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“He’s been poisoned,” Zaine said, stepping back with a frown. He had seen these symptoms before when a woman in his childhood village had brewed up some leaves, thinking them to be camomile. But she had fallen ill as the leaves were poisonous.
“Poisoned?” Queen Mya repeated. Her eyes flicked straight to a jug by the bed. She picked it up and gave it to Zaine. “Eldric made up this potion to help ease the king’s pain.”
Zaine sniffed the yellow liquid and wrinkled his noes as he recognised a pungent herb that he knew Davyn had used. But it hadn’t been to heal people. It was what he used for cleaning wounds and disinfecting his hands before helping his patients.
The queen saw his expression and looked horrified. “I’ve been giving it to him every day.”
“How do we make him better?” Guyan said, relief showing in her eyes as she looked gratefully at Zaine.
Zaine paused before answering. He knew the herbs for easing the symptoms, but he had no idea if it would be enough. He wished he could ask Davyn.
“Give him plenty of water and fresh air,” Zaine suggested, hoping the water would flush out the poison. “Do you have herbs I can use to make something to ease his pain?”
“Eldric grows them in a small cavern,” the queen replied, already throwing open the window. “It’s on the far side of Royal Heights. We’ll go and get some.”
“Help me up,” a weak voice said, and everyone turned to see King Reko trying to sit up. “I want to go and have a word with my brother.”
It took a lot of convincing to make the king stay in bed. Finally, the queen and Jelena stayed to keep an eye on him, leaving Guyan to lead Zaine and the others to get the herbs.
“I think we should tell Uncle Eldric that the king is no longer sick and see how he reacts.” Guyan’s gaze had already settled on the tunnel at the far end of the swinging bridge. “The people of Zhan must be told what he has done.”
Guyan strode quickly across the decking and onto the bridge. Zaine looked briefly at Maata and Tercel. Were they supposed to follow?
“Come on!” Guyan called back to them. “It’s on the way to the herb cave.”
The bridge wasn’t wide but it was very long, and the motion of four people hurrying across it set it swinging quite alarmingly. Zaine tried to slow his pace, but Maata pushed him along. He was relieved to find that the people of Zhan had thought to make handrails out of rope, and he clung to them as he hurried across the top of the trees of Royal Heights.
They caught up with Guyan as they reached the tunnel, and Zaine felt a rush of relief when his feet touched solid rock. He looked back at the bridge, which was still swinging even though there was nobody on it.
The group hurried through a short tunnel that had a well-worn red carpet covering the floor. They emerged into a small, round cavern, stopping in a hurry as Guyan blocked their way.
Under their feet was the greenest grass that Zaine had ever seen, and it covered the stone floor like a thick carpet. A circle of clear stone on one wall let light in, and the red glow shone directly on two green thrones at the end of the room. Colourful tapestries hung on all the walls, creating a room of colour that seemed unnaturally bright after the dark tunnel.
The man seated at the far end of the room was obviously the self-appointed king. He looked to be a fatter, slightly younger version of the sick king. He had short, black hair and piercing black eyes. His skin, like that of everyone in Zhan, was covered in many runes. Even his face had the faint markings of runes on his forehead and cheeks, which had the effect of making him look even more formidable.
“Don’t worry, they’re drawn on,” Guyan whispered to Zaine. “He only has about five real runes.”
In Zaine’s world royalty dressed in white, but here they seemed to favour greens and reds in all the different hues of an autumn forest. King Eldric’s clothes were of leafy greens while his cloak was deep crimson.
To his left stood two boys. One of them was the blond-haired Dom, and he looked a little surprised to see that Guyan had come to see his father. The other boy was much taller and older, and had spiky black hair and a sour expression.
The oldest boy noticed their arrival and scowled when he saw Guyan. “Father, look who is here.”
“Sy, I’ve told you to address me as ‘Your Highness’ or ‘King Eldric’,” the new king snapped. Then he took in his son’s words and looked up at the intruders. He glared at Guyan, a furious expression darkening his face.
“You were banished! How dare you return and threaten the very existence of our entire world,” he snarled with more than a hint of hatred in his voice.
Guyan ignored his harsh words. “The king is feeling much better. He will soon be well enough to return to the throne. He is grateful that you have cared for Zhan in his absence.”
Her statement had an immediate effect on Eldric. He stood up and glared at Guyan, as if to make her take the words back. He seemed to be struggling to fight back an outburst of temper.
“I’m relieved to hear that,” he said stiffly as he sat down again on the throne. “We had feared he would not survive this illness.”
A weaver pushed past them as he came through the doorway, and Eldric waved him forward. The man hurried up to the new king and leaned close to whisper a message. Zaine, edging around the small cavern, heard it clearly.
“The circle is almost complete, Your Highness. We are ready,” the man said, looking eager to please his new king.
“And they knew nothing?” King Eldric asked.
“We finished a few minutes ago, Your Highness,” the man assured King Eldric, nodding his head furiously. “The dragons are still away on the top of the mountain peaks for the burial, and have not yet returned to the basin.”
Zaine pretended that he hadn’t heard the exchange and examined a tapestry hanging on the wall. It showed a scene similar to the one on the doors of Guyan’s castle here in Zhan. The forest had been woven with such detail it looked almost real.
“First, we need to make sure Guyan returns to the world to which she was banished,” Eldric said, looking hard at Guyan. He waved forward the weaver who waited a few paces away. “Take them to her starlink and open it.”
“The timeweavers and starweavers are all exhausted.” The man looked concerned. “It took every one we have, and a few who are still learning.”
