Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series (37 page)

The Kooshak put an arm
around Finn Rah’s shaking shoulders and helped her the rest of the
way to Chakar’s sitting room. Soosha was pouring tea when the two
women entered and Finn was deposited in an armchair. He gave the
Offering a bowl of tea and settled in the chair
opposite.

Finn glared first at
Sarryen. ‘Those are the four most hateful words in the language – I
told you so – you are most hurtful towards an invalid.’

Sarryen grinned
unrepentantly.

Finn’s glare shifted to
Soosha. ‘And what possesses you to think we should invite a Plavat
in here? Plavats live along this coast – why would anyone think it
suspicious if one began poking about above us?’

‘Cho Petak is fully
aware of Chakar’s interest in birds, and that she raised a Plavat
from a fledgling. But why would it stay around here if it could not
find her fairly quickly? You know that Plavats do not have much
patience, or a great deal of intelligence.’

Finn continued to glare
while she mulled over Soosha’s words.

‘You may have a point,’
she finally conceded. ‘But they come only just inside that viewing
area. I absolutely refuse to contemplate the idea of those foul
birds stalking around the passages.’

‘I hardly think they
would particularly want to Finn, and they wouldn’t fit through most
of them anyway.’

Sarryen cut across the
squabbling between her elders. ‘You really think that a Plavat will
return Soosha? Bringing Chakar?’

The Observer raised his
shoulders slightly. ‘Yes. I believe a Plavat will come, but whether
it will bring Chakar, or Ren, or Voron, I have no idea.’

‘You do not think
Babach might be the one to return?’

‘You did not see his
injuries Sarryen.’ Soosha spoke in a low voice.

Finn nodded, closing
her eyes. ‘He could not have survived the journey from
here.’

‘It feels as though we
have been here forever.’ The Kooshak clasped her hands round her
knees. ‘Everyone has adjusted extremely well, even the children
seem content to stay down here.’

‘Do not forget that
those children have seen exactly what awaits outside, and I doubt
any of them are in a hurry to go back out there.’

Soosha nodded agreement
with Finn, adding: ‘Teal is very popular with the children – have
you noticed? And how she makes the dough for that delicious bread
with those twisted hands, amazes me.’

Finn sighed. ‘Arryol
looked at her hands, but he said far too much time has passed since
the burning. He gave her balm to make the skin a little more supple
and a tincture for when the pain is bad.’

Sarryen bit her lip
then plunged ahead anyway. ‘Finn Rah, you are the only one to seem
restless, bothered by our confinement. Is there anything that might
help you?’

Finn opened her green
silvered eyes to glare at Sarryen but then gave a lopsided smile
instead.

‘Is it that evident? I
do find so many people so closely confined difficult to adjust to,
I admit. If I did not have this room to retreat to, I would surely
have leapt from the viewing ledge before now.’ She regarded her tea
bowl. ‘I had a small balcony at my apartments in the Menedula. I
found a small forgotten herb garden I used to visit occasionally,
but apart from a modest number of lectures, I was mostly
alone.’

Soosha leaned forward.
‘Finn you are gifted with the oldest of magics, and Sarryen’s
talent has a broad range. Could you perhaps arrange odd times to
risk far seeking back towards the Menedula?’

Finn and Sarryen
watched the old Observer get to his feet and pace round the
table.

‘The children are
there, I am convinced. But they will begin their journey to us
within days. We have to know where they are, and lend them what
help we can.’

Finn sat in thought.
‘Is there any way from your dreams, that we could get the smallest
clue to a mind signature for one or both of the children?’ she
asked eventually. ‘Tracing two small children in the vast area
between here and the Menedula presents one huge problem without a
mind signature to work with.’

‘I will try to ask in
the dream,’ said Soosha. ‘I know of no precedent where identity can
be confirmed through a dream though.’

‘Well.’ Finn got to her
feet. ‘We will have a try right now, from either the viewing ledge
or the hillside – which would be best do you think
Sarryen?’

‘The hillside,’ the
Kooshak replied promptly. ‘To begin with, all the dust no doubt
hovering around the ledge, will make you cough enough to fall down
the cliff unintentionally!’

‘Oh you make such a
fuss! It is a cough, remnant of that disgusting cold we have all
endured. That is all.’

Sarryen said no more
but caught a brief look of sorrow cross Soosha’s face which sent
her heart plummeting. She suspected that Finn was ill, really ill,
with something far worse than the residue of a cold. She snatched a
cloak from a peg on the wall and hurried after the Offering. It had
grown late while they had sat talking in Chakar’s sitting room and
the passages were empty, the chambers quiet.

Squeezing through to
the outer world, Finn sat on a flat rock and looked up at the sky.
She could see only a fragment of the constellation of the Weeping
Willow, while the Wolf glittered directly north. She turned to
study the sky above the sea and saw the stars which formed the
snout of the Resting Dragon were beginning to rise. Sarryen dropped
the cloak over Finn’s shoulders and sat beside her.

‘I will far seek
Sarryen. You will accompany me if you wish but if you tire, pull
back and lend me your strength. Do not try to keep up with me out
of any misplaced pride.’

Her smile flashed in
the starlight, removing any sting from her words. She reached for
the Kooshak’s hand and held it loosely between her own, wriggled
her shoulders more comfortably against the lumpy rock, and sent her
mind up towards the stars. Experienced though Sarryen was, she was
astonished at the speed and skill of such an accomplished far
seeker. She knew at once that she should withdraw, expend her own
talent on strengthening Finn Rah rather than trying to keep pace
with her. Finn Rah squeezed her hand, acknowledging Sarryen’s
decision, and raced eastwards alone.

