Vengeance

‘No. Take hold of the shell,’ Rannilt said, sounding deliberately calm. ‘Push it closed.’

As Tali mentally grasped the two sides of the shell the angry note cut off, to be replaced by a higher one, faint and rarefied as though it came from far away. As though, she thought, her angry note was a call, and this note was an answer. She pushed on the two sides of the shell, forced them shut and the distant note was gone, and so were the swirling patterns and the coloured lights. Her head spun; she staggered and grabbed blindly at the girl.

‘Tali?’ Rannilt cried.

‘Sorry. I’ve been wading through fog for days and suddenly I’m free. Thank you.’

The relief was so great that Tali felt weak in the knees. She had not felt her normal self since the night she had come of age, when she had woken feeling as though a stone heart was grinding against her skull.

They trudged on and the sun went down. Tali looked up at the sky and it did not rock.

‘It’s waitin’ in the dark,’ whispered Rannilt. ‘Waitin’, waitin’.’

Instinctively, Tali checked behind her. ‘Now you’ve got me worried.’

The light faded and the temperature dropped sharply. She pulled her robes around her and was gazing at the dark sky and the jewel-like points of stars, the first she had ever seen, when Rannilt stopped, moaning deep in her throat. Tali caught her thin wrist, afraid the girl was lapsing back into the enraptured state where her magery had burst out in those golden rays.

But Rannilt’s eyes were fixed on a hollow fifty yards ahead, from which at least a dozen of the enemy were rising, including a stumbling giant with a little head. Somehow, incredibly, despite the hole through his head, Tinyhead had led them to her.

‘Run!’ Tali said softly. ‘Run, Rannilt, and don’t look back.’

‘I’m not leavin’ you.’ Rannilt’s teeth were chattering.

‘Find Rix and Tobry. Get help, go!’

Rannilt bolted. Tali broke into the fastest hobble she could manage, but she had not gone ten yards when a whirling missile went zivva-zivva-zivva past her left ear, struck a small salt mound not far ahead and went off, flinging scorching white crystals everywhere.

Salt shards stung her cheeks. A spinning chunk the size of a fist struck her in the belly hard enough to double her over, then the dust was stinging her eyes and they were watering so badly that she could not see. Tali choked on air laden with salt dust, so much salt in her nose and mouth and throat that she began to retch and could not stop.

She was lurching around, knowing she was lost, when a chuck-lash wrapped around her bottom and went off in a series of cracks that drove her to her knees. The pain was excruciating. As she was clawing at the crusted ground, a heavy boot drove into her side, knocking her down.

‘Got you,’ said Orlyk, tight with glee, and kept kicking.

CHAPTER 39

‘You’re a piece of work, you really are,’ said Tobry when he finally caught up to Rix, miles from the oasis.

Dark was settling shroud-like over the Seethings, though the way ahead was lit by wisps of marsh light and uncanny yellow glows from several of the lifeless pools.

Leather’s flanks were crusted with dried foam. Rix had dismounted and was leading her along a burnt-black isthmus meandering between a series of steaming ponds. The ground here was so hard that the horses’ hooves clicked with each step. The air had an alkaline tang and left a slippery, soapy taste in the mouth.

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ The anger had passed and he felt a sick emptiness now. He had behaved shamefully, but … how dare a Pale speak to him that way?

‘I do. Tali said — ’

‘I don’t want to hear it.’ Rix glared at his friend. ‘You fancy her. That’s why you’re taking her side.’

Tobry tried to smile but it wasn’t convincing. ‘You know me — I never get attached. And Tali said something rather interesting — ’

‘Whatever she said, I don’t believe it.’

Tobry’s jaw was clenched and so was his fist. ‘She said that the Pale spring from noble children, a hundred and forty-four of them, given by Hightspall as hostages to Cython a thousand years ago. And never ransomed.’

Rix kicked a stone into the pool to his right. It sank below the surface with a viscous gloop, as though it had plopped into a vat of glycerine. ‘You must like the wench. I’ve never seen you get so worked up about anything.’

Tobry ground his teeth and continued. ‘She said the Pale are enslaved, and beaten for the smallest infringement. She said her best friend was beheaded yesterday because she used magery to save herself from a flogging.’

‘She’s lying,’ Rix said half-heartedly, for he knew how hard it was to lie to Tobry. He could read people the way anyone else might read a map. Rix stared ahead, refusing to meet his friend’s eyes.

‘Tali said magery is forbidden in Cython.’

‘We know that.’

‘Will you listen!’ roared Tobry. ‘They kill every slave who shows a gift for it — even children. They were going to kill that little urchin hiding behind the tussocks — ’

Rix swung around. ‘WHAT?’

‘You heard.’

‘They kill children, because they have the gift?’

‘That’s what she said.’

Rix did not want to believe it, yet Tobry could sniff out a half-truth a mile away. ‘Can the Pale really spring from child hostages?’

‘Never ransomed, Tali said. Hightspall’s noblest children, abandoned to the enemy. She was furious about it.’

‘Why haven’t we heard about it before? Everyone knows the Pale are traitors. All the history books say so.’

‘How would you know?’ said Tobry. ‘You’ve never read a schoolbook in your life.’

Rix scowled. ‘Who has time for that rubbish?’

‘You saw the bruises on Tali, and the little girl was covered in them. Does that sound like they serve willingly?’

‘All right, I believe you,’ Rix snarled. If Tali was telling the truth, it made his behaviour even more inexcusable. ‘How did they escape from Cython?’

‘A question the chancellor will certainly be asking, once he hears.’ Tobry came up close. ‘Listen! Tali said they’re going to war in ten days.’

At last! Rix thought. ‘Then we’d better ride home like a hurricane.’ He took hold of the saddle horn.

‘Not yet.’

‘Why not?’ Rix snapped. If there was to be a war, his life would mean something at last.

‘The Caulderon road can’t be far ahead. We can send warnings with the first riders we meet — they’ll be a lot faster than our worn-out horses. Then we’re going back.’

Rix prepared to swing into the saddle. ‘There isn’t time.’

Tobry’s fingers dug into Rix’s shoulder, holding him back. ‘You’ve acted dishonourably to a woman and abandoned a child in danger. You can’t run away.’

‘I’m not running away,’ said Rix, all the more irritated with Tobry for pointing out the uncomfortable truth. Rix had offered Tali help, then insulted her and fled. His cheeks burnt. ‘All right! But if they’re not at the oasis, I’m not searching the Seethings for them. My house is in danger. My country.’

They had just reached the Caulderon road, a broad, well-built thoroughfare paved with slabs of white sandstone, when a crimson fireball erupted many miles to their right, bursting and billowing upwards in