The Demon Horsemen (14 page)

‘Find your enemy’s weakness and make it your strength.’

F
ROM
S
TRATEGY
, P
RESIDENT
A A
HMUD
K
I
, O
VERLORD OF THE
R
ANU
R
EPUBLICAN
P
EOPLE’S
A
RMY

T
he iron dreadnought sat at the harbour entrance like a grey implacable island, gilded along its extremities by the morning sun rising behind it. Seer Word stood with Seer Law on the stone jetty, studying the ship that had appeared overnight, wondering why the Ranu had come to the Fallen Star Islands. The first ship carrying its euphoria cargo to the mainland was turning to run with the wind out of the harbour entrance, cream sails filling with the gentle morning breeze.

‘Your ship leaves mid-morning I believe?’ Law said, as they turned to head back along the jetty.

‘That’s right,’ Word said. ‘I’ll convey your report to His Eminence. I’m sure that he—’

An echoing boom turned both Seers abruptly back to the ocean in time to witness a plume of water erupting a short distance ahead of the sailing vessel leaving the port. A second puff of smoke burst from the Ranu dreadnought’s foredeck and a spout of water rose and fell near the sailing ship’s bow.

‘In Jarudha’s name,’ Word cried, aghast. ‘What is happening?’

‘The conditions are very simple,’ announced the Ranu ambassador to King Shadow and his assembly. ‘Our president requests that the person, or persons, responsible for the assassination attempt is immediately arrested and presented to our embassy for retribution. The president and the People’s Representative Council consider the assassination attempt tantamount to a proclamation of war between our sovereign nations, unless the Kerwyn king and his advisors can demonstrate no complicity in the act and can produce the perpetrator to face Ranu justice.’

Shadow leaned forward in his throne. ‘Is that all?’

The ambassador blinked as if the question made little sense. ‘I have been advised to await a suitable response, given that Your Highness may well need to seek the advice of your counsellors on matters of state.’

‘And for long how is your esteemed president willing to wait?’ Shadow inquired.

‘I have been advised to allow ten days for you to consider your response, after which I am required to inform our government ministers that you have chosen not to reply, Your Highness.’

‘And then what?’

‘With respect, Your Highness, it is not for me to ascertain what action will then be taken by the Council.’

‘Make an educated guess,’ Shadow taunted.

The ambassador shifted his left foot uncomfortably, the only outward sign of his discomfort. ‘With all due respect, Your Highness, I am not employed to make educated guesses. I am only able to communicate facts on behalf of my government.’

Shadow smiled. ‘You are a true diplomat, Razan et Suman, a credit to your race of people.’ He looked at the small assembly of princes and Seers in the throne room before saying, ‘As a sign of our good faith, we
will hunt down the perpetrators who dared to attack your esteemed president and we will deliver them into your hands. As a sign of Ranu good faith, we would ask you to convey our request to your Council and president to remove the blockade on our trading route.’

Razan et Suman bowed. ‘I will convey your terms to our Council. When a decision has been made, I will relay it to you, Your Highness.’

Shadow indicated that the exchange was at an end and Suman withdrew from the throne room. When the door was closed, Scripture rose to his feet, voice full of venom.

‘What right do these ungodly creatures have to dictate terms to us? Imprison them and make a spectacle of them to the people!’

‘Sit down,’ Shadow ordered.

‘You cannot order me to sit down,’ Scripture said indignantly.

Shadow stood. ‘I am the king, Jarudha’s chosen leader of the people. You will do as I say.’

‘That is blasphemy!’ Scripture roared.

Shadow strode down the five throne steps and stood before the white-haired leader of the Seers, staring him directly in the face. ‘I am the king, old man. With one word I can have your head removed and your guts fed to the dogs. I am Jarudha’s anointed leader and you will honour that by showing obeisance. Sit down.’

He held Scripture’s angry gaze with cold defiance until the Seer shuffled his feet, arranged his sky blue robe and sat.

Shadow began to pace as he spoke. ‘The Ranu president is evidently alive.’ He stopped and asked, ‘So how have the Ranu implicated us in the assassination attempt?’ No one answered. He took three more
measured steps, turned, and said, ‘The Ranu are using this incident to force us into political compliance with them. If we cannot produce believable perpetrators of the assassination attempt who have no connection with our leadership, they will use this as a pretext to invade our country.’

‘What do you propose, Your Highness?’ Seer Creator inquired, glancing at Scripture to make sure that he hadn’t spoken out of turn.

‘We could present to them a believable assassin, someone who would have something to gain from the president’s death and no viable connection with us,’ Prince Gift suggested.

