The Shadowed Throne (32 page)

She thought of Kullervo, too, and wondered if he was all right and whether Iorwerth had rescued him, or whether Saeddryn had killed him. The idea that the shape-shifter might well be dead made her sad. They had only known each other a short while, but he had done everything she asked without asking for anything in return. In a way, he was the most loyal follower she had. She wished she hadn't sent him into Saeddryn's clutches.

“Poor thing,” she murmured. “I hope he's all right.”

And I hope he is dead,
said Oeka.

Laela ignored her.

K
ullervo's return to Malvern was an unceremonious affair. The unpartnered had reached it well ahead of himself and Senneck, and the excitement had long since died down by the time the ageing griffin and her ugly partner made their ragged, limping arrival.

Senneck flew directly to the Eyrie and landed in the nest she had claimed for her own. Kullervo almost fell off her back and lay on his side in the straw for a while, wheezing.

Senneck flopped onto her belly. She was too worn-out to fold her wings properly, and they draped untidily over her sides like two huge pieces of cloth.

Kullervo sat up, leaning on the wall. The journey had taken a toll on him, too; if anything he had become even more bony and awkward-looking than before. The remains of his teeth were rotting, and several of his wounds had become infected.

“Home ssshweet home,” he slurred, and went to sleep.

Senneck dragged herself to the trough for a drink and settled down to rest. “Kullervo.
Kullervo!
”

He jerked awake. “Huh? What?”

Senneck lifted a forepaw, and slowly scratched her face. “I need a healer, and so do you. Go now and find help.”

Kullervo stared dully at her for a while, then very slowly and shakily got up. “Of course. Wait here.” He limped off through the archway. One wing had escaped from the cloth he had tied around it, and wobbled pathetically back and forth. He didn't seem to notice.

Left alone, Senneck sank into an exhausted sleep.

K
ullervo had never felt so weak in his life, not even after a change. His vision had gone hazy and grey around the edges, and his body felt broken in every bone and joint. His stomach moaned with hunger. But his goal had filled his mind, and he clung to it, using it to push himself on.

Not far from Senneck's temporary quarters, he happened across a patrolling guard. The man took one look at him and drew his weapon, shouting some challenge or other in Northern.

Kullervo could feel himself swaying gently on the spot. “That way,” he croaked, pointing back at the door he had come through. “There's a griffin in that room who needs a healer.”

“Who are ye?” the guard demanded, breaking into Cymrian.

Kullervo put a hand to his forehead as if to support it. “Kullervo. Messenger to the Queen. Back from Warwick to see her. Important news.”

“Prove it.”

“Can't,” said Kullervo. “Ask the Queen.”

“How did ye get
in
here?”

“Flew.” Kullervo's patience ran out. “My griffin needs a healer. Tell me where to find one.”

“Show me where she is an' we'll see,” said the guard.

“Fine.” Kullervo turned and walked back the way he had come, ignoring the guard's exclamation of horror at the sight of the wing on his back.

In her nest, Senneck looked up as the two of them came in. “You see?” Kullervo said, gesturing at her. “She's hurt.
Go get a healer.
”

The guard looked uncertain. “I never saw ye before. How do I know this is yer griffin?”

Senneck stood up. “Because I chose him, fool!” she hissed. “Now do as he tells you!”

The guard backed off smartly. “Ye gods!”

“She said to go get a healer like I told you,” Kullervo told him helpfully. “And get one for me, too!” he added. “And send someone to tell the Queen that Kullervo and Senneck are back.”

“Right, right.” The guard ran out.

Kullervo groaned and lay down beside Senneck. “I wish I was dead.”

She covered him with her wing. “You will be better soon. Rest now.”

He pressed himself against her and said nothing more.

A
fter what felt like forever, a healer finally arrived—along with several more guards. They posted themselves around the entrance to the nest while the healer went on in, speaking cautiously in griffish. “I'm here to help.”

Senneck peered up at him. “I was wounded at Warwick, and my human is also wounded and cannot heal me. You must help me.”

“Of course,” the healer soothed. “Show me the worst of yer wounds.”

Senneck readily obeyed, and the healer opened his box of instruments and went to work. Kullervo pulled himself out of the way and lay in the straw, watching blearily.

