The Amber Legacy (43 page)

‘How many bodies?’ Waters asked.

‘Hundreds, Leader.’

‘We lost count, Leader,’ the second scout added.

Waters had witnessed the fireball the previous evening. The whole army saw it, entranced by the river of flames that danced and exploded across the entire summit of the distant hill. Waters assumed that the barbarian shaman were demonstrating a new and awesome capacity, and his spirit sagged at the prospect awaiting his army when Beranix’s troops recommenced the siege in the morning. He’d received the disturbing news that the female Seer, Lady Amber, along with her Elite Guards, had been captured by the enemy in the retreat, and didn’t like facing the task of relaying that news to the Queen. And then came the miracle. Lady Amber and eight of the missing soldiers appeared on the northern side of town, out of the night air. The men
told him how they’d watched her set the earth and the bush and the sky ablaze to destroy Beranix’s shaman and soldiers—a story so fantastical that he’d refused to believe it, until the scouts corroborated it with their reports. When the sun rose, the southern riverbank and quarter of the town were silent and empty. Beranix’s soldiers had disappeared. Although he suspected a trap, Warmaster Waters couldn’t resist the chance to seize the initiative and push back Beranix’s troops. Lady Amber’s magical power had terrified the enemy into retreat.

Meg watched the riders pass. The early morning sunlight shone on their armour, giving them a momentary gloss befitting ballad heroes going into battle. She hoped none of them would need to fight. The scouts’ news pained and pleased her. Against her will, she had used magic to slay another host of men—and that made her miserable. But if the enemy had retreated after the night’s events the war was near its end, and that made her hopeful. The soldiers filed past after the cavalry, a river of bearded faces. Some were grim. Some were laughing and talking to their comrades. The passing men reminded her of the soldiers who’d befriended Wombat and herself before the Battle of The Whispering Forest, the Group that Blade led, and she wondered where they were since the Battle of Kangaroo Ridge. She’d promised to meet with Blade on Kangaroo Ridge, but events had conspired against them. How many of the young men marching by had wives or girlfriends? she wondered. How many had mothers waiting for them to return?

‘Lady Amber?’ a voice asked. She turned to the soldier, noting the white scar running through his eyebrows. ‘Lady Amber, there is a soldier who says he knows you.’

‘Where is he?’ she asked.

‘He’s waiting at the corner. He said his Group is the last to go.’

‘Did he give you his name?’

‘He said you would know him, Lady Amber. Button Tailor.’

Meg’s heart skipped a beat. ‘Take me to him,’ she ordered. As she followed the soldier, her mind raced through everything that had transpired since the fateful arrival of the Queen’s army in Summerbrook more than a year past. She hadn’t thought of Button enough since he’d been led away in chains. Button had begun to be her first love, but he left, and Treasure came, and erased him from her heart. And, since Treasure’s death, she hadn’t thought much of anyone—only Westridge—and now he was dead, too. What would Button think of her?

Rounding a building, she stopped. Five soldiers stood on the roadside, a couple of paces from the passing troops. At first glance, no one looked like Button, until a man stepped forward, and asked tentatively, ‘Meg?’ She recognised the blue eyes. Like most of the soldiers, he was bearded, but his long dark hair was shorter than she remembered. Something was missing, but she couldn’t determine what it was. ‘Your hair isn’t as long as it used to be,’ he said.

‘Neither is yours,’ she replied. What could she say?

He glanced at the other men, and said, ‘This is Wanderer, Meat, Leader Marketeer and Breeze.’

Meg acknowledged them. To Button, she said, ‘I didn’t know what had happened to you.’

‘Too much,’ he replied. ‘I told my friends I knew you when I saw you ride in, but they laughed. When they said your name was Lady Amber, I was confused. I wanted to come and see you, to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, and they all thought I was crazy.’ He paused, studying her intently. ‘But it
is
you.’

‘It’s been a long time.’

‘I’ve thought about you all the time.’

Meg blushed. ‘I’m glad to see you’re not—’ She stumbled on her words.

‘Not dead?’ he asked. ‘Not quite.’

‘Tailor?’ Leader Marketeer stepped forward. ‘Time to go.’

Button nodded. To Meg, he said, ‘I’m glad to see you’re safe and well.’ He leaned in conspiratorially, adding, ‘I’m going back to Summerbrook after this war. No one’s going to stop me, not this time.’ He straightened, and said, ‘Goodbye, Meg. I won’t forget you.’ He rejoined his Group, and Leader Marketeer led them into the street behind the rest of the army.

