Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (42 page)

‘Onion will probably
wake soon. Would you prefer that I stayed with him?’

Dog shook her head,
easing the tray onto a table. ‘I’ll stay. They’re setting breakfast
out, so you’d better go and grab some. You’re nearly dribbling over
my porridge.’

Tika started to leave,
then turned back. ‘We went to the Dark Realm, Dog. To make sure no
one believed Corman was the one in league with the Splintered
Kingdom. Cyrek was there. Someone has hit him recently,
hard.’

Dog’s bared teeth bore
no resemblance to a smile. ‘That’s nothing to what I’ll do to him,
given half a chance.’

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Tika lingered in the
hall after the morning meal, discussing events with Emla. Light
dazzled in from the wet garden, the sun reflecting from every
puddle and water covered leaf.

‘I feel of so little
use to you, dear one,’ Emla admitted. ‘I felt I had a tenuous grasp
of what was happening until you vanished from the southern plains
and Farn began to scream. I understand nothing of the Dark,
although Shiral has been more than generous in giving her time to
trying to instruct me.’

Tika stood by the open
doors, watching all four Dragons gazing enraptured, at the
sparkling garden. She wondered what Emla found so hard to
comprehend. It seemed simple enough to her. She went back and sat
on a stool near Emla’s chair.

‘And what little you’ve
told me of these Old Blood people,’ Emla shook her head. ‘It was a
shock to learn the Dark Ones could change their shapes to become
Dragons, but now I must believe that Volk’s people can change to
any beast form.’

Tika started to smile
then frowned instead. ‘Do you remember when Mim and I first came
here?’

Emla smiled fondly.
‘Well of course I do.’

‘No, I mean when Nesh
and Kemti were – testing us, I suppose. Kemti said there were
“markers” in our blood. Now what did he say? Yes – Mim had Dragon
markers as well as something else. And I had markers indicating my
blood was linked somehow with your people. Do you
remember?’

Emla nodded
slowly.

‘I don’t understand how
they could tell that – perhaps Kemti could show me sometime – but
he might see something in Volk’s blood, or Dromi’s.’

Tika’s enthusiasm was
growing when Nesh sent a warning, clear and sharp, to alert all
with talent that something was happening on the border. Tika dashed
outside, heading for the pavilion, the Dragons at her heels. She
saw that only Essa had felt Nesh’s warning, but then Rhaki
staggered in behind her.

‘Sorry. I was asleep.
I’m fine.’ He waved away Tika’s concern.

Farn had entered and
reclined near the door. Tika took her usual position, cross legged
on the floor against his chest.

‘Watch through Farn,’
she told the others, even as she mind spoke Kija. ‘Hold the thread
for me Kija.’ And her mind soared away.

She went straight for
the Candle Hills, hovering high above the spot where she’d felt
Karlesh had sunk into the ground, whether voluntarily or not. She
felt no sense of Karlesh at all now. The ground was even more
disturbed than she remembered, half the hillside seemed sheared
away. Tika’s mind stayed well away but she intensified the focus of
her eyes.

Two flat slabs of
upright grey stone supported a third slab set across the top:
unmistakeably a doorway or entrance. She estimated the height as
being very low, she guessed small as she was, she would have to
stoop to pass through. The slabs of stone were smooth, as clean
edged as if they had only just been placed there, but she could see
they were, in fact, well embedded. These had stood here, hidden,
for many ages.

And Karlesh had entered
and was now far from this place. She could sense no traps of the
kind she had seen on her first experience within the Splintered
Kingdom, nor any such as those described to her by Shea and
Gossamer Tewk. Tika propelled her mind lower, but still distant
from the small stone slabs of the doorway, so that she could try to
see further inside.

Even with her sight
enhanced, she could barely see a pace beyond the threshold. Then it
was total blackness. Swiftly she sent her mind eastwards, along the
line of the Candle Hills, until she sensed a trace, a whisper, of
Karlesh’s trails. But even as she felt it, it was gone like mist in
bright sunshine. For another few heartbeats, Tika surveyed the
Hills and realised they were far too regularly sized, far too
neatly aligned, to be a natural product of the
landscape.

