The River of Shadows

by Robert V. S. Redick

  “Well done, Pathkendle,” said Hercól with a sigh. “Humans—animals on horseback, to them—appear suddenly on their doorstep, and you treat them to a murthic howl.”

  “He sounded like a stabbed monkey,” said one of the soldiers. “What’s wrong with him? The prince said he was safe.”

  “Oh, he’s far from that,” said Neeps.

  “Undrabust!” snapped Hercól. “Listen, all of you: Pazel has fancies, but they are harmless. The only danger that should concern us is the one we chase. All else is foolishness.” He shot a hard glance at Pazel. “We have no time to spare for foolishness.”

  A chain dangled from a small hole in the wall beside green doors. Vadu pulled it, and somewhere deep in the cliff another bell sounded faintly. But thanks to Pazel’s outburst, perhaps, they stood a long time waiting for an answer, colder by the minute.

  “Neeps,” whispered Pazel, “didn’t you see her?”

  “Which her?”

  “The girl on the balcony. It was Klyst, mate. She looked right at me.”

  “A sea-murth,” said Neeps, looking up at the hanging mansion, with its icicles and frost. “You’re barking mad, you know that?”

  “That’s insulting,” said Pazel. “I tell you, it was Klyst.”

  Through the crowd of men, horses and sicuñas, Thasha’s eyes found him suddenly. Amusement shone in them, but also a wariness that was nearly accusing. She knew about the murth-girl too.

  At last the doors groaned open. In the doorway stood an ancient dlömic man, straight-backed and very thin. Like all dlömu he was without wrinkles, his old skin tight and smooth, but his neatly combed beard was white as chalk and hung almost to his knees.

  “I am the Master Teller, father to the people of Vasparhaven,” he said. “I regret that I cannot permit you within our walls.”

  The soldiers glared at Pazel; Neeps’ look was only slightly more benign. But what the old dlömu said next made them forget their irritation. They were not, he declared, the first humans to appear at the temple door. Two days earlier, others had presented themselves, seeking shelter. One was a youth, dirty, frightened, but clever with his words. Another was an abandoned creature who stared at nothing, whose left hand twitched constantly and whose lips formed words it did not speak: a tol-chenni dressed up like a thinking being, and able to walk erect. “A freak of nature, I thought,” said the Master Teller. “The youth held him by a rope about the neck, as one might a donkey, or a dog.”

  The third figure, he said, was a terror to behold: tall, gaunt, with eyes that looked famished and cruel, and a tattered white scarf at the neck. “He was their leader, but he was cruel to the youth, who seemed to have no value to him except as the keeper of the tol-chenni. He required the youth to keep the creature warm, to make it eat and drink.”

  “We seek those three, Spider Father,” said Vadu. “Did they depart in the night?”

  “Yes,” said the old man. “The tall one was anxious to be gone, and tried to demand our help to cross Ilvaspar. But what could we do? There is no commerce beyond the lake—not in fifty years, since the Plazic general summoned the accursed Black Tongue. The three waited long upon the shore, the tall one pacing and cursing, until at last a fisherman returned and was persuaded—or bullied, perhaps—into taking them where they wished to go. You must seek passage with the fisherfolk as well, if you really want to pursue those three.”

  “It is the last thing we want, good Father,” said Hercól, “and yet pursue them we must. How did they come here, though? For they made the journey from Masalym faster than seems possible for man or beast.”

  The old man frowned and closed the doors. At first they wondered if they had given some offense, but soon the doors creaked open again and a younger dlömic man dressed like the Master Teller stepped out nervously. The old man stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder.

  “Have no fear, they are courteous folk,” he said. “Tell them what you saw.”

  The young man struggled to find his voice. “A gandryl,” he whispered. “A winged steed. They rode upon its back, all three of them, and it put them down beside the Chalice of the Maî. I saw it. I was checking my rabbit snares.”

  The soldiers murmured, wonder-struck: “A gandryl! The mage rides a gandryl!”

  “They are not all gone,” said the Master Teller. “More goatish than horse-like, as befits life in the peaks, but the size of warstallions. They are woken creatures, long-lived and crafty. We never see them today, only their footprints on the lake isles, where no goats live. I was not sure I believed our young novice here, until you spoke.”

