Trinity Rising: Book Two of the Wild Hunt (Wild Hunt Trilogy 2) (28 page)

If she’d slapped the Speaker across the mouth, she doubted she could have made her look more stunned. Sandy brows rose; for just a second the mask slipped and Teia saw the face of the woman behind it. A woman who must once have been a considerable beauty, before the plains wind stripped the softness of youth from her skin and stitched lines into the leather that remained. In a blink those lines contorted into a snarl.

‘Blasphemer!’

Inside her, Teia’s power jangled a warning. She opened her mouth to speak but Ytha’s magic was building, throbbing through the grip of her fingers, and her voice wouldn’t come.

‘You dare to speak ill of one of the Eldest? Dare to speak ill of
me
? I am Speaker of the Crainnh.’ The words hissed like vipers. ‘It was I who summoned Maegern, who bargained with Her for the benefit of the clans. No other could do it – none
dared
to do it without me to lead the way. Our victory against the usurpers will be sung throughout the ages, and it proceeds according to
my
plan. Remember that!’

Her eyes narrowed. Teia saw her own face reflected in them, bloodless with fear, and for one terrifying instant thought Ytha was about to burn her out on the spot.

‘And what of you, Teia? No obvious Talent until my weaving caught you and now you learn quickly – too quickly! To be newly come into your gift yet be this strong is a rare thing. The power is like a muscle; it needs work to make it grow. How long have you been working it in secret? How long have you known?’ Hard fingers ground into Teia’s cheeks. ‘Answer me, child!’

A rush of compulsion deluged Teia’s mind. It seized her, shook her, bent her to its will. She would answer; she had to. She had known of her gift since Macha brought her first blood; why had she ever thought she could keep that a secret? There was nothing Ytha could not know, nothing she could not find out. It would be better by far to volunteer the information than wait for the Speaker to enter her mind and take it by force. Surrender was the only choice.

‘Answer me!’

Wave after wave of Ytha’s will bore down until Teia thought she would break under their weight. Her mouth shaped to say the words and, in desperation, she flung herself open to the music within.

‘No.’

Ytha recoiled as her compulsion broke apart. ‘What is this? You will not defy me!’

This time it came like a rockslide, hammering Teia with blow after blow. She drew deeply on her power and raised it as a shield. Ytha threw her will against it but was turned aside.

Amazed, Teia tried to study what she had done. If she closed her eyes, she could see and feel the strands of her magic gyring around her, around a still place in the centre where she stood. Walls of sweet, potent music surrounded her, laced with lambent colour; beyond them, the Speaker’s fury broke apart in discord. She could set her feet here, in this calm. From this place she could not be moved.

‘No,’ she said again. With one hand she gripped Ytha’s wrist and squeezed. The Speaker’s fingers spasmed and Teia firmly pulled the hand from her face.

‘I have seen it, Speaker,’ she went on, climbing to her feet. ‘If you fulfil your side of the bargain and free Her, Maegern will unleash Her Hunt on the plains, and you will be powerless to stop it. She will destroy us all.’

‘Liar! You cannot know this!’

‘I can. What I see in my dreams is the truth. I may not always understand them until the events play out, but they have never been wrong.’

‘You’re nothing but a jumped-up apprentice!’ Ytha snarled. ‘What can you know of foretelling?’

‘More than you, I think.’

Spitting curses, Ytha struggled to rise. Teia released her hand and took a half-step back to give her room. At once the other woman raised a fist to strike at her. With a small gesture Teia trapped the fist in a knot of air and held it there. She had no idea how; she simply reached for the power and it was done.

‘How do you know this?’ Ytha tugged at her arm. ‘Release me!’

‘Not until you listen to me. I’m trying to warn you!’ The magic sang as Ytha’s power struck Teia’s weaving and skittered aside, again and again. Though the weave held firm, she couldn’t stop herself flinching. ‘Please, for the good of all our people, don’t go through with this plan. Maegern cares nothing for you, nor the other Speakers – you are only tools. All She wants is Her freedom. Once you’ve served your purpose She will abandon you.’

Teeth bared, the older woman clawed with her power at the nothingness imprisoning her. Her free hand bunched into a fist, starseed ring glittering. ‘You know nothing of our plans. Now release me!’

‘Please, Ytha, listen—’

‘
Release me!
’ the Speaker howled, flinging back her head. Cords stood out in her neck with fury.

