The Dreamtrails (37 page)

“Ariel must go first from Norseland to the west coast to accomplish Lud’s will,” said the One, giving Mendi a glare of malevolence that made the older Three step back. “You have never served Lud as well as he, Mendi, for while you seek a scapegoat for the failed invasion, Ariel is already thinking of another way to strike a blow for Lud.” A fit of coughing shook the old man’s enormous body. He looked at me, and his expression suddenly registered exaggerated disgust. “Who dared to bring a woman into my presence?” The words were almost a shriek.

“She is a woman only in appearance, Lord,” Grisyl said swiftly, and began to stroke the One’s hand as if he were a fractious child.

“Get her out of my sight.” His face filled with sudden rage. “All of you get out of my sight.” Grisyl offered a goblet, but the old man smashed it from his hands. “Get out, I say. Get out! Falc! Summon my shadows!” The last glimpse I had was of several black-robed boys converging silently on the One while Falc wrung his hands.

“Do not imagine that your manipulations go unnoticed, Grisyl,” Mendi said as we again traversed the long wall corridor. The two Threes walked ahead, illuminated by the lanterns, and I came behind with the cold-faced Bedig, his fingers locked about my arm.

“What do you mean?” Grisyl asked coolly.

Mendi gave a sneering laugh. “You seek to ingratiate
yourself with the One. But as you see, Lud has his own means of shielding our beloved One from those who wish to pursue their own desires.”

Grisyl gave him an ironic look. “Of course, Lud knows the selflessness of his two faithful servants, Zuria and Mendi.”

The older Herder made a scornful sound. “I do not say that we have no ambitions of our own. But this is not the time to be divided. You seek to ally yourself with Ariel, because he is favored by the One, but Ariel is as unreliable as his precious nulls.”

“I will not be held accountable for this disastrous invasion, Mendi,” Grisyl said with sudden anger. “I was not with him when Ariel broke the news, thank Lud, but Zuria was, and he said the One ordered the shadow serving him to be flayed alive, because a drop of fement spilled on his robe.”

“Better a hundred shadows than one of us,” Mendi said dryly. “The One will calm down when we can offer him an explanation for the invasion’s failure, or at least a scapegoat. I suspect we were betrayed by Malik. I said all along that it was ludicrous to trust an ex-rebel. Personally, I am more interested in learning how the mutants on the
Orizon
took control when all aboard should have been wearing demon bands until the anchor was raised. Unfortunately, we have no one from the
Orizon
to interrogate, since Salamander sank the ship and all aboard. We have only his word and the testimony of a null, now dead, that the
Orizon
was boarded at all.”

“What could it serve Salamander to sink one of our greatships?” Grisyl asked. “Zuria is furious about it, of course.”

Mendi grunted. “What about Ariel being sent to the west coast after going to Norseland? What is he to do there?”

Grisyl shrugged. “Lud’s will, apparently. But perhaps the One simply confuses Ariel’s present journey to Norseland
with the longer journey he has been planning to make to the Red Land.”

“I had the feeling from the One’s words that Ariel is to undertake some specific task on the west coast,” Mendi persisted. “Did he not specifically say that Ariel will strike a blow in Lud’s name?”

“Something like that,” Grisyl agreed, frowning. “And now that you mention it, I
have
heard that Ariel has been working on something special. Something to do with two nulls he has kept locked in his chamber. He has taken them with him, you know.”

Mendi said, “My concern is less what Ariel has gone to do than that he chose to go or was sent without our being consulted. I dislike this policy of secrecy that excludes us but includes one who is not of the Faction.”

“You speak as if Ariel desires it to be so, but you know as well as I that our master has grown more and more … 
particular
in these last few years,” Grisyl said. The two men exchanged a look as if Grisyl meant another word that Mendi knew.

“All I am saying is that Ariel should not undertake some important activity about which we have not been informed,” Mendi said.

“I agree, but I doubt either of us is likely to express our indignation to the One,” Grisyl said dryly. “Or have you forgotten the last Herder foolish enough to criticize Ariel to our master? Whatever Ariel will do in the west, the One has approved it, and therefore it has Lud’s blessing.”

