Part 25 (1/2)

'So he hasn't forgotten me?'

'No. He's incredibly busy too.' I sighed, wondering how I could make her understand what was happening. 'This is the biggest advance of all time. When they start lining up in formation, you'll see what I mean.'

Cyan lay back on the bed. 'I tried to write to you but I couldn't concentrate. I made a complete a.r.s.e of myself.'

'Yes, you did. I wish I'd'

'Oh, I don't care what you'd have done. I wasn't Challenging you.' She put an arm across her eyes and said, 'p.i.s.sflaps. Will you let me free, Jant; please?'

'Look, Lightning put you in here for a reason. If I let you out, and you get killed, he would shoot me. If through your actions, you get someone else killed, I would be blamed. And I don't fancy that.'

'It's like being in prison!'

I stared at her. Her truculent tone was beginning to pique. 'Trust me, it's nothing like being in prison.'

'Oh, Jant's angry.'

'Stop that! Behaving like a ten-year-old is what landed you in here.'

'Please set me free. I'll reward you. I'll give you'

'It won't happen, so don't try to tempt me.'

The deerhound leapt on the bed and Cyan took its head in her lap. 'Good dog, Lymer.'

I knew she had never really seriously considered joining the Circle. Everybody harbours a secret wish to be immortal. Everyone, now and then, wonders what it would be like. But like most people Cyan had never genuinely entertained the thought, and I bet, in her head, she keeps repeating over and over what she did and imagines the Eszai laughing at her.

I knelt down with a cheerful air and began to build a fire in the grate, refusing to be overwhelmed by the awkward situation. Cyan watched me with animal antipathy.

I said, 'I recognise a spur-of-the-moment Challenge when I see it. All Eszai recognise bl.u.s.ter, too. We're often Challenged by people who know they're not capable of beating us but simply want the attention. By the Castle's rules we have to take each and every one seriously, and separately, because you never know when one is a true talent...'

'I don't withdraw my Challenge, if that's what you're driving at.'

I gathered handfuls of the dried moor gra.s.s, heather sprigs and sprays of thyme strewn as a floor covering. I used them for kindling and lit some skilfully with the last of my matches. I swung the kettle spit above the flames and began to make some coffee.

'Rayne was recently Challenged,' I continued. 'By a healer, some Awian n.o.blewoman. High Awian is a useless language for science, and Rachiswater university mainly teaches arts. They're not far behind Hacilith though. This woman believed in the properties of precious metals to cure diseases. She made gold mirrors and shone light into the patients' eyes. It was no laughing matter...her bedside manner was so good many patients were cured by their own expectations. Rayne set her a Challenge at the front, and she learned that no s.h.i.+ny mirrors or soothing music can stuff a patient's guts back in.' I shrugged. 'Only three places in the Circle have never changed hands: Rayne's, Tornado's and your father's. Everybody who Challenges them makes a fool of himself. You're not the only one.'

'It was his fault,' she said. 'He pushed me to it. In front of the Emperor and everything.'

'Cyan, I've better things to do with my free hour than talk with a stroppy cow.'

'Please tell the guards to release me.'

'No. After seeing you make an exhibition of yourself and humiliate Lightning, even though I told you to sit down, I'm surprised I'm here at all.'

'I don't regret it,' she said.

'He's been the best archer for over fourteen hundred years!' I tried to make her understand that length of time. 'Awndyn didn't exist when he was mortal. Or Peregrine. They didn't have highways, they didn't even have coaches. They used to have ballistae and now we have espringals, thanks to the effort of San knows how many Artillerists. Lightning improved bows, from the early awful type they had before the Circle, to the s.h.i.+t-hot bows you use now. He's lived through all this, and been on top all the time! It's as much his day now as it was then. So it's b.l.o.o.d.y stupid to Challenge him.'

''Spose you're right.'

'He's seen the four corners of the world...Five, including Tris.'

'In the past, though. He lives in the past. And Swallow lives in the futurebut I live in the present.' She got up and crouched in front of the fire, rubbing some warmth back into her hands. 'He hasn't been a father to me at all. He's been more of a father to you than to me.'

'Not really. I'

'That's what he is, your subst.i.tute father. It makes me sick how you're blind to his faults.'

'Nonsense.'

'Yeah, well why are you defending him so much?'

'I don't need a father. I survived by myself for years in Hacilith. Worse than anything you've seen. And' I swept a hand, rattling the bangles around my wrist 'for example, these peel towers. I won a battle myself at the furthest one, at Summerday in nineteen ninety-three. Yours truly and Shearwater Mist beat the Insects before Lightning had even ridden out of Awia. We were the only Eszai in command; the brains and the brawn.'

'Which one of you was the brains?'

'Me! d.a.m.n it.' I poured hot water into two cups of coffee. 'Mist was bitten through the shoulder and I had to look after him almost as much as the Zascai.'

'I wish I could be involved in something like that.'

I would have laughed if she had led with a trace of humour in her voice. 'You're not joking, are you?'

'No, I'm not...I want out.'

'Stay here, Cyan. Insects are running everywhere. These towers provide enough shelter to last a swarm. There are rainwater b.u.t.ts on the roof and enough stores in the cellar.'

She said, 'I've been watching the archers drill all afternoon. I can see everything from up here. Daddy was riding up and down in front of the ranks as if he'd forgotten me. There are two enormous women soldiers guarding me and all the money stored here. Not men, worse luck; ”b.i.t.c.hback and n.o.bless” from Midelspa.s.s.'

'Really?'

'Mm. They don't pa.s.s on my messages. They don't listen to me, even.'

'Wonder where Lightning got them from?'

'I don't know but they adore him. They're so desperate that if they knew a man was up here they'd strip-search you...And the lake reeks,' she went on. 'All day when the wind was gusting I could smell it.'

She pushed Lymer aside and lifted the chessboard onto her knees. 'Do you want a game?'

'Huh? No, I don't know how to play.'

'In all this time, you haven't learnt chess?'

'No. Can you fend off wolves using only a sling?'

'No.'

'Well then.'

'I'll teach you,' she said.