He stared down. One eye. Widening.
The knife had pierced the centre of a tile, nailing it in place. The others now began swirling round it, as if drawn into a vortex.
The centre of a tile.
His own. The blade buried in the chest of the image. My chest. What does that mean? No matter. What other tile could it possibly choose?
The world trembled-he could feel it, deep in its core, spreading in ripples, those ripples rising, devouring energy, lifting into waves. The waves heaving higher, gaining speed, lifting…
The Errant laughed as power burgeoned within him. ‘Mortal blood!’
Was she dead now? He’d struck her twice. Driven the weapon deep. She would have spilled out by now. A corpse huddled in that cursed chamber. Until the rats found her. And this was well. She could not be allowed to survive-he wanted no High Priestess, no mortal bound to his resurrected godhood. The other prayers I can swallow. Ignore. They all know 1 never answer. Never give a thing away. Expecting nothing, so they receive nothing, and I am not bound to them.
But a High Priestess…
He would have to make sure. Go back. And make sure. The Errant spun round, began walking.
‘Bastard,’ Feather Witch said, her mouth filled with the taste of blood. Running from her nostrils, bubbling at the back of her throat. Immense pressures crushing her chest on the right side.
She could wait no longer. The ghost was too late.
‘I am dying.’
No. Errant, bastard god, forgotten god, hungry god.
Well, you are not the only hungry one around here.
She bared her teeth in a red smile, then pushed the mangled eyeball into her mouth.
And swallowed.
The Errant staggered, rebounded from a corridor wall, as something reached into his chest and tore free a welter of power. Stole it away. Leaving a cavern of agony.
‘The bitch!’
The roar echoed against cold stone.
And he heard her voice, filling his skull: ‘lam yours now. You are mine. Worshipper and worshipped, locked together in mutual hate. Oh, won’t that twist things, yes?
‘You should have found someone else, Errant. I have read the histories. Destrai Anant, God Chosen, the Well of the Spirit. Feather Witch. You are mine. I am yours. And listen to my prayer-listen! Your Destrai demands it! In my hand, now, waits our Mortal Sword. He too has tasted your blood. Your power can heal him as it has done me. Do you not still feel his’-malicious delight-‘touch?’
Her laughter rasped in his head, rebounding bitter with his stolen power.
‘Summon him, Errant. We need him.’
‘No.’
‘We need him! And a Shield Anvil-a T’orrud Segul in the language of the First Empire. Which of us shall choose? Oh, of course, you would claim that right for yourself. But I have a candidate. Another wrapped tight in webs of spite-I utter his name and so find a face to my deepest hatred-is that not well suited?
‘And yes, he still lives. Udinaas. Let us make of this priesthood a company of betrayers. Let us claim the Empty Throne-it was ever rightfully ours, Errant-beloved.
‘Udinaas. Claim him! Choose him! We can devour each other’s souls across the span of a thousand years. Ten thousand!’
‘Leave me, damn you!’
‘Leave you? God of mine, 1 compel you!’
The Errant fell to his knees, tilted his head back, and screamed his rage.
And the world trembled anew.
He had forgotten. The chains. The wills locked in an eternal tug of war. The flood waters of fierce emotion rising again and again. The deathless drowning. 1 am in the world again. 1 surrendered my weakness, and am imprisoned by power. ‘Only the weak and useless are truly free,’ he whispered.
She heard him. ‘No need to be so maudlin, Errant. Go back to the Cedance and see for yourself. Blood now flows between the Tiles. Between them all. The Warrens. The Cedance, at last, maps the truth of things. The truth of things. To use your words, the Tiles now… flow.
‘Can you not taste them? These new Warrens? Come, let us explore them, you and 1, and choose our aspect. There are flavours… light and dark, shadow and death, life and…oh, what is this? The jesters of Chance, an Unaligned, Oponn? Oponn-dear Errant, you have upstarts standing in your stead. These Twins play your game, Errant.
‘What will we do about that?’
‘Abyss take me,’ the god groaned, sinking down onto the cold, clammy pavestones.
‘Summon him, Errant. He is needed. Now. Summon our Mortal Sword.’
‘I cannot. You damned fool. He is lost to us.’
‘I possess-’
‘I know what you possess. Do you truly think it enough? To wrest him from Mael’s grasp? You stupid, pathetic bitch. Now, cease this damned prayer, Destrai. Your every demand weakens me-and that is not smart. Not now. Too soon. I am… vulnerable. The Edur-’
‘The Edur warlocks tremble and start at shadows now-they do not know what has happened. All they know is blind terror-’
‘Silence!’ the god bellowed. ‘Who can reach through those warlocks, you blubbering capabara? Leave me alone! Now!’
He was answered with.,… nothing. Sudden absence, a presence recoiling.
‘Better,’ he snarled.
Yet he remained, slumped onto the cold floor, surrounded in darkness. Thinking. But even thoughts did not come free, without a price.
Abyss below, 1 think 1 have made a mistake. And now 1 must live with it.
And make plans.
Gadalanak stepped in behind and under his round-shield. A huge hand grasped his arm, wrapping round it just below his shoulder, and a moment later he was flying across the compound, landing hard, skidding then rolling until he crashed up against the wall.
The Meckros warrior groaned, shook his head, then released his short-handled double-bladed axe and reached up to tug clear his helm. ‘Not fair,’ he said, wincing as he sat up. He glared across at Karsa Orlong. ‘The Emperor couldn’t have done that.’
‘Too bad for him,’ the Toblakai rumbled in reply.
‘I think you tore something in my arm.’
Samar Dev spoke from where she sat on a chair in the shade, ‘Best find a healer, then, Gadalanak.’
‘Who else will dare face me?’ Karsa demanded, eyeing the half-dozen other warriors as he leaned on his sword. All eyes turned to the masked woman, who stood silent and motionless, worn and weathered like a forgotten statue in some ruin. She seemed indifferent to the attention. And she had yet to draw her two swords.
Karsa snorted. ‘Cowards.’
‘Hold on,’ the one named Puddy said, his scarred face twisting. ‘It ain’t that, y’damned bhederin bull. It’s your style of fighting. No point in learning to deal with it, since this Edur Emperor don’t fight that way. He couldn’t. I mean, he ain’t got the strength. Nor the reach. Besides, he’s civilized-you fight like an animal, Karsa, and you just might take the bastard down-only you won’t have to, ‘cause I’ll do it before you.’ He hefted the short javelin in one hand. ‘I’ll skewer him first-then let’s see him fight with a shaft of wood impaling him. I skewer him from six paces, right? Then I close with my cutlass and chop him into pieces.’
Samar Dev stopped listening, since she had heard Puddy’s boasts before, and held her gaze on the woman the Meckros warrior had called a Seguleh. First Empire word, that. The Anvil. Strange name for a people-probably some remnant clan from the colonial period of Dessimbelackis’s empire. A fragment of an army, settled on some pleasant island as their reward for some great victory-those armies were each named, and ‘the Anvil’ was but a variation on a theme common among the First Empire military. The mask, however, was a unique affectation. Gadalanak said all Seguleh were so attired, and something in the glyphs and scratches on those enamel masks indicated rank. But if those marks are writing, it’s not First Empire. Not even close. Curious. Too bad she never says anything.
Cradling his shield arm, Gadalanak used the wall to lever himself upright, then set off in search of a healer.