The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two

by Egan, Catherine

  Eliza nodded and rolled her eyes a bit, thinking that Lil must be very remote indeed if the wizard did not know that.

  “The King saw through my spell,” Uri Mon Lil carried on. “He saw my daughter in all her true loveliness and he declared that she would be his wife. My own wife and I despaired. We could not allow our daughter to be enslaved to such a being and so I tried again. I travelled to the realm of the Faeries, ostensibly to meet the King who had claimed my child. Once there, I had my daughter obtain a piece of his hair and I tried to cast a spell on him, a sort of...anti-love spell.”

  “There’s no such thing as a love spell,” said Eliza, “so how could there be an anti-love spell?”

  “It is a form of Confusion made to work on the mind and affect the will,” conceded the wizard, consulting his book again. “Again, I failed. When the King suddenly changed his mind about my daughter, his advisors realized that some Magic had been worked on him. I was put in a dungeon and they brought in a witch to break my spell. I felt sure I would be put to death for daring to cast a spell on the King of the Faeries, but my daughter Gautelen begged for my life and the King deemed it unseemly to murder his father-in-law. Instead, I was punished with this Curse and sent back to Lil. Every twenty-nine minutes, I forget...everything.” He consulted his book again, reading rapidly, and then continued. “As you may know, the King of the Faeries may take as many wives as he pleases and selects which wife shall be queen for a hundred years. The King married my daughter a year ago and declared her the Queen of the Faeries, the first queen since the Xia Sorceress who is not, herself, a Faery. I have not seen her since. I came here hoping beyond hope that the great Books of the Mancers might teach me some way to free my daughter. To enable me to make this journey and keep my mission in mind, my wife made me this book, which I have been adding to. I gave a lock of my daughter’s baby hair, all I had left of her, to the Boatman at the Lake of the Crossing. I thought I could give one of the Books of the Mancers to return once I had found the solution but these books are empty, worthless, and there is nothing I can do to help my daughter!” Uri Mon Lil’s entire body sagged with sorrow once again.

  “If together we can free the Mancers,” said Eliza, “I’m sure they’ll be grateful and willing to help you.”

  Hope lit up the tiny creased face of the wizard as she spoke and his eyes shone. “Yes! Yes indeed! I will help you in whatever way I can.”

  “Good. Do you know the spells of Deep Seeing?” Eliza asked.

  Uri Mon Lil opened his book and glanced over the first page again. “There are spells at the back,” he said cheerfully, flipping through the pages at the back of his tattered little book. “Let me see, let me see. Simple Illusions. That’s not right. Useful, though, I’ll bet. Flight with staff, aha!” He snatched up the knobbed staff lying at his feet triumphantly. “I was wondering how I’d gotten here! Moving objects large and small. Hum. Potions, quite a number of potions.” He turned a few more pages. “Simple barriers. Seeking. Oh dear, I don’t think there’s anything here about Deep Seeing.” His face fell. “Of course, I must have known how to do it once. But I can’t remember.”

  Eliza’s mind was racing. “It doesnay matter if you cannay remember,” she decided. “You still have power, aye. I know how the spell works and I’ll teach it to you. Then we’ll do it together.”

  She was a bit anxious, as they didn’t have long before Uri Mon Lil would forget again whatever she taught him. She led the wizard to where Foss towered above them both in stone, and she allowed herself to look at the figure closely for the first time. His face was a mask of horror, his arms flung up, and she wondered what his final thoughts had been. He had sent the summons for her to return to the Citadel, hoping to protect her. How horrified he must have been, then, when Nia appeared, and he realized that in fact he was summoning Eliza to face her. She stepped around Foss to the wall directly behind him and put her hands against it.

  “We need to ask the wall to show us its memory. We’re looking for the moment in time, not very long ago, when this Mancer was turned to stone.”

  “I see!” said Uri Mon Lil. “That sounds like a good idea.”

  “Then we want to break the spell,” continued Eliza. “Put your hands over mine. We should be touching, aye, so our power works together instead of both of us just doing the spell at the same time.”

