Klaybear nodded in agreement and noticed his wife do the same.
“These doors?” Delgart asked. “There are more?”
Thal nodded. “That’s what it says, so there must be others.”
Delgart reached out and placed his right hand in the space indicated. The spot glowed green, then went dark. The others imitated his action, with the same green glow.
Tevvy looked at them. “I can’t reach that spot!”
“Look under the inscription,” Thal said and pointed down.
There was a smaller hand-shaped indentation; Tevvy put his right hand on it, and they saw the same green light flare and go dark. He smiled up at them. “Very clever, that is. Shall we go see what they prepared?”
Chapter 17
. . . a secret refuge
prepared by foresight of Founders
wondrous room beyond even the reach
of twisted Gar and perverted minions
beyond even touch of time itself. . . .
from ‘The Great Year’, a song cycle by Sir Kovar, written 3553
The stairs, after a short space, spiraled down and descended into a cavern, and they heard the sound of water falling, echoing lightly. The air in the room was crisp and clean, in spite of the fact that no one had entered this cavern in over three-thousand years. Tevvy sniffed the air suspiciously, then looked up and to his right at the water falling from the ceiling.
“Are you certain,” Tevvy asked, “that no one has entered this cave in three-thousand years? The air smells too fresh and clean for this cavern to have been sealed for all that time–there must be another way in.”
Klaybear shook his head. “No one could have,” he replied, “since only Blakstar’s sword could open the door.”
“Not necessarily,” Thal inserted. “There are ways of passing through solid matter, if one is sure there is a space open behind the wall, so to speak.”
“I’ve heard of that orthek,” Klaybear said; “if there is no space behind the wall, the tekson would be trapped inside the stone forever. I cannot imagine anyone trying to pass through a stone thinking that there might be a space behind it.”
“I did not say anyone would try it,” Thal shrugged, “only that it was possible.”
“I don’t think it really matters,” Delgart said, “since the founders created this space specifically for us. Let’s see what they left for us.” He strode down the ramp ahead, next to the waterfall and pool, to the cavern’s floor and a stone door directly ahead, and Tevvy followed him looking warily around; the rest followed more slowly.
Tevvy squatted next to the pool, dipping one hand into the crystal clear water. He sniffed the water dripping from his hand, then touched one wet finger to his tongue, carefully tasting the water. After a moment, he dipped his cupped hands into the pool, taking a drink. He looked at the kortexi who stopped next to him. “It is safe,” he said, “and quite pure, although there is a hint of dust.”
Blakstar looked confused. “Dust?” he asked.
Tevvy nodded. “The water falling from above both keeps the air in here circulating and cleans it: that is why there is little dust anywhere in this room.”
“Ingenious,” the kortexi noted.
Tevvy turned to join the others, who had stopped in front of the door. Blakstar rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he faced the door.
Tevvy watched as Thal ran his fingers over the inscription on the door, mumbling to himself, stopping and tapping between the words. The maghi looked puzzled.
“What is it?” Klare asked.
“Well, most of this seems quite plain,” Thal replied, “and notice that it includes the symbols of the first three orders, along with this crown shape beneath the three. The three are easy enough, as they represent the orders established by Karble,” he pointed to a water vessel-shaped symbol with the Great Eye in the center of the vessel, which Tevvy recognized as the same as the devices on Blakstar’s gear, “Shigmar,” he pointed to a hand symbol with an eye in the palm, “and Melbarth,” he pointed to an eye-shaped symbol. The crown also had the eye symbol at the center of the band, with five points surmounted by five stars. “I must conclude that this is the symbol of the seklesem?” he finished with a question and looked at Marilee.
Marilee shook her head. “No, we use a crossed sword and bow, and always have, as far as I know.”
Thal’s brow wrinkled; he turned back to the door. “The indentation of the right hand, as we saw above, is here where the handle should be,” he pointed, “so this must be another of the doors mentioned above and that we, alone, can open.” He pointed to the inscription. “Have either of you,” he looked at the kailum, pointing to something incomprehensible to Tevvy on the door, “come across this construction?”
“The first word,” Klare said, “is easy enough–kelnan–that is ‘chamber,’ or ‘storeroom.’ But I’ve never seen the second–ditistas.”
Klaybear shook his head, so Thal went on. “It is a compound; diti refers to ‘time,’ or ‘season,’ but stas isn’t really a word alone–sta- is the root that means ‘to stand, place, or stay put.’”
“It is a contraction!” Klare exclaimed; “something was left out . . . ,” Klare went on but was interrupted by her husband.
“Or formed part of the first word,” Klaybear put in, “ti-sta, stati, but that does not make sense, since that means ‘place,’ so it would be the ‘chamber of time-place.’”
Thal’s eyes widened. “Not stati, but sista, sistare, which is the verb ‘to set, place, stop, or stand,’ which means it is the chamber of time-setting, time-stopping, or time-standing . . . , which is a stasis chamber!” He looked at Klaybear and Klare.
“I think you are right,” Klaybear said softly.
