Destiny (39 page)

“Are you absolutely sure of that, Komir? It doesn’t seem such a good idea to me. Especially after all we’ve been through.”

“Wise advice, my friend… but I have no choice.”

“And your Norriel witch? Perhaps she can shed some light…”

“I’ve already consulted her, and she can’t help me in this. The magic of the medallions prevents her power from working. She can’t make out the danger clearly, but she knows it’s there.”

“A very good reason for not going! Heed the words of this humble servant of the Light.”

“I must go. Besides, there’s a reason. I’ve been… summoned.”

“To the Everlasting Chamber?”

“Yes, that’s what I think. I’m not sure, but I must find out.”

Lindaro looked at him in puzzlement.

“Well, all right. If that’s what you believe, my friend, I won’t try to dissuade you.”

“Thank you, Lindaro. I mean that.”

“Shall we cross?” Lindaro said with a smile.

Komir turned to him in surprise.

“You don’t have to come with me, my friend. I just needed you to help me with the portal.”

“Actually, I think I do. If you find yourself trapped in that chamber, how will you come back? You don’t know how to manipulate the portal. I wouldn’t want you to be trapped anywhere
Everlasting
.”

“If you put it that way…” Komir smiled. “All right, I really appreciate it, you’re a true friend. Let’s cross.”

“Any progress?” came an authoritarian female voice.

“Nothing,” another, much softer female voice replied. “However hard I look I can’t seem to find any reference to how to open the door.”

“Are you sure this is the place?” a thunderous male voice said.

“Yes, absolutely. The Ilenian inscriptions on the door show it clearly. Behind that door is the Everlasting Chamber. That I’m quite sure of.”

“The answer has to be in one of these two books,” the authoritarian female voice said.

“That’s what I think too, but I can’t find it.”

“We’ve been here forever!” the male voice protested. “I don’t like this ante-chamber at all, it’s always night here. A night that goes on forever. Let’s get out of here as soon as possible. This place gives me the creeps.”

The room, completely round, had walls of black alabaster, and the floor was of marble so dark and shiny you could see your own reflection in it. The ceiling, also black, was extraordinary. An unknown constellation shone with such realism that if they had not been sure they were underground in a subterranean chamber, they would have felt they were on the surface. The chamber had two entrances, one open to the south and one closed to the north. A great circular door of something like gold closed off the way out. The door was filled with Ilenian symbols, and in the center was a strange oval slot which seemed to be the lock.

“I’m trying. I want to find out what’s in there just as much as you do. But finding the answer in these two volumes is a mammoth task. It might take me months, if not years…”

Hidden in the shadows, Komir had been listening to the conversation since his arrival moments ago. He crept into the dark chamber.

He raised his hand and pointed. “I knew you’d betray us at last to reach your Brotherhood’s goals,” he said.

“Komir!” Kayti cried in amazement.

Hartz turned.

Komir looked at his friend and saw worry in his eyes. He would defend the redhead.

“What are you doing here, Hartz? You’d never have come into the heart of these Ilenian chambers by your own choice.”

“What we’re doing here is no concern of yours” Kayti said defiantly.

“You’re wrong, very wrong. Everything to do with the Ilenians is my concern. Even more so if you’re about to make a terrible mistake.”

Kayti took a step round. The pale light of that strange sky reflected on her white Ilenian armor. “How did you find us?” she asked.

“I’ve been watching this big guy…”

“Lets be reasonable, please!” Sonea begged them. As she spoke, she moved away from the two big books she was consulting on top of a polished rock dais in the centre of the hall. One was silver, like the moon, the other gold, like the sun. They were perfectly set in the surface of the dais, as if it had been especially shaped to their exact measurements.

“Don’t you realize we’re at the door which holds the Enigma of the Ilenians? We have to find what’s hidden in it.”

“I see Kayti has convinced you too.”

Sonea waved at the sealed door. “She didn’t convince me. It’s always been my intention to unveil the mystery of the Ilenians. I came of my own free will.”

Lindaro appeared from the shadows behind Komir. “That’s true. Sonea and I have always sought to discover the mystery of the Ilenians. It would be an incredibly significant achievement. We’ve been studying them for years, and we just have to find out the enigmas hidden in them.”

Sonea smiled at him happily. “Lindaro, how wonderful to see you! I wanted to tell you, but Kayti wouldn’t let me, she said the expedition had to be secret. I tried convincing her, but there was no way I could.”

“Why, Kayti? Why keep it a secret? What else do you know that you’re not telling us?” Komir accused. He was sure Kayti was acting according to the wishes of her Brotherhood, but he did not know their purpose and he needed to find out. Too long had that secret stayed hidden. But once again Kayti was silent. Her eyes were fixed on Komir.

“Please let’s not argue,” Lindaro begged. He was standing beside Sonea, who was watching anxiously.

“First I need to get the answers I’m looking for. Why are you here, Kayti? What are you looking for in that chamber? What does your Brotherhood know about what’s locked up in there, that you don’t want to tell us about?”

Kayti and Hartz exchanged a look Komir could not interpret.

“You promised me,” Hartz said. His gaze was firm.

She hesitated. “I know…”

“If you love me, if you want to repair the harm you’ve to done me with your silence, now’s the time,” Hartz said. “I’m not asking you to betray your Brotherhood. I’m asking you to trust me, us, or else I can assure you our love won’t pass this final test. This I know, I can feel it in my soul. You’ve already planted the seed of doubt in my heart by not trusting me and not telling me what you knew all this time we’ve been together.”

“Revealing the written texts of the Brotherhood goes against all I’ve sworn to defend, against all I am.”

“I know, but if you love me, you have to trust me. Otherwise there’ll be an abyss opening up between us, one with no way of crossing it. The decision is yours.”

