The High Priest and the Idol Page 18

  They untethered the horses and led them onto the street. A quarter moon was rising, although its light was too weak for anything other than walking. However, the first hint of grey was on the eastern horizon. In less than an hour, the light would be strong enough to ride by. The only thing to decide was the direction.

  “Where now?” Tevi asked.

  “Lyremouth. We have to find a way to overcome whatever protection Ciamon put on the idol.”

  Tevi had heard the catch in Jemeryl’s voice at her ex-lover’s name. She hesitated. What words should she say? Balancing support with sincerity would be tricky, yet surely silence was the worst response.

  “Jem, I wasn’t keen on Ciamon. You know that. But I’m truly sorry about what happened. I would have saved him if I could. He was a good person at heart.”

  “At heart he was too good. He…” Jemeryl sighed. “I know he’s made a mess here. But he did it for the right reasons. He cared about other people, not just himself. He wanted to make the world better for everyone. That’s the tragedy.”

  Tevi bit her lip. To her mind, the tragedy was all the people who had wanted nothing more than to spend the next day with their families and would now never see them again. “Ideals are worthless if they aren’t practical. And other people are paying for his mistakes.”

  “Oh, I know. Don’t get me wrong. But with all the things he did wrong, the human race would be worse if there weren’t people like him in it. And I really want to think that…”

  “What?”

  “That it’s possible to make a difference.”

  They reached a crossroads. While the light grew on the horizon, Tevi led the way north, towards the Merlieu Hills and the Protectorate.

  Part Two

  The Idol

  Chapter Nine—The Nature of Guilt

  At the sight of two horses, riding along the tree-lined avenue leading to the Coven, the gatekeeper stepped into the middle of the road and held up his hand. “Who seeks admission to the Coven?”

  “I do. I’m—” Jemeryl got no further. Now he had got a closer look at her, the gatekeeper recognised her face.

  “You’re Jemeryl. You’ve turned traitor to the Coven. You’re…you can’t…” The man’s eyes were stretched wide in panic.

  “Yes. Of course I’m a traitor. That’s why I’ve come here to make a report to Alendy.”

  “Don’t think you can force your way through. I’m going to send for backup.”

  “Why don’t you just tell Alendy I’m here and want to talk to him?” Jemeryl was starting to feel irritated.

  “We’ve got defences, you know.” The gatekeeper was backing away as he spoke.

  At Jemeryl’s side, Tevi leaned forward, resting her arms on the saddle horn. “You’re wasting your time talking to him, Jem. Listening isn’t his strong suit.”

  The gatekeeper fled through an archway. Jemeryl jumped down from her horse and advanced to within a few feet of the spot where he had been standing. Was the man acting like an idiot or was he genuinely that stupid? Regardless, Jemeryl did not want to hang around waiting for somebody to turn up who was willing to behave in a more sensible manner. However, his words about the defences had been the truth.

  Ahead of her, power tensors in the ether barred the road, invisible to those who could not perceive the sixth dimension but quite deadly to anyone who blundered through uninvited. As a sorcerer, Jemeryl had the ability to nullify them from the outside, but it would not be easy or quick. She was just about to start untying the sixth dimension when a new voice rang out.

  “Really, Jemeryl. Scaring the gatekeeper like that. It’s quite shameful of you.” Iralin stood on the other side of the tensors.

  “I told you she was here.” The gatekeeper was cowering behind the elderly sorcerer, and thus unable to see the amused glint in her eyes. He was evidently also unable to detect the ironic edge to her voice and leapt back in surprise when Iralin clapped her hands and the tensors vanished. “You can’t let her in, she’s—”

  Iralin turned on him. “Why is it that the only brain cell you have in full working order is the one connected to your mouth?”

  “But—”

  “Traitors don’t wander up to the gates without an army behind them.”

  “I was—”

  “Can you see an army?”

  As he had already demonstrated, the gatekeeper was deaf to irony. He went as far as to peer around before answering. “No, ma’am.”

