Doom, doom, doom, doom. . .
'Well, Lord Grayam said to go into the crypt, so I suppose we should go,' Maram said.
'Yes, but which crypt?' Jonatham asked. 'There is the one where we buried your friends. And one beneath each of the Library's wings.'
Now the sun had set, and the sentinels cried out that the armies of Brahamdur, Sagaram and Hansh were approaching the city's outer wall.
It would have been hopeless, of course, to search each of the crypts, tapping along their subterranean walls for the sound of a hidden door. And so Liljana, seized with inspiration, took out her blue gelstei and laid her hand on Lord Grayam's head. Her touch lasted only a few moments. But that was enough for her to reach into that land of ice and utter cold -enough, as her grip closed upon the last gleam of Lord Grayam's mind, to freeze her soul. Her eyes suddenly rolled back in her head, showing nothing but white, and I was afraid that she would join Lord Grayam in eternity. Then she shuddered violently as she ripped her hand away and looked at me.
'Oh, Val - I never knew!' she whispered to me.
'Brave woman,' I said, taking her cold hand in mine. I smiled and said softly,
'Foolish woman.'
Maram licked his lips as the drums kept up their relentless tattoo. He looked at Liljana and asked, 'Could you see anything?'
'I saw where the door is,' Liljana suddenly breathed out. 'It's in the main crypt. I can find it, I think.'
I stood up then, and so did my companions. To Captain Varkam, who was looking at us strangely, I said, 'It seems that there may be a way out for us, after all. And yet
-'
'Go!' he said to me with great urgency. 'This was the Lord Librarian's last command, and it must be obeyed.'
He motioned for Lord Grayam's body to be placed on a bier. And then he told me,
'Farewell, Sar Valashu. May you walk always in the light of the One.'
Then he quickly clasped my hand and turned to look to the Library's last defense.
We sent for our horses and took them into the Library. The men and women of Khaisham looked at us incredulously as we led them clopping their iron-shod hooves down the long halls. The word soon spread that we had found a means of escaping this vast building - and the city itself. At first many clamored to go with us. But when it became known that we were going into the mountains to the east, their panic to flee the city gave way to even greater fears. For that was the land of the man-eating Frost Giants from which none had ever returned.
'What will happen to them?' Maram asked as we began our descent down the broad steps leading to the crypt. Although no one had wanted to go with us, we all felt guilty at leaving them behind. 'Likely they'll be enslaved,' Kane said. 'So, likely they'll live longer than we will.'
We met Jonatham and graham in the gloom of the crypt. They had four horses between them, each of whose saddlebags was packed with their portion of the eighty-four huge volumes of the Great Index. It made a heavy load for the horses, but not nearly so great as the burden that they themselves must bear.
Liljana located a place on the crypt's eastern wall, where the light of the torches through the arches showed most brightly. We brought forth the sledgehammers the Librarians had given us and broke through the veneer of plaster hiding the door. This was a huge slab of steel untouched by rust and still gleaming dully despite the march of the centuries since it had been hung there. With the help of a little oil in its lock, the Lord Librarian's key opened it. Before us was a tunnel wide enough to drive a cart through - and dark enough to send shudders of doubt through all our hearts.
Our passage through it was like a nightmare. Once the door had closed behind us -
this cold piece of steel that would take Count Ulanu's men half the night to break from its jamb - it seemed that the earth itself had devoured us. The torches we carried sent an oily smoke into the stale air and choked us; the red sandstone through which the tunnel had been carved seemed stained with the blood of all who had died along the Library's walls. The horses hated going down into that dank, foul-smelling place. Twice, Altaru whinnied and balked, setting his hooves against the stone like a mule which no threat will move. I had to whisper to him that we were going to a better place and would soon breathe fresh air again. Only his love for me, I thought, impelled him to move on and lead the other horses forward.
We walked down and down for a long time. The tunnel twisted like a worm in the earth, right and left. In its dark hollows sounded the echoes of our footfalls and the deeper murmurs of our despair. I thought I could feel the souls of all those who had been placed in the crypt, Alphanderry most of all, wandering about in this endless tunnel, forever lost. It was only Lord Grayam's dying wish, like a beckoning hand, that led me on.
