Tristan snorted a laugh and picked a stone up. Then he was serious, rolling it in his hands. “She is much older.”
“And that matters?”
“It could … to her.”
“It won’t. She will live another thousand years or three; is that not time enough for a relationship?”
A smile. “I guess.”
“Definitely. Valleur longevity can be a decided advantage.”
Tristan laughed.
“I am glad you came up here,” Torrullin said. “You brought some of my frayed edges together.”
“And you mine.”
“Good. When you go down, will you apologise to Tian for me? I was harsh with him.”
“He gets it. Tian toughens up fast and is less prone to sulks. Digilan was good for him. Knowing one’s roots, right?”
“Thank the gods Tymall loves his son or Digilan would be a terrible influence.”
“Teroux is the one struggling now.”
“I am aware.”
“Will you talk to him?”
“In time. He won’t listen yet.”
“Rose isn’t helping.”
“Rose, contrarily, will help much. It makes certain sense, doesn’t it, to put a womaniser and a man-hater together? He will discover new respect for women and she will find womanising a façade hiding other insecurities. And, as both have insecurities, they might connect on a level that has nothing to do with sex. I predict they will fall hook, line and sinker for each other. Forgive the cliché.”
Tristan grinned. “Gods.”
“Pretty much,” Torrullin chuckled. “And she has longevity, so a relationship isn’t impossible.”
“And Tian?”
“Tian will have to wed Valleur. I hope to all gods he can love her also. You and Teroux will be free to wed where you love after Tian conceives his heir, understand that now. You may be luckier, in that Caballa is a respected Valleur woman; Teroux will have to wait. Still, I think Tian will have a host of little Vallas before Teroux commits.”
Tristan laughed heartily and then stood. “I feel I need to talk to Caballa now.”
“Go. Sleep well.”
“You, too.” Tristan vanished into the dark.
Torrullin sat on staring into the fire.
“He is a good man,” Elianas said.
“I felt you arrive,” Torrullin murmured.
In the dark beyond the fire Tristan paused, remembering something. He stopped when he saw Elianas step into the circle of light. Elianas paused and looked with an unreadable expression into the dark where Tristan stood, and then he sat beside Torrullin. The way the two men looked at each other then made Tristan’s hair stand on end. Silently, swiftly, he went down the slope.
He did not speak to Caballa.
“I WAS WORRIED.”
“And I needed time. You spoiled the restoration.”
Torrullin lay back, lacing his hands behind his head. “I am a bastard, I know. Get used to it.”
Elianas gripped his tunic and hauled him up. “Do not test me too far.”
Torrullin pushed him away. “How are we to work together if we are already at odds?”
Elianas leaned over him. “We are always at odds, brother. It is part of the allure. Being in opposition to you does not worry me in the least, and I do not need to work together with anyone. I am here for you.”
Torrullin lay down again, seemingly calm. “And why am I here?”
Elianas grinned. “For me. Did I not tell you the time comes when you will be selfish?”
“How selfish?”
“Completely.”
“Ah. And what form does that take?”
Elianas smiled. “Every moment will reveal it.”
A moment of silence. “Can we put Kalgaia behind us?”
Elianas lay down as well, and sighed. “That was why I needed time alone. It is done. We move on.”
“Forgive me.”
A beat. “Fine.”
Elianas pretended to go to sleep.
Chapter 54
Men stride through worlds like gods, and as arrogant. The mighty fall hard and never do they see it coming.
~ Arli of Pendulim
Time Realm
IN THE MORNING TORRULLIN was more amenable and they surmised it was due to Elianas’ return. They were wrong - it was Tristan’s doing - but Torrullin did not seem to care what anyone thought.
Elianas, on the other hand, was silent and aware of the undercurrents. More than once his unreadable gaze rested on certain individuals. He seemed to single Sabian, Teighlar and Caballa out. The three privately wondered when he would seek them out for more than a gaze or two.
