The homunculus, by his voice the one Carnelian knew, gave a slight nod to either side. ‘I chose to save myself and my brethren. Though my master considered the continuance of himself and his Seconds futile, I felt we three might still be of use to you, Seraph.’
Carnelian came fully awake. ‘Grand Sapient Legions is dead?’
The homunculus gave a deep nod. Carnelian was stunned by the enormity of the news. That such an ancient being should have ceased to live. The extinction of a memory that reached back to a world now completely lost. Was it Legions whom, towering like a god, the wave had quenched? Was that wave then death? Carnelian did not believe his dream so simply read. Its threat seemed to be filling the cell, indeed the whole world. Its dread made the three homunculi appear sinister. Had they murdered Legions and their other masters, even as they slept? As if sensing his loathing, the homunculus fell forward so that his face clinked against the floor. ‘We offer ourselves to you, Seraph.’
The emotion in that unhuman voice touched Carnelian’s heart. He had come to know him; Poppy had grown to like him. Who was he to judge these men? What did he know of their lives?
‘What normally happens to a homunculus when his master dies?’ he asked, already certain of the answer.
‘He is terminated, Seraph,’ said the homunculus, his voice causing his mask to reverberate against the floor.
Carnelian sensed their terror. He recalled Legions declaring himself already dead. Why should his homunculus have to die with him? It counted in the little man’s favour that he had chosen to save the other two of his kind. Now he had brought them to Carnelian knowing, truly, that he was their only hope. Compassion stirred in Carnelian. He could not deny them his help. Besides, he had a feeling that, in what was coming, they might prove useful. He wished to look upon the faces of these two strangers. As he reached for his mask, his fingers came to rest upon its gold forehead. His heart was urging him to an act he was not sure was rational. He attempted to work out where their best chances of survival lay, but soon gave up. There were too many unknowns. He decided to trust his feelings. ‘You want to serve me?’
‘We do, Seraph,’ said his homunculus, not lifting his face from the floor.
‘Will you then join my House?’
The homunculus raised his masked face a little. ‘Your House, Seraph?’
‘I am asking all three of you to enter my household.’
The other two heads came up even as his homunculus sat up completely. ‘Your household, Seraph?’
Carnelian smiled at the tone of incredulity. ‘Come. Decide now.’
The three of them drew together, muttering. When they fell silent, his homunculus turned to Carnelian. ‘All three of us shall willingly become your slaves.’
‘Well, then, look upon my face.’
Clumsily, they loosed their masks. They leaned forward to cradle their silver faces in their hands. His homunculus was the first to look up. As his eyes met Carnelian’s, the little man flinched, but held his gaze. The other two lifted their heads only enough to glimpse him from under their brows. Wonder lit their wizened faces so brightly, they forgot their fear and squinted at him through tears as if he were dazzling them.
At first Carnelian thought them identical, but soon he saw they had faces of their own. He became uncomfortable with their gaze, but was reluctant to scold them.
‘They have never beheld an angel,’ said his homunculus. ‘Compared to the scarred moon of the Wise, your beauty, Seraph, is the sun.’
Embarrassed, Carnelian told them to leave him for now. As they went out he turned in on himself. His dream was an ache he felt the need to nurse.
Osidian grabbed Carnelian’s arm as he leant over him. ‘I was foolish to imagine I could triumph on my own.’
Carnelian prised himself free, took some steps back, uneasy about Osidian’s stare, his sweat-glazed face. ‘You’re not alone. I’m with you.’
Osidian looked somewhere else. He released a sigh, closed his eyes. ‘All night I have felt him tearing at me.’ His eyes snapped open. ‘He has shown me the way before and will do so again, but first I must buy back his favour by feeding him.’
Carnelian had seen this before, in the Isle of Flies. It made him queasy. He knew only too well what Osidian’s god liked to be fed. Carnelian’s skin itched as if flies were crawling over him. In his gut he knew it was to the Lepers Osidian would turn for victims.
Osidian’s eyes rolled up in his head. ‘He has been here with us all along. I have been wilfully deaf to his whispering.’
Carnelian refused to believe in any malign presence in the dark corners of the cell. If Osidian was again possessed, it was his madness Carnelian must fight. ‘Legions killed himself.’
Osidian stared at him. ‘He is dead?’
Carnelian nodded, seeing how grief seemed to be making Osidian sane. ‘All three Sapients are dead.’
Osidian’s eyes clouded in a face bleak with misery as he fell into a nodding that could have been trembling. Carnelian could sense the madness returning. ‘Use their corpses.’
Osidian shook his head. ‘My Father prefers to sup upon the living, for in their agony does he find a voice.’
Carnelian cast around desperately for other victims. His mind fixed on some, though almost he turned away from such a solution. It was true they were dangerous and could easily become his enemies, but to deliver them to the Darkness-under-the-Trees? He hardened his heart. Was he not, after all, making war upon the Masters?
‘The commanders.’
Osidian’s reddened eyes looked up at him. ‘Chosen?’
‘Sooner or later they will learn about the edict. Do you imagine they would still obey you then?’
Osidian smiled predaciously. ‘They would indeed make a rare offering.’
‘Why not?’ said Carnelian. ‘Have you not offered up your own flesh?’
Osidian nodded and a wicked grin lit his face. ‘And there are those higher still the Lord could feast on.’
‘Jaspar?’
Osidian’s grin widened. ‘My Lord Aurum too.’ He regarded Carnelian. ‘You do not approve? Do you wish to save him, Carnelian? Do you? And here I was believing you hated him.’
Carnelian felt he was being toyed with and could not be sure that even he was entirely safe, but he had to have Aurum. ‘I would prefer to deliver him to a different end.’
‘To the Lepers, for example.’ Osidian’s face gave the impression he was amused, but his eyes were bright with cruelty. Carnelian hesitated, feeling that the slightest miscalculation could close the trap.
‘Are you not going to lecture me about my oath, Carnelian? No oily flattery that I am an honourable man?’
‘I want to save them from you.’
When the madness dulled in Osidian’s eyes, Carnelian was as shocked as if, wandering lost in a dark and threatening wood, he had come suddenly upon a friend. Osidian lay back. ‘Why not? Give them the old fool. I have no further use for him, nor them.’
Carnelian controlled his euphoria. Dare he hazard what he had won to get more? An understanding of what his dream must mean had risen in him. Disturbingly, he had a feeling he had long known what it had shown him. ‘Whatever help your god will give you, it seems unlikely he will cause to rise up from the earth a host sufficient to overthrow the legions your brother is mustering against us.’ Carnelian flinched, seeing in his mind the terrible fire and thunder of dragons in battle. The host Molochite was gathering was many times more vast than anything he had seen. Could his dream really be promising victory against such odds? He tried to grasp how it might be possible, but the more he thought about it, the more its reality eluded him. Faith would have to be enough.
Osidian glared at him. ‘You doubt what you do not understand.’
Looking into that furious face, Carnelian’s gut warned him against saying anything further about his dream. ‘Can I leave Jaspar and the commanders to you?’