The Chaos Crystal (20 page)

These are the thoughts that occupy immortal minds left idle for too long.

Some of us go mad.

Some of us start experimenting.

We had long speculated about transferring consciousness between bodies. In theory, it seemed plausible; the practicalities, however, were a little more problematic.

If you're going to transfer the mind from one immortal's body into another, the first problem you face is that you can't use another immortal body, even if you could find an immortal willing to surrender their own consciousness to make room for a new one. The same magical protection that prevents any harm

coming to an immortal prevents the transfer from taking place. So, even after we'd worked out how to effect the transfer, we were stuck with the significant problem of
where
we could transfer the consciousness.

The obvious answer to that is to use a mortal mind, but with a mortal mind comes a mortal body. We who
want
to live forever have no wish to surrender our lives for a few brief moments of joy in someone else's form. And we learned the hard way that there is no going back.

There was no meteor that conveniently struck Engarhod's ship near Jelidia, that only he, Lukys and the rat survived. Lukys spun that story when Engarhod regained consciousness. And being little more than a simple fisherman, the man swallowed every word of the tale — after Lukys's tampering had immolated him and destroyed the ship. If you want a measure of how gullible Engarhod and Syrolee are, they believed the story then, and have never thought to question it since.

The truth is far more simple. The Tide is strongest near the magnetic poles, although I doubt even Lukys knows why. He needed to be near the pole to attempt the transfer of Coryna's consciousness into a new, younger, body.

It was High Tide by then. He, Maralyce and Coryna had been studying and planning and fiddling with bloodlines for centuries, thinking they had everything in place to effect the transfer. Engarhod, as far as I know, wasn't chosen for any other reason than he was a competent sailor — just a man in the right place at the wrong time.

Coryna travelled on the ship as its cook, and the body they'd chosen as a replacement for her went along — quite unsuspectingly, I assume — as Lukys's mistress. Her name was Taya, if I recall it correctly. She was Lyna's sister, in case you're wondering, which is one of the reasons I always found that woman so damned attractive. Perhaps it's the idea that she could

have been Coryna that makes her so desirable. Or maybe it's just the idea of taunting Lukys with his failure
...

It doesn't really matter. Either motive serves me just as well. The irony is they chose the wrong sister, you see. The one they left behind was the one they should have taken. It was Lyna, not Taya, who had the potential to become immortal.

Lukys and Coryna had been living in and around Cuttlefish Bay for quite a while by then. They owned most of the fishing fleet working out of the harbour, including Engarhod's ship. Lukys — in typical fashion — was posing as his own father and son. He had everyone convinced he was two different people, and when he finally embarked on the trip to Jelidia to test his theories, he was able to spin some nonsense about being the reluctant eldest son, more interested in astronomy than trade. It also gave him an excuse to take the measurements he needed before attempting the transfer, without Engarhod or his crew asking too many questions.

You know what happened, of course. The whole thing ended in disaster. Lukys destroyed the ship with the amount of Tide magic he and Coryna tried to channel while extracting her consciousness from her body. Taya was one of the first to die. Engarhod survived, but his immortality made transferring Coryna's mind into his body impossible. Coryna's original body was lost in the wreck and nowhere to be found. For all I know it's still floating around the depths of the southern oceans somewhere, mindless, thoughtless and devoid of all awareness; a regenerating source of nourishment for any meat-eating fish who happens by.

Lukys was desperate when he realised what had happened, terrified that if he left it more than a few seconds, he would lose not only Coryna's body, but her consciousness as well. And then he spied it — the only

other creature who'd survived the explosion. A ship's rat, of all things. Lacking sentience, it had neither the wit nor the will to fight him. Desperate by then and with nothing left to lose, Lukys did the only thing he could think of — he rammed Coryna's fading consciousness into the rat.

Thus was Coron the Immortal Rodent born. We're not sure why the rat survived, or how it achieved immortality. It might have been one of those one-in-a- million things, or there might be some mechanism in play that we've never considered. Coryna has enough awareness to know who she
should
be, but neither the power nor the ability to act upon it while she remains in animal form. If she is to be rescued, it'll be one of us who saves her.

Trapped as a rodent, Coryna cannot save herself.

And I will tell you now the reason why Lukys has been making more potential immortals with Maralyce's help, and built himself a palace near the southern magnetic pole of Amyrantha. There is a King Tide coming. He may mean to keep his promise to you, Cayal, to end your sorry existence — just as he may well honour all the other promises and compromises he's been forced to make along the way to achieve his goal. But they are secondary considerations.

Lukys has a fresh young female body — a potential immortal — waiting in the wings, and he's experimented enough over time now to be reasonably certain of success. Coryna grows impatient so he's leaving nothing to chance. To draw the power required to restore his lover to a human body, he's gathering every Tide Lord he thinks he can trust to aid him in his quest. And that includes waking me — even knowing how pissed I would be that he froze me in the first place.

Lukys judges people well. I'd not lift a finger to help you die, Cayal, if that was the only reason we

were doing this. But to bring Coryna back — to see if Lukys can actually make this work. Well, for that, even I am willing to put myself out a little. And we're going to make dammed sure we've got sufficient power this time by using the Chaos Crystal, which means we can channel the Tide magic from more than one world at a time.

We'll open a rift, sure enough, when the Tide peaks. But it won't be to give you the death you crave, Cayal.

It will be to give Coryna life.

CHAPTER 20
 

'Did you never ask Lukys for proof that Coron was dead?' Kinta asked Cayal some time later.