Before they headed out, Torrullin said, “This is the tenth day and events have moved us along rapidly. We do not have far to go, but once at journey’s end, time could stall. This realm will now play tricks, and by that I mean the landscape will change, worlds will change. When we arrived, this no-place swiftly led to …”
He checked himself when Elianas laid a hand on his shoulder.
“That name cannot be spoken here - Kalgaia, city name, is already too much. Suffice to say, we have left that world and now travel another, and by nightfall we might step across four or five. Be ready for profound altering.”
“Where are we headed?” Teighlar asked.
“Journey’s end. Ancient Akhavar,” Torrullin murmured. “We hope to reach it tonight. The pace this day will be fast.”
Elianas said, “If anyone needs help, ask.”
Not long after they were off.
IT WAS INDEED A strange day.
The mountains soon flattened out into a saltpan, cool became heat, and then they skirted a red lake and thereafter a sulphurous lava field that stank and caused them to gag.
They crossed an arid desert gasping for breath, struggled through a humid forest dripping sweat and then walked long distances beside a roiling, green ocean, eyes drawn to an unnatural horizon. A landscape of spikes? No one dared ask.
Each setting was distinct; it was evident they were the different worlds Torrullin warned of. There was no likely explanation to conquer the strange enigma.
The pace was fast, although not overly so. Rose lagged at one stage and Elianas reversed direction to go to her aid. He laid a hand on her brow and after she had no difficulty with the pace. Elianas received intrigued glances. Was he a healer also?
Mid-afternoon they descended a contoured hill. Low stonewalls prevented erosion and vegetables flourished on the slopes. The place was akin to Beacon Farm and the team wondered if it was that world, but no one asked and thus was no one enlightened. Beyond the slope was a mighty plain dotted with distant pyramids.
Torrullin called a halt at the foot of the hills. “If you ever want to know more about time, revisit this place. That is the Valley of Kings, Old Earth, but little of this mastery remains in present time. Pity.” He glanced over his shoulder. “We rest for a half hour.”
They sat or lay down as the desire took them. “Are we to cross that?” Teroux asked. “That’s a fair way.”
“We are turning in there.” Torrullin pointed right where a stone road led through similarly contoured hills.
It certainly seemed an easier road.
“How do you know where to go?” Teroux questioned.
“A Walker feels it.”
Tianoman sipped water. “How far?”
“Three hours if we maintain course and pace.”
“It will be dark soon,” Caballa murmured.
“The road is flat from here. We will be fine.”
Elianas gave a laugh. “Have you considered what happened this day? We crossed at least five worlds; sit at the confluence of two more - in one day? This morning the sun rose and now it sets. These things are impossible.”
“It occurred to me, yes,” Teroux murmured.
“Norms do not apply here,” Sabian muttered.
“They do not,” Elianas affirmed. “Pure magic.”
Teighlar made the connection. “How m
uch time passed in our reality?”
Elianas nodded. “Clever man.”
Teroux blinked. “My god. How much?”
Torrullin grimaced. “About a year.”
Elianas laughed. “Consider it a gift, my friends. It could have been a thousand.”
“Hell’s bells,” Maple muttered.
“Or two,” Quilla murmured.
Torrullin smiled without expression. “Or two, yes. The mighty ten days.”
“I begin to understand how it was for you,” Quilla said.
Torrullin shrugged. “The shortening is easier.”
“Was time ever shortened for you, Elianas?” Tianoman asked.
There was a moment in which Elianas frowned.
“They know of the Throne,” Torrullin said.
Clearly he did not like it. “Not shortened, exactly; more stasis, oblivious sleep.”
Torrullin was surprised.
Elianas stared at him. “When the Throne was cloaked, I could sleep. You preferred it cloaked, thank god, and Vannis gifted me a nine thousand year gap. Catch-up was a bitch every time.”
Torrullin snorted amusement and then burst into laughter. “No wonder you’re a bit scratchy with this cycle.”
