'It was good that you gave him those extra twenty years, Eldicar. He would not have survived the pain without the gift.'
'Indeed not, my lord.'
'You seem to be suffering.'
'The communion is always painful.'
'So do you think there is anything more to be learned from the merchant?'
'I believe not, my lord.'
'Still, it is enough. The Grey Man is an assassin once known as Waylander. It is almost amusing. Niallad has lived his whole life in fear of meeting this man, and now he is travelling with him.'
Eldicar's head felt as if it would burst. He sagged against the cellar wall.' Yow must try to be tougher, Eldicar. Take note of the wonderful display shown by the Chiatze. Very well, I will let you go.'
Freedom from pain made Eldicar cry aloud. He sank to his knees. The cellar was cold. He sat down, resting his back against the wall. Tied to a chair close by was the unconscious Matze Chai. He was naked, his body a mass of festering sores, his skin showing the white blotches of leprosy. Maggots crawled upon his bony thighs.
I wanted to be a healer, thought Eldicar. With a sigh he pushed himself to his feet and walked to the door. He glanced back at the dying man. There was no one here, save for himself and the prisoner. No guard outside the unlocked door. Deresh Karany had evinced no further interest in the man. Turning back Eldicar moved to Matze Chai's side. Taking a deep breath he laid his hands on the merchant's blood-encrusted face. Deresh Karany's spells were powerful and destroying the leprosy was the hardest task. It was deep-rooted. Eldicar worked silently, his mind focused. First he killed the maggots and healed the boils. The merchant groaned and began to wake. Eldicar placed him in a deep sleep then continued. Concentrating all his power into his hands Eldicar pulsed life-giving energy into Matze's veins. Eyes closed, he sought out all pockets of the disease, slowly eradicating them.
Why are you doing this? he asked himself. There was no rational answer. Perhaps, he thought, it will add one fragrant lily to the rancid lake of my life. Stepping back he gazed down at the sleeping man. Matze's skin gleamed with health. 'You did not come out of this too badly, Matze Chai,' he said. 'You still have your twenty years.'
Pulling shut the door behind him, Eldicar climbed the stone stairs to the first level and moved through to the Oak Room. Beric was sitting by the far window. Lord Aric was lounging on a couch nearby. 'Where is Panagyn?' asked Eldicar.
'He is preparing to ride out in search of the Grey Man,' said Aric. 'I think he is looking forward to the hunt. Did you learn anything from the slant-eye?'
'Yes. The Grey Man is an assassin called Waylander.'
'I have heard of him,' said Aric. 'I wish you'd let me observe the torture.'
'Why?' asked Eldicar wearily.
'It would have been amusing, and I am bored.'
'I am sorry to hear that, my friend,' said Eldicar. 'Perhaps you should visit Lady Lalitia.'
'Aye, I think I will,' said Aric, his mood momentarily brightening.
The small group had made camp in a wooded hollow close to the crest of a hill overlooking the Eiden Plain. Way-lander was standing alone, staring out over the ruins of Kuan-Hador. Behind him the priestess Ustarte was sleeping. Emrin and Niallad were skinning three hares Keeva had killed that morning.
'It looks so peaceful in the moonlight,' said Keeva. Waylander nodded. 'You look tired,' she added.
'I am tired.' He forced a smile. 'I am too old for this.'
'I have never understood wars,' said Keeva. 'What do they achieve?'
'Nothing of worth,' he said. 'Mostly it comes down to mortality and the fear of death.'
'Fear of death makes men kill one another? That is beyond me.'
'Not the soldiers, Keeva, the leaders, the men who desire power. The more powerful they perceive themselves to be, the more god-like they become in their own eyes. Fame then becomes a kind of immortality. The leader cannot die. His name will echo down the centuries. It is all nonsense. They die anyway and turn to dust.'
'You really are tired,' she said, hearing the weary contempt in his words. 'Why don't you get some rest?'
Ustarte awoke and called out to them. Waylander strolled to where the priestess was sitting. Keeva followed him. 'How are you feeling?' asked Waylander.
'Stronger,' she said, with a smile, 'and not just because of the sleep. Yu Yu Liang has found the Men of Clay.'
'And?'
