‘What do you Remember of her?’ asked the Lord warden.
The Rememberer inclined her hooded head. ‘She is the stranger who remembers nothing and all things. With her coming, the visiondraught will cease to flow.’
There was a stunned silence, and the Lord warden paled visibly, his hand closing convulsively around the little flask before him.
The Rememberer raised her hand. ‘She must not die by the hand of the clans. That will bring death and ultimate disaster on us. She must go to the forbidden city. She must go to the Citizen gods. Her fate does not lie in clan hands.’
The Lord Romino looked relieved. ‘So be it. It is in the hands of the gods. She will be taken with those next to be Offered.’
The Rememberer turned and glided into the darkness.
‘She must be questioned,’ Delpha burst out.
‘She will be questioned – by the Citizen gods,’ Lord Romino said.
‘But what of these three who consorted with her? If you will not mindbond the girl, then question them,’ Delpha cried.
The Lord warden looked at Delpha with clear dislike. ‘You are not unlike the carrionbird, Delpha of Fallon, always hungry for someone’s misfortune. I see no evidence that Aran is guilty of more than compassion and blindness. But if you wish to plead your case you may have the honour of going before the Citizen gods.’
Delpha bridled. ‘I do nothing more than my duty, but I see it is not enough for a man to be honest and open and that truth has no place at this Conclave.’
The Lord Romino ignored the insult. Take her to the temple,’ he commanded the guards. Meer made a convulsive move towards her, but Aran held her back firmly, his face impassive.
8
Merlin followed the guards as they glided ahead of her through the darkness with a feeling of renewed helplessness.
From the time she had left Marthe until Bors had called her name, she had felt that she had regained some measure of control over her life. But now she realised this had been an illusion.
She walked through the broad entrance pillars into the stony darkness beyond. One of the gatekeepers carried a torch, though it threw out a meagre light, scarcely illuminating the dim, straight, stone walls carved intricately in a series of pictures. Merlin was reminded of the sort of picture writing one would find inside an Egyptian pyramid. Perhaps this was how the clanpeople recorded things, she thought with distant interest.
She shivered, though it was not very cold. She thought she should be frightened, but instead she was filled with a passive, numb acceptance.
There were a number of empty rooms leading from the hall, like museum rooms waiting for an exhibition. Where are the museums and pyramids? she wondered with a feeling of despair. Do they exist; did they ever?
The guards stopped outside one of the rooms. Unexpectedly, it had a thick door and was barred. Without speaking, one of the guards lifted the weighty bar with an audible grunt, and the other pushed the door ajar.
Merlin went in and the door was closed and barred behind her. The room was not just a single room, but another hall, from which extended other rooms. There were torches set in tall stands lighting the rooms and she walked aimlessly from one room to the other. Each contained a single trundle bed and a lumpy-looking mattress. All, except the last, were empty.
Merlin could hear the murmur of voices as she approached the doorway. Inside, seated on stools drawn up to an enormous round table, were about twenty children of varying ages.
A child seated nearest the door glanced up and smiled. ‘What clan? What name?’ asked a plump, big-eyed girl beside her.
‘What does it matter?’ asked another girl apathetically. Seated at the farthest end of the table, she had sorrowful eyes, drooping lips and limp brown hair.
The other was unperturbed. ‘I’m Lefka,’ she introduced herself. ‘The dying lily at the end of the table is Beta. Welcome to the temple.’
Merlin nodded and looked around at the other occupants of the room. Their expressions varied from interest to boredom. A short dark-haired boy sitting near the scowling Beta smiled.
‘I’m Danna,’ he said, catching her eye. ‘Former of Nallar, and soon to join my brotherblood’s soul and become one of the transcended in the forbidden city.’
Merlin stared, realising that all of the children in the room were to be given to the Citizen gods to be transformed into blank-faced, drooling catatonics like the girl she had seen in the Region of Great Trees.
She felt sick.
And I might join them, she thought, suddenly afraid. It had never occurred to her that she might be sent to the forbidden city herself. She forced herself to stop thinking of what would happen to her there.
