Authors: Lynn Flewelling
The island shook to its very foundations, knocking him to his knees. Even here, deep in the ground, he could hear thunder rending the fabric of the world. It went on and on, then suddenly—silence
.
He stood alone, facing the stone wall of the cave, where the Stone of Holding glowed in its golden setting among the archaic dancing figures in black. Khazireen screamed his agony, then called out “Erísmai, Nhandi, Nölienai talía!” Still clutching the arm ring, he knelt before the seal, drew a silver dagger, and slit his throat. The arm ring slipped from his fingers as he died …
Thero let out a bloodcurdling scream and cried out
“Erísmai, Nhandi, Nölienai talía!”
then curled in on himself and
began to sob, horrible, raw, ragged cries, as if grief were ripping out his very soul. The arm ring fell from his fingers to the carpet.
As the others stood in shocked silence, Seregil knelt beside Thero and put an arm around the wizard’s heaving shoulders. No one said a word, and in time the sobs tapered off to choking gasps.
“What did you see?” asked Seregil.
Thero wiped his face on his sleeve, fighting for self-control. “I—I can’t, not all of it.” Alec offered him a cup of water and Thero downed it in two gulps and held out the cup for more. Gulping that down, he rested his head in his hands.
“The woman you saw, Alec—I believe it was the spirit of Hierophant Nhandi. The dyrmagnos has taken on her appearance.”
Seregil remained by Thero. “ ‘My skin,’ she said to Mika. What if it wasn’t Rhazat who showed Alec the seal? What if it was Nhandi, trying to make herself known?”
“What’s skin got to do with it, though?” asked Alec.
“The dyrmagnos may be wearing Nhandi’s skin to alter her appearance,” rasped Thero. “That would explain why she can’t allow her reflection to be seen. You can’t deceive a mirror.”
“So the person Mika heard say ‘es rili’ must have been Nhandi,” said Micum.
Seregil nodded. “Still fighting after all these centuries, any way she can. What an incredible woman she must have been in life.”
“So whose lover was Khazireen?” asked Alec.
Thero shuddered again and wiped his eyes. “Khazireen was
Nhandi’s
lover, not Rhazat’s. There’s a fourth cave, or rather, a cave and a tunnel from the other side of the ridge. She stood in the fourth cave, and he in the third—he and Nhandi performed the spell of sealing that created the plane to trap the dyrmagnos. He—he had to seal her in.” He drew a shuddering breath. “I heard and felt the cataclysm as the plane came into being. She went willingly, and Khazireen killed himself as soon as it was done.”
“That explains why he’s still there. But how did his skull end up on that pillar?” asked Alec.
“I don’t know. Perhaps whoever sealed the tunnel with the tablet performed that final rite for him.”
“She and all those people were trapped,” said Micum. “Such a tragic sacrifice. How powerful must this Rhazat woman have been for them to go to such lengths?”
“Could you tell where the tunnel went?” asked Seregil.
“No, but it must come out somewhere on the far side of the ridge, near the ruins,” said Thero.
“I’ll ride over there tomorrow and see what I can find,” said Micum.
“I’ve got to get Klia out of there before we use this seal!” said Alec.
“Yes, and you’re the only one who can do it,” said Seregil. “Now that we know the amulets don’t work, though, what protection do you have?”
“Nightrunning, I guess. But I’ve been thinking. It’s not just ghosts we’ve come up against. Besides the dra’gorgos, there are the things that attacked you and Sedge—the demons. What I mean is, the ghosts come from dead people and dra’gorgos come from magic. So where do the demons come from, and why haven’t we ever encountered them before?
Why only here?”
“Perhaps they come from that other plane,” said Micum.
“And yet Alec hasn’t encountered any there,” Thero pointed out. “They have only appeared when a portal appears. I wonder if there’s someplace in between our plane and the other, a sort of middle space that gets opened, as well, and lets them through?”
“What can we do about that?” asked Seregil. “If any of us runs into another one without you there, we’re dead.”
“I can try making a charm against them. I can’t guarantee it will work, but it’s better than nothing. Would someone go and fetch Mika, please?”
Alec nodded and went out.
