He pulled himself to his feet and approached Ash. The girl sat on the grassy floor of the bowl staring at her hands, as she had been doing for the last several minutes. Marrec pulled out her bedroll and gently laid the child down for a nap. Without complaint, the child sighed and fell into a light sleep. He lightly touched the girl’s face with the back of his hand, considering her plight.
“What’s your part in all this?” Another thought struck him. “Who are your parents, little one? Your real parents, I mean. I bet they’re worried about you. A parent always worries…”
Ash began to snore, very light, but audibly and endearing. ‹§›SSSS
Young Marrec’s mind reeled at Thanial’s revelation.
Who… what? Snakes? He scrubbed at his head, feeling again the scars hidden by his hairline. His fingers shrank from the touch.
A dark bubble rose from the shrouded recesses of his consciousness, prodded by Thanial’s words. The bubble popped. Images and feelings of a forgotten childhood flooded the young man.
… He was happy. He scampered down a forest path, screaming in childish delight, clutching his rattle. He was playing his favorite game with Aunt Sthenno. Hide and Seek! He laughed and dived beneath a holly bush.
“Where are you, little one?” called the voice of his aunt, farther up along the path.
Young Marrec managed to stifle a giggle. He squirmed back beneath the bush. Aunt Sthenno had been known to miss him before. Not so Aunt Euryale. That’s why he didn’t play Hide and Seek any more with her. She was no fun.
Mother never played. She left games for her two sisters. She was always involved in her work, though she made time for her boy for an hour every night. Sometimes she spoke wistfully to Marrec about his dear departed father, but Marrec was too young to understand her meaning. His aunts never liked it when Mother brought up that topic, responding with, “It could never have worked, sister. He was not of our kind. He was so vulnerable.” That only made Mother sad. For little Marrec, it was just more talk that he was too young to comprehend.
“Are you… here?” Sthenno was still a little way down the path. She was looking under a stone she had pried up with her foot. With an effort of will more concentrated than he’d thought possible, young Marrec managed to keep from laughing at his aunt’s antics. She moved a little farther down the path and peered into the tiny knothole of a tree. “Here?” The boy clamped his hand over his mouth to keep from chortling aloud.
Sthenno frowned, then moved quickly back the way she’d come. He’d fooled her. Usually, Marrec betrayed his spot with some small noise of childish glee. He grinned, then settled back to wait more comfortably.
It might have been the extra comb of honey he’d taken without Mother’s knowledge earlier or perhaps the warm, pleasant day with a cooling breeze that kept him from becoming too hot. Whatever the reason, he fell into a doze, then a true sleep, all cares falling from his child mind.
When Marrec finally startled awake, it was dark. More than that, it was cold, and a night mist had sprung up all around, making the path hard to see and effectively blurring all the points of familiarity that the child had recognized before sleep claimed him.
He didn’t like the dark.
Then he couldn’t avoid making a small noise, but of alarm, not amusement. The importance of not wandering off had been impressed upon him on several occasions. As far as wandering out in the dark, he’d been explicitly forbidden it, yet there he was. Mother would be so angry!
He broke from his hiding spot then stopped. It really was dark, so dark he couldn’t really see where the path lay. He guessed and began walking. When he stumbled into a tree, he began to cry whole-heartedly, no more half-measures on that front. He bawled for his mother.
He imagined her coming upon him just then. She’d tell him it was all right and take him home. She’d reach down, pick him up, and carry him as she so often did. He would run his fingers through her soft hair, avoiding the thicker, coiling lengths with a fierce life all their own.
CHAPTER 11
Marrec nodded. He stood just behind Ususi, leading her horse and his. He also had hold of Henri’s bridle, but Ash was mounted up. Elowen and Gunggari brought up the rear, each leading their own mount.
Ususi stood before the gap between two standing stones where she’d spent the last hour concentrating on the glowing Keystone. It continued to glow, even brighter than before, if possible, clutched in Ususi’s left hand. The leather thong the stone was attached to was wound tightly around her wrist.
“So,” wondered Marrec, as nothing continued to happen, “we step through and we’re there, right?”
“No,” responded Ususi. “We step through, and… you’ll see.”
The mage began to trace a line in the air between the stones with her left hand as high as she could reach. Where her hand passed, the glow of the Keystone smeared the air, as if chalk on a glass wall. When she bridged the gap, she brought her hand slowly down along the edge of one of the stones, to the grassy ground, back across to the first stone, then up to her starting point. She’d traced a square in the air a little taller than seven feet high and about the same wide. The very moment she finished the circuit, the forest Marrec could see through the glowing square spiraled away like an image sucked down a drain. Then the square was revealed for what it was: a doorway to an arcane other-where. A cool wind blew out of the darkness, brushing Marrec’s hair. His horse snorted and pulled back slightly on the lead.
“Follow me,” said Ususi. She walked into the darkness, the Keystone held just higher than shoulder level like a lamp.
Passing the gap from forest to darkness was not unlike walking into the face of a chilling waterfall, though Marrec remained dry on the other side. He stood on what seemed to be a great stone obelisk, fallen on its side. The stone seemed similar to the standing stones from which the Mucklestones were formed but broader. Behind him, the square-shaped discontinuity he had walked through hung unsupported. Through it, he could see his companions waiting their turn to pass into the doorway.
As though bridging a void of cool darkness, the stone path arrowed forward as far as Ususi’s light could reach, which was not all that far. A precipitous fall threatened anyone who came too close to either side of the path. Undeterred by the threat, Marrec peered over the side and spied an island of stone far, far below. The island floated alone in the darkness and was moving farther from view even as he watched it. The island was strewn with rubble, and the mostly demolished wall of some ruin gaped up at him. The light seemed to emanate from the walls themselves, twinkling with witchlight. Gazing around the vast space, he noted tiny flickers of light in every direction, all moving slightly relative to each other.
“What is this place?” he asked Ususi.
Ususi motioned him forward. He realized he continued to hold Henri’s reigns, though Ash was still on the other side of the door. He carefully led his and Ususi’s mount, and Henri, through the discontinuity, moving to stand near Ususi. Elowen and Gunggari followed.
Finally Ususi said, “This is an ancient space, a half-space, where forgotten things litter the void. If not for the Mucklestones, I doubt it could still even be accessed.”
From behind, Gunggari said, “It seems unnatural.”
“It is,” replied Ususi. “It is an artificial space created many thousands of years ago by a race known as the Imaskar. They used it to store their secrets, their refuse, and their… mistakes. The Mucklestones can create paths through it, shortcutting real world leagues.”
“Imaskar?” asked Marrec.
“Mistakes?” said Elowen simultaneously.