“Perhaps you should have a word with your general, then,” the old man said wisely.
“Nah,” Keithus said, “I left her behind anyway. I’ll just tell them myself. No time for backtracking, I’m so close to my goal now.. Give me an hour, and I’ll be back on Earth, ready to assume my rightful position in the world. Shut up,” the wizard added, although no-one had said anything, “it’s all in hand. I know you’re excited, but seriously, I’m trying to talk here.”
The old man puffed on his pipe idly.
“Honestly,” Keithus said. “Once that voice in my head gets going I can’t shut it up. I’m not mad, by the way.” He rubbed his hands together, looking about. “Right, let’s get started. You, old man. How would you like to die?”
“Any way is fine. I have no regrets.”
Keithus scowled, momentarily distracted. “No regrets? That must be nice.”
“It is,” the old man said happily. “Do you have any?”
“I do,” Keithus said angrily. “And they’re not even my fault. Thanks to the Viaggiatori, I have been stranded in this false world. My home planet needs me – think of all the things I could have done, should have been able to do! Well, they’ll learn. Now, I can go, and take my rightful place in history.” He raised his hand to his forehead, and sighed. “Enough of this. I feel like I need to go and make some things explode. Goodbye, old man.” He raised his staff, and sighted along it.
“Farewell, m’boy,” the old man said. He took a final puff on his pipe, and died peacefully.
“Let it not be said that I am inhumane,” Keithus said to the nearby two orcs, who just stared at him. “Now, this city is mine, and there are some things I need to do. I think it’s time to pay the Viaggiatori another visit. Come!” He strolled off purposefully, leaving behind the body of an old man, frozen in the act of its final smile.
30
Kendra was fretting. A lot of things had been happening, and it was getting difficult to keep up. For one thing, Marcus hadn’t said a word since they’d found their way out of the crystal ball, and she hadn’t been sure exactly what she could say to him. ‘Sorry that your entire life was a lie’, whilst succinct, probably wouldn’t have gone down too well. The sensation of being completely lost for words was a new one, and not one that she cared to repeat, but she’d been unable to bring herself to do anything other than walk awkwardly next to Marcus as they’d made their way back to the large hall where they’d met Keithus. Once they’d arrived, Marcus had, without a word, peeled off to go and stare out of one of the shattered windows. He was still there now, brooding dangerously.
As she sat and wondered what to do, Musk reappeared, with two people in tow. The first one was Fervesce, who was very much not dead. They bought each other up to speed, Musk quickly regaling the story of how he’d hurried back to where they’d left the old man, his chest tight with anxiety.. and had stepped through the hole into the room where he lay, asleep and surrounded by corpses. Fervesce smiled, slightly embarrassed, but his expression turned dark when Kendra told them what she’d seen inside Keithus’s crystal ball. The man almost made to move over to Marcus, but he was distracted by the other thing that he was doing, which was helping Musk. Between them they were dragging the third member of their group, a short, familiar-looking young Betyoullian man whose face was haggard and who looked in need of several good meals.
Kendra helped them lower him into a comfortable position leaning against a pile of debris. “Kai,” she said urgently, “can you hear me? Is he alive?”
“He’s alive,” Musk said. “Just about. Seems he’s had a pretty rough time. You know him?”
“I do,” Kendra said sadly, putting her hand to his cheek. “My friend, Lit Kai.”
“Lit Kai?” Fervesce repeated. “The Lit Kai? The one who vanished?”
“Yaha. Guess we know where he went now.”
Lit Kai; the shining star of the Viaggiatori, who had joined the organisation full of crazy modern ideas about how they might be able to make use of the Mirrorline not just to travel between worlds but to shortcut between places in one world. His ideas had been radical, and the council had been against it, but Eira had given him a place in the organisation as a novice, and told him to get to work despite the old guard’s objections and relentless attempts to get in the way and trip him up. He’d spent two weeks working on his own tricks whilst learning the basics of Mirrorline travel, and then simply vanished, not long after Keithus had attacked and been thrown out of the city. Kendra had been a big fan and had orbited him in all of his endeavours as he tried to make his ideas into reality, and had been quietly devastated when he’d disappeared without a trace.
