The Destiny of the Dead (The Song of the Tears Book 3) (84 page)

Yggur shuddered. ‘I don’t think so. Let’s get on with it.’

The ebony bracelet Ketila had worn just a month and a half
ago lay outside in the short grass, cast away as useless. Malien used it to
break the perpetual illusion, and when she moved the bracelet about, the shadow
figures Flydd and Maelys had seen with Colm and Ketila came and went.

‘Many people dwelt in this cave over the years,’ said
Malien, ‘though we won’t see any before Faelamor created the perpetual illusion
to hide her treasure. Nor any who came afterwards, save those who possessed
enough Art to imprint their shadows on the illusion.’

‘That’s Faelamor,’ said Yggur, pointing to the outline of a
small, slender woman bent over something on the floor. ‘She’s burying the
treasure, more than two hundred and twenty years ago.’

A pair of scriers, armed with wisp-watchers, came and went.
‘Why are they next?’ cried Maelys. ‘Did they get it?’

‘They did not,’ said Malien, smiling. ‘Visitors are not
shown in order of appearance. The scriers would have been here within the last
few years, as were these villainous-looking reprobates.’

Maelys saw herself and Flydd excavating the little wooden
box, and then her finding the mimemule and Flydd taking it. Ketila was a
fleeting shadow near the entrance but Colm did not appear at all.

‘Where’s Colm?’ she said.

‘He had no Art,’ Flydd said curtly. ‘He created no shadow.’

‘Is that Ketila?’ said Nish. ‘I remember telling her stories
long ago, when her family sheltered me in their hovel. She was a pretty, eager
girl, and she so loved to hear tales of the outside world.’ He sighed. ‘And now
she’s dead.’

‘She did not have a good war, poor child,’ said Flydd.

‘There’s Maigraith!’ said Yggur. Her shadow was standing by
the entrance, watching people digging under the direction of a robed and hooded
Whelm, though they did not appear to find anything.

Finally a small, curvaceous woman appeared by herself,
limping slightly.

‘Karan,’ said Malien.

Karan’s shadow dug up the box, took the mimemule from it and
put everything else back, then faded. She re-appeared, dug a hole near the cave
entrance and buried the mimemule in it.

‘So Karan came here twice,’ said Yggur. ‘She used the
mimemule, then put it back so there would be no evidence that she’d ever
touched the treasure, because Maigraith was hunting her and Karan didn’t want
her to know what she’d done with it.’

‘Is there any way to discover what she used the mimemule
for?’ said Nish.

‘Not as far as I can tell.’ Flydd was turning the stained,
knobbly wooden object over in his hands. ‘It’s completely dead now; whatever
power it once held has been exhausted and cannot be replenished by any Art I
know about … wait a minute! Remember how we escaped from here? When the
mimemule touched the virtual construct, it opened a gate instantly.’

‘
Instantly?
’ cried
Yggur. ‘But when you used the virtual construct to leave the Nightland, it took
ages to open a portal, didn’t it?’

‘A good hour and a half,’ said Flydd. ‘Even though the
virtual construct was
live
–’

‘So the mimemule had encountered the virtual construct
previously,’ said Yggur. ‘I think I see where this is going.’

 
FIFTY-SEVEN

‘Be so good as to explain,’ said Nish irritably, ‘for I
haven’t the faintest idea.’

‘When I found the virtual construct in the Nightland it was
still live,’ said Flydd. ‘But who could have used it? Rulke was long dead, and
neither Yalkara nor Emberr had touched it – I asked Yalkara before she
died.’

‘Who else knew about it?’ said Flydd.

‘No one,’ said Yggur, ‘because I begged Llian to leave all
mention of the virtual construct out of his Great Tale. I told you that at the
Tower of a Thousand Steps.’

‘So you did,’ said Flydd. ‘Therefore, the only other people
who knew it was there were Karan and Llian – because they’d
been
to the Nightland.’

‘I’d say Karan used the mimemule to return to the
Nightland,’ said Yggur, ‘then brought it back to the cave so Maigraith would
never know she’d had it. And while in the Nightland she must have used the
virtual construct – that’s why it was live when we got there. Portal us
to the Nightland, Klarm, and let’s see what we can read from it.’

‘Unfortunately I took the virtual construct with us when we
left the Nightland,’ said Flydd. ‘And it was subsequently destroyed.’

