Faces of Deception

CHAPTER 18

By the time they found their way out of the Dweller's warren, Atreus's wounds ached as terribly as his heart. His whole flank was sore and swollen, and every step sent a fresh rush of agony surging through his joints. He did not care, nor did he make any concession to his injuries, pushing his body through its torment as only a man raised by ogres could. The question in his mind and Seema's was the same: had Rishi planned Yago's death?

They knew the answer as soon as they climbed out of the tunnel. Save for a faint aura of radiance still lingering over the Pool of Gems, the alabaster palace was as dark as a crypt. Even from the edge of the vast chamber, they could see that the stairs into the temple were dry, as was the hallway leading to the exit Rishi had stolen the Fountain of Infinite Grace, and no doubt everything else on the altar as well.

"I'll kill him!"

"You mustn't say such things, not even for what Rishi has done," Seema told him in a voice as sad as it was gentle. "Your anger will destroy you as surely as his greed has destroyed him."

"It's Yago that his greed destroyed," Atreus countered. His hand ached from clutching the knife so hard. "And Langdarma."

"I do not see how that makes him different from you. Had you awakened ugly tomorrow, would you have left the cup in its place?"

Atreus answered in a bitter voice, "Now I'll never know, will I?"

He set off toward the exit, not looking at Seema. She was at least half right The results for Langdarma would have been the same whether Rishi stole the cup or he did. Perhaps it was a blessing to have escaped the temptation. Had he yielded, Atreus had no illusions about how he would have felt about himself.

Atreus reached the exit and stepped out onto the gallery, then heard Seema gasp as she followed him through the door. The reflecting pool below had turned as brown as the Dweller's blood, and the meadow beside it had faded to the dead gold of parched grass. Even the vast valley of Langdarma itself was fading from emerald to amber.

At the edge of the meadow stood the milky-winged figure of the Sannyasi, weeping tears of silver. Atreus's rage turned instantly to remorse. Had Seema not been standing behind him, he would have retreated into the palace and gone to lose himself in the Dweller's warren.

The Sannyasi's silver eyes rose and lingered on him, looking less angry than shocked. Atreus could not bring himself to move or speak. It required all his strength simply not to look away.

After a time, Seema took Atreus's hand and led him down the stairs. "Have no fear. The Sannyasi would never harm us, no matter what we have done."

This seemed a small consolation to Atreus, whose own guilt was eating away at his insides. He would almost rather have been stricken dead on the spot, but there was still the matter of Rishi to deal with.

The Sannyasi watched them descend the stairs and cross the meadow, then turned his silver gaze on Seema alone.

"You brought this man here?"

Seema stared at the ground and said, "Him, and his friends Rishi and Yago."

Something inside the Sannyasi appeared to collapse. His wings drooped, he seemed suddenly smaller, and his eyes grew old.

Seema continued, "There was a fight. The Dweller killed Yago. Rishi stole the cup of shining waters and probably six other sacred items as well."

The Sannyasi only nodded and turned to look out over the valley. He remained silent for a long time, then spoke without looking at Seema.

"You have done the unpardonable. Langdarma will suffer terribly for it. I doubt your healing magic will return."

Seema squeezed her eyes shut, but could not quite keep the tears from flowing down her cheeks. "I understand," she managed to say.

"There is more." The Sannyasi still did not look at her as he said, "I will go and organize a search for this Rishi and the Seven Sacred Gifts. If they are not recovered, I fear you must leave Langdarma and never return."

Seema started to nod, but this was more than Atreus could bear.

"You're not being fair," he said. "Seema isn't to blame. I forced her-"

"That is not so," interrupted Seema. She grasped Atreus's arm. "My reasons for bringing you here were as selfish as yours for wanting to come. To claim otherwise is to cheapen what there was between us."

The word "was" hit Atreus like a hammer. Though he had already guessed the price of his betrayal, this was the first time Seema had confirmed the loss.

The Sannyasi studied Atreus for a moment and said, "I am sorry. This pain I cannot bear for you."

"And what of his wounds?" Seema gestured at Atreus's mangled side. "Will you heal them?"

