“He’s nay going to leave us down here to starve and rot, Eliza. He’s just trying to scare us, aye, but he’ll come and get us eventually. Until then, we might as well have some fun! I want to see where this goes!”
Eliza was less concerned about starving and rotting and more concerned about having to explain to Kyreth why she had been snooping around in the dungeons, but she had to admit that she too was curious.
“I hope we dinnay run into a dragon unexpectedly,” she muttered. Nell laughed a little nervously. Unlike the twisting corridors they had followed Charlie through, the enormous tunnel ran in a straight line. It went on such a long way that Eliza began to worry.
“We should turn back, aye. Charlie’s prolly done with the joke now. He’s prolly looking for us, but if he cannay find us he’ll have to go tell someone.”
“That’s his own fault, aye,” said Nell breezily. “I want to find the dragons. He said they were kept under the Inner Sanctum, nay? This tunnel must lead all the way there.”
“Oh, Nell, we shouldnay go there. How do we even know if the dragons are...tied up or anything?”
“We’ll be careful, aye,” said Nell. “Oh...which way do we go?” They had come to a fork. The fork to the left reeked of sulfur and smoke.
“I think we know which way the dragons are,” whispered Eliza.
“But what’s the other way?”
It struck Eliza all at once.
“It must be the way out!”
She had searched the Citadel and found no way out, no way even of looking outside the outer walls. But for the Emissariae to travel about on their dragons, there had to be a way for them to come and go, a way big enough for dragons. Saying nothing further but still clinging to each other’s hands, they began down the fork to the right. Eliza kept waiting for a cool breeze to strike her face, or a glimmer of light, but there was nothing of the kind. The cavern was vast and black and unchanging. It seemed to Eliza that this tunnel was even longer than the previous one, in which case they must be beyond the Citadel walls by now.
“Where do you think it comes out?” she whispered to Nell. “Do you think we’re in Kalla? Or on an island in the middle of the sea?”
“Why are you whispering?” Nell whispered back. They both giggled and then struck a wall and screamed, darting back in a panic.
When Eliza had recovered from the shock she ventured forward again and touched the wall. It was cold metal.
“I think it’s a door, aye,” she said. Nell crept forward and touched it as well. They felt along to the edges, where the iron met the rock so tightly that not a crack of light showed through, if in fact there was any light beyond it.
“So much for our way out,” said Nell dispiritedly. “Do you want to go back and have a peep at the dragons?”
Eliza was about to reply when she felt a light touch on her shoulder. An unfamiliar rattling voice, neither male nor female, spoke in the darkness: “I have a message for you.”
Nell screamed, and the strange voice said, “Hush.”
“Who are you?” cried Eliza.
“A friend, by the Ancients! Quiet...” and then the being fell silent.
“What? Where are you?” hissed Eliza. Farther down the passage she saw two bright lights moving swiftly towards them. As they approached the cavern brightened, and she saw that it was Trahaearn, the manipulator of metal. She looked around but she did not see anybody besides herself and Nell. The messenger had vanished into thin air.
“You have wandered where you had no business,” said Trahaearn in a deep growl when he reached them.
“We got lost, aye,” said Nell.
“So you did,” replied Trahaearn. “And came very close to being a snack for the dragons. Come.” He turned, plunging them in darkness again, and they followed the shadow of his back down the corridor and back in the direction of the dungeons.
~ Chapter 7 ~
Neither Eliza nor Nell said anything to Trahaearn about the voice they had heard in the cavern. Eliza knew it could only be the intruder who had worked some unknown magic on her first day in the Citadel. She should tell the Mancers that it was hiding in the dungeons, but something held her back. Whatever it was, it had called itself a friend and had claimed to be bearing a message. Of course, as Nell pointed out later, a scary non-corporeal voice in the dark wasn’t necessarily trustworthy; but, so long as Eliza was protected from harm by the barrier star, she was reluctant to give the messenger up to the Mancers. She wanted to know what he (or perhaps she) meant to tell her.
