The Echolone Mine (38 page)

Rose stared
into the distance, listening. “I hear nothing. One of you must do
the checking your way.”

Tianoman
swore. “Quilla! He will know if Torrullin is out. Can you reach
him?”

She nodded and
long minutes passed in silent communication. “Quilla says Torrullin
hasn’t exited.”

Tianoman
slumped.

“Cassy says we
go again in half hour.”

Tianoman swore
profoundly and transported away.

Rose turned
away … to find an ashen Teroux standing nearby.

They clasped
each other and prayed.

Half an hour
later the network surged anew and Lowen used every ounce of her
strength to direct it, and then sank down with nothing left.

Tianoman
lifted her and took her to the villa, where Rose reported on
Beacon’s communications crash, another spaceship downed, this one
on approach to Lax, and various other accidents. When totalled, the
loss of life would not be small. Beacon’s entire system would be in
disarray for months.

One by one the
others came in, downcast and exhausted.

Tristan said,
“We are doing it again.”

Tianoman,
firm, replied, “We are not.”

Tristan glared
at him, but Tianoman stood his ground. Tristan went outside and
Caballa knew it would be a long time before he recovered from this
disaster.

“We had to
try, didn’t we, Caballa?” Cassy whispered.

“Yes, we had
to try,” she sighed, and followed Tristan.

Path of
Shades

Elianas winced
as sharp pain lanced through him.

He shook
Torrullin and waited impatiently while the man focused. “Torrullin,
I felt a surge of energy, a pull to source.”

Torrullin
ignored his aches. “Can you track it?”

“I have a
rough idea.”

“Good …”
Torrullin’s voice stilled. He stared down.

Declan, last
Siric, was no longer breathing.

Elianas
shouted, “What the fuck are we doing this for, if good people die
for it?” He inhaled and then smacked his hand down once, twice …
and was still.

“Elianas, look
at her … please.”

Elianas
swallowed. With great reluctance he looked at Saska and then heaved
a sigh. “She breathes.”

A moment, two,
ten, while Torrullin struggled to find equilibrium. “Can you bridge
to the source?”

“Yes, but we
cannot take them with us.”

“Then we stay
here.”

Elianas
nodded. Until Saska breathed her last, yes. The only act of respect
and love remaining now. When the next surge came he marked it, and
said nothing.

They
waited.

Sanctuary

The Kaval
dispersed to the aid of those who suffered due to a failure they
had a part in.

Cassy and
Caballa returned to Valaris, and Rose left for Xen to help the
farspeaker chain.

At the villa
the three cousins started to talk together as the leaders they now
were and made far-reaching decisions and choices. Many hours later
Tristan went to the Dome, Tianoman to Torrke and Teroux to Mariner
Island.

They began
immediately to act on choices made.

Path of
Shades

Torrullin
crawled awkwardly to Saska when her eyes opened.

She smiled up
at him, and then stared at his arm.

“Broken.”

“Declan?”

“Declan died a
while back.”

She closed her
eyes. A tear squeezed out from under her lids. “He didn’t deserve
it.”

“No.”

“He is sure to
be in Aaru.”

“He was the
one pure soul I knew, yes.”

“Then we
should be happy for him.” She opened her eyes.

Torrullin
breathed deeply. “Later, yes, but right now losing him hurts too
much.”

“Yes …” and
she sobbed quietly.

He sat next to
her without words. A single silvery track, he noticed, had dried on
Elianas’ cheek. He drew a shuddering breath and covered his face
with his hand.

Saska pried it
away not long after. She kneeled before him. “I am next, Torrullin,
and you need make peace with that.”

Fury suffused
him.

She took his
face into her hands. “You must, or you and Elianas could wander
here forever. You two get out, you make our reality whole.”

“Saska, please
…”

“Torrullin,
you cannot lie, not now. These are the last moments of truth.”

His head sank
to her shoulder and she stroked his untidy hair.