Now, here he was again, barely recognisable. Eyes that in memory were bright with enthusiasm were dark and empty. His cheeks were sunken, his expression was perpetually grim, and his body appeared to be wasting away slowly. He responded to her touch, his eyes fluttering open and focusing on her. “I know you,” he said quietly. “Jen, was it?” His voice was little more than a whisper.
“Kendra,” she said. “I’m Kendra.”
“Yes, that was it. You were nice. One of the few.”
“What happened to you, Kai? What did Keithus do to you?”
“Betrayed me. Of course. Should have realised. Too good to be true.”
“’Betrayed’ is a funny word for ‘kidnapped’,” Musk said, stirring from his intrigued observation.
“Kidnapped?” Kai laughed. “No, he didn’t kidnap me. I went of my own free will. It sounded so good…” he paused for a coughing fit. “Nice wizard. Offers me everything I need. No obstructions. Not like you. Council and their sycophants buzzing in my way like flies in my eyes. Room to experiment, provided I come with him now. Leave no trace. No time for byes. Sorry, Kendra.”
Kendra stared, aghast. “You went with him out of choice?”
Kai closed his eyes. “You know me. Busy with my work. Had no idea he was a so mad. Don’t pay attention to news, things to do. And he seemed nice. Bought me here. Set me up. Left me to work. Got it to work, too. Easy, really.”
“So it can be done?” Fervesce asked. “I knew there was something odd about that giant mirror the second I laid eyes on it. Specially modified, I should say.”
“Not at all,” Kai rasped. “Much simpler. Mirrors irrelevant. You just-“
“We can talk about that later,” Kendra interrupted. “Can we go back to how much of an idiot you are, you big numpty?”
“Kendra is mean,” Kai said quietly, but he smiled. “Yes. Kai is an idiot. But a genius idiot!”
“Glad you got that,” Kendra said, squeezing his hand. It felt cold.
“What happened when you figured it out?” Musk asked.
“We tested it. Sent a Jabberwock to Plumm. Heard it had worked. Wizard has a man in town. He thanked me sincerely. Revealed why he’d wanted the power. Then he cursed me. Then he locked me up. Then he left me to die.” Kai punctuated this revelation with another coughing fit, which was much more violent than the last one. “Should have seen it coming. Kai knows, is an idiot.”
Kendra reeled. “He cursed you?”
“Yes. Look at me. Dying. Gone soon. Meant to be gone before you were here. Hung on. He asked me to identify you all. Used the crystal ball. Saw it was you. I waited for you.”
“Oh, Kai,” Kendra said, crying and hugging him.
“Is there anything we can do?” Fervesce asked gravely.
“Troll!” Musk yelled suddenly.
Kimberlite had had a hell of a time waking up. Even on normal days, it took a while for a silicon brain to get back into gear and assume control of all its body’s extremities, and as it turned out, being knocked out made it even more difficult. Waves of pain had washed up and down her body and come up against the iron force of her determination to not be lying on the floor any more, and she’d pulled herself upright, trying not to think about how she’d gotten to be on the floor in the first place. A human! A
mere human, and he’d fought her to a standstill. Or more accurately, to a fall-over.
She’d wandered through the debris of the fight to the window, massaging her hand, which hurt significantly more than anywhere else. Looking out, she’d been surprised to be discover that everyone had already left. The plateau was almost completely empty, and the only sounds she could hear were voices coming from the next room. So she’d staggered over to the doorway to see what was happening, and had been met with a scene of utmost destruction. A room that had been previously beautifully decorated was now a shattered mess, and if that wasn’t bad enough the few humans who were scattered across the room had begun to shout at the sight of her, with the sole exception of the dead one sticking out of the rubble.
“Stay back, lady,” said the man with whom she had battled, rising and positioning himself in front of the small group that he was standing with. “Don’t make me hurt you again.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she said firmly. “Where’s Keithus?”
