The Waterless Sea (27 page)

Only Oron stood back from the rest. He had not joined the chorus of chantment, and his face was closed and brooding. Calwyn laid a hand on his sleeve, but he winced away from her touch. ‘What is it?'

‘I don' t want to go back there,' he said sullenly. ‘No one asked if I wanted to go back.'

Calwyn felt a pang of guilt. Was it cruel to bring the children back to this place? Yet the others seemed willing enough to return. Since they' d joined the rebels,Vin and Haid had adopted red and yellow scarves, and seemed eager to follow wherever Fenn led them. And of course, Shada longed for her brother. . .

‘I' m sorry, Oron,' she said. ‘But we can' t leave you here. We have no choice. We must all go on together.'

The little boy shrugged off her consoling hand and turned his back on her. Again Calwyn felt that twinge of helpless exasperation. She could not touch this boy, could not speak to him. On either side of the crack, the rock was folded and wrinkled, as if the chanters had parted the stone with their hands, like a curtain. Darrow looked at Fenn, and Fenn gestured to him to be the first to walk through.

Slowly the whole company passed through the opening. On the other side of the lip, Calwyn gasped. They stood on the threshold of a wide, flat, endless crater of red dust, stretching further than the horizon. It was utterly featureless. The other deserts they' d travelled through were marked by patches of scrub, or the folds of dunes; they were scattered with boulders, or scored with dry ravines. But this plain was as smooth as a polished platter. Behind them, and to either side, stretched the vanishing embrace of the Dish' s lip; ahead, there lay nothing but red dust.

Calwyn looked down. Fine dust lay ankle-deep above a bed of hard rock. Clouds of it puffed up with every step. Already the whole caravan was powdered orange-red.

Mica gave a low whistle. ‘And I thought the rest of this land were dead and dry! Lucky we got you, Cal, to give us water, or we' d be done for!'

Darrow clenched his hands in his pockets. Without speaking, he nodded, in the direction that their shadows fell, and began to walk on.

Their camp that night was far from comfortable. Every movement stirred up clouds of the fine red dust, and the whole party kept their faces firmly wrapped in protective scarves. Even Mica was helpless. She tried to sing up a gentle wind to clear the path ahead, but the dust was so fine that it drifted back to envelop the caravan in a choking red mist, and the others begged her to stop.

Only the
hegesi
managed to sleep that night, though even they were restless and bleating, their bellies empty. ‘
Arbec
grows near the Black Palace, but not here,' said Darrow tersely. ‘They will have to wait.'

The human members of the party tried to snatch what rest they could, leaning back to back, with their heads on their knees. Even when the children swept themselves a clear space, the rock below was bone-achingly hard, and the dust drifted back as soon as it was cleared.

‘I thought ironcrafters could command everything of the earth,' said Calwyn half-teasingly to Shada. She didn' t dare to ask Darrow. His face was hawk-like, and dangerous.

Shada shifted uncomfortably on her haunches. ‘We can. But we need to sing to every single particle of dust, and there are so many!'

Presently Shada went with Mica to find some dinner, and Tonno and Calwyn were left alone.

She said, ‘Darrow looks just as he did last spring, before he left the island. I used to dread that look, Tonno! And here it is again.'

Tonno grunted. ‘He' s come a long way, to drag the same troubles behind him.'

‘Coming back here must be hard for him. It must remind him of Samis.'

Tonno spat neatly, making a small clean hole in the layer of dust. ‘Does he still carry that ring?'

‘I don' t know. I haven' t seen it.'

There was a short silence. ‘How is Halasaa?'

Calwyn grimaced. ‘No better. No worse.'

‘You can' t help him?'

‘I' ve tried. I can' t reach him. It' s not like mending Oron' s leg, there' s no wound to bind.'

Tonno gave her a shrewd look. ‘So you' re a healer now, too?' ‘Not exactly,' said Calwyn uncomfortably. ‘I helped Halasaa heal Oron. I couldn' t have done it alone.'

‘Oh, aye.' Tonno sucked on his bottom lip. ‘Wish I' d brought more pipe-leaf with me. The stuff they sell in Teril' s not worth settin light to . . . So the little lass is an ironcrafter, is she? Darrow was right, it' s not just a man' s magic.'

