discuss.”
“Of course.”
Shananara bowed and returned to her people, who had patiently gathered behind her, waiting for their Queen to finish her discussion. Mandah followed her, still wearing that same look of awe that she had acquired when the dragons first appeared over the Citadel this morning. Tarja called over the lieutenant in command of the escort, gave him his orders and then headed for the tunnel.
As he entered the cool darkness he felt the ground tremble faintly under his feet. He stopped, curious, waiting for it to happen again, but when no further tremors eventuated, he shrugged and kept on walking, certain that he must have imagined it.
“The Kariens are frantic,” Garet informed him later that day.
“Shananara did more than just fly over them, Garet,” Tarja told him with a grin. “She strafed them. They must be having quite a crisis of faith at the moment. How many priests do you think they have left out there?”
“Not many. The priests liked their creature comforts. Most of them were billeted in the Citadel.”
“Then they lack spiritual guidance as well as leadership. How many fled?”
“A few thousand at least,” Garet informed him. “Any word from King Jasnoff yet?” Their demands had been sent in a carefully worded message to the Karien King. They'd dispatched a dozen birds carrying the same message, to ensure that at least one got through.
Tarja shook his head. “It's far too early to expect a response. The birds we sent may not have reached Yarnarrow yet.”
“What about our relief forces?”
“Maybe R'shiel will be able to tell us something when she gets back.”
Garet nodded and took a seat on the other side of the desk. Tarja was too restless to sit. There was too much to be done.
“I've had the lads check the stores. We've enough here to hold out for years. Mathen was looting the countryside, but he was rather considerately storing it all here in the Citadel. He was expecting to use it for the troops outside.”
“Which means they'll get hungry soon.”
“That'll thin their numbers some more. Desertions are always a problem when your army isn't being fed.”
“Well, between the Harshini scaring the wits out of them and their bellies grumbling, hopefully, by the time help arrives they'll be down to a manageable number. Has there been any trouble in the city?”
“No more than usual. Once again, thanks to Squire Mathen, the people are getting quite used to living under martial law. And we reopened the
“I wonder how long that will last?”
The walls trembled faintly again before Garet could answer. The tremor he had felt in the tunnel under the amphitheatre had not been his imagination. They had been going on all day, growing steadily stronger and more frequent. He frowned and glanced at Garet, who looked just as concerned.
“That's all we need,” he muttered. “First a siege, then the Harshini, and now a bloody earthquake.”
“It's not an earthquake, Tarja,” Shananara informed him, stepping into the office as Mandah opened the door for her. “It is the Citadel awakening from his slumber.”
“You talk as if the Citadel is alive.”
“The Citadel may not be 'alive', by your definition, Tarja. But it is sentient by ours.”
“This is where I leave,” Garet announced, rising to his feet. “You can sit here and swap pagan fairytales with the Harshini, Tarja. I have better things to do.”
Shananara turned her regal gaze on the commandant. “You are Garet Warner?”
“You've heard of me?”
“Brakandaran speaks quite highly of you, sir. For a human.”
“Does he now?”
Tarja recognised the dangerous edge to Garet's soft-spoken reply and inwardly cringed. This could get very ugly if he didn't head it off, and quickly.
“Are your people settled in, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, thank you, although we took the liberty of removing the tapestries and other... impediments, that you have used to disguise the Citadel's origins. I hope you don't mind. It looks almost like home again, now.”
As far as Tarja was aware, most of the dormitories had been whitewashed to conceal the Harshini frescoes that had once decorated the walls. He sighed; they had been here barely more than a few hours and already they were redecorating.
“You didn't do any structural damage, I hope?”
“The Citadel is not that easy to harm, my Lord.”
He wasn't sure what she meant by that and decided he really didn't want to know. “Garet was just telling me that your rather dramatic entrance this morning has caused quite a stir among the Kariens.”
She shrugged. “We cannot fight with you, my Lord, but we help where we can. Xaphista's believers either deny our existence or consider us the essence of pure evil. Either way, they do not know how to react when they see us.”
“We deny your existence, too,” Garet pointed out. “Yet our people aren't panicking.”
“No, Commandant, you have never denied our existence. You tried to eradicate us and thought you had succeeded. There's a distinct difference.”
Garet glared at her, but made no further comment. The building trembled again, hard enough that Tarja clutched at the desk for support. Shananara looked around the room thoughtfully for a moment then turned to Tarja.
“I really should do something about that, I suppose.”
“Exactly what did you have in mind?”
“I need to speak to the Citadel. It can feel our presence, but the humans here are disturbing it. Once I've reassured it that you mean us no harm, things should settle down.”
Garet muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a curse.
“How can you speak to... it... him... whatever the hell it is?”
“It will have to be in the Temple of the Gods. The Citadel's presence is strongest there.”
“I'll have someone escort you.”
“Founders, Tarja! You don't seriously think sending this woman down to talk to a building is going to stop an earthquake, do you?”
Shananara turned to Garet with a serene smile. “Perhaps you and the Lord Defender would like to accompany me, Commandant?”
“Why? So we can watch you talking to the walls?”
“No, Commandant,” the Harshini Queen replied with solemn dignity. “You should come because you and your people have occupied our home for two hundred years. You have vandalised and defiled it, with no thought to the consequences. It is time you understood what you have done.”
CHAPTER 53
Like R'shiel, Tarja had never been able to refer to the Great Hall as Francil's Hall without choking on the words. At least now he could change that, if nothing else. The Great Hall would be known as the Great Hall once again, although, as he escorted Shananara up the broad steps with Garet, he wondered how long it would be before
