Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (45 page)

Everyone had been
listening closely.

‘So he could be a worm,
or a mouse, large ones obviously,’ Shea suggested in all
seriousness. ‘I mean he doesn’t have to look like us, does
he?’

‘She’s right,’ Rhaki
admitted. ‘Have you seen him, Tika?’

‘No I
haven’t.’

‘So he could appear as
anything, given he can create illusions.’

They walked all day,
following Daisy’s stately plodding hooves: Khosa chose to hitch a
ride on the horse’s broad back very early on. The land was all open
grass land. Volk explained that cattle had been raised in this
region, for both meat and for milk, but they saw not a single
animal now. Trees made a dark line ahead of them and the land rose
rapidly, into mountains rather than hills. They camped early, the
day seeming much longer than normal as they had left Gaharn in the
afternoon but arrived here soon after daybreak
apparently.

Tika was ashamed to
discover that Volk and Konya had made sure there had been food
packs made ready each day, by Emla’s staff. Tika hadn’t spared a
thought for details such as provisioning her company. Daisy halted
of her own accord and was grazing at the edge of their camp. The
Dragons too were reclined around the companions, Storm leaning
against Kija and snoring. Essa and Volk spun at the same instant,
staring into the deepening twilight behind them. A middle aged man
stood there, a little hesitant, as if unsure of his welcome. His
name sprang into Tika’s mind as she rose to welcome him.

‘Sabel. I’m glad to see
you again. Is all well at Blue Mirror, and with your
people?’

Sabel drew closer to
the small fire. ‘We have searched over most of these lands Lady
Tika, and we can find no one alive except those who have Old Blood,
however dilute, running in their veins. There is much discussion as
to why this should be, as you can imagine. The ground shakes in
many places, places where there have been no such reports before..
None around the Oblaka complex, or the town.’

‘Any of our folk around
there?’ Volk asked.

‘Yes. Many more than
before. Word got out that the ground doesn’t shake, or
worse.’

‘Worse?’

Sabel accepted a bowl
of tea from Konya and then answered Rhaki’s question.

‘In quite a lot of
places the earth opens up, like a great mouth. It swallows whatever
was standing there – trees, buildings, animals – and then it closes
over again.’

The company sat huddled
around their fire, contemplating the thought of being gulped down
by the earth they were sitting on.

‘Has anyone ventured
inside the Oblaka?’ Volk’s deep voice rumbled into the
quiet.

Sabel nodded.
‘Empty.’

‘Completely?’ Tika
asked in surprise, remembering the common room, crowded with
refugees, both adults and children, as well as students.

Sabel nodded again. ‘No
bodies. Nothing at all.’

Having seen the cold
fire Shivan could raise, Volk wondered if something similar might
have been used in the complex.

‘We had some of our
people in there, you know that, Volk. They said everyone just
vanished.’

Tika frowned. ‘But not
Old Bloods?’

‘Not a single one,’
Sabel agreed.

‘We’ll be there, day
after tomorrow,’ Volk told him. ‘Is Hesla still there?’

‘Yes. She was very
tired when she got back from Syet, but she’s been organising
searches for the last few days.’ Sabel stood up. ‘I’ll be getting
back then. See you soon.’

Sabel nodded at Tika
and moved away into the gloom, still shy of allowing any outsiders
to witness his transformation from man to owl.

The ground began to
rise steeply the next day, taking more effort to travel, but Tika
wanted to walk, to have a time to think before plunging into
whatever threat lay ahead. And she had little doubt it was a threat
waiting for her. But by the following noon, they were approaching
the ruined buildings above the town of Oblaka. It was unnaturally
quiet: they had seen few, if any, birds or beasts in their two day
march, and they saw none around the town.

‘Wonder if any of my
poor goats are still around,’ Tika heard Volk mutter to himself
when they paused at the head of a track, wide enough for two
wagons, which led to the Oblaka’s cliff top community.

The charred and tumbled
buildings looked the same, some partially repaired, as Tika had
seen them days ago.

