C. Dale Brittain

by Voima

  “Roric, please! I can’t crawl through any more dark tunnels. I just can’t!”

  “Then I’ll go ahead, and you can wait for me.”

  “No, please don’t leave me!” She was sobbing now. This was entirely her fault, from the decision to try to find Valmar to the decision to descend into the firelit room under the rocks in search of the Witch of the Western Cliffs, and if they starved to death here it would only be an appropriate end to their story.

  He held her again, rocking her like a child. “I won’t leave you behind if you don’t want,” he murmured into her hair. “But feel how smooth the floor is here. And someone built that fire in the dragon’s den, and I doubt it was the dragon. Don’t you think some of your faeys might have found a way to live close to it?”

  At the thought of the faeys she sat up straight, peering about in the blackness in search of the faint green light cast by their lamps. She still saw nothing, and she realized that no faeys she had ever known, either the ones in Hadros’s kingdom or the ones here, had used open fires. But imagining this was a faeys’ burrow gave her courage. She took a deep breath. “Let’s go then,” she said.

  Roric went first, crawling with his sword in one hand, feeling his way in the dark. The surface under their knees and hands remained level. “Someone certainly must live here,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Of course someone does,” said a deep voice in front of them.

  Karin reached forward to grasp Roric by the shoulder. The voice was good-natured and deeper than the voice of any faey, but with a detached, almost weary note that reminded her oddly of Queen Arane. “Are you—” she began tentatively, addressing the darkness and already knowing the answer, “are you a faey?”

  There was a chuckle then before the voice continued. With the echoes, it was impossible to judge distance, but it sounded very close. “I have been called many things, but never that.”

  Karin squeezed Roric’s shoulder tighter. It was very strange speaking to someone she could not see, someone who, she told herself, had to be human. “Then who are you?”

  “Some call me,” said the voice, “the Witch of the Western Cliffs.”

  2

  “We’d like to see you if we could,” said Roric when Karin fell silent.

  “Then keep coming,” the voice replied. “You will be able to see me—and I you—by the light of my fire. Though I must say I had thought mortals had more sense than to blunder into a dragon’s den after I set the fire beacon there to warn everyone away!”

  Roric crawled on, Karin right behind him. The tunnel curved around a corner, and the dark lightened to the level of dimness. The tunnel opened into a room with a high ceiling. Here again a fire was burning, and something enormous and squat reclined before it.

  He came out of the tunnel and rose slowly to his feet, his sword still in his hand. “Do not fear me, Roric No-man’s son,” said the voice.

  All creatures of voima, it seemed, knew his name. Considering how little use his sword had been against the dragon, he doubted it would be much more use here. Their best hope was that this witch really was as friendly as it wanted to sound, and he would not learn that by threatening. He gritted his teeth for a moment, then shrugged, sheathed his sword, and put an arm around Karin as she came up beside him.

  He could feel her trembling, but she spoke clearly. “We have come a long way to find you. The Mirror-seer in my father’s kingdom said that you would know the way into the Wanderers’ realm.”

  The massive shape by the fire shifted but did not answer at once. It did not look human in spite of its voice. Yet the firelight glinted from a pair of eyes, human eyes. As the flame licked high for a second it bounced images from an enormous mirror on the far wall.

  “Are you perhaps a Mirror-seer yourself?” said Roric politely. But he asked himself with a tightening of his lips whether all of this, their entire trip to the Hot-River Mountains, might be some sort of Seer joke.

  “No, nor a Weaver,” said the shape. It was impossible to place the being’s voice as either man or woman, any more than it was possible for the Weavers. “Although, as you see, I too weave.” Roric saw then that there was a net across the far side of the room, tightly tied, full of knots and tangles.

  “But can we reach the Wanderers’ realm from here?” asked Karin again, a desperate edge in her voice.

  “Everything beneath the sun is ruled by those you call the Wanderers,” the Witch of the Western Cliffs replied. Roric had yet to see a mouth but thought it must be enormous to match the creature’s bulk. “At least for now, all lands are the realms of the lords of voima. But the upheaval is coming soon . . .”

  “The Weaver back home,” said Roric, “also spoke of an upheaval.”

  “And the faeys as well,” said Karin quietly.

  When the witch again fell silent, Roric tried to focus on the mirror. It seemed to show people moving, maybe even fighting, but too dimly to identify any of them even if he knew them.

  “Come and sit beside me, Roric No-man’s son and Karin Kardan’s daughter,” said the witch then.

  Karin had not reacted when the witch first called Roric by his name, but she lifted her head sharply at hearing her own. “How do you know us?” she demanded.

  “I expected you,” said the witch, again with a low chuckle. Roric thought that this witch, whoever he or she might be, sounded like someone who had been alive much too long ever to hurry again, or even to worry, but was prepared to observe with interest whatever came its way. “After all, your Seer sent you to look for me; did you think I would not have seen that?”

  “Then you know what we want,” said Karin.

  “And I also know that you are both exhausted, bone weary, and famished. I have watched mortals long enough to know one has to be careful with them sometimes—there was a time I watched them very closely. Sit with me by my fire before you try to find other realms than this one.”

