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?’
‘Physically, yes. As for his mind — it is the same as when he came to us.’
Ebbin roused in Rallick’s arms. He peered about, frowning. ‘Where am I?’
‘Could you wake him?’ Rallick asked.
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘No. I cannot. You, however, may.’
Rallick struggled to conceal his irritation. He sat Ebbin against a wall then knelt over the big fellow. He touched the back of a hand to his cheek. It was as warm as a child’s.
‘Is this …’ Scholar Ebbin gasped. He pointed to Raest. ‘Are you …? By all the gods! I have a thousand questions!’
Standing above Rallick the Jaghut let out a long low growl.
*
In the grounds of the High Alchemist Baruk’s estate a small pot-bellied demon anxiously edged out of the tower’s open door. As the rich amber morning sunlight struck its knobbled head it hissed, ducking and writhing from side to side. Then it shaded its gaze, blinking, and continued along in its uneven gait.
It stopped before a man lying prone halfway up the walk. Smoke curled from his shredded robes and blood matted his torn scalp. He appeared to have been in an explosion. The demon took hold of his shoulders and began attempting to drag him up the walk.
After much gasping and flailing, with the man himself weakly pushing, the demon managed to heave him in through the door. He propped him against a wall and waddled off. A short time later he returned with a silver flask that he opened and offered to him.
The man just peered up through pained eyes, breathing wetly, his jaws clenching against his agony. Anger appeared to be gathering in those eyes.
The demon slapped a hand to his forehead then leaned over to carefully tilt the flask to the man’s mouth. The fellow drank as much as he could then gasped, choking and coughing. After a time he managed to lift an arm to take the flask. Blinking, he peered around at the rubbish, the strewn wreckage and broken furniture. ‘Chillbais …’ he began, weakly, and coughed again.
‘Yes, master?’
He waved the flask to the surroundings. ‘… what have you done to the place?’
*
The brightening light cascading in through the windows woke Envy. A hand went to her forehead and, pressing there, she groaned. She rose unsteadily to her feet and staggered to a window. There she tensed, straightening, and glared about.
‘No …’ she breathed. She gripped the sill, cracking its stone under her nails. ‘No!’
She threw herself back from the window as if to dash from the room, but halfway across she raised both hands and came to a halt. She spent some time adjusting her dress and hair, then let out a long, calming breath. ‘Very well. What’s done is done. Can’t be helped. It has all been rather a disappointment, after all.’ She set her hands on her hips. ‘Yes. Not what I’d hoped at all. Not at all. Perhaps a change in scenery.’ She tapped a finger to her pursed lips. Her arched brows rose as an idea struck. ‘Yes … perhaps the Empire. Hmm. They may be sophisticated enough …’