Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (23 page)

Sheoma groaned. ‘I have
a class to tutor this morning. I fear I may not be as brilliant as
usual.’ She stooped to kiss Taseen’s cheek. ‘Sleep for a while old
man, you’ll be worse than useless if you exhaust yourself too
soon.’

While Sheoma spoke to
Taseen, Tavri had moved close to Gan. ‘Guard him well for me. He is
as precious as the Elders to me.’

Gan nodded, recognising
the same protective love in Tavri’s eyes that he’d seen so often in
Sket’s.

‘We should all get some
sleep,’ Maressa said through a yawn.

She fetched quilts and
pillows from one of the bedrooms and offered them to
Taseen.

‘Thank you my dear. If
it is not an inconvenience I will stay here with you for a day or
two. I often take to my bed for days at a time.’

Maressa grinned. ‘I
thought spilling soup in your beard rather effective
actually.’

Taseen chuckled and
settled himself in the chair, planning to spend what was left of
the night thinking, very hard. Sket curled up on one of the
couches.

‘Is there no bed for
you?’ Taseen asked.

‘I stay near Leaf sir.
I’ll not disturb you.’

Grand Harbour Master
Chevra strode into the Debating Chamber high in the Xantip Palace.
A purple faced General Koolis had just left his presence, having
been thoroughly shouted down by the Grand Master. Chevra held a
fond but unfounded belief in his prowess as a military tactician
and had ordered all border patrols to return to the City forthwith.
General Koolis was now even more infuriated by his inability to see
the old mage Taseen. He fumed and muttered on being turned away
from Taseen’s quarters. The General munched on his long moustaches
while he considered who else might possibly intercede and mitigate
Chevra’s commands.

The Grand Master did
some more shouting when he discovered Taseen, Tavri and Vorna were
all absent. Bajal conveyed Vorna’s regrets – she had gone to her
estates beyond the west of the City to deal with pressing business
matters. With Vorna missing, Bajal was subdued, making few
contributions to the discussions. But then, no one did really, once
Chevra was in full flow.

Chevra had even
abandoned his courtesans in favour of the excitement of planning a
war. He was annoying everyone in the Palace by turning up
unannounced, in the most unexpected places such as the kitchens,
asking obscure questions and leaving the staff with their nerves in
shreds. Sheoma managed to insert an innocent query when Chevra
paused for breath, on the state of the Towers of Aneira, two
leagues north east of the City limits.

Chevra demanded the
plans of the Towers of Aneira be brought for his inspection. Then
he complained of the worn condition of the plans, until Sheoma
pointed out that probably no one had looked at them for the last
eighty years at least. At last Chevra left the Chamber, stating his
intention to inspect the Towers for himself. Clutching the plans
under his arm, he shouted for his son to be readied to accompany
him. Guards discreetly closed the Chamber doors again and the
remaining Councillors slumped in their chairs.

‘He is even more
dreadful when Taseen or Vorna aren’t here,’ Fental
muttered.

‘He tries.’ Lessna as
usual tried to be fair. ‘He was a splendid merchant. It was a bad
error of judgement that he accepted Lady Eorlas’s offer of
marriage. Inheriting the Grand Mastership once her father died put
him completely out of his depth.’

‘She didn’t stay around
to help him much though did she?’ Bajal sneered. ‘Three years of
playing the fashionable married couple, seven more as wife of a
Grand Master and she decamps for her estates. Has anyone seen her
in the last year or two?’

‘The poor woman was
pregnant every year of those ten years; she probably yearned for a
rest,’ Lessna defended the absent Lady Eorlas, a woman she had
utterly loathed. ‘And only three children live. To go through
carrying those babies only for six to die within days of birth must
have been quite terrible.’

‘We have more important
things to consider than the unfortunate Lady Eorlas,’ Fental
snapped. ‘How do we persuade Chevra that we must keep some outposts
garrisoned in the north? I have my doubts about the whole idea of
Wendla deciding to wage war on us.’

