The Destiny of the Dead (The Song of the Tears Book 3) by Ian Irvine Page A

take the muster.’
    People were still straggling in. Flangers appeared, along
with Chissmoul and her friend Allioun, one of the few freed captives from the
Tower of a Thousand Steps who had not accepted Klarm’s offer of sanctuary. She
was thin and nervous, with large blue eyes and the pallor of the long-term prisoner.
Nish had looked like that for months after his own escape from Mazurhize.
    ‘Klarm has flown downstream,’ said Flangers. ‘He’ll be
checking in case we got through the gorge before the flood.’
    ‘Then he’ll be a while,’ said Flydd, emerging from behind
the fig tree.
    He did not look much better than he had previously, but at
least he was still alive. And so were Hoshi and the gigantic fisherman, Clech.
Unfortunately Yggur was not with him, and Nish could not see Tulitine either.
    He finished the count, and the muster was better than he had
feared – a hundred and sixty-two survivors, counting himself. At least
twenty had been lost in the forest, and rather more had been swept away by the
flood. He ached for every lost man and woman; and yet, had he arrived a minute
later it would have been far worse.
    ‘Where’s Yggur and Tulitine?’ said Nish, frowning.
    ‘Gone back to the other clearing,’ said Clech, shifting his
weight from one foot to the other.
    ‘What for?’
    ‘Er … Yggur said something to Lady Tulitine about taking
another look at the caduceus; said it was calling to them.’
    ‘ Calling? And you
let them go?’ Nish cried. Just when he’d thought that things were under
control!
    ‘I said it was a bad idea but Yggur told me to mind my own
damn business. Sorry, Nish.’
    ‘It’s not your bloody fault. What’s the matter with Yggur?
He couldn’t walk an hour ago.’
    ‘He got better, then he was whispering to Tulitine for a
while.’
    ‘Damn fools! I suppose the flood got them.’
    ‘They had enough time to get there –’ said Clech.
    ‘Well, I didn’t see them,’ said Nish.
    ‘Where have you been, anyway?’ said Flydd.
    ‘Klarm caught me and took me back to the air-sled. Maelys
rescued me – I’ll never know how she outwitted him – and we started
down here. She couldn’t keep up and I ran ahead …’
    ‘After she’d just done her all for you?’ said Flydd.
    ‘If I hadn’t, you’d all be dead!’ The criticism was a bit
rich, coming from Flydd, after all the times he’d lectured Nish about acting
for the greater good. Even so, Nish bitterly regretted leaving her. ‘I –
I didn’t know the dam was going to collapse.’
    ‘She might have survived.’
    ‘It’s possible,’ said Nish, though after witnessing that
flood he had little hope.
    ‘Or Klarm might have captured her,’ said Flydd.
    Yes, of course that’s what happened, Nish thought, faint
with relief. ‘Did anyone get a close look at the air-sled?’
    ‘I did,’ said Flangers, ‘though my eyes aren’t as good as
they used to be –’
    ‘Chissmoul has pilot’s eyes,’ said Flydd, for she had been a
thapter pilot in the war, the best and most daring of them all. ‘What did you
see, girl?’
    Chissmoul was at least as old as Nish, and therefore no
girl, but she said without rancour, ‘There was no one on the air-sled except
Klarm.’ She let out a heavy sigh, presumably for the miracle of flight that she
would never experience again.
    ‘I’m going back to look for her,’ said Nish, rubbing his
eyes. ‘And Yggur and Tulitine. Wait here –’
    ‘You’re not doing anything of the sort,’ said Flydd. ‘Now
we’re finally back together, we’re staying together. We’ll have something to
eat then follow the forest around to the upper clearing and stay under cover
while you check it. And then we’ve got to work out what the hell we can do.’
    Klarm passed over the upper clearing from a great height and
turned away towards the white-thorn peak. They waited for half an hour, in case
he came sneaking back, then Nish and Flydd went down. It was early afternoon.
    The flood had