The Third God (49 page)

The homunculus looked at Carnelian as if uncertain that he should continue.

‘All of it,’ Carnelian rasped.

The homunculus returned his gaze to the parchment. ‘“If he seeks to envelop me, I shall break through. If he offers me battle, then we shall decide this matter once and for all. If he continues to flee, I shall pursue him, if needs be to the gates of Osrakum herself. It is possible that he will evade me, that he will make for Makar. If he does, you must come to whatever accommodation you can with him. Save yourself.”’

‘Nothing else?’

‘Nothing, Seraph.’

‘Then please resume your mask so that I can remove mine.’

‘At your command, Seraph.’

Carnelian heard the man pacing away. When the homunculus said it was safe, Carnelian peeled the mask from his face. Exposed, his skin was momentarily chilled. The pattern of his dream was clearer than the chamber around him. He closed his eyes and contemplated the shape of it. He tried to inhabit it, tease meaning out from it, but it yielded nothing definite. The memory of joy faded and the blue of that sky. He tried again to rise, but his body betrayed him. He felt he had washed up on some remote shore. He yearned for his friends, though they were far away with Osidian, in the Gods alone knew what danger.

With a crash the outer doors were flung open. Carnelian jumped to his feet. He heard cries of protest, quickly snuffed out. Heavy footfalls approached. He cast around for something he could use as a weapon. An immense shape appeared out of the shadows, of which its billowing cloak seemed a part. Pallid military leathers. The serenity of his gold mask belied the storm of this Master’s entry.

Carnelian feared at first it must be Aurum, then recognized the features of the mask. ‘Osidian,’ he cried in relief.

Osidian glanced to either side and began unmasking.

Carnelian threw his hand up to stop him. ‘We are not alone, my Lord.’ He looked around and found the homunculus cowering behind a clock. ‘Homunculus . . .’

The little man glanced up.

Be blind
, Carnelian gestured with his hand. The homunculus put on its eyeless mask.

‘Why do you keep the creature here?’ Osidian said.

‘There is no other place for him to go.’

‘Very well. It makes no difference. I shall soon confront its master with everything I am about to say to you.’

Both unmasked. Carnelian did not expect the emerald fury in Osidian’s eyes. ‘Aurum?’

The emeralds narrowed. ‘If he had known of your scheme, my Lord, even now I would be heading towards Osrakum his prisoner.’

Carnelian was startled. ‘My scheme?’

‘Spare me the pretence at innocence. How else could Legions have reached my commanders except through you who are his keeper?’

‘The Lesser Chosen commanders?’

‘Each had a letter delivered to him bearing the Grand Sapient’s seal.’

‘If they told you this, then surely they told you how they came by them?’

‘Have you not even the courage to confront me, Carnelian?’

Osidian’s look of contempt stung Carnelian to anger. ‘I would if I knew what you were talking about!’

Doubt banked the fire in Osidian’s eyes. ‘You insist on maintaining this pretence?’

‘It is no pretence. How did these letters come to them?’

Osidian’s eyes narrowed further. ‘None know from whence they came. They merely appeared.’

‘When?’

‘A couple of days after we arrived here.’

Carnelian gazed off into the corner, trying to imagine how Legions might have done it. Something occurred to him. He turned back to Osidian. ‘The render I sent out to you, the letters must have gone out then. Homunculus, did your master send letters out of the fortress?’

Motionless, the little man made no answer.

‘You will answer,’ said Osidian, an edge to his voice.

The homunculus nodded.

‘They were sent out of here on the same day that I arrived, were they not?’

‘Yes, Seraph,’ said the homunculus.

Osidian glanced into the corner with its hidden shadowy stair. ‘He had the letters ready in the cothon, knowing I would have need of resupply.’

Carnelian saw how he would not meet his glance again. Osidian knew he had accused him unfairly. Carnelian, still angry, turned his attention on the homunculus. ‘You knew this all the time, homunculus.’