  “So tell Alendy that Jemeryl is here and wants to talk to him.” Iralin glanced over. “Can I take it that’s your first priority?”

  “Yes.” Jemeryl smiled. As an apprentice, she had dreaded Iralin’s sarcasm, but it was gratifying now to have it exercised on her behalf.

  The gatekeeper again scuttled away towards the main buildings. Iralin followed on at a more sedate pace and Jemeryl fell in beside her.

  “Is the situation in Kradja resolved?” Iralin asked.

  “No. Far from it.”

  “Why have you come back?”

  “I need help. I think it’s going to take the whole Coven to sort it out.”

  “It’s that serious?”

  “I fear so. But thanks for helping Tevi get to me. Without her there, it would have gone a lot worse. For starters, I’d be dead.” Jemeryl threw a quick smile over her shoulder at Tevi, who was behind them, leading both horses.

  “Make sure you tell that to Alendy.”

  “He was angry with you?”

  “Nothing I couldn’t shrug off.”

  “We need to be ready to deal with him now.” Jemeryl lowered her voice, talking quickly. “I think he might try to cover up some things that need to be out in the open.”

  “What?”

  “I haven’t got time now. When Alendy takes me off for a private briefing, why don’t you keep hold of Tevi and let her tell you the full story?”

  “I’m sure—”

  Sounds of a disturbance interrupted Iralin. Alendy was arriving with a dozen other sorcerers and witches in support. Judging by his expression, he was not as pleased to see Jemeryl as Iralin had been, nor as convinced that a battle was not about to erupt. Iralin looked his direction and then patted Jemeryl’s arm reassuringly.

  Alendy planted his feet squarely on the cobblestones. “Jemeryl. I hadn’t expected to see you here after the reports I received about your actions in Kradja.”

  “What reports were they?”

  “That you’d joined forces with the renegade you’d been sent you bring back.” Alendy frowned. “Are you here as his emissary?”

  “No. I’m still loyal to the Coven. But I saw how serious the situation was. I only said what I did about joining him because I needed an excuse to stay in Kradja and get more information.”

  “Why didn’t you explain your reasons to the others in your party?”

  “I didn’t get a chance to talk to them in private. If I’d announced my true reasons when everyone was there, I doubt I’d have been allowed to remain.”

  Alendy relaxed his posture. “So. Do you have anything to report?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Do you know what Ciamon is up to?”

  Jemeryl took a deep breath, making sure she had control of her voice. “He’s not up to anything much now, or ever will be again. He’s dead. Murdered.”

  Alendy looked startled. “Not by you?”

  “No. Of course not.”

  The rigidity in the set of Alendy’s shoulders eased and an expression of relief flooded his face. “So the problem is resolved.”

  “Far from it. In fact, it’s got an awful lot worse.”

  “But—”

  “The morphology is still spreading. The woman who murdered Ciamon has taken control in Kradja. She arranged the destruction of Villenes. There was just a smoking ruin when her army left. Unless we stop her, the entire Protectorate will follow.”

  A flurry of incredulous comments broke out from the listeners. Alendy silenced them with an angry glare and
a cutting gesture before turning back to Jemeryl. “I’ll need a full report from you. We’ll go to my study.”

  “If you wish. But it would be quicker to call a meeting of all the senior sorcerers so I only have to go through the details once.”

  “I’ll be the judge of what resources are needed, once I know the true situation.”

  As she had expected, Jemeryl could tell that Alendy was hoping to keep as much hidden as possible. She glanced over her shoulder, to where Tevi was minding the horses. Iralin had shifted back and now stood beside her. Alendy’s eyes had once flicked in Tevi’s direction, and thereafter he had made a conspicuous point of ignoring her. Jemeryl pursed her lips. One of these days, Alendy would realise that Tevi was not somebody you could safely ignore.

  The group of sorcerers were dismissed, no doubt to start speculating wildly. Jemeryl smiled, imagining what sort of rumours would be spreading by nightfall. Gossip always had been the favourite pastime in the Coven. Iralin hobbled off with her arm linked through Tevi’s, to get some far more accurate information.

