EXILE'S RETURN

by Kate Jacoby

  Finnlay jumped down from the fissure and landed beside Robert. “I know but...”

  “For the love of the gods, Finn!” Robert groaned, “Will you please, just this once, take no for an answer? I said I can’t go near the place. Isn’t that enough for you?”

  Finnlay watched him for a moment, forgetting why they were there. Robert was gazing up at the cave roof, oblivious to his scrutiny. The mood had changed again, without warning, and despite his weary tone, there was an edge to Robert’s voice that hadn’t been there before. Was he worried about what would happen to Jenn in Marsay? Perhaps it was time to tell him.

  He took a deep breath and said, “You know they sent her a teacher?”

  “Sent who a teacher?” Robert continued, searching the cave. “Am I here on my own? Are you just going to stand there all day?”

  “The Enclave sent Jenn a teacher. Fiona. She left on the first day of spring. Jenn must have learnt something by the time she left for Marsay, Robert. She’ll be all right.”

  “What?” Robert paused and turned, his body stiff.

  Finnlay hastened to explain. “Fiona volunteered. She’s a good teacher, really. I don’t think she has anything to prove to you, Robert. Not any more.”

  Robert took a step forward. His eyes were alight with burning fury. “After all I did to protect Jenn, you and those ... those idiots deliberately go against her wishes and send her a teacher. I’ve a good mind to ...”

  “What?” Finnlay mumbled, suddenly afraid.

  “Nothing.” Robert shook his head, the light in his eyes dying. “And you wonder why I don’t trust you.”

  He turned back to the tunnel and resumed pulling the rocks clear. Finnlay stumbled forward. “Robert, please, I’m sorry. . .”

  “It’s too late for apologies. You swore your oath and now you must keep to it. Look on the bright side, Finn—we’ve finally got something in common.”

  Finnlay sank to his knees beside his brother and blindly pulled at the rocks barring their way. All these years he’d been so sure that one day Robert would come around to Enclave thinking, that basically their goals were the same. It would be just a matter of time before Robert would take the oath himself, and then there would be no conflict. But that conflict went so much deeper, and Finnlay had allied himself with the one organization that Robert would never bless. The gulf between them would never close; it would only grow bigger over time.

  Right now, Finnlay felt every tiny bit of that divide.

  Robert pulled the last of the rocks away and stepped into the narrow opening. Finnlay followed without watching where he was going. He slipped and fell, but as Robert helped him up, his eyes were transfixed by the sight that greeted him. A door. Solid, man-made, and alone on the opposite wall.

  Finnlay scrambled to his feet. “This is it! It must be.”

  “Wait!” Robert joined him only inches from the door. “If this is the right place, then there may well be some kind of sorcery at play here. Remember what that manuscript said—kept in safekeeping? The Calyx is hardly going to be just sitting here waiting for us to come and collect it.”

  Without another word he brought his ayarn up and studied the door for a full minute. Then, taking a quick breath, he pressed his palm flat to the surface. The door swung inwards, scraping against the sandy floor. More cautiously now, Finnlay moved forward, raising his own light high in the air. As they crept further into the room, features began to take form and shape. The cave had obviously been a dwelling of some kind.

  “Look, a table and chairs.”

  “Upset, though,” Robert added, taking the left side of the wide room. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the place had been vacated in a hurry. But a long time ago—look at the dust.”

  Cobwebs were strung across every angle in a thick sticky mess. Along the walls here and there were roots from some determined plants growing through tiny cracks from the rocks outside. Debris both human and natural covered the floor, mats, cooking utensils, rabbit dung and the dry skeleton of a small bird. An ancient mustiness hung in the air; when they stood still, no sound could be heard but their breathing.

  “This is incredible!” Finnlay whispered. “Do you think this might have been a kind of community like the Enclave? And why haven’t we heard about it before? Where did the people go? Could this really have been the place where Thraxis hid the Calyx? Where the Marklord himself once walked?”

