Glimmer in the Maelstrom: Shadow Through Time 3

by Louise Cusack

  So beautiful. He remembered her glittering hair, like strands of the finest ice falling from her wide forehead; the way her black gown had hugged her scant curves. She had been taller than the women of the north. Taller than Kai himself who stood among the tallest of his men. And her eyes …

  Kai closed his own, remembering the strange hue, mark of the Ancients that were her ancestors. Green she had called it when he’d asked. Green eyes. Full of command, of will, and of determination. It was her single-mindedness that had attracted him most — her complete disregard for anything outside her purpose. That, and her beauty.

  Memory of her now was like the essence of attraction, distilled from so many reviews, stirring him to passion despite the touch of the cool morning air. Familiar dreams played themselves out in his mind: The Catalyst returning to mate with him, the power of her possession, the deliberation she would place on their every pleasurable moment, and Kai winning her to wife with his brute strength and impressive proportions.

  He reached down to touch himself then, to add sensation to his vision, and within mere seconds he had released the tension that her presence in his mind inevitably brought. In the aftermath of that shuddering pleasure, he realised his tremblings were shivers of cold and he closed the window and went back to his bed. Its warmth and comfort was like nothing Kai had known before he came to the Southlands.

  The Northmen shelters were boulder and moss on a dirt floor. Their lumpy bound-grass beds no match for the fine hair mattress Kai now slept on. And sheets … His were changed daily, as was the custom of the Sh’hale lord before him, and though maintaining the luxuries of this fortress kept the women far busier than they need be, Kai had ordered it done. His people were used to hard work. It kept them from too much unprofitable thought. Thus he kept the men occupied with the construction of a monument to Kraal, a tubular accompaniment to the sky-mirror that encircled it in elegantly carved stone as far as the ceiling of the Sh’hale great hall. This also protected the mirror from any of his people who might be either curious or stupid enough to try and touch it.

  It vibrated with a power that might easily kill, and Kai felt superstitious awe that it did not reflect anything but the people who stood before it — no steps behind them, no bundles at their feet, only what they wore and held in their hands. It was unnatural, magical. He wanted it out of his sight. And the structure would soon be completed, or perhaps already was. His memory was not what it had been. He couldn’t recall from day to day which devotion they should be making: the song of Kraal, the prayers for Kraal, the ritual abasement, the hour of silence.

  These observations of ritual were required, but beyond that Kai tried not to think of his God. Yet Kraal invaded his very dreams. The nightmare he had woken from, that of the young king lying with twin girls, was just such a torment.

  In this dream, Kai had raised a dagger to drive it into Mihale’s pale chest which was adorned with the memory stone of the Plainsman, the talisman Kraal had coveted. Kai couldn’t remember if his purpose had been to steal the talisman, but in the moment before his strike, the King’s eyes had opened and they had not been royal green eyes but the volcanic black of the Serpent God himself. They had stared into Kai’s and the dagger had fallen from his hand and thudded harmlessly onto the rug at his feet.

  ‘My servant,’ the King had said, and then he had known.

  The enemy within.

  Kai shuddered in the soft sheets and knew sleep would not return this day. Again he threw back the covers, but this time he pulled on a loincloth and strode out of his chambers, down the empty corridors to the kitchens where he kicked awake a serving child and ordered the fire restarted. Minutes later he had a soothing mug of hot kitori in his hands and was walking towards the outer battlements when a clattering from deep within the fortress caused him to change direction. The stones around him were silent. Apart from a few sentries, his people still slumbered. Yet the closer he drew to the great hall, the more furious the sounds of destruction became. The Maelstrom was sleeping outside. Had the anchor somehow drawn it into the fortress?

  Kai strode into the huge chamber with two sentries close behind him. A blast of air closed the door behind them with a resounding crash. The kitori fell from Kai’s hands as his sentries shrank back against the door.

  ‘I am your God,’ the creature said. ‘Teleqkraal, the progeny you helped beget.’

  ‘The … egg,’ Kai said faintly when he found his voice.

  ‘The same. My pre-birth memories tell me you served my father and he formed a bond with you. I want the talisman and you will help me get it.’ He raised his long-jawed mouth and opened it, releasing a stream of fire that curved around Kai to flow behind him. Guttural screams rose and were abruptly cut off.

