The Sleeping Life (Eferum Book 2) (36 page)

"Today," Rennyn said immediately. "We don't know how much that Eferum-Get understood, or even if it was aware of us..."

"It was," Darian Faille put in. "There has been a shift, an increase in the sense of threat in this room."

"Possibly it's hindered by the time distortion of the Eferum. That casting..." Rennyn paused, held out her hand for Lieutenant Meniar's slate, and read it over quickly.

"If we follow that concept, we can't risk interfering with Nameen or that Eferum-Get until we've freed the mages," Lieutenant Meniar said unhappily.

"I agree." Rennyn briefly pressed the base of her palms to her eyes. "As best I understand it, when the wall to the Eferum was torn during the war of the Elder Mages, Nameen created this place in an attempt to heal the breaches. Its heart is a Grand Working set over a tear: a casting so large that it requires far more power than even one of the Elder Mages could supply. So she created this vine, which draws ambient magic and channels it into the Working—along with fuelling the protection shield and the glass maintenance golems. Nameen must have been fatally wounded at some point after this, and bound a fragment of herself here in order to ensure the spell would eventually be completed."

"But that spiky thing came along and stopped her?" Kendall asked.

Rennyn shook her head. "That's far more recent—possibly even a result of the surges in the Eferum during Solace's Grand Summoning. The repair...well, I wish I could risk a prolonged and extensive study, since I would be very glad to know what she was trying to do. Whatever it was, it failed, and the part of her that she bound to the casting's completion has been trapped here, unable to end or progress the casting. And then that...I haven't heard of an Eferum-Get of that type before."

Rennyn glanced up at Captain Faille, who shook his head.

"It seems to be projecting out of the Eferum, and drawing off the Efera," she continued. "I think it was able to interfere with the constructs, just enough to include mages in their duties, and to activate Nameen's Walk, since the structure of the spell is already here, though finding—" She paused, lifting her head. "Oh, that's what feels strange. I can hear that music again. Perhaps it's—"

Everyone except Rennyn clambered to their feet, looking panicked. She blinked up at them, then nodded. "Yes, we'd best get started. Lieutenant Meniar, if you will do what's necessary to prepare to, ah, ripen the mages, I'll think over a way to end Nameen's last Great Working."

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

"Do you think this is what the Emperor of Kole used to look like?" Auri asked, peering down at him—her—himself.

"Maybe," Fallon said, glancing uncomfortably at his sister, then concentrating on sorting gingerly through ivy leaves to find a patch of exposed flesh. "He'd need some kind of template or physical sample to create a human construct."

"Wouldn't people recognise him?" Kendall asked. "Aren't there pictures? And he's on the money!"

"There is a resemblance to the profile," Sukata said, pausing in her own search to study Auri. "I do not think it is the same, though perhaps that is a matter of age. Emperor Corusar was nearly fifty when he gained the throne."

"Knew he was really an old man," Kendall muttered. "Just didn't realise how old."

Fallon delicately carved a small cross into the back of the wrist of the woman suspended on the wall in front of him. "I think that's the last one here," he said. "Let's hurry."

"I'll open the next room!" Auri said, but thankfully Sukata caught her before she bounded ahead.

"We must remain cautious," Sukata said firmly.

"I—yes, sorry, I know that," Auri said, in Samarin's too-deep voice. "It's just...I feel so
real
. I can
touch
things, and
move
things, and you all can
hear
me. And everything's sharp with clear edges—I think that part's this body. It can see and hear much better than I could, and it's so
strong
. Did you know he was so strong?"

"That is not surprising with a construct," Sukata said. "He would give himself every advantage."

"Do you think that I'm stronger than you?" Auri asked. "We could arm wrestle later to find out."

"Auri..." Fallon began, then stopped himself. Who could blame his sister for giddy excitement after three years of not-quite-death?

"And you complain about me not being focused," he said instead. "Let's get the last of these done before Lieutenant Meniar comes looking for us."

Even if they hadn't been told to hurry, the fact that the four of them had been sent alone to locate all the mages on the eastern half of the sunken garden would have made the urgency entirely clear. Sukata was obviously exhausted, Fallon wasn't much better, and neither Kendall nor Auri could cast. But there simply wasn't time to do this with due caution.

