Kelfor- the Orthomancers

by Gillian Andrews

  Zivan is the only one of us who seems unmoved and unchanged by the surroundings. Her intense expression is the same one that was on her face the first time I saw her, when she was up before Quondam Azrial. Her fierceness, her anger, her loyalty to Torch. The three things that dominate her are still there. She is determined not to soften, not to become closer to any of us.

  She catches me looking at her. “My job is nearly over.”

  “Your remit was to get me to Kelfor?”

  She nods.

  “And what will you do then?”

  She pauses. This is surprising; she usually shows no hesitation. “I ... I want to find Torch, but I also want to know just what it is that the orthomancers found in Kelfor. In any case, I will stay with you until you discover what it is you are supposed to do. My task was to get you to Kelfor, but I think it implicitly included keeping an eye on you until you found whatever it is that has the potential to save the Inmuri people.”

  “I thought you didn’t care about the Inmuri people?”

  “I don’t. I do care that nobody else is forced to the Xenokarth like I was.”

  My mind flips back to the hours I was held at the Xenokarth. “Yes.”

  “If you need help, let me know.”

  I stare at her curiously. I didn’t expect that offer. “I will.”

  Vannis has put Kalyka down. He has had enough. I grin. Not a saint yet, then. “Hey,” he is complaining, “I don’t see why I should do all the heavy work!”

  Furian sweeps Kalyka onto his own broad shoulders. He gives Vannis a withering look. “You have only been carrying her for a half hour!”

  Vannis shrugs. “She is heavy! She can walk!”

  Doven stiffens. “She is only little! Even though she can walk she would never keep up with this pace. Be reasonable.”

  “How handy that you have been wounded,” snaps Vannis.

  Doven goes pink. “You really are poisonous, aren’t you, Vannis?”

  Vannis looks at his nails. “I do my best.”

  Doven gives him a hard push as he passes. Vannis almost falls.

  “Here! What do you think you are doing?”

  Doven grins. “So sorry. My injury must have made me lose my balance.”

  Ammeline starts to laugh. Vannis turns on her. “I don’t get what you are laughing about. Your boyfriend will probably slit your throat in the middle of the night.”

  “No, no.” She smiles sweetly. “He will slit yours first.”

  Vannis is exasperated. “Bah! I have had enough.” He neatly slips past Doven, who has stopped to listen. “I am walking on.”

  I would like to stop him. I don’t want him to be the first to reach Kelfor. I wonder if he manipulated that whole conversation to give himself an excuse. I wouldn’t put it past him.

  He strides off through the few last remaining trees. The trunks now are so large that you could lose a whole cobb behind any of them. Its walls would be completely hidden by the crystallized bark.

  Zivan looks at Furian, one eyebrow raised. I think she is asking permission to bury her sharp knife in the middle of Vannis’s back. Furian shakes his head, but sighs. I can tell he is tempted.

  Doven’s jaw is set; he has no intention of letting Vannis be the first. He strides past the timeworn without a glance. There is a moment’s jockeying as they both accelerate to try to pass each other.

  “Stop it, you two!” Ammeline’s voice rings out in the cavernous surroundings. “You are behaving like babies. Either Furian or Remeny should lead the way into Kelfor.”

  Their faces fall. They push at each other a little and then drop to one side to let me pass. I wait, so that Furian is walking beside me.

  So it is Furian, Kalyka and I who are the first to see the opening into Kelfor. Our way forward is blocked by what looks like a solid wall of glass. The tunnel has reached its end. The Forest of Flame finishes here, in this one huge wall which is the color of fire.

  We approach the wall slowly. It is still made of petrified trees. Some process of tremendous heat has vitrified them, fusing them together. It is quite impossible to imagine the force of nature that could have done this. The individual trees have vanished, seared by strange processes into a dazzling crystallized oneness. We are faced by a complete, uninterrupted rampart of flowing fossilized stone. Flashes of orange and yellow pierce through the intense red. I have to close my eyes.

