The Daylight War (115 page)

Renna looked away, staring up at the stars so he could not see her face – as if that could hide anything from him now. ‘Like you’re in my head sometimes, way that demon was …’

‘Ent like that, Ren,’ Arlen said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. ‘You see the same things I do with your wardsight. Reckon everyone with the sight does. Look close and it can tell you all sorts of things about a body. Just figuring it out myself, and I cheated a bit, stealing some of the language from the mind demon we met when I was in its head. Soon I’ll be able to teach it to you, one way or another.’

‘Not sure I like the sound of that,’ Renna said. ‘Love you, Arlen Bales, but my head’s my own place. Ent lookin’ to share it with anyone.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Honest word.’

She looked at him, her aura amused. ‘Don’t think you’ve tricked me by changing the subject. You sure this trip is a good idea? This is what you want?’

Arlen shook his head. ‘All I ever wanted was to kill demons. Didn’t want to war with Krasia. Didn’t want Miln making flamework weapons. Didn’t want to be the corespawned Deliverer.’

He sighed, feeling so very, very tired. ‘But it seems the world means to make me one, like it or not. All because Ahmann Jardir thinks the Creator speaks to him.’

Renna tilted her head, regarding him.
She’s trying to read my aura
,
he thought, surprised at how disconcerting it was. He felt a rush as she pulled a wisp of magic through him, Knowing.

‘You still love him, even now,’ Renna said. ‘Like he’s your brother.’

Arlen shrugged. ‘Never had a friend like that in my life, and I’ve had a few. He was proud, and casually cruel in the way of
Sharum
. We argued plenty, but there was no one else in the world I wanted to guard my back when night fell.’ He shuddered suddenly, feeling goose pimples rise on his skin though the night was not cold. ‘At least, until he stabbed me there.’

‘And you think throwin’ him off a cliff is the answer,’ Renna said.

Arlen shrugged again. ‘Don’t know, Ren, but I can’t leave things the way they are. For everyone’s sake, we’ve got to make a change. Got to do something the minds won’t expect.’

‘Worried about you skatin’, too,’ Renna admitted.

‘Me, too,’ Arlen said, taking another deep breath. Renna reached out, taking his chin in her hand and pulling him into a kiss. ‘Love you, Arlen Bales.’

He felt some of his tension ease, and smiled. ‘Love you, Renna Bales. You keep the Hollow safe while I’m gone.’

Renna nodded. ‘And you come back quick.’

‘Swear by the sun,’ Arlen said, and dissipated.

Immediately Arlen felt the call of the Core, the source of all magic, begging to be explored. Faint fractions of its power drifted up all around him in paths, and he took the nearest of these, making sure to keep his sense of direction even as he passed through layers of soil and stone. He sensed a path heading southwest before breaking to the surface, and took it, skating along as quick as a beam of light.

He materialized a moment later on the surface and looked about to get his bearings. He knew the place, perhaps a dozen miles from the Hollow.

Not
enough
,
he thought.
Need
to
go
deeper.

Again he slipped beneath the surface, this time dropping so far down that the call of the Core became more than just a seductive song. It filled his senses, bright and beautiful, pulling at him like flame drew a moth. A tendril of his being began to drift that way, wanting just a taste of its infinite power. It would be so simple to just …

No!
He had no head to shake, but he pulled his incorporeal form together and quickly sought another path to the surface, riding the current southwest.

He materialized a moment later under a cloudless sky, and quickly realized he had overshot his target. He did not know precisely where he was, but he knew well the cold clay flats of the Krasian desert at night.

He turned a circle, tasting the magic on the wind until he knew where he was. Less than a day’s ride from the weapons cache he had left outside Anoch Sun. He made a note of the path. Visiting the lost city again before the minds could destroy it on the next new moon was important, but not his goal this night. Again he dropped down a path, this time skating northeast.

It took several more hops to finally get within sight of Rizon. Arlen might have kept at it, inching closer, but each time the Core dangled its lure, and like a cat confronted with a string, he could not resist it forever. He began to run instead, his bare feet eating up the miles. Once, a reap of field demons spotted him and gave chase, but even they could not match him now. The demons fell farther and farther behind, eventually breaking off in search of easier prey.

He bypassed most of the villages and guard stations until he came to an isolated sentry booth, warded to protect the
Sharum
runner within. He slowed, letting the man hear him coming.

The warrior stepped out of his booth, spear and shield at the ready. His aura and stance said he was ready to face a demon, but both relaxed when he spotted Arlen’s human silhouette. At least until he saw that Arlen carried neither spear nor shield.

‘Who goes—’ he began, but then Arlen was on him, slipping around his guard with ease and getting behind him with his forearm across the man’s throat in a
sharusahk
hold. He squeezed gently, careful not to crush, until the man fell limp in his hands.