  “You know...” Robert’s voice broke off as he stared down at a broken stool at his feet. “Something’s been bothering me about that script. Why would the Marklord have anything to do with the Calyx? And why would he be mentioned in the same document as Amar Thraxis? Unless ... unless Thraxis was the Marklord.”

  “Robert, I don’t think...”

  “No, wait.” Robert held up his hand. “Think about it. It is possible. We have so little to go on, the assumptions that were made centuries ago were based on much less information than we now have. What if those assumptions have always been wrong? What if Thraxis was the Marklord—and did make the Calyx. The Calyx was always purported to be for the use of sorcerers, so that would mean,” Robert’s face lit up with inspiration, “there is a correlation between the House Marks and sorcery.”

  Finnlay was about to object, but suddenly found that a lot of untidy pieces fell together in his mind. There was no firm, solid way of proving his brother was right but alternatively, there was no way to prove he was wrong. It was an incredible leap of logic, but it had the ring of truth to it.

  He nodded. “Of course, that doesn’t answer the question about the three hundred years’ difference between the two. However, all we need is the Calyx and we’ll know for sure.”

  They began a methodical search of the room, disturbing dust and cobwebs alike. There were shelves towards the back of the room, behind which was what looked like a secret niche, but, it was empty. Another smaller room led off at the end, but that proved equally disappointing.

  Finnlay came back into the larger room frowning. “Maybe there are more rooms to this place. Deeper within the mountain. Like the Enclave, this could be just the surface of a whole village.”

  “Yes.” Robert straightened up and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. Then he said in a whisper, “Unless we’re going about this the wrong way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “That manuscript said, ‘kept safe from those who would abuse its power’. But who exactly would that be? It couldn’t be sorcerers because the Calyx is supposed to be a tool only we can use.”

  “Evil sorcerers, then.”

  “Perhaps,” Robert glanced at him. “But think of it this way: if you wanted to keep something safe from people who would abuse it, how would you do it?”

  Finnlay grinned. “I’d leave it lying around somewhere in your study.”

  Robert acknowledged the dig with a lopsided smile of his own. “Anywhere else?”

  Finnlay thought about it for a minute, trying to put himself in Thraxis’s place. Then he looked up, “If I had sufficient power available, I would disguise it as something completely harmless—and then leave it lying around in your study.”

  This time Robert actually laughed. With a nod he said, “Dim your light for a minute. I want to try something.”

  Finnlay did as he was told, allowing the glow from his ayarn to die until it was barely visible in his hand. Robert’s light vanished as he lifted the stone until it lay level with his eyes. Hardly able to see in the engulfing darkness, Finnlay instead allowed his senses to float in the hope that he could discern what his brother was doing. He didn’t dare speak.

  Robert kept the stone in front of him for a few minutes, then slowly stretched his arm out and turned a full circle on the spot. As he began a second turn a single brilliant beam shot out of the ayarn and landed on a spot in the far corner.

  Finnlay held his breath and gently made his way across the room to where the beam stopped. Once he’d marked the place, Robert abruptly converted the beam
back to its normal light and joined him.

  “What did you do?” Finnlay asked.

  “A variation on the same thing the Key does to choose a leader. I merely focused in on the properties of the Key and hoped it would seek out a like aura. Of course, I began with the assumption that there is some similarity between the Key and the Calyx, but it does appear to have worked.”

  “Well, I don’t see that it was so successful,” Finnlay bent down and pointed, “all it found was a broken jug.”

  Robert crouched down beside him, frowning for a moment. Then he flashed a smile at his brother. “Oh really?” He reached forward, touched his ayarn to the jug—

  And it was suddenly replaced by a long solid metal object about the length of his hand.

  “What the ...!”

  Robert reached forward and picked it up. “It seems you and Amar Thraxis think along the same lines—a disturbing concept.”

  “But . .. that’s not the Calyx,” Finnlay stood, his heart beating loud enough to hear, “is it?”