Outside Teia heard running feet, excited voices. Quickly she unravelled the knot and let the power go.

Fighting something that was suddenly no longer there, Ytha staggered backwards, caught her heel on a cushion and sat down hard. A startled gasp was followed by the foulest curse Teia had ever heard, then the Speaker climbed slowly back to her feet with murder in her eyes.

‘I should have ripped the Talent from you months ago.’ Her voice was low in her throat. ‘How dare you lay hands on me? Remember your place, bitch!’

Teia swallowed hard. She had never seen the Speaker in such a rage. But she had cast the bones now; there was no going back.

‘My place is where you put me, Speaker. I am Drwyn’s betrothed and the mother of his heir.’

‘Do you presume to lecture me? You are
nothing
!’

‘I am what I am. I have seen what will be and, Macha as my witness, I have spoken the truth of it. Ytha, I beg of you, listen to me.’

Several warriors spilled in past the door-curtain, dirks at the ready. Finding no foe, they stared at the women in confusion until Drwyn pushed his way through them.

‘Aedon’s balls, can a man not have some peace in his own home?’ he boomed, fists cocked on his hips. ‘What happens here? With all that shrieking, I thought a viper had found its way into the cave.’

His glower swung from one woman to the other. In the time it took his gaze to cross the chamber, Ytha had drawn herself up to her full height, tucking her disordered hair back behind her ears. Her face could have been carved from ice, but for all that lack of expression, Teia felt fury boiling off her.

‘We must speak privately, Drwyn.’ Even the Speaker’s tone was frosty. ‘I have grave news.’

‘News of what?’ Drwyn frowned. ‘Tell me what’s amiss.’

‘In private.’ One glance speared Teia where she stood, then Ytha stalked out with the chief, regal as any storied queen. Drwyn’s warriors put up their weapons and followed after.

As the curtain fell behind the last man, Teia’s knees finally failed her and she had to sit down on the cushions. Every part of her was trembling. Her heart raced as if she’d just outrun a rock-wolf and her lungs ached for air.

Oh, Macha preserve her, she’d looked the Speaker in the eye and told her she was wrong.

She pressed her hand to her aching chest to steady herself. Once she’d sooner have crossed the Muiragh Mhor barefoot than cross Ytha, but fear of what was to come if the Hunt was loosed had spurred her to an audacity of which she’d never dreamed herself capable. She tried not to imagine what might have happened had Ytha managed to work free of the weaving before Drwyn appeared.

Under her hand she felt damp spots on the front of her dress and looked down. Dark patches splotched her bodice as if she’d been splashed with something.
The Hound
. It had only been a vision, not actually present in the chamber, but somehow the vision had been real enough to spray her with its spittle.

With mounting dread, she unlaced the neck of her gown and pulled it open. The ache in her chest had been more than anxiety. Red marks the shape of splayed paws spread across the tops of her breasts, tipped with purple indentations where the claws had dug into her flesh.

Her stomach fell head over heels down to her feet. Maegern’s Hound had been in her dreams. Now it had come out of the otherworld and marked her.

The legends said that once the Hunt was set after its quarry, it never stopped. There was no barrier to it, neither mountains nor rivers nor the great gulfs of the ocean. The Hounds kept coming. In the old tales, Finndail had kept one step ahead of them for forty years and gone to his bed one day thinking he was finally safe, only to find a Hound on his pillow beside him the next morning.

Teia let her hands fall. Were the Hounds now hunting her? Was that why she saw them so often? Macha’s mercy, what had Ytha unleashed?

Someone scratched at the door and at once she feared the worst. Her heart galloping again, she jumped to her feet, quickly refastening her laces. Then she realised that no one who felt they had to ask permission to enter would have the power to do her harm. Nonetheless her voice was unsteady as she called them in.

Ana’s homely face appeared around the curtain, eyes wide. ‘The Speaker looks like a crag-cat with her tail afire,’ she exclaimed in a scandalized voice. ‘Teisha, what did you say to her?’

‘I told her the truth and she didn’t like it.’ Teia aimed a kick at the cushion Ytha had tripped on and sent it tumbling across the rug. ‘I think she’s made a mistake, Mama.’

‘Teir told me what you had seen.’ Ana came closer, laid a hand on her arm. ‘Is the clan really in danger?’

Teia nodded. ‘Last time Maegern walked the earth our people were broken and four clan-names lost before the iron men sealed Her away. She’s had a thousand years to brew Her vengeance – it should be at a fine boil by now.’

