The Chosen - Stone Dance of the Chameleon 01 Read Online Free

ivory. It was worked all over with a writhing of chameleons whose eyes were the rivets of copper that held the chest together.
    For a moment they looked at each other, brimming over with excitement.
    'Come on, Tain, we must hurry,' said Carnelian.
    They pushed back the lid, then gasped. Inside the chest wondrous garments were dulled like butterflies in chrysalises of waxed parchment. As they drew them out the room filled with the scent of lilies. They marvelled at them. Tain stripped Carnelian and then one by one he put them on him. The first few were tissues so fine they floated on the air. The ones further down in the chest were heavier and interwoven with precious stones. The garments fitted over each other like the pieces of a puzzle. The final robe was of grey samite: stiff silk brocaded with coral pins. It hung as heavily as chains and was a little too long.
    At the bottom of the chest Tain found a box holding a circlet of black-grained silver wreathed with turquoises and jades. Carnelian had to put this on his head himself because Tain could not reach.
    Tain stepped back, wide-eyed. 'You're transformed into a Master, Carnie.'
    'I've always been a Master, Tain,' snapped Carnelian. He felt vaguely silly, weighed down, overdressed. 'I suppose I should go.'
    'But you must see for yourself,' his brother cried. He ran over to the copper mirror. As he struggled to set it up against the wall, it shot glimmers through the rafters.
    Carnelian allowed his head to droop under the weight of the circlet. He scowled, but when he lifted his head again he drew back. 'By the Two ...' A strange being was lurking in the copper. Carnelian had to move from side to side to convince himself it was his own watery reflection.
    He thought of the tall men drifting along the quay. Masters. The Chosen, he corrected himself, using the Quya name they called themselves. His stomach churned. In all the world there were only three kinds of men: the Chosen, the half-caste marumaga and the rest, the barbarians. He realized Tain was looking at him, and could see that his own unease was spreading to that marumaga face. Carnelian remembered who he was and the duty he had to the boy. He dragged up some confidence and put it in his voice. 'It's time for me to go, Tain. Please fetch my mask,'
    His brother went off to find it. When he came back, he offered the mask to Carnelian in both hands, with reverence. Carnelian took the hollow face and held it up so that it looked back at him. Flamelight poured over the gold and put hidden life into its eye - slits. Its straps hung like thick tresses. It had a cold, unhuman beauty. Carnelian fitted it over his face. It chilled his cheeks and forehead. He held it there while Tain went round behind him and reached to do up the straps. He breathed slow and deep through the mask's nostrils as his father had taught him and fought down the feeling of being trapped. He had never liked wearing it. Many times his father had insisted that he must, so that he might get used to it, even though Masking Law required only a Ruling Lord to conceal his face from his household.
    The mask's slits shielded Carnelian's eyes from the fire glare. He found that he could see into the room's dark corners. He distracted himself with this till Tain was finished with the straps.
    'I will go now.' His voice sounded very close to him, flat, dead. 'You may as well be off and join the rest of the household, Tain.'
    His brother's face was half turned away, looking at him obliquely with a strange expression Carnelian had never seen before. Tain bowed. 'As you say ... Master.'
    Tain's look was also there on the guardsmen's faces. Carnelian disliked this new reverence, and the way they kept calling him 'Master'. It made him feel as if they were setting him up in his father's place. This was not his only unease as they walked through the barracks. He could see his escort were sensing something too. He tried to locate its source. Silence. It was the silence.