Cloak of the Two Winds (25 page)

Surrounded by glistening blackness, a pair of red eyes glared down at him.

Sleep.

The command intruded forcefully into his mind. For a moment Lonn obeyed. The pleasant oblivion of sleep opened beneath him and he wanted to slip down into its darkness. But some voice of his own urged warning.
Sleep was a trap, the glowing eyes an enemy
. The thought of those eyes, nearly forgotten, came back and startled him. With a sudden effort Lonn sat up and looked.

Huge muscular arms filled the air, one pair hanging over each of the Iruks. Crimson eyes stared down from the black spaces between the arms. Lonn shuddered as all the eyes shifted to look at him, baleful and angry.

"Wake up!" His voice croaked from a strangely constricted throat. "Get up!"

Then cold hands clenched on his neck and throttled him. Choking, Lonn gripped the fingers and tried to pry them off. But all his strength could not bend them. In desperation Lonn wrenched backward and swung his fist at the opaque blackness that held the eyes. His knuckles crunched as through hitting an anvil, but the hands released his throat as the arms floated back.

Lonn scrambled up, screaming to awaken his mates. His arms flailed out wildly, driving some of the things upward. His feet kicked frantically to rouse his ensorcelled mates.

Startled for just a moment the bodiless arms and eyes swooped down again, moving through the air as if by the power of thought alone. Lonn dodged beneath grasping claws and staggered to the corner, where the Iruks' weapons lay.

"Wake up!" he shouted.

Karrol and Eben had sat up and were grappling with arms that now sought to strangle them. Draven and Brinda struggled weakly, unable to rise, crushed down by the gruesome creatures.

Lonn grabbed a quiver of spears and tossed it, spilling the spears out toward his mates. Clawed hands closed on his shoulder and one wrist as his free hand reached the hilt of a sword.

Growling his defiance, Lonn turned and whipped the sword through the air. Charged with Amlina's witchery, the steel blade sheared through the monstrosity's black center with a fizzing sound and an explosion of light. Two arms spun down in separate paths, crashed to the floor and vanished in bursts of fire that left only black smudges behind.

Scraped and bleeding, Lonn' s mates had seized the spears and were fighting back. But the number of creatures in the room had doubled. The things were sliding down from a disk of blackness that hung in the middle of the ceiling.

Lonn snatched a spear from the floor and cast it at the disk. The bewitched spear struck the magic portal with a searing burst of light and a thunderclap. The spear shattered to splinters, but the black disk disappeared.

Roaring in triumph, Lonn sprang to the aid of his beleaguered mates. He stabbed one creature through the back of its black center, causing the arms to writhe upward and freeing Draven to slide from beneath and gain his feet. Lonn wheeled and slashed at another of the things as it grabbed for Eben's head.

Standing together now, the Iruks fought with skill and controlled ferocity. They protected each other, dodged and parried the bear-like swipe of claws, stabbed hard when the creatures came within range. The floating arms attacked relentlessly, but despite their numbers the enchanted weapons gave the Iruks the advantage.

Soon all but a few of the things were slain, or else struggling helplessly on the floor with wounds that quivered and hissed. Eben's spear brought down one of those still in the air. Karrol chased another into a corner.

Lonn saw too late that Karrol had left her back unprotected. Just as her spear spitted the creature she had cornered, one of the others dropped down behind her, reached around and sank its claws into her face.

Karrol cried out in pain and fell to her knees, clutching at the thing's hands. Lonn reached her an instant later and sliced open one of the arms with his sword. The creature fell back, wounded arm dangling. Lonn charged after, caught it against the other wall and ran it through.

As the thing expired Lonn whirled and looked about. The battle was over, the room black with the creatures' remains. Here and there a few arms still moved with feeble life, claws scratching vainly on the floor. One of the things flared up and vanished as Lonn watched.

Karrol knelt in the corner, wailing in misery. Her hands covered her face and blood dripped from between the fingers. Eben and Brinda leaned over her, but she would not let them uncover her wound.

The chamber door opened, and Lonn saw that a crowd was gathered outside. Amlina pushed her way into the room, took a quick look and shut the door—but not before the landlady squeezed inside.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, then gaped about the room, struck dumb by the bizarre scene of carnage.

