Bone, Fog, Ash & Star

by Catherine Egan

  She had barely a moment to take in the stacks of books, the jars of powders and liquids and the boxes of talismans that cluttered the room. Malferio looked up at her and screamed, a scream of pure terror. He threw the book he had been clutching at her. The Urkleis gave an awful wrench in her chest. Eliza turned tail and ran back down the spiral staircase. Malferio’s screams chased her, echoing in the dark passage. She rounded a curve and ran straight into a body, which knocked her back onto the stairs.

  She landed badly. Pain shot up her back from her tailbone. Kyreth’s face loomed over her.

  Chapter

  ~5~

  “Eliza,” said Kyreth in his beautiful, sonorous voice. “What a pleasure to see you. Welcome back.”

  The brilliance of his eyes lit up the stairway. She noticed immediately that they were between two floors and so the nearest ledge was quite a long drop down. There was no way past him.

  She scrambled to her feet painfully. Ravens gathered behind her, lining the stairs.

  “You have no reason to fear me,” he said, with a nod at the ravens. “I have only ever wanted your safety. Even now, I would protect you against any who wished you harm.”

  “What’s your idea of harm?” asked Eliza, her voice trembling with rage and fear. “Does killing somebody I love count as harming me? Because frankly I’d prefer a more direct approach.”

  Kyreth smiled thinly. Malferio’s screams from above were dwindling into sobs.

  “What are you doing to him?” asked Eliza.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” asked Kyreth. He reached towards her with his hand, as if to touch his fingers to her chest, above her heart. Eliza backed away up the stairs, slipping a little. The ravens drew closer around her, cawing.

  “You still bear the Urkleis,” he said. “It is a burden.”

  “Yes.” She took another step back and added, “If you try to touch me again, I’ll kill you.”

  Kyreth acted as if he had not heard this. “I am going to lift your burden, Eliza. You pretend to be used to it but you will never be used to it. You feel within your very flesh and bone the hatred and the hunger for freedom of she who sought to annihilate you. In that room above lies the key to Nia’s Immortality. Under her Curse he wishes only to die, and so he shall. When that happens, the Xia Sorceress will die too, and you will be free of the Urkleis.”

  “You’re going to kill Nia?” asked Eliza. In spite of everything she felt a bewildering wave of sorrow. “Your own daughter.”

  “She is no daughter to me,” said Kyreth, his terrible eyes boring into her. “Rea is my daughter.”

  Eliza said nothing.

  “What we love is the same,” he said to her in a low voice. “What we hate is the same. What we wish for is the same, Eliza. This is where you belong. It is good that you have returned.”

  “You lied to me,” said Eliza bitterly. “You lied to me about everything.”

  “Don’t be childish, Eliza. When did I lie?”

  She turned her eyes from his, for there was something in them that sought to hold her or consume her. “You told me my grandmother was dead,” she said.

  “There are many kinds of death, Eliza Tok,” murmured Kyreth.

  “There are nay many kinds!” she shouted, looking straight into his face for an awful burning moment. “I’ve seen the Guardian between life and death. I’ve been to the river. There is one kind of death, Kyreth. One.”

  “Sixteen years old, in love, and you think you are wise,” he said dryly. “What have you seen that I have not seen? Nothing. What do you know that I do not know? Nothing. You have lied to me, Eliza, countless times, endangering yourself and the Mancers. A selfish adolescent, unfit to be called the Shang Sorceress, oblivious to your duty, obsessed only with your own inner circle, your own inner world.” He said this entirely without emotion but he stepped a little closer as he did so. The ravens screamed, more and more of them appearing on the stairs. Eliza wished they would fly at him, attack him, but they did not dare go near him.

  “Let me by,” she said in a tight little voice.

  Kyreth did not move. His eyes burned still brighter.

  “Let me by,” she repeated, more forcefully this time.

  “How did you get in here, Eliza?” Kyreth asked her softly.

