The Magic Mines of Asharim

by Pauline M. Ross

  After a while, when I began to lag behind, he stopped to let me catch up.

  “These tunnels are strange,” he said, as I arrived, puffing and wheezing beside him. “I don’t understand why they curve about so much. The tunnels beneath Mesanthia are straight as a spear, and this one was made by the same people, so why so bendy?”

  “Not… Tre’annatha…” I gasped. “Dragon tunnels. See… claw marks. There. And there.”

  His eyes widened. “Really? But why here? This place is a long way from the sea.”

  “It is now,” I said. He raised a disbelieving eyebrow, but I was too tired to explain it to him. “Let’s get on, shall we?”

  It was a long slog up that tunnel, and I was utterly exhausted by the time the widening circle of light announced the end of it. We sat just inside the tunnel mouth, resting, sharing a drink and a few bites of food. It felt so intimate to be alone with Zak like that, everything else left behind at the bottom of the mountain. There we were, just the two of us, on our final glorious mission, gambling everything on one last throw of the bones. I was so thankful he was there. After all that had happened over the last few days, it was wonderful to be with him, not to be struggling with this on my own. I knew he couldn’t help much, but his support and encouragement were beyond price.

  “Your people – they will be gentle with the warrior?” I said. “It’s not his fault I enthralled him, and I wouldn’t want him to suffer for it.”

  “He will suffer more if he’s sent back to the prince,” Zak said. “Once he comes to himself, he’ll be allowed to go back to his tribe in the hills, if he wants.” He glanced at me, his mind unusually serious. “What about Xando? Did you have a chance to say goodbye to him?”

  “Nothing to say.”

  Zak raised an eyebrow. “What Renni did wasn’t his fault, you know.”

  “No? He’s the one who dragged her along. He allowed her to betray me. As if what he did at Mesanthia wasn’t bad enough.”

  “Hmm. Have you decided what you will do about him?”

  “Do about him?”

  “He isn’t going to leave you alone, you know. You’ll have to come to some accommodation with him when we go back home.”

  “When we go back home?” I looked at him in astonishment. “Do you really think we’re going to just walk up to the highest lake, divert the river and then walk down again as if nothing’s happened? As soon as this river dries up, they’ll come after us with a vengeance party. Even if by some miracle we make it back through the tunnel, the city will be burning. I started a war, remember?”

  He said nothing, gazing at me with his dark eyes rimmed by those long lashes. So beautiful, in his masculine way.

  I took his hand, and kissed the tips of his fingers. “I’m sorry, my love, but we will never be going back home.”

