Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (59 page)

Cyrek nodded, intrigued
to see where her mind led her.

‘But they all chose
different ways of living. Did they join forces the first time the
Splintered Kingdom approached?’

‘No.’ Cyrek’s reply was
short. ‘We asked to confer with both Light and Shadow. Light
refused and Shadow never even answered our request. Those born to
the Light scoffed at our talk of a Splintered Kingdom. They said it
was a ruse for our Dark blood to gain control of them and their
lands.’

‘But surely – I’ve
heard of a great battle, in Malesh, where thousands of mages died
and races such as the gijan were nearly wiped out. They are all of
the Light aren’t they?’

‘The mages of those
lands were trained by Dark Ones. We were, even then, the only ones
to know the correct ways to wield power.’

‘The Crazed One has
attacked these lands – I mean Kelshan and the Dark Realm
together?’

‘Once.’

‘He has attacked in
Malesh and is probably involved in some degree in Drogoya’s recent
troubles.’ Tika was almost talking to herself and Cyrek sat
quietly, content to listen. ‘He hasn’t actually touched your Realm,
has he, not recently if at all?’

‘No. Since we withdrew
from the world over a thousand years ago, we have had no direct
contact with the Splintered Kingdom. May I ask you something? That
pendant, it seemed to assist you, boost your own power when you
were plunged into danger. But it burned you badly – why would it
try to help you, yet injure you in doing so?’

Tika laughed. ‘No one,
least of all me, has any idea about it.’

She lifted the pendant
from where it lay beside her pillow. It was dormant, just an
unusual trinket. Egg shaped and egg sized, the back was of a smooth
red gold, the front filled with what looked like amber. Inside, a
tiny fleck, a casual glance might suggest an insect had been
trapped there. Tika let it swing from its gold chain, offering it
to Cyrek for inspection. He looked at it carefully, but returned it
with no comment.

Tika heard Iska’s voice
in her memory: look with your mind, child. And she had. And she’d
seen the tiny perfect Dragon move within the amber. Had Cyrek seen
it, she wondered? She didn’t think so. These Dark Ones had great
abilities and mage powers, not least the transformation of their
physical shapes from human to Dragon and back. They did not use
mind speech though. The power they used, from the very little Tika
had gleaned was directed through ritual or incantation.

Konya arrived and Cyrek
moved aside to let the healer closer to her patient. Tika grimaced
at him.

‘Another practice
walk,’ she explained. ‘We did the first one earlier, and I cannot
believe how wobbly I am. I’ve been eating for days and still my
strength is less than an infant’s.’

While Sket and Konya
supported Tika’s shaky steps across the room, Cyrek took his leave.
He wanted to speak with Shivan who was to stay with Tika and those
who chose to remain with her. He had not identified the tiny speck
in her pendant and gave it little thought, but there were other
things he wished Shivan to take particular note of.

By the evening, Tika
was surprised how improved she was. She still seemed hungry all the
time, but at last the quantities of food she consumed seemed to be
returning some strength to her limbs. An argument raged at the
moment, between Cyrek and Gossamer, and Tika, bored,
intervened.

‘If Drengle List won’t
come here, then we’ll go to him,’ she said firmly.

‘You are not fit to
walk the length of the corridor,’ Cyrek retorted. ‘Let alone half
across the City.’

‘If she says we go,
then we go.’ Sket didn’t raise his voice but there was an
unmistakeable tone of finality in his words.

Cyrek visibly held back
his irritation, inclining his head submissively before stalking out
of the room.

‘But we’ve got all this
stuff,’ Shea gestured at the things stacked around the
room.

Mirrors, beads, strange
pencils that held different colours inside, some very bizarre items
of clothing, cloak clasps and brooches, a small carved wooden box
which held rings, pots of creams, perfumes and salves.

‘No difficulties
there,’ The Bear rumbled from his perch on a window ledge. ‘Sorted
into packs for everyone – simple.’

Shea didn’t look
entirely convinced but kept quiet.

‘We’ll go tomorrow
then,’ Tika decided, and hoped she really would be capable of
walking to Gossamer Tewk’s house.