  There was something terrible in his eyes, something dangerous. She did not think. She leaped off the stairs to the ledge below. A second bad landing, this time twisting her ankle. She pressed her shoulder to the wall but it did not make way for her. She pounded against it with her fists and her ravens swarmed in a panic about the tower.

  Above her, Kyreth gave a joyless chuckle.

  “Go back to bed, Eliza,” he said and made a gesture with his finger. A door opened in the wall. Eliza limped out into the hall. Her ravens streamed after her and the door shut behind them, disappeared. She did not look back but went as quickly as she could on her hurt ankle, back through the galleries under the endless eyes of the Mancer portraits, to the south wing and her room, where she crawled into bed. Her ravens formed a black, feathered wall all around her, but they could not comfort her once sleep came.

  In her dreams, the black panther from the river of death gnashed his teeth at her and growled, You cannot steal from death. You will bring me your beloved, and the Oracle of the Ancients, the one Nia had killed, hissed the prophecies that had haunted Eliza for years now: Yours is the lonely road. You will lose all those you love. You will cut out your own heart.

  ~~~

  Eliza’s ankle was swollen and sore when she woke in the morning. A stab of pain shot through it as soon as she tried to stand. She forewent her usual scavenge in the kitchen for breakfast and instead limped straight to the Library. Foss was seated at the broad mahogany table where they used to have their lessons, open books spread out all around him. He was drawing a chart on a long scroll whose other end spilled off the table and lay on the floor in great curls.

  “Kyreth has Malferio in the northeast tower,” she told him, limping to her chair and sitting down. Sitting hurt almost as much as walking – she had given her tailbone quite a crack when she fell the first time.

  Foss looked up sharply. “Are you hurt, Eliza?”

  She shook her head. “Nay badly. I think I sprained my ankle. I ran into Kyreth last night. He’s gone insane, Foss.”

  “He is still deep in Nia’s Curse,” said Foss. “He is driven as much by fear as the lust for power. Together, a dangerous combination.” He cleared his throat. “I have been rethinking the matter, Eliza, and I have concluded that you should not stay here. It is not safe. I will speak frankly with Aysu and find out what can be done for your friend the Shade…Charlie. But you should not be here.”

  “I cannay leave yet,” said Eliza.

  Foss passed a big golden hand over his forehead. He looked very agitated. “Malferio is here,” he muttered. “I did not know.”

  “Kyreth is up to something. He has Malferio because he wants to kill Nia. If Malferio dies, so will Nia; his Curse will be lifted and he’ll get credit for defeating her. Obviously he wants Charlie out of the way too. But he’s just clearing the way for something else. Lah, I know he wants me to marry a Mancer and have a little Sorceress daughter that he can control better than he can control me, but there’s something else going on. Something bigger. I’m sure of it.”

  “That may very well be so,” said Foss. “And it is all the more reason for you to be away somewhere safe. Winning Aysu over and ridding her of Kyreth’s influence is the key and I am well on my way, Eliza. I think it would be best if you joined your friends in the Realm of the Faeries or went to Swarn for protection.”

  Eliza shook her head distractedly. “I’m on his trail, aye,” she said. “I’m going to find out what he’s up to and once I have something over him that I can use…lah, then I’ll use it somehow, I spose.” She peered across the table at the chart he was working on. “What are you doing?”

  He beamed, eyes brightening. “I am charting the separation
of the worlds. Do you know, it has never been done before! There are some scattered records, of course, but nothing that can give us a clear idea of how long it will take. The peculiar thing is that the separation seems to be gradually slowing down. Rather like pulling apart something made of flexible rubber. It is not so difficult to stretch the two halves a certain distance, but as they get farther apart the pressure increases and it becomes more difficult. Either they will snap apart all at once or the force holding them together will be greater than the force pulling them apart and the process will grind to a halt. I believe that is what is happening, Eliza.”