Tevvy was confused by their conversation; he looked at Blakstar, Marilee, and Delgart and saw that they also looked puzzled, so he asked the obvious question: “What is it?”
“It is a chamber in which time does not move,” Klare said, “where time stands still.”
“I did not think that such a place was possible,” Thal said, “although I once read a passage taken from an original text by Melbarth, commented on by someone in the second millennium, where Melbarth, in the original, hinted that it might be possible to create such a space, but the later commentator disagreed.” Thal’s brow wrinkled. “We have been able to create small, temporary stasis fields, like are used to keep food from spoiling, or to keep dust out of a guest room, but they don’t really stop time, and only last until disrupted, when someone dispels the field to consume the food or enter the room.” He mused to himself, tapping his chin with one finger.
“Does that mean,” Tevvy asked, still not sure that he understood, “that whatever the founders, as you name them, left for us inside this cavern, is exactly as the day they placed it there?”
“Well,” Thal replied, “the day they activated the field, yes.” He was lost in thought for a moment before speaking again, softly, almost to himself. “I wonder if they left us any books?”
“Only one way to find out,” Delgart said, placing his hand in the indentation that would open the door. Tevvy saw a flash of purple light, although barely visible, and the door slid open smoothly. He saw a short passage behind the door that opened into a larger room, and from his narrow view through the doorway, he could see a table surrounded by chairs.
Thal gasped. “Melbarth did it!” he exclaimed, pointing to the right, just inside the door. “He created a space in which time could be stopped at will.”
Tevvy glanced in the direction the maghi pointed and saw another inscription in the same kind of runes.
“How?” Delgart asked.
“It says, simply, ‘close the door and time will stop outside,’” Thal replied.
“Stop outside?” Tevvy said, “as if ‘time’ were a person we could keep outside this room,” he laughed.
“No, time outside this room will stand still, relative to this room,” Thal said.
Tevvy was
confused, looking around and seeing similar looks on his taller companions’ faces; they stood waiting for further explanation. Tevvy spoke. “What do you mean, ‘relative to this room?’”
Thal’s face lit up. “That is how he solved it!”
“What are you talking about?” Tevvy asked, still waiting for an explanation.
“Time outside this room cannot really stop,” Thal answered, “that would cause the universe to cease to exist.”
“So how can this be a stasis chamber?” Marilee asked an instant before Tevvy could ask the same question.
“What Melbarth did was create a space, or maybe a field,” Thal began, “that expands a single moment, so that, while we are inside this room with the door closed, the clock outside would tick only once whereas many hours, days, or years would pass in this chamber.”
“But you said,” Tevvy interrupted, feeling more confused by Thal’s explanation, “that anything they left in this room for us would be the same as the moment they left it; and now you are saying that if we close the door, only a second will pass outside while we could be in here for years? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Actually,” Klaybear put in, pointing to the inscription, “there is also a warning telling us that we cannot spend more than a few hours in here with the door closed, for we will age much more than a few hours.”
“How much?” Marilee asked, and Tevvy looked up at the seklesa and saw the same fear he felt mirrored in her face.
“If I’m reading it correctly,” Klaybear continued, “it starts out at about 12 to 1: 12 hours in here would be 12 seconds out there, but the ratio increases the longer one stays inside, doubling each day.”
Thal nodded, frowning at Klaybear. “I was getting to that part, but was bogged down by questions.”
“I still don’t understand,” Tevvy said, “are you saying that time does not stop in this room, it only slows down?”
The white maghi nodded. “And the longer one stays in the room, the slower time becomes outside, until a second out there would be an age of the world in here,” Thal continued. He held up his hand as Tevvy started to speak again. “Time is relative to the observer; in other words, if you went outside and closed us inside, spent an hour wandering around the sewers, then opened the door, we would still be standing here, as if you just closed the door. For us, we could close the door, wander around inside for an hour, then open the door, and you would be standing in exactly the place where you were when we closed the door.”
Klaybear and Klare nodded; the others still looked confused. Tevvy tried to protest again, to tell him that the explanation made no sense, but Delgart cut him off. “I do not understand how it works, nor is it ever likely that you or I will. So we should just accept that it works and move forward.” He looked at his brother and Thal. “How long can we safely stay inside?”
They both shrugged. “A few hours shouldn’t be a problem,” Klaybear said.
“I would say no longer than 12 hours at a time,” Thal added. “I would guess that things start to go funny after that, when the speed of time in the room begins to accelerate. Maybe they left something inside that will explain more plainly how long we should spend in here.”
“Maybe they never discovered,” Klaybear added. “Who would be willing to give up his life to find out?”
“So, do we close the door?” Delgart asked. Tevvy looked up and saw Thal, Klare, and Klaybear look at each other for a moment, then all three nodded.
“I think we can, for a short time,” Thal said.
Delgart turned and pushed the door closed; again, Tevvy saw a subliminal flash of violet light, which he supposed meant that the field was operating.
