Tom Lloyd - The Twilight herald

'It's all over now, you're safe,' Ilumene was saying soothingly. Jackdaw almost convulsed in surprise, at the man's tone as much as anything. Ilumene sounded as kind and reassuring as the monks in Vellern's monastery – until now he'd never known the man from Narkang to be even civil to anyone but the minstrel. He wanted to warn the woman to not be such a fool, to scream at her to run, not to trust whatever poisonous schemes Ilumene had in mind, but instead he looked down and said nothing, paralysed by his own cowardice. All he could do was bite his lip and hate himself a fraction more, if that were even possible.

'What happened here?' she murmured through cracked lips. She looked startled, blinking against the light and wary of the ruined Land she'd awakened to. Jackdaw saw incomprehension in her eyes and realised she didn't even know where she was.

'War, and the cruelty of Gods,' Venn answered distantly, not even bothering to look at her. The woman shrank towards Ilumene when she heard the coldness in Venn's voice and he immediately put a com¬forting arm around her shoulders. She leaned gratefully into his body, bigger even than hers, not noticing the bloody lattice that covered the back of his hand.

'What happened here is nothing for you to worry about,' Ilumene repeated. 'It's all over now. A new dawn has come.'

'Who are you.'' she whispered. 'How did you find me?'

'All that matters is that you're safe now,' he said, stroking her hair.

The woman's face twisted. Jackdaw realised she was trying to smile at her rescuer. Breath of Vellern, she's forgotten how to smile.

'Can you tell me your name?'

The woman thought for a moment then blanched and shook her head.

'You've forgotten it?' Ilumene asked, adding comfortingly, 'That's of no matter. We'll find you a new name; the most beautiful name there is.' Ilumene sounded so benevolent Jackdaw could scarcely believe this was the same man who'd awakened him just before dawn by punching him in the face. He probed a tooth with his tongue; yes, it was still broken; it hadn't been a dream.

'Are you going to take me with you?' she asked uncertainly. It was strange to see such vulnerability from someone who looked as if she was a mercenary, but if she could not remember her own name, she doubtless had no memory of her years of fighting too. It looked to Jackdaw like Ilumene's brutal appearance was causing her to hesitate – as it damn well should; run, you fool, run from him! – but there was a hopeful innocence to her weathered and battered face. He could see she was desperate to believe any promise of protection against this blasted world in which she found herself.

'Of course we are,' Ilumene replied, and then gestured towards the object she was still clutching to her stomach. 'Come now, you have had a terrible time and you will be weak for a while yet. Would it not be easier if my friend carried your burden?'

The former Harlequin hadn't moved towards her, but he was watch¬ing her with rapacious intent.

She pulled the book closer to her chest and shook her head. The movement created a faint cloud of dust and Jackdaw realised her hair was not actually grey, just covered in ash. 'It is mine,' she whispered hoarsely.

As you wish,' Ilumene said gently, 'but can you tell me what it is? So I know best how to help?'

'I-' The woman looked up at him for a moment then hunched protectively over the book. The wrapping had slipped a little, bul still Jackdaw couldn't make out the words on it. He thought it looked unremarkable, just a plain leatherbound work like the dozens in the monastery library. 'It's my treasure,' the woman said finally.

'Treasure and ashes,' Venn said suddenly.

She looked up fearfully as Ilumene chuckled beside her and brushed her sleeve, raising another cloud of dust. She coughed and spluttered, but never let go of the book.

The phrase banged around the inside of Jackdaw's head; had he heard it before? It sounded like the sort of hateful pronouncements Rojak had come out with from time to time; was this all still part of the minstrel's final plan?

'They were burned,' she replied, holding out her fist. Jackdaw saw she was gripping a piece of scorched paper in it and he frowned: the cellar hadn't been touched by fire, so why had a book been burned? 'All burned except this one,' she went on, 'all but my treasure.'

Jackdaw's stomach tightened into a knot. Abbot Doren had fled with the monastery's books, as well as the Crystal Skull entrusted to their care. It looked as if the senile old bastard had tried to burn the books, as if they had been part of what they were after when the Skull of Ruling sat in his possession. He stopped. Had they?

Ilumene nodded as the woman opened her hand and let the remains inside flutter down to join the other ash at her feet. He cocked his head sideways so he could see the book's cover and made a small sound of approval.

Jackdaw couldn't stop himself this time. 'This was all about a book?' he asked, incredulous. He squinted at the cover himself, and this time made out an embossed symbol, partly obscured by the girl's hand. There was a pair of entwined initials above it, a pair of Vs, maybe, indicating the book had belonged to a nobleman once.

'This is no mere book,' Ilumene said, answering the question, much to Jackdaw's amazement. 'This contains the writings of a madman.'

'I betrayed my God for a book?' he asked in a daze.

'Indeed,' Ilumene said with satisfaction, taking the lady's hand and starting to lead her away from the cellar steps, 'a book – or a journal, to be precise: the journal of Vorizh Vukotic'

Now Ilumene was finally talking, Jackdaw was determined to find out as much as he could. 'The vampire? But he's insane.'

'Among other things,' Ilumene conceded, 'but does that not strike you as strange? He is a man cursed with sanity by Death himself, like his siblings, and yet, unlike his siblings, he goes insane. As a mage, tell me, what sort of power could overcome Death's own curse?'

Jackdaw looked blank. 'What power? I know none, bar Death's own.'

'There was a time,' Venn said softly, 'when creator and destroyer walked across the Land hand-in-hand, when they commanded the dust at their feet and the air above.'

'Creator – you mean Life, Death's bride? But she died at the Last Battle, and Aenaris was buried with her. Not even with her sword could the Queen of the Go-' Jackdaw stopped abruptly, a look of horror sweeping across his face. He gaped at Ilumene, who gave him a broad smile in return.

Clutching his hands to his chest, Jackdaw wheezed, 'Death's magic? Death's own weapon? But Termin Mystt was broken during the battle, it was destroyed…'

'Not exactly,' Venn said, nodding towards the book as the woman, her eyes wide, clutched it even tighter. 'Not at all, in fact, but history is written by the victors, who tell what they choose to tell.'

'How can you, of all people, say that?' Jackdaw asked, still shaking. 'You were a Harlequin, a teller of the past – a teller of the truth!'

'Exactly so,' Venn replied, a nasty gleam in his eye, 'and I tell you truthfully: Termin Mystt drove a Yeetatchen maid insane when she touched the hilt during a feast in Lord Death's honour. The Key of Magic is so powerful that it will twist the mind of anyone who touches it – and that was what drove Vorizh Vukotic mad. He stole the sword in desperation, trying to undo the curse on his family.'

'You're hunting Termin Mystt,' Jackdaw said dully, overwhelmed. 'And this book will tell you where he hid it?' A small spark of anger flared inside him and he pointed at the woman holding the book. 'What about her? Are you going to kill her to take the book from her?'

The woman gave a whimper of fear and shrank from Ilumene.

Jackdaw waited, shivering, for Ilumene to smash his fist into the woman's face, but the man from Narkang only laughed.