LITMIR.BIZ

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said tartly. 'I can't help feeling bad. I should have been with Elena, not dallying about enjoying my own honour in Dania.'

      'Oh, this again. What is the point of this? We both should have been with her. But we weren't. And Fleurforet burned. You're a warrior, Yani! You should be harder than this!'

      'Marigoth, do you think it's a virtue to get so hardened that you are not upset to see your sister's home turned to ash and hear of her husband and friends killed, and she and her child taken captive?' Yani turned on her sister. 'Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't feel. What do you know? Sitting on your island dreaming your life away.'

      'If you and Elena had stayed on the island none of this would have happened. Grandmother told us to stay hidden. Why did you two want to… Change is a mistake.'

      Yani bit back a hot retort. She didn't want to fight with Marigoth. They needed to be united for this quest. Sooner or later she would need Marigoth's magecraft. Or what there was of it. Mages came into their true power when they reached puberty but Marigoth had not aged for many years. She was still an eleven-year-old girl.

      A difficult silence fell in the cabin. Marigoth swung on the windowsill.

      'Where's this port, then?' she snapped. 'Are we even moving?'

      'Slowly,' Yani said. 'It takes time to come into a port, Mari.'

      Marigoth began to pace. 'Too much time. Everything takes so much time. It took us three months to find out about Fleurforet. And it's taken nearly two days to get here.'

      'Be calm. We still have to get to Olbia after this,' Yani said. 'That's where they have her.'

      'A Circle of Power would have been much faster.'

      'And run the risk of having them notice us? And making us disappear as Grandmother did? How will that help Elena?'

      'I don't think the other Tari can still be interested in us. They didn't save Elena after all.'

      'Perhaps they didn't know. It's taken us three months to find out what's happened. Or perhaps they're all gone, like the stories say.'

      'Oh, they're still in their stupid hiding place at the top of their little mountain,' Marigoth said. 'I would have felt it in the life spirit if they had gone.'

      'Then why don't they do something? They must have some idea of what's going on. In the old days they would never have stood for bloody pig-arrogant Mirayans taking Mori land and cutting down their forest.'

      'Do you know what the captain told me?' Marigoth said. 'He told me the Mirayans were just looking for an excuse to sack Fleurforet because it was the only trading centre on the island of Yarmar they didn't own. They like monopolies, he said. It's outrageous. What gives them the right?'

      'Might,' Yani said bluntly. 'They do it because they are stronger and because they can. That is the value of war craft you see. The Mirayans are the biggest children in this game. They can use force to make the smaller children play their way.'

      'That's not how it should be,' Marigoth snapped. She kicked the wall beneath the window. 'How is the life spirit served by might and monopolies? Such actions cause imbalance.'

      She turned back to the window. A large stone wall had come into view. 'Finally! Is that the sea wall?'

      'You know what really annoys me about the Tari,' Yani snarled with sudden anger. 'It's how nice people are to me because I'm one. It's all - "yes, Lady Tari"; "no, Lady Tari". "Please give me your blessing, Lady Tari". Tari don't deserve such respect. The people of the Archipelago depended on them to protect them, to keep a just balance between weak and strong. In the old days, if Wolf Madraga had threatened to invade Moria, Queen Sonnette could have called for help and Tari mages would have come and made Madraga's army fall asleep until he was prepared to make peace. Then suddenly, just because three Tari are killed by some madman with a demon, they turn their backs on everyone who relies on them. Now the archipelago is full of people who have no experience with war. No wonder the Mirayans came in and took over so easily.'

      'Is that why you went off to learn to fight?' Marigoth said. 'I never understood it. Our beliefs say what you do is wrong.'

      'And to sit by and do nothing while the strong oppress the weak is right?' Yani snapped. 'I am not lucky enough to be magical like some people. But if you cannot bring justice peacefully, then it must come through the sword. I fight for a just cause with a pure heart. I do not feel the life spirit is wronged by this. Queen Sharma rules her people with justice and mercy and, if the world was properly in balance, that would be all she needed to do. But in this world, especially with the Mirayans, she needs to have warriors to back her up.'

      'But how can you help anyway? It's all show. You can't kill people because then you would have to share their deaths. You'd be useless in an actual attack.'

      'But I can look threatening,' Yani said. 'A warrior is about the threat of violence as much as the violence in itself, Mari. Not many people know of the Tari's weakness, and I have a reputation. I've been the queen's bodyguard and champion for three years, and I've defeated all comers.'

      'How?'

      'The queen's champion never fights to the death. I never had to kill anyone.'

      'Have you ever killed anyone?' Marigoth asked curiously.

      'Has anyone ever told you you're a self-righteous little toad?' Yani snapped.

      'No, No! I'm not being self-righteous, I promise! I just wondered what it felt like. All that dying and everything. Is it bad?'

      Yani looked at her feet for a moment.

      'Yes.'

      'So you did kill someone!

      'An assassin. He came at Queen Sharma. I hit. He was dead before I thought and then… '

      'And then?'

      'I was dying. Truly dying. I didn't know that it was not for real. I felt such loss… you want more life. You're so angry and terrified. Then blackness. Nothing… ' Her voice trailed off.

      'And afterward when you woke up. How did you feel?' Marigoth asked avidly.

      'Dirty. I hated myself. I felt the offence against the life spirit as if it had been a wrong against me. And ever after, the sense of it has been with me. Sometimes now I hear the voices of ravens in my mind and their cawing is like the voice of death. And certain thoughts… they seem to take a raven's shape. Do you know what I mean?'

      'Ew, no! And I'm glad I don't. Who'd want to feel the presence of the warbird? Does it haunt you, then?'

      'No, it's not like that!' Yani said with a little laugh. 'Don't be ridiculous.' She looked at Marigoth's avid face and said affectionately, 'You are the most terrible little ghoul.'

      'I am not!' Marigoth cried. 'I just… if it is so bad, why are you still a fighter?'

      'Swordplay is an art, a great physical pleasure and beauty, like any other sport. Like dance. It is not about killing. It is about pitting yourself honourably against an opponent and striving against your own fear and weakness. And in the service of the life spirit, of justice and balance… What greater honour could there have been than to have been there at Fleurforet helping to drive off Wolf Madraga's forces? To have protected all those innocent people. Surely that is serving the life spirit, not damaging it.'

      'You might have had to kill someone.'

      'I would gladly die a thousand deaths for Elena. Wouldn't you?'

      Marigoth looked startled. 'There's no need. I can just put people to sleep. I'll never have - '

      'No!' Yani cried, suddenly serious. 'Enough of this avoiding facts. Think about it seriously. This is not the island now. It's the real, dirty world. You may have to do things for Elena you don't like. Would you kill for Elena?'

      'I… '

      'I need to know that you are up to this,' Yani said. 'I need to know you are not going to just run away and hide when things get difficult.'

      Marigoth flushed.

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