Sinner (30 page)

“Then don your riding clothes, my love, for tonight we ride.”

N
iah linked her arm with Faraday’s as they strolled through the orchard. “I am so glad we have this opportunity to talk,” Niah said, and gave Faraday’s arm a gentle squeeze.

“You are?”

“How long have you been here? Ten days? And in that time I have barely seen you. I have had to learn your history from the gossip of the priestesses’ table.”

Faraday laughed. “I cannot imagine they painted a pretty picture of me!”

“Oh, but you are wrong! The priestesses admire you enormously. The First told me that, with Azhure,” Niah paused to take a proud breath as she said her daughter’s name, “you were primarily responsible for Axis’ success against Gorgrael.”

Faraday’s face lost its laughter, but Niah did not notice.

“You planted out the entire Minstrelsea by yourself? And the Avar were yours to command?”

“It wasn’t quite like that –”

“And you wielded such power! Faraday, I am in awe.”

“You also had your part to play.”

Niah shrugged. “I bore a daughter.”

“And you died for her.”

“You died for Tencendor.”

They walked some way in silence, each lost in her own thoughts. Only once they reached the southern cliffs did Niah resume the conversation.

“And, having died, here we both are. Free to do as we will, free on this beautiful and magical island.”

“One of us is not quite free.” This was the opening Faraday had been waiting for. She had spent much time with StarDrifter, talking with him about Niah, wondering how best to free Zenith. This was a risk, but it had to be taken.

“Oh?” Niah said, and halted, pulling Faraday to a stop beside her. “And how are you not free, Faraday?”

“It was not myself of whom I spoke,” Faraday said gently, looking Niah in the eye.

Niah dropped her arm from Faraday’s. “I have done nothing wrong.”

“We have both come back from the dead,” Faraday continued. “But I have not taken over someone else’s –”

“I have not ‘taken over someone else’!” Niah countered. “I am
me
, I always have been! I –”

“Niah –”

“Zenith never existed! She was only waiting to realise her true self. Me!”

“Niah, please, hear me out. I do not mean to make you angry, but –”

“I am
no-one
but Niah! I never have been!”

“StarDrifter tells me that your mannerisms are different, the way you react to things, even your laughter. You are not the same –”

“My handwriting is the same! My tastes! Do not argue that –”

“Niah! Listen to me!” Faraday’s voice was unusually sharp, and Niah subsided.

“Niah, can you not see that Zenith was a different woman? She loved to fly, you loathe it – why, if you were always her? Do you not remember how it felt to soar?”

Niah was silent, her face set in stubborn lines.

“Niah, believe me, I do not begrudge you your grab at life. It –”

“It was promised me! And can
you
stand here and begrudge me my second chance at life when…how many chances have you had? Two? Three?”

“I have never taken over someone else’s life,” Faraday repeated. “I have retransformed within the same world and within the same existence. Niah…in the manner of things, whoever dies is always reborn at some point. A soul inhabits the empty shell of a growing foetus. A soul cannot – should not – inhabit an already occupied and whole body.”

Niah turned her back to Faraday, staring out over the choppy grey sea.

“Niah, surely you can see that merely by waiting –”

“I have waited long enough!” Niah yelled, still refusing to look at Faraday. “WolfStar promised me that I would be reborn, and I have! And this time into a SunSoar body so that he
can
and
will
love me for eternity!”

Faraday sighed quietly. In this Niah was right. To live an eternity with WolfStar would require SunSoar blood to hold him.

“But it does not solve the problem of Zenith,” she tried again.

Now Niah did face her. “Zenith never existed,” she said firmly. “Never. There was only me, waiting to be acknowledged.”

Then her face changed. It lit up, radiating joy and she stared at Faraday as if she were the only meaning in Niah’s life.

Faraday frowned, then realised Niah was staring at a point some distance beyond herself.

Niah gave a glad cry, picked up her skirts, and rushed past Faraday into WolfStar’s arms. “Beloved!”

Faraday silently cursed. Not only at WolfStar’s untimely intrusion – had he appeared thinking that Faraday might persuade Niah to relinquish control of Zenith’s body? – but also at Niah’s sheer determination. Was Zenith still there? Faraday did not know, and she wondered if StarDrifter’s faith that Zenith still existed was warranted.

Despite her irritation, Faraday composed herself, and faced the lovers.

Niah was wrapped in WolfStar’s arms, locked in a passionate embrace. Faraday raised an eyebrow. Was this love on WolfStar’s part, or simple lust? She did not know if he was capable of true love.

