The Demon Horsemen (17 page)

‘We don’t have the right to command Jarudha’s servants,’ he said, unable to suppress the quaver in his voice.

Scripture’s eyes narrowed and he said slowly, ‘We have
every
right to serve Jarudha’s plan. Just like our predecessors who struggled to find the Conduit, we have struggled and it is now we who have been blessed and charged with bringing Paradise to the world. We are Jarudha’s servants too, and we have been made the gatekeepers of His Demon Horsemen. You walked at the edge of Paradise with all of us, you saw His
Horsemen and you saw how they were compliant to our combined wills.
We
are the Conduit now, Word. You, me, all of us—we
are
the Conduit.’

Word saw the fire in Scripture’s eyes and knew the future was being planned in his presence. He swallowed, trying to force his fear back into its rightful place, licked his lips, and asked, ‘What do you propose?’

Scripture’s mouth twisted in a sour smile. ‘We begin by teaching the meddling Ranu a lesson that will turn their barbarian hordes into whimpering dogs howling for Jarudha’s mercy.’

The hatred simmering in Scripture’s reply made Word less certain than ever of the path their leader had chosen for them.

S
hadow entered the old palace war room, followed by his brothers and Warlord Fist. He crossed to the tall windows and gazed towards a long dark blue strip on the horizon that was the western ocean. When he turned to face the others he looked tired.

‘It seems our friends the Seers have withdrawn from our company of late,’ he said. He looked squarely at Fist and continued, ‘It also seems that the old Shessian warmaster is more difficult to catch than I was led to believe. And the Abomination and her companions are even more elusive, able to appear in the Bog Pit, steal a prisoner directly from my warlord and disappear at will, then prevent our soldiers arresting the old warmaster and disappear yet again.’ He smashed his fist against the back of a tall chair at the long central table and swore. ‘And now,’ he said slowly, ‘I receive word that the Ranu have annexed the Fallen Star Islands because I could not deliver an assassin to them.’ He paused, still staring at Fist. ‘Explain to me,
very
clearly, why I should not replace you.’

Fist met the king’s stare without flinching. He’d faced death in the middle of battle. The king’s only battles were mock ones with his brothers. ‘Your Highness,’ he
said calmly, ‘I am the only man you have who knows how the Ranu military minds work.’

‘Is that right?’ Shadow challenged. ‘And you base that, I suppose, on your brief campaign against my brother?’

‘Yes, I do.’

Shadow’s smile flashed briefly, a false smile that reflected his irritation. ‘Well, Warlord Fist, there is an enemy interfering with the sovereignty of my kingdom and your life is on the line. Deal with the Ranu on behalf of your king and your nation. If you succeed, I will honour you. Should you fail, I will kill you personally. Do you have any questions, Warlord Fist?’

‘What are my limits in acting against the Ranu, Your Highness?’

‘Do whatever it takes,’ Shadow replied. ‘Place the city under martial law. Expel the Ranu ambassadors and truncate all Ranu mercantile interests. Press-gang all the recruits you need to expand my army. Get the Seers out of their temple and onto the city walls. I don’t want a Ranu foot on Kerwyn soil anywhere.’

‘Is that all, Your Highness?’ Fist asked.

‘That is
everything
, Warlord, everything.’

Fist saluted the king, the princes, and departed.

Shadow shifted his attention to his brothers. ‘This will not be a good time,’ he began. ‘Our spies are loyal, but cannot be ruthlessly honest with us. The truth is that the Ranu have metal ships and dragon eggs and a vast army and they will drive us out because we lack the military strength to stop them. Lastchild, I want you to make preparations for our expedient exit from the city if Fist’s efforts prove futile. The moment the Ranu are in position to begin a full land assault on Port of Joy, we leave.’

‘But the kingdom?’ Lastchild asked.

‘You’d die for a kingdom?’ Shadow questioned.

‘I would,’ said Gift. ‘If it was the only chance I had to be king, I’d die for it.’

Shadow turned to his youngest brother. ‘And why is that?’

‘You don’t understand what it’s like to be the last in the family line,’ Gift said. ‘My mother is the invisible queen, kept out of the way in her private house in the Northern Quarter, free to come and go but always under close guard, and never invited here. And why? Because I was never going to be king, was I? That’s how it works. But I’d willingly die for the kingdom if I knew I could be king.’

Shadow glanced at Lastchild, before saying, ‘Then I’m going to grant your wish, little brother. If the Ranu begin a full assault and we leave, I will make you the king. Do you still want it so badly that you would die for it?’

Gift’s eyes were wide with astonishment. ‘You would really make me king?’

‘I promise,’ said Shadow. ‘You can be the one to face the new Ranu overlords when Port of Joy is burning.’

