The Vulture King Read online

  She fastened the pin back to her jacket and smoothed the collar down so that it was hidden once again. “I helped her as soon as I was old enough. Small fingers are good at assembling the rat traps.”

  “It sounds…” Aram hesitated, choosing his words carefully, “fascinating.”

  Bina gave a bitter twist of laughter. “There’s nothing fascinating about being a ratter. Rats are filthy beasts and they fight like mad when you take them out of the cages. Bites can fester, so you snap their necks as quick as possible and be done with it.”

  As she spoke, Aram noticed she had pulled her aardwolf claw out. One finger traced its wicked curve repeatedly. She continued, “In the far South, some of the rats grow as big as chickens. Difficult to snap their necks, so you have to slit their throats instead.”

  Her voice was pragmatic, Aram couldn’t help but think this explained a great deal about her. For a while there was nothing but the scrunch of sand under their boots to break the silence.

  “Well, if you don’t want to talk through things, I’ll leave you to your thoughts,” she said abruptly. Aram watched Bina march on ahead of him and wondered at the strange secrets people kept.

  Two days later they stood in front of an impossibility. One minute the Barrens had lain ahead of them, empty and unchanging, then a mountain appeared out of nowhere. The shock of its sudden presence halted the party in its tracks. Aram’s bird wheeled high above his head, but the peak was wreathed in clouds. He wasn’t quite sure you could even call the mass a mountain. Its sheer obsidian sides seemed to have no crevices or handholds. They simply rose, smooth as glass straight up towards the sky.

  When they reached its base, the sides still appeared smooth.

  “How on earth am I supposed to reach the top of that?” he burst out.

  “Well, you’re the special one, so surely you’re the one who should know?” Tai sneered at him.

  “Be quiet, that’s enough,” snapped Bayre.

  Bina touched one of the smooth sides. “It feels like silk.” Her eyes widened in wonder. “It’s warm to the touch. Come, Aram, feel it. It’s like a living thing under my hand.”

  Aram walked forward and placed a tentative hand on the structure’s side. That’s what it was, he realised, a Veldera creation, not a mountain at all. The warmth it radiated spread through his palm. As he stood there, he felt a pulse beat once under his hand and he drew away quickly. “Something happened,” he said. “I felt something…almost like a heartbeat.”

  Bina turned her eyes to him. “I felt nothing, nothing but the heat.”

  Aram wondered for a moment whether he had imagined the pulse but then a voice spoke. “Welcome, child of the Veldera.”

  Bina and Tai were looking around in confusion, so they must have heard it too.

  The voice spoke again. “What is it you seek?”

  Bina’s eyes were so wide, the whites showed all around her ice-blue irises. “I can hear a voice in my head.”

  “She’s right,” agreed Tai. “It sounds completely different to what I hear through my bird.”

  Bayre shook his head in confusion. “I hear nothing.”

  Aram asked. “Who are you? What do you want?”

  The voice gave a dry chuckle. “Has it been so long, that Veldera have forgotten the Saanen?”

  “Saanen,” breathed Bina, her face lit by a smile. Aram wished the word meant something to him, but he was utterly confused.

  “Look up,” commanded the voice. Aram’s magpie circled even higher. Tai and Bina craned their necks upwards, Bayre copying them a moment later.

  Perched high up on the glass wall was a giant goat. Aram couldn’t imagine what the creature was balancing on but next moment it gave a huge bound and landed on the ground next to them.

  Immediately he realised calling it a goat was a big mistake. While it bore a ram’s curling horns and had hooves, the body was cat-like, though covered in a shaggy pelt. A long, prehensile tail curled and wove in the air behind the creature whose green eyes were now fixed on Aram.

  “You have come to be tested, Veldera child, have you not? It has been fifty years since last one of your kind ventured to this place. Are you ready?’

