Ferro turned away, scowling, not sure now which of the archways led out of the Makers House.
Wait! Quai was padding across the floor towards her, his gleaming eyes fixed on her hand. Stay! He showed no trace of fear as he came closer. Only an awful kind of hunger, strange enough that Ferro took a step away. It was here. Here, all along. His face looked pale, slack, full of shadows. The Seed. His white hand crept through the darkness towards her. At last. Give it to
He crumpled up like discarded paper, was ripped from his feet and flung away the whole width of the vast room in the time it took Ferro to drag in one stunned breath. He hit the wall just below the lowest balcony with an echoing crunch. She watched open-mouthed as his shattered body bounced off and tumbled to the ground, broken limbs flopping.
Bayaz stepped forward, his staff clenched tightly in his fist. The air around his shoulders was still shimmering ever so slightly. Ferro had killed many men, of course, and shed no tears. But the speed of this shocked even her.
What did you do? she hissed, the echoes of Quais fatal impact with the far wall still thudding about them.
What I had to. Get to the palace. Now. Bayaz stabbed at one of the archways with a heavy finger, and Ferro saw the faintest glimmer of light inside it. Put that thing into the box! You cannot imagine how dangerous it is!
Few people liked taking orders less, but Ferro had no wish to stay in this place. She stuffed the lump of rock down inside her shirt. It felt right there, pressed against her stomach. Cool and comforting, for all Bayaz called it dangerous. She took one step, and as her boot slapped down a grating chuckle floated up from the far side of the hall.
From where Quais ruined corpse had fallen.
Bayaz did not seem surprised. So! he shouted. You show yourself at last! I have suspected for some time that you were not who you appeared to be! Where is my apprentice, and when did you replace him?
Months ago. Quai was still chuckling as he pushed himself slowly up from the polished floor. Before you left on your fools errand to the Old Empire. There was no blood on his smiling face. Not so much as a graze. I sat beside you, at the fire. I watched you while you lay helpless in that cart. I was with you all the way, to the edge of the World and back. Your apprentice stayed here. I left his half-eaten corpse in the bushes for the flies, not twenty strides from where you and the Northman soundly slept.
Huh. Bayaz tossed his staff from one hand to the other. I thought I noted a sharp improvement in your skills. You should have killed me then, when you had the chance.
Oh, there is time now. Ferro shivered as she watched Quai stand. The hall seemed to have grown suddenly very cold.
A hundred words? Perhaps. One word? Bayaz lip curled. I think not. Which of Khaluls creatures are you? The East Wind? One of those damned twins?
I am not one of Khaluls creatures.
The faintest flicker of doubt passed over Bayaz face. Who, then?
We knew each other well, in times long past.
The First of the Magi frowned. Who are you? Speak!
Taking forms. A womans voice, soft and low. Something was happening to Quais face as he paced slowly forward. His pale skin drooped, twisted. A dread and insidious trick. His nose, his eyes, his lips began to melt, running off his skull like wax down a candle. Do you not remember me, Bayaz? Another face showed itself beneath, a hard face, white as pale marble. You said that you would love me forever. The air was icy chill. Ferros breath was smoking before her mouth. You promised me that we would never be parted. When I opened my fathers gate to you
No! Bayaz took a faltering step back.
You look surprised. Not as surprised as I was, when instead of taking me in your arms you threw me down from the roof, eh, my love? And why? So that you could keep your secrets? So that you could seem noble? Quais long hair had turned white as chalk. It floated now about a womans face, terribly pale, eyes two bright, black points. Tolomei. The Makers daughter. A ghost, stepped out of the faded past. A ghost that had walked beside them for months, wearing a stolen shape. Ferro could almost feel her icy breath, cold as death on the air. Her eyes flickered from that pale face to the archway, far away across the floor, caught between wanting to run, and needing to know more.
I saw you in your grave! whispered Bayaz. I piled the earth over you myself.
So you did, and wept when you did, as though you had not been the one to throw me down. Her black eyes swivelled to Ferro, to where the Seed lay tingling against her belly. But I had touched the Other Side. In these two hands I had held it, while my father worked, and it had left me altered. There I lay, in the earths cold embrace. Between life and death. Until I heard the voices. The voices that Glustrod heard, long ago. They offered me a bargain. My freedom for theirs.
You broke the First Law!
Laws mean nothing to the buried! When I finally clawed my way from the grasping earth the human part of me was gone. But the other part, the part that belongs to the world belowthat cannot die. It stands before you. Now I will complete the work that Glustrod began. I will throw open the doors that my grandfather sealed. This world and the Other Side shall be one. As they were before the Old Time. As they were always meant to be. She held out her open hand, and a bitter chill flowed from it and sent shivers across Ferros back to the tips of her fingers. Give me the Seed, child. I made a promise to the Tellers of Secrets, and I keep the promises I make.
We shall see! snarled the First of the Magi. Ferro felt the tugging in her stomach, saw the air around Bayaz begin to blur. Tolomei stood ten strides away from him. The next instant she struck him with a sound like a thunderclap. His staff burst apart, splintered wood flying. He gave a shocked splutter as he flew through the darkness, rolled over and over across the cold stone to lie face down in a crumpled heap. Ferro stared as a wave of freezing air washed over her. She felt a sick and terrible fear, all the worse for being unfamiliar. She stood frozen.
The years have made you weak. The Makers daughter moved slowly now, silently towards Bayaz senseless body, her white hair flowing out behind her like the ripples on a frosty pool. Your Art cannot harm me. She stood over him, her dry white lips spreading into an icy smile. For all you took from me. For my father. She raised her foot above Bayaz bald head. For myself
She burst into brilliant flames. Harsh light flickered to the furthest corners of the cavernous chamber, brightness stabbed into the very cracks between the stones. Ferro stumbled back, holding one hand over her eyes. Between her fingers she saw Tolomei reel madly across the floor, thrashing and dancing, white flames wreathing her body, her hair a coiling tongue of fire.
She flopped to the ground, the darkness closing back in, smoke pouring up in a reeking cloud. Yulwei padded out from one of the archways, his dark skin shining with sweat. He held a bundle of swords under one scrawny arm. Swords of dull metal, like the one that Ninefingers had carried, each marked with a single silver letter. Are you alright, Ferro?
I The fire had brought no warmth with it. Ferros teeth were rattling, the hall had grown so cold. I
Go. Yulwei frowned at Tolomeis body as the last flames died. Ferro finally found the strength to move, began to back away. She felt a bitter sinking in her gut as she watched the Makers daughter climb up, the ash of Quais clothes sliding from her body. She stood, tall and deathly lean, naked and as bald as Bayaz, her hair all seared away to grey dust. There was not so much as a mark on her corpse-pale skin, gleaming flawless white.