The Sannyasi glanced down at Atreus's knife, still brown and crusted with the Dweller's blood. "The wounds will heal in time, but for now it is better to let pain temper his violent heart."

"Temper my violent heart?" Atreus's anger returned in a flood. "You don't know violence until you've traveled with Rishi Saubhari. He's a murdering thief who won't hesitate to kill everyone you send after him. Help me catch him, and you'll save a dozen lives."

"And take one." The Sannyasi's eyes grew stern and he continued, "You are as much a killer as your friend, and I will not help in your wickedness. To slay a man over the shining waters would be an evil beyond redemption. It would draw a cloak of darkness over Langdarma so black that the Serene Ones would never find us again."

The Sannyasi paused to calm himself, then spread his wings and turned toward the edge of the meadow.

"You will not defy me in this."

He stepped off the cliff and dropped into the valley. A moment later his silver wake was curving around the Turquoise Cliffs into the basin where Seema lived.

As soon as the gleaming trail had faded from the sky, Atreus turned to Seema and said, "I have no right to ask you for anything, and I'm not asking for myself, but your Sannyasi doesn't know Rishi."

"He knows you."

Seema's eyes dropped to the knife in Atreus's hand.

Atreus thrust the weapon into his belt. "You must understand what I'm saying. Rishi has a plan… just like he did when he tricked the Dweller into attacking Yago. He wouldn't have risked that without knowing that he could escape me. If he can escape me, no one from Langdarma is going to stop him. He'll kill anyone who tries."

Seema remained silent for several moments, then looked away. "I can't defy the Sannyasi," she said. "Not in this."

"You'd rather let Rishi steal the cup?"

"Than let you kill him over it? Yes."

Seema stepped back, met Atreus's gaze, and shook her head.

"You are a good man, Atreus, but a weak one," she said

"You are no match for your passions, and if I help you again, you will only end up killing Rishi or stealing the cup for yourself… or both, which would be as bad for you as for Langdarma."

"I am also a man of my word," said Atreus. "I swear on my life-no, on Yago's memory-I swear to return the cup."

Seema glanced out over the browning valley and considered his words for a long time, then finally pointed to the knife in his belt. "What of Rishi?"

Atreus closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, letting go of his anger, or trying to. Certainly, Yago would have expected a fellow Shield-breaker to avenge his death, and in his heart Atreus longed to do his friend this honor. But he could see for himself the harm that killing had already brought to Langdarma, and he knew that the Sannyasi had not been exaggerating when he claimed that Rishi's death would destroy it forever. For now, at least, Atreus would have to put aside the ogre part of his nature.

"I doubt I can ever forgive what Rishi has done." Atreus opened his eyes again and held out the knife. "But," he continued, "I think I can find the strength not kill him."

"Good. You will be a happier man for it." Seema took the knife, then said, "I remember Rishi talking about the ways to leave Langdarma. If he and Yago investigated this as carefully as he claimed, he will know he can escape only by the Roaring Way." "The Roaring Way?"

"The great gorge at the end of Langdarma," Seema said as she turned and pointed toward the haze-shrouded cliffs at the far end of the valley. "It is the only route the Sannyasi will not block. There is no return, and no one knows where it goes, so no man has ever been brave enough to enter it" "Then that's exactly what Rishi will try," Atreus agreed.

Seema glanced up at the afternoon's graying sky. "Let us go." She started across the meadow, then added, "Even Rishi will not run the gorge in the dark. If we hurry, we can be there waiting at dawn."

Seema led the way back along the ledge and through the cave, then they spent the rest of the day descending a long, steep trail into the main valley below. By the time they reached a tiny hamlet on the river, dusk was already falling over the little shanties perched on the shore. Even at this late hour, the townspeople were gathered in the village circle, murmuring in their strange language and lamenting the brown tide sweeping their valley.

As soon as Seema heard their angry voices, she took Atreus's hand and circled around the outskirts of the village. On the other side, they found a dozen flat-bottomed boats beached on the muddy shore, half hidden beneath a copse of drooping willow trees. She selected a pair of huge oars from an assortment leaning against a low-hanging limb, slipped the nearest boat into the water, and quietly guided them into the current.

