The Night of the Swarm

rule is plunder. They will come afoot, or creeping along the shoreline in anything that floats. I cannot say if they will penetrate these inner mountains, but before the tide turns they will almost certainly devour the coast. Our harbour has waited many centuries, but it will not be a secret much longer.’

‘Yet today we still depend on secrecy — and perfect secrecy at that,’ said Ramachni. ‘Macadra cannot guard every port and cove in the Peninsula, but should she learn the path we have taken, she will throw more enemies at us than we can possibly defeat.’

‘We must be nimble and swift,’ said Thaulinin. ‘Just ten selk warriors will accompany us, and we shall all wear white, the better to hide against the snow. We also have some plans for Macadra’s forces. Even now, bands of selk are leaving Ularamyth by several roads. They will try to draw the enemy astray. Nolcindar herself left three days ago, to see what trouble she might stir along the banks of the Ansyndra. If the Ravens and their sometimes- servants the hrathmogs come to blows, so much the better.’

‘My two sons are with her,’ said Valgrif. ‘If their work goes well they may even join us on the Nine Peaks Road.’

‘Us?’ said Myett, looking startled. ‘Then you are going too, Valgrif?’

‘As far as the low country, little sister,’ he said. ‘But I must turn back when I smell salt in the air, for I was born with blood-terror of the sea.’

Then a wolf appeared at the stone gate atop the stairs, holding a leather pouch in his teeth. ‘Ah,’ said Lord Arim, ‘here is something I put aside a long time ago, for just such an expedition.’

The wolf descended, and Arim took the pouch and opened it upon the table. Pazel jumped. Within the pouch were a dozen or more scarlet beetles, dry and dead, each one the size of a mussel shell. ‘Zudikrin,’ said Arim, ‘fire beetles from the deep caves under Ularamyth. You must each carry one in your coat, and guard it well. It is a last defence against freezing.’

‘Zudikrin make dangerous gifts, Lord Arim,’ said Thaulinin.

‘So they are,’ said the elder. ‘Use them only in the face of death: if the cold is winning, and your life ebbing away. If that time should come, bite down on the insect, break the carapace — and spit the beetle out. You will be warmed, I promise you.

‘Now,’ Arim went on, ‘there is a custom we must observe. If you would honour your time here, then honour this custom too, even if you cannot see its worth. The matter is simple: for thousands of years we have tried to make a haven of this place. When any living soul comes here in friendship, we name that one a citizen. And we recognize no one’s right to force that citizen to leave, for any cause whatsoever. Therefore I must ask if any one of you feels bound in your heart to remain here and abandon the quest. Silence, silence! Remember my entreaty! And remember too that every trial and hardship you left behind in this vale may come again in the outer world. Fear no shame or censure. Only if you would stay here, for a week or a year, or to the end of your short life, bid your comrades farewell upon this terrace, in the sight of all.’

His words left a silence. Thasha glanced in wonder about the table. It was a strange custom, but a noble one perhaps. All the same it was rather unthinkable that-

‘I will stay,’ said Myett.

There were loud cries. Ensyl, grief-stricken, began to shout in the ixchel tongue the humans could not hear. Arim raised his hands high.

‘No more! The choice is hers alone, and it is for no one to gainsay.’

‘May I speak, my lord?’ asked Myett.

‘If such is your wish,’ said Arim sternly, ‘but you who listen must do so in silence: that is my command, and I will not repeat it.’

Myett looked at her companions with a kind of misery. ‘I would stay, first because I found so few ways to be of use to this expedition. I am not as strong or swift as Ensyl. I can fight, but I was never trained like her, as a battle-dancer. I have been a burden, a thing to be carried, more often than a help. And I would stay because nothing awaits me in the North but solitude. Even if we somehow found the ship, the clan will not have me back. Even if we reach Stath Balfyr, and find it still a homeland for the ixchel, Lord Talag will poison my name.’

