The Dragonstone

CHAPTER 49

Alos swung the Brise southeastward, quartering the prevailing winds off the starboard stern, saying, "Sarain: it's across the Avagon, 'tween Chabba and Hum. Just keep her headed southeasterly and we'll strike land sooner or later." And then he headed back to bed, under his breath grumbling, "The next bedamned seaport we come to, someone needs to get some bedamned charts so that someone can properly navigate and reckon, for who knows how far the bedamned coast of Sarain is and who knows where along the bedamned shores we'll make landfall and…"

The next days saw the ship heading southeasterly, at times running before a spanking breeze, at other times drifting slowly, nearly becalmed. And though the air was at times capricious, for the most part the weather held fair, but for a running three days of rain.

Yet in spite of the wind or its lack, in spite of the rain or not, now and again throughout the day Delon would sing to Ferai, and she would listen raptly, while in the stern Alos would smile and tap out a rhythmic beat.

And all along the course, especially at the change of shifts, in the twilight Arin and the others continued to debate the merits of following after a fortune-teller's card, debating as well what they might find at journey's end:

"Perhaps the labyrinth is inside the temple," suggested Egil, "rather than without. Perhaps that's where the confusing journey Old Nom spoke of is, perhaps that's where it both begins and ends."

Aiko blew out a long puff of air, and at a cocked eyebrow from Arin, the Ryodoan said, "Perhaps the confusing maze is in the very religion itself, and one must escape it altogether to be free."

"You mean leave the temple?" asked Ferret.

Aiko shook her head. "No, Ferai. I mean leave the religion itself behind."

"Oh."

They drifted slowly long moments more, the wind but a waft of air, the ship nearly in irons. Finally Ferret said, "I'm not a very religious person. It seems rather foolish to me."

"Huah," grunted Delon. "You do not believe in Adon or Elwydd at all?"

"Or Garlon?" added Alos.

"Oh, I suppose I do," Ferret replied, "if only to call upon them in oaths now and then. It's just that in my life they seem to hold no sway." She turned to Arin. "What about you, Dara? Do you worship Adon or Elwydd? Pray to them? Make offerings? Do you think that following a particular religion, that believing in a god or gods makes you a better person?"

Arin smiled. "Nay, Ferai, I do not. Adon Himself says that deeds, not faith, mark the goodness of a person."

"You've spoken to Adon?" asked Delon. "Seen Him?"

"Nay, I have not," replied Arin. "But there are those who indeed have."

Delon blew out a breath. "Adon. The God Himself."

Arin shook her head. "He does not claim to be so. He says that the true gods are far above Himself, Elwydd, Gyphon, Garlon, and the others."

"Even the gods are ruled by the Fates," intoned Egil. "Or so my people say."

Ferret turned to Egil. "Then those above Adon and the others, those are the Fates?"

Egil turned up the palms of his hands. "You'll have to ask someone other than me, lass, for I don't know."

They drifted onward, and then Delon said, "What do you suppose the cursed keeper of faith in the maze thinks of religion and gods? And why do you think he's cursed?"

Some seventeen days after they had fled the city of Pendwyr, they sighted a coast ahead. The setting sun lent an orange cast to the land, but along the stretch the stone itself was dun colored, and not the red expected.

Ferret groaned. "Oh, no. The door on Old Nom's card is in rock the color of blood."

"Perhaps this is not Sarain," said Delon.

"Even if it is, Delon, mayhap it is as thou hast suggested," said Arin. "Mayhap the red stone is inland."

"The thing to do," said Egil, "is to find a port city and see where we are. Whether or not this is Sarain, let us find a scholar to translate the runes on Ferret's drawing. If the scholar can read them, then we might know, or perhaps he can advise us, where we need next go."

Arin nodded, then turned to Alos. "Canst thou find us a port city?"

Alos snorted. "Not immediately. But perhaps she can." The oldster pointed southward along the shore. There in the near distance fared a small dhow, her sails blooming orange in the light of the setting sun.

They swung the ship to starboard and closed with the dhow, though it was deep twilight ere they overtook the craft. It was a fishing boat crewed by three, and they cast down their knives and threw up their hands in surrender.

