Havenstar

by Glenda Larke

  Without discernible transition, he was back facing Carasma on his throne. He wanted to sink to his knees in gratitude at the touch of solid ground beneath his feet, but resisted the urge.

  Carasma continued, ‘What you see before you here and now is mere illusion, a tiny particle of what I am. I take human form because that is all your finite mind can understand. How can you possibly comprehend the extent of my being?’

  ‘I don’t particularly care to,’ he conceded. ‘But for all that, why do you have the need to tell me? By your standards, I am nothing, and yet what I think or do seems to worry you. I find that … intriguing, Carasma.’

  If Lord Carasma felt the edge of his irony, he did not show it. He replied, ‘Because, Davron of Storre, there is only one thing that gives me pleasure. I have no sensory organs to feel anything. I have no pleasure or pain centres … yet I can feel and gain pleasure in human agony. I am Chaos, and I must deliver utter destruction to whatever I touch, but only human pain brings me gratification, only human despair offers me the thrill of titillation. I crave it. Not just to see physical pain—that is nothing; no, I speak of the agony of a woman betrayed, or of a man watching loved ones die… I delight in the sight of a man who loves, a man like you, being forced to destroy what he most cares for. Do you understand?’

  Davron flicked an imaginary speck of dust from his coat and tried not to show how his fingers shook. ‘You’ve made it clear enough, I think.’ He raised his head to stare at the Unmaker, a flat depthless look, or so he hoped. ‘Let us dispense with these childish games, Carasma. What is my task?’

  ‘You will go to the Knuckle,’ the Unmaker snapped. ‘You will enter it, and you will seize the ley from it and take it to this place you call Havenstar.’ He smiled. ‘You will drown your promised haven in a purple ley that will taint the untainted, a destructive ley that will despoil the land, a relentless ley that will destroy the hopes of all Unbound, of all excluded. That, Davron of Storre, is your task.’

  ‘Impossible. Seize hold of ley? I am a man, not some sort of god.’

  Carasma pointed a finger at him. ‘It is more than possible, Storre. It is certain. You will indeed be able to take ley from the Knuckle and drag it into Havenstar.’

  ‘Why don’t you do it yourself?’ he asked. He was tired and the fatigue was pulling at him, clouding his mind even as it tugged him down.

  Carasma shrugged, with an all too human gesture. ‘Because I cannot directly kill humans who have given themselves to the Maker—you know that. And it is undoubted that there will be people of his within Havenstar who will die. I can break the world, I can order ley or Minions to do my bidding, but I cannot drain ley into Havenstar without coming perilously close to breaking the Law of the Universe.’

  He sighed. ‘The distinction is beyond me. You tell Minions to kill—’

  Carasma held up his hand to halt him. ‘Never. I can incite their rage perhaps, no more than that. Of course, I don’t actually object too much when a death is the result…’

  ‘Naturally not.’

  ‘Just as I won’t object too much if Maker worshippers are killed in the invasion of Havenstar.’

  ‘Invasion?’

  ‘I have given orders that every building in Havenstar be razed to the ground, every tree cut, every crop burned, every drop of water fouled. I did not mention the people, but presumably my Minions will defend themselves.’

  ‘Splitting hairs, Carasma. Do you think that is fulfilling the letter of the law?’

  He shrugged again, carelessly. ‘Certainly. And who cares about the spirit of it?’ He stood up. ‘Come with me, Storre, through the ley. Come with me and fetch the ley to Havenstar. You will find it amenable; I can do that much to you because you agreed to it. That is your task. That’s all.’

  That’s all. To taint the untainted, to destroy the land, to swallow up all that was built… He thought of the untainted children born to the Unbound, children who believed themselves safe. To destroy the hope of the Unbound, Carasma had said. Their hope, their children.

  And there was nothing, nothing he could do to stop himself. Already he felt the urge within him, the need to do as Carasma asked… ‘Yes,’ he said bitterly. ‘Yes, of course. I will go and do your bidding. Perform my task.’ Alyss, Mirrin, Staven—for this, I bought your untainting…

  ‘What will your mapmaker think of her beloved guide when she sees what it is he has done?’ Carasma asked. ‘Ah Storre, the pain, the pain. I can already feel it.’

  He turned and stumbled after the Unmaker.

