I felt a ghost of a smile touch my own lips. “Shove it through the door.”
“Just pushing him won’t take anything like the same amount of power as it would to contain him,” he pointed out.
“If we can get him to open the door, we will not need to do much pushing,” I agreed. “But how will we manage it?”
This time the smile shone in his eyes.
“Arlyn—”
“It’s me he wants.” He tapped his forehead. “What I have in here. I’m betting he’ll do practically anything to get it.”
“You will go through the door?” My heart beat faster. Had he seen what I had seen?
“If necessary, of course. Don’t look at me that way, Fenra. A minute ago you were gearing up to sacrifice yourself, and I have the feeling you’re far more valuable to this world and the people in it than one old cabinet maker who has to be saved from using his own tools to cut his throat.”
“I thought you said that practitioners could not kill themselves.”
“I did, and you’re changing the subject.” Now his face hardened, and I saw what Xandra Albainil might have looked like once. “Make no mistake, I will use whatever and whomever I can to rid our world of him once and for all. Me, you, Elva—whatever it takes.”
A small part of my mind wondered if I should find the order of names significant.
“That’s why you wanted to lure Metenari here, bringing the Godstone with him.”
He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I’m hungry. Are you hungry? Let’s see if my food spells still work. They won’t be as good as the ones Medlyn Tierell used. I’ll be sorry I won’t get the chance to find out how he did that.”
From which I understood that going through the door was actually part of his plan.
* * *
It’s a pity that none of this idiot’s forrans are any use to me. I know them, I see how they should work, but they don’t. The idiot has a very inflated opinion of his own abilities, his success, and therefore his value to the world at large. In fact, his only value to me is in the information he can provide about the world as it is today—not that the place has changed so very much really. Customs and attitudes can shift a little, as I tried to explain to that old graybeard last night, but mundane nature is mundane nature, and it doesn’t seem to have evolved much if at all in the time I was locked away.
How Elva looks at me is far more interesting. Sometimes I’m sure he knows me and is just pretending he doesn’t, sometimes I don’t think he’s on to me at all. It’s strange to see him as a stranger might. To watch how he reacts and interacts with people when he thinks I’m not there. I’ve never had a chance to see this side of him, of course, since I’ve always been there.
“How much longer to the next Mode?” I ask him.
“Sorry, Practitioner, I don’t know what you mean.” He goes through that ritual he’s not aware of, where he touches his sword and then each pistol in turn.
I watch his face carefully as I explain what the Modes are. I think I’d be able to tell whether he’s only pretending not to know, but if there’s a sign it’s too subtle for me to see.
“So from what you’re telling me, I couldn’t know,” he says finally. “I wouldn’t even know whether my guns are still the same, or whether they just seem like it to me.”
“They’re the same,” I say. “Do you want me to tell you if and when they change?”
He looks thoughtful for a moment. “I’m not sure,” he says, shrugging. “Part of me thinks I’d rather know, and part of me doesn’t.”
“You haven’t changed.” I laugh aloud. “Always looking at things from different angles. You should learn to make up your mind.” When I glance at him, he is looking at me with an examiner’s face, as if analyzing what he saw. “Do you know me?” I ask him again.
His eyes narrow. He knows. Suddenly I’m sure of it. He has to know. Even the stupider of the two apprentices is starting to be suspicious. Why doesn’t Elva say something? Perhaps he thinks that I don’t know? Could that be it?
“Very well,” I say. “Perhaps you can’t see where the next Mode begins, but you can tell me how much longer it will take us to get to Xandra’s tower.” I’ve never traveled there like this, as a flesh-and-blood person. Physical distances meant nothing to me before.
“We won’t get there before nightfall,” he says. “We’ll want to stop for the night. Though there’s a waxing moon tonight if we want to press on.”
I think about it. Arriving in the middle of the night would definitely be unexpected. It would catch them both completely off guard. On the other hand, I don’t need surprise to help me. Arlyn Albainil’s a mundane, and the little girl won’t be a problem either. She’s barely second level on her good days. She’s important to Elva, that’s clear, and so long as she stays out of my way he can have her.
“You say there’s somewhere for us to stop?” I remember an inn, one story and a thatched roof, but perhaps I’m thinking of somewhere else. If Elva suspects who I am, my asking might make him uncertain.
“Only a Wayfarer’s Rest,” Elva says. “It can be made comfortable enough for one night.”
I think a bit. I’m sure I don’t need surprise to help me. “We’ll stop then. See to it.”
Elva leaves me to ride ahead. Noxyn moves his horse up to take Elva’s place. “I’ve an idea that would help you.”
“Do you?” I don’t trouble to keep the amusement out of my voice.
“Metenari’s an idiot,” the boy continues. I almost smile, considering my thoughts of a moment ago. “Accomplished, learned, sure, but a fool in the way the world works.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to, boy?” When I tilt my head to see him better, he’s looking me right in the eye.
“You’re the Godstone,” he says. “Only a fool wouldn’t see it. Is there anything of him left?”
I ignore the question. “And how do you think you can help me?”
“I’m a better partner than Metenari.”
“And how will you prevent me from erasing you, as I’ve erased him?”
