The Chaos Crystal

by Jennifer Fallon

  'And you're counting on that?' 'Like it was —' Cayal stopped abruptly and looked around.

  Declan felt it too — the ripples on the Tide that indicated another immortal was approaching. They both jumped to their feet, although Kentravyon paid no attention to the disturbance, too interested in his fish.

  'That way,' Cayal said, pointing inland.

  Declan turned, squinting into the darkness that was slowly overtaking the land. 'Can you tell who it is?'

  Cayal shook his head. 'It's not Brynden. The ripples aren't strong enough.'

  'Kinta then?'

  'Probably.'

  They waited as the immortal drew closer, her presence humming along Declan's still hypersensitive veins as if they were taut wires singing in a high wind. A few moments later, a chariot appeared on the top of the dune behind them, pulled by a matched pair of greys. The person driving the chariot wore a shroud in the Torlenian fashion, which led Declan to assume that it was a woman. She brought the chariot to a stop and looked down over the beach for a moment, before

  turning the horses into the dune and plunging down the slope toward them.

  The men waited for her as she drove toward them on the damp sand. After stopping the horses a few feet from their fire, she alighted from her chariot, but made no move to identify herself. Dark eyes through the slit of her embroidered shroud took in Cayal's naked figure with barely a second glance, spared a curious look at Kentravyon sitting on the sand roasting his fish and then she turned her attention to Declan.

  Lifting the shroud to reveal a statuesque blonde woman wearing a tooled and gilded leather breastplate and a short leather warrior's skirt, she stared at him, frowning.

  'I am Kinta,' she said in Torlenian. 'Consort to My Lord Brynden, the true Imperator of Torlenia. I know who these two are and the trouble they bring with them. Just who the hell are you?'

  CHAPTER 18

  Kinta proved to be everything Arkady's reports about her claimed — and then some. She was a tall woman, easily as tall as Arkady, but much more statuesque, her body forced into its optimum form by her immortality. She was beautiful, regal and thunderously angry, both at the intrusion into Brynden's realm by these uninvited guests and the realisation that someone was out there making new immortals. It was only on hearing that he was Lukys's son and Maralyce's great- grandson that she seemed to begrudgingly accept, if not Declan himself, then at least the truth of his origins.

  'Brynden will not be happy when he hears of this,' she said to Cayal, after Declan got through explaining how he'd been made immortal accidentally in the Herino Prison fire. 'To think you've been lying to us all this time ...'

  'Hey, I wasn't lying to anybody,' Cayal objected. 'Tides, Kinta. Do you think I would have drowned Glaeba trying to put out the Eternal Flame if I'd had any idea that it wasn't the Eternal Flame? Where is the noble champion of double-crossing traitors, anyway?'

  'He's back in Ramahn,' Kinta told them with a frown, clearly not pleased by Cayal's description of her lover. 'I'm only here because the coast was hit with a tidal wave.' She shook her head as she made the connection. 'Tides, I should have guessed one of you

  was behind this. Do you know how many of our people have died this past week?'

  'Probably just as many as died in Stevania,' Declan said, his guilt growing more burdensome by the moment.

  Kinta shook her head. 'Chintara — the real one ... her family seat is not far from here. I was here seeing what we could do for the survivors. When I felt the barrier breached, I knew Brynden would want me to investigate.'

  'So Brynden's moved on the Torlenian throne then?' Declan asked. He was wondering if this woman had murdered her young unsuspecting husband herself or waited until Brynden returned and had him do the job for her — an act that seemed at complete odds with a woman who would cross a continent to aid the survivors of a natural disaster.

  Kinta nodded, perhaps not picking up the edge in Declan's voice. 'The Imperator fell ill, and during his illness a great change overcame him. He emerged from it a different man.'

  'Changed from the real Imperator to Brynden, you mean?' Cayal said. He shook his head for a moment, smiling wryly. 'Tides, that sanctimonious bastard is worse than you, Rodent. He lectures me about morals and then commits regicide to put himself on the Torlenian throne. What a hypocrite.'

  'What Brynden has done will aid all Torlenians and lead them to a better life,' Kinta insisted. 'And there was no bloodshed.'