‘The virtual construct could never be removed from the
Nightland,’ said Yggur, ‘because it was built from it. You must have
inadvertently made a copy, but Rulke’s original will still be there. Klarm,
let’s go.’

Klarm was looking unsteady on his mismatched feet, but he
made a second portal which took them directly to the room where the virtual
construct – Rulke’s three-dimensional model for the real construct he’d
subsequently built in Carcharon – floated above the floor.

It was about the size of a large covered wagon, though very
alien in appearance. Its exterior shell appeared to be made from a dark metal,
but was shiny smooth and shaped in perfect curves that no smith on Santhenar
could have duplicated, even using the Art. The construct curved up towards the
rear, to a high platform, then cut sharply down at the back.

It was not metal, of course: just a model that could be
walked through to see the insides, as Maelys had done the first time she was
here. Now she sat on the cold floor, weary and wanting to go home, while Nish
walked in and out, studying every detail. It was the artificer coming out in
him, she supposed, and of course he’d worked on constructs and the flying
version of them, thapters, during the war.

‘It’s an earlier version,’ Nish was saying. ‘Rulke made many
changes and improvements to his real construct. But even so – it’s
marvellous
.’

‘What can you read in it, Yggur?’ said Flydd. ‘Can you tell
where it went?’

Yggur and Malien were standing inside the structure, and
Maelys could just see their shadowy outlines.

‘It doesn’t seem to have been used here at all,’ said Yggur.

‘Then it must have been used in Elludore,’ said Malien.

‘So Karan used the mimemule to mimic a portal and came
here,’ mused Flydd. ‘And then she mimicked a copy of the virtual construct and
took the mimemule back to the cave. It all seems rather complicated.’

‘But necessary, if she was to conceal her tracks from
Maigraith. What did she do then?’ said Yggur. ‘Klarm, you’d better take us back
to the cave.’

‘I can’t keep doing this,’ said Klarm, who was pale and
sweating now, and clearly in tremendous pain. ‘My knoblaggie doesn’t protect me
from aftersickness, you know.’

‘Think of it as reparation for your crimes,’ snapped Flydd.

Klarm staggered; Maelys ran to him and held him while he
renewed the portal, and she could feel the agony he was struggling with all his
mighty heart to conceal from them, and especially from Flydd.

‘You’re killing him, Xervish,’ she said softly.

‘I’m all right,’ said Klarm, pulling free. ‘I believe in
paying my debts. I can do it.’

They returned to the cave and Flydd used the
illusion-dispelling bracelet again. Outside the entrance, where he had not looked
previously, five shadows appeared, walked into a construct, and vanished.

‘That was Karan, Llian and their three children,’ said
Malien.

‘Where did they go?’ said Maelys.

‘If I had to guess, I’d say Shazmak, and the top of the
tower from which, it’s said, she hurled them into the Garrflood.’

‘Can you direct us to the place?’ said Flydd. ‘Neither Klarm
nor I have ever seen Shazmak.’

‘Nor I for some time,’ said Malien, ‘though I love it most
of all our cities. We’ll go the scenic way. I’d like to see Shazmak from afar
– for the last time. Klarm, if you would make the portal like this …’

She bent and whispered in his ear. Klarm nodded weakly and
created the portal, but she had to support him all the way.

Maelys, watching the little man anxiously, could hear the
roar of the river before they arrived, for this time the portal became
transparent while it was carrying them above a mighty gorge, some distance from
the city. The walls of the gorge plunged hundreds of spans to the raging River
Garr, and the cliffs extended above them almost as far.

Ahead the river swirled around a rocky pinnacle, and from it
Shazmak soared up to the heavens, a profusion of slender towers, aerial
walkways and looping stairs all connected to each other. A pair of gossamer
bridges, crossing the gorge, led to the paths in and out of Shazmak.

‘The gale rushing down the great river never ceases,’ said
Malien as the portal drifted closer.

The wild wind shook the towers and howled around the stairs
and walkways, setting Maelys’s teeth on edge. ‘It seems a sad place.’

‘It is now. Shazmak was sacked by the Ghâshâd –
formerly Yggur’s Whelm – just before Rulke escaped from the Nightland,
and much of the damage they did inside has yet to be repaired. Few Aachim dwell
here any more, and most of those are from Clan Elienor – or were. The
flower of my clan’s youth went to Morrelune to defend their adopted world, but
few of them will come home to Shazmak.’

