[Lyra 04] - Caught in Crystal

by Patricia C. Wrede - (ebook by Undead)

  Kayl ran forward, drawing her dagger as she ran. The tall man saw her coming and hesitated. Then Mark kicked backward. Kayl heard the man curse; his grip on Mark shifted and he threw the boy out of the shadows toward Kayl. Mark sprawled face down in the muddy snow. Kayl reached him an instant later and bent to make certain he was not seriously hurt. When she looked up, she was not surprised to see that the tall man had vanished.

  Mark sat up, shivering half with cold and half with reaction. “M-mother! He was—he—”

  “Sshhh, it’s all right, we’ll talk about it later.” Kayl helped him up, then almost knocked him off his feet again by hugging him with all her strength. She was shaking almost as much as Mark was. She hadn’t been this frightened since her first serious sword fight, when it had finally sunk in that this man was trying to kill her. With difficulty, she controlled her fear and sat back, keeping an arm around Mark’s shoulders as much for her own comfort as for his.

  They were beginning to attract curious stares. Kayl frowned, wondering whether she could possibly have been the only one who had seen what had happened. She glanced again at the shuttered booth and nodded to herself. The tall man had been clever as a demon. The shadowy gap between the booths would have hidden him from almost every angle, and the Shanhar exhibition was enough to hold the attention of most of the passers-by. Involuntarily, Kayl’s arm tightened around Mark’s shoulders.

  “Mother?”

  Kayl looked down at Mark’s white face and forced herself to smile encouragingly.

  “Mother, was I brave? I was trying, I really was.”

  “You were very brave, dear,” Kayl said, trying to keep her voice from quivering. “I’m proud of you.”

  Mark stole a glance upward. “Even though I went off without telling you?”

  “Even then. And I won’t give you the scolding you deserve for it, either. This time.”

  Mark heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m glad.”

  Kayl felt him shiver against her arm. His cloak was wet through, and he was beginning to feel the effects of the shock he had just had. “Let’s go find Glyndon and Dara,” she said. “You can tell me what happened while we walk, all right?”

  Mark nodded, and they set off. Kayl had to prompt him once or twice to begin his tale, but once he got started the words poured out. The tall man had, apparently, struck up a conversation with Mark about the Shanhar, then offered to unlock the shuttered booth and let Mark see some of the ancient Sadorthan swords he claimed to have inside. In the shadows by the booth, he had grabbed Mark. Mark had managed to cry out once, but that was all. If Kayl had not heard him…

  “There’s Glyndon,” Mark said. Kayl looked in the direction he was pointing and saw the Varnan wizard. There was no sign of Dara, and her heart contracted. Then Glyndon moved forward, and Kayl saw Dara on his other side, where she had been hidden by the bulk of his cloak. With a sigh of relief, Kayl hurried forward.

  Glyndon saw them and stopped, looking first surprised, then concerned as Kayl drew close enough for him to see her expression clearly. Swiftly Kayl explained what had happened, and the four of them started back toward the inn. Kayl had Mark repeat his story for Glyndon’s and Dara’s benefit while they walked.

  “What did this man look like?” Glyndon asked when Mark finished.

  “He had dark hair,” Mark said, frowning. “He was… I don’t know.”

  “That’s all?” Dara said. “I did better than that!”

  “Well, my man didn’t have a mustache,” Mark said, stung. “Just a little cut on his face, by the corner of his mouth.”

  Kayl and Glyndon looked at each other. “Cut himself shaving it off?” Kayl suggested.

  “Quite possibly,” Glyndon said thoughtfully. “Did you notice anything else, Mark?”

  “He had a ring,” Mark offered after a moment.

  “A ring?”

  “I saw it when he was talking to me,” Mark said. “Silver, with a little green stone in the middle and some squiggly decorations. The sides looked like wings.”

  Kayl stiffened. “Wings? Mark, are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. I got a good look at it when I bit him.” Mark said proudly.

  “You bit him?” Dara said, clearly torn between pride in her brother and envy of his accomplishment. “Mark!”

