by Simon Hawke
He reached out his hand to her. She took it and felt revitalizing warmth flowing into her. She closed her eyes as the energy surged through her arms.
Then, still holding her hand, Kether reached out and lightly placed the fingertips of his other hand on Korahna’s forehead. The princess parted her lips and breathed in deeply, uttering a soft moan.
As the princess inhaled deeply, a slight dizziness came over Ryana, and though her eyes were closed, she seemed to “see” the interior of a library, similar to the one at the villichi temple, only much more ornate, with scrolls stored in rows of cubicles carved from polished obsidian set with hammered silver. It was, she realized, the templar library in the palace compound of the Shadow King, where Korahna had first discovered the preserver writings.
Next, she saw the streets of Nibenay at night, with beggars huddled in the doorways and bedraggled prostitutes lounging in the entrances to darkened alleys. She heard the cries of hungry infants coming from the windows up above, and she saw old women searching through the refuse in the streets for some scrap of food to eat. A profound sadness overwhelmed her, seeing the state to which these people were reduced, and she felt tears start flowing down her cheeks, though she herself was not weeping. Images whirled through her consciousness, faces in taverns as Korahna sought to make contact with the Veiled Alliance, hooded figures accosting her in some darkened room, sneaking out of the palace compound at night to attend clandestine meetings, faster and faster the memories flowed through her, and she experienced Korahna’s life in one kaleidoscopic surge of thoughts, senses, and impressions…
Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, it ended, and Ryana felt Kether’s hand release her own.
She opened her eyes and found herself flushed with perspiration, her entire body tingling. She felt lightheaded, and yet, at the same time, she was no longer tired. She still felt hungry and thirsty, but it was as if a second wind had come upon her and given her new strength. And she saw Korahna’s eyelids flicker open and heard her sharp intake of breath as she sat up and said, “I have had the most amazing dream…”
Sorak’s head was lowered to his chest, and he was breathing heavily. The warmth was gone now, though Ryana still felt its residual effects. The sun, which had started sinking over the horizon what seemed only a moment ago, had long since set. The twin moons, Ral and Guthay, cast their ghostly light upon the barrens—Sorak raised his head, his eyes still closed, and breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly.
He opened his eyes and said, “I think we can go on now.”
Ryana and the princess were staring at each other. Something incredibly profound had passed between them, and they both knew that somehow a bond had been forged that could never be broken. It suddenly felt as if they had known each other all their lives. They were like sisters, only more than sisters, for through Kether, they had shared an intimacy deeper than even most siblings could achieve.
“I do not understand what just happened,” said Korahna slowly. “It seemed like a curious dream, and yet it was not a dream, was it?”
“No,” Ryana said. “It was not a dream.”
The princess stared at Sorak. “But how…?” Her voice trailed off. She could not think of how to frame the question.
“It is not something we could even begin to understand, Korahna,” Ryana told her. “We can do no more than accept it. Kether gave us strength, and more than that. Much more.”
“Kether?” said Korahna. And then she looked at Sorak and realized she knew, because Ryana had known. For the first time, she understand who and what Sorak truly was. “A tribe of one,” she whispered. It was not something she had even heard of before, but she suddenly knew what it meant.
“Sorak,” said Ryana sharply. “Look!”
A mile or so away, directly to the east, where the ground began to rise, a fire burned.
“Torian!” Korahna said. “He has circled round us!”
“No,” said Sorak. “That is not the light of a campfire. There is nothing here to burn, and even if Torian had brought torches or wood to build a fire, it would not give off such light. It burns blue—then green, then blue again.”
“Like the fire of the spell scroll,” said Ryana.
“The Sage?” Korahna said.
“Is it possible that we have found his sanctuary?” asked Ryana.
“Perhaps,” said Sorak. “We shall know when we get there. Come, let us make haste.”
The two women mounted up, and the kank reluctantly rose and moved off to follow Sorak. The creature was tired and weak, and Ryana did not think it would be able to travel much farther. They had only a mile or so to go to reach the place where the flame burned. But what would they find when they got there?
The ground had started to rise, sloping up in stages toward the mountains, still several days’ ride distant The boulders here were larger, and there were more rock outcroppings through which they had to wind their way. Several times, they lost sight of the flame as they made slow progress toward it. Even so, they slowly but steadily drew closer, winding their way through a maze of rocky rills, almost like the walls of a fortress. In the distance, they could hear the sound of some huge creature bellowing as it made a kill… or perhaps was, itself, killed.
As they approached the flame, Ryana could see that it was certainly not a campfire, but a tall pillar of blue-green fire that seemed to sprout from solid rock.
“How can stone burn?” Korahna asked with wonder as she stared at the flame. “By magic,” said Ryana.
When they reached it, they saw it was the same sort of flame that had pointed out their way across the tablelands and the barrens—the magical flame that had been released by the spell scroll. But it could not possibly have been burning all this time, Ryana thought.
They would have seen it for miles. It seemed to sprout directly from the stone at the base of a large rock outcropping in front of them. They were hemmed in by this same rock on three sides. The only way out was back the way they had come. Sorak stood back from the pillar of flame, staring at it.
