Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (47 page)

‘I’m Tika,’ was all she
could think of to reply. What was this thing?

‘What Tika?’

‘Um – I come from –
outside. I’m human.’

‘Um – outside? Bad
outside. Safe Tika. Why here?’

‘I, and my friends,
have been trapped in here.’

There was a
considerable pause.

‘Friends I know of. I
have friends.’

Tika waited but clearly
Corax expected a reply.

‘I’m glad you have
friends.’

‘Yes, yes. Many, many.
Family you have?’

‘Yes,’ Tika answered
slowly. ‘I do have family.’

‘Good,
good.’

After another pause and
some more grinding noises, Corax spoke again.

‘Traps bad.’

‘Very.’

‘We in traps. Try dig
out. You go easily out.’

‘We can?’ Tika asked in
amazement. ‘Then why can’t you?’

Tika’s mind was
buffeted with a wave of ancient grief.

‘Live, die, here. Can’t
untrap. You go easily out,’ Corax repeated.

‘If we could get out,
how could we help you?’

The flood of grief
subsided to a sense of patience mixed with gratitude at her
thought.

‘Call to us maybe. Not
know. I ask my friends.’

Tika began to form
another question in her mind when she found herself borne up on the
warm water and then flicked to whirl through the dark, much like
travelling a Dark gateway.

She landed with a thud
that knocked the wind out of her. She struggled to sit up and found
herself on the starlit hillside below the Oblaka, her friends
strewn, groaning, around her. Tika had barely sat up when the
Dragons landed and Farn practically flattened her again. Even as
she calmed and soothed him, she sent her experiences directly to
Kija’s mind. Her companions were recovering quickly from their
violent expulsion from the Splintered Kingdom, Sket already
reaching for the kettle steaming over Volk’s fire.

‘Um – Tika.’

She realised that all
her friends could hear that whisper. She spoke aloud, concentrating
ferociously on finding that quiet, gentle mind.

‘Yes,
Corax?’

‘What is –
um?’

Tika was unaware of
tears streaking down her face as she stared up at the cliff in
front of her.

‘It’s a sound we make
when we’re thinking.’

‘Oh. Are you outside?
Are you safe?’

‘Yes thank you Corax.
Why did you say outside was bad?’

‘Bad last time, long,
long ago. Is it good now?’

‘Yes. Very
good.’

‘Corax tell family.
Maybe you call for family?’

Then there was an
emptiness in the air, and she knew something had come between Corax
and herself, blocking communication. Tika leaned her head on her
knees, and Shea plumped down next to her, an arm round her
shoulders. Kija relayed Tika’s information to the company and
Shivan came to sit opposite Tika.

‘It was the spiral
shells you touched, on the painting, Tika.’

She nodded, her tears
glittering on her cheeks. Shivan reached across to lay a hand over
hers.

‘His name is Corax?’ he
said very quietly.

She nodded
again.

‘He is very young Tika,
very, very young.’

Tika frowned but she
felt agreement surge from Kija. ‘Yes,’ she agreed, going back over
the strange conversation she’d had with – with what? A sea
creature?

The sky above the cliff
was a pale line heralding sunrise. Tika looked around her
companions until she found Volk hunched by his fire.

‘Did you know something
was wrong? That we’d been snatched away?’

‘I heard the young one
scream,’ he growled. ‘That told me all I needed to know,
Lady.’

Tika couldn’t see the
boy Rivan, but guessed he was asleep somewhere near to the Old
Blood. The sound of hooves clattering over loose rock warned them
of Daisy’s arrival. They saw the boy perched on the horse’s broad
back. He slid off beside Volk, holding out his hand, but Volk
gestured towards Tika. Shyly, Rivan picked his way through the
companions until he reached Tika. He ducked his head, dark hair
flopping over most of his thin face, and held out his clenched fist
towards her.

She lifted her left
palm beneath his hand and he opened his fingers. Four small objects
dropped into her palm. Light flared unexpectedly from the silver
bound blood metal ring on her thumb. There was no pain from it,
only a subtle tingle. Tika bent to study the objects in the faint
light. Four shells, delicate spirals, rested on her palm. The boy,
his shyness apparently forgotten, squatted close to her and prodded
among the shells with a bony finger.

‘This one,’ he said,
taking one of them. ‘See it still has an occupant! The others are
empty.’

Very white teeth
gleamed as he grinned up at her. She peered into the wider base of
the shell and saw flesh pulled tight inside.

‘Will it be all right?’
she asked the boy. ‘Shouldn’t it be in the water?’

‘They stay on the rocks
or the sand for a while, when the sea goes out. I’ll take it back
for you.’

‘Oh yes please.’ Tika
handed the occupied shell back to Rivan. ‘May I keep
these?’

‘Of course Lady, I
found them for you, didn’t I?’

‘Tika?’ Sket stood
before her. ‘I’ve put your bed roll by Farn. Sleep for a while, we
could all use some proper rest.’

Tika’s brain felt numb.
She had been tensed, alert, ready for danger. And she had met
something utterly alien to her idea of an intelligent being.
Something which had helped her and her friends, without any
hesitation, after divulging the fact that it, and its fellows, had
been imprisoned in the Splintered Kingdom for endless ages. Without
a word, Tika went to Farn and settled on her blankets, pressed
tight against his scaled side. He lowered his head to brush his
cheek against hers.

‘This Corax who spoke
to you,’ he whispered in her mind. ‘I think his people are a kindly
race. And Shivan was right, my Tika; Corax is only a
baby.’

Tika sent a pulse of
love to Farn’s mind but made no other reply. She lay, the sky
lightening overhead, and studied the shells Rivan had brought her.
All were of a dull amber colour – they would look brighter in water
she knew. Each spiral curved in the same direction, up to a
delicate tip. Then the sun rose over the top of the cliff, and it
glinted on the ring Garrol had made for her.