  Furian puts Kalyka onto the ground. Then he walks away from us, examining the wall of fossil trees that has stopped our progress. When he is about a hundred yards to the left, he calls to us.

  We hurry over. The wall is so bright that our bodies cast a shadow on the floor of the tunnel.

  We reach Furian’s position. He is staring up at a round hole, perhaps fifty yards above us. It is a small gap in the wall, hardly noticeable, but certainly large enough for us to squeeze through. For some reason, the process of vitrification left a division there between two trees.

  We spot something else. Steps have been cut in the wall, a staircase which leads up to the opening above us. The steps are shiny, multicolored, wonderful to look at. The glass-like material shimmers in its own light.

  There is no railing. They seem slippery and dangerous.

  Furian steps back. “Can you go up there first, Remeny?”

  I nod, knowing that he could do the job just as well. He is letting me be the first to peer through the gap. To see Kelfor, if this is indeed the entrance.

  I claw my way up the enameled steps. It is not as easy as I think. It takes me a half hour to negotiate them and my feet continually slide on the smooth surface. More than once I almost slip and fall. This was not made for the faint-hearted. I flatten myself closer to the treads. I feel as though the merest breath will precipitate me down. I can’t help smiling to myself. After all the time I have spent on the struts of the dome, it seems ironic that I should find this relatively easy way threatening. But it is horrid to lose control of your feet. I can’t seem to stop them sliding from under me. Then it dawns on me. I take my shoes off, tying them around my neck. Immediately, everything is easier. My bare feet have more traction. I can move with more confidence. I shout down to Furian, waving one shoe in the air and pointing to my feet. He nods and turns to the others. They are all removing their shoes.

  Finally I am able to haul myself up onto the small ledge in the opening in the vitrified wall. I walk quickly across the ledge to the other side, eager to find out if I really am going to be the first person to see Kelfor again. I peer out through the gap in the wall. It is larger on this side. Four people would be able to stand alongside me.

  My heart gives a bound and blood rushes to my head. I sway, dizzy with shock. I have to grab one side of the opening to steady myself. I lower my head for a moment to dissipate a blackness which is threatening to swamp me. My knees sag.

  When I am able, I turn back to the scene in front of me. I stare.

  I cannot believe what I am seeing. It is too much, too strange, too big and too unexpected for something as small as I am to comprehend.

  I feel completely awestruck. I am nothing more than a tiny scrap of life staring at something which is far, far too majestic for its insignificant brain to take in.

  I am looking out over a sheer drop. The wall goes upward as far as the eye can see. When I look down, I can see no bottom to the drop either. It simply stretches up above me forever and down below me forever.

  I clutch again at the wall. Something almost seems to be enticing me to fall. My heart is still hammering. My mouth is completely dry, and I can hear my breath coming out in panic-stricken gasps. I am panting.

  I don’t know what could possibly have hewn this enormous cavern in front of me, and I am not sure that I want to. If the Forest of Flame was huge, this is immense. I am mesmerized.

  Although the other side of this mammoth chasm is visible, it is quite a distance away. Yet the center of the rift is not empty. I can make out what looks to be a cloud of some kind. Whatever it is, it is mo
ving in a whirlpool, one which stretches from far above my head to far below my feet. It is a silvery grey color, and shimmers with other colors where it reflects the fiery lights of the vitrified precipice which borders this rift. It spins around and around, flashing in the light reflected from the endless walls of the chasm.

  Although there is a sheer drop beneath me, it is interrupted by something. About a hundred lengths under our position, there is an enormous tree which has at some time been forced horizontal until it traverses this great rift from one side to the other. The chasm seems narrower here, and this tree has become a bridge across the rift, instead of lining it vertically like the rest. It makes a platform which stretches out into the center of this vast fault, a fault which tumbles toward the very center of the planet.

  At the center of this great rift, the grey cloudy vortex intersects with the tree bridge, passing behind and under it, almost ignoring its presence.