  Kai nodded, his horror overshadowed by the familiarity of unquestioning obedience. What matter that it was the son he now served? His alternative was instant death. The same choice Kraal had given him. ‘I saw your father in a dream. He had the talisman.’

  ‘Your connection to him is strong. I knew you would prove helpful. Where is he?’

  ‘At the royal Volcastle. To the east.’ Kai raised a trembling arm and pointed.

  The serpent turned, his scales glittering with otherworld hues, his extended wings like thick gossamer, catching the unearthly light reflected off the sky-mirror he had uncovered when he had destroyed Kai’s monument. ‘Then we travel to the Volcastle,’ the serpent said. ‘But first I must eat. Bring me your kinsmen. Children. Babies.’ The serpent turned back, flicking its tail at the last of the stones Kai’s men had so laboriously carved, smashing them away from the mirror. ‘My dinner on Atheyre was interrupted by the arrival of The Catalyst. When I have the talisman I will repay that vexation tenfold. But first I must eat and grow strong.’

  Kai looked up into the serpent’s eyes and saw no intelligent curiosity such as Kraal had displayed. Only cold, unforgiving relentlessness. He was suddenly glad that he was not the one who had vexed Kraal’s son. Although surely it would not be long before he did, inadvertently or otherwise.

  Kai suspected he should simply die then, before he was responsible for any more atrocities. If the serpent ate the last of his people after that, at least he would feel no guilt. But between that knowledge and the act of offering himself for death, courage was required, and that was not within Kai. Instead he said simply, ‘I will call for the children.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  ‘I feel awkward,’ Khatrene said. ‘I know I’m not really your mother. It was Sarah who raised you.’ Was she hoping Glimmer would make some extravagant avowal of love and gratitude? Khatrene knew it was hopeless. The girl didn’t care about anyone except Kert. And why Kert?

  Why not her mother?

  Where love and anticipation had once lived as a warm glow inside Khatrene’s heart, there was now only hollow disappointment and the terrible premonition that Glimmer had never been hers. The Catalyst belonged to fate.

  Glimmer simply continued staring into the nondescript mists that surrounded them. They’d arrived on the Airworld minutes earlier, accompanied by a beam of light so dazzling that even through closed eyelids it had hurt Khatrene’s eyes. In the transition Glimmer had changed from the gown she had been wearing into jeans and a T-shirt. She had multicoloured nail polish on. And the sulks.

  Khatrene didn’t know what to do. For all of Glimmer’s life she’d looked forward to this day, preparing herself to deal with the extraordinary — The Catalyst. But apart from magical powers, what confronted her now was a typical teenager. After the reception they’d just had, Khatrene doubted that her daughter would ever acknowledge their relationship, and painful though that may be, it mustn’t stop her helping Glimmer fulfil her destiny.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be on Ennae?’ she asked.

  Glimmer turned and looked at her, a cool assessing stare that unnerved Khatrene. Maybe she shouldn’t be telling The Catalyst what to do. She tried again, ‘The last time I held you, you were a baby, but while you
were growing up I kept an eye on you from here.’ She waved a hand at the nondescript clouds around them. Atheyre was monotonous, and being on it had been like living inside a bag of giant cotton wool balls. The only thing that had kept Khatrene sane, apart from Talis, was her daily dose of Glimmer’s life viewed through the seeing-storm. ‘I kept wishing … I could be with you.’

  Glimmer remained silent, and Khatrene supposed there was nothing she could say. It hadn’t been her decision to go into exile with Pagan. But Sarah had been a good mother to her. Glimmer had been loved and well cared for. It could have been a lot worse — in fact, would have been a lot worse if her father had got his hands on her.