As if reading her thoughts WolfStar raised his face from Niah’s and grinned at Faraday. “Again she bears my child,” he said, his voice hoarse with what Faraday recognised as triumph. “And this one I shall raise myself, not leave for some dirt-trodden Plough-Keeper to mismanage.”

Niah wriggled against WolfStar’s body, such a wanton act that Faraday blushed.

“What?
Here,
my love?” WolfStar laughed. “Did I not sate you last night?”

“A pregnant woman always craves love,” Niah murmured, her hands running down WolfStar’s body.

Faraday turned her face aside, unwilling to watch the spectacle Niah was making of herself. And she a former First Priestess!

Eventually it was WolfStar himself who gently disentangled himself from Niah’s embrace. “Now is not the time, my love. I must speak with Faraday.”

Niah murmured, but she let WolfStar go.

The instant WolfStar was free of her, his entire demeanour changed. He assumed power as others would assume a cloak, his violet eyes darkened and became more intense, his entire bearing more autocratic.

“What happened to Drago?” he demanded.

Faraday just stared at him.

“You were in the Star Gate chamber when Drago killed Orr.”

“I was in the chamber when Orr died,” she agreed.

“Drago had the Rainbow Sceptre.”

Faraday was silent.

“Didn’t he?”

“I was terrified,” Faraday said, her eyes not leaving WolfStar’s face. “Terrified by the violence, the terror, the death. I did not notice what he was carrying.”

“You did not
notice?
”

You
were the one who sent me through Prophecy to die for Tencendor, Faraday thought, her mind closed to his probing. She held his stare. You sent me to die,
others
released me. I owe you no loyalty.

WolfStar swallowed his anger. Well, perhaps she had not noticed. “What happened to him, Faraday? Did he step through the Star Gate?”

“I cannot know exactly what happened, WolfStar. I was so terrified, and some power beyond my knowing was tearing me apart, retransforming me back to this,” her hand indicated her own body. “I did not notice where –”

“Tell me the truth!” WolfStar snarled, his anger strengthened by his fear.
Tell me the truth!
he raged through her mind.

He was terrifying, almost beyond control, and so Faraday shivered, and confessed.

“He ran back through the passageways, WolfStar. Which one I am not certain. But he must be in Tencendor somewhere.”

WolfStar stared at her. Was she telling the truth? He did not know. Could she withstand his need for the truth? He did not know…and all that he did not know was making WolfStar a very, very frightened man.

“Ah, bah!” he said, and, in his manner, vanished.

Niah let out a low cry of disappointment, and threw Faraday a resentful look.

“Well?” StarDrifter asked Faraday as she walked into his quarters.

Faraday ignored him for a moment, then sat beside him on the bed. “Niah will not willingly relinquish Zenith’s body,” she said. “And in this she is aided by WolfStar.”

“You saw WolfStar?”

Faraday nodded, her expression unreadable.

“What did he want? What did he say?”

Faraday hesitated. “Later, StarDrifter, later. For now we must concentrate on finding Zenith.”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes.” Faraday’s voice was now much stronger, and she looked StarDrifter unhesitatingly in the eye. “Yes, I can. But persuasion will not work. We must find a stronger means to free your granddaughter.”

“And the sooner the better.” StarDrifter sat back, his face creased with worry. “Every day I can see the Niah woman grow stronger. And that baby…”

Faraday stared at him. “Yes…the baby! StarDrifter, you have given me an idea.”

And she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

C
aelum stood in the cold pre-dawn air, watching the preparations about him. He had slept badly; in truth, he had not slept at all, for fear DragonStar would hunt him down in his dreams. Now his eyes were shadowed, his movements hesitant, and nerves fluttered in his stomach. This would be his first military action. Stars, he thought to himself. I am over forty years old, and by my age my father had battled from coast to coast and won a realm. I? I have but listened to the tales.

True, he had trained all his life for this moment. Not only his father, but every battle-hardened captain, human or Icarii, had been brought in to give the StarSon lessons. He had spent most mornings of his life at weapon practice.

And until this moment he had thought it would all be unnecessary. How could Tencendor ever slip back into war, even in
his
lifetime?

“I want to see the bastard
flayed!
” Askam muttered at his side. Before them he could just make out the rising hulk of Kastaleon, although he knew Caelum’s Icarii
vision could see in far more detail. “Is he there, watching for us?”

