“I know words also.”
“Digilan words summoned our new nemesis to this place. Digilan words will open his cage. Do you know them?”
Elianas hissed again and drew the Sword. “I have had enough of your childish arrogance. Step aside.”
Tymall barged through Teroux and Lowen and stood before Elianas. He gripped his tunic and tore it open to expose his chest to the dark man. “Do it.”
Elianas flicked a glance at that chest, seeing there the blisters of the earlier burning. The mark of death. He smiled. “I no longer need to.”
“Oh, right, forgetful me. My father must do so.”
“No, I absolve him of his oath.”
“You do?” Torrullin blurted.
Elianas ignored him. He stepped in and gripped Tymall, swinging him around in a head lock that had both of them facing the crucible. The man inside stood pressed against the glass, eyes moving from Elianas to Torrullin, from Torrullin to Tymall and back and back again.
“You are marked, Tymall,” Elianas whispered, “and not only is it my symbol upon your chest that marks you, but also what you did to that man.”
Tymall struggled.
Elianas held on and hefted the Lumin Sword as if holding a javelin ready for a distance toss.
He launched the blade.
The glowing end pierced the glass, and it shattered.
Chapter 60
Ignore your timepiece if you seek yourself.
~ Unknown ~
Shadow Wing Fort
Crucible Cavern
VAPOUR ROILED OUT, smelling of brimstone.
Still holding Tymall in a death grip, Elianas moved his head towards Torrullin. “How do you choose?”
Torrullin’s skin stretched taut over bone in an effort to contain his agitation. Whatever had made Tannil, had also added in something more. It was not Tannil alone who stood naked and arrogant in the centre of the shattered tube as vapour fled the surface of his skin. His true name, however, was elusive at this point.
“Death deferred.”
Elianas nodded. “Agreed.”
“I will kill all of you first!” Teroux screeched, falling to his knees to stare up at the unmoving man. His father, by all gods.
Tymall gurgled a laugh. “He heard you issue his sentence, fools. Do you think anyone, under these circumstances, would allow you to walk from this place with your hides intact?”
Tawny eyes flicked over Tymall, but Tannil did not otherwise move.
Again Elianas glanced at Torrullin. “Ty has a point.”
“Unfortunately.”
Teighlar stepped forward, balancing on one leg with a hand on Sabian’s shoulder. “I shall finish him. You lot get away from here.”
“Do not be foolish,” Torrullin muttered.
“I am already injured, Torrullin. Chances are I will not get out of here alive anyway. Let me do this.”
Tannil’s arm lifted, trailing tendrils of ethereal substance.
Teighlar gargled and collapsed.
Sabian, swearing, bent over him and then looked up. “Unconscious.” He stared next at the man in the shattered circle. “Seems the Emperor gets to live.”
“Or he has not the strength to mete out death,” Caballa said.
She stood behind Tristan, because Tristan kept her there. His arms were solid on either side, preventing her moving away.
“He gets to live,” Tannil said, and it was the voice of the Tannil they had known on Valaris. A voice missed by many. “Alexander Diluvan is needed for the nuances of the past that connect with this new future.”
“Tannil.”
The tawny gaze moved. “Torrullin, you get to live also. I need you to speak my true name. Take the Emperor and leave this place.”
“Father!”
Yellow eyes looked down. “Teroux Valla, you have insulted the Valleur heritage. You are my son and yet you cannot assume a place of honour at my side. You have before you a choice. Death, or loss of memory.”
Teroux’s eyes filled with fresh agony and he shivered uncontrollably. “What does that mean?”
“Either I kill you or I remove all Valla and Valleur memory. You will live, but you will not ever find your way back into Valleur consciousness.” A pause. “Teroux, you may find happiness when you no longer remember who you are or why you are ever in turmoil. Choose.”
“Father, I have waited, I have hoped …”
Tannil lifted his arm and Teroux slumped unconscious. The Golden man focused on Torrullin. “Take him with you; dump him somewhere he can start over.”
