The Wizard's Sword (Nine Worlds of Mirrortac Book 1)

by Paul Vanderloos

  In the days to follow, Mirrortac continued to wander the outer-courts, meeting many of the people and some of those who had been with Shubek on their journey along the pathway through the Divine Green. The visions were still often and irregular but became less and less as each new day dawned. Images of warriors on land were supplanted by those who dressed in the hides of animals and crossed the seas in fluts, propelled by the force of the air spirits upon the large fabric spans. These fierce warriors raided other lands in Nerthule and their descendants themselves were raided. Mirrortac saw wars consuming many lands: tribe battling tribe with metal shafts and shields and devices that rolled upon land and were pulled by muscular but beautiful four-legged creatures. The demi-god peoples of Nerthule were clever yet they used their cleverness to create more and more terrible devices in order to wreak havoc in the lands of their enemies. Even peoples of the same tribe abused each other, feeding upon the darkness and intensifying it. The visions then became clouded and obscure, bringing glimpses of greater terrors in a world rushing into the one-way vault of consumer time.

  On the 27th day after Minsun’s visit mu called another urgent council of the Ra-finelles with the erfin and Shubek attending. Something stranger yet was happening within the pyramid. Standing at the table of Ra, mu pointed to the ceiling saying: ‘Look within the shape of the Star. The Tumu-Ra Wedge is no more!’

  They all looked up with surprise to see the diamond shape had vanished. And as they gazed into the star pattern itself, part of it too was fading away before their eyes. The brethren murmured to each other with distraction and yt turned on the erfin, glaring with rage.

  ‘Mirrortac! Curse upon Mirrortac! It is he who brings this darkness. He soils the sacred halls of the Pyramid of Ra. He brings darkness to all the places he touches. I do not wish this furry one here in this chamber!’ yt shouted.

  ‘Be calming!’ mu scolded. ‘Mirrortac is a blessing not a curse. Be of unsaying, wilful one!’

  ‘No! I will not be unsaying. Ra is displeased with the furry one in this place.’

  Yt was insistent, edging towards the erfin with a threat upon his face. Mirrortac felt uneasiness, startled by yt’s anger as he barked at him with closed fists at the ready.

  ‘Yt! You behave as those of darkness. In cursing Mirrortac, you curse your self,’ Shubek said, endeavouring to quell the hot-tempered youth.

  ‘Shu is right,’ mu said. ‘Be unsaying or cast off the robe of the Ra-finelles and be gone from Plumer-Ra.’

  Yt was shaking. He faced the erfin for a few moments then sighed and bowed his head.

  ‘I unsay-ed the curse. May Ra bless the furry one,’ yt said, but Mirrortac caught sight of a scowl in the image reflected on the crystal wall.

  The erfin knew that yt would continue to blame him for the things that were happening and he could not accept such blame, as the Changing was something on a much larger scale.

  In those tense moments everyone had stopped looking up at the ceiling. Mirrortac glanced up again and was shocked to find that half the star pattern had faded, leaving a six-pointed star behind. Mu noticed it too and turned to his colleagues.

  ‘Mareos and Nerthule are unjoined. We are alone in the Greater Sky,’ he announced.

  Throughout the pyramid the pattern had altered to the single six-pointed star without the Tumu-Ra Wedge and, in the days to follow, the anomaly of the Night of the Pyramid diminished until day and night were equal within and without. Mirrortac’s visions had also ceased for the time being and life settled into an uneasy acceptance of a world dispossessed.

  On the night of the 40th day or at the return of the moonless sky, twx and Mirrortac left the pyramid and set off for the Palace of the Pool Stones, leaving via the northern gateway. A brilliant sun greeted the two as they strolled along the way that led to the northering perimeter wall and the gateway to other parts of the Divine Green. Mirrortac was reminded of the fierce heat and steamy climate of Plumer-Ra, stopping frequently to rest beneath the welcome shade of a winkle tree and drink of the fresh water that flowed down the adjacent channel. Twx discarded his starry robe and crown for the sedate white satin robe with its plain yellow waist belt. He was a jovial fellow, speaking much of the time and singing merry tunes that he would invent as they marched along. At the end of the day, they were within sight of the perimeter wall with its profusion of flowering vines climbing over the ancient stone slabs. The pyramid was still a daunting spectacle at their backs, commanding the outer-courts with its angular yellow faces. As Mirrortac and twx made camp near the gateway of the wall, Meretees Children of the Divine Green came to them with baskets of fruit and urns filled with nupyin milk. Twx munched noisily at the fruit, eating as quickly as he spoke and glancing around him at the sky.

