The Echolone Mine (71 page)

From behind,
stinging dust smacked into them, from the sides, foul winds
hurtled, and from the front and above came oppressing rain. It was
like to standing unprotected in a maelstrom of acidity.

Elianas
twisted around and flung at Tristan. “Get down!” he hissed in his
ear, dragging him down.

Evidently
Torrullin agreed, for he was soon cowering beside them.

Tristan gasped
for breath, struggled up to find space to breathe.

“No!” Elianas
shouted, dragging him back. He flung a leg over the struggling man
to hold him, saying, “Keep still or we lose each other now.
Separation is the point of this manipulation.”

Tristan heard
him, heard also Torrullin growl affirmation on the other side, and
surrendered to painful discomfort, holding onto Elianas to maintain
physical contact. He squinted at Torrullin in the stinging gloom
created by dust, wind and rain, and noted Elianas had taken hold of
him, for Torrullin stared up as if challenging all life itself.

Torrullin
welcomed the change.

Ignoring the
roiling, Elianas shook Torrullin. “Don’t you fucking dare get
creative right now, hear?”

Torrullin gaze
descended from the craziness overhead and locked onto Elianas.
Then, scarily from Tristan’s viewpoint, laughed.

Elianas swore
as he shook Torrullin hard. “Not now!”

Torrullin’s
left hand stung with the swiftness of the dust particles in the
air, but he ignored the sensation to reach over Tristan towards
Elianas. He took hold of the swirling cloak and used it to drag
Elianas closer. Tristan found himself pinned and thought his femur
would shatter with the ill-placed weight.

They ignored
him. Torrullin pulled Elianas even closer. “Elixir must surface now
or we dump ourselves into change without exit,” he managed to say
loud enough over the rising din. “This is not creative, brother;
this is necessity.”

Elianas stared
into completely silver eyes. “Whatever it is, you are already
there.” He jerked himself loose. “Why bother to bloody
explain?”

Torrullin
grinned and for an intense moment - it left even Tristan shivering
- his eyes transformed into the deep black, which heralded
Destroyer, and those dark orbs travelled hungrily over Elianas.

Elianas closed
his eyes and thumped Torrullin’s chest in fury. A moment more and
then he retreated entirely, and Tristan sighed relief as the weight
lifted. Torrullin gripped Tristan’s shoulder and pulled him
close.

“Hold onto
Elianas, I am taking us out of this now.”

Tristan
nodded. He was holding on, but he strengthened the grip.

Torrullin
fingers bit into him, and then everything went black.

Not knowing
something is oblivion. Unawareness of truth is also regarded as
oblivion.

Book of
Sages

Lethe

H
ow long the blackness lasted would never be known and
never discussed.

For a time
they were oblivious to time, space and each other. They were
together somewhere and so apart the state of togetherness would
eternally remain unmentioned. Only those able to see beyond the
boundaries know how proximity did not imply connection and they,
naturally, never tell.

Still, let it
be said the three men were beyond usual intelligence and thus not
without suspicion of the state of separation.

When the alien
dark receded like water pulling back from a beach, they were
together in a rough circle of standing stones. The stones and the
configuration thereof was a protection mechanism and they knew it,
but as awareness returned they looked at each other as if
questioning the nature of life itself.

Elianas’ eyes
hooded. He lay beside Torrullin. Those silvery eyes stared down at
him from a seated position. He was vulnerable. He cleared his
throat, pushed up to sit and look around.

Tristan sat
cross-legged nearby staring at the two of them as if attempting to
determine a great secret. Beyond Tristan were the standing stones
and beyond that was … nothing.

“Where are
we?” Elianas asked. He deliberately did not move.

Those silvery
eyes had not left him and now filled with knowing amusement.

Elianas
frowned and surrendered. “You are frightening me, Torrullin. For
pity’s sake, tell us what this is. What have you done and where are
we?”

Tristan rose
and stretched.

Torrullin’s
glance flicked up at him, and returned to Elianas.

Elianas
cursed.

