A Blackbird In Silver (Book 1) (39 page)

‘Forgive me, my Lady,’ Ashurek broke in, ‘but you speak of our Quest as if we had trod easily through some preordained ritual. We have felt more like three floats, tossed by a child into a raging torrent to see how we fare. Can you tell us the truth? Are we just playthings to be fought over by the Serpent and its enemies?’

‘I’d tell you the truth if I could,’ the Lady sighed, ‘but it will not be pinned down. I can only tell you what I know and believe.’

‘Tell us then. It’s why Silvren sent me here,’ Ashurek said shortly.

‘You have all set out to slay the Serpent for personal reasons, but it must be slain for the sake of the Earth and Planes, and even our universe. Did Eldor tell you anything of this?’

‘Not much. Silvren seems to know more than Eldor,’ Estarinel said.

‘That is not so, but I can see his reasons for saying little. He did not want to discourage you.’ A light shone from the Lady’s lovely face as she spoke. ‘I will tell you a history of the Earth that may help to explain what is happening. Many billions of years ago there was a great whirling of energies in the cosmos, and out of it was spun the world with two lifeless moons. This energy was not “good” or “evil”; it was simply energy, but part of it spun outwards and part inwards, so creating a balance. They say that as the two spinning parts touched each other, creating immeasurable fields of force, the three Planes came into being – each flat and infinite, populated for eternity by static life-forms, and existing in its own dimension.

‘As the part of the power we are now pleased to consider “evil” spun inwards, it became ever more concentrated in the centre of the Earth. At last, as fires fell into the oceans, a living creature was born of that infinitely concentrated energy.

‘It was borne up in the water until the seas of the Arctic froze beneath it, and it was left lying in snow at the North Pole.

‘Later, when men came to the world and saw the shape of it, they called it a Serpent. But in those days it simply
was
, and it was all-powerful. It had three eyes with which it could see everything, control the elements and even manipulate the creatures that would inhabit the world. In effect, the eyes made it omniscient. It was in such complete control of the Earth that it almost was the Earth. And it lay there, toying with the land masses of the world and waiting for life to evolve so that it might feed on the energy that would be produced.

‘Then the Guardians, as they are called, began to notice what was happening on this newly-born Earth. They are neutral beings who try to regulate a balance in the energies of the universe. They looked at the world and knew they must bring order to it.

‘To the life-forms of the Planes they brought shape and thought, and they made a mechanism, now called the Glass City, to create and maintain Entrance Points. This was so that the Planes could assist Earth and be a true part of her; but their work was not perfect, of course.

‘There was little they could do about the negative energy that had become the Worm. They mounted a dangerous mission and took its third eye from it, so it would never hold full sway over the world. This caused a drastic reduction of its power.

‘What we must understand is that the Worm is composed of a vast negative energy that is spinning inwards, whereas the positive energy that is its opposite is spinning outwards and dispersing. But the Guardians were able to capture a small part of the positive life-force and create a second creature, a bird. Then the Serpent’s third eye was placed under the bird’s protection, so that M’gulfn should never regain it.’

Ashurek became still and tense as he heard this. The Lady went on. ‘At this, the Serpent grew afraid and began to create its own creatures out of its abundant energies. The most notable of these were the Shana, the demons; but the Guardians placed limitations on them, so they were confined to their own Region. Then the Guardians thought they had done all they could and left Earth, though a few stayed to watch what would happen.

‘Life evolved at last; plants and animals and finally men. Of all the lands, the island of Forluin was the only one that the Worm had overlooked, and so the only place where people lived free of its influence.

‘Everywhere else it had laid the basis of its work, and soon found willing agents. It made a refuge for its mind within a human, so that it would survive if attacked. And although attempts have been made to kill it, all have failed miserably, and its power grows. You have all seen evidence of its work, in Gastada and Arlenmia, in Gorethria and the demons; I do not have to tell you what appalling evil and suffering it has caused. But there is more and worse.

