The Crown of the Usurper (31 page)

  "We had best leave," said Allenya, the first to recover from the surprise. She grabbed Meliu's wrist. But the youngest queen pulled free.

  "You have to go, but I will stay here," said Meliu. She held up a hand to silence Allenya's protest. "Those legionnaires are not going to wait long until they can return the body to where it is supposed to be. Laasinia and Ariid will not be able to stop them, but they will be reluctant to defy a queen. I will keep them occupied so that you can get out of the palace; Urikh will have you hunted down as soon as he realises that you are still alive."

  "I do not agree," said Allenya. "It is not safe here."

  "Go, sister," Meliu said quietly. She looked at Ullsaard and then back at Allenya. "If you remain here, Urikh might well use you against our husband, as Anglhan did."

  "But what of you?" said Ullsaard.

  "We both know what controls your heart," replied Meliu with a wan smile. She looked at Noran and the smile strengthened. "Urikh also knows that, and Luia for all of her faults would not see me harmed to get at you."

  "I will stay too," said Ullnaar. He stepped up beside his mother and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Mother is right. The Brotherhood will have the city gate closed as soon as they know that you are trying to get away. The more time we can delay that discovery, the better your chances of escaping."

  "Urikh will know that you know I'm alive," warned Ullsaard. "He'll see that as a threat."

  "Lakhyri too," said Noran, with the same ominous undertone in his voice that Ullsaard had noticed earlier. "Even if you trust Urikh not to do anything harsh, I do not think the High Brother has any regard for you. This may persuade him that you are too much of a nuisance to keep alive."

  "I will take care of that," said Ullnaar. "A letter to my tutors will ensure that Urikh cannot move against us. They already know that all is not well in the palace, and even if they do not have the legion muscle of the Brotherhood the Colleges can still make life difficult for the king. Half of the nobles in the city attended the Colleges. No, if Urikh wants to keep a lid on your survival he cannot announce a general hue and cry. His own secrets will be his downfall."

  "I like you," said Noran, slapping the youth on the arm. "I do not know where you got that devious brain from, because it certainly was not your father."

  "He is not such a brute, you know," said Ullnaar, winking at his father.

  "Good, well now that we're all agreed that I'm not a simpleton, can we stop talking and get moving?"

  Ullsaard shook Ullnaar's hands and then gently moved him aside so that he could embrace his mother. Meliu returned the hug half-heartedly and Ullsaard looked closely at her as he stepped back. She returned his gaze, but he could tell from the twist of her body and tilt of her head that she was thinking about Noran.

  "You are wasted on me, I am sorry," said the king, kissing her on the cheek. "Thank you for everything."

  Meliu said nothing, but she nodded a fraction and dipped her eyes. A moment later she held a hand out to Noran, who took it and kissed her palm.

  "You know I could stay…" suggested the herald, but Meliu shook her head and pulled him into a closer embrace.

  "Look after my husband and sister," she said. "And look after yourself too."

  Ullsaard was getting impatient now. The farewells were not only eating up precious time, they made it seem as if they would never come back again. He was not in the mood for such defeatist thoughts and tugged at Noran's sleeve.

  "He'll be fine," the king told Meliu. "We have to go now."

  And with no further word, he strode through the apartments to the sun room at the rear. Sliding the bar from the double doors, he opened them with a single thrust, revealing a path that wound down between low hedges into the main gardens of the palace. Further down the hill he could clearly see the Grand Precincts. He stepped out without hesitation; behind him Allenya swept a cloak and hood over her shoulders and head as she followed, Noran close on her heels.

 

A familiar scent drifted into Erlaan-Orlassai's chamber a few moments before his visitor arrived: incense and decaying flesh. Lakhyri. There was something else as well, the smell of sword oil and perfume. The high priest had been spending time with Urikh again, and his blackcrest legionnaires.

  "What news from the palace?" Erlaan-Orlassai asked as Lakhyri stepped into the room.

  "Bad news," replied the high priest. "We have been betrayed. Ullsaard still lives."

