World's End (34 page)

‘So does every tyrant who ever lived. I just didn't want to be a tyrant, Aziel. I didn't come here to rule anything or anyone.' But he felt the pang of guilt she meant to inflict, and he did not at first understand why it was so powerful. He
had
been indulgent aboard his pet drake, treating the world as his own private amusement park. Taking none of it seriously, never seeking wise heads for advice. The whole thing was a farce. He'd seen that right away: the idea of his lording over human beings at the behest of a dragon. He'd be a puppet at best, perhaps even a traitor to his own kind. But he hadn't for one minute acted to make it otherwise, to move people out of the cities, to
anticipate any of the things that had come to pass. While he'd played around, lives had indeed been at stake upon his decisions. And now, people were dead because of it.

It suddenly hit him: he had blood on his hands. The blood of many people. How many? A dozen, a hundred, or more? He thought of the way he'd spared Kiown's life at the tower top, and the fact he'd behaved as if that deed had been a permanent mark of his decency which nothing else could erase or mark over. How self-righteous that had made him feel. Now he felt sick.

Aziel was silent. She seemed to watch all this play through his mind, to read it on his face. She put a hand on his shoulder in consolation, though her expression showed no pity. ‘Real rulers also look forwards when there is crisis,' she said. ‘However futile it is, look forwards now. If I am to remain here, in charge, it will only be because you say so. You are “Shadow” to those people. I need you now more than you need me. But you owe me this throne, since your foolishness has all but removed it from us. So, from now on …'

She didn't finish, for at that moment the castle shook again. It went on much longer this time, and no one stayed on their feet except Faul, who clung to the window sill. ‘EASY!' she bellowed, as if her voice could halt it. Aziel grabbed Eric by the arm and held on for dear life as they slid into the wall. When the shaking stopped he said, ‘If that keeps up, Aziel, maybe we really can't stay here.'

‘There's nowhere else to go,' she said flatly. ‘Not for me.'

‘What about … what about the high valley behind the castle? I was there when I first came. It's near what they call the Entry Point.'

Domudess evidently heard him. ‘As it happens, I had that
very place in mind,' the wizard said, picking himself off the ground and striding over. ‘The stairways are difficult to find, but I shall try. Before you leave this place, order your workers to empty the warehouses. There is no point letting the food rot there uneaten as the castle becomes too unstable to dwell in.'

‘So, we will go and sit on the grass?' Aziel said with rising anger.

Domudess shook his head and slowly produced from his pocket a little leather bag. Aziel stared, not understanding. ‘My tower is contained within this bag,' said Domudess. ‘I shall reconstruct it, and watch events from there. You are both invited to join me. Although in that place, there are no lords and ladies, only guests. And in that place you are not to wear your dragon charm.' He looked at Eric. ‘Nor are you.'

‘I can't get rid of it,' Eric said. ‘I throw it away and it comes back. Aziel's is stuck to her skin.'

‘Then you may not join me in the tower.'

‘SO THAT'S WHY IT'S SHAKING,' Faul's voice boomed from the window.

‘Why, Faul?'

‘IT'S THAT STUPID GOD OUT THERE. IT'S MAKING THE BIG SLEEPING DRAGON NERVOUS. WHICH GOD IS IT? TEMPEST? LOOKS LIKE A BUNCH OF TREES, ALL TIED TOGETHER.'

They rushed to the windows either side of Faul. Far Gaze said, ‘That's not Tempest. That god is from the South world. I saw it with my own eyes. Unless her ladyship would care to correct me?'

‘Enough from you,' Aziel snarled at him. ‘I will have you ejected and beaten till your bones are splinters.'

‘EASY, YOU TWO,' said Faul. ‘WHAT IS IT AND WHAT'S IT DOING?'

None could say. A hush had fallen outside. Indeed some calming influence seemed to exude from the god, powerful enough for them to feel it where they stood. The god – known by the haiyens as the Teacher of Many Arts, among other names – stood tall above the milling crowd. But after a couple of minutes it vanished, and the crowd's murmuring voice resumed.

It was not long before a messenger arrived from the lower floors with news. A thin young man of no more than eighteen stood panting from the long climb through the castle's levels. ‘A new Spirit introduced itself,' he said when he'd caught his breath. ‘Its name is … it's something I can't pronounce.'

‘FAT LOT OF USE THAT IS,' said Faul, stomping towards him. ‘YOU RAN ALL THE WAY HERE FOR THAT?'

