The Red Queen (67 page)

I woke to find I was lying on my side on the hard floor, Dragon shaking me gently, saying it was near midday and that she and Dameon had prepared a morning meal, but that I had slept through it, and they were now packing everything up ready for the androne to transport to the glide hangar when he returned.

I sat up feeling thick-headed and befuddled by a night full of strange dreams, some of people I had never seen in my life. And what of Rushton? I had dreamed of the master of Obernewtyn more often of late, and it seemed to me the dreams were connected. Did that mean that what I had seen in my dream had just happened?

I looked around wondering where Maruman had gone, praying that he truly had returned and that his presence was not a dream as well.

‘The others are all outside,’ Dragon urged, mistaking my glance. ‘Ana left already. She is worried about Hendon not coming back. She went to find him and to seek her other boot.’

‘She didn’t go alone?’ I said, alarmed. I reached out and she gave me the lightstick she was carrying.

‘Swallow would not let her,’ she said. ‘He said he would go with her and
she
said she did not need him to protect her. Then he said he needed her to protect
him.
That made her laugh and then he said he wants to see if he can figure out where the
rhenlings
got in, since that will probably be the same way the glide will get out. He is afraid that it might not open properly without the Northport computermachine to order it open. And he would not let us wake you, but Dameon said it was time so I came.’

I played the lightstick about, trying to find the boots I had shucked off the night before. Finding one, I laid the lightstick down and sat to pull it on and close its fastenings. I felt grubby and crumpled and my head ached from the airless basement. I thought with longing of the hot spring of my dream. Then I began to hunt for the other boot. I noticed the wolves had not moved. A brief probe assured me that they were still sleeping and I wondered exactly how much sleep potion Ana had given them and what we would do if they did not wake before it was time to leave, since Rheagor would have to call the pack if they were to accompany us. I had not yet had the chance to tell him what we meant to do.

‘Come, or Maruman will eat your pancakes!’ Dragon urged.

‘Go back to Dameon. I am awake and I will come shortly,’ I said.

She went, letting in a brief, blinding stream of daylight when she opened and closed the door at the top of the steps. When it closed, I sat back on my heels, my mind returning to my dreams as I wondered where Jakoby and Merret had been and what had happened to Blyss. Jacoby’s words implied slavers had taken her, which meant they were at the Spit or, more likely given that more than a year had passed, in the Red Land.

Remembering the little sandcat brooch, I wondered incredulously if it was possible that the woman who had occupied the luxurious bedchamber in Ariel’s stronghold on Norseland had been Jakoby’s deformed sister. Whoever the woman was, I had no doubt she had been the mysterious Salamander’s lover or companion, and not Ariel’s, for the latter had shown a profound hatred of women. It was this that had allowed him to easily align with the Herders’ philosophies and had no doubt endeared him to the One. And the paths of a badly deformed runaway Earthtemple priestess and a slaver might have converged, especially if Daffyd was correct in his theory that Salamander was a Sadorian beneath his black trappings. Though it might also more simply be that the brooch had found its way into the hands of Salamander’s paramour.

I had just found the other boot when a voice beastspoke my name.

I turned to see that Gobor and Rheagor were sitting up. Gobor’s eyes glowed, but there was no light in Rheagor’s eyes, and there never would be again. It was Rheagor whose voice had summoned me. Laying down the lightstick so that its beam faced away from the beasts, I went to them, glad I could hardly see Rheagor’s poor ruined eyes.

‘Packmaster?’ I sent.

‘Tha will not complete tha quest without the Brildane, ElspethInnle,’ Rheagor said. ‘And all the paths I did see as I journeyed
seliga
, only in one did tha come to the end of tha quest, and in that one, Gobor One Ear did walk with tha and behind him came the Brildane.’

‘So you have told me,’ I sent gravely. ‘I will be glad if the Brildane will go with me from this place, but I must tell you that we will travel in a strange way, inside a
glarsh
that flies like a bird.’
Glarsh
was the beast word for machines. I was glad he did not mention the beastlegend that said I would lead beasts to a land where they would be free of humans, for it was my fear there was no such land, that it had been a cruel invention of the Agyllians to secure help for me.

‘It does not exist, but it
will
exist if tha do walk there,’ Rheagor said.