I think I scared him a little, but he only smiles. “First, Metenari didn’t know what you are, and I do. I’ll be prepared and ready. Second, I know that a practitioner’s power can contain you, and I’m much stronger than he ever was.”
“Strong enough, do you think?” This is fun.
“There’s always ways of getting more power. Doing all this research,” he shrugs, “I found a few useful forrans I didn’t tell Metenari about. Predax is fairly strong. If necessary, I’ll just take his power. He’ll never be missed.”
I decide I like this boy. He keeps his eye on his goal and isn’t sidetracked by sentimental nonsense. Ambition is always easy to work with. He’s already proven that he is smarter than his mentor ever was. “How do you propose we explain it to Elva?”
“Elva who?” He grins in a way that is unexpectedly familiar. “What do we need him for?”
No sentiment. “He knew Xandra. He could still be useful.”
Noxyn shakes his head like an adult indulging a small child. I feel a coil of heat in my guts. “How? Arlyn Albainil is one thing. He has the blood, and maybe even the forrans. Why would Xandra have told this mundane anything important?”
Now I don’t like him so much after all. Elva is mine. Not someone to be discarded so lightly by someone else.
* * *
Arlyn
When I went to help Fenra start a fire in the hearth of the old kitchen, she shooed me away.
“Leave it,” she said. “It’s my fire, and it might take a dislike to you.”
I couldn’t be sure she was joking.
We found smoked bacon, bread, and even coffee in the containers I’d left here, and only slightly stale. I’d thought there should be eggs, but we couldn’t find any.
�
�Do you think Elva will be able to convince the Godstone to follow us here?” Fenra sat back on her heels and watched the flames catch.
“I’m certain of it,” I said. “I know how he thinks, remember, and that’s an advantage. He’s going to want the forrans I know, and faster than Metenari can find them by research.” All of which was true, but only part of my real reason. I couldn’t tell how, but I knew the Godstone would follow me anywhere. It wouldn’t take much to persuade him through the door. He’d never been afraid of the chaos, he always thought he could overcome it, or that I could, if I really wanted to. “What I’d like to know is whether Elva’s managed to be part of the expedition. I hope he has.”
“You would want him so close to the Godstone?” She laid out slices of bacon in a cast-iron skillet heating on the fire grate.
“If he’s here, that increases the odds that you—that both of you will escape.”
The look on her face told me that she didn’t believe any of us would escape. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure she didn’t know exactly what I had in mind. “Will he know Elva, do you think?” she finally said, turning back to the fire and shaking the skillet before turning the bacon slices over with a large fork. The smell made my stomach growl. “If he has any of Xandra in him . . .”
“That would be the only way.” I tried to remember how long after the creation of the stone I’d sent Elva away. Had the Godstone already been aware when Elva and I argued about the dangers, the risks in what I’d planned? I’d sent Elva to safety before the disaster with the tower, hadn’t I? I shook my head. “I can’t be sure. I don’t know when he stopped being merely a tool and became aware.”
“We will have to hope that there isn’t enough of Xandra in the Godstone to recognize Elva,” she said.
“If he does, if he thinks he can use Elva to control me somehow, I want you to know now that I can’t let that happen.”
“I am sorry you thought it necessary to tell me.” She sat back after removing the skillet and pushing the coffee pot closer to the center of the fire. “Will the Godstone know you? What should we do if he does?”
Fenra asked the question quietly, but it rang in my mind. “I don’t know.” I was saying that a lot. Maybe too much. “If he doesn’t, we should act as though we believe he’s Metenari. It won’t hurt if he thinks we’re stupid.”
“Once we have eaten, you should rest. I will take the first watch.”
“No need,” I said. “They won’t be arriving tonight.”
She divvied the bacon onto two plates. “How can you be so sure?”
“He’ll think he doesn’t need surprise on his side.”
* * *
Elvanyn
The Godstone swung its leg over its horse’s head and jumped lightly to the ground. Elva didn’t need to see the surprise on Predax’s face to know that this was not the way Metenari ever got off a horse. Even his new slimness wouldn’t account for this easy movement. Unlike the apprentice, Elva did know who got off his horse that way. He made his own dismount in a less flamboyant manner.
Noxyn appeared not to notice anything unusual. Of course, he and the Godstone had spent much of the previous night talking to each other in undertones, which could definitely account for it.
“What do you think? Hasn’t changed much, has it?” The Godstone walked right up to the stone wall and laid its hand against it, almost in a caress. “No, not much at all.” It turned to Elva. “Do you remember where the entrance is?”
Elva wasn’t sure how to answer. The Godstone wasn’t taking much trouble to pretend to be Metenari—maybe there wasn’t any of the practitioner left. “It’s around the other side, Practitioner. Facing the rising sun.” Curved windows ringed the upper stories of the tower. There would be sunlight shining in one window or another no matter the time of day.
“That’s right.”
The Godstone set off around the tower on foot, and Elva hung back, doing his best not to overtake it, though what he wanted most was to shoot it through the head. His hand even drifted across to touch the gun under his left arm. The sword would certainly be quieter, but he felt the sudden need to see the thing’s brains.