“I fell in love with contrary Rayne - how special he was -
and loved Torrullin the new Enchanter with all my heart.” She
lifted his head to see his eyes. “Rayne is gone, the Enchanter is
all but gone, and I don’t know Elixir and I can’t understand the
lure of Elianas, but I love you still. I have loved you through
pain and betrayal, through abandonment and war, and that will never
change.” She put a finger to his lips when he made to speak. “Shh,
let me say this. I know you love me, and that is all that counts,
Torrullin. Love survived. It wasn’t enough, but it
survived
, and it is true
blessing.”

“I do love
you.”

“I know, and
now you must accept it is my time. Death is not an ending, and I
take your love with me.”

He stared at
her, the power of speech removed.

“Go now,
please, and leave me.”

“Good god,
never.”

“What are you
to do? Wait until I die? I would rather you leave before that.
Declan has been a friend for a long, long time, Torrullin. I do not
mind sitting with his body.”

He grit out,
“I am not leaving you.”

She touched
his face again. “You still think there is hope.”

“There is
always hope.”

“Ah, now
there’s the Torrullin inside, the one who, despite all he is,
trusts to the spark of goodness.” She ran a hand over his good arm
and smiled. “It is kind of fitting that you sit here before me like
this - half-naked, injured, dirty, powerless. This is the real man.
The veneer is stripped away, kind of like Rayne now.”

“Rayne is
gone.”

“No, he’s not.
He is right here.”

He stared at
her and then, “Honesty, Saska?”

She blinked.
“Of course.”

“Then know I
say this because I love you. Rayne fell in love with you, hugely,
largely, majorly in love, but even he knew it would not last. Do
you remember that time we walked with Vannis through the market at
Linmoor, when we left renewed Tor behind?”

“Yes. You had
withdrawn from me.”

“Because I was
at the beginning of understanding what I am. But that is not what I
mean. Something happened there neither you nor Vannis noticed. I
saw a face in the crowd, a young man with dark, straight hair, and
I thought I knew him, and knew I thought about him in dreams.

“It was not
Elianas, know that, not that day, and Rayne had not a clue what it
meant and neither did the angry man who found himself irreversibly
immortal, the one who saw other faces in other crowds and wondered
what it meant. Rayne halted in the noise to stare at that young man
with shortened breath and then slowly looked at the beautiful woman
with blue hair.

“He did not
know consciously, but subconsciously mixed-up Rayne somehow
stumbled upon a truth that haunted his buried self for many ages. I
pushed it away, Saska, and went where obsession took us. I loved
you then and I love you now, but Elianas was first. In duping you
and in duping myself, I betrayed love, and I cannot betray it
further by leaving you here while you live and while there is hope.
Please understand.”

She glanced at
Elianas. Elianas, who missed not one word. Elianas, who stared at
Torrullin as if seeing him for the first time. She did understand.
If Torrullin left now, he would belittle whatever chance there was
to be normal with Elianas.

She sighed. “I
understand.”

Torrullin
enfolded her in his good arm and held her close. Whispering in her
ear, he said, “What is really scary is I believe you do understand
… and he does not.”

“Talk to
him.”

“The time for
that passed with Nemisin. He will get it, I hope, eventually.”

“You tied
yourself in knots a long time ago, didn’t you?”

He held her
tighter. “And then tied you in knots with me.”

“I didn’t
mind.”

Torrullin
laughed and buried his face in her neck. “That’s why I always came
back.”

Saska leaned
against him and felt him wince. She withdrew and smiled. “Trust men
to do half jobs. Sit still now, so I can do your arm properly.” She
took her undershirt off and tore it into decent strips and then
undid Elianas’ handiwork. She wrapped the blade carefully and
tut-tutted. “Uh-uh, give me the scabbard.”

When she had
it she forced it into a bend and then laid his arm carefully within
that strut and bound him firmly. Thereafter she strapped his bent
arm across his chest where he would not jostle it and it would not
impede general movement.

“Hell, that
feels better.”

“Good, but you
need to get out of here to fix it.”

“I am
aware.”

