Caddoran Read online

  ‘You have first face evidence to substantiate this accusation?’ Bowlott finally managed, wincing inwardly at the sound of the hoarseness in his voice.

  ‘I have, Most Worthy Striker,’ Draferth replied, holding out the sheaf of papers and indicating others bound in bundles at his feet. ‘These are sworn representations from several reputable citizens concerning the activities of Commander Vashnar.’

  Suddenly, relief washed over Bowlott. The Moot, as ever, had righted itself. In provoking Draferth to voice his motion prematurely, it had ensured that he would have to yield the Kerchief. Bowlott relaxed back into Krim’s sustaining cushions. He would be able to deal with this very quickly, after all.

  ‘Will you outline these for us, so that your motion can be considered and a vote held?’

  ‘That will not be necessary, Most Worthy Striker,’ Draferth said, not without a hint of triumph in his voice. ‘There are the names of one hundred and seventy-two electors on this petition of claim, and those of thirteen Most Worthy Outer Senators. Conjoined with my right of speaking, this is sufficient for my motion to be accepted without vote and a formal Inquiry to be instituted.’

  Bowlott froze. Lumbering out of his vast knowledge of the minutiae of the Treatise came the realization that this was true.

  ‘I have the supporting references for this,’ Draferth said, wilfully misconstruing the silence.

  ‘I need no guidance on the Treatise, Senator,’ Bowlott croaked viciously. He felt the rows of staring eyes closing in on him like so many draining, parching suns. For a moment he seriously considered feigning collapse to avoid what he knew he must do next. Sadly, however, that would not affect the outcome of Draferth’s actions. It would only serve to add strength to those who were conspiring against him.

  Draferth cleared his throat apologetically. ‘I have ancillary motions for acceptance, Most Worthy Striker,’ he said.

  Bowlott gave him a curt nod.

  ‘I further move that the Death Cry be rescinded and the Tervaidin disbanded, pending the outcome of a formal Moot Inquiry.’

  There was now complete silence in the Hall.

  With a draining effort, Bowlott stood up. ‘Under the authority vested in me by the Treatise on the Procedures for the Proper Ordering of the Moot, I declare the motions of the Worthy Senator accepted. Proceedings tomorrow will be confined to determining the constitution of the formal Inquiry which will look into the substantive content of the motions.’ He took hold of the hourglass which stood by the Throne and laid it on its side. Then he struck the floor with his staff. It was not easy, for he was leaning on it heavily. Krim’s cough barked through the crowd as he moved forward to escort him from the Hall. His eyes flared as they took in the damage wrought to his handiwork as a result of Draferth’s eccentric intervention. It was too much – he would have to speak to Bowlott immediately!

  Two Tervaidin officers, who had been watching from one of the lower balconies, left quickly. Some spectators on the balcony above them left also.

  Once Bowlott had gone, pandemonium broke out again as Senators rushed variously to leave the Hall, remonstrate with Draferth, and generally regale anyone nearby with what they had all just witnessed.

  Draferth, flushed but hesitantly triumphant, was amongst the last to leave the Hall. As he went through the main door, a Tervaidin officer stepped forward to bar his way. At the same time, two Tervaidin Troopers moved to stand either side of him.

  Chapter 26

  For a while, as Hyrald and the others moved along the valley, the peak that Thyrn had indicated as his goal disappeared from view behind a ridge. The sun kept breaking through the clouds fitfully, promising a warm and pleasant journey, but constantly failed to fulfil it. Its uncertainty seemed to pervade the group.

  Gradually the valley turned and the mountain slowly came into sight again. Even to the Arvens, unfamiliar with mountains, it looked odd. Hyrald spoke the common thought.

  ‘It looks out of place,’ he said. ‘Almost as though it’s just been dropped there, blocking the valley.’

  ‘Or pushed up from underground,’ Nordath added.

  Endryk just looked at it unhappily.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Adren asked him bluntly.

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. It still reminds me of something but it won’t come to mind.’

  ‘Bad or good?’ Adren pressed.

  ‘Not good,’ Endryk replied, urging his horse forward.

