Stephen Deas - Warlock's shadow

Berren lowered his waster. ‘You’ll have to catch me first!’ He dropped it and bolted across the yard, dodging around Tasahre and heading for the dome.

‘Berren!’ It took her a moment before she was after him, swift as the wind. He ignored her, pelting past the closing doors of the dome and round to the back where the bulk of the temple joined it, the dormitories and the teaching cloisters and the kitchens and the priests’ tower. He sprinted for the kitchen, up onto the roof of a low drying shed and then shimmied to the top of the teaching cloister. He smiled. Tasahre was right behind him. Somewhere under his racing feet, Sterm was teaching a class full of novices. Telling them all about some saint who simply didn’t matter any more, most likely.

‘Berren!’ Tasahre called him again. ‘Stop! You cannot!’

Oh yes I can! His smile spread through him, making him run even faster. He vaulted a chimney block and then hurled himself at the high roof of the dormitory, gripping the edge with his hands and swinging his legs up onto the tiles a whisker of a second before Tasahre could reach him. He paused for a moment and looked down at her. ‘Admit it — you can’t catch me!’

She jumped, a standing jump, high enough to reach the edge of the roof with her hands while the rest of her followed in one fluid movement. Berren dashed across the top of the sloping roof towards the dome. There was a walkway that ran around it, an easy climb from the dormitory. He vaulted up and ran to the little door that led into the inside, to a catwalk that ran high around the dome above the altar. No one ever guarded the temple rooftop.

At the door he skidded to a stop.

‘Berren! Don’t!’ But she wasn’t close enough to stop him. He opened the door and slipped inside, creeping now. Below him, the centre of the temple dome was filled with people, forty or fifty of them. The cart was empty now. There were soldiers, the Emperor’s men in their pale silver, carrying Velgian to the altar of the sun. Berren moved quickly and silently away from the door and then crouched to watch. There were shadows up here. If he was still, no one would see him, even if they thought to look up. He just had to be quiet, that was all.

‘Berren!’ Tasahre came through the door. She hissed at him but she didn’t shout; instead, she came quietly to crouch beside him and grabbed his arm, tugging him. ‘Come! You cannot be here! It is forbidden!’

‘Why?’

‘They will expel you! I cannot be here!’

‘Then go away!’ Berren jerked his arm away from her.

‘Berren!’ She was getting angry. He’d never seen that, not once in all the time he’d been with her. She grabbed his arm again.

‘Get off!’ Below, the soldiers had Velgian on the altar now. They stepped back, leaving space around the dead thief-taker. The Overlord in his golden robe was standing beside an old man in sunshine yellow, the Sunherald of Deephaven himself. The Emperor’s soldiers and the temple guardsmen eyed each other with twitching suspicion. But it wasn’t the Sunherald who stepped towards the body, it was a woman, dressed in the same brilliant yellow robes as the Sunherald.

‘Who’s that?’ asked Berren.

‘The Sunbright,’ whispered Tasahre. Her grip on him eased.

‘What, Ansinnas?’

‘Yes.’ She let go of him. It seemed odd to Berren that with so many of the Emperor’s soldiers in the temple, the priests hadn’t called in their sword-monks. But they hadn’t. Apart from Tasahre, he couldn’t see a single one.

‘Is that usual?’

‘I wouldn’t know. I have never seen such a thing as this.’

‘When the warlock made the Headsman talk, he said she was the one he’d met with.’

Tasahre hissed. ‘And you would believe the spirit of a dead murderer, conjured by a warlock?’

Berren didn’t say anything. He could feel her unease, though. She wasn’t sure. There was doubt in her, just a crack of it, but enough to make her stay. ‘This is all a farce!’ she growled.

The Sunbright bent over Velgian. Light flowed from her hands, bathing him.

‘What’s she doing?’

‘Berren! I do not know!’ He’d never seen Tasahre so tense before.

The Sunbright stepped away from the body. The light faded from her fingers.

‘I have spoken to the spirit of the murderer,’ she said, loud and clear enough for everyone in the dome to hear. ‘He could not stand the decadence and the arrogance he saw. It was his decision to try and to kill Prince Sharda Falandawn. His alone.’

A rumble of discontent swept the men below. The overlord was shaking his head and looking at Kol. The justicar was shaking his head too, harder, almost trembling with anger. The Sunherald was smiling.

‘It’s not true!’ shouted Kol. ‘He wouldn’t! I know him — knew him. Someone paid him!’

‘He acted alone,’ said the Sunbright again.

Berren hissed. ‘It’s not fair! She’s lying! She must be! He told me there was a purse full of emperors …’ He looked at Tasahre, but the sword-monk had gone white. She was staring down at the Sunbright and at Velgian’s body. In the corner of her eye, a tear crept loose and began to roll down her cheek. She touched a finger to her nose.

The Overlord and the Sunherald were glaring at each other, exchanging quiet heated words. The soldiers around them stirred uneasily. Hands slipped to sword-hilts.

Tasahre stood up, very slowly. She moved to the edge of the catwalk and leaned over, where anyone who looked couldn’t fail to see her. Kol was pushing his way towards the Sunbright, his face bright with fury. Temple soldiers moved to be in his way and grabbed at him. Kol went for his sword. Around them, the Emperor’s men began to move. Another sword came out of its sheath.

Tasahre drew a blade from across her back and pointed it down at the temple altar. ‘Liar!’ she screamed, and the whole of the dome seemed to ring with her voice. Below, everyone froze. They all looked up. ‘Sunbright Ansinnas! Your words carry the stink of falsehood!’ And then she jumped, right over the edge of the catwalk. It must have been at least thirty feet to the floor, and the whole temple shook as she hit it. Berren rushed to the edge, because surely no one could fall so far without breaking a bone at the very least — Velgian’s fall from the roof had been less and that had killed him! But Tasahre was already up, striding towards the middle of the temple, both swords out now, one held straight out in front of her, aimed right at the Sunbright’s face.

‘Traitor! Assassin!’ shouted the Sunbright. ‘Stop her!’

No one moved. They all seemed paralysed. The soldiers who stood in Tasahre’s way, the temple guard and the Emperor’s men alike, backed out of her path. She stopped in front of the Sunbright. The tip of her sword hovered between Ansinnas’ eyes. ‘Liar,’ she said again.

‘I speak as the spirit told me,’ said the Sunbright. Her voice was shaking, but maybe that was just because she had a sword in her face.

Tasahre sniffed the air. ‘Liar,’ she said again. ‘You did not speak to the spirit of this man at all. Every word you spoke, every single one, was false. You knew, before you even began, that this man did not act alone. How did you know that, Sunbright? The truth, Sunbright!’

Ansinnas started looking for a way out. Berren couldn’t see her eyes, but he could see the twitching of her head.

‘Did you pay for foreign soldiers to come to Deephaven? Did you?’

‘No!’ The Sunbright was quivering.

‘ Liar! ’

The Overlord’s face had transformed. He’d gone from anger to the look of a cat who, quite unexpectedly, had cornered a mouse. He nodded towards the nearest of his soldiers. They moved towards the Sunbright.