The Chaos Crystal (56 page)

Stellan began unbuttoning his coat. 'I'm doing nothing more than what you and Tilly asked of me.' He shed the jacket and draped it over his arm, meeting Declan's gaze calmly.

'Who is Tilly?' Kinta asked from behind him. She knew Stellan, of course. She was still posing as the Imperator of Torlenia's wife when he was Glaeba's ambassador to her court. But she had no idea he was involved in this.

'The Guardian of the Lore,' Jaxyn told them, throwing his hands up.

Tryan shook his head. 'It's a sorry day, I have to say, when we're reduced to teaming up with the Cabal against our own kind.'

Knowing Tilly as he did, Declan guessed he shouldn't be surprised she'd wanted the Cabal to have a hand in this, but he was stunned by her choice of envoy. 'You're here on behalf of the Cabal?'

Jaxyn smiled at him. 'Well, you can't really blame them, Hawkes. I mean, it's not like they're going to think they can count on you these days, is it?'

'What's this?' Brynden asked Declan, his expression filled with suspicion. 'You were a member of the Cabal?'

Before Declan could answer, Jaxyn cut in. 'Oh dear
...
Did you think he was one of the good guys?' He laughed at Brynden's scowl. 'You never learn, do you, Bryn?'

Kinta scanned the others with a frown, ignoring Jaxyn. 'Where's Diala?'

Syrolee answered her, pushing her way to the front of the small gathering. She didn't like the idea that she might be left out of something important. 'Diala decided to follow Lyna to Senestra. Ambria's her sister, after all. She thought she might be more use there.'

That made sense. Declan glanced over the others, able to tell more about them from their signature on the Tide than how they were dressed or their demeanour. Ranee and Krydence were very alike and bore more than a passing resemblance to Engarhod, who had already found himself a palm tree to rest under a few feet away. He'd kicked off his boots, folded his arms and stretched out under the tree as if he was already asleep. He had little interest, apparently, in what the others were up to.

Fighting back the odd realisation that an hour ago he'd been lamenting how slowly things were progressing,

Declan was now feeling like everything was moving too fast.

'You have information about this device Lukys plans to use to restore Coron to human form?' Brynden asked Desean. He didn't return Jaxyn's greeting or acknowledge Syrolee and Tryan at all. Small talk wasn't his forte.

'It's not a device,' Jaxyn said. 'It's just a lump of crystal, I gather.'

'A lump of crystal that channels the Tide,' Kinta reminded them.

'Ah, yes, well
...
there is that.'

'Elyssa and I first learned about it not long after we became immortal,' Tryan said, speaking to Brynden and Kinta more than Declan. 'We overheard Maralyce and Lukys talking about it. We didn't even know what it was, back then, just that it was valuable and powerful.'

'So, naturally you wanted it for yourself,' Kinta said.

'Naturally,' Tryan replied without a flicker of apology.

'But you never found it?' Brynden asked.

Tryan shook his head. 'The best we did was track down some Cabal members who supposedly had a map of where it was hidden after it was stolen. All we found was a wretched Tarot on them, which — as it turns out — actually
was
the map, although we didn't realise it at the time.'

'By "we", you mean you and Elyssa?' Declan asked.

Syrolee answered before her son could. 'Which means, when we find it, the crystal belongs to my daughter. She's the one who found it, so it's only fair
...'

'Naturally. Because if we can't trust Lukys with unlimited power, the obvious choice is your sexually- frustrated daughter,' Jaxyn suggested.

The older woman glared at him. 'Don't push me, Jaxyn.'

'Can you tell us anything specific about the crystal?' Declan asked, hoping to head off any unpleasantness.

Tryan answered him with a shrug. 'Not much, truth be told, except for something Pellys said to me once, before Cayal lopped his head off and he forgot everything.'

'What did he say?' Brynden asked.