“He left,” the woman of the group said flatly, glaring at her. “Kai! Kai… don’t try to move..”
“He left?” Kimberlite repeated. “The bastard. Um, look,” she added, aware that she was attracting a lot of hostile attention, “I’m not feeling too good right now. I’m not looking for a fight. Can I just.. sit down with you people for a minute?”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “Weren’t you rahhh-murder-nasty-troll-lady not long ago?”
“Well, yes, since you were my enemy, as dictated by my boss. But he’s not here anymore. Incidentally, neither are any of my subjects, which is worrying. I don’t like the idea of them being exposed to him without my guidance.” This was true, and a surprising thought. She’d expected to think of her trolls as proudly avenging themselves on the pathetic humans for the death of their king, but thinking about it now, she was just worried about how they were doing. Of course, in her thoughts she’d been expecting to be there alongside them tearing humans apart, and so maybe being unceremoniously left behind was affecting her judgement. But that diamond core was telling a different tale, and with Keithus gone, it suddenly seemed much harder to ignore.
“Your subjects?” the large-fisted man asked, relaxing slightly.
“Oh, yes,” Kimberlite said, startled out of her thoughts. “I am the queen of trolls, you know.”
“I thought you said something like that,” the man said, nodding. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, your majesty.” He bowed. Kimberlite was amazed, but no more so than the other members of his group if their expressions were anything to go by. “My name is Musk. These are my associates Kendra and Fervesce. You probably already know Lit Kai, here. Oh and that’s Marcus, over there.”
Kimberlite tore her gaze away from Musk’s well-chiselled face in order to follow his pointed finger to the fifth person in the room, who was stood off to the side, leaning on one of the intact window ledges and staring out, seemingly ignoring everything that was happening around him. He was so still that she hadn’t even noticed him before. “What’s up with him?” she asked.
“He just discovered that he was forcibly baby-swapped with Keithus and that his entire life was a lie,” Kendra said quietly. “We’re giving him some space.” She raised her voice. “Musk, why are we talking to this wall?”
“Kendra, please,” Musk said, glancing between her and Kimberlite, “I think we’ve fought enough for one day.”
“Musk! She imprisoned him! She’s part of this!”
“I am sorry,” Kimberlite put in quickly. “When I first joined them, Keithus was treating the boy well. I couldn’t reason with him; once he got what he wanted, he threw him away.” She shivered, suddenly realising that there might be a relevant parable to her own situation in that. “For what it’s worth, I always made sure he was fed and looked after as best I could.”
“That’s not worth much against a curse that slowly kills,” Kendra said, hugging Kai.
Kimberlite sat down heavily, cracking the floor. “There’s nothing I could do about that. But I am sorry for what I did. Really.. I feel like I’ve done some terrible things, made what suddenly seem like some bad decisions. I thought he gave a damn, that we were in this together.” She stared off at nothing. “He gave me a means to channel a terrible, powerful bloodlust, but now.. I’m just worried about what I’ve gotten my people into.” It was all true. Her mind seemed clearer by the moment. All the thoughts she’d had about the unprecedented opportunity that bringing the Northlands together represented, sane and rational thoughts for a monarch, had been quashed in favour of the long-held desire for cruel vengeance that had predated Keithus. But since she’d met him, it felt like she’d been focusing on it so much that, now, at this point, it had all but burned out.
“It is possible..” Fervesce began, and paused to yawn. “Now I don’t know much about wizarding magic, but I’m sure there’s a field of it that concerns how it can be applied to others.. used to bring them around, convince them to accept your own opinion. Something like that. And they always said that Keithus was skilled in all kinds of magic. Which is odd, if he’s from Earth. Earth people shouldn’t have the spark in them. But since clearly he does.. it could be so.”