  As they rode on, Endryk gradually dropped back behind Thyrn so that he could watch him.

  ‘Can you still feel this… call?’ he asked him after a while. Thyrn nodded. He massaged his stomach nervously. ‘Clearer than ever. It’s drawing Vashnar here, I’m sure.’

  ‘Perhaps that’s no bad thing,’ Hyrald said with an air of grim resignation. ‘On the whole I think I’d rather face Vashnar out here, now, than in Arvenshelm in two or three months’ time or worse.’

  Rhavvan was less sanguine. ‘If he’s coming, he won’t be coming alone, that’s for sure,’ he said. Endryk signalled that they should dismount and walk.

  ‘This has always been a journey into unknown regions, in every sense of the word,’ he said, patting his horse’s neck. ‘One without a destination. Now, if Thyrn’s instincts are telling him true, the destination might be coming to us.’ He looked round at his companions. ‘I think you’d better decide how you’re going to greet your former Commander if you do meet him. And you’d better decide what you’re going to do if he’s got the likes of Aghrid with him.’

  His remarks were greeted with a silence that lasted for some time.

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ Hyrald said eventually. ‘But where will you stand in all this?’

  ‘By you,’ Endryk replied without hesitation. ‘As listener -or arbitrator, if I can. But I’ll fight with you if you have to and fly with you if you need to. The only thing I won’t do is surrender.’

  ‘We’re already in your debt far more than we can repay.’

  ‘How can friends be in debt? Besides, you’ve no measure of how much I owe you, starting my life for me again. In any case, I dearly want to know what’s been going on here. I’d be loath to leave without some kind of an answer.’ He looked at the mountain ahead of them. ‘And that place is bothering me.’

  ‘And if Vashnar’s coming? If we meet him?’ Rhavvan drew them back to Endryk’s stark advice.

  ‘I think Endryk just answered that,’ Adren said. ‘We’ll fight if we have to, and fly if we need to, but we’ll start by keeping him at arm’s length and talking and listening.’

  Rhavvan pursed his lips. ‘Bow’s length, I think,’ he said grimly.

  ‘Could you put an arrow into Vashnar?’ Endryk’s question was stark.

  Rhavvan met his gaze. ‘If he picks a fight and we can’t avoid it, yes.’ He was unequivocal. ‘Ever since he sent Aghrid and those Tervaidin after us. And I’d ride into Arvenshelm with his body across my horse and take my chance with my own kind.’

  Endryk’s expression was unreadable. ‘And you?’ he asked Adren.

  Hyrald spoke before she could answer. ‘We might not know what’s going on, but we’re all wiser than we were by years,’ he said. ‘We grasp the reality of our position. We’ll do what we have to, to survive.’

  Endryk’s expression remained impassive as he studied each of them in turn. ‘Yes, I think you would,’ he said sadly. ‘I apologize. I just didn’t want to risk leaving the question unasked.’

  As Endryk had foretold, it was not until the next day that they came to the mountain. The impression that it did not belong there grew as they drew nearer. It had the look of something completely lifeless, and while vegetation and trees had grown quite a way up the valley sides so far, the mountain ran right down to the valley floor like a grey scar, quite devoid of any hint of green.

  Endryk curled up his nose and looked at Thyrn who pointed straight ahead.

  ‘I think not,’ Endryk disagreed, staring up at the looming peak, ominous again
st the overcast sky. ‘Let’s go up on to that shoulder and see what’s on the other side.’ Thyrn raising no objection they began the ascent.

  The climb was no steeper or more rugged than any of the others they had encountered, but the horses became peculiarly troublesome, whinnying and pawing the dull rock. Nals, too, was quieter. Tail drooping, he hung back with the group instead of trotting well ahead as he usually did.

  When they reached the shoulder, it was to see a valley of jumbled red-grey rocks stretching south ahead of them. It was unlike anything they had seen before. As with the mountain itself, there was no sign of vegetation. Endryk grimaced and let out a soft sigh of recognition.

  ‘There was a place I came across years ago that was like this – the Thlosgaral. A bad place.’ He shivered. The response disturbed his listeners.

