Right-hand, left-hand
Past and future
The green and the black
Earth and Sky
Two faces and the Mirror
But truly there is only one
'Douse that light.' Aurum was a tower of blackness in the night. The boy holding the lantern turned to stare at him, his eyes growing impossibly wide. The Master surged forward, snatched the lantern from the boy and dashed it to the ground.
The sudden disappearance of his father's bloody face brought Carnelian back to life. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dark.
Angry questions carried through the night with complaints about the noise, the lateness.
One of the Marula appeared and fell at Aurum's feet.
Take your brethren and silence those voices with fear,' the Master rumbled.
The man punched the ground with his head, rose and was about to go when Aurum spoke again.
Take this thing,' he said, lifting the boy squealing into the air. 'Destroy it.'
There was a coughing behind him. 'He is… my body… slave,' said Suth.
Aurum shoved the boy at the Maruli who received him with a grunt and loped off. The Master crouched down beside Suth. 'Are you wounded, my Lord?'
Suth trembled his hand in the air. The boy…'
'He saw your face, Sardian. You will have to make do without him. Are you wounded?'
Suth gritted his teeth as he held his side. 'A cut in my belly.'
Carnelian stared. 'He is covered in blood.'
Suth smiled up at his son. 'Most of it is the assassin's.'
Aurum peeled Suth's hand away from the wound and peered at it. He stood up. 'It is quite deep but bleeds cleanly. The bandages resisted the blade. Do you think you can walk, my Lord?'
Suth jerked a nod. Aurum helped him up. Carnelian felt his father's wince like a stab. Suth pressed on the wound to keep it closed. A swathe of his bandages was black with blood.
'Why are you just standing there, my Lord?' said Aurum to Carnelian with a flash of anger. Carnelian stumbled round to support his father's other side. This wounding is unfortunate but at least it has drawn Ykoriana's sting. Now we must abandon secrecy.'
In Carnelian's grip, the stone still nestled warm and sticky.
They gathered in the enclosure that Aurum had commanded the Marula put up around the corpse and shredded tent. He waved away Vermel's comment about the eyes from above and, by unmasking, forced the Master to remove his mask with the others. The light had gone out of Vennel's face. His colourless eyes turned reluctantly to Suth sitting stiff-backed on a stool. These robbers have spilled your precious blood, my Lord. They would not have dared had they known you to be Chosen.'
These were no robbers,' said Aurum.
With his foot he rolled the corpse's head to one side and drew its tunic down with his toe. A lantern on the ground revealed the red ruin of its face. Carnelian stared, clenching and unclenching the fingers from which Tain had prised the stone.
Aurum indicated the six-spoked wheel tattooed just above the corpse's clavicle. 'It would be strange indeed if the Brotherhood of the Wheel were to send their men so far merely to rob some merchants.'
Vennel was mesmerized by the tattoo. 'What else?'
'Assassination.'
Carnelian tore his eyes away from the tattoo to look at Aurum. Vennel also looked round. Carnelian saw his eyes avoiding contact.
Aurum looked down. These creatures meant to slay us all.'
'All?' Vennel examined the old Master's face. 'How so?'
They are hired killers. They came at night. They could not know which tent was which. To murder one they had to slay us all.'
'Which… which of the Chosen however desperate would thus dare breach the Blood Convention?' breathed Vennel.
Jaspar gave Vennel a filthy look. 'Your pretences begin to wear parchment-thin, my Lord.'
Vennel sneaked glimpses at the other Masters as if their sleeves might conceal daggers. 'Even Ykoriana would not dare…' he said at last.
Aurum rounded on him. 'You think not? Even after she murdered her own daughter within the very precincts of the Labyrinth?'
That is an ugly rumour.'
Suth had his stormy eyes on Vennel. 'Believe what you will, my Lord, but do not try to deny that your mistress lies behind this outrage. You should perhaps consider that your own blood would have soaked this ground had my son not raised the alarm.'
Suth looked at his son. The warm pride Carnelian saw in his father's eyes melted him a little.
Vennel’s face was ice. 'Even the Empress could not hope to wash her hands of such blood as ours.'
Suth indicated the corpse. ‘She wore these creatures like gloves that could easily be discarded. Who would dare accuse her as she pointed to her own emissary found among the dead?'
Jaspar nodded grimly. 'Our disguise would allow the Wise to give interminable sermons on the price that must be paid by those who disregard the Law.'
Carnelian's eyes had been pulled back to the corpse. 'How many of the Marula were slain?'
'A handful,' Aurum said, without turning. His mouth twisted with contempt. ‘She has used you for a fool, Vennel.' He snorted. 'And now you even confess complicity in a breach of the Blood Convention.'
Vennel turned away to hide frantic, calculating eyes. 'By all the huimur of the Commonwealth and on my own blood I swear that all I was party to was a temporary abduction, a delay that would ensure the election should go ahead without us, nothing more, no attacks, certainly not bloodshed…'
Jaspar was looking into space. 'How can one believe that the Brotherhood would dare raise their hands against the Chosen? We have tolerated their activities for so long. This single act invites their annihilation.'
'It is likely they knew not what they did,' said Suth.
'How did they find us?' asked Carnelian.
'Well…' said Vennel. They all looked at him. He floated his hands in elegant apology. 'In good faith, my Lords, and bearing in mind that my blood is as much at risk as yours-'
Jaspar dropped his forehead into his hand. 'Do we have to listen to this?'
Vennel flinched. The Legate and I came to an arrangement. A message was sent to Osrakum.'
Jaspar chopped a sign of contempt. 'You imagine we did not know? Why else do you think we forwent the left-way where you expected us to be?' He turned his back on Vennel and addressed Aurum. 'Do you think, my Lord, that any of these vermin escaped to carry word of their failure?'
That is immaterial,' said Aurum. He swung his arm round in an arc to take in the city wall. 'It is certain the Brotherhood had eyes up there to monitor the attack.'
Carnelian searched the wall, but it was as dark as the sky.
'When will Ykoriana know that they have failed?' asked Jaspar.
'Even by leftway courier, she could not have received Vermel's message much before the day that we passed Maga-Naralante, ten days after we set off from the sea,' said Aumm.
'Surely not ten days,' said Jaspar.
'You ignore the difficulty in getting the message secretly up from the City at the Gates to Osrakum and into Ykoriana's hand in her forbidden house.'
'Assuming you are right, my Lord, that would allow her at most only nine days to get the assassins here.'