Worry lines furrowed Ana’s brow. ‘But I’m sure the Speaker knows—’

‘She’s wrong!’ Teia’s child squirmed. Instinctively she put her hand to her belly and for an instant sensed those colours again. ‘I’ve tried to warn her, but she doesn’t believe me – or she chooses not to because it puts a crick in her plans. Clan law means she can’t be chief herself, so I think she means to have the Chief of Chiefs in her pocket instead. Drwyn may lead us back to the lands of our ancestors with the Raven at his side, but it’ll be Ytha’s hand on the reins.’

‘Macha’s mercy!’ Hastily Ana made the sign to ward off evil intent.

‘Now she’s gone to tell him what I told her and how I know it. I hid the Talent from everyone for more than two years, Mama. I could seek out parts of my future long before she ever came to teach me.’ Dark clouds of despair rolled through her soul. ‘Promise me you’ll leave. As soon as the clan rides for the Scattering, take Ailis and Tevira and the boys and go, as far away as you can. I don’t know if you’ll be safe anywhere, but it might give you a chance.’

‘Oh, Teisha—’

‘Please, Mama. Promise me you’ll go. There’s nothing but blood for the Crainnh once it begins.’

Ana hugged her fiercely. ‘But what about you? You’ve made a dangerous enemy in the Speaker, I think.’

Teia lifted her shoulders, spread her hands helplessly. ‘I tried reasoning with her and I failed, so I’ll have to stop her somehow. She’s damned us all if I don’t.’

‘But how? She’s the Speaker and you’re only an apprentice!’

‘I don’t know, Mama. Perhaps I could seek out the iron men – they turned the Hunt back once before, after all.’

‘But the Speaker said their forts are empty. How will you find them?’

She hadn’t thought that far ahead and scrubbed her hands over her face. ‘I’ll have to go where they are, then. Go south.’

‘Into the Empire?’ Her mother was horrified. ‘They’ll never help us. Teisha, please, think about what you’re suggesting!’

‘They might help if they know the Hunt is a threat to them, too.’

But her mother was shaking her head. ‘No. There must be another way – will Drwyn not speak up for you?’

‘He’s Ytha’s creature, always was. He likes to tug on the leash from time to time, but he knows who holds it.’ Tears threatened. Quickly Teia knuckled them away before her mother could see them. ‘I’ll be all right, Mama, don’t worry.’

‘You’re carrying his child. Does that count for nothing?’ Plump, sparrow-like Ana with her bright button eyes, trying hard to look aggrieved. Teia’s heart ached.
I’ll miss you, Mama
.

‘It might count for more if it were a son,’ she said, forcing her voice to be light, ‘but I think I’m carrying a girl.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘I’m the youngest of three sisters. You’re the middle one of five.’ She laid a hand on her belly. ‘And I think she has the Talent, like me.’

Her mother looked disbelieving. ‘You can tell this, before the child’s born? Not even the Speaker can delve a babe in the womb!’

‘When I look at her with the power, she responds to it. I see colours in her mind.’ Teia cradled her belly with both hands, feeling the solidity, the weight of it through her woollen dress, though she still had four moons to wait.

‘Teisha, there’s been no Speaker in our family in a hundred generations,’ her mother said, ‘and none in Teir’s for almost as long. There’s been barely a handful of girls apprenticed between us. Your Talent is the first since my greatmother’s days.’

‘So?’ Gods, she was tired. Now that the exhilaration of confronting Ytha had faded, she felt as drained as a punctured water-skin. All she wanted to do was sleep. Except she couldn’t: there were preparations still to make, more clothes and provisions to secure in case worse came to worst as she now feared it must. There was little chance Ytha would teach her any more about scrying. She’d be lucky if the Speaker didn’t simply burn her out for spite, and the chief’s child be damned.

‘So is it not a sign?’ Ana spread her hands. ‘Are you not meant for great things, you and your child?’

Teia thought of the vision of herself and her sometime-future son, her hands protectively on his shoulders and the torc of a clan chief around his still-beardless neck. And her lightless eyes, bleak as the Muiragh Mhor. Great things that could ruin a woman’s gaze so completely must be great indeed.

‘If I am, I haven’t seen them. Mama, please promise me you’ll go once the spring comes. Get as far away from Ytha as you can. If something were to happen to you and Da, I couldn’t bear it.’