  Feel the pain? So could he, and he had not even started.

  ~~~~~~~

  ‘We’ve made good time.’ Scow tried to smile across at Keris. ‘There are the lights of Lamri’s lift station. We’ll be having dinner in the Hall before you know it. I’ll get Lamri to take us all the way there on a wildbell.’

  ‘I don’t care about eating,’ Quirk growled back at him as their mounts jogged the last stretch down to the lakeside. ‘I just have to get off this beast while I still have any skin whatsoever on my backside. Creation, I’ve never been so sore in my whole life.’

  ‘I know,’ she said in commiseration. ‘I haven’t found a comfortable saddle since I lost that one into the Deep with Ygraine. I’ll swear this one is stuffed with clover burrs.’

  ‘Hullo, there’s someone else in a hurry,’ Quirk said peering through the gathering dusk. Two mounts were thundering in from their right, also heading for the wildbell station. Two dogs led the way.

  Scow followed his line of sight. ‘Isn’t that Favellis and Dita and their dogs?’ he asked.

  He was right, as moments later the two women rode up on sweating mounts. ‘Keris! Scow! Good to see you again!’ Favellis shouted. ‘Keris, all your maps, they worked! Oh, hullo, Quirk, I didn’t see you there.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Keris asked.

  ‘The Margrave must have fired them. We were at the border. Maker, it was wonderful! I thought we were dead, all of us, and then—wham. A light—’

  ‘Come on,’ Dita interrupted. ‘Let’s get to the Margrave. We can tell everybody what happened at one and the same time.’

  Keris, desperately tired and sore, nodded and urged her mount down the final slope. Even the sight of Havenstar by night, seen from the wildbell basket a few minutes later, failed to cheer her. She had ridden out with Davron, she was returning without him…

  They found Meldor in the sitting room of his private apartments, having his evening meal with Nablon in attendance. He looked up as they entered, sniffed the air, and before anyone could speak, said, ‘Davron’s not with you.’ The flatness of his tone caught at her, choking her, and she could not reply.

  ‘No,’ said Scow. ‘Favellis and Dita are here though. They have news from the border.’

  Meldor nodded and turned to Nablon. ‘Have food brought for everyone. Then get some baths organised, clean clothes, whatever is needed.’ He waited until the door had closed behind the scribe before he added, ‘Davron first. The Unmaker came for him?’

  Scow exchanged a look with Keris and when she was silent, he explained what had happened. Meldor looked grim, but made no comment. ‘Were you near the border when I burned the maps?’ he asked.

  ‘We were,’ Favellis said, unable to contain herself any longer. ‘It worked, Margraf! It was unbelievable—you should have seen it! I just couldn’t believe my eyes—’

  Dita laid a hand on Favellis’s arm ‘I think perhaps I’d better tell it,’ she said gently. ‘Margraf, we were standing on the bridge at Greenwell. There was a horde of Minions and Pets attacking us. Havenguards there had run out of arrows and things were looking pretty bleak. The Minions got an order to attack and were advancing at a run towards the ley line. On the bridge it was already hand-to-hand. Then, just when I thought it was all up with us, there was this blinding light and I found myself half-draped over the bridge railing with Favellis beside me on her hands and knees.

  ‘But we weren’t the only ones flattene
d. When I got to my feet it was to see that all the Minions seemed to be lying on the ground too, as far as the eye could see. And everything beyond the ley line was stable…’ She smiled wryly at Scow. ‘Sorry. You’re going to have to cross a league or so of stability every time you want to leave Havenstar.’

  ‘I’ll live.’

  ‘It was weird, Margraf,’ Favellis said, unable to keep silent. ‘A lot of the Minions seemed to have disintegrated like—like old clothes left in the sun and rain for season upon season. They shrank. Crumbled. What on earth happened to them?’

  ‘I suspect that they merely became their real age,’ Meldor said. He sounded pleasantly satisfied at the thought. ‘Stability has been re-established, and with it the Law of the Universe. The Law has no place for what is unnatural, and exceptionally long life without ageing is unnatural.’

  Dita nodded, understanding. ‘Many of those still alive have aged. The one I’d been fighting a while before was suddenly as decrepit as my grannie back home. I don’t remember ever seeing an old Minion before.’ She grinned, as if the idea amused her.

  ‘Have we won, then?’ Quirk dared to ask.