At last the tunnel began to rise. After what seemed hours but must have been much less time, we came to another door, like the first. It opened onto a much larger space that had once been the shaft of a mine. Now, as we could tell from the strong animal scent clinging to the rocks here, it had been taken over as the lair of a bear. The sudden knowledge that we were so close to one of Maram's furry friends set him to singing nervously, so that any bear here would be warned of our passage and perhaps flee instead of attacking us. But it seemed that whatever beast lived in this ancient mine was not at home. We passed unmolested out of the mine's opening, which was overgrown with bushes and trees.
And so at last we stood on the slope of Mount Redruth beneath the night's first stars. In the air was a sharp coolness as well as a howling coming from the city below us. We could see all of Khaisham quite clearly in the starlight and in the sheen of the bright half moon. The Library, rising like a vast salt crystal from Khaisham's highest hill was ringed by thousands of little lights that must have been torches.
Many of these flickered from atop the inner wall; from this sign I knew that it had fallen. The Librarians, no doubt, were making their final defense from behind the Library's immense wooden doors. I wondered how much longer they would stand before Count Ulanu's fire arrows and battering rams.
'You should go now,' I said to Jonatham. He stood with Braham by their horses, looking down at his conquered city. I pointed along the curve of the mountain, south toward Sarad. 'It won't be long before our escape is discovered. Count Ulanu will surely send pursuit.'
'If he does, then they will be slain,' Jonatham said with a black certainty. 'As we will, all of us. We've entered the Frost Giants' country here, and they'll likely find us before Count Ulanu's men do.'
'They may,' I said. 'But there is always hope.'
'No, not always,' Jonatham said, taking my hand in his. 'But it gladdens my heart that you say that. I shall miss you, Sar Valashu.'
'Farewell, Jonatham,' I told him. 'May you walk in the light of the One.'
Then I clasped Braham's hand, as did my friends, one by one, quickly making their farewells. We watched as they led their horses across the trackless slope of the mountain until they vanished behind its contours into the dark.
I stood on the rocky, slanting earth with my hand on Altaru's neck, trying to ease his strained nerves for the journey that we still must make. Maram stood by Iolo near me, as did Atara and Liljana with their horses, and Master Juwain and Kane.
'Oh, what are we to do!' Maram said, gazing down at the city.
'There's only one thing to do,' I said.
Maram looked at me with horror filling up his face. 'But, Val, you can't really be thinking that -'
'I gave my promise to Lord Grayam,' I told him.
'But surely that's not a promise you can think to keep!'
Could I keep this promise, I wondered? I, too, stared down at Khaisham. The thousands of torches had now closed in around the Library like a ring of fire. 'My promise,' I said to Maram and the others, 'was given from me to Lord Grayam. It doesn't bind any of you.'
'But surely it doesn't bind you, either,' Master Juwain told me. 'You can't promise to do the impossible.'
Atara was quiet for a few moments a
s she looked off at Khaisham - and far beyond.
And then she spoke with the clear, cool logic that was one of her gifts. 'If we don't go east, then what direction should we choose?'
As she pointed out, we could not return west through Yarkona as we had come To the south lay Sarad, which would soon fall as Khaisham had and beyond that, the deathly hot Red Desert. And north, across the White Mountains, infested in those parts with the tribes of the Blues, we would come to the thickest part of the Vardaloon, which might hold monsters even worse than Meliadus.
'Then we must go east,' I said. 'To Argattha, to find the Lightstone.'
'But we don't know that it's even there!' Maram said. 'What if Master Aluino's journal was a hoax? What if he was mad, as he thought of the man claiming to be Sartan Odinan?'
I stared at the blazing torches as I relived Lord Grayam's urging that I should enter Argattha. I tried to imagine an invisible cup guarded by dragons and hidden in the darkest of places - the last place on earth that I would ever wish to go. Then I drew Alkaladur and pointed it toward the east. Its blade flared with a silvery light, the brightest I had yet seen.