The healer noticed him and jerked in surprise. “Sweet shadows, where did ye come from? What the—what's
that
?”

Kullervo covered the ugly bald wing with some straw. “Don't mind me.” He closed his eyes.

“Oh, holy Night God.” The healer stood up and ran to the archway, waving at the nearest guard. “Go get a doctor—
now
!”

Once the man had run out, the healer went back to work on Senneck—cleaning and bandaging and trimming away the feathers that had been scabbed into the flesh. While he worked, he tried to question Kullervo, but the shape-shifter said nothing. He had become very still.

A doctor arrived shortly before Senneck's treatment was finished. She looked harassed and confused, and went straight to the griffin healer. “What's all this about?”

The healer pointed at Kullervo. “What do ye think it's about? Do something for the poor bastard—he looks like he's about to die on us!”

The doctor went to Kullervo, swearing under her breath when she saw the condition he was in. “Who
is
he?”

“I don't know.”

“He is my human,” Senneck told them sharply. “His name is Kullervo, and he is a noble. Do not let him die.”

“Understood,” the griffin healer told her. “Don't worry; just relax. I've sent someone to bring food for ye—in the meantime, I'll mix up a draught.”

Senneck drank it when it was ready, and rested, not taking her eyes off Kullervo.

The doctor peeled the remains of his clothes away and examined the wounds on his front—not noticing the wings for now. Finding the infected ones, she quickly punctured and drained them. Kullervo was too far gone to put up a struggle and only moaned softly.

“Shadows, someone's treated him badly,” the doctor muttered. “Where'd he come from?”

“From Warwick,” said Senneck. “The traitor had him tortured.”

The doctor swore under her breath. “I don't know if he's going to live through this.”

“Make him live,” Senneck threatened.

Shaking her head, the doctor turned Kullervo over without much effort. Freed from their bindings, the wings flexed weakly in her face.

The doctor let out a piercing scream and scrambled away. “What
is
that?”

“My human is deformed,” Senneck said, very calmly.

The doctor breathed quickly. “I've—never seen anything like it before . . .”

Beside her, the griffin healer looked on with morbid fascination. “They almost look like . . .”

“Do not waste time!” Senneck snarled. “Heal him!”

Faced with her rage, the doctor had no choice but to continue. Returning to Kullervo's side, she very tentatively touched the wings. Pulling a face at the feel of them, she went back to work on the injuries around them. That done, she turned him over again and covered him up with a blanket brought in by one of the guards.

“Well,” she said, wiping her hands on a piece of cloth, “I've done what I could. He'll need food and rest—a lot of it—and those wounds'll have to be checked every day.”

Senneck's meat had arrived. She bit into it very gladly. “You have done well. Now you must go and tell Oeka and her human that we have arrived.”

“I'll pass on the message,” the griffin healer offered. “Who should I say is here?”

Senneck huffed at him. “Senneck and her human, Lord Kullervo.”

When they were alone again, “Lord” Kullervo pulled himself back toward her—close enough that they were touching. “Thank you, Senneck,” he wheezed.

“It is no more than what any griffin should do for her human,” she said between bites.

The doctor and griffin healer had left, but the guards had stayed to watch over the nest. One of them came in and gave Kullervo some food someone must have fetched. He took it and ate, chewing with difficulty.

As soon as there was nobody in earshot, Senneck swallowed another chunk of meat and turned her head, laying it down close to Kullervo's. “Listen now,” she said softly.

He looked blearily at her. “I'm so tired . . . what is it?”

“I have been thinking,” said Senneck. “You are human, but you are also a griffin, and it is clear to me that you have not been taught what your mother would have passed on in the nest.”

“Like what?”

“Your magic is unlike anything I have seen, but it is still magic, and you have never been taught to control it properly. I will teach you.”

Kullervo raised himself on his elbows. “You will?”

Senneck's tail flicked. “No other griffin would do this, but now that I have chosen you, it is my duty to do whatever is necessary for your survival. Therefore, I shall pass on the ways of control and wielding that I learnt as a youngster. With my teaching, I think that you shall come to use your magic fully.”

Kullervo lay back and reached out to touch her beak. “I'd like that. Thank you.”

K
ullervo and Senneck rested for most of that day, still under guard. More food arrived for them, and fresh clothes for Kullervo, who put them on gratefully. He was beginning to get some colour back in his face, but he showed no interest in moving to the bed in the room next door—staying beside Senneck every moment.

