The Complete Twilight Reign Ebook Collection (370 page)

A shallow slope ran north for miles, following the contours of a distant river, hidden by a narrow band of woods. It was the only visible boundary; in all other directions the undulating scrubland simply faded into the horizon.

He glanced back at Venn and the black Harlequin nodded, gesturing to the waiting soldiers behind. Two squads each of Harlequins and Acolytes of the Jesters spread out at Venn’s command, trotting at a brisk pace around the lower slope of the hill, heading towards the rear. The horse scouts had already swept the vicinity, but Ilumene saw no reason to trust them; he knew Morghien had not yet met up with the main force.

The old bastard’s got more sense than to take us on,
Ilumene reflected,
but that doesn’t stop him leaving a surprise in our path – a barbed gift like that damn Finntrail spirit in his head.
But boredom set in and at last he called, ‘I only see broken stones and a whole lot o’ nothing.’

The boy turned to face him. With the low sun behind him, Ruhen’s face was even more shadowed than usual. Aenaris remained wrapped on his back, its light still hidden from view.

‘The sun has not yet set,’ Ruhen said in response. ‘There is nothing to see.’

‘Some sort o’ spell?’

Ruhen shook his head. ‘What we search for lies at the heart of the Gods’ power, hidden from all until dusk, when they recede a fraction from the Land.’

‘I thought they were weak enough already? Surely we should be able to find it when there’s still light to do something about it?’

‘Some conventions remain,’ Ruhen said plainly. ‘It is part of the balance of the Land: this place is revealed at dusk to those who know it’s here.’

‘Sounds like a load of mystical shit to me,’ Ilumene grumbled. The boy with shadows in his eyes smiled at his bodyguard’s irreverence. ‘The very heart of religion,’ he said with what might have been agreement, ‘but when one plays the game of Gods, one must respect most of the rules. It makes breaking the others far easier.’

Ilumene looked at the sun. ‘Not long to wait then,’ he muttered as Ruhen returned to his slow walk up the hill. The sky was more open here, Ilumene thought, and far preferable to the cramped atmosphere of the Circle City, where Blackfang Mountain intruded on most every sight. To the Byorans the Waste was huge and empty, even more than his home in Narkang, which looked out over the ocean. The Waste was too big a space for humans to live in; the horizons were too far away.

A man could get lost here; he could go mad while his soul wandered the miles of emptiness in all directions.
Ilumene grinned.
Except horizons won’t mean much to me soon. Precious little will limit me soon.

He turned back towards Keriabral, trying to pick out the crater wall in the distance, but it was out of sight now. Clouds massed on the horizon, blurring everything beyond the rabble making their way into the Devoted camp. There had been hundreds of deaths among Ruhen’s white-clad followers in the last few weeks, but no one stopped. No one cared. There were always thousands more, even some Chetse, following as dumbly and patiently as the rest, stepping over the dead and dying, who were blessed by the Wither Queen’s rat-spirits under cover of night and left for the Narkang troops. Each night the survivors would crawl into the tents of the weary, red-eyed Devoted soldiers, following some unvoiced command Ilumene never gave.

He had heard no word of rape or theft, or of violence done by the soldiers to their pathetic charges; that as much as anything surprised Ilumene. The camp was close to silent at night, the soldiers showing little interest in gambling, whoring or anything else. Instead, they huddled in small groups and spoke in hushed tones, as though they believed the holy mission their leaders had proclaimed.

Even Certinse, Vener and all the rest’re silent now
, Ilumene reminded himself
. They were so sure of their control, of their strength – and now they’ve found it run like dust through their fingers.

‘Ilumene, Venn,’ Ruhen called from thirty yards up the slope, and the two scrambled in his wake, Venn easily outstripping the heavier man, moving with nimble, economical steps.

‘It’s time,’ Venn breathed as he arrived at Ruhen’s side.

The boy was walking without hurry as the last rays of the sun faded and withdrew from the Land. Shadows deepened, stealing forward from rocks and crevices to swarm up the hillside. As the dark rose it flickered uncertainly, and Ilumene found his eyes watering at the sight. He blinked furiously, and saw Venn was similarly afflicted as they staggered after Ruhen, but the boy was unaffected by the wavering, shifting curtain of air around the peak of the hill. He pointed, and Ilumene saw the underside of his finger was still bleached white by Aenaris’ touch.

