The Standing Dead sdotc-2 Read online

  'How did…? Who has dared put you in this urn, Master?'

  The man glanced away, focusing on something else nearby. Guilt stabbed Carnelian in the guts. Osidian. He had forgotten his beloved. 'Another urn… is there another urn?'

  The Ichorian looked down, startled, dipped a nod before gazing away again. '… Another Master?' he whispered.

  'Open it…' Carnelian hissed. 'He might be smothering.'

  The Ichorian's head moving away revealed rafters sagging under yellow, mouldering plaster. Where were they? Desperation to see Osidian convulsed Carnelian. He became an animal in a trap and would have gnawed away half his body to break free.

  Shadow fell across him. 'Calm yourself… Master. He's dead.'

  Despair clamped Carnelian's body still, making his urn shudder audibly. His breathing stopped and it was a fight to regain its rhythm. Ringing in his ears. 'Drugged…' he said, as forcefully as he could.

  'Drugged? Oh, I see…' The Ichorian disappeared again.

  To keep the panic at bay, the grief, Carnelian forced himself to count his breaths. Eleven had passed before the Ichorian spoke again.

  'You're right, Master, it's deep sleep, not death.'

  Relief flooded through Carnelian.

  The light dimmed again. 'You were to be buried alive then?'

  'Alive…?'

  The Masters send me their servants dead in urns. I bury them.' The man's eyes opaqued. They don't know I open them.'

  Under its tattoos, his face greyed. 'I'm dead.'

  'Release me,' hissed Carnelian, 'and I'll protect you.'

  The man's eyes came back into focus. 'But I've seen your face.'

  'I'll… deny it.' Carnelian drew hope from the Ichorian's confused expression.

  'Master, who dared strike you; dared put you in these urns?'

  Carnelian was loath to name the Dowager Empress lest the Ichorian become terrorized. 'My enemies.'

  'Masters, no doubt and more powerful than you or else you wouldn't be here.'

  They trapped us.'

  'And me with you, Master.' With a fixed grimace the Ichorian looked round as if he were searching for somewhere to hide. His head shook.

  'Even not knowing I've seen you, they're bound to have me killed.'

  Trust me… I'm the son of… He-who-goes-before.'

  The Ichorian gave him an idiot stare. He licked his half-black lips. 'If that's true, Master, that only makes it worse for me.' His eyes were twitching. 'I must run… find a hole to hide in.'

  'Where could… you go? Your face betrays you.'

  The Ichorian's face went blank. True… true… I must go far

  … bury myself away from prying eyes… maybe in a house in one of the more remote Ringwall cities… never go out… keep a servant to do for me… perhaps a blind slave… might need more than one… wealth… much wealth to buy this new life. Much, much wealth. A chest overflowing with bronze coins wouldn't be enough.' The Ichorian's greedy eyes made Carnelian flinch. 'Yes, a vast sum is needed… vast.'

  'Sum?'

  The Ichorian smiled uncertainly, but when he spoke, his voice had calmed. There's a man, in the south, in the city of Makar. I sell him relics.'

  Carnelian went cold.

  'Why else do you think I'd force open a funerary urn?'

  Carnelian did not want to hear any more.

  'In the cities of the Guarded Land, there are rich merchants to whom nothing's more precious than things that have belonged to a Master. By such charms they keep at bay their fear of you. Before today, all I've had to sell were flays of pale skin, some sky-coloured eyes; all from marumaga, naturally, but from those choice marumaga in the Mountain close to you whose whiteness the barbarians have no way of knowing is mere amber to your snow. Don't flinch. Now that I have you, I'd be a fool to cut, to deface a living Master… such a trophy must be worth at least a wagonload of bronze. If only I can find a way to take you south…'

  As the Ichorian walked away, Carnelian concentrated on his breathing.

  'Here, drink… I might be gone some time.'

  Carnelian turned his face up as the Ichorian tipped water. Most of it found his mouth, though some trickled into the hot crevices of his flesh. It was Carnelian's choking that made the Ichorian stop and look down with fear.

  'You mustn't die.'

  'The other…' Carnelian managed to say.

  'Why wake him from his drugged sleep?' He leaned closer, scrunched up his nose. 'You're only awake because you threw up.'