Kayti lowered her gaze, struggling against herself. “All right, Komir. If you want to know so badly, I’ll tell you. Not because I think I ought to, but for him.” She pointed to Hartz. “For his sake, because I love this big guy more than life itself, I’ll reveal my mission to you. But understand this. Do not get in my way once I reveal my final purpose to you. I’m giving you a chance to step aside, for his sake.”

Komir nodded. He had his doubts, but he decided it would be more prudent to hear her out and decide afterwards. He turned to Hartz, and the big Norriel too nodded.

“Thanks be to the Light!” Lindaro said.

Kayti raised her head high.

“My mission is sacred and extremely important. The fate of all mankind depends on it.”

They all looked at her in surprise, Hartz above all.

“In the holy writings of the Brotherhood,” Kayti went on, “it is said that two hundred years ago, Zuline, the Lady Custodian, Patron of the Order and founder of the Brotherhood, made a discovery of unparalleled importance: a strange Object of Power in the form of a medallion, black as night. Little is known of this object or where the Lady Custodian found it, but the importance of the discovery marked Zuline forever, and forged the destiny of the Brotherhood and its members.”

Lindaro looked intrigued. “An Ilenian medallion?”

Kayti nodded.

“That’s what I believe now, now that we’ve found the others. Although when I started on this quest I didn’t know.”

“Why was this medallion special?” Sonea asked with interest. She was looking at the one hanging around her own neck.

“According to our holy texts, Zuline, the Lady Custodian, brought about the
Vision of the End of Days
by manipulating it.”

That caught everyone’s attention.

Hartz shook his head. “I don’t like the sound of this at all,” he muttered.

“In the vision Zuline saw skies of fire falling on the earth, the seas rising above the cliffs and sweeping away cities and kingdoms, storms and hurricanes devastating the earth and everything upon it, people fleeing the final destruction with nowhere to shelter.”

Komir shook his head uneasily. “What has this vision got to do with us?” He did not understand what Kayti was telling them about, and like Hartz, the more he heard the less he liked it.

Kayti indicated the two volumes on the dais. “In the vision, Zuline saw two evil objects of great power which initiated the great catastrophe: two large arcane books, one golden, like the sun and the other silver, like the moon.”

All eyes went to the two grimoires.

“And she knew with utter certainty that the fateful day would finally come.”

“You mean we’re all doomed?” Sonea asked.

“Not necessarily. Zuline, in her infinite wisdom, was able to foresee something else, something the medallion didn’t want her to discover: a hope, a chance to stop the cataclysm. A Chosen would have the opportunity to end forever the evil that would unleash the catastrophe. That Chosen, the Lady foresaw, would be one of her disciples, someone from the Brotherhood. She foresaw a woman of strong heart, a warrior who would face Evil boldly and prevent it. So Zuline, the Lady Custodian, told her disciples, and so it’s written in the holy texts. From that day on, the Brotherhood has recruited and trained women of strong spirit and steady hand, since it’s written that the day would come. From that moment on we’ve been waiting vigilantly, for more than two hundred years, traveling the world without rest, searching for Objects of Power, for clues of what was to come and has finally arrived. Those are the accursed objects” —she pointed to the books— “and today is the day.”

“That story, this place… it all gives me the creeps,” Hartz said. “What you just told us sounds terrible. You should’ve told me a long time ago, you should’ve trusted me… especially if its meaning is so… so catastrophic.”

“Would you have come with me? Would you have come with me knowing what you now know, knowing the evil power which lies behind this sealed door?”

“Unfortunately, you’ll never know the answer… because you never asked me.”

Hartz’s reproach, so honest, so human, touched Komir. He understood perfectly. Kayti should have told them all this a long time before. For good or ill. Perhaps her goal was noble, but certainly her means to attain it had not been so.

“I know the silver book,” Komir said. “It’s the Book of the Moon we found, but the golden book… Where did that come from?”

Sonea’s eyes were on the powerful grimoire. “I can explain,” she said. “Days ago, from the moment the great battle ended, Lindaro and I immersed ourselves in studying the Book of the Moon. There’s a lot more in it than arcane spells. It also has what I’d call stories or moments. They’re difficult to interpret, as the Ilenians didn’t write the way we do, but I’ve been able to guess some things. Two days ago I was deep in reading, trying to understand the significance of some dates, when something really astounding happened. My medallion flashed, acting of its own accord, and I was scared because I’d already had an unpleasant experience handling an Ilenian grimoire at the Great Library. I know very well how dangerous it is to handle these grimoires, and I assure you I was being very careful not to activate any spell accidentally. But even so, suddenly an image began to form in my mind, very like when the medallions cast a spell using our energy. But instead of seeing the Ilenian symbols which formed the spell, what I saw in my mind was a place.”

Lindaro was looking at her with great curiosity. “A place?”

“Haradin’s ruined tower. The Book of the Moon had activated the medallion so that it would convey that place to me. Obviously I was very intrigued. I told Kayti, because she’d already told me about her interest in the Book of the Moon and everything to do with it. And now I understand why…” She looked aside at the redhead. “We went to the ruins of the tower together, and something unbelievable happened there. The Book of the Moon began to pulsate with an intense silver gleam and in reply, a golden flash came from beneath the rubble.”

“The Book of the Sun,” Lindaro guessed, his eyes on the golden volume.

“Exactly,” Sonea said, spreading her arms wide. “Its sister volume answered the call. Kayti, with Hartz’s help, dug out the book, and that’s how we come to have it. The Book of the Moon sent me to the tower to look for its lost sibling: the Book of the Sun. For some reason they wanted to be together… at this moment in time… for some specific goal...”

“I think we know its goal,” Kayti said with a frown, “and we must avoid it at all costs.”