The Malazan Empire, page 984
She collected her sword belt from the stump of a felled tree, strapped it on. Settled the helm on her head and fastened the clasp. Tugged on her gauntlets.
Her people took note. They faced her now, and watched as their queen prepared to fight.
But what are they thinking?
Why do they even look to us? My brother? Me? See where our love for them has taken them. See all those limp, lifeless bodies tumbling into the pit.
They watched this calm, silent woman readying for battle.
They didn’t know, of course, about all the howling going on in her head, the anguished screams and the poisoned helplessness eating at every hidden edge. No, they knew nothing about any of that.
She saw her brother. Gesturing, giving orders.
He turned then, and across the distance he faced her.
Should she lift a hand? Acknowledge his achievement? This first triumph? Should she draw her sword, perhaps, and lift it high? Would he respond in kind?
Not a chance. But then, look at me. We see each other, yes, and neither of us does a thing to reach across. How can we? We are coconspirators in the slaughter of all these people. Yan Tovis turned, found one of her messengers. ‘Aras, deliver the news to Queen Drukorlat. The breach was repelled. Acceptable losses. We await their next attack.’
The young girl bowed and then hurried off, into the forest.
When Twilight looked back down to the strand, her brother was nowhere in sight.
It was now a road, of sorts. The white dust soaked in blood, churned into reddish-brown mud, straight as a spear shaft between Saranas’ Wedding Gate and the Breach. Shivering, Aparal Forge watched the wagons burdened with the wounded drawing closer. To either side of the narrow track the massed legions prepared for the real assault. Heads turned to watch the broken remnants of the Forlorn Hope file past.
Well, that was proof enough, was it not? Kharkanas was occupied once more. The infernal Shake had returned, or someone much like them, and were determined to contest the breach. Madness, all of it. Glancing up, he saw four of the Thirteen still veered, their vast wings flashing gold in the ceaseless light. The Draconean blood had finally taken them, he knew. They had surrendered for ever to the chaos. Among them was Iparth Erule, who had once been a friend. ‘Son of Light,’ he whispered, ‘beware your chosen, now that the blood of the Eleint rises, to drown all that we once were.’
The door behind him swung open, cracking against the stone wall. Aparal flinched, but did not turn round.
‘If you had followed, brother—’
‘But I did, Son of Light.’
Kadagar Fant swore, was suddenly beside Aparal, hands settling on the alabaster merlon. ‘That last pass – we were almost through! See my children still on the wing? Where are the others?’
‘Lord, the Mane of Chaos frightens them. If they surrender to it for too long… Son of Light, you could lose control of them—’
‘When I am veered they well comprehend my power – my domination. What more is needed to bend them to my will? Do you truly believe that I do not understand the nature of the Eleint?’
‘The risk, Lord—’
‘It frightens you, does it, brother?’
‘I fear we might lose control of our own people, Lord, and not through any flaw in our purpose, or leadership. Iparth Erule and his sisters no longer semble. The blood of the Eleint has taken them, it has stolen their minds. When they cease to be Tiste Liosan, how soon before our cause becomes meaningless? How soon before they find their own ambitions?’
Kadagar Fant said nothing for some time. Then he leaned forward over the wall and looked straight down. ‘It has been some time,’ he said in a musing tone, ‘since we last set a traitor upon the White Wall. Brother, do you think my people begin to forget? Must I remind them again?’
Aparal Forge thought about it. ‘If you feel it necessary, Lord.’ He held his gaze on the column crawling towards the Wedding Gate.
‘This is new,’ the Son of Light said.
‘Lord?’
‘I see no answering fear in you, brother.’
The Mane of Chaos, you fool. It devours fear like bloody meat. ‘I am as ever your servant, Lord.’
‘So much so, I now see, that you would risk your own life to speak your mind.’
‘Perhaps.’ As I once did, long ago, when we were different people, not yet who we are now. ‘If so, then I will add this. The day you cease to hear me will be the day that we will have lost.’
Kadagar’s voice was so quiet that Aparal barely made out what he was saying. ‘Are you that important, brother?’
