Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (52 page)

In the Oblaka cave
system, Observer Soosha was sipping hot tea when he began to choke.
He leaped to his feet, shaking his scalded hand in the air and
trying to speak even as he spluttered. Finn Rah stared from her bed
but before she could say anything, the door flew open and Lyeto
burst in.

‘He’s got them! He is
some way west of Valoon, but he has them!’

‘Babach approaches!’
Soosha finally gasped out.

Sarryen sank back onto
the stool from which she’d half risen and stared at both men then
at the woman in the bed. Finn Rah’s eyes glittered with sudden
tears.

‘Volk?’ she asked
Lyeto. ‘Volk has really got them safe?’

Lyeto’s usually serious
face split into a huge smile. ‘We found them just now. They sort of
popped into view, as if they’d been shielding. Can the girl
shield?’

Finn grunted. ‘Light
knows what she’s capable of. She saw me remember, when I far sought
her, and that’s unheard of.’

She looked at Soosha
who was still standing, eyes unfocused. She bit her lip, loathe to
interrupt when he was clearly mind speaking someone. It was only a
moment though before he blinked and nodded.

‘Babach comes with a
companion. And Dragons bring them.’

‘Who comes with him –
Voron? Chakar?’ asked Sarryen.

Soosha shrugged.
‘Neither. A female from the Night Lands. Babach would not speak for
long. He is worried that the Dragons will be located if Cho Petak
does another seeking.’

‘The viewing ledge is
wide enough for two Plavets,’ Lyeto put in. ‘It will not be
difficult to enlarge it further – the back wall is part of the
common room.’

Finn Rah opened her
mouth then closed it without speaking. She could only pray that
Dragons were better mannered than those ghastly birds. Soosha
nodded approval of Lyeto’s suggestion and the young man left, the
door banging behind him.

Finn scowled. ‘I feel
so useless stuck in this bed,’ she muttered.

‘Well, it’s where
you’re staying – at least until the dust has cleared from Lyeto’s
attack on the wall.’ Sarryen replied tartly.

Finn remained silent
and the Kooshak knew how hard she was struggling to adjust to the
fact of how ill she now was.

‘We’ll take you there
as soon as we know Babach is near,’ she offered as some
comfort.

Finn managed a smile.
‘That would be good of you.’

Sarryen rose and
crossed to the bedside. ‘I will tell Melena to attend you Finn. I
am going to meet Volk.’

Finn lifted her thin
hands and let them drop again to the coverlet. ‘I can’t stop you,
and truth to tell, I think one of us should go, and clearly I
can’t. Light knows, Volk might already be pouring one of his brews
down their throats.’

Sarryen nodded and
smiled, although her heart ached to see the Offering brought so
low. Impulsively, she leaned to kiss Finn’s cheek, turning away
immediately towards the door.

‘Light send, I will be
no more than three days.’ She smiled over her shoulder at the
Offering. ‘And then you will see these mysterious
children.’

Sarryen wasted no time,
packing her travelling medicine sack while she instructed Melena
closely on the care of Finn Rah. She was tying her cloak when she
saw Melena’s expression.

‘Melena, you are more
than capable of nursing Finn for a few days. If you are worried,
call Arryol. She is much subdued, but should she get difficult, you
just get difficult right back at her. Don’t think of her as the
Offering Finn Rah but as an ordinary, stubborn, and very sick old
lady.’ She grinned at Melena’s dubious face. ‘Just keep her
supplied with books and any gossip you hear. The more scandalous
you can think of – or invent – the better she likes it!’

The Kooshak laughed
aloud now. ‘Oh Melena! It’s only for a few days. Now go along to
her and think of something really rude to say about
someone!’

And Sarryen was rushing
down the passage calling to Lyeto. Melena turned the other way,
towards Chakar’s sitting room now occupied by Offering Finn Rah.
Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, she opened the
door.

Lyeto sent a young
student running to bring Sarryen one of the few horses hidden along
the slopes of the hillside and by the time she’d spoken briefly to
Arryol, the horse was saddled for her. Lyeto had assured her that
the way was clear, at least around the outskirts of Oblaka town, so
she made good speed, trusting to Lyeto’s word.

