Escana (79 page)

'The urge is growing,' Jakob
admitted. 'How long until we can reach Levanin?'

The innkeeper looked out at the
sky as if judging the distances, Jakob wasn't sure how but given the
man's unexplained powers he wasn't surprised.

'If I focus and push myself this
craft can reach the capital before nightfall, it would be most taxing
for me to do so and I cannot risk being at the mercy of your more
murderous impulses. If I remain here and do not stretch the limits of
my endurance we will arrive tomorrow morning.'

Jakob nodded, it was sensible
enough to remain wary of your sole companion eyeing you with a
growing urge to kill. He just hoped that Gooseman's decision to go
slower when Jakob was conscious did not result in him losing control
anyway. Thanks to the response he knew how this odd vessel was
operated but he couldn't take the chance that he'd discover exactly
how to apply that knowledge. He also realised that Gooseman would
never tell him for fear that he would commandeer it for his own
purposes and dispose of the man.

He peered over the edge of the
boat into the clouds below him, it was an enormous drop to the
bottom, he couldn't see any mountain peaks poking through the thick
fields of white so the land below was largely flat.

The thought struck him so swiftly
that it caused him to wince, how could he know that the mountains
could extend through the clouds? He had never been at this altitude
before and Daelovia was a largely flat province beyond the city
walls. A pain surged through his head, why did he know the word
altitude? Where on earth could he have learnt such a term? He fell
back into the boat, his head splitting with pain. Earth. His planet,
his home, the bridge, the desperate flights in the numerous planes
over the years. It all washed over him with a strange mixture of
alienation and familiarity, part of him embraced these strange
thoughts like a dying man clinging to a machine. A machine? There
were no machines in this world, machines had not been invented yet.
Why did he then know the word machine or what it was?

The boat had stopped entirely and
Gooseman had propped him up to the side with a worried expression on
his face.

'What's happened to you? What's
going on in there? Speak to me!'

Jakob could not find the words,
they continued to elude him as they were torn away by the onslaught
of imagery. His life now danced before his eyes, the life he had
never had here. It was elsewhere, some strange and distant land where
he had also lived, it was invading his mind in such a pervasive
fashion that he was tempted to stop fighting the pain and welcome it
in.

'Listen to me Jakob, you cannot
let the thoughts take control, you cannot let them win you over.'
Gooseman's muffled voice came from a great distance, the urgency
preventing it from being swept away like everything else.

'You must focus on me, focus on
this craft and the skies above us. Look at me!'

He vaguely felt the jerking back
and forth as he was shaken wildly by the other man in an attempt to
bring him back.

'This is a symptom of the
disease, you are hallucinating and feverish and if you don't retreat
right now we will lose you completely.'

Jakob blinked. The disease. Could
all these images be the result of his grip on sanity deteriorating?
He struck the deck of the boat with his hand as violently as he
could, causing Gooseman to back away for fear that his murderous
tendencies had asserted themselves. Again he hammered it down, as if
each blow was bringing clarity to his world through the reality of
the pain he felt. He felt a cracking sound as a bone in his hand
fractured under the impact, it was enough to send the images
scurrying away to be replaced with pain.

He gripped his fist and howled at
the sky in frustration, why must his own mind be compromised? Better
his body be broken than his head, if that was the sacrifice it took
to restore his sanity then he'd break every bone in his body. An
injured hand was a small price to pay.

He peered over the edge of the
boat then, the urge to fall from this land and into the clouds was
rising. Silently he retreated from the sight and closed his eyes,
letting out an exhalation to steady himself.

'We need to get to Levanin soon
before it's too late.'

Gooseman nodded and closed his
eyes, the boat speeding across the sky toward the capital and the
ending of Jakob's journey, one way or the other.

I
t had been
precisely one day since Alissandra had offered the girl sanctuary
from El-Vador. She had sent Eli to convey the news and had patiently
waited for the eruption that would incriminate him further. For
reasons unknown it was still forthcoming, leaving her with little to
do but take care of the child and ponder over his delay.

She had posted a scout upon
El-Vador's domain since sending the message, knowing that they would
be entirely visible to one such as he. This did not concern her, she
only desired to know precisely when he was arriving so that she could
be properly prepared. There were few in this realm who could protect
her from the likes of him but she had enlisted the aid of one
particularly powerful individual after hearing of the girl's plight.

Having spent the day consoling
Ella she had grown weary of her presence and had sent her to this
protector for safe-keeping. Let El-Vador come and find her house
empty of that he desired, she had plans to turn his eyes in an
entirely different direction.

He arrived eventually in as angry
a mood as she had ever seen him, he had left Eli in tears and torn
the chamber doors off their hinges. She supposed that such actions
were meant to be threatening, that she should be struck down with
fear and beg to make amends. She felt no such thing and saw the
tantrum for what it was, someone who had been in control of
everything so long that they couldn't stand having it taken away.

'What have you done to her?' he
demanded, his voice already raised as he came to a halt at the foot
of her divan, uncomfortably close.

'My good man, I am so pleased
that you could finally deign to make an appearance, I was beginning
to think you had spurned my invitation.'

Seeing that the show of temper
was getting him nowhere, the Elf adjusted his tactics accordingly.
Alissandra had suspected that it had all been an act for someone's
benefit, now that it served no purpose in its place was another mask.

'And so the bloated spider strays
from the web she has cast out over the world to pick at this juiciest
of morsels. Pray tell, my arachnid friend, what interests you so
about my newest companion? Is it a hint of jealousy I see behind
those piggish eyes of yours? Or is there a darker set of machinations
playing behind your every act?'

