The Chosen

The ammonite took a step back. 'My Masters, perhaps…?'

Carnelian reached into his robe and pulled out the chain with his father's Ruling Ring. He snapped the chain to unthread the ring. This should be given to the Regent. It belongs to him.'

The ammonite hesitated. Carnelian grabbed his hand and forced the ring into it. The silver mask regarded the hand.

'Give it to your Masters if you must, but get it to the Regent.'

The ammonite put the ring away into his robe, bowed, and then led Carnelian and his Imago guardsmen down the hall. He found a door down the left-hand side. The Sinistrals who guarded it stood aside and the door opened into a corridor of more human proportions that curved out of sight, its left wall regularly set with doors. They walked down this until Carnelian had given up counting the doors.

At last the ammonite stopped at one, opened it a little, jerked a bow and moved quickly away. Carnelian pushed the door fully open. It gave into a long narrow chamber that had steps at the end rising to another door. He crossed to open it and found another similar chamber.

Seven such chambers brought him to a flight of steps leading up to a more imposing door. He climbed to open it and walked into a bedchamber. Over the rattle of shutters, he could hear the wind careening through the sky outside. He returned to the door and urged the Imago retainers to make themselves comfortable, then he closed the door and went to sit on the bed to wait. The distant heartbeat was the loudest sound in the chamber. He listened to it with the taste of copper in his mouth, wondering if this was a symptom of the sky sickness.

SYBLINGS

My reflection was my brother

Wheresoever I did go He was bound to follow

(Chosen nursery rhyme)

Carnelian skimmed sleep like a flying fish. Beneath its waves slid nightmare shadows, driving him to struggle out of the water's leaden coat up into the air. He longed for their mouths to swallow him and end the nausea of fear, but still with a slap and a flick he managed to evade each lunge and fly free, winnowing the wind, frantically rowing the air. He would see the fire in the chamber, perhaps his stone fingers, the gloom pulsing with his heart, and then first his head and then his spine would suck back into the sleeving sea.

He was shaken awake. All he could hear was his beating heart.

'Carnelian.'

Impossibly, his father's voice, his father's face quivering with the drumbeat of Carnelian's heart. It was his father sitting on the bed in the flickering firelight clad in some peculiar close-fitting garments. Carnelian reached out for him and they clung to each other.

Suth pushed him gently away and looked at him. 'Why are you here?'

Carnelian's head throbbed. He reached up to feel for the spike hammering into it. 'My heart,' he said, not understanding how this could rhythm his father's words.

His father frowned, looked puzzled. He turned his head to one side, listening. 'No, not your heart, the God Emperor's.' His face darkened. 'Why are you here, my Lord?'

'I came to…' He saw the Ruling Ring on his father's finger and pointed. 'Good, they gave it to you.'

His father looked at his ring, frowning. He rubbed his finger over its cypher and showed Carnelian the ink stain on his skin. Carnelian felt that his father's eyes were seeing into his head. This is not the time to examine what has transpired in the coomb, but be assured, my Lord, that you will have to provide me with a full account. Now, why did you come?'

The ache in Carnelian's head made it difficult to think. 'Your letter-'

'Contained nothing about your coming here.'

Carnelian began shaking his head but stopped when it increased the hammering.

The look in his father's eyes softened. 'You are in pain, my son?'

'Just an ache… The letter you sent purported to be from you but was written in another's hand.'

'I should have explained that in the letter. The drugs the Wise have been giving me-'

'Your wound, Father!' Carnelian felt sick that he had forgotten it.

'Do not concern yourself. Under their supervision it heals well enough.' Suth rifted trembling hands. 'But you see how it affects me?' Carnelian stared at his father's hands. They looked so frail. His father rested them on his knees. 'What did you hope to achieve by coming here?'

To discover if you were still alive. To make sure that Aurum was not using your…'

'… corpse?' His father snorted a smile. Then his face hardened again. 'What part has Jaspar played in this?'

'How do you-? Of course, his people outside. Are they suffering like me?'

His father made a dismissive gesture. 'Not as much as you. Why are they here?'

Carnelian grimaced. 'It was the only way I could think of getting to court.'

His father's eyes narrowed. 'Who put this idea in your head?'

Carnelian considered it. ‘Spinel, I suppose.' 'Did he indeed. Was it also his idea for you not to come as yourself?'

Carnelian nodded.

His father rolled his eyes. 'What price did Jaspar ask for aiding you in this farce?' 'None.'

'Do you really believe the Lord Jaspar would do this from kindness?'

'His father's murder made him my natural ally.' 'What do you mean?' 'Ykoriana murdered his fath-'

Suth slapped his hand over Carnelian's mouth. 'You must not make such accusations,' he hissed. 'Here, you must take care even when speaking that name.' He looked round as if there might have been ears lurking in the shadows. 'We are in the very heart of her power.'

'Still. You can see what I mean, Father?'

'What you suggest is utterly impossible.' 'Ammonites…'

'No. The Wise would never conspire with her to give her the leverage to topple the Balance.'

'Surely you could not imagine that any of Jaspar's household would have dared such an act?'

His father shook his head. There is another suspect.'

'An enemy among the Great?'

'Someone much closer to home.'

Carnelian thought it through. His jaw dropped. 'His own father …'

Suth nodded slowly, giving his son time to let it sink in. 'While we were crossing the sea, she gained control of Imago, and with him their faction.'

'But to kill his own father… surely he will be punished.'

Suth made a sign of doubt. 'If there were proof, the Wise and the Clave together would send him for ever into the outer world… but he will have left no proof.'

Carnelian saw again the crucifixion. 'Even now he washes away his guilt with their blood.' Carnelian shook his eyes free of the nightmare and looked at his father. 'Why did he bring me, then? To curry favour with you?'

'No, to make me vulnerable through you.'

Carnelian sagged and his head felt close to exploding. Then I must return immediately to the coomb.'

That would change nothing. The damage is done, but perhaps we can still turn this to our advantage. Whether you stay or go you must remain here at least until you have recovered from the sky sickness.'

'Jaspar did warn me but I chose not to listen.'

His father smiled. 'It is better to be free of him. Besides, by tomorrow it will have gone.' As he stood up,

Carnelian noticed that he was clutching his side. Suth caught his look. 'It spasms sometimes, that is all.'

Carnelian reached up to touch his father's arm. 'I would rather stay.'

'We would hardly see each other. The machinations of the election are interminable and alas, I am at their centre.'

'I would find ways to amuse myself.' That is what I am afraid of,' his father said through a crooked grin.

Carnelian did not recognize the mask his father put up to hide his face. Its right eye sprayed sun rays over the cheek and forehead. Wearing it, his father could have been an angel peering down indulgently upon the little world of men.