The Nemesis Blade (77 page)

She paused
there, and then added, “The accident of realm to reality, however,
granted you one massive loophole.”

“The void,”
Elianas said.

Torrullin
looked at him.

“The void
swallows the known,” Elianas murmured, “and spits out the unknown,
and right now this changed, lacklustre future is what it
knows.”

Lowen nodded.
“If you set it free, it will take this and spit out the future we
want.”

“That is a
mighty risk also!” Teighlar cried out. “What if it spits out
something alien? We cannot act on what is pure conjecture!”

“It will not return us something alien and it is
not
conjecture. You know
of my expertise in realms,” Lowen said. “The two futures are
linked. Separate them but an instant and one will fall and the
other remain. No evil, Torrullin, just the known. You can live with
that.”

“No
redemption.”

“Elianas is
your redemption.”

He stared at
her.

“And the void
will no longer be a threat,” she added. “Grinwallin will be at
peace.”

“Until the
next cycle.”

She smiled.
“Only if you go forgetting again.”

Elianas stared
at her. “You are good.”

“I am not an
Ancient, but a true Immortal can see the curve, not just sense
it.”

“I know.”

“Yes, you do,”
Lowen said.

“Damn good,”
Elianas muttered.

“A nice little
triangle for the future,” Lowen murmured.

Torrullin
glared at both of them and then rose. “The void is temperamental. I
do not like using it.” He paced away.

“First
sensible thing I have heard since we entered this shithole,”
Teighlar said.

“We have to,”
Elianas said. “Lowen said it; it will take too long now to do it
from this point in time and there is no guarantee a fire under
Nemisin’s butt will even work.”

“We hate
voids,” Torrullin said.

“So?”

“Gods,
Elianas, the only way to activate a fucking void is for someone to
go in. Create change with presence …” His voice lost strength on
the last two words. “Ah, I see now.”

“At bloody
last,” the dark man muttered under his breath, and only Lowen heard
him.

“’
The Curve creates Three
anew’
,” Quilla quoted, enlightened. “Not
the three Vallas, is it?”

Declan cleared his throat. “’
The
Vacuum of Time overflowed
’ is
the void.”

Quilla took it up. “’
Kingdom Thrice
will arise.’
Kingdom refers to the future,
not a man-made, greedy grabbing of territory. And you, Torrullin,
are both the force of myth and reality
and
the creator, therefore the link.
The Four who had to solve this simply refers to the connections we
formed to get to this point.”

“Excuse me?”
Tianoman asked.

“They read the
prophecy wrong,” Tristan understood. “Torrullin, Elianas and Lowen
must enter the void to release it.”

Sabian
groaned.

Torrullin
glanced at him. “Your immortality was returned to you when you
crossed the void. Whatever happens from this point on, you are free
of obligation to the Vallas and it is your choice whether you
desire a place in Valleur hierarchy. You are free, Sabian. No more
hounding.”

“But I did
nothing.” He meant to deserve it and it showed in his tone and
expression.

“You are still
Agnimus in part and Agnimus knew to dump us into an alternate past.
By some crazy means, you have set us all free.”

Elianas
laughed. “So that’s how it happened.” He sounded relieved.

“Are we
suddenly happy with this crap?” Teighlar shouted.

“Did you not say you prefer the future as you know it? Yes,
you did, which released the need for redress, which loosed a
non-past, which allows us use of the void, which, my friend,
sets
you
free.
Grinwallin will go on no matter how many journeys you make. A major
choice with real result.” Torrullin pointed at Lowen then. “The
marker and the one who saw the greater picture. And Sabian, all of
you. Do you understand what has happened?”

“You only
realise what you have when you lose it,” Rose said. “Only then do
you appreciate the little joys, the nuances of life, and you begin
to understand everything that went before, they are the shaping
hands of who you are.” She smiled. “I feel good. I understand my
past and I want the future I should expect.”

“I wish I had
your insight when I was your age,” Torrullin sighed. “Good for you,
Rose. You will be fine.”

