The Dreamer Stones (96 page)

“Get a grip,”
Torrullin said. “This time you’re not alone.” He twisted his head
to stare backward - it was as if the noise entered after them.
“Quilla, will a seal aid us?”

“I’d rather
have one than not,” Quilla replied.

Torrullin
shook the Emperor. “We seal the mountain!”

“We tried that
last time … and everyone died …”

“We’re
not
going to die! My friend, you and I cannot die. It is our
duty to help the rest.”

“She cannot
die either,” Teighlar muttered, staring at Lowen.

“I know,”
Torrullin said, “and thus we are three. Now, let’s do this!”

As Quilla
turned to Lowen, the two powers, Emperor and Elixir, both
Enchanters, sealed the mountain that was Grinwallin’s inner city,
effectively trapping them inside to keep whatever was outside there
- outside. As the seals glued to the rock and pillars, ears popped,
and the terrible screeching lessened.

“It should
hold,” Torrullin mused, staring at the transparency.

“We have no
idea what we’re up against,” Teighlar muttered. “We had best get
further in and seal off access to and from the Hall.”

“Like rats in
a maze,” Lowen said. “What is that noise?”

Quilla drew
her aside. “Shush, you’ll frighten the Senlu.” He glanced at people
in anxious clusters. “Then again the Senlu do not frighten easy.
So. You are a seven-times born.”

It was an
accusatory statement and the Q’lin’la fixed the Xenian with a stern
stare.

“It happened
along the way,” Lowen muttered, glancing over her shoulder to avoid
his gaze, at Torrullin in intense conversation with Teighlar and at
least six ranked soldiers. Samuel, holding Tianoman, eavesdropped
without apology. “Quilla, not now. What is this noise thing that
feels like it could be a solid thing?”

“Solid thing.
I’m not sure it is tangible … yet. Torrullin!” Leaving her and
shifting his questions to another time, he waddled over to join the
council.

As he neared
Torrullin said, “… we’ll be nullifying escape routes.”

“There are
others, deeper in,” Teighlar responded. “We have to make it hard
for this thing to get to us.”

“Maybe we
should talk to it,” Quilla said as he joined them.

Torrullin
turned. “Right, birdman, speak.”

“No need to
take that tone.”

“Gods, someone
stop me wringing his scrawny neck!”

Quilla chose
to back down. “Forgive me, my Lord.” He bowed his head.

“That I trust
even less,” Torrullin growled, but grinned. “Quilla, what do you
know?”

The birdman
lifted his head. “Each here felt there was a hibernating power.
Luvan, we speculated.”

“Not me,”
Belun said, joining them, with Declan at his heels.

“I thought it
was residual from Teighlar’s first reign ninety million years ago,”
the Siric added. “I never suspected Luvan. We know next to nothing
about them.”

“Well, it can
only be Luvan,” Quilla said, “for it is too old to be Senlu. All
others to this world came after. I believe it is Grinwallin, like a
beating heart or a soul, and something has upset it.”

“That helps,”
Belun muttered.

“Shut up,
Belun,” Torrullin said. “Quilla, recently I told someone I thought
whatever lies below kept Grinwallin from falling into ruin.”

“The Senlu
presence kept it alive and then Teighlar’s long and wandering wait
was sufficient to keep it quiescent, yes. The reason an ancient
city did not crumble after the Luvans left or the Senlu annihilated
themselves. And the rebirth was a spectacular thing, which any
sentient would revel in, and thus Teighlar again kept it quiet and
in the meantime we sensed it, and that, I think, has not happened
in the past.”

“Because we
became aware of it, it began to stir?” Teighlar asked.

“Or it stirred
and we recognised something, and that recognition began to awake it
from a slumber we can only guess at. Leaving Grinwallin as you did
earlier, my Lord Emperor, may have been the catalyst to its final
awakening.”

“Fantastic.”

Torrullin
said, “I cannot believe this is connected to a Senlu Emperor
alone.”

As Teighlar
glared at him, Torrullin shrugged, and Quilla mused, “Perhaps it
has something to do with Elixir.”

“Well, that
beats everything,” Torrullin growled. “Fine, lay the guilt at my
door.”

