Broken World Book Four - The Staff of Law (26 page)

“
Yes.” He took her hand, caressing it. “You made no mistakes.
You were guided by the gods. I should have granted your Wish and
given you a child willingly, instead I clung to the old laws, not
realising that things had changed, and all this was happening for a
reason. But I did fear for your life, my little clan. You could
have lost it when he was born.”

“
But I didn’t. Law is your son too, I’m sure of it. If you
remember the time you went to the flower, he was born eighteen
months later.”

“
Too soon.” Chanter shook his head. “Mujar remain in the pod
for two years.”

“
I think he was born early, because of the chaos. He’s small
and pale, and even his eyes are a lighter shade than yours. But he
looks so like you, a younger version.”

Chanter
smiled. “All Mujar look alike.”

“
I know, but he could be, couldn’t he?”

“
He could.”

“
And Travain.” She grimaced. “So very different. He looks like
my father, and maybe the mother I never knew. Just think, you and
your two sons are the only Mujar left. It’s you who saved
Truemen.”

“
I think not, my little clan. Had you not shot me with your
gold-tipped arrow, your race would have perished.”

Talsy sat back
and gazed up at the green leaves silhouetted against the dim brown
sky, fleeting shafts of sunlight probing down to brighten the
valley. Chanter stretched out his legs, holding her hand in a
gentle clasp. To anyone who did not know better, she thought, they
must look like a couple of lovers. How she still wished they were.
In the six years they had spent in the valley, they had sat often
like this in the garden, sometimes talking, sometimes in
silence.

When Chanter
was away, Kieran would sit with her, but he had never held her
hand. A pang of remorse went through her at the thought of Kieran’s
patient love that she had rejected for so long, yet it was still
there in his eyes whenever he looked at her. The one thing that
prevented Chanter from being her lover would be gone in a couple of
days, however. As soon as the laws were back, there would be no
risk of her conceiving by him again. That realisation brought a
surge of hope, and she turned to him. The Mujar seemed almost
asleep, his eyes closed, his mouth slightly open.

She shook him.
“Chanter!”

“
Mmm.”

“
Wake up.”

“
More questions?”

She smiled.
“One more.”

“
Okay.”

“
Do you remember telling me that if it wasn’t for the chaos,
you would have lain with me?”

“
Mmm, reluctantly,” he murmured.

“
The chaos will be over in a few days.”

“
So?”

Her cheeks
warmed with embarrassment. “Will you come to my room tonight?”

Chanter
sighed, opening his eyes to study her. “Is this what you really
want?”

“
Ever since the first night we spent together in that
tent.”

“
What about Kieran?”

“
He’ll understand.”

He frowned at
the garden. “I want to make you happy, and if this is the way to do
it, then I will, but on one condition.”

“
Anything.”

“
When the testing is over, and you begin your new life, you
will take Kieran for your husband.”

Talsy found
the idea quite appealing, and wondered if she could be in love with
both of them simultaneously. “If he asks, and if you’ll still be my
lover.”

“
I’ll see to it that he does, but I doubt he’ll be happy with
that arrangement. It would be better if I stopped being your lover
at that time.”

“
No. I won’t agree to that.”

“
I think you should, for your own good,” he said. “Once the
laws are restored, the chosen will no longer require my protection,
and I’ll be away quite a lot.”

“
I know. I won’t try to stop you leaving, but nor do I want to
lose you completely.”

“
You won’t, but I think Kieran will object. Truemen, after all,
have an emotion called jealousy, don’t they?”

She smiled.
“You’re getting to know us quite well, but many women have a
husband and a lover, it’s not that unusual.”

“
But usually the husband doesn’t know about the
lover.”

“
Then we won’t tell Kieran.”

He regarded
her doubtfully. “A lie?”

“
An omission. What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him.”

“
It doesn’t seem right. I’ll tell him of your condition, and
let him decide.”

“
Then you will?”

“
If that’s your Wish.”

“
It is.”

