The Mirror of Worlds coti-2

by David Drake

  HERE APART FROM YOUR UNIVERSE. BUT WE HAVE KNOWLEDGE, AND THAT WE WILL

  SHARE. A vast sigh stirred the air of the chamber. Perhaps it came from the assembled creatures, things once human but fallen from that state when they reached the Messengers. It seemed, though, that the world itself had breathed out its despair. YOU WISH TO KILL THE COERLI, the voices said. WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW… She was no longer seeing the whirling lights. Instead- A band of Coerli, two handsful less one, ringed a human family. The father held a spear. He lunged at a warrior who leaped aside with contemptuous ease. Warriors to either side spun out hooked lines. One wrapped around the man's throat and jerked him backward; the other line lashed the spear shaft to the man's wrist while the beast who'd thrown it pulled in the opposite direction. The man thrashed and choked until a third warrior stabbed him up through the diaphragm with a flint knife. Then- A group of Coerli chieftains-grizzled, bearing the scars of age and harsh living-sat on a circle of rocks. Around them stood more of the beasts, too many to count. They were howling in blood-maddened passion. Then- A female Corl even older than the chiefs stood in a roofless wicker enclosure. She chanted and marked time with an athame carved from slate. Around her paraded images, ghosts of ghosts to Ilna's eyes.

  Most were man-shaped black creatures like the corpses Ilna'd seen when they found Temple. In the distance, though, a nude woman poised at the edge of a pool. The black things seemed to ignore her. Then- Coerli were devouring their prey. The band's fur was subtly different from the spots and striping of the first catmen the Messengers had shown her, though few other humans would've been sure of that. A beast stuck an infant's arm into his mouth and drew it out, stripping the flesh from the bones the way a man might eat a chicken wing. Then- The Messengers hung in the center of the cavern again, pulsing at the rhythm of blood. Their voices said, BRING HER A KNIFE. "A knife for the wizard," chorused the rat voices. There was motion in the carpet of hunched foulness. "She must have a knife, and we will bring it." "I have a knife if I need one!" Ilna said, taking the bone-cased paring knife from her sleeve and drawing the blade. It was fine steel, worn thin but sharp enough to split hairs. A golden sickle appeared at the entrance to the passage; it shimmered forward from hand to unseen hand. One of the creatures bent closer, depositing the blade in the cleared space around Ilna. He shrank back into the mass of his fellows. The curved blade reflected the light of the Messengers as a putrescent hue that Ilna wouldn't have thought possible from gold. "I said I have a knife!" she repeated. BRING HER THE SACRIFICE, the Messengers said. The light they cast clung like treacle to everything it touched. SHE WILL GAIN HER DESIRE. SHE WILL KILL ALL COERLI. Ilna used her foot to deliberately shove the sickle back into the crowd of servitors. She looked up at the spinning pink blurs. "Why must I sacrifice to you?" she said harshly. "She will kill them all!" mewled the servitors. "Oh, such power, power beyond any other's!" YOU DO NOT SACRIFICE TO US, WIZARD, said the voices. THE BLOOD IS POWER. YOU STAND WHERE THE WORLDS TOUCH, SO YOU ACT THROUGH ALL WORLDS. Ilna heard a rustle. She turned to see the gray once-men handing toward her what she first thought was a bundle of fur. It stirred in the pink light: it was a Corl, a kit no more than four or five weeks old. Its eyes were still closed. When the servitors deposited it in the cleared space, it mewled uncomfortably. TAKE THE SACRIFICE, the Messengers said. CUT THE CORL'S THROAT. Then they repeated, THE BLOOD IS POWER.

  "She will kill it," the servitors whispered exultantly. "She will drain the blood of the Coerli, every one of them!" A gray creature pushed the kit with an arm or leg, Ilna couldn't be sure which. The little victim yowled and tried to bite. "Get away!" Ilna said, bending forward. If the servitor hadn't instantly flung itself back into the crowd of its fellows, she'd have slashed it open with the knife she still held. Ilna paused, then scooped the kit up with her left hand.

