More rudimentary runes can be triggered simply by wearing the object in question, such as an amulet for providence. These particular types of runes generally last for a much more limited amount of time, and/or are not as powerful as its more complex counterparts.

—Of Runes and its Crafte, by Remminsk

26

↝ A CONFUSION OF QUEENS ↜

'Do not be foolish, Dhvani. Think upon the repercussions of this.' Rajini Amarin stilled her guards with a hand. For a moment, Isla was forgotten. The rajini was almost out of men, after all, and a much more dangerous foe had introduced herself.

'And had dwelt you upon the repercussions before my son you slaughtered, and his wife and child?' Rajini Dhvani stopped in her tracks, leaving a wide space between herself and the younger queen consort.

'Think of your children.'

'I think precisely of nothing else.'

'Your living children!' Rajini Amarin snapped, all pretense of calm quickly vanishing from her face. 'The shame they will endure. They will be ostracised from the palace. All for the price of your vengeance.'

Isla grabbed Tam Mai, now unguarded, and pulled the catatonic girl into her arms. Rajini Dhvani took a small step forwards, her hands twisting something hanging off her neck. 'My daughters belong now to their husbands. Of my sins, they are washed free.'

'I did it for all of us. For our entire kingdom. Surely you must know the importance of sacrifice.'

'Truly, in this you are the connoisseur. Your soldiers above will attest, or what remains of them. I am sure many a tear will you shed for their sacrifice –'

'More will come once it is clear I have been gone for too long.'

'Indeed, you will be gone. Though far before then.' Firelight bounced from the rajini's pendant, and only then Isla noticed its shape. An ellipsoid crystal of three parts. The rajini rotated its final piece before whispering a sequence of words Isla could not catch.

'You bear witness to her threats against me,' said Rajini Amarin, turning slightly to her men. 'I will not inculpate him who spills the Honourable Consort of her blood.'

One of them launched his spear towards Rajini Dhvani, but with a sharp jerk of his hands, Arya sent a pillar of earth streaming forth. It embraced the spear right into its spiralling mass before crashing down in a heap that sent a shudder through the chamber.

Gravel and dust rained upon them. Isla dragged her sister further back, wary eyes on the darkness above. They needed to escape whilst their captors were engaged. But Rajini Amarin's guards had charged forwards now, obstructing their one and only exit.

The ground shook – harder, this time – and Isla stumbled until she found support against the back wall. I could goad Arya into blasting through the stone door ...

It was a bad idea. The labyrinths were old, and she could not risk it collapsing above them. Arya must have shared her consternations, for he reigned in his terrakindry. Rock and stone danced around him, barrelling into the guards like an iron fist, but the earth he left well alone.

A shield shattered, pummelled by the iron hand. Leather and wood scattered but the man once holding it pushed on. The bulk on his shoulders spoke of strength no ordinary man could bear, and his battlecry filled with a madness that made Isla think of a cornered boar.

The madman lowered his head and rammed through Arya's assault; skull against stone, smashing through the iron fist until he fell upon the silver-servant.

Isla paid no more mind to the two men. She caught Rajini Amarin in her periphery taking the sword off a fallen guard, and Isla gripped her own knife in response.

'Enough of this.' The rajini came fast upon her.

Isla had just enough time to shove Tam Mai behind her and deflect the rajini's attack. Pampered royalborn or no, the woman was fast and fuelled with wrath. Again and again her blade scraped off Isla's knife, each time coming dangerously closer.

She countered deep, closing the distance between them. She caught the sword just below its guard, fighting to keep it at bay whilst the rajini sunk her nails into Isla's opposing wrist. For a moment they were thus locked. Arm in arm in a macabre dance, until the rajini kicked hard into Isla's wounded thigh.

The arrowhead sunk deeper into her flesh, and Isla dropped with a cry.

Pepper scampered out onto her shoulder, but the only thing to come out of it was a small spark and a similar putrid smell as those hissing out of the broken traps.

Any moment now, Isla expected the sword to fall. There was a sudden light that pierced even through her closed eyelids. She thought it was Pepper, suddenly found its fire, but when she looked up, Rajini Dhvani had the younger consort by the hair; dragging her for a good few paces before throwing her down until she lay sprawled on her back.

Far behind them two guards remained: the mad brute, pounding into Arya's face, and another shooting bolts at Rajini Dhvani.

'Behind you!' Isla called out. She was too late, but it mattered not. The light pouring out of Rajini Dhvani's pendant protected her in a discarnate barrier. The bolt pierced through the brightness, disappearing in a scatter of motes.

Rajini Dhvani neither noticed nor cared. She held her own weapon in hand – a long, slim dagger with a blade that waved like a strand of hair – and threw herself down at her son's killer.

A wet sound accompanied the thrust of her dagger. Again and again until Isla lost count. Blood bloomed over Rajini Amarin's syarong, and the look of horror on her face slowly froze into a death mask.

Isla crawled back, further and further until she found Tam Mai hunched against the wall. She took her sister into her arms, watching as Rajini Dhvani continued to unleash her vengeance. Arya was soon standing over his mistress, having somehow sent both the madman and archer to join the ranks of their fallen comrades. His face was red, one eye hidden beneath the swell of his cheekbone. 'Your Highness.'

