Heritage Of The Xandim

35

THE SEARCH BEYOND

Dawn was breaking when everyone gathered outside the tower to say their farewells. The ferals had decamped already and vanished into the forest. Tiolani, looking pale but resolute, was beside Aelwen, Taine and their mounts. The Horsemistress was mounted on Taryn, her black stallion, and Taine rode Kelon’s Alil, while Tiolani had taken the Huntsman’s pretty red and white mare. Iriana and Corisand waited together, the Wizard’s eyes shining with excitement, while Dael stood wide-eyed at Athina’s side.

‘Are you ready to perform the flying magic?’ the Cailleach asked Tiolani.

‘I’m ready.’

‘Then farewell, and go with our blessings.’

Iriana hugged Taine. ‘Thank you for being such a support that dreadful night.’

He ruffled her hair. ‘It was a pleasure, little sister. You helped me too, remember? Good luck to you in your travels, and I hope that one day we will meet again in Tyrineld.’

For the first time since they had been thrown together once more, Corisand addressed Tiolani directly. ‘I’m doing my best to trust you, but it’s mostly because Aelwen and Athina want me to. Don’t prove them wrong.’

Tiolani glared at her. ‘You’ll never trust me, Corisand, any more than I trust you. I haven’t forgotten that you tried to kill me.’ With that she lifted her hands, and the pale shimmer of the flying magic curled around the three riders. The horses leapt skywards, then they were gone, vanishing into the clouds above.

Athina turned to Corisand. ‘Was that really necessary?’

The Windeye put her ears back. ‘It was to me - and I suspect it was to Tiolani. Now at least we both know where we stand. And speaking of standing, it’s time Iriana and I were on our way.’

The Cailleach’s silver-white hair glimmered like moonlight, and her eyes glowed with the piercing blue of Taku’s glacier as she lifted her hands. ‘Safe journey, my children, and may good fortune attend you.’

‘And you,’ Iriana said. ‘Please - if you can somehow manage to heal Avithan, will you . . . will you tell him I love him?’

‘Of course I will. But I suspect he already knows.’

Blushing, Iriana thrust her staff into her belt and turned to Corisand. ‘Are you ready?’

The Windeye of the Xandim inclined her beautiful, sculptured head. ‘More ready than you’ll ever know. Climb onto my back, my friend, and hold on tight.’

Corisand had refused a saddle and bridle, not knowing how they would translate to her alternative form, and now she felt a slight tingle of alien magic as the Wizard used the hint of an apport spell to boost herself up into place. Iriana was light and balanced on her back, but natural horsewoman though the Wizard was, Corisand could feel her tension, communicated through her legs and spine, and the tightly clenched hands that were knotted in her mane. It was understandable. It would be impossible for Melik to pass into the Elsewhere. Dael had promised to take the greatest care of him until Iriana returned, but the blind girl was being hurled into the unknown without any of her companion creatures to act as her eyes.

The Cailleach lifted her hands, and Corisand felt a thrill of immense power pass through her to Iriana, linking the three of them. The Windeye concentrated with all her might on that beautiful other place: the shores of the shimmering lake cradled in the forest’s dark embrace, the soaring silver peaks all around. It was so easy, with such otherworldly power behind her. All she had to do was follow the deepest yearnings of her heart. The magical energy filled and filled her, until it was all she could do to contain all that force. Then suddenly there was that odd, sideways shift of reality. Athina, the chamber and the world were all gone.

Corisand went home.

And, in an echo of her first time, fell flat on her face. Her human form was not designed to take a rider on its back. Even as she and Iriana went sprawling, their fall cushioned by soft black moss, the Windeye felt her heart leap as her powers sprang to life within her. She was the first to get to her feet, and saw that she was once again in the area of luminescent amber mist that had been her initial gateway to the Elsewhere. She turned to find Iriana still sitting on the ground, tears streaming down her face.

‘What’s wrong?’ Corisand knelt beside her. ‘Have you hurt yourself?’

The Wizard turned a glowing face towards her. ‘I can see you,’ she whispered. ‘For the first time in my life I can truly see.’

