The Skull Throne

But the Par’chin’s aura dimmed, the power Drawn beneath the surface. Jardir tried to probe, but his crownsight struck an invisible wall before it got to his ajin’pal.

‘Just ’cause I let you read my surface aura now and then don’t give you the right to break into my head,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Let’s see how you like it.’

Jardir could feel the pull as the Par’chin Drew magic through him and absorbed it, Knowing him as intimately as a lover. He tried to stop the pull, the Par’chin caught him unaware, and by the time he could raise his defences, it was done.

Jardir pointed the spear at him. ‘I have killed men for less insult, Par’chin.’

‘Then you’re lucky I’m more civilized,’ the Par’chin said, ‘’cause the first insult was yours.’

Jardir tightened his lips, but he let it go. ‘If you have been with my intended, I have a right to know.’

‘She ent your intended, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Heard her tell it to your face on the cliff. She’ll be corespawned before she becomes your fifteenth wife, or even your First.’

The Par’chin was mocking him. ‘If you heard those private words, Par’chin, then you know she carries my child. If you think for a moment you have a claim to her …’

The Par’chin shrugged. ‘Ay, she’s a fine woman and I shined on her a bit. Kissed her a couple times, and once, something more.’

Jardir’s grip tightened on the spear.

‘But she ent mine,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Never was. And she ent yours, either, Ahmann. Baby or no. If you can’t get that, you’ll never have a chance.’

‘So you no longer desire her?’ Jardir asked incredulously. ‘Impossible. She shines like the sun.’

There was a sound of galloping hooves, and the Par’chin smiled, turning to watch his Jiwah Ka riding hard in the predawn light. She rode bareback on an enormous mare, leading four similarly huge horses. Their hooves, bright with magic, ate the distance at more than twice the speed of a Krasian racer.

‘Got my own sun, Ahmann,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Two is asking to be burned.’

He pointed to Jardir as he strode out to meet his wife. ‘You already got enough sun to turn the green lands into another desert. Think on that.’

Renna flew from the saddle, and Arlen caught her in his arms, returning her kiss. He concentrated, activating the wards of silence on his shoulders. Jardir would see the magic and know they were masking their words, but Arlen didn’t think he would say anything. A man was entitled to private words with his wife.

‘All well in the Hollow?’ he asked.

Renna saw the magic, too, and kept her face buried in his chest as she spoke to hide the movement of her lips. ‘Well as can be expected. Hope you’re right about this being a light moon. They ent ready for much more, especially without us.’

‘Trust me, Ren,’ Arlen said.

Renna thrust her chin at Arlen, but he could tell she was gesturing past him, at Jardir. ‘You tell him yet?’

Arlen shook his head. ‘Was waiting for you to come back. Tell him soon as the sun comes up.’

‘Might regret giving him the spear back first,’ Renna said.

Arlen shrugged and gave her a smile. ‘This ent Domin Sharum with a bunch of rules on fighting fair. Got Renna Bales at my back if things go sour, don’t I?’

Renna kissed him. ‘Always.’

Jardir averted his eyes, giving the Par’chin and his jiwah privacy in their greeting. Her arrival with the horses meant their trip to face the alagai princes was nigh, and Jardir was eager for the test, but there was disappointment, as well. Alone, he and the Par’chin had begun to find accord at last. The addition of his unpredictable Jiwah Ka could upset that precarious balance.

The sun crested the horizon at last, and Jardir breathed deeply, falling into his morning meditation as the bodies of the alagai began to smoke and burn. Everam always returned things to balance. He must keep faith in inevera.

When the flames had died down, they took the horses to the stable beside the hidden tower. Up close, the animals were enormous, the size of camels. The wild mustang that roamed the green lands had grown powerful in their nightly struggle with the alagai. His Sharum had captured and managed to train hundreds of them, but these were magnificent specimens, even so.

The black stallion that nuzzled the Par’chin’s hand, its body covered in warded armour and its head adorned with a pair of metal horns that could punch through a rock demon, could only be his famed horse Twilight Dancer. His jiwah’s piebald mare was almost of a size with it, wards painted on its spots and cut into its hooves. A simple leather girth wrapped its belly to help her keep her seat.

There were two other stallions and a mare, all of them with warded saddles and hooves. Powerful beasts – it was surprising even Twilight Dancer could keep them all in line. They stamped and pranced, but followed the lead into the stalls.

‘Why are there five horses, if there are only three of us?’ he demanded. ‘Who else have you taken upon yourself to invite to undertake this sacred journey, Par’chin? You claim to need my help, but you keep me blind to your plans.’

‘Plan was for it to be the three of us, Ahmann, but it hit a snag. Hoping you’ll help me get it unstuck.’

