Vagrants: Book 2 Circles of Light series (17 page)

‘It was that cursed
scoundrel.’ Ryla exclaimed. ‘Stars know what he’s done now, but he
drew enough power to hurt all of us this far away, damn
him!’

‘Do you need me to help
you?’ Tika interrupted. ‘Kadi, Meppi and Ulla were hunting and I
must find them.’

She glanced at Uma, who
continued to emit a low wail from where she lay beside Nolli’s
chair.

‘Of course,’ Farn
agreed. ‘I will take you now my Tika.’

She went to hug him.
‘No dear one. It snows again and I will not let you carry me until
it is absolutely necessary. Can you help Uma, while I go with
Brin?’

Farn’s eyes whirred the
palest blue as he stared at Tika intently. ‘I would carry you. But
of course I will help Uma if you think it is best.’

‘I’ll come,’ Emla
pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the back of Ryla’s chair.
She glared at Tika, suddenly the Golden Lady commanding, and Tika
kept her mouth closed. A maid scurried up with cloaks for both Emla
and Tika. They went outside as Brin came through the snowy gloom
from the pavilion where Kija guarded three of her
children.

‘Are you sure you’ll be
careful?’ Gan asked as Tika and the Lady climbed onto the great
crimson Dragon’s back. ‘Bespeak Kija or Nolli, and let us know if
you need help.’

Emla nodded to him,
Brin already lifting into the whirling snow. None spoke as Brin’s
strong wings sped them four leagues or more from the Lady’s house.
Then Tika tapped Emla’s arm, and Emla opened her mind. She
shuddered, realising she heard with her mind and her ears, and Brin
began to spiral lower.

Dragon song swelled
around them and through them, Brin’s bass chiming with two others
through the concealing snow. A few trees below a line of misshapen
boulders deflected the driving snow. Tika and Emla slid from Brin’s
back, blinking their eyes clear, already knowing what they would
see.

Kadi stood erect, her
head tilted up to the invisible sky, opposite Meppi who stood
likewise. And between them lay the shattered remains of Uma’s
sister, the Snow Dragon Ulla.

Chapter
Twelve

The sun’s position
indicated it was nearing midday and Rhaki was recovering from
raising the last huge base blocks of his tower. He sensed someone
approaching from the direction of Return. There was no stealth in
their advance; the sound of boots scuffing along the dusty trail
was quite regular and clear. Rhaki turned on the rock on which he’d
seated himself and waited.

A short man came into
sight, not much taller than Hargon’s eldest son. He paused and
bowed to Rhaki then resumed walking towards him. The man was
clean-shaven. His hair was darker than usual for humans with
threads of grey in it. A few paces from Rhaki he bowed
again.

‘I am Serim, Lord. I
was the Elder of the settlement of Amud in the Domain of Asat until
I decided to offer what service I can to yourself Lord.’ He bowed a
third time.

Rhaki studied him. He
sensed a subtle difference between this man and the humans he’d
encountered in Gaharn or here. There was a small ability to use
power, insignificant really. But there was no fear or deceit in
this man – he genuinely believed he was called to serve Rhaki and
he saw only good in this Lord. Rhaki smiled. It was an unusual
sensation, a human meeting his eyes with no trace of doubt or
fear.

‘Serim’ he said at
last. ‘I think we will work well together.’

He indicated an
adjacent rock. ‘You walked from the north to find me?’

Serim eased his pack
from his shoulders and perched on the rock.

‘Yes Lord. There was a
wrongness about the Wise One’s decisions I felt. So I
left.’

He could learn some
interesting things from this strange little man, Rhaki thought,
then he nodded at the tower.

‘You see I am building
a place of strength and safety.’

‘You use power
mightily, Lord. I have little ability but you are strong
indeed.’

Before Rhaki could
reply, he convulsed, his body crashing to the ground. Serim grabbed
his own head in both hands as a searing pain shot like a hot knife
through his brain. The agony subsided to a dull but bearable
throbbing within seconds and Serim rushed to Rhaki.