Neither of them had any way of knowing whether Laela had been told they were back. For now, they were content to rest.

Senneck wasted no time. That evening, when they were both awake, and she was certain nobody was listening, she began to talk to Kullervo—telling him the secrets he needed to know in her quietest voice. Kullervo said nothing at all. He lay very still, staring at the ceiling or his own crabbed hands, taking in every word she said. He felt as if he had never listened so intently in his life, or tried so hard to remember everything down to the last detail. Some of it he already knew, or had guessed, some of it confused him, but as Senneck talked on, he began to feel a sense of revelation, of something opening in his mind like a flower. His heart beat faster with excitement.

This was knowledge no human had ever learnt, knowledge griffins had kept as their greatest secret and refused even to talk about in front of anyone but their own kind. To a human, most of it would have been completely bewildering. But Kullervo felt it reach deep into his mind, to the part of him that was griffish, and there it made complete sense.

Yes,
he thought.
Yes, that's it! Of course!
And he listened all the harder.

When Senneck suddenly stopped, it was almost physically painful. “What's wrong?” he said immediately.

“We have been interrupted,” she said.

Kullervo looked up, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the horrible shape coming toward him. A griffin—only a small one—but . . . wrong. The eyes were white and blind, the beak sagging open. It moved jerkily, shambling along like a cripple, the wings flopping about uselessly at its sides.

“Oeka,”
Senneck hissed.

Kullervo struggled to pull himself up, propping himself against his partner's flank in a sitting position. “You,” he said, tasting unexpected venom in the word.

The guards outside reacted even more poorly to the warped griffin's arrival. Forgetting their orders and training, they cringed away, then abruptly left the room, as if obeying some unheard command.

Oeka stood in the entrance to the nest, seeming to leer at Kullervo.
So the freak and the old one have returned,
her mental voice sneered.

Senneck regarded her for a moment and lurched onto her paws. Kullervo, holding on to her flank, stood as well—keeping a hand on her shoulder for balance.

But where have you returned from?
Oeka continued.

Kullervo could feel Senneck trembling slightly under his hand. He moved closer to her. All of a sudden, she cringed and lowered her head, making an ugly, strangled noise in her throat. “Do not—”

Oeka didn't move. She hadn't even blinked since her arrival. But Kullervo could taste the magic reaching out from her to touch Senneck, violating her mind.

He started toward Oeka, raising his taloned hands. “Leave her alone!”

Oeka's head turned toward him, and Senneck relaxed as the small griffin's power left her alone and struck at Kullervo instead. He could feel it touch him, probing at his mind, but there was no pain. He hissed defiantly at her. “You can't do anything to me, you monster.”

Oeka's mental screech made the walls vibrate.
Curse you!

“Oeka!” The stern voice came from behind her. “Stop it right now!”

Oeka hissed and backed off, and there was Laela, looking angry and exhausted.

Kullervo's ugly face split into a smile. “Laela!”

Her own face fell. “Kullervo! What
happened
to yeh? I thought yeh must be dead!”

The smile disappeared, and he self-consciously covered his mouth with a hand. “I'll be all right. I just need to rest.”

She came toward him, eyes concerned. “Oh yeh poor thing! What did they do to yeh?”

“They tried to make me talk,” said Kullervo, very simply. “I never did. Senneck saved me.”

I have scented the old one's mind,
Oeka butted in.
I saw fighting in Warwick, with many dead.
Her blind eyes did not flicker.
I saw her kill the traitor's daughter, and an old human. I also saw her kill the Mighty Skandar's son. And then I saw her kill the one-eyed traitor.

“Saeddryn?” Laela exclaimed. “Saeddryn's dead? Senneck, is it true?”

Senneck looked away. “I killed the young one, her daughter. Then I killed the one-eyed one, and Aenae with her.”

Laela rubbed her forehead. “So Saeddryn's really dead. Thank gods. I got worried when they said they hadn't found her body, but Oeka's never wrong.” She looked at Senneck, very solemnly. “I owe yeh a debt, Senneck—a big one. I'm sorry I didn't trust yeh before, but now—”

“Laela, stop.” Kullervo came closer. “You don't understand.”

