Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (2 page)

survive the confrontation. She hurls a block of rubble in Tensor's face and
Llian gets away. Then Rulke leaps out of the gate, terrible in his power and
majesty, and the potency fizzles into nothing.
Rulke attacks his enemies one by one. First Yggur, then Tensor, whom he
cripples. Faelamor, having found what she wanted in the Mirror, flees back
through the gate. The Aachim are broken; Mendark is afraid to act by himself.
Finally Rulke turns to Karan and realises that she is the one whose link he
used to wake the Ghashad. He needs her for his own project. He advances on
Karan. With no other resort, she flings herself through the gate, dragging
Llian after her.
Mendark now sees an opportunity, reaches into Yggur's mind and frees him from
Rulke's possession of long ago. The tide begins to turn; the allies realise
that together they can
defeat Rulke, if they have the courage. They attack. Rulke flees to the top of
the tower. There they corner him and hurl him out, but he curses them with a
foretelling - that when the dark side of the moon is full in hythe
(mid-winter's day) he will return and Santh will be his.
Shand replies with a riddle, 'Fear the thrice born, but beware the thrice
betrayed', then Rulke vanishes. Finally Shand takes the Mirror, 'in memory of
the one whose birthright it was', though no one knows what he means.
Volume 3 Dark is the Moon
In Thurkad, there comes a tremendous storm and Maigraith finds the Whelm
waiting on the roof of Yggur's fortress. In a flash of lightning Rulke
appears, exulting in his freedom. He commands the Whelm, or Ghashad as he
calls them, to make a show of his strength. Seeing Maigraith, he orders the
Ghashad to guard and protect her with their lives. Maigraith is equally
captivated by him, though she has no idea why.
The Ghashad spread terror throughout the land, turning the armies of Yggur on
one another. Maigraith escapes and is saved by Vanhe, one of Yggur's few
surviving officers. In a hopeless gamble Vanhe uses Maigraith as a figurehead
against Thyllan, who is besieging Thurkad with an overwhelming army.
Surprising even herself, she humiliates Thyllan in a one-on-one struggle. The
soldiers rally around her.
In Katazza, Yggur is desperate, now that his great enemy, Rulke, is at large.
Mendark convinces the company to try to seal the gate into the Nightland, even
knowing that this must trap Karan and Llian there. They draw power from the
rift but at the last minute Yggur's nerve breaks. The attempt ends
disastrously, bringing down the Great Tower. The survivors set out across the
Dry Sea on foot.
Karan and Llian are hurled apart in the gate. Llian lands in an alien palace,
bitterly reproaching himself for helping Tensor. He comes face to face with a
colossal construct, a complex device of unknown but deadly purpose. Later
Karan finds him, Rulke returns and they feel an attack on the gate, the
company trying to seal it. To defend the gate Rulke has to draw on the energy
holding the Nightland together. It begins to collapse around them. Eventually
Rulke wins and tempts Llian with the offer of secret knowledge.
Karan, finding Rulke and Llian together, is troubled. She manages to escape
through the gate to Katazza. Rulke catches Llian, interrogates him about the
Histories, puts a hidden compulsion on him, to bring Karan when he calls, then
allows Llian to escape to Katazza too.
Karan is suspicious about his escape, at first. They catch up to the company,
who also mistrust Llian now. The Dry Sea is unbearably hot, and their progress
hindered by salt-storms that last for days. Yggur, who lost most of his sight
at the rift, is bitter and harries Llian constantly.
In order to counter Rulke's construct, Shand proposes that they remake the
golden flute, banish Rulke and seal Santhenar from the other worlds forever.
It is an exciting, impossible proposal, but they will need four things: the
right kind of gold; the way to make the flute; the way to use it; the one to
use it. Perhaps the Mirror has some of this information. Mendark demands it
but Shand refuses, pointing out that it cannot be used save by one who knows

the use of it, and that way lies only within the Mirror. Llian is consumed by
this paradox, but Shand will say no more.
The others agree to remake the flute. But first they must have gold for its
forging, and only red gold of Aachan will suffice.
Tensor confesses to Karan that, when she was a child, he recognised a great
danger in her: that she was triune. He wanted to send her away to die, to rid
the Aachim of the
menace. However the Aachim took her in, so he blocked the development of her
triune talents. He begs her forgiveness. Karan is shocked. It explains why she
has been hunted all her life. She cannot forgive him.
The company finally return to Faranda. Yggur hurries back to Thurkad,
desperate to find Maigraith. Mendark and Tallia go east on Pender's boat.
There, Mendark sets out alone to Yalkara's abandoned fortress, Havissard.
Mendark finds Havissard to be a very strange place. Eventually he gets inside
but the Aachan gold he came for has recently been stolen. Soon after, he is
attacked without warning. He manages to escape Havissard but has to renew his
failing body to save his life. The renewal turns him into a hideous travesty
of his former self.