Lord Rhaki’s body
jerked and twisted, his jaws locked and his eyes rolled back in
their sockets. Blood flowed from his knuckles where he’d thrashed
his arms on the rock strewn ground, and from his mouth, where he’d
bitten his tongue. It seemed an age to Serim until at last Rhaki
lay still, the tension slowly seeping from his stiff body. Serim
pushed his pack under Rhaki’s head and watched him a few moments
longer.

Then he untied his
flask from his belt and dribbled a few drops of water against
Rhaki’s lips. Rhaki’s eyelids fluttered slightly and his mouth
caught at the flask, greedily sucking all of the water it held. Not
sure whether the Lord was conscious, Serim said:

‘I will fetch more
water, Lord. I will not be long.’

Rhaki gave no sign that
he’d heard so Serim hurried back to where he’d seen a spring at the
side of the trail. He was quickly back, holding the flask to
Rhaki’s lips once more. He sat patiently beside him, not knowing
what else he could do, until eventually a groan warned him the Lord
was rousing. Serim helped the tall skeletal figure to a sitting
position, his back resting against the boulder from which he’d
fallen. Twice more, he fetched water for Rhaki, apologising that he
had nothing when Rhaki asked if he had any food.

‘What happened Lord? Do
you know?’

Rhaki shook his head,
and winced. ‘A mighty surge of power, but from where I do not
know.’ He scowled. ‘I am the strongest of any I know, yet this was
far beyond my power.’

He leaned heavily on
Serim as he tried to get to his feet. ‘Have your people – Delvers –
have they any of such power?’

Serim tilted his head
far back to look straight up into Rhaki’s face. ‘No Lord. None of
us could match your power. The Dragons use power but not often.
There was the strange human girl and the Nagum boy. But I sensed no
greatness in them.’

‘Help me back to
Return,’ Rhaki ordered. ‘I must be able to join Hargon and the
other fools for the meal tonight. A few more days and the upper
part of my building will be complete. I will finish the inside
myself and then I must rest. But only once I am behind my own walls
will I feel safe enough to rest as I must.’

Serim had been
supporting most of Rhaki’s weight thus far but now he felt Rhaki
walking more easily rather than staggering beside him.

‘I need strength for
only a few more days Serim, and I will sleep in my stronghold and
you will guard me. Then I can consider what this – event –
portends, and hear all you have to tell me of your
people.’

Return was in sight now
and Rhaki let go of Serim’s shoulder and walked unaided. The gate
guards made to stop Serim but Rhaki remarked in a tone of mild
reproof:

‘He is my guest.’ And
the guards stepped aside.

Hargon’s seneschal
Traff bowed as Rhaki led Serim into the manor.

‘Prepare a room
adjacent to mine for my assistant,’ Rhaki said without
pausing.

‘As you command Sir
Lord.’

Somehow a servant must
have raced up other stairs used only by such menials and now stood
bowing at a door beyond Rhaki’s own chamber.

‘Bring food for my
assistant. You will join me shortly before dawn,’ he added to
Serim, already closing the door to his own chamber as he
spoke.

Sometime later, Hargon,
Zalom and their Arms Chiefs noted once again Rhaki’s obvious
physical deterioration. Hargon asked almost immediately:

‘Did anything go amiss
today Sir Lord as you worked on your building?’

‘Why do you ask such a
question Hargon? I raised the last blocks as planned.’ Rhaki stared
at the Lord of Return.

‘I ask because several
deaths occurred among my people Sir Lord. All reports say they fell
where they stood and were dead when others went to their
assistance. Several survived. They described a dreadful pain
throughout their bodies. Those survivors are now as if nothing had
happened. My healers could find nothing to cause such pain and, as
I said, death in over a score. Men and females alike,’ he
added.

Rhaki chewed a mouthful
of pastry to allow himself time to think.

‘I admit there was an
unexpected flux of power Hargon. I also admit I have no idea whence
it came. It afflicted me too – briefly. Those who were affected
here would be those with weaker minds perhaps. I was slightly
weakened, having just completed my work with the power.’ He
shrugged. ‘I will look into it once I am installed in my
building.’