'He was talking about regret,' Tryan said. 'About how hard it was to live with it. I thought he was talking about things he'd done since I'd known him, none of which seemed
that
bad, in hindsight. I told him to get over it. He was immortal now and if he couldn't deal with living with what he'd done, he'd go crazy.'

'This was before you learned he was already immortal when the fire ripped through the brothel in Cuttlefish Bay?' Declan said.

Tryan nodded.
'That
little snippet I only just learned from Jaxyn, and it's much of the reason we're here now. You see, now we know Pellys wasn't made at the same time as the rest of us, what he told me back then begins to make sense.'

'Well — what
did
he tell you?'

Declan understood Kinta's impatience. It seemed as if Tryan was drawing out the telling of his story for the dramatic effect.

'He told me he'd done things,
bad
things he couldn't live with. He said if he'd known what one small stone would do — and I'm guessing in light of what we know now, by "one small stone" he meant the Chaos Crystal — he'd have offered to stay behind instead of Tameca, and he could have perished with all the millions of innocents they destroyed, instead of living forever among the guilty.'

'Who is Tameca?' Brynden asked.

'The immortal they left behind when they came through the rift to Amyrantha,' Kinta said before

Declan could answer him. 'I assume that's what he was referring to?'

Declan shook his head doubtfully. 'I'm not sure it is. Kentravyon said only six of them had inhabited the last world they called home, and only five had come through the rift to this one. He didn't name the world although, I agree, he did say Tameca stayed behind when they left it.'

Kinta nodded. 'He said she was like Cayal. That she'd had enough. It was her time to die. But he didn't mention a massive loss of human life.'

'You're assuming human life is more valuable than any other?' Stellan said, frowning at her. 'Or that this other world they came from was even inhabited by humans.'

The immortals seemed surprised to hear a mortal had an opinion on the subject. For a moment Desean's comment reduced all of them to a silence, which was finally broken by Jaxyn.

'I think it's safe to assume that if Pellys was carrying so much guilt he'd rather be turned into the village idiot than live with it,' he said, finally able to get a word in. 'We can also assume that his past is littered with some fairly impressive mistakes. I mean, he can't have spent eternity
just
killing ornamental fish now, can he?'Suddenly Jaxyn grinned at them. 'Or maybe he has. Maybe
they're
the innocents he's lamenting.'

Syrolee punched him in the shoulder impatiently. 'Be serious, Jaxyn.'

'I'll be serious when you lot start listening to yourselves. Tides!'

'"She held the rift open for us, and the last one through almost never survives". That's what Kentravyon said, Jaxyn,' Kinta told him. 'It was certainly enough to convince Cayal that Lukys's plan to open the rift will finally allow him to die.'

Declan nodded. 'Kentravyon only spoke of Tameca dying, though. He wasn't all that specific about the world they left.'

'Pellys couldn't live with the idea he'd slaughtered millions of innocents,' Syrolee reminded them. Given he'd fathered two children on her before she was made immortal, Declan supposed that gave her a certain amount of authority on the subject. 'He let Cayal behead him, for the Tide's sake. Begged Cayal to do it, if you believe Cayal's version of events. I knew the old Pellys better than any of you. He was always feeling bad about something.'

'And if they did destroy some world we've never heard of,' Jaxyn asked again, 'so what?'

Brynden turned to Jaxyn, his stern face filled with disapproval. 'Then they are just as likely to do the same to this world. If you do not want to help us save Amyrantha, why are you here, Jaxyn?'

Tryan didn't give Jaxyn a chance to answer. 'Look, whatever this fool's reasons for being here, the fact is, we have a problem. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't spare even one of you the time of day, and I certainly wouldn't be doing anything the flanking Cabal of the Tarot approves of,' he added, glancing at Stellan. 'But Hawkes is right. This could be catastrophic for all of us.'

'I agree,' Brynden said, glancing at Kinta first before he spoke. 'This is an extraordinary situation that calls for extraordinary measures.'

