The Chaos Crystal (61 page)

A step into the abyss, from which nothing, not even the Tide, could save him.

What he got was Lukys checking things off a written list like a particularly fussy steward preparing for a royal banquet.

Send Pellys up the spire to tell us when the Tide
peaks.
Done.

Empty out the storerooms and let the Crasii eat
whatever is left.
There would be nothing here after the immortals were gone, according to Lukys. There was no point letting all that food go to waste. Done.

Make sure there's a Scard nearby to catch the
crystal if it falls.
Actually, Cayal wasn't sure
why
Lukys was insisting the Chaos Crystal mustn't touch the ice once they started channelling the Tide through it. He was adamant on this point, however, and the little lizard chameleon Arryl had brought with her to Jelidia proved the perfect solution. Providing she was standing close enough, she could catch the crystal if it fell. Even though the magical crystal reacted to her proximity, she would not — according to Lukys — affect its ability to amplify the Tide.

That seemed like a grand idea to Cayal. It would be beyond unbearable to find himself standing on the very brink of oblivion, only to be pulled back from the edge at the last instant because he'd inadvertently dropped the tool of his own destruction.

Cayal had his own theory about why Lukys was so anxious to have a Scard in the chamber — something he thought about every time he caught Lukys taking time out from yelling orders at everyone to whisper sweet nothings to his wretched pet rat. It was hard to imagine the creature contained the consciousness of another Tide Lord, even harder to imagine it being transferred into the body of the unconscious young woman lying on the altar in the centre of the chamber next to Arkady. Perhaps the Scard was here for more than her quick reflexes. Perhaps, if Oritha didn't prove viable as a vessel for Coryna's consciousness, the little Scard, in an emergency, would suffice.

The chameleon Scard in question didn't seem too happy about her role in this historic event, whatever it turned out to be. Maralyce was all but dragging her by the arm toward the altar inside the ice chamber where Cayal was waiting with Arryl. Oritha and Arkady lay side-by-side on the solid slab of ice behind him, awaiting the imminent arrival of the King Tide.

Cayal consciously avoided looking at Arkady, afraid that even in her current state of suspended animation, she would be able to accuse him; that somehow she would know how badly he'd lied to her.

'Tiji!' Arryl exclaimed in surprise as Maralyce and the Scard drew near. 'Tides, girl, we thought you were dead!'

'Lukys trapped me in an ice cave and kept me prisoner,' the little Scard announced angrily.

Arryl smiled at her sadly. 'I know. He told me. I'm so sorry about Azquil, my dear. I loved him too.'

'You knew!' the Scard cried, throwing herself at Arryl. 'You heartless bitch! How could you let him go

outside looking for me when you knew what they'd done to me?' Her eyes streaming with tears, the little scard pounded on Arryl's arms and chest until Maralyce managed to pull her off.

'Tides, you stupid lizard! Control yourself!'

Cayal stared at the women, wondering at the reason for this amazing outburst.

'Am I missing something here?'

'Only the revelation that Lady Sweetness-and-Light here is as heartless a killer as the rest of you,' the chameleon spat at him, as Maralyce forcibly held her back. She managed to wriggle free and stepped away from them, her red-rimmed eyes blazing. Tears streaming down her silver scales, she sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. 'You know what?
To
hell with you and your stupid plans. I'm not lifting a finger to help a single one of you!'

She sounded a lot like the spymaster, but then that was hardly surprising. She'd been his pet for years before Arryl took her on. Cayal guessed something must have happened to her mate while they were gone, and that Arryl — even if she'd not actually been complicit in his demise — had done nothing to prevent it.

'Very well,' he told the little Scard with a shrug. 'If you think refusing to help us leave this world is the best way for you to get revenge for your mate, so be it. Off you go.'

The lizard stared at him, full of grief, pain and rage — but not so angry that she'd lost all reason. In truth, he'd offered her a terrible choice. Stay and aid the immortals responsible for the death of her mate to be gone — one way or another — or leave, and risk the chance she would never be free of them. Cayal could almost see the war she waged within herself, but he was careful not to let her know it worried him.