Amlina hastened to the far wall where the last of the creatures still shuddered with life. She spoke a command in Old Larthangan and the thing grew still, eyes watching her with mute intensity.

"Tell me with thought who sent you," Amlina said.

But then the arms curled over the thing's black middle and all turned to blinding fire and vanished.

"What were they?" Draven asked. "What does it mean?"

"They were drogs," Amlina said. "Made-beings, demonic creations. It means we have an enemy with great shaping powers, but we knew that already. It also means, perhaps, that we are close to finding the Cloak, so close as to worry the one concealing it and push him to this desperate act."

"My eye," Karrol cried as her hands were finally pulled from her face. "My eye is lost to me."

In his cavern chamber far away Kosimo the serd opened his eyes. He stared down at the open book, and the broken tip from the Iruk spear which lay before it on the floor. His design, which had seemed foolproof, had gone awry—defeated by the unexpected acuity of the Iruks and the charm the witch had given to their weapons. Kosimo had learned practically nothing about the apprentice witch that he had not known already.

A most unsatisfactory outcome.

Another solution to this vexing problem would have to be found, and soon.

"This is more than I will tolerate!" The landlady had at last found her voice. "This room is a shambles. You've wakened every one of my tenants, again! I tell you, I'll have no more!"

"Silence," Amlina turned on her with such an air of authority that the woman shut her mouth at once.

"I'll hear no more of your complaining," Amlina said. "You will forget this incident completely. You will not speak of it again. You will not think of it again. Now go and send your tenants back to bed."

Stiff and wide-eyed, Elzna started to comply then paused. "But—"

"Tell them my bodyguards were practicing with their swords, that the disturbance will not recur."

"Yes. Yes, milady." Frowning with puzzlement, Elzna departed from the chamber.

Amlina stepped to where Lonn and his mates were clustered around Karrol, who still knelt on the floor.

"Let me see."

The witch bent over and examined Karrol's face. Streaked claw marks bled on her cheek and forehead. The eyeball was scratched and it oozed a bloody fluid.

"You have not lost your eye," Amlina said. "In a month's time it will be perfectly healed. That is, if you allow me to treat the wound. "

"Yes," Karrol answered. "Whatever you say, only save my eye."

"Fine." Amlina straightened up. "You are most compliant when you are desperate. If you had trusted me enough before to wear the moonstone I gave you, this might not have happened."

Lonn had not thought of it, but he and the others were still wearing the moonstone talismans.

"I am sorry." Karrol gazed at the witch through one teary eye. "I should not have thrown your gift away."

"Come upstairs." Amlina extended her hands. "The sooner the wound is treated the better."

Wary of another attack, the Iruks took swords and spears up to the witch's chamber. Amlina directed Karrol to sit on the bed, then filled a washbasin with water. She added to the water a tincture of blue liquid from a small glass vial.

"The blue essence will clean and protect the damaged tissues," she said, soaking a cloth in the basin.

Karrol gritted her teeth and held the bedpost while Amlina bathed her cuts. When the eye was thoroughly cleansed Amlina covered it with a linen bandage. She rubbed her palms together vigorously, whispered a chant, then placed one hand atop the other over the bandaged eye.

"Visualize blue light," she told Karrol, "shining through the wounded parts, soothing and healing. Now visualize your eye whole again, whole and perfect as before."

On the witch's bidding, Eben had cut a patch from a strip of leather and fixed it to a thong. Amlina fitted on the patch and tied the thong around Karrol's head.

"You must keep the eye covered for several days at least. I will continue to send you the blue light for healing. Lie back now and rest."

Amlina built up the fire while Lonn and his mates washed their wounds. The treated water stung Lonn's neck where the claws had scratched. The hand that had punched the thrall's middle was bruised and swollen. The other Iruks had various bloody scrapes puffing out on arms, necks, and faces.

"Let us sit in the circle now," Amlina said when the Iruks were done washing. "We may be able to trace the origin of the drogs while their appearance is still fresh in your minds."

"I don't think I can concentrate," Karrol said. "My eye hurts and I feel dizzy."

"Sit with us anyway," Amlina replied. "It is important that the circle be complete."