‘No, ma'am.' The young man backed away from her with wide eyes. ‘It said it has things to teach. And a message for those of authority in the realm. That's … that's not exactly what it said, but that's the best way I could think to say it. The message … well it's more a feeling which I have to put into words
for
the Spirit.' He looked at them helplessly.

‘Tell your message to me in private,' said Aziel.

‘Are you sure, Lady? Everyone down there heard it. It wasn't just me. All those people know what it said.'

‘Then you may as well tell us all,' said Domudess. ‘Does the half-giant agree?'

‘SHE DOES. SPEAK UP, BOY.'

‘The Pendulum has stopped swinging, that part of the message was clear. I don't know what that means, with your pardon, Lady.'

‘What else?' said Aziel.

The young man battled for words. ‘I'm sorry, Lady, the way the Spirit spoke, it kind of seems like I'm trying to remember a dream for you. That was the main part: they stopped the Pendulum. Who I can't say, nor what it means. O, there was something about, the higher powers dare not cross now. Something else too, about Valour being killed. That part's sort of strange to me, Lady … something about cycles? Cycles, killing Valour. Along with an army who travelled with him.' Nervously, he added, ‘I don't know what all this means. It can't mean Valour the god, Lady, for he's just myth, as I was taught. Maybe you know what to make of it …?'

‘Maybe we do,' said Domudess. ‘Did the god of the South say no more?'

‘Some things, sir, but I don't recall too well. Its voice sounded like bursts of wind going over all of us. When the Spirit faded
out, it took a lot of people with it. It kind of seemed to ask a question to everyone at once, sir. About who would like to come and learn some things. Not many people did, most were afraid, I suppose. But those who vanished with it, they wanted to go. Maybe a hundred people or more.'

‘What sort of things did it wish to teach?' said Domudess.

‘Something about the dragons, sir. That's the other thing, there's fighting down there between people and the half-giants guarding the entry-ways. I should've mentioned it when I first came in.'

‘If that's all, you may go,' snapped Aziel. She glared at Domudess when the messenger had gone. ‘They deliver messages
from
the chamber too,' she said. ‘Such as, peculiar wizards ask the questions and give the orders. Do you people never think about how we are perceived by the mobs out there? Such things matter!'

‘They have other things to consider at present, Aziel, I would venture,' said Domudess. He began to say more but instead went quiet, staring at something out in the hall.

Following his gaze, Eric was astonished to see a large group of haiyens had gathered out there. There were more here than he'd ever seen in one place, including several of the taller ‘travellers', and others dressed in garments more elaborate than the usual dull-coloured travelling robes. All of the haiyens stood silently gazing in. Their mood was almost palpable: sombre, sad.

Far Gaze, Eric and Domudess were the only ones who'd so far noticed the haiyens' arrival. Domudess caught Eric's eye and whispered: ‘Keep the others busy, something is wrong,' then he quickly strode out there and shut the door behind him.

*

It was only a minute or two before the wizard returned. Through the door behind him Eric saw the haiyens were gone. Domudess was grim-faced. ‘The haiyens are leaving us.'

‘What? Why?' said Eric.

‘We have betrayed them. They are abandoning us. They will wait now until we destroy ourselves, or until the dragons destroy us. Then they will come to dwell here, if the lands are liveable. They were going to teach us ways to build homes that the dragons would never see. Now they won't do it. At last they have come to my understanding, that trying to teach humanity is a futile task.'

‘Who betrayed them?'

‘Someone brought … a summoned presence here, to Levaal North. To Elvury City. And it has grown too large now for them to kill. It has … become near enough to the size and power of a god, that they would need a huge gathering of haiyens to slay it … and they cannot all come at this time, or there will be no one to protect their own lands from the lost haiyens.'

‘How did this happen?' said Far Gaze.

Domudess looked around the room as if he could not really see it. ‘The presence had dead organic matter all through Elvury City to collect for itself. Human bones, Tormentor bodies. The arts the haiyens have taught us to deal with dragons … are of no effect against
those
beings. Perhaps other presences have been brought here too. Someone has betrayed us. Someone has dealt with the lost haiyens. That is the one thing our haiyen friends could not easily forgive.'

‘It was Kiown,' Eric said. ‘He was at Elvury. I saw him there.' All eyes in the room turned silently to him. He quickly regretted speaking.

‘You …
saw
this being brought here?' said Domudess, breaking the heavy silence.

‘Well, no. I didn't know what Kiown was doing there. He said he wanted that city as a base. I said he could have it, since he would have killed me then and there if I hadn't.'

‘You didn't feel a need to tell me of this?' said Aziel, shaking her head in disbelief.

