Growing up she continued to steal away into the woods whenever she could. And there among the hanging vines and leaves dripping night-mist the old spirits of the land came to her and she learned many forgotten things. In the morning she would return from her wanderings through the jungle tracks, her legs and feet sheathed in mud and grass and webs tangled in her hair. At first her mother beat her and twisted her ears. ‘You are no low-bred farmer’s daughter!’ she would screech. ‘We come from an ancient family of priestesses and seers!’
And often, during the midday meal, her mother would take her hands and always it would be the same story: ‘Saeng,’ she would begin, as if so disappointed in her. ‘Our family has kept the old faith. Not like these ignorant fools surrounding us with their grovelling to idols, charms and amulets. All these superstitious mouthings to earth goddesses, or beast gods, or the cursed God-King, or the Witch – all of these empty words. Or worse. Our family, we women, we descend from the original priestesses of the Sky and the Sun! We worship Light. Remember that! The Light that gives all life!’
Her mother would try to capture her gaze as if pleading with her to understand but she would glance away, mouthing, ‘Yes, Mother.’ Eventually her mother gave up even these exhortations and she was allowed to continue her wanderings in pursuit of the voices that whispered from the great green labyrinth that surrounded them.
As she grew older, and her mastery of the whispered teachings grew more assured, she found she could summon these ghosts, which she now knew as the dreaded land and ancestor spirits, the Nak-ta. And as her skills advanced these spirits and shades came to her from ever further into the ancient gulf of the land’s past. And each commanded greater and greater puissance in the manipulation of their talents. In the murmurings of these restless dead she learned how to bind the will of animals, how to interpret the voices of the wind, how to trick the senses, and how to tease knowledge from the earth itself. As she drifted, half asleep, it seemed to her that they stole close to her ears where they whispered of darker secrets. Of ancient forbidden charms, of lost deadly wards, and how to dominate the recesses of the human mind.
At first she thought nothing of this, even as the shades crowded ever nearer and proved ever more difficult for her to dismiss. Until one night the tenebrous clawed hand of one clutched her arm. Its voice was no more than the sighing of the wind through the leaves as it hissed, ‘
The High King will be well pleased with you
.’
She remembered her shock at its frigid touch. ‘All that was dust ages ago.’
‘
Nay, ’tis of the moment. No more foolishness from you
.’ It began to sink into the wet ground, yanking her down by the arm.
A yell shocked her even more then as a branch swung through the shade, dispersing it. She lay staring up at her elder brother, Hanu, while he glared about, branch readied. Strangely, all she felt was outrage. ‘What are
you
doing here?’ she demanded.
He pulled her up. ‘You’re welcome. I’ve been following you. And thank the ancestors for it, too.’
‘
What?
’ She danced away from him. ‘For how long?’
He shrugged his broad shoulders in the shadowed darkness. ‘Whenever I can. Someone has to keep an eye out while you offer yourself up to these feral spirits.’
‘I can control them.’
‘Clearly not.’
‘That one surprised me, that’s all.’ A sudden thought occurred to her and she drew closer, biting her lip. ‘You’re not … you’re not going to tell Mother, are you?’
‘Great Witch, no. She’s worried enough as it is.’
‘Well … you can’t stop me.’
‘That much is clear as well,’ and he crossed his thick arms, peering down at her.
She raised her chin in defiance and saw how the sweat of the humid night ran in streams down his face and neck. Through her skills she sensed his drumming heart and rushing blood and she realized:
He is terrified. Terrified of the night – just like all of them. Yet he is here. He came to protect me
.
His breathing was heavy as he scanned the deep forest shadows. ‘At least promise me that you’ll wake me, yes? That you won’t go out alone.’ His gaze swung to her, pleading. ‘Yes?’
And how could she refuse? Her own defiant front melted. ‘Yes, Hanu. I promise.’