Suddenly the burden of her secret was too heavy for her to bear alone. In a rush, Calwyn confessed, ‘I did it, too, Tonno. I sang a chantment of iron. When we were running out of the Palace, as it fell.'

‘Ah.' Tonno shifted in the dust. ‘You told Darrow?'

‘No. Not yet.'
If he can keep his secrets, so can I.
But she was ashamed to say it aloud.

Tonno uncurled his calloused sailor' s fingers one by one. ‘Powers of Tongue, and Beasts, andWinds, and Ice, you had already. And now the Power of Becoming and the Power of Iron. Six of the nine? Keep it up, lass, and you' ll be the Singer of all Songs yet.'

‘Don' t be ridiculous,' said Calwyn sharply. ‘I haven' t mastered half those crafts. I used the Power of Becoming once, with Halasaa helping me. And I' m sure I could only sing a chantment of iron that one time, because we were in such danger. And besides, I don' t know anything about the Power of Seeming. Or the Power of Fire.'

‘Trout has the Clarion of the Flame safe on Ravamey, he can take care of that,' said Tonno comfortably. ‘As for seeming, you haven' t had a chance to learn that yet. When this is over, we' ll go to Gellan and find one of them tricksters to teach you, like they taught Samis.'

‘Stop it, Tonno. It' s not funny.' Abruptly Calwyn stalked away into the dusk. Her angry feet sent up spurts of dust that whirled behind her like miniature tornadoes. Tonno wrapped his sturdy arms about his knees and stared after her. And Darrow, who had walked up behind them unnoticed and overheard their conversation, stood staring too, his face set like stone, brooding and watchful.

For a long time, Calwyn wandered about on her own. But the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach refused to unclench itself. She didn' t want to think about what Tonno had hinted – more than hinted. She wouldn' t do it again. She wouldn' t even try. She would simply forget. Then no one could accuse her of wanting to be the Singer of all Songs, of being like Samis –

But she found she couldn' t banish the idea from her mind. Perhaps if she tried just one more time, to prove to herself that she couldn' t do it, then she' d never need to think about it again. She could tell Tonno to shut up, once and for all. . .

She turned and looked behind her. Everyone was in the camp, moving sluggishly if they had to move at all, staying close to the fires. No one was watching. Calwyn turned to face the flat plain of the Dish, and lifted her hand. She let the first low note of chantment, the base note, hum in her throat for a moment. Then, tentatively, she added the overnote, the harmony, and let it buzz on her lips and her tongue, just as Darrow had taught her.

A thin column of dust rose up at the tips of her fingers, and danced, swaying gently to and fro as she moved her hand. Calwyn cried out, and flung down her hand. A dry sob tore her throat: she had no moisture to spare for tears. Far above her head, the three full moons, the Lanterns of the Goddess, shone down, and bathed her face with silver light.

Keela unwound the delicate veil that shielded her face and hair, and shook it free of dust. Once she could have relied on her maidservant to spring forward and perform such a task, but since they' d left the Palace, her servants had grown steadily lazier and more insolent. She would remember that, when she was Empress.

Nor would she forget the treachery of Lord Haigen and his fellow generals. They had tossed her aside like a used handkerchief. Those idiot
men
had pronounced the Fifth Prince, her half-witted half-brother, as the new Emperor. Then they had announced their intention to march on Hathara, to subdue the sorcerers who had destroyed the Palace of Cobwebs, and seize the sorcerers' nest to take its place.

But Keela had come up with another plan. How surprised the Army would be to arrive at the Black Palace and find Keela already installed there with her followers, the nucleus of a new Imperial Court in place, and the sorcerers doing her bidding! The sorcerers were more powerful than the Army; far better to have
them
under her command than those thick-headed soldiers!

Hastily Keela had convened her faction among the ruins of the Palace of Cobwebs, and ordered them to accompany her at once to Hathara. But the lazy wretches were so slow in preparing for the journey, and had grumbled so loudly and so long at the lack of servants to help them, that she' d decided to set off before them, with just a few servants to accompany her.

