“Have the second group of scouts reached the place yet?” asked Seregil.
“Two hours ago, I’d say. They staked out a camp just below the temple. I didn’t want the two of you running into them by accident, so I came out to meet you.”
“Thanks. I’ll need you to get him the rest of the way.” Seregil glanced down at Alec with concern. “He doesn’t have much left in him. I’m surprised we made it as far as we did.”
“I’ll be all right,” Alec insisted, swaying as he got to his feet again.
“We’d better stick to the woods,” Micum said, slipping an arm under Alec’s. “It’s too exposed out here and I don’t know where they’ve posted guards. How far behind would you say Mardus is?”
“I lost all track of distance last night,” Alec confessed. “If the scouts have reached you, he can’t be much more than half a day behind.”
“What kind of force does he have with him?”
“I’m not certain, but I think he has at least forty soldiers, plus a gang of prisoners—maybe a hundred. And there’s the necromancer and a dyrmagnos.”
Micum’s eyes widened in alarm. “Damnation! He’s got one of those things with him? And prisoners?”
“I imagine it takes a lot of blood to make this Helm of theirs,” Seregil said bitterly. “Alec claims there were sacrificial murders on the ship as they came over, and more since they landed and met up with another force. That’s where this bunch of prisoners came from.”
“And the four of us are here to stop them?” Micum shook his head as they climbed up to the forest and started back.
With the help of Micum and Seregil, Alec managed to make it to the salt pine.
“Here you are at last, dear boy!” Nysander whispered, embracing Alec as he collapsed onto the carpet of dried needles. “I knew you would come back to us. And only just in time.”
“Seregil told me about the eclipse tomorrow,” said Alec, yawning as he settled with his back to the trunk.
“I know how weary you must be, but you must tell me all that you’ve learned. Then I promise, you shall rest. And you must eat!”
Seregil passed him some biscuit, cheese, and a skin of fresh water. Alec took a long gulp before he began.
“You were right, both of you,” he said, looking ruefully at Micum and Seregil. “I should’ve stayed at Watermead that night, but I was worried about Seregil. When I got back to the Cockerel—”
He paused, blinking back fresh tears.
“They know,” Seregil told him, moving closer beside him. “I got there at dawn and saw everything. What happened after that?”
“They jumped me as soon as I came in, Ashnazai and his men. I managed to wound a couple of them before they took me down.”
“Vargûl Ashnazai?” asked Nysander. “Ah, yes, I have heard of him.”
Alec smiled bitterly. “You won’t anymore. I killed the bastard last night. That’s how Thero and I got away. At least I did.”
He looked around at the others earnestly. “He saved my life. Whatever else he did, he saved my life and he’s probably dead now because of it. He used his magic to help us escape, then he changed me into a stag the way you did, Nysander.” Alec’s chin trembled but he didn’t stop. “I—I ran away. He chased me off and I ran. I can still hear—”
The wizard clasped Alec’s hands between his. “I won’t tell you not to grieve, dear boy, but you mustn’t blame yourself. Please, continue with your story. You were speaking of the inn.”
Alec wiped at his nose with a dirt-streaked forearm. “I don’t remember much after that, until I woke up aboard the ship. Mardus was there, and Ashnazai, another necromancer I didn’t see much of, and a dyrmagnos woman called Irtuk Beshar.” Steeling himself, he related his treatment aboard the Kormados.
Nysander listened in silence until he reached the nightmarish dinner with Mardus. “Mardus himself told you that the Helm must be given lives to build its power? You are certain of this?”
Alec nodded grimly. “He said the younger the victim, the more power the death gives. It was Mardus’ idea of revenge to have Thero and me be the last sacrifices at the final ceremony.”
Seregil looked up sharply at this. “That’s the key! If we strike quickly, before they complete the sacrifices, maybe we have a chance against this thing.”
“Perhaps, but we must not underestimate its initial capabilities,” warned Nysander. “It may well have some degree of power from the moment of completion. Very well. Go on, Alec.”