She suspected that
trace of Karlesh had been a false lead, somehow planted to distract
her from his real direction. Suddenly irritated by the games the
Crazed One was forcing her to play, Tika returned to her body in
the pavilion. She found Emla and Kemti had joined her friends as
they all watched what Tika had seen, relayed through Farn’s mind.
Emla looked deeply puzzled.

‘He had gone, hadn’t
he?’ she asked. ‘That warning Nesh felt was only to distract us.
But from what?’

Tika stretched her
back. ‘Your Seniors are still watching, all round the City, aren’t
they Emla?’

‘Certainly, and there
are extremely talented watchers among them.’

Tika scratched her head
in exasperation. ‘This is a game,’ she said angrily. ‘But whose
game? I begin to suspect that the Crazed One would not have the
patience for mere games. Cyrek’s hand is in this.’

She got to her feet. ‘I
will walk for a while. I think it unwise for me to go far from the
estate just now, so I’ll walk in your gardens.’

‘May I come?’ Shea
sounded uncharacteristically nervous.

Although Tika would, in
fact, have preferred her own company, she knew Shea would not have
asked just to impose her presence.

‘If you wish,’ she
said, stepping outside.

When Tika and Shea had
gone, Emla sighed.

‘I so hate that all
these troubles seem to devolve on that child,’ she murmured, then
looked uncomfortable at allowing a personal thought to be
expressed. ‘Did you notice the Hills from that long view Tika gave
us?’ she asked in a different tone.

It was the Old Blood,
Dromi, who answered. ‘I have seen such places before, my lady. The
far northern lands of Drogoya, considered uninhabited -’ he smiled,
‘since Sedka’s days. There is in fact a quite large population – of
my people, in that region.’

He became silent,
studying his long fingers for many moments. When he looked up, he
looked first at Volk before turning again to Lady Emla.

‘We call ourselves Old
Bloods because as far as we can ascertain, we are the oldest
peoples in the greater land known now as Drogoya. The earliest
records we have were written down when we were ruled by Mage Kings
and Queens. And sixty-three of those ruled before the lineage was
lost. When they died, all were buried in small stone houses which
were then covered with offerings, gifts, baubles, from the ordinary
people who would travel for days to say their farewells. When the
last gifts were laid, mages spelled the great heap so that it would
all stay rigidly in place. Finally the mound was covered with soil
and turf.’

Dromi offered his
listeners a sad smile. ‘There is a line of sixty-three hills in my
land. We call them the Mage Hills of course.’

Emla had listened
intently. ‘When our people first settled here, we found a very
basic civilisation. The local people lived in very small farming or
hunting communities. They had no writing.’ She glanced at Kemti for
confirmation.

Kemti nodded. ‘They had
an oral tradition, which, from my recent reading, was concerned
with invented stories of fairly small matters. It seems, from these
tales, they were mostly peaceable folk, co existing without violent
enmities. There are no stories of one village taking over another,
for example.’

Sket frowned. ‘But
Nolli told us that her people fled into the tunnels of Asat to
escape attacks from a warlike group. When we travelled north
through the Domain, all the children were hidden away from us
because they had been caught before – letting “strangers” into the
Domain who then slaughtered all they could find, including the
children.’

‘You’re right,’ Emla
agreed slowly. ‘But there were no such warrior people around when
we came.’

‘Did you cross the
great mountains to reach here?’ Sket asked.

Kemti shook his head.
‘Jerak’s records are the oldest we have. All he says is that after
the crash, the survivors travelled south with a range of enormous
mountains always on their right hand, until they found the site to
settle which became Gaharn City.’

‘So in fact they only
saw the eastern plains, they never travelled the western side,
which is where Nolli said the warriors came from.’