Gift looked to Lastchild. ‘You heard that.
I
will be the king. Not you. Not him. Me. He’s the king and he’s promised it to me and you can’t do anything about it.’

Lastchild smirked. ‘If that happens, little brother, you can have it. Me? I intend to be alive and well in another country.’

A Ahmud Ki twisted the glass stopper from the phial and lifted it to his nose. The powder was odourless. According to his advisors and surgeon, the drug was, when taken in small doses, relatively pleasurable and harmless. However, they warned that it was highly addictive and, taken over an extended period, ate away at the brain and sensibilities until the user became irreversibly paranoid. Port of Joy, the Kerwyn capital,
was apparently littered with euphoria addicts, from small children to old men and women—all victims of the Seers’ free distribution of the drug to lure people to their temples. There was also reliable speculation, brought to him by his spies and ambassadors, that the Seers relied on the drug to work their minor feats of magic, which would explain their desperation to retain the major source of the plants from which the purple powder was extracted—the Fallen Star Islands.

It was the latter information that made him curious. If it was true that the drug could generate magical power in a human, how much more effective might it be in someone who was not entirely human?

How long had it been since he last felt the pleasure of magical power coursing through him? The woman, Meg, had carried an amber gem from the Genesis Stone—the last fragment of the source of magic that had, at one time in history, sustained entire cultures. He remembered how his body had tingled when he touched her, how he’d felt the old power surging through his veins like an excited pulse and the brief exhilaration when he conjured a fireball in the Kerwyn port.

He had so hoped to find Meg alive after he returned from Se’Treya, when he led the Ranu armies into the Andrak regions. He had finally admitted that he loved her and wanted to be with her—but deeper even than the love, he wanted to be near her source of magic. He wanted to be what he believed he was meant to be, a Dragonlord; only the amber from the Genesis Stone could give him that. Not finding Meg alive, learning that she had disappeared without a trace, had sorely disappointed him, but he had learned to accept that the past was gone, and, ironically, this world and his new title made him more powerful than he could ever have been as a Dragonlord.

He poured the euphoria powder into a glass of Ranu white wine, as his advisors had suggested. The powder dissolved and the wine changed to an amber hue—a detail that piqued A Ahmud Ki’s curiosity further because of the association with the Genesis Stone. He lifted the glass to eye level and turned it in his hand, seeing his cabin distorted through the amber liquid.
Are you another key?
he pondered, and smiled at the play on words regarding his former life. He put the glass to his mouth and sipped, expecting an unpleasant tinge to the wine’s flavour, but there was nothing to suggest the drug’s presence. He drank the full measure, licked his lips, put the glass on his desk and sat in his chair to await the drug’s effects.

The first sensation was a steadily increasing tingling that spread through his chest and extended to the extremities of his limbs. He tensed, fearful that perhaps he had unwittingly taken poison, but the fear passed and instead he felt warmth, as if he were standing too close to a fire. He sifted through his stored memories, flexing his fingers while he silently recited strings of Aelendyell phrases and words derived from languages even more ancient. Then he opened his palm upwards and a tiny blue flame danced there. He stared at his conjuration for a long time, caught between the realisation that he was witnessing the revival of a power he’d long believed to be lost to him and the sensation of that power rising within him. He extinguished the flame, then pointed to a wire-lightning lamp hanging from a bulkhead. He whispered an Aelendyell phrase and blinked as a sharp burst of red energy flashed across the cabin and the lamp exploded, its glass obliterated to dust. He stared at the floating fragments drifting to the floor, the exposed wires in the bulkhead sparking and spitting. He smiled. Chuckled. And then burst into laughter.

His cabin door burst open and two Ranu guards entered, peacemakers drawn. ‘President?’ one of them asked. ‘Is everything all right?’ The guard looked down at the dust and then up at the sparking wires.

A Ahmud Ki, his laughter uncontrollable, nodded and waved the guards out of his cabin. Only when they’d closed the door did he catch his breath and go to the desk. He lifted the empty phial and held it before his eyes and knew that the old world and all of his dreams were still alive on the Fallen Star Islands. He would set sail immediately.

‘But what about the children? The workers?’ Law asked with concern. ‘Shouldn’t we warn them, or get them through a portal to safety?’

‘They will pass to Paradise if their souls are pure,’ Scripture replied. He stood silhouetted against the portal in the island cave.

‘Surely the Demon Horsemen will pass them over if they are pure,’ Moon reasoned.

‘Indeed,’ Scripture agreed. ‘Where is Word?’

‘Outside,’ Newday said.

Scripture pushed past the group of Seers and headed for the cave entrance where he found Word gazing across the settlement into the harbour. ‘Impressive, aren’t they?’ Scripture remarked, referring to the Ranu dreadnoughts.

‘What would the world be like if they were allowed to keep experimenting with their inventions?’ Word murmured.