Inside the booth, Arlen saw a mat for sleeping, food stores and cooking utensils, and other necessaries. Likely this warrior slept most of the days and kept watch at night, ready to carry word if one of the outlying villages needed reinforcements.

When the
dal’Sharum
woke a few minutes later, he was stripped to his bido with his arms and legs tied tightly behind him. The rope was looped around his neck so that too much struggling would cut off his air. He groaned through the gag in his teeth, and Arlen, dressed in the man’s blacks with his night veil in place, looked down at him.

‘Apologies, honoured warrior,’ he said in flawless Krasian, bowing. ‘It is not my intent to shame you, but I have need of your robes and equipment. I will return tomorrow night to free you and give them back. Inevera, no one will know of your defeat.’

The warrior growled and struggled, but there was nothing he could do. Arlen bowed once more and raced back into the night. There were still miles to go before he reached the capital.

The low wall of the outer city had been strengthened and fortified since Arlen’s last visit to Rizon, and mounted
Sharum
patrolled its length, but it was too vast to guard completely. He found a clear section and bounded over the wall easily.

Dawn was not far off by the time he reached the wall of the inner city, but enough darkness remained for him to see the warding field that now protected the area as surely as one of the Hollow’s greatwards. He studied the energy with fascination. What was the source?

‘There’s Warders, and then there’s Krasian Warders,’ his old master Cob had said. ‘None better in all the Free Cities.’

Arlen shook his head, leaving the puzzle for another day. As the sky continued to lighten, he headed for the bazaar, slumping slightly like a
Sharum
worn from a night’s patrols. His nose keener than a hunting hound’s, it was simple to find an apothecary. He stole into the empty tent, stealing ladies’ face paint and powder to hide his warded skin and pale complexion. He took the coin purse from his stolen robes and left a few draki on the counter before slipping back into the street. Other
Sharum
were filtering in from their patrols, and he kept his night veil loose around his chin, low enough not to draw attention or cause offence to the other warriors in the light, while still hiding his painted skin as much as possible. He needn’t have bothered. The warriors saw only his blacks, nodded, and moved on their way.

For all that he was prepared, it shook him to hear the familiar sound of
dama
singing the end to curfew ringing out over the streets of Fort Rizon. Arlen looked up, seeing the newly built minarets rising above the wall of the inner city, surrounding what had been the great Holy House of Rizon. He wondered if the Krasians had already begun to decorate it with the bones of the fallen.

He watched as the city around him woke and came to greet the day. The Krasians came first, women and
khaffit
opening their kiosks and pavilions for a day’s business. Soon after, when most of the returning
Sharum
had found their beds, the
chin
began to appear, opening their businesses as customers, Rizonan and Krasian alike, began to clog the narrow streets.

Soon, it began to feel achingly familiar, even as his sense of discomfort grew. The shouts of vendors, filled with exaggerations and outright lies, the noise and stink of livestock mixing with the smells of cooking food, meat and spices that made his mouth water as vendors displayed everything a buyer could want, and many they did not even know existed.

He had loved the Great Bazaar of Krasia, and it seemed a lifetime since he had wandered its maze of streets.

But
you’re not
in
Krasia
,
he reminded himself, seeing the differences, now that he had absorbed the familiar. Here, a group of
dal’ting
were followed by Rizonan men who carried their purchases like slaves. There, a pair of Rizonan women walked in the hot sun with their heads and faces wrapped in coloured veils. Everywhere, vendors called their wares in their native languages, but also in broken Thesan or Krasian, and buyers did the same. Already, a pidgin was forming, melding words from both languages with gestures, much like the trade language Northern Messengers used when visiting the Desert Spear. Arlen understood it instinctively.

A
dama
walked slowly by, watching the activity. An
alagai
tail hung from his belt in easy reach. Vendors and shoppers alike gave him nervous looks and a wide berth, but Arlen was in black, and simply gave a nod the
dama
returned casually before returning to his inspection. Arlen had no doubt that the whip would soon be put to use, if for nothing other than a warning to others.

This
ent
how
it’s supposed to be
.

Abban did not need to look up when the
dal’Sharum
entered his office. Only one of his men wore black, and Abban did not need to raise his eyes past ankle level to know when his drillmaster darkened his door – something that had never happened in the bazaar. Qeran despised the place.

‘You were not invited, warrior,’ he said, dipping his electrum pen into the inkwell and continuing to write in his ledger.

The
Sharum
said nothing, pulling the door closed behind him. Abban saw the feet of his two
kha’Sharum
Watchers appear at his back. They moved with utter silence on the soft carpet, one holding a short metal club, and the other the handles of a garrotte. As they moved to strike, Abban finally allowed his eyes to rise. He did so love to see his investments pay off.