by Hugh Cook
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
The trio were supposed to leave Selzirk at noon, travelling by ship down the Velvet River to Androlmarphos, and from there by sea to the Castle of Controlling Power. However, Hearst doubted that they would survive such a journey. Even if Farfalla did not plot against them, their wealth – the red and green bottles and the death-stone – would tempt their guides and escorts beyond endurance.
Accordingly, Blackwood, Hearst and Miphon left Selzirk before dawn, setting out along the Salt Road on fast horses. Hearst had decided that, if they were pursued, he would not hesitate to use the death-stone; he hoped he would not be put to that necessity.
Hearst was deeply troubled by his new insights into the past; Miphon, for his part, was already beginning to worry about the delicate task of diplomacy that would face him at the Castle of Controlling Power, when he would have to introduce a Rovac warrior to the Confederation of Wizards.
But Blackwood travelled with a light heart, for, thanks to Miphon, he no longer saw visions. He had been released from the weight of an intolerable burden: he was free. Free for what? He had not yet decided: for the moment he was content to travel the Salt Road under the summer sun. Occasionally he thought of other places, other times: but it was over a year since they had first marched from Castle Vaunting, leaving it in the grip of a mad-jewel; the memories of the past were fading, and Blackwood faced the future.
Blackwood carried a fine Selzirk bow and a quiver of arrows; when they camped at evening, he set up a target and practised, sending the arrows singing home. If they sheltered in a village, Blackwood negotiated to secure food and lodgings; if they met travellers on the road, he hailed them, and passed the time of day with them for a while, exchanging information about conditions on the road.
Miphon and Hearst, busy with their own thoughts, were happy to let Blackwood handle these responsibilities. They had every confidence in him. For Blackwood, much had changed since he first left Estar: the greatest change was that he could now inspire confidence in a wizard of the order of Nin and a warrior of Rovac.
And so they travelled south, through the Harvest Plains to Veda.
***
Veda's battlements, blood red, towered into the sky, suggesting a monument to evil. But inside, all was peace: windowless corridors of luminous milky white, curving away in smooth arcs, led to libraries, sleeping quarters, meditation chambers and study rooms. The corridors were warm; asking about the warmth, the travellers were told that Veda fed upon heat from deep underground.
The varied wonders of Veda made little impression on the travellers, who were by now prepared to take anything in their stride; Veda would only have surprised them if it had turned out to be commonplace. Besides, Veda's greatest treasures were works of art, which none of the three had much of an eye for.
Morgan Hearst could appraise the approximate value of a piece of gold or jewellery, or tell a fine weapon at a glance, but hardly noticed Veda's artworks. Blackwood liked tapestries showing people and animals, and Miphon liked landscape paintings, but there was nothing like that in Veda. There was Aromsky's sculpture in bronze: The Ethical Structure of the Universe. There was the anonymous ivory called The Seven Spheres of Space and Time. There was Kere-mansky's Temptation of Zero by Infinity. The travellers, when they noticed these masterpieces at all, thought them cold, alien, ugly, uninviting.
Life in Veda itself was strange. All work was done by the Secular Arm, an organisation dominated by military and mercantile considerations. The Secular Arm would recruit anyone and anything that could stand on two legs; for administrative convenience it used the Galish Trading Tongue.
The sages of Veda, who spoke a language almost identical to the High Speech of wizards, lived lives of meditation, prayer and study. The travellers, regarding Veda only as a waystation, did not attempt to study the sages, but did try and bargain with them for a bodyguard. Hearst, remembering how they had been picked out by Erhed on first entering Selzirk, wanted armed protection for the journey through the Rice Empire.
Miphon, negotiating with the head of the Secular Arm, took the trouble of reading the man's mind. He had given up doing this without excellent cause: he had swiftly grown profoundly tired of the murky hatred, jealousy, lust, envy, deceit, self-pity, cowardice, greed, treachery and self-delusion dominating so many human minds. He was pleased to find that the head of the Secular Arm was an honourable man who would keep to the bargain they had made.
