Blood Storm: The Second Book of Lharmell Page 2

  When Rodden and I reached the top of the spiral staircase, I saw that the place was a mess of papers and books as usual, and only thin rays of sunlight filtered through the arrow slots. Griffin flew from my wrist to perch high up in the rafters. Leap crouched by the rabbit hutch, his tail undulating with curiosity. Inside, brown rabbits hopped about on straw. I felt my pupils dilate at the sight. I would have to feed soon.

  Most of the books were familiar to me now, and I’d spent many hours poring over them as well as Rodden’s maps and other charts. I’d learned, for instance, that bennium, one of the components of yelbar, the metal poisonous to those with Lharmellin blood, could be found deep in the desert of Verapine. I also knew that there wasn’t any bennium at the palace, and Rodden had barely any yelbar.

  I spread a map over the books and general litter on his desk. Near the top was Pergamia, a sausage-shaped country painted in brilliant, lush green, which stretched east to west across the northern part of Brivora, the great continent on which we lived. Far to the south was Amentia, my tiny, landlocked home. The artist had painted mountains and fir trees and intricate snowflakes. Directly north of Pergamia lay the Straits of Unctium, the sea that separated Brivora from Lharmell. Lharmell was a small island, dominated by a ring of tors surrounding a bowl-shaped valley. The Lharmellins’ lair. I had been there: it was an ancient spent volcano, a crater of basalt and black volcanic glass. Just seeing it on a map was enough to tighten the tor-line connected to my body. Much of the island was blackened, dead forest. The dirt and skeletal trees were poisonous to humans. Because we were part-human, the toxins had burned Rodden and me, but the Lharmellin blood in our veins prevented us from being poisoned to death. Humans, on the other hand, would die quickly if they stepped into the forest. I remembered the acid rain, and shuddered.

  ‘Here,’ I said, moving my attention from Lharmell and pointing to Verapine. It was on the continent of Ossiria, an hourglass-shaped landmass west of Brivora, the Osseran Sea in between. It was a large country, made up mostly of desert. The first time I’d looked at the map I’d not been able to believe such a huge, barren expanse existed. ‘Verapine. That’s where Leap’s from, but it’s also the only place in the world where bennium occurs naturally, is that right?’

  Leap looked around at the sound of his name, his tail curling into a question mark.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Would an alchemist have any bennium?’

  Rodden shook his head. ‘No, it doesn’t have a great many uses, so unfortunately no one trades in it.’

  ‘How long would it take to send someone for it?’

  ‘Weeks. Months. It’s funny you should mention bennium, though. It’s been on my mind too.’ He cocked a dark eyebrow at me. ‘I was thinking we could go and get some.’

  I looked again at the map. ‘Wouldn’t that take a lot of time?’

  ‘Yes, but it would be well spent. There are things we could learn while we travelled.’

  I gripped his arm. ‘I’ve been thinking that too. We don’t know how many harmings are out there or what they’re saying to one another. About us. About the Turning we disrupted.’

  ‘Exactly. And there are people we could talk to in the Pergamian cities. The captains of the guard know to look for exsanguination, but they might have left details out of their monthly reports that could be useful to us.’

  We. Us. His words made excitement bubble up inside me. Our journey into Lharmell had shown how well we worked together. And the idea of travel was thrilling. I wouldn’t have to go home, at least for now. It seemed almost shameful to consider an expedition across Pergamia, the Osseran Sea and deep into the desert an adventure when so many people were dying every day and even more lives were at stake, but it was an adventure just the same.

  ‘We could travel by land across Pergamia,’ he said, and his finger ran across the names of cities: Rendine, Ercan, Jefsgord. ‘Then by boat to Verapine. Here’s the capital, Pol.’ He tapped the map. ‘It’s a slum city. Some of the poorest people in the world live there. Brivorans would think it an ugly, dirty place, but it’s not.’ He smiled. ‘It’s quite beautiful when you look past the patched houses and dirty streets. The people are proud, and very talented. They’re happy, too – there’s such a great sense of community. You don’t get that here as much, where most people have plenty.’

