Songs of the Earth (29 page)

Kael set down his whetstone and held his dagger up against the light to examine the edge for imperfections. Never taking his eyes from the blade, he said, ‘I know what came through,
gaeden
. A hellhound.’

Sheathing the dagger, he drew another from his belt and set to with the whetstone again. Once more the brothers exchanged looks, then Duncan continued their story. ‘Kael sensed the beast as soon as we were within a mile of where the attack happened. He said he could smell it, feel its wrongness with his mind. I don’t understand how he does that, but he can follow a trail like this as if it was an Imperial highway. He took off after the creature as fast as he could, and he gained ground on it quickly. Perhaps it doubled back, or was lying in wait for him, but when we caught him up after doing what we could for the Eldannar we found him badly hurt, and his horse gutted like a fish. When he regained consciousness two days later, he told us what he’d seen.’ His mouth twisted with distaste, and he stared down into the cup cradled between his hands.

‘Maegern’s Hound,’ said Sor. ‘Large as life and reeking like a
charnel-house. He’s been tracking it since he could sit a horse again. It’s headed north, into the Pass.’

Masen blew out a long breath. This was worse than he could have imagined. One of the Hounds, loose now, with the Veil failing? Would the Hunt ride again? Goddess have mercy.

‘I saw nothing on my journey down from the Brindling,’ he said. ‘Kael’s right, I am
gaeden
– I am the Gatekeeper. Whilst I was in the mountains, I discovered a weakness in the Veil. If what Kael saw was true, then I’m very much afraid it has already been torn. Who knows what else might find the rent and step through?’ Masen sighed. ‘The situation is even more dangerous than I had realised. If you mean to continue tracking the Hound, you must be cautious.’

‘I do mean to track it,’ said Kael, stroking the whetstone lovingly over the blade in his hand. ‘We have unfinished business, that Hound and I.’

‘You’ll not kill it with steel, Kael,’ Masen warned him, but the clansman did not seem to be deterred.

‘Nevertheless,’ he said. ‘I’ll see it finished.’ He looked up, black eyes fixing Masen through the wavering glow of the fire. ‘What do you have in your pocket,
gaeden
? It pulls at me.’

‘This?’ Masen fished out the nail and held it up by its thread. It spun as the thread unwound, first clockwise then back again, slowing as it went. ‘It’s how I find the Gates to the Hidden Kingdom. I can sense them when I’m close enough, but this points the way like a compass.’

‘What is it?’

‘A horseshoe nail. I stumbled on it years ago, on the Belisthan moors. I didn’t know what it was when I found it, but the first time I passed near a Gate with it, the Hidden Kingdom tugged at it so hard it damn near tore my pocket off.’

Cara reached out a finger to touch the nail, her face rapt. ‘This is from the other side? The shadow-world?’ she asked, trying to take hold of it. She frowned when it slipped through her fingers like
wet ice. She tried again, equally fruitlessly, then drew her hand back, rubbing her fingers together. ‘It’s not iron or steel, it’s … slippery. I can’t get a grip on it.’

‘No flesh can. I had to tie a string round it to pick it up.’ Masen held it up to eye-level, seeing his face reflected in the liquid silver surface, then dropped it back into his pocket. ‘One day I’ll drop it in a river somewhere and it’ll be gone for good. Then I’ll have to retire.’

Duncan laughed, but Kael grunted sourly and pushed himself to his feet. ‘Not until all the Gates are closed,
gaeden
,’ he said. ‘We should have no truck with the Hidden Kingdom. There is evil there.’ Shouldering his cloak, he headed for the door. ‘I’ll take first watch.’

Not long after, the others rolled themselves in their blankets and settled down to sleep. Masen went quietly to the far end of the undercroft to check on Brea, then fetched his own bedroll from his pack and spread it out on the floor.

He woke when Kael came back in, shaking snow from his cloak, and waited until Duncan had left to take his turn at sentry duty. Then he got up and padded to the other side of the fire where he hunkered down next to Kael.

‘What do you want?’ the man asked tersely, before Masen could even speak.

‘Just a moment of your time, clansman. How long have you known you are a seeker?’

‘What business is it of yours?’ Kael pulled his blankets more tightly around him and turned his back.

‘Forgive me, I’m curious. It’s not a common talent.’

‘Talent, you call it?’ The clansman rounded on him, sitting up so abruptly Masen thought he was about to be struck. Kael’s black eyes glittered like mourning jewels. ‘It’s a curse. Since I was ten years old I have been able to feel nothing but foulness. No joy, no love; just the blackness in men’s hearts and the poison in their
souls. I wish to all the gods it could be different, but it can’t, so I try to put it to the best use I can. But don’t ever call it a talent.’

‘Forgive me. I meant no offence,’ Masen said.

The clansman lay down again and pulled his blanket up to his ears. Every line of his frame was tense, as if he had to clench each muscle in his body for fear he would fly apart. Even with his eyes closed, he radiated the watchfulness of a cat about to spring. ‘It’s still out there,
gaeden
,’ he said softly. ‘Maybe twenty miles away, heading just east of north. You’d be useful in the hunt. This land is unquiet.’

‘I’m afraid my way lies on another road, my friend. I have a duty to fulfil.’

‘We all have a duty to rid the world of abominations such as this,’ Kael said. ‘No matter. I’ll fetch it down alone if I have to.’

‘Then may the Windlord go with you, Kael,’ Masen murmured and patted the clansman’s stiff shoulder. He pushed himself back to his feet, suddenly bone-weary. ‘Sleep well.’

Barely a heartbeat after the knock, the door to Gair’s room flew inwards and crashed against the wall. Darin stood in the entrance, chess set under one arm and the other extended to catch the rebounding door. His dark eyes sparkled. ‘You will not believe what happened to me today,’ he announced.

