by Martin Ash
'I couldn’t have known.'
'No, you couldn’t.' She was in the blackness beside him now; he felt her breath warm upon his cheek. 'Will you take my hand and let me lead you? Do you see there is a dim light ahead? We will pass through the chamber. Keep my sword, but on no account draw the other.'
Leth found her hand in the dark, and was grateful for its touch. 'Doesn’t that light offend them?'
'Were it any brighter it would. Come.'
She led him forward. As they entered the chamber where he had so nearly died, Leth hesitated. He could still see barely a thing, but could hear the ools breathing and scuffling in the black above him.
'It’s all right.' The woman drew him on. His muscles tightened and he hardly dared breathe. He gripped her sword tensely.
And then they were through and standing in a passage on the other side. A lantern fixed to a bracket on the wall, draped in a thin, dark green square of cloth, shed the illumination that barely permeated the ools' chamber. The woman released Leth's hand and stepped back past him. She pushed against the heavy iron door, which swung slowly shut with a sepulchral boom, then she turned and smiled. 'Will you return my sword now?'
Leth did so. He felt suddenly self-conscious at having revealed his helplessness to her, having allowed her to lead him like a frightened child through the chamber. She sheathed her weapon as Leth sucked in a deep draught of air, feeding welcome oxygen to lungs which tenseness and fear had drawn tight within his chest.
'These malformed creatures. . . what are they?' he asked. 'They appear part-human, but are abominations.'
She shrugged. 'They are ools, that’s all. Cavern-dwellers. Generally docile, despite their fearsome appearance, and with only rudimentary intelligence. Now, I am called Lakewander. Come, we should not delay. Master Protector is most eager to meet you.'
III
The woman called Lakewander led Leth to a steep, narrow stone stairway which spiralled dizzyingly upwards until they emerged through a door into a chill corridor paved with flagstones. From his surroundings Leth gathered that they were inside a castle, large villa, keep or manor of some description. They passed along the corridor and up a flight of sweeping stone stairs, then Lakewander led him through a double door into a spacious chamber where an old man sat before a large table. At his back a fire blazed in a cavernous hearth. Beside him, bent as if in conference, stood Summoner.
'Ah, welcome, Lord. Welcome,' said the old man, smiling broadly and raising inflamed, shaking hands to beckon Leth forward. 'Come, please. Be seated. Forgive me if I do not rise to greet you. It is infirmity, not discourtesy, that obliges me to remain in my chair.'
From his general demeanour Leth took him once to have been a stout and probably vigorous man. But the years had withered his flesh, which hung slackly about him, grey and maculate, and his head was given to nodding slightly upon his shoulders. A few wisps of white hair hovered about his skull, and no more than half a dozen crooked teeth still remained in his gums. His eyes, however, though smoky, were alert and intelligent and lit with a glint of humour. He was garbed in a robe of dark umber relieved with gold braiding at collar and sleeve-hems. He beckoned again, 'Come, please. Do not be concerned. We are friends.' He was seized abruptly with a fit of wheezing. He leaned forward and coughed and spat into a tin spittoon at his side, then, recovering, smiled again. 'Allow me to introduce myself. I am Master Protector. My two companions, Lakewander and Summoner, you have already met. Be welcome, Lord. We are privileged. I especially, for I had come to believe that I would live out my entire span and not witness your coming. Ah, this is a day to be recorded. We have waited such a long time.'
A score of questions clamoured in Leth's head, but for the moment he held his silence. He accepted the proffered seat opposite the old man at the table, perceiving himself to be in no immediate danger. Lakewander moved to the end of the table and perched herself upon its edge. She took up an apple from a glazed earthenware platter and took a bite.
'Eat, sir, if you will,' urged Master Protector. 'Here are nuts and fruit, and I can have meat, fish, bread brought if you so wish. And drink. Will you have wine? Ale? A cordial?'
Leth patted the cloth package given to him by Summoner. 'I have eaten, thank you. A little ale will serve me well, though.'
As Summoner poured dark ale from a jug, Leth spoke again. 'Perhaps you would answer some questions, to help clarify my position here.'
