The Well of Life.
Chapter 25
Well, so much for that idea! Eilidh had assumed that if they walked into the Maelstrom, they would find the Well of Life in the eye of the storm. They had walked in one side and out the other: there was no eye. Clearly, they needed to think of something else.
“I'm open to suggestions,” Eilidh offered.
Rochelle spoke up, “The Wise One called it an Inter-Realm Gateway, yes?”
Eilidh agreed.
“Well, a regular gateway sits in a wall - it's a passing place. So maybe what we've found is the wall,” she suggested, “and somewhere in this wall we'll find the gate.” “That makes sense,” Eilidh conceded. “But we don't all need to go walking around, looking for a way in, so most of you should stay here then we'll know where we started from and won't go around in circles all day.”
“The gateway might turn out tae be just a slight change in the flow of Life, Eilidh,” Granite pointed out. “That'd need a Catalyst's eyes.”
“You could be right,” Eilidh agreed. “OK, you go clockwise and I’ll go anticlockwise.”
“Alright, I'm all set, but ye should nae go alone, lass. We dinnae know what could be out here.”
Taking a step closer to Eilidh, Phaer extended his arm and asked in his most formal tone, “My Lady, will you allow methe honour of escorting you?” Eilidh rewarded him with a dazzling smile, gave her very best curtsey, just like Mystaya had taught her, and placed her hand gently on his arm. Then, recalling their first morning in Shakaran castle, she channelled Hannah,to respond, “Why thank you, noble sir. I perceive that thou art a gentleman and I wouldst surely, methinks, be most pleased to grant my full acceptance of thy courtly offer.”
“That doth mean `yes`,” Hannah offered, helpfully.
Turning to Toli, the Catalyst asked, “You don't mind, do you?”
“Of course not! Why would I mind? Phaer's better able to protect you than I am. My magic's still a bit useless.” “I'm sorry, Toli. I know I've been neglecting you of late, but you're not useless. Don’t ever think th at. When this is all over, I promise we'll spend some time together as proper friends. You can tell me all your stories, you can ramble as much as you like and I won't interrupt once.”
Toli's face lit up. “That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me ! But it's OK, I understand you've been busy. Now you go with Phaer, and I'll go with the walking beard.” She mischievously tugged on Granite's whiskers.
“Hey!” he protested.
Toli giggled. “Sorry, I've been wanting to do that for ages. So, we all ready to go?” “No, we're not!” Granite huffed. “I dinnae need ye hangin' around gettin' underfoot. Eilidh needs protection. I on the other hand...” he unhooked his battle axe from his belt and weighed it in his hand, “don't!”
“Oh pleeeeaaase!” Toli pleaded, but Eilidh laid a gentle restraining hand on her arm.
“Don’t aggravate him,” she whispered. “You know he has these moods from time to time. Leave him be and he'll probably come back all smiles when he finds the gateway.”
Toli nodded, accepting her friend's counsel.
“Toli,” Eilidh announced in a louder voice. “I'm placing you in charge of our group here, OK?”
“OK,” Toli agreed. “I promise I won't let you down. Whatever needs to be done, I’ll do it.”
Eilidh couldn't imagine that anything at all would need to be done but she didn't want to burst her friend's bubble. “Good,” she said. “I know I can count on you.”
With that, she walked away with Phaer, Granite went in the other direction and soon they were all out of sight - it was impossible to see through the Maelstrom.
* * * * * Rochelle sat down with her books, notepad and charcoal stick, which she had brought along in the magic carry bag that Ganieda had supplied. She was keen to get in as much research as possible while on the road and grateful for the opportunity. Jayne, meanwhile, took herself off to one side and went through her battle training routines.
Brash was bored. Sitting around and waiting wasn't his strong point. Wandering over to Calandra, he said, “What do you say you and me go flying? We could scout around a bit, see what's out there.” As far as Calandra could tell there was nothing out there but the Wilderness. Still, it was kind of like a forest, the natural habitat of a silver dragon and she'd only just been cured of her dreadful paralysis, so she was itching to get into the sky. Given an excuse to go flying, then, she didn't need asking twice.
“Toli,” she ventured. “Brash and I were thinking – we're a bit useless down here. Do you think it would be OK if we went flying? You know, scout around and see what we can see?”