She reached the lowest
slopes of the Gara that evening and, with clouds obscuring stars
and moon, she dared not risk laming the horse by travelling on. She
was on her way again before dawn, probing the area all around her
as she rode. It was midday and she’d stopped to let the horse drink
from a stream when she heard hoof beats and the rumble of a
familiar voice. Her pulse suddenly thundered in her throat and she
felt a nervousness she’d not experienced since her student days.
And she was only meeting Volk and two children for Light’s
sake!

Sarryen had regained
her usual composure when Volk’s bulky figure atop a horse came
through the trees.

‘Greetings Kooshak!’ he
called at once. ‘Young Mena said someone was just
ahead.’

Sarryen saw that Volk
carried one child across his horse’s withers but she only glanced
at him. Her eyes were drawn to the small figure riding the second
horse and leading the third animal. Hair so fair it was nearly
white, a triangular face – broad across the brow and tapering to a
small chin. But the large eyes held Sarryen transfixed: a blue so
dark it was almost purple, and fully silvered. And yet she was
clearly still a child, thin and small, maybe ten years old Sarryen
guessed.

While she’d been
staring, Volk had drawn level with her. Sarryen dragged her gaze
from the girl and looked up at Volk. He held out the blanket
wrapped boy.

‘Bad wrench to his
knee. I just left it be, didn’t want to do no extra hurt to it,’
Volk explained.

Sarryen took the child,
horrified at how little he weighed. She knelt, laying him on the
ground and pulling the blanket away from his face. Black eyes under
tangled black curls snapped up at her and the boy gave a hesitant
smile.

‘You a Kooshak
then?’

‘Yes I am,’ Sarryen
smiled back at him. ‘My name’s Sarryen – what’s yours?’

‘Tyen. And she’s
Mena.’

Tyen struggled to sit
up and Sarryen realised the girl had dismounted and was kneeling at
the boy’s shoulder.

‘Hello Mena,’ Sarryen
spoke as calmly as she could manage. She received an amazingly
beautiful smile which lit up the girl’s face.

‘Hello. Can you fix
Tyen’s leg?’

‘I can try. At least I
can make the pain less for the rest of the way to the Oblaka
anyway.’

It was late afternoon
the next day when Volk led them up the meandering trail to the
great boulder which marked the entrance to the caves. He dismounted
as two students came out to take the horses. He reached up to take
Tyen from Sarryen’s arms and she too dismounted. She looked down as
Mena tugged at her arm.

‘I will stay with Tyen
when you mend his leg, but first I have to see Finn
Rah.’

Sarryen opened her
mouth but Mena was already running into the caves. Students turned
and stared as a small, unusual looking child raced unerringly
through the labyrinthine passages to hurtle through Chakar’s
sitting room door. A strong smell of mint followed behind
her.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Pachela fled from the
High Speaker’s study and hurried to the covered gardens in search
of Speaker Lashek and the strange little man who apparently
travelled with the great Dragon Fenj. She ran down paved paths,
peering along side turnings until, with relief, she saw the two men
bent over a small propagation area. She gripped an arm of each as
she reached them.

‘Fenj will surely die
if he follows the plan he has made.’

Lashek frowned, his
brain racing. Lorak stared down at his grubby hands.

‘Old fellow misses that
wife of his,’ he said gruffly. ‘Thinks it’s time he went Beyond to
be with her again. If he can be of help to your people –‘ He
shrugged.

Pachela shook his arm,
forcing Lorak to look at her. Her grey silvered eyes saw the grief
Lorak could not hide. Lashek turned away, heading back to the
building. Pachela followed, tugging Lorak with her while Lula
flashed past on Lashek’s heels.

‘He said,’ Lorak
muttered, ‘that his old life was little to pay for all the people
in these Circles.’

‘Never!’ Pachela
hissed. ‘Each individual in the world, in the cosmos, is important
and valued.’