‘It would become an abomination,’ Scripture replied. ‘They would do all that they could to emulate Jarudha or whatever god the heathens decided to follow. Eventually they would think
they
were gods because they could fly across the oceans in their ships and dragon eggs. And then they would destroy each other in
wars as they struggled for more and more power, until the world became as desolate as the place where we met the Demon Horsemen.’

Word turned to the older man. ‘Do you really think so?’

Surprise flickered in Scripture’s eyes, but he suppressed it with a scowl. ‘My faith assures me it would be so. That is why we are here, to scourge the world of these harbingers of greed and power. Jarudha has given us the perfect place and reason to test the magnitude of his wrath. The Ranu are soulless creatures who will never enter Paradise.’

Word nodded and turned to watch the seagulls spiralling in the gentle currents above the harbour. Fishermen repaired nets and boats on the wharf, under the watchful vigilance of a squad of Ranu soldiers. Five barques waited in the port for the final evacuation of the Kerwyn from the island; the boats rocked on the swell, their masts tracing erratic patterns in the air. An acolyte spoke to a group of women, all of them dressed in yellow, and three dogs frolicked at the edge of the wharf to the amusement of a group of children.

‘It’s time,’ Scripture announced. ‘We need all our combined concentration to make this happen as we want it to.’

Word took a final look at the Fallen Star Islands settlement and followed Scripture into the cave.

In its cramped confines, the Seers formed an inward-facing circle, Scripture standing behind them, three paces towards the cave entrance.

‘I ask you to focus your minds as we did to enter and leave the realm of the Horsemen,’ Scripture instructed. ‘You will give yourself to me and you will have faith in Jarudha. Let your fears wash over you like water. No matter what you see, you must not lose yourself to fear, for by doing so you jeopardise the path to Paradise that
we are creating in the Last Days. I will call up the Demon Horsemen and they will scourge the island of the Ranu. We will show the foreigners the power of our faith and the uselessness of their demands.’

Word steeled himself for the command to give his mind over to Scripture’s control.

‘Hold your crystals tightly,’ Scripture urged. ‘Close your eyes if it helps. If you open them, know that you will witness a terrible power greater than anything you have imagined, and be reassured that this power has come to serve you.’ He turned towards the entrance. ‘It is time,’ he announced. ‘Empty your thoughts and be one with me.’

Emptying his thoughts was not easy for Word. Questions and fears pulled at his concentration, separating him from his brethren, making him fail. His entire life had been a struggle for discipline over a vigorous will that tempted and teased him almost every day, but he triumphed because he had embraced his faith. Now, for the first time in years, he was almost overwhelmed by the old spirit and he had to fight to give himself fully to Scripture. And then he felt Scripture’s pull, like he had when the Seers portalled to the Demon Horsemen’s lair, and it was as if his mind was being sucked into Scripture’s vortex. Instinct warned him to resist, but he knew what was required and he let Scripture take control.

He heard Scripture in his mind, marshalling their combined psychic force to open a portal for the Horsemen. He had positioned himself opposite Scripture so that he could see past his colleague to the world beyond the cave mouth. Curiosity drove him. Even another glimpse of the Horsemen would be enough. He caught fragments of images, of incandescent blue light, of large brutal swords that seemed to flow with flame, of pale blue horses breathing blue fire.

Scripture gave the order for the Horsemen to destroy the Ranu then return immediately to their lair. Then Word’s mind images faltered as the sky outside the cave grew darker and soft thunder rumbled through the earth. Scripture raised his arms and dropped to his knees and Word was aware that others were turning their heads, breaking the psychic link. Lightning flashed across the sky framed by the cave mouth. Unable to restrain himself, Word pushed past Law and Moon and stood beside the kneeling Scripture, staring at the unfolding scene.

The sky over the islands was filled with thick stormclouds rippling with washes of blue lightning. Down in the settlement, people stared up in awe at the inexplicably sudden weather change.

‘Look!’ Law gasped. Word raised his eyes and saw the blue light coalescing in the centre of the storm; it reminded him of the portal’s glow. Out of the centre of the widening light came two riders on galloping steeds. They flew towards the island, gathering momentum until they were moving faster than any creature or man-made object could ever move. The riders swooped towards the harbour and raced over the Ranu dreadnoughts; the two metal ships exploded in balls of wildfire. A heartbeat later the riders were over the settlement and its buildings erupted in blue flame—fishing huts, barracks, shops, warehouses, even the temple—everything igniting as the Horsemen passed. The riders swept towards the hills and the cave, and Word heard cries of dismay and fear around him as his terrified colleagues retreated into the dark, but he could neither speak nor move. The blue light seemed to expand in the cave entrance and threatened to envelop everything. And then it was gone. In its wake came the odour of burning and ash and a loud thunderclap that echoed through the earth. And then silence.