For another year the nights passed in this fashion; she waking her brother and the two stealing out to where she communed with the wild Nak-ta ghosts that haunted the jungle. And with far older spirits
of
stone, stream and wind. Night after night she sat for hours under the wary gaze of Hanu and spoke to things he could not see nor sense. It was then she realized that while he might protect her from any physical threat, he remained susceptible to their compellings and charms, and so she surreptitiously cast over him protections and guardings against such magics.
‘Who are you talking to?’ he would sometimes ask from where he squatted under a tree.
‘The old dead,’ she’d answer.
‘Aren’t you scared?’
‘No. They’re dead.’
Befuddled, he’d throw up his hands. ‘Then – why aren’t they gone?’
‘Because they’re angry. Only anger is strong enough to keep the feet of the dead to the ground.’
Then he would glower because secretly he was afraid. And as the months passed he began to pester her. ‘It isn’t safe,’ he’d say. ‘We shouldn’t be here.’
And he was right. But not in the way either of them imagined.
One night she sat on the edge of a choked swampy depression. She was speaking with the shade of a woman who’d been drowned here in what she claimed had once been a great reservoir. In those days, the spirit asserted, its waters had been clear and deeper than a tall man. Among the trees behind her, Hanu pretended he was one of the ancient warrior-kings as he swung a heavy branch.
‘Drowned?’ she asked. ‘What do you mean you were drowned?’
‘
Heavy rocks were tied to me and I was thrown in
,’ the shade replied.
Saeng resisted the urge to curse. Sometimes the dead could be so literal. ‘I mean
why
were you drowned?’
‘
I was a priestess of the old faith
.’
‘The old faith? You mean—’ and Saeng lowered her voice, ‘the damned God-King?’
‘
No
,’ came the uninflected voice of the ghost. ‘
Not him. It was at his orders that the temple was burned and I was slain. I speak of the ancient old religion. The worship of Light. The Great Sun
.’
Saeng leaped up from the edge of the swamp. For the first time something said by one of these shades seemed to touch her very heart.
Hanu appeared at her side. ‘What is it?’ he demanded.
Saeng’s hand had gone to her throat. ‘A spirit,’ she managed.
By the ancients! Could Mother have been right all this time?
‘She claims to be a priestess of an old faith.’
Hanu waved his contempt. ‘Which? They’re like flies.’
But she held his gaze long and hard and eventually his brows crimped. ‘No …’ he breathed, and she nodded her certainty.
‘Oh, yes.’
‘The one Mother goes on about …?’
‘
The same faith that runs in your blood
,’ came the shade’s voice from behind and Saeng jumped once again. She turned on it. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Who’s that?’ Hanu demanded, peering about.
The ghost raised an arm, pointing off into the jungle. ‘
And now comes your time of trial and your time to choose. Remember all that we have taught
.’
Saeng stared her confusion. ‘What? Taught? What do you mean?’
The woman clasped her hands before her and it seemed to Saeng that she was peering down at her as if she were her own daughter. ‘
Really, child. You did not think that you were called for no reason, did you?
’
‘What is it?’ Hanu whispered, insistent.
‘
Called?
’ But the shade dispersed like smoke. Saeng turned to her brother. ‘It seemed to suggest that something is coming.’
Hanu frowned, considering. ‘The Choosing is approaching,’ he murmured.
Of course. The Choosing
. Suddenly her heart tripped as if a grip were attempting to stop it. ‘You mustn’t go.’
He snorted. ‘It’s required, Saeng. We’ll all be arrested if I’m not seen. Ancients, all our neighbours will see to that!’
Saeng knew what he meant. It was an ugly truth, but better one of another family be chosen than one of theirs.
A month later the great travelling column of the ruling Thaumaturgs swung through their province. And eventually a representative arrived even at their insignificant village. He came escorted by twenty soldiers and carried in a great palanquin of lacquered wood shaded by white silks.
