Chapter 29 #2
Silence fills the room, though I suspect that, like me, the others’ minds are anything but quiet. Instead, hundreds of questions, possibilities, and uncertainties roll over and over in my thoughts.
‘You said Sanrott took the Sannings’ powers, right? He didn’t kill them? So what happened to them? Why did your numbers dwindle so drastically? Did your people not want a life without magic?’ Caz asks.
Thessa’s eyes flare unexpectedly. ‘You think we are that fragile? That we couldn’t see a purpose in life without power?’
‘No, no,’ Caz replies hastily. ‘That’s not what I meant. Not at all. I’m just trying to make sense of everything that followed.’
The Sanning inhales slowly, as if this part of her past is even more painful than the tale of her entire race being stripped of their powers.
‘It did not take long for the other humans to learn what had happened to us,’ Thessa says slowly, ‘and the Morathkians clearly thought that if the Gods had punished us, then we deserved to be eradicated. So that is what they tried to do. They hunted us. Murdered us. Destroyed evidence of our existence and took what little land we had claimed for our own. But some of us remain. Hidden in the quiet.’
My scalp prickles as I look at Loch. That’s what he called them from the beginning. The Quiet Ones. Small and silent, not through a preference for solitude but as a means to survive.
My throbbing heart burns deeper still. I look the Sanning dead in the eye. ‘I’m so sorry, Thessa. I am so sorry that your people had to go through that.’
‘Our people,’ she corrects gently, and I shake my head instinctively, still not quite able to comprehend the heritage of a grandmother I never knew. Of course, it would help if Magnus would talk about her, but I suspect this is not the time to try again.
‘It is our past,’ Thessa continues. ‘It is not our present or future. The few of us left travel in pairs, so we never seem a threat. We gather but rarely.’ A smile lifts her lips. ‘And when we do, we raise our spears and dance. We spit in Sanrott’s eye. Long may he rot.’
My mind wants to reel with it all, and suddenly I recall a vision I once had of a group of people dressed in red fox stoles, dancing and raising their spears in defiance. I didn’t understand it then, but I do now.
I’m desperate to ask more questions about all of it, but time is not on our side, so I turn my attention to the reason we came here.
‘This is all amazing and fascinating, but let’s circle back to the Retterheld.’ I fix my eyes on Magnus. ‘So the first gifting, when the three Sannings entered…’ I voice my thoughts as they come. ‘Did they have magic then or not?’
Had Sanrott already been defeated by his siblings at this point?
‘It seems likely they still did,’ Caz says.
‘Because if they had already been stripped, surely they would simply have asked for the return of their magic as their gift rather than asking for three blades? There’s also the fact that the Sannings are only mentioned in the first gifting and not in any of the other tournaments that followed. ’
‘Because by the subsequent Retterhelds, they’d lost their magic and gone into hiding?’ I suggest.
‘Maybe Etta gifted the three Sannings the daggers to make up for her brother being a dick,’ Benny chimes in.
‘But why would three of them win?’ Caz asks. ‘I’ve only flicked through the pages, but I couldn’t see another tournament where more than one person won it. Not ever, bar that one.’
‘Indeed,’ Magnus says. ‘We are unsure why that is what happened, even now.’
‘What if all three of them wanted the same thing?’ Benny interjects. ‘Just like we did.’
Magnus and Thessa share the same look of confusion, so Benny explains.
‘A group of us Eastern Islanders entered the latest Retterheld together. The one where Rose won. All of us wanted the same thing. There was never any disagreement about that.’ He pauses, and I know he’s thinking about the losses he suffered.
Suan, Jai, Llin, and even young Coulter, stolen away from us in the Sunken Temple to have his lips sewn shut, doomed to silence for the next sixteen years merely for showing compassion.
Benny clears his throat. ‘We talked more than once – particularly on the boat ride over – about us standing there in a line in front of Etta and her granting the gift to all of us together. We thought we’d be the first people in history to win as a group.
’ His mouth twists with bitterness. ‘It wasn’t meant to be, not for us, but maybe that’s what the Sannings did? ’
Magnus nods slowly. ‘It is certainly possible. You must be a good leader to bring people together like that.’
‘Or just have a cause that people are passionate about,’ Benny replies. ‘A cause so essential that selfishness sloughs away. A cause that means more than one life.’
Kyor stiffens beside me, and I can’t say I blame him. The passionate cause Benny speaks of is bringing an end to Kyor’s father’s reign.
‘Magnus,’ Caz begins, ‘maybe if we could find details on the prize the Sannings won in the Retterheld, it would help us understand more. There’s a sketch of Rose’s dagger in this book. Do you know more about that? Know what the daggers do?’
Magnus gestures to Caz’s book. ‘What you hold there is a translation – one done by our people hundreds of years ago. I suspect the answers that you seek lie in the original tomes, but there are so many. And so many ancient languages. We have people who have spent their entire lives trying to decipher the scripts. It is very time-consuming.’
‘What’s time-consuming exactly?’ Benny asks, leaning forward. ‘The learning of these languages?’
‘I believe so. There are references, but the time it takes to analyse them all and—’
‘I could do it,’ Benny says with certainty. ‘If you have the books and I don’t have to spend time digging them out, then I’m sure I could grasp these ancient languages in a couple of days.’ He looks at Caz. ‘Then I could read whatever it is you need.’
Magnus’s expression flickers, a definite hint of awe in his gaze.
‘That is some gift you have,’ he says.
‘Yeah,’ Ruben mutters. ‘A very fucking hot gift.’ Only when we all turn to him and glare do his cheeks flush fuchsia. ‘I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I—’
Magnus waves the apology away. ‘I have been very much in love before. It is good to see.’
‘Oh, no … no use of the L-word,’ Ruben adds, his face now glowing.
If I had any control over my power, I’m pretty sure this is the exact moment he’d like me to create a massive gaping hole in the ice for him to fall into.
Unfortunately, with my current levels of control, I’d probably send the Crown Prince of Morathka, the Issen king, and everyone else in this room to their deaths too, so he’ll just have to suck it up.
Still, the slightest hint of a smile remains on the king’s lips as he turns back to Benny. ‘If that is something you can do – if you can truly help our people understand these languages – then that will be a great gift to us and one we will not forget.’
‘You just show me where to get started,’ Benny says. ‘And maybe let me take a little bottle of that mead too?’