Peter Brett – The Core (страница 37)

She rolled back on her heels and stood, feeling the vibration in her earring. The connection with Ashia and her spear sisters had been severed when they entered Asome’s wing of the palace. A bad sign. Melan and Asavi had given Asome and his brothers the secret of hora magic, and it seemed they were quick studies.

‘Damajah,’ Ashia whispered in her ear from the other side of the palace. ‘We have found them, but there is more. We must speak immediately.’

‘The west passage.’ Inevera was already moving for the door. She was bedecked in warded jewellery, her hora pouch laden with spells. She had been overconfident, spoiled by the strength of her wand, when Melan and Asavi came to kill her. She would not make that mistake again.

She wore opaque robes of crimson silk, embroidered with wards in electrum thread. Like the robes of Everam’s spear sisters, all eyes – human and alagai – would slip from her when she wished it. At her belt was the curved knife she used to draw blood for her foretellings. It was not meant as a weapon, but the edge was razor-sharp and would do if all else failed.

The Sharum’ting were waiting for her in a hidden tunnel leading to the west wing. The Damajah had claimed the east wing to face the dawn, the Shar’Dama Ka west to face the sunset.

‘Asukaji is alive,’ Ashia said.

Inevera scowled. Another thing the dice had failed to tell her, though in fairness she had not asked. ‘You told me you killed him.’

‘I snapped his neck,’ Ashia confirmed. ‘But he clings to life, unable to move, hidden in Asome’s chambers. He wants to trade Manvah for you to make him whole again, but Asome does not trust you.’

‘Nor I, him,’ Inevera said. ‘This changes nothing. We go now to free my parents.’

Ashia stepped in front of her, kneeling with hands on the floor. ‘It is not necessary for the Damajah to expose herself. We have penetrated my husband’s defences. Everam’s spear sisters can effect the rescue.’

Inevera shook her head. On this, the dice had been clear. ‘You will die if you go without me, and the rescue fail.’

The women’s auras clouded at that. They were the finest warriors she had ever known, but their pride was as boundless as their honour.

‘Will it succeed if the Damajah accompanies us?’ Ashia asked.

Inevera blew out a breath. ‘Unclear.’

‘Damajah, you must …’

Inevera clapped her hands, cutting the young woman off. ‘You do not tell me what I must, Sharum. Your duty is to be silent and obey.’

Inevera let the spear sisters surround her, Ashia in front and Micha and Jarvah to either side. All of them skittered quickly and quietly along, robes blending with the ceiling tiles. They penetrated the outer halls, making their way unseen to the sixth-floor stairwell were Iraven stood guard.

As Ashia warned, the boy was alert, clad in impenetrable armour of warded glass that glowed brightly in Everam’s light. She could see the demon bone cores of his weapon and armour, enough to give him inhuman strength and speed.

Inevera slipped her wand from her belt. Made from the arm bone of a demon prince coated in electrum, it had power enough to blow the entire roof from the palace. Still clinging to the ceiling, she drew a quick series of wards in the air, Drawing and shaping her spell before flinging it toward the unsuspecting warrior.

Ahmann might forgive her killing his son if there were no choice, but Iraven was the last hope of bringing the Majah tribe back to heel. Inevera’s spell would put him into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Yet the moment she cast the magic, the wards on Iraven’s armour flared bright with magic. Instead of passing out, he set his feet, holding his spear defensively.

‘Come out, servant of Nie!’ His eyes scanned the walls, searching.

Inevera gave him no time to find them or raise the alarm, dropping down to stand before her son-in-law.

‘You think the Damajah a servant of Nie?’

Iraven’s eyes widened. ‘What are you doing unannounced in Shar’Dama Ka’s wing of the palace?’

‘A mother needs permission to visit her son?’ Inevera asked.

Iraven did not lower his weapon. ‘Visitors do not skulk along the ceiling and cast spells at guards. If you have business, state it.’

‘You know my business,’ Inevera said. ‘The Majah hostage your mother, my sister-wife Belina, yet here you stand, gaoler to my own.’

Iraven was unimpressed. ‘Your words would hold more weight, Damajah, if you yourself did not hold Tikka captive.’