‘Why do the haiyens hold us responsible for what Kiown did?' Eric said to Domudess.

Far Gaze answered, ‘The haiyens are a whole, a collective. You could almost say there are no individual haiyens, for each is only part of one large whole. It may be they see us the same way.'

‘It is not just that,' said Domudess. ‘It took only one of us to fly to the home of their lost ones. One man's decision. Now a great swathe of our realm is unsafe for them … and for us. When the summoned entities grow strong, they can connect good haiyens into the collective of lost ones. The haiyens may decide they can risk trusting us again, but it will take time. More time than we have. You have no idea how wonderful are the things they could have taught us.' Domudess wiped a tear from his eye. He went to the door, paused there. ‘In grief, it slipped my mind. Eric, the haiyens bore a message for you too. They said it was their last word of advice to us, for the present. You must make of it what you will, for I have no light to shed upon it. Their message was:
Let them.
'

‘That's it?'

‘That is it.' Domudess said no more. The castle gave another faint shiver as he walked away. Eric ran after him, but when he rounded a corner the tall wizard was no longer in sight.

Eric looked back in the hallway to Aziel's chamber, where
the real leaders talked among themselves. He didn't belong there and he knew it.

He wandered away, lost, not knowing where he was headed until he arrived at Aziel's old bedroom. They'd left Case there to sleep with a bowl of water, a bucket of ale (now empty) and some thick bones to devour. The drake slowly opened one eye as Eric came in and sat on Aziel's unmade bed.

Eric slept briefly, despite the odd shiver passing through the castle and the smell of neglected sheets. He woke when something moved onto the bed. ‘Let me sleep, Case,' he mumbled. A murmur of voices ran through the room. Strange voices. When his eyes opened to find a pale green scaly face packed with teeth very close to his own, he screamed and scrambled backwards on the bed.

It was an Invia. The room was filled with them. ‘Where's Case?' he said. He fumbled in his pocket for Hauf's amulet.

The Invia said, ‘Walker. Are
you
the man-lord they want?'

‘Back up, back off me. Who wants the man-lord?'

‘The dragons,' said another, reaching to paw at his leg, as if the feel of it would determine whether Eric was the one they sought. The others nodded in agreement, thick ropes of hair swaying about their heads. ‘All the dragons want to speak with the walker man-lord who rides a drake. You have a drake. But there is more than one drake. There is more than one walker. Are you the walker man-lord?'

‘Your aura is like the man-lord's aura,' said another. ‘We were told what the man-lord's aura looks like. Shilen told us. She manages the walkers.'

‘
We
were the ones chosen to fetch him,' said another. Around the room their heads bobbed.

‘What do the dragons want with the man-lord?' Eric said.

‘
Man
-lord, they want,' one Invia said, speaking very slowly for his obviously dim brain. The others nodded.

‘The walkers outside were angry when we came,' said another. ‘They shot bows and threw stones, but we're not to fight with them here, even if they are Marked. We were told this.'

‘Where's Case? The drake that was in here?'

‘We are holding him. He tried to block the window to keep us out!' The whistling rustle of their laughter swept the room.

‘Are the dragons angry with the man-lord? Tell me that, and I'll tell you where you might find him.'

‘Do you know him?' said several of them. They peered at him eagerly. He could back no further away from them, but he tried. Rows of sharp teeth were all he could see. He shut his eyes. ‘Yes, I know him. Are the dragons angry? Just tell me that.'

‘
Very
angry,' they said. More nodding heads, swaying coils.

‘Walkers are hiding what they want,' said another.

What they want? Eric tried to think. ‘OK, listen. I know where the man-lord is, but I won't tell you. I'll tell Shilen directly, and only Shilen.'

‘You must tell
us
.'

‘No!' said another. ‘He must tell the dragons. He must tell
all
the dragons. They are waiting.'

‘They're all waiting in one place?' said Eric.

‘Vyin is not there,' said one.

‘Ksyn is there,' said another. They seemed to be competing to make the most important statement.

‘Is Shilen there with them or not?' said Eric.

‘
She
is just a Minor.'

‘
She
is not important. It's why she manages the walkers.
They
are least important of all.'

‘I'll talk to Shilen,' he repeated. ‘And Shilen only.'

‘You cannot say that!'

‘We could kill you.' The heads all nodded, bouncing coils of white rope.

‘Do that, and the dragons will be furious with you.' He had not thought a lie so simple would work on them, but the Invia gasped and drew back as if he'd brandished a deadly weapon. ‘If you even harmed me, they would be furious.'

