‘Where?’ Imoshen glanced past Kiane’s shoulder to the door at the end of the passage. ‘Why didn’t you bring him in?’
‘He’s with two brotherhood warriors. Tobazim and –’
Ardonyx, of course. Imoshen darted around her and ran down the passage. She had not had a private moment alone with Ardonyx since midsummer, when they had slipped away to tryst. Back then they’d planned for him to win Tobazim’s trust and support the young adept so he could take over the brotherhood. Now they’d come to her with Iraayel.
She threw open the door. The fog was so thick she could barely make out Iraayel standing in a halo of lamplight.
‘You’re back safe!’ She threw her arms around him. Skin to skin, she sensed his gift and knew it was riding him tonight.
‘I’m not alone,’ he warned and beckoned the others.
As a hard-faced gift-warrior stepped out of the fog, Imoshen took a step back.
‘It’s all right,’ Iraayel assured her. ‘This is Graelen. He saved my life, twice. So did Tobazim. You need to gift-infuse them as a reward.’
‘Iraayel...’ Tobazim muttered. He gave the formal obeisance. ‘Causare Imoshen. Apologies for the lad, he’s over-excited.’
Imoshen blinked. Since when did Tobazim assume responsibility for her choice-son? She glanced from one to the other and read a bond, forged by danger and cemented by mutual respect. The same thing united them to Graelen.
‘And this is Dia,’ Iraayel added, drawing a beautiful young Malaunje woman forward. ‘She’s Sorne’s sister.’
‘I’m so glad you’re safe, Valendia.’ As Imoshen took her hands, she read a rich joy in her and identified its source. ‘You are with child, congratulations. If there is ever anything I can do for you, just ask. I owe Sorne more than I can say.’
Valendia blushed and stepped back to join Graelen.
Imoshen turned to Iraayel. ‘Speaking of Sorne, where is he? Did you save the Mieren queen?’
‘Sorne is marching for port with Queen Jaraile at this moment,’ Iraayel said. ‘You need to gift-infuse Tobazim and Graelen tonight, or they’ll be killed and I won’t have a brotherhood to go to.’
‘Manners!’ Kiane muttered, coming up behind Imoshen. ‘Your choice-mother raised you better than this, lad.’
‘We don’t have time to stand on ceremony. It has to happen now,’ Iraayel said.
‘It’s all right,’ Imoshen told her hand-of-force. As far as Tobazim knew, she had gotten to know him and Ardonyx while they served on the exile-council. So it wouldn’t be strange if she asked after the sea captain. ‘Does Ardonyx know your plans for tonight?’
‘Not yet,’ Tobazim admitted. ‘We came to your ship first. As soon as Kyredeon knows we’re aboard the brotherhood ship, he’ll order his hand-of-force to execute us. The warriors he sent on the mission with us had orders to ensure we did not return.’
‘I suspected as much.’
‘They had orders to kill Iraayel, too,’ Graelen said. ‘And they nearly succeeded.’
Imoshen bristled, her gift gathering force. She gestured to Graelen and Tobazim. ‘Kneel. The rest of you, stand back.’
She would rather gift-infuse Ardonyx and Tobazim, but this would have to do.
When it was done, Kiane escorted them off the ship and Imoshen turned to her choice-son. ‘So you have a brotherhood willing to take you, and all you had to do was rescue the Mieren queen?’
He laughed.
‘Iraayel?’ Saffazi appeared at the passage door, face alight with joy.
He opened his arms. She went to him and threw her arms around him, kissed him, then pulled back and thumped his chest hard. ‘You should have taken me with you. I hated the waiting. It was unbearable!’
He grinned, too happy to argue.
‘Kiane will be back in a moment,’ Imoshen said. ‘Come inside.’
When they slipped into the bathing chamber and bolted the door, she did not protest.
T
OBAZIM GAMBLED THAT
the brotherhood’s hand-of-force had placed Haromyr and the others on watch again. And this was confirmed when Eryx peered over the side in answer to his soft call.
‘Tobazim, is that you?’
‘Quiet, lower the rope ladder.’
Valendia went first, followed by Graelen, then Tobazim. As he climbed aboard, he heard Imoshen’s oarsman row away.
Haromyr, Athlyn and Eryx grabbed him, hugging him one after the other. They whispered excitedly, their gifts barely contained and, as they responded to the residue of Imoshen’s gift, their power rose along with their voices.
‘Quiet,’ Tobazim warned. Graelen and Valendia stood to one side, for the moment ignored. His gift surged and he saw how they had to be incorporated into his power structure if the challenge was to succeed.