  “I thought you were going to research the Thanatosi,” Eliza broke in, but Foss was so animated that he barely heard her.

  “Even more peculiar, Eliza Tok, is that there is no record at all in the Old Library of Karbek’s spell – what was done, how it was done. The original spell, I mean! Nothing! How can this be? I suspect that there is a record of the spell somewhere but it is hidden. Or missing. Even stolen. I do not know, but it is shocking that we have not kept the text under close watch, guarded it as an object of great value. We Mancers pride ourselves on our curiosity, Eliza, for above all other beings we seek answers, knowledge. We keep meticulous records, as our Library attests! And yet all our questioning is turned outward, never inward. We are perhaps too docile, too incurious, when it comes to ourselves.”

  Eliza put her head down on the table and faked a snore.

  “Yes, Eliza?” Foss asked dryly, stopping his monologue. She raised her head and grinned at him.

  “Sorry. Do you know what’s in the other towers, Foss?”

  “I do not. Please pay attention. Do you see what I am saying? You made me think of it yesterday when you told me the Magic we worked made no sense. I realized that I myself only partially understood the great work we have all undertaken. I, the Spellmaster! There must have been a text in the Library at some point outlining Karbek’s spell, but Eliza, it is gone.”

  “It’s nay one of the books Nia drained?”

  “No. I do not mean it is empty. I mean there is no record of such a book! I have checked all the indexes more than once. I know, at least, what the empty books were. A description of Karbek’s spell was not among them.”

  “You think Kyreth might have the book you want,” said Eliza, the connection dawning on her. “In which case he was up to all kinds of mischief as a young Mancer – trying to take over the line of the Xia Sorceress, sending his wife off to the Realm of the Faeries for the Gehemmis, stealing and hiding important books. What does he want?”

  “Look at this, Eliza Tok. Come, sit over here.”

  Eliza groaned as she moved to sit next to him. Her ankle and tailbone were throbbing and she was exhausted from the night’s adventures and the tension of being back in the Citadel. However, all these worries fell away as she examined Foss’s chart.

  “You’re right,” she said, interested. “The separation of the worlds is slowing down.”

  “The Mancers are weakening,” murmured Foss. “Perhaps. Perhaps.”

  “Perhaps what?” asked Eliza.

  Foss shook his head. “I do not know. Something different is needed. But to know what, I must see the Original Spell. I will speak to Aysu.”

  Eliza tried to be diplomatic. “I can see how this might be important, aye, but it could be a wild goose chase, too. And we dinnay have time for a wild goose chase. Have you done any reading at all about the Thanatosi?”

  “Indeed I have, Eliza. My research on calling off the Thanatosi has turned up nothing, I regret to say. But do not be discouraged! It is too soon to give up hope, Eliza Tok! It is much too soon!”

  “Thank you for helping me, Foss. I hope you’re nay putting yourself in danger.”

  “It is my nature, I suppose,” he replied cheerfully. “All the books on the Thanatosi are there on the floor. Look through them if you like. I will take this to Aysu.”

  He gathered up the loops of paper in his arms. Eliza fondly watched him go before settling down to read. ~~~

  Aysu was staring at her hands on the desk as if they did not belong to her. A knock came and she started. She could not remember what she had been thinking, what she had been doing, how long she had been sitting here. She looked at the wall, full of trepidation. She was troubled by her trance this morning. The black crab that should have led her to a vision had been washing listlessly against the shore, as if lifeless on the waves. The knock came again. What could she do? She drew a symbol in the air with one shaking finger and the door appeared and opened. It was Foss. She felt a mixture of anger and relief.

  “Spellmaster,” she greeted him, as civilly as she could.

  He bowed. He was holding something in his hand. A long scroll. Perhaps this one would speak to her.

  “Pardon my intrusion,” he said very formally. “If your Eminence would look at this?”

  She nodded. With a flourish he unrolled the scroll across her desk. As she looked at it she felt a shadow around her heart, a frightening constriction in her throat. It made no sense to her at all, these marks and scratches on paper. She could not focus her eyes, she could not read it. It meant nothing.

