The Tenth Power (21 page)

ten
The Boat in the Clouds

TROUT WOKE WITH
a start. It felt like Mica was breathing cold air onto his face again…but of course Mica was far away, in Antaris. Trout’s sleeping-fur had come untucked, and the icy night air was nipping at his nose. He sat up sleepily. As he rearranged the fur, he glimpsed a shadowy figure prowling back and forth near one of the fires, bending over each sleeping body.

Trout called out sharply, ‘Who’s that?’

The stocky, powerful figure straightened, and gestured toward Trout, fingers outstretched. Trout jumped up. ‘Don’t sing your songs of seeming at me, Samis, I can’t hear them!’ he yelled. ‘Darrow!Wake up! Calwyn, Tonno! He’s here!’

Samis stooped, and plucked back a sleeping-fur to peer at the nearest body. The sleepers stirred, rolling over and blinking in bewilderment.

Calwyn sat up groggily, her head thick with the artificial sleep the sorcerer had cast over them all. Keela was kicking and struggling back from Samis, screaming, ‘No! No! I won’t go with you!’

But now Samis had seen Calwyn. In three strides he was beside her, growling out a chantment of iron. Calwyn tried to move away, but her limbs were heavy, and the sleeping-fur was tangled around her legs. Samis’s strong, long-fingered hands flicked her effortlessly to her feet, as if they were dancing together. His hand clamped across her mouth. Beside her, Darrow made a strangled sound, and Samis swung Calwyn so she could see the silver rope twisted round Darrow’s throat.

Calwyn sank her teeth into Samis’s hand, and nearly choked as blood flooded into her mouth. Samis didn’t let go. He shook her hard, as if to say,
don’t be a fool!
and jerked her back across the stone floor of the cave. He was still growling out his chantment; Calwyn knew that with the alteration of one note, Darrow’s windpipe would be crushed. Tree People came running from all directions. Keela still shrieked, ‘No, no!’

Don’t fight him!
cried Calwyn in mind-speech.
I’m all right, I’ll
be all right!

Samis dragged Calwyn across the snow into the forest, under the trees. She couldn’t breathe; Samis’s hand was a band of iron across her mouth and nose. As they reached the edge of the grove, she collapsed, gasping for air.

An extraordinary craft waited in the clearing: a kind of boat, anchored by fine, strong, silver cables to a large, almost transparent bubble that floated high above the trees. This was what had been packed away in the mysterious containers Keela had seen in Samis’s camp. Calwyn recognised the soft, gleaming metal from which the Ancient Ones had built their city. Samis swung her into his arms, and dropped her over the side.

With swift, rough movements, Samis tied a silk scarf around Calwyn’s mouth. He droned a chantment of iron, and more silver cables slithered from the floor of the craft to twine around her wrists and ankles. She was helpless, propped against the side of the boat, but able to peer over the edge.
Halasaa!
she called.
I’m not hurt. He is taking me away. Is Darrow –
is everyone all right?

Yes, my sister.
Halasaa’s words were jerky, confused. He sent her a mind-picture: the rope was still wound around Darrow’s throat.
We will follow you – speak –

Samis threw back his large head and let out a commanding growl of ironcraft. Silver cables snapped back into the boat, which rocked and swayed alarmingly. Slowly the bubble rose into the air, lifting the narrow boat higher and higher, level with the treetops.
We’re flying!
cried Calwyn.

Halasaa and Tonno and the Tree People were just in time to see the bottom of the silver craft disappear above the trees. As the flying boat broke through the roof of the forest, Calwyn could just make out a carpet of snow-capped trees below, and a ceiling of cloud above. The white sea of the forest lapped about the Peak of Saar, its shadowy spire bare and jagged, piercing the clouds. The bubble climbed steadily, and suddenly the boat was enveloped in a damp, muffling white fog. Then, just as abruptly, the boat broke through the layer of cloud.