The river was one of those flat giants that swept along spinning off huge eddies and churning up water-heads the size of elephants, and it was not long before the swift current had carried Seema and Atreus hundreds of paces downstream.

Once they were safely beyond earshot of the village, Atreus asked, "Isn't stealing frowned on in Langdarma?"

Seema shrugged. "Our need is great," she said, "and I do not think the villagers would have been very kind to you had we asked."

"I wouldn't have expected them to be."

Atreus glanced around at the deepening gloom. Already the light had grown so dim that the trees along shore were mere silhouettes. With no moon to brighten the sky, night would bring darkness as black as a cave. "How are we going to see?"

"With our ears," Seema answered. "But now you must tend your wounds and rest. Whatever tomorrow brings, you will need all the strength you can gather."

Atreus washed his mangled flank, pitching the gems from his wounds into the water, but rest proved difficult. As quiet as the river was, it produced an alarming array of gurgles and bubbles. He spent the entire night staring into the inky darkness, expecting to be overturned at any moment by some unseen log or sandbar. Once they actually struck the shore, but the broad-beamed boat was as steady as a barge and simply spun off, then hung idle in an eddy until Seema could collect her bearings. The few rocks they encountered came almost as a relief, as the stones caused such a loud rushing that it was easy to steer around them.

After many hours of tense darkness, the river seemed to grow slow and quiet Atreus began to feel a soft, almost imperceptible thunder in the pit of his stomach, and Seema started to row. When he offered to take her place, she only laughed and said she would rather trust her life to her own ears.

The subtle rumbling built to an audible roar, and soon the roar started to reverberate inside Atreus's chest. A series of rhythmic booms echoed up the river, the sound of huge waves hurling themselves one after another against the granite walls of the Roaring Gorge. He could almost feel the river gathering itself beneath him, filling him with the water's mad energy. He imagined being drawn down the canyon and sucked into the crashing cataracts in utter darkness, being hurled against an unseen cliff and splashing into the black water amidst the splinters of their boat, being swept to a watery grave in the unexplored vastness beyond.

Oblivious to Atreus's growing concern, Seema merely continued to row. When the current finally began to draw them onward again, she abruptly changed directions and worked madly to maneuver upstream into the still shelter of a shore eddy.

"Now we wait," she said. "Sleep, and I will watch for the dawn."

"Sleep may be difficult," Atreus said, settling down in the bow of the boat. "This isn't the quietest place in Langdarma, and I've got a lot on my mind."

But the pulsing crash of the Roaring Way proved surprisingly soothing. Atreus soon fell into a deep, rejuvenating sleep, and it seemed only moments later when Seema began to shake him, one hand covering his mouth to keep him from crying out.

"Wake up," she whispered. "Rishi is coming."

Atreus opened his eyes and found himself staring up into a huge willow tree, its drooping boughs silhouetted against the dim gray sky. Beyond the stern of the boat, less than a thousand yards downriver, loomed the soaring black throat of the Roaring Way. It was a narrow crashing slot of froth and foam, cut straight down the face of the towering granite cliff that shielded Langdarma from the unknown wilderness.

Seema was looking in the opposite direction, her gaze fixed on something well upriver. Atreus sat up and turned, then hissed in anguish as he tore open a dozen scabs. His flank was instantly coated in ooze, and his whole body felt achy and hot. Daggers of pain lanced outward from his swollen hip, shooting down his leg into his foot and up under his ribs as high as his shoulder.

Seema frowned and said, "Atreus, you are not up to this."

"I'll be fine," he groaned. "I'm a lot bigger than he is."

Seema looked doubtful, and said, "Getting killed for the Seven Gifts would be as bad as doing the killing."

"That's not going to happen." Atreus reached into his cloak for the vial of shining waters, which was still swaddled in its protective rags and said, "As I recall, this can be almost as good as a healing spell."

"What of your quest?" Seema asked. "I doubt an empty vial will please your goddess."