‘I am now, Lord.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I am the last among your people to whom you still listen, Lord. You look down upon this cursed wall and what do you see? Brave warriors who disagreed with you. The rotting remnants of our priesthood—’
Kadagar whispered, ‘They opposed the path of the Eleint.’
‘They did, Lord, and now they are dead. And four of the Thirteen will not return.’
‘I can command them.’
‘As it pleases them to appear loyal, so that shall remain, Lord.’
Veiled eyes lifted to meet his gaze. ‘You draw close, brother Aparal Forge, so very close.’
‘If my counsel is treason, then condemn me, Lord. But you will not see fear, not in me. Not any more and never again.’
Kadagar Fant snarled and then said, ‘There is not time for this. The legions are ready, and I need you down there, commanding the assault. The enemy beyond the breach was surprisingly weak—’
‘Weak, Lord?’
‘I will accept bold words from you, brother, but not outright rudeness.’
‘Sorry, Lord.’
‘Weak. Indeed, it seems they are not even true Shake. Devoid of Tiste blood entirely. It is my thought that they are mercenaries, hired because the Andii now in Kharkanas are too few to personally oppose us. In fact, I now believe that the Shake are no more. Gone, like a nightmare before the dawn.’
‘They fought surprisingly well for mercenaries, Lord.’
‘Humans are like that, brother. Decide on something and there’s no moving them. You have to cut down every last one of them. Until not one is left breathing.’
‘The surest way to win an argument,’ Aparal commented.
Kadagar reached over and gripped his upper arm. ‘Better! Return to the living, old friend! Today, we shall gain the Shore. Tonight, we shall dine in the High Palace of Kharkanas!’
‘Lord, may I descend to take command of the legions?’
‘Go, brother! You shall see me soon enough, flying above you.’
Aparal hesitated. ‘Lord, might I speak one last word of advice?’
Kadagar’s face clouded, but he nodded.
‘Do not be the first of our Thirteen through the breach. Leave that to Iparth Erule, or one of his sisters.’
‘But why?’
‘Because the enemy knows that we are here. Soletaken or true Eleint. They will have plans to deal with our eventual arrival, Lord. Use Erule to discover it. We cannot risk losing you, Son of Light.’
Kadagar’s pale eyes searched his, and then he smiled. ‘Friend, it shall be as you say. Go now.’
Father Light, is this what you want? What was in your mind when you walked out from the city, through the gate that would be named for the day of your wedding, for your procession’s path into the realm of Dark? Did you ever imagine that you would bring about the end of the world?
Take the Sceptre in hand. Walk to the Throne. There is an old saying: every crown leaves a circle of blood. I always wondered what it meant. Where was that circle? Surrounding the one now ruling, or closer still, like razors against the brow?
Aparal Forge walked along one verge of the blood path. He could have veered into his dragon form. He could have wheeled out from the high wall and in moments settled before the breach, those old scattered stones of the toppled edifice, with all the joyous carvings. But what would that be saying to his warriors? You are indeed led by dragons, by the blood-tainted, by the devourers of Kessobahn. But was he not Tiste Liosan? I am. For now, for as long as I can hold on. And I’d rather show them that. I’d rather they see me, here, walking.
The soldiers were ready. He could see as much. He sought to draw strength from them, reassurance, all the confidence he would need to in turn command them. As they in turn did when seeing him.
I must speak to them. Fashion words. What shall I say? Mercenaries await us. Humans. They can be broken, for their will has been bought, and if it is to be something to bargain with, like a comforting robe, then that will cannot be worth much, when all comfort vanishes. No, make it simpler. Tell them that coin cannot purchase righteousness. Against our will the humans shall falter.
We must simply push hard enough for long enough.
Speak with confidence, yes.
And then I will think of loves lost, to empty out all the places inside me. Ready to be filled with fury and desire.
