Dark Realm: Book 5 Circles of Light series (63 page)

They both looked up as
Farn shifted slightly. Lord Corman approached, almost hesitantly.
Tika passed a snoring Akomi to Konya and got to her feet. Khosa
trotted back towards Lerran’s room, her tail fluffed upright.
Corman halted. He seemed lost for words. Tika knew, from her quick
search of his thoughts, that he was not party to whatever Chindar
had planned.

‘How is the First
Daughter?’ She spoke first.

‘She is very near the
surface. It may still take some days for her to wake, but not the
seasons we had feared.’

‘And is she - ’ Tika
couldn’t bring herself to speak of Lerran’s altered appearance but
Corman understood.

‘There is improvement,’
he replied carefully, and Tika did not press him.

She moved away from the
Dragons a little, nearer to Lord Corman.

‘Who else would join
with Chindar? Was his comment about his “senior council” simply a
lie to make people think other Dark Ones supported him, when really
he was acting alone?’

‘I believe there are
others.’

‘And will you be able
to scent them out?’

Corman looked worried
now, his usual bland mask stripped away. ‘Those I trust will help
with that. Meanwhile Garrol and Favrian will increase the guards
immediately around the First Daughter.’

Tika turned to face
him. ‘You trusted Chindar I think.’

Corman sank into a
chair. ‘I have known him nearly two thousand years,’ he
whispered.

Tika put a hand on the
Dark Lord’s shoulder. ‘I felt something when he spoke. Not the
Crazed One, but I cannot be absolutely sure of that. But it wasn’t
wholly Chindar.’

‘You think Chindar
could have been touched by something from the Splintered Kingdom?’
Corman shook his head vigorously. ‘Chindar was in the half death.
While restricting our ability to actively participate in action
against the Crazed One, our condition confers some immunity from
his wiles.’

‘Then maybe Chindar saw
some advantage in joining with him, or appearing to do so? Perhaps
he thought himself so superior, the Crazed One would become his
tool rather than the other way about?’

They fell silent, both
deep in thought.

‘When I returned this
morning, you met me. You said you’d expected Chindar to be present,
but he was busy.’

Corman met her eyes.
‘With Coby,’ he agreed, rubbing his forehead. ‘I’ll go and see her
now.’

‘I’ll come with you,’
Tika said at once, and Sket was at her side in an
instant.

Corman strode through
the corridors, Tika and Sket almost trotting to keep pace. They
passed guards and Tika realised Garrol’s instructions were already
being implemented. When Corman halted at a plain, dark wood door,
he hesitated briefly before he rapped on it. They waited. Corman
rapped again. Tika extended her senses: the room was empty. Corman
had already turned the handle and pushed open the door.

Two lamps still burned,
high above the fireplace illuminating the chaos in the room. Chairs
overturned, papers scattered across the floor, books wrenched from
shelves and flung, to land broken spined upon the papers. Tika and
Sket stood on the threshold staring at the devastation within, but
Corman hurried through to the smaller rooms – Coby’s bedroom,
kitchen and bathing room. Tika followed when she heard his cry of
dismay. She and Sket found themselves in an equally tumbled bedroom
where Corman stood beside a long open window, staring down. He
turned a stricken fact to Tika.

‘I’ll send guards but
I’m sure she’s down there. It’s too dark for me to be
sure.’

Again Tika extended her
senses and found Coby’s body sprawled across rocks far below. She
leaned out over the broad sill. Coby’s room was on the eastern side
of the Palace, where the black stone walls buried their feet in the
rock of the higher shore. Tika intensified her focus, taking every
scrap of starlight to enhance her vision.

Coby lay on her back,
the sleeves of her gown ripped, her arms flung above her head. Tika
saw wounds on the woman’s arms, suggesting she had tried to defend
herself against blows to her body and head. Tika could see a wide
black line across Coby’s throat, deep enough to be the reason the
head fell back at too awkward an angle. Tika pushed herself back
into the bedroom then paused, leaning out once more.

‘What? What is it?’
Corman asked, catching her sudden tension.