‘Where do you want to
make for?’ asked Volk. ‘There is a way in through that building at
the far end.’ He pointed to a half collapsed stone hut. ‘Or there
is a way through the lower hillside.’

‘The
hillside.’

‘Shall I take a look at
the ledge the people widened for us?’ Kija mind spoke Tika,
drifting lazily above the ruins.

Tika considered. ‘Very
well. See if you can sense anything, anything at all. We’ll make
our way to the other side.’

They had just reached
the half hidden slit in the grey rock face when a skinny boy with
tousled dark hair came skittering from beyond a pair of large
boulders. Tika saw Volk stiffen, then his arms were flung out to
the sides and he gave a bellow of joy. The boy hurtled towards
Volk, jumping the last paces, up into Volk’s embrace. Tika recalled
Sabel saying that he would return to the Oblaka from Blue Mirror,
to see if he could find Volk’s young fosterling.

Sabel appeared behind
the boy, a broad smile on his face. Volk swung round to Tika, the
boy clinging round his neck. Volk’s small dark eyes shone with
delight.

‘This is Rivan,’ Volk
introduced the lad. ‘My adopted boy.’

Tika was surprised when
the boy’s thin face turned towards her: his eyes were the palest
blue she’d seen, other than Sergeant Essa’s. There was a flurry of
wings before she could speak and boy’s gaze went past her. He
grinned and wriggled from Volk’s arms to throw himself at Storm.
Storm seemed equally pleased to see the boy again, although Volk
looked a little puzzled. Volk reached for Sabel as he joined them,
giving him a hug that caused Sabel to groan.

‘I owe you a blood
debt, Sabel.’

Sabel scowled. ‘You owe
me nothing.’ Clearly embarrassed, he jerked a thumb at the narrow
entrance. ‘Are you going to look in there, lady?’

Tika sighed. ‘I suppose
so but I’m not over eager. Volk, will you wait with the Dragons
please, and catch up with your lad?’

She looked around her
company. Onion had more colour in his cheeks and she knew Konya
checked his eye socket meticulously, renewing the dressings twice a
day. She opened her mouth but Essa got in first.

‘Sorry, but we’re all
coming.’

Seeing the determined
nods from her companions, Tika gave in. She would be glad of their
presence, but she feared for them. She was coming more and more to
the conclusion that she really was the specific target of the
Crazed One’s attention, and that he would swat anyone near her
without a moment’s qualm and with little effort. She looked over
their heads as Kija drifted down to land beside the other
Dragons.

‘I felt only
emptiness,’ she told Tika. ‘No life. No residue of life. Yet there
should be.’ Her gold faceted eyes flashed. ‘Life traces remain many
days,’ she continued. ‘But if I didn’t know better, I would say
that place had not been lived in for a very long age.’ Her tone
became wistful. ‘I couldn’t sense Kadi there.’

Tika sent a pulse of
affection towards the golden Dragon then faced the entrance again.
She knew Sket was right behind her as she drew a breath and
squeezed into the back door of the Oblaka complex. The first
passageway went upwards and wound round three tight curves. Then
Tika felt a breeze and knew she was nearing the large common room
with the open ledge opposite, where the Dragons could
land.

She looked into the
common room on her left and felt a chill. Bowls and plates lay
strewn on tables and counters, suggesting the people using them had
left hurriedly, just called elsewhere for a while. Tika moved away,
towards the ledge, and there was Farn. He was reclining beside the
innermost wall, his prismed eyes whirring rapidly. All of Tika’s
company felt the agitation coming from their Lady’s soul bonded
Dragon. He knew the cave rooms and passages were too narrow for his
bulk and he was much disturbed by the thought of his Tika being out
of his reach.

Tika went to him,
holding him tight and speaking privately to his mind alone. After
but a few moments, she released his face and stepped away, walking
quickly along the passage and out of his sight, her company close
behind. They moved through the winding corridors in silence, all
wondering how the soft glow from the ceilings was made. They
glanced into sleeping rooms that were little more than cupboards
hewn from the rock. Tika stopped suddenly.