  'Not counting your poor husband,' Kentravyon reminded her, which surprised Declan because the madman didn't seem to be taking much notice of their conversation.

  Kinta glared at Kentravyon, but didn't respond to his interjection. 'The people are rejoicing in their new monarch's strength and purpose.'

  'Only because they don't know he's replaced the old one,' Cayal said. 'But, you know what? He can

  have Torlenia. He can have the whole flanking world, for all I care. We have business in the north, so ... nice seeing you again, Kinta, but if you don't mind, we'll be on our way.' He turned his back on her, snatched his trousers from the rock where they were laid out to dry and began to get dressed.

  'You're not going anywhere without telling me what you're up to,' she said. 'And explaining what he's got to do with it,' she added, pointing to Declan.

  Declan was getting a little fed up with trying to explain his very existence every time he ran across a new immortal. Kinta was proving to be particularly trying. Not that he really blamed her in this case. Finding a new immortal in the company of Cayal and Kentravyon probably did nothing but deepen her suspicions about him, particularly given the trouble they'd caused her people on their way here.

  Cayal straightened and turned to look at her. 'It's none of your damned business what we're —'

  'Just tell her, Cayal,' Declan cut in.

  'She doesn't need to know.'

  'She doesn't not need to know, either,' he said. 'And if you don't tell her the truth, she'll go straight back to Brynden and tell him about us, and then he'll be after you and we'll have to deal with him too. Tell her, for the Tides' sake.'

  Kinta looked at Declan with something close to respect. 'You speak sense, Declan Hawkes. Perhaps the fates chose wisely, making you immortal.'

  'The fates had nothing to do with him becoming immortal, Kinta,' Cayal said. 'Mostly it was Lukys and his breeding program.'

  'What are you talking about, Cayal?'

  Cayal stared at her for a moment and then he shrugged, as if he'd come to a decision about something. 'Why don't we sit down?' the Immortal Prince suggested, with a resigned sort of sigh. 'I'll tell

  you the whole sorry saga, starting with the startling news that about eighty years ago, Maralyce had another baby ...'

  When Cayal had finished bringing Kinta up to date, she frowned. It was completely dark now and they were all sitting around the driftwood campfire on the deserted beach. Apparently paying no attention to their discussion, Kentravyon was nosily sucking the bones of his fish clean on the other side of the fire. The night was silent, but for the soft susurration of the sea behind them.

  'But if all it takes to create an immortal is to be more than half immortal to begin with,' she said, her forehead creased with concern, 'that throws into question everything we know or believe about ourselves and where we come from.'

  'Tell me about it,' Cayal agreed heavily.

  'It means you're all related, actually,' Kentravyon said, tossing away the last of his fish. He wiped his hand on the sand and then looked at the three of them across the flames, smiling.

  'What do you mean?' Kinta asked. She didn't seem to think there was anything to smile about.

  Declan understood immediately what Kentravyon was getting at. 'He means that if only a few immortals came through the rift in the first place, then any subsequent immortals must be their offspring.'

  Kinta shook her head. 'That is not possible. My mother was an honourable woman, my father a chieftain in a village rarely visited by s
trangers. There is no way I can be the bastard get of some random immortal who just happened to be passing through. Nor could Brynden.'

  Kentravyon, now he was done with his fish, seemed to be a little more interested in the discussion. He moved closer to the fire and assumed something of a lecturing tone. 'Actually, Kinta, my dear, given that

  you and Brynden both came from the same isolated village in the middle of Fyrenne, the chances are pretty good you're a tad more closely related than is socially acceptable.'

  Kinta looked mortified to receive that news, but it was Cayal who was shaking his head in denial. 'This is nonsense. If what you say is true, then who are you claiming fathered me?' he asked. 'My mother was the Queen of Kordana.'

  Kentravyon shrugged. 'Tides, how should I know? I heard Pellys was hanging around Kordana there for a while, so maybe it was him. I do know your mother didn't die in childbirth. I hear she was done in for infidelity.'

  'That's ridiculous!'

  'Well, you'd know, Cayal,' Kentravyon said with a shrug. 'But when you think about it, it fits. I mean, your sister always hated you, didn't she? And as the Queen of Kordana after your mother died, she'd have known the truth about you.'

