The Waterless Sea (21 page)

In Gellan, the red city, it is dusk. The jumbled spires and tenements glow in the light of sunset, the same colour as the ruby ring that Samis wears. Samis stands on a bridge above a sluggish river, the colour of blood, as if it ran from a slaughterhouse. slaughterhouse.

Darrow stands beside his old friend, and stares down at the swirling water. He is a boy no longer. He cannot believe the words that Samis has just uttered; he feels as though he has stepped into a dream, or a nightmare. Yet he knows that his friend is in deadly earnest, though his voice is light.

‘Well, my Heron?What do you say? Are you with me in this quest?'

For a heartbeat or two, he cannot speak, and his heart is gripped with dread. Can it be possible that for a third time, his inability to act, to speak, to move, will take him helplessly down a path he has no desire to follow?Will he shake off this paralysis in five years, or ten, or fifty?Will he find himself an old man, Samis' s deputy, heart' s-brother to the tyrant of Tremaris, the Emperor of the World, nodding and smiling beside the throne of a madman?

‘I will be the Singer of all Songs, my Heron.' Samis looks into Darrow' s eyes, as cool and arrogant as the night they first met, up on the roof of the Black Palace, with the moons shining behind his head. ‘And you will be with me.'

Darrow finds that, after all, he is not paralysed. He cannot speak, but he can move. He takes one step backward, then another. He shakes his head.

Samis frowns. Then he holds out his hand. ‘Heron. You know you are more truly my brother than any of the Emperor' s sons. Everything I gain, I will share with you.'

Darrow finds his voice. ‘No,' he croaks, still shaking his head. ‘No.'

He turns his back and begins to walk away down the narrow streets that lead from the river, the noisy, crowded streets. He walks faster and faster, until he breaks into a run, and he does not stop running until he reaches the docks, and the dark, cold, cleansing sea.

five
The Madness of the Sands

I
T WAS DARK
down in the cellars. Keela had never known such darkness. The Palace of Cobwebs was always lit, by moonlight or filtered sun, or by thousands of candles. But this was thick, choking darkness, hot and stinking of fear.

Keela patted herself all over. She was unhurt, but in the scramble to safety, she had lost her shoes, and her beautiful gloves were in tatters. The gods alone knew what she must look like!

Now that the roar of destruction had stopped, Keela could hear whimpers of panic, moans of pain, and weeping from the other trapped survivors. She had lost Immel, lost her friends; they were separated from her by fallen walls. Keela was not afraid. It would be only a matter of time before her followers came to find her. They couldn' t all have been killed! She was alive, others were alive. She had only to wait. Though she had never been good at waiting. . .

Far above came a rumble of falling stone, as part of the ruins settled. Keela winced. If only she had managed to hold onto that chanter child! He would have been able to shift all these rocks and burrow their way out in an instant.

Something shifted in the blackness nearby. ‘Who' s there?' called Keela sharply.

‘Lord Haigen, First General, Fourth Division of the Imperial Army, born into the Clan of the Darru!' a gruff voice barked out. ‘Who goes there, woman?'

‘Mind your manners, sir! You' re addressing the Third Princess of the Imperial House!'

‘I beg your pardon, my lady.' There was a pause. ‘Never fear, my lady. My soldiers will be here presently to dig us out. Stay close to me, my lady. I' ll see you' re looked after as you deserve.'

Keela almost laughed aloud. She could hear it all in his voice, in his crafty, stupid, soldier' s voice. He wanted to use her, this general; like all those ambitious men, he thought he could wear her like a jewel, to enhance his own power. It never occurred to these men that Keela might have ambitions and plans of her own, that
she
could use
them
.

‘Oh, General!' she purred. ‘I' m so glad you' re here, I' m so glad there' s a strong man here to take care of me! Where are you, Haigen? Let me hold your hand!'

‘I' m afraid I' ve mislaid my gloves, my lady,' confessed the general.

‘Never mind about that. We have survived a catastrophe. We mustn' t let a little thing like
gloves
stand between us.'

