Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (62 page)

He gestured along the
two inner walls where benches were set. ‘For your
guards.’

Tika whispered in mind
speech to Essa, Sket, Dromi and Rhaki to seat themselves with her
at the table. Khosa squeaked indignantly and Tika lifted her from
Navan’s arms and sat down, the cat against her shoulder. For the
second time, and with more detail, Tika related her visit to the
Splintered Kingdom. She filled the minds of the Shadow Lord and his
councillors with the sight of the creature apparently named Yartay,
and with the sound of the conversation, if it could be called that,
which she’d had with him. Tika watched their faces and saw the
shock and the concentration. She withdrew from their minds and
spoke aloud.

‘One question we need
to answer, is how do I destroy something like that? There is power
there, very different from mine, and possibly stronger. He is very
fast to react – as you saw. And perhaps most importantly, where is
this Kingdom?’

She got to her feet,
Khosa still propped against her shoulder, and began her usual
pacing.

‘I thought my engineers
might explode the thing, but if they do, we have to be absolutely
sure where the Kingdom is. It would need a lot of their – um –
devices to destroy it I suspect, and damage could be severe to any
surrounding region. Another question is what does it mean by being
trapped in our nets?’

‘I would suggest he
speaks of the Places Between as you call them. We call them Planes
of Existence.’ A woman spoke from the further end of the
table.

Tika frowned. That
hadn’t occurred to her, although she’d heard of them often enough.
She met the woman’s eyes and admitted as much.

‘Can you tell more of
these Places?’

The woman who’d spoken
leaned her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her linked
fingers.

‘It is not something
easily explained. Do you know anything of dreams?’

Tika began to shake her
head then remembered Babach. ‘Do you mean like dream
walkers?’

The woman’s bright grey
eyes sparkled. ‘Precisely. Dreaming is a Place Between and some few
are able to – infiltrate – the dreams of others. They can both
observe the other’s dream and, even more rarely, communicate with
the dreamer. Passing information, giving instruction and so on.
That is the simplest example. There are many others we believe
although we have managed to explore very few.’

Essa caught Tika’s eye.
‘Ferag?’ she suggested. ‘Or the gentleman?’

‘Is the Realm of Death
such a Place?’ Tika asked.

‘It is indeed.’ The
Shadow Lord answered her. ‘Have you been there?’

‘Yes, but only by
invitation.’

Darallax’s up tilted
eyes widened. ‘Invitation?’ he echoed. ‘Ferag invited
you?’

‘Well yes. It was with
Sket first, to meet a member of my – family. And the last time she
took me to look after me when I was – um – not well.’

She saw the Shadow Ones
gaping around the table and felt it was time to return to the
proper subject.

‘So where is Ferag’s
Realm?’

Darallax shook his
head. ‘That’s the point, my dear. Can you tell me where a dream
might be?’

Tika stared at him.
Khosa dug her claws into Tika’s shoulder.

‘Why not just ask her?
She likes you.’

Tika swallowed. ‘Ferag,
Can you hear me? If you can spare the time, I would speak with
you.’

A breeze riffled
through the room and Tika fought back a giggle, seeing all the
Shadow Ones shudder.

‘How lovely to see you
after all this time.’

The slender,
outrageously beautiful woman drifted round the table, her fingers
brushing Darallax’s domed hairless skull. He closed his eyes, but
Tika was fairly sure it wasn’t in bliss. Ferag turned.

‘Now sweetie, what did
you want? I am fairly busy you know. Simert’s been sending me an
awful lot just lately, some sort of trouble I think.’

‘Trouble? Where? Where
is there trouble Ferag?’

‘Oh I’m not good with
places my poppet. Northern Kelshan? Or was it southern Drogoya? No
matter. But they all have to be sorted out and that can take an
unconscionable time.’

Ferag beamed as she
advanced on Tika, who was quite proud of the fact that she didn’t
flinch and could offer a genuine smile in return.

‘I need to know where
your Realm actually is Ferag.’

Tika felt a twinge of
nervousness when Ferag’s long deep red hair began to curl and
writhe around her shoulders.

‘I mean, I am certainly
not prying, but if it is what we call a Place Between, would you
perhaps know how we could really locate the Splintered Kingdom? You
see, I think the Kingdom has got itself tangled among the Places
Between and it cannot get free.’

She knew she was
babbling but to her immense relied, Ferag’s hair settled to a
smooth stillness again.

‘Oh do you think so?’
Ferag brushed the curls away from Tika’s forehead. ‘Do you know,
darling, you might have an idea there. Now, I have simply dozens of
poor souls to deal with first but I will have a look round. Then
I’ll just pop back and let you know. Would that suit
you?’

‘Thank you Ferag.
You’re wonderful.’

‘Oh sweetie that is so
kind. See you soon.’’

She stooped, planted a
smacking kiss on Tika’s cheek and vanished.

‘What’s the trouble in
Kelshan or Drogoya?’ Essa asked into the silence.

Tika couldn’t resist.
‘Why don’t you ask her for more details yourself, when she comes
back?’ she replied innocently.

Essa tried to scowl but
her lips tugged up in a reluctant smile. ‘I’d rather
not.’

The sigh that gusted
from Darallax suggested he’d been holding his breath for some
time.

‘You do indeed know
many strange people,’ he murmured.

Tika arched a brow.
‘You would call the Mistress of Death, strange, my
lord?’

Darallax cleared his
throat. ‘No, no. Not strange.’

‘Perhaps you mean
unusual, dear,’ Rueshen put in softly.

‘Quite so.
Unusual.’

‘Destroying this
creature,’ Konrik seemed perfectly calm again. ‘I agree with Lady
Tika: it has great power and very swift reflexes. Mental as well as
physical, I deduce.’