The Liosan knew enough about humans. Through the piercing of the veil such as a priest or mage occasionally achieved, they had ventured into human worlds. ‘Testing the notions of justice’, as one old scout had once said. Small parties, of aimless purpose or singular intent. Journeying often enough for these explorers to return with knowledge of the strange, weak but profligate human creatures. Short-lived and truncated of thought. Incapable of planning ahead beyond a few years at most, and more commonly barely capable of thinking past a mere stretch of days.
There were always exceptions, of course. Great leaders, visionaries. Tyrants. But even among them, the legacy they sought was more often than not a selfish one, the private glory of immortal notoriety or fame.
Pathetic.
As he approached the breach, Aparal wondered whether there was a great leader among these humans, these mercenaries. It was of course possible, but he doubted it.
The once glorious gate had been shattered long ago. It had commemorated a marriage that had spilled more blood than could be imagined. Shattered three civilizations. Destroyed an entire realm. Father Light, could you but have known, would you have turned away? Would you have sacrificed your happiness for the sake of your people? And hers?
I like to think you would have. Yes. You would have sacrificed yourself, because you were better than all of us.
And now your children yearn to avenge your failure. But nothing we can do, nothing we can ever do, will make it better. No matter. We’re not interested in healing old wounds – look at that gate for proof of that!
A space had been left clear before the breach. Of the wound itself, there was naught to be seen but stacked corpses, dim and ethereal through Lightfall’s incessant bleeding. Seeing those bodies, Aparal scowled, and from deep inside him surged a rush of rage. Liosan. Draconean.
He stepped into the space, turned towards his kin. ‘Brothers! Sisters! See what these humans have done to our fallen! They choose not to honour us as worthy foes. They imagine this dread wall will wound us!
‘The Son of Light looks down upon us from the White Wall’s rampart. The Son of Light has said that on this day we shall conquer the Realm of Dark! We shall conquer Kharkanas! We know they are waiting. Shall we seek them out? Brothers! Sisters! Shall we seek them out?’
The roar that answered him felt like a physical blow, but he welcomed it. Their anger is without measure. Their justness is unassailable. Kadagar is right. We shall win through.
He faced the ruined gate, glared at the breach. Drawing his sword, he held it high. ‘Seventh Legion, Arrow Formation! Who leads?’
A harsh voice called out behind him. ‘I lead, Aparal Forge! Gaelar Throe shall lead!’
Gaelar. I should have known. ‘Gaelar. There is a commander among the humans. Find him. Kill him.’
‘I so vow, Aparal Forge! I so vow!’
The power massing behind him made Aparal tremble. This assault would sweep aside the humans. Up and into the forest beyond. To the city itself. The palace splashed in blood. The Son of Light triumphant upon the Throne, Sceptre in hand.
And if Mother Dark dwelt in the temple, they would kill her.
We will not be stopped. Not this time.
Shadows from above. He looked up. Three dragons, and then a fourth. So eager. Iparth Erule. I think you want that throne. I think you mean to take it.
‘Liosan! Seventh Legion, level spears!’ He turned, moved to the right. Gaelar was ready. They were all ready, bristling, straining for the signal, desperate to lunge forward. Burst through the wall of corpses, burst out on to the Shore.
And begin the slaughter.
Silent, Aparal Forge swung down the sword.
Sandalath Drukorlat, Queen of High House Dark, ruler of Kharkanas, walked alone in the palace, wondering where all the ghosts had gone. They should be crowding these ancient halls, whispering along the corridors and passages, lurking in recesses and doorways. Struggling to recall what needed doing, calling out for loved ones in faint, echoing voices. She ran her hand along a wall as she walked, feeling the hard, polished stone. She was far beyond the rounds of the paltry staff now resident in the palace.
Hunting ghosts. Stone like skin, but the skin is cold.
She could remember when it was different. Alive. Guards and guests, petitioners and servants, priestesses and midwives, retainers and scholars. Hostages. Swirling in their own precious currents, each and every one of them, like blood in a beating heart.