Thero delved into one of his equipment trunks and returned to the desk with a leather envelope and a stylus made from a small feather. He carefully extracted a thin sheet of
silver from the envelope and smoothed it on the surface of the desk. Using the stylus, he inscribed line after line of tiny characters on it, murmuring to himself. When he had filled the sheet, he drew his wand and rolled the foil around it, whispering more magic.
“This is a combination of the protective binding spell and a ward,” he explained as he unrolled it and cut the foil into five narrow strips. “Let me see your amulet, Micum.”
He pulled it from the neck of his coat, and Thero wrapped the foil tightly around the string above the golden amulet. “This should ward off demons.”
“Should,” muttered Seregil as Thero did the same with everyone’s amulet. “I’ve never liked that word.”
“It’s the best I can do.”
Alec returned with the boy, and Thero fixed charms to their amulets.
“Are you sad, Master?” asked Mika as Thero hung the amulet around his neck. “Your eyes are red.”
“I’m worried about Klia,” Thero replied.
“I am, too,” Mika said, and hugged Thero.
The wizard still did not seem completely comfortable with being hugged, but he smiled and patted Mika’s back. “Thank you.”
“We’ll save her, Master.”
“Yes, we will,” he replied, but Seregil heard the doubt and concern in his voice. “Alec, are you up to going in now?”
“Of course. All I need is some food and my sword. I’ll put on those rags I got on the other side and hope they turn back into clothing. If not, I know where to find more.”
“Do you need me to come with you?” asked Mika.
“Not this time,” said Alec. “If I can’t get back then you’ll have to come find me, right?”
Mika nodded.
“Good. You’re very valuable, you know.”
“I just want Klia back.”
“We all do,” Alec replied with a smile. “Look after everyone for me while I’m gone.”
“I will.”
“And I think I’ll try my luck down by the river, where you went through, this time.”
“Just go to the rock,” Mika advised. “That’s where I saw the boy and after that I guess we just got in without me noticing until later.”
Thero and Seregil walked with Alec to the cook’s area and watched as he put a few turnips, some hard-boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a skin of water into a sack.
Thero stepped away and returned a moment later with a live chicken flapping as he held it by the legs.
“What’s that for?” asked Alec.
“You couldn’t walk through with me in the palace. I’m curious as to what would happen if you carry something living with you.”
“And if it works, do I have to carry all of you in on my back?”
“One step at a time.” Thero handed Alec the chicken, and he settled it under his arm.
Seregil walked with Alec down to Mika’s rock. From there they wandered up and down the road and riverbank as Alec looked for a portal in the gathering gloom. The first stars were pricking the sky overhead, and the edge of the moon was peeking over the eastern sea.
“Mika got in and out at the same place,” noted Alec as he climbed the small rise overlooking the river.
“You haven’t so far.” Seregil climbed up after him. Far in the distance they could see the twinkle of a watch fire.
“I wonder if those shepherd boys could tell us more about the city?”
“I’ll ride out tomorrow and talk with them again,” said Seregil.
Alec stood atop the ridge, looking around. “I don’t see anything up here. I’m going to try following the riverbank like Mika says he did and then I’m going to go give Thero back his chicken.” The unlucky hen struggled, then tucked her head under her wing.
Seregil chuckled. “You’re an unlikely-looking explorer.”
Alec walked to the riverbank and started downstream. Seregil remained at his side.
“You think you can get in this way?” asked Alec.
“It seems to be different from the portals in the palace. Just thought I’d give it a try.”
Alec shrugged and ambled along the bank beside him. “That was something, wasn’t it, the way Thero reacted to whatever it was that the arm ring showed him? I’ve never seen him like that.”
“I hope we never do again, talí,” Seregil said, putting an arm around Alec’s waist.
“Me, too. And thank you.”
“What for?”
“For not making a fuss about me going back in.”
Seregil just tightened his arm around Alec. Alec didn’t need to know what it cost him to watch him disappear time and again where Seregil could not follow.
Encumbered as he was with bag and bird, Alec leaned his head against Seregil’s for a moment, murmuring,
“Aishutal, Seregil talí.”
“I love you, too, beloved Alec.” Seregil was surprised at how tight his throat suddenly felt.
They continued on in silence until the moment when the curve of Seregil’s arm was suddenly empty. Thrown off balance by Alec’s sudden disappearance, he staggered a little, almost tripping over the startled chicken, which hadn’t made the journey after all.
