The Nemesis Blade (76 page)

Lowen grinned,
shook her head and moved into an area where there was more light.
Her eyes were startling even in the dimness.

Torrullin
laughed, ignoring the wrench in his gut, and closed in. “You look
well, Lowen.” He was immediately serious. “Thank the gods for that.
You have no idea …”

She held one
hand up, signifying caution. “Nemisin has been attentive.” She
frowned into nearby shadows as if attempting to pierce the gloom
for listeners. “We must get away from here.”

“It has been
arranged.” Torrullin raised his voice. “Hurry up! We are leaving!”
He delved into those shadows, but there were no listeners yet.

Elianas and
Lowen eyed each other, each sizing the other up well. Both
instantly understood the situation. Then they ignored each
other.

Torrullin
pulled a wry face as he focused again to catch their movements, and
asked, “What happened, Lowen?”

“Not here. Too
many listening ears.”

There were
not, he wanted to say, start bloody talking, but that would be the
height of stupidity. He swirled his tongue in his mouth, glanced at
Elianas, and nodded. The situation was strange, and there was
indeed danger, and it was also clear Lowen kept him at arm’s
length. What did he expect? Was he not relieved?

Elianas
murmured, “Right now you do not know what you want.”

Lowen gave a
laugh. “That is not new.”

They scowled
at each other, and then both turned away.

Torrullin
threaded a hand through his hair.

Teighlar was
out first. “That is Nemisin? What is he? He seems to want to sleep
with anything that moves.”

“It is a
ploy,” Torrullin muttered. “No one ever knows where they stand with
him.” He put a finger to his lips. “Be circumspect; we can talk
later.”

Teighlar
nodded.

Caballa
approached. “How did you get us out of this?”

“The Lord
Sorcerer has been charged with testing the outworlders,” Torrullin
said.

“We can use
that,” she murmured.

“Exactly.” He
looked around, noted all were present, and then, “We will be
heading to the Lord Sorcerer’s summer retreat.” He grinned then.
“Yes, seems I had delusions of grandeur. Follow me.”

They
transported out.

Seconds after
they vanished Valen led a squad into the guest quarters. Nemisin,
it seemed, wanted the outworlders dead. Immediately.

The Valleur
were in danger, he declaimed.

Chapter 56

The enemy of
my enemy is my friend. You are my friend and you are as well- I
expect you two to get along.

~ Unknown

Ancient
Akhavar

I
t was a simple stone cottage beside
a waterfall and pool in the mountains, about ten sals from
Nemisin’s current location.

Not so grand.
Not easily traceable. And not visible. It was dark in the
approaching night shadow of the ancient rock and they stumbled
about with muffled curses.

Elianas made
his way unerringly to the door, pressed something there. Lights
came on. The rudimentary abode came into view.

“Solar, like
Valaris,” Torrullin explained. “Elianas installed them.”

“This is like
living in the dark ages,” Teighlar muttered.

Lowen
understood something else. “You have remembered.” She studied
Torrullin, staring into his eyes as if reading his soul. “All of
it, Torrullin?”

He looked at
her. “Yes.”

“Are you
sure?”

“As sure as I
can be.”

She nodded.
“And Elianas knows anything you may not be aware of. Good, then
what I have to say will be easier.”

“We wait with
bated breath.”

She stared at
him some more and then gazed around. “I expected you, Quilla,
Teighlar and Agnimus … or should I say Sabian?” She marked Sabian
with that bright blue gaze and then, “Why so many, and you are two
short of fourteen.”

“Two went
back. You are stalling.” He frowned and went inside, snapping on
lights as he went.

The cottage
possessed an unused feeling, smelled like old leather and damp
corners. As a summer retreat, it was not amazing. In fact, the sun
tended to overlook it, but then, was not coolness the point? Gods,
his mind was a mess.

Lowen,
entering, asked, “Saska?” She ignored Elianas leaning against the
door jamb. He pretended to ignore her.

“Saska went
back, yes.”

“Peace?”

“No.”

Elianas’ one
eyelid flickered over that clipped word from Torrullin. Clearly,
the ease with which he apparently dispatched her back to Akhavar
had no bearing on how he felt about it.

Saska, like to
Lowen, featured.