The little man gave a reluctant nod.

‘Why did you keep this from me?’

The eyeless mask looked up. ‘My first loyalty is to my master, Seraph.’

‘And you did not imagine that his plan would fail?’

‘My masters rarely fail, Seraph.’

Still Carnelian felt betrayed. ‘But you hate him?’

‘Of what consequence, Seraph, the hatred of a slave?’

‘Had you thought to confess this to me, I would have done all in my power to protect you from him.’

Carnelian saw the way the room was distorted in the homunculus’ mirror face and remembered what he knew about the little man. His anger cooled. He gazed at Osidian. ‘How did the commanders fail?’

Osidian’s eyes met his. ‘They were to take me alive. It seems they could not agree on how to do it, nor when. Then they saw a way out in delivering me to Aurum. The opportunity to hide their betrayal behind one of the Great was too tempting for them, but they left it too long. Eventually, fearing that another might betray him, one of their number revealed their plot to me.’ His face seemed stone. ‘Though that will not save him.’

‘You blame them, even though it was a God Emperor who appointed them, with the Wise that are Their mouthpiece? How did you expect them to react when they received a command directly from Legions?’

‘Nevertheless, impaled upon my huimur’s banner poles, they shall provide me with standards that will bring terror to all their kind.’

This threat was close enough to what had happened to the Ochre to sicken Carnelian. He felt only revulsion and contempt for Osidian, who once again was intending to use murder to assuage his own frustration and fear of failure. ‘Do you really imagine that will bring you any closer to victory?’

Osidian flinched, his face darkening as he glared at Carnelian.

‘Who is going to command your huimur now?’

Osidian’s nose wrinkled. ‘I shall promote marumaga legionaries. They at least will not dare betray me.’

‘Are they ready to assume such responsibility?’

‘Most have had long experience of watching their masters in command.’

‘Assuming these promotions work, and you march out again, what will you do if Aurum once more chooses to fall back before you?’

‘I will pursue him.’

‘Even to the Gates of Osrakum?’

Osidian frowned.

‘Could you breach the Gates with your legion?’ Carnelian, who had seen them with his own eyes, knew how foolish such an attempt would be. Moreover it was clear to him that Osidian had not regained the confidence Legions had taken from him.

‘I believe you know, Osidian, that the only way you will enter Osrakum is if the Gates are opened for you from within.’

‘That will only happen if the political consensus among the Powers crumbles.’

‘Surely knowledge of your reappearance will widen the rift between the Wise and your mother: just as the part Aurum has played will divide her from the Great? And news of your edict of enfranchisement must cleave the Great from the Lesser Chosen and could not help but weaken confidence in any plan to muster the legions against you.’

Osidian shook his head. ‘The Wise control the means by which such news could reach Osrakum.’

‘Then send your treacherous commanders back to Osrakum with that news.’

‘The Wise have the means to stop them.’

Carnelian was taken aback. ‘Would they dare to have them killed?’

‘They would have no need to slay them, merely to delay them until the crisis has been resolved.’

Carnelian felt disappointed. He had been so certain he was following a thread out of this labyrinth. Then a way forward occurred to him. ‘But why would they wish to stop them?’

Osidian gazed at him, waiting for more.

‘Knowledge of your edict might very well serve the interests of the Wise . . .’

‘Go on.’

‘It would show the Great how you threaten the very foundations of their privilege . . .’

Carnelian could see his way clearly now. ‘The Wise cannot hope to keep news of what has been happening from Osrakum for ever. Since this is so, it behoves them to manage its revelation themselves. Why not allow the commanders through? Surely the Great will see you as the paramount threat? Is it not the primary function of the Great Balance to keep the Imperial Power from escaping Osrakum and assuming control of the legions? How could your mother explain your presence in the outer world? It would be in all their interests to join together to destroy you.’

Osidian frowned. ‘How would that help us?’

