The Nemesis Blade (66 page)

“Why don’t I
remember?”

Elianas was
silent and then, “I remember for you. We made a deal. You forget, I
remember; you keep form, I hide.”

Torrullin stared at him. “Gods.
Tell
me.”

“No. Telling
does not make it real.”

“Why not?”
Quilla snapped. “Torrullin knows he is of the Suns. Now he needs to
know who he was.”

“Are you not
listening?” Elianas snapped back. “He is himself. As you are.”

“Why does he
not remember?” Quilla said.

“Because he
can make and break worlds, and has. His sanity required a lengthy
period of amnesia.” Utter silence. “I said too much,” Elianas
murmured.

Torrullin
stood, hauled Elianas up and marched him away. He did not give a
damn what the others thought about it. “This deal, the forgetting
and remembering. It means you lived and were already aware before
the Throne.”

“You already know I am
not
the sentience within that seat. If you imagine
it, it is created, not so?” Elianas challenged.

“I did
not
imagine you.”

“You imagined
your
Throne; Nemisin simply cast it. We employed it as
a vessel, but I am, as you said to Teighlar,
self-contained.”

“What a
quicksand,” Torrullin moaned. “How long have we known each other?”
He bent, hands on knees.

“Ask Lowen
when we find her; she knows,” Elianas said. “She knows because she
is a true Immortal.”

Torrullin
jerked upright.

“She came late
to the fray, yet her timing was perfect. She unsettled you, she was
part of the Becoming, as she is now part of remembering. She is
also Nemesis, is she not? She is the other side. You need both of
us to shield you. She brought you here and now I guide you. If she
tells you, she may hasten your remembering. I dare not do so, for
my reasons are selfish.”

Torrullin
understood something else. “How is Nemesis a good thing?”

Elianas smiled
into his eyes. “For you, how is it not?”

“Who am I,
Elianas?”

“The Animated
Spirit.”

Torrullin placed a warm hand at Elianas’ neck and leaned
forward. “Who are you? Tell me why I am drawn to you. I am
not
speaking of
brotherhood.”

Elianas
flinched and moved away from that hand. “You will remember.”

“What of
Saska? Where does she fit in between my two shields?”

Elianas’ eyes
hooded and he refused to answer.

“And I
flounder in the darkness filled with shades and shadows.” Torrullin
watched him intently and crossed arms over his chest.

“You are not
getting more,” Elianas murmured.

“Make and
break worlds, you say?”

“An example?
Akhavar. It did not become a waterless desert on its own.”

“Puny. Tell me
this; were you with me in the beginning?”

Elianas looked
away. “That would tell you everything.”

“Do I not need
to know everything?”

“What are you
really asking?” Elianas demanded.

“Why did I
require a lengthy period of amnesia?”

“Ah, the crux
of Elixir.”

Torrullin
hissed through clenched teeth. “What did I do?”

Elianas said
nothing.

“I could
probably make you talk.”

“Probably.
Would you go that far? And the consequences?”

Torrullin
looked away. “Perhaps the time for that approaches.”

Elianas moved,
striding back to the team. Over his shoulder he said, “You are not
prepared for what you will find. Beware this game.”

“No game,
Elianas!” Torrullin called out.

A slight
twitch in the dark man’s stride, but he did not otherwise react.
Back with the others he muttered, “He is bloody stubborn.”

Quilla
chuckled. “Always was.”

Torrullin
rejoined them, sitting beside Elianas. It was a deliberate ploy and
Elianas’ hands clenched before he put them out of sight.

Torrullin
looked at Tristan. “Dancing Suns or not, I am no closer to
clarity.” He inclined his head at the man beside him. “This one is
stubborn.”

Tristan
grinned.

“Ah, he said
that about me. I guess it takes one to know one.”

“You are
cruel,” Saska said. “Stop now.”

Elianas
murmured, “Thank you, Saska, but I am able to protect myself.”

“That is what
you think, until you realise you fooled yourself.”