Toli nodded. “I don't see why not. Could be good to know what's out there so we don't get taken by surprise, not that I think that's likely, I mean who else would be out here in the middle of nowhere?”
Callie took that as a yes, and a moment later, two metallic dragons, silver and bronze, took to the air. Soon they were specs in the distance and then lost in the clouds.
“Oh, this being in charge business is rubbish!” Toli complained to Hannah. “I'm not cut out for authority. Why don't you take over? Have your own command unit such as we are.”
Hannah liked that idea immensely. “If thou art willing to transfer thy burden of command unto me, I shalt be most pleased to accept and expedite my duty to the best of my ability.”
“Great, have fun with it. Seeya later!” With that she began to walk away.
“Witherest thou away?” Hannah asked.
“That means, `Where are you going, you sneaky little hobbit`?” Bunny translated, helpfully.
Hannah looked aghast at the implication that she might even think such a thing about a friend and comrade.
“Well OK, I might have paraphrased a bit,” the sumorityl admitted, “but the point still stands: what are you up to? You promised Eilidh you'd stay here in charge.”
“Actually,” the magician countered, “I promised I'd do whatever needed to be done.”
Bernice considered that for a moment. “Good point, so you did. You're catching on – that one's almost worthy of me.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”
“It is, but you still haven't answered my question: what are you up to?”
Toli shrugged, innocently. “I thought I'd follow Granite.”
Bunny raised her eyebrows. “He won't like it,” she warned. “He told you to stay out of his way.”
“Since when do I take orders from him?”
Bunny laughed and applauded. “Good girl! Well done! Never knew you had it in you!”
“I promised Eilidh I'd do whatever needed doing and I think someone needs to keep an eye on that dwarf– you know what he's like when he's in one of his moods. I'm just keeping my promise.”
“Brilliant!” Bunny shouted, appreciatively, wiping away a tear of laughter. “You go get him, girl!”
Toli nodded, sadly. “Yes,” she replied. “It might come to that.”
Without a word of explanation for that remark, she ran off around the Maelstrom in a clockwise direction.
* * * * *
Drizdar was taking a well-earned break in his tower, enjoying a glass of elven spring wine when his communications device began to ring. Putting his drink down on the desk, he answered the call.
“Master, it's me,” came the voice of his agent.
“Well of course it is!” Drizdar snapped, irritably. What a pointless thing to say.“Who else would it be? Report.” “We're here, Master. We haven't found a way in, yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I've managed to slip away so I could tell you. Now might be a good time for you to get over here and take control.”
“Excellent!” Drizdar enthused. “You've done well. Very well indeed. Can you give me your location?”
“Not a place name, no - we're just in the heart of the Wilderness somewhere - but I memorised the coordinates from the map.”
The Supreme War Master levitated a pen out of a p
ocket in his robes and caused it to write down the details on a pad on his desk as he wiggled his index finger. The pen flew back into his pocket and Drizdar went to grab his note. In his haste, his stone foot slipped and he had to grab his desk to save himself from falling, knocking over his glass in the process, spilling wine all over the pad.
On the other end of the line, his agent heard the glass smash. “Master? Is everything alright?”
“Yes, yes!” Snapped the War Master, irritably, absently mopping up the spillage with some other random papers. “Just my damn foot. I keep forgetting I can’t move like that anymore. Anyway, never mind that,” he said, dismissing the whole event. He checked that the relevant piece of paper. It was dry enough and although the ink had smudged a bit, it was still legible, so he put it safely in his pocket before anything else could happen to it. He’d clean up the rest of the mess later. “Once I'm at these coordinates,” he continued, “will you be easy to find?”
“Well, you can't miss the Maelstrom,” his agent reported. “That's what Eilidh has decided to call it, and it does fit. It’s like an oversized Life Eddy. The power here is incredible if we just knew how to tap into it.”
“Oh, I already know that - my former Master AkarSel taught me.”
More accurately, Niltsiar had taught AkarSel, and Drizdar stole his Master’s notes. “I didn't hand quite everything over to the Council as evidence. One or two things I kept for myself. Since then, I've had the best part of two centuries to adapt his techniques so as not to use raw magic the way he did. That's what Niltsiar would have us do and I will not allow such an abomination of magic to exist! But the power of the Maelstrom is insignificant compared to what I want.”
