“Can we move the Thanatosi outside?” asked Eliza. “I dinnay like them…hanging over Charlie like that.”
“Poor Smidgen,” sighed Nia. “Yes, of course.”
The Thanatosi, limbs still unmoving, came drifting out as Nia murmured under her breath. She stood them on their heads, smirking to herself, and then raised a barrier behind them as she and Eliza re-entered the Hall.
Back inside, Nia noticed Ferghal and Foss for the first time. “You always have the oddest hangers-on,” she noted. “A Scarpathian indigent? Honestly, Eliza. And what in the worlds is wrong with the Mancer?”
“He rebelled,” said Eliza. “He stood up to Kyreth and he’s dying now. Cannay you help him?”
“Nobody can help a Mancer but the Mancers,” said Nia with a shrug. “I’m sure he knew what it would cost him. Trying to keep a Mancer alive when it’s been cut off from the others is like trying to keep a flower alive in the dark. There’s not much that can be done. Give me the Gehemmis.”
Without waiting for Eliza to hand it to her, Nia snatched the camel-hair backpack from her and took each of the Gehemmis out in turn, looking them over carefully.
“Can you read the symbols?” asked Eliza.
Nia smiled. “Of course. Thanks to the Mancer Library. You know, it’s as if this was meant to be, Smidgen. You and I, here. It’s perfect. I don’t believe in destiny but sometimes random chance offers up something so sublime that you almost want to believe it had to be this way.”
She held up the Gehemmis of the Horogarth. “Bone,” she said in the Language of First Days. “What was broken in the Making.”
The fragment of bone flew from her hands to a faint carving on the northern wall, a long undulating line. It fit perfectly into a notch in the stone. Nia picked up the dragon-skin sack.
“Ash,” she said. “What was burned in the Making.”
The black ashes swirled out of the bag and scattered themselves across the eastern wall, where the broken, carved head of a dragon looked down from the highest grotto.
“Fog,” she said, taking up the glass sphere of the Faeries. “What was obscured by the Making.”
The glass shattered and the fog inside it streamed up to a grotto on the west wall that had once held the carving of a Faery King. There it took the shape of a crown where the head was no longer.
At last she lifted the dark box from the Sparkling Deluder. Her hands trembled slightly.
“The first star,” she said, “that illuminated the Making.”
The box opened. Eliza threw herself to the ground, arms over her head, to shield herself from the light that poured out. The Hall shuddered, and for one panicked moment she feared that it would fall on them. When at last the light began to dim, Eliza opened her eyes, still seeing sunspots. She and Nia were alone in the Hall but it was not the Hall as she knew it. The stone was a deep black, unfaded. The symbols, once worn and difficult to make out, were etched clearly into the stone, and the statues and carvings were brightly painted, a riot of colour against the black walls. She and Nia got slowly to their feet. Nia’s eyes were bright with wonder and joy.
“Where are we?” asked Eliza.
“I think the question is when, not where,” said Nia. “And I’ve no idea.”
The Hall shuddered again. Something emerged from the wall. Its large eyes, wet and bright and moving, held both Sorceresses immediately. The rest of it seemed only partly formed – or perhaps that was wrong; perhaps it was just in perpetual flux, changing and moving. Swirls and shadows suggested a body but Eliza could not look away from the eyes to really be sure. Even the face around the eyes seemed little more than a kind of spreading, gleaming darkness. The stones of the Hall spoke to them, in a voice that only stone could ever make:
Have you come to wake the Ancients?
“Wake the Ancients?” murmured Eliza.
“I’m fairly sure that’s not what we’ve come for,” said Nia.
But that is the power of the Gehemmis.
The Hall vibrated strangely when the stones spoke. Whether it was the vibrations, the stepping outside time and place, or the peculiar eyes she could not look away from, Eliza felt faint and queasy. Nia, however, seemed unaffected.
“I hadn’t realized the Ancients were…ah…sleeping,” said Nia. “I thought they’d gone off somewhere.”
They are here, said the stones. They are us, and you, and all of this. They sleep in your bones and in your breath and in the oceans and the earth.
“So if we wake them up…”
They will become what they were, not what they are now.
