The Nemesis Blade (69 page)

“Looks that
way,” Teroux said. He headed back to the dining room to eat.

When the women
returned - clean, washed and smelling good - they tried the
handprint device, but nothing opened or closed.

Everyone sat
to do justice to the fare.

They wandered
the city in pairs and discovered many things, some by omission.

Rose and
Teroux found a play park and thus discovered children were once
welcome in the city.

Tianoman and
Saska found a building that was clearly a bank and discovered the
name had been removed. Money, in some form, changed hands here and
something did not want to reveal the city’s name. In fact, they
found other signs of names removed; they all did.

Tristan and
Caballa, wandering arm-in-arm, discovered the aqueduct system and
were amazed at how clean the water was and how well maintained the
system. Everything in the city was in perfect order. High
technology, yes, but also magic.

Time should
have left its mark on a landscape of buildings thoroughly
abandoned.

“Or never
lived in,” Quilla suggested to Declan as they walked from place to
place. “A city waiting for a people.”

Dechend and
Teighlar were wordless in their discoveries.

Grinwallin was
fair indeed, a city of rock, stone and love, but this was the
fabric of imagination, a fairy-tale. They found hospitals, schools,
theatres, parks, universities, many varied businesses, a zoo
without animals, sports facilities, apartment buildings, the varied
requirements of most cities, but here all was empty, spotless and
of the highest quality.

“Soulless,”
Dechend murmured.

“A showpiece
to failure?” Teighlar muttered.

Sabian and
Maple were together, but neither gave much attention to the other.
The city took everything. Roads and streets were broad and lined
with trees. Flowers were in profusion, but were oddly
artificial.

“No insects,”
Maple said. “No birds. That is why they appear unreal.” He bent to
smell a flower and was surprised. “It smells real.”

“It is all
real,” Sabian remarked. “Just static.”

“How old, do
you think?”

“No idea. Very
old.”

“What power
source lasts indefinitely?”

“Only magic,”
Sabian murmured.

They found
mansions and gated grounds. Palaces and landscaped gardens. Mazes
and bridges. Cobbled squares and vine-covered gazebos. They could
wander at will and yet most buildings were closed to them, each
with a dulled silver square and handprint requiring a hand that fit
before admission was granted.

As the city
darkened to night, lights came on, and they came on everywhere.
Every building lit from foundation to apex. Every road, street,
park and square flooded with light. Buildings that appeared closed
were transparent to view, as glorious inside as they were on the
outside. Plants and fountains could be seen inside, murals,
paintings and patterned rugs.

Awed and
amazed the team headed back to the building permitting entry, there
to find a new meal.

They sat to
eat and talked most of the night away.

Chapter 51

Home is where
the heart is.

~ Yes, a
truth

Time Realm

T
hey were wordless as the mighty
cliffs neared and wordless still when the boat bumped against a
jetty in a deep-water harbour at the foot of those
cliffs.

The quiet in
the surrounds was surreal, as if waiting for reaction.

As they
climbed out, Elianas said only, “Boots.”

Torrullin
jerked, his gaze so far away it was doubtful he even heard, but a
moment later Elianas trod with booted feet on the great and winding
stairway cut into the ancient cliffs. They ascended with measured
tread, hearts hammering rhythms that were not quite in sync.
Different expectations led to … well … difference. Neither knew
what to expect.

The stairs
levelled off and then there was a slight incline of smooth, emerald
grass before they broke out onto the height.

No breath.

Every
expectation. Hearts beat out the same rhythm.

It was not a
house or a palace, a keep or a villa. It was a dwelling that hugged
the contours of rock and land, where waterfalls fell inside and
pools tinkled and sparkled. A host of levels, some with airy
chambers, others with wide boardwalks over running streams.

There was no
glass, no railings, no protection. There was only nature and man’s
willingness to adore it, live intimately with it.

