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

by Paul Vanderloos

  Mirrortac thought for a moment, stroking his chin between his fingers.

  ‘I heard the words in truth, yt. Howsoever I know that perhaps your heart did not unsay the curse and the curse you made is now killing you.’

  Yt was silent and dejected. Twx and Mirrortac watched the woeful Ra-finelle as he fell to his knees and began to sob and cough simultaneously.

  ‘May Ra have mercy upon you wretched one,’ said twx, his eyes freshly moist with pity.

  Mirrortac felt pity also and knelt down beside yt. He reached his fingers out to touch him but withdrew them when yt cried out in sudden pain.

  ‘Argh! What burns me? What burns me?’

  ‘Yt, it is I, Mirrortac. Can you not unsay the curse from your heart? I ache inside for your wretchedness.’ Mirrortac’s voice trembled with emotion.

  Yt raised a weak quivering head towards the sound of the erfin’s voice. ‘Mirrortac. Oh dearness Mirrortac. Forgive this silly young fool for I deserve not to forgive my self. I hear the calling already...I hear the...’

  Yt slumped to the ground dead.

  Chapter 12 – Pathway of the Lost

  Mirrortac and twx buried yt’s body among the forest of dels below Zu-laire. Usually a Ra-finelle would be buried in the Chamber of Re-birth below the pyramid but the journey back would be too long before his body began to decay. Twx told the erfin that the spirit must not be kept waiting or it may float away before the blessing ritual of Ra and lose its way to the inner-ways. As the ritual was a sacred and secret matter for Ra-finelles, Mirrortac was instructed to walk on ahead and twx would catch him up before nightfall. He did as he was instructed, ambling along the path at an unhurried pace. The del forest grew thick and high but Mirrortac could gather no feeling from them. There was an emptiness about them as though the whole of the Green brooded the passing of yt and the coming of the whispering wraiths. No birdcall sounded; no creature or leaf stirred. The erfin felt desolate and alone. Twx should in sureness be on his way to meet him by now, he thought. The day warmed and the way became stifled with the still hot air that hung between the trees. Mirrortac lifted the newly refilled water urn to his lips but the weight of it betrayed its contents. There was not a drop of water in it. He examined the underside of the urn and spied a crack where the water had all leaked out without him noticing. He licked what scant moisture there was left around the crack and flung the urn to the ground, smashing it into pieces.

  The erfin had walked all day without a drink and his tongue felt thick and woolly, clinging to the roof of his mouth. There was still no sign of twx. A terrible thought came to him. Perhaps the wraiths had re-appeared and attacked him! He turned and started to walk back but the path petered out after only a few paces.

  ‘What is this? I have only just passed here. The path? There is no path!’ he shouted.

  The brooding forest seemed to mock him with a sinister soundless laughter. He peered in all directions and realised that his position was all wrong. He could never remember walking through an area such as this. The light of Luma was going down on the wrong side and, according to his reckoning, he must be walking straight for the northering coast. But that was not possible, he thought. The path did not lead that way nor had he seen any other path branching off the main path. And what’s more, he could not retrace his steps as the pathway had ceased to exist behind him!

  Mirrortac shivered with new dread. Something strange and ominous was happening. Twx was unfortunate to be with him when the strangeness began. Why had the Astellites become ill in their company? What darkness had released the wraiths and why could yt not see him? As he walked on, he witnessed the path vanish beneath his feet. Now it was even diminishing before him. He raced up ahead and chased the vanishing path. Branches clawed out to swipe his face and tree roots surfaced and tried to trip him. Mirrortac raced on in a desperate effort to keep sight of the rapidly retreating pathway. He knew now that twx would never find him, as the path he was on did not really exist. Or if it did exist, then it had only passed through this world for a short time before fading back into the dimension of its origin. Remembered words streamed into his mind with a shuddering realisation: ‘The Mistness shall come upon Nerthule and all worlds within the Greater Sky shall be divided between the Light and the Darkness’ and ‘When the fur of this one falls as the leaves of the Green, then in the greening, he will be in the Betwixt-Way’. All of a sudden, Mirrortac found himself out of the Green and standing on the edge of a beach. He looked down at himself and shook his head. It was all happening again. His fur was falling away and tufts of orange hairs lay upon the shell litter beneath his feet.