“It’s his Talent,” Kendra said with a sigh. “Must be. Forced across the Mirrorline at a time when it was falling apart.. it could totally happen. Boom, instant endless magical talent. That makes sense. But I’m not buying this.” She glared at Kimberlite. “You’re just as bad as him.” She turned away to focus on Kai, who had slipped into unconsciousness. “Fervesce, can you take care of Kai? I can’t stand this. I need to talk to Marcus.”
She laid Kai down by the old man, smiled at the boy once more, and then turned her back and walked away, brushing the tears from her eyes.
“She seems upset,” Kimberlite said. Trolls as a whole were not given to the subtlety of human emotions, but in this instance it was pretty obvious.
“We’re all upset,” Musk said, sitting down beside her. “We were the last hope to stop Keithus, and we failed miserably. He’s right there in Portruss now, probably destroying everything. But yes, I think Kendra is probably the most upset. She really liked Marcus, and now he has no reason to ever want to speak to us again. And she liked Kai, too, and now he’s dying. The probability that the world will end soon presumably seals the deal.”
“The world will end?” Kimberlite stared down at Musk.
“Probably,” the man said. “Once Keithus is done exacting whatever revenge he feels necessary, he’s going to return to his original intention, which was to cross to Earth. The most powerful wizard in the Mirrorworld, going to a planet that has no concept of magic at all? This is the problem. The Mirrorline is all about balance, and if he just strolls over there, the whole thing’s going to tip over.”
“You don’t seem too bothered about this,” Kimberlite observed.
Musk shrugged. “Maybe not. I’ve spent my entire life in search of something I could really believe in, which I define as something that wouldn’t shatter to pieces from a single punch. I’m happy to have finally found someone who fits that definition, even if it is at the end of all things.”
He smiled up at her, and Kimberlite once again noticed how attractively carved his features were, for a human at least. He was nowhere near craggy enough for her usual taste, but he was tough and heroic, and carried himself in a way that reminded her irresistibly of Dia. Strength, and knowledge of strength, and the confidence that came from that knowledge, and oh no, she thought, I’m eroding!
Marcus was lost. Deep within his own mind, his thoughts lay wrapped around him like a shroud, cutting him off from the physical world and trapping him in memory. He knew, in part, that he still stood in Keithus’s castle, could feel the wind that whistled through the high windows as it blew on a face that barely perceived it, bringing water to eyes that could see only a thousand miles of thoughts. But the physicality of the world had proven secondary to the freight train
of recollection that had careened around his memory, powered by the unfortunate truth of Keithus’s crystal ball. It had run from the memory of the discovery all the way back to that faint memory of the moment itself, when his life had jumped track at the hands of the Viaggiatori, and had sparked a revolution in its wake. The many Marcuses of memory had stirred, angry, and demanded his presence, and so it was that he stood now not in a castle but on the hilltop of his mind’s eye, beneath a canopy of broken stars.
He had been here before, of course. Thoughts rolled through his mind like dust; this was the same hilltop that the Viaggiatori labs had built for him, but such a place had had its genesis in his own mind, and he could see a strange sort of sense in how he was now able to return here unaided. He was stood now in a memory that only existed because he had seen it before, and that he had only been able to see before because he’d remembered seeing it now. As Tec had said, long ago, time was a relative concept, and now, working his way through his memories and recalling his ghostly sensation of how someone else had been there with him back then.. now he knew exactly what the man had meant. He wasn’t in the Mirrorline now, but yet, he was, because in a way, he had always been. He’d spent his entire life caught between two worlds, living in one but belonging in the other: just as the Mirrorline was not quite a part of Earth or the Mirrorworld, nor was he, and he’d always carried a piece of it with him, a fragment of infinity lodged in his head. It was by that power that his thoughts had come alive, and it was by that power that they stood before him now, assembled into a riotous mob of torches and pitchforks that would leave him no time for further introspection.
“Your life was a lie,” they seethed collectively. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know,” Marcus confessed. “I can’t get it straight in my head.”
“What’s there to get straight? We are owed a debt.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” Marcus said, stirring. “I threw you away.”
Mirrorworld Page 38