“The Well of Life,” said his agent.
“Indeed. The Well of Life. With that power, I shall destroy our greatest enemy, turn these chaos creatures into dust and finally take my place as Ruler of the Council of Magic. And best of all, the people will love me for it! Imagine that! The Master of Dark Magic will be the Hero of the People and Saviour ofMajaos! That'll tie the powers of Light in knots for millennia!”
“And our bargain?” His agent asked.
“Oh yes, I always keep my bargains. I will rule the Council and the Church of Life will have a new High Cardinal - my own personal Catalyst. After all, who else would I trust to stand by my side other than the agent who gave me the key to my ultimate power in the first place? Lord High Cardinal GraniteLongbeard. Yes, that has a good ring to it, don't you think?”
“Yes, Master Drizdar. Thank you.”
“No, thank you. Prepare for my arrival.” With that, the Supreme War Master deactivated his device...
...And Granite dropped his as it burst into flames in his hand.
“Traitor!” spat the voice of a hobbit.
“So you followed me, after all,” Granite observed, turning to face his accuser. “I suppose I should have seen that coming.” “I thought I heard you before,” the magician told him. “When we were caught in that Temporal Trap. But with all the weird chronomagic flying around I couldn't be sure. I'd hoped that maybe it wasn't you, or perhaps it was but on some alternative simulation track and in this one you hadn't really done it or something. But then we got here and first chance you got you sneaked off and you were obviously very keen on being alone. I couldn't help but get suspicious.”
“Well done you!” Granite patronised her. “It doesn’t matter. If Fireflash - a cooking spell - is the best you can manage, this won’t be much of a contest.”
“You’ve never taken me seriously, have you?” Toli accused him. “Why should I?” Granite shot back. “You’re nothing but Eilidh's lapdog.” He mimicked Toli's voice as he mocked, “Oh, and Eilidh, one time, my Dad ate a dwarf under the table! Oh and Eilidh, when I was at home, me and my friend went exploring in some tunnels but there was a door in the way so we went home. Oh, and Eilidh, I once ate a whole plate of onions for second breakfast!”
“That's quite a good impression,” Toli remarked, “and while we're talking about voices, it seems to me that yours has changed a bit.” “Och, ye mean me ol' dwarf highland brogue, lassie? Would that be what yer meanin'? Aye! Because all dwarves talk like that, don't they? Ha! I've never been near the highlands in my life. I'm a city dwarf from Baltacha. But as a bard, the traditional accent draws the crowds and an entertainer should always give the public what they want. Justlike you always try to give Eilidh what she wants.”
“Is there something wrong with that?” “It's pathetic you're pathetic!” He put on an approximation of Eilidh's voice as he continued. “You're not useless, my friend, honest!” He said. “But all the time she's thinking the truth: You are useless. Useless and pathetic. Magician? You're an insult to that order. Cooking spells are your limit. But of course, you're only Life Calling, aren't you? It must be terribly hard for you knowing that a child with the Life Gift could do naturally what it's taken you years to learn.”
“There's more to me than just my magic,” Toli objected. “And the reason I follow Eilidh is because I respect her and she respects me. It’s called friendship!” “Friendship? Bah! First ch ance she got, she went off with the ranger. Don't you get it? She chose him over you. And who can blame her? He's intelligent, good looking - for an elf - charming and best of all he's now got magic - the Life Gift. Get it? The Life Gift, not just the bloody Calling like you. Back at the castle, when she sent out the two teams - my team didn't really need a magician along, but she sent you anyway.”
“To keep an eye on you, actually.” “Rubbish, she doesn't suspect a thing about me. She just wanted you out of the way. She wanted to be left alone to study with Rochelle and play with the princess. She didn't want you in her life - she never did. Well, maybe at the beginning when she was just starting out. She was desperate, she'd have said yes to anybody. Shethought a magician would be useful...but you're not useful, are you? You’re useless! Useless and pathetic!”
“Stop it,” Toli said, voice quavering slightly.
Granite ignored her plea. “She found that out pretty quick and since then - think about it - when has she ever spent time with you?”