Meg watched the men march towards the bridge, her gaze fixed on Button Tailor’s back. She’d failed him. All this time he’d thought constantly of her, while she had all but forgotten him. Guilt gnawed her conscience. And then she realised what was different about him. He hadn’t smiled once in their brief meeting. The young man she had known was gone. His face carried the soldier’s burden of war.

‘When once I went a-wandering across the bush country
that there a youthful soldier
with red hair I did see
though there I was mistaken
for no soldier did I see
but a weaver of wild magic
and a woman full pretty…’

FROM
‘
THE BALLAD OF THE LADY AMBER
’,
ANONYMOUS

T
he war was over—at least the fighting had ended. Warmaster Waters’ army followed Beranix’s troops back to the original border separating the two kingdoms, neither army engaging the other except in minor skirmishes when scouts and isolated groups accidentally encountered each other. The return journey to Port of Joy turned into celebration. Locals, and refugees, waved to Meg and her escorting soldiers, and by the time they entered the city news of the victory had spread to everyone. People lined the streets to cheer the red-haired saviour, chanting ‘Am-ber’ as she passed. A Royal honour guard greeted Meg’s retinue as it crossed King’s Bridge, and Queen Sunset was waiting with the Elite Guards on the palace steps. The Queen embraced Meg when she dismounted and whisked her into the palace, and ordered her to bathe before coming to the War Chamber to debrief.

The bath was ready when she entered her chambers. Whisper scampered across the floor and leapt into her hands, and scrambled up to nestle under her chin, much to the handmaidens’ amusement, and Meg was overcome with tears of happiness to be reunited with her pet.

‘Very impressive,’ said Seer Diamond. ‘So Amber single-handedly sent Beranix’s army into panicked retreat.’

Queen Sunset was smiling graciously, the smile she reserved for when she knew she had proven a very important point to her doubters. ‘According to Warmaster Waters’ reports, not only did she defeat Beranix’s army but in the process she killed more than six hundred soldiers at Greenhill and at least another thousand at Kangaroo Ridge.’ Meg winced at the Queen’s numerical assessment as it sparked the guilt she carried for the deaths of the soldiers killed by her spells, and she averted her gaze from the old Seer. Queen Sunset pointed to the kingdom map on the table. ‘At yesterday’s report, Beranix’s soldiers had withdrawn to this line. We’re expecting to receive a herald, today or tomorrow, with a request for a truce.’ She fixed Diamond with a steely stare. ‘You have, in your presence, Diamond, a person with greater power than anyone in this kingdom, someone who can do what you and your brethren have only dreamed of doing. Will you accept her as a Seer?’

Diamond stared back, his mouth firmly set, his brow wrinkled by the Queen’s challenge, but before he could answer, Meg interrupted. ‘I don’t want to be a Seer.’

Sunset wheeled. ‘What?’

‘I don’t want to be a Seer,’ Meg repeated calmly.

‘Why not?’ Diamond asked.

She looked at him, and said, with determination, ‘I don’t want to be like you.’

Diamond’s face flushed red. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I don’t want to be like you,’ she repeated.

Diamond sputtered indignantly, anger bristling. ‘You could
never
be like me, girl! I am Jarudha’s devoted disciple. That’s something you are not, and something
you could never be!
Never
!’ He peremptorily bowed to the Queen. ‘With respect, Your Majesty, but I will not suffer this insolence—this rude and calculated insult. I said she was an abomination from the outset. Your military advisers may have convinced you that she has magical powers of the magnitude you’ve described, but I frankly think it’s exaggerated ballad-mongering. May I have permission to leave, Your Majesty?’

The Queen withheld her response, deliberately keeping the old Seer uncomfortably in his bow. Finally, she said, ‘You don’t often ask for my permission, Diamond. Why make an exception now?’

The Seer lifted his head, eyes sparkling like brittle gems. ‘Your Majesty, with all respect, Jarudha is my Lord and master. To Him I give my entire obedience. So, too, do I obey you, but only in this earthly realm. In Paradise, no such division between you or I will exist.’

‘In your Paradise, Seer Diamond, according to your own scripture, no division will exist between men and women either,’ Sunset reminded him. ‘And you might well heed another piece of scripture. Tell me if you recognise it: “He who uses the rod to whip the child returns the punishment upon himself.” Familiar?’

‘It’s dangerous to quote
The Word
out of context, Your Majesty.’

‘Predictable and worn-out retort,’ Sunset said. ‘You have permission to leave.’ She waited until the door to the War Room closed before she spoke to Meg. ‘And exactly
what
are you trying to prove?’ she demanded.

