firmly closed again. Khosa eased away
from Akomi, did a tail end up, front end down stretch and
blinked.

‘Can you get us to the
Empress’s garden now? Preferably without meeting that insolent
female again?’

‘Certainly. Do you have
friends there?’

‘Aah.’ Khosa paused. ‘I
haven’t had a chance to explain much have I? Well, I’ll tell you
what I can on the way.’

By the time Akomi had
led them, in and out of chambers, along outside window ledges and
then down a dark, seemingly abandoned corridor, his whiskers were
quivering with excitement. He took them into a brighter part of the
palace and dashed between ranks of Imperial Blossoms to arrive, a
touch breathless, outside a large iron studded door. He turned to
Khosa.

‘These are the
Empress’s day rooms.’

‘Tika?’ Khosa sent the
thought through the door. ‘I would like you to meet a friend I have
found.’

In a very few moments
the door opened and Khosa slid through Tika’s feet, Akomi close
behind. Tika shut the door and turned to stare at Khosa’s new
friend.

‘His name is Akomi and
he is the only cat in this place who can use mind speech – if you
can believe that’s possible.’

Tika regarded the new
cat. His fur was splotched with black and brown and flecks of
white, but the eyes that stared solemnly back at her shone like old
gold coins. Tika knelt, reaching a hand to him.

‘Welcome
Akomi.’

She looked at Khosa to
try and ascertain what else she was expected to say and saw Khosa’s
ragged ear.

‘What happened to you?
Oh Khosa, that must hurt – come here.’

She scooped Khosa into
her arms, exclaiming over the wound even as she began to heal it.
Khosa began her throaty croon and Akomi crept nearer, watching as
the tears closed and Khosa’s ear grew whole again. A little bald
but whole.

‘Thank you,’ Khosa
murmured. She looked up into Tika’s face when she’d slid off the
girl’s lap. ‘Twice today I’ve had to offer thanks.’

Tika grinned. ‘Then we
should mark this day as most unusual, shouldn’t we?’

Khosa’s tail whisked
upwards and she stalked towards the courtyard in dignified silence.
Tika reached for Akomi, lifting him gently.

‘I thank you for coming
to Khosa’s aid,’ she began and felt the old cat tense in her arms.
She rubbed her cheek against the top of his head. ‘This is Farn, my
soul bond.’

Farn had managed to
squeeze halfway into the room, his long neck extended to reach
Tika.

‘You were healing, my
Tika – are you well?’ His eyes whirred grey and cobalt with
concern.

‘I’m fine, dear one.
Khosa was hurt; she had half her ear ripped off.’

Farn winced at the idea
then focused on the creature in Tika’s arms.

‘This is Akomi, Farn.
He cared for Khosa and brought her back to us safely. He is the
only cat here who has mind speech so Khosa – and I – invite him to
join our company.’

Tika was allowing Akomi
to hear her conversation with the silver blue Dragon and she hoped
Farn realised she was asking him for kindness to this very
different Kephi. Farn’s long beautiful face lowered to nearly touch
Akomi.

‘Welcome Akomi. It must
be very boring to have no one to talk to.’

Tika sent a pulse of
gratitude to him, and then one of caution. Akomi, leaning back
against her chest, was slowly stretching a predominantly brown paw
towards the tip of Farn’s nose. Farn stayed quite still as Akomi’s
paw, claws retracted, rested upon the soft blue hide.

‘I have only heard the
humans talk of the Dragon folk. I am so glad I have lived to see
one such.’

Farn’s eyes flashed
with relief and he gently drew away. ‘Then come outside and meet
three more,’ he said cheerfully.

He began to reverse out
of the room and Tika stood up, still holding Akomi. She scratched
her fingers behind the old cat’s ears and he half closed his eyes
in pleasure.

‘There are three gijan
– other winged folk, Akomi. None of them will harm you,’ she told
him as she followed Farn into the sunlight.

They found Leaf
crooning over Khosa, the Empress Sariko standing half enfolded in
the black and dusky pink feathered wings as they examined Khosa’s
ear. Piper and Willow swooped from the trees to enclose Tika,
trilling to each other as they regarded Akomi. Curved talons
touched him lightly then Piper caught the old cat from Tika’s arms
and carried him across to Seela. Tika sent a pleading thought to
the Dragons:

‘Don’t let those gijan
frighten him – he is not young and has been very
solitary.’

Willow looked over his
shoulder at Tika, small pointed teeth showing in his
smile.

‘We will be gentle
Tika.’

Tika frowned. She had
sent that thought focused only to the Dragons – how had the gijan
overheard? She watched Willow take Akomi ceremoniously around the
courtyard introducing him to everyone. Mistress Oniko came to stand
beside her.

‘We had no idea other
creatures had mind powers.’

Tika laughed. ‘The same
mistake was made in my land,’ she admitted. A thought occurred to
her. ‘Do you have Merigs here?’

‘Merigs?’ Oniko frowned
but when Tika sent her a mental picture of the birds she referred
to, Oniko’s frown cleared.

‘Oh yes, they are
common birds. We call them crows.’

Tika concentrated hard
for some time, Oniko watching her with puzzled interest. A harsh
croak echoed from high overhead and Oniko followed Tika’s upward
gaze. A Merig drifted down between the blank walls and landed
prudently on the highest point of a thinly branched tree. He
shuffled dusty black feathers into a semblance of tidiness and
clattered his horny beak.

‘Someone summoned a
messenger?’

The Empress and
Mistress Oniko gaped at the hoarse voice in their minds. Tika moved
towards the tree, squinting up at the bird silhouetted above
her.

‘I have spoken with
many of your kind in my land far across the great sea. In that land
they are known as Merigs.’

The beak was clattered
again. ‘We are crows in this land. You say my cousins across the
water carried messages for you?’

