Empire in Black and Gold

been.

None would miss you. You are a stray leaf fallen far from your tree, little neophyte.

He felt himself trembling from fear and cold both. His arms were still outstretched, but the power beyond his fingertips was so vast and so other that he could no more compel it than he could command the sun.

Do you think the bearer of the sign can still ward you from us, you who have conjured us into wakefulness and come into our heart?

‘No. .’ He choked, his fear was so high in his throat that he could barely speak. ‘I only sought. . I was only trying to find. .’

Did you think these sacrifices would glut us in blood, little Neophyte?

Sacrifices? ‘The Wasps. . Yes, they are yours,’ he stammered out. A dry crackle of laughter echoed around him.

And the other two, who now stumble within our borders, seeking a way out? The two slaves — are they also ours?

It was a moment before Achaeos understood, and when he did the temptation was painful. Buy the Darakyon with the blood of Stenwold and Totho, a Beetle and a half-breed? If it were only that ill-favoured creature Totho. . but Stenwold was her family. More, Stenwold was the only one who could control the Mantis, and the Mantis surely would know.

‘They are not for you!’ he choked out, and that rustling laughter came again.

Such demands you make, who have so little power to stop us. Such dictation of what we may and may not do. What will you buy their lives with, little Neophyte? What entreaties have you for us?

He felt his stomach lurch at this abrupt change of direction. ‘I just wanted to. . to find her.’ It sounded pitiful, even to him.

We shall see what you would do.

The shapes between the trees shifted, and something infinitely cold seared through the inside of his head from front to back, hissing like acid. His mouth snapped open, unable even to scream. Bent backwards, choking, he fell to the ground, his limbs pulled in, every joint locked.

And then it was gone, and he was left gasping, shuddering, lying on his side amongst the tangled roots of the Darakyon.

You are pathetic, the phantom voice told him. You will not even own to why you seek what you seek. But we have seen. We have seen all, and the pain that you will suffer for the road you take. We cannot be commanded to lend you our power.

Achaeos lay and trembled, crouched into a ball, and waited for the axe to fall.

But we have seen through you, little neophyte. The shapes between the trees were more distinct now, though he knew that he did not wish to see them clearly. You show spirit, and we have always valued spirit, courage. Always.

In that last word, lingering over it, there was contained a window opening onto a centuries-old loss, a betrayal, the end of an era. He remembered how the Mantis-kinden had dwelled here and that, although they lived here no longer, yet they were not gone.

We cannot be compelled, by you or your betters, little neophyte, but we shall lend you what you ask. This forges a debt between us. We shall remember it.

He opened his mouth to protest that he did not want their gifts, but it was too late. He had asked and he was given what he asked for. The cold that before had shrieked in his skull now hammered into his chest, infused him. He keened with it, burned with it. It shattered its way into him.

He had so little time. On his back, in the bowels of that terrible place, he called out, not with his own voice, but with the vicarious power that filled him.

Cheerwell!

Twenty-two

It was as though a hand, chill as ice, had placed its fingers on her forehead, and Che awoke, or tried to wake. Something caught her, like a spider’s web, halfway between sleep’s abyss and the conscious heights of the waking world.

A voice was speaking to her. Cheerwell! A voice she should know from somewhere, and yet supported by a vast chorus of whispers, and all of them also saying her name.

‘What. . what is it? Who. .?’ She knew she did not speak, and yet her words went out.

Listen to me. You must hear me. And again that half-familiar tone that she could not place.

‘I hear you.’

Do not fear, Cheerwell, for I am coming for you, to repay what is owed. I am coming to free you.

‘I don’t understand. .’ She felt as though she was on some rushing, surging wave, being whisked away beyond her own control. She had no sense of place or time. The darkness was thick and absolute.

You must tell me where you are, Cheerwell, said the voice — or voices — to her. Where are you? Let me find you.

And at last the concept came to her and she trawled her mind, feeling even as she did that she was rising towards the waking world where things like this could not be.

‘Myna. Going to Myna.’

And, even as she spoke, she felt a withdrawing, and she was suddenly rushing on towards wakefulness, pelting pell-mell for it, and at the last moment the owner of that voice came to her.

Achaeos!

‘Achaeos!’ And she woke with her own voice and his name ringing in her ears.

She opened her eyes on the storage bay that was their cell. Salma was sitting cross-legged across from her and his eyes were open also, as though just this moment he had been snatched from sleep. The Butterfly, Grief in Chains, lay on her side, but she too had pushed herself up onto one elbow, her white eyes wide. ‘Night brother. .’ she said quietly.

‘Che, are you all right?’ Salma asked.

‘I don’t know.’ Che found she was panting heavily, as though she had been running. ‘What just happened?’

‘There was something here,’ Salma said definitely.

‘Something. . what? Why did she. .?’ She turned to the Butterfly. ‘Why did you say what you just said.’

Grief in Chains just stared at her.

‘I felt. . Salma, tell me!’ Che pleaded.

‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I don’t know enough, and you wouldn’t believe me anyway.’

‘Are you going to tell me it was. . It was just a dream, that’s all.’

Salma’s habitual smile found his face at last. ‘Of course.’

Grief in Chains sat up fully. ‘You were touched,’ she said. ‘Darkness touched you.’ She seemed visibly upset. She had spoken very little during the previous day’s journeying, but when Salma reached a hand out to her she had clung to it.

‘It was just a. . a dream,’ Che insisted. A bad dream or a good one? she asked herself, and received no answer.

Abruptly someone banged on the hatch. ‘You keep it quiet down in there!’ barked one of the two soldiers Thalric had brought along. ‘You don’t want to wake the captain up, that’s for sure.’

Che closed her mouth and then frowned. ‘Wake? It’s. . it’s already day. .’

‘Day?’ Salma asked her, puzzled.