Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (40 page)

to her. 'Help me up! I clutch at my dignity, since I have lost everything that
really matters.'
They wavered their way to the front of the room. Tensor forced himself to his
full height, put a hand on Karan's shoulder momentarily, then stood erect.
Karan tried to sneak away.
'Stay,' Tensor said out of the corner of his mouth. 'It would not do for me to
fall down and not be able to get up again.
'I will show you the way,' he said to the group. 'I and my Aachim will
supervise your craftsmen in working this dangerous material. You - ' (it was
not clear whether he addressed Yggur, or Mendark, or all of them collectively)
' - will provide us with a secure, spacious workshop, the equipment required
for melting, purifying, transforming and
forging the metal, and all the reagents, stills, crucibles and other tools
necessary.'
'It shall be done,' said Yggur.
'And afterwards, everything will be destroyed by burning or melting, including
the building itself and the earth beneath to a depth of half a span, and the
calcine shall be dispersed across a hundred leagues of the deep sea. And you
will give me your oath that the flute, if it survives, will be ground to dust,
mixed with ashes to the extent of ten wagonloads and put into the deep sea as
well, so that it may never be recovered.' He swayed and jerked Karan closer to
him.
The conditions drew a flurry of conversation and debate, but at last they
agreed. Three copies of a convention were prepared, setting out each of these
conditions, and everyone came forward to sign it, either as parties or
witnesses.
'I have such a workroom available,1 Yggur said. 'The old bakehouse, in the
western corner of the yard, has the space you require, as well as flues and
chimneys. You'll have to build your own furnace. Would you care to inspect it
now?'
'I will,' said Tensor.
They all trooped down. The bakehouse was a splendid old structure of
polychrome brickwork and pale stone, solid and secure for it had no windows,
just a back door and a front. Tensor went inside, with Yggur, Karan and the
Aachim, while the others waited outside the door. After an hour or so they
came out.
'It is sufficient,' said Tensor. 'Send down your smiths for examination. We
will seal the back door. Henceforth no one may enter without my invitation. We
begin in the morning.'
Just after dawn the company returned to the workshop. Tensor himself opened
the door, walking unaided. Maigraith stepped forward. She was dressed in a
gown of black silk that showed her slender figure, and she wore Aeolior's
birthright. The red-gold chain was about her throat, the bracelet on her
wrist, and the torc upon her brow. From a
distance she looked queenly, but close up, insecure. The tension between her
and Tensor was like a live thing, for Maigraith looked so Charon that he could
scarcely bear to be in the same city with her.
'Come!' he said. 'You too, Karan.' They followed him inside and the door
snapped shut. The Aachim were already at work.
'Maigraith, I cannot deal with you!' He was quivering with animosity. 'My rage
is too ingrained, though I know that you were not brought up Charon.
Henceforth our communications must be through Karan.'
'As you wish.' They stood on opposite sides of the room. Maigraith was as
still as a post. This is not right, she was thinking. He is my enemy, as he
was Yalkara's, and will be Rulke's until the instant of his death. What would
my grandmother think to see me deliver her gold into his hands?
Tensor's frame was wracked by a spasm that he could not control. Momentarily
his face showed like a death's head. He was near his end, and this business
would surely finish him. It was not him Maigraith had to worry about, but the
ones outside the door. Make a decision, she told herself, and stick by it!

With a physical wrench she stepped forward. Taking off the torc, bracelet and
chain, she held them in her hands for a moment, then with a jerky gesture put
them in Tensor's hands. There were tears on her lashes.
'She may well have brought it to Santhenar for this very purpose,' said
Tensor, staring at her unblinking. Something showed in his eyes, an
acknowledgment of her suffering.
'Why do you say that?'
'I knew her.'
'Here, on Santhenar?'
'Yes, and even before. The Charon were few when they stole our world from us.
I knew all of them, in my time.'
In the background the Aachim were working quickly but carefully, though all
they seemed to be doing was cleaning,
removing every speck of dust from the workroom. The whole place was spotless
already.
'There can be no foreign particles here,' he said as if he had read her
thought. "The least speck of dross will spoil it. Later today we will
construct a special room for the forging, with walls that can be washed down
and double doors to exclude all draughts, and a giant bellows to ensure that
the air flows out and dust cannot seep in.' He looked toward the other end of
the room.
Maigraith saw that it was time to go. She bowed. Tensor escorted her to the
door.
'It is begun,' she said to the company.
The Golden Flute
Inside the workroom, forges were lit and bellows began to pump in preparation
for the great work. Smoke issued from the chimneys. But whatever was done
there was a secret well kept. No one but Karan was allowed inside, and then
only after the work was finished for the day and every secret device put away
again.
While the flute was being crafted, spies were despatched to Elludore,
Carcharon and other places in the east and the north, to find out what their
enemies were up to. Messengers were sent to all allies, and skeets to those
who were further off. One flew to Wistan, the Master of the College of the
Histories in Chanthed. All favours were being called in, and all debts.

