The Sleeper Sword (70 page)

No.
“Tell them I love them,” she managed, before turning to bury her
face in Tymall’s chest.

His arms
encircled her. “Go, father. You have your wife and your slave. You
won this round.”

Margus broke
the tableau. Striding across the chamber to Torrullin with a marked
limp, he said, “Another time, Enchanter. Let us leave this
place.”

Torrullin
nodded and gripped the Darak Or’s arm. “Fay, you are welcome to
return,” he said before beginning the transport. “You are a
daughter of the Valleur.”

As they
dematerialised, Margus snarled into Tymall’s face, “I swear to you,
Warlock, you will die by my hand.”

Tymall laughed
and then, the instant they were gone, launched across to the table,
dragging Fay with him.

The Medaillon
was gone and he had not seen his father take it.

Chapter
61

... home and
stone, hearth and heart, home and stone, hearth and heart, home
...

~ Chant

Mentally and
physically depleted, Saska slept for two days.

While she
slept Mitrill suffered hysterics.

Margus prowled
the battlements like a caged cathron, unable to rest.

Samuel tried
his best to keep all parties happy. To no avail.

On the third
morning, as Saska awakened in the suite she and Torrullin shared,
Caltian planted himself firmly in the centre of the courtyard and
cried out, “
Torrullin
!”

He looked up
from the diagram he put together from memory - the castle and
surrounds - and sighed. Caltian’s patience had snapped.

Moments later
he alighted before the dark-haired man. “What more must I tell you?
I have explained as best I could.”

“I want to
know where the castle is.”

“No.”

“I’m prepared
to die for my daughter. Dare you deny me that?”

“No, but this
is not the way.”

“I must wait
while she inhabits his stronghold and his bed? He will change
her!”

“She achieved
that herself.”

“She has no
protection. How dare you imply …”

“Hush, old
friend. You speak now as a father, and you need to see as a Valleur
man. You know she changed after I came, and it went beyond personal
disagreements. Look into your heart and deny it started when my son
came to you in Linir. Look back even further and be honest. Admit
it really began with the sundering of her blood. She has been
unhappy for a long time, and has also felt worthless and unworthy.
He fills that void for her. Staying was her choice and she needs to
prove her worth in attempting to divert him from us … and she needs
him. Going there will hurt her more than if you stay. How will she
assimilate her father’s death when she will regard it as her fault?
Do not do that to her.”

Caltian
deflated. “I can’t give up on her, dear god.”

“No one is
giving up on her.”

Caltian closed
his eyes and passed a hand over his face. “I ask leave to take
Mitrill to Luvanor. We need to get away from here.”

“From me. I
understand. Go. I’ll call if anything transpires, you have my
word.”

Caltian
nodded. “Torrullin, I’m sorry. Mitrill is angry …”

“I understand
…” Torrullin paused and looked up. And smiled. “Saska is
awake.”

Without a
further word he sprinted all the way to their suite.

Sitting in
bed, Saska had eyes only for the door.

A smile played
at her lips. Any second now …

He was there,
crossing to her, his eyes bright.

“You are so
beautiful, my love,” she whispered, drinking him in.

He laughed,
sat on the bed and leaned in to nuzzle her neck. “Not half as
beautiful as my wife.”

She sighed in
pure bliss and held him. “We made it through, Torrullin. Here we
are once more.”

He lifted his
head from her neck trailing his lips along her cheekbone until he
found her lips. He kissed her with great tenderness, before drawing
back to say, “I love you.”

A single tear
slid out of the corner of her left eye. “I love you.”

He drew her
into his arms again and they sat that way for some time, content
with simple intimacy. Then he rose and went to holler from the
balcony outside for someone to bring breakfast for they were
starving and what kind of service was this? His loud chuckle after
left the Keep in no doubt as to his happiness.

Still smiling,
he re-entered the chamber and flung onto the bed.

“Your shoes,
husband!”

He gave a mock
groan. “Lord, I have a nagging wife!”

