OrbSoul (Book 6) (13 page)

   Leth said, 'Tell me briefly what you have learned of your background. Tell me of your family, your home, the events that culminated in your meeting Urch-Malmain.'

   Shenwolf did so, and when he had finished Leth nodded with some satisfaction. 'It accords with what I know. Urch-Malmain has at least not led us false there.'

   'Even so . . .' Shenwolf rose from the bench. 'What might yet lie sleeping within me? I can be sure of nothing, least of all myself.'

   The phrase resonated uncomfortingly within Leth's mind.
Sure of nothing.
The Shore of Nothing…

   And what might lie beyond its imponderable rim?

   He gazed piercingly at Shenwolf. 'What are your plans now?'

   'I have no choice, Sire. I can only leave you.'

   'Are you so certain of that?'

   Shenwolf's features were drawn, his eyes pained. 'Queen Issul feared it, as did Orbelon. And in essence nothing has changed. Any trust you put in me may be misplaced. We will not know until it is too late.'

   'That may be so, but Urch-Malmain will not impetuously sabotage his own efforts to be free. He has spent too long awaiting this day to throw it all away upon a quirk of spite. If something lies within you that may yet bring grief or harm to myself or those dear to me, it will not manifest until after I have found the Soul of the Orb and he has absconded back to his lair in Enchantment.'

   'But is not the search for the OrbSoul a task you must undertake alone, Sire?'

   Leth sighed. 'I am given to understand so.'

   'Then for my part I will return to my home, which I should never have left. I know, at least, that that is where I belong. Once there, I must be alert and watchful of every moment for fear that I may yet be about to hurt or destroy not only myself but those I love. In many ways it might be better if I stayed away.'

   Leth shook his head. 'You are needed there.'

   'I know it, and I will go. And Sire, there is something else I now know.'

   'What is that?'

   To Leth's surprise Shenwolf dropped onto one knee. He reached out and took Leth's hand. 'It has all returned to me. I know who you are.'

   With the contact of his hand Leth felt a curious sensation, something subtle and almost subliminal, best likened to a psychic breath upon the hairs of his skin. He felt that something flowed out of him. It came from his centre, a ripple of rarefied energy, and poured along the length of his arm, passing to Shenwolf. In the same moment he half-sensed a subtle motion in the air. He thought of invisible wings. The air stirred, fluxed, was suddenly filled with barely-perceived movement.

   Leth's thoughts flew back. He was waiting on Swiftwind's back in the service-yard of Orbia - the Orbia of Orbelon's
World, that was Lakewander's home. They were preparing for their second journey to the End of the World and beyond, to seek out and slay Ascaria. There had been a sudden outflowing of something, from within Orbia, from its stones and space and body. It had seemed that it had focused upon Leth, that something mysterious and indefinable had poured and fluttered from Orbia and surrounded, even entered, him. It had lasted only heartbeats, then all was still once more, leaving him wondering whether anything had really happened at all.

   Now it was repeated. But this time it was from himself that the unseen wings poured. They filled the air, then flowed about Shenwolf, were absorbed into him and were gone.

   All was still.

   'What-- what is happening?'

   Shenwolf released his hand and stood. His eyes shone and he was smiling. 'There is the confirmation. They are the souls of the Protectors that have just flowed from you. You brought them, for they were seeking me, to bring me back. Now I know that I will do no harm, at least not in my own home. It becomes clear now. I am the next Protector. I am joined with the souls of those who passed before me over many many eons. They will not permit me to commit wrong in Orbia.'

   Leth was uneasy. 'You said you 'know' who I am.'

   'You walk in the company of Destiny, Sire. You must have sensed something of that, with all that has befallen you and all that you have accomplished.'

   'Here I know only what others have told me. I am not filled with optimism or enthusiasm.'

   'There is purpose in everything,' said Shenwolf. 'Everything is interwoven. You are the Swordbearer, who came in answer to our plea. You have a role, here, still, in this world, and plainly in your own also. That is why you must seek the OrbSoul alone. But I can tell you no more, for I know only what I know. All else is for you to remember and discover.'

  
Remember!

   On so many occasions that sentiment had been expressed to Leth since he had first arrived in Orbelon's World.
As though he had been here before, long ago. Yet he had no sense either of remembrance or familiarity. This was an alien place. He wished only to do whatever had to be done so that he might return to his own world.

   And yet . . . when, with Lakewander, he had first encountered Count Harg and his murderous gang. . . Menaced, Lakewander had bidden him summon the Orbsword, which lay upon the ground close by.

   Had it been a memory that had stirred then, when he called the weapon and it had flown arrow-straight to his hand?

   It disturbed him.
The mystery. The not-knowing. He felt the stirrings of anger, and looked hotly at Shenwolf.

   'Time passes, Sire,' Shenwolf said.

   Leth shook his head resignedly. Somewhere . . . the Soul of the Orb . . .

   'Aye,' he said leadenly. 'We must make our preparations.'

iii

   The parting was not easy. Prince Galry and Princess Jace, distressed at their father's leaving, clung to him and wept and would not release him. Patiently, with tears welling behind his eyes, Leth explained to them, to his best ability, the reasons why he must depart. He hugged them to him and promised his speedy return, with profound pangs of guilt and misgiving, for it was a promise he was not sure he could keep. At last he was obliged to tear himself away, commanding Prince Galry to take his little sister's hand and comfort her. With a heavy heart, reluctantly leaving the two in Triune's care, he departed the Tower of Glancing Memory.

   An hour earlier Shenwolf had taken his leave. Like Leth, he was equipped with talismans provided by both Triune and Urch-Malmain, which would ward off the disorienting and maddening effects of the Shore of Nothing. But even with these, Leth had felt it unwise for the two of them to walk the Shore together. The memory of his experience there with Lakewander was still strong. He knew he had turned upon her. The atmosphere of the Shore had robbed him of mind and reason. He had been overcome by frenzy and had wanted to kill her. Instead . . .

