The Company of Glass

by Tricia Sullivan

  A little light began to come to him, and as he got to his feet his vision cleared. He was looking down a long, long hall draped in shadow, its double row of columns rising to support a roof made of nothing but midnight with its spilled stars. Running down the centre of the hall was a rectangular pool set at the bottom of wide steps that ran around its edges. At the far end he could just make out the moon-etched outlines of a gate.

  He began walking down the hall, weaving among the columns as a way of breaking the symmetry of this place by his movement; for its stillness frightened him and he would have been more at ease in chaos. When he passed behind the columns, expecting to find a wall, he saw instead that where the floor ended in darkness there was an edge, and beyond the edge of the floor there was …

  ‘Don’t look down!’ The tone was imperious. He turned.

  ‘Mhani?’

  Her voice seemed to be right beside him, but he could not see her. Then he noticed the reflection on the surface of the pool. Mhani appeared to be coming towards him, red robes slithering across a stone floor in some other place. He had the impression that she was as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

  ‘Quintar,’ she whispered, and there was fear in her voice. ‘How came you here?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was fighting Night, but then she took me away from all that.’

  ‘She?’

  He swallowed and didn’t answer. ‘Help me find the Company,’ he implored. ‘Help me find Chyko, if you will do nothing else.’

  ‘I want nothing more than to find Chyko. But I have more than one duty binding me,’ she said. ‘The place you are standing is a haven, but everything below us, everything over that edge – it is madness. You cannot go there. It is the Liminal, and the White Road is the only safe way through it.’

  ‘We will find the White Road together, then,’ he said. ‘I must return and undo what I have done. I must save them – all of them.’

  ‘Quintar – what are you?’

  He didn’t think this could be answered, so he crossed to the other set of columns and passed into the dimness beneath them.

  ‘Don’t look over the edge,’ Mhani said again.

  ‘But they’re there, aren’t they? My men are out there somewhere, and they always have been, only now they’re serving Night. Ah – you don’t understand, why do I bother trying to speak of it?’

  ‘I do understand,’ she said. ‘I know what happened. Night has been using my Eyes. You took its Sight when you took the Water of Glass, and now it moves freely among the Eyes of Everien.’

  ‘I told you the Eyes should not be trusted.’

  ‘But you did not tell me why! You should not have kept silent.’

  ‘I had to. My shame was too great. I let them be taken, and when it was my turn, I fled.’

  ‘You should have told us.’

  ‘You’re all so fucking clever,’ said Tarquin. ‘With your words and your concepts and your images. You think because you can see out across Everien that you understand, but you know nothing. You haven’t been to Jai Pendu. You don’t know what it is. You want to be told all about it for your Scholarly studies but the very idea makes me sick. Some things should never be spoken.’

  There was a pause. The image of Mhani had deep circles beneath its eyes – a haggard expression.

  ‘Night is also looking for the White Road,’ she said soberly. ‘It wants to get back to Jai Pendu. It will take as many humans with it as possible, for it is full of a hunger for us. And Lerien must try to stop it, but I can’t get to him. All my Eyes are full of Night. I cannot See without Seeing through Night. Even now. It sent you here, I am sure, Tarquin. Be wary.’

  ‘I still don’t know where I am. Is this Everien?’

  ‘This is the Liminal,’ she said. ‘You are no longer in Everien.’

  ‘And what about you?’

  ‘I am in Jai Khalar, but I can See into the Liminal. I don’t know how to explain—’

  He cut her off. ‘I’m not interested. I just want to know what’s become of my Company. Are they alive or dead? How is it that they walk, like ghosts on the green earth?’

  ‘I don’t know the answer,’ she said. ‘I do know that Night will march its army into the Floating Lands if it can.’

  ‘I told your daughter – the Floating Lands are impassable.’

  ‘If that’s true, then how did Night get back to Everien after you left Jai Pendu? For I believe it went through the Floating Lands.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Tarquin was becoming increasingly agitated. He paced around the rectangular pool, followed by the cries and clash of steel that filtered up from the void. ‘What is it, Mhani? Is it a Sekk? How could a Sekk get into Jai Pendu?’

