Memory

Chapter 19

The pounding at the door was echoed in my panicked heartbeat. “Liam! He will bring the silver through that door. Quickly. The rifles. There are windows on the upper floors.”

“What talk is this of rifles in my house?” Maya Anyapah demanded as she followed Liam from the kitchen. “You claimed to be innocent victims on the plain, but now you would murder a player who comes openly to my door?”

“It is the one we spoke of, Keeper,” Udondi said. “And he is not a player like any other.”

“Because he knows more of the silver than any other?” Maya asked.

“Do not let him in,” Udondi warned. “The cost of your curiosity will prove too much.”

I guessed this debate had gone on for most of the time I had been at the top of the pinnacle. Keeper Maya was tempted by what she’d been told of Kaphiri… but I had no patience for the argument. “Where are the rifles?”

Maya tried to keep me from the kitchen, but Udondi stepped between us, and I was able to slip past. The rifles were lying clean and reassembled on the table. I took all three, handing one to Liam and one to Udondi as I left the kitchen again. Maya looked on us in cold fury. “You are brigands,” she said. “Practitioners of cold murder.” Then she turned away, striding resolutely down the hall, toward the great room, and the front door, though by this time the pounding had subsided into silence.

“Stop her,” I whispered to Udondi.

“No. Our only chance now is to beat her.” And she darted for the stair with Liam right beside her.

I hesitated, but I could not bring my rifle to bear on Maya’s stiff back. I would not. “If you open the door to him, you’ll kill us all,” I shouted after her.

Maya stopped, turning to look back at me. “You forget this is a temple. It has survived for six hundred seventeen years because the silver cannot enter here.”

“It can. I have seen it happen.”

“My house is my own,” she said, and went on toward the front door.

So I left her, and galloped for the stair.

On the next floor the sitting room was empty. I glanced out both windows, but saw no sign of Kaphiri. Then I noticed a door at the end of the hall was open, where it had been closed before. I went to look, and found a bedroom, neatly decorated and brought to a comforting warmth by an electrical heater set into the wall.

In a reclining chair beside a tall window there sat an old man—older than anyone I had ever seen or imagined, his white hair reduced to wisps and his body shrunken, as if life had taken all he could give it, and more. A white afghan lay across his lap and his hands rested on this. They were marvelous hands, almost translucent white. His pale eyes glittered in amusement as he looked from me to Udondi, who stood with her back flat against the wall, craning her neck to look out the window.

The silver loomed only a stone’s throw away, already as high as the floor on which we stood. Udondi had unlatched the pane and pushed it open an inch, admitting a current of cold air. It brought the scent of silver, to mix with the scent of temple kobolds. Udondi had the barrel of her rifle aimed outside, but when I looked her a question she shook her head. Under her breath she said, “The phantom has disappeared.”

“And Liam?”

“He has gone to look for a better vantage in another room.”

The old man said nothing, seeming pleased to be watching the drama playing around him.

Up through the window came the sound of the front door creaking open below us. Then Maya’s voice, calling to the night: “Let it be known, this keeper welcomes all strangers to the Temple of the Sisters, but be warned that this night my other guests have murder in their hearts.”

The old man looked at me with raised eyebrows. I could not meet his eye. “I’m going back up to the roof.”

Udondi nodded. Both of us wanted to see the conflict finished that night.

Leaving her with the old man, I slipped from the room and trotted back toward the stairway. Liam intercepted me, startling me badly as he stepped out of a side room in his silent way. I whispered my plan to him, and he nodded. “I’ll go too.”

“Can you still shoot with that patch over your eye?”

“I can try.”

But as we reached the stair we heard a faint scraping sound from the spiral above us… like a boot brushing stone? Maya was still at the front door, so that left only one other player whom it might be. I could not guess how he had reached the stair, but it did not seem a feat beyond his powers.

Liam must have shared the same thought, for we both flung ourselves into the stairwell, aiming our rifles up just as something slipped into sight around the spiral…

I cursed and almost dropped my weapon in my fight to keep from firing off a shot, for the intruder was nothing more than my own savant, making its slow way down from the roof. “A call for you,” it said pleasantly.

I looked at Liam. My hands were shaking. “It’s Jolly. I left him a message to call.” I laid my rifle down, and took the savant in hand, whispering to it to link.

