The Echolone Mine (10 page)

Torrullin
nodded.

Quilla pursed
his lips and asked, “How is it you have Nemisin’s daughter in this
time?”

“Long story,”
Torrullin said.

“I have no
immediate duty here or in the Dome. I have time,” Quilla said. He
went inside. “Come, my chambers are more comfortable.”

“Hell of a
story,” Quilla muttered. “Amazing how the journey ties in with so
much now, when we thought it ended the past. I would say it opened
certain doors and only after we close them will the past remain
put.”

“We closed a
fair few,” Torrullin murmured.

Quilla studied
the two of them. “It was the right decision to allow Nemisin to go.
Do not take on guilt, and Sabian did not belong here, you know
that.”

“I know, yes,”
Torrullin said.

“Bringing
Cassy out, however, could prove an expensive mistake.” Quilla
lifted his hand when Elianas frowned. “I do understand, my friend,
I do, but … well, let us be positive.”

Elianas leaned
back into Quilla’s stack of pillows and closed his eyes.

“What is next,
Torrullin?” the birdman asked.

“Track the
net. Close doors.”

“Do you think
there are more surprises out there?”

“Not in a
thousand eras did I expect what happened, Quilla. God only knows
what lies around the next corner.”

Quilla nodded.
“Expect the unexpected. Why don’t you two go visit with Tianoman? I
shall call if anything changes.”

Elianas opened
one eye. “I would rather stay here.”

Quilla looked
from him to Torrullin. “You know where the guest quarters are. Go.
I need to think.”

The two men
stood and walked out. Quilla watched them go and read in them a
sense of hopelessness.

He had never
felt it so strong in Torrullin before.

Elianas
wandered the huge white chamber.

Pillows dotted
the perimeter.

“You slept
with Lowen, didn’t you? After I left.”

Torrullin,
prone on a set of pillows, said, “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I would have
found you, had I not.”

Elianas came
to stand over him, one foot at each hip. “You do not have to fight
so hard, Torrullin. We are not lovers of men; we simply love each
other.” He lowered until he sat on Torrullin’s thighs. “We are
strong enough to resist something wrong for us.” He placed a hand
on Torrullin’s stomach, pressed there. “Of course, pushing the
limit is exciting and addictive.” He took his hand away. “And
stirring.”

“I found you
in Ymir with a man,” Torrullin murmured.

“Because he
was fair like you, but I have never fucked a man. I too prefer
women. In fact, I would love to sleep with Lowen.” He laughed when
Torrullin growled. “I am not about to take up what is yours. My
point is, it is the bond we share that takes us close to crossing a
line we never thought existed. Hearts, minds and souls are
entwined, and our bodies seek to complete the connection.”

“I am not
thinking about closing connections when you sit there like
that.”

Elianas
smiled. “I know.” He leaned forward until his mouth was an inch
from Torrullin’s. “I know.” Then he vaulted to his feet and
laughingly paced away.

“You are
suddenly chipper,” Torrullin said. He sat up.

“State of
mind.”

“What brought
it on?”

“I have
realised it cannot get worse. I have been in hell with Cassy
before; this isn’t a new road, not a new torture.”

“You
contradict yourself.”

Elianas
stopped. “Do I? I did not hate sleeping with her and I never found
her distasteful. The problem was I loved you, not her. Until I know
where I stand with her, I cannot deal with you.”

“Now that is
more honest.”

Elianas
stalked over and fell to his knees beside Torrullin. “You want
honesty?”

Gods.
“Yes.”

“I meant what
I said. I have not been with a man and do not intend to do so. Ymir
was lashing out at you, not a desire for sex. I do love a woman’s
body, with all the complications, but have not yet found one who
drives me insane. I am not jealous when you sleep with a woman,
whether your wife, Lowen or a prostitute somewhere, and I hope you
will have the same control when and if I meet someone. However,
speaking honestly, I want you in every way possible, but you are
the exception.”

“As you are
mine.”

“Then we
understand one another.” Elianas leaned forward. “Your move.”