  
Instead . . .

   He did not know exactly what had happened. An experience that compared to nothing he had known, the culmination of which had delivered him to Urch-Malmain's door.

   Leth had watched from a window as Shenwolf left Urch-Malmain's tower and made his way down the steep rocky trail to the head of low bluff overlooking the Shore of Nothing. At the lip of the bluff the young soldier had paused and turned back. Beyond him the coloured sands shimmered in a vivid, uncertain haze. High overhead the Orb of the Godworld blazed. Shenwolf had raised his hand in a final salute, which Leth returned. Then Shenwolf turned again and commenced his descent to the Shore. Within moments he was enveloped in the haze and lost to sight.

*

   Now Leth made his own way down towards the Shore, the Orblight glinting off his bright sapphire armour. At some later point, almost certainly, another would follow.

   Shenwolf, relieved of the obscurity Urch-Malmain had placed over his past, had immediately recognized Count Harg. Harg, contrarily and unsurprisingly, showed no sign of knowing him. Leth had told him Harg's story, as much as he knew of it. Shenwolf showed shock and concern, for he remembered Harg, as Lakewander had previously intimated, as a just and fair-minded man, if somewhat proud and hedonistic.

   Thus, before Leth left, Urch-Malmain was put to work to undo the iniquities he had performed upon Count Harg. Leth had added a condition - that Harg be given full recall of all he had done whilst under Urch-Malmain's influence, but that equally he be made aware that everything had been at Urch-Malmain's irresistible behest.

   'Perhaps then he may stand a chance of retaining some shred of sanity when he confronts the wrongs you had him commit,' Leth had
remarked acidly as Urch-Malmain made to lead Harg away. He gained Urch-Malmain's - and he hoped more reliably, Triune's - assurance that his command would be obeyed, but even so he wondered if it was the right thing. Could Harg survive the knowledge of himself that he was about to confront?

*

   As he wound his way down towards the Shore of Nothing Leth knew that he was watched: by Galry and Jace, by Triune. His heart was full, his blood and nerves charged with the anticipation of peril and the unknown. Like Shenwolf, he paused at the lip of the bluff overshadowing the Shore, and looked back. In a high window the small, pale round faces of his children could be seen. He waved, and his heart throbbed as he saw them wave back.

Be safe, my sweet, precious ones!

   He turned and with heavy steps descended into the silent waiting enigma of the Shore of Nothing.

iv

  
It is a void, and I fear it like I have feared nothing before.

   It is both outside of me and within.

   Timeless. Spaceless. Nothing.

   I cannot grasp it.

  The End of the World.

   I cannot bear to face it.

*

   He stood alone upon the Shore, staring into the impossible and ungraspable. Around him the strangely coloured sand and shingle threw up its distorting haze. It danced before his eyes, teasing and perplexing his vision and reason, but unlike before it had not robbed him of his mind. Not quite.

   His thoughts, if distracted, were lucid - certainly moreso than when he had come here with Lakewander. The talismans did their work, so he supposed. He had tramped for some minutes along the Shore's soft sand,
wading through phantoms and illusions, seeking details to fasten his gaze upon but finding little. Both Orbelon and Triune had advised him that he must penetrate deep along the Shore before turning to enter the Nothing. But now he had gone far enough, and had turned to face his fear, and was filled with dread and paralyzed.

  
Why? Why must I go there? I am afraid, I admit it.
I am afraid!

   A voice spoke soundlessly - in his ear?
In his mind? He could not tell.

  
'You fear, Leth? That is good. That is proper. But what is it that you fear? Is it truly Nothing? Here, where you quite literally cannot know?'

  
Orbelon?
Leth gazed about him.
Orbelon? You are with me? Where?

  
'I am within you and without you, Leth. As you, also, are both within and without me.'

   I do not understand.

   'Do not try to. It is Mystery. But you and I are joined, just as our worlds are joined, existing one within the other. Worlds within worlds within worlds; minds within minds within minds. Each containing the other, and being contained; each creating the other, and being created. We are one, Leth, and we seek our immortal Soul.'

  
Our
Soul? Leth blinked, shook his head. Before him the void loomed, and he could not bear to rest his eyes upon it. It seemed to invade him, to have worked its way somehow within him, tormenting him, enveloping and suffocating his soul.

  
'Be strong, Leth. Go forward. Do not falter.'

   I do not want to step over!

   'If you do not then we are lost, all of us. The cost will be greater than you can imagine. Think, Leth. Consider what it is that you are facing here.'

   The End of the World!

   'Or its beginning!'

   Leth recalled standing at the other end of the Shore with Lakewander. Her words: 'I have seen someone - several people - step from the beach. They have never been seen again.'

   She had bent and taken up a handful of small pebbles and tossed them into the Nothing. They had vanished, simply vanished, without shimmer or sound.

  
'What is Nothing, Leth?'

   I do not know.

   'Look upon it.'

   I cannot!

   'Look! It is not No-thing. It is a plenum, a seething maelstrom. It is unconsciousness, pure unconsciousness. It is unconscious awareness - without perception - of existence. In some form it knows, perhaps, that it is, but it does not know what. It is not aware, yet it senses an inner necessity. It is Nothing, as we perceive it, but it is imbued with ultimate need to become Something. It is a sea of potential becoming; the unawakened Self of my World. And within it, so we must trust and hope, lies my Soul. Reunited, we can begin to direct this void, guide it towards becoming what it should become, allow my World to grow and know itself again. But sundered, we wither, Soul and Creator, both impotent and helpless, imprisoned in our separate voids.'