Trial of Fire (7 page)

‘Against
us?
’ a voice rose from the crowd.

Andrew frowned a little, but pushed on, his voice growing stronger, his expression intense, as though he could read these people’s innermost thoughts and was speaking directly to them. As he spoke, his confidence grew, and so did theirs. ‘You’re all afraid, and with good reason. You’ve all had experience out there, been hunted yourselves, lost those you loved. It’s been a long time since you could leave the Enclave in safety, but …’

Finnlay held his breath, hearing the silence in the great cavern, almost hearing the heartbeats of the five hundred souls listening.

‘But out there, it’s not as bad as you think. There aren’t Guildesmen with Bresails behind every hill, waiting to capture and torture you. Sorcery is no longer illegal. If you take care, if you follow the plans, if you stick to your stories, you’ll get to safety, I promise. You don’t need to be afraid. We do have time to get away. Let’s make the most of it.’

Before he finished, Finnlay was there, his arm around the boy’s shoulder, supporting in a way he’d never dared before. He wanted to express his pride in his nephew, but the moment was gone. Martha stepped onto the platform, her calm methodical approach giving form to the work they had to do.

‘Very well, people. You all know what you need to be doing. Those heading south can take another day, but be careful; you’ve got more of the mountains to cross through. Those taking the heavy baggage west, meet me in the Council Chamber and we’ll set out the order of transport. Within the month, we all meet up again at Bleakstone Castle, in Flan’har. Let’s get moving. Now!’

And just like that, the tide shifted and turned; people shuffled off, then began to walk more purposefully as they realised how much they had to do and how little time they had.

‘Robert!’

Finnlay turned back to Jenn to find her still intent on his brother. He rushed to Robert’s side to see his chest rise and fall a little. Robert was finally breathing, shallow and sharp perhaps, but breathing nonetheless.

‘Jenn? How is he?’

She shook her head, eyes moist but focused. ‘He can’t mindspeak me, but I think Nash still has some link to him.’

‘What happened?’

Jenn was silent a moment, her eyes on Robert, her gaze turning inwards.
She frowned, drawing dark brows together. ‘I’m not sure. I felt him fly, completely connected to the Key, as though they were made for each other, but then … the barrier began to drop—’

‘How? Why?’

She looked up sharply. ‘I don’t know. Perhaps the Calyx needed the power, or— I don’t know. But Robert tried to stop it, tried to separate them, and that’s when … Serin’s blood, Robert, please wake up!’

‘Jenn, what happened? We need to know.’

‘He tried to stop it.’ Jenn shifted, gained a better grip on Robert’s hand. ‘And the Key did something, I couldn’t see what – and the next thing I knew, Nash had found him. He must have been Seeking at that moment … I wish I’d never …’

Finnlay reached out and squeezed her arm, keeping her focused. ‘Is that the problem? Is that why Robert can’t wake up?’

‘I don’t know!’ Jenn snapped, taking a deep breath. She looked up in apology, but he waved it away. ‘I can’t even work out what he’s doing. He’s stopped trying to separate the Key and Calyx at least. But it’s projecting in some way, and that’s how Nash can see him – us. I think he’s trying to break that connection, between the Key and Nash.’

‘What’s the point? If Nash already knows where we are?’

‘Oh, Finn! Are we going to leave the Key here? We’ll take it with us. If Robert can’t break the connection, then no matter where we go, Nash will follow, and with Robert in this condition, we will have no means to fight him. I don’t know what to do.’

As Andrew came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, Jenn leaned back into his strength for a moment, giving Finnlay time to think.

This had all begun because Robert had finally found the Calyx. It had been hidden in the shape of a book, but when Robert and Jenn had touched it together, the shape had shifted and changed, revealing the Calyx, bowl-shaped, glittering and ancient. He’d thought – they’d all thought – that the Calyx would give them answers, would show them how they could live outside the Enclave in peace. But it hadn’t had enough power to work for more than a few moments, so Jenn had said they should take it to the Key, because everything they knew suggested the two were supposed to work together.

