Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (27 page)

Volk was thoughtful. ‘I
have had small dealings with Sedka’s people. Maybe they believed
they could hide their plans behind Myata’s name. But among Old
Bloods, she is doubly cursed.’

‘It is difficult to
understand.’ Tika rested her chin on her drawn up knees. ‘I
believed that the smell of mint guided me to safety, several times,
and now you say it is the smell of the Splintered Kingdom,
Khosa.’

‘If Myata was mad, as
Dromi says, surely the Crazed One would find her easy to persuade
to his side.’ Khosa appeared to be asleep but was clearly paying
close attention to the talk.

‘What did you mean Volk
– that Myata is doubly cursed?’

Dromi was the one to
reply.

‘She was born with Old
Blood in her veins, Lady Tika. And with great mage powers. But she
was also insane from birth.’

Chapter
Fifteen

Sket had set guards
that night, although in truth there was little need. Tika had dark
smudges under her eyes in the morning, suggesting she’d not slept.
There was less cloud today and slightly more warmth from the sun.
The company seemed relaxed enough as they waited to hear the plans
for the day. Tika was all too aware that these people looked to her
to make all the decisions.

She climbed around the
mine entrance and pulled herself the short distance to the top of
the ridge. People glanced up but left her in peace. Except for Shea
and Khosa. They arrived, slightly breathless, and sat down next to
her.

‘Are you going to take
us into the Splintered Kingdom then?’ Shea asked.

Tika laughed. ‘That’s
something I’m really having trouble with. I don’t feel any pull
towards it. It’s hard to explain Shea, but I get a – feeling – when
I know something for sure. And I don’t feel it now. But I can’t
think what else I can do.’

‘We could visit your
Lady Emla, or the First Daughter, or -’

‘Oh Shea, I wish we
could!’ Tika laughed. ‘Last night I realised that whole thing about
smelling mint everywhere, then being told about Myata, that was all
just to draw me in. But they call him the Crazed One. That seems
quite a complicated bit of planning, over some length of time for
someone who is crazy.’

Khosa squeezed between
them and squirmed onto her back. Shea scratched the paler fur from
Khosa’s chin to her belly and the cat nearly choked herself on her
purrs of ecstasy.

‘I thought about that
too,’ Shea agreed. ‘Have you asked Shivan or anyone if they know
what he looks like?’

Tika looked at the girl
curiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well is he human, or
one of those monster things, or what?’

‘I’ve no idea. Do you
think it matters?’

Shea scowled in
concentrated thought. ‘Yes.’

‘Let’s ask them
then.’

Tika got to her feet
and reached out a hand to pull Shea up. Dog offered them tea when
they reached the fire. Tika saw faces turn towards her and decided
she would have to try and clear her own mind perhaps by laying all
her information out for them to consider. She sat beside Sket and
looked up at Volk and Shivan.

‘I do not understand
about this smell of mint. Some of my friends were also able to
smell it, but not all of them. How can a smell be made
manifest?’

Volk wandered off to
his horses and Shivan shook his head.

‘I’ve never heard of
such a thing,’ he admitted, and Rhaki nodded his
agreement.

‘There is visual
illusion of course, which isn’t too difficult to perform,’ Shivan
went on. ‘Although I’ve never seen it or been taught of it, I think
sound could be conjured. But scent? I can’t imagine how that might
be done.’

Essa’s head moved and
Tika followed the Sergeant’s gaze. Dromi smiled.

‘Conjuring scent is not
difficult,’ he said softly. ‘Beasts rely on their sense of smell
far more than do humans.’

Tika remembered the
gentle fragrance in the Menedula’s great hall, that had replaced
the charnel stench of hundreds of corpses.

‘Does that imply that
Myata must have been close by each time to cause the smell of
mint?’

Dromi joined them by
the fire. ‘I don’t know. I have never heard of someone causing a
scent from a distance, but then we must consider whether it is
Myata’s spirit form that was doing this, or the one you called
Crazed, working with what he had taken from her
perhaps.’