The others
trickled in as Lowen looked around. A cold, empty hearth, a
threadbare rug, a few wooden benches, a scratched table and
mismatched chairs. “My Lord Sorcerer’s summer retreat?” Her tone
was disbelieving.

As Elianas
muttered under his breath and headed to the hearth to build a fire,
Torrullin said, “This was a place to hide.”

“After you
were cursed for Kalgaia.”

Silence and
then, “Lowen, you are in a time when none of that happened. How can
you possibly know?”

She pointed a finger at him. “No, Elixir, today I am in that
time you speak of. A time of ignorance. Yesterday Nemisin poured
gold into a mould to fashion the Throne and you and
him
were viciously
discussed. What did you do between then and now? Today Nemisin
knows nothing.” She was still pointing at Elianas, and dropped her
arm.

“
Him
is
Elianas.”

“I know who he
is. Lord Elianas, Nemisin’s son-in-law.”

Elianas threw
a log across the room.

“Well, well,”
Sabian drawled.

Teighlar
raised an enlightened brow, and the cousins looked at each
other.

“Except …”
Lowen went on.

“Do not say
it,” Torrullin warned.

“That was a
juicy secret. And seems there is more to it,” Sabian laughed. It
earned him baleful stares, particularly from Elianas.

Lowen drew
breath, let it out and looked away from Torrullin. Then, moving to
a bench, she said, “Yesterday he made himself Vallorin, and today
he has not felt the need for the hereditary line.”

“And yet he is
Lord Vallorin.”

“Yes, well, he
cannot undo something that intrinsic.”

“Ambitious
bastard,” Sabian muttered.

Lowen glared
around and focused on Torrullin. “You took us out of realm into
reality, didn’t you?”

“Not
deliberately.”

“Well,
everything will change if this continues.” She sat, gave everyone
another cursory study and her gaze returned to him. She was studied
in turn. A journey across time and worlds was undertaken for her.
She appeared incredibly self-possessed.

Lowen’s
self-possession could hide many things. He knew that about her. “We
know. It was accidental.” Torrullin approached the fire and sat
with his back to the blaze, leaving Elianas room to continue
working at it. It was the kind of implicit support not lost on the
others.

Teroux
glowered as he hunkered against a wall.

“Accidental? Then it was
accidental
I landed up here,” Lowen
remarked.

“How did that
happen?” Teighlar asked. “Last I heard you spent time with the
paintings and then, poof!”

“It wasn’t the
paintings that drew me to Grinwallin, although I did look them
over. It was the void.” She glanced again at Torrullin, and then
stayed with him. “By now you have worked through the dangers of
that thing, but, Torrullin, you have to set it free.”

Elianas
turned, jostling Torrullin. He stared at her; they all did.

Lowen laughed.
“I have your attention.”

“And you had
better explain very well,” Torrullin snapped.

“I will try.”
She stood and seemed for a moment disconnected.

Torrullin drew
an inaudible breath. It was unusual to see Lowen at a loss, if only
briefly.

There was
silence and then crackle of a fire broke the tension. Lowen touched
her forehead as if to check she was real and then started
speaking.

“It began in the Dome. Jonas worked on a new program to keep
track of missing people and I was looking over his shoulder. The
screen would go blank and he didn’t see it. I thought he was losing
information, but he noticed nothing. He kept right on working. Yet
I knew, I
knew
,
something swallowed everything he entered. And then suddenly the
screen was awash with images of water and he still saw nothing
amiss. He was losing and drowning and only I could see
it.”

“A glitch,”
Declan murmured.

“That is what I thought, yes, and almost convinced myself of
it, and then the visions began. They assailed me whatever I did.
For a while I thought I hallucinated. Nemisin, Nemisin,
Nemisin
. I nearly went
mad. I went to his world …” She paused and then added, “Saska did
not know. And I am impressed by what she achieved there. Anyway,
there were more visions and they led me to Sanctuary - previously
Orb - and there the first clear images arrived, like snapshots
pieced together. Orb was a world of inundation, still is, and once
a race thrived there, the Diluvans. I headed for the Academia on
Luvanor, but there was no written record. Titania told a more
complete tale. I assume you did the research.”

Teighlar said,
“We established Diluvan became Luvan became Senlu, and we know
Nemisin took a forward hop to murder those who survived the final
flood on Orb.”

She glanced at
him. “I hope you realised redress is a fool’s notion.”