'It's there,' I said, knowing that it must be. 'It's still there.'
Master Juwain came forward and set his hand on my arm. He said, 'Val, there is a great danger here. Danger for us, if we covet the Lightstone as Sartan did and fall maddened by it. Perhaps it would be best to leave the Lightstone wherever it was that he set it down. It might never be found.'
'No,' I said, 'it will be found - by someone. And soon. This is the time, sir. You said so yourself.'
Master Juwain fell silent as he stared up at the stars. There, it was told, the Ieldra poured forth their essence upon the earth in the ethereal radiance of the Golden Band.
'The seven brothers and sisters of the earth,' I said, citing Ayondela's prophecy,
'with the seven stones will set forth into the darkness and -'
'And that's just it!' Maram broke in. 'With Alphanderry gone, we're only six. And we've only six gelstei. How are we to find the seventh in the wastes that lie between here and Argattha?'
I pressed my hand over my heart. I said, 'You're wrong, Maram. Alphanderry is still with us, here, in each of us. And as to the seventh gelstei, who knows what we'll find in the mountains?'
'You have a strange way of interpreting prophecies, my friend.'
I smiled grimly and told him, 'Of this part of the prophecy, we both must agree: that if we go into Argattha, we'll surely be setting forth into the very heart of darkness.'
The quiet desperation that fell upon Maram told me that he agreed with every fear-quivered fiber of his being.
Of all my friends, only Kane seemed pleased by the prospects of this desperate venture. The wind off his dark face and rippling white hair carried the scents of hate and madness. A wild look came into his eyes, and he said, 'Once Kalkamesh entered Argattha, and so might we.'
'But that's madness!' Maram said. 'Surely you can see that!'
'Ha -I see that the plan's seeming madness is its very strength. Morjin will continue to seek the Lightstone in every other land but Sakai. He'll seek us there, too, eh? He'd never dream we'd be witless enough to try to enter Argattha.'
'Are we that witless?' Maram asked.
Liljana patted his hand consolingly and said, 'It would be foolish to attempt the impossible. But is it truly that?'
We all looked at Atara, who stared out at Khaisham as from the vantage of the world's highest mountain. And then, in a soft voice that struck terror into me, she said, 'No, not impossible - but almost.'
From high up on the Library's south wing came a flicker of light, as of a flame brightening a window. I thought of all the Librarians who had died in its defense and the thousands of men, women and children taking refuge inside. I thought of my father and mother, of my brothers and all my countrymen in far-off Mesh - and of the Lokilani and Lady Nimaiu and even the greedy but sometimes noble Captain Kharald. And, of course, of Alphanderry. I knew then that even if there was only one chance in ten thousand of rescuing the Lightstone out of Argattha, it must be taken.
My heart beat out its thundering affirmation of this dreadful decision. There comes a time when a life not willingly risked for the love of others is no longer worth living. 'I will go to Argattha,' I said. 'Who will come with me?' Now more flames appeared in the other windows of the south wing, and then in those of the other wings, as well.
When it became clear that Count Ulanu's men had fired the Library, Maram called out, 'The books! Everyone trapped inside! How can he do this? How, Val, how?'
He fell against me, weeping and clutching at the rings of my mail to keep from falling down in despair. I forced myself to stand like a wall, or else I would have fallen, too
- and never to arise again.
'Oh no!' Liljana said, looking down at the burning Library, 'it can't be!'
Her arms found their way around Atara, who was now sobbing bitterly and silently as she pressed her face against Liljana's chest.
'I should never have used my firestone,' Maram gasped out. ' All the burning led only to this. I swear I'll never turn fire against men again.' Master Juwain had both hands held against the sides of his head as he stared down at the horror before us. He seemed unable to move, unable to speak.
'So,' Kane said, with death leaping like dark lights in his eyes. As the fire found the millions of books that the Librarians had
collected over the centuries, a great column of flame shot high into the air. It seemed to carry the cries of the damned and the dying up toward the heavens. I smelled the sweet-bitter boil of death ill the sudden burning that swept through me like an ocean of bubbling kirax. Fire ravished me. It blazed like starlight in my heart and hands and eyes.
