‘I’m honoured,’ Caldason returned sarcastically.
‘You should be. If you can contain your anger and not storm out, you’re going to be told things few others have the privilege of knowing. We intend putting an enormous amount of trust in you, Reeth. It’s time we were completely honest with each other.’
‘You assume I have any interest in your plans.’
It was Disgleirio who answered. ‘We’re offering you hope, man. You’ve searched long and hard for a solution to your troubles, and it could be in your grasp. Don’t walk away from that. Hear us out.’
‘And if what you say doesn’t suit me?’
‘Some of it may well not,’ Karr told him. ‘But if once you’ve heard us you feel you don’t want to take things further, then we’ll go our separate ways. We’d be content to trust you with our secrets, and wouldn’t hinder you.’
Caldason pondered the offer. ‘I’ll hear you. But I don’t need a debating society. Keep it brief.’
There were relieved smiles all round. At Phoenix’s bidding they moved to the table and took seats.
‘Thank you, Reeth,’ Karr said. ‘You heard Phoenix say he might have a bead on your problem. We propose starting with that.’
The wizard fastened his steady gaze on Reeth. ‘The patrician spoke of honesty, Caldason.’ He nodded Kutch’s way. ‘Don’t you think the lad deserves to know the truth about your ailment? He’s stood firm with you, and the rest of us mean to do the same. Let us in.’
‘There are aspects of it that tend to… unsettle people.’
‘Not us,’ Karr assured him.
Kutch added softly, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here either, Reeth, but I’m sure you’re among friends.’
Caldason scrutinised their faces. He said nothing.
‘I claim no special insight into your condition,’ Phoenix explained. ‘The patrician told me about your seizures.’
‘I knew when we were with the communards, Reeth,’ Karr admitted. ‘You were seen. How could you hope not to be?’
‘The rest fell into place,’ Phoenix went on, ‘once I examined the annals for other cases matching your symptoms. Such cases are very rare, but with diligence they can be found.’ He paused to consider his next statement. ‘It’s said that I can defy death. This is untrue.’ Fleetingly, his grin flashed again. ‘Perhaps not even Melyobar can do that. I confess I haven’t discouraged tales of my longevity. They have value as far as Covenant’s image is concerned. But what of the enduring nature of
your
life, Caldason? Would there be some justification if such tales were told of you?’
‘As you said, my wounds heal quickly. Broken bones reknit. I never get ill.’
‘Never?’
‘I came through the black spot epidemic in Shalma, and the outbreak of rotting sickness in Deeve. Other plagues at other times left me untouched too.’
Kutch stared at him in wonderment, and with not a little apprehension. ‘You mean you’re immortal?’ he whispered.
‘No. Extremely resilient rather than indestructible is the way I’d put it. There seems to be a limit. If I had a severed limb, I can’t imagine it would re-grow, for instance. I guess I’d die if someone pierced my heart or parted my head from its shoulders. Then again, I was poisoned once and survived.’
‘Who gave you poison?’
‘I did.’
A moment passed in silence while they took that in.
Phoenix broke it by asking, ‘Do you age?’
‘Imperceptibly. My appearance hasn’t changed much over time.’
‘How long have you been like this?’
‘Since the last great massacre of my people, at Keskall Pass.’
Karr didn’t hide his astonishment. ‘That was seventy years ago!’
‘Seventy-two,’ Reeth corrected.
‘That makes you older than my master was when he died. Yet you look…’ Kutch faltered.
‘I know.’
‘Is it some kind of curse?’
‘It certainly feels like one. But I don’t think it is in the way you mean, Kutch.’
‘Now I understand what you meant about your friends dying in ways other than violently.’
‘I’ve seen too many age and pass from this world. I’m not keen to repeat the experience.’
‘But what
happened
to you?’ Phoenix pressed. ‘At Keskall.’
A pained expression wreathed Caldason’s features. ‘I… I don’t know. I survived the massacre somehow, though I took wounds. Wounds that should have been fatal. Somebody helped me. I’m not sure about much else. It’s confused, jumbled in my mind. There are holes in my memory. Though, sometimes in dreams… Well, not dreams really, more like visions or…’ He shook his head, defeated by the challenge of explaining.
Karr said, ‘Isn’t it true that historically the Qaloch had good relations with the rulers of Bhealfa?’
‘Yes. Our independence was respected and our borders were inviolate. Something changed that.’
‘And the paladins broke the treaties and all but wiped out your people.’
‘They were the instrument of our ruin, and for that I’ve tried to make them pay. But for all their power they weren’t the masters. I’ve never been able to find out who the Qaloch were such a threat to that they’d engage in genocide against us.’
Disgleirio had proved a man of few words. Now he said, ‘It’s been my honour to have Qalochians as comrades in battle, and in resisting the tyranny of the empires. They were the most courageous and skilled fighters I’ve ever known.’
Caldason gifted him the slightest of nods, and a fleeting, dilute smile of gratitude.
‘These are deep waters and we may never get to the bottom of them,’ Phoenix pronounced.
‘I need to,’ Caldason told him.
‘I understand. But best to concentrate on your affliction for now.’
‘An affliction,’ Disgleirio echoed thoughtfully. ‘Yet immortality, or at least a version of it like yours… isn’t that something people would kill to have?’
‘Rather than try killing themselves because they had it, you mean?’ Caldason replied. ‘That depends on whether you see it as a privilege. I don’t, because it’s a trade-off, and I fear the ultimate cost will be the loss of my mind. It makes me feel like I’m connected to something… malevolent, and incredibly powerful.’
‘I told you that Covenant knew about conditions similar to yours,’ Phoenix reminded him. ‘It would be more accurate to say that we’ve heard of such things rather than actually encountered them.’
‘What have you heard?’
‘Enough to suspect that Founder magic could be involved.’
‘But Founder magic’s dead,’ Kutch broke in.
‘You know better than that, boy. It’s all around us. It’s the Founders who are dead. Their heritage is the magic we take for granted.’
‘How does that help me?’ Caldason said.
‘Founder magic was the most powerful ever known. Our skills are petty compared to theirs. Your search for a cure was always doomed because no magic we have could lift your burden. But perhaps, just perhaps, there might be a Founder solution.’
‘How could there be? The Founders and all their works disappeared before recorded history.’
‘Covenant is very old. Some believe that our creed’s antecedents go back to the Dreamtime itself. I don’t know whether that’s so. But we’ve studied the Founders for a very long time. We’ve tried to find out as much as we can about them and their ways. It’s one of the reasons we’re so frowned upon by the authorities and approved sorcerers.’
‘There can’t be much left for you to study.’