“There is nothing here,” Ryana said, looking around. The trail has come to a dead end.”
“If Torian finds us now, we shall be trapped,” Korahna said apprehensively. “There is no way out except the way we came.”
“We were brought here for a reason,” Sorak said.
“What?” Ryana asked. “There is nothing here.”
“We were brought here for a reason,” Sorak repeated.
“Come,” a deep, echoing voice suddenly spoke, the same voice they had heard before, directing them to Nibenay. It came from within the flame.
“Come where?” Ryana asked.
“Come,” the voice repeated once again.
Sorak stepped forward.
Ryana grabbed him by the arm. “What are you doing?”
“We must approach the flame,” said Sorak.
Ryana stared at the pillar of fire. “I am not anxious to draw any closer than this,” she said.
Sorak gently disengaged himself. “We did not come all this way to fail now,” he said. “We must do as we are bid.”
“Do not get too close,” Ryana cautioned him uneasily. Sorak stepped closer to the flame. “Come,” the voice said once more. He stepped closer, almost within arm’s reach of it. “Come,” the voice spoke, yet again.
Sorak strode forward.
“Sorak!” Ryana shouted.
He was only inches from the flame.
“Come,” said the voice.
“Sorak, no!” Ryana shouted, lunging after him.
He stepped into the flame.
Korahna cried out, bringing her hands up to her mouth. Sorak had completely disappeared from view. Ryana froze, staring wide-eyed with disbelief. And then the voice spoke again.
“Come.”
“Ryana, we must go back,” Korahna said.
Ryana simply stared mutely at the spot where Sorak had entered the fire.
“Ryana, it is too late,” Korahna said. “He is gone. We mu
st flee this place.”
Ryana turned around to look at her. She simply shook her head.
“Ryana, please… come away.”
“No,” Ryana said. She stepped closer to the flame.
“Ryana!” The princess ran after her and seized her by the arm, trying to pull her away. “Don’t! Sorak has killed himself. There is no point to throwing your life away as well!”
“Do you feel the heat, Korahna?”
“What?”
“The heat. Do you feel the heat?”
“You shall feel it all too well if you go any closer, said the princess. “Come away, Ryana. Please, I beg you.”
“We should be feeling it already,” said Ryana, staring at the fire. “Standing as close as we are to a flame of this size, we should be feeling the heat of it. And yet, there is no heat. Is there?”
Korahna simply stared at her.
“Is there?”
Korahna blinked. “No,” she admitted.
Ryana took her hand. “You said that you had courage,” she said. “You said that you would rather die than fail to be the mistress of your fate. The rime has come to prove those words.”
Korahna swallowed hard and shook her head as Ryana pulled her toward the flame. “No, stop! What are you doing?”
“We must follow Sorak,” said Ryana.
Korahrta jerked away. “Are you mad? We shall burn, as he did!”
“How does stone burn?” Ryana said. “How does flame fail to give off heat? That is no ordinary fire, Korahna. I do not believe that it shall burn us.”
Korahna moistened her lips and swallowed hard. “Ryana… I am afraid.”
“Sorak went into the fire—Did you hear him scream?”
“No,” said the princess, as if realizing it for the first time.
“You told me you had courage,” said Ryana. “Take my hand.”
Biting her lower lip, Korahna stretched forth her hand.
“Come,” said the voice from the flames. They stepped into the fire.
Miraculously, it felt cool. Korahna marveled as they walked through the flame. Fire was engulfing them on all sides, and yet, they did not burn. It felt almost as if they were walking through a waterfall, except they did not get wet. They stepped out into a grotto illuminated by phosphorescent rock. A greenish light permeated the rock chamber, emanating from the walls. And they heard the dripping sound of water.
“What kept you?” Sorak said.
Korahna laughed. “Water!” she said, seeing the pool at the far end of the grotto. Sorak stood beside it, water dripping from his wet hair.
“Drink your fill,” he said. “It is water from a spring that comes up through the rock.”
“But… where does it go?” Ryana asked, puzzled.
“It flows down this passageway here,” said Sorak, indicating a runnel in the shadows back toward the rear of the grotto. “There must be a cavern farther down.”
As Korahna filled their water skins, Ryana came up to stand beside Sorak and looked in the direction he was indicating. Toward the back end of the grotto, on the opposite side of the pool, there was an overhang that partially concealed a tunnel heading back farther into the rock. She could hear the trickling sound of water flowing gently down a portion of that passage. As they walked around the pool, they could see that the tunnel sloped slightly to the right. The water bubbling up from the spring had over the years cut a channel into the rock, and there was a ledge on one side, wide enough to allow passage.
They heard scrabbling sounds behind them and turned to see that the flame covering the entrance had disappeared and the kank had come up to the opening, where some plants grew up out of the rock, their roots sustained by the moisture in the grotto.
“Well, at least the kank shall not go hungry,” said Ryana. “We, on the other hand, still have to find food.
“I am grateful that we have found water,” Sorak said.
“I was beginning to despair of our chances. Undoubtedly, it was the Sage who led us here—”
“If Torian is still on our trail, he will have seen that fire, as well,” Ryana said.
