‘Do not fear, General. You shall have your victory,’ Vrakir insisted. ‘Collegium shall fall to you.’
There were a lot of unhappy looks around then — not least Major Oski and Mycella herself — but Tynan had built himself a career based on loyalty first and foremost.
‘We march on,’ he confirmed. ‘Do what you can for the wounded, and get the army ready to move.’
Twenty
It had taken Che a day to exhaust the patience of the Sarnesh. While she had been heading forwards, they had been happy to follow her. When she had led them to the Empress herself they had been exultant. It had not mattered that Seda had then vanished into the forest, that the woman and her fellows had somehow left no tracks, or that the Nethyen might happen on them at any time. Che had led them so far, and Che would lead them to the Empress again. A decisive victory for Sarn was imminent, and that was all that mattered.
A full day later, however, and it had become clear to them that Che was leading them nowhere. Not that they stayed still, but the Beetle girl’s path wound round and circled, doubling back and trailing off, so that by evening it was apparent that they had crossed and recrossed only a small patch of forest, and ended up where they had started.
They were going to report back, they explained the next morning, but it was obvious that their confidence in her had evaporated. For a moment the old Inapt mysteries had carried them along, but no further. They were rationalists and it was plain that Che was mad.
The others, Che’s own retinue, had stayed with her, but she could feel that their confidence was slipping, too, watching her through the hours of morning and then on past noon, and the day creeping away — and still no progress and no explanation.
Tynisa particularly. . Che was worried about Tynisa. ‘That was my father,’ she had said, and Che had stared at her and tried to convince her that she was wrong, but the girl had become more and more insistent. Her father had been there with the Empress, guarding her. How can that be, Che? And Che’s denials had fallen on deaf ears.
Then Maure herself had come and stepped between them and said, Che, she’s right. Simple words, but Che already knew inside that they were true. For, of course, the Empress had been present there when Tisamon died. Of course the Empress could call up Tisamon’s shade, especially since Tynisa had rejected it and cast it out.
One more thing to put right when we find Seda, Che had vowed. But they could not find Seda. The Empress had taken a path that they could not follow.
‘I don’t understand it,’ Che confided to Maure. ‘I can feel her still. She’s there. She’s not even far away. It’s just. . every direction I choose takes me further away from her.’
‘She has gone inwards,’ Maure confirmed. ‘I think. . she has paid some price or enacted some ritual that has let her through. I can feel the ghosts of this place all around, angry and confused. If we had come here alone, then we might have just walked in — assuming the Mantids didn’t kill us. Now, though, the division of the locals has tangled the way. The Empress has been able to buy or force her way through, but we cannot follow.’
‘Why not?’ Che demanded. ‘Doesn’t this place. .’ know who I am? But that would be a foolish line to take. ‘Then find me the price, and it will be paid.’
Maure just stared at her, and after a moment Che reconsidered what she had said, and sighed. ‘I mean, we will have to find a way in. We have to stop her, Maure. Last night I dreamt that. . this Argastos was calling to me. I could sense that Seda was nearing him.’
‘Che, this is a Mantis place.’
‘I know that, and I. . you mean the price?’
Maure nodded.
‘But blood? Hasn’t there been enough?’
‘Blood to the Mantis-kinden is like machines to the Apt,’ the halfbreed observed philosophically. ‘They see so many distinctions and divisions, where to us it is all just. .’
‘But I thought blood rituals were. . for the Mosquito-kinden?’
Maure closed her eyes for a moment, as though pained. ‘Blood is a symbol, Che — a symbol of power, violence, identity. Mosquito-kinden might have made it an art form, but blood was always the Mantis way. Be thankful it was the Moths that got to them first.’
Che blinked. ‘You’re talking about a sacrifice. I don’t think I can do that.’
Maure just shrugged. ‘It’s no magic that I was ever tutored in. It’s not the Woodlouse way, nor that of the Moths, for they have other ways of exerting power. But I have been trying to find the path in, and it is as barred to me as it is to you. If Terastos was a greater magician, perhaps he would have some way of circumventing it, but he admits that he’s out of his depth.’
‘There must be some other way.’
The necromancer shrugged again.
‘Che,’ came Tynisa’s soft call. ‘We’re not alone.’
The Beetle girl’s eyes opened wide, and she reached out, seeking. .
Fool, to become too focused on this. ‘Nethyen,’ she managed to warn them. ‘Everyone, ready to move.’
‘Where?’ Thalric hissed.
‘Away.’ But he was right. Even as they were moving off, Tynisa leading the way with drawn blade, every step took them further from their destination — that destination that could only be reached by travelling in some direction off the compass, off all maps.
And without that destination, that star to steer by, where could they go? They were deep in the forest of the Mantis-kinden, and they could not run forever.
Nonetheless, run they did. In Che’s mind appeared the Nethyen, a score of them spread out between the trees and closing fast — some of them already running alongside the stragglers, racing to get ahead of the fugitive band. She heard Thalric’s sting crackle and spit, but knew that he had hit nothing, merely making himself a target. Ahead, Tynisa stopped and turned, waiting only for a second to ensure that Che and the others were still behind her before springing into motion again.
Helma Bartrer was falling behind. The Collegiate woman was not used to such a chase — and since when was I? — and was making too much heavy going amidst the undergrowth, virtually bouncing off the trees. Che felt Terastos’s exasperation as he dropped back himself, to drag her onwards.
Thalric was ahead of her now, looking over to their left, and Che knew he could see the shadows of Mantis-kinden there. Maure was beyond him, almost catching up with Tynisa — a surprising turn of speed from her, but then she had been many years taking care of her own skin, and perhaps the Mantids would even spare her out of respect for her skills.
Amnon was just behind her, slowing himself to keep pace, ready to protect her from. . Che did not think he would have the chance to protect her from anything.
And I am not thinking! Was I not crowned by the Masters of Khanaphir? Do I have no authority? I should not have to run like a roach.
‘There’s something ahead!’ Thalric called out. ‘I see walls!’
She risked a glance, expecting the half-seen rounded structures of a Mantis hold, but instead caught a glimpse of a timbered frame ahead, curved, but no Mantis work. Nor any sort of building she knew except. .
Is that a boat?
Focus. And she tried to project her mind out, to thrust her authority and importance into the faces of the pursuing Mantis-kinden. The running made it harder, constantly stumbling and staggering, and then an arrow skipped past her, making her heart leap and throwing her off stride again.
Focus! There was a feeling within her, encapsulating all that had changed since she had lost her Aptitude, all that she had instead been gifted with beneath Khanaphes, and she threw it outwards, a wordless demand for recognition from the Mantids, from the forest, from the Empress herself had the woman not been so maddeningly elsewhere.