Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (55 page)

‘Carry on then General,
but remember I must be kept informed at all times.’

‘My lady.’

When the General had
gone, Veranta yawned. Her sleep, unusually, had been disturbed last
night. But she could recall no dreams. She had lain for a while,
waiting for sleep to reclaim her, when she’d thought of sending for
those children. She yawned again and went over to the door to the
scribes’ office. No one was there, not one single scribe. Cursing
under her breath, she went to the outer door to order a guard to
fetch her some tea.

Veranta stared. No
guards. Yet she had heard Beslow speak to them only moments ago.
She returned to her office and went to her desk. Unlocking the
middle drawer, she removed three objects, a bunch of keys and two
rings. One was engraved with a leaping fish, the emblem chosen by
her father to represent his rise from a fisher family. The other
was the great seal he had designed for Kelshan. It bore a stylised
pattern of the sun surrounded by stars. Veranta slipped them both
into a jacket pocket and stood for a moment, apparently listening.
Then she walked to the wall which was covered by the great map and
casually ripped it away. Choosing a key from the bunch in her hand,
she unlocked the door which had lain hidden behind the
map.

The door swung inward.
Veranta gave one glance over her shoulder and her eyes seemed fully
black, not brown surrounded by white, just black.

But something alerted
Tika. She was leaving the Imperatrix’s private rooms, having
checked the bodies in there, and she sensed a resurgence of the
evil. She stopped abruptly, focusing her mind more fully than she
had previously dared. Then she sought Jemin’s mind
signature.

‘Down.’ She sent the
thought strongly into the Prince’s mind. ‘The evil is going down,
fast, directly from this floor.’

She heard raised voices
ahead and began to run. The Bear moved in front of her and they saw
Daylith leaning against the side of another door, his head bowed.
Tika caught his arm.

‘What happened? Are you
hurt?’

Daylith’s gold eyes
were dulled when he tried to look at her. ‘That evil feeling – it
suddenly swamped my mind.’ He waved in to the room behind him.
‘This is the Imperatrix’s office. There’s a door still open. Jemin
went straight down. He said he heard you tell him.’

Cyrek stood beside
Tika, listening to Daylith. Tika thought she had never seen the
Dark Lord’s face so stern. Belatedly she saw that The Bear and
Lemos had disappeared. She tried to offer Daylith a healing thought
but found his mind heavily guarded against her. She felt time
slipping away and swung round to enter the room. Tika scarcely
noticed the impersonal bareness of the Imperatrix’s office. She saw
only the door gaping open in the stone wall.

Tika was down the first
few steps before Sket pushed her aside.

‘You wear a sword,’ he
muttered. ‘Let’s hope you can remember the basic
drills.’

She snorted but didn’t
waste breath answering. The stairs were far more narrow than they
ones they’d so recently climbed and they were spiral rather than
zigzag flights. A smell rose towards them on an up rush of damp
air.

‘Stables,’ was Sket’s
terse comment.

A grey light increased
as they descended. All Tika could hear was the sound of their feet
on the stone and their breathing. But then Tika crashed into Sket’s
back, and those behind her thudded into her. In the momentary pause
before Sket began bounding faster down the stairs, they heard the
clang of metal on metal.

It wasn’t much brighter
in the stone built barn into which they emerged, but it was light
enough to see green uniformed men fighting Jemin’s black clad
guards. Tika spun to find Cyrek.

‘Can you make them
stop?’ she demanded urgently. ‘That binding you did to
Konya?’

He shook his head. ‘Not
in these circumstances.

She turned back to the
fighting, prepared to charge in, when she saw The Bear’s axe slice
easily through a man’s neck. She watched, momentarily frozen as the
head flew across the room and the body remained upright, blood
fountaining between its shoulders. But that seemed to be the end of
the fight. The very few green uniformed men still standing dropped
their weapons and held their hands clear of their bodies. Before
Jemin could speak, Tika strode forward.