Kentravyon had wandered off somewhere, leaving the others walking along the dark beach trying to digest everything he'd told them. Declan's head was still reeling; he couldn't imagine how the other two felt. The first glimmer of sunrise was beginning to lighten the sky to the east, the air was cold and the tide was coming in. They would have to move soon or be swamped by it — an ironic analogy of the magical Tide that wasn't lost on Declan.

'Of course I asked for proof,' Cayal said. 'He showed me a dead rat.'

'And you just assumed it was Coron?'

Cayal glared at him. 'Don't take that tone with me, you inbred little prick. Why wouldn't I believe him? He's not wandered more than five feet from that wretched rat in eight thousand years. Why is it so hard to think that when he showed me its corpse and told me it was his pet and there was no sign of the live Coron, I believed he was telling the truth?'

'I'd have believed him,' Kinta said, surprising Declan by siding with Cayal. 'The question is, do we believe Kentravyon?'

'He's mad,' Cayal said.

'What he told us had a certain ring of authenticity,' Declan said. 'And it fits with what we know.'

'Well, it would, wouldn't it?' Cayal said. 'You've been alive for how long? Not quite thirty years? Yes, I

can see how that would equip you with all the knowledge you'd need to make a sound and rational judgement on the fate of the immortals. I bow to your superior knowledge, O Great and All-knowing Spymaster.'

'Stop it, Cayal,' Kinta said impatiently.

'Or what?'

Kinta didn't answer him, turning to Declan instead. 'What are you going to do now?'

'Continue on to Glaeba,' he told her. 'For me, nothing has changed. I'm trying to find Arkady. What about you?'

'I need to talk to Brynden. Tell him what Kentravyon said. It will
...
bother him, I think.'

'That's something of an understatement,' Cayal said, with a short, bitter laugh. 'It's going to knock the stuffing right out of our brave and noble warrior. Imagine what it's going to feel like — after all that time he's spent looking for the true meaning of immortality — when he discovers it's all about the rat. Tides, it's a good thing he is immortal, because otherwise this news
would
kill him.'

'And what about you, Cayal?' Kinta asked. 'Do you intend to aid Lukys in his quest to restore Coron to human form?'

'Why not? If it means I die in the process, he can transform a whole flanking chorus line of Jelidian snow bears into dancing girls for all I care.'

'Kentravyon's right about one thing,' Declan noted. 'Lukys is a brilliant judge of what motivates people.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, look at you. You're nodding and saying "Well, isn't that interesting", but nothing's changed so drastically that you're threatening to pull out of the deal. You're still willing to open the rift for him, despite the risks. Cayal still wants to die. Kentravyon seems to want to help just because he's curious. Lukys's motives may be noble enough that Brynden

won't try to interfere, even when he learns the truth. He's got you worked out pretty well, I reckon. To align your friends
and
your enemies so fortuitously — that takes
real
talent.'

'But not you?' Cayal said. 'Is that what you're implying? We'll all fall into line, but you're waiting to see what Arkady wants to do?' He laughed. 'Tides, there's a word for men like you, spymaster, and it's not a very nice one.'

'How can you assume to know what Brynden will do?' Kinta asked, a little miffed by the suggestion.

'I don't know,' Declan said. 'Not for certain. I'm basing my judgement on what I know
of
him,
my lady. If Kentravyon is to be believed, Lukys is motivated — when you get down to it — by nothing more than undying love for Coryna. Didn't Brynden cause a Cataclysm over you for much the same reason?'

'Mindless rage driven by insane jealousy isn't undying love, Rodent. It isn't any sort of love,' Cayal said, and then he shook his head. 'Tides, it seems wrong now, calling you that. I'll have to think of something else.'

'You could try, you know, my
name.''

Cayal flashed a grin at him. 'Now where would be the fun in that?'

'Will you still help Lukys open the rift, Declan?' Kinta asked, ignoring Cayal. 'Now you've heard what Kentravyon has to say?'

Declan shrugged. 'One minute Kentravyon is telling us that opening this rift might destroy the world, the next minute he's offering up hope of a future free of immortal interference and the Cataclysms that go with it. Tides, he's even got
me
thinking that if we open a rift and even
some
of the immortals leave this world, Amyrantha will be a better place, and that may be worth risking its total destruction.'

'If he's planning to leave Syrolee and her lot behind after the rest of us have gone, total destruction might

be preferable,' Cayal said with a sour laugh. Then his amusement faded and he added thoughtfully, 'I wonder why he's so keen to bring Elyssa along, though?'

'If he perfects his method for transferring consciousness from one body to another, she would be a prime candidate for the procedure,' Kinta said. 'If Lukys offered her the chance of a new body, don't you think she'd do absolutely anything he asked of her?'

'Are you sure of that?'

Kinta nodded. 'You know as well as I do, Cayal, that Elyssa would trade her immortality for the chance to be rid of her curse.'

'Which is what exactly?' Declan asked.

The two immortals hesitated for a moment before answering.

'Elyssa was a virgin when she was made immortal,' Kinta told him, when it seemed Cayal wasn't planning to volunteer the information. 'Which means every time she takes a lover, her hymen has to be re-broken, and then it begins to heal again, almost immediately.'

Declan winced at the very thought of it. He'd experienced enough of immortality's agonising rapid healing to imagine how painful that must be.

'If she's not quick about it, it heals while she's still trying to do the deed,' Cayal added with a grimace. 'That's caused some problems in the past, let me tell you.'

Kinta nodded in agreement. 'She kills her lovers now, as soon as she's climaxed, I hear. That way she can get rid of them at her leisure and doesn't have to explain to the poor lad why — in his moment of ecstasy — her hymen has grown over his manly pride and joy and the only way out for him now is to be surgically removed from her.'

The image that created in his head was one Declan could well have done without. 'So what happens when she takes an immortal lover?'