Assail

EPILOGUE

Shimmer opened her eyes to find herself once more standing among the grassy hills and broad ring of canted stone menhirs mottled orange and olive-green by lichens. It was chill, the day was bright, the sky blue and dotted with wispy clouds, yet she could not see the sun. Now she understood why she was here, and she sighed, hugged herself, and started walking a circuit of the stones.

Soon she discovered she was not alone. Smoky, the dead mage — who was not dead in truth — walked with her. His sandalled feet kicked the frayed and scorched edges of his brown woollen robes. He walked with his hands clasped behind his back, resolutely not looking to her … waiting.

After a time, she asked: ‘How long have you known?’

‘We didn’t really know,’ he answered while he scratched at his patchy beard. ‘We suspected.’

‘Yet you said nothing.’

‘We would not burden the living.’

‘In which I no longer number,’ she observed, and was surprised by the lack of bitterness in her voice.

‘Yet you could return, as before. The option remains for you.’ She halted. ‘Why just me? Why not any of you?’

He stopped with her, rubbed his chin ferociously, his gaze lowered. ‘Not just you, Shimmer. K’azz was the first to discover this.’

Though she understood that she was not breathing in this place, Shimmer felt her breath catch and her chest tighten in dread — old habits. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, slowly.

Still unable to match her gaze, he said, ‘He died long ago, Shimmer. When Skinner and Cowl buried him alive — he died. Yet he did not die. He discovered the truth of the Vow then. Eventually, he clawed his way free.’

He drew a heavy breath — perhaps merely in a gesture to put her at ease. ‘I’m sorry. Anyway,’ and he shrugged, ‘had to happen some time. And we are coming back. Slowly. Eventually, we will return.’

She nodded her understanding. ‘I see. Like the T’lan Imass.’

He answered her nod, his hand at his beard. ‘Yes. Somehow, our Vow echoed theirs. Perhaps it was the location — the physical source of this spirit realm. Or K’azz’s words. Or the spirit of our intent and conviction.’ He lifted his bony shoulders once more. ‘Who knows?’

‘But we can never … leave.’

‘Yes.’

She faced him. ‘So … everyone is here? All the fallen? Petal? Sept? Cole? Even … Skinner?’

‘Yes. All the Brethren.’

She peered round, seeing no one. ‘Well? Where are they?’

‘We’ve found it best not to overwhelm. First things first.’

She studied him, her gaze narrowing. ‘Such as?’

‘As before. Do you wish to return?’

‘Return? You mean … I may? I can?’

‘Yes.’

For some reason she felt terribly unworthy of this gift. Unwilling to pursue it, as if it would be an insult to all the Brethren who had come here before her. ‘Why me? Why not the others?’

He raised a hand as if to calm her. ‘I understand, Shimmer. Do not worry yourself. Some choose not to. Some do. In time, they will.’

She took another steadying breath, though she knew it for a deceit. ‘Very well. Then yes, I choose to return.’

He nodded at this and smiled crookedly. ‘We all knew you would.’ He held out his hand. ‘Farewell … for now.’

She reached for his hand but somehow her fingers passed through his and she blinked, the world growing dim, then she blinked again to glowing brightness that made her flinch and cover her eyes. Someone held her hand and she saw that it was K’azz.

‘Welcome back, Shimmer.’

‘I wasn’t really gone, was I?’ she said in wonder.

‘No. Not really.’ He and Blues helped her up and steadied her. They still stood upon the ice-field.

‘Did you know?’ she asked of Blues.

He scowled his dismay and amazement. ‘I knew something wasn’t adding up, but …’ he took a shuddering breath, ‘I still can’t believe it.’

Cal-Brinn offered his hand and she took it, squeezing.

‘You knew, yes?’

The old mage nodded. ‘I suspected. Omens and hints from Rashan told me to wait. That answers would come here. And so I waited.’

‘I see. What now, then?’

‘Now we wait a little more,’ and he gestured to the gathered Ice-bloods. They were peering up towards the cloud-obscured heights. Even the Imass faced the north. The wind sighed and hummed as it whipped between their bones.

‘And what of us?’ she asked K’azz.

‘We return to Stratem — all of us.’

She nodded her heartfelt agreement. ‘Yes. All of us.’