Master Protector inclined his head. 'Please, ask what you will.'
'You - all three of you - refer to me repeatedly as if I am known and expected, yet to me you are all strangers, and this is a strange and unknown land.'
'Yes, Summoner has conveyed something of this to me.'
'Summoner ran from me when I questioned him.'
'Ah, Summoner. . . .' Master Protector glanced up at the man beside him, weakly fluttering a hand and chuckling to himself: a deep, chesty chuckle that spoke of pulmonary obstructions and shortness of breath. 'I apologise. He is young and callow. The shock of your arrival. . . it quite put him out.'
Leth, shifting his gaze to Summoner, was not struck by his youthful demeanour. Indeed, Summoner was more than old enough to have been Leth's father.
'But Summoner did say that you proffered him violence,' Master Protector added.
Leth shifted uncomfortably and reached for his ale. Then he paused, his anger returning. 'Understand, my children have been stolen from me. Seen in this light my actions surely can’t be judged so extreme? I will stop at nothing to get them back.'
Master Protector nodded ruminatively at this. 'Good. That is good.'
'For my part I find nothing good in it,' said Leth heatedly.
'I meant, it is good that your devotion to your offspring should outweigh all other concerns, not good that you should be suffering such wretched frowns of fortune. No, Lord, not that at all. Not at all.'
'Summoner implied knowledge of their whereabouts.'
'Did he? Did he? That was rash, indeed. Summoner, what is this foolishness?'
'I said only what is known: that she has taken them,' protested Summoner. 'Nothing more. I was alarmed at the Lord's manner.'
'You tricked me and fled,' accused Leth.
'To preserve my life, Lord, as anyone would do!'
Leth spoke between clenched teeth. 'If you know of their whereabouts, tell me, now!'
'No, no,' old Master Protector's head moved from side to side. 'We know - or certainly believe - that they have been taken by her. Their precise whereabouts. . . that is another matter entirely.'
'Who is this woman to whom you refer? And who do you consider me to be?'
The old man began to laugh. It was a pained, suppressed laugh, full of wheezes and strange poppings of an almost musical quality. For a moment Leth thought to hear the honking of distant geese carried on a wind. Master Protector's shoulders were racked; his eyes streamed. He raised one hand, bidding forbearance until in due course he could say, 'The question seems more pertinently to be: who do you consider yourself to be?'
Leth weighed his reply. Knowing so little of these people and their land he judged it inadvisable at present to disclose his full title.'I am Leth. . . of Enchantment's Reach.'
'Enchantment's Reach?' Master Protector looked to Summoner, who shrugged.
'It is plainly of the other world, Master,' Summoner said. 'The Lord came, like the others, through the Sign. But so great has been the passage of time, it’s conceivable that he has forgotten us and our covenant.'
'Others?' queried Leth.
'Others have answered the summons,' said Summoner. 'Two in my lifetime, others before. But they were not you.'
Lakewander spoke. 'He means, Lord, that they could not bear the Sword. They came in error, or perhaps in vain hope, but it is the Swordbearer and no other who can help us.'
Leth shook his head. 'I know nothing of this.'
'Do you not even recall the Sword?' Lakewander asked. 'Does it not feel familiar?'
'Recall? Recall
? I have not been here before. Nothing is familiar.'
A silence fell. The three exchanged glances. Leth, growing apprehensive, stood.
'Truly, it has been such a long time,' Master Protector said.
'His memories will return, I think, as the days pass,' said Summoner.
Lakewander nodded pensively. 'Essentially it makes little difference, other than to him.'
'Enough!' flared Leth. 'Have I not made myself plain? I’m a stranger to your land, and I seek nothing except to return, with my children, to my own.'
'Just so,' Master Protector seemed both sympathetic and resigned. 'And perhaps you shall, Lord. Perhaps you shall, if you succeed.'
'No. You plan for me to slay some putative enemy of yours, a woman of whom I have no knowledge! This I cannot - will not - do. I know nothing of the problems of this realm, its politics and intrigues. I can’t interfere. But at home I’m needed. Find some other to perform your assassinations, I entreat you, and show me how I might return, with my children.'