“I am not leaving.” Torrullin was grim.
“You will have to soon, whether you choose to or not. Within minutes you will be the sole aware sentient in this space.”
Torrullin’s eyes narrowed.
Tristan hissed and drew Caballa even closer.
Sabian moved by degrees, seeking a clear run at the naked man. He, Sabian, could fall into realms by wishing it, and could take another with him. He aimed to employ that talent the instant the opportunity arose.
Tannil inclined his head, and locked onto Elianas. “You die. Here and now. Your sojourn beyond will be lengthy.”
“Touch him and death is no longer deferred,” Torrullin snapped. He drew his sword.
Tannil smiled. “A length of steel cannot harm me.” He spread his arms wide.
“Energy can,” Elianas said.
“Not yours.” Those arms remained spread. “Put it to the test.”
Elianas shoved Tymall aside and stepped into the shattered circle. He swiftly retrieved his sword from the mess at his feet.
“Don’t!” Lowen shouted.
Arms lowered and Tannil speared the dark man with his yellow eyes. Both he and Elianas ignored Torrullin’s shout of denial.
“Do your worst, Alhazen.”
Elianas came to rest a foot away. He held the Sword as if it were a dagger, but did not lift his arm to execute. “Why are you doing this?”
“To hurt him.”
“By him I assume you mean Torrullin.”
“Of course.”
“Why not me?”
“But that is the beauty of it; when you go beyond for a lengthy transmutation you will hurt as much as he does. Two hearts with one dagger, I believe.”
“I am not going anywhere.” Elianas was grim.
“We shall soon know the accuracy of your claim, will we not?”
“Indeed.” Elianas lifted his sword bearing arm and muttered.
Tannil’s eyes narrowed at the same time Torrullin’s did. It was Valleur the dark man used, but it was Nemisin’s Valleur, the runes of his secrecy.
Elianas launched the legendary blade into the air. “I freely relinquish mastery!” he shouted after it.
Lowen clutched at Torrullin. “What is he doing?”
Torrullin had no answer.
Then, “Danae!”
Tannil started to laugh. “A word of power, Alhazen? I expected more.”
Torrullin, however, went cold, cold, cold.
Darkness entered the cavern. Deep lightless blinding dark. It endured for only a moment, but had the kind of presence to suck thought from the unconscious.
Light entered the cavern. Great and blinding whiteness. It endured for only a moment also, but possessed the presence to take an unconscious thought and create from it worlds.
In the aftermath Lowen gripped Torrullin’s arm, her nails needles. Caballa held onto Tristan. Sabian had moved into position.
Elianas braced swordless in the circle. Giant wings of shadow rode upon his shoulders.
He bowed, and they folded away to vanish, and when he straightened he said, “If I am to leave this realm, know it will mean it ends for you also.”
Tannil inclined his head. “And, at last, the dark man steps from the shadows as the Danae. Universe beware, realms hide your innocent.”
Tymall folded down.
Torrullin moved. To move took from him every iota of willpower he possessed; he felt
as if he had lost the power to think, never mind act. He pulled Lowen’s talons free and pushed her ahead of him to Tristan and Caballa.
“Take the women away, Tris,” he managed to say in a steady voice. “Find a place upstairs to hole up in. We will find you.”
Tristan could barely move himself, but nodded eventually. He gripped both Caballa and Lowen and hauled them out.
Tannil ignored their exit.
Torrullin moved next to Teroux and manhandled the unconscious man to a position alongside Teighlar. It would be simpler if he could lift them together when the time came to do so. While bent over he flicked Sabian a glance, but did not draw attention to him. He knew well what the man was about.
Next Torrullin moved to stand over Tymall. Wordless, he gazed down. Tymall no longer possessed accruements and had no more access to the false strength gifted from deployed Shadow Wings. It would not kill him, but Tymall had temporarily lost the ability to function.
He cleared his throat. “Elianas.”