They waited in silence then. Shimmer now understood their long shared silences. They were Avowed. They could wait. A thought struck her, and she asked, ‘And what of Cowl?’

K’azz had been gazing off down the mountain slope and the immense vista beyond of snow and twisting spine-like ridges of black stone. He lowered that gaze to his feet, his brow clouding. ‘Yes. Cowl. He blames me still. He would kill me if he could, I think.’

‘I see that now. He thought I would share his rage.’

He shot her a brief, wary glance. ‘And … do you?’

She shook her head, sighed, and crossed her arms. ‘No. It was not deliberate. We all chose to swear. No. I am not angry.’

She felt the tension uncoil within him, saw his shoulders ease. He murmured, his voice thick, ‘Thank you, Shimmer.’

The afternoon lengthened. The light beneath the clouds darkened to a silvery pewter where shadow and light seemed to melt together. Movement drew her eye: a lone figure descended the rocky slope. A thick bear cloak draped his shoulders and a patch covered one eye. He walked thumping his long dark-wood spear to the stones as he came and Shimmer felt an atavistic shiver upon seeing him.

‘Success, it would seem,’ K’azz remarked.

The Sayer, Orman, went to his brothers and sisters among the Icebloods and clasped arms. Next came Silverfox and the Bonecaster, Pran Chole, followed by Kilava. These went to the Imass and the other Bonecasters, Ut’el and Tolb Bell’al. Their sharing was in silence.

First to come to them was Silverfox. She walked alone to stand before K’azz. Her face it seemed could not help but carry sadness and hurt when she looked upon him and the rest of them. ‘I’m sorry,’ she began again, but K’azz raised a hand to silence her.

‘There is nothing for you to apologize for. What happened above? Are the others coming? Kyle?’

She drew a weary breath — one touched by a measure of disbelief. ‘We struck an accord. I have formally sworn off all hostilities towards the Jaghut. For reasons of their own, the Forkrul decided not to intervene.’

‘Well done.’

‘Do not thank me. Your friend, the Whiteblade, was instrumental.’

‘And where is he?’

‘He waits above with the bard for their companion, the Andii, who has entered into an exchange with the Forkrul …’ The shake of her head told what she thought of that decision, and of his chances.

‘I see. Well, I congratulate you all the same, Silverfox. I have heard the tale of your coming into your birthright in south Genabackis. The Pannion wars. I believe that all those who had a hand in your raising would feel vindicated and immensely proud right now.’

Shimmer saw that these words struck the woman deeply. She blinked back tears, nodding. ‘Thank you, K’azz. You are generous even when …’ she could not continue, and had to break off to master herself. ‘Even when the curse of the Imass has fallen upon you and yours.’

He held out his open hands. ‘We came to this of our own accord. It probably would not have emerged, otherwise.’

She tilted her head, agreeing, and pushed back her greying curls behind an ear. ‘You understand that I am not the Summoner for you?’

His answering smile was gentle. ‘Yes. We understand. We must await ours.’

She tilted her head again and offered Shimmer a shy smile of farewell that was so incongruous on the face of an elder that she had to answer with her own. ‘Good luck,’ Shimmer offered.

After she left, Kilava joined them. She regarded K’azz with a critical eye — perhaps her normal expression. ‘So, K’azz of the Red Clan. Full circle.’

He nodded his grave agreement. ‘Indeed.’

‘This was never our intent. The opposite, in fact.’

‘I know. What of you, then?’

She frowned her uncertainty. ‘I believe I will walk for a time with the Summoner — at least until we cannot bear each other’s company. We shall see.’

K’azz offered his hand, which she took. She took Blues’ and Cal-Brinn’s hands as well, but when Shimmer offered hers, the woman pulled her close and hugged her with alarming strength. ‘I’m glad to see you are back with us,’ she whispered, and released her. Shimmer stood rather shocked, unable to frame a reply. ‘Farewell, Red Clan,’ she said. ‘We will see one another again.’

The T’lan Imass set off across the ice-field. To her eyes they appeared so lonely, so frail, yet she knew this was not the truth at all. She felt that she was watching something timeless, yet something that would never be seen again.

