‘Oh for pity’s sake! Why-’
‘Enough,’ her mother snapped before softening her voice. ‘Yes, my dear, it’s true: you’re to be his priestess if you wish — but the choice is yours, Gennay, you must remember that. You’ll not be getting the tattoos tonight; there’s time enough in the years to come for all that. Right now you’re just here to greet him — that’s honour enough for one day, and one afforded to very few in this Land.’
Gennay beamed at the two of them. ‘Manayaz will be so jealous — I’m the special one for a change, not him.’
‘Aye, well, it’s not something to be bragging about,’ Doranei warned her. ‘The Sisters of the Dusk are a secret cult, and don’t you be forgetting it. If you’d been born into a different family you might never have heard of them your entire life — and if you can’t keep a secret, you don’t belong.’
‘Yes, Father,’ she said with a smile.
‘Good. Now you’ll wait here while I go on ahead and see an old friend,’ he murmured, and spurred his horse on to catch up with the lead rider just as he reached the base of the hill.
They paused there together, looking around at the ground beneath their feet, then the rock-studded hillside ahead. A flicker of movement caught their eyes and both turned to watch a silver shape bound across the stony ground then pause and survey them. It was thick-furred, and larger than any deerhound, and it watched them silently, barely visible within the silver-edged gloom of twilight. After half a dozen heartbeats it broke into a run again before vanishing into thin air, only to reappear away to the west, where it skirted warily around the last members of their party.
The pair followed the ghost-dog’s movements until it headed out across the open ground they had crossed and vanished completely from sight.
‘Hard to picture, ain’t it?’ Doranei commented quietly as they found themselves staring back down the bare slope. ‘How this once looked.’
Vesna sighed and slipped from his horse. ‘Sadly, all too easy,’ he said at last. ‘Doesn’t matter if the bodies are buried; some of us still hear their cries a decade on.’
‘It’s more than a decade, my friend,’ Doranei said, also dismounting. ‘It’s what, sixteen winters now? We’re getting old.’ He paused and looked the Mortal-Aspect up and down. ‘Well, some of us, anyways.’
Together they started on up the hill, both walking with their hands on their hilts as though unable to let go the savagery done in that place. They were halfway to the top before either spoke again, lost in the memories of friends lost.
‘She’s a pretty little thing,’ Vesna said, glancing back at the riders below. ‘Got her mother’s eyes.’
Doranei laughed loudly. ‘Aye, well, never much chance of anything else now, was there? She’s a holy terror, that girl, to her brothers and me besides. It’s hard to stop her when she’s got such a look of her mother about her; the Watchman might regret making that one his priestess.’
‘Don’t be so sure,’ said a third voice from up ahead, ‘I have never been one for excessive reverence — witness at my Mortal-Aspect back there.’
The two warriors stopped and stared up at the face smiling down from the top of the slope. He wore a bright white cape that swirled about him and carried a staff of perfect darkness in his hand. A silver dog darted out from behind his cape with the wariness of a wild thing, only to retreat back into the shadows a moment later.
‘Gods, I’ll never get used to that!’ Doranei exclaimed as he rushed forward to grab the newcomer in a hug. ‘Another one who’s not aged a damn day, but I’m glad to see you all the same.’
‘Well, now, a little silver in your beard gives you a distinguished air, so you have not suffered greatly on that front,’ said the smaller man with a laugh. ‘More fitting to your position in life, one might say, my Lord.’
‘Hah! Lord Protector of the Realm? All that means is holding General Daken’s leash until King Sebetin’s old enough to do it himself.’ Doranei stepped back and inspected the white-cloaked man. ‘Gods, but look at you, Mihn: better than you ever were in life — and holding that black staff in your hand like it was nothing more than a twig.’
‘Thank you, my friend,’ Mihn replied. ‘You are too modest, though: Lord Protector is not bad for a man of the Brotherhood, and Narkang thrives under your stewardship. The queen herself told me so. That was a kind thought, by the way, putting the shrine in the Royal Baths so I could see Emin once more before he died. If you can only stop King Sebetin marrying one of your daughters, he will have an untroubled reign, I suspect.’
