"I don"t know yet, but Karnak did not send the Brotherhood. When I killed the last man he had an image in his mind. He was thinking of a tall man, with black hair, greased to his skull. Slanted eyes, long robes of dark purple. He it was who sent them. And he is the same man who tried to hurt Krylla and me; the man who summoned the demons."
"From where did the Dark Knights come?"
"Dros Delnoch, and before that Gulgothir."
"Then that is where the answers lie," he said.
"Yes," she agreed, sadly.
Angel watched the Nadir leading the five horses across the clearing. Disgusting little savage, he thought! Everything about Belash sickened him, the slanted, soulless eyes, the cruel mouth, the man"s barbaric method of killing. It made Angel"s skin crawl. He glanced north at the distant mountains. Beyond these the Nadir bred like lice, living their short, violent lives engaged in one b.l.o.o.d.y war after another. There had never been a Nadir poet, nor an artist nor a sculptor. And never would be! What a vile people, thought Angel.
"Uses that knife well," observed Senta.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d Nadir," grunted Angel.
"I thought your first wife was part-Nadir?"
"She was not!" snapped Angel. "She was ... Chiatze. They"re different. The Nadir are not human.
Devils, all of them."
"Canny fighters, though."
"Talk about something else!" demanded Angel.
Senta chuckled. "How did you know they were coming? You walked away and fetched your sword from the cabin."
Angel frowned, then smiled, his mood clearing. "I smelt horse dung - the breeze was blowing from the south. I thought they might be more a.s.sa.s.sins. I wish they had been. Shemak"s b.a.l.l.s, but I was frightened when that spell fell upon me. I"m still not over it. To just stand, unable to move, while a swordsman approached me ..." He shuddered. "It was like my worst nightmare."
"Not something I"d like to repeat," agreed Senta. "Waylander said they were the Brotherhood. I thought they were wiped out in the Vagrian Wars."
Angel"s pale eyes scanned the bodies. "Well, they obviously weren"t."
"What do you know of them?"
"Precious little. There are legends of a sorcerer who founded the order, but I can"t remember his name, nor where they began. Ventria, I think. Or was it further east? They were called the Blood Knights at one time, because of the sacrifices. Or was it the Crimson Knights?"
"Forget it, Angel. I think "precious little" covered it."
"I never was much of a history student."
Belash approached them. "They are the Knights of Blood," he said. "The first of their temples was built in Chiatze three hundred years ago, founded by a wizard named Zhi Zhen. They became very powerful and tried to overthrow the Emperor. Zhi Zhen was captured after many battles and impaled on a golden spike. But the Order did not die out. It spread west. The Vagrian General Kaem used Brotherhood priests at the Siege of Purdol. Now they have reformed in Gothir, under a wizard named Zhu Chao."
"You are well-informed," said Senta.
"One of them killed my father."
"Well, they can"t be all bad," said Angel.
Belash stood for a moment, his flat features expressionless, his dark eyes locked to Angel"s face.
Then he nodded slowly and walked away.
"That shouldn"t have been said," chided Senta.
"I don"t like him."
That"s no excuse for bad manners, Angel. Insult the living, not the dead."
"I speak my mind," muttered Angel, but he knew Senta was right, and the insult left a bad taste in his mouth.
"Why do you hate them so?"
"I witnessed a ma.s.sacre. Sixty miles north of the Delnoch Pa.s.s. My father and I were travelling from Namib. We were in the hills, and we saw the Nadir attack a convoy of wagons. I"ll never forget it. The torture went on long into the night. We slipped away, but the screams followed us.
They follow me st ill. "
"I lived in Gulgothir for a while," said Senta. "I have relatives there, and we used to ride to the hunt. One day, high summer it was, the hunting party spotted three Nadir boys, walking beside a stream. The huntmaster shouted something and the riders broke into a gallop, spearing two of the boys as they stood there. The third ran. He was chased and cut a score of times, not enough to bring him down, but enough to keep him running. Finally he fell to the ground, exhausted and, I would guess, dying. The huntsmen, Gothir n.o.bles all, leapt from their horses and hacked him to pieces.
Then they cut off his ears for trophies."
"There is a point to this tale?" enquired Angel.
"Savagery breeds savagery," said Senta.
That"s today"s sermon, is it?"
"By Heaven but you are in a foul mood, Angel. I think I"ll leave you to enjoy it alone."
Angel remained silent as Senta moved back into the cabin.
Soon they would be heading north. Into Nadir country. Angel"s mouth felt dry and the flames of fear grew in his belly.
9
Ekodas loved the forest, the majestic trees living in quiet brotherhood, the plants and flowers cloaking the earth, and the serenity born of eternal life. When the world was young, the earth still warm, the first trees had grown here, living, breathing. And their descendants were still here, endlessly watching the small, fleet ing lives of men.
The young priest, his white robes now stained with mud, moved alongside a huge oak, reaching out to lay his hand upon the roughjbark. He closed his eyes. The tree had no heart to hear, yet there was still the pulsing beat of life within the trunk, the slow flowing of sap through the capillaries, the stretching of growth in new wood.
Ekodas was at peace here.
He walked on, his mind open to the sounds of the forest, the late birdsong, the skittering of small animals in the undergrowth. He sensed the heartbeat of a fox close by, and smelt the musky fur of an old badger. He stopped. And smiled. The fox and the badger were sharing a burrow.
An owl hooted. Ekodas glanced up. The light was fading, the sun dipping into the western sea.