Looking back at the boy called Danna, Merlin was struck by a sadness in his eyes.
He stood abruptly and came to stand near her. ‘Your name?’
‘Merlin.’
Danna bowed and smiled. ‘So, another candidate for eternal bliss. How many more, I wonder?’
‘I am afraid of dying . . .’ the William voice whispered.
Lefka frowned at Danna. ‘What’s the matter with you? You’re beginning to sound like her.’ She pointed to Beta. ‘Aren’t you excited to be going to the forbidden city?’
Danna smiled enigmatically. ‘Why wouldn’t I be excited? Remember when the Citizen gods first came? How they hunted the clans, and how many were killed? What joys will await us in the forbidden city?’
‘But people were hurt only because we resisted,’ Lefka protested. ‘If we had only understood what they wanted, no one would have been harmed.’
Merlin looked at Danna, curious how he would respond. But he only smiled again. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked her.
Merlin opened her mouth, intending to lie, then it struck her that there was no longer any need. ‘I don’t know,’ she said dully. ‘I’ve lost my memory.’
Danna frowned. ‘Then . . . why are you in the temple?’
‘A few days ago I woke up with no memory,’ Merlin said. ‘I came here in secret to try to find out who and where I was, but I gave myself away in a lie and ended up before the Lord wardens.’ There was no point telling them about the predictions.
‘But . . . didn’t anyone recognise you when you were being judged?’ Lefka asked. Merlin shook her head.
‘If no one recognised you, that means you have never been Offered and couldn’t be an exile,’ Danna said. ‘So why do they send you to the forbidden city?’
Merlin shrugged. ‘Beats me.’
‘You are bitter,’ Lefka said forgivingly. ‘There is no shame in that. The Citizen gods will come soon with the Gifts of Serenity and you will find peace.’
‘What are Gifts of Serenity?’ Merlin asked warily.
‘Collars,’ Beta said morosely. Merlin repressed an urge to finger the collar beneath the neck of her tunic. Surely that must mean she had been Offered. But why had the gate-guardians failed to recognise her? And if she had been Offered, why wasn’t she a Blessed Walker?
‘It is said the collaring is when the soul is separated from the flesh,’ Lefka said dreamily.
‘There will be no collar for her. Didn’t you hear what she said? She is not to be Offered,’ Beta said sullenly.
‘Oh,’ Lefka said. ‘Well, never mind, perhaps they will decide to make her a Blessed Walker anyway.’
‘What a lucky girl! At least she is certain of being Taken.’
Lefka gave Beta an exasperated look. ‘You will benefit from the Gift of Serenity more than any of us. Always looking on the dark side of things.’
‘Pah! Who says they’re serene? They don’t, that’s for sure!’ Beta snarled.
Lefka smiled loftily. ‘You can see it in their eyes. I don’t understand you. If you feel this way, why didn’t you run away and join the scatterlings?’
‘Become a rebel?’ Beta asked, in a curiously desolate tone. ‘I would if I had the courage. But I am a coward so there is no choice for me but to submit. Yet I am not a silly milk g
oat to gambol happily to the slaughter pen.’
An astonished silence met these bitter words, but Danna at least had not been listening.
‘I still don’t understand why they would send someone who has lost their memory to the Citizen gods. It doesn’t make sense.’
Merlin was only half listening. ‘Don’t the Citizen gods take all the people Offered?’
Danna looked at her questioningly. ‘Most, these days. But sometimes people are left. They are encouraged to deliver their spirits to the gods.’
Merlin blinked. ‘I don’t . . . you mean kill themselves?’
Danna nodded. ‘And after the cycle of three moons, those Taken return – or at least, their bodies do – as Blessed Walkers. The souls stay in the city.’ His voice was completely impartial, as if he were suggesting the best way to clean shoes.
‘And . . . the rebels, scatterlings?’
‘What about them? They refuse to be Offered and they run away.’
‘Some kill themselves at the last minute,’ Beta said. ‘They throw themselves into the bottomless wells inside the temple.’
‘And these . . . Blessed Walkers – what happens to them when they come back?’ Merlin asked.
