A Flame of Song

Chapter 3

3

At first there was only cold. A deep, groaning cold inside his very bones, locking him in place and driving all thought from his mind. A chill so deep he was numb to the burning pain of it, unable to respond as he felt the ice around him shift and crack and begin to slide free. Then a pulse of heat, waking him, opening his eyes to the glowing golden thread in front of him. Singing to him, calling him on, upward, toward the light of the surface. A single shining doorway out of the dark.

Higgs opened his eyes.

A heavy hand clapped onto his shoulder, forcing him to his knees, then holding him upright as a wave of nausea rode up his insides and cold, salty water vomited out of him. Just salt water, nothing more inside him, the red stone at his feet washed clean by it.

‘Get it out of you. You don’t want to leave any of that inside.’

His stomach spasmed again in response, a thin, warm stream of bile falling from him.

‘Breathe. Remember to breathe.’

He sucked in a long, shuddering breath, amazed at the feel of it, the deep ache in his lungs slowly subsiding as they flexed back into life.

‘Good. Now rest. Recover. The Novus will judge you soon enough.’

The hand on his shoulder lifted and he heard boots move away, out of his line of vision. A metal door clanged shut, then the steps slowed again and he could just make out the same gruff voice repeating the commands to some other poor sap, getting them to empty themselves and live again.

Live again. He was alive.

Higgs raised his head and looked around, trying to blink his eyes into focus. The light was dim, a dull red glow covering everything—his eyes didn’t seem to want to follow orders—his vision was blurred and smudged as though he was staring out from deep underwater.

He felt himself sinking, impossibly heavy in the darkening waters. The shape on the ice above battered at the surface, its four paws clawing uselessly at it.

—Wilt, fight it. Stay with me!—

Higgs coughed and collapsed forward again, squeezing his eyes shut against the vision that had overwhelmed him. He put his head between his knees and gasped for air, slowly getting his breathing back under control.

After almost a minute, he tried again, raising his eyes slowly this time, taking one sight in at a time.

Red stone floor. Red stone walls. A barred door—a different, darker shade. Green perhaps. His eyes refused to focus on it. He shuffled forward awkwardly and reached out to touch it, fingers shaking as he tried to hold them still.

A spark of recognition as his fingers brushed the stone bars. A hint of green light pulsing in response.

Another clang as the door in the adjoining cell slammed shut, and he shrank back into his huddle, but the sound of boots on stone moved in the opposite direction, away from him. The voice was just a whisper now, too low to pass through the thick stone walls of his prison. He rocked back on his heels, concentrating on his breathing, on the wonder of air moving in and out of his lungs once more.

How was it possible? How was he here? How was he anywhere at all?

Where was Wilt?

Sontair. They had been in Sontair. He had taken control of Wilt, hiding him deep, allowing Vargul to break in and seemingly dominate his victim’s mind. Then they had escaped, Wilt’s wraith form taking over, its black hand sliding into Vargul’s chest, feeding on the man’s final thoughts as it drained him, trying to track the power that controlled him, infected him, bloomed within his mind and finally abandoned its servant to death. The dark power that recognised Wilt clung onto him, pulling him down below the barrier at the heart of the depths, into the cold ice. Into death.

But something had found him again. A vision, a memory, from before Redmondis. From Greystone, when the assassin had been sent to kill Wilt. They had slipped into his mind and found the shining golden weld that controlled him. Grasped it, pulling themselves up and out of the ice and ending up …

Here. Wherever here was.

He was breathing easier now, his lungs no longer protesting each shuddering breath, though a dull ache remained inside his chest, as though he had strained the muscles around his lungs. He coughed and a hot clench of pain shot through him.

‘You. Boy.’

A voice, different from the one before. Very different. A female voice.

‘Boy? Can you hear me?’

It was coming from behind the stone wall, from the cell next to his.

‘Come. Before they return.’

Higgs scrambled forward to the corner of his cell, where the dull green bars disappeared into the strange red stone of the wall. He tried to respond, but his voice didn’t seem to want to work. All that he could squeeze out was a thick rasp of a groan, like the final dying breath of an old man.

‘Ah! I thought I heard them bringing someone else back. Can’t talk yet?’

Higgs caught himself shaking his head in response as he tried to clear the strange lump in his throat.

‘Must have gone too deep. It will take a while for your body to recover.’

He managed another grunt in response.

‘I only went shallow this time. Easy task.’

Another clang rang out from farther down the corridor outside his cell door, and Higgs heard the owner of the voice scramble away from their shared corner.

‘Get back. They return already. Hope you can answer the Novus’s questions or it’ll be back to the Pit for you.’

The voice stopped then, and he could hear marching feet approaching. He slid back away from the door and bowed his head, eyes locked on the floor.

His vision blurred as he stared at the dull red stone, and he felt himself swaying in place, unable to hold himself still even in his crouched position. He squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated on breathing, trying to will himself to stay conscious.

The bolt on the door of the cell next to his shot back, and he heard a short, whispered muttering, then a single clear voice addressed the girl.

‘Weldfarer, you return. What is your name?’

Higgs heard her reply but couldn’t make out the words.

‘Good. And your task?’

Another murmur, and Higgs almost toppled over as he leaned toward the wall to try to hear.

‘You were successful?’

No reply then, at least none that he could hear. Perhaps she simply nodded.

‘Good. You may rest for now. The Novus will no doubt call on you again soon.’

A swish of movement then, as of a long cloak brushing against the stone floor, and another loud clang as the door of her cell slammed shut again. The booted feet moved closer and Higgs bowed his head between his knees as the door to his cell creaked open.

Suddenly a gloved hand was under his chin, forcing his eyes up. He blinked furiously, his eyes filling with tears as something bright blinded him. A familiar, golden light. Then a mutter of anger, and his chin was thrown back down.

‘This one has ventured far too deep. He has forgotten how to see.’

The voice was strong and severe, a rasp of age at its edge. Instantly, the image of Cantor Cortis popped into Higgs’s mind, but this voice was different. Similar, but not the same.

‘Your name, weldfarer?’

He coughed again as the words refused to form in his throat.

‘No voice either? How was he allowed to lose himself this way?’

The question seemed to be directed at the other, and he heard the first voice again, the one that had awoken him.

‘The mules brought him to me as is. I know not of his time elsewhere.’

The gloved hand grasped Higgs’s chin again, and this time he could almost make out the shape of a face through the golden blur.

‘A waste, letting them drown themselves this way. He should have been better prepared. Back to the Pit with him. We will reform what has been lost.’

‘As you command.’

He must have lost time then, for the next moment both bodies had left his cell and he was blinking his eyes at the stone ground, trying to will his thoughts into focus.

Pit? What was going on?

‘You. Boy.’

It was the girl again, back at the front corner of his cell.

‘Couldn’t answer? Nothing for it now. Try to regain what strength you can. You’ll be back in the Pit soon enough.’

Higgs thought about crawling to the corner to try to talk to her, but a wave of exhaustion swept over him. He inched further away instead, back to the cold stone wall at the rear of his cell, huddling into himself.

‘You got out of there once. You can do it again.’

Her voice seemed to drift into his mind like a dream. He wrapped his arms around his head and curled into a ball, shivering as he tried to will some heat into his body.

Body. His body. Somehow.

She whispered something again, but Higgs had already turned away from her voice, away from the world itself, as a blank wall of unconsciousness slammed over him and he knew no more.