Saeng watched from next to her mother among the villagers crowded together by the sharp proddings of the soldiers’ sticks while the menfolk of age lined up for the Choosing. She was apprehensive for Hanu, but not overly so, as it had been years since any son of the village had been selected for service.
The palanquin was lowered and the theurgist stepped out. He was dressed exquisitely in rich layered silks of deepest sea blue and blossom gold, and was rather fat about the middle, and short. Yet
he
held the all-important ivory baton of office, which he carried negligently in one ringed hand, swinging it back and forth.
It occurred to Saeng that the man was bored with his task and was merely going through the motions for the sake of ritual. A great churning hatred for him overtook her – a hatred she imagined just as strong as his for their downtrodden poverty, their mud-spattered cheap rags, and the responsibilities that took him away from his scheming at the capital deep in the heart of their nation.
He paced a quick inspection of the assembled menfolk then headed back to the cool shade of his palanquin.
Saeng eased out a taut breath of relief; yet again no one had been chosen. Once more their distant dreaded rulers had come, collected their taxation and tribute, examined the males of the village, and marched on never to be seen again until another year turned upon the wheel of their grinding fate.
The representative paused, however. He swung the baton up to tap upon one shoulder next to the fat folds of his shaven neck. He turned and padded back to the assembly where he slowly retraced his steps, once more passing before the men, one by one. When he came abreast of Hanu he paused. The ivory baton, gold-chased, bounced heavily upon his shoulder. He leaned forward as if sniffing her elder brother, then suddenly rocked back as if thrust.
His head turned and his black narrowed eyes scanned the crowd of villagers, Saeng included. Then his thick jowls bunched as he smiled with something like cruel satisfaction and he thrust out his baton to touch Hanu upon the chest. Their mother lurched forward crying out but Saeng caught her arm and held her.
Hanu’s stunned gaze found hers. As the soldiers closed in and tied his arms, he stared, silent, until they urged him onward. Then he twisted to peer back over his shoulder. ‘Don’t worry – I’ll protect you! I swore! I swore!’ he called over and over until the soldiers yanked upon his fetters.
Their mother cried into her arms, but Saeng watched while the soldiers prodded her brother off. She had to watch; she owed him that. The theurgist, whoever he was, some minor bureaucrat of their ruling elite, had returned to his palanquin. Saeng finally lost sight of her brother as he was urged up the track to disappear with the column into the hanging leaves of the jungle as if swallowed whole.
At that moment, as she stood supporting her mother, she vowed her revenge upon them all. Upon their crushing rule, their contempt, and upon the blood-price they exacted from their own people. Who
were
they to make such demands? To impose such suffering and misery?
She would see them burn. So did she swear.
Yet all the while a quieter voice whispered a suspicion that burned like acid upon her soul:
Would he not have been chosen but for your own castings upon him? Was not this all
your
fault
?
* * *
Shimmer happened to be at the waterfront when a battered vessel came limping up to one of the piers of Haven. She sensed something unusual about it, though she was no mage with access to any Warren. Nevertheless, she was of the Avowed of the Crimson Guard, and more than a hundred years ago she had sworn to oppose the Malazan Empire for so long as it should endure. And over the years it seemed that this vow had caused preternatural instincts and strengths to accrue to her. She could now sense things far beyond what she could before. Such as this modest two-masted ship; or rather, those it carried. Something was there. No mere lost coastal traders, or fisherfolk thrown off course. Power walked its deck. Despite wearing only a loose shirt over trousers, belted, with a long-knife at her back, she went down to meet the vessel.
They were certainly foreign. Of no extraction she was familiar with: hair night-black and straight; squat of build, close even to her own petite stature. And dark, varying from a fair nut hue to a sun-darkened earthy brown. Their vessel flew no sigils or heraldry. It appeared to have had a very hard crossing of it. The crew busied themselves readying for docking and though no sailor herself she thought the ship’s company quite lacking in hands. The various lads and lasses who hung about the Haven waterfront took thrown lines and helped in the placement of a wood and rope gangway.