  ‘I realise you don’t know me very well,’ Khatrene said, awkwardly trying to bridge the gap between them. ‘But I still think of you as my daughter and —’

  ‘This is not helping me attain my objective,’ Glimmer interrupted. ‘I care nothing for you, except that you help me win Kert’s love.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’ Nothing like having it spelt out for you. Khatrene took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times to hold back tears. The hollow place in her chest felt squeezed tight, as though her heart was contracting. ‘Well, I can help you,’ she replied, and was surprised at how calm she sounded. ‘Tell me how you came to love Kert and what has happened between you so far’

  ‘Very well.’ Glimmer wasted no time in laying out the whole sorry situation in bald detail. She hid no detail from Khatrene, divulging far more than any mother would want to hear. When at last it was over, Glimmer said, ‘A new threat hastens the Maelstrom and little time remains in which to secure Kert’s everlasting love. You must tell me how it can be won.’

  Threat? ‘What new threat?’

  Glimmer merely looked at her mother, then said, ‘Your advice?’

  But Khatrene wasn’t about to be distracted. ‘Are you ignoring the Maelstrom to be with Kert?’

  ‘If you do not provide the information I require,’ Glimmer countered evenly, ‘I will return you and your Champion to the Volcastle.’

  ‘I don’t want that,’ Khatrene said and held up both hands in surrender. ‘Let me think for a minute. How long do we have?’ Perhaps that would give her a clue to this ‘new threat’.

  ‘On Haddash …’ Glimmer’s eyes narrowed and Khatrene had a sudden insight into her problem with Kert. She was physically beautiful, but that beauty was marred by the calculating expression on her face. No wonder he had been unable to fall in love with her. ‘… there may be ten or twelve weeks.’

  ‘Weeks?’ Khatrene’s train of thought derailed. ‘Ten weeks until you have to join the Four Worlds?’ Was that all? Khatrene thought of Talis then, and of his child growing within her. It would be born after the Four Worlds were joined. If she survived.

  ‘Birth of the Serpent God’s child has changed the course of events,’ Glimmer said. ‘The anchoring will cease to be effective much sooner than I had anticipated. I must either join the Four Worlds then, or … not.’

  Serpent God’s child? Khatrene was desperate for information about this new danger, but pressing her daughter for answers would only get her sent back to the Volcastle. Better to pretend disinterest and see whether Glimmer made further disclosures on her own. ‘If you don’t join the Four Worlds everyone will die,’ she pointed out. ‘Including Kert.’

  ‘My obsession with Kert is illogical,’ Glimmer admitted. ‘But it overshadows everything else, even my destiny’

  Khatrene shook her head. ‘Fight it.’

  ‘Why should I?’ Glimmer asked. ‘If Kert will not love me, why should I care for the fate of others?’

  ‘You don’t care about them now.’ Glimmer’s capacity for love was so narrow it frightened Khatrene. Only Kert. How could she help her daughter widen that field and include others? Should she even try? The last thing she wanted was to distract Glimmer from her destiny. But wasn’t she hopelessly distracted already? ‘And you should care,’ she said helplessly. ‘You’re The Catalyst.’

  ‘Do you have any instruction on how to make Kert love me?’ Glimmer asked.

  There was so much more Khatrene needed to know, but her daughter’s irritation was evident. She dragged her mind back to the task at hand. ‘You don’t make someone love you,’ she said, wondering how far she could coax Glimmer. ‘That implies changing them. Unless you want to use your magic, you can only change yourself. And the way you behave.’

  ‘I won’t use my powers on Kert,’ Glimmer said, unable to meet her mother’s eyes. ‘Tell me how to begin. What behaviour must I change?’

  ‘Well …’ Where to start? ‘When you love someone you want them to be happy. You want them to —’

  ‘You said I must change my behaviour,’ Glimmer interrupted, her irritation growing. ‘You are generalising. Speak in specifics. Must I change my conversation, my manners?’

  ‘No. Not that.’ Khatrene looked around, then lowered herself onto the spongy cloud surface she’d grown so used to during her exile in Atheyre. ‘You need to change the way you act towards Kert,’ she said, and patted the soft surface beside her.

  ‘I wish to stand,’ Glimmer said.

  ‘And I want you to sit,’ Khatrene replied. ‘Do you see how you are being selfish by not considering my needs?’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘If I were Kert, I’d be thinking you didn’t love me if you couldn’t even sit down when I asked you to.’

  Glimmer’s lips pressed tightly together for a moment, then she sat at Khatrene’s side. ‘You wish me to pretend that you are Kert?’

  ‘For the purposes of instruction,’ Khatrene replied, ‘that’s a good idea.’