  ‘It is hot. We be needening the fallening of the water, Yes!’ he said, grinning at Mirrortac who shuffled with discomfort in the heat.

  ‘Yea, my fur is moist with the burning of Luma. I should be glad to feel the cool of rain,’ Mirrortac said.

  Twx grinned as his face betrayed hidden mischiefs. Then he rose to his feet, faced the gateway and lifted up his arms in a plea to the air. ‘Spirits of sky! Spirits of water! Bring the falling soon upon this place!’ he yelled, then sat down again.

  Mirrortac watched the sky. A puff of air moved over them, disturbing the grasses nearby. There was no other change; no clouds formed. The erfin raised his eyebrows at twx in a silent expression of mockery. Twx chuckled with a wide grin, showing his blunt teeth.

  ‘Who do you think I am? Ra?’ he shrugged.

  Twx reclined onto his back and supported his head in his hands. Mirrortac lay in the soft grass and immediately fell asleep.

  The erfin awoke in the middle of the night, soaked by the heavy rain that fell all around him. He jumped to his feet and ran to the shelter of a thicket of palms, shaking off as much of the water as he could. He shivered, crouching under the fronds of the palms. Twx was fast asleep, unperturbed by the fall of the water that rolled off him and pressed his robe close against his body. Mirrortac peered out from under dripping eyebrows, regarding the Ra-finelle and smiling to himself. ‘I see,’ he nodded. The rain pitted the earth and bounced off the leaves of the trees, forming small pools in hollows and running in miniature streams where the pathway sloped away.

  Next dawning the sky was clear once more and the pools of water were already evaporating in the fierce heat. Mirrortac had hung his robe over a branch to dry and was eating some of the fruit in the basket when twx yawned into wakefulness. He raised a weary head and squinted at the glistening pools of water.

  ‘Seems that all is wet,’ he quipped, winking with a cheeky curl of the lips.

  ‘T’would seem so.’ was all Mirrortac said, feigning indifference. ‘The palms tell me they are pleased with the rain. They were thirsty,’ he added.

  ‘In sure-ity I know this,’ commented twx, playing the game a little further. He regarded the soggy erfin who looked like a half-drowned creature.

  Mirrortac looked back at twx and then at himself. The corners of twx’s mouth began to quiver and a guttural chuckle escaped his lips. Mirrortac grinned then both of them burst into barks of laughter. Twx stumbled over to him and slapped him on the back.

  ‘Blessenings upon you, Mirrortac! Twx likes this one!’ he laughed.

  When they were both dry, they gathered their robes around them and picked up their pouches and water urn, leaving the basket. They passed through the gateway of the wall and onto the path that would lead them up the mountain. There were other paths dividing off the main one, trailing off in various directions. The Divine Green greeted them with a covering of winkle trees and high palms. Puscha flew in pairs above the palms, circling upwards into unseen streams of air. Mirrortac noted that the trees of the Green loved him just as much here. They bent down over the path with drooping branches of welcome, pouring out their unrestrained feelings upon them. ‘Greetings friends, be at peace within our embrace,’ the essence said to them. Mirrortac hugged
one of the trees and cried with joy. ‘Blessings upon you my dear green brothers!’ he shouted, stroking the tree as though greeting a long lost friend. Twx patted one of the trees a little self consciously, unfamiliar with the ways of the Divine Green and the meretees who were its keepers.

  ‘How likening Shu you are, Mirrortac,’ he said. ‘Perhapsening I have lived within the pyramid for too long.’

  There was a hint of wistfulness and envy in the normally jovial Ra-finelle who was out of his element among the towering trees of the forest. Mirrortac wiped his moist eyes with a huge furry paw and patted twx with affection.

  ‘I am honoured by those words, meretee friend. Shubek is much in the ways of wizing. You had not seen me when the serenetees brought me to Plumer-Ra. I have seen much expanding.’

  ‘I don’t believe this!’ Merftac sighed.

  Twx smiled and nodded to the erfin. They continued up the path, singing together nonsense melodies and laughing in the womb of the Green. Several days of trekking lay ahead of them. The path was cool and level for much of the way still, giving them time to build up their stamina for the climb up the northern ridge of the mountain Zu-laire.

