The Echolone Mine (6 page)

They walked
on.

“There are
many biers, Elianas. Who has the pertinent message, besides
Cassiopin and Nemisin? It will take days for Saska to listen to all
of them.”

“I would like
to avoid Cassiopin.”

“I am trying
to avoid Nemisin. Who else?”

“Valen?”

“He was a
soldier, not a player.”

“Who else is
in there?”

“We will have
to ask.”

A step, two,
and Elianas murmured, “She is without direction, my brother. Do not
deny her an opportunity to find it again.”

“Like this?”
Torrullin muttered.

“Saska is
strong. You should suggest she leaves Akhavar.”

“I have not
the right.”

“Then I will
do it.”

“Do not
interfere.”

Elianas
grinned. “Look at us, pussyfooting around women.”

Torrullin
laughed.

Ahead, the two
women were in halting conversation.

“So, you stuck
with him.”

Lowen said,
“Elianas sent for me. After the Void, we judged it best to go our
separate ways.”

Saska did not
respond to the latter. “Elianas needs you to keep the peace?”

Lowen glanced
over. “Clever.”

“They seem at
odds, yet also … whatever.”

“Men, I
guess.”

“Lowen, long
ago I knew Elianas would change everything when he came. Don’t play
games with me.”

Lowen waited a
beat. “How could you know?”

“Because,
unlike you, I am not a seer?”

“I mean no
offence; I am curious,” Lowen said.

“Torrullin
already dreamed about him when we met, and when he spoke of those
dreams there was a look in his eyes … I don’t know, like he needed
it to come to pass. Like he waited for his heart, something like
that.”

You must
choose one heart
. Well. She might just have nudged him in a
direction she could never get him away from again. “They have the
longest history. No wonder he dreamed. Forgetting doesn’t always
follow directive.”

Saska shied
from that. “I didn’t know you were a true Immortal.”

A sidelong
glance. “Are you thinking it explains why Torrullin and I got
together?”

“Doesn’t
it?”

“It explains
much, yes. In some convoluted manner he believed it meant I’d be
there always, somewhere. Even if it wasn’t at his side, I would
still be there. But co-existing isn’t sufficient, and we know that
now. It no longer applies, Saska. Not only is Elianas in the fray
at last and as timeless, but I’m no longer a true Immortal.”

Saska’s
shoulders twitched. “Oh?”

Lowen smiled.
“Don’t get hopeful, whatever you do. We are now afterthoughts, both
of us.”

For an instant
she wanted to slap the Xenian, and then the truth of it sank in. “I
guess. How did it change for you, then?”

“A Syllvan
gift.”

“Is it a
gift?”

“Yes. And no.
Torrullin was offered the same.”

“He denied it,
of course.”

“For
Elianas.”

Saska gazed at
her searchingly. “Choice of death meant you, and choice of eternity
meant Elianas.”

“Succinctly
put.”

“It hurt.”

“Yes.”

“And now?”

“He will
pay.”

Saska laughed.
“The only one who will be paying is you. I speak with the voice of
experience.”

“I think you
may be right.”

Saska gave
another look. “What will really hurt is taking Elianas from
him.”

“There is no
hope of that.”

“You might be
surprised.”

“Hurting
Torrullin will not bring him in line.”

Saska sighed.
“No.”

Why is it, in
these spaces of awareness, the dead refuse to stay dead?

Guild of
Sorcerers, Kalgaia

Akhavar

A
fter Torrullin related what happened on Xen and Ceta,
he asked, “How long does Heart of Darkness last?”

Pouring
coffee, Saska replied, “It depends on whether you were given it,
learned to find it, or took it. Taking it brings an erratic gift
and you would soon lose it - a few days, no more. Having learned
it, you keep it until you abdicate the responsibility, as I did. If
you were given it, it is for a specific purpose. Once you have used
it, it leaves.”

“The three of
us?” Lowen asked. “Taken or given?”