Nothing must be allowed to go wrong. Not now.

Finally, the need for vengeance won out over pride. She threw her hands up. 'Fine! If it means Amyrantha

will be rid of you, then the least I can do is make sure you all kill yourselves
...
or
...
or whatever it is you're planning. I don't really care, just so long as you're
gone.'

Cayal breathed a sigh of relief that was as heartfelt as it was short-lived. Walking toward them across the chamber was Elyssa.

'Tides,' Cayal muttered. 'Here we go.'

Maralyce glanced at him, looked past him and noticed that Elyssa was approaching, and then smiled. 'Don't panic, Cayal. You're off the hook.'

'Off the hook how?' he asked suspiciously.

'Lukys and Maralyce took us aside last night,' Arryl said. 'Me and Elyssa. They told us he'd been lying to you all along — that you weren't going to die today at all, and that Elyssa would be much better off waiting until after the transfer and we've arrived on the next world before we hold the wedding, so she can get married in her new body instead of the old one.'

'And she believed him?'

'Drank up every word like it was the elixir of life,' Maralyce assured him. 'Lukys can be very convincing, you know.'

Cayal couldn't argue with that, but still, it worried him a little. Suppose Lukys — just this once — had been telling the
truth?
He stared at Maralyce, trying to gauge if she knew what was really going on, but she was no more help than Arryl.

He hardly had the chance to worry about it, in any case, because Elyssa arrived at that moment, filled with an air of barely contained excitement.

'Pellys says the Tide is peaking. It's time to seal the chamber,' Elyssa said, smiling adoringly at Cayal. He knew the reason for that look. She truly believed he wasn't going to die.

'Where's Pellys now?' Arryl asked. The little Scard had retreated behind her and was sulking in the background, her skin — what Cayal could see of it —

taking on the coloured pattern of the lining of her fur coat.

'Lukys sent him back up the spire to watch for the Tide.'

'Didn't you just say it had peaked?'

'Pellys said it would peak any moment now,' Elyssa said. She rolled her eyes dismissively. 'That could mean days, in his head.'

'How will we know when it peaks down here?' Cayal asked. 'I can't feel a damn thing with that crystal in the room.'

'The Chaos Crystal will let us know,' Maralyce assured them. 'Trust me, you won't need to be told.'

Cayal worried that it all seemed too calm, too easy. And why were they sealing the chamber with Pellys on the outside? For that matter, if the crystal was going to start reacting to the High Tide, why had Lukys sent him out there as a lookout in the first place? Surely he deserved a ticket to the new world, even if Lukys was happily planning to leave the others behind.

That thought made Cayal think of Declan. Was Lukys really going to leave without his son? Admittedly, there wasn't much love lost between the two men, and Lukys had taken the news about Declan Hawkes's defection remarkably well, all things considered. Now he was behaving as if Hawkes didn't exist, which worried Cayal even more, because he thought he knew Lukys pretty well, and yet nothing in Lukys's demeanour at this critical time was what he expected.

Is he hoping the Rodent will still turn up in time?

His unanswered questions left Cayal with a lingering uneasiness that refused to go away. Cayal glanced at the crystal skull sitting on the altar between the deathly pale bodies of Oritha and Arkady. It pulsed with a red light — with so many Tide Lords nearby — that flickered and surged, making the skull's dead eyes seem malevolently aware. Not being able to sense

much on the Tide was disconcerting. For a moment, Cayal envied Pellys, sitting high above them, drinking in the rising Tide.

He, at least, would know what it was to be truly alive.

The irony of envying Pellys for being truly alive while awaiting the right moment to kill himself, wasn't lost on Cayal, either.

'Lukys asked me to tell you he needs you,' Elyssa said to Cayal, taking his arm possessively. 'He's going to have to seal the chamber the hard way, he said, and he'd like your help.'

Cayal nodded and turned for the entrance, but Elyssa refused to let him go quite so easily. She smiled up at him. 'Kiss me before you leave me, lover.'

