Shade and Sorceress

by Catherine Egan

  “The difference,” said the tiger, and it stepped out of the wall and brushed against her, impossibly soft, “between captivity and freedom.”

  ~

  Hours passed, perhaps a day, or so it seemed to Eliza, before Rhianu returned with a lamp and lowered the rope ladder again. Eliza climbed out shakily, weak with hunger. She followed Rhianu through the maze of corridors and winding staircases to a room where an old, bent woman sat on the floor. She had no teeth and her gigantic eyes were so pale they appeared almost white.

  The woman gestured for Eliza to sit down on a mat in the middle of the room.

  “Are you the Oracle?” asked Eliza. “I need help.”

  The woman just gave her a toothless grin and shook her head. Eliza sat. The whole room was covered in brilliant frescoes. She recognized the story of the Making of Tian Di and the departure of the Ancients. The Ancients were depicted as red giants with planets or moons in their hands. The meaning of the other stories eluded her. An old man seated on a cloud had opened his mouth wide and dragons poured out of it. The dragons’ eyes were all scratched out. A radiant golden being gave a bright box to a smaller, fair-haired being all dressed in feathers. The fair-haired feather-wearers were in another story as well, within a winged palace, and this one caught her eye because across from them she recognized the Mancers inside a very accurate depiction of their Citadel. Between the winged palace and the Citadel, a girl in a black tunic fought a horde of monsters. Eliza’s heart gave a little jolt.

  The woman began to croon something now. She rose and walked circles around Eliza. A hole in the ground held a pile of herbs, which the woman lit on fire, and the room filled with sweet smoke. The woman took her injured arm and unwound the bandage. Eliza resisted at first, but the woman gave her a wild, angry stare and Eliza was too weary and frightened to do anything but relent. The bandage came off. She was unprepared for the sight of the scabbed, purple, mangled limb that hung useless at her side.

  “There was this hound,” she faltered, and her voice sounded distant and unfamiliar. Others were there now, many figures in black robes. They packed some kind of dark sludge against her arm, where it dried in moments. Somebody brought her food and she ate it. Somebody handed her a cup of cool water, and she drank it. They washed her face with a damp cloth, then painted it with oils. She submitted to everything, like a sleepy child being readied for bed. The room swam before her and she heard herself speaking in a language she didn’t know. She couldn’t understand her own words, didn’t know where they were coming from, but she knew she was describing the images that raced across her mind’s eye. She saw armies of Mancers, a gryphon soaring across blue skies, and herself in the snow, falling, her staff split in two. She saw a single tree in the desert, a river that flowed between the dark paws of some giant beast, a vast carved hall with a vaulted ceiling, a black shifting sky. The Faithful came in and out with candles and spoke and chanted. She was singing something now, a sad song that she knew had to do with her dead mother, her father. The Faithful took both her hands and held them still. She could feel the prick of the needle and tears ran down her face. Then they led her to another room with bare walls and a woven mat on the floor and laid her down. This time, she slept dreamlessly.

  When she woke up, her arm was bandaged again and both her hands were wrapped in black cloth. Alarmed, she tore the cloth from her hands with her teeth and saw that her palms had been tattooed. On her left palm was a black raven. On her right palm, a dagger, pointing towards her.

  ~

  Eliza ate in the same upper-story room with the rest of the Faithful, a bowl of something soft and bland and porridge-like. Then she followed Rhianu again down the stairs and the long corridor to the dark, empty room at the bottom of the Temple. Her heart clenched and she longed to refuse, to run away, to leave this place. But outside the walls were searching Mancers, and perhaps Charlie waiting to take her to the Arctic, and this was what she had asked for, this was what she had come for, this chance, and so she descended the rope ladder again. And again, she waited. She was hungry, she was thirsty. It was dark. She slept a little, but if she dreamed, she did not remember much. Rhianu came again, let her out. Shook her head. She ate and she slept, she came and went from the room, with no sense of time. The Temple bustled around her, the Faithful cleaning, chanting, singing, making candles, painting, cooking. She lay in the dark, at the bottom of this hive of activity, and she waited. The Oracle did not come.