  ‘There isn’t time to speculate.’

  ‘I have to get out of here. I’ll kill it this time. It won’t elude me. I’ll kill it and take its Glass. And I’ll find my Company.’ He went to the edge and stood with his back to it. He could hear individual voices in the chaos now.

  Mhani frowned. ‘You men are all alike. As if it were so easy.’

  ‘I didn’t say it would be easy. I said I’d do it.’ He was only half listening to her. The other half was imagining Night, and building up a rage at having been sent away, prevented from killing it as he had longed to do.

  ‘Tarquin, at the moment you’re safe, but you’re surrounded by what was once a collection of worlds, now torn apart and the scraps swept together in one pile. The White Road is only a thread, a way to quilt the worlds together to make some sense of them – but you can’t put them back the way they were. Chyko, Lyetar, Ovi – all of them, they’re mixed up in that mess. You say, “Where are they?” but it’s not a case of the locations of things being stable.’

  ‘Maybe. But if they’re going to Jai Pendu, so will I. Simple, eh, Mhani?’

  He turned and composed himself on the very brink, eyes closed, balancing the weight on the balls of his feet as if about to dive. He didn’t want to see where he was going.

  ‘As simple as death,’ she said. ‘What are you doing? Get away from that edge.’

  ‘There’s nowhere else to go,’ he said, shrugging.

  ‘Wait, Tarquin! Let me think. I may be able to help you. Maybe I can bring the White Road so you can follow it back into Everien.’

  ‘You can do that?’

  ‘I can try.’

  Without turning to look at the reflection, he said, ‘You don’t look well, Mhani.’

  She laughed then. ‘And you – do you suppose you look like a bridegroom? No, I will try. I warn you, though: Night has been coming to me through Impressions. If I open the White Road for you, it may take advantage of the opportunity to enter the Road itself.’

  ‘That’s even better – it saves me having to hunt it down. I’m not finished with Night yet.’

  ‘Go to the end of the hall,’ she said softly. ‘I can See a gate with iron bars, and beyond it something green.’

  ‘It’s a garden. I don’t think—’

  ‘Yes,’ she said with certainty. ‘That’s the way. Open the gate.’

  He thought it odd that the gate was not rusty as he lifted the latch and it swung away from him.

  Tash

  The bulk of the enemy troops had passed up the ramps and on to the sea plateau. By the little bit of dark that high summer allowed them, Lerien and his crew followed them at a safe distance, riding up the ramps until they emerged on the height. From here they watched Ketar approach the group of some two hundred horsemen. They waited for some time before he was seen to leave them, riding faster this time. Lerien paced and breathed loudly, impatient. When Ketar finally made his way up to the level of the sea plateau, he was on foot, leading the horse. The animal was not lame, but it had been ridden down to exhaustion, and Ketar didn’t look much better.

  ‘Their leader is a man called Tash, a barbarian’s son from the desert. He says he has been sent by Hezene to investigate the incident at Ristale. He has been riding along the coast, and he has
seen the Pharician army climb the sea plateau. He blames us. Reports from the garrison at Ristale say it was taken by Clan warriors.’ Ketar could not keep the pride from his voice.

  ‘I daresay it was taken by Quintar’s Company,’ said Kivi in an undertone.

  ‘Tash intends to take the sea plateau,’ Ketar said. ‘He says if we try to stop him, he will attack us.’

  ‘I don’t wish to stop him if he intends on breaking up the army, but he doesn’t know what he’s dealing with in the Sekk Master or its Glass. Surely when he sees that Hezene’s armies are not destroyed, only captive, he will want to work with us to free them.’

  Ketar looked at the ground and said, ‘He did not seem a very reasonable person.’

  The others laughed at Ketar.

  ‘Met your match, eh, Sea-sparrow?’ Stavel said good-naturedly, and slapped Ketar on the back.

  ‘It’s not funny,’ grumbled Ketar.