  He nodded, and there was no grief or outrage in his mind, only quiet acceptance.

  ~~~~~

  We emerged into the light, but it wasn’t the brilliant sunshine that we’d left at the lower entrance. We were submerged in a gloomy canyon, it seemed, out of reach of the sun. Above the tunnel towered the ring of stone which enclosed the lake at this level. And in front of us, a near-solid wall almost as high. A dam. A series of round openings pierced it, some dry, some dribbling a small flow of water. So that was how the flow was controlled.

  As we stood, fascinated but also horrified by the sheer scale of the construction, voices floated down from far above. In the arms of the rocky ring perched a slender tower, high enough to gaze over the lake and dam, and also to view the tunnel entrance far below. Impossible to hear the words, but the angry waving arms made the point. We hastened onward.

  The walkway led us across a narrow section of bog to the dam wall, and then zigzagged up it. Wearily, we climbed. As soon as we rose above the level of the upper dam openings, water began to gush from them, and the walkway and then the tunnel itself slowly became submerged.

  At the top, we finally came into the sunshine. I lifted my face to the warmth, and all my flickers chirruped happily. Even tucked away in their pockets, they could feel the power of the sun.

  The dam was wider than I’d imagined, large enough that it sported a substantial building at its midpoint. It was windowless, and I couldn’t guess its function. On the near shore were the barracks and offices.

  There to meet us was a party of soldiers. They were Commander Birin’s men, in drab but practical uniforms, armed with plain swords.

  Their captain, a fresh-faced young man, stepped forward, smiling. “Well, you are a surprise! We expected the initiates next. What are you here for?”

  His mind was guile-free and as trusting as he appeared. In truth, I was as much surprised as he was, for I’d expected to meet warriors. But perhaps guarding the dam was too menial a chore for men of such rank. It was lucky for us, anyway. This nice young man and his inexperienced fellows would be much easier to deal with.

  “This man is a rock expert,” I told him, gesturing in Zak’s direction. “He is here to inspect the rocks around the upper lake for stability. He has no Hrandish, so I am here to translate, and also to cook for him.”

  Here was another advantage to having Zak with me. It was much easier to explain away my presence when I accompanied a man. A woman alone would be questioned much more closely.

  The soldier accepted my story at once. “The upper lake? You will be sleeping up there?” I nodded. “Watch out for the initiates, then. They will be there in a few days, and they get a little… restless, sometimes.”

  “We will be careful.”

  “Good. Is there anything you need? No? Well, then, just follow the path round the lake, and straight up at the end. I hope your visit is fruitful.”

  And with that, they waved us cheerfully off to decimate their water supply and cause them no end of grief for years to come.

  It took us the whole day to climb to the upper lake. The path curved round the lower lake, then scrambled through rocks and over the crater rim to the smaller middle lake. Then another scramble to the upper lake, the largest of all of them. There we stopped, for dusk was falling, and made camp for the night. We had a small tent, but there was no need for it unless it rained. We ate some bread and dried meat, curled up in our cloaks and were asleep in moments.

  ~~~~~

  The sun was already peeking above the surrounding mountains when I woke. I’d slept far too long. Zak was gone, but a small fire burned nearby, with a pot of something steeping on top of it. To one side, three fish on sticks, ready for the flames. Zak’s sword lay nearby, next to a neat pile of clothing.

  I struggled to sit up, pushing aside not just my own cloak, but Zak’s as well. He must have added it to keep me warm while I slept. Nevertheless, I was bone cold and stiff.

  As I blinked in the bright sunlight, I had the pleasure of watching Zak emerge from the waters of the lake, his wet skin glistening in the morning light. I was still cross with him for seducing me on his mother’s orders, but, hail and glory, he was good to look at.

  “Ah, awake at last! You must have been exhausted, to sleep so long.” He wrapped his shirt modestly around him, although I wasn’t sure why. I’d seen everything before.

  “You’re very energetic this morning.”

  “I was filthy after gutting the fish, so a swim seemed like a good idea. It’s very refreshing. Why don’t you try it?”

  “It must be freezing. That water’s come straight from the snowfields.”

  “Go on, it will wake you up. Soap’s over there. By the time you’re finished, the fish will be cooked.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to be woken up that way, but he had flaunted his naked body in front of me, so it seemed only fair to return the favour. It’s a peculiar thing, but however cold you are to start with, flapping about in a mountain lake that’s even colder somehow gets the body’s heat flowing again.

  As I was dressing, I noticed Zak eyeing me sideways while he crouched over the fire, tending the fish. There was ner
vousness in his mind. “Those marks on your back,” he said. “Did he do that? For you had no scars before.”

  I’d forgotten that I would have scars. My flicker had healed the injuries, but it couldn’t make me as I was before. I would always carry the reminders of my brief marriage to Prince Kru Hrin. But a few scars hardly mattered now, and I reminded myself that the prince would be starting to feel ill soon, which cheered me immensely. However, it was still too raw a subject for me to talk about.

  By the time my clothes were on, I was nicely warm, and feeling clean after yesterday’s sweaty trek was wonderful. I devoured my share of the fish with gusto, and a chunk of stale bread besides. Zak had found some berries, too, so we had quite a feast.

  “These lakes are strange,” he said as we ate. “So perfectly round, and each with its crown of stone.”

  “They were volcanic islands, once. Then the Catastrophe brought them here, and squashed them all together.”

  He looked at me sceptically. “Islands? Oh… the dragon tunnels, too. You are very knowledgeable, sweet lady.”

