Rebellion: Tainted Realm: Book 2 (92 page)

Tali edged through the door into the chancellor’s quarters and slipped behind the floor-to-ceiling drapes. She had to know what he was going to do to Tobry and Holm.

“You’re condemned men,” said the chancellor, when they were brought before his table, in rattling chains. “Is there anything you’d like to say before I order your execution for treason?”

“I’ve got a plan to deal with Grandys,” said Tobry.

“I’ve never liked you, Lagger —” began the chancellor.

“So
that
explains why you ordered me thrown from the top of Rix’s tower,” Tobry said drily. “All this time I’ve been trying to work it out.”

Tobry, don’t! You’ve no idea what a vengeful man he is. But Tali had to admire his composure in the face of death. Her knees would barely hold her up.

“How
did
you survive?” said the chancellor. “Never mind. The fact that you did, and even managed to escape so thorough a hunt as Lyf had set for you, suggests that there’s more to you than I’d imagined.”

“And now your
tediously
conventional
plans have failed so dismally, you’re prepared to clutch at the most desperate straws to get yourself out of trouble.”

“Speaking as one condemned man to
two
others,” said Holm, “the noose is tightening every minute. If you hope to slip it, you’d better get on with it.”

“You’re overly bold for a humble clock attendant,” said the chancellor.

“And you’ve become unwontedly timid since you fled Caulderon, Chancellor. Tell him the plan, Tobry.”

“I’m going to join Grandys’ army, in the guise of a Herovian, then shift to a caitsthe after he’s gone to bed and claw his heart out.”

“No!” cried Tali, forgetting herself.

A guard hauled her out from behind the drape.

“What the hell are you doing here?” growled the chancellor.

“Whatever you’re planning to do to them, I’ve a right to know,” she said defiantly.

“You’ve a right to know nothing. You’re an interfering little know-it-all.”

Tali reached out to Tobry. “Tobry, you can’t disguise yourself from Grandys. At Glimmering, he picked that you were a shifter in seconds. He’ll put you straight to death.”

“Not if I disguise myself with magery,” said Tobry.

“He’s got two ebony pearls, remember? And even if you could fool him, you can’t fool Maloch. It knows you. Chancellor,” said Tali. “Don’t let him do it. It’s suicide.”

“You’re appealing to me now?” said the chancellor. “What a fruity irony.”

“I can heal Tobry,” said Rannilt’s shrill little voice from the other side of the room. “Let me try.”

“Guard!” bellowed the chancellor. “How did that brat get in?”

“I don’t know, Chancellor,” said the guard, “but she didn’t come through the door.”

“How am I supposed to discuss secret strategies when half the fortress is lurking behind the drapes?”

“I don’t know, Chancellor.”

“Put the little twerp out. Don’t damage her.”

The guard gave the chancellor a reproachful look and picked Rannilt up by the scruff of the neck and the seat of her pants.

“I can heal Tobry, I can heal Tobry!” she wailed, kicking her thin legs and arms.

“Rannilt, you can’t,” said Tali. “You lost your gift after Lyf stole power from you in the caverns. Your blood doesn’t heal any more.”

The guard took her out, her cries dwindling down the hall.

“Well?” said Tobry, after a considerable silence.

“Well what?” said the chancellor.

“Will you allow me out, to try and kill Grandys?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“To win the aftermath I’m going to need a mighty army, but my forces are being eaten away by desertion to Grandys. I can’t strike at him until I’ve rebuilt my army, or defeating him will merely give victory to Lyf.

“I’ve got a better plan,” the chancellor said, leaning back in his chair. “Let Grandys turn the war our way first. Then you can kill him,
shifter
.”

Rix tightened his defiance of the command spell until it hurt, then crawled along the dusty ceiling beam until he was above Grandys’ bedchamber. If he failed, or the spell betrayed him, he would die.

A few minutes ago, an unobtrusive little man had given the password to the guards outside Grandys’ room, and slipped inside. Rix had seen the man before and felt sure he was a spy.

What was Grandys really up to? There was an implacable purpose behind his bloody ruthlessness, and it had to do with the Herovian goal of reaching their Promised Realm. But how were they to get to it? And what did that mean for Hightspall?

The ceiling plaster was old and cracked. Not cracked enough for Rix to see into the bedchamber, though he might be able to hear. He lowered his ear to the surface, but heard not a sound.

Everything was so thickly coated with dust here that even his gentle movements had stirred it up. The dust was tickling the back of his nose. He suppressed a sneeze and kept very still, knowing that his weight on the beam could be enough to crack the plaster, and that would give him away at once.

“There’s
another
ebony pearl?” said Grandys.

“Yes, Lord Grandys,” said the spy. “My sources tell me that there are five, and it is the fifth.”

“A fifth! And the way magery is failing, I’m soon going to need it.”

So Grandys’ magery was also failing. That was the best news Rix had heard since Glimmering. The command spell must be weakening too, and if he fought it hard enough he might be able to break it again. But this time he would be more careful; he would not reveal that he had done so.