‘Energy cannot cease its motion. The negative energy is still concentrating inwards, the positive dispersing outwards. And now, after all these billions of years it is reaching the summit of its power, while the “good” power has almost dispersed entirely.’

Estarinel broke in, ‘Silvren said that when that happens, the Earth would be unable to evolve but would become – how did she put it? “A bloated sac that can never expel its poison”.’

‘Yes, she is exactly right. The Serpent should die because of that, but also because energies all across the universe will displace and cause untold chaos.’

‘You have answered my question,’ Ashurek said grimly. ‘Now I know what I suspected is true; we are just the puppets of benign figures, trying to put their precious universe to rights. I’d be inclined to say, let the Serpent rule and chaos take them!’

‘Thank goodness no one else shares that opinion!’ a voice called. It was the red-haired woman. She grinned cheerily at Ashurek. He continued, speaking again to the Lady.

‘If I understand you… the Egg-Stone I took from Miril is the Serpent’s third eye?’

‘It is so.’ The Lady spoke without condemnation. ‘Can you remember what she said when you took it?’

‘Yes, every word. She said that it had been given into her keeping so that the Earth was protected from it… but she would not stop me taking it, because the Worm’s time had come. And she said that she is the world’s Hope, but unless I find her again, the world will be doomed…’ he trailed off, lost in acutely sad memories of Miril.

‘She was the world’s Hope,’ the Lady said, sighing gently, ‘for she was a piece of that elusive creative energy that is deserting the world. You, Ashurek, unleashed that Third Eye upon the world, and that was when the Serpent’s power began its terrible acceleration.’

‘I know that now,’ he said.

‘But you didn’t then. At least the Serpent didn’t regain the Eye, thanks to the selfish ambitions of the Shana who want their own power. You can imagine its anger, and especially at poor Forluin, over which it still had no influence.’

Estarinel bowed his head, painful memories returning.

‘There is yet more.’ the Lady went on, azure light glowing around her. ‘It is painful to admit selfish reasons for wanting the Serpent killed. However, I must. H’tebhmella also has her own motive in wanting its death. As you know, all the Planes have two sides. This side faces down, as it were, to Earth, whereas the other side faces out to the universe – faces infinity and eternity.’ She fell silent as if too sad to go on.

‘What is on the other side?’ Estarinel asked quietly.

‘Paradise,’ the Lady answered. ‘That is one name far it. But a clot of darkness is preventing access to it – not only for us, but for all living beings. A terrible, evil trick was played on us, the darkness woven there without our knowledge, and it must be cleansed.’ Estarinel and Medrian stared at her, and Ashurek’s face fell in horror as she finished.

‘The Dark Regions are there.’

#

In Forluin, within a small stone cottage, a young woman looked through her window across a valley. Her small, sweet face was set in a mask of sorrow and her thick brown hair hung in an uncombed tangle to her waist.

The valley had once been green, full of animals, clad in hedges and trees. Now it was a sick, desolate grey, covered in ash and soaked with the Worm’s poison. The girl gazed steadily upon the crumbled ruins of a house, where only a few days earlier they had greeted Arlena and Falin home from their sea voyage. The ruins looked so still and sad, like a small animal that had died of fear.

Behind her a young man entered the room.

‘Lilithea,’ he said, ‘you’ve been sitting there for hours. It won’t help.’ His own face was white and his eyes reddened with tears. She reached out and took his hand.

‘I can’t see how it could’ve happened, Falin,’ she said. ‘Can that creature kill even when it isn’t here? First his father died of the fever…. now this…’

The Serpent’s poison had spread and, as if it had soaked and consumed the mortar, the farmhouse had collapsed without warning upon its inhabitants: Estarinel’s mother and two sisters. And I have lost Arlena, was Falin’s continual, inconsolable thaught.

‘I still can’t believe it,’ he half-sobbed. ‘Oh Lili, how are we ever going to tell E’rinel when he comes home?’

