Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (62 page)

had gone home.
Maigraith looked in the Mirror, watching them all the way to Tallallame. They
emerged triumphant on their own world, even Faelamor. Maigraith flung down the
Mirror and the image froze in place.
'There is no justice anywhere in the Three Worlds!' she said to Karan.
Karan coughed and groaned. The pain had come back. 'What did you expect from
the Twisted Mirror?'
The great oval chamber of Shand's gate stretched out into two teardrops
separated by a thread, one in Carcharon, the
other in Shazmak. The thread snapped the two back together. Shazmak vanished,
and the gate with it. The company were left alone to stare at the ice-covered
walls of Carcharon. The gate had failed and Karan lay dreadfully injured in
Shazmak, at least four days' march away.
Shand turned to Llian. 'She was Tallallame, and Tallallame was her. I wonder
what they will find there. Santhenar was not the only world affected by the
Forbidding.'
'Make the gate again,' Llian wept. 'Karan is dying!' 'I don't think I can,'
said Shand. 'Everything is changed now.'
If Carcharon had been strange before, now it was positively bizarre. The walls
were sometimes as soft as cheese, sometimes hard as metal, and they were never
in the same place twice. There were wormholes through them too, like tunnels
connecting different places in the void. The broken stone staircase appeared
to spiral in a dozen directions at once, and ghastly, terrifying spectres
trudged up and down it, working devices that sprayed doughnuts of unreality in
all directions. The air changed colour constantly. Shards of every noise in
the sound spectrum stabbed through their eardrums. Shand, Tallia and Malien
went into a huddle, trying to block out Carcharon and recover the gate. Yggur
joined them, desperate to get back to Maigraith.
'This is going to take a while,' Shand grunted as they strained against the
warped fabric of space and time.
'I don't understand what happened between Faelamor and Rulke,' said Malien.
'For a moment he was helpless.' 'Llian can tell you,' grunted Shand. Llian,
rubbing red-raw eyes, shook his head. He was quite as tormented as Faelamor
had been.
'We need to know!' snapped Yggur as he worked at some obscure process with
Tallia.
Llian made a visible effort. 'Part of the tale comes from Yalkara's book.
That's where I found out the very beginning of the business.'
'I thought the book was destroyed unread,' said Yggur suspiciously.
'Another tale, for another time.' Llian managed a weak smile. 'This is what it
said - a summary of it, anyway.
'Long ago in Tallallame there were two human races -Mariem and Faellem. The
Faellem's talents were of the mind, and they were numerous. The Mariem were
clever with devices and machines, but not fecund. Over time the two races grew
apart as they each developed their particular talents and cultures. They did
not interbreed, and became quite distinct peoples.
"The Mariem accumulated wealth and power, for they had built a civilisation
with machines that did their work for them. Feeling no kinship with nature,
they set out to tame it. They cleared the beautiful forests that had once
covered whole continents. They moved rivers, carved roads through the
wilderness and built vast cities. The Faellem were forced back into the most
rugged lands and the poorest, as the Mariem used more and more of the world's
wealth for their civilisation.
'The Faellem had a totally different outlook. Their kinship with the land was
total, for they knew themselves to be just one species in a vast web of life.
They felt no need for the trappings of civilisation, save the arts. Their life
was of the mind. They never cut down a tree, or slew an animal, without a
prayer of thanks for the gift. They built no cities, used no machines. Their
arts and their culture were simple, but very beautiful.'
Yggur cursed and sprang out of the way as the process he had been working on

failed in an explosion of purple cinders. The broken walls curved over them,
oscillating like rubber. 'I can't do it!' he said hoarsely. 'Carcharon is too
strange.'
I've an idea,' Malien suggested. She spoke in his ear.
Yggur nodded. 'It's worth a try.'
Malien conjured up one of her bubbles and grew it around them all. Inside, the
weirdness of Carcharon was blocked out, though it could still be heard and
felt. It was completely
dark, so Shand created light with his knobbly staff and they went back to
their work on the gate. 'Continue, Llian,' said Malien.
'The Faellem realised that the Mariem were going to wipe them out. Once the
forests were gone they would have no place to live, nor any reason to. The
Mariem would destroy them, not from malice but from simple greedy
indifference, and the beautiful world they were the custodians of would be no
more.
'The Faellem had to find a way to curb the Mariem and reclaim Tallallame. In
their desperation they bred their most talented and sensitive people together
like farmyard animals, to develop their powers of mind and illusion so highly
that the Mariem would not be able to resist them.
