The Company of Glass

by Tricia Sullivan

  I had never seen beings such as these before. All this time I was watching the Company through my Eyes in the Water, watching from the Place I was Before. They charmed me utterly. They reached a hall with a black polished floor. The floor shone like calm lake water but echoed like metal when the horses stepped on it. The space was huge and the light came through it at impossible angles, refracted by the setting sun without; yet the leader was not dismayed to be so dwarfed. He urged his horse forward and behind him in a phalanx of muscle and will were twelve weapons at the ready.

  I could see them from every angle, for my Eyes were everywhere.

  They wanted to fight but there were no enemies for them. There was only me, safe in the Place I was Before, looking through the Water. They came over to the Water and looking in saw the Glass lying at its heart. It was the treasure they sought.

  The leader turned to the others and said, ‘Be wary. This is almost too easy.’ They rattled their swords and looked dangerous; they wanted to fight. They felt only half-alive unless they were fighting: I could pick this up off them like a scent.

  There was one among them who was wilder than the rest; he had rattles and vials of poison about his bare torso, and he carried a bow on his back. He looked into the Water cross-eyed, as a challenge. His hand came out towards me.

  ‘Chyko, no!’ cried the leader; but it was too late.

  Never had I felt anything like what I felt when the one called Chyko touched the Water. I decided to take this one. I wanted to See his spirit. I began to stir. Jai Pendu took a long, slow, deep breath as I invoked its power. I made opponents to test the Company. They drew their weapons and fought me, though they could not see me.

  It was beautiful. The way they moved; their emotions; the simple purity of their desires. There was much pleasure for me in the Sight of it, even from the great distance across the gulf of the worlds.

  But while I was preoccupied with this, the leader had entered the Water. He reached in and broke the calm; like any animal will he brought the Sun into my Eye where I watched and I was dazzled and almost destroyed; I was blinded and forced out of my Place. We seized each other inside the Water and he stole my Eyes. I was drawn into his world blind, and now it was he who could See. He Saw the battle that I was waging outside the Water. He was enraptured with the many things he felt in himself and in his Company as they fought me; but he had already made his doom and theirs.

  I could not stay in the Water. I was meant to be only Seeing from the other Place but now I was here – I was involved. I was desperate. He had foolishly disturbed me and now I was beyond the aid of my own kind, and my memories of what I am slipped away from me like sand. I could not See except indirectly through the Glass, and the leader held it like a weapon. I tried to get the Glass from him but I could not, and his Company were still fighting me. They had to be neutralized.

  I remember calling them. I remember how I emerged from the Water and tried to gather the scattered images from the Eyes that this man could not control, he who held the Glass. I remember spreading my arms, and brightness like spidersilk shot from my fingertips. The strands branched and extended like tree limbs, each one arrowing to a target in the form of a Clan warrior. The one called Lyetar was struck by one string of light and he doubled over. I ate his pain, which was better than much music. The translucent strands wrapped his body, wound around his legs, covered his eyes and mouth, and he began to shrink until he was a bright parcel no bigger than a hand. I drew him home to me with my silken light. That is how I captured them.

  Chyko was the last to go. He fought the light, wriggling almost free, clawing at the bonds, his body seeming to climb out of itself in an effort to escape. Humanity left his face, which took on the quality of some primordial living thing blindly straining away from death. One by one the radiant strands covered his throat, his forehead, his cheekbones and nose and eyes, and finally they covered the gasping mouth.

  How I do love Chyko.

  I turned to the leader but I could not catch him in this way.

  Now I held a great light in my cupped hands. With all the power of those trapped warriors, I summoned back to me the Water of Glass that had been stolen. But it did not come. Instead, the light slowly dimmed and settled in my hands. I held a piece of sculpture: three men on horseback, all merged at the base as if rising from the sea, their weapons angled forward to meet the charge.

  I had made the men into a Glass.

  I blundered towards their leader. It was his turn. I had to go home; but he was preventing me, for he held the Water. I could not See the Way.

  ‘Give it back,’ I said.

