Stan Nicholls: The Diamond Isle

She took Kutch’s hand, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Phoenix gestured for Reeth and Serrah to follow him out, and they left quietly. In the corridor, Phoenix drew them aside and said, ‘I’m sorry, Reeth. I realise he’s close to you and it must be distressing. The gods know we’ve seen enough loss in recent days.’

‘These are distressing times, Phoenix. And yes, he’s important. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.’

‘He’s going to die soon,’ the sorcerer announced bluntly.

‘That was obvious.’

‘Come on, Reeth, you must see the implications for you in all this.’

‘What are you getting at?’ Serrah demanded.

‘The magic. There’s been some unprecedented malfunction, or worse. I can feel it ebbing away. Kutch and Wendah feel it, and Praltor certainly did, as you just heard. And it’s what killed the meld.’

‘Go on,’ the Qalochian prompted.

‘You and I and Praltor are all in the same boat, Reeth. Or similar. Founder magic’s kept us going longer than we should. Now the debt’s being repaid. Does any of this strike a chord with you?’

‘I…don’t know.’

‘You said you felt drained, Reeth,’ Serrah reminded him.

‘My stamina’s low, it’s true.’

‘Look at the back of your hands,’ Phoenix suggested.

Caldason did. There were brown splotches there he hadn’t noticed before. Liver spots.

‘Like Praltor, I’m reconciled to my end,’ Phoenix continued. ‘I see my life as fulfilled, and I have my certainties about what’s to come. How about you, my friend?’

Reeth stared at him.

Then sounds of uproar drifted in from outside. Scores of alarm bells began ringing.

‘Here they come,’ Serrah whispered.

They broke away from Phoenix and ran.

They joined the hundreds making for the walls. On the battlements, they found Karr with Goyter, watching the advance. The plain was black with advancing troops.

‘So the last chapter is finally written,’ Karr said.

But the great army slowed, and stopped. Just two men continued walking towards the fortress, one of them waving a white flag.

‘Must we parley with them?’ Goyter asked.

‘That’s a flag of truce,’ Karr reminded her. ‘We must honour it. I’m going out.’

‘Are you sure, Dulian?’

‘It’s my place to. Reeth, would you come with me and carry our flag?’

‘I’d be honoured.’

Somebody donated a shirt and a makeshift flag was quickly constructed. The gates were opened a crack and Karr and Reeth left the redoubt.

As they walked towards the little delegation, and the countless, silent thousands beyond them, Karr said, ‘What if their terms are too harsh? Do we refuse them and fight on?’

‘You have to be the judge of that. For my part, I’d want nothing to do with any surrender that involved retribution against our people.’

‘Neither would I.’

They reached the two men. Both wore uniforms, one of Rintarah, the other Gath Tampoor. The latter asked of Karr, ‘You’re in charge here?’

‘Insomuch as we have a single leader, yes.’

‘We’re the two highest ranking surviving officers of our respective forces,’ the Rintarahian explained. ‘We’ve come to discuss terms of surrender.’

‘I must make it clear that we won’t be party to any capitulation that involves reprisal killings or draconian punishments.’

‘We’re glad to hear it,’ the Rintarahian replied. ‘We had our fears that you might exact an even higher price than you already have.’

‘How could we when we’ll be your prisoners?’

‘ Our prisoners? I think we’re talking at cross purposes. We’re here to agree the surrender.’

‘So you said.’

‘Our surrender,’ the Gath Tampoorian informed him.

Karr was too astonished to speak.

Caldason said, ‘Let’s get this straight. You are surrendering to us?’

‘Of course. You must know things are in chaos on our side. And we had some rulers with us. When we saw what happened to them…well, frankly most of us haven’t the heart to carry on.’

‘Tell me,’ the other man added, ‘how did you do it? How did you kill the magic?’

‘We didn’t,’ Caldason admitted. ‘But I think I know who did.’

It was probably unprecedented in war that a surrendering army, many times larger than their captors, had volunteered to regulate their own captivity. However, as the islanders had neither manpower nor resources to police their prisoners, that’s exactly what happened.

That evening, the fleet Caldason had seen arrived, and the Diamond Isle hosted the biggest collection of ships in history. And by now, no one was in any doubt as to who was about to pay a visit.

The warlord didn’t demand that anyone come to pay homage to him. He travelled to meet the rebels. Not in a victory procession with marching soldiers and drummers, but modestly, in a simple open carriage, accompanied only by two aides, one of whom drove.

Everyone was struck by his extraordinary ordinariness of appearance, underlined by a lack of any finery or ostentation in his dress. They were at least as impressed by the indefinable quality of his presence.

When he entered the redoubt’s inner square he was met by a delegation led by Karr. But it was Disgleirio who spoke first.

‘Do we bow?’ he asked, an edge of defiance in his voice.

‘No,’ Zerreiss told him. ‘No more bowing, or any retribution. I’m not conquering you.’ The warlord looked about as he said this. His eyes rested on Caldason. ‘I thought you were like me,’ he said.

‘I am,’ said Caldason, eyeing him coolly.

‘I meant in respect of my talent.’

‘I meant in our antipathy for magic.’

‘Yet magic linked us in our dreams.’

‘I believe that’s because our relationships to it, though different, are equally strong.’

‘There’s some sense in that.’

‘So you made all this happen?’ Caldason indicated the scene with a sweep of his hand.

‘Yes, and more.’

‘Are you a god?’ Wendah piped up.

Zerreiss laughed, and at his back his aides smiled. ‘So many people make that assumption. No, young lady, I’m not a god.’

‘What are you?’

‘I’m a man.’

‘How do you do what you do?’ Serrah said.

‘How is a question I can’t answer categorically, I can only speculate. I was born with a very simple talent, but I tend not to think of myself as an aberration, but rather as a little ahead of my time.’

Phoenix pushed forward. ‘Will you explain that?’

The warlord noted Phoenix’s robes. ‘Ah, a sorcerer. I’ve had occasion to be at odds with your calling in the past. Today I can only offer my regrets at the termination of your profession.’

‘I was just getting the hang of it,’ Kutch complained.

‘It was getting the hang of you, young man. Hopefully you’ll come to see that. To answer the questions; I believe I’m an example of what’s to come. Look about the world. Nature selects the lifeforms best equipped to survive and thrive. It favours the most adaptable, and what the race of man needs now is the adaptability to shake off the stifling hand of magic. We need to breathe free air, think free thoughts and guide our lives with rationality.’

‘You say you’ve always had this power?’ Karr said.

‘From birth, and despite there being nothing out of the ordinary in my parents. I found out early that I could affect magic, but the talent was a feeble thing when I was a child. It grew as I did. I learned to control the ability to some extent, and to extend its influence more and more. So that now it takes just my approach, if I will it, to negate the magic. I never chose this path. A religious man might say I was supposed to be a catalyst and had no choice. I tend to a more rational view, as you might expect, but at root I don’t really know. What I do know is that if I’m the first, it’s the first of many. The majority. All, in time.’