'The Mariem had been experimenting with gates, so they could travel instantly
from one part of Tallallame to another. Their first were crude, clumsy devices
that seldom worked properly, but the Faellem knew their enemies would soon
perfect them, and when they did, no place on Tallallame would be safe. The
Faellem learned how these gates worked, and how the Mariem used their minds to
direct them from one place to another. Experimenting with their own vastly
superior mind-powers, they forced a gate to go wrong. They directed it to the
worst nightmare of beasts and barrenness they could imagine. To their
astonishment the gate opened a way off Tallallame into an unknown place
teeming with desperate life - the void!'
Llian slumped down on the low wall. His voice had gone hoarse. He looked
ghastly. 'Has anyone got a drink?' he
croaked.
Shand tossed a flask to him. Llian took a huge swig, thinking that it was
water. The liquor roared down his throat and lit a fire in his belly. 'Thank
you,' he choked.
'So the Faellem began it all!' said Malien.
'Yes!' He went on with the tale. 'Here was an opportunity to save Tallallame.
The collective wills of the most sensitive
Faellem made a mass illusion, a pied piper for adults, and one by one the
whole population of the Mariem were led through the gate, thinking that they
went to their own wonderful world. As soon as they ended up in the void they
knew differently, but it was too late. The Faellem had sealed the gate and it
could not be reopened.
'The Faellem busied themselves with regenerating beautiful Tallallame. They
broke the dams, tore down the cities and planted the forests anew. That other
race was eliminated from the Histories of Tallallame, and all use of the
machines and magical devices that had almost ruined their world was forbidden.
Eventually the genocide was reduced to just a rumour, a frightening myth.
Within a millennium, nature had covered all trace of the Mariem.
'And in the void, that desperate place where nothing matters but survival,
most were dead within days. In a month the millions were reduced to a few
thousand. Of those, over thousands of years a small number adapted. Things
evolve rapidly in the void if they do survive, so that those who came out and
took Aachan, not many more than a hundred, were quite different from those
that went in. They were a new human species and they took a new name, Charon,
after a frigid moonlet at the furthest extremity of the void. All they could
remember of their former life was their name, and their betrayal.
'The survival of the species now meant everything to the Charon. To Rulke that
purpose was unquenchable. But they did not thrive on Aachan. For some reason
the Charon were infertile there. So Rulke commissioned the golden flute, to

open the way to Santhenar and offer them another chance. But Shuthdar stole
the flute, and that crime led to war after war, misery after misery, calamity
after calamity, all the way down the ages to today.'
'How is it going?' Osseion asked while Llian slaked his thirst, with icy water
this time.
A little progress,' Shand replied. 'It's tiring work though.'
'I feel quite sleepy,' said Malien.
'Open the sphere for a minute,' said Shand. 'Let some fresh air in. And
Mendark, Llian? I suppose you've worked that out too?'
'Yes,' said Yggur. 'I very much want to hear that.'
Llian wiped his mouth and continued. 'The Aachim and the Charon fought many
battles on Santh, though at first neither was numerous and the world scarcely
noticed them. That changed in the Clysm, when Mendark convinced the Council to
side with the Aachim. His propaganda gave the Charon an evil reputation.
Mendark's strength was dependent on having a common enemy, and this was a lie
that was in the interests of most. So much of the past had been lost in the
Clysm that it was difficult to check afterwards. As Rulke said History is as
it is written. Terrible deeds were done against the Charon and they retaliated
in kind.
'Had Mendark not been so concerned about his reputation I might never have
discovered the truth. He had only been able to capture Rulke by betraying you,
Yggur.'
'How?' cried Yggur. 'How did he do it?' 'In the last battle he knew that the
Council would be defeated. There was only one chance to save the world and
Mendark seized it. He forced the Proscribed Experiments to fail and when Rulke
attacked your mind, Yggur, Mendark forced Rulke's consciousness inside it. You
went mad and Rulke could not find his way out. Tensor captured his now
helpless body and they expelled him into the Nightland, Mendark had saved the
world, but only by betraying you, his closest friend. You were supposed to
die, but instead you escaped and no one could find you. Little wonder Mendark
was terrified when you reappeared.'
Yggur clenched his fists in fury. The memories were too awful. 'Air!' he
gasped.
Malien let the frigid, hallucinatory air into the sphere again. Llian went on
with his story.
'Within a year of Rulke being put away, most of the
Council were dead. Mendark slew them one by one, in case they realised what he
had done. Had you not disappeared he would have finished you too. Tensor alone
was spared.
