The Orb And The Spectre (Book 2) (4 page)

   "What? Why have you not told me this before?" cried Leth.

   Orbelon stood stock still. "I did not know before. You have never mentioned her. But what difference does it make?"

   "If she, this consort, is the key, then I can direct my actions against her."

   Orbelon's great head shook. "You cannot destroy her. If she is what I say, nothing you can do will affect her. Do you know her name?"

   "No. I know nothing about her. But why, Orbelon, why has a god allied itself with one race against all others?"

   "The issue is complex," said Orbelon. "But one must assume that they serve mutual ends and that therefore there is something the god seeks and stands to gain through the alliance. I think we will speak of this at another time."

   "You know, don't
you!" Leth could not withhold his emotion. "Do not avoid my questions, Orbelon. Do not dismiss me. I believe you know."

   "I know only that this is grave," Orbelon muttered. "Events are moving too quickly."

   "But not entirely to your surprise! Tell me, Orbelon! Tell me what you know! What is happening here?"

   The bundled figure hesitated. "I do not know as much as you wish to believe."

   "But you know far more than I. How? Tell me that? How do you know so much. All that you have told me to date. . . .  Who -
what
- are you?"

   "Surely, Leth, you have guessed the answer to that by now, haven't you?"

   Leth stood rigid, quivering. He was eager to press what he perceived had somehow become his advantage. Orbelon, for the first time ever, seemed unsure of himself, seemed almost in Leth's palm, as though actually wishing to unburden himself of something. But Leth was fearful of appearances, knew that his advantage might be brief. He was desperate not to irk the strange figure and find himself cast peremptorily from the blue realm. "You are one of them, aren't you? One of the very gods of Enchantment who you have described to me. That is how you know so much."

   "We are not gods, Leth. Remember that."

   "Please, let us not argue nomenclature now. If you have a soul you will know what pain I bear; you will have no wish to crush me further. To all intents and purposes you are gods.
You
, Orbelon. You are one of them!"

   To his surprise Orbelon laughed. Not a laugh of mockery, but a short musing laugh, coloured with irony.

   "Ah Leth, you do not know what you have just said." Orbelon then leaned upon his staff as though weary, his head bowed. "I was among them, it is true. One of the twenty four. But no longer. Not for many ages. I was defeated, Leth. Beaten. The first of the twenty four to suffer such humiliation."

   "But not destroyed."

   "Yes, destroyed. Banished from the world. No longer powerful. I became what I am now. I will not waste time with details of the process, for you wouldn’t understand it. But it was destruction, separation from my essence, elimination of the 'god' that I had been. It was death."

   It was not death as Leth understood it, but he was not going to sidetrack or discourage Orbelon now with unnecessary questions. Besides, he could never hope for a full intellectual understanding of the concepts he was being introduced to here, in this extraordinary place before this extraordinary being.

   "I can tell you little more, Leth," Orbelon said, and his tone was despondent.

   "You can tell me what I should do."

   "I do not know. I can’t advise you at this time. I have been striving. . . but if the Karai are really so close then I have no time. I am as good as powerless."

   "I cannot sit here and simply accept defeat!" protested Leth. "There must be a way!"

   "There are ways, but for your part they are ways of the imagination only. They can’t be followed."

   "Tell me anyway."

   "You could go to Enchantment--"

   "I cannot!"

   "Precisely."

   Leth clenched his fists before him. "But if I did?"

   "You could attempt to discover the identity of this god who backs the Karai, then appeal to him or her to abandon Anzejarl. Alternatively you could approach another god, an enemy of this one, have him wage war for your cause. As I said, neither course is feasible. Even less so is your final option."

   "Still, I will hear it."

   "You can find and bring to me the Orb's Soul."

  
"The Orb's Soul? What is this thing, Orbelon? You have mentioned it before but failed to elucidate. Why is it so important?"

   "Leth, have you still not understood? You have just said that if I possess a soul I will know what pain you bear. Well, I know your pain. Truly I do. And I know mine also. Yet I am without a soul. It is the Soul of the Orb that was taken from me when I was defeated by my enemies. It is my essence, and without it I am nothing except what you see. It was taken from me and cast away, or buried or hidden - I don’t know. But if it could be found and restored to me, I would be again what I once was."

   "It was taken by one of your enemies?"

   "Not one; a cabal.
Strymnia, who manifests as an Arch-Demoness of immense power; Bartacanes, who favours purple-skinned humanoid appearance and sorcerous talents; and Urch-Malmain, a perverse, normally solitary creature. Perhaps others too!"

   "Then they each exist in a single, permanent form?"

   "I have told you before, the gods may change their form at will. But each of us adopts a favoured form, and with the passing of the eons that form becomes more the natural state as we succumb to natural laws. Most favour human-like appearance, emulating the dominant species of this world."

   Leth was thoughtful. "If the Orb's Soul could be found and returned to you, you would become a god again. What then of Enchantment's Reach?"

   "I mean you no harm Leth, be assured of that. But if I were empowered again I could confront your enemies and my own on something approaching equal terms. As it is, I can do virtually nothing."

   "It occurs to me that there may be another option open to me," said Leth.
"One that you have purposefully failed to mention."

   "What is that?"

   "I could take the blue casket, the Orb, and offer it to the god who commands the Karai. Because it think perhaps it is you, Orbelon, that this god seeks. I think that may be its reason for joining with the Karai."

