Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (65 page)

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Cyrek’s silvery
transparent wings barely moved as he drifted high above the island
that had so suddenly appeared a few days ago. He saw the four who
called themselves Great Dragons and dismissed them as of no
consequence. He sensed that the young woman was no longer there. A
laugh rumbled through his enormous Dragon shape. The First
Daughter, Corman, all those other fools, held her in such high
regard, but he had seen inside her mind. Her powers were
pathetically primitive. Nothing to match his.

He wondered briefly
where she might be: she was not with those Dragons. Cyrek had been
considering visiting the slug, Yartay, but the Splintered Kingdom
had moved, as it did periodically. Losing interest in the chaos he
had set in motion far below, he drifted on the wind currents
westward, to Drogoya. The Splintered Kingdom was always somewhere
around that particular land mass, but Cyrek found it a little
difficult to locate it: the power tendrils emanating from the
Kingdom were very different to any others Cyrek had experience
of.

His time was close now,
and Cyrek exulted already in the thought of his dominance over all
this world. His sister would be beside him as his consort – that
had been the way of it in ancient times, and Cyrek planned to
reinstate many of the old customs. Chindar had been such a fool.
Cyrek had been afraid his own hand had been revealed when Chindar
made his premature play for control of the Dark Realm.

First Daughter Lerran
would never recover from her ridiculous descent into the Dark, to
rescue one of those so called Dragons. Dabray was gone, and there
was no one of that Lord’s power left alive. Cyrek would like to
have met Dabray – before Dabray went mad of course. Cyrek rather
fancied he could have bested Lord Dabray in any contest, of either
intelligence or power.

Cyrek followed the sun
and eventually saw the land of Drogoya ahead of him. He was just
crossing the coast when something caught his eye. He wheeled in an
easy glide, staring down. Even with enhanced vision, details were
hard to make out. The sea seemed to be crawling away from the land,
looking like a wrinkled blanket instead of a smooth blue sheet.
Cyrek felt a twinge of unease just as a large piece of coast gaped
open, releasing a painfully bright glare. It was gone in an instant
but Cyrek still saw the afterimage glowing behind his eye
lids.

By the time his sight
was clear again, the sea was moving towards the land once more,
pouring into the dark hole. Cyrek circled for some time, probing
the area for indications of the presence of the Splintered Kingdom,
before it occurred to him that what he’d just witnessed might have
been its destruction. How could that be? He knew, from his
interception of messages from Corman, that the woman Tika, intended
to try and destroy Yartay, if not the Splintered Kingdom
too.

Air suddenly buffeted
against his belly, forcing him to concentrate on his flight. When
he had steadied himself, he considered what he’d seen. He had
devised an amazingly simple system to alert him should gateways be
opened, anywhere. Yet none had opened on that island since he’d
destroyed Corman’s messenger attempting to return to the Dark
Realm. That had been meant as a warning and it had seemed to work:
no gateways had opened since then.

If that woman had
destroyed the Splintered Kingdom she would have needed to be either
there, or very close by. Cyrek felt a surge of alarm. How could she
have moved from the island to Drogoya without his
knowing?

The ground had become
still but the destruction was severe. Tika’s company looked out
from the open grass where they sat to see the town, on both sides
of the river crumpled like children’s toys. The two houses behind
them had three walls still standing between them, and grey dust
rose to hang overhead, slowly turning the sunny day dark. There was
a sharp resinous smell mixed with the dust – the trees beyond the
houses were flattened and uprooted. The Dragons had landed only
moments after the last quake, and Farn was badly
distressed.

‘She called me,’ he
kept saying. ‘She called me.’

Onion and Essa had
reversed positions – Essa now lay on her back and Onion sat with
her head in his lap.

‘Kija, Tika asked Essa
to hold her mind, but I don’t think Essa’s ever done that before.’
Rhaki touched the gold Dragon’s cheek as she lowered her head to
study Essa. ‘I have made no attempt to reach Essa, I’m afraid of
making a mistake.’