“Well, let’s let them keep napping a bit longer then, shall we? What else can the Gehemmis do?”
That is the power of the Gehemmis.
“That’s all?” Nia looked at Eliza a bit petulantly. “How disappointing.”
“What about separating the worlds?” said Eliza. “The Sparkling Deluder told me…”
The giant, wet eyes seemed to throb and flash. The stones grated angrily.
It needs no power to separate the worlds. It needs power to keep them together. Power still dwelling in Di Shang, power that Tian Xia cannot pull away from.
“What does that mean? What are you talking about?” Nia sounded angry, impatient, but Eliza thought she understood.
“I should have known,” she murmured. “I should have guessed, when Foss told me about the spell slowing down, how there was no record of it.”
Magic wanted form, said the stones. Magic wanted to live in the world, and so it took shape. It wanted love, and so there were more. You call them the Ancients. They lived and loved, and when they grew weary, they did not want to leave the world, and so they became part of it, part of Tian Di. Then Tian Di broke into two. It is the way of worlds, sometimes. They draw apart, they multiply, occupying different planes of existence. It should not take so much time, but the Mancers have been sowing their Magic deep into Di Shang, housing Tian Xia treasures, binding the worlds still. So long as beings and objects of great power remain in Di Shang, it cannot pull apart from Tian Xia.
Nia reacted first: “I knew it! I just knew the Mancers couldn’t have managed such a spell! Those mangy, sneaking liars, pretending they separated the worlds.”
“So the worlds would separate naturally if the Mancers left Di Shang,” said Eliza.
The Mancers. The Citadel. And the Sorceress.
Eliza’s heart plummeted. Then she remembered her agreement with Nia. She would give up her power. She felt suddenly dizzy. What would it be like to once again be simply a girl, with no Magic at all? To live in a Di Shang that was no longer connected to this strange and terrible world, a Di Shang with no need of a Sorceress? What would she do? She had missed years of school… She reined in her wild imaginings, forced herself back to the present.
“But why would the Mancers do this? All this time, they’ve been keeping the worlds connected on purpose? To what end?”
They are ignorant – most of them. Fooled and manipulated by the Supreme Mancer.
“Kyreth,” said Eliza bitterly.
Karbek, said the stones. When it began, Karbek alone understood what was happening and misled the others. He knew that if Di Shang pulled away from Tian Xia, the power of the Mancers would be much diminished. They draw their power from the natural world, not the magical. He led the Mancers to Di Shang and began the Magic they have worked ever since, to keep the worlds together, while claiming to do the opposite. He still held ambitions of Mancer dominion over both worlds. Some Mancers since have known the truth. Those that pursued the Gehemmis knew it would serve their cause. All the Gehemmis in Di Shang would be powerful enough to draw the worlds back together, remake Tian Di. One world for the Mancers to rule, with humans as their foot soldiers.
“Humans,” snorted Nia.
They were feeble and powerless long ago. Not anymore. They are so numerous, and their modern weaponry far more sophisticated than anything in Tian Xia, where beings rely so entirely on magic.
“So that’s Kyreth’s plan,” said Eliza, shuddering.
But now the Gehemmis are here in the Hall of the Ancients. They are put to use. I ask for the last time: Will you wake the Ancients?
“No,” said Nia swiftly. “We don’t want to do that.”
Then the Gehemmis are returned to their rightful owners until such time as they choose to wake the Ancients.
The moist, moving eyes blinked and were gone. The Hall was a ruin again, Eliza’s friends still frozen in time.
“Well!” said Nia. “That is a surprise, I must say.”
For a moment they said nothing more. Then Eliza felt something give and Nell was running straight for them and yelling. She stumbled and paused, confused.
“What happened to the giant snake?” she asked.
Charlie was looking around in bewilderment. “What happened to the Thanatosi?”
“Giants’ Oaths!” cried Ferghal, sputtering. “Ancients’ Spit! What in the name of all that’s Immortal is going on?”
“We have to get the Mancers out of Di Shang,” said Eliza to Nia.
“Priorities, Smidgen,” tutted Nia. “Patricide first. Speaking of which – ” her head shot up and her eyes flashed. “Somebody is tampering with my barrier.”
