Kyreth rose to his feet and began the Old Greetings but the King of the Faeries interrupted him, ignoring the formalities.
“I am not well pleased to be called into this world by you as if I were your dog,” he said, his voice ringing with anger. “That child is not my concern, she is yours. I agreed to fight with you when Nia poses a threat. I did not agree to be troubled for that nuisance of a girl who stabbed me in the foot. You ask too much.”
The Mancers bristled at his rudeness.
“Your Majesty,” said Kyreth carefully, “your behavior is uncalled for. You show a lack of trust with your hounds. Will you not now greet me as an equal?”
“Are you my equal?” demanded the King of the Faeries. “Are you sure of that? Enough. I’ve come to the coldest region of your blasted and forsaken world and my presence seems to me more than courtesy enough.”
Kyreth could feel the Emissariae tense with fury behind him but he controlled his own anger. It would not do to take the bait and quarrel with this ill-mannered King who had no respect for the old conventions. He had insulted the Mancers and they would not forget it, but for now they could not achieve their task without his help.
“The child is within Nia’s web of Illusion,” said Kyreth.
“Go and get her, then!” cried the King. “You’re powerful Mancers; why don’t you rescue your precious brat? What has it to do with me?”
The Emissariae were poised for combat, certain that Kyreth would not endure this any longer. Their terrible eyes met those of the Faeries across from them, who smiled faintly, mockingly.
“You wish to provoke me,” said Kyreth in a low rumble, devoid of anger. “But I will not be provoked today, Your Majesty. I do not need to remind you of the power of the Mancers. Nor do I need to explain to you that we cannot enter the Sorceress’s Illusion. You know this. However, the blood in your veins renders you immune. Illusion cannot hold you.”
“Oh, forsake the Ancients!” cried the King of the Faeries. “I’m not going in there! Are you mad?”
“It must be you, for only you can succeed in this task. No other Faery can stand in for you.”
“And even if I did agree to go in there, what by the Ancients could I do? You can’t expect me to just saunter in and snatch the brat and walk out again?”
“Strike a bargain.”
“What am I supposed to offer?”
“We recommend a threat.”
“Threaten her with what? What in the worlds can we do to her that we haven’t already done?”
A barrier leaped up between the King of the Faeries and his cohort. Taken by surprise, they pushed against it to no avail and looked to their King for his command.
“Her immortality depends on yours,” said Kyreth softly. The King stepped forward, livid.
“How dare you?” he hissed. “How dare you? Do you wish an outright war with the Faeries?”
“It is best that she feel your fear,” said Kyreth.
The King of the Faeries glared at the Supreme Mancer. He longed to hurl Curses at him, to sweep him up in a nightmare of Illusion, but he knew when he was beaten. Nia, if she were free, would seek revenge. He could not keep her at bay with Illusion – not so long as she wore his blood around her neck. She could not kill him, of course, but she would come for him nonetheless and she would be full of ideas to make him pay. Though he held the Mancers in contempt, he could not ignore those who imprisoned her. He struggled to master his rage. The task they put before him was foolish, dangerous, and he was angered by their bullying tactics, but he had no choice. He would have to face his one-time wife, the only being he had ever truly loved.
~
On the other side of the wall from where Eliza stood there was a struggle of some kind. Eliza felt it deep inside of her: the ferocious onslaught and the desperate, determined resistance. Then it ceased. Feeling the Sorceress’s exhaustion, she seized the moment.
“This is pathetic!” she said loudly, turning towards her father and speaking Kallanese. He had been watching the disturbing play of light and dark on the floor that was Charlie and startled when she spoke. “I thought she was so powerful but this room doesnay even have anything in it! She told me the Mancers were unimaginative, like she was so special compared to them, aye, but anybody could do something better than this. She couldnay even keep that city going for long.”