  There was no way to judge the passing of time in the darkness of the cave of the Witch of the Western Cliffs. They ate bread and cheese and drank ale; Roric wondered briefly where the witch had gotten it but knew better than to ask. After a while, even sitting in the dark with a witch who must be twenty times the size of either of them stopped being disturbing. Karin commented that this large room was much more comfortable than the cramped burrows of the faeys.

  The dragon seemed far away, and then even farther away as the ale went to their heads. They had not heard any of its rumbles since they entered this room. Karin said something about tiny islands of security, but Roric was too tired for it to make much sense. Then they slept, lying on the sandy floor by the fire, their heads pillowed on what appeared to be a leathery roll of the witch’s belly. They woke again to find the flames still flickering low.

  The witch was working on its weaving, pulling and tugging at strings, seeming to make them even more tangled, humming quietly as it worked. It was difficult to see clearly for the shadows moved with it, but the witch almost appeared to have more than one pair of arms, like a huge spider.

  Not wanting to disturb its work, Roric and Karin whispered together. She told him about the renegade king and his embittered woman, and how she had gotten out of their castle. But he did not tell her, not yet, that he had killed Gizor. For the last day he had been too involved in keeping first himself and then the two of them alive to think much on it, but he was carrying a massive blood-guilt.

  “So, you two mortals have not yet had enough of the Wanderers?” asked the witch above them. “From what I heard, I thought you had turned against them.”

  “What have you heard?” asked Roric cautiously. This being was the first, including the humans, who seemed to realize that mortals needed food and rest, the first since they had left the isolated manor and its strange blue-eyed lady, and it inspired him—almost—with a feeling of trust. But he had never trusted anyone absolutely, except maybe Karin, and he had no reason to trust a creature of voima.

  “One of those you call Wa
nderers often visits me,” said the witch pleasantly. That is, Roric thought the tone was meant to be pleasant; it was so hard to tell without seeing a face. “I knew him long ago, when he was young—knew him very well, you might say. So he asks favors of me and tells things to me, and sometimes I guess even what he has no intention of telling.”

  “I didn’t know the Wanderers were ever young,” said Karin.

  “Oh, yes, both small and young. Tell me, Karin Kardan’s daughter,” in an apparent change of topic, “have you borne children?”

  “Not yet,” said Karin slowly, and Roric thought that she, like he, must be wondering aghast if this strange creature was a Wanderer’s mother.

  “Sometimes I wonder,” said the witch thoughtfully, “if their plan has any chance of success—and I think he wonders as well, though so far he still supports it, as much as he ever supports anything.”

  “Does their plan involve us?” asked Karin in a small voice.

  They had been maneuvered, Roric thought grimly, into coming all the way here in order to rescue Valmar from the lords of voima, and all the time the lords of voima had known exactly what they were doing, were delighted to have them do it, and had no intention of letting Valmar be rescued. His eyes ached from trying to see, his muscles ached from the fights of the last few days, yet more than anything his spirit ached for a clear goal ahead of him.

  “Certainly they need mortals, and you seemed like a good first choice, Roric No-man’s son,” said the witch. “But I am not sure, now, if they still want you, or if the mortal they have will do . . . I must say, I do not like these changes any better than they do, but I would have thought there was a better solution than introducing death into immortal realms.”

  The witch fell silent for a moment, and Roric squeezed Karin’s hand. They had stumbled into a crisis of the lords of voima, a great shifting and change that might affect all mortals as well as the Wanderers themselves, and he wanted no part in it. He had gone into immortal realms originally because he wanted to do something to make himself worthy of Karin, but now he would be satisfied with having the blood-guilt removed and she beside him.

  Karin seemed determined to keep the witch talking, though little they had heard seemed of use to Roric. But women, he thought, always liked talking. “You keep referring to changes, to upheavals— We mortals, I am afraid, know little of these. What is that the Wanderers fear?”

  “It was probably a mistake separating them into two,” said the witch quietly, its voice very old. “But you mortals had always been separate, and so we modeled our new world on yours.

  “Once you humans stopped living wild in the woods and began to group together in permanent dwellings,” the witch continued, “we thought it would be better for you to be guided by beings more in your own image, beings who lived in their own realm which we made for them so that you would not be terrified by having lords and ladies of voima constantly among you. But now they do not create their successors, as we always did. The Hearthkeepers neither gave birth to their successors nor slid away gracefully when fate ordained the end of their time of dominance. And now they wish to rule again. If our children only replace each other the cycle will lead not to progress but to stagnation, for it will never be resolved . . .”

  “Excuse me,” said Karin slowly, “but I don’t understand you. Who is it who have separated?”

  “The Wanderers and the second force,” said Roric when the witch did not answer.

  Karin looked at him, her eyes dark shadows. When she spoke he could not tell if she were addressing him or the witch. “Tell me, then. Are the members of the second force women?”

  “Of course not,” said Roric.

  And, “Of course they are,” said the witch at the same time.

  “I fought them,” said Roric, “in the Wanderers’ realm. They weren’t women. They wore horned helmets.”

