The Diamond Isle

24

An observer could have mistaken them for a tableau of wax mannequins.

Then Serrah said, ‘What the hell’s going on, Reeth? Who are these people?’

Caldason said nothing.

The old man took a hesitant step forward, a look of consternation on his face. ‘Reeth? Can it be?’

Caldason slowly rose, ignoring the girl he’d been pinning down. She scuttled away, scooping up her knife, and dashed to the old man. Blueberry-eyed and her hair bedraggled, she stood defiantly at his side, blade at the ready. She was scrawny and dirty, and dressed in brown rags.

The old man was no better outfitted, in tattered, rough-woven cloth. He was liver-spotted, and his beard was white. ‘Reeth?’ he repeated. ‘Is that really you?’

‘Don’t you recognise me?’ Caldason whispered, finding his voice at last.

The old man gently shed the girl’s protective arm and moved into the light.

His eyes were milky and disfigured, and unmistakably blind.

‘My gods,’ Kutch let out.

‘There are three of them,’ the girl explained, glaring at the outsiders. She addressed the old man exclusively, as though the others couldn’t hear or understand. Her voice had a surprising purity, despite its harsh tone.

‘Thank you,’ he responded. To the rest, he added, ‘You must excuse Wendah; it’s been a very long time since either of us knew company.’ He took another few paces until he stopped by Caldason’s outstretched hand. ‘May I?’ he asked. Taking the Qalochian’s silence as consent, he reached up and touched Caldason’s face, his fingers gently tracing its contours. ‘It is you. I thought…I feared you were dead.’ He threw his arms around him.

Awkward in the embrace, Caldason replied, ‘And I was never sure you actually existed.’

The old man backed off, his ruined eyes moist. ‘Being muddled about the past, not remembering, that’s only to be expected, given what you’ve been through.’

‘One thing I do seem to know is that you looked exactly the same. You haven’t aged a day. What are you doing here? And what happened to your sight?’

‘We have much to discuss, Reeth. There’s a great deal to be explained, and your friends, these people with you, they must be confused.’

‘You bet,’ Serrah assured him. ‘This particular friend wants to know what the hell you two are talking about. Starting with where do you and Reeth know each other from?’

‘From my dreams,’ Caldason told her.

‘Your what?’

Kutch and the girl looked no less taken aback.

‘As I said,’ the old man intervened, ‘there’s a lot to be explained. And I’ve been expecting someone to come, looking for answers.’

‘You have?’ Serrah said. ‘Why?’

‘For the last couple of years there have been disturbances in the essence powering the Clepsydra, and in the device itself. In recent months it’s grown much stronger. Something had to happen.’

‘Is there someplace we can discuss this?’ she asked. ‘Somewhere out of these tunnels?’

‘Of course.’ He addressed the girl. ‘It’s all right, Wendah.’ His hand unerringly found the blade she held, and gently turned it aside. ‘We must offer our guests such hospitality as we can.’ After a second’s hesitation, she put the knife away. To them all, the old man said, ‘Come. It’s not far.’

He set out, lightly clasping the girl’s shoulder. She glanced back, scowling at them, and it seemed to Kutch that she paid particular attention to him.

The procession negotiated a series of tunnels, with attendant sets of perplexing bends and twists, then they entered a low-roofed grotto. Within, a large, cleverly placed flat stone concealed the entrance to a hollow. They squeezed inside.

The cave was ample in size and lit by wax and oil. Sufficiently so that Caldason, Serrah and Kutch disabled their glamour orbs. What the light showed was an ordered jumble. Mismatched bedding, and crates used as furniture. Crab shells for dishes, and chipped pots. A crudely made bow, propped in one corner, along with a bundle of coarse arrows. Driftwood and cast-offs, adapted to the necessities of survival.

‘Our abode,’ the old man announced, ‘such as it is. Try to make yourselves comfortable.’

‘You live here?’ Kutch exclaimed.

‘If you can call it living.’ The old man seemed breathless. He put a hand to his brow and looked pained.

Serrah was concerned. ‘What’s wrong? Can we do anything?’

‘Thank you, no. I’m constantly…in discomfort.’

The girl, still eyeing their visitors suspiciously, helped him to a chunk of rock vaguely resembling a throne. He sank onto the makeshift seat with a relieved sigh.

She took a cracked cup and fetched some water from a nearby cask. Then she squatted beside him, watchful.

‘Do take your ease,’ the old man repeated. He drank, his hands trembling slightly.

Kutch and Serrah perched amongst the clutter. Caldason sat on a barrel.

The old man said, ‘I never thought to-’ He stopped himself, smiling thinly. ‘I was about to say I never thought I’d see you again, Reeth. Not in this world. It seems I was right about that.’ A fleeting reverie occupied his face. ‘I’m a poor host,’ he decided. ‘You must think me ignorant for not even asking your friends’ names.’