“There’s a
connection to that angel; I believe it was bestowed.” Saska passed
mugs around and sat. “Here’s a bit of a dilemma. Is your specific
purpose the Chamber of Biers, and thus, even if you don’t use it
there, you lose the Heart when you leave, or will it be with you
for another occasion?”

“What do you
think?” Elianas asked.

“Only Lily can
answer. If you want to know, go to her from here.”

“Then we go to
the Lady,” Lowen stated with finality. “I don’t like this.”

Saska leaned
on her elbows ignoring her coffee. She gazed at Torrullin. “It
sounds to me as if this net of sites is a good state, a far ranging
plan that has borne fruit. It further occurs to me this is why the
Lady of Life is ever successful. She taps into the wellspring of a
world, one already conditioned. Why mess with it?”

“We don’t want
to mess with it. It is good, as you say,” Torrullin murmured. “But,
Saska, a black heart in an angel? Gods, that is not right.”

She leaned
back. “I don’t think you quite understand. It was not a black heart
- it was the Heart of Darkness. If Ceta were to revert to drought
and death, it is the place to tap to reverse it, and maybe it kept
all the ills of a world at bay until now.”

He stared at
her.

Saska smiled.
“Tell Lily; she can instil the other in its place, if
necessary.”

Elianas
murmured, “We should not be so hasty in the future.”

Saska still
fixated on Torrullin. “The future is dark for most of us, but it
does not mean there isn’t a future. If we are now shaken free of
the Void and onto a linear path, does it not follow we create a new
future by every action we take, every thought we have, and every
emotion? We are not in danger of falling off an edge into
nothingness; we are made new and create fresh as we go forward.
There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Always I
could see what lay ahead, and now naught. It does not add up,”
Torrullin responded.

“My visions
have ceased also,” Lowen murmured.

“So seers are
out of work,” Saska smiled. “Yet the future is with us, around
every corner of the heart, mind and soul. Torrullin, you worked
with known futures and know how to bring on certain circumstances
because you experienced them before, lived them, even manipulated
them. Now all is new; what would you see? Not an existing parallel,
but an unknown future. For you it appears dark or clouded. To us it
is expectation, surprise and colour. It’s quite normal.”

Silence, and
then, from Lowen, “Actually, it makes perfect sense.”

Saska inclined
her head.

“We may be
pulling at ghosts in our uncertainty,” Elianas murmured, looking at
Saska with new respect.

Torrullin was
thoughtful. “Why Heart of Darkness, then?”

“Seek and ye
shall find,” Saska grinned. “Uncertainty requires certainty to
negate it, right? Maybe the Chamber of Biers is your specific
purpose. You need to know all is well.”

Torrullin
lifted a brow. “We would have raised the dead, Saska, had you not
spoken warning. That is profound change.”

“In the past
you would have found out what Heart of Darkness meant before being
impulsive.”

“Granted, and
then we would still have raised the dead, knowing no other way.” He
leaned forward. “I hear what you say and usually would agree, but
if I look behind the surface I see something else. I think had we
gone to Excelsior rather than Ceta, the Heart of Darkness would
have waited there. We were meant to have it and to use it. Had you
not been here, with your knowledge, we would have entered to listen
and, being ignorant, would have raised the dead.

“Fine, we can
argue the leap to the Chamber of Biers could be faulty, and yet
that leap was made and not one of us argued against it. It fit,
strange as it is. Lowen had a vision of this place before the
future clouded over; why, unless she was to prompt this? We are
meant to raise the dead and do so here. What I cannot figure,
however, is whether we are right or wrong in choosing to listen
rather than do.”

“Two sides to
every coin and you insist on looking into the metal between,” Saska
murmured.

Torrullin
laughed.

“Fine,
Torrullin, then let us examine those components.”

He laughed
again. “Go ahead.”

“One, if you
listen now when you are meant to raise, the Heart will remain with
you, and you will be back here. You lose little, except time.”

“Fine, I see
that.”

“Two, if you
do not know the right or wrong of it, someone does. This is
something you should bear in mind before doing as you think you are
meant to. ‘Meant’ smacks of another’s planning.”

He leaned
forward. “Explain that.”

