Maker's Curse

by Trudi Canavan

  Did I just separate two worlds?

  She had to know. Gathering her courage, she stood up, brushed off her clothes and pushed into the place between.

  No sign remained of the rend she had made. The path the sorcerer had taken was no longer detectable either. She could still sense the one leading back towards Tyen’s world, however. Stretching her new senses, she examined the pattern of the whiteness. She could feel the world behind her. It was like the presence of a person, but immense. No corresponding presence existed in front of her.

  A disturbing question now came to her. Had she removed the link between worlds, or had she destroyed that world along with the sorcerers?

  I could try to reach it from another direction…

  But that would take time. Tyen needed her to return to Beltonia, and she had already been away longer than she’d intended. He needed to know that Kettin hadn’t found his world, after all. That there would be no additional spheres of machines following the first.

  That she could tear apart the substance of the place between worlds.

  That last part didn’t feel like such good news now. For the first time she wished she had obeyed Qall, and not undergone the transformation to an ageless Maker. Three more deaths on her hands. Starting back towards Tyen’s world, she braced herself for the guilt that would come when she emerged into a world again.

  TYEN

  “We will rebuild,” the Emperor assured Tyen. “If not for you and your otherworld friends, this entire world would have become a home only to the dead.”

  He had invited Tyen to accompany him as he inspected the damage to Beltonia – a demonstration that he did not blame the Academy Director for the invasion. Perhaps one in ten buildings was in ruins. Thousands were dead. Tyen knew it could have been far, far worse. He felt a terrible guilt – more than after Spirecastle fell, when he knew its destruction was not his fault, and Doum’s invasion of Murai, which he’d failed to prevent.

  “If I had never come home to this world, never asked Rielle to strengthen it, we would not have been attacked,” he lamented.

  “That is true, but it is also irrelevant,” Omniten replied. “I believe it would not have been long before we realised our mistake in regards to magic and creativity. Once we had, we’d have set about restoring our world ourselves. We would have relearned to travel between worlds. Leratians may be stubborn, but when we set our minds to fixing something, that weakness becomes a strength.”

  “And who is to say that Kettin won’t attack weak worlds when she is done with strong?” the Empress added. She tucked her free hand under Tyen’s forearm in a gesture of reassurance – one the watching public would note. “She seems a very unstable person.”

  “This is an age of progress and invention,” Omniten said. “To remain a dead world when it could be alive is not the Leratian way. We know that progress does not come without a price. We may not like it, but we accept it.”

  Tyen sighed. “The price is very high this time.”

  “Perhaps,” the Empress agreed. “But it could have been higher, and now we know our new defensive method works.”

  The Emperor stopped to regard an apartment block, half of it rubble. After a moment he turned to face Tyen. “This problem is ours to fix, Tyen Ironsmelter. Yours is to work against it happening again. That is not something many could hope to attempt. I appreciate you joining me today. It was necessary. But what it was meant to achieve has been achieved, and you need to set your mind to preventing it happening again, here and anywhere else. Go deal with this woman and her machine armies.”

  “Go with our blessing and hopes,” the Empress added, slipping her hand out from under Tyen’s arm and patting his shoulder before she moved to the Emperor’s side.

  Tyen knew a dismissal when he’d heard it. He gave the Empress a smile of gratitude, then bowed to the Emperor. “Thank you, your Imperial Highness. I will do my best.”

  The pair nodded. Tyen pushed out of the world a little and skimmed back to the Academy. Arriving in the Grand Hall, he hurried to the meeting room, where he found Rielle, Qall and Dahli.

  “Did I miss anything?” he asked as he joined them around the table.

  “Only Rielle failing to talk Dahli out of his part in this,” Qall replied. “Again.”

  Rielle looked up at Tyen. “I know you’re as troubled as I am.”

  Tyen nodded. Her accidental killing of the three sorcerers had shaken her, and now she was rethinking everything she had intended to do. He understood her horror. He’d have felt the same. Something else about it had shocked her, too. Something about the violence of the unlinking of worlds had disturbed her even more deeply. After telling him what had happened, she’d said, “Perhaps Annad is right. Perhaps I have become more like a demon than a god.”