  “Why didn’t the creature fly them on, past the lake?” asked Thasha.

  Stumbling over his words, the novice explained that Arunis had tried to demand just that. But the gandryl had replied that he had bargained for a flight to the shores of Ilvaspar, and that his payment was barely worth that much trouble, and certainly no more. It had left them right at the Chalice, and the mage had cursed it as it flew away.

  “He may have set out on horseback from Masalym, and called the creature down from the sky,” said Vadu. “The great mages of old were said to do that, upon the plain of the Inner Kingdom.”

  “At least he no longer has the creature’s service,” said Hercól. “He has gained an advantage, but not escaped us altogether.”

  “You should sleep here tonight,” said the Master Teller. “I cannot let you enter Vasparhaven, but there is a Ilyrette, a way-cave, not far from here, and it is safe, and sheltered from the wind. In happier days it was a place where travelers rested often, before crossing the lake or descending to the plain. I will send food from our kitchens, and bedding too.”

  “Both would be welcome,” said Hercól, “though we will only nap on the bedding, I fear. The one we chase is bent on the worst sort of malice, and if he escapes, not even your refuge here will long be spared. Take our animals in payment, Father—or if you need them not, take them as a favor to us.”

  “We have stables,” said the old man, “and will care for your beasts until you return.”

  “I cannot say when that will be,” said Hercól. “But there is a final matter we must raise. Come here, Pazel, and tell him what happened to you.”

  As Hercól unwound the bandage on his arm, Pazel told the old dlömu about the spider. “It was as big as a coconut, Father. And transparent. I thought it was a piece of ice, until it jumped and bit me.”

  The novice, clearly shocked, turned in agitation to his master. The old dlömu for his part showed no reaction at all. He studied the mark on Pazel’s arm. “They do bite, sometimes, the wild medet spiders,” he said, “and some who suffer the bite know great pain. With others, however, there is no pain at all. You may feel a little cold in the arm, but it will pass.”

  “Then with your leave, Father, we will go to our brief rest,” said Hercól.

  “You may have more time than you think,” said the priest. “The lake is vast, and the fishermen go deep into coves and streams, and rarely return before midnight. I will make inquiries, but do not hope for much.”

  The travelers bowed and offered their thanks, and the Master Teller sent the novice to show them the way. A few minutes’ walk brought them to another cliff door, smaller and simpler than the doors of the temple. Inside was a dry cave of several rooms. There were tables, chairs, rough beds of a sort. Just minutes later the food arrived: cauldrons of thin stew balanced on either end of a staff across broad dlömic shoulders, hot bread, flat cakes made with onion and some sort of corn. It was all delicious, and so was the jug of black beer that washed it down.

  By the time they finished eating it was nearly dark. Hercól asked Thasha, Pazel and Neeps to help him with the signal-fire. Bearing a heavy woolen blanket, lamp oil and a telescope, they set off back along the lake, watching the first stars appear over the teeth of the mountains. In Vasparhaven shadowy figures were moving, placing candles in the windows. The stars were igniting too, and by the time they reached the ridge and looked do
wn on Masalym’s Inner Dominion the sun was gone.

  Hercól dashed oil on the brush pile. Then he bent to strike a match, and soon the dry scrub was roaring with flame. Next he reached into his coat and removed a sheet of folded paper, glanced at it briefly and replaced it. “Very well,” he said. “Take a corner of the blanket, Thasha, and step back.”

  Hercól and Thasha stretched the blanket between the fire and the sweep of the plain. “Hold it higher—we must block as much light as we can. That’s the way. Now flatten it to the ground—and raise it again—very good.”

  They moved precisely, hiding and revealing the fire by turns. Each time they bent down Hercól looked pointedly across the Inner Dominion. At last it came: a pale and distant light. Hercól raised the telescope to his eye. “That is Olik, upon the Dais of Masalym,” he said. “He is answering with the code we agreed. Now to tell him that Arunis is here.”

  Five times they stretched the blanket, and five times lowered it. Then Hercól, studying the valley again, nodded his satisfaction. “The prince has understood … two, three, four—five! Well, there is something you’ll want to know. Five flashes means that the Chathrand is safely away.”

