Caught in Crystal: A Lyra Novel (36 page)

“It’s easy to blame yourself for might-haves and might-not-haves,” Kayl said at last. “It’s easy, and it’s human. It’s also stupid.”

Ferianek looked at her in surprise, then laughed. “You sound like Adept who taught me the Way of the Third Moon.”

“He must have had children.”

“She did,” Ferianek said, smiling.

They ate in silence for a moment, then Kayl asked, “What would you do if you could leave the Windhome Mountains?”

“I’d go to Kith Alunel,” Ferianek said promptly. His eyes lit with longing for a dream long denied, and his voice was eager. “There are scrolls in the Queen’s Library.… I could spend years there.”

“You’d spend the rest of your life in a library?”

Ferianek laughed sheepishly. “Not all of it, I hope. I’d like to visit the Waywalker settlement on the Island of the Moon, too.”

“Is that the colony you told Bryn and Alden about?”

Ferianek nodded. “I would like to have a hand in building it. From here, I can only send others to help.” He smiled. “My daughter and my eldest son are already there.”

Kayl realized with a slight shock that this was the first time, in over two weeks of traveling together, that she had heard Ferianek speak of anything personal. She was about to question him further, when a shout echoed through the trees.

Ferianek looked up. “Time to go.”

Kayl pushed herself to her feet with a groan. “I thought I’d gotten back into shape after ten months of traveling.”

“Climbing mountains uses different muscles from ordinary walking,” Ferianek pointed out. “The tops of the thighs, for instance.”

“I know, I know,” Kayl said. “But knowing doesn’t make them any less sore.”

Ferianek laughed and went off to collect his pack. Kayl shook the crumbs out of her cloak and started down the hill toward the stream.

The three children accosted her excitedly as soon as she came in sight, and proudly displayed their finds. Mark had found a smallish rock which, when broken open, revealed a star-shaped skeleton. He also had two larger rocks, one containing the impression of a twisted leaf, the other showing the skeleton of a fish’s tail. Dara had found the pattern of a delicate, fernlike leaf, and Xaya had a large rock which had split perfectly in half, showing a complete fish on either side.

“Very impressive,” Kayl said. “Have you eaten? Good; leave the rocks and go get your packs. It’s time to go now.”

“Leave them!” Mark said indignantly. “I’m not going to leave them.”

Kayl studied him for a moment. “All right, if you want to walk around with a pack full of rocks, you can. But if you take them, you’ll have to carry them until we camp tonight, and I don’t want to hear any complaints about how heavy they are, either.”

“I won’t,” Mark promised, and immediately began gathering up his three pieces. Dara looked thoughtfully at her own find, as though wishing it were smaller, but finally she picked it up. Xaya had already fitted both halves of her fish-rock back together and was cradling them protectively in her arms.

Kayl went with Mark and Dara to help them find room for the rocks in the bundles they carried. She was reasonably sure that the rocks, however interesting, would not be carried past the first rest stop, so she made sure that they were easily accessible. By the time they finished, Ferianek had started out along the bank of the stream, with the first of the Sisters just behind him, and Kayl had to hurry to catch up.

The afternoon’s march provided Kayl with even more time to think than had the morning’s journey. She had more than enough to think about; her conversation with Ferianek had shaken her. She could not help seeing parallels between his situation and her own, but it was the differences that disturbed her most. She had been trapped by circumstances into coming on this expedition, and she resented it fiercely. But Ferianek, who was bound to this task far more surely than she, and with less consent, did not seem to feel resentment or anger toward anyone. Kayl had been laying her troubles at the door of the Sisterhood, blaming them for their interference in her life. Ferianek blamed no one but himself.

Kayl was quiet and thoughtful for the rest of the day and into the evening, but she came to no conclusions and found no way around her worries. Finally she forced herself to let her tired body sleep, but even her dreams were troubled. Next morning she felt almost as tired as she had when she lay down. She tried to suppress her irritability during the day’s travel, with only partial success.

So absorbed was Kayl in her thoughts that she did not at first realize that the late-afternoon rest halt had become the end of the day’s journey. When the various activities of setting up camp finally registered on her mind, she went looking for Javieri.

“Ferianek says that we are less than an hour’s walk from the valley,” Javieri said in response to Kayl’s question. “I am sending the scouts to make certain the Magicseekers have not reached it ahead of us. Besides, after what you and Barthelmy have told us, I have no desire to spend a night in that place. We will go on in the morning.”

