‘They are here,’ said Yu Yu. ‘They endured a spell that left them dead for centuries, so that they could protect a new generation. Doesn’t that make them heroes?’
‘How could you understand?’ snapped Kysumu.
‘Being a ditch-digger, you mean?’
‘No, no,’ said Kysumu, reaching out and gripping Yu Yu’s shoulder. ‘There is no dishonour in that. What I meant was that all my life I have denied myself pleasure. No fine foods, strong drink, women, gambling. I possess nothing but my robes, my sword and my sandals. I did this because I believed in the order of the Rajnee. My life had a noble purpose. But it has all been based on a falsehood. To win that war our ancestors merely duplicated the enemy. No honour, no holding to principles. What does that make of my life?’
‘You have honour and principles,’ said Yu Yu. ‘You are a great man. It doesn’t matter about the past. You are who you are, regardless of it. When I first began to dig trenches they told us the foundations needed to be four feet deep. When the first earthquake hit, all our new buildings crumbled. Foundations should have been six feet deep, you see. All that digging just to make an unsafe house. But it didn’t make me a bad digger. I was a great digger. A legend among diggers,’ he added.
At that moment Song Xiu and Ren Tang approached them. ‘What are your orders, Pria-shath?’ asked the crimson-clad Song Xiu.
‘Do you know how to make the gateway stay closed?’ asked Yu Yu.
‘Of course. The spell was cast using the power of Riaj-nor blades,’ said Song Xiu. ‘We must assemble at the gateway and hold our swords against it.’
‘That is all we have to do?’ asked Yu Yu, astonished. ‘Just walk up to the gateway and tap it with a sword? We could have done that!’
‘It will take more than two,’ said Ren Tang.
‘How many?’ asked Kysumu.
Song Xiu shrugged. ‘Ten, twenty, all of them. I do not know. But it will all be for nothing if the gateway is fully open. We must reach it before that event, while it is still blue.’
‘Blue?’ queried Yu Yu.
‘I watched the first spell cast,’ said Song Xiu. ‘It began with what appeared to be white lightning searing across the opening. Then the colour deepened, becoming at first pale blue like a winter sky, then darker. At the last it was silver, like a sword blade. Then the light faded, the silver turned to grey and we were standing before a wall of solid rock. After the Men of Clay were chosen we were told that as the spell degrades it will flow through the colours in reverse. If it reaches white the spell is finished. If we can restore it to silver the gateway will seal itself.’
‘Then we’d better get started,’ said Yu Yu.
Eldicar Manushan felt sick. The communion had been more painful than usual but, then, it had been prolonged almost beyond endurance. Yet it was Deresh Karany’s torture of Matze Chai that had turned his stomach. The old man had been far tougher than anyone could have expected, considering his effete lifestyle. The boils sprouting on his flesh, the open, cancerous wounds had failed to break him. Blinding head pain had weakened his resolve, the fat maggots chewing upon his wounds bringing him even closer to the edge. But it was the leprosy that had sent him spinning into Deresh Karany’s control. The old man was fastidious to the point of obsession. The thought of his own skin decaying and falling away had been too much for him.
‘It was good that you gave him those extra twenty years, Eldicar. He would not have survived the pain without the gift.’
‘Indeed not, my lord.’
‘You seem to be suffering.’
‘The communion is always painful.’
‘So do you think there is anything more to be learned from the merchant?’
‘I believe not, my lord.’
‘Still, it is enough. The Grey Man is an assassin once known as Waylander. It is almost amusing. Niallad has lived his whole life in fear of meeting this man, and now he is travelling with him.’