Rebellion: Tainted Realm: Book 2 (93 page)

Rix tightened his defiance of the command spell until it hurt, then crawled along the dusty ceiling beam until he was above Grandys’ bedchamber. If he failed, or the spell betrayed him, he would die.

A few minutes ago, an unobtrusive little man had given the password to the guards outside Grandys’ room, and slipped inside. Rix had seen the man before and felt sure he was a spy.

What was Grandys really up to? There was an implacable purpose behind his bloody ruthlessness, and it had to do with the Herovian goal of reaching their Promised Realm. But how were they to get to it? And what did that mean for Hightspall?

The ceiling plaster was old and cracked. Not cracked enough for Rix to see into the bedchamber, though he might be able to hear. He lowered his ear to the surface, but heard not a sound.

Everything was so thickly coated with dust here that even his gentle movements had stirred it up. The dust was tickling the back of his nose. He suppressed a sneeze and kept very still, knowing that his weight on the beam could be enough to crack the plaster, and that would give him away at once.

“There’s
another
ebony pearl?” said Grandys.

“Yes, Lord Grandys,” said the spy. “My sources tell me that there are five, and it is the fifth.”

“A fifth! And the way magery is failing, I’m soon going to need it.”

So Grandys’ magery was also failing. That was the best news Rix had heard since Glimmering. The command spell must be weakening too, and if he fought it hard enough he might be able to break it again. But this time he would be more careful; he would not reveal that he had done so.

“Where do they come from?” said Grandys.

“Some magians say that ebony pearls just happened,” said the spy, “that they’re a freak of nature. Others believe that Lyf manipulated the lost king-magery so the pearls would form in suitable hosts —”

“Suitable hosts?”

“Pale slaves —”

“How can such priceless artefacts form in a people so unworthy?” Grandys cried.

“I cannot say, my Lord.”

“Which Pale slaves?”

“Certain young females. Unusual Pale, you can be sure, though we only have the name of one.”

“How did you learn this name?”

“It was mentioned at the trial of Lord and Lady Ricinus, Lord.”

Grandys clenched a fist. “Lady Ricinus was the mother of my troublesome lieutenant. A noble Herovian, and she was hanged and drawn on her palace gates by this miserable chancellor. He must be put down. And the name of this Pale?”

“Iusia vi Torgrist, Lord. Lady Ricinus killed her and took her pearl ten years ago.”

“Vi Torgrist, vi Torgrist? Where have I heard that name recently?”

“It’s an ancient house,” said the spy.

“
I know
!” snapped Grandys. “The founding family came on the Second Fleet.”

“But the house is long extinct in Hightspall. It only survives in the Pale.”

“Tell me about the fifth pearl.”

“It has not yet been harvested from its host.”

“Why not?”

“Ebony pearls take many years to grow and mature. They can only be harvested from the host after she comes of age.”

“So the development of the pearl is linked to the development and maturity of the host,” said Grandys. “Go on.”

“My sources say the fifth pearl is the strongest of all. It’s been called the master pearl.”

“The
master
pearl. To the nub: who is the host?”

“A Pale who escaped from Cython. As far as I can discover, the only people who know her name are Lyf and the chancellor. They’re both after it, of course.”

“But the host has eluded them. The pearl must have given her exceptional gifts.”

“Quite so, Lord,” said the spy. “Will that be all?”

“For the moment.”

Rix heard the door open and close. Then it opened again.

“You heard all that?” Grandys said quietly.

“Yes,” said Lirriam. “Can you name the Pale?”

Grandys did not answer.

“Only two have escaped from Cython,” Lirriam went on, slowly, as though assembling lines of evidence, “and one was a child who could not host a mature pearl. Therefore it has to be the other, Tali vi Torgrist. She gave evidence about the murder of her mother at the trial of Lady Ricinus.
Which means that pearls must be familial
.”

“I’m remembering something,” said Grandys.

“About the Pale?”

“No, from my crystal dreaming, before Maloch woke me in the Abysm. I was dreaming about Tirnan Twil.”

“What about it?” Lirriam said sharply.

“When the gauntlings burned Tirnan Twil, I dreamed that a Pale woman was there.”

“So what?”

“If Tali is the only adult Pale to have escaped, it must have been her. And if she has the fifth pearl, surely she had the magery to defend Tirnan Twil. But she did not act. Why not?”