Tika licked a finger
and rubbed it against one of the shells. It instantly glowed in her
palm, and focusing intently on it, she saw minute specks of
different colours following the lines of the spiral. Her eyelids
felt so heavy. She closed her fingers round the three shells,
pulling her hand against her chest as she fell into dreamless
sleep.

Lellex had moved as
quickly as she could, driving new tunnels through the endless rock
until she found her child. He lay where he’d lain since that very
odd creature had spoken to him. He had told his family, had relayed
every word, every tone, as it was spoken. Now he sensed his mother
nearby and was delighted. The family was scattered throughout this
dreadful place – it was safer. The twisted thing who held them
captive enjoyed killing them if he could find several of them
together, but he usually ignored them if they stayed
solitary.

‘What was the Tika?’
Corax asked when his mother emerged through the wall.

‘It was similar to the
ones we find.’

‘The dead
ones?’

‘Yes. We think the Tika
was one of those.’

‘But we pushed the Tika
out,’ Corax said with satisfaction. ‘Did you hear me speak to
it?’

Lellex sighed. ‘The one
who rules this place heard you too,’ she said. ‘Now you must move
quickly. Follow the tunnels that I have eaten and I will go another
way.’

‘If the Tika calls will
we be pulled out? Outside is good here – the Tika said
so.’

Lellex was silent for a
little while then a tentacle stroked gently over the wide lip of
her son’s shell and twined briefly with his.

‘We can hope, little
Corax, we can hope.’

Chapter
Twenty-Six

It was barely mid
morning when Tika woke, but she felt as refreshed as if she’d slept
a full night. She stretched luxuriously before opening her eyes.
When she did, she was surprised to find Rivan squatting patiently
beside her. She blinked, meeting those pale, pale eyes, then his
teeth glinted as he smiled at her.

‘The one I put back is
still on his rock. I’ll show you if you want.’

Tika struggled free of
her blankets, scrubbed at her eyes and said the first thing that
came into her head.

‘What are you when you
change, Rivan?’

Only when the words
were out did she wonder if she’d overstepped Old Blood forms of
protocol. But Rivan didn’t seem to mind, judging by his
grin.

‘Wolf.’

For less than a breath,
Tika could indeed see the wolf under the boy’s thin
face.

‘Yes.’ She stood up,
brushing a hand along Farn’s face to say good morning. ‘Show me the
shell please, Rivan.’

He caught her hand and
found she still held the shells he’d given her. ‘Put those safe,’
he instructed, and watched as she tucked them inside her
shirt.

She put them in the
pocket which held Seela and Dabray’s scales, and then Rivan took
her hand again, pulling her down the slope towards the
sea.

‘That’s a pretty ring,’
he remarked, lifting their linked hands to look more closely at the
band around her thumb.

‘A friend made it for
me. His name is Garrol and he is a Shield Master and Armourer in a
land far away.’

Tika saw that most of
her company were around a larger fire to her left and she gave them
a wave as Rivan marched her on towards the beach.

‘Rivan, when you are a
wolf, do you hunt?’

His fingers tightened
briefly around hers. ‘I’ve only started to change recently,’ he
confided. ‘Just after Volk left with all of you, but he had asked
other Bloods here to help me.’ He glanced up through the tangle of
dark hair. ‘It’s scary the first few times.’

‘I’m sure it must
be.’

‘I can hunt, and I can
kill, but I mustn’t eat what I kill while I’m in wolf shape. If I
did, I could get stuck as a wolf and not change back to
me.’

‘Volk told me something
like that, I think.’ Tika frowned. Had it been Volk, or someone
else?

They were crunching
over shingle now and Tika saw that Rivan was barefoot. He noticed
her glance.

‘You ought to take
those fine boots off, Lady,’ he told her, nodding at the water
ahead.

It was nearly a year
since she’d gone unshod, but as her bare feet landed on the cool
gritty sand, she remembered her loathing of boots when Emla had
first insisted she wore them. Rivan led her towards a large flat
rock through gentle, knee deep waves. He scrambled onto the rock,
pulling her up behind him.

‘Here.’

She crouched beside him
and saw a small depression in the rock, in which the spiral shell
sat in solitary splendour. Water was slowly filling its own private
little pool and spray misted over Tika as she studied the shell.
Rivan poked it, but it didn’t move.

‘It sticks itself
tight,’ he explained. ‘It might stay here for days, or it might
swim off when the water’s nice and deep.’

‘It swims?’

Rivan nodded. ‘Little
threads come out the bottom, and they waggle, and it moves where it
wants.’

Tika sent a mental
probe towards the tiny shell but felt nothing respond, no awareness
within it. She stood up, and gasped when a larger wave hit the end
of their rock and showered her with cold water. Rivan hopped out of
range and laughed. They jumped back to the beach and began to
stroll towards the camp, collecting Tika’s boots on the
way.

‘I heard that Corax
speak,’ Rivan said suddenly. ‘Your friends said he was a baby, but
he must be bigger than those ones.’

‘Across the base of his
shell, which I didn’t see, I would guess he must be wider than I am
tall.’

Rivan’s eyes narrowed.
‘So how big are his parents?’

Tika smiled. ‘Much
bigger. Race you.’

She gave the boy a
shove to push him off balance and sprinted up the shingle onto the
rocks above. She heard Rivan’s yelp of outrage and then
concentrated on ignoring the sharp stones underfoot to reach the
fire first. But they arrived together and collapsed, both giggling.
Sket whisked Tika’s boots out of her hand, and scowling, checked
them for water stains. Konya passed over two bowls of stew which
roused Tika’s appetite instantly. Volk watched both Tika and Rivan
with approval as they began to eat.