But the moment Robert had approached with the Calyx, the Key had taken over, driving him forward until the two had joined, and tragedy had struck, bringing the wrath of Nash down on them all.

Finnlay knew what the answer was; he just wished he didn’t. He met Jenn’s gaze. ‘I think the only way to get it away from Robert is if you take it.’

‘He’d never let me.’

‘No. But you might be able to help him break the connection.’

‘How?’

‘By touching the Key. By going to wherever Robert is. He can’t do it on his own, can he?’

Jenn shook her head slowly, her gaze going back to Robert.

Finnlay pressed her. ‘Do you know what he’s trying to do?’

‘Make some kind of mask, as though he can recreate what the Key did to protect us. I don’t know that he can do it, and not in time. I just wish—’

‘You have to intervene, Jenn. There’s no other option.’

‘Mother.’ Andrew knelt beside her. ‘If the connection is with Nash, what if you can’t break it? What if you get trapped like Robert?’

Jenn didn’t seem to hear him. Her hand moved out, reaching to the glistening surface of the Key, held so close against Robert’s chest.

It never got there. Andrew snatched her hand away, pulling her around to face him. His voice was harsh and urgent, sounding much older than normal. ‘Mother! Listen to me! Robert said … he said he couldn’t trust you, because you were joined to the Key and he couldn’t trust it. He said you weren’t on the same side. What if … ?’

Jenn touched the side of his face gently. ‘I can’t leave him there. Finnlay’s right. Even if we know nothing about this, the one thing of which we can be certain is that everything here must be done by Robert and me. Please, love, move back.’

Andrew began to shake his head, but a hand appeared on his shoulder and Finnlay looked up. His mother, Lady Margaret, was urging Andrew to his feet, her face worried, her lips moving as if in prayer.

Finnlay looked around. They were almost alone now, but he could hear noise coming from all directions as people began the awesome task of evacuating a home the Salti had had for almost six hundred years.

‘Finn,’ Jenn whispered, dragging his gaze back to hers. ‘If this doesn’t work—’

‘It will.’ He said with a finality he dredged up from somewhere. ‘It has to.’

She nodded slightly, her eyes fathomless. ‘I’ll make sure it does.’ With that, she closed her eyes, reached out and touched the Key.

*

Cold instantly filtered through her fingertips, along the palm of her hand and swept up her arm to fill her from head to toe. In a moment, she was frozen, barren, solid and immobile.

She could see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing. No, not nothing. There was something there, in the whiteness. A half-familiar rhythm,
pounding in the background, softly. A heartbeat? But whose was it – Robert’s, or hers?

Was he here? Of course, that required an answer to where
here
was, and she didn’t have one. Over the last eight years, since she’d become Jaibir of the Enclave, since she’d been chosen by the Key and joined to it, she’d spent hours with it, talking, constantly linked to it, always feeling it in the corner of her mind. Not once in all that time had she ever been truly alone, and the Key never let her forget that. So why couldn’t she feel it now? Why, when she was actually touching the Key for the first time ever, was there no sense of that connection? Had Nash done this, or the Calyx? Or was Robert—

Can you hear me? Robert? Can you answer me?
She sent the query out gently. There was no way to guess how much Nash could use the connection, and they were already in enough trouble as it was.
Robert?

There was no response, but an overwhelming feeling of his presence, as though he was there, but couldn’t talk yet.

Robert, let me help. I know the Key, I understand how it works. We’re joined. It’s supposed to respond to me. If you let me, I know I can help. But you have to let me. I know you’re trying to block Nash’s access, but in doing so, you’re blocking my connection to the Key and I think we need that now. Robert? Please, Robert, I need an answer. I need to know you’re—

J … Jenn?

The word came out with so much effort, Jenn instantly felt guilty for forcing it from him. If he’d been using his voice, he would have sounded as frozen as she, as though the cold were making him stutter. But it was more than that. It was the effort he was making, the power it was taking from him to do this small thing.

J … Jenn
. He tried again and this time she could feel him closer, as though he were standing just behind her. She opened her eyes and tried to See, but the white affected everything, pulling mist over shapes so thick they became invisible. Except … There! A shadow, something she could focus on. It shifted and fluttered, lifted and sank, the surface rippling constantly, as though it were alive.