  Mirrortac and twx strolled at a carefree leisurely pace in the cool of the winding path. Winkle trees gave way to stands of Dels, tall thick barked trees whose red timber was used for the building of fluts. Fallen dels were marked and taken by serenetees whenever a new flut was needed but there was little need for more fluts now and the forest was littered with the decaying trunks of aged and rotten dels. Mirrortac saw that the soil was thankful for its replenishment as the cycle of life, death and rejuvenation was allowed to continue, uninterrupted. Snow-white glistenings preened themselves from vantage points within the trees; content with all the Green provided them. The erfin and Ra-finelle continued through the del forest for throughout the day and into the next day and the day after, encountering no change in the immense stands of dels. Then, on the fifth day, the dels petered out into a steamy forest of twisted creocks, low hanging vines and thickets of ferns and other low plants. Zu-laire loomed over the forest ahead of them, pushing out a steep ridge where the pathway steadily climbed.

  The pathway ahead was rugged and stony. Thickets and ferns grew in close and sometimes blocked the path. It was obvious that the path was seldom used and the thickets hastened to bridge the artificial gap, adamant that their forest be restored to its undisturbed state. The path twisted around the base of a sheer cliff face. Mirrortac looked up at the brave plants that struggled to gain purchase of the hard rock, defying it with patient and tenacious roots. The odd creock stood out victorious from the cliff face, bending outward then up with wind-shaved branches held aloft. They laboured up the zigzag path, stopping now and then to catch their breath. The path formed into a stone ledge that narrowed in places, forcing them to slide one foot at a time, clinging to the cliff face as they pressed their backs against it. The trees of the forest knelt down under the cliff, opening into a space as they climbed farther up the high rock face. Mirrortac peered back up over the trees and beyond into an impenetrable canopy of forest that extended all the way to the blue line of the northern horizon.

  ‘Be there yet another lake upon this side of Zu-laire?’ Mirrortac asked.

  ‘Lake? What is lake?’ twx asked, puffing.

  ‘The Sufra Mere. I see the sign of more waters there.’ Mirrortac thrust his finger out at the blue horizon.

  ‘No and Yes,’ twx replied. ‘Sufra Mere lies upon the opposening way. What you see is the Mere of Northering. Yet that is all part of the one sea, or lake as you be namening it. Plumer-Ra and the small lands to westering are surroundeding by the waters. Sureness all lands are this way?’

  Mirrortac swirled his lips in contemplation, switching his eyes from twx to the sea and back again. ‘Nay,’ he said at last. ‘In the place of my home, land surrounds water. I had never seen such an endless lake such as this.’

  ‘Wonderness of Ra!’ beamed twx. ‘I am in gladening to know you, Mirrortac. What expandening we share! Yes?’

  Mirrortac smiled. He liked twx who was always so keen to discover new things and treated everyone with a jolly demeanour. Rested now, they wound their way up the face of the cliff, rising farther and farther until the air was no longer as uncomfortably hot. They made camp on a stone platform at the top of the cliff where the slope was not quite as steep, climbing steadily to the summit that lay hidden beyond a cover of mists and cloud. From the edge of the cliff, they could see around them for thousands of erfin-lengths. Mirrortac saw the ridges of Zu-laire sloping outward in a fan, dressed in a thick cover of forest and disappearing into another valley well to westering. He saw the curve of the distant shoreline as it meandered into a haze at the horizon and farther in, the marching columns of a forest untouched by people. Behind them, stunted creocks and bushes climbed with twisted trunks that jutted up parallel with the slopes of Zu-laire. Their fanning branches yielded in silent obedience to the winds that blew constantly up the cliff face, combing and shaping the trees to their own liking. This was a stark world of wind, unlike the lower forests, which paid no service to the forces of the air. Here the wind was master, singing its hollow and haunting dirges with the reluctant flute of rock and the lyre of tree limbs strung over the instrument of earth. There were no fruits in this place, at least none that the erfin could see, only colonies of small lizards patrolling the many rocks and boulders that were strewn about the high cone. The dusky grey reptiles poked their searching tongues into every crevice and fissure, flicking up small insects with accustomed skill. Twx pounced on one of the lizards, grasping its tail and flinging its head hard against the rock.

