Into Battle (The Seventh Tower 5)

The Antechamber where the Underfolk sculptors did the basic work on the statues that decorated the sarcophagi was deserted, as Tal had expected. He found a shielded spot between two columns of un-worked stone and crouched down to concentrate on the Red Keystone.

As before, he saw Lokar slowly swim into view. She was singing again, her Spiritshadow still hopping.

"Lokar!" Tal called out. "Lokar!"

She paid him no attention.

Tal called her name several times more before he realized that Lokar was particularly far gone this time. In desperation, he raised his own Sunstone until it was adjacent to the Red Keystone, so he could focus on both at once.

He didn't really know what he was doing, but he concentrated on the violet stone. Some instinct told him to try and build a wash of violet light that would flow over the Red Keystone and push its own light back.

Violet light built and started to bleed into the red of the other Keystone. As it spread, Lokar suddenly stopped singing. She looked up, stretched her hands toward Tal, and cried out.

"Highness! Release me! Release me!"

For the first time that Tal had seen, her Spiritshadow stopped circling, too. It mirrored Lokar's actions, stretching its paws to the sky.

Violet light washed across them, a broad band against the red. Tal, still not knowing why he did it, directed it to loop behind and underneath Lokar. The light swept around her, and she threw herself into it.

The next thing Tal knew he was knocked to the ground and there was someone lying on his chest. He crawled out and gently helped Lokar up. She sobbed and clutched at him, then turned to run her hands along the stone before embracing her Spirit-shadow.

Out of the Keystone, she was older and smaller than Tal had imagined she'd be. Considerably older than his mother, and only two-thirds his height, she was a tiny, fine-boned woman with short silver hair and piercing brown eyes. She wore the robes of a Brightness of the Red, but had no Sunstone. That had been taken by Sushin when she was first trapped in the Keystone.

Her Spiritshadow was larger than she was. It was a Leaper-beast, in Aenir an inhabitant of swampland and marshes. Its bulky triangular body had massive hind legs, powering impressive leaps. Its forearms were smaller, and ended in sharp claws. It also had a long and highly flexible tongue. Leaperbeasts had learned to handle basic tools with their tongues, as well as weapons. They could sling a large stone several hundred stretches, an ability the Spiritshadow form probably retained.

It took Lokar a minute to stop sobbing and regain control. She pressed her palms against her face for a moment, then straightened up and looked at Tal.

"Thank you," she said. She stared around her and added, "I saw the violet light. Where is the Empress?"

Tal bit his lip. Instead of answering, he held up his hand, with his piece of the Violet Keystone shining there.

Lokar looked puzzled, but slowly sank to one knee. She made an instinctive move to give him light, before remembering she had no Sunstone.

"I don't understand," she said. "You are Tal, aren't you? How do you come to wield the Violet Keystone?"

"You'd better stand up--or sit on that stone," Tal said. "It's kind of complicated."

As quickly as he could, he told Lokar everything that had happened since he first fell from the Red Tower. That seemed like a very long time ago.

When he had finished, Lokar looked up at the ceiling and released a long, troubled breath.

"So the Empress is dead," she said. "And Sharrakor effectively rules the Chosen through Sushin. But why has everyone come back before the Day of Dark Return?"

"I think," Tal said cautiously, "that the Icecarls might be doing something. Milla… Milla thought they would."

He found it hard to say the Icecarl's name. Upsetting.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lokar.

"Find my mother and give her the antidote," Tal said firmly. "Then I will climb the Orange Tower and release my father from the Keystone there. After that, I will do whatever I can to stop Sharrakor and Sushin, to save the Veil."

Lokar nodded. Then she held out her hand.

"Give me the Red Keystone. It is sealed again now. I will return it to its rightful place in the Red Tower, so it may power the Veil once more. Even if Sharrakor does manage to unseal the other Keystones, or tries to lower the Veil from the Seventh Tower, the Red Keystone will keep it going. A single Stone will keep the Veil up for seven days by itself. That may be enough, some time to buy a chance of reversal."

