Suddenly, she realised that she might be even closer than she’d thought. As she approached the cliff, what she’d believed, from a distance, to be a shadowy illusion of the ice formation revealed itself to be a cave.
In her excitement she forgot that her reserves of energy were dwindling. The cave lengthened into a tunnel that sloped upwards into the mountain, and she followed it until she found herself crawling out of a pool into a vast cavern. Looking around, she discovered that another tunnel left it on the opposite side. Iriana lay there for a few moments, gasping and spluttering, until her lungs adjusted back to breathing air.
Though the mountain still appeared to have been carved out of ice, the smooth floor of the cavern was a comfortable temperature beneath her. Why, it’s not ice at all, she realised. She let her sense sink a little way beneath the surface as she had been taught, searching the underlying structure, and: ‘By the light!’ she gasped. ‘It’s diamond.’
Ghabal had made himself an impregnable fortress. Not even another Moldan could destroy diamond.
The floor was almost warm, and Iriana felt like weeping with relief. She was so tired of fighting the merciless, inexorable cold. She lay limply for a while, feeling comfortable and drowsy. I’ll move in a minute, she thought. Just need to get a little strength back . . .
Iriana shot up with a guilty start, horrified that she had let herself doze. She felt better for the rest, though she didn’t think she’d slept for long, but she was horrified that she had left herself unguarded in the enemy’s lair. Ghabal, however, appeared to have no inkling of her presence. Probably thinks I’m dead, she thought. Probably concentrating on Corisand now.
Corisand!
What was happening to the Windeye? And what about the shield? While she slept, she had stopped maintaining their defence. Had her friend been captured? Killed? She was afraid to call out in mindspeech lest the Moldan should somehow hear.
The frantic Wizard dived back into the freezing pool and, as soon as her lungs adjusted, swam as hard as she could back down the tunnel to the open sea, surfacing as close to the cliff as she dared. If the Moldan noticed her now she was done. She was surprised at how little remained of the ice field she had crossed, though the fastness itself was undiminished - and now she knew why.
Further along the cliff was a deep bay with a flat beach of sorts, and she swam towards it, anxious to get out of the cold water. So far, there was no sign of Corisand. She swam into the inlet and tried to scramble up onto the level beach, but once again the cold had drained her, and try as she might, she kept losing her grip on the smooth surface and falling back into the sea.
Out of nowhere a hand appeared and seized her wrist in an iron grip. ‘Quick,’ said a familiar voice. ‘Let me get you under my shadow-cloak. Then I’m going to kill you for giving me such a fright.’
With Corisand’s help, the Wizard scrambled out of the water and rolled onto her back, an enormous grin on her face. Now that she was under the shadow-cloak herself she could see the Windeye. She staggered upright and hugged her hard.
‘Oh, but I’m glad to see you.’ Corisand’s voice was unsteady and choked. ‘When your shield failed, I thought—’
She broke off, pulling back from Iriana and rubbing at her face, then staring in astonishment at the moisture on her fingers. ‘What in the world—’
‘They’re tears,’ Iriana explained. ‘We get them at times of extreme emotion - either sorrow or joy. I suppose that as a horse you never wept.’
‘What an extraordinary thing,’ Corisand said - then changed her tone abruptly. ‘But we don’t have time for such nonsense now.’ Impatiently she wiped them away. ‘Where have you been? What happened to you? How did you survive? What are we going to do now?’
‘First, let’s get our shield back up,’ Iriana said. ‘Then I’ll tell you everything.’
‘No. Never. Absolutely, positively, categorically not. Not under any circumstances. ’ Corisand looked down into the water and shivered. ‘There is no way in this world or the other that you’re going to get me to jump in there.’
‘I wasn’t asking you to jump,’ Iriana said calmly. ‘If you jump you’ll gasp automatically from the cold, and your lungs will fill with water. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me, I’m the only one who can breathe underwater. You need to lower yourself in gradually, and—’
‘And go diving into caves.’ Corisand glared at her. ‘Have you completely lost your mind?’
‘Can you think of another way to get into the fastness? This was always going to be the difficult part.’
‘But he’s bound to know that tunnel’s there,’ the Windeye argued. ‘What if he’s waiting at the far end of it to pounce on us like a cat on a mouse?’
‘That is the weak point of my plan, I must admit. I thought that maybe you could think of something.’
‘Me? Why me?’
The Wizard shrugged. ‘Because so far nothing has occurred to me. I’m convinced this is our only chance, Corisand. This whole damned peak is solid diamond. He built it from the most impervious substance possible.’
The Windeye turned away from the sea and stared up at the peak. ‘And it’s only a matter of time before he finds out where we are. When your part of the shield disappeared I spun the best shadow-cloak of my life to conceal myself, and that was when he lost me, but I can’t hide both of us so well. The bigger the cloak, the more difficult it is to maintain. Sooner or later my concentration will slip, and the Moldan will be out of this mountain like a—’ She broke off as an extraordinary idea exploded into her brain. ‘Iriana, listen. I think I’ve found a way . . .’
It took a while for them to refine their plan and straighten out the details, but at last they felt they had covered all eventualities - at least, as best they could. Windeye and Wizard looked at one another. Corisand thought that Iriana looked pale but determined, and suspected that her friend was seeing a similar expression on her own face. She swallowed hard. ‘Are you ready?’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for something as dangerous as this, but I’m not going to let that stop me.’ Briefly, Iriana clasped the Windeye’s hand. ‘Go on, Corisand - and make it a good one.’
The Windeye concentrated, letting her Othersight flood through her like a wave of cool, liquid silver. When she was ready, she began to gather the winds. More she took, and more: more than she had ever handled before. She took her time - there would be only one chance to get this right - and never for an instant let her concentration waver. Such a huge mass of air was difficult to contain and control, but the challenge filled her with a heady delight. She might not have had the Academy, but even on her own, newly-fledged into her powers, she was good.
When she had gathered enough, she began to spin.
Not a shadow-cloak this time; not a mirror of seeing. Instead she spun an illusion, throwing all her heart and soul into the pure joy of creation.
Out of the sea he rose: the gargantuan, fearsome form of the Phaerie Lord, his grey eyes flashing, his dark hair flying wild and his face ablaze with savage purpose. He wielded a gigantic, glittering blade. ‘Come out, Ghabal.’ The thunder of his voice was deafening. ‘Come out and fight. Too long have you skulked and festered like a coward in your diamond fastness. You are sickly, weak and puny, beneath contempt, and no fit guardian of the Fialan. It should belong to me, as it did once before. When I have finished you, it will belong to me again. Come out and fight me if you dare, you craven, grovelling fool.’