The Hidden Coronet

18

“My people were deceived by the Makers and enslaved by the Watch. You can imagine we have been wary since then.

If we keep secrets we have our reasons.

If they think of us as animals, without minds, so much the better.”

Words of a Sekoi Karamax.

Recorded by Kallebran.

CARYS LOOKED AT THE MAP in bewilderment. It meant nothing, and turning it up the other way didn’t seem to help. The Watch had always taught that the Sekoi had no writing, but there were certainly letters on this; unreadable, spiky signs all down one side. She threw it aside in disgust and glared at the plate of dewberries. That was another thing. She was sick of dried fruit.

Scrambling up, she walked out of the cave.

Before her the beach was smooth, the wet, ridged sand shining in the glimmer of the moons. Strange wooden posts stuck out of it in a long line, their wood bleached and split into bizarre spiny sculptures by the tides, and far off a faint wash of small waves rippled, a hypnotic sound.

As she was watching the Sekoi came up and threw itself down near the cave mouth, brushing sand irritably from its fur. Without looking up it said, “It’s as we feared. The tribe tell me the weather is far worse to the north. There have been terrible snowstorms and floods, and three great vortexes. Millions of hidebeasts have begun to move down from the hills, trampling the fields.”

She sat down. “I hope Galen and Raffi are all right. Did you find out anything else?”

“Little.”

She glared at it. “Don’t lie to me! You’ve been gone hours!”

The creature sighed, narrowing its yellow eyes. “Carys, my people speak through their stories. I have been reliving their journey. Unlike you Starmen, we do not rob our words of all their echoes and senses.”

Carys smiled sourly. She sat and leaned back against the rocks, dipping her hand into a tiny moonlit pool. Suddenly phosphorescent shrimps scattered in panic. “What about the Coronet?”

The Sekoi shifted, awkward. “I have asked. No one knows for sure. But I have discovered why the Circling has been summoned.”

“The weather?”

“In a way.” It pointed with the longest of its seven fingers into the sky. “And for that.”

She craned her neck back. “Agramon?”

“Agramon. Do you notice anything strange about her?”

For a moment Carys was still. The complex phases of the moons was not a subject the Watch thought important for its spies, but she knew the familiar patterns well enough. “Shouldn’t it be a bit higher?” she said at last.

The Sekoi nodded. “Indeed. The moon you call Agramon is out of position. My people tell me it has been slowly drifting among the stars these four nights, each night a little farther. Or a little nearer.”

Appalled, she turned. “You mean it’s falling?”

“Who knows? This much is clear—that Galen’s vision on Sarres was a true one. From the observatory—if it still stands—it may be possible to see more clearly.”

“Then we should get back!” Carys tucked her dyed hair behind one ear. “We need to tell them!”

“I suspect they know by now.” The Sekoi made no attempt to move. Instead it stretched its legs out and said quietly, “I’m surprised you didn’t.”

Carys stared. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know.”

“Well, I don’t. Stop hinting. Say what you’ve got to say. You could start with why you were so keen that I came with you.”

The Sekoi looked over to the campfires on the beach. “Very well,” it said, its voice dry. “I brought you with me to get you away from Galen.”

She sat up slowly. “What?”

“You heard. Cast your mind back to the river. That terrible beast that nearly devoured poor Marco. How lucky that was, Carys! Because without it we would never have dared the bridge, and I would never have found the truth out about you.”

It turned then and looked at her, its eyes sly in the moonlight, and instantly she felt a prickle of danger that amazed her, all her instincts wary.

“Me? What about me?”

“That you have betrayed us.”

She hissed her breath out in irritation. “Are you still wittering on about that! I’ve told you, I’m finished with them . . .”

But the Sekoi was not listening. It had reached into an inner pocket of its coat and now pulled out a white piece of paper with one corner torn off, which it unfolded with long fingers.

Carys stopped. “What’s that?”

“You may well look perturbed.” The Sekoi’s fur had thickened around its neck, a sure sign of anger. It looked at her steadily. “This is what I took from the notice-board of the Watchhouse.”

Carys clenched a fist of sand. “You took it!”

“I did.” Its eyes were slits of yellow malice. “Listen to this, Carys Arrin. Though I don’t think it will astonish you as much as it did me.”

Holding the sheet so that the moonlight fell on it, the Sekoi read the words in a dry, hard voice:

PRIORITY INTELLIGENCE.

TO ALL WATCHTOWERS, GUARDPOSTS, ROADBLOCKS, AND SURVEILLANCE UNITS. TRAVELING NORTH, ON FOOT. A GROUP OF SIX, DETAILED AS FOLLOWS: HARN, GALEN: KEEPER ...

Carys gasped. The Sekoi ignored her.

MOREL, RAFFAEL: KEEPER. KARNER, SOLON: KEEPER. FELANIS, MARCO: THIEF AND RELIC-DEALER. ARRIN, CARYS: WATCHSPY. SEKOI, NAME UNKNOWN. DESCRIPTIONS FOLLOW.