Kija’s eyes whirred, a
deep buttery gold. ‘I will see what I can find.’

Kija probed gently
towards Essa, as carefully as she would probe her eggs just before
they hatched. She found utter calmness, and also, she saw a thread
of Tika’s mind firmly entwined around Essa’s. Kija withdrew and
settled herself around Onion and Essa.

‘Farn, be still. Tika
holds to Essa. Wherever she is, she is safe.’

Onion glanced at Sket.
‘There’ll be no more quakes,’ he said with quiet conviction.
‘Should we start helping these people?’

Sket stood and studied
the devastated town, then looked back at Darallax’s house – or what
remained of it. He was frantically worried about his Lady Tika but
refused to let it show. He nodded at Kazmat.

‘You come with me.
Fedran and Geffal, you work together. We’ll see what help we can
give in this house, but I don’t want you risking your lives doing
something stupid. Yes, I am sorry for these poor people, but we are
Lady Tika’s men. Service to her comes first. Keep checking back
here to see if the Lady has come back or if we’re
needed.’

Navan got to his feet,
Dromi beside him.

‘We’ll help too,’ he
said. ‘Though I think if people didn’t get out of there fast, we’re
only going to be recovering bodies.’

Shea too got to her
feet.

‘No.’ Dog pulled the
girl back down.

‘I’ve seen plenty of
bodies before,’ Shea argued.

Khosa moved from
Konya’s lap to Shea’s. ‘I would prefer you stayed to carry me if
more danger arises.’

Shea regarded the cat
with suspicion. ‘Why?’

‘You can run fastest.’
Khosa closed her eyes and began to purr.

Brin rose from the
grass and started to climb higher into the sky, Storm at his
tail.

‘We will see what
damage has been done through this land.’

Brin’s voice rang
through their minds. Kija huffed, watching the crimson and grey
Dragons dwindling in the distance as they flew up river. Konya
busied herself making a small fire and Rhaki went to find water.
The tiny streamlet running under the colonnade was dry so he had to
look further. Shadow people worked in silence, bringing body after
body out of the rubble. The quiet was broken by the settling of
stones or the slithering rush of another fall of bricks. Rhaki
found a fountain where water still burbled from a copper pipe, but
the basin into which it should have pooled was smashed beyond hope
of repair.

He filled the two
kettles he carried and hurried back to the others. It was
unnerving, how quiet these people were. He handed one kettle to
Konya and put the second on the grass beside her. He had just
turned back to Onion and Essa when there was a loud groan. Tika
appeared, sprawled beside Farn, her limbs twitching sluggishly.
Farn’s face brushed against hers, his eyes flashing with anxiety.
Then Essa groaned and raised a hand to her head. Dog and Shivan
reached Tika at the same time, rolling her onto her
back.

Dog’s breath hissed
through her teeth when she saw Tika’s scorched palms.

‘Konya!’ she yelled
over her shoulder.

But the healer was
already at her side, her pack in her hand. She tutted as she lifted
Tika’s wrist.

‘Hold her there. Keep
the hand clear of anything,’ Konya ordered. ‘And you do the same
that side Shivan.’

Konya swore, eventually
tipping the contents of her pack onto the grass and snatching up a
pot that looked identical to all the others. From a pouch, she
teased out a strip of cloth. The pot proved to hold a mauvy blue
ointment which Konya slathered over the cloth then she laid the
cloth over Tika’s palm. Quickly, she did the same for the other
hand and Tika relaxed almost instantly. Konya placed her fingers on
Tika’s brow and concentrated. She sat back on her heels with a sigh
of relief.

‘She’s asleep. Not
deeply unconscious as I feared. She is exhausted, but apart from
these burns, I think she’s otherwise unharmed.’

‘Can’t you heal the
burns?’ Shivan asked.

Konya scowled. ‘Only by
the usual methods. I can speed the healing a very little but
nothing more. I only wish I could.’

