A Blackbird In Silver (Book 1)

by Freda Warrington

  ‘Then the Guardians, as they are called, began to notice what was happening on this newly-born Earth. They are neutral beings who try to regulate a balance in the energies of the universe. They looked at the world and knew they must bring order to it.

  ‘To the life-forms of the Planes they brought shape and thought, and they made a mechanism, now called the Glass City, to create and maintain Entrance Points. This was so that the Planes could assist Earth and be a true part of her; but their work was not perfect, of course.

  ‘There was little they could do about the negative energy that had become the Worm. They mounted a dangerous mission and took its third eye from it, so it would never hold full sway over the world. This caused a drastic reduction of its power.

  ‘What we must understand is that the Worm is composed of a vast negative energy that is spinning inwards, whereas the positive energy that is its opposite is spinning outwards and dispersing. But the Guardians were able to capture a small part of the positive life-force and create a second creature, a bird. Then the Serpent’s third eye was placed under the bird’s protection, so that M’gulfn should never regain it.’

  Ashurek became still and tense as he heard this. The Lady went on. ‘At this, the Serpent grew afraid and began to create its own creatures out of its abundant energies. The most notable of these were the Shana, the demons; but the Guardians placed limitations on them, so they were confined to their own Region. Then the Guardians thought they had done all they could and left Earth, though a few stayed to watch what would happen.

  ‘Life evolved at last; plants and animals and finally men. Of all the lands, the island of Forluin was the only one that the Worm had overlooked, and so the only place where people lived free of its influence.

  ‘Everywhere else it had laid the basis of its work, and soon found willing agents. It made a refuge for its mind within a human, so that it would survive if attacked. And although attempts have been made to kill it, all have failed miserably, and its power grows. You have all seen evidence of its work, in Gastada and Arlenmia, in Gorethria and the demons; I do not have to tell you what appalling evil and suffering it has caused. But there is more and worse.

  ‘Energy cannot cease its motion. The negative energy is still concentrating inwards, the positive dispersing outwards. And now, after all these billions of years it is reaching the summit of its power, while the “good” power has almost dispersed entirely.’

  Estarinel broke in, ‘Silvren said that when that happens, the Earth would be unable to evolve but would become – how did she put it? “A bloated sac that can never expel its poison”.’

  ‘Yes, she is exactly right. The Serpent should die because of that, but also because energies all across the universe will displace and cause untold chaos.’

  ‘You have answered my question,’ Ashurek said grimly. ‘Now I know what I suspected is true; we are just the puppets of benign figures, trying to put their precious universe to rights. I’d be inclined to say, let the Serpent rule and chaos take them!’

  ‘Thank goodness no one else shares that opinion!’ a voice called. It was the red-haired woman. She grinned cheerily at Ashurek. He continued, speaking again to the Lady.

  ‘If I understand you… the Egg-Stone I took from Miril is the Serpent’s third eye?’

  ‘It is so.’ The Lady spoke without condemnation. ‘Can you remember what she said when you took it?’

  ‘Yes, every word. She said that it had been given into her keeping so that the Earth was protected from it… but she would not stop me taking it, because the Worm’s time had come. And she said that she is the world’s Hope, but unless I find her again, the world will be doomed…’ he trailed off, lost in acutely sad memories of Miril.

  ‘She was the world’s Hope,’ the Lady said, sighing gently, ‘for she was a piece of that elusive creative energy that is deserting the world. You, Ashurek, unleashed that Third Eye upon the world, and that was when the Serpent’s power began its terrible acceleration.’

  ‘I know that now,’ he said.

  ‘But you didn’t then. At least the Serpent didn’t regain the Eye, thanks to the selfish ambitions of the Shana who want their own power. You can imagine its anger, and especially at poor Forluin, over which it still had no influence.’

  Estarinel bowed his head, painful memories returning.

  ‘There is yet more.’ the Lady went on, azure light glowing around her. ‘It is painful to admit selfish reasons for wanting the Serpent killed. However, I must. H’tebhmella also has her own motive in wanting its death. As you know, all the Planes have two sides. This side faces down, as it were, to Earth, whereas the other side faces out to the universe – faces infinity and eternity.’ She fell silent as if too sad to go on.