'The Riaj-nor have returned. Already they are marching towards the gateway. Three hundred of them. When they reach it the power of their swords will seal it for another millennium.' Her smile faded. 'But it will be close. The Ipsissimus has been directing a dispersal spell against the gateway for days. If he succeeds, and the gateway spell is broken, no force in this world will bring it back.'
'You have magic,' said Emrin, moving in. 'Can you not . . . cast your own spell against the magicker?'
'I have very few spells, Emrin. I have a talent for farsight and once I could move freely between worlds. That power is almost gone. I do not know why. I think it was part of the meld-magic that created me, and the magic is fading. But, no, I cannot fight the Ipsissimus. We must just hope that the Riaj-nor can save us.'
Climbing clumsily to her feet, she took Waylander by the arm. 'Come, walk with me.'
They moved away from the group. Behind them Keeva started a small fire, and she and Emrin sat quietly beside it, preparing the hares. Niallad stood up and wandered away into the woods.
'They tortured Matze Chai,' Ustarte told Waylander. 'I only saw glimpses of it. He was extraordinarily brave.'
'Glimpses?'
'There is a cloak spell over the magicker and his loachai. I cannot see events around them. But I did fasten to the thoughts of Matze Chai.'
'He is still alive?' asked Waylander softly.
'Yes, he lives. There is something else. The loachai then healed Matze, bringing him back from the point of death.'
'So his master could torture him again?'
'I don't think so. It was as if the cloak-spell parted for a heartbeat and I caught just a glimpse of his thoughts - more an echo of his emotions. He was saddened and sickened by the torture. His healing of Matze Chai was a tiny act of rebellion. It is mysterious. I feel there is some fact we have overlooked. Something vital. It is like a nagging thought just below the level of consciousness.'
'I have the same feeling,' said Waylander. 'It has been bothering me ever since the battle with the demons. I saw the magicker ripped apart. But just before that I saw him falter. His spell was working, the mist was receding. Then he seemed to lose all confidence. His voice stammered. The mist swept over him. I watched his arm torn from his body. Yet, moments later, his voice rang out again, and he conquered the demons.'
'An Ipsissitnus has great power,' said Ustarte.
'Then why did he lose it for those few heartbeats? And why did he not have his loachai with him? Surely that goes against what you told me about a magicker and his loachai. The boy is supposed to be Eldicar's shield.'
The boy was with Keeva and Yu Yu at the time,' said Ustarte. 'Perhaps when the demons attacked them Eldicar sensed his peril. That could be why he lost concentration.'
'It still makes no sense,' insisted Waylander. 'He leaves his shield behind, and when the shield is in danger he gets ripped apart? No. If the loachai had been sent against the demons, and his master was threatened, it would be understandable. You told me that the master is the one with the real power, and he directs it through his loachai. Therefore if the master was threatened the link to his servant could be severed, leaving the loachai defenceless. But that was not what happened. It was Eldicar who fought the demons.'
Ustarte considered his words. 'He cannot be the loachai,' said Ustarte. 'You say the boy is around eight years old? No child could summon the power of an Ipsissimus, no matter how gifted. Nor do I believe anyone of that age would radiate such consummate evil.'
'Beric is a fine boy,' said Niallad, moving out of the darkness. 'I like him greatly. There i
s no evil in him.'
'I like him too,' said Waylander, 'but something is not right here. Eldicar told me he did not summon the demons to my home. I believed him. He spoke of Deresh Karany.'
'I know this man,' said Ustarte, her voice cold. 'He is vile beyond all imaginings. But he is a grown man. I would have sensed it had there been more than one Ipsissimus.'' She turned to Niallad. 'You must pardon my intrusion, but I am reading your thoughts, and I need to see events through your memories. Think back to the night your parents were killed.'
'I don't want to do that,' said Niallad, backing away.
'I am sorry,' said Ustarte, 'but it is vital. Please, Niallad.' The young man stood very still. He took a deep breath, and Waylander saw that he was gathering his strength. Then Niallad nodded to Ustarte and closed his eyes.
'Now I see,' whispered Ustarte. 'The boy is there. You see him. He is standing alongside the magicker.'
'Yes, I remember. What point are you making?'
'Think back. How did he seem to you?'
'He was just standing there, watching.'
'Watching the slaughter?'