Her worn boots echoed as she made her way down a narrow corridor. Smaller now, this passage, and the steps she reached were shallow and worn, wending up in a tight spiral. She halted, gasping as a faint draught came down from above. I remember this. The downdraught. I remember it. Against my face, my neck. Down round my bared ankles – I used to run – when was that? I must have been a child. Yes, a child. When was that? Her right shoulder brushed against the wall again and again as she climbed. The sloped stone over her head felt oppressively close.
Why did I run?
Perhaps some inkling of the future. But for that child, there was no refuge. How could there be? Here she was, and the centuries upon centuries in between were now carved solid as this stone. Stop running, child. It’s done. Stop running, even the memory hurts.
Sandalath reached the top floor, a small flagstone landing, a blackwood door set into an archway. The iron handle was shaped from three lengths of linked chains entwined, stiff enough to form a ring. She stared at it, remembering how at first she’d had to reach up to grasp it, and tug hard to swing back the door. Hostage Room. Born into it, imprisoned within it, until the day you are sent away. The day someone comes and takes you. Hostage Room, child. You didn’t even know what that meant. No, it was your home.
Reaching out, she grasped the ring. A single tug and something broke on the other side, fell with a clunk. Oh…no, no, no—
She opened the door.
The bed had partially collapsed. Insects had chewed the covers until they fell to dust. Thousands of generations of those insects had dwelt in the mattress, until it too crumbled to nothing. The creatures had eaten the wax candles in the silver sticks still standing on the solid blackwood dresser. Above the dresser, the polished mirror was mottled with midnight stains. The broad windows had been shuttered tight; now little of that remained but heaps of fittings on the floor.
Sandalath stepped inside. She could not see it yet, but she knew it was there.
Locked from the inside.
In the passageway leading to the Tutor Chamber she found the small, frail bones of this room’s last hostage. The mice had eaten most of the child, until little more than grey stains marked its position – a body sprawled between the two chambers. Teeth lay scattered like the beads of a broken necklace.
I know how it was for you. I know. Slaughter in the citadel, screams rising from below, the smell of smoke. The world was ending. Mother Dark turned away. Anomander’s dreams of unification fell like dust through his fingers. The people were fleeing – fleeing Kurald Galain itself. The end of the world.
She crouched down in the narrow corridor, stared down at the remnants. Child? Are you me? No. I was long gone from here by then. Sent off to serve my purpose, but that purpose failed. I was among a mass of refugees on Gallan’s Road. Blind Gallan shall lead us to freedom. We need only follow the sightless seer. We need only trust in his vision. Oh yes, child, the madness of that was, well, plain to see. But Darkness was never so cold as on that day.
And on that day, we were all blind.
The child hostage would not have left this room. She had learned obedience before all else. Told to stay, she had set the flimsy lock that she had believed would bar the outer door – we all believed it, each in our turn. It was our comfort. Our symbol of independence. It was a lock a grown Andii could break in one hand.
But no one came to challenge your delusion of safety.
The lock was proof against everything going on outside this room. It was, in fact, the strongest barrier of all.
She sank down further, leaned one shoulder against the passage wall.
I am queen and I am hostage both. No one can take me. Until they decide to. No one can break my lock. Until they need to. In the meantime, see me sitting so regal on my throne. Frozen like an image in a frieze. But she would not weep, not for herself. All that running had taken her precisely to this place, this moment in time. All that running.
After some time, she climbed to her feet, went back into the outer room. Stared at what remained of herself in the mottled mirror. Fragments, pieces, an incomplete map. Look at me. Are you looking at me, now, at last? I sense the stirring in your mind. Impatience, the wanting to be away, off somewhere else – anywhere but in this skull, anywhere but behind these eyes. What in your life has so chilled your heart, that you so quickly refuse another’s pain, another’s loss?
Run, then. Go on. Run away, skip down the passage, find all the places that stab deep enough to make you feel.
Sandalath turned away. Back to the door, down the spiralling descent. One didn’t need ghosts, she decided. Not a single ethereal glimpse was necessary. Empty corridors and echoing chambers were in themselves ghosts, emerging in the instant of her arrival, only to fade away once she was past. Like the rooms of memory. Step inside, conjure what you see, wonder at what you feel, and then leave. But you take something with you. You always take something with you. Swirling, raising up dust. She wanted to howl.