A grin. “Not as scratchy as you are, brother.”
“Are you brothers?” Teroux asked.
“We are not blood related,” Elianas said.
“Where is the connection then?” Teroux insisted.
“Gods, cousin,” Tianoman muttered.
“It is all right,” Torrullin said. “Elianas was my apprentice, an apprentice who became a friend and a brother.”
“Apprentice to what?”
“Sorcery, idiot.” Tianoman threw his hands into the air. “Like in studying, huh?”
Elianas smiled. “Yes, I studied sorcery with your grandfather.”
“Are you as good as he is?” Teroux asked.
“Someone shut him up,” Tianoman moaned.
Everyone laughed and, tellingly, neither Torrullin nor Elianas answered.
Minutes later they took to the road again.
NIGHT FELL AS THEY walked on, but the road was clearly defined even in the dark.
Torrullin pushed, although not hard. Four hours later they stood at the beginning of another great plain, but this one smelled fresh and flowery and there was running water nearby. In the dark, little beyond the senses’ sensations could be discerned.
“We stop here,” Torrullin murmured. “Yonder lie the plains of Akhavar.” He inhaled deeply. “Smell that - isn’t it wonderful?” Then he chivvied them. “Come, get organised, I am starving.”
Light laughter sounded, and camp was made.
Ancient Akhavar
“IT’S THE SAME AS we saw before the coronation ceremony,” Tristan said.
Indeed it was. Green grasses waved in the breeze, and trees stood in splendid isolation upon the plain. Nearby a stream chanted eternal music. Flowers wild and hardy peeked out boldly in places and in the distance were the purple mountains. If all was as it should be, Nemisin’s mountain city was off to the right of them.
“Saska achieved greatness,” Teroux said.
“She did indeed,” Caballa affirmed. “Akhavar was dead until she came. She worked hard with Lily to restore it to … this.”
Maple frowned.
Caballa was sharp. “Do you know Lily?”
“She is my second cousin,” Maple said.
“Now I know why I had the feeling I knew you somehow.”
Maple shrugged. “She would not want to know me.”
Caballa’s smile slid away. What was there to say?
Maple grunted. “Sorry. My problem.”
Torrullin said, “This is the place for problems, friend. Hopefully we come out of this cleaner.”
He walked on past, leaving Caballa and Maple staring after him. He did not go far, only far enough to study them with one encompassing gaze.
“Lowen made this possible. She vanished from here and thus it follows she is here now. We should find her today.”
“Wait, wait. You and Elianas set off after her when we arrived - what’s with that?” Sabian asked.
“We found something else.”
“And what would that be?”
“My memory,” Torrullin said. “The call was a ploy.”
“And who engineered it?”
“I did. She was not there; she is here. West, the focal point. She is the destination, rooting this realm at a point where we are to affect changes. Somewhere out there we will find her, and then we will know without doubt we have arrived not only in the right place, but also at the right time. Enough?”
“Yeah, enough,” Sabian muttered.
“Then let us do this.”
Torrullin headed out onto the plain.
BY EVENING HE WAS frustrated.
It was a fruitless day of wandering, then sending teams in four directions, and still there was no sign of Lowen. No sign of civilisation, even a rudimentary one. No smell of a distant cooking fire, nothing. There was an emptiness that did not sit well.
There was also no sign of Nemisin’s enclave.
It was the most worrying of all.
“Did we get it wrong?” he demanded of Elianas that night around the communal fire.
Elianas looked up at the pacing man. “You know how it works. Turn and turn again in the portal - we did that. We took extra precaution with the connection of four and we had a full tally of fourteen. We got it right. Be patient.”
“Going south might have upset the process.”
“Then restoring Kalgaia was a mistake also. I refuse to believe that. Torrullin, going south was probably part of the process. Do not second guess now.”