The bargain was that Miphon would heal all illnesses that were brought to him within the next ten days – Miphon demonstrated his skills by healing the headman's haemorrhoids – then the Secular Arm would provide a bodyguard of two hundred troops to see the expedition through the Rice Empire, plus papers certifying that they constituted an embassy from Veda travelling to Provincial Endergeneer.
Day after day, while Miphon saw long lines of people, Hearst practised with his sword, continuing the training Farfalla had started him on. Meanwhile Blackwood went hunting in the surrounding countryside, riding out each day with horse and falcon.
Miphon found his labours exhausting yet exhilarating. Nothing defeated the sleeping secrets. He destroyed the most stubborn infections; he made limbs regenerate; he healed injuries to the brain. Often before, working with needle and thread, sulphur and mercury, cloves and laudanum, he had found himself helpless in the face of trauma or disease. But not now!
The day they were to leave, they were invited to an audience with the Grand Master of Veda – an unusual honour, to say the least, as many of the sages themselves never got to see that worthy. They went with some trepidation; ushered into the Presence, Miphon immediately scanned the Grand Master's mind for evil intent. He was reassured by what he found.
'Greetings,' said the Grand Master.
His tone was grave and formal. That, together with the man's tranquility in repose, reminded Blackwood very much of the Melski. He remembered the day – it seemed very long ago – when he had last met with Hor-hor-hurulg-murg. Being reminded of the Melski brought back painful memories.
'Greetings,' said Miphon, using the High Speech.
Following custom, they then drank mint tea and talked at length about nothing in particular (falconry, the herbal teas of the Ravlish Lands, the comparative merits of the stave bow and the composite bow, rumours about the politics of the Chenameg Kingdom, the trade in sponges and keflo shells, the possible extent of the domination of dragons in the heartland of Argan), and then the Grand Master broached the subject which really interested him: 'Often people become legends in their own time,' said the Grand Master, 'but usually because of a trick of perspective which conjures a mortal man to the stature of a giant. I've met several living legends, but none have impressed me – till now.'
'Many songs praise us, up and down the Salt Road,' said Hearst, 'but a song sings for pleasure, not for truth.'
'One is always wary of rumour,' said the Grand Master, 'but these last ten days have seen miracles happening under my own roof. By miracle, of course, I mean an anomaly for which I have no explanation.'
'All magic is anomalous,' said Miphon. 'Wizards work by producing and controlling an anomaly in the natural order of things.' i know that,' said the Grand Master. 'As does the least of my students. However, I had thought I knew the limits of this power to… to generate anomaly.'
'So your horizons now widen,' said Miphon. indeed. We've always thought only limited power could be achieved by generating anomalies, so we've strived instead to exploit the natural lines of force which support the universe.'
'So I've heard,' said Miphon. 'But your mysteries are beyond me.' i won't try and explain then,' said the Grand Master. 'Suffice it to say that in our days of glory, before the destruction caused by the Long War, we had begun to control both the animate and the inanimate. The legends telling of sages mastering dragons are true. And as for the inamimate, investigation into the force-lines of the universe had shown us that even the air itself holds a potential for power. Before the Long War,
we attempted to extract and control that potential: our efforts generated tremendous thunderstorms, killing many of the experimenters, but we thought our chances of ultimate success were good.'
'So?' said Miphon.
'So here we are, four thousand years after the Long War, only just beginning to recover the power of ages past. It occurs to me that an alliance between the two kinds of power, that to exploit anomalies and that to ex ploit the natural structure of the universe, would open up possibilities that we can only guess at.'
'I will give it my consideration,' said Miphon politely.
Everyone in the room knew that was tantamount to a refusal.
'Don't let the old, old legends about the Days of Wrath influence your thinking. Some say wizards give credence to those legends, but I think of them more as fables than as history.* i will most certainly give the matter my earnest consideration,' said Miphon. 'My way lies south, as you know; mature reflection may, perhaps, convince me to return.'
'As you will.' said the Grand Master.
Again Miphon checked to see no evil was being plotted against the travellers: again he was satisfied. The travellers bowed and left the Presence, returning to their quarters to complete their packing. Shortly after they were finished, a messenger boy called to lead them to the southern gate of Veda, where their convoy had assembled.