Her people took note. They faced her now, and watched as their queen prepared to fight.
But what are they thinking?
Why do they even look to us? My brother? Me? See where our love for them has taken them. See all those limp, lifeless bodies tumbling into the pit.
They watched this calm, silent woman readying for battle.
They didn’t know, of course, about all the howling going on in her head, the anguished screams and the poisoned helplessness eating at every hidden edge. No, they knew nothing about any of that.
She saw her brother. Gesturing, giving orders.
He turned then, and across the distance he faced her.
Should she lift a hand? Acknowledge his achievement? This first triumph? Should she draw her sword, perhaps, and lift it high? Would he respond in kind?
Not a chance. But then, look at me. We see each other, yes, and neither of us does a thing to reach across. How can we? We are coconspirators in the slaughter of all these people. Yan Tovis turned, found one of her messengers. ‘Aras, deliver the news to Queen Drukorlat. The breach was repelled. Acceptable losses. We await their next attack.’
The young girl bowed and then hurried off, into the forest.
When Twilight looked back down to the strand, her brother was nowhere in sight.
It was now a road, of sorts. The white dust soaked in blood, churned into reddish-brown mud, straight as a spear shaft between Saranas’ Wedding Gate and the Breach. Shivering, Aparal Forge watched the wagons burdened with the wounded drawing closer. To either side of the narrow track the massed legions prepared for the real assault. Heads turned to watch the broken remnants of the Forlorn Hope file past.
Well, that was proof enough, was it not? Kharkanas was occupied once more. The infernal Shake had returned, or someone much like them, and were determined to contest the breach. Madness, all of it. Glancing up, he saw four of the Thirteen still veered, their vast wings flashing gold in the ceaseless light. The Draconean blood had finally taken them, he knew. They had surrendered for ever to the chaos. Among them was Iparth Erule, who had once been a friend. ‘Son of Light,’ he whispered, ‘beware your chosen, now that the blood of the Eleint rises, to drown all that we once were.’
The door behind him swung open, cracking against the stone wall. Aparal flinched, but did not turn round.
‘If you had followed, brother—’
‘But I did, Son of Light.’
Kadagar Fant swore, was suddenly beside Aparal, hands settling on the alabaster merlon. ‘That last pass – we were almost through! See my children still on the wing? Where are the others?’
‘Lord, the Mane of Chaos frightens them. If they surrender to it for too long… Son of Light, you could lose control of them—’
‘When I am veered they well comprehend my power – my domination. What more is needed to bend them to my will? Do you truly believe that I do not understand the nature of the Eleint?’
‘The risk, Lord—’
‘It frightens you, does it, brother?’
‘I fear we might lose control of our own people, Lord, and not through any flaw in our purpose, or leadership. Iparth Erule and his sisters no longer semble. The blood of the Eleint has taken them, it has stolen their minds. When they cease to be Tiste Liosan, how soon before our cause becomes meaningless? How soon before they find their own ambitions?’
Kadagar Fant said nothing for some time. Then he leaned forward over the wall and looked straight down. ‘It has been some time,’ he said in a musing tone, ‘since we last set a traitor upon the White Wall. Brother, do you think my people begin to forget? Must I remind them again?’
Aparal Forge thought about it. ‘If you feel it necessary, Lord.’ He held his gaze on the column crawling towards the Wedding Gate.
‘This is new,’ the Son of Light said.
‘Lord?’
‘I see no answering fear in you, brother.’
The Mane of Chaos, you fool. It devours fear like bloody meat. ‘I am as ever your servant, Lord.’
‘So much so, I now see, that you would risk your own life to speak your mind.’
‘Perhaps.’ As I once did, long ago, when we were different people, not yet who we are now. ‘If so, then I will add this. The day you cease to hear me will be the day that we will have lost.’
Kadagar’s voice was so quiet that Aparal barely made out what he was saying. ‘Are you that important, brother?’
