Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (8 page)

She found herself in
one large room but was quickly taken through it to a corridor off
which small rooms opened. The woman turned the handle of one door
and ushered them in. A narrow bed was set under the window and
propped on many pillows lay Babach. He stretched a shaky hand
towards Tika while tears poured down his thin cheeks. Tika and Sket
went straight to the bedside while the others studied the old
man.

He was thin and frail,
yet had been hale only ten days or so before. His pale blue eyes,
surrounded by silver, had sunk back in his skull. Konya joined Tika
by the bed, regarding Babach with a healer’s gaze.

‘I’m sorry. So sorry,’
Babach stammered weakly.

‘Ssh.’ Tika brushed her
fingers over his brow and the old man grew calmer. ‘You are still
weak Babach. It will take a few more days for your body to replace
the blood you lost, and a few more after that for the blood to be
strong again.’

Konya had been holding
Babach’s wrist, checking the thready pulse. She frowned.

‘You could surely heal
him fully, could you not?’

‘I could.’ Tika smiled
at the old man. ‘But forced healing leaves the body confused. It
knows it was injured, or sick, then suddenly, it isn’t. It is a
form of shock I believe. I am beginning to suspect the great
healing I performed to save Farn, was too hurried. Or maybe I
didn’t pay close enough attention immediately afterwards. His mind
was very fragile then, until the First Daughter drew him back from
the Dark.’

Konya nodded
thoughtfully. ‘And in this case, the patient is safe, well cared
for, so should recover more naturally?’

‘Did you know there is
nothing quite so aggravating, as being talked over as though you
were already dead?’ Babach’s voice was a tiny bit stronger but
definitely peevish.

Tika grinned at him
then sobered. ‘Babach, Mim gave you a pendant, but I haven’t seen
you wear it?’

Babach struggled to sit
up a bit more and Konya slid another pillow behind him.

‘When I returned to the
Oblaka, Finn Rah was near death, her lungs badly weakened. I had
the strongest compulsion to keep the pendant hidden. Finn didn’t
notice it when I arrived with it round my neck. The Kooshak who
tended her, Sarryen, she saw it but made no comment.’

Babach fumbled under
the stack of pillows until he’d extracted a small brown leather
pouch. The effort made him breathless and the woman who’d brought
them to him came forward with a mug of water. He sipped
gratefully.

‘When the child
arrived, Finn was somehow healed. Sarryen vanished. Finn said she
was a dedicated Kooshak, and had probably gone back out into the
countryside to help wherever she could.’

He drank more of the
water and stared into Tika’s eyes. ‘I couldn’t find her. I am a
dream walker. She was a student of mine long ago. I should have
been able to reach her. She is dead.’

‘At Finn Rah’s order?’
Tika asked quietly.

Babach closed his eyes.
‘Or the child’s.’

Tika glanced round the
room. Dog, Shea, Sergeant Essa and Shivan leaned against the wall
beside the door, listening with interest. She turned to the leather
pouch lying on the bed cover. Loosening the thong around it, she
tipped the pendant out. The four by the door came closer to see
it.

The back half of the
egg shaped pendant was obsidian, the front filled with a clear,
bright yellow material. A black speck seemed to float within the
yellow. Tika lifted it by its gold link chain and held it out to
Babach.

‘You should wear it
now,’ she told him. ‘It may help you recover faster.’

He took it from her and
slid it over his head. Shea squeezed between Konya and
Sket.

‘If you show me how you
braid your beard and get those pretty beads in the braids, I’ll
teach you snap-the-rat,’ she offered.

Babach regarded her
solemnly. ‘I believe such an exchange could not be bettered, and
would be most interesting as well.’

‘After you’ve had a
rest,’ said the woman who was clearly his nurse.

They saw shadows under
Babach’s sunken eyes and the pallor returned to his cheeks. Tika
got off the side of his bed. ‘We’ll visit again later,’ she said,
smiling at the woman. ‘When we are permitted.’

Babach
snorted.

