Shadowdance 05 - A Dance of Ghosts (57 page)

One of the orcas broke the surface in a spectacular display of foam, twisting in midair before crashing into the sea with a boom that shook the ship. The Meldeneans roared their appreciation.
Oh Seliesen
, I thought.
The poem you would have written to honour such a sight.

‘They think of them as sacred.’ I turned to find that the Hope Killer had joined me at the rail. ‘They say when a Meldenean dies at sea the orcas will carry his spirit to the endless ocean beyond the edge of the world.’

‘Superstition,’ I sniffed.

‘Your people have their gods, do they not?’

‘My people do, I do not. Gods are a myth, a comforting story for children.’

‘Such words would make you welcome in my homeland.’

‘We are not in your homeland, Northman. Nor would I ever wish to be.’

Another orca rose from the sea, rising fully ten feet into the air before plunging back down. ‘It’s strange,’ Al Sorna mused. ‘When our ships came across this sea the orcas ignored them and made only for the Meldeneans. Perhaps they share the same belief.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said. ‘Or perhaps they appreciate a free meal.’ I nodded at the prow, where the captain was throwing salmon into the sea, the orcas swooping on them faster than I could follow.

‘Why are you here, Lord Verniers?’ Al Sorna asked. ‘Why did the Emperor send you? You’re no gaoler.’

‘The Emperor graciously consented to my request to witness your upcoming duel. And to accompany the Lady Emeren home of course.’

‘You came to see me die.’

‘I came to write an account of this event for the Imperial Archive. I am the Imperial Chronicler after all.’

‘So they told me. Gerish, my gaoler, was a great admirer of your history of the war with my people, considered it the finest work in Alpiran literature. He knew a lot for a man who spends his life in a dungeon. He would sit outside my cell for hours reading out page after page, especially the battles, he liked those.’

‘Accurate research is the key to the historian’s art.’

‘Then it’s a pity you got it so wrong.’

Once again I found myself wishing for a warrior’s strength. ‘Wrong?’

‘Very.’

‘I see. Perhaps if you work your savage’s brain, you could tell me which sections were so very
wrong
.’

‘Oh, you got the small things right, mostly. Except you said my command was the Legion of the Wolf. In fact it was the Thirty-fifth Regiment of Foot, known amongst the Realm Guard as the Wolfrunners.’

‘I’ll be sure to rush out a revised edition on my return to the capital,’ I said dryly.

He closed his eyes, remembering. ‘“King Janus’s invasion of the northern coast was but the first step in pursuance of his greater ambition, the annexation of the entire Empire.”’

It was a verbatim recitation. I was impressed by his memory, but was damned if I’d say so. ‘A simple statement of fact. You came here to steal the Empire. Janus was a madman to think such a scheme could succeed.’

Al Sorna shook his head. ‘We came for the northern coastal ports. Janus wanted the trade routes through the Erinean. And he was no madman. He was old and desperate, but not mad.’

I was surprised at the sympathy evident in his voice; Janus was the great betrayer after all, it was part of the Hope Killer’s legend. ‘And how do you know the man’s mind so well?’

‘He told me.’

‘Told you?’ I laughed. ‘I wrote a thousand letters of enquiry to every ambassador and Realm official I could think of. The few who bothered to reply all agreed on one thing: Janus never confided his plans to anyone, not even his family.’

‘And yet you claim he wanted to conquer your whole Empire.’

‘A reasonable deduction based on the available evidence.’

‘Reasonable, maybe, but wrong. Janus had a king’s heart, hard and cold when he needed it to be. But he wasn’t greedy and he was no dreamer. He knew the Realm could never muster the men and treasure needed to conquer your Empire. We came for the ports. He said it was the only way
we could secure our future.’

‘Why would he confide such intelligence to you?’

‘We had … an arrangement. He told me many things he would tell no other. Some of his commands required an explanation before I would obey them. But sometimes I think he just needed to talk to someone. Even kings get lonely.’

I felt a curious sense of seduction; the Northman knew I hungered for the information he could give me. My respect for him grew, as did my dislike. He was using me, he wanted me to write the story he had to tell. Quite why I had no idea. I knew it was something to do with Janus and the duel he would fight in the Islands. Perhaps he needed to unburden himself before his end, leave a legacy of truth so he would be known to history as more than just the Hope Killer. A final attempt to redeem both his spirit and that of his dead king.

I let the silence string out, watching the orcas until they had eaten their fill of free fish and departed to the east. Finally, as the sun began to dip towards the horizon and the shadows grew long, I said, ‘So tell me.’