A terrible sorrow filled Danna’s eyes, but his voice was calm. ‘They walk among us to remind us that their souls dwell in eternal bliss. We feed them and heal them. Some call them Voids,’ he added softly.
Lefka gasped. ‘Blasphemy! None but the rebels call them that.’
Danna looked at her and after a while her eyes dropped and she moved away quickly, as if she feared he might contaminate her. There was the sound of the bolt being drawn and Merlin turned to see yet another figure enter the hall.
Her mouth fell open in astonishment when she saw who it was.
It was Ford!
‘It didn’t take you long to end up here,’ Ford said with a grin.
He had drawn an astonished Merlin slightly away from the others.
‘How did you get past the gate-guards?’ she asked.
‘More importantly, how did you? Marthe Remembered you would get into the Valley and here you are. The guards should have declared your mindprint invalid.’
Merlin had no more answers for him than she had for herself.
‘As for me,’ he went on. ‘There are other ways into the Valley than through the pass. Sear had us explore the whole of this area ages ago, in the time between Conclaves, so that we could enter the Valley in secret to barter for things we needed and to attend to other matters. I came in through a tunnel in the back of the temple.’
‘But . . . why?’
‘To see if any of those to be Offered would join us, given the choice. Of course, I don’t usually come directly here unless I know someone wants to join us, then I take them out. Everyone assumes they’ve thrown themselves down the bottomless well,’ he said impishly.
‘So why did you come here directly?’ Merlin asked. ‘Did Marthe say I would be here?’
The smile broadened. ‘I made Marthe tell me the truth when she came back without you. I was wild at her when she told me about you losing your memory. She said I would find you in the Valley. I just had a feeling you were in the temple.’
‘Did . . . did she tell you what she . . . Remembered about me?’ Merlin asked, wondering fleetingly at the accuracy of Ford’s guesses.
Ford shrugged. ‘She told me. But after you left, she Remembered that you were in that flier we sabotaged. She also told me the focus wasn’t clear on the Remembering. She doesn’t know how or why trouble will come through you. It was she who persuaded Sear to let me come earlier to Conclave. She said she Remembered me coming after you. She said it was necessary and now I see why!’
‘Then Sear knows I’m not from the Seaside Region?’
Ford nodded. ‘He knows you are somehow connected to the Citizen gods because of you being in the flier. He wants to talk to you.’
‘He’ll kill me!’
‘No. He wants your help in getting into the forbidden city.’
‘But I don’t re . . .’ She broke off as Danna came over, frowning.
‘You told us none of the clanfolk knew you,’ he said.
Ford’s single yellow eye turned back to Merlin. ‘You told him about losing your memory?’
‘There was no reason not to,’ Merlin said in a low voice.
Ford gave the younger boy a hard look.
‘Wait,’ Merlin said, suddenly frightened of what Ford might do. She looked at Danna. ‘You wouldn’t give us away to the wardens, would you?’
Danna’s face cleared. ‘Me? Not likely. I’m just curious. You’re not to be Offered, are you?’
Ford stared at him for a long moment, and Merlin sensed an unspoken exchange between them. Then he spoke just loudly enough to be heard by Danna and Merlin. ‘I’m a scatterling. I’ve come to take anyone who wants to join us. And I’ve come to rescue Merlin.’
Merlin stirred indignantly. ‘I don’t need rescuing!’
Ford grinned. ‘Oh, no? Then it was part of your plan to end up locked in the temple until you were handed over to the Citizen gods?’
Merlin lifted her chin. ‘At least I know now I’m not a clan-person. No one recognised me.’
‘That knowledge will be very useful to you – when you are a Void,’ Ford said brusquely.
‘Besides, the fact that no one spoke out to say they knew you doesn’t mean a lot,’ Danna went on. ‘The clans are large and not all come to Conclave. And even if someone did know you, they might have been too frightened to acknowledge you.’
‘What exactly did you tell them?’ Ford asked.
Merlin shrugged. ‘I told them I had lost my memory and that I bumped into your people in the Region of Great Trees.’