  He’d told her if she was a demon, she’d not be feeling any concern right now. They’d then argued half-heartedly about different cultures’ ideas of demons, and whether any were believed to have a conscience, neither coming to any certain conclusion, but at least it had lightened her mood.

  “It is Dahli’s choice,” Tyen reminded her. “And Zeke’s. It’s not as though they’re sacrificing their lives.”

  “And it was their idea,” Qall added.

  She turned back to Dahli. “But the best outcome means the two of you will be alone and trapped in a dead world.”

  Dahli shrugged. “We spent five cycles mostly alone on the edge of the habitable worlds before, and we found it suited us. You’ve given us an enormous amount of magic to carry, so we won’t be in a dead world for long.” His mouth twitched into a crooked smile. “And there’s nothing like guilt to drive a person into working out how to do something. That’s why I trust you to find a way to re-link the worlds and free us.”

  Qall chuckled at that. Rielle sent him a worried look. “And if I can’t?”

  “We live out our lives in peaceful isolation,” Dahli replied calmly.

  She shook her head. “There are plenty of ways this could go wrong. We could be the ones stranded in a dead world while Kettin goes free. I don’t know exactly what I did when I unlinked those worlds. Until yesterday, when the scouts we sent located it from another direction, I couldn’t even be sure if the world I unlinked still existed.”

  “But it does,” Qall assured her. He smiled wryly. “How is this any different to you becoming ageless again? You couldn’t be sure that would work, either.”

  She scowled. “That only risked harming me, not other people. And not, well, people I know.”

  Dahli shrugged. “I am flattered that you care, Rielle.”

  She glanced at him, then away. “I am surprised that I do – and that I seem to have forgiven you. You’re frustratingly hard to hold a grudge against, Dahli.”

  He gave her the ghost of a smile. “Thank you for your forgiveness, Rielle.”

  She opened her mouth but no words came out. A silence filled the room. Qall looked at each of them, his gaze finally setting on Tyen.

  “Well, I don’t see any reason to delay. Everything is in place. Protocol has been followed, the Emperor informed.”

  Rielle blinked, her gaze shifting to Tyen. She had told him she could read his and Qall’s mind now, but only if she concentrated. He was surprised to find he wasn’t bothered by it. After all, every time he’d spoken to Vella she’d read all of his memories, not just his thoughts. He’d even thought of a few ways Rielle reading his mind could be used to their advantage.

  “Then it is time I changed,” Dahli said, pushing his chair out and standing. He turned to face Rielle and raised a mirror, and his gaze began moving from her face to his reflection and back again.

  The room fell silent. Rielle looked uncomfortable, and she glanced at Tyen and Qall before her shoulders straightened and she returned Dahli’s stare. Tyen considered engaging Qall in conversation to ease her discomfort, but he did not want to distract Dahli. It was too important that the man got Rielle’s likeness right.

  Looking at the
man’s face, Tyen’s skin chilled. The changes were already obvious. At first it seemed like Dahli was failing, his face becoming only a more feminine version of his own. Then Tyen began to recognise the shape of Rielle’s mouth and the angle of her nose as Dahli refined the details.

  Strangest of all was the point near to Dahli achieving her appearance, where he looked like a slightly wrong version of Rielle. Thankfully, that did not last long and soon it appeared that two Rielles stood facing each other in the room. Before he could stop himself, Tyen let his gaze drop to Dahli’s body, wondering how convincingly the man had changed the rest of him. Too convincingly, Tyen decided as he recognised curves he was becoming more familiar with each time he and Rielle seized a free moment alone together. Don’t think about that, he told himself, remembering that Qall could read his thoughts. That’s Dahli, not Rielle.

  “Well, that was quite an experience,” Rielle murmured.

  Dahli smiled, and her face twitched as if compelled to reflect the expression.