For a time they sat in the dark, hand in hand, flesh against flesh. Keela could hear the general' s breathing. She moved a little closer, aware that Haigen could smell the perfume of her hair, her clothes, her skin.

‘Do you know what caused this?' she murmured. ‘An earthquake?'

‘I won' t lie to you, my lady. It was no earthquake.' The general' s voice swelled, became important; like all men, in Keela' s experience, he loved to explain things to a woman. ‘The rebels from the sea-towns are behind this. Nothing more certain.'

‘They must be very strong, to destroy the Palace!'

‘Not so strong that we can' t defeat them.'

‘But you couldn' t have expected this!'

‘Our intelligence did not rule out the possibility of an attack,' said the general, but there was a glimmer of uncertainty in his tone. ‘Though an attack on this scale seemed – improbable.'

Keela fell silent. She must be very careful now. It was clear to her that the sharp-toothed little
nadu
, Calwyn, must have been working for the sorcerers, and not the rebels. Only the sorcerers knew about the children. Had they plotted to assassinate the Emperor and remove the children, to bring down the Palace? They might have suspected that Amagis had betrayed their secrets, and ordered the little
nadu
to kill him, too. . . In the darkness, she began to stroke the back of the soldier' s roughened hand. At last she said, ‘Perhaps the rebels had help from elsewhere. From the sorcerers?'

The soldier stiffened. ‘And what does my lady know of sorcery?'

Keela squeezed his fingers. ‘What will become of us?With the Emperor gone, and the Palace destroyed? It grieves me to say it, but my brother, the First Prince, is not fit to take my father' s place.'

The general' s voice was very cautious. ‘The Army will ensure that the stability of the Empire is maintained.'

‘Of course. . .' They both jumped as a thunder of falling rubble sounded overhead. There were muffled shouts, and someone screamed. Keela held the general' s hand firmly in hers. She said, ‘Do you know the Hatharan Ambassador?' ‘I have met the man.'

‘He and I were very good friends.'

‘Indeed?'

‘He told me certain things, secrets that only the Emperor and the sorcerers know. Would you like to hear them?'

‘My lady,' breathed Lord Haigen.

‘I can make you a powerful man, sir, once we get out of here. First among generals. Even able to choose the next Emperor. But –' Her fingers tightened warningly around his. ‘I have my price.'

‘What price is that?'

‘I will share your power.' She did not say: until another comes, a greater man than you, who will brush aside whichever puppet you have chosen, and make me his Empress.

The soldier sucked in his breath as he considered. ‘Very well,' he said abruptly. ‘It shall be as you wish.'

‘Do you swear it, by the blood of your fathers?'

‘I swear.'

So she told him, there in the darkness, her mouth close to his ear, as they waited for the soldiers to come. She told him everything that Amagis had told her: the ancient bargain between the Emperors and the sorcerers, the chanter children who had held the Palace up with ironcraft. She told him about the Black Palace, deep in the barren lands of Hathara, where the sorcerers nursed their strange powers, and where, no doubt, they plotted to overthrow the Empire. She promised him the support of three of the Seven Clans, all she could speak for.

At last, there was a scraping of stone, and shouts, a shower of white dust, and a lantern thrust through a gap in the roof.

The troops had come, just as Haigen had promised. The general was revealed as a red-faced, stout man, of middle age, who snatched his hand away from the Princess' s as if it burned him.

‘Lord Haigen, sir!' The young lieutenant saluted smartly. ‘Glad to see you still alive, sir! There' s a council of generals, at dawn, on Martec Plain, to discuss the situation, sir. They' ll be glad to see you, too.'

‘A council? Excellent.' Haigen tugged at his clothes. ‘I have much to tell them, urgent information, important information.'

‘Lord Haigen?' Keela called sweetly. ‘Surely you have not forgotten?'

‘Yes, of course.' The general turned back. ‘See that the Princess is fed, and – and so forth. The men will take care of you,' he said, over his shoulder.