Corisand hugged her. ‘Oh, Iriana, I’m so glad.’

Iriana wiped the tears away, and her voice steadied as she took a firm grip on her emotions. ‘And you! I can’t believe it. It is you, isn’t it? Yes, of course it is,’ she amended quickly. ‘Somehow I recognise you, though I’ve never seen this form before.’ She grinned, her eyes dancing with laughter. ‘You look awfully vulnerable without clothes, though - particularly if you have to fight.’

Only then did the Windeye realise that Iriana was still wearing the travelling garb she had worn in the other world, whereas she herself was naked. Somehow, in the Elsewhere, she had never thought about clothes. Why should she? They had never previously been a part of her life, and in this enchanted place her magic provided any warmth and protection she might need. Nonetheless, she decided to humour Iriana’s concerns. Joyously switching to her Othersight, she took a double handful of air and wove a garment of grey shadows that copied Iriana’s tunic and breeches. It left her limbs free to move, yet covered her from head to toe. ‘There,’ she said. ‘Is that better?’

Iriana’s eyes were huge and round. ‘That was Windeye magic? What was that beautiful silvery stuff you were manipulating?’

Now it was Corisand’s turn to stare in astonishment. The vision the Wizard had gained was not the normal sight of her birth world, but was clearly very similar to her own Othersight. Did that mean Iriana could also—

Without warning, a bolt of fire struck down from above. Aurora, her great wings with their swirling colours outstretched across the sky, could clearly be identified through swirls of the fog. Diving forward, Iriana shoved a stunned Corisand aside just as another jet of flame shot from the glittering eyes of the eagle to tear a smoking scar in the shrivelled moss, just where they had been standing.

‘Aurora, stop,’ the Windeye yelled with both her physical and mental voice. ‘It’s me.’

The only reply was another sizzling zap of flame, close enough to singe their skin and crisp the ends of their hair. ‘What’s wrong with her?’ Corisand panted. ‘Taku would—’ She was forced to throw herself aside once more as the next lance of fire came down.

‘Split up,’ Iriana shouted. ‘Confuse it.’

‘No, don’t—’ But Iriana had already shot away from the Windeye’s side, zigzagging to avoid the incandescent bolts. ‘Taku, help us, please.’ Corisand jerked out the cry as another fiery missile came down inches away, its hot, concussive blast hurling her backwards. She rolled and scrambled to her feet, her head ringing. Iriana was a shadowy wraith, away in the mist to her right, and Corisand saw a further explosion of flame drive her further away. ‘Don’t lose sight of me,’ she called. ‘We’ll never find each other again.’

Once more she cried out to Taku - and this time he answered. The spectral head of the great serpent appeared, eyes shimmering intensely blue through the mist. The relief that flooded Corisand curdled into disbelieving horror as a glittering spear of ice hit Iriana, piercing straight through her body. Instantly she was covered in a glistening frozen carapace, transfixed like a ghostly statue, her face contorted in a rictus of agony, her clouded eyes staring open as if beseeching the Windeye for help.

Not Taku! Corisand was stunned by such betrayal - then suddenly everything became clear. The attacker was not the Evanesar but Hellorin. He had ambushed her in the guise of her friends, even as she entered the Elsewhere.

Another fusillade of ice spears came hurtling down to form a glacial palisade that surrounded Windeye and Wizard. Corisand felt the cruel cold beating at her, felt the skin on her face tightening and her limbs growing numb, but the outward pain and peril seemed insignificant, overwhelmed by the colossal surge of anger boiling up within. ‘We’ll see about this,’ she growled. Now that she knew her opponent, she could fight. Using her Othersight, she pulled in warm air from outside the chilling barrier of Hellorin’s ice wall and fashioned it into a dome fused with adamantine will, to protect herself and her stricken friend. ‘I know you now, slavemaster,’ she cried out in challenge.

‘Much good will it do you, beast-begotten interloper.’ The Forest Lord’s voice crashed like thunder against her ears. ‘The Fialan is rightfully mine, and I will have it back.’

‘Oh, will you?’ Corisand muttered. Spinning her mirror of Othersight as Taku had taught her, she made a window through the fog and looked upon her foe as he really was.