  "You have too many kings, Lakhyri: perhaps it is time that you stopped playing them against each other," said Erlaan.

  He had spent a long time thinking about what the priest had promised, and his own place in the schemes of the Temple. He had drawn several; conclusions that were not to his liking and this latest announcement sealed the true heir's feelings on the matter. He stood up, hunched inside the small room but still towering over the high priest.

  "I will take matters into my own hands," announced the Prince. He gently pushed Lakhyri to one side with a clawed hand and moved towards the door, stooping to fit under the wooden lintel.

  "You cannot go out!" Lakhyri stepped in front of Erlaan-Orlassai. "You will be seen."

  "I do not care if I am seen," replied the Prince. "You assured me that I will rule this empire one day. There is no reason why today should not be that day. It is time for these pretenders to be shown their place."

  "It is not yet time," said Lakhyri. "There are other preparations to be made for our masters."

  "You are wrong," said Erlaan-Orlassai. "Do not forget the sense that you gave me. I feel the presence of the Eulanui, I know they are here in Askh. You delay for the sake of it."

  "No!" Lakhyri bared yellowing teeth. "All must be in order for the masters, or the consequences will be terrible. They will take what they are not given. The Brotherhood's precincts are nodes to the Temple, you know this. Stability must be restored and Salphoria brought into the empire properly."

  "That will still take many years," said Erlaan-Orlassai. "Why would I wait for so long?"

  "With a willing workforce and the support of a king the people can accept, we can have precincts in every major Salphorian town by midsummer. There are twenty thousand blackcrests ready to march, and the legions of the governors will soon be ours too. If you reveal yourself you jeopardise everything we both hope to achieve."

  Erlaan-Orlassai did not like the tone of the high priest but the message of his words struck a chord in the Prince's thoughts. For all that Lakhyri's argument made sense, his logic was little salve to the frustration the Prince felt.

  "I need to be out of this place," moaned the true heir. "For some time I have seen neither moon nor sun, nor felt fresh air in my lungs."

  "Years?" Lakhyri's sneering grimace was a lash to the Prince's pride. "I spent centuries in the Temple, away from this world and its pleasures and pains, in order that our masters were served properly. Many there are who have spent their whole lives not knowing of moon and sun. Your incarceration is a small inconvenience."

  "Not for me," replied the Prince, angered by Lakhyri's dismissive words. He reached out with taloned fingers and wrapped them around Lakhyri, engulfing his head. "I could crush your skull now and be free of your spiteful presence."

  "And you would never be king of Askh," the high priest replied, voice muffled by Erlaan-Orlassai's palm. "You need me."

  "Even so," said the Prince, releasing his grip, "I will not remain here any longer. If I am to hide, it will not be beneath these old stones, but under an open sky."

  Lakhyri stepped out of the way as Erlaan-Orlassai made another move towards the door. The Prince squeezed his way into the corridor and looked to the left and right. A startled Brother stood transfixed at the end of the passage to his right, mouth agape.

  "If you wish to stretch your legs, I have a suggestion," Lakhyri said from behind Erlaan-Orlassai.

  The Prince smile at the transfixed Brother, but revealing his razor-sharp teeth set the man to flight rather than comforted him. The patter of the Brother's receding footsteps echoed through the corridors.

  "At least wait until tonight," said Lakhyri, squeezing past the enormous prince. "If you wish to leave the Grand Precincts then you can do us both a service. Hunt down Ullsaard and slay him."

  The suggestions sent a gush of happiness through the Prince. He turned his bestial face towards the high priest.

  "Kill Ullsaard? Finally you want me to cut down that dog?" Excitement and expectation rose inside the Prince in equal measure. "That is no price for freedom, it is a reward."

  "He cannot have got far," said Lakhyri. The high priest started to walk and Erlaan-Orlassai paced beside him, taking slow strides, back bent and head twisted within the confines of the passageway.

  "He will head for the Greenwater. I will need a ship."

  "You think he will reach Narun before you can catch him?"