'So,' Kane said as I turned to look at him, 'I will go with you to Argattha.'
I bowed my head to him, once, fiercely, as our hands locked together. Then I looked at Master Juwain, who said, 'I will go, too.'
'So will I,' Liljana said, gazing at me in awe of what we must do.
'And I,' Atara said softly. Her eyes found mine; in their depths was a blazing certainty that she would not leave my side.
Maram finally pulled away from me and forced himself to stop sobbing. I saw the flames from the Library reflected in the water of his dark eyes - and something else.
'And I,' he said, 'would want to go with you, too, if only I -'
He suddenly stopped speaking as he drew in a long breath. For a long few moments, he stood looking at me. He blinked at the bitter smoke as if remembering a promise that he had made to himself. He pulled himself up straight, shook out his brown curls, and stood for a moment like a king.
'I will go with you,' he told me with steel in his voice. 'I'd follow you into hell itself, Val, which is certainly where we are going.'
I clasped his hand in mine to seal this troth as our hearts beat as one.
After that, we all turned to behold the destruction of the Library. There was no desire to utter another word, no need to speak the prayers that would burn forever in our hearts. The fire, fed by many books and bodies, raged high into the sky and seemed to fill all the world, and that was hell enough.
Chapter 35
And so, that very night, we went up into the mountains. We turned our horses east and picked our way across the rocky slopes of Mount Redruth. We had no track to follow, only the gleam of my sword and the glimmer of the stars. These points of white and blue grew more vivid as we left Khaisham's glowing sky behind us and climbed higher. Bright Solaru of the Swan Constellation gave me hope, as did the brilliant swath of stars called the Sparkling Stairs. They reminded me that there were better places in the One's creation where men did not kill each other with steel and flame.
As the night deepened, it grew cooler, and I surrounded myself in my cloak, which my mother had made of lamb's wool and embroidered with silver. It gave good warmth, as did those of my companions. But not enough to please Kane. His eyes cut through th
e dark ahead of us, peering out at the ghostly white shapes of the greater mountains rising up to the east. And he said, 'We'll need thicker clothing than this before long.'
'But it's still summer,' Maram said, walking his horse near him.
'In the deeper mountains, it's already fall,' Kane said, pointing ahead of us. 'And in the high mountains, winter. Always winter.'
His words quickened the chill in the air. They brought us back to the dangers all about us. These were numerous and deadly. Pursuit by Cout Ulanu's men was the least of them. Although we listened for the sound of his warriors hurrying after us, it would be morning at the earliest before there would be enough light for them to follow our tracks. More worrisome, at the moment, was losing our way in the dark and plunging off an unexpected cliff. Or having one of the horses break a leg on the jagged rocks of the uncertain ter-rain, and thus being forced make a mercy killing.
Certainly there were bears about, as Maram imagined seeing behind every tree. And we all looked for the shapes of the dreaded Frost Giants lying in wait for us, perhaps just behind the next ridge, or the one behind that.
All that night, however, we saw no sign of these fearsome creatures. Nor did we catch sight of the twinkling form of Flick. This dispirited all of us, not as much as had Alphanderry's death, but enough. Maram supposed that Flick had the good sense not to enter a land guarded by bears and man-eating giants. I wondered if the evil of what had happened in Khaisham had simply driven him away. I was almost ready to say a requiem for him when he suddenly reappeared just before dawn. As the Morning Star showed brightly in the east, he winked into a fiery incandescence that reminded me of the sparks thrown up by the library's burning. I took this as his own manner of saying a requiem -or at least a remembrance of all those who had died that night in the hellish flames.
'Flick, my little friend!' Maram cried out when he saw him spinning through the grayness of the twilight. 'You've come back to us!'
'Maybe he's been with us all along, and we just couldn't see him,' Atara said.
Liljana, leaning against her horse, said, 'It's strange, isn't it, that Alphanderry did see him just before he died? How can that be?'
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