The Nemesis Blade (39 page)

Minutes later
the two men teetered on the edge of the colossal drop. Mists
swirled in the depths below.

“Spit it out,”
Teighlar said.

“Sanctuary was
once known as Orb.”

“You have
mentioned it before.”

“Must have
been quite a shock.”

Teighlar
sucked at his teeth again. “Why think that?”

“Orb was and
is a world plagued by inundations and a long time ago it was
foreseen the mother of all floods was due.”

“Interesting.”

“Very, for
Orb’s inhabitants decided to save some of their kind. They built a
biological ship and placed aboard the seeds and domestic animals
needed to feed others on a different world. They also put aboard
those young enough to make a journey through space and arrive
somewhere still youthful and able to propagate a new
civilisation.”

Teighlar said
not a word.

“The ship left
Orb not long before the annihilating flood and they eventually
found a world to resettle,” Torrullin continued. “Orb’s people were
called the Diluvans and those who left to a new world changed their
name to Luvan.”

Teighlar
glanced sideways. “You are saying the Luvans are from Orb.”

“Yes, but you
already know that.”

“It strikes a
chord, maybe.”

“I have not
time for your games, Teighlar. I know you know and we need to move
on from there.”

“An ancient
tale. What has it to do with me?”

“Everything.”

“Yes?”

“It seems the
Diluvans put aboard the last royal son, Tunian was his name - your
ancestor, I believe. Both Diluvan and Luvan believed in
reincarnation and, while Tunian was not himself reincarnate, one of
his descendants was. That royal son brought the truth of what
happened on Orb after the ship left orbit to the settlers of
Luvanor. You know what it is, Emperor, for you are a reincarnate of
a long line of reincarnates.”

“No.”

“You may be in denial, I understand; ninety million years of
abeyance can trick the psyche, yet
this is
truth
. The royal line of the Luvans went
through curves of bad and good, but it did not die out as Senlu
legend would have. You are the last Luvan king and your line
reaches back to the times of Orb, itself an ancient and civilised
world.”

Teighlar
stared at Torrullin. “So?”

“You know what
crime was visited on Orb after the ship left, a crime perpetrated
by the Valleur.”

Teighlar’s
mouth dropped open.

Did he not
know or was he acting? “Before we get to it, I must add I now know
the truth about the Senlu.”

Teighlar’s
face shuttered. “Oh?”

“The Senlu are
Luvan.”

Teighlar said
nothing.

“Apparently
there was a natural calamity here that separated the continent
Senluar from the other four. A fair few years passed before the
Luvans of Senluar could again rejoin their brethren, by which time
they called themselves the Senlu.”

Teighlar
stared into the abyss yawning at their feet. “The Senlu were
enslaved by their brethren. They chose to retain the name Senlu for
it was a way to know themselves from Luvan slave masters.”

“Therefore,
despite slavery, the Senlu are Luvan.”

“More true
Luvan than the others.”

“Yes, agreed.
The Senlu of today were and are true to the ideals established on
Orb.”

Teighlar drew
breath and released it. “Thank you for that.”

“Do your Senlu
know this?”

“No. We do not
enjoy identifying with a people who chose disrepute.”

“My friend,
you must take the blinkers off this day. There is great danger
a-foot, and I need your help to counter it.”

Teighlar
waited.

“If you are a
reincarnate of the High King of Orb, then you are an Ancient true,
not merely by virtue of ninety million years of waiting. Four
Ancients are needed to counter this threat, a truly old threat, one
that has been in existence all the time you have been around.”

Still Teighlar
said nothing.

“Quilla is an
Ancient; he will be helping us. Declan has thrown his lot in with
this.”

“Declan is one
of the four?”

“No, but I
cannot deny his wisdom. We need him.”

“You found
Agnimus?”

“Yes.”

Teighlar
blinked. “Really?”

“He goes by
the name Sabian now, and has taken on human guise.”

“And you are
number four.”

“Yes.”

“Because you
are Elixir.”

“Yes.”

Teighlar
snorted a laugh. “I wonder who is most in denial; me or you?”

“Be that as it
may, it is the four of us, and Declan.”

