Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (48 page)

‘Animals are coming
back,’ he said. ‘Wherever they hid, they’re coming out again.
Rabbits by the dozen along on the dunes. And my goats have turned
up.’

‘So they must thinks
it’s safe then?’

Volk shrugged. Tika’s
companions watched her finish her food and accept a second helping
from Konya. They had all been afraid last night. She had been so
white faced, so grief stricken, they had worried for her. But now
she looked flushed and cheerful, no older than Rivan or Shea, as
though nothing had happened. They all knew that her inner thoughts
could well be very different from what showed on the outside but,
she did seem genuinely happier.

Rhaki realised that no
one wanted to spoil her mood, but he also understood that time
mattered. Increasingly, the sense grew on him that time was an
important factor in this contest with the Crazed One. He listened
to the general chatter, watching Tika check on Onion’s eye; giving
a word to every one of them. Finally she stood up.

‘Today we do nothing,’
she told them quietly. ‘Tomorrow we move on.’ She gave a wry
grimace. ‘I still have to decide where.’

Rhaki jumped in before
there were any questions. ‘Did you two look for that shell just
now? Can we find any more Rivan?’

Rivan looked pleased by
the suggestion and snatched Tika’s hand again, while Rhaki was
dragged to his feet by Shea. They started back to the beach, Shivan
and Dog ambling behind them. The weather stayed dry throughout the
day, the sun not hot but warm enough. When they gathered again at
dusk, all of them were at ease: tension and strain smoothed from
every face.

Rivan and Shea had a
hoard of shells and different coloured pebbles they were sorting
out on Tika’s blankets, discussing the merits of each with Farn.
Storm had spent the day diving and swimming, glorying in the chance
to fish and play in his natural element. Kija and Brin, as usual,
had found themselves nice sheltered rocks on which to bask. Now,
the four Dragons lay like walls around the company. Volk’s strange
horse leaned in a companionable fashion against Kija’s haunches.
Tika clasped her hands around her knees

‘I want to see if I can
speak to Corax, or one of his family. I’ll try in a moment.
Tomorrow, I would ask Shivan to open a gateway to the island we
suspect might be the home of Shadow. If we find Shadow, or whoever
rules that place, we may be able to learn more of the Splintered
Kingdom. If not, we return here, to this place, and I will try
again from here.’

Silence followed her
words; every one of her friends knowing she wanted no discussion.
Tika sent a thought to all four Dragons.

‘Can you try to push my
mind and my voice? I’m not sure which Corax will hear most
clearly.’

She settled cross
legged against Farn’s chest and drew in a breath.

‘Corax,’ she called
clearly. ‘Corax.’

‘The Tika?’ The whisper
was just audible.

‘May I speak to your
family?’

‘Family. Corax saw
mother.’ There was no mistaking the pleasure in Corax’s tone. ‘I
call.’

They could hear only
the soft susurration of the waves retreating down the beach as they
waited. Then, a different whisper drifted around them.

‘I am Marax. Father’s
father many times to Corax. You are a Tika?’

‘I am a human. My name
is Tika. What are your people called and where are you
from?’

‘We are Chyliax. We
come from shadows, far away.’

‘Shadows? You are of
the Shadow people?’

There was a
considerable pause and then the whisper came again.

‘We followed the Second
Son. He is Shadow. Do you know him, or where he might
be?’

There was such a
longing in that faint voice.

‘We think we may soon
find him, Marax. Are your people in great danger where you are
now?’

‘The twisted creature
likes to kill us if we are three or four together, so we hide
apart. We are tired.’

‘You saved me and my
friends, Marax. I will do my best for you.’

There was a sense of
emptiness again and they knew Marax had either withdrawn or had the
link broken by the Crazed One.

Fedran pushed more
twigs and thicker pieces of wood onto the fire, the flames blazing
up to illuminate the faces gathered round.

‘This thing, this
Crazed One, he’s been here for generations?’ Kazmat
asked.

Tika was surprised.
Kazmat had been the quietest of the three Kelshans who had chosen
to serve her. Since the loss of his brother and his friend, he had
become nearly silent. She wondered what had persuaded him to ask
this question now.

‘Yes, Kazmat. Many,
many generations.’

Kazmat raised his eyes
to meet hers. ‘Then he must have caused the deaths of countless
thousands. We will stop his slaughter, Lady Tika.’

There was a
determination in his words that sent a chill down Tika’s back. She
would warn Sket to watch this man. He would be reckless in his need
to destroy the Crazed One and she did not want to lose any more of
her friends, if she could possibly avoid it.

‘We will do our best,
Kazmat,’ she told him quietly. ‘But I will not tolerate any one of
you acting foolishly. There are few of us, and we face an enormous
power. The Crazed One could kill you without even noticing he’d
done so. But we will do our best, as I told Marax.’

Farn murmured to her
mind as the companions settled in their bed rolls and Tika rose.
She found Volk near Kija, the boy Rivan asleep beside him. Khosa
was curled on Rivan’s chest and merely blinked at Tika’s
appearance. Tika hunkered down next to the Old Blood.

‘Lady, there is work
for me to start on here. I would travel with you but my people need
me for a while. Most have little memory of living in groups larger
than their immediate families, yet now they are the only ones left
in this land. I am one of the few who have mixed with the
Drogoyans. I can help them begin to organise communities among
themselves. I feel it is my duty to do this, my
obligation.’

There was a derisive
snort from the darkness and Tika knew that bloody horse was
offering an opinion.

‘I would beg you, Lady
Tika, that I be permitted to join your company. I believe you will
succeed, and whenever that time comes, and you find a land to
settle in, let me come to be part of your community.’

Tika was unable to
reply for several moments. There was a conviction in Volk’s words,
an unswerving belief that what he said would come to pass. If it
was said to encourage her, to give her renewed hope, he had
succeeded. She reached for his hand.

