Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (53 page)

the Magister was gone.
Ecstasy and Agony
Maigraith remained in her prison chamber in Shazmak, on parole. She was well
fed and comfortable, but afraid. Afraid of Rulke, who came frequently,
pressing her to ally with him, but overpoweringly drawn to him too. She wanted
to help him, to be his mate, to share his bed. The unfamiliar urges frightened
her. And she was afraid for Karan, who would certainly follow her here.
Whatever choice she made the consequences would be ill.
Maigraith could have broken out, even with the Ghashad guarding her, but she
had no idea what to do after that. If Rulke was telling the truth, what she
knew about him must be a lie. Even so, his plans endangered the whole world,
and Faelamor was a greater danger. But if she, Maigraith, did nothing, or if
she tried and failed, that might be worse yet. So she festered, and fretted
about Karan, and burned for Rulke as the hours passed.
That afternoon he came yet again. This time he looked uncertain. Then, to her
astonishment, he went down on his knees before her.
'Maigraith,' he sighed, taking her hand. 'I am struck dumb by you. We would
make a perfect partnership. But I can't find the words to say what I want to
say to you.' He rested his bearded cheek on her knee.
The transformation made Maigraith hideously uncomfortable, for all that she
was troubled by similar yearnings. This was not Rulke. It could not be!
'You must have had a thousand lovers,' she said. 'I have coupled some,' he
admitted, 'but I have only loved once since I came to your world. Even that
was an uneven match, and a tragic loss.' 'Tell me!'
'When Alcifer was complete, I wanted to populate it with children of my own
species. Who was I to mate with? Yalkara was the only Charon woman on
Santhenar, but that match was impossible. Not even to ensure the survival of
our species would she pair with me. My only option was one of the half-Charon,
blendings of Charon and Aachim that we brought here with us. That would be
better than nothing, but I wanted my children to be full Charon. How could
that be done? I wrestled with various sordid schemes. Once in my desperation I
even thought to strip the eggs out of Yalkara, fertilise them with my own
seed, and put them in one of the blending women. Shameful thought. I could not
do it!
'I mated the blendings as a farmer might breed goats to bring out a particular
strain. The result of those unions looked like true Charon but I knew they
were not. I tried to punch a hole through the Forbidding and bring a mate from
Aachan, but that failed too. Then I became captivated by for one of my
blendings.
'It was an unequal match, for I was age-old while she was barely nubile.
Nonetheless, we were betrothed and she was ready to march into Alcifer and
take her place on the throne beside mine. But it was never to be. The corrupt
Council used her as the bait in a trap for me - their so-called Proscribed
Experiments. Though I did everything I was capable of, I could not save her,
nor in the end myself. She went to a cruel and pointless death, and I into the
Nightland.'
He spoke truth, her very soul knew it. Rulke had been greatly wronged. She
looked into his eyes.
'So, what are your plans, Maigraith?'
'I have none. But I must know what you plan, if I am to consider allying with
you.'
'Have you heard the tale I told Llian in Carcharon? How we were treacherously
cast into the void, and came out of it on the very brink of extinction? How a
mere hundred of us took Aachan, to give us the chance to regenerate our
species?'
'I heard the tale and was moved by it,' she said.
He jumped up, to pace restlessly backwards and forwards. Then he sat down
again and took her hand. 'Maigraith, I am going to trust you with the very
fate of our species. This is the terrible truth: do you know how many Charon
there are?'

'I imagine that you are legion by now, in Aachan.'
'But we could not flourish in Aachan!' he raged. 'We have never been fecund,
like humans and Faellem, or even the Aachim species. Aachan was somehow
hostile to us. We are less than a hundred now, and most are age-old.
'We are so few! Our hope became our nightmare - our sanctuary our prison.
That's why we had to come to Santhenar. We had to get off Aachan to a world
where we could increase. That's why I had the flute made in the first place. A
perilous labour, but worth the risk if it could open the Way between the
Worlds and free us from Aachan.'
'But Shuthdar stole the flute,' she said.
'And began the agony that still wracks us to this day. The Forbidding trapped
us here - Yalkara, Kandor and I. Not enough to begin our species anew, even
were Yalkara and I not mortal enemies.'
'Why so?'
'An ancient feud between our families, which I will not go into. Anyway, as we
were trapped here, the rest of the Charon were trapped on Aachan, slowly
losing their potency, growing ever more desperate. Everything I've done since
I came to Santhenar - every single thing! - had but one objective: to break
through the Forbidding and bring the rest of my
species here. To multiply before it was too late. To save my kind from
extinction.'
