Vengeance

he would shrug his shoulders and try something else.

‘I thought you burnt for justice,’ he said mildly.

‘I can’t fight … the wrythen without magery.’ She had almost said Lyf, and naming him would raise too many dangerous questions. ‘Powerful magery.’

‘I think you will find it. I think this is the one’s first great task. I’m going to send you there.’

‘What if the wrythen kills me?’

‘What if Lady Ricinus assassinates me in spite of all my precautions?’ said the chancellor. ‘What if the Cythonians tunnel under my palace and collapse it into a gigantic pit? Any of us may fail through error, or the unexpected, or the sheer perversity of life. You’re a gamble, but my instinct, which is seldom wrong, tells me you’re worth it. And here is the key.’

He slid the wrapped package to her.

She untied the cords, unwrapped the linen and discovered a book-sized heatstone inside. Tali felt no relief, only a numb horror. What if it didn’t work? What if her magery came and went again? In any case, that storm of white needles, so devastating against human flesh, might have no effect on a wrythen.

‘Take it with you,’ said the chancellor. ‘Smash it when you need magery.’

‘The wrythen nearly killed Rix and Tobry. How can you imagine I can do better?’

‘I can read people better than anyone in Hightspall.’

‘What do you read in me?’

‘That you’re a risky investment, but a worthy one.’

‘I’m not ready,’ said Tali. ‘Magery takes years to master. I’ll only make things worse.’

‘Neither am I ready, but as chancellor I have to act now. The enemy could break into Caulderon tonight or tomorrow. What if they intend to kill every man, every woman, every child and babe-in-arms in this great city? Think about the horror of all those individual deaths, then tell me that you’ll do your duty to the country you profess to love.’

This nightmare was all the more terrifying because it was what she had wanted. Now she realised how unprepared she was, how naive she had been to think of attacking Lyf. What if she failed and he gained the master pearl?

She had to do something. She checked around her. If she could leap on the chancellor, and bind and gag him, could she get back to the tunnels with Rannilt and the spectible before the alarm was raised?

The instant she moved, he snapped his fingers and two guards appeared at the door. They were much bigger than Tali and their blades were in their hands.

‘Chancellor?’ said the first of them, an oval-faced brunette almost as tall as Rix.

‘Take the child away.’

Chills spiralled through Tali as the brunette unfastened the stocks and picked Rannilt up. She woke, beamed and threw her arms out towards Tali.

‘Knew you’d come,’ said Rannilt. ‘I told the old man so.’

‘Take her away,’ said the chancellor. ‘I hold her hostage for your conduct, Tali.’

It was like history repeating itself. ‘Will you enslave her descendants for a thousand years?’ cried Tali.

‘Why would I harm a child?’

‘I don’t want to go,’ cried Rannilt, struggling furiously.

‘Tali, help, help!’ Tali trembled with a mad urge to hurl herself at the guard, but the smaller guard blocked the way with her blade.

Tali swallowed. ‘Rannilt, I’ll come back for you, I promise.’

‘Don’t leave me,’ Rannilt wailed, and reached out to her with both hands. ‘Here — use your gift.’

Golden bubbles formed at her fingertips, expanding and bursting into fragments that pattered gently on Tali’s face and hands. A sharp pain cleaved through the top of her skull and she felt a tight pressure there, as though a balloon was swelling inside her head, pressing so hard on her skull bones that they creaked.

She had felt that pressure before, in the sunstone shaft. Coloured lights swirled madly; the pain intensified; more balloons formed in her chest; her eyes misted and her vision swam. Then something rose up in her, something powerful, dark and uncontrollable, and she thrust her right arm towards the chancellor’s meagre chest. Her fingertips ached for release.

Considering his peril, he was eerily calm. ‘Don’t mistake an ally for an enemy,’ he said quietly.

The balloon popped, the mist vanished, and her rising gift sank out of sight and out of reach. Tali sagged backwards against the wall, almost as drained as if she had used magery. She felt a profound disappointment, a deep and troubling loss. The gift longed to be used and, horrific though it was, she longed to use it.

‘Ahh!’ He was smiling. ‘But you truly are worth the gamble.’

Tali stared at him. He seemed pleased, even vindicated. Had he manipulated the situation so she would reveal her gift? Truly, he was a dangerous man.

‘Remove the child,’ said the chancellor.

Rannilt was still screaming a hundred yards down the corridors. Her helpless, hopeless cries stabbed through Tali’s heart. Rannilt had given everything she had for Tali, over and over, and Tali could do nothing for her.

‘Well?’ he said.

She was beaten. ‘How are you going to get me through the enemy lines to Precipitous Crag?’

‘There are secret ways.’

This could not work. Even if breaking the heatstone did liberate her gift, it must take years to master. And without mastery, how could she take on a wrythen who had survived two thousand years after death? How could she attack a magian so powerful that he could create shifters, possess other magians and burn through Tinyhead’s brain from many miles away?

Without mastery of her gift, there was no hope. Lyf would take the master pearl he so coveted, and when he cut it out, she would die, just as Rix’s sketch predicted.

She was the one, all right. The one who opened Lyf’s path to vengeance.

PART THREE

HUNT

CHAPTER 76

Plague stalked the streets of Caulderon, poxes of Lyf’s own creation to which his people were immune, and for which there was no cure. Neither could Hightspall’s frantic magians and alchymists find any defence to Cython’s chymical weaponry. The enemy’s morale was crumbling and Lyf’s vast armies were in place. Caulderon would soon fall.

All was well.

When Lyf last haunted Rix’s nightmares, the compulsion had been close to taking him. On the next visit, it would, and Lyf would have neutralised his most pressing worry, the Oathbreaker’s Blade. Then Rix would bring the host to the cellar and cut the master nuclix from her.

But before he did, Lyf had to make sure of his most cunning enemy. Deroe had strengthened his wards further. A triple layer now surrounded the magian in his cliff-top manor and he believed he was safe. He believed he had beaten Lyf and was closing in on the host who bore the master pearl. The pearl that would allow Deroe to drive Lyf out for good, then exact a terrible vengeance on him.

Let Deroe think that until the very moment when Lyf slid between the wards and, striking like a cobra, tore his throat out.