‘Like who?’ Scripture asked. ‘We don’t have such a person. That filth you employed to do the job in the first place wouldn’t be credible as a political assassin.’

‘Oh, we can do much better than that,’ said Shadow. ‘Much better.’ The assembly waited for him to explain. He took another four steps and turned. ‘In fact, we have two scapegoats to choose from. One will be significantly more difficult to catch, but she would be a very credible alternative.’

‘She?’ Prince Gift asked, and looked at the other members of the assembly to see if anyone else understood something he’d clearly missed.

‘The Abomination,’ said Scripture.

‘What better scapegoat?’ Shadow said, his triumphant expression becoming exaggerated for effect. ‘Not only is she a rebellious remnant of the old Shessian kingdom who wants to supplant the rightful Kerwyn monarchy, but she keeps company with the most notorious assassin in the kingdom, she whose hands are bloodied by the murder of my beloved brother.’

‘Very dramatic,’ Prince Lastchild remarked, smirking at his brother’s performance.

‘An excellent foil!’ Seer Prayer cried.

‘Except you don’t have her,’ noted Scripture sourly. ‘Catching the Abomination, from what I have studied of my brethren’s experiences with her, is like trying to catch the wind.’

‘A good sail catches the wind,’ Shadow responded.

‘And if you can’t convince the Ranu that she was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt against their president?’ Seer Creator asked.

‘Then we blame it on the old Shessian warmaster,’ Shadow said bluntly.

‘How can you?’ Scripture asked. ‘There hasn’t been a warmaster since the fall of the Shessian kingdom to your grandfather.’

Shadow chuckled and rubbed his trimmed black beard. ‘But there has,’ he said, grinning at the Seer. ‘My grandfather threw him in the Royal Gaol thirty years ago, and my father left him there to rot.’

‘If he’s been locked away all this time he hardly qualifies as a likely assassin,’ Scripture muttered.

‘Ah,’ said Shadow, ‘but, you see, I had him set free a short while ago.’

‘You freed an enemy of the kingdom?’ Scripture challenged.

‘He’s an old man, seventy years or more. He’s harmless.’ Shadow saw the scowl flit across Scripture’s features at his derisive comment about the man’s age and savoured it. ‘I decided he could spend the last years of his life living in the countryside.’

‘What reason would a former Shessian warmaster have to act against the Ranu president?’ Creator asked.

‘We’ll have to create a reason,’ said Shadow. ‘Do I have to do
all
the thinking?’

‘Where is he?’ Prayer asked.

‘I believe Fist had him delivered a short distance out of the city. He won’t have gone far. The years in gaol
haven’t been kind to him,’ Shadow reassured his listeners.

‘From what I know of my predecessors’ struggle with the Abomination, she and this Shessian warmaster were friends,’ Scripture informed the assembly. ‘Perhaps he is the key to trapping her also.’

‘I think we can give our Ranu friends something to keep them busy if we construct this ploy carefully,’ Shadow suggested, reascending the throne. ‘The blockade of the Fallen Star Islands is an unprovoked attack on our sovereignty and should be very quickly brought to an end with this news.’

‘And the Ranu president?’ Scripture asked.

‘We need to be more circumspect and far more precise,’ said Shadow.

Scripture dismissed Creator and Prayer, and waited until he was certain they had retired from the vicinity of his chamber before he went to the small door near his bed and opened it. Word and Law entered the room.

‘I apologise for keeping you both locked away,’ Scripture said, ‘but what you have discovered is far too important to be revealed yet.’

‘How was the assembly?’ Word asked.

Scripture snorted and indicated the two men should sit. ‘Shadow has let his authority go to his head and seems to conveniently forget who put him on the throne. I don’t like his manner. He borders on being heretical.’

‘What is he going to do about the Ranu threat?’ Law asked.

‘Small things for later,’ Scripture said dismissively. ‘Explain once more how you got here.’

‘A door generated by the Blessing,’ Law replied.

‘A portal like the one Creator demonstrated to us,’ Word explained. ‘Your Eminence, the island is like a giant Conduit for the Blessing.’

Scripture’s brow knitted, but his eyes sparkled with curiosity. ‘What do you mean?’

Word nodded to Law. ‘Ever since you posted me to the Fallen Star Islands, I’ve felt my Blessing has become much stronger,’ said Law. ‘I can create light and fire easily, and am able to listen into the thoughts of the workers, although they can sense when I’m doing it and they get angry. In a mood of curiosity I opened a portal on my own, although I have no idea where it leads.’

‘Did you go through it?’ Scripture asked.

‘We sent a volunteer through it,’ Word admitted. ‘He didn’t come back.’