‘Oh,’ he called as they
reached the door. ‘That bird. Hag? I’ve never seen her before.
Where is she from?’

Tika spun back to stare
at the old man. ‘Hag? Hag’s been here? When?’

Babach nodded. ‘Early
this morning. She was rude to everyone, me included. Then she went
off to talk to Kija. She said Kija was her dear friend, but she
would prefer to talk to you. Unfortunately, as she was so very
busy, she couldn’t wait for you to get here.’

Tika was already
sprinting back along the corridor, through the large room and
skidding out of the door. She looked across the open ground between
the building and the water. Storm dived and cavorted some way out
over the lake, Farn tumbling and twisting in pursuit. Brin reclined
on the grass nearer the building, watching them with amusement.
There was no sign of Kija.

‘Brin,’ Tika hurried to
the crimson Dragon. ‘Where is Kija?’

Rosy prismed eyes gazed
down at her affectionately. ‘She said she had to travel somewhere.
She thinks we ought to wait here, with these nice people. Perhaps
she just wants time alone, to grieve for Kadi.’

Tika didn’t believe a
single word.

Chapter
Five

Kija flew fast,
slightly east of due north, following Hag’s directions. She
expected to reach her goal late the next day. It grew colder the
further north she travelled – spring had scarcely begun to touch
the areas around either the Oblaka or the Menedula, and in these
more northern lands the snows were only just beginning to thaw. The
Great Dragons could regulate their body temperature to some extent
and Kija knew she would not have to combat the cold for too many
days.

Brin’s words to Tika
were, in fact, partly true. Kija did wish to be alone for a while,
to remember Kadi and to consider what she might confront the next
day. She chose to rest briefly when the moon was high, and she lay
along exposed rocks on the side of one of the hills that were now
becoming mountains. She lay motionless, watching small creatures,
barely woken from their long winter sleep, creeping hungrily among
the old leaf litter piled around the trees’ roots.

She considered Hag. She
realised the great Raven held immense power, but she didn’t think
Hag was really aware of her terrifying capabilities. At their first
meeting, she had dismissed Hag as a conceited, obstreperous bird,
but she had now reached the conclusion that, child though she was,
Shea had been correct. Hag was lonely. Kija now understood that old
as old as she herself was, to Hag she was still a child. She
couldn’t begin to guess the Raven’s age.

Hag had spoken,
although not in specific detail, of her children, and in Gaharn
Kija knew Hag had scolded the Merigs for their lack of respect. Hag
had told them she was the mother of all black feathered ones. Could
she be, Kija wondered? Kija suspected that Hag could be close to
madness brought on by her long, long life and yes, her
loneliness.

Kija wasn’t sure if the
Dark Ones understood Hag: they knew of her power but they didn’t
seem to treat her with much dignity. When Hag had spoken to her,
early this morning, Kija felt that Hag believed Tika was truly her
friend. So Kija had spoken kindly to the bird, and to her surprise,
received far more information than she had expected.

A movement below
distracted her from her thoughts. A tall lean grey wolf stepped
clear of the crowded trees. His pale eyes stared round, then lifted
to the rocks where Kija lay.

‘No harm to you, little
brother,’ Kija murmured to his mind.

The wolf blinked, and
disappeared.

Rhaki hummed as he
pottered around his cave. He’d been astonished by how quickly he’d
made a routine of his days. He was also somewhat bemused at just
how contented he was. His predecessor’s notebooks and maps
gradually engrossed his attention, and whole days passed uncounted.
He had used far seeing powers to examine the land in his immediate
vicinity, mostly at daybreak. The buildings he’d first seen on a
map had proved to be deserted and he found no signs of human life
within a radius of perhaps three leagues.

Rhaki was happy with
that. He estimated that he’d had about half of the winter season
getting used to his new situation, and he hoped he could remain
uninterrupted for a good while yet. He had been alarmed, almost
frightened, when he first found there were gaps in his memories.
The name Cho Petak was clear, but events surrounding that name were
hazy.