Torrullin
kissed him. It was a hard, uncompromising, take everything kiss,
and it shattered Elianas’ calm completely. He dragged himself
away.

“For fuck’s
sake!”

Torrullin
rose. “Do not play your games with me.” He walked out.

Cassy awakened
three days later and Quilla summoned Elianas and Torrullin.

They were in
his chambers when he brought her in. He shrugged at them, telling
them without words he did not have a result. The result lay in how
Cassy would act next.

“Cassy?”
Elianas murmured.

Her golden
eyes fixed on him. “Elianas. You chose to save me from the
netherworld.”

He swallowed.
“You did not deserve it.”

“I did not
deserve much of what came to pass, but events happened nonetheless.
I thank you for the second chance. I only hope our daughters are
happy where they are.”

“As do I.”

“Where is my
father?”

“He was taken
into Reaume.”

She closed her
eyes. “Thank the Goddess. I am free of him.”

“Are you all
right?”

She opened her
eyes. “Do I have my sanity? Oh, yes.” She smiled at Quilla. “You
are
a friend, and I thank you.”

He inclined
his head.

She ignored
him for Elianas again. “Whether we have a marriage remains unclear,
but I am not about to make the same mistakes, and I doubt you want
to.”

“No,” he
managed.

“Then we allow
the hours and days ahead to determine where we go. I aim to remain
at your side, and his, until we know where we stand.”

“Very well,”
Elianas said.

“Torrullin?”

“Agreed.”

“Do you agree
for me or him?”

“For
Elianas.”

“Decidedly
more honest,” she said. Then she changed. “That is personal, but
now I have something to discuss with both of you regarding the
sacred network.”

Torrullin
moved, feeling free enough to do so. “What about it?”

She pulled a
face. “I may not like you, but I can trust you to help me.
Torrullin, did you feel the network before?”

“No.”

She paced over
to him. “You should have. Elianas should have. We waited far too
long and we waited because you did not feel it.”

He frowned.
“Cassy, I was distracted with other problems.”

“And I was
bound in the Throne,” Elianas murmured.

“So that is
where you went.” She giggled. “My god, my father would have had a
heart attack had he known!”

Elianas
managed a laugh in response. “He sometimes thought he heard the
seat talk to him; he thought he was mad.”

Torrullin
snorted. “Gods, that I would have liked to see.”

Quilla’s brows
were sky high.

Cassy,
smiling, held a hand up. “It is amusing, yes, but we need talk
about the network.”

They sobered.
Torrullin said, “You are suggesting the network should have been
obvious to us.”

“Particularly
you.” She moved around, her gaze picking out items at random. “I
created it largely to minimise my father’s long-term damage. I
thought to reach people at a subconscious level, instilling in them
the ideal of brotherhood and peace. Perhaps it was too idealistic,
but someone once told me a selfish act can also be an unselfish one
if properly thought out.” She touched Torrullin’s arm as she passed
him.

“I
remember.”

“In the
building of first points in a net, I began to understand you,
Torrullin.”

He grimaced.
“Unfortunately I never gave anything proper thought.”

She smiled. “I
know. Too impulsive. However, selfish acts led to unselfish result.
My father did not see what you inadvertently did for the Valleur,
but I did, and wanted to do the same for all sentient races.”

“You
succeeded,” Elianas murmured.

“I believe I
did, yes.”

“But?”
Torrullin prompted.

“You were
meant to use it to greater impact, but you did not feel it.”

“I had …
amnesia.”

She eyed him.
“Really?” He nodded. “Long?” He nodded again. Cassy shrugged. “So
that is how you functioned. Sensible. However, you should still
have sensed the underlying network. Let me explain something here.
My father bound the dead to that chamber on Akhavar to grab greater
power at a future date and thought he used me to aid it. I
permitted him to think so in order to stop him. His arrogance would
have had him war on all races. He went into stasis with some
awareness, enough to know the timing of certain events, like the
meeting with the One, but Neolone bound him to the bier, because I
asked him to.

