Bone, Fog, Ash & Star (9 page)

Eliza shook her head distractedly. “I’m on his trail, aye,” she said. “I’m going to find out what he’s up to and once I have something over him that I can use…lah, then I’ll use it somehow, I spose.” She peered across the table at the chart he was working on. “What are you doing?”

He beamed, eyes brightening. “I am charting the separation of the worlds. Do you know, it has never been done before! There are some scattered records, of course, but nothing that can give us a clear idea of how long it will take. The peculiar thing is that the separation seems to be gradually slowing down. Rather like pulling apart something made of flexible rubber. It is not so difficult to stretch the two halves a certain distance, but as they get farther apart the pressure increases and it becomes more difficult. Either they will snap apart all at once or the force holding them together will be greater than the force pulling them apart and the process will grind to a halt. I believe that is what is happening, Eliza.”

“I thought you were going to research the Thanatosi,” Eliza broke in, but Foss was so animated that he barely heard her.

“Even more peculiar, Eliza Tok, is that there is no record at all in the Old Library of Karbek’s spell – what was done,
how
it was done. The
original spell
, I mean! Nothing! How can this be? I suspect that there
is
a record of the spell somewhere but it is hidden. Or missing. Even stolen. I do not know, but it is shocking that we have not kept the text under close watch, guarded it as an object of great value. We Mancers pride ourselves on our
curiosity
, Eliza, for above all other beings we seek answers, knowledge. We keep meticulous records, as our Library attests! And yet all our questioning is turned outward, never inward. We are perhaps too docile, too incurious, when it comes to ourselves.”

Eliza put her head down on the table and faked a snore.

“Yes, Eliza?” Foss asked dryly, stopping his monologue. She raised her head and grinned at him.

“Sorry. Do you know what’s in the other towers, Foss?”

“I do not. Please pay attention. Do you see what I am saying? You made me think of it yesterday when you told me the Magic we worked made no sense. I realized that I myself only partially understood the great work we have all undertaken. I, the Spellmaster! There must have been a text in the Library at some point outlining Karbek’s spell, but Eliza, it is
gone
.”

“It’s nay one of the books Nia drained?”

“No. I do not mean it is empty. I mean there
is no record
of such a book! I have checked all the indexes more than once. I know, at least, what the empty books
were
. A description of Karbek’s spell was not among them.”

“You think Kyreth might have the book you want,” said Eliza, the connection dawning on her. “In which case he was up to all kinds of mischief as a young Mancer – trying to take over the line of the Xia Sorceress, sending his wife off to the Realm of the Faeries for the Gehemmis, stealing and hiding important books. What does he want?”

“Look at this, Eliza Tok. Come, sit over here.”

Eliza groaned as she moved to sit next to him. Her ankle and tailbone were throbbing and she was exhausted from the night’s adventures and the tension of being back in the Citadel. However, all these worries fell away as she examined Foss’s chart.

“You’re right,” she said, interested. “The separation of the worlds
is
slowing down.”

“The Mancers are weakening,” murmured Foss. “Perhaps. Perhaps.”

“Perhaps what?” asked Eliza.

Foss shook his head. “I do not know. Something different is needed. But to know what, I must see the Original Spell. I will speak to Aysu.”

Eliza tried to be diplomatic. “I can see how this might be important, aye, but it could be a wild goose chase, too. And we dinnay have time for a wild goose chase. Have you done any reading at all about the Thanatosi?”

“Indeed I have, Eliza. My research on calling off the Thanatosi has turned up nothing, I regret to say. But do
not
be discouraged! It is too soon to give up hope, Eliza Tok! It is much too soon!”

“Thank you for helping me, Foss. I hope you’re nay putting yourself in danger.”

“It is my nature, I suppose,” he replied cheerfully. “All the books on the Thanatosi are there on the floor. Look through them if you like. I will take this to Aysu.”

He gathered up the loops of paper in his arms. Eliza fondly watched him go before settling down to read. ~~~

Aysu was staring at her hands on the desk as if they did not belong to her. A knock came and she started. She could not remember what she had been thinking, what she had been doing, how long she had been sitting here. She looked at the wall, full of trepidation. She was troubled by her trance this morning. The black crab that should have led her to a vision had been washing listlessly against the shore, as if lifeless on the waves. The knock came again. What could she do? She drew a symbol in the air with one shaking finger and the door appeared and opened. It was Foss. She felt a mixture of anger and relief.

“Spellmaster,” she greeted him, as civilly as she could.

He bowed. He was holding something in his hand. A long scroll. Perhaps this one would speak to her.

“Pardon my intrusion,” he said very formally. “If your Eminence would look at this?”

She nodded. With a flourish he unrolled the scroll across her desk. As she looked at it she felt a shadow around her heart, a frightening constriction in her throat. It made no sense to her at all, these marks and scratches on paper. She could not focus her eyes, she could not read it. It meant nothing.

“What is this?” she asked angrily.

“I have been charting the progress of the separation of the worlds,” explained Foss, very animated. “Do you know it has never been done? I thought…”

“Kyreth is right about you!” cried Aysu, pushing the scroll off her desk so it tumbled looping to the floor. Foss took a step back, amazed. Aysu strode around the desk, walking over the scroll so she was eye to eye with him.

“You
seek
trouble,” she hissed. “We Mancers have always worked together, worked as a group, and yet you are always off on some investigation of your own. We brought writing to the One World! We collected all the knowledge of the past and recorded it for posterity! We have been the protectors of humankind for thousands of years! The keepers of the Sorceress! Why do you seek always to undermine, to sow discontent? Why did you come to me with tales of Kyreth’s misdeeds, why did you let the Sorceress leave at all? All might have been well had you not chosen to interfere. Oh, Foss!” She was breathing heavily.

