Collared with tarnished silver, eyes averted, their half-black faces looked out from horned casques.
Carnelian was about to shout to them over the wind when they opened a path in their midst leading to the gate. Bending to keep his cowl from blowing off, he walked along it trailing Jaspar's men. He struck the gate and waited. Glancing up he saw one of the sky glyphs hanging over him as large as a chariot. The Skygate gasped open and a thick perfumed exhalation streamed past him. He walked through. The ground shook as the gate closed behind him, cutting the wind off like a tongue with a knife.
A cavernous hall ran off to what seemed to be the edge of a forest. Quilted with a tang of lilies, the air was pulsing. Carnelian thought he was hearing his own blood, but when he pushed his hand to his chest he found his heart was beating faster. Concentrating, he thought perhaps it might be a drum playing somewhere in the faraway forest.
'Seraph Imago, you were not expected till the morrow.'
The voice made Carnelian start. He turned to see the silver face of an ammonite beside him. He could not think what to say.
'Which of the Seraphs Imago are you?'
For answer Carnelian removed Khrusos' ring and handed it to the ammonite, who examined it, then returned it.
'Will he that is to be Imago be joining you, Seraph?' Carnelian shook his head.
'Fortunately, chambers have been made ready to receive you, Seraph. If the Seraph would deign to follow.'
Carnelian reached out to stop the man turning away. 'I must see the Ruling Lord Suth.'
The ammonite's silver mask regarded him as if he were mad. ‘Seraph, even if you were Imago, it would take days to arrange an audience with the Regent.'
The Regent? He is well, then?'
The ammonite shrugged. ‘Seraph, I do not understand.'
The man hunched his shoulders, beginning to fall into the prostration.
'I assure you that he will want to see me.'
The ammonite made vague gestures with his hands but would not look up at him. 'Seraph, perhaps I should go and fetch one of my Masters?'
'No,' Carnelian said, feeling a stab of fear. The Wise must not be involved. Carnelian thought furiously. 'If I had something that I wished to give the Regent, could you make sure that he received it?'
The ammonite took a step back. 'My Masters, perhaps…?'
Carnelian reached into his robe and pulled out the chain with his father's Ruling Ring. He snapped the chain to unthread the ring. This should be given to the Regent. It belongs to him.'
The ammonite hesitated. Carnelian grabbed his hand and forced the ring into it. The silver mask regarded the hand.
'Give it to your Masters if you must, but get it to the Regent.'
The ammonite put the ring away into his robe, bowed, and then led Carnelian and his Imago guardsmen down the hall. He found a door down the left-hand side. The Sinistrals who guarded it stood aside and the door opened into a corridor of more human proportions that curved out of sight, its left wall regularly set with doors. They walked down this until Carnelian had given up counting the doors.
At last the ammonite stopped at one, opened it a little, jerked a bow and moved quickly away. Carnelian pushed the door fully open. It gave into a long narrow chamber that had steps at the end rising to another door. He crossed to open it and found another similar chamber.
Seven such chambers brought him to a flight of steps leading up to a more imposing door. He climbed to open it and walked into a bedchamber. Over the rattle of shutters, he could hear the wind careening through the sky outside. He returned to the door and urged the Imago retainers to make themselves comfortable, then he closed the door and went to sit on the bed to wait. The distant heartbeat was the loudest sound in the chamber. He listened to it with the taste of copper in his mouth, wondering if this was a symptom of the sky sickness.
SYBLINGS
My reflection was my brother
Wheresoever I did go He was bound to follow
Carnelian skimmed sleep like a flying fish. Beneath its waves slid nightmare shadows, driving him to struggle out of the water's leaden coat up into the air. He longed for their mouths to swallow him and end the nausea of fear, but still with a slap and a flick he managed to evade each lunge and fly free, winnowing the wind, frantically rowing the air. He would see the fire in the chamber, perhaps his stone fingers, the gloom pulsing with his heart, and then first his head and then his spine would suck back into the sleeving sea.
He was shaken awake. All he could hear was his beating heart.
'Carnelian.'
Impossibly, his father's voice, his father's face quivering with the drumbeat of Carnelian's heart. It was his father sitting on the bed in the flickering firelight clad in some peculiar close-fitting garments. Carnelian reached out for him and they clung to each other.
Suth pushed him gently away and looked at him. 'Why are you here?'
Carnelian's head throbbed. He reached up to feel for the spike hammering into it. 'My heart,' he said, not understanding how this could rhythm his father's words.
His father frowned, looked puzzled. He turned his head to one side, listening. 'No, not your heart, the God Emperor's.' His face darkened. 'Why are you here, my Lord?'
'I came to…' He saw the Ruling Ring on his father's finger and pointed. 'Good, they gave it to you.'
His father looked at his ring, frowning. He rubbed his finger over its cypher and showed Carnelian the ink stain on his skin. Carnelian felt that his father's eyes were seeing into his head. This is not the time to examine what has transpired in the coomb, but be assured, my Lord, that you will have to provide me with a full account. Now, why did you come?'
The ache in Carnelian's head made it difficult to think. 'Your letter-'
'Contained nothing about your coming here.'
Carnelian began shaking his head but stopped when it increased the hammering.
The look in his father's eyes softened. 'You are in pain, my son?'
'Just an ache… The letter you sent purported to be from you but was written in another's hand.'
'I should have explained that in the letter. The drugs the Wise have been giving me-'
'Your wound, Father!' Carnelian felt sick that he had forgotten it.
'Do not concern yourself. Under their supervision it heals well enough.' Suth rifted trembling hands. 'But you see how it affects me?' Carnelian stared at his father's hands. They looked so frail. His father rested them on his knees. 'What did you hope to achieve by coming here?'
To discover if you were still alive. To make sure that Aurum was not using your…'
'… corpse?' His father snorted a smile. Then his face hardened again. 'What part has Jaspar played in this?'
'How do you-? Of course, his people outside. Are they suffering like me?'
His father made a dismissive gesture. 'Not as much as you. Why are they here?'
Carnelian grimaced. 'It was the only way I could think of getting to court.'
His father's eyes narrowed. 'Who put this idea in your head?'
Carnelian considered it. ‘Spinel, I suppose.' 'Did he indeed. Was it also his idea for you not to come as yourself?'
Carnelian nodded.
