The Chosen

An indistinct horror hung in Carnelian's dream. He lurched awake as he had been doing all night. He sat up, groaning a little as he pushed his stiff body up from the floor. A small black figure was obscuring the morning-bright crack between the shutters. It was Tain. Carnelian could feel his gaze.

'You shouldn't have given me the bed.'

'You shouldn't be up.'

'I feel fine.'

Carnelian grinned. 'You look as thin as a stick.' He regretted the words the moment they were said.

'I didn't eat well in the quarantine.'

Carnelian stood up and walked round Tain, pretending he was finding something to wear, trying to find an angle from where to see his face. When he found it he stared, trying to recognize it. 'Do you want to tell me about it?'

Wearing a flickering frown, Tain looked down at his hands as they wrestled each other. He looked so small, so damaged, that Carnelian instinctively reached out to embrace him. Tain jerked away as if scalded. His eyes warned Carnelian not to touch him.

Carnelian retreated.

'You watched them strip me?'

Carnelian freed his head enough from the tension to give a nod.

They took us down into a maze of halls filled with half-black soldiers. In a courtyard they threw buckets of water at us. The blood washed off. They put us in among a crowd of naked men. We boys stuck together. Creatures came in silver masks-' 'Ammonites.'

'Yes, ammonites. They ran their hands over me. Everywhere over and into me. They took the Little Mother… smashed her to pieces on the ground.' His mouth twitched. 'They took us to a chasm. Any comment, any step out of line and we were cudgelled with sticks. A stair led down into the chasm. We descended to a shelf. We crossed to a bigger shelf. They swung the bridge away. Some ammonites were there with us. It was crowded. On one side was the chasm wall, on all others, a drop to darkness. The biggest men took the space near the wall. We had to make do with the edge. I looked over…' He stared as if he were there again. He shook his head, narrowed his eyes. 'Sometimes a little dimple of paleness showed the water far, far below. Hardly any light came down to us. Our blankets of sacking were torn from us. We huddled together for warmth. Cold and fear of rolling over the edge kept us always awake. In the morning, the ammonites checked us again then herded us over a bridge to the next shelf.'

Carnelian saw Tain's lips moving but no sound came out. 'Was this new shelf the same as the last?'

Tain nodded slowly. 'One shelf after another, after another… for more than twelve days.'

Tain's eyes made Carnelian's mouth almost too dry to speak. 'Were you… did they hurt you?'

Those who weren't protected by others of their House were victimized. We found protection where we could.' Tain's face became very bony. Those who didn't want to starve paid for their protection.'

'Maybe we should forget this?' Carnelian thought his voice sounded very loud.

Tain's eyes defied him. 'Every day the chasm deepened. There were whispers that it went down as far as the Underworld. One day we came round a corner in the chasm to see a brown tower rising in the distance. Each day brought it one shelf closer. Each day it grew redder as if it were a bone freshly hacked from a body. The chasm forked around its bloody roots. The last shelf was down the left fork. In the shadow under a bridge high above, stone doors led to new shelves. Thirteen of them. Colder. Darker. Under a skyful of shadow, Death's Gate, Nale fell.'

'Nale?' asked Carnelian.

The dragonfly Master's boy.'

'Jaspar… Fell, you say?'

Tain glanced at him. 'He threw himself into the chasm.'

Carnelian shuddered, remembering the punishments Jaspar had promised the boy.

'Stone doors took us onto a path.'

Carnelian was being numbed by Tain's lack of feeling.

The chasm widened letting in more sky. The air was dank. We came to a place of chains and deafening waterfalls. More gates, some tunnels… then we came out into…' Tain was staring at nothing.

'Heaven?' suggested Carnelian.

Tain gazed on as if he had not heard. Carnelian felt that if he were only to look close enough he would see a vision of the crater reflected on the boy's eyes. 'I felt that wonder too.'

Tain's face turned to him the eye holes in his skull. 'I was sure I had died.'

Carnelian felt the cold seeping up from the stone upon which he sat.

The beating soon taught me otherwise. They took us up a stair to a cave floored with water. They demanded the names of our Masters. They put me on a boat, under its deck, where one-eyed monsters rowed. We arrived at Coomb Suth. They fished me out and put me on the quay. They rang a bell. I had the feeling I was in a story. The blue lake was not real. The island with its mountain. The vast, vast fencing wall. And there, at its foot, the coomb. So beautiful with its stepped gardens and gleaming palaces. Crail told me about it but I hadn't believed.'

For a moment Carnelian thought Tain might smile. He waited for it like the dawn after a night of despair.

'A man came down for me. The chameleon on his face fooled me at first. He wasn't one of our people. He was a stranger and spoke to me as a stranger. As I followed him he rattled off my duties, warned me that I should forget the ways I was used to. The coomb was ruled by the Master's mother and she wasn't a Mistress to be trifled with. Then I saw the hanging woman.'

Carnelian felt a twinge of nausea. 'Hanging…?'

‘Sagging off a frame… arms wire cut… above the path to one side… stinking.'

'A crucifixion,' said Carnelian.

The wall behind her was stained with blood and shit. Her knees were like sea-logged wood. What was left of her arms looked barely in their shoulders. Her belly was red and swollen-'

'Enough!' said Carnelian. He felt he was on the verge of remembering something. He was panting. Water was oozing in his mouth. 'Did…' He swallowed. 'Did he tell you her name?'

'Her name was Fey.'

The sound of her name punched the vomit from Carnelian's stomach all over the floor.

Carnelian helped Tain clean up. He felt the need to give him an explanation. 'She was Brin's sister.'

Tain seemed to age a little more. Carnelian ducked his head, cursing, scrubbing the floor so hard he made his fingers raw. When they were finished he looked at Tain. 'I must know…' Tain's face was a blank. 'What else did you see happening in the coomb?'

'I left shortly after arriving to come here.'

'Were there any other signs of slaughter?'

'I didn't see any more… crucifixions.'

Carnelian bit his hand, looking at his brother.

There was an atmosphere of fear.'

Carnelian's eyes went out of focus. 'It seems to be the way the Masters celebrate their assumption of power.'

Tain gazed at him.

Carnelian still felt queasy. 'I must go and make Father aware of what I have done.'

Carnelian quickly found that Tain was unable to dress him in his court robe and so he had to summon servants. When he was ready he went immediately to see his father. The Ichorians guarding the entrance to the Sun in Splendour would not let him pass. Towering over them he used all his powers of coercion but this only served to reduce them to quivering. One of the cohort commanders came to see what was happening.

Carnelian swung round to look down at the man. They refuse to let me pass.'

'He-who-goes-before himself barred this gate, Master.'

'I've urgent need to speak to him.'

'Our father's in conclave with the Jade Master Nephron.'