  ‘What was the matter with it?’ Adren asked anxiously.

  ‘It was bleak, desolate, devoid of anything living – anything you and I would consider living. Yet there was an aura about it. I can’t explain it properly. People worked in it, mining crystals of some kind, I think, to sell in a city nearby. Men, women, children. Desperate, dirty, aching work. I spent one day and one night there and then took the advice someone had given me: I got out and went round it. If it didn’t kill me, bandits might well, they told me. I didn’t believe them until I found out that the whole place moved.’

  ‘Moved?’ Hyrald exclaimed.

  ‘Moved,’ Endryk repeated. ‘As I said, I didn’t believe it, of course. Rocks don’t move – at least not on their own. It was obviously some local foolishness just to account for the place being dangerous. I could cope with rocky terrain – hadn’t I been born to it? It wasn’t as if it was mountainous. But after one day of travelling through it I was a little less confident. The deadness of the place seemed to seep into my bones. And when I woke the following day, my surroundings had changed. Not much, but they were definitely different – I take note of where I am out of habit. And I’d seen some of the people who worked there by then. They were all listless, with dead eyes – as though the place was draining them. It was enough. Instinct set aside any reason and I left – quickly.’ He shook himself to dispel the memory, then looked at Thyrn. ‘Is this where you want to be?’

  Thyrn’s mouth twitched as though he were having difficulty opening it. ‘The call’s strong,’ he said, looking along the valley.

  ‘If this place is dangerous…’ Hyrald began.

  ‘It is,’ Thyrn said, cutting across him. He clutched Endryk’s arm, partly for support, partly out of fear.

  ‘It’s not as bad as the Thlosgaral,’ Endryk said quickly, trying to undo the impression he had given. ‘That wasn’t an enclosed valley like this. It was a great swathe cut across the land – much bigger – took me several days just to go around the end of it.’

  But Thyrn was shaking his head. ‘It’s a dangerous place,’ he said softly.

  There was a note in his voice that prevented the others from questioning him. Very gently, Endryk said, ‘We don’t have to go into it, Thyrn. We can find another way westward. Carry on as we were.’

  Thyrn was opening and closing his hands like an uncertain child. Nordath took a step towards him but Thyrn stopped him. ‘My judgement,’ he said, echoing what Endryk had said when they had agreed to follow the strange call he was hearing.

  ‘And no one will reproach you if you change your mind,’ Endryk said.

  ‘No one but me,’ Thyrn replied unhappily. ‘This call is to Vashnar. I’m an accidental eavesdropper – possibly. But it’s a bad thing, I can tell that. I don’t want to follow it – stars above, I don’t want to follow it. But something inside’s telling me that if I walk away from it, it will follow me, for ever. Terrible things will happen – things that will involve other than me.’

  ‘You’re thinking of the images you saw when all this started?’ Nordath asked.

  Thyrn frowned and shook his head. ‘Worse,’ he said. ‘But nothing as clear as that – just shifting impressions.’

  Endryk looked at the others, judging their mood. ‘Itis your decision. None of us can hear what you’re hearing. All we can do is be here as your friends.’

  Thyrn turned to Hyrald. ‘You meant what you said yesterday – you’d rather meet Vashnar here, now, than later?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And if Aghrid and his men are with him?’

  ‘I’ll have even less hesitation in putting an arrow in Aghrid,’ Rhavvan intervened.

  ‘One step at a time, Thyrn,’ Hyrald said, more circumspectly. ‘At least we know what wemight be running into.’

  Thyrn lowered his head, then straightened up, took a deep breath and let it out in noisy gasps.

  ‘Which way?’ Endryk pressed gently.

  Thyrn pointed south along the valley.

  They moved off.

  The going proved to be more difficult than it had appeared from the shoulder of the mountain. The disorder of the rocks existed at every level, from pebbles to man-sized boulders to rocks the size of houses and bigger. All were strewn about and tumbled together in a manner so wildly random that Adren’s question of Endryk was inevitable.

  ‘What’s caused this?’

