The Righteous Blade

19

It was the morning of Kinsel Rukanis’ trial.

Under the circumstances, Caldason thought it odd that Karr should have chosen this day to invite him to share a secret. He wouldn’t be drawn on what it was, and made Reeth swear not to mention it to anyone, without exception. But in the carriage, on their way to a destination Karr wouldn’t reveal, he took the opportunity to castigate the Qalochian.

‘I have to tell you I’m not happy about the brawl you and Serrah got into. With the meld.’

‘We didn’t have too much choice.’

‘Yes, you did. As I understand it, you went looking for trouble.’

‘Then you understand it wrong, Karr. We weren’t looking for the meld.’

‘No, you were carrying out some half-baked little scheme of your own, you and Serrah. Spying on the paladins, of all damn things, without even telling us, let alone asking permission.’

‘Permission?’ Caldason smouldered.

‘I know authority’s not something you take to very well,

Reeth;

any

kind of authority. But when you’ve thrown your lot in with the Resistance you have to accept some measure of discipline.’

‘It was a spur of the moment thing, I admit that. But we just wanted to do something about Kinsel.’

‘We all do, Reeth. But you and Serrah have no monopoly on compassion; Kinsel’s a friend of mine too, and I’ve known him a lot longer. Do you think I find it easy having to sit back while he’s put through the mill?’

‘No, Karr, I don’t.’

‘We don’t need unnecessary attention at the best of times, and certainly not now, with the move looming.’ He was looking tense and flushed.

‘All right,’ Reeth conceded. ‘Message received. Now take it easy, Karr. Don’t get worked up about it. You look ill.’

‘Why does everybody keep worrying about my health?’ the patrician came back heatedly.

‘Because

you

don’t. You’re pushing yourself too hard, man.’

‘I’ve little choice with everything that’s going on at the moment.’

‘There’s always a lot going on. Delegate.’

Karr didn’t answer. He stared out of the carriage’s half-blinded window. It was a crisp autumn day, chill but pleasantly sunny. There were plenty of people about, and road traffic was building up.

‘You’re not indispensable,’ Caldason appended. ‘You’ve told me often enough that nobody is.’

Karr returned his attention to him. ‘I don’t have the stamina I used to. My brain’s all right, more or less, but once I had energy to spare, and now…well, it’s just not there when I need it. Getting old’s a bastard, Reeth.’

Caldason had never heard Karr utter an oath before, even a mild one. ‘I know a bit about growing older. In a way.’

Realisation dawned. ‘Of course. Sorry. I don’t think of you

that way.’ He gave a little laugh. ‘It’s hard to come to terms with the idea that you’re older than me.’

‘Imagine how I feel. But you’re right. Age takes people and twists them out of shape. They look in a mirror and start seeing a stranger. It’s life’s last great act of treachery. I’ve seen it happen to so many. By rights, it should have happened to me long since. You’ve no idea how hard it is, Karr, watching the people around you disfigured by the years, before they wither and die.’

‘I can see why you shun attachments.’

‘But it’s not always possible. Sometimes you can’t help being drawn in.’

‘That’s the thing about people, Reeth. The more you’re with them, the more you can’t help caring. Tell me…’

‘What?’

‘In my head I’m still a young man, still the idealistic youth who first got involved with the movement all those years ago. It’s my body that increasingly fails to respond, not my intellect. How…’

‘How’s my mind? Do I feel like an old man? No. I’m more or less the same inside as I was when I was young. A bit wiser, hopefully. And from what I can make out from other people, that’s the norm. It’s another trick Nature plays on us.’

They were silent for a while, watching the anonymous streets roll by.

‘Where

are

we going?’ Caldason said.

‘Just an ordinary private house. It’s not far now.’

‘Want to tell me what this is all about?’

‘Do you recall our first day here in Valdarr? When you and Kutch and I arrived together in Domex’s old wagon?’

‘What about it?’

‘Remember that storm, and how the lightning struck the energy line and fractured it?’

‘It’s not the sort of thing you’re likely to forget.’

‘No, it isn’t.’

‘What’s that got to do with where we’re going?’

‘You’re about to find out for yourself. We’re here.’

The carriage drew to a halt in an undistinguished side street, lined with unremarkable houses. It wasn’t a poor area, but nor was it particularly well-heeled. They got out. Karr nodded to the driver and the carriage left them.

‘Let’s not linger,’ he said.

