Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (12 page)

Essa was calling orders
to the guards and, after the briefest hesitation, Volk strode to
the hearth calling for water. Beela hurried in with a full pail
which Volk dashed into the fire. He upended a table and jammed it
across the front of the hearth, holding it tight to the
wall.

‘What is it?’ Babach
called anxiously.

‘The air’s wrong,’ Tika
called back as she rammed a blanket along the bottom of the outer
door.

Dog had pushed Khosa
into Shea’s arms and joined the other guards checking every door
and window in the building was tightly secured. Beela’s kitchen
fire had been doused and blocked off, and now she stood, with the
few Old Bloods who remained, by the door into the hall.

Tika noticed that none
of them seemed afraid, only watchful. She guessed all of them could
transform, so that would give them an edge if escape was called
for. But Tika’s lungs felt tight, after only two or three breaths
of that air. If escape was needed, could anyone, man or beast,
survive in obviously tainted air?

Chapter
Seven

His skull was elongated
and bald, the skin cracked into gullies and ravines. His eyes were
almond shaped, tilted upward at the outer corners, and were a very
light but definite green. The enforced rest after the debacle in
both Kelshan and the Dark Realm had brought a more complete
healing. To parts of his body at least. The Crazed One’s mind was
still a chaotic jumble of seething contradictions.

He returned to
awareness on the floor where he’d fallen, convulsed with impotent
rage and exhaustion. The matter of how long he’d lain thus was of
no consequence. Time was meaningless to him. He sat for a while,
leaning against a rippled wall and studied his legs. They seemed
more solid to him now, the many breaks having had time to heal more
firmly. Solid, yes, but rather twisted. No matter. They would
support him as he needed. If they broke again, as they would,
they’d mend.

He frowned at his hands
resting on his thighs. The frown cracked the skin between his eyes
but he didn’t even notice. The hands had three fingers and a thumb,
each digit tipped with a narrow horny nail, more like a claw. The
skin was dark grey, and the knuckles looked to be misplaced, as of
course they were, having been smashed countless times. He raised
his eyes and watched the shadows scuttle away into the lopsided
corners of the room.

His small ears
swivelled, catching the faintest sound from outside. His mind
pulsed a command and the door banged open. A skeletal human entered
on hands and knees, eyes averted from its master. The Crazed One
considered the wretched specimen. It had been newly caught last
time he’d seen it, plump and polished. How long did it take humans
to sink to this condition? He quested beyond the door and found
three bodies: one had been nibbled at.

He stared at the thing
almost prostrate before him in disgust. To eat the flesh of one’s
own kind stirred an ancient contempt deep, deep in his shattered
mind. He snarled. The human whimpered but squirmed closer to the
monstrous creature propped against the wall. Tusks and claws
flashed and the whimpering ceased abruptly.

The Crazed One flung
the corpse back out through the door and a single thought blistered
all the corpses to oblivion. He felt amazingly calm at this
instant, the shambles of his mind pushed into a shadowed distance.
He leaned his head back, feeling the ridges running down the black
wall against his skull.

Always there was this
strange period of peaceful emptiness when he first woke after one
of his bad times. But he never remembered each separate episode,
and he could no longer maintain his hold on this quiet, nearly sane
interval. He let his chin sink to rest on his deformed chest. It
hurt, and slowly the other pains from his constantly tormented
bones crept into his awareness. And with the pain, his madness
began to flicker into existence once more.

It had been a nerve
wracking day and night for those sealed inside the building at the
side of Blue Mirror. Nothing whatsoever had happened, no attack, no
shaking of the ground, no more thunder or rain. The sun rose in a
clear sky and most of those within were peering out when the door
slammed inwards, its hinges groaning as it banged repeatedly
against the wall. A raucous cackle announced Hag’s appearance. The
great Raven stood in the entrance, scanning the room, beak agape in
silent amusement. Then she spotted Tika and strutted purposefully
in her direction.