  Robert shook his head. “I don’t know what it is.” The object was tubular, with two circular nodules at one end. A pair of fine silver wires hung from the other with bands of intricate design running the whole length of the rod. “It could be anything—even a piece of the Calyx. All we know for certain is that it’s important. Why bother hiding it in such a manner if it wasn’t?”

  “Well it’s definitely not a part of the Key, so I suppose we must assume you’re right about there being some affinity between the Key and the Calyx. Hard to imagine, considering the Key is only five hundred years old while the Calyx is over a thousand.”

  Robert nodded and tucked the object inside his doublet. Then he turned and led the way out of the room.

  As Finnlay followed through the door, he noticed another fissure to his left. With a brief word, he began to make his way through it. It angled down sharply but he laboured on, determined to exhaust every possibility.

  Robert didn’t object, following him as he passed through one cave after another. The fissures died out and were replaced by narrow tunnels carved out by water over the aeons. They dropped quite a distance until finally Robert called a halt.

  “That’s enough for one day. Let’s make camp in the forest and try again tomorrow.”

  Finnlay didn’t want to give up, but he nodded, seeing the sense. He glanced back the way they’d come and gave a nervous laugh. “I only hope we can find a way out of here.”

  “There’s no need,” Robert said with confidence, “This tunnel here leads to one of those streams. We’ll get a bit wet, but it’ll be easier going outside than back through there.”

  Finnlay agreed and followed his brother. The tunnel narrowed as they moved towards the surface of the cliff, the dirt beneath their feet turning to mud, covering their ankles with icy water. Finnlay tried to stifle his disappointment and sort out the questions Robert’s discovery brought up. There were so many problems associated with finding the Calyx that his concentration was wholly diverted. As a result, he didn’t see the danger until it was too late. All he saw was Robert silhouetted against the daylight, framed by the tunnel walls. Then, a split second later, he heard a splash and Robert vanished.

  Chapter 16

  Bella had argued from the moment they’d left Marsay right up until this morning, when Jenn and Lawrence had left her at Maitland Manor. From that moment onwards, there’d been the most blissful silence, with only the occasional subdued comment from Lawrence. It was a triumph for Jenn, and despite the small knot of guilt nagging in the pit of her stomach, she remained sure of her decision. After all, Selar hadn’t stopped them leaving, had he?

  But it was so lovely to be back in familiar lands. Still some hours from Elita, Jenn could already see the mountains she loved, the hills and valleys, green and windswept. With the late afternoon shadows drawing across the road, she travelled alongside Lawrence, for once entirely content. When they finally arrived at Elita, Lawrence would return to Bella and Jenn would see nothing more of them until the first autumn leaves began to fall. By then Bella might have calmed down, perhaps even accepted the return of her sister.

  Either way, Jenn refused to go back to their old habits. Yes, Bella did have a lot to teach her, and Jenn was eager to learn, but not to lose herself again in trying to be the sister Bella wanted. She was not content to bow her head and say nothing, to follow along without question—to pretend that her past did not exist. Jenn was prepared to try, but in the end, Bella would just have to learn to accept her as she was, for what little time they had left. In a year, perhaps less, Selar would find a husband for her, and then the last of her freedom would be gone. And there was still so much she had to do...

  ... Robert.

  As if in a dream, the forest around her faded, the gusty winds died away. Her vision swam and suddenly she was falling into a whirlpool of swirling darkness. Pain hovered at the edge of her awareness, black and breathtaking. She struggled against the dizziness, against the pain in her chest, when suddenly her vision cleared and she blinked against the sunshine.

  Robert was in trouble. In pain. Close by.

  With a crushing certainty in her heart, Jenn shot a glance at Lawrence, but fortunately he’d noticed nothing. Furtively, she closed her eyes a moment and cast out with her senses. If Robert was close by there was a chance that she might be able to Seek him. She didn’t know what she was doing, but the urgent compulsion in her head pushed her. Robert was in trouble and she had to do something.

  Her senses spread out through the forest around them, forward at first between the tall pine and spruce, downhill towards the river. There .. .