Gradually shapes began to form at the peak of the hill: silhouettes of things on the cusp of this Land and the next, drifting uncertainly between here and the Other Lands of Gods and daemons. Ilumene found himself pushing against a barrier of air that unexpectedly gave way, and as he stumbled forward, he almost collided with Venn.

A pair of standing stones loomed ahead of them, rising up from a raised area at the centre of the hill’s flattened peak, and now they could see others all around them, rough-hewn and weather-worn, but power hummed through them. Some had toppled over, others were broken-topped, but many of the ancient rune-engraved monuments still stood like sentinels. In the very centre was a rough circle of irregular paving stones spreading for thirty yards in all directions, surrounding the two tallest stones. Beyond the rise, Ilumene could see the strange rocks continuing across the tabletop hill, spreading like roots through the dusty ground as they merged back into the hill itself.

‘What is this?’ Ilumene gasped. ‘A temple? Out here?’ He looked around. ‘Must have been a damn big one – but where’s the rubble? And how have these engravings survived?’ He went up to one and traced the curves and lines cut into its surface, looking for words he recognised.

‘Think of it as the first temple,’ Ruhen said solemnly, ‘or maybe the soul of every temple. The boundaries of the Land are thin here.’

‘So not a temple then?’ Ilumene asked, frowning. ‘What about the stones, and this floor?’

Ruhen continued towards the tallest pair of menhir, where Ilumene could see a humped arch and a steep set of worn stairs. ‘Echoes of other temples, a place carved by the force of reverence itself.’ He stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to face them both. ‘And here is the entrance. Here is the heart of the Land and all its Gods.’

‘Here we become Gods,’ Venn added, the pleasure of that thought driving the wonder from his face. ‘I can feel the power here; it’s in everything – the air, the earth … all around us.’

‘And here we will become Gods,’ Ruhen agreed, ‘but first there is much we need to do.’

‘We’re not going in?’

‘No. We are not yet ready. Venn, you will stay with your Harlequins – keep these standing stones within waking sight at all times. Have the Acolytes guard the other side of the hill. No one must be allowed up here without my express order. Ilumene, we will return to the army. They must prepare defences for when King Emin and the white-eye come.’

‘They’ll be digging ditches and sorting ramparts, at first light,’ Ilumene confirmed before hesitating slightly. ‘What about your Children, do you want them stacking stones too?’

‘I have a greater burden for them.’ As Ruhen spoke a gust of wind surged up the hillside from the direction of the troops, and all three turned to face it. It carried the usual stinks of an army, sweat and animal musk, festering wounds, shit and urine – only now it was intermingled with something else, something stranger.

Ilumene heard a chuckle on the wind as he recognised the sickly sweet smell of overripe peaches. They had gathered cartloads of rotten fruit at the oasis outside Keriabral’s crater wall. They were withered and well past their season; the wind had dried them on the trees, and insects had burrowed into those that had fallen, eating the goodness from within, but still Ruhen had insisted the remains be collected.

Ilumene heard the voice on the wind again, and this time he made out Rojak’s unmistakable laugh. The dead minstrel was not quite so confined to Venn’s mind here, it appeared. The smell of peaches lingered, and Ilumene realised that the fruits were no longer inedible husks, though there was no way they could smell like that naturally.

‘Aenaris?’ he asked.

‘It is the breath of life,’ the boy answered. ‘Its gifts I shall share with my faithful servants.’

‘To the same effect as it had on Rojak?’

‘I still have my herald,’ Ruhen said, ‘I have no need of twenty thousand more. No, this gift is a burden too, a covenant with my chosen few. Gods are anointed in the blood of the innocent – but who says the innocent can’t put up a fight first?’

As Ruhen walked back through the camp heads lifted at his passing. Devoted troops saluted their leader, while the preachers and white-clad followers knelt, heads bowed in prayer. Ruhen’s smile lifted the fatigue from their faces, provoking gladness from all he passed. Luerce, first among Ruhen’s Children, fell in behind his lord and the rest followed without any order needed, the ragged column swelling with every step.