“Don’t get all
soppy,” Teroux muttered, but he smiled. He grinned at Rose and then
looked away. Perhaps, in that moment, he understood deeper feelings
developed for the pretty farspeaker.

Tristan went
the other way, a greater realist than his cousin. “What happens in
the void?”

Lowen
shrugged.

Elianas shook
his head.

Torrullin
laughed. “An abyss is a void is a hole. Who the hell knows?”

“Why does it
not worry you?” Tristan demanded.

“It does, but
we are three true Immortals. What is there to fear? A few bruises?
A bit of soul-searching. We have already done much of the latter on
this journey.”

“But you could land up in a place a million years from
now.
That
is the
issue,” Tianoman said.

“And it may also be as if we never left,” Lowen said.
“
That
is the
challenge. It sets us free.”

Declan was on
his feet. “We leave Nemisin as is?”

“Yes,” she
said.

“We return to
the void. How?”

“We are in the
portal,” Torrullin murmured. “We walk out and we transport to
Grinwallin. Be warned, it will not be what we know, not until the
void is activated.”

“I want to go
into the void,” Tristan stated.

Teroux and
Tianoman stared at him in horror.

“No,”
Torrullin denied.

“Yes. I want
to see what lies below.”

“Dear god, you do not.” Elianas was aghast. “Tristan, I like
you, and I am telling you, you do
not
want to know.”

“But it’s all
right for you?”

“I have been
there; I know what to expect.”

“So help
me.”

“There is no
time and the void is something else every time. What lies below …”
Elianas swore and forced himself to silence.

“… is never
the same,” Torrullin finished. “You are not going.”

Tristan was
adamant. “I will simply jump in.”

“And I’ll be
jumping with him,” Caballa murmured. “If you want us to have a
chance, Tristan, I am going with. Do you deny that?”

He shook his
head.

Torrullin
shared his gaze between them and threw his hands in the air.
“Anyone else?”

Quilla cleared
his throat.

“Damn it,
Quilla!” Torrullin shouted.

“I will hold
Tristan and Caballa’s hands on my way down, so I do not float down
slower,” Quilla murmured.

Elianas shook
his head and then could not help himself - he laughed. The image
was too funny to overlook.

Torrullin
glared at him.

Elianas
quirked a brow. “It’s funny, and I admit I would feel easier with
three more. We double chance at success.”

“We stood at
the brink before, alone; we do not need them.”

“We did not
jump. We need them.”

“And what
about not wanting to know about what lies below?” Torrullin
growled.

Elianas
shrugged. “I am mercurial.”

Teighlar
snorted and then laughed. “Damn right you are!”

Declan was
decisive. “Let us get out of here. I will feel a whole lot easier
away from Nemisin’s influence - the man gives me shivers. He is far
too blasé.” He began by switching lights off. “Reminds me of the
Enchanter of old in a really bad mood.”

Quilla
laughed. “Now we see where he gets it.”

Torrullin said
nothing, but he looked at Lowen, who smiled challenge.

Elianas pulled
a face, seeing clearly challenge had a lot more to do with
personality than the situation, and waved over the fire. It blazed
once and then died. Right now the safest option was action and
Torrullin needed to be prodded before he came up with a tweak they
could not live with.

“You are in a
hurry,” Torrullin said.

“Different
choice; I am comfortable with that.” Elianas headed for the
door.

As the others
followed, Sabian asked, “What will Nemisin think?”

“He does not
know this place; he will assume I absconded again.” Torrullin
lifted a shoulder, clearly saying he did not much care either.

“By morning he
will not remember outworlders ever stood on his deck,” Lowen
said.

“Oh?” Teighlar
said.

Lowen grinned.
“I slipped something into his drink.”

Tianoman
laughed.

Torrullin
glared at her. “And what if we had decided to follow the path of
coercion right here? You removed our choices.”

“It was never
a choice, Torrullin. Elianas will agree.”

