Riding the Serpent's Back (74 page)

He looked up and saw that the housekeeper was watching him closely.

“Eh?” said Leeth. “What is it then?”

The housekeeper smiled. “I’m sorry, master. I had not expected you to return so rapidly. I had understood that you were on your way to Laisan to put an end to your mad obsession with that woman.”

As he spoke the housekeeper’s voice took on a sharper tone, and Leeth was surprised that he should be spoken to in such a way. He looked into the man’s eyes and knew that his disguise had been penetrated. It had been inevitable.

And then the meaning of the man’s words seeped through: to Laisan to put an end to your mad obsession with that woman.

Following the housekeeper’s sideways glance, he looked at the shapes in the lava pool: a figure, standing alone on some kind of terrace at the mouth of a cave. Lai’s Cave on the inner slope of Laisan’s main island, he realised.

He peered at the figure. It was a woman. She kept looking about, pacing nervously as if she was waiting for someone.

His mother, Cora.

He looked up at the housekeeper, aware that his own shape was starting to flow away from his old man guise. The housekeeper was still smiling cruelly.

“What do you mean, ‘end your obsession’?”

The housekeeper arched his eyebrows, mocking Leeth’s mimicry. “What do you think?” he said.

Leeth hauled himself out of the wheelchair and ran through the dark tunnels of Donn’s home, suddenly aware of how hot the air had become. His body hurt from the shock of shifting and he felt sick, but he didn’t dare slow his pace.

He came to the exit and saw that the housekeeper had somehow reached it before him and was now running away along the causeway.

Leeth’s horse was pulling at its rope. He mounted it and soon he was past the housekeeper, heading for the mainland.

The gatekeeper was waiting at the far end of the causeway, the barrier still raised. As Leeth galloped past him, he bowed with a flourish.

They had not been fooled at all, Leeth realised. This was all just another game, another delay.

He rode hard up the track. He had to get to Laisan. From what Donn’s attendants had said, the mage could not have much of a lead.

Suddenly, the sound of a loud explosion came from behind.

Leeth twisted in his saddle and stared in horror as the top of the volcano shattered and a great plume of ash and debris was hurled high into the air.

The ground was shaking violently, now, and it was all Leeth could do to keep control of his mount.

He stared back at the volcano, hurling debris up at the sky in a steadily growing black column.

He had been inside that mountain only minutes ago.

He twitched at the reins but the horse needed no urging. At a mad gallop they charged away into the mountains of the Rim. Minutes later, a rain of ash and pumice fragments began to fall around them and soon the landscape looked as if it had been covered by a fall of grey snow.

Leeth pulled a scarf tight across his face and rode on.

He had to get to Laisan. The housekeeper’s words and then the destruction of Donn’s home had a touch of finality about them that Leeth couldn’t bear to dwell on.

~

Laisan seemed somehow older and shabbier than he remembered, made worse by the wind and rain and the greyness of the sky. Garbage was piled in the streets and blowing in wet drifts against the buildings. Jagged cracks cut across walls and streets alike. Straggling buddleia and fireweed exploited every roothold, like some leafy invading army. Even the people struck Leeth as glum and apathetic.

It was his state of mind, he was sure.

He had set out across the lake at dawn on a boat from Mortensport, cursing the lethargic pace of the journey. Riding Sky, he would have crossed to Laisan in less than an hour, yet by boat it took until mid-afternoon.

Now, he set off up the steep streets of his home city.

Soon, he found that he had broken into a run, barging through the resentful crowds, leaving a trail of complaining voices in his wake.

Dropping down the inner slope of Laisan at a sprint, he arrived in his home street, charged up to the door of his parents’ house and threw it open.

There was nobody there, only a few Charmed sculptures twisting and turning on their bases.

He rushed back outside, just as his cousin Ellen approached the house. Her face was pale, her eyes black-rimmed from crying. “Leeth,” she cried. “Oh, Leeth!”

She ran at him and threw her arms around his neck.

“Ellen,” he said, stroking her hair. “Ellen. It’s okay. What’s the matter?”

