'I had deduced as much. Lin Feyn kept her face perfectly blank. 'Do you know why?

'No.

'Then I will tell you why. Someone has walked out of Xibaiya. Or something.

'The skin-shifter.

Red Lin Feyn said nothing. She took off her slippers and stood in the cold water of the river, letting her toes sink into the sand. The water was only a few inches deep and the sand was as black as night. She looked slowly up and down the length of the Queverra, careful not to linger on the dazzling line of the sky. Dim shapes of stone arches loomed overhead. There were shadows that might be caves flanked with white stone pillars scattered here and there along the length of the abyss, peppering the walls. Some were beside the river, but others were up along the cliffs, or even faced onto the stone spans above. They glowed with a soft light, unsettling. Shed been here before. The light was something new. The nearest pillars marked an entrance, a tunnel into the stone. She walked to them and touched one.

'Lady! The warning was sharp in the killers voice. Lin Feyn drew her hand away slowly. The marks on the pillar were like the Azahl Pillar of Vespinarr.

'This is one of their gateways. Another world lay beyond. Xibaiya, the realm of the dead. The navigator in her almost couldnt resist.

'It was, lady, but they are dead now. The Queverra is abandoned.

Red Lin Feyn touched the stone again. Dead? Perhaps once, but not any more.

But this wasnt why shed come, and she could ask the skin-shifter when she found him. Reluctantly, she turned away. The killers bowed in unison and led her back to the rustle of water and downstream through the darkness of the Queverras depths, lit up by specks of cold white moonlight scattered like stars across the chasm walls. They stopped at a waterside shrine of white marble built into the rock wall. Flat sandy banks ran along both sides of the river. More pieces of shining moonlight dotted the walls, as if the black stone was a dark skin, chipped and flaked to reveal the gleaming beginnings of some skeletal colossus beneath.

The killers brought water from the river. Red Lin Feyn ate food of her own, flakes of raw fish marinated for three years in salt and oil, and then padded barefoot across the sand to the shallows. The river here was never more than inches deep across a bed of smooth rounded stones. She washed. Above her, the brilliant light of the sky was fading. Night fell sharply in the depths of the abyss, the last feeble echoes of daylight strangled high above so all that remained was the moonlight of the pillars and the flecks on the walls above her. She allowed herself to sleep, lying on her gla.s.s sled, then broke her fast on a plate of shredded mushrooms and a bowl of warm milk.

The killers were waiting outside the shrine. 'Why did you come here, lady?

Red Lin Feyn gathered herself. 'I have no reasons to share with you beyond those I have already given. They walked beside the river together, following its flow in the near-dark of the abyss until a gleam of light marked the entrance to the old ways, the pa.s.sages deep under the earth left by the half-G.o.ds before the Splintering carried them away. The killers stood patiently. They made no move to cross the threshold. 'Why did you? she asked them.

'Lady?

'Why did you come here? She turned away from the entrance with an odd sense that she was too late, that something had already been and gone. She started back, heading in among the caves set into the cliffs, creating bright little globes of enchanted light-filled gla.s.s and sending them on their way ahead of her, looking for something. Anything.

'We come as your guardians, lady.

'But I am the Arbiter of the Dralamut no longer. My judgement has been delivered.

Far off in the depths of one cave she thought she saw a flicker. She shaped a gla.s.s globe into a farscope and peered through it. A sled. She could see the shape of a dragons egg. Two figures sat slumped beside it. They didnt move.

'It is well, said one of the killers, 'that you came alone.

Lin Feyn nodded. 'I thought as much. The figures on the sled were Tsens slave Kalaiya and Baros Tsen TVarr himself, who would hang with Lord Shonda and Shrin Chrias Kwen and the dragon-rider as soon as she got him back to the eyrie. Or at least those were the shapes they wore. She wondered which one was the skin-shifter. Whichever it was, she felt sorry for the other. She supposed the shifter was the woman, that Tsen was really Tsen. They looked either asleep or dead.

