Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (33 page)

Even I do not know where to find her."
'I began to wonder if this were not some kind of test. Perhaps the man before
me was Ilen, with some illusion or change of shape on her. I implied as much,
and he became distressed, so that I was fairly sure he was genuine. He then
gave me another date, not so far off this time, only 150 days away.'
'"I cannot," I said, and he looked a little surprised. "I have business in the
east, in Thurkad and Zile, and will not be in Crandor for a year or more.
Indeed," I added with perhaps justifiable annoyance, "I have little to bring
me back to Crandor again." This will test him, I thought. If it is really
Ilen in disguise, the fellow will make another appointment right now. But he
did not.
' "I have no instructions for this eventuality," he said after a pause. "I
will have to send a message to my mistress and wait for her reply."
'I pounced. "How can you send her a message if you don't know where she is," I
said triumphantly.
'He gave a disdainful sniff at my lack of intelligence. "The skeet knows," he
said coldly, referring to that huge, foul-tempered carrier bird. "Please
return here in seven days."
Seven days later he met me in the early afternoon.
' "Ilen will also be in the east next year," he said. "She will find you, in
Thurkad or in Zile, unless you are travelling in disguise."
' "I am not," I said, "though I use a different name there -Cheseut."
T sailed off to Thurkad and immersed myself in my affairs again. The war was
at a critical juncture and though I was not taking part in it I was still very
busy. The months passed and I thought little of her. Without further feeding,
my obsession had starved itself out. Besides, I did not care to be tested so,
nor for the kind of woman who would toy with me. My pride had been hurt.
That's the kind of person I was then.'
He smiled at Maigraith, who had not taken her eyes off him all the while. She
squeezed his hand. 'Tell on,' she said, and her eyes shone in the starlight.
'One day I was sitting at a table at a waterfront inn in Thurkad, a place I
frequented because I liked to look across the water and think, when someone
stood between me and the sun. It was a cool day and I had been enjoying the
warmth. I looked up, feeling just a trifle annoyed, and it was her.
'I did not smile, or welcome her, though my heart turned over. She took a seat
opposite. "I do not like to be trifled with," I said.
' "Nor I, but I do not play games, and my word is good. I have had much to do
since we met, but now I am here. What is it that you want? Be direct; I cannot
abide waffle." She looked just a bit anxious. My throat was dry as dust. I
hardly dared to say it. It took more courage than anything I had done before.
' "You," I croaked. "I want you!" Then I sweated blood, expecting a scornful
rejection.'
A tear ran down Maigraith's cheek. 'Quick, tell me!' she cried, clutching
Shand's hands.
'She smiled, just the hint of a smile. She took my hand and put it to her
lips. "That is just as well," she said, "since I have come to the same
realisation."
'She drew me to my feet. She was very strong. We were inseparable from that
day. Often apart, but inseparable. So you can understand that I still grieve
for her.'
Maigraith smoothed away a tear at the corner of his eye. 'You must miss her
very much.'
'More than life itself. I would do anything to get her back.'
'And I would do anything to help you.'
'What am I to do with myself, Shand?' Maigraith asked later. 'I'm so
confused.' Shand's story had made her appreciate how shallow had been her
relationship with Yggur. She wanted so much more.
Shand looked up from the map he was drafting, a plan of the secret places of
Elludore. He spent many an hour with his maps, often just staring at them as
if reliving some ancient journey. 'What are you confused about?'