She gave him a look. “Don't understand what?”

“It's Saeddryn. She's not— It's not— Laela, something awful's happened.”

Laela stilled. “What? What is it? What's gone wrong now?”

“Saeddryn's not— She isn't—” Kullervo struggled for words.

Laela looked at Senneck. “What's this about?”

Senneck lowered her head. “The one-eyed one has been killed,” she said heavily. “But she has not gone.”

“She's come back,” Kullervo blurted at last. “She's like
him
now.”

Laela had gone pale. “What . . . ?”

Oeka had already realised the truth.
No! This cannot be! Do not lie!

“It's true.” Kullervo darted forward and grabbed Laela by the arm. “She's working for the Night God now, she's got Arenadd's powers. She tried to kill us! I saw her disappear like a shadow—she was so
strong
! And she was talking about how she was going to—Laela, she's going to come here and kill us all! There's no way of stopping her, I stuck my talons in her throat, and she didn't die!”

Laela found her voice. “Oh
shit
.”

“It is true!” Senneck broke in. “I saw it with my own eyes.
Kraeai kran ae
has returned, and it is Saeddryn. She wants you dead, half-breed, and believe me—she will make sure that it happens. There is no stopping the heartless one.”

Kullervo hadn't let go of Laela's arm. “What are we going to do? What are we going to do? She's after us—both of us, she said so! We're the ones she was sent to kill!”

Laela grasped at this last part, in search of something approaching sanity. “You? Why you?”

“Because—” Kullervo stopped abruptly. “Because . . .”

Do not worry,
Oeka rasped.
I shall find the truth.

Yet again, she lashed out mentally.

Time passed. Eventually, Kullervo shook his head dully, as if trying to wake himself up. “No,” he said. “The truth is mine to tell, not yours.” He straightened up, facing Laela and looking her in the eye for the first time. “She's after us because we're between her and the throne. We're the only heirs apart from her and her son.”

Laela's eyes narrowed. “You?”

Kullervo smiled weakly. “Think about it,” he said. “Who else could be depraved enough to make something like me? Didn't you ever wonder why your father's lover had yellow eyes like mine, or why her fingernails looked more like claws? Or maybe you could open her tomb, and wonder why there are griffin bones in there instead of human.”

Her eyes widened. “You're—?”

“Yes.” Kullervo's yellow eyes were full of fear, and something that had very rarely been there before—pride. “I am the King's son. I am Kullervo Taranisäii. I am . . .” He laughed softly. “A Prince. Next in line for Tara's throne.”

No!
Oeka's cry echoed in every mind there. Unable to attack mentally, she made a clumsy charge and hurled herself at Kullervo, talons spread wide.

Senneck sprang forward, putting herself in the way, and knocked the smaller griffin aside. Standing over her with her own larger talons at the ready, she said, “Touch my human, and you shall die.”

Oeka was too shocked to strike back. Clumsily, she got up and edged away, back toward her own partner.

Kullervo ignored her completely. “Don't worry, I don't want your throne. Look at me—do I look like King material to you? I couldn't run a fruit stall. I told you the truth before when I said I wanted to help you. You're my sister, Laela. You're the only family I've got. And I promise I'll do everything I can to protect you from . . . from
her
.”

Laela hadn't moved. “A . . . a brother? I got a brother?”

Kullervo smiled. “A half-brother. A half-
breed
half-brother. Who would have thought it?”

She shook herself, and mumbled, “I knew it. I knew there was somethin' about you. Somethin' familiar.”

“I suppose I must look a bit like
him
. My father. Our father.”

“Yeh do,” said Laela.

Kullervo looked away. “I hoped I didn't. I couldn't ever be proud of something like that.”

“Well, yeh should be,” Laela said sharply. He looked at her, and she softened. “Our father wasn't all bad, Kullervo. He loved Skade very much, an' I believe he loved my mother as well. An' to tell yeh the truth . . . I miss him.”

“I wish I could have met him,” Kullervo confessed.

“He woulda been proud of yeh,” said Laela. She smiled. “Like I am.”

They embraced—tentatively at first, but soon pulling each other closer, and if Laela felt Kullervo's wings, she didn't show it, and if he felt pain from his wounds, he didn't complain.

In the bittersweet joy of that moment, neither of them noticed that Oeka had disappeared.