Sirano knelt by the corpse and pushed it to its back. ‘I have no time’, he said, ‘for wizards who find new magic beyond them.’ Rising, he turned to the other two sorcerers. ‘Do you find this utterly beyond you?’
‘Not at all, my lord. But it will require a great deal of study,’ replied the first. His colleague nodded agreement.
‘Good,’ said Sirano. ‘So what have we learned today?’
‘The Pearl is sentient,’ said the first sorcerer, a small man with close-set eyes and a long pointed beard.
‘What else?’
‘That we can establish some kind of control over it.
We made it heal the child. But if you will forgive me for saying so, lord, I do not – yet,’ he added swiftly, ‘understand why it brought the girl back to life and not my brother Calizar.’
‘Ah, but I do,’ said Sirano. ‘Continue your work.’
‘What about the girl, lord?’
‘No more sacrifices for the moment. Give her ten gold crowns and send her home.’
Swinging away from them he led Karis back to the upper study.
‘Well?’ she asked him. ‘Are you going to tell me why it saved the girl.’
‘She was innocent,’ he said.
‘How does that help you unlock the Pearl’s secrets?’
‘It made a choice, my beauty. Don’t you see? It is sentient. So we will offer it more choices. And very soon I will have more power than any man who ever walked this land.’
For six days Karis saw no sign of Sirano. At midnight on the seventh day a tremor ran through the castle. Karis, who was lying in bed nursing a goblet of wine in her hands, leapt to her feet and ran to the balcony. Bright lights were blazing from the highest rooms of the keep, and lightning forked up from the top turret. Blocks of stone cascaded down to the courtyard below, some smashing through the stable roof.
The naked man who moments before had been lying alongside Karis moved out onto the balcony. ‘His magic will kill us all,’ he said, gripping the bronze balcony rail. Darkly handsome, his strong face now showed signs of fear. It was not an attractive sight, thought Karis.
‘He says he is close to the secrets of the Pearl,’ Karis told him.
Giriak swore. ‘You told me that a week ago. Yesterday a section of the main wall came crashing down – killed three of my men. He’ll wreck the entire city if this goes on much longer. Have you seen the columns of refugees? They’re leaving the city in droves.’
Karis shrugged. ‘What do you care?’ she asked him. ‘He gives you gold.’
‘I’d like to live to spend it.’
Another tremor struck, and a small crack appeared on the facing wall of the balcony. ‘Son of a whore!’ hissed Giriak, leaping back into the main room. Karis grinned as she turned to face him. Holding out her arms, she gestured to him.
‘Come!’ she called. ‘Make love to me on the balcony, before it falls.’
‘Don’t be foolish,’ he urged her. Karis let fall the green robe she wore, her naked body glistening in the moonlight. Another tremor struck and the crack in the stone opened wider, tracing a thick black line all the way to the wall. ‘Come in!’ yelled Giriak.
‘Come out,’ she taunted. ‘Show me you are a man.’
‘You are mad, woman! Do you want to die?’
‘Collect your clothes and get out,’ she said, contemptuously turning from him and climbing to the bronze rail. Balanced delicately, she walked along it, feeling the cold, smooth metal beneath her feet. One more tremor and she would fall. She knew it, and a delicious sense of excitement swept through her. This was life! For some moments she stood there with arms raised.
Lightning swept up from the turret, followed by a clap of thunder that shook the foundations of the building. Karis lost her balance, then spun and launched herself back into the bedchamber, landing on her shoulder and
rolling to her feet. Behind her the balcony sheared away and crashed to the courtyard below.
Karis shivered, then glanced around the room. Giriak had gone.
Gathering the wine jug and a goblet, she sat down on the round embroidered rug at the centre of the room. Giriak was a disappointment. Like all the men she had known. Is it a fault in men themselves, she wondered, or merely a flaw in the kind of men I find exciting? Indeed, is the flaw in me?