Maigraith leads an army to Bannador to liberate Bannador from the Ghashad. The
expedition is nearly a disaster, for the Ghashad are able to link their minds
into a communal will to control the other army. In a desperate struggle,
Maigraith just succeeds in breaking their control.
That night Faelamor returns and lies, saying that Yggur is dead. Suddenly all
that has driven Maigraith seems pointless. Faelamor wakes an old compulsion
and soon Maigraith falls under her liege's thrall again.
They go to the rugged forests of Elludore. Faelamor is sure that there is a
way to break the Forbidding. She calls the Faellem, who are far away. It is
now a race against Rulke and Mendark. Faelamor makes a gate to Havissard, a
continent away. While she searches for something there, Maigraith wanders,
curious to see what Yalkara was like. She finds a writing tablet. The last
thing Yalkara wrote was a name -Aeolior. For some reason she can't explain,
Maigraith keeps the page.
Faelamor finds what she is looking for - the Aachan gold. But in the library,
one of Yalkara's journals disturbs her
greatly. The writing is in a script that is terrifyingly familiar. She has no
time to consider it further, for Mendark appears, and in striking him down she
loses the journal.
Karan is haunted by what Tensor told her about herself. Karan and Llian travel
to Chanthed, where Llian is now received with honour. However, in the library
he discovers that drawings he was looking for, from the time of the
Forbidding, have been stolen by Faelamor.
In Tullin Karan's nightmares begin again, and Rulke is always in them. Karan
thinks that Llian is spying for Rulke. She tries by a link to snatch control.
Rulke attempts to compel them both but Karan knocks Llian out and the
compulsion fails. Shand arrives home and, thinking Llian possessed by Rulke,
forces Karan to reject him. They take a now despairing Llian to Gothryme. The
country is devastated by war.
One day they learn that the Ghashad have occupied Carcharon, an old stronghold
built by a mad ancestor of Karan's, high in the mountains. Shortly they are
summoned to a meet in Thurkad. Mendark is returning by ship from the east.
Llian, knowing he is mistrusted, is in despair.
The company meet. So far their efforts have been fruitless. No Aachan gold has
been found. Yggur, who is even more suspicious of Llian now, sends him to the
execution yard. Karan manages to free him and they escape back to Gothryme.
In Gothryme, Rulke begins calling Llian again, demanding that he bring Karan
to Carcharon. Mendark appears unexpectedly and, discovering this, interrogates
Llian, resorting to powerful charms to get at the truth. Between the two of
them, Llian is in agony.
Finally Karan wakes to what is going on. Drawing the truth from Llian, she is
mortified to discover that all along he had been protecting her from Rulke.

They are reconciled. Karan knows there is only one way to end Llian's torment.
She must go to Carcharon. Llian refuses to let her go alone.
He is convinced that the time of the foretelling is at hand, for hythe is only
a few days away now.
Llian challenges Rulke to a telling. If he wins, Karan and he are to go free.
If he loses, they will do what Rulke wants. To Llian's surprise Rulke accepts
the challenge. Three Ghashad will adjudicate, including Idlis the healer.
Rulke's tale is a barbaric splendour, the story of how a hundred Charon
conquered a world, Aachan. But Llian sees that the tale jars against the codes
of the Ghashad. Rulke put his own glory before the security of his people.
Llian makes a new tale to take advantage.
Llian's reply is a tale of a servant race who served not wisely but too well.
This tale strikes a chord in the Ghashad, wakening their deepest fears, as
Llian intends. Rulke is enraged, accusing Llian of cheating, but Idlis's
casting vote gives Llian the victory.
Rulke sends Llian through a gate but it goes wrong, dropping him into the snow
below Carcharon. There he is found by Tallia and Mendark. Llian's
reappearance, alone, confirms Mendark's suspicions.
Karan is the triune Rulke needs to seek out the Way between the Worlds. He
tries to coerce her but she delays, sensing that time is important. Rulke
forces her to choose between aiding him and seeing Llian tormented. She makes
a bargain - Llian to be freed of the compulsion first. Rulke has no more time,
and he agrees. Karan, believing that Llian is safe, agrees to do what Rulke
wants.
The dark full moon rises, and it is hythe - mid-winter's day. The weight of
the prophecy crushes the company. Rulke's victory cannot be averted, Shand
tells them. The one who was to be the Restorer is dead.
PART ONE
r
The Arrow
The construct, a menace that warped even the light around it, slowly revolved
above the decapitated tower of Carcharon. Rulke stood tall on top, holding his
levers in one negligent hand. The other was thrust out at the rising moon,
whose dark face, mottled red and purple-black, had just heaved its swollen
mass over the horizon. That was a hideous omen. The moon had not been full on
hythe, midwinter's day, for 1,830 years. Rulke's foretelling was already
coming to pass.