'I suppose so.'
'His face shows no emotion. Not shock, not surprise, not horror?'
'He is just a child,' said Niallad. 'He probably didn't understand what was happening. He is a wonderful boy.'
Ustarte swung and looked across at Keeva and Emrin. 'All of you are smitten by the boy. Even Matze Chai, as he faced torture, could think only good thoughts of Beric. This is not natural, Grey Man,' she said. She returned her gaze to Niallad. 'Think back now over all the times you have been with Beric. I need to see the events myself.'
'It is not that often,' said Niallad. 'The first time was in the Grey Man's palace. He and I went to the beach.'
'What did you do there?'
'I swam, Beric sat on the sand.'
'He did not swim?'
Niallad smiled. 'No, I teased him about it and threatened to carry him into the water. I reached down but he grabbed on to a rock and I could not lift him.'
'I do not see a rock in your memory,' said Ustarte.
'There must have been. I almost tore my back trying to prise him away.'
Ustarte reached out and took Niallad by the arm. 'Picture his face, as well as you can. Look at it closely. I need to see it! Every detail.' She stood very still, and Waylander saw her jerk, as if stung. She backed away from Niallad, her eyes wide with fear. 'He is not a child,' she whispered. 'He has become a meld-creature.' Way-lander moved alongside her.
Tell me!' he said.
'Your suspicions were correct, Grey Man. Eldicar Manushan is the loachai. The one who appears as a child is Deresh Karany - the Ipsissimus.'
'It cannot be,' whispered Niallad. 'You are wrong!'
'No, Niallad. He is radiating a charm-spell. All who come close are deceived by it. It is fine protection. Who would suspect a golden-haired and beautiful child?'
Ustarte walked away, lost in fearful memories. She had crossed a gateway between worlds to escape Deresh Karany's evil. And now he was here - and all her hopes of victory seemed suddenly frail, as insubstantial as woodsmoke.
She should have known he would come. She should have guessed it would be in a different form. Deresh Karany had become obsessed with the mysterious magic of the meld. He had realized through Ustarte that the possibilities went far beyond the mere physical. The correct balance could enhance the powers of the mind. Already virtually immortal, Deresh desired more. Conducting increasingly grisly experiments on his hapless captives, he sought the key that would unlock the secrets of the meld.
Ustarte had become his passion. She shuddered at the memory. He worked on her endlessly, seeking to find the source of her ability to change form. One day he had her strapped to a table. Sharp knives opened her flesh, and Deresh removed one of her kidneys, replacing it with a spell-charged organ taken from a failed meld. The pain had been indescribable and only Ustarte's great strength had saved her from madness. As she lay in her cell recovering she felt the organ stir within her, like a living creature. Tendrils slid from it, probing along the muscles of her back and into her lungs. Ustarte had gone into a terrible spasm. Her life was being drawn from her, and in her panic she threw herself into the change. The creature within her was crushed, but one tiny tendril broke off and fled deep into Ustarte's skull, nestling against the base of her brain. There it died. Poison seeped from its corpse, hot and burning. Tiger-Ustarte roared furiously, slashing her great paws against the walls of the cell, ripping out great chunks of plaster. Then, as she had with the first poison used on her, Ustarte absorbed it into her system, breaking it down, rendering it harmless. It could no longer kill her, but it did change her.
When Ustarte awoke, back in her own form, she felt different. Faintly dizzy and nauseous she had sat upon the floor, amid the ruins of the furniture torn to shreds by her tiger self. Suddenly her mind opened, and she heard the thoughts of every man and creature within the prison. Simultaneously. The shock made her scream, but she did not hear it. Her mind was full to bursting. Resisting panic, she tried to focus, creating compartments of the mind, which she closed against the tumultuous roar. The most powerful of the thoughts would not be shut out, for they were born of agony.
And they were coming from Prial. Two of Deresh Karany's assistants were experimenting on him.
Anger flooded through Ustarte, and a pulsing, volcanic rage began to build. Rising from the floor she focused on the men - and reached out. The air around her seemed to shiver and part. A fraction of a heartbeat later she found herself standing alongside the torturers within one of the meld-rooms on the other side of the prison. Ustarte's talons ripped through the throat of the first man. The second tried to run, but she leapt upon his back, bearing him to the ground. His head struck the stone floor, shattering the bones of his face.