Shivan squeezed her
shoulder. Onion pushed past. He lifted Tika’s left hand, then
reached across for the right one. He grunted, replaced her hands on
her stomach and went back to Essa. Shivan and Konya exchanged a
puzzled look. Konya gently moved the strip of cloth over Tika’s
right hand. The ointment was smeared across a perfectly healthy
pale pink palm.

‘Oh my stars,’ Rhaki
murmured as he watched.

He turned to Onion but
the engineer was sitting quietly by Essa again.

Tika stirred, dark
lashes fluttering. She opened her eyes and stared blankly at the
faces around her for a moment. No one had noticed Sket’s return
until he knelt by her shoulder, lifting her so she could sip from a
bowl of tea. She leaned against him, making no effort to hold the
bowl herself, until she’d drunk most of its contents. The air
shivered close to Farn’s haunches and a half naked man stood there.
He studied the faces gaping at him before he leaned over Farn’s
bulk and saw Tika.

‘One of my colleagues
was lost and one much weakened.’

Tika tried to move and
Sket braced her against his chest. Who was this man, for stars’
sake?

‘You helped, didn’t
you?’ Her voice was faint. It cost her considerable effort to get
the words out.

Serida nodded. ‘We did
what we could.’ Dark eyes observed her and Sket knew the man was
appraising his Lady’s condition as professionally as any healer.
‘It caused much damage. There are floods and storms all along the
coasts but few humans lived there.’

Humans? Sket
stiffened.

The dark eyes flicked
over him, acknowledging him as this Lady’s personal
guard.

‘The trouble here was
not the Splintered Kingdom’s doing.’

Sket felt dampness as
sweat soaked Tika’s back, but he kept his position, watching this
stranger.

‘You must gather your
power quickly again, Lady Tika.’ Serida told her. ‘We will help
again, as we can. It is harder for us to work in this world, but we
offer our support.’

Tika nodded. ‘Thank
your friends for me Serida. I must rest, but I would talk with you
soon.’

A hint of a smile
tugged a corner of Serida’s mouth. ‘You only need to call.’ And he
was gone.

Essa was propped on an
elbow and had observed Serida’s visit.

‘Dog, find whatever
food you can. Tika must eat. A lot.’

Sket glanced at Dog who
was still gaping at the empty air across Farn’s back.

‘Now that was what I
call a man,’ she murmured, getting to her feet.

Essa snorted. ‘Dead
right there Dog, if you like them not too burdened with
brains.’

Dog set off, before
Sket had a chance to yell at her. Tika was unceremoniously stripped
to her small clothes and wrapped in blankets and placed close to
Farn. Rhaki turned his attention to Essa. There were dark rings
under those ice blue eyes, her eyebrows forming a single bar above.
Rhaki brushed his fingers over her forehead and Essa smiled
gratefully. She had a nice smile, he decided, and perhaps he would
get used to filed purple stained teeth.

‘I have little healing
ability,’ he told her. ‘But enough to ease headaches.’ He squatted
beside her. ‘Who was that?’

‘Serida. Ferag
mentioned him and so Tika summoned him. He’s a warrior god. Or he
was, until people stopped offering him sacrifices, or calling on
him for help. He’s been living in retirement with the other
forgotten gods.’

‘Were you aware of what
Tika was doing, while she was gone?’

An odd expression
flitted over Essa’s face which Rhaki couldn’t read. ‘Yes. I saw.
Serida said he helped, but I didn’t feel any of that. I do know
that the shadows kept her from being completely fried.’

Over Essa’s shoulder
Rhaki saw Chancellor Konrik coming towards them and he rose. He saw
Konrik was, rather incongruously, carrying a beautiful crystal dish
full of fruit. Konrik handed the bowl to Rhaki.

‘One of your company
was seeking food,’ he said. His eyes rested on Tika’s cocooned
body.

‘She destroyed the
Splintered Kingdom,’ Rhaki said softly. ‘She must have power far
beyond my understanding.’

Konrik nodded. ‘My
master was aware of what she was about. He said it is the renegade
Dark Lord who is causing our troubles.’ He gestured at the quiet
chaos all around. ‘I have asked for whatever food might be found to
be brought to you.’