  “I had a proper education. Unlike you, it seems. Shall we get on?”

  “We are heading over there, I suppose,” Zak said, as we packed up.

  I’d been trying not to stare at it, the mound of rock that was our destination. Where the lake’s encircling crown of rocks met the mountains behind, it looked as if an entire shoulder had exploded and come to rest in the lake margins. Buried beneath the boulders and debris was the outlet where the river had overflowed to feed Mesanthia’s needs. Twice a year the water used to flow: during the spring snowmelt, and the autumn rains. But for two hundred years the flow had been blocked by that mass of rubble. And I needed to shift it. Or rather, my flickers did.

  No need to worry about that yet. For now, we could enjoy a sunny autumn walk round the lake, with no climbing. The water was still below its maximum, leaving a wide shoreline to walk on, or there was a good path a little higher up, winding through scrubby birch trees and brambles. As we left behind the roar of the waterfalls cascading down to Hurk Hranda, there was no sound beyond a gentle breeze, and the alarm calls of birds we disturbed. Once I felt a tremor beneath the earth. Some far distant mountain was settling a little, but it was barely noticeable here in the foothills. There were rarely major earthquakes so close to the plains.

  We took our time, walking companionably side by side. After the turmoil of the last few days, this was a welcome respite. As we walked, he hummed a little, a rhythmic tune that sounded like an army marching tune.

  “You like being up here amongst the mountains, too,” I said, with a smile.

  He beamed at me. “I do. Of course I do. This is wonderful – so cool and fresh. I like the ocean best, but this is beautiful too.”

  “No wonder you escaped the Program! It must have been a torment, to be locked away underground all the time.”

  He spun round to face me, surprised. “Oh no! I loved the Program – at first, anyway. They taught me to control my power over water, and that was amazing to me. No, it was fine until my second connection emerged.”

  “Oh, you have two! But of course – you’re Highest, and it’s not uncommon. What is your second connection?”

  “Wood.”

  No. That wasn’t right. I stopped dead, shocked. His voice was casual, with nothing out of the ordinary about it. But his mind – it was subtle, but I knew the signs.

  “Why are you lying to me?”

  Astonishingly, his face lit up with glee. “You can tell! You really can tell! That’s so amazing. I’ve trained myself for years to lie well, but I can’t fool you. I always wondered… because what you feel are emotions, and lying isn’t really an emotion.”

  “Oh, you were testing me?” I wasn’t sure I liked that. He was still playing games, manipulating me. “There are slight changes. I trained myself to detect the signs of lies, just as you trained yourself to tell them. I used to sit in on my father’s meetings, and signal when anyone lied. It was very useful to him. So what is your second connection? It should be a mental one. One elemental, and one mental, that’s the usual arrangement.”

  He sighed. “Memory.”

  “Oh. How does that work? You can see people’s memories?”

  “Exactly. Only when they allow it, and when I concentrate. There has to be a physical connection, too. Touching. And I can show my memories. But that’s when the Program became difficult. They – the Tre’annatha – got very excited about it. It’s very rare, apparently. They moved me to another part of the complex, away from my friends, and left me with some really horrible old men who wanted me to read their memories. Which were very unpleasant. I was extremely unhappy for a while. Then my father came and got me out. It seemed like a miracle at the time, but now, of course, I know that my mother was watching everything I did. So some good has come of that, although I don’t like it.”

  “Do you think she’s watching us now?”

  A long pause. “She could be. She could be watching at any time. I can’t tell. But… she has the best interests of Mesanthia at heart, always.”

  “I don’t see how telling you to sleep with me is in Mesanthia’s interests,” I snapped. It didn’t convince me. The Keeper had her own agenda, and it wasn’t necessarily mine.