  Aram had no idea whether he was ready. If he really thought about it, he felt completely unprepared for any of this, as well as more than a little terrified. But he also knew he had no choice. This was what they had all come so far and risked their lives for. He was determined not to show any fear in front of Tai. He’d had quite enough of the older boy showing him up. Swallowing hard, he nodded his head.

  “Climb on my back and I will carry you to the top. Your companions must wait here. This place is not for them.”

  Aram walked towards the Saanen, trying to control his wobbly knees. He would not give Tai the satisfaction of seeing him quivering like a badly set jelly. Placing a hand on the beast’s shoulder, he hauled himself onto its back.

  Before he had a chance to say a word, the creature leapt straight up into the air. Its feet found purchase in some almost invisible crack in the mountain’s smooth sides and then it leapt again. In massive bounds it worked its way up the peak with Aram clinging grimly to its pelt. Fortunately, his magpie’s vision was fixed forward as it flew upwards. He didn’t want to see the huge drop that now loomed behind him. He clenched his hands tighter into the beast’s thick fur.

  They ascended rapidly and then burst through the clouds to land on the mountain top. Aram tumbled from the Saanen’s back and lay on the ground, breathing deeply though his nose. The air was thin, and he felt light-headed and disoriented.

  “Lying there isn’t going to do you much good,” said the voice in his mind.

  Aram pushed his mind towards the Saanen’s and said without words, “Is this how you do it?”

  There was a surprised laugh from the creature. “You learn fast. That is good. Now come this way.”

  Aram rolled to his side then clambered to his feet. The mountain top was completely flat, which reinforced his earlier impression that this was a man-made structure. There was nothing to see except a path leading towards a black building, featureless except for a slit of an entrance.

  The Saanen moved off and Aram followed it down the smooth, mosaic-covered path. The patterns were swirling and beautiful and spoke of true craftsmanship. Soon they stood in front of the building which had faint silvery markings that curled and twisted under its black glass surface. Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the doorway. As he entered, warmth wrapped him in a comforting cocoon. Ryu settled on his shoulder, but he battled to make out the interior in the dim light filtering from the entrance. The Saanen came to a halt and Aram stopped next to him. As the magpie’s eyes adjusted, he saw a vast lake stretching out in front of him. The water was frozen solid, small waves and ripples caught in motion across its surface, now forever stilled.

  “How is this possible?” he asked aloud. “The whole mountain radiates heat. This lake shouldn’t be frozen. It should be steaming.”

  The Saanen’s voice was wry inside his head. “So young, to understand everything that is possible and what is not.”

  Aram squared his shoulders, determined not to say anything else the beast might consider foolish. “So, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Ah, that is for you to discover, Veldera child. I will leave you now.”

  The Saanen turned and its hooves clattered as it exited the cave.

  Well, he wasn’t exactly helpful, thought Aram resentfully. Then worried the creature might still be able to hear his thoughts, he turned his attention to the strange lake in front of him. The ice was a dull blue white. There were no mysterious words carved on its surface to tell him what to do next. Nothing but the frozen waves which seemed to mock him with their stillness.

  He thumped to the ground cross-legged and dropped his head into his hands. His friends came all this way, at so much risk to themselves, to get him here. Bina believed he could somehow change the world and his mother needed him to save her. But h
ere he sat, just a foolish boy with absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do.

  He waited hopefully for a sign, or another mysterious voice, but nothing happened. It really was quite irritating if he was honest. He poked an angry finger at the ice in front of him and to his complete shock, it disappeared into the surface. He pulled his hand back sharply and stared at the extended digit.

  It looked exactly the same as always. Slowly he reached towards the ice again and watched in astonishment as his finger sank into it. There was no sense of resistance and strangely, no sense of cold. He pushed harder and his whole hand disappeared. With a single deep breath, Aram pushed the rest of his arm in and then his head.

  He was in another place. It was lightless, soundless. He simply hung amidst nothing. He tried to lift his arms, but there was no sensation of movement, no sound. He didn’t think he was even breathing. Slowly, images filtered into his mind. A woman knelt in front of the ice lake. She flickered and was replaced by a man tentatively stretching an arm towards the surface. A succession of people, young and old, entered the cave and knelt before the radix. Dozens then hundreds flashed past in the blink of an eye.

