The Circle Line

by Ben Yallop

  Another day saw Vallalar break an egg into a large glass full of water. By the end of the day Sam was able to separate the yolk from the white and even lift the yolk from the glass without breaking it. That night every guest had enormous cheese omelettes to eat, cooked in a massive frying pan by a still smiling Jēran.

  After a week or so of moving things, big and small, Vallalar said that he wanted to try a different sort of exercise.

  ‘Samuel, this is about building a barrier around yourself.’ he said. ‘You have seen Ferus walk through an inferno. He is no more impervious to fire than you or me but he is greatly skilled at control. As you are able to separate yolk from white so he is able to push away flame and heat and hold it millimetres from his body. Were that hold to break the fire would rush into the space and he would be consumed as any other man. It is an enormously difficult thing to hold something as abstract as heat. Have you ever heard of spontaneous human combustion? That's what happens when it goes wrong. Today we will practice.’

  Vallalar moved to the giant fireplace. To one side a small fire was burning, the first time that Sam had seen one lit in the massive space. Even with the fire burning steadily at one side there was enough room for a man to ride through on horseback should the line be opened.

  Vallalar closed his eyes and stretched out a hand towards the fire. A glowing coal lifted from the centre of the fire, a dull red in the air as it moved towards him. He sat perfectly still as it moved. Then he opened his mouth. The coal floated between his teeth and seemed to come to rest on his tongue. As Vallalar breathed the coal pulsed red, then yellow until it was almost white hot. He opened his eyes and looked at Sam.

  It was a bizarre sight to see this man with a white hot fire burning in his mouth. The coal lifted back between his teeth and Vallalar used his presence to toss it casually back into the fire.

  ‘The trick, Samuel,’ he said, ‘is to create a barrier that you do not allow the heat to penetrate. The difficulty comes in making that barrier as thin as possible. We are, I confess, reaching the limit of my powers. I cannot move the flames with any skill. But you should not assume that you are bound by my own limitations.’

  Sam spent the morning trying to manipulate the fire that crackled in the grate. It seemed to be impossible. Every time he tried to focus on a tongue of flame it flickered away and another took its place. The fire was never in one spot. It was immensely frustrating, like trying to pick up a pin wearing boxing gloves. Even where a single flame seemed to persist it twisted and moved so that Sam could not grasp it.

  In the afternoon Sam practised holding a glowing coal above a sheet of paper without the paper burning. By the time they stopped the smell of smoke filled the entire tavern and there was a large puddle before them where Jēran had had to rush in with a large bucket of water to douse a fire on one of his tables.

  Having had a few days of success Sam felt dejected from the day's failures. That evening he sulked through a meal with Weewalk and Hadan.

  Weewalk gave a knowing smile. ‘I've got an important errand to run tomorrow. Would you like to come with me?’

  ‘Yes.’ said Sam quickly, eager to escape lessons for a time.

  ‘I thought you'd say that.’ Weewalk's grin broadened.

  The next day Sam and Weewalk set off early. The other residents of the Tavern were still asleep. Only Jēran was up, busying himself with pounding some fresh dough with his huge hands. Before Sam had had enough time to properly wake up and ask where they were going Weewalk had led them to a line within a small room on the second floor. He focused his presence on the barrier, tearing it open, his shoulders hunched with the effort.

  ‘After you.’ he gestured to Sam with a small bow. ‘Keep quiet once you arrive.’

  Sam found himself in a bedroom in a typical looking home. The lights in the room were off but a little light filtered through the window. It looked as though the sun had set some time ago and the sky was fading to black. Sam could hear the noise of a television somewhere below.

  Weewalk tapped him on the back, making him jump. Sam turned and Weewalk motioned for silence before leading the way to the bedroom door. As they came onto a landing Sam could see that the top floor of the house was in darkness, but lights were on downstairs and the flickering white-blue light of a TV shone in a doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

  Together they crept down the stairs towards the front door, checking each step for squeaky floorboards as they moved. As they reached the bottom Weewalk gestured with his hand and the handle turned and the door swung quietly inwards. They hurried the last few feet into the cool evening air and as they moved down a path through a neat suburban garden Sam let out a breath he had been holding. As they neared the garden gate he heard the front door click shut behind him.

