Part 30 (1/2)

'Now you keep quiet, Bald,' Gorb instructed. Bald obliged by falling asleep curled up in the gra.s.s.

'This is a sight,' said Tauk, his voice cheerful, though his entourage looked tired and bore wounds. 'A half-giant, a warrioress, an Engineer, and a very ill horse-sized wolf.'

'This is Far Gaze, Mayor. Magician of the Mayors' Command,' said Siel.

'Ah, I know the name. I have met him. No one told me he was a shape-s.h.i.+fter,' said Tauk. 'I'm glad you've lived through the night. For us, it was a near thing. We were singing songs one moment, surrounded by horrors the next. Hail, Siel.'

She blinked in surprise she'd just once met the Mayor, in a crowded briefing from the Mayors' Command on the night she'd asked to join them. She'd not known he'd noticed her then, let alone memorised her name and face. She bowed low.

Far Gaze had finished s.h.i.+fting and now stood, his body naked and starved. He swayed on his feet, bowed low before the Mayor though Siel saw the sneer on his face then noisily threw up.

Said the Mayor, 'Far Gaze, it's good of you to have found me. You must know of the demon beasts that have come in the night. Is this what it appears: a planned invasion from beyond World's End? Or are they sent by more familiar enemies?'

Far Gaze pondered the question at length, then laughed long and loud. The men to either side of the Mayor looked askance at each other. Tauk himself bristled. 'I have lost fine men tonight, personal friends among them. I find no humour. Where is the Pilgrim?'

Siel, mortified by Far Gaze's continuing laughter, quickly said, 'The Pilgrim has left us, Mayor. Flown away on a drake, with Aziel, Vous's daughter.'

The Mayor's face went ashen. 'Vous's daughter was in your possession? I see there is much to tell me. Where have they gone, and why?'

'They did not linger to tell us,' she said.

'Then they took our hope with them,' said a rider to Tauk's left. 'And we rode through this foul night for naught.'

Stark naked, Far Gaze sat cross-legged on the ground among the wolf fur he'd shed. He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes but at last managed to speak. 'I smelled much in the night. The wind tells me a huge force comes from the north and crosses the Great Road, still some way distant, but coming. They come to take your city, Tauk the Strong. And then High Cliffs, of course. They bring war machines, siege towers, trebuchets. War mages will come too.'

'Those foul things will be weak in our city,' said one of the men. 'There is little magic.'

'They will use their claws and teeth, and cast at you even if one spell kills them! An army like this has not come to wage death on such a scale since the War that Tore the World. But there'll be far less death than that, for you haven't nearly the force to make a contest of it. They mean to burn and poison the land outside your walls, where your food is grown. Occupying your city is not their instruction. All your people will be killed, their bodies thrown in ma.s.sive pits. The vanguard of that force will reach your city soon and test your defences. The rest is some way distant.'

The men had been, throughout this, getting angrier and angrier at Far Gaze's glee, which he still did not bother hiding. But Tauk's face showed none of his thoughts.

'Meanwhile death comes from the south,' Far Gaze went on. 'It marches with no purpose and no named enemy. But it marches north. Do you understand? What we saw and travelled through on this night was just the scattered edge of it! You know of Strategist Blain's men? The rebel faction he sent, to guard World's End?'

'I do.'

'More than ten thousand men. They are the Tormentors we've met! We learned what those beasts are: men changed by poisoned airs from Levaal South, or airs which become poison when they mix with ours. A ma.s.sive gust of this poison crossed the barrier. Not all Blain's men were changed, but a good portion was. Several thousands! More Tormentors than were used to take and hold Elvury, you can be sure. Did all this fit Blain's private plan? I know not. But it was not the Arch's plan.

'Rejoice, Tauk the Lucky! You will only have to defeat the castle vanguard. They'll have likely avoided the Tormentor swarm, as I judge your city shall too. But the castle's main force is two days or more behind the vanguard. They will not be so lucky. And Tormentors will be an enemy they're ill prepared to fight. Trebuchets, swords and arrows will not do them much good.'

Siel's heart sped as though it understood, though her mind had not yet grasped it. A wave of talk broke out among the men. 'Do you mean to say ...?' began one.

'I laughed from unexpected joy, from relief,' said Far Gaze, lying on his back with his legs akimbo. 'It is a strange world. For the moment for the moment, mind you are no longer doomed. There is yet a battle to win against the vanguard force, which itself will test you. Get High Cliffs to send support, now! You must win, for the castle will soon lose most of its strength, as the Arch always meant it to do. But he meant it only after all Free Cities were ruins and ashes, and all your people dead!'

'Then we will have won,' one of the riders said sceptically.