‘You’re drenched in female power again,’ Haromyr whispered. ‘What happened?’
‘We saved the life of the causare’s choice-son.’ Tobazim reached out to Graelen, caught the adept’s forearm and raised it between them. ‘We have formed an alliance.’ And to be sure they knew he meant it, he let his gift defences down just enough to form a shallow link with Graelen, who recognised what he was doing and responded in kind.
‘Harm Grae and you harm me.’ Tobazim said. ‘All of us live or die tonight based on the strength of our trust in each other.’
‘You’re going to challenge Kyredeon?’ Haromyr said. ‘I knew it!’
Tobazim nodded. ‘Now go back to your posts and wait for my signal. Where’s Ardonyx?’
Haromyr glanced up to the high rear-deck.
Relief flooded Tobazim.
The fog was so thick the lights in the rear cabins were just a hazy glow. Tobazim ran across the mid-deck and up the steps to the lower rear-deck, where he parted from Graelen and Valendia with a nod.
Heart racing, he ran up the steps to the high rear-deck.
As Ardonyx turned to face him, Tobazim was shocked to see that he had been beaten. Furious, he crossed the deck, took Ardonyx’s shoulders in his hands and drew him closer to the light. The captain’s features were a mask of bruising and swelling. ‘What did they do to you?’
‘They said you weren’t coming back and tried to break my spirit. But’ – tears blazed in Ardonyx’s eyes – ‘you proved them wrong.’
Tobazim hugged him. ‘When Oriemn’s men tried to kill me, I thought I’d come back to find you dead.’
Ardonyx pulled away, inhaling sharply. ‘You’re radiating Imoshen’s power.’
‘She gift-infused us. Grae and I have formed an alliance –’
‘You and Graelen are shield-brothers?’ Ardonyx took a step back.
‘No.’ Tobazim rolled up his sleeve, aware that before he left, he would never have dared to say this. ‘No. I want
you
for my shield-brother.’
Ardonyx didn’t say anything.
‘I can’t do this without you,’ Tobazim told him.
‘You do realise that this bond will be for life?’
‘If I cannot have you, I don’t want anyone. I need you at my side, as my voice-of-reason, to lead this brotherhood into a new age.’
‘And what kind of new age will that be?’
‘I grew up and trained under the values of the Golden Age: honour, duty and service. But...’ Tobazim hesitated as his mind raced. ‘I don’t believe in blind service. I think we need to open the T’Enatuath to new ways.’
‘An age of enlightenment?’
‘Yes.’ Fresh conviction rose in Tobazim. Ardonyx saw further than he did, and this was why he needed him. ‘Will you accept?’
For answer, Ardonyx took Tobazim’s left hand. Bypassing the formal wrist-to-elbow touch to establish gift awareness, he opened his knitted vest and placed Tobazim’s left hand over his own racing heart. ‘Lower your defences.’
Tobazim did not hesitate. He felt Ardonyx’s excitement pour directly into him as his heart kept time with Ardonyx’s.
‘Are you afraid, Tobazim?’
‘Yes. If we fail, we’ll both be dead before dawn. But I would rather die with you at my side tonight than live a lifetime under Kyredeon’s rule.’
Ardonyx swallowed. Holding Tobazim’s eyes, he placed his left hand over Tobazim’s heart and lowered his own defences. ‘I swear to be your shield when you are threatened.’
‘And in return, I will shield you with my body and my gift,’ Tobazim whispered, and he led Ardonyx through the complex maze of shields he had erected to defend his gift’s source. He revealed his gift so that its nature would be evident to Ardonyx, letting him savour its flavour.
Ardonyx gasped and responded with an intimate glimpse of his own gift. It was completely alien to Tobazim’s experience. He’d known that Ardonyx’s gift wasn’t martial like his choice-brother Learon’s gift, but he did not recognise the nature of his power.
Before he could make sense of what he had seen, Ardonyx severed the connection and they both swayed, falling to their knees.
Tobazim had never felt so powerful, or so humbled.
G
RAELEN SLIPPED INTO
the infirmary, where a lamp burned low. Patients slept, but the saw-bones was still awake, making notes at his desk. He looked up, saw them both and went white as a sheet.
Graelen felt like laughing as Ceyne drew them into the bathing chamber, shot the bolt and hugged them both, then hugged them again.
‘They told me you were dead, Grae.’ With tears in his eyes, he cupped Valendia’s cheek. ‘And I thought you’d thrown yourself overboard. I blamed myself for not...’ Overcome, he covered his face and wept.
