David Drake: The Mirror of Worlds

Frowning, Cashel stepped forward, putting himself in front of Tenoctris. A double-pace from the ugly creature he shot his quarterstaff out like a spear. The crab hopped in the air, but it wasn't quick enough. The iron butt-cap crushed the edge of its shell and all the legs on that side. The crab landed on its back, scrabbling with its remaining legs to turn over. Cashel stepped closer, judged the angle, and flipped the creature into the water with his staff. He knew crabs. That one's fellows'd make a meal of it before any of the other predators got a chance to. "That was funny," he said to Tenoctris. "I've had'em come for me plenty times before, but not from so far away. Do crabs get rabies, do you think?" A double handful of crabs came out of the sea, all the same ugly color and just as big as the first. Their clawed feet clicked over the stones as they sidled toward Cashel and Tenoctris. "I think we'd better-" Cashel said. More crabs appeared. The sea boiled with them. There were too many crabs to count, piling onto the shore like bubbles of filthy yellow foam. *** The cold bit Garric's hands and ears. He laced his fingers and twisted them to get the blood flowing. He wondered if Kore thought he was nervous. He chuckled. Shin looked back and raised an eyebrow.

"Iam nervous," Garric said over his shoulder. "But that's not why I'm wringing my hands, Mistress Kore." The ogre laughed. The sound that made Garric think of bubbles rising through a swamp. It'd gotten chilly during the night as they crossed the strait in the barge, but since the sun came up only heat had been of concern. It probably wasn'tthat cold here under the ice, but the contrast with the dry wasteland they'd just crossed made it seem a lot worse than it was.

The aegipan paused at a round-topped opening in the side of the rock.

The edges were as smooth as those a cobbler made when he sliced leather. It didn't have a door nor could Garric see any sign that a door'd ever been fitted. "You've reached the resting place of the Yellow King," Shin said. The portal was easily twelve feet high, but through a momentary trick of the light Garric thought the aegipan's slim form was filling it. "Come in, then, Garric." "And I'll come as well," Kore said. "I'm no longer your steed, man thing. We're agreed on that?" Garric looked back at her. Was Kore warning that she was about to attack him? No. And if she did, well, you couldn't live like a human being and still distrust everyone and everything you met. If the Shepherd chose that an ogre Garric trusted should pull his head off from behind, so be it. "Yes, mistress," Garric said. "You've been a good companion and an excellent steed. You're released from your oath. I release you from your oath." "Very well," said the ogre. She set the net of provisions down in the rubble-strewn track. "Then I'm free to become a spectator. I think Master Shin is about to show us wonders." The aegipan laughed. "Wonders indeed," he said as he walked into the mountain with the others following. Garric touched the side of the passage: it was as smooth as glass. There was light all around him, but he couldn't tell the source. It was blue, but a purer, clearer blue than what penetrated the ice outside in the valley. It was wizardlight. And not only the illumination but the passage itself must've been formed by wizardry. "That shouldn't be a surprise, should it, Garric?" said Shin without turning his head. "You knew the Yellow King was a wizard. That's why you came here, isn't it?" Garric's mouth was dry. "I knew the Yellow King was a myth," he said. "That's what I really believed, as you must know. I came because Tenoctris told me to come." He laughed without humor. "I came because Tenoctris gave me an excuse to walk away from the duties of being king, which I hate because I'm afraid I'm going to do the wrong thing and breakeverything . That's why I came, Master Shin." "Well, I don't suppose the reasons matter, do they?" said the aegipan cheerfully. "The important thing is that you came." He stepped into a chamber. Its ceiling rose so high that it was lost in a haze of wizardlight. A helical staircase circled it, rising out of sight. The floor was stone, polished like the walls, and over a hundred feet in diameter. In the center, facing the entrance, was a huge throne on a three-step base. It'd been carved as a whole from the living rock. On its empty seat was a cushion of yellow fabric. There was nothing else in the great room. Carus would've drawn his sword in an instinctive response to a situation he didn't understand. Garric kept his hands in front of him with his fingers tented, buthe certainly didn't understand what was going on either. "Ah, Shin?" he said. "Are we to wait here for the Yellow King's arrival? Or…?" "Oh, as for that…," said the aegipan.

He turned a double cartwheel to the base of the throne, then mounted it. At each step he appeared to grow larger. When he lifted the yellow fabric-it was a folded robe, not a cushion-he was of a size with the throne. Shin smiled and bowed to Garric, then settled onto the stone seat. "I've arrived. More to the point, you've arrived to meet me, Garric." Carus was calculating how to attack the aegipan, but that was Carus. Anything big enough to be dangerous was to him a potential threat. That was a useful trait in a subordinate, but not a good one for the person in charge. Garric was in charge. He cleared his throat.

"Ah, your highness," he said, looking up at the great figure enthroned before him. "I came to ask your assistance in dealing with the Last, the invaders, as you know. I-" The absurdity of the situation struck him. He laughed, knowing that he must sound a little hysterical. "Will you help us, your highness?" he said. "Will you help mankind, now that you've brought me all this way to ask you?" "I've been Shin to you during the journey," the great figure said. "I'll remain Shin to you and Mistress Kore, if you don't mind. Shin has a more interesting life than the Yellow King does." Garric bowed. "I came to like Shin," he said. "I'd be pleased to have him back." The aegipan rose and walked down from the throne again, shrinking at each step just as he'd grown.

At the bottom the neck of the robe slipped over his body. He walked out of the garment. His tongue lolled in a smile. Garric wondered if he were going to cartwheel toward them. "Another time, perhaps," said the aegipan, his hooves clicking on the floor. "The test wasn't of how bold a warrior you were, Garric," Shin went on. "Though you certainly proved that well enough. What I needed to determine was how fit a ruler you'd be for a land in which 'people' means more than members of the human race. You satisfied me ably on that score." And if I hadn't?

Garric thought. He didn't voice the words and Shin didn't answer the unspoken question. "Youknowthe answer, lad," said the ghost in his mind. "This one's as hard as I am, and he has no more reason to love us than he does the Last." "Perhaps a little more, Brother Carus," said Shin with his mocking smile again. "But that's of no concern now since your descendent has succeeded where a more physical ruler would not have. I'll go to my… well, you could call it an altar, on top of this ridge. Those are the steps to it." He gestured toward the staircase circling the room. "There's only one problem," Shin went on.

"The wyvern we saw breaking out of the ice will make for the highest point also. And while Icould deal with him, I can't both deal with the wyvern and accomplish what you've asked me to do. In the time that remains, I mean. In the time that remains for humanity." King Carus began to laugh. His image stood arms-akimbo, looking merrily at the aegipan through Garric's eyes. "I suppose you wouldn't fancy my chances of arriving here the way Garric did, eh, Master Shin?" Carus said. "To tell the truth, I don't fancy them either. I figure it'd have ended in a stable with a dead ogre and my head pulled off my neck." He nodded toward Kore. The ogre squatted with an elbow cocked on her knee to support her chin. She nodded back, as comfortable in dealing with the ghost as she was with the Yellow King. "So fair enough, I wasn't the man for that job," Carus said. The lines of his face hardened, though his smile remained. "But I've fought a wyvern.