Too tired to be anything but matter-of-fact about the nightly horrors Vargûl Ashnazai had visited on them, Alec quickly outlined the details of the overland journey.
Seregil went pale as he described the visitation by Cilla and the invectives she’d hurled at him.
“Phantasms, nothing but illusions conjured up by this terrible man,” Nysander assured him. “Such spells turn your own fears and imaginings against you.”
“But what about when I saw Seregil?” Alec asked. “That was real. I touched him, felt him bleeding. There was blood on my hands the next day.”
“More illusion,” said Nysander. “He created Seregil’s image using some poor victim so that the death would be convincing. Someone certainly died in front of you that night. I imagine Ashnazai meant to break your spirit once and for all.”
Alec glanced guiltily in Micum’s direction. “I enjoyed killing him. I know that’s wrong, but I did.”
“Don’t fret over it,” Micum said with a grim smile. “I’d have felt the same in your place. There’s no dishonor in killing a mad creature like that.”
Seregil chuckled blackly. “I plan to enjoy killing Mardus just as much.”
“Vengeance is not our purpose,” Nysander reminded them firmly. “Never allow yourselves to forget that their god can use our own emotions and weakness against us. Now allow Alec to finish his account so he can rest.”
“There’s not much to tell. After we got away from the camp Thero used the same spell you showed me the day you turned us into animals. I didn’t know what he was doing until it was too late to stop him. Once he’d turned me into a stag, I ran. If he’d just given me a chance maybe I could have helped him, but something happened to my mind, just like the last time.”
“There was nothing you could have done against anything conjured up by the likes of Irtuk Beshar,” Nysander said. “Thero’s decision was wise and honorable.”
“As I see it, the real question is how to get at the Helm in the first place,” Micum interjected. “Alec says Mardus has at least two score soldiers with him. They’re not just going to stand flat-footed while we waltz in.”
“We’ll have to see how they distribute themselves at the temple tomorrow,” Seregil said, going to his pack. “Assuming Mardus wasn’t lying to Alec, then the prisoners will have to be close at hand during the ceremony. If we could get them loose, they could provide a diversion.” Turning, he handed Alec his bow case and sword.
“You brought them!” Alec exclaimed, pulling the limbs of the Radly from the case and fitting it together.
“And your quiver,” Seregil told him. “If Nysander’s right about this prophecy of his, then you’ll be needing these.”
“There’s plenty of high ground overlooking the temple site,” Micum noted. “Alec could pick off some of the guards around the prisoners, start a panic. If the prisoners have any spirit left in them at all, they’ll fight or run. Either way, it would give the rest of us a chance to make a dash for it in the confusion.”
“There are only a score of arrows here,” Alec said, opening the quiver to check his fletching. “Even if I made every shot, that still leaves a lot of armed men to deal with. These are Plenimaran marines we’re talking about.”
“We’ll have our hands full, all right, but I doubt we’ll have to take them all on at once,” said Micum. “My guess is Mardus will post sentries and leave some others on guard at their encampment. It’s the dyrmagnos I’m most worried about. Tell me more about her.”
“She’s pure evil,” Alec answered bitterly. “What she did to me, and to Thero—I don’t even know how to tell you. By the time she was finished with me, I’d told her every damn thing she wanted to know. Nysander was right not to tell us very much. Once she started in on me, there was nothing I could do to stop her.”
“I feared as much,” murmured the wizard.
“When we finally did escape, she sent something after us. I didn’t see it, but just the sound of it was enough to freeze your blood!”
“This is all excellent news,” Nysander exclaimed, rubbing his white hands together in satisfaction. “The sacrifices, the spells she used on Alec and Thero, the creature. From the sound of things, she has allowed herself little respite since her attack against me at the Orëska House. No one, not even a dyrmagnos, can expend so much power over such a short period of time without it exacting a toll. Once she has finished with the Helm, she should be at least somewhat weakened. If we attack her then, perhaps we can disable her long enough to carry out our mission. And now, Alec, you should get what sleep you can. The greatest trial of all still lies before us.”