  'I was exiled because I killed a man, not because I was a bastard.'

  'You may be right,' the older man said. 'But you are immortal now, so somewhere along the line, my lad, you have more than one immortal ancestor. That's fact, not speculation.'

  Declan watched Cayal with interest; he was still shaking his head in disbelief. Declan found it fascinating to see how these immortals were reacting to the news they were not who they thought they were. He had no such problem. He'd always known his grandfather was a Tidewatcher and, as such, had accepted, without really thinking much about it, the notion that he had immortal ancestors. To discover his father was also immortal was hardly news, either. He'd grown up knowing his mother was a whore and he could have been fathered by any one of numberless men.

  But these immortals had thousands of years behind them believing they knew everything there was to know about themselves. Learning they might be wrong had really knocked the wind out of their sails.

  'Why has nobody mentioned this before?' Cayal asked.

  'What's to mention?' Kentravyon said. 'It's of little mind who fathered whom, Cayal. I mean, young Declan here is a bit of an odd case, because he knows who his immortal ancestors are, but what difference would it make to the rest of you?'

  Kinta smiled suddenly, although it wasn't a pleasant smile. 'If Pellys fathered you, Cayal, that makes Tryan and Elyssa your brother and sister.'

  'Why?' Kentravyon asked, looking puzzled.

  'Everyone knows Pellys fathered those two.'

  Kentravyon shook his head. 'Unlikely. Or at least he wasn't completely responsible. I see the hand of Lukys and Coryna in the mess that resulted in Syrolee and her lot. You don't get a cluster of immortals like that happening by accident.'

  'Do you mean Coron the Rodent?' Declan asked, thinking Kentravyon had mispronounced the name.

  The immortal smiled cryptically. 'Coron wasn't always a rat, you know.'

  'But Coron's dead,' Cayal said, frowning.

  Declan didn't blame Cayal for looking worried. He was on this journey because he believed Lukys had found a way to kill an immortal and had proved it by killing Coron, the only immortal to have taken animal form. He didn't want doubts thrown on his beliefs now.

  'How?' Declan asked. 'How exactly did he kill the rat?'

  'I don't know how,' Cayal snapped. 'I just know he's dead and Lukys can make me dead the same way, once he gets his hands on this Chaos Crystal Elyssa's found.'

  'Yes, but ...' Declan said, the flaw in Lukys's story so screamingly obvious he couldn't understand why nobody but him could see it. 'If you need the Chaos Crystal to kill an immortal, how did he do away with the rat if he doesn't have the crystal? I mean, even Kentravyon says he's not sure opening a rift with the Chaos Crystal will kill you. And you'd think they'd know by now, because they've done it a few times before, I gather?'

  'Plenty of times,' Kentravyon agreed cheerfully.

  'Rift?' Kinta asked. 'What rift?'

  'Lukys has offered to kill Cayal by opening a rift to another world,' Declan told her. 'There's a risk that opening this rift will likely destroy Amyrantha, mind you, but that doesn't seem to bother Cayal. Or anybody else involved in this venture either, now I come to think of it. They're on their way to visit Elyssa who has apparently discovered the location of the crystal Lukys requires to channel enough of the Tide to make it happen.' He glanced at Kentravyon and Cayal. 'Did I miss anything?'

  Kinta glared at them. 'Why were Brynden and I told nothing of this plan to open a rift to another world?'

  Cayal rolled his eyes impatiently. 'Tides, Kinta, why do you even ask? Last time I ran into Brynden he tried to flatten us with a meteor. No, actually that was the time before last. The last time he sold a friend of mine into slavery just to piss me off. And, for your information, I did mention opening the rift to Brynden. I even asked for his help. That's about the point he told me to go screw myself.'

  'She was a friend of yours too, my lady,' Declan added. He doubted that Kinta had yet made the connection between the Ambassador of Glaeba's wife who she'd helped escape from Ramahn a year ago, and the mortal woman Brynden used to take his vengeance

  on Cayal. 'And the reason I'm on this journey. I am hoping to find her.'

  'Find who?'

  'Arkady Desean.'

