Angus Wells - The God Wars 01 (82 page)

 
          
"You
see?" demanded the man beside the first speaker. "If wizardry there
still be, it is of a younger kind than ours and cannot find that road. Nor
should it pass the gates unscathed—Sennethym found them true."

 
          
"Tereus,
Ayliss—would you debate their coming, or judge their worth?"

 
          
The
two fell silent as he spoke. He touched his chest: "I am Denarus; my
companions Tereus and Ayliss. Do you name yourselves?"

 
          
"I
am Calandryll den Karynth, lately of Secca in Lysse."

 
          
"I,
Katya of Vanu."

 
          
"Bracht,
of the clan Asyth of Cuan na'For."

 
          
"Time
has passed," said the woman Ayliss. "Gods, but what time!"

 
          
"Lysse—Cuan
na'For, they were wild lands when this place stood." Denarus's voice was
oddly apologetic. "The domain of small, hairy men more animal than human.
As Ayliss says—time has passed."

 
          
"Vanu,
though," said Tereus. "We knew not Vanu."

 
          
"It
lies far to the north,” said Katya, "beyond the mountains of the
Borrhun-maj."

 
          
"Did
Janax succeed then?" wondered Tereus. "Gods, did he find his promised
land?"

 
          
"She
has the look of The Folk," said Ayliss. "How think you,
Denarus?"

 
          
"Aye."
The pale head nodded slowly. "She has the look of the blood. Whence come
your people, Katya of Vanu?"

 
          
"Some
say from wanderers seeking a warless land," she answered. "Others
that we are the First Folk and all the world our seeding. Whichever, it was
long and long ago, and I know for certain only that Vanu is my homeland."

 
          
"I
think that Janax did succeed," Denarus said, "and that pleases me.
But say you each the why of your coming."

 
          
Calandryll
glanced at Katya, but she motioned for him to speak first, and Bracht nodded
his agreement: he told the Old Ones all his story,- of his meeting with Varent-
Rhythamun and the quest the sorcerer had set before him, of his meeting with
Bracht, and all their adventures both before and after joining forces with
Katya.

 
          
"Younger
magic," said Tereus when he was done, "but still strong; and cunning,
for all its madness."

 
          
"Might
this Varent-Rhythamun find the road?" Ayliss wondered.

 
          
"I
think not," said Denarus. "For why else send these? Were he able, he
would surely come himself."

 
          
"We
have yet to hear of the woman's reasons," said Ayliss. "Speak now,
Katya of Vanu, and tell us why you venture so far abroad."

 
          
"The
holy men of Vanu scried an augury," she replied. "That Rhythamun—of
whom they knew down long ages—should seek to raise Tharn by means of the
Arcanum. The spells of raising he already had, but those useless without the
book to guide him. They scried that he should send fourth dupes," this
with a glance to Calandryll and Bracht; a brief smile of apology, "and
sent me out to find them. To dissuade them or slay them, should that prove
needful. The talisman they gave me is a lode- stone to point the way, linked in
a manner I do not comprehend to that possessed by Rhythamun, which he gave to
Calandryll. Thus did I find them and persuade them to an alliance."

 
          
"Why
were you chosen?" Tereus demanded. "Calandryll of Lysse, Bracht of
Cuan na'For—I see why this wizard chose them; but on what judgments were you
sent forth?”

 
          
"My
folk are—for the greater part—peaceful," she said, almost hesitantly, as
though the admission she made was a matter of some embarrassment, "and I
am deemed strange among them as I am ... less peaceful. Few welcomed such
departure from Vanu, whilst I was intrigued to see the larger world. And I have
skill with a sword. Nor would I see Rhythamun triumph."

 
          
"None
save the mad would see that," said Denarus.

 
          
"The
blood runs true in that one," said Ayliss, "and that is why they
chose her."

 
          
Katya
frowned and said, "The blood?"

 
          
"In
the dawning of the world we of Gess-ytha were the sole true men," Denarus
explained. "Whilst all around us the world grew, filled with younger folk,
we held to our own land, here, the gift of Balatur. When Tham and Balatur fell
to warring, so did Tham bring all his awful might against our cities and
brought them down to what you see about you now. Before Tezin-dar fell one of
our number—Janax—spoke for flight. He was the wisest of us all, Janax, for he
foresaw what was and what might be, and set out designs that such as Rhythamun
be thwarted.

 
          
"He
gathered about him all those who shared his hopes—few enough, for we were
foolish in our pride and thought we should not see so fair a land as ours
ravaged!—and went away to find a land free of gods and their ambitions. I think
that land was your Vanu, and in your veins runs the blood of Janax—And that is
how your holy men augured this quest and why you were chosen."

 
          
Calandryll
looked from the Old One's parchment-fine features to Katya. Much was explained,
but one thing troubled him still.

 
          
"The
Arcanum," he said. "Why was it created? You saw the gods war and your
cities come down in min— yet still you made the book. That such as Rhythamun
would seek it, did Janax—did you—not foresee that?"

