The Legacy of Lord Regret: Strange Threads: Book 1 (27 page)

Carefully Yalenna made her way into the leaves. At one point she had to get down on her hands and knees to crawl, under the
swirl and into the warm redness. Grunting from behind told her Rostigan followed, but she paid him no mind – all her thoughts
with Braston.

Is he alive? Please, let him be alive
.

Tears threatened to prickle forth, and she blinked rapidly, willing them away. He
must
be alive, she told herself, though at best he would be terribly, terribly hurt. Closer up the damage that ravaged him was
all the more shocking. She crawled underneath him, to see if the eyes in his head would open.

‘Braston?’

After a moment they did, moving towards her slightly.

‘Get …’

As he tried to speak, a slop of blood spilled from his mouth, drowning his words.

Suddenly, mercifully, time started again. Braston pitched forward as the leaves supporting him went back to weightlessness.
She narrowly avoided his bulk as he hit the ground with a thud, and rolled onto his side.

‘Despirrow’s on the move,’ said Rostigan grimly.

Yalenna did not care. Braston needed help.

His face twisted with pain. He worked his tongue, trying to clear his mouth.

‘Don’t … let him get away.’

‘But you –’

‘Leave me! I will … live.’ He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. ‘We might … not get this chance again.’

‘Braston –’

‘Go!’ The effort of speaking made him wince. ‘Please!’

‘Come,’ said Rostigan, pulling her to her feet. The wind was gone, and all around leaves were landing in the scarlet tide.
‘We must do as he says.’

Yalenna tore her eyes away.

‘We’ll return for him,’ Rostigan promised. ‘Now come, Yalenna … come.’

He got her moving, and they cut through streets in the direction he’d last seen Despirrow heading.

Find a man running
, he sent out, and several dark presences stirred nearby. They were lazy to his call, however, rustling their feathers but
settling again, trying to ignore him.

Find him!

The crows remained reticent, and he sensed their displeasure with him. They had taken umbrage with the last task he’d given
them, the survivors not even allowed to eat properly for their troubles.

He had no time for their reluctance. Focusing in on one young male, he made himself big in its mind.

Into the sky with you
.

The crow obeyed, lifting from the roof of a nearby house. Through its eyes he saw the town from above, saw people moving about
trying to work out what had happened. Guards were inspecting the bodies on the main street, others setting out to patrol.
Then he spied a figure with blue shirt flapping, sprinting through alleys on the edge of town.

‘He’s making for the southern road,’ he told Yalenna.

‘Hold!’

Two threaders stepped into their path.

‘Leave us alone!’ ordered Rostigan, and they nodded in agreement and turned away.

The break in concentration made him think he’d lost the crow, but a moment later he found it, still circling overhead. Despirrow
was heading up the hill, and behind he saw himself and Yalenna from above, in pursuit through the town outskirts. As they
emerged and reached the hill, Rostigan lost connection to his reluctant minion. A glance upward with his real eyes showed
him a distant black dot spiralling downwards, losing feathers as it went. His spy, it seemed, had been noted. Meanwhile Despirrow
disappeared around the bend of the top of the hill.

Rostigan gave a knowing grunt.

‘What?’ puffed Yalenna.

‘We’ll see.’

Up the hill they went, around the bend to the stony area. A couple of vague scuffs on the path led towards the bridge.

‘Looks like he tried to cover his tracks,’ said Yalenna.

‘Or he wants us to think he has,’ said Rostigan quietly. ‘Send us into the woods, where we could search for hours to no avail.’

He could
feel
the cave over his shoulder, as if it were watching him. An obvious hiding spot, too obvious for Despirrow to trust it, unless
he really believed they would fall for his misdirection. Or it could be a trap – Despirrow could be standing just out of the
light, waiting for them to approach, so he could stop time and come at them with his crossbow.

Rostigan spun about and seized the overhanging lip of the cave mouth. He wrenched it downwards, and rocks and roots cascaded
to block up the entrance.

