A Blackbird In Darkness (Book 2) (22 page)

‘What do you require in return?’

‘I think you have paid me already. By giving me renewed hope.’

Ashurek gave him a candid look and selected three good steel swords with scabbards, and three knives. There was a limit to how much they could carry; he decided also to take two axes and a crossbow, and leave it at that. Karadrek watched with sardonically raised eyebrows, no doubt wondering where – and who – his two companions were.

Ashurek strapped a sword at his hip, and put the rest of the weapons into a saddlebag, which he took outside and placed near Vixata, ready for their departure.

‘You built this manor?’ he asked, indicating the sweep of the red roof with its pointed, Gorethrian-style turrets.

‘Aye,’ Karadrek chuckled. ‘It’s not much of a village to be master of, is it? A few Tearnian peasants hardly compare with the imperial Gorethrian Army, but they have their uses. Within this manor I have my smithy and weaponry, my chandler and shipyard, living quarters for myself and my servants... all very basic, I fear, but it serves its purpose.’

‘Which is?’

‘As sharp as ever you were, your Highness.’

‘I’m curious, naturally. How long have you been here?’

‘Four years, thereabouts.’ He was leading Ashurek along a wide, flagged way – the only clean path through the mud – that led from the manor, up a gentle slope through the centre of the village, and to a modest, square hut. Ashurek was aware of the villagers staring as they passed. All had paused in their work and were solemnly saluting Karadrek. He noticed the uniformly glazed, fishlike glare of their eyes, the slow, plastic way they moved. A familiar anger kindled within him.

Ashurek stopped and gripped Karadrek’s arm.

‘Let us cease these deceitful civilities, Karadrek,’ he said. The other looked suddenly discomfited by the cold green fire burning in Prince Ashurek’s eyes. He had seen the look many times before, and it always boded ill. ‘The atrocities in Drish were perpetrated with a demon’s help. I believe you must have escaped with a demon’s help also. And once they have their claws into a human, they do not easily relinquish their hold. Tell me the truth; are you working with the Shana now?’

‘Of course!’ Karadrek hissed, his pale eyes flashing. ‘How else? Tell me, how else? Do you not work with them?’

‘No!’ Ashurek exclaimed vehemently. He felt like striking Karadrek; only the shameful memory of how recently he had bargained with a demon stopped him. ‘I was in their power once, as you know. But I forsook that evil, although it cost me dear.’

‘More fool you,’ Karadrek said coldly. ‘Prince Ashurek, listen to me; there was no other way I could achieve what I wanted. I could not stay with the army; they hated me for what had happened. I saw that thanks to you fleeing – thanks to Meshurek’s inept rule! – the Empire was falling apart. My only hope was to disappear and to hide. After long months of travelling I came to this godforsaken village where I knew I would never be discovered. Here I decided what to do.’

Ashurek listened in growing despair. Karadrek, as he had feared, was in the grip of at least one Shanin, perhaps more.

‘The villagers were not happy at my arrival,’ he continued. ‘They loathe Gorethrians upon the west coast almost as much as upon the east. I should not have been surprised, of course. They nearly killed me, then imprisoned me, then tried to murder me again. Meheg-Ba could not help me, because he was with Meshurek. But he instructed me in how to summon another demon to my aid. The villagers have been no trouble since then.’

‘I’m sure they haven’t,’ Ashurek whispered, feeling sick with fury at the plight of the villagers, whose dull apathy was a clear sign of the Shana’s influence.

‘The Shanin gave me power, made sure I was acknowledged as their master and then advised me upon what to do. I had the villagers build me this manor, and the quay, and then I started them upon the ships. Soon they will form my army and navy.’

Karadrek paused, smiling like a hyena. Village men and women stood gazing at him; all looked thin, wretched, eaten by a fear they had forgotten how to fight. Demons pretended to create power, but all they could truly bring was decay. It was as though the villagers felt that the sight of Ashurek had put a seal upon their fate.

The sense of the Serpent and its acolytes came strongly to Ashurek then. Neyrwin had been right. Tearn was sliding ever more deeply into its power, and Karadrek was just another instrument in its design.

