The Chaos Crystal

by Jennifer Fallon

  Nyah thought on that for a moment and then nodded. 'Good luck, then, Stellan,' she said with depressing finality. 'Apparently, as I'll be at my lessons, I won't see you again before you leave. I hope one day we can meet again, when you are king and I am queen and we can decide things for our people because it's the right thing to do, and not because it's what the immortals want us to do.'

  Before Stellan could respond she slipped through the door and closed it softly behind her, leaving him with the uneasy feeling that the sharpest leader of her

  people he was ever likely to encounter had just left the room.

  With his bag packed and a few moments to spare, Stellan found himself pacing his room impatiently, waiting on the appointed time to leave. The argument he'd caught so little of between Elyssa and Tryan still bothered him, as did Nyah's suggestion that the newly-arrived immortals might know what it was about.

  He told himself it was none of his business for a good ten minutes before he let out a curse, shouldered his bag and stalked from his room in search of Elyssa.

  She wasn't in her room, but Cayal was there, leaning over the precious map Elyssa had so painstakingly traced from the pattern on the back of the ancient Lore Tarot she'd found at the bottom of the cliff at Deadman's Bluff.

  Stellan hesitated on the threshold. Although the immortal had been a prisoner in Stellan's gaol for months at one time, this was his first face-to-face encounter with the Immortal Prince. This was the man for whom Arkady was prepared to defy the king. The prisoner she had committed forgery and treason to save from torture at the hands of the man Stellan would have bet his whole duchy that she was in love with — Declan Hawkes. Stellan was never quite sure if Arkady loved Cayal or had just been smitten with him. Perhaps she was intrigued by him; perhaps he'd cast some mystical Tide spell on her to get her to cooperate. Whatever the reason, Stellan found himself unaccountably nervous when Cayal turned at the sound of the door opening.

  'Yes?'

  'I was looking for Lady Alyssa,' he said, using the mortal name she was known by here in Caelum and not its immortal equivalent.

  'She's not here,' Cayal said, turning back to study the map.

  He was younger than Stellan was expecting — at least he seemed younger. And he was every bit as good- looking as legend held him to be. No wonder Arkady had been attracted to him. And that Nyah called him the 'cute one'.

  'Are you expecting her soon?' Stellan inquired.

  Cayal looked up again, stared at Stellan for a moment and then straightened and turned to face him curiously. 'You're the duke, aren't you? Arkady's husband?'

  Stellan nodded and stepped into the room. 'Yes.'

  The Immortal Prince smiled. 'You know she was completely wasted on you, don't you?'

  Well, Stellan thought silently, that saves me a whole lot of wondering about how much Arkady told you about me and her life as my wife, doesn't it? He shrugged. 'Yes, I suppose she was.'

  'They tell me she was out on the ice when it broke,' Cayal said, watching him closely. 'Do you think she's dead?'

  'I hope not.'

  'You seem to be taking it well.'

  'You've known me for under a minute, sir,' Stellan said. 'How can you tell how I'm taking it?'

  Cayal smiled again. 'Fair point. For myself, I think she's alive. That woman has a knack for survival that borders on magical.'

  'Well,' Stellan replied evenly, 'who'd know more about that than you?'

  The Immortal Prince eyed him oddly for a moment. 'So you know about us. Puts the deal you've done with Tryan in a whole new light.'

  'I am a pragmatist, sin'

  'I worked that much out when I learned why you married Arkady,' he said with a wry smile and then he glanced down at the map. Apparently the Immortal

  Prince had better things to do with his time than grieve for Arkady. 'Elyssa tells me you're the genius who discovered the truth about the Lore Tarot map.'

  'It was an accident, I can assure you.'

  Cayal glanced sideways at Stellan. 'Do you believe the map is genuine?'

  'I have no idea.'

  'Do you have any idea what part of the continent the map indicates? Or, for that matter, which continent it is?'

  'No.'

  'Would you tell me if you did?'

  'If I thought there was something in it for Glaeba,' Stellan answered quite honestly, 'I'd tell you anything you wanted to know.'