“When she can, she's busy. I-” “Busy? BUSY? Ha! When has she ever chosen to be with you when Phaer is around? Or Rochelle? Or Princess Mystaya? Or anybody else? She spends more time alone than she does with you! In fact, I bet Eilidh secretly hates you! Hates and despises the pathetic little mouth on legs that she’s saddled with! She’s just too polite to say so.”
“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” Toli screamed. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. Seein g that, Granite pressed harder. “Why?” he asked. “I'm just making you see the truth! Isn't that what Eilidh always says? `Reality is reality and no amount of wishing is ever going to change that`. Do you get it now?” he roared, advancing on her menacingly. “The reality is, she’d rather be alone than have to listen to any more of your incessant babbling! You're a joke, Tolbrietta! A pathetic little joke who's not even funny! She keeps pushing you away, again and again but you just won't get the message! Well, don't worry. Once she gets us to the Well of Life, we won't need Eilidh any more, will we?”
Toli backed away, terrified. “Keep back, I'm warning you!” “Warning me?” he laughed. “Why? What are you going to do? Cook me to death? Dwarves have tough hides - it'll simmer for ages, but I can kill you with one swipe of my axe. Before I do, though, I just want to tell you one last thing.” He lowered his voice, conspiratorially. “You don't know Eilidh as well as you think you do. I'm a bard - people talk to me and I'm a very good listener. And I've heard things about Eilidh that'd turn your hair white. You know she never talks about her family, right? Her background? Where she comes from? I wonder why that could be, hmmm? I'll tell you why - because she knows that if she told anyone the truth - the truth she claims to hold so dear, that is - nobody will want to know her, just like in Merlyon. Everybody hated her back there, you know. Oh yes! I know all kinds of things about Eilidh and I'm going to let you in on the se
cret but don’t worry, you won't live long enough to accidentally tell anyone. The only thing that's going to `just slip out` is your insides!
“While you look forward to that, then, here's the headline news: Eilidh is a whore. Or as good as. She's a whore's unwanted get, abandoned at birth because even her mother hated her guts. She’s a walking disease, our Eilidh. If the ranger's got any designs on her, he's signing his own death warrant. He sleeps with her once just once.” The dwarf mimed a finger across his throat. “She’s the kind of girl who could leave a trail of broken hearts behind her...literally broken, that is. Hearts burst open, torn and bleeding - that's how her lovers will die. That's what your precious Eilidh is. But she hides it, lies about it while she claims to search for truth. She wouldn't ever tell you, would she? Her socalled friend!”
“She doesn't need to tell me,” Toli told him, remarkably calmly. “Why? Oh no, don't tell me. Eilidh is her own person with her own life and ent itled to her own secrets. Friendship doesn't come with conditions. Friendship is accepting her as you find her. She has no obligation to tell you anything she doesn't want to and you have no right to demand otherwise, or some such thing, am I right?”
Toli stopped retreating and stood her ground. “No,” she answered. “That’s not it.”
This was unexpected. “Oh, go on then, I’ll bite: why?” Granite asked.
“Because I already know,” Toli stated, matter of factly.
“What?” “Of course I know – I was living in Merlyon at the same time as her! Not that I believe everything I read in a newspaper, of course. And you're wrong about something else, too: not everyone hated her in Merlyon. Attitudes were changing. People were letting go of old prejudices, and we certainly didn't blame a daughter for the actions of her mother. The other students at the Church of Life - I knew quite a few of them and frankly they were just jealous. They were jealous of Eilidh's intelligence, her insight, her ability to reason and think her way through the most complex of problems while they were still trying to understand the question. They were jealous, so they bullied her and her background just gave them more ammunition to shut her out of their social circles and damage her self-esteem so that she couldn't see that there were others, like me, who would have gladly been her friend. If only she’d let us! But you wouldn't understand that, because you obviously don't have the first idea about friendship. I will stand by Eilidh to the end. No matter what. I'll do anything I can to protect her. From Niltsiar, from Z'rcona...or from you! And one last thing,” she added, a dangerous look growing in her eyes. “You really should have paid more attention to my magician's skills. I'm not limited to cooking spells any longer - remember what I did to Z'rcona at the Temporal Trap? Let me refresh yourmemory!”
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