Steph Swainston - Dangerous Offspring

‘What if Cyan is beaten and Lightning wants to rejoin the Circle?’

‘He would bring me into the Circle too. We could stay together forever and I would be immortal as well. I’ve always fancied it.’

‘But then you’d have to abdicate.’

‘Yes, but we would crown Cyan Queen. Cyan, instead of us, would restart the Micawater dynasty. Lightning can’t lose, really.’

‘Providing Cyan complies with his wishes.’

‘Oh, I think she will learn humility in the Circle. I think she would make a good Queen.’

‘You can’t tell what will happen, Eleonora.’

‘No. But we welcome the uncertainty! Awia is free to change now. The role of Archer can change, too! Saker is no longer holding them back.’ Eleonora took a forkful of kedgeree. ‘And he has such a fantastic body.’

I looked at her, and her eyes were shining. It could be love, or it could be all that seafood.

Cyan was right; for all my show of independence, Lightning had been a father to me. Now with this sudden view of the future he daunted me even more. ‘Where is he? I must speak to him,’ I said, though without much relish.

‘At the boathouse.’ She pointed through the front windows. I put my boots on at the Orangery door and walked out.

On my way down to the lake, I threw up in a random corner of the ivy-clad stone staircase. Great, I thought; the vomit Comet is back.

The ground’s spinning. Wow. It’s been years since it did that. I felt amazing and I didn’t care. I think I’ve come to terms with scolopendium. I’ve been drinking it for months without increasing the dose, so I was sure I could live this way.

This was the scolopendium I took from the barge-the drugs that Cyan bought. I’ve been taking a sip every day since I crash-landed; dissolved in wine in my hip flask. How else do you think I could keep going after the Vermiform’s assault? I know I told Rayne that I had thrown it in the fire, but I lied to her. I lied to you as well.

But that was my only lie. Trust me.

The glorious palace front was clear-cut against the sky. It looked as bizarre as a building from the Shift. But, I thought, ours was a Shift world as well, one of thousands in the continuum, and it was as strange and beautiful as the rest.

I looked for the window of our bedroom, on the second floor of the Eyas Wing, with its curtains drawn. I pictured Tern still asleep up there, her manicured hand brushing the coverlet.

Two floors below our window, Eleonora was eating breakfast alone, her feet on the cool, mossy ground. She suddenly feels indescribably happy. A beam of light sparkles on the lake, shines through the panes and dazzles the glasshouse. Her country! ‘This place is great!’ she says enthusiastically, puts down the coffee cup and decides to go for a ride.

On her way out she passes the bow store, where Harrier is sadly placing his master’s bows back on their racks. His sense of disappointment has left him swirling with the current; Lightning’s skill was a tenet of faith with him, because Harrier himself was a Challenger once. He pauses, then takes his own longbow from its case, holds it in both hands and presses it to his chest, thinking, why shouldn’t I go and join the archers who’ll soon be queuing up to Challenge Cyan? He starts to wipe the longbow down.

A hundred kilometres away, Cyan and Rayne in their coach are crossing out of Awia. Cyan is alternately crying and defiant. She is horrified by what she has done to her father, but she can see no way out. She would see it through to the conclusion. What else could she do? Ornate shadows lengthen behind the coach’s intricate fretwork screens. ‘Daddy lost deliberately,’ she repeats.

‘It crushes me, too.’ Rayne bites her lip. ‘But he gave you t’ chance t’ step ou’ of his shadow and develop your own life. Establish your own name and identity. Isn’ tha’ wha’ you wanted? Don’ yield to preceden’ and t’ power of t’ past. You’ll forge’ him, though I never will…I’ll think of him, sometime in t’ far future.’

Rayne, when she arrives at the Castle, will visit Serein Wrenn, who is currently lying in the hospital mourning the loss of his foot and his friend. He glances up when Mist Fulmer comes in, bringing a tray of beer and cakes. Mist cheers him up by telling him he can still take the wheel of the caravel Windhover, on the bright ocean out of Tanager.

Mist walks back to his room via the Breckan Wing roof walk, looking out over the parapet across the plains. ‘At least I’m still here,’ he says. ‘In this great place.’

In the chamber below his feet, those of Tornado are being massaged by his new girlfriend. Sleat in his room is busy polishing armour but looks up and sees them, tiny figures in the window of the opposite building. Tornado and his girlfriend disappear, rolling off the bed and pulling the covers with them.

‘What was that thump?’ thinks the Cook, looking up. Never mind. He checks his watch; he doesn’t have much time. He takes his jacket and hastens out of the ground floor of Breckan, across to the kitchens. The clockwork of the Castle ticks steadily, it pushes years around; the slow hand-centuries.

The Cook hangs up his jacket and begins to prepare a fulsome feast for Cyan Lightning. His kitchens are shaded by the towering Throne Room. When Cyan is made immortal, the Eszai will convene inside, where for ever and ever, the Emperor San is sitting on his throne.

Lightning, his shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbow, was pushing a flat-bottomed boat over the grass towards a slipway and landing stage jutting out into the lake. He saw me coming towards him, straightened up and wiped his hands. ‘Good morning, Jant. Will you give me a hand with this punt?’

We pushed the boat to the top of the slipway, settling it onto the metal rollers. ‘What are you doing?’

He slid a punt pole out from under its benches. ‘I’m going to the island. To see Martyn, you know. I am going to visit her one last time and explain what has happened. I will say goodbye to her and take my leave. I do not think I will need to visit her again.’ He smiled sadly.

‘I must go back to the Castle, for the ceremony,’ I said.

‘Of course. In two days’ time, when I feel the Circle drop me, I think it will be a fraught moment…I will need to be alone.’

‘Be careful of Eleonora. She…well, she…’

He raised an eyebrow.

‘I think she…you, er…she said…’

‘I can handle her. She gave me cause for hope, when Swallow had not. I’d like to pretend I never noticed her while I was engaged to Swallow but time is now too precious for me to hide from myself.’

Could he really be capable of leaving his palace to chance and future generations whether his offspring or not? I raised a hand to it. ‘Imagine that ruined, all the treasures gone, the roof falling in. How can you tell they won’t squander it?’

‘I think Cyan will look after it. But if not…Look, Jant; who knows what changes she’ll make and what innovations subsequent Lightnings will come up with? Who knows what the discipline of archery will turn into? To think, your Vermiform even laughed at our weapons.’

I understood, though it frightened me. A future without the constraints of Lightning’s authority will be uncertain, but it would be more free.

‘I’m free to change, too.’ His eyes sparkled. ‘I have to adapt, and come to terms with these different times. I’m looking forward to the coming of the modern world.’

I pleaded, ‘You could return to the Circle. If not as Archer, as Swordsman. Wrenn’s been maimed and you’re officially the second-best.’

‘But I don’t feel like Challenging my friend. I no longer feel the lure of the Castle. Isn’t it fabulous!’