Rebellion

CHAPTER 105

“Did you kill Wil?” said Errek First-King late that afternoon.

“He eluded me,” Lyf replied, wincing as a healer finished binding his cruelly burned hands. “He crept down into cracks where I could not follow.”

“But you did brake the Engine?”

Lyf looked down at his bound hands. “Thank you,” he said to the healer. “You may go.” Once she had gone, and the door was sealed, he resumed. “As best I could, though it won’t last. I stopped the balance tilting all the way to disaster, but it can only be restored with king-magery. And — ”

“Lacking the catalyz…” said Errek.

“Where can it be? Unless it’s found, the balance can’t be restored, nor the land saved.”

“I would guess,” said Errek, “that it still lies in one of Grandys’ hoards, hidden before the time of his death, its true value never recognised.”

“But Tali knows our secret now, and so do her friends.”

“And a secret known to so many people cannot be kept. Sooner or later, Grandys will hear of it.”

“He’ll know where to go for the catalyz, and once he gets it, we’re lost.”

“Unless…” said Errek. He whispered in Lyf’s ear.

“I’ll call the ancestors into the temple,” said Lyf. Clumsily, with his bandaged hands, he inserted his nose plugs and led the way.

Within, the stench was now so foul that not even his hardiest workmen could enter. It was sickening even through the nose plugs. Did it presage the doom of his people, and the land as well?

“This sacred temple has been defiled beyond redemption,” he said to his ancestors, “but is that due to my crimes when it was the murder cellar, or to Grandys’ two thousand years ago?”

The ancestors did not speak. They were gazing at him in alarm.

“It should be torn down,” he continued, though the symbolism of such an act made him shudder. “But that would be like tearing down my own realm, my people, my land.”

“With Cython fallen, our final refuge lost,” said Errek, “our people are more troubled than ever.”

The eruptions at the Vomits had picked up in the past day and the land was quaking all the time now. Though Lyf had not told his people the true reason for it, every Cythonian knew that something was badly wrong, deep down.

“It will take a great victory to turn their morale around,” said Bloody Herrie.

“That’s what I’m planning.” Lyf opened the door and called to his attendant. “Order my armies to get ready. We’re marching north to Reffering in the morning.”

Lyf came back inside and closed the door.

“Are you intending to fight the chancellor?” said Errek.

“Not unless I’m forced to it. Our real enemy is Grandys, and if two sides are there, preparing to do battle, you can be sure he’ll turn up.”

“And then?”

“Grandys doesn’t know what the key is, but he knows where he hid everything he stole from my temple. I’m going to deal with him and get the key,” said Lyf.