What Lies Within (Book 5) (17 page)

   'We must give it more thought.'

   'No, we have to do something, immediately!' Issul declared.

   The three Triune children turned as one to look at her. 'Why?
And what?'

   Issul took a moment before replying. She was beginning to perceive that Triune's questions were not prompted by malice or capriciousness, but rather by an infuriating alien curiosity that was in essence almost innocent, not unlike that of a child. She collected her thoughts and said, 'Apart from the simple fact that they are my children, who I dearly love and for whose lives I fear, I feel that it can only be useful for you to speak to these warriors. They are servants of Urch-Malmain, and almost certainly denizens of Orbelon's world. Furthermore, it would be useful to know how and why Urch-Malmain comes to be in possession of a
Karai corpse.'

   Triune mulled upon this, then the middle child said, 'Tell us,
tell Triune, in what way would this bring us benefits?'

   'Well surely you can see that!' she flared, her exasperation rising.

   The three children put their heads together in brief murmured conference, then turned back to her. 'We are not sure that we have true union with these things.'

   Orbelon said, 'It may not be to our best advantage to actually reveal ourselves to these warriors. If they are planning to return to Urch-Malmain it would be better that they had no tales to tell.'

   Issul's voice shook. 'They may be going to kill my children!'

   'I do not know what we can do,' said Triune.

   'Let us go there.' The voice was Shenwolf's, who had been standing quietly beside one wall, observing and listening. Now he walked across to stand at Issul's shoulder. 'If you will do nothing else, at least let us go, Queen Issul and I, so that we may try to locate and rescue her children.'

   'Are you not losing sight of your goal?' Triune enquired. 'You brought Orbelon here in order that you might empower him by reuniting him with his Soul. We too seek Union with our Soul. Yet now you want to go off chasing bandits in the woods.'

   'My argument is that you might by this means learn more about Urch-Malmain,' Issul persisted. 'And surely you want that? He was one of those responsible for disempowering you - you and Orbelon - and severing you from your Souls. He may even know where your Souls are to be found.'

   'No, that is not your argument,' the tallest Triune child replied stiffly. 'Your argument is that you are prepared to drop all else so that you can be reunited with your offspring. Emotion has overcome reason. It is a common failing among creatures of the realized world.'

   'I have brought Orbelon here, as I agreed to do. But beyond that I can be no help,' Issul remonstrated. 'You know that I can’t travel within Enchantment.'

   The Triune child motioned with a hand towards Shenwolf. 'He carries protection: Urch-Malmain's talisman. We have similar items.'

   'And then what? You don’t know where your Soul lies. Would you have me search all Enchantment?'

   'Strymnia knows,' said Triune.

   'But she is not within your grasp, and Urch-Malmain is.'

  
'We have already explained, she may be.'

   'Then why would you send me to her?' Issul shouted.

   Triune's six fabulous blue eyes stared at her. 'Are you angry?'

  
Issul turned away, barely able to speak. Were they playing games? Triune? Orbelon? Perhaps even Strymnia and Urch-Malmain? She - Issul - was of no consequence. Her land, her people. . . these things meant nothing to them. They existed only to continue their age-old conflict. Whatever they did, knowingly or not, was subservient to that end. How could she ever hope to understand or gain the help of beings like these?

   Orbelon seemed to be looking at her keenly.
'No, not I, Issul. Surely you must understand that by now?'

   She stared back at him in astonishment. Does he read my thoughts?

   'Think, Issul,' Orbelon said. 'Think of all I have told you.'

   Through a clamour of new thoughts Issul was aware of hearing Triune say, 'We believe we will wait awhile. Our seekers will continue to seek. We will see what transpires.'

   A shift, a blur before Issul's eyes, and she understood that she was elsewhere.

ii

   She stood in a round chamber which had neither windows nor doors. Shenwolf was at her side.

   The chamber was sparsely furnished, containing only two palliasses and a simple wooden table with a pair of chairs beneath. The floor was a single massive stone slab, relieved by a plain green rug at its centre. The walls were formed of interlocking stone blocks, the ceiling an unadorned, unbroken low dome of smooth grey marble. Issul emitted a cry of anger and frustration, which reverberated dully in the mild air.

   A wisp appeared and asked if they wished to eat or drink.

   'I want to return to Triune!' Issul declared vehemently.

   'That is not my role. I come only to offer refreshment,' replied the wisp.

   Issul said nothing more. Shenwolf admitted to both hunger and thirst, then watched in amazement as the requested foods appeared on platters, coming through the stone wall itself and floating to the table.

   When the wisp had gone Shenwolf examined the wall where the food had appeared. He found it to be solid. He tested elsewhere, with the same
result. Shaking his head he tried the food. It seemed normal and tasty. He abandoned all attempts at explanation and sat down to eat.

   Issul took but a few mouthfuls. She could barely swallow. She drank a little water, stood, strode across the chamber,
then returned. Eventually she seated herself on one of the palliasses, her head tipped back against the wall. Hours passed. Issul found little to say. From time to time she rose as before in a sudden burst of pent-up energy and furiously paced the chamber, then sighed and threw herself down again. Shenwolf too kept his thoughts more or less to himself. Eventually Shenwolf, and then Issul, slept, uneasily and for only short periods at a time. And when Orbelon appeared before her, Issul could not be sure whether she was awake or dreaming.

   'What’s happening?'

