Session 5 : The Queen of FangsLeaving the still-burning corpse of Lord Poisonoak of the Seven Twilights, Jao, Dark Eyes and the Red Scar youths cross a small river and trek on to the southeast for several more hours before settling down to camp. The trail winds down into a lower valley, thick with trees of a kind unknown to Jao, with multiple layers of thick canopy overhead. The midnight jungle is alive with the cries of monkeys and strange birds, the perpetual chorus of cicadas. They settle their camp in a small clearing and pitch the light tents. Dark Eyes makes a small fire in the centre of the clearing and Jao is interested to note that, despite all he has seen in the last few days, he still finds it a little blasphemous to make fire without the aid of the Fire Warden. Dark Eyes slips off into the night forest to hunt and Strikes Wisely curls up in the Red Scars tent, but Wondrous Rainfall joins Jao by the campfire and the two sit and talk for a time. She tells him that she was born sixteen summers ago, at the end of the Dry Fires - one of the most extensive drouts in recent memory. This is why she was named. Then she asks him what it is like for him to have become a god and he talks a little of his former life. Eventually, Dark Eyes returns with his spear slung over his back, carrying a bush runner which he has killed. The beast is somewhere between a warthog and a deer and the two Exalts fashion a simple spit for it to cure on over the slow fire. Dark Eyes sends Wondrous Rainfall to get some rest and he and Jao work on in silence for a time. Jao asks Dark Eyes why he is taking him here and the Full Moon explains that it is the way of their people: In order to fulfil Luna's purpose, Jao must know who he is called to be. In order to do that, he must visit one of the No-Moons, the keepers of Lore, who will test him and determine his caste. Jao asks why the Lunars should seek to be changeless when She Whom They Serve is perpetually shifting and the Full Moon seems perturbed by the question. The black orbs of his gaze fix Jao from beneath the fierce white shock of his brows. But Jao seems sincere and so the elder Lunar goes on to explain a little about the dangers of Wyld Corruption and the Chimerae. The conversation ends with Jao still not wholly satisfied. But Dark Eyes seems to think he has said enough, and retires. Jao clambers into a tree, shifts to his chameleon form and begins to doze. The following day, they come to Lost Sperlinka. Cresting the ridge, Jao finds himself looking down into a broad, shallow valley where a thick forest of low trees and a mass of dark, sharp grasses have run wild over the immense ruins of a great white city. The still-standing walls and buildings are enormous slabs of a stone that looks like a cross between limestone and marble, with every surface curiously crenellated with a writhing glyphic pattern. From among the trees around them they catch sight of watchful eyes and hear movement in the canopy. Shortly after they have made their way through the first perimeter wall, into the jungled city, there is a monstrous howling and a score of large, apelike beasts, running on all fours like baboons, array themsevles across the path. Wondrous Rainfall and Strikes Wisely are clearly terrified of the degenerate beasts, which have a hideously manlike quality about their deformed faces and liquid eyes, but Dark Eyes berates them in an antique language and their line parts, forming a passage for the little group to file down the white-flagged path and deeper into the ruins. As they make their way onwards, Jao begins to get a sense of the shape that Sperlinka once had. It was not one city so much as an entire valley full of smaller townships, with a central hub. The city proper is set behind a great rearing wall 20 yards high, and most of this wall still stands. Within it, there are far fewer trees and the buildings are in better repair, although the dark grasses grow as virulently as ever. And central to the city is a palisaded hill with rising terraces and an enormous white hall atop it, ringed by seven towers. There is a cry from the air above and Jao sees a flock of beasts not entirely bats, nor crows, nor snakes, winging their way across the sky from the east. On the steps of the palisade, a delegation is waiting to meet them. There are a score of the man-apes, with dark chests and yellowed fangs visible amongst their grubby white fur. And central to them, haughty and imposing, stands a woman dressed in crimson robes. She is tall, taller even than the Red Scars tribeleader, and her skin is an astonishing dark colour, as Jao has heard the skins of the southlanders described in his uncle's tales. Her jet black hair runs in tiny fine braids down to her waist and his held back from her face by a simple, elegant torque of heavy silver which gleams with a soft lustre. Her eyes burn with a singular age and knowledge. She is Raksi, Queen of Fangs, ruler of Lost Sperlinka. Dark Eyes begins to introduce Jao, but