  ‘I don’t think it’ll be quite that easy,’ Dita replied. ‘Lots were still alive and sort of…well, crazy, I suppose. They came at us like they were berserk, not caring if they lived or died. And the pets! Not all of them died, either. Maybe only about half. Margraf, there are hundreds, no, thousands of masterless pets milling around out there, and every darned one of them is hopping mad.’

  ‘You should have heard the sounds,’ Favellis said. ‘The wailing! A—noise, no, an ululation of grief and rage and madness…’ She shuddered, remembering. ‘It was horrible, like hearing all the lamentations of grief in the world, all at once.’

  ‘Stability rejects them even as it wrenches away the possibility of immortality for their masters. It is not going to be a pleasant night for those on the borders. Some are bound to get through, as well. Ah, here’s Nablon back with some food, by the smell of it. Nablon, send Zeferil in to me, will you? People must be warned.’

  ‘Do you mean to tell me burning the maps might have made things worse?’ Dita asked after Nablon and the servants had left.

  ‘Yes—and no.’ Meldor said. ‘Before, we could never have won, or even have held out. Not even if Chantry came to our aid. Not against those numbers. They would have broken through our lines and overrun us sooner or later, probably sooner. We have no kinesis chain to protect us, and no normal stability or Order. We were doomed. Now, well, there aren’t as many of them.’

  ‘Fewer in number, yes. But now they’re insane,’ Scow said. He sounded grim.

  ‘It won’t be easy. We’ll just have to hope that Chantry comes to our aid tomorrow morning,’ Meldor told him calmly.

  They all stared at him. ‘Chantry’s here?’ Keris asked, incredulous.

  ‘Approaching our borders with Defender forces.’

  ‘And you think they’ll come to our aid?’

  ‘I think they have a powerful dislike of Minions,’ Meldor said carefully. ‘And I think the Anhedrin is wise enough to know that Defenders would not take kindly to seeing Unstablers massacred by Minions and Pets while they stood by and did nothing. We’ll see in the morning. Dita, Favellis, go and get some rest. And then get back to the border. Everyone will be needed there. The rest of you eat, while I explain what I want you to do.’

  Dita and Favellis both stood up in silence. No one said anything. Meldor’s words, calmly spoken, had managed to chill them all. It’s not finished yet, Keris thought. Dita made a kinesis of farewell, and Favellis followed suit.

  ‘You knew Carasma had taken Davron before we told you,’ Keris said to Meldor after the two women had left. She had not meant to sound accusatory, but that was the way the words came out.

  ‘Yes. It was inevitable once the invasion started. Carasma would attack on all fronts, and Davron is one of his weapons. I want you all to go to the Knuckle, leaving as soon as you can. Keris, do eat. You will need the strength.’

  ‘The Knuckle? Why?’ She picked at the food without appetite.

  ‘Because that’s where Davron is. When Zeferil comes back I shall give orders for fresh mounts for you to be sent out towards the Knuckle immediately. Later you can go after them by wildbell. That will give you a chance to eat and wash and you can even rest while you are flying back to catch up with your mounts. Ah, here he is now, if I am not mistaken.’

  She sat, frozen, unable to eat anything more. Meldor knew where Davron was? She waited while Nablon and Zeferil listened to their new instructions, but the moment the two men had departed once more, she asked, ‘How do you know that’s where Davron is?’

  ‘I read the Holy Books,’ he said complacently. ‘If you had spent any time at all studying the Book of Predictions, you’d know all I do. Keris, why do you think I’ve worked so hard to keep Davron from killing himself, when I knew that he could be asked to destroy everything I have done here in Havenstar?’

  ‘Do you mean to tell me that Davron’s mentioned in the Holy Books?’

  ‘Oh, not by name, but I believe both of you are there—you and Davron.’

  He could not have said anything that astounded her more. She gaped at him. ‘Me?’

  ‘You.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous! Maker and midden, how could that possibly be true?’

  ‘Where the Maker walks, anything is possible. Have more faith, child.’

  ‘I’m not a child!’ Creation, Perhaps I should have taken more notice of that dolt, Devotions-chantor Nebuthnar of Kibbleberry. ‘I did a map of the Knuckle once. Is that how you know where Davron is? But it’s too dark now, surely, to see anything…’

