Wall of Spears (5 page)

Asami stared blankly at them. How was an attempt on her life happy news?

‘You are giving up magic to look after our grandchild!’ her mother babbled. ‘Gaibun told us you were withdrawing from the Magic-weavers!’

Asami sucked in a deep breath. Retsu had suggested they put that story out there, to see if that stopped Sumiko’s plans. But it was not a happy decision, no more than the one where she had ordered Sendatsu to leave, to protect them both.

‘I am proud of you, my daughter,’ her father said pompously. ‘Finally you are behaving as you should, acting like a true wife to Gaibun. Luckily that attack on you failed but at least it has brought you to your senses.’

Asami glared at him, angry words lined up on her tongue. With great difficulty, she thought about what she was saying before she blurted something out that would possibly risk her life. Her father had always been Jaken’s greatest supporter and, with Jaken as Elder Elf, his rise had been dramatic. The cut and colour of her parents’ silken kimonos, the richness of their jewellery and the self-satisfied looks they wore told Asami all she needed to know about their fortunes.

‘I am staying here because Sumiko sent warriors to kill me,’ she said carefully. ‘Nothing else.’

‘I’m sure it wasn’t your old sensei’s doing. Why would she want you dead?’ her mother said reassuringly.

‘You know that, do you? You are part of Sumiko’s inner circle, are you?’ Asami said sharply.

‘Do not talk to your mother in that way,’ her father admonished.

‘I am sure it is just because of her pregnancy. It is affecting her mind,’ her mother said smoothly.

Asami ground her teeth together to stop herself from swearing at them.

‘Well, whatever the reason, it is good to see you have stopped this magical foolishness,’ her father said. ‘We can put all that business — and our arrests by Lord Daichi — behind us, as if it never happened.’

Asami could not stop herself. ‘Are you both blind?’ she cried. ‘Can’t you see what is going on around you? Jaken wants to start a war with the humans, while Sumiko stands at his shoulder and plots. Do you trust her?’

‘I trust Lord Jaken. He has always known what to do. You should accept your place in life and realise seeking to change it only brings problems. Look what you nearly did through your actions — gaijin at the gates of Dokuzen; Lord Jaken in chains and us under guard!’

‘I did? My actions?’ Asami threw her hands up in the air. ‘It was Sendatsu and I who saved this city from the Forlish, freeing Jaken and bringing the Velsh in to fight for us.’

Her father surged to his feet. ‘You are a fool who needs to learn her place in Dokuzen. I was too soft on you as a girl. Lord Jaken was right — I should have beaten the wilfulness out of you. Listen to me. Sit here, look after your husband and your child, obey your husband, your clan leader and the Elder Elf and your life will be far better.’

‘I have too much power to sit and do nothing. Don’t you understand what is at stake here, how the world is changing?’

Her father held out his hand to her mother. ‘Come, dear. You are right. The pregnancy has ruined her mind. We shall return when she has seen some sense.’

Asami restrained the urge to shout at them and perhaps hurl something with difficulty. How could they be so short-sighted? And how could they be both proud of her for doing nothing, and ashamed of what she had done?

‘Did he believe you, sensei?’ Oroku asked as Sumiko walked out of the Elder Elf’s villa, not even acknowledging the bows of the guards.

‘Of course. I fed him lies and he clamoured for more. For a warrior who prides himself on using his mind more than any other elf, he is ridiculously easy to manipulate. A few suggestive words and the tiger of clan Tadayoshi turns into a purring kitten,’ Sumiko said with a smile. ‘Soon we shall be able to discard him but he has his uses until then.’

‘Can we trust the Forlish?’

‘To do what they think is best? They are like children, seeing only the prize in front of them. They will not be a problem.’

‘And what of Asami?’