“Perhaps she doesn’t know how to use her power.”

“It was her!” cried Grandys.

“You’re beginning to sound obsessed,” Lirriam said with a hint of a sneer.

“The small blonde Pale who refused me at Glimmering-by-the-Water. Before that she cried out. She was distraught at something I’d done. What,
what
?”

“You
are
obsessed with her,” said Lirriam. “Don’t let yet another woman impair your judgement.”

“No, this is monstrous!” said Grandys. “It was when I tried to kill the shifter, the mongrel who dived over the cliff and escaped. She cried out in fear for a filthy shifter.”

“Are you saying that Tali held back her magery for
him
?”

“Yes! Tirnan Twil was destroyed because she’s a despicable shifter lover, and when I find her, I’ll have her for it.”

“And the pearl,” said Lirriam. “Don’t forget what’s important here.”

Rix’s next two spying missions revealed nothing. Was Grandys onto him, and allowing him to compromise himself ever more deeply? If Grandys was, his wrath would be terrible. But Rix could not stop now. He went back for a fourth evening, and this time found a tiny hole that allowed him to see a small part of the bedchamber.

“What do you mean, Tali can’t be found?” said Grandys, stalking back and forth, Maloch in one hand, wine jug in the other. “We know she left Glimmering with the chancellor’s party.”

He hacked a chunk out of the windowsill in his fury. His magery had failed to locate her and he’d reluctantly enlisted the assistance of Lirriam and Rufuss, whose command of sorcery, while not as powerful as his own, had certain advantages in subtlety. He had not wanted to; he did not trust either of them, and especially not Rufuss, whose opalisation had further damaged an already unstable mind.

“She’s been hidden with powerful magery,” said Lirriam. “Under such concealment, she could have gone anywhere and we wouldn’t know.”

“The chancellor knows she bears the pearl,” said Grandys. “Do you think for one minute that he’ll let her out of his sight? I’ll bet he has her at Garramide.”

“If he does, whoever hid her has done it with rare skill.”

“It’ll be the chief magian,” said Rufuss. “What’s his name?”

No one knew.

“It wouldn’t be hard to take Garramide,” said Lirriam.

“We’re not going near it,” said Grandys in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Why not?” said Rufuss.

“I built it for a purpose —”

“Your
adopted
daughter has been dead 1950 years,” she sneered.

“But my purpose has not yet come to completion,” Grandys said coldly. “If we attack Garramide, the chancellor might destroy the place rather than surrender. He’s a spiteful little man.”

“I was wondering when you would remember our noble purpose,” said Yulia. Rix started and nearly fell. He had not realised she was there. “I thought you’d lost sight of it completely, in your ceaseless attempts to prove yourself by slaughtering everyone who stands in your way.”

“I haven’t lost sight of it,” Grandys growled.

“I hope not. This land is ours by right – a right laid down in the
Immortal Text
.”

“Why do you think I’m fighting for it?”

“For the joy of killing,” she said coldly.

“Why are recruits flocking to us by the thousand?” said Grandys. “Why do the enemy cower in terror when they hear we’re coming? Why is Lyf hiding in Caulderon? Because of my name, Yulia!” He hacked into the windowsill again. “My name and reputation. Once they’re established, I’ll continue with our noble purpose.”

“They
are
established,” said Yulia. “Two thousand years ago, we came here to create the Promised Realm, and we failed. Why was that?”

Rix sat up. What did she mean by
create
the Promised Realm.

“Because the wrythen petrified us,” Grandys said sullenly.

“That’s not the real reason, and you know it. We failed because you acted like the brute and sadist you are.”

“Lyf had to die. There was no other way to get the king-magery. And without it, we could not create the Promised Realm.”

“You didn’t have to hack his feet off. You didn’t have to inflict all the pain and suffering on him you could. You didn’t have to carry out all those massacres, or destroy every precious item of Cythe’s great civilisation.”

“They had to go. What does it matter?”

“It matters,” said Yulia, and Rix could tell she was speaking between her clenched teeth, “because your viciousness brought out something in Lyf he never knew he had. That’s how the departing king-magery created his undying wrythen. That’s where he found the strength to hunt us down and turn us to opal. That gave him the burning urge to vengeance that’s brought him, and his people, all the way down the aeons to today, and his boot across the throat of our land. It matters because your failure lost us the Promised Realm.”

