A Skillful Warrior (SoulNecklace Stories Book 2) (26 page)

I kissed their tips and he snatched them away. He was angry with N’tombe and me. ‘I
can
fight, Dana. I was the one to teach you, remember? Do you know what it’s like to hide like a coward? Why did you send me away?’

‘You could not have fought these ones, Will,’ N’tombe sounded tired. ‘Indeed, I could not have fought and won. Only the Guardian can fight such evil.’

‘You could have let me try.’

‘She speak true,’ TeSin was very pale, his voice faint. ‘Not the strongest warrior fight Kamaye.‘

I remembered my dream, the puppets and their dancing shadows in a far-away city. Five of the puppets had pulled another puppet apart in front of a silent crowd. I thought of children being sacrificed, of a boy with a stone about his neck dying slowly in a foreign land. Would I also die slowly on the grasslands?

None of this seemed real. I felt like an actor in a play, and wondered who the playwright was.

We sat quietly, watching the sky. The stars were coming out. I put Will’s knife on the ground beside the strange sword, where I could reach it easily.

‘I am no man’s sacrifice,’ I tried to sound brave, but even to my own ears I sounded weak. As feeble as a blind man shuffling in the darkness.

I dozed restlessly, my head on Will’s shoulder, keeping one hand on the strange sword. Its blade seemed to burn under my fingers. Images flickered through my mind: fire and trees blazing and the world turning far below. I remembered the firestorm, the tree bursting into flame. What had happened to me? I had a muddled memory of flight and fire and something glorious and terrifying; as though I had disappeared, or become something different.

If we could make it through this night, I promised myself, all would be well. We would take a ship to the Stronghold and find the weapon. And my homeland would be safe, and the world would be at peace. And I could go home with Will and somehow there would be just the two of us, and we would be
normal
.

If we could make it through the night.

Through the narrow archway of the cave mouth I could see the stars. I wished I was at home, where there were no stone canyon ways to hem me in; where I could see all the way to the horizon. In the distance I heard a far-off roaring, like a great wave approaching the shore. The stars seem to shudder.

‘They come,’ said N’tombe.

Slowly, she climbed to her feet, her silhouette framed against the cave’s opening. Almost instinctively, I opened my vision, seeking the golden light. N’tombe had shielded her brightness, but still she glowed against the cave’s dark walls like a lantern. She stood silently, watching. None of the rest of us moved.

Outside the stars began to go out. I heard an endless hissing like sand pouring through an hourglass, or an endless stream of pebbles falling from a mountain. Louder and louder it grew, until the floor of the cave seemed to tremble.

My palms were dry and my pulse raced, thud-thud thud-thud. I should fight. I
must
fight. But the roaring noise grew and grew until my very bones rattled and oh, I felt so scared. Then N’tombe cried out, stepped backwards into the shelter of the overhang and, closing her light, seemed to vanish.

A shadow appeared on the floor of the cave. It looked like a stain, as though someone had overturned an inkwell. Slowly, inexorably, it oozed along the cave floor. Grasping edges stretched for Will, snaked towards his legs. Will shouted, struggled backwards

‘Stop!’ I scrambled to my feet. Ah, it was hard to move; my back felt as though it had been flayed. But my mind was clear. ‘Leave him alone.’

The edge of the black pool rippled, growing fingers. It reached for me and I heard mocking laughter, like the creak of an ancient tree.

‘It’s me you want!’ I could hardly draw breath to speak. ‘If you leave them, you can have me.’ I was bent over like an old woman, unable to straighten.

The darkness paused, and after a time a low voice, sounding like stones roaring in an ocean tide, growled a response.

TeSin looked about to faint. ‘They not trust you.’

But I needed no translation; I could hear their arrogance clear enough. TeSin flinched as shadow fingers crept towards his face.

‘Stop!’ My voice echoed in the little cave.

I spoke directly to the darkness. ‘If you leave the others, I will go with you. I will not fight. Do you understand?’

Oh, they understood me, for the cave trembled. ‘Why should we trust you?’ Their voices sounded dull, as if the dead were speaking.

Will got to his feet. The shadows swarmed up him, traveling up his ankles, his legs. He seemed to be drowning.

There was no joy in these mages. No sadness or love, or sorrow, just the pitiless silence of an endless night. They thought they were alive, yet there was no life in them. I leveled their own weapon at them. ‘Stop! I will come with you.’