‘Gaibun will be with the army that marches west to watch the Forlish and Velsh posture at each other. When he is gone we shall send twenty warriors into her house. The six we sent before should have been enough but it seems Jimai cannot tell the difference between esemono and true warriors. We shall not make another mistake. Once she is dead, and that human girl Rhiannon also, there will be nobody left to stop me.’

‘Your will, sensei.’ Oroku bowed.

Uffa and Wilfrid had never visited the library at Cridianton before, so they were late meeting their mother there, needing to be shown the way by a servant.

Their mother’s welcoming smile turned to a scowl in an instant when she saw that. ‘Go!’ Mildrith told the servant, who raced away as fast as possible. She turned on her sons furiously. ‘You should have found your own way here. Who knows how many of these servants will be reporting back to your father?’

‘But we were late and we knew you would be angry with us,’ Uffa whined.

‘Did you not consider my anger is as nothing compared to your father’s? I might give you a clip around the ear for your foolishness. If he finds out, you will be lucky to have a head on your shoulders.’

Even though both of them were much bigger than their mother, they melted before her anger, as if they were still small boys.

‘Now, what are we going to do about your father?’ Mildrith asked, her voice softening slightly.

‘Not much we can do. He has all the power and all the soldiers,’ Wilfrid eventually replied.

Mildrith pointed to chairs and they slunk over to them.

‘Listen to me,’ she said carefully, controlled anger tight behind every word. ‘If we do nothing, then either your father will rule forever, or he will hand over power to that revolting, common soldier, Edmund. You should have the throne, not some gutter scum with not even a scrap of royal blood.’

‘What can we do?’ Uffa protested.

‘Help me turn this to our advantage and prove that you have the wit and wisdom to rule this land.’

‘What do you want us to do, Mother?’ Wilfrid asked quickly, grasping the situation faster than his brother.

‘Your father rides north and says he is taking you with him. He plans to betray the elves, and seize their powers. What he is doing is risky and he will make a mistake. When he does, we shall use it to our advantage.’

‘How will we know he has made a mistake?’ Uffa asked.

Mildrith paused. ‘You may not recognise it. But I will, so I want you to take carrier pigeons north with you. I have bribed the handlers. I want you to write to me every day, telling me what your father is doing and his plans. I will work out what needs to be done from there.’

‘But you can’t give us instructions,’ Wilfrid said. ‘The pigeons only fly one way.’

Mildrith smiled. ‘Yes, you are learning. I will send a rider with a message. That will take a day or two to reach you, so you must tell me as early as possible what is happening.’

‘Yes, Mother,’ they chorused.

She smiled at them. ‘Good. Things may seem hopeless but we shall come out of this with the throne, I promise you. Now come here.’

The two lumbering princes stood awkwardly and allowed themselves to be embraced.

‘And not a word to your father. If he asks, you are sending messages of love to the mother who misses you desperately. He cannot find out what you are really doing. You can trust the handlers I have bribed but nobody else.’

‘Of course, Mother, we are not stupid,’ Wilfrid said.

She patted his cheek. ‘I know. But just in case.’

Sendatsu looked out at the mass of Velsh filling the meeting hall, talking and eating and sitting and lying down. Some had brought their families, others had brought animals. The smell was indescribable — and not entirely due to the animals. A couple of Velsh looked like they were wearing brown tunics and trews but Sendatsu suspected they were more dirt than cloth.

At least half appeared to be trying some sort of magic, throwing strange substances into the air, waving their hands around and muttering or indeed shouting incantations. Sendatsu knew none of those things were needed for magic and he could not feel any magic going on, either. The smell, however, was making his eyes water.

‘And are these the hope of the Velsh, indeed the hope of these lands?’ he asked doubtfully.

Rhiannon shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

The word was spreading out across Vales by dragons riding on the fastest horses they had. Some of this crowd had arrived by themselves, while others had been collected by the Velsh dragons.

