Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (48 page)

blending into ceiling. Slender staircases wheeled across the walls to a series
of balconies, platforms, mezzanines and subsidiary chambers, while higher
stairs led
to a curved ceiling which was glassy clear and showed the stars.
Right in the centre of the room was a pair of staircases that looked to be
made of glass and cobweb. They spun up from the floor in spirals of increasing
diameter, helically coiled together then exploding apart to opposite sides of
the hall near the ceiling.
And there stood Rulke, halfway between the central stairs and the wall,
working at a table ten spans long. The black bulk of the construct reared up
behind him. He turned away to it.
'Master,' said Idlis nervously. 'This woman reached the front gate undetected.
She is the one you put your mark on last summer - Maigraith!'
Pushing her hood back, Maigraith stepped into the light.
'You!' Rulke exclaimed, setting down a mechanical device he had been working
on. 'When the intruder was reported I thought it was Karan. But you - you are
more interesting yet. It is as though she has come back. Come forward,
Maigraith.'
Who did he mean? Yalkara? Maigraith walked slowly across to him, made
self-conscious by the intensity of his stare. Rulke was a very big man, taller
even than Yggur, and powerfully built. His hair was glossy, thick and black,
as was his beard.
She walked right up to him. Their eyes met. They measured each other. Finally
Rulke put out his hand. Surprised, she took it. His hand completely enclosed
hers, as if he took her into himself, and his skin was hot.
Maigraith felt a tingly sensation run down her backbone, like someone
breathing gently on the back of her neck. She lost track of time and self. The
feeling ran up and down her spine, a delicious itchy shudder like a current
flowing out of his hand into hers, charging up every nerve to red-hot wires
until her whole body was afire. She squeezed her thighs together until her
knees hurt. Her nerve ends throbbed, from head to toe she tensed and itched
like an approaching sneeze,
then with an explosive convulsion that bent her double, the swollen current
discharged back through her hand into Rulke.
'Aaaahh!' he shouted, flinging out his free arm, fingers spread. Goosepimples
broke out up his arms, his eyes rolled back and forth, he squeezed her hand
till her fingertips went purple. She did not try to get away - Maigraith felt
ecstasy for the first time in her life.
Finally Rulke opened his eyes, looked deep into hers, released her burning
hand. Her slender fingers, bloodless and pale, lay across his dark palm,
lingering there. He lifted her fingers to his lips, touched them momentarily,
then drew back his arm.
Maigraith's hand fell to her side. She stared up into his eyes, hungering for
him and aware that he knew it. They were oblivious to the Ghashad, assembled
round them in a perfect circle, staring. Then, as though moved by a single
mind, a hundred Ghashad roared approval, spun on their heels and left them
alone in the vast chamber. Even Yetchah was gone, her jealousy replaced by
revelation.
Maigraith felt weak at the knees. She shook her head, looking down, blushing
scarlet in her embarrassment. The Ghashad had hated and feared her once, when
they were Whelm. But that was before Rulke put the seal of his approval on
her.
'What is the matter with me?' Rulke murmured. 'I have never lost control like
that before. Come to the fire. Take off your cloak and coat.'
'I am comfortable,' she replied, but removed the garments anyway and laid them
over his arm, feeling the weight of his eyes. She was reminded of the night
they met. How violently the storm had struck at the dome of the citadel, like
a living creature that must smash everything to pieces. She also recalled that
she had been clad in nothing but her wet shift that night.
'Don't stare so,' she said, feeling that he could see right through her

clothes. 'It troubles me.'
'I would not discomfort you in any way, but I cannot tear my eyes off you.'
Nevertheless Rulke turned away. He clapped and a servant appeared, not Ghashad
but a young man who was thin to the point of emaciation. He limped across the
room and bowed low. Thick brown curls tumbled over his gaunt cheeks, then he
stood before them, silently waiting. There was a dimple in his chin.
'Bring meat and drink, Jance,' Rulke ordered. Jance hurried away.
Maigraith waited patiently, her head to one side. She looked quite calm, quite
regal, but her insides were churning. He motioned her to a chair, waited until
she sat down and drew up another before her.
'Why did you come here?' he asked.
Why had she? Rulke's strength surrounded her - in the number of the Ghashad;
in the construct squatting in the middle of the room, black monstrous thing
with a sheen as if it had been polished in oil; even more in Rulke himself. So
this was what the Charon had been like. Again she felt herself drawn to him,
and to that species who were so few, yet had done so much.
