Looking up at the towering figure of the great ice-serpent, she cried, ‘Taku, we’ve been attacked. Hellorin nearly killed us.’
Where were you?
Though her accusing question remained unspoken aloud, it hung so palpably between them that it might have been written on the air in fire.
‘The Forest Lord had help,’ Taku told her gravely. ‘We were attacked by the Moldan Aerillia, who prevented us from coming to your aid. You did well in battle.’
‘Yes, I suppose you’re feeling very pleased with yourself, Windeye.’ The form of the massive eagle, its wings rippling with a flood of translucent colours, stretched across the sky. ‘But who gave you permission to bring a stranger to this place?’
‘And more to the point, how did you bring her here?’ Taku added, his blue eyes glittering.
‘I had some help.’ Corisand tried to hide her dismay. She had never expected the Evanesar to be displeased by her autonomous actions. Her explanation of how the Cailleach had come to aid her, however, met with little approval.
‘It is forbidden for a Creator to interfere in this place,’ Aurora blazed.
‘It’s forbidden for her to interfere in the mundane world, too,’ the Windeye replied, ‘and she knows there will be a price to pay. But she also knows how much is at stake. The various races of our world all stand poised upon the brink of disaster. If there is any way she can avert that, she feels that she must take the risk.’
Taku, always the more temperate of the pair, was more uneasy than angry. ‘This intervention is unprecedented,’ he said. ‘The Elsewhere is an older place. We were here before the upstart Creator race; we remember when they came. I recall that we were concerned about the scope and depth of their powers, but Denali said, “Leave them be. Their work is in a different dimension from ours, and they do not try to interfere with us. These new worlds they like to build are but pale imitations of our own and, unlike the Moldai, who even now are negotiating to obtain some sort of foothold in one of the new realms, we have no wish to be involved. And think on this: it is well that they are a race of artisans, rather than warriors. These Creators are peaceful beings, and for that we must be profoundly thankful. Were such titanic powers as theirs to be turned to war and violence, the destruction would be incalculable. We must not risk pushing their thoughts in that direction by trying to prevent them from doing what they love. Let them be, I say. While they are preoccupied with their playthings, they can do no harm in the Elsewhere.”’
He sighed. ‘Nevertheless, I think the Cailleach may have sent you at the right time. Hellorin grows bold now. With the help of Aerillia he will take the Fialan, of that I am certain. Once he possesses it, he can conquer both worlds, with disastrous consequences for all of us. He must be stopped.’
Aurora’s colours darkened. ‘We cannot interfere, fixed as we are in the Elsewhere.’ Her piercing gaze transfixed the Wizard and the Windeye. ‘Only those with a foothold in both worlds can wield the Stone.’
‘There is no time to waste,’ Taku said. ‘You must go now, with our blessing. You travelled to the ice mountain through your mirror, Windeye. You know the way.’
‘But how will I . . . Oh, of course.’ Corisand, already in her Othersight, spun and twisted the winds to form her bridge of air. But this time, instead of heading for the glacier, it stretched in the opposite direction, towards the foot of the lake, down the seething falls and rapids as the land fell away to the coast, and eventually, to the sea.
She turned to see Iriana gazing at the shining construct, her eyes and mouth round with awe. ‘Come on.’ She held out a hand to the Wizard. ‘It’s perfectly safe.’
Iriana jolted out of her trance. ‘You made . . . You just-’ she waved and twirled her hands in the air ‘-and there it was.’ She shook herself as though emerging from deep water and turned to the Windeye, her face alight with a devilish grin. ‘By the Light, but I absolutely love this place.’ She took Corisand’s hand and together they stepped out onto the bridge.
‘No matter how much you love the Elsewhere,’ Taku said in warning, ‘never forget for a single instant what a perilous place it is. Enjoy the beauty by all means, but be on your guard at all times. You must be ready to defend yourselves, for Hellorin will most certainly attack again.’
Then Aurora spoke. ‘You have confidence in your abilities, Windeye, to think you can construct a bridge that will carry you so far, but it is not necessary. You are still recovering from your battle with Hellorin, though your energies are regenerating very quickly due to the magic of this place. Nonetheless, why tax your powers when there is no need? I can take you a certain distance myself. The Moldai have their own realm here in the Elsewhere, and for one of my kind to cross its boundaries would be an act of open war. But you are small. You do not come from this world, and your powers will be unfamiliar. I hope you will be able to pass unnoticed where I cannot.’
‘I did not pass unnoticed last time,’ Corisand pointed out.
‘So there’s still a risk,’ Iriana said bluntly. The innate temerity of her race could not help but come to the fore, as did the curiosity. ‘What about the others of your race? Should there not be two more of you? Earth and Fire? Could they not help us? Where do they stand?’
Taku sighed. ‘Alas, even the Evanesar are divided over this business of the Fialan. So far, the others have refused to become involved. Katmai quarrelled with me bitterly over the need to bring you here at all, and Denali remains isolated in her own domain, the Labyrinth of the Mists.’ Love gentled his voice. ‘I hope that one day you may see it. Oh, the beauty! The calm, shining ocean; the miles upon miles of convoluted cliffs and islands twisting and twining back upon one another to form bays and deep inlets; the thousands of slender waterfalls cascading down the escarpments in sprays of silver; the mists glowing softly with ever-changing rainbows. Denali, the oldest, the wisest of us all, withdrew there after the terrible events surrounding the Fialan’s creation. War and discord are too painful for her gentle nature, and so she waits, lost in a waking dream, for the world to change again.’
For a long, sad moment there was silence, then Aurora broke the spell of Taku’s words. ‘Well, unlike Denali, at least we are making an effort to bring that change about. Come, little Windeye, little Wizard. Come with me, and I will take you where you need to go.’
Night had fallen. The form of the eagle melted back into the glimmering swathes of Aurora’s many colours that stretched across the star-scattered sky in streaming curtains of coruscating light; great looping, twisting ropes of rainbow hues that undulated across the firmament like smoke. One of these streams of radiance swirled down to where Corisand and Iriana stood upon the bridge of air, and coiled about them. Strange buzzes, crackles and a sound like distant thunder reverberated through them as they were lifted gently into the sky, and they could feel the tides of energy and power surging through their bodies, linking them to the Evanesar with bonds of magic.
With Taku’s farewells ringing in their ears, they learned what it was like to fly with Aurora.
As they looked down, the world was tinted with shifting, drifting shades: red and purple, gold and green and blue. The lakes and mountains passed beneath them, and they swooped down across the ocean, then turned northward up the coast with its forested inlets, its clusters of tiny offshore islands and the glaciers tracing glittering paths from the mountains to the coast. And all around them, the colours of the world kept shimmering, flowing, changing. They flew high upon wings of wonder over a land of heart-wrenching beauty, the memory of which would remain bright and precious to the ending of their days.