Trying to restrain the bounce in her stride, Auri led them at a more decorous pace to the next of the rooms sealed by a stone door, and moved it aside with evident enjoyment.

"This should be the last on our side," Fallon said. "We're lucky this place has such a simple layout."

"Four in here," Sukata said, and they separated, each sorting through the particularly thick mass of vines for the people underneath, using the flowers as a starting point.

"Think maybe this lot have been here the longest?" Kendall said, wrinkling her nose. "They're pretty ripe already."

"They're definitely going to want a bath," Fallon agreed. The vine had obviously been feeding the mages in some way, and elimination had probably been minimal, but this set of captives were particularly ragged and filthy and rank.

"It's really more hatching butterflies than ripening fruit, though, isn't it?" Auri chattered on. "And the problem with that symbology is it almost obliges them to be changed, to be transformed. I wonder if they'll come out of this with wings?"

"Please don't say that around Lieutenant Meniar," Fallon begged. "He needs an absolute focus on what he wants to happen, not all the things that
might
."

"That's exactly the reason everyone stays away from big, Symbolic magic." Auri had already found and marked her mage, and was now checking other lumps, in case there was one not marked by flowers. "I'd bet we'll be learning about this casting at the Arkathan next year, or…what's that noise?"

Sukata, who had been puzzling over a particularly overgrown mage, turned her head with a start, then said: "Finish. Now."

Obeying her own command, she dragged ivy down to expose a man's shoulder and quickly scratched a neat marking with her pointed nails. Fallon hastily scrabbled, found the lower vines were loosest, and scored a man's knee far deeper than he'd intended. Mouthing a silent apology, he rushed with the others out the door and let Sukata herd them back to the central courtyard, not wasting breath on explanations until they burst into the open.

"The glass constructs are breaking free," Sukata said, but the news clearly came as no surprise to Lord Surclere, who was standing protectively over Duchess Surclere while she rapidly chalked a Sigillic.

"It's unfortunate this room is all entrances and no doors," Duchess Surclere said. "We have a few minutes, at most. If they get out before we've freed the other mages, I'm going to cast a shield." She glanced up as Lieutenant Meniar and Tesin came hurrying in. "I should be able to maintain that long enough for you to finish, Lieutenant, but if we're under attack I might not be able to activate what I've prepared to close off Nameen's Working. It's not very power hungry, but we're running short of casters who are not nearing a danger point. If you hit your limit, I think you might have to coach Kendall through her first Sigillic."

"Darian is finishing the last room," was all Lieutenant Meniar said, while Fallon—and, he noticed, Kendall—tried not to look appalled.

The Lieutenant began rapidly walking around the room, reviewing the several sets of Sigillics that had been prepared, and most particularly those that bracketed each of the four channels filled by the vine's roots.

"A few months ago I would have run from the thought of casting this," he told Duchess Surclere. "When we're back in Tyrland, I'm going to do my best to talk you into at least doing a few guest lectures at the Arkathan. You've widened my view of magic enormously."

"You're feeling confident?" the Duchess asked, smiling as Lord Surclere lifted her from her finished Sigillic.

"I'm sick to my stomach and one more set-back from vomiting. But not running yet."

"Then I think we'd best begin," Duchess Surclere said, as a light, rapid step warned them of the only runner at that moment—Darian Faille.

"Complete," she said, and without any further delay Lieutenant Meniar began to power Emperor Corusar's Sigillic.

Fallon, unsure where to put himself, started when Auri moved him briskly to the wall directly opposite the statue. Kendall and Sukata joined them, while Lord Surclere stood with Duchess Surclere by the shield Sigillic, and Darian Faille, sword in hand, chose the entrance nearest to the penned constructs, with Tesin at her side.

"Can you hear them still?" Fallon whispered to Auri.

"Chip, chip, chip, chip. I can't tell how the doors are holding up. If they get in here, what do we do?"

"Prevent them from reaching Lieutenant Meniar," Sukata told them. "There is no reason to believe we can't kill the constructs, but the risk is that they will distract him."