"Heh," cackled Alos. "They think we are pirates."

Arin showed the crew her own empty hands, attempting to convince them that they had little to fear. Then she and the others tried all the languages they knew-and between them, Ferret and Delon proved to know many-to no success. Finally Alos snapped, "Here, let me," and called out, "Sarain?"

The fishermen nodded and bowed, and gestured toward the coast.

Then Alos called out, "Chabba?"

And the crew of the dhow pointed to the south.

"Well and good," cried Alos, and saluted.

Then the oldster sat back down at the helm. "South we go. The port city of Aban is on the border."

As they swung away from the dhow amid gestures and calls of farewell, Aiko turned to Alos and said, "That was clever of you, ningen toshi totta."

Alos looked at her, then growled, "I'm a drunkard, not stupid."

Two days later in early morn they came to the gape of a great bay, its waters faintly colored by the outflow of the distant River Ennil, according to Alos, the border between Chabba and Sarain. Into the sound they fared, sailing easterly most of the day, the waters darkening with each nautical league as they came closer to the estuarial flow. Just after dawn they sighted the wide mouth of the river and up the slow-moving stream they sailed, its waters muddy with orange-laden silt. Some ten miles inland they arrived at last at the port city of Aban, with its docks to the left and right. They chose the piers larboard, for those were the ones in Sarain.

A hot golden sun rose through the midmorn as Arin and her companions trudged uphill along the narrow, twisting streets of Aban, the ways crowded with horses and camels and people moving to and fro. The men for the most part were black haired and brown skinned and swathed in robes, though some wore other garb-especially those men who rode horses, with their lavish cloaks and capacious shirts and wide-legged pantaloons, the latter tied tightly at the ankle on the outside of the boot. Bright turbans adorned the men's heads, that or red fezzes with black tassels hanging down.

Women were there, too, or so the comrades surmised, for the females were covered from head to toe with voluminous robes and only their eyes and hands could be seen. Some of these moved through the streets without speaking in groups of three or more, while others rode singly in enclosed litters, borne by burly men.

"You were right, Delon," said Ferret, pointing to signs above shops and inns as she and the others walked along the streets of Aban. "The writing, the letters: some of them look to be the same as the symbols in the inscription on Old Nom's card."

"Don't jump to conclusions, luv," replied Delon. "The lettering in Hurn is nearly identical. I think we'll have to wait until we can find someone who can read what you've written."

"When we find the Golden Crescent," said Egil, "we'll ask the innkeeper to translate it for us. That should prove quickly enough whether it's Sarainese or not."

"If it's not Sarainese," wheezed Alos, panting with the effort of walking uphill, perspiration funnelling down his face, "then as Dara Arin said, we'll sail on to Hurn, eh?"

"As soon as we've restocked the ship," said Egil. "You and I will see to it when we've settled in."

Alos nodded. "And we'll get some charts, too, right? At least of the Avagon."

Aiko looked at the oldster. "I thought you were quit of us, Alos."

Alos glared at the Ryodoan, but then his gaze softened. "There's no taverns in Aban. Damnfool religions and their damnfool beliefs."

"Ah," said Aiko, and then fell silent.

Following the harbormaster's directions, along the ways they fared, and often street urchins or mendicants or merchants would approach them to plead for alms or to sell various wares. But one look at Aiko with her yellow skin, or at Arin with her pointed ears, or at both with their tilted eyes, and the beggars and haranguers would back away, muttering and making signs.

Soon they reached their destination, a gilded crescent on a sign outside announcing the name of the hostel. The innkeeper nervously assigned them rooms, apprehensive at these women in the group-two exotics and another, all of them wearing men's clothes and none having the decency to cover her face. Infidels all.

"Here," said Ferret, pulling out her sketch of Norn's card, the page cut free from the logbook. "I have something to show you."

But before she could unfold it, Aiko reached out and stayed her hand. "No, Ferai," said Ryodoan. "Not here. Not now. Not him."

"Wha-?"

"My tiger says no."

"Tiger? Oh."

Ferret refolded the parchment and tucked it away.