She laid her
lips to his. “Contrary, beautiful man. I regret nothing.”

“How can you
say that? I hurt you.”

“But I was
alive, Torrullin, truly alive, and achieved so much to be proud of.
How do I regret that?”

He smiled.

She shuffled
over to Elianas, taking Torrullin’s freed sword with her. “Come,
let me do this right.”

Elianas did
not move or speak while she undid the earlier handiwork to lay a
blade on either side of the break and rewrap the whole far better
than he had managed.

“Thank you,”
he said when she was done.

She leaned
closer. “He loves you.”

“I know.”

“No, I mean he loves
you
, not power, competition,
brinkmanship, the line, the lure, temptation or an ancient
companion. You, the Elianas that is pure soul. The part of you that
is original, unique and real.”

He stared at
her. “That person does not exist.”

She smiled
sadly. “Find him before you lose him, Elianas.”

“And then,
Saska?”

“Then you will
understand you need not submit or dominate, for it has nothing to
do with sex or power.”

“You can know
… how?”

“I know what
obsession is, my friend, and I now know what reality is, too. There
is a huge gap between the two.”

“Are you
suggesting he is so noble he does not really play the game?”

“No, he plays,
he knows obsession also, he knows how intense it is, but he has a
goal beyond it. I hope you may find it, too.”

“How can you
say that, you who loves him?”

She cupped his
face. “If only men would feel rather than think, and think before
you act.” She stroked his cheek. “You are astonishingly beautiful,
Elianas, more the idea of perfection than what can be real. You are
perfect. Worlds should bow to you. I bet how you look influenced
who you became.”

He stared at
her, wordless.

“You became
tough, strong, individual, and sought power to show them beauty
wasn’t weakness also. And lost yourself.” She kissed his forehead.
“Find him again and you will find peace also”

She moved away
then, halted at Declan’s body and sat there with her hand on his
cold chest. She closed her eyes and her lips moved soundlessly.

Elianas gazed
over her to where Torrullin sat.

Torrullin did
not look his way.

Two hours
later Elianas shook with fever and an hour after that he was
delirious.

Saska gasped
for breath, whispering, talking to someone as if she had already
crossed over.

Torrullin sat
between the two, with Declan forever still nearby, and thought he
would lose his mind.

“… five oval
stones …” Saska whispered.

“… burns, it
burns!” Elianas roared.

“… went too
far, lost too much …” Saska.

“…fucking kill
you!” Elianas.

“… a flower,
sweetie, a lovely blossom, do you see it?”

“… eyes hurt,
they burn, touch is hot … lose myself in it …”

On and on it
went, interspersed with cold silence from Declan.

Dear gods, the
Siric were finished. After millions of years, the Siric were
extinct. How they would be missed. A hole had opened in the fabric
of space and would never be adequately filled.

“… time
overflows, time is timeless …” Saska whispered, her voice growing
weaker. “It is glorious in its eternity, isn’t it?”

“Where is the
Maghdim Medaillon?” Elianas shouted.

Torrullin
twitched. The Medaillon? He touched his chest where said Medaillon
usually hung, but it was not there. He hardly wore it in recent
years and yet the gesture remained habit, like the stroking of his
chest where once Neolone, Dragon, resided, missed still.

The Medaillon
would have released them from the Path of Shades, and instead it
lay in a box somewhere amid other boxes.

“… when all
things are new,” Saska whispered, and he turned to her. She was
looking at him. “Torrullin, when all things are new, go home, go
where you found your reason for living so terribly long ago.”

“Saska?”

“You know
where that is? Home?”

“Yes, I
know.”

“Promise me
you will go there one day even if you are alone.”

He swallowed.
“I promise.”

She smiled. “I
would like to have seen your true home. I think it must be lovely,
with rock and water and flower … big trees?”

“Huge,” he
whispered.

“The sun
shines in, the rain falls, there is a sense of peace, of elemental
magic.”

Torrullin
cleared his throat. “Yes, all that.”