"Don't let it trouble you," Atreus replied, then looked across the gray waters to the center of the river, where a lone boatman, completely oblivious to his hidden audience, was gazing into the throat of the Roaring Way. "I know where to get a refill."

Atreus pulled the vial from its protective swaddling, and his heart sank. The water within looked no different from that in the river, save perhaps that it was a little clearer.

Seema touched his arm. "Atreus, I am so sorry."

Atreus shrugged, forcing himself to swallow his disappointment. "It looks like Rishi was right after all." He uncorked the vial and dumped the water into the river, then looked toward the Mar's boat and said, "I guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

Seema studied him warily, making no move to take the oars. "Do what?" she asked.

Atreus winced inwardly, but tried not to show his disappointment. She had every reason to be suspicious.

"Well, I won't be needing this for it." Atreus tossed the vial into the river, motioned at the oars, and said, "Now, will you start rowing or do I have to do everything myself?"

Seema smiled, took up the oars, and rowed out of their hiding place. Rishi was so intent on the Roaring Way that he did not notice them until their boat left the shore eddy, and even then he was so astonished that he wasted many valuable seconds standing frozen at his oars. Seema nosed into the main flow and began to row across the current, moving them into a perfect position to cut the Mar off downstream. Rishi began to row madly, aiming his prow at their midsection.

"He's going to ram us!" Atreus said.

"He is going to try," Seema sneered. "Stay in front and be ready. Do not worry about me or the boat."

Atreus crouched on his haunches, bracing himself to jump. Though Rishi was rowing like a galley slave, it seemed to take the Mar's boat forever to close the distance. Atreus glanced downstream. The Roaring Way was less than seven hundred paces distant, its dark throat growing wider and more ferocious-looking every moment. Whether there would be enough time to recover the fountain was anyone's guess. The nearer they drew to the canyon, the faster the current seemed to flow.

Atreus looked back to find the Mar's boat almost upon them, its sharp prow aimed just behind Seema's oarlocks. He stood, gathering himself for a long leap.

"Wait," Seema said.

She reversed her downstream oar and began to row in two different directions at once. The craft pivoted on its center, executing a graceful pirouette that brought it alongside Rishi's boat so close that Atreus simply stepped across into the bow.

The Mar's eyes grew wide. He dropped his oars and reached for something behind him. Atreus sprang toward the middle of the boat and cursed when his sore hip buckled and left him lurching into the oars. Rishi came up with a hatchet in one hand and the Fountain of Infinite Grace in the other.

"Put the hatchet down!" Atreus demanded, sinking into a defensive stance, ready to dodge or block. "The cup, too. I won't hurt you."

Rishi looked doubtful. "Indeed," the Mar said. "You will only deprive me of all I have worked so hard for."

The Mar raised the hatchet as though to attack, then turned and leaped into the stern of Seema's boat as it passed by. Atreus scrambled after him, but by the time he had clambered past the rowing thwart, Seema's craft was several paces upstream. He grabbed the oars and struggled to maneuver after her but could not reverse the boat's momentum quickly enough to prevent the distance from opening even farther. Seema spun her boat around to meet him, but Rishi was on her in an instant, his hatchet poised to strike if she closed the distance.

Atreus's boat began to tremble with the crash of the Roaring Way. He looked back to find the gorge less than four hundred paces away, its craggy mouth looming dark and wide. The current was picking up speed even faster than he had feared.

"You are as stubborn as a water buffalo!" Rishi called. He hefted the platinum cup in his hand. "But there is no reason we cannot strike a bargain. I will give you the fountain, and you will give me everything else."

"What about Seema?" Atreus asked. He glanced down into the back of his boat and saw the other six Sacred Gifts lying among the Mar's stolen supplies. "She must not come to any harm."

"Do not worry about me," she called.

"You said there could be no killing over the Sacred Gifts," Atreus replied. He picked up the jade vase and displayed it, praying that Seema would understand he was trying to show her where the other gifts were. "I suppose that applies to you as well."

Seema arched her brow. "I suppose it does," she said.

Rishi smiled in relief and said, "Good."