“Oh,
yippee.”

“Teighlar,
Nemisin murdered the last Diluvans on Orb; someone seeks
redress.”

The Emperor
was horrified. “Excuse me?”

“Gods. Are you
acting? You must know this!”

“I am not
acting, goddamn it! What is this about Nemisin?”

“Nemisin
sought a way to consolidate his base of power and the only way he
could do so was to conjure an enemy, a threat. Soon after coming
into the Dragon symbiosis he manipulated time to find this terrible
enemy, and found the Diluvans. He went forward in time with a
Valleur army and annihilated them, to the last. This evidence of an
enemy gave him the authority to institute the unassailable right of
succession - the Vallas.”

“The
Throne.”

“Yes, that
too,” Torrullin acknowledged.

“Nemisin was
not a nice man.”

“He was an
enchanter, like you, like me. The dual road. Nice had nothing to do
with it; his nature demanded it. You know how it is; you are guilty
of a terrible misdeed, as I am, as Nemisin is.”

Teighlar was expressionless. “You suggest I should know this.
How do
you
know,
Torrullin? Kaval research? Should that be enough to cause you to be
this certain of your facts?”

“Probably
not.”

Teighlar
lifted a brow. “Thus?”

“I feel it
inside.”

“Instinct?
Please.”

“That is the
only term I am able to grip at the moment.”

An
expressionless smile from the Emperor. “Ah. We are alike, then, in
more ways than we dare speculate upon.”

Torrullin
sighed. “Apparently.”

“What do you
want from me now?”

“Luvan
records, to decipher the paintings, Grinwallin’s secrets …”

“You think I
can help you there?”

“I think we
could do it together.”

Teighlar
stared at the ground in silence and nodded after a while. “Fine,
perhaps it can work. But what of this redress you mentioned? Is
that the threat?”

“We are not
certain who or what is behind the intimidation and we do not know
what form the danger takes, but Orb, Luvanor and Akhavar are
connected by an ancient crime.”

“Akhavar?”

“Nemisin’s
world.”

“Which Saska
has restored.”

“Yes, and yes
it occurred to me had she left it alone, she would not have stirred
an ancient threat.”

“You suggest
she uncovered the bad with the good on Akhavar. Why Grinwallin? It
sounds to me like you should be on Akhavar.”

“And what if
redress has its source here?”

“My Senlu are
not bent on revenge. Not for an ancient and forgotten event, one
they know nothing of.” Teighlar paused. “Dare you suggest I am the
source?”

“Grinwallin
may be. The blood of your line erected this city, yet the stones
themselves instigated the building. Who, then, is the true
architect?”

There was dead
silence and then, “Shit.”

A grin from
Torrullin. “Exactly.”

“What of the
communion you had with Grinwallin twenty-five years ago? Did you
not learn anything then?”

“It wasn’t
Grinwallin.”

Teighlar
stilled and waited.

“It was a
sentience residing in Grinwallin.”

Still Teighlar
said nothing.

“Gods,”
Torrullin muttered. He had not yet spoken of that event and now, to
make his point, he had to. “It was an ancient sentience, one that
used Grinwallin’s longevity as a place of repose to wait for
Elixir. It did not reveal Grinwallin to me - it revealed Elixir to
me.”

“Hmm.”

“Rixile was
its name.”

Teighlar had a
stunned look on his face. “Alter ego?”

A mirthless
laugh. “Rixile is the other side of Elixir, yes.”

“And where is
it now?”

Torrullin
slapped his chest. “Here.”

Teighlar gave
a confounded laugh. “The other side of you, with you, and an
ancient sentience? Gods, my friend, what more proof of what you are
do you actually need before you will believe?”

Torrullin said
nothing for a while and then, finally, “How do I compute an immense
span of time?”

Teighlar bent
a stern gaze over him. “Now do you understand my reluctance?”

“Yet it is
time to uncover and accept those truths.”

“Well, you had
better start at the beginning and tell all. Valaris forms part of
the Four, does she not? She, too, is in danger, right? Four
Ancients, therefore Four Worlds, not so?”

Torrullin went
cold. Teighlar confirmed his suspicion.