She peered up at him, then quickly looked away.

“I’m sorry, Leeth. I had no idea what Votary Piet would do.” She started to gulp back her tears. “I didn’t
know
.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ellen.” He started to disentangle her arms from around his neck. “I’m sorry – I really am – but we’ll have to talk later, okay? I need to find Cora. Where is she? I must find her.”

Ellen shook her head. “I...she went out early this morning. She seemed bothered. She’s been worshipping a lot—”

“Ten Thousand?”

“No. Not any more. She goes to Lai’s Cave.”

Of
course
. He should have trusted what he had seen in the lava pool!

“Thank you, Ellen.” He squeezed her hands, then turned and ran out of the house.

~

She was there.

He could see her in the distance, standing alone on the terrace, pacing about just as he had seen her in Donn’s lava pool. She had the collar of her coat turned up against the rain, but she was clearly recognisable.

He was in time!

He hurried along a path which wound down towards the terrace, his eyes fixed on the small figure of his mother. She looked so vulnerable and exposed. He had to warn her that Donn was on his way. He had to warn her that she was not safe with the old mage.

The path twisted through a thicket of rhododendrons and she was momentarily lost from sight.

When he emerged he saw that his mother was not alone. “No!” he cried, but he was still too far away.

He stared down at the terrace in dismay as the two figures closed together.

The stranger was a woman. Tall, in a cloak and riding breeches, dark hair with a single streak of grey, all tied back away from her face.

It was Oriole.

He had never seen Lachlan’s mage before, but there could be no mistaking such a striking figure.

Was the build-up of armies in the Heartlands just a distraction? Was the real battle between Oriole and Donn going to take place in Laisan? He started to run. He had to protect Cora.

Then he stopped and stared.

His mother had turned to meet Oriole, and now the two were running towards each other, their arms spread wide. In an instant, they were in each other’s arms, their faces grinding together in a passionate lovers’ kiss.

“
No
.” The sound barely escaped his mouth.

There was to be no battle between Oriole and Donn, because they were but two shifted guises of the same mage.

Donn had been behind everything, orchestrating it all. He had mothered Lachlan and no doubt driven the wedge between Chi and his son. He had trapped poor Joel, and Red. He had helped Lachlan recover the lost plans of Samhab. He was behind it all.

He stopped the rush of his thoughts. His mother was leading Donn-Oriole into the mouth of Lai’s Cave. He had to catch them and protect her. There was no knowing what Donn would do to her: to – as the mage’s housekeeper had said – end his obsession with ‘that woman’.

He ran after them, but by the time he emerged onto the terrace they had disappeared.

He entered the dark mouth of the cave.

It branched into two immediately. He tried to listen for their sounds but there were none. Then he looked down and saw a trail of footprints: their feet had been wet from the rain outside.

He followed them along the left fork. Soon it was completely dark. This was the least used part of the cave: most worshippers followed the other branch to where it opened out into a cavern larger than any building in Laisan. That branch was lit with torches, but not this one.

Leeth stumbled on, wishing he had taken a candle from the rack at the entrance.

After a time he heard the sound of voices from ahead. Then he saw the dim glow of a candle.

He was catching up with them.

Suddenly, he saw them ahead: two dark figures, lit by a candle they had put on the ground by their side.

They stepped together and embraced, then turned towards a dark gash in the wall.

“Mother!” cried Leeth, starting to run again. “Cora!”

They turned, and then his mother called back, “No, Leeth. No.”

His foot struck a ridge of rock and he fell forwards, hitting his head on the ground.

Stunned, he rolled over and forced himself to his hands and knees. He was just in time to see his mother slip into the dark cavity in the cavern’s wall. She reached a hand back and Donn hesitated, staring into the darkness.

“Why?” gasped Leeth.

Donn looked back at him, arched an eyebrow. “Are you worthy?” she said. “Are
any
of you worthy?” Then she took Cora’s hand and stepped through the narrow opening.

Leeth stood and took a step forward, then an almighty rumble shook the cave. He staggered against a wall, then rushed forward.

When he reached the point where his parents had been he stopped and stared.