  'Please… bind us… with ropes if you have to… free from these…'

  The Ichorian frowned then shook his head. 'I prefer to keep my angels safe in their bottles.'

  'But…' blurted Carnelian, choking on his anger, but the Ichorian was already eclipsing the light with the lid. Its weight squeezed Carnelian's head back between his knees.

  In the outer world he heard the Ichorian say: 'Bide your time, Master, I'll be back as soon as I can.'

  His thighs compressing his lungs denied Carnelian a roar of rage. A part of him knew that he must calm himself, lest he should shut off the narrow passage of his breathing, but panic made him lose control. Pressure roared in his ears; his muscles strained against the earthenware wall. Even through his convulsions, he felt the urn rock. Suffocating, he clutched at this tiny power over his world and he made his prison tip. The urn, lifting a little off the ground, punched his whole body as it settled back. He tried this repeatedly. At last, the toppling continued, seemingly forever. He tensed hungry for the smash of freedom, but there was only an earthquake then blackness.

  He came to in darkness. His aching flesh was still packed into the urn but the pressure its wall exerted was now greater down his left side. Air cooled his shaved scalp. He unhooked his neck. That freedom told him that the lid must have been knocked out. Craning, he saw faint cracks of light; a vague uneven floor. Remotely, he was sure he could hear a murmuring of crowds. It came as a shock to realize he must be in the City at the Gates and so out of Osrakum. He listened to the city, remembering his journey through it. A yearning to be among its people made his heart pound. He hinged his head back against the rough earthenware lip as if that might pull his windpipe out of the urn and after it his lungs. He craved just one, deep chestful of air. It was no good. He calmed himself, concentrating on the quick throbbing of his blood. It occurred to him rescuers might be within earshot. He lifted his thighs with his expanding chest, then collapsing, let out a long, ragged wailing. With short, fast snatches of breath, he raced to another cry, then subsided, exhausted, hungry for some response. None came.

  A thunderclap shook the room. The first gustings of a gale were catching in the angles of the walls and roofs outside. Carnelian rolled his eyes up to search for the black massing of Osidian's urn, but no shadow had a belly curve. With a cold flush, he began to fear that his cries might have woken him into the same suffering. Surely if Osidian were awake he would have made some response. The rattlings and whistling of the gathering storm were merging into a single voice.

  Osidian hears you but is keeping silent.

  Why does he keep silent? He's not dead! Carnelian sounded the words over and over again in his mind. Angry then? Yes, better that he should be angry. But not with me, not angry with me. Why should he be angry with me?

  Why not? the storm said. Wasn't it you who put him in the urn, who cheated him of his life, his destiny?

  The venom of what the sybling Hanuses had said to him infused into his heart. Their two faces swayed sneering down at him from their single head. He tried to squeeze the poison out by blaming the Dowager Empress, Ykoriana, whose creatures the syblings were; by blaming the Lord Jaspar who had conspired with her, but it did not appease the nagging of the storm. You persuaded Osidian against his judgement down into the wilds of the Yden far from all protection. Ykoriana's henchmen only had to follow you to capture him. You have betrayed not only your beloved, but your father and all your people. It was always thus. All whom you have loved, you have betrayed.


  As the storm tore the world apart, Carnelian could not wedge his head deeply enough between his knees to shut it out.

  A tremor of footfalls jerked Carnelian free of a gnawing half-slumber. Some rays of light, a cry of surprise, the wind of something rushing up. He caught a glimpse of the Ichorian's tattoo-shadowed face, then felt the judder of the man's fists clamping to the rim of the urn. As Carnelian was lifted upright, it seemed to him the plaster ceiling was falling.

  'You shouldn't have done that,' the Ichorian said.

  Carnelian was grateful for the human tones that stripped the storm of its voice.

  The Ichorian moved away, then Carnelian heard the grinding as a lid was slid off another urn.

  'M-Master…' the Ichorian's voice trembled. His face returned to hover above Carnelian. The man seemed shaken. His gaze fell on Carnelian.

  'I've arranged passage for us. It was hard, dangerous, but what's to come will be more dangerous still. I'm going to have to bind the lid closed.'

