The Night of the Swarm

‘Less well than you, alpurbehn,’ said Olik, ‘for that was twenty years ago. But I swear to you, that neither my first home nor the fairest estates of my family have I yearned for as I have this place. Alas, yearning alone cannot bring one back to Ularamyth. Perhaps nothing can save dire need.’ Then, noticing Ramachni, he said, ‘What is this, friends? You have lost a rat but gained a weasel.’

‘Mink,’ said Ramachni.

‘Mage,’ said Hercol. ‘Sire, this is our leader and our guiding star, Ramachni Fremken, whom the elders of the South call-’

‘Arpathwin?’

Thasha could scarcely believe it: Prince Olik had dropped to his knees. His voice had come out a whisper, and it was scarcely louder when he continued. ‘Arpathwin! You came to us when I was but a child. To our house, to our table, when my cousin the Emperor turned you away. But you were not a mink, in that time. You looked like a human man.’

‘That body perished,’ said Ramachni, ‘but yes, I recall. Your father was far more hospitable than the Emperor himself.’

‘And I was a brat, with no interest in the world beyond myself. But even I could sense that what you spoke of was of the gravest importance. Of course it was the rise of the Raven Society, and the danger it posed to all the South. If only we had heeded that warning!’

‘Your father understood me,’ said Ramachni, ‘but I think the shock of what I told him — the deep decay in the Bali Adro Empire, the lateness of the hour — was more than he could face. A pity: the world might indeed be a very different place today.’

‘But how did you find us, Sire?’

‘My only accomplishment has been to stay alive, and for that I am indebted to Nyrex here-’ he scratched the grey dog’s chin ‘-and to the selk who found us, lost in the forests of the lower Sarimayat.’

‘Your Highness!’ blurted Big Skip. ‘You helped us plan this expedition! How could you stay so blary quiet about wonderful Ularamyth?’

‘You great buffoon, Skip,’ said Bolutu, laughing. ‘It’s the rule of the house; you know that.’

‘Hmmph!’ said Skip. ‘Yes, I know. But one little whisper, in private like? It would have made things so much simpler.’

‘It would have made Ularamyth a wasteland, centuries ago, if that rule had been less than absolute,’ said the prince. ‘Yes, silence is the rule of the house, and the selk have many ways of enforcing it. I should like to think that honour sealed my lips, but there are other seals in place as well.’

He swept his gaze over them again. ‘So many fallen! Seven dlomic warriors, two of your Turach marines. And where is my faithful Ibjen?’

When they told him that the dlomic boy had vanished into the River of Shadows, Olik’s pain was clear to all. ‘He was a brave lad, with a clear-thinking mind; there are not many like him. In another time I would have sent him to university, or to Castle Buriav to become a Defender of the Realm. But I have broken up your meeting. Forgive this weary castaway, Lord Arim.’

‘It is for you to pardon us, for bringing you to a war-council within an hour of your arrival,’ said the old selk.

‘Even more to be regretted, Sire,’ said Hercol, ‘is that we must part with you on the morrow, for we dare not delay.’

Prince Olik sighed. ‘I do not doubt you, though it wounds my heart.’

‘We’ll be stronger just for having seen you, Prince,’ said Thasha. ‘If you can escape Macadra all alone, surely we can do it with Thaulinin’s help.’

‘You misunderstand me, lady,’ said Olik. ‘I will be going with you, and will share whatever fate is yours.’

Now there were more cries of joy and amazement. ‘Olik Ipandracon!’ said Thaulinin. ‘We could hope for no better addition to our party than yourself.’

‘But are you rested?’ asked Hercol with concern. ‘Are you ready for the trial of the mountains?’

‘I can fight, and I can march,’ said Olik, ‘but I must beg you to endure my melancholy. Twenty years have I dreamed of stepping once more within these mountain walls, and now I am fleeing them at once. Ah well! I must hope to return before another twenty passes, and I become too old and stiff to make the journey. But as for rest, that I do not want for.’

‘The selk kept His Highness in a safe house, a place like Sirafstoran Torr,’ said Lunja. ‘He was there for a week, until they found a way to come here unobserved.’

‘And then of course, I was carried,’ said the prince.

‘There are no safe houses on the Nine Peaks Road,’ said Thaulinin. ‘Rested or not, you must all — but what is this?’

He was gazing at the staircase once more. There, abashed and until this moment unnoticed, stood Myett. Ensyl ran towards her, then stopped. The two women exchanged words that Thasha could not hear; then Ensyl leaped up the stairs and embraced her kinswoman.

‘The lady has changed her mind,’ said Prince Olik. ‘Indeed the words I brought her from Lord Taliktrum would change the mind of anyone whose heart still loved.’

‘But where is Taliktrum, Sire?’ asked Thasha.

Olik inclined his head. ‘Somewhere beyond our help,’ he said. ‘We parted on the banks of the Sarimayat, not two days out of Masalym. He told me he had a plan for survival should I be forced to flee downstream, but I never learned what it was.’

With his last remark the prince cast a pensive gaze over the assembly. Thasha looked at him, imagining his calculations, his doubts. A plan of survival, she thought. We left Masalym with one of those. And no one was hunting us then.

The council adjourned, and for the first time since their arrival the entire party returned as a group to the house in Thehel Urred. Thasha realised that she had begun to love it, in the same way that she had come to love the stateroom on the Great Ship: for an exile nothing is more seductive than the idea of home. ‘All these books,’ said Pazel, gazing at the glass cases with longing, ‘I barely touched them.’

‘We barely touched Ularamyth,’ said Hercol. ‘I could read this country for a lifetime and never tire. But that is not our fate.’

Then he bent low beside Myett, and offered his hand like a platform. When she stood upon it he raised her to the level of his eyes.

‘Never hide your darkness from us, sister,’ he said. ‘We will meet it with whatever light we can. There is no shame in sadness. But also, there is no sadness that may claim us as its rightful prey. This lesson I myself struggle to remember. We dwell in pain, and journey from loss to loss, but there is also love and wonder about us, and bright sunlight on the peaks. For today I am merely glad that you choose to carry on at our side.’

Thasha saw that Neda was watching Hercol and Myett with a curious intensity. How much of what Hercol was saying could she understand?

‘My choice scares me,’ said Myett, ‘but not because of the dangers ahead. No, I fear that I shall seek what I cannot find. Or perhaps the opposite: that I shall find something I do not seek at all. But none of that matters now. It is the heart that chooses for us-’

‘And who may ask it to explain?’ said Hercol with a smile. ‘Diadrelu taught me that.’

‘In the world’s last hour, the Unseen shall demand explanations from us all,’ said Cayer Vispek sternly. Neda, as if startled from a dream, turned and rushed from the chamber.

‘Could be,’ said Mandric, ‘but meanwhile, have a look at what the selk have brought us.’

Ranged neatly along the back wall of the chamber was a large assortment of knives, bows, baldrics, leather jerkins, warm furs, gauntlets, arm-guards, throat mail of fine steel chain. There were snow-picks and grapples and other climbing implements, a tent, a light telescope — and a fine selk sword for each. Cayer Vispek lifted one of the sheer blades, twirled it, tossed it from hand to hand.

‘Exquisite,’ he said, ‘and very old, though the edge on them is new, and lethal. I wonder how long these blades have slumbered here.’

‘Find the sword that fits you,’ said Ramachni. ‘Then try on your snow garb, ready your belongings, fill your packs. We must all try to slumber a little before our midnight climb.’

The preparations took longer than Thasha had expected. When they were done at last, many of the travellers