  The curve of a wide bay and estuary stretched out to either side of him. A thick growth of tropical forest and low bushes made entry into the Green nearly impossible. There was no other way but to walk the beach back to the pathways he had seen branching off near the northering gateway. Mirrortac knew that somehow he would not return but walk into the mysterious Betwixt-Way and be lost in some world of darkness. Nevertheless, he took heart from the vague promise hidden in Minsun’s words and faced eastering, following the shell strewn beach towards the place of the dawn. The adjacent forest of palms was not brooding and hostile like the strange del woods but waved their fronds at him in mute gestures of helplessness as if to say ‘We cannot guide you any more our brother’. But one took pity on the erfin and flung its juice-laden fruit to the sand, giving it the impetus to roll across the beach and halt before his footfall. Mirrortac picked it up and clawed away the woody covering to get at the juice. He sucked at the juice with greedy gulps, refreshing his parched tongue and throat and providing him with a renewed surge of energy.

  The erfin bounded down the long sand and shell stretch until night came and was far advanced. The Mere of Numere surged forward in a rolling crashing foam, plundering its load of shells and sand in a tinkling parade before drawing itself back in white salt-flecked fingers then plunging forward again in a constant motion to and fro. Mirrortac was forced farther up the beach as the hidden rhythmn of the waters consumed more and more, claiming the beach for itself awhile before releasing it to the land’s keeping once more.

  When the waters had claimed the entire beach, Mirrortac made his way to the cover of some palms and curled up to sleep for the rest of the night. Dawn came and the beach had returned. The erfin squinted into the glare of the white sand and the smooth waters that rested at the bottom of the beach, splashing small waves in a gentle “shoosh” upon the silty sand below. He yawned and stretched himself and, as he stood, his moulted fur marked his body’s outline in the sand where he had lain. He ate his fill of nupyins and other fruits and resumed his journey along the beach.

  After a time, the sea also awoke and began its march up the beach again. Mirrortac could not escape to the fringe of forest this time, as there were sharp boulders and rocks and cliffs of impenetrable vines and brush. He negotiated the boulders, keeping out of reach of the plundering waves that surged closer at every step, roaring in a swirl of mineral spray that leapt up against the rock with a noisy clattering of stone rubbing against stone. The wet stone was slippery, slowing the erfin’s progress as he tried not to lose his footing. He climbed steadily toward the brush but halted at the lip of a gap between two boulders. Below, the waters swelled and spurted upwards between the rock bases but Mirrortac was undaunted. He was confident of jumping the gap with ease and made a run up to leap it. But his foot caught between two smaller stones and he lost his balance, falling towards the gap and unable to prevent himself from tumbling into the waters below. He clawed out at the rock wall but could not gain a purchase. He hurtled down in a jumble of limbs, landing with a flop into the surging stream where the current sucked him out of the gap and pulled him out to the deeper water. He pawed towards the shore but the current was too strong. Then he remembered his lessons and took breaths between lowering his head in the water as he floated prostrate in the frenzy of waves. Despite an energetic effort to swim for the shore, he failed to overc
ome the current and drifted farther out. Finally, he decided to abandon himself to the whim of the waves as he was taken away, watching the white sandy bottom far beneath him.

  After what seemed a long time, he could detect the movement of some creatures in the waters around him and, as he stared with blurred vision into the stinging deep, the familiar shape of a tumu-Ra glided past beneath and circled before rising alongside him, squeaking at him with its smiling beak and laughing eyes. Mirrortac was so relieved to see this creature, which obviously knew his plight, offering its back to ride upon. He climbed upon it and held on tight to its long dorsal. The tumu-Ra pierced the waves with a frightening speed, leaving a wake of foam and bubbles behind it. They moved parallel to the beach and westering, moving towards a tiny brown dot that bobbed up and down on the horizon. As they closed in on it, the dot formed into a flut commanded by a group of four serenetees. They turned their heads silently towards the erfin as he came closer to their vessel and one of the serenetees reached over and pulled him aboard. The eeep was rewarded with a blulloop before joining the others at the head of the flut, towing it towards a distant gap between the rufs and the Mere of Numere.