"And all the fruit spoils," Auri said, but thankfully too low for Lieutenant Meniar to possibly have that image enter his intent. Then she added: "That was a different noise."

"Part of one of the doors has given way, I think," Sukata agreed.

The Kellian girl moved so she was standing closer to the central statue, where Lieutenant Meniar was now cutting a deep x across one of his palms with a piece of glass. Letting the blood well freely and drip from his fingers, he made a splattery circle around the statue, crossing all four of the root-filled channels. Then came the critical act of the casting: he took a single leaf of ivy and placed it over the bleeding wound like a bandage, commanding it to make his hand whole. An enormous outflow of power roared away from him, following the ivy roots through the whole of the garden.

"They're coming," Auri whispered. "Just the little ones, I think."

With a glance at Lieutenant Meniar, Darian Faille stepped out of the room, leaving Tesin standing uncertain. After a moment's consultation, Lord Surclere put Duchess Surclere on her unshaky feet and strode quickly after his mother, Tesin trotting at his heels. Sukata stayed where she was.

"I thought we were going to use a shield?" Auri said.

"If only the smaller constructs are coming, then we might be able to forego the need for a shield," Sukata replied. Her gaze rested briefly on Kendall, and she added: "It is best to reserve our options."

"I could help," Auri offered eagerly. "I'm very strong."

"We are the second line of defence," Sukata said calmly, but the whole of her body was tense, and she twitched at a ring of steel on glass.

"How long does this stupid spell take to cast?" Kendall asked, shifting from foot to foot in that silence that followed that single, shattering sound.

"Impossible to say," Fallon told her. "Thirty subjects over quite a large area, and—" He couldn't help but flinch at further noise, and cast a worried glance at Lieutenant Meniar, who was holding his hand directly above his head now, palm turned to the sky.

Sukata whirled and leaped upward—a streak impossible to track until she was on the downward arc, hurling something as she landed. It shattered against the wall, and Tesin, who had been chasing it, reversed course and returned to the corridor, only to reappear a moment later with Lord Surclere and Darian Faille.

"The rest are still trying to get out," Auri said. "Is the casting even progressing?"

"Look at the walls," Tesin said.

A tinge of rust. There were far fewer leaves in the central courtyard, so the shift had probably been more noticeable out in the corridor. All the leaves had dark rims, and even as Fallon peered more closely the colour spread, flushing darker and darker until it seemed the room dripped with blood.

"Sounds like a whole door's gone now!" Auri gasped, and Lord Surclere gave the Duchess a nod to indicate it was time for the shield.

She turned, but even as she looked toward her Sigillic, Lieutenant Meniar let out a loud gasp, and crumpled in a heap, the now red-black leaf falling to the ground. Immediately, Duchess Surclere limped to the tight cluster of sigils she'd marked on the statue itself, and filled them with power.

"Lots of them coming, fast," Auri said, her hand closing painfully on Fallon's shoulder.

"And how long is this one going to take?" Kendall asked, but the answer to that was no time at all, as the chained woman, the swirling vortex, and the thing of barbs and teeth swam back into visible existence, only to become painful to look at as the bright chains flared, then shattered. The statue tilted forward.

Duchess Surclere hopped hastily back, stumbled, and was caught by Sukata, who bounded clear. Darian Faille blurred to snatch Lieutenant Meniar out of the throat of a roaring gale. Fallen leaves, pieces of glass, and dropped bits of chalk slid forward to be swallowed by nothingness, and Fallon hastily put his foot on Kendall's coat before it and its collection of focuses followed.

For the briefest moment, Fallon thought he saw the woman again. The fragment of an Elder Mage, a creation of the gods themselves, tasked to shepherd the world in their stead. She stood tall and free, unmarked by chains or the creeping blight of the Eferum-Get. Possibly she nodded. And then she, too, was gone.

oOo

As if a door had slammed shut, all the noise went away. Even, Kendall noticed with immense relief, the endless pulsing of the shield and the too-clever-by-half ivy. No more spell.

Unlike everything lying about loose, and the muggy warmth of the room, the vine hadn't vanished, but most of its leaves had fallen, and it looked withered and dry.