   'We have been in discussion, Triune and I. I have also been reflecting ever more deeply upon this ineffable wonder of what I have become. How it has come about . . . the meaning of it. . . Such a paradox. A world, a universe even, existing within me, somehow becoming, out of dormancy and unconsciousness and eons of striving without knowing that this had to be the true purpose of that striving. So fragile, and yet without the conflict of my kind it could never have been . . . I begin to see a new pattern for we, who are the manipulators of Creation and the profound, awesome energies of Potentia, transforming everything that seeks to be.'

   Issul gripped her lower lip between her teeth. Marvel or not, just now her interest in Orbelon's state was low, but she made no comment.

   'Now a conjunction, a point of merging and exchange between worlds,' Orbelon continued. 'They are no longer separate. Is this more than it appears? Is it in the great cosmic weaving, a component of the design?'

   'You're the god. You tell me,' riposted Issul caustically.

   'Now, Issul, child, cynicism does not become you. I know you are not blind to the wonder of this.'

  
'Perhaps. But as you dwell now upon the world within you, as you dream of seeing it grow and become, seeing it find its purpose and potential, so I feel about my children. They came from within me. They are my life and my world, as much as is Enchantment's Reach, and moreso than I am myself. I want them to grow and become and discover themselves and what they might achieve. But I have seen them taken from the unknown dangers of your world and cast helpless back into the dangers of this. They are menaced, if not by the sapphire knight who brought them here, then certainly by the warriors who pursue them, and by the conflicts that embroil our land. I know all this and can do nothing, for I am trapped here, waiting while gods contemplate creation.' She broke off, her voice catching in her throat. Tears stung the backs of her eyes. She pressed her fist against her upper lip, looking away. Her eyes fell upon Shenwolf curled upon his palliasse, oblivious to the conversation.

   Was she dreaming? Was Orbelon actually here? She was conscious of the restless energies seething within the round chamber.
Energies of Enchantment. The unstill air. Something always becoming, or striving to become.

   This is the only truth. So Triune had told Issul when she first encountered her, brought to the tower from the
Karai bunker. It may all have been a dream. Everything you have ever known, everything you recall. It may never have happened, or perhaps it has still to be.

   All is possible here. The formed can be unformed, the unformed formed.

   Here is raw power. Here is dream. Here is magic.

   Here is Enchantment.

   'It is not entirely as you perceive it,' said Orbelon. He leaned upon his staff with one bundled hand. 'But I said this to your husband, Leth, and I will say it now to you. You are one who has lived your entire life within the Reach. You have more than glimpsed Mystery, and you have questioned. Have you not always known, somewhere deep inside you, that one day you might have to step over? Surely you have thought to travel, wondering what might lie on the other side?'

   She stared at him blankly. 'I don't understand what you are saying.'

   'We have entered Mystery, Issul. Already we have entered. Truly, this is only the beginning. Do you not wish to travel?'

   'I- I don't know.' She was afraid. She felt herself growing cold. This was all beyond her experience, her ability to rationalize 'Do I have a choice?'

   Orbelon moved away slightly. 'I am going to tell you something more, something that has arisen partly out of my discussion with Triune. Before that, though, I should tell you another thing. I no longer sense Leth's presence.'

   Issul stiffened. 'He is dead?'

   'Perhaps not dead, just gone. He is no longer within my world.'

   'Can you be so sure?'

   'I have sensed him. I knew his presence. Now that is no longer so.'

   'He could have escaped, then. He could have come through the Portal before Triune's seeking eye located it.'

   'In which case he may be anywhere, within this universe and dimension or any other. Yet I felt him - when we first viewed the Portal. I remained aware of him. It is only in the last hours, since the appearance of the knight and your children and the warriors, that I have felt his absence.'

   'The knight will know of Leth, then,' said Issul, clinging to a desperate hope. 'He must. Or those who pursue him will. It is all the more reason to go after them.'

   'Which brings me to my next point. On the occasion of your first encounter with Triune you will recall that she told you she was bestowing a gift upon you.'

   Issul nodded. 'She said I could inform her, that I was taking something of Enchantment with me. I could dream and bring her forth, briefly, in the realized realm. But I did not know what she meant, and she did not explain. And you know I did not bring her forth.'

   'Perhaps. It may have changed now.' Orbelon turned, lifting his hands. 'This is Enchantment, and I believe it is true that something of it is now yours. You may have grown. I believe it is so.'

   Issul regarded him with renewed disquiet. 'What are you saying?'

   'Will you come with me now, Issul? We should speak of this in Triune's presence. We want to know what you have become.'

   'I have not 'become' anything. Nothing has changed.'

   'We will discuss it with Triune.'

   Issul glanced across at the sleeping form on the other palliasse.
'And Shenwolf?'

   'He may rest here for a while longer.'

iii

   'It is so simple!' Triune exclaimed. 'Though we gave you something of the true world, you were unable to bring us forth or inform us. You were unable to dream. You did not know how. Now it may not be so. Look.'

   As one the three children each motioned with a single hand to the golden disks and the scene they enclosed.

   Issul gasped. 'You have found them!'

   'And now you must go to them.'

   'How? Can you reach them? Do you know where they are?'

   Her heart pounded. The scene she was looking at revealed three figures walking in the forest: a knight clad in a suit of fabulous ribbed armour, holding the hands of a small boy and girl. The seeking eye was following them from a position some twenty paces to their rear.

   Issul peered hard. The knight's ornate helm was strapped upon his back. She could see the back of his head, his hair fair-brown and wavy, falling below his ears. Her heart skipped a beat. 'Can the seeker be brought around to view them from the front?' she asked, not hearing Triune's reply to her previous questions.