EDGE and Tesseract are imprints of Hades Publications, Inc.

Chapter Five

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THE CHRONICLES OF THE KARIONIN

LYSKARION:
The Song of the Wind

by J. A. Cullum

Chapter Five

    4626, 463rd Cycle of the Year of the Malik
    Month of Torin

Theocan a Malik ba end a borvajendo, gabo e ganod. The Year of the Malik is a time of treachery, madness and violence. -THE BOOK OF YEARS

Elise, age twelve, sat with the two boys who had become her best friends: Del Maran, the son of Orris Maran, the Lanrai of Luro and Commander of the Shore Guard, and Entanu Lesho. They were in their favorite lookout on the point north of Bria, at the top of the highest point of the headland projecting into the bay. Elise had the watch.

She had just spotted a ship slicing through the sapphire waters of the Bay of Luro spread out below her. The sleek, black barkentine sported all its canvas on its course up the bay. Its white sails billowed in the fresh wind, tipping the waves with foam. Elise rarely saw ships that size, ships designed for ocean travel. “Look at that,” she called to her friends. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Del and Entanu had been lying on their backs, watching a flock of seagulls soaring overhead. Elise’s words brought them to their knees to look over her shoulders through the rocks that surrounded their perch. “Yeah, pretty. Wonder why it’s heading this way?” Del Maran’s eyes closed.

“I never saw one of the big ships this side of the bay before,” Entanu said. “If we see them at all, they’re going up to Onchan where there are piers and docks and stuff.”

“Even Onchan doesn’t get many big ships these days,” Elise said. “Uncle Lehar says it’s been over a thousand years since all the slips were filled.”

“Since the College of Wizards closed.” Del’s forehead creased as he concentrated on the approaching barkentine, trying to sense it more clearly. “So what’s it doing heading for Bria?”

“Ashe gets funny visitors sometimes,” Elise suggested.

“They’ve never come by water before.” Del shook his head. He was tall for his age, and lanky, with a shock of unruly chestnut hair. Elise thought that his features looked too big to fit in his face. Although the youngest, his training and strength of will were such that she and Entanu usually deferred to him.

“What can you see, Del?” she asked, suddenly worried by the expression on his face. Del’s wizard vision had already surpassed Entanu’s were-sight. Elise’s sight was weak in comparison. At that range even her regular eyesight was better. “Can you make them out? You don’t think it could be a warship do you? The isklarin didn’t give notice when they attacked Ardagh.”

Del shrugged, but his eyes stayed shut and he frowned with concentration. “We’re not at war with the isklarin, at least not openly. Dad was talking to Mum over breakfast, before he went to Onchan with Ashe. He said they wouldn’t want to risk starting an open war now. Anyway, they attacked Ardagh from land. They don’t have many ships in the Thallassean.”

“Maybe it’s a pirate ship.” Entanu scowled. “The linlarin raid all the time. My cousins near Dun were raided two years ago. Genua was killed.” Although he was the same age as Elise, he was shorter and stockier than Del.

“Are they pirates?” Elise asked.

The ship had come about and had lowered its sails in preparation for anchoring off the shore south of the village. Elise could identify it as a warship now; the sides had gun ports for at least twenty cannon.

“The linlarin mostly attack the east coast,” Del protested.

“They raid the Thallassean coast, too, sometimes,” Entanu said, watching as the anchor was lowered. “Remember, the raid on Halek down the coast got your father started with the Shore Guard.”

The ship was still a long way away. “What do the crewmen look like?” Elise demanded. “I can’t make them out from here.”

Entanu sighed. “I can’t be sure. They could just be wearing tight, dark clothing.”

Elise tensed. The strange ship was suddenly not beautiful at all. The linlarin fought naked to facilitate their shape-changing.

“Jehan! They are pirates! They’re naked except for harnesses and they have striped hair, I’m sure of it,” Del said, turning and starting to climb down the rocks toward the trail.

“What’re you going to do?” Elise asked, swallowing hard and following, Entanu right behind her.

“We have to warn Mum.” Del reached the trail and started to run. “She’ll know what to do. There are only women, children and old people in the village and the ship’s anchored where it can’t be seen.”

“Most of the men are out at sea fishing,” Elise gasped, running after Del. She could hear Entanu bringing up the rear, but being steadily left behind.

Before she and Del had completely outdistanced Entanu, they heard the warning bell sound from the Sanctuary of Maera in the village and slowed down.

