Descent

  ‘In any case, your presence is very welcome,’ Liam assured her. ‘I was sent word from the High Queen that you are here to obtain certain information.’

  ‘Yes I, uh...’ All of a sudden Mia wasn’t sure what to say. Now that she was here, she couldn’t figure out what it was, really, that she wanted.

  ‘I’ve been having these dreams,’ she started, flustered. There were too many sets of eyes trained on her. ‘I ... I’m not sure...’

  ‘Forgive me for speaking out of turn,’ Gwen interrupted softly. ‘But have you ever heard of the basin of destiny, highness?’

  The Emperor looked at her, clearly surprised that she had spoken at all.

  ‘Of course,’ he replied. ‘There aren’t many who haven’t heard of its power.’

  ‘Well then you will know of the pull it has,’ Gwen said, and looked at Mia.

  Nodding, Mia took over. ‘When I looked in, Emperor,’ she said shakily, ‘I saw something that has led me to Tirana in search of answers, and I think you are the only one who might be able to give them to me.’

  Everyone in the tent was peering at her intently, and she looked down at the mat before she lost her place again. ‘Have you ever heard of a city called Samaraq?’

  The silence, somehow, became electric. She had no idea if the men spoke English, or if they were just reacting to the name. Liam stared at her, and suddenly he was no longer looking at her as a young girl, but as a woman who knew more than she should.

  ‘How do you know that name?’ he whispered.

  ‘I ... I dreamt of it. I dream of it. Every night. I need to find it. I need your help. Do you know where it is?’

  He shook his head slowly. ‘It’s gone. Thousands of years ago.’

  Mia clenched her teeth. ‘I know that. But I need to find it. I must.’ She leant forward. ‘I know everyone thinks it’s useless, but I have to try. Even if I could find where it once was.’

  Liam shrugged hopelessly. ‘It is gone. Completely lost to the years. There aren’t even any ruins left. Even if we could find the location where the city once lay, what do you think you will find.’

  Mia flushed.

  ‘I don’t know. I’ll just have to see what happens when we get there,’ she said determinedly.

  ‘Do you plan on walking the desert until you come across something? Because it is a very big place—’

  ‘I don’t care!’ she snapped suddenly, her voice in the quiet tent making the men bristle. It took her a moment to control herself. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, ‘I’m really sorry, I just...’

  Liam sighed and nodded. ‘A long time ago, there was said to be a scroll written by the Queen of Samaraq, because she knew what was going to happen to her beloved city. The scroll told of where the city lay, and how to find it once it was past the gates of the mortal world. But no one knows if the scroll actually existed.’

  ‘It must be real,’ Mia said excitedly, and Liam shook his head.

  ‘Do not be so sure, Mia. Even if we did find the scroll, which we probably will not, we would then have to decipher what it says, locate the site, and somehow follow the orders to find the city.’

  ‘We have to try. Please, Liam,’ Mia pleaded.

  He pondered for a while, then shrugged and smiled. ‘All right. I’ll help you. I’ve seen your kind do some great things, and if this is the wish of your heart, then who am I to deny a Bright One? I’m just warning you not to get your hopes up.’

  There was silence, and then Liam turned back to his brothers, who were waiting impatiently to converse with him. Mia frowned and looked through the opening of the tent. There were more tents everywhere, and a healthy bustle of people, but beyond that lay endless white sand. She didn’t know how the Kabduh found their way anywhere in the midst of it, and thanked her stars that she had Liam to help her.

  Claudia leant towards her. ‘You are sure?’

  Mia nodded. ‘We’ve come this far.’ The next day they once again entered the desert, in search of a wise man who Liam thought might be able to help. Lastaam had decided to come along again, even though he seemed to find the task of escorting women as enticing as cleaning the dirt off his shoes.

  Liam rode his horse next to Mia’s. ‘There is an oasis up ahead, and Sharif, our wise man, likes to dwell there,’ he told her as he led them through the sand. ‘Hopefully he will know of what we speak.’