She knew what she was looking at, though how, she couldn’t guess. This was how Robert was protecting them, why Nash was no longer talking to them. Somehow he’d used raw power to form a tight mask around the aura of the Key/Calyx, so that whatever connection it had to
anything
was utterly blocked. And the effort to keep it going was killing him.

Robert
, she began quickly, seeing and Seeing what needed to be done,
you can’t do it this way. I know it’s your first instinct, to use your own powers to shield and protect everyone, but this won’t last long, and you’ll be dead at the end of it.

No choice. Can’t … stop.

No, but we can find an alternative together.

Alternative? How?

Remember how every Salti uses their powers through an
ayarn?
They use it to focus and shield? The
ayarn
prevents a power backlash but also provides just enough power to do the work, without draining the user?

Yes
. In his tone, she could tell he was already understanding what she wanted to try. Good.

If you can relinquish control just a little, to let me in, I think I can use the Key the same way.

But you never used an
ayarn.

No, but you can show me what to do, how to make one.

Can’t make the Key …
ayarn.
Not possible.

Then how?

Silence for a moment as he thought, and in that silence she could hear his heartbeat falter a little, feel the thickness of the fog grow more dense. They had no time left.

Robert …

Can do it … won’t last, but it will work.

How long will it last?

Perhaps a few days? After that—

We’ll worry about that later. What do I do?

There was a long pause, then finally he spoke again, and the tone in his silent voice was full of regret.
This is going … to hurt.

*

Finnlay knew he needed to get moving, to help Fiona and the girls, to start packing up all the books and papers he’d been working on over the last … by the gods, how long had he been living here? Sixteen years? A lifetime! He’d been married, had three daughters, lost many friends, fought in a war and known the depths of despair and heights of happiness in that time. And now he was packing up his life here and leaving. He’d always wanted to leave the confines of the Enclave, but he’d had in mind to take his children and his wife back home to Dunlorn, where they could enjoy the comforts and privileges of the noble House to which they belonged. He’d planned to take them on a scenic tour of his beautiful Lusara and show them all the places he’d loved as a boy. Instead, they were running from an evil he had seen with his own eyes, an evil which had nearly destroyed him. There would be no triumphant return to Dunlorn, no life spent in freedom. If they made it to Bleakstone alive, they would be very lucky indeed.

He got to his feet, stretching out cramped muscles. Now the initial shock
had worn off a little, he could begin to think, remember what he’d noted down, what steps he needed to take in the event they needed to evacuate. Family first, then library, school and …

Jenn moved. She was kneeling beside Robert, holding his hand, her other hand on the Key. She began to sway, her face pale, a line of sweat on her forehead. Robert looked like a ghost. His strong face was white, his skin as translucent as the wings of a moth. His dark hair clung to the sweat on his forehead. The rest of him, so powerful, so commanding, lay prone and unmoving; struck down by a power they’d all feared for a long time. He lay on the stone platform beside Jenn, barely breathing, the Key/Calyx clasped to his chest as though it would become part of him.

Suddenly, Robert hissed and Jenn frowned. Jenn let out a moan, in pain. Finnlay sank to his knees once more, but before he could say anything, the air around them began to shimmer, trembling like new leaves on a windy day, glittered with silver and frost. The shimmering spread out directly from the Key, in a spherical shape, moving faster and faster, further and further until, with an audible snap, it vanished.

‘By the gods!’ Jenn breathed, opening her eyes. Instantly, she moved down to Robert, but he was looking up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly, breathing harshly.

‘Help me.’

The words were barely out of his mouth before Finnlay was there, Andrew and Margaret with him. While Robert clutched the Key/Calyx to his chest, they helped him to his feet. He swayed, closing his eyes, breathing hard through his nose, as though he was about to be sick.

Jenn stood before him, her fingers lightly on his arm, her gaze fixed on his face, but it was to Andrew she spoke. ‘Go fetch a chair, or a small table or something. And a cushion or blanket. Something soft.’