'Why should it have been a secret from the Ascendancy?' asked Ossacer.
'Because the risk of outsiders knowing too much is too great. We do not need interference and we do not need questions. If the word escaped, as it has that you exist, people would come. And we are not so numerous we could stem the tide of invasion forever.'
'Anyone would be mad to attack Kark,' said Kovan.
Icenga nodded. 'Yes but it would not stop them, younger. Like it does not stop those outsiders who think they have the right to mine our mountains for themselves. They might not succeed in conquest but it would change our lives forever. That is not the right of anyone to decide but our lords and our canas-u.'
Jhered cleared his throat. 'Harban said that there were things we had to know. It's getting late, the Ascendants
...
all of us, are tired.'
Icenga nodded. 'Of course. We have tracked you since you entered Kark, wondering if your journey was to escape the war but it is not, is it?'
'No,' said Jhered. 'We—'
Icenga raised a hand. 'This war must be ended. Yuran is foolish but your Advocate equally so. And now our friends in Gestern are under threat from an army too great for them to defeat. We cannot enter the conflict. Tsard has ever been a peaceful ally, much like the Conquord, but we find our borders pressed. Tsardon have attempted to use our paths to escape Conquord scouts. Conquord armies travel as close as they dare. We fear the battles that are to come, Paul Jhered. Should the Tsardon take Gestern we are isolated and they will be confident in their power.'
'And we are travelling to stop them. To turn back the Tsardon.'
'Much as we assumed.'
'You mentioned an army travelling close to your borders. The northern I presume. Is it Jorganesh? You know of him, surely.'
'He is long a friend of the Karku,' said Icenga. His head dropped and he studied his feet.
Jhered felt a chill through his body. 'What's happened, Icenga? What's happened to Jorganesh?'
'We will eat now,' he replied. 'Then you should rest. You have heard what you must. Tomorrow we will take you where you will also see what you must.'
'But—' said Menas.
Icenga shook his head and motioned to the open doorway where the last rays of the evening sun disappeared behind the mountains, dazzling the high peaks but leaving the town in darkness.
'With the last light of the day goes the time for talk of strife and
pain. You will see what you must. It is more eloquent than any words I can frame in your language. Eat and sleep.'
But Jhered could not sleep. And the clouds that travelled across the darkening sky disgorged another snowfall.
Chapter 57
848th cycle of God, 21st day of
Solasfall 15th year of the true Ascendancy
Sizzling slices of lamb, eggs taken from the nests of mountain birds, and thick root vegetables made a start to the day that left Mirron feeling she would never have to eat again. Beside her, Gorian belched so loud it echoed off the mountain side. She jabbed him but he just laughed.'Just my food saying thank you on my behalf,' he said.
She smiled back at him. They were sitting together around a small fire laid outside the house in which they'd spent the night sleeping under huge mounds of furs. Dear Kovan had snored so badly he'd been banished to another room where the fire had died and it had grown very cold. Now he sat wolfing down his breakfast and glaring at Gorian. Arducius and Ossacer were on a bench across the fire from her. There was a chill wind blowing down the plain but they were sheltered and the sun was rising above the eastern slope, sending light cascading into the town.
Away to the south of the settlement, she could see Jhered and Menas in conversation with Harban and Icenga. Jhered was clearly frustrated and Mirron guessed he was not getting the answers he wanted.
'I wonder what they want to show us,' she said. 'It's nothing good,' said Kovan.
He'd put down his empty plate and was sharpening his sword on a whetstone. Around them, a small crowd of children was gathering as they were pushed outside their front doors to play.
'How would you know?' asked Gorian.
'Because Jhered is worried, and in my experience that's never a good sign.'
'He doesn't know any more than you do, Vasselis,' said Gorian.
'He's a soldier, Gorian,' said Kovan with exaggerated patience. 'And a Gatherer. He knows when people are trying to hide a problem.'
'It's not in our control, that's what I don't like,' said Gorian, quietly. 'We're just shoved here out of the way while he decides what to do with us. Don't you feel lost in all this, any of you? Doesn't it make you feel helpless?'
Mirron was taken aback. She put an arm around his waist instinctively, wondering what had led to this sudden dropping of his guard.
'All of us feel the same, Gorian. That's why we have to stick together,' she said.
'Spoken like Arducius,' said Ossacer.
'We have to trust him,' said Arducius. 'He needs us alive.'
'We're just pawns,' said Gorian. 'It isn't because he likes us. He just wants to use us. So long as you all understand that.'
There was a titter of laughter and some high-pitched whispered words.
'Hello,' said Mirron, smiling at the gaggle of children, eight in all.
They looked incredibly sweet, swathed in furs and peering out from under caps and hats, with downy hair on their faces and covering their feet. They backed away at her attention.
'Don't be afraid,' she said. 'Look.'
