by Martin Ash
iii
In the event, Leth was met by a servant of Urch-Malmain when he stepped through again into the Fortress of the Dark Flame. Rasgul, the Abyss warrior leader, had remained behind there when Leth had departed.
In contrast to Count Harg, whose company Leth had vehemently declined, Rasgul was someone for whom he had come to know some measure of respect, and even trust. He felt he knew elements of Rasgul's character. Rasgul was still unquestionably Urch-Malmain's creature, yet in him Leth had perceived a nobility of spirit and strength of character that he admired. In Harg, on the other hand, all traces of former nobility and character had been erased.
Still, Leth was under no illusion. Rasgul was a bound-slave, and Leth remained wary. As he stepped from the Portal he gave a tight smile.
Rasgul gripped his hand. 'Swordbearer! You have returned.'
'Not entirely by choice.'
'And your children also. And who is this?'
Leth introduced Shenwolf, adding, 'It is possible you have already met, at Glancing Memory.'
Shenwolf removed his helmet and Rasgul scrutinized his features for some moments, then shook his head. 'I think not.'
They moved from the passage. Leth swept his gaze around the vast gloomy cavern. 'How is it here?'
The cataract roared, throwing up great clouds of spume. The bloodlight had gone. A few Abyss warriors could be seen, and several disconsolate, rag-garbed children.
'Not good. I have done what I can, but many of the children lack the spirit even to eat. She destroyed them, utterly, when she took their dreams and their ability to dream.' Rasgul's eyes flashed briefly. 'You have come for the Soul of a God?'
'Aye. Do you know where it lies?'
'Its most probable location, yes. Nothing is certain, though. I will take you there.'
'Is it guarded?'
Rasgul hesitated. 'You have already slain its Guardian.'
'That is no guarantee that there are not others.'
'None have manifested so far. But we shall see. Come.'
They followed the Abyss warrior along the causeway and across the floor of the great cavern. They came to the area where the circular lake had been, in which the gross, blind massed-flesh form of Ascaria had wallowed and corrupted and finally been consumed. Nothing remained of the pink slurry that had formed her great bulk. The lake-floor was smooth, slightly undulating grey-black rock. The sodden remains of a cacodus lay splayed nearby.
As he walked Leth's hand gripped the hilt of the Orbsword which he wore again, buckled at his waist. Urch-Malmain had ordered it brought to him just before he left the Tower of Glancing Memory. 'I have inklings that it may be of use to you still, Swordbearer.'
Leth had questioned him, reluctant to accept the sword again, in the blade of which Ascaria's dreadful essence still mingled, bloodshot and obsidian. 'Is its job not done?'
'There are indications that it could still have a role to play, so I understand.'
Two perspiring Abyss warriors had laid the Orbsword upon the floor before Leth. They watched in some awe as he lifted it effortlessly and strapped it about his waist.
'And bring it back again if you can, Leth,' Urch-Malmain had added with a crafty wink. 'For safekeeping.'
*
Rasgul led them to the centre of what had been Ascaria's lake. Leth saw a large circular black hole there, a drainage conduit of some kind, so he assumed. With mild surprise he watched as Rasgul stepped into it and began slowly to descend. Rasgul looked back and said, 'Follow me. It is all right.'
Drawing closer Leth peered into the hole and saw narrow stone steps winding down the inner wall into darkness.
'There is a short passage beneath,' Rasgul said. 'Beyond it is the place where I believe you may find what you are seeking.'
They descended with care, Leth and Shenwolf guiding the children. The subterranean passage below was hewn into the living rock. Vestiges of the bloodlight clung in pockets to its walls and ceiling, helping to light the way. The air was humid and dank; Leth felt the sweat trickling steadily down his back, and his hair clung to his forehead and the nape of his neck.
They came upon a wide recess set into the wall. At its back a massive, slightly convex, upright slab of smooth, gleaming black rock barred the way.
'We can only guess at what lies on the other side,' Rasgul said. 'All attempts to move it have failed, and no implement I have brought to it has so much as chipped its surface. Nor can I find a mechanism to open it. But it is artificially and purposefully placed, there's no doubt of that. Something lies behind it.'