She let the farscope settle back into raw gla.s.s that felt warm in her fingers and carried on walking. 'I will tell you why you came, she said. 'But first answer me this: do you know why a skin-shifter stole a dragon egg?

A silence followed, broken only by the rustle of water in the river. In the darkness Red Lin Feyn could barely see the killers but she felt them. She felt them look left and right and then up into the gloom of the open s.p.a.ce above, the miles of still air between the river and the open sky at how far away they were from everyone and everything.

'I think you do. Red Lin Feyn felt it too, how isolated they were. Who, apart from Chay-Liang, even knew any of them was here?

'The Righteous Ones would hatch a dragon in Xibaiya, lady.

'Yes, but why?

Silence. She walked on into the cave. If the two bodies were awake, they must know they werent alone.

'You helped QuaiShu bring dragons to our realm, killers.

'An error, lady. It will end here.

'No. Lin Feyn drew back her hands and threw the globes of gla.s.s shed kept hidden up her sleeves. The killers shifted at once but one of them wasnt quick enough. The globe struck him and transformed in the flick of an eye into a hollow gla.s.s sphere, trapping him inside it as he swirled into air. The other was faster. He was behind her in a blink. Lin Feyn stayed absolutely still.

'I am saddened, lady.

He struck. The bladeless knife touched her skin and, with a glint of twilight on gla.s.s, shattered. The shards of the Arbiter which hung over Lin Feyns shoulders and neck flashed into a whirlwind of knives and sliced him to pieces before he could think. It was done in an instant, and then the shards returned, dripping bright b.l.o.o.d.y streaks across the white of her dress. Lin Feyn stepped away and looked. She was glad of the twilight. It hid the worst of what shed done. She touched the gla.s.s with the second killer trapped inside and shrank it back to a sphere the size of a fist, crushing him into nothing, and put it in her pocket.

'I am saddened too, she whispered to the emptiness. She reached into her sleeves for two more spheres of gla.s.s.

56.

Fire and Lightning The Elemental Men moved so fast. They flashed into existence and flashed out again with such speed that Tuuran couldnt begin to count them. A dozen? Two? A hundred? With every move they cut a man down and there wasnt a thing anyone could do. One moment you were alone, the next the air beside you turned into a blade and ran you through, and those blades cut through armour as if through b.u.t.ter. Tuuran saw Zafir somehow kill one as she raced for her dragon, and then all was chaos and terror and blood. Through it, Crazy Mads eyes burned silver. He stood calmly, watching and doing nothing. The Elemental Men left him alone.

Tuuran bolted after Zafir. Futile to think he could protect her from something like this but she was his speaker and it was his duty to try and to die. As he reached her, she was screaming orders. Her dragon stood poised in the middle of the yard, wings folded, tail flicking back and forth, eyes staring ahead but almost closed as if it wasnt even paying that much attention. Then suddenly its tail lashed out as an Elemental Man appeared behind a running slave in gold-gla.s.s armour. The dragon smashed them both.

Another Elemental Man appeared a few feet from a hatchling on the walls. The hatchling lunged, its jaws already closing around flesh as the killer emerged from the air, biting the killer in two but not before a bladeless knife drove into its skull. They fell together, both dead. Two more killers blinked in and out along the walls. Men ran, slaves and Taiytakei soldiers alike, terrified as the killers sliced them to pieces. A hatchling swooped and they scattered from that too, every bit as terrified of the dragons. The hatchling burned the face off one Elemental Man as he appeared and lashed a second with its tail, breaking him almost in half, and then a third lunged in and severed the hatchlings head. The men whod taken arms were slaughtered in moments. Tuuran watched how quickly they died, sick inside.

'Make them come to us! screamed Zafir, and Tuuran didnt know whether she was screaming at him or at the dragon. The hatchlings paused. Tuuran felt the savagery in their eyes as they raked the eyrie, but one by one they settled around Diamond Eye. Zafir was shaking him. 'Make your men come to us! she screamed.