She bent her hand to the grass and brushed away a little ice and snow from its surface. Beneath the topsoil, buried in the cold hard earth, was the bulb of a genastro bloom. A crocus, she thought, or something like it. It was a bundle of potential life, just waiting for the spark.
Mirron applied it, feeding a brief pulse of her own life energy into the bulb and prompting it to grow. She sensed its roots searching the earth below and its bud forging to the surface. She fed more of herself in, a tiny amount in reality, and watched as the bud and stalk burst from the grass and grew a few inches. The children were staring in mute amazement. Mirron finished the job, bringing the bud to flower. It was a beautiful soft purple in colour. She plucked it and handed it to the nearest little girl.
'There you are. For you.'
The girl squealed in delight and set off with the flower clutched in her hand, her friends in hot pursuit. Mirron laughed and clapped her hands together. She felt warm inside.
'They have no idea what's happening outside their borders, do they?' she said, sobering a little. 'Cocooned like we were in Westfallen. I wonder if that's right.'
'They'll learn soon enough,' said Kovan. 'They're young yet.'
Menas was striding up the path towards them. She shouted at them when she saw them notice her. They thanked the cook for their breakfast and left her looking a little confused, holding a stack of plates and forks.
'Time to go,' said Menas when they reached her. 'Come on.'
She led them down the bank of the river. It was a sluggish flow until it reached the mouth of the mountain where it seemed to narrow and rush into the dark.
'Which way are we going?' asked Ossacer.
'That way?'
Menas was pointing into the blackness of the mountain. They could hear the water course, loud like a drain. There were two open boats moored where Jhered and Icenga were still talking about something or other.
'You are joking, aren't you?' asked Kovan.
'Apparently, it isn't as bad as it looks,' said Menas, though she was not convincing.
'What about the mules?' asked Mirron.
'They'll be safe here,' said Menas. 'Come on. The sooner we start. . .'
Mirron looked into the boats. All their gear was already stowed under leather in the bows. Each had two sets of oars and also three poles with moulded hand grips at one end, bulbous and flattened at the other. She asked what they were for.
'To keeping us away from the sides where they close in around us,' said Harban. He was smiling, enjoying their discomfort. 'You have not been on a boat trip like this in your Conquord. Inside, the river splits. To the right, the path is steep and fast and feeds the heart of the mountain, where you may not go. We will go left. It is the easier route. Just.'
Mirron shuddered and looked round at Gorian for support. He was looking as white as she felt.
'Why can't we go the other way?' asked Gorian.
'Because it leads to Inthen-Gor, the heart of the mountain. The most sacred domain of the Karku. No outsider has ever seen it. No outsider ever will.'
'What does it look like?' Arducius was gazing into the mountain. Mirron could see his imagination already running wild.
'It is beautiful,' said Harban. His tone became soft and reverent. 'A great cavern and lake that we call the Eternal Water. At its centre is an island where our ancestors built the Heart Shrine. Both are as vital to us as the air we breathe. They govern all our lives and bind us to the mountains and the air and to all the creatures that walk the paths of the living and the tunnels of the dead. Every Karku must take this journey to achieve maturity and be assumed into their tribe.'
‘I
would love to see it,' said Gorian.
‘I
t can never happen,' said Harban, though he smiled. 'But you'll see enough on our journey through the skirts of the mountain.'
The image of Inthen-Gor shattered and Mirron remembered she was scared. It must have shown on her face.
'You will be fine, younger. A little danger is exciting, no?' said Harban, chuckling away to himself.
'No, not really,' said Mirron. 'Do we have to, Lord Jhered?'
Jhered walked over to them and the look on his face was not unkindly though there was a sadness in his eyes.
'Are you all right?' she asked.
‘I
'm fine, thank you,' he said. 'Look, we have to get somewhere very quickly and this is the only way. Believe me, I'd go another way if we could. But Harban says it's safe enough.'
'Yes, well, they all have harder heads than us,' said Ossacer. 'They probably bang them off rocks all the time.'
Jhered looked at him hard. 'You aren't joking, are you?'
'Their skulls are thicker,' confirmed Ossacer. 'You can see it in the way the energy flows around them.'
‘I
see.'
Mirron watched another hurried and hissed conversation in Karku, with Jhered gesticulating angrily, pointing to his head, to the water and the rocks. Finally, he threw up his hands and turned back to them.
‘I
t's fine,' he said. 'Apparently, should any of us, including him, strike our heads, he assures me we will be killed outright. I trust that makes you feel more at ease.' He was shaking his head. 'This isn't good enough.'
'And there's no other way?' asked Arducius.
'If we want to waste thirty days and probably freeze to death, then yes,' said Jhered.
Mirron was bored with this. The boys and Jhered were all looking particularly serious and severe. Hands were on hips and frowns were deep in angry faces. She walked quickly over to Menas.
'Perhaps we should show them some courage,' she said. 'And get in first.'
