‘I wish you would tell me what you are hurrying for. Are you fleeing your family’s murderers, or trying to find them?’
She glanced at him, faintly startled. He had never been quite so blunt with her. ‘To find them,’ she said.
‘Revenge is an unhealthy motive, Kaiku.’
‘I have no other motives left, my friend,’ she said. But he was a friend in name only. She would not let him close to her, would not divulge anything of true worth to him. There was no sense inviting more grief. She knew she was leaving him; it was necessary, for she still did not know the nature of the demon inside her, and she feared she might harm him as she had Asara. By the same token, she was terribly afraid of endangering Mishani by her presence; but she knew if Mishani were asked, she would willingly take that chance, and so would Kaiku for her. There was some comfort in that, at least. Their bonds of loyalty went beyond question. And there was scarcely any other choice, anyway; it was the only course she could see.
‘I’d like it if you stayed,’ he said solemnly. She stopped and gave him a curious look. ‘For a while longer,’ he amended, colouring a little.
She smiled, and it made her radiant. For a moment, she felt something like temptation. He was physically attractive to her, there was no doubt of that. His shaven head, his taut and muscular body honed by outdoor chores and an ascetic diet, his deep-buried intensity; these were qualities she had never encountered in the high-borns she had met in the cities. But though they had spent much time together in the past week, she felt she had not learned anything about him. Why had he become a priest? Why was he driven to heal and help others, as he professed? He was as closed to her as she was to him. The two of them had fenced around each other, never letting their guards down. This was the nearest he had got to real honesty. She exploited the opening.
‘What is it I mean to you, Tane?’ she asked. ‘You found me, you saved my life and sat with me through it all. You have my endless gratitude for that. But why?’
‘I’m a priest. It’s my… my calling,’ he said, frowning.
‘Not good enough,’ she said, folding her arms beneath her breasts.
He gave her a dark look, wounded that she would pressure him this way. ‘I lost a sister,’ he said. ‘She would not be much younger than you are. I could not help her, but I could help you.’ He looked angrily at the ground and scuffed it with his sandals. ‘I lost my family too. We have that much in common.’
She wanted to ask how, but she had no right. She would not share her secrets with him, nor he with her. And therein lay the barrier between them, and it was unassailable.
‘One of the priests is going downriver to the village of Ban tomorrow,’ she said, unfolding her arms. ‘I can get a skiff from there to the capital.’
‘And you think your friend Mishani will be able to help you?’ Tane asked, somewhat bitterly.
‘She is the only hope I have,’ Kaiku replied.
‘Then I wish you good journey,’ said Tane, though his tone suggested otherwise. ‘And may Panazu, god of the rain and rivers, guard your way. I must return to my studies.’
With that, he stalked away and back to the temple. Kaiku watched him until he was obscured by the trees. In another time, in another place… maybe there could have been something between them. Well, there were greater concerns for now. She thought of the mask that lay in her room, hidden behind a beam on the ceiling. She thought of how she would get to Axekami, and what she might find there.
She thought of the future, and she feared it.
Five
It had to come to this
, Anais thought. /
was only putting off the inevitable. But by the spirits, how did they find out
? The Blood Empress of Saramyr stood in her chambers, her slender profile limned in the bright midday sunlight, the hot breath of the streets reaching even here, so far above. Below her lay the great city of Axekami, heart of the Saramyr empire. It sprawled down the hill and away from her, a riot of colours and buildings: long red temples shunting up against gaudy markets; smooth white bathhouses huddling close to green-domed museums; theatres and tanneries, forges and workhouses. Distantly, the sparkling blue loop of the River Kerryn cut through the profusion on its way to meet its sister, the Jalaza, and combine to form the Zan. Axekami was built on the confluence of the three rivers, and their sweeping flow served to carve the city neatly up into districts, joined by proud bridges.
