The Hollow King, page 24
Cado tried to move his arms, but he could only feel the fire still burning. He…
‘Lightning’s truth…’ swore Valentin. A part of Cado’s thoughts, floating free of the rest, could imagine the smith looking at him. A burnt cadaver, cooked flesh sloughing off bones, bloodsmoke steaming off the meat. He tried to draw a breath, and something must have moved in the ruin of his flesh because Valentin gasped.
Cado formed a word. He felt something that had been his tongue shift behind his teeth.
‘Blood…’ he said, the shallow breath hissing out.
For a second there was quiet, and stillness as a decision was made.
Movement, a hiss of suppressed pain, and then a splash against his teeth.
Red. Iron. Life and warmth. Just a drop. An explosion. A lightning bolt reaching down to kindle light. Another drop fell and then another, spattering against his teeth, seeping in. The pain was retreating. He could feel his limbs, his tongue, the withered claws of his fingers. His hands lashed out, gripping Valentin’s arm. His head rose and his teeth sank into the meat of the wrist.
The world went from white to red.
Beat by bloody beat, strength flowed into his flesh. The husk of his soul swelled. Flesh grew. Wounds closed. His eyes came last. Skin unfurled across muscle. Sight shimmered into being, swam and then focused.
Valentin lay on the ground next to him. Cado still had the man’s wrist in his teeth. He could feel the smith’s blood beating, an echo of his own, stolen pulse. He wanted to keep drinking. He wanted to drain the mortal’s veins and feel the thread of life snap with the last thud of an empty heart.
He let the man’s arm go and scrambled back. Valentin moaned but did not rise. The bite in his left wrist was still weeping blood onto the stone. Cado shut his eyes. He felt the hunger roar at him to finish the kill. He forced it down and knelt.
There were burns on Valentin’s face and arms, pale marks like the inverse of shadows. Blisters were growing on the patches of skin. Cado looked around to where the blinding column of light poured from the sky to strike the place where he had lain. He could only glance at it before he had to shield his eyes. Valentin had gone into that, had hammered the chains till they broke and then pulled Cado out. He looked back at the man. He was alive but would not be for long. Cado bit his left hand. Thick, almost-black blood seeped from the wound. A heavy drop formed on the tip of his finger. He held it above Valentin’s mouth. Not much. Not enough to be anything other than a small gift, life returned to where it was stolen from. He let the drop fall. It splashed on the man’s lips then trickled into his mouth.
Valentin’s eyes snapped open. He gasped and jerked to his feet, staggered. Cado’s hand snapped out and gripped the man’s arm. Valentin whirled, eyes wide and wild.
Cado willed stillness. The man froze. He turned to Cado. His gaze was steady, calculating, the look of a predator gauging a rival. A spark of red light clung to his eyes. Cado shook his head, and Valentin blinked. The light went from his eyes and confusion replaced the wary calculation.
‘Valentin,’ said Cado carefully.
‘What…?’
‘All is well,’ Cado said, and let go of where he had grabbed Valentin’s arm at the wrist. Where the bite had been, a glossy scar puckered the skin. Valentin touched his face. The blisters had gone, the pale burns faded so that they were almost invisible.
‘How…?’
‘A gift.’ The man blinked, shook his head as though trying to clear it. ‘Valentin,’ said Cado again. The man looked up. ‘Thank you.’
Valentin nodded, still uncertain.
‘It was Ama,’ said Valentin. ‘He followed you, down into the passages. He saw… He saw Magister Leragrais. He fled, found me, told me what he had seen and heard.’ The man’s eyes were hard. ‘I could have killed you myself then, but he said that you had told him to go.’ Valentin shook his head. ‘Wilful, stubborn, just like his mother. But he told me, and I knew then that the magister must have seen a way out by making a deal with the light aelves or whatever they are. There was only one way he could really leave alone, by the high gate over the bridge to the northern spire. So, I went out and waited close to the way down from that spire.’