Shivan waited until the
room had nearly emptied. He looked very young indeed, Tika thought,
studying the narrow face with the high cheekbones that jutted under
bright gold eyes.

‘Do you mind my
coming?’ he asked. ‘I should very much like to spend some time with
you and the Dragons. I’ve only seen them flying over the
Palace.’

Tika shrugged. ‘I think
we will be moving on soon – is that what you mean? Would you be
allowed to go to yet other lands? And what about your
eyes?’

He grinned. ‘I can
disguise my eyes, but Corman and father say you can’t change
yours.’

Tika scowled. ‘I keep
asking how it’s done, but no one gets round to telling
me.

Soon after daybreak
they reached Gossamer’s house in the Artisan Quarter. No one
commented but all were aware of Tika’s exhaustion. It had been an
effort to walk this far, but other than Gossamer’s arm through
hers, she had refused any other offer of help. Tika sat thankfully
on the back doorstep and left Gossamer and Shea to convince Drengle
List and Snail to join them in the Dark Realm.

The healer Konya
brought tea out to her and joined her on the doorstep. They sat
watching the ghosts who drifted around the old fruit trees for a
time.

‘Why have you chosen to
come with us?’ Tika asked eventually.

Konya gave a soft
laugh. ‘I’m getting old, but the idea of travelling with you,
perhaps learning a little of healing from you,’ she blushed
slightly. ‘I’ve spent nearly all my life in the Citadel and the
City. The last years I’ve been confined only to the infirmary
within the Citadel. My talents were not to be wasted on ordinary
folk you understand, according to the rules laid down by our
unlamented Imperatrix.’

Tika climbed unsteadily
to her feet. ‘I’ll speak to the ghosts for a while. Call me when
Drengle’s been convinced he’ll be safe.’

To Gossamer Tewk’s
great annoyance, Drengle List and Snail found travelling through a
Dark gateway as exhilarating as did Shea and Tika. She was unfairly
gratified to see Konya felt as nauseated as Sket and herself. It
had no effect on the three Kelshans as far as she could tell, so
she ignored their unspeakably cheerful faces. Shivan opened the
gateway in the meadow a little below the Bear village and he now
watched in amazed delight as four Dragons spiralled down from the
brilliant blue sky above them. Tika was flattened by a wildly
excited Farn and shouts echoed from the village as their arrival
was noted. Dignity thrown to the winds, Emas raced towards them and
was engulfed by The Bear. Lemos also received a strangling embrace
before Emas remembered her position as the gracious wife of a
chief, greeting the others and offering hospitality.

Tika scrambled onto
Farn’s back and he lifted into the air, the sunlight glittering on
his silver blue scales. Shivan watched open mouthed and then found
Kija’s golden eyes staring into his. Her eyes whirred suddenly as
Shivan projected his greeting directly into the Dragon’s mind. He
stiffened, his thoughts turned inside out in a manner Tika would
have recognised all too well from her earliest days with the
Dragons. He swallowed hard when Kija withdrew. She put her face
closer to his.

‘We will talk, you and
I.’

She paced elegantly
towards the edge of the meadow and Shivan trailed behind her like a
scolded child. Kija had found a hollowed piece of ground which gave
shelter from the frequent chilly winds. Here she could bask in the
sun yet still keep a watchful eye on the village, and on Storm and
Farn. She’d learnt, from that brief inspection of Shivan’s mind,
that Tika had been in much greater danger than Lord Cyrek had
thought fit to mention. But this Dark Lord was very young: he would
tell her all she needed to know. Kija settled herself in her chosen
hollow and Shivan hovered nervously in front of her. He hadn’t
missed the fact that curls of smoke were wisping from her
nostrils.

‘Sit,’ she ordered him.
‘And tell me all – all – that has passed with my
daughter.’

Farn carried Tika high,
the sun burning on her back while cold air buffeted her face.
Gradually he came lower again, circling slowly above the Ghost
Falls. They had said nothing mind to mind, since they left the
village, both utterly content with each other’s physical presence.
He landed smoothly in front of a cluster of dark pine trees, the
moisture on their needles condensed from the endless spray rising
from the Falls. Farn waited until Tika slid from his back and
settled comfortably against his chest.