Will groaned, shook his head. ‘No. Dana, no.’

‘I must,’ I said. ‘Don’t you see? They take me where I need to go.’ I put my hand over my heart, squeezed my fist tight and hoped he would understand my message. The stone, I thought. In my heart is a stone.

Will wasn’t looking, he was shaking his head, denying what I was saying. But TeSin’s eyes widened and he nodded.

The cave shook again. ‘You have our weapon upon you. You must lay it down.’

I put down the sword.

‘This is not sufficient. There is something else.’

I shook my head, pointed at Will’s knife, lying on the cave floor by my feet. ‘I have no weapon.’

‘Remove your clothing,’ said the dull, dead voice.

‘What?’

‘You carry a weapon on you.’

‘Dana!’ Will stepped forward, but the darkness surrounded him and he stopped.

There was a quiet shimmer in the corner of my mind. So quiet, I barely heard it, but I put one hand over the other, clasping my wrists in front of me, hiding the beads from view. ‘I have nothing.’

The voice sounded uncertain. ‘We do not believe you. Remove your clothing.’

Will took a deep breath. I smiled sadly at him. This should have been a private moment between the two of us. Not in this cave, not in front of these shadows that cared naught for love.

A tiny whisper, from the guardians about my wrist. ‘We are with you, child.’

I was not alone. And naked, I would be fully clothed.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, tugged off my rags. They were not much to speak of; just an old linen shift and a thread-bare robe. And they were smelly and full of lice. I would not miss them. I threw the sword down, turned in a circle and felt the night air on my skin.

The shadows encircled my waist. ‘We accept.’

I looked down at my hands. The beads had gone. Two black lines encircled my wrist; a tattoo of thorns and five small roses. In my head the echoes of the Guardians remained.

‘Be well, lady,’ said N’tombe, in the silence of my mind. ‘We will come for you. Fear not. And stay strong.’

I clasped my palms together, bowed in the manner of TeSin’s people. ‘I will be strong,’ I said. ‘I am no one’s sacrifice.’ I straightened my stinging spine and stared at the night. ‘You must leave my friends and trouble them no longer.’ The power had returned to my voice.

The darkness paused. There was uncertainty now, and wariness. ‘We agree,’ said the shadows.

Then came a pause. A wave of darkness washed over me, dragged me under. And the cave and everything within it disappeared.

––––––––

W
ill sat on the steps of the cave, staring out at the night. In the clearing below lay the corpse of TeSin’s horse. The breeze stank of death and dust. Bats, too small and fast to see, whirred overhead, their high squeaks sounding faint warnings. A shadow moved.

Will stiffened, one hand to his knife, then relaxed. It was a fox tugging at the dead horse’s hooves, scavenging the carcass.

This is the world, he thought. All in its place. This is how things should be. Death is normal; naught to be afraid of.

He felt numb. What would Jed do if he were here? Ah, I hope Ma Evans is kind to you, he thought. For I can’t see that fishing vessel returning any time soon.

The rock beneath him smelt of ash. The fire must have fairly raced through here.

Will caught his breath, remembering the fear, the anger. He had known the fire was coming; he could smell the smoke, hear the crackle of the flames. Yet, they wouldn’t let him even try and fight. Instead, N’tombe had forced him into that tiny space. It was like being thrust alive into his own tomb.

Will had scratched at the rock with his fingers.
I’m going to die here.
He must have dislodged something, because finally some stones tumbled loose and the air rushed in. Smelling of smoke, it made him cough, but at least he could breathe. He had wriggled his limbs free and, covered in dust, picked his way out of the cave.

Was that water on his cheeks? Will blinked it away. It can’t be tears, he thought. You need to feel something to cry.

Stumbling from the cave, he had stood just here, just beside this rock and looked down at the clearing. In the smoke-haze the scene below had seemed surreal, like a performance or a dance. For a crazy moment he’d felt like applauding. Then the world had snapped to reality and he’d near to thrown himself down the stairs. Those creatures, with their staves and their swords! And Dana, with only that small knife he’d lent her! What hope did she have?

‘Stop!’ N’tombe had put out her hand. ‘Don’t distract her.’