  Then one boy came into sharp focus. He was a perfectly ordinary looking boy but for the giant cechua hunkered down at his side. Now, Aram understood that he’d been seeing all the Veldera who had come to this place. And the boy he now saw was the vulture king, before he’d managed to crush the world under his heel. The king came here looking to tap into the power of the radix, but had he succeeded?

  Aram saw the boy enter the ice, and all at once he knew the stranger completely. Born on a far Western isle, where magic was viewed as a curse by the superstitious inhabitants, the blind baby had been left by his parents on a mountaintop to die. Hundreds of years ago, he was an abomination, a burden to his family, and so they abandoned him. The baby, tiny but with a radix as deep as Aram’s, cried for his mother with an infant’s deep need. His wails attracted a cechua which approached the child to feast. The boy reached out with his unformed mind and latched onto the bird. Instinctively using his Natura power, he bonded it to him. The monstrous vulture lifted the infant in its claws and flew with him far across the seas. In the land of Alaiya, it deposited the child in its eyrie nest, where it raised him along with its chicks. Given sight, by the giant bird, the boy grew up wild and cruel. There was nobody to teach him the basics of human kindness or love. He existed on bloodied meat and knew only the one law. The law of all wild things— kill or be killed.

  Although Aram knew the boy turned into something corrupt and utterly evil, he felt pity well up in his heart. To know your own parents left you to die would turn anyone’s heart to stone. He had been so completely cut off from the world, you could almost understand what he became.

  As he grew in power, the boy learned of the radix and came to seek it. But the radix rejected him. In the process however, the boy came to understand his power could be renewed. If the radix wouldn’t do it for him, he would use other Veldera for the purpose. And so, the almost immortal vulture king was born.

  This creature, who loathed the Veldera and their radix for rejecting him, now decided to make them his slaves. Generation upon generation punished for his suffering. Using his Mechanii and Animai magics, the king created a curse stone. Any Veldera brought before him was enslaved by the power of the stone, forced to fuel the king with their own magic until they withered and died.

  With a sickening lurch, Aram saw how much alike he and the king were. They were both of them strong in magic with unusual powers. Both scared children, abandoned and alone. But six years of his mother’s protective love had made him something more than the king could ever be. It had made him human while the king only wore the skin of a man. Inside he was pure monster.

  The figure of the king disappeared and only another few Veldera approached the radix as he watched. They came with hope shining in their eyes and left again shoulders bowed in defeat. The last Veldera to enter the black building was someone Aram recognised. Ellery stepped to the edge of the lake and knelt to touch the surface. She was much younger but the chicken at her side confirmed her identity. She left like the others, shoulders slumped and head drooping. Aram couldn’t stop the thought which slunk into his head like a thief. If none of the Veldera who had come here, hoping to defeat the king, had succeeded, what chance did he have?

  Ellery faded from his mind’s eye and he was left once again hanging in silent space. Weighed down with this new and terrible knowledge, he floated, unsure of what else the radix expected of him. As long moments passed and nothing happened, a new fear took hold. What if he was being judged right now and found wanting? How could he walk down off this mountain and tell his friends all hope was lost? That he had come this far and then failed them because in the end, he really was less than nothing.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Aram floated in the darkness forever. Or less than a minute, there really was no way to tell. With nothing for him to hold on to, no light, sound or sensation, he wondered how long it would be before he lost his mind completely. Then he’d be nothing but a babbling, broken thing floating in this void for all of time. He found it comforting in some ways. Lost in the lake, nobody could expect him to fight a madman. All the hope pinned on him would simply wither away. Of course, that also meant nobody would save his mother or free Alaiya from the vulture king. It really was a conundrum.

  Just as he was about to surrender to the void completely, he imagined what Bina would say if she was here with him.