Rom Tok gaped at her in bewildered horror. She could feel Nia’s outrage surging up within her. The room became glass, and then it shattered. A hand caught Eliza by the throat and dragged her choking to her feet. The broken glass became water. They were standing in the middle of a still grey ocean that stretched to the horizon on every side. Rom Tok, the general and the group of celebrities were all splashing in the water and gasping for breath. Even held by the throat in the midst of her fear and shock Eliza could see that Nia looked ragged and gaunt. She had to press the closest thing she was likely to get to an advantage.
“You look terrible,” she croaked, and Nia dropped her. She sucked in a great lungful of air before she hit the water. It was so cold that for a moment she couldn’t breathe at all. She saw Nia still standing on the water and undoing the locket. Eliza made a feeble lunge in her direction but she could barely move to keep herself afloat. Nia looked in her little mirror and became once again youthful and dazzling. She cast a hateful look at Eliza splashing helplessly at her feet, then turned and walked away across the water. As she did so, Eliza saw that a hazy whiteness was forming at the edges of the grey water. The Illusion was simple by necessity, and Nia could not maintain it. She was tired, she was flagging, and Eliza could not give up, could not give her time to regroup. She tried to shout something but couldn’t catch her breath. Nia had noticed the whiteness closing in as well and glanced back sharply to see if her victims had seen it. It’s only water, Eliza thought fiercely. It’s no better than the room. It doesnay take any talent. She tried to throw her thoughts towards Nia and Nia clearly caught them because she came back towards Eliza, skipping over the water, and said nastily, “If you really want something special, just ask, Smidgen.”
A great slithery black back surged through the water towards them. Eliza looked on, horrified and unable to act, as a great fanged head emerged and snatched the blond actor, dragging him down.
“Stop!” cried Eliza, finding her voice. She struck out towards the creature. The water was colder than anything she had experienced before but she was a strong swimmer. The thing surged up again, heading for the contortionist, who began to scream. Eliza got there first and lunged straight into the creature. It melted to sludge in her grasp. Nia laughed. For one dizzying moment Eliza saw only snow before the scene flickered and changed. She was in a small room in front of a fireplace, alone. The warmth and charm of the room after the cold water was tantalizing but she squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting the Illusion to take hold of her. Nia was tired and all this was barely held together.
“Da!” she shouted, reaching, and she felt his hand in hers. There was a tug deep inside her: This way, this way, it seemed to say. Hope poured through her. The walls were weak; they would find their way out. She plunged in the direction she knew they had to go, her father with her. She heard him cry out and knew from the sudden blistering heat that she was taking them into the fireplace. She didn’t hesitate but leaped through the fire, through the wall.
It was like going through a mirror. Eliza and her father came crashing through the fireplace into an identical room, but this time there was a woman sitting with her back against the opposite wall, staring at them. She had deep hollows under her eyes and pale, sunken cheeks. Rom Tok made a slight choking sound. Eliza recognized the woman too.
It was her mother.
Eliza’s knees went weak and she sank to the floor. She watched as if in a dream as Rom Tok ran to her side and caught her up in his arms, shouting, “Rea!”
Rea struggled free of his embrace. Her face was a mask of horror. She looked from Eliza to Rom and back again, then said in a faint voice, “Who are yo
u?”
~ Chapter 20 ~
Eliza sat numbly on the floor and watched her father kneeling next to this woman so like the photograph of her mother that she had given away. Tears poured down his cheeks and his voice cracked as he spoke.
“Look at me, Rea! What’s happened to you? Oh, I thought you were dead all these years, I thought I’d lost you. Thought I’d lost you. Look, look, it’s Eliza, your daughter. We’re here, we’re all here, my Rea. Why won’t you talk to me? What’s been done to you?”
Rea sat hunched against the wall, flinching away from his touch. Her eyes were wide with terror. She looked at Eliza once or twice with the same frightened, unhappy expression. There was no flicker of recognition on her face. Like the room she’d found her father in, Eliza felt her heart turn to glass, and break, and become ice water. Her mother had only ever been half-real to her. There was no doubt this was she, but most of her, Eliza knew, had been sucked out. Nia had told Eliza that she wanted all she was, her power, her very self. With a rush of cold horror, she understood now that the struggle she had felt going on behind that wall had been going on for ten years. Nia had not simply killed her mother. She was absorbing her, devouring her, piece by piece. This woman on the floor had no memory of her life before. She barely had the strength to stand. There was almost nothing left of her. And yet...Eliza had felt the force of her resistance, how hard she clung to what little she had left.