  She expected it to snarl, but instead it writhed against the warmth of her bosom. YOU MUST LET OUT THE BLOOD OF THE SACRIFICE, said the thunderous voices. ONLY WITH ITS DEATH CAN YOU GAIN YOUR WISH AND GO FREE. Over the years Ilna had killed unnumbered animals-mostly doves from her own cote, but sometimes chickens bartered from other householders in the borough. Since she'd set off on her mission of wiping out the catmen, she'd killed them too, old and young; as young as this. She'd mostly knocked the kits' brains out against rocks; their teeth were too sharp to hold by the head and snap their necks as she did with poultry. She could use the paring knife easily enough, though she'd have to hold the kit so that its blood didn't spurt on her tunics. Ilna looked up at the Messengers. "I won't make a blood sacrifice!" she said, thrusting her knife into its case and putting it away in her sleeve. She took out a hank of yarn. "Tell me another way or I'm leaving here." YOU MUST LET OUT THE BLOOD OF THE SACRIFICE, said the voices. YOU CAME TO US. YOU CANNOT RETURN UNTIL YOU CARRY OUT YOUR TASK. "She must kill the Corl," the servitors cheeped. She heard laughter in the high-pitched tones. "She must comply or she will join us-s-s…!" Ilna held the kit in the crook of her left elbow. Its presence was a handicap, but not a great one; she began knotting a pattern. The gray creatures had eyes. Her skill could reach them, paralyze them as she ran back up the passage that had brought her here. The passage that had returned her to Hell… She held up the pattern. HER WEAKNESS HAS BETRAYED HER, the Messengers boomed. SHE IS YOURS. The pink light vanished, leaving total blackness. "She is ours!" squealed creatures as numerous as waves in a storm. Warm, probing foulness swarmed over Ilna in the dark. *** "Run for the cliff!" Cashel shouted. The crabs could climb, but at least it'd slow them down a bit. Here on the shingle they were nigh as fast as a man. From the top of the corniche, he and Tenoctris could figure out what to do next. They could try to, anyway. If they let those crabs get hold of them, there wouldn't be anything left but picked bones. Tenoctris had said something here didn't like them. That was true enough, not that he'd doubted her before. The low cliff was less than a stone's throw away, but even though Tenoctris was young again, she wasn't much of a runner. It wasn't something ladies did as often as village girls like Sharina, Cashel supposed. He kept behind her, which was a good thing because she tripped just short of the cliff. She'd have slammed straight into the rock if Cashel hadn't grabbed a handful of tunic right between her shoulder blades. He yanked her back. Crab pincers carved into his heel. That hurt, which didn't matter; but they could've caught him a few fingers' breadth higher and cut his hamstring, which'd cripple him for life. There wasn't time to talk or plan or do anything but act. One-handed-the other held his staff-Cashel straightened out his right arm fast and threw Tenoctris onto the corniche the way he'd have flung a heavy stone. He turned, stamping on the crab that'd caught him. It was good to feel it splash his callused foot with juices as cold as the sea it'd crawled from, but there was more crabs than he could count coming right after it. He'd raised his staff, thinking he might be able to smash the crabs as they came toward him, but they were way too close and too many. A crab closed both pinchers on his right calf, well above the ankle. More crowded close beside it. There was no time to plan… Cashel slammed a ferrule down on the crab that was holding him. He jumped upward, using his grip on the staff to lift him as he twisted his body around. If he'd had a running start, he might've been able to swing over the lip of the corniche. Flat-footed he was lucky to grab the top with his left hand. He hung there by one arm, supporting half his weight by the other balanced on the quarterstaff like it was a pillar. Tenoctris was chanting. Cashel didn't know what she had in mind, but it was going to have to happen quick for it to do him any good. His right leg was bleeding and felt like he'd been whacked with a club. A pincher was still clamped in the muscle though the rest of the crab was mush down there on the shingle.

  Crabs crawled over each other, piling up at the base of the cliff, but some were starting to climb. Cashel didn't have enough strength to lift himself over with one arm alone. He could make it if he let go of the staff, but he wasn't willing to do that and let it slip down into that mob of clicking yellow monsters. It wasn't just that
the staff was a weapon that he'd need if he managed to get up the cliff. Cashel and that length of hickory'd been in a lot of hard places together and'd gotten through to the other side. He wasn't going to leave it with the crabs. He was starting to wobble, though. Strong as he was, he couldn't hold like this forever. He guessed if he had to he'd drop down onto the beach and smash as many crabs as he could before the rest pulled him under. "Schaked!" shouted Tenoctris, waving the sword she used for a wand. Cashel expected a flash of wizardlight, but instead he heard the bugle of a hound that must be bigger'n he could believe. Cashel looked over his shoulder. Around the headland came a beast with shaggy red hair and a skull longer than a man's arm. It was as big astwo oxen. Its canines, upper and lower both, were long, but the teeth farther back in the jaws were built to shear or crush. It loped toward the mass of crabs, spraying back the shingle with its flat-clawed feet. The crabs began to scatter, toward the sea in spreading ripples. The great dog-thing bugled again and was on them, lowering its long jaws to scoop them up on the run. It went through the scuttling yellow mass like a scythe through grain, slamming slavering its jaws to crush the crabs it'd caught in the moment previous. Legs, pincers, and parts of shell flew out the sides. Sea birds and surviving crabs would clean the shingle later. The great beast wheeled, making the beach tremble. It weighedtons. Cashel dropped to the ground. The only crabs near the cliff now were ones that'd been trampled in the first rush. Those still alive either twitched or tried to crawl back to the water; they weren't a danger.

