Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (16 page)

a good slap.’ She put
her hands on her hips and glared at Cyrek. ‘Tell me you didn’t try
too much of that so called “restorative”?’

Cyrek chuckled.
‘Amazing stuff that. Dark knows what the other fellow’s restorative
must be like – Fenj said it was rather better than
Grib’s.’

‘Lorak.’ Emla sighed
and dropped to sit on the grass in front of her guests. ‘Lorak was
my gardener here. He went with Fenj, to Vagrantia eventually, where
Thryssa lives. Lorak was instrumental in the transformation of the
Dragon of Talvo Circle. She turned into a girl with feathered wings
– like the gijan but with a scaled body. She went north to Mim’s
Stronghold and Lorak stayed in Vagrantia. Apparently he felt
someone should take care of Jeela when Fenj came back
here.’

Her visitors stared at
her blankly.

Emla sighed again.
‘Jeela is Farn’s sister, and she was greatly distressed by all that
has happened. I admit it was a good thought of Lorak’s to stay with
her, but I worry for the sobriety of Vagrantia’s
citizens.’

A small orange cat
trotted down the path, paused, then jumped to the raised rim of the
pond. Her turquoise eyes met Cyrek’s.

‘The Dragon of Talvo
who has undergone a transformation is Gremara,’ she said in mind
speech. ‘She was my sister once, long ago.’

‘Your father meddled
where he should not.’ Cyrek’s tone was not as harsh as his words.
‘He assumed his superiority and yet he knew nothing of this
world.’

Khosa crouched down,
wrapping her tail round her front feet. ‘I only realised that
recently,’ she admitted. ‘Being with Tika, and Farn, and Gan and
all the others, I understood that Namolos was very wrong.’ Khosa
slitted her eyes and crouched lower. ‘He believes that Tika is the
result of his intervention in various matings. It was on the island
of Wendla that I knew she could not have been created through his
manipulations.’

Emla listened
carefully. Irritating though Khosa so often was, Emla knew the cat
was desperately grieved at the deaths of Gan, Maressa and Seela,
and by the disappearance of Tika, Sket and the old Wendlan cat,
Akomi.

‘But I have never heard
of this Dark Realm of yours,’ Khosa continued.‘How have you
concealed yourselves for all this time?’

Cyrek stretched out his
hand and slid it along Khosa’s back. ‘You surely don’t think I’d
tell you that, do you little one? But we have watched your Namolos,
and the others of your kind, who came from the distant stars. We
are at fault for letting these plans of your father’s go unheeded
and unchecked for too long. We have been complacent, an ancient
failing of ours.’

They sat in silence for
a time until Emla spoke.

‘May I ask who is
attempting to rescue Tika and Sket? How is it you know where they
are? We could only ascertain they were in a Place Between and we
know only that there are a multitude of such Places.’

Seola replied, her
expression more alert. ‘Two Dark Lords will make the attempt.’ She
glanced at Cyrek.

‘And two others,’ he
added. ‘A mortal woman and a child.’

Emla stared in horror.
‘A child?’ Her voice rose.

Cyrek shrugged. ‘The
First Daughter is adamant the inclusion of those two is necessary.
Your friend – Lord Kemti – we know he sees us as representatives of
evil itself, but do you believe that?’

Emla didn’t hesitate.
‘No I do not. I can’t imagine why you would travel so far to help
one young Dragon’s return to sanity for any evil
reason.’

‘I have heard you say
“by the stars” and “stars forfend” as though you revere the stars.’
Cyrek tilted his head. ‘Can you see the stars now Lady
Emla?’

‘Well of course not –
it is midday, the sun is bright.’

Cyrek smiled. ‘The Dark
lets the stars shine forth does it not. We believe all life – and
light - comes from the Dark.’

Emla filed Cyrek’s
comments in her mind for much further consideration at a future
time. Right now, Farn was her priority.

‘Will you make another
attempt to reach Farn, Lady Seola?’

