Kitabı oku: «The Skull Throne»

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Prologue: No Victor

Chapter 1: The Hunt

Chapter 2: Vacuum

Chapter 3: Ashia

Chapter 4: Sharum Blood

Chapter 5: Kajivah

Chapter 6: A Man Is Nothing

Chapter 7: More Sack Than Sense

Chapter 8: The True Warrior

Chapter 9: Anoch Sun

Chapter 10: The Chin Rebellion

Chapter 11: Docktown

Chapter 12: Filling the Hollow

Chapter 13: Foul Meat

Chapter 14: The Prisoner

Chapter 15: The Painted Children

Chapter 16: Demon’s Heir

Chapter 17: Goldentone

Chapter 18: A Whisper of Night

Chapter 19: Tea Politics

Chapter 20: Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 21: The Weed Gatherer

Chapter 22: Bachelor’s Ball

Chapter 23: Inquisition

Chapter 24: Briar

Chapter 25: The Spy

Chapter 26: First Strike

Chapter 27: Dama in the Dark

Chapter 28: Shar’Dama

Chapter 29: Dama Gorja

Chapter 30: The Princess’ Guard

Chapter 31: Whistler

Chapter 32: The Night of Hora

Chapter 33: A Voice in the Dark

Jardir Family Tree

Krasian Dictionary

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE
No Victor
333 AR Autumn

‘No!’ Inevera reached out, clutching empty air as the Par’chin pitched himself and her husband over the cliff.

Taking with them all the hope of the human race.

On the opposite side of the circle of combat, Leesha Paper let out a similar cry. The strict ritual laws of Domin Sharum were forgotten as witnesses from both sides rushed to the precipice, crowding together to peer into the darkness that had swallowed the combatants.

In Everam’s light, Inevera could see as clearly in darkness as brightest day, the world defined by magic’s glow. But magic was drawn to life, and there was little below save barren rock and dirt. The two men, glowing as fiercely as the sun a moment ago, had vanished into the dull gloom of ambient magic as it vented to the surface.

Inevera twisted her earring, the hora stone within attuned to its mate on her husband’s ear, but she heard nothing. It could be out of range, or broken in the fall.

Or there might be nothing to hear. She suppressed a shiver as a chill mountain wind blew over her.

She glanced at the others clustered at the edge, reading their expressions, searching for a hint of betrayal, a sign one of them had known this was coming. She read the magic that emanated from them, as well. The circlet of warded electrum coins she wore did not let her read spirits as fluidly as her husband did with the Crown of Kaji, but she was getting more and more skilled at reading emotions. Shock was clear throughout the group. There were variations from one to another, but this was not the outcome any of them had expected.

Even Abban, the smug liar, always hiding something, stood horrified. He and Inevera had been bitter rivals, each attempting to undo the other, but he loved Ahmann as much as an honourless khaffit could, and stood to lose more than any, should he prove dead.

I should have poisoned the Par’chin’s tea, Inevera thought, remembering the guileless face of the Par’chin the night he appeared from the desert with the Spear of Kaji. Pricked him with a venom-dipped needle. Put an asp in his pillows as he dozed before alagai’sharak. Even claimed offence and killed him with my bare hands. Anything but leave it to Ahmann. His heart was too true for murder and betrayal, even with the fate of Ala in the balance.

Was. Already she used the past tense, though he had been gone only seconds.

‘We must find them.’ Jayan’s voice sounded miles away, though her eldest son stood right beside her.

‘Yes,’ Inevera agreed, thoughts still spinning, ‘though it will be difficult in the darkness.’ Already, the cries of wind demons echoed off the cliffs, along with the deep rumble of the mountain stone demons. ‘I will cast the hora to guide us.’

‘Core with waitin’ on that,’ the Par’chin’s Jiwah Ka said, shouldering Rojer and Gared aside as she dropped to her belly and swung her legs over the edge of the cliff.

‘Renna!’ Leesha grabbed for her wrist, but Renna was too fast, dropping quickly out of reach. The young woman glowed brightly with magic. Not so brightly as the Par’chin, but brighter than any other she had ever seen. Her fingers and toes drove into the cliff face like a demon’s talons, cracking stone to create her holds.