Mendi scowled. “That is so. But tell me, why did the null aboard the
Black Ship
warn Salamander about the boarding of the
Orizon
yet fail to reveal the mutant aboard the
Stormdancer
?”

“Perhaps the null did reveal it and Salamander failed to understand,” Grisyl said indifferently. “In any case, it is fortunate, since Ariel says that this one ranks high among the mutants and is a friend of the Black Dog and the boy chieftain. I will be most interested to hear what she can tell us.”

“I, also, yet it is strange that someone so important would board a Herder vessel alone,” Mendi continued. “It makes me uneasy, and I do not like that we are bidden not to interrogate her until Ariel returns. Especially if he has not merely gone to Norseland as I was led to believe. It could be a sevenday before he returns.”

Grisyl nodded. “Longer, depending on what he is to do there. And you know how much more
particular
the One becomes when he is frustrated or impatient.” He turned and gave me a cold, appraising look. “No doubt this mutant had some specific part to play in whatever scheme the mutants aboard the
Orizon
had in mind, for Ariel said she is extremely powerful and warned that she must not on any account be unbanded. Apparently, the null spoke her name, and Ariel knew it. He said she is the woman of the Master of Obernewtyn.”

Mendi’s brows rose high. “That
is
interesting. I suppose Ariel learned of the woman when the Master of Obernewtyn was our guest. But remind me, did not Ariel have some grand scheme for him?”

“Ariel has many schemes,” Grisyl said dismissively. “In any case, whatever it was clearly failed. Rushton Seraphim is returned to the mutants and leads them as if nothing ever happened. Indeed, given the results of the invasion, it would seem he is more effective than ever as a leader, even if he is broken as a man. It may have been a great mistake to leave him behind in the cloister.” He stopped abruptly and gave me a speculative look. “I wonder …”

“What?” Mendi asked impatiently.

“Well, it just occurred to me that this woman may know Ariel. After all, he did originally come from Obernewtyn, before the mutants took control.”

“What of it?”

Grisyl frowned. “Perhaps this talk of special implements is merely a way to control how much the mutant tells us. I always thought there were too many gaps in his tales of what occurred in those days.”

Both men glanced back at me speculatively, and Mendi said slowly, “You know as well as I do that someone will have to pay for the failed invasion. And a dozen shadows, a few Hedra, and even a Nine will not satisfy the One. But I see no reason why we should be blamed for a plan that was not of our choosing. Zuria proposed it, and Ariel supported him. Instead of trying to ally yourself with Ariel, you might see this as a perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between him and the One. None of our desires will be harmed if Ariel has less power.”

“Zuria may not agree.…”

Mendi laughed scornfully. “Oh, I think Zuria’s infatuation with Ariel will be well and truly extinct since the
Orizon
sank. Some of his best people were aboard. Besides, I doubt he will object to seeing this failure laid squarely at Ariel’s door, for otherwise he must bear the brunt of the One’s anger.” A pause, then, “My intention is not to dispose of Ariel or harm him in any lasting way. He has been useful to us over the years, and he will no doubt continue to be so, especially when it comes to dealing with the heathens from the Red Land. I merely feel that it would be wiser to curtail his power.”

“What are you suggesting?” Grisyl asked. We had now reached the entrance hall, and he turned to face the older
Three. The two men acted as if Bedig, the hovering black-clad shadows, and I were trees growing about them.

“I think that we might question this woman ourselves,” Mendi answered. “As a Nine, I believe you showed a rare talent for interrogation that left no marks.”

“What of Zuria?” Grisyl asked. “Should he not be present?”

“Let us leave him to his interrogations for the time being.” The two men exchanged guarded smiles of complicity.

“You would have us believe that Ariel is a mutant?”

I gasped for breath. “He was at Obernewtyn. Why … why else would he have been there?”

“He was the son of Alexi, who was in the employ of Stephen Seraphim,” Grisyl snapped. I must have looked as stunned as I felt, for no one had ever whispered that Alexi was Ariel’s father—unless it was all a fabrication.