  “Don’t give up, Aram, you’re being an idiot!” she would scold him. “I believe in you, so don’t just give up. Use your brain and find a way to get back here immediately.”

  He would have smiled if he still had a face to make the expression, but he would not let Bina down. He calmed his mind and then as he had with the Saanen, pushed his consciousness outwards. There was something there, if he could just stretch a little more. He focused, reached further and felt himself break through a barrier.

  He was engulfed in silver light, warm and welcoming. Awe filled him as he joined with the radix. Its power pulsing through his veins, filling him with strength and courage.

  A voice, or perhaps it was simply a thought, chimed like a clear bell in his head.

  See what you could be. Unlimited power to do with as you please, Veldera child. Do you want it?

  It was so very tempting to say yes. Aram imagined himself striding down the mountain, a king, no, almost a god. The vulture king would fall before him and he would never fear anybody ever again. The world would worship him and…Aram stopped. Where were these thoughts coming from? He felt high on the power of the radix, but these weren’t the things he dreamed of, were they?

  He wanted to save his mother, true, and he most definitely wanted to stop the king. But what about the rest of it, did he want any of that? The thought of himself as ruler of the Carrionlands was all wrong. He wanted freedom for the Veldera and wanted to be able to be who he was without shame or fear. But beyond that, he thought he simply wanted to be happy, to know he made a difference. He wanted to listen to Bina sing awful songs, the more tuneless the better, and know she would never be enslaved by a tyrant. They were simple dreams, but he cherished them.

  The voice chimed again. So, what is your answer, child? Do you desire the power of the Radix to conquer and raise yourself above other men? It can be so, if you choose.

  “No,” replied Aram. “That isn’t what I want.”

  The power flooding through him slowed. He was still held within it, but it felt comforting now, like being rocked in his mother’s arms.

  What is it you want?

  Aram thought hard before he replied. “I want the world to be free.”

  Freedom always comes at a price. There are few prepared to pay what we ask.

  Aram didn’t hesitate. “I will pay it. To save the people I love, there isn’t a price I’m unwilling to pay.

  One final time the voice sang to him.

 
We accept your sacrifice Aram. You belong to the radix now and you carry us with you.

  With a gasp Aram opened his eyes to find himself kneeling once again in front of the ice lake. He blinked and shock hit him like a bucket of freezing water over the head. His veins were burning, his head spinning. He was sick, dizzy and disoriented, and this weakness filled him with fear. What just happened? What had been done to him? Then Ryu landed on his shoulder and tweaked his ear affectionately. The bird’s warm weight focused Aram, allowing him to step away from the brink of the pit which threatened to swallow him.

  He twisted his head at the clatter of hooves behind him. The Saanen looked at him gravely then dropped its head in a bow of recognition.

  The creature’s tone was joyful inside his head, “Aram, child of the radix, I greet you. Come, my brothers are waiting.”

  Aram stumbled to his feet and followed the beast back out onto the mountaintop into unexpectedly bright light. The clouds had parted and above him the sky shone cerulean blue. The sight filled him with hope. As he dropped his gaze, he saw that the area outside the cave was filled with Saanen. In a rippling wave they all dropped their heads in silent salute. Multiple voices whispered inside his head. “We see you, child of the radix. We see you.”

  Aram turned to the Saanen at his side. “What now?”

  “Now, my brothers and I follow where you lead. Centuries ago the Saanen and Veldera were allies, sharing knowledge and skills. We have bided our time under the vulture king’s rule, waiting for one prepared to make the sacrifice.”

  Aram lifted his hands in front of him, palms open in supplication. “But what did I give up? I was told there was a price, but I feel just the same.”

  The beast’s dry chuckle rang in his head. “You gave up what most men never would--the chance for unlimited power. Many good people have stood where you did and been offered the same choice. They all chose power, thinking that only might could defeat the vulture king. But strength alone isn’t enough. You put the needs of others over your own, and that’s why the radix chose you. You chose service over dominance. The first to ever do so.”