‘I saw you.’
‘Saw what?’ The horror swelled like one of his nightmares. ‘What did I do?’
‘You were wearing a plum-coloured velvet coat with gold buttons. An emerald kilt. Black shoes with shiny buckles. You’d thrown up all down your front. And you had blood on your hands.’
Tobry was staring at her, mouth agape. Then he turned to Rix and said stiffly, ‘Is this true?’
Rix felt like a prisoner accused of a terrible crime and afraid that, in some madness, he might have done it. ‘I’ve never seen the cellar before.’
‘But you lost a month of your life when you had the fever,’ said Tobry. ‘Ten years ago — at the time when Tali’s mother was murdered. The nightmares began after that, and the voice telling you that you’d done something dreadful. Lyf’s voice!’
‘Rix had nothing to do with Mama’s death,’ said Tali.
‘Then what are you accusing him of?’ said Tobry furiously.
‘I’m not accusing you of anything, Rix,’ she said, taking his trembling fist in both hands.
He put his other hand over hers, clinging to her as if she was the only person who could save him. ‘What are you saying?’
Tali was staring into his eyes, her hands giving his little shakes as she strained to remember. ‘I think something went wrong for Lyf when my mother was killed …’
She seemed to be looking to the sketch for inspiration.
‘Yes,’ she went on, ‘Lyf’s face was carved into the end wall of the cellar … and yellow moved in his eyes … and … and there was a hand, a foggy hand reaching out towards the woman who’d taken Mama’s pearl … but there came a flash from behind a pile of barrels — even as a child I knew it was magery — and the hand recoiled … and the woman licked Mama’s blood off the tongs.’
She went so pale that Rix was sure she was going to faint. He tried to digest what she had said, but could not get past the horror of the scene he could not remember yet could imagine perfectly.
Tobry let his breath out in a gust. ‘So the killers stole the pearl Lyf was after.’
Suddenly Tali understood what the triple call, di-DA-doh, really meant. ‘The pearls call out to one another, and three of them always call together, di-DA-doh. And the call is always close — in Caulderon.’
‘Therefore the killers must have stolen three pearls,’ said Tobry, ‘and Lyf only has one. That’s why he’s so enraged, so desperate to get yours. With the master pearl, he may be able to command the stolen ones.’
‘There’s more,’ said Tali to Rix. ‘When you came out from behind those barrels, there on the left, I saw a faint pink aura around you — ’
‘I don’t have any magery,’ said Rix, trying to deny what she was saying.
‘I knew it even then,’ said Tali, ‘but the aura was definitely there.’
‘What if the killers put a blocking charm on you?’ Tobry said to Rix.
‘Why would they?’ said Rix, pulling free and burying his face in his hands. He wanted to scream.
‘It could have been designed to go off when Lyf appeared, to stop him getting the pearl. The charm would have been painful — perhaps that’s why you’ve always been afraid of magery.’
‘I repeat, why?’ Rix’s voice was muffled by his hands. ‘Why was I there at all? Such a spell could have been put on any object in the cellar. Why put it on me?’
‘I haven’t the faintest idea,’ said Tobry.
‘Lyf blames you for him losing the last pearl,’ said Tali. ‘That must be why he’s sending you nightmares.’
Rix felt as though he was trapped under a weighted shroud, screaming with claustrophobia. Why had be been there? Why put a spell on him? Why, why, why? The shroud kept tightening around him, suffocating him, and he could not heave it off.
‘Rix?’ Tali said softly.
He did not reply. Could not.
‘Rix?’
‘Yes?’
She pulled his hands away. ‘I’ve got to know what you saw that day. Did you see the killers’ faces?’
‘This is all I know.’ Rix swiped at the sketch. ‘And I’ve had to fight for days to get it.’
There was a long silence.
‘What if it represents both the past and the future?’ said Tobry. ‘Such symmetry might appeal to a wrythen two thousand years old. What if the sketch depicts both Iusia’s murder, and Tali’s?’
No, Rix thought. I don’t believe it. I can’t accept it. I won’t do it. No, no, no!
‘So that’s what the nightmares are all about,’ said Tobry. ‘After Lyf was robbed of your mother’s pearl, he chose you, Rix, because you have no magery. That’s what it’s all about — he means you to kill Tali and take her ebony pearl for him.’
The black shroud tightened until Rix could hardly breathe. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ he said, gasping for air. He felt the way Tali must have done in the water: overcome by panic, helpless, drowning. But there was no one to come to his rescue.
‘Do the sketch again, and finish it. But this time, you have to control the divination.’
‘What if I can’t?’
‘Tali, I think — ’ Tobry looked around sharply. ‘Where’s Tali?’
Rix knew he should go after her. She must be just as traumatised as he was, and the best way to deal with it was to talk everything through with her, but he was drained to the last drop.
‘She can take care of herself,’ he said in a faded croak.
‘Not in the state she’s in. She’s bound to do something reckless.’
Rix raised a boneless hand and let it fall.
‘Come with me,’ said Tobry. ‘We’ve got to find her.’
‘Tobe, I’ve got nothing left. And I’ve got the stinking portrait to finish.’
Rix flopped onto the settee and lay there, staring up at the timbered ceiling.
Tobry gave him a look of deep disgust and went out.
Rix closed his eyes, but could not rid himself of the scene in the cellar, and the mental image of himself at the end of the bench, eyes wide with horror as he cut the pearl out of Tali’s head.
CHAPTER 73
Every shape in the chancellor’s palace was curved and bulbous, like intestines herniating through muscle walls, and the only colour was the red of curdled blood. It made Tali’s stomach churn and her thigh throb. Even the air felt clotted; it tugged at her as she moved, as if she were trapped in a gigantic, pumped-up liver.
The colour sharpened her wrathful mood. How dare Lyf abuse her family so? How dare he bring them to such brutal ends, simply to steal their pearls? And how dare he manipulate Rix so cruelly?
Lyf must have been sending Rix the nightmares for ten years, whispering the lies that had made the boy think he had committed some hideous crime. Lyf had to pay, and she was the only person who could do it. But not without magery, and for that she needed the spectible. It was the one thing that could protect her now.
It wasn’t the only reason she’d fled Palace Ricinus, though. What if Lyf succeeded with Rix? She had to get away from him, just in case.
Getting into the chancellor’s palace had been the easy part — for an underground dweller, at least — but where to look? The shapes of the rooms and halls confused the eye and dulled the wits. It was hard to tell whether she was seeing a place for the first time, or the tenth.
She edged along a sinuous hall decorated with unnerving sculptures and paintings. Some were just gaunt shapes, pared almost to nothing, others so bulbous that they appeared to extend into other dimensions, and all were warped or twisted. What kind of a man filled his palace with such oddities?
Ignore them. Concentrate. Lady Ricinus’s hired killer might already be stalking the chancellor, and the Cythonians could attack at any time. She had to find the spectible, uncover her magery, rescue Rannilt and leave a warning about the threat on the chancellor’s life. Then, go after Lyf.