Teighlar
gripped his shoulder. “For my part, I feel not only relieved, but
glad to share this burden.”

“But it’s
guesswork,” Samuel interrupted, looking from one to the other. “No
one here can say for certain why, as no one knows what ‘it’ is, or
even what it wants. How can anyone be blamed for this, especially
as it’s ancient? Has anyone thought this time is simply its
awakening time?”

“Samuel’s
right,” Declan put in. “We deal with certainties.”

“And they
are?” Belun drawled.

“Something
seeks to get in,” Lowen said. “Something ignores the evacuating
Senlu for this gathering in this Hall. Something wants one of us or
all of us, or merely wants what is denied it … like inner
Grinwallin.”

“Then
something should allow the Senlu here to leave unharmed,” Torrullin
said. “Shall we put that to the test? Are we that certain?”

Lowen’s lips
tightened. “I said ‘or all of us’.”

“No
certainties then,” Teighlar murmured.

“I’m prepared
to go outside,” one of the ranked soldiers offered. “To test
it.”

“No one will
commit suicide,” Teighlar said.

“Lowen may
have something,” Quilla mused. “I sensed no interference with the
Senlu. I felt it’s seeking, and it sought us. I would say it won’t
harm the Senlu other than accidentally. I’d say the reason we felt
they should reach Valleur land was to safeguard them. It came from
the plain, as it came from under the city … like an uncoiling
serpent. Let them go, Emperor, your people here.”

“You are
certain?”

“As much as I
can be.”

“My Lord,” the
soldier said. “It doesn’t want to hurt us. We feel it now.”

“It hears,”
Samuel whispered.

“And
confirms,” Torrullin muttered. “Teighlar, they will be safe if they
go now.”

“Unsealing
could bring it in.”

“So be it,”
Torrullin responded.

Teighlar’s
shoulders slumped. “Go, Rentt. Round them up and take them
out.”

“Yes, my
Lord,” the soldier murmured. “What about you?”

“I have no
choice but to remain. Go now.”

“Now,”
Torrullin said.

Two minutes
later, he unsealed one portion of the exit to let them out. A few
wanted to stay, thinking it safer in the mountain, as a few desired
to protect their Emperor. Teighlar was firm. If this would save
lives, he was behind it. If it proved a mass suicide, he would
wring the birdman’s neck first and then curse Torrullin until Time
ended.

With measured
tread, the last Senlu left the mountain.

“Now you talk
to it,” Quilla said, “before you shut it out again.” He looked
pointedly at Torrullin.

“You think
it’s my doing.”

“I think maybe
it is part of Elixir, yes.”

Lowen giggled.
“It can only bash you about a bit.”

Torrullin
fixed her with a baleful stare.

“Quit
stalling,” Quilla said. “Speak to it.”

“Speak to a
noise?”

“What are you
afraid of?”

“I hate going
in blind, Q’li’qa’mz,” Torrullin said.
I am afraid to discover
it knows me.

Or worse, that
you know it?

Yes.

“I am with
you,” Teighlar said. “Come, we shall do this together.”

“It cannot
harm me; I’m coming also,” Lowen said.

“No.”

“Try me,
Torrullin,” she responded and marched out of the Great Hall and
onto the portico, leaving the two men no choice. They hastened
after her.

“Brave and
foolish,” Declan muttered.

“Lowen?” Belun
asked.

“All three of
them,” the Siric sighed.

“Lowen is a
true Immortal?” Samuel asked as they watched the three stand
outside in the dark, lit from the back by the glows from the Hall.
He did not mind one way or the other, simply kept stretched nerves
from breaking. The babe was heavy in his arms, thankfully
quiet.

“Apparently,”
Quilla returned.

“How?”

“Reaume - she
went in, came out seven times.”

“I thought it
was seven times born,” Declan murmured.

“She did it
that way. She must have to find herself Immortal.”

“Krikian had
to know,” Belun said, “and said nothing.”

“He’d have to
reveal he walked Reaume also,” Quilla murmured. “He was too
frightened of his Vallorin’s reaction.”

“Gods, Krik?
Really?” Samuel muttered. “So many secrets.”