Torrullin,
about to remonstrate, flinched. “Lowen?” They spoke of her and thus
her presence was tangible? Was that it? He hurtled to his feet.
“Lowen?” He looked down at Elianas’ upturned face. “Do you hear
her?” Torrullin strode into the wildflowers, without awaiting a
response. “Lowen!”

Elianas swore
under his breath.

“
Help me,
Torrullin!”

Mute, shocked
faces glanced at each other. Everyone heard her desperate
summons.

Elianas stood.
“We must go south.”

Torrullin
stared at him a beat and started walking south. Elianas set off
after him without further words.

Teighlar threw
gear helter-skelter into his pack. The others followed suit. In a
staggered and disorganised fashion everyone headed south in
minutes.

The interlude
was over.

Chapter 48

And then there
was the desert …

~ Awl

Time Realm

T
orrullin walked without pause,
setting a blistering pace.

The sun
climbed the heavens, shining down stark and white, and as they
walked wildflowers surrendered to tough grass, to tufts of grey
gorse and then to pebbled, cracked earth. Every step brought
heat.

After an hour
Rose lagged, and Teroux dropped back to keep her company. After
another hour Saska and Caballa trailed also, with Tianoman beside
them. After a further hour Teighlar discarded his pack, preferring
to take his chances with sorcery. Not long after, Tristan swore and
threw his aside. Declan and Quilla took to sitting down for periods
and then caught up via short bursts of flight.

In the
shimmering mirage of encroaching desert, Torrullin and Elianas were
small dark points of movement, pushing ever onward.

Dechend sat on
a rock first and simply refused to move.

Teighlar
halted. As the others closed in, one by one they stopped there.
‘There’ was nowhere, under a merciless sky. Not even the trails of
light were now present.

Torrullin and
Elianas vanished heedless into the distance.

“They’ll come
back,” Tianoman said.

“No, they will
not,” Teighlar said. He looked to Declan and Quilla. “We are unable
to employ transport.”

Declan gave a
rueful shrug. “That is why they set that pace.”

Teighlar
frowned. “We walk, but how do we catch up?”

“I threw my
gear away,” Tristan muttered. “My water, too.”

Teighlar
snapped his fingers. A cold water bottle nestled on his palm.
“Thank the gods, this still works here.” He passed it to
Tristan.

Rose and
Teroux were last in, both flopping to the hard ground, spent. They
slurped the water when Tristan handed it over.

“Now what?”
Tianoman asked.

“Follow them
at our pace,” Tristan said. He pointed at the dry earth. “They
leave a trail.”

Saska blinked
at the footprints. “Bloody Lowen,” she muttered. “I am not walking
further. You go after him if you wish, but I have had my fill. I
aim to rest and then I am heading west.”

The birdman
put a finger into the air. “Saska has a point. West is where we
should head. If we do so at our pace, it will be Torrullin and
Elianas who will be forced to catch up. Whatever they are about
must eventually turn them west.”

Teighlar
eyeballed the birdman for long minutes. “Then we head west.” He
bent to Rose. “Can you go on?”

“Slowly.”

“Then we go
slowly,” Teighlar said. “Here.”

He passed
around fresh water and checked the sun’s position. They gathered
themselves and gradually headed west.

Saska inwardly
cursed Torrullin, Elianas and bloody Lowen.

“We have lost
them,” Elianas said.

“They will
head west, the correct direction,” Torrullin muttered. “Quilla will
have seen the wisdom.”

“Thus we are
going the wrong way,” Elianas said. “We may be tweaking this
mission, Torrullin, by going the wrong way. You do understand
that?”

“Nothing is
that written here.”

Elianas
muttered under his breath, and then, “Is this pace needed?”

“Are you
lagging?”

“No.”

“Then it is
needed,” Torrullin said.

They walked on
in the heat and parched earth gave way to sterile sand.

“We are to
meet soon? You, me and Lowen in the same space?” Torrullin
prompted.

“Are you
asking whether I knew it would come to pass in this manner? The
answer is no,” Elianas responded.

“Do you know
who seized her?”

Elianas
glanced at him askance. “I thought you had figured that
already.”