Rajini Dhvani stopped, broken from her frenzy, and slowly looked up. Isla met her gaze and did not like the look in it. 'Arya.' She called to her silver-servant, though her eyes never left Isla's. 'Apprehend this servant for the murder of Her Honourable Consort, Rajini Amarin.'

This, she did not foreplan. Isla was too worn to protest. She should have seen it coming.

No. It was not supposed to unfold this way.

She was not supposed to wear herself out fighting guards. She was supposed to confront her suspect and draw Rajini Dhvani with the note she had earlier prepared. Steal into the rajini's mind, ripe with the anger and retaliation Isla had so carefully planted, cloud her with just enough suspicions, and escape while the rajini disposed of the enemy for her.

She thought she had everything solved, but she had been wrong about too many things. Now they will hang me for regicide. And Tamma ... What will become of her sister? She squeezed Tam Mai closer, as though she could absorb her and keep her forever safe.

Arya was approaching, short sword in each hand. Isla forced herself to her feet. 'I will play the part,' she started, nodding towards Tam Mai, 'as long as you send the girl with the Eling delegates and promise no harm will come upon her.'

Arya paused; looked at his mistress who said, 'My silver-servant will see it done.'

Isla drew in a deep, shuddering breath. She waited for Arya to take her, but before the silver-servant could take another step, there was a click from the stone door behind her and it came grinding open.

'I think not.' It was Rajini Chei, and in the tunnel behind her, a stream of guards bearing torches in their midst.

I must be having a fever dream. Isla's head was spinning enough to warrant one, and she could feel the warm trickle of blood from her nose.

'Chei. This concerns you not.'

'If the murder of a sister-consort does not concern me, I don't know what does. You hold the weapon. Amarin's body lies before you; her blood quite literally on your hands. To that, these twenty men behind me can attest. Or do you expect the Maha Rama to believe a simple dhayang could single-handedly slay twice a dozen of Amarin's soldiers and a rajini on top?'

'You stand there as though I had not just rid you of a thorn upon your neck. She killed Kiaan. It may be your son, she killed, too, those many years ago. Even if she did not, still all the kingdom knows it was for Amarin you fell out of favour.'

'You think I envied her? I could never envy Amarin.' Rajini Chei motioned to Isla and two of her men came forwards to lift the girls from the blood-stained ground. She continued before Rajini Dhvani could protest, 'But you, too, are my sister-consort. For that, I will allow you to flee. You have the opportunity to be free. Free of this palace. This realm. Free of Judhistir.'

'And free of my children, lest you forget.' Rajini Dhvani spat. 'Arya. Bring down the tunnel.'

Before Arya could move, Rajini Chei snatched a torch from one of her men and flung it into the dungeon. Isla watched it soar above the silver-servant and his mistress's heads, spinning towards a rippling pillar of putrid air emanating from one of the broken traps.

Rajini Chei turned, her men fleeing with her. Isla groaned as she bounced in the guard's arms, her arrowhead scraping against his hips as he ran. Behind them came a bright flash of light, and then the sudden roar of fire. Flames licked out of the entrance. It spilled over the tunnel walls like the arms of an archdaemon, stretching out from the deepest layers of the epperstrom.

Smoke billowed out faster than any of them could run. One of the rajini's men summoned down a gale to clear a path for them, but there was no escape from the fumes. They coughed and spluttered through, leaving the brunt of the heat behind them. Slowly they ascended through a branch in the tunnel, slipped through a thin slit in the wall, and rested once the entrance fell shut behind them.

Isla's heart still pounded in her chest. She looked around, calmed only once she found the guard carrying Tam Mai just behind her. Her sister clutched the man so tightly, he struggled to breathe. In better times, Isla would have laughed. 'What ... what do you want with us?'

Rajini Chei answered from ahead. 'Is it not clear? We are rescuing you.'

'But why? How?' There were too many questions, and Isla did not know where to start.

'Huu saw you in Amarin's rockery – may Ogbu embrace her – and later caught you running through Her Honourable Consort's menagerie. Come, we must not tarry.' This, she said to her men, and they picked up the pace.

'How did you find us?'

'We took the labyrinths so as not to be seen. It was clear you, too, were down here when the grounds began to shake. It did take some time for us to locate you, and for that I apologise.'

Her vision blurred, but Isla forced herself to stay awake. The air was cleaner, the tunnel widening before entirely replaced by the less constricting walls of an abandoned antechamber. The room was better lit, and in it Isla caught the rajini's apprehension.

'I don't understand ...' She winced as they hurried up some stairs. 'Why are you doing this? Who are you?' There were other questions swimming in Isla's mind, but with Rajini Amarin now gone, she feared she would never have the answer to those.

If Rajini Chei responded, Isla did not hear. The pain was intolerable – she did not know which hurt more: the ache in her thigh, or the fire in her head.

At least Tamma's here. Safe. At last.

She had done what she came to do.

    
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