'Lord, Lord, is it still not clear?' Master Protector looked pained. 'There is no other; no other can draw the Sword.'
'Then here!' Leth roared. He swept the bright rose blade free of its scabbard, causing the others to draw back in alarm. Lakewander's hand flew to the hilt of her own sword, but Leth thrust the Sword of the Orb down hard so that its point bit deep into the table top. He released it and it stood, oscillating rapidly back and forth, its aura casting a pale, agitated fuchsia lambence across the chamber, lamplight reflecting in the blade. 'Here! Take your cursed weapon and give it to another. Instruct him never to sheathe it, then burden him with the task of murder that you enjoin upon me!'
'Lord, Lord, we understand your anguish, but we cannot do as you ask,' cried Master Protector. 'For such long ages we have waited, and we have known that the Godworld might cast forth others, but they can only fail us or try to lead us false. Only he who can bear the Sword of the Orb can be the true god.'
'I am no god!' Leth's eyes blazed. He slammed his fist down on the table, causing cups, plates and cutlery to leap and rattle. 'I am a man, a mere man, who has been drawn here - I don’t know how - and seek nothing but to return.'
Master Protector nodded sombrely. 'That will be your reward. . . when your task is complete. You see, we know of no way back, save that which lies within the temple of our oppressor, the Kancanitrix, Ascaria, the Dark Flame of the Orb. It is she who holds your children. Find her, for your own sake and ours, slay her, and you may leave our world. There is truly no other way.'
Leth grew still, fighting his rage and frustration, sensing no way out. Eventually, in a voice that shook with emotion, he said, 'What is the name of this land? What is its extent? Who are your neighbours?'
'It is Orb,' said Master Senior. 'That is all. We are ignorant of its extent. As for neighbours, there are folk of many kinds resident here, though far fewer than in the past. Ascaria has seen to that. Do you wish to know the names of them all?'
'I referred to neighbouring lands. The nations, races, domains that lie beyond your own.'
'Beyond?' Master Protector seemed mystified. 'Beyond the Orb there is only the Godworld, of which we know nothing.'
Leth heaved a heavy sigh. He turned away. But through his exasperation he felt a measure of intrigue. These repeated references to the Orb. . . . As far as Leth was aware he remained still somehow within Orbelon's world, the world within the blue casket which rested upon his desk in the Palace of Orbia - the world that Orbelon himself, by his own account, had been trapped inside; the world he had unknowingly created. Orbelon had never professed knowledge of anything other than the empty blue domain which Leth had so recently left. Could it be that this land and its strange people were also held within the blue casket? Or could he have been cast back into some remote corner of his own world, or even to another universe entirely?
'How does it come by its name?' he asked.
'Orb? Ah, Lord, now you speak of unfathomable mystery. We will show you - Lakewander will show you if you will rest awhile with us. Will you do that, Lord? Night approaches and it will gain you nothing to leave now. Chambers have already been prepared.'
'My children--' Leth began.
'--may be of greater value to Ascaria as hostages than corpses,' cut in Lakewander. 'Though we don’t know that. But even if not, you can’t travel until you know the way. Pass this night here, beneath our roof, and you’ll be more ably equipped to commence your journey tomorrow. There are things you should see, things you should know. And perhaps, even, things you may begin to remember.'
Leth stared at her uncomfortably. Again he thought she seemed faintly familiar. Something. . . something was not right. Here. . . in this place . . .
'Will you stay, Lord?'
He glanced back to Master Protector, who had posed the question. He hesitated, then nodded resignedly. 'Aye, I’ll stay, for I see no alternative. But this one night only.'
'And will you take back your sword?'
Leth regarded the glowing blade, which rose proud and pulsing from the table. He reached out and grasped its hilt, levered it free. 'For now.' He slid the Sword of the Orb into its jewelled scabbard. 'But when this night is done, and I have seen and learned, I may yet return it to you.'
