Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (61 page)

It felt as if she’d
been waiting a long time when suddenly she knew she was being moved
again. There was a very nasty, tight, crushing feeling, which left
her breathless.

‘Near to the
Bad.’

‘How near, and what
does it look like?’

‘Near.
Nasty.’

Tika felt the urge to
slap the owner of the voice, but she accepted that she would look
very foolish slapping a shadow.

‘Very.’

‘Explain nasty to
me.’

‘Black, oozy mud
stuff.’

Tika was surprised to
feel the shadow’s repugnance. She hadn’t really considered what
shadows might like or dislike, but this shadow very obviously did
not like the look of the Crazed One.

‘Dragon
comes.’

‘What?’ Tika drew power
around her within the shadows. Somehow these shadows had brought
her physical body here and that was an added
complication.

‘What Dragon?’ she
repeated.

‘Big.’

‘Like Farn?’

‘Farn?’

‘The Dragon I was
leaning against when you came.’

‘Not like.’

Tika knew with a cold
certainty the Dragon the shadows could see was Cyrek, in his Dragon
shape.

‘Man now.’

‘Can you let me see,
just a bit?’

The blackness before
her eyes thinned, but didn’t entirely clear. It was enough though,
for Tika to see Lord Cyrek’s back, barely ten paces in front of
her. He leaned against a wall, arms folded.

‘Let me
hear.’

‘- nothing you can do
about it.’

Tika flinched when she
saw the amorphous heap of a jelly like substance, somehow upright,
taller than Cyrek and wider by far. It reminded her of caterpillars
the children used to hunt among the fruit trees in Return: the
front two thirds of their bodies would rear up, while their many
feet waved wildly around them. This thing had no apparent
protrusions, but it pulsed with menace towards Cyrek.

‘You out reach yourself
little worm.’ The voice emanated from the jelly
caterpillar.

Cyrek pushed away from
the wall and strolled casually closer to the thing. With no warning
whatsoever, something, like a thick arm, shot out from the upper
part of the creature and Cyrek was on the floor, blood gushing from
his nose and mouth. He got slowly to his feet and Tika saw his
yellow eyes blazing with barely held hatred.

‘You will strike me no
more, Yartay. I am the only one able to help you.’

‘Speak no more – the
sounds you make hurt my mind. Go, or die. I will kill you if you
stay now. You cannot help me.’

Cyrek stood trembling,
but he must have heard, through his own anger, the truth in the
creature’s words. His fingers flickered and he vanished.

The narrow gauzy space
in the shadows round Tika darkened, but she could still see the
shape which virtually filled the tunnel ahead. There was a clicking
sound, rapid noises which changed to a guttural clucking. Was it
talking to itself? What had Cyrek called it? Yartay?

‘I want to speak to
it,’ Tika thought.

‘No. Bad.
Peril.’

‘I will speak with it,’
she insisted.

She found herself
higher in the tunnel; obviously the shadows thought they stood a
better chance of whisking away if her feet were well off the
floor.

‘Yartay.’ She spoke
aloud, as firmly as she could.

The creature swivelled,
this way and that. Stars, but it could move fast!

‘Yartay,’ she
repeated.

She found herself moved
to the other side of the tunnel, the chittering sound buzzing in
her head.

‘Who comes to me now?’
The voice sounded human. ‘Who dares enter here?’

‘It doesn’t matter who
I am. I want to know why you’re here, causing such harm to my
world.’

‘Harm? I am only
hungry, I cause no harm.’

‘What do you feed
on?’

Tika did not understand
or recognise a single word of what followed.

‘What are those things
– they are not food I know of?’

‘There is none here.’
Yartay’s voice was barely a whisper, and Tika was appalled by a
sudden thought. If there was nothing this thing could eat on this
world, how had it survived these centuries?

‘If there is no food,
why have you brought people here – why the Chyliax?’

‘Chyliax? I know
nothing of them.’

‘Did you come here,
looking for food?’

‘No!’ The word roared
out, buffeting the shadows and banging Tika hard against the
wall.

‘You trapped me! Caught
me! Tangled me in your nasty nets! Evil, all of you with no
intelligence, no minds to share with.’

‘You seem to talk with
Cyrek,’ Tika tried to divert the explosion of fury but only
succeeded in aggravating it.

‘The Cyrek animal got
in. He used one of the nets. He has no intelligence to interest or
amuse me.’

The huge black mass was
quivering now. ‘And you, how are you here?’

Tika’s shields slammed
tight as a mental probe came towards her at incredible
speed.

‘Leave,’ she thought,
and found herself slumped against Farn.

She ached everywhere
but forced herself to straighten. Tika was relieved to see the sky
still bright overhead, until Kija told her that a full day had
passed.

‘Sket?
Khosa?’

‘Hush my daughter. They
are well and they believe you have been sleeping and thinking. We
kept them away so they could not see that you weren’t here.
Darallax came during the night, but we said you slept.’

‘You lied? To the
Shadow Lord?’ Tika was shocked but also secretly proud of
Kija.

The golden face lowered
until their brows touched.

‘We saw the creature,
and heard his words.’

‘Those shadows kept you
safe.’ Farn didn’t sound entirely sure.

‘They did indeed Farn.’
Tika struggled to her feet and hugged first Farn and then Kija.
‘I’d better go and tell them what I did, and let them yell at me
for a while.’

Farn moved his chest to
let her out, his eyes whirring pearl and sapphire.

By the time Tika had
explained where she had actually been, frowns darkened every one of
her companions’ faces. Belatedly she saw that Kija’s assurances
might well be doubted in future. Sket roared at her so loudly it
drew Kija and Farn to the door. Sket whirled to face
them.