Kayl looked up at the mountains and shivered.

D
EMMA JOL, BRYN AND
Alden returned to the camp before dark with word that the valley around the Twisted Tower was deserted. Javieri nodded and summoned those most immediately involved to her tent for a final conference. Kayl followed Glyndon in. Barthelmy and Corrana were already present; so, to Kayl’s surprise, were Ferianek Trone and the Wyrds. Kayl sat down on the ground just inside the door of the tent. Glyndon followed suit, and Javieri began.

“Tomorrow we will reach the Twisted Tower,” the Elder Mother said. “I have decided that the entire expedition will accompany us to the valley.”

Barthelmy made a surprised noise. “All of us? I thought—”

“According to Ferianek, there are twenty Magicseekers somewhere between the edge of the Windhome Mountains and the valley of the Twisted Tower,” Javieri said patiently. “We know they have not yet reached the valley; we have no guarantee that they will not arrive while we are there. If they do, we will need every sword we have. And every spell, no matter how feeble.”

“If it really is the Tower that is interfering with your magic, do you think it wise to use even weak spells so close to it?” Glyndon asked.

“Perhaps not,” Corrana put in dryly. “But I, for one, think it better than being killed by Magicseekers.”

“The scouts will, of course, check once again to be sure that the Magicseekers have not arrived before we enter the valley,” Javieri said. “Bryn and Alden have proven matchless at finding traces in the woods. They will cover the forest on the slopes around the valley. Demma, Jol and Forrin will—”

“No,” said Kayl.

Javieri looked at her with narrowed eyes. “What?”

“She means you should have asked us before you made all these plans,” Bryn said. “We aren’t members of your Sisterhood, remember?”

“I beg your pardon.” Javieri had the grace to look uncomfortable. “You have been so helpful I had forgotten.”

“Flattery will do nothing for you,” Bryn said. “After what we’ve heard about that Tower, this is as close as we want to come to it.”

“Besides,” Alden added, “I don’t think you wish to leave any of your swords behind to watch the children.”

“And I’m not letting Dara and Mark get any closer to the Tower than this,” Kayl finished. “I know Bryn and Alden feel the same way about Xaya. They’ve already agreed to watch my two so I can go to the Tower with you; we discussed it yesterday.”

“You seem to have arranged everything,” Javieri said in a tightly controlled voice. “But what if the Magicseekers come upon this camp while we are away?”

“That’s unlikely,” Glyndon said, and flashed Kayl a brief smile. “We’re coming at the valley from almost due north; if they followed the path we took the first time, the Magicseekers will be coming from the southwest.”

“Kayl,” Barthelmy said in a low voice, “are you sure Mark and Dara wouldn’t really be safer in the valley, with more of us around to protect them?”

“It is not only Magicseekers that Dara Kaylar has to fear,” Corrana said in a cool voice before Kayl could answer. “You are forgetting her link to the Crystal. Since we do not understand the nature of that link, it seems unwise to expose the girl more than is necessary.”

Barthelmy stiffened and glared. Javieri gave Corrana a look of angry dislike. Corrana gazed back at them with the same unruffled, enigmatic expression that had so frequently irritated Kayl. “I agree,” Kayl said quickly. “But even if Dara had never had a link with the Crystal, I wouldn’t want her any nearer to the Tower. If the Magicseekers do get through Ferianek’s traps, they’ll be at the valley, not here. And if they don’t… well, the Tower isn’t a safe place for anyone, much less a child.”

“You have an answer for everything,” Javieri said. “Everything but the Twisted Tower itself.”

“The Twisted Tower is my affair,” Kayl said. “Mine and Glyndon’s and the Sisterhood’s. It’s not my children’s concern, and not Bryn’s or Alden’s either.”

“Very well,” Javieri said. She looked at the Wyrds. “You are determined?”

“We aren’t going any closer to the Tower, if that’s what you mean,” Alden said.

“Then there is no reason for your further presence here,” Javieri said. “You may go.”

Kayl found Javieri’s tone annoying, but the Wyrds seemed simply amused by their lordly dismissal. They rose and picked their way around people to the door of the tent. Bryn paused and said with a fierce smile, “The luck of the Tree to you, Sisters.” Then they were gone.