‘Spirit form?’ Shea
asked. ‘Do you mean ghosts?’

Dromi lifted one
shoulder. ‘We believe there are spirits in this world; ghosts are
visible spirits who are not ready to move on, or feel they need to
remain near where they died. They are held to be
unlucky.’

Shea snorted. ‘I have
found ghosts are terribly nice, and very helpful, poor dears.
Unlucky indeed!’

Dromi’s eyes widened.
‘You have met ghosts?’

Tika hid a smile when
Shea waved a hand airily.

‘Lots. They helped us
in Kelshan, and it cost a lot of them their existence. They had to
return to the Dark because they used up all their energy helping
us.’

She glanced at Tika,
not entirely sure her description was accurate. Tika gave her a
covert wink and Shea drew another breath.

‘So I think you’d
better be polite if any turn up here, Dromi. Tika asked
-’

There was a collective
gasp and Geffal, being nearest, slapped his hand over Shea’s mouth.
Her eyes bulged with indignation and she yanked his hand
away.

‘I was going to say,
Tika asked a gentleman if any of his ghosts fancied a visit here.’
She glared round the group. ‘Do you really think I’m stupid enough
to say Simert’s name out lo - ’

A wisp of smoke rose
from between Tika and Sket, rising in a conical shape. A plump,
elderly man stood there. To everyone’s enormous relief, he wore a
benign expression.Dromi stared open mouthed while Shea jumped to
her feet, her face scarlet with mortification.

‘I’m so sorry Lord
Simert. We were talking about ghosts, and I got a bit annoyed. I am
sorry. Sir.’

‘There, there child.
Don’t upset yourself. I was meaning to pay you a visit
anyway.’

Faces blanched around
the camp and Simert frowned. ‘Oh don’t be so conceited. I wasn’t
coming for any of you. You asked for volunteers from my lot. I was
quite surprised I must admit by the numbers who came forward. There
are about a hundred. I picked the stronger ones, you
understand.’

Simert regarded Dromi
sadly. ‘You really shouldn’t have forgotten me, you
know.’

As Simert’s stout body
vanished, a cloud of white and grey fog swirled in his place. The
company heard a faint murmuring and glimpsed eyes, noses, mouths,
briefly visible in the cloud. Then it thinned and
dissipated.

‘They’ve gone off to
explore,’ Kija told the company. ‘They won’t be long.’

Dog poured tea for
Dromi, gently folding his long fingers around the wooden bowl, then
guiding it to his mouth. He took a sip then stared at
Tika.

‘That was really -
?’

‘It really isn’t a good
idea to mention his name,’ Tika interrupted hurriedly. ‘We refer to
him as the gentleman, otherwise, as you saw, he turns up. He was in
a very pleasant temper this time.’

‘And that –
cloud?’

‘Hmm. He said he would
ask if any ghosts wanted to come. He hasn’t collected any souls
from here for centuries so he said. Sedka’s doing of
course.’

‘I must send word,’
Dromi spoke urgently. ‘To my brothers. They must know of this. It
could change a great many things.’

Tika regarded him
curiously. ‘Really? I’m afraid you are going to have to explain
about your brothers – at least a little.’

Conflicting emotions
flickered across Dromi’s usually bland round face, then he nodded.
‘As you say, Lady Tika. As you say.’

Tika turned her
attention to Shivan again. ‘Do you, or any of your people, know
what the Crazed One looks like? Has he a proper, physical
form?’

Shivan spread his
hands, palms up. ‘I’ve never heard or seen any description. It may
even be that he is a she. I suspect the word “he” could well have
been used quite arbitrarily, not because anyone knew for sure that
the Crazed One is male.’

‘Bound to be though,’
Dog grunted.

‘Rhaki, what do you
know of the Places Between – of one in particular which corresponds
to the Splintered Kingdom of the Dark Ones, and the Broken Realm
Konya’s people know of?’