  Mia was so hot she thought she might melt. She had already shed as many layers of clothing as she could before becoming indecent. On Earth, Mia could wear pretty much anything she wanted, but here in Paragor, and especially Tirana, she had to cover herself. How did the women survive in such heat?

  They came to the oasis half a day later, and Mia collapsed on the water in relief, washing her face and drinking like she’d never tasted water before. It was like a little paradise amid a burning hot hell. She had insect bites all over her face and hands, and she washed them in the water gratefully. Liam left them at the pool and went to find Sharif, returning shortly after to usher them all forward.

  Mia had a sense of foreboding as she entered the tent and saw the ancient man sitting on a mat on the floor. His eyes were shut and he did not stir, even after they were seated opposite him.

  They sat in silence, until Liam snapped something in his language and the man opened his eyes, grinning.

  He had only a few teeth in his mouth, and his face became so wrinkled when he smiled that Mia thought he looked almost mummified.

  ‘Thank you for seeing us,’ she said and Liam looked quickly at her.

  ‘Do not speak,’ he ordered and Mia frowned, embarrassed. The Emperor turned back to Sharif and began speaking at length in their dialect. Finally, Sharif turned to Mia.

  ‘Flame-haired woman,’ he said in a crackly voice, and Mia was surprised that he spoke English. She nodded. ‘You have come here to find something that does not belong to you, and which is not your concern.’

  Mia frowned again, starting to feel annoyed at the men in this country. ‘I beg to differ, sir,’ she said softly and Liam shook his head. She ignored him. ‘It’s my destiny.’

  ‘ Your destiny? But why?’ Sharif asked after a long silence. ‘You are a woman from a foreign land. This is not even your home. You have dragged these people along with you on a quest that is foolish at best.’

  Mia suddenly felt gutted. He was right. Everyone was right. She was on a wild goose chase, and had brought all these people from their homes, for what? She had no idea what she was trying so vainly to find.

  She looked down at her hands. She thought about Jack, and all her friends back in Amalia, about what she could be doing with them now if she hadn’t started this mess.

  ‘I know it seems foolish,’ she whispered. ‘I know it’s just a hopeless wish. But don’t you think, even for the most impossible tasks, there need to be people who will try anyway? What was lost ... it seems to me that it needs to be found again.’ She paused. ‘I know this isn’t my home,’ Mia said softly. ‘That’s what I’m trying to find.’

  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realised what had driven her over the sea and the desert. She was searching for a place.

  He looked at her carefully. ‘Your home,’ he repeated. ‘You know nothing about this place.’

  ‘Only because no one will tell me.’

  ‘All right. I shall tell you, so that you may understand your futility.’ Sharif repositioned himself on his mat. Mia felt her heart thump with sudden nerves.

  ‘The inhabitants of Samaraq were a great people—cunning warriors, eager to battle, fast to hunt. But they also lived their lives according to pleasures. They were not restricted by many rules. Some Kabduh say that they were banished because of the jealousy of the rest of the world. Some say it was due to fear. The religious practices were supposedly dark and bloody.

  ‘The Queen of Samaraq—Nayana—was perhaps the most devout believer in the ideals of equality. The treaty countries did not understand this. They thought her practices were wrong, s
o Samaraq was banished.’

  ‘Just like that?’ Mia asked, her brow crinkled. ‘I don’t understand—what do you mean by equality?’

  ‘All races and classes of people living together in harmony. It didn’t matter what class you were born into. If you wanted success and wealth, you worked for it. Nor was anyone judged or persecuted for their sexual orientation. Even the Amazonian women, who weren’t allowed in any of the other countries of Paragor because they were thought to be wild women, could live happily in Samaraq.’

  ‘And all this is different from the rest of Paragor?’

  ‘Clearly,’ Sharif murmured, ‘you haven’t been here long. In the end, it was the actions of Nayana herself that caused their downfall.’

  ‘What did she do?’