Yalenna raised an eyebrow. ‘You think he went in there?’

‘Could be. We’ll know more if we collapse the roof.’

Moving around the settling rubble, they clambered up the pinnacle of the hill, which was flat at the top.

‘Stand here, at the edge,’ said Rostigan. ‘We might be all right here.’

‘If he’s in there, he’ll just stop time.’

‘Yes, but what’s his next move?’

Yalenna shrugged. ‘Very well.’

Together they sent influence down into the roof of the cave, seeking out keystones and places where the earth was tightly
packed.

‘We want to do it all of a sudden, together,’ Rostigan told her.

She nodded and tensed.

‘Now.’

They tore at the supporting structures, loosened earth that kept larger rocks in place. In answer the hilltop trembled, and
began to collapse inwards at the centre.

Time stopped.

It made for an interesting tableau. Before them, beyond the remaining ledge of solid ground they stood on, the hilltop hung
in a state of suspended half-collapse. Light shone through holes into the cave interior, where rocks hung at various levels.

‘Get down,’ warned Rostigan. ‘He may have sightlines to us.’

‘Are you in there, wretch?’ shouted Yalenna.

A bolt whizzed from the darkness and smacked into her shoulder. Rostigan pulled her down with him lest she stumble backwards
off what remained of the hilltop. Once they found their balance, she glanced at her wound through watering eyes, and groaned.

‘By the Spell!’ she growled. ‘When I get hold of you, Despirrow …’

‘Steady,’ said Rostigan.

‘I
am
steady,’ she replied irritably.

Somewhere beneath, Despirrow chuckled.

‘I don’t know what you’re so happy about,’ called Rostigan. ‘What are you going to do now? You can’t start time again without
being crushed, and if you clamber up a staircase of falling debris, we’ll be here to greet you.’

‘You’re right,’ came the answer. ‘I’m in a bit of a quandary. Or, maybe a better way to put it, a bit of a quarry!’

Rostigan gave an unamused snort.

‘And how are you, Yalenna?’ called Despirrow. ‘I hate to admit that I’d deliberately try to destroy such beauty, but really,
it was your face I aimed for.’

Yalenna tried to leap to her feet, but Rostigan kept a firm hold on her.

‘Don’t let him rile you,’ he whispered. ‘He’s just trying to trick you into sticking your head up.’

She scowled at him, but nodded. ‘Well, if it’s taunting he wants.’ She raised her voice. ‘How many bolts have you left, Despirrow?
Can’t be many, if any.’

‘No, not many, I admit. One, maybe two. Two would be convenient, don’t you think?’

There was a scuffling in the dark, and it sounded like he was moving about.

‘Is there a way out?’ said Rostigan.

‘Not that I can see. I’ll look a little longer, though, if you’ll forgive me.’

‘Take your time.’

‘Ha!’

More scuffling, then silence. Rostigan knew, having inspected the cave himself, that it did not extend into the greater hill
beneath.

‘Let me ask you something, Karrak.’

‘That is not my name.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Oh, don’t get me wrong – I appreciate the use of a false name when anonymity is preferable. I haven’t
been going about telling everyone that I am Despirrow, of course. But among those who know you, my friend, you will always
be Karrak.’

Rostigan felt his brow grow heavy, as if it wanted to force his eyes closed. ‘Go on,’ he said. He had to hear Despirrow’s
arguments, if he were to stand against them.

‘Why,’ continued Despirrow, ‘have you joined these e’er-do-wells? You were the worst of us all, and you want me to believe
that you’ve turned
good
? You’re a murderer, a tyrant, a thief, a tormentor …’

Rostigan gritted his teeth, and Yalenna’s touch tightened on his arm.

‘Don’t let him,’ she said. ‘Don’t hear it.’

‘I need to.’

‘Do you remember that night in Sortree when we made the nobles dance like puppets? Their living flesh hooked on barbed chains
that we fastened to the roof, screaming as we made them pour our drinks.’