The dark man
glanced over his shoulder. “Elianas is very relieved, yes.”

Torrullin
swore under his breath.

They left,
closing the door and switching the final lights off.

Darkness
returned on a time no one would see again.

Out on the
great plain Torrullin found the corresponding veil swiftly. They
had no time to lose now, for Nemisin could come down on them in an
instant. He pulled it wide, chivvied everyone through and then
dropped it decisively.

They were
still on Akhavar, of course, but it was a dry, sterile world, as it
was before Saska and Lily began the cycle of renewal.

“Hell, it got
bad here,” Teroux whispered.

They
transported out.

Chapter 57

Profess a
willingness to change … and discover it is not as easy as belief
engenders.

~ Book of
Sages

Grinwallin

T
he city was a ruin.

There were no
Senlu. The plateau was a rock-strewn weed patch.

Teighlar
blanched and the ice of fear flowed through his veins. “Just get to
the void.” More than ever he desired the status quo.

The inner city
was impassable. The arches had crumbled; the way in was
blocked.

“Strike me
with a feather,” Declan murmured. “Time does this?”

“When messed
with,” Sabian said. He was as pale as Teighlar. “We are now
genuinely on the brink of everything.” He stared at his hand. “If I
start fading, know it is too late to change anything.”

“Shut up, will
you? You are scaring Rose,” Teroux snarled.

“He is scaring
me,” Elianas muttered.

“We still have
a window. Stop it. Do you know the eastern exit?” Torrullin asked
of the Senlu Emperor, who could only stare at him. “Teighlar! The
ocean outlet.”

“You are
scared, too,” Elianas sighed. “How enlightening.”

Torrullin
glared at him and then prodded the Senlu again. “You need blaze the
path, Emperor.”

A blink. “Yes,
yes, of course. Follow my signature.” He was gone and they tracked
him immediately.

Everyone felt
the weight, the heavy burden that was Time.

The feeling of
helplessness would never quite leave them.

No one visited
the far eastern shore of Tunin.

It was a wild,
windswept place where only the rare seabird found home. The great
mountains of Grinwallin marched into a slate sea, and waves pounded
the rock with thunderous accompaniment. It was the kind of place
people died merely by being present.

On a tiny
sliver of land a foot above the sucking and smacking ocean Teighlar
waited. He pointed at a dark cleft visible amid an ancient rock
fall. “The river exits north of here, but there is a land path to
it. Fortunately, it is low tide.”

“Meaning?”
Declan demanded. Gods, he hated this kind of depressing place. His
wings hated it, too.

“Covers at
high tide.”

“Fantastic,”
Sabian muttered.

“How long?”
Torrullin wanted to know.

“Less than two
hours.”

“That is
enough.” Torrullin transported … and stayed in place. He frowned.
“Why not?” he asked of Lowen. “We got here via transport.”

“Maybe because
the way is blocked. You’re the sorcerer.”

It did not
make sense, and then, with absolute clarity, it did. The void
required will, not the ease of magic. He swung to the others. “Not
everyone needs go; you can wait in the city.”

“We are
accompanying you,” Maple stated. “The city gives me the
shudders.”

“Me, too - do
not want to see it,” Teighlar muttered.

“We need get
inside the rock,” Lowen said. “The void will pull if asked, and you
two will have to ask. And once the proper future is restored,
Teighlar and the others can transport away.”

“I am the
sorcerer, remember?” Torrullin snapped.

“Well, debating who goes isn’t going to make our
window
slow
down.”

Elianas was
already climbing.

The others
followed.

Within minutes
they were beat. It was not that high off the beach, but piles of
jagged rock blocked the upward path.

“We fly,”
Declan said.

He took to the
sky with Lowen, deposited her at the cleft and then headed back for
Caballa. By the time he got there, Quilla was half-lifting,
half-throwing Elianas up the slope, and Torrullin had achieved
magical buoyancy. Teighlar was too tense to succeed at that, and
thus Torrullin threw him upward in a similar fashion.