“What do we do now?” Elise asked, as Del started to run again the minute Entanu caught up. “They’ve already attacked Bria. The bell means we’re supposed to hide.”

“Mum’s at home. I’ve got to try and reach her. Dad and Ashe are in Onchan. They won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“We’re supposed to hide,” Entanu said, panting.

“No! I’ve got to reach Mum. They can’t have reached Cliff House yet,” Del insisted.

Elise had no breath for arguing and followed Del at a reckless speed down the narrow, twisting path, leaping over roots and loose rocks and giving thanks that they were going down hill, not up. It took them some fifteen minutes to reach the place where the trail forked, one branch going back toward the cliffs and Cliff House, Del’s home, and the other branch going on down to Bria.

Del took the curve and raced up the path toward his home without pausing. Entanu and Elise followed, but more slowly. Elise felt scared and she thought Entanu was, too. They had heard of the ferocity of linlarin pirates all their lives. She had no desire to see whether the stories were true. The raiders could have reached Cliff House already, if they came this way first, whatever Del wanted to think. Del was being reckless.

To Elise’s relief Del did slow down and move off the trail as they neared the crest of the hill where the forest ended and the gardens of Cliff House began. Elise had just taken to the woods herself when Del gestured for them to get down. She and Entanu dove into the nearest clump of bushes.

“When you’re threatened, close your mind to everything. Be a mouse,” the Wizard Ashe had taught. “Think of individual grains of barley or wheat. Think of piling them in a hole. Don’t think of fear or the threat. Thoughts of fear draw an attacker.”

She was a mouse, piling treasured grain into a hole in the ground. Her eyes flicked open and she saw fifteen tall, naked linlarin, both males and females, running past her down the trail she and the boys had just come up. Five tigers loped beside them, tigers with domed foreheads. Elise thought of being a mouse and cowered away from the strange, feral smell.

She was still lost in being a mouse when Del shook her minutes later. “They must have come straight to Cliff House.” He shook Entanu, too. “Come on, we’ve got to see what happened.”

Elise shook her head to throw off her momentary disorientation and noticed that Del looked pale. “Who else was with your Mum?”

“The maids and gardeners. I don’t know how many. Some of them had the day off. Maybe they had time to get away into the woods.” Del took Elise and Entanu’s hands and led them through the last of the trees to the edge of the lawn where they could see the house.

Cliff House dated back to the Age of Wizards and Elise had always thought it beautiful. Today, despite the bright sunshine, it seemed to loom ominously.

“What if there are still linlarin inside?” Entanu asked, holding back.

“They came to raid. They’ll be in a hurry to leave before troops can get here from Onchan,” Del said, but Elise sensed that he felt as reluctant to enter the house as she and Entanu.

They walked across the east lawn to where the track coming up from the village met the courtyard set between the main part of the house and the stable block. The front door was broken, hanging drunkenly by one bent hinge. Del pushed it aside and slid through the gap. Elise and Entanu followed.

Inside, she stared, appalled at the wanton destruction left by the raiders. Broken furniture, mirrors and ornaments were strewn about; even the walls had holes through them and the carpets had been shredded. Claw marks scored the polished wooden floor. The trail of devastation led through the front hall and back to the kitchen.

Blood smeared the tiled floor and the air was full of the sweet, coppery scent of it, mingled with a musky tiger smell. Someone had tried to barricade the stairs to the cellar, but there had been too many linlarin. The barricade had been reduced to a pile of bloody sticks.

Elise tried to pull Del back up the stairs when she saw the bodies on the floor of the cellar, but he shrugged her off. Entanu had not followed them past the pool of blood. He stared at it, very pale, his skin covered with beads of sweat.

Elise felt an acrid burning in her throat rising to choke her as she looked down at the cellar. Nothing could have induced her to go closer. She saw the ruined flesh too clearly from where she stood. She thought she might suffocate from the smells of blood and musk. When Entanu broke and ran for the kitchen door, she followed right behind him.

Entanu made it outside before vomiting into the shrubs beside the house. Elise swallowed and tried to breathe deeply, but she could still smell the blood and the feral scent of angry cats. What would she and Entanu find when they reached the village? What if she had to smell that smell in her own house? If one of those bodies had been her aunt or uncle? She felt numb and sank down on the grass beside Entanu.

She was not sure how much time passed before Del found them. He looked pale. Neither she or Entanu had moved from where they had collapsed. She felt cold.