  Weewalk led them along the street. Lights shone in many windows and the kobold looked around carefully as though he was trying to remember his way.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ asked Sam. Weewalk had said nothing of what he actually intended.

  ‘We just need to give a quick bit of help to someone very dear and important to me. Ah, here we are.’ Weewalk came to a house and looked up at the sky. ‘Come on, we don't have much time.’ he said.

  This house had no lights on that Sam could see and Weewalk led them around the side where he unlocked a gate and led them into a large garden.

  ‘Hide yourself in that bush.’ he said pointing at a group of small conifers. ‘Quickly now.’

  Sam squeezed himself between two trunks. The smell of pine filled the evening air and he felt sticky sap on his fingertips. He turned and looked out into the garden. Weewalk jogged over to a rotary washing line and after looking into the cloud of clothes above his head he jumped and pulled down some piece of material, leaving two pegs swinging round the line. He tucked it under his arm and scurried back to Sam and squeezed in next to him.

  ‘Stay out of sight,’ the kobold said. ‘I don't need you to do anything. Just watch.’

  As he finished speaking Sam became aware of a noise off to their left, behind the high wooden fence that bordered the garden. The commotion grew louder until there was a loud bang as something hit the fence, making Sam jump. As he looked a familiar bearded face, straining with effort, appeared above the wooden panelling. The figure wrestled an arm over the top and then another before heaving himself up and falling over the fence to land with a thump in the flowerbed below. After a huge sigh the figure forced himself to his feet and began to run across the garden, towards the opposite fence.

  Sam stared in amazement. The tired figure running across the lawn was Weewalk, yet Weewalk still crouched next to him, his hand on Sam's arm, holding him back in the shelter of the bushes. The other Weewalk was almost completely naked. He was only wearing a pair of grubby Y-fronts. It was difficult to see in the dark but Sam thought he looked younger, his beard slightly shorter.

  Another noise drew Sam's attention back to the fence. As he turned his head he saw a large shape clear the fence in a single bound. Sam recognised it as a garoul, the same kind of beast that had attacked them in the cabin in Dragsholm. In a moment it was at the heels of the naked Weewalk, reaching out with its claws.

  Just as it was about to catch the kobold, the Weewalk with whom Sam was hiding, flew out from the bushes shouting. He aimed a powerful blast of presence at the monster, knocking it through the air and into a football goal where it tripped over and tangled itself in the netting. A moment later Weewalk had tossed the spotted dress from the washing line to the naked Weewalk and with another blast of presence pushed the other version of himself up and over the next fence. As the figure flew through the air Sam heard him shout a string of numbers, and his Weewalk shouted another set in response, adding the word 'Mermaid' before darting back into the bushes next to him. The beast was back on its feet now and, unable to see them in the undergrowth, continued the pursuit, leaping the fence. The garden was suddenly quiet. The whole thing had taken seconds.

  Chuckling softly
Weewalk shook his head. ‘That dress was the most comfortable thing I had ever worn. I'd never had anything fit so well.’ He smoothed his own spotted yellow dress, which was a considerable amount grubbier than the one he had thrown to his younger self.

  ‘How did you know when and where to be to help him, to help yourself, I mean?’ asked Sam.

  ‘You heard us call dates and times to each other. And I knew where to hide as I'd seen it happen once before. I should have realised sooner, back when we were escaping from Ferus, that we'd need to come to the Mermaid. I knew I'd need to be here, to go back to help myself out. That, in some ways, had already happened so we probably couldn't have done anything differently. Still, it's hard to keep it all in your head sometimes. Especially when you're on the run! Most of the time it's better not to try to think too hard about these things and just go with the flow. It usually works out in the end.’

  Sam had been trying to think hard about it but realising that understanding the finer points of time travel were perhaps beyond him, he resolved to simply accept the order of events henceforth and, as Weewalk had put it, go with the flow. Seeing that he had given up on his internal struggle Weewalk clapped him on the shoulder and, squeezing out of the conifers, they set off in search of the line back to the Tavern.

  The next day Vallalar came to Sam and brought with him a man Sam had not met before.