Inevera turned to Shanjat. ‘Follow her. Mark your trail.’

To his credit, Shanjat showed none of the fear that ran through his aura as he looked at the cliff. ‘Yes, Damajah.’ He punched a fist to his chest and slung his spear and shield over his back, dropping to his belly and swinging over the edge, picking his way carefully down.

Inevera wondered if the task might be beyond him. Shanjat was as strong as any man, but he had killed no demons this night, and did not possess the inhuman strength that allowed Renna am’Bales to claw her own path.

But the kai’Sharum surprised her, and perhaps himself, using many of the fissures the Par’chin’s wife made for his own holds. Soon he, too, vanished into the gloom.

‘If you’re going to throw your bones, do it now, so we can begin the search,’ Leesha Paper said.

Inevera looked at the greenland whore, suppressing the snarl that threatened her serene expression. Of course she wanted to see Inevera cast the dice. No doubt she was desperate to learn the wards of prophecy. As if she had not stolen enough from Inevera.

None of the others knew, but the dice had told her Leesha carried Ahmann’s child in her belly, threatening everything Inevera had built. She fought the urge to draw her knife and cut the babe free now, ending the trouble before it began. They would not be able to stop her. The greenlanders were formidable, but no match for her sons and two Damaji sharusahk masters.

She breathed, finding her centre. Inevera wanted to heap all her anger and fear upon the woman, but it was not Leesha Paper’s fault that men were proud fools. No doubt she’d attempted to dissuade the Par’chin from issuing his challenge, much as Inevera had tried to dissuade Ahmann from accepting it.

Perhaps their battle had been inevitable. Perhaps Ala could not suffer two Deliverers. But now there was none, and that was worse by far.

Without Ahmann, the Krasian alliance would crumble, the Damaji devolving into bickering warlords. They would kill Ahmann’s dama sons, then turn on one another, and to the abyss with Sharak Ka.

Inevera looked to Damaji Aleverak of the Majah, who had proven the greatest obstacle to Ahmann’s ascension, and one of his most valuable advisors. His loyalty to Shar’Dama Ka was without question, but that would not stop him from killing Maji, Ahmann’s Majah son, that he never supplant the Aleverak’s son Aleveran.

An heir could still unite the tribes, perhaps, but who? Neither of her sons was ready for the task, her dice said, but they would not see it that way, nor give up interim power once granted. Jayan and Asome had always been rivals, and powerful allies would flock to them both. If the Damaji did not tear her people apart, her sons might do it for them.

Inevera moved wordlessly into the ring where the two would-be Deliverers had fought mere moments before. Both men had left blood on the ground, and she knelt, pressing her hands where it had fallen, wetting them as she took the dice in hand and shook. The Krasians formed a ring about her, keeping the greenlanders at bay.

Carved from the bones of a demon prince and coated in electrum, Inevera’s dice were the most powerful set any dama’ting had carried since the time of the first Damajah. They throbbed with power, glowing fiercely in the darkness. She threw and the wards of foretelling flared, pulling the dice to a stop in that unnatural way they had, forming a pattern of symbols for her to read. It would have been meaningless to most. Even dama’ting argued over the interpretations of a throw, but Inevera could read them as easily as words on parchment. They had guided her through decades of tumult and upheaval, but as was often the case, the answer they gave was vague, and brought little relief.

—There is no victor—

What did it mean? Had the fall killed them both? Did the battle still rage below? A thousand questions roiled within her and she threw again, but the resulting pattern was unchanged, as she had known it would be.

‘Well?’ the Northern whore asked. ‘What do they say?’

Inevera bit back a sharp retort, knowing her next words were crucial. In the end, she decided the truth – or most of it – was as good an answer as any to hold the plotting of the ambitious minds around her at bay.

‘There is no victor,’ she said. ‘The battle continues below, and only Everam knows how it will end. We must find them, and quickly.’