‘Four of our trading
ships were attacked Fental, and two taken,’ Sheoma pointed
out.

Fental shrugged. ‘There
have been occasions before when pirates developed grand ideas. This
could be another situation like that.’

‘The surviving shipmen
described Wendlan warships,’ Sheoma persisted.

Fental scowled. ‘What
about those weird dreams you said some of the students have been
reporting Bajal? Of a revolutionary nature I think you said. Have
they been overdoing it with the hallucinogens again?’

‘No they have not,’
retorted Bajal. ‘They all say that suggestions are put to them
along the lines of how marvellously advantageous friendship with
Wendla would be and how restrictive and small minded are the ways
of our land.’ He flushed when Fental hooted derisively.

‘Corruption by dreams.
Hardly likely I think and definitely not successful. I think we
should try and delay any of Chevra’s wilder plans until Vorna or
Taseen return to the council. Suggesting he inspects the Towers of
Aneira was very good Sheoma,’ he admitted grudgingly. ‘Surely we
can come up with other similar suggestions to waste his time for a
few days.’ He stood, brushing non existent specks from his
elegantly cut jacket. ‘At least the Towers will occupy him for the
rest of today and with luck, all of tomorrow. Let’s just hope
Vorna’s back by then.’

Fental departed,
followed after a moment by a disgruntled Bajal. Lessna looked
across the table at Sheoma.

‘You look tired Sheo.
Why don’t we get some food, the common room should be clear by
now.’

They walked along the
corridors to one of the lesser staircases and descended to the
bustle of the administration sector. Eventually they reached the
main common room where a handful of students and teacher mages
lingered over the midday meal.

‘I was busy last
night.’ Sheoma forestalled any more questions. ‘I’ve had an idea
for a series of new lectures and I began to work out a plan for
them. It was nearly dawn before I realised how long I’d been
working – you know how it is.’

Lessna nodded, her
mouth full of cheese. ‘I know. I still have problems remembering my
schedule times. Poor little Merkas,’ she added
inconsequentially.

Sheoma raised her
brows. ‘Poor little Merkas?’

‘Only seven years old
and Chevra’s dragged him off to look round those derelict Towers.
You know how he hates change – he’ll howl all the way there and all
the way back and Chevra will shout at him to be more manly. Poor
child.’

Sheoma shook her head.
‘Lessna, just listen to yourself! Poor little boy – you loathe
children!’

‘I loathe them in
proximity. I can sympathise in the abstract.’

Taza took the men to
see the water front and docks in the morning, Pallin only going
under protest. Sket remained with Leaf and Maressa. Sket was
intrigued by the interaction between the young gijan and the
ancient mage. Taseen told her tales and riddles, and even sang
silly nonsense songs. It wasn’t until Leaf suddenly joined in with
one such rhyme that Sket saw Taseen was gently testing the gijan’s
memories. Sket went to make some midmorning tea and returned to
find Leaf by her window attended by a crowd of small birds again.
Taseen sat watching her while Khosa buzzed on his knee.

‘Did you know the gijan
long ago sir?’ asked Sket, squatting beside the mage’s
chair.

‘Only a few Sket, and
they were very old. The remaining young ones had been sent away to
the swamp lands in the hope they would find safety there. The old
ones died with the mages outside this City.’

‘And the
Dragons?’

Taseen shook his head.
‘They were beaten back beyond the great desert in the fourth War,
long before. The gijan told us they still communicated with them
but the Dragons had suffered as severely as the gijan.’

Sket stared at the
mage, the tea bowl in his hand forgotten. ‘Beaten back?’ he
whispered in horror. He tried to imagine what forces, what weapons,
could beat back creatures like Brin, Fenj, Seela or Kija, and he
trembled.

Taseen laid a hand on
Sket’s shoulder. ‘Indeed. They were forced to flee the strength of
one child. The second name on Sheoma’s list.’

