Grim Company 02 - Sword Of The North (54 page)

It is the lesser evil
, Thanates had said. It seemed to Cole there was no ‘lesser’ evil – just evil. He was tired of people trying to justify their dark deeds to him.

There was a flutter of wings overhead and Cole glanced up to see the black shape of a crow winging its way towards the palace.

‘Thanates,’ he muttered.

‘He’s going to confront the Mistress,’ Derkin said. ‘To seek his revenge.’

‘Revenge,’ Cole echoed. The word tasted sour in his mouth.

‘I’m heading back to the harbour. I need to check my ma is okay. We’re going to cross the channel and try our luck in Dorminia.’

‘I’m going with you.’

Derkin looked at him in surprise. ‘But this is your chance. Your opportunity to get back at the White Lady for what she did to you.’

Cole stared at his palms. He thought of Thanates and the woman he had once loved and the tragedy of what had befallen them. ‘I’m tired of violence, Derkin. There are more important things than pursuing a grudge. Sasha’s waiting for me.’

Derkin grinned at him. ‘Come on then,’ he said, his big eyes bright with enthusiasm. ‘Let’s get you home.’

Together they set off west towards the docks. They’d only gone a short distance when they ran into an unexpected face. Sitting on the soaking wet ground cradling the body of a cat was a huge bear of a man, his sobs audible even above the sounds of the storm. The animal he held in his arms was blackened and charred, as if it had been caught in a fire.

‘Ed?’ Cole said incredulously.

The big simpleton turned to stare at him. ‘Ghost!’ he squealed. Cole could see the thick bandages covering his chest, splotches of pink bright against the sodden dressing.

‘You should be resting back on the ship. You almost
died
, Ed.’

Dull Ed shrugged his massive shoulders and wiped at the snot hanging from his nose with the back of one hand. ‘I heard people yelling. I thought someone might need help.’

‘What are you doing with that thing? It’s dead.’

‘Smokes did it!’ Ed rumbled, his voice angry. ‘I found him hurting the kittens and I chased him off… but mummy cat was already dead. He burned her.’

‘Where are the kittens?’

‘I hid them somewhere safe. Somewhere dry and warm.’ Ed’s expression became one of childish hope. He held out the remains of the cat. ‘You can bring her back, can’t you? Make her move like you did the dead people.’

‘It doesn’t work like that, Ed. I can command the shamblers from the Blight, but I can’t raise dead bodies. And I can’t return anything to life.’

‘Oh.’ So crestfallen was Ed’s face that Cole couldn’t help but feel guilty. Before he could do or say anything to cheer the big man up, a flash of silver fire lit the skyline near the palace and the city streets suddenly trembled.

‘That wasn’t thunder,’ Derkin said slowly.

‘Ed, we need to go,’ Cole said hurriedly. ‘The city isn’t safe. Put that thing— er, mummy cat down. You can’t help her now.’

‘What about the kittens?’ Ed asked.

Cole sighed and blinked rain out of his eyes. ‘You said they’re somewhere warm and safe. Kittens hate the rain and they’re scared of loud noises. They’ll be happier inside until this storm stops. We can come back for them later.’

Ed’s heavy brow creased. ‘You promise?’

‘I promise.’

Dull Ed placed the dead cat carefully down on the ground and stood up. Another flash of silver lit the sky, and this time it was met with an answering burst of black fire. Cole glanced in the direction of the palace and swallowed nervously.‘Time to go,’ he said.

Sasha opened her eyes. Somehow she was still alive. She was on the floor, Ambryl groaning beside her. Screams floated above the roaring in her ears. She blinked twice and saw that she was surrounded by rubble. Thick dust still sprinkled down from the damaged ceiling above. The southern wall of the throne room had been reduced to a smoking ruin; the golden doors were a mangled heap nearby, bent almost beyond recognition.

Standing in the blasted remnants of the doorway was a man. A tall, severe-looking man wearing a tattered black coat and a red cloth around his face. Black fire danced across his body and Sasha knew straight away that he was a wizard. A wizard, or some kind of demon stepped right out of hell.

‘Beloved,’ he boomed, giving voice to a fury that made her earlier anger seem like a child’s tantrum. ‘I have returned for you.’