‘Your army? What do you mean?’ Ashurek asked, trying to suppress his emotions and sound genuinely curious. One of the Shana’s effects upon their human slaves was to erode their perceptiveness and judgment, rendering them unstable, dangerous, and yet strangely naïve.

‘I am going to sail back to Gorethria. Home! I hate it here; I wish to go home,’ said Karadrek, pulling at his gloved hand with his living one. ‘I hear Shalekahh is racked by strife over who is now rightfully in power, while the Empire falls about their ears. I shall end all that. I, and my army, and the Shanin, and the Amphisbaena. We will put all to rights, and I shall rule. What say you to that, your Highness?’

Karadrek’s eyes were glittering palely with manic ambition. Ashurek took in the meaning of what he had said, reflecting bitterly that his second-in-command had not changed, merely become more transparent.

‘You always… wanted that power, didn’t you?’ he said carefully.

‘By the gods! You should know it, Prince Ashurek!’ was the impassioned response. ‘Did I not advise you, plead with you to take the throne? I wanted the power for you, not for myself! My loyalty was always to you!’

He tugged at Ashurek’s arm, now drawing him inside the doorway of the hut. An extraordinary scent met them, sweet yet redolent of mindless, malevolent power. A lambent glow danced on the ceiling and walls like a reflection of rhythmically moving water.

‘Now come in here and look,’ said Karadrek.

There were several men and women in the hut, kneeling erect with their hands dangling at their sides, their eyes glassy as they stared unblinking at a strange creature.

‘This is the Amphisbaena,’ Karadrek whispered.

It sprawled on a dais in the centre of a hut: a two-headed, tentacled creature twice the size of an ox. Ashurek stared at it with a mixture of repulsion and amazement. It was extraordinarily beautiful. Its heads were long and slender, eyeless, forever questing the air, while its smooth tentacles were perpetually curling and intertwining with an underwater grace. The body was pure white and luminous, yet waves of colour, consisting of masses of blue, red and green spots, swept continually along its skin. The pulsing rhythm was hypnotic, beautiful, fatally entrancing.

Ashurek realised that this was a temple and the people around him were worshipping the eerie beast. He felt an intense longing to join them, a force pushing his knees to the ground. Disgust flooded him and he lurched away from Karadrek and out of the hut.

‘What is wrong?’ said Karadrek’s soft, dry voice beside him.

‘Explain to me what that thing is,’ he said tightly.

‘It is the Amphisbaena. The Shanin gave it to me.’

‘It is a creature of the Serpent.’

‘Why do you sound so concerned? You helped the demons yourself. You carried the Egg-Stone. This is only another stage in the same plan.’

‘But they are worshipping it! It has rendered them mindless! Karadrek, as evil as Gorethria was, it was always our way to give our opponents a fair fighting chance. This is nothing of the sort. This is unfair. It’s appalling, horrific.’

Karadrek shrugged. ‘Times have changed. Let me explain. The demon is too busy to be with me all the time. Therefore I was given the Amphisbaena, which inspires fear and obeisance. Through the beast I control them.’ Seeing Ashurek’s expression of loathing, he added, ‘It may not be the Gorethrian way, but it is expedient. When the ships are ready, I shall set sail – the villagers to crew the ships, the Shanin to help us, the Amphisbaena to create the fear and loyalty we need to enable us to take power in Shalekahh... but your Highness, you are here now! I know that Meshurek is dead; the demon itself told me. This means that you are now rightfully Emperor!’ Karadrek spoke as if this were a revelation, the culmination of his dreams.

‘Aye. That’s correct,’ Ashurek said drily.

‘But – does it mean nothing to you? Why have you not gone back to claim the throne? Perhaps you have been unable to find a way,’ Karadrek speculated, carried away by his dreams. ‘But you have found me now – I have a way, I have laid it all out before you, I am offering it to you! It’s as though it was predestined, and I did not know it! Oh, I have hope, real hope, that you are changing your point of view; after all, it is not too late. Why else should we have met like this?’

Ashurek looked at Karadrek in astonishment.

‘I cannot believe this. Are you saying that after making all these careful plans for yourself, you would relinquish your power to me? Even after what has transpired between us?’

‘Yes!’ Karadrek exclaimed, the burning of his eyes making him more hawk-like than ever. ‘It was the only thing I ever wanted. You as Emperor. This is what my plan has been missing. You, Prince Ashurek.’