It took hours to descend the mountain. The darkness did not slow them – all of this elite group could see by magic’s glow – but rock and stone demons haunted the trail now, blending in perfectly with the mountainside. Wind demons shrieked in the sky, circling.

Rojer took up his instrument, coaxing the mournful sounds of the Song of Waning from its strings, keeping the alagai at bay. Amanvah lifted her voice to accompany him, their music enhanced by hora magic to fill the night. Even amidst the despairing wind that threatened to bend the palm of her centre to breaking, Inevera found pride in her daughter’s skills.

Wrapped in the protections of the son of Jessum’s strange magic, they were safe from the alagai, but it was slow going. Inevera’s fingers itched to take the electrum wand from her belt, blasting demons from her path as she raced to her husband’s side, but she did not wish to reveal its power to the Northerners, and it would only attract more alagai in any event. Instead, she was forced to keep the steady pace Rojer set, even as Ahmann and the Par’chin likely bled to death in some forgotten valley.

She shook the thought away. Ahmann was the chosen of Everam. She must trust that He granted His Shar’Dama Ka some miracle in his time of greatest need.

He was alive. He had to be.

Leesha rode in silence, and even Thamos was not fool enough to disturb her. The count might share her bed more oft than not, but she did not love him as she had Arlen … or Ahmann. Her heart had torn watching them fight.

It seemed Arlen held every advantage going in, and if she’d had to choose, she would not have had it another way. But Arlen’s tormented soul had found a kind of peace in recent days, and she’d hoped he could force a submission from Ahmann and end the battle without death.

She’d cried out when Ahmann stabbed Arlen with the Spear of Kaji – perhaps the only weapon in the world that could harm him. The battle had turned in that moment, and for the first time her anger at Ahmann had threatened to become hate.

But when Arlen pitched them both over the cliff rather than lose, her stomach had wrenched as Ahmann dropped from sight. The child in her belly was less than eight weeks formed, but she could have sworn it kicked as its father fell into darkness.

Arlen’s powers had been growing ever stronger in the year since she met him. Sometimes it seemed there was nothing he could not do, and even Leesha wondered if he might be the Deliverer. He could dissolve and protect himself from the impact. Ahmann could not.

But even Arlen had his limits, and Ahmann had tested them in ways no one had expected. Leesha remembered vividly the fall, mere weeks past, that had left Arlen a broken spatter on the cobblestones of the Hollow, his skull cracked like a boiled egg struck against the table.

If only Renna had not rushed after them. The woman knew something of Arlen’s plans. More than she was telling.

They doubled back long before reaching the mountain’s base, avoiding the pass watched by scouts from both their armies. Perhaps war was inevitable, but neither side wished for it to begin tonight.

The mountain paths wound and split. More than once, Inevera had to consult the dice to choose their path, kneeling on the ground to cast while the rest of them waited impatiently. Leesha longed to know what the woman saw in that jumble of symbols, but she knew enough not to doubt there was real power in the foretellings.

It was nearing dawn when they found the first of Shanjat’s markers. Inevera picked up her pace and the others followed, racing along the trail as the horizon began to take on a purplish tinge.

They had not been noticed by the Watchers stationed at the base of the mountain, but Inevera’s bodyguards Ashia and Shanvah had crept unseen up the slope and silently fell in with them. The greenland prince glanced at them but shook his head dismissively when he noticed they were women.

At last they came upon Renna and Shanjat, the two watching each other warily as they waited. Shanjat moved quickly to stand before Inevera, punching his chest with a bow. ‘The trail ends here, Damajah.’

They dismounted and followed the warrior to a spot not far off where a man-sized depression lay, dirt and shattered stone telling of a great impact. Blood spattered the ground, but there were footprints, as well – signs of continued struggle.

‘You’ve followed the trail?’ Inevera asked.

Shanjat nodded. ‘It vanishes not far from here. I thought it best to await further instruction before ranging too far.’

‘Renna?’ Leesha asked.

The Par’chin’s Jiwah Ka was staring at the bloody crater with a glazed look in her eyes, her powerful aura unreadable. She nodded numbly. ‘We’ve been circling the area for hours. It’s like they grew wings.’