‘I meant what I said,’ Meg replied. ‘I don’t want to be a Seer. I don’t want to be like Diamond, or Vale, or Light.’

‘You’re nothing like them,’ Sunset argued. ‘That’s the point. You could change the Order, give it a more human face, save Jarudha from the misogynistic grasp of men who think faith is the preserve of the penis.’

‘I don’t even know if I can believe in Jarudha. Emma and everyone told me I had the Blessing. I didn’t believe them because I didn’t believe in magic. Now—now I have—’ The words eluded her. She stared at Sunset, her composure crumbling under the images of the men she’d killed. ‘I don’t want to do these things.’

‘But you
have
been blessed. You
are
the Conduit. You use magic because it’s who you are, Amber.’

‘My name is Meg.’ The Queen stared. ‘My name is Meg,’ she repeated. ‘I come from Summerbrook. I’m the daughter of Jon and Dawn Farmer. I’m a farmer like my father. Don’t call me by the name
they
gave me.’

The Queen looked genuinely contrite. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Your name
is
Meg. And you
are
right to refuse that other name. But you can’t deny who you’ve become. No one has ever single-handedly driven an army out of my kingdom. It wasn’t a farmer’s daughter who broke through the Seers’ magical protection and killed my foolish son. The one thing you are not, Meg, is a farmer like your father. You are someone much more special. And you can’t change that.’

‘I don’t want to be anything like that. Can’t you understand? I wasn’t born to
kill
other people. I didn’t come here to fight your wars. I hate what you’re all trying to turn me into. I won’t play your games anymore!’ She burst into tears and sank to the floor, sobbing, angry at herself for losing her self-control, angry at the world for making her someone she refused to be. She felt gentle hands rest on her shoulders, but she shrugged them away. The last thing she wanted from the Queen, from anyone, was sympathy. Too many people had died at her hands. Too many people she loved were dead because of her.

When she caught her breath and looked up, she discovered that she was alone in the War Room. She hadn’t heard the Queen leave or the doors close.
She wiped her nose and cheeks and got to her feet. The late afternoon sun angling through the palace windows gave the room a warm glow. She’d made a fool of herself with her petulant outburst, she decided, and she owed Queen Sunset an apology. But she meant everything she said. Knowing what she did about the Seers, she would never agree to join their ranks. Even if she believed she could initiate the social and political changes in attitude to gender that Sunset held so dear, in the end she knew that nothing could be changed. The Seers’ secret commitment to a religious ideology bound them to ultimately seek domination of the world in Jarudha’s name. And it was a new world for men who condemned women and magic.

She stood at the table and studied the map of the Shessian world. To the west was ocean. To the south were Beranix’s kingdom and more oceans. North led to more kingdoms and rugged mountains, and colder lands. To the east were still more kingdoms and mountains. The world was so much larger than she had ever imagined in Summerbrook. Before Follower and Seer Truth’s purge, the Royal library had contained books that showed there were more lands beyond the margins of the Shessian map. Western Shess was a small kingdom. Summerbrook was merely a dot in that kingdom. And she was nothing at all on the map.

She opened her tunic and touched the faint discolouration on her chest. It wasn’t a Blessing. It was a curse. In her stupidity she’d melded it into herself and now she had to carry the legacy for the rest of her life. Now she understood why Samuel had hidden for so many years in the cave above Summerbrook. She understood why her father had come to Shess from the east and changed his name, and why he tried to keep her ignorant of her past. The amber crystal brought nothing but death and despair. She did not belong in
this alien world of war, religious passion and political intrigue. She went to a window and gazed across the Palace courtyard and walls at the distant city rooftops. The afternoon sun highlighted the ridges with a faint splash of gold, but the rest was darkening. She belonged in Summerbrook, with her family. She’d been caught up in the euphoria of a life that belonged to the wandering minstrels who entertained townsfolk and villagers with their tales of heroes and magic and fabled beasts, and she had almost believed that it was a wonderful life. It wasn’t. It came at a terrible and tragic cost. Sighing, she turned from the dying light and headed for her chamber to pack. She would tell the Queen her decision, and tomorrow she would begin the long return to her home—without Sunfire padding in her shadow—without her son.

‘You’re making a mistake.’

Meg shrugged. ‘I can’t stay here any longer. I have to go home.’

The Queen shook her head, her anger and disappointment competing. ‘If you have such power, you also have a responsibility to use it,’ she argued.