‘Could there remain any
of the practitioners of the dark powers in the cities by the Salt
Sea?’ Zalom asked casually.

Rhaki smiled although,
as this was the first he’d heard of any such cities in the distant
west of Sapphrea, he was more than a little alarmed.

‘Which cities
exactly?’

‘The cities sacked and
abandoned a thousand or more cycles past.’ Hargon said
gravely.

Rhaki gave a snort of
amusement. ‘Abandoned cities Hargon? Then who is left to use such
power? Spirits of the long dead?’

Hargon shuddered
involuntarily as Rhaki continued:

‘I do not believe in
spirits who linger in empty cities nor do I think, if such beings
exist, they could be capable of anything at all, let alone use
power!’

‘What about the People
of Gaharn or the Great Dragons?’ Zalom persisted.

‘There is no one in
Gaharn with even half my strength,’ Rhaki snapped. ‘And as for
Dragons – I hope you jest Zalom.’ He pushed his chair back from the
table. ‘I must rest. The masons will be available tomorrow I
trust?’

‘Of course Sir Lord.
And I hope there will not be another – incident – such as the one
today.’

‘I too, but who can
say?’ Rhaki smiled at the four men and went to bed.

‘He looks gravely ill,’
Arms Chief Niram commented.

‘Would that he had
died, as did my people today,’ Hargon replied.

‘Surely he could be
killed, in the state he is in now?’

‘Who shall I order to
the task? Word has spread of how three of my men have died. I’d
guess any I ordered would vanish to the Gangers. My men are brave
enough, but not against this Lord of the People and his accursed
power.’

Navan asked hesitantly:
‘What did you think of his reason why some of the townspeople died
today Sir?’

‘I cannot see how any
today could have inherited the blood of the outcasts. All were
exiled or killed, down to the most distant blood kin.’

‘You told us in Tagria
Hargon, that a female in your household claimed that blood. She
also said that a cave existed close by Return which held great
magic?’

‘She was half crazed
with age,’ Hargon began, then caught Navan’s expression.
‘Well?’

‘A cave near Return.
Those armsmen said there was a cave they were going to check on. If
they were near this cave when Rhaki killed them, perhaps that’s
why. I mean, suppose there is a cave and it does contain something
of great power. That may be why Rhaki chose to build his tower
there. We agreed there are many and better places he could have
built.’

Zalom nodded. ‘That
would make sense Hargon. Also, you know I believe the old histories
as fully as you although Seboth derides them as make believe. I
think it is possible that blood of the ancient ones survived and
has now strengthened within the bodies of our people
today.’

‘There would be no way
of telling if that were so, Zalom.’ Hargon looked even more
alarmed. ‘You are suggesting then that there could be an enemy
within ourselves as fatal as I fear Rhaki is?’

A mild shudder quivered
over Parima, Segra, Fira and Kedara Circles, making most people
pause for a moment before carrying on with whatever they were
doing. In the Corvida, Jilla tensed, her eyes unfocused. Thryssa
waited, knowing Jilla’s senses were in the air, tracking the
blazing line of power that had burst from Talvo Circle.

Jilla gasped and sat
down with a bump.

‘She has reached a mind
that she knows!’

Thryssa frowned. A
silver Dragon had always lived in Talvo Circle and at varying
intervals sent out a shrieking pulse of power. The first time it
happened after the wanderers had settled in the Circles, it had
caused many deaths, mental crippling and general suffering.
Consequently, the air adepts of Kedara wove a shield above the four
populated Circles and subsequent outbursts from the silver Dragon’s
insane mind had done no harm to Vagrantians.

‘What do you mean? Is
there another silver Dragon coming to Talvo?’ Thryssa
asked.

‘No.’ Jilla shook her
head. ‘It was not a Dragon mind, nor was it fully human. I did not
feel it long enough to understand. There was a cry from Gremara but
the one she sought put shields against her, although I believe that
mind recognised her.’