 
          
The
Old Ones looked one to the other and he thought he saw guilt, or despair upon
their faces: it was hard to tell, so aged were those features, stretched so
taut upon the ancient bone as to be empty of all expression save the marking of
time.

 
          
"We
did not create it," Denarus said, "and its genesis is a thing not
even we—for all we've long pondered it— can properly understand. It was not,
and then was. Perhaps the First Gods made it, to mark the resting places of
their children,- or Tham himself, against defeat—we know only that it is now,
and we guard it."

 
          
"Janax
was gone before it came," said Tereus, "though he foresaw its coming
and warned against it. Nor did we know whether he lived or died; or where he
went. Perhaps he might have found the means to destroy it, but we could not,
for all we tried—All we could do was set it round with gramaryes, that it
should not leave this place nor be found lest we release those spells."

 
          
"But
he set designs against its coming," said Ayliss. "Thus must the wise
ones of Vanu have scried their augury."

 
          
"Aye,"
said Denarus, "Once made it was a peril eternal, for all our efforts to
destroy it were fruitless."

 
          
"Yet
you would entrust it to us," said Calandryll, "and tmst that it may
be destroyed in Vanu."

 
          
"The
holy men are confident of that," Katya declared.

 
          
"And
your coming speaks for that tmth," Denams said. "Listen—we talk here
of things beyond mortal comprehension and our only certainty is that the Arcanum
must
be destroyed, for even we grow old and our magic weakens—we grow
weary and would rest. Thus, I think, does this Rhythamun seek to trick us into
relinquishing our charge, knowing that we grow weary of the burden. In time
even our gramaryes must falter."

 
          
"Then
why," demanded Bracht, speaking for the first time, and bluntly,
"does Rhythamun not simply wait and take it for himself?"

 
          
"Perhaps
he fears another might come sooner," said Denams. "This Anomius you
spoke of, perhaps—or that more honest folk than he perceive the danger, such as
those of Vanu. Those cut with his cloth were ever hungry and would snatch what
they would, sooner than await its falling."

 
          
"We
sensed a stirring," Tereus said when his companion fell silent. "We
felt the patterns shift and knew that forces moved. To that end we worked to
bring you here."

 
          
"Katya's
coming I understand," said Calandryll, "but us—Bracht and I—why were
we chosen?"

 
          
"Because
you were," Denarus answered. "I can say no better—the gods work in
mysterious ways, and that you are come here says that you are the True
Ones."

 
          
"You
must take it," said Ayliss. "And grant us long- waited peace."

 
          
"Else
death claim even us," said Tereus, "and the way lie open to folk less
honest of purpose. Our time is passed and we would lay down our burden."

 
          
"Come,"
Denams said then, "we shall bring you to the book and you shall take it
from Tezin-dar. Go back down the road to the Syfalheen and they will bring you
to your ship—but hurry then, for the road will soon pass after we are
gone."            
,

 
          
Calandryll
frowned and Tereus said, "Our existence is bound with those gramaryes that
ward the book—when we loose those, we find our rest. The road and all we built
will fade then."

 
          
"At
last," murmured Ayliss. "Oh, how I long for that.”

 
          
"Then
come," said Denarus. "We might talk forever of these things and never
find answers—let the Arcanum go from here to its destruction."

 
          
He
turned, Ayliss and Tereus at his side, and went out through the arch into a
night grown older, the moon cloud-scarred, indifferent. They wound a tortuous
way through the city, past tumbled walls and halls ribbed with the shadows of
denuded spires, past gaping pits and riven gulleys, coming at last to a plain
door of fire-seared metal set in a deep-shadowed niche. The Old Ones halted
before the portal, each in turn laying hands upon the surface as they murmured
in a language long-forgotten. It opened and they started down a stairway that
fell in darkness into the bowels of the city, ending where pale light glowed
from mnes graven deep in a second door, this of black metal. Denams spoke
again, joined by Ayliss and Tereus, and that door swung inward on further
steps. These fell steeper, but lit with a cold white light no kin to
flame
that came from sconces
set in niches overhead, so that Calandryll, first behind the Old Ones, could
see the dappling of age on their skulls beneath their silvered hair, the slow
pulse of blood beneath the parchment skin.

 
          
They
descended to a chamber all writ with runes, blood black in the strange light, a
silver pedestal at its center, ringed by flames, its burden lost behind the
fire.

 
          
Calandryll
halted on Denarus's bidding, Bracht and Katya beside him as the Old Ones
shuffled past the fire to stand facing them. A great excitement filled him, and
a sense of dread, for the power that emanated from within the flames was a
palpable thing that seemed to vibrate down the roadways of his bones and within
the channels of his veins.

 
          
Denarus
said, "Do you truly vow that you will take the Arcanum to its destruction
in Vanu?"

 
          
As
one they said, "Aye, we do."

 
          
Ayliss
said, "Knowing that you are cursed do you betray this trust?"

 
          
Again
they said, "Aye, knowing that."

 
          
Tereus
said, "Knowing your souls damned do you fail?"

 
          
"Aye,
that, too."

 
          
The
Old Ones spoke together then: "Then take the Arcanum hence, and let it be
forever lost."