Snorting,
Saska left the bed for the bathroom, and felt his gaze on her.
Swaying her hips, she flicked a promising glance over her shoulder
before vanishing.

“Watch it,
wench!” she heard him call out and laughed to herself.

Saska stared
into the mirror and her smile disappeared. Torrullin healed bruises
and torn skin, but she did not recognise the woman in the
reflection. She was a stranger.

She could not
look away, not even when Torrullin called to say breakfast had
arrived.

“Saska?” His
voice at the door, concerned.

“I don’t know
her. She looks the same, but she is not me.” The tears came then
and so too his arms, his warmth cradling her back.

“It’s the
person inside that’s different, my love,” he murmured and then
firmly turned her away from the mirror to face him. Catching her
stricken gaze, he said, “I know this is not what you want to hear,
but you will get used to her. She will become you soon, but you
will not lose yourself, I promise you. You compromise until the
relationship fits.”

“It’s not
fair. I did nothing wrong.”

He drew her
close. “It’s never fair and never easy.”

She sighed and
then gently pushed him away. Putting on a bright smile, she said,
“Go eat your breakfast. I’m going to have the longest bath …”

Gaze
thoughtful, he nodded. She needed to be alone. How well he knew the
feeling. Touching her face, he murmured, “Take your time.” He
left.

Later, over
lunch, breakfast having gone untouched, she asked about Valaris and
he told her. When he finished, she asked, “What will his next move
be?”

“He’ll start
with a Valla. To prove to Fay she has no sway and to goad me. I aim
not to allow it. After that he will visit catastrophe on others,
the kind I cannot fix, and it will be seen as my doing. He seeks to
turn Valarians again, and eventually even the Valleur, against me.
He knows the former will cause me pain, but the latter will
unbalance me.”

“He desires
Destroyer in supremacy.”

“He admitted
that?”

“In a
roundabout way.”

Torrullin set
his knife and fork down. “Did he rape you?”

She gripped
his hands. The question cost him, she knew. “Look into my eyes.
Tymall tried, Torrullin, I won’t hide that, and only the once, but
he didn’t succeed. I swear it to you.”

He slumped
until his forehead rested on their hands. She drew one out and
stroked his fair hair, loving him for caring.

“It’s okay, my
love, it’s over now.”

He was
guilt-stricken. “I couldn’t find you and I knew he had you. I had
to bide my time, but I was at my wits end and then Fay came forward
…”

“Hush,
Torrullin. He treated me well until a few days ago.”

“Fay?” he
asked, raising her hands to his lips.

“When she
came, it changed, yes.”

“I feel as if
I gave her to him to free you. And, Saska, I’d make the same deal,
any deal with any devil; how can I be relieved and so happy,
knowing what I did?”

She placed her
fingers over his mouth. “You get no argument from me. I am happy
and relieved as well.”

Sighing, he
stood. “Are you strong enough to take a walk?”

Saska smiled.
“I need to get back into form, and I’d love to see Torrke renewed
to its former glory.”

“Dalrish’s
science was mind-boggling,” Saska said as they wandered the tawny
stone road, heading east.

“He needed new
isotopes to start his formula, because there was no radiation to
counteract, and he and Quilla squinted over test tubes and vials
and things for weeks before finding the right ingredient - don’t
ask, it’s a mystery to me.” She grinned. “The Q’lin’la flew into
the outer reaches with ears to the ground searching for new
compounds, some pretty radical! They did it with a smile, their
gift, they said. Then, when all was ready …”

She halted and
turned to face west.

“The western
entrance was a solid wall of black glass, opaque, lightless. It
didn’t even reflect light, but seemed to absorb it. It was the same
everywhere in the valley, but that was our starting point.” She
turned again. Glancing at Torrullin she saw how tense he was.
“There was a strange beauty to the whole, a brooding quality, and I
think the Valleur then truly recognised the power of the
Throne.”

“Yes, I
noticed a difference in their reverence.”