He remembered living in
a City called Gaharn, that he had a sister called Emla. He had no
memory of a black tower he’d constructed in the far west of
Sapphrea. And he would have been shocked if he’d been able to
recall any of his experiments in the Stronghold. Rhaki wondered if
his memory had been damaged accidentally when the stranger had
dragged him from his refuge and crammed him into this body. Or had
it been done on purpose? That stranger had never returned and Rhaki
had a deep certainty that he never would.

Rhaki had the sense
that somehow this was a second chance he’d been given, and he
intended to take every advantage of it. He tidied away the maps
he’d been studying and swung the kettle over the fire to make tea
when he heard a clattering in the outer part of the cave. He
frowned. He’d been warned that a wolf or a bear might visit, but
all he had seen had been a single, bright blue bird chattering at
him from the fir tree beside the entrance for the last few
mornings. In his thorough search through the several caves he had
found nothing remotely resembling a weapon. Now, he went to the
heavy leather curtain which served as a door and pulled it aside.
He could only gape.

The entrance was filled
with an enormous bulky shape, which blocked the light.
Uncomfortably close was a long scaled face with a faceted eye
bigger than his fist. The eye whirred lemon, yellow, gold, with
white and red flashes, and Rhaki felt as though his mind and body
had been turned inside out, shaken, and restored to its proper
state. His knees buckled, his eyes closed and he fought against a
wave of nausea. Then he felt calmness spreading through him and he
risked opening his eyes a fraction. The large shape, the face, and
the eye were still there. He swallowed and managed to lock his legs
so that he’d stay upright. He opened his mouth and a voice spoke
inside his mind.

‘I am Kija of the
Dragon Kindred. And you are Rhaki. But not.’

The flashing colours in
the eye so close to him calmed, and settled to a buttery gold. His
visitor’s head craned past his rigid body and peered into the inner
cave. There was a certain amount of rustling, scraping and huffing,
and Kija managed to recline in the entrance. Rhaki saw that his
visitor really was a Dragon. He had only the vaguest memory of
seeing Dragons fly among the mountains west of Gaharn. His sister,
Emla, had been interested in them he seemed to recall. The Dragon’s
head was set on a long muscular neck, and as she turned to face him
again, he saw two small triangular scales set high to the sides of
the huge eyes. The scales flattened, and Rhaki guessed they
protected a different type of ear to those of most
creatures.

But the eyes commanded
his attention as the voice spoke in his head again.

‘Emla is a
friend.’

‘She is?’ Rhaki spoke
aloud and in some surprise. Could this Dragon have read his
thought?

‘Well of course I did,’
the Dragon snapped. ‘Many of us use mind speech but we have found
most of you humans cannot do so.’

‘Oh.’

‘Your memories have
been tampered with.’

Rhaki would like to sit
down but felt that would put him at a complete disadvantage, so he
leaned against the wall as casually as he could manage.

‘How do you know me? I
mean, Rhaki?’ He paused. This was not straightforward.

The Dragon huffed, her
breath forming a cloud of vapour in the chill air, uncomfortably
similar to smoke.

‘Your mind is Rhaki. I
do not know who occupied the body you now use, but it was given to
you voluntarily. I would have killed you if it had been
otherwise.’

The tone was calm,
dispassionate, but Rhaki believed the words utterly.

‘Do you remember
others?’ Now Kija sounded curious. ‘What of Ryla, Nesh, Iska, Cho
Petak, Bark?’

Rhaki frowned in
concentration. ‘Bark was a friend from my childhood. The other
names sound familiar but,’ he shook his head. ‘The memory slips
away as I try to reach for it. Cho Petak is a bad name.’

‘Have you felt him
here?’

‘No. I have felt
nothing since I woke here. I can reach some power but I have
enjoyed being alone.’

Kija remained silent,
watching this man who looked old, as humans judge age. Forgetting
his dignity, Rhaki slid down the wall and sat hugging his
knees.