She allowed herself no reaction
to the insults, merely smiling back at him as if he had shared a
faintly amusing anecdote. 'You should know by now that what a spider
wants, it gets. When the purpose of its desires has been served it is
devoured and thought of no more. Is it truly fear that has brought
you here? Or have the ramifications of my assertion into your domain
piqued your interest?'

It was a dangerous game she was
playing, his face was set in regimental mild amusement so that she
could not perceive his true reception of her words.

'Interest is as interest does, an
impasse has been reached already and while none of my suspicions have
received confirmation your ways lead me to believe that the girl is
endangered. Where have you hidden her so that I may recover her with
a minimum of force? You cannot keep her from me, even your
stubbornness must yield to that knowledge.'

She stretched out her limbs and
stifled a yawn. 'I am merely a protector of an innocent life, she
came to me of her own accord in floods of tears and informed me of
your barbaric treatment of her. It would be unconscionable of me to
allow you to invade her presence once again.'

El-Vador's mouth twisted slightly
in what she thought was an approximation of a smile, often his
gestures seemed too subtle for even her to penetrate, perhaps this
was his way of leading her astray.

'You may not admit it but your
game is entirely transparent to one such as I, which suggests that
you already know this and have concocted this method of control over
the girl for other reasons. Allow me to be blunt and follow on an
assumption, your attempts to drive a wedge between us to prove your
undying love of me will not win me over.'

Alissandra shrugged, forcing
herself to project the belief she uttered with complete sincerity. 'I
did not alter Ella's thought in any way, she has merely witnessed the
monster underneath the airs and graces. Her reaction to you is one
that has been brought about by your own unveiling, I am merely a
protector in spite of my past.' She leaned forward now, driving the
point home. 'Ah but we know of your past all too well, do we not? We
know what you are capable of doing and the creature you can transform
into at a moment's notice, your past attests to that in ways I can
barely fathom. I did though, sweet El-Vador, I have fathomed them in
these languid hours.'

He stood silently, letting her
speak at length and anticipating the speech she had long wished to
deliver.

'You may be enigmatic to those
precious few that know of your existence, those same few you keep at
a distance for fear of their discovering who you are. What of those
you have shared a past with that still live? What of those who are
not commemorated by the crumbling ruins that you provide pilgrimage
to? Those whose life force still courses through them unabated by the
passage of time? Do you shut them out forever?'

She waited then for a response,
there had been no pretence in the words she had spoken and it had
been so long since she had afforded herself the opportunity to be
truly honest.

He remained silent, looking at
her through his mask with those eyes she could drown in. She knew she
needed to say more to him.

'I am still here, my sweet man. I
still care for you as much as anyone ever did throughout the annals
of time. One such as her cannot divine the depths to which I have
sunk in order to swim to your shores, the degrees of madness that I
contemplated as I proved myself of worth to you time and time again.
She need not suffer the same fate as I, let her go and relinquish
this search for another. I remain here waiting for you.'

There was nothing left, nothing
she could give to him any further that would not be an endless
regurgitation of words and thoughts she had already pelted his walls
with.

He smiled at her, she felt no
warmth though. A strange constriction came over her heart in the cold
stillness of the room as his mocking eyes perused her loathsome form
distastefully.

'Bloated spider, you may spin
your cruel webs throughout this land. I will not heed you any
further, my lesson has long been learned and to me you are but a
curiosity. It is rare that such a one filled to the core with hate
and malice can spring forth from such infertile times as these. To
encourage such a situation with my own life force is what fascinates
me about you. I do not care for you, my sweetest Alissandra, I have
never considered those feelings you harbour for me to be anything but
a tool. An emotional construct through which I can manipulate you
into becoming a being of both such malice yet utility that you would
harken back to my earlier times and provide me with reminiscence of
dictators long passed.'

He drew his sword, it was only
then that she realised that he had come armed. Through the remnants
of her blurred vision she watched as he approached the divan for the
inevitable execution. She welcomed it, a release from the abysmal
failure of her every attempt to capture his affections, feelings
which she knew he once possessed no matter what hurtful things he may
goad her with.

She watched him raise the blade
high over his head and prepare to drive it down upon her bosom,
making no attempt to evade it or resist him. Her monumental task had
staggered to a halt, with Ella at his side she was unable to prevent
his fleeting fond thoughts of her to subside into nothingness.

'Stay this foolishness!' a voice
roared into the room, her fears suddenly swept over her at the tone
of command.

Emperor Veran strode into the
sanctum with Ella at his side and a hand on the hilt of his
ceremonial blade. His domineering presence changed the entire
atmosphere, here was the one man that El-Vador would listen to. She
quietly hoped that for once her former lover wouldn't heed his calls,
that he would strike swiftly and impale her upon his blade.

'Sheath your weapon lest I remove
it from you myself,' the Emperor said, walking straight up to
El-Vador without a hint of trepidation.

Alissandra watched as the blade
hovered, wavering in a miasma of tangled thoughts and impulses, then
sighed as El-Vador was brought to heel and relinquished his
opportunity to land a killing blow.

'The fair lady that is the source
of your conflict has informed me of the problems you have caused her,
she is a subject of my Empire and as such will not be harmed by
either of you without my express permission. I have sensed both of
your games, your petty power struggle was long beneath my attentions
but of late it has affected your duties to me.' His voice rose up a
scale and Alissandra winced, it did not bode well to disappoint the
Emperor.