‘Shea, where is the
room you took me to before?’

Shea squirmed between
Geffal and Rhaki. She reached Tika and frowned. ‘It was much
further back, not far from the ledge.’

‘That’s what I
thought.’ Tika studied the rough stone wall beside her. ‘Rhaki, can
you feel where spaces have been filled in?’

‘I think so. I’ll check
this side if you take that one.’

Shivan stood aside and
took position behind Tika and Rhaki as they worked their way back
down the corridor. He found this use of power difficult, so he left
it to the two who could use it, and held his own power ready to
defend them if need be.

‘Here.’ Rhaki spoke
quietly, and focused his power, tracing a line in the
stone.

There was no sound, but
stone dissolved, leaving an open space which led into a small room.
Books and papers lay jumbled and tumbled across the one table, and
all over the floor. The company peered in.

‘Why seal away a room
like that?’ Shea voiced the thoughts of the majority.

They continued slowly
along the corridor.

‘Aah.’ Tika
concentrated on a stretch of wall. It melted away, revealing
another passage.

‘That’s it.’ Shea
sounded positive. ‘The room with the painting is just down
here.’

Chapter
Twenty-Five

The room in front of
them was dark, no diffuse glow from the low ceiling. Rhaki tossed a
light globe over Tika’s head to hover in the middle of the room.
They saw the walls were black rather than the natural grey of the
rest of the complex they had so far seen. Tika moved into the room,
Essa close behind.

‘Painted,’ the Sergeant
muttered.

‘Dark blue, not black,’
Tika agreed, her nose nearly touching a section of wall.

But the little figures
depicted all around the walls were extraordinarily similar to the
ones she had examined in Essa’s father’s house in the Bear village.
Similar, but involved in very different activities. In the Bear
village, the picture, far bigger than this one, was almost alive
with movement and a sense of joyful celebration. The figures in the
picture surrounding Tika now were stiff and uniform, every action
rigid, every tree the same size and shape.

Dromi and Rhaki entered
the room, although Shea stayed by the entrance with
Shivan.

‘It is very like to the
one we have in Steadfast Rock,’ Dromi murmured. ‘Although this is
but a fraction of the size.’

One man predominated in
the many little scenes. The man wore a light yellowish, long shirt,
or tunic, over trousers of the same colour. In one scene, he
planted a tree: in the next he stood surveying dozens of trees, all
in equally spaced straight rows. Elsewhere, the same figure seemed
elevated above a watching crowd, clearly exhorting them, a stern
look on his face. The crowd had their backs to the viewer but they
stood in rows, as equally spaced as the trees. Essa counted them,
finding the same numbers each of men and of women.

‘Who is this man?’
Rhaki asked. ‘This looks like his death scene.’

‘Sedka.’ The usually
mildly spoken Dromi spat the name. He peered round Rhaki’s
shoulder. ‘He travelled far south, to bring those lands under his
rule. He was killed by mountain cats.’

Essa glanced over then
caught Tika’s eye. There were mountain cats in north Kelshan where
Sedka was killed to be sure: there was also a clan of the same
name, known as some of the fiercest warriors in the Dark
Realm.

‘And they brought his
body back here?’ asked Rhaki.

‘No. He was buried
where he died. His men brought only the story back with
them.’

‘There are tiny Dragons
here too, Tika,’ Essa murmured. ‘But they aren’t really part of any
of the pictures.’ She stepped back a pace. ‘And the scenes don’t
link up in patterns like the one in father’s den.’

‘But what are
these?’

Essa and Dromi turned
to see what Tika was looking at. She indicated many odd spiral
shapes scattered around the individual scenes, never part of those
scenes.

‘Sea shells,’ Shivan
said from the door space.

Once he mentioned it,
it seemed obvious that the spirals could be nothing else. For the
first time, Tika lifted her hand and traced a finger lightly over a
pale pink spiral.