  Once on board Mirrortac struggled with the silent language of gestures that the serenetees adopted as their own. Fortunately, the four knew of the erfin as they had been with the others during the feasting on the beach that first day on Plumer-Ra. They were as warm and affectionate as all the serenetees whom Mirrortac had met; greeting him with strong hugs and pats on his back and head. All four were male and told Mirrortac in gestures that they would welcome him on their exploration of the Mere of Numere. They indicated with wide circling of the arms and expressive movements that this was a sea of great and fierce storms that had claimed many of their kind and forced many others to abandon their voyage and return to their island of si, which one of the serenetees took the trouble to pronounce for him. Mirrortac was not too pleased with the prospect of dealing with storms at sea but his choice had already been decided. At least there would be no wraiths out here, he thought. What he did not know was the sheer risk of the expedition that these serenetees were undertaking. Each and every voyage undertaken in these waters had failed while survivors had returned with tales of giant swirling storms and unfriendly sea creatures. The serenetees however were the most ancient of all tribes of the meretees and they were determined to tame the great waters of the Mere of Numere as they claimed to have done for Sufra Mere.

  The flut passed between the Gappering and Gardway rufs and beyond into the Deeping Way where the friendly turquoise of the shallow sea gave way to the deep cobalt of waters whose depths were often unmeasured. Two days out and the waters were already building into mountainous waves. The flut ploughed into the waves with heaving and creaking of timber, and the splash of mineral spray over the bow and across the flooring of the vessel. Mirrortac was not as steady on his feet as the serenetees who seemed to be planted to the boards, unmoving as the vessel rocked from side to side and this way and that. The tumu-Ra towed them tirelessly onwards through a sea fraught with a restless wild mood. Five of the creatures were needed to tow the flut, which was built sturdier and larger than most. Day passed after day and Mirrortac occupied the time with tasks of maintaining the vessel, such as the disposal of any fruit and blulloop that had spoiled in the heat of the steamy uncomfortable days.

  It was on their 15th day out from the rufs that they encountered the first of their troubles. The tumu-Ra were bearing to westering of north as they sensed danger and wished to avoid it. Nevertheless, whatever the danger was, it was moving closer to them despite the tumu-Ra’s hurry to escape. The flut shuddered as the waves thundered into the vessel at speed, forcing it to roll to one side and slam into the wash of another wave, flooding the vessel for a few moments before the water drained overboard. Mirrortac signalled to the senior serenetee - ‘Why eeeps go fast?’ he said, moving his hands about in the appropriate gestures. The serenetee was calm despite the danger. ‘Danger creature,’ he signalled, peering back out to sea.

  Mirrortac searched the endless waves from horizon to horizon and finally caught sight of a long row of fins weaving from side to side towards the flut. The serenetees saw the fins too and exclaimed together ‘Gghorr!’ in a rough tone suggesting the hideous sound of what must be a monster. A huge head the size of the flut poked up above the waves and spied them. The creature’s eyes were almost opaque black and looked down a long snout that ended in a jagged point of flesh, angled over a jaw armed with a set of large carnivorous teeth. Its green serpentine body swayed and swirled behind it, untold erfin-lengths from snout to tail and much larger than even She, mother of all snerks. The Gghorr rushed at them through the water, sweeping the foamy water aside. Mirrortac unsheathed Moongleam and prepared for battle but one of the serenetees slapped his wrist and indicated that he should replace the sword in its scabbard. Despite what Shubek had said, the erfin still believed that monsters knew only one law - the law of kill or be killed. He had no intention of being killed but he decided to give the serenetee his due as a communicator with the creatures of the sea. He felt a conflict and rising panic as the Gghorr continued to surge toward them, opening its mighty jaws and eyeing them with black cold eyes. One of the Serenetees was perched on the bow in unruffled defiance, calmly surveying the menacing monster, which at any moment would crush the entire flut within its jaws and them with it. The monster roared a thunderous ‘GGHORRR!’ and the warm meaty stench of its breath blew over them. The serenetee abruptly broke into a comical dance and chattered a series of queer sounds at the creature.