  “They, too, have decided to try something different,” said the witch, again almost wearily. “They have decided to use men’s own weapons against them. They did not ask me, although I could have told them. It will make no difference.”

  Roric tried to picture again the warriors who had attacked both him and the band of trolls with him. It had never occurred to him at the time that they might not be men, and he did not like the idea that women had matched swords with him.

  “So neither the Wanderers nor the Hearthkeepers will listen to you?” asked Karin sympathetically. “In spite of all your wisdom and experience, even when they’re wrong, they insist on doing things their own way?”

  Roric thought with a start that he had heard Karin speak just that way to King Hadros, when the king's sons—or even he himself—had done something that angered the king.

  It appeared to be nearly as effective on the witch as it was on Hadros. “Maybe we should have tried raising up mortals instead,” it said, sounding slightly less weary. “You come and go so quickly it never seemed worthwhile, but maybe you would listen to wisdom.”

  Roric said to himself that he had no intention of listening to anyone, king or Wanderer, who wanted to tell him what to do, but he stayed silent, waiting to see what Karin would discover.

  “We have heard the stories, of course,” she said, “that before the Wanderers ruled earth and sky there was a reign of women who ruled with all the powers of voima. But do you mean that before them beings like you ruled? How long has this been happening?”

  “Long enough for us not only to give way but to change,” said the witch in a low tone. “I may be the only one left who still remembers how it was before the creation of the realms of voima and the separation of those who rule earth and sky into men and women. And I myself am not remembered, living here away from mortals and immortals alike, except of course for the dragon.”

  “I want to understand this,” said Karin slowly. Roric did too, and it still made no sense. “Before the Wanderers and the second force appeared, there used to be cycles of creatures of voima more like yourself. But what happened to all of you when fate ended your rule? You didn’t die? You changed instead?”

  “We changed as you say, Karin Kardan’s daughter. Even the other creatures of voima in the earth may not remember us anymore, though they remember the upheavals and the change. Many of us are built into the very foundations of the realms of voima, so that that land is made from the sleeping forms of its creators.”

  Karin said after a moment’s pause, “So the women of the second force are trying to use armed might to defeat the Wanderers, so they may replace them, they hope, forever this time. And the Wanderers hope to use death, which has never before entered immortal realms, to overcome the women, so that they themselves will not be replaced now or ever.”

  “And the Wanderers want mortals because we have access to Hel,” said Roric. “Maybe in that case we should try to help the second force instead.”

  The witch chuckled. “Oh, they would be happy to have you, Roric No-man’s son. Both sides are working out their plans in ways that involve mortals. This decision to use death will be the Wanderers’ second effort to ensure that they create their own succession, after their first effort resulted only in hollow men of which they are now trying to rid themselves.”

  Roric set his jaw, more determined than ever not to allow the one life he had to be diverted into some game played among the immortals.

  “But you see more clearly than any of them do,” said Karin. “What can they do, if neither side wants the other to rule at all, and yet neither side can triumph?”

  “If they asked me,” said the witch, “I would tell them. They could try once again uniting into one, as they were meant to do.”

  The witch went back then to tugging at the weaving, and although Karin tried a few more questions it either did not hear or did not want to answer. She and Roric retreated to the far side of the room and whispered. He did not know whether the witch could overhear them or not; the lords of voima had seemed to know less than he expected, and even this much older creature did not appe
ar omniscient. But if the witch could see all in its weaving and mirrors, then it did not matter if they whispered or shouted.

  “I do not,” said Karin, low and intense in his ear, “want to get involved in this quarrel among the immortals.”

  Roric was relieved to hear this; she had sounded so sympathetic that he had been afraid for a moment that she was going to propose trying to bring the sides back together. Even while they had headed north he had vaguely hoped there might be a way to solve the Wanderers’ problems and win a reward of boundless glory, but this all sounded beyond the capacities of mortals.

  “They have goals so much vaster than anything we can understand,” she continued, “that it would be best for us to stay with what we can influence and know.”

  Perversely, this echoing of his thoughts immediately made him think that there might be something even in mortal courage and strength that the lords of voima lacked, and that it would be the path of highest honor to fight beside them. But he dismissed this thought. He had no honor left anyway.

  “Would you like to stay here until he comes to visit me again?” asked the Witch.

  “He” meaning the Wanderer, Roric thought—her son? “How long will that be?” he asked. Whatever he and Karin did, it might be easier if the two kings had enough time to decide that both of them were dead and go home again. He had not come all this way to be meekly taken back in bonds with nothing accomplished.

  “It is hard to say in your mortal terms when he will come,” said the witch thoughtfully.

  “Then it may be a long while,” said Karin. “I think I have seen him once too often anyway. Is there a way to leave here without going by the dragon again?”

  “Oh, yes,” said the witch as though surprised. “I told you I only keep a fire at that end of my cave as a warning beacon. There is a tunnel that comes out at the bottom of the cliffs, quite near the sea. Men used sometimes to come there in boats and climb up to see me, to burn an offering or ask a question of fate. I am not sure they liked my answers as well as they expected!” with a chuckle.