  ‘Nablon’s been keeping an eye on it for me all day. The ley there is troubled. He hasn’t seen Davron, and you’re right. It’s too dark now.’

  ‘But—what’s going to happen?’ Scow asked. ‘I mean—what do the predictions say?’

  Meldor shrugged. ‘Ah, that’s the problem, as it usually is with foretellings of any kind. They are always couched in such convoluted language that one can never be sure what they mean until after it has happened. But Davron is described as the Betrayer. Keris is mentioned as the bringer of salvation with magic in her colours—the maps, of course—and as having death in her hands. Presumably what happens when her maps are burned.’

  ‘And Davron’s fate?’ she asked, the catch in her voice giving her away.

  ‘Unknown. Predictions are only possibilities, after all. It does seem to indicate that he’ll be the cause of many deaths of Haveners. It hints that he could be the instrument of the Unmaker’s ultimate victory. Possibly he will be the instrument of the Unmaker’s defeat. It could go either way, but if I read it correctly, the Book of Predictions mentions him as dragging ley into the land from the fist of colour. Where else would that be but the Knuckle?’

  He turned his blind eyes towards Scow. ‘You job will be to stop him if it looks like he is dooming Havenstar. But I rather think it might be better if you didn’t kill him.’

  ‘And how by all that’s dark in Chaos do I do that? Go up to him and say, “Do stop it, Davron, there’s a good fellow”?’

  ‘Try. Our lives—our land—may depend on your success.’

  Keris shot an unpleasant look at the Margrave, forgetting he wouldn’t see it. ‘I’ll be with you, Scow,’ she said.

  ‘And me too,’ Quirk added. ‘Sometimes a Chameleon can creep up on a body and do things—like bop him over the head—when he least expects it.’

  Scow regarded him gravely. ‘For a coward, Quirk, you do behave in the most extraordinarily brave way.’

  ‘Well, I haven’t actually done it yet.’

  ‘Be ready to move in an hour,’ the Margraf said.

  Obedient, Scow and Quirk immediately stood to go. Keris stood as well, but it was to say, ‘I’d like to talk to you alone, if I may, Margraf.’ Meldor nodded his acquiescence, and as soon as the others had left the room, she said, ‘You
deliberately let this happen, didn’t you?’

  He did not pretend to misunderstand. ‘You mean, did I order Davron to ride out with you all the time, knowing Carasma would call him and I wouldn’t be there to stop it? Yes, I did.’

  ‘Why?’ The word was torn from her, her agony real. ‘You made a promise to him, and you betrayed him.’

  ‘Davron had faith in me. Can’t you also take it on trust, Keris?’

  ‘No! No, I can’t. You wanted him to go to the Unmaker—why?’

  ‘Years ago, I promised I would have him killed when the Unmaker called, if I could. But things have changed since then. You came along, with your maps, the Chameleon appeared, and Chantor Portron. We found out how to stabilise the Unstable. All these things changed the face of the future. I could re-interpret the Book of Predictions. I came to believe that our hope lay in Davron going to Carasma. After all, one passage says he has hope in his hand, while another suggests that he is both the betrayer and the salvation of us all. It says something about him casting the Unmaker into Chaos.’ He looked at Keris with compassion. ‘My dear, Davron accepted it. He accepted that he is fated to kill innocent people. If he lives, then he will have to come to terms with that, but I suspect he does not think he will live long enough to have to worry about it. He knows that he could doom us all, or save us all. For the first time since the Unmaker came to our benighted land we have a chance. Davron is that chance. There is no easy road for him, or for you, but the Maker does not choose the weak to be the keys to the future. Hold to that—that Davron is strong enough in resources to find a way to save us all.’

  ‘You let it happen,’ she accused again.

  ‘Yes, and he acquiesced. We are all in the Maker’s hands.’

  ‘Chaos—I wish we were! But the Maker probably can’t even see us here. This is Carasma’s realm! And maybe the Maker doesn’t care.’

  ‘He cares. Never doubt that. Keris, over the centuries He sent us word, and He gave me the wisdom to see which were His words. We have a chance because of what He has done. Have faith. Never despair—never. Everything may depend on that. Just as I believe everything will depend on Davron never giving up. It is my belief, my hope that he won’t, that it is not in his nature to give up, no matter how terrible his fate. If he was a different sort of man, he would have killed himself long since, and we would all be doomed as a consequence.’