Men? He didnt have any men, not any more. There might have been pushing a hundred just a moment ago, but every single one of them was dead, or fled for the spiralling tunnels as if that would somehow save them. Everyone except him and Crazy, eyes savage silver-bright, and her Holiness and half a dozen sword-slaves whod understood they were safer under the belly of the dragon and had somehow found the courage to stand there.

Zafir had a hand on the great dragons scales. 'Theyve gone down into the tunnels, she said. 'They mean to kill everyone. She bowed her head. 'Slaves and soldiers, women and men. Everyone. Abruptly she looked up again. 'And I will not stand for it. She let the dragon go and headed for the tunnels herself, and Tuuran couldnt imagine what she thought she was doing; but then the hatchlings followed her, all five of them and the dragon too, and then so did he, because what other choice did he have?

Bellepheros held his head in his hands. There was nothing he could do. Nothing. Even Li, when she crept back out of where shed hidden and held him, even she couldnt change that. 'Its not your fault, she whispered. 'Not your fault. And no, perhaps it wasnt, but that didnt change anything and didnt make it any better. There was no one else. It was his duty, his alone to keep the dragons dulled, and hed failed.

'I should have killed them long ago, he whispered. 'I felt it in my bones but I didnt do it. His voice had a quiver to it. 'I kept them alive because Zafir was my speaker. Because I took an oath. Because if I poisoned her dragons then I was killing her too. Im sorry, Li. He clasped her hand. 'I should have listened to you. I should have listened to my bones. There were tears if he wanted them. He might have simply closed his eyes and wept at his own stupid pride and stubbornness but he couldnt, not even now. While he lived, he had to fight them. Who else?

'The end isnt the end until all are gone, Li whispered in his ear, an absurd plat.i.tude. He brushed her away but she pulled him back again and shook him. 'Belli, you know these creatures more than any other. We will find a way. My people are not helpless. And youre not alone, Belli, youre not alone.

'She burned a whole city, Li, she and that monster. The burden, always heavy, was crushing. The duty to everyone, and hed failed. Yet as Li turned his face and forced him to look at her, he saw all that old determination hed slowly come to love, all that belief, and it gave him strength. She hugged him tight.

'You are not alone!

And he realised that no, he wasnt, as a breath of wind brushed his face, as the air popped and a man appeared crouched in front of him where no man had been a moment before and then stepped back again. Blood dripped from the killers invisible blade. As the killer vanished, Bellepheros looked down at himself. The front of his robe was drenched in crimson. He coughed and spat a gobbet of blood. He looked faintly surprised for a moment and then his eyes rolled back and he slumped sideways.

The killers had gone into the tunnels, scourging and cleansing. Killing. Zafir knew because Diamond Eye was inside their thoughts.

Myst. Onyx. She strode away, throwing her will at Diamond Eye. If you are afraid to face them then I will face them alone.

Afraid, little one? Diamond Eye was laughing at her, but the dragons followed, that was what mattered. She felt them talking to each other. As she reached the entrance, the Crowntaker was there, eyes burning bright. It was hard not to bow, hard not to fall to her knees in front of the Silver King, but she didnt. She leaned into the furious strength of the dragons around her and met him eye to eye. Diamond Eye lowered his head. The Crowntaker reached out and stroked the dragons nose. He looked at the Adamantine Man.

'They come again, my friend, and this time they bring their lightning. He spoke as though observing that there might be a little rain later, as of some trivial nuisance, of the mildest inconvenience. Across the swirl of the storm-dark, the swarm of gla.s.ships drifted closer. Zafir knew perfectly well what they could do. She took a deep breath and felt a snarl build up inside her, and then suddenly she was on him, pushing the Crowntaker against the wall, pressed up against him and right close in his face, breathing fast and hard, heart pounding while the silver light of his eyes reached inside her. She rode him the way she rode the terror of a dragon. 'Isul Aieha. Silver King. Whatever you are. Make them stop. Make them stop!