‘No,’ Caldason replied. ‘Nobody’s slighted. This is Serrah Ardacris; and our friend, Kutch Pirathon.’

The ‘our’ told the old man all he needed to know about Reeth and Serrah’s relationship. ‘Wendah,’ he introduced, squeezing the girl’s arm, ‘friend and dependable companion. She acts as my eyes, in a very real way. Been with me here since she was a child.’

‘How did that come about?’ Serrah wondered.

‘She was the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Most vessels avoid this place; many of those that don’t, come to grief. Everything you see here was salvaged from wrecks.

‘Do you remember my name, Reeth?’ he asked abruptly.

The Qalochian was caught off-balance. He shook his head, discomfited.

‘Praltor Mahaganis,’ the old man supplied. ‘Does that mean anything to you?’

‘No. Or rather…perhaps. I don’t know. Sorry.’

‘Don’t worry about it now. It’ll come.’

‘How do you survive in this place?’ Serrah said.

‘We have rainfall for drinking water, much of the surface vegetation’s edible, if bland, and we catch fish. Occasionally we dine on fowl. Wendah’s pretty handy with bow and slingshot, though not in your league, Reeth. And there’s flotsam and jetsam to pick over. But tell me about yourselves. How do you come to be here?’

‘The Source,’ she told him.

‘Ah.’ If the answer surprised him in any way, there was no sign. ‘Why do you seek it?’

‘It’s possibly our only hope. How much do you know about what’s happening in the outside world?’

‘Very little. We’ve been here a long time.’

‘The Resistance has given up inciting revolution against the empires,’ she recapped, ‘and tried to establish a dissident state. But the scheme was betrayed and it’s near to collapsing.’

‘There’s an organised resistance?’

‘Exactly how long have you been here?’

‘Most of Reeth’s adult life.’

‘How did you come to this?’ Caldason asked, indicating their squalid surroundings.

‘You don’t know what you are, do you?’ the old man countered. ‘Of course you don’t; we’d all be aware of it if you did.’

Caldason was baffled. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

The old man waved the question aside. ‘What do you remember? Of your days with me, that is.’

‘It’s not so much memories as…dreams of that time. You were training me in the martial and mental skills I’d need. Equipping me to survive. I owe you my life.’

‘It was the least I could do.’

‘How so?’

‘I’m in your debt.’

‘You’ve got it wrong. I’m in yours.’

‘Perhaps you wouldn’t feel that way if you knew the truth.’

‘What truth?’ Serrah interrupted tetchily. ‘You hint at revelations, but-’

‘Reeth’s people were massacred by mine,’ Mahaganis declared bluntly. ‘I think that qualifies as a debt, don’t you?’

No one spoke, until Caldason recovered his disbelieving tongue. ‘You’ve been stuck here too long,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s given you delusions.’

‘It’s not a fantasy, Reeth, and there’s no pleasant way of putting it: my blood tried to exterminate yours. I would have told you long since, except events tore us apart.’

The colour in Caldason’s face was sapped. ‘If what you say is true, that means you’re…’

‘A paladin,’ Serrah finished for him.

Mahaganis nodded. ‘I was born to the clans. And into their leadership ranks, moreover.’

Caldason was on his feet, his hand going to his sword hilt. Wendah put herself between him and the old man, whipping out her knife. Then Serrah was there, clutching Caldason’s wrist and trying to calm him.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she demanded.

He looked through her, and she feared he was about to go into a berserk-in which case none of them stood a chance.

Kutch joined in and did his best to placate the Qalochian. Slowly, they got through.

‘The Reeth I know doesn’t pick fights with blind men,’ Serrah reminded him, ‘or with girls.’ She eyed Wendah, who maintained her defensive stance.

‘All right,’ Caldason said, pulling himself together. ‘It’s all right.’

They steered him back to his seat on the barrel. The girl backed off.

‘I don’t blame you, Reeth,’ Mahaganis told him. ‘I deserve your wrath, on behalf of my kin.’

Caldason raised his head. ‘None of this makes sense.’

‘I know,’ the old man replied, not unkindly. ‘So consider the facts.’ He paused, gathering his thoughts. ‘Hard as it is to believe these days, the clans were once honourable. They prided themselves on defending the weak against the rapacious. But like so many others in this world, they fell into corrupt ways.’

‘And you didn’t.’

‘I stood against their growing treachery, their cruelty. My own people, mind you. My own people.’ Bitterness rose like bile, and as quickly abated. ‘What they did to your tribe, and what they wanted to do to you, was the last straw. I felt morally bound to help you escape that fate. In return, they put me here.’

‘This was your punishment? Exile?’

‘Did you think I came to this island willingly?’

‘Why didn’t they just kill you?’ Kutch asked, agog.

‘To make me suffer the more for my defiance. That and a certain awe for my rank. The clans tend to dote on their leadership.’

‘Things have changed a bit in that respect,’ Serrah dryly informed him.