  They were still discussing possible strategies when, an hour or two later, Tash’s force came up the steep road in a cloud of dust and reflected light. They were well-armed and fresh. Tash halted them not far from the edge of the height and, dismounting, began to walk towards the king.

  ‘Stay here,’ Lerien said to the others. ‘Except Kivi. Come on, Kivi – let’s go parley.’

  Tash walked like he owned the Earth. He was not a big man, but he moved like a great cat, and his mahogany skin told the story of his conquests: it bore countless ritual scars and power trophies. Each place where his body had been cut or pierced represented a triumph over another man or men; the pain willingly endured by these glory scars was a testament to Tash’s hardness. His eyes were cool with his accomplishments, but they contained an alertness, too, that made Lerien nervous. Tash said nothing, his whole attitude implying that he didn’t expect to hear much of interest, and Lerien realized he had better speak before he lost his nerve.

  Lerien opened his palms and tilted his head slightly to one side in a gesture of cooperation. His band stood a little distance away while the leaders negotiated, and he knew they looked ragged and impoverished in comparison with the sleek Pharician riders. The rain had slackened, and where the Pharician armour gleamed with moisture, Lerien’s men were soaked and unkempt.

  ‘This war is a mistake. I did not order an attack on the garrison at Ristale. The Sekk used my men against my will, and without my knowledge.’

  ‘A likely story.’

  ‘Would I be so foolish as to hurl my few soldiers against all the might of Pharice with no provocation? I have no quarrel with your country. My army has been stolen by the Sekk and now marches against my own country. Help me to recover it, and your troops also will be freed.’

  Tash’s lip curled. ‘One does not lose an army. Either they are your men and they will die before serving another – or you are no leader.’

  Lerien, cut to the quick, said, ‘The Pharician garrison at Ristale was lost in just this manner.’

  ‘They are not my men.’ Yet Tash’s expression darkened as he considered the implications. ‘Who controls them, and how?’

  ‘A Sekk Master. I have not been able to get close to it.’

  ‘I’ll kill him,’ Tash said simply. ‘As for you – go back to your disappearing castle, and disappear. If I see you again, I will liquefy you and your animal boys. My emperor will treat with you later. If I were you I would prepare to join Pharice as a subject. You are unable to manage your own affairs.’

  Lerien thought about arguing and decided not to risk it. He was too severely outnumbered.

  ‘Who has seen this Sekk usurper? Have you?’ He cast piercing eyes on Kivi, who glanced at Lerien helplessly. ‘You are a Seer, are you not? With an Eye?’

  ‘Kivi, show Tash the Company you have seen in the Eye. And tell him of the Glass.’

  Kivi extended the Eye towards Tash, who gazed in at the vision of the twelve Clan warriors and raised his eyebrows. ‘They are something to see,’ he said.

  Kivi cleared his throat and began, ‘The Sekk has a Glass—’

  ‘Not now!’ Tash snapped impatiently. ‘You will tell me many things, my friend; but not now. No, you will come with me as a token of your king’s goodwill towards Pharice.’

  Lerien stepped between Kivi and Tash, who laughed. ‘You want to be cut to ribbons? Were it not for the long history of friendship between our people, I would have made myself a Bear cloak by now, Lerien. I’m offering you your life, one chance to go back to your citadel and stand by your people, in exchange for this Seer. The offer will stand for five seconds. Think fast.’

  He shifted his weight ever so slightly; just enough to make it obvious that the spear could gut Lerien with one stroke. Lerien stepped away from Kivi. Tash smiled. ‘It was the right choice for you, Lerien. Come, my little fawn. You will not be harmed.’

  Kivi didn’t look at Lerien or any of the others. He cast his eyes down, and the Pharicians bound him.

  The Floating Lands

  In the morning it seemed that the entire episode with the Bear Clan had been a dream. The wagons had moved off in another direction, and they had walked a fair distance in the twilight; there was now no sign of the Bears. It was a fine day; the sun flew high and their way was flat and open. The sea plateau supported vegetation comprised of a mixture of marsh and dunes that sheltered thousands of birds, and after the recent rain there were many flowers. It was no hardship to walk freely over flat ground in the summer warmth, with their packs full of decent Bear Clan food and their injuries on the mend, their sore muscles rested. The Floating Lands had appeared, wraithlike, in the distance.