  Cayal seemed to welcome his candour, but his appreciation was short-lived. He turned back to the map, shaking his head. 'It's nonsense, you know. She said she had a map that gave the location of the Chaos Crystal. The Tide is on the rise and the flanking map turns out to be useless. There's no recognisable landmarks, no scale ...'

  And you agreed to marry her for it, Stellan thought silently, taking a certain degree of perverse pleasure in Cayal's pain.

  Without warning, Cayal snatched up the map, crushed the rice-paper into a ball and tossed it across the room. When he realised Stellan was standing there watching him, he shrugged. 'Sometimes the deals you make when you're desperate simply aren't worth what you get in return, Desean.'

  The Immortal Prince turned his back on Stellan and walked to the long glass doors that led to the balcony. He threw them open, letting in a blast of icy air and snow and simply stood there, as if he was enjoying the blizzard he'd invited into the room.

  Stellan wasn't sure if he was expected to answer him. In the end, deciding he'd be safer not getting

  into any further conversation with the Immortal Prince, he bowed politely, just in case the man had some sort of magical ability to detect disrespect — or pity — and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  CHAPTER 35

  Dawn found Declan roaming the streets of Lebec, clad in a hooded cloak he'd stolen from a cloak stand in the foyer of a brothel in the Lebec slums while the patrons were too drunk to notice. For once he didn't fear being recognised. The wind-driven snow swirling around the streets kept most people indoors. Only the truly motivated and the truly desperate were out in a dawn like this.

  Declan barely noticed the cold as he trudged through the snow with his shoulders hunched, his thoughts deep and dire, while he contemplated the end of the world.

  If Kentravyon was to be believed, the annihilation of Amyrantha was the inevitable result of Lukys activating the Chaos Crystal to restore Coryna to human form. As he'd warned Tilly, Cayal's subsequent death (which Declan was more than a little dubious about, anyway) was a sideshow to the main event. The question of whether or not the world really might end when the crystal was activated was academic really. But when it came down to it, Declan was more inclined to believe a madman with no particular axe to grind over a suicidal manic-depressive immortal who'd lie about anything (up to and including the end of the world) if it meant he was finally going to be allowed to die.

  Would Lukys — Declan still couldn't bring himself to think of the immortal as his father — really risk an entire world for one person? What happened to the

  noble sentiment that the good of the many outweighed the good of the few?

  Is Lukys, for the sake of his one true love, prepared to break a world in half?

  If he was, then the chances were excellent he would succeed. Lukys had Maralyce, Cayal, Kentravyon and possibly Elyssa on his side — and Pellys, if he was focused enough. But Lukys seemed doubtful about that. And Arryl and Taryx were there. Five Tide Lords and two lesser immortals channelling the power of the Tide at its peak.

  Stopping them would be akin to trying to stop the Tide.

  It would take more power than Declan could ever hope to command. Unless ...

  Declan faltered for a moment as a dreadful thought occurred to him. Lukys had gathered a half-dozen Tide Lords to channel the power he needed to restore Coryna.

  How many Tide Lords would it take to stop him?

  The idea was thrilling and terrifying at the same time, but with a sinking sensation that left him nauseous, Declan realised he may have
hit on the only chance he had of preventing the end of the world.

  Not all immortals were bent on destroying the world. There were other Tide Lords, other powerful immortals, who seemed quite content to stay here on Amyrantha — Tide Lords Lukys didn't like or trust enough to involve in his plans. Brynden might be a candidate. Kinta had certainly seemed unsettled by what Kentravyon had told her about his plans, and she was sure to have repeated his story to her lover by now. Then there was Tryan. He was busy trying to take over the whole continent, but would he side against his sister if she threw her lot in with Lukys ... or, more specifically, with Cayal?

  That left Jaxyn, the only other truly powerful Tide Lord Declan knew of. Including himself, that meant four Tide Lords. Probably not enough, but what if he could cajole the others into joining them? Would the combined power of the lesser immortals like Kinta, Diala, Lyna, Ambria, Medwen — even Syrolee and Engarhod, Krydence and Ranee — be enough to counteract the power of Lukys's coterie and their Tide- focusing crystal? If Declan could gather enough opposition to what Lukys planned, could they stop Lukys from destroying the world?