  ‘Along with training her army in a peculiar, and perhaps more sophisticated way, and allowing her people their freedom, Nayana fell in love with the wrong person.’

  ‘The wrong person?’ Mia repeated. ‘What does that mean?’

  Sharif shrugged. ‘I do not know any more than that. Only that it was this love that led to the demise of her people.’ Mia sat back. Finally, her incredulity could be contained no longer.

  ‘That’s all? An entire race of people were banished from existence because she fell in love with someone?’ That’s the most messed up thing I’ve ever heard! What kind of a world is this? Wasn’t she the queen? Couldn’t she do what she wanted?’

  ‘It was precisely because she was the queen that this happened. Her actions, unlike those of her people, could not be ignored. It was a last excuse.’

  Mia shook her head, not knowing how to respond.

  ‘I have told you why Samaraq was banished. Now you must tell me why you seek to find it,’ Sharif ordered.

  Mia sighed. ‘I honestly don’t know. I feel like maybe I have a connection with it. I can’t explain. Can’t you just help me find the scroll?’

  Sharif shrugged. ‘There is no scroll.’

  Mia thought she might burst into tears.

  ‘But there is a map. I will tell you where to find it.’

  Mia gave a loud whoop ‘Thank you! But ... why? I thought you said I was a foreigner with no connection to any of this.’

  Sharif smiled wryly, and then slowly he began to laugh. He didn’t stop for a long time. Finally he said, ‘There was never any doubt in my mind that you should be the one to find this city. I just needed to hear you fight for it.’

  Part 3

  Nayana

  They bowed low on the ground before her, their bodies prostrate. There were thousands of them—they filled the wide road as far back as the gate in the distance. She stepped up to the dais that had been set on the front steps of the palace. Her ladies had dressed her in royal purple and gold, but the mood in her heart did not reflect the vividness of her gown. There was death in her this day.

  Tye was behind her—she didn’t need to look to know that—and she took comfort from his presence. Their conversation last night had been heartbreaking. He had wanted to leave her.

  She had told him, without jest or humour, that if he left her while he still had feelings for her, she would have him killed for treason. He hadn’t laughed. He’d known how serious she was. He had simply nodded and asked her what her strategy would be.

  ‘People of Samaraq,’ Queen Nayana said, her voice strong and pitched to carry. ‘We have come out of this war in triumph. We have survived, and we are stronger for it.’ There was no response to this as there had been the first time she had stood here, when she had announced their defeat of the Scourge. Then there had been a mighty cheer of ecstasy, of relief and pride. Now they waited, sensing that something was wrong.

  ‘But our trials are not over,’ she went on. ‘We are being tested again.’ Gods, this was so hard. It was too much to ask of them. But of one thing she was sure. Nayana knew, more deeply than she knew any other truth, that someone should not be punished or persecuted for love. It was about freedom, and it extended to every aspect of their way of life here in the desert. The king and queen in Amalia would love to punish them for any number of the liberties they took.

  So she would press forward. She would not apologise. She would fight. And Nayana hoped, beyond anything she’d ever hoped for, that her people were truly her people. That she had taught them well enough for them to understand, and agree with her.

  ‘As all of you know, we have but one rule here. No discrimination of any kind. You are allowed, nay—encouraged—to love and marry whomever you please, regardless of class, wealth, race or sex. It seems that the treaty countries of Paragor would not allow me the same freedom.’

  She paused to search the faces below her. All kinds of people, from all over the world, who had come to live in the city that allowed them to be who they wished to be.

  ‘It is an easy thing to preach from a golden throne in a palace, ruling the city I live in. It is not so easy when it is I who is being condemned for my actions, by powers stronger than my own. But what kind of a queen would I be if I cowed at the first sign of reproach? If I cast away my beliefs at the first sign of danger?’

  Nayana shook her head, knowing that she had not yet come to the hardest part. She spread her hands, sighing.