‘I am now, Lord.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I am the last among your people to whom you still listen, Lord. You look down upon this cursed wall and what do you see? Brave warriors who disagreed with you. The rotting remnants of our priesthood—’
Kadagar whispered, ‘They opposed the path of the Eleint.’
‘They did, Lord, and now they are dead. And four of the Thirteen will not return.’
‘I can command them.’
‘As it pleases them to appear loyal, so that shall remain, Lord.’
Veiled eyes lifted to meet his gaze. ‘You draw close, brother Aparal Forge, so very close.’
‘If my counsel is treason, then condemn me, Lord. But you will not see fear, not in me. Not any more and never again.’
Kadagar Fant snarled and then said, ‘There is not time for this. The legions are ready, and I need you down there, commanding the assault. The enemy beyond the breach was surprisingly weak—’
‘Weak, Lord?’
‘I will accept bold words from you, brother, but not outright rudeness.’
‘Sorry, Lord.’
‘Weak. Indeed, it seems they are not even true Shake. Devoid of Tiste blood entirely. It is my thought that they are mercenaries, hired because the Andii now in Kharkanas are too few to personally oppose us. In fact, I now believe that the Shake are no more. Gone, like a nightmare before the dawn.’
‘They fought surprisingly well for mercenaries, Lord.’
‘Humans are like that, brother. Decide on something and there’s no moving them. You have to cut down every last one of them. Until not one is left breathing.’
‘The surest way to win an argument,’ Aparal commented.
Kadagar reached over and gripped his upper arm. ‘Better! Return to the living, old friend! Today, we shall gain the Shore. Tonight, we shall dine in the High Palace of Kharkanas!’
‘Lord, may I descend to take command of the legions?’
‘Go, brother! You shall see me soon enough, flying above you.’
Aparal hesitated. ‘Lord, might I speak one last word of advice?’
Kadagar’s face clouded, but he nodded.
‘Do not be the first of our Thirteen through the breach. Leave that to Iparth Erule, or one of his sisters.’
‘But why?’
‘Because the enemy knows that we are here. Soletaken or true Eleint. They will have plans to deal with our eventual arrival, Lord. Use Erule to discover it. We cannot risk losing you, Son of Light.’
Kadagar’s pale eyes searched his, and then he smiled. ‘Friend, it shall be as you say. Go now.’
Father Light, is this what you want? What was in your mind when you walked out from the city, through the gate that would be named for the day of your wedding, for your procession’s path into the realm of Dark? Did you ever imagine that you would bring about the end of the world?
Take the Sceptre in hand. Walk to the Throne. There is an old saying: every crown leaves a circle of blood. I always wondered what it meant. Where was that circle? Surrounding the one now ruling, or closer still, like razors against the brow?
Aparal Forge walked along one verge of the blood path. He could have veered into his dragon form. He could have wheeled out from the high wall and in moments settled before the breach, those old scattered stones of the toppled edifice, with all the joyous carvings. But what would that be saying to his warriors? You are indeed led by dragons, by the blood-tainted, by the devourers of Kessobahn. But was he not Tiste Liosan? I am. For now, for as long as I can hold on. And I’d rather show them that. I’d rather they see me, here, walking.
The soldiers were ready. He could see as much. He sought to draw strength from them, reassurance, all the confidence he would need to in turn command them. As they in turn did when seeing him.
I must speak to them. Fashion words. What shall I say? Mercenaries await us. Humans. They can be broken, for their will has been bought, and if it is to be something to bargain with, like a comforting robe, then that will cannot be worth much, when all comfort vanishes. No, make it simpler. Tell them that coin cannot purchase righteousness. Against our will the humans shall falter.
We must simply push hard enough for long enough.
Speak with confidence, yes.
And then I will think of loves lost, to empty out all the places inside me. Ready to be filled with fury and desire.
The Liosan knew enough about humans. Through the piercing of the veil such as a priest or mage occasionally achieved, they had ventured into human worlds. ‘Testing the notions of justice’, as one old scout had once said. Small parties, of aimless purpose or singular intent. Journeying often enough for these explorers to return with knowledge of the strange, weak but profligate human creatures. Short-lived and truncated of thought. Incapable of planning ahead beyond a few years at most, and more commonly barely capable of thinking past a mere stretch of days.