“He is a Misfit,” I said. “He sees into the future.”

“His
nulls
see into the future,” snapped Mendi.

“How would he locate Misfits among your novices if he was not one himself?” I asked.

“Do you dare to mock us by claiming that he is like you?” snapped Grisyl. “Why would a mutant work against its own kind? I will cut the mouth from your face if you lie to me again.”

“But not yet,” Mendi drawled, sounding bored and irritated.

“I must cut her to make her speak. If I hold her under the water any longer, she will drown,” Grisyl snapped.

“Perhaps you have not the skill needed for this task after all,” Mendi said.

“I have the skill but am hampered by your prohibitions.”

“Ariel’s prohibitions,” Mendi corrected.

I was lying in a puddle of water I had vomited up, marveling bitterly at the irony that I had told them the truth about Ariel, yet for all their suspicions and doubts about him, they did not believe me. They were now arguing about whether to go on asking about Ariel or to try finding out how I had come aboard the
Stormdancer
. They were convinced that I had been in alliance with the mutants aboard the sunken
Orizon
, but they could not see why a group of mutants would come to Herder Isle at all, when there were thousands of Hedra to oppose them even if they managed the impossible and breached the wall and the black gates.

I felt a renewed ache of sorrow for the coercers who had drowned when the
Orizon
was sunk. My thoughts shifted to Ariel, and I wondered what plans he could have had that would involve allowing us to find Rushton.

I stifled the urge to cough, knowing it would draw the deadly attention of the Threes.
If only I could faint
, I thought. They would not be able to do anything to me until I woke. But for all Mendi’s sneering, Grisyl was a skilled torturer. Darkness had fluttered at the edge of my vision many times since we had entered the cell, yet Grisyl had never once allowed me to lose consciousness. And he had known when I had tried to pretend. Time and time again, I swallowed the foul water into which I was dipped, but the moment I could hold my breath no more and sucked it into my lungs, I would be hauled out, thrown on the floor, and the water pushed out of me by Bedig.

And all this was a prelude to what Ariel would do when he returned. Fear slipped through me like a cold blade, but I thought of the scribed words of a Beforetimer that Pavo had once quoted to me:
A brave person dies but once; a coward many
times
. I thought of Lark and wondered wearily whether he and his father and the crew of the
Stormdancer
were even now in the compound being interrogated, too.
Save them
, I prayed to the three goddesses worshipped by the Norselanders.

“Try again,” Mendi said, dragging my head up by the hair. “Make her tell you how she got aboard the ship.”

“Why don’t you try?” snarled Grisyl.

“Defeated already?” Mendi asked scornfully. “You have no stamina. I will show you how to have her begging to speak the truth. Bedig, remove her clothes.”

Before the Hedra captain could obey, boots approached the cell door. Mendi dropped me to the floor as the door swung open with a rusty whine. I forced my eyes open, wanting to see who entered, but the barrel into which I had been repeatedly dipped blocked my view.

“Zuria,” Mendi said warily.

“You are to come at once, both of you. The One summons us,” announced a cold, haughty voice.

“We have spoken to our master already, Zuria. You will have to make your report yourself,” Mendi said slyly.

Zuria replied sharply, “It was the One who sent for all of us to attend him. Shall I go and tell him you two are otherwise occupied?”

“We will come, naturally,” Grisyl said.

“Of course we will, but I do not understand this summons when we were with the One not two hours past,” Mendi grumbled. “Are we to bring the mutant with us?”

“Mutant?” Zuria asked.

“The mutant found hiding aboard the
Stormdancer
. The one Ariel’s null foresaw,” Mendi said irritably, pointing down at me.

Footsteps came toward me. Someone knelt beside me, and
I clenched my teeth to steel myself against the pain of being lifted by my hair. But instead I was turned gently onto my back and the sodden curtain of my hair lifted away from my face.

If I had possessed any breath for it, I would have cried out in astonishment, because staring down at me, clad in a split Herder robe, his head shaven, was the Misfit coercer Harwood.