‘We could harm you, that would be permitted. Your legs and arms, we could break or pull away. As long as you could still
speak.
'

‘Thanks for that correction,' he said. ‘How close can the dragons come to the castle?'

‘Four miles away. They can go no nearer. Stupid! Didn't you know that?'

‘Walkers
are
stupid.'

‘You got that right,' said Eric, nodding his head with the rest of them. ‘Tell Shilen to meet me there, four miles from the castle, at the Great Dividing Road. Tell her to come alone. I will tell her many things about the man-lord. He is just about the stupidest of the walkers, I guarantee it.'

‘Why just Shilen?' said one amidst a wave of unsettled chatter. ‘She's just a Minor.'

‘Because she manages the walkers, and I am a walker. Who will be first to tell the dragons what I have told you? Surely they'll be pleased with whoever among you tells them first.'

Instantly – the very second he finished saying it – the furious beat of wings made the room a gale of feathery air. They poured
out into the sky in a blur of movement, with many hard thumps as their bodies hit the window frame.

Case sat in the corner, looking at him serenely. He didn't seem to have minded being held down by a group of Invia at all; in fact it seemed he'd rather enjoyed himself. Maybe they looked better to him since they'd shed their human disguises and wore scales instead. ‘Rather you than me, my friend,' Eric said. ‘We've got to fly, I'm afraid.' Case's look at him seemed questioning. ‘I'll go meet Shilen. I don't care any more, even if she kills me. I fucked it all up, Case. I could have summoned Hauf back at Elvury, and had him take Kiown out. Could have shot him at the tower too, like the real Case said I should have done. So I don't think I've really earned a long and happy life. Let's go.'

As they flew over the familiar castle lawns, the stream of people pouring into the castle was quiet and orderly. Whether the half-giants had acquiesced and allowed them in, or whether they'd been overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the matter had clearly been settled some time previously, for the roads leading to the castle were clearing up.

As they flew away from there, Eric thought of Domudess's message from the haiyens:
Let them.
Were the haiyens just reiterating what Aziel herself had said? Let those people march into the dragons' jaws, and to their deaths? If that was the message, were the haiyens really friends?

But Aziel was right on one count at the very least: if that was what the people wanted to do, they would not be stopped by any speeches or any promise that there was a better way.

The flight to the part of the Road where Shilen waited seemed very brief. She was gazing up at him in her dragon form, white,
feminine and beautiful. But she was not what took his breath away, nor what made Case's panting breath send forth little excited bursts of flame. Back some way behind her, just at the edge of sight, four enormous dragons had gathered side by side. There was no doubt these four were of the Eight; their power was tangible enough to feel. It was like a pressing weight on him, pressure squeezing his temples. With his mage eyes he saw enormous spires of colour twisting and tumbling about them. He'd seen nothing of the like since the airs about the castle during Vous's great change. Here were only
half
of the great dragons. How could even the gods withstand them?

In the far distance was the more familiar shape of Nightmare, waiting in the sky like a storm not yet ready to blow over. The dragons surely sensed him there, but none so much as looked in his direction. Nor did he come closer.

With the huge dragons was a collection of lesser ones, a few of them airborne, suspended motionless while others languidly beat their wings. Those dragons did indeed seem small compared to the four mighty ones of the brood.

It took desperate coaxing to make Case descend to ground level. Shilen's head arched high over him and her eyes glittered. There was no way to tell by looking at her that she bore such hate for him and hate for humanity, as Dyan had said. She was beautiful and graceful to behold, a nobody among her own kind but a queen to him. He felt like an animal, an ape, as he dismounted Case and stood before her. One of her wings still hung loose, torn at the shoulder. ‘I'm sorry about your wound,' he said, sensing it was a dangerous thing to mention at all.

Her head reared back further. ‘There are other things for you to regret. Or shall be, soon.'

‘Couldn't the great ones heal you?'

‘Of course, if they wished to. They leave me injured as a mark of my failure, my shame. I accept it. They will injure me far worse, if you don't help me. I do not expect such a thing to matter to one who does not even care for the lives of his own kind.'

He took the charm she'd given him off his neck. ‘You can have this back. I shouldn't have kept it at all.' He tossed it towards her. Her head snapped at it with alarming speed. She caught the charm in her mouth and clamped shut her jaws. The charm fell to the ground in pieces.

‘Where is Shadow?'

That's what the Invia meant – Shadow is what the dragons want. ‘You would know if I lied, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Then here's the truth: I don't know where he is. The haiyens told Siel to go somewhere. She had Shadow caught in her charm at the time.'

