The Chaos Crystal (10 page)

Together, the two of them would be unassailable.

Will power corrupt Declan, the way it's corrupted
the rest
of
them?
Tiji wondered.
And where does
Arkady figure in all this?

Declan was in love with her. Cayal was obsessed with her. Would she come between them, even if she wasn't actually around, preventing them from controlling a madman's wrath, which could easily result in the death of millions? Or would the spectre of a mortal woman both men wanted, but neither seemed to be able to hold, actually save humanity from the frightening possibility of the two most powerful Tide Lords on Amyrantha combining their power, which might result in something even worse for the mortals of this world?

'Tiji!' Azquil hissed, tugging her backward much more forcefully than he had the first time. 'Come away from there, now!'

'This is going to end badly. You know that, don't you?' Tiji heard Cayal predict, as Azquil decided to take matters into his own hands and physically pull her from the entrance.

For the first time she could remember, Tiji found herself agreeing with Cayal, but if any of the other

immortals in the room answered him, Tiji didn't hear them. Azquil, his arm firmly around her waist, dragged her backward, her booted feet sliding on the icy floor as he pulled her away, down the hall toward Arryl's suite.

Tiji wasn't strong enough to fight him, and yelling at him would have given away her presence, so she settled for passive resistance, making him drag her all the way, her arms crossed grumpily, thinking,
This is
going to end badly, Azquil. You know that, don't you?

CHAPTER 9

'Can you swim, Rodent?'

Declan stood on the edge of the crumbling glacier staring out over the roiling sea and decided not to dignify Cayal's idiotic question with an answer. They were standing on the very edge of Jelidia once more, staring into the setting sun, facing several thousand miles of ocean between the Tide Lords and their destination. Declan had no notion of how they were supposed to cross the ocean to reach Glaeba on the other side of the world in the opposite hemisphere. There was no ship waiting at anchor for them. The vessel they'd commandeered in Port Traeker to bring them here was long gone, and it was too early in the year to flag down a passing fishing vessel, even if the likelihood of chancing across such a ship wasn't such a remote possibility. Nonetheless, Declan was quite certain they weren't standing here for the good of their health.

One way or another, Declan figured, either Cayal or Kentravyon had a way of crossing the ocean. He sincerely hoped they weren't planning to do it the same way Maralyce had arrived from Glaeba.

At the sound of an agonised yelp, he looked over his shoulder to see what Kentravyon was doing.
To
his disgust, the immortal was working his way down the line of dogs that had so diligently pulled their sled to the coast, breaking their necks as he went, leaving them lying on the ice, still in their harnesses.

'Is it really necessary for him to be so
...
enthusiastic about it?'.

'You'd rather we left them here to starve after we're gone?' Cayal said beside him, apparently unaffected by Kentravyon's grisly task.

'Maybe we
should
have just let them go.'

'And they'd still starve, or fall down a crevasse and break something only to suffer a slow painful death over several days. Or they'll hang around the coast in the hope of finding fish to eat and be taken by a sea lion. Tides, Rodent, and you accuse
us
of lacking compassion.' Cayal turned, heading back to where Kentravyon was killing the last of the dogs. Declan winced again, glad Tiji hadn't come with them. She'd never forgive him for standing by and doing nothing about this. Even worse, she'd be mortified to realise Declan could see the necessity of not leaving the dogs here alone, however distasteful Cayal's logic.

Of course, there was nothing compassionate or humane about the gleam in Kentravyon's eye as he volunteered to do the deed, which was what sickened Declan most.

With some reluctance, Declan followed Cayal back to the sled. He'd wondered why they'd brought it and figured he'd finally find out now the dogs were taken care of. Kentravyon was pulling a large bundle from the sled. He sliced through the ties holding the package and with Cayal's help, unrolled the bundle onto the ice. Declan stared at it for a moment and then looked at the two Tide Lords.

'It's a rug.'