  "I think that he does not need to head to Narun," replied the Prince. The corridor made his voice loud in his ears and he winced slightly before continuing in a softer tone. "Ullsaard will avoid anywhere where the Brotherhood is strong or where there are legionnaires in numbers. I cannot scour the wilderness for him, but the might of Askh can. When I have left, sweep Askhor between the city and the Wall. Send word to the precincts to expect me. I will travel by night, as you say."

  "You assume that he will travel to hotwards? His heart has always been in Enair."

  "And that is why he will not return there. He ran to Enair when he overthrew my grandfather, he will not do the same again. Ullsaard is well aware of what would be predictable."

  "What else will you need?"

  "My armour and my weapons. They were taken when Ullsaard shamed me."

  "They can be found. The Greenwater covers a long distance: how will you know where he has stopped?"

  Erlaan-Orlassai looked down at the high priest and saw himself reflected in the man's golden eyes; a hulking, brutish thing that filled the corridor. The reflection smiled with dagger-teeth, and the Prince's golden eyes flickered with their own light.

  "I can smell the Blood, you know. When you brought Ullsaard to this place I could sense him immediately. I heard the chatter of the Brothers that the old king was dead, but I knew they were wrong. His vitality lingered. I kept my tongue, though I wanted to find him, to complete the job you thought you had done, but you did not include me in your schemes. I thought perhaps the faking of his death was your idea. Had you done so, I would have told you that he was still alive. Even now his spoor hangs heavy in the air. He may have a head start on me, but he will not stay ahead for long."

  Lakhyri smiled; a reptilian expression devoid of mirth.

  "You will kill him when you find him."

  "Yes, and when I return I will kill Urikh and take my place as leader of the greatest empire in the world." Lakhyri's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come while Erlaan-Orlassai rubbed his hands together, his palms making a sound like stone scraped across stone. "If you try to stop me, I will kill you, priest, and anybody else that stands in my way. Be ready for my return, I will not wait long for my coronation."

 
Dust sprinkled from the blocks of the ceiling, catching the yellow light that seeped through the window of the chamber. Laid with his hands on his chest, Eriekh felt the tremor of the Temple and the trickle of particles on his arms and opened his eyes. A patina of tiny motes obscured the swirls and runes carved into his tanned flesh. He saw a crack, as thin as a hair, jagging across the stone above him. He frowned and sat up, looking at the walls and floor. The blocks had shifted, almost imperceptibly but he could see it. Hundreds of years had passed while he had dwelt in this cell and nothing had changed since the moment he had arrived; not until now.

  He was not surprised when another near-naked figure appeared at the door. It was the other hierophant, Asirkhyr, and his expression was one of dismay.

  "You felt it also?" said Eriekh, rising from his plain stone bed.

  "All felt it," replied Asirkhyr. The skin of the second hierophant was flushed, not with fear but a lingering effect of his time in Greater Askhor. While Eriekh had refrained from indulging in mortal pursuits – eating, drinking and fornication – Asirkhyr had happily made the most of his time away from the Temple and was now showing the effects. His stomach bulged a little over the white of his loincloth and there was a vitality to his skin that was seen only in the young acolytes freshly brought from their homes.

  A shrill cry of joy echoed along the corridors, but both hierophants barely registered a response; the feeding of the masters had become commonplace in recent times. Now and then a young member of the order would fall prey to the halfmaterial creatures that dwelt in the shadows between worlds. Some were fortunate to succumb in their sleep.

  The pattering of bare feet on the stone caused Asirkhyr to turn as Eriekh stepped out of his chamber. Naasadir, one of the upper order, hurried towards them, arms hugging his chest tightly in fear.

  "Come quickly, come to the Last Corpse," said Naasadir, beckoning with a skeletal hand. "It changes. There is a visitation."

  The hierophants followed at a swift walk when Naasadir turned and headed back along the corridors. They descended into the depths of the Temple, to the main chanting hall. Barely five score of worshippers remained of those who had once filled the hall with their sibilant whispers of supplication and binding. Those that were still alive knelt in a circle around the Last Corpse, a jet black altar stone that bulged with the unnatural shape of inhuman bones.