“That’s for certain,” Micum muttered. “Four against forty. I’m going back down the road to keep an eye out for Mardus.”
But Alec felt no dread as he stretched out under Seregil’s cloak. No matter what happened, it couldn’t be worse than what he’d already been through.
Micum found an outcropping that overlooked the coastal track and settled down to wait.
The weather had held fair; the sun felt warm against his back as he lay in his hiding place, listening to the sound of the birds in the woods around him. Looking out through the trees on the west side of the road, he could see the green waves rolling across the Inner Sea and the flocks of sea ducks that rode them.
What little he’d seen of Plenimar didn’t look all that different from Skala. In fact, it appeared to be a pretty fine place overall—except for the Plenimarans.
It was midafternoon before he heard the first horses approaching. A vanguard of riders passed at a gallop. Soon after he saw more riders coming on at a walk at the head of a column of marines.
Micum had seen enough of Mardus up in Wolde the previous autumn to recognize him now, riding at the head of it. He wore military dress and the way he sat his mount told Micum this man was accustomed to command.
A woman in rich riding apparel rode at his side, her presence puzzling until Micum caught sight of her face and realized what she was. Flattening lower, he lay scarcely breathing, until the dyrmagnos had ridden past.
Behind them came more riders and marines. Micum spotted a few familiar faces among them, Captain Tildus and several of the soldiers who’d been with him in Wolde. The dispassionate calm that had kept him alive through so many battles settled over Micum as he silently marked men for death.
A line of wagons followed, including the bear cart Alec had described. As it came abreast of Micum’s hiding spot, he saw a thin, half-naked man sprawled face down in the bottom of it. He couldn’t make out the face, but from the build he guessed it was Thero. Another wagon was loaded with small wooden cages, and a black bull was tethered to this one.
Next came a long procession of prisoners stumbling along in chains. Women, men, and children, some hardly older than Illia, marched in dispirited silence beneath the watchful eye of their mounted guards. Behind them came wagons, servants, and livestock.
Micum’s heart sank as he watched the last of the column pass. Alec had missed his guess; there were closer to a hundred soldiers.
By the Flame, he thought. We’ve got our work cut out for us this time.
While Micum was gone, Seregil spent some time spying on the Plenimaran camp, then went back to check on Alec.
He was still asleep, curled on his side beneath the cloak. A pained frown furrowed his brow, and his fingers twitched restlessly as he fought his way through whatever dreams still haunted him. Sitting down next to him, Seregil gently stroked Alec’s tangled hair until the shadow left his face.
Nysander sat with several arrows across his lap. He’d produced a small dish of paint from somewhere and was painting symbols on one of the shafts with a fine brush.
Watching Alec sleep, Seregil shook his head with concern. “Do you really think he’ll be up to fighting tomorrow?”
“He is young, and not badly hurt,” the wizard assured him, not looking up from his work. “All he needs is rest.”
Seregil rubbed absently at his chest. The last of the scab was peeling away and it itched. As his fingers brushed across the scar, he felt the tiny raised whorls of the disk’s imprint.
It felt different.
Reaching for Micum’s pack, he dug out the shaving mirror and held it out to see the scar. The round shape of the disk and the small square mark left by the hole at its center were still outlined in shiny new skin, but the imprint of the design had changed. What had originally been a cryptic pattern of lines and whorls had somehow transformed into a circular device of stylized knives, eyes, and necromantic runes.
“Nysander, look at this!” He pulled the neck of his tunic wider.
Nysander’s bushy white brows shot up in surprise. “Do you recall me telling you that the design on the wooden disk concealed another? This is one of the siglas of the Empty God.”
Seregil inspected it again. “I can read them. The runes, I mean. They’re right way around in the mirror. I hadn’t thought of it before, but since this is a brand, the whole design is backward.”