The Iceblood Orman came to them next. He was flanked by his twin guards, both quiet and watchful. He leaned upon his tall spear and regarded them with his one good eye. He still loomed taller than they.

He nodded to Cal-Brinn. ‘My thanks, Crimson Guard, for your defence of the Losts. I am grateful. What now for you? Will you await your friends above?’

K’azz shook his head. ‘They will know where to find us, if they wish. We are for our homeland, Stratem. Best of fortunes to you, Orman of the Sayer. I hope you can carve out a homeland as well.’

The lad’s eye glittered with a new confidence. ‘Oh, I believe we shall.’

‘Farewell, then.’ And K’azz bowed his head, as did Shimmer, Blues and Cal-Brinn. They headed off, following in the tracks of the T’lan Imass.

Cal-Brinn, however, turned back as if struck by a thought. ‘Orman,’ he called.

The lad looked up, ‘Yes?’

‘The Losts. Stalker and Badlands. They may still be alive. It’s just that … they’re lost again.’

Orman ruefully shook his head. ‘I see. Thank you,’ and he waved a farewell.

They returned to tramping through the snow. ‘Let us collect our scattered people,’ K’azz said as they pushed onward through the drifts. He offered Blues a joking smile. ‘Shall we split up to do so?’

Blues waved his arms in alarm. ‘Gods no! No more goddamned splitting up!’

Shimmer’s quiet smile was so fierce it almost hurt her lips. It was good to have K’azz back with them.

*

Orman watched the mercenaries, the Crimson Guard, wading their way through the snow down the ice-field. Beyond them, far down the serpentine slope, the Imass, the Army of Dust and Bone, had already disappeared. How odd it seemed to him now that he should pity them, his former enemy, labouring as they did beneath an endless curse. Yet endless no longer. Their Summoner had come. Perhaps, then, they would find deliverance.

They might no longer be enemies — at least for the time being — but he hoped never to see them again.

He turned back to his people. What he now saw as his extended family. Keth and Kasson followed, walking just behind at each shoulder. He planted Svalthbrul and examined these three: all survivors like himself. All knowing the true perils and secrets of these heights.

He nodded to them. ‘It seems these upper slopes are ours once more. I doubt we shall ever see the Army of Dust and Bone again. If their queen has her way they shall remain of the dust and the earth. So, my offer stands. Shall we rebuild a Greathall and hold it together?’ He looked to Baran and Erta of the Heels.

The brother and sister exchanged bruised and exhausted glances. Baran pulled on his tangled beard. ‘The question is where? These valleys are all scraped clean of trees and soil.’

‘If I may,’ the Myrni girl, Siguna, began timidly, ‘there are woods on the slopes farther to the west.’

‘What of the heights?’ Baran asked.

‘We must guard them still,’ Orman answered. He understood now what Jaochim and all the other elders had been doing all this time. Guarding the Holdings, yes, but more important barring the way to these heights and the secrets they contained. The hidden places that mustn’t be opened. He would honour that heavy purpose and guard these secrets. Perhaps, in time, he would come to be feared or cursed by the lowland newcomers as a hoarder of mysteries. But better that than the end of the world come again — perhaps in truth.

‘And the Matriarch?’ Erta asked.

‘She will remain. She will call us if she needs us.’ He studied the Myrni girl, turning his head slightly to see her better. ‘You will guide us west, then, Siguna?’

She bowed. ‘Yes, Orman.’

One last thought struck him and he turned to Baran. ‘Oh — I have heard that the Losts were last seen alive to the east. Will you hunt them out?’

Baran bowed also, smiling behind his beard. ‘With pleasure.’

Orman leaned more of his weight upon the thick haft of Svalthbrul. He nodded to Siguna. ‘Find us a favourable high vale that we may call our home.’

*

Jute haunted the cliff tops of Mantle Keep. They overlooked the one narrow clear channel that allowed access to the Sea of Gold through the ice cliffs. Great chunks of cerulean ice floated there, bumping and clashing on their way out to wander the sea. More fell daily, calving in massive eruptions of splitting ice.

Sometimes the Jaghut sorceress joined him to exercise her leg. Yet her gaze was drawn not out to sea, but to the north, and he knew she was considering leaving soon to make the journey up the great serpentine ice-floe where she claimed her mother abided.