‘I would be proud to
have you among my people, you and Rivan both.’

There was a louder
noise from the darkness. Without looking round, Tika
smiled.

‘Your friend Daisy
would also be welcome, of course.’

Volk returned the
pressure of her hand. ‘We will wait here, Lady, for your return,
although my heart will be with you.’

Impulsively, Tika
leaned closer and buried a kiss in the depths of his beard. Saying
nothing more, she left him and returned to her blankets.

In the morning, they
strapped up their packs, checked weapons and gathered close to
Shivan. Tika pointed a finger first at Sket, then at
Konya.

‘The Dragons will take
you twp,’ she said firmly.

Beyond the Dragons
stood Volk, his hand on Rivan’s shoulder and Daisy looking bored
over the top of his head. Tika noticed Khosa was in her carry sack
hung around Dromi’s neck. She was surprised as Khosa hadn’t seemed
to spend much time or attention on the Old Blood before. She
checked that Sket and Konya were on Farn’s back and waited until
all four Dragons had risen above the cliffs. Then she moved closer
to Essa and Shea. Shivan murmured a single phrase and they spun
into a Dark gateway.

As always, it was
impossible to judge how long the journey took, but there was a
definite jarring shudder just before they emerged into late
sunlight. And they emerged onto thick grass a few man lengths above
a sea almost the same green as the grass. The Dragons were already
lying nearby but Tika felt their agitation at once.

‘What happened then,
Shivan?’ Tika asked when she’d regained her feet.

She was relieved that
the young Dark Lord didn’t seem perturbed. ‘We guessed there was
shielding here,’ he replied. ‘We went through it.’

Dog snarled. ‘Don’t you
even think of explaining what could have happened if we hadn’t got
through it.’

Shivan bit his lip but
wisely decided not to answer.

Sket was watching the
woodland which began less than half a mile inland from where they
stood, the three guards alongside him, alert and ready.

‘I don’t see why you
can’t share two or three poppers,’ Tika heard Onion
whine.

She heard a sharp slap
on flesh and didn’t look round, hoping Dog had hit Onion’s hand
rather than his still sore face.

‘Do you sense
anything?’ she murmured to Rhaki.

‘At the moment, only
birds and animals, nothing human or human like.’

Tika watched Sket and
the guards moving towards the trees and called the rest of her
party to follow.

Brin and Storm lifted
into the sky. ‘We will search a little ahead,’ Brin told her. ‘We
will be careful,’ he added, before she could issue her inevitable
caution.

Tika saw that Khosa was
out of her sack but still in Dromi’s arms as they walked towards
Sket. Geffal trotted back to her.

‘There is a path, Lady.
A paved path, not an animal track.’

There was a scream
which made them all jump. A laughing chatter drew their eyes up to
one of the first trees and a large bird dropped from one branch to
a lower. Its side and wing feathers were red and black, with a long
tail of bright blue, and its chest and throat was of an orange that
made Khosa’s fur seem discreetly tasteful. It peered down at them,
opened a pale yellow beak and let out another laugh, its throat
swelling and throbbing with the effort.

Tika found its mind was
a simple blur: it had a faint awareness of itself but of
intelligence she discerned very little. Several tiny nondescript
brown birds dashed from one tree to another in silence, distracting
the large vivid bird’s study of Tika and her company. The laughing
shriek faded to a petulant chatter and the bird bounced back into
denser foliage. They reached Sket and saw what he’d found: a neat
stone paved path leading in among the trees.

It was wide enough for
three or four people to walk abreast, for the bushes and trees were
carefully trimmed back to the path’s edges. Konya bent to examine
one twig, rubbing a finger over the cleanly cut end.

‘This was cut three or
four days ago, at most,’ she said as she straightened.

The companions closed
around Tika and Shea, and set off down the path. The air was noisy
with shrieks and whistles from the occasionally glimpsed birds, a
marked contrast to the silence of the lands they had crossed in
Drogoya. Geffal and Dog were several paces ahead of the group,
while Essa and Fedran walked at the rear.

‘Wait.’ Tika stopped,
her eyes unfocused.

Kija was sending
pictures to Tika’s mind which she then shared with the company.
Kija was flying, with Farn at her wing tip, very high. Far below, a
large town was laid out in a very regular pattern. A river divided
the town neatly in two. Kija was too high for details to be
visible, but what was holding her attention were two buildings on
one side of the river, set well apart from the town. Tika found it
difficult to judge positions and angles from Kija’s view – the
Dragon was gliding in a wide circle, so the picture constantly
changed.

‘Which way is north,
Navan?’ she asked in exasperation.

‘The way we’re going,’
he grinned at her. ‘Directly ahead, although this path bends a bit,
it is definitely leading us north.’

‘You saw what Kija is
seeing. That town, are the two big buildings this side of the
river, or will we have to cross it? It looked wide, even from
Kija’s height.’

‘Those two buildings
are north of the river,’ Navan explained patiently. ‘But did you
not see – there were five bridges across it.’

‘There were? I didn’t
notice.’ Tika began to walk again. ‘I saw no smoke, no sign of
people.’

‘How far ahead is that
town?’ Rhaki asked.

Tika sent a quick
thought to Kija.

‘Kija thinks about four
or five miles from where we arrived.’

They walked on, shadows
stippling across the stone flags of the path, until they emerged
from the woodland and found themselves facing the first buildings
of the town. These buildings were uniform, each built exactly to
the same design, although differing in sizes. They immediately
noted the oddness of the doors and windows: both had a wide base
but a much narrower top. Their path joined a wider one, more a road
than a path, which looped on around the first buildings. There was
still the sound of birds from the trees behind them, but there was
an unnatural quiet among the buildings.