25

Ruin and Restoration

Work on the Dawn Watch ruin progressed slowly but steadily. The caverns and dusty rooms were cleared one by one. The crumbling walls were built anew. A few weeks after the team's arrival, iron doors arrived from the smith at Gwavas and were installed in the freshly mended doorways below. With this addition, the caverns became less dangerous and more functional. Wights were no longer found wandering the eerie passages at odd times of the day and were confined to the lower chambers. With the double protection of two iron doors separating them from the lower chambers, Jory felt comfortable moving the camp into the large cavern.

Once there, the team set up designated areas to sleep, eat and cook. The chamber soon lost its eerie feel as it became full of activity and light. They all slept better out of the raging winter winds. Warmed by the large fire in the main cavern and well shielded from the outside world, the place became merry and homelike.

Candle was mostly comfortable in the castle chambers; a few hours of watch up on the plateau cured any claustrophobia she might otherwise feel from so much time indoors. Watching the sky had always been a hobby she had enjoyed, and it was a welcome respite from the hard work below. To date, the watches were peaceful with very little to see: namely birds, sleet and rain, the occasional herd of auroch. The land remained peaceful, green in the embrace of the winter rains. The barbarians and their airships remained in safely across the isthmus in Sterlester.

"Why would you give it up for this?" said Delen, one morning. She waved her arm expansively at the valley below.

"Give up what?" asked Candle, her mind on supper. Delen thrust her chin at the village, visible in between floating banks of low flying cloud.

"You, know," she said, "being an aetheling lady. It's so cold up here! Just think you could be down below eating fancy bonbons in front of the fire and watching plays all day long..."

"It wasn't like that," said Candle. "At least not for me." She paused for a long moment, wondering how to phrase her question. "What about you? Do you miss your old life?"

"Of course I do," said Delen. "I miss the clothes; I miss the markets! And I miss my family most of all...but at least I know that what I'm doing here helps keep them safe." She grinned at Candle. "Go on, ask me what I did, you're about as subtle as an auroch in a ceramic studio."

"So... what did you do?" Delen's smile slipped for a moment.

"I killed a man. I hit him with a log on the back of his head. He was abusing my little sister," she said. "I walked in and saw him and I just...snapped. I grabbed the first thing I could find." Her eyes slid sideways. "I'm not sorry," she said, her face was anxiously searching Candles. Candle knew it was hard to read her expression with the blindfold on. In truth, she was not as shocked as she might once have been. After all, she had Rasmus for a brother. "I know it's wrong, not to be sorry - I know life is sacred. I know I shouldn't have hit him so hard, I shouldn't have carried on hitting him, but I was so afraid...and he deserved to die." She let out a great sigh. "And now I am here, forever, for my crime, but I know she is safe from him. And the Ancestors will let me atone as I can." She glanced at Candle again, her forehead creased.

Candle reached out and squeezed Delen's hand.

"I wish I'd had a sister like you," she said, "to look out for me." Delen's smile was like the sun coming up.

They sat in silence and watched the clouds move across the valley. Hanternos, fully visible between the breaks in the clouds lay, small and toy-like far below. The glamour that disguised it from the air would only manifest after the spells had dried out from the last lot of rains. So far, their watches had been quiet, Candle thought, but did the barbarians fly their ships in the sunlight only? She shifted uneasily at the thought that perhaps the barbarians didn't mind the wet as much as the average Havi.

"Why in the Night would they come out in the rain?" asked Delen, sensibly, when Candle voiced her concern. "Why would anyone go out in the rain if they had the choice? I mean, I know they are barbarians but really -"

"They are different," she said, at last, struggling to express her misgivings. "Crazy even. I mean - look at what happened in Sterlester. When was the last time Havi slaughtered an entire city?"

"Not since the Dissever," said Delen. "I see what you mean."

"We are keeping watch," signed Pasco, who had come up behind them. "Try not to worry, Candle. We are not the only watchers. Jory says you to are to join him for training."

So Candle went, although she was still uneasy. She had to hope that Delen was right and that the barbarians did not fly in the rain. She put it out of her mind and tried to concentrate on her exercises. While the worst of the winter storms had made it necessary for them to move even their training sessions below ground, today, a few weeks before the spring equinox, the wind had calmed to a stiff breeze, and the sun had come out.

Jory was teaching Candle a new form with her staff, while Locryn and Delen were practising archery on the far side of the plateau. Cloud started to drift over the mountain, cascading ponderously over the rim like a slow moving waterfall. A fine drizzle began to fall.

"Half an hour more," said Jory, "you won't melt."

"We might," muttered Delen and loosed an arrow into the centre of a target with aggressive efficiency.

A bell rang out, and they all looked up. A strange noise rippled across the mountaintop, muffled by the cloud. It ticked at Candle's memory. Where had she heard that noise before?

"Airship!" yelled Jory. "Get undercover! Undercover, now! Quickly!"

Everyone scrambled. Locryn and Delen dragged their targets into the stone stairwell. Jory and Candle ducked under a pile of netting. They huddled, waiting anxiously and scanning the grey sky. There was nothing to see, but they could all hear the snap and hum of wind through ropes. Candle's heart hammered in her chest as she tried to see. A chill went through her at the thought of Hanternos lying exposed and vulnerable in the valley below. Had her earlier unease been some horrible premonition? If only her father had heeded the Mester's warnings to camouflage the village with means both physical as well as magical.