  ‘Have you been there?’ I asked.

  ‘You could say that,’ he said, frowning down at the map. ‘The desert sands are used to make a very special kind of glass. That’s another reason we should go ourselves – the glass could prove very useful. And then through the desert for the bennium.’ He looked up, his eyes challenging me. ‘If you think you can handle it. I could always go alone. In fact, I should. It’s hardly right for me to travel with you unchaperoned.’

  I jutted my chin. ‘Nonsense. Who’ll watch your back and keep you from walking into an ambush if Leap and Griffin and I aren’t there?’

  He looked down at the map, a smile tugging at his mouth. If I didn’t know better I would say he was pleased at my insistence. ‘And we will have to go to Amentia.’

  I groaned. ‘Really? Renata will never let me leave. She’ll have me married the instant I step foot in the castle.’

  ‘We don’t have to go to the capital. Remember the mines that were set up after Lilith and Amis’s wedding?’

  I nodded. Ostensibly they were to mine copper and tin, but the vital activity was the mining of yelinate.

  ‘We should inspect progress and collect the yelinate we’ll need. But do you really want your mother to discover you went all the way to Amentia without seeing her?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Rodden rolled up the map. ‘You say you want to retain your humanity. Well, human girls like to visit their mothers. You should be thankful you have a mother.’

  He turned to put the map away and I gave him a sharp look. His mother was dead? I tucked that little bit of information away in a corner of my mind. I was gathering intelligence on him: one day I would be able to piece all the morsels together and he would find that, despite the secrets he kept from me, I would know everything. At the rate I was going it would only take me, say, eight hundred years.

  ‘Fine, fine,’ I muttered. ‘But we’re leaving before she has me walking up the aisle.’

  TWO

  I’d promised Lilith I’d have dinner in the great hall that night as I hadn’t been present in weeks. I didn’t so much avoid court as forget about it. There were so many better things to do, like training or practising control of my thought-patterns, reading in the palace gardens in the long evenings or riding down to the ocean with Rodden to exercise horses on the beach. The climate in Pergamia made me yearn to be outdoors. Growing up in Amentia had meant howling winds, ice and sleet, and numbed fingers clutching a bow-string on gloomy afternoons. The days were short and the cold nights long. Here in Pergamia I spent every chance I could out under the open sky, wearing breeches and letting my long black hair hang as it would down my back. I saw little need to keep up appearances. For our journey to Pergamia, Renata had spent lavishly on silks and velvets, insisting we look our very best in an attempt to fool the king and queen into believing we weren’t as poor as was rumoured. But the Pergamians weren’t interested in our coffers. Once Rodden had discovered we had yelinate in our mountains, a quiet word in the king’s ear had secured the union between my sister Lilith and Prince Amis.

  I pulled on one of the sleeveless silk gowns that were the fashion in Pergamia. I had to admit, the dress was lovely. And functional in its own way, being loose and cool, though I had worn nothing but trousers for weeks and they were infinitely more practical. I belted the dress with some braid, ran a comb through my hair and was done. The only jewellery I wore these days was a single silver ring on my thumb. It was one of a pair. Rodden wore the other on his right hand. Originally he’d stolen it from me so that he could t
rack me on my journey from Amentia to Pergamia. He wore it now so we would always have a way of finding each other if something happened, although in truth the mind-thread between us seemed more than sufficient. Testing it gently, I could feel him now in his turret room, poring over his books. I tried to ignore the thread most of the time, as drawing his attention to it seemed to annoy him. But it was always a comfort to feel it there, humming away.

  I could hear voices emanating from the great hall as I padded down the corridor on sandalled feet. Pergamians love to entertain and throw parties. The court was full the year round, and below the dais, trestles were set up to accommodate the hundreds of nobles who visited. Daughters were debuted and alliances were forged, all under the high ceiling of this hall.

  Dusk had fallen and the candles were lit in the chandeliers. The air was thick with humidity and cast a soporific pall over the guests. Girls lounged, chins in their palms, picking at plates of fruit and conducting conversations with lowered lashes. Men flashed rakish smiles and strong white teeth, banging tankards of ale together and roaring with laughter.