  ‘What is on the other side?’ Estarinel asked quietly.

  ‘Paradise,’ the Lady answered. ‘That is one name far it. But a clot of darkness is preventing access to it – not only for us, but for all living beings. A terrible, evil trick was played on us, the darkness woven there without our knowledge, and it must be cleansed.’ Estarinel and Medrian stared at her, and Ashurek’s face fell in horror as she finished.

  ‘The Dark Regions are there.’

  #

  In Forluin, within a small stone cottage, a young woman looked through her window across a valley. Her small, sweet face was set in a mask of sorrow and her thick brown hair hung in an uncombed tangle to her waist.

  The valley had once been green, full of animals, clad in hedges and trees. Now it was a sick, desolate grey, covered in ash and soaked with the Worm’s poison. The girl gazed steadily upon the crumbled ruins of a house, where only a few days earlier they had greeted Arlena and Falin home from their sea voyage. The ruins looked so still and sad, like a small animal that had died of fear.

  Behind her a young man entered the room.

  ‘Lilithea,’ he said, ‘you’ve been sitting there for hours. It won’t help.’ His own face was white and his eyes reddened with tears. She reached out and took his hand.

  ‘I can’t see how it could’ve happened, Falin,’ she said. ‘Can that creature kill even when it isn’t here? First his father died of the fever…. now this…’

  The Serpent’s poison had spread and, as if it had soaked and consumed the mortar, the farmhouse had collapsed without warning upon its inhabitants: Estarinel’s mother and two sisters. And I have lost Arlena, was Falin’s continual, inconsolable thaught.

  ‘I still can’t believe it,’ he half-sobbed. ‘Oh Lili, how are we ever going to tell E’rinel when he comes home?’

  ‘Perhaps he won’t come home,’ she said, her throat tight. ‘The creature won’t rest until we are all dead. How can he do anything to stop it, just him? At least he wouldn’t ever know what’s happened to his family.’

  ‘Or see that although the Worm only came once, things are getting worse and worse. I still hope he comes back, though,’ Falin said, his voice thick with grief.

  ‘Falin, I can’t stay here any longer,’ Lilithea said. ‘Too many memories. It’s too much.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘South… where my parents live. Do you want to come?’

  ‘No, I’ll stay in the village, in case E’rinel does come back. There’s a lot to do as well, for all it’s worth… You’ll take care, won’t you, Lili?’

  She nodded, unable to force a smile. ‘Yes, I’ll take care.’

  For all it’s worth, she thought. And when Estarinel comes back, as I know he will, I wonder if I’ll have the strength to bear his grief as well as mine, and to hold him and bury my hands in his hair, and love him until he forgets. Would I even try?

  #

  On the Blue Plane, a flat crystal that was as delicate and lovely as blue glass, the meeting continued. The Lady listened gravely as Estarinel spoke, his voice full of doubt.

  ‘You’ve explained clearly enough why M’gulfn should be slain, but it sounds even more difficult than I’d thought. We’ve already been told it
’s impossible, and I thought that was because it was merely powerful… but how can we even think of destroying something made of a vast, evil energy?’

  ‘Certainly nothing exists on Earth with which you could destroy it,’ the Lady said gently. ‘But this is precisely why you had to come to the Blue Plane; because information that the Serpent must not know can only be kept here. Soon there will be a way.’

  For a moment he wished that the Lady had said, ‘There is no way; why not give up and go home? It is not your responsibility.’ But there could be no thought of turning back. What they had taken upon themselves they must fulfil.

  ‘If I say the only thing that can destroy the negative energy is the positive, you will understand the logic of it,’ she went on, light from the spring dancing over her lovely, serious face. ‘I said the positive energy is dispersing, so that too sounds impossible. But the Guardians are working upon a project based on a tenuous theory.

