The Amber Legacy (32 page)

‘No pain? No discomfort?’ Diamond inquired.

‘No.’

Diamond and Onyx helped her rise. She rolled her neck and shoulders and shook her hands. ‘Can I have a robe please?’ she asked, aware that she was naked. Onyx handed her a yellow robe and she slipped it on. ‘How long have I been—asleep?’ she asked.

‘It’s after the evening meal,’ said Onyx. ‘The acolytes are at prayer.’

Light snorted to attract her attention, and said perfunctorily, ‘You have some confessing to do.’ He held up her amber pendant. ‘About this. About your miraculous recovery. And about your—
condition.’

‘Not here,’ Diamond intervened. ‘The temple is not the place for this. We’ll meet in the Common Chamber.’

‘Wherever there is life there will always be hope.
She who brings life into the world must be
honoured by all, for she brings us hope.
She is full of Jaru and is Jaru.’

FROM
Jaru’s Gift
,
VARIOUS AUTHORS

‘
P
regnant!’ Seer Diamond accused, as he approached. Light sat at the table, scowling as usual. Onyx was scratching his scalp. Vale was silent. ‘You knew this even before you entered the temple!’

‘I guessed that it was true,’ she replied quietly.

‘It’s sacrilegious for a pregnant woman to be on holy ground!’ Light growled. ‘The temple will have to be ritualistically cleansed.’

‘How long have you known yourself to be pregnant?’ Diamond asked.

‘Almost five cycles.’

‘Five cycles!’ Diamond blurted, sweeping his blue robe around him indignantly.

‘Jarudha will make you suffer for your heresy,’ said Light. ‘He does not abide those who mock him, and women are the most notorious of mockers.’

‘“Let those of all genders, all colours, all hopes come into my flock, for I am the source of wonder and all knowledge, and all should learn from me,”’ Meg recited, finishing with a deferential bow.

‘Do not presume to quote scripture at me!’ Light roared, as he rose from his chair. ‘How dare you! “Beware those who say they know
The Word
of
Jarudha, I say, for they will speak nothing but lies!”
The Word
does not serve evil!’ He strode across the chamber and stood over Meg, glaring at her. ‘It seems you believe yourself to be an expert in scripture after a handful of days in training.’

‘That wasn’t my intention,’ she replied. ‘I just—’ She faltered and looked down, annoyed as much as unsettled by the Seer’s close presence and menacing dark eyes.

‘You just what?’ Light persisted.

She lifted her eyes to meet his stern gaze. ‘I just think you’re afraid that a woman might be able to become a Seer.’

Light’s eyes widened, and then narrowed like a cat’s. ‘Little girl, no
woman
will ever be my equal. Not even your beloved Queen.’ He turned to Diamond. ‘Enough of this nonsense. Turn her out. Give the wretch back to her Queen and let’s have no more of her social experimentation. A woman can
never
be a Seer. Jarudha will not countenance such heresy!’

Diamond glanced at Onyx. Then, to Meg, he said, ‘Amber, you have made Jarudha’s most holy of sanctuaries unclean for all within it. Scriptural law calls for the cleansing of everything you’ve touched. In older times, it would also have led to a scourging for you—a public whipping—’

‘Except that
I
will not allow it.’ The intrusion of the Queen’s voice surprised everyone. She entered the room accompanied by three Elite Guards. She hugged Meg, and held her at arm’s length to ask, ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes,’ Meg assured her.

The Queen turned to the Seers, and demanded, ‘Why wasn’t I called the moment this attack occurred?’

‘We were dealing with the matter,’ Light replied, before Diamond could answer, and he started for the chamber door.

‘I did not give you permission to leave,’ the Queen said.

Light stopped, and bowed slightly. ‘I’m not in the habit of asking for permission to serve Jarudha,’ he remarked, as he straightened up. ‘At least, not within His holy temple.’

‘Then you’d better revise your habits,’ the Queen said coolly, ‘because
I’m
no longer in the habit of countenancing insubordinate subjects.’

Light looked as if he was about to speak, but Diamond butted in. ‘Your Majesty, I’m sure Seer Light is apologetic for his abrupt comment. It’s just that your—protégé—has deliberately flouted the oldest conventions of our Order.’

‘Then he’ll understand how I feel,’ the Queen replied.

Light bowed his head. ‘With Your Majesty’s permission, I wish to see to other, more pressing matters.’

‘What about my necklet?’ Meg asked.

‘What necklet?’ Sunset inquired.

‘He still has it,’ Meg said, pointing to Light.

Light flushed with guilt. He raised his left hand and opened it. ‘This?’ he asked innocently.

‘Yes,’ said Meg.

Light tossed the amber to land at Meg’s feet. ‘My apologies. I thought I could throw better than that.’ Without awaiting the Queen’s response to his initial request, he turned and exited. Thankful for its return, Meg retrieved her necklet and slipped it over her head, tucking it inside her robe.