Gair closed the book in his lap and took his feet down off the desk. ‘Try me.’

Darin hurried in and set the chess set down, shoving a pile of books out of the way to make room. ‘It was the most amazing thing,’ he went on as Gair tipped the pieces out of the box and started to set up the board. ‘It was my free day and I thought you might like to go fishing with me, but I couldn’t find you anywhere and Renna was off to Pensteir to visit her mother, so I went down to the market in Pensaeca Port, and that’s where I got this.’ He thrust out his fist and opened his fingers with a flourish. There, nestled in his palm, was what appeared to be a diamond the size of his thumbnail.

Gair’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Good Goddess!’

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Darin’s grin all but reached his ears. He tilted his hand and the gem flashed shards of brilliant colour across the wall.

‘How did you afford that on your allowance?’

If anything, the grin grew wider. ‘That’s the best part. I didn’t pay a penny for it.’

‘Please tell me you didn’t steal it!’

‘No, no, I didn’t do anything wrong. It was given to me. What do you think?’

‘It’s magnificent. You could buy a barony with that.’

‘I was thinking maybe a duchy. Just a small one, nothing too vulgar.’ Darin rolled the stone around in his palm. It spat light like a fragment of the sun and he chortled with delight.

‘And someone gave you this?’ Gair asked. ‘I think you’ve missed out part of the story there.’

His friend did not appear to have heard him. He was utterly captivated by the gem. Spangles of blue and red and gold danced across his face.

‘Darin?
Darin!
’

‘Mmm?’

‘Tell me the rest of the story.’

‘Oh, sorry, I got distracted.’

‘Not surprising, with ten thousand acres-worth sitting in your hand.’ Gair waited for his friend to continue, but Darin was enthralled by the stone again. He rapped on the desk. ‘Wake up and tell me the rest.’

‘What? Oh, yes, sorry, so no, it’s not ten thousand acres-worth, it’s just crystal.’

‘Crystal? Are you sure? It looks real enough to me.’ Certainly the stone had all the flash and fire of a diamond, although Gair had only a memory of his foster-mother’s earrings for a guide.

‘I met a man at the assayer’s office in Pensaeca. He told me.’

‘You’ve had it assayed?’

‘No, the man did. That’s how he knew it was crystal.’

‘You’re not explaining this very well, Darin.’

‘Sorry, sorry, I just can’t quite believe it. It’s so beautiful.’

‘It’s certainly turned your head around – and I thought it was
only girls with long braids that did that. Will you put the blessed thing away and tell me the whole story before I wring your neck like a dishrag?’

Absently Darin dug in his pocket and pulled out a small purple velvet pouch. He loosened the drawstrings, but instead of tipping the stone inside, he became caught up in admiring it once more.

Gair growled.

‘All right, don’t get grumpy with me. I’m just looking.’

‘Darin, I hate to hear a tale half told – it drives me crazy, not knowing the end. I used to stay up all night reading because I couldn’t bear to put a book down before it was finished. Now for the love of the saints—’ Gair reached for the pouch.

Quick as a blink Darin snatched back his hand. ‘It’s mine!’

Hands held up conciliatorily, Gair sat back in his chair.

Darin dropped the stone into its little bag and yanked the strings tight, glowering. He tucked the pouch back into his pocket.

‘So are you going to tell me how you came by this treasure?’ Gair asked.

As quickly as he had become sullen, Darin’s expression softened. ‘Sorry, Gair, I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m just so excited. Nothing like this ever happens to me. My oldest brother, if he fell in a river he’d climb out with a salmon in each pocket. Me, if I fell in I’d drown.’

‘Can’t you swim?’

‘No – but that’s not the point! You know very well what I mean!’ Frowning, Darin seized his head in both hands. ‘What was I saying? Oh, yes. I was in Pensaeca Port, walking through the market, when a man came out of the assayer’s office. This little velvet bag fell out of his pocket as he put his money away.’ The pouch was back in his hand and he spun it round and round by the strings looped around his finger. ‘I ran after him to give it back. He told me the assayer had just said it was only crystal and I could keep it for my honesty in bringing it to him. ‘‘It’ll make a pretty keepsake for your sweetheart,’’ he said. Do you think she’d like it?’

‘Renna? She’s your sweetheart, not mine.’

‘I was thinking I could save up and get it made into a ring for her St Winifrae’s gift. Girls adore jewellery, don’t they?’

‘I’ve spent ten years in a cloistered Order, Darin – I am the last person you should be asking for advice about women.’ Gair smiled. ‘I know one thing, though. If you put that stone on a gold band it’s going to look an awful lot like a betrothal ring.’

Darin caught the whirling pouch in his hand and looked down at it, fingering the plush fabric. ‘Well, we have been walking out for a year now,’ he said. Brown eyes flicked up, boyish, hopeful. ‘Do you think she’d say yes?’

‘Go ask her and find out.’

‘Gair!’ the Belisthan wailed, and Gair laughed.

‘I’m sure she’d be thrilled.’

‘You really think so?’

‘Really.’

Tucking the gem back into his pocket, Darin finally sat down and studied the chessboard. ‘Is it my move?’

‘You’re playing white.’

Hand hesitating over one of the pawns, he chewed at his lip. ‘Actually, Gair, there’s something I’d like to ask you. Will you stand for me as my second? If she says yes?’

Startlement gave way to sheer delight. Gair held out his hand. ‘I’d be honoured.’

‘I could ask my brothers, of course, but they’re all way over there at home. You’re here, and you’re my friend, and, well—’ Darin finally moved his pawn, then looked up to see Gair’s hand, still held out towards him, unshaken. ‘Oh, you will? Thank you so much! Just promise me you’ll keep a hold on my coat so I don’t fall over if I faint.’