‘How long do you imagine such unity would last?’ Carnelian could not help a smile as Osidian began nodding. ‘All we have to do is remain beyond their reach as long as we can.’

‘And then what?’

Carnelian realized with surprise that at that moment, perhaps for the first time, he felt he and Osidian really were fighting for the same thing. Yet his confidence was already dimming. All the talk of grand politics had made him believe that they really might triumph. But on that issue Legions had spoken the clear truth. However fractured, the powers arrayed against them were unassailable. He tried coming at the problem from one direction after another, but always it was as if he were taking on a dragon with a spear.

‘I don’t know,’ he said at last. ‘We shall have to wait and see what opportunities arise. In the meantime you can weld our legion into a weapon that will be certain in your hand when we do choose to use it.’

Osidian gazed at him, clear-eyed, so that Carnelian felt he was seeing right through to his heart. ‘Very well. We shall do it your way. I shall return to
our
legion.’

‘I want to go with you.’

Osidian’s face tightened as if he was feeling some old wound. He glanced down and saw the homunculus. Carnelian realized they had both forgotten the little man was there.

‘What about Legions?’ Osidian said.

Carnelian felt the Grand Sapient was a burden he had borne too long alone. ‘Homunculus . . .’

‘Seraph?’ the little man said.

‘Can the Grand Sapient be lodged in a watch-tower?’

‘All the watch-towers of the Guarded Land are fully equipped with facilities designed to accommodate my masters.’

It was as Carnelian had guessed. Even sleeping in his capsule Legions must have needed to find accommodation on his journey from Osrakum.

Osidian was nodding. ‘It would make sense to abandon this place.’

Carnelian felt a surge of relief.

‘You can set off in the morning. Meanwhile, I will return to the watch-tower and make sure it is ready to receive them. The Lesser Chosen traitors will begin their journey to Osrakum tomorrow.’

Osidian lifted his mask up to his face, then let it drop again. ‘I will send you more Marula as an escort.’

Carnelian nodded. Then, after they had both remasked, he watched Osidian fade into the shadows.

TOWER SUN-NINETY-THREE

Hunger does not make bread bake faster.

(a proverb from the Ringwall cities)

SLACK
-
MOUTHED, STARING, THE MARULA CREPT ACROSS THE MARBLE
floor of Aurum’s chamber looking around them like children in a sorcerous cave. Among them, Sthax had become just another warrior the moment Morunasa had appeared. The Oracle glanced at the clocks as if he had seen such mechanical organisms every day of his life, but he jumped with the others when they saw themselves reflected in Aurum’s mirrors. It took the Marula only a moment to realize they were seeing themselves, but that was enough time for their fists to tighten on their lances. For all their beauty, in that Chosen setting, in their leather armour they did look crude barbarians.

He had them wait while he and the homunculus descended into the vault. The capsules were there, pale in the gloom. Earlier, while the homunculus had helped him into his commander’s leathers, they had discussed how his masters were to be moved. Carnelian set down his light and looked at him. ‘Let us prepare the capsules for transport.’

The homunculus gave a nod and they broke open the lid of Legions’ capsule. The Grand Sapient lay inside like a corpse. They administered the elixir through his mummified lips. The last thing they wanted was for him to wake in transit. They checked his restraining straps then repeated the procedure with the other Sapients. When they were ready, the homunculus resealed the lids, even as Carnelian returned to the chamber above and brought Morunasa and the Marula down with him into the vault. They stared at the capsules with unconcealed horror.

‘Corpses?’ Morunasa asked.

‘In a way,’ Carnelian answered. ‘We’re taking them to the Master’s watch-tower.’

Gazing at the capsules, Morunasa nodded. The homunculus located poles that Carnelian helped him slide into the carrying handles of Legions’ capsule. Carnelian was aware of the Marula watching him as if he were preparing for them a poisoned meal. He was careful to ignore Sthax.