Nothing happened for a long minute, and Candle's arm began to cramp. She was beginning to think Pasco had made a mistake when the ship appeared, looming out of the cloud. It was shockingly close. Several tons of canvas billowed in the stiff breeze, fanning out on either side of the monstrous wooden structure that bristled with fins and weaponry. Ropes snapped and whistled. She caught glimpses of men dressed in silver and feathers standing on its decks, and childishly squeezed her eyes shut, afraid they would see her. She forced herself to look and followed the ship with her eyes as it slipped over the mountain's eastern edge. It bobbed as it caught the air current rising off the valley below and disappeared into a fresh cloudbank. The mountain air was still again.

They waited for a few more minutes, then emerged from their hiding places, looking shaken.

"We must send word to the Mester, at once," said Jory, looking around.

"I'll go," said Locryn. Jory nodded. He leapt for the moongate, cutting his hand and disappearing through it with practised efficiency.

"Did they fly over Hanternos?" Candle asked Pasco, and he nodded grimly.

"It's fine," he signed. "It's still there." Candle dashed over to see for herself and heaved a sigh of relief as she spied the village through the mists.

They carried on training, but no one's heart was in it. Every time the wind gusted, everyone jumped. It was hard not to keep looking at the moongate, waiting for Locryn's return. They were all pleased to throw down their weapons when he finally stepped through, looking grim.

"The Mester bids us keep the watch," Locryn said without preamble. "There have been sightings all over the Eastern Reaches. The Kenning has called a meeting. It seems the barbarians attacked and destroyed Crow's Nest two days prior. The aetheling's are growing nervous. They are calling for action."

"About time," said Delen.

"Crow's Nest?" asked Jory, and Candle wondered if he knew anyone who lived there. Locryn nodded.

"The Mester thinks they will call for a meeting with the barbarians."

"It should have been done immediately on their arrival."

"Who would go?"

"The Mester, obviously. No one from the Kenning would risk themselves. The barbarians are mining Moon Silver," he said, "which should be a concern to us all."

They all looked at the moongate with its silver runes gleaming in the weak sun.

"Come on," said Jory, "let's get back to training."

They worked on in silence, but it was a tense uncomfortable silence — the cosy reality of their mountaintop shattered by the intrusion of the barbarian ship.

Supper that night was a subdued affair. Candle looked around at all of their faces, rosy in the firelight, and did her best to memorise each one.

"Cheer up," said Delen, nudging her on the shoulder. "I've been enjoying cheerful Meraud. Everything will be fine. The Mester is on our side." Jory and Pasco nodded. They finished their meal in silence.

Just as they were clearing up the moongate ignited with a hum, the silver inscribed runes casting a ghostly glow over the rocks. A stranger in the colours of the Ancestors Own stepped through and looked around. Jory invited him over to the fire.

"Greetings," he said, formally, remaining on his feet, despite the offered seat. "I have news from the Keep. The Kenning has requested that Lady Dantalion meet with the barbarians to sue for peace. She is assembling a small party as we speak. She has asked for volunteers."

"Of course," said Jory. "We are all at the Mester's service." The messenger smiled.

"She said you would say that. The Lady specifically asks for the services of Pasco Alkanson, Locryn Blydh and Candle Enys. She wants me to emphasise that she asks rather than commands. She prefers willing volunteers only. It will be a dangerous mission."

"What?" cried Delen, "Why? That's not fair."

"The Mester will have her reasons," said Jory, frowning at Delen.

"If they are willing the Lady bids them meet at Gwavas an hour before noon." He bowed to them all and disappeared through the gate.

"I don't like this," said Delen. "Why can't we all go."

"Don't be a child," said Locryn. "It's a meeting, not an invasion."

"But why you three?"

"The Mester always has her reasons," said Jory, looking troubled. "If she wants Pasco to go, it'll be because she suspects there is a Teurek shaman." Pasco nodded, his face grim.

"And Meraud?"

"I can guess," said Locryn, "from what I overheard yesterday. There are reports that many of the barbarians have blue eyes. She wants Candle to go because... well, she wants to know how many demons we are dealing with." Everyone looked Candle.

"Ancestor's alive," breathed Jory. "The Mester thinks there could be more than one demon?" Locryn shrugged impatiently.

"Why else would their eyes be blue?"

"Will you go?"

"Yes, of course."

"You don't need to go if you don't want to," said Jory to Candle. "No one will think less of you."

"I'll go," she said. They all looked at her doubtfully. "I mean it," she said, embarrassment rising.

"You are very young ... for such a mission. Rather stay safely here. The Mester will not think less of you," signed Pasco. "And neither will any of us."

"Would either of you consider not going?" she asked.

"Of course not, it's our duty."

"Well, then - I'm a member of the Ancestors Own, too," she said, hoping she would not come to regret her bravado. "I'm not some atheling princess pretending to slum it with the peasants."

"It's a suicide mission," said Delen, grabbing her arm. Candle's stomach clenched.

"If the barbarians are not stopped," signed Pasco. "The young will suffer just as much as the old."

"The Mester would not waste their lives in such a way," said Jory, "if that was true. Have faith, Delen, and respect her choice. Just... don't do anything foolish, young one," he gripped Candle by the shoulders, frowning as he looked at her. "Pasco and Locryn will make sure you are alright."

"Great," said Locryn.

"Early night," said Jory. "Tomorrow will likely be a long day."