  “What is this?” she asked angrily.

  “I have been charting the progress of the separation of the worlds,” explained Foss, very animated. “Do you know it has never been done? I thought…”

  “Kyreth is right about you!” cried Aysu, pushing the scroll off her desk so it tumbled looping to the floor. Foss took a step back, amazed. Aysu strode around the desk, walking over the scroll so she was eye to eye with him.

  “You seek trouble,” she hissed. “We Mancers have always worked together, worked as a group, and yet you are always off on some investigation of your own. We brought writing to the One World! We collected all the knowledge of the past and recorded it for posterity! We have been the protectors of humankind for thousands of years! The keepers of the Sorceress! Why do you seek always to undermine, to sow discontent? Why did you come to me with tales of Kyreth’s misdeeds, why did you let the Sorceress leave at all? All might have been well had you not chosen to interfere. Oh, Foss!” She was breathing heavily.

  Foss put his large hands on either side of her face. He began to murmur and she felt the ocean rocking beneath them, she felt the rains pouring down from above. She felt a deep thirst, felt how she was scorched to the skin, dried out, full of hot flame. She let herself soak in his words; she drank her fill of them. She let the deep, dark oceans hold her for a time.

  The next thing she knew, she was seated in her chair. Foss knelt at her side and his hand was on hers.

  “Aysu?” he said.

  “Yes, Foss,” she replied. She took a deep breath.

  He smiled at her. “It is you,” he said.

  She nodded. “I am sorry.”

  “No need to apologize. You have always been a friend to me, Aysu. Now I wish to be yours.”

  “Thank you.” She was so tired. Just making the words was difficult. It was as if she had put down a great weight. Before she could rise and carry on her journey she needed to rest.

  “You must call together the manipulators of water,” he said. “You must ask them for their strength. You must rely on us, Aysu, and not see Kyreth for a time. I do not presume to give the Supreme Mancer orders but this is for your own good. He hungers for power and he has asserted his will over yours. You have been dragging it around like a great chain around your own power. You can be a great leader. I have faith in you as a leader. But you must lead us, Aysu. Not Kyreth.”

  “He is stronger than I am,” said Aysu. “Even Cursed and mad, he is so much stronger than I am.”

  “Perhaps. But he is not stronger than all of us, Aysu. It is time to take a stand.”

  She nodded weakly and squeezed his hand.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I will gather the manipulators of water tomorrow. Today I must rest.”

  Foss gathered up his fallen, trampled scroll and spread it out on the desk
again.

  “Look,” he pleaded. “Look.”

  Aysu examined the scroll and this time she saw what he meant. She went over every inch of it. When she was done she said, “Continue with your work, Foss, and keep me informed. What you are doing is important.”

  Foss bowed gratefully. “Thank you, your Eminence.”

  She smiled at him, her real smile as he remembered it from before she became Supreme Mancer.

  “Be careful, Foss,” she said.

  “And you, your Eminence.”

  ~~~

  The day was growing late. Soon she would retire to her chambers. Foss was right, she had been drawn entirely away from herself, but it was not too late to set things right. She walked slowly to the Library. What Foss had showed her on the scroll was unsettling. She trusted him but she wanted to double-check. It was possible that the Spellmaster was mistaken. He was powerful but not infallible. It seemed so improbable that the Old Library would contain no text of Karbek’s spell at all. She must be certain he had not simply overlooked it. It would not do to take action or speak to the other Mancers until she was sure he was right.

  As she made her way among the bookshelves in the Old Library she thought she saw a flicker of movement, something small and dark by the windows at the back. She froze, then shook away her fear. She was the Supreme Mancer in her own Citadel. What did she have to fear? She walked swiftly to where she had seen movement. There she found Eliza by one of the long windows, bent over a book.

  “Pardon me!” she exclaimed, startled. Eliza looked up and closed the book hastily. It was one of the Histories, Aysu noted. The Thanatosi. She felt a strong desire to snatch the book from the young Sorceress and interrogate her.