Ustarte freed Prial.
'How did you . . . ?' whispered Prial. 'You . . .appeared from the air.' There was blood upon his fur, and several implements were still embedded in his flesh. Gently Ustarte eased them clear.
'We are leaving now,' said Ustarte.
'The time has come?'
'It has come.'
Closing her eyes she pulsed a message to all of the meld-creatures within the prison. Then she disappeared.
The apartments of Deresh Karany were empty, and she recalled that he had gone to the city to meet with the Council of Seven. Deresh had plans to open a gateway between worlds and invade once more an ancient realm that had defeated them so many years before.
From outside came the sound of splintering timbers and screaming men. Ustarte walked to the window and saw the creatures of the meld swarming across the exercise ground. Guards were fleeing in terror. They did not get far.
An hour later Ustarte led the one hundred and seventy prisoners out into the countryside, high into the forested mountain slopes.
'They will hunt us down,' said Prial. 'We have nowhere to go.'
His words were proved true within days, when Kriaz-nor troops and hunt-hounds began scouring the forest.
The escapees fought well, and for a time enjoyed some small victories. But gradually they were whittled down, and forced further into the high country. Some of the prisoners took off on their own, moving still higher into the snow, others were sent by Ustarte in groups to seek freedom to the east or the south. Disfigured and malformed as they were, she warned them to avoid the haunts of men.
On the last morning, as several hundred Kriaz-nor were climbing towards their camp, Ustarte gathered the remaining twenty followers around her. 'Stay close to me,' she ordered her people, 'and follow when I move.' Reaching out she pictured the gateway as she had seen it in Deresh Karany's thoughts.
The air rippled. Ustarte threw out her arms. 'Now!' she cried, just as the Kriaz-nor burst upon the camp. Ustarte stepped forward. Bright lights in a score of colours flickered around her. As they faded she found herself standing within a green clearing in the shadow of a line of tall cliffs
. The sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky. Only nine of her followers made it through with her. Startled Kriaz-nor warriors were standing close by. Ahead was a huge stone arch, cut into the cliff. Beneath the arch the rock was glowing, ripples of blue lightning flashing across it. The Kriaz-nor rushed at them. Ustarte leapt towards the arch. Prial, Menias, Corvidal and Sheetza, a young girl with the scaled skin of a lizard, ran with her. The others charged the Kriaz-nor.
Throwing out her arms, Ustarte summoned all of her power. For an instant only the rock before her faded, and through it she saw moonlight over a series of ghostly ruins. As it began to fade she, and the last of her followers, stepped through.
Behind her the gateway closed, only bare rock remaining.
Sheetza stumbled and fell. Ustarte saw that a knife was embedded in her back. The deformed girl was unconscious. Ustarte drew out the blade and threw it aside. Then she laid her hands over the wound, sealing it. Sheetza's heart was no longer beating. Concentrating her power Ustarte set the girl's blood flowing. Sheetza opened her eyes. 'I thought I was stabbed,' she said, her voice sibilant. 'But there is no pain. Are we safe now?'
'We are safe,' said Ustarte, feeling for the girl's pulse. There was none. Only Ustarte's magic kept the blood flowing. She was, in effect, already dead.
In the distance Ustarte saw a glimmering lake. The small group made their way to it. Corvidal went for a swim with Sheetza. The girl moved through the water with the grace of a dolphin. When she emerged she was laughing. She sat down at the water's edge and splashed Menias. He ran forward and grabbed her and they both fell into the water.
Ustarte moved away from them. Prial came and sat with her. 'Maybe some of the others got away,' he said.
Ustarte did not answer. She was watching Sheetza. 'I didn't know you were also a healer,' he said.
'I am not. Sheetza is dying. Her heart was pierced.'
'But she is swimming,' said Prial.
'When the magic fades she will pass away. A few hours. A day. I don't know.'
'Oh, Great One! Why are we so cursed? Did we commit some vile sins in a past life?'
That night Ustarte sat talking with Sheetza. The priestess could feel the magic in the girl fading. She tried to add more power to it, but to no avail. Sheetza grew sleepy and lay down. 'What will we do in this world, Great One?' asked Sheetza.