Elves: Once Walked With Gods (43 page)

‘I shouldn’t have had to, should I?’ she screamed into his face. ‘Where were you? Ten years you left me alone. Ten years with the harmony fading and hate growing. Didn’t you feel it? Stuck out there with nothing to do but sense the fading all around you? You, who said you held the harmony in your body as surely as you did your own heart? Well? Or were you so drowned by your own remorse that you had no room for anyone or anything else? We followed you. We believed in you. We loved you.’

Katyett let him go and sat back so he could get up if he wanted.

‘We still do,’ she whispered.

Katyett felt Grafyrre’s hands on her shoulders, so tense they seemed like rocks. Takaar scuttled away, his face a picture of confusion and fear. Auum shook his head at her and went over to him, tried to calm him.

‘Told me it was wrong and I didn’t listen,’ said Takaar. His hands writhed across one another.

‘Did you hear her?’ asked Auum. ‘She still believes in you. Still loves you.’

‘Not. No,’ said Takaar. ‘I will not do it! Don’t try to push me. You think me weak. Ten years and still you can’t see my strength has never cracked under your constant wheedling. Let me be. Auum, why do they test me? Why do they stare? I have no place to see out. I can’t. Where are the humans?’

‘All are dead,’ said Auum. ‘And you saved a life. Katyett’s life.’

Takaar frowned and muttered to himself. Katyett couldn’t make out the words. Auum sighed and leant back, waiting. Katyett had her hand over her mouth. Takaar’s words made no sense. His reaction was that of a frightened child retreating from a violent parent. He was hugging himself now, his knees drawn up hard against his chest.

Katyett stood, feeling the companionship of her Tai around her. She could not calm her heart or her breathing. She felt a little faint and nauseous. Both Merrat and Grafyrre put arms around her, steadying her.

‘No one needs me,’ said Takaar and he looked to his left at nothing but rainforest vegetation. ‘You know full well why I came here. It was to prove to you that I was not under your control. That I could act on my own. It has hurt you, hasn’t it? Not having me on the edge of the cliff with your hands on my back ready to push. I would laugh in your face but laughter eludes me.’

‘Who—’ began Katyett.

‘Later,’ said Auum. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘It’s not complicated at all,’ said Takaar. ‘Auum ignores our companion. I hope you won’t be so rude.’

Katyett was reprieved from the necessity of a response by Pelyn breasting into the small clearing. She didn’t notice Takaar or Auum.

‘We’ve got a problem,’ she said.

‘How right you are,’ said Katyett.

‘What?’

Katyett pointed across. Pelyn looked over at Takaar. She caught her breath and tensed. Katyett watched emotions she recognised very well pass across her face. She swallowed and turned back to Katyett. Her eyes were dry but there was a tautness in her face and a tremble in her voice.

‘Um. Faleen’s tai have taken down another three men across the camp. They’re getting closer, quartering the forest. It’s only a matter of time before we are overflown.’

‘Yniss, spare me. We don’t need this,’ said Katyett, reaching out a hand of comfort, which Pelyn took and squeezed briefly before dropping.

‘They’ll have found our base before nightfall at this rate. We need to be ready. We’re due to surrender at dawn as it is.’

‘Surrender. Right. I’ll eat my own jaqrui pouch first. As for ready, I’m not sure that’s possible. How close are the flyers? We can take out the land scouts but those damned flying mages are the real problem.’

Pelyn considered. ‘It’s not as if they can see much through the canopy. They’re looking for partial clearings like this. They won’t see it until they come over the hills south or around the tall slopes north. And they are close to those, but they have to keep changing scouts, like they get tired or something, or have done their spell. If our luck turns, the next one could find us before we eat again. Time to get bows up to the canopy roof?’

‘Don’t ever speak to me like that! You don’t even know these people. How can you judge them?’

Takaar’s voice split the relative calm. Pelyn flinched violently, her concentration on her task broken. She made to walk to Takaar but seemed unable to decide if it was a good idea.

‘Maybe you can calm him. I didn’t do a very good job,’ said Katyett.

‘What did you do, punch him?’

‘No, I shouted at him while banging his head against the ground.’

Pelyn snorted back a laugh. Takaar’s head snapped up and he scrambled to his feet. He shook off Auum’s hand and walked forward a couple of paces.

‘Pelyn, your laughter has been lost to me for too long.’

Katyett watched Pelyn and saw a mirror of herself. Loss, confusion. Fury. Exhilaration.

