The blood pooled around the body was like liquid light. Her eyes were dead caverns. Horrified, Eliza huddled next to the corpse of the Mancer. Ka had seen the invisible patch of floor and the Mancer hand. He rounded the corner and stood over Eliza and the terrible sight of Aysu’s body. Eliza looked up at him, his face constricted with grief, the light of his eyes fading to a pale glow.
“Oh, my friend,” he said, very softly.
He looked around and Eliza could feel him listening. She did not breathe.
“Eliza!” he called suddenly and she jumped. His eyes fixed on her, though she knew he could not see her. He began to murmur under his breath. She caught the words: it was a spell of Deep Listening. He was searching for her mind. Still holding the jar tight, she leaped to her feet and fled the Library. She heard him behind her. Ravens came soaring down from the ceiling, multiplying, swarming about him with their screeching and cawing. She left him calling up a barrier to fight them off. She ran to the northwest tower, the pain in her ankle screaming its violent protest. There was no time even to think of the best order in which to do things. She pressed her invisible hands to the wall of the tower, writing symbols on the stone with her fingers, speaking every spell she knew to conjure a door, but the wall resisted her. She put the jar with the remaining potion in her backpack, drew her dagger, and took a deep breath. The blade went through the wall as if it were butter.
~~~
Kyreth was waiting in the Marriage Hall of the Inner Sanctum with Finnis, Anargul, and Trahaearn. They had gathered together the necessary objects: the ritual cups, the double-flute, the bells of Sinath-Mag. Soon Ka would come with the book and Obrad with the bride. The Marriage Hall was a smaller room off the Main Hall, with a domed ceiling and a line from the Book of the Ancients regarding the virtuous nature of marriage running around the top of the wall. Kyreth, who would officiate the ceremony, was seated on a long, tasseled bench. Two pillows had been placed on the floor before him, where the couple would kneel.
But something was holding them up.
“It should not have taken Obrad this long,” Kyreth said, rising.
“Shall I go and check?” asked Finnis, eager to please.
Kyreth replied, “I will go myself. Remain here.” He swept out of the room. Crossing the grounds, he sensed something was wrong. He thought he saw a raven watching him from one of the trees but when he looked up it was gone. He paused and searched his mind. Nia’s Curse sometimes brought his fears to life, made him see terrible shadows that were not there in reality. He could not be certain about the raven. He made his way more quickly to the south wing.
He had spent months preparing a barrier to bind a Sorceress. She could not possibly have escaped from it, even if Obrad had failed to administer the potion correctly. Though she was getting stronger, surprisingly stronger, he was confident the barrier would hold. He told himself these things as he made his way up to her room and pushed the watching raven out of his mind. But when he entered the room his fears were confirmed in the most terrible way.
“My dear,” said Selva. She stood ringed with fire. Through the gleam of the barrier her skin and hair had a golden hue. She looked almost like her younger self. Obrad lay on the floor, stiff as a board.
“Selva.” He stepped closer to her. Rage slithered up from his belly like a black snake. “What have you done?”
“It was whispered to me by the creatures of the ocean floor and the celestial orbs. She must finish it. But you are angry, I see you are angry.”
“Yes.” He took another step towards her. “I am angry.”
She shook her head at him, her eyes widening. “I know what you are thinking. Terrible! Terrible! You must not do it. We were in love once. Do you remember? In the garden?”
“I remember everything,” he said. “Where is Eliza?”
A terrible siren rent the air.
Chapter
~7~
The tower wall was thick. In spite of the tremendous properties of her dagger, cutting through it took longer than Eliza had hoped and now the siren had alerted the Mancers. It was as if the Citadel was screaming with rage and pain. Eliza kept on slicing and slashing. She felt rather than heard the Mancers coming and squeezed through the wound she had gouged in the wall. She found herself on a ledge like the one in the northeast tower, facing a narrow staircase spiraling around a central pillar. She leaped from the ledge to the stairs. Though she tried to land on one foot, she couldn’t altogether protect her hurt ankle and the impact made her cry out. She climbed as quickly as she could. There was no sound of pursuit. A raven peered through the dagger-torn wall she had left behind her at the Mancers milling outside it. They were too large to fit through and clearly none of them were authorized to make a door in any of the towers. She had a little time yet, then.
