Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (36 page)

‘I had never thought
that cats could use mind speech, but the arrogance of that
particular cat somehow does not surprise me at all.’

Tika stood up as Navan
came downstairs. He gave her a hesitant smile.

‘I hoped you might be
up. Would it be possible for me to speak to the Ship? I had an idea
in the night that she might have maps of Wendla or even one of
those pipes Kertiss had – with pictures inside.’

‘Sefri was with Star
Flower just before you came down Tika,’ said Taseen.

‘Right. I warn you
Navan, Flower is not like Singer. Her outer structure is much
damaged but her mind is less excitable.’

‘Storm told us what you
did,’ Navan remarked as he followed Tika through the long building.
He paused at the Ship’s circular door.

Khosa was crouched just
inside, tail tidily wrapped round her feet. ‘They expect you.’ She
sounded smug.

Tika shook her head.
‘Eavesdropping again when people think you’re asleep?’ she asked,
stepping over the Kephi.

Farn, just waking
beyond the verandah, huffed. ‘She is very nosy,’ he
began.

Tika turned back to the
door to look at her soul bond. ‘You did promise you’d try to be
more tactful dear one.’

Farn’s eyes flashed but
he didn’t argue. Tika stepped out of the Ship again to give him a
brief hug.

‘I AM trying,’ he
whispered to her mind.

Tika laughed and
rejoined Navan. He was clearly nervous at entering the Ship but
followed her without comment. Sefri was in her chair, one hand
against the Ship’s wall. She turned to smile at Tika. Tika smiled
back.

‘Star Flower,’ she said
aloud. ‘This is my friend Navan. He would like to ask you about
this land of Wendla.’

‘Welcome Navan.’ The
husky voice was warm. ‘Please sit down. I will help however I may –
I have much to repay Tika.’

Tika patted the back of
the second chair. ‘I’ll leave you to your questions,’ she
said.

Sefri walked out of the
Ship with her. ‘I spoke with Taseen,’ she said. ‘When you go, as I
believe you must, he and I and Flower will go through all the data
we have concerning the first orbital surveys.’ She laughed at
Tika’s blank expression. ‘Come and have some breakfast. Seriously
though my dear, you must act quite soon, to stop whoever has plans
to attack Malesh from here.’

Over the next days, the
companions studied the maps Navan made from records retrieved from
the Ship together with more recent information from Ammi’s people.
Ammi volunteered two of her grandchildren to act as guides through
the northern wilderness and to continue with the companions to the
Imperial City of Bracca. Taseen spent a full day planning a
document Tika would carry to the Emperor. The following day was
spent writing it out again on high quality parchment suitably
embellished with many flourishes and various seals. When he’d
finished, it looked convincingly official and it decreed that Tika
and her friends travelled under the auspices of the Grand Harbour
Master of Malesh.

Sefri also produced an
impressive scroll, claiming Tika represented the Survivor Captain
and was under her protection.

‘I have no idea whether
my words will be given serious consideration or respect,’ Sefri
admitted. ‘It is over one hundred years since I left Green Shade
and the last Imperial Envoy to visit here was nearly as long ago.
Letters and reports stopped arriving soon after Emperor Lian took
the Crystal Throne, and he was great grandfather to the present
Emperor. They may think Star Flower and I are dead, or of no
consequence if we are still alive.’

‘But you were held in
esteem before?’ asked Gan.

Sefri nodded. ‘The bio
Ships, such as Star Flower, were used for remote surveys and often
as first contacts. Our orders were to observe new worlds. We would
be dismissed from the service if it was discovered that we had
interfered in any world’s development.’ She shrugged. ‘Our crash
landing here did not go unnoticed and Imperial troops came quickly.
Until Flower’s decline, we were often asked for our opinions and
judgements on many matters both large and small. Several Emperors
received me at the Imperial Palace and some made the journey to
Green Shade as I became unwilling to leave Flower.’

‘Grek has not
returned.’ Maressa was thoughtful. ‘I wondered if perhaps we should
confront this seeking mind.’

