"Rishkaan, my friend, I hear you," I replied, "and well I know the years bring sorrow with wisdom. But I cannot believe the world is doomed, not by love, though I hear the truth in your voice and know that you at least believe it. I beg you consider though, for the sake of Akhor, that perhaps he and Lanen might also be right. It may be that you have seen most but not all of what is to come. Might there not be a last verse, a final turn on the wing or beat of the heart that has not been revealed to you? Or," I said, quietly voicing a thought that had been growing in my mind, "perhaps you have each seen only one side of a balance that might go either way. Perhaps the Council's decision to exile them will bring about its destruction, while allowing them to stay together would be the saving of our Kindred, as Akhor has foretold."
Rishkaan was mustering a reply when we both heard the sound of someone arriving outside the cavern entrance, and the sudden silence that came with it.
We did not wonder long. Kédra entered the cavern. ''I could find no trace of him, Father," he said, his voice in some strange place between defeat and merriment.
"Are you certain the Gedri who spoke with you told the truth?"
"And who might you be, to call me liar to my face?" asked a high voice I had not heard before. And in behind Kédra walked the second child of the Gedri I had ever seen close to.
She stood bent over, and I saw that she could not straighten. She was smaller and darker than Lanen, but full of the same fire. I was too surprised to be angry.
"I am the Keeper of Souls, lady," I answered sternly. ''Who are you, and know you a reason why I should not slay you for crossing the Boundary?"
She did not flinch, but Kédra answered me. "I stand her advocate, my father. Lanen commended her to me though this lady knew it not. She sought protection where she might, for Marik has learned that she aided Lanen in her escape, and seeks her life. She told me—"
"I told him, Master Keeper of Souls, that I'd rather die clean and fast than go the way Marik would send me," said the crooked one. "I am called Rella. And I would still rather be sent to my rest by you than by his fools of guards." She bowed to me. ''Do as you wish, Master. I am old enough, and now I've set her free I've done my duty and shall sleep peacefully."
I looked Kédra in the eye and saw there the curious merriment I had heard in his voice. It was clear he had come to like this creature and her boldness. To my amazement, I found that I agreed.
"If you stand friend to Lanen, how should I do other than welcome you?" I said.
She bowed again. "Then I thank you for my life." She gazed straight at me. "Seems you are true friends to her, after all, though I must say sometimes you've an odd way of showing it. Where is she?"
"I heard Akhor ask her to wait outside the Council chamber. My son, if you will keep the watch with Rishkaan I will swiftly escort this lady to Lanen, then go to the Chamber of Souls as guard."
"As you wish, father. Go well."
I leant close to the crooked one's face. "Come, mistress, let us walk together to the Council chamber. I would speak with you."
She bared her teeth in what appeared, by her voice, to be pleasure. "It will be an honour, Master."
Strange that so short a time could change so old a feeling.
I looked forward to speaking with her.
The Wind of Change, indeed.
I walk through dry leaves and feel small twigs snap under my feet, but no sound escapes to my ears or any other's. I am like a small boy that has outwitted his parents; I suspect I am grinning like a death's-head. My breath comes faster now as I approach the cave where I saw the gems in their golden cask. The time limit on my amulet beats in my mind as my heart beats in my chest. I know well that it has taken me little more than the half of an hour to get to this place from the Boundary. There is plenty of time in hand.
And there, just before me, darker in the general blackness, lies the entrance to the cave I seek.
Steel your nerves, Marik, stir up your courage to enter and seize the treasure—
Hell's teeth! What was that? Freeze, don't breathe, turn slowly—aah! What's that brilliance that burns my eyes?
Fire. Hell's teeth, it's a blossom of fire from nothing, searing my eyes, near but not yet upon me. Back away, remember there's no sound, duck so as not to move the branches, hide beneath the shadow of the bare trees, better than nothing. My mind knows they cannot see me, but if they turn suddenly or run into me by chance all is over with me. By damn, those things are huge, and two of them draw near to the cave mouth.
The largest—dark bronze, with a gem in his forehead that winks deepest ruby in the firelight—enters with the flaming branch, while the other, bright copper with lackluster eyes, sits without not twenty paces from me. Breathe, Marik, breathe, if this one waits the other surely will not be long.
At last! I have waited an eternity here, and at last it comes out again. The painful fire is quenched in the leaf mould, the bronze one joins its companion and they move away northward. Breathe, Marik. It is astounding. For all their size they move swiftly and silently as cats, leaving only the least trembling of the grass, the lightest whisper of rustling leaves to mark their going.
Wait but a moment longer, beat steady my heart, breathe deep and lose the fear that caught me. The peril now is past. Before me the cave mouth beckons with the promise of riches untold, lying there now unguarded. I see in my mind's eye the open cask full of flickering gems and enter the Dragons' treasure chamber.
The outer room is huge and lined with gold to a depth of some inches. Its call would be difficult to resist were it not for the gems.
Even in this cave the dark is not absolute. My eyes, now recovered, catch the glint of the many vast gems thickset in great slabs of gold on the back wall. Still I am not tempted, it would take far longer than I have to dig them out of their settings. I step closer—
And there, on its golden pedestal, sits the object of all my cost, all my travail. A rough golden cask, like a great bowl, filled nearly to overflowing with the gems that flicker and change with the patterns of their inner fire. It is all I can do not to laugh aloud. Here at last, and so simple withal. I put my hand out to touch, and pause.
They are so very beautiful. I, with my good head for business and sharp eye to the value of a thing rather than its artistry, stand entranced by the wonder of what lies before me. Time seems to pause, hovers in my hand, in the eternal moment between thought and action.
How long have I stood here spellbound? Listen for the beat of the amulet—still strong and steady, I have not tarried too long. These gems have blinded me, deafened me, immobilized me, until at last some deep instinct has warned me that I am bounded by time and must do what I have come to do or leave. Or?
No, not or.
And.
The cask is heavier than I thought it would be, surely this much gold alone is worth many lives of men. In seconds it lies with its contents in the pack I have brought, a dead weight, a precious burden on my shoulder beneath my cloak of borrowed darkness.
Now to leave swiftly, back into the night, back towards the Boundary. I gather my strength and start to run. Lords of Hell, this thing is heavy! But the worst is that I have lost track of time and cannot tell how much longer my amulet will last.
What is that noise? A high keening sound that grates on my nerves, speeds my heart even faster, sets my teeth on edge.
Hell's teeth. It's coming from the gems.
"Lanen, child, wake up. You'll catch your death out here."
I swam reluctantly up from a deep well of sleep to Rella's touch on my shoulder and her voice in my ear. I blinked in the moonlight, slowly realising that many of the Kindred were standing in the clearing talking in very low voices. It took me a moment to work out exactly where I was—leaning against rock, cold and stiff—a cave, no, the Council chamber—then I was wide awake.