Teighlar
pulled a face, but he nodded.

“Good. That is
the first connection - Akhavar, Orb, Luvanor.”

“Go on,”
Caballa murmured. She watched Elianas more than Torrullin. Never
had she seen such a carefully schooled expression.

“Titania gave
me something more. Xen.”

“What has Xen
to do with this?” Tristan frowned.

“It stumped me
as well. In Kora City I was granted access to the secret
archives.”

Torrullin
groaned.

“Secret
archives?” Declan snapped.

“A Dalrish
safeguard,” Torrullin murmured. “None of your business. It does not
affect the Kaval.”

Tristan
frowned. “If the Dalrish have secrets …”

“Everyone has
those,” Torrullin interrupted. “And the Dalrish are rulers.”

Lowen frowned
at the interruption. “Xen was where I learned of the void.”

“Impossible.
Xen cannot know.”

“But Taranis
did, Torrullin.”

“What?” he
whispered.

Elianas’
eyelids flickered.

“Your father
was plagued by dreams around the time the Guardians erected Xen’s
domes, so much, he spoke to a Mind Delver like Fuma. This man wrote
it down, page after page after page. Anyone who reads it now will
think it illusionary dreams, but I saw them as visionary. Taranis
did not know what he saw, and eventually the dreams released him,
but he described Grinwallin inner city as if he lived there all his
life. Nobody then knew of Luvanor, never mind Grinwallin.”

“Gods,”
Torrullin whispered. “No wonder he hated dreaming.”

Elianas’
shoulder pressed against his, imparting comfort.

“I am sorry,”
Lowen murmured. “I also think he forgot what he saw. He never
claimed familiarity when we got to Grinwallin, did he?”

“But he was
the one who had the dreams that led us into the Forbidden Zone and
ultimately to Grinwallin. Never mind - go on.”

“Well, I went
to Grinwallin, what else? My visions had shown me the paintings, so
I had a look, and they, if one looks real close, pointed out the
void.”

“They do not,”
Teighlar said.

“Yes,
Teighlar. If you look at them as a computer program and see the
blank screen, then the water, there is a pattern - a map.”

Teighlar
swore.

“You didn’t
attempt it?” Tristan asked. “Gods, we nearly killed ourselves and
we were fourteen.”

A smile. “No,
I returned to Akhavar.”

“Where the
opposite portal is,” Teroux said.

“Right.”

“Besides
Taranis and the void, we figured most of this,” Torrullin said.

She came over
and knelt before him. Bright blue eyes speared him.

“And I hoped
you would. I trusted you to. But I also saw you. I saw you then,
now and in the future. I saw you imagine Grinwallin, the Throne,
Kalgaia, and I saw what you did to that city, and why.” She held
his gaze tight. “Through the portal on Akhavar, the one we roil in
right now, I saw your past, many pasts, and the prophecy made
sense. What Nemisin did took on sense. And I saw the portal beside
the void and knew it was Grinwallin. I saw that you forgot, and he
remembered.”

She did not
look at Elianas.

“I knew you
would regard it as either a chance at redemption, a lesser redress,
or you would release evil anew. Once you knew of your past, even
potentially, you needed to address it. Don’t we know the dangers in
frayed ends too well, you and I? I entered the portal knowing you
would come, because the call I sent out was the one you left as a
marker. The same marker Elianas heard and used to call to you. He,
after all, is intrinsic to all of it. His role was only made clear
once I was already in.” She shrugged. “How does one explain him
before the fact?”

How true
. “It pains me that you know
so much, but none of this explains why the void must be set
free.”

“Nemisin may build the mountain city and he may even create
the Throne. You could succeed in getting him mad enough to go for
Orb. Using us outworlders could work; I will grant you all of that.
He has probably already started a hunt, whatever the timing he put
to you. It may be enough to restore most of the future as we know
it, but it is also the biggest and most expensive risk you will
ever take. There is no guarantee.
No
guarantee. And we will need to
stay far too long to make it come to pass, and that could change
everything again. You cannot pull Neolone out of a hat to ensure
symbiosis and without symbiosis the Valla line fails. You could
betray Kalgaia again to put the fear of every demon into Nemisin,
but this time you will not arise whole from it. Elianas will desert
you. It pains me to say this, but you need him.”