‘Perhaps he won’t come home,’ she said, her throat tight. ‘The creature won’t rest until we are all dead. How can he do anything to stop it, just him? At least he wouldn’t ever know what’s happened to his family.’

‘Or see that although the Worm only came once, things are getting worse and worse. I still hope he comes back, though,’ Falin said, his voice thick with grief.

‘Falin, I can’t stay here any longer,’ Lilithea said. ‘Too many memories. It’s too much.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘South… where my parents live. Do you want to come?’

‘No, I’ll stay in the village, in case E’rinel does come back. There’s a lot to do as well, for all it’s worth… You’ll take care, won’t you, Lili?’

She nodded, unable to force a smile. ‘Yes, I’ll take care.’

For all it’s worth, she thought. And when Estarinel comes back, as I know he will, I wonder if I’ll have the strength to bear his grief as well as mine, and to hold him and bury my hands in his hair, and love him until he forgets. Would I even try?

#

On the Blue Plane, a flat crystal that was as delicate and lovely as blue glass, the meeting continued. The Lady listened gravely as Estarinel spoke, his voice full of doubt.

‘You’ve explained clearly enough why M’gulfn should be slain, but it sounds even more difficult than I’d thought. We’ve already been told it’s impossible, and I thought that was because it was merely powerful… but how can we even think of destroying something made of a vast, evil energy?’

‘Certainly nothing exists on Earth with which you could destroy it,’ the Lady said gently. ‘But this is precisely why you had to come to the Blue Plane; because information that the Serpent must not know can only be kept here. Soon there will be a way.’

For a moment he wished that the Lady had said, ‘There is no way; why not give up and go home? It is not your responsibility.’ But there could be no thought of turning back. What they had taken upon themselves they must fulfil.

‘If I say the only thing that can destroy the negative energy is the positive, you will understand the logic of it,’ she went on, light from the spring dancing over her lovely, serious face. ‘I said the positive energy is dispersing, so that too sounds impossible. But the Guardians are working upon a project based on a tenuous theory.

‘The energy spins in an ever-increasing circle, but it must soon enter a domain where it will exist on a different scale, as a comparatively small sphere of power. There they hope to capture and contain it within an ancient supernatural weapon: the Silver Staff.

‘Then you must undertake a perilous journey to fetch the weapon. It will be dangerous and perhaps unlikely to succeed; but I tell you this is our only hope.’

‘It’s little enough, but no less than I expected,’ said Ashurek drily. ‘But there are other obstacles. What of the Worm’s human host? Surely it will survive if the host isn’t killed as well, and all our efforts will have been wasted.’

‘You are right; but again the answer lies in the Silver Staff.’

‘And what of Miril?’ Ashurek persisted, looking grim.

‘I do not know,’ the Lady said frankly. ‘If she must be found again, you’ll have to find her in your own way. All I know for certain is that the Silver Staff will be your greatest, and only, weapon.’

‘We’ll help you in what other ways we can. A warrior, Calorn,’ – she indicated the tall rust-haired woman – ‘will help you find the Staff, and we’ll give you all you need to survive the Arctic snows.’

Suddenly the prospect of actually setting out to face M’gulfn struck a cold blow to Estarinel’s soul. Momentarily his sight was obscured by a vision of lights burning on snow; of someone turning this way and that, crying out as if pitifully lost; red glass and shadowy figures that looked straight through him; and the cold, cold, cold… the vision passed and the coldness subsided, but for some reason he could not look at Medrian.

They waited for the Lady to go on, but she fell silent. Then Medrian spoke, so softly that some of the H’tebhmellians leaned forward to hear her.

‘There is one small thing in our favour,’ she said. ‘No one has thought of it, but it may be important. The Serpent quests for world domination, but it is old and tired. It has been there for billions of years. So perhaps it does not regard the idea of eternal life as favourably as we think. That is all.’

Estarinel took her hand and kissed her, grateful for her words of encouragement.