The Chaos Crystal (57 page)

Stellan looked at the boards a little dubiously, but nodded. He'd already ridden a carpet to get here. Declan supposed riding a plank the rest of the way wasn't that much of a stretch.

Tryan glared at Warlock; he was unused to defiant Crash he wasn't at liberty to annihilate as he pleased. Then he turned to the others. 'It might work. What do you think?'

'I think,' Jaxyn said, looking at Tryan as he rolled his eyes in disgust, 'that even though we are destined to live forever, if we manage to save the world, we're never going to hear the end of the
gemang's
one and only good idea.'

CHAPTER 51

Even though Cayal couldn't feel the Tide well because of the dampening effect of the crystal, he could see it at work. The dancing lights of the aurora lit the night sky as they approached the ice palace, a dazzling show of vivid green light, beckoning them south.

As Elyssa had predicted, Taryx was waiting for them with a dog sled when they came ashore, which was a good thing because it was quite a long way across the ice to the palace. The distance meant little to the immortals but a great deal to Arkady, who was neither dressed nor equipped for a hike across this frozen landscape.

With their precious mortal messenger bundled into the sled, wrapped in furs against the bitter wind with the Chaos Crystal tucked safely in her keeping, they reached the palace just as the aurora began to bathe the southern skies in its mystical light.

The journey across the ice to the palace took less time than Cayal was expecting. A great deal more of the ice continent had given way in their absence. By the time the Tide peaked, the palace would be on the coast. He understood now why Lukys had constructed it so far inland. He must have known this would happen.

Lukys, Arryl and Maralyce came out to meet them. There was a repressed excitement about them Cayal had never seen before. Arryl seemed fidgety and a little distracted. The normally laconic Lukys could barely

contain his excitement, and Maralyce seemed almost giddy as Taryx shook Arkady awake once they were inside. She pushed off the furs, blinking owlishly in the sudden light of the torchlit main chamber, and looked around in awe.

'You have it,' Lukys said as Arkady climbed from the sled.

It was a statement not a question. The dampening on the Tide would have told Lukys where the crystal was long before they got here.

Arkady nodded, and reached inside her coat. Cayal held his breath as, a moment later, she pulled out a small bundle wrapped in hessian sacking. She opened it to reveal the crystal skull she'd so carefully carried from the shores of Caelum to the other side of the world in order to save Warlock and his family. The skull glowed a fierce shade of red, surrounded as it was by so many Tide Lords.

She thrust it forward toward Lukys who took a step away from it.

'You made a mortal carry it for you,' Maralyce noted with approval. 'We wondered how you were going to travel with it.'

'Nice of you to let us know in advance that it sucks the very Tide out of everything it touches,' Elyssa said.

'Kentravyon knew,' Lukys said with a shrug. 'Nice to see you again, Elyssa.'

'I doubt it, Lukys. You need me to help you work your little magic trick, that's all. Don't pretend you and that old cow there want me here for any other reason.'

'Charming as always,' Lukys said with a smile and mocking bow. 'Welcome back, Kentravyon. Cayal.' He turned to Arkady with an urbane smile. 'And who is this delightful creature who has cared so faithfully for our precious Chaos Crystal and carried it across the world for us?'

'This is Arkady Desean,' Cayal told him. 'Arkady, this is Lukys and, well, you already know Maralyce and Arryl.'

'Welcome to my home,' Lukys said, gallantly raising Arkady's gloved hand to his lips, while carefully avoiding the hand that was holding the Chaos Crystal. 'And you've met these two already? Well, aren't you the dark horse? Are you one of Cayal's many lovers? I always imagined that if I grew bored enough, I could amuse myself by trying to find as many of them as possible.'

'Leave her alone,' Cayal said to Lukys, removing Arkady's hand from his. 'We ran across Arkady in our travels and she offered to carry the crystal for us. Nothing more.'