“It’s not lost,” said Grandys, defensively. “Just delayed.”

“Then delay no longer. You swore a binding oath to do this. Do it now.”

“To tear Hightspall down and reshape the island into the Promised Realm, I have to have king-magery. Nothing else will do.”

Tear Hightspall down? Reshape the island? Did Grandys mean to destroy everything in Hightspall and create the Promised Realm from scratch? This was worse than Rix had imagined. Worse than he
could
have imagined. And it raised an even more troubling problem, though he could not bring it to mind.

“Then get it,” said Yulia.

“I will – just as soon as I get Lyf’s two pearls, and the master pearl.”

“Take the master pearl first,” said Lirriam.

“It won’t be easy to lure the craven dog of a chancellor from his kennel,” said Grandys.

“It will if we move to all-out war.”

“Go on.”

“Were we to wage war with the same ferocity that we used to take Rebroff,” said Lirriam, “we could control Lakeland, Fennery and Gordion within a week. The chancellor couldn’t hide in Garramide then – he’d be too afraid we’d sweep all the way south and take Caulderon back.”

“Especially if I drop hints to his spies that I’m planning to,” said Grandys. “He’ll have to come out of his lair then, and he’ll want Tali close by, in case he needs to take the pearl for himself. As soon as he moves, I’ll take an elite raiding party, capture his chief magian and force him to reveal Tali.”

“What if he won’t?”

“I’ll squeeze him until his eyeballs pop. There aren’t many men I can’t break, Lirriam.”

“I can break them all,” said Lirriam, smoothing her hands over the curve of her belly.

He scowled and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “Ahh, I do need war.”

“With all this feasting and lazing around,” said Lirriam provocatively, “you look a wreck.”

“But my armies are far smaller than Lyf’s,” said Grandys, testing her. “And he holds very strong positions.”

“Just the way we like it.” The blood lust in his eyes was reflected in her own.

“Call the men together. We march tonight – to exterminate the enemy in the north and destroy all his works. Then, once we have the remaining pearls, we recover the lost king-magery and create our Promised Realm at last.”

A cold wave passed through Rix’s head and down into his middle. Grandys did not understand what king-magery was, or how it worked. He assumed it was just another form of magery, an incredibly powerful tool that could be used for any purpose. But it wasn’t.

Rix knew, because Tali and Holm had told him, that king-magery was fundamentally a healing force that could not safely be used in any other way. If it were twisted to destructive purposes, such as tearing the land down and rebuilding it, the consequences for Hightspall could be dire.

Rix had no choice now. He had to break the command spell, take Grandys on, and kill him. It was the only way Hightspall could be saved.

“Grandys has taken Lakeland and Fennery,” said the chancellor, agitatedly. “Now he’s marching on Gordion. What’s he going to do next?”

He’ll come for me, Tali thought. He wants revenge for Tirnan Twil, he wants my pearl, and he’s not a patient man.

His violent onslaught on the north after a week of peace had taken everyone by surprise, including Lyf. Grandys, with his unbeatable sword, his combination of old and new magery, his brilliantly unpredictable leadership and utter ruthlessness, had one astounding victory after another. The survivors of Lyf’s routed armies were retreating towards Caulderon as fast as they could go, and the chancellor was starting to panic.

Tali was too. No one understood Grandys, and no one knew what he would do next. She had a mental flash of the envoys’ heads rolling across the table. He might turn up here tonight and there was no reasoning with him, no fighting him either. He would simply have his way.

“If the passes are clear of snow, it’s only a day’s march over the mountains from Gordion to Caulderon,” said Holm, answering the chancellor’s question. “He could do another of those overnight forced marches and be at the gates of the city at daybreak tomorrow. If he chose to, he could attack Caulderon before we heard he was on his way.”

“He won’t find it easy to win,” said the chancellor, sounding like a man trying to convince himself. “Capturing a great city isn’t like taking a fortress defended by a thousand soldiers, or beating an army out on the open plain. Lyf’s got fifty thousand troops in Caulderon and they’re well dug in. Not even Grandys could take it with a ragtag army of ten thousand.”

“He could take
part
of it, though,” said Tobry. “With the lake walls destroyed by the tidal wave it’s a difficult city to defend.”