No acknowledgement. Tannil and Elianas were locked in a battle of wills.
“Tannil.”
Nothing from there either.
It was time to interfere.
Then not.
Listening assumed ultimate importance.
“IT IS AN HONOUR TO meet you finally, Elianas Danae. Ever were you a figure obscured in history and secrecy. Hard to know your blood when no one spoke of its genesis in terms that could be understood. Ever with the whispers and the riddles.”
“Danae genesis isn’t mine.”
“Your father, perhaps? You think it began with Tingast? Or his father? They were the means; you are the blood.”
“I am not arguing semantics with you. What is it you seek?”
“A Timekeeper answers to none.”
Elianas lifted an eyebrow. “You must be the first Timekeeper with this much emotional baggage. You may not want to answer, Tannil, but you desire answers. By the way, is it Tannil Danae or Tannil Valla? Who came first?”
“Both. Skynis was less than honest with you; he did not reveal he made a pact with the devils and demons of time itself. During the strange stasis of Kalgaia he met up with one of Ixion’s slivers; not the one you met recently - another. This Ixion was less, shall we say, honourable? He revealed certain manipulations. At the time I came of age it was Skynis who sent me into the ether of obscurity.
“I began the wander along the curve and my guide was that sliver. In this cycle I am both Valla and Danae … and a timedancer. A timedancer, of course, is created from legend; someone believes the state exists and others hope it does and thus is a timedancer made real. Many feel uplifted by the notion a creature of imagination is able to bridge time. Itself, after all, more of imagination than reality.”
“Profound,” Elianas murmured, “but it cannot describe you. You were born, you were raised and, forgive me, you have not walked the curve long enough to become one such as this. How?”
“Hexagons and circles. Angles and curves.” A shrug. “A pact is a pact.”
“What does that mean?”
“A Walker of Realms could explain it.”
A beat, two, and Elianas moved his gaze to find Torrullin. He discovered the man standing over the prone form of Tymall. Torrullin gazed back with expressionless eyes.
“Torrullin.”
Only Torrullin’s lips moved, and Elianas shivered. Never had he known Torrullin this uninvolved.
“Portals. Many portals,” Torrullin said. “Shift through entrance after entrance without entry into those spaces and time is immaterial. Matter is immaterial. And so is energy. Hexagons and circles, as he says, because it is neither real nor unreal. It simply is. An adept would pace those angles and curves and his movements would be as a dance to a witness. He becomes a timedancer.”
“A timedancer, of course, is content with the state. A Timekeeper, he reaches for the reason in the dance,” Tannil murmured. “To reach out, he must be a dancer with, as you succinctly put it, Elianas, emotional baggage.”
Elianas dragged his gaze free of Torrullin. “What is a Timekeeper?”
“Ah, now that would reveal too much. It is time to begin the dance in this time, although not in this place of confrontation. Here was a means to gather; it is not the place for mastery. This is Nowhere and therefore does not feature.” Tannil tapped Elianas’ chest. “You have superseded my expectations. I never thought to send you on your merry way, did I? I threatened and here you are, the Danae revealed. Fly well, grandfather.”
Tannil stepped back and became fluid. A breath of air. He swirled in place and then chose direction. A blur moved towards Torrullin, and solidified before him.
“Find my true name.”
“I shall do as I see fit, Tannil. I am not yours to command.”
“Excellent. A challenge.”
Blink, and Tannil bent over Tymall. A moment after he was again as insubstantial as air. Then he was gone.
Torrullin stared down.
Tymall was dead.
SILENCE IN THE CAVERN.
“Torrullin.”
“Later, Elianas.”
“I did not want to leave; bear that in mind when you judge my actions.”
Grey eyes lifted from the lifeless form of his son. “Later.”
Elianas lifted a shoulder, but otherwise did not move.
“He is dead.” Torrullin sank to his haunches and touched Tymall’s face. “I meant to kill him, but I admit to relief another achieved the result.”