  ‘Give back my men,’ he answered.

  ‘Come,’ I said, ‘And I will take you to them.’

  And we burst out of the Water. I tried to take him as I had taken the others, for I liked him best of all; but he cut the bonds with his sword that bore the sign of the Eye and the Sun and the Rose. He attacked me, but when he saw that he could not hit me with his sword he did not know what to do. I stepped back always half a pace out of sword range, and no matter how quickly he changed direction or how far he lunged, he found that the target was not there when his weapon extended.

  ‘Coward!’ he accused me. ‘Stand and defend against Quintar, servant of Ysse.’

  But I slid away; I didn’t want to fight on his terms.

  ‘Declare yourself!’ he said. ‘What name are you?’

  ‘I do not have a name,’ I answered.

  ‘Every thing has a name,’ he taunted.

  ‘Very well,’ I said. ‘I am Night.’

  And I brought my darkness down on him like the blow of a sword.

  So he fled from me. Down through the long halls of my blindness I pursued him; down into the twilight and to the White Road where it gleamed like a moonpath on the sea, his only hope of salvation. He ran upon it but when I tried to follow I was prevented. There was an Animal on the White Road, and it hated me. The White Road curled up on itself and I could not set foot on it. I could not escape Jai Pendu; not that way. And the tide was changing.

  I could feel the hollow space where my Eyes had been, like a soldier feels phantom pains in an arm that has been long amputated. I had to regain my Sight; without it I would be stranded in this world where I did not belong. I must not stay in Jai Pendu, for it was about to sail.

  I was weak and my sense of what I am drained from me like blood. I decided to find a way to Everien through the cracks and ruins that are bent and turned on their sides, through the warped islands that float on the sea; and I became lost within them. I passed deep into the earth, and the last thing I remember of this is how I returned to my elemental darkness, darkness my little familiar, and let it smother me with its warm fur, and for a while I believed myself dead.

  ‘Mhani! Mhani! Stop! Come back!’ Devri was sitting on her chest and prising her eyelids apart. She shuddered and pulled away, teeth chattering. She couldn’t feel her hands or feet.

  ‘You mustn’t,’ he said. ‘You’ll kill yourself.’

  Devri stood up and she saw that two apprentices were standing nearby with blankets and steaming vessels.

  ‘Get them out of here!’ she commanded, but her words were a whisper. ‘You stupid boy.’

  Devri ordered the apprentices to leave the items. ‘You haven’t been here,’ he said sternly. ‘You haven’t seen this. Understood?’

  The youths nodded solemnly and scurried away. Mhani tried to sit up. Devri wrapped her up in the blankets and poured hot liquor into a bowl. He had to unfold her fingers so she could hold it. They were blue. She could not stop the shaking that seemed to come from the very pit of her stomach, and to her dismay tears threatened to overcome her. Devri was an idiot to allow apprentices into the Eye Tower while she was working. And then for them to see her in this condition … if Ajiko got wind of it, he’d probably have her locked up.

  ‘Where’s Xiriel?’ she gulped. ‘Bring him at once.’

  Devri pretended not to hear her, continuin
g to fuss and hover. ‘You are doing everything you have always warned us against doing, Mhani! If I didn’t know better I’d say you were playing Impressionist. It’s crazy at your age. I’ll tell Hanji if you don’t stop. Now, before your toes fall off from the cold – drink!’

  She managed a tiny sip. The concoction was almost pure alcohol.

  ‘Devri, where’s Xiriel?’

  He looked down evasively. ‘I don’t know. He didn’t turn up the day that Lerien left. The castle’s acting so strange, I suppose he could be anywhere.’

  ‘Istar, then.’ The tears trembled in her eyes now. ‘Yes, I must see my daughter.’

  Again Devri didn’t answer.

  ‘Fetch her, please. Send for her. Devri!’

  ‘Mhani … I’m sorry. They have all gone missing. Kassien, Pallo, Xiriel, and Istar. No one has seen any of them for days.’

  ‘Days? What do you mean, days?’