   Orbelon shook his head. "Do so, Leth, if you wish. But you would be mistaken. You would lose me forever, and still fall. The god doesn’t seek me. He or she may not
know that I am here, but neither would they care particularly. I am not the object of the search. Why would I be? I am without a soul, and helpless."

   "Then there’s something else." Leth said. He fell to thinking.

   "It will be better if I leave you now," said Orbelon. "You have much to dwell upon."

   "No. Not yet. Orbelon, too much is at stake and I need you."

   "I, whom you are ready to sacrifice to your enemy and mine?"

   "That was not my intention. I was testing you. I sought to know, that’s all. The truth is
, I do need you. Enchantment's Reach needs you. But with you or without you we seem doomed to fall."

   "Leth, I’m here. I can say nothing more under these circumstances. But from this point on the blue casket will be open to you at all times. Learn whatever you can of this god of the
Karai. Come to me whenever you need to speak. But be sure no other can find the casket and open it. Now, I think we both have much to think on."

   "I saw you earlier," said Leth quickly as Orbelon stood. "That is, I thought I did.
In my chamber, just for a moment."

   "Ah," Orbelon seemed a little heartened by this. "That is interesting."

   He began to move away, his feet and the heavy tatters of his robe dragging across the floor.

   "Was it you?" called Leth. "Were you there, outside the casket?"

   Orbelon's voice floated back to him through the stillness. "I don’t know."

   As his diminishing figure began to merge into the blue mist, he raised his staff.

III

    It was the Child!

    Leth was as good as convinced of that now. It had to be!
Not Orbelon that the Karai's god sought, nor necessarily the subjugation of Enchantment's Reach. It was the Legendary Child! Could it be anything else?

   His excitement grew. Why would a god seek the Child? He knew too little. It was for Grey Venger to enlighten him. But if the Legendary Child was the spill of a god,
then might it be that the parent was for some reason seeking its own offspring? Or was it an enemy, another of the gods, seeking to destroy it?

   It was pointless to speculate. Leth knew nothing more of the Legendary Child than that it was said to be somehow the harbinger of tremendous upheaval and destruction in the world. From all indications the predictions were proving true.

   He perceived his position modestly strengthened now. Grey Venger, he calculated, must also understand that the Karai god sought the Child. He must surely be desperate to discover what Leth knew.

   Again Leth felt his frustration rise.
For he knew nothing. It was Issul who had known. And she had vanished at the same time as the Child. Had she survived? Might the Child be with her?

   That thought cast him into a renewed welter of nervous speculation. He forced himself to quell his imaginings.

   Dawn was creeping from the low east. The rain had swept away and the winds had died. Leth put away the casket, then bathed and changed his clothes. Still on edge, he yet felt a vague sense of buoyancy, a glimmer of hope that had been absent earlier in the night. And a feeling of awe. His mind raced, struggling to make best use of the latest information he had gleaned from Orbelon. The knowledge that he had, all this time, been conversing with one of the god-beings of Enchantment - albeit one dispossessed and deprived of power - left him both fearful and charged with anticipation. Surely now this must be a key, a means to dealing with the crisis that loomed over his kingdom?

   Leth refused to be daunted or cast down by the impossible task that faced him. Finding the Orb's Soul; vanquishing the
Karai and their god. He banished these things from his mind, allowing himself to be fired by new hope.

   He descended to the breakfast room, wishing to see his children, but it was early and they were still in their beds. In the nursery he sat and watched their tranquil, sleeping faces.

  
For you, my beautiful babies. For you I will fight to the very end if I must. For you I will overcome all that our enemies may send against us. I will not let your world be destroyed.

   Jace woke. Seeing her father she stretched, yawned, then smiled and climbed from her bed to snuggle upon his lap. A few moments later Jalry also woke and joined his sister. Little Lir, oddly, was absent from her cot; Leth gave this little thought, supposing her to have been moved to her mother's apartment. With his two children warmly sleeping in his arms, Leth's head drooped. His eyes closed and he sank into irresistible sleep.

   An hour later the children's nursemaid entered. Leth came blearily to wakefulness. The children were up in an instant, demanding games. Leth played with them, then dressed them and, taking their hands in his, took them to breakfast.

   Immediately afterwards he found Lord Fectur waiting for him outside his office. "Sire, I must speak with you in absolute privacy."

   Leth closed the door on his secretary and bade Fectur sit. "Have you carried out my instructions?"

   "I have. Grey Venger states himself willing to meet with you under the conditions proposed. However, he adds stipulations of his own."

   "And they are?"

   "That the meeting takes place in Overlip and that he will choose the precise location. That location will be made known to you after you have entered Overlip. You may be accompanied by a bodyguard twenty strong. For your further reassurance up to forty more troops may be positioned upon the Market Way of Overlip."

   "He instructs the King so? The arrogance of the man!"

   "He is powerful in his domain, Sire."

   "What are your feelings on this, Fectur?"

   "If Venger wishes you dead, it requires but a single dagger-strike. I’m not happy, Sire. I’m not happy with this business at all."

   "I take it you will have more of your own men emplaced?"

   Fectur nodded.

   "What are the chances of capturing Venger?"

   "And getting him out of Overlip?
With your presence, and under those conditions, almost nil. That is to say, I could not guarantee your safety. Sire, you are not considering--?"

   "No, I’m not. I’m trying to view the situation from Venger's position. Has Emergency been made
public."

  
"To vociferous protest."