Part 19 (2/2)

'Yes. Of course it does.' Leki paced back and forth, wet ground sucking at her boots. A flock of birds swooped across the lake, competing with the jumping fish for the clouds of insects buzzing above the mirrored water. Something howled in the distance. Songbirds mourned the pa.s.sing of the day from their perches in a woodland further along the sh.o.r.e. It seemed to Bon that Skythe had returned to itself, which perhaps meant that Aeon was no longer close by.

'What do you need to do?' Bon asked. Something had chilled him.

'Bon.' Leki stopped pacing and stood before him, her back to the sinking sun. She was a silhouette. He found he could read her easier that way. 'Bon, Aeon is something that was never meant to rise. When the Ald put it down so long ago, they thought it was for ever. There has never been doubt about that, although there were those who chose caution over certainty.'

'And that's why you're here.'

'I'm one of the cautious ones. And because I choose not to put my fate in the hands of G.o.ds that I know to be false, I volunteered to come here. Investigate. Just ... keep track of what's happening on Skythe.'

'Don't the Ald have enough agents here to do that?'

'Not ones who know what to look for.'

'And not ones who know the true story, right?'

'Right.' Leki nodded.

'So you acknowledge all that? The magic the Ald drew with the Engines, destroying Aeon, creating the Kolts. Then the Kolt slaughter, and the magic used again to put them down. As an Ald, you admit all that?'

'I'm not much different from you,' Leki said softly. 'We both know a version of the truth. But in mine, Aeon made the Kolts on purpose. Before it was put down. It brought them up to fight for it.'

'No,' he said, shaking his head.

'Yes,' Leki said. 'And to leave it running loose once again, ready to do what it did last time-'

'It was your ancestors' twisting of magic that made the Kolts.'

'Are you prepared to take that risk?'

'There's no risk to take!'

'Bon. Look.' Leki shook her head, frustrated. 'Maybe it's ready to create an army of Kolts again, or maybe, as you believe, it can't. Either way, it might want revenge. It has to be put down.'

Bon stared at the amphy's big, fluid eyes. 'You're just as bad as the rest of the Ald,' he said. 'Devout or not, you're still blinded to the truth.'

'Everything I do is for the good of Alderia.' He could see that she believed. But her ignorance hurt him.

'And your people set the slayers to kill me. Named me to them as someone to be eliminated.'

'And that's why you followed me. Because of who I am.'

Leki blinked at him, glanced away, looked up again. He could see her agonising over what she had to say next, and suddenly he didn't want to hear it.

'There were rumours of Aeon amongst the Skythians over the past year, and we have our spies. We'd heard whispers of ... Venden Ugane, and what he was supposed to be doing.'

Bon caught his breath, but could not speak. Leki continued.

'We thought that the best way to find Venden would be to banish his father here, then follow him. I also knew of Juda, and was hoping that he might hear of you. He knows Skythe well, so ... I just followed. Came to gather intelligence, and see if there was any truth to the rumours. And ...' She shrugged.

'You knew Venden was alive,' Bon whispered.

'No, Bon. We heard whispers of his name, that was all.'

'Whispers amongst the Skythians.'

'Yes.'

'You didn't tell me.'

Leki looked pained, but had nothing to say. She sighed and came closer. Bon backed away. The more they talked, the less he knew her.

'You purposely gave my name to the slayers?'

'A gamble,' Leki said.

'Gambling with my life.'

'And my own!'

Bon shook his head and turned away, wondering how different things would have been if Leki was not there. She had lied so much. He turned back to her and asked, 'What is it you need to do?'

Leki turned and looked out across the lake. It was very beautiful and, with her back to him, he remembered her as beautiful as well. It doesn't mean she's a bad person, he thought. But no agent of the Ald could be a friend to him.

'I need to send word that Aeon has risen.'

'So that the Ald can come to put it down again. With magic. With the Engines.'

'New Engines,' she said. 'That thing Juda showed us was ...'

'A relic?'

'Yes. Dangerous, and unknown. The new Engines are more ... attuned to magic.'

'They've never stopped playing with it, have they?' Bon asked, and a cool fear settled across his soul. 'Venden always said that. He always suspected.'

'I don't know everything,' Leki said. She still faced away from him. Her voice was harsh, but Bon thought perhaps it was because of tears.

Anger rose and fell in waves, and tears came when he was struck with a sudden, unexpected memory of Venden grasping his hand as they walked along the banks of the Gakota River. Older, more innocent times, when history was just that. Now, history had returned.

'You'd bring the Spike here.'

'Can we leave a ... thing like that free, knowing what hate it might harbour?'

'You can't even use the word G.o.d.'

'Then I'm more of an unbeliever than you. Can you call it a G.o.d when you can touch it? See it?'

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