Trees threw
shade, trees towered, and vines clambered riotously over roof, wall
and rock, binding all into one.

Still
wordless, they closed in, crossing a bridge over an amber-hued pool
filled with tiny golden fishes, and into an atrium where the plants
had grown wild, throwing jade shadows over them. Water sprayed out
in fine mist.

They entered a
wide space where tapestries hung on walls and flowers peeked
cheekily from rock niches.

It began
then.

Change.

Torrullin
halted first.

His skin was
white. Absolute astonishment could remove the veneer of comfort, of
being able to deal with difference … and memory. Real memory.

“Here you were
brought to me, Elianas the youth of talent come to train with the
Lord Sorcerer.” One hand splayed across his chest.

“It was
raining that day and the rain came in, puddles, wet, getting
colder, and you looked at me as if the sun was shining,” Elianas
whispered.

“It stormed
that night, the lightning striking rock … and you revelled in
it.”

“Because you
were unafraid. When the bridge caught fire you laughed and I, all
gods, loved you for it. I loved that you could be unafraid,”
Elianas swallowed.

Torrullin’s
eyes were silvery. “This is my home, this is the only place I was
ever free in, and this is your home also, our home, Elianas.”

Elianas cried out, “Why here? My god, why were we
brought
here
of
all places? This is from another time! This cannot ever be
real.”

“To remember,”
Torrullin said. “I remember.”

Elianas closed
his eyes.

“It
is
real, for memory is.” Torrullin sighed. “You betrayed me,
Elianas.”

Elianas fell
to his knees.

“And thus I
betrayed everyone,” Torrullin murmured. “We made a pact. I would
forget, if you would remember.”

“Yes.”

Torrullin
stared down. “We abandoned them.”

Elianas looked
up. “We terrorised them.”

Torrullin
looked away. “So much anger, hate and disappointment. It was not
meant to be like that.”

“Are we
different now?”

Torrullin
leaned down to lift the man to his feet. “I hope so. Dear god, I
hope so.” He drew Elianas carefully into his arms. “I have missed
you, my brother.”

Elianas rested
his head on Torrullin’s shoulder. “And I have missed you.”

“Lowen will
not be here.”

Torrullin
stood at the edge of a cantilever over a dark pool. He stared into
the depths mesmerised.

“Lowen cannot
know of this place,” he added.

“No.” Elianas
stared out over the ocean, remembering, remembering.

“It was
cursed, we were cursed,” Torrullin continued. “No one could come
here.”

“The Darak Or
and his creature.”

“Nemisin
sought power because he was afraid of me,” Torrullin said.

“We took some
of it from him; we mitigated his influence.”

“Too little,
too late. And you paid the price, not I. My time to pay has come
now.”

“Do
not
say
that.”

“It is true. I
now understand Lowen was taken from me, to me, by me. As you
were.”

Elianas pulled
his gaze from the ocean and rested it on Torrullin. “You are no
longer a Darak Or; you are Elixir. You do not pay, my Lord; you
restore.”

Torrullin
sighed as he looked away. “I told Saska you have no magic, can you
believe that? You, my star apprentice.”

“Your only
apprentice, as I recall.” A ghost of a smile.

“You are not
an apprentice, Elianas. You are a master.”

“Therefore a
formidable team, and they quailed before us.”

“Yes, and thus
the city waits.”

“It can be
redeemed. You put that mechanism in place.”

“We will still
be cursed.”

Elianas
shrugged. “Then so be it.”

Torrullin put
his hands in Elianas’ hair and drew him close. “What do you want to
do first? How do we choose now? What is more important? What do we
need more? The city or Lowen?”

“I want you,
as you are now, all to myself.”

Torrullin
wholeheartedly agreed. “The city, then. It gives us a little more
time before Lowen is between us.” Torrullin smiled and released.
“The city, though, can wait until morning. Right now I want to
remember. I need to know who I was and who you were to me.” He
walked away.

Elianas did
not move for a long time.