Approaching more
populated regions Finn flinched. Pain groaned upwards from the very
earth itself. The Offering saw the mass of the Menedula building
brooding blackly in the star filled night. Thinning her
consciousness to a hairsbreadth, she floated into the structure.
Sarryen sensed that Finn was on the brink of great peril and poured
ever more of herself into the link between them. The Offering sent
tendrils through the corridors and found two humans. One lay
mindless on a pallet far below. The other was close by, and was a
child.

Finn’s mind hung above
the wide bed and saw a white blonde head resting on a pillow. Huge
violet silvered eyes stared straight up at her.

‘Who are
you?’

‘Finn Rah. You must try
to reach us at the Oblaka child. We will do all we can to aid
you.’

‘I am called
Mena.’

Then something snarled
and snagged all around the room and Finn shot back along the line
of Sarryen’s mind. Behind her, she felt Cho Petak’s fury blazing
and flaming through the Menedula. She implored the Light to keep
the child safe from Cho’s demented wrath as she realised her own
strength was failing fast.

Sarryen held Finn’s
limp body, waiting frantically for the Offering to return. Finn
jerked in her arms then bent forward, the cough tearing through her
chest. Lyeto appeared behind them and without a word lifted the
Offering’s small figure in his arms. He carried her through the
passages to Chakar’s sitting room where Arryol and Soosha waited.
Arryol pointed to the narrow bed and piled pillows behind Finn’s
back. He held crushed leaves beneath her nose while Soosha brought
a bowl steaming with a pungent decongestant.

Finn struggled to
control the cough briefly.

‘She saw me. Her name
is Mena, and she could see me.’

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Orsim and Lashek both
recovered fully within two days of their collapse. Neither
remembered much of what had happened, nor was there any residual
memory for the healers to discover what might have felled them.
Both Speakers agreed that they had experienced a sensation of
burning within their very brains, followed by a noise like a great
rushing wind. Then they had woken in infirmary three in the
Corvida. Orsim was the more shaken of the two men. He was deeply
affronted that such an attack could be made with absolutely no
warning from either his own air mages, or from any in Segra or
Parima.

Lashek was more
sanguine about the episode and many people noticed that a faint
scent of mint clung to him. Most put it down to the fact that both
mint and lavender were used in the storing of clothes and assumed
the aroma came from such a source rather than from Lashek
himself.

On this third day since
the killing of the two Firans and the destruction of the creature
that had inhabited the third, the Speakers were in Thryssa’s
private sitting room. Orsim stood at one of the windows, watching
the rain pouring relentlessly down outside. He turned back to the
room.

‘This is all wrong.’ He
brandished a paper as he rejoined the others by the fire. ‘My mages
say that these rain clouds are confined only to this area – Talvo
and Fira are having no rain. It is obviously something to do with
Kallema, but I would never have thought it possible that her mages
could work the weather systems.’

Kwanzi handed him a mug
of tea. ‘I agree. Firans can do very small things with air, but to
bring a rainfall such as this should be far beyond their
capabilities.’

‘But perhaps not beyond
the power of Prilla now?’ Lashek raised a brow as he spoke. ‘I have
seen through Lori’s mind, as well as Kwanzi’s, what they had to
raise threefold power against. If a similar creature inhabits the
body of Prilla now, she would be able to do much, much more than
even the most senior water mage.’

‘Before you ask,’
Kwanzi smiled at his wife. ‘Neri is recovering well, but he is far
older than either Lori or myself – thus he will take longer to
regain strength.’

Pajar came into the
room, his red hair on end.

‘Water levels in the
streams and pools are rising throughout Parima,’ he said without
preamble. ‘I have ordered the people at the greatest risk of
flooding to move out now.’

Thryssa frowned.
‘Surely there has not been enough rain yet to cause such a
rise.’

‘Of course not,’ Orsim
snapped. ‘Kallema is drawing water up from deep
underground.’

Lashek looked
thoughtful. ‘And there are no exits to the outside world are there?
Everything was carried in over the rim of Segra when our ancestors
arrived here, as I recall from my history studies.’

‘What does that imply?’
Thryssa’s alarmed expression showed that she had realised the
implication only too well.

‘The craters will fill
of course.’ Lashek smiled without humour. ‘And there is no way we
could get all our people safely out.’

Pajar nodded. ‘The
water is rising in the pools even as you watch – much too fast for
it to be natural.’

‘Is it worth trying to
contact Kallema?’ asked Thryssa slowly.

Orsim and Lashek
exchanged glances.

‘I would guess that
Prilla is in control in Fira now,’ Lashek replied. He shrugged. ‘It
may be worth a try.’

‘I will do so now,’
said Orsim. ‘But I would feel safer if we joined minds.’

When the mind link was
joined, Orsim sent out a call to Kallema. He became rigid in his
chair as did the others in the link. They could see only a wall of
fire, and almost believed they could feel its heat. The voice that
came from the flames crackled and hissed with amusement.

‘You soon come calling
do you not, once you get a little afraid.’

Thryssa overrode Orsim
immediately.

‘We are not a little
afraid.’ Her mind tone was utterly calm. ‘We are
irritated.’

The flames roared
higher.

‘You lie. You fear you
will all be floating in a world of water, slowly dying.’

‘I repeat, we are not
afraid. But to whom do we speak? You are neither Kallema nor
Prilla, so who are you to presume to speak for Fira
Circle?’

There was a pause
during which they could hear only the barely restrained
fire.

‘You may call me Zloy.
I intend to rule in this place. If you submit to my commands, I may
reverse the flow of water.’

‘I must have time to
confer with my Speakers and also I need some idea of what your –
commands – might entail, before I could agree to
anything.’

The fire leaped and
raged, its centre glowing almost white hot.

‘You have until
darkness to decide whether you live or die. I discuss my plans and
intentions with no one.’