“Yes, I knew
Neolone. Awareness therefore availed my father nothing. My own
awareness, greater than my father’s, suffered under the long wait.
Every time someone used the Heart of Darkness I thought the time
had come to stand up to him, and then there was nothing. Time after
time I had hope, then disappointment. I thank the Goddess you two
had the wherewithal to deal with his rising, for I completely lost
rational thought.”

She sighed and
moved on.

“Something
dampened the net and amnesia would not explain it, and neither does
hiding in a transmuted Throne. Torrullin, the network was meant to
bring you to us in the weeks leading up to the massacre of Orb, to
stop it, to change the future before it actually happened. You
would have the planners of that attack at your beck and call, then,
at the time it was about to happen.”

He stared at
her. “Gods, Cassy, that would have …”

“… prevented a
terrible crime, yes.”

Elianas
whispered, “Instead many ages have passed.”

Quilla
sighed.

Torrullin
said, “I shall explain now what we did about Orb, but, Cassy, how
could you know before the fact?”

“Time loops,
Lord Sorcerer.”

“
I
know
that; how do you?”

“I looked, I
saw.”

“Gods, Cassy,
how
?”

“Elianas told
me. In his sleep. It took some doing to find the right chant, and
what I saw was confusing, considering the concept of others was not
yet an accepted thing in our time, but eventually I figured my
father would do something terrible. I could see something of what
was coming, but he could manipulate time, courtesy of Neolone. And
Neolone, cornered one day when my father was in drug-induced
euphoria, told me what would happen in greater detail. I swore
never to reveal I had spoken to him and he swore to bind my father
upon his death.”

Torrullin
shook his head in bemusement. “You had greater power than your
father, do you know that? You
understood
.”

Elianas
glanced at him, his face unreadable.

Cassy shifted
her gaze there. “Knowledge isn’t everything, Elianas.”

His lips
thinned, but he did not speak.

Torrullin did.
“It is now too late for any of that. Elianas and I recently set out
to redress that particular crime …” and he gave her a brief version
of events in the Time realm, “… and thus ended up changing
nothing.”

“You were not
meant to alter it after the fact,” Cassy murmured. “I applaud you
sought to try, all of you. At least that much good has taken hold
in men’s souls.”

“Does it
matter now, the long wait?” Elianas wanted to know.

“It cannot be
undone, so crying over impatience, disappointment, suffering and
loss will avail me nothing. I am now like you, Elianas - a long
wait, and freedom in a new time. Like to you, I hope to cope. But
something dampened the network and if not us, then who or what …
and why?”

“Does it
matter?” Elianas asked again.

She frowned.
“I do not know.”

“It matters,”
Torrullin said. “I thought Nemisin or Agnimus took Lowen out of
time, but I did it. I thought others created Grinwallin, but it was
me. The Void - I found it. Kalgaia, I betrayed her. The Throne, me.
Forgetting, me. The only thing I seem not to be responsible for,
yet thought I was, is the stasis in the Chamber of Biers. I want to
know if I messed with the network, and why.”

“And maybe I
did it,” Elianas snapped. “From the Throne. Damn it, Torrullin, I
think this we would know.”

“Elianas is
right,” Cassy said. “Even if you did it unconsciously, you would
know now.”

Quilla spoke.
“Other factors can influence this ethereal concept. It was and is,
after all, more about ideals than reality, and ideals can be
altered. Yes, there are sacred sites grounding the network, yet it
is truly a magical concept. It is wish and will …”

Elianas paled,
and then moved to hide his face. Torrullin glanced at him and
forced himself to listen to Quilla.

“… and ideal,
soul, mind, history, time, all of it intangible. Many factors can
influence the intangible.”

Cassy nodded.
“Agreed.”

“Such as?”
Torrullin asked.

“Ideals
change, as I said. The Valleur who survived Nemisin did not regard
the Orb incident as terrible; the ideal of redress was established
much later and is likely why you felt its presence only recently.
Had the ideal been in place soon after Nemisin’s death it would not
have escaped notice.”

“Except I put
it in as inherent to the network,” Cassy murmured.

“Time shifts
can influence the intangible also, and we certainly did a few of
those.”