For his part, Charlie felt terribly guilty that his little prank had ended with them being caught in the tunnels, and he was thenceforth a perfect guide. As an act of conciliation, he showed Nell all around the grounds and took her to the Portrait Gallery to see Eliza’s portrait while Eliza resumed her lessons with Foss and Kyreth. When her lessons finished each day she ran straight outside, thinking she understood how prisoners must feel upon being released from jail. Curiosity winning over fear, the three of them ventured again into the dungeons but found no one and nothing.
“Whatever it was, it’ll nay hang around here now that the Mancers might know where to find it,” said Charlie.
“But where else could it have gone?” asked Eliza.
Charlie shrugged. “The Citadel is a big place, aye. I spec there are a lot of hiding spots for a creepy ghost-thing.”
“We dinnay know that it’s a ghost,” said Eliza.
“We heard it, and then it was gone!” said Nell. “There was nowhere to run away to. We were at a dead end!”
“Either way, I dinnay think you’re going to find it by looking,” said Charlie.
“So how am I going to find it?” she demanded.
“By waiting,” he replied. “If what it has to tell you is so important that it’s lurking around in the Mancer Citadel while the Mancers try to magic it out of its hiding spot, it’ll find you again I spec.”
And Eliza had to agree that looking for the messenger seemed futile. They spent their afternoons working on the tree fort instead. By now they had an altogether unnecessary rope ladder leading up the trunk and had built several new platforms. At the top of the tree they had fixed an old wicker laundry basket to serve as a crow’s nest and draped a colourful towel as a flag. The whole thing looked like a deformed boat obscured by foliage. That was Nell’s contribution, for Nell was obsessed with pirates and greatly mourned the fact that none ever came to Holburg. Eliza was glad that Nell and Charlie seemed to get on so well now – it would have been a difficult summer if they hadn’t – but she felt left out, stranded in the Library or in Kyreth’s study for most of the day. Even when she could play outside with them, her injured arm prevented her from being much use as a builder or swinging off branches the way they did. And so she was delighted when, a few days after Nell’s arrival, Foss requested that both Nell and Charlie come to Eliza’s lesson with her.
~
Nell stared straight up at the cliff-like bookcases, her eyes round and her mouth slightly open, and then looked at Foss with the same sort of wonderment, and then back up, and so on. Charlie, on the other hand, was fidgety and restless, as if Magic and the legendary Mancer Library interested him not in the least.
“Deep Listening is a complicated kind of Magic,” said Foss to the three children seated opposite him, directing his words mainly at Eliza. “It can be practiced on a number of levels, on others or even on oneself. My hope is that once we have mastered the basics, it will enable you to Listen to yourself, to find that which is buried deep within you and unlock your power. For if you cannot, I do not know what will become of you, Eliza Tok.”
“Would I nay just go home?” suggested Eliza.
“This is your home now, Eliza! This is where you belong! It is true, you have shown no propensity for Magic except under threat of imminent death, but do not be discouraged! We will begin with the simplest and most straightforward form of Deep Listening: listening to the thoughts of a willing partner. Before we begin, let me make the o
bvious point that the language of thought, if I may call it this, and the language of speech are entwined but not identical. Furthermore, different beings think in very different ways.”
Nell nodded sagely.
“The act of Deep Listening requires an acute sensitivity,” said Foss. “Understanding the mind of another is more difficult than you might imagine. This morning, I wish to make a simple demonstration, which is why I asked for your assistance.” Here he nodded graciously to Nell and Charlie. “Miss...Molly, is it? I would like you to think in words, as if you were speaking in your mind.”
“Nell,” said Nell.
“Pardon me?” said Foss.
“My name,” said Nell. “It’s nay Molly. It’s Nell.”
“Yes, of course, of course! As I said. Please go ahead.”
Nell adopted a look of intense concentration. Charlie kicked his feet against the leg of the table impatiently and was silenced by a bright glare from Foss.
“You do not need to work any Magic, Eliza Tok. I will open the channels between you myself. All you need to do is Listen. Do not look at Millie; that will only distract you. Look anywhere you like, or close your eyes if that helps. Be aware that Millie is thinking, and aware only of that. It is a message for you and you must simply reach for it, the way you would reach for a book or a saltshaker. But you will not reach with your hand, of course – you will reach with your Deep Senses. Do you understand me, Eliza Tok?”