The images of Taku and Aurora vanished. In their place stood Hellorin, taller than a tree, towering into the cloudy sky above, the crowning antlers a silver shadow above his brow. Quickly, the Windeye wove a net of air and shadow, hurling it at her foe with all her strength. As it flew through the air it expanded to cover the titanic figure, wrapping him in a clinging shroud, finer than cobweb, stronger than adamant. It covered him from head to foot, stifling his missiles of fire and ice.

Hellorin roared with rage as he struggled against his bonds, his face contorted from the strain and his eyes ablaze with hatred. Corisand threw herself into keeping the bonding taut, pitting all her magic against his power. She knew she had little time. Her strength was no match for that of the cunning, ancient Lord of the Forest. Each moment seemed to stretch into hours as she strove to contain him. Pain and exhaustion spasmed through every nerve and muscle, setting her entire body alight as her will was battered over and over by the thrust of Hellorin’s mind. Soon it would crumble, she knew, like the walls of a fortress under siege - yet what could she do? He had forced her into a manoeuvre that was essentially defensive, and she dared not relax that defence for a single instant or her imprisoning spell would crumble and all would be lost. Her initial plan had been to keep tightening her net until the physical and psychic pain forced her enemy to flee, but she had overreached herself. Lacking the strength to overcome him entirely, she was now locked in a deadly stalemate from which she could not escape.

Hellorin knew it. A cruel laugh came from within the concealing web as he increased the pressure on her will still further. Corisand could only look on in horror as the meshes slowly began to fray and unravel, loosening their steely grip. He was almost free . . .

Once the Windeye had bound Hellorin, he could no longer maintain Iriana’s imprisoning carapace. As his concentration wavered and the ice that had held her so remorselessly shattered and fell away, Iriana saw Corisand locked in a desperate battle. Letting her powers sing free within her, she pitched into the fray. Suddenly the land itself rose up against the Phaerie Lord. The ground beneath his feet cracked and crumbled, breaking up into great boulders that she lifted into the air and hurled at him, hammering his tottering form. As she pulled the pressure of his fearsome concentration onto herself, she saw Corisand’s net tighten once more, and increased her assault to keep him off balance. A veritable whirlwind of earth and loose stone, called up at her behest, surrounded him in a lethal fusillade.

Her face set with ire and determination, she clasped the end of her rough wooden staff in a white-knuckle grip and fixed her eyes on her foe with deadly concentration. Then she squared her shoulders, lifted the staff and brought the heel down hard upon the ground. The earth gaped open, a great, dark, jagged maw that engulfed the Forest Lord, and closed over him with an echoing boom.

As Hellorin’s assault was banished, Corisand staggered from the recoil of her own magic. The remnants of her web tangled into a snarl of silvery filaments that melted back into the air. Iriana sagged against her staff, panting, as her storm of earth and boulders thudded to the ground.

The Windeye was looking at her, her eyes round with awe. ‘Is he . . . did you destroy him?’

‘If only I could.’ Iriana abandoned the unequal struggle and sat down abruptly. ‘With luck, however, it should take him a good while to find his way out of my spell. I took him by surprise that time, Corisand. Once you bound him, his concentration was on you, and I managed to get loose from that dreadful freezing spell. He won’t let it happen again.’ She shuddered. ‘Now that’s an experience I don’t want to repeat in a hurry. It bloody hurt.’

Even as they were speaking, the mist was starting to fade and clear. The last tatters swirled away to leave them on the beautiful shores of Taku’s lake, mysterious in the soft evening light. Iriana gasped at the sight. ‘It’s amazing. A whole new perspective. All those extra colours . . . I never guessed it would be so beautiful. No wonder you fell in love with this place, Corisand. You must—’

Out of nowhere, the Evanesar were suddenly there. Iriana’s eyes narrowed. She leapt to her feet, staff in hand, and Corisand acted just in time to stop her flinging another spell at them. ‘Wait, Iriana!’ She seized the Wizard’s hand. ‘It’s not Hellorin this time.’