An entrance groaned open and Kyreth stepped into the Hall. At his side was a slippery grey creature with a giant, bald head and lurid yellow eyes. It looked as if it were half fish, half ogre.
Nia’s lip curled. “I should have known a barrier wouldn’t keep you out,” she said. “Did you know Eliza’s offered to help me do away with you? Isn’t she sweet?”
“Where are the Gehemmis?” His voice was like thunder.
“Gone,” said Nia blithely. “They weren’t much use, as it turns out. We did discover that you’ve been telling some rather shocking lies, however! I really shouldn’t be so surprised. Take my hand, Smidgen.”
Nia reached for Eliza, and Eliza hesitated.
“Even together, are you a match for all the Mancers, powers combined and Magic prepared?” asked Kyreth.
“I don’t see all the Mancers,” retorted Nia. “Eliza! Take my hand!”
“I.…”
“She is not a murderer,” said Kyreth. “Whatever else she may be, she will not be able to bring herself to kill me.”
Nia spoke in the Language of First Days, her voice resonating terribly. “Your bones break, your heart be still, your breath be gone!” The black light was unspooling from her fingers, lacing around Kyreth, but a white light poured out of him and dissipated it almost instantly.
“I am ready for you this time,” he said, holding up a hand. “Eliza, you have achieved what no Sorceress before you could achieve, but you are nonetheless terribly predictable. I knew you would seek help from Nia. I knew that I would find you here. I had hoped…” he drew a sharp breath here, “that the Gehemmis would not yet be put into use. Your manipulation of time was unexpected, though most impressive. But all is not lost. We are here. Before you arrived, I enchanted the Hall of the Ancients.”
“What…?” began Eliza.
“That’s the Guardian of Space with him,” said Nia grimly.
“Long allied with the Mancers,” said Kyreth.
The Guardian opened his awful mouth. No sound came out but the Hall began to spin. It span faster and faster, until it was only a dark blur. Then it fell still suddenly and they all staggered, trying to adjust their eyes to the scene. They were in the grounds of the Citadel, surrounded by Mancers. Malferio knelt on the grass, his eyes dull and hooded, and Gautelen stood behind him, holding his dagger. She and Malferio spoke in unison: “Life becomes Death.”
Then she drove the dagger into the back of his neck.
Chapter
~27~
Eliza reeled, trying to keep her balance. The world had only just stopped spinning, and she could not quite believe what she saw. As the stroke fell, she heard Nia’s voice, a stunned whisper: “No!”
Malferio fell forwards on the grass. He looked up at Nia with shining eyes. “Do you see what you have done to me?” he gasped. “King of the Faeries! To die like a groveling mortal!” A look of amazement crossed his face as the Magic worked through his blood. “There it is. To die, to be no more. It isn’t fair. I feel it. It isn’t fair.”
Nia ran to him, kneeling and taking his face in her hands.
“Malferio,” she whispered, her eyes full of tears.
“I wish I had never known you, wretched fiend,” he murmured. “Ah! It touches the heart.”
Nia looked up and her eyes fell on Gautelen. Her tears were gone as quickly as they had appeared. “You blasted little fool,” she hissed. “Will you let anyone make use of you?”
Gautelen’s look of triumph fell to bewilderment. She dropped the dagger in the grass.
“It is done,” said Kyreth.
A barrier sprang up around Eliza, binding her arms fast so she could not reach for her own dagger.
“Yes,” said Nia, rising and stepping back. She looked from Malferio gasping in the grass to Kyreth standing over him. “But not quite finished yet.”
With a wild, terrified look in her eyes, she plunged her hand through the barrier that held Eliza and pulled her free.
“Do you trust me?” she whispered. The Mancers had all begun chanting at once. Without a thought Eliza gave her power over to Nia. The girl with snake pigtails and the slippery grey ogre stood before them, reaching out. Clinging to each other, Nia and Eliza grasped their hands. The two Guardians gave a sharp yank and the Citadel was gone.
~~~
They are in the desert, by the Lookout Tree. The little boy sits high up in the branches, looking down at them silently. Selva is there, holding Rea cradled in her arms. Not Rea as she was at the shore of the Lake of the Deep Forgotten, but Rea as she is now: broken, haunted.