The five Iruks and the witch sat down beneath the trinkets and performed the rituals of deep breathing and relaxing. From the start Lonn sensed a lack of stillness and clarity in the circle—perhaps from Karrol's discomfort, perhaps from the excitement they all felt as a residue of the weird battle. When Amlina told them to envision the two-armed creatures, the pictures came jumbled and frightening. The klarnmates were sickened as they relived Karrol's pain and shock in the moment the claw scratched her eye.

"Be calm," Amlina said. "The one who sent the drogs is linked to them. His image too can be viewed. We are looking upon it now."

But the picture that appeared was obscured by clashing swells of light and blackness. All Lonn could be sure of seeing were the eyes, gleaming and baleful, like the red eyes of the drogs.

After several vain attempts Amlina changed tacks and told the Iruks to picture Glyssa. But her image appeared tenuous and more fully hidden by the veil than it had been the previous night. The vision went dark after a few moments, and Amlina did not try to summon it back.

"Your minds are too unsettled," she said after breaking the circle. "Hardly surprising under the circumstances. Rest now. We will delve again in the evening."

"We didn't focus well," Eben said. "Glyssa's image hardly seemed there at all."

"The concealment may have been reinforced," Amlina told him. "It felt so to me."

"That worries me," Eben said. "Counting today we have only five days left."

"We are on the path shown to us by the Deepmind." Amlina rose to her feet. "You must put aside your anxieties and trust in what will be."

"That's well enough to say," Brinda answered. "But Eben has a point. Suppose the five days run out and we still have not found Glyssa?"

"No." Amlina touched one of the prisms to stop its slow turning. "We must not consider the possibility of failure. To do so can engender failure."

"Now wait," Eben said, standing to challenge the witch. "If the five days pass and Hagen's men come for us, we must at least have a plan for how to evade them and what to do next."

But Amlina shook her head. "That is precisely what we must not think about. We must adhere to the design we are shaping—that we will find what we seek in time and get safely away from Kadavel. Let no other possibilities dwell in your minds. This is crucial."

The Iruks regarded one another grimly.

"You've been working very hard," Amlina said. "Even meditation can grow wearisome if unrelieved by change. I suggest you relax today and not practice the exercises."

"We’ve been shut up in this inn too long," Draven said. "It would help if we could walk, get out in the air."

Amlina considered. "You'll no doubt be followed if you leave the inn. Still, I don't see any harm in that. So long as you don't try to evade Hagen's spies, I don't imagine they'll call in the guard to arrest you."

The Iruks went downstairs and found breakfast being served at the common room hearth. They lined up with the other patrons of the inn, and Lonn was surprised that no one asked them about last night's disturbance. Perhaps the landlady's bewitched responses had discouraged further inquiry on the subject. Or maybe the tenants were simply growing accustomed to wild commotions in the night.

Opening the door to their room, the Iruks were starkly reminded of the attack. The floor and bed furs were blackened with grimy smears. The air reeked with an odor like burnt hair or feathers. Draven pushed open the outside window but the chill, clammy air from the street only dampened the chamber.

The mates sat down with their cups and bowls and ate breakfast in silence. After taking their fill of the porridge and tea, they rose and put on their outer garb and harnesses. Taking swords and daggers but no spears, they marched across the common room and out the front door of the inn.

Wisps of sea-fog drifted over the plank street, sparkling with needlepoints of witchlight. In the sky above the city, the awesome spiral of cloud hung dark and menacing.

"I can see why many believe it's the end of the world," Eben observed as they stood in the middle of the street staring up.

"Let's walk," Lonn said.

Restless and uneasy, the Iruks started down the street toward the waterfront. If Prince Hagen's spies were following, they did so furtively. Lonn looked back every so often, but caught no glimpse of anyone.

The Iruks passed through the city wall and strolled out onto the empty pier. The harbor was fogbound, so that the lines of ships riding at anchor could not be seen. The mates had to step to the edge of the pier before they could tell that the Shipway was unfrozen this morning.

They walked east along the docks, treading through banks of fog and sudden open spaces. At times they could just hear faint footsteps some distance behind them, footsteps that would halt whenever they paused—sure evidence, Lonn concluded, that the Prince-Ruler's informers were indeed on their trail.