'What happened to Declan?' Arryl asked, with a brief nod of greeting to Arkady. She didn't seem any happier to see the mortal duchess than she was to see Elyssa.

'He was getting on my nerves, so I killed him,' Cayal said.

Lukys smiled. 'Very droll. What really happened to him?'

'He quit on us,' Kentravyon said. 'Some namby- pamby nonsense about the Crash.'

'Cayal said Declan didn't want any part of killing several thousand innocent felines,' Arkady said, clearly taking umbrage at hearing the Rodent's name maligned, however justly. Cayal privately thought Kentravyon was right on the money. Hawkes
bad
quit on them because of his squeamishness over killing Crash. He wasn't going to let Arkady know he thought that way about her old lover, however. Things were looking very rosy between him and Arkady at the moment. In fact, they were getting along better than they'd been for a very long time. Hawkes was long gone, off saving the world in his own inimitable fashion, far from Jelidia. Amazing how much more

smoothly events unfolded when there was no longer any competition.

Admittedly, Elyssa was still a thorn in Cayal's side. And Arkady still needed to move past that teensy little
I-offered-Elyssa-your-body-so-she-could-
possess-you
problem she was having, but Cayal was confident she'd get over that. Eventually.

All things considered, things are looking quite
rosy
...

And then Cayal realised what he was doing and cursed his own stupidity. There was no point making plans for the future. He didn't have one. Didn't want one, either.

This is what Arkady did to him. This was the subtle danger of her. Arkady made him think of the future. She made him
want
a future, which was all well and good, except she was mortal so the future she offered was merely an illusion of happiness. It could never be the real thing.

Curse the woman.
When she wasn't around, he had no need to make plans.

Maybe, if she was immortal, Cayal dared to imagine for a moment, there might have been
some
hope. Lukys and Coryna seemed to have found a way to make it work across endless lifetimes.

'Would you like to follow me?' Lukys said to Arkady, indicating the way with his arm. 'I'm sure you're looking forward to being rid of your burden.'

Arkady nodded warily and glanced at Cayal, who was still silently cursing his own foolishness for allowing his imagination, and his impossible dreams, to run away with him.

'I'll come with you,' he offered. 'What about you. Elyssa? Want to come down and admire Lukys and Taryx's handiwork?' His moment of weakness behind him, Cayal phrased the question that way deliberately, knowing it was the surest way to be rid of her temporarily. Nothing would irk Elyssa more

than hearing Lukys and Taryx pat themselves on the back over their own cleverness in building the ice chamber.

Thank you, but I think I'd rather be shown to my room. It was a quite a hike over the ice to this place and my clothes are soaking. I'd like a chance to change, at the very least.'

'I'll show you the way,' Arryl offered. Her tone seemed oddly flat, as if she had little interest in the new arrivals. There was no sign of her lizard Crasii, either.

Lukys watched them leave, smiling in a way that gave no hint of what he was really thinking. Taryx was busy with the sled and the dogs, and at some point Kentravyon had also slipped away.

Cayal looked around for a moment, as he realised someone else was missing. 'Where's Pellys?'

'Up on the roof,' Lukys told him.

'What's he doing up there?'

'Waiting for the Tide to peak.'

'Really?'

Maralyce smiled at his expression. 'Don't worry, Cayal. For once there's a sound reason behind something he's doing.'

'I'm not sure if
sound
and
reason are
two words that actually apply to Pellys, Maralyce,' Cayal said with a frown.

'We need to know when the Tide peaks,' Lukys said. 'We won't feel it inside the palace now the Chaos Crystal is here. He's up there watching for us. Shall we?' He stepped back to let Arkady precede him. A little warily, she headed in the direction he indicated.

'Elyssa was right, you know,' Cayal said, falling in beside Lukys. 'The damn thing sucks the Tide out of everything in the vicinity. Won't it do the same to us?'