  Eliza told him the words. They pressed their foreheads to the wall and spoke the spell in unison. Eliza poured herself into the cold marble and into the past. It was as if she was falling through the wall, plunging into a great chasm. She felt the wizard’s power envelop hers, steadying her, and the Library appeared before them, as if they were watching from inside the wall. They were behind Foss, who was chanting something in a loud and terrible voice. Bookcases were crashing against each other, books tumbling down in avalanches.

  “It was you who designed the barriers, wasn’t it?” Nia was saying, flicking her wrist at another towering bookcase so that it toppled out of her way. “Very creative, for a Mancer. I ought to come up with a special punishment just for you but I haven’t time.”

  Foss called up a barrier around himself. Nia pulled it down with her hand.

  “Too slow, silly,” she said, almost affectionately. Then she pointed both hands at him, fingers stretched wide, and whispered, “Stone.” There was a flash of light. Foss flung up his arms instinctively to protect himself.

  Eliza trembled and then spilled in a thousand directions at once, coming to on the floor, shaking. The wizard was fanning her with his book and looking very anxious.

  “Did you see?” he asked.

  Eliza nodded. What she had seen horrified her but she was glad to know that the wizard was more powerful than he looked.

  “How do we break it?” she asked him. “What kind of spell was it?”

  Uri Mon Lil stared at her incredulously. “I’ve no idea,” he said, and checked his watch. “Blast the Ancients! You’re going to have to remind me of what’s happened in just a minute...”

  Eliza climbed to her feet. She felt a bit sick after the spell.

  “Let’s see if there are any books Nia didnay drain,” she said. “We might be able to find something useful.”

  “Ye-es,” the wizard looked around him in bewilderment. “Excuse me, but...”

  “Read your book,” sighed Eliza, tapping it, and she began to search through the empty books on the Library floor.

  Chapter

  ~11~

  Ander Brady swept the black water with the helicopter’s searchlight. The sickle of bare volcanoes rearing up out of the ocean were half-lit by the moon. The searchlight illuminated a wedge of barren rock not a hundred feet from one of the tallest volcanoes.

  “That one,” Nell said, pointing.

  “You want me to land inside the volcano,” Ander repeated for the third or fourth time, still not quite believing it. “And then some fellow in a boat comes and takes us to Tian Xia.”

  “Yes. And he’s horrible-looking, aye, so brace yourself.”

  “I thought you didnay remember any of it.”

  “I remember the journey. I just dinnay remember anything while I was there.”

  Ander shook his head in bewilderment. Nell had never been like the other island children and she was indeed a close friend of Eliza Tok, who had been suddenly and dramatically taken from the island by Mancers a couple of years back. Still, it was hard to fathom that Onni and Gladd’s daughter had been to Tian Xia. It had been enough of a shock when she got a scholarship to that school in Kalla.

  “But you know the way to this cave.”

  “Aye, I can find it,” said Nell confidently. She had required Charlie and Eliza to tell the tale of their Tian Xia adventures many times over in minute detail.

  Ander skillfully poised the helicopter over the crater and descended into it, landing gently at the bottom. Unlike most craters, which filled in with dirt and mud, this one offered a broad opening into a rocky cavern where steaming water ran off int
o innumerable dark tunnels. The helicopter lights beamed off bits of damp black rock and then shut off. Ander cut the engines and the rotary wings slowed and hummed to a halt.

  “Charlie? We’re almost there. Can you hear me?” Nell scrambled into the back to check on the Shade. The cloudy substance was still pouring out from under the blanket she’d wrapped around his chest and she wished desperately that Eliza were here, or anybody who might know how to stop or slow a wound like this. Charlie’s eyelids flickered open for a moment and her blood ran cold. His eyes were nothing like a boy’s eyes anymore. They were clouded over, a cold, unsettling mix of mist and light.

  “Just hang on a little longer, Charlie,” she whispered in his ear. She climbed out the side door over him and Ander lifted the boy from the helicopter. They did not have to wait long before the ghostly boat emerged from the dark. Nell felt Ander stiffen beside her.

  “Should’ve brought my gun,” he muttered under his breath.