Sasha scrabbled to her feet, cutting her palms on the broken glass strewn across the floor. The great window above the dais had shattered and rain streamed through the opening to fall around the target of the wizard’s wrath.

The White Lady seemed unharmed by the magical assault that had just levelled half the chamber. Even so, her voice was thick with disbelief. ‘Thanates,’ she whispered. ‘You were dead.’

‘Dead?’ The newcomer laughed bitterly, a sound uncannily like that of a crow’s croaking cry. ‘A wizard of Dalashra cannot be so easily killed – and I was a king among wizards. You underestimated me, Alassa.’

‘How do you remember my name? I took it from you! I erased our names from the world! Stripped them from the memory of every living thing!’

‘Yes,’ the wizard agreed. ‘And that spell near broke your mind as it did my own. But you left the truth in the Hall of Annals. You wanted it preserved somewhere, a reminder of the love we once shared.’

‘Lies!’ the White Lady shrieked. ‘You lie! I’ve never loved any man!‘

‘You loved me enough to carry my child!’ Thanates roared in answer. He managed to compose himself, and when he continued a deep melancholy filled his voice. ‘We could have averted war between the Congregation and the Alliance. We could have stopped the tragedy that followed. But you tore Sanctuary apart in your fury, slew every priest and priestess within its walls. And when I attempted to restrain you, you turned on me.’

A long moment of silence met his words. ‘The Mother betrayed me,’ the White Lady said eventually, her voice heavy with unexpected grief. ‘I was her mortal representative, yet she rewarded my devotion by taking the one thing I could never accept. As I watched her die, I asked why. Why of all women she would take
my
baby in childbirth? Do you know what her answer was? “The Pattern wills what the Pattern wills.” But we broke the Pattern, and therein we revealed the truth of her lie.’

‘Foolish woman!’ Thanates spat back. ‘The Alliance broke the Pattern to reach the heavens and in doing so you brought upon us all this Age of Ruin!’ The wizard took a step forward and the black fire wreathing his coat flared again. ‘For what you did to me – for the fate to which you have doomed this world – I will have my revenge
.
’

The White Lady’s perfect features twisted into an ugly sneer. She gestured and the Unborn gathered around the dais suddenly surged towards the wizard. He raised a hand as they converged on him. Black fire burst from his fingertips and somehow, despite his apparent blindness, his aim proved unerring.

Where the black fire touched the pale women they ceased to exist. Body parts disintegrated. Entire torsos suddenly disappeared, causing newly detached limbs to wheel wildly away in explosions of pale white flesh and dark, rotten innards.

The last of the Unborn was almost within touching distance of Thanates when her head simply vanished. Her flailing body sprayed black blood all over the marble floor before collapsing. The smell of the grave filled the air and even with her
hashka
-ruined nose Sasha couldn’t stop herself gagging from the overpowering stench. Over by the benches the Consult were doing the same.

Thanates, however, was indifferent to the sickening odour. The wizard raised his arms and seemed to brace himself. ‘I have waited five hundred years for this moment,’ he growled. ‘I shall not be denied now.’ He screamed a word, and hurled a raging torrent of black fire towards the White Lady.

An answering stream of silver fire shot out to intercept it. For a few tense seconds the two opposing beams roared into each other, monumental manifestations of magical force struggling for supremacy. Then the silver fire began to inch forward, eating up the black fire, gaining momentum. Thanates’ face dripped with sweat, while in contrast the White Lady appeared unflustered. ‘I remember now why I had you tortured,’ she said coolly, having recovered her earlier poise. ‘Your arrogance grew insufferable. If you understood what it meant to storm the heavens and succeed, you would never have presumed you could defeat me. Not if you had siphoned all the raw magic in the Trine.’

As if freed from invisible shackles the silver fire surged forward and struck the wizard, hurling him back through the gap vacated by the shattered doors. He disappeared from sight, his final cry of outrage echoing through the chamber.

The White Lady lowered her arms and the silver stream vanished. Her eyes flicked to Sasha, who recoiled in fear – but it seemed Thelassa’s ruler still had other matters to demand her attention. Her lips forming a grim line, the Magelord stepped down from the dais and exited the chamber.

As soon as their mistress had left, the Consult began peeking out from behind the benches where they’d been hiding. Chaos broke loose as men and women fled the throne room.