"Where did you get this," hissed the 'alim. The scholar quickly folded the vellum shut and slid it back across the table while looking 'round the interior of the great library to see if any nearby students had seen the sketch.

Ferai stood before him, flanked by Arin and Aiko, the Ryodoan's swords sheathed. At the entry stood Delon. Of Egil and Alos there was no sign.

Ferai took up the parchment and glanced about also. Scattered at tables here and there, young men ducked their heads, embarrassed at being caught staring at exposed female faces, faces out in the open for any and all to see. Foreigners, they were-foreigners and infidels- and even though Aban was a port city, seldom did naked-faced outland females venture within; when they did, it seems the whole city would stir with the news. But these were not merely naked-faced females, oh, no, for two of them were pale skinned, and one was yellow! And two had tilted eyes, while one had pointed ears. They were northerners, outlanders, Elves, djinn, peries, succubi, houris, demons, angels, seraphim, cherubim, or any number of other such beings, depending upon one's theology, or teachings, or upon experience itself.

"It was a drawing on a card," said Ferret.

"I would not go waving it about, if I were you," murmured the wisp of a man, his nut brown features taut with alarm.

"Why?" asked Ferai, lowering her own voice.

"Because it is proscribed."

"Proscribed?"

"Shhh," shushed the scholar, looking about. Then he whispered, "It represents a forbidden religion."

Ferret whispered back: "Forbidden? Why?"

"Because it is associated with demons."

Arin cleared her throat. The man flinched, and he did not look directly at her, she of the slanted eyes and tipped ears. The Dylvana murmured, "Tell me, scholar, what says the inscription?"

"Come, let us go to a place where we may talk freely," sissed the 'alim.

He led them through the stacks, pausing long enough to select a particular roll from among many, each ensconced in its own pigeon hole. Then, motioning them to follow, he stepped to a small chamber, brushing in past a hanging bead curtain. Delon, following, at a word from Ferai, stood ward at the chamber entry.

Inside the room stood a table equipped with inkpots and quills, and with several chairs ranged 'round. The man gestured for them to sit, and as they did so, he asked, "Who are you, and why have you come to me?"

Aiko and Ferret looked to Arin, and she said, "We came to these archives seeking aid, seeking knowledge."

The man snorted. "There are any number of scholars herein. Why me?"

Arin glanced at Aiko, and the Ryodoan said, "I chose you, sage, for you are safe."

"Safe?"

"So I was told," answered Aiko, touching her chest.

"Who sent you?"

"None," replied Arin. "We came on our own."

For the first time, the 'alim looked her squarely in the face, as if seeking a sign that she spoke truly. Arin gazed back at him, and he lowered his eyes.

"This knowledge you seek, why do you want it?"

Now Arin hesitated, but Aiko nodded, and the Dylvana said, "We follow a rede in the hopes of diverting disaster."

The scholar nodded, then asked, "And what does the sketch have to do with the rede?"

Again Arin glanced at Aiko, and again the golden warrior nodded. Arin sighed, then said, "We are not certain, yet it may be a vital link to something we seek."

Silence fell within the chamber, the sage considering what he had heard. Finally, as if he had made up his mind, he said, "You were fortunate to have chosen to come to me, for I am one of the few who will not report you and the knowledge you seek to the imamin of the Fists of Rakka."

"Fists of Rakka?"

"An arm of the ascendant religion in Aban. They believe they know the one true way."

Ferret raised her eyebrows. "The one true way?"

The sage glanced at. the doorway and then intoned, "There is no God but Rakka. Fear Him and obey Him, for

He is the Lord of all." The scholar sighed. "It is but one of many 'one true ways.' "

Aiko grunted, then asked, "What has this to do with our mission?"

"Just that the thing you seek is but another 'one true way,' though this one has been driven into hiding."

Ferai unfolded the sketch and slid it across the table to him. "These symbols, are they Sarainese or Hurnian?"

"Hurnian?" The sage took up the paper. "Ah, yes, I see; to the untutored eye they are much the same. No, no, the inscription above the door, it is written in Sarainese and it names a place: Mikdash Hamavokh-the Temple of the Labyrinth." He slid the sketch back to Ferai.