‘But you made a portal to return here,’ Scripture said, looking at Law.

‘We made one together,’ Law explained, looking at Word. ‘Neither of us could generate a portal to a specific place alone, but together, by focussing on the prayer room we both know well, we were able to open a portal to it.’

‘Jarudha be praised!’ Scripture said and made a holy circle before his two colleagues. ‘Jarudha has shown us yet another sign that the Last Days are upon us.’ He stood and rubbed his hands together. ‘Can you make the portal here that you made on the island?’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Law. ‘I tried a light spell when you were at the assembly and it was feeble, as it was before I went to the Fallen Star Islands.’

‘Perhaps you didn’t take enough enlightenment,’ Scripture suggested.

Law shook his head. ‘No, Your Eminence, I took the dose Creator recommends.’

‘And we already know we can’t make a return portal to the island,’ added Word. ‘The island acts as a Conduit.’

Scripture studied his younger colleagues. ‘This news we will share with our brother Seers,’ he said, ‘but not
yet with the king. Perhaps Jarudha is revealing to us that the island is the key to the Demon Horsemen. We must go to the island, and immediately.’ His expression became grave. ‘And we will do so with or without Ranu permission.’

T
he droning noise drew everyone outside. They looked up in expectation of seeing a Ranu dragon egg. Instead, a smaller dark object appeared in the bright blue sky, dipping and wobbling in an erratic path, but staying aloft determinedly, its noisy buzzing like angry bees caught inside a hive.

‘What is it?’ Jewel asked, looking at Swift.

‘It’s like a Ranu dragon egg without the bag of hot air above it,’ Chase suggested.

‘It doesn’t look very stable,’ said Wahim. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in it.’

Meg watched the object grow steadily larger as it neared the village and she wondered what strange invention the Seers had created to hunt for them. She was about to tell everyone to go inside when the flying machine began an arduous turning circle to take it back in the direction of Port of Joy. She looked up the hill to where Cutter and Keeper were standing under the shade of a tree, staring at the diminishing object.

‘It has wings like a bird,’ said Sparkle.

‘But they’re not flapping,’ Chase added.

‘It seems to move faster than a dragon egg,’ Swift observed.

Once the contraption had gone, the group fragmented, returning to their chores. Meg wandered towards the creek with Whisper in tow and sat under the shade of a gum tree, her back against the cool bark, gazing across the undulating countryside in the direction the strange machine had flown. Whisper allowed Meg to scratch her ears a while, then tired of the contact and started rustling through the grass by the creek in search of insects and worms.

‘So what do we do?’ Meg murmured. ‘Where do we start?’

The flying machine was evidence that the Seers were actively seeking change. The stories Sparkle and the villagers had shared with her regarding the arrival of an acolyte in the village and his readiness to freely distribute euphoria along with Jarudha’s word confirmed what she’d witnessed in the city. For whatever reason, that she couldn’t yet fathom the Seers were determined to convert as many people as possible to their faith. But it wasn’t the new order of living—the tri-daily prayers, the suppression of specific lifestyles and criminal behaviours—in itself that bothered her, even given its repressive nature. She needed to ascertain just how close they had come to releasing the Demon Horsemen. That knowledge would determine what she had to do. Getting close to the Seers may be possible, but they would be heavily guarded, especially as the new king, Shadow, was known to be a devout Jarudhan. She wondered how much more power the Seers had amassed with regard to spell-casting in the passing years. And was there any connection between the Seers’ abilities and the euphoria drug they seemed so keen to control and distribute?

She sighed, distracted by Whisper pouncing on a cricket. Littlecreek was a haven, a place where she
could easily hide from the world events that always seemed to envelop her family.
The world comes to you
, she remembered. Long ago Emma had told her, ‘Sooner or later you will come to terms with what you have and who you really are.’ She’d added, ‘It chooses you. And once you are chosen there’s no hiding from it.’ Emma had been referring to the Blessing, the magical abilities Meg had inherited, but her words had a far greater implication for Meg’s life path, as she had learned with time. There was no hiding from the Seers or their desire to create a new Paradise through the obliteration of the existing world. The Demon Horsemen were much more than a religious concept spawned through devotion to the collected wisdom expressed in
The Word
. Through A Ahmud Ki and Erin and her reading, Meg knew that the Demon Horsemen were not Jarudha’s angels but a Dragonlord’s magical constructs, designed to destroy life at his whim and command. She had seen them for herself, had summoned them to destroy others, and had narrowly escaped death at their hands. She knew that only she had the power to destroy them before the Seers learned how to release them, but how was she meant to act?