Keela' s voice trembled with rage. ‘What of your oath, sir? Sworn on your fathers' blood?'

‘Oh,' Haigen smiled. It was an unpleasant smile. ‘A vow sworn to a woman is not binding, my lady. Or else where would our honour be?'

The young lieutenant stifled a laugh behind his hand, but as Keela wheeled to face him, he soon became sober. ‘You dare to smirk at me, you dog?' she hissed.

‘No, my lady,' he stammered.

Keela' s eyes narrowed. ‘Give me your cloak. Then, if you want to make yourself useful, you can find my manservant.'

The sky had begun to lighten when Calwyn found the gully. She' d almost given up hope, crossing and recrossing her footsteps, as she searched for the hidden path. Several times she' d struck a dead end against blank walls of red rock, or found herself out on the moonlit plain again. She felt a renewed admiration for Heben and the confidence with which he' d led them across the trackless sands, and she wondered again how they would manage without him.

Now when she looked toward the remains of the Palace, she could see tiny ant-like figures swarming around its base: the courtiers who had managed to survive? The Army, preparing to take over? Or the rebels, starting their revolution? Whichever it was, she wanted to keep out of their way.

Eagerly, she pushed down into the ravine, toward the stream and the fronds of green that fringed it. There was the campsite, tucked beneath the overhang, and the
hegesi
, rounded up and tethered loosely to a tree.

And there was Heben, filling a waterskin at the creek. And there – Calwyn broke into a run. Halasaa strode toward her with his arms outstretched. Mica was chattering excitedly to Shada, and Oron splashed his face in the stream, while Haid and Vin crouched by a tiny fire, slapping out rounds of flat bread.

Halasaa hugged Calwyn and swung her around.
Calwyn!
She hid her face in his shoulder and held him tight, unable to speak.

Why didn' t you answer me, after the Palace fell? I thought you were
dead!

I answered, my sister. But your mind was too unquiet to hear me.

Heben came up, pushing the stopper into the waterskin with the flat of his hand. ‘I' m glad to see you safe, my lady,' he said, retreating to the safety of politeness in his relief.

Halasaa let Calwyn slide to the ground. ‘Yes, I' m safe,' she said soberly. ‘But Ched – he was killed, as we were running away.'

The children clustered around, solemn but not surprised.

‘We all would have been dead soon enough, if you hadn' t come,' saidVin.

‘At least he died under the sky, not locked up inside a box,' said Haid, andVin nodded gravely.

‘Those two had it the hardest of all, down there, in the dungeons,' Shada whispered to Calwyn. ‘With all the weight of the Palace on top. That' s why there were two there, in the dark.' Indeed, Vin and Haid were very pale, and as the sun rose higher, they hid their eyes and blinked in the strong light.

‘Have you seen our work?' asked Heben, gesturing in the direction of the Palace.

‘Yes,' said Calwyn. ‘There are people all around the Palace now. Or what' s left of it.'

Heben nodded. ‘I' ve been up to look. There are courtiers, coming out. And servants, looting, I think.'

‘I seen em too,' Mica put in. ‘They all look stunned, like slava-chewers. Like it' s a bad dream, and they' re waitin to wake up.'

‘We must move on,' said Heben abruptly. ‘There are soldiers everywhere. And now there are so many of us –' Calwyn frowned. ‘I' m not sure we should go yet. Perhaps there' s something we can do to help. There must be people injured. And there might be fighting soon.' She told them what she had overheard the soldiers saying.

‘We can' t stay here,' said Heben. Calwyn thought,
he is very
tired. We are all very tired
. ‘We have already agreed. We must move on, we must start out for Hathara without delay. If there' s to be fighting, we mustn' t be caught here.'

‘We ain' t got much time.' Mica looked around the campsite. ‘We got to pack up everythin –' ‘We haven' t decided anything yet.' Calwyn' s voice was icy, and the others drew back a little at the sudden flash of authority in her eyes. ‘Halasaa?What do you say?'