  She was eating with the others when two Faithful came running to Rhianu, speaking to her in urgent voices. Rhianu rose and went with them out of the room. Another Faithful crossed over immediately and gestured for Eliza to follow her. Rather used to being bossed around wordlessly in this way by now, Eliza obeyed. The Faithful led her onto the outer balconies – it was the first time she had stepped outside of the Temple since arriving.

  “They’re here,” said the Faithful, removing the scarf over her face.

  There below were the Mancers. The dragons hulked behind their masters, scales glinting in the sun.

  Eliza jumped back towards the doorway before remembering she was covered from head to toe and thus well disguised. She looked sharply at the Faithful who had brought her here.

  “You speak Kallanese,” she said.

  “Aye,” came the reply. And the Faithful smiled.

  “Charlie?” asked Eliza.

  “No sign of Nell as yet,” he or she or it replied. “Cannay believe I got to you. Your guard there sticks to you fairly close.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  The brightly beaded old Faithful who had greeted her on her arrival and brought her into the Temple was speaking with the Mancers now.

  “That’s the High Priestess, aye,” said Charlie. “The Mancers cannay come in uninvited and she’ll only invite the female Mancers. They’ll agree to her terms. They’ll nay want to risk the anger of the Ancients by disrespecting one of their oldest Temples. Or the anger of the Faithful. They’ve got some fair magic of their own.”

  “Maybe they willnay tell them I’m here,” said Eliza, frantic. “I could hide.”

  “They already know you’re here,” said Charlie. “The Faithful cannay afford a conflict with the Mancers. They’re nay that powerful.”

  “Then we have to run for it, aye. Turn into a gryphon!”

  “And then dragon food. No thanks.”

  They could see the High Priestess bowing deeply and the Mancers bowing in return. Aysu and Anargul followed her up one of the stairways along the outside.

  “Then what are we going to do?” asked Eliza. At that moment, Rhianu appeared next to her and plucked at her sleeve. Her large eyes were urgent and she was holding Eliza’s satchel and staff.

  “Go with her,” said Charlie in a low voice. “I’ll keep an eye on the Mancers and create a distraction if we need one.”

  Eliza followed Rhianu around the catwalk to the opposite side of the Temple as the Mancers. As soon as they were out of the Mancers’ sightline they took one of the stairways down at a run. At the bottom of the stairs four of the Faithful were waiting with six donkeys. Eliza saw that her satchel was much fuller than before as Rhianu tied it expertly to a donkey’s back, along with Eliza’s staff. She placed a blanket over the load so the staff could not be seen and then helped Eliza climb onto the donkey in front of her baggage. Rhianu and the others mounted their donkeys and the little group headed out, straight past the three Mancers waiting outside the temple. Eliza’s heart began to pound and she dropped her head, like the others. Ka noticed the little group and stepped forward, speaking to Rhianu in the language of First Days. She responded in a high, calm voice. Eliza kept her head bowed, terrified that he would look at her closely and see her human eyes. But after some words Ka stepped aside and watched the little group continue on. Then he looked back at the Temple, as if uncertain.

  They descended into one of the gorges and continued along the bottom of it for close to an hour. Then the group stopped. Rhianu reache
d over and clasped Eliza’s left hand tightly, which made the fresh tattoo on her palm sting. Rhianu spoke, and the others began to turn around. Eliza understood that she was to keep going.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I wish you could understand me...but thank you.”

  Rhianu nodded and turned her donkey around. The Faithful headed back in the direction of the Temples and Eliza continued along the gorge. It joined up with the canyon Charlie had flown along three days earlier. It took her some time to find the narrow path leading up to where the cave had been. She untied her satchel and staff from the donkey one-handed, noticing with gratitude when she opened the bag up that Rhianu had filled it with parcels of food and a large gourd of water. Her own clothes were packed neatly at the bottom. She looked over the side of the cliff, and it struck her that the distance was about that of the cliffs in the south of Holburg to the water. She looked up, and against the reddish sky she saw the same thing she had seen that day with Nell, which seemed so long ago. But this time she knew what she was seeing.