Emla glanced round at
Tika’s companions. ‘If Nolli’s people suddenly vanished within the
mountains, surely a race of warriors would be aware of settlers
moving in to Gaharn? The north western plains are barren and icy. A
few solitary families may still try to make a living there, but no
large groups of fighters have ever approached Gaharn from
there.’

‘As they surely would
have done if they scented easy pickings,’ Essa put in.

‘These solitaries you
speak of,’ Dromi asked. ‘What do you know of them?’

Emla looked blank and
Kemti spread his hands palm up. ‘Nothing at all. Nolli said her
people had occasional contact with some of them. They would trade
goods and news, but I know nothing more.’

‘I’ll ask the Merigs,’
Emla decided, getting to her feet. ‘Do you think the reports of
people living isolated is of importance then, Dromi?’

Dromi gave her a
slightly embarrassed smile. ‘I fear I am simply curious, my lady.
My people – Old Bloods – survived by living alone and scattered. I
wondered what the ones you speak of may wish to conceal from the
world.’

Emla gave him a
thoughtful look, then went out into the gardens. Shea crashed back
into the pavilion moments later, causing considerable alarm, until
she assured the company all was well with Tika. She sat beside
Geffal.

‘Tika and I were
talking by Grib’s shed, with Daisy. We hadn’t been there long when
Hag arrived.’

Sket growled but Shea
waved a dismissive hand. ‘It was Hag, the proper Hag. But she was
very – upset. No cackling or boasting. She looked almost afraid to
come near Tika but Daisy snuffled at her and Khosa wailed something
and then Hag came a bit closer.’

Shea beamed at everyone
and was apparently unaware that they would all quite enjoy shaking
the rest of her news out of her. After what she deemed a suitably
anticipatory pause, she drew another breath to continue.

‘Hag said she had been
investigating, and she’d found several things which upset her. She
wasn’t terribly clear.’

Shea frowned. ‘Tika
approached her and Hag looked frightened, but Tika just knelt by
her and stroked her. That seemed to upset Hag more – I thought she
was going to cry. Can birds cry?’ She twisted to direct her
question to Volk, who simply shrugged.

‘Anyway, Hag said she
had more to find out and that Tika must beware Cyrek, that he is
more danger at the moment that the Crazed One.’

Shea gave her audience
another beaming smile. Sket swore. ‘Where is Tika now? Why have you
come back alone?’

‘Oh. Hag said she had
to tell Tika something dreadfully secret, so they went out onto the
grass – you know that big patch Daisy likes?’

Sket and Essa were
already out of the door, Fedran and Kazmat close behind. Geffal
nudged Shea as he stood up.

‘You’d better hope Lady
Tika’s still there and in one piece.’ He hurried after the
others.

Shea gaped at Rhaki.
‘What’s the matter with them? ’Course she’s all right.’

Rhaki’s grey eyes held
amusement. ‘I know she is. You know she is. They have to check for
themselves.’

Kemti chuckled. ‘If
that Raven is still talking, in confidence, to our Tika, I do hope
Sket doesn’t barge in too fast. Have you seen the child lose her
temper?’

Rhaki began to smile.
‘I’m rather glad to say that I haven’t.’

Farn huffed behind
them. ‘She was very cross with me once.’ His mind tone was rueful.
‘It wasn’t very nice.’

Shea went to hug him.
‘But when she’s cross with you Farn, it’s because you’ve worried
her; it’s not the same as being really angry.’

Four men studied Shea’s
back, all thoughtful. At times Shea seemed still a child, but
occasional remarks she made indicated a mind far older than it
should be. But then, none of them knew of her early years as the
middle daughter of the Imperatrix Veranta of Kelshan. Shea had
lived in such close confinement permeated with fear that she had
learned to act the simple minded idiot. But behind the façade of
stupidity, she had watched, and listened, and, in secret, read
every book she could get her hands on. No, the child with the dark
curls so similar to Tika’s was a much more complex creature than a
brief glance might suggest.