Torrullin
leaned closer. “This is still Lethe, but now it is a different
realm and I suspect it may be a different time also. But I did not
bring us here. Something fools with us. I may enjoy a challenge and
I am particularly enjoying how you squirm at the moment, but this
is going too far.”

Tristan strode
nearer. He stood arms akimbo over them.

“This is
precisely why we go nowhere - you two and your lack of conviction.
Reaume is unprotected and you carry on as if we have all the time
in the universe. I am well aware you were warned not to delve the
issues in Lethe, yet I’m saying, unless you do, even if it is
scratching at the surface, we are headed to nowhere for eternity.
Look …” and he swung one arm in a wide arc, “… a stone henge, a
place of safety. Either you brought us here, Torrullin, or we
brought ourselves here by consensus or we were bloody chucked in.
Whatever and however, get to sorting enough out so we may actually
aid Reaume and, yes, aid the Dryads also. Understood? This is why
you wanted me to come, wasn’t it? To get your arses moving?”

Torrullin
sighed. “We are exactly one year back in time. Whatever is to
happen to Reaume has not yet begun.”

Elianas glared
at him. “What happened to ‘I suspect’?”

Torrullin
shrugged. “To see you squirm.”

Tristan
interrupted, “Good god, will you stop? Would you please do
something more than taunt each other?”

Both men
looked up at him.

Tristan
cleared his throat. “What did I say to make you do that?”

Elianas
clambered to his feet. “So,” he murmured, “a whole year back in
time. How does not concern me, nor does why - the why I can figure
out, I trust. What concerns me is the where of this place. A year
ago - biological count - we were not returned. You had not
remembered your past and I was in the Throne.” He swung around to
stand leaning forward with his hands on his knees, leaning so that
Torrullin could not escape him. “Why choose a whole year?”

Torrullin did
not attempt to escape that gaze. “I do not desire to change
anything, if that is what you imply. We have been through trauma
recently, but it revealed more about us than it hid, and I am not
running away from it, and neither should you.”

“Agreed. Now
answer the question.”

“A year? It
was a round number.”

“Really?”

Torrullin gave
a quick grin. “Yes, really.” He pointed a finger. “More than a year
passed in reality than for us in realm travel. Whether I
deliberately tweaked or not, does not influence either memory or
return.”

“I’ll get out
of your hair now,” Tristan said. “Before I do I would like to hear
the where of this place also. A year ago I wondered who would be
Vallorin, even if everyone else counts a few more years than we do.
I don’t want to find myself revisiting that time.”

Torrullin
sighed. “This is Lethe. I do not know.”

“You are a
Walker,” Elianas frowned.

“Not when
another pulls the strings,” Torrullin said. He leaned in close to
Elianas. “It does not matter what we do, what we say or how we feel
or even where and when we are; we are not in control.”

Tristan licked
dry lips. As Elianas stared at Torrullin, Tristan said, “The only
way out is to start talking to each other, don’t you see?”

Torrullin
frowned. “Maybe, but it does not return us control.”

“Which control
do you seek?” Tristan demanded. “Which is more important,
Torrullin? Elianas? The control over Lethe … or the control over
self? Is it that hard to imagine one may lead to the other?”

Silence.

“Well?”

Elianas
shrugged.

Torrullin
threaded hands through his hair.

Tristan pulled
a face. “I guess my point is made. I’ll be over there if you have
need of me.” He walked away, leaving them alone.

He did not go
far, but was outside of hearing range. He knew words were telling
between the two men.

Elianas sat and
leaned against a lichen covered standing stone and stretched his
legs out.

A minute
passed, then two, but he did not look up. He drew his smaller knife
from a boot and commenced whittling a piece of scarred wood he
found near the base of the stone. Another minute passed and he
whistled tuneless accompaniment.

Tristan wanted
to strangle him, while admiring the calm the dark man
projected.

Torrullin
wandered from stone to standing stone, stopping to study each
curiously before moving on, and all the while remained aware of the
man ostensibly whittling. He moved past Tristan at one stage and
raised an eyebrow in his direction.

Few knew of
his capacity to wait another out; Elianas knew, but how long would
he absorb the strain before surrendering? Was it a lesser form of
brinkmanship? Torrullin came to an halt as he thought on that.
Brinkmanship had no place here; it was getting to the point where
it had no place anywhere.