“If your Wyrd friends will no longer help us, Demma and Forrin will have to scout the forest as well as the valley.” Javieri gave Kayl a cold look, as she resumed her speech. Then she looked at Corrana and her eyes narrowed. “I think enough of your skills remain that you should assist the scouts, Elder Sister. Magic may find what others miss.”

Corrana inclined her head. “I am honored by Your Serenity’s trust,” she said, and Kayl heard the smooth irony in her voice.

“When we are sure there are no Magicseekers near, the rest of us will join the scouts at the base of the Twisted Tower,” Javieri went on after a final sharp glance at Corrana. “Elder Sister Barthelmy and Glyndon shal Morag will remove the spells that seal the Tower, as they have done before; the magicians among us will give them what aid we can.”

“Remove the spells?” Ferianek said, frowning. “Is that wise? If the creature of the Tower is still present, as you say—”

“If we do what we did last time, we won’t be removing any spells,” Glyndon said. “It’s more like making a door-sized hole in them, and the hole closes again as soon as we stop holding it open.”

“But that means whoever goes inside the Tower won’t be able to get out again!” Ferianek said, startled.

“Neither will the black thing,” Barthelmy said. “And we can open the hole again quickly, once it’s been made.”

“Furthermore, I intend that Glyndon and Elder Sister Barthelmy remain outside the Tower,” Javieri said.

“What?” Glyndon sat up, startled and angry.

“You can re-open the Tower door as easily from outside as from inside, can you not?” Javieri asked.

“Yes, but—”

“Then you will do so. You are the keys that let us into and out of the Twisted Tower; if one, or both of you should be killed inside the Tower, those of us inside would indeed be trapped. We will all be safer if you are outside.”

And you still don’t trust either of them, Kayl thought. Even after what’s happened on this trip, you don’t trust them.

“Who will be going inside the Tower, then?” Barthelmy asked.

“Myself, Elder Mother Miracote, and Mother Siran,” Javieri replied. Then she looked at Ferianek and said carefully, “We would be pleased to have your company as well.”

Ferianek shifted uncomfortably. “I am not sure that is possible,” he said, and looked down.

“Not possible?” Javieri said, raising both eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I am bound in certain ways, particularly regarding the Twisted Tower. I do not know whether entering the Tower is one of the things I am forbidden; the opportunity has never arisen before.” Ferianek looked up. “I will try, but that is all I can promise.”

“We can ask no more,” Javieri said. She paused. “The final member of the first group to go inside the Tower will be Kayl Larrinar, for we shall need a guide who has been there before.”

“So that’s why—” Kayl began.

“No,” Glyndon said loudly.

“And what is your objection?” Javieri said with barely concealed exasperation.

“If Kayl is going inside the Tower, I am going with her,” Glyndon said firmly.

“But you have to stay outside, Glyndon!” Barthelmy said. She put a hand on Glyndon’s arm, and Kayl felt an unreasonable surge of anger. “I can’t open the seals alone.”

“Yes, you can,” Glyndon said. “Once the spell is set, either of us can use it. Kevran did it last time, remember?”

“I remember,” Barthelmy said. “But I don’t know anymore whether I can trust my memories of the Tower. Or have you found some way of separating the true memories from the false?”

Glyndon paled slightly. “I—no.”

“Leave him alone,” Kayl said angrily. “He’s had more trouble because of that Tower than any of the rest of us.”

“Then he should prefer to remain outside it,” Javieri said.

“No.” Glyndon’s voice was firm, but he still looked whiter than he should have. “If Kayl goes inside, I go too. That, or you’ll have to find some other way of getting in.”

“I can take care of myself, Glyndon,” Kayl said irritably.

“I know. That’s not the point.”

“Oh?”

“I believe Glyndon’s point is the same one you made a moment ago regarding the Wyrds,” Corrana put in. “He was not consulted when these plans were made.”

Javieri cut off Kayl’s reply. “Are you all determined to see this venture fail?” she said in a tone of cold fury. “If I did not need your skills—”

“But you do need us,” Kayl said. She was angry herself now: angry at Barthelmy, angry at Javieri, and, most of all, angry at the Sisterhood that had taught them to act in such a highhanded manner. “You could have asked us weeks ago whether we agreed with these plans of yours.”