Jao steps forward and announces himself to Raksi directly. There is a small flicker in her eyes - perhaps approval at his boldness, perhaps something other. Jao thinks he sees a slight twitch in Raksi's jaw, as if she is trying the taste of a new food in her mouth, but the No-Moon turns and bids welcome to Strikes Wisely and Wondrous Rainfall and the conversation moves on. Jao tells Raksi that his lineage runs through the Funnelweb Spider Woman and Raksi seems impressed, though she tells him that she was already ancient long before the Funnelweb Spider Woman was whelped, just as She Above was ancient long before Raksi and her ilk were born. Jao comments that Dark Eyes has warned him that he will be subject to difficult testing and Raksi replies that she is surprised he is so humble as to worry. Then the Queen turns and extends one hand. From out of the sky one of the moree'a - the bat-snake-crow things - spirals down to her hand, perches a moment, then flows and shifts its form, changing into a skinny little man, all knotted sinew, with a protruberant nose and sparse, wiry tufts of hair protruding from a smooth pate. He fixes Jao with one gleaming gold-green eye and then Raksi dispatches him inside to make the arrangements for dinner while she and her guests continue to talk. Dinner is served within the ancient white hall, in a vast room at its far end. The room is lit by giant fires set in pits in the walls and its air is sweetened by great brass censers burning heady incense. The blows of a brass gong summon in the guests - both Jao and his companions and also a dozen of the most stunningly beautiful youths Jao has ever seen. Every one would be the talk of their own tribe and the surrounding tribes for there is little flaw in any of their beauty. Most are easterners, but Jao catches sight of one pale-skinned lad with a shock of red hair like wild strawberries who must be from the northlands, as well as several darker southerners, though none so striking as Raksi herself. Eagerly, Jao finds himself hunting amongst them in the hopes that Serena will be there, but she is not. However, the hooknosed man, clad now in leather finery trimmed with a great ruff of white mink furs, joins them. Raksi introduces him as Smoke In A Cloudless Sky, an old aquaintance of hers. Raksi sits at the head of the table with Jao at her left hand and Dark Eyes on her right. The Full Moon is mainly silent, concentrating on stripping the meat off as many bones as are brought to him by the servants - a more humanlike subspecies of the white apes. The food is delicious - good wine, fine cheeses, braised vegetables and wild fruits, but central to all are enormous plates of meats, cooked very rare. It's a mouth-watering spread but Jao politely declines, explaining that since the Moon changed her phase he has felt the need to begin a fast, to purify himself. Raksi looks like she wants to remark on this, but then seems to think better of it. She herself dines with great appetite and Jao catches sight of her Tell for the first time - a monstrous black tongue like a serpent, complete with a delicate miniature set of jaws in its end, which darts out of her mouth to snare a chunk of meat from the end of her silver fork. Although this sight might previously have alarmed him, now he finds it only makes him hungry for flies. Wondrous Rainfall and Strikes Wisely are both seated lower down the table and receiving a lot of attention from Raksi's beautiful courtiers. There seems to be a lot of excitement amongst them, but also a certain air of guarded tension, and Jao is unable to put his finger on the source of it. He does speak briefly to ebon-haired Inishaan, seated next to Dark Eyes, but otherwise doesn't mix much during the meal. When the food is done the minstrels strike up a strangely tribal cacophany and dancing begins. Dark Eyes excuses himself, but Wondrous Rainfall and Strikes Wisely are both caught up in the festivities quite readily. After a few initial turns, Jao strikes up a pattern common to the Nine Ravens tribe, the musicians modulate their tempo to fit his steps and he and Raksi carve the floor into wild new patterns, a bravura whirlwind driving the weather of the other dancers into a medley of tempo. Eventually, the dance begins to fade and a few of the couples drift away into the night. Laughing, Raksi advises Jao to "Find yourself a woman," and mentions that her aides have prepared a room in one of the towers for him. But Jao slips away from the next dance and, passing through a long and dimly lit gallery, makes his way out onto the terrace at the east side of the hall. Luna, in her new guise as the No-Moon, symbol of mystery and magic, is shedding a thin light over the white bones of Sperlinka amongst the darkly lapping jungle and Jao can see movement amongst the trees that is not the source of the soft night breeze. A bird cries overhead and he is surprised to see a white crow descending from the sky, wings backpeddaling as it swoops low. Then, as