Orb Sceptre Throne

blade in each hand, was climbing to his feet among the broken wood of an ornamental table. He drew the back of one hand across his face, leaving a smear of bright fresh blood.

‘You are in need of dressing!’ Studious announced, eager.

Seeing him, the man flinched away, almost falling again. ‘Don’t you touch me!’ He ran off, following a trail of bare bloody footprints that led to stairs to the lower levels.

‘I have unguents!’ Studious called after him.

Then he sniffed the air and his mouth moved in what might be called a smile. Ah! The Mistress’s daughter has returned! Perhaps I should find some pretty live plants and pull them up to kill them. As is the barbaric custom here for celebrations.

The lowest cellar was all one empty roughly octagonal room. At its centre a single figure sat cross-legged. She occupied a series of concentric circles inscribed in the floor, which was dotted with wards and sigils and symbols in languages spoken by no human. Her head was bowed and long black hair hung in a curtain that touched the ground before her.

Taya came down the wide staircase sliding along a wall. She clutched her side, blood a smear down that leg. Her gauzy scarves hung in tatters. She threw herself down before the crouched figure, a hand reaching, entreating.

‘Mother! Protect me!’

The figure’s head rose.

Topper came bounding down the stairs. He caught sight of the two women and stuttered to a halt. He raised his blades out from his sides, head cocked.

The woman within the centre of the wards stood. Chains rattled, running from her wrists to rings set in the floor at her sides. She wrapped a hand round one of these chains and yanked. Metal screeched and the chain snapped. She did the same with the other.

Topper’s brows rose in silent appreciation. A feral smile twisted his lips and he flicked the blades, shaking droplets of blood across the floor.

The woman advanced out of the concentric circles, dragging the chains behind her. She lashed one, sending a scattering of sparks flying. ‘Clawmaster,’ she said from behind the curtain of hair. ‘Do we have a quarrel?’

Topper eased his left leg slightly further back. ‘Vorcan. I’m here for that one. She must answer for a crime against the Empire.’

Vorcan glanced back to the prone figure. ‘Leave her to me.’

‘To you?’ A puzzled frown creased his brow. He tapped one bloody blade to his lips, thinking. After a moment the feral grin returned and he offered a mockingly elaborate courtier’s bow. ‘Very well. For now. However … if I see her again I will take her head.’

Vorcan pointed to the stairs. Remaining half bowed, Topper backed up, all the while keeping his eyes on her. At the top he disappeared in a swirl of darkness.

Vorcan turned back to Taya.

She lay on her side, still panting, drenched in a sweat of pain and exhaustion. She stared up at Vorcan, her brows crimped in puzzlement. ‘All this time …’ she breathed. ‘You could have …’

‘Yes. Had I chosen to — of my own free will.’

Taya shook her head in mute rueful incomprehension. Then she grimaced, hissing. She struggled to rise. ‘Well, thank you. I knew you would help me, Mother.’

A metal click sounded and Taya jerked up an arm. One of the chains now hung from it. ‘What is this?’ Vorcan gripped the other wrist and transferred the second chain. ‘No!’ Taya reached for a fallen knife. Vorcan kicked it aside, then took her daughter’s neck in a vice grip. While she held her in the choking throttle she reattached the chains to their rings. Then she tossed her down and backed away.

Taya lunged but the chains rang and grated, restraining her. She lay rubbing her wrists. ‘You cannot do this to me! I’ll have your heart!’

Vorcan continued backing away up the stairs.

‘Mother? You’re not really …?’

Vorcan disappeared. An unseen door closed heavily and a lock ratcheted.

‘Mother! Don’t leave me like this!’

Taya collapsed to curl into a tight foetal ball at the centre of the concentric rings. She wrapped her arms around herself and laid her head on the cold hard floor.

‘Mother …’

*

Rallick found his man sitting on a bench in the grounds of Majesty Hill. He was facing the east. The sun’s warm light was a golden wash across him. He sat next to him; the man did not stir from studying the sunrise over the distant Gadrobi hills.

‘You were supposed to run,’ Rallick said after a time, his hands clasped on his lap.

Scholar Ebbin nodded, almost distractedly. He pressed a bunched cloth to his forehead.

‘He wanted you to. He drove you off.’

The man nodded again. He let out a long sigh.

‘But you didn’t.’

Ebbin shook his head.

‘Why not?’

Slowly, the scholar turned his head to face him. He swallowed to speak. ‘I don’t want to die.’

Rallick looked away. His mouth tightened. ‘I’m sorry.’

Ebbin studied the sunrise once more. He tapped a finger to his temple. ‘He’s inside right now. Raging. But only a voice. Just a voice. He’s harmless now, I swear. Couldn’t I just-’

‘No.’

Ebbin pressed the cloth to his watering eyes. ‘I’ve hurt no one! I didn’t mean this to happen. It isn’t right!’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rallick said again. His voice was now much softer.

‘I could have run, you know! Could’ve. But I didn’t!’

At that Rallick’s gaze tightened as if pained. ‘I know.’

‘Couldn’t you just …?’

‘No.’

‘Please …’ Ebbin whispered.

Rallick motioned to a copse of woods. ‘Come with me.’

‘No … I don’t …’

Rallick clasped an arm round his shoulders to raise him from the bench. ‘This way, scholar. Only one thing left.’

*

A fist wrapped tight in the scholar’s shirt, Rallick banged on the door of the Finnest house. Ebbin stared, taking in all the details of the bizarre structure. ‘Is this …’ he murmured, awed. ‘Then there really was …’

The door swung open and there stood a horror. Ebbin jerked to scream but Rallick slapped a hand to his mouth. The scholar slumped, fainting in his arms.

‘A sign,’ Raest announced. ‘That is what I need. Something like — Keep off the Mounds.’

‘Can’t you take him?’

‘We already have a boarder.’

‘That sleeping fellow?’

Raest shuffled back up the hall. Rallick followed, dragging Ebbin with him. The Jaghut motioned to the huge man lying on the floor, snoring. ‘Our boarder. Quiet. Undemanding.’

Rallick studied the sprawled man. Now he thought he recognized him; in fact, he knew where he’d seen him. He’d been with that foreign blacksmith. He adjusted Ebbin in his arms. ‘Well, perhaps he’d like to leave now … Can he?’

‘Can he what?’

Rallick studied the Jag’s dead scarred face. He cleared his throat. ‘Can he — I mean, is he hale? Whole?’