“You’re scaring her, Da!” Eliza shouted suddenly. Rom stopped talking, letting go of his wife’s hand. Rea drew the hand to her breast and cradled it in her other hand, as if it were injured.
“She doesn’t remember us,” said Eliza, trying ferociously not to cry. Her words came out more bitterly angry than she intended. “Don’t you see? She’s got no power left, nor memories, nor anything.” She looked at Rea, who stared back at her with fearful eyes. She spoke to her in Kallanese, unsure if she knew the Sorma dialect: “Do you even know who you are?”
Something like defiance crept into her mother’s expression. Still clutching the hand Rom had tried to hold, she stuck her chin out and said, “Rea.” Then she looked down at the floor.
Rom stayed silent, and Eliza said more gently, “We’re your friends, aye. We’re here to help you.”
Rea shook her head, still looking at the floor.
“Can you stand up?” asked Eliza.
Rea shook her head again.
“Do you know how long you’ve been here?”
“Always,” whispered Rea.
Unable to hold his tongue any longer, Rom burst out, “If you’d always been here, how could you be Rea? You were powerful once, and happy. I was your husband. We have a daughter, Eliza. You must remember! You must!”
She cringed away from him again.
“Ma,” said Eliza, but the word sounded too strange and she couldn’t continue.
She felt Nia enter the room. Rea flattened herself against the wall with a hoarse gasp of fear. Instinctively Rom and Eliza leaped to their feet and stood between the Sorceress and Rea.
“Eliza, you marvelous girl!” said Nia warmly. Eliza fought an inexplicable desire to go to her, to lose herself in Nia’s embrace. “You are much cleverer than I’d given you credit for. People are such disappointments, usually, that it’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised. And now you’ve managed a little family reunion, which is charming, really.”
With a strangled cry of fury, Rom charged at Nia. The white tiger leaped from nowhere to meet him, knocking him back and pinning him to the ground with a snarl.
“STOP!” shouted Eliza, and to her surprise, everybody did.
There was a pause, and then Nia said, “I almost feel sorry that I’m going to drain you dry, because I do think you’d make a fantastic Sorceress if you had a little more time. Your raw power would probably be about average, but you’re sharp and you’re passionate and that goes a long way. It comes down to character in the end, doesn’t it? Never mind – I’ll be a triply fantastic Sorceress, so it all balances out.”
“That’s what you’ve done to her. You’ve been doing it for years.”
Nia peered around Eliza at Rea with a little frown. “Exactly, my clever Smidgen. You know, it’s brilliant of me to have thought of it. Anyone would tell you it’s impossible, but you see we are so connected anyway, there is something in us that tries to draw us back together, and that’s what I’ve put to use. Unfortunately it’s taking much longer than I expected to strip away the deepest, most fundamental aspects of selfhood and in particular the will to live. It’s a tricky business, and she fights me so, even when there’s so little left of her that I don’t see the point. What is she trying to protect now, I wonder? She has no power left. She doesn’t even have the physical strength of a regular human being. She can’t stand, let alone walk. She doesn’t remember anything at all, except her name, as you discovered. But still she clings to life and self. I wonder if you’ll be like that, too, Smidgen. It’s a fascinating sort of experiment into the nature of self, really, isn’t it?”
“And that’s what you want me for. Nay the Book of Barriers.”
“Well, the book may prove useful too. You never know.” She looked at Rea again, and Eliza shifted to block her view.