Nysander tugged thoughtfully at his beard. “If this sigla is intrinsically magical rather than merely symbolic, such a reversal would have a significant effect on its power. It may even have helped protect you from the effects of the crown.” He smiled ruefully. “I should have guessed it sooner, I suppose, but I had been putting your survival down to your magical dysfunction. This may well have been an ameliorating factor.”
Seregil, hoping to get a little sleep stretched out beside Alec. “I’d call that left-handed luck, but I guess I’ll take any kind I can get. I just hope it works for us tomorrow.”
Nysander took up his brush again. “As do I, dear boy.”
49
UNDER THE BLACK SUN
Alec slept on through the night while Nysander and the others listened to the Plenimarans at work preparing the temple site. They also heard the chanting, and later the screams and moans that drifted to them on the wind from the encampment. Micum wanted to investigate, but the wizard forbade it.
“We know well enough what they are doing. The dyrmagnos is more dangerous than ever during such ceremonies. If not for the protective magic I have placed around us, she would have sensed us already. We are safe enough for now, but we must wait for morning before we move. You should rest while you can. I fear there will be little opportunity to do so tomorrow.”
Scratching a circle around the base of the pine, he seated himself against the opposite side of the trunk and closed his eyes.
Alec woke just before sunrise the next morning and was surprised at how rested he felt. He had a few scrapes and aches from the previous day’s journey, but he scarcely noticed them.
Seregil was asleep close beside him, one arm under his head, the other stretched out toward Alec. His face was wind-burned and there were pine needles tangled in his long dark hair, but that only seemed to enhance his strange beauty.
I kissed him! Alec thought in a sudden agony of embarrassment. In the midst of all the horror they had faced, and all they’d face today, he had kissed Seregil. His teacher. His friend. His—what? Worse yet, if Nysander hadn’t been sitting a few feet away, he might have been tempted to do it again.
I can’t think about that now, he groaned inwardly, cheeks flaming. It wasn’t that he regretted it. He just didn’t know yet what it meant, or what he wanted it to mean.
Sitting up, he saw that Micum had gone out already. Nysander was sitting on the other side of the tree and didn’t stir or look around when Alec went over to the pile
of packs. He found a spare set of breeches and some low boots in Seregil’s, then turned his attention to his bow.
Stringing it, he ran careful fingers up and down the braided string, looking for any frays or weak spots. After so many weeks of disuse, it needed waxing.
There was a tack pouch in his quiver, but he didn’t see it with the rest of the gear. Looking around, he spied it lying on the ground next to Nysander. In with his red-fletched arrows were four newly fletched with white swan feathers. Taking up the quiver, he touched one of the crisp white vanes and felt a sharp tingle of magic against his finger. He jerked his hand away, then gingerly pulled the arrow from the quiver for a closer look. The shaft was covered from point to nock with tiny, intricate symbols painted in blue ink.
“No spell can improve on the skill of your hand and eye,” Nysander murmured, eyes still closed, “but those four arrows carry magic that will pierce the skin of the dyrmagnos. She must be your first target once the Helm is complete. See no one else, aim for nothing else until one of these has struck her. Even my magic cannot kill her, but it will weaken her while we attack. Strike her in the heart if you can manage it.”
“You can depend on it,” Alec replied stonily. The boy who’d wavered taking first aim at a man was long gone. He touched the nock, imagining the feel of it on the string just before he let it fly.
I hope I see her face when it hits her.
Seregil sat up and brushed pine needles from his hair. “Any sound from our neighbors?”
“Not for some time now,” Nysander told him, opening his eyes and stretching. “Micum went out a short while ago to check their camp.”
Seregil peered out through the pine boughs. “I think I’d like a look at the temple again before too many people are stirring. What do you say, Alec. Fancy a walk before breakfast?”
They kept a sharp eye out for sentries as they made their way down to the north side of the cove.
“So that’s what those holes were for,” Seregil muttered, looking across to the temple site through the underbrush.