‘Why are you all shut
in here?’ she enquired.

Almost boneless with
relief, Tika sank onto a chair.

‘I wish you wouldn’t do
that Hag. It’s very – alarming.’

Hag tilted her head to
one side and a black shining eye rimmed with gold regarded Tika
closely. Hag hopped closer then bounced up onto the table on which
Tika was leaning an elbow.

‘I’m sorry. My
dear.’

Tika heard someone
snort, guessed it was Shea, and sent a glare in her general
direction.

‘The ground shook
yesterday. Then there was a very bad storm around midday. It came
out of nowhere. When the weather cleared, the air felt tainted,
unfit to breathe.’

Tika rubbed her chest,
which still felt sore despite the disgusting potions Konya had
forced her to drink. Hag strutted the length of the table and back,
stooping to peer into Tika’s face.

‘I can taste no magic
here,’ she said. ‘The bad air was probably just because of the
ground shaking.’

Tika stared at the
bird. Hag ruffled her feathers and adjusted one in a wing which
looked very much as if it had been chewed.

‘You said the ground
shook? Gases sometimes escape when that happens. The water out
there is very unsettled, at the far end,’ Hag’s voice was
soothing.

‘Gases?’ Tika
repeated.

Hag marched down the
table again. ‘Bad air. Smells like – like bad eggs.’

‘That’s what it smelled
like,’ Essa chimed in. ‘Exactly like that. You are a clever old
bird.’

Hag swivelled her head
to fix Essa with a hard black eye and decided that Essa was merely
being honest. Hag drew herself to her full height.

‘Well, my dears, Hag’s
solved that for you. What are you doing next?’

‘We can’t seem to find
any hint of the two we thought might be causing the disruption
here. And now we have three others to consider as suspects. Why are
you here anyway?’

Hag’s huge beak gaped
wide again. ‘I wanted to be sure you were well; some of you at
least.’

‘Have you encountered
Plavats yet?’

Everyone heard Kija’s
mind speech but were astonished by Hag’s reaction. Her wings
lifted, mantling fiercely, and a venomous hiss came from
her.

‘I have indeed.
Abominations.’ She bounced furiously on the table top and Tika bit
the inside of her cheek to keep her expression blank. A wave of
affection came from the gold Dragon, startling Hag to
stillness.

‘They are indeed
exactly that,’ Kija agreed warmly. ‘I understand they nest, along
the coast above the place called Oblaka.’

Tika stared at Kija in
horrified disbelief but Hag closed her wings and hopped from the
table to advance on Kija.

‘Nests? Eggs? Young?’
she asked eagerly.

Kija lowered her head,
eyes whirring brilliant golds and reds. ‘I thought I might see this
myself.’

‘Kija!’ Tika
remonstrated.

‘It will only be a
brief visit,’ Kija replied, without looking away from
Hag.

The Dragon rose and
paced towards the wall where Volk had revealed a large doorway. Now
he hurried to open it again, rather than waiting to risk Hag’s
methods of doing so. Kija paused.

‘If you wish to join
us, you may,’ she told Storm, who hurried after her at
once.

Tika sighed. ‘And you?’
she asked Farn aloud. ‘Do you want to go too?’

‘No. I will stay with
you, my Tika. Nasty things, those Plavats.’ He
shuddered.

Tika remembered the
ghastly Plavat, Baryet, who had decided the Stronghold would make
an ideal nesting place. Chakar, poor woman, was the only person
Tika knew who could actually stand the giant sea birds. Tika looked
round the room. She could see two of the Old Bloods, through in the
kitchen, unblocking the chimney and straightening things
up.

‘Corim and Geffal,
you’d better check on the horses. And if any of you go outside,
make sure you don’t go too far yet. If the ground shakes again,
hurry back inside.’

Konya and Fedran came
from the corridor, Fedran joining his comrades and Konya crossing
the hall to Tika.

‘Babach wants to see
you,’ she said quietly.