Chanter
smiled, his expression tinged with sadness, and she knew he was not
happy with the arrangement. His reluctance did not alter her
determination, since it sprang only from his consideration of
Kieran’s feelings, and not any dislike of his own. For more than
eight years, she had yearned to have him as her lover, long before
she had met Kieran, and although she loved the Prince too, her
feelings for him did not diminish her passion for Chanter. She
loved them both, but differently; Kieran for his gentleness and
understanding, his ability to sympathise and enter into
delightfully entertaining arguments in a way she completely
understood. He was so utterly Trueman, so like her in many ways.
She even won friendly disputes with him, and when she did he
admitted defeat gracefully.

Chanter,
however, was enigmatic and alluring, his physical beauty and
perfection offset by his strange mentality, at times frustrating
when she failed to understand him. She found it almost impossible
to argue with him. He seldom gave her the satisfaction, falling
silent when she tried. Yet his alien attraction made her burn for
his touch, and the memory of the day Travain had been conceived had
not faded with time. The wonder of lying with a gentle demigod who
could command the world held a powerful seduction that no Trueman
could hope to match. She remembered vividly the day in the glade,
when the Powers had swirled around them in a magical vortex that
had left her gasping at the intensity of the passions he had
evoked. Then she had tricked him, now she wanted to know what it
was like to have him lie with her willingly.

That night she
waited for him in her room, breathless with anticipation. He came
to her on the dusky wings of a raven, transforming in a rush of
Ashmar to stand before her in the soft light of dusk. Talsy’s heart
swelled with joy and tenderness, a huge lump blocking her throat as
tears of happiness threatened to overflow. She stepped into this
embrace, and his arms closed around her as he bowed his head, wings
of jet hair brushing her skin like a slither of satin. Again she
knew the wonder of his closeness, the utter lack of scent and the
warm silken smoothness of his skin. She slid her hands under the
ragged black leather jacket and eased it off his shoulders,
allowing it to fall to the floor. Undressing him was like worship,
slowly revealing every inch of his flawless body, unmarked by the
changes in skin colour that Truemen suffered from the sun. She
hated her own piebald flesh, tanned on the face and arms, the rest
a sickly pale shade. She was at least slender and fit, her figure
unchanged by Travain’s birth, save for the long pale scar that ran
down the centre of her belly. When they were naked, Chanter lifted
her chin with a slender hand.

“
Do you wish it to be magical?”

Talsy nodded,
her eyes glowing, and he smiled. Three Powers manifested together
in a gentle wash of warm sweet air that sparkled and glowed with
fire, misted by gentle rain and swirled to the beat of soft wings.
He clasped her face and pressed his forehead to hers, and the dull
room vanished.

They stood
upon the clouds, surrounded by the vast blueness of the sky, the
land a hazy green swathe far below. Talsy gasped and clung to him,
and he chuckled, enfolding her in a comforting embrace. A golden
sunset warmed them with its brilliant rays and soft winds caressed
her skin. She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him closer,
revelling in the hard warmth of his chest and arms, secure in his
embrace. He knelt and lowered her into the clouds’ gossamer mist,
stretching out beside her.

She gazed at
him raptly. “Is it real?”

“
As real as you want it to be.”

“
I want it to be real.”

“
Then it is.”

Something
changed at that moment, a faint frisson of icy power that sent a
delightful shiver up her spine. The soft touch of the clouds dewed
her skin with water, and tiny flames surrounded her. She lay in a
cocoon of fire and ice, floating on the ethers high above the
world, and the man who lay beside her was a god to her. His skin
glowed like molten gold, his eyes gleamed with the translucent
azure of the sky and his jet hair held the depth of midnight
heavens glinting with silver stars. She looked at herself, and
gasped. Her skin glistened like alabaster, and the hair that fell
over her shoulders shone in a riot of spun gold. She was a goddess
lying in the arms of a god, and the beauty of it all made her laugh
with joy and pull him closer. The world melted away into a warm wet
swirl of elements.