'You'll be the master of men with thinking like that,' said Menas. 'What do you mean?'
Menas opened her mouth to speak but paused and stroked Mirron's nose with a finger instead. 'I expect you already know,' she said. 'Come on, let's do it.'
They walked to the front boat and climbed in.
'All we've got to do is keep our heads down, isn't it?' she said into the their stares. 'Are you scared or something?'
For three days, they journeyed beneath some of Kark's mightiest mountains and despite the wonders around them, the mood changed. Arducius wasn't sure he wanted to know why. Jhered had become even more introverted if that was possible, and their Karku guides looked sombre and drawn, like they weren't sleeping very well.
Arducius remembered the screams that had burst from Mirron's lips when the descent had begun. The feel of rock whispering past just above her head and so close to her hands where they gripped the gunwales so hard her fingers must have ached. The lanterns set fore and aft lit the journey with harsh light and garish shadow. But here and there, the lanterns had showed beautiful luminescent lichen that glowed a gentle green.
More than that, when the river levelled and the pace of the torrent slowed, they saw things that even their dreams could not have created. They had seen arrays of stalactites that were so beautiful they had stopped just to sit beneath them and stare up until their necks ached. They had seen pools lit by that luminescent lichen that had cast gentle greens and blues over the walls of deep caves. Underground beaches laced with natural columns and caves that would have shamed Westfallen's coast. Jhered had hurried them as much as he could but all of them, even Ossacer, had braved the freezing waters to swim and explore. It had been magical.
After the terror of the descent, Arducius had felt disappointed to leave the underground wonderland, as Mirron had described it. He'd wanted to see one last tributary leading away into a mysterious dark so that they could debate which hidden land it would lead to.
Early on the fourth morning, the river slowed and the passage widened dramatically. A great cave mouth revealed itself in the distance and the Karku began to row faster, wanting the freshness of the open air and the light of the sun on their faces.
Their emergence into light was startling. The brightness of the light dazzled their eyes and the warmth of the sun was delightful, even this soon after dawn. Arducius breathed in air that had lost the taint of damp rock and had gained the scent of grass and trees. The energies clamoured for his attention, almost overwhelmed his mind until he forced some control on himself. Inside the mountains had been amazing but out here . . . out here the world was truly
alive.
The river ran through endless mountains studded with meadows on which lay settlements. They travelled gorges that were dark almost the whole of the day, so steep and tall were the sides. And they saw rank upon rank of snow-capped peaks stretching away into the distance and beyond sight in every direction, at once desolate, dangerous and unbelievably beautiful.
The Karku brought them to a deserted landing. The river bent away, west towards Gestern, so Jhered had said. North of them a tree-lined slope led away up into yet another range of mountains. This one marked part of the northern border of the country. They were helped ashore.
'Why isn't anyone living here?' asked Mirron. 'It's lovely.'
'It is a place that the lords have deserted,' said Icenga.
Jhered was glancing up at the sun and the land and water around them. It was mid-morning and the sun was strong over their heads.
'The other side of that range,' he said, pointing north. 'Lubjek's Defile, yes?'
'Yes, Paul Jhered,' said Icenga and that haunted look was back in his eyes again. 'You should come with me. The Ascendants will stay here.'
'Why?' Gorian's voice rose in complaint. 'What's so bad that we can't possibly see it? We aren't so young and delicate, you know. Well, I'm not.'
Jhered looked along the line at Gorian and Arducius feared the worst.
'For once, Gorian, I am forced to agree with you. Your eyes will tell you more about the truth of war than my words ever could.' He turned to Icenga. 'They're coming with us. All of them.'
No one said anything all the way along the passageway through the mountain. Not Mirron's wheedling, nor Gorian's arrogant insistence they be told what was there for them to see, made any difference. At one stage, Ossacer who was holding on to Arducius's arm said that he felt like he was being led to a funeral. Arducius didn't like the look Jhered gave him in return.
The path they took moved up a gentle incline for several hours. They stopped for lunch at a waypoint that was the junction of three passages and it was here that Jhered finally deigned to speak to them.
'Up there, an hour from here, we will come to Lubjek's Defile. It is a lovely treelined valley that marks the border between Kark and Tsard. It is the quickest and best escape route from the southern Tsardon steppe lands back through Atreska and into Gestern. It is therefore the natural, and indeed only possible, route for an army to take if given the word to return to defend the Conquord. It is the route General Jorganesh took.'
Jhered bit his lip and let his head drop just a little. A deep frown crossed his face and he cleared his throat.
'He entered the defile with four legions. He didn't ever leave.'
An hour later, they stood at the head of the passage, waiting to move out from the hidden entrance. The heat of the afternoon was still strong outside and Arducius was aware of a low buzzing in the air. A breeze blew about the entrance and the smell was sour, like a fire long dead and staining the atmosphere with its ash.