Leth placed his hands upon the slab and plied his weight against it. It was cold, marble-hard and, as Rasgul had intimated, ungiving. He slid his hands over its surface, investigated its edges. It seemed to have been fitted behind or into the natural rock, virtually seamlessly. The same applied at top and base.
'I have worked at the surrounding rock here, to try and determine how far the slab extends,' said Rasgul, pointing. 'You can see, I picked in more than a hand's length, but to no avail.'
Leth began to explore the tunnel wall proximal to the slab, but there was nothing, nothing that might indicate a means of shifting or bypassing the slab.
'Stand back, then,' he said. 'All of you. And do not come forward until I tell you.'
The others moved back around the angle of the tunnel wall. Leth drew free the Orbsword. He stared at the blade, where swam a dull flux of red and black. Its former radiance had dulled; a sense of unease crept over him as he held it. It quivered slightly in his grip, as though imbued with its own lifeforce.
Leth steadied his feet, lowering his body and lengthening and steadying his stance. He hefted the Orbsword high and with a guttural roar threw himself forward, swinging the sword down and around with all the strength he possessed. The blade slammed into the rock with a sound like oracular thunder. Where nothing else had made a mark, the Orbsword slid easily into the black rock, rending it from top to bottom. A thousand smaller cracks shot off across its face in all directions, until the visible slab was a complex latticework of tiny interlinking fissures.
Quite suddenly it imploded. Shards of rock and clouds of dust and grit blasted inwards and skittered across the floor of the chamber that lay beyond. As the fragments came to rest, Leth peered in through the settling dust.
He saw a circular, domed, apparently empty chamber. A gentle waft of cool air filtered out, dry and pure, helping to dispel the humidity of the tunnel.
'Stay back,' Leth cautioned the others again. 'Do not follow unless I call.'
He stepped apprehensively into the chamber. It was, as far as he was able to perceive, untenanted. He looked above his head at the domed ceiling. The chamber seemed to be moulded or forged of a single enormous block of the same gleaming black stone that had formed the entrance.
In the centre of the floor the only feature within the chamber was a single, small, low round circular dais or plinth, hardly more than a hand's breadth in height.
Leth approached it slowly, sheathing the Orbsword. Into his mind came words spoken to him by Triune as he had prepared to leave her tower in Enchantment. 'The Soul is elusive and shy. It may not immediately make itself manifest. It may appear at first not to be present at all. Remember, it has spent an eternity waiting to be found. But if it is there, you will know.' Curiously she had added. 'It may not know you at first. Be prepared to wait then, in silence and contemplation, for as long as it takes, until it is ready to reveal itself.'
Leth lowered himself to a kneeling position before the little dais. Instinctively he knew himself to be in a sacred space. He felt no fear, nor lack of certainty. A profound calm had settled upon him. He was imbued with the knowledge that something was about to happen.
Time passed - Leth waited, attuning his mind to the silent chamber. Gradually he sensed a subtle change. In the air? In the chamber itself? He could not tell. The round chamber, pleasantly cool and airy, grew slightly humid. Something stirred, hardly perceived at first, in the air a little way in front o
f Leth and above him, close to the ceiling.
A small cloud was forming, misty and diaphanous, a faintly luminous silver-grey. At first he questioned whether it might be a trick of the eye brought about by his having concentrated for so long. But the cloud became slowly more discernible, as though drawing hidden substance from the air itself. Silent, it hovered beneath the ceiling for some while, then slowly began to descend, a ball of billowing mist, and alighted upon the little dais. As it touched the surface of the dais its form changed; it became a lotus flower, its many soft, light-pink petals curling slightly inwards.
It rested unmoving under Leth's gaze, and very gradually its petals opened. At the centre of the blossom Leth now saw a tiny flame, incandescent with orange and rose-red light. The flame, brighter at its edges than its centre, quivered ever so slightly. Though it was in the middle of the lotus petals they were not burned. Its brightness and beauty entranced Leth. He was aware of other images arising in his mind. He made no attempt to interpret them, but maintained his focus upon the lotus and the flame.