Saska rubbed
at her cheek. “Well, maybe only those you and Elianas wronged will
be raised. Maybe you are to settle matters, so both of you can go
forward unencumbered.”

Elianas closed
his eyes.

Torrullin
said, “Maybe.”

“However,”
Saska murmured, “and this is the fly in the wine.”

Elianas
groaned.

Torrullin
waited.

“Speaking as
the once Lady, I know you either raise someone before the soul has
crossed over, or you yank a soul from a realm to return it to the
body.”

“Gods,” Lowen
muttered.

“The folk in
those biers have not crossed over. Body and soul remain together;
we would not hear them otherwise. They wait to be released.”

Torrullin
leaned forward again and she held her hand up.

“Let me
finish. It cannot be done unless another made it so. Put meant and
stasis together …”

“… and we have
one huge, mother of a problem.”

Elianas pushed
his chair back to pace.

Saska
continued, “I know who lies interred and I would hate to see those
people walk again in this time.” Then she murmured, “Listen if you
must, and walk away after.”

Elianas
dragged a chair clear of the table beside her and flung into it to
stare directly into her eyes. “You say they wait.”

“Yes.”

“And if we
walk away?”

“They continue
to wait.”

He was
unblinking. “I cannot allow that to continue.”

Saska was as
unblinking. “Then you must know whether you want to banish her or
not, and stand by your choice, and you must know before you go
in.”

“Where would
she go?”

“It depends on
who she was when alive, her manner of death, and what the long wait
did to her.”

Elianas
dragged his gaze over to Torrullin. “Then I cannot banish her.”

Torrullin
nodded.

Lowen
muttered, “Gods, Saska, why do you have to be so clever? This whole
thing is now a hundred times worse.”

Saska glanced
at her and saw no censure there, only grudging admiration. “A facet
of the Lady. We do not forget.”

“Caballa said
you hate the chamber.”

“I do, because
I know.”

Torrullin’s
palms were on the table. He pushed himself up. “How long were you
prepared to wait before you told me?”

“Until you
asked. Eventually you had to ask. You had to face Nemisin’s bier
some time.” Saska lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “Lily and I put
banishment measures in place, in case.” She gazed at him steadily.
“Truth is, if you had not come now, asking without awareness,
another would in the fullness of time, the one who caused
this.”

Lowen was on
her feet. “They will know who that person is. We listen first,
Torrullin, and then make choices after.”

Elianas hung
his head. “Had I not known they hang neither dead nor alive, I
would say we walk from this. I would even suggest we do not listen.
I would not care who meant for what to happen or that the future is
dark.” He lifted his head. “But it is the worst kind of evil to
leave them, no matter who they were.”

Torrullin
sighed.

Saska said,
“Everything remains as I said earlier - wait, let me explain. The
Heart of Darkness was given you for a purpose; this is it. The
future is as it will be by our actions, etcetera, and will be dark
for you, colour for me. Your uncertainty will become certainty and
you might even ask for, receive or grant forgiveness, and move on
unencumbered. You lose a little time; you expend some emotion, and
move on. All this in three steps. One, listen; two, raise; and
three, banish immediately … wait, Elianas. If you banish all,
nothing is affected. You return the status quo and everything moves
on as we thought it would before the Heart stirred this. Change
lies in choosing life for some; change lies
only
in your
hands. You may not see what lies ahead, but you will certainly
impact it.”

“And the
instigator? The planner?” Torrullin’s voice was hoarse.

“He is either
thwarted or appeased.” Saska rose, adding, “Torrullin, the
instigator is you.”

Elianas and
Torrullin were alone pacing the ledge at the entrance to the
mountain city, which swiftly emptied when Torrullin glared
around.

“You did
that,” Elianas said.

“I do not
recall.” Torrullin threaded his hands through his hair. “Saska
could be wrong.” More hair threading. “I remembered the rest;
surely this, too? How can it be? Elianas, if anyone did this, it
would be bloody Nemisin.”

Elianas
muttered an oath and closed in to still those roving hands. “Stop
it; you are irritating me.”