She let her eyes range over the capital, over
her
city, the centrepiece of a civilisation that stretched thousands of miles across an entire continent and encompassed millions of people. The life here never ceased, an endless, beautiful swelter of thronging industry, thought and art. Orators held forth in Speaker’s Square while crowds gathered to jeer or clap; manxthwa and horses jostled in their pens while traders harangued passers-by and jabbered at each other; philosophers sat in meditation while across the street new lovers coupled in fervour. Scholars debated in the parks, blood spewed on to tiles as a bull banathi’s throat was slashed by a butcher’s blade, entertainers leered as they pulled impossible contortions, deals were made and broken and reforged. Axekami was the hub of an empire spread so wide that it was only possible to
maintain it via the medium of instantaneous communication through Weavers, the administrative, political and social fulcrum on which the entire vastness of Saramyr balanced. Anais loved it, loved its constant ability to regenerate, the turbulence of innovation and activity; but she knew well enough to fear it a little too, and she felt a ghost of that fear brush her now.
The Imperial Keep stood high and magnificent on the crest of a hill, looking out over all. It was a vast edifice of gold and bronze, shaped like a truncated pyramid, with its top flattened and surmounted by a wondrous temple to Ocha, Emperor of the gods. It swarmed with pillars and arches, broken up by enormous statues that grew out of the walls, or which snaked along the grandiose facade to wind around shining columns. At the four points of the compass stood a tall, slender tower, reaching high above the main body of the Keep, each one dedicated to one of the Guardians of the Four Winds. Narrow bridges ran between the towers and the Keep, spanning the chasms between. The whole was surrounded by a great wall, decorated with carvings and scrollwork all along its length, and broken only by a mighty gate, with its soaring arc of gold inscribed with blessings.
Anais turned away from the vista. The room was wide and airy, its walls and floor made from a smooth, semi-reflective stone known as
lack
. Three tall arches gave her the view of her city; several smaller ones provided access to other rooms. A trickling fountain was the centrepiece, fashioned in the shape of two manta rays, their wings touching as they danced.
Messages had been arriving all day, both by hand and across the Weave, calling for a council. Her allies felt betrayed, her enemies incensed, and nothing she could do would assuage them. The only heir to the throne of Saramyr was an Aberrant. She should have been killed at birth.
Weave-lord Vyrrch was in the room with her; the very last person she wanted to see right now. The Weavers were the ones who did the killing, and she could feel glowering disapprobation in every syllable he spoke. He was, however, wise enough not to berate her for hiding her child away from them, even though she knew that was what he was thinking. Did that foul ghoul seriously expect her to give up her only child to their tender mercies?
‘You must be very cautious, Mistress,’ he gurgled. ‘Very cautious indeed. You have few options if you wish to avert a disaster.’
The Weave-lord was wearing his Mask, and for that, at least, she was thankful. His horribly deformed features were hidden behind a bronze visage, and though the Mask itself was distressing to look upon, it was far preferable to what lay beneath. It depicted a demented face, its features distorted in what could be pain, insanity or leering pleasure; the very sight of it made her skin crawl. She knew that it was old, very old; and where the True Masks were concerned, age meant power. She dreaded to think how many minds had been lost to that Mask, and how much of Vyrrch’s remained…
‘What do you advise then, Weave-lord?’ she replied, concealing her distaste with a skill born through many years of practice. Silently, she dared him to suggest having her daughter executed.
‘You must appear conciliatory, at least. You have deceived them, and they will expect you to acknowledge that. Do not underestimate the hatred that we of Saramyr bear for Aberrants.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Vyrrch,’ she snapped. Though slender and willowy, with petite features and an innocent appearance, she could be iron when she wanted to be. ‘She’s not an Aberrant. She’s just a child with a talent.
My
child.’
‘I know well the semantics of the word, Mistress,’ he wheezed, shifting his hunched body. He was clothed in ragged robes, a patchwork of fibres, beads, bits of matting and animal hide cannibalised together in an insane fashion. All the Weavers wore similar attire. Anais had never had the desire to delve deep enough into their world to ask why.