Sendatsu and Huw had given the headmen their instructions early that morning, then watched the grumbling men ride out to their villages, to begin preparing Vales for an Elfaran invasion. Mindful of Mai’s words, Sendatsu had tried to be gentler with them. But Aroaril, that was hard! Still, he thought they had the message. Although much depended on this strange assortment now stinking out the meeting hall.

‘Is there nothing I can do?’ Huw asked.

‘No,’ Rhiannon answered swiftly. ‘We shall get them one by one and see if they can make anything happen. It is going to take all day — and this is just the start!’

‘If only it would take just a day to get the smell out of the meeting hall,’ Huw said mournfully.

‘It is all in a good cause,’ Sendatsu said encouragingly. ‘There could be a dozen Rhiannons in there!’

Rhiannon looked at a half-naked man with a beard hanging down near to his knees. He was rolling some sort of dung between his fingers and chanting, eyes going back in his head.

‘I find that hard to believe,’ she said wryly.

‘Well, there had better be some. Or Vales is finished,’ Huw said fiercely.

‘It doesn’t depend on only these,’ Sendatsu said softly. ‘But we shall begin immediately.’

‘You get to test the dung sniffer,’ Rhiannon said instantly.

‘Mai would have more magic than him,’ Sendatsu grumbled.

‘Then test her as well! But for sky’s sake, find us some more people with magic!’ Huw cried.

Sendatsu laughed. ‘Calm down. This is only the first of many such days. If we find a couple with magic, then we will have done well. Don’t lose hope. They will be out there.’

‘Will they? Rhiannon is Forlish, what if there is nobody in Vales with that talent —’

‘The more you worry, the less time we have to test,’ Rhiannon said tartly.

Huw snorted. ‘Things would go much faster if you had Asami to help you test for magic, and Gaibun to help train the dragons,’ he said meaningfully.

‘Not going to happen,’ Sendatsu said abruptly.

‘Well, I thought it was worth a try. They would make a difference and, perhaps, if you asked them —’

‘They have made their decision and that is the end of it,’ Sendatsu snapped.

‘Enough foolishness, we are wasting daylight,’ Rhiannon told them.

‘Fine!’ Huw held up his hands. ‘Not another word from me, I promise.’

Sendatsu and Rhiannon looked at each other.

‘Who first?’ Sendatsu asked.

But before they could walk in, a young man, dressed neatly in tunic and trews, pushed past a pair of goats and strode by them.

‘Where are you going?’ Rhiannon asked.

The young man had brown hair cropped close to his skull, and a broad face that was twisted in revulsion.

‘Home. This is a waste of time,’ he said disgustedly.

‘But we haven’t tested you yet,’ Sendatsu pointed out.

‘Are you going to tell me that the man playing with sheep dung is the saviour of Vales and steeped in magic?’

They looked at Dung Sniffer.

‘He’s steeped in something,’ Sendatsu admitted.

As they watched him, he broke open one of the round droppings, obviously found something to his liking in there and popped it into his mouth.

‘Not even angry dragons could make me test him for magic,’ Rhiannon declared, while Sendatsu had to look away.

‘As I said, this is a waste of time,’ the young man grunted and resumed walking.

Rhiannon grabbed his arm. ‘Wait. You must have dreamed of dragons to come here in the first place.’

‘Yes, I did,’ he admitted.

‘Then let us test you first. What’s your name?’

‘I am Bevan of Crumlin.’

Rhiannon bent down and snatched up a small tuft of grass with soil attached and placed it on the flat of her hand.

‘Very good. You just need Dung Sniffer there to fertilise it and in a few months you’ll have a lovely plant,’ Bevan said.

‘I don’t need any of that,’ Rhiannon said softly and reached into the magic, making the grass grow, until it covered the whole of her hand. She looked up at Bevan. ‘Did you feel what I did then?’

He shrugged. ‘I felt something strange, as if all my senses had come truly alive for the first time …’

Sendatsu and Rhiannon exchanged glances.

