The Echolone Mine (89 page)

Tianoman was
next. He did not have to say anything either. Clearly the Throne
had taken command of the challenge and challenged in turn. It lit
for Tianoman as it had for Torrullin. The Valleur went wild once
more.

Yiddin, ashen,
understood it was now between those two. How would Nemisin react?
How would the Valleur cope with a result they could not deny? Gods,
this night could lead to civil war.

Torrullin
stalked around the back of them to come up behind Cassy on the
other side. “You have to make a choice now.”

She gasped on
seeing his eyes.

“Now it goes
to hell, Cassiopin. Your father will unleash whatever he has
waiting in the wings, unless he is stopped. I swear he will be
stopped, now. And you will be the loose end everyone looks at. Make
your choice.”

She managed,
“Elianas.”

“Your choice
is Elianas?”

“No … yes! If
there is a future with him …”

“There is
not.”

“You would
take him from me?”

“I did that a
long time ago. You have to accept.”

“I want to
hear him say it.”

He took her
arm, marched her back around and dumped her before her husband.
“Ask.” He let go to put a fist to his forehead, pressing there the
pressure building behind the bone.

Elianas’
eyelids flickered.

“Elianas, is
there a chance we could have a marriage?” Cassy asked, and
Tristan’s heart bled for her in that moment.

“No.”

“You choose
him?”

“I did that a
long time ago.”

She sneered.
“Exactly what he said. To hell with you, then.” She turned to
Torrullin. “I choose for my father.”

“So be
it.”

She sniffed
and made her way to her father’s side.

Torrullin
glanced significantly at Sabian, who, after a few moments, nodded.
So be it, indeed.

“Last call!”
Yiddin announced.

Torrullin
headed there immediately.

Elianas closed
his eyes for strength, and then reopened them to stare fixedly at
the scene.

He was
ready.

Light
shattered, dark scattered … what is left?

Arc, poet

Echolone

T
he gathering beyond the perimeter waited expectantly
and amid them moved the Kaval and shamans.

To one side of
the tableau before the Throne, Tristan, Sabian and Elianas prepared
for what would come next, whatever it was. Tianoman stood nearby
bending his will to a particular result, and Yiddin and the Elders
waited as witness. Cassy and Nemisin were together, but neither
said anything to the other.

Torrullin, his
eyes black, stalked into position.

Destroyer was
fully in command.

The Throne did
not react, but it did not lose the glow it strengthened for
Tianoman either.

Torrullin
lifted a hand and shot a bolt of bright scarlet at it.

The gathered
hissed.

The Elders
moaned.

Tianoman
paled.

Nemisin
laughed.

The Throne
threw a shield up, a pale shimmer of air. The scarlet bolt
skittered off it and shattered into tiny shards before
dissipating.

The shield
remained in place as Torrullin loosed bolt after bolt at it.

Yiddin
shouted, “Cease! You commit sacrilege this night!”

Nemisin said
aloud, “Oh, let him at it, Elder. He proves how unworthy he
is.”

Tianoman
hissed and Elianas was at his shoulder. “He proves how worthy he
is, Tian. He tells the entire universe he cannot be Vallorin.”

Tianoman
stiffened. “I do not need your input.”

“One day you
may understand.”

The young
man’s shoulders slumped. “I do now. The Throne is his.”

Elianas did
not reply.

Tianoman
glanced over his shoulder. “What is the real purpose, Elianas?”

A sigh. “If I
knew I would interfere.”

Tianoman
stared at him a moment longer and then watched Torrullin intensify
the campaign. The Throne had not reacted beyond raising the shield.
It was as if it waited for Torrullin to exhaust himself.

Torrullin
ceased and then began muttering in the ancient dialect of
Vallorins, the language Nemisin conceived. As he commenced, Nemisin
snapped a wide-eyed gaze to him, and then smiled. It was a
self-satisfied smile that raised hairs on every watcher’s skin.

The Throne
dropped the air shield and a bolt of power hurtled across the space
to fell Torrullin to his knees. Laughing, Torrullin muttered
louder.

Elianas drew a
slow breath behind Tianoman.

Another bolt
flew across and smacked into Torrullin’s chest, hurtling him over
onto his back.