‘You should be ashamed
of yourselves, both of you, telling lies like that, when she could
have been in danger.’

‘But I was in danger,
Sket, sort of anyway, and here I am.’ Tika tried to lighten the
mood.

Sket simply glared at
her. ‘And did you know, for sure, that you’d get back here safely?’
he demanded.

‘I felt safe mostly.
The creature couldn’t see me.’

Sket’s eyes narrowed.
‘What do you mean? You said you went bodily to the Kingdom, not
mind seeking.’

‘Oh dear.’ Tika sent a
thought to the shadows. ‘Hide me.’

She knew at once that
it was the dark shadows that had responded to her call because,
once more, she couldn’t see a thing. ‘Let me see and
hear.’

Her companions were all
on their feet, talking, and expressions veered from fright to
outrage.

‘Reveal me.’

When Tika reappeared,
standing exactly where she’d been, silence fell. She sighed. ‘Hide
only my hand.’

She held out her left
hand and it vanished, looking as though it was cut cleanly at the
wrist.

‘Shadows leave me for
now, and I thank you for your help.’ She spoke aloud and she saw
understanding beginning to dawn on some of the faces staring at
her.

‘You should have told
us,’ Sket insisted.

‘Enough,’ she said
quietly. ‘I am tired of telling you that I make my own decisions in
all that concerns me. If you find this too difficult to accept,
there is a solution.’

There was absolute
silence as the implications of her words sank in. Sket came to
attention, right fist across his chest against the Dragon insignia
on his shirt.

‘I am yours to command,
Lady Tika.’

Tika met his eyes and
saw that he understood. She knew Sket’s ranting at her stemmed only
from his deep affection and devotion. But if she was going to be a
real leader – of this company or something more – he must know that
he could no longer talk to her publicly as if she was an ignorant
child. Tika’s gaze moved to Dromi.

‘Could you ask someone
if we might hold council with the Shadow Lord and whichever
advisors among his people he would think helpful, please
Dromi?’

Dromi left the room
without a word. Tika poured herself a bowl of juice from one of
several crystal jugs on a long sideboard. She drank it down, only
now aware of how thirsty she was.

‘I will go to Khosa
now. Someone fetch me if Darallax has time to meet us
soon.’

She heard the talk
start as she made for the stairs, but she also heard a word inside
her head.

‘Friends?’

She stopped abruptly
and stared around the landing she’d reached. There were what she
thought were “normal” shadows, lying motionless in the corners but
the voice was the one she’d heard from the dark shadows.

‘Where are you?’ she
thought.

‘Hand.’

She spread her hands
out in front of her and saw another ring fitted snugly round her
thumb beneath Garrol’s ring.

‘Why are you still
here?’

‘Protect.’

‘Oh. What do you mean –
friends?’

‘Those below who
shout.’

‘Yes, they are friends.
Why do you ask?’

‘Kill.’

‘What?’

‘Protect.’

Tika’s mind spun. When
would she have time to find out just how these shadows might react
around her? She certainly didn’t have the time now.

‘Are you staying
there?’

‘Yes.’

Tika rolled her eyes
and marched on to Khosa’s room. She found Konya, Shea and Navan
sitting on the bed with Khosa cuddled in Navan’s arms. They were
laughing when Tika entered and Tika was delighted to see Khosa’s
head turn towards her, the turquoise eyes bright with returning
health. She was still much too thin, but that would soon be
remedied. Khosa used mind speech that all four could
hear.

‘Where have you been?
Shea peeked out of a top window into the garden and saw you weren’t
really there.’

Khosa’s tone was smug
and Tika laughed.

‘I’ll tell you about it
later. You certainly seem better, but perhaps you should stay here,
resting, while I meet with the Shadow Lord and everyone
else.’

Thick white whiskers
bristled and the turquoise eyes slitted. ‘Navan can carry me, and I
will attend. And what’s that new ring on your thumb?’

Tika groaned. ‘I’ll
explain in a while – I really can’t keep repeating
myself.’

The door opened and
Sket poked his head round the side. ‘We are invited to the meeting
room in the other house, my lady.’

Tika nodded. ‘I’m sorry
Sket.’

Sket grinned. ‘You were
right. Don’t worry.’

She kissed his cheek as
she passed him.

‘Come on everyone,
let’s go and see Darallax.’

The company were met at
the entrance to what Darallax had called the people’s house by
Subaken, which suggested to Tika more formality than she’d
expected. There were quite a large number of people wandering the
halls, presumably having matters to discuss with Shadow officials.
But again, Tika was struck by the uncanny quiet: no chatter, only
the rustle of bare feet on stone.

Subaken took them up
staircases and along corridors, threading through and round groups
of people quite casually. Clearly, the Shadow people were more than
used to their rulers mixing among them with no ceremony or pomp.
Only when they finally approached a pair of double doors was there
an indication of the importance of who might be within. Two men
stood before the doors, wearing grey tunics but also wearing
scabbarded short swords, the first weapons Tika had seen
here.

They stepped aside,
pushing the doors wide. Tika followed Subaken, Sket at her left
shoulder and her company two by two behind him. They found
themselves in a corner room with long windows on two sides. In the
centre of the room was a large oval table made of the same silvery
grey wood as the doors, polished to a gloss which made its surface
ripple like water. Of the ten people seated around the table, Tika
recognised only three: Darallax, Rueshen and Chancellor Konrik.
Konrik was the one to rise to greet them.

‘Lady Tika, please join
us with your officers.’