‘Nothing,’ he said, his
tone flat. ‘Bark was always interested in the Places Between. I was
at first, but then my interests were – diverted. I know no more
than a student might.’

‘Any ideas anyone?’
Tika looked hopefully round her company, but there was no
response.

Just then, Kazmat and
Onion came trotting up from the direction of the track.

‘We found an odd place,
just by the town,’ Onion announced.

‘Looked like a place of
the dead to me,’ Kazmat added. ‘Upright posts, made of a sort of
clay or plaster. Not as high as you Lady Tika. Writing engraved on
the posts but we couldn’t read the writing.’

Volk had rejoined them
and hunkered down beside Fedran.

‘Burial ground,’ he
agreed.

‘Are those little posts
markers?’ Kazmat asked. ‘They seemed very close
together.’

Volk grunted.
‘Drogoyans bury their dead standing up. The lower half is in the
ground, the top half sticks out and is covered in a stone mixture
that sets hard when it dries. Sedka told them to do this. He said
it stops their spirits wandering about and causing
mischief.’

‘Well of course that
wouldn’t work,’ Shea began, but Tika poked her in the
ribs.

‘Don’t even think of
getting to the point again where you just might say anyone’s
name.’

Shea
subsided.

‘We didn’t see any such
places in Syet,’ Tika continued.

Volk grinned nastily.
‘Those in power decreed such unpleasant things as the dead should
not be allowed near their precious Menedula. Or even where those
high and mighty Offerings could see them. There are burial places,
but hidden within the forests.’

‘I presume this sort of
burial is not the way of Old Bloods?’ asked Essa.

‘No.’

With Volk so obviously
unwilling to enlarge on the subject, Tika came back to the Crazed
One.

‘You don’t have any
idea what the Crazed One might look like Shivan? But do you know
what Mother Dark looks like? And what about the Children of Light?
Where I grew up, I only heard of people calling on the stars for
help, or blessing, or whatever. And we can all see the stars on a
clear night. Ren and Babach called on Light. Dromi, is Light a
person, or just what it is – daylight, lamplight – that sort of
thing?’

‘I do not know a great
deal of the belief in Light Lady Tika. It did not compel my
interest when I was in training. I have seen candles lit, and
constantly replaced. People believing that the Light must never be
permitted to go out. But there is little else I can tell
you.’

‘I have travelled a
great deal through this country, and in the middle lands they
honour a child, supposedly made of Light. It is neither male nor
female, yet somehow it is both. This child is said to govern every
human event. But I have never seen or heard of this child outside
those middle lands.’

‘I remember something
of that,’ Dromi frowned. ‘Several years ago, weren’t some of those
people brought for trial to Syet? I was travelling east so I was
not witness.’

Volk snarled. ‘Three
hundred men, women and children. Burnt, one by one.’ He spat to the
side. ‘Cho Petak standing at the top of those steps saying they
should appreciate being consumed by the light of cleansing
fire.’

Tika sighed and
squinted up at the sun. ‘There’s no point in moving on today. As I
have no idea where we should move anyway, a day or two here can’t
hurt.’

She watched her people
busy themselves with small tasks and saw Dromi wander out of the
camp and disappear down the track. He reappeared only a few moments
later and, after a brief hesitation, he came to stand beside
her.

‘Sit down Dromi,’ she
invited. ‘And do try to stop calling me Lady. I really don’t like
it.’

‘Lady,’ he began, then
started again. ‘Tika, I have asked a messenger to go with all speed
to Steadfast Rock. It is some distance for your company to travel,
but if you feel you can allow the time, I believe you could learn
much there.’

‘Steadfast Rock,’ Tika
repeated. ‘This is where you were trained?’

He nodded. Tika brushed
dust from her trouser legs.

‘You spoke of your
brothers. I do trust you have sisters?’

Eyes of green ice
studied him closely.

Dromi looked slightly
confused then his expression cleared. ‘Oh. Oh yes. Among us women
are equal to men, but we call all of us brothers.’