The moons and stars gleamed in the clear dark sky, and above the boat the silver bubble gleamed too, carried silently by the wind like some huge dandelion seed. The air was icy cold. Calwyn couldn’t hear any chantment from Samis. He manipulated some levers beside him, controlling the bubble, but not by magic.The only noise was the whistle of the cables that suspended the gently swaying boat from the bubble.
The
wind is carrying us away,
she told Halasaa.

Yes, we saw you – heading south, to the sea.

To Spareth.
Calwyn sensed that the connection with Halasaa was already beginning to weaken.
Take care, my brother, take care of
Darrow! Don’t worry about me, I’m strong now.
As the wind bore them swiftly away, she tried to think of useful things to say.
Help the Tree People! Darrow, I love you!

But there was no reply, and Calwyn never knew if her last words had reached Darrow.

Now they were above the clouds, moonlight flooded the craft, and for the first time Calwyn saw Samis clearly. ‘So,’ he murmured, and Calwyn shrank inwardly as his cool, elegant hand caressed her cheek. ‘You are not a child any more, little priestess.’

Calwyn glared at him with all the contempt she could muster. Any noble ideas of working with this man had vanished.

‘Come, little priestess. Sulking does not become you.’

Calwyn wished she could spit in his face. Samis tapped her cheek lightly. ‘My dear, you must do me the courtesy of gratifying my curiosity. Did my little scheme restore your powers?’

Calwyn’s eyes widened in shock, and that gave him the answer he sought. The sorcerer chuckled in satisfaction, and Calwyn cursed herself for giving away her secret so readily. The boat swayed as he returned to his seat, while Calwyn lay still, her thoughts spinning.

Samis had planned it all! It was Keela who had led them into the caverns, Keela who lured Calwyn onto the ice. Samis had tricked her into the healing waters. Did he know, or care, that Keela had fallen in too, and almost lost her life? He must have been waiting in the forest until they emerged.

The knowledge that she owed the return of her powers to Samis was dumbfounding.Why had he done it? He must want to use her gifts for some dark purpose of his own. But even so, she owed him a debt of gratitude. Thanks to him, she was a chanter again –

She was a chanter again. And more powerful than the last time she and Samis had met. Since then, she had learned songs of iron, and dances of healing. And she was strong. Her immersion in theWaters had done more than restore her gift of magic: it had made her invincible –

For an instant, the giddy lights of theWaters pulsed and sang through her veins once more. But then she remembered something that chilled her. She had learned one more thing since she’d last seen Samis. She had learned the dark chantments.

No. She couldn’t, she could never sing those terrible songs. But already, against her will, some of the simpler chantments were unspooling in her mind. A chantment to paralyse, a chantment to freeze his blood. There were a dozen ways to strike him dead.

Do not make the same mistake I made
. Wouldn’t Marna have wanted her to use the dark chantments against Samis? Calwyn’s heart pounded. Samis could not keep her gagged forever. She would have to eat and drink; if he wanted her to sing for him, he would have to trust her.They were too far away for him to hurt Darrow or anyone else with chantment. She couldn’t find any reason why she should hold back.

But then, with a flood of emotion that she was reluctant to admit was relief, she realised that she couldn’t kill Samis. She didn’t know where he kept his half of the Wheel. Perhaps he carried it with him, but more likely he’d hidden it somewhere in the vast, ruined city of Spareth, where it would take a lifetime to find. She would have to wait.

Samis said, ‘No doubt you are wondering where we are going, and why I have brought you here.’ Calwyn stared at him over the top of her gag. The cables snapped and whirred against the side of the boat. ‘I wanted a chance to speak to you. It is a pity I have to go to such lengths to prevent your tiresome friends from interfering.’

It took all of Calwyn’s self-control not to scream at him in mind-speech. But some instinct told her to be silent.

Samis stared down at the moonlit clouds as though he were talking to himself. ‘You and I have much in common. We both possess unique gifts. You are a powerful chanter, my dear, but you are young. You need the wisdom of an experienced teacher, to guide you.’ He smiled. ‘Darrow is a pleasant companion, but he is young, too, and not fitted for that task. Especially now that he’s ill … He is ill, isn’t he? Keela said so.’ He looked at Calwyn inquiringly, and she felt herself flushing with rage. Of course Darrow was ill; Samis had made sure of it. Samis and Keela together had arranged for Darrow to be arrested in Gellan and taken to the Lazar-House.