‘I can’t think of a single thing to say,’ said Pelyn. ‘After all this time. Pathetic, isn’t it? And I replayed this moment so many times. But I thought you dead. Sometimes I wanted you dead. I was ready for you to be dead.’

‘There are a thousand ways to die in this rainforest, did you know that?’

‘What does that - ?’

‘I investigated many of them, you know.’ Takaar turned and beckoned Auum to him. ‘Here are some. Ways to kill a thousand men. But we need to be close. Yes, as close as that, and we may smell their sweat, but that is a price worth paying to smell their mouldering corpses the day after, is it not? Hmm. I win again.’

Pelyn turned to Katyett, shaking her head in confusion.

‘I think he has voices in his head, ’ Katyett said.

‘Right.’

‘And we don’t have time to pander to him. Say something. Just don’t bang his head on the ground.’

Pelyn made a face. ‘I’ll try not to.’

‘And be tactful,’ said Katyett. ‘He’s fragile. Odd.’

Pelyn nodded. ‘Takaar, a moment, please?’

Takaar was searching through a stitched leather bag from which the strong odour of fish billowed out. He made a triumphant sound and pulled out a clay pot with a wooden stopper in it. He bounced it from hand to hand.

‘Be careful with that,’ said Auum.

‘In here is the death of thousands. Thousands upon thousands more, if we go harvesting.’ Takaar’s eyes gleamed with something akin to zeal. ‘You don’t think I’m right in the head, do you, Pelyn?’

‘That wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about,’ said Pelyn carefully. ‘Takaar, we have little time.’

‘The men are coming. They will unleash a storm on this forest that we may not survive. And I may not lead. Do not ask that of me. There, satisfied that my pride is under control?’

‘I’m not asking you to lead us,’ said Pelyn. Takaar looked crestfallen, as if he were about to burst into tears. ‘But we do need your help. Will you help us?’

Takaar clicked his tongue in his mouth. He sucked in air over his teeth and shook his head rapidly. Katyett felt sorry for him. Sorry for all of them. She’d placed so much hope on Takaar and here he was, barely clinging on to sanity if he was actually clinging on at all.

‘A cloak with a hood,’ he said abruptly.

‘You want one?’

‘Evidently. We cannot encumber ourselves further with my being recognised by others, can we?’

There was relief in Pelyn’s posture. ‘No, no, of course not. Perhaps one of the dead humans . . .’

‘Ideal.’

Katyett frowned. They were taking a huge risk involving him. Merrat was already unhooking one of the light traveller’s cloaks from a dead mage. She handed it to Pelyn, who passed it on to Takaar.

‘Good.’ Takaar set off towards the camp, the TaiGethen and Pelyn trailing in his wake. Auum fell in beside Katyett. ‘Now then. You mentioned being overflown. How is that possible? I must see this for myself. Auum, put this away.’

The clay pot was tossed casually over his head. Auum snapped out a hand and caught it. He held it carefully for a while before returning it to the sack slung over his shoulder.

‘What’s in there?’ asked Katyett.

‘The pot or the sack?’

‘Well both, but let’s start with the pot.’

‘Yellow-backed-frog poison. Takaar says they secrete it from their skin. Touch it and die. Put it on the end of an arrow or something and kill your enemies very quickly.’

Katyett raised her eyebrows. ‘He’s harvested the stuff? Aren’t we taught just never to touch one?’

‘That was the guts of my training on the subject. But Takaar, as he is very fond of saying, has had ten years with little else to do but study his guilt and all the ways to end his life should he be brave enough to do so.’

Katyett smiled. ‘I expect you’ve had quite a journey. What’s he like, really? Like he is now?’

Auum’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Truly I never know from one moment to the next. He’s utterly unreliable in his mood and attitude. I’m not sure he really knows why he is here. Sometimes on the journey he appeared so calm and lucid that I forgot he was ever other than that. The next instant, raging and jabbering to the voice he can hear or withdrawing so far I can get nothing from him. Not even a pace in the right direction.’

‘He’s a serious risk, isn’t he?’ said Katyett, lowering her voice too.

Up ahead, Takaar and Pelyn were talking. Pelyn was clearly ill at ease. Auum touched Katyett’s arm and gestured they fall back a little way. Katyett had not realised she was trembling all over.