Lukys nodded. 'Initially, yes. But once you start forcing the Tide through it, it will actually start to

amplify the Tide. With the power directed back at it by the chamber's walls, it'll suck that up too. Before long, we'll have gathered enough power to open the rift.'

'And then you'll be able to transfer your rat's mind into your wife's body?' Arkady asked.

Lukys glanced at her oddly for an instant as they walked and then looked at Cayal. 'You told her?'

'Only because Kentravyon told me,' Cayal said. 'When were you planning to share this minor but important detail with the rest of us, by the way?'

'When you needed to know,' Lukys said with an unapologetic shrug. 'Did he tell you about Coryna's little
...
accident
...
that necessitates this rather dire course of action to remedy the situation?'

Tides,
Cayal thought as he listened to Lukys speak.
He's probably going to leave a pile
of
rubble the size
of
this planet in his wake trying to restore the rat's mind to a human body, and he's calling it 'the remedy for a little accident'?

And they say
I'm
deluded.

'Oh, he did better than that, my lord,' Arkady said in a tone that made it clear she hadn't even begun to consider forgiving Cayal for his latest transgression. 'He told Elyssa you would do the same for her. Using my body.'

'Did he now?' Lukys said, looking at her thoughtfully.

'Of course, the attempt will apparently kill me, but he's not too bothered about that. Seems to think he'll be dead too, so he won't have to live with the consequences of what he's done.'

'That sounds like our boy Cayal,' Lukys agreed as they headed down the stairs to the lower levels. He'd taken a torch from the head of the stairs to light their way. The flames fractured into myriad colours that splattered against the ice-carved walls. 'I take it you're not interested in taking part in such an exchange, my lady?'

'Of course not!'

Lukys sighed and glanced over his shoulder at Cayal. 'You really should ask before you make these arrangements, Cayal. The lady clearly wants nothing to do with it.'

'I needed to get Elyssa to cooperate.'

'He did that by asking her to marry him,' Arkady said, taking a perverse amount of pleasure in his discomfort. But her teeth were chattering as she spoke, the only one here who could feel the bone-chilling cold of the ice.

'Tides,' Maralyce said from behind them with a sour laugh. 'I think I finally understand how truly desperate you are, Cayal.'

He stopped and glared at the three of them, feeling very misunderstood. He'd offered Arkady to Elyssa to
save
her life, not take it. 'Tides, I was just trying to help. And you
know
that, Arkady, so stop trying to paint me as the one at fault here. Yes, I promised you to Elyssa, but Lukys knows it won't work. I just need her to believe we're trying, that's all.'

'So, when we come to open the rift, you want me to take time out from focusing the largest concentration of Tide ever gathered in one place, to pretend I'm helping Elyssa, so she'll help you?' Lukys asked.

'Well
...
yes.'

Lukys shook his head without comment and resumed walking with Arkady at his side; Maralyce poked Cayal from behind to get him moving. 'You're an idiot, Cayal.'

'I'm an idiot?' he muttered under his breath, staring after the others as they began to descend the stairs into the ice chamber.

After a moment, he followed the circle of light that was Lukys and the torch he carried, more than a little peeved by the lack of sympathy he was getting from

the man who professed to understand his pain so well he was willing to help him die.

A few moments later, Cayal heard rather than saw Arkady's reaction when she first spied the spectacular fire-lit ice chamber below the palace. Her gasp was audible even on the stairs.

'Tides
...'

impressive, isn't it?' Lukys said with a smile in his voice. He really was inordinately proud of his wretched chamber.

'How are you fuelling the fires?'

'With methane trapped under the ice.'

it's
...
fantastic!'

By the time Cayal reached the bottom of the stairs, Arkady, Maralyce and Lukys were already halfway across the vast cavern floor on their way to the altar. Cayal followed them, no longer fascinated by the burning ice, although given the way Arkady's head was swivelling this way and that, he figured she was intrigued by it. He caught up with them as they reached the solid block of ice in the centre of the cavern.