Shade & Sorceress (The Last Days of Tian Di, #1)(2)
“Wings!” breathed Nell. She had a faraway look in her eyes that Eliza knew all too well. “Holburg might be under attack. Eliza, we might have to save the whole town!”
Eliza’s heart began to beat a little faster.
“What do we do?”
“We’ll go back through the caves,” said Nell firmly. “That way we can get a peek without anyone seeing us first.”
Eliza agreed, and the two girls swung down from the tree.
~
The police force on Holburg was not large. Ander Brady, the chief, was a native of the island and a decorated war hero. Everybody liked Ander. He was an affable fellow who took good care of his aged mother and was always up for a barbecue or a game of cards. If you brought up the war, though, he’d get a haunted sort of look and then excuse himself. He must have suffered something terrible, the islanders agreed, and they felt even more kindly towards him. Ander knew more than most about the otherworldly threat. Ten years on and his dreams kept the war alive inside him night after night. The five young men and women on his force had never faced anything more dangerous than a domestic dispute or a con artist from the mainland. How could he prepare them for what they had to face now?
They roared through the empty streets on their little scooters to the square, where they drew their guns and clustered together. Whatever meagre defence the tiny police force of Holburg could put up was, at that moment, clearly futile. But they stood their ground.
Five enormous, gold-green dragons sprawled, gleaming, around the statue of the first president of the Republic, Ernest Noxon. Their flame-coloured, reptilian eyes surveyed the little group of police officers with utter disinterest. Smoke curled from their nostrils, and their chins rested slothfully on powerful black-clawed forelimbs. Standing in a row before the dragons as if waiting to be greeted were five tall, slender beings with shining skin and eyes like suns. They wore billowing white robes trimmed with gold, and their fair hair fell about their shoulders. One of them began to walk towards Ander, indifferent to the guns trained on him. The brilliance of those eyes forced Ander to look away. Up close, the being stood a full head and shoulders over the six-foot-three chief of police.
He spoke in accented Kallanese, the official language of the Republic. He had a rich, sonorous voice that Ander felt deep in his bones.
“I apologize for our unannounced arrival, Mister Brady. We five are the Emissariae of His Eminence the Supreme Mancer. I am Ka, manipulator of fire. My colleagues: Anargul, manipulator of wood, Obrad, manipulator of earth, Trahaearn, manipulator of metal, and Aysu, manipulator of water.”
“You’re Mancers,” said Ander, flooded with wonder and relief. “They’re Mancers, aye!” he said to his officers, who were momentarily too stunned to react. Then they holstered their guns and began to shout the news all at once.
At the exuberant cries of the police, doors and windows were being opened again in the streets and telephones were ringing all over town. Within minutes, the streets around the square were full of people curious to see what a Mancer looked like. Each of the Mancers had an emblem on their robe over the heart. The speaker, Ka, bore the image of a red bird, Anargul a blue-green serpent, Obrad a yellow human figure, Trahaearn a white bear, and Aysu a black crab.
Ka, the manipulator of fire, observed the crowd forming and then said to Ander, “I would like to speak with you privately.” As Ander tried to think of where they could go and how they would get there, the Mancer’s voice came again, this time from inside his head: We are looking for Eliza Tok. Ander stared in disbelief at the Mancer. His face was grave and his lips did not move as he continued to speak in Ander’s mind. There is no need to speak out loud. Answer me with your thoughts. Where is the girl Eliza Tok?
I dinnay know her, Ander thought. Then he remembered that Tok was a Sorma name and that there was a Sorma fellow who lived just outside town and kept bees or some such thing. Was his name Tok? He couldn’t remember.
Take us to the beekeeper, then, replied the Mancer in Ander’s head. Ander shivered and his eyes itched. He didn’t want the Mancer in his head. He stepped away and said, “Aye, the beekeeper,” out loud. The Mancer Ka gave him a sharp look, and at that moment the mayor arrived in her car.
Leaving the dragons waiting in the square where children gawked a safe distance away, the five Mancers were escorted by the mayor, the police force, and a large group of townsfolk to Rom Tok’s house.
They found him in his garden on his knees in the dirt, ruefully looking at the tatters of lettuce and ruined tomatoes rabbits had left behind. He was a big man, dark-eyed and black-skinned, with strong, capable hands and a shock of black hair that stood straight up. Smile lines were worn deep around his mouth and eyes. He looked up at the crowd with mild surprise, but when he saw the Mancers among them he was on his feet in an instant, casting his eyes down.
“No,” he said, backing away from them towards the door of the house. “No.”
“This is he?” said Obrad, manipulator of earth, in disbelief.
Ka nodded to Aysu, manipulator of water. She was the most diplomatic, the best at dealing with other beings and humans in particular. Ka’s ascendancy was in the summer, but he found it uncomfortable acting as leader of the group. Aysu’s ascendancy was in the winter, and it seemed to Ka that they all relaxed when she and the powerful manipulators of water took the lead. Though it was her weakest season now and the journey had been hard for her, she approached Rom, kindly dimming her eyes.