‘Try to make the grass grow,’ she suggested, her voice betraying her excitement. ‘Reach out and imagine you can talk to it, then tell it to get bigger.’

Bevan glanced across at Sendatsu and then back to Rhiannon. ‘That sounds as crazy as wanting to share a meal with Dung Sniffer.’

‘Try it,’ Sendatsu urged.

With a shrug, Bevan held his hand over the grass on Rhiannon’s hand and Sendatsu felt the ripple as he reached into the magic and laughed aloud as the grass doubled in height in the blink of an eye.

‘Was that right? Did I do it?’ Bevan asked as Huw glanced eagerly at an excited Rhiannon and Sendatsu.

‘We have our first Velsh Magic-weaver,’ Rhiannon confirmed.

‘You are not going anywhere.’ Huw patted Bevan on the back enthusiastically. ‘Who knows how many more wait for us in there?’

Rhiannon and Sendatsu grinned at each other, then a powerful smell wiped the smiles off their faces. A harsh voice interrupted them and they turned slowly to see Dung Sniffer holding out a handful of reeking sheep droppings.

‘Are you ready to test me now, because these are best used when warm and I’ll need to collect some more if we wait any longer.’

‘Don’t say anything,’ Rhiannon warned Sendatsu, as he opened his mouth.

Ward looked back over his shoulder as he rode out of Cridianton. The buildings and the wall around his city looked even more beautiful from this side, he decided. Especially when he had feared he was never going to get the chance to see them from anything but his bed.

‘We shall ride back in triumph, Father,’ Wilfrid said from behind him. ‘The walls will be lined with people cheering our names!’

Ward exchanged a look with Edmund and said nothing. He felt he had to go north, see for himself what was happening. Waiting in Cridianton for news would be unbearable. He did not trust the elven Magic-weaver and would-be leader Sumiko and he needed to see events unfolding. Everything he had already won and done was at risk and not even Edmund could be trusted to make all the right choices, but leaving Mildrith to watch Cridianton while he took his sons and Edmund north was also a huge risk, especially as he had stripped the southern countries of men to replace those lost in the forest around Dokuzen. Behind him marched five thousand battle-hardened Forlish soldiers, almost every man he had under his flag. He had left only one regiment down south and, should things go wrong, every country he had taken would rise against him. He smiled to himself. He should be dead, according to the Landish doctors. Anything from now on was a victory.

‘Sire, you don’t have to do this. Captain Wulf knows what he is doing. He can look after the army while I take men into Dokuzen with the elven traitor,’ Edmund said softly.

‘Wulf is a good man and if I had to hold a defensive line, he would be my first choice. But we have thousands of elven warriors to worry about, even before we think about the elven-trained Velsh, who are quite capable of giving us trouble by themselves. This is something I need to do.’

Edmund bowed his head and Ward relaxed in the saddle, enjoying the sensation of having a healthy body once more, feeling fresh air stream into his lungs. His castle was beautiful but it was so cold. To ride in the warm sun, with his sons beside him — this was life.

‘What if this is all a trap and we find the elven army waiting to destroy us?’ Uffa asked.

Ward bit back his first, angry words. They were trying — both Wilfrid and Uffa were trying. He had wanted them to think and to ask questions. He had to be patient; he wanted to be patient.

‘We have been over this before,’ Edmund answered for him. ‘I have one day, dawn to sunset, to get into Dokuzen and get back again with hostages. If I am not back by then, we know it is a trap but, even before then, we prepare for the worst. When we met the elves outside Dokuzen, we had no cavalry and, as Captain Wulf discovered, that is the elves’ weakness. We shall have a prepared defensive position on a ground of our choosing and if they come to us, they will find it a different story.’

‘But if all goes to plan and the traitor gets Edmund back out of Dokuzen safely, the elves will not try anything with their leaders in our grasp,’ Ward instructed.

‘And then, once the traitor has taken power and given us what we want, we turn on her and strike at Dokuzen?’ Wilfrid hazarded.