A snort. “I
had an idea it was Nemisin.”

“What do you
think now?”

“Gods, do you
know or are you baiting me?” Torrullin snapped out.

“I do not know
and that is truth.”

“Fantastic,”
Torrullin sneered.

“The winding
road, Torrullin.”

“Fuck the
winding road. I am sick of the winding road.”

Elianas
nodded. “You are ready to have it laid out without the frills.”

“I always
hated frills.”

Elianas
laughed in genuine amusement. “You thrive on frills!”

A reluctant
smile. “Sometimes.”

“Have a care,
though. It will not be that simplified yet.”

Torrullin
stopped. “Elianas, did I tell you to meld with the Throne?”

Elianas walked
on a way before turning. “I offered.”

“Why? My god,
why would you do that? And why would I accept such a terrible
offer?”

Elianas
shrugged. “Love.”

Torrullin
burst out, “For so long? Just waiting? That kind of self-sacrifice
is not love!”

“It is. You
have not loved like that to know … or …” He made an irritated
gesture.

“Come. Say
it.”

“Nothing.”
Elianas carried on walking.

“Or I do not
remember now? Was it you?”

Elianas walked
on.

“Elianas.”
Torrullin’s voice held that quality that could not be denied.
Elianas halted. Torrullin pointed at him. “Is this your true
form?”

No words
came.

Torrullin
gripped the dark man’s face between hot hands. His eyes were silver
and bespoke a resolve that cared not for consequence.

“Don’t,”
Elianas whispered.

Torrullin gave
a smile that was pure arrogance and leaned in to kiss him. When
Elianas struggled, he held him fast, intensifying the kiss,
searching for the man’s soul. Elianas went limp … and he
released.

The dark man
knelt in the sand, his head hanging. “I hate you.”

“Now we are
getting somewhere.”

Elianas lifted
his head to stare up.

“Is this your
true form?” Torrullin demanded.

“This is my
form.”

“Did I love
you to the point of self-sacrifice?”

“Yes.”

Torrullin
closed his eyes.

“We did not
share a bed,” Elianas said. “We were brothers then, as we are now,
and we knew each other, trusted each other.”

Torrullin
opened his eyes and then reached down to lift Elianas to his feet.
“Forgive me.”

“It was a fine
line, Torrullin; it was always a fine line for us. In those times
we had better control.”

Torrullin was
mute.

Elianas
sighed. “This moment has returned my control to me.” He jabbed
Torrullin with a finger. “Do not do that to me again.” The finger
became a fist that gripped Torrullin’s tunic to pull him closer.
“Not unless you choose to step over the line. Do you hear?”

“I hear.”

Elianas let go
and went on walking. “Come, brother. Lowen waits.”

Torrullin
followed, his mind in turmoil.

Chapter 49

And then there
was the water …

~ Awl

Time Realm

D
arkness came, and cold.

They walked on
in silence until a moon rose and set. Only then did they stop for a
few hours, this time apart.

Morning
brought with it a new vista. Green fields stretched before them as
far as the eye could see.

They continued
south, always south.

No longer did
they give thought to what the change in direction would alter.
Their journey had a purpose or it would not have pulled them off
the mission path.

Midmorning
they halted to eat, and drank from a nearby stream.

They went
on.

By nightfall
they were at the foot of a ridge, and stopped there to have a
decent meal and real sleep. Words between them were minimal, but it
was not tension; it was simple weariness.

The new day
heralded a laborious climb to the top of the ridge. Like to the
others, they had discovered transport was a dream only.

Breathing
heavily, they stood at the ridge’s highest point. Behind them were
green fields; before them was ocean. It was an unending vista of
blue water.

Elianas swore.
“Now what?”

“We find a way
to cross the water.” Torrullin commenced the downhill climb.

Soon they were
at the water’s edge. The sea was calm, almost unmoving. To the
left, the coast vanished into infinity without sign of habitation,
and to the right it was no different. No smudges lay on the horizon
to beckon. It felt akin to an ending of everything. Here direction
stymied the power of choice.