Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,52
Crow’s eyes and tried again. “Your journey has been long and arduous, no doubt. We shall have hot baths drawn for you—”
“He stays with me,” Tancho interrupted coolly. “Explanations will be forthcoming, but first you must tell me, what of the creatures that came ashore? Have you seen them? Spoken to them? I’ll admit, I feared my home threatened or under siege, even. Answers, please, Asagi. It’s been a long seven days.”
Asagi paled a little, worry etched his features. “Seen them, yes. Spoken to them? Briefly.” He shook his head as though it was news too bad to repeat.
“Asagi, what is it?”
“They came ashore, my king. A hundred of them. Maybe more.”
A hundred?
Crow felt cold all over.
“They came to the gates in lines of two. Not human, my king. Blue, mottled skin, their faces akin to a boar, with tusks and snouts,” Asagi whispered. “They . . . took one guard, Shāyú, my king. They slayed him . . . gruesomely so. As a warning, as a threat. They promised no further harm, they simply needed safe passage.”
Tancho paled. “Shāyú? What became of him?”
Asagi grimaced, his mouth a watery line. “They tore him apart. And . . . my king, some of them, those hideous creatures . . .” He paused, then whispered, “They ate him.”
They ate him?
Everyone stared in disbelief.
“Like pigs at a trough,” Asagi added. “I’ve never seen such horrors.”
Clearly the Westlanders were too stunned to speak. Too horrified. “They requested safe passage?” Crow asked.
Asagi nodded, frowning. “They were big, with hands like that of a bear. With talons, sharp as any I’ve seen. They asked as a formality. If I’d said no . . . I have no doubt they’d have left not one person standing. What they did to Shāyú . . . Those creatures were coming in, Tancho, regardless of my answer.”
“So they came in through the gates?” Tancho clarified. “Where did they go? Safe passage to where?”
“I don’t know their destination, my king. Only how they got there. If I’d not seen it with a great number of our guards, I’d have thought my mind gone mad.” Asagi was pale now; he looked ill with worry. “They asked their way to the grand hall. They trudged through your home like an army, my king. It haunts me still.” He swallowed hard. His hands began to tremble. “The leader, the biggest of them all, he wore some kind of stripes on his shoulder. He threw some metal powders onto the compass rose. He somehow moved the tiles in the floor—he moved it like a dial—then it drew a large circle of purple sparks in the air. Like a window to somewhere else. And as true as I stand here, my king, every single one of them walked through it as if it were a doorway.”
A shiver of recognition danced down Crow’s spine. “A doorway . . .”
Asagi nodded. “They marched, two lines at a time, and disappeared through the circle doorway into thin air. The circle closed after the last of them, leaving a spray of sparks on the floor. I’ve not fallen into madness, my king, I swear. I wasn’t the only one to witness it.”
Tancho turned to Crow, his eyes wide. “A doorway . . .”
“Why do you both keep saying that?” Karasu asked, looking between them both.
Still looking at each other, Crow and Tancho answered in unison. “Maghdlm.”
After explaining the lacuna bond to Asagi and everything that transpired at Aequi Kentron, the old man needed to sit down. “Is everything we’ve known, all of our histories and teachings, the very fabric of who we are, is it all a fiction?” he asked. Crow wondered if it was possible for him to have aged ten years in a few minutes. “All of my teachings to you, fair king, is centuries of history and culture. Is any of it true? Or did they manoeuvre me against you?” He shook his head, paling to a shade of green. “I shall not ever forgive myself.”
“No, Asagi,” Tancho said calmly, patting his hand. “Everything you taught me was the truth you were given. We don’t know whose untruth came first. We don’t know . . . anything. All we have is questions.”
Crow clenched his hands into fists and folded his arms. He considered pacing but stopped himself, though he twitched and fidgeted, his self-control near the breaking point. He knew it was unreasonable and ridiculous given Asagi’s age and his relationship to Tancho . . .
It’s not