The flame became a deeper, resplendent yet delicate rose-red. Leth slowly reached for his backpack and opened it, to bring from it a small white alabaster pyx which Triune had given him before he left Enchantment. The pyx was squat and bulb-shaped, with a long, slender, elegant neck. Leth placed it before him on the floor and removed its lid. A faint scent reminiscent of jasmine and exotic herbs reached his nostrils
'Come,' he said in a soft voice. 'Your long vigil is over. I will take you back. You are no longer sundered. You will be One again.'
The lotus petals and flame of the Soul began to change appearance again, dissolving slowly into vapour, tinged with rainbow colours. The vapour rose in a plume from the little dais and drifted to the pyx. It hovered for a moment at its edges, then formed into a stream of pale violet cloud and poured itself in.
When it was gone Leth replaced the lid and carefully returned the pyx to his backpack. He rested in contemplation for a few moments more, then rose to his feet and quietly left the chamber.
iii
One Soul.
The second, the Soul of the Orb, would not be as easily found, so Leth's instincts told him. Yet the urgency to locate it was ever greater, for Triune stood now on the threshold of re-empowerment. Should she elect for betrayal, now was the time, while Orbelon remained Soulless.
Without delay Leth returned to the Tower of Glancing Memory with Shenwolf, Galry and Jace and the alabaster pyx which now held Triune's Soul. Urch-Malmain was keen to question him, devouring him with greedy eyes, but Leth had little time for conversation.
'I want a chamber where I will not be disturbed,' he said.
'Might I enquire for what purpose?'
'No.'
Urch-Malmain glared at him. Leth said, 'Do as I ask, or risk delaying your return to Enchantment indefinitely. And do not seek to spy on me. Triune watches.'
With poor grace Urch-Malmain complied. Leth noted with a degree of satisfaction that roles had switched yet again. Anticipating his return to Enchantment above all else, the Noeticist placed no obstacles in Leth's way.
In a locked side-chamber, with only Galry and Jace for company, Leth knelt upon the floor and removed his sapphire helm and laid it beside him. He instructed the children to sit behind him, close to the wall, then waited until Triune's seeking device appeared before him. He brought forth the alabaster pyx.
'I have your Soul. We are alone. How now do I proceed?'
The device performed a series of simple motions in the air. Leth nodded to himself. He held out the pyx and raised its semi-translucent lid. A lambency stirred within; slowly a plume of brilliant pale vapour spilled from the slender neck. It gathered into a radiant ball in the centre of the chamber.
Simultaneously three small, blue-eyed children appeared, holding hands. As one they smiled at Leth, then at the radiant Soul, which flowed towards them. The children formed a circle around it, linking their hands so that the circle was unbroken. Then they stepped inwards, into the mist of the Soul.
As Leth watched, they merged, passing each into the other and into the light of the Soul, which itself dilated in order to enfold them all. In moments the Soul was absorbed and the three were gone. In their place stood a solitary child-figure, bathed in soft white luminescence.
'Aah, One at last! Union! No longer sundered,' breathed Triune. 'And purified! The Soul's long night of waiting has purged it. I am perfect. I am One. After so long! You have performed well, Leth, as I knew you should.'
'Triune, do you know what has become of Issul?' Leth demanded.
'She was taken by grullags as she tried to enter the Portal.'
'By grullags? Then-'
'The Legendary Child and Grey Venger, yes.'
Leth put a hand to his temple. 'Is she harmed?'
'Not yet. A seeking eye monitors their movements, but it can only observe.'
'You must help her, Triune?'
'I can do nothing more.'
'You must!'
'Leth, I am powerless. Even with my Soul I am restricted in the actions I may take beyond Enchantment, like any of us. Moreover, I am stretched. I am simultaneously in Enchantment, where I must contain the Reach Rider and withstand and work to undo Strymnia, and here, where I must safeguard your children. It leaves me nothing else.'
'Safeguard?'