When the dark moon is full on mid-winter's day, I will be back. I will crack
the Forbidding and open the Way between the Worlds. No one has the power to
stay me. The Three Worlds will be Charon evermore.
Karan, chest-high beside Rulke, was a stark white, staring shadow surrounded
by a corona of flaming hair. Llian wept for her, but even if he could step the
air between them there was no way to wrest her free. No one would help him
now. He was a pariah, accused of betraying Karan to Rulke, accused of being
Rulke's spy. Nothing would convince the company otherwise. Wherever he looked
he received dark looks in return, especially from Basitor the Aachim, who
blamed him for the destruction of Shazmak. Basitor would kill him given the
least opportunity.
Llian had only one friend left, little Lilis, but what could she do? The most
powerful people of Santhenar were here but not one of them - not Mendark, not
Yggur or the crippled Tensor, not Tallia or Shand or Malien - had the courage
to strike at Rulke.
The construct rumbled. The tower wobbled. Wavering discharges rose up from the
spiny protrusions embedded in the walls. The Ghashad guards, stick-men and
stick-women, resumed their posts, pacing with stiff-limbed gait. The red glare
from inside faded and flared, faded and flared.
Llian eyed the construct. It was an impossible thing, made of metal so black
that it stood out against the night sky. There was nothing on Santhenar to
compare it with. It required no beast to pull it; it had no wheels; and yet it
slipped through the sky like silk. It hung in the air like a balloon, though

Llian knew it was heavier than a boulder. Its sides bulged in complex shapes
that were alien, then curved away into corrugations underneath. The long front
soared up to a flaring binnacle crammed with knobs and wheels, behind which
was a thicket of levers, a place to stand and a high seat of carven
serpentine.
Llian knew that the inside was just as strange, equally packed with controls
and glowing plates, for he had seen it in the Nightland. Evidently Rulke
preferred to ride on top where he could display, and dominate.
'Karan!' Llian sang out in anguish. His voice echoed back across the
amphitheatre to mock him,
Karan must have seen him standing there on the rim, for she went quite rigid.
At the same instant the construct lurched beneath her. Her arms thrashed.
Llian thought she was going to go over, but Rulke jerked her back. She looked
up at him, looming head and shoulders above her, and spoke. Her words were not
even a sigh on the wind.
Yggur adjusted glasses as thick as bottle ends. When Rulke first appeared
Yggur had resolved to face his fears and die, rather than be overcome by them
yet again. Already that
resolve was weakening. 'Look at them together,' he said, grinding his teeth.
'He has possessed her mind. I can feel it, the way he possessed me for so
long.'
'I hope so,' replied Mendark in an even more chilly voice. 'Otherwise Karan
has betrayed us and must suffer for it.' He looked more haggard, wasted and
bitter than ever.
The way they talked was horrible. Llian was stabbed all over by pain pricks,
as if his blood had crystallised to needles. He sucked at the air but could
not fill his lungs. Everything wavered; he felt faint.
Yggur's cheek began to twitch, then locked rigid in a spasm that twisted up
one side of his face. Remembering that Yggur had once been mad, Llian wondered
if he was cracking again.
Yggur clutched at Malien's arm. 'Who is your best archer?' he gasped.
'Basitor has the strongest pull by far. But I should say Xarah is the most
accurate at this distance. Xarah!'
Xarah came forward. She was small for an Aachim, not much bigger than Karan,
with limp hair the colour of mustard and a scatter of freckles on her cheeks.
She looked much younger than the others.
'You are the best among you?' Yggur asked, his fists clenched, his knuckles
white.
Xarah looked down at the snow, fingering a bracelet on her wrist. She knew
what was going to be asked of her. Then she gazed up at the construct, gauging
the distance. Only Karan's head could be seen now.
'The best that is able,' she said. 'I can hit any target in Carcharon from
here.'
'And on the construct?'
'An uphill shot, but I can do it.'
Yggur followed her gaze. He spasmed again, tried to take control but failed.
'Then put an arrow in Karan's eye, for pity's sake! For her and for us.'
She did not move. 'Do it this minute!' he shouted, and
there were flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth. He looked as if he had
just fought a monumental battle with himself, and lost. He would do anything
to avoid Rulke possessing him again.
Xarah shivered. She looked up at Malien, her midnight-dark eyes expressionless
in the red light.
Malien put out her hand. 'Stay, Xarah!'
Mendark looked thoughtful. 'Rulke has made an error of judgment. If we were to
neutralise her, it might cripple him.'
Llian staggered between them, the ice-crusted manacles tearing his legs until
the blood flowed. He took no heed of that pain; it was nothing beside what he
was feeling inside.
'No!' he screamed, crashing into Mendark, who pushed him away.