Frowns greeted her
suggestion. Sefri had shown them what she called a simple and basic
machine which shielded Green Shade from any mental prying. Since
Flower’s more rapid collapse during the last year, Sefri had set
the shielding to activate the instant any probe was
detected.

‘Brin and I will
support you.’ Tika made up her mind. ‘This evening then, we will
join with you while you either confront, or trace back, this overly
curious person.’

‘Could anything have
happened to Grek?’ Olam asked.

Seela’s eyes whirred
lilac and violet. ‘He can be taken apart,’ she said. ‘Gremara
showed me how it can be done. Whether many others would know how to
do so, I can’t say.’

Taseen reached a hand
to touch the purple Dragon’s shoulder where she reclined near the
verandah. ‘I know how to disperse the essence of a soul,’ he said
quietly. ‘But it is not taught any longer in our
academies.’

‘As far as you know,’
said Gan.

Taseen shot him a hard
look but then slowly nodded. ‘You may well be right,’ he conceded.
‘What is taught now, particularly in Vorna’s department, is open to
debate.’

‘We are decided then?’
Tika stood up. ‘Maressa will try to discover who searches across
the sea even as far as Malesh. Whether Grek returns or not, I say
we should travel to Bracca the day after tomorrow.’

Heads nodded around the
group.

‘We begin by going
along one of the rivers.’ Navan spread out a map he’d made with the
help of Ammi’s grandson Jaran and Star Flower. His finger traced a
winding course south eastwards. ‘Jaran says we can use the rivers
nearly to the forest’s edge when they become unnavigable. That will
take four days at the quickest.’

‘That’s the route I
used to take,’ Sefri agreed. ‘Then you have two days walking
through farm land until you reach a market place. Canals start
there which lead to Bracca itself.’

‘Canals?’ Sket put
aside his oiled sword and picked up Tika’s.

‘Artificial rivers,’
Sefri explained. ‘Dug out long before I came here.’

‘Men would spend their
days digging trenches for rivers?’ Pallin asked, his tone one of
complete disbelief.

‘The Emperor Zorus used
slave labour: the canal system was completed in a very few years
apparently.’ Sefri glanced round, aware of the sudden stillness.
She found her gaze held by emerald eyes framed in
silver.

‘I was a slave.’ Tika
spoke softly.

Ammi muffled a gasp
behind her hand. ‘A Halfling? Taken as a slave?’

‘My mother was taken as
a slave,’ Tika corrected. ‘I was born a slave.’

Fleetingly her eyes met
Navan’s. Ammi was pale as she turned to go back through the long
room to the kitchen.

‘Of course I knew there
was some slavery in the north of the continent. I’m sorry Tika but
I didn’t know you had been so treated.’

Tika shrugged. ‘I am no
longer a slave but I have no sympathy with those who believe they
can own another body and soul. I will fly with Farn for a while,
but I’ll be back before that mind comes poking around.’

No one spoke until Farn
had lifted from the grass, the gijan shrieking in pursuit. Storm’s
head twisted over Olam’s shoulder so he could stare into Sefri’s
face.

‘Are there slaves in
this land now?’ he asked. ‘I had never heard of such a thing until
Tika told her story to my Flight.’

‘No,’ Sefri replied.
‘Slavery as such was prohibited in the time of Omak, fourteen
Emperors back. I felt the servants were treated not much better
than slaves although they were free men, when I visited the
Palace.’

Sket sheathed Tika’s
sword with a sharp click. ‘Let’s hope my Lady doesn’t think the
same when we get there.’

Olam and Riff both
grinned but Gan and Navan frowned. Twilight was near when Tika slid
from Farn’s back, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling. The
companions were all gathered near the Ship. Sefri sat in Flower’s
doorway.

‘We have deactivated
the shield Tika,’ came Flower’s husky voice. ‘But we are not
skilled in mental communication – we cannot be of much
help.’

Maressa sat on the
grass, her back against Brin’s huge chest. Tika and Ren sat nearby,
their minds lightly linked to hers. They sat thus for some time as
the first stars glimmered in the green sky but no one moved. It was
Seela who began to relay what Maressa saw when the air mage
stiffened, her eyes open but unfocused.