Rostigan closed his eyes, as if that could shut out the images issuing up from the deep place.

‘And yet now you’ve taken up with Yalenna and Braston? You must be playing some trick, surely, taking some deceitful angle?
Yalenna, do you really trust him? You should have seen him smile as he made Lord Bayflower mop his own blood from the tiles,
jigging about as the fat
of his arms worked loose. What has he told you, to secure your confidence?’

Rostigan saw himself, all those years ago, grinning at the suffering he caused, the fierce joy that his power had given him.
And then he saw
her
face, hateful as she sat on the bed with her damp hair, waiting for him to come and take her.

‘Lord of Crows, they called you,’ said Despirrow. ‘And what else, I wonder? Oh, that’s right – Lord of Lies! What is your
plan, Karrak? What is your true intent?’

‘He was more convincing,’ spoke up Yalenna, ‘than your desperate attempt to sow discord. Why don’t you come up and join us
too, Despirrow, if you really believe Karrak so unchanged? We promise not to
rip out your heart
.’

‘So spirited, Yalenna,’ said Despirrow. ‘And beautiful too, always so beautiful and young. How old are you really, though
you look no more than twenty? I always felt sad that we never had our time together.’

‘I’d sooner let a worm crawl into me.’

Despirrow barked harsh laughter. ‘Well, at least I penetrated you with something – how is your shoulder feeling, anyway? Throbbing
a little?’

All at once the cave was collapsing as time started again, but rocks blasted upwards rendered to grit and chunks, peppering
Rostigan and Yalenna as they flung up their hands to protect their faces. A second blast sounded as the cave mouth unstoppered,
the rubble that blocked it spinning clear.

Wiping his eyes to see Despirrow sprinting out of the cave towards the bridge, Rostigan took a running start along what remained
of the hill, and leapt. As the rocky ground rushed up to meet him, he reached out to melt it for a kinder landing. Casually
Despirrow gave a flick over his shoulder, undoing Rostigan’s spell, so he cracked down hard on the flats of his feet. He tried
to continue onwards, but his body had other ideas. Apparently something in one of his ankles had given out, and it dragged
behind the rest of him.

‘Don’t let him get away!’ Yalenna was clutching her dribbling shoulder and coming down the hill.

Despirrow reached the bridge. If he made it to the other side, he could dart into the wood, and it would quickly become much
harder to find him. Hauling along his injured foot, Rostigan made up his mind not to let that happen. The pain was there,
but he forced it away, and tried to quicken his step.

It was no good. Pain and willpower had nothing to do with it. His foot simply wasn’t working properly.

He sensed Yalenna threading past him, towards a tree on the opposite side of the ravine. No doubt she hoped to crash it down
and snap the bridge apart, but Despirrow saw what she attempted, and with a wave undid it. Yalenna gave an exclamation of
frustration.

When Rostigan reached the bridge Despirrow was already halfway across, the gap between them growing ever wider. He put his
hand on the rope, forgetful of the hole through his palm, though the rough surface quickly
reminded him. Despairingly he knew there was no chance of keeping chase.

As though it had been shocked into him, he had a sudden thought.

Stealer
.

Multiple throbbings stole his concentration as he tried desperately to think of a rhyme …

As he spoke the last word, the bridge vanished.

Despirrow gave a yelp as he hurtled downwards to the gurgling river. He would be swept away, to safety, if Rostigan did not
follow … so Rostigan stepped off the edge and plummeted after. Below the whistle of the wind in his ears, he heard his own
voice whispering the words he had just spoken.

Below, Despirrow hit the river with a splash, his shirt ballooning around him as he bobbed in the current. He blinked water
from his eyes to see Rostigan falling after him, and Rostigan guessed what might happen next. He did all he could to prepare
himself for it, making sure he led with his good foot … and a moment later, crunched against the hard surface of the river,
sprawling roughly along little waves and pockets of froth. A few paces away Despirrow’s head stuck out of the motionless water,
looking at him.