‘How did you get out of the city?’
Valentin held up the seal of the worthies that they had been given.
‘I still had this. I waited, saw the magister come down riding one horse and leading another with a shrouded body on it – you.’ He shrugged. ‘I followed.’
‘Why?’ asked Cado.
‘Why? I don’t know really. I suppose because you got me out of that fight in the valley. I was angry before, afraid, but that was not fair. You got me into it too, but you could have left me behind. I believe… Everything is empty to you, I know that. You are just like the rest. You have this… end that you thirst for. You will do anything to reach it. It’s not conquest or slaughter, but it’s the same… Soulblight, a blighted soul. Says it all, doesn’t it? But I don’t see things that way. I see light and hope, and the only way we hold on to that is by acting as if it matters and is true.’ He shrugged again. ‘It was the right thing to do. Besides, I could not have told Ama that I knew and did nothing.’
‘Thank you,’ said Cado again. Valentin did not respond but nodded at where Cado’s sword and rings lay on the ground. Smoke was rising from them.
‘I got those out first.’
Cado picked up the rings and slid them onto his fingers. Their touch was ice cold. He looked down at his hand and blinked. Small facts and details aligned in his mind. He stared into the distance for a long moment. Lightning flashed in a strobing sheet across the sky. Raindrops began to fall, heavy and freezing.
‘You have horses?’
Valentin nodded, began to ask a question.
‘We have to get back to the city,’ said Cado.
‘What? They will do the same to you again if you–’
‘Leragrais is going to give the city to the Lumineth. They will have given him time to get some of the people inside the walls out, but the Ossiarchs are coming and the Lumineth will not wait. What happened at the outpost, Valentin, that is what will happen to every man, woman and child in Aventhis.’
‘If the… Bonereapers reach it first?’
‘Then they will take it,’ said Cado. ‘Then the Lumineth will fight to stop them. A battle of light and undeath, Valentin. There is no room for survival when such powers fight.’
Valentin held Cado’s gaze for a second and then nodded, but then shook his head again.
‘But what can you do?’
Cado turned and made for the steps down the crag.
‘Everything I can,’ he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They rode under the roof of a growing storm. Daylight was fading to night behind the clouds. The rain fell without pause, cold heavy drops that tasted of lightning and tin. They didn’t need the sun or land to guide them. On the horizon, visible behind the veil of rain, light flashed and stuttered. The horses shivered as though they did not want to turn, but Cado hissed at them, and they kept on. Valentin was quiet in his saddle, eyes fixed on the flashes.
‘Leragrais will get people out of the city,’ he said, half to himself.
‘He may try, but the Lumineth will not wait. They know the Ossiarchs approach. The city is a keystone in a game that goes beyond Aventhis and this underworld. They will not let their design fail because there are mortals inside. What they have begun is shifting the currents of magic across this underworld, and perhaps beyond. Leragrais’ help simplifies matters for them, but they do not need his consent. They will take the city, paint their rune in the sky and–’
‘Don’t,’ said Valentin.
‘When we are inside, you find your family. Get everyone you can into the catacombs, as deep as you can.’
‘Not out of the city?’
‘If there are armies close, then it will be the safest place for them.’
‘All right,’ said Valentin, raising his voice over the hiss of the rain and roll of thunder. Cado could hear a grimness that had not been in the man’s voice before. He looked at the smith. Valentin kept on looking straight ahead. ‘Your blood,’ the man called as though sensing Cado’s gaze. ‘You gave me some of your blood to heal me.’
‘Your life is still your own,’ said Cado. ‘To become like me requires… more.’
‘I know. I know the shape of my soul well enough to know that it is still mine.’ He paused as another blinking series of flashes lit the night sky. ‘I saw things, for a moment after… I saw things. They were not from my life, or my dreams.’ He looked at Cado. His gaze was clear and hard, and in that look Cado imagined that the forge-light gleamed with judgement. ‘I hope you can help us.’