He turned and began the long climb towards the temple. The debate came back to him then and he sighed, regretting the weakness which had driven him to betray his principles. Deep down he knew that Dardalion himself was now unsure of the path on which they stood. The Abbot had almost wanted to be free of the destiny he had planned for so long. Almost.
Yet if love had won the day then everything Dardalion had striven for would have seemed as nothing. A tragic waste of life and Talent. I could not do that to you, Dardalion, thought Ekodas. I could not make a mockery of your life.
The young priest drew in a deep breath, seeking to feel once more the calm of the forest. Instead there came a sharp, jagged stab in his mind. Anger. Fear. Arousal. l.u.s.t. Focusing his Talent, he scanned the trees. And sensed two men ... and ... yes, a woman.
Pushing his way through the bushes at the side of the track, he traversed the hill until he came to a deer-trail leading down into a deep gulley. He heard the sound of a man"s voice.
"Be sensible, woman. We"re not going to hurt you. We"ll even pay!"
Another voice cut in, harsh and deep. "Enough talk! Take the b.i.t.c.h!"
Ekodas rounded the final bend and saw the two men, foresters by their garb, standing with knives drawn and facing a young Nadir woman. She also held a knife and was waiting, poised, her back to a rock-face.
"Good evening, friends," said Ekodas. The first of the men, tall and slim, wearing a green tunic of homespun wool and brown leather leggings and boots, swung towards him. He was a young man, with sandy hair tied in a pony-tail.
"This is no place for a priest," he said.
Ekodas walked on, halting immediately before the man. "The forest is a wonderful place for meditation, brother." He sensed the man"s confusion. There was little that was evil in him, but his l.u.s.ts were aroused and they had clouded his reason. He wanted the woman, and his mind was seething with erotic thoughts and images.
The second man pushed forward. He was shorter and stockier, his eyes small and round. "Go back where you came from!" he ordered. "I"ll not be turned aside by the likes of you!"
"What you are planning is evil," said Ekodas softly. "I cannot permit it. If you continue along this gulley you will find the road to Estri. It is a small village and there is, I understand, a woman there who has a special smile for men with coin."
"I know where Estri is," hissed the second man. "And when I want your pigging advice I"ll ask for it. You know what this is?" The knife-blade came up, hovering before Ekodas" face.
"I know what it is, brother. What is your purpose in showing it to me?"
"Are you a halfwit?"
The first man took hold of his friend"s arm. "Leave it, Caan. It doesn"t matter."
"Matters to me. I want that woman."
"You can"t kill a priest!"
"Pigging watch me!" The knife swept up. Ekodas swayed aside, caught the man"s wrist and twisted the arm up and back. His foot snaked out, hooking behind the knifeman"s knee. The forester fell back. Ekodas released his grip and the man tumbled to the earth.
"I have no wish to cause you pain," said Ekodas. The man scrambled up and charged. Ekodas brushed aside the knife-arm and sent his elbow crashing into the man"s chin. He dropped as if poleaxed. Ekodas turned to the first man. "Take your friend to Estri," he advised. "And once there bid him goodbye. He brings out the worst in you." Stepping past the man he approached the Nadir woman. "Greetings, sister. If you will follow me I can take you to lodgings for the night. It is a temple, and the beds are hard, but you will sleep soundly and without fear."
"I sleep without fear wherever I am," she said. "But I will follow you."
Her eyes were dark and beautiful, her skin both pale and yet touched with gold. Her lips were full, the mouth wide and Ekodas found himself remembering the images in the forester"s mind. He reddened and began the long climb.
"You fight well," she said, drawing alongside him, her knife now sheathed in a goatskin scabbard, a small pack slung across her shoulders.
"Have you travelled far, sister?"
"I am not your sister," she pointed out.
"All women are my sisters. All men my brothers. I am a Source priest."
"Your brother down there has a broken jaw."
"I regret that."
"I don"t. I would have killed him."
"My name is Ekodas," he said, offering his hand. She ignored it and walked on ahead.
"I am Shia." They reached the winding path to the temple and she gazed up at the high stone walls. "This is a fortress," she said.
"It was once. Now it is a place of prayer."
"It is still a fortress."
The gates were open and Ekodas led her inside. Vishna and several of the other priests were drawing water from the well. Shia stopped and stared at them. "You have no women for this work?"
she asked Ekodas.
"There are no women here. I told you, we are priests."
"And priests have no women?"
"Exactly so."
"Only sisters?"
"Yes."
"Your little tribe won"t last long," she said, with a deep throaty chuckle.
The screams died down and a hoa.r.s.e, choking death-rattle came from the slave. His arms relaxed, sagging into the chains and his legs spasmed. Zhu Chao slashed the knife into the ribcage, sawing through the arteries of the heart and ripping the organ clear. He carried it to the centre of the circle, stepping carefully over the chalk lines that marked the stones, zig-zagging between the candles and the wires of gold that linked the chalice and the crystal. Laying the heart in the chalice he drew back, placing his feet within the twin circles of Shemak.
The Fourth Grimoire lay open on a bronze lectern and he turned the page and began to read aloud in a language lost to the world of men for a hundred millennia.
The air around him crackled, and fire ran along the wires of gold, circling the chalice in rings of flame. The heart bubbled, dark smoke oozing from it, billowing up to form a shape. Ma.s.sive rounded shoulders appeared, and a huge head with a cavernous mouth. Eyes flickered open, yellow and slitted. Long arms, bulging with muscle, sprouted from the shoulders.
Zhu Chao began to tremble, and felt his courage waning. The creature of smoke threw back its head and a sibilant hissing filled the room.
"What do you want of me?" it said.
"A death," answered Zhu Chao.
"Kesa Khan?"