'And I trust that Wistan will treat this message with more respect than he did
the last,' Mendark said darkly as the skeet soared into the air. A year and a
half ago he had begged Wistan to find Karan and have her brought to Thurkad.
Wistan had given Llian the job, but only to get rid of him, hoping that he
would fail. Mendark never forgot a favour, nor a grudge.
'I gather Tensor's having problems,' Shand said to Mendark a few days later.
'Your spies must be better than mine are!'
'I picked up a bit of gossip,' Shand said enigmatically. 'The gold is proving
difficult to work, and sometimes strange things happen in the workshop.'
'Such as?'
'Well, at first they couldn't get the gold to melt, though they heated it way
above the normal melt temperature. Then tools would mysteriously lose their
edge without ever being used. Once the bellows pumped backwards and caught
fire, burning one of the smiths so badly that he had to be taken to the
hospital. The artisans are terrified. Tensor is close to giving up.'
'No doubt Yggur will be pleased to hear it,' said Mendark.
A week went by before the Aachim first reported their progress. The company
was called to the steps of the workshop and Tensor came out, looking better
than any time since Katazza. He walked freely now, though not without pain.
Despite the disturbing rumours, the work seemed to have been good for him. He
appeared euphoric.
'It's taken more labour than we expected,' he said. 'There were impurities in
the gold, and some most obdurate and refractory ones, but they are all gone
now. And we had .. . other problems that I won't go into. It will be some time

until it is finished, but we've forged the body of the flute just this
morning.'
He drew from its cloth wrapping a golden tube the length of his forearm and
outstretched fingers. The metal was dull and rough, having not yet been
cleaned from the moulds. Nonetheless it was a beautiful object, and an
enticing one. They all felt the pull of it. Tensor could not keep his hands
off it. He kept sliding it though his fingers, fondling it. Mai-graith saw
Mendark gazing at it with an equal longing.
After the company had gone, Tensor called Karan and Maigraith inside.
Maigraith was amazed at the summons, considering the tension between them, but
it seemed Tensor had gained control over his feelings during the time of
labour.
'There was a little more gold than was needed,' he said. 'When we weighed it
at the beginning, one link of the chain was left over. Aachan gold has always
been precious to me and I hate any Charon who has it.' His hands were clenched
into fists, wrapped around by those extraordinarily long fingers. 'But this
has been in Charon hands so long that I cannot bear to keep it. It has not
been melted, just shaped into a ring. Take it, despite that you are my - No, I
won't say it. Take it and go!' He held out to Maigraith a rather thick, plain
ring, beautifully polished but unadorned. His hand shook.
Maigraith held the gold up on a fingertip. Was it a trap? She could not sense
anything wrong, but she would make sure later on. She slid the ring onto her
finger. 'Thank you,' she said.
Malien came into Karan's room while she was washing her hair in a basin.
'I must talk to you, Karan. Is Llian around?'
'He's gone to the library. What's the matter?'
'No hurry! When you're finished.' She sat on the bed.
Karan rinsed her hair with several jugs of water and began to towel it dry. It
took rather a while, and when she'd finished, her hair looked like a tangled
fleece. Finally she mopped the floor with a towel and changed her blouse,
which was saturated. She looked around for her brush.
Malien found it for her. 'Would you like me to brush it for you?'
'Yes, please.'
Karan sat on a chair and Malien on the bed behind her, easing the tangles out.
'What did you want to talk about?' Karan wondered.
The brush stopped by her ear. 'Us Aachim - and you!'
Malien's voice had the same kind of magisterial sternness that Karan
remembered from Tensor, in her childhood.
'We held a great gathering of Aachim in Insoldiss,' Malien
went on. 'The biggest held since Tar Gaarn fell. Many plans were considered
there, and many discarded . . .'
'What was decided?' Karan asked.
The brush continued its work but Karan no longer found the grooming
comfortable. She felt dominated, as she had never felt by Malien before.
'A number of things. I can't tell you those plans. But I can tell you that we
are resolved to take our place in the great struggle. We plan to fight Rulke
with whatever weapon comes to hand! And that's why I've come to you.'
'Me?' Karan did not like the way this was going.
'Because of your Aachim heritage, and because you kept the Mirror from us. You
owe us doubly, Karan.' The brush tore painfully at a knot of hair. 'Most of
all because you helped the enemy in Carcharon. You know things about Rulke
that we do not.'
'I never expected this of you, Malien,' Karan said after a long silence.
'Well, Karan, will you aid us, or not?'
'I have other loyalties now,' Karan said fiercely. 'And I haven't forgotten
what the Aachim did to me! You demand loyalty but refuse citizenship to all
who are not pure Aachim. That destroyed Emmant and it destroyed my father.'
Malien's hand froze in mid-air. 'You reject us when we most need your help?'
she said incredulously.
'I do not. But I won't submit to emotional blackmail either! Nonetheless,' she