  “Don’t you?” was all he said. And naturally that made me wonder about it all the more. Zak really knew how to play me like a fish on his line. Even when I knew what he was doing, I seemed unable to resist his machinations.

  ~~~~~

  Before noon, we came to the place where the river flowed into the lake from the high mountains beyond. A series of mossy stepping stones sat just above the surface of the water. We didn’t have to rely on those, though. A short distance upstream, a solid stone bridge offered a safer crossing point.

  “Why is this here?” Zak said. “I’m very glad I don’t have to risk a ducking on the stones, but I can’t imagine there’s enough traffic here to justify such a thing.”

  “It was built by Tre’annatha engineers,” I said, pointing to the unobtrusive symbols engraved on one slab. “I expect it was built when they took our water away.”

  “Oh. Of course. They had to get all their equipment over to the mountain they blew up. And here it still is. They build to last, don’t they? There’s a flat spot over there. Shall we stop for a rest?”

  Zak seemed unconcerned, but the bridge made me seethe. I imagined the Betrayer leading his troop of Tre’annatha engineers up here, calmly building a bridge to carry all their equipment before he demolished a mountain and diverted the life-giving water. A Mesanthian – an Akk’ashara – chose to destroy the Empire, and all because he fell in love with a slave. One man.

  But now perhaps one woman could restore it.

  We crossed the bridge, and threw down our packs in relief. Zak carried most of our gear, but even so I was worn out already, and we were not even half way round the lake.

  “What I don’t understand,” he said, mumbling round a chunk of bread, “is why they were involved at all. The Tre’annatha, I mean. They helped the Betrayer wreak havoc and then they helped us out of the mess they’d created. I mean, they already had the Program, so what did they get out of it?”

  “The Program was voluntary before the Betrayal. When the Tre’annatha helped us build the aquaducts, the price they asked for was compulsory testing for all Mesanthians, and enforced participation of anyone with a strong connection. Your education has been sadly lacking if you don’t know this.”

  “Ah, well, I was in the Program, wasn’t I?” he grinned. “You get a different version of history there.”

  I shook my head at him, for he could easily have learned later. But his teaching had been more practical, it seemed.

  “Here’s another interesting fact they probably hid from you,” I said. “They tried to do the same thing here. When they demolished the mountain and cut off our water supply, it had to go somewhere, so it all poured into Hurk Hranda. Washed half the city away. The
Tre’annatha came in to set up the dam on the lower lake to control the flow, but on the same terms – compulsory testing. The Hrandish agreed, then as soon as the dam was finished, they threw the Tre’annatha out, at the point of a sword.”

  Zak grunted. “We should have done the same, instead of all this eternal deference and gratitude.”

  I had to agree.

  The sun reached its zenith and began its descent, but there was little heat in it at this altitude. This side of the lake was choked with fallen boulders and tangled undergrowth, so our progress was slower. We walked at the feet of the towering ridge that encircled the lake. Many dragon tunnels pocked the cliffs here, some far above our head, and others partially submerged in the water. But some were accessible, and when we explored, they proved to be dry, with no sign of mountain lions or bears.

  “They say dragon magic drives them away,” I said.

  “Whatever keeps them empty, it’s good for us. We’ll need shelter if we’re still here when the rains come.”

  As we gradually drew nearer to the far side of the lake, we subsided into silence, concentrating on scrambling over rocks and crawling on precarious scree slopes. Neither of us mentioned the problem we were approaching. But eventually we could go no further.

  We stood, gazing up at the mountain of rubble which towered above us, and stretched far into the lake and around the perimeter. A few men with explosive materials had created this. It would take an army years to remove it.

  “It’s impossible,” I said in despair. “There is no way to get rid of all this stone. Not with a few flickers. I thought… I had no idea…”

  I couldn’t prevent the tears from flowing. Zak wrapped me in his arms, and held me tight, not saying a word, but for once it didn’t comfort me. For moons I had planned and schemed and worked for this day, to get myself to this point, with the chance to clear the blocked overflow and restore the river.

  It wouldn’t work. The vast heap of stone was too much to move.

  My plan was in ruins.

  46: Water

  We slunk back to the nearest dragon hole and prepared for the night. Or rather, Zak did. He laid lines for fish, built a fire, put some stennish to heat, and mixed stale bread, dried meat and fish and a few fresh berries and nuts into a sort of stew.