  Kayl let the children talk; she was busy considering the implications. The Magicseekers would not have risked sending one of their number to Kith Alunel just to keep track of a former member of the Sisterhood of Stars. Nor would they need to question Dara for details of the day-to-day routine of a Star Hall. And Magicseekers would have no reason to try to abduct Mark… unless they knew more than anyone had thought about Kayl’s involvement with the Sisterhood’s expedition to the Twisted Tower. And if that was the reason for the Magicseeker’s interest in Kayl and her children, they would not give up until the matter of the Tower was done with.

  The Sisterhood’s expedition would, Kayl hoped, settle the business of the Tower. But Kith Alunel no longer seemed a safe place to leave Mark and Dara while Kayl traveled for eight months. Yet could she justify taking two children with her? The first part of the journey would be safe enough; they would be traveling through the heart of the Estarren Alliance. For the last month, however, they would be passing through the fringes of the Alliance, and for the final week they would be in the Windhome Mountains.

  Kayl reviewed the route through the mountains in her mind, cudgeling her memory for every scrap of detail. The terrain was rough, but not impossibly so, she decided. And she could keep the children well away from the Tower itself. Kayl shook her head. Was she actually contemplating taking Mark and Dara with her? But to leave them in Kith Alunel to be the prey of Magicseekers…

  She wrestled with the question all the way back to the inn. When they arrived, she sent the children directly to bed, despite their protests. Once they were settled, she went in search of Glyndon. “I’m going to the Star Hall,” she said baldly as soon as she found him.

  “You think the same as I do, then. Magicseekers?”

  Kayl nodded. “And if I have my way, we’ll be leaving Kith Alunel within three days. Preferably two.”

  Glyndon’s eyebrows rose. “I’m surprised you’d consider leaving Mark and Dara so soon after…” He gestured ambiguously.

  “I’m bringing them with us,” Kayl said grimly.

  “To the Twisted Tower?”

  “I have to,” Kayl snapped. “If I leave them here, I’d spend the whole trip wondering whether they were all right. The Magicseekers could claim they had either of them, and I’d have no way of knowing whether it was true.”

  “The protection of the Sisterhood—”

  “Glyndon, the Circle of Silence is nasty and powerful and right now any one of their magicians can do more than the whole Sisterhood put together. Mark and Dara will be much safer traveling with you and Barthelmy. Why are you making so many objections?”

  “I wanted to make sure you had the answers thought out before you descended on the Sisterhood,” Glyndon said with a lopsided grin. “They’re not going to like this, you know.”

  “I know. And the timing’s bad, too; we’ll be trying to travel at the height of the storm season. Still, I’d rather be snowed in in Thurl Wood than murdered in Kith Alunel.”

  “Do you really think you can get the Sisterhood to move that fast?”

  Kayl smiled grimly. “If they don’t, the four of us will leave without them, and they can forget about their precious expedition for good.”

  “I see.” Glyndon studied her thoughtfully. “You’re right; that’ll convince them, if anything will.”

  Kayl chuckled, then sobered. “Glyndon—watch the children while I’m gone.”

  “I will.”

  “Thank you.” Kayl touched his cheek lightly, then swung her cloak around her shoulders and went out.

  Kayl spent half the night at the Star Hall, arguing with the Mothers and Elder Mothers who were in charge of organizing the expedition.
When she left at last, she was tired and hoarse, but she had won. The expedition would leave Kith Alunel secretly, in two days.

  By the following morning, Mark seemed almost his old self. He snapped at Dara when she tried to fuss over him, then tried to persuade Kayl that he needed extra honey on his porridge because of his scare the previous day. Kayl refused, pointing out that if he’d stayed by her as he’d been told, nothing would have happened. Secretly, she found his high spirits a decided relief.

  The children were wildly delighted when they learned they would be going on the expedition after all, and they made extravagant promises of good behavior. Kayl took shameless advantage of the situation; it might, just possibly, make some of the trip to the Tower more bearable.