The gash in the wall had closed up. All that remained was a jagged crack, about the width of a finger.

He reached out and touched it, then snatched his hand back, shocked at how hot the rock had been to his touch. As he watched, a deep red ooze seeped out along the length of the crack, sealing it up forever.

He stumbled back, his head reeling. Then he seized the candle his mother had left behind for him and headed out of the cave.

~

A distraught Ibby led him in to his father’s office at the family house.

Leeth stood in the doorway and looked at the dejected figure of Gudrun, seated at his desk, turning a Charmed mask of Cora over and over in his hands. He looked up and nodded. “She left it for me,” he said. “She thought it would help.”

“You know what I’ve come to tell you.”

Gudrun nodded.

“I saw it all,” said Leeth.

“I’m sorry.” Gudrun put the mask aside and tipped back in his chair. “I’ve just got here. If I’d known you were in Laisan I would have prevented you from going.”

“Why? What has been happening?”

“Your mother was very special, Leeth. She was the sixth greats grandchild of Lai. She was different from the rest of us. Donn saw that. They were two of a kind. Forget all this True Families pedantry people peddle nowadays: Donn and Cora really
were
the true descendants of the first families. They were a race apart.”

“How long have you known?”

“Since the beginning,” said Gudrun. “I always knew Cora was special. I treasured every tiny measure of the love she gave me, even though I knew she was never truly my own. I knew about her love for Donn. I blocked out a large part of her life. I learnt to distance myself: from Cora, from the uncaring world, from everything. For most of my life I have had to lock away the part of me that is capable of love, because that is also the seat of jealousy.”

Gudrun had always been guarded with his affections. As a boy, Leeth had hated him for it, but now he felt pity and a great, heavy sadness. “It’s all over now,” he said.

Gudrun nodded. “Cora was aware of Donn’s machinations, the way he was manipulating events in the Rift. She called him here to stop him. He could never refuse her, you know. Not his special one. Now they have given themselves to renew the Charmed Pact of Laisan.” He gestured towards the window. “You must have seen how things had deteriorated so quickly. She feared our volcano would reawaken any day.”

Leeth’s mind was racing. In so short a time he had witnessed the suicide pact of his two parents, and now he was seeing that Gudrun was not the man he had thought he knew.

“I have to go,” he said. “I must return to Chichéne Pas and tell him what has happened. He must be told that Donn is no longer dictating the course of events.”

Gudrun nodded. “And you can tell him that the city of Laisan supports him fully,” he said. “We are not a great military power, but our navy controls a significant proportion of trade between the Rift and the Rim.”

Leeth was surprised. Laisan had always been a neutral power in the conflicts of the past.

“Since you were last here a conspiracy was uncovered: an attempt by agents of the Embodiment to infiltrate and control the Senate. Some of Ellen’s friends were even involved—” Leeth recalled her tears earlier “—but it is all under control now.”

Leeth backed away. Now that the thought had occurred to him, he realised the urgency of his mission. He had to get back to Chi. What had happened here would affect everything.

He looked up and caught Gudrun studying him wistfully.

He wanted to run to him and embrace him, as he had rarely been allowed to do as a boy. But he couldn’t. He nodded, and said, “I’ll be back, father.”

Gudrun looked away, responses blocked by long years of conditioning. “Good,” he said. “That will be good.”

Then Leeth turned and hurried away.

The journey across the Heartlands seemed as if it would never end. Every so often, the train slowed to a halt and they would be forced to sit in the growing heat until the journey could resume.

“Rebs,” said the soldier who had offered Monahl a drink earlier. He bared his blackened teeth. “They barricade the track. We might be stuck in this carriage for days if they’ve blown the rails again. Fancy that, darling?”

Monahl looked away. They would get through, all right. She knew that, but she didn’t try to explain to the soldier.

She stared out of the window as the train lurched into motion once again. Bare, ruddy hills, scattered with cacti and brush, the occasional muddy hollow where fat round birds and delicate waders gathered to drink and feed. They could be anywhere in the Heartlands, she realised: it all looked so similar.