  And what would be the point? To save Amyrantha from destruction, just to ensure this endless cycle of destruction and rebuilding went on forever?

  Declan agonised about that for another two blocks before a simple fact occurred to him. Enslaved but still in existence, Amyrantha had some hope — however slim — of eventually finding a way to free itself from the yoke of the Tide Lords.

  Destroyed, there was no hope at all.

  Tides, Declan thought, shaking his head as he realised what he must do. I can't believe I'm even contemplating this ...

  He stopped at the next corner to get his bearings. The streets here were achingly familiar. If he turned left at this intersection he'd eventually come to the neat little house with its surgery in the basement, jammed between a dingy apothecary and a delicious-smelling bakery, where Arkady had lived with her father when they were children. To his right was the road that led to his grandfather's attic, and if he kept on walking south, eventually he'd come to the brothel where he'd lived with his mother until he was ten.

  The Lebec slums were home, Declan realised, in a way no other place ever would be, no matter how long he lived. Draped in a clean blanket of snow that covered the grime and kept the beggars off the streets, the slums looked story-book pretty in the dawn's

  feeble light, the flaws hidden behind shadows and snowflakes.

  For this, Declan realised, he had to fight. For every lord in this world with a majestic palace, like the one Arkady had acquired when she married into money, there were thousands of people like the citizens of the Lebec slums — Crasii and human alike — whose daily lives filled these cramped and tumbled-down houses, here and in cities all over Amyrantha. People with lives that had as much value as an immortal's life. Perhaps more. Mortals had a time limit, after all. They had reason not to waste what little time fate had awarded them.

  Only an immortal could afford to waste his life on frivolous pursuits.

  Only an immortal would consider the good of the one to outweigh the good of the many.

  Declan threw back the hood of his cloak, and glanced around. He no longer cared about being recognised. Standing here, in these streets where he'd always belonged, he realised something else. While he remembered this place, while he fought for the people who were born here, who lived and died in these grubby streets, he would have some hope of retaining his humanity.

  Regardless of the eventual fate of Amyrantha, if this place were destroyed, he would lose a part of himself which he couldn't afford to let go. Even if he fought to save the whole world, it would be because this place — his home — was a part of that world. To save one, he would have to save the other.

  And to do that, Declan needed help. The worst kind of help.

  He needed the Tide Lords that Lukys, in his wisdom, had deemed unfit for his brave new world. The Tide Lords he didn't intend to allow across the rift when he opened it to enable him to draw the power he needed from two worlds to restore Coryna.

  To stop Lukys and Cayal, Declan needed the power of the most malevolent and self-serving Tide Lords he could name. He needed the only three immortals he could be sure would be prepared to do whatever it was going to take to stop Cayal trying to end his life and prevent Lukys opening his rift — Brynden, the Lord of Reckoning, Tryan, the immortal the Lore Tarot named The Devil, and perhaps the most irksome of them all ...

  Declan needed Jaxyn Aranville, the badly misnamed Lord of Temperance.

  He could feel the other immortals on the Tide.

  They weren't close, but Declan was becoming more and more attuned to the Tide, and getting better at identifying what each disturbance on it meant. As he approached Lebec Palace, he knew his hunch had been correct. With the battle lost and his Crasii army mostly floating face down in the Lower Oran, Jaxyn had retreated to Lebec Palace with Diala and Lyna to lick his wounds and plot his counter-attack.

  Declan didn't waste time wondering if Jaxyn was planning to fight for everything he'd gained thus far in Glaeba, or if he was willing to cut his losses, cede the continent to the Empress of the Five Realms and her family, and set himself up somewhere else. Brynden had already staked out Torlenia, but Tenacia seemed free of immortals, and the Commonwealth of Elenovia was always ripe for the picking.

  For that matter, the Lord of Temperance would be better served claiming Senestra. There were already cults in that country — powerful cults — dedicated to his worship. A god could do worse than to settle down among his already adoring congregation.