‘Carried off by a wind demon?’ Wonda ventured.

Renna shrugged. ‘Reckon it’s possible, but hard to believe.’

Inevera nodded. ‘No demon could ever touch my sacred husband, but that he willed it.’

‘What of the spear?’ Jayan asked. Inevera looked at him sadly. It came as no great surprise that her eldest son cared more for the sacred weapon than his own father, but it saddened her nonetheless. Asome, at least, had the courtesy to keep such thoughts to himself.

Shanjat shook his head. ‘There has been no sign of the holy weapon, Sharum Ka.’

‘There is fresh blood,’ Inevera said, looking at the horizon. Dawn was minutes away, but she might manage one last foretelling. She reached into her hora pouch, gripping her dice so tightly the edges dug painfully into her hand as she went to kneel by the crater.

Normally she would not have dared to expose the sensitive dice to even predawn light. Direct sunlight would destroy demon bone, and even indirect light could cause permanent damage. But the electrum she had coated them in protected them even in brightest sun. Like the Spear of Kaji, their power would deplete rapidly in the light, but they could be charged again when night fell.

Her hand shook as she reached out. She needed to breathe for several seconds to find her centre before she could continue, touching the blood of her husband for the second time this night and using it to seek his fate.

‘Blessed Everam, Creator of all things, give me knowledge of the combatants, Ahmann asu Hoshkamin am’Jardir am’Kaji, and Arlen asu Jeph am’Bales am’Brook. I beseech you, tell me of the fate that has befallen them, and the fates yet to come.’

The power throbbed in her fingers and she threw, staring hard at the pattern.

When questioned on things that were, or had been, the dice spoke with cold – if often cryptic – assurance. But the future was always shifting, its sands blowing with every choice made. The dice gave hints, like signposts in the desert, but the farther one looked, the more the paths diverged, until one became lost in the dunes.

Ahmann’s future had always been filled with divergences. Futures where he carried the fate of humanity, and ones where he died in shame. Death on alagai talon was the most common, but there were knives at his back always, and spears pointed at his heart. Those that would give their lives for his, and those waiting to betray.

Many of those paths were closed now. Whatever happened, Ahmann would not return soon, and likely not at all. The thought set a cold fear writhing through Inevera’s gut.

The others held their collective breath, waiting on her words, and Inevera knew the fate of her people lay upon them. She remembered the words of the dice so many years ago:

—The Deliverer is not born. He is made.—

If Ahmann did not return to her, she would make another.

She looked at the myriad dooms that awaited her love, and plucked one from the rest. The only fate that would let her hold power until a suitable heir could be found.

‘The Deliverer has passed beyond our reach,’ Inevera said at last. ‘He follows a demon to the abyss itself.’

‘So the Par’chin is a demon after all,’ Ashan said.

The dice said no such thing, but Inevera nodded. ‘It would appear so.’

Gared spat on the ground. ‘Said “Deliverer”. Din’t say “Shar’Dama Ka”.’

The Damaji turned to him, regarding him the way a man might look at an insect, wondering if it was worth the effort to crush. ‘They are one and the same.’

This time it was Wonda who spat. ‘Core they are.’

Jayan stepped in, balling a fist as if to strike her, but Renna Tanner moved to interpose herself. The wards on her skin flared, and even Inevera’s impulsive eldest son thought better of challenging her. It would not do to be beaten down by a woman before the very men he must convince to let him take the throne.

Jayan turned back to his mother. ‘And the spear?’ he demanded.

‘Lost,’ Inevera said. ‘It will be found again when Everam wills it, and not before.’

‘So we are to simply give up?’ Asome asked. ‘Leave Father to his fate?’

‘Of course not.’ Inevera turned to Shanjat. ‘Find the trail again and hunt. Follow every bent blade of grass and loose pebble. Do not return without the Deliverer or reliable news of his fate, even if it takes a thousand years.’

‘Yes, Damajah.’ Shanjat punched his chest.

Inevera turned to Shanvah. ‘Go with your father. Obey and protect him on his journey. His goal is your goal.’