When she got to the top of the stairs she had to cut through the ceiling into the room above. Selva, in her barrier, could not speak to the Citadel on Eliza’s behalf anymore. It was exhausting work. Eliza’s arms ached and she felt as though her head would split open from the Citadel’s screams. When she had created a large enough gap she hauled herself up into the room. Immediately two halves of a spherical barrier swept down and closed around her, lifting her up and spinning about the room at high speed. Terrified of being dashed against one of the walls, she cut through the bottom of the barrier and tumbled out onto the stone floor. A barrier on the ground beneath her lifted her up at a terrifying speed as if to crush her against the ceiling. She rolled off it barely in time, landing hard again on the ground below. Another barrier fell upon her and trapped her there like a bug beneath a glass. She lay still this time, lame and bruised and feeling, for a moment, entirely helpless. The room was booby-trapped with deadly barriers. Worse than that, it was empty. She saw nothing at all that could be the Gehemmis, whatever it looked like. Had she come to the wrong tower? Had Selva said the southwest tower? But then why go to such trouble with barriers in an empty room? No, the Gehemmis must be hidden here somehow, hidden by Magic. Invisible, just like her. So now the invisible Sorceress had to find the invisible treasure in a room full of invisible barriers. It wasn’t safe to move until she figured out where the Gehemmis was. She could not think or see clearly while being spun about or nearly flattened. She cut a hole in the barrier she was under and ravens flew out of it, into the room. The barriers fell upon them, sweeping down from the ceiling and up from the floor, snatching up her poor ravens, trapping them and hurling them about. Safe under her own barrier trap, Eliza watched closely. Within the storm of ravens in barriers, there was a space of inactivity near the wall on the other side of the room. It must be the Gehemmis.
She took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly. She shut out the pain in her ankle; she shut out her fear. She memorized the movement of the barriers and then she was ready. She sliced the barrier she was under wide open and made a dash across the room to the empty spot, dodging the barriers that were still chasing and trapping her ravens. She groped about madly and her hand struck a barrier over the wall. There. She cut through it and reached inside, feeling along an invisible shelf. Her hand closed over something oblong and smooth and all the ravens cried out at once. She would have to hope she had it. She dodged and ducked and rolled her way back to the space she had cut in the floor and slipped through it back onto the stairs. She heard footsteps coming up and immediately jumped down to the nearest ledge. Trying to land on one foot again, she fell and let out a sharp gasp. Fortunately the Mancers were not close enough to hear. She crouched against the wall as they came into her sights and hurried by her, newly authorized to enter, up the stairs towards the top of the tower.
She waited until she could no longer hear their footfalls echoing and then jumped back onto the stairs. She limped past the wall she had cut through to get in, all the way to the very bottom, by which time she was winded and terribly dizzy. She held her dagger firmly in one hand and in the other hand the Gehemmis, if such it was. Once she was at the bottom she set about
cutting through the wall again, through to the north wing and the chambers of the manipulators of water. Once again the Citadel screamed in deafening, sickening protest, but nobody had made it to the wall by the time she squeezed out. Beneath the chambers were the dungeons. She opened her mind to Foss and made her way cautiously, quietly now. The chambers were deserted. There was no barrier barring her way down the narrow staircase to the dungeons. She followed a glimmer of light through the warren of cells to where two Mancers stood guard, not speaking to each other. The light came from their eyes, bright and alert. Eliza sent one of her ravens winging down the hallway past them, and then another.
The Mancers started but did not move. The ravens set up a terrible cawing around the corner. Still the two standing guard did not budge, though they exchanged agitated glances.
“She is here,” one of them muttered. Eliza gave up on making them move and inched closer. She crouched against the wall directly across from them. Behind them she could see a small cell and Foss’s shape sitting down. She caught the glow of his eyes, brilliant and knowing. She opened her mind to him again and this time she felt him respond.
