The Chaos Crystal (44 page)

Once the leather flap fell back into place after the Scards' departure, Elyssa turned to Arkady. 'All right. They're gone. Where is it?'

Arkady hesitated as long as she dared before pointing to the pile of furs the puppies had been using as a bed. 'It's over there.'

The three Tide Lords stared at the furs for a moment, a little stunned, Arkady thought, to realise their prize was so close.

'Fetch it,' Elyssa ordered.

Arkady did as the immortal asked, seeing no point in fighting her just yet. Something was going on here that she didn't understand, but she'd been able to win Warlock and his family their escape. She was determined to give them as much time as she could before she made her own bid for freedom.

Squaring her shoulders, Arkady crossed the room to the pallet, threw back the furs and picked up the skull. She turned to the immortals and held it out in front of her. Although she could feel nothing unusual herself, the skull began to glow an angry, fiery red as she held it out toward the Tide Lords. Even Kentravyon took a step back.

'This is what you're after, isn't it?'

'Tides,' Cayal said, staring at it in surprise. 'It's a skull.'

'That's not a skull, fool,' Kentravyon said, sounding a little hurt. 'It's me.'

'You made the Chaos Crystal look like you?'

'How else were we supposed to tell it apart from all the other crystals?'

Cayal rolled his eyes. 'You mean the bright red glow didn't give it away?'

'On the world where we found this crystal, they all glowed,' Kentravyon informed him loftily, without offering any further information about the origins of the Chaos Crystal. 'It's not a good idea to channel the Tide around it, by the way. Not until we get back to Jelidia.'

'Why not?' Elyssa asked, staring at it as if it held the meaning of life.

'Because it's unpredictable. If you can't focus it properly, it'll end up causing more trouble than it's worth. Trust me.'

'But that means travelling by conventional means,' Cayal said, looking less than pleased. 'That will take weeks. Maybe months.'

'We've time yet, before the Tide peaks,' Kentravyon assured them. 'Provided we don't hang around here any longer than we have to.'

'I should let Mother know where I am,' Elyssa said.

'Why? Were you planning to invite Syrolee to join us in Jelidia?'

'Of course not.'

'Then let's get out of here. Out of Caelum,' Cayal said. 'We have what we came for.'

Elyssa considered the suggestion for a moment, then shrugged and pointed to Arkady. 'What if she tries to escape?'

'Then we'll kill her and find another pretty girl for you,' Kentravyon said. 'Won't we, Cayal?'

Cayal nodded. 'Absolutely.'

Elyssa seemed satisfied with that. She turned on her heel and headed up the stairs. Kentravyon followed, leaving Cayal and Arkady alone. She lowered the skull, slipping it into the large pocket of her coat, the glow fading as the Tide Lords departed.

'Cayal, what's going on here?'

'I'll explain later.' He reached out to her, almost as if he wanted to take her in his arms.

Arkady took a step back from him. 'I want to know now.'

'And if I take the time to explain, she'll kill you,' he said, a flat statement of fact Arkady didn't doubt for a moment. 'Just trust me, Arkady. I won't let anything happen to you.'

It was a lot to ask, and before Arkady could answer, Elyssa appeared on the landing at the top of the steps. 'Cayal? Are you coming?'

He sighed and gestured with his arm that Arkady should precede him up the stairs. With the crystal skull heavy in her pocket, she blinked in the bright daylight reflecting off the snow outside as she emerged from the ruined temple.

Without saying a word, Arkady followed Elyssa and Kentravyon toward the lake, with Cayal coming up behind her to ensure she didn't try to make a break for it.

A short time later, they stopped at the edge of the lake to discover Elyssa cursing like a sailor.

'What's the matter?' Cayal asked.

Elyssa was standing beside a battered, barely sea- worthy rowboat that looked incapable of holding one person, let alone three or four of them. It was not, Arkady guessed, the same craft the Tide Lords had arrived in.

Her expression was thunderous as she stared down at the fragile dinghy. 'Those flanking
gemang
stole our boat.'

PART 3

The boundaries which divide Life from 

Death are at best shadowy and vague. 

Who shall say where the one ends and 

where the other begins?

'The Premature Burial' 

— Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

CHAPTER 41

If Tiji had learned anything in her time as a spy for the King of Glaeba's Spymaster, it was to smell when something was awry. She'd developed a sense for trouble, an ability to detect a web of lies, even when it was invisible. She had that feeling now, here in the Palace of Impossible Dreams, and for the life of her, she couldn't put her finger on the cause of her disquiet.

Tiji's solution, naturally, was to snoop around until she discovered the source of her suspicions, a course of action that had brought her here this morning, far into the labyrinthine ice tunnels below the palace. She could feel the suzerain down here somewhere; smell their rank aroma ahead of her. She had never been this far beyond the storerooms below the palace before, and feared Azquil would be furious if he discovered she was down here now.

A strange winding ice staircase surrounded by walls glowing with an eerie greenish light gave Tiji pause. Swallowing back the lump of fear lodged in her throat, she crept ahead. She was able to hear people talking ahead of her, but unable to differentiate individual voices enough to identify who was speaking to whom. She thought Maralyce might be down here, along with Lukys and maybe even Pellys. She knew Lukys's mortal wife, Oritha, had to be down here, because it was Oritha that Tiji was following.

She took the steps silently, holding her breath, trying to avoid disturbing the moss that was providing the eerie green glow that lit the staircase. The red-tinged

light at the bottom of the stairs grew stronger, the voices clearer. Flattening herself against the freezing wall once she was past the moss, wishing it wasn't so cold she was required to wear furs — which completely negated her camouflage abilities — Tiji stopped when she reached the antechamber at the foot of the stairs and peered cautiously around the corner.