'In your absence, Leth. You go now to find the Soul of the Orb. Your children cannot accompany you, surely you realize that? Do you wish them left alone with Urch-Malmain?'
Leth went cold. He had not considered this. Or had he simply blocked it from his conscious thoughts? It was obvious, now. Wherever he was to go, seeking Orbelon's Soul, he could not expect to take Galry and Jace. He knew he was to walk upon the Shore of Nothing, and then step beyond, into that unbearable void which filled him with such profound unease.
He would not take his children there.
'We of Enchantment are diminished in the formed world, you know that.' Triune said. 'If I can help Issul I will, but I can do nothing more than observe for now.'
'Where is she?'
'I do not have access to the eye at this moment. She was being taken westwards, into the forest.'
Leth was despondent. Behind him Galry and Jace were silent. Did they understand what was happening? Did they realize he was going to leave them again? And was Issul's life a price they would all have to pay for seeking the Soul of the Orb?
'Move quickly, Leth. There is so little time, and when I am free of obligations here, then I may be stronger elsewhere. Now, you must confer with Urch-Malmain before you depart.'
Leth rose heavily to his feet. He placed the sapphire helm over his head again, took the childrens' hands and, with Triune following, went back to Urch-Malmain.
*
At the sight of Triune in her new guise, Urch-Malmain's eyebrows clambered up his high, narrow forehead. Then his mouth twisted and he said, 'I didn't hear you knock.'
'It has been a long time, Urch,' said Triune softly. 'A long time.'
'Not long enough,' retorted the Noeticist, his dark eyes glittering. 'Now, why are you here? To watch over me?'
'Precisely. To watch over you, for fear that you may allow further harm to befall yourself.'
'Your solicitude is touching. Still, I think you have misjudged me, Triune. Orbelon too. All of you. I am not so evil, as you believe. After all, have not I, through Leth, been the agent that has rid this world of the scourge that would have reduced it to nothing?'
'Entirely selflessly, there can be no doubt,' replied Triune.
'And have I not given others here bright new lives, when their own had become unbearable?'
'We do not doubt your sincerity, Urch-Malmain,' Triune said, her face betraying nothing.
'I have been their transforming angel,' said Urch-Malmain.
'We know you across the ages to be a thoroughly good and kindly soul. A person devoted only to honourable and charitable acts. A true altruist, who at all times puts t
he welfare of others before his own. How could we think otherwise? That is why we are so pleased to welcome you back among us in Enchantment.'
Urch-Malmain scowled, then grinned a small, sly and private grin.
'Still, we cannot help but note that, for all your probity and incorruptibility, your actions upon this world have yet brought it to the brink of destruction, and may even destroy our own,' added Triune.
'Easily solved,' said the Noeticist. 'As I have already made plain, when I am free and unmenaced the Portal entities will dismantle the Portal and depart. All abominable energies will be dispersed harmlessly throughout the entire Unity of Dimensions.'
Leth stepped forward. 'I spoke earlier of wrongs that must be redressed and a balance that must be restored before you will be permitted to return.'
'You did,' replied Urch-Malmain sullenly.
'Then let us address those now, before I depart in search of the Soul of the Orb. Those persons whose minds and characters you have altered--'
'At their own request, I must point out!' interrupted Urch-Malmain.
'Perhaps, sometimes. Still, it is irrelevant. My question is, can the process be reversed?'
'Can their original selves be restored? Why, of course. That is, I have never attempted to do so, but I see no reason why it should not be. It is a relatively simple matter of removing what has been emplaced, that is all. For a person of my extraordinary abilities, it should pose no great problem.'
Leth strode over to Shenwolf, who reposed on a seat to one side of the room. 'Are you willing.'
Shenwolf nodded.
'There may be a cost,' Leth said. 'Your past was not easy.'
'Nevertheless I have to know,' said Shenwolf, standing. 'Whoever or whatever I may have been, I was wrong to try to escape it - if that is what I did. It was the act of a weak man, a man afraid of himself and of life itself. If I have done that, it shames me. Knowing that I may be restored gives me hope and the possibility of self-respect.'
'Then let him see your face.'