Talsy woke in
her bed; Chanter sprawled beside her, snoring softly. She could
hardly believe that what she had experienced had not been a dream;
it seemed too fantastic to have been real, and she prodded the
sleeping Mujar until he sighed and opened his eyes.

“
Was it real?”

He smiled. “As
real as you wanted it to be.”

“
Don’t give me that inscrutable Mujar crap.”

“
What does it matter?”

She chewed her
lip, unsure. “I need to know.”

“
It was real.”

“
We were floating in the clouds?”

“
No.” He chuckled. “I’m not capable of defying the laws of
gravity, little one, at least, not with another’s body.”

“
Then what?”

“
The elements were real; I filled the room with clouds and fire
and wind. The rest you shared from my mind, but it too was a real
memory, not imagination, you understand?”

She nodded, a
lump blocking her throat. “It was beautiful.”

“
As I intended it to be, of course. When you tricked me, you
cheated yourself of what I could provide. Now you truly know what
it is to lie with a Mujar.”

Talsy lowered
her eyes shyly. “Have you lain with other women?”

“
Yes, but not like that. They were content merely with my touch
and presence, but you asked for magic.”

“
Thank you.”

“
Ah, Talsy, it was a gift. How can I deny you
anything?”

She sighed and
pulled him close, content to lie in his arms until the dawn light
brightened and the birds sang outside.

That day,
Chanter swept away the walls within the lowest part of the castle.
Leaving smooth pillars of grey stone to uphold the rooms above, he
created a vast chamber to accommodate the hundreds of chosen who
would gather to witness the wielding of the staff.

In the
afternoon, he took the Staff of Law down and placed it at the
centre of the room, awaiting Dancer’s readiness. A buzz of
excitement filled the valley during the next three days of Dancer’s
preparation, and each night Talsy knew the dream-like wonder of
Chanter’s magic. Each time the visions were different. They lay
together in the sea’s warm blue depths, frolicked in deep mountain
snows and played in a mighty river’s rushing power.

With him, she
became a goddess every night, even gaining his powers with his
consent and commanding the elements herself, sometimes with
startling results. He laughed at her wonder and joy, shared his
powers with a warm tenderness that at times made her weep from
sheer happiness. Nothing could ever compare to the delight he gave
her, using his powers to take her on magical journeys into the
realm of dreams and fantasies. Her bliss swept away her worries
about Travain’s fate, secure in the knowledge that he would survive
the restoration of the laws, an outcome she had always hoped
for.

On the day of
reckoning, a vast storm hung overhead. Ugly brown thunderheads
rolled past, illuminated by sheets of purple lightning. The earth
trembled, and the people who gathered to witness the law’s
restoration were glad to escape the downpour of purified rain that
swept the valley outside. While they waited for Dancer to make his
appearance, Talsy and Chanter stood in the doorway and watched the
storm rage outside the barrier of his power.

“
It’s a bad one, isn’t it?” she asked.

“
Mmm. For those in the chaos, yes. The rain that falls there is
acid, and will kill anything it touches.”

“
How can that happen?”

“
The elements are mixing now. The clouds are filled with
Dolana, particularly sulphur from the volcanoes. This, mixed with
other things, makes an acid. Just as the sea is filling with
Dolana, so is the sky, and if the laws were not restored, soon
there would be no more land, sea or air, just a mixture of
everything in a cauldron of wild elements and raging wind that
nothing could live in, like the worlds the gods have never
touched.”

“
You could live in it.”

He smiled.
“Yes, but I would not wish to.”

A grey dove fluttered out of the rain and landed at their
feet. It shook water from its feathers, then transformed in a gust
of cold wind. Dancer looked nervous, and, at Chanter’s gesture,
softened his
tallana
so Chanter could clasp his shoulder in a reassurance. Chanter
urged him into the vast hall, were a murmuring crowd stood around
the walls. At the Mujars’ entry, it fell silent, watching the two
approach the Staff of Law. Travain waited with his arm around the
shoulders of a plump Aggapae girl with soft brown eyes and
sun-streaked hair.