‘The robe belongs to us,’ said Diamond. ‘It will have to be burned, but you can’t leave with it.’

‘What about her old clothes?’ the Queen asked.

‘They were disposed of,’ Diamond explained. ‘Normally, once someone becomes an acolyte, there is no return to the old life.’

The Queen beckoned to a guard and gave him an order. As he withdrew, she said to Meg, ‘He’ll return with something for you to wear. I will wait for you in my private chamber. Come there immediately.’

‘Your Majesty?’ Diamond asked. ‘Before you leave, I would like a private audience.’

‘What about?’

Diamond flushed. ‘Your Majesty, the matter is private.’

‘Where?’

Diamond indicated for the Queen to follow him from the chamber, saying, ‘Onyx and Vale can see that matters are finalised here.’

Sunset sat opposite Meg. The Queen’s blonde hair shone in stark contrast to the dark tapestry hanging along the wall. ‘You are an enigma,’ she said. ‘What am I going to do with you?’

Meg didn’t know how to answer. Diamond had exposed everything, apparently—the attack, her healing, the pregnancy. The Seers had witnessed her abilities on two occasions, and yet they’d still thrown her out, charging her with being an abomination, a heresy against
The Word
of Jarudha. ‘Send me home,’ she said.

Sunset’s eyes widened. ‘Oh,
that
is the one thing I can’t do. Someone wants you dead. They’ve tried to kill you twice since your arrival. I’d hoped that sending you to the Seers was a way of giving you a chance to develop your astonishing talent and simultaneously keep you discreetly secure from your enemies. But not so. Whoever is behind these attempts is determined and can even get access into the Jarudhan temple. If I send you back to Summerbrook, you’ll never arrive there.’

‘The Seers thought the attack on me wasn’t really about me, but about them.’

The Queen smiled grimly. ‘They have a point—except you
were
the target.’ She rose from her chair. ‘Show me this precious necklet of yours again.’

Reluctantly, but knowing Sunset had already seen it, Meg withdrew the amber from under her tunic. It sparkled in the lamplight as she held it up. Sunset took it and let it spin, throwing light shards across the floor. ‘Diamond said this is more valuable than all the Royal riches,’ she murmured. ‘He called it a Conduit.’

‘A what?’

Sunset returned the necklet to Meg and leaned against the table. ‘Oh, he wouldn’t explain. He said that it was sacred knowledge to which only Seers of the highest order were privy. When I pressed him to at least give me a clue, he admitted that even he wasn’t certain of what it really is.’

‘Did he say who would know?’

‘No.’ Sunset laughed. ‘He said it was knowledge passed on only to the sons of fathers within the Holy Order, so one of the Seers would really know what it meant but he would have been sworn to secrecy until he chooses to pass it on to his son.’

‘But I thought the Seers were celibate?’

‘The acolytes,’ Sunset corrected. ‘The Seers can take partners. They can marry, but they don’t have to. They can have multiple women and many children if they choose.’

‘And if the Seer who knows this secret knowledge doesn’t have a son?’

‘Unlikely. But if he does, I assume he’d choose a likely successor and swear them to the secret.’

‘What if the Seer dies before he passes the secret on?’

Sunset laughed again and began to walk away. ‘You really do ask questions, don’t you, Amber?’ She shrugged. ‘Who knows? I bet it would be written somewhere. I don’t really believe Diamond’s
explanation. I’m certain he knows exactly what your necklet is. And I suspect it’s the reason why you’re being hunted.’ She stopped to look directly at Meg. ‘My advice? Find a way to hide it or get rid of it. Or learn what it’s for, somehow. I’m going to bed. You will have the chamber next to mine, through that door,’ she said, pointing. ‘In the morning, I’ve arranged for you to be taken to the Royal library to meet someone.’

‘Who?’

‘Get some sleep,’ said Sunset. ‘You’ll need it,’ and she left the room.

Meg caressed the amber sliver pressed against her chest inside her tunic. Because of it, her life had changed dramatically. From her village to the Royal Palace in Port of Joy, from farm girl to holy acolyte, from farmer to hero—all of the legends and ballads she’d learned as she grew up, the stories she enjoyed but also discounted, were now the substance of her life in an astonishingly brief period. And there was the Blessing. Of everything she disbelieved in the old fantasy tales—the dragons, the larger-than-life warriors, the improbable quests—the one aspect she disbelieved most of all was magic. It couldn’t happen. It was impossible. And yet she had seen Emma create magic. And her own power to heal could only be magical.

The Queen’s pageboy, Smallone, entered the room casually, but stopped abruptly when he spotted Meg. ‘I beg your pardon,’ he said, bowing, ‘I thought Her Majesty had retired for the night.’

‘She has,’ Meg told him.

‘Shall I come back in a while?’