The sight that greeted her made the little Crasii gasp. The small outer chamber at the foot of the stairs opened into a vast circular hall that stretched away into the distance. From what she could see, it was almost perfectly round, the curved and ribbed walls lit by a ring of fire that circled the chamber at the base of the walls, as if the very ice itself was on fire. At the centre of the room there was a raised circular platform made of solid ice beside which Lukys and Maralyce stood. There was no sign of Pellys but lying on the ice altar — Tiji could think of no better description for it — was someone wearing the same coat Oritha wore the last time Tiji saw her when she had been heading this way. It was hard to tell from where Tiji was standing, but the young woman lay still as death on the altar, which was remarkable, because Tiji was quite certain she'd only been a few paces behind Oritha on the way down here.

Tiji stared at the odd scene, which soon became even stranger when she caught sight of something small and furry moving on the altar beside Oritha. It took her a moment to realise it was some sort of rodent.

'Are you sure about this, Lukys?' Maralyce was asking her companion as Tiji strained to hear what they were saying.

The immortal woman stood looking down at Oritha, her arms crossed, oblivious to the rat scurrying around the young woman's body. The curved walls of the vast chamber amplified the voices to the point where it sounded as if Tiji was standing beside them, and not far away at the entrance to the cavern.

'Coryna is sure.'

'You're guessing that, Lukys. You know as well as I do that she's hardly in a fit state to make a rational judgement about anything but her next meal.' Maralyce seemed to notice the rat for the first time. 'If you get this wrong
...'

'I won't,' Lukys said.

'And are you absolutely certain Oritha is suitable?' 'As certain as I can be.'

Maralyce was silent for a moment and then nodded. 'I suppose, if worse comes to worst, in an emergency you could use one of the Crasii.'

Tiji shivered, and not because of the ice cavern.
What's going on here? What are they plotting, down
here in this secret chamber?

And what's that got to do with the Crasii?

Lukys shook his head. 'We've considered that. Notwithstanding the unlikelihood of a Crasii surviving the surge, Coryna would be reluctant to take up residence in a body that might retain its compulsion to obey the wishes of another immortal.'

'A valid concern,' Maralyce conceded. 'Still, there's Arryl's two Scards here at the moment. At a pinch, one of them might suffice.'

Lukys seemed to find that amusing. 'The idea is to
improve
her situation. I'm not sure Coryna would appreciate being made into a lizard until the next King Tide, Maralyce. Even a part-human one. Still, it may be worth keeping one in reserve when the time comes. Just in case.'

Tiji frowned.
Who are they talking about? Who is
Coryna?

'I imagine my sister will have a few words to say about her current predicament, once she regains her voice,' Maralyce agreed. 'But shouldn't you wait until the others bring us the Chaos Crystal before starting this?'

Lukys shook his head. 'They'd feel me working the Tide if they were here. I'd have far too many awkward

questions to answer.' He smiled down at his unconscious young wife. 'She must be on the brink of death for this to succeed. I learned
that
the last time, too. Her heartbeat needs to be so slow it's barely moving, her consciousness so completely immersed there will be no resistance
...'

'You don't think the others are going to ask what she's doing here, laid out like a human sacrifice, when you open the rift?'

'I suppose we'll have to tell them before we start,' Lukys assured her. He smiled. 'Learning I have my own agenda won't really surprise anybody.'

'And if they object?'

'They mustn't,' Lukys warned.

'But if they do?'

The white-haired Tide Lord shrugged. 'By then, it shouldn't matter. They're all going to be here to help for their own reasons, after all. Kentravyon wants to know if we can do this. Cayal wants to die. Declan's still mortal enough to believe he'll be helping rid Amyrantha of immortals. And I suspect he's not averse to helping put an end to Cayal, either. Taryx believes opening the rift will make him stronger, and Arryl, well, she's a stickler for repaying debt's. She'll help because she feels she must.'

'Provided she doesn't realise the consequences.'

'Well, I won't mention them if you don't,' Lukys said, a little impatiently.

Maralyce glared at him, annoyed perhaps at his tone. 'You haven't asked why
I've
agreed to help.'

Lukys smiled, his impatience vanishing as if it had never been. 'I don't need to ask you, Maralyce. I know why.'

'Why?'

'Because you love her as much as I do.'

Love who?
Tiji was itching to know.
Tides, what —
who —
are they talking about?

'Then know this, Lukys, that if you screw things up again, my wrath will be
...
dangerous.'

'I know.'

'How do you intend to proceed?'

'Carefully. Despite the inconvenience caused by having the damn thing stolen from us, this quest to find the Bedlam Stone has been an unexpected boon. It's certainly got the others out from underfoot while I lay the necessary groundwork.' Lukys held out his hand. The rat scurried up his arm and took up residence on his shoulder. The Tide Lord idly scratched at the rat's chin and said, 'You worry unnecessarily, Maralyce. We've been planning this for a very long time.'

Maralyce didn't seem convinced by his reassurances. 'That's what you said the last time, Lukys.'

'I'll admit there were some
...
unfortunate
consequences that time,' he conceded. 'But this time
...'
He stopped, reaching forward to stroke Oritha's hair. 'I made her very beautiful, don't you think? A worthy vessel for my queen.'

'She's very beautiful,' Maralyce agreed. 'And in the process of making your beautiful vessel, you've foisted another immortal upon us.'

Lukys looked up. 'You mean Declan?'

'You promised me you'd not make him immortal, Lukys.'

'And I kept my promise. I didn't make him immortal. He did it all by himself. And I can't say I'm sorry. The only remaining doubt about this has always been exactly what mix it required to be certain the mortal body would survive immolation. Now we know.'