continued more calmly, 'I will do what I can for the Aachim, as long as it
doesn't conflict with my other responsibilities.'
Malien gave her a cold stare. 'Then answer me this. What's Maigraith up to
with the flute?'
'I don't know what you mean.'
'What does she want it for? It doesn't seem to match what I know of her.'
'No it doesn't,' said Karan, wondering herself. 'I suppose... I imagine she's
doing it for Shand.'
'Shand!'
'Well, making the flute was his idea in the first place. And Yalkara - '
The brush froze. 'Yalkara!' Malien hissed. 'Of course!' She raced out, leaving
the brush hanging in Karan's hair.
Maigraith checked the ring carefully, and had Shand look at it as well, but it
was no different from the gold she had given Tensor the previous week. Later
she sat down with the Mirror, searching for anything that might indicate how
the flute was to be used. She found nothing, and began to wonder if the answer
was there at all.
Who else would know anything about it? She had already asked Mendark and
Yggur, but if they did know they were not saying. Tensor had been an artisan
toiling for Shuthdar when the original flute had been forged in Aachan, but
would he tell her? She took her courage in her hands and went back to the
workshop. Tensor was busy, but would see her in half an hour as long as Karan
was with her. Maigraith had no idea where Karan was. She sat down on the step.
Shortly Tensor appeared at the door, furious at the interruption. She
explained what she was looking for.
'I never saw it used,' he growled. 'It was used only once on Aachan, by
Shuthdar. He took very good care that no one was watching. Good day!'
He slammed the door. Maigraith trudged back to Yggur's stronghold. As she
approached the main door Karan and Llian came out, arm-in-arm. Llian had been
telling a joke, very animatedly, for he was waving his arms and Karan was
laughing. They stopped when they saw her long face.
'What's the matter?' asked Karan. 'You look as though you've just broken the
Magister's second-best teapot.' This must have been a reference to Llian's
joke, for she giggled and Llian burst out laughing.
'We're going down to the city for dinner,' Karan went on. Her face was
flushed.
Maigraith envied her. 'I don't know what to do!' she burst out.
'You know,' said Llian, 'I keep thinking about the glyphs inscribed on the
Mirror. Why are they the mirror image of the script in Yalkara's book?'
'Hey!' said Karan. 'What if it's an instruction?'
'Not much use if we can't read it,' Llian replied.
'I meant, perhaps the mirror image is the instruction,' said Karan.
They both stared at Maigraith. 'Yes!' cried Llian. 'Open the Mirror,
Maigraith. Quick! Where's that bit of card I copied the glyphs on?' He fished
it out of his bag.
Maigraith handed the Mirror to him. Llian held it up, and Karan the piece of
card, facing the Mirror. 'What does it say?'
'Exactly the same, only reversed,' said Maigraith.
'Oh well. It was a good idea though.'
'Let me have a go.' Maigraith reached for the Mirror. The golden ring shone on
her finger.
Karan held the card up again. 'That's strange,' she exclaimed, staring at its
reflection.
'What?'
'The glyphs aren't reflected at all, just a whole lot of letters.'
'Get them down, Llian,' cried Maigraith, 'before they disappear.'
Llian wrote down the letters below the glyphs.
No sze gwi ta sha mu no dzo ta dzo gwu cho ksi lo sze mo nu mu bu gi sze gwi
gwu je ru she ksi cha vo gw'uh wi no sze ta mo va mu bu cho ksi kso fe mo nu
mu gw'uh gwu ta dzo lu u lo gwi ksi lo gi mu qa kso je e i dzo ta dzo mu no