  He couldn't get up on the corniche any better than he could've a moment before, and this big dog-thing could snatch him from where he hung as easy as a man plucks a pear from a low branch. The beast whuffled. Cashel started his quarterstaff spinning, feeling twitches in muscles that he'd worked hard at awkward angles just a moment before. The beast bugled again; it must eat carrion or else a lot of each meal stayed between its teeth to rot. It loped off in a curve along the edge of the water, sweeping up a second helping of crabs.

  "It won't harm us," Tenoctris said. Cashel took a deep breath. He brought the quarterstaff to a halt at his side, then turned and looked up. Tenoctris smiled at him from the corniche. "If you'll help me," she went on, "I'll come down. I don't want to jump onto the rock." "No ma'am," Cashel said. "And I don't want you to do that." He leaned the staff against the cliff. When Tenoctris wriggled over the edge and hung by her hands; he gripped her around the waist and lowered her gently to the shingle. Cashel felt himself blush. "I'm sorry about the way I, well, tossed you," he said, taking his staff again. The dog-thing snuffled along the sea's margin now, licking up crabs it'd crippled. It didn't seem to notice the humans. From this angle Cashel saw that its hindquarters were brindled. "You saved our lives in the only possible fashion," Tenoctris said sharply. "I don't see that as being something you should apologize for." She grinned. "I always knew you had a great ability to do things by art," she said. "By wizardry.

  And of course I knew that you were strong the way laymen judge strength. But until I had a healthy young body of my own again, I didn't really appreciatehow strong you are, Cashel." "Thank you, ma'am," he said, keeping his eye on the beast that Tenoctris had called to save them. He started to say something more but caught himself. Tenoctris laughed. "And yes, we'll get on with our own business," she said. "So that you can return to Sharina. Come, the altar's not far at all." Together they set off again for the headland.

  Cashel stayed between the wizard and the dog-thing. It bugled again, that was all. Maybe it was saying goodbye. *** Sharina entered the pool cleanly and pulled herself deeper with paired strokes of her arms. She'd expected a shock, but the water was blood warm. Rasile's viewpoint plunged also, apparently looking over Sharina's left shoulder but seeing farther down than eyes-man or Corl either one-should've been able to do. The water, the distorted fish which nudged close to Sharina before darting away with flips of their tails, and the distant mud shimmered with the red tinge of wizardlight. The pool was a thousand feet deep, but Sharina was seeing the bottom through the wizard's eyes. She couldn't possibly swim down that far, but she kept stroking toward it. She expected to fail, but she wouldn't quit. The layer of silt and decay carpeting the pool became transparent in the rosy glow. Sharina saw the tiny blind animals living in it, worms and less identifiable creatures with shells or legs or jointed feelers. She swam downward. She didn't need to breathe as she should've done. Her spread hands drove her deeper against the resistance of something, but she no longer believed it was water. The stones on the floor of the pool, eggs of granite that a stream had tumbled smooth in past ages, began to appear through the layer of muck. At first they lay in a scarlet shimmer. Wizardlight brightened around a single stone, a sphere of quartz the size of Sharina's fist. It was very close. It was- Sharina's arm plunged through the mud she could no longer see and grasped the First Stone.