“And most of the people still live there,” said Holm. “If he took the southern shanty towns, say, then called on the people to rise in rebellion, he could make things awkward for Lyf.”

It’s coming, Tali thought. The end of the Pale is coming and I’m trapped here where I can’t do anything about it. I’ve got to spy on Lyf again, tonight.

The chancellor gnawed a reddened knuckle. “And I’m stuck in Garramide. Whatever possessed me to come here?”

“How were you to know Grandys would move so fast, and have such brilliant victories?” said Tali.

“Any student of history might have predicted —” began Tobry.

“Thank you, shifter!” the chancellor snapped. “You’re here on tolerance and mine is limited.”

“But he’s right,” said Holm. “Grandys is doing exactly what he did before, when…”

“When he was alive?” said Tali.

“I don’t know that he ever died, exactly…”

“My tutors in Cython taught me that —”

“What would your tutors know?” said the chancellor. “The Pale went to Cython as children.”

“
Went
isn’t the word I’d use,” Tali said coldly. “They were given to the enemy as child hostages.
And never ransomed
. Hightspall abandoned its noble children, then blackened their name to cover its own shame.”

“Grandys started the first war with a brilliant, ruthless stroke,” the chancellor said, ignoring her outburst. “His armies were vastly outnumbered by the enemy, yet he had victory upon victory. No one could predict what he would do next because he didn’t know himself.”

“Then how come the war went on for two hundred and fifty years?” said Tali.

“Didn’t your tutors explain that?” the chancellor said nastily. “A decade after the war began, Lyf and the other four Heroes all disappeared within a few months, and the war turned bad. They were like demi-gods by then, and their disappearance was a shattering blow to morale.”

“No one ever discovered what had happened to the Five Heroes,” said Tobry, “but everyone knew the enemy had done it.”

“To lose Grandys was bad enough,” said the chancellor. “But to lose the other four Heroes when they were all on high alert, was devastating. It meant that no one was safe.”

“Hightspall had no one fit for command,” said Tobry. “The Five Heroes had been too dominant for too long, and they had wanted all the glory for themselves. The younger officers tried to emulate Grandys’ tactics, failed, and were ruinously defeated. In a few months the Cythians had taken back most of the territory they’d lost in a decade of war – and it took another two hundred and forty years to beat them.”

“Enough talk.” The chancellor rose abruptly. “I can’t be stuck here, so far away. If an opportunity comes, it’ll be over before I hear about it.”

“Are we going somewhere?” said Tali.

“I sent messages to my army in Rutherin, weeks ago. And to my other allies, to come east. We’re riding west to join them in the morning.”

“I don’t want you to spy on him again,” said Tobry, late that night.

They were up under the dome where he was accustomed to practise magery. Though it was exceedingly cold, it was a large open space where there was no chance of anyone eavesdropping on them.

“And I don’t want you going off to kill Grandys, so we’re even.”

“If you’re finished arguing,” said Holm, “can you get on with it? We’ve got an early start in the morning and I need my sleep.”

Tali sat on the blanket she’d brought up, studied the self-portrait of Lyf for a minute to fix him in mind, then closed her eyes and focused her magery on his temple. She hadn’t needed such help last time.

“It’s a lot harder to
see
than before,” she said after several fruitless minutes. “Is the temple protected, I wonder, or is it my weakening gift?”

Neither Holm nor Tobry replied. She tried again and, with no warning, broke through.

“
If you’d kept the catalyz on
—
” Errek was saying.

“Don’t speak the name!” hissed Lyf. After a long pause he went on. “Besides, my father the king cautioned me not to wear it unless I was about to use it. It’s our most precious secret.”
 

“Do you think I don’t know that?” growled Errek. “I created king-magery in the first place – and the key.”
 

“I know you did,” Lyf said hastily. “But
—
”
 

“Some secrets are best hidden in plain view.”
 

“What’s that?” cried Lyf.
 

Tali withdrew hastily. Her heart was pounding as if she had just climbed a high ladder.

“Did you see anything?” said Tobry.

“He mentioned something called a
catalyz
. Wearing it.”

“What were their words, exactly?” said Holm.

She repeated them. “Is a catalyz a magical talisman? In olden times, Grandys stripped the temple looking for a talisman. At least, that’s what Wiven said before Lyf had him put to death.”

“It’s an alchymical term,” said Tobry. “A catalyz isn’t magical in any way. It’s just something that needs to be present before something else can occur.”