But it was not Jolly who came to life on the screen. I drew back in horror as I found myself face-to-face with Kaphiri. I knew who he was, for he still wore the same style of elaborate, starched clothing he’d worn that night at Temple Huacho. His long black hair was still pinned in sleek waves, and specks of silver still glittered around his eyes. But now his face was fully illuminated by the silver so that I could see him clearly for the first time: his pale skin, his blue eyes, his thin black beard. But for the color of his skin, he bore an uncanny resemblance to Yaphet. His face was as youthful, as beautiful, but his was the beauty of a knife, without softness or sympathy. When he smiled, I felt as if all the cold of the night had run into my spine. “I am warned you would murder me.”

“You murdered my father!”

“Jubilee—” Liam tried to draw me away from the savant, but I shrugged him off.

“You’re still here, aren’t you?” I asked Kaphiri. “Surely you haven’t gone?”

Liam understood me. He nodded and started up the stairs to get the vantage from the roof as we had planned.

Kaphiri seemed to watch him, though Liam did not pass within the scope of his view. “Do you send someone to hunt me?” His strange accent stirred a resonant memory in my mind. If he were to speak his native language, I would recognize it, I was sure, but he spoke only the language I’d been born to. “To resist me is more dangerous than you know. You might kill me, but I will still have my revenge, for you would then become the destroyer of this world.”

What words were these? They made no sense. “I’m not like you! I called the silver only this once.”

Confusion bloomed on his face. “You? How could you call it?”

He didn’t know.

Kaphiri didn’t know how or why his players had failed.

So let him wonder.

“You must leave us alone,” I said. “Leave us alone, and you will come to no harm. We don’t want this fight.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He spoke softly now. “It has all been decided for us.” His blue eyes were hard and terrible. “Whatever you did today, your talent does not match mine. The silver will not harm me. Can you say the same?”

My mouth was so dry I could say nothing.

“I will not tolerate a pretender.”

I shook my head. “It was a trick. I’m not like you.”

“Even so.”

“What do you want?”

“You. I must have you. I have wondered why I let you live that night outside your temple. It troubles me, and I would have my mind at peace. And of course I must have Jolly back. He is here, in the Iraliad, isn’t he? It must be so. How long do you think it will take me to search each one of the handful of stations where he might be?”

I felt faint. Kaphiri could do it in one night.

Or could he? Why would he be here, questioning me, if it were that easy? “You’re afraid to enter the stations, aren’t you? You don’t want to be known. Not yet. That’s why you have your players silence any talk of you in the markets.”

His head tilted thoughtfully. Whatever elixir he had used to extend his life, it had not left him slow of wit or confused, as Nuanez Li had been. “Do you love your home?”

I froze, for he had found my greatest fear.

“Ask that woman who travels with you what became of her family, her mother, her lover, her children. Truly, it’s so much better to keep me happy.”

Did he mean Udondi? Did she have a family once? I heard my voice, pathetic and pleading, “Don’t hurt them. Please.”

“Come outside.”

“No.”

“Come out now. Come tell me where Jolly has gone, and it will all be over so quickly. Jubilee… that is your name? I envy you. All of you who are not like me. Now come. I’m waiting just outside the door.”

The link closed. I cried out. I shoved the savant away. What had he promised? What? That if I should give up my life and give away Jolly he would leave Temple Huacho in peace? But he had not said that…

I seized my rifle from the floor. “Udondi-i-i!”

She appeared at the end of the hall. “Jubilee?”

“Is it true you had a lover?” I shouted it, as if it were an accusation. “Is it true you had children of your own?”

An expression of shock came over her face.

“I thought you were a cessant!”

“I am now,” she said softly.

I bowed my head. “He waits for me outside.” I was afraid to go; afraid not to. He had promised me nothing…

“Will you go?” Udondi asked.

Now it was my turn to look stunned. “You want me to?”

She hefted her rifle. “If it draws him into the open…”

I stared at the weapon. “He told me if he dies, I’ll take his place. I’ll be the destroyer of this world.”

“He toys with your mind, that’s all. If he can seed doubt in you, you might hesitate. This is our chance, Jubilee. Likely our only chance. We can end it tonight, and stop any more senseless deaths. Your mother—”

“I know! I know.” With shaking hands I leaned my rifle against the wall. It would not do to take it with me; I was supposed to be giving up.

Udondi passed me a knife from a hidden sheath in her boot. “Just in case.”

I nodded, and we hugged. “Be ready,” I whispered. Then I went down the stair on shaking legs.

I was afraid. So afraid. Sweat soaked my clothes and my chest felt hollow. I told myself that Liam was on the roof and Udondi was at the window. One or both would get a clear shot, no matter the direction Kaphiri came from, so long as I didn’t stray far from the door… and I had no intention of doing that.

But surely Kaphiri was aware of this danger?

You might kill me, but I will still have my revenge.

