The Lost Art by Simon Morden

Author:Simon Morden
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407077888
Publisher: RHCP

CHAPTER 24

‘WHEN YOU SAID I could watch you die, I didn’t believe you.’ Elenya was kneeling up, letting the salt spray from the white wave-tops soak her to her bones. The darkness around them was soft, the high cloud turning the moon-glow into a rainbow-touched pearl. ‘You always seemed so indestructible. Not a man, a force of nature. You could do whatever you wanted and the world had to bend to your will.’

‘You were mistaken.’ Va pulled at the oars rhythmically, each stroke as strong as the last even though he grunted with pain. The sea water was opening the wounds on his hands. He fixed his attention on the Kenyan, who was huddled in the stern, the struggle long since frozen out of him.

‘Do you remember the first time we met?’

‘I remember the last time.’

‘Why didn’t you want me?’

‘Because I’d moved Heaven and Earth to win you, and all I was left with was Hell.’

‘I was in my wedding dress.’

‘And I was red, head to foot, with other men’s blood. The only white you could see were my eyes.’

‘I was yours, Va. Totally, completely yours. Who could have imagined a love that would turn a murderer into a saviour, a gutter-born orphan into a king, a mercenary into the greatest general for a thousand years? At that moment you had everything.’

‘And you think me mad for dropping my sword and walking away? It was madness that drove me there. A cold dose of sanity was what I needed.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘Are you looking out for rocks or do I have to do that too?’

‘We’ll miss them.’

‘And you can see underwater, can you? There are too many breaking waves.’ He turned the boat further out to sea and gave the black headland a wide berth. An Cobh and its sparking fires finally dropped out of sight.

‘Shall I untie Akisi?’

‘No. You can ungag him if you want.’

She stood up and fearlessly stepped over Va to the stern. She tried to loosen the knot at the back of Akisi’s head, but it had shrunk with the cold and the water until it had welded itself together. She took out her knife, and momentarily enjoyed the abject fear that drained the Kenyan’s face of blood. The blade slipped between his cheek and the gag, and she cut, not particularly caring how she did it.

He spat out the remnants of the cloth. ‘Are you mad? Setting out to sea in this? Who are you? What do you want?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ she said. ‘Of course we’re mad. But we’ve got the book, and you. Why don’t you tell us who you think we are?’

‘Are you with Cormac? If you are, I can do a deal with him. I can do much more for him than I ever did for Ardhal. He took me by force. He made me work for him.’ Akisi looked from Elenya to Va, and back again. ‘I’m telling you the truth.’

‘What’s he saying?’ asked Va.

‘He’s trying to save his own skin.

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