Looking up at the towering figure of the great ice-serpent, she cried, ‘Taku, we’ve been attacked. Hellorin nearly killed us.’

Where were you?

Though her accusing question remained unspoken aloud, it hung so palpably between them that it might have been written on the air in fire.

‘The Forest Lord had help,’ Taku told her gravely. ‘We were attacked by the Moldan Aerillia, who prevented us from coming to your aid. You did well in battle.’

‘Yes, I suppose you’re feeling very pleased with yourself, Windeye.’ The form of the massive eagle, its wings rippling with a flood of translucent colours, stretched across the sky. ‘But who gave you permission to bring a stranger to this place?’

‘And more to the point, how did you bring her here?’ Taku added, his blue eyes glittering.

‘I had some help.’ Corisand tried to hide her dismay. She had never expected the Evanesar to be displeased by her autonomous actions. Her explanation of how the Cailleach had come to aid her, however, met with little approval.

‘It is forbidden for a Creator to interfere in this place,’ Aurora blazed.

‘It’s forbidden for her to interfere in the mundane world, too,’ the Windeye replied, ‘and she knows there will be a price to pay. But she also knows how much is at stake. The various races of our world all stand poised upon the brink of disaster. If there is any way she can avert that, she feels that she must take the risk.’

Taku, always the more temperate of the pair, was more uneasy than angry. ‘This intervention is unprecedented,’ he said. ‘The Elsewhere is an older place. We were here before the upstart Creator race; we remember when they came. I recall that we were concerned about the scope and depth of their powers, but Denali said, “Leave them be. Their work is in a different dimension from ours, and they do not try to interfere with us. These new worlds they like to build are but pale imitations of our own and, unlike the Moldai, who even now are negotiating to obtain some sort of foothold in one of the new realms, we have no wish to be involved. And think on this: it is well that they are a race of artisans, rather than warriors. These Creators are peaceful beings, and for that we must be profoundly thankful. Were such titanic powers as theirs to be turned to war and violence, the destruction would be incalculable. We must not risk pushing their thoughts in that direction by trying to prevent them from doing what they love. Let them be, I say. While they are preoccupied with their playthings, they can do no harm in the Elsewhere.”’

He sighed. ‘Nevertheless, I think the Cailleach may have sent you at the right time. Hellorin grows bold now. With the help of Aerillia he will take the Fialan, of that I am certain. Once he possesses it, he can conquer both worlds, with disastrous consequences for all of us. He must be stopped.’

Aurora’s colours darkened. ‘We cannot interfere, fixed as we are in the Elsewhere.’ Her piercing gaze transfixed the Wizard and the Windeye. ‘Only those with a foothold in both worlds can wield the Stone.’

‘There is no time to waste,’ Taku said. ‘You must go now, with our blessing. You travelled to the ice mountain through your mirror, Windeye. You know the way.’

‘But how will I . . . Oh, of course.’ Corisand, already in her Othersight, spun and twisted the winds to form her bridge of air. But this time, instead of heading for the glacier, it stretched in the opposite direction, towards the foot of the lake, down the seething falls and rapids as the land fell away to the coast, and eventually, to the sea.

She turned to see Iriana gazing at the shining construct, her eyes and mouth round with awe. ‘Come on.’ She held out a hand to the Wizard. ‘It’s perfectly safe.’

Iriana jolted out of her trance. ‘You made . . . You just-’ she waved and twirled her hands in the air ‘-and there it was.’ She shook herself as though emerging from deep water and turned to the Windeye, her face alight with a devilish grin. ‘By the Light, but I absolutely love this place.’ She took Corisand’s hand and together they stepped out onto the bridge.

‘No matter how much you love the Elsewhere,’ Taku said in warning, ‘never forget for a single instant what a perilous place it is. Enjoy the beauty by all means, but be on your guard at all times. You must be ready to defend yourselves, for Hellorin will most certainly attack again.’