Elianas
moved.

Lightning
fast, he was at the fair man’s side, kneeling there. He shouted in
the Throne’s direction, “You made your point!”

Nemisin
laughed hysterically, and Cassy lifted stark eyes to him.

Tianoman felt
as if he would break.

Sabian
unobtrusively moved into position near Nemisin, and Tristan was
paralysed.

Torrullin
muttered again, lifting onto one elbow and staring at the golden
seat. A bolt flew across and flattened him. His eyes rolled
back.

An instant
later Elianas faced the Throne. “Enough,” he said.

A yellow pulse
released from the seat and moved like a wave across the space. It
surrounded Elianas, swivelled him to face the man at his feet.
Yellow light bled from his fingertips and his arms were lifted
against his will to point down at Torrullin. Elianas fought the
control, and knew it was a losing battle. Bolts of power shot from
his fingers and smashed into the man at his feet.

Then the glow
was gone. The Throne was again a golden seat without movement and
intent, a hunk of metal. Nemisin laughed ever more hysterically,
until Cassy slapped him. Tianoman and Tristan ran to Torrullin’s
side and Yiddin moved in, his face etched with tension.

Elianas stared
down.

Torrullin’s
eyes opened to stare up. The black receded in shards, causing him
to blink crazily and then clear grey took over.

“Destroyer is
dead.”

Elianas drew
ragged breath.

Those clear
eyes clouded over, and the man rolled onto his side, moaning. He
pushed up onto all fours, and Tristan and Tianoman were there to
aid him to his feet. He swayed between them and then struggled
clear.

“My Lord?”
Yiddin whispered.

Torrullin’s
head swivelled. And then swivelled back to Elianas. “Where am
I?”

For a moment
Elianas froze and begged time to take him and begged for another
path, anything but this, and then he stepped forward. “In a place
too cold for an ill brother. Come, I shall take you where it is
warm and quiet.” He held a steady hand out.

Torrullin
stared at it. “Do I know you?”

Elianas’ heart
thumped and threatened to tear from his chest. “Yes. You are ill.
Come with me. You will remember tomorrow.”

Torrullin
frowned. “Something is undone, I feel. I must stay until it is
finished.”

Elianas closed
his eyes and then opened them. He moved to Torrullin’s side and
took up position there. “Will you know when it is done?”

“I believe
so.”

“We stay until
then,” Elianas said. He moved so that his shoulder slotted in
behind Torrullin’s, and took the man’s uncertainty as a weight,
supporting him without seeming to. He glanced at Yiddin. “Get it
done, Elder, so we may leave this place.”

Yiddin,
swallowing, his gaze stark, nodded and moved back to his position
as witness. His tawny gaze continually flicked back to the pair and
the two grandsons frozen nearby.

Tristan
animated. “Tian, get ready.”

Tianoman was
unmoving.

Tristan shook
him. “Do not let that bastard win by default.”

Tianoman said,
“Whoever wins now, wins by default.”

Tristan swore
and then, “Then do not allow this sacrifice to go unmarked, Lord
Vallorin. Claim your birthright and tell the entire universe who is
ruler of the Valleur.”

Tianoman
stared at him, and at Torrullin, and then his gaze shifted to
Elianas. “You had no choice.”

The dark man
sighed. “This is the way of it.”

“Do not blame
yourself.”

Elianas stared
back at him. “Even when there is little or no choice, one cannot
help feeling responsible.”

Tianoman moved
in closer. “I begin to see behind the corners of curves.”

A blink.
“Exactly how a Vallorin must see.”

Tianoman
nodded. “Yes.” He moved even closer. “I forgive you for my
father.”

Elianas
inclined his head. “Now I need forgive myself.”

“Take care of
him, Elianas.”

“As long as it
takes, Lord Vallorin.”

Tianoman
nodded. He gestured at Yiddin, who called for Nemisin.

Nemisin,
smiling broadly, stepped in.

The Throne did
not react.

Nemisin
called.

Nothing
happened.

He swore and
stalked closer. Cassy rushed in to drag him aside, admonishing him,
he swiped at her, the gathered Valleur hissed with one breath and
then Sabian was there. He gripped both of them … and all three
vanished.