He led Caldason to the front door, and delivered a rapid series of knocks. Shortly, a spy hatch slid open and they were scrutinised. Then the door was unbolted and they went in.

The man who admitted them nodded but didn’t speak. He was dressed like an ordinary worker, and was presumably a Resistance man. Caldason hadn’t seen him before, and Karr made no introductions.

‘Would you be good enough to let them know we’re here?’ Karr asked.

The man nodded again and pointed to an open door. They went through it and found themselves in a dusty, neglected room containing not much more than a worn table and a couple of chairs. The window was shuttered, and light came from a few candles.

‘It shouldn’t be long,’ Karr explained. ‘They have to be reasonably sure it isn’t dangerous.’

Caldason raised a quizzical eyebrow at that, but Karr didn’t elaborate.

A moment later the man came back and beckoned them. They were taken along a corridor to another door. This opened onto a staircase that snaked to the cellar, and they were left to make their own way down.

The cellar was quite large and brightly lit by a number of glamour lamps. There were two men and a woman there, all in their middle or late years, and all dressed in the blue

ceremonial robes favoured by Covenant. Karr exchanged greetings with them, but again no names were offered. In one corner a wooden rail had been set up around a sizeable hole. It looked deep.

‘May we approach?’ Karr asked one of the blue-robed figures.

The man nodded. ‘But with care. And be ready to draw back if we tell you.’

‘I understand. Come on, Reeth.’

They approached the hole.

‘I think you’ll find this familiar,’ Karr reckoned.

The pit was deeper than the height of a tall man, and its sides were smooth. At its bottom a small pond of a substance resembling quicksilver had formed. The liquid flowed in from a cavity on one side of the excavation and out again through a similar recess on the opposite side. The silvery pool was agitated. It swirled and bubbled, and kaleidoscopic, varicoloured patterns played across its glistening surface, not unlike oil on water. Waves of intense cold rolled off it, though the cellar itself somehow maintained a normal temperature.

‘Remember what the sorcerers call it?’ Karr said. ‘Magic’s chariot. This was exposed when the owners of the house were extending the cellar. Like the channel we saw exposed by lightning, this one’s unusually close to the surface. Anyway, fortunately for us, the people who lived here are sympathetic to our cause and got word to us. We moved them out and took over the place.’

‘Fortunate? How is this of any use to the Resistance?’

‘It could be of immense value, if a theory our friends in Covenant have proves correct. But I’ll let them explain it.’ He called over the man who had just spoken to them.

The Covenant member wasted no time on a preamble. ‘For years we’ve suspected that the energy lines have a number of functions. Well, more than suspected; we’ve grown sure

of it, based on the extensive research we’ve undertaken on the Founders. One possibility in particular has long intrigued us: we think the energy lines can be used as a communication network.’

Caldason had been staring into the pit, transfixed by the shifting patterns. Now he looked up.

‘I don’t pretend to understand all the esoteric details,’ Karr admitted, ‘but it makes sense. We know the grid is everywhere; it almost certainly covers the whole world. It’s not beyond the bounds of reason to imagine feeding in a message of some sort at one point and having it come out at another.’

‘Nor would it necessarily take too much time to transmit,’ the Covenant man went on. ‘There’s every reason to believe it could carry information almost instantly.’

‘You really believe that’s possible?’ Caldason remarked.

‘For the Founders, entirely possible. From what we’ve learnt, it could have been one of their minor miracles.’

‘Think of it,’ Karr enthused; ‘the ability to send and receive messages anywhere in the world, providing you’re near a line. Which, of course, everyone is.’

‘And

you

could use it that way?’ Caldason asked.

‘That’s probably a way off, to be honest,’ the sorcerer replied.

‘But Covenant’s made a discovery,’ Karr added. ‘It seems somebody’s already employing it for that purpose.’

‘Let’s get this straight,’ Caldason said. ‘These channels, the energy lines, are like…’ he groped for a parallel ‘…a network of rivers. And if you have a boat, you could go anywhere in it.’

The sorcerer smiled. ‘That’s rather well put. Except the boat would move faster than any wind could drive it.’

‘But you’re saying someone’s already using this network for sending messages?’

The Covenant man nodded.

‘It looks like it,’ Karr confirmed.

‘Who?’ Caldason wanted to know.

