David Drake - The Mirror of Worlds

"but I could be wrong." Ilna nodded, lifting her hands slightly to call attention to the pattern she'd just knotted. She didn't spread the fabric yet; it'd paralyze her companions if they looked at it.

Asion backed a pace, automatically checking to the sides and behind him; a sling's arc covered a lot of area. He swayed the stone at the end of its tether, settling it in the leather cup. "Karpos?" Temple warned quietly. He held his buckler out, putting it between Ilna's face and the panel, then turned his own head away. Karpos covered his eyes with his left forearm. Asion's thong snapped through the air.

Glass shattered almost simultaneously in aCrack! like nearby lightning. The panel puffed outward in a cloud of rainbow dust which left a few sparkles in the air even after most had settled on the red ground. "I'll lead," said Temple, stepping into the building. His bronze sword was point-forward at waist level, and the buckler was advanced in his left hand. "Follow me," Ilna said curtly to the hunters as she entered in turn. The air within was moister than that of the sand wastes outside, and it smelled strongly of the Coerli. The flooring was fibrous butrock; remarkable as that seemed, it wasn't a mistake Ilna's bare feet couldn't possibly have made. The material gave her sensations not of pastures or ripening flax but rather of heat and fire and pressures beyond what anything living could bear.

Could rock feel pain? Ilna smiled. It pleased her to imagine that it could. The glass walls muted the light, but they let through enough to see by. The building was partitioned inside, but Ilna found she couldn't be sure whether the walls ran up to the roof-or indeed, if there was a ceiling below the roof. Everything was distorted, much as though she'd been trying to see things underwater. "They're up ahead!"

Asion called, though he was watching the rear. "Temple, I smell'em!"

Temple stepped around a corner. Slipped around it, rather; Ilna didn't see the motion, only the big man's presencehere and thenthere. "This is the nursery," Temple said mildly, though he didn't lower his sword.

"The kits. None are older than six weeks." Ilna moved to his left side. Yes, kits; as many as the fingers of one hand. They were in a waist-deep pit sunk into the floor, too deep for them to climb out on their own. All but one snapped and snarled at the humans, jumping and clinging to the rim of their prison for a moment before slipping back; the remaining one cowered against the back wall. "Four males, one female," Temple said. "There's at least one female of breeding age also, probably two. They'll be hiding somewhere, probably in the larder." He quirked a smile at her. "The Coerli aren't like humans, Ilna," he added. "Or at least like you." Ilna sniffed in disgust. A generalized disgust, she supposed: at the catmen, but at people and at life itself. She shook her head and said, "There's a wizard here, you said. Do you know where he is?" If she wove something to answer her question, she'd have to put down the defensive pattern she carried.

For choice she wouldn't do that. "He'll be as high up as he can get, I would guess," Temple said, looking upward. "The building had a peak on the outside, so there must be something above the flat ceiling we see." Ilna followed his glance. She didn't see a ceiling, flat or otherwise. The combination of reflection and distortion in the glass panels threatened to give her a headache. "All right," she said, more harshly than deserved by anything Temple'd said or done. "Take me there, if you will." "Mistress?" said Karpos uncomfortably. "What should we do about-" He gestured toward the kits with his little finger rather than the knife in that hand. "-these?" "Kill them, of course!" Ilna said. She glared at Temple to see if he dared object, but the big man's face remained impassive. "But you're not to take the scalps." "I think it'll be this way," Temple said as though he hadn't heard the exchange. He nodded in the direction they'd been going since they entered the building. Without waiting for a reply, he walked around the pit to the corridor she could see from where they stood.

She followed, listening to the shriek of a kit. It'd dodged Asion's knife by enough that the stroke wounded instead of killing quickly.

The sound didn't give Ilna the touch of cold pleasure that she usually got from knowing that the beasts were in pain. The rooms-the spaces-of the strange building were irregular in fashions Ilna couldn't understand. She must not be seeing them properly; she'd always before been able to grasp patterns, even in the rocks she hated. Her failure suddenly spilled over in a gush of self-loathing that made her dizzy.

"Here're the stairs," Temple said, nodding toward what she now saw was a diagonal panel standing an arm's length out from the wall. She hadn't recognized it as separate until the big man tapped it with the rim of his buckler. "Shall I lead?" "No," said Ilna, stepping past him with her yarn held up but still not extended. "I will." "The pantry's beneath the stairs, behind another baffle," Temple said. "They'll wait!" said Ilna. Her unjustified anger at Temple made her angry with herself. The steps were both shallower and taller than they'd have been for people; the Coerli had smaller feet but their legs were springier. For Ilna it was almost like climbing a ladder. She kept her eyes upward so that she'd be ready if the cat wizard suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. The kits had stopped squealing. She found herself hoping that the hunters wouldn't discover where the females were hiding until after the wizard was dealt with. Her lips pursed, but at least the anger had slipped back into a more usual state of mild disapproval of herself and the world. Ilnastepped onto a round platform. Until she'd mounted high enough that her eyes were above its rim, she hadn't been sure that the staircase didn't end with the roof itself. In the center of the flat surface sat a male Corl. He had the flowing mane of a chieftain and what'd obviously been a powerful physique many years ago. Many decades ago. The beast facing her was by far the oldest Corl she'd ever seen. His mane was white and now scraggly, and he'd worn the fur off every joint. The mottled, purplish color of his skin showed through the remaining fur, turning it dirty gray. Ilna held her pattern taut before her. The beast's eyes were closed. "Do not bother with that, animal," he said. She'd never before heard the cats make sounds that she could understand. "I know all things, so I know my doom. I will not struggle." He coughed a laugh.

"How can one struggle against fate?" he asked. "Even I, Neunt, the greatest wizard of all time, cannot defeat fate." Ilna laughed, though there was little humor in the sound. "I've always thought braggarts were fools," she said. "You've proved that better than most, beast, choosing to tell me how powerful you arenow." "You can lower that," said Temple quietly, indicating Ilna's pattern with his left index finger. He'd slung his buckler, but he held the sword ready. Ilna started to snap that she didn't trust others to determine what was safe or wasn't, especially when dealing with wizards… but she did trust Temple, she found to her surprise. She folded the pattern into her sleeve without picking the strands apart, then immediately took out a fresh hank to determine the direction they must go next. Neunt opened his eyes. They were a milky blue in which Ilna could barely see the pupils; if he hadn't made a point of closing them, she'd have assumed the wizard was blind. "The Messengers gave me the power I demanded of them," he said in a harsh, cracked voice. "Everything I asked for… and now you're here and you will kill me, because you are a thing I did not foresee." He laughed again, but the sound trailed off into wheezing. He's going to die shortly whether we kill him or not, Ilna thought. Though of course we'll kill him. "Do you know the Messengers?" Neunt asked when he had control of his voice again. "You do not, I suspect. I did not, I could not-" Suddenly anger snarled in his broken voice. "No one could foresee you! No one!" Ilna looked at Temple. "Kill him," she said. "I'll determine what we do next." "I will tell you your course," the wizard said calmly. "That's why I waited for you instead of ending my own life as I'd planned. I will tell you how to reach the Messengers, who will give you the power you desire. Every power that you demand, they will provide." Ilna stared at the ancient Corl, absorbing his words. From the floor below, Karpos called, "Mistress? We've taken care of the females. What do you want us to do now?" "You can come up here," Temple said, surprising Ilna both with what he'd said and the fact that he'd spoken at all.