I suppose it's because I'm triune, she thought. Though I'm half-Faellem, I
have never been able to identify with them, because of Faelamor. And Santhenar
is all around me, part of me and yet less than me. But how I yearn for my
Charon heritage. Can he give that to me?
'I came to prevent you from making alliance with Faelamor,' she said. 'I know
what you have,' indicating the construct with an almost imperceptible motion
of her eyes, 'and what you lack too. Do not ally with her, I beg you.'
'Faelamor?' He raised a quizzical eyebrow. 'Absurd notion!'
'Please don't'
Jance returned, bearing a low table rather awkwardly. He set it up, coming
back with cutlery, dishes of food and a jug of drink. She saw the reason for
his awkwardness - one hand
was cut off at the wrist. Rulke poured yellow fluid into a drinking bowl and
passed it to her. The cordial was hot with a peppery flavour. It went straight
to the pit of her stomach and roiled there.
'Why not?' he responded.
'The Forbidding is decaying and failing. If you break it Santhenar is doomed.'
'I hear you,' he said. 'I know the risk, but I have studied the Forbidding. I
can manage it.'
'There is an imbalance in it,' she said. 'Have you not felt it when you used
the construct? I have, every time I made a gate.'
'You made a gate?' he asked, rather taken aback. He paced across to the paired
stairs and back. 'How so? What device did you use?'
'I learned from Faelamor.' She described Faelamor's clumsy gate. 'She lacks
confidence, and competence too, but once taught I found it to be instinctive.
I need no device now. As long as I can truly see the destination, all I need
is in here.' She tapped her forehead.
'What is it about you?' he sighed. 'I've never met anyone like you.'
She saw no reason not to tell him. 'My father was Faellem. My other
grandparents are Shand, whom you may know as Gyllias, and Yalkara. I am
triune.'
He sprang up. 'Now I understand!'
'What?' she asked anxiously.
'Karan linked to you at Narne, and I sensed it and used it to wake my Ghashad.
I've never understood how I could have sensed a link from the Nightland.'
'How did you?'
'It was a triune-to-triune link, the rarest and most powerful of all
linkings.'
'We tried to link once before. At Fiz Gorgo, but it failed.'
'Yggur's protection would have been too strong. So!' He let out his breath in
an explosive hiss. 'You make gates all
by yourself! If only you can pass that talent on down the generations.'
'Unlikely,' said Maigraith with a chilly laugh, feeling her womb cramp at the
thought. Triunes are sterile.' Children were not even a dream for her.

'Most are, but not all. And even so, there are ways to improve your chances.
We Charon know everything there is to be known about conception.'
'This is ridiculous!' she shouted, feeling very uncomfortable. Faelamor was
prudish and had never talked about such things. 'Irrelevant! You must listen.
The Forbidding fails and your construct can only hasten it. No one understands
what they are dealing with. You risk opening Santhenar to the void.'
Rulke waved his hand in dismissal. 'I've heard you. Tell me about this new
flute. Where did it come from?'
Why shouldn't she tell him? 'Tensor made it using my birthright - Yalkara's
gold.'
'Ahhh! So she did find it.'
'No!' she said, speaking without thinking. 'Faelamor stole that gold from
Havissard, and I now know it's the remains of the golden flute. My birthright
was Yalkara's own jewelry which she brought from Aachan.'
'How can you be sure which is which?'
Maigraith went still. The question had been raised and it would not go away.
How could anyone know? 'By the feel of it. Yalkara's gold has a lovely old
feel, like other things of hers that I have. The gold Faelamor stole feels
horrible; corrupt!'
'And so it is,' said Rulke. 'Where is your flute?'
'I tried to use it, but it was a wild, dangerous thing. I left it behind. The
next time you use the construct.. .'
'Don't lecture me, Maigraith!' he said fiercely. 'Do you think I don't
understand? Did I not lead the way out of the void to Aachan? Did I not reach
across the void in ancient times, in the perilous labour of summoning, and
pluck the
accursed Shuthdar from this world to make the flute for me? That was my folly,
choosing that depraved madman. Far better that I spent ten times as long and
made it myself. Did I not use the construct last hythe to reach out across the
void?'
'And it went wrong. Karan told me so.'
'I was careless. I did not protect her as I should have. It will be different
next time!'
His dark brows knitted. As he spoke she had a fleeting image of someone
staggering up an endless stair of metal and stone. The tormented figure went
past and she saw from the red hair and the pale face that it was Karan. Then
it blinked out again.
He took her hand. 'Maigraith, listen! I have done much work with the
Forbidding. That's what the Nightland was made of. I will be careful.'