‘That’s the big question. But logically, it’s going to be an elite, isn’t it? Those who rule us. Whether that’s the leaders of Gath Tampoor or Rintarah, or the state on a lower level, like the government here in Bhealfa…well, it’s a moot point. But I think a resource like this, with all its potential, is probably going to be jealously guarded by the highest. It would give them such an edge.’

‘So, making use of it ourselves isn’t really an option if somebody is already using it?’

‘Right. Not much privacy. But that led us to think about another way of turning this to our advantage. If the grid’s being used to send messages, maybe we can intercept them.’

Caldason addressed the sorcerer. ‘It’s within your power to do that?’

‘In theory, yes. But it’s by no means easy.’

‘What does it involve?’

‘No disrespect, but unless you’re a practitioner of the Craft yourself-’

‘Which I’m certainly not.’

‘Then I’m not sure I could explain how we’d go about it. One way of looking at it, I suppose, although it’s a gross simplification, would be to think of that energy channel as a silken cord. The spells we’d cast would cut into it like a blade to let the information it carries bleed out. You might say we’d be hacking our way in.’

‘Reeth’s a fighting man,’ Karr revealed. ‘I can see he appreciates the comparison.’

Caldason glanced into the turbulent, freezing pit. ‘These channels are dangerous, aren’t they? The only other time we’ve seen one like this it caused havoc.’

‘Yes, potentially very dangerous,’ the sorcerer agreed. ‘But we’ve bound it with a number of powerful containment

spells. They should hold off any detrimental effects that might arise.’

‘I hope you’re right.’

‘Don’t worry, we’re confident of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to…’

‘Of course,’ Karr told him. ‘And thank you.’

The man moved off to join his colleagues and occupied himself with something out of earshot.

Karr and Reeth turned back to the pit, their hands on the wooden rail. The liquid below carried on seething.

‘Think they’ll be able to do it?’

‘I don’t know, Reeth. But it’s a prize worth going all out for.’

Caldason made no reply. His gaze had slipped to the agitated quicksilver pool.

‘Reeth?’

He didn’t seem to hear. His knuckles were white on the charred rail.

‘

Reeth!

’

‘Hmm? Oh. Sorry.’ He shook his head, as though clearing it. ‘I was…I guess I was away with the fairies for a minute there.’

The quicksilver spring staged a minor eruption, like a scaled-down volcano about to spew lava. It spat little globules of mercury that stuck the pit’s walls, then rolled back down to the pool. An even more intense wave of cold came off it.

Karr tugged at Reeth’s arm. ‘It might be best to come away. Let’s leave this to the experts.’

They retreated. The sound of the quicksilver’s small upheaval quietened.

‘Do you reckon they know what they’re doing?’ Caldason whispered.

‘If Covenant doesn’t, nobody does.’ He glanced the way of the huddled sorcerers. ‘Well, I hope it took your mind off Kinsel, if nothing else.’

‘A little. But that isn’t why you brought me here, surely?’

‘I wanted you to see the stakes we’re playing for. And, I admit it, I hoped that being let into our confidence even more might help you make up your mind about the gold shipment.’

‘Always a reason behind everything, eh, Karr?’ He didn’t mean it critically. ‘Well, I think I’ve more or less decided what I’ll be doing.’

‘Is it a decision I’ll be pleased about?’

‘Depends if you want that gold delivered or not.’

‘Good.’ He beamed.

‘Karr.’

‘Yes?’

‘It’s to do with Kinsel. Disgleirio said something to Serrah and me about…’

‘Assassination? He made the same suggestion in Council.’

‘What was the consensus?’

‘It was unanimous. We don’t operate that way. How could we? If we lose our humanity, our souls, in fighting the oppressors, how are we any better than them? Frankly, Reeth, I find it difficult enough sanctioning the death of an enemy, let alone one of our own.’

‘You don’t think Disgleirio or the Blade might act autonomously?’

‘No. We made it clear to him that wasn’t acceptable.’

‘I suppose I can kind of see his point. What with the CIS operating in Bhealfa now, and their expertise in getting people to talk-’

‘Kinsel didn’t break under their interrogation, or any torture they might have applied. He couldn’t have. No one’s been betrayed. We would certainly have known by now if they had. For courage like that I think we owe him more than assassination, don’t you?’

‘Can we get anyone in there?’

‘The courtroom? Not a chance. And I’ve had every inch of the route from there to the paladins’ headquarters thoroughly checked. We can’t see a chink, no matter how hard we try.’ He sighed. ‘Poor Kinsel. I’m afraid he’s on his own.’