“Where do they come from?” said Grandys.

“Some magians say that ebony pearls just happened,” said the spy, “that they’re a freak of nature. Others believe that Lyf manipulated the lost king-magery so the pearls would form in suitable hosts —”

“Suitable hosts?”

“Pale slaves —”

“How can such priceless artefacts form in a people so unworthy?” Grandys cried.

“I cannot say, my Lord.”

“Which Pale slaves?”

“Certain young females. Unusual Pale, you can be sure, though we only have the name of one.”

“How did you learn this name?”

“It was mentioned at the trial of Lord and Lady Ricinus, Lord.”

Grandys clenched a fist. “Lady Ricinus was the mother of my troublesome lieutenant. A noble Herovian, and she was hanged and drawn on her palace gates by this miserable chancellor. He must be put down. And the name of this Pale?”

“Iusia vi Torgrist, Lord. Lady Ricinus killed her and took her pearl ten years ago.”

“Vi Torgrist, vi Torgrist? Where have I heard that name recently?”

“It’s an ancient house,” said the spy.

“
I know
!” snapped Grandys. “The founding family came on the Second Fleet.”

“But the house is long extinct in Hightspall. It only survives in the Pale.”

“Tell me about the fifth pearl.”

“It has not yet been harvested from its host.”

“Why not?”

“Ebony pearls take many years to grow and mature. They can only be harvested from the host after she comes of age.”

“So the development of the pearl is linked to the development and maturity of the host,” said Grandys. “Go on.”

“My sources say the fifth pearl is the strongest of all. It’s been called the master pearl.”

“The
master
pearl. To the nub: who is the host?”

“A Pale who escaped from Cython. As far as I can discover, the only people who know her name are Lyf and the chancellor. They’re both after it, of course.”

“But the host has eluded them. The pearl must have given her exceptional gifts.”

“Quite so, Lord,” said the spy. “Will that be all?”

“For the moment.”

Rix heard the door open and close. Then it opened again.

“You heard all that?” Grandys said quietly.

“Yes,” said Lirriam. “Can you name the Pale?”

Grandys did not answer.

“Only two have escaped from Cython,” Lirriam went on, slowly, as though assembling lines of evidence, “and one was a child who could not host a mature pearl. Therefore it has to be the other, Tali vi Torgrist. She gave evidence about the murder of her mother at the trial of Lady Ricinus.
Which means that pearls must be familial
.”

“I’m remembering something,” said Grandys.

“About the Pale?”

“No, from my crystal dreaming, before Maloch woke me in the Abysm. I was dreaming about Tirnan Twil.”

“What about it?” Lirriam said sharply.

“When the gauntlings burned Tirnan Twil, I dreamed that a Pale woman was there.”

“So what?”

“If Tali is the only adult Pale to have escaped, it must have been her. And if she has the fifth pearl, surely she had the magery to defend Tirnan Twil. But she did not act. Why not?”

“Perhaps she doesn’t know how to use her power.”

“It was her!” cried Grandys.

“You’re beginning to sound obsessed,” Lirriam said with a hint of a sneer.

“The small blonde Pale who refused me at Glimmering-by-the-Water. Before that she cried out. She was distraught at something I’d done. What,
what
?”

“You
are
obsessed with her,” said Lirriam. “Don’t let yet another woman impair your judgement.”

“No, this is monstrous!” said Grandys. “It was when I tried to kill the shifter, the mongrel who dived over the cliff and escaped. She cried out in fear for a filthy shifter.”

“Are you saying that Tali held back her magery for
him
?”

“Yes! Tirnan Twil was destroyed because she’s a despicable shifter lover, and when I find her, I’ll have her for it.”

“And the pearl,” said Lirriam. “Don’t forget what’s important here.”

Rix’s next two spying missions revealed nothing. Was Grandys onto him, and allowing him to compromise himself ever more deeply? If Grandys was, his wrath would be terrible. But Rix could not stop now. He went back for a fourth evening, and this time found a tiny hole that allowed him to see a small part of the bedchamber.

“What do you mean, Tali can’t be found?” said Grandys, stalking back and forth, Maloch in one hand, wine jug in the other. “We know she left Glimmering with the chancellor’s party.”

He hacked a chunk out of the windowsill in his fury. His magery had failed to locate her and he’d reluctantly enlisted the assistance of Lirriam and Rufuss, whose command of sorcery, while not as powerful as his own, had certain advantages in subtlety. He had not wanted to; he did not trust either of them, and especially not Rufuss, whose opalisation had further damaged an already unstable mind.

“She’s been hidden with powerful magery,” said Lirriam. “Under such concealment, she could have gone anywhere and we wouldn’t know.”

“The chancellor knows she bears the pearl,” said Grandys. “Do you think for one minute that he’ll let her out of his sight? I’ll bet he has her at Garramide.”

“If he does, whoever hid her has done it with rare skill.”