Arin leaned forward. "And this temple, what dost thou know of it?"

"Just that it is said that decades past the niswan imamin min Ilsitt took refuge there from persecution."

"Nis-nis-" Ferret paused and shook her head. "What did you just say?"

"Niswan imamin min Ilsitt," replied the sage. "It means the women priests of Ilsitt."

"Ilsitt?"

"She is a goddess and goes by many names: Ilsitt, Shailene, Elwydd-"

"Elwydd!" exclaimed Arin.

The sage nodded.

"Is she also named Megami?" asked Aiko.

The sage shrugged. "Perhaps. Though I've not heard that name before."

"What about this god Rakka?" growled Ferai. "Does he go by many names as well?"

"Indeed," replied the scholar. "Rakka, Huzar-"

"Gyphon?" interjected Arin.

Without looking at her, the sage nodded.

Arin exhaled a long sigh, then said, "This Temple of the Labyrinth… how do we find it?"

The scholar took up the large vellum scroll and rolled it open upon the table and sat inkpots at each corner to hold it flat. It was a map. He stabbed a finger down to the parchment. "Here is Aban, and here"-he slid his finger in a straight line across the map-"to the east lies this maze, and somewhere within is the temple."

"Maze?" Ferret frowned. "But this section of the map is blank."

"Not quite," said the sage, pointing to a faint irregular boundary. "This is its extent."

Inscribed within the faded tracery were added Sarainese symbols:

"What do these mean?" asked Ferret, pointing to the ornate characters.

"Um, Mevokh Hashed-the Demon's Maze."

"Demon?"

"A number of years past, it is said that the labyrinth became haunted by a demon. Sent there by Rakka to punish the unbelievers, or so claim the Fists of Rakka."

Ferret looked at Arin. The Dylvana merely turned up her hands. Then Arin said, "This maze, this labyrinth, what is it?"

"A great area of entangled canyons," replied the scholar. "Cut by rivers long past, say some; land fractured by wrathful gods shaking the world, say others; a realm broken by great stones from the sky, claim others still. As to which of these are true, or if it is something else altogether, I cannot say."

Arin nodded. "These canyons, this labyrinth, how extensive are they?"

"Your measure is the mile?"

"That or the league, three miles to each."

The sage consulted a scale on the map, then took the measure of the blank area within the irregular bound. "I make it some hundred or so miles east and west, and"-he took another measure-"nearly half again as much north and south-one hundred fifty miles in all."

"And this temple, where does it lie?"

The sage shrugged. "It is hidden."

Arin blew out her breath and then, judging by the width across the faded bounds and then measuring how far to the east of Aban the blank area lay, Arin said, "Some thirty-five leagues to the marge. Is the route to the labyrinth direct?"

The sage nodded. "Yes. But I would not advise-"

Ferret blurted, "But Dara, that's a vast area to search. A hundred and fifty miles by a hundred. That makes it, um, let me see… um-"

"Fifteen thousand square miles," supplied the sage, "or thereabout."

"Elwydd's grace!" declared Ferret, which brought a start from the scholar, and he glanced at her and then away. But she did not notice the effect her oath had had upon the sage, and she turned to Arin and said, "I cannot even imagine what fifteen thousand square miles is, much less how long it would take to search it out, given that it is a maze. We'll be a lifetime at it!"

Aiko shook her head. "Dara Arin has a way with mazes."

"Mayhap," murmured Arin. "Mayhap not."

"As I started to say," interjected the sage, "I would advise against going to the maze. It is a horrid place. Nothing but fractured stone. And barren. No plants. No water. No wildlife."

Aiko stared impassively at the scholar, then asked, "If that is true, then how do these priestesses of Ilsitt survive?"

The sage looked toward the beaded curtain, then leaned forward and whispered, "It is said that Ilsitt yet has believers within Sarain. Perhaps they bear supplies to the maze, perhaps to the temple itself."

"Then there may be a trail, Dara," said Aiko.

"You are bound to do this thing?" asked the sage.

"Aye," replied Arin.