I’m going to get you out. We need to go straight to the dark wood, get to Tian Xia.
His reply came to her like a scorching blaze that made her wince but she was able to take it into herself. It will be impossible to get to the Crossing through the wood. They will be expecting it.
He was right, of course. That way was no good. They would have to steal a dragon.
The dragons too will be under guard. We must go on foot.
Very quietly, very slowly, Eliza took from her backpack the weapon Swarn had sent her for her birthday. The two ravens in the hall swooped up and down, cawing, to mask any sound she might make. The Mancers were still as stone, waiting, listening. She found the mouthpiece, fitted it to her lips, and then placed one of the little darts into the other end. She aimed it at one of the Mancers and blew softly. It caught him in the neck.
He fell like a stone. The other one stared down at his fallen companion in a momentary panic and Eliza blew a dart into him as well. He too fell instantly. She rose and stepped over the fallen Mancers, cutting through the barrier with her dagger. She reached for Foss’s hand.
“You have more of the potion?” he asked her.
“Of course.” She fumbled with her invisible backpack again and placed the jar in his hands. Within seconds, he too was fading out of sight.
“We had better stay very close to one another,” said Foss. “Come. There is a way out through the dungeons.”
“I know it,” said Eliza, limping after him.
“Ah yes,” said Foss. “I forgot how much mischief you’ve gotten up to in your time here. Useful, in the end. Your footfalls are uneven. Are you hurt?”
“My ankle, still.”
“You said it was not bad yesterday.”
“Lah, that was before I had to do a whole lot of running and jumping.”
“Come, I will carry you.”
Foss crouched down as he spoke. Eliza gratefully felt for his shoulders and put her arms around them, climbing onto his back, the way she’d climbed onto her father’s back when she was a little girl. Her weight was nothing at all to Foss and he continued swiftly through the dungeons to the caverns that the dragons used. They followed the vast tunnels to an iron door, the only exit from the Citadel into Di Shang, and deeply enchanted.
“The thing is,” said Eliza, “I’ve been out this door before, aye. And I’m nay sure…”
“Quickly, Eliza,” said Foss. Mancer voices echoed somewhere in the caverns, not far. She sent back a cloud of ravens to obstruct them and set to work on the door. She could feel the deep fury of the Citadel as she cut through the enchanted iron. She would not be welcomed back a second time. This was the end of any pretense of goodwill she could claim between herself and the Mancers.
Once she had cut out a space wide enough to fit through, she and Foss looked out. The door opened onto a cliff.
“Oh!” said Foss, dismayed.
“We’ve got to climb,” said Eliza.
~~~
Eliza had spent much of her childhood scrambling up and down trees and rock faces and the like and was, by any standard, a proficient climber. Even she was daunted, however, by this long ragged drop to the canyon floor below. Thinking about it would only make it worse, she knew that much, and so she lowered herself out of the doorway and scrabbled about with her unhurt foot for a foothold. Fortunately the cliff was covered with bumps and crags and roots. The soles of her boots were worn smooth and so she kicked them off, letting them fall. Her bare feet would give her a better grip.
It was several seconds before she heard the soft thud of her boots landing far below and this shook her confidence somewhat. She clung to a little ledge of rock with one foot, letting the hurt foot rest against the rock face. Still hanging on to the bottom of the doorframe with one hand, she reached down and found a root with her other hand. She held it fast and let go of the door frame. She pulled her center of gravity in, towards the rock, then drew her dagger and drove it into the cliff.
“Give me your foot,” she hissed to Foss. She reached up and felt his large foot against her hand. To her surprise, it was bare and soft. The Mancer robes brushed the ground and it had never even occurred to her to wonder if they used footwear of any kind. She guided his foot to the dagger. “Come on, down next to me,” she whispered.
“I do not think I can climb down a cliff, Eliza Tok,” he murmured back.
“You can. Dinnay think about it. Follow me,” she ordered him fiercely.
“I cannot see you.”