‘Did the Imperatrix
come this way?’ Her voice cut through the moans of wounded guards
huddled on the floor.

One, who’d surrendered,
looked at her, his face whitening when he saw her eyes.

‘Yes lady. She ordered
a horse saddled with all speed. She said enemies of Kelshan were
following her. She rode out only a short while past.’

Tika gritted her teeth,
forcing herself to calm. Her mind went out beyond the Citadel,
following the trail of evil. Cyrek pushed past the men, running to
the double doors of the great barn. He left the door ajar but the
wind brought in the strong smell of burnt cinnamon. Then cries of
alarm and horror were raised, and Tika knew Cyrek had taken Dragon
form.

The barn door hurtled
open and some twenty green uniformed men burst in, swords at the
ready.

‘Hold!’ A voice barked
the order and an old man came through the guards.

He glared at the
intruders, his eyes passing over the black uniformed men and the
huge warrior holding a massive axe as though it weighed nothing.
Then his gaze went back to the man beside the warrior. He stared in
bewilderment, taking a hesitant step forward.

‘What new evil is this?
You cannot be Jarvos.’

‘Indeed not General
Beslow, but I am his son.’

The General came close,
peering at Jemin’s face in the dim light.

‘So you are,’ he
breathed. ‘Then the report I had that Whilk was in the City must be
true? He is with you?’

‘Well, he is in the
City yes, but I am here with my own guards and friends.’ Jemin
nodded in Tika’s direction.

General Beslow saw a
tiny woman, with short dark hair in tangled curls, and brilliant
green eyes set in silver. As he stared, two more people emerged
from the stairs, a healer and a young man who was also dressed in
black uniform. The man looked up and Beslow’s mouth hung open. The
man’s eyes were bright gold. Beslow swung back to Jemin.

‘You are in league with
the monsters?’ he asked in disbelief.

Jemin bit his tongue.
He really didn’t think this was the time for long explanations but
he had to make Beslow understand some of it.

‘The monsters are part
of an evil being which comes from beyond this world. We are all in
great peril from it.’ He took a breath. ‘The Dark Realm took me in
and gave me a home since my father’s death. They are a very private
people who would not normally involve themselves with any others.
They have fought this evil before and have decided that they must
help us now. Yes, some of the Dark Ones have mage powers, but this
man for instance - ’ he touched The Bear’s arm. ‘This man is the
leader of the Bear tribe in the Dark Realm. The ways of the tribes
mirror the ways of the wild clans here.’

Beslow listened with
great attention. He pointed at Tika. ‘She is a Dark
One?’

‘No. She comes from
lands far across the sea, but she too has fought this cursed
creature and has suffered much because of it. She has mage
powers.’

Another female came
round Tika to approach the Prince and the General.

‘I am Shea,’ she said
simply.

‘You vanished. We
believed you dead,’ Beslow whispered.

Shea smiled. ‘I ran
away and the Dark Realm rescued me. Then we came back for Kerris.’
Her face clouded. ‘We were too late for Mellia.’

Beslow could only
stare. His mind whirled with too many shocks in too short a time.
He grasped hold of one thought.

‘If the Imperatrix is
dead, Lady Shea will accede.’

Shea snorted. ‘I am no
longer “Lady” Shea. I have no wish to rule, or even live in Kelshan
now. If it is necessary I will name my uncle Jemin
Imperator.’

‘My men reported the
Imperatrix dead, with the four guards who escorted her.’

Jemin glanced at Tika
who put an arm round Shea’s waist. ‘The Imperatrix is dead,’ she
said softly. ‘The creature which used her body at the end still
exists. Her guards are dead and their horses.’

Beslow studied her.
‘And do you know this through your mage powers?’ His tone held a
nervous curiosity.

Tika gave him the hint
of a smile. ‘Yes I do. But Lord Cyrek may have more detail for you
if you wish it.’ She looked beyond Beslow as Cyrek entered the
barn, bringing with him the scent of cinnamon.