“It’ll be the chief magian,” said Rufuss. “What’s his name?”

No one knew.

“It wouldn’t be hard to take Garramide,” said Lirriam.

“We’re not going near it,” said Grandys in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Why not?” said Rufuss.

“I built it for a purpose —”

“Your
adopted
daughter has been dead 1950 years,” she sneered.

“But my purpose has not yet come to completion,” Grandys said coldly. “If we attack Garramide, the chancellor might destroy the place rather than surrender. He’s a spiteful little man.”

“I was wondering when you would remember our noble purpose,” said Yulia. Rix started and nearly fell. He had not realised she was there. “I thought you’d lost sight of it completely, in your ceaseless attempts to prove yourself by slaughtering everyone who stands in your way.”

“I haven’t lost sight of it,” Grandys growled.

“I hope not. This land is ours by right – a right laid down in the
Immortal Text
.”

“Why do you think I’m fighting for it?”

“For the joy of killing,” she said coldly.

“Why are recruits flocking to us by the thousand?” said Grandys. “Why do the enemy cower in terror when they hear we’re coming? Why is Lyf hiding in Caulderon? Because of my name, Yulia!” He hacked into the windowsill again. “My name and reputation. Once they’re established, I’ll continue with our noble purpose.”

“They
are
established,” said Yulia. “Two thousand years ago, we came here to create the Promised Realm, and we failed. Why was that?”

Rix sat up. What did she mean by
create
the Promised Realm.

“Because the wrythen petrified us,” Grandys said sullenly.

“That’s not the real reason, and you know it. We failed because you acted like the brute and sadist you are.”

“Lyf had to die. There was no other way to get the king-magery. And without it, we could not create the Promised Realm.”

“You didn’t have to hack his feet off. You didn’t have to inflict all the pain and suffering on him you could. You didn’t have to carry out all those massacres, or destroy every precious item of Cythe’s great civilisation.”

“They had to go. What does it matter?”

“It matters,” said Yulia, and Rix could tell she was speaking between her clenched teeth, “because your viciousness brought out something in Lyf he never knew he had. That’s how the departing king-magery created his undying wrythen. That’s where he found the strength to hunt us down and turn us to opal. That gave him the burning urge to vengeance that’s brought him, and his people, all the way down the aeons to today, and his boot across the throat of our land. It matters because your failure lost us the Promised Realm.”

“It’s not lost,” said Grandys, defensively. “Just delayed.”

“Then delay no longer. You swore a binding oath to do this. Do it now.”

“To tear Hightspall down and reshape the island into the Promised Realm, I have to have king-magery. Nothing else will do.”

Tear Hightspall down? Reshape the island? Did Grandys mean to destroy everything in Hightspall and create the Promised Realm from scratch? This was worse than Rix had imagined. Worse than he
could
have imagined. And it raised an even more troubling problem, though he could not bring it to mind.

“Then get it,” said Yulia.

“I will – just as soon as I get Lyf’s two pearls, and the master pearl.”

“Take the master pearl first,” said Lirriam.

“It won’t be easy to lure the craven dog of a chancellor from his kennel,” said Grandys.

“It will if we move to all-out war.”

“Go on.”

“Were we to wage war with the same ferocity that we used to take Rebroff,” said Lirriam, “we could control Lakeland, Fennery and Gordion within a week. The chancellor couldn’t hide in Garramide then – he’d be too afraid we’d sweep all the way south and take Caulderon back.”

“Especially if I drop hints to his spies that I’m planning to,” said Grandys. “He’ll have to come out of his lair then, and he’ll want Tali close by, in case he needs to take the pearl for himself. As soon as he moves, I’ll take an elite raiding party, capture his chief magian and force him to reveal Tali.”

“What if he won’t?”

“I’ll squeeze him until his eyeballs pop. There aren’t many men I can’t break, Lirriam.”

“I can break them all,” said Lirriam, smoothing her hands over the curve of her belly.

He scowled and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “Ahh, I do need war.”

“With all this feasting and lazing around,” said Lirriam provocatively, “you look a wreck.”

“But my armies are far smaller than Lyf’s,” said Grandys, testing her. “And he holds very strong positions.”

“Just the way we like it.” The blood lust in his eyes was reflected in her own.

“Call the men together. We march tonight – to exterminate the enemy in the north and destroy all his works. Then, once we have the remaining pearls, we recover the lost king-magery and create our Promised Realm at last.”

A cold wave passed through Rix’s head and down into his middle. Grandys did not understand what king-magery was, or how it worked. He assumed it was just another form of magery, an incredibly powerful tool that could be used for any purpose. But it wasn’t.

Rix knew, because Tali and Holm had told him, that king-magery was fundamentally a healing force that could not safely be used in any other way. If it were twisted to destructive purposes, such as tearing the land down and rebuilding it, the consequences for Hightspall could be dire.

Rix had no choice now. He had to break the command spell, take Grandys on, and kill him. It was the only way Hightspall could be saved.