“Damnation!” he snarled, chasing it down the bank as it flapped away. He caught it at last and tucked it under his arm, then went back to Mika’s rock and sat down to keep watch for Alec.
Alec turned around to find Seregil—and the chicken—gone. The road was nothing more than a grassy track along the bank and the stars were gone. He walked up the rise again and looked out over the landscape. In this light it didn’t look much different than it had a few minutes ago with Seregil. Mika’s mute little friend was probably out there, tending his ghostly sheep.
It was too far to walk to Zikara from here, but perhaps he could get a look at Menosi as it had been. He started up the river trail toward where the camp would be, but he hadn’t gone far when the stars were back and Seregil was waving to him from atop the rock. The chicken was on the ground in front of him, head tucked under her wing, apparently unharmed.
“I don’t understand,” said Alec, walking up to join Seregil. “Why is it different here than in the palace?”
“That’s a question for Thero.” Seregil scooped up the sleepy hen and they walked back to camp and Thero’s tent. Micum and Mika were there with the wizard and looked up in surprise as Seregil and Alec came in.
“It didn’t work,” Seregil said, handing Thero the hen. “Alec got in and out like Mika did, but the chicken didn’t.”
“So I see.” Thero examined the bird closely, then gave it to Mika to carry back to the poulterer. “Well, that answers that question. Only a dra’gorgos can drag another living thing across.”
“That doesn’t do us much good,” said Micum, lighting his pipe from the lantern. “If we wear our amulets they can’t touch us, and if we take them off, the monsters kill us.”
“Precisely.” Thero sighed. “So there is a portal by the river.”
“There is, but it’s different,” Alec told him. “I didn’t see a portal, I was just suddenly on the other side, and it was the same place, rather than transporting me like the portals in the palace do. I just walked in and back out again. I wanted to go up to the city but I came out by the river before I could get there.”
“Very strange.” Thero went to the desk and unrolled a map he’d made of the palace and surrounding area. He’d marked portals found around the palace in blue ink. Now he dipped his pen and made a wavy blue line beside the river. “What Alec has found so far are like rents in time. But this? Perhaps it’s more a thin place in the fabric, as it were?” He looked down at it for a moment, then found a caliper and used it to draw a circle on the map with the town at the center and the farthest portal at the palace marking the circumference. The
others gathered around to watch. The place by the river was outside the circle.
“What does that tell you?” asked Micum, puffing away on his pipe.
“I’m not sure, because my measurements are not precise.”
“May I?” Seregil took the caliper and used it to draw another circle with the oracle’s cave as the center. This time the circle encompassed the palace, the river, and the tower with room to spare all around. “This is where the seals would have been. It seems more likely they’d be at the center of things.”
“You’re right,” said Thero. “And the river is quite far away, compared with the palace. It’s as if the other plane overlays our own, like a veil, only we can’t see it.”
“And yet the tower is completely gone,” Alec pointed out. “Everything else is sort of mirrored, but the tower is gone.”
“That must have been the point,” said Seregil. “The rest of the countryside got caught in the storm, but the tower was the crucial part that had to be locked completely away. It’s the dyrmagnos’s retreat. Maybe that’s where she holed up when Nhandi found out what she really was. Nhandi and her army—if she had one—couldn’t get in, so she and Khazireen did the only thing they could.”
“Got rid of her, tower and all,” said Micum. “That was quite a trick. Too bad they had to destroy the countryside along with it.”
“Trapped, not destroyed,” said Thero. “I’m sure it would have been kinder if they’d just killed all those people, rather than condemning them to that place with her.”
“What about the palace, though?” asked Alec. “It wasn’t destroyed, or transported or whatever you want to call it. But there are still portals there that carry me off to the area around the town.”
“Perhaps Nhandi and Khazireen protected it from the worst of things,” said Thero.
“It seems Rhazat had her revenge on Nhandi if she’s wearing her enemy’s skin,” Seregil noted with distaste. “Have you ever heard of any necromancy like that, Thero?”
The wizard nodded grimly. “Yes.”
“And?”
Thero glanced out the tent flap to make sure Mika wasn’t listening outside. “She must have skinned Nhandi—alive.”