“Nay, hardly,” said Eliza.
In fact the whole exercise was much simpler than she had expected. The Spellmaster’s voice was a hypnotic thrum. Eliza concentrated on her desire to know what Nell was thinking, which was easy enough. As Foss chanted, she felt something rolling out behind her eyes, and then it was as if she didn’t have eyes at all but just this rolling-out sensation. This must be what it’s like to have whiskers or antenna, she thought – to sense everything around you with little feelers in the dark. She felt her mind guided firmly by something outside herself until she wrapped the rolling-out feeling around Nell’s thoughts. The thoughts were unmistakably Nell’s, even though there was no voice by which to recognize them. The thoughts belonged to Nell more absolutely and uniquely even than her voice: Eliza, can you hear me? Think of what we could do if we could read each other’s minds! We’d nary need to pass notes in class again.
Eliza giggled and opened her eyes. Nell was grinning at her and even Foss had the faintest trace of a smile on his face.
“Well done. Now, Miss...Miss, let your mind wander. Do not try to make words this time or communicate with Eliza directly, but leave your mind open to her.”
Nell looked confused by these instructions, but she nodded.
“Once more,” said Foss to Eliza, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Foss began his low chant again and the rolling out and seeking was even easier this time, like rediscovering a muscle she hadn’t known she had. What came to her was a strange sort of babble, a tangle of words and images and feelings, ideas fully formed but not articulated, a great rush of excitement and frantic curiosity, and she knew that this was Nell’s mind at work. It was like stumbling into somebody else’s dream, and it made her uncomfortable. She withdrew immediately.
“So you see,” said Foss, “that hearing is not at all the same as understanding.”
Nell gave Eliza a puzzled look and Eliza smiled feebly at her. She felt rather treacherous, like she’d just been spying or had stolen her best friend’s diary.
“Now, Nina, I want you to shut Eliza out. Think of something you do not wish her to know and hold it tightly to yourself, as you would a secret. Eliza, once more.”
“It’s Nell,” said Nell.
Foss gave her a bewildered look.
“Never mind,” she muttered.
After a few false starts Eliza felt a push from elsewhere, presumably from Foss, and found herself reaching towards Nell again with the rolling-out feeling. But there was nothing at all to find. It was like feelers coming up against a blank wall. She opened her eyes, unwilling to push farther. Nell looked sheepish this time and Eliza began to dislike the whole exercise. Surely Nell had no secrets from her! She had just been pretending, doing what Foss told her to.
“To pry into a closed mind is very difficult,” said Foss. “It generally can only be worked on humans or other weak beings. While finding your way into a mind that is open to you is easy enough, it can still be dangerous. That is what I would like to demonstrate next. Eliza, reach into my thoughts. I will draw you in and release you the moment you wish it.”
This Eliza found extremely difficult. Communicating with Nell in such an intimate way felt quite natural, but trying to reach into Foss’s mind was altogether different. Even with Foss pulling her onwards, it was difficult to quell her instinctive resistance and let herself be drawn in. When it happened, it was like putting her ear to a door behind which there was a roaring fire. There was the terrible cracking and groaning of flame devouring air, and a blazing heat filled her head. She reeled away in shock and pain. Nell put a hand out to steady her, frightened. Foss smiled apologetically.
“Lesson learned,” he said. “I apologize if I’ve hurt you, Eliza, but it is important you understand this well. You must never try to Listen to a being’s thoughts unless you are prepared for the way they think and know how to decipher it. Where is the boy?”
Charlie had slipped off his chair and gone skulking among the stacks, but he reappeared immediately when Foss spoke.
“Can we go now?” he asked. Nell looked at him as if he were insane.
“Let us try once more with him,” said Foss shortly. “Open your mind to her, child.”