Sometimes Cartheron walked with him, though any extended period of exertion tired the old campaigner and he would sit instead, grumbling about the food, the cold chambers, or the lack of circulation in his feet.

Other times the former lieutenant Giana Jalaz joined him. She, too, was quite eager for word from the outside world. King Voti of Mantle, it turned out, had been generous in rewarding the defence of his keep. His people had been residing here for a very long time on the shores of the Sea of Gold and had had ample opportunity to amass a considerable hoard of its namesake. All hidden below in chambers carved from the rock — all of which could have been swept away by the ice-serpent had not Cartheron intervened.

In any case, Giana was eager to transport her newfound riches home, where a certain plot of land awaited repurchase from the rapacious moneylenders of Mott. Jute knew also that a rather large chest sat in Malle’s chambers with his name upon it. None of that interested him, however, more than the sight of a certain vessel returning from its southern journey.

This day Cartheron sat in the sun while Jute paced back and forth, casting the occasional glance to the channel. Nearby, carpenters hammered and sawed a new stairway from the surplus of fallen logs surrounding them.

‘She made it, I’m certain,’ Cartheron assured him for the hundredth time as his pacing brought him past. ‘Question is, how far south did she go? Did she drop them off on the Bone Peninsula? Plenty of towns and cities down there, I understand.’

Jute nodded. Yes, he’d been through all that countless times in his mind. Always, he asked himself, what would I have done? How far would I have taken them? All the way to Genabackis? Gods, please, no!

He kneaded the still raw slash across his arm, shuddered in the chill air wafting off the ice. ‘We could build a new vessel before she returned,’ he complained.

Cartheron laughed. ‘Usually it’s the womenfolk home fretting for years — how does it feel to be on the other end?’

‘Ieleen and I always travelled together.’

The ex-High Fist straightened in his chair. ‘Ho? What’s this?’

Jute squinted out to the very mouth of the channel. Something dark was moving there amid the drifting chunks of frosty-blue ice.

‘Looks like a visitor,’ Cartheron observed.

It was still too far away for Jute to identify, but its general size and cut appeared encouraging.

‘Looks three-masted,’ Cartheron affirmed.

Crew were poling aside the ice as the vessel came on. Recognition came to Jute as the lines of its hull and the arrangement of its sails resolved into familiar lines. It was the Silver Dawn.

He waved frantically from the cliff’s edge. They drew nearer; sails were reefed and sweeps emerged. The Dawn advanced warily up the centre of the channel. It neared the wreckage of the docks and fallen lumber of the stairway in the waters at the base of the cliff.

Jute continued waving, one-handed, as his off-arm was still too stiff to raise.

And from the stern, next to the long tiller arm, though he knew she did not possess normal vision to see him as others did, a figure there returned his wave. His beloved Falaran sea-witch.

*

In the end, the ferocious relentless wind drove them to seek shelter at the Jaghut matriarch’s dwelling amid the bare rock of the peaks. It was no more than a heap of stones, a tomb rather than a home. He and Fisher took turns fetching wood for the meagre fire they kept.

Of the Matriarch they saw little; she invited them in yet quit the dwelling herself. Kyle felt uncomfortable for having driven her from her own home, yet he was also thankful for her absence, as the slim cave was hardly large enough for him and Fisher.

The bard passed the time composing on the kantele. Kyle listened with one ear while he scanned the lifeless windswept rocky slopes, his legs out, half asleep. One morning he overheard the bard singing faintly to himself as he strummed.

He also heard lines concerning ancient races of giants, hidden valleys, maidens of war, and powerful weapons whose curses doom their bearers. These last phrasings made him eye the bard sidelong.

By the fourth night he’d started wondering how to broach the subject of moving on when a huge dark shape emerged from the gloom. The Matriarch announced: ‘Someone is coming.’

Fisher eased the instrument back into its satchel and Kyle tightened his bear-hide cloak about his shoulders. They set out, leaning away from the slicing winds.

The bare broken rocks clattered and grated beneath their boots as they slowly ascended. They sought the place the Matriarch had told them was beneath where the Forkrul came and went. It was a hike of a few leagues from her dwelling.