There were always exceptions, of course. Great leaders, visionaries. Tyrants. But even among them, the legacy they sought was more often than not a selfish one, the private glory of immortal notoriety or fame.
Pathetic.
As he approached the breach, Aparal wondered whether there was a great leader among these humans, these mercenaries. It was of course possible, but he doubted it.
The once glorious gate had been shattered long ago. It had commemorated a marriage that had spilled more blood than could be imagined. Shattered three civilizations. Destroyed an entire realm. Father Light, could you but have known, would you have turned away? Would you have sacrificed your happiness for the sake of your people? And hers?
I like to think you would have. Yes. You would have sacrificed yourself, because you were better than all of us.
And now your children yearn to avenge your failure. But nothing we can do, nothing we can ever do, will make it better. No matter. We’re not interested in healing old wounds – look at that gate for proof of that!
A space had been left clear before the breach. Of the wound itself, there was naught to be seen but stacked corpses, dim and ethereal through Lightfall’s incessant bleeding. Seeing those bodies, Aparal scowled, and from deep inside him surged a rush of rage. Liosan. Draconean.
He stepped into the space, turned towards his kin. ‘Brothers! Sisters! See what these humans have done to our fallen! They choose not to honour us as worthy foes. They imagine this dread wall will wound us!
‘The Son of Light looks down upon us from the White Wall’s rampart. The Son of Light has said that on this day we shall conquer the Realm of Dark! We shall conquer Kharkanas! We know they are waiting. Shall we seek them out? Brothers! Sisters! Shall we seek them out?’
The roar that answered him felt like a physical blow, but he welcomed it. Their anger is without measure. Their justness is unassailable. Kadagar is right. We shall win through.
He faced the ruined gate, glared at the breach. Drawing his sword, he held it high. ‘Seventh Legion, Arrow Formation! Who leads?’
A harsh voice called out behind him. ‘I lead, Aparal Forge! Gaelar Throe shall lead!’
Gaelar. I should have known. ‘Gaelar. There is a commander among the humans. Find him. Kill him.’
‘I so vow, Aparal Forge! I so vow!’
The power massing behind him made Aparal tremble. This assault would sweep aside the humans. Up and into the forest beyond. To the city itself. The palace splashed in blood. The Son of Light triumphant upon the Throne, Sceptre in hand.
And if Mother Dark dwelt in the temple, they would kill her.
We will not be stopped. Not this time.
Shadows from above. He looked up. Three dragons, and then a fourth. So eager. Iparth Erule. I think you want that throne. I think you mean to take it.
‘Liosan! Seventh Legion, level spears!’ He turned, moved to the right. Gaelar was ready. They were all ready, bristling, straining for the signal, desperate to lunge forward. Burst through the wall of corpses, burst out on to the Shore.
And begin the slaughter.
Silent, Aparal Forge swung down the sword.
Sandalath Drukorlat, Queen of High House Dark, ruler of Kharkanas, walked alone in the palace, wondering where all the ghosts had gone. They should be crowding these ancient halls, whispering along the corridors and passages, lurking in recesses and doorways. Struggling to recall what needed doing, calling out for loved ones in faint, echoing voices. She ran her hand along a wall as she walked, feeling the hard, polished stone. She was far beyond the rounds of the paltry staff now resident in the palace.
Hunting ghosts. Stone like skin, but the skin is cold.
She could remember when it was different. Alive. Guards and guests, petitioners and servants, priestesses and midwives, retainers and scholars. Hostages. Swirling in their own precious currents, each and every one of them, like blood in a beating heart.
Her worn boots echoed as she made her way down a narrow corridor. Smaller now, this passage, and the steps she reached were shallow and worn, wending up in a tight spiral. She halted, gasping as a faint draught came down from above. I remember this. The downdraught. I remember it. Against my face, my neck. Down round my bared ankles – I used to run – when was that? I must have been a child. Yes, a child. When was that? Her right shoulder brushed against the wall again and again as she climbed. The sloped stone over her head felt oppressively close.