Valendia hugged him, whispering soft words.
After a moment, he pulled away. ‘Where were you, Dia? We searched the ship. Oriemn almost caused an incident with All-father Hueryx.’
‘I went to see Sorne in the stronghold.’
‘Enough of this.’ Impatience drove Graelen. ‘The causare has gift-infused Tobazim and me as a reward for saving her choice-son’s life. Tobazim and Ardonyx are going to challenge Kyredeon tonight.’
Ceyne went pale. He felt behind him for the edge of the bath and sat down. ‘It had to happen.’
Graelen nodded. ‘This is my chance to serve an all-father I admire. Are you with us? If you come over, with your stature, others will be sure to follow.’
I
N THE FOG
, all Imoshen could see of Ardonyx’s ship was the glow of the lanterns on the masts. She wondered whether Tobazim had reached him in time to form the shield-brother bond.
‘Dead by dawn or triumphant!’
She spun around. ‘Tancred?’
The geldr danced in front of her, watching her with a sly grin. Seeing that he had her attention, he performed a kick, leaping and pivoting light as a cat.
Signalling for silence, Imoshen led the geldr back to the stern rail of the rear-deck.
Had he been hiding in the fog, listening when Iraayel had returned?
‘You should go to bed, Tancred,’ Imoshen told him. Most of the time he was like a five–year-old child and, like a child, he often responded to a firm voice.
The geldr laughed and turned on one heel in mockery of the spring dances the men performed.
‘They all dance for you. Clever Imoshen, cunning Imoshen.’ Tancred waved a finger in front of her nose like a choice-mother admonishing a child. ‘The lad whispers of love with the girl, while the one who would die for you faces death.’
Tancred knew about Ardonyx? Back in the Celestial City, the geldr had often been in her chambers, playing with Umaleni while Imoshen spoke with Egrayne or her devotee. She’d never told Egrayne about her secret bond-partner and, although her devotee knew about Ardonyx, Imoshen didn’t think she’d discussed him with Frayvia in front of Tancred.
He must be thinking of Graelen or Tobazim, who she had gift-infused tonight. He’d mistaken that ceremony for something deeper, but he was so close...
If it was revealed that Ardonyx was her secret bond-partner it could cost him his life. Kyredeon might be dead by dawn, but there were other brothers who would kill Ardonyx to cripple her. Why, her own inner circle would be horrified if they knew she’d made the deep-bonding with one of the brotherhood men.
Which brought her back to the geldr. She studied him.
Falling to his knees, Tancred peeped up at her from between his fingers.
Would he remain silent?
Did it matter if he didn’t? No one would believe him, after all; they all thought him mad.
The geldr lifted his head with a shaky laugh. ‘Tancred lives another day.’
Imoshen shivered. She was the only raedan in the T’Enatuath.
But the geldr had just read her.
Tancred rocked his weight onto his heels and performed a backward shoulder roll before coming to his feet.
He gave a shallow obeisance. It was the bow of equals.
Startled, Imoshen hesitated. She not sure if she was dealing with the simple child or the sly geldr. Some people were opaque to her raedan skill – not that she let anyone know this – and Tancred was one of those.
She swallowed and reached out to the geldr.
‘It hurts to touch the causare.’ Tancred flinched. ‘The causare has killed, and the shades she banished stole a little from her when she sent them into...’ He shuddered. ‘Tancred doesn’t like that place. Afraid of it. One day, Tancred won’t find the way back.’
‘The higher plane,’ Imoshen whispered. She hadn’t realised Tancred could slip onto the empyrean plane. It was a wonder the predators hadn’t hunted him down and devoured him. ‘You poor thing. I can help. I can come and find you if you get lost there. All you have to do is let me link with you.’
He backed off. ‘No, no, no.’ The words stopped but his mouth kept working, eyes wide with fear.
‘It’s all right, Tancred. I won’t force a link on you.’
But the geldr wouldn’t listen. He scurried away, clambering over the rail and jumping to the lower rear-deck.
Talk of the empyrean plane reminded Imoshen of the risk Ardonyx took tonight. Her gaze was drawn back across to his ship, an insubstantial glow in the fog.
It was time to go to the bathing chamber and prepare. If Ardonyx needed her, she would help him.
But she must keep her identity hidden from Tobazim. He had accepted her gift-infusion because he had earned it, but the causare could not interfere with a brotherhood challenge.
Chapter Twenty-Four
T
OBAZIM RAN LIGHTLY
down the steps to the rear-deck, where he met Graelen coming out of the passage leading to the cabins.