CHAPTER 24
‘WHEN YOU SAID I could watch you die, I didn’t believe you.’ Elenya was kneeling up, letting the salt spray from the white wave-tops soak her to her bones. The darkness around them was soft, the high cloud turning the moon-glow into a rainbow-touched pearl. ‘You always seemed so indestructible. Not a man, a force of nature. You could do whatever you wanted and the world had to bend to your will.’
‘You were mistaken.’ Va pulled at the oars rhythmically, each stroke as strong as the last even though he grunted with pain. The sea water was opening the wounds on his hands. He fixed his attention on the Kenyan, who was huddled in the stern, the struggle long since frozen out of him.
‘Do you remember the first time we met?’
‘I remember the last time.’
‘Why didn’t you want me?’
‘Because I’d moved Heaven and Earth to win you, and all I was left with was Hell.’
‘I was in my wedding dress.’
‘And I was red, head to foot, with other men’s blood. The only white you could see were my eyes.’
‘I was yours, Va. Totally, completely yours. Who could have imagined a love that would turn a murderer into a saviour, a gutter-born orphan into a king, a mercenary into the greatest general for a thousand years? At that moment you had everything.’
‘And you think me mad for dropping my sword and walking away? It was madness that drove me there. A cold dose of sanity was what I needed.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘Are you looking out for rocks or do I have to do that too?’
‘We’ll miss them.’
‘And you can see underwater, can you? There are too many breaking waves.’ He turned the boat further out to sea and gave the black headland a wide berth. An Cobh and its sparking fires finally dropped out of sight.
‘Shall I untie Akisi?’
‘No. You can ungag him if you want.’
She stood up and fearlessly stepped over Va to the stern. She tried to loosen the knot at the back of Akisi’s head, but it had shrunk with the cold and the water until it had welded itself together. She took out her knife, and momentarily enjoyed the abject fear that drained the Kenyan’s face of blood. The blade slipped between his cheek and the gag, and she cut, not particularly caring how she did it.
He spat out the remnants of the cloth. ‘Are you mad? Setting out to sea in this? Who are you? What do you want?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ she said. ‘Of course we’re mad. But we’ve got the book, and you. Why don’t you tell us who you think we are?’
‘Are you with Cormac? If you are, I can do a deal with him. I can do much more for him than I ever did for Ardhal. He took me by force. He made me work for him.’ Akisi looked from Elenya to Va, and back again. ‘I’m telling you the truth.’
‘What’s he saying?’ asked Va.
‘He’s trying to save his own skin. He thinks Cormac sent us.’
‘Tell him who we really are. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a man piss himself with terror.’ He glanced up at Elenya. ‘Just because I have to try and love my enemies doesn’t mean I’ve succeeded yet.’
‘What language is that?’ said Akisi. He pushed himself with his bound legs so that he was more or less sitting upright.
‘Rus,’ said Elenya. ‘Va is from the monastery of Saint Samuil, Arkady. Recognize the name?’
‘Va? No.’
‘The name of the monastery, stupid. It’s the one you burned down to get to the books.’
‘I got this book from the emperor himself, not some monastery. Where was it?’
Elenya sat on the stern. ‘Va, he’s denying all knowledge of Saint Samuil. What do you want me to do?’
‘Hold on tight.’ Va shipped the oars and stared at Akisi, then took in their position. They’d rounded the headland, and there seemed to be a beach in the next bay. They were sheltered from the worst of the easterly wind, and the waves were pushing them towards the shore.
Finally Va got to his feet and braced himself against the gunwales. Then he started to rock the boat. Slowly at first, then more and more violently, so that water started splashing over the sides and swamping the boat.
‘Enough!’ shrieked Akisi. ‘Enough. I stole the book. I stole it and I’m sorry. I didn’t think the emperor could reach this far.’
Elenya held up her hand, and Va stopped. ‘You stole the book from your emperor? Not from the monastery?’
‘I’ve never heard of the place. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know what you want from me. I just want to get out of this boat before it sinks.’
‘We’re not going to sink, are we, Va?’
Va sat back down and started bailing with cupped hands. ‘Did he admit it?’
‘After a fashion,’ said Elenya. ‘He says he stole the book from his emperor, not from you. Which means that the emperor of Kenya stole the books, killed your brothers and burned everything to the ground.’
‘What do you know about this man?’ Va gave up bailing and picked up the oars again. The pre-dawn light gathered strength and showed the broad mouth of a river in the bay. He began to row the heavy, waterlogged boat towards land.
‘The emperor of Kenya is the most powerful ruler in the world. His influence stretches as far south as the Maghreb, where it meets the Caliphate, and thanks to you, maybe further. If he wants your books, you might just have to let him keep them.’
‘Never. I have to take them back to the patriarch, every last one.’
‘I’ve seen maps. He rules over a vast area of land far to the north. It’s much bigger than the tsar’s kingdom; it’d take months just to get from one side to the other. Imagine the armies he’d command. And he has spies everywhere.’
‘I still have to go.’
‘And you know the way?’
Va thought of the map caught in the folds of his habit, its edges scratching his skin. ‘If it’s that big, it won’t be too hard to find.’
Akisi asked Elenya: ‘What did he say? Will he kill me or let me go?’
‘We’re not talking about you. We’re talking about the books you and your emperor thieved. Va seems to think that the patriarch should have them all back, starting with yours.’
‘But His Imperial Highness would never permit it.’
‘I don’t expect he permitted you to swipe one from under his nose either, which is why we find both you and it at the edge of the Outer Ocean.’ Elenya watched the shore grow closer. ‘If we sink, you drown.’
‘Don’t you think I know that? Untie me.’
‘You see, he probably would. I wouldn’t. I was outside the monastery the day you attacked it. I saw what happened. I’ve seen worse, but that was on a battlefield. These were men of prayer, and you showed no mercy.’
‘I have no knowledge of this,’ said Akisi. ‘I wasn’t there; I know nothing about what went on. You can’t hold me responsible.’
‘What about what you did to Cormac’s army? Can I hold you responsible for that?’
‘Ardhal made me do it. I was his prisoner.’
‘You can be ours just as willingly.’ The water swirled around Elenya’s ankles. ‘Va, can’t you make this leaking tub go any faster?’
Normally so pale, Va had gone red in the face with the effort. ‘Could you do better?’
‘I wouldn’t have filled it with water in the first place, so probably, yes. Akisi says he was Ardhal’s prisoner, although he doesn’t seem very grateful to be freed.’
‘I know the look of a man when he’s in a position of power, and when we came in through the gate, he had that look. He’s got a snake’s tongue, Elenya. Don’t believe a word he says.’
‘He’s a man, isn’t he? That’s enough never to trust him.’
Va struggled with the oars one last time, and the sea was finally level with the gunwales. It slopped over the sides with a sucking sound, and the hull dropped away under them.