  From up here, the tree wedged across the abysm seems fragile. At first glance, it is not something you would want to walk across. But it must be solid; it is vitrified stone, after all. Just the size of the trunk is hard to take in. It has to be twice the diameter of any of the trees we have seen so far. It is balanced in time, the only path to the strange vortex in the center of the rift. This makeshift bridge must have been set in place for millions of years. The sound of the whirlpool is unmistakable. It makes a continuous noise, like the sound of crickets in a dry field under the summer sun. Like somebody wheeling a leather tri-thong around their head over and over again.

  A shout from behind me brings me back to matters in hand. I have been lost in contemplation of the chasm. Furian, with Kalyka clutching around his neck like a monkey, is waiting on the last step for me to help Kalyka up. My face must still be shocked as I do this.

  He takes one glance at my stunned expression, puts Kalyka carefully down in the center of the ledge, and moves to the other side.

  There is a long silence. Kalyka runs toward him, and he quickly halts her progress with one arm. “Careful, Kally. This is ... is ... extremely dangerous.”

  She peeps over—and flattens herself back to the wall. She starts to cry.

  I move toward her. “Kally! What is it?”

  She is shaking. “I don’t like it! We can’t go there! I want to go back!”

  Furian ushers her toward me. I let Kalyka put her thin arms around my neck and pull her into my arms. “It is Kelfor!”

  “I miss Grandfather,” she howls. “I miss being back at home.”

  I meet Furian’s gaze. “So do I. But you know we can’t go back now.”

  “What will we do?” Her small body is still trembling.

  Furian retreats to the inside part of the ledge. He signals for the others to wait. Then he tells me to put Kalyka securely in the middle of the rock passage. Once she is settled, we walk together to the outside edge.

  He smiles weakly. “The young one is right. There is no point bringing the others up here if there isn’t a way forward. We should find that first.”

  I nod. We take a longer look from the ledge. This time I can make out more details.

  I point down to the tree. Furian squints as he tries to focus on the wall beneath us. Finally he turns back to me. “There are steps. Like the ones we have just come up.”

  He moves to the inner side of the aperture in the rock and signals to the others to climb up.

  I take Kalyka to the edge and show her the tree bridge, together with the stairs. She gradually settles down. She knows that there is no way back to our former lives. It is just that so many things have changed for her. It is hard. I can sympathize. I know how she feels.

  Zivan is the next to come up the steps. She swarms up them with confidence, sure-footed on the smooth surface. She stalks to the other side of the ledge and stares out over Kelfor. One eyebrow goes up. “Very impressive.”

  Furian inclines his head. “Your oath is fulfilled.”

  She looks faintly amused. “My oath was invalid the moment the quondam became unable to stand by her part of the bargain.”

  He cocks his head to one side. “Then why did you continue?”

  She hesitates. It seems she is going to answer, but then she doesn’t.

  Furian laughs. He touches her shoulder. “You felt you should honor your promise, even though the timeworn could no longer keep their side of the bargain.”

  Zivan gives a sheepish grin. “Maybe.”

  I walk up to her and hug her. “Thank you.”

  She pushes me away. She hates demonstrations of affection. But I can tell that, at the same time, she is pleased. She is a very strange person.

  I suddenly remember something. “You left your ankle circlet in that tunnel! Why?”

  “I didn’t want to lose it to the Scoriats.”

  “Don’t you want it back?”

  “No. It doesn’t matter. If this is Kelfor, it is a new beginning ... for all of us.”

  True. And none of us know where it will lead.

  The others pull themselves laboriously over the top of the cliff and into the passageway between the Forest of Flame and Kelfor. As each of them sees the enormity of the view into Kelfor, there is silence.

  Only Ammeline is moved to speak. “We should have brought Koban. He deserved to witness this.”

  Vannis rolls his eyes. “Can’t you talk about anything else? How could you show this to a Scoriat? They are our enemies.”