The young woman bowed silently. Ashia squeezed her shoulder and their eyes met, then father and daughter were off.

Leesha turned to Wonda. ‘You have a look as well, but be back in an hour.’

Wonda grinned, showing a confidence that filled Inevera with envy. ‘Wan’t planning to hunt till my hair turns grey. Deliverer comes and goes, but he’ll be back, you’ll see.’ A moment later she, too, was gone.

‘Goin’ too,’ Renna said, but Leesha caught her arm.

The woman glared at her. Leesha quickly let go but did not back down. ‘Stay a moment, please.’

Even the Northerners are afraid of the Par’chin and his woman, Inevera noted, filing the information away as the two women moved off to speak in private.

‘Ashan, walk with me,’ she said, looking to the Damaji. The two of them stepped away as the others remained dumbstruck.

‘I cannot believe he is gone,’ Ashan said, his voice hollow. He and Ahmann had been as brothers for over twenty years. He had been the first dama to support Ahmann’s rise to Shar’Dama Ka, and believed in his divinity without question. ‘It seems like a dream.’

Inevera did not preamble. ‘You must take the Skull Throne as Andrah. You are the only one who can do it without inciting a war and hold it against my husband’s return.’

Ashan shook his head. ‘You are mistaken if you think that, Damajah.’

‘It was the Shar’Dama Ka’s wish,’ Inevera reminded him. ‘You swore an oath before him, and me.’

‘That was if he were to fall in battle at Waning, with all to see,’ Ashan said, ‘not killed by a greenlander on some forgotten mountainside. The throne should go to Jayan or Asome.’

‘He told you his sons were not ready for that burden,’ Inevera said. ‘Do you think that has changed in the last fortnight? My sons are cunning, but they are not yet wise. The dice foretell they will tear Everam’s Bounty asunder vying for the throne, and should one climb to the top of the bloodied steps and sit, he will not rise on his father’s return.’

‘If he returns,’ Ashan noted.

‘He will,’ Inevera said. ‘Likely with all the Core behind him. When he does, he will need all the armies of Ala to answer his call, and have neither time nor desire to kill his son to regain control.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Ashan said. ‘I have never coveted power.’

‘It is inevera,’ she told him. ‘Your likes are irrelevant, and your humility before Everam is why it must be you.’

‘Be quick,’ Renna said, as Leesha led her aside. ‘Wasted enough time already waitin’ on you lot. Arlen’s out there somewhere and I need to find him.’

‘Demonshit,’ Leesha snapped. ‘I don’t know you that well, Renna Bales, but well enough to know you wouldn’t have waited ten seconds on me if your husband was still unaccounted for. You and Arlen planned this. Where has he gone? What’s he done with Ahmann?’

‘Callin’ me a liar?’ Renna growled. Her brows tightened, fingers curling into fists.

For some reason, the bluster only made Leesha all the more sure of her guess. She doubted the woman would really strike her, but she held a pinch of blinding powder and would use it if need be.

‘Please,’ she said, keeping her voice calm. ‘If you know something, tell me. I swear to the Creator you can trust me.’

Renna seemed to calm a bit at that, relaxing her hands, but she held them palms up. ‘Search my pockets, you’ll find no answers.’

‘Renna,’ Leesha struggled to maintain her composure, ‘I know we had an ill start. You’ve little reason to like me, but this isn’t a game. You’re putting everyone at risk by keeping secrets.’

Renna barked a laugh. ‘If that ent the night callin’ it dark.’ She poked Leesha in the chest, hard enough to knock her back a step. ‘You’re the one got the demon of the desert’s baby in your belly. You think that ent puttin’ folk at risk?’

Leesha felt her face go cold, but she bulled forward, lest her silence confirm the guess. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. ‘Who told you that nonsense?’

‘You did,’ Renna said. ‘I can hear a butterfly flap its wings across a cornfield. Arlen, too. We both heard what you said to Jardir. You’re carrying his child, and setting the count up to take the blame.’