Cayal didn't hesitate. Elyssa's cooperation in this venture was dependent on her believing she was doing this for selfish reasons. A new body. A chance to be rid of the curse of perpetual virginity. A chance to finally make him hers. She had to be convinced all her wishes would come true when they opened the rift. He couldn't risk her doubting for a moment that she wasn't going to get what she wanted. So he took her in his arms and kissed her until she was breathless, and then let her go. He turned away as if he couldn't bear the parting and strode across the ice chamber to the entrance, carefully keeping his back to Elyssa for fear that the look of revulsion on his face would betray him.

'Nice touch,' Taryx said, as he approached. He was standing at the entrance with Kentravyon.

The madman was holding a pickaxe. He nodded in agreement. 'Wouldn't kiss that mouth for a whole world of souls, myself, but then, you never were that picky, were you, son?'

'Shut up, Kentravyon.'

Taryx grinned at Cayal's irritation. 'Never understood what you see in her, myself.'

'I don't see anything in her,' Cayal said, snatching the axe from him. 'Elyssa is a malicious, self-centred bitch. Wouldn't matter if she did look like Arkady. Wouldn't make her personality any more attractive.'

'Hope you didn't let
that
little pearl of wisdom drop while you were whispering sweet nothings into her ear,' Lukys said, walking down the stairs carrying a crowbar and another axe. Coron was sitting on his shoulder. Cayal was still a little peeved that Lukys had lied to him about that. The dead rat he'd shown him back in Torlenia was nothing more than a ruse to enlist his cooperation in Lukys's plan to restore Coryna. Why Lukys felt the need to engage in such an elaborate subterfuge was beyond Cayal.

Or maybe it wasn't. Cayal couldn't imagine being interested enough in Lukys's plans for anything, were it not for the promise of death at the end of it.

Lukys tossed the crowbar to Taryx, and then he squatted down, lifting the rat from his shoulder and holding it in front of him so he could address it directly. 'Go to Maralyce. She'll look after you until I get there.' He kissed the rat's forehead. 'I won't be long now, my love. I promise.' The rat scampered away as soon as Lukys let it go, heading inside the chamber and running straight toward Maralyce and the altar, as Lukys had ordered.

'You know, it's more than a little disturbing watching you talk with that rat,' Kentravyon remarked. 'Good thing I know who it really is in there, Lukys, or I'd be starting to worry about you.'

'Well, I suppose if you have to lose sleep over something, Kentravyon, it might as well be me.' He looked up and examined the ice over the entrance. 'We'll need to bring down the ceiling to seal the break.'

'Shouldn't be too difficult,' Taryx said, tilting his head back to look up. 'Be easier if we could use the Tide.'

'Let's not,' Lukys said, hefting his axe.

'Why are you leaving Pellys outside?'

Lukys lowered his axe and turned to Cayal. 'Because he doesn't want to come with us,' he said. 'He likes it here.'

'So Kentravyon was wrong?'

'About what?'

'About Amyrantha being destroyed when the rift closes?'

'1 doubt there'll be anything left here in Jelidia,' Lukys agreed, with a brief but meaningful glance in Kentravyon's direction. 'But Pellys will survive. As for the rest of Amyrantha
...
well, I can't imagine it'll fare too well when the icecap melts, but it's survived Cataclysms before. I'm sure it'll recover from this one. Eventually.'

'Why do you even care, Cayal?' Taryx asked. 'You're going to be dead pretty soon, remember?'

Cayal stared at them for a moment, with a sneaking suspicion he was being had, but then he shoved the feeling aside. The Tide was rising — here outside the chamber, even Cayal could sense the increase in power, muted though it was — and Taryx was right. In a very short time, he would be dead.

'You're right. I
don't
care,' Cayal said, as much to remind himself as the others. And then he raised the pick, turned and slammed it into the ice above the entrance to the chamber, hoping the last of his lingering doubts would collapse with the ceiling, and he would finally be at peace.