Syrolee sniffed at them. 'Well, just don't think this means I have altered my standards or that we now consider you or the stinking mortals of the Cabal our friends.'

Declan watched in amazement as they forged their odd alliance by declaring their dislike for one another, but knew better than to interfere. So did Stellan, who wisely kept silent. These immortals knew each other better than he would ever know them. Trying to help their agreement along now would be counterproductive.

He stepped away from their discussion a short way,

turning to watch the village children on their long polished boards riding the waves into shore.

A moment later, Stellan joined him.

'I recognise your hand in their arguments,' Declan said softly.

'Really?'

Declan nodded. 'Jaxyn and Tryan are both too self- centred to consider the wider ramifications of Lukys trying to restore Coryna. That they're arguing for it now means someone had planted the idea in their minds.'

'I really don't think —'

'Don't be modest. Old King Enteny was right, you know — there is no better negotiator on Amyrantha than Stellan Desean.'

Before Stellan could respond to that, Kinta announced behind them, 'Then it is agreed. We will go to Jelidia, find out what they are doing down there, and put a stop to it.'

'Agreed,' Syrolee said. 'That just leaves us with one rather burning question.'

'What's that?' Brynden asked.

'How do we get there in time?'

'They have a substantial head start on us, you know,' Jaxyn said. 'That ship left Glaeba weeks ago.'

'One could assume,' Brynden said, with a perfectly straight face, 'that given we're standing here discussing it, they probably haven't destroyed the world just yet.'

'Tides, Bryn,' Jaxyn said. 'When did you acquire a sense of humour?'

Brynden stared at him blankly. 'I wasn't trying to be funny, Jaxyn.'

Declan heard the question about getting to Jelidia and turned back to the Tide Lords. 'Is there any particular reason why we can't fly?'

They all looked at him for a moment before Jaxyn smiled at him condescendingly. 'Leave the jokes to Brynden, spymaster. He's much better at them than you.'

'And, like Brynden, I wasn't joking,' Declan said, a bit peeved at the way they were staring at him like they'd just bestowed the title of Village Idiot on
him
instead of Pellys. 'I travelled here from Jelidia on a carpet. Tides, for the last half of the trip, we rode a bit of broken roof. You just arrived in the same fashion. If we can move inanimate objects on the Tide, surely we can move ourselves in the same fashion?'

'You're the channel for the Tide magic,' Kinta explained, the only one who seemed to appreciate his question was genuine and not his idea of being funny. 'You can't push it out and pull it in simultaneously. It would be like trying to pour water back into the pitcher you're pouring it out of in the first place, at the same time.'

'But if there's a barrier between you and Tide, then you can push against that,' Declan said with a nod of understanding, Kinta's simple analogy making the problem immediately clear. 'So we find a bigger rug and head on down to Jelidia. What's the problem?'

'Speed,' Tryan said. 'We can only move so fast before the friction of the Tide barrier propelling the rug — or whatever we're standing on — against the air, starts to come into play. Go too fast and you'll burst into flames. It won't kill you, admittedly, but I can assure you, it's not a pleasant way to travel.'

Declan thought about the problem, the laughter of the children further down the beach distracting him. He glanced over his shoulder at them, hoping they'd soon be called home to lunch, assuming they had parents who were willing to feed them. They looked skinny enough to have missed a few meals recently.

'What if
...?'
Kinta began, but Warlock, who'd stood back from the discussion and not uttered a word before now, cut her off.

'Why can't you use
them?'

The others turned to look at him. Warlock was pointing down the beach at the children and their

polished boards slicing through the waves. 'If you lay down on them, there'd be less of you to push against the air. You could go faster, couldn't you?'

Tryan was not impressed. 'Idiot
gemang.
We'll never fit on one board.'

Warlock stared down the Tide Lord without flinching. 'I wasn't suggesting you share.'

'Warlock would have to travel with me,' Declan said, watching the children thoughtfully. 'And Desean with one of you, assuming you're planning to come with us, your majesty?'