I shivered at the realisation that the wolf had effortlessly read my underthoughts. But he had turned to the other wolves, all of whom were now sitting up and watching us with their pale, glowing eyes, save one, who watched but did not rise. She was older than the others, Ana had told me, and her injuries were more complex, though not necessarily fatal. The other adults were all she-wolves, too. But it was not to them that Rheagor spoke, it was to the grizzled Gobor by his side.

‘Tha did see these things,
seliga
.’

The grizzled older wolf glared at the blinded wolf. ‘This one does not lead the pack, nor desire to lead it.’

‘Tha must,’ Rheagor said simply. Then he turned to the she-wolves. ‘Witness tha, this one does claim leadership of the Brildane. Submit or perish.’

I was confused, for having said that Gobor must lead the Brildane, it seemed to me that he was claiming the role for himself in a very formal and commanding way. Had I misunderstood what was happening?

The assent of the she-wolves to Rheagor’s pronouncement was immediate and powerful. They lifted their heads, baring their throats. Being connected to their minds through Rheagor, I felt their devotion and willing allegiance to the white wolf. But there was some sorrow in their homage. Rheagor turned from them to Gobor and gave a long rumbling snarl that made my skin rise into gooseflesh. ‘Tha do be cast out, Gobor One Ear. Go tha,
now.
’

Gobor responded with a low, vicious growl. A terrible awareness reared up in my mind as I heard the old wolf send to the pack leader in his snarling mindvoice, ‘This one does challenge tha for leadership of the pack, Rheagor.’

The white pack leader sprang at him, attacking with utter ferocity, heedless of his wounds, but he was blind and Gobor evaded his maw, lunged at Rheagor’s outstretched throat and tore it out in one clean and dreadful stroke.

I screamed, my nose full of the slaty metallic scent of blood. I felt my gorge rise as the pack leader slumped sideways, dead. Gobor turned to face the she-wolves, all but the one lying, having risen to their feet, snarling, lips curled back from their teeth, hackles up.

‘In killing tha leader this one does claim leadership, as is the ancient way. Submit or perish,’ Gobor roared at them.

I thought they would attack him, but suddenly the rigid tension in them drained away and one uttered a long dismal howl, then all of them dropped to their bellies and bared their necks, even as they had done to Rheagor a moment ago.

‘Get up, tha,’ Gobor snarled at the she-wolf that had not risen, but she merely looked at him.

‘No!’ I choked, aghast, but it was too late.

‘Run tha free of weak flesh, sister,’ Gobor sent as he bit into her neck, offering the wolf’s swift, savage mercy.

I choked, feeling I was suffocating in the hot, horrid smell of blood, drowning in it. Gobor looked at the other wolves and sent in a snarling mindvoice full of threat and power and strength, ‘This one do be pack leader and this one will lead or die.’

He turned to me then, and I shrank back, for truly, it seemed to me he was grown larger, as if his will, withered with bitterness and rage, had grown through the power and authority that infused his grey and ancient form, plain to see. But he did not attack me, nor, I realised, had I thought he would. It had been a visceral reaction to the ferocity and power he had been emanating.

‘Why did you kill him?’ I asked. ‘You could have led and let him live.’

‘Nah nah,’ the old wolf sent. ‘A blind wolf or a wolf that cannot follow when the pack must move do be a dead wolf, Innle, whether or not its flesh do be dead, for wolves cannot carry one another as funaga may. And the leadership of the Brildane is not given but only taken.’

I understood that he was telling me he had no choice but to kill Rheagor, and that Rheagor had known it. I knew it was true, for I had seen it; even so, I felt shaken and near to tears.

Gobor spoke again. ‘This one did follow tha pack from the high mountains meaning to slay tha in revenge for tha likeness to the filthy
dinrai-li
that did slay this one’s brother. But in the desert, this one did find Descantra wandering, wounded. That one did tell of the dog Sharna and of the doings of that one’s mother. Descantra did be dying but before the longsleep came, she did say she had learned a truth that must be told to this one. It did be hard to hear that Sharna did be kin and the cub of that she-dog that did aid us long ago. Worse still did it be to hear that Sharna did die to save tha life. Descantra did take the longsleep then and this one was lost in spirit and in flesh. This one willed to die for shame and sorrow, but the longsleep did not come. A funaga came and the
rhenlings
came together. This one did run with the funaga to escape the
rhenlings
and that did be a riddle for to stop was to have the wished-for longsleep. This one remained with the funaga until one day, when the funaga did go away, the oldOnes came to thisone’s dreams. They bade thisone find tha, for the sake of the she-dog and her cub.’