Seola shivered. ‘The
First Daughter herself will try to reach him. Hag told us she will
begin at darkfall tomorrow. That is soon after dawn here, allowing
for the distance between the Dark Realm and this place.’

Emla had noticed
Seola’s shiver and felt cold herself suddenly. ‘Is she so much
stronger than you are?’

‘If Mother Dark chooses
to aid her First Daughter, and I believe she will, she can achieve
a strength we cannot imagine,’ Cyrek replied quietly.

‘But why would your
Mother Dark choose to help one young Dragon?’

Cyrek laughed aloud.
‘Perhaps the First Daughter knows the answer to that. No one else
does. We trust her and we serve.’

‘She is so far away,’
Emla fretted.

‘There is no distance
within the Dark.’ Cyrek climbed to his feet and reached his hands
down to both women. He pulled them upright. ‘I’m sure it must be
time for food. Or that restorative has given me an
appetite.’

Jemin had spent all his
time with Captain Soran and was impressed by the standards of
weapons skills and discipline among the Guards. He was fascinated
by the accounts he heard, from Soran and some of the veterans, of
the ganger wars and the more recent battles to gain control of the
Northern Stronghold. With the aid of various maps, Soran described
many of the skirmishes and major battles, to which Jemin paid close
attention. The terrain had been mountainous and Soran and the
Guards had faced the monstrous Shardi and Cansharsi. They had
fought in blinding snow storms and in confining tunnels.

Jemin expected to face
only men if his half sister pushed her forces to attempt a crossing
of the Barrier Mountains. He discussed such a situation with Soran.
The Captain was convinced an invading force such as Jemin
described, should be met the instant the invaders were in territory
unfamiliar to them. Surely Jemin’s men would know the lie of the
land well, he argued. Therefore he should take the initiative and
chase them off before they could entrench themselves.

Soran was equally
fascinated by Jemin’s information on explosives. No such things
were used anywhere in these lands as far as Soran knew. After some
thought, Jemin asked if certain materials were known here. There
was some confusion while Jemin tried to explain what he needed. One
of the cooks finally recognised the description of two ingredients
and Jemin cautiously made up a small amount of a
compound.

Most of the Guards had
heard what was afoot and watched Jemin and Soran march off to the
estate boundary to the south. Jemin placed the clay pot containing
his mixture on the ground, piled dead branches over it and
retreated, unwinding a long cotton thread behind him. He insisted
Soran lie flat beside him in a shallow gully and lit the end of the
thread. Jemin maintained an air of modesty at the resulting
explosion but Soran was astonished and elated. He could already
envisage a plethora of uses for this wondrous substance.

Rather too late, Jemin
wondered if he’d been wise to introduce even the idea of
explosives. On reflection, he decided to have stringent
instructions written down and then made Soran swear to keep the
instructions to himself. At least until he’d tested the mixture
exhaustively and had some understanding of how it could
behave.

Nenat was immured with
Discipline Senior Nesh and comparing the herbal bases for many
medicines. Nenat recognised many plants illustrated in books in
Nesh’s library and he carefully wrote the names she gave him
beneath the Gaharnian names. Nenat was sorting through some of her
numerous pouches, offering various seeds and dried leaves for
Nesh’s inspection.

‘Ah now, this is very
useful,’ she said. She pushed three tiny dried flowers each with
five petals, across the table to him. They were the palest pink but
Nesh guessed their colour would be much brighter when they were
growing. Nenat beamed at him.

‘These are from my own
clan holding. I come from the Pink Petal Clan. Many of the people
in the Imperium think it’s a joke. They think no clan could hold
its head high with such a silly name. But these pink petals – oh
what they can do!’

Nesh listened in
astonishment while Nenat named the numerous uses of this flower:
antiseptic, anaesthetic, stimulant, anti inflammatory, hastening
scar tissue to soften. On and on the list went. Then she leaned
closer.

‘Those are the uses of
the pink petals but its root is used too. It is made into a paste
and sold for enormous prices. It is the drug of choice for
thousands who use it for fun or because they’re addicted to it. And
they only use it a very few times for fun before addiction catches
them fast.’