'Once Yggur was everything to me, but now I cannot imagine why. What did I see
in him? Why did I cleave to him and why do I now push him away? I hurt him
badly, though I never wanted to. And there is this other thing - '
'What other thing?'
'I am afraid to tell you for fear of what you will think of me. I saw Rulke
last summer, just after he was hurled out
of Katazza. He came to Thurkad in a kind of a sending. He was only half there,
but when he looked at me, when he lifted me up, I felt such terrible
yearnings. Yggur became a pale ghost by comparison. And I saw Rulke again, in
Carcharon just before hythe. I felt the same longings, and the same terror
too.'
'The pull of the Charon is a powerful thing,' said Shand, 'as I know better
than anyone. And maybe your Charon nature, that was hidden from you for so
long, cries out to you.'
'I don't know what to do. I'm afraid.'
'I can't hope to advise you. You must do what you have to do, but make sure
that you really have to do it. You know Rulke's reputation. Yet as I have
recently learned to my cost, reputations can be wrong.'
Feeling all hot and cold, Maigraith said no more.
Maigraith sat by the window with the Mirror on her lap, musing about what
Shand had told her about her mother, and her mother's mother. She gazed out at
the harbour, sometimes dreaming with her eyes closed, imagining her
grandmother coming to her. Suddenly she felt the pressure of light on her
eyelids and knew, without even opening her eyes, that Yalkara was there. The
Mirror had opened.
Behind her Shand choked, but Maigraith did not notice. The symbol shimmered
and burst with fire. She looked on her grandmother, the image of herself, and
Yalkara looked up at her and smiled. Her lips moved. The Mirror could not give
out her voice, but the words were painted in bright letters below her face.
Aeolior, if you come to read this, I have for you a message; a warning and a
task.
Aeolior - you were the most precious thing in my life and I had to abandon
you. That hurt more than anything I have ever done,
and doubtless it hurt you too. But if I stayed I would have died. I could take
nothing with me, not even you.
Aeolior! You may wonder why I came to Santhenar, for many lies have been told
about me. I begged, and the Council of the Charon allowed me to go, once we
learned that the people of another world had gone between the worlds to
Santhenar, and that they called themselves Faellem. I was very uneasy about
them, for all that they seemed to have no powers compared to ours. You must
realise that I know things that the other Charon do not. I, the youngest of
the Charon, was tutored by the oldest, Djalkmah, to carry on the knowledge of
our terrible first days in the void, and the time before that.
I have written that down in my last journal in Havissard, since there is no
one for me to pass my knowledge to. Not even the Charon can read that script,
but the Mirror will teach you when the time comes.
I was to be the watch on the Faellem. But Faelamor opposed my every work as if
she had come for that very purpose, and finally she defeated me, though I made
her think that mine was the victory. Beware Faelamor. She is utterly inimical
to the Charon and to this world too.
Aeolior. I made the Forbidding at the death of Shuthdar - a temporary
expedient. Later I found that I lacked the means to unmake it. Now it decays.
Eventually it must fail, and every use of devices -I mean things powered by
the Secret Art: gates, constructs, flutes, your birthright, this Mirror and
even such insignificant objects as lightglasses - will hasten that failure.
When it fails Santhenar will lie open to the void and cannot survive it. Your
task is to dismantle the Forbidding and at the same time restore the balance
between the worlds that existed before the flute. This is what you must At that point Yalkara's image slowly broke up into a maze of dancing dots and
the fiery writing faded. Maigraith watched,

the flickering lights playing on her face, and after a while the face
reappeared.

-look upon the Mirror, and it will show you what you must do. Aeolior, fare
well. We may meet some day if you succeed.
Yalkara smiled and faded away. 'Oh, I hope so, more than anything,' said
Maigraith.
Something made her look over her shoulder. Shand was staring at the blank
Mirror as if trying to see through it all the way to Aachan. He was trembling.
What would I give to bring you two together again, she thought. I wonder if
that is why Shand is so keen on having the flute remade?
She put the Mirror down, sorely puzzled, then took it up again. She made it
open as it had before. It told her what it had just told her, and it left out
what had been omitted before.
'But what does she mean? What am I supposed to do with the Mirror?'
Shand slowly roused himself from his preoccupation. 'I have no idea,' he said,
little louder than a whisper.
'Perhaps it's damaged,' she said, inspecting it carefully. 'Or perhaps I am
not enough like Aeolior.'
'Or perhaps the Twisted Mirror is up to its tricks again,' said Shand.
'There's no way to tell.'
The Three Tasks
Faelamor was broken. Since finding the gold in Havissard there had been one
setback after another. Now she had to deal with the rebellious Faellem as
well. Sheep she called them, but that only showed how far she had diverged
from them, over the centuries.
The three Faellem returned laden with nuts found under the snow. Faelamor was
sitting at the mouth of the cave, sunk ocean-deep in despair. She looked up
quickly as Gethren entered.
'I have failed,' she said. 'I called you out into the evil world for nothing.
Maigraith is gone and all I've striven for these past three hundred years is
ashes; so am I. The burden is too great to carry any longer.'
If it was a plea for sympathy it did not move them. 'Such a dishonourable
scheme as Maigraith told us deserved to fail,' said Gethren, 'and I cannot but
think that we're yet to hear the worst of it. My every bone aches for
Tallallame, but there must be other ways. If there are not, I will remain on
Santhenar until I die, and then my bones will ache no more. If that must be
the case, let the day be soon.'
Faelamor did not respond. Fail, fail, fail! she was thinking. You begged for
the task but your boast was hollow. You were trusted and you proved unworthy.
Now these Faellem, and
the rest, and the millions who wait for us in Tallallame, must wait in vain.
Hallal and Ellami appeared behind Gethren and stood observing for a moment.
They put the supplies away carefully, washed their hands and sat down in front
of Faelamor. A pair of small brown birds hopped around the rocks outside the
cave, picking up seeds and crumbs.
'Remember the caution that you were given before we departed Tallallame to
come to this wretched world,' said Hallal. 'You are one among the Faellem, and
when there is a difficult choice, or the burden is too heavy, you must consult
us. Once the choice is made we will support you whatever it is, but not if in
your arrogance you do not seek our guidance. That is why we exiled you after
the crime of Maigraith became known to us. We did not put our burdens on you
-you took them on yourself.'
'We ignored you when you first called us here!' Ellami added fiercely. 'We
heard you but put off answering. Do you seek our guidance at last? Is that why
you called us?'
Faelamor flicked her fingers in denial.
'Or did you call because the evil scheme you hatched by yourself had at last
come to fruition and you would now offer us the gift of it? If that were the
case we resolved to refuse you and go back to our cold forest, even if what
you offered us was the way to Tallallame at last. That is still our resolve,