  He stood back.

  'Don't either of you even think of making a sound,' he said, shrilly. 'I've hired deaf mutes as porters. Be certain of this: if I hear even a sigh, I'll tip you both from the boat. You'll drop to the lake bottom and be drowned.'

  He grunted as he hoisted the lid and perched it on the lip of Carnelian's urn.

  'I'll be going with you all the way.'

  The lid forced Carnelian's head down. As the Ichorian secured the lid with ropes, he kept up a chatter, his voice muffled: 'I've nothing to lose now. I'm leaving everything behind, even my slave. That way, no one will think I'm going away, not if I leave everything behind. It's the best thing to do. It's the only thing to do.'

  A kick on the urn wall caused Carnelian's back to spasm.

  'I only need one of you to sell, so don't imagine that I won't drown the other if I have to.'

  Curled in the stinking dark, Carnelian felt the poles rasp by his head as they slid through the carrying handles. As he was swung into the air, the earthenware ground the raw meat of his back and feet. Bouncing on the flex of the carrying poles, he chewed his tongue until his mouth filled with the iron taste of blood.

  At last, the urn was put down. When the agony had abated, he became aware of the swaying of a boat. With a judder, they set off. He tried to ignore the itch, the aching, his skinned flesh squelching in his own filth. Cries skimmed over him like gulls. Sometimes there would be a clamorous buzzing and his mind's eye would be assaulted by a vision of people climbing steps from the water up into the tenements of the city. Hubbubs vibrated past. When the boat clunked into others there were singing curses, or threats; once, a greeting.

  Even through the earthenware, he began to feel the dawn. As they slipped in and out of shadow, the sun warmed and cooled the urn wall. Gradually, his world grew so hot that he began to hope he might die cooked in its oven. He was cheated even of that. With a rustling something covered the urn and the heat soon ebbed away.

  Carnelian's world shattered, tumbling him into dust. The air was screaming. Men were quarrelling. It took time for him to realize he was free. He sucked at the wind with a gasp that relaxed every joint in his body. His spine uncoiling sent a knife filleting all the way up his back. His eyes tore open. Even as he saw the roiling sky, he was dazzled blind.

  A voice shrieked: 'You didn't tell us what they were.'

  Caught between gulping at the air and the rub of grit into his raw back, Carnelian flopped onto his belly. After the urn wall, the ground was kind.

  'Masters! You've killed us all! They're Masters!'

  Carnelian lifted his head and it became a keel in the flowing air. The world was rolling blackness. Dust pelted him. A lightning flash fixed a scene of more than a dozen men standing round him and, against the sky's torment, a broken youth glowing white.

  'Osidian.' The word had hardly vibrated Carnelian's throat before the wind snatched it away. The dark fence of men recoiled as he rolled onto his knees. He sensed their cowering but it was Osidian who was the heart of his gaze. Carnelian rose, tottered unused to his legs, stumbled a few steps, then fell kneeling at Osidian's side. He reached up to touch an icy shoulder. More lightning showed him the wounds up his lover's back.

  'Osidian,' he moaned and reached out to lift him. 'Beloved.' He pulled at his shoulders but Osidian refused even to lift his head.

  'We must tie them up,' said a voice Carnelian knew to be the Ichorian's. He sensed the men circling and stood to face them. Their eyes caught the glare of lightning his skin cast over them as if from a mirror. As they shambled closer, he could smell their animal fear, could hear it in their voices as they incited each other on.

  One braver than the rest reached out to touch him. Carnelian struck the hand away. More came up and he spun round striking out. Their terror ignited into rage and they threw themselves upon him. As their nails dug into his wounds he bayed at the stormy sky and threw them off with such fury that they backed away.

  One produced a trembling flint knife. 'Let's butcher them.'

  His companion gave him a sidelong look. 'Are you sure they can be killed?'

  Th-they're Masters ' said another.

  'Angels.' The word taut with awe.

  The brave one showed his hand. 'I've got this angel's blood here beneath my nails. If they bleed, they'll die.'

  Erupting through them, the Ichorian slapped the man's hand down. There'll be no killing,' he bellowed. 'Where's the profit in that?'