'No,' said Far Gaze sitting up, suddenly more sober. 'You'll have survived just one peril. Your prize will be a land crawling with death, and a foreign world to your south about which we know nothing. You are close to the barrier. Vous remains on his throne, a G.o.d rising. He will need no armies, and you must hope you no longer matter to him. What's more the dragons in the sky are on the brink of freedom, and they mean death to us all. You won't know peace for a long time, if you ever truly do. For the Pendulum swings. You probably do not know what those words mean, and I doubt my explanations will mean much to you.'

If Far Gaze meant to erase any sign of hope or optimism in the men, no spell could have done it swifter. 'Will more poison come?' said Tauk quietly.

'Who knows? Forgive my laughter, Mayor, and my one moment's relief, joy, hope. It has been the first I've had in a long while.'

'You are forgiven, of course.' The Mayor stared into the distance, thinking. 'A question. Are you familiar with the spell which shares your name?'

Siel saw intense annoyance run across Far Gaze's face; mages were never pleased to be asked to cast something, even by those who were their allies, friends or commanders. He said, 'I know one version of it.'

'I understand to cast it requires high ground. Take me to such a place, and cast it for me, if you will be so kind.'

'If you ask me to look to the south, beyond the boundary, I will not! A greater mage than I was already corrupted by-'

'Calm yourself, I don't ask that. I wish to look upon these lands. Will you cast it for me?'

Far Gaze spat. 'Nothing would give me greater pleasure,' he said angrily.

'Excuse me, Mayor. Have you Engineers?' said Gorb, who had been itching to speak for a while now.

'We do, as you must know. That one there sleeping, he is one of ours, unless he has acquired those garments in some other way. His clothes come from our city.'

'A tattoo on his foot will reveal his origin,' said another of the entourage.

'He is yours. But you might be happy the village I came from borrowed him,' said Gorb. He held up one of Bald's guns. 'There were two monsters over in that field, back yonder. Got time for a quick show of how these weapons work?'

Tauk said, 'There's no time for that now, and we will not go near those creatures when we needn't. I need to see with my own eyes what the magician has claimed.'

'Of course,' said Far Gaze with a sardonic bow.

'It is no insult, good mage,' said Tauk. 'But a wolf's nose can't be the basis of decisions I must now make. I will see with my own eyes how things have s.h.i.+fted, if indeed they have. Then maybe I will laugh along with you, for a little while.'

3.

They rode half a mile east until they came to a suitable hilltop, then sighted a taller one further away and headed there instead, to Far Gaze's silent fury. He and Siel gladly rode on horseback, but the entourage was not mindful of Gorb, who lagged some way behind them carrying the Engineer. They encountered no Tormentors on the steep winding paths through a dense glade filled with ferns.

(As they rode Siel could still not free her mind of the sight of that Tormentor staring at her. What had it seen? Enemy? Prey? Would some other happenstance mage one day look back from far into the future and see its spiked body swing around with alien grace, hear the rattle of its needles, and wonder the same thing?) They reluctantly left the horses tied to tree stumps when the path got too steep, then climbed a long-abandoned track through thick foliage and found the highest point they could. 'Ready?' said Tauk.

'Where would you see?' said Far Gaze irritably.

'The land about, as far as you can take me. I have had this cast once before. It showed me many miles beyond, but the mage cooked himself in casting it. I could not eat meat for weeks after.' Some of the men chuckled.

Far Gaze's jaw clenched. 'A very foolish mage that must have been, not to know certain limitations. I heard a similar tale, in which the magician accidentally cooked the ones he cast upon. Such things can happen. It is a shame.'

'The Mayor meant no disrespect, good mage-'

'Shut up! All crowd in. My version of the spell is cast not on one person but over a small area, so several of you will be cast upon. This was once a hunting spell, used to confuse dangerous animals by ruining their vision. The tribes used it. My people altered it and made it more useful. I will be blind. All of you will have ”far gaze”. It is safe to speak to me during the cast but do not touch me. If you feel any pain, step away and keep your eyes closed till we are finished.' He looked around the glade. There was no sign of recent human activity; the old path was grown over. 'I am troubled this place is not safe. One of you stand watch. Go! We'll soon be blind to our surrounds. Enough dithering, I cast now. Shut your eyes.'

He sniffed hard for a minute or two, waiting for some ingredient in the airs. His eyes rolled back in his head; he began a low murmuring in a lost tribal tongue, almost a song, his resonant voice pleasant to hear. Seven of the Mayor's men crowded in around him, along with Tauk and Siel, all smelling of the road, Siel acutely conscious of the Mayor's closeness. She hoped he would b.u.mp into her, longed for his touch even if it were inadvertent. The road did that too made one ravenously h.o.r.n.y and she felt some of the other men standing much closer to her than they strictly needed to; the odd brush of a hand or elbow against her b.u.t.t or hip. Just now she didn't mind that at all.