Dana seemed like a polished statue, her skin bronze in the sunlight. Beautiful, graceful, deadly; she seemed to blur, flowing in and out of time. He caught a sense of power, tightly held. Hers or theirs? For a moment he thought he detected something else. Something ... more. Will had held his breath. N’tombe was right — any distraction could be fatal.

But was that really the reason that he’d stood so still? Perhaps the truth was something bleaker. Because those dark figures had wrought such fear that he had felt like a coney caught within a trap; afraid to breathe, afraid to turn. He, Will Baker, was a weakling and a coward.

But Dana had risked her life. And now she’d gone. He wiped his cheeks, smearing ash across his face.

Look at those stars. Nothing troubled their light. He wished he could be up there among them, free of the knowledge of his cowardice.

But it had been worse later. Something horribly dark had oozed across the cave floor. It had stunk of decay. And when it touched him — ah, the pain! Like his legs were held in a vice. There had been a voice, too. Harder than any stone, ancient and powerful and cruel. It had whispered into his mind, ‘A coward, boy. You’re just a coward.’

Worse than the pain had been the knowledge that the voice spoke true.

N’tombe laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘I can follow her.’ Her voice was quiet in the night. ‘They cannot hide. Not from me.’

Will took a deep breath. ‘No,’ he said calmly. Inside he felt a wrench of fear. ‘No. They’ll kill you. She wouldn’t want us following.’

The fox slunk away into the shadows. It would return when they left. Scavengers could be patient, for their time would always come. Like the animal, Will wanted to creep away and hide — from enchantment, from all knowledge of mages and the supernatural. There was comfort in ignorance.

Comfort, but no security. Better to face the darkness; better to attack the evil. What would Jed do? Well, that was easy enough to figure. He’d get drunk and then he’d pick a fight. But there was no ale here, so that left only fighting. He turned to N’tombe. ‘Can you teach me to fight like her?’

‘I teach,’ TeSin bowed his head to Will, like a combatant at the beginning of a contest. ‘I fight like bright one.’ He paused. ‘A little.’

‘But not now,’ N’tombe said. ‘Tonight, we rest. Regain our strength. We leave at dawn.’

‘We find her,’ said TeSin.

She nodded. ‘We find her. But Will is right. We must not follow too close.’

‘No need be close. She, I: we joined,’ TeSin put his hand over his heart, closed the hand into a fist. ‘I find her.’

Wrapped in his cloak, Will lay on the hard dusty stone of the cave’s floor. He thought about the journey ahead. They would leave at first light, walk to the nearest village. N’tombe had enough coin remaining to buy some horses. But TeSin said they should consider camels, as they were faster. Camels? Will couldn’t imagine himself sitting on the back of such an odd-looking animal.

Mind, he’d never imagined himself traveling with a Noyan and a magic worker. When he was young, he’d thought the world was no bigger than a village by the sea. That he would grow up and be a baker, just like his parents. But the world was far, far larger than he’d imagined — already he had traveled much further across it than he had ever dreamed possible.

Not that this was a bad thing — ah, look what he’d learned. He knew how to calm a horse, how to clamber down a cliff. How to fight and not fear death. And he’d learned ... was it love? Possibly, it was. Although love seemed too small a word for the feeling he had for Dana.

She was strong. She would survive. If only he knew where she was.

He looked forward to beginning training with TeSin. The man had rare talent and fighting was something Will was good at. He wondered how far his new skills would take him.

I am not a coward.

Somehow he doubted it would be so easy. But they had N’tombe, and a Noyan. And him, if he was worth anything. They would find the princess, sure enough.

Dana, he thought, and remembered what she had said:
A fountain of silver. And a dagger made of stone.

––––––––

I
felt them with me: Phileas, strumming his lute, Rob and Suzanna, their fingers intertwined. Adianna, silent and powerful. And Wynne, the storyteller.

‘Close your eyes, child,’ Wynne whispered. ‘I will tell you of a time, long ago.’

***

T
he moon peeped out between silver-edged clouds, lighting the courtyard. A stone plinth stood in the center of a new-built pond. Shrouded in a cloak, a man stepped hesitantly into the courtyard. He crept softly, keeping to the shadows. The jade beads on his wrist gleamed in the moonlight. Half-hidden under his cloak, he held a leather satchel. It was Master Yang’s apprentice.