“You had not
considered it?”

“Three
Kingdoms, that’s what I was working on.”

Teighlar
blanched. “What did you say?”

They stared at
each other and began to talk in earnest.

“Sabian delved
rock? Gods, amazing. And the strata coincides with your dream?”

Teighlar
raised his brows as he raised a glass to his mouth.

Torrullin
nodded. “Both are confirmed by Minos of Lintusillem. The Epoch of
Dancing Suns.”

“And we are
right back with Nemisin.”

“Right back,”
Torrullin echoed.

“Thus Lowen
vanished from Akhavar?”

“Almost
surely.”

Teighlar drank
and then, “Explain again why you are not there, going after
her.”

Torrullin
gazed around him, at waterfalls within the rock, at grass under his
feet, at colourful birds flitting, all of it inside Grinwallin
mountain. It continued to astound him.

“I cannot go
after her ignorant. I need to know who or what I am dealing with or
I may be confronted by the source back in time.”

“Without
recourse to aid.”

“Lowen could
get hurt.”

“What if she
is hurting now?”

Torrullin was
silent for only a beat. “I do not think so; it is akin to disposing
of your ace.”

“Thus this
whole fiasco is to draw you in?”

“Or all four
of us.”

“I cannot
leave here,” Teighlar stated.

“You may not
need to. Time can be bridged from anywhere.”

“Or Declan can
be my proxy.”

“Maybe.”

“What of your
grandsons?” Teighlar asked.

“They are
guarded and nothing will be revealed until a Vallorin is chosen or
unless danger is imminent.”

“Torrullin, be
honest. Who do you expect to find at the root of this?”

“Two; I expect
to find two.”

“Oh?” Teighlar
was intrigued.

“One being the
perpetrator of an ancient crime …”

“Nemisin?”

“Or Neolone,
or both. Perhaps separate or already in symbiosis. Of course,
redress against them must be halted; we cannot tweak to that degree
without altering history.”

“Gods. You are
forced to protect this crime.”

“In a
sense.”

“And the
other?”

Torrullin drew
breath. “Whoever instigated Grinwallin. Who made the stones
sing?”

He held his
face still, for it occurred to him Elianas might be behind all of
it. Perhaps the dark man of his visions agitated matters in order
to create the means of exit from whichever realm he was in. This he
would not share with Teighlar.

“The stones
themselves sang,” the Emperor said.

“The stones
are a conduit only.”

Teighlar
plonked his empty goblet down, the wine turning sour within him.
“Only the Valleur were around when Diluvans heard the stones. You
suggest a Valleur was the criminal and a Valleur seeks justice. Is
that not working against yourself?”

“There have
been factions among the Golden throughout our history and there
still is. A Valleur can seek justice against a criminal of his own
kind as easily as he would against an outsider. However, it may not
be Valleur who made the stones sing.”

“Who
then?”

“Neolone,
maybe. We may find Neolone and Nemisin were not so complete in
symbiosis. We may find Neolone was the criminal and Nemisin
attempts to right an ancient wrong.”

Teighlar’s
mind churned. The more they spoke on this, the more confusing it
became.

Torrullin went
on. “It could be Q’lin’la caused the singing, or it could be
Kallanon in general. This is why we need uncover Grinwallin’s
secrets.”

“The city
knows?”

“The city has
a soul, she was built with blood, she saw life and death in her
erection and recycled it as her heart. She knows.”

“Why are the
Four needed?”

“A panel of
judges?”

“And we are
objective?” Teighlar snorted disbelief. “I would desire justice for
the Diluvan massacre, Sabian will want to see Nemisin squirm.
Quilla could prove level-headed, but not you. You have admitted you
will be forced to maintain the status quo. Where lies
objectivity?”

“Then it is
something else.”

“Doesn’t it
piss you off, this uncertainty?”

Torrullin
refilled their glasses. “No. I am challenged again.” He leaned back
with his glass. “I was hibernating the last ten years, you know
that.”

“Longer, and I
do know. Have I not tried to put a fire under your arse many
times?”

“You, of
course, do not require challenge.”

A burst of
laughter. “Me? I am quite happy with my lot.”