Except that wouldn’t kill it, however satisfying it might be for a moment. The body would be dead, but the Godstone would just be free. Though he could hold that in reserve . . . He came up on the thing’s right side, the better to either shoot or stab, if distraction proved to be necessary. The Godstone stood with its palms on the weathered wood of the door, as if it could sense through this contact what was happening on the other side.
For all Elva knew to the contrary, it could.
“It’s worn.” An unexpected note of uncertainty underlaid the thing’s tone. “It’s not this old, surely.”
“It might be the Mode, Practitioner.” How had Noxyn crept up so silently? A noise from behind them was Predax clearing his throat. Elva kept his eyes on the Godstone. Practitioners or no, the other two didn’t matter. As Fenra had said, you could kill apprentices if you took them by surprise. And these two were not suspicious by nature. Predax was too naïve, and Noxyn too blinded by his own cleverness.
“Elva.” The Godstone beckoned him closer without looking at him. Elva stifled a grimace just the same. He didn’t like the thing using the diminutive of his name, whoever it thought it was. “Is it locked?”
He put his hands on the latch and lifted it, swinging the door open. Inside, a horse nickered at him and tossed its head. Terith, he thought. Fenra is here. Although he knew he should wish her anywhere else, he felt a flush of warmth, and had to stifle a smile. When he turned around at the sound of the door swinging completely open, he found the Godstone frowning at Terith, its eyes narrowed.
“They’ll be upstairs,” he told the thing. Fenra will kill me if I let it hurt Terith. The thing smiled and Elva gritted his teeth. It had never looked so inhuman as it did at that moment. Then its face relaxed and Metenari’s face was back. Except for the eyes.
“After you, by all means,” the thing said.
Elva turned toward the ladder, feeling as though he saw the moss on the cobblestones and the crack in the fifth rung for the first time. Well, he’d done his part, he’d brought the thing here. He had to hope that Arlyn and Fenra had come up with a plan.
Standing on the seventh rung, Elva reached for the latch of the trapdoor and looked down at the Godstone, still at the foot of the ladder. He raised his eyebrows slightly, as if waiting for orders, and lifted the trap when the thing nodded to him. Trapdoors were a defender’s dream. Only one way to use it, and that put your enemy’s head right into your line of sight.
Good thing I’m not their enemy.
It was the smell that struck him first. The dried grasses and reeds that covered the floor, the lavender that had been strewn over them. The ashes of the fireplace, the scent of the beeswax candles, and even a faint trace of cooked bacon. And laid over this like a fine mist, almost undetectable, Fenra’s scent. One day he’d figure out what it reminded him of. If he had any more days. Only then did he fully take in that Fenra herself was standing off to his left, her hands clasped in front of her. He smiled at her, and drew in a breath when she smiled back. His smile faded when the Godstone came up out of the trap behind him.
Fenra stood close to the kitchen door. She glanced away, and when Elva followed her gaze he saw Arlyn standing next to the door that opened to the other Modes. He understood at once that they wanted the Godstone to go through that door. Elva had used the second door himself, but all he’d ever seen on the other side was another sitting room.
The Godstone stepped in front of him. “Xandra.” By its tone it was delighted. “I didn’t know you were still alive. These idiots thought you were someone called Arlyn. Why have you been running from me? I’m not angry—oh, maybe I was to start with, but I had a lot of time to think, and I want us to put all that behind us, and start again. Partners. Your k
nowledge, my strength. There’s nothing we couldn’t do.”
Elva pulled both guns. Here it was, the moment for Arlyn to prove who he really was, and what he really meant to do.
* * *
Fenra
“What, no hug?” The Godstone reached out Metenari’s arms for Arlyn, and in that moment, with that gesture, I knew that nothing of my classmate remained in the body before us.
“Well, you did leave me for dead, back in the vault,” Arlyn said.
The Godstone dropped his arms. “No, that was Metenari. I would never have left you if I’d known you were there.”
When he turned to look at me, I saw coldness in his eyes. “Stay out of the way and you won’t get hurt.”
Yet, is what I read on his face.
The change was so obvious, I could not understand how his apprentices had not known this wasn’t their mentor any longer. But no, I realized watching them, they knew. Though Predax was the only one afraid.
I felt Elva’s eyes find me and glanced to where he stood beside the still-open trapdoor. He had drawn both guns.
“What’s happened to Metenari?” Arlyn said. At that moment it dawned on me that Arlyn had not said what we should do if the Godstone knew who he was.
The Godstone laughed. “Come on! You don’t care.” The humor left its face. “I’d expected you to come for me, not that idiotic waste of space. But you didn’t come, did you?”
“I know you realize why I couldn’t.” The calm in Arlyn’s voice astonished me. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, the dryness of my mouth, and he sounded as if he were in his workshop planing a piece of wood.
The Godstone nodded. “I do now. You knew how to reach me, but I see you aren’t able to do it yourself. That’s why you brought the little practitioner here.” He gestured at me and I found myself taking a half a step backward. I could have asserted my own power to hold myself in place, but the whole point of this charade was to keep the thing from knowing exactly how much I was capable of.
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