Then he looked back to the horizon, and they rode.
In the silver blink of light, Cado could see skulls and spear points in the dark, rank upon rank. Valentin followed Cado’s look.
‘There are hundreds of them,’ called the smith.
‘There will be more,’ answered Cado. They were close now. The spires of rock stabbed up at the sky around them. He could hear the cries of birds blending with the sound of rain and growl of thunder. ‘Which gate are you making for?’
‘The south gate,’ said Valentin. ‘It’s smaller, a cart gate.’ Cado looked at Valentin as the man pulled the seal of the council from under his cloak.
‘The militia are hunting for me.’
‘I know, but we might be able to confuse them.’
Cado shook his head. ‘The high gate that Leragrais took – we take that.’ Valentin looked as though he were struggling with the words for why that was not a clever idea. Cado felt a cold smile form on his lips. ‘I am a Soulblight,’ he said. ‘There is a reason we are feared.’
‘Let me pass! In the name of Magister Leragrais, let me pass!’ The guards almost loosed their bows, but Valentin shouting Leragrais’ name gave them pause. Then Valentin was closer, and the lightning flashes must have shown he was alone. The seal in his hand gleamed. He shouted again. ‘I come from Magister Leragrais!’ The arrows and bolts did not fly, but neither did the gate open.
‘The magister sent you? Where is he?’
‘I do not have time for questions. I have to get to Cometarian Damascene.’
‘You are the smith that set out with the wanderer they are now hunting.’
‘I am the man with the magister’s seal.’ Cado heard the strength in Valentin’s voice. Where had that come from? Had it always been there, or was that what heroism looked like – not an inheritance, but a quality that came from inside like metal tempered by heat and hammer?
The guards hesitated and then were calling for the gate to open. Gears ground. A split appeared in the doors, barely wide enough for Valentin to lead his horse through. In the dark, on the edge of sight, Cado inhaled. The magic filled his chest, needle-sharp and cold. There was so much power in the wind… Valentin was off the horse and at the open gate.
A flash of lightning. A heartbeat of the storm. Then utter black.
Cado breathed out as thunder shivered through the rain. Darkness folded around him, and he was walking, flowing in Valentin’s wake, clinging to the space he had just left as a ragged shadow.
Valentin was almost through the gate. The guards were staring into the rain and night.
Cado saw the man’s head twitch to look behind him.
Don’t look… he willed. Keep moving. He could feel the storm inhaling. Another flash of lightning was coming.
They were through. The gate began to shut. The sky blinked white, the rain silver.
‘Wait!’ called one of the guards. Valentin looked at him. The darkness poured back into the space the lightning had left.
‘Yes?’ said Valentin, iron in his voice again.
‘I thought there was something behind you.’
‘We all have shadows, don’t we?’ Valentin said and hurried to climb the spiral road up the side of the rock stack. Above them the beams of the bridge linking the stack to the city spire creaked in the storm.
Cado let the spell fade. His head was ringing. Red veins spidered his sight. He stepped out of Valentin’s shadow and staggered against a wall. Water was churning down the channels at the side of the street.
The smith turned then looked up as three swift blows of thunder shook the air. Seen from here, the light of the thunderbolts was the purple and green of bruises. Valentin had done as they had planned and not stopped moving until they were across the bridge and on the street with Valentin’s forge.
Cado pushed himself away from the wall. The effort of holding the spell around him was fading, but he could feel his hunger growing.
Valentin glanced at Cado.
‘Go,’ he said, and started down the street towards his forge. ‘Do what you must, I’ll find Vaux.’ They had left the horse at the high gate. Inside the city it would only slow them down. Cado straightened and looked after the smith hurrying down the road. There were no lights in the windows of the buildings to either side, nor the rest of the city. Anyone who was not on the walls would be huddling behind locked doors, waiting as the night shook. The forge was just as dark and quiet as the rest. No smoke rising, no light seeping from under the doors.