  Two days later, the Sisterhood’s expedition left Kith Alunel, disguised as part of a group of merchant folk heading south with their profits from the Frost Fair.

  INTERLUDE:

  Gadeiron’s Crystal

  From that battle, Timlin and his companions emerged victorious. They stayed a day and a night in the dry and lifeless valley, studying the works left by the wizard of the Tower, and they learned much. And Timlin ri Astar was of them all the most knowledgeable, wherefore in later years he was called Timlin the Wise.

  Then they destroyed many of those things that were of use only for evil, and those they could not destroy they sealed within the Twisted Tower. But the remainder of the wizard’s possessions they bore away with them. And when they were at a safe distance, they divided the spoils among themselves. Nerewind the Minstrel took three feathers of the Firebird, and Philomel the Healer a vial of evensrud, and others bore away things equally rare and valuable.

  Timlin himself took the great cube of crystal, in which things past and present and yet to come could be seen. He made a solemn compact with his friends that they might use the Crystal whenever they had need, and so they all concurred. And the Crystal came to be called Gadeiron’s Crystal, after the wizard who caused it to be made and then turned to evil in the Twisted Tower.

  The appearance of Gadeiron’s Crystal was this: It was a great cube, perfect in every respect, and each edge was twice the length of a tall man’s forearm. It was made of the clearest and purest crystal, in which no haze or bubble or distortion could be found. It required three strong men to move it, and if struck with a silver hammer it rang with a pure sound that could be heard for twelve miles in all directions.

  And the nature of the Crystal was this: It commanded the past, present and future. For whenever a man stared into one of its surfaces for many minutes, the interior of the Crystal would grow cloudy, and then he would see what scenes the Crystal would show. More, if the watcher fixed his heart on some one thing, past or present, that too he would see pictured in the Crystal. And if one with power and the knowledge of certain spells recited them over the Crystal, it would show things possible in the future. But what other magic was used in its presence, the Crystal took unto itself, to bind forever.

  Time came when the heroes who had taken the Twisted Tower separated and went their several ways. Timlin took Gadeiron’s Crystal into his home, and there he studied it. He learned much of its working and its power, and by its aid he was able to do much good. For the Crystal had greater power than the mere showing of visions, but of that he would not speak. From time to time one of his erstwhile companions would seek the Crystal, and Timlin honored his bargain with them. And so it was for many years.

  Then a time of troubles came upon the land, and great strife. Timlin sought Gadeiron’s Crystal to discover the cause behind the conflict, for it seemed to him that it ran deeper than the petty quarrels that men claimed as reasons. And the Crystal showed him that the Shadow-born were preparing to make war upon the peoples of Lyra once more, as they had in his youth, and the strife that lay upon the land was but the beginning of their fell designs.

  At this Timlin was sorely troubled, and again he sought Gadeiron’s Crystal, to learn what might be done. And the Crystal showed him many things, both good and ill. But Timlin saw that the Crystal itself would be the source of the greatest evil, if the Shadow-born turned its power to their own ends.

  Timlin sought further to find a way of preventing such misfortune. He saw but one: to place Gadeiron’s Crystal once more in the tower where he had found it, for there alone the Shadow-born might not reach. He took counsel with those of his friends who remained, and all agreed that they should not chance the Crystal’s falling into other hands. Therefore Timlin took the great Crystal and returned it to the bent and blackened Tower, lest the Evil Ones discover it and make use of its power. And he sealed the Tower with the power of the Crystal itself, so that no evil might go out of the Tower, and none might enter.

  All this is as my grandfather, Timlin ri Astar, told me before his death in battle with the Shadow-born. I record these things in warning, that they may not be forgotten utterly, leaving none to watch and guard Gadeiron’s Crystal against the malice of the Shadow-born.

  —From the Diaries of Shandel ri Astar, circa 200 B.W.B.

