'And the place we are going to?'
'It is called Morgadis.'
'Is it your family home?'
'Morgadis is the home of my sister, Mira, and she is a woman you will not want to offend.'
'I don't want to offend anyone,' said Nish. 'What is her trouble?'
'She lost her man and all three sons to the war. When the conscriptors came for her youngest she refused to give him up, and he was taken with violence. Since his death she has been bile piled on bitterness.'
'Why are you taking your daughters there?'
'She is my sister,' Yara said simply. 'And Morgadis is the safest place I know. Mira can take care of herself. She is… Well, you will see. Just don't mention the war.' That night they stopped by the ruins of a great monastery. The grass was close-cropped inside the walls by grazing deer. Outside, the forest had obliterated all signs of the farms and vineyards that had once flourished here, apart from a broken stone well that Nish, intent on what lay ahead, almost rode into.
Fortunately the horse was watching its step. Nish yelped, and behind him heard Liliwen's tinkling laughter. He smiled. They had left danger well behind and the surroundings could not be bettered.
'What is this place?' he asked Yara as they dismounted and prepared to make camp in a long roofless hall. A grapevine, so old that its trunk was the size of a tree, scrambled over the walls, covered in tiny bunches of grapes which, unfortunately, would not be ripe for months.
'A monastery that belonged to the Thongi sect, a pacifist pastoral order who worshipped their strange gods here for two thousand years, until not so long ago.'
'Why did they leave?'
'The scrutators burned them out.'
Nish had never heard of such a thing. 'Why?'
'The Thongi questioned the authority of the Council and refused to send their young men to war.'
'That's all?'
'The scrutators like to show their power by making examples. Not a single monk remained. Don't go out of sight, girls,' she called as they wandered in the ruins.
Mounce led the horses down to a rivulet and then on to a river-flat meadow where the grass would be sweetest. Nish gathered wood for the campfire while Yara set up a tent for herself and the girls. After lighting the fire, he glanced up at the sky, which was clear.
'I think I'll sleep in the open tonight.' He walked down to the rivulet with a bucket in each hand. There was no sign of Mounce or the horses. The sun-warmed water looked so refreshing that he stripped off his sweaty clothes and lay in it, since it was only knee-deep. He'd washed his clothes, put them on and was on his way back when a despairing cry rang out.
'Liliwen, Meriwen!'
He dropped the buckets and ran. Yara was down the far end of the roofless hall, looking around frantically.
'Meriwen sang out, then something fell, like a wall toppling. Oh, I told them to be careful.'
'Where did the call come from?'
'Down here somewhere.' She swept her arm around a collection of broken walls, all that remained of a building that once had hundreds of rooms. Yara was shaking.
He offered her his hand and she took it gratefully. She could hardly blame Nish, since she had chosen the campsite.
'If we search through there,' said Nish, 'room by room, we must soon find them. And if something's fallen down we'll see it.'
Yara choked back a sob and nodded stiffly. 'I'll take this row, you do the next.'
Nish was halfway up his row when he heard a thin cry. 'Yara – this way!' he yelled. Yara met him down the row. 'It seemed to come from underground.'
They found the place in the next row of ruined rooms – paving stones that covered a vaulted ceiling had collapsed, leaving a neat rectangular hole in the grass. A couple of tall saplings grew in an angle of one wall but the rest of the space was empty. Nish crept to the edge and looked down, for the remaining stones could be just as unstable. The afternoon light did not penetrate very well but he made out a small pile of rubble some distance below. There was no sign of the girls.
'Meriwen, Liliwen!' Yara screeched.
No reply. She looked on the verge of collapse.
'Run back and get the tent ropes,' he said. 'And see if you can find Mounce. He was down along the stream. I'll keep watch.'
She ran. Nish broke off one of the saplings, which was three or four spans long, and reached down to the rubble. The sapling did not look strong enough to support his weight but might do to slide down on. He went down the spindly trunk, burning his hands, and had a good look around.
He expected to find at least one of the girls buried under the rubble, but saw nothing apart from something white over the other side. He was practically standing on it before he made out what it was – a skeleton. He moved smartly away, taking the pole with him. It was an awkward weapon but better than nothing. Nish had a healthy fear of old bones. One of the monks, no doubt. What could have happened to the girls?
The stone was stained with soot from the fire that had destroyed the monastery. Over the other way he saw more bones, the skeletons of at least three people, and two of them were headless. It was too dark to make out tracks. He walked into the gloom, calling the girls' names. Once he passed beyond the lighted area his hackles rose, though he could not tell why. It felt like a place he had no right to be in.
Just enough light penetrated to show that he was in a cellar or basement with lots of long, narrow compartments, each containing something white. Here and there, luminous patches could be seen. It was not a cellar but a mausoleum or catacomb. The white objects were bones.
What a hideous place, and it would be worse when night fell, in about half an hour. 'Liliwen!' he roared, 'Meriwen!' When the echoes died away he heard a faint squeak far off to his right.
Nish turned that way and the floor moved under his foot. A loose flagstone, or was the whole floor unstable? He probed with his foot. The stone collapsed under him and Nish had to leap sideways onto the base of a pillar as a section of floor folded with a crash and rumble that shook dust down on his head. The fire must have damaged the lower levels and the entire ruin could come crashing down.
He should have turned back then, but Nish could not bear to leave the girls in such a dangerous and haunted place. How had they run through here and survived? Nor could he bear to think of Yara's reaction if he came back without them.
He crept backwards to a glowing niche. The luminosity was due to a phosphorescent growth on the bones. Picking up the brightest one, a partly cloven skull, by the eye-holes, he held it high. It gave just enough light to see. Skin-creeping from the look in its empty sockets, he threaded it on a piece of cord around his neck.
Taking the pole in both hands, Nish probed the floor in front of him. It seemed solid. He went forward a couple of steps and probed again. He encountered another unstable section before he got across the chamber, but found a way around it. The floor was most solid next to the pillars. On the far side he came to three passages.
'Girls!' he yelled.
There was a rumble in the distance but no reply. He took the left tunnel – the earlier response had seemed to come from that direction. Halfway along he came to a shallow pit, also full of bones, some savagely hacked and broken. What barbarity had gone on here?
He made his way carefully through a maze of walls and pillars. There could be pits, wells or lower collapsed floors. Twice more the floor caved in under his probing pole, the second time beneath his feet. Nish spun the pole in his hands and managed to span the gap as he fell, though the shock almost tore his grip free. The flagstones dropped a long way before splashing into water.
Nish hung over the unknown depths, praying that the creaking pole would not break, or slide in as he went hand over hand to the edge. It did not, though he had the devil of a time getting up onto solid floor, and after that he was more careful. He threaded his way around objects lying on the floor – thousands of bones and, as far as he could tell, all human. Most bore signs of frenzied sword work.