Why did I run?
Perhaps some inkling of the future. But for that child, there was no refuge. How could there be? Here she was, and the centuries upon centuries in between were now carved solid as this stone. Stop running, child. It’s done. Stop running, even the memory hurts.
Sandalath reached the top floor, a small flagstone landing, a blackwood door set into an archway. The iron handle was shaped from three lengths of linked chains entwined, stiff enough to form a ring. She stared at it, remembering how at first she’d had to reach up to grasp it, and tug hard to swing back the door. Hostage Room. Born into it, imprisoned within it, until the day you are sent away. The day someone comes and takes you. Hostage Room, child. You didn’t even know what that meant. No, it was your home.
Reaching out, she grasped the ring. A single tug and something broke on the other side, fell with a clunk. Oh…no, no, no—
She opened the door.
The bed had partially collapsed. Insects had chewed the covers until they fell to dust. Thousands of generations of those insects had dwelt in the mattress, until it too crumbled to nothing. The creatures had eaten the wax candles in the silver sticks still standing on the solid blackwood dresser. Above the dresser, the polished mirror was mottled with midnight stains. The broad windows had been shuttered tight; now little of that remained but heaps of fittings on the floor.
Sandalath stepped inside. She could not see it yet, but she knew it was there.
Locked from the inside.
In the passageway leading to the Tutor Chamber she found the small, frail bones of this room’s last hostage. The mice had eaten most of the child, until little more than grey stains marked its position – a body sprawled between the two chambers. Teeth lay scattered like the beads of a broken necklace.
I know how it was for you. I know. Slaughter in the citadel, screams rising from below, the smell of smoke. The world was ending. Mother Dark turned away. Anomander’s dreams of unification fell like dust through his fingers. The people were fleeing – fleeing Kurald Galain itself. The end of the world.
She crouched down in the narrow corridor, stared down at the remnants. Child? Are you me? No. I was long gone from here by then. Sent off to serve my purpose, but that purpose failed. I was among a mass of refugees on Gallan’s Road. Blind Gallan shall lead us to freedom. We need only follow the sightless seer. We need only trust in his vision. Oh yes, child, the madness of that was, well, plain to see. But Darkness was never so cold as on that day.
And on that day, we were all blind.
The child hostage would not have left this room. She had learned obedience before all else. Told to stay, she had set the flimsy lock that she had believed would bar the outer door – we all believed it, each in our turn. It was our comfort. Our symbol of independence. It was a lock a grown Andii could break in one hand.
But no one came to challenge your delusion of safety.
The lock was proof against everything going on outside this room. It was, in fact, the strongest barrier of all.
She sank down further, leaned one shoulder against the passage wall.
I am queen and I am hostage both. No one can take me. Until they decide to. No one can break my lock. Until they need to. In the meantime, see me sitting so regal on my throne. Frozen like an image in a frieze. But she would not weep, not for herself. All that running had taken her precisely to this place, this moment in time. All that running.
After some time, she climbed to her feet, went back into the outer room. Stared at what remained of herself in the mottled mirror. Fragments, pieces, an incomplete map. Look at me. Are you looking at me, now, at last? I sense the stirring in your mind. Impatience, the wanting to be away, off somewhere else – anywhere but in this skull, anywhere but behind these eyes. What in your life has so chilled your heart, that you so quickly refuse another’s pain, another’s loss?
Run, then. Go on. Run away, skip down the passage, find all the places that stab deep enough to make you feel.
Sandalath turned away. Back to the door, down the spiralling descent. One didn’t need ghosts, she decided. Not a single ethereal glimpse was necessary. Empty corridors and echoing chambers were in themselves ghosts, emerging in the instant of her arrival, only to fade away once she was past. Like the rooms of memory. Step inside, conjure what you see, wonder at what you feel, and then leave. But you take something with you. You always take something with you. Swirling, raising up dust. She wanted to howl.