The Weavers had been responsible for the practice of killing Aberrant children for more than a hundred years. They were gifted at tracking down the signs, searching with their unearthly senses across the Weave to root out corruption in the purity of the human form. Though they were reclusive as a rule, preferring to remain in the comfort of noble houses or in their monasteries in the mountains, they made exception where Aberrants were concerned. Weavers travelled from town to village to city, appearing at festivals or gatherings, teaching the common folk to recognise the Aberrant in their midst, urging them to give up the creatures that hid among them. The visit of a Weaver to a town was an almost religious event, and the people gathered in fear and awe, both repulsed and drawn by the strange men in their Masks. While there, they listened to the Weaver’s teachings, and passed on that wisdom to their
children. Though the content of the teachings never varied, the Weavers were tireless, and their word had become so ingrained in the psyche of the people of Saramyr that it was as familiar as the rhymes of childhood or the sound of a mother’s voice.
Vyrrch waited for Anais’s gaze to cool before continuing. ‘What I think of the matter is not relevant. You must be prepared for the wrath of the families. The child you have borne is an Aberrant to them. They will make little distinction between Lucia and the twisted, blind, limbless children that we of the Weavers must deal with every day. Both are…
deviant
. Until today, they believed the line of Erinima had an heir. Sickly, perhaps -1 believe that was your excuse for hiding her away from us? - but an heir nonetheless. Now they find it does not, and many possibilities will—’
‘It
does
, Vyrrch,’ Anais smouldered. ‘My child
will
take the throne.’
‘As an Aberrant?’ Vyrrch chuckled. ‘I doubt that.’
Anais turned to the fountain to cover the tightening of her jaw. She knew Vyrrch spoke the truth. The people would never suffer an Aberrant as ruler. And yet, what other choice was there?
Apart from her phenomenal speed at picking up speech, Lucia had displayed few outward signs of her abilities until she reached two harvests of age; but Anais knew. If she was honest with herself, she had known instinctively, early in the pregnancy, that the child in her womb was abnormal. At first she did not dare believe; but later, when she faced the reality of the situation, she did not care. She would not consider telling her doctor; he would have counselled poisoning the child in the womb. No, she would not have given Lucia up for anything.
Perhaps that would be her downfall. Perhaps, if she
had
given up Lucia, she would have borne many healthy babies afterward. But she made her choice, and through complications she was rendered barren in giving birth. She could have no more children. Lucia was the only one there would ever be. The sole heir to the realm of Saramyr.
And so she had hidden her child away from the world, knowing that the world would despise her. They would ignore her gentle nature and dreamy eyes, and see only a creature
not human
, something to be rooted out and destroyed before its seed could pollute the purity of the Saramyr folk. She had thought that the child might learn to hide her abnormalities, to control and suppress
THE WEAVERS OF SARAMyR
them; but that hope was dashed now. Heart’s blood, how did they learn of it? She had been so careful to keep Lucia from the eyes of those that might harm her.
This land was sick, she thought bitterly. Sick and cursed. Every year, more children were born Aberrant, more were snatched by the Weavers. Animals, too, and plants. Farmers griped that the very soil was evil, as whole crops grew twisted. The sickness was spreading, had been spreading for decades and nobody even knew what it was, much less where it came from.
The door was thrown open with a force that made her judder, and her husband thundered in, a black tower of rage.
‘What is this?’ he cried, seizing her by the arm and dragging her roughly to him. ‘
What is this
?’
She tore free from his grip, and he let her. He knew where the power lay in this relationship. She was the Blood Empress, ruler by bloodline. He was Emperor only by marriage; a marriage that could be annulled if Anais wished it.
‘Welcome back, Durun,’ she replied sarcastically, glowering at him. ‘How was your hunt?’
‘What has happened while I’ve been gone?’ he cried. ‘The things I hear… our child… what have you done?’
‘Lucia is
special
, Durun. As you might know, if you had seen her more than once a year. Do not claim that she is
our
child: you have taken no hand in her parenting.’
‘So it’s true? She’s an Aberrant?’ Durun roared.
‘No!’ Anais snapped, at the same time that Vyrrch said ‘Yes.’