Then Aurora spoke. ‘You have confidence in your abilities, Windeye, to think you can construct a bridge that will carry you so far, but it is not necessary. You are still recovering from your battle with Hellorin, though your energies are regenerating very quickly due to the magic of this place. Nonetheless, why tax your powers when there is no need? I can take you a certain distance myself. The Moldai have their own realm here in the Elsewhere, and for one of my kind to cross its boundaries would be an act of open war. But you are small. You do not come from this world, and your powers will be unfamiliar. I hope you will be able to pass unnoticed where I cannot.’

‘I did not pass unnoticed last time,’ Corisand pointed out.

‘So there’s still a risk,’ Iriana said bluntly. The innate temerity of her race could not help but come to the fore, as did the curiosity. ‘What about the others of your race? Should there not be two more of you? Earth and Fire? Could they not help us? Where do they stand?’

Taku sighed. ‘Alas, even the Evanesar are divided over this business of the Fialan. So far, the others have refused to become involved. Katmai quarrelled with me bitterly over the need to bring you here at all, and Denali remains isolated in her own domain, the Labyrinth of the Mists.’ Love gentled his voice. ‘I hope that one day you may see it. Oh, the beauty! The calm, shining ocean; the miles upon miles of convoluted cliffs and islands twisting and twining back upon one another to form bays and deep inlets; the thousands of slender waterfalls cascading down the escarpments in sprays of silver; the mists glowing softly with ever-changing rainbows. Denali, the oldest, the wisest of us all, withdrew there after the terrible events surrounding the Fialan’s creation. War and discord are too painful for her gentle nature, and so she waits, lost in a waking dream, for the world to change again.’

For a long, sad moment there was silence, then Aurora broke the spell of Taku’s words. ‘Well, unlike Denali, at least we are making an effort to bring that change about. Come, little Windeye, little Wizard. Come with me, and I will take you where you need to go.’

Night had fallen. The form of the eagle melted back into the glimmering swathes of Aurora’s many colours that stretched across the star-scattered sky in streaming curtains of coruscating light; great looping, twisting ropes of rainbow hues that undulated across the firmament like smoke. One of these streams of radiance swirled down to where Corisand and Iriana stood upon the bridge of air, and coiled about them. Strange buzzes, crackles and a sound like distant thunder reverberated through them as they were lifted gently into the sky, and they could feel the tides of energy and power surging through their bodies, linking them to the Evanesar with bonds of magic.

With Taku’s farewells ringing in their ears, they learned what it was like to fly with Aurora.

As they looked down, the world was tinted with shifting, drifting shades: red and purple, gold and green and blue. The lakes and mountains passed beneath them, and they swooped down across the ocean, then turned northward up the coast with its forested inlets, its clusters of tiny offshore islands and the glaciers tracing glittering paths from the mountains to the coast. And all around them, the colours of the world kept shimmering, flowing, changing. They flew high upon wings of wonder over a land of heart-wrenching beauty, the memory of which would remain bright and precious to the ending of their days.

It seemed forever, yet somehow was only an instant, before they found themselves drifting earthwards once again. In the distance, another range of mountains descended like a barrier to the coast, and both of them knew, without being told, that there lay their destination. Aurora set them gently down, both of them breathless and bright-eyed with the wonder of it all. ‘Farewell,’ she said. ‘May good fortune attend you. Remember, the futures of many races, not just your own, hang on what you will do next.’

With that she vanished. The sun lifted its head over the land, turning the mountains to rose, the sea to burnished copper and the sky to gold.

‘Well, thank you for that, Aurora,’ Iriana grumbled. ‘You’ve made me feel so much better.’

Corisand smiled. ‘We’re an unlikely pair to be holding the fates of entire races in our hands.’

‘It’s like the stories we used to read when we were children - the unlikely heroine saves the world,’ Iriana replied. ‘There are times when I can scarcely believe we’re doing this - I keep thinking that I’ll wake up in my bed in Tyrineld, and everything will have been a dream.’ She sighed. ‘I only wish a lot of what happened had been a dream. Losing Esmon and Avithan, not to mention my poor, dear animals. All my life I read those old tales, looking through the eyes of one creature or another, and I longed for all those amazing things to happen to me. But those stories didn’t say enough about the dark side of adventures: the conflict, privation and loss. Or maybe they did, and I was so desperate for something exciting to happen in my life that I just wasn’t paying enough attention.’

