as ammonites drifted near. Carnelian tried to make his aquar back away but one of them touched a hand to the creature's neck and it sank down.
'Give the slave to us, Seraph,' one of the ammonites said in Quya.
Carnelian clutched Tain.
Ranga shoes clacked towards them.
'You must give them the boy, my Lord.'
Carnelian turned on Jaspar. 'Curse you, I paid your price.'
Jaspar backed away. 'Calm yourself, cousin.' He looked round to see if any of the other Masters were paying attention. The boy's eyes are safe, but he must pass through the quarantine with the others.' He pointed. 'Look, my Lord, we are all handing them over.'
Carnelian looked and saw Jaspar's pallid blood-smeared boy creeping into the waiting hands of an ammonite. He turned back to Jaspar. 'How long?'
'Before he is returned to you?'
Carnelian nodded.
Thirty-three days.'
'A month,' Carnelian cried in disbelief.
Twenty cells lie between here and the Blood Gate and there are another thirteen beyond. He will have to spend a day in each before he is allowed to pass through the Black Gate.'
'Promise me on your blood that he will not be harmed.'
Jaspar shrugged. 'My Lord cannot expect one to vouch for everything. If the child is found to have plague…' The Master put his wrists together in a sign of powerless-ness.
'He does not,' said Carnelian, more emphatically than he felt. He nudged Tain. 'Come on, we must talk,' he said in Vulgate.
Tain clambered over the edge of the saddle-chair. Carnelian fumbled on his ranga shoes and then climbed out beside him. He waved the ammonites back and walked a little way from the others, beckoning Tain to follow.
He looked down at his brother. Carnelian could see his own bloody hand-print on his brother's face. He touched his mask. 'I wish I could remove this thing.'
Tain looked back at him with huge bruise-rimmed eyes.
Tain, you'll have to go with them.' His brother looked fearfully back at the ammonites. 'Will they let me come back… back to you and the Master once… once… once they've blinded me?'
Carnelian threw his head back and moaned. 'Oh, no, no, Tain, it's not that. It's been sorted out. It's not that.'
Tain was still gazing at him.
'No, really, I promise, I swear on my blood, your eyes are in no danger, but…' 'But…?'
'You must be kept apart from us for a month until they're' – Carnelian indicated the ammonites – 'sure that you're clean of plague.'
'Plague,' nodded Tain.
Carnelian noticed the ammonites gathering around one of the kneeling aquar. 'Please go with them. I must see to Father. Trust me, Tain.'
'At the end of it, they'll send me to where you are, Carnie?'
'I promise.' Carnelian gave his brother's arm a squeeze. There was nothing to grip but bone. Tain looked stuck to the ground. Carnelian pushed him gently away. 'Go on, pull yourself together, endure it, you're strong enough.' He remembered something. He fished out the Little Mother from a pocket and pressed her into Tain's hand. 'She'll look after you.'
Tain gave a watery smile and hid her in his fist. Carnelian watched him turn, hesitate looking at the ammonites with their sinister silver faces, then pace towards them. Carnelian turned away and strode off towards his father.
Ammonites were crowding him. Aurum was standing looking in over their heads. Carnelian heard the tearing sound. He pushed through them and saw they were ripping through his father's cloak like a crab's shell to expose the yellow-white body inside. One of the silver masks leant so close that it caught a twisting reflection of the wound-stained bandages.
The creature straightened up and looked round at the gold masks. 'Seraphim, these bandages have been tampered with.'
Aurum leaned over to see. 'Perhaps his slave…'
The ammonite whisked round, looking off towards the boys who were undressing. 'Which is he? He must be destroyed.'
'It is too late for that; he was one of the Lord Aurum's numerous victims,' said Carnelian bitterly.
Aurum's mask looked down at him from a height.
'Besides,' Carnelian continued, 'it was I who cut the bandages.'
'Indeed, my Lord,' said Aurum. 'Now we see why he is dying.'
Carnelian flared up. 'How dare you accuse me of that? I did it with his agreement. The bandages were rotting…'
The Law-'
'Does my Lord speak of the same Law which he has seen fit to break at his every whim?'
Aurum's mask angled a little to one side. This impertinence-'
'Are you then, my Lord, He-who-goes-before? You must be since you wear his ring.'
The boy makes a hit, my Lord, a palpable hit,' said Vennel gleefully.
'I think, Lord Aurum,' said Carnelian, 'it would be better if the ring was returned to him to whom it legally belongs.'
Aurum seemed to grow taller, more menacing. The Law must be obeyed,' said the ammonite. 'I merely borrowed it to protect He-who-goes-before when he could not protect himself,' grated Aurum. He put his hand out and opened it to reveal the muted flame of the Pomegranate Ring.
Carnelian reached out and took it. The ammonite began to protest, but stopped when Carnelian lifted his father's hand, threaded the heavy ring onto the middle finger and closed the hand around the gem.
Vennel turned to the ammonite. This matter will have to be reported to your masters.'
'Perhaps, before he does that, he should first attempt to save the Ruling Lord Suth's life, or would you both rather have him die,' said Aurum icily.
Vennel pulled back like a snake ready to strike.
The ammonite lifted his hands. 'Seraphim, this behaviour is unworthy of your blood.'
'His life, ammonite…' hissed Aurum.
'It… this wound, it is beyond my skill, Seraph. Only my masters can save him.'
Then, ammonite, do you not agree that we had better make haste to get him to your masters? I promise you, your skin will not long remain your own if they find that you have let him die.'
Ammonites led them up a flight of stairs to a hall where the Masters were divested of their riding cloaks. Their long slim bodies were revealed wrapped in bandages sweat-stained yellow. New ranga were brought and jade-green robes spiralled with ferns. Their old cloaks and ranga shoes were gathered up with tongs and burned in a brazier.
As Carnelian came back down, he clenched and unclenched his hands that were sticky with Marula blood. He watched his father being moved to a bier and then covered with one of the green robes. Tain was a little way off, naked with the other boys, just skin stretched over bones. His head was in the grip of an ammonite being turned this way and that as the ammonite's silver mask peered at him. His shoulders and back were painfully bruised. Carnelian could guess by whom. Another boy whimpered as he was folded for examination. Carnelian turned away, knowing he had to let his brother go.
As a bright rectangle opened in the further wall, Carnelian strode after his father's bier. The green silk was heavy as he lifted it with his knees. The new ranga were taller than the old ones. He had to swing his feet. It was like walking on stilts.
He clacked out onto the road with the other Masters. The air had grown hot. Amid kneeling rows of Ichorians were chariots like jewel boxes. His father was being carried to one whose wheel rims rose above the