Nia leans against the tree and looks at Eliza with wide, brilliant eyes.
“They’ve beaten me,” she says. “After everything! The blasted Mancers!”
Rea says hollowly, “Now you know how it feels to lose.”
“Yes, I left you with that memory, didn’t I?” says Nia. “I…I don’t think the Guardians will let us stay here long, so I suppose I’ll be dead in moments. But Kyreth is mistaken if he thinks he can get away with this. If he thinks he can stamp me out and be safe.” The golden fire in her green eyes shines more brightly than ever as she looks at each of them, Selva, Rea, Eliza. She begins to whisper something, curling in on herself. The white tiger comes leaping out of the desert towards them. It paces circles around the Lookout Tree, tail lashing.
When Nia looks up again, she holds two little wrapped bonbons in her hand.
“This one is for you,” she says to Eliza, giving her one of them. “Yummy sugar-coated centuries of dark Magic. My power. Ironic, isn’t it? Use it to avenge me. Promise me.”
“I promise.” Eliza replies without thinking.
Nia turns to Rea. “And this is yours. Everything that I took.”
Rea reaches for it with a trembling hand.
Eliza looks at the bonbon in her hand. Nia’s power. She sees again the Oracle of the Ancients, her clear eyes and her small pointed teeth, and she hears her hissing voice: You will cut out your own heart. And finally she understands. That time has come.
“If you take back your power, you’ll have to leave Di Shang forever,” she tells her mother. “We have to separate the worlds. All the beings of power will go to Tian Xia, and the humans must stay in Di Shang.”
“Rom?” asks Rea, staring at the bonbon, brow furrowed.
“He must stay,” says Selva quietly. “He belongs to this world.”
“You can’t be thinking of…” Nia begins.
Rea hands the bonbon swiftly to Eliza. “I can’t leave him,” she says.
Nia rolls her eyes and slumps against the tree.
“You must make your choice quickly, my dear,” says Selva to Eliza. “Time will not wait for us much longer.”
�
�You could have it,” says Eliza, knowing it’s useless.
Selva shakes her head. “Mine is another road. You know yours. You have only to choose it.”
Nia has turned very white. “Smidgen, you promised! You’ll punish him, you said…”
“Yes,” says Eliza. “I will.”
“I wish I could see their faces when you turn up! You know, I always thought…well, if anybody was going to do me in, I’d have thought it would be you.”
“I couldnay have done it,” says Eliza.
“Oh, you might’ve had to. I was going to wreak the most terrible havoc. But that’s all done now.” The pendant around her neck is fading, darkening. The white tiger gives a low moan and bows its great head to her. She puts her arms around its neck.
“Oh Smidgen,” she says, tears shining in her eyes as she looks up at Eliza. “The fun I’ve had!”
“Go on,” says Selva gently.
Eliza puts the bonbons in her mouth, one after the other, and bites down. Trust Nia, they are delicious, but there is not much time to notice that. She feels the wind and the ocean thundering through her veins. She feels the emptiness of space in the marrow of her bones. She looks up into the branches of the Lookout Tree, where the little boy is staring down at her with wide, frightened eyes. He points, and she follows his finger.
A dark river cuts through the desert. In the shadowy distance the great panther looms, crouching over it. The river rushes between its giant paws. You will bring me your beloved.
Eliza finds she is weeping as she lifts Nia into her arms. The sand turns to darkness beneath her feet as she carries the Sorceress to the river. The white tiger pads behind her.
~~~
Charlie, Nell and Ferghal huddled together in the grass around Foss, staring at the spot where moments before Eliza and Nia had joined hands and then vanished. Malferio lay dead just paces away. The Mancers were silent and still.
“A seeking spell,” Kyreth threw over his shoulder at last. “Find Eliza.”
“The Vindensphere…” a Mancer began tentatively.
“In need of repair,” said Kyreth with a harsh laugh. “Again.”
Gautelen sank to her knees in the grass. She looked at Nell in stunned bewilderment.
Bone, Fog, Ash & Star Page 30