  ‘Mhani, please, you must come down and rest. Don’t you realize how long you’ve been in the Liminal?’

  ‘Where is Istar?’ She was on the verge of tears.

  ‘They’ve gone, Mhani. Ajiko’s had a search out for Pallo on Lerien’s command. His soldiers have turned the place inside out.’

  Mhani made a greater effort to drink. She would not collapse. She put a weak hand to her lips. Her fingers had begun to ache as they warmed up. ‘What have I done? How could I encourage her? And why, why did not Tarquin tell us?’

  ‘What have you seen?’ Devri begged. ‘Have you found the army? They aren’t … are they … they aren’t dead?’

  Through tightly clenched teeth she said, ‘Leave me, Devri. Lock the Eye Tower and do not let anyone up.’

  ‘I can’t do that. You’re in danger as it is. Mhani, let me help you. Ajiko’s been pestering me for your reports.’

  ‘What have you said?’

  ‘I … I’ve been making them up. But it’s dangerous, Mhani! What if there’s an enemy or a crisis and we fail to See it? What about the king?’

  ‘I’m going to call him now.’

  ‘You mustn’t. You’re too tired. Please, I mean no disrespect but your judgement cannot be sound if you propose continuing. You’ve had no rest.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s got to be done.’

  ‘I’ll get the others, I’ll get Hanji …’

  ‘No! Hanji has his hands full, and anyway he’s not a Seer. And if you open the Tower, I’ll have Ajiko all over me like a rash. No, you must obey me, Devri. Look at me.’

  He did. Devri was not much older than Xiriel. He happened to be a cousin of Mhani’s by marriage. He had long brown hair and soft eyes and he was tremendously receptive to the Knowledge, but she was sure he would never have the will to become a great Seer. Now all his worry and fear for her was writ large on his face, and his eyes on her were searching.

  ‘You can see that I am possessed of my faculties,’ Mhani said steadily, sniffing and clearing her throat. ‘You can see that I am not insane. You must do as I say. You are a good Seer, Devri, and you must help me now. This is serious. Do as I’ve told you. Lock the Eye Tower and let no one in. If Ajiko makes a fuss, tell him you lost the door and cannot find it. I must not be disturbed. Do you understand?’

  He was nodding, accepting the responsibility she forced on him. ‘What about Hanji?’

  ‘If Hanji wants to find me, he will always be able to. As for you, Devri, keep your mouth shut no matter what. I don’t trust Ajiko, and neither should you.’

  ‘Mhani, please, I’ll do as you say, I swear, only tell me: is there truly a Pharician army on our borders?’

  ‘Pharice is the least of our worries at the moment,’ Mhani said. ‘All the same, don’t put Sendrigel at your back, either. I will call for you when I need you. Now go!’

  After he was gone she wrapped herself deeper in the blankets and sipped the hot liquid until she was very warm and fairly drunk. Then she returned her attention to the Water of Glass.

  She looked for Lerien but his Carry Eye was not in use. If they had been gone for days, probably he had tried to contact her, but she had been deep in the Impressions. She had a feeling of dangerous slippage; she was losing control of the whole system. If she let Devri in he could quickly check and record the activity on all the Eyes, saving her the trouble; but she didn’t wish to break her concentration, lest she be unable to recover it. With an effort, she performed her breathing exercises and then disciplined herself to make a sweep of the entire country.

  She found Lerien’s party in the Deer Country, making good progress. She noted their position and continued on with her sweep. When she scanned the area where Tarquin claimed to have seen the Pharician army, it was as empty as before.

  Or rather, it was empty – but not unchanged.

  The ground was trampled and torn in a strip a quarter of a mile wide for mile after mile down the Pharician side of the Everien Range. Then the grassland resumed, undisturbed. It looked just as if a large force had passed – but where had they gone? Into the sky?

  While she watched, she could see the churned ground growing slowly southward. She blinked, turned the Eye this way and that to be sure she had not imagined the movement, and turned it back. The torn earth was increasing.