  ‘Blessenings spirits of Yones,’ he said as the lizard was dropped into his mouth. He grabbed another and whacked it against the rock. ‘Blessenings spirits of Yones,’ he repeated.

  Mirrortac decided he would do the same and picked his victim, a yone that was itself preoccupied with an insect wandering over the face of the platform. He crept up behind the yone and snatched out to grab its tail only to discover a fist full of air as the yone dashed away from under his hand. ‘Blessenings spirits of Yones,’ said twx as he suspended another of the lizards over his gaping mouth. Mirrortac chose another yone, taking more care this time not to frighten it away. The yone stopped in its tracks, contorting its head this way and that and testing the air with its long black tongue. Whack went another yone and the inevitable blessing as Mirrortac concentrated on capturing this one. He pounced. The yone moved an instant before the erfin’s hand snatched at the bare rock. ‘Ow!’ Mirrortac winced as his knuckles crashed onto hard stone. Twx chuckled.

  ‘You think upon destroying, Mirrortac. Think instead of the yone as a flower that you are wishening to pick and enjoy for its scent and beauty. The yone will not know what be happening to it, Yes?’

  Mirrortac was prepared to try anything. The suggestion was weirdness but then perhaps not. He chose another yone. There was one near his feet, scavenging a hollow within the platform. Mirrortac pretended the lizard was nought else but a beautiful flower, ripe for the picking. He reached forward casually and picked the lizard up. It had worked! He flung it against the stone and killed it then repeated the blessing. The lizard tasted well.

  When both had their fill of yones, they sat talking for a time until the shadow of Zu-laire and the shadow of night became as one. The faint glow of moon-drops made their timid appearance, gathering in the regular patterns that had become familiar to the erfin in his many rools upon Mareos. Mirrortac scanned the Greater Sky, allowing his eyes to come to rest upon a distant spray of moon-drops. There was one glow there that lured him. It was little different to the other countless fiery orbs that sprinkled the immensity of the void yet there was a vague perception of kinship. Perhaps Nerthule revolved in that place. Twx had followed the erfin’s gaze and sat by him in silence.

  ‘Does Nerthule lie in that place?’ Mirrortac asked, pointing out the constellation to twx.

  ‘You obse
rve well. That is so. The fire-orb at the top of the three there commands it. The other orb is named Alfac. That is all of my expandening,’ twx said.

  The two shared a mutual time of silence as they stared into the measureless space that spanned the distance between Mareos and the world of Nerthule. The air cooled and a light mist drifted over them, partly obscuring the heavens. The erfin’s eyes grew heavy and as he drifted into his place of dreams, his eyes glimpsed a momentary flash of light between the mists, then darkness.

  In the dawn Mirrortac awoke amidst a thick mist that had descended farther down the mountain. His robe and fur were moist with dew and all around the camp, spider webs adorned the stark forms of wind swept creocks. Twx snored fitfully, breathing in noisy gusts of air through his large black nose. Mirrortac took a few mouthfuls of water from the urn and watched for yones. The stone platform was shiny and wet. An aura of rising sun glared feebly through the mist to eastering, accentuating the bleak surroundings. There was no sign of yones. The lizards had sought shelter deep in the rock crevices until the mist had time to lift. Mirrortac stretched out to his full length then ambled off to the adjacent stand of trees in search for some kind of food. The ground was stony and hard, supporting scattered growth and very little else. Higher up, the cone of Zu-laire rose to an invisible summit. The creocks were a stout and hardy kind here. Mirrortac could feel that. Their roots took a patient grasp of the rocky ground and their branches pointed up the slope in compromise with the stronger spirits of the air. ‘The creocks bear no fruit here. How is one to eat?’ Mirrortac grumbled to himself as he stumbled on the loose stones between the trees. He scanned the earth in a vain effort to find anything to eat and was tugged back sharply as a creock branch reached out and snagged his robe. ‘Wait a moment!’ the creock essence said. The erfin’s eyes came to rest upon a hollow within the tree. ‘Look within me,’ the silence spoke. Mirrortac stooped to examine the interior of the hollowed tree, spying as he did, a white-yellow clump of fungus that could be eaten. He picked out the fungus and returned to the camp where twx was still asleep. He placed some of the fungus beside the meretee and sat down to eat his own share. It tasted chewy and a little bitter but it would provide nourishment until better fare could be found.