‘And so bound herself to the fate of the T’lan Imass,’ said the Errant, as he eyed Kilmandaros. The huge creature had dragged a massive trunk to the centre of the chamber, snapping the lock with one hand and then flinging back the lid; and now she was pulling out various pieces of green-stained armour, muttering under her breath. On the walls on all sides, seawater was streaming in through widening cracks, swirling ankle-deep and rising to engulf the fire in the hearth. The air was growing bitter cold.
‘Not as bound as you might hope for,’ said Sechul Lath. ‘We have discussed K’rul, but there is one other, Errastas. An entity most skilled at remaining a mystery to us all-’
‘Ardata. But she is not the only one. I always sensed, Setch, that there were more of us than any of us imagined. Even with my power, my command of the Tiles, I was convinced there were ghosts, hovering at the edge of my vision, my awareness. Ghosts, as ancient and as formidable as any of us.’
‘Defying your rule,’ said Sechul slyly, swirling the amber wine in his crystal goblet.
‘Afraid to commit themselves,’ the Errant said, sneering. ‘Hiding from each other too, no doubt. Singly, not one poses a threat. In any case, it is different now.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes. The rewards we can reap are vast-whatever has gone before is as nothing. Think on it. All that was stolen from us returned once more into our hands. The ghosts, the ones in hiding-they would be fools to hesitate. No, the wise course is to step out from the shadows.’
Knuckles took a mouthful of wine. The water was soaking the seat of the chair beneath him. ‘The House is eager to wash us out.’
Kilmandaros had shrugged her way into a sopping hauberk of chain. She reached down to the submerged floor and lifted from the foaming swirl a huge gauntlet through which water gushed in a deluge. She dragged the gauntlet over one gnarled fist, and then reached down to find the other one.
‘She’s pleased,’ said Errastas.
‘No she isn’t,’ countered Knuckles. ‘You have awakened her anger, and now she must find an enemy worthy of it. Sometimes-even for you-control is a delusion, a conceit. What you unleash here-’
‘Is long overdue. Cease your efforts to undermine me, Setch-you only reveal your own weaknesses.’
‘Weaknesses I have never run from, Errastas. Can you say the same?’
The Errant bared his teeth. ‘You are cast. It cannot be undone. We must take our fate into our own hands-look to Kilmandaros-she will show us how it must be. Discard your fears-they sting like poison.’
‘ I am ready .’
At her words both men turned. She was clad for war and stood like a bestial statue, a hoary apparition enwreathed in seaweed. Algae mottled her hauberk. Verdigris mapped her helm’s skullcap. The broad, low-slung, grilled cheek-guards looked like iron chelae, the bridge gleaming like a scorpion’s pincer. Her gauntleted hands were closed into fists, like giant mauls at the ends of her apish, multi-jointed arms.
‘So you are,’ said Errastas, smiling.
‘I have never trusted you,’ Kilmandaros said in a growl.
He rose, still smiling. ‘Why should I be unique? Now, who among us will open the portal? Knuckles, show us your power.’
The gaunt man flinched.
The water had reached hip-level-not Kilmandaros’s hips, of course. The Errant gestured in Sechul Lath’s direction. ‘Let us see you as you should be. This is my first gift, Setch.’ Power blossomed.
The ancient figure blurred, straightened, revealing at last a tall, youthful Forkrul Assail-who reeled, face darkening. He flung away his goblet. ‘How dare you! Leave me as I was, damn you!’
‘My gift,’ snapped Errastas. ‘To be accepted in the spirit in which it is given.’
Sechul held his elongated hands up over his face. ‘How could you think,’ he rasped, ‘I ever regretted what I left behind?’ He pulled his hands away, glaring. ‘Give me back all that I have earned!’
‘You are a fool-’
‘ We will leave now ,’ cut in Kilmandaros, loud enough to thunder in the chamber.
‘Errastas!’
‘No! It is done!’
A second gesture, and a portal opened, swallowing an entire wall of the House. Kilmandaros lumbered through, vanishing from sight.
The Errant faced Knuckles.
His old friend’s eyes were filled with such wretched distress that Errastas snarled, ‘Oh, have it your way, then-’ and cruelly tore the blessing from the man, watched with satisfaction as the man bowed, gasping in sudden pain.