‘Should the poor thing
just be untangled, do you think, and set free?’ Konya asked from
her bench by the wall.

She blinked when heads
turned, faces registering disapproval. Tika returned to her
chair.

‘That poor thing,
Konya, is what took so many in the Citadel. Don’t you remember
telling me of the sort of jelly inside the bodies? A clear sign
that Yartay can somehow send at least a fragment of himself out
into this world.’

Konrik had listened
closely. ‘We must all think of destroying the creature. Destroying
it,’ he repeated. ‘If we turn it loose what is to say it will not
return, or wreak the same havoc on another world, as it has on
this?’

‘I agree,’ Tika nodded.
‘I’ll discuss the idea of exploding devices with my engineers and
also think of how my power might be used.’

Konrik rose. ‘We too
will consider that aspect. I think we must decide if the creature
could absorb our power to augment his own – it has been known that
this is possible.’

As chairs were pushed
back and people made to leave, Darallax spoke again.

‘What are these
engineers you speak of?’

‘Dog and Onion, my
lord.’

The two named stepped
smartly forward.

‘They use – chemicals I
think they call them – which, when mixed properly cause great
destruction.’

Darallax regarded Dog
carefully, then Onion, his gaze lingering on Onion’s eye
patch.

‘I’m sure it is
something needing great skill and care.’

Tika bit the inside of
her cheek when she heard Shea’s snort from somewhere behind Essa’s
huge frame.

‘That’s very true sir,’
she agreed, and followed her company from the room.

‘It was odd that the
thing didn’t seem to know what the Chyliax were. Yet they said he
killed them if he found them together.’

Tika glanced at Rhaki,
walking beside her through the colonnade.

‘I did wonder about
that, but what if he was unaware they are intelligent beings? He
was scathing about the lack of minds to share with. Share
what?’

‘Those Ships you told
me of, with living brains inside them. Did they exchange
information between themselves, unknown to the people who travelled
in them?’

Sket came up on Rhaki’s
other side. ‘Star Flower told us they sang to each other when they
travelled, and their Captains didn’t know.’

‘That’s right. And
those lights that flashed and buzzed – on the table thing over Star
Flower’s compartment, they moved faster than I could follow,’ said
Tika.

‘Then the Ships could
talk to each other far quicker than we could speak to each other.
If this Kingdom is really a Ship of some kind, perhaps the creature
cannot speak normally for long. Perhaps it seems – too slow – when
it tries to talk to humans?’

Tika sighed. ‘I find it
intriguing too. But I dare not waste time speculating about this
Yartay. We must destroy him, not study him.’

Tika had forgotten the
shadow ringing her thumb until it spoke again.

‘Like
Ferag.’

‘What?’ Tika
stopped.

Sket and Rhaki looked
at her with concern but she shook her head, taking up the
conversation with the shadow in her mind.

‘You know
Ferag?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you like
her?’

‘Yes.’

‘How do you know
her?’

Silence. Tika was
starting to understand the shadow’s abbreviated way of conversing.
Or rather, it didn’t actually hold conversations, it made basic
comments and seemed to expect her to know, or guess, what it might
mean. Now she shrugged.

‘Sorry. The shadow
decides when it wants to talk to me,’ she explained. ‘It says it
likes Ferag.’

Rhaki
frowned.

‘Well I like her too,’
Khosa agreed.

Tika rolled her eyes
and longed to be with Farn, flying far away from all
this.

They’d eaten supper and
now sat around in the garden room, all wondering if, and when,
Ferag might reappear. No one honestly fancied being asleep when she
did, just in case she thought they were dead. In fact, several of
them had dozed off by the time dawn was tinting the sky over the
garden but the breeze riffling through the room brought them awake
with some speed.

‘Well my dove, that was
quite a task you gave me.’

Ferag plumped herself
down on a couch, between Tika and Sket. Tika smiled and leaned in
towards the Mistress of Death while Sket froze rigid.

‘But certainly not
beyond you Ferag.’

‘Of course
not.’

Ferag glanced at Sket
and slapped his thigh. ‘Don’t be such a mouse you pretty little
man. We could be such friends, if you’d just relax a
bit.’

Her words apparently
had the entirely opposite effect on him. Unfortunately, Dog gave a
definite snigger. Ferag peered across at the engineer.

‘Hmm. Now if you did
something sensible with your hair, wore better clothes and had a
simply lovely long bath, I’m sure you could be quite
delicious.’

Dog could only
gape.

‘Oh really, you have
quite extraordinarily bad mannered friends, Tika my
love.’

Ferag half turned her
back to Sket and Dog.

‘Now listen carefully
poppet. I eventually found this Kingdom thing is close to a part of
my Realm. I had no idea. I have checked with some of my –
colleagues,’ she gave Tika a coy smile. ‘Simert was one but I
really cannot divulge the identities of the others. They are shy
things. They agree that this thing is wedged among them in some
manner. It’s caused no end of inconvenience to poor
Serida.

‘Oops! Now you must
forget I mentioned him, he is particularly reclusive. But he has
agreed to check all the boundaries of his Domain to see if this
Kingdom is more tangled with him than with the others. To be
honest, I think some of the dears are quite thrilled by the
employment; it’s been dreadfully boring for some of them since gods
were banished from so many places.’

Tika listened,
enthralled by hearing more than she’d ever hoped about the strange
existences of long forgotten gods.

‘They will let me know
and then I will come and tell you.’

Ferag sat back, looking
delighted by her own helpfulness.

‘Aren’t you pleased
with me, poppet?’

Tika threw her arms
around the Mistress of Death. ‘You really are wonderful,
Ferag.’

Ferag seemed truly
overcome. A tear glistened on incredibly long eyelashes.