Tal handed her the Keystone.

"But you won't have a Sunstone once you put it back."

"I might be able to get one on the way," replied Lokar. "But even if I don't, returning the Keystone is the most important thing."

She knelt again before Tal, and gave him light from the Red Keystone, despite his attempts to raise her up.

"Don't kneel to me," he protested. "I should be kneeling to you. You're the Guardian of the Red Keystone."

"And as a Guardian I can see that you are not just the wielder, but the true Guardian of the Violet Keystone," replied Lokar. "Which means you are also Emperor of the Chosen, whether you want to be or not. Wish me light and fortune, Highness."

"Light and fortune," croaked Tal. He was Emperor of the Chosen? The boy who couldn't even get a Sunstone a few months ago?

"Light and fortune to you, Highness. And to us all."

Lokar rose and left, her Spiritshadow hopping after her as Tal stared and stared into space.

"Does that make me Emperor of all Spiritshadows?"

asked Adras, who had been very interested in Lokar's obeisance.

"No," replied Tal in a faraway voice. "It doesn't make me Emperor, either, no matter what Lokar says."

He shook his head. Think like an Icecarl, he told himself. The immediate object was to get to his mother. She was probably in his family rooms, but even with all the confusion, Sushin would still make sure Graile was guarded, or there would be traps.

The first thing to do was find another disguise. A mid-ranking Chosen's robes, and he would have to work out how to stop his Sunstone being so obviously violet.

Then he would check to see exactly what was going on, and what all the panic in Aenir and the shouting here was about.

Crow was weak, but he had come back to his full senses. Ferek was helping him sip a cup of water, and telling him what had been going on. As Milla approached, Crow gently pushed the water back into Ferek's hands.

"Greetings, Crow," said Milla. She indicated the Icecarl at her right. "This is Shield Mother Saylsen, and I believe you have spoken already to the Crone Malen."

"Greetings, Milla… uh, that is War-Chief, and er… Shield Mother, and greetings again, Malen," replied Crow. His voice was scratchy, but Milla noticed another change. Crow had always almost snarled at her before, his voice permanently angry. That anger was gone. He simply sounded tired and weak.

"Has Ferek told you that I have come back with my people to put an end to the Chosen's use of Spiritshadows and save the Veil?" asked Milla. "We will help your people, too, if you let us."

"Yes," said Crow. He gave a wry smile. "I will do everything I can to help you, if you help us in return to be truly free. That is, if you don't kill me first."

"Why would we kill you?" asked Milla, puzzled.

"I mean you personally, not the Icecarls," said Crow. He stopped, took the cup from Ferek, and wet his throat before he continued. "I tried to kill your friend Tal and steal the Red Keystone."

Milla shrugged.

"I've tried to kill him myself, but he survived."

"I'm serious," Crow protested. He shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he had done. "I just went crazy. I thought we had to have the Red Keystone for ourselves. Tal was a Chosen and he would always side with the Chosen. I hit him on the head, and then I threw my knife at him."

"Did you hit him?" said Milla.

"No," said Crow. "I only got his coat."

"You should practice har

der."

"Is that all you have to say? I

really tried to kill him. For no good reason. I would have gotten Ferek, Inkie, Gill… all of us killed if Ebbitt hadn't been there."

"It is for Tal to forgive or punish you," said Milla. She couldn't understand why Crow was so concerned. "And for you to forgive or punish him. It has nothing to do with me."

"I… I was rude about you," said Crow. "I insulted you, to Tal."

He looked down, unable to meet her eyes.

"Do you want to fight me?" asked Milla. She was genuinely unable to understand this Freefolk. He had fought Tal and lost, and had nearly been killed. That was all. "Speak your insults again and I will kill you. But if I have not heard them, then it is as if they have never been. They are lost on the wind."