Doranei shook his head. ‘He’s had a warning on that front,’ he said darkly. ‘The cocky little sod has a lot of his father in him, but he’s not fool enough for that.’
Vesna pushed Doranei aside and stepped forward to hug Mihn too. ‘It’s good to see you, Mihn,’ he whispered.
‘And you, my friend,’ Mihn said a broad smile. ‘It is always too long — but my cult is well-established now, so it will be sooner next time, I promise. And you will be pleased to know I have also visited the Ring of Fire. The Menin continue in peace — the stability you gave them remains.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. I don’t fancy walking there again any time soon — took long enough the first time.’
Vesna stepped back and they all looked down the slope at the figures ascending. Without warning Doranei hopped back from where he was standing, hawked noisily and spat on the ground beside Mihn.
‘Charming,’ called his wife. ‘Perhaps General Daken isn’t entirely to blame for the young king’s behaviour?’
‘Shake his hand, spit on his shadow,’ Gennay piped up. ‘Isn’t that what you always say, Father?’
‘Is it?’ her mother said, her eyebrow raised. ‘Not in my earshot he doesn’t.’
‘It is a great pleasure to see you again, Zhia,’ Mihn said, bowing low to her. ‘You are, as ever, the rose to your husband’s thorns.’
‘So let us hope the girl hasn’t inherited her father’s brains,’ said a voice from nowhere, ‘otherwise she’ll not be much of a priestess. As treacherous as her mother, that I could learn to appreciate, but never a simple-minded one.’
Gennay looked around in surprise for the one who’d spoken, but she only worked it out when her father stamped on the ground where he’d spat. A soft chuckle drifted through the evening air.
She looked down. While most of their shadows were dark in the light of Arian, the white-cloaked man’s was as perfectly black as his staff. As she stared, the shadow reached out towards her, moving forward as it had when Mihn had bowed.
‘Karkarn’s-’ She was cut short as Zhia tapped her smartly on the cheek.
‘We’re not in the Light Fingers now, young lady.’
‘Quite so,’ the shadow said smoothly, ‘and whatever part of Karkarn you were thinking of, you would be doing me a grave disservice. I — we — are the Dusk Watchman. We are the Emperor of the Gods, and Karkarn is our vassal.’
‘We are also still a little full of ourselves,’ Mihn added with a tight smile. He reached out a hand and took Gennay’s, raising it delicately to his lips in formal greeting. ‘My Lady Gennay, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. My name is Mihn, and while my shadow rejoices in its new title, you may call it Azaer.’
‘ May? ’ the shadow demanded. ‘She may not — I demand respect from our priesthood.’
‘Mihn,’ Doranei growled.
The small man raised a hand to cut him off. ‘Both of you; behave.’ He cocked his head at the girl. ‘Your father is a great man, you know that? But he dislikes my shadow; you must forgive him that, he has good reason.’
‘And,’ Doranei broke in, ‘the shadow’s still sore your mother gave him everything it wanted, so it could taste its own medicine. You’ll find it doesn’t like underestimating us mortals, or the lengths we’ll go to, to keep a secret.’
Mihn raised a hand and Doranei fell silent again. Gennay thought for a long moment, then asked, ‘Why is Azaer your shadow if your friends don’t like it?’
‘A fair question,’ Mihn said, ‘but I fear the answer is long and complex.’ He gestured towards the centre of the hilltop, where she could see a circle of standing stones shining in the strange half-light.
‘Your parents have friends and family to remember, so perhaps we should leave them in peace for a while?’
She looked at her mother and father. Zhia touched Doranei’s arm, and the Lord Protector of Narkang and the Four Cities waved her on with gritted teeth and a scowl.
Mihn smiled went to embrace his Mortal-Aspect as the last three arrived at the top of the hill, then took