‘They did, and very
bravely too on several occasions.’

The crow stretched to
make himself taller.

‘Do you know of a place
northwest of here, called Green Shade?’

‘Of course. I have been
there myself several times. I came from my egg not far from that
place.’

‘How long would a
message take to reach there?’

‘If you wish me to take
it all the way personally, perhaps four or five days. If you ask me
to relay it through my brethren, the message would be there by
tomorrow’s dawn.’

Tika put her hand on
her sword hilt and bowed, her other hand over her heart.

‘Would you relay a
message then, to say Tika and her companions are all well and hope
to be in Green Shade again in the next few days. The message goes
to Maressa, air mage of Vagrantia who abides there.’

The crow repeated the
brief message and launched himself into the air. Tika turned,
shaking her head at the stunned faces of Sariko and Oniko. Before
either could speak, an Imperial Blossom entered from the outer
door.

‘His Mighty
Gloriousness requests your presence in the lesser chamber of
audience.’

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Seela and Brin said
they would stay outside: they would listen, through Ren, to
whatever was said in the audience chamber. The gijan too preferred
to remain in the courtyard. As Gan led the others along the passage
followed by Storm and Farn, Grek spoke to Tika.

‘I have been to
Namolos,’ he told her quickly. ‘Time is of the essence. She who
Vorna seeks to free is fully awake. I stopped in Harbour City to
urge Chevra to warn his mages to prepare for
catastrophe.’

They had entered the
chamber by now and found a few Heads of Houses and several more
House mages still with the Emperor. Kasheen broke off his
conversation with one of the Heads of House.

‘House Amethyst,’ he
waved at the man to whom he’d been speaking. ‘Asaji. He has
promised a mage for each of my ships to give added
protection.’

This was said with some
satisfaction although its significance escaped the companions. Gan
nodded nevertheless to encourage Kasheen to further revelations.
When none were forthcoming, Tika folded her arms.

‘I have been informed
that we have little time left,’ she told the Emperor. ‘The one you
call witch woman is far closer to achieving her goal than we had
thought.’

The Head of House
Amethyst frowned. ‘We will do all we can from here Mistress Tika, I
can promise you we will spare nothing. This cannot be allowed to
happen.’

He bowed hurriedly and
turned, his ornately embroidered lavender robes swirling around him
and strode from the hall. The Emperor stared at Tika.

‘You have been
informed?’ he enquired.

‘She has indeed,’
snapped Grek.

Kasheen stiffened then
sat down, forcing himself to seem more relaxed than he was. ‘I
should have guessed.’

‘I went as close to the
woman’s estates beyond Harbour City as I dared.’ Grek spoke in all
minds and people still in the chamber turned puzzled faces to each
other.

‘The very air is
disrupted for some distance around. Behaviour is changing amongst
both humans and animals in the vicinity. I had hoped for help from
Namolos but he is already engaging with Cho Petak.’ Grek hesitated.
‘Cho Petak is now unbodied and he knows all about undoing the
threads of a soul.’

There were murmurs
among those mages still present and Kasheen felt it necessary to
explain exactly what Grek was. Gasps of shock replaced the murmurs
but Tika spoke over the increasing noise.

‘Can your ships sail
today Kasheen? And your mages – have they found any ancient spells
that might have relevance to our predicament?’

A mage in a plain dark
blue gown nodded. ‘We have found some which may be of use. We are
transcribing them now and it has been agreed that all our knowledge
will be shared.’

Kasheen agreed. ‘I have
decreed that the palace is open to all for now – this chamber is
freely available to mages of all Houses and the archives and
laboratories are also at their disposal.’

Tika repressed a
shudder at the memory of Orla’s laboratory but she trusted such
places here could not perpetrate such evil
experimentation.

‘The first ten ships
will sail on this evening’s tide,’ Kasheen continued. ‘And the
second fleet will follow within days. The captains have said that
by stripping the ships to the barest essentials, they can carry
fifty more warriors each, plus two more Blossoms and perhaps two
extra mages. That means the first fleet will have one and a half
thousand warriors, seventy Blossoms and fifty mages. The second
fleet will carry the same. I have already called in ships from some
of the seafaring Houses for conversion to transports for more
warriors.’

Ren did some
calculations in his head and imagined how incredibly close packed
men would be in those ships. Tika took a step forward and saluted
Kasheen formally.

‘I and my companions
will go at once to Green Shade and from there back to Malesh. I
will try to urge the Grand Harbour Master to intensify his efforts
– in the north with his armsmen but his mages should concentrate on
the Bound One within Malesh.’

A mage in the lemon
yellow gown of House Citrine interposed. ‘Excuse me Mistress Tika,
but from what you’ve told us, there could be a similar problem
rising in the desert. The Grand Harbour Master would be most unwise
to send men unaided by any mage craft into such possible
danger.’

Tika bit her lip: of
course the man was correct. She gave a curt nod. ‘I take your point
and will so inform the Grand Harbour Master.’

‘I would ask that
Master Jakri accompanies us,’ said Ren unexpectedly. ‘He will
surely be more adept at keeping contact with the Wendlan mages than
either ourselves or the Maleshans.’

Kasheen thought
rapidly. He glanced at the Heads of Houses still in attendance and
noted their nods of agreement.

‘Very well. Summon
Master Jakri at once,’ he called to an Imperial Blossom.

‘The Maleshan mage
Taseen will remain at Green Shade,’ Ren went on. ‘He is too frail
to travel far or fast but his wisdom may still count for a
considerable amount.’

Again Kasheen
considered Ren’s words.

‘I will send someone to
keep him company.’ He saw Tika’s scowl. ‘No – I mean someone to
keep him company – nothing more. Perhaps Mistress Oniko would
agree.’