  ‘They are invisible?’ As far as Mhani knew, even the Everiens hadn’t known how to make themselves invisible. How could the Pharicians, with their primitive mechanical understanding and their worship of bone-dry bureaucracy, succeed where the Everiens had failed? It was impossible. First she had Seen a woman on horseback; now a road that made itself out of the grassland, the earth tearing itself without benefit of weather or worm.

  What did it mean?

  She leaped up, stumbling down the stairs. Her voice was a shriek.

  ‘Devri! Devri! I’ve changed my mind. Fetch Hanji instantly!’

  Jaya Plants

  Two days passed while Lerien and his men rode north-west along the valley floor towards Wolf Country. On the second day they passed a company led by Inise of the Snake Clan on their way home from a successful offensive in the hills, and several groups of stragglers asked for news of the troops they’d been separated from. Smoke could be seen intermittently in the hills, and one night an eerie glow lit the sky above a highland lake. They stopped only to change horses, eat standing up, and sleep during the brief darkness.

  As the shadows of evening fingered the land on the third day, they reached A-vi-Sirinn. One of the largest of the ancient Everien settlements, it had always been impeccably managed by the Deer Clan. Unlike the other Clans, the Deer were only too happy to use as much of the Knowledge as they could, and to prevent its destruction or erasure they protected the remains of the old town even if it meant they could not shelter underground in the winter. The underground city had long since been closed by the Clan elders to prevent plunder of its Knowledge, so that except for the community of Scholars who worked to decipher the contents of the ruins, all of the townspeople lived above ground year-round. Even so, it was plain on first sight that A-vi-Sirinn had never been built by any Clan.

  The settlement draped the hillside in a series of curving terraces, down which flowed a wide stream in a succession of waterfalls, bisecting the town neatly. In winter these terraces would throw elaborate shadows and the waterfalls would freeze into shaggy beards, but in summer the town’s blue stone baked under the sun in sharp relief to the patches of snow that would never melt at this height. Where the stone had been quarried was anybody’s guess: it was deep and true as lapis and it fitted into the natural contours of the mountainside as if set there by a jeweller. Like all Everien settlements, A-vi-Sirinn possessed no fortifications, but because it abutted the base of a cliff on its highest side, it was easily protected against attacks from above by two Clan-built watchtowers set on the top of the cliff behind the town. A simple stone escarpment had been added to the lowest terrace to create a barrier against invasion from the valley, but it appeared now unguarded.

  There should be watchmen on the
walls, Tarquin thought. There should be bird-scouts. He had passed through here coming the other way on his hasty mission from Ristale; Tarquin remembered the town as a blur of guttering torches illumining empty streets, where a woman dressed in men’s garb had brought him a fresh horse and provisions. The men were all at war. Tonight, as the king’s party walked their horses through the gates, it appeared that a dogged industry prevailed despite the reduced population, for some effort had been made to prepare for Lerien’s visit. Kivi had contacted the town Seer with his Carry Eye to warn of their approach, so the houses were all lit and a great many children came out to greet them as they walked through the town toward its central hall.

  All of the buildings were dome-shaped and hewn from the same blue stone, which possessed the sleekness of polished marble. By day the walls, inside and out, were dark blue and opaque; by night they were semi-transparent and their colour was that of a clear autumn sky. Light poured from the walls themselves, spilling out into the streets and revealing the contents of the interiors at the same time. No lamps were needed in such houses; yet some of the Deer occupants had deliberately covered the walls to darken them, then added ordinary lights that were traditional. They had done all they could to make the dwellings more homelike: they had put up partitions to divide the circular spaces; they had brought in wooden and leather furniture to clutter up the austerity. And they had constructed shopfronts, chicken pens, dove houses, watering troughs and storage sheds in between the hivelike Everien buildings. The formal Everien gardens had been replaced by vegetable patches and orchards, and deer grazed around the town’s central fountain.

  ‘There may be something to be said for the Eyes after all,’ Ketar said to Kivi, who smiled. Fires had been lit in the central square, where spits holding game were being turned.