  It was mid-morning by the time Declan reached the gates of Lebec Palace. He arrived on foot, using the time it had taken him to walk from the city to figure out how he was going to handle this. Declan

  was fed up with explaining how he became immortal; it was one of the reasons he'd not hung around Cycrane after the battle. He didn't particularly want to go through the whole spiel again to every immortal he met, and there was quite a gathering of them in Caelum.

  Let Kentravyon and Cayal explain about the new Tide Lord. Declan had better things to do.

  Still, Jaxyn and his minions were the last remaining immortals to be informed of his admission to their ranks, and if he hoped to get a hearing from them, let alone their active cooperation in stopping Lukys, he was going to have to get their attention first. And he somehow had to explain the situation in a manner that didn't result in the total devastation of everything in a five-mile radius.

  It was the Crasii standing guard on the main gate who gave him the solution. Despite orders to kill anything that walked up the road, the felines fell to their knees at his approach, assuring this immortal new arrival that to serve him was the reason they breathed.

  Declan changed his original plan almost instantly, and once he was admitted to the estate, headed, not to the palace where Jaxyn and the others were holed up, but to the compound where the remainder of the estate workers were housed. Keeping far enough away from the palace so the immortals couldn't sense him in anything but the most general way — and working on the assumption that if he could barely feel them they'd only barely feel him — he made his way around to the village.

  As expected, as soon as he arrived, Fletch, the old canine Stellan had allowed to govern the residents of the Crasii village, approached him and fell to his knees. Declan ordered him to stand and told him what he wanted, demanding complete silence from every Crasii in the compound. There were plenty of

  amphibians in the pools at the edge of the lake but there weren't many felines left. Most of those had been out on the ice when it broke. The males were still there, however, locked in their cages. Declan freed the two younger males, ordered them to behave themselves when they joined the others, and then headed across the yard to Taryx's enclosure.

  With the rising sun, the weather had settled and the bitter wind of dawn had dropped to almost nothing. There was even a glimmer of sunlight breaking through the cloud
s in a few places, one of which was rather conveniently centred over Taryx's favourite sofa. The old male was sunning himself when Declan spied him across the yard. He watched the Tide Lord approach warily, not moving from the battered sofa where he reclined. Declan stopped outside the cage a moment and watched the magnificent male as he lay there, his genitalia exposed, his expression smug and disobedient. And then he smiled as he realised what Taryx's silent defiance meant.

  'Tides, you wily old cat. You're a Scard.'

  The male stared at him for a moment and then lowered his head. 'To serve you is the reason I breathe, my lord.'

  'Bullshit.'

  Taryx looked up, grinning faintly, and then he shrugged. 'Jaxyn never picked it, you know, the whole time he's been here. You didn't used to be a suzerain, spymaster.'

  'You didn't used to be a Scard.'

  The male climbed to his feet and walked to the bars to study Declan more closely. 'What do you want?'

  Declan looked over at the other Crasii who were currently heading for the gate to stand with the canines gathering on the small village compound. 'I need to talk to Jaxyn. I figured I'd show him how it is now, rather than try to explain it.'

  The old male thought on that for a moment, scratching himself behind the ear through his thick, silver-streaked mane. 'I suppose that means if I don't go along with you, now you're one of them, Jaxyn will realise I've been playing him all this time.'

  Declan nodded. 'On the bright side, I intend to give him other things to worry about this morning than his feline breeding program.'

  Taryx considered that for a moment longer and then he nodded. 'You're probably right, spymaster. But I warn you. Let me out of here and I won't be going back.'

  Declan had known enough Scards in his time to understand how much slavery irked them. This majestic creature had the added complication of being a breeding male, which would have meant not just a lifetime of slavery, but a lifetime of confinement as well.

  'Do this one thing for me,' Declan said, 'and you're free. Jaxyn will be none the wiser about you being a Scard and I'll see to it you're never confined again. In fact,' he added, realising he had something truly valuable to this creature, 'I'll go one better. I'll tell you how to find Hidden Valley.'