The Dusk Watchman

EPILOGUE

Silver kissed the rustling grass as they rode towards the hill. A black-armoured man led the way, but there was no danger; he went out of habit, and a need to be alone with his thoughts. They had left their escort behind and ridden out from the small camp as the sun neared the horizon. It was spring and the air was warm; darting birds chased the last of the day’s insects before they went to roost.

The lesser moon, Kasi, was midway to its zenith in a cloudless sky, but this was Silvernight and another ruled the heavens: the third moon, Arian, cast its silver light over the quiet plain as they continued towards a hill their scouts could not find in the daylight. There were seven of them in total. The armoured man was out front, a man and woman behind flanked a girl riding a Farlan pony who was staring with wide-eyed wonder at the silvery plain stretching out ahead of them. Behind them were three women, their white hooded capes shining in Arian’s light. The sky turned a deep sapphire-blue as the sun passed below the horizon and as the shadows washed over their small group, two of the women began to softly sing.

The girl turned in her saddle to watch them, though she knew not to interrupt. Her mother had taught her these words, years back, but she’d never heard them sung with such irreverence as from the oldest of the three, a scar-faced woman with a mass of crow’s feet around her missing eye. Her reedy voice made it sound more like a sea-shanty than the prayer to dusk.

As she watched, Legana, mouthing the words as she had no voice of her own, took the older woman’s hand. High Priestess Shanas, on Legana’s other side, sang with her eyes closed and a smile of contentment on her face, and the girl found herself whispering them too as Arian’s light settled over the Land.

Soon the only colour to be seen was the mute woman’s emerald eyes, shining from the dark of her hood.

‘Can I ride ahead?’ she asked her mother once the prayer was over.

‘No,’ growled her father from her other side, ‘bad things are out there. You stick close, you hear?’

‘Bad things don’t come out on Silvernight!’ she laughed, smiling sweetly up the bearded man. ‘ Every one knows that!’

‘They do round here,’ he said gruffly, ‘so bloody listen to me for a change.’

She pursed her lips and looked in silent appeal at her mother, but she shook her head. ‘Not this Silvernight,’ she said, touching her daughter’s cheek. ‘This is a special one. You’ll stay with us.’

‘I know it’s special,’ she argued, ‘but I can meet you on the hill — that’s where we’re going anyway-’

‘You’ll be riding back across my lap if you try that,’ her father snapped. ‘I’d rather kill your horse from under you than let it happen.’

‘Doranei!’ her mother said sharply as the girl gasped and hugged her pony’s neck. ‘There’s no need to frighten her.’

‘You think?’ Doranei caught the look in his wife’s blue eyes and turned away.

‘I do. I know we’ve all met him before, but this is a special night for Gennay. Don’t spoil that with your temper.’

He grunted, but Gennay’s fear was already gone; her face was alight with excitement. ‘The Dusk Watchman,’ she breathed. ‘That’s who you mean? Am I really to be his priestess?’

‘Who told you that?’

She turned and pointed. ‘Ardela did — isn’t it true?’

‘Oh for pity’s sake! Why-’

‘Enough,’ her mother snapped before softening her voice. ‘Yes, my dear, it’s true: you’re to be his priestess if you wish — but the choice is yours, Gennay, you must remember that. You’ll not be getting the tattoos tonight; there’s time enough in the years to come for all that. Right now you’re just here to greet him — that’s honour enough for one day, and one afforded to very few in this Land.’

Gennay beamed at the two of them. ‘Manayaz will be so jealous — I’m the special one for a change, not him.’

‘Aye, well, it’s not something to be bragging about,’ Doranei warned her. ‘The Sisters of the Dusk are a secret cult, and don’t you be forgetting it. If you’d been born into a different family you might never have heard of them your entire life — and if you can’t keep a secret, you don’t belong.’

‘Yes, Father,’ she said with a smile.

‘Good. Now you’ll wait here while I go on ahead and see an old friend,’ he murmured, and spurred his horse on to catch up with the lead rider just as he reached the base of the hill.

They paused there together, looking around at the ground beneath their feet, then the rock-studded hillside ahead. A flicker of movement caught their eyes and both turned to watch a silver shape bound across the stony ground then pause and survey them. It was thick-furred, and larger than any deerhound, and it watched them silently, barely visible within the silver-edged gloom of twilight. After half a dozen heartbeats it broke into a run again before vanishing into thin air, only to reappear away to the west, where it skirted warily around the last members of their party.