How can you be so certain? Thasha wanted to scream.

Now Myett dropped her eyes, as though too shamed to look at them. ‘On the Chathrand I tried to take my own life,’ she said. ‘I almost succeeded. Since then I have tried to be stronger, to turn my eyes to the sun. But I was failing. I could feel the sadness closing over me again like black water. Until I came here.’

She’s not acting on impulse, Thasha realised. She’s been thinking this over a long time.

‘That is all,’ said Myett, ‘save that-’ She made a gesture of confusion. ‘Lord Taliktrum. He abandoned me without a thought, without even a spiteful goodbye. If I am to live I must forget that. Please try to forgive me, Ensyl. You will be the last of our people I shall ever see. I will live among the wolves, if they will have me. I do not think I can forget anywhere but here.’

Now Myett forced herself to look each of her comrades in the eyes. ‘You will be stronger without me,’ she said. ‘Farewell.’

‘Come, sister,’ said one of the wolves. Myett leaped to his back. In three bounds the wolf ascended the stair and vanished through the gate. Once again that morning Thasha found herself fighting tears.

‘Guard her spirit if you can, Lord Arim,’ said Ramachni. ‘Your realm’s power is very great, but I do not know if it will pierce the darkness within her.’

‘She will be cared for,’ said the selk, ‘and now we must conclude the business of this council, and you must return to Thehel Urred and rest. Would any of you speak?’

‘Yes,’ said Cayer Vispek. ‘I wish to know if Macadra herself is patrolling the seas off this peninsula.’

‘That we cannot know, without some sighting of her,’ said Thaulinin, ‘but we have told you already that with stealth we hope to reach the Sandwall unmolested. The Island Wilderness beyond is uncharted by the dlomu, but we selk still recall the way to Stath Balfyr.’

‘And that is priceless knowledge,’ said Ramachni, ‘and our best chance of catching the Chathrand before she vanishes into the Ruling Sea. For while our friends on the Great Ship blunder about in search of that island, we will be sailing straight.’

Cayer Vispek laughed darkly. ‘Through what gauntlet we know not. After what carnage in the mountains we know not.’

Thasha glanced at him surreptitiously. What’s wrong with him today? Then she saw his eyes dart in Neda’s direction — and Neda look quickly away. Vispek’s part of it. Whatever’s happened to Neda is affecting him too.

‘Lord Arim,’ said Ensyl, still drying her eyes, ‘do my people truly reign on Stath Balfyr? Do you know?’

‘It has been theirs since my father’s day,’ said Arim, ‘and that was before the first dlomic ships were built, when only selk went to sea, and the Bali Adro were a wild clan upon the Doamm Steppe. But two centuries have passed since any selk made landfall there. I cannot say who rules the island now.’

‘Let us go together and find out, Lady Ensyl.’

The voice came from the stone gate above them, and even before she placed it Thasha felt a thrill of recognition. Everyone rose; shouts of joy and wonder on their lips. Descending the staircase, escorted by four wolves and a joyous Sergeant Lunja, was a tall and beaming dlomic man.

‘Prince Olik! Prince Olik!’

Chairs were overturned in the rush to greet him. And Prince Olik Bali Adro laughed and spread his arms in delight.

‘How by all the roads of twilight did you find your way here?’

For some minutes the war-council collapsed into a joyous reunion. Olik had saved all their lives back in Masalym, and to most of the travellers he had become a cherished friend. He was leaner and harder-looking than Thasha recalled, but his eyes still held that hint of merriment she had first noticed on the deck of the Chathrand. A grey dog walked at his heels, looking as strong and weathered as the prince himself. Behind it, with somewhat less dignity, came Shilu, sniffing and prancing in delight.

‘Welcome, citizen-prince,’ said Lord Arim. ‘I have long been hoping you would return, for your last visit brought hope and song to the Vale, yet you departed in great haste. Do you remember what we were speaking of?’