The Night of the Swarm

‘They tried everything before resorting to this. They had me drink something that made my gums bleed. It didn’t work. Lord Arim tried selk-magic and that didn’t work. Ramachni put me in the healing sleep. By the next morning he knew it was useless.’

‘We were there, Neeps. We saw.’

‘Prince Olik said the nuhzat isn’t dangerous, or even unpleasant. But this is mucking terrible for her. Not because humans are so strange. Oh no, it’s because we’re not strange enough. She’s seen us all her life, you know. In cages, zoos, sometimes in the bush. When her family went for picnics her mother used to let her toss carrots, bits of bread. Later we weren’t around so much. The wild ones are mostly dead and gone. They’re rotten hunters, and fragile, and so mucking stupid. When the dlomu stop feeding them they just starve.’

He was raving, but he couldn’t stop. ‘Then one day some of these pale animals show up and Pitfire, they can talk. And what happens? Straight away her prince asks Lunja to march off with these animals into the wilderness, and she goes. Right to the Black Tongue and the flame-trolls and the Infernal Forest, which is to say right to the blary Pits. Her friends get slaughtered one by one. Then she finds out that she can’t even go home, because now her prince is an outlaw, and she’ll be punished for helping him, helping us, and she has a brother in that city, Thasha, and two nieces, and a normal dlomic man who might have married her. And when she’s already given everything to protect these crazy, ugly animals, it turns out that one of them needs-’

He paused; he was gasping for breath. Thasha reached for him but he jerked sharply away. He gazed at her as though expecting the worst.

‘You think Lunja’s been complaining, don’t you? Well forget it. Not one word. It’s just me thinking, putting the pieces together, and how am I supposed to thank her, Thasha, she’s so mucking kind, and inside I know she’s disgusted, she has to be-’

‘But you’re not,’ she said.

Neeps swung at her. Thasha ducked the blow; she had guessed where this was heading. He swung again; she jumped back out of range. The third time his fist grazed her cheek. Then she tripped him easily and threw him flat on his back.

‘I love you,’ she said, feeling a fool.

He stared: that had caught him off guard. He lay on the turf for a moment, winded, dabbing at his eyes with his sleeve. Then Thasha helped him to his feet.

‘It isn’t working,’ he said at last. ‘She watches me, watches my eyes for the change. It hasn’t happened. What if it never does?’

Thasha pulled him close and held him until she felt his breath start to slow, and the rigidness leave his muscles. ‘Do you know what Hercol would tell you?’ she said. ‘You’ve found your path-’

‘Now close your mouth and walk it.’

Neeps let her go. He was smiling, a forced smile if Thasha had ever seen one. Then the smile vanished and he looked her straight in the eye.

‘You’ll tell Marila what this was about, won’t you? I mean if something happens and I don’t get the chance? You have to. Oh Thasha, if she ever heard a rumour, or some nasty joke. . Will you do that for me? Promise?’

‘Cross that one off your list, you fool. I’ll tell her. I promise.’

Neeps’ eyes pinched shut. He nodded. Thasha took his arm, and together they went looking for their friends.

The meeting was to occur in Thehel Bledd, the Temple of the Wolves, a place forbidden to them until today. Pazel was hurrying towards it along a trail through the oak grove when he met Hercol and Ramachni.

‘I’ve been lost for an hour,’ he said. ‘There are three or four ways to get everywhere in this land, and twice as many to get nowhere you’ve seen before. Aren’t we running late?’

‘Not at all,’ said Ramachni. ‘The temple is quite near. Save your strength for tomorrow and walk with us. As it happens we very much need to talk.’

Pazel looked up. ‘This is about Thasha, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ said Hercol. ‘Along with Neeps, we are her closest friends. And you of course are more than a friend.’

Pazel said nothing to that. He loved these two, but he had become wary of them both. In the bitter end he feared they might be capable of sacrificing Thasha. That did not make them evil; it might even make them what Alifros needed to survive. Rin knew Thasha was capable of sacrificing herself. But he, Pazel, could not sacrifice her. Not unless he could go with her, into whatever death or transformation she faced.

‘This wall inside Thasha-’ Ramachni began.

‘I’ve told you what Erithusme said five times over,’ said Pazel. ‘It’s between them, and it won’t let them trade places. It won’t let Thasha hide in that “cave” in her mind, or let Erithusme take control of her body and come fully back to life. And that’s all. Thasha can barely feel the thing; Erithusme can’t find out what it is. Maybe Thasha built it herself, unconsciously. Or maybe Arunis put it inside her somehow, before he died.’

‘I do not know if he ever had such power,’ said Ramachni, ‘and even if he did, to implant such a spell would have required him to touch her, and for rather longer than an instant.’ The mage looked at each of them. ‘Has he ever done so?’

Hercol shook his head. ‘Never.’

Pazel agreed. ‘And he could have, when we were locked up in Masalym. He never tried.’

‘When we fought him on the Chathrand, he summoned darkness, just before he fled the ship,’ said Hercol. ‘He might have touched Thasha then. But the darkness was brief, and he was desperate, fighting for his life against us all.’

‘The spell could have reached Thasha by means of an object, if she kept it on her person long enough,’ said Ramachni. ‘That was his approach with her mother’s necklace. But when he cursed the necklace Arunis did not know of the connection between Thasha and Erithusme. You witnessed his shock on Dhola’s Rib, when he glimpsed the truth at last. Think carefully: has she been given anything else that might have come from the sorcerer?’

‘No,’ said Pazel.

‘No,’ agreed Hercol. ‘Since the incident with the necklace, Thasha has been wary of gifts from any quarter, I am glad to say. However-’ He paused, glancing uneasily at Pazel.

‘Go on, say it.’

‘What if the object was Fulbreech?’

‘Fulbreech?’ cried Pazel.

‘He was, after all, the sorcerer’s tool,’ said Hercol.

And he touched her, thought Pazel, feeling suddenly ill. Many times. For longer than an instant.

‘If Arunis had the power to infect her mind at all, Fulbreech could indeed have been the agent,’ said Ramachni. ‘Pazel, have you spoken to her of those encounters?’

‘No!’

‘She would have felt the magical intrusion, for a moment at least. One of us must ask her.’

Pazel took a deep breath. ‘She’s ashamed of the whole business,’ he said. ‘Of course she shouldn’t be; she was brilliant. But playing along with his lies, pretending to want him, to be under his spell — honestly, Hercol, it’s about the nastiest thing you could have asked her to do.’

‘And you and she both know why I did so,’ said Hercol.

Pazel nodded, reluctantly. By playing Fulbreech, they had almost succeeded in killing Arunis back on the Chathrand. And would have, he recalled bitterly, if he, Pazel, had not interfered.

‘I will speak to Thasha,’ said Hercol. ‘Pazel is right: I put her up to the foul game.’

Ramachni shook his head. ‘On second thought, I think it must be me. This is a matter of spells, and my questions to her may be more precise. Besides, I will not shame her. There are some advantages to not being human.’

They passed on through the trees, through the rich smell of loam and the flutter of unseen wings. ‘Ramachni,’ said Pazel at last, ‘do you trust her, completely?’

‘What a question!’ said the mage. ‘Thasha has proven herself beyond my wildest hopes. I would place the