The pair followed the ghost-dog’s movements until it headed out across the open ground they had crossed and vanished completely from sight.

‘Hard to picture, ain’t it?’ Doranei commented quietly as they found themselves staring back down the bare slope. ‘How this once looked.’

Vesna sighed and slipped from his horse. ‘Sadly, all too easy,’ he said at last. ‘Doesn’t matter if the bodies are buried; some of us still hear their cries a decade on.’

‘It’s more than a decade, my friend,’ Doranei said, also dismounting. ‘It’s what, sixteen winters now? We’re getting old.’ He paused and looked the Mortal-Aspect up and down. ‘Well, some of us, anyways.’

Together they started on up the hill, both walking with their hands on their hilts as though unable to let go the savagery done in that place. They were halfway to the top before either spoke again, lost in the memories of friends lost.

‘She’s a pretty little thing,’ Vesna said, glancing back at the riders below. ‘Got her mother’s eyes.’

Doranei laughed loudly. ‘Aye, well, never much chance of anything else now, was there? She’s a holy terror, that girl, to her brothers and me besides. It’s hard to stop her when she’s got such a look of her mother about her; the Watchman might regret making that one his priestess.’

‘Don’t be so sure,’ said a third voice from up ahead, ‘I have never been one for excessive reverence — witness at my Mortal-Aspect back there.’

The two warriors stopped and stared up at the face smiling down from the top of the slope. He wore a bright white cape that swirled about him and carried a staff of perfect darkness in his hand. A silver dog darted out from behind his cape with the wariness of a wild thing, only to retreat back into the shadows a moment later.

‘Gods, I’ll never get used to that!’ Doranei exclaimed as he rushed forward to grab the newcomer in a hug. ‘Another one who’s not aged a damn day, but I’m glad to see you all the same.’

‘Well, now, a little silver in your beard gives you a distinguished air, so you have not suffered greatly on that front,’ said the smaller man with a laugh. ‘More fitting to your position in life, one might say, my Lord.’

‘Hah! Lord Protector of the Realm? All that means is holding General Daken’s leash until King Sebetin’s old enough to do it himself.’ Doranei stepped back and inspected the white-cloaked man. ‘Gods, but look at you, Mihn: better than you ever were in life — and holding that black staff in your hand like it was nothing more than a twig.’

‘Thank you, my friend,’ Mihn replied. ‘You are too modest, though: Lord Protector is not bad for a man of the Brotherhood, and Narkang thrives under your stewardship. The queen herself told me so. That was a kind thought, by the way, putting the shrine in the Royal Baths so I could see Emin once more before he died. If you can only stop King Sebetin marrying one of your daughters, he will have an untroubled reign, I suspect.’

Doranei shook his head. ‘He’s had a warning on that front,’ he said darkly. ‘The cocky little sod has a lot of his father in him, but he’s not fool enough for that.’

Vesna pushed Doranei aside and stepped forward to hug Mihn too. ‘It’s good to see you, Mihn,’ he whispered.

‘And you, my friend,’ Mihn said a broad smile. ‘It is always too long — but my cult is well-established now, so it will be sooner next time, I promise. And you will be pleased to know I have also visited the Ring of Fire. The Menin continue in peace — the stability you gave them remains.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. I don’t fancy walking there again any time soon — took long enough the first time.’

Vesna stepped back and they all looked down the slope at the figures ascending. Without warning Doranei hopped back from where he was standing, hawked noisily and spat on the ground beside Mihn.

‘Charming,’ called his wife. ‘Perhaps General Daken isn’t entirely to blame for the young king’s behaviour?’

‘Shake his hand, spit on his shadow,’ Gennay piped up. ‘Isn’t that what you always say, Father?’

‘Is it?’ her mother said, her eyebrow raised. ‘Not in my earshot he doesn’t.’

‘It is a great pleasure to see you again, Zhia,’ Mihn said, bowing low to her. ‘You are, as ever, the rose to your husband’s thorns.’

‘So let us hope the girl hasn’t inherited her father’s brains,’ said a voice from nowhere, ‘otherwise she’ll not be much of a priestess. As treacherous as her mother, that I could learn to appreciate, but never a simple-minded one.’

