Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Part 131

'What?' he said impatiently.

'We can't go after Thiazzi. Not now.'

He stared at her.

'If you killed him now,' she whispered, 'you'd be confirming every lie he's told them about the Open Forest.'

'But Renn. What are you saying?'

'We have to go back to the Open Forest. Find Fin-Kedinn. Warn the clans what's happening.'

'You can't mean this.'

Wading closer, she gripped the dugout with both hands. 'Torak, I've seen these people! They do everything he says. Slashing their faces, cutting off hands. They will attack the Open Forest!'

He began to be angry. 'I swore an oath, Renn. I swore to avenge my kinsman.'

'This is bigger than vengeance. Can't you see? If Thiazzi dies, they'll think it's an Open Forest plot.'

'But he's not their Mage! Once he's dead, they'll see that!'

'They won't care! Torak, think! If you killed him, they'd see it as proof of what he said. They'd attack. The Open Forest would fight back. There'd be no stopping it!'

He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. 'You said you'd help me. Are you deserting me now?'

She flinched as if he'd struck her. 'If you go after Thiazzi, I'll have to. Someone has to warn the Open Forest.' In her voice he heard an echo of Fin-Kedinn: the same flinty resolve to do what was right, no matter what the cost.

'Renn,' he said. 'I cannot turn around now. I need you to come with me. Do this for me.'

'Torak I can't!'

He looked at her standing there with the black water swirling round her calves. 'Then that's how it is,' he said. Digging in his paddle, he started upriver.

TWENTY-SEVEN.

Renn stood in the freezing shallows, staring blankly into the darkness.

She couldn't believe Torak was really gone. It was a mistake. It had to be. Any moment now and he'd reappear and say sorry. 'You're right. We've got to get back to the Open Forest.' He wouldn't just leave her.

But he had. She faced the long, dangerous journey without him.

And she was quite sure that he would never get near Thiazzi. How could he, when the Oak Mage held the Deep Forest in his fist? Thiazzi would kill him. She would never see Torak again.

A reed tapped her on the shoulder, and the willows murmured a warning. Better get away from here, fast.

Biting her lower lip hard, she squelched towards the nearest dugout. She got behind it and pushed, but the heavy pine didn't budge. Slithering in the mud, she gave it another heave, and the boat jerked loose and splashed into the shallows.

Swiftly she tossed in quiver, bow and boots, and jumped in after them. But as she made the first stab with her paddle, the dugout tipped sharply, nearly throwing her out. She paddled frantically.

Shadowy hunters dragged her back to land.

'You helped the outcast get away,' said the Forest Horse Leader.

'Yes.'

'Where did he go?'

'B-back to the Open Forest.'

'You're in league with him.'

'He's my friend.'

'You're in league with him against the Deep Forest.'

'N-no.' Her teeth were chattering the chill of the river was seeping into her marrow but they wouldn't let her ash.o.r.e. Scarred faces loomed over her, engulfing her in a stink of tallow, wet wovenbark and hate.

'You poisoned us with Magecraft,' said the Forest Horse Leader.

'No.'

'You put a sleeping-draught in our water.'

So she'd guessed rightly. But who had done it, and why?

'You put a spell on us!'

Renn hesitated. Taking credit for others' deeds had been her mother's skill. 'I warned you I was a Mage,' she said coldly. 'None of you was hurt. And none will be if you take me to the Auroch Mage.'

The air crackled with fear and hatred. Renn prayed that their fear would prove the stronger.

'Why would we do that?' said the Forest Horse Leader.

'The Auroch Mage has the respect of all,' Renn said haughtily. 'I will speak only to him.'

'You're in no position to bargain,' hissed the Leader.

Renn thought fast. 'Is this how the Forest Horses respect the truce?' she said. 'By scorning the Auroch Mage? What do the Aurochs say about that?'

It was the turn of the Forest Horse Leader to hesitate.

The shelter of the Auroch Mage squatted like a toad in the lee of a fallen spruce.

The Aurochs had brought her here blindfold by river, then overland and she had no idea where she was, although she knew by the smell that she was close to the burnt lands.

'Our Mage is old and frail,' they'd warned her as they slipped off the blindfold, 'you mustn't tire him. And remember, you're only seeing him because he wishes it.' Then they'd vanished into the Forest, leaving her alone before the shelter.

She stood with her hands tied behind her back, in a tangle of deadnettle still damp with dew. Above her towered the tree's root disc, smelling of earth and rotting wood. It was pitted with the nests of bats and owls, and hung with auroch horns incised with spirals. From these and the encircling pines, slender ropes of red wovenbark trailed into the shelter's smoke-hole. Renn guessed they were spirit ladders, to help the Mage climb to the spirit world.