The 'alim sat long moments in silence, looking at the map and then at the sketch before Ferret. Finally he said, 'Then here is an entry." He tapped at a place on the map along the faded boundary. "The Island in the Sky. It is the point of a plateau projecting into the maze."

"But that's somewhat north; aren't there any places closer where we may enter?" asked Ferret.

"Indeed there are," said the sage, "but I would think this a better place."

Arin looked steadily at the scholar, but he would not meet her gaze. The Dylvana then glanced at Aiko, and the Ryodoan canted her head and shrugged.

Arin sighed, then said, "Well and good, sage. Is there aught else thou wouldst advise?"

"Three things." He turned and addressed Ferai. "Call not upon Ilsitt by any of her names, be they Elwydd, Shailene, Megami, or aught else, for unfriendly ears may overhear. In fact, I would not call upon any gods if I were you, any of you." He paused and glanced at each of them, and added, "Too, veil your faces ere you leave this city, else someone inland less liberal than I may haul you before an imam and demand that you be stoned as harlots."

Aiko growled and narrowed her eyes, but Arin nodded. "And the third thing…?"

For only the second time the scholar looked directly at her, and in this instance held her gaze as he said, "Not all paths are what they seem. Search well; choose wisely." Then he looked away.

Arin waited, but he said nothing more, and finally she turned to Ferret. "Wouldst thou, Ferai, trace the significant part of the map onto our own vellum? Show Aban and this 'Island in the Sky' and the route 'tween, as well as direction and scale. Sketch, too, the bounds of the labyrinth so that we may know where they lie."

Ferret glanced at the scholar, and he passed her an inkpot and quill.

"Inland?" moaned Alos. "Not by boat? Not by the Brise?”

Arin nodded.

"But we just got her restocked and all," whined the oldster, appealing to Egil.

The younger man shrugged and studied the map. "The Brise'll wait for us at the docks, Alos."

"But how are we going to get there?" whined the oldster. Then he straightened up and stuck out his jaw. "I'm not walking, I'll have you know."

Aiko fixed Alos with an exasperated stare, but Arin said, "Given what we heard about the bleakness of the land, I deem we need camels for the journey."

"Camels!" moaned Alos. "Great, tall camels? I was thinking more along the lines of a low ass."

"Indeed," said Aiko, dryly, and Ferret broke out in loud guffaws.

Three days later in the dawn they set forth upon camels, the beasts eructing belligerent hronks, complaining and grumbling as the riders prodded them forward across the sunbaked land and away from the river greenery. Alos, too, moaned and whined and fussed, almost as loudly as the beast he rode. Arin, Aiko, and Ferai wore silken scarves across their faces, heeding the sage's advice, although Aiko was furious at having to do so because of the reason stated-that she might be taken as a harlot by stupid hidebound men. But Delon told her to think of it as a disguise, and she remembered former days ere she fell from grace, days when she had ridden into combat with her face masked. These thoughts mollified her somewhat… though not entirely.

Riding six camels and towing six-animals protesting, Alos complaining, and Aiko grinding her teeth, and Delon singing a gay song of the road-out away from Aban they fared, heading easterly into the sunrise, aiming for a place the sage had named "the Island in the Sky."

"My god," hissed Delon, "but it looks like a vision of Hel!"

In the setting sun, they stood upon an outjutting point of a high plateau, its face falling sheer a thousand feet or more down into an endless tangle of high-walled canyons, fissures beyond count twisting and turning this way and that through bloodred stone for as far as the eye could see. Whether cut by ancient rivers, or torn asunder by wrenching land, or cracked apart by rocks falling from beyond the sky, none could say, yet it was a riven land, a fractured land, a land ripped, split, ruptured, with huge, deep, tortuous, jagged chasms zigzagging, crisscrossing, dead-ending, curling, twisting back on themselves, the great entanglement shattering out to the horizon and beyond-fifteen thousand square miles in all.

Aiko stared long down into the fractured land, her left hand pressed tightly against her chest, there where a hidden tiger glared, and at last she said, "In there lies death."

And from far dark shadows of the canyonland maze, faintly echoing and slapping across the bloodred stone, there sounded a distant ghastly howl, as if some dreadful and deadly thing prowled deep in the labyrinth afar.