Jardir looked at him curiously. The Par’chin sighed and nodded to the back of the stable. ‘Come with me.’

He lifted an old rug out of the way, shaking off a camouflage of dust and hay. Underneath was a pull-ring to a trapdoor. He lifted the trap and descended into the darkness below. Jardir followed warily, aware that the Par’chin’s jiwah followed behind. Jardir did not fear her, but the strength of her aura told him she was powerful. Enough to give the Par’chin a telling advantage should they come to blows.

His crownsight returned as they slipped back into darkness, but the Par’chin’s wards began to glow anyway, sending the shadows fleeing as he led them to a heavy door, banded with steel and etched with powerful wards.

The Par’chin opened the door, casting light on the man and woman, clad only in their bidos, imprisoned within.

Shanjat and Shanvah looked up from their embrace, squinting in the sudden light.

8

The True Warrior

333 AR Autumn

‘Deliverer!’ Shanjat and Shanvah leapt to their feet, moving to stand apart. Without veil or robe, there was nothing to hide the blush of their skin or the guilty looks on their faces.

Indeed, their auras matched the look, shame and embarrassment palpable. Jardir assessed the situation, and his eyes darkened. Even if Shanvah had lain with him willingly, she was Shanjat’s daughter, and Jardir’s niece. Whether his spirit was penitent or not, Jardir would have no choice but to sentence his old friend to death.

He considered the thought grimly. Shanjat had served him loyally since the two of them were children in sharaj, and proven a good husband for his sister Hoshvah. More, Jardir needed Shanjat and the Sharum he commanded at his side when the First War began in full. Perhaps he could commute the sentence until after Sharak Ka. Give his loyal servant a chance to die on alagai talons and bring that his honour with him on the lonely path before he stood before Everam to be judged.

‘Forgive us, Deliverer, we have failed you!’ Shanjat cried before Jardir could utter a word. He and Shanvah fell to their knees, pressing hands and foreheads to the dirt floor. ‘I swear by Everam we tried every method in our power to escape and continue our search for you, but the Par’chin—’

‘—is using hora magic to strengthen our cell,’ Shanvah cut in. Her fingernails were raw and dirty. In wardsight, Jardir could see the scratches where she and her father had tested every inch of their prison.

He looked around the room, seeing no robes or veils. Of course the Par’chin would have stripped and searched them before imprisoning them. Even he was not such a fool as to leave them tools to escape. The only other thing in the room was a covered chamber pot, too small and fragile to make an effective weapon.

Suddenly Jardir was the one to feel ashamed. Was the caress of parent and child, trapped in a lightless cell, a crime? He had been ready to assume the worst, to sentence one of his oldest friends to death, when his only guilt stemmed from the fear they had failed in their duty to him.

‘Always quick to turn on a friend,’ the Par’chin murmured, and Jardir gritted his teeth.

‘Rise in honour, brother, niece,’ he said. ‘The Par’chin is beyond your power. There is no shame in defeat at his hands.’

Both stayed on their knees. When Shanjat hesitated, Shanvah spoke in his place. ‘It was not the Par’chin who captured us, Deliverer.’

Most fathers would have been enraged at the face lost having their daughter speak for them before the Deliverer, but Shanjat only looked at her with gratitude, and a pride Jardir had not seen him show either of his sons.

‘Was me,’ the Par’chin’s jiwah said. Jardir turned a sceptical eye on her. He knew the woman was formidable, but Shanjat and his daughter were kai’Sharum, Krasian warrior elite.

Shanvah raised her eyes to give the Par’chin’s jiwah an appraising look. ‘Her sharusahk is pathetic, Deliverer. A child could defeat her. But her magic is strong. Even with our night strength, she was beyond us. Our shields and spears lay broken.’

The words sent anguish through Shanvah’s aura. Jardir Drew through her as the Par’chin had taught him, seeing a vision around her. Inevera commanding Shanvah to seek the missing Deliverer. Her first assignment, one of such immense honour she could barely contain her pride. A chance to show the Deliverer and Damajah her worth.

And she had failed. Utterly.

Another vision arose, her defeat at the hands of the Par’chin’s jiwah.

‘The Par’chin brought me down in the same way, niece,’ he said. ‘You have been trained well, but you would be unwise to challenge his Jiwah Ka …’—he met Renna’s eyes—‘… in the night. In day, she will be more vulnerable to sharusahk, and no match for you.’

The Par’chin’s jiwah glared at him. Jardir felt the weight of auras shift as face in the room was restored to balance. Shanvah looked at Renna in a new way. A predator’s appraisal.

Jardir waved for his warriors to rise and turned angrily to face the Par’chin. ‘If my brother-in-law and niece have been mistreated …’

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