Part 8 (2/2)

Chapter 9.

Selik and his men rode slowly through the centre of Erskan, seeing in the human ruins of the once quiet and pleasant town a reflection of all the ills afflicting Balaia. Filth covered the streets, which were deserted but for a few scavengers out on the hunt for sc.r.a.ps they had little or no chance of finding. The Black Wings became instant targets for beggars, of which there were many. Some had been born to it and they now fared better than their once wealthier compet.i.tors, who looked sicker and thinner than those on whom they had so recently looked down.

The market tried to struggle on but Selik didn't see a single food stall. Silver and gold were barely in evidence either. What the traders wanted in return for their cut-price goods were bread, meat and grain. At its edges, inns were closed and businesses boarded up. Those not begging or attempting to ply a trade but just walking about did so with a kind of stupefied expression. Selik understood that too. The pace of what had befallen Balaia was staggering and all but impossible to grasp.

Down side streets, bodies rotted where they had been left, some obviously months before. And though the town stank of decay and disease, in some ways it was cleaner than before. Not a stray cat or dog ran, not a rat scuttled. All in the stomachs of the desperate by now.

Selik arrived at the castle and found exactly what he had expected: portcullis lowered, doors barred shut and guards on the gatehouse battlements, bows ready.

'We have nothing!' called a voice. 'And what we have goes to our people. There's nothing here for travellers. Move on.'

'I want nothing but the ear of your Lord for a few minutes. I am Selik and this is my Black Wing guard. We have food for ourselves and our horses graze the open pastures. Might I speak with him?' Selik's good eye roved the battlements. Erskan's pennants snapped defiantly in the wind, so at least he was at home.

'What is it you wish to discuss?' asked the same voice.

Selik saw him, on the left of the gatehouse, leaning slightly out. 'Restoration of Balaia to its former glory. A subject close to all our hearts.'

There was a short conversation. The man nodded.

'You may enter. Your men remain outside.'

'Naturally,' said Selik. 'And thank you.'

He heard the sound of the portcullis being raised and saw it rise above the gatehouse walls. The doors creaked ajar. Selik rode forward alone, seeing the killing ground beyond the doors lined with soldiers. Erskan was one nervous man.

Riding into the courtyard, Selik dismounted, his horse was led away to the stables and he was shown into the keep. A squire took him through a great entrance hall hung with deep-coloured tapestries, through a single door to the right and up a short flight of stairs. A further corridor revealed four or five doors and he was ushered through the first of them.

'Relax, sir,' said the squire. 'My Lord Erskan will be along presently.'

Selik was in a small cold room. An empty grate dominated the far end and what light came in was through stained-gla.s.s windows in the wall to the right. A scattering of armchairs in front of the hearth was the only furniture bar two small low tables and the Erskan crest above the grate.

Deciding he'd rather be found standing, Selik walked to the windows and looked out. The town sprawled away beyond the courtyard, silent and grieving. He sighed and pulled his hood tight over his head. Behind him, the door creaked open.

'It wasn't so very long ago that I would have run you out of my town, Black Wing.'

Selik turned to see Lord Erskan enter, attended by the same squire. The youth carried a tray with two gla.s.ses and a pewter flagon, placing them on one of the low tables. Erskan waved him out.

'Come and sit,' said Erskan, moving slowly to the chairs. 'I can offer you a gla.s.s of wine. That is something in which we are rich.' A dry chuckle escaped his lips. 'And do take that d.a.m.n silly hood off. I am aware of the deformities it hides.'

Selik swept the hood back, glad for the play of air across his head. He sat down opposite Erskan, who didn't flinch as he took in Selik's smeared left cheek, dead white eye and slack left jaw. He was a middle-aged man grown very old in just two seasons. Terribly thin and frail-looking, his wisps of grey hair were oiled down on a scalp that topped a narrow, long-nosed face with a sharp chin and dull blue eyes. His hands, liver-spotted and with nails bitten down to the quick, shook as he poured the wine and handed Selik a gla.s.s.

'So, Captain, or is it Commander, Selik. What great statement do you have to cheer the people of Erskan?' The Lord spoke as he put his gla.s.s to his lips.

'Captain, please.' Selik smiled. 'I understand your scepticism, my Lord. And I would concede that certain actions of the Black Wings have been, shall we say, overzealous?'

'A vast understatement,' said Erskan.

'Be that as it may, we have all seen these past two seasons and more that our fears were entirely justified. More than that, the reality has far outweighed even my most fervent nightmares.'

Erskan's nod was cautious. 'But surely you are not attempting to justify murder or any of your lesser crimes.'

'Murder is an emotive word.' Selik bristled despite his determination to remain under control. 'I'm only asking you to agree that magic must, as we have always said in the Black Wings, be monitored and regulated independently of the colleges.'

Erskan rested back in his chair. A cloud came across the sun, dimming the tinted light in the spa.r.s.e room.

'Well, I think that might be going a little far. Though a code of conduct might be a good compromise,' said Erskan. 'After all, one rogue child does not make every mage in every college irresponsible.'

'But look at what she sp.a.w.ned, devastation and now war,' said Selik. 'And can any of us forget what has been caused in Arlen, or indeed in Julatsa, by the indiscriminate use of magic?'

'Well, I-'

'Have you been to Arlen, my Lord? Have you visited Korina or Gyernath, Denebre or Greythorne?' Selik's tone hardened. He could see he wasn't getting through.

'I must confess, no.' At least Erskan had the grace to be embarra.s.sed. 'We have had problems of our own here.'

'Arlen has all but been destroyed by the new conflict. But your buildings still stand and your farmers are planting new crops. For you, there is an end in sight.'

Erskan's smile was thin. 'And our families bury their dead daily, they report their sick in ever-increasing numbers but the healers are dead too and the mages have fled. By the time the harvest comes, I will have less than a third of my people alive. And I wonder if there will be anyone fit enough to tend the crops, let alone gather them in.'

Selik took a long sip of his wine. It was a Denebre red, a wine that would soon command a very high price. Denebre and its vineyards had been swallowed by the earth. Erskan's eyes held depths of sorrow and desperation that should have melted the most frozen heart. But the Black Wings couldn't afford such sentimentality.

'Then now is the time to strike,' Selik said. 'To make the mages pay for the blight they've cast on our land. Where are they now, eh? In your hours of greatest need they are all at each other's throats.

'I need men, Lord Erskan. And I need them now. Do you think you'll somehow escape the war here? We have to make a stand. All the innocent people who have died because of the mages must be avenged.'

Erskan frowned. 'I sympathise with you in this, I really do. But all you have to do is look about you to know why I can't help you.'

'Without popular support, where are we?' asked Selik, failing to conceal his disappointment. 'Balaians have to stand up now. They weaken each other every day they fight. We can break their domination, but only if we do it now.'

Lord Erskan drained his gla.s.s and refilled it. The clouds moved on and the light sharpened.

'You'll find men out there with the will, I have no doubt,' he said, gesturing at the windows with his free hand. 'Men who have learned to hate mages, magic and everything they stand for.

'But where will you find the strength, Captain? You want an army but those you see around you are struggling just to keep themselves and their families alive. I will ask no more of them and nor shall you.'

'And your own guard?'

'I won't spare you even one. There are those within and without who would plunder what little we have. If I let that happen, I will have striven my whole life for nothing.'

Selik finished his wine and stood up, feeling his frustration grow. It was a litany he had heard in half a dozen places but he had true support from many more.

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