Vengeance

CHAPTER 60

‘You’ve no idea what it’s been like here,’ said Rix when Tobry turned up at the guarded door of Rix’s tower a day after his own arrival. ‘I’m confined to barracks. Lady Ricinus even wanted to bar you on the grounds of being a bad influence.’

‘I was a bad influence,’ said Tobry, who looked thinner than before and rather drawn.

‘What’s the matter? There’s barely a laugh in you these days.’

‘It’s different now. I’ve got responsibilities.’

‘Considering how often you encouraged me to neglect mine — ’

‘Leave it out. I’m not in the mood.’

‘You need a drink.’ Rix drew him into the vast salon and looked for a corkscrew. ‘Sorry about the miserable hospitality. I’m only allowed one bottle a day, guests or not.’

‘No thanks,’ Tobry said curtly.

Rix rocked back on his heels. ‘You’ve never refused a drink before. What’s the matter?’

‘I told you.’

Rix poured two drinks anyway. ‘Can the man who doesn’t believe in anything be lecturing me?’

‘Remember all those weapons we don’t know how to combat? The enemy has waited a thousand years to fight this battle and it’s a holy war to them.’

‘I don’t understand.’

Tobry sat down. Rix put a goblet at his elbow and sat opposite, facing the heatstone. He did not like to look at it but it felt worse at his back.

‘I’ve been in the Caulderon archives, reading ancient enemy documents,’ said Tobry. ‘They believe Hightspall is tainted because of the illegitimate way we came by our land.’

‘We won the war.’

‘They say we won through trickery, treachery, fraud, murder and foul, illegal magery. They call Hightspall the Tainted Realm and they don’t just want victory — they want our annihilation.’ He picked up the goblet, put it down again, said, ‘What the hell?’ and took a small sip. ‘How’s the portrait going?’

‘How’s Tali?’ said Rix at the same time. He had been fretting about her ever since they had separated.

‘Sore, but — ’

‘Did you find Rannilt?’

‘Yes, though it was a near thing. Several near things, for both of us.’

‘You’d better explain.’

Tobry related what Tali had told him about her family’s enemy, and the call that was being used to track her, then paused.

‘This call …’ said Rix, struggling to comprehend something so far beyond his prosaic existence. ‘The way you say Tali’s blocking it … surely it’s got to be coming from her … from her own head.’

Tobry stared at him. ‘Out of the mouths of babes and innocents.’ ‘What do you mean?’

‘I thought she was echoing the call, reflecting it back. But from the way she described it, Tali must be originating it.’

‘How can that work?’ Rix’s ignorance of magery was so profound that he did not know where to begin.

‘I don’t know, but I’m really worried now.’ Tobry began to pace in front of the heatstone. ‘How could it come from her? Is it a part of her hidden magery?’ He sat down again, but rose at once. ‘And then there’s the one.’

‘What one?’

‘It’s what Wil, the blind seer, called her. The one. That’s why the matriarchs want her dead.’ Tobry told Rix all he knew about that.

‘The call. The one. The wrythen. It’s all a bit worrying, Tobe.’

Tobry told him about the mental attack on himself, the boiling heat in his head, the voice urging him to bring Tali to Caulderon and how she had barely managed to save him.

‘Is her enemy the same wrythen we fought in the caverns?’

‘So it would appear.’

‘And he’s killing the women of her family. Why?’

‘I can’t guess.’ Tobry rubbed his forehead, took another sip and told Rix about the rescue of Rannilt, the attack by the shadow-shifting facinore and their race for the gates of Caulderon.

‘A facinore?’ said Rix, gulping his wine and pouring another. ‘A new kind of shifter, part phantom and part flesh — or perhaps one alternating with the other? Are you seeing the connection I’m seeing?’

‘To the caitsthe and the wrythen’s caverns?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s hunting Tali for the wrythen and it’s almost impossible to kill. What are we to do, Rix? How can we protect her?’

‘I don’t know.’ Rix raised his goblet, had a sudden image of his father swilling brandy from the bottle and put it down again. ‘When I got home and they refused to let me fight, I didn’t think things could get any worse. Now you’re saying they’re disastrously worse.’

‘And I’m not sure how long the city gates can hold.’

‘This doesn’t seem like a simple war any more. It’s starting to look like a conspiracy.’

‘But who’s manipulating whom?’

Rix took a deep breath. ‘Tobe, I need your help.’

‘You want me to guard Tali and Rannilt. I was planning to do that anyway.’

‘Er, that too,’ said Rix, who had been focusing on a different crisis. ‘I’ve got to get the palace defences ready and the men trained to fight this new enemy.’

‘How do you propose to do that?’

‘I’ve been training with Commander Horkoran since I was thirteen. He’s a worrier, but he listens to me.’ Rix smiled mirthlessly. ‘He’s got to, since Lord Ricinus takes no interest in anything beyond range of his drinking arm.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘First we need to make a list of all the enemy’s new weapons and tactics, then start thinking about how we can counter them.’

‘Our generals should be doing that,’ said Tobry.

‘They aren’t going to tell us though, are they? Maybe I can’t fight in the army until I’ve got an heir, but no one’s stopping me from defending my own people. If you can take Horkoran my written instructions …’ Rix trailed off. ‘Pathetic, isn’t it, but it’s the best I can do.’

‘Your fanatical attachment to this house confounds me,’ said Tobry, ‘but no one can argue with your knowledge of military matters.’

‘Then you’ll do it?’