'Lukys is right, you know,' Cayal said to Kentravyon. 'The lad certainly doesn't miss much, does he?'

Declan ignored Cayal, directing his next question to Kentravyon. 'We're going on a magic carpet ride, are we?'

'Don't be stupid,' Kentravyon said, straightening out the edges. 'There's no such thing as a magic carpet.'

Declan wasn't sure he believed that. Many nations on Amyrantha had legends of Tide Lords with flying carpets, particularly in the Commonwealth of Elenovia where they had a whole festival devoted to their rug industry and the flying carpets of legend. There was even mention of one in the Tarot somewhere. 'What's this then?'

'A carpet,' Cayal said. He retrieved his pack from the sled and tossed it onto the rug. 'That we're going to ride. Using magic'

'How is that not a magic carpet ride?'

'The carpet is just an ordinary rug,' Kentravyon said, tossing his own pack onto the rug before taking a seat on it and crossing his legs. 'The Tide is what will move it along. It's that or riding the waves like Maralyce did, which is messy.'

'Why messy?' Declan asked, thinking it an odd description. Wet, maybe, or unpleasant, but
messy?

'Because we're heading toward civilisation,' Cayal said. 'Not a good idea to make a tidal wave and ride it into a populated region when you're trying to be inconspicuous, Rodent.'

The ground rumbled as another chunk of ice broke away from the coastline and splashed into the water far below. 'You two coming,' Kentravyon asked, 'or are you just going to stand there admiring the view?'

Cayal needed no further prompting. He sat down on the rug facing Kentravyon, crossed his legs in a similar fashion and then looked over his shoulder at Declan, as he moved his pack around behind him so he could lean against it. it's this or swim, Rodent.'

With a great deal of trepidation, Declan stepped forward and dropped his pack onto the rug. A part of him was fascinated by this mode of transport, another part of him unable to shake the feeling these two were

having a wonderful time at his expense. Was this a prank that would follow him into eternity? Would his acceptance of a magic carpet be laughed about for aeons — the brand new, gullible Tide Lord who believed a rug could fly? He sat down facing Cayal and Kentravyon, cross-legged as they were, filled with apprehension. 'What now?'

'Hang on,' Kentravyon said.

Before Kentravyon had even finished speaking, Declan was thrown backwards. He felt the surge of the Tide as the rug took off across the ice and sped straight over the edge of the cliff, plummeting towards the ice-filled water below. Declan bit back the urge to scream, his senses still not adjusted to the notion that he couldn't die and was in no immediate peril. Cayal and Kentravyon were both grinning at him as they plummeted toward the ocean, either exhilarated by the fall or amused by Declan's reaction it — he wasn't sure which and didn't much care to find out. The ocean rushed toward them, so deep here the water appeared black, soaking up the twilight. At the last minute, and with only inches to spare, the rug levelled out, missing a freshly broken chunk of ice the size of a house by a whisker. Somehow, they stayed above the water, dodging icebergs, skating over the whitecaps as if the ocean was made of glass and the rug a sheet of polished metal skimming downhill over the waves.

Even more miraculously, Declan stayed aboard. The icy spray of the ocean stopped just short of them, hitting an invisible wall and falling away before it could reach them. His skin tingled, a reaction to being in such close proximity to Kentravyon swimming the Tide. Declan guessed he was also using it to protect them from the spray, while propelling the rug over the water at a speed that left him gasping.

Within minutes, the tall, crumbling ice-cliffs of

Jelidia were a blur on the horizon, yet the rug stayed flat and dry and after a few moments, Cayal stretched out, using his pack as a pillow.

'Wake me when you want a break,' he told Kentravyon, before closing his eyes with his arms folded across his chest. The ocean rushed beneath them silently, not so much as a breath of wind ruffling the hair of the three Tide Lords riding the magically- propelled rug.

The madman nodded and looked at Declan oddly.
'What?

'Nothing. I just wasn't expecting — well, this
...'
'Tides, you didn't think I was going to make it fly, did you?'