More silence, and then, “Can he return?”
Torrullin stared down. “No.”
“How do you feel?”
Grey eyes snapped up. “Feel? That is of no import.”
Elianas looked away and did not push.
Torrullin stood. “Sabian, are you able to take him from here?”
Sabian closed in. “Tannil was too fast for me, Torrullin; I am sorry.”
“Never mind. I confess I am happy you are still here. Tannil and his contradictions must now be set aside. We have to deal with Horatio first. Can you take Tymall?”
“Where do you want him to go?”
Torrullin glanced at the lifeless form. “It does not matter. A quiet place. An isolated place. No gravestone.”
“I can do so.”
“Thank you. When you are done, return to Valaris and warn Tian of what transpired here. Use your talent to track Tannil’s movements.”
“Will do.” Sabian paused. “Would you want to know where Tymall is buried?”
Grey eyes lifted. “No.” Torrullin turned away. “Please go now.”
He remained still with his back to Sabian, his gaze on Elianas, as Sabian bent to the dead man. Elianas, who sent Tymall one final look. Elianas, who closed his eyes after and drew a shuddering breath.
When Torrullin moved towards Teighlar and Teroux, the space behind him had been vacated. He would not again see Tymall, except in memory. How he felt was of no import.
“Torrullin, wait.” Elianas stepped from the circle and closed in. “I am no different, I swear.”
Torrullin stopped and faced him. “A Warlock and Shadow Wings. How can you not be different? Use it to break us out, Elianas, and we will deal with change after.”
Dark eyes shuttered. “Fine.” Elianas glanced at Teroux. “I can send him to Sanctuary from here. There is residue in the crucible enough to do so.”
“Then do it.”
Elianas lifted Teroux in his arms and carried him into the circle. There he murmured and Teroux dissipated. “Rose will find him. I hope she can … never mind.”
Silence again.
Torrullin bent to take the Emperor’s weight onto a shoulder and strode from the cavern.
Elianas stared after him. Silence returned to the space when Torrullin’s footsteps had faded.
He could not move.
He could no longer hear music.
The Lorinin song had been silenced.
Chapter 61
There is
a soldier’s siege, and there is also a woman’s siege. As a man and soldier, I have to tell you the woman is always stronger.
~ Isaiah Kronig, Electan of Valaris ~
Shadow Wing Fort
TRISTAN DISCOVERED THE suite Tymall prepared for Tianoman one floor up from ground. The comfort left him cold, but the view over the courtyard to the gates was worth the occupation.
Beyond the gates there was rank upon rank of soldier. They were wet and miserable as rain continued to pound upon them.
Lowen and Caballa took turns at the bathroom before joining him.
“There is no easy way out of here,” Caballa murmured.
“Not unless Elianas uses some of what he took to himself this day.”
“He will not dare,” Lowen said. “It will drive a wedge the size of a realm between him and Torrullin.”
“Why would it?” Tristan said. “Torrullin is no angel either.”
“But until now they have been equal.”
Caballa sighed. “Brinkmanship only works when there is no clear advantage. It will get ugly between them now.”
Lowen nodded. She moved from the window to the huge bed and lay down.
Caballa joined her after a time, while Tristan held the watch.
TORRULLIN FOUND THEM A while later and shooed the women from the bed. Unceremoniously he dumped Teighlar there, giving him a baleful stare as he straightened, hands going to the small of his back.
“Gods, he is heavy.”
“Where are the others?” Tristan asked.
“Elianas will join us shortly; the others are gone.”
“Torrullin …” Lowen said, but he cut her short.
“I do not want to talk about it.” He headed for the window and took up position alongside Tristan. “A host, but there are many untried lads in there.”
“And they are dispirited.”
“Right. Strategy?”
“First action would be to get Horatio under eyes. We need to know how serious he is about maintaining a siege and whether he believes he can win through.”
“Agreed. Once he learns Bannerman is no longer with us …”
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 183