“Pardon?” Tristan said, but was ignored.
“What else is there? That you are blood kin both Valla and Danae is now revealed. That your wife nearly slept with him is known, and you had a son and did not know until it was too late has also been shared. Nemisin is dealt with, as is Kalgaia, and both understand forgiveness is an issue.” Adagin leaned forward intently. “What else is there?”
Torrullin was looking at Elianas as well, and Tristan had shifted to study him frankly.
“The one truth I am not stating here.”
“Do you understand, if you allow him to delve deep, as Lorinin, truth flows both ways? What is hidden from you also will no longer be so.”
Torrullin’s face shuttered. “Really.” It was a bland statement filled with nuance.
Elianas smiled. “Thank you for that.”
Adagin thumped the table. “To escape this place you must acknowledge truth.”
“Or take Shadow Wings back,” Elianas murmured.
Chapter 52
Everything is relative, given sufficient distance, whether of actual miles or the march of time. Hark to that, friend, because something hurtful this day may become something else along your road.
~ Book of Sages ~
Shadow Wing Fort
Crucible Cavern
TYMALL STOOD BEFORE THE glass cylinder in the cavern under the fort. He had not conceived of it and it had never possessed a parallel in the fort he once inhabited in the universe of his birth.
It stumped him. He saw the possibilities it heralded the moment he laid eyes on it, and yet its existence - unasked for, not of his imagination - bewildered him. How had it come to be in this place? And who deposited it? Who created it?
“These are the images of my scrying,” Tianoman said from behind him.
Tymall turned, hiding his surprise over his son’s uncanny ability for silence, and for what his words engendered inside. Those words meant this place was not created for him. Had it been deposited for the Vallorin of the Valleur?
Tianoman closed in. “Torrullin told me at my Coming-of-Age he and Samuel saw different images in the scrying bowl at my Naming. Torrullin saw Dragon doors, and, lo, today I am Vallorin. He also saw a cottage and garden, a normal life, and I spent huge amounts of time with my cousins at Samuel and Curin’s farm; a life close to the normality others take for granted. We were so free there, the three of us. And now the blue sphere Torrullin also saw is explained.” Tianoman lifted an eyebrow. “A place created from your imagination. There is more, but is as yet unexplained.”
He drew breath and closed in more, until he stood almost touching the glass. There was movement in the otherworldly ether within the cylinder.
“What did Samuel see?” Tymall asked.
“This. Four white pillars, black floor, silver cathron. Apparently silver was a common element, therefore my name. The door that shines, shining being.”
Tymall was silent, and then had to ask, “Did Samuel see this cylinder?”
Tianoman flicked him a look. “No.”
Relief filled the Warlock. “Why tell me?”
“I believe you are out of your depth with this. You did not envision it. You will use it and you already are, but this is not for you.”
“Is it for you?”
Tianoman gave a wry smile. “You do not deny it. And thus I am right. Is it for me? I hope not, but there must be a link of some kind.” A frown followed. “What it is escapes me.”
“It is a portal.”
“For who, father? Tannil? I do not think so.”
“And what do you think builds inside? If not Tannil?”
Tianoman stared at him directly. “Something else. I hope you know how to banish it.” He sent a glance over his shoulder. “Whatever this is, it will cause the kind of mayhem even a Warlock cannot withstand. Keep that circlet of yours fired, father.” He shrugged and left as silently as he arrived.
Leaving Tymall with ever strengthening premonitions of foreboding.
TIANOMAN FOUND TEROUX in the dark tunnel outside the cavern.
“You came back?” he blurted out. “Damn it, Teroux, why?”
Teroux sighed. “I could not stay away.”
“Cousin, please, heed the warning; this will not end well. They had to have told you so in the Dome. Please, man, listen to that.”
Teroux stared at him with glazed eyes. “You took the risk of entering Digilan to see your father, cousin. I will assume this risk.”
“I had Torrullin as guide.” Tianoman gripped Teroux’s shoulder. “My father is not a guide worthy of you. Bring Torrullin to this place; he will know the truth of what is inside that device.”
“Torrullin has no trust in me anymore, and thus I have lost that avenue of truth.” Teroux grimaced and held his stomach as if snakes roiled there. “I blew it up, didn’t I?”
“I heard. Torrullin can get past it and he loves you. If you ask of him to stand here and look into …”
Teroux pulled free. “I can see for myself.”
He strode into the cavern.
The Dome
BELUN SHUDDERED.
Beeps and blinks erupted on every monitor and keypad. Every sensor surrounding the Dome had animated. It meant only one thing.
Siege.
Horatio had made his play.
The Centuar rose to face the others. “Rose, Alik and Mikhail, please go up to the sleeping quarters and stay there. Sabian, I ask that you stand guard over them. I suggest you accompany them.”
Quilla stared at the blinking screens. “How many?”
“At least two thousand.”
“Soldiers?” Rose said.
A nod.
Rose stood, her eyes red-rimmed. She seemed to have no fight left in her. “What of Lowen?”