  “Your turn,” he said, handing her the mirror. To Tyen’s relief, Dahli’s voice had not changed. “Have you done this before?”

  She shook her head. Holding the mirror up beside his face, she looked from it to Dahli. Then she dropped her arm.

  “I don’t need this.”

  Dahli’s eyebrows rose. “You may be an artist but…” He stopped, then laughed as he realised the real reason she did not need the mirror. “Three hundred and seventy years old and I still miss the obvious. You can’t copy me because I already look like you.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No. But that’s not why I don’t need the mirror. I don’t need to use my eyes to do this.”

  The change was swift, and more disturbing because of that. Her face and body appeared to contort and spasm, and then Dahli was standing in her place. Dahli’s masculine features had now erased her own. Her chest had flattened and her shoulders grown wider. Tyen could not tell how accurate the changes were, since her clothing was loose and masculine, but he was sure she would not resemble the woman who had come to his bed every night since her transformation, and the thought was as disturbing as seeing Dahli taking her form.

  Dahli’s mouth had dropped open. “How?”

  “I copied your pattern,” she said. Her voice had also remained her own, and sounded strange coming from what looked like his body. They both had donned identical clothing – a simple tunic-and-trousers combination. She raised a hand to her hair, now reddish and curly but long, and a cascade of cuttings fell to the floor as she trimmed it with magic. She looked at Tyen. “Close enough?”

  He realised he had been staring at her. Part of his mind was frozen with horror and fear at seeing her disappear and be replaced by Dahli. Somehow he managed a nod. Tell me you can reverse this as easily, he thought. She smiled and nodded.

  The expression on Dahli’s face was one Tyen had never seen on Rielle’s before. Calculating, but not unfriendly. Looking closer, Tyen saw that the man was contemplating a future where more people existed who could do the things Rielle could do now. The first few hundred years of my life may be the least interesting, if I survive this, he was thinking. Perhaps I do want her to free Zeke and me from isolation, so I can find out how this story plays out. He drew a deep breath to speak.

  “Time to for me to go.”

  Rielle nodded. “Be careful. Remember, you only need to let one of Kettin’s followers follow you to the fake base, so he or she can report back to her where I am. Don’t try to bait the woman herself. If she reads your mind, she’ll know it’s a trap.”

  “Don’t worry. I have no intention of making her acquaintance,” he replied.

  “Travel safe,” Qall added.

  As Dahli faded from sight, Tyen looked at Qall, who was frowning and chewing his lip, reminding Tyen that for all his seeming self-assurance, Qall was still just a young man whose mind was only ten cycles old. If not for Valhan’s memories and the ability to read minds, Qall would never have been able to handle himself and others so well.

  Which he does, Tyen realised. Quite well, most of the time.

  He drew in a deep breath. “This has all been arranged so fast. Are there any lingering doubts? Weaknesses we haven’t considered?”

  Qall shrugged. “I see many, many small ways this could go wrong, but that is true of all plans. Mostly I worry that Kettin won’t fall for it.” He smiled without humour. “It would be simpler to kill her.” As Tyen opened his mouth, Qall forestalled him with raised hands. “I know, I know. Kill her without destroying her machines as well and another could step into her place. I doubt anybody could, and I suspect there are more machines in the worlds now than what could be physically sent into a single world.”

  Tyen nodded. “We will have to seek and destroy the rest while her followers are still weakened by her disappearance.”

  Rielle frowned. “Dahli and Zeke can survive for years on the supplies Qall put in place for him, but if she makes the world uninhabitable, she and her followers will starve.”

  “If she doesn’t, they could live out a normal mortal lifespan. Unless Dahli releases the magic he holds. Then she will be ageless. But I doubt Dahli will do so until he knows he and Zeke are safe,” Tyen said.

  “They won’t be completely safe while she is alive.”

  “No.”

  “He won’t hesitate to kill her.”

  “Probably not.”

  “So we are killing her.” She shook her head. “I wish we knew why she is like she is, and if we could help her. We gave Dahli a second chance. Why not her?”