  High overhead the Mancers’ dragons were circling.

  There was a grinding sound behind her. The cave, opening. She could not think of anything to do but duck inside.

  “Nell?” she called softly, crawling into the darkness, flesh and fur under her hand. The rock groaned shut behind her and the light disappeared.

  ~ Chapter 12 ~

  When the cave opened again Eliza was conscious only of a deep sense of peace. She knew, somehow, that all was well. Though terrible things had happened, were happening all the time, the wrongs would be righted and no lasting harm would come to anyone. She was safe, safer than she had ever been, in an embrace that took her back to her infancy. For the first time she thought she could remember her mother’s face, not just that odd, anxious-looking photograph she had given away, but her mother laughing and smiling at her.

  “Eliza.” Nell was bent over her. “It’s time to go.”

  There was a book next to her. Eliza picked it up. The Book of Barriers. It all came back to her then, where they were, and why. But the sense of well-being was slow to fade, and her fear still seemed a far-off thing.

  Slowly, sleepily, she gathered her belongings and followed Nell out onto the ledge. As soon as they stepped out of the cave a swallow pecking at the dust turned into Charlie Ash.

  “There you are, thank the Ancients!” he exclaimed, looking deeply relieved. Eliza wondered if he was relieved to find them all right or to have found his quarry. She felt a little pinch of sadness return.

  “Oh, he’s still here,” said Nell, her upper lip curling slightly. “I thought we’d lost him.”

  Charlie looked hurt.

  “You’re all right, aye,” said Eliza to Nell, looking her friend over.

  Nell nodded. “You too.”

  “Lah, everyone’s all right, that’s prize,” Charlie broke in crossly. “But the Mancers have been all over this place. They saw your donkey and came and looked around. They didnay find you, obviously. They’ve split up now, headed off in different directions.”

  “Where’s the donkey?” asked Eliza.

  “Headed home. And we need to do the same.”

  “But I didnay see the Oracle,” said Eliza. “You said you’d help me.”

  “He did?” asked Nell incredulously.

  “That’s not exactly what I said,” said Charlie. “If you didnay see her, it’s either because she’s nay there or she didnay want to see you. There’s not much else you can do.”

  “What Oracle?” asked Nell.

  Eliza gave her a highly abbreviated version of the events since they had arrived in Tian Xia, and then turned to Charlie pleadingly: “Lah, you said...I mean, the Triumvira is three beings, nay? Cannay we try to talk to the other two?”

  “No,” said Charlie plainly. “The second member is the King of the Faeries. But he’ll be in the Realm of the Faeries in the west and we cannay go there. And no one knows for sure who the third being is.”

  “Why cannay we go to the Realm of the Faeries?” asked Nell, who had lit up at the mention of it.

  “Believe me, messing with Faeries is a sure way to get us all killed, aye,” said Charlie. “The Oracle really was your only chance. I think you can take her non-appearance in the temple as a no.”

  “I’ll take a no as a no,” said Eliza stubbornly. “You said she might not be there. So where else could she be?”

  “It’s a big world, aye,” said Charlie with a helpless shrug. “Short of going to the Hall of the Ancients to summon the Triumvira, there’s really no way of tracking them down. Unless you want to go back to the Citadel and steal the Vindensphere. And obviously that’s nay going to work out. I mean, I’m certainly nay going back there...”

  “Wait, wait, what did you say about this hall, and summoning? What do you mean?”

  Charlie gave her a deadpan look. “Great beings can be summoned from the Hall of the Ancients in the Irahok mountains,” he said, pointing north. “But you have to know how to summon. That means Magic, aye. Which, if I’m remembering right, none of us can do.”

  “Charlie, please!” Eliza begged. “Take me there. Just let me try.”

  Charlie squinted at the faded mountains on the horizon. “It’s only about a day if we fly the whole way,” he said. “But out in the open like that, the Mancers would find us in no time. I should really just get you to the Arctic. She’ll be furious as it is, that I’m wasting so much time.”

