lantern and the shoes down and removed his mask. Carrying it and the boxes in one hand and the lantern and shoes in the other, he raced off, taking the steps two at a time.
He descended flights that were straight and others that curved leftwards out of sight. He came to a long landing. The portcullis that controlled access to it was up. His lantern found a grating halfway along the landing's right-hand wall. It was a gateway closed against him. There was no way of knowing if it was the right one. He put down everything he was carrying and gave the bars a good shake. They hardly moved at all. He punched his fist into his hand. The scuffling sounds the others made came remotely down from the airy dark. He had to wait for them.
He held his mask in front of his face as Tain appeared followed by the guide and the new boy, both looking scared. Carnelian grabbed one of the portcullis bars. 'Here?' he cried.
The guide was breathing heavily. This… this is only… the legionary stratum… Master. The West Gate lies… further down.'
Carnelian did not wait to hear more, but was off down the next flight cursing at the delay.
The stairway widened as he reached another closed gate. He hesitated for a moment. He could hear the noises of Tain and the others following him down. He looked through the grating. He made his decision. On he ran, finding the steps in the swing of lantern light. A glow welled up to meet him. He could hear the distinctive tones of Quya. The voices stilled. He put his mask up and rounded a bend.
Guttering torches revealed a line of guardsmen making a fence with their swords. Their anxious faces were all disfigured by the Legate's mark. He walked down to meet them. Their swords and heads fell together. Carnelian looked over them, searching for his father. He spotted the tall shadows standing at the back. One of them came forward, breaking through the guardsmen.
'Carnelian.' It opened its cowl to reveal his father's mask. 'Hide yourself, boy.' He was holding up Carnelian's salt-stained travelling cloak. He stiffened. 'By the blood, are you actually carrying baggage?' He looked down. 'And where are your ranga?'
Carnelian looked at the shoes dangling from his hand on their straps. To aid my speed.'
His father leant close, pushing the cloak into his hand. 'Why do you persist in shaming me?'
Carnelian's cheeks burned as if they had been slapped. He sat down on the steps. His fingers were clumsy doing up the mask's bands behind his head and strapping the shoes to his bandaged feet. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of all the Masters on him. He stood up on the ranga, threw the cloak around his shoulders, then shoved his way through the Legate's guardsmen, pushing towards his father. The forbidding shapes of the other Masters loomed around him.
'We had thought you lost,' said Jaspar.
'It would appear that we are all lost,' said Vennel.
'Nobody is lost, my Lord,' snapped Aurum.
'I still cannot understand why we could not bring our slaves to help us on our way,' said Vennel. 'It is distasteful to have to use another's tyadra, especially when they come from a Lesser-'
'We all feel naked,' snapped Suth. 'But what use is it standing here on this stairway discussing it? We must press on. Soon it will be dawn.'
'One is forced to point out that it is your own son who delays us, my Lord.'
Suth ignored him and set off down the stairway at a furious pace. The guardsmen scrambled after him, their torches painting everything with jerking shadow.
Carnelian walked beside his father. Aurum was on his father's other side. He hoped the old Master would not move away from them to allow him to talk freely. They passed under another raised portcullis. He looked round and saw Tain and the others coming into sight. Carnelian turned back to his father. 'My Lord?'
His father's mask looked sideways at him.
'Your old and trusted servitor, Crail-'
'Has been destroyed,' said Aurum in a monotone. The trauma of the amputations…' He waved his hand dismissively.
Carnelian felt a numbing spreading from his stomach. 'By whose command was this done?'
'By command of the Law-that-must-be-obeyed and in the manner prescribed,' said Aurum.
'You gave Crail over to him, Father?'
'He sinned against the Law. I did try to tell you earlier…'
'But… but you said…' His head was trapped in ice. 'If he had to die it should have been with us, in our House, where he served us all the days of his life. We brought him with us to keep him safe.' His father's impassive mask exasperated him. 'Gods' blood, Father, he was your brother!'
'You stray into impertinence, my Lord.'
'All this fuss over what?' said Aurum. 'A worthless old drudge. The creature sinned against the Law, against me. You must never forget, my Lord, that the Law must be obeyed.'
Carnelian regarded the Master's cowled head with a strange detachment. 'But not, it seems, when it comes to our travelling arrangements.'
Aurum's mask drew back. He raised his hand in a vague, unreadable but angry sign.
'You will be silent,' said Suth in a dangerous tone.
'I will, my Lord,' said Carnelian, 'for now.' His voice vibrated out from the frozen spindle upon which he was impaled. He let his body walk itself down the stairway. His mind was as clear as blue winter sky. What had happened there that day he determined never to forgive nor to forget.
THE PURPLE FACTORY
EVOCATION: What is this path of Law?
RESPONSE: It is the tangling labyrinth.
It is the roiling sea.
It is the spiralling shell of the ammonite.
Remotely, Carnelian felt the tugging on his cloak. It was a while before he reacted. He turned his head as if it were on a hinge. Tain's face was there, anxious-eyed, desperate for some answer. Carnelian stared, not understanding what his brother wanted. Then he understood. Tain could not have comprehended the exchange in Quya. Carnelian moved his head once from side to side. As he watched the tears well up in his brother's eyes he wondered why he himself had none.
'Masters.' The legionary knelt before them, head bowed. Behind him in formal prostration were ranged a number of black-skinned men.
Aurum gave the legionary leave to rise.
The man was tall for a marumaga, almost reaching
Aurum's sternum even though the Master was wearing the ranga. His oily black cuirass had the blue wave cypher of his legion embossed on its chest. Typically, he was honey-skinned. 'I would beg to know which of you, my Masters, will take possession of these auxiliaries?'
Aurum threw back his cowl to reveal his mask.
The legionary bowed and pushed his arms out, wrists together. As he straightened, he swept his arm round to indicate the prostrate men. 'I come to give you these, Master.'
Twenty Marula?'
'Not so many, Master.'
Their collars have been removed?'
'Yes, Master.'
Vennel pushed towards Aurum. 'Marula? And why have their collars been removed, my Lord?'
'We shall discuss this matter at some more appropriate time, Vermel.'
'How shall they be controlled without their collars? The creatures are notoriously feral.'