The Mar nodded to Seema and as she maneuvered their boat toward Atreus's, Rishi called, "I cannot say how pleased I am to discover that you are a reasonable man who does not hold grudges for what could not be helped."

"If you're talking about Yago, thank Seema."

The effort of rowing against the current made Atreus weak and feverish, but he did not slacken his pace. He could feel the power of the Roaring Way coursing through the boat, a constant reminder that every second was carrying them all that much closer to the canyon of no return.

"She made me promise not to kill you," Atreus added.

Rishi's smug smile vanished. "How unfortunate, then," he said, "that we will not be traveling together."

Seema drew her boat up alongside, and Atreus said, "Just leave the cup with Seema and come over. Everything's here."

"I am begging your pardon, good sir, but I fear that would be most foolish of me." Rishi backed toward the stern of his boat. "I will stay in my boat while you come over here, and then when I am safe-"

"Now!"

As Atreus spoke, he raised his oar out of the water and swung it into Rishi's arm. The hatchet fell free and clattered into the bottom of the boat, and Seema hurled herself from between the oarlocks, lunging for the fountain in Rishi's hand.

The Mar pivoted away, at once drawing the cup out of reach and cuffing her behind the ear. Seema did not even have a chance to cry out; she simply flew over the side and splashed into the water.

Atreus dropped his oars and kneeled, grabbing a handful of long hair and pulling her over to his boat.

"Do not worry about me," Seema sputtered, grabbing hold of the boat. She thrust a hand behind her, where Rishi's boat was beginning to drift away. The Mar himself was stooping down in the bottom of the craft, no doubt retrieving his dropped hatchet. "The cup… we are almost too late…"

Atreus glanced downstream and saw the gorge rushing up fast. He could not even guess at the remaining distance. There was nothing ahead but a short stretch of shore eddy and the dark abyss of the granite canyon. Leaving Seema to pull herself aboard, he gathered his feet beneath him and hurled himself across the growing distance between the two boats.

He was still in the air when Rishi came up with the hatchet.

Atreus raised both arms, blocking with one and reaching for the Fountain of Infinite Grace with the other. His hand closed around the cup, but he was sore and feverish and too slow to stop the hatchet. The blade arced over his arm and bit into his back. He bellowed and lashed out, catching Rishi in the chest and sending him tumbling; only then did Atreus realize that he had crashed down on the side of the boat. He was hanging half in the river and half out, huffing like an exhausted carp and clutching the fountain in one bloody hand.

Rishi appeared in the stern, sitting up and trying to shake his head clear. Atreus heaved himself aboard, nearly capsizing the boat, and turned to Seema. She was standing at the oars, nosing her craft out of the current into the last little section of shore eddy. He could feel the thunder of the Roaring Way reverberating behind him, filling his body with the mad energy of wild water and the unknown beyond.

Seema yelled something he lost in the thunder and waved for him to jump, but Rishi hurled himself out of the back of the boat. Atreus brought his arm around underhand and sent the platinum chalice arcing toward Seema's boat.

Rishi screamed madly and raised his hatchet. Atreus spun on his aching sore leg and glimpsed the fountain trailing silver water as it dropped into Seema's boat, then brought a foot up for a stomp kick. Rishi flung himself into the air, stretching for Atreus's head. Atreus thrust out his leg and planted his heel square in the Mar's chest. The hatchet flew one way, Rishi the other, and they both disappeared into the river.

Atreus felt the first gentle cataracts rocking the boat. He dropped into the bottom, leaned over the side, and saw Rishi flailing about in the water. He caught the Mar by the shoulder and hauled him aboard, then glanced down the canyon. There was nothing ahead now but walls of white thundering water and the dark, looming gorge.

Atreus shoved Rishi toward the oars and glanced upstream. Seema was standing in her own boat, safe in the calm waters of the shore eddy, looking toward him holding the Fountain of Infinite Grace. She extended her arm and inverted the cup, pouring its silver waters into the river. Atreus's boat passed into the mouth of the gorge and the canyon wall loomed up beside him. It was a dark, craggy thing soaring up to the ice-blue sky itself, and Seema vanished from sight.

There was no time to wave.