‘When this is over, Owen, seek him out.’
‘For what purpose?’
‘To tell him you love him.’
‘I wanted to laugh in her face, to ram home the stupidity of her words. But I could not. And anger flared in me then, a hot silent fury that was washed away by the sudden tears stinging my eyes.
CHAPTER SIX
I wept and Megan moved alongside me, her arms around me. ‘Let it go, Owen. Release it.’
My head dropped to her shoulder, my eyes squeezed shut and painful sobs racked my frame. At last I felt the cool breeze upon my back and sensed the coming of the dawn. Pulling back from her, I forced a smile. ‘I am ashamed of myself, wailing like a child.’
‘Where there is pain there is often a tear or two.’
‘Yes, but the pain is gone now, back to whence it came, locked away. Where do we go today?’
‘We find Mace,’ she told me. ‘But first let us view the enemy.’ Moving back from me, she watched the sun rise behind a bank of cloud that turned to gold before my eyes, the sky around it turquoise and blue. I felt my soul swell at the beauty of it. Slowly the sun rose through the golden cloud and its rays pierced the flesh of vapour, spearing down to strike the rock-face and the cave, illuminating the rear wall.
Megan gestured with her right hand. The wall shimmered, flattened, glowed.. and disappeared, becoming a window that looked down upon a long hall. There were flags and pennants hung from poles on both sides of the hall, and a long table that ran down its centre. At the head of the table sat Azrek, eyes downcast and expression brooding. His fist crashed down upon the wood and a golden goblet was sent spinning to the floor. ‘I want him dead. I want his death to be hard.’
‘We are seeking him now, my lord,’ came a voice, but the speaker was not in view. ‘Send out the Six.’
‘I shall see that they are fed and then released, lord.’
‘No!’ stormed Azrek, rising to his feet, his pale face gleaming in the torchlight, his black hair hanging lank about his lean features. ‘I don’t want them fed. Let them feast on his heart.’
‘Yes, sir… but…’
‘But what, fool?’
‘They are hungry.They will need to eat before they track down the Morningstar.’
‘Then let them hunt their meat in the forest. There is plenty there. Succulent meat. Highland delicacies.’ Azrek laughed, the sound echoing through the hall and whispering out into the cave. The unseen servant departed and we heard the door close, then creak open moments later.
‘What is it?’ demanded Azrek.
‘You will wish me to mark the Six with the soul of the Morningstar,’ came a soft voice that seemed all too familiar. Yet I could not place it.
‘Yes. Imprint the smell of it upon their senses.’
‘There is no smell, sir, merely an aura that is his alone.’
‘Spare me your pedantry. I pay you well, magicker, and what do you offer me in return? You promised me the Morningstar. Well, where is he?’
‘Surely you do not blame me, sir. My light shone over him. It was then left to your soldiers to apprehend him. They failed, not I.’
‘You all failed,’ snarled Azrek, ‘and I will not tolerate it. The soldiers who fell back before his blade are now hanging by their heels, their skin flayed from their bodies. Be warned, magicker, I do not like to lose. And this task should be simplicity itself. One man in a forest. One creature of flesh and bone and sinew. Is that too much for you?’
‘Not at all, sir. But using the Six will prove costly. They will not return, they will stay in the forest, hunting and killing until they themselves are slain.’
‘What is that to me?’
‘It cost many lives, more than forty if memory serves, to create them.’
‘They were only lives,’ answered Azrek. The world is full of lives.
‘As you say, sir. The Lord of Lualis has sent out Criers to announce a larger reward of 2,000 sovereigns for information leading to the apprehension of the Morningstar, and twenty gold pieces for his companions — the hunchback, the giant and the bard, Odell.’
‘Ah yes, Odell… I would like to hear him sing. There are notes I shall teach him that he would not believe he could reach.’
‘I am sure of that, my lord,’ said the other smoothly, ‘but there are two other matters to which I must draw your attention. Firstly, the woman Megan. I had the ashes raked but there were no bones evident. She did not die in the flames.’
‘How could that be? We saw her tied to the stake.’
‘Indeed we did. I believe Odell, hidden by the smoke, climbed the pyre and freed her as the soldiers pursued the Morningstar.’
‘So where is she now, magicker?’
‘Why, sir, she is watching us,’ he answered, his voice remaining even. The window in the wall appeared to tremble and the castle hall beyond spun and rose. Down, down swept the image. Azrek seemed to swell and grow.
‘Get back!’ shouted Megan, but my limbs seemed frozen and I was unable to tear my eyes from the scene. Azrek looked at me — saw me, as if from across a room. A second figure moved into view.
‘How are you, Owen?’ said Cataplas amiably.
He seemed unchanged from the master I had known, a long purple velvet robe hanging from his lean frame, his grey wispy, trident beard clinging like mist to his chin. His hand came up with fingers spread. A small ball of flames flickered on his palm, swelling and growing.
Megan grabbed my arm, pulling me back. ‘Run, Owen!’ she screamed.
Idly Cataplas tossed the flaming globe towards us.
We were at the cave entrance when it sailed through the window. Megan hurled herself at me, spinning me from my feet, just as a great explosion sounded and a tongue of flame seared out from the mouth of the cave, scorching the grass for twenty feet.
I rolled to my back. Megan was lying some way from me, her white robe smouldering.
‘No!’ I shouted, scrambling to my feet and running to her. In taking the time to push me clear she had suffered terrible bums to her left side. Her arm was blackened and split and bloody, and most of her hair had been scorched away. Her eyes opened and she groaned.
I was no healer, but like all magickers I knew the simple spells of Warming and Cooling, both of which are used by those whose skills are directed towards healing the sick. Swiftly I covered her burns with cool air and she sighed and sank back to the grass.
‘I am sorry, Megan,’ I told her. ‘I am so sorry.’
‘I can heal myself,’ she whispered, ‘given time, that is. But it is taking all my power and I can be of no use to you for a while. Mace is on his way here — I reached him last night. When he arrives I will be sleeping deeply. Take me to the town of Ocrey. It is north of here — perhaps a day’s travel. Do not seek to wake me but carry me to the house of Osian. It is built beside a stream to the west of Ocrey. There is an old man living there; he will… care for me. You understand?’
‘Yes. I will do as you say.’
‘And warn Mace of the Six. He must be prepared.’
‘Who are they?’
But she was sinking fast and I had to lower my ear to her mouth to hear the softest of whispers.
‘The Satan Hounds,’ she murmured.
The name sent a shiver through me but before I could question her further Megan closed her eyes, passing from consciousness. I had no idea what she had meant, but there was no way she could have spoken literally. The Satan Hounds, more often called the Shadows of Satan, were mythical creatures, said to have walked the earth beside their master following his Fall from Heaven, when the world had been but a glowing ball of molten rock lashed by seething seas of lava.