‘No!’ Ward roared, then clutched the reins until the leather bit into his hands. ‘No, we release the old leaders and let the elves fight among themselves, as well as let them destroy the Velsh. Once that is done, and they are weaker, then we strike at them. You must make your move when your enemy least expects it, at a time when they are most vulnerable.’

They nodded doubtfully.

‘We shall meet the traitor’s accomplice at the border,’ he said. ‘There is no sense in them betraying us at this stage. The traitor needs us to take power. By using us to destroy her enemies, she can take power without any fighting or bitterness. Do you see?’ Ward appealed to his sons and they nodded again, their eyes doubtful.

Ward seethed a little. How could Edmund see things so clearly and yet his sons stumble around as if in the dark? Their mother was not a foolish woman, despite her bitterness. Perhaps if he had spent more time with them when they were younger … He shook his head. Such speculation was useless. They would ride north and test his sons in the heat of battle.

‘You have to test yourself, every day, find your limits,’ Rhiannon told her class of Magic-weavers, echoing what Asami had told her back in Dokuzen.

Each day brought the discovery of new Velsh who could use magic, though there were still many strange characters claiming to do magic who needed to be weeded out — usually unwashed older men or women with many cats. While none could match her strength, Sendatsu swore they had enough power to be called Magic-weavers in Dokuzen, while an older man called Cedrik and the first man they had found, Bevan, were at a higher level again.

She had them working with plants and animals, building up their newfound strength, before working individually with each of them. It was a thrill to find others who could use magic — especially ones with as much magic as Bevan, and she worked with him more and more.

She took him to the oak tree near Patcham to show him how to open a gateway. Using that tree so many times was dulling the pain she associated with the clearing but it was still hard to go there. Bevan must have picked up on her mood, because he tried to make her laugh on the ride out there. He succeeded as well, despite her reluctance, and she found herself laughing at his jokes. But the sight of the clearing, with her father’s hidden grave and the looming memories of magic and loss, dampened her spirits and she was brusque as she explained how to open up a gateway.

When he placed his hand on hers on the tree trunk, she turned to ask why, and he leaned in and kissed her.

Rhiannon froze for an instant in surprise, then kissed him back reflexively, before breaking away.

‘What? Why did you —’ she spluttered and the smile died on his face.

‘If I upset you, I am very sorry,’ he said gently. ‘But you must know how I feel about you. You are so beautiful, so powerful — you are the most amazing woman I have ever met. I felt there was real magic between us. If I was wrong, please, don’t let this affect my training.’

Rhiannon’s first instinct was to shout at him, declare she was already taken — but was she really? Until now, her choice had been Huw, or no Huw. Now it was obvious there was a third choice and Bevan was undoubtedly handsome, as well as growing in the magic; where once she had been sure, now she doubted. Huw was her first friend but their relationship was so complicated. And this was harmless, she told herself.

‘You just caught me by surprise. But next time, ask first,’ she said.

‘How about now?’ Bevan grinned.

‘How about you keep your mind on what you are doing!’

‘I am ready to be instructed by you, any time and anywhere.’ He smiled, looking in her eyes, and she had to admit, the offer was more than a little tempting. But not here. Certainly not here.

‘I’ll think about it. Now, let’s create a gateway,’ she said briskly.

But lurking at the back of her mind was the feeling of his lips on hers. She wished she had Asami to talk to about this — she knew all about being chased by two men.

‘This is the moment. All is coming together,’ Sumiko told Oroku and Jimai quietly, the three of them sitting in what had once been Daichi’s office. ‘We must seize this opportunity. Oroku, you will journey to the Forlish king, bring a group of his men here during the Council meeting tomorrow, then get them back out again. We need a few Forlish bodies to be found, to prove who is behind this. And we need witnesses to see magic being used. Jimai, you need to lead the defence of Dokuzen, make it seem as though you are being defeated by magic.’