  “Because if we don’t do this, far more people will die,” Qall pointed out. “Dahli wasn’t slaughtering whole worlds of people. All he wanted was to resurrect one man.”

  Tyen nodded. “I agree with you in principle,” he told her. “But even if Kettin is the victim of the most horrible, unjust torture and suffering, does that excuse what she has done and continues to do? If she has a choice in how she acts, we must stop her. If she can’t stop herself doing what she does, we still must stop her. At least there is a chance she will survive this way. If not for your ability to isolate worlds, the only other choice the Restorers have is to try to kill her.”

  Qall rose and extended one hand to Rielle, and the other to Tyen. “Decide.”

  Tyen exchanged a glance with Rielle, then took Qall’s hand. Rielle looked at Tyen searchingly, then accepted the other. As she offered her free hand to Tyen, completing their circle, she straightened her back and her expression became set and grim. The sensation of cool air on Tyen’s skin disappeared and the room slowly faded from view.

  They took the usual route out of the world, skimming to the Far South and leaving from high above the ruins of Spirecastle. The fake base was further away than the one Rielle had transformed in, but only by a few worlds. Tyen would have preferred the trap to be laid far from home, but at least this way it would not take long to get back to his world, if news came of another invasion.

  The trap world had a single neighbour, so Rielle only needed to undo one link in order to isolate Kettin. It had been the heart of a great civilisation that had expired more than a thousand years before. Smaller populations had occupied it since, occasionally trading with its neighbouring world, until a war during the chaos following Valhan’s death had all but stripped it of magic and occupants. It hadn’t been devoid of human habitation when Qall chose it. A few communities had survived. They had a belief as old as the lost empire that the gods would one day take them to a better world. Though Qall had told them he was no god, they had embraced his offer to settle them in one of the many worlds stripped of occupants by Kettin’s machines.

  In the largest town, the Restorers had occupied the fanciest building and, unaware this base was to be sacrificed, started setting it up. At Qall’s orders some of them had brought in food, seeds and domestic animals. These were for Dahli and Zeke to use, if they survived.

  The arrival place near the fake Restorer base was well gua
rded. Tyen nodded to the watchers to convey his respect. They believed this was the new base and, while they knew they were volunteering for a dangerous job, they didn’t know how dangerous. It Kettin arrived here, they might easily be her first victims, but it was more likely she would enter the world in the sky along with her machines, as her followers usually did.

  Their headquarters was a few streets away. Qall led them to it, introducing them to a group of generals and advisers made up of old faces and a few new ones to replace those who had fallen in the recent battles.

  “You have done well here,” Qall told them when introductions were over. “But be alert and ready to leave at any moment. Kettin’s watchers are everywhere. Tyen, Dahli and I have matters to discuss,” Qall told them. “Do not disturb us.”

  The men and women nodded, then strode off in different directions to resume their tasks. Qall led Tyen and Rielle through the building, then out into a large area at the centre. It was filled with plants. Large-winged insects of bright colours and patterns flitted among the leaves. Worm-like creatures with frilled necks curled around branches, and Rielle jumped as one of them lunged at an insect, catching it with a very long tongue.

  At the centre of the garden was a large, flat slab of rock set into the ground. They stepped on it. Qall held out his hands to Rielle and Tyen. They took them and the world faded to white.

  He returned to the path they’d arrived along and took them back to the neighbouring world. The arrival place was in a sinkhole from which a maze of tunnels and smaller caves extended. Tyen looked up. The circle of sky visible at the top was clear and a purplish blue. Qall created a light, beckoned, then led them into the tunnels a little way to a room filled with old, dusty and faded furniture. As they sat down, he smiled grimly.

  “Now we wait, and hope she takes the bait.”

  RIELLE

  Time passed slowly. When they grew hungry Qall brought out some stores he’d arranged to be put here. They ate, talked, rested and grew hungry again. Rielle could barely eat the second meal, too worried that Kettin had caught Dahli and their plan had fallen to pieces at the first stage. Then, in a few moments, the wait went from too long to too short.