They had talked about what to do once back inside the walls. Valentin was going to find his children, then he would go to Vaux. The seneschal must know about Leragrais and the Lumineth. She might not believe Valentin, but she certainly would not believe Cado. For his part, he needed to get to the spire top. He blinked again. His sight was swimming, as though an afterglow of the storm flash had caught in his eyes. He half turned, then stopped. There it was again, something on the edge of seeing…
He started down the street after Valentin. The smith was at the door of his forge, knocking, calling. Cado was next to him as the door opened and Leire looked out.
‘Father? Father!’ she said, going to him, but then recoiled as she saw Cado.
‘It’s all right. Where is your brother? We need to go now.’
‘He… went out.’
‘What?’ Valentin had gone pale, staring at his daughter.
‘He looked out of the door once, saw something. He was not making any sense, kept saying it was important that it hadn’t been there before.’
‘Why didn’t you stop him?’
‘I tried, but I couldn’t. He ran out of the door and when I reached it, I couldn’t see him.’
‘I know where he went,’ said Cado. Valentin whirled, mouth opening. ‘I will go and get him back.’
‘What…? How?’ began Valentin, the panic stealing the words before he could get them back. Cado could feel cold calmness spreading through him now. He knew what he needed to do.
‘Both of you, go and find Vaux. Tell her everything. She will not want to listen, but she must. Leragrais, the nexus under the city, all of it. I will get Ama. Go now. There is not much time.’
‘Where is he?’ asked Valentin.
‘In the tower behind me,’ said Cado. ‘The tower with the blue-and-red door. That is what Ama saw, and that is where he is.’
‘It’s just a ruin,’ said Leire. ‘There is no tower.’
‘But there is,’ Cado said, and turned. The lightning blinked. He took a step. At the edge of his sight, in the crack between light and dark, a shape loomed above, a crooked finger scratching the heavens. Cado drew his sword. ‘Go now,’ he said.
Cado took a step. The lightning was pulsing, the thunder a roar to drown any words that Valentin called after him. Another step, another flash. Magic… magic tearing through the air, blowing reality ragged. The storm was reaching its height. All the lines were crossing, all the desires of mortals and immortals aligning over this place. One step after another, one in light…
Flash…
And one in dark.
And there was a broken door hanging open at the base of a broken tower…
Flash…
A stump of stone set into the side of a rock face…
Flash…
But there in the smeared light after the fading glare, there was a tower, rising to the sky, caught on the edge of seeing, balanced on the edge of impossibility. It was tall, impossibly tall. The rain glistened on its stone and held the thunder flash so that it shone silver-white.
No darkness came to fill the second in which the thunder echoed. Cado was at the door. It was blue and red, and at its centre the shadow of a hand was burnt into the paint. He paused. He knew that if he looked back, he would not see the city. He was on a boundary between the magic that mortals called reality and the truth. He had been here before. He had seen the like of this tower many times, in many places. It was there and not, a thing forgotten as soon as you saw it. It was there the first day he arrived in the city. It was there when he sat in its ruins through the night. It had always been there, a parasite worm with its jaws fastened to the flesh of the Mortal Realms.
He pushed the door open. It creaked but did not resist. There were stairs inside, a great coil of steps going up and plunging down. He began to climb. He knew that the tower was welcoming him. He knew that this was a trap. He kept climbing until there were no more steps. A platform with nine sides opened under a sky of frozen lightning. There was no parapet, just a drop down into the dark where the city lay. There was a stone table, black and flecked, and a figure stood beside it. Small objects sat on the stone: crystals, a feather, bits of iron. The figure was rearranging them. She was calm, unsurprised by his presence. He knew her face.
‘Hello, Cado,’ said Amaury’s voice as she looked up at him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
‘Where is the boy?’ asked Cado.
Amaury’s face smiled.