'Of course not.'

Kentravyon smiled and leaned forward a little. 'Do you want to know how to do it?' 'Yes, I would.'

'Then do what the rest of us had to do,' he said unsympathetically. 'Figure it out for yourself.'

Declan frowned, but supposed he shouldn't be surprised. Kentravyon wasn't renowned for his social skills. 'Does Cayal know how to keep us afloat?'

'Says he does,' Kentravyon said with a shrug. 'Probably doesn't do as well as me. Nobody is ever as accomplished as God.'

Until he made comments like that, it was easy to forget Kentravyon was mad. Declan had his doubts about that. Kentravyon seemed quite rational most of the time. He supposed it came down to one's definition of mad.
Did a man have to be drooling and
incomprehensible to be called a lunatic? Or did he just have to believe he was God?

According to Cayal, Kentravyon's madness resulted from swimming too deep into the Tide, losing himself in it so much that he never really came back. The circumstances of his downfall remained disturbingly vague, leaving Declan with the impression that Cayal

hadn't told him the details, not because he was holding back on purpose, but because he simply didn't know himself.

'Are you the best at everything?' Declan asked, figuring it would be safer to broach the subject of his madness in a roundabout fashion.

'Yes, Declan, I am,' Kentravyon replied. 'That's why I'm God.'

is there no room for other gods in your pantheon?'

Kentravyon shrugged, 'I suppose. Provided they kill me first.'

'But you're immortal.'

The mad Tide Lord smiled, confirming Declan's suspicion that he wasn't as mad as he liked people to believe. 'Well, that takes care of that then, doesn't it?'

Despite himself, Declan smiled. Then he glanced across at Cayal's reclining figure, unsure if the Immortal Prince was really sleeping or just resting with his eyes closed, while listening to their every word. 'Do you really think Lukys has found a way to kill a Tide Lord?'

'The others have never come through when we did it before.'

That piqued Declan's interest. 'The others? What
others?'

'The immortals we've left behind whenever we cross the rift.' Kentravyon rolled his eyes impatiently. 'Tides, lad, did you think that with millions of years behind us, and millions more ahead of us, the best the Tide can do is produce immortals the calibre of Engarhod?'

Declan stared at him, a little stunned by the idea. He had enough trouble trying to comprehend the notion that he might live for thousands of years. The realisation that he might one day count his life in a span of millions of years had never even crossed his mind, until now.
Tides, no wonder Cayal is looking for
a way to die.

'Are you telling me that you
—-
and Lukys
...
and Maralyce — that you're
millions
of years old?'

'Who knows?' the madman said with another shrug. 'I don't bother keeping count any longer.'

'But you came through this rift from another world, didn't you? From a world just like this one?'

'Well, it wasn't
exactly
like this one,' Kentravyon said. 'Had more water on it, for one thing. And it was warmer. And no people, which was a bit of a bore after a while. We had a few species that were kind of intriguing, but they didn't really live long enough to be useful. Something in the air, Lukys postulated, that kept them dying young. It was very picturesque, though, as I recall. The whole world was like a riotous garden with creatures the size of sailing ships. And they had these really delicious little molluscs you could only find up around the Fianca Inlet
—'

'How many worlds have you
actually
been to, Kentravyon?' Declan cut in, fearing he'd lose the madman's attention if he started reminiscing about long forgotten culinary delights.

The older man shrugged. 'I don't know. Must be a few. I was just a lad when I was made immortal.'

Declan studied him for a moment. He looked to be a man in his early forties. Lukys seemed to be in his late-thirties, Maralyce a woman nearer fifty. Declan had always assumed that was the age they were when they'd been immolated. That the immortals might be ageing, however slowly, was something he'd never considered before.

Declan glanced over at Cayal's reclining figure for a moment. He'd been alive for the better part of eight thousand years and didn't look a day older than he had when he was made immortal at the age of twenty- seven. How long must the others have been alive to have visibly aged?