  “I have been taking a great many beings from Tian Xia across to Di Shang these last days,” said the Boatman, and they both cringed at his harsh, grating voice. “But humans crossing into Tian Xia? It is unusual.” He pointed a single, pellucid finger at Nell. “I remember you.”

  “We want passage,” said Nell. Much to her vexation, her knees seemed to have turned to water and were trembling so much she could barely stand straight. But she kept her voice as steady as she could. “We can pay.”

  “And so you must,” said the Boatman, with a short laugh that sounded like somebody taking a knife to a window.

  “Give him your watch, lah,” Nell said to Ander.

  “My da’s watch?” Ander looked appalled.

  “Charlie’s dying,” said Nell in a hard voice she had never used before. “You’ll nay waste time wondering if his life is worth your watch.”

  Ander took off his watch and handed it to the Boatman.

  “Passage for him,” said the Boatman.

  Nell reached into her bag and handed him her mathematics medal and the Cherry Swanson album.

  “Here’s for me and Charlie,” she said.

  The Boatman grinned and wagged his head at her. “But you have brought me more than you are giving me.”

  Annoyed, she took out the fossilized baby dragon and thrust it towards him. He took it.

  “You paid more last time,” he said.

  “I overpaid last time,” said Nell levelly. “I thought you’d be glad I’m nay asking for credit.”

  At this, the Boatman threw back his head and rasped out his unspeakable laugh once more. Then he gestured that they could board.

  “Is it true we can bring any inanimate object in our possession?” asked Nell, for Charlie had said something like this once.

  “There is no price for a thing that has no will,” conceded the Boatman.

  Nell looked at the broad deck.

  “Can you land the helicopter there?” she asked Ander.

  He gaped at her. “You want to take a helicopter to Tian Xia?”

  “How else are we going to get around?”