There was not a simple
blur of light in Maressa’s mind as was usually experienced if mind
met mind when far speaking. Maressa, and the others through Seela,
saw a young woman. She sat cross legged on a gleaming wooden floor,
staring straight towards Maressa.

‘Who are you? Why do
you spy on us?’

Somehow Maressa’s voice
seemed to thunder in their minds. The woman flinched.

‘I was not seeking you
stranger. I seek a mind in Malesh.’

‘Who?’ hissed
Taseen.

‘Who?’ repeated
Maressa.

‘His name is Taseen. I
have been told he can help us stop one named Vorna. Who are you and
where are you? You feel close.’

Maressa did not
hesitate. ‘My name is Maressa. I am in a place called Green
Shade.’

They all saw the
woman’s eyes widen in shock.

‘Mage Taseen is with
me, as are others.’ Maressa deliberately let her gaze sweep over
the four Dragons, the three gijan, Ren and Tika and Taseen
himself.

‘Green Shade,’ the
woman whispered. ‘May I tell my Master what I have seen, and ask
him to speak with you?’

‘Who is her Master,’
Taseen asked urgently.

‘Say your Master’s name
stranger.’ Maressa’s mind tone had not diminished.

‘Master Jakri, son of
Oniko and grandson of Jael, of House Jade.’

Taseen clutched his
beard, thinking furiously. ‘Yes!’ His hand trembled as he pointed
at Maressa. ‘I remember House Jade. She speaks true so far as it
goes.’

‘Let your Master speak
with me when the moon rises. I would know your name also – I have
given you mine.’

‘I am the least of
Master Jakri’s apprentices – Hiramo is my name.’

Maressa cut the link
between her mind and the Wendlan woman abruptly and let out a long
breath. Tika studied Taseen.

‘Who is Master Jakri
and House Jade?’

But the old mage was
lost in thought: it was Ammi who answered.

‘Wendla has always been
divided into Houses – everyone in the land owes allegiance to one
particular House.’ She sniffed. ‘We in the northern forests belong
to no House and never will.’

Sefri pulled her lower
lip between her finger and thumb. ‘I’m sure I stayed in House Jade
– but it was so long ago.’

Ammi nodded. ‘House
Jade has always stood for the middle way. Even in the oldest tales
of intrigue and fighting between Houses, House Jade was trusted by
all to listen to every argument and judge fairly.’ She frowned.
‘House Jade bred many powerful mages but even when mages have come
under suspicion of any wrong doing, House Jade stayed true. I’m
sure there is a tale of a mage from House Jade having his powers
stripped from him by the Jade Master for transgressing mage
laws.’

There was time to eat
before moon rise. The mood was subdued as they anticipated
Maressa’s meeting with the mind of a Wendlan Master Mage. They
moved from the kitchen to gather near Star Flower as the thinnest
shard of moon cleared the horizon. Again Maressa sat against Brin’s
crimson chest and linked minds with Ren and Tika. Through the air
mage’s mind they saw a man, cross-legged on a wooden floor as the
woman had been earlier. He spoke first, eyes as blue as Farn’s
staring directly at Maressa.

‘I am Jakri. Hiramo
gave your name as Maressa.’ There was the faintest hint of a smile
about his mouth. ‘I do not believe you are of Malesh?’

This time Maressa kept
her mind tone at a normal level. ‘I am of Vagrantia, far north of
the great desert. But for now I am of Green Shade.’

The man inclined his
head. ‘You told Hiramo that the great mage Taseen is with you. Can
he stop the one called Vorna?’ Jakri answered his own question. ‘I
suspect he cannot if he is in this land at this time. I am able to
offer mages from several Houses if he requires it.’

Maressa looked to the
old man. ‘Speak directly to him through me,’ she said.

Taseen fluffed his
beard then concentrated on the man within Maressa’s
mind.

‘You suspect correctly
Master Jakri. I have not regained enough power since the last
battle to thwart Vorna let alone a single one of the
Children.’