The Iruks proceeded as far as the Luxury Market, the spot where they had first landed in Kadavel. The stone quays were nearly deserted. Perhaps it was still too early in the morning, or perhaps the recent storms and chilling fog had discouraged normal commerce.

The fog was growing thicker, creeping out of the water like some vast, luminous ghost. Lonn and his mates crossed the quay and entered one of the dragon gates. On an impulse, they climbed a stairway and sat down to rest on the parapet of the city wall. The fog stretched below them like a glimmering carpet. Gables, cupolas, and sloping roofs floated vague and dim above the mists. The fog played tricks with the eyes, so that the bulky fortifications atop the High Acropolis stood out plainly, and seemed to brood down on them from near at hand.

"I didn't hear anyone come through the gate," Draven said. "Maybe we've lost our trackers."

"Don't worry," Lonn answered. "Hagen's men won't be so easily lost."

"Not now or five days from now," Eben said in a low voice, "if it comes to that. I don't care what Amlina says, I think we need to consider what we'll do if our time runs out."

"What do you suggest?" Lonn asked. "What can we do?"

"Well," Eben said, "if Amlina can cast a design to evade Hagen's spies, she could use it on the eleventh day, and we could slip away from the inn."

"And go where?" Lonn demanded.

All attempts to plan broke down on this point. The mates could think of no place in the city where they could hide from Hagen's spies. They might try to reach the ship. But, anchored in the channel, the
Plover
was unlikely to offer refuge for more than a day or two at best. The only sure escape was to leave Kadavel entirely. But none of them would consider going without Glyssa.

"This is getting us nowhere," Draven declared. "There's no use in making plans anyway if Amlina won't have a part in them. She says we must see things through the way we've started, and I don't see what other choice we have."

"Even if it means waiting and doing nothing when the Tathians come for us?" Eben said.

"Let's hope it won't mean that," Draven muttered. "What do you think, Lonn?"

Lonn stared morosely at the fogbound city. "I don't know. Maybe Amlina has a point about not considering that we might fail. It's as though we were hunting yulugg, and we've picked one out and chased it away from the herd and the other boats. Now we've caught the beast and it turns on us. We either kill it or we die, but there's no turning back."

"It’s exactly like that," Eben said. "That’s exactly how we got here, leaving the other boats and seeking the treasure ship that Lonn dreamed about."

They were quiet a few moments, Lonn regretting yet again how his dreaming how brought them all this trouble. And yet that dream still lived vividly in his mind, with its rich wonder and its promise of a better life for all of them.

Then, to his surprise, Brinda spoke. "You know what, mates? Assuming we get Glyssa back and she's all right, I'll have no regrets. With all we’ve seen and done, it's been quite a hunt."

"Yes it has," Eben agreed. "Far more fun than chasing yulugg all season."

Karrol stared dully through her one good eye. "Well, I haven't always been glad of it, but it's been an adventure, for sure." Her tone was weary, but not angry or blaming.

Draven grinned. "Just think what tales we’ll have to tell our grandchildren on those long nights in Second Winter."

"If we have grandchildren," Eben laughed. "If we ever make it back to Ilga."

"We'll get through this,
and with Glyssa,
" Lonn declared, feeling it fiercely in his heart. "The klarn will see us through. Remember what Belach said: Hold fast to the klarn."

They pondered this for a bit, then Eben said: "It seems to me the klarn is changing. With all this witch-work we've been doing …"

"Yes, I've felt that too," Draven said. "The klarn spirit is still there, but it's different. Of course, Glyssa is missing. And Amlina feels part of it now, as if she's standing in for Glyssa."

"No one is taking Glyssa's place," Lonn said. "All of this, all we've gone through, has been for Glyssa."

"I know that," Draven assured him. "I'm just saying the klarn feels different now. And, like it or not, Amlina is part of that."

Lonn found these words troubling, but on reflection had to admit they matched his own perception. The wei circle had both strengthened and altered the klarn. And Amlina's energy had seeped into the group soul.

"Changed or not," he finally said. "We must hold fast to the klarn."

All of the mates agreed with that. Lonn extended his hand and they readily placed their hands on top to affirm their unity.