  Being sister to the future queen, I sat at the high table. As the king’s right-hand man, Rodden would sit at the high table, too, if he was there. But he avoided these occasions even more than I did. Queen Ulah sat on her throne, fanning herself and sipping cordials. King Askar was drinking with some heavily armoured men at a lower table, protocol relaxed for the sake of the heat. I sat beside Carmelina, Amis’s sister. She was an engaging, cheerful blonde thing, and I found that whenever I was with her she could draw me out of the deepest reverie.

  ‘Don’t look now,’ she murmured, the moment I sat down, ‘but Prince Folsum is looking right at you.’

  I felt a prickle of unease. My attention drawn to the prince twice in one day: I didn’t like it.

  ‘Rubbish, he’s looking at you,’ I murmured. Taking a sip from my water glass I looked surreptitiously around. There he was, seated below at a trestle, staring up at me from beneath thick brown brows. The young prince smirked and raised his goblet to me. I hastily put mine down and looked away, but not before I’d caught the baleful stares of a handful of barons’ daughters.

  Carmelina had noticed, too. ‘Don’t worry about those harpies,’ she muttered. ‘They’re just jealous.’

  ‘Of what? I’ve been here all of a moment.’ I helped myself to a dish of yoghurt and wild honey.

  ‘They’ve seen you riding with Rodden.’

  ‘So?’ I took a mouthful of yoghurt. It was so thick and rich it was like eating cream.

  ‘So, they’ve got a crush on him. Haven’t you noticed that the spoiled daughters of stuffy barons and earls always do? They’re so used to limp-wristed, slope-shouldered inbreeds that they’re dying for someone halfway rugged to run away with. It would so annoy Daddy.’

  I thought of the way Rodden’s shoulders looked clad in his shirt as he grappled with the reins of his horse; his large brown hands that could draw the stiffest bow. The delicate silver band he wore only made them seem stronger and more capable. I felt heat rise in my cheeks and squashed the thoughts down. What if he heard?

  To distract myself I sneaked another look at Prince Folsum. He was as tall as Rodden, but where Rodden was lithe, this man was uncomfortably muscular. His hands were like sides of bacon. Some would call him handsome, but his face was too broad and fleshy for my liking and there was something not right about his flinty grey eyes and the set of his mouth. He was listening to the discussion going on at the table but I could swear that it was only a superficial interest. His mind was elsewhere, and by the expression in his eyes I suspected it was a murky, unpleasant place.

  I shifted my attention back to Carmelina. ‘You can tell all this from seeing them glare at me once?’

  ‘It’s obvious. You should see the husbands they really end up with. Quite tragic. It would make me want to run off with the hired help.’

  I felt a flash of annoyance at her snobbish tone. Rodden was doing far more for this country than she ever would, no matter how well she married. ‘Do you think me tragic, too?’

  She coloured. ‘No! I didn’t mean you were anything like them, Zeraphina. If you and Rodden –’

  ‘Me and Rodden nothing. I’m marrying a limp-wristed inbreed and I can’t wait.’

  There was a pointed cough from Carmelina’s other side. ‘Nice of you to join us,’ said Lilith, leaning forward. She wore a shimmering gown shot with gold thread, and was dripping with diamonds. She would be queen one day, and a beautiful one at that.

  Renata had never told her that I was a harming, and I didn’t intend to either. For some reason the thought of her knowing what I was vexed me greatly. I recalled the looks she would give Leap and Griffin whenever they crossed her path, one of wrinkle-nosed disgust. What if she gave me that look?

  ‘Mother sends her love and encourages you to have a son,’ I told Lilith.

  Her green eyes flashed. ‘You had a letter too? I do wish she’d stop harping on about it. I’ll have children in my own time.’

  I looked down my nose and affected Renata’s imperious tone. ‘Do try, darling. It would be quite charming if you could oblige me.’

  Lilith laughed. ‘Shall we visit the markets next week? I need some cooler fabrics or I’ll just expire in this heat. Do you suppose I’ll ever get used to it?’