Foss put his large hands on either side of her face. He began to murmur and she felt the ocean rocking beneath them, she felt the rains pouring down from above. She felt a deep thirst, felt how she was scorched to the skin, dried out, full of hot flame. She let herself soak in his words; she drank her fill of them. She let the deep, dark oceans hold her for a time.

The next thing she knew, she was seated in her chair. Foss knelt at her side and his hand was on hers.

“Aysu?” he said.

“Yes, Foss,” she replied. She took a deep breath.

He smiled at her. “It is you,” he said.

She nodded. “I am sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You have always been a friend to me, Aysu. Now I wish to be yours.”

“Thank you.” She was so tired. Just making the words was difficult. It was as if she had put down a great weight. Before she could rise and carry on her journey she needed to rest.

“You must call together the manipulators of water,” he said. “You must ask them for their strength. You must rely on
us
, Aysu, and not see Kyreth for a time. I do not presume to give the Supreme Mancer orders but this is for your own good. He hungers for power and he has asserted his will over yours. You have been dragging it around like a great chain around your own power. You can be a great leader. I have faith in you as a leader. But
you
must lead us, Aysu. Not Kyreth.”

“He is stronger than I am,” said Aysu. “Even Cursed and mad, he is so much stronger than I am.”

“Perhaps. But he is not stronger than all of us, Aysu. It is time to take a stand.”

She nodded weakly and squeezed his hand.

“Thank you,” she said. “I will gather the manipulators of water tomorrow. Today I must rest.”

Foss gathered up his fallen, trampled scroll and spread it out on the desk again.

“Look,” he pleaded. “Look.”

Aysu examined the scroll and this time she saw what he meant. She went over every inch of it. When she was done she said, “Continue with your work, Foss, and keep me informed. What you are doing is important.”

Foss bowed gratefully. “Thank you, your Eminence.”

She smiled at him, her real smile as he remembered it from before she became Supreme Mancer.

“Be careful, Foss,” she said.

“And you, your Eminence.”

~~~

The day was growing late. Soon she would retire to her chambers. Foss was right, she had been drawn entirely away from herself, but it was not too late to set things right. She walked slowly to the Library. What Foss had showed her on the scroll was unsettling. She trusted him but she wanted to double-check. It was possible that the Spellmaster was mistaken. He was powerful but not infallible. It seemed so improbable that the Old Library would contain no text of Karbek’s spell at all. She must be certain he had not simply overlooked it. It would not do to take action or speak to the other Mancers until she was sure he was right.

As she made her way among the bookshelves in the Old Library she thought she saw a flicker of movement, something small and dark by the windows at the back. She froze, then shook away her fear. She was the Supreme Mancer in her own Citadel. What did she have to fear? She walked swiftly to where she had seen movement. There she found Eliza by one of the long windows, bent over a book.

“Pardon me!” she exclaimed, startled. Eliza looked up and closed the book hastily. It was one of the Histories, Aysu noted. The Thanatosi. She felt a strong desire to snatch the book from the young Sorceress and interrogate her.

“Are you all right?” asked Eliza, for Aysu had begun to sway slightly, her eyes growing brighter and brighter.

“Yes! Yes!” All at once she was Aysu again. “I am here for a book.”

“Lah, you’re in the right place, then,” said Eliza, rising and sidling around the Supreme Mancer.

She is afraid of me, thought Aysu sadly.

“Goodnight!” she called after Eliza, who disappeared among the bookshelves. She bent down and picked up something that Eliza had dropped. It was a soggy towel wrapped around a block of melting ice. What could she be doing with such a thing? Was it part of a spell? Fear washed over her again.

I am going mad, thought Aysu. The Citadel is against me. The Sorceress does not trust me. I am not fit to be Supreme Mancer.

“I must agree with you.”

His voice in her ear. His hand on her shoulder. She thought of the dark ocean, the rain, but it was too late. She could not fight him now.

“This is not what I wished but time has run out,” said Kyreth. “I am sorry, Aysu.”

“Never mind,” she said faintly. “It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” he agreed. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

His blade slid into her, through her heart. The oceans and rivers poured out of her. She crumpled to the Library floor, her eyes fading, and watched his feet walking away, the blade at his side. Darkness closed around it all. She caught a flash of the black crab washing against the shore. Then it was gone.

Chapter

~6~

Eliza fled the Library and went to look for Foss.
She knew she was not permitted to enter the Mancers’ chambers but she was frightened. She wanted to tell him how Aysu had looked, that awful glare in her eyes, the way she had been swaying back and forth. The Supreme Mancer was slipping.

She made her way to the warren of torch-lit stone rooms under the Library, where the manipulators of water slept. She had bandaged her ankle and kept ice on it for much of the day but it was still sore and she couldn’t put her full weight on it. There was a crab on the wall marking Foss’s chambers. She knocked and waited. No reply came. She touched her fingers to the black crab and hesitated, then drew the symbol Foss had taught her with her index finger. It was his own private symbol for his door. The door appeared and swung open soundlessly. The Citadel did not protest.

Foss’s chambers were made up of three connected rooms with domed ceilings and high arched doorways between them. In one room cushions were arranged on the floor on either side of a low table. The next room contained only a long, tidy bed and a desk, and the third room was lined with empty bookcases. The lack of books was so uncharacteristic of Foss that she felt a chill run through her.