He inhaled and
moved to Elianas. There he stood, looking down.

Elianas
squinted up.

Tristan held
his breath, praying sense would prevail.

Torrullin
lowered himself. “Any shape in the wood?”

Elianas
returned to the carving. “Too soon to say.”

“A sculptor of
talent claims the shape already is.”

“I am not a
sculptor.” Elianas smiled, but did not look up.

“I am finding
it hard to reconcile what you thought of me in private to what you
shared with me,” Torrullin said.

“I was
prepared to bury my revenge.”

“But you did
not, Elianas. I have paid many ages.”

A brief nod.
“I am sorry.”

“Are you? You
cannot look me in the eye.”

Elianas’ hands
ceased moving, and wood and knife stilled in his lap. He looked up
and locked onto Torrullin. “I am sorry.”

“Are you?”

Elianas stared
at him without reaction.

“I would
appreciate honesty, whatever it is.”

The dark man
leaned over to slide his knife back into his boot, doing so without
taking his eyes off Torrullin. “I find myself insulted.”

“A small
price.”

Elianas turned
the piece of wood over in his hands and pulled a face at it. He
tossed it aside. “What do you want of me now?”

“The
truth.”

“Will you
reciprocate?”

“Yes.”

“Very well, my
brother, let us examine the toll revenge takes in a long wait. I
was lied to, I did not know you well enough to know the difference,
I loved you more than a need to see justice done and I chose
deliberately to allow revenge to wait in sterile conditions.
Listening to the lie was my first mistake, not asking you about it
was the next, but permitting it to go unresolved has been my
gravest error, among other equally grave errors, but they are
related to other issues, not this one.

“In thinking
the conditions of waiting to be sterile, I moved on, I went boldly
forward, and never understood how an accusation unspoken could be a
barrier, poison in fallow ground, never sterile, not even close. Am
I sorry? Yes, but I am sorry I waited so long, not that I thought
you capable of this foul deed. In this it would be maligning you,
yet you were and are capable of causing someone to disappear if it
suits your purpose.”

By the time he
ceased talking Elianas leaned once more against the stone pillar
behind him. His dark eyes revealed little.

A long and
tense silence ensued. Then, “Once I was capable of such evil,
Elianas. I am no longer. You now insult me.” Torrullin’s voice was
cold.

Dark eyes
bored into grey. “That is like saying you could never do a fraction
of the evil that befell Kalgaia again and yet, twenty-five years
ago, Torrke swallowed innocent Valleur when you played the hero
with the draithen. Do
not
presume to claim you are no longer
able.”

Torrullin
closed his eyes. “That was then.”

“A mere drop
in the mighty bucket of time. I am well aware you are a fantastic
family man and thus could not ever envision harming a father or a
son, but wait - did you not beat Tymall to within an inch of his
life and did you not force him to kill himself? Did you not
withhold love from Taranis, the man who was Danae like my
father?”

Torrullin
stared at Elianas. “Goddess, how will you ever let go? I am not
guilty of hurting your father.”

“You hurt
yours, Torrullin.”

“This is not
about Taranis.”

Elianas
nodded. “I know, but can you not understand why I believed as I
did? When have you proven the accusation false? And, brother, you
say you know me, yet you didn not suspect this lay behind our
warring.”

Torrullin took
in a breath and exhaled slowly. “I knew there was something.”

Elianas
swirled his tongue inside his mouth, eyes fixedly on Torrullin.
“Now you are angry again.”

Torrullin
shook his head and rose. “I am fine. I accept my responsibility.”
He took a breath. “You asked that I reciprocate truth. Ask
away.”

Elianas gazed
up, eyes narrowing. “You are making this too easy. I hate to admit
I do not trust you in an accommodating mood.”

“The choice is
yours.”

Tristan could
not hear what was said, but it was obvious by their body language
it was not going well. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse
rather than better. He decided to head over to interfere, and then
subsided in the act of rising when Elianas sprang to his feet, eyes
flashing fire.