Silver light bored into every part of her, burrowing under her skin, her flesh, her bones, her soul. Who are you, child of the sun, to demand anything of me? The voice in her head was alien. It was like the voices of the moon sorcerers back on QuaiShus ship when theyd first taken her.

One has found the alchemist. She sensed the dragons amus.e.m.e.nt. He thinks he has killed him, but the alchemist . . . Then a moment of shock. They are touched! He carries a sliver of a half-G.o.d within him! Wonder. Awe. Great Flame, fear?

The Isul Aieha.

Diamond Eye shut her out. The Crowntaker pushed her aside.

'Belli! Liang had an instant, that was all, before the Elemental Man killed her too. 'No! Stop! She held up her hands.

The killer appeared across the room. 'I know you, he said. 'You were the enchantress here. You served the traitor to the peace Baros Tsen TVarr. Yet you were also the chosen aide to Arbiter Feyn. Why?

'Because Tsen was no traitor! I testified before the Arbiters court! Were you not there, killer? Did you not hear? She looked at Bellepheros. He was slumped away from her, eyes closed now. He looked peaceful, as though he was sleeping. Tears ran over Liangs face now. 'I would help you stop this madness. He would have stopped it too, if he could. She closed her eyes and shook with a heaving sob.

'He is a sorcerer, lady. You know the law.

'The Arbiter a.s.signed him to the Dralamut!

'But now she is elsewhere and no longer holds her rank. The killer bowed. 'I am sorry, lady, for your grief. It was a necessary thing.

Liang spat at him. 'Necessary? And maybe yes, in the eyes of the killers, Belli was a sorcerer, and maybe their law said so too, but he was also the kindest, most thoughtful, most compa.s.sionate, most considerate . . . 'Wait! Under her hand, as the killer vanished into air, she felt the alchemist twitch.

The Elemental Man appeared again. 'What, lady?

'I would help you if I can.

'Do you have the power to destroy the dragon?

Liang shook her head. 'When theyre small and new from the egg, yes. The adult . . .

Belli twitched again. This time the Elemental Man saw it. He flickered into smoke and vanished.

'No! screamed Liang. 'If you kill him I will turn against you all!

The killer appeared by the door. 'Threats, lady enchantress?

'Threats, killer.

Bellepheros groaned and slowly sat up. 'A sorcerer who takes his power through his own blood is very hard to kill, a.s.sa.s.sin. Youre not the first to try it. I thought your sort might know better. He looked down at himself and then struggled unsteadily to his feet. Liang jumped to help him but he waved her away. 'No, no. The last time was worse. He hobbled to his workbench and rummaged around in the shelves and drawers, pulling the stoppers off bottles and sniffing them. Then he pulled a box from under his bed and found the potion he wanted. He offered it to the Elemental Man. 'I never made very much of this. Never saw the need. He glanced at Li. 'The one her Holiness used when that hatchling came for her. He met the killers gaze and growled. 'They know your thoughts, killer. Thats how they know what their riders want. When theyre dull and stupid its a haze of emotion and desire. But these are awake. Their minds are sharp. They can see you, killer. They are in your mind whether youre flesh or air or anything else. They know where you are and they know what you mean to do before you even do it. But this . . . He held out the bottle. 'You will become a haze to them. They might not even know youre there at all. A thimble will be enough to last a day or so. There should be enough for six of you. Do what needs to be done. When the Elemental Man didnt move, Belli brandished the bottle at him. 'Well? Do you want it or not?

'Elemental Men drink water from the stream and eat food from the earth. We do not touch that which other men have prepared. That is not our way.

Bellepheros shrugged and shuffled back to his desk. He poured a measure of the potion into two ornate qaffeh gla.s.ses, handed one to Liang and drank the other himself. 'If I was offering you poison, I dare say I might have a way to survive it, but Li wouldnt. Also theres this. He glanced at the Elemental Man and there was a hiss and the killer jumped and yelped in pain. 'You have my blood on you. I could have made it burn far more fiercely than that. He offered the bottle again. 'What matters to you more, killer? Your precious rules and traditions or your purpose? Its a question much on my own mind. Theres enough for four of you now.