“The choice is Lowen’s,” Belun said. He glanced at the Xenian isolated at the far end of the marble slab.
She lifted her head from her arms. “I stay.” Her head dropped down again.
Rose nodded after a moment and headed into the recesses where the elevator for the upper floor of the Dome hid between two ogives. She desired to sleep forever. No betrayal had ever hurt this much.
Sabian, after glancing at the ranks of soldiers now on screen, followed. Alik looked at Teighlar, and Mikhail waited on Alik.
“I prefer knowing you are a floor removed from the ranks outside, Alik,” Teighlar said. “But I will not command you to go. I would, however, ask you to consider that Rose could use your support and Sabian could use Mikhail’s.”
She nodded. “Please don’t do anything stupid, dad.” After placing a swift kiss on his cheek, she gestured to Mikhail, and the two headed after Rose.
The moment the elevator closed on them, Belun waved a hand to entirely obscure its existence.
“I do not like this,” Teighlar muttered. He touched his cheek in wonder. Dad; she had finally said ‘dad’.
Kylis closed his eyes. That particular word proved to him there was no future with Alik.
Belun gestured at the monitors. “The palisade is surrounded also.”
“They aim to stifle us with numbers,” Kylis said. “A simple and effective strategy.” He had risen to study the moving images, moving from one monitor to another. “I see bayonets attached to old-style rifles. They intend to knife us to death.”
“What do you know about rifles and old style?” Quilla asked, lifting a finger.
The Senlu grinned. “I read.”
Quilla smiled before he was again serious. The finger retreated into his tiny fist. “I wonder where they acquired those barbaric weapons.”
“It does not matter,” Teighlar snapped. “How do we break this siege and then free the palisade?”
Dechend cleared his throat. “Is the common clear?”
Kylis, closest to the screens, said, “Appears that way.”
Teighlar’s eyes narrowed as he shifted his attention on his most trusted Elder. “Dechend?”
“I brought it with, my lord Em
peror.”
Teighlar closed his eyes. “Gods, that will put a cat among these sparrows.”
“Exactly.”
Lowen lifted her head. “I assume you mean that box. There are too many portals at work here, Emperor. You dare not use it.”
He stared at her.
“… the way is filled with hazards and many dangers, and no journey should ever be undertaken lightly or without extreme thought,” Lowen quoted. “Tymall created a portal when he imagined his sphere of influence. The vacuum of Excelsior created another, one Torrullin and Elianas manipulated to get us here. And inside Tymall’s fort there’s another kind of portal, the one Teroux believes his father Tannil will exit from. No one thought about it. You did not think when you opened a doorway into Avaelyn, and neither did Alik. Too many doors open and close at the moment. And one should think before using one that has already opened and shut twice. Others may have marked it and could use it the moment it is opened anew.” She sat up, hands flat on the slab. “The box probably will not work here, but we should steer clear. There is a lot of last resort accumulating now, and I, for one, do not like it.”
“Last resort?” Teighlar frowned.
“The object Dechend has managed to hide under his robe should be considered a last resort. Or it could be our means of final escape. Then there is the energy bombs Tymall had Teroux place; I will bet you anything Elianas can match it. The likelihood of deployment should be last resort, however.”
“Why? If he can nullify them the way they almost have us?”
Lowen shook her head. “Does no one think anymore? Elianas’ energy is massive. He would probably blow all of us to a universe a hundred times removed from this one.”
Teighlar pulled a face and Quilla sighed.
“And then there is this Dome. Huge last resort. The one space unassailable. Constructed of energy. Ha. Man, you men with your great plans are short-sighted. Circles of confrontation. Ha! Circles of bloody-mindedness.”
Belun strode over and dropped into a seat to face her. “Damn it, Lowen, speak plain, will you?”
She met the Centuar’s tawny gaze. “Think it through, Belun, and mark how many last resorts gather. It means no one here expects to win this. No one expects to live through it.”
Silence.
“Lowen Dalrish is correct,” Kylis murmured.
The new Elder was more the soldier at this point. He returned to the slab and perched on the end opposite to Lowen and Belun.
“Unless we change the current rules of this game, that is how it will be. We cannot afford to rely on Elixir to get us out, because his power is in fact also too great for this small space. We must hope he sees fit to quell it, and we must also hope Elianas manages to completely subjugate his. We require a strategy that relies on …”
“… an old-style,” Quilla said. “Forgive me, Kylis, for jumping in, but you are on the mark. We must hark to the barbaric methods of battle if we seek success.”
“Yes,” Kylis murmured. “A game of chess, on a crude board with roughly hewn pieces.”
Quilla’s feathers quivered. “Yes!”
“What do we know about old and rough, birdman?” Teighlar demanded.
“But, my friend, that is just it. We know everything about it. We do not fight with guns and bombs and we never have. While we have admittedly relied on sorcery in most battles, we have also employed strategy, hands and swords. Old-style, Emperor.”
“All we need do is adapt to this situation,” Kylis added. He glanced at Lowen.
She fingered her chin with a decided glint in the eye. “There is a ruse or two I can think of - like poison ivy or something.”