The shelter itself appeared oddly homely. A fragrant haze curled from the smoke-hole, and the wovenbark cloth across the doorway was decorated with a border of trotting aurochs.

'Come inside,' said a faint voice.

Awkwardly because of her bound hands, Renn got down on her knees, nosed aside the wovenbark, and shuffled in.

The fire was small, but welcoming. Above it, the red tails of the spirit ladders dangled through the smoke-hole, dancing in the heat. On the other side of the fire, Renn saw her bow and the stolen arrows lying beside a mound of leaves.

It shifted. 'I've sent my people away,' wheezed a voice as quiet as a summer breeze in a sapling. 'When two Mages meet, it's best if they're not overheard.'

Renn bowed respectfully. 'Mage.'

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw that the Mage was entirely covered in leaves. Layer on layer of fresh foliage holly, birch, spruce, willow feathered his robe in every shade of green. On his breast hung chunks of gra.s.s-coloured amber knotted on a nettlestem string. His hood was drawn low over his face Renn couldn't see his eyes but she felt his scrutiny.

'Why do you disturb my prayers?' he murmured, although without reproach.

Renn wondered how to begin. If the Auroch Mage was as fair as people said, and if he hadn't fallen wholly under Thiazzi's spell, she had a chance. If not . . .

'There's a Soul-Eater in the Deep Forest,' she blurted out.

'A Soul-Eater?'

'His name is Thiazzi. He set the Aurochs against the Forest Horses and now he's making them attack the Open Forest.' She gulped. It was a huge relief to get it out.

The green robe rustled as the Mage reached for a stick and prodded the embers. Willow leaves at the hem curled in the heat, and Renn saw a beetle scramble for safety. 'This is grave news,' whispered the Mage. 'Who is this Thiazzi?'

A small amber bead fell from a fold in his robe and rolled to the edge of the fire. Renn wondered if she ought to pick it up. 'He's the Oak Clan Mage,' she said. 'He killed the Forest Horse Mage. He took the place of their new Mage. The Mage you've been speaking to . . . he's not who you think.'

'No?' He sounded bemused. 'And you've made all this out by yourself?'

'Yes,' Renn lied.

'Who are you?'

'I'm Renn. A Mage of the Raven Clan. I tried to warn the others, but they wouldn't listen.'

'And you came here to defeat the Soul-Eaters.'

'With your help, Mage.'

'Ah,' sighed the Mage, his chest gently heaving with each breath.

In the fire, the amber bead sizzled and flared. Renn caught a familiar tang. That's not amber, she thought. It's spruce-blood.

'To defeat the Soul-Eaters,' said the Mage, who seemed to be growing, filling the shelter. His chest heaved with laughter as he threw back his hood and shook out his russet mane. 'And how,' said Thiazzi, 'do you intend to do that?'

TWENTY-EIGHT.

The Oak Mage was in no hurry to kill her.

Reaching into the sleeve of his robe, he brought out a handful of spruce-blood pellets and shook some into his mouth. Renn watched his yellow teeth grinding them to nothing. She saw a golden speck caught in the tangle of his beard. The truth settled upon her like snow. Thiazzi was the Auroch Mage and the Forest Horse Mage. He'd killed them both and taken their place, making use of the Forest Horse mask and the Auroch's solitary vigils. Soon one of them would disappear, and the other would rule alone.

Only Renn knew his secret. And he knew that she knew.

The yellow teeth went on grinding. The green eyes watched her lazily.

Kneeling before him with her hands tied behind her back, she was utterly in his power. He spat a crumb at the fire and smiled to see her cringe. 'I suppose you're going to swear to me that you won't tell anyone.'

She tried not to tremble. 'No point,' she said.

His eyes gleamed. 'And no point pretending you're not terrified.'

She did not reply.

With awesome speed for so huge a man, he crossed to her side of the fire, engulfing her in rustling leaves and a stinging smell of spruce. His hand circled her throat: his three-fingered hand. Rough stumps searched her flesh till they found the vein. He grinned to feel her terror hammering under her skin. He could snap her neck like kindling. One twist, and it was the end.

Her thoughts darted like minnows. Say something. Anything. 'The the fire-opal,' she gasped.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his free hand move to his chest. Had she imagined it, or did a shadow cross his face? But what could the Oak Mage possibly fear?

She took a leap in the dark. 'You haven't told her,' she said.

'Told who?' he replied a shade too quickly.

' Eostra,' she whispered, and the name turned her voice as cold as the breath of a bone-mound. 'You haven't told her you've got it. But she knows. Oh, yes. The Eagle Owl Mage always knows. She's coming after you.'

His red tongue slid out and licked his lips. 'You can't possibly know that.'

'But I do. I have my mother's gift.'

'Your mother?'

'Can't you see?' She met his gaze. 'The Viper Mage. I bear her marrow in my bones . . . I know what Eostra intends.'