Seer Creator orchestrated the assembly in the central prayer hall of the temple as Scripture had ordered. He ensured every acolyte received a precise amount of the new enlightenment mixture and then he gave each Seer, except Scripture and Word, a phial of the amber liquid. He carefully instructed the assembly of the intention of the exercise and need for every person to open his mind for Law.

‘It is like meditation,’ he said, ‘except that when you free your mind you will be allowing your brother to channel your energy along with his own. There is nothing to fear. Law intends only to open a portal to
the Fallen Star Islands. Close your eyes and free your thoughts. When you feel his presence, relax. You are a child of Jarudha and Seer Law is His gentle hand.’

He directed everyone to focus their attention on two columns at the side of the prayer hall. ‘When the portal appears, I will call you to open your eyes and gaze upon the miracle you have helped our brother create.’

‘And this will work?’ Scripture asked quietly as Creator finished his preparations.

‘Every experiment we have done thus far says it will, Your Eminence. Now we must trust in the promise of Jarudha,’ said Creator.

Scripture offered a prayer to Jarudha for the assembled acolytes and Seers, then nodded for Creator to begin. Creator lifted his hand and the acolytes and Seers, including Law, drank the oily enlightenment. Creator had added honey to make it palatable. He called on the faithful to close their eyes and clear their minds.

Word watched the ritual with fascination and anticipation, but flinched when he felt Law’s mind probe his own. He looked at Creator for an explanation.

‘You felt him too,’ the Seer murmured.

‘I thought we wouldn’t feel that without the enlightenment,’ Word whispered.

‘Enlightenment heightens the Blessing, but the mind is prey to its effects with or without it.’

Word looked around the chamber, studying the blank faces of the acolytes in their yellow robes and his blue-robed colleagues, all of them opening their minds to Law. Then he fixed his gaze on the two columns, willing the portal to appear as it had so easily on the island. A blue light suddenly crackled into being. ‘Holy Jarudha!’ he gasped, caught between surprise and delight.

‘It is done,’ Law announced.

‘Praise Jarudha!’ Creator cried, and the acolytes and Seers echoed his sentiment as they opened their eyes.

Scripture approached the glowing portal and stared. Seer Prayer led the rest of the Seers to join him; through the blue haze they could see a blurred image that looked like the buildings in the island settlement.

‘Praise Jarudha,’ Creator repeated, his eyes wide in astonishment. ‘I doubted this would ever be possible in my lifetime.’

‘“Doubt is never the source of miracles,”’ Scripture quoted. He looked at Law and said, ‘You have been given a Blessing of great magnitude if you can achieve this alone on the island.’

‘It took two of us, Your Eminence,’ Law reminded him and glanced at Word.

‘Will this remain here?’ Scripture asked Creator.

‘As long as Law chooses for it to remain,’ Creator replied. ‘My study and experiments suggest that only the person who opened the portal can close it.’

‘Can it be made to function both ways?’ Scripture asked.

Creator shook his head. ‘It may be possible, Your Eminence, but I have not found a way nor read of one.’

‘Then let this stay here untouched for now,’ Scripture ordered. To Law he said, ‘When you return to the island through this portal you must find a place to create another permanent link to this point. This is how we will speed up the delivery of euphoria. We will cut out the ship travel.’

‘And the Ranu blockade will be redundant,’ said Word.

Scripture turned to him. ‘Exactly.’

The original portal that Law had conjured glimmered unchanged in the cave. Scripture bent to gaze into the
empty space beyond, with its scattered, twisted trees. ‘And the acolyte did not return?’ he inquired.

‘No, Your Eminence,’ Law told him. ‘He did not have the Blessing’s strength.’

‘But you do.’

Law, wary of Scripture’s intentions, hesitated before saying, ‘With help, and only on this island.’

‘And you don’t know where this portal goes?’

‘No.’

Scripture shuffled back from the portal until he could stand upright in the cave. To his left, the portal to Port of Joy shone with an eerie but reassuring blue light. Beyond it he could see the assembled Seers he had just left. ‘This Blessing to communicate with others,’ he said, looking at Creator, ‘can it also pass through the portals?’

Creator blinked. ‘I don’t know, Your Eminence.’

‘Return to the temple and communicate directly with me, if you can. Then return here.’

‘Yes, Your Eminence,’ Creator answered. He stepped through the portal to return to Port of Joy.

‘Will I need to take enlightenment to hear him?’ Scripture asked.

‘Not to hear him, Your Eminence, if he is able to focus on your mind,’ Prayer explained. ‘Only to reply.’

‘Oh,’ Scripture muttered. Prayer produced a phial of enlightenment, but Scripture waved it aside. ‘I will listen for him. That is enough.’