  “Lah, think of it this way,” said Nell swiftly. “The Xia Sorceress cannay see us. She’ll nay know what we’re doing. A day or so extra is nay going to make any difference. But if the Mancers happen to catch us, things will go a whole lot better for you if we tell them you were trying to help us. Who do you think they’d deal with more kindly: a spy who kidnaps Eliza to take her to the Xia Sorceress, or a spy who is just going along with Eliza’s plan to save her da?”

  Charlie considered this. “I cannay say I think much of your chances,” he said at last. “All right – you try to summon, but after that, no more time-wasting. Straight to the Arctic, lah!”

  “Absolutely,” Eliza agreed, heaving a great sigh of relief. Nell looked triumphant.

  “We cannay fly across the plains though,” Charlie continued. “Too dangerous. We’ll go over the forest, keeping low. We’ll be less visible that way, and it’ll take us to the Dead Marsh. The Mancers willnay follow us there.”

  “Why will the Mancers nay...?” Nell started to ask, but at that moment Charlie turned into a gryphon, looking at them over his vicious beak with sharp eagle’s eyes, his enormous wings stretching and flexing. Nell closed her mouth again, astonished. Eliza made sure that her staff was properly tied onto her satchel and then climbed onto the gryphon’s broad back, digging her hands in where the golden fur mingled with soft white feathers. She realized suddenly that she was doing everything with both hands, both arms. The pain in her right arm was gone completely. She tore off the bandages. The lacerated flesh was smooth and whole again. She looked back at the cave with wonder and gratitude.

  Nell climbed onto the gryphon’s back behind Eliza. Once they were both settled comfortably on his back and holding on tight, the gryphon leaped from the cliff and swooped down into the canyon. Nell had been unconscious and Eliza had been terrified the last time they had ridden Charlie in his gryphon form, but with no Mancers in view they were filled with a wild elation. Soaring over the forest with the wind in their faces, they had never felt so free, so brave. The gryphon flew until, looking over their shoulders, they could no longer see the Temples or the black cliffs surrounding the lake of the Crossing. Only the Ravening Forest stretched to the horizon on every side, like a dark ocean. He flew so low over the treetops that now and again leaves scraped against his legs and belly and Nell and Eliza could hear the sound of small branches breaking.

  The initial thrill of flight wore off quickly, though. They grew weary and cold and uncomfortable on the tireless gryphon’s back, unable to change position
or relax their grip.

  “Cannay we land?” Nell shouted, struggling to make herself heard over the rush of the wind and the pounding of the gryphon’s wings. “We could rest in the forest a while. I’m hungry!”

  Eliza didn’t want to go back into the forest, but she too felt that she wouldn’t be able to hang on much longer. The gryphon showed no sign of having heard Nell’s request. He pumped his wings rhythmically.

  “Look!” Eliza spotted two specks off to their left, high in the sepia-toned sky.

  “Maybe just birds?” suggested Nell hopefully.

  But the specks were veering in their direction now, and they glinted gold.

  “It’s them,” said Eliza.

  Without warning, the gryphon dove down among the trees. The girls clung to his back, clutching fur and feathers, gripping with their knees, screaming. He dropped like a stone between the trees, crashing through vines and branches that tore under his weight. And yet he landed light as a feather on the damp, mossy ground. He became immediately the yellow-eyed wolf that had taken them through the forest the last time, causing the two girls to tumble off his back onto the spongy moss. He regarded Eliza fiercely.

  “Lah, you’re right – we cannay stay in the air,” said Eliza. “We need the tree cover.”

  “Can we take a break?” asked Nell.

  “Nay,” said Eliza, though she longed for one too. “They might have seen us. We cannay stay here.”

  So they climbed on his back again and he began to lope through the forest. The odd tree wraith tumbled down at them, whispering, but they were moving too fast to get swarmed. Riding the wolf was far more difficult than riding the gryphon. The gryphon’s flight had been smooth, even if they grew uncomfortable in their positions. As a wolf, leaping over great roots and dodging among the trees, he was a far less stable ride. They clung to the fur on his back, bending right over him for balance, almost knocked off with every sudden turn or hard landing. Soon their muscles were crying out from tension.