  ‘You are ill equipped to impersonate a man in any physical interaction.’

  ‘God no!’ Khatrene suppressed a shudder. ‘We’re just going to be talking. Not touching,’ she said. ‘It’s not … that sort of instruction.’

  ‘Theory then, not practice.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Khatrene tried to relax but Glimmer took everything so literally. ‘Let’s talk about needs. Kert’s needs.’

  ‘His physical needs are adequately met,’ Glimmer interrupted. ‘I see no purpose —’

  ‘I’ve no doubt you’re having lots of sex,’ Khatrene said. ‘But what about his emotional needs?’

  ‘If he needs someone to love, why does he not love me?’ Glimmer shot back.

  ‘Because you’re not lovable,’ Khatrene replied. ‘You’re … greedy.’

  Glimmer merely observed her mother and Khatrene had no idea what was going through her mind.

  ‘You want his love, but you’re not willing to give him anything he wants in return.’

  ‘I would give him my love. I already have.’

  ‘He doesn’t want that.’ Khatrene wasn’t sure if she was going too far, but subtlety didn’t appear to be something Glimmer recognised.

  ‘And you know him well enough to know what he does want?’

  ‘That’s why I’m here,’ Khatrene replied confidently.

  ‘Then tell me,’ Glimmer demanded.

  ‘What he wants is his freedom,’ Khatrene said. ‘And you don’t use it to buy his love. You give it to him freely because you love him.’

  Glimmer’s eyes narrowed. ‘He will go straight to Mihale. How can this help me?’

  ‘You lied to me,’ Khatrene said provocatively, hoping to break Glimmer away from her inexorable logic. ‘You don’t love him at all.’

  Glimmer shook her head, her long blonde hair, straighter than Khatrene’s, sliding over her stiff shoulders. ‘You cannot know what is in my heart.’

  ‘I can see how you behave —’

  ‘My behaviour is not —’

  ‘Your behaviour has been appalling.’ Khatrene leant close to her daughter so she could stare her down. ‘And that is all he sees. He doesn’t see into your heart. He only sees what you do. And what have you done?’

  Glimmer’s gaze wavered and then broke away from her mother’s. ‘I have imprisoned him.’

  ‘And?’


  ‘And …’ Glimmer looked back at Khatrene and her expression softened, her lip actually trembling. ‘What else have I done?’

  ‘You forced him to pretend to love you, just so you wouldn’t punish him.’

  Glimmer shook her head again. ‘I would never hurt him.’

  ‘Not Kert. But you told me you threatened the woman who stumbled into the cave. Darten? You must have known that would upset him.’ Khatrene tried to soften her verbal assault by resting her hand over Glimmer’s. Surprisingly, she didn’t pull away. ‘And where is Darten now?’

  Glimmer looked down at her lap. ‘Drowned. All of the Domedwellers are dead. Just as the Cliffdwellers are.’

  Khatrene frowned, distracted. ‘I saw the Cliffdwellers appear while I was here with Mihale and Talis. It looked like their whole race. Did they die in some tragedy?’

  ‘No, they were simply ready to ascend. They voluntarily relinquished their lives. They and the cetaceans of Magoria.’

  ‘Whales?’ Khatrene was lost. ‘Here?’

  Glimmer sighed extravagantly, as only teenagers can. ‘Normally, those who die before the end of time are caught up in the cycle of rebirth that characterises the three lower worlds, Haddash, Magoria and Ennae.’ She had slipped into a lecturing tone but Khatrene was too busy following the conversation to care. ‘Eventually, beings reach the end of that cycle.’

  ‘But Cliffdwellers and whales?’

  Glimmer look at her as though the facts were self-evident. ‘Those whose cycles have ended leave the lower worlds and ascend to Atheyre where they wait for the creation of the One World.’

  ‘So what happens to them if you don’t do your job? Are their souls lost forever?’

  Glimmer stared into her mother’s eyes and was a full minute composing her reply. ‘I will “do my job”,’ she said. ‘The One World is a reality.’

  ‘But,’ Khatrene frowned, ‘you haven’t created it yet.’

  ‘In your linear time I haven’t. In nonlinear time it has always been. I came from there.’