it nears him, its form alters and blurs until it lands light-footed beside him in the form of Serena, clad in a glistening dress of fine silver mesh, her bone-white hair nearly matching it in the light of the early moon. "I told you I would see you again in Sperlinka, did I not?" she asks. Serena rests one hand on Jao's shoulder and the two of them lean against the ancient white parapet wall and gaze out at the night, talking. At one moment, Jao looks up to see a figure watching him from the doorway to the hall. It is Wondrous Rainfall, but when she sees that he sees her she turns and moves back inside. Jao and Serena talk about Luna for a time, and then she asks him if he will dance. Returning inside, the two light up the floor, gliding effortlessly amongst the remaining throng and bringing a new serenity and tempo to the hall. The tired dancers rise for one final flurry of beauty and whirling silks before the last breath goes out of the evening and others begin to limp home. Jao sees Strikes Wisely being led away by two girls and Wondrous Rainfall is in conversation with Raksi herself. Even ugly and taciturn Smoke In A Cloudless Sky is talking to a beautiful gold-haired western lass. Serena leads Jao out of the hall and across the esplanade to one of the still-standing towers which ring it. Five floors up there is a large, airy room hung with dark-coloured silks and lit by many candles. There she offers him a gift: Lifting the velvet cover from off a silver cage she fetches out a white dove from inside, stroking its head. Then, with a deft movement, she snaps its little neck. One fingertip traces the breast open, blood spattering through fingers on tiles, and she offers Jao the still-beating heart. Jao tells her that he does not eat, he fasts for the Lady Moon in her new season. "This isn't food, Jao," Serena replies. "This is a sacrament." Jao assents and gulps down the salty morsel. With the heart's blood of the bird comes the knowlege of its life, its meaning, its form. In a flurry of white feathers, Jao shifts into the shape of a dove, while Serena resumes the form of the white crow. Then both cast themselves out the window and into the warm air of the night. In tandem, the twin birds catch a thermal, allowing it to twist them slowly up into the sky above the ancient city. Away in the east there is an odd blue light among the trees and to the south another river can be seen gleaming beyond the hills that frame the end of the valley. The light from the hall below recedes until it is just white feathers and moonshine, and the tingling stars beyond. Finally, exhausted, they alight on the black branches of one of the few trees that line the palisade. There they perch for some moments, catching their breath, until the crow drops, spreads her wings and glides back to the tower window. After a moment's thought, Jao spreads his dove wings and follows. Inside, he finds Serena waiting in her silver dress. But the form to which Jao folds back is that of the chameleon god, his skin jewelled with dark scales. The woman is not scared. On the contrary, she seems amused, letting the pads of her nails play on the reptilian hide of the god. There are soft words spoken, and a look in the deep midnight pools of her eyes, large in her white face, before Jao reverts to his human form and with a rustling of silks the pair collapse into the darkness of the four-poster bed. Later ... Jao dreams. A weird and metaphoric dream. He is running through a swirling forest made up of scraps of many former lives. The trees are the twisted trees of Sperlinka, but they are other trees too. The shapes of the pieces of darkness are stitched between them individually. He is running and there is a great terror behind him, moving through the forest like a wave, like the ghost-wind he saw stirring the trees earlier that day. He feels the jungle breathe. Suddenly, the wood gives way to a great pool, a tar-pit with only a slender branch central to it. There are two figures caught in the pit, both mere moments away from being sucked under by its glutinous hold. On one side his uncle, Whispering Leaves, is floundering. On the other is a slender, beautiful youth, silver of hair, ancient of countenance, who kissed Jao once. Heart in mouth, the young Lunar rushes onto the branch and reaches out to his god. When their hands clasp, perspective shifts, with the pit spinning vertiginously round to be the sky, the earth falling away. But lightning fast the chameleon-man's tail has shot out to snare the shaman too, so that they are both hanging from the sky, from the moon.
The fair one smiles and mouths something that Jao cannot hear. And
then comes the long fall down, which ends with an abrupt start,
leaving Jao awake, alone amongst crumpled silks with the candles
burned out in their holders and the sheets cooling where his
mysterious lover lay. A faint light is beginning to creep in at
the window. It is almost dawn.
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