Ford gave a low whistle. ‘You told them you came from there! No wonder they decided to hustle you off to the Citizen gods. No one but runaways and Voids go into the Region of Great Trees. The Citizen gods made it taboo.’
She shook her head. ‘They decided to send me to the forbidden city because of what a Rememberer told them.’
Ford and Danna frowned. ‘A Rememberer?’ Danna asked.
Merlin nodded. ‘At the judging. She said I was a stranger to the clans and that I would put an end to the flow of visiondraught. She told the Lord wardens I was supposed to go to the forbidden city.’
Ford said stiffly: ‘Rememberers do not always see true courses. Marthe said nothing of this.’
‘Rememberers do not always tell what they know,’ Danna reminded him. He gave Ford a look of intense enquiry. ‘It is said the scatterlings believe the Citizen gods are false . . .’
‘Are liars and murderers,’ Ford ended bluntly.
‘You can’t know that for certain,’ Danna said.
‘The only ones who know that for sure are the Voids, and they’re not talking!’ the scatterling said harshly.
He had spoken loudly and some of the others glanced over curiously. Ford lowered his voice. ‘How many here would join us?’
‘None,’ Danna said.
‘But surely you . . .’
The boy shook his head. ‘You see, there are two ways to end up being Offered. You can be Chosen, or you can volunteer.’
Merlin gaped at him. ‘You volunteered?’
Danna nodded. ‘Last year, my youngest brother firstblood was Chosen. These days the Citizen gods prefer children, the younger the better.’ He paused, swallowing hard. ‘I . . . loved him very much. I have missed him more than I thought possible. He did not like to be apart from me, and when they took him to the temple, he wept and called out my name. They say the spirits of those Offered dwell together in the forbidden city. Sometimes I dream he is calling for me.’
‘You . . . believe his . . . soul lives in the domed city?’ Merlin asked incredulously.
Danna hung his head. ‘I don’t know. I pray it’s true.’
‘And . . . if it’s not?’
He sighed. ‘It is forbidden to try to break the sacred silen
ce of the Blessed Walkers. When his body was brought back to us, I couldn’t help myself. I tried to Send to him, but I could find nothing in his mind but a golden mist. I looked into his eyes and tried to believe the blankness was peace or happiness. But I saw nothing. That body was not my brother. My heart aches to speak to him again. I love him more than I love life . . .’ He shrugged.
‘But you’ll end up like him! In your heart you know the Offering is a hoax!’ Merlin cried.
Danna smiled sadly. ‘There is a rumour that the spirits of the Blessed Walkers are not dwelling of free will but are imprisoned in the forbidden city. Perhaps I will be their saviour and free them.’ There was a silence, then he moved away from them and out of the main hall. Stunned, Merlin turned to watch him go.
Ford pulled roughly at her sleeve. ‘Why does it matter to you what he decides? Unless he stirs the mating heat in you?’
‘I don’t feel anything for anyone!’ Merlin snapped hotly.
‘It’s time we left,’ Ford said.
Merlin glared up at him, then she remembered something else. ‘I didn’t find out anything about myself here, but I did find out something that might interest you. Your brother and sister, or whatever they are, want to help you and the other rebels.’
‘Who?’ Ford asked.
‘Meer and . . . Aran were their names. I was with them when the guards came. A dark-haired pig of a man called Delpha brought them.’ Ford stopped abruptly, his face tight with concern. ‘Apparently he has some sort of long-standing feud with Aran,’ Merlin went on when he did not speak. ‘He overheard us talking about Aran helping your people and the rebels. It was he who had me brought before the Lord wardens.’
‘Aran spoke of helping the rebels?’ Ford asked incredulously.
Merlin nodded. ‘Delpha accused Aran and his lady friend and their servant, of conspiring against the Lord wardens and the Offering because of what he had overheard, but the Lord warden took Aran’s part. He told them he had just been questioning me, and that he had meant to bring me before the Lord wardens himself. Delpha kept screaming for them to mindbond me or Aran, but the Lord warden said there was no need, since Aran was innocent. I don’t think they thought much of Delpha.’