  Mirrortac could not believe what he was seeing. In moments, a hideous meat-eating sea serpent was transformed into something of an oversized child. The Gghorr rolled its belly up alongside the flut while the serenetees stroked it and picked off large parasites that irritated the creature’s thick green-plated hide. Contented groans issued from deep within the monster’s throat while it squirmed its long body, as thick as a flut is long, into spirals in the water. The erfin erupted into hysterical laughter; more from incredible relief than mirth. The serenetees smiled and hugged him then resumed their task of removing all the parasites from the monster. The tumu-Ra assisted them in the removal process, picking off parasites in places beyond the reach of their serenetees’ masters.

  The serenetees later told Mirrortac that some lives were sacrificed in the process of taming the monster to this point but their perseverance would teach it love and peaceful living after a time. They explained that although seeming cruel and hideous, the monster was part of Ra’s creation and was given its place. Without the Gghorr, the sea would be fouled by the bodies of sea creatures that had died in age, suffering lingering ill in the process. The Gghorr ate only those creatures too slow to escape, ensuring that the healthy and strongest would survive. As the serenetees were not creatures belonging to the open seas, they were easy prey for the Gghorr. But Ra gave the serenetees wisdom and dominion over the creatures provided that they respected their place and sought never to kill anything without good reason, particularly where they were in an element not of their nature.

  The tumu-Ra of the deep waters of the Mere of Numere were larger and more muscular than their Sufra cousins. There was a moodiness about them too as though the wildness of these waters had somehow bewitched them and changed the carefree playful parts of their nature into a more contemplative even disturbed mood. Mirrortac noticed this the farther northering that they went. As each set of refreshed tumu-Ra exchanged places with their weary comrades, the newcomers exhibited that touch more of the reserve. Regardless of this, all tumu-Ra loved their silent masters and served them with unfailing loyalty.

  When the flut sailed into comparatively calmer waters, the serenetees held fast their position and dived in to capture enough fish for the food storage wells. There were no blulloop here but fish of similar size and form. Thus, replenished with fish, the flut sailed on into a troubled sea.

  On the 23rd day, the sky betrayed sig
ns of a growing storm. The sea was already churning and boiling with wrath. Mirrortac was restless and even the serenetees were concerned. The weather was one aspect of nature over which they had little control. It would not be tamed and its jaws were wider than any monster. A storm bigger than any the erfin had experienced was building up before them. Gales buffeted the flut in a dark and grey sea. Mirrortac asked them if there was some way to sail around it but they told him that it would strike them before they could escape out of its way, and even then, it may circle out to meet them in a far more treacherous sea. Thus, they decided to sail directly into the storm, giving witness to the formation of giant banks of thunderheads, heavily burdened with rain.

  In days, they sailed into the storm with the tumu-Ra continuing to tow them despite the tearing pull of the twine on their beaks. Rain and gales whipped up mountainous seas, testing every plank of timber, every joint and every nerve. The storm abated spontaneously and the sky cleared, but they found themselves surrounded with a wall of rain and gales that awaited them in a roaring howl of freshwater and salt, of wind and noise and searing flashes of light. Again they plunged into the dense wall of turmoil and rode out the storm, which almost plunged the flut under the sea before it bobbed up again in a swash of soaked timber and aching wet bodies. Mirrortac was pale and sick and cold, shivering and vomiting in his furless body and nearly was lost overboard on a few occasions. The fabric tent had been lost to the tearing winds and the timber hull had lost many of the top skirting along with the carved form of the tumu-Ra on its bow.

  After two days in the great storm, the skies cleared and the waves quietened their fury. In the brilliant light of day, the woebegone vessel and its sorry occupants wore the ravages and carnage of the storm. The tumu-Ra surfaced exhausted, bruised and cut by the sharp tugs of the twine on their beaks. Despite their own weariness, the serenetees ministered to the creatures, applying ointments of sea plants and small creatures combined and made into a paste. Mirrortac felt too ill to assist but he sat by their sides, holding a bowl of ointment with feeble hands shaking. The damage to the flut was extensive. All the wells were smashed except for emergency wells built into the floors where the ointments and other medicines and dried pieces of food were kept. This was just as well for they had lost the fish, fruit and urns of freshwater to the storm. Mirrortac asked if they knew of lands where repairs could be made and the food replenished. They said that they did know of lands nearby but did not elaborate. Their language was a precise one with no wastage of signs.