“Well, there
we were - Dalrish, Quilla, Kismet and I. Quilla forbade others,
particularly the heavily pregnant Mitrill, to accompany us for the
first test. Did he ever take flack, but Quilla can be scary when
he’s adamant!” She smiled when he grinned. “Dalrish unstoppered a
small vial and our hearts nearly stopped, we were that anxious for
it to work. He poured it out in a rush, running it down from
shoulder height along the sheer sheet …”

Torrullin came
to a stop listening intently, thus she stopped and turned to face
him.

“It was like
magic, Torrullin! Science, but pure magic!”

“It
worked?”

“In an
instant! There was a hiss and fragrant steam billowed out. We were
uncertain what it meant, but when the steam blew aside there was a
fissure … of nothing! The glassy substance simply dematerialised!
Gods, you should have seen us!” Saska laughed, clapping her hands.
“We danced like teenagers, whooped it out!”

He grinned.
“It was the right formula?”

“It was
perfect! Well, we went right back to the laboratory in the islands
and we started to produce in quantity - slow going, for the formula
weakened when proportions were too large. And, daily, hourly, the
Valleur flitted between the islands and the valley to pour it out.
The entrance alone took months to clear.”

“When did you
step in?”

“We cleared
through to the ground in a grid, crisscrossing the entire valley,
months of unstinting labour. Once there was sufficient exposure, I
stepped in. New green pushed through the cracks after a time and
eventually aided the recovery process. It was satisfying work,
especially because we knew why we worked hard to achieve it.”

“Why was
that?”

Saska stilled
and took a breath. “I know how much you came to resent the
pedestal, although only with hindsight, but we did it because of
you, and if that constitutes another podium, then that’s the way it
was. Not one of us would have done it otherwise.”

He looked away
and then, “Did Dalrish stay to see it achieved?”

“No. Once it
went smoothly he left for Xen with Lowen, taking with him prepared
formula for the radioactive atmosphere of his world. Apparently the
reaction and renewal is faster in those circumstances, something to
do with the volatility of fission; thus, when he landed, he went
straight out into the poisoned air, wearing gear of course, with
horrified onlookers watching his every move. We heard his image was
relayed to huge viewing screens in every dome; the act of going out
was that unprecedented, which was what he counted on.”

Saska smiled.
“In full view of his watchers he poured his formula onto the ground
… and the rest is history. It worked, a multitude of green shots
shot out from the ground and spread, and by the time he re-entered
the dome everyone wanted to know how he did that; even the lowest
criminal was prepared to protect him in order to see the promise of
a clean world come to pass. Dalrish commuted between Xen and
Valaris and saw both experiments succeed beyond his wildest
dreams.”

“Was it enough
to clear him of murder?”

“He told you
about his father?”

Torrullin
shrugged. “We talked. Did they indict him before he became
Peacekeeper?”

Saska shook
her head. “By the time the authorities learned he was back there
was already such a scandal surrounding his father, so much fraud
and corruption, and murder, the son was regarded as a hero, besides
his dark reputation as crime lord. That and his success with the
air and earth, and he was asked to step up as Peacekeeper. He
refused, but the populace insisted, and he agreed, with a proviso
he’d take up the reins when he fulfilled his promise to bring the
domes down, which he did before long. Spectacularly.”

“Sometimes it
works,” Torrullin murmured.

“Ah, my love,
those were incredible times. Suddenly everyone spoke of universal
peace and meant it.”

“As I said,
sometimes it works.”

Saska laughed
and walked into his arms. “We are in your debt. No matter what the
future brings, two millennia of peace and prosperity gifted so many
so much. The Light is strong and beyond that, there are new
inventions, new philosophies, great buildings of learning, new
travel routes; the universe has grown, my love.”

Later, as they
strolled back towards the Keep in the amber glows of sunset, Saska
asked, “Will you tell me?”

He sighed and
drew her off the path.

Together they
sat under the spreading branches of an oak as ancient as the land,
impossible as that may seem, and by the light and warmth of a
conjured fire he told her of the invisible realm known at the
Plane, leaving nothing out.