  Xiriel became increasingly animated. ‘It remains a mystery,’ he mused, ‘what purpose the Floating Lands served, and why they were left behind. If nothing else, I hope to discover something of their true purposes.’

  ‘Surely it doesn’t matter,’ Kassien said with a touch of irritation, ‘just so long as we can get across the bridges.’

  ‘Understanding the nature of their construction can only help us to find and cross the bridges,’ said Xiriel. ‘Anyway, it gives me something to think about.’

  ‘Why do you always need to think about something?’ Pallo asked. ‘I don’t need to think.’

  ‘So I’ve noticed!’ Xiriel responded. ‘Pallo, I am trying to distract myself from my fear. Those islands are … alive. They don’t wish to be crossed.’

  ‘We survived the H’ah’vah,’ said Kassien. ‘And the Assimilator. And a Sekk Master. We’ll cut our way across.’

  ‘When we thought we were getting ten swords, that might have worked,’ Xiriel said. ‘Now we’re going to have to become a little more inventive, I think.’

  Kassien scowled and trudged ahead. He was still sulking; but Istar was pleased to be free of the Bear Clan. It was simpler out here away from people. The wind from the sea felt soft and warm on her face, and as its blueness filled more and more of her frame of view, Istar had the feeling of waking from long sleep. She had not come to the ocean for years, and now it seemed to emerge from memory as if it had been there before her all this time, present but unseen, and she found herself thinking, Of course. Here I am again.

  The Floating Lands could be seen from a long way off. They were of varying heights – the tallest rose several hundred vertical feet from the ocean – and sizes – the smallest was only a matter of forty feet in diameter – but they were similar in that none of them looked like natural islands. Istar’s party walked on a plateau that stretched many miles to the west at a height of several hundred feet above sea level, for the entire mass of Everien and its boundary mountains had been lifted above the continental plate like a loose tile, leaving a vertical drop all along its borders. To the north-east rose the cliffs of the Seahawk Clan where the Everien Range met the sea, but these were rough and craggy whereas the Floating Lands were sculpted from smooth stone in varying shades of grey. Their upper surfaces tended to be flat like the plateau from which they’d apparently been wrenched, and they bore some grass and moss, but the
ir sides were entirely bare. The islands were blocklike and did not taper as they rose from the ocean, although one of them was twisted as though someone had grabbed it in the middle and wrung it like a mop.

  ‘They have switched positions since the last time any of our people reported,’ Xiriel said.

  Concerned, Istar asked, ‘Are they supposed to do that?’

  ‘They are not grounded in the sea bed, so they will drift,’ Xiriel said. ‘But I didn’t expect them to be in this particular order. I will have to think on it.’

  ‘How can we get across, then?’ wondered Kassien. ‘I thought you said there were bridges.’

  ‘There are bridges, built by the Everiens,’ Xiriel said. ‘But they can be whimsical, and they don’t seem to be extended at the moment. I suppose that’s how the islands manage to drift. They’re not always connected to each other.’

  ‘That one’s broken’ Pallo noted, pointing to a spur of rock that vaulted into the air to form an incomplete arc with crumbling edges. ‘And what about those ropes?’

  ‘They are cables placed by the Pharicians the last time they tried to cross,’ Kassien told him. ‘They may come in handy for us.’

  ‘Where is Jai Pendu?’ asked Pentar softly.

  ‘Jai Pendu is the only one which moves completely untethered,’ Xiriel replied. ‘It sails in and out of the world, and it is absent.’

  ‘When will it come? And how will we know?’

  ‘At the full moon, of course.’ Xiriel smiled. ‘That’s in only a few days; but it won’t become visible until it’s almost upon us. And when it leaves, it will disappear very soon after detaching itself from the last of the Floating Lands.’