Vengeance

enraged, so desperate to get yours. With the master pearl, he may be able to command the stolen ones.’

‘There’s more,’ said Tali to Rix. ‘When you came out from behind those barrels, there on the left, I saw a faint pink aura around you — ’

‘I don’t have any magery,’ said Rix, trying to deny what she was saying.

‘I knew it even then,’ said Tali, ‘but the aura was definitely there.’

‘What if the killers put a blocking charm on you?’ Tobry said to Rix.

‘Why would they?’ said Rix, pulling free and burying his face in his hands. He wanted to scream.

‘It could have been designed to go off when Lyf appeared, to stop him getting the pearl. The charm would have been painful — perhaps that’s why you’ve always been afraid of magery.’

‘I repeat, why?’ Rix’s voice was muffled by his hands. ‘Why was I there at all? Such a spell could have been put on any object in the cellar. Why put it on me?’

‘I haven’t the faintest idea,’ said Tobry.

‘Lyf blames you for him losing the last pearl,’ said Tali. ‘That must be why he’s sending you nightmares.’

Rix felt as though he was trapped under a weighted shroud, screaming with claustrophobia. Why had be been there? Why put a spell on him? Why, why, why? The shroud kept tightening around him, suffocating him, and he could not heave it off.

‘Rix?’ Tali said softly.

He did not reply. Could not.

‘Rix?’

‘Yes?’

She pulled his hands away. ‘I’ve got to know what you saw that day. Did you see the killers’ faces?’

‘This is all I know.’ Rix swiped at the sketch. ‘And I’ve had to fight for days to get it.’

There was a long silence.

‘What if it represents both the past and the future?’ said Tobry. ‘Such symmetry might appeal to a wrythen two thousand years old. What if the sketch depicts both Iusia’s murder, and Tali’s?’

No, Rix thought. I don’t believe it. I can’t accept it. I won’t do it. No, no, no!

‘So that’s what the nightmares are all about,’ said Tobry. ‘After Lyf was robbed of your mother’s pearl, he chose you, Rix, because you have no magery. That’s what it’s all about — he means you to kill Tali and take her ebony pearl for him.’

The black shroud tightened until Rix could hardly breathe. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ he said, gasping for air. He felt the way Tali must have done in the water: overcome by panic, helpless, drowning. But there was no one to come to his rescue.

‘Do the sketch again, and finish it. But this time, you have to control the divination.’

‘What if I can’t?’

‘Tali, I think — ’ Tobry looked around sharply. ‘Where’s Tali?’

Rix knew he should go after her. She must be just as traumatised as he was, and the best way to deal with it was to talk everything through with her, but he was drained to the last drop.

‘She can take care of herself,’ he said in a faded croak.

‘Not in the state she’s in. She’s bound to do something reckless.’

Rix raised a boneless hand and let it fall.

‘Come with me,’ said Tobry. ‘We’ve got to find her.’

‘Tobe, I’ve got nothing left. And I’ve got the stinking portrait to finish.’

Rix flopped onto the settee and lay there, staring up at the timbered ceiling.

Tobry gave him a look of deep disgust and went out.

Rix closed his eyes, but could not rid himself of the scene in the cellar, and the mental image of himself at the end of the bench, eyes wide with horror as he cut the pearl out of Tali’s head.

CHAPTER 73

Every shape in the chancellor’s palace was curved and bulbous, like intestines herniating through muscle walls, and the only colour was the red of curdled blood. It made Tali’s stomach churn and her thigh throb. Even the air felt clotted; it tugged at her as she moved, as if she were trapped in a gigantic, pumped-up liver.

The colour sharpened her wrathful mood. How dare Lyf abuse her family so? How dare he bring them to such brutal ends, simply to steal their pearls? And how dare he manipulate Rix so cruelly?

Lyf must have been sending Rix the nightmares for ten years, whispering the lies that had made the boy think he had committed some hideous crime. Lyf had to pay, and she was the only person who could do it. But not without magery, and for that she needed the spectible. It was the one thing that could protect her now.

It wasn’t the only reason she’d fled Palace Ricinus, though. What if Lyf succeeded with Rix? She had to get away from him, just in case.

Getting into the chancellor’s palace had been the easy part — for an underground dweller, at least — but where to look? The shapes of the rooms and halls confused the eye and dulled the wits. It was hard to tell whether she was seeing a place for the first time, or the tenth.

She edged along a sinuous hall decorated with unnerving sculptures and paintings. Some were just gaunt shapes, pared almost to nothing, others so bulbous that they appeared to extend into other dimensions, and all were warped or twisted. What kind of a man filled his palace with such oddities?

Ignore them. Concentrate. Lady Ricinus’s hired killer might already be stalking the chancellor, and the Cythonians could attack at any time. She had to find the spectible, uncover her magery, rescue Rannilt and leave a warning about the threat on the chancellor’s life. Then, go after Lyf.

Ahead, two servants turned into the corridor, chatting as they walked. Tali pushed back against the sinuous wall, which was as warm as living flesh, and rubbed her slave mark. Don’t see me. Turn away. They did not turn aside, and it was impossible that they would not see her pale outline against the red wall. Look past me. I’m not here.

One woman was a tall, slender redhead, the other small and curvaceous, dark of skin and hair and eye, and both were remarkably pretty. Every servant in the chancellor’s palace was young, attractive and female. What kind of a man was he? Tobry had mentioned unnatural appetites, and if the chancellor caught her here …

‘Has he come after you yet?’ said the small servant.

‘Not so much as a sidelong glance,’ replied the redhead, with a regret-steeped sigh. She stopped at a cross-corridor only a few yards ahead.

‘Me either,’ said the small woman. ‘Mother will be furious. I’m the last hope of our family and it cost a fortune in bribes to get me a place here. If it’s all been wasted, I don’t know how I’m going to tell her.’

‘How could he not like you?’ said the redhead. ‘Your face and figure are perfect; you’re clever, but not too clever …’

‘Do you think he inclines the other way?’

‘If he does, why surround himself with women? There’s not a single man in his palace.’

Heaving another sigh, the redhead turned down the other corridor. The small, dark woman came on.

Don’t see me.

She passed Tali only a yard away and, though she must have been visible from the corner of an eye, the woman kept going and disappeared around the next corner. I’ve still got it, Tali thought. I can still hide in plain view, better than anyone.

Shortly, she caught a faint scent of the grubby child she had held in her arms for hours as they escaped to Caulderon. Rannilt! Her scent was coming from a door to the left.

Tali poked her finger into the oval catch, flicked upwards and it opened, revealing a large, bi-lobed chamber like two fused circles. The right-hand lobe was half filled by a curved table of dark red wood polished to a mirror shine. A series of scalloped shelves, partly in shadow, curved around the walls behind the table.

In the centre of the other lobe, scattering dirt onto pink granite flag stones, stood a battered set of wooden