‘Follow me,’ said a familiar voice behind her. Sasha turned to find Ambryl staring at her, her expression unreadable. Without another word her sister sped off towards a door at the rear of the chamber. Sasha followed, stepping around chunks of rubble and over the severed limbs of the Unborn. She skirted the dais, which was wet and slippery from the rainwater pouring in from above.

Ambryl led her through a maze of winding, narrow corridors that seemed to connect to every room in the palace. Other members of the Consult raced to and fro, a few giving Sasha dark looks as they passed by. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked once they finally emerged into the biting rain somewhere west of the palace.

‘To the docks,’ Ambryl replied acidly. ‘I can only hope we find a captain foolish enough to cross the channel in this storm.’ Despite her obvious fury her sister’s words came as a welcome relief to Sasha.

‘Thank you. We’ll be much happier back in Dorminia, you’ll see.’

‘
We?
I’m going nowhere.’

Sasha blinked rain from her eyes and stared at Ambryl in shock. ‘You’re not?’

‘No. After today, you are on your own.’

‘But you’re my sister. We stick together no matter what. That’s what you said.’

Ambryl’s mouth twisted. ‘I have no sister. You are a selfish, impulsive fool. A junkie and a harlot, beyond help or good reason. I will see you safely away from here, for the memory of our parents if nothing else. After that, we’re done.’

‘Ambryl—’

‘Shut up. You’ve been nothing but a disappointment to me. I should have turned the other cheek back in Dorminia. I should have let the rapist have you.’

Sasha’s mouth gaped open. She felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Of all the things her sister could have said to wound her, that –
that
was the most devastating. Tears filled her eyes, but her sister merely turned away. Turned her back on her and set off again without a backward glance.

They hurried through the streets, neither saying a word as they passed men, women and children scattering in all directions. Every so often an explosion would rock the city and bright lights would flash somewhere to the east, an ominous warning that hinted the battling wizards were not yet done with each other.

As on the night Salazar had died, looters had taken to the streets. Sasha witnessed doors being kicked in and homes robbed. One man was trying to set fire to a house with little obvious success. She thought she saw an exceptionally dishevelled figure crouching down and gnawing on a body, but that might have just been a trick of the
hashka
clouding her brain.

They were hurrying down a side street when she slipped and fell. She reached down and probed her ankle, felt the swelling and knew immediately that it was fractured. She tried to rise, but even with the deadening effects of the moon dust the pain when she attempted to put her weight on the ankle was intense. ‘It hurts,’ she gasped at her sister. Ambryl was frowning down at her, as if she were a wounded animal that it might be kinder simply to put out of its misery.

‘I should leave you here,’ her sister said quietly. ‘The Mistress will not forget what you did. If I am found to have helped you, everything I have dreamed of will be in ruins.’

Sasha looked up at Ambryl. ‘Go then!’ she said angrily. ‘Leave me. I’m sorry I couldn’t be who you wanted me to be. I should have died that night. The truth… the truth is I’m broken.’

Ambryl’s eyes narrowed. She reached down, grabbed Sasha by her hair and pulled her roughly up despite her protests. ‘Don’t you ever say that,’ she spat. ‘You say that again and I’ll kill you. Now put your arm around my shoulders and don’t let go.’

Sasha did as her sister ordered and together the two of them continued west towards the harbour, moving as best they could with Sasha’s injury. They hadn’t gone far when a blinding flash lit up the streets and a howl of rage tore through the air. Sasha looked up and her breath caught in her throat. She felt Ambryl’s fingernails dig into her arm as she too saw what was happening above them. The sisters stumbled to a halt and stared at the devastating contest playing out in the skies above Thelassa.

The White Lady and Thanates were circling each other hundreds of feet above the city. As Sasha watched, dumbstruck, the Magelord of Thelassa hurled a javelin of silver fire at her former lover. Thanates dodged to avoid it and the deadly projectile soared away into sky. Undaunted, the wizard tilted his head back and twin jets of fire exploded from his hands, propelling him up into the black clouds above. He disappeared from sight. The world seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.

Thanates reappeared directly above the White Lady, plummeting straight down. He collided with the Magelord and wrapped his arms around her body and the two of them dropped from the sky like stones, locked in a deathly embrace. Down and down they fell, twisting and turning, until eventually they vanished behind one of the great marble spires.