Beslow spun to face the
tall thin man with the blazing gold eyes. Again he was lost for
words. Cyrek ignored the Kelshan guards and General Beslow, going
straight to stand before Jemin and Shea. He touched his left thumb
to his brow, his lips, his heart, then spread his hand palm up
towards them.

‘The Imperatrix is
dead, but the Crazed One still lives. He slid away and I was unable
to tell which direction he took.’

He glanced at Tika then
finally looked fully at General Beslow.

‘The creatures are no
longer gathering outside your Citadel. They are spreading
throughout the City.’

‘Are they seeking the
Crazed One?’ Tika asked thoughtfully. ‘Do you think they would join
with him, multiplying the power?’

Cyrek gave a bitter
laugh. ‘My belief is they seek to destroy him. They are all of them
crazed remember.’

A scruffy woman in the
black of the Dark Realm, wearing a badly dented helmet, grinned at
Cyrek.

‘Looks like we’ll be
needed then.’

Cyrek’s mouth twitched
in spite of himself. ‘I suspect you are right Dog. Will you be able
to find what you need here to make your – erm –
weapons?’

Dog shrugged. ‘Me and
the General can have a little chat, see what he might have in the
way of ingredients.’

Jemin coughed. ‘And
could you alert your men to the presence of General Whilk in the
City? It would be good to hear how he’s managed to deal with any
creatures he might have met. There are Kelshan officers with him,
all wearing this uniform.’

‘How did the
Imperatrix’s invading army fare, sir?’

‘About half of them
were killed General, half were taken prisoner. The prisoners have
been taken deeper into the Realm and will be given their freedom
amongst the local people. They are unlikely to be allowed to return
to Kelshan but that must be discussed later.’

Tika longed to speak to
Cyrek, to learn what exactly had happened when he’d caught up with
the fleeing Imperatrix. But that would have to wait.

‘General, is there a
room, preferably overlooking the City, which we can use as a
central base?’

The General had been
watching Konya trying to work on the wounded Kelshans and Tika
followed the direction of his gaze.

‘Simert’s Balls,’ she
said loudly, causing Gossamer and Shea considerable
amusement.

Tika knelt beside the
healer who had bared the guard’s chest to reveal a bad gash which
left his ribs clearly visible. Konya sat back on her heels. Tika
leaned over the man who was still conscious. A stillness came over
her, and heads turned towards her. Konya and General Beslow watched
the tissues close, the flesh spread across the gaping wound, until
the guard’s chest showed only a pink line where a sword had slashed
him.

The General muttered
under his breath and Dog regarded him solemnly.

‘Done that for me, she
did. My leg was smashed to bits, bone sticking out. She mended it
just as easy as that.’

The General turned his
head and met Dog’s steady gaze. ‘That’s why I serve
her.’

Tika had moved to the
next injured man, Konya following in stunned silence.

‘She is very, very
special,’ Dog whispered to Beslow. ‘Even a dumb engineer can see
that.’

Guard after guard was
helped to his feet by comrades as Tika worked on each wounded man,
Sket always at her shoulder. When Tika rose from the last, she
swayed. Sket caught her arm but she smiled and pushed him
away.

‘She gave her own
strength to heal the injuries.’ A rich baritone murmured beside
Beslow.

He saw it was the man
who was dressed the same as the huge warrior.

‘Lemos,’ he introduced
himself, and raised his chin to reveal the mass of scars across his
throat. ‘I am mage to The Bear and I have had my voice returned
after thirty five years of croaking like a frog.’

Beslow could only shake
his head. He forced his thoughts into some kind of order and began
giving instructions to the Kelshan guards. They rapidly dispersed
and Beslow considered where to locate the command room Tika had
requested. Tika had suggested that the wounded men should rest for
a full day before resuming their duties, but they simply refused.
Beslow watched the awed respect on their faces and knew they were
her men now, regardless of the colour of their uniforms, in a way
Veranta had never been able to win the loyalty of any.