“The Valleur
way; get used to it,” Belun grinned.

Then they were
silent, for there was movement outside.

Chapter
Seventy-Eight

Who am I? WHO
AM I?

Desperation’s
cry

If they could
see the din as an object, they would visualise a twisting serpent
of air, a tornado of the night, with its beginning under the city,
its exit into the dark from the plain, and its end, its hungry maw,
in their faces.

Torrullin
stared into the place he knew its gaping mouth was, and could find
no words, nothing to bridge a divide he only speculated was there.
There had to be a divide and there had to be a bridge or they were
done for.

Then came the
silence, unnatural, induced quiet.

Mother,
help me now
, Torrullin prayed.
This is beyond my
ken.

I am not known
to the Mother.

“Who said
that?” Torrullin blurted, looking around. His heart pounded.

Teighlar
stared at him and then, “It speaks. To you. Elixir.” There was a
note of suppressed anger there.

“I did not ask
for this.”

“Don’t argue,”
Lowen said. “If you can hear it, talk to it.”

Thus commenced
communication in silence, in private.

Can you hear
me?

I hear you,
Necromancer, Enchanter, Elixir.

You forgot
Vallorin.

Vallorin is
not in the same league as the others. Valla is.

The same,
surely?

No.

Who are
you?

What I am.

Torrullin
swallowed.
What are you?

I shall show
you. Later.

Why not
now?

First we
converse. Words and thoughts must paint the concept. I hope you
will not require the sense of sight; it is quite unnecessary.

Why?

Which
why?
The whisper sounded amused.

Why now?

The time is
now.

Why me?

You are about
to leave. You must know before you do.

You have not
answered.

You are the
One.

Elixir?

No. The
One.

Torrullin
frowned.
The One? That was in another lifetime, unless … your
name? You seek your name?

Yes! The One
knows every living creature’s true name.

And if I find
your name?

Then you will
know what you know before you go.

Whatever that
meant.
Why is sight unnecessary?

It reduces to
the mundane or the unbelievable. Belief takes a step back. In my
case, a giant leap to nowhere.

I do not
understand.

Rely on your
real gifts.

Torrullin drew
breath.
And if I need sight?

If you need
it, I have failed.

Ah. You are
not known to the Mother you said. All things are known to the
Mother.

A real
question. Good. Shall I answer this way? Is the Mother real?

Ah. An
insight, Torrullin, thought.
She is because we need her to
be.

Yes.

She never was
and is not now. It is a dream.

The whisper
projected satisfaction.
A practical tool to cope in hardship. In
that manner she is more real than had she been true.

Therefore
…
you
do not know
her.

I never needed
her. I am far older.

Before the
Valleur and their misguided concept of a deity?

It is not
misguided if it works and, yes, before.

Torrullin
lifted a brow.
The Luvans came after the Valleur.

I am not
Luvan.

What are
you?

You will
answer that yourself.

People fled
their homes. For what?

This. You and
I.

And
Teighlar?

He is
Grinwallin.

I am
confused.

A long, long
time ago, I knew a good man would rule this land, thus I waited for
him. He came in the form of the Emperor Teighlar and changed much
for the better. Of course, evil befell him, but as the true regret
in his heart was tangible, I did not turn away. I gifted him this
city and its environs; he waited long, but the time was needed to
bind stone and soul forever. Teighlar is Grinwallin. He is Immortal
to ensure the ties will not be severed.

He cannot
leave?

No.

Yet, tonight
…

Foreseen. I
required it to arise and he needed to believe in his inner
strength. He needed to see the beauty of Grinwallin from afar, not
merely from within.

Torrullin
grimaced.
Grinwallin is a prison then, for this one man.

A gilded
cage.

Fairest of
cities?

Is it not
so?

Will it be
enough?

When it
stifles, the Emperor may choose to leave. When he does, Grinwallin
will fall into ruin … in the blink of an eye. You may not reveal
this to him. Any choice he makes must come of free will.

What happens
to him if he leaves?

Eternity of
guilt.

Gods, that is
twisted.

A sense of
support from the voice in the ether.
Rest easy. The Emperor
loves Grinwallin too much to leave lightly.