  The relief was so great Pazel almost cried aloud.

  “Wait! He is signaling again,” said Hercól. “… four, five, six, seven—” He lowered the telescope and looked at them. “Eight. Macadra’s ship is entering the Jaws of Masalym, even now.”

  “Then he’s got to get out right now!” said Thasha.

  “Can we tell him that?” said Pazel. “Do you have some way to tell him?”

  Hercól shook his head. “Olik knows the danger better than we do,” he said. “But feed the fire all the same, boys. We must inform him that we ourselves mean to go on. And then hope that he flees instantly, now that there is no reason to keep searching the city. A noble prince! He kept his word to the folk of Masalym, despite the peril to himself.”

  They raised and lowered the blanket several times more, and the light below them flickered twice, and Hercól said that it was the signal that Olik had understood. Then they sat down on the stony earth, waiting for their fire to die. The wind tossed Thasha’s hair about like a tattered flag. The light in the valley abruptly disappeared, as though snuffed, but the friends sat awhile longer in silence.

  “I’m a mucking fool,” said Neeps suddenly.

  “You are that,” said Thasha.

  Neeps did not even look at her. “I’ve got nothing,” he said. “How am I supposed to take care of them? I should be hanged, is what.”

  “Not every act of yours was foolish,” said Hercól. “You chose a Tholjassan for a mate: that counts for something. Tame your fear, Undrabust. Your child will find its way in the world.”

  “My child,” said Neeps, as though the notion shocked him yet. “Do you know, there are times when my mind just seems to vanish? To go out like that fire down there. I can’t even think about what I’ll do when this is over. What the three of us will do.”

  “See first that your future is not stolen from you,” said a voice from the darkness.

  The humans started. It was the Master Teller. The old dlömu seemed to have just appeared there, conjured by the night, his cloak billowing about him. They could not see his face; only the silver eyes shone from beneath the hood.

  “I warn you,” he said, “it is being stolen even now. We who read the signs have never beheld such a conjunction of ills. Alifros is bleeding; soon it will hemorrhage. And the wounding hand—it belongs to that mage who came before you. Who is he? Will you tell me his name?”

  The others hesitated, and the Master Teller said, “I shall name him, then. He is the murderer of Ullimar, Ullum’s son. He is the Traitor of Idharin and the author of the White Curse; he is the father of the Ravens: Arunis.”

  “You knew all along!” said Pazel.

  “I did,” said the old man, “but you were quite unknown to me, and though you claimed friendship with our brother Prince Olik, I could not be sure. I feared you might in truth be part of the sorcerer’s company—especially as one among you bears a Plazic Blade. Now that that cursed thing is elsewhere I can better sense your goodness. Yes, I recognized Arunis Wytterscorm. Long have I traced the arc of his journeys, in the tremors of the earth, the grinding of her bones against one another. He has come back across the Ruling Sea to plague us again, this time bearing some horrible tool.”

  “It is the Nilstone, Spider Father,” said Hercól.

  The old man was very still. “That I did not know,” he said after a pause, “and worse tidings I cannot imagine. Arunis, with Erithusmé’s orb! The death of this world has been his long, his passionate ambition. Now he has the power to bring that prize within reach.”

  “He has aimed a cannon at Alifros,” said Hercól, “but we think he is still struggling with the match. Should he gain full control of the tol-chenni’s mind he will become invincible. That is why we are in such need of haste.”

  “When the fishermen return you may bid them in my name to take you swiftly across the lake. But come, your fire is out, and this wind is too chilly for an old man.”

  Pazel was glad to move; the night would be icy, and he too was growing cold. They walked back along the lakeshore. At Vasparhaven the green doors opened as they neared, and two novices came forward to assist the Master Teller.

  The old man halted them with a wave, then looked sharply at Pazel. “You are quite sure that your arm is not in pain?” he asked.