Torrullin hunkered. “Fine, let us figure this out. She vanished through Akhavar’s portal, whether by accident or deliberation matters not. To make the connection, we had to start out from an opposite point.” He frowned at Elianas.
“We needed the direction of the void. This is the right journey.”
“And though we sidestepped, the majority held the road west, and that would maintain the connection.”
“That is not right. We all sidestepped off the western road for a while,” Teighlar said.
Torrullin stared at Teighlar. “Damn. That could tweak.” He swung back to the dark man.
Elianas was thoughtful. “Maybe. It could be we are too far back. We do not see evidence of a mountain enclave, because Nemisin has not built his city yet and …” His voice trailed off. “Kalgaia’s restoration could prove a monumental mistake.”
Sabian laughed, slapped at his thighs. “Because Nemisin will not perceive a threat! No enclave, no Throne, no nothing! Absolutely brilliant! We have sideswiped the monster!” He chortled and then silenced his amusement. “Hell, it means we will not get out of here.”
Torrullin levered up and walked a distance to stand with his hands in his hair.
Elianas murmured, “We can get out, but Lowen will not and he will not leave her. Beyond that particular and thorny situation is this - there would be no hope of redress.”
“Resonance of nothing happening in this time,” Quilla said, “is a major tweak. There is no telling what we would find upon our return.”
“We must do something!” Rose wailed.
“We shall,” Maple said.
“What about that thing you did at the portal?” Tianoman asked. “Take us back a bit or forward to the point Nemisin would build his enclave. Lowen will be there.”
Torrullin returned to sit beside Elianas. “Tian has a point. If we found her, we have the timing …” He paused there, studying Elianas’ averted face. “I will not leave her. Better get used to it.”
Elianas looked at him, his gaze like flint.
Torrullin went on, ignoring his reaction, “With the correct timing in hand, we could force Nemisin’s hand another way. Despite everything, he must construct the mould for the Throne. Gods, it is imagined already and if he does not make it r
eal …”
“You speak now as if this is a reality, not realm,” Elianas frowned.
Torrullin hung his head. “We exited realm earlier today.”
“Are you insane? How the fuck did that happen? Gods, it explains the empty feeling.”
“We employed the four directions.” Torrullin offered a shrug and an unreadable look.
Elianas was on his feet. “We are genuinely backwards in time?”
“I am afraid so.”
“You cannot find Lowen now.”
“Yes, we can. Realm and reality have become one by virtue of the span of time. By the same token, measures we apply in a realm would work now.”
“Gods, Torrullin, Kalgaia functions! As Sabian says - no threat. Nemisin fades into obscurity. The Valleur will fade away. You will not have a cycle to begin anew. Gods, I will fade into anonymity!” Elianas was furious. “What if Grinwallin either never gets built or the bloody void is ready to swallow? Or worse, Grinwallin already knows Teighlar has left - what will she do next?”
Teighlar already considered it; he sat slumped forward as if his world crashed around him.
Quilla rose to place his hand on Elianas’ arm. “Peace. Hear me, please. First, if all has changed, none of us would now be here. The Valla heirs will fade before our eyes, as would Rose, Caballa, possibly Maple and certainly Sabian. Having said that, being here is the same as having walked the entire curve into a new cycle. It means we go forward making new ways and new futures.” He paused to study Torrullin. “Did you do it deliberately?”
“I really do not know.”
Elianas glared at him.
“We have the time to make it right,” Quilla said. “It took us a day to cross a number of worlds; it must take a mite longer than that to cross whole ages.”
Elianas nodded. His anger cooled.
“This can be handled as a realm,” Quilla went on. Teighlar looked at him with hope reborn in blue eyes. “But we must move now. No more sitting around.”
Teighlar was on his feet with alacrity. “Torrullin, I shall now admit I prefer the future exactly the way I know it. If you take us back to our present, without changes, I stand down from demands for redress. Grinwallin, the Senlu, the Luvans and their High King will accept words of apology as sufficient token of sincere regret.”
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 55