‘No amount of depravity on their part would surprise me,’ Mahaganis stated soberly. ‘Anyhow, I was dislodged, my faction purged. After I aided Reeth, they finally caught up with me, which is how I came to be here, nurse-maiding an orphaned child and the Source.’

‘So it does exist.’

He wore a pained expression. ‘Oh, yes.’

‘Where is it?’ Caldason demanded, rising again. ‘ What is it?’

The old man lifted a mollifying hand. ‘Your patience still needs work, Reeth. It was always a virtue that eluded you.’

‘The Source could be decisive in what’s going on out there, Praltor. It could be the salvation of a lot of people, me included.’

‘It could also be your damnation.’

‘At least don’t deny us that choice.’

‘But it doesn’t just affect you, does it? The repercussions could be enormous. Its power is…beyond words. Just being near it can be destructive.’

‘Neither of you seem to have suffered too much by it.’

‘Really? All right then, Reeth; if you want it so badly, take it.’

‘Where is it?’ Serrah asked. ‘How do we find it?’

Kutch had been watching silently. He said, ‘I know.’

‘You do?’

‘I can feel it.’ He nodded at the old man. ‘It’s him.’

Caldason stared. ‘What?’

‘The boy’s very perceptive,’ Mahaganis noted approvingly.

‘Are you all going to start talking gibberish again?’ Serrah wanted to know. ‘Because if you are…’

‘Kutch here asked why my enemies in the clans didn’t simply kill me and have done with it,’ Mahaganis reminded them. ‘It was partly because of my station, but that paints far too benevolent a picture of them. They actually spared my life in order to torment me further.’

‘What have your sufferings to do with the Source?’

‘What do you suppose the Source to be, Reeth? A store of knowledge, yes; but what about its form? A grimoire, perhaps? A whole library? Hoards of papyrus, or clay tablets? Over the eons since its accumulation by the Founders it may well have been all those things. But it’s something much more nebulous than that. Essentially, the Source is an occult system, a concept. And I’ve come to believe it’s something much more than that.’

‘Such as?’

‘The Source is some kind of embodiment of magic. I think it’s…sentient.’

‘That’s a hell of a conclusion to draw,’ Serrah responded. ‘What’s your evidence?’

‘Tell them what they did to you,’ Wendah blurted out.

Everyone was thrown for a second by the usually silent girl’s sudden outburst. Then Mahaganis spoke.

‘As punishment for aiding Reeth,’ he said, ‘and for turning my back on the paladins, they infused the Source here.’ He laid a finger against his temple. ‘In my mind.’

‘And they put out his eyes with fire,’ Wendah added, ‘to make his torment worse.’

‘That was a masterful touch of sadism,’ the old man remarked, almost admiringly. ‘It left me with nowhere to look but inward. So all I glimpse, permanently, is the quintessence of Founder evil; and the squirming, putrid life force in which it’s suspended. You ask me for evidence. I have the testimony of my own, unblinking inner eye. For all practical purposes I am the Source.’

Another silence, broken this time by Serrah. ‘We have people back on the island who can help you,’ she promised. ‘Magicians, scholars-’

He shook his head. ‘The clans couldn’t master it, for all their resources, and they would dearly have loved to. Respect to your sorcerers, but what chance would they have?’

‘If it’s so powerful,’ Kutch asked, ‘why did the Founders leave the Source to be discovered? Why didn’t they destroy it, or at least hide it better?’

‘Perhaps whatever catastrophe overtook them was too swift. But I suspect the real reason is because even the Founders couldn’t better it. My feeling is that it can’t be understood and, as long as magic fuels it, it can’t be destroyed.’

‘That’s a cheerful prospect,’ Serrah returned mordantly.

‘There’s nothing joyous about any of it,’ Mahaganis informed her. ‘Unless you count the fact that the magic locked in my head has kept me going far beyond my natural lifespan. But that can be a mixed blessing, can’t it, Reeth?’

Caldason ignored that, and posed a question of his own. You still haven’t told me why the clans targeted my tribe for butchery.’

‘Your kin were irrelevant, except insofar as they might have protected you. Or at least they were of no consequence to the client who commissioned the slaughter. You were the only real target.’

‘Why? And who-’

‘There are some things you’re ready to hear, others not.’ He was massaging his forehead. ‘We’ve spoken enough about all this for the moment.’

‘Have we? Have we really? I’m not a child anymore, Mahaganis. I don’t need to be sheltered and lied to.’

‘Not now, Reeth. I don’t feel too good.’

‘To hell with that. Answer me.’

‘Leave him alone!’ Wendah demanded. ‘Can’t you see he’s ill?’

‘Would it hurt him that much to tell me?’ Caldason’s temper was rising.

Serrah caught his arm. ‘What are you going to do, Reeth, beat it out of him?’

Caldason sighed. He regarded the frail old man and the emaciated girl at his side.

‘No,’ he said. ‘What we’re going to do is get you two out of here.’