'That is not how the Histories tell it.'
'Of course not! Every dictator, every tyrant needs an enemy to distract
attention from his own shortcomings, and I made the perfect enemy. But enough
of that. If you have no plans, at least tell me what your objective is.'
'My destiny is to restore the balance between the worlds that Shuthdar broke,
though I don't know how.'
He leapt to his feet. 'Then we are utterly opposed!' His fists were clenched
into knuckled balls the size of grapefruit.
'Can we not work together?'
'To restore the balance necessarily means the end of the Forbidding. I might
never find the Way then.'
'But to breach the Forbidding is a terrible risk,' said Maigraith.
'I have done it. I know how.'
'And it was a disaster.'
'A tiny flaw in the construct, remedied now. I've worked on my own weaknesses
too. Maigraith, with the Forbidding gone I might never find Aachan again.
Everything is so changed now, you see. I cannot take the risk. We Charon stand
on a precipice, and only I can save us. Once I have brought them here it will
be a different matter. I will gladly help you then.'
'I don't dare to take that risk,' said Maigraith. 'The Mirror tells me that
the whole void could swarm into Santhenar. That will be the end of old human
kind.'
'The Mirror lies!' he said furiously. 'It is an Aachim thing, always trying to
frustrate our ends.'
'Not to me!' she replied, unshaken.
'Even to you!'
'Well, I am resolute.' She stood up, her chin lifted, her back very straight.
She looked him in the eye. 'Neither can I yield.'
The moment was drawn out. Then Rulke said, T cannot allow you to thwart me.
The future of my species is at stake.'
'And my world! I am only one-quarter Charon, remember!'
'But it is quite dominant. You are more Charon than anything else.'
'I am triune. The Three Worlds are my mother and my father, the four human
species my children. How can I buy your future at the expense of another's?'
'This is torment!' cried Rulke 'But if you will force me to the choice, I must
put my own species first - no matter what my feelings toward you.'
'What can you possibly feel toward me? You've only known me two days.'
'I've been waiting for you for twice a thousand years. You have shown me an
opportunity that none of us has ever had before.'

'I'm sorry,' she said, and she was. So terribly, terribly sorry.
'Then we must do battle.' Rulke whirled and went out.
'And you will certainly defeat me,' she said to herself, 'for in my heart I
don't want to fight you, and for all my words I can't impose my will on you.'
A few minutes later he rushed back in. 'Show it to me!'
Very tentatively Maigraith brought out the Mirror. 'Sit beside me,' he said.
'Show me what it showed you.'
She did so.
'And the message from Yalkara?'
That was harder, because it was a private treasure that she did not want to
share with anyone. But then, Rulke was Charon too. She found Yalkara's
message. Again there was that disconcerting gap in the middle. 'See,' she
said. 'It must be because I have not enough Charon blood in me.'
'The Mirror lies, I told you, and when it is prevented from lying it cheats
and conceals. Give it here.'
He gripped the Mirror in his strong hands, staring deep into it, matching his
will with its own. The image of Yalkara faded to nothing. The Mirror's surface
changed from silver to gold and back again, then a torrent of light poured out
of
it, so bright that he flinched. 'No, you don't!' he cried. 'Not to me!' He
held the Mirror high, forcing until his hands shook, then suddenly the face of
Yalkara reappeared, and the writing ran across the bottom as it had before.
But now the missing passage was complete.
This is what you must do. Aeolior, the Mirror will try to deceive you, but
your birthright is proof against it. Wear the gold and the Mirror will be
forced to show true. The gold will protect you too, if you wear it. Never let
it out of your hands. Never, never allow it to be used in any other way, for
if you do the protection will be lost and the gold will become as dangerous as
the gold that came from the golden flute. Do not be hasty. Spend a lifetime
preparing yourself, and when you are ready, remember, take hold of your
birthright and look upon the Mirror, and it will show you what you must do.
Aeolior, fare well. We may meet some day if you succeed.
The bright letters faded away. Maigraith sat staring at the Mirror, devastated
by her blunder. After all her careful thought, all her agonising, she could
hardly have made a worse decision if she had set out to.
'So!' said Rulke. 'You could not have known, but now you do! You handed your
birthright to our enemies, the protection is lost, and now Tensor has made the
most deadly device that could ever be made from it.'