The Seers waited quietly in the cave. Suddenly they heard Scripture draw in his breath sharply. ‘Can you hear him?’ Word asked.

Scripture waved his hand for silence. A moment later he smiled and said, ‘Our brother is returning.’

Creator reappeared. ‘It worked?’ he said expectantly.

‘Jarudha smiles upon us,’ Scripture replied and made the holy circle, which was mirrored by the other Seers.
‘Now we must find where this other portal leads. Who will go?’

‘But what if the person cannot return, like the acolyte?’ Law asked. ‘He must be able to create a return portal, and we know none of us can do that alone.’

Scripture nodded. ‘It is a risk. Whoever serves Jarudha in this sacrifice may have to find a longer way to come home, depending on exactly where this portal leads. It looks like a barren landscape, a desert.’

‘It might be somewhere in Ma-Tareshka,’ said Creator. ‘That is a land with much desert.’

‘You would sacrifice one of us for this?’ Word challenged.

‘“In serving Jarudha, sacrifice is everything,”’ Scripture recited, meeting his colleague’s critical gaze. ‘We are in the Last Days. What sacrifice is not worth making?’

Word lowered his eyes, feeling ashamed of his outburst, but he still felt doubtful about the wisdom of Scripture’s request.

‘Who will serve Jarudha?’ Scripture asked.

‘I will.’

Everyone turned to Prayer. ‘You might not come back,’ Law warned.

Prayer nodded. ‘I understand. But this may also be a pathway to Jarudha’s Paradise. I will be led by my faith.’

‘Praise be to Jarudha,’ Scripture said, his words echoed by his brethren.

‘You’ll need to take this,’ Creator said, handing Prayer two phials of enlightenment. ‘One you should use for communicating once you are through the portal. The other may enable you to return somehow, or give you comfort if you must undertake a long journey home.’

Prayer accepted the gift. He signed the holy circle over Creator, saying, ‘Jarudha has given you wisdom
and blessed you manifold.’ Then he bowed his head to Scripture. ‘I will communicate everything that I see and hear,’ he promised. He turned to his assembled peers and said, ‘May Jarudha keep you all in His care until we next meet.’ Then he walked towards the smaller portal, stooping beneath the low roof of the cave, and stepped through into the wasteland beyond.

The grey dust clinging to his feet surprised Prayer, even more so when he turned and saw that his footprints vanished behind him. The sky was a perfect blue and cloudless and he felt the heat of a remorseless yet oddly invisible sun. In every direction the landscape was flat, with a dark smudge on the horizon suggesting mountains. The only anomalies were the stark, bare, twisted white trees scattered across the vista. It was a forbidding landscape, devoid of life or hope.

Prayer made the holy sign, uncorked a phial and drank the enlightenment. He waited to feel its soothing effect tingle through his body. Then he focussed and searched for his companions’ minds—and was horrified when he could detect nothing at all. Several times he tried to generate contact, even narrowing his search to specific minds, but to no avail. He considered increasing his dosage of enlightenment, but reasoned he was wiser to save the second phial, and slid it inside his sky blue robe.

No direction offered hope.

‘Holy Jarudha,’ he prayed, closing his eyes, ‘please give your faithful servant a sign that might lead me to sanctuary.’

He opened them to an unchanged landscape.
Then I accept whatever fate Jarudha has chosen for me
, he decided, and began to traipse through the dust.

The Seers in the cave watched Prayer’s confusion. His eventual decision to walk away stunned them.

‘No contact at all?’ Word asked. Creator shook his head. Scripture simply stared into the portal.

‘I was afraid this would happen,’ Law muttered, and he walked away from the others to stand at the mouth of the cave where he gazed into the distance.

Word joined him, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. ‘Prayer knew the consequences. He chose his faith, as we all do.’

Law nodded but kept silent, so Word patted his friend’s shoulder reassuringly and returned to the group at the portal. As he reached them, he received an image in his head of a set of steps descending into the earth. ‘Is he—’ he began, but Scripture waved him silent so he focussed on what was forming in his mind. The contact from Prayer came in the form of images and emotions.

Prayer crept down the stone steps, feeling a tingling along his extremities that reminded him of the effect of enlightenment in the experiments he’d carried out with Creator. He paused to open his mind and try once more to send his thoughts to his colleagues, and was delighted when he sensed several presences in his consciousness. One he recognised as his friend, Creator, and with it came an image of light. Prayer focussed on his palm until a small sphere of light appeared. His success filled him with overwhelming joy.
I am with Jarudha!
he projected and descended the last three steps into a passageway.