'You have another world to return to. What do you care for Santhenar?'
'Ah, but this is a better. Aachan is fatal to us. I do care, more than you can
ever know. More than anyone can know who has not been exiled and cast into the
void to perish. I care for all the worlds!' He spoke with such vehemence that
Maigraith did not know what to say.
'Look at us!' He pressed her hand between his two hands, drew her to him and
looked deep into her eyes. She felt that wild thrill again.
'Once, Maigraith, when we had a world, we were many. But we were cast into the
void, every one of us, to die! For our kind to be utterly extinguished.'
Still gripping her hand, he spoke with such passion that Maigraith was
captivated.
'Can you imagine what it is like in the void? It is the most violent,
barbaric, barren and desperate universe. It is ever changing, and the things
that dwell in it mutate just as swiftly, for that is their only chance to
survive. There is no mercy there; no charity; no forgiveness. Nothing but
survival
matters! How they feasted on our children, our weak and our old.'
She was amazed to see tears in his eyes. More amazing, she felt them in her
own.
'In a month our millions were reduced to a few thousand. We learned a lot
about survival in that month. We learned to defend our shelters within the

barren, boiling rocks which are all that passes for worlds in the void. We
learned to prey on every creature that was weaker than us, and hide from those
that were stronger, or more cunning, or more intelligent.'
His indigo eyes flamed. He crushed her hand painfully but she did not want him
to stop.
'We could never increase, though we learned the lessons of the void and became
as brutal as any. Everything there was desperate to escape, but we were more
desperate, for we knew what the outside universe was like. We once had a
world, and lost it! I love Santhenar, Maigraith, but I care for our survival
more than anything.'
He released her hand. Maigraith left it where it was. Rulke had disarmed her
and she did not know how to deal with the situation. She began to wonder why
she was here at all. Yet she was mindful of his reputation for treachery.
'Why did you come to Shazmak?' he asked.
'I told you. To prevent Faelamor from making alliance with you.'
'Ridiculous notion! Yet, I will do what I must do to ensure our survival,' he
replied thoughtfully. 'Are you a sensitive, like Karan? Can you find the Way
between the Worlds for me?'
'I am not, and I cannot,' she replied.
'Can you bring Karan here?' he asked.
Maigraith wondered what Karan was doing now. 'Possibly, if I thought it was
the right thing to do! Though Karan is of her own mind. What do you want her
for?'
'I will not discuss my plans with you, unless. ..' He leaned forward and would
have taken her hand again but she drew it back. His voice aroused her deepest
yearnings. 'Come, join
me! We would be a perfect partnership. Your soul is Charon, Maigraith. I know
it!'
Maigraith knew it too. His words had shaken her to the core. But her intellect
could not permit her emotions to take over her life in such a way.
'You know that I have another duty,' she said tonelessly. 'It conflicts with
your plans. What's more, I am minded that you are Yggur's enemy, and treated
him cruelly. He is still scarred by it.'
Rulke's eyes narrowed. 'I did not begin it,' he said. 'A great lie has been
told about me. I was betrayed. Yggur attacked me, he and Mendark, the most
deceitful, treacherous man who ever was born on Santhenar. I defended myself.
So, you plead for Yggur now! Is he still your lover?'
'No!' she whispered. 'Not since he went to Katazza.' She wanted to say Not
since I set eyes on you, but did not dare.
There was a long silence. Maigraith finally broke it. 'You know what they call
you?'
'Great Betrayer! There's nothing I can do to change that opinion. I know what
I am - I do not deceive myself. I do not fawn on posterity.'
She continued to pursue him, feeling a need to hear his explanation for every
evil attributed to him.
'What about the Aachim? You took their world, made slaves of them and harried
them mercilessly.'
'Does the lion starve her cubs because she pities the lamb? Had we not gone to
Aachan we would be extinct, our great species gone forever. So we took Aachan.
A hundred of us mastered a world. Had they cared for their world the way we
did for ours, not even a million of us could have taken it. And did we harm
Aachan in any way? We did not. We preserved and protected the ancient and
noble culture of the Aachim. We did not enslave them either - that's an excuse
to cover up a failing that they cannot admit to themselves: they were short of
courage! They were free enough.
'Even here on Santh, we did not begin the wars of the
Clysm. Much that was great and fine perished in the war. I regret that.'
'You make out that all the tales about you are lies. I cannot believe that.'
'Of course they're not! Most are true. I have been cruel and relentless, and
never failed to use any weapon against my enemies. I will do what is necessary