  I played with the yoghurt in my dish. ‘Well –’

  ‘Actually, I’m taking Zeraphina on a little trip.’

  I looked up, startled, as Rodden slid into the empty chair beside me. He’d changed from his grubby training gear into a crisp white shirt. He smiled at Lilith. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  A liquid look came into Lilith’s eyes. I’d seen it happen to other women when he flashed one of his rare smiles. Then she frowned. ‘I’m not sure that’s very proper,’ she said, fingering the diamonds at her throat. ‘Where are you going on this trip?’

  I hesitated, glancing at Rodden.

  ‘We’re taking Leap to Verapine and then we’re visiting your mother,’ Rodden told her.

  Put like that it sounded rather genteel.

  Lilith looked startled. ‘How . . . pleasant.’

  Rodden poured himself a goblet of wine and when no one was looking, pulled a little bottle from inside his jacket, popped its cork and poured the contents in. I smelled blood. It would be invisible in the redness of the wine.

  Where the hell was mine?

  ‘Thirsty?’ he murmured in my ear.

  I nodded. He took a mouthful and surreptitiously switched glasses with me. I took a sip from the goblet and then sat back to savour the rest of it, the food in front of me forgotten. The tightness that had been gathering in my chest eased. I took a deep breath, and gazed around the table with renewed vigour.

  Amis, who had been listening to our conversation from the other side of Lilith, wasn’t fooled. At the mention of Verapine he had given Rodden a sharp look. ‘Will you be going into the desert at all?’ he asked lightly.

  Rodden nodded.

  ‘I see,’ he said. ‘And you’re taking Princess Zeraphina?’ He frowned just like Lilith had.

  I began to wish Rodden had never spoken of our plans. Perhaps it would have been easier to have slipped away. All this protocol and decency. It was such a bother.

  Then Amis said, ‘My father is waving to us, Rodden. Shall we?’

  It was my turn to frown as Amis led Rodden away. I wondered if he was going to try to change Rodden’s mind.

  As soon as the men had left us, Carmelina leaned forward. ‘You’re taking him to see your mother?’ she hissed.

  ‘Hmm? Oh, nothing’s definite.’

  ‘But you are going to Amentia?’ Lilith asked.

  Reluctantly, I nodded.

  ‘Just visiting?’ Lilith asked. ‘You’re coming back?’

&n
bsp; Again, I nodded. This was awkward. As far as she was aware I had no legitimate reason for spending so much time in Pergamia – especially as I spent so little of it with her. Sooner or later I was going to have to come up with a better excuse than being on holiday. If only she would get pregnant; then I could flutter around her belly like a broody hen.

  ‘She’ll never let you marry him, you know,’ Lilith murmured.

  I opened my mouth to state that Rodden was definitely not the reason I was still in Pergamia, at least not in the way she thought, but then shut it again. He was as good an excuse as any.

  Carmelina leaned towards us. ‘I heard,’ she said in a whisper, ‘that one of my great-great-great-grandmothers ran off with the captain of the guard. It upset everyone for a time, but they got over it. And she was a second daughter, too,’ she said, wagging her fork at me.

  I thought of Hoggit, the present captain of the guard. He was an exceedingly capable man but one in possession of a face that only a mother could love. I drained my glass of blood and wine and set it on the table. ‘Carmelina, if I decide to run off with Hoggit, I promise that you will be the first to know about it.’

  That night I wrote my mother a letter. It was a task I usually shirked until the very last moment but tonight I couldn’t wait to put pen to paper.

  Dear Mother,

  I have good news! I’ll be with you in Amentia soon. I’m afraid I shan’t be able to stay long as there are all manner of princes here at court. Don’t bother to write back as I shall be leaving for Verapine shortly. Expect me at the palace by autumn at the latest.

  I stopped writing. Autumn. My birthday was late in the summer; I would be seventeen, and of marriageable age by the time we reached Amentia. That could give my mother ideas. Bad ideas. But there was nothing to be done about that. I would just have to be firm with her when the time came: I wasn’t ready for a husband.