  PART III

  The Twisted Tower

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-ONE

  Kayl sat in a corner of Riventon’s only inn and tavern, cradling her almost empty mug of ale in both hands and watching her comrades morosely. Six members of the two Star Clusters occupied one end of a long table on the other side of the fire; they sat talking with a quiet companionability that excluded everyone else in the room. Kayl felt a twinge of tired envy whenever she looked at them. The three Elder Mothers, Javieri, Miracote, and Alessa, sat at the next table with two Mothers and three Elder Sisters. The Sisterhood of Stars seemed to think numbers alone would take the Twisted Tower.

  “Here is your ale,” Corrana said. She sat down on the opposite side of the table and pushed one of the mugs she had been carrying toward Kayl. “How you can drink it is more than I can understand.”

  “You haven’t tasted the wine yet,” Kayl replied, nodding at Corrana’s drink. “It’s worse.”

  Corrana raised an eyebrow. “Is that possible?”

  “Try it and see.”

  The Elder Sister took a cautious sip and made a face. “You are right again. I should listen when you give your opinion of an inn’s provisioning.”

  “Here you are!” said a pleased voice from the end of the table. “Mind if I join you?”

  Kayl turned. The speaker was Risper Aschar, the slim, dark-eyed healer for one of the two Star Clusters. She and Demma Jol, one of the warriors, were the only Sisters besides Javieri and Corrana who did not treat Kayl and Barthelmy with some degree of suspicion and hostility. Demma was clearly reserving judgment, but Risper’s cautious curiosity had grown and changed during the journey into real friendship.

  “Go ahead and sit down,” Kayl said, waving at the bench beside Corrana. “What are you drinking? The ale’s bad, but the wine’s worse.”

  Risper looked smug. “The water isn’t. Where’s Barthelmy?”

  “Upstairs, with Mark and Dara,” Kayl said, and took a large swallow of ale. During the past three and a half months, Barthelmy had gradually taken over the job of watching the children. Kayl had been disconcerted at first; then she realized that Barthelmy was using Mark and Dara as an excuse to stay away from her fellow Sisters as much as possible. Kayl understood and sympathized—as the only remaining effective magician in the Sisterhood, Barthelmy’s position was equivocal, at best—but she could not keep from occasionally resenting Barthelmy’s actions.

  “Glyndon is with them,” Corrana said. Her voice still held a touch of reserve when she spoke of him, but an undercurrent of warmth seemed to be developing.

  “Is he all right?” Risper asked.

  “This evening? I think so,” Kayl said. She did not bother to add that she was worried anyway; both Corrana and Risper knew that already.

  “His visions have been coming closer together, haven’t they?” Risper persisted.

  “Yes, but it isn’t just that. This whole
trip has been very hard on him.” Kayl took another gulp of ale. Glyndon had endured the hostility of the Sisters with more patience than she had thought he possessed, but new lines had appeared around his eyes, and his smiles were increasingly rare. It hurt Kayl to see what was happening to him. She glared across the fire at the tables full of Sisters.

  Risper’s eyes followed Kayl’s. “I could ask one of the Elder Mothers to say something to them about the way they treat him,” she offered.

  “I have already discussed it with Elder Mother Javieri,” Corrana said, to Kayl’s considerable surprise. “Unfortunately, there is little that can be done. They cannot be forced to like him.”

  “He shouldn’t have come,” Kayl said emphatically. “He’s been traveling alone for fifteen years, and he’s used to being able to leave when people don’t like him. Now he’s stuck with nearly twenty people, three-quarters of whom dislike and distrust him just because he’s a Varnan. He should have stayed in Kith Alunel.”

  “He must want very badly to be free of those visions,” Risper said soberly.

  “That’s not why he’s here,” Kayl said without thinking.

  Corrana and Risper both looked at her. “No?” Corrana said, and her tone demanded an explanation.

  Kayl sighed and set down her mug of ale. She’d had enough, if she was starting to make slips like that. “He came because of me,” she said angrily, not really knowing whether she was angry with Corrana for making her say it, with Glyndon for doing it, or with herself for letting him. “I should have made him stay in Kith Alunel,” she muttered.

  “I doubt that you could have done so,” Corrana said, and gave Kayl one of her small, secretive smiles. “From what I know of him, you are well matched in stubbornness.”