  Pazel, who had almost forgotten the spider bite, shook his head. “It wasn’t bad even at the time, to be honest. And there’s no pain at all now.” When the Teller continued to stare at him, he added nervously, “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  “No,” said the dlömu, “I would not call it good, exactly. There are two sorts of reactions to the bite of the medet. One, as I said, is great pain; and that is usually to be preferred, for it passes after several hours. Those who suffer no pain feel cold instead. This begins about a day after the bite, and lasts for three.”

  “Cold?” said Pazel, feeling chilled by the discussion alone. “And then?”

  “Then the eyes shrivel, and the victim goes blind.”

  The humans cried aloud, but the Teller quickly raised a hand. “There is a treatment, and I have asked my people to prepare it. But it must be given to you in Vasparhaven, Mr. Pathkendle. Are you willing to ascend?”

  “Willing? I wish you’d told me hours ago! I don’t want to go blind!”

  “I had to be certain that you were in no pain,” said the Teller, “and the cure must be given in three stages, over as many hours. It is just as well that you are delayed in crossing Ilvaspar.”

  “Let us go with him, then, can’t you?” cried Neeps, who was if anything more distraught than Pazel himself.

  The Master Teller shook his head. “Your friend must face this challenge alone. And even if that were not so, I would still be forced to turn away the bearer of Ildraquin. Yes, Hercól Stanapeth, I know your sword as well. It is not cursed, like the Plazic Knife your companion bears. Yet it is powerful, and would throw the quiet music of Vasparhaven into discord.” He looked at Thasha. “For the same reason, I cannot permit you to enter, young mage.”

  “Mage?” said Thasha. “Father, I’m nothing of the kind! Some mage is—meddling with me, that’s all. I don’t know why she’s doing it, or how—”

  “She?”

  Thasha grew flustered. “Or … he, I suppose. The point is, I don’t have any magic of my own.”

  “Be that as it may, the power within you is great,” said the Teller.

  “Well, do get on with it, Father,” sputtered Neeps. “And please, please make sure he takes his medicine. Don’t turn your back until he drinks it all, and don’t let him spit it up again—”

  “Neeps, for Rin’s sake!” cried Pazel. “Father, listen to me, please: if outside magic can do you harm, I should explain—”

  “That you carry a Master-Word?” said the dlömu. “I know th
at, child. It would do great harm indeed, should you speak it within our walls. And I know too that you and your sister have been burdened with augmentation spells.”

  He knows that Neda’s my sister, thought Pazel, his mind a-whirl. We didn’t even glance at each other in front of him.

  “I trust you will not speak that Word,” the old dlömu continued, “and the language-charm you carry presents no danger, for its power does not extend beyond your mind.”

  “Father,” said Thasha, “have you used this cure on human beings?”

  The Master Teller looked at her with compassion. “I am old, daughter of the North, but not that old. The last human residents of Vasparhaven succumbed to the plague before I ever set foot in these mountains. Still, our ancient records describe the process clearly.” He put a hand on Pazel’s shoulder. “You must leave your knife and sword outside our walls, Mr. Pathkendle, common blades though they be. Let us go, now.”

  Pazel took a shaky breath. His friends’ eyes were wide with concern, but he forced himself to smile. “Don’t cross that lake without me,” he said, and passed them his knife and sword.

  He followed the Master Teller inside, and the novices began to close the heavy doors. Once more the old man stopped them. Looking back at the humans outside, he said, “You may not understand, but this is an auspicious event. The medet is the creature at the heart of our ceremonies and our mystic arts. It is a rare distinction.”

  “Getting bitten,” asked Thasha, looking anything but hopeful, “or going blind?”

  “Either one,” said the Teller, drawing Pazel away.

  Spider Telling

  7 Modobrin 941

  236th day from Etherhorde

  Inside it was cold and dark, but the Master Teller was already climbing the wide staircase before them, and as Pazel and the novices followed him up the air began to warm. They passed several floors, with dark hallways tunneling off into the stone. Pazel saw lamplight at the distant ends of some of these halls, and heard the ring of hammers, the rasp of lathes and saws. “Our workshops,” said the old man, gesturing, “and our warehouses, our mill. In its younger days Vasparhaven was a stronghold where scholars took refuge in times of war or other catastrophe, and kept their learning alive for those who would come after. We are preparing to serve that function again.”