“Come on, El, Tanu, we’ve got to find out what happened in the village,” Del said sharply.

Entanu shook his head. “I can’t, Del. I can’t.”

Del pulled him to his feet and shook him. “We can see what’s happening from the bluff. We don’t need to go down into the village. Come on, Tanu. We can’t stay here.”

Elise shuddered, pulled herself together and stood up. At least Del was alive. Following him seemed easier than sitting still.

They crossed the south lawn to the tumbled rocks at the top of the cliff. For a moment the village looked peaceful in the bright sunshine, then Elise noticed smoke coming from one of the houses and a door hanging ajar on another. The body of a woman lay half in and half out of some bushes near the beach. She looked away. She didn’t want to see more.

“I’m going down,” Del said. “It looks like they’ve gone. Maybe there’s something we can do.”

“No! You can’t. You’ll be killed, too!” Entanu gasped.

“They won’t kill me. I’ve got to go. You don’t have to come. You either.” Del turned to Elise and she saw rage and defiance burning like hot embers in his eyes.

“If you’re going, I’m going.” She felt terrified of what his rage might lead him to do.

There was no way down the cliffs to the beach. They were too sheer. Del turned and strode across the lawn toward the path they had come up. Elise followed. They had almost reached it when Entanu called, “Wait for me.”

He ran after them. Elise suspected that his courage came from the greater fear of being left alone. When he caught up, Del set off at a run as though to make up for lost time.

“We’ll be killed for sure if we run straight into the village,” Elise gasped, catching up with Del near the fork in the trail and grabbing his arm to stop him. She had never run so fast in her life. “We were told to hide in the woods if we got raided. That’s where everyone else will be, everyone who’s still alive.”

“I’ve got to see.” Del shook off Elise’s hand and continued down the trail. Entanu lagged some distance behind them.

“Not this way,” she cried.

Del grunted impatiently but slowed to a walk as they came to the first house set in the woods at the edge of Bria. Its door stood open but no sounds came from within. In fact, the whole village lay silent except for the inevitable susurrus of the waves on the beach. No dogs ran out to greet them. Even the gulls had gone.

They walked down the street. The smoke they had seen from the cliff came from the third house on the right, a neat silver gray shingled cottage with white trim and shingled beehives in the front yard like miniature houses, Katy Armon’s place. Del started to run again, heading for the burning building.

Elise followed him, walking through the gate into the small yard and up the path to the doorway, but she couldn’t make herself step inside. She smelled blood again. It felt hard to breathe, and a humming sound filled her head. She turned. It took her several moments to realize that the humming came from bees swarming around a hive that had been knocked over.

Entanu stopped just inside the gate. He clung to one of the posts as though he needed it for support, staring down the street. Elise bit her lip and turned in the direction Entanu faced. A tall, naked figure with striped hair stood outside a house at the other end of the village. For a moment she thought the linlar might not look their way. Then the head with its tawny and black striped hair turned and the yellow eyes focused on Entanu.

“Del,” Elise whispered. She suddenly understood how a pica felt when it looked into the eyes of a Malik. Paralysis. Terror. Inevitability. Entanu clung to his post. The man-like form of the linlar walked down the street. He might have been taking a casual stroll. The insignia on his harness identified him as a Senangan. Elise was surprised when she heard someone scream and realized it was herself.

Entanu didn’t scream. He stood there, clinging to the post and staring as the linlar approached. The only sound he made was a choked gurgle as the Senangan’s arm swept down, knife in hand, to slit his throat.

Elise sensed Del at her side in the doorway. Then a wave of angry bees rose to block the linlar from her sight. The linlar screamed and thrashed, but the bees formed a living cloak, a hooded cloak covering his head and face as well as his body. He started to run but tripped before he had gone more than a few steps. Then he tried rolling in the dirt of the street. But as fast as he crushed one coating of bees, another swarm with fresh stingers landed on him.

Elise wondered whether he would be missed, if the other Senangans would come back for him. She wondered if he had knocked over the hive, if that was why the bees attacked him, but not Entanu or Del or herself. She wondered if she dared go back down the path, past the hives, to where Entanu lay, the blood from his gaping throat soaking into the dust.

Del shook her to get her attention but she could not respond. She was as frozen as Entanu had been. Finally, Del half carried her down the path, past the hives, Entanu, and the dying linlar, and away from the village to the woods where the other survivors hid.

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