“Like the detonator in a grenado?” said Holm.

“No, the detonator explodes and makes the grenado go off. A catalyz doesn’t
make
anything happen – it simply
allows
it to happen, when conditions are right.”

“Is the catalyz the key to king-magery?” said Tali.

“Possibly.”

“So that’s why Grandys could never find a talisman,” said Tali. “There wasn’t one, because the catalyz isn’t the least bit magical.”

“If Errek First-King created king-magery to heal the land, why did he also make the catalyz? What’s it really for?”

“I think I can answer that,” said Holm. “From my study of history.”

“You must have studied it more deeply than I have,” said Tobry.

“I’ve certainly studied it a lot longer. In old Cythe, magery was forbidden to anyone save the king, and bound around with all kinds of punishments if anyone else tried to learn even the tiniest spell. But why?”

“To preserve the mystique of the king,” Tobry said cynically.

“Perhaps. But here’s a thought – what if any adept who learned the procedures – the spells, if you like – could use king-magery? It would put the whole realm in peril, and most of all, the king. Perhaps that’s why Errek created the
catalyz
.”

“Why?” said Tali.

“To be a secret key, known only to the current king or ruling queen, without which king-magery could not be used. And the secret would only be passed on as the old king passed on king-magery to his heir.”

“It fits the evidence,” said Tobry.

“If we can find the key, the catalyz,” said Tali, “we might command king-magery. It’s the greatest magery of all; it could win us the war.”

“Nothing is that simple,” said Tobry. “Even the kings of old Cythe had a long and difficult struggle to learn king-magery, I’ve heard, and some never did.”

“All right,” said Tali. “But if Grandys gets it —”

“That,” said Holm, “is a truly terrifying prospect.”

“It would certainly make him invincible,” said Tobry.

“That’s not what I meant. Errek designed king-magery to heal the land, and every king had to swear publicly that he’d made that choice. If Grandys tries to twist king-magery to destructive purposes, instead of healing the land, it could destroy it.”

“How does that work?” Tobry said curiously.

“I don’t know. But this land can be deadly when things get out of balance. Lake Fumerous was created when the fourth Vomit blew itself to pieces in ancient times. If it happened again, would any human life survive in Hightspall?”

“I doubt it,” said Tobry.

“But surely Grandys would understand the risk,” said Tali. “He’d know not to go too far.”

“A man like him?” said Holm. “He never listens; he would never believe that such a rule would apply to him. What megalomaniac would?”

Tali looked down at Lyf’s self-portrait, which was still resting in her lap. “This circlet looks a bit out of place, wouldn’t you say?”

“Why so?” said Tobry.

“Lyf’s wearing elaborate kingly robes, yet his crown is a simple silver circlet.”

“The kings of Cythe never wore crowns,” said Holm. “Perhaps it’s something he had as a boy and put on to give himself confidence.”

“Then why paint himself wearing it as a newly crowned king?” said Tali.

“To remind himself to stay humble? Lyf never wanted to be king. It fell to him when his older brother died suddenly.”

“What if the circlet is the catalyz,” Tali said slowly. “Holm, was there a circlet among all the artefacts in Tirnan Twil?”

“I wouldn’t know. There are whole floors of artefacts and we didn’t go up there.”

“It doesn’t take a very hot fire to melt silver,” said Tobry, “and from what you said about that fire, it was a conflagration. If the circlet was there, it would have been fused into a useless lump.”

“Wait a minute,” said Holm.

“What?” said Tali.

“Silver was never used by the kings of Cythe – not for ceremonial purposes, anyway.”

“Why not?”

“It was considered an ignoble metal.”

“What did they use?”

“Gold, mostly,” said Tobry. “Sometimes platina which, as I recall, Lyf had a lot of in his caverns.”

“Gold or platina, it would still have melted in a fire like that,” said Holm.

“Gold, maybe, though it’s harder to melt than silver,” said Tobry. “But not platina – it takes an exceedingly hot fire to even soften it. Any ordinary fire, fuelled by wood and paper, wouldn’t affect it.”

“So if the circlet is platina, and it was at Tirnan Twil,” said Tali, “it could still be there. And sooner or later, Lyf is going to reach the same conclusion.”

“Can’t say I’d want to go back and see what fire did to all those people,” said Holm.