The campfires that lit the way were small, limited by the paucity of wood on the parched plain, but enough to define the boundary of the camp. Through the lines of tents, past the watching soldiers and generals of the Devoted, Ruhen went with a train of attendants. Those spread further out sensed something on the wind, and answering some unspoken command, men and woman crawled from the tents to join the burgeoning crowd. Soon it became clear Ruhen was heading to the furthest part of the camp, where the supply wagons were drawn up. The pickets set around the supplies parted like evening mist as they approached. Cauldrons of rice-heavy stew bubbled slowly over cooking fires, and as he continued to the wagons at the back, the men tending the food stepped aside and watched the mass, now numbering in their thousands, as they followed in reverential silence. The crowd surrounded the wagons, kept separate and under guard by the Hearth-Spears, the grey-skinned warriors from the Jesters’ loyal clans.

Ruhen climbed up onto one of the two wagons piled with fruit. He looked around at his assembling followers: people were still coming out of the camp, but there were enough present for him to start. He slipped the wrapped sword from his back and a collective sigh raced around the crowd. Under their white cloaks and ragged clothes he saw they were emaciated and dull-eyed with fatigue. Most had been painfully thin before the journey had started; they were barely standing now, driven on by fervour and desperation to the very limits of their life.

‘Brothers and sisters of peace, our time draws near,’ he started, his clear voice carrying. ‘This Land is a wounded beast, weakened and fearful. The Gods themselves tremble at what must come to pass, at the betrayal of their priests and the heretic King of Narkang.’

Ruhen held up the sword for them all to see. Even with its light covered, there was a palpable air of power around it. The coin hanging from Ruhen’s neck glinted in the fading light, displaying the rough cross scored on its surface.

Slowly, solemnly, Ruhen slipped the covering from Aenaris and pure white light blazed out like a beacon across the camp. The boy’s skin looked unnaturally pale in its light as he held up to for them all to see. As one the masses fell to their knees, crying out blessings and wordless sounds of devotion. Ruhen turned in a full circle, allowing all of his assembled worshippers to see his face, not trying to hide the burden Aenaris was as his blind right eye shone in the gloaming.

The massive sword was as light as a feather, but it ate at the shadows inside him, making it feel as though it was made of lead rather than pure, flawless crystal. He was forced to squint against its light, the camp beyond growing darker to his one remaining eye as the Key of Life eclipsed his shadow soul, but even in the darkness he spied a shape moving, circling beyond Ruhen’s Children like a wolf on the hunt, her cold blue eyes bright in the darkness. Ruhen nodded respectfully and the Wither Queen faltered, matching his gaze for a moment before taking two last steps and fading into nothing.

He looked down at the peaches, which had been restored to ripeness by Aenaris. He lowered the sword and whispered lovingly to the unnatural crop. Power flowed out of the weapon and the sickly-sweet stink of fruit almost past their best grew, filling the air with their odour while the skin of his fingers hissed and crackled.

Wincing at the sensation, Ruhen completed the spell and went to do the same with the other wagon. He transferred Aenaris to his other hand and staring down at the palm of his right, which was burned as white as bone by the sword’s power. As he repeated his workings, Ruhen faltered slightly, his legs wobbling underneath him to moans of fear from the onlookers, but then he caught himself and stood straight again, forcing himself to look up at them and meet their eyes before he rewrapped the sword and hid its searing light.

‘These fruit are my gift to you, most faithful of siblings,’ he said hoarsely, struggling to find the strength to raise his voice momentarily. ‘Share them amongst yourselves, ensure all of your brothers and sisters are permitted a bite.

‘Soon we will be forced to defend this holy site. This is the place of our rebirth, of the Land’s rebirth. Here we will defend our Land, our Gods and our future.’

With stiff limbs he returned Aenaris to its sheath and took a slow breath before continuing, ‘During the Great War the Gods blessed many of their followers as they headed into battle. Battle is soon coming to this place. The Knights of the Temples are steadfast and brave, and they will do their duty to the Land, I know. But no one will escape the savagery, and the Gods have granted me this boon for you: we stand in service of innocence, defenders of the weak – you have all followed me here out of that ideal, but now you are the innocents to be protected.

‘The Knights of the Temples have sheltered you, fed you with their own rations, and done so without complaint, for they see our holy mission. And now it is my turn: so eat of this fruit, share it amongst your enfeebled and exhausted brethren, and receive my blessing.