Gennay looked around in surprise for the one who’d spoken, but she only worked it out when her father stamped on the ground where he’d spat. A soft chuckle drifted through the evening air.

She looked down. While most of their shadows were dark in the light of Arian, the white-cloaked man’s was as perfectly black as his staff. As she stared, the shadow reached out towards her, moving forward as it had when Mihn had bowed.

‘Karkarn’s-’ She was cut short as Zhia tapped her smartly on the cheek.

‘We’re not in the Light Fingers now, young lady.’

‘Quite so,’ the shadow said smoothly, ‘and whatever part of Karkarn you were thinking of, you would be doing me a grave disservice. I — we — are the Dusk Watchman. We are the Emperor of the Gods, and Karkarn is our vassal.’

‘We are also still a little full of ourselves,’ Mihn added with a tight smile. He reached out a hand and took Gennay’s, raising it delicately to his lips in formal greeting. ‘My Lady Gennay, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. My name is Mihn, and while my shadow rejoices in its new title, you may call it Azaer.’

‘ May? ’ the shadow demanded. ‘She may not — I demand respect from our priesthood.’

‘Mihn,’ Doranei growled.

The small man raised a hand to cut him off. ‘Both of you; behave.’ He cocked his head at the girl. ‘Your father is a great man, you know that? But he dislikes my shadow; you must forgive him that, he has good reason.’

‘And,’ Doranei broke in, ‘the shadow’s still sore your mother gave him everything it wanted, so it could taste its own medicine. You’ll find it doesn’t like underestimating us mortals, or the lengths we’ll go to, to keep a secret.’

Mihn raised a hand and Doranei fell silent again. Gennay thought for a long moment, then asked, ‘Why is Azaer your shadow if your friends don’t like it?’

‘A fair question,’ Mihn said, ‘but I fear the answer is long and complex.’ He gestured towards the centre of the hilltop, where she could see a circle of standing stones shining in the strange half-light.

‘Your parents have friends and family to remember, so perhaps we should leave them in peace for a while?’

She looked at her mother and father. Zhia touched Doranei’s arm, and the Lord Protector of Narkang and the Four Cities waved her on with gritted teeth and a scowl.

Mihn smiled went to embrace his Mortal-Aspect as the last three arrived at the top of the hill, then took Legana’s hand from Ardela. ‘Come with us, Gennay,’ he said as he walked arm-in-arm with Legana towards the stone circle

Gennay followed them onto a piece of strangely paved ground at the very centre of the hilltop and looked around in wonder. The pale paving stones shone as the last traces of day fled the sky. She could see two enormous menhirs flanking a stairway into the hill itself, but Mihn led her to a flat table-like rock in the very centre. There were words written on it — an epitaph, she realised — but to whom, it didn’t say.

‘A lot of people died to get us here today,’ Mihn said sadly, ‘but I imagine you will have heard quite enough about the wars.’

She nodded; her parents both carried the scars, inside and out. ‘My father’s a soldier,’ she began hesitantly, ‘but he doesn’t like to talk about it, even when Manayaz or Sebetin ask, even though he’s teaching us all how to fight.’

‘There is no way to describe it,’ Mihn said softly, ‘and he hopes you will never have to find out.’

‘Uncle Daken seems to think it’s fun, but I don’t think he’s right.’

‘Daken thinks a lot of strange things are fun,’ Mihn agreed, ‘but that is who he is. You cannot hide from who you are; you can only accept it and make it work.’

‘Do you know him too? He’s a white-eye. Everyone says he’s mad, but I don’t think he is.’

Mihn squatted down beside her, and his strange black shadow slid like oil over the stones. ‘People say lots of things about white-eyes,’ he said gravely. ‘Some of them are true, others are not.’

‘They are stubborn and troublesome,’ Azaer added in a voice like the whisper of wind through the trees, ‘more troublesome than you can ever imagine.’

Mihn ducked his head, though whether in acknowledgement or sadness, Gennay couldn’t tell. ‘And yet capable of great things,’ he whispered, to himself as much as anyone, ‘and great sacrifice too — he gave his body and soul to drive your shadow out of Ruhen and burn it into mine. Given the plan he devised, my taking a mortal wound pales in comparison to the burden he took on himself.’