‘Is he worse?’ Tika
asked in some alarm.

‘No, but he’s tired. He
dream walked again last night.’ The healer looked annoyed. ‘That
was not why I insisted he slept in a proper bed, silly old
fool.’

‘I’ll go
now.’

‘And you’ll have some
more medicine when you come back,’ Konya called after
her.

Tika wondered how to
avoid that order as she made her way along to Babach’s room. She
tapped softly on the half open door and peeked in.

‘Come in, child, and
close the door.’

Tika did as he asked
and perched on the end of the bed.

‘I didn’t understand
most of it – that’s often the way when you walk through dreams.
This man you seek – Namolos? You told me he was trapped by Cho
Petak, or the other way about. Whatever, they were locked together.
Cho Petak is no longer held. He is severely weakened but he is
free. I could find no trace of the man. But I felt a brief tug of
connection.’ Babach frowned. ‘I felt that Khosa was somehow
involved. But how can that be?’

Tika grew still. She
decided to modify the truth a little; it wasn’t for her to tell
Khosa’s secrets.

‘Khosa isn’t quite all
she seems,’ she said with care. ‘She knew Namolos, in the distant
past. And he communicated with us through her, last
summer.’

Babach nodded,
satisfied with that explanation.

‘Babach, did the people
worship gods here, before Sedka? Ren,’ she watched the pain spasm
across the old man’s face at mention of that name, and reached for
his hand. ‘Ren said country people left gifts out for a woman in
the hopes that their lands and their beasts would be fertile. He
also spoke of a warrior or a hunter. Was there a god of death,
someone who gathered up the souls? Or a god of learning, or
wisdom?’

Babach looked
intrigued. ‘Yes there were, but I’ll have to think hard. I was
interested in such old stories when I was newly apprenticed in the
Menedula. And that was very long ago.’

‘It could be important
Babach, and a help.’

‘Tell that arrogant
woman I am asleep and must, on no account, be disturbed until it’s
time for a meal.’

He lay back against his
pillows, fingers working through his braided beard, clearly a long
established aid to concentrated thought.

‘She isn’t in the least
arrogant,’ Tika told him severely, then grimaced. ‘I’m trying to
avoid her actually – she thinks I need another potion for my
chest.’

‘Hah!’ Babach closed
his eyes, a triumphant smirk on his face.

Outside the bedroom
door, Tika hesitated. Khosa spoke in her mind.

‘Come this way. There’s
a door into the stables and another to the outside.’

Tika hurried further
along the corridor, away from the hall, round a corner, and nearly
tripped over Khosa. She squatted down in front of the little cat,
wondering what she should tell her. But wide turquoise eyes gazed
up at her.

‘Namolos is gone. I
know. I felt it last night. But I can’t tell if he is really
dead.’

‘I am sorry Khosa.’
Tika was lost for words.

‘He was once a good
man,’ Khosa whispered in Tika’s mind. ‘A very good man. I don’t
think the Splintered Kingdom touched him, but he could have
intervened on several occasions. And he didn’t. And he played games
with the lives of my sister and myself. I cannot forgive that, just
for the sake of his earlier goodness. There can be no
excuses.’

Tika lifted Khosa
against her shoulder and straightened, rubbing her face against
Khosa’s head. Carrying the cat, Tika walked on until she reached a
door across the corridor. Opening it carefully, she saw she was in
a large stable and the company’s horses seemed more than happy with
their accommodation. Still carrying Khosa, Tika let herself out of
the stables and drew a cautious breath. The air felt fresh, no
throat catching taint to it. She was at the back of the building
and cautiously made her way round to the side.

‘Escaping from
someone?’

Tika nearly jumped out
of her skin and Khosa let out an indignant squeak as she was
clutched too tightly. Rhaki and Shivan stood beaming behind
her.

‘We heard Konya,’
Shivan explained helpfully. ‘So we guessed you’d find another way
out.’