Malien turned away, wiping her eyes. She studied the towers,
then pointed to the one tower which stood directly above the river. ‘That must
be it.’

The portal deposited them on the flat roof of the tower and
faded out. Klarm flopped down on his back, panting. His face had gone blotchy
and his lips were drawn back, baring his square white teeth. Maelys could not
imagine how he bore aftersickness on top of the agony of his severed foot,
though he was famously tough, brave and determined.

Malien went to the edge, which was enclosed by a chest-high
wall, and looked down at the river. ‘It is a sad place for me,’ she went on,
‘for my son, Rael, drowned in the Garr down there while helping Karan and Llian
to escape – the first time they came here.’ She turned away. ‘To
business!’

After walking back and forth a number of times, she borrowed
the knoblaggie, used it, and another series of shadow figures arose, though
they looked clearer than the ones in the cave. There were seven of them –
Karan and Llian, the three children, and two taller folk, an emaciated man and
a gauntly pretty woman with huge eyes and long dark hair.

‘Whelm!’ said Maelys, shivering, and not just because of the
icy wind on the back of her neck.

‘Idlis and Yetchah,’ said Malien. ‘Karan knew she could rely
on them, utterly and forever. Watch!’

Karan’s shadow embraced the two Whelm, then Idlis and
Yetchah headed down an internal stair. Karan, Llian and the children went
inside the virtual construct and it vanished.

‘So she didn’t kill them,’ said Maelys.

Malien did not answer for some time. She was walking back
and forth, moving the knoblaggie about, and frowning. What could be the matter
now?

‘Of course she didn’t!’ said Malien, but Maelys could see
the relief in her eyes. ‘I never believed that story for a second. Besides,
Karan was scarcely bigger than you, and Llian wasn’t a small man. She could
never have thrown him over such a high wall. She faked their deaths so as to
put the family beyond Maigraith’s reach.’

‘I’ve seen enough,’ said Nish. ‘Well, council, are we happy
to clear Karan’s name and restore her to her rightful place in the Histories?’

‘No,’ said Malien. ‘It can’t be done.’

‘Why ever not? They disappeared more than two centuries ago.
They must have died long since; Maigraith can’t threaten them now.’

‘Unfortunately, I think she can.’

‘Why?’ said Maelys. ‘Where did they go?’

‘I don’t know where she took them,’ said Malien, ‘but I do
know
when
.’

‘
When?
’ said
Flydd. ‘There is no
when
, with
portals.’

‘There is now,’ said Malien, ‘for I have just read the
echoes left by her last portal, as clearly as you can see their shadows. The
other treasures Faelamor left in the cave must have included the secret of
moving a portal forwards in time, and that’s what Karan did. She took her
family,’ Malien frowned and concentrated hard, her lips moving as if she were
reading something dim and distant, ‘two hundred and ten years forwards, to a
time when she must have thought Maigraith could no longer be a threat.’

‘If they were here … fifteen years after the Time of the
Mirror, plus two hundred and ten … that’s five years from now,’ said Nish. ‘And
Karan’s name can’t be cleared in case Maigraith finds out.’

‘Which she will,’ said Yggur. ‘Now that we all know, the
secret is bound to get out.’

‘What are you suggesting?’ snapped Flydd.

‘I’m not suggesting any of us would reveal it,’ Yggur said.
‘But Maigraith is both brilliant and determined, and given time she’ll follow
in our footsteps.’

 
FIFTY-EIGHT

‘I don’t see why she should,’ said Flydd.

‘Maigraith was suspicious the very first time she saw the
mimemule, if you recall,’ said Yggur. ‘She spent many years in Faelamor’s
thrall and must have recognised it, and known where it came from.’

‘And she knows about the virtual construct too,’ said
Maelys, ‘because I mentioned it when she questioned us in the Tower of a
Thousand Steps.’

‘Well,’ said Nish, ‘there’s nothing we can do about it now.
And who knows, in five years, Maigraith may have changed.’

‘She never changes,’ said Yggur, ‘and never gives up,
either. Let’s go back. I’m weary unto death and my burns hurt abominably.
Klarm?
’

He was still lying on his back and his crusted stump was
oozing blood in several places. ‘I can’t do it,’ he said listlessly. ‘Can’t
take any more.’