Maybe he didn’t care? But I couldn’t believe that.

Maya stood beside the door, watching me with reproachful eyes. “Where is your weapon?”

“I have left it upstairs.”

I stepped past her, and put my hand on the latch.

“What game is this?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

I opened the door a crack. The silver stood off some sixty feet from the door, though its glow seemed strangely bright. Amplified by my fear? I did not see Kaphiri. Was he really here? Or was this only a game designed to break me?

“I am coming out.” I could hardly hear my own voice. So I straightened my shoulders and shouted it, “I am coming out!”

I stepped onto the stoop. Immediately a pale hand, all aglitter with specks of silver, reached from behind the onyx door to seize my forearm. He yanked hard and twisted, and suddenly I was sprawled on the sand-strewn rock before the door. “Udondi!” I screamed, rolling to get back on my feet. How had he gotten behind the door? It wasn’t possible. Udondi would have seen him from above. Why didn’t she shoot now?

He loomed over me as I tried to rise, a phantom dressed in black. He chopped at my head. I ducked, but the blow proved a feint. Spinning quickly around he seized both my arms and twisted them behind my back so that I thought they would tear from their sockets. I collapsed to my knees, my head bowed. He followed me down. He was crouched behind me so I could feel the heat of his body. I had expected him to be as cold as silver, but it wasn’t so. Why didn’t Udondi shoot?

“Now, girl,” he said softly, “your time is almost over. Tell me where my Jolly can be found.”

He wanted an answer. So he eased his grip on my arms, allowing me to raise my head. I saw then the power that was his. Silver surrounded us, not just on the sides, but over our heads too so that we were crouched in a cave of silver that hid us from anyone watching from above. No wonder the silver had shone so brightly when I had looked out the door! That door was still ajar. I heard Udondi’s voice from somewhere deep inside, shouting at me to stay inside; the silver had risen. She did not even know I had been taken.

All this passed through my mind in the space of a heartbeat. “Why are you doing this?” I pleaded.

I could feel his breath in my ear. Warm, and familiar. “It’s what I was born for. The silver will not take me. Not until my task is complete.”

“What task?”

“To bring about the end of this age.” His grip tightened again, making me gasp. His voice softened. “I could almost think you were her, come again.”

Her.

Udondi had told me of his past. “The woman who was your lover?” My words were only a pained whisper, but he heard me clearly. “If I were her, I would leave you again!”

He chuckled softly. “You are so very much like her. But now you must tell me, where is Jolly? So that we might finish this.”

“I don’t know where he is! I told him to run away! I don’t know where he’s gone!”

Now there was movement at the door. Kaphiri saw it and doubt touched him. His grip slackened. I reared back, and we sprawled together on the hard stone. He had my arms still in his grip. I twisted, trying to escape him. One hand came free but the other he held by the wrist.

Then he was not fighting me anymore. We knelt on the stone, face-to-face, while he stared at the scar that crossed the back of my hand, the one I had gained in the kobold well. With his thumb he traced its ragged line, while tiny sparks of silver followed that movement, jumping from his hand to mine. “What does it mean?” he murmured. “Who—?” He looked at me, his expression deeply troubled, and again I was struck by how much he looked like Yaphet.

It was a similarity I wanted no one else to ever see.

I reached for Udondi’s knife with my free hand. Kaphiri saw the blade slide from my boot. He tried to block my strike—too late. The knife hissed through the starched fabric of his sleeve and struck flesh. Blood poured from the wound, as red as the blood of any player, but he did not release his grip on me. Instead he struck my hand. The blade tumbled, and he caught it in the air.

“Let the silver decide then, if you have a destiny.”

He brought the knife’s bloody edge against my forearm. I screamed, twisting away, more afraid of blood poisoning than of the silver itself but his will was sterner than mine. The knife cut deep, ferrying his blood into my body.

Then he released me. The knife clattered to the ground. He raised his hand to the silver, just as he had that night outside Temple Huacho, and the sparkles that seemed to always follow the motion of his hands were bright and vibrant. The silver rushed toward him, it spilled over him, while I scrambled out of its path, fleeing back to the temple doors.

They burst open and Udondi was there, her rifle aimed over my head. “He’s gone!” I shouted, my bloody arm pressed hard against my belly.

I pushed past her, over the threshold. A wave of faintness took me and I went down on my knees. I heard Maya Anyapah say, “Their blood has crossed. She will surely die.”

Then I felt Udondi’s cool hands against my forehead;I heard her whispered plea, “Forgive me, Jubilee, forgive me, forgive me,” and I wondered why I had not let the silver take me after all.