“Yes, but it is gone now,” Sorak replied. “And without the flame to guide him, he may fail to find this place. It is well concealed.”
“I would still feel better if we were on our way after a short rest,” Ryana said.
Sorak shook his head. “No. Not yet. I do not think the only reason we were directed to this place was so that we could find water. The flame pillar that covered up the entrance to this place was a test of our resolve. There is something else here for us to find.”
Ryana looked around. “I see nothing here except the grotto.”
“There, perhaps,” said Sorak, indicating the tunnel. Korahna came up beside them as he spoke. “You are not thinking of going down there, surely?”
“Why not?” There is no way of knowing what waits for us down there,” the princess said.
“There is one way,” Sorak said as he ducked beneath the overhang and started down the runnel.
“First through fire, now into a black hole,” Korahna said. She sighed. “I cannot say this journey has lacked excitement.”
Ryana smiled. “Most of that excitement I could easily have done without,” she said. “After you, Your Highness.”
Korhana grimaced and ducked beneath the overhang to follow Sorak. They went slowly down the passage, which, like the grotto, was dimly illuminated by phosphorescent rock. The water flowed beside them in a channel as they started down a gradual incline, feeling their way along the wall of the tunnel. Ryana tried to listen for the sound of rushing water, which might indicate a sudden drop-off, but she knew that Sorak would detect any hazard long before she would. His hearing was much more acute than hers, and he saw well in the dark. The slope of the tunnel gradually increased, and they headed farther underground. The tunnel ran straight for a while, then turned and turned again. By that time, Sorak was well ahead of them.
Ryana was not sure how far they had walked when she heard him call out, “Ryana! Princess! Come quickly!”
Fearing that something may have happened, Ryana brushed her way past the princess and hurried ahead, drawing her sword. The tunnel turned sharply, and she saw light up ahead. Hearing Korahna behind her, rushing to keep up, Ryana started running. When she reached the end of the tunnel, she stopped short and gasped.
The tunnel opened out into a huge cavern, shot through with phosphorescent veins that illuminated the vast expanse as if with moonlight The water continued to flow in an undulating stream down a slope and toward the center of the cavern, where an ancient ruin stood. It was a keep, with a stone tower rising above the walls of mortared rock. The stream flowed into an underground lake, and the keep stood on an island in the center of it. To their left, an arched stone bridge spanned the waters of the lake, leading to the island.
Ryana heard the princess gasp as she came out of the tunnel behind her. “A fortress!” said Korahna. “An underground fortress! By the design, it must be thousands of years old! But… who could have built it?”
“One of the ancient races, about whom only legends exist,” Ryana said. “I have heard tales of underground cities and ruins, but I have never known of anyone who actually saw one.”
“It is said that spirits inhabit such places,” Korahna said uneasily.
“Perhaps,” said Sorak. “And yet, we were led here to find this place. I think we may have found the sanctuary of the Sage.”
* * *
“We shall lose ourselves forever in this maze of rock!” said Rovik.
“We shall do no such thing,” said Torian. “I have marked the way, and the trail leads through here. What is more, they cannot be more than an hour or two ahead of us, at most. This kank spoor is still fresh. They came toward that fire we saw last night.”
“But there is no fire now,” said Rovik. “Whatever it was, it has burned itself out. There is no longer a beacon to follow.”
“No, but it is almost dawn
, and the trail will be easier to follow,” Torian said. “Hand me another torch.”
“That was the last one,” said Rovik. “The rest have gone with our supplies and those miserable deserters.”
“I shall deal with them when we return,” said Torian, flinging the sputtering remnants of the last torch to the ground with disgust.
“What could they have found to burn out here?” asked one of the other mercenaries.
“That was no campfire,” Torian replied. “It was much too bright a flame.”
“And did you mark how it burned blue and green?” the other mercenary said. “It was a witch fire!”
“I doubt a witch would survive out here any better than anything else,” said Torian wryly. “Doubtless it was a volcanic fire, and that was why it burned as it did.”
“A volcano?” said the mercenary with alarm. “You mean like the Smoking Crown?”
“Calm yourself,” said Torian. “If it was a volcano like the Smoking Crown, we would have seen the cone of the mountain rising up from miles away. And if it had been a full eruption, the entire sky would have glowed red. Doubtless it is but some minor fissure or a sulphur pit that occasionally belches forth some flame. We shall be safe enough.”
“As safe as any man can be in this forsaken land,” the mercenary said.
“Are one elfling and two women braver than the lot of you?” asked Torian sarcastically. “The princess has lived the pampered life of a royal aristocrat, and she has made it this far, amazingly enough. Has she more fortitude than you?”
“If she lives, perhaps she does, indeed,” the mercenary said. “More likely, she has died, and they have merely abandoned her body somewhere in all these rocks.”
“If they had, I would have seen some sign of it,” said Torian. “No, she lives. They would have no reason to bear her corpse along. And we shall come upon them soon. The chase is almost ended.”
“What will you do to the elfling when you find him?” asked the mercenary.
“I will cut him to ribbons,” Torian said, “and take his head for my trophy.”
“And the priestess? Will you kill her, as well?”