  ‘The energy spins in an ever-increasing circle, but it must soon enter a domain where it will exist on a different scale, as a comparatively small sphere of power. There they hope to capture and contain it within an ancient supernatural weapon: the Silver Staff.

  ‘Then you must undertake a perilous journey to fetch the weapon. It will be dangerous and perhaps unlikely to succeed; but I tell you this is our only hope.’

  ‘It’s little enough, but no less than I expected,’ said Ashurek drily. ‘But there are other obstacles. What of the Worm’s human host? Surely it will survive if the host isn’t killed as well, and all our efforts will have been wasted.’

  ‘You are right; but again the answer lies in the Silver Staff.’

  ‘And what of Miril?’ Ashurek persisted, looking grim.

  ‘I do not know,’ the Lady said frankly. ‘If she must be found again, you’ll have to find her in your own way. All I know for certain is that the Silver Staff will be your greatest, and only, weapon.’

  ‘We’ll help you in what other ways we can. A warrior, Calorn,’ – she indicated the tall rust-haired woman – ‘will help you find the Staff, and we’ll give you all you need to survive the Arctic snows.’

  Suddenly the prospect of actually setting out to face M’gulfn struck a cold blow to Estarinel’s soul. Momentarily his sight was obscured by a vision of lights burning on snow; of someone turning this way and that, crying out as if pitifully lost; red glass and shadowy figures that looked straight through him; and the cold, cold, cold… the vision passed and the coldness subsided, but for some reason he could not look at Medrian.

  They waited for the Lady to go on, but she fell silent. Then Medrian spoke, so softly that some of the H’tebhmellians leaned forward to hear her.

  ‘There is one small thing in our favour,’ she said. ‘No one has thought of it, but it may be important. The Serpent quests for world domination, but it is old and tired. It has been there for billions of years. So perhaps it does not regard the idea of eternal life as favourably as we think. That is all.’

  Estarinel took her hand and kissed her, grateful for her words of encouragement.

  ‘You may have a point,’ Ashurek grinned. ‘We certainly must set out with hope and determination, or we might as well not go at all.’

  ‘I am glad to hear you say so. There may be needs for sorrow, but never despair,’ the Lady said, her eyes full of the light of hope. ‘There is more to say of the Silver Staff and the journey to fetch it, but that will keep for now. Listen; your world is going through an evil age in which all the Earth seems sad and at a loss. It is on your shoulders to turn her face to the morning. Now I am not saying that once the Serpent is dead, all the Earth will become sweet and fair for eternity; on the contrary, new evils may spring up in its place. There will be a wild, wild age in which sorcery, a bright magic and a dark one, will hold sway; an age of vigour as opposed to this age of lethargy and decay. The change must take place or your world is doomed to Arlenmia’s vision. Silvren knew this from the start, for her power is of the future.’

  #

  Silvren. Ashurek stood, hands on hips, staring moodily at the crystal-blue rock beneath his feet. Could it be true, the horrific revelation that the Dark Regions lay on the other side of the Blue Plane? He remembered the vision of her, when she had said, ‘The Dark Regions are not black at all – they’re blue… like the egg of a small bird, washed by the rain and left to rot in a deserted nest…’ Yes, it was true. So there must be a way to go through and seize her from the demons…

  He remembered Arlenmia, and wondered what she would do now in her fanatical devotion to the Serpent. How had Silvren known her, and been friends with such a one?

  He sighed and walked on beside the sweet, clear lake towards Estarinel and Medrian. Now they were waiting for news of whether or not the Guardian’s project was successful. Only then could they go to fetch the Silver Staff. It was a time of peace, but anxieties surfaced to make them all uneasy. Setting forth on a journey was always easier than waiting and waiting; especially now that the first stage of their Quest was over and the dread business of setting out to slay the Serpent was before them.

  #

  ‘You are quiet,’ Medrian said. ‘What are you thinking about?’

  ‘Well… if it’s possible and the H’tebhmellians would permit it,’ Estarinel replied slowly, ‘I would like to visit Forluin briefly before we go.’