‘Such a pity.’ Samis pulled down the corners of his long mouth. ‘I will miss my Heron – though I suppose you consider him your Heron, now.’

Calwyn had to look away; she couldn’t trust herself.

‘Of course, he doesn’t have to die,’ said Samis. ‘That is, if you will help me.’

Here was her own idea, mirrored back to her. But what had seemed logical and filled with hope in the caves of the Knot of theWaters was repugnant to her now.
Help you!Why should I help
you? You tie me up like a dog, you’ve tried to kill Darrow twice over, you
nearly destroyed Antaris. So much evil has been done to Tremaris, it’s all
your fault! And you want to make it worse!

Samis stared at her. ‘So – you can speak with your mind! Why, this is wonderful.Your gifts are even more extensive than I knew, little priestess. But you misjudge me, my dear. Why would I wish more harm to Tremaris?’

The snow-sickness – with no chanters to fight you, you could do
whatever you please!

Samis snorted. ‘Why would I kill the chanters I need to serve me? I know you think ill of me, but credit me with some intelligence. I have no wish to be Emperor of a dead world, stripped of life and magic. That is why I’m taking you to Spareth, to help me find the answer to this riddle. If you and I together cannot solve it, then Tremaris is doomed indeed.’

Calwyn’s mind whirled. Was it possible that he was speaking the truth?

‘Think about what I have said,’ said Samis softly. ‘Sleep.’

An insect whine of chantment sounded in her ear as Samis began a high, almost inaudible song of seeming. Calwyn screwed her eyes shut. She would not give in! She must stay awake, she needed to
think
. But it was no use. She was drawn into the artificial sleep he had used to stupefy them all at the camp. Calwyn’s head drooped and her body went limp. Samis watched her with narrowed eyes, swaying as the cloud-boat swayed, high above the trees. Then, casually, he drew a corner of a blanket over her sleeping body.

KEELA
SAT VERY
straight; her hair was twisted into a long rope down her back, and her face was pale, but determined. The anger and bewilderment of the others beat around her like waves washing against a rock. In a low, steady voice, she said, ‘He told me that if Calwyn swam in the Knot of theWaters, she might recover her gift of chantment. And it was true.’

‘And what if she’d drowned? What if you’d drowned?’ roared Tonno. ‘Did he care about that?’

Keela dropped her eyes. ‘He said that, without her power of magic, she was as good as dead to him anyway.’

‘He has lost himself the Clarion, with his tricks,’ said Darrow quietly. He dabbed at his neck with a bloodied cloth.

‘He said he didn’t need the Clarion any more.’ Keela twisted her hands in her lap. ‘I suppose he meant, if he had Calwyn, he didn’t need anything else.’

Halasaa touched Darrow’s shoulder.
You know that Calwyn
will not help him. She will fight, so long as there is breath in her body.

Darrow’s face hardened into a stony mask. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’

Look at me, child.
Obediently, Keela met Briaali’s uncompromising, black diamond stare.
The Knot of theWaters is a secret place,
a sacred place. How did your friend know of it?

Keela shrugged. ‘He knows many things that no one else knows. What he doesn’t know, he guesses.’ She gave a small smile. ‘And guesses right, most of the time.’

‘We must go after them,’ said Darrow. ‘They will travel faster than we ever could, but at least we know where they’re going.’

‘He is returning to Spareth.’ Keela sought Darrow’s gaze. ‘I swear to you, that was always true. Not everything was a lie.’ Her eyes were on Tonno as she whispered, ‘Forgive me.’

Tonno scowled. ‘Why didn’t you go with him last night?’

‘I always planned to go with him when he came for Calwyn. But when I woke, I didn’t
want
to go…’ Keela’s soft voice faltered.

The Waters have changed you.
Briaali put her wrinkled hand on Keela’s knee.

Leaning on Halasaa’s arm, Darrow pulled himself to his feet. ‘We must leave as soon as it’s light.’