'But ever after, Mendark lived in fear that one of the Council had written
down the truth that would destroy his reputation forever. So he amassed a vast
store of ancient documents to disguise his true intent, which was to seek out
and destroy every record that could possibly link his name to the crime. It
was the greatest library from that time ever put together. But it's all gone
now, except what I have copies of, and what I remember.
'Mendark could not bear to have once been great, and then to fail and lose his
reputation. History treats its heroes randomly. He felt that he had never had
his due and was desperate to renew his name with one last heroic deed. So when
the opportunity of the flute came, he could not resist it.'
'How did he know how to use it?' asked Malien. 'No one else did.'
'He had been looking for it, and preparing for it, all his life. He spent
months at Saludith. Perhaps he found the answer there, and took it away so no
one else ever could.'
'But why did the flute go so wrong?'
'The gold was corrupted by time, as all things carried between the worlds
eventually are. He knew that risk but was convinced he could overcome it. He
wasn't strong enough.'
'Why did the Faellem come to Santhenar in the first place?' asked Tallia.
'They had thought that they were alone in the universe, after the Mariem were
sent into the void. Then Shuthdar used the flute and they knew that they were

far from alone. Theirs was just one of the Three Worlds, and the Way between
the Worlds was open. It let things out of the void into Tallallame. The
Faellem were not troubled by them, for they were used to dealing with wild
creatures, but they knew that the most dangerous creatures of all dwelt on the
other worlds - other human species!
'The Faellem went the perilous way to Santhenar to find out what had happened,
and to restore the Three Worlds to the closed-off places that they had always
been. Once they arrived here they found three more human species, and all were
makers and users of the forbidden machines that so terrified them. They were
too numerous for the Faellem to do anything about, except for one species.
'The Charon were so familiar and so threatening, for all that there were but
three of them on Santhenar. The Faellem knew that they were vulnerable, but
not how vulnerable. Because the other species were so powerful, they had to
work from the shadows. Then the Forbidding trapped them - '
'I think I have it,' cried Shand. 'If only we're not too late! Into the gate,
quick as you can!'
The Fate of the Faellem
One by one the Faellem emerged from the gate into Tallallame, as naked as was
everyone who passed between the worlds. They came out at a sacred meeting
place, a grassy hillside shaped like a curving pyramid, standing above tall
forest. It was dark but dawn could not be far off, for there was a light in
the east.
Faelamor emerged last of all, so covered in welts and claw marks that she was
barely recognisable. She lay on the grass and could not get up. The Faellem
lifted her high to show her her world. She embraced them one by one, and
everyone was weeping. Millennia had passed since they left for Santhenar.
'We have done it,' Faelamor whispered. 'Our world is safe; our enemy is no
more. We are free at last.'
'But look at the cost,' said Hallal. 'Look what you did to Galgilliel and
Aeolior, and Maigraith too. We are all culpable. We warped, we twisted and we
extinguished the Charon, as we did our best to eliminate the Mariem before
them.'
'I did it for Tallallame,' said Faelamor.
'You emptied the void into Aachan,' said Hallal. 'That was not necessary. You
changed Aachan forever.'
'I had no choice,' said Faelamor. 'We are the noblest of all the human kinds.
Look how we cared for our world, as no other species ever has.'
The wind shifted and they caught the smell of burning wood and leaves. A faint
cry came on the breeze.
'What's that?' hissed Hallal, straining her eyes against the gloom.
The burning smell grew stronger until they knew that it could only be a forest
fire, and a big one too. Overlaid with that they caught the reek of burning
flesh.
The sun wrenched itself over the horizon and through the thunderheads of brown
smoke they saw glimpses of the horrible scene. Vast tracts of forest were
burning, as far as could be seen, and even in the furthest distance smoke made
columns in the air as big as mountains.
'What's happened?' Faelamor whispered. The sun shone on her face, and her
golden skin had withered. Her eyes were dull raisins in two deep craters.
'What's gone wrong? I don't understand.'
The Faellem had gone down the hill, seeking news. Faelamor remained on the
pyramidal hillside, staring into the drifting smoke. High above, winged
creatures soared and wheeled on thermals created by the fires. They seemed at
home in the chaos. Terrifyingly so.
As she watched, one folded back its wings and went into a steep glide, right
into the billowing smoke. A long while later it flapped out again, holding
something vaguely human in its claws. It was closer now, and Faelamor saw
clearly how the leathery wings clubbed the air out of the way. No such beast
had inhabited Tallallame when she'd lived here. Now she could see dozens.
Faelamor felt a terrific pain inside her, as if that creature was tearing at