  Kinta looked at him in surprise and then turned to Cayal. 'Arkady was the lover Brynden punished to get at you? Tides ... I mean, she told me she'd met you, Cayal, but I never realised ...'

  'She's not my lover,' Cayal said. He jerked his head in Declan's direction. 'Well, not any more. Arkady belongs to him now. At least she did — until she found out we'd come to an amicable agreement about her fate between us, which she didn't seem to think was very gentlemanly —'

  'Enough!' Kinta cut in, her ire rising. 'Tides, you're making my head ache. You say you told Brynden of your plan to open this rift, even though it might result in the destruction of this world?'

  'Well, I didn't really go into details ...'

  'That figures.'

  Cayal looked quite wounded by her tone. 'Hey, I didn't even know the bit about destroying Amyrantha until a few days ago. And I'm still not sure I believe it either.'

  Kinta fixed her gaze on Kentravyon. 'Is it true?'

  He shrugged. 'Don't know. Never gone back to any of the other worlds we left behind to find out.'

  'Other worlds?' Kinta said, looking even more confused. 'What other worlds?'

  'The other worlds,' Kentravyon said. 'The ones before this world. You know ...'

  'No, Kentravyon, I don't know,' Kinta said, frowning. 'The last I saw of you was when we all banded together to immobilise you, because the only thing we immortals have ever agreed upon is that you're too dangerous to leave running around unsupervised. And yet, here you are, with a new immortal playmate at your side, off to fetch some

  crystal that will allow you to destroy Amyrantha.' She stared at the three of them. 'I want an explanation.'

  'I told you, Kinta —' Cayal began.

  'Not from you,' she cut in, turning her attention to Kentravyon. 'From him.'

  The immortal looked quite shocked to be singled out. 'Me? Why me?'

  'Because you're the one who claims to know about these rifts to other worlds, Kentravyon,' Kinta said. 'You're the one who's saying that opening one will destroy Amyrantha. I want to know how you know that.'

  'Lukys is the one you need to talk to. He knows more about it than I do.'

  'Lukys isn't here,' Kinta pointed out. 'And even if he was, you're the one who claims to be God.'

  Declan watched Kinta warily, glad he wasn't on the receiving end of that stare. Although of the four immortals here she commanded the least power, she was not — he decided — someone to be trifled with.

  'I am God,' Kentravyon agree
d simply.

  'Which brings up another interesting question,' Cayal said, looking at Kentravyon thoughtfully. 'Who made you God, anyway?'

  Declan shook his head at the futility of trying to get a rational explanation from a madman suffering delusions of divinity.

  Tides, a few hours ago this man was giggling like a schoolgirl, trying to catch fish with his hare hands.

  Declan was about to mention this aloud when Kentravyon said, 'Of course, if Coryna hadn't started looking for a way to transfer her consciousness into a younger body, things might have turned out differently. We wouldn't have half the immortals we've got now for one thing, and Lukys wouldn't be so anxious to find a way to be rid of them all.'

  Declan, Kinta and Cayal were all silent as they digested that unexpected statement. It was Declan who finally asked the question they all wanted answered.

  'Who are you, Kentravyon ... really?'

  'And who, in the name of the Tides,' Kinta added, 'is Coryna?'

  CHAPTER 19

  My name was not always Kentravyon. To be honest, I can't remember what it was originally. I was made immortal as a youth. I might look like a mature man now, but that should give you some notion of how long I have been alive. You, who've not collected so much as a wrinkle or a grey hair in eight millennia, can't imagine what it must take for an immortal to age. Lukys is even older than I am and was little more than a lad when he met the Eternal Flame. Coryna and Maralyce — well, they are the oldest of us all.

  I know what you're going to say, Declan. The Eternal Flame is a lie. You were made immortal with nothing more than a falling beam in a burning building. But it's an old habit to call it that. Fire — and fire only — is what makes us. It is the process of immolation that makes us immortal.

  Provided — so we've discovered — you have the right ancestors, of course.

  And that makes it difficult, you know, because it's next to impossible to keep track of these things. Mortals flash past us like sparks in the night from a fire stoked into life. You plan to keep track. You know your seed is strong with a life-force no mortal can match. But you can't stay in one place for too long, or people start to notice you. So you move on, never really sure which child is yours ...