and if so we will call our brethren and send them back at once.'
'Was that your scheme?' asked Ellami roughly.
'It was,' said Faelamor.
Gethren let out a great sigh. 'But it has failed!'
'Utterly,' she replied, then the smooth curves of her face were wracked by
wrenching spasms. Faelamor let out a wail that sent the little birds
fluttering up into the treetops. Clenching her fists, she drove them into her
stomach. She doubled over until she was a tiny ball of agony, then slowly went
rigid on the floor of the cave.
The Faellem watched her dispassionately as she went
through her ritual of grief and self-loathing. Hours passed in this state,
then Gethren tapped her on the shoulder.
'Come out!' he said. 'We must know what peril your folly, and worse yet, your
failure, has put us in.'
Faelamor unlocked her rigid limbs, wiped the dirt off her clothes and sat down
on the ground between them. Her golden eyes were blood-red.
They listened in silence to her story.
'When I looked at Yalkara's book, with its strange but familiar writing, I was
struck with terror. I could feel the glyphs writhing, trying to get off the
pages to strike me down. It is an evil thing, full of lying tales about us.'
'So,' said Gethren, cold as the glaciers that flowed out of the Great
Mountains into Mirrilladell, their adopted homeland. 'Having been defeated by
our greatest enemy you took her daughter and fashioned from her an even
greater foe.' His voice cracked like a whip. 'You are a fool, Faelamor! You
deserve everything you have got. We owe you nothing. Come Hallal, come
Ellami,' he said in disgust. 'Let us call the Faellem and send them back. I
can't abide the stink of this place any longer.'
Hallal put her hand up. 'Hold,' she said. 'She has fashioned a triune. What if
Maigraith were to ally with Rulke? Together they could endanger Tallallame
itself.'
'Such folly!' said Ellami in contempt. 'What are we to do?'
'I don't - ' said Faelamor.
'Do you not see the threat?' Ellami cried. 'Maigraith may have all the powers
of the Charon, and ours too. She knows us, understands us, and after what you
did to her how can she but hate us?'
'I was careful to break her spirit,' said Faelamor.
'It is mending fast then, for we heard how she led an army into Bannador in
defence of a friend! She could supplant us. Tallallame is vulnerable; that is
why we came here in the first place. We are small and weak. Our illusions, for
all their cunning, are no match for the raw power of the Charon,
or their mighty machines like this construct. They could displace us from our
own world.'
'I can't see the way out,' Gethren said.
'We have lost the option of doing nothing,' said Hallal. 'Give Rulke a
construct that works and he will have this world and lust after ours too. As
we came here to combat the Charon and their works, so we must do again. They
and their devices have been our greatest threat since ever they appeared on
Aachan. Nothing has changed. Somewhere in the misery of our exile we forgot
what we came to Santhenar to do - bring the Charon down!'
'I accept the rebuke,' Faelamor said, bowing her head. 'That was our whole
purpose, but we were afraid, and the Forbidding took away the urgency. We
stopped trying.'
'The book frightens me,' Gethren said. 'It must be sought out and destroyed.'
'How can we do that?' said Ellami.
'Mendark surely still has it,' replied Hallal. 'Someone must go to Thurkad,
recover the book, and we will see it burned to ashes. That is the first task.'
'What about Rulke?' said Gethren.
'We must oppose him,' said Ellami again. 'For all his strength. For all our
weakness!'
'Then we must have a device to match his,' said Faelamor.