Meg rose from her chair. ‘No. I’m going to bed now, too.’ Smallone’s expression was the surprised curiosity of a person who recognises a familiar face, but also notices the changes, like Meg’s shaved head. ‘Do you like it?’ she asked as she passed him.

‘Yes, Lady Amber,’ the pageboy answered, although his insincerity was too obvious.

‘My name is Meg,’ she said.

Smallone bowed and said, ‘Begging your ladyship’s pardon, but Her Majesty told us all that from now on you are to be addressed as Lady Amber.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Yes, Lady Amber.’

Meg smiled at the irony of being renamed by the Seers who now disowned her. Perhaps letting them call her Amber wasn’t as bad as she thought. ‘Lady Amber it is,’ she said, and dismissed the pageboy.

The fair-haired boy smiled at her and she knew instantly that he was her son. She wanted to cross the busy street to pick him up, but her feet were rooted to the ground against her will. A faceless man in a sky blue robe lifted the boy onto his shoulders and carried him into the crowd, and everyone followed, reaching up to touch the fair-haired boy. But her feet were stone.

Waiting in the library in the morning was someone she did not expect. She thanked Smallone, and cautiously approached the Seer. He bowed, and in a quiet voice said, ‘Good morning, Amber.’

‘Good morning, Seer Vale,’ she replied. ‘Pardon my surprise.’

Vale’s squinting brown eyes vanished in smiling creases. ‘I doubt anyone would have expected me,’ he said. ‘But I am here.’

‘Why?’

‘To continue your training.’

‘Yesterday Seer Diamond expelled me.’

‘From the temple? Yes.’ Vale shook his head. ‘But Jarudha is more than a temple and a gathering of
disciples, and He has chosen you, Amber, for whatever purpose He has in mind.’

‘Does Seer Diamond know you’re here?’

Vale shook his head again. ‘It’s probably best for all concerned that neither Diamond nor Light know I am here. Their vision of what should be is—I could say
limited
by their pride. And there are things neither of my brethren need to know.’

Meg had never paid Vale a great deal of attention. The fourth Seer, the quiet one who observed but rarely made comment, he was a short man, with a white beard and long white hair like the others, but his wizened face suggested he was the oldest of the quartet. Yet he also seemed to be the one of least presence and influence. She remembered the Queen’s comments of the previous night, however, and her curiosity sprang to life. She fished inside her black tunic for her amber crystal and held it out. ‘Do you know about this?’

Vale’s face betrayed him as he stared at the charm. He met Meg’s gaze, and asked, ‘How did you come by this?’

‘Perhaps you can show me that I can trust you by telling me what you know about it first.’

The Seer’s expression was static, as if he was decoding her meaning, but then he smiled. ‘I understand. You have no reason to trust me anymore than you would trust Diamond. Or Light. I’m sorry that my colleagues treated you with disrespect. Light suspects that what you have in your possession is what it is. His avarice is almost as unforgiving as his pride. Diamond—he doesn’t know much about a Conduit. His Blessing is with fire and light. That’s been his study. He’s heard that there are Conduits, but he’s never seen one until now, and then he didn’t know what it was until Light told him.’

‘How does Light know?’

Vale shook his head again, an action she assumed was the Seer’s regular habit. ‘Light wants power, and lots of it. He’s read about Conduits and devoted much of his life to seeking one. He knows about the history of the Genesis Stone. He knows that tiny fragments of it were passed down through the generations, and that those fragments have the capacity to magnify a Seer’s Blessing into great power. That is what you have—a fragment of the Genesis Stone. At least that’s what I’m certain it is.’

‘The Genesis Stone?’

He surprised her by taking her hand, instead of answering her question, and leading her along the rows of books. ‘The Royal family gathered this library across several generations and from several lands. As a library, it pales in comparison to the one that was built in the capital of the old Ashuak Empire by the priests of the ancient Khvechevik religion. They were dragon worshippers, but they amassed a library greater than any before or since.’

‘Dragons never existed,’ said Meg automatically.

He stopped and dropped her hand. ‘That’s what is commonly believed, but the more I read the less I’m so sure about that.’

‘Are you telling me dragons really existed?’ she asked in astonishment.

He shook his head. ‘I’m admitting that I don’t categorically believe dragons didn’t exist. The ancient civilisations tell stories and keep records that suggest dragons were a real part of their worlds. The Khvechevik priests used to make annual human sacrifices to the dragons. Until the empire collapsed.’ He walked on, pointing to shelves of books as he spoke. ‘This library has many more books than the one we keep in the temple. On this shelf are mostly stories of journeys. These are geographical works. Those in this
row are mostly poetry. Our temple books are religious and philosophical works devoted to the glory of Jarudha, books that are unequivocal in their content and intent.’ He stopped again to remove a heavy tome from the shelf and flipped it open. The inside leaf displayed a stylised dragon. Around it were indecipherable scratchings. ‘Can you read?’