He realised then that Karadrek was sincere. The man’s a born second-in-command, he thought, and then he understood that the betrayal and the atrocities in Drish had originated out of Karadrek’s bitter disappointment at Ashurek’s refusal to usurp Meshurek. Nurtured by the Shana, of course.

Ashurek stood very still, watching the black swirling of baneful emotions within himself as if they were physical realities, while everything else had ceased to exist. Vaguely, as if from a great distance, he saw men and women filing out of the temple-hut, and others moving woodenly in to take their turn at worshipping the creature of the Serpent. This is sick, he was thinking. He saw his sister die screaming on his blade and his brother falling towards a red-hot lava crust, and they were screaming and falling forever. This is hell, and Miril is dead.

Once, long ago, he had felt love, respect, and comradeship for Karadrek. Such feelings could never be totally eradicated.

‘Well, your Highness?’ A voice at his side roused him from his black thoughts. ‘What say you?’

‘This,’ Ashurek said quietly. ‘Your plan is madness. It is a delusion.’

‘What do you mean?’ Karadrek’s tone was guarded, as if he could not countenance a refusal. ‘You cannot, you must not make a hasty decision.’

‘I never coveted the throne. I want it even less now. I never want to return to Gorethria again.’

Karadrek glowered at him, angry and disbelieving. ‘I thought – I thought Meshurek’s demise would have brought you to your senses, made you see that I had been right from the beginning.’ His voice rose and there was grief mingled with his fury. ‘I was always loyal to you! The most faithful of your Generals! I saw that Meshurek was unfit to rule and that for Gorethria’s sake, you should have taken the throne. Even in Drish, I did what I did for your sake, because compassion had overcome your good judgement, and the Drishians would have made fools of us all! Everything I did was for you and for Gorethria. And in reward for my pains, I get – this!’ He held up the artificial hand in its brocaded glove, brandishing it like an accusation of treason. ‘And the loss of the Empire. And exile to this forsaken hole. I hold you to blame, Prince Ashurek. I always acted for Gorethria. You only ever acted for yourself!’

‘Perhaps you are right. Gorethria’s collapse is more my fault than anyone’s; I do not deny my guilt. But then,’ Ashurek’s voice was level and his eyes were dangerous, ‘I had come to understand that Gorethria is evil. She deserves everything that is happening to her. Perhaps she even deserves you and the Amphisbaena.’

‘You’re talking like a fool!’

‘I don’t expect you to understand. But try to believe this. Your plan to take power in Shalekahh is a delusion, because the demon is not helping you; it is using you.’

‘That is nonsense! I summoned it; it works for me!’

‘You sound exactly like Meshurek,’ Ashurek sighed.

‘You compare me with your brother?’ Karadrek exclaimed contemptuously. ‘He was an idiot!’

‘Those who summon demons are often intelligent men, not realising how foolish they have been until it is too late. My brother summoned Meheg-Ba to increase his power. It seemed a clever idea to him. But the Shanin gave him nothing. It used him and it leached everything from him, even his reason. It was pathetic beyond the reach of grief.’ Ashurek could not keep the feeling out of his voice. ‘I see the same thing happening to you. It began the moment you craved the power of the Egg-Stone, and spoke with Meheg-Ba. You can never hope to fulfil your dreams. The demon will use you to continue extending the Serpent’s chaos over the Earth, and when it has reduced you to a husk it will imprison you in the Dark Regions. Just as it did with Meshurek.’

‘You’re lying!’ said Karadrek lamely, his eyes glassy with fear.

‘It is the simple truth.’

‘How can I escape it?’ he cried, his hand closing like an iron claw on Ashurek’s arm. Ashurek was taken aback. He had not expected this sudden, desperate plea for help. But before he could take advantage of it, Karadrek drew back, his eyes hard again.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I forget how you have betrayed your country. I cannot trust you, your Highness. So if you will not agree to help, you must be forced. This is what the demon would advise.’ He gestured with his gloved hand and Ashurek put his hand on his sword hilt, sensing the movement of men behind him. ‘More than that, it is your duty. You owe it to Gorethria and to me!’