Ricardo Pinto - The Third God

‘Master…’ said Morunasa to get Osidian’s attention. ‘You know what we’ve suffered pursuing your ends. We’ve been so close to failure that, in spite of the proofs of favour our Lord has shown you, we’re close to abandoning you and returning to the Lower Reach to salvage what we can from its ruin. I share your faith, my Master, but I dare not hazard my people’s last chance of survival on anything less than certainty.

‘Will you swear as you have done for these -’ Morunasa indicated the Lepers with a stab of his chin – ‘that once you come into your own you’ll provide us with the means to bind bronze rings to the Upper Reach from which new ladders may be hung?’

Carnelian stared at the Oracle, wondering at his forbearance that he should be prepared to wait until they had conquered Osrakum. Why was he putting faith in such an unlikely outcome? Osidian too was surveying Morunasa with frowning suspicion, but nevertheless he swore the oath and the Oracle pronounced himself satisfied.

Carnelian had his own request to make, one that he wished all those present to witness. He addressed his comments to the Lepers. ‘The wounded Plainsman we’ve brought here can go no further in his condition. I judge he and the other two of his kind are of no further use to us. However, they’ve served us well enough and I’d like to leave them where they might have a decent life. Would you make a place for them among yourselves?’

Carnelian kept his attention fixed on the Lepers, though really his speech was meant as much for Osidian as it was for them.

Lily spoke for the Lepers. ‘Outcasts have always found refuge in our valleys.’

Carnelian nodded his thanks, then turned to Osidian. Their eyes met. Osidian seemed puzzled, but also pleased as he raised his hand to add his gesture of assent.

As Carnelian made his way back through the cavern, he prepared himself for the coming confrontation with Poppy. This time she would have no choice. He drew what thin comfort he could from having found his friends some kind of refuge. As for his own pain at the separation, that would have to wait for when he had the luxury to indulge it.

He reached the place where Fern was lying. Krow was there, resting against a stalagmite. Poppy was nowhere to be seen. The youth looked up at him. It must have been the expression on Carnelian’s face that made him jump up. ‘Carnie?’

Carnelian saw the youth’s alarm, but could only manage a slight smile of reassurance. ‘We’re going east from here following a route to the Guarded Land.’

‘And we’re staying behind,’ said Krow.

Carnelian nodded. He looked down at Fern. ‘He certainly can’t come with us.’

‘And Poppy?’

Carnelian raised his head and saw how sick Krow looked. ‘Where I’m going there’s no place for her. You must see that’s true.’

Krow nodded.

‘And you must stay with her. I sense that that’s what your heart wants too.’

Krow looked very young, his face expressing his feelings even as he strove to hide them.

‘I’ve found a place for you among these people. They’re not so different from Plainsmen. They’re clean. Their leprosy is mostly a disguise they wear to protect themselves from others.’

Carnelian was not sure Krow was taking all of this in. He wanted to do what he could to give the youth back his pride. ‘You know I love her too. I’m not allowing myself to feel how much it’ll hurt me never to see her again, but it’ll lessen my pain to know that you’ll be here to take care of her.’

Krow surfaced from his confusion to gaze at Carnelian, checking to make sure he meant it. Then his face crumpled, close to tears. ‘She’ll never forgive me,’ he whispered. ‘Never.’

Carnelian moved to him and took his face in both his hands so that Krow was forced to look him in the eyes. ‘That’s not true, Krow. She’s loyal to the memory of the Ochre, but growing in her heart is the knowledge that, whatever part you played, you did so unwillingly.’

Krow was looking at him through tears. He began mumbling, but Carnelian hushed him. He let go of him and stood back. ‘I don’t need to know anything. I don’t want to. I have my own guilt to atone for.’

He looked down at Fern. ‘Even he’ll forgive you in time.’

Carnelian felt suddenly weary. The pain was beginning to leak through his control and there was still worse to go. ‘Tell me where she went, Krow.’

‘She wandered off towards the cave entrance.’

With a heart that seemed crumbling stone Carnelian went to find her.

Light from the fires did not reach the entrance and so Carnelian had to feel his way. The rock was cold under his hands, smooth as bone, but wet. The floor was ridged and whorled, so that he almost felt as if he were creeping across some vast Plainsman Ancestor House. Curves and surfaces became visible ahead, gradually, as if rising from the bottom of the sea. Then he saw a luminous aura whose stone-toothed edge made him realize it was the entrance. It grew brighter with each step. Reaching the opening he could feel the moth-wing touch of the night air upon his face. Stars were the source of all the light. Dark walls funnelled into the Pass. Down on its floor he spotted the tiny jewel. A phosphorescent mote in the deep: Aurum’s camp.

‘You’re leaving us behind.’

Carnelian jumped. ‘By the horns.’

He searched for Poppy and saw her face against the rock as if it had been carved there.

‘Where we’re going, even I might not survive. If I do I’ll be returning to the Mountain.’ Carnelian thought of making some vague promise that, once there, he would send agents to seek her out and bring her to him, but that was a commitment so threadbare it was indistinguishable from a lie. He wanted her to say something, anything. Silence was unbearable. ‘You know I’d stay if I could, but if I’ve learned nothing else I’ve learned there’s no place for any of the Standing Dead out here.’

A silence fell in which he could hear the beating of his heart.

‘Aren’t you going to tell me, Carnie, that I need to stay here to look after Fern?’

The coldness in her voice chilled him. Almost he told her all about Lily so that Poppy might understand the Lepers were not monsters. Almost he spun for her a vision of what her life might become. Almost, but the silence had grown so deep he knew his words would drown. So instead he sat down to watch the night with her.

They watched until a full moon appeared above the black wall of the Guarded Land. So cold and bright its stare, it was easy to believe it was blinding them.

Carnelian was shaken awake by a shadow looming over him. ‘We’re leaving.’