  ‘Today, Samuel, something different. The time is coming when you will need to use your presence to defend yourself and fight. From now on you will practice how to block and counter-attack. I am not the best person to teach you this. Odhar, here, will be your instructor.’

  The other man stepped forward to shake Sam by the hand. He was not much to look at. Muscular but not particularly strong looking, more wiry than anything. He gave Sam a nod and motioned for Sam to follow him as he turned away. And that was where it began. Sam soon realised that he had underestimated the man. Odhar showed Sam new skills and tricks and ways to use his powers that he would never have considered. Sam found that his slight frame made him more agile than he had expected and he was soon confident in throwing himself through the air by pushing off the ground and walls with his mind. He could twist as he flew but Odhar always seemed able to find a way through his defences so that he would end up being knocked to the floor by a blast of energy. After a while Sam was better able to make a defensive barrier, in much the same way as Vallalar had shown Sam how to protect himself from the heat of a fire, and Odhar threw pulses of energy like invisible punches at his defences to test them. After another two weeks Sam felt like he knew how to fight.

  People came and went at the Tavern but one day, as he sat down to dinner, Sam realised that there were a few more people than usual staying tonight. Several had arrived separately throughout the day. Sam looked at one of the new arrivals from the corner of his eye.

  The newcomer was a girl, with long straight black hair which she kept across her face. Sam hadn't been able to get a good look at her but he had the impression that she was about his age. She was, Sam felt sure, very pretty underneath that mask of hair and he found it hard not to look at her as Weewalk and Hadan chatted about various things. Once or twice Sam thought that she might be looking at him, but he was never sure whether she was looking out from under her hair, or past him, or indeed at Weewalk, who frequently received odd stares. Either way, she left the room before Sam and the others had finished eating and he did not see her again that evening. Sam watched her as she left the room and Weewalk broke off his conversation with Hadan to look at Sam accusingly.

  ‘What?’ said Sam guiltily through a mouthful of apple crumble.

  After another day of training Sam's thoughts returned to the girl he had seen the night before but he had not seen her around the Tavern that day and so he presumed that she had moved on. So, he was surprised when he turned a corner and, exhausted after another long session with Odhar, collided with someone coming the other way. Sam had been so absorbed in thinking about what he and Odhar had been doing that he ran into the other person quite hard, hard enough that the force of it knocked him backwards and he sat down heavily on the floor.

  He looked up. It was her, the girl from the night before. He looked into her face as she swept her black hair away from her face obviously completely untroubled for being hit hard enough for Sam to fall back. It was her. Not just the girl from the night before. It was the beautiful girl from the painting at his grandfather's house. The realisation hit Sam like a punch to the stomach and he gasped. How was this possible? He knew her face as well as his own. He had fixed his eyes on that face every time he had felt the prickle of the hairs rising on his neck as he had climbed those haunted stairs. The hairs rose now as he looked up into her face and he realised that this time the feeling was because she had used presence to protect herself as he collided with her. Then as she looked down at him, a slight smile on her lips, her face seemed to change and as sure as he had been a second ago Sam became completely unsure that this was the same girl.

  Sam realised that he was sprawled on the floor his legs apart.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, offering him a hand, ‘Are you alright?’

  ‘Yes, er, sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going.’ He took her hand and shook it at the same time as he scrambled to his feet.

  ‘Kya.’ she said, ‘You're Sam, right?’

  ‘Sam, er yes, I mean, how do you know my name?’

  A look of relief seemed to appear on Kya's face. It was there for a moment, and then gone. ‘I saw you training. Vallalar says you're very strong.’

  ‘Oh, really? He never....’ Sam realised he was still shaking Kya's hand and dropped it hurriedly.

  ‘I have a presence too, if you ever wanted to practice together.’ said Kya.

  ‘Well, yes. That would be er... great.’

  ‘Good.’ Her face turned serious. For Sam it was as though the sun had gone behind a cloud ‘I need to talk to the kobold that's with you. It's urgent.’

  ‘I think he's at the bar.’ said Sam. Weewalk had been looking lovingly at a pewter tankard of ale when Sam had arrived back.

  ‘Thanks.’ said Kya ‘See you soon, I hope.’