So it had been as I thought. It had been Gobor with Ahmedri all the time we were in Midland. The tribesman claimed he had never seen the wolf that had been his companion before, but he had seen the old wolf only once in the mountains before Rheagor had banished him, and like all of us he had been unable to move because of the musk the wolves exuded.

‘The oldOnes did not tell this one the pack would be here, or that the pack leader would be blinded. If that one did not be blinded, this one could never have won leadership,’ the old wolf said, watching me steadily, its eyes glimmering in the dim light.

I wondered if he was telling me that Rheagor had deliberately sacrificed his eyes, and shivered with horror. ‘What about the other members of the pack?’ I asked. ‘What if one of them challenges you?’

‘There do be no full-grown males left to offer challenge,’ Gobor said, glancing at Rheagor’s body. ‘Those ones did take the longsleep in drawing the
rhenlings
away from
tha
. That one did dreamtravel to the remainder of the pack to tell them what do be needful. They do wait in the under-barud now for tha. All this tha did hear, never knowing what was to come.’

I hardly heard his words, for I was realising in dismay that Swallow and Ana were going down to the glide hangar!

‘Do not fear for tha pack for Rheagor did pledge this pack to tha pack,’ Gobor sent. ‘Tha do be as bloodkin to this one and to all of the wolves of the Brildane.’

I swallowed, wondering how the pack would convey this to Swallow and Ana, and what would happen if Swallow attacked a wolf, trying to protect Ana. But I forced myself to pull on the boot I had been holding all the while and ask if I could have Rheagor and the other wolf buried.

Gobor refused, saying simply that the body of a wolf, bereft of spirit, was only meat, and better eaten by those who hungered, save only wolves, which did not eat their own kin.

It seemed a brutal end for the proud and beautiful Rheagor, but if this was the way of the Brildane I must respect it. I wondered if I should mention that the other wolves had been buried in the field by Swallow and the androne, and decided against it. There was no point.

Coming out into the light, I stopped and turned my face up to the bright blue sky, relishing the heat and the slight breeze.

‘ElspethInnle,’ sent Gahltha.

I turned to see him mounting the slope, black as night, his mane and tail flying in the wind, Falada, grey Sendari and little Faraf behind him. Joy welled up in me, as I threw my arms about the black horse and stroked his neck, laying my cheek against his throat. His coat was rough and full of tiny burrs but I thought I had seldom seen him look more beautiful. I would groom him thoroughly the first chance I got, although he cared nothing for the state of his coat or mane, though he did tell me later that he was somewhat irritated by a clump of prickles caught in his tail. In those first moments, he nudged and snuffled and whinnied at me as if he could not get enough of me.

‘I am so glad to see you,’ I whispered into his mind.

‘Marumanyelloweyes dreamtravelled to me,’ Gahltha sent. ‘He said mustcome.’

Faraf nuzzled at my shoulder, greeting me shyly, and as I turned to embrace her, I heard Sendari give a whicker of pleasure and I bade him a warm welcome too. Then I sent Faraf down to the square, in search of Dameon. Sendari wanted Swallow, but I sent him after Faraf, saying that Mornir, the beast name for Dragon, was there and she would be able to tell them where to find Swallow.

‘I must ride to Ahmedri now,’ Falada sent.

I nodded, remembering I had intended she would go back to Midland with Hendon. But that reminded me of my letter. I got it out of my pocket, rolled it into a tight tube and bound it well into the mare’s mane, bidding her draw the tribesman’s attention to it.

‘It is very important,’ I said.

She wanted to go at once then, and I wasted a few minutes trying to dissuade her before Gahltha bade me let her go. We watched her gallop away in a cloud of dust, and seeing her speed, I realised she was would likely reach Midland before night, if she could keep up such a pace. Even so, it would have been wiser for her to wait the night and set off the next day. That reminded me of the water Gahltha had said had protected them at Whelmer, but before I could ask about it, I heard a shout of joy and saw Dragon running up the street.