It seemed there were worlds to discover in her, too.

She meant something to him, but his new-found situation of losing his immortality had changed the context in which he lived – and he could not let her know she was important to him, not if he was going to die. If only he had just a few more guaranteed years, some time to discover more about these islands that lay under the red sun, about what everything meant, about where their civilization had come from. Such a history had always been there to discover, somewhere. If only he had more time.

If only…

There it was, the uphiminn-kyrr, a hexagonal box constructed from some metal that he could not identify. It was certain there was no known current stock of this ore. It possessed a sheen similar to steel, but the properties and structure were different. Glass dials indicated the points of a compass, with marks indicating degrees of trajectory. He took the box to his chest and left the chamber.

Later, early evening, up on one of the bridges, staring blankly into the wind like he was doing so much these days. If he had so little time left alive, why was he spending much of it experiencing such existential crises? A laugh snapped him out of it. No one was around on this bridge, leading between one derelict building and one disused theatre. Occasionally a gust would draw his fuligin cloak across his face, forcing upon him a darkness so total he thought it death itself.

The uphiminn-kyrr was to clear the skies as best as possible. The clouds were potent these days, and they needed dispersal if he was going to travel north for long periods. He placed the device on the ground, set the dials for maximum trajectory, then set it to start. There was a timer that he salvaged from another relic, so he was never quite sure how efficient it was, so he remained focused on the device from a distance of twenty paces. It was like waiting for a firework. The sounds of the city drifted up from below, bottles clinking, a little laughter, reverb of horses’ hooves navigating tight alleyways, every night so similar.

Eventually, a fizz – a light glow from the uphiminn-kyrr, and a small ball of white light launched with velocity into the skies.

He did not know how long it would take to know if it had worked, or even if the effects would be useful, but he had to do all he could.

SIXTEEN

Jeryd watched the night sky vibrate with light and colour. Marysa held his arm tighter. She shivered a little, and he couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the eerie event above their heads, but it wasn’t important, just the fact that she was holding him once again, just like old times. As the lights reflected off her glossy black eyes, he was so grateful to be with her again. It had taken her absence to make him realize just how much she meant to him, and he was shocked that, as a rumel, he was actually suffering from such emotions as humans normally did. He had always assumed that it was that rumel quality of level-headedness that put them a notch above their hominid cousins.

‘Rumex,’ Marysa breathed, ‘isn’t this wonderful? What’s causing it?’

Jeryd had no answers, and his tail was perfectly still in contemplation. ‘Perhaps this is some prior indication of the ice age? Perhaps not. I’m even willing to put a few Drakar on it being some kind of cultist trickery.’

They were both hypnotized by the display, these beams and flickering shafts of light changing form and colour in front of the stars. All around them, other people were equally entranced, craning their necks to see more clearly between the tall buildings, stepping out on balconies, scrambling for the higher bridges, as if getting closer would enable them to understand the bizarre occurrence any better.

Jeryd had taken Marysa out for a few drinks that evening and to watch a golem dance display put on by cultists from the Order of Pugandr. He had been genuinely impressed with the dwarfish, clay-like creatures that skipped about on stage.

But all through this magical evening, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling of being the victim of observation, even when he found himself lost in contemplation of the extraordinary events in the sky. This was a city where at night you would easily see shadows stepping out of alleyways behind you, or hear the sound of ghostly feet scuffing on the cobbles. It was a city that bred paranoia.

But who cares if someone is tailing me, just as long as it isn’t those Gamall Gata kids.

Randur stared out of the window, his slender, naked body illuminated by the weirdly ignited sky. His sword, garments and boots lay scattered on the floor somewhere behind him as he grasped the edge of the window frame to watch the varying colours shoot across the heavens. A diffuse glow of green and red undulated like an immense curtain drifting in a slow breeze. Impossibly high. Impossibly wide.

Lady Yvetta Fol stepped up behind him, placed her palms on his buttocks. ‘Impressive,’ she said, sliding them slowly up and down, then giving a gentle squeeze.

‘Yeah,’ Randur said. ‘I’ve never seen the sky look like this before. I wonder what the hell is happening?’

‘I wasn’t talking about the sky.’ She slapped his rump. Her many gold rings stung his bare skin, and he shuddered at the cold metal. Her breath crept slowly up the back of his neck as she moved his long hair to one side. Her fingers skimmed the ridges of his shoulder blades and spine. She kissed one shoulder hungrily.

As he turned around, her palms continued to move across his lithe dancer’s torso, which she had already compared favourably to that of her husband, old and fat and lazy, and she murmured something vaguely about waiting for him all her life. But he couldn’t keep this up all night. Where the hell did she get her appetite from? It made him wonder if she had been storing up frustrated libido for years, releasing it all tonight, on him, and now he was the prey instead of the hunter.

His lips touched her rings, caressing the display of wealth. Earlier he had cautioned her about a thief, one of Randur’s latest fictions, suggesting that a wave of crimes was washing through the upper levels of the city, with wealthy ladies being targeted for their vulnerability. And after seeing the concern on her face, he pressed her fingers to his lips and offered his loyal protection for the evening. ‘You simply don’t need all these right now.’ Randur slipped the rings from her fingers, dropped them discreetly into one of his upright boots. ‘You’re beautiful enough just as you are, my dear.’

Eyes creasing, she gave one of those small exhalations of pleasure, like the ones he had been hearing all night. ‘You really think that?’

He placed a finger over her lips. ‘I imagine every man would.’

‘Well, certainly not him.’

Him would be her husband, the influential Lord Hanton Fol.

Her grey hair was now ruffled after making love three times already. For a lady of fifty years, she was still slim, only mildly wrinkled. He had enjoyed what they did tonight – she was certainly a skilled performer, despite the dents in her confidence from her husband’s complaints, and the fact that he was always sleeping with much younger women, whenever he was actually in Villjamur. Lord Fol was a wealthy landowner, who supplied the army with crucial foodstuffs distributed to their garrisons across the Archipelago. Lady Yvetta was rich in her own right, owning a substantial estate on Jokull, and also several trading ships. Randur was aware of these facts from gossiping with the servants before he came here. He confirmed her value from the proliferation of jewellery and ornaments that were crammed into her balconied mansion.