  ‘They would have us punished—all of us—because I am in love with a servant,’ she said bluntly. ‘They would have me denounce my actions and name them wrong. They would have me take away all of your rights and turn this country into a colony of theirs. They propose a governor from their own city be sent here to act as a ruler alongside me, to watch over us and enforce our new way of life.’

  There were cries of outrage and fear from the enormous crowd.

  ‘Do you know what I told them?’ she cried and there came a stillness, a silence so deep it sank into her heart. ‘I told them I would rather die a thousand deaths, or endure being tortured for the rest of eternity, than to accept such an appalling insult!’

  A cheer erupted then, louder than she’d ever heard. Louder than when they’d defeated the Scourge.

  Nayana smiled. A smile of love, of defiance—a smile of pride.

  ‘Will you stand with me?’ she cried out to her people. ‘Will you stand with me against tyranny, against allowing an outsider to rule us in our own city?’

  Amid the deafening screams and cheers the queen turned around to look at the man behind her. She reached her hand out for him. He hesitated. His own pride was clear in his eyes, but so too was his worry.

  ‘Please,’ she whispered so that only he could hear.

  After a moment he took hold of her hand, and she drew him to her. And in front of her whole city, in front of every man and woman and child there, she allowed her dark-skinned servant to embrace her, as was their right.

  Chapter 17

  Jane looked into the darkened sky, streaked through with moving shadows. She shivered, hugging her arms around her body. There was no way she could describe the sensation of feeling alive again. No words to describe how her exhausted body seemed to revel in the fact that she was here in the real world. The relief was infinite. What she’d been met with upon her return, however, was not particularly relieving.

  ‘You never wear enough clothing,’ a voice said from behind her and she turned to see Fern passing her his cloak. She took it impassively, knowing he was immune to the cold.

  They stood together on the battlements of the ice castle and looked over the barren ground. Most of the forest had been torn down to make it easier to see oncoming attacks. The grass grew no longer, and there were large patches of burnt ground.

  ‘What has happened to the world?’ Jane whispered.

  Fern shook his head, saying nothing. After a moment he murmured, ‘Do you see that smudge on the horizon?’

  Jane shielded her eyes against the setting sun. ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s the Elvish watch-tower. If you ever see the light on it flashing, alert someone.’

  Jane nodded and pulled the cloak tighter about her. Large, black clouds were
moving in quickly above them. She’d been in the ice castle only an afternoon and had been warmly welcomed by Liensenne and the other princes. She’d been shown to a beautiful room and invited to stay for as long as she wanted.

  Only a few hours later and she already felt claustrophobic. She thought about the meeting that had just taken place below them in the meeting hall. She had followed Fern inside, accepting that she had to be involved now. That she wanted to be involved. It was her duty. She wasn’t going to fight it anymore.

  Quickly moving to the opposite side of the table to Fern, she sat down and realised belatedly that this meant she was going to be directly facing him. The queen and the other two princes joined them and Jane looked around expectantly.

  ‘Jane,’ Eben said, taking the lead as the eldest prince. ‘There are unfortunate tidings for you to hear, I’m afraid. In the last two years, things have changed in Paragor.’

  And so she had come to learn of the terrifying creatures that threatened the world. She listened in horror, not understanding how this place could be so different to how she remembered it.

  ‘What’s being done?’ she asked when the story was finished. Her eyes automatically went to Fern’s.

  ‘Not a lot,’ he replied softly. ‘The Elves have distributed special protecting threads throughout the three treaty countries, but they can’t cover every single town. There are many places that are being ravaged.’

  ‘Is there some way we can fight them?’

  ‘They can be killed if they attack physically,’ Silven murmured, ‘But they don’t always attack that way.’

  ‘Uns Lapodis and Lapis Matyr have armies of men who take turns in the watch-towers that are spread throughout the countries, but all they really do is sit and wait to be killed.’

  ‘And here in Cynis Witron?’

  ‘The Elves fight, but the humans don’t know how,’ Fern told her.

  The meeting dissolved without much being solved. Now, standing on the roof with Fern, Jane shook her head. ‘We need to do something,’ she said softly.