‘Well, I don’t know about any old stories,’ Corisand said stoutly. ‘In my childhood I was only a foal among other foals. When the dark things happen, I sometimes wish I had never become the Windeye, with the sheer crushing frustration and responsibility of it all. But then I think about all the wonders I have seen, such as our journey with Aurora; the incredible things I can do, and the friends I’ve made.’ She squeezed Iriana’s hand. ‘Then I know I could never go back to the old way - and do you know what? Neither could you.’

The Wizard’s shoulders straightened. ‘In Tyrineld I was caged and thwarted; smothered by the loving care of well-meaning but misguided folk. And you’re right. You’re absolutely right. No matter what the cost, I couldn’t go back to that either.’ She took a deep breath. ‘So - we’d better go forward.’

She looked at the rugged, rocky coastline stretching far ahead, with the wide river mouths, the tumbled boulders big as houses, the uprooted trees piled haphazardly along the waterline like a giant’s game of jack-straws, the glaciers that dropped into the ocean as precipitous cliffs of solid ice, all the coves and firths that would double the distance they had to travel. ‘My, but this is going to be interesting.’

Corisand shrugged. ‘Well, we’re not going to get there just by looking at it.’ She strode forward. ‘I had better cut myself a staff like yours and—’

‘Wait, wait.’ Iriana tugged at her arm. ‘Maybe there’s a better way.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You remember how you made that bridge of air, back at the lake?’ Iriana spoke quickly, her eyes sparkling with excitement. ‘Well, what about building another one that will take us right up the coast, over all these obstacles?’

Corisand thought for a moment. ‘There would probably have to be a series of smaller bridges - I don’t think my power will stretch all that way in one go - but it should be possible. There’s only one thing that worries me: what happens if Hellorin attacks again while we’re on the bridge? We’d be fearfully exposed and vulnerable up there. And if he forces me to fight, or even just defend myself, it could shatter my concentration. The bridge will disintegrate and we’ll both fall.’

‘Plague on it,’ Iriana said. ‘It was such a good idea. But maybe . . . Wait a minute, let me think.’ She turned and stood looking out to sea, while Corisand fidgeted impatiently, anxious to be gone.

Then: ‘I know!’ the Wizard shouted. She turned back, grinning with excitement and talking very fast. ‘Why does it have to be a bridge at all? You could make a boat, couldn’t you? I read in my studies at the Academy that the Old Magic cannot cross water, so we’d even be safe from Hellorin ...’ Her words ran down into silence as she saw the Windeye’s face. ‘What’s wrong, Corisand? Why are you looking at me as if I’ve gone mad?’

‘What’s a boat?’

Iriana blinked. ‘What do you mean, what’s a boat? They float, on the water. They can be big or small and people travel on them. You must know—’

‘I grew up as a horse, in a forest, in the mountains far inland,’ the Windeye pointed out. ‘How the bloody blazes am I supposed to know what a boat is?’

The Wizard burst out laughing. ‘I never thought of that,’ she confessed. ‘It already feels as if I’ve known you forever. It seems incredible that our backgrounds should be so different - and yet before we came here to the Elsewhere, I only knew you in the form of a horse.’

‘Trust me - my background is different from anyone you’ll ever meet.’ Corisand joined in the laughter. ‘Now, suppose you explain to me exactly what this boat thing is?’

It took them a while to work it out between them. Iriana, concentrating hard, put the image of a little single-masted sailing boat into the Windeye’s mind, and Corisand worked and manipulated the fresh sea breeze to duplicate the design. When it was done, it looked beautiful, glistening like spun silver and riding lightly on the water like a swan.

Nevertheless . . . ‘It’s just as well the thing is made from air and magic, and not real wood,’ the Wizard said, surveying it critically, ‘or it would never float.’

‘So long as my magic holds it together, it should be all right.’ Corisand sounded doubtful. ‘Maybe we’d better try to keep close to the shore, just in case.’

‘Good plan. Well, shall we?’ Iriana bowed and gestured to the Windeye. ‘After you.’

‘No, after you.’

‘Let’s go together.’