It was true enough. A ridiculous plot of her mother’s that Leesha had foolishly brought to fruition. It was doubtful the deception would last past the child’s birth, but that was seven months to prepare – or run and hide – before the Krasians came for her child.

‘All the more reason I find out what happened to Ahmann,’ Leesha said, hating the pleading tone that had slipped into her voice.

‘Ent got a notion,’ Renna said. ‘Wastin’ time should be spent lookin’.’

Leesha nodded, knowing when she was beaten. ‘Please don’t tell Thamos,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell him in time, honest word. But not now, with half the Krasian army just a few miles off.’

Renna snorted. ‘Ent stupid. How’d a Gatherer like you get pregnant, anyway? Even a dumb Tanner knows to pull out.’

Leesha dropped her eyes, unable to keep contact with Renna’s intense gaze. ‘Asked myself that same question.’ She shrugged. ‘History’s full of folk whose parents knew better.’

‘Din’t ask about history,’ Renna said. ‘Asked why the smartest woman in the Hollow’s got wood for brains. No one ever tell you how babes are made?’

Leesha bared her teeth at that. The woman had a point, but she’d no right to judge. ‘If you won’t tell me your secrets, I’ve no reason to trust you with mine.’ She swept a hand out at the valley. ‘Go. Pretend to look for Arlen till we’re out of sight, then go and meet him. I won’t stop you.’

Renna smiled. ‘As if you could.’ She blurred and was gone.

Why did I let her get to me? Leesha wondered, but her fingers slipped to her belly, and she knew full well.

Because she was right.

Leesha had been drunk on couzi the first time she’d kissed Ahmann. She hadn’t planned to stick him that first afternoon, but neither had she resisted when he moved to take her. She’d foolishly assumed he wouldn’t spend in her before marriage, but Krasians considered it a sin for a man to waste his seed. She’d felt him increase his pace, beginning to grunt, and could have pulled away. But a part of her had wanted it, too. To feel a man pulse and jerk within her, and corespawn the risk. It was a thrill she’d ridden to her own crescendo.

She’d meant to brew pomm tea that night, but instead found herself kidnapped by Inevera’s Watchers, ending the night battling a mind demon by the Damajah’s side. Leesha took a double dose the next day, and every time they had lain together since, but as her mentor Bruna said, ‘Sometimes a strong child finds a way, no matter what you do.’

Inevera eyed Thamos, the greenland princeling, as he stood before Ashan. He was a big man, tall and muscular but not without a share of grace. He moved like a warrior.

‘I expect you’ll want your men to search the valley,’ he said.

Ashan nodded. ‘And you, yours.’

Thamos gave a nod in return. ‘A hundred men each?’

‘Five hundred,’ Ashan said, ‘with the truce of Domin Sharum upon them.’ Inevera saw the princeling’s jaw tighten. Five hundred men was nothing to the Krasians, the tiniest fraction of the Deliverer’s army. But it was more men than Thamos wished to spare.

Still, the princeling had little choice but to agree, and he gave his assent. ‘How do I know your warriors will keep the peace? The last thing we need is for this valley to turn into a war zone.’

‘My warriors will keep their veils up, even in the day,’ Ashan said. ‘They would not dare disobey. It’s your men I worry over. I would hate to see them hurt in a misunderstanding.’

The princeling showed his teeth at that. ‘I think there’d be hurt enough to go around. How is hiding their faces supposed to guarantee peace? A man with his face hidden fears no reprisal.’

Ashan shook his head. ‘It’s a wonder you savages have survived the night so long. Men remember the faces of those who have wronged them, and those enmities are hard to put aside. We wear veils in the night, so that all may fight as brothers, their blood feuds forgotten. If your men cover their faces, there will be no further blood spilled in this Everam-cursed valley.’

‘Fine,’ the princeling said. ‘Done.’ He gave a short, shallow bow, the barest respect to a man who was a dozen times his better, and turned, striding away. The other greenlanders followed.

‘The Northerners will pay for their disrespect,’ Jayan said.

‘Perhaps,’ Inevera said, ‘but not today. We must return to Everam’s Bounty, and quickly.’