Blood’Drinker converge on the Watcher of the Empty Hold-but no, this is all madness. The Dragon Hold was virtually dead. Everyone knew this, every Caster of the Tiles, every Dreamer of the Ages. Yet here it vied for dominance with the Empty Hold-and what of Ice? Timeless, unchanging, that throne had been dead for millennia. White Crow-yes, I have heard. Some bandit in the reaches of the Bluerose Mountains now claims that title. Hunted by Hannan Mosag- that tells me there is power to that bandit’s bold claim. I must speak again to the Warlock King, the bent, broken bastard.
She leaned back on her haunches, wiped chilled sweat from her brow. Udinaas had claimed to see a white crow, centuries ago it seemed now, there on the strand beside the village. A white crow in the dusk. And she had called upon the Wyval, her lust for power overwhelming all caution. Udinaas-he had stolen so much from her. She dreamed of the day he was finally captured, alive, helpless in chains.
The fool thought he loved me-I could have used that. I should have. My own set of chains to snap shut on his ankles and wrists, to drag him down. Together, we could have destroyed Rhulad long before he came to his power. She stared down at the tiles, at the ones that had fallen face up-none of the others were in play, as the fates had decreed. Yet the Errant is nowhere to be seen-how can that be? She reached down to one of the face-down tiles and picked it up, looked at its hidden side. Shapefinder. See, even here, the Errant does not show his hand. She squinted at the tile. Fiery Dawn, these hints are new… Menandore. And I was thinking about Udinaas-yes, 1 see now. You waited for me to pick you up from this field. You are the secret link to all of this.
She recalled the scene, the terrible vision of her dream, that horrendous witch taking Udinaas and… Maybe the chains on him now belong to her. 1 did not think of that. True, he was raped, but men sometimes find pleasure in being such a victim. What if she is protecting him now? An immortal… rival. The Wyval chose him, didn’t it? That must mean something-it’s why she took him, after all. It must be.
In a sudden gesture she swept up the tiles, replacing them in their wooden box, then wrapping the box in strips of hide before pushing the package beneath her cot. She then drew from a niche in one wall a leather-bound volume, easing back its stained, mouldy cover. Her trembling fingers worked through a dozen brittle vellum pages before she reached the place where she had previously left off memorizing the names listed within-names that filled the entire volume.
Compendium of the Gods.
The brush of cool air. Feather Witch looked up, glared about. Nothing. No-one at the entrance, no unwelcome shadows in the corners-lanterns burned on all sides. There had been a taint to that unseemly breath, something like wax…
She shut the book and slid it back onto its shelf, then, heartbeat rapid in her chest, she hurried over to a single pavestone in the room’s centre, wherein she had earlier inscribed, with an iron stylus, an intricate pattern. Capture. ‘The Holds are before me,’ she whispered, closing her eyes. ‘I see Tracker of the Beasts, footfalls padding on the trail of the one who hides, who thinks to flee. But no escape is possible. The quarry circles and circles, yet is drawn ever closer to the trap. It pulls, it drags-the creature screams, but no succour is possible-none but my mercy-and that is never free!’ She opened her eyes, and saw a smudge of mist bound within the confines of the inscribed pattern. ‘I have you! Ghost, spy-show yourself!’
Soft laughter.
The mist spun, wavered, then settled once more, tendrils reaching out tentatively-beyond the carved borders.
Feather Witch gasped. ‘You mock me with your power-yet, coward that you are, you dare not show yourself.’
‘Dear girl, this game will eat you alive.’ The words, the faintest whisper-the touch of breath along both ears. She started, glared about, sensed a presence behind her and spun round-no-one.
‘Who is here?’ she demanded.
‘Beware the gathering of names… it is… premature…’
‘Name yourself, ghost! I command it.’
‘Oh, compulsion is ever the weapon of the undeserving. Let us instead bargain in faith. That severed finger you keep round your neck, Caster, what do you intend with it?’
She clutched at the object. ‘I will not tell you-’
‘Then I in turn will reveal to you the same-nothing.’
She hesitated. ‘Can you not guess?’
‘Ah, and have I guessed correctly?’
‘Yes.’
‘Premature.’
‘I am biding my time, ghost-I am no fool.’
‘No indeed,’ the ghost replied. ‘Even so, let us extend the bargain-’
‘Why? You have revealed nothing of yourself-’
‘Patience. Caster of the Tiles, await my… encouragement. Before you do what you intend. Await me, and I will assist you.’
She snorted. ‘You are a ghost. You have no power-’
‘I am a ghost, and that is precisely why I have power. For what you seek, that is.’
‘Why should I believe you? Why should I agree to anything you suggest?’
‘Very well, my part of the bargain. You speak now with Kuru Qan, once Ceda to King Ezgara Diskanar.’
‘Slain by Trull Sengar…’
Something like a chuckle. ‘Well, someone needed to thrust the spear…’
‘You knew it was coming?’
‘Knowing and being able to do something about it are two different matters, Caster of the Tiles. In any case, lay the true blame at the Errant’s feet. And I admit, I am of a mind to call him out on that, eventually. But like you, I understand the necessity of biding one’s time. Have we a bargain?’
She licked her lips, then nodded. ‘We have.’
‘Then I shall leave you to your education. Be careful when casting your tiles-you risk much by so revealing your talents as a seer.’
‘But I must know-’
‘Knowing and being able to do something about it-’
‘Yes,’ she snapped, ‘I heard you the first time.’
‘You lack respect, girl.’
‘And be glad of it.’
‘You may have a point there. Worth some consideration, I think.’
‘Do you now intend to spy on me my every moment down here?’
‘No, that would be cruel, not to mention dull. When I come here, you shall be warned-the wind, the mist, yes? Now, witness its vanishing.’
She stared down at the swirling cloud, watched as it faded, then was gone.
Silence in the chamber, the air still beyond her own breath. Kuru Qan, the Cedal See how I gather allies. Oh, this shall be sweet vengeance indeed!
The waning sun’s shafts of dusty light cut across the space where the old temple had stood, although the wreckage filling the lower half of that gap was swallowed in gloom. Fragments of facade were scattered on the street-pieces of rats in dismaying profusion. Edging closer, Samar Dev kicked at the rubble, frowning down at the disarticulated stone rodents. ‘This is most… alarming,’ she said.
‘Ah,’ Taxilian said, smiling, ‘now the witch speaks. Tell me, what do you sense in this fell place?’
‘Too many spirits to count,’ she murmured. And all of them… rats.’
‘There was a D’ivers once, wasn’t there? A terrible demonic thing that travelled the merchant roads across Seven Cities-’
‘Gryllen.’
‘Yes, that was its name! So, do we have here another such… Gryllen?’
She shook her head. ‘No, this feels older, by far.’
And what of that bleeding? Of power?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Glancing around, she saw a tall, cloaked man leaning against a wall on the other side of the street, watching them. ‘Some things, long ago grinding to a halt, should never be reawakened. Alas…’