Two hours
later Elianas found Torrullin where he thought to find him.

In the space
most exposed to the elements.

This had been
the sorcerer’s bedchamber. Site of rest, comfort and peace … and
place of terrible confrontation.

He sat
cross-legged in the centre, his body covered in geometric patterns
of sunlight and shade. As Elianas entered, he said, “I wish it was
storming.”

“Make it so.”
Elianas sank into a similar pose beside him.

“No, no more
manipulation.”

“Torrullin, you went back in time to meet Nemisin soon after
becoming Enchanter, on the heels of a prophecy. While something
written, the expectation of it, can veil the view - still. How did
he not know
you
?
Gods, I cannot think of another with your
presence
.”

A light laugh
answered him. “Nemisin fortunately saw what he thought to see. The
darkness in me was minimal then. I was more Rayne than
Torrullin.”

“Lucky. It
could have gone wrong.”

“I realise
that now.”

“Nemisin was often blinded by his ambition,” Elianas
muttered. “
The
Valla was under his nose all along. Had he been a better man,
he could have stopped you.”

“Us.”

“Yes, us.”

“Perhaps, but
the blame lies not with Nemisin, and you know it.”

“The blame is
mine.”

“No, it is
not.” Torrullin’s fingers twitched.

“I betrayed
you.”

“It does not
matter now.”

“It matters,”
Elianas said.

“It mattered
then.”

Elianas did
not push.

Torrullin knew
he needed to push, albeit in a different direction. “Do you seek
vengeance for what I did to you?”

“The short
answer? No.”

“The long
answer.”

Elianas
shrugged. “At first I was too devastated to realise how I hurt you.
Then I thought I deserved it. Later I hated you for what you did,
and could not understand how many had to stand in my place. You had
to hurt me, not them, and yet that was not the way of it. Oh, you
hurt me, but by another route, and only later did I see it was the
only way you could prove to me my betrayal devastated you also. You
dared not harm me, for then you would harm yourself. I do not like
it and I do not think you acted correctly, but I do understand.
Vengeance? Never.”

“Then why did
you help me?”

“To hurt you.”
Elianas added, “It was not vengeance; I was lashing out. We were
selfish.”

“And now?”

“Now we
restore.”

“This place,
that city, it does not exist anywhere but here. It is real in
memory, but how can restoration have worth?”

“If it did
exist beyond this realm, would you seek to restore?” Elianas
prompted.

“Yes.”

“It has worth,
Torrullin.”

“Perhaps.”
Torrullin sighed and unbent his legs, rose and stretched. He
wandered to the edge. “This place will go on forever in this realm,
in this time.” He stared outward, over wild garden, over blue sea.
“It is empty, it will always be empty. One day, when all is gone
and nothing is new, this will be home once more.” He paused and
then added, “Always there will be a place for you; this is your
home, too.”

“When nothing
is new, yes.”

Elianas’ dark
eyes were unreadable.

A storm brewed
up early evening and vented as darkness descended.

It lasted no
more than an hour, but it drenched the high land spectacularly.
Torrullin sat in the elements, absorbing the power, and Elianas sat
beside him, hands twitching and filled with tension.

Halfway
through the unleashing, Torrullin turned his head. Memory revealed
moments like this in the past. He saw Elianas’ profile lit by
lightning and read there the signs. He knew the signs.

He did what he
did in those past ages. He removed his tunic and presented his
back. Long minutes passed and then Elianas’ hands and mouth were on
his skin, warm, searching. It went no further than that, and it
never had. He did not respond.

That was the
fine line between them.

Neither was
hungry.

Sustenance was
now of the mind, the heart, the soul. They wandered around the
elemental dwelling in silence, memory made ever more real in fresh
insight. Together and apart they wandered, drawing unstintingly
upon that sustenance.

It would be
hard to leave again.

Then, when it could no longer be avoided, it
was
time to
leave.