  “So is she.” Ammeline points at Zivan.

  Kalyka steps in front of Torch’s mother. “She is not our enemy!”

  “She is an outcast. A thief.”

  “Not any more. Now we are all equal.”

  Fimbrian would have wanted that to be true. But is it? Have we all become equal?

  More than before, I suppose. But neither Vannis nor Ammeline is likely to agree with that.

  Furian does. “We are all here. Eight of us. Each of us has a part to play. I don’t think it matters any more if we were born timeworn. It matters what we do, what decisions we take.”

  There are nods from some, raised eyebrows from others. Vannis, in particular, looks more than skeptical. Not a surprise.

  Linnith is the one who makes us concentrate on the present. “We need to get down to that tree. It won’t be easy.”

  Zivan and I both try to take the lead. She wins. “I wouldn’t like to lose our orthomancer just before we find out what it is you can do.”

  “If I can do anything.”

  “Oh, you can do something. I can’t believe this whole long journey is all for nothing. You will find out what it is that the ancients used to know. You will be the one to lead us out of the dark ages, away from the Raths, into the future. That is why I have stayed with you. Why I will stay with you. Maybe you really are the beginning of a new dawn for the Inmuri.”

  Something sticks in my throat. I try to reply, but can’t get the words out. I hope she is right, that I will know what to do. Now I am even more terrified of not living up to expectations. They all seem to think I am something special. But I am not. Or, at least, I don’t feel as though I am. I sigh, which makes Zivan smile.

  “You don’t have to do it today,” she finishes.

  “Just as well.”

  “Quondam Azrial and Praetor Thurifer believed that you were worth giving their lives for. Who am I to think I know more than they did?”

  Put like that ...

  Ammeline pushes past us. “If you two have quite finished, I would like to get to that tree down there. I’m tired and hungry and fed up with so much talk.” She takes her shoes off again and begins to negotiate the stairs, which zig-zag down and away from the ledge.

  Zivan follows her.

  When it is my turn, I find that the sight and sound of the vortex dominates everything else in this huge underground expanse. Our figures wending our way down the steps are tiny. We are like the few ants that somehow managed to get into the dome; miniscule insects hardly noticeable in such surroundings. The sheer size
of the walls surrounding us is hard to comprehend, but the vortex, apart from being a humungous construction, seems alive. It draws your eye and refuses to let go.

  “Watch where you’re going!” I have tripped and would have fallen if it hadn’t been for Vannis, two steps ahead and below me during the descent into Kelfor.

  “Sorry.”

  Vannis steadies me. “I just hope it doesn’t take you too long to find out what it is that the orthomancer does!”

  I shrug. “Who knows?”

  “I don’t want to make this my home. And there is the small matter of the amount of food and water we have left. Not very much.”

  “I haven’t exactly seen you doing much to be the next gramen. The next praetor. You don’t even know how to bandage a cut!”

  His handsome face darkens. “I could, if I wanted to.”

  “You don’t want to help people?”

  “I want to do a little more with my life than turn into my father.”

  I can understand that. Our parents don’t seem to have made much of a success of things. But I don’t sympathize, either. “Boy, they really forgot the work ethic when they made you, didn’t they?”

  “My charm makes up for it.” He preens.

  I make vomiting motions with my mouth.

  “Anyway, it is not I who should be worried. Our getting out of this place depends on you ... and only you.”

  “Thank you. I am aware of that detail.”

  “Well, you don’t look as if you have the smallest clue.”

  Thanks to my father’s early demise, I don’t. But I am not going to admit that. “Wait and see,” I snap.

  He looks down at me dispassionately. “I hope you live up to that boast, little girl.”

  All right. I shouldn’t kick him in the shins, but I simply can’t help myself. I do not like being called a little girl. He nearly falls off the cliff, which wasn’t my intention, so he is probably justified in grabbing my shoulders and shaking me until my teeth chatter together.