  In the Guardian’s quarters, Alendy listened to the first part of Jemeryl’s report impassively. More than anything else, his lack of surprise confirmed the suspicions that he had known far more than he had previously admitted. But how deeply was he implicated? Jemeryl wished she could demand answers, but their relative positions in the Coven hierarchy did not allow it. However, her report ought to include Ciamon’s story in full, including the background reasons for his actions. If she phrased the accusations to make it clear she was merely repeating what Ciamon had said, she could see what sort of explanation Alendy would volunteer.

  “Ciamon told me Ralieu’s experiment went wrong. Instead of whatever the emanator was supposed to do, it projected a morphology on the skein that prevented everyone affected by it from accessing the higher dimensions. He and Ralieu escaped, but then she locked the door and had the emanator bricked in, despite there being several innocent citizens still inside. He claimed that they were left to starve to death.”

  Alendy’s jaw tightened visibly. “The situation was not so clear cut.”

  Jemeryl took a breath, trying to make her tone not sound accusatory. “You knew about it?”

  “Not when I spoke to you before. But I told you I’d recalled Ralieu to Lyremouth. I’ve since questioned her and learned of the regrettable events.”

  Regrettable? Cold-blooded murder seemed a better description to Jemeryl. “She admitted her actions?”

  “Yes.”

  “People were bricked in to starve on her orders?”

  “The innocent ones were already dead.”

  “How could she be sure?”

  “She studied the auras in the fifth dimension.”

  “Didn’t the morphology prevent—” Jemeryl stopped in confusion.

  “The morphology stops those within it from accessing the higher dimensions. From the outside, Ralieu was able to detect that only two people were alive in the cellar. She made the assumption that they were the criminals.”

  Why had Ralieu not told Ciamon this? Why had he not checked for himself? Jemeryl’s head sank as she battled to control the tears that threatened. Of course, Ciamon always was a weak sorcerer. His first instinct had never been to rely on magic. But if he had known, would it have made a difference? Would he have cared about the murderers enough to recreate the morphology?

  Jemeryl raised her head. She knew what Ciamon would have said. “Surely Ralieu could have sent in a squad of soldiers to arrest the criminals and put them on trial. It’s what the laws of the Protectorate demand. If guilty, they should have been hanged, not starved.”

  “I agree her judgement wasn’t good. I can’t condone what she did.”

  “Ciamon was convinced you covered for her when he told you about it. This was his motivation for wanting to destroy the Coven. He thought you were—”

  “Ciamon was a—” Alendy broke off with an sharp sigh. “He had no regard for the reputation of the Coven.”

  He didn’t think sorcerers had more rights than anyone else. Jemeryl closed her mouth and let her expression speak for her.

  Alendy flushed, either in anger or embarrassment. “Ciamon was prone to causing trouble with his superiors. I assumed this was just one more example. You have to understand that Ralieu is brilliant but unconventional. She’s pushed forward our knowledge in so many fields. I assumed Ciamon misunderstood something. The level Ralieu was working on went far beyond his abilities to comprehend.”

  He was pretty good at understanding morality. Jemeryl wished she dared say it aloud. Instead she continued with the story. “After the events in the cellar, Ciamon started investigating what Ralieu had been doing. So he wasn’t completely in the dark about what she’d been up to. He claimed Ralieu had been working on a method of mind control, and her aim had been to enslave people.”

  “That wasn’t her intention. But yes, mind control was involved.”

  The admission was astounding. “Was her work sanctioned?” Jemeryl could not help blurting out the question.

  “No. Not as such.” Alendy paced to the window and stood with his back to Jemeryl. “Gilliart always closely monitored what Ralieu was doing, but with everything involved with taking over as Guardian, it wasn’t my top priority. Ralieu has been an inspired innovator. I felt that strict supervision was…”

  You were so in awe of her magical abilities that you thought it degrading to treat a great sorcerer like a child. Jemeryl mentally tacked on his full reasons. You let an eccentric mastermind follow whatever wild idea drifted through her head. I bet you ignored Gilliart’s specific advice in doing so. And now you’re wondering how much of the blame is going to end up on your shoulders.