  Endryk, however, could only admit his ignorance. ‘I know a lot about how mountains are made,’ he said. ‘And I’ve seen some strange shapes and patterns caused just by weathering and glaciers. But this…’ He shook his head. ‘I’ve no idea. Even the rock itself is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And this kind of disorder is almost frenzied, for want of a better word.’

  Not that they had much time for debate, as the unremitting unevenness of the terrain meant that every footstep had to be taken with care and the horses needed constant help and coaxing. Occasionally, there were tantalizing hints of pathways which they were able to walk along comfortably for a while, but all of them petered out into the prevailing confusion. And time and time again, violent dips and clefts cut across their way, forcing them to search from side to side to find a way past, though these were not as disconcerting as the deepening and narrowing canyons which they found themselves being drawn into and from which the only escape was retreat.

  It was exhausting work and it did not help that the sky was growing darker and the air stiller.

  ‘Storm coming,’ Hyrald said as they came to a halt on top of a small, comparatively level outcrop.

  ‘The sooner it breaks, the better,’ Adren said, wiping her forehead. ‘This place is awful. I feel as if I’m suffocating.’ Her face creased with dismay as she looked around. ‘And look, we’ve hardly come any distance.’ She pointed back to the mountain, still dominating the skyline.

  ‘It’s further than you think,’ Endryk said, though not very convincingly.

  ‘Hush!’ It was Rhavvan. As he held up his hand for silence they became aware of a low, distant rumble. Slowly it rose in pitch until it became a nerve-jangling screech. Then it stopped abruptly. As if in reply, other sounds reached them, some short, some long and drawn out, some like hurt animals, others like cracking timbers. Then the rock they were standing on shuddered. It was not a great movement but it startled the already disturbed horses. By the time they had been controlled the valley was silent again.

  ‘What in the name of pity was that?’ Rhavvan gasped, wide-eyed.

  Endryk was no less disturbed. ‘It must be the same as the Thlosgaral – it moves.’ He looked anxiously at Thyrn. ‘I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to be,’ he said. ‘Is this still the way forward?’

  Thyrn was leaning against his horse for support.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Adren asked, taking his arm.

  Thyrn nodded weakly and extended his arm. ‘Everything’s becoming confused,’ he said, lifting his hand to his eyes.

  Nordath intervened, urgently easing Adren to one side and taking hold of Thyrn’s face so that he could look into it. ‘Even I can feel the confusion, Thyrn; strange images intruding into me. But there’s something else, isn’t t
here? Pattern. Shape.’ There was no response. He released his nephew’s face and shook him. ‘Stay in this place, Caddoran. Stay with these mountains and Arvenstaat and your friends. Centre yourself. And stand apart. Speak to us or we can’t help you.’

  Thyrn’s eyes opened wide, though with an effort that made it seem as if he were having to remember how to do it. ‘The place is near,’ he said. ‘Fragmenting. Like reflections in a shattered mirror – but all different. A coming together that shouldn’t be. Things meeting that shouldn’t meet. Drawn here somehow.’

  He looked round at the others and though his gaze was still fearful and wild it was clear and focused. ‘Something dreadful’s happened here,’ he said.

  ‘What? When?’ Hyrald asked.

  Thyrn’s hands brushed the questions aside. He was obviously having difficulty in speaking. ‘I don’t know. But we’re near the very centre of it. I must go on. On into the eye of it all.’

  ‘You don’t have to…’ Endryk began.

  But Thyrn was not listening; he turned and began walking away. The others followed him, Endryk hissing out the unneeded command. ‘Watch him. See he doesn’t harm himself. And don’t get separated. Not in this place.’

  It was not easy. Once or twice Thyrn let go of his horse and made to walk ahead on his own, but Nordath seized the reins and thrust them back into his hands, forcing him to stop until he had taken a firm grip of them again. Nevertheless Thyrn’s urge to move on unhindered grew and they soon became a fraught and straggling line as Nordath found it increasingly difficult to control him. Eventually, having let the reins slip again, Thyrn pulled himself free from Nordath’s grip and strode off.