“Follow my voice.”
It was an arduous and painfully slow descent. Eliza used her dagger as a handhold for herself and a foothold for Foss to steady himself on with every further movement downwards. After they had been climbing for some time, she at last allowed herself to look down, but the canyon bottom seemed barely closer at all. Worse, their escape route had been discovered. The iron doors flew open and a dragon soared out of the Citadel right over their heads.
“Blast the Ancients,” muttered Foss, just above.
“They cannay see us,” said Eliza. “Keep quiet.”
“You cannot fool a dragon with a spell of invisibility,” said Foss. “We are done for, Eliza Tok. They will do away with me quickly but there is still a chance for you. They will not want you dead, not at any cost! You must not give in to them, Eliza!”
Eliza ignored him, taking his foot by the ankle and moving it from her dagger to a rocky protrusion. Then she pulled her dagger from the rock and held it out out as the dragon opened its mouth in a scream, circling round to face them. The dagger, forged from a dragon claw, enabled her to command dragons, but she could not speak out. She would have to try to enter its mind and there was no time to do so cautiously. Eliza shut her eyes and rushed straight into a clanging, flaming mind, an intelligence and ferocity that flayed her very will. Don’t give us up. It was a plea rather than a command. She felt her bones would melt. Her thoughts scattered and sizzled. But the dragon veered off and she exhaled. When she opened her eyes she realized with a jolt of horror that she had let go of the cliff face. And yet she was hanging in the air. It took her a moment to realize that Foss was holding her by the arm.
“By the Ancients, Eliza Tok! I felt you let go…what are you doing?”
Shaking away the sparks and pain in her mind she drove her dagger back into the cliff and let herself hang from it for a moment. Her arms ached. She couldn’t catch her breath to answer him.
“How curious!” he said as the dragon flew away with Trahaearn on its back. “Did you do something?”
“Yes,” she croaked.
The other dragons came soaring out of the Citadel but they followed Trahaearn’s dragon and did not give away the two invisible fugitives clinging to the cliff. Foss edged down and stepped on Eliza’s hand.
“Ouch!” she shouted.
“Oh, I am sorry!
It’s difficult, when I cannot see you, to avoid stepping on you.”
An hour later they reached the bottom of the canyon and stood on solid ground with shaking legs, laughing with relief. Eliza was drenched with sweat and trembling all over from the exertion of the descent. She thought she could see the faint outline of herself becoming visible again.
“Can you see me?” she asked Foss nervously.
“I am beginning to,” he panted. “Yes, there you are, somewhat. Quickly, then. We must stay close to the edge of the canyon and get ourselves out of plain view.”
“Foss.” There was no way to say it but plainly. “Aysu is dead.”
“Yes.” She could hear the weight of his grief in his voice. “I felt it. They came for me very quickly after her murder.”
“I’ve got the Gehemmis.”
“Save your breath, Eliza. We must get out of sight. Onto my back again.”
She obeyed, saying, “But even if the dragons dinnay give us away they’ll use the Vindensphere to find us. How can we hide?”
“I smashed the Vindensphere.”
“What?”
“It was the only thing I could think of to do. When I felt Aysu’s death, I knew they would be coming for both of us. I was on my way to warn you. I stopped in the Treasury and smashed the Vindensphere. I thought it our best chance of escape. But they found me there, before I got to you.”
“Oh, Foss!”
“They will repair it but it will take time. Long enough for us to get a good distance, I should think. I can repel seeking spells, and the Mancers are not gifted at them in any case.”
Eliza stared over his shoulder along the length of the canyon. The dragons were still circling above, shrieking. The canyon splintered off into narrow fissures that wound between sheer cliffs. It was into one of these that they went. It was barely wide enough for Foss to stretch his arms out. The sky was a thin strip of blue far overhead. The path was barely a path at all and so Foss had to scramble over piles of stone where parts of the cliff had caved in. It made Eliza terribly nervous to see these piles and she kept looking up lest another one should be coming down on their heads.
Bone, Fog, Ash & Star Page 8