Keela had only the vaguest idea of what she would do when she reached the sorcerers' nest, but she was supremely confident that she could make those sorcerers obey her. They were only men! Amagis had been an easy conquest. He' d told her that the sorcerers lived without women; they would be utterly defenceless before her charms. And as soon as the new Court was established, she would send word to Gellan, to tell her master it was time. Then there would be the joint coronation, Emperor and Empress, side by side –

Complacently, the princess patted her smooth blonde hair. Despite all the privations and discomforts of this journey, she had surprised herself by
almost
enjoying it. After all, the First Empress must be able to bear hardship as well as enjoy luxury.

The tall, dusty figure of Immel was returning at last, trudging alongside the curved wall.

‘Well?' Keela' s ice-blue gaze was as frosty as ever, even in the desert heat.

‘There is good news, Princess.' Immel' s bows grew lower every day, as though he were mocking her. ‘My clansfolk met a band of chanters some days past, travelling south, toward Hathara. There were children among them.'

Keela smiled. She had been right. It had been a plot of the sorcerers, working through that little
nadu
. No one else would have even noticed her. It takes one extraordinary woman to recognise another, she thought complacently, forgetting that it was Amagis who had first suspected Calwyn.

‘My clansfolk believe the chanters opened a way through the Dish' s lip.' Immel pointed to the towering wave of rock, which their straggling party had followed for two days now. ‘See here, my lady, where the fault lines run? The lines appear whenever the sorcerers come and go from Hathara, though they usually vanish again at once. But these lines have remained. The way still lies open.'

‘Then why are we standing about here, you dolt?' Impatiently Keela threw herself onto her
hegesu
, and urged it into a gallop, following the lines in the rock that pointed southward, to the doorway into Hathara.

It was several days before Calwyn and the others glimpsed the imposing cube of the Black Palace, squat and blind on its raised plateau, a dark speck against the unrelieved expanse of red. The
hegesi
were more excited by the scent of the
arbec
plants that fed the chanters' flocks.

‘Will the sorcerers see us?' asked Fenn.

Darrow shook his head. ‘They don' t expect guests. They keep no watch. They won' t know we' re among them until we are inside the Palace, and perhaps not even then.'

Still, Calwyn felt a sense of foreboding when they' d climbed onto the plateau and stood at last at the foot of the towering black monolith. She could see their reflections in the wall as clearly as a mirror. Tentatively she reached out a hand to the surface: it was as smooth as polished marble, and hot to touch. She sprang back, singing up a swift chantment to soothe her burnt hand.

‘I' m sorry,' said Darrow. ‘I should have warned you.'

‘It' s all right,' said Calwyn coolly, though her hand was red and smarting.

The rebels had their weapons at the ready, arrows to bowstrings, daggers drawn, spears poised. Heben stood with them, knife in hand, his whole body tense and strained. The children were nervous. Shada' s cheeks were flushed, and Haid waited with the
hegesi
, his eyes fixed apprehensively on the blank black wall. Tonno gripped his short fishing-knife. Mica was beside him, eyes shining, with a spear on her shoulder. Calwyn andVin stood by Halasaa' s litter. Slowly Darrow lifted his hands, and sang.

A doorway appeared in the shining wall. But this was no rough, jagged crack. It was a high, imposing gateway, framed with grooved pillars. Overhead, two immense stone ravens stretched their wings to form the top of the Sorcerers' Door. Their savage beaks were open, and their blind, pitiless eyes glared down at the intruders.

With a confident gesture, Fenn motioned the rebels inside. The others followed. Haid gave one of the
hegesi
a farewell pat on the rump as they left the animals to graze outside. Calwyn andVin went in last of all, behind Halasaa' s litter.

As she crossed the threshold, Calwyn shuddered. The air inside the Palace was dank and cold, but that was not the reason for her unease. She sensed a dark power in this place that wreathed in the shadows like a poisonous mist. She had the strongest feeling that if everyone stopped shuffling their feet, and murmuring, she would hear something, something important . . .But the feeling passed.

After the glare of the sunlight, it was impossible to see anything at first. His face closed and grim, Darrow led them through stark rooms and up wide stone staircases, dimly lit by lamps high on the walls. Calwyn thought that there could not have been a place more different from the Palace of Cobwebs, where every wall had been curved, every nook and alcove cunningly decorated, the overall effect light and frothy. This place was all straight lines and stark angles; it could not have been more simple, or more bleak.