James Barclay - Beyond the Mists of Katura

‘No, you aren’t, you’re still moving. Keep coming, Ulysan. Slowly. Smooth movement, that’s it. Now pull with your hands and brace your back up. That’s it, you’ve got it. Your legs are coming round. I can see them.’

Auum crabbed a little further back, aware of his own precarious position. Above him the fissure widened again. He needed to turn before he lost the pressure of the wall on his back. Ulysan inched on. Auum could see the fear on his face, the tautness of his skin and the desperation in his eyes.

‘Just a little more. . Ulysan.’

‘What?’

‘You’re in. Yniss preserve you, you’re in! You’ve done it! Now come on, keep moving just like you are and come up where I am.’

‘Auum.’

‘What?’

‘You’re facing the wrong way. That’s a poor way to start a race.’

‘What?’

Ulysan’s desire to get away from the seat of his terror gave him strength and pace on the climb that Auum could only wonder at. By the time he’d turned himself the right way, Ulysan was past him and up into the wider final section of the fissure. Auum tried to close the gap, but Ulysan was practically climbing hand over hand, his legs propelling him upwards at a reckless pace.

Auum was only too happy to let him have his head. He climbed in Ulysan’s wake, feeling the ache in his muscles and the emotional fatigue draining his strength. But his relief kept him moving. He saw Ulysan crawl over the lip of the fissure and stand, looking back down, shooing away the figures that came to his side.

Auum moved up the last few feet. Hands clamped over his wrists and hauled him bodily out of the fissure and onto a freezing cold, wind-blown and snow-covered plateau. He thought there might have been a cheer, but Ulysan’s embrace eclipsed it. The big TaiGethen crushed him in his arms and against his chest. His breath heaved in and sobs shook his body.

‘Thank you. Dear Yniss, thank you for Auum. Thank you.’

‘It’s all right, Ulysan,’ said Auum. ‘You’re safe now.’

‘Safe,’ said Ulysan, and the word must have sounded like blessed peace because the strength went from his legs and Auum let them both sink to the ground, still locked together. ‘Safe.’

Auum didn’t register for how long, but there they stayed until hands and gentle voices ushered them into the warm.

There was no desire to move further that day. They rested in the sanctuary that magic provided. Ulysan slept for the most part, and Auum watched him in case the nightmares took him. With night falling and the TaiGethen scouts returned from the ice shelf Merrat and Grafyrre had found the day before, their course was set for the morning. Stein sat down next to Auum, bringing two cups of hot broth.

‘How’s he doing?’

Auum’s smile was fragile, his lips trembling despite his best efforts.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, putting a hand on Ulysan’s shoulder.

‘He’s your best climber,’ said Stein. ‘You don’t have to tell me, but what happened in there?’

‘We all have our demons,’ said Auum.

Stein held up his hands. ‘Then there’s you too. You were down there with him the whole time and yet you’re trying to pretend you aren’t affected. Talk to me, Auum, let it out. The tension is radiating from you.’

Auum thought for a moment, wondering if what he wanted to say — and to a human of all people — represented betrayal.

‘You will never repeat what I am going to tell you,’ said Auum.

‘I am your brother. I will never betray you.’

‘We’ll make an elf out of you yet,’ said Auum. He paused to gather his thoughts. ‘Ulysan was young when it happened. It was back on Hausolis, the old elven homeland. A freak set of circumstances. . He was exploring a cave system when there was a rockfall that trapped him and Ellarn. There had been heavy rainfall too, and while they were trapped another storm struck the hills. Water poured down the tunnel they were in. It was powerful enough to loosen all the earth and rock that had trapped them. They were washed back down towards the sinkhole they’d climbed. Ulysan managed to grip on to a root and stop himself going over the edge but Ellarn was swept down. His body was never found.’

‘Who was Ellarn?’ Stein had to clear his throat to speak.

‘He was Ulysan’s younger brother. Ulysan was teaching him how to climb.’

‘How did he get out?’

‘I can’t imagine the suffering he went through,’ said Auum, wiping his eyes. ‘Clinging on for hours in the dark, calling out for Ellarn but only hearing his own voice echoing back his grief. He was rescued when it was plain he and Ellarn were long overdue and in trouble.’

‘Who rescued him?’

‘He doesn’t know,’ said Auum. ‘One day he’ll remember.’

‘How long ago was this?’

Auum blew out his cheeks. ‘More than three thousand years.’

Stein gasped. ‘It all came back when he thought he’d got stuck in the fissure? Such a long time to hold on to such pain.’

‘Immortality has its curses.’

You are making the right choice. I am certain Auum will forgive you.

Takaar had moved quickly, resting and eating sparingly, following the trail left by Auum and his ill-fated force. Word had reached Julatsa of considerable numbers of Wesmen landing on the northern and southern beaches, moving inland towards the colleges. No doubt they would skirt Xetesk in the south and lay siege to Lystern. It gave yet more impetus to his mission.

‘And if Auum does not, you will get what you want: I’ll be dead.’

I really can’t lose.

Night was full and the shadows were deep in the gently rolling land to either side. Takaar’s ears picked out all manner of sounds: animals, birds and the rustling of breeze across grass but no enemies. His eyes pierced the darkness easily though his long vision was denied him by the night. He’d stop soon, eat and rest for an hour before pushing on until dawn gave him a clearer view of his progress.

You must be very satisfied. Here you are, after all this time, running to save not only the elven race from invasion but humans from destruction too. An opportunity for redemption worth waiting a thousand years for.

‘You make it sound as if I sat around wasting the intervening years. Just look at what I have achieved.’

In Il-Aryn terms a great deal. In terms of elven harmony almost nothing.

‘I care nothing for that.’

Oh, but weren’t you credited with its creation?

‘And look where it got us. The hatred never died; it just festered in our souls. Even I accept it was a mistake. You cannot force such things on people, they have to evolve.’

You’re admitting a mistake?

Takaar didn’t answer. Auum’s trail was going to take him across a river at the mouth of Triverne Lake. He wondered if he should follow, if the passage of a lone elf would go unnoticed if enemies were still waiting there, as Stein had claimed.

Travelling this side of the lake brought him closer to the colleges and he couldn’t afford to be seen until he had reached his destination. Takaar stopped. Several figures rose and moved towards him. He had thought them a tumble of rocks, so still had they been.

Oh dear.

‘I will not die here,’ said Takaar, letting his mind seek the energies needed to create a killing force beneath his enemies’ feet.

‘You cannot cross the river. The enemy is waiting.’

Oh. Your deserters. Do you think they’ve come to finish the job they lacked the courage to finish at the manse?