Blakstar and Marilee moved ahead of him into the main room. When Tevvy entered, he saw the kortexi moving around a long, wooden table to what looked like a small fountain in the wall on the other side, all the while rubbing at the bridge of his nose with one gauntleted hand. As Tevvy rounded the table he noticed that the fountain was very simple: a round pipe driven into the stone wall with a basin set into the floor. Blakstar dipped his cupped hand into the basin and tasted the water, and his face lit up. Tevvy looked inquiringly in his direction.
“It is a fountain of the Waters of Life!” Blakstar exclaimed.
“Are you sure?” Thal asked, moving around the table to join him. “It is an odd place to find such a fountain.”
Blakstar frowned. “Of course, I’m sure, since that is who I am.” He removed the special flask and refilled it.
“Look at these chairs!” Delgart exclaimed.
Tevvy looked up and saw that the others had stopped at the table and were examining the chairs. He moved closer to the table and saw that each chair was ornately carved with different designs, the same designs he had seen on the door: three had the crown designs, one at the head of the table, one to its left, and the third at the other end of the table, he discovered as he moved around the table. Two had the hand of Shigmar, together and to the right of the head; on the opposite side, next to the second crown chair was one with the eye of Melbarth, and one with the water vessel of Karble. Tevvy was drawn toward the stool that sat on the side with the pair of Shigmar’s chairs and had a new symbol: a dagger crossed with a key, with a coil of rope surrounding and intertwining the dagger and key. Tevvy gasped when he saw the symbol and started to dig in his pockets. He pulled out a scrap of parchment, yellowed and crumpled, which he flattened out next to the symbol. On the parchment was sketched in charcoal a nearly identical symbol. The others looked at the awemi, waiting for him to explain.
Tevvy looked up and saw that the others had gathered around him; he noticed their stares. “My father sketched this figure years ago,” he explained. “when he dreamed of heading his own order, a branch of thieves dedicated to law and order, using their skills in the cause of good. How could they have known this?”
Thal shook his head. “They must have looked into the future and seen it: that would take a powerful vukeetu, more powerful than any I’ve heard of.” He looked around at the chairs. “It appears these chairs are meant for each of us, although there is an extra.”
“No,” Klaybear said, “our brother Rokwolf is also one of the chosen.”
Tevvy pulled his staring eyes away from the symbol on what was obviously his chair and stuffed the bit of parchment back into a pocket. “I think I need to go back into the sewers, quickly,” he said without preamble.
“Why?” Delgart asked, sitting in the chair at the head of the table. The others moved to their chairs, with Marilee sitting at the opposite end, Klaybear to Delgart’s immediate right and Klare next to him.
Tevvy climbed onto his stool. “When I saw those two guards enter the sewers, you said, Klaybear, that it was unusual for them to be there.”
“Unless someone ordered them to enter the sewers,” Thal noted before Klaybear spoke.
“Maybe they were sent to look for us,” Marilee suggested.
Blakstar shook his head. “Not enough time had passed,” he said.
Delgart nodded. “You are right, not enough time had passed.”
“Unless,” Marilee said, “they have some kind of warning system set up.”
“I do not think they do,” Klaybear said, “and it would be unusual for them to be ordered to enter the sewers without leaving someone behind to watch the gate.”
“It is even more suspicious that they would enter the sewers from their barracks rather than their guard tower,” Tevvy put in.
“How do you know it is their barracks entrance?” Blakstar asked.
“Because the Headmaster gave me a sewer plan to study before I entered,” Tevvy replied.
“I agree that it is suspicious,” Blakstar said, “but I won’t allow you to go alone: I’m coming with you.”
“No, you cannot,” Marilee said, “none of us can. Remember that we just escaped from prison; any soldier who sees us will arrest us on sight.”
“It is worse than that,” Thal said.
“We are the only ones who know that Master Ghelvon was possessed by a kwalu,” Thal went on, “I should say, the only ones alive. What do you suppose will happen when someone discovers the bodies of Ghelvon and his apprentice, all the soldiers stationed in the dungeon dead, and all of us escaped from prison?”
Tevvy saw both the wetham go white; he nodded and noticed that Klaybear also had nodded; Blakstar looked surprised, then angry.
Delgart spoke. “They will conclude that we managed to escape and kill the guards, Ghelvon, and his apprentice while escaping.”
“And where is the only place that we could go?” Thal asked.
“The school dungeon,” Klaybear said, “connects to both the guard tower and the barracks.”
“And the sewers,” Tevvy added, “so the only place we could have gone is into the sewers.” Tevvy thought for a moment. “I really need to go back out there and open the gate.”
“Why open the gate?” Blakstar asked.
“So they think we have left Shigmar that way,” Tevvy replied.
“But you said,” Marilee noted, “that we could not pass that way, as the path had fallen away.”
Tevvy frowned. “If I had a coil of rope,” he said, “I could make it look as if we did.”
Marilee shook her head. “That might work until someone checked the bottom of the cliff for our tracks, where they would find nothing.”
“But aren’t you seklesem,” Tevvy said, “capable of erasing your tracks, so that no one can follow you?”
“Yes,” Marilee replied, “but it takes time, and the best trackers can detect just such an attempt, so it would be imperfect at best and detectable.”
The Redemption, Volume 1 Page 27