  And with that she headed off past Sam. He turned and watched her go. For a moment he had been certain it was the girl from the painting. But it couldn't be. There was no doubt that she looked similar, but the likeness was not exact. It was just a coincidence. There was no way the painting could have been of her. Deciding it was nothing more than a coincidence Sam headed to his room. Even if it wasn't her there was no doubt that she was just as pretty. He groaned inwardly as he thought how he must have looked sitting slack-jawed on the floor. Still, what had she said? See you soon, I hope. That had to be good.

  After an hour or so Weewalk stumped into the room, a grim expression on his face as he sat on a bed opposite Sam. Hadan appeared a moment later and sat down too. He looked pale. Turning to Sam Weewalk said something which Sam had been dreading.

  ‘It's time for us to leave.’

  Sam had been worried about this for some time. ‘Where will you go?’

  ‘Not us.’ smiled Weewalk pointing to himself and Hadan, ‘Us!’ he said, this time swinging his finger around like he had a lasso so that he pointed to all three of them. ‘We have to stick together.’

  ‘You didn't think we’d leave you here, did you?’ said Hadan.

  Sam shrugged his shoulders, feeling slightly better. He didn't want to leave the comfort of the Mermaid behind and say goodbye to Vallalar and Odhar and Jēran but if he was going to leave then at least the others would be coming too.

  ‘We're pretty confident that Ferus knows that we're here and we've had some incredible but important news this evening which means that we need to put ourselves in some danger.’ said Weewalk. ‘We can't stay here anyway. With Ferus close the Riven may even be bold enough to try to attack the Tavern, even though they'd have a serious fight on their hands.’

  ‘What's the news and how do you know
he's close?’ asked Sam, looking around nervously.

  ‘There has been a yeren watching the place for a few days.’ said Hadan, avoiding Sam's first question. ‘If you go out into the garden after dark you might see him hiding in the bushes. We can only presume that he is feeding information back to Ferus.’

  ‘What? I thought we were safe here.’ said Sam.

  ‘Ordinarily I'd say we would be.’ said Hadan. ‘It doesn't really make much sense to fight us here. There are enough lines in the building that we could easily escape any attack but Ferus is definitely up to something. We're better off getting away before he puts whatever plan he has into action.’

  ‘Fine by me.’ said Sam, thinking back to the oppressive menacing feeling that had washed over him when Ferus was near. He shivered at the thought of it. ‘So, where will we go?’

  Weewalk spoke up. ‘We're going on a rescue mission. A dangerous one. We're going to rescue Tarak Everune, the secret keeper. The Riven have him captive but he has a message for us and we have to hear it before it's too late.’

  ‘But I thought he was just a drunk coward.’ said Sam remembering an earlier conversation.

  Weewalk gave a sigh and a small nod before replying. ‘It seems Everune may have misled us all.’ he said grimly. ‘Friend and foe alike. He carries one last great secret. A secret that may determine the entire future of man, Murian, Riven and koboldkind. If this goes wrong then we're doomed.’

  Sam miserably stuffed his meagre possessions into his rucksack whilst Weewalk and Hadan prepared their bags too. Just a few hours ago he had felt happy for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. Learning new powers. Living comfortably with friends around. Sam added a set of warm winter clothes that Jēran had given him as a gift to his bag. You never knew when a line would take you into a wintry place and it was best to pack for all occasions. The conversation with Weewalk and Hadan had not gone on for much longer. Sam had tried to pry more information from the kobold but Weewalk had promised that he knew nothing more. Sam couldn't tell just how Kya, for he presumed that the information had come from her, had persuaded Weewalk that Tarak was worthy of saving, but whatever she had said had utterly persuaded Weewalk and Hadan that this dangerous mission was necessary. Sam had also discovered that Kya would be coming with them, guiding them to where Tarak was held captive in Mu. At the moment Sam wasn't sure how he felt about that. Part of him already wanted to remain close to Kya, his stomach lurched when he thought of her, but another part of him felt a little resentful that she was joining their group and that she had set the path that they would take. He couldn't believe that the four of them were the best ones for the job. Surely there were stronger people out there, with a more marked presence, who could complete Tarak's rescue much better. There was something going on here, thought Sam to himself. He knew he was usually too trusting to a fault but something about this situation just didn't fit.