‘Takaar could win us this fight or he could bring disaster down on us. But he has all his old strengths in there somewhere. I pity the rogue Ynissul who mistakes his oddness for weakness. His combat skills are undiminished.’

‘Had a fight, did you?’

‘He tried to kill me. Serrin stopped him. Serrin is safe, by the way. I’ll tell you about him later.’

‘As you wish. Listen to me. Things have been getting much worse here. The rogue Ynissul are not what you need to worry about. Takaar has guessed it but not the scale.’

‘I’m listening.’

Katyett related the recent history of Ysundeneth, watching the dismay deepen on Auum’s face.

He was silent for a while. ‘It’s after some big use of this magic that he’s most vulnerable. That’s what worries me if the mages start making a lot of castings.’

Katyett frowned. ‘How can that be? He’s never been anywhere near any of it, has he? Certainly not near Ysundeneth.’

‘He’s different from us,’ said Auum.

‘I can see that,’ said Katyett, surprised at the bitterness in her tone.

‘No, I don’t meant that. He feels everything that happens to a greater or lesser extent. It’s to do with the energy lines he found here. He picks up on changes and violence in the earth’s energy. Like the Apposans and Orrans say they do. But more. What you told me about the playhouse and the warehouse? All makes sense. He felt those things happen as if they were personal attacks.

‘There’s something inside him waking up and he says we all have it. I think it causes half of the problems in his head. If he was still truly feeling the guilt and remorse of the Tul-Kenerit, do you think he’d really still be alive? I don’t.’

Katyett couldn’t find a reply. Not long after, they walked back into the camp. The eyes of every Ynissul civilian and warrior were on them, as were those of the Al-Arynaar. The more astute paid particular attention to Auum and the hooded newcomer. TaiGethen were signalling to each other across the camp. Some began to move towards the corner of the covered area where Katyett had set up what passed for a command centre.

‘Merrat. There are Ynissul out there who need to prepare their people for reclamation. Help them but do it quickly. We need to plan.’

The answer to Takaar’s question was in view from the camp. About a mile to the south and high in the sky. Katyett shuddered again. It still wasn’t an easy sight to ingest. She saw Pelyn point towards the mage. Takaar stopped just beneath the covered area and stared out. Katyett began to hurry when she saw him stretch out his arms and to run when he started to make motions like he was reeling in a rope.

Takaar’s movements were so theatrical and dramatic that those nearest to him who could see him began to laugh, assuming a joke. But then his hood fell back and the effort on his face and the fury in his eyes stilled some of the laughter. And those with long memories, those who had escaped from Hausolis, began to wonder who it was in their midst. Some were putting the pieces together.

‘Tual’s balls,’ snapped Katyett. ‘Pelyn, get him away from the crowd.’

Word was spreading faster than wind over long grass. People were standing, pointing, beginning to move. TaiGethen, at a signal from Katyett, got in the way. They formed a cordon, moving swiftly through their charges and obscuring Takaar from sight. Katyett stood square in front of him.

‘Is this your idea of a subtle entrance? What are you doing?’

Takaar had dropped his arms to his sides but his eyes were alight with passion.

‘I can see what tethers him to the earth. It’s like a net of energy and he sits atop it. It’s what keeps him in the sky at the same time. It is so clear I can touch it. But I can’t drag him down. Some other power stops me.’

Katyett glanced at Auum, who raised his eyebrows.

‘What can you see?’ she asked Takaar.

‘Colour and energy. The shape of the wings that balance him. It is beautiful.’

‘But you can’t break it. Can’t make him fall.’

Takaar shook his head.

‘Shame,’ said Katyett. ‘And a shame that you’ve stirred up so much attention. I think your cover might be blown.’

Takaar looked out past the cordon of TaiGethen at the sea of faces pushing towards them. His name was being bounced around. Questions were being asked. Katyett sensed confusion and aggression.

‘What do we do, announce him?’ asked Grafyrre. ‘This isn’t going to die down and we need to organise ourselves.’

‘Let me talk to them,’ said Takaar.

His eyes were bright and fierce, just like at the Tul-Kenerit before . . .

Katyett paused. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked.

Takaar shook his head. ‘No. But it’ll irritate him if I stand up and speak to those I betrayed. He doesn’t think I possess the courage.’

Katyett found herself looking at Auum for encouragement again. The young TaiGethen shrugged and cocked his head to the side. Why not? It was as good a reason as any on this strangest of days. Katyett dispersed the TaiGethen back into the crowd to spread word of an announcement.