‘Lord Cyrek didn’t tell
me the truth.’ Farn’s mind tone was calm but she felt anger
smouldering very close to the surface.

‘No, perhaps he didn’t.
But he didn’t actually lie to you Farn.’ Tika stroked the long,
beloved face that drooped over her shoulder as he curved himself
protectively around her.

‘There is less meat on
your bones than I could find on a hopper.’

With Farn’s bulk
sheltering her and the roar of the falling water as accompaniment,
Tika showed Farn all she’d experienced. He wept when she spoke of
Gan; he grew excited when she told of Iska, and silent when she
described her descent into the Dark. She showed him the scale which
Lord Dabray had given her and he studied it closely. She wondered
why she hadn’t shown it to him before. Dabray had not asked that
she conceal it from anyone, yet somehow she’d felt it necessary to
hide it away, with Seela’s.

Farn insisted she
unbutton her shirt so that he might inspect the burn. The pendant
was in its leather pouch attached to her belt as the burn between
her breasts was still an open wound, sore and weeping. Tika was
fastening the last button when a bugling cry ricocheted between the
encircling mountain walls. Brin landed in front of them, rushing
forward fast to greet Tika, regardless of the three riders who half
fell, half slid from his back.

Farn watched The Bear’s
children observing Tika, and his anger began to rise again. All
three were shocked by his Tika’s gaunt appearance and unable to
conceal that shock. Tika stepped back when Essa would have embraced
her. Seeing the quickly hidden hurt in Essa’s eyes, Tika explained
about her burned chest. She gave them a brief account of what had
happened in Kelshan and then, suddenly worn out, suggested they
return to the village.

Drengle List was
overcome with shy embarrassment by the kindness of the villagers,
their easy acceptance of him, to the point where he had to go and
sit on the boundary wall by himself for a while. Shea was sent to
fetch him to a low round house where a feast had been set out.
Emas, well informed by her husband and brother, guided Tika to a
small bedroom within her own house as soon as she arrived back with
Farn. She put hot food on a chest by the bed and helped Tika
undress, sliding one of her own night gowns over Tika’s head and
helping her settle against the pillows.

Emas held the plate and
fed her, mouthful by mouthful. When Tika’s eyelids began to droop,
Emas asked questions, forcing her to stay awake until all the food
was gone. When it was, Tika slid lower in the bed.

‘Thank you,’ she
murmured, and was sound asleep.

Emas studied her. She
was appalled at her thinness, the ribs standing out under the small
breasts. And that hideous burn! Emas brushed the tangled curls off
Tika’s forehead and watched her lips twitch into a smile. What
memory had she disturbed by that action, she wondered. She lifted
the empty plate and went to the door. Sket sat outside on the
floor, Dog opposite. Emas felt tears rising and forced them back.
She pushed the door open again.

‘I’ll bring blankets
for you both,’ she whispered, and fled.

As she pulled blankets
from her store cupboard, she puzzled over this child – Tika was
much younger than her three, and she was so small she seemed even
younger. Yet that man who travelled with her – Sket. Emas knew he
would die content protecting Tika. The engineer, Dog, was the same.
And Shea – that child would follow wherever Tika led. Her own
daughter Essa: Emas knew she was torn between her sworn duty to the
Sword Master and the pull of this strange young woman. Who was she?
What was she?

He was furiously,
insanely, angry. Once again he’d had that girl within his grasp,
and again she’d eluded him. He shifted his crippled body in his
chair. His hooded eyes watched the lamplight twist through the
shadows in the corners of his luxurious room. A snarl wrenched his
lips, exposing the tusks in his lower jaw. The goblet flew from his
clawed hand, the jewels which encrusted it breaking away and
scattering on the tiled floor.

He had deliberately let
those creatures escape, the stupidest of his collection, thinking
they would distract attention from him and let him creep closer to
the girl. But their stupidity had been doubly proved: they’d
scented his own power when he possessed that second woman and had
turned on him, forcing him to flee. His hands flexed. He stood on
two misshapen legs, one of which appeared to have broken
again.