‘I have a responsibility to use it
wisely
, and only
if
I need to use it,’ Meg replied. ‘Using it to kill
your
enemies is neither wise nor necessary. Let your Seers do that.’

‘But I need
you
, Meg,’ Sunset insisted. ‘Without your support, my position is not secure. People are constantly plotting against me. Future’s gone north to raise another army, with Truth and Light’s support. How will I stop them?’

‘I don’t know,’ Meg said quietly. ‘Perhaps it’s time you made peace with Diamond and the others. I can’t help you.’

‘I could stop you from leaving,’ Sunset warned.

‘You could.’

Meg’s calm acceptance infuriated the Queen. She thumped her fist against her hip and strode towards the door as if she intended to call the Elite Guards, but she halted before she reached it, caught between thoughts. She looked at Meg, and asked, ‘Don’t you want to see Jon again?’

The reference to her son unsettled Meg. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Future has him,’ Sunset said. ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? Truth took him as insurance against you helping me. They have bargaining power.’

‘Then they will use me against you,’ Meg suggested, ‘which makes me even more dangerous to you if I stay. I have to go.’

‘Back to your village? Do you think you can hide there? Truth knows where you came from. How long will he let you stay there with the Conduit, Meg? How long? A cycle? A year perhaps?’ Sunset looked up at the tall young woman. ‘From what I understand about your precious sliver of amber, the Seers will stop at nothing to get hold of it. Where can you hide? Answer me that.’

Meg had no answer. She wanted to say, ‘I’ll take my chances,’ but she knew she would be taking a stupid chance.

‘Go back to Summerbrook and Truth will come after you, and you’ll put your entire family in danger,’ Sunset warned.

‘So what do I do?’

The Queen smiled briefly, as if relieved to hear the question. ‘Stay here. Wait until Future or Truth make their first move.’

‘But that might not be for a long time.’

‘I don’t think we’ll have long to wait. It’s almost Shahk. It will be well into next Akim before Future can even begin to raise a credible army, and to do that he’ll
have to convince one of the northern kings to back his claim to my throne. And that will take some serious negotiation because he’s already suffered a major defeat at my hands.’

‘So you’re talking half a year, or longer. That gives me time to go home and see my family.’

‘It will not take that long for my son to begin a war,’ Sunset explained. ‘He’ll begin negotiating much sooner than that.’ She took Meg’s hands in her own as she often did, and said, ‘Stay for the Shahk season. If we don’t hear from Future, go home for the Akim months and wait for me to call you back. That’s all I ask.’

The request was not what Meg wanted to hear. She simply wanted to go home and stay there, in peace. But the Queen’s argument made sense. The Seers would not leave her in peace while they knew she had the Conduit. It
was
a curse. ‘I’ll stay until the end of Shahk,’ Meg agreed. Sunset embraced her.

The Seer was Truth. She knew it without seeing his face. He stood on the cliff top as he had in the other dreams and he was laughing at her. In his arms he held a bundle, a tiny baby. The scene, to her, wasn’t quite as it ought to be. Jon was older now than a baby in swaddling cloths. It wasn’t her baby. How could it be? Truth was mouthing words to her but she couldn’t hear him, as if the sea wind was sweeping away the sound. And then the Seer turned and threw the baby over the edge.

Her heart was pounding. She didn’t want that dream repeated. When Truth had stolen Jon, she thought she understood the dream that she had until then as a metaphor—the baby falling really meaning how she had lost Jon. So why was she still having the dream? Whisper stirred on the bed and climbed up to snuggle
into her arms. ‘Why?’ she whispered. ‘Why
this
dream still?’

The afternoon downpour trapped her under the eaves of a small stone building at the edge of the palace grounds, near the entry to the Jarudhan temple. She had taken her walk for exercise, hoping that the dark clouds would hold off, but the rain came quickly and drove her to shelter. The building was reserved for the palace cooks and cleaners. She knocked, but when no one answered she tested the handle, discovered the door was unlocked, and entered. The common room was empty, and the building quiet. The rain made a soothing sound on the thatched roof. Accepting that she would be saturated if she tried to get back into the palace, she sank onto a wooden chair and decided to wait. She regretted agreeing to stay in Port of Joy. Sunset had made her personal struggle to keep her throne Meg’s problem, and it wasn’t her problem at all. But staying did mean that there was a chance of seeing her son again—a chance to get him back from his kidnappers—and for that reason alone she
had
to stay. Her hands twitched with memories of holding baby Jon close to her breast. Tears flowed down her cheeks. The stomping feet startled her and she stood quickly, wiping away her tears.