  The Boatman watched with great amusement while Ander went back and started up the helicopter, hovering it over the boat and putting it down squarely on the deck. Nell pulled Charlie to the stern of the boat, wanting to stay as far as possible from the Boatman. Now that they were all on board, she began to feel better. Although she had told Ander that she remembered the Crossing and the hideous Boatman, her memory had kindly blurred just what an awful sight he really was and she was very annoyed with her knees for going wobbly on her. She hoped neither Ander nor the Boatman had noticed. The sails caught the nonexistent wind and they sailed fast through one of the caverns and out into the misty sea of the Crossing.

  ~~~

  One of the things Nell did remember was being ill on the Crossing. It was the last thing she remembered before becoming exhausted and dehydrated and confused on the way back. Charlie had said that the first time was the worst and she hoped he was right. She was worried about Ander, too. But she could not dwell too much on how the journey might affect them. She had to look to Charlie. Cold sweat beaded on his skin and his breath was a slow, uneven rasp. She tried to prop him up comfortably and held his hand tight.

  “You have to hang on, Charlie. I know the journey is hard but you have to stay with me. Can you hear me?”

  He wheezed slightly in response. Ander sat with his back against the gunwale, hands clasped loosely between his knees, his expression fixed. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Since he was not forthcoming, Nell ignored him. She talked to Charlie, feeding him brandy in small doses and telling the most entertaining stories she could think of, inventing wildly whatever she thought might hold his interest. When his head began to drop she lifted it up and held it between her hands. He barely responded, except once when she mentioned Julian’s name in passing. He made a sound like a gurgle. She paused and then tried again.

  “Julian invited me to the Autumn Fire Dance last term,” she told him. “He’s a surprisingly good dancer, lah. I guess that comes from being athletic and coordinated.”

  Charlie’s eyelids fluttered. Nell began to describe the dress she had worn to the dance and his expression went dead again.

  “We danced and had punch,” she tried desperately. “Julian looked very handsome, aye.” She thought she saw a frown. “He kissed me when we were walking back to the dormitories.”

  At this, Charlie made another gurgle and one of his hands twitched.

  “We kiss all the time,” said Nell excitedly. “Even in a supply cupboard one time.”

  “What are you on about?” muttered Ander, frowning.

  There was a crease between Charlie’s eyebrows.

  “Kissing and kissing,” babbled Nell. The white mist closed over them.

  “What’s this?” came Ander’s voice, a growl. “Cannay see a thing.”

  Nell squeezed Charlie’s hand. It was cold and clammy and felt not altogether hand-like, as if the bones were going soft. She let go with a shiver. “I wish Eliza were here,” she said. “It’s funny, lah, she’s so different in some ways from when I first met her but in other ways she’s exactly the same. I remember her very first day at the school in Holburg; she corrected Mentor Frist’s geography. I’ve loved her ever since. I dinnay think he ever forgave her, though.”

  Charlie made a sound that might have been a laugh. She stroked his face. His skin was dry and didn’t even feel like skin. She was glad she couldn’t see him. She set about repeating every amusing anecdote she could think of from Eliza’s pre-Sorceress days, punctuating the stories by slipping a taste of brandy into his mouth. She stopped giving him brandy after she bumped one of his teeth with the edge of the bottle and it fell right out. Whenever she paused in her storytelling, she heard the hiss of the water under the boat. She was not sure how long they had been travelling when a wind swept down and the mist parted. She heard Ander draw in a sharp breath. The lake beneath them was a brilliant green, the sky above the colour of fire. In the distance, the dark shadow of the cliffs. Tian Xia. She felt nausea swirling up within her and she forced it down. She wouldn’t get sick. She had to take care of Charlie.

  “What am I doing?” muttered Ander to himself. He looked very pale. He turned accusing eyes on Nell, then went a little paler and staggered to his feet to vomit over the gunwale.

  “You’re going to be fine, aye,” Nell told the Shade. Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, too nasal, somehow distant. “Once we get to the Cave, you’ll be fine. Are you still awake? Are you listening to me?”

  Charlie said nothing. He looked like a deflating balloon, his features soft and indefinite, his body losing its solidity. Like he was melting, coming apart. Her stomach convulsed. For a moment she thought she would be able to master it, that through sheer strength of will she could prevent the sickness from overwhelming her. Then she buckled over, clutching her stomach with a groan.

  The boat raced on towards the dark cliffs, which loo
med larger and larger. Her stomach lurched, knife-jabs of lightning pain shot through her bones, hot flashes and icy chills swept over her. She forgot about Charlie. She forgot about everything. She pressed her face to the boards and moaned, hands in her hair, helpless against the agony of it.

  Ander was more experienced when it came to pain. He had fought many long years in the war and his body was a map of scars. In spite of being feverish, half-delirious, and wracked by stabbing pains, he dragged both Charlie and Nell into the helicopter as the cliff approached and the black zig-zagging steps opened up before them. He did not know if the awful shapes on the wall, glaring beasts and ominous watching things, were actually carved there or merely his own hallucinations, and he didn’t bother himself about it. Nell was vomiting in the back of the helicopter as he started up the engine. As they soared up and over the wall, she leaned forward between the seats. Her damp hair stuck to her face, which was white as a sheet, and her pale lips trembled.

  “Canyon,” she croaked, and pointed.

  At first this meant nothing to Ander. He followed her shaking finger and saw only a dark forest rising up to the right. Then he spotted the canyon snaking towards it, and he put the helicopter down on the edge of it. As soon as the rotary wings had stopped he yanked open the door, stumbled out of the chopper, fell to his knees and then flat on his stomach, where he lay still. Nell pulled open her door and fell out. She barely felt the impact as she hit the ground. Rust-coloured clouds flitted across the sky like smoke and the red sun beat down on them. She rolled onto her side with a gasp of pain and lifted her throbbing head. A good distance to the left, near the black cliffs, stood what appeared to be a great many ruins. Nell squinted, not quite trusting her eyesight. She knew these should be the Temples of the Faithful but Eliza had described them as rather beautiful and busy domes. These were collapsed, open to the sky, and deserted. She turned her head in the other direction. The canyon and the Ravening Forest. She crawled to where Ander lay on the red earth. His eyes were open and he was breathing, thank the Ancients. When he saw her, he said thickly, “What’s happening to us?”