“The castle is quiet, Askam. I can see a few guards atop the walls, but even they are more likely asleep than not. No doubt Zared is asleep in his bed, dreaming of how he can persuade the Council to accept his ambition.”

His mouth twisted grimly. “I predict he will awake to something of a surprise. Askam, are the units ready?”

“Aye, StarSon. They moved into position an hour ago, as stealthy as stalking cats. When will you give the word to send in the forward scouts? It lacks but an hour until dawn, and soon the castle will be rousing.”

Caelum hesitated, the nerves in his stomach flowering into full-blown nausea. But he was determined to show Zared – nay, all Tencendor – that he could captain as well as his father. Forward scouts? No, he would work it better.

“Keep the scouts back, Askam. We will ride into Kastaleon in full force. Zared does not expect us, and those guards atop the walls are all but asleep.”

“Caelum!” Askam stared aghast at him. “It is surely prudent to send in scouts first? Make sure that –”

Caelum turned from his contemplation of Kastaleon and snapped at Askam. “I know what I am doing! I can cloak us in enchantment so thick that Zared and his men will not see us. They are not expecting us, are they? That fort is as quiet as a grave. Why waste time on forward scouts?”

Askam chewed the inside of his cheek. What Caelum said was true enough, and if he could cloak them in enchantment…Askam suddenly smiled at the thought of finding Zared abed, waking to discover the tip of Askam’s sword at his throat.

“As you order, StarSon. Shall we move out immediately?”

“Wait a moment. I have to cast the enchantment.”

It sickened him even more that he must mask the approach of his units with enchantment, but if it gave them an edge…

Axis had never fought under cloak of enchantment.

Caelum thrust the thought aside. He was
not
his father, and surely Zared had brought sneakiness upon himself. Caelum twisted the ring about on his finger, although he did not need it to show what Song to sing for a cloak of invisibility. He had used the Song only recently and it was fresh in his mind, but the action calmed Caelum’s nerves. He ran the Song through his mind, then coldness swept over him.

The Song had required significantly more power than when he’d last sung it. Why? Caelum remembered WolfStar asking whether he’d noticed a taint in his power. What was happening? Was it just nerves that had made him expend so much more energy on the Song this morning, or was it something else? Something considerably bleaker? What?

“It is done, Askam. Move them out.”

They had moored their boats four hundred paces north of Kastaleon, hidden both by the darkness and a sharp bend in the river. Over the past hour Askam had sent troops out to surround the castle as best they could without actually being seen. Now, he sent out the order for them to move in.

He and Caelum mounted their horses and set off down the main approach road. No-one within the castle would be able to see or hear them, and there was no reason to try to be quiet. Askam dug his heels into his horse’s flanks, sending the beast skittering across the roadway.

“Peace, Askam,” Caelum said. “We will be there soon enough, and Kastaleon will soon be back under your control.”

“I want to wake Zared with the point of my sword –”

“Enough, Askam!”

Askam subsided into silence as they covered the last hundred paces before the castle. There was still no reaction from within, even though soldiers were pouring in through the gate. Askam smiled a little at the thought of Zared’s surprise on waking at sword-point.

It would be very, very good finally to see Zared
fail
at something.

Askam wondered if Caelum would strip Zared of his lands for his misdeeds. Would
he
then receive some? What? Askam wondered…Severin…the gem mines? All his debts could be solved with one signature if he got the gem mines.

The next moment gem mines were forgotten as they clattered across the bridge and into the castle. Askam shouted orders to his captains, then he and Caelum dismounted.

“It’s too quiet,” Caelum said, looking about. “Even with this enchantment someone should have noticed something…
bumped
into one of us, for Stars’ sake! Askam…shouldn’t there be more guards about?”

Before Askam could answer, one of their men ran from the stables. “StarSon! The stables are empty!”

An awful premonition gripped Caelum. What should he do? No horses…did that mean…?

“Check the barracks!” he called, and reached for his horse again. Should he mount? What should he order? What would his father have done?

There was a faint shout from atop the walls. “Dummies, StarSon! There are no men up here!”

Caelum shot Askam a wild look. What…?

“The barracks are empty, StarSon!”

“They’ve gone!” Askam cried, unnecessarily.

“Well, at least you have your castle back,” Caelum
murmured, trying to think it through. Should they secure the castle or ride after Zared? But which way had he gone? How
long
had he been gone? Caelum cursed. Why hadn’t he brought any Icarii with him? Axis would never have made this mistake.

“Perhaps –” he began, and then the world exploded about them.