The three of them stared at each other until the Elemental Man blinked across the room. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the bottle from Bellepheross hand and vanished. Liang waited a moment in case he appeared somewhere else but he didnt. After a few minutes, when she was sure he wasnt coming back, she turned to Belli and held him tightly and then kissed him. When she let go, he looked at her full of surprise.

'Ive been wanting to do that for a while, she said. 'Do you mind?

'Well I . . . I mean its . . . Um. His shoulders slumped. 'Water, Li. Please. I need to . . .

Liang shut him up with a finger on his lips. 'Yes yes, youve been stabbed. Again. Yes or no, old man, and then Ill get you your water.

'Well. Um. No.

Liang poured him a cup of water and then another. After hed drained them both she was about to kiss him again but Bellis eyes were fluttering. He was falling asleep. Healing himself. Liang swore.

'What is it, Li?

'I made some bombs. I was going to give them to . . . She looked at Belli and stroked his face. 'How long before this potion- With a flash the soft-bright walls of the eyrie lit up and burned as harsh and fierce as the sun. Liang froze, wondering what it could mean. She heard a distant scream.

Zafir saw it all. She rode with Diamond Eyes thoughts as he flitted between the Elemental Man, Bellepheros and Chay-Liang. As her master alchemist betrayed her, she felt no bitterness any more. He was following his heart and his duty. She saw how little he thought of her, his disappointment and his sadness. She saw how the enchantress despised her and found it meant nothing, but she saw too how the enchantress cared for her alchemist and how deeply they felt for one another. The love cut her in two. Envy. No mercy for pretty Zafir. Oh, shed been wanted enough, more than enough. Constantly and far too much, but never for who she was, only for what. For being her mothers daughter. For being a princess or a queen or a speaker. For being pretty. For her legs, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her face, her hair, her eyes, for the power she held, for the spear she carried, for the pleasure she promised but never for her. Not once for her soul. She looked away, then found she couldnt.

With their thoughts cloaked and invisible, they will kill you. Diamond Eye was talking to the hatchlings.

'No. The Crowntaker took his gold-hafted knife. He thrust it into the white stone of the eyrie and the dragon yard burned suddenly as bright as the sun, and now the Crowntaker was with Diamond Eye too and they were coursing through the eyries veins, riding the white stone. One by one Diamond Eye sought the thoughts of the Elemental Men. He took the Crowntaker to them, and as he found each one, white-hot silver moonlight burned from the walls. One by one the killers faltered as the light seared them and stole their power and forced them into flesh. One by one the Crowntaker reached out of the light to touch them, and they twisted and cried out and burned into a soft settling of black greasy ash. One by one, Diamond Eye found them and the Crowntaker, the Black Moon, destroyed them.

There. They are gone.

Zafir quivered with rage and shock. For a moment the Crown-taker rounded on her, eyes blazing. His fingers closed around her throat, crushing her. Then he let her go and turned her face to look at the gla.s.ships drifting in across the sky.

'You have a little time, spear carrier, but those are yours and this storm has barely started.

Diamond Eye shifted beside her. I will take them in the air as I did before. You will not ride me for this.

'Yes, I will. Zafir walked into the tunnel.

Then you will die.

'So be it. Better to die on the back of a dragon than helpless and alone.

57.

The Storm-Dark.

Zafir pushed open the door to her little room, beckoned to Myst and Onyx and wondered why theyd come to mean so much to her. The answer was complicated and she found herself shying away whenever she came close to it. Maybe it didnt matter, but she wasnt who she used to be. Her old lover Jehal would have laughed and then maybe frowned and been a little scared to see her like this. Her mother would have had nothing but contempt for her, but neither of them mattered any more. That felt strange too. And then she thought of Brightstar and wondered if this new Zafir was such a stranger after all. She held Myst and Onyx close. 'What can I promise you? Not much. Hide until its done. I will do what I can. It most likely wouldnt be enough but that didnt seem to matter either.