Kylis grinned.
And Teighlar laughed.
Palisade
IN THE SILENCE INSIDE the wooden structure they heard the unmistakable sound of an army moving into position.
Adagin murmured, “It is time for me to leave. My time, I feel, is at an end.” He rose and gripped his hooked staff. “There are questions unasked and answers unspoken, but the young Valla is able to tell you most of what you seek clarity on.” He inclined his head to Tristan. “Ixion shared, did he not? You will have answers come to you when the right questions are asked, and you may even ask them of yourself.”
“Memory or magic, Adagin?” Tristan murmured. “I thought you said magic is less. You cannot leave now. Gods, how do you even leave with an army encamped outside?”
“They do not believe I exist, and thus cannot see me.” A shrug. “I shall dissipate in their unbelief.”
Torrullin rose to stand hands braced on the table. “I cannot allow that.”
“The choice is mine, friend. I am the final embodiment of an age now long dead and, as Ixion wished, I wish to have an ending also. Somewhere out there he waits for me.” Adagin speared Tristan with wise eyes. “It is memory, Tristan Skyler Valla, which drives us, not magic. Magic is less here.” He stilled and then nodded to himself. “A boon, then, an explanation to ease the parting.”
Elianas stood. He stared first at Adagin, glanced at Tristan and then yanked at Torrullin. “Relax, man, you are making me nervous.”
Torrullin straightened and looked at him.
“Did Ixion not say we should learn to listen? Hear him. He seeks to join his Eternal Companion,” Elianas added.
“And?”
“And, Torrullin, it fills me with hope for our future. No matter what happens, no matter how much time together or apart, there is a space beyond all spaces where we, you and me, will find the kind of peace that means we are done with all complications and nuances.”
“I hear it in his wish, yes. I also wonder if that is written for us.”
Adagin cleared his throat. “Listen now. It is not a space beyond the spaces, for that relies on magic. It is not a time beyond time either, for that relies on the acknowledgment of others to remain real. Learn this lesson here, where magic is less, and perhaps the real answer may be yours.”
“What is the question?” Torrullin said.
A smile. “Clever, Lorinin. The question is …”
“How,” Elianas stated.
Adagin smiled. “Yes. How.”
Torrullin looked only at Elianas. “What do you mean, how?”
“How do we attain oneness, Torrullin. Everything else is immaterial.”
“Really.”
Elianas made a sound in his throat and ignored him. “Please continue, Adagin.”
“Some say you have more dark spaces, Alhazen, and I have in my long wait believed it also. The truth is you are more willing to use the darkness within to achieve result, and thus it is the visibility of what is within which has led to that belief. Each time you have used a patch of dark, you have in fact shone a light into the space vacated. Your Eternal Companion holds his inside and thus it grows, it festers, and is now equal to yours. His will increase as yours lessens, unless you tell him that final truth.”
Silence.
Adagin moved to the table and smacked his staff across it.
Everyone flinched.
“Shadow Wings will gift him supremacy, Alhazen. I suggest you retract the statement of using them in favour of truth. Or how will not come to pass.”
More silence.
Adagin retreated and appeared to shrink, as if disappointment made him less.
“Magic is manipulation in its purest form. The wish to achieve is the source of power, while the will to do so is the conduit. Words have cadence and dupe the mind into trusting mastery has been attained, and thus is chant a means to an end, not the means itself. A hand raised to wave as wand of sorcery is a visual aid, not the manipulation sought. What you know of magic will not now vanish if you acknowledge what I say, for your wish and will is beyond the visual and chant, and is thus very real. You are masters of manipulation because you believe it, and because others believe it. Know this, their belief is stronger. If you thus seek to deny your power, you will fail. As long as someone whispers about it, it remains a constant. Do you und
erstand? Like to time, legend, even music. But it is less, here.”
“What is greater?” Tristan asked.
“Truth.”
Elianas sighed.
“We are fucked, Danae,” Torrullin muttered.
“Every which way, yes.”
“There is only one path open if you cannot achieve truth,” Adagin said, straightening to stare at the two of them. He managed to grip two pairs of eyes in one contact. “Gift the Warlock the Lumin Sword. Its contrary light will annihilate Shadow Wings. You, Torrullin, will have the temptation of greater darkness sundered and you, Elianas, will have your reliance on absolute light extinguished.”
Again, silence. Tristan dared not a word.
Adagin turned away. “My time is done.” He moved for the door.
“No, wait,” Tristan said, hastening nearer to intercept him.
“Have no fear, nothing will harm me.” Adagin paused, a hand on the rough door. “The unicorn as legend lives on and the faith of purity is thus unbroken. If ever you seek real peace, think on that.” A smile, and he pulled the door open. “It has been an honour, lords of this cycle.” He stepped out into the snow outside and there turned a last time to face them. “Prepare, friends. When I take my final step I take with me this place which exists only in imagination.”
A wave, and he stepped forward.
The palisade vanished.
A host of soldiers scowled at them.
Crucible
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 175