  She could almost see him as her eyes opened in shock. She had to get to him—and fast, but how? She could hardly tell Lawrence the truth, let alone the guards. No, she would need help to get to Robert, but Lawrence would have to do. Now all she had to do was convince him.

  She brought her horse to a stop, letting the others go by. Lawrence turned his horse until he faced her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I want to go though the forest. The others can go along the road.”

  “I’m sure they can, but I can’t very well let you go off on your own. I know we’re close to home, but your father would kill me if I let anything happen to you. Come along now. You can come out this way for a ride tomorrow.”

  “No, Lawrence,” Jenn said firmly. “I need to do this now. Let the others go on ahead—you can come with me.”

  Frowning, Lawrence glanced through the trees she had indicated. “I really don’t see ...”

  Jenn held up her hand, gently trying to exert a feather-light influence on his attitude. “Please, Lawrence.”

  He gave in easily. “Very well.” Calling instructions to the waiting guards, Lawrence followed her into the forest.

  Jenn didn’t bother wondering how she was going to explain this later. If she was wrong, it wouldn’t matter. If she was right—well, maybe no one would ask how she’d known Robert was there.

  They travelled in silence as the forest around them thickened. The ground dropped away and Jenn could hear running water. She urged her horse on, desperate, even though the compulsion had gone.

  The trees came to an abrupt end as she reached the stream bank. The sharp drop to the water was matched by a similar rocky bank on the other side. Ferns and bracken lined the bank in huge clumps, reaching down to the water in a glory of greens and golds. Lawrence murmured something about finding an easier place to cross, but Jenn hardly heard him. Instead her eyes searched desperately for some sign of Robert. He had to be here. There was no sign of anything downstream, so Jenn turned her horse upstream, guiding it carefully along the rising bank. Above her, the stream cascaded down huge boulders in the hillside, carving a path through the forest that was aeons old.

  After a few minutes, however, not even the horse could manage the treacherous path. Lawrence said they should go back to the road, but Jenn ignored him and jumped from her horse. Her skirt caught o
n the bracken but she struggled on, more certain every minute that Robert was here somewhere. She was getting close—but where was he?

  A flash of colour, there! A thin line of cobalt blue tangled between some rocks. Jenn shouted and crashed down the bank into the water. She staggered against the cold, the current tugged at her clothing, but she waded forward, dauntless. She stumbled and fell, but her hand reached out and grabbed hold of the blue cloth. Struggling, she dragged herself forward, pulling hard. Her other hand stretched out and finally touched flesh and bone. Robert! Caught between the rocks, face down in the water. Without hesitating, she dragged his head up. Blood ran from a wound on his forehead and down the side of his lifeless face.

  She turned to call Lawrence again but found him wading through the water behind her. Turning back to Robert, she put her fingers on his throat. He was still alive. Heart pounding with relief, she held him and waited for Lawrence.

  Exhausted and heartsick, Finnlay eventually returned to the horses. He’d followed every avenue down from the tunnel mouth to the edge of the forest and had still found no sign of his brother. He’d tried calling out and then, desperate, he’d fallen in an effort to reach what might have been a promising stream. Now, bruised and aching in every muscle, he collected the horses and made a steady trek down the mountainside, unwilling to even think about what had happened to Robert.

  Taking this safer path meant that it took him more than an hour to reach the forest below the cliff. Leading the horses through the undergrowth, he finally found the major watercourse leading from the mountain. Slowly and deliberately he followed it down. Robert had to be down here somewhere. Alive. He couldn’t have died, not like this—not Robert, of all people.

  But it was getting dark. Clouds rolled across the sunset and a brisk wind whipped around his sodden clothing. Shivering, Finnlay continued on, unwilling to stop. Finally the sun sank, leaving only haunting fingers of red streaming across the sky. He stopped and sat down to rest. He tied the horses to a rock and brought out his ayarn. He’d tried this three times already up on the mountain but had sensed nothing of his brother. That could mean only one of two things. Either Robert was unconscious—or he was dead. Perhaps by now he might have woken up and Finnlay would be able to Seek him out.