‘He burned your shadow?’ Gennay asked, confused.

Mihn gave her a sad smile. ‘He consumed himself with light — how else does one cast the strongest shadows? And I was there behind it, to catch that shadow in my own and die just as a new God was born.’

Gennay looked down and saw his pitch-black shadow squirm, but Azaer had nothing to add to that.

‘Azaer and I were enemies,’ Mihn continued, ‘or, to be precise, Azaer and the old king were enemies, and they fought a war, as you know. That war weakened the whole Land. My friend Isak realised that victory in that war would not be enough. He saw that he had to force both sides together, so the war would never happen again.’

‘Some of us were less than amused by it than others,’ the shadow added, claws briefly appearing at the end of his black fingers.

At a look from Mihn the claws disappeared again and the shadow retreated behind him, ignoring the play of moonlight as it traced shapes over the stones.

‘Many were unhappy, but it is done and the Land is healed,’ Mihn said. ‘My shadow holds the power of the Gods, and I control my shadow. It is not a choice either of us would have wished for, perhaps, but it is done — and we can hardly complain about our lot in life when we rule the Gods. You have heard about Isak?’

When she nodded, he smiled. ‘Good. Most of what they say about Isak is true, but he was my friend, and a very good friend he was. He gave his life to heal the damage we had all done. He died in a chamber beneath our feet while tens of thousands fell on the slopes of this hill. Your parents and Vesna have come here to remember Isak, along with all the others who died on that terrible day. The memory scars all those who survived — remember that and be gentle with your mother and father.’

Mihn gestured to the flat stone beside him. ‘Stay here a while, think of Isak and all the others. If you want to join the Sisters of Dusk, you must always remember those who died, and protect their sacrifice. Remember them at Silvernight especially; that was his birthday.’

‘Did Isak… Did he write this?’

Mihn shook his head. ‘The words are mine, but I think he would be happy with how we remember him. He always wanted to be more than just a white-eye, more than the warrior he was born to be. He gave his soul to do just that, leaving nothing to pass into the lands of no time. All that is left of him is the light he burned into me, and the memories in those who loved him. You see Hulf, roaming these hills? He could not bear Isak’s loss. The two shared one wild soul, so I made Hulf a part of me too, and the light is within us both now.’

He gestured to the words on the stone. ‘This is how I remember all of those who died here, men and woman, friends and strangers. I must go and speak to the others now. Legana will stay with you.’

Gennay felt the prickle of tears. It wasn’t only her parents who had suffered in the wars, she knew that: Uncle Veil was missing a hand, Old Carel his whole arm, and Aunt Dash was half-crippled too. Gennay could scarcely believe the withered woman had fought here too, but none of her parents’ friends would dare make an idle boast like that; she knew that for certain.

She was too young to remember much about the old king, but she knew he had been badly hurt too. In Narkang men and women bore their battle injuries with quiet pride, even now, all these years later. They had all suffered; they had watched their friends die, seen cities fall and armies slaughtered. She couldn’t begin to imagine any of that, but she had seen the look on their faces when they remembered, and just thinking of that now made the tears run down her cheeks.

As Gennay slowly read the words before her, she tried to conjure an image of Isak as her parents had painted him: a Farlan white-eye, Chosen of Nartis for a time — though he’d been not many winters older than her brother, Manayaz, was now.

He was tall and brooding, her mother had said when Gennay had asked. Reckless and quarrelsome, her father had added, and as scarred as the rest of us put together, Uncle Veil had contributed, to general agreement, but they had done so with smiles on their faces, even old Carel, who didn’t smile at much.

So that was what she pictured: a big, frightening man perhaps, but young and uncertain as well, with the same sort of foolish, lazy grin as King Sebetin, who won friends as easily as breathing. And one who had given his life for his friends.

Legana arrived beside Gennay and gently squeezed her shoulder, then she reached out and ran her pale fingers over the stone, touching each word in turn as though bringing them to life in her mute world. In the far distance the silver dog ran, as swift and free as the wind.

Gennay read the words aloud for all of them, for the tens of thousands who had died on the plain, and for the smiling white-eye in her mind. In the long dusk I dream, Of joy, of love and life. The shape of things, Their colours, lights and shades; These sights eternal, Look ye also while life lasts.