Eliza’s stomach did a little somersault and she closed her eyes. She had been wondering for some time what went on in Charlie’s mind, but she didn’t want him to know she was Listening to his thoughts. Would he be thinking about Nell? Foss chanted and she rolled out and around Charlie’s thoughts. She caught images of the tree fort, the stacks of books oppressive and musty. He was bored and wanted to go outside. But she realized immediately that there was something not quite right about it all. These were cardboard cut-out versions of thoughts, nowhere near as alive and buzzing as Nell’s. There was something else behind them, a sound she couldn’t quite make out. She ignored all the flimsy thoughts in her way and made instead for that faint sound. It washed over her, almost like the music of whales she remembered from Holburg in the wintertime when they passed through the archipelago, or like waves echoing in deep underwater caves. Perhaps there were words too, but no words she could understand. It was such a lonely sound and so strangely familiar that it brought tears to her eyes. She saw undulating images now, figures made of shadow and light moving towards her. Suddenly afraid, she struggled to free herself from the peculiar Magic of it. She said, “Charlie?” and it all yanked away from her, hard. She was in the Library. Nell and Charlie and Foss were staring at her.
“What were you thinking just then?” she asked Charlie.
“Nothing,” he said. “I couldnay think of anything to think of.”
Foss was watching him carefully.
“That is enough from the two of you,” he said to Charlie and Nell. “Eliza and I have more work to do.”
Charlie dashed out with Nell following more reluctantly, disappointed that she had not learned to cast any spells. Eliza was puzzled. Were the minds of different people so very different? Foss had heard it too, of course, but he said nothing.
“You and I will continue our lesson in the Treasury, Eliza Tok,” said Foss.
Eliza was more than a little alarmed at this. Her last visit to the Treasury had resulted in her nearly being eaten, but she followed Foss to the west wing. This time, to her relief, they went to one of the upper floors. Foss made a door in the marble wall and they entered a room lit by torches. Eliza knew better by now than to ask who had lit them. The room was empty but for a low, circular, stone table, at the centre of which sat a glass sphere on a cushion.
“Is that f
or seeing the future?” asked Eliza in a whisper, for there were many stories told by village gossips about crystal balls and such.
“You cannot see that which does not exist,” said Foss dismissively. “The future has not yet come to pass, and so it does not exist, and so there is nothing to see, Eliza Tok! There are prophecies, of course, certain ways of knowing certain things, of interpreting the Deep Secrets of Cause and Effect, but nothing absolute. No, this is the Vindensphere, for finding an object or being that you seek. It is one of the most valuable tools of the Shang Sorceress, used to discover beings that have crossed over. We tried to use it to find you for many years, but your mother’s spell prevented that. Today I want you simply to go into a trance. The Vindensphere will create the trance for you. You may see things, and we will discuss what you saw and what it might mean. Perhaps the Vindensphere will lead you to that which is lost within you. Perhaps it will show you your Guide. We will come later to seeking; this is just a beginning.”
Eliza looked at the Vindensphere apprehensively.
“What do I do?” she asked.
“Look into it, Eliza Tok. Seek the centre of it. The Magic is all in the Vindensphere. Let it do the work for you.”
Eliza made an impatient gesture. She wanted him to stop talking now, for she saw something in the centre, a strange white flicker like a little flame. There was something inside the flame, something that was important to her. Foss was still talking but she didn’t know what he was saying. She could not take her eyes from the small moving shape within the sphere. It was not a flame but more like a tiny rip in the air, something she could crawl through. She had no body anymore and so it was easy. She dove down through the emptiness towards that opening and into it. Snow crunched underfoot and the sky was white and reeling overhead. She gasped for breath, and the cold entered her lungs like daggers. Something was moving nearby, white on white. On heavy paws it moved, sleek fur and muscle rippling. It was a white tiger, black-eyed, lethal and beautiful. She followed it through the snow towards a dark shape in the distance. She could hear voices now, somewhere at the edge of her consciousness, trying to push their way in, but she would not let them. She had to know where the tiger was leading her. It glanced over its shoulder now and then to ensure she was following, and as the outside voices crowded tight around her the tiger broke into a run. She kept up with it easily. The dark shape it made for was getting larger now, and soon she could see it was a man in the snow. He was lying down, bound hand and foot. The voices burst in, “Eliza, come back! Eliza!” but she ran on. Another kind of speech broke over her. It held an ancient and terrible command that would tear her away from this white world, but she resisted it, she fought it with all her might. She dropped to her knees by the figure in the snow and turned him over.
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