‘It is my duty to protect the Holy Mother,’ Inevera said, ‘not let her be drawn into the crossfire of a political scheme to supplant me.’

Iraven was unconvinced. ‘No doubt Asome seeks to similarly protect your mother.’

‘We all want what is best for our mothers,’ Inevera said. ‘You should go to yours now, before she is taken from Everam’s Bounty.’

Iraven’s aura coloured at that. An image of Belina floated over the young man, tethered by countless strands of emotion, as any mother to her son.

‘I may no more see her than allow you entry here,’ Iraven said bitterly. ‘I cannot free her alone, and Asome will not commit to a rescue that would result in open war.’

‘Demon’s piss,’ Inevera said. ‘That is what Asome would have you believe.’

‘Then where is the Damajah’s support? Why are you here, and not in Aleveran’s palace rescuing your sister-wife?’ There was a spark in his aura. One she might fan to a flame.

‘Because it is a task for you, Iraven asu Ahmann am’Jardir am’Majah,’ Inevera said. ‘Did your father cower before every problem he could not solve with his spear? The Damaji has taken your birthright, but that does not mean you cannot win it back.’

Iraven paused. The fire in him was growing, but cautiously. ‘How?’

‘Go to Aleveran,’ Inevera said. ‘Submit to his rule, and he will take you with him when the Majah depart Everam’s Bounty. Win glory, and the warriors will whisper your family name. One by one, they will follow you.’

A new image appeared over Iraven, an idealized version of himself standing tall as his pride grew with the fire in his heart.

But then he shook his head, dispelling the image. ‘My brother said words are your weapon, Damajah.’

‘I speak only the truth,’ Inevera said. ‘I pulled you from between your mother’s thighs myself, and cast your future before the cord was cut. There is glory still for you, if you are man enough to seize it.’

‘Perhaps,’ Iraven said. ‘But I seize no glory by turning from my duty this night. No doubt your Sharum’ting skulk about, ready to kill me if I refuse, but no words or threats will make me leave my post.’ With that, he slammed the butt of his spear down upon a warded tile, one Inevera knew would activate a wardnet running through the thousands of tiles around the doorframe, raising an alarm.

She raised her hora wand, Drawing the power away before the wards could activate. Iraven’s eyes widened.

‘Acha!’ he cried. ‘Intruders!’ The sound should have echoed in the stairs, but a few quick wards in the air stopped it as easily as the alarm.

Inevera advanced upon him. ‘I do not need Everam’s spear sisters to pass, Iraven. It is written in the Evejah that it is death to strike a dama’ting or hinder her in any way. How will Everam judge you if you strike the Damajah herself?’

Her senses afire with the magic coursing through her, Inevera smelled the sweat even before it broke on the boy’s brow. She pitied him, torn between duties – another innocent in the crossfire.

But her family was on the other side of those doors, and every second this continued, the danger to them was greater.

Iraven closed his eyes. ‘Everam forgive me.’

Then he struck.

Inevera met him head-on, diverting the thrust of his spear with a hooked wrist. She caught the shaft and pulled as she punched.

The inflexible plates of warded glass in Iraven’s robes were too rigid to cover the convergence point at the base of his neck. The flexible armour there was meant to turn a spear point, not block the single raised knuckle on Inevera’s fist. Her blow was a blur, aided in strength and speed by hora magic.

But Iraven seemed to know her target, turning his head to take the blow on his jaw, instead. He rolled with it, using the momentum to turn a circuit, spear swinging low to sweep her feet.

Inevera was surprised but never lost control, bending back and putting hands on the floor, kicking him in the jaw a second time as she avoided the spear and came back to her feet.

Iraven reeled, but he, too, kept control, spinning the spear behind him and coming back in. He glowed bright with magic, fast and strong. The spear like a feather in his hands. Ashia and her spear sisters dropped to the floor, but Inevera stayed them with a hiss and the back of her hand.

Inevera had never held much respect for Sharum fighting styles, but Iraven had been trained by her husband and Damaji Aleverak, the two greatest sharusahk masters in Krasia. He worked his weapon and feet in perfect harmony, giving her little free energy to turn against him as he picked off the most dangerous of Inevera’s return blows and let others skitter off his armour. All the while he herded her with his spear toward kicks and leg locks that could easily cripple.