“Sy can open it then.” The king stood up and strode quickly across the grass. He seemed nervous as he looked at the number of runes on Guyan’s skin. Obviously there were far more than there had been when he had last seen her.
Before she could back away, he grabbed Guyan’s hand and turned her palm up. He smiled with relief when he saw that the black cross was still there. He looked a little more closely at her companions before continuing. “And these children have no runes marked on their skin at all! They cannot cause any trouble here – even Sy can handle this lot.”
Sy looked annoyed at his father’s comments, but did not argue. Zaine decided it was probably time they all disappeared. He quickly muttered the runes for invisibility under his breath and moved close enough to Maata to grab hold of one of her hands. Before he could get her to take Guyan’s and Tercel’s hands, he paused. He did not feel the familiar tingle of his runes working, and it was clear that King Eldric could still see him.
“My runes don’t work here,” Tercel whispered, obviously having just tried something similar.
“Neither do mine,” Zaine said, looking worried. How would they defend themselves now?
“Sy! Dom!” the new king called out, without taking his eyes off the four youths. “Take Guyan and her friends back where they belong.”
His two sons stepped forward. Sy was grinning, but Dom looked unsure about what he was being told to do. “But, Father, surely there is no need to do that? She is no longer in line for the throne.”
“Dom, call me by my title!” the new king hissed. “And do what you are told.”
“What should we do with them if that world has broken free?” Sy asked.
“Throw them into the nearest starlink,” Eldric said with a shrug. He turned and walked off, confident that his orders would now be carried out without question.
Sy looked at Guyan with an evil grin. “Don’t forget, Cousin, I still have the use of my runes. I’ve learnt a lot more in the year since you left, so don’t give us any trouble.”
Guyan leaned close to Zaine and whispered. “Pretend to go along with it for now. Most of his runes are probably drawn on as well.”
Zaine guessed she must have a plan, so he didn’t argue. When Sy came up and gave him a push, he meekly turned and allowed the older boy to usher them all out of the throne room.
Sy led the way down into the tunnels with Dom bringing up the rear. Guyan dropped back to talk to her younger cousin.
“I see that Sy is just as bossy as ever,” she said to Dom. “Do you know any runes that will help us?”
“A few,” Dom replied with a grin. “They might have stopped me learning more, but they haven’t stopped me using the ones I have.”
“I’ll distract him and you give us a bit of time to get away,” Guyan said, receiving a nod of agreement from Dom. Then she said loudly so that Sy would hear. “I don’t really want to go back to that world.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Sy replied bluntly.
“We could just tell Father that we did it,” Dom suggested.
“Keep quiet, Dom!” Sy snapped at his younger brother. “I’m in charge here.”
“I’d rather go to a different world,” Guyan said, pointing down a tunnel. “Maybe that one.”
Sy sighed, and then shrugged. “What do I care which world it is?” he muttered as he turned down the tunnel that Guyan had pointed to.
The stone cottage that they came up in looked almost identical to the one by Zaine’s world, but the bed was in a different place. Sy pushed them roughly towards the door of the cottage.
Dom went over to the heavy wooden door and opened it a little.
Instantly, red sand rushed into the cottage and the young weaver slammed the door shut.
“This link has gone,” Dom said, and Zaine caught the brief, pained expression that said this news bothered him. “So has the runecircle around the cottage.”
“We’ll go to the next one,” Sy ordered.
Again they were pushed down into the tunnels, and a few minutes later they came up in another stone cottage.
“How many of these are there?” Zaine asked Guyan when he saw it wasn’t the right cottage again.
“About fifty,” Guyan replied, but her attention was on the wooden door. Sand was drifting in through the small gap at the bottom. “But only twenty have worlds attached. Maybe fewer now.”
Sy and Dom had also seen the sand, and this time they didn’t try to hide their uneasiness. Sy pulled open the door. The sand didn’t rush in, as it was angled slightly away, but it did swirl into the cottage quite quickly. He looked out on the landscape for a minute before turning back to them, looking irritated.
“There’s only one more left,” Sy said. “It’s just over that way a bit by land, but we’ll have to go down through the tunnels to reach it. Let’s hope it’s still there by the time we get there.”
Zaine looked over at the circle the weaver was talking about. A red-robed figure was standing by the stone cottage, and another, with a blue robe, was slumped on the ground. Even through the driving sands he knew exactly who it was.
“Davyn,” he muttered; his attention on the figure on the ground.
“And Calard,” Tercel added, dislike for his master colouring his voice.
“The starlink to your world has stayed open,” Guyan said quietly. “We should have closed it when we got here. Then they wouldn’t have been able to come through.”
Sy and Dom had moved over to the corner of the cottage, and Dom was talking to his older brother.
“I say we just go back to Father and tell him there is nowhere to send Guyan,” Dom insisted, earning himself a glare of impatience from his brother.
“Maybe I’ll send you away with them,” Sy replied threateningly. “Then there’s no way you could ever cause me trouble.”
“Hey, Sy!” Guyan called out. When her cousin turned towards her, she picked up the chair that stood by the table and threw it towards him. “Catch!”
Dom looked over at Guyan, seeing she was distracting his brother. He turned and quickly spoke a string of runes directed at his brother. Sy stared at Dom in surprise while trying to catch the chair as well – then froze. The chair hit him and bounced onto the floor.
“Dom, you have been studying,” a surprised Guyan said.
“It’s not a very strong spell. It’s not like a timeloop. He just can’t move for a few minutes,” Dom replied, looking pleased but trying not to boast. “If you’re going to get away, I suggest you go before it wears off.”