the face of one of them: a youth, eyes bleary with tears. Carnelian could see the similarity in their faces. The man gave the youth a nod then bowed his head. The youth unsheathed a sword, his eyes huge and white, then he brought it down through the neck. It caught. He had to jerk the blade out. He seemed to be choking, but he managed to chop again. The head came loose and rolled drunkenly towards Carnelian's feet. The trunk sagged over onto one side, showing its meaty neck, spraying blood everywhere. The youth edged towards Carnelian with the dripping sword hanging from his hand. Carnelian prepared himself for the blow, almost welcoming it. He flinched as the youth looked up at him. Grief had cut stripes in the spatter of gore that was his face. It was a boy's face but hatred gave him the eyes of a man. He stooped, laid the sword on the deck, then lifted the head and cradled it as he moved away.
Carnelian looked down at his cloak. He remembered he had given it to Tain. Its feathers were darkly matted with blood. His father walked past him towards the captain who was a huddle on the deck. He nudged the man with his foot. 'Clear the deck.' The huddle flinched. 'Now!'
The man rose mumbling as he stared at the bloody deck.
'You can have that cleaned later,' said Suth.
The man stumbled off with horror printed on his face. Carnelian watched him mouthing orders. There was a taste of acid in his mouth. The stink of the blood mixed with the mask's. He gagged. All he could hear was the wind, the drum's relentless beat, the hiss of the oars.
Carnelian watched Aurum come out from behind the screens. He had expected anger but there was only contempt on the Master's face. 'You stupid boy.' Aurum reached out and snatched his mask from Carnelian's grip. It had been like a shell. Carnelian blinked, exposed. The smell of death and Aurum's sneer were all the world. 'Look at this mess.'
'Do not be too hard on the boy, my Lord,' his father said. Carnelian heard something like pleading in his father's voice.
'I have lost one of my tyadra, Sardian,' said Aurum.
'I shall give you his worth or a replacement.'
'And can you also replace the sailors upon which this vessel so much depends?'
Carnelian watched his father's head drop a little. Then Aurum turned on him. 'How do you explain this, boy?'
Carnelian shook his head.
'I knew you were provincial, callow, but I did not think to add stupid.'
'You will leave him be,' Suth said.
'And what will you do, Sardian, if I do not?'
Carnelian waited for his father to confront the old Master in his defence, but once more his father dropped his head and said nothing.
Aurum stood with his legs planted wide like a conqueror. 'I shall go now to ready what people I have left. See if you can find a way to keep your son under some measure of control.' He put his mask up and strode away.
Carnelian turned to his father, red with shame. 'My Lord-'
'It is my fault, Carnelian. I had thought you better trained. I blame myself.' 'But-'
'You will stay here, my Lord, until Tain shall come with your mask. After that you will return to your cabin and remain there until I give you leave to come out.'
Carnelian hung his head. 'Yes, my Lord.'
He heard his father move away. Feathers were sticking to his chin. Their smell was sweetened by the crusting blood. Carnelian lurched to the rail from where his stomach pumped vomit out over the threshing oars.
Tain came up with the mask. Carnelian watched his brother eye the bloody deck. 'We heard the noises… below.' His face was pale. 'Why did it happen?' he whispered.
Carnelian looked down at his hands. 'It was my fault, Tain. I forgot to wear my mask.' He could feel his brother's eyes. He looked up but could not read their expression. Was it pity? He took the mask from him and put it on. He was glad to have it to hide behind. Through the eyeslits, he watched Tain regard the deck as if it were something dangerous.
'Look, there's the land,' Carnelian said, to wrench his brother's eyes from the blood. He took some steps towards the prow. His foot slipped. 'You'll see it better from here,' he called back. He felt that Tain had not moved. He turned. Tain was still there, looking very small.
'I can see it well enough from here, Carnie.'
Carnelian nodded, returned defeated.
In the cabin they stripped him to the skin. Carnelian bundled everything into the feathered cloak, thrust it into Tain's hands and told him to go and throw it in the sea.
Tain packed quietly. They had said nothing to each other since he had returned without the bloody bundle. Carnelian woke Crail and told him that he would have to start thinking of getting ready. Then he tried to help Tain. Each time their hands touched Tain flinched as if he were being burned.
There was a knock on the door. It was Keal, grim, haggard. The Master's sent me to escort you up on deck. He wants to talk to you.'
Carnelian's stomach churned. ‘I’ll be ready in a moment.' He asked Tain to touch up the paint on his face and hands. He shook out his black cloak and put it on. He took the mask from Tain's hands, thanking him, and grimaced. The smell of blood was still on his fingers.
He followed Keal up the stairway. When he reached the top, he closed his eyes, sucked some deep breaths through the mouth of his mask, then stepped out onto the deck.
Slaves were scrubbing the grating. A path through the blood had already been cleaned from the stairway to the prow. There Carnelian saw the huge rectangle of his father's back among the smaller shapes of their guardsmen. Carnelian followed Keal along the path. His father turned as they approached. His mask lent him a cruel look. He moved to one side and the guardsmen cleared a way. 'Come, stand beside me, my Lord.'
Carnelian moved into the space and immediately their men formed a wall of screens that separated them from the rest of the ship. His father reached up to unfasten his mask. Carnelian's hand shook as he was forced by protocol to do the same.
His father's grey eyes fell on him. 'How are you feeling, my son?'
Carnelian forced back the tears. He was no longer a child.
Suth reached out and touched Carnelian's cheek. 'You will have to get used to death. Perhaps I have erred to keep you so shielded from it these long years. The Chosen are great dealers in death. You would have found this out in Osrakum had you been raised there. I fear you have acquired an unnatural sensitivity to it.'
Suth looked out across the sea. Carnelian followed his gaze. He let the strain out and it saddened his face. A blue wall of cliffs had risen before them that edged the whole horizon. The wind washed him. It squeezed some tears out of the corners of his eyes and ran them back along his head to his ears.
'Behold,' said Suth. He was careful not to look at his son lest he should weaken the boy's self-control. 'Behold the shore of the province of Naralan, the edge of the Three Lands.' He shook his head slowly as if he did not believe what he saw. 'Once you set foot upon her brim, Carnelian, your life will be forever changed. You cannot know, my son, who and what you are. It is not your fault. It will come slowly at first. You will see such beauty, and such terror, but the wonders.' He sighed the last word. 'Such wonders as not even your mind's eye has beheld.'
He dared to look at his son. He had sensed that his words were soothing the boy. 'But though you shall acquire the freedom and the thrill of power you shall always be restricted by the Law-that-must-be-obeyed. Today's bloody lesson you will not soon forget.'
He waited for a reaction but his son merely nodded. He continued, 'Duality is the essence of creation. As certainly as night follows day, all gain is balanced with loss.
'Now, listen. There is a perilous game. The Law forms the matrix in which it is played. The Emperor, the Great and the Wise are its players. We must all play. I have almost forgotten how to. My moves are unsure, but it is coming back to me. You too must learn to play. There are such forces ranged against us…'
Carnelian had at first been glad of the distraction of politics but now he felt as if a shadow was being cast over them.