Tika spun towards Sket.
‘Get the engineers. I’ll meet you down there.’

‘But what have you
seen?’ Corman hurried after the already running pair.

‘There’s a fragment
down there,’ Tika called back over her shoulder. ‘Same as I felt in
Kelshan.’

Corman stopped, staring
along the now empty passage. Oh Mother Dark have mercy, he thought
with desperation. He stretched his hand out to touch the stone of
the wall, grey blue, veined with black in this part of the Palace.
He spread his fingers, pressing as if he could penetrate the stone.
Corman closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on the back of his
hand. Dabray, if you can hear me, help us now. He straightened. Was
it his imagination, wishful thinking, or had the wall quivered
beneath his palm?

He swore and began to
run again. He wanted the whole section of the Palace which
contained the First Daughter’s rooms and the First Daughter
herself, ringed with guards. And the young woman, Tika, who’d gone
racing off with just her personal guard – he wanted men around her,
too. Corman skidded round a corner and crashed into Treska. Corman
explained the situation quickly and sent Treska running back
towards Lerran’s bed chamber while he continued to rush down the
stairs. Already he heard with relief booted feet marching through
the lower halls and orders being called, urgency in the
voices.

Tika, running beside
Sket, had mind spoken the Dragons, asking them to meet her on the
shore at a distance from the Palace walls. Hurrying along the
corridor leading to the exercise yards, they met the three
Kelshans, the engineers, Shea and Konya. They trotted behind Tika
and she told them what she suspected they might face. Bursting into
the open air, Tika slid to a stop. Sergeant Essa stood there, a
looming figure at the head of about forty guards. She
grinned.

‘Shield Master ordered
two squads to stay with you. Where are we going?’

Tika grinned back.
‘Down to the shore. Do you know a quicker way than through all the
gardens?’

Essa nodded and began
to stride ahead. Shivan joined them as they all followed Essa into
a narrow alley, wide enough only for single file. Tika lost all
sense of direction as the alley twisted and turned, but gradually
the salty tang in the air told her they were indeed nearing the
seashore. At last they came out onto broad slabs of black rock,
still well above the highest reach of the water. As they did so,
light burst out above them, and Tika realised someone had ordered
torches lit all along the line of lowest windows still far above
their heads. It gave some illumination to the ground below – well,
it was an improvement on just starlight at least, Tika
thought.

A Dragon called, and
Tika recognised Storm’s voice. She knew Brin and Kija were circling
at about the height of the Palace roof, while Farn landed with a
flurry of wings, ahead, where the rocks gave way to black sand.
Tika was aware of Essa’s voice, ordering her squads to move in a
semicircle, with Tika at the centre of that formation. She saw many
more guards moving towards them from the distant end of the
Karmazen Palace, some walking on the sand, some, more cautiously,
climbing over the rocks. Tika turned, knowing Shivan was close
behind her.

‘Focus your mind,’ she
told him. ‘Like this.’ She sent a picture of lights and threads
that were a pattern within her own brain, and he nodded, grasping
her meaning at once. ‘You look down here. I’ll go above, with
Farn.’

She ran, surefooted
over the tilted slabs, Sket at her heels, and climbed onto Farn’s
back. He was lifting into the air as Sket settled himself securely
behind Tika.

‘This is what we seek.’
Tika projected the strange, unformed blackness to all the Dragon
minds, and felt them move closer to her, and lower.

As Farn flew over the
heads of the guards, Tika called to Essa.

‘Guard Shivan as you
were ordered to guard me.’

Essa raised a hand in
salute and called to the squads under her command.

‘I feel it too.’ Farn’s
mind voice spoke to both Tika and Sket.

Sket had long been
accustomed to this method of communication; Farn and Tika widening
their minds to include his.

‘But where?’ Sket asked
aloud. ‘I can’t make out anything, except that poor
lady.’

Tika was crouched low,
staring over Farn’s shoulder. ‘It isn’t one,’ she said in alarm.
‘There are several of them now.’

At the same moment Kija
called to her mind. ‘They leave a trail – see!’