Miphon, still unsettled by the meeting with the Grand Master, scanned the messenger boy's mind to reassure himself that, again, everything was in order. As they followed the boy through the luminous tunnel-maze of curving corridors, Miphon pleased himself with the thought that his ability to mind-read, and to alter minds where appropriate, gave him perfect pro: tection against attack.
He was just thinking this when the ambush was sprung.
***
Miphon woke. He heard footsteps. But that was ridiculous. He was in the green bottle, wasn't he? He glanced at the green glowing walls. Yes, he was definitely in the green bottle. In the confusion of the ambush, finding no magic of his would work, Miphon had turned the ring on his finger to take him into the green bottle. Nobody could have followed him.
Yet he was certain he had heard footsteps.
What could it be then?
Darkly, Miphon imagined hideous evil slouching out from the murky depths of the bottle which he had never dared explore. He clawed for a sword. Hast was that blade. Miphon had snatched the sword Hast even as Hearst, clubbed from behind, had fallen toward the ground.
Again,' footsteps.
And voices, yes: a mutter, a curse, a short laugh, a hissed order silencing someone. Intruders were coming down the stairs. This was no menace from the depths of the bottle: this was invaders from without. Miphon gripped the sword tighter.
His enemies came in sight: grinning soldiers dressed and armed like men of the Secular Arm of Veda. But that was impossible! Miphon had scanned the minds of the headman of the Secular Arm, the Grand Master, and even the messenger boy. Everything had been in order.
'Ho, Mister Wizard,' cried one of the men. 'What's with the sword? Curing pox the sharp way, are we?'
'Keep back!' said Miphon, menacing him. Then: 'How did you get in here?'
'The same way you get up your own bum,' said the man. 'By magic, hey. Now throw down your blade, pox doctor, before your arse has an accident.'
There were five of them. Strong, bold and aggressive. Hearst's sword was clumsy in Miphon's hand. Before they could close with him, he tucked the sword under his arm – and turned the ring on his finger.
A moment of darkness as Miphon was swept out of the green bottle. A moment of disorientation as he arrived without. Then he took stock of his surround- ings: a large egg-shaped chamber with luminous white walls. In it stood a dozen members of the Secular Arm.
'Good morning, Mister Wizard,' said a man, in Estral. Then, switching from Estar's language to the Galish Trading Tongue: 'Bare blades are bad manners. Didn't you know?'
The stranger had thin lips, set in a line of self-satisfaction. Sharp, hard little eyes. A narrow nose. A narrow face, hard bones showing through the skin.
'Don't you recognise me? I'm Durnwold's brother.'
'Valarkin!' said Miphon.
Given the chance, Miphon would have destroyed him without hesitation. But, as when he had confronted Heenmor's snake in Stronghold Handfast, he found none of his magic worked.
'You shouldn't have found me so hard to remember,' chided Valarkin. it's scarcely a year since we parted at the Araconch Waters. Still, your gift compensates for your manners.'
'Gift?' said Miphon, blankly.
'This!' said Valarkin.
He unravelled a length of cloth. Something fell to the floor. The death-stone! Miphon charged forward, roaring. A fighting man lept forward to intercept him. Another thrust a spear-butt between Miphon's ankles. Miphon tripped and went down. His sword was kicked away, and he was seized in a hammerlock.
Valarkin smiled, wrapped up the death-stone, tucked it away carefully, picked up the green bottle, then relieved Miphon of a ring. Valarkin now had both of the rings which commanded the green bottle. He backed out of the egg-shaped chamber. On a signal, Miphon was released; Valarkin's men exited the chamber. Valarkin remained at the entrance, smiling.
'You'll be smiling out of your arse soon,' said Miphon savagely. 'The Grand Master will kill you for this.'
'He'll never hear of it. My organisation's entirely 456 watertight. I've found some good people in the short time I've been here. We had all kinds of plans – we were going to take over all of Veda in a few years. But now you've happened along, we've decided to take over the world instead.' 'You're mad,' said Miphon.