Maigraith found herself shaking uncontrollably. 'I didn't know!' she wept. 'It
lied to me. I can never trust the Mirror to show me what to do. Can you
recover the secret from it, Rulke?'
'Not without the gold. Maybe not with it either, after Tensor's work.'
'What am I to do?'
'You'll have to find another way. I may be able to help you when the time
comes, if you will agree not to oppose me now.'
¦
'I - I will think about it.'
He sprang to his feet and without saying another word disappeared out the
door.
Maigraith drifted out of sleep, thinking about Rulke, yearning for him. That
snapped her wide awake. I do yearn for him, she realised. I want him body and
soul. I know it absolutely, no room for doubt.
She played back the scene of their first meeting here, revelling in the
ecstasy of his remembered touch. Surges of heat coursed their way down her
body at the remembrance. Even her toes felt hot. Every nerve was a heated
filament inside her. Her skin was so sensitive that she flung off the covers
and bathed in the freezing air.
There came a single tap on the door. Rulke! She flung on a gown hanging on the
wall. It must have been one Karan had worn as a girl, for it was far too
small. No matter. Maigraith went to the door, holding the robe together with

one hand. The soles of her feet felt so exquisite that she could hardly bear
to put them on the floor. She opened the door.
Rulke stood there, carrying a basket in one hand. She ached for him; she felt
that she was melting inside. 'Come in,' Maigraith said, in such turmoil that
she could no longer think to hold closed her gown. Rulke's eye touched on the
swell of one breast. He dropped the basket just inside the door with a crash
of crockery.
Giving him her hand, she led him to the bedchamber. She shook her shoulders so
that the robe sighed into a heap on the floor.
'What happened to your shoulder?' he asked, touching the red wound with his
fingertips.
'A Faellem arrow. It's nothing.'
'I'll call my healer. Idlis will soon have you better.'
'In the morning!' Sitting on the side of the pallet she attended to his
trouser buckle and shirt buttons. His skin
was smooth and dark, not hairy as Yggur had been. She found the difference
marvellously sensual.
Maigraith drew him down to her. His fingers carved a fiery path down her
throat.
'There is more than one way to do battle,' she said, hooking her arm around
his neck and pulling him closer to her.
That was how Faelamor found them. To break into Shazmak undetected had taken
every atom of skill and experience in her long life as the greatest
illusionist of all, for she was the first enemy Rulke had protected himself
against. But Faelamor knew Shazmak, knew the Sentinels and the secret ways
too. Even so, had not Rulke been so distracted she would never have achieved
it.
She had entered not long after Maigraith, and in her nocturnal prowlings had
been shocked witless to learn from the chatter of the Ghashad that Maigraith
was here.
It had taken another day and night to find her, and Faelamor was worn out.
Maintaining her disguise against the collective will of the ever-vigilant
Ghashad was harder than ever. But she did it. She found the chamber that had
once been Karan's, turned the handle without a sound and slid within. There
was no noise, no movement. The apartment was dimly lit by the dawn light.
Faelamor crept to the open bedroom door, easing her head inside. The first
thing she saw was a dark foot dangling over the side of the pallet. Two feet;
dark long legs, massive thighs half-covering slender legs that were pale by
comparison - more the colour of honey.
They lay asleep in each other's arms, still in the tangle of their lovemaking.
Maigraith's hair was fanned across the grey silk of the pillow. Faelamor
shuddered. Her hand shook. She almost cried out in her grief and loss. Had she
a dagger she would have plunged it through them both.
Too late! Rulke stirred. She must not be seen. Faelamor pulled the tattered
shrouds of her illusion around her and
withdrew silently, creeping away to a distant part of Shazmak, there to lick
her wounds and plot her next moves.
What game do they play? She risks much, to dally like that with Rulke, and so
does he. Could he be smitten by Maigraith, his judgment perhaps failing? I see
an opportunity.
Why is she here? Surely to seize the construct for herself. But she's not
strong enough. I broke her will myself, lest she come to overpower me. Rulke
will sway her to his side, as he has already seduced her. They will try to
open the Way, and might succeed too. I must prevent that, whatever it costs. I
will make him a better offer.
Once the gate is made I will batter it wide open and shatter the Forbidding. I
will break his toy to bits. Whatever is at the heart of it I will take with me
so that it can never be remade. While they struggle to hold back the void we
will be away to Tallallame at last. But I cannot do it at a distance. I must
be close to him. I must see the gate!