“It’s not as if I enjoy hurting her,” said Nia a bit petulantly. “I’m very fond of her and it’s quite depressing to see her like this. She’s the worthiest opponent I’ve ever had. And now that I’ve got all her memories I feel even closer to her. What a hideously fussy baby you were, by the way. Cry cry cry all the time, very demanding, always squalling about this or that. I just can’t understand why she was so attached to you. Babies are horrid. Somebody should just go around and get rid of them all. At least the Cra are useful in that respect. Now, it’s been quite a day, and I’m going to have a little rest, but is there anything you’d like? Ice cream? Chocolate? You could all have some goodies and watch tv or something. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Eliza tried to clear her head. If Nia was going to give them time they should make use of it. They might be able to plot an escape, and if they failed, it was the only time they would have left together, as a family.
“I think we could all use something to eat,” she said stiffly. “And a chess board.”
~
Nia slept on the divan with her eyes open and the tiger lay before the fire watchfully while Rom, Rea, and Eliza ate together for the first time in a decade. The Sorceress did not skimp on the meal, providing a varied and hearty buffet. Rom tried to explain things to Rea, her life before, their life together, his eyes quite wild with hope and with an old grief made new. His intensity alarmed Rea and depressed Eliza, and eventually he gave up and fell silent, cutting Rea’s food into small bite-size pieces for her and then spooning bits of soup and jelly into her mouth when it became clear she wasn’t able to stomach anything more substantial. Eliza ate as much as she could, which was not very much, and watched her parents, each of them lost in their own inner worlds. Rom lifted a cup of water to Rea’s lips and she drank. He wiped her mouth afterwards as if she was a child. When the meal was done he took her hand, and this time she let him.
When she was sure that Nia was asleep in spite of her open eyes, Eliza made another attempt to pass through the walls as Rom and Rea looked on. She shut her eyes and tried to follow her instincts but each time she walked into a perfectly solid wall. Whatever momentum she had briefly gained was gone, and Nia, even asleep, had the upper hand again. The tiger watched her with an expression she could have sworn was amusement.
She and her father spoke in hushed voices, going over what they knew about Illusion, which amounted to very little. Rea half-listened, though they were speaking in the Sorma dialect, looking back and forth between them and sometimes drifting off to sleep. When this happened, her head would sink to her chest then jerk back up and she would wake herself with a sharp little cry. Then Rom and Eliza would try to comfort her and tell her she was dreaming, and she would look at them as if they were the
dream and whatever horrors she had just woken from far realer than them.
“If we’re going to get out of here we need to do something now, while she’s sleeping,” said Rom. “And we can’t break the Illusion while she’s alive.” He looked at Eliza fiercely. “Give me that dragon claw.”
“What?” asked Eliza, startled. “No, Da, it won’t work.”
“I’ll drive it right through her heart,” he said.
“She’s immortal,” Eliza reminded him. “You’ll just make her mad, and then she’ll probably kill you. She doesn’t have any reason to keep you around. If anyone is going to do something risky, it should be me. If she wants to...use me up, then she won’t want me dead. I mean, not right away.”
Rom gave a pained grimace. “All right, how about the pendant she’s wearing? Or that vial, looks like she’s got bottled light in there. They have to be enchanted, power sources or some such thing. Can we get them off her?”
“The pendant is something to do with her immortality,” said Eliza. “I don’t know if...” She broke off. The white tiger was circling the table, a low growl in its throat. It bared its great teeth at them. Her eyes met her father’s. “I don’t think we can get it from her,” said Eliza quietly. They fell silent and still.
“What good am I,” whispered Rom Tok again, with a shake of the head.
“We just need to stay close to each other,” said Eliza. “Keep our eyes open for a chance.”
Rom gave her a sad smile. “Brave girl,” he said.
“Come on,” Eliza grinned at him suddenly. “Let’s play chess.”
They stacked the plates and set up the chessboard Nia had conjured for them. It was a very elegant board, made of obsidian and pearl, the pieces beautifully carved. The scholars, centaurs, and castles were as usual, but Nia had made the white queen in her own likeness and the white king a tiger. The black queen was a stubby little caricature of Eliza, and the king a raven. All the pawns were cross-looking Mancers. Eliza couldn’t help laughing.
“I guess I should be black,” she said, showing her father the queen.
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