Below, the clouds had not entirely dispersed. Broad sweeping vistas of woods and glittering lakes spread out for as far as the eye could discern. Except for one entire face of the range. Here, a broad river of ice descended from the wider field below. It gleamed sapphire and white, looking much like a serpent of frost.

The desiccating winds had long cracked Kyle’s lips and clawed his throat raw. He and Fisher had also taken turns fetching snow and ice to melt for drinking water. But it was never enough, and this was their greatest want.

They tramped on. Kyle focused upon raising one foot after the other. These extreme heights, Fisher had explained, can poison the lungs and bring delusions and mirages to those who would trespass. All Kyle knew was that no matter how deeply he inhaled, he seemed to never have enough breath. And breathing too hard made him dizzy.

The light deepened to a murky purple, tinged by blood red in the west. Fisher raised a hand for a halt. Kyle came abreast of him; the bard was squinting up where the slope steepened. Movement. A dark figure descending.

He and Fisher waited. Whoever it was, he appeared wounded or exhausted; he would stagger then pause, righting himself, only to lurch onward once more. Kyle cast an uncertain glance to Fisher, who motioned that they should wait.

It was Jethiss. He still wore the old armoured hauberk he’d salvaged. Yet something was odd about his outline. As he neared, his steps now audible over the rocks, Kyle’s breath truly caught as he saw that the man’s left sleeve of leather hung loose. It swung empty in the winds.

Somehow, in some manner, the man had lost an arm.

Only now did the Andii appear to become aware of them; he halted, taken aback, then changed direction to approach. Though the air was bitingly frigid and the winds punishing, a sheen of sweat covered his face and ran dripping from his chin. The Andii possessed near black-hued skin, yet Kyle would have said that the man was pale — perhaps from shock, or loss of blood.

He halted, weaving slightly, before them, his chest heaving, and nodded his greeting.

Kyle’s gaze fell to fix upon the strange weapon now sheathed at his side. The pommel was an oddly contoured knob. It and the grip appeared to be constructed of the same material: pale, like ivory, but not glowing like his white blade. Portions of the pommel and grip were smooth while others possessed a rough and porous look. Slowly, the realization came of just what he was looking at — what the sword had been moulded from — and he raised his appalled gaze to where the man’s sleeve hung empty.

Not even the cruellest gods would dare …

Jethiss nodded to them again, affirming their guess. He raised his arm to wipe the sweat from his face, swallowed hard. ‘The justice of the Forkrul,’ he whispered hoarsely, ‘is harsh indeed.’

‘A sword worthy of you …’ Fisher breathed in wonder, his face sickly.

The Andii was breathing heavily. The trial he’d endured must have been ghastly. He nodded his agreement at Fisher’s words. ‘Yes.’

‘And your memories?’

‘With me once more.’

‘Then,’ Fisher asked, ‘would you give us your name?’

‘Mother Dark offered a title.’

Fisher’s breath caught. He spoke low, as if not daring to say the words aloud: ‘Son of Darkness …’

Jethiss gestured, inviting them to descend with him. ‘Now more of an honorific, in truth.’

The Andii’s tone was light, but Kyle saw with what trouble he walked, the rigid control he was forcing upon himself to remain erect. He wanted to reach out to help steady the man, but his instincts told him that he mustn’t.

‘There was a terrible battle,’ Jethiss murmured aloud as they descended. ‘At the feet of a gate. I wandered lost for an unknown time. A woman’s voice spoke to me from the Eternal Night. She told me I was needed to stand as I had before. But that the cost would be great. That I would have to lose myself to find myself anew.’ He pressed a hand to Fisher’s shoulder. ‘And so I have. My old name no longer fits. I am Jethiss. As for the title … we shall see if I prove worthy.’

‘Where will you go?’ Kyle asked, careful to give the man room as he walked at his left side.

‘I would travel to Coral,’ Jethiss answered. ‘There is a modest barrow there I would pay my respects to. A good friend. Many evenings we spent together playing Kef Tanar.’ He offered them a smile. ‘I would be honoured if you would accompany me.’

‘The honour is mine,’ Fisher answered.

‘And mine,’ Kyle added, feeling eminently comfortable with the idea of travelling with the Andii. It seemed to him altogether fitting and strangely proper that the White Blade should be found walking alongside what he imagined, one day, might come to be known as the Blade of Bone.