Tika readjusted her
vision to see what it was that Kija had observed and found silvery
grey trails leading in a spreading pattern from the place where
Coby’s body lay. She sent the picture on to Shivan’s mind and urged
Farn faster.

‘We are too close to
the walls,’ he remarked mildly.

Tika glanced up in time
to realise Farn’s left wing tip was indeed barely a handspan from
the Palace wall.

‘Can you go up higher,
and just keep us over the line of this wall?’

‘Of course.’ Farn
sounded indignant and shot, unnecessarily sharply, higher into the
air.

‘I think I’m used to
this flying business and then you have to make him do something
like that,’ Sket grumbled to Tika’s back.

She scarcely heard,
trying to concentrate on the mysterious trails she could see. They
seemed to flare briefly, vanish, and reappear several paces
distant, and it seemed impossible to predict which direction they
would take. Tika watched for long precious moments. Then she
cursed. The guards below were unwittingly driving the things
towards the Palace, and at the same time there was apparent
confusion – the silvery trails tangling and moving aimlessly. She
fixed on one faint track, ignoring those around it, and swore
again.

‘It’s got inside the
Palace somehow.’

She mind spoke Shivan.
‘Get everyone off these rocks and inside. Whatever these are, they
are in the Palace. I’ll ask the Dragons to fire this shore.
Move!’

Farn returned her to
the roof terrace and then flew to join in the fun of fire blasting
the beach. Tika dashed inside and faced Sword Master
Favrian.

‘Whatever these things
are, they are formless at the moment, Sword Master. And they have
gained entry somehow. Are there cellars or dungeons anywhere near
Lord Dabray’s cavern?’

Favrian frowned and
began to shake his head. Then his eyes widened. ‘Drain
outlets.’

He called to an officer
standing by the inner door and then, with Tika and Sket at his
heels, sped down the stairs.

‘It would be quicker to
use a gateway,’ he said as they ran.

‘But extraordinarily
unwise in these circumstances,’ Tika finished for him.

They passed guards in
the lower halls, all battle ready and watchful. Sket muttered about
the desirability of a building built all on one level and Tika,
despite their situation, gave an appreciative snort of laughter.
They swung towards the final steps leading to Dabray’s great
chamber and came face to face with ten guards.

Favrian called
something but Tika grabbed his arm, hauling him to a standstill. He
looked down at her in irritated query. Tika drew her sword. Favrian
stared at the sword then back at the guards. There were men and
women he recognised among them. At least, he corrected himself, he
recognised their faces. Their eyes were totally black, no longer
human.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Beyond the wall to
their left, they could hear and feel concussive thumps as the
engineers threw their poppers around to accompany the blasts of
Dragon fire. The stone shivered beneath their feet but they had no
time to concern themselves with such minor details. The ten guards
moved towards them. Sket came alongside Tika before Favrian could
move, and then the guards were upon them. They’d noticed at once
that these men walked awkwardly, as though unaccustomed to the
simple action. But they knew how to use their arms, and their
swords.

Tika found that her
words to Shivan had been the simple truth. The sword she’d been
given from the Dragons’ treasure cave knew its work, and somehow
her hand and arm obeyed its call. Her feet moved as light as a
dancer’s, her body swaying and adjusting to each parry and thrust.
Two guards went down in front of her and she faced a third. The
clash of metal on metal made her ears ring, but she could also hear
her own rapid breathing. The men she fought made no noise. They
gave no cry, or even grunt of pain when her sword half severed an
arm or a hand before she made the killing lunge.

In the panting quiet
she heard shouts coming from behind her but she didn’t dare risk a
glance back. She was hugely relieved to find one of her own
Kelshans charge past to her right: she had feared other Dark guards
had been infected by the swarming blackness which she sensed from
the guards she fought. Suddenly, there were no more guards in front
of her. Tika spun to see Sket, half bent over as he gasped for
breath. Even Lord Favrian seemed breathless although she herself
was now breathing normally. A Kelshan, Kazmat, was reaching to turn
a body over when she snapped an order at him.