‘Well we won’t get back
to him in time to stop him. The waters were flooding across the
paths outside the tunnel from Talvo already.’ Lorak dragged Pachela
to a halt and stood puffing for breath. ‘And I can’t move so fast
no more.’

‘Come,’ Lashek called
impatiently, beckoning them on.

‘Lorak says the way may
be too flooded,’ Pachela told the Speaker as they caught up with
him.

‘Thryssa knows how to
move us without the circles – she must do so at once.’

Pachela’s face
registered her astonishment at this piece of information. Lashek
led them towards the stairs and found Thryssa and Kwanzi hurrying
down. Obviously Lashek had ignored the ban on mind speech and had
summoned Thryssa thus in the urgency of the moment. Lashek spoke
softly but fast, explaining what he wanted her to do. She listened
without interruption but Kwanzi could not keep silent.

‘Lashek, all is
disrupted about us. Mages work on the shield, we don’t begin to
understand the workings of the forces this Zloy is manipulating.
You could all be lost.’

Thryssa touched her
husband’s lips with a gentle finger. ‘My heart, we have little to
lose at this point.’ Briskly she called to a clerk struggling past
with a great box of scrolls. ‘Find First Councillor Pajar and send
him to me in the visitors’ sitting room with all speed.’

She led the way down a
corridor, round several corners, finally opening a door on her
right. Inside, she had the furniture moved back against the walls
and closed the shutters at the windows overlooking the fruit
gardens. Pajar arrived, breathless and with his flaming hair on
end. Lashek was explaining their intent to him while Thryssa
studied the room minutely, eyes half closed.

The floor was of
chequered slabs of black and green stone and Thryssa moved to stand
on the central black square.

‘I intend to take us to
a spot about two thirds of the way across Talvo.’ She smiled at
Pachela. ‘You will know the place. Once there, I will immediately
return Kwanzi and myself to this room.’ Her voice became bleak.
‘Events press so heavily – I must be here when Zloy communicates.
You must not attempt to return this way Lashek – I have not the
time to instruct you in this and a hasty lesson could spell
disaster.’

Lorak scooped Lula into
his arms and clutched her firmly to his chest. He readjusted his
abominable hat. ‘Ready when you are Lady.’

Thryssa moved to a
green square at the edge of the room and began to tread steadily in
a spiralling curve inwards, chanting softly as she walked. There
was a faint popping sound, and the room was empty.

Five people and a small
Kephi appeared in an open space in Talvo Circle and most of them
breathed a surreptitious sigh of relief. Thryssa looked up at the
sky.

‘How wonderful not to
be rained on again. But evening draws nigh. I must go back to the
Corvida at once. Stars guide your paths and guard your hearts my
dears.’

She quickly kissed each
of them and shooed them in the direction of Gremara’s favourite
ledge. They watched though, with some trepidation, as once more
Thryssa paced out the circling spiral, Kwanzi behind her. A gulp of
air, and they were gone.

Lula squirmed and
hissed until Lorak put her on the ground and then she bolted in the
direction Thryssa had indicated. Ignoring the others, Lorak stumped
after her.

‘I suspect Fenj planned
to attack Zloy, or at least cause a serious distraction, once night
has fallen,’ Lashek remarked, hurrying after Lorak. ‘We do not have
long to dissuade him.’

A gout of water shot
skywards to their left and as hot droplets landed on their faces,
Lashek and Pajar stared in amazement.

‘Fascinating!’ Lashek
murmured. ‘I wonder if the Silver One will permit us to study this
once our little problems are over?’

Pajar stared at the
Speaker in disbelief. ‘If, and when, they’re over you mean,’ he
retorted, and hurried after Pachela. ‘Come on Speaker, I think it
safer to stay together.’

‘I thought Jeela would
know we were here by now.’ Pachela sounded worried.

But even as she spoke
the ivory Dragon skimmed over her head then twisted to circle above
them.

‘How did you get here?’
she asked reproachfully. ‘You didn’t tell me you were coming, and I
didn’t see you – I was near the tunnel entrance, keeping watch on
the water.’