Nesh looked rather
dubious about this last but Nenat chatted on.

‘The wealth of my clan
comes from this tiny plant. Do you think it grows here? We know of
only one region in all of the north where it flourishes.’ She
grinned. ‘And that region is at the very heart of our clan
holding.’

‘May I sketch it?’ Nesh
asked. ‘It is not familiar to me. But if you help me get the exact
shade of pink and describe the leaves and type of soil where it
thrives, I shall get my students to look for it when they go herb
hunting.’

He made a mental note
to tell those students this plant was highly toxic – he’d had to
deal with various addictions before. A muffled bang sounded in the
distance. Nenat ignored it, still browsing through a book, but Nesh
went to a window and looked south over the main gardens. The sky
was clear, no storm clouds. A faint line of what seemed to be smoke
drifted lazily in the distance. He turned back to Nenat. No doubt
Grib had sent garden boys to tidy up fallen branches at the edge of
the estate.

‘Will Lady Seola try
again to reach Farn?’ he asked.

Nenat closed the book
she was studying and rested her hand on its leather
binding.

‘No she won’t.’ She
shook her head, her shock of white hair sticking out like cobwebs
in the sunlight. ‘Hag told Cyrek the First Daughter will make an
attempt at dawn tomorrow.’

Nesh studied her. He
had been a healer for far too long to miss the panic and fear the
herb woman was trying to hide.

‘And will the First
Daughter succeed?’ he asked gently.

The fear was obvious
now. ‘She must,’ Nenat whispered. ‘She must. I had only a glimpse
when Seola tried but never have I been aware of such an endless
depth. I am not Dark blood, but I understand the descent the Dark
ones speak of. I have shared descents a few times, when they’ve
worked a healing. That was frightening enough but what I felt the
other day. .’

Nesh covered her hand
with his own. ‘Will we be able to help in any way?’

Again Nenat shook her
head. ‘The First Daughter will have a supporter at her side in the
Palace but I think there will be nothing for us to do. Except watch
the poor Dragon, and wait.’

Nenat’s fear had
infected Nesh and the two so different healers sat in the sunlight
in silence, contemplating what may lie ahead.

Farn felt so very
tired. Where was she? He had called. He had screamed. But she had
not answered. He had forgotten where he was so how could he begin
to guess where she might be? It was dark, very dark, and he didn’t
know up from down. Occasionally, something seemed to approach, to
almost brush against him. But he didn’t know what it might be and
he could no longer feel his limbs. He’d heard voices at times,
voices he thought he might once have known but which he recognised
no longer.

Farn didn’t know if the
things he felt, floating around him, meant him harm or not. He
didn’t care. He wanted Tika. He needed her. A voice he was sure
he’d never heard before had called him and he’d nearly followed its
sound. But how could he know which way to go unless Tika called
him? He would only answer her now. Was she somewhere in this
darkness? He would rest for a little while then he’d call her
again. But he was so tired.

In the Pavilion, Kija
watched over her son. A new shift of six healers had just replaced
six others. Kija was not greatly skilled at reading the facial
expressions of humans, but their exhaustion was obvious to her
senses. The shifts were being changed more frequently but still,
maintaining the wards round this building could not be kept up
indefinitely. She used her Dragon senses to probe Farn’s life signs
and fought to keep her wail of anguish from bursting from her. He
was weakening rapidly now. Kija watched him, steeling herself for
that moment when she would have to break his life thread, and set
him free of his pain.

At dawn in the Karmazen
Palace Lerran watched the people entering her chamber, Gossamer
Tewk and Shea each carrying packs prepared for them under Corman’s
supervision. Peshan and Favrian also had packs hooked over their
shoulders. Corman himself, Librarian Chindar and Shield Master
Garrol stood to one side. Shea was paler than usual but her face
showed a solemn excitement. The hilts of her two new daggers could
be seen one each side on a black leather belt. She wore a loose
black shirt over closer fitted trousers, and her boots were of the
softest, toughest leather the Palace cobbler could find.