  It was cold, then hot; shefelt her burnt flesh slough away and the bones of her hand turn black and crumble, though she could see with Rasile's eyes that she was uninjured. She kicked against the bottom and began to swim upward with her left hand alone. The surface was a point of sunlight far above, but still she didn't need to breathe. The sunlit circle swelled; she could see ripples, the remains of the disturbance she'd made diving in. Six distorted blacknesses were spaced around the margin of the pool, soldiers of the Last drawn by the splash. Even if they didn't seeher, could they see the turbulence her body made in the water? Sharina reached across her body with her left hand and drew the Pewle knife. She didn't want to take the stone in her other hand. She might drop it, or worse-she might cripple her left hand also, burn the flesh and bones away. Both her wrists would end in blackened stumps… She felt a great shock. The pool bubbled; the detritus that'd settled on the bottom over millennia swelled upward in a dark, spreading cloud. What had she done when she removed the First Stone? She porpoised up through the surface. If there'd ever been a stone curb, the Last had removed it when they prepared the pool for their own purposes. Sharina braced herself on the margin with her right elbow and the butt of her knife, then swung out of the water. The two nearest of the Last sliced at the pool.

  Their swords were so keen that the edges scarcely disturbed the water.

  Neither struck her. All the Last were alert now, their skin flaps folded. Sharina dodged between two who must've sensed the movement.

  They slashed toward one another, but their strokes cut only air.

  Sharina was past, and the perfectly placed blades came within a hair's breadth of each others black flesh without touching it. Sharina sprinted for the entrance. Her tunic lay on the ground where she'd dropped it. Her mother, Lora, would be furious with her; Lora'd never understood the concept that reality was sometimes more important than appearance… When Sharina thought of Lora, it was always at a time like this: when she or Garric were doing something necessary for mankind which their mother wouldn't have approved of. She grinned despite the situation. Maybe Lora was a good mother after all. She showed us what to avoid. The Last formed a line across the width of the fortress, standing shoulder to shoulder. The roiling pool wouldn't provide them with reinforcements for at least some minutes, but stolid black soldiers were returning from the siege lines through the west entrance. They must speak mentally to one another. Sharina reached the east entrance by which she'd entered. Five of the Last stood across it, filling the space completely. Their swords were raised to slash downward. No time to think… Sharina stabbed the warrior in the center through the eye. He convulsed, swinging his sword and shield out to the sides; his legs kicked upward like a frog's. Sharina jerked back as his neighbors struck. The line of warriors forming behind her ran toward the entrance. Choosing her time, Sharina leaped over the thrashing body. She sprinted out of the fortress and ran full tilt toward the human lines because she didn't need to hide her presence now. To her surprise, Attaper and a troop of Blood Eagles stood at the base of the wall; they'd climbed down by a sturdy ladder. Rasile stood on the parapet. "There she is!"
Attaper shouted. "Get around your princess, troopers!" Sharina was seeing with her own eyes, which meant she could be seen. She didn't care about men, not for the moment, but the Last could see her. She glanced over her shoulder, expecting to find a column of them rushing toward her. There was no artillery to support the troops who'd be pitting their flesh against swords which could cut steel. The Last weren't following her. Something was going on in the fortress, though; a pair of distorted black bodies flew high in the air and dropped back. A soldier swung a cloak over Sharina's shoulders and clasped it. It was a military garment and perhaps his own, but Rasile must've told him to bring it for the purpose: none of the other men were wearing them. Sharina climbed the ladder, balancing without using her hands. She couldn't sheathe the Pewle knife until she'd wiped the purplish ichor off the blade, and she didn't have any way to carry the First Stone except in her hand. The Blood Eagles formed in front of the ladder. They only started climbing when she'd reached the parapet. Rasile took the quartz sphere. Sharina's right hand felt as though it'd been frozen, but she could see her fingers move when she tried to wiggle them. She stepped to the side so that the Blood Eagles had room to mount the parapet; Attaper was predictably waiting on the ground until all his men were up. "What do we do now, Rasile?" Sharina asked. She looked around for something to clean her knife on, a rag or a wad of dry grass. There was nothing in sight, and she didn't want to foul some trooper's cloak. The wizard stepped into a bay from which the catapult had been removed. She spread her yarrow stalks into a figure on the floor of packed turf.

  "Now," she said, "I will deliver the First Stone a person who's capable of using it properly, Princess. Because I certainly am not."

  "Your ladyship?" said Trooper Lires, a man who'd regularly stood beside-and in front of-Sharina in bad places. He was offering a chammy, probably the one he'd used to bring the blackened bronze of his armor to a mirror gloss. "Use this. It'll wash out." Sharina reached for the swatch of goathide. Another face was reflected beside hers on the shield boss. She jerked back. "Sharina, you must come with me now!" cried Prince Vorsan. "There're only minutes remaining for you. You've loosed the creature that the First Stone drew to it. Dear Princess, it's grown beyond anyone's control!' "Get away from me!"