  Medrian stood still and gave him a look of astonishment. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ she said sharply. ‘What if things are worse there – or better – and you lose heart to continue the Quest?’

  ‘I won’t, not having come so far.’

  ‘It’s a chance I’d rather not take!’

  ‘Medrian – I have to go. It might be the last time I ever see my country, don’t you understand?’

  ‘You’ve said your farewells. Why repeat the agony?’ She sounded angry. Then her face changed, became thoughtful. ‘Nothing I say will stop you, will it?’

  ‘Not if the Lady will let me go.’

  ‘Would you let me come with you?’ she asked unexpectedly.

  ‘Of course. I would love you to,’ he answered, startled and pleased. ‘Why the change of heart?’

  She turned away from him, looking out across the tranquil lake to the formations of crystal beyond. A breeze stirred her long, ebony hair. There was a diamond-like clearness of purpose in her face, contradicted by the confusion and bitter longing in her dark eyes.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said, half-smiling as she began to walk on alone. ‘I don’t know.’

  #

  Interlude

  A dream hung in the dark void like a jewel. Glittering like a rare canary diamond, it seemed self-sufficient, as though it needed no dreamer to conjure it, but had created itself. Approaching the glittering yellow orb, in the slow curving drift of a space traveller drawing close to a strange planet, the dreamer could see that the gem was a living thing. A network of shining capillaries enmeshed it, pulsing with the passage of glistening alien blood. These vessels throbbed to the rhythm of a vast, unseen heart and each pulse was a leap of joy, a graceful continual tribute to the supreme beauty of the heart.

  Now in orbit around the vast diamond, the dreamer’s breath was stopped by its splendour. The dream-jewel was singing. The capillaries sang; the blood within them sang; the gold crystal fabric of the gem sang. We are on our way to the Heart. We are of the Heart. We are the Heart.

  Now, cresting the rim of the orb, a Pole came into view and the Heart could be seen at last. It was of purest blue crystal, a sapphire that filled vision and soul with sudden infinite joy. The dreamer’s ecstasy was indescribable. Perhaps it could not be experienced by a human spirit except that insanity was bound to follow.

  The Heart did not sing, yet it called. It bestowed blue radiance around it, entreating all life to come to it, to receive the blessing of its infinite joy and grace. Through the radiance it could be seen that each corpuscle of the blood was in itself a jewel, jostling its neighbours in its qu
est for the Heart’s fulfilment until all became a coruscating river of worship of the sapphire godhead.

  And when they neared the Heart, its azure touched their rich yellow and they shone emerald as if the very colour was fulfilment made visible.

  And did any ever enter the Heart? No; all their joy was in yearning, for surely to enter that perfect eternal crystal would destroy them. And their stasis, their eternal, pulsing worship, was a paean to infinity. In the eyes of the dreamer it was supreme perfection.

  And the dreamer held that jewel in her hand. Through long meditation and certain drugs, she achieved at last her ambition: mental commune with the Serpent. Within her mind she stood before it, stretching her arms wide in jubilation as she spoke.

  ‘Behold, M’gulfn, your servant. Tell me what you want me to do!’

  Bring me the eye, the Serpent replied. Its voice startled her; it was thunderous, tremulous, yearning, confused. Almost human. I must have my lost eye. This way only can the dream be achieved.

  ‘Then it shall be done!’ she exclaimed, her purpose becoming religious ecstasy. ‘Only wait for me, M’gulfn – I am on my way, and the dream shall be fulfilled.’

  #

  There was a knock at the door of Setrel’s cottage. He answered and stared with shock at the statuesque woman on the threshold.

  She was unmistakable from the descriptions given him.

  ‘I’ve come for the boy, Skord,’ she said.

  ‘You most certainly have not!’ Setrel stated, his whole frame tense with protective anger. He began to shut the door against her. ‘Get you gone from here! I know who you are, and there is no question–’

  As if she were not even listening, the woman pushed Setrel aside with such force that he was slammed to the floor, cracking his skull. He saw her step into the room and he saw Skord in another doorway, staring at her… Then he lost consciousness.