'But very efficient,' said Valarkin, grinning, i've got the death-stone, and I've taken Hearst and Blackwood prisoner. One of you must know the spell for working the death-stone.'
Miphon remembered struggling with Ebonair, the wizard of Ebber, at Selzirk. He recalled the injunction which had thwarted the power of the sleeping secrets: Segenarith. What would happen if Valarkin held the death-stone and proclaimed that injunction? Perhaps nothing – or perhaps the experiment would kill him.
'I'll tell you how to command the death-stone,' said Miphon. The Word is Segenarith.' is it?' said Valarkin.
'On my honour.'
'On a pox doctor's honour, hey? Well, I'll check. I'll ask Hearst for the right word.' 'And if he won't tell you?'
'I'll persuade him. I've got plenty of time. After all, nobody's going to come looking for you. Nobody even suspects the existence of my organisation.'
'We were supposed to join the convoy. The headman of the Secular Arm was waiting for us.'
'Ah yes, so he was. And now you've failed to turn up. So what's happened? Maybe you've grown wings and flown away through the air. Or become invisible and walked off down the Salt Road. Or found one of the old chasm gates the legends speak of. Who knows? All we know is that our guests have power enough to defeat wizards, warriors, armies, dragons, wilderness. So why fear for your safety? The very idea would be ridiculous. Nobody's going to search for you, least of all in here.' i can command minds at a distance,' said Miphon.
'Can you?' said Valarkin. 'Not from here you can't.'
Miphon snatched up the sword Hast and attacked Valarkin, aiming to hack off his head.
But at the mouth of the egg-shaped chamber, Miphon was halted abruptly by what felt like a huge spider-web. It was flexible but as strong as steel. He slashed at the invisible barrier with the sword – encountering no resistance. The invisible net did not restrain steel, but Miphon himself could not pass through.
'Interesting, isn't it?' said Valarkin. 'Back in the days of the Long War, sages came to distrust wizards. Places such as this were built in Veda, refuges proof against magic. No magic works here. Furthermore, no wizard can enter this place.'
'I'm here!'
'You were carried here while you were in the green bottle, thinking yourself safe.' So he was trapped.
Was there any point in throwing the swor
d Hast at Valarkin? He might miss. Besides, even if he killed Valarkin, Valarkin's followers would retrieve all the artefacts of power from the corpse, and Miphon would still be trapped. Only suicide could protect the secret of commanding the death-stone.
'I'm going to see if Hearst confirms your version of how to command the death-stone,' said Valarkin. T will be back. You can be sure of that. Meanwhile, I guarantee you won't be disturbed. This place lies far underground, far from Veda's life and work.'
Valarkin bowed, mocking his prisoner with an excess of courtesy, and left with his men. They were soon out of sight, lost to view round the curve of the luminous white tunnel which was the only way to and from the egg-shaped chamber where Miphon was imprisoned.
Miphon hefted Hast in his hand. He tested the sharpness of the blade. It could be done quickly – but it would hurt. Oh yes, it would hurt. He remembered the pain when the wizard Ebonair had ripped his flesh open in the struggle at Selzirk. It is hard enough to take a wound in the heat of battle, when the blood seethes with adrenalin, but harder still to administer a mortal wound in the tranquility of solitude. Yet Hearst would have done it.
Not for the first time, Miphon remembered how he had stumbled and bungled in the green bottle after Comedo had trapped him behind the portcullis. It had taken him days to escape, even when he had the means of escape in his hands. Now, if he killed himself, he might be overlooking some obvious way of escape that a common-sense man like Hearst would have seen immediately.
Miphon studied the smooth, glowing white surface of the egg. Would it yield to the sword? A few blows proved the wall unyielding. Would spells command it? Miphon tried three Spells of Opening, with no success; the architecture of sages refused the commands of wizards. There was no way through the walls.
That left the doorway, blocked only by an invisible spiderweb. Material things such as swords could pass through it. And, as Miphon had seen, it did not impede men. Only wizards. Miphon pressed against it and shouted the Ultimate Injunction.