  “Go on with your report.” Alendy threw the order over his shoulder, clearly unwilling to justify himself further.

  Pushing the issue was unnecessary, Jemeryl told herself. Others, more senior, would make the accusations. With the fate of the Protectorate at stake, even the Guardian would not be able to keep the story secret or hide his mistakes.

  Alendy neither moved nor said anything else until she had finished her account. Even then he stayed staring through the window as he asked, “This morphology. Do you think it could cover the entire Protectorate?”

  “I’ve no idea.”

  “You’ve seen the emanator.”

  “No, just the idol it’s inside, and I was blind to the higher dimensions at the time. I could tell nothing about its construction. Ciamon knew how it worked and he thought it could. The only person who could give a better answer would be Ralieu.”

  “I’ve spoken to her. She agrees with Ciamon’s assessment. But I hoped…” Alendy sighed and turned away from the window, shoulders sagging. His face was drained of colour. He walked slowly across the room, with the air of a man going to the gallows. “Yes. You were correct. I’ll need to call a meeting of all the senior sorcerers. You need to be there too.”

  “And Tevi.”

  “She isn’t…” Alendy’s voice died, as if he lacked the will to argue.

  “She has useful knowledge of the situation in Kradja. Maybe Ralieu can tell us something as well.”

  “Ralieu wouldn’t be helpful at the meeting. She won’t be there.”

  “We can’t afford to dismiss any source of information. You haven’t—” Jemeryl stopped herself. She was at risk of stepping over the line. She could not give orders to the Guardian.

  Alendy’s head shot up and he met her gaze angrily, and then the expression on his face shifted, revealing the fear and worry beneath. When he spoke, it sounded like a plea for understanding. “No matter what you think of me, I’m not playing games. Ralieu can’t cope in groups. If she gets stressed, she might refuse to speak for a month. She’d only confuse the issue, anyway. You have my permission to talk to her afterwards and pass on what she says to anyone you choose.”

  Alendy stood up straighter, and his voice softened, yet sounding both more determined and more sincere.
“I may end up being known as a poor Guardian. It’s not what I hope for and I’ll do everything I can to see that history remembers me more favourably. But if that’s how it goes…” He sighed. “The one thing I don’t want to be remembered as is the last Guardian.”

  *

  The main council chamber of the Coven was circular, with the speaker’s raised lectern facing the arched doorway. The seats rose in tiers on all sides, and currently not a single one was vacant. Some people were even sitting in the aisles. Rarely had Jemeryl been the focus of so much attention. As her account progressed, she was aware of the mood in the chamber shifting from curiosity, to surprise, to dismay. Several times she had to break off and wait for silence to return.

  Jemeryl reached the end of her report and sat down between Iralin and Tevi, leaving the lectern vacant. The debate that followed was predictable, starting with a flurry of questions. Of these, at least a third were from people who had not understood what she had said and were therefore either misconceived or had already been answered. On top of this, a couple of sorcerers seemed deliberately perverse in trying to steer the debate onto their own particular field of interest. The seers’ attempts to project omnipotence were even more strained than normal. Jemeryl also noted the steadily growing blatancy in pointed comments, from people who obviously disliked Alendy, sharpening their knives ready for his back.

  Alendy let it continue until any pretence of genuine inquiry was gone and then he stood, claiming the floor of the chamber. “This meeting has more pressing matters to deal with than assigning blame. There are things that with hindsight, I wish I’d done differently. Of course there are. But debating them now isn’t going to help. When the crisis is over, I promise a full investigation. No one’s actions, including my own, will be exempt. What this meeting needs to concentrate on is working out our response.”

  Alendy’s words were greeted with scowls from some. However, from what Jemeryl could tell, these were due more to disappointment at having the fun postponed rather than disagreement with the way the Guardian had set priorities.