It glanced at her over the paper.

“But how could they ... ?”

“There’s more.

ROUTE: ASKER FIELDS, WYREN VALLEY, POSSIBLY ARRETO. DESTINATION: MAKER OBSERVATORY, MOUNT BURNA.

NOTE: IT IS VITAL THIS GROUP BE ALLOWED TO PASS WITHOUT HINDRANCE. NO, REPEAT NO, ARRESTS OR INTERROGATIONS ARE TO BE MADE. NO SURVEILLANCE NECESSARY. INSIDE INTELLIGENCE AVAILABLE.

“What!” Carys shook her head. “That’s impossible.”

“Indeed. Yet someone has told them our names and where we’re going.” Maddeningly calm, the creature folded the paper. “At the bottom,” it said acidly, “is simply the word Maar.”

Instantly, Carys leaped. She flung two handfuls of sand full in the Sekoi’s face, rolled, jumped up, and ran—straight into the aimed sights of a crossbow.

Her crossbow.

“Keep very still,” growled the tawny Sekoi who held it.

She froze.

All around, in the cave-shadows, in crevices, up on the cliff top, the tribe had gathered. They watched her in silence, their strange eyes unblinking. Behind her the Sekoi spat out sand and wiped its eyes.

“Nice try,” it snarled wrathfully. “Come back and sit down, Carys. We’re a peace-loving race, but we despise the Watch, and if I gave the word you’d be shot without mercy. That would be a shame—after all we’ve been through together.”

Ignoring its sarcasm she turned and stalked back, feeling the hostile gaze of the tribe. She felt utterly confused; she had to think straight. She sat down. “So there’s a traitor in the group. But it’s not me.”

“Despite this little escape bid?”

“That was a mistake.” She tried to stay calm and continued, “I know when I’m being trapped. But listen. Did you show that notice to Galen?”

“I did not.” The creature scratched its tribemark calmly.

“Why not?” Carys exploded.

“Because he would not believe it of you. He trusts you. I’ve remarked before that he is vulnerable because of this faith of his. He believes he has changed you, and you’re happy to let him think that. And yet all the time . . .”

“All the time nothing!” Furious, she leaped up, ignoring the taut bow at her back. “You stupid fool! Don’t you realize what you’ve done? You’re so anxious to blame me you just haven’t thought! I’m not the spy. So it has to be someone else. Someone still with them!”

“You mean Marco or Solon.” The Sekoi nodded. “I have considered that. But you see, Carys, Galen distrusts Marco and will never let him know anything important. For instance, neither Marco nor Solon know about the Crow . . .”

“Yes, but . . .”

“. . . And there is one sentence on that paper I haven’t read to you. The one that convinces me the traitor is you.” She stood stock-still. In the moonlight the Sekoi’s glance was sharp and melancholy.

“What sentence?”

“Simply this. After Galen’s name it adds: THIS MAN IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE CROW.”

In the utter silence the lap of the sea seemed nearer. Far out over the dim waves, a mew-bird squawked.

Carys sat down as if her legs had given way. She was so astonished she could hardly speak. “They know about the Crow?”

“I think you’ll agree,” the Sekoi said tartly, “that lets off Marco. And Solon. There’s no one else. Unless you think Raffi is a spy?”

She scowled at it. Then her face lightened. “Alberic! What about Alberic and his gang! They know!”

Just for a second the Sekoi frowned. “That one. But how would he find out where we are now, or that our destination is the observatory? Only we six know that. And if the Watch know it, they know everything. About the Crow. About the Coronet. And about Sarres.” It looked at her and its voice was a hiss of sudden bitter anger. “How could you do this, Carys? After all the Order has suffered? And Sarres! If I ever get back there and find Felnia gone and that sweet island blackened by Kest’s taint I will never forgive you for it. Never. Because it has to be you.”

In despair she glanced around. The tawny Sekoi with the crossbow had crouched. Now it stood up again.

“What are you going to do?” she said coldly. “Kill me?”

The Sekoi looked disgusted. “I’m going to find Galen. You will be kept here. In a cage.”

“A cage!” She laughed bitterly. “Do you really think you people have a prison that can hold me? I was trained by the best.”

“Indeed?” the Sekoi purred, icily polite. It drew its long knees up and leaned on them. “But we have, Carys,” it said quietly, the ripple of the sea in its voice. “We have chains the Watch never imagined and a prison no one can break out of. Because the chains are stories and the prison is your own mind.”

“No!” She leaped up instantly. “I won’t let you do that to me!”

“There are too many of us,” its voice said smoothly. “And besides, we’ve already begun.”

“No!” she screamed, grabbing at it.

But the Sekoi had faded into a rock and all the beach was empty.

The hand she held out was furred. And in her seven fingers she held a small basket full of clams.