  He turned his back on Carnelian and scanned their faces. 'You've seen them unmasked. Now you're all in this as deep as me. Do you really believe you can kill two Masters and get away with it? Spill their blood and it'll stain your hands so red the Masters will hunt you like lice.' He glanced back at Carnelian. 'Our only hope is to take them south and sell them there for enough bronze to make us all rich.'

  The slavers were wavering.

  'Bind them,' barked the Ichorian.

  As they moved to obey him, Carnelian backed away until his heels touched Osidian. He fought fiercely but the slavers' assaults wore him down until, at last, he was forced to the ground, powerless to stop them putting ropes around his neck.

  Carnelian's arms were lashed together from wrists to elbows. The ropes strangling him were each bound to an ankle to bend him like a bow. The Ichorian had made the slavers do this to disguise Carnelian's height. Bitumen had been painted on his skin to hide its whiteness.

  Sartlar crowding round Carnelian stank. Lightning revealed glimpses of their distorted shapes. Overcome with loathing and horror, Carnelian tried to back away, shamed at even being touched by the half-men slaves. Their inertness calmed him. He crouched, trying to get his fingers to the knots around his neck, but could not find an angle that would allow his joined arms to reach them. A knifing flash. For an instant, he saw the tarred wood of Osidian's wretched face. Carnelian became possessed by rage. He struggled frantically to unbend, to snap the ropes. Tightening, they tamed him, choking off his cries.

  He let his head drop, centred himself. When the world lit again, he found a space beside Osidian's body and, kneeling, rolled into it. Enduring the pain, he shuffled round onto his side and managed to get his hands to Osidian's face. He rubbed at the bitumen, trying to reveal the beautiful face beneath. It was futile. Osidian's skin was canvas. Even through the tar on lips and teeth Carnelian could taste the salt of his tears. He rolled Osidian's head into his lap and rocked him back and forth, mumbling one of his nurse Eben’s lullabies.

  All through that shuddering night, Carnelian cradled Osidian, while the bitumen pulled his skin so taut he believed it must tear. The coarse, twisted bodies of the sartlar shoved against them. Each time the sky roared, Carnelian felt their trembling. The silence in-between was hissing earache.

  As the lightning became intermittent, he began to feel the weight of the sky. Growling rumbled out from its black heart. A cooler wind was blowing. The waiting between thunderclaps left him raw. Osidian slept in his crooked embrace. Carnelian worked his
mouth to ease the itching at the corners. The air was thickening, throbbing. Suddenly, with a final bellow, the sky opened. The air sighed relief. The earth spattered, pocked then pooled. The pools swelled to sheets foaming in all directions. Carnelian was blinded. Air had turned to water and he was drowning. Curled into each other, they were pebbles in a stream.

  RUNNING CRUCIFIED

  Characteristics required of a sartlar kraal are: Firstly, that it shall be located south-west of two intersecting field tracks.

  Secondly, that it shall be capable of stabling twice four hundred sartlar.

  Thirdly, that the enclosure shall be circular and circumvallated with a fence of hri wicker which shall be not less than an aquar in height and nine hand spans thick at the base; said fence to have but a single point of egress, this being at the north-east of the enclosure and under the tower which must be constructed for the overseers. This tower shall abut onto the outer face of the fence and be not less than two aquar in height. Fourthly, the enclosure with its tower shall in turn be circumvallated by a ditch which shall not be less than an aquar in depth and crossed by a single, removable bridge. This ditch shall serve not only to reinforce the incarceration of the sartlar but will also function as a fire-break in the event that the stubble-bum from the adjoining fields should become uncontrolled.

  (from an agricultural codicil compiled in beadcord by the Wise of the Domain of Lands)

  Bleating, the sartlar edged away. Thin light was seeping into the world. Carnelian had to bring his knees up to his chest to put enough slack in the ropes to allow him to lift his head and look around. Men were pushing through the sartlar towards him. Among them, only the Ichorian made no attempt to shelter from the rain. Water varnished his half-black skin. Carnelian bore the cutting of the ropes into his neck as he squinted up at the man's face. He could see the doubt in the man's eyes.

  'Please stand up,' the Ichorian said. Carnelian watched the half-black lips hesitate over but not say the word 'Master'.