For minutes all he knew was a dreadful shock. He was blown off his feet, his horse beside him. About him were screams and grunts, choking smoke, shrapnel flying through the air, a stifling heat that went on and on and on, and the smell of charcoal and burned flesh.

Caelum rolled onto his side and gagged. The stench of burning meat filled his entire body and he couldn’t get it out. Screams cut through his mind, tore into his soul.
Gods! What was going on? Why wouldn’t the screamers shut up?

A hand grasped his shoulder and rolled him over. “StarSon? Are you alright? Oh, praise the StarMan, you live! Get up, my Lord, you have to get up…”

Caelum allowed himself to be dragged to his feet. Every muscle felt torn, every bone broken, but he found he could walk easily enough. Perhaps he wasn’t close to death, after all.

The hand dragged him forward. Caelum hoped that whoever the hand belonged to knew where he was going, because Caelum could not see a pace in front of him in this red, smoke-filled hell. He bent over and choked again, and found his eyes not a handspan from a corpse that had literally been blown apart. There was red flesh and white bone fragments, but nothing else recognisable.

His stomach roiled again, and the hand now grasped his hair and hauled him forward.

They stumbled through the gate – or what was left of it – and fell head-first into the moat.

The bridge had gone.

The icy shock of the water brought Caelum to his senses as nothing else could have done. He spluttered and fought his way to the surface, blinking the water out of his eyes. Beside him a foot soldier likewise spluttered – it must have been this man who dragged him out of the inferno – and Caelum looked back to the castle.

What he saw appalled him. The castle had been blown apart. The outer walls had great holes rent in them through which smoke and flames now poured. The Keep no longer existed – there was only blackness where once that had stood. Men and horses, some of them on fire, careened out of the smoke and flames and fell into the water.

“Stars!” Caelum whispered, unable to come to terms with what he saw. “Oh…
Stars!
”

Eight hundred paces away on a small hill, Theod stared, appalled, at the carnage. How had Caelum ridden into the castle with his entire force without been seen?

Enchantment, no doubt.

But why hadn’t he sent in forward scouts first?
Every war leader was trained to do that. No-one rode blindly with their full force into an unknown situation.

The charges had been rigged so that they would be set off when the first scout reached the cellars. Yes, a few men would be killed, but the main object had been to destroy the castle and all river boats moored beside it. Caelum would be delayed several days until he could get more boats.

But the man had taken his entire force inside!

Neither Theod nor Zared had foreseen – even imagined – such stupidity. Or such carnage.

How many dead? Theod sat behind his covering bush and gaped, trying to come to terms with the disaster.

His man-at-arms finally found his voice. “Gods, my Lord! What…what did you pack into those cellars?”

Theod swallowed and managed to speak. “Wood, nails, pottery, fire powder, eighty-five barrels of resin cracked and left to spread…and sixty-nine fat pigs. It was the pork fat that gave the explosion such potency.”

“But,” the man stumbled, “why did Caelum lead his entire force in? Why didn’t he send scouts in first?”

“As any competent captain
would
have done,” Theod said grimly. “Come on, man. We’ve got to get out of here. Zared needs to know what’s happened.”

He grabbed the man’s sleeve, and they both ran for their horses.

Caelum eventually found the strength to swim for the shore, where for an hour he sat shivering and watching the sun rise over the devastation. Survivors slowly stumbled from the castle, fell into the moat, and swam to shore. A few score, perhaps, no more. There had been five hundred men still outside the castle when it had exploded. Some of those had died from rocks and shrapnel catapulted out of the inferno, but most had survived. That left him, what? Six hundred out of the five thousand he’d brought sailing down here.

Six hundred.

His first military action, and he had lost ninety per cent of his command.

And not one kill for it.

Even Gorgrael and his enchantments, even the Gryphon falling out of the sky, had not been able to inflict such calamity on Axis.

And yet Caelum had lost
ninety per cent
of his command to a meagre force of humans!

He rose unsteadily to his feet and walked slowly among the groups of men lying on the grass. Most were
injured to some degree, some horrendously so, and Caelum knew they would not live. Here and there he stopped and stared, the men he looked at staring back, but he said nothing and eventually he walked on.

Damn Zared to eternal fire!

At one group he stopped, then dropped to his knees. “Askam? Askam?”

His friend lay unconscious in a pool of blood. One of his men sat by him.

“He lives, StarSon. Just.”

Caelum nodded dumbly. That Askam lived at all amazed him. His left arm had been blown completely off.