Shilen's head swayed side to side like a serpent's as she appraised him. The ground faintly shivered as one of the huge dragons behind her took a few steps into his range of sight. Its skin was a silver not unlike Valour's armour, with threads of red wound through it. Eric thought: It doesn't matter any more. This world is theirs again. Maybe there are other worlds than the ones I've known. Maybe death is the only way out of Levaal and Earth both, the only way into a better place. So be it.

Eric tried not to betray his amazement at what he saw next: a line of people walking towards the huge dragon which had stepped out of the group. The people provoked no reaction from it. They ran across the ground until they were close enough to touch it. To his further astonishment they began to climb up onto the beast's tail, up along its back. Their calls and laughter carried across the distance between Eric and the great dragon … but
like the great dragon, Shilen did not react to the sound. He knew she did not even hear it at all.

He understood: these were the people the Spirit from Levaal South had taken away from the castle, just hours before. The Spirit had taught them to be unafraid, taught them to be filled with love for these enormous, deadly creatures, who only hated them in return. And it had worked. These people now laughed and whooped as they climbed aboard the enormous creature, unseen by it, unfelt and unheard. And untouched by its magic.

Shilen's head craned around to follow his gaze. ‘You are right to be impressed,' she said. ‘It is a privilege to see him. A privilege to die to him, as many of your people have now done. Listen, man-lord. You feel you are safe from us, in the castle. If so, it is the last safe place for you in this world. We will change that on this day, if you do not tell me where I may find Shadow.'

‘How will you change it, Shilen? By sending Invia to the castle?'

Her laugh was rich, soft and musical. ‘We shall wake our Parent. The four great ones you see behind me will do it today, if you do not tell me where I may find Shadow. We now know the haiyens worked with you to halt the Pendulum's swing, to keep our Parent sleeping. If these four great ones cross to the South, our Parent's rival in the South shall rise for war. Our Parent shall rise in turn. Humankind will know no sanctuary. These four behind me – plus one other – are agreed to perform this action. Vyin has not the power to stop them.'

Suddenly it hit him: the haiyens' message.
Let them.
He fought to keep his thoughts blank, lest Shilen's glittering eyes could somehow read them. He said, ‘You lied to us, Shilen. You knew the dragons would devour us when they were free.'

Again she laughed. ‘Suppose I knew it. How would you have relayed that information, in my stead?'

‘Why do they do it? You lied to me, but this part was true enough: you are grand enough beings to create your own pleasures. Why bother with us? Aren't we beneath your notice altogether? I just don't understand.'

‘Do you explain reasons to the cattle you butcher, or the game you hunt? If you did, what reason would you give? Those creatures are beneath you; it is your right. The dragons' reasons are the same. Where is Shadow?'

He knew Siel would be hidden from these dragons, even if he told Shilen where she lay in wait. The haiyens' message repeated loud in his mind:
Let them.
What harm was there in telling? ‘Siel is at World's End. Where the Great Dividing Road meets the road from the South. Shadow is with her.'

Shilen let a silence draw out. ‘You have spoken truly. But if we do not find Shadow with her, we shall wake our Parent, and those of your kind gathered at the castle will die in an instant.'

Let them.
‘Won't your Parent kill the dragons too, Shilen?'

She hissed in anger. ‘Do you think dragons alone are subject to our Parent's laws? The Southern gods are not of Levaal. They are not even of Levaal South. They are from other realms altogether, and they are forbidden to come here. Our Parent decrees it. And yet at least one of them has come! It has interacted with humankind, and given aid to the gods of this realm.
This
is a greater violation of our Parent's laws than the dragons gaining freedom. You will be destroyed if our Parent comes forth, not the dragons.'

‘You seem so sure of what will happen, Shilen.'

‘We have seen it happen before, man-lord. Our Parent will battle its rival for a time, and then both will retire to change their realms as they see fit. Should our Parent defeat its rival,
the dragons will claim the southern realm too. And we shall reshape it to our liking. There will be no place in either realm for humankind.'

Behind her, the huge dragon stared directly at him. He wanted to meet its eyes but he couldn't. It saw him in totality: everything he was, everything he wasn't. And yet the enlightened people climbed over it unseen, easily as children at play.

In the distance the tall foreign god – the Teacher of Many Arts – appeared on the horizon for just a second or two, its antlers twisting against the grey-white sky. The people climbed down the great dragon's back then ran across the fields towards where its image had briefly been. Eric felt hope wash over him like a faint breeze from that direction.