They sat in silence,
watching Leaf talking to the birds on the window sill.

‘Lady Sheoma said you
thought two were destroyed.’

‘I fear we may have
been mistaken. I have pondered on what Ren told us last night. Grek
turned up later too and from his account of Ren’s land, I am very
much afraid one of the children is influencing events there. And we
are not called Lady or sir Sket – our names suffice.’

‘How are these children
imprisoned – in great hidden strongholds somewhere?’

Taseen frowned. ‘It is
difficult to explain. We created spaces in the very rocks and then
bound each child with layer upon layer of spells. Over time I think
perhaps some of those spells could have lost their potency,
enabling the Bound One to work on that weakness.’

‘You spoke of a mage –
Vorna – who believes your people could learn from these children.
If I’d been shut up in a rock for a thousand years or more, I would
not be in a mood for a friendly discussion.’

Taseen gave a bark of
laughter and the birds on the window sill disappeared. Leaf turned
a reproachful look in his direction.

‘Sorry my dear. Of
course you are exactly right Sket, but Vorna dismisses that
suggestion out of hand. She places enormous faith in her own powers
of conviction and believes bad temper would never control such
advanced minds as the children clearly possessed.’

Sket stared at him.
‘They seem to have been foul tempered since their births if your
accounts were true.’

‘Quite so, Sket, quite
so.’

‘Should we go to this
Namolos sir?’

‘My name is Taseen.’
The old mage smiled then grew serious again. ‘I cannot advise you.
Grek told me much more last night and I regret that I didn’t
investigate the stories of Namolos years ago. He may have a part to
play in these troubled times but then – who knows if he would
consent to do so? The first rumours of him began around the time of
the last battle. I was unconscious for three years afterwards and
it was far longer before I began to take note of the affairs of the
country again.

‘I confess that the
problems that have arisen – all over this world as I now learn – do
seem to be connected rather than random events.’

‘Whereabouts did you
put the children?’ Sket sounded subdued.

‘One is deep below the
great sea between here and the island of Wendla. Another is beneath
the desert. The other two, who were dealt with by many other mages,
are much further north. I now think one must surely be in Ren’s
land but the fourth? Perhaps that one has truly been
destroyed?’

‘Did Grek tell you of
the other Survivor – the one like Namolos?’

‘He did. I think it
important to make contact with her, but how? And who should be the
one to do so?’ Taseen sighed. ‘So many questions and far too few
answers.’

The other men returned
with Taza, hungry from their walk to the docks. Pallin and Riff
were most annoyed that Sket hadn’t a meal ready for them but Zada
came to Sket’s rescue by bringing in a laden tray.

‘Maressa is busy with
my daughter,’ she said, removing the lid from a huge pot. ‘And she
will be for the rest of the day.

When she’d departed,
shooing her husband before her, Leaf came to help herself to some
crusty bread.

‘Did people stare at
you?’ she asked Ren, head tilted to one side.

‘Quite a few,’ he
admitted. ‘But at one section of the docks, they didn’t just
stare.’

He grimaced and Olam
slapped him on the back, causing him to swallow a bit of cheese the
wrong way. While Ren tried to get some breath back, Navan
explained:

‘The shipmen got quite
excited. They crowded round us and many of them went to their knees
and tried to touch him.’

‘The Outer Island
docks,’ said Taseen.

Navan nodded. ‘That’s
what Taza called it. The ships were different there and so were the
shipmen.’

Pallin grunted. ‘Wore
next to nothing. Little bit of cloth round their middles, scarcely
decent. And gold – more than a woman would wear. Three, four rings
in their ears, stuck in their teeth.’ He shook his head in
disapproval, ignoring the grins of the others.

‘The Outer Islanders
follow the Way of the Elders devoutly although they offer to many
gods and goddesses too.’ Taseen told them.

‘Some of the ships are
bigger than houses,’ Olam commented.

‘Big or small, they all
bob up and down all the time,’ Pallin retorted.