Peter Brett - The Core

‘And how do you know this story, Par’chin?’ Jardir asked. ‘How do you, an infidel, know more of Kaji than his sacred order of scholars?’

‘The dama are political creatures,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Corrupt. Said it yourself. That’s why you cast the Andrah from his throne. The Evejah bends to suit their will, selectively enforced. The real version is painted on the walls of Anoch Sun. Or was, till your diggers knocked most of them down.’

Jardir crossed his arms. ‘So we should put our faith in the Father of Lies, instead?’

The Par’chin laughed. ‘Don’t trust that demon farther than the reach of our spears. But I had a look in the head of the mind demon it sent to kill me. With both sides of the story, it’s easier to tell fact from fiction.’

‘So what truly transpired, three thousand years ago?’ Jardir asked. ‘What great secret have the dama hidden?’

‘That Kaji failed,’ the Par’chin said. ‘Din’t make it all the way. Din’t get to the queen. We wouldn’t be in this fix if he had.’

‘He gave us millennia of peace,’ Jardir said. ‘And it was only when we forgot his teachings that the alagai returned. Did Kaji fail us, or did we fail him?’

The Par’chin rubbed his face in frustration. ‘What does it matter? Creator or no, a hatching is coming up. We either let it happen and lead our armies against hives popping up all over our lands, or we try to stop it and maybe, just maybe, accomplish what Kaji never could.’

Jardir scowled. ‘You think we can control Alagai Ka?’

The Par’chin shrugged. ‘Gonna need to talk to it again.’

‘How?’ Jardir asked. ‘With its flesh warded, Alagai Ka cannot touch Shanjat’s mind, and without him it cannot speak.’

‘Wards keep it from striking at a distance,’ the Par’chin said, ‘but it can still enter an unwarded mind if it makes physical contact.’

‘So you wish to deliver my kai to Alagai Ka’s talons once more,’ Jardir said. ‘To make him a puppet to spread the prince of demons’ lies. A weapon to use against us.’

‘What choice we got?’ the Par’chin asked.

Jardir had no answer.

Renna held Shanvah’s face with her left hand as she worked. The knife was steady in her right, cutting flesh away from the girl’s forehead in ribbons, ensuring a keloid scar that would Draw and hold a charge.

She let magic flow through both hands, activating the cutting wards on the already razor-sharp blade, and speeding the healing. Scabs formed in seconds in the blade’s wake.

Shanvah did not flinch at the cuts, but there was fear in her aura.

‘Nothing to worry over,’ Renna said. ‘Know what I’m doing. Still be pretty when I’m done.’

‘The scars of alagai’sharak are an honour to carry,’ Shanvah said.

‘Then what’s got you tenser than a pig at the chopping block?’ Renna asked.

Shanvah’s eyes flicked to the stairs. ‘They’ve gone quiet.’

Renna paused in her work, realizing for the first time that the shouting from above had stopped. In her concentration she hadn’t noticed.

‘I thought nothing could be worse than the sound of my uncle and the Par’chin shouting,’ Shanvah said.

‘But ’least we knew they wern’t choking each other,’ Renna agreed. ‘Gotta hold faith they were gonna do that, they’da done it months ago.’

‘Our faith is tested daily, with Sharak Ka approaching.’ Shanvah relaxed, aura cooling with acceptance.

‘There,’ Renna said, making the last cut. She looked at the ward this way and that, paring away a last bit of flesh before she set the knife aside.

‘How does it—’ Shanvah began, but her words were cut off with a gasp, her eyes widening. Renna turned to see Arlen and Jardir descending the stairs.

‘What are you doing?’ Jardir demanded.

Shanvah scissored her legs for momentum, rolling off her back into a kneeling position facing Jardir. She put her hands on the floor and pressed her face between them, the scabs on her forehead touching the wood. ‘Mercy, Deliverer! The daughter of Harl wards me at my request.’

Jardir reached down, putting a finger under the girl’s chin to tilt her face upward. ‘Your mother used to brag of your beauty, and the ease with which she could find you a husband.’

‘No doubt a husband for the Deliverer’s niece would be easy enough to find, beauty or no,’ Shanvah said. ‘But there will be no husbands in the abyss. No beauty. There will only be alagai , and sharak. ’

Jardir nodded. ‘You are as wise as you are brave, niece. Your honour is boundless.’

Shanvah gave no outward sign, but her aura lit with pride at the words. ‘May I ward my father next?’

Jardir shook his head. ‘I fear we will need him again. We have more questions for the Prince of Lies.’

The pure gold that had been Shanvah’s aura again became a swirling mix of colours – anger, frustration, humiliation. They all saw it, but she kept her composure, flicking her gaze back down.

‘Speak,’ Jardir commanded. ‘I can see the question in your heart, and we cannot afford to let it fester.’

‘Is my father’s shame not great enough,’ Shanvah asked, ‘left trapped in a body without will? Must we permit Alagai Ka to violate him further? My father’s honour was boundless. I beg you, if he cannot be healed, let me send him on the lonely path.’

‘Not all warriors get the fortune of a quick death on alagai talons, niece,’ Jardir said. ‘Heroes beyond count, great men like Drillmaster Qeran, who trained your father, have lived on with injuries they believed would forever put them from alagai’sharak. We must honour these men no less for their service to Everam than those that walk the lonely path.’

Shanvah shifted. ‘By your own words, Deliverer, those crippled in battle are put from alagai’sharak. You send my crippled father back into battle.’

‘It is not without precedent,’ Jardir said. ‘Countless crippled warriors have volunteered as Baiters in the Maze, dying in glory as they led the demons to their doom.’

‘Of course your words are true, Deliverer,’ Shanvah pressed, ‘but my father has no will to volunteer. I cannot believe he would have wanted this … abomination.’

Renna saw growing frustration in Jardir’s aura. He was not used to being questioned by any of his people, especially one who had barely seen eighteen summers. But he breathed, and his aura cleansed again. Arlen had tried to teach Renna the trick, but it never worked for her.

‘You do your family honour, Shanvah vah Shanjat,’ Jardir said. ‘But I knew your father better than you. We fought in the nie’Sharum food lines and bled together in the Maze. Such was his honour and loyalty that I gave him my own sister, your honoured mother, as his First Wife.’

He gestured with the Spear of Kaji, always in his hand, and the weight of it washed over Shanvah’s aura. ‘I tell you here with Everam my witness, if I told Shanjat asu Cavel am’Damaj am’Kaji that to win Sharak Ka I needed him to be the voice of evil, he would not refuse me.’

Shanvah put her face back to the floor, weeping openly. ‘Of course the Shar’Dama Ka is correct. My father’s honour was boundless, and I shame him with my doubts. I will not question you again, Deliverer, and should you require any sacrifice of me, know that my spirit will always be willing to serve you in Sharak Ka.’

‘I never doubted it, niece,’ Jardir said.

‘It may be that Alagai Ka sends my father against you, as he did last night,’ Shanvah said. ‘I beg your permission to stand guard when the Prince of Waning touches him. If my father must be put down, it should be I who does it.’