FOUR
I
Leth waited in a state of some agitation in the modest suite of chambers that had been provided for him by Master Protector and his companions. The chambers were situated on the ground floor, and were windowless, which did nothing to set Leth's mind at rest. But the door was not locked, nor had a guard been placed outside. Should the desire so take him, it seemed to Leth that he was free to wander more or less as he pleased.
After being shown to the apartment by Lakewander, who then departed, Leth had decided to test this. He exited the chambers and began to explore the corridor outside. No one moved to prevent him; more to the point, not a soul was in evidence to do so. Apart from the three persons to whom he had already been introduced, and the hideous ools below, Leth had seen no one. Not servants, nor guards, nor staff of any description. The castle, or whatever the building was, carried a strange and lonely aura, an underlying feeling of desertion, the sense that little existed here other than, perhaps, fading echoes of the past, and, among the living, a glimmer of a hoped-for future. Such was Leth's impression as he stole from the silent chamber.
The corridor, like the chambers, was windowless. Statues and carved stone reliefs did little to ease its chill and austere character. He passed along it to a towering double-door, which opened without complaint. Another passage led away, and Leth saw, some distance along, an arched window. To this he walked, his shadow multiplied, distorted and shaken by the flames from torches mounted on brackets upon the walls. He looked out.
Little was visible at ground level: an empty service yard bordered by a high stone wall, the massed black silhouettes of trees outside above its parapet. Dusk had clclosed in, but in those windows that Leth was able to see no candle glowed, no torchlight flickered. The sense of emptiness was amplified.
He looked upwards. The firmament was starless indigo. He searched, seeking stars, seeking the familiar, and finding neither. As he stared it seemed he descried irregularities within the indigo: deep folds and canyons revealed themselves to his questing eyes; raised features, and scars and depressions, bringing to mind desolate blue highlands, dark gorges and shadowed empty vales. To Leth it seemed he gazed impossibly upon a far landscape, vast, mountainous and barren, formed of the evening sky itself, far overhead.
A voice spoke, close in Leth's ear, making him start and spin around.
'Swordbearer!'
There was no one beside him.
'Who speaks?' demanded Leth, stepping away from the window.
'I, who am beside you.'
'I see no one.' A chill ran down Leth's spine. He stepped back again, then cast his eyes up and down the corridor, his hand upon his sword-hilt.
'You see me, but know it not.' The voice wa
s remote and ghostly, yet so close at hand: a penetrating whisper.
Leth took two more steps back.
'Do not draw your blade, Swordbearer. It’s unnecessary, and will avail you nothing.'
'Where are you? What do you want with me?'
'I am here. Here, within the stone. And I want nothing, save to ask you what you seek.'
'Within. . . ?' Leth focused upon the bare stone wall beside the window where he had stood. 'What manner of creature are you?'
'I am simply one who has lived, and who passed. My being now helps sustain this edifice in which you now reside. I was once a Protector. Now, like all who have gone before me, I am a part of that which I lived to protect.'
'This is strange to me.'
'No matter,' said the voice. 'Many ages have passed. If you have forgotten, that’s perhaps to be expected. But I sensed your confusion, that is why I asked, What do you seek?'
Again the insinuation that this had all once been familiar. Leth was guarded. 'I seek. . . I seek to know and to understand. This place, this world, is alien.'
'But you are the Swordbearer, the True God with whom our covenant was made so long ago. This is your Transformation, isn’t that plain?'
'Nothing is plain.'
'Be patient, then. All will become known to you, as is proper.'
'I am not a god!'
'Be patient, Swordbearer. Be patient.'
'I want only to find my children,' protested Leth. 'And then to return with them to our home.'
There was no reply. Leth spoke again, but if his voice was heard it was ignored. He grew angry. In a state of heightened distraction he made his way back to his apartment. A platter of roasted fowl in rich, dark gravy, with vegetables and bread had been set upon a table. Also a pewter pitcher of ruby wine, and a bowl of various fruits. He wondered as to the hands that had placed them, for they had not been there moments earlier. The food's aroma teased his nostrils; he discovered he was hungry again, and sat down to eat.