There was
bedlam in the Valleur host.

Tianoman paced
forward and raised his voice, “One final entreaty of the Throne,
Valleur, and then we deal with the aftermath!”

Silence.

Tianoman
walked to the Throne and sat. It glowed to envelop him, welcoming
him, and told the universe who was the ruler of the Valleur.
Whether it was default or something else, did not matter then, for
this was the only choice it could now make. It was also the right
one.

The Valleur
raised a full-throated roar of acclaim.

Shamans and
Kaval started murmuring the words Torrullin had shared. The host
appeared accepting of the situation, but how long before questions
about validity and manipulation altered that? Right now it was
better served to err of the side of caution. Soon caution paid
dividends.

A few mutters
of dissatisfaction were heard, but already large chunks of Valleur
were absenting from the field as the chant bade them return
home.

Tianoman sat
on and was aware of what happened in the gathering, and silently
thanked his grandfather for his forethought.

Ten minutes
later only Echolone’s people and a few Beaconites remained beyond
the ring of fire. Swiftly the shamans shepherded even those
witnesses away.

In the
resultant silence, Yiddin moved to Tianoman. He bowed low. “My Lord
Vallorin, we need bring the Throne to safety again.”

“Call all
Elders to the Keep for the chant.”

Another bow.
“It is already done.”

A moment of
silence ensued. “I need speak to him, Yiddin, before I leave
here.”

Yiddin sighed
profoundly. “My Lord, he will not know the difference now. Your
priority is your people.”

“How did it
come to this?” Tianoman whispered.

“This is what
happens when gods and titans are at war, my Lord. It is better to
leave their orbit for a time, I believe.” Yiddin glanced back.
“Elianas will be there for him.”

“You do not
know anything about Elianas.”

“A man who
would confront the Throne to save the soul of our fair lord is a
man unique. I do not need to know more.”

Tianoman
sighed. “You are right. And Elianas is now the only god and titan
remaining with the power to restore Torrullin. We must leave them
to it, and wait for the tomorrow that re-establishes
normality.”

“What is
normality, my Lord?”

A smile.
“Touché, Yiddin. Let us go home.”

Tianoman,
Yiddin and the Throne were gone, and so too the Elders remaining on
the site of confrontation.

“It is
finished,” Torrullin said.

“Yes,” Elianas
murmured.

Tristan faced
the two. “I shall wait here for a time, see if Sabian returns, and
settle the land, the furies of this night. Go.”

Elianas
nodded, and then, “Brother, are you ready to go home?”

“Where is
home?”

“I will show
you …” and Elianas placed an arm around Torrullin’s shoulders and
took him to Avaelyn.

Tristan waited
for an hour, two, and it became clear to him Sabian would not
return.

Neither would
Nemisin and Cassiopin.

Avior’s
door

Nemisin
screamed murder when Sabian dumped the man and his daughter before
the ancient Avior door.

He ignored
him, held Nemisin with one hand and placed the other as Torrullin
directed on the symbols of sword and dragon in swift succession,
and pushed.

The door
pivoted wide. Thank the gods; it had opened.

Nemisin shut
up.

Cassy
whispered, “A portal?”

Sabian crossed
his arms. “Yes. We go in.”

“Where does it
lead?”

“Away from
here,” Sabian said. “Your father cannot remain longer.”

She glanced at
him and said, “He disgraced himself before the Throne and the
Valleur. As you say, he must leave.”

“You as
well.”

She glared at
him. “I did nothing wrong.”

“It might be
semantics, Cassy, but you will not cause further trouble for
Torrullin or Elianas.”

“The draithen
is so loyal.”

“I give my
loyalty to Torrullin, yes. Walk through the door.”

“And if I do
not?”

“It will
swallow you. It might be better for you to enter of your own
will.”

Nemisin sidled
away, his lips moving.

Sabian
laughed. “Magic will not help you here, Enchanter. The door
swallows all. The only way out now is beyond.” He unfolded his
arms. “There is a time limit. In seconds the door will begin to
close and you, Cassy and I will be trapped in this rock space
without recourse to rescue, and we shall remain here into eternity,
living death. The entire region has been enchanted to allow no
escape.”