‘With all my heart.’

Rix embraced him. ‘Thank you. We’ll beat the devils yet.’

‘Of course we will,’ Tobry said unconvincingly.

‘What did you do with Rannilt? Is she all right? Being trapped by a shifter, used as bait … I think I’d lose my mind.’

‘I know I would,’ said Tobry. ‘But she’s a tough little creature. She seems in better shape than I am. I took her to Luzia.’

Rix smiled. ‘That was kindly done. Rannilt will be good for her. It’s a struggle for Luzia now, living all alone.’

‘I know. I often visit her …’

Rix took the hint, subtle though it was. ‘I’ve neglected her. I’ll go and see her … as soon as the portrait is done.’

‘How’s it going?’

Rix sighed. ‘Not well.’

‘Why not?’

‘I hate it. What’s wrong with me, Tobe? My father was a good man once, and he deserves my respect. Why can’t I honour him with my art?’

They went up to his studio. Tobry stared at the huge portrait, walked back and forth, and studied it up close. Rix noticed that his coat hung lower on the left, as if he had something heavy in his pocket.

‘No one could fault the artistry,’ said Tobry. ‘In fact, it’s magnificent — ’

‘But?’ said Rix. ‘Don’t tell me you like it?’

‘I don’t. Not at all. Though …’

‘For the Gods’ sakes, say it.’

‘If you’re painting to please yourself, you can do what you like. But when you’re working to commission, doing a portrait for your father’s Honouring …’

‘What?’ snapped Rix.

‘Do you have to be so damned honest about him?’

‘Mother says I’ve captured his essence.’

‘She would.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Sorry, but I have to be blunt.’ Tobry adjusted his coat, though it still hung lower on the left.

‘I want you to be blunt.’

‘Do you? You can be a trifle blind where — never mind. Look, Lady Ricinus despises your father and you’ve captured it in his face — her contempt and his knowledge of it, the guilt at his drunkenness and bad behaviour, the wastage of the family fortunes. His face has it all.’

‘But?’ said Rix, squirming as he realised Tobry was right.

‘It’s a magnificent portrait. It’s going to be a masterpiece, but if it was my father I wouldn’t hang it in my house. Assuming I had a father, or a house, you understand.’

‘Perhaps I have gone a bit far.’ Rix had loved his father once, and would never want to hurt him, though that was hardly possible. Lord Ricinus had the skin of a shifter pig. ‘It’s too late to change it now. There’s only six days until the Honouring.’

‘I’m not telling you to change it; just what I see in it.’

‘Anyway, I’ve begun another painting,’ said Rix.

‘Really? Where do you find the time?’

‘I haven’t been sleeping well, and I’ve turned away Mother’s bed mate. I’m not letting her have the pleasure.’

‘By depriving yourself of it. That’ll really sting her.’

Rix shrugged. It was rare to win a battle with Lady Ricinus but he was determined to beat her on this one.

Tobry pulled him close. ‘There’s something else the matter, isn’t there? Are you having the nightmares again?’

Rix cast an uncomfortable glance down the stairs. Though the great heatstone in the salon could not be seen from here, he could feel its brooding presence.

‘I was dreading them all the way home, yet, oddly, I haven’t had a one. I guess all that action drove them out of my mind. Or maybe the war did — something real to worry about. But — ’

‘What?’

‘Come and look at this. I keep it in here so Mother won’t find it.’

‘You can paint what you like.’

‘Until the portrait is done I can’t even scratch my arse without permission.’

Rix led Tobry into a storeroom full of blank canvases. From the back, facing the wall, he lifted out a smaller painting, only a yard across.

‘I was planning to do a cruel satire on Mother,’ said Rix. ‘To balance my depiction of Father, I suppose. Anyway, I ended up with this instead. I don’t know where it came from, but it scares me.’

‘As you said, sometimes your paintings can be divinations.’

Rix turned the painting to face them. It was little more than a sketch rendered in quick, violent brushstrokes. A large, windowless chamber, crowded with junk and filled with a greenish mist. Dim lanterns to left and right, haloed rings around them, illuminating a black bench in the middle and, lying on it, the figure of a woman, just a few strokes of the brush.

‘What’s it supposed to mean?’ said Tobry.

‘No idea. The scene feels familiar, yet oddly remote.’

‘Perhaps it’s a picture you saw as a kid. Remember those grim old paintings that used to be everywhere around the palace, full of bloody war and violent hunting scenes? What happened to them, anyway?’

‘Mother got rid of them. She wanted art more in keeping with what the higher families had on their walls.’

‘Of course she would,’ said Tobry.

‘I couldn’t sleep after I painted this. I was afraid that if I dropped off I’d have another of those nightmares about blood, and an ice leviathan rolling over the palace, and the fall of our house.’

‘Hardly surprising, with the war going so badly.’ Tobry adjusted his coat again and took another look at the sketch. ‘I can practically smell the mould, the filth, the damp.’

‘When I close my eyes I can smell it.’

‘Paint the rest of it. That might get it out of your mind.’

‘I doubt it. I whited over it last night, but ten minutes later I was sketching the place again, exactly the same only more detailed. Where does it come from? What does it mean?’

‘I haven’t a clue, but …’

‘What?’

‘The viewpoint is quite low. No higher than the bench.’

‘Why didn’t I notice that?’ said Rix. A shiver began, low down, then spread up his back to the top of his head. ‘It’s as though it’s being seen by a child …’