Roger Taylor - The Return of the Sword

‘I don’t know why they won’t,’ he felt obliged to add. ‘And it wouldn’t do any good for me to press them.’ Then, unable to prevent himself from explaining further, ‘I think they find our thoughts unsettling. There’s something about us – something they can’t reach, just as I can’t reach fully into them – something that frightens them.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s only a thought. It’s a subject I’ve learned to avoid over the years.’

‘I understand,’ Usche said, though Antyr could see that the topic would arise again sooner or later. Then she frowned and gave the wolves a sidelong look. ‘You said “thoughts”, didn’t you? They can’t pry into my thoughts, can they? Tell what I’m thinking?’

‘No,’ Antyr lied confidently, as he always did when this question was asked. All the Serenstad Dream Finders lied about it both routinely and with great conviction. It was the Guild of Dream Finders’ only true secret. No one knew why but there was a strong presumption that the practice had its origins in a violent past.

Usche looked relieved, if a little suspicious. However, she was prevented from pursuing the matter by the mounting curiosity of her watching colleagues. Everyone in the room was now gathered about them and each newcomer naturally gravitated towards them. They were beginning to ask questions of Antyr.

Usche stood up and raised her arms for silence uncertainly. Antyr saw why; it was obvious that several of those present were senior to her.

‘Can I ask you for a little patience, Brothers? We’ve all got so many questions to ask, but as you know, Antyr has only just arrived after a long journey and, as you also know, he had very little sleep last night. In courtesy we should let him relax and get used to our ways and this place before we start badgering him.’ Her speech ended rather lamely, but, together with a plaintive expression and some hand-wringing, it was enough to disperse most of the spectators. Slowly the hall became as it had been when Antyr first entered, though, from the glances that were continually thrown his way, he knew there was only one topic of conversation.

He tried to start a new one of his own, indicating the extensive view of the mountains and the plains.

‘Are these proper windows or are they mirror stones?’ he asked. ‘I haven’t seen anything so far that’s this big.’

‘They’re mirror stones,’ Usche replied casually. ‘All the windows are. The Cadwanen is completely isolated from the outside except for a few entrances, and they’re all well protected.’

Antyr found the contrast between the seeming openness of the bright hall and the dark claustrophobia of Usche’s statement disturbing.

‘Always the fortress, eh?’ he heard himself saying.

‘Always the fortress,’ Usche confirmed. She sensed his mood. ‘But at least we’re a fortress of light,’ she said. ‘Like Anderras Darion. We seek knowledge, we disseminate it. We illuminate.’ Suddenly she was excited. ‘Just look around you, Antyr. Every aspect of this place is such an achievement. I shouldn’t imagine you’ve seen a fraction of it yet, but have you met anything that made you feel you were buried deep inside the mountains, or that you were in anything other than an ordinary building, and a fine one at that?’ She answered for him, tapping her temple with her forefinger. ‘No, because the knowledge, the learning that animates everything here has brought even the sunlight and the air into the depths so that we can live like civilized people.’

‘You could say that was using your knowledge to deceive, to misrepresent where we really are,’ Antyr retorted, somewhat to his own surprise, rising to the hint of challenge in her voice.

Usche cocked her head back and a broad smile broke through her earnest expression. ‘What is the function of a window, Antyr?’ she said.

Antyr opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. ‘To keep the weather out – let the light in – and perhaps the air – and to see what’s happening outside,’ he admitted after a moment’s thought.

‘Dear, dear, dear.’ It was Tarrian. ‘Walked into that one, didn’t you? Ask her if there are any children round here for you to argue with – someone more your own weight.’

‘Shut up,’ Antyr growled back, adding venomously, ‘Pup.’ It had no effect other than to make both Tarrian and Grayle chuckle.

Then Usche was standing up in some confusion, as were her friends. ‘We’re late,’ she was saying. ‘That’s Kristabel’s fault, keeping us all talking. She’s no idea what has to be done around here.’ She put her hand on Antyr’s arm. ‘I’m sorry about this, but we’ve got to go. I’ll see you later.’

Thus abandoned, Antyr found himself once more the focus of much of the attention in the hall. He was about to retreat with a view to continuing his trek when Yatsu and Jaldaric entered. They acknowledged warm greetings from many sources as they came towards him.

‘Is there anyone you don’t know here?’ he asked as Yatsu dropped down beside him.

‘Oh yes. There are always lots of new faces and lots of gossip in this place,’ Yatsu replied. He looked at Antyr and laughed. ‘You’ve the look of a week-old novice. Come on, own up. How badly did you get lost?’

‘I get enough abuse off these two without you adding to it,’ Antyr said, nudging Tarrian with his foot. ‘This is a very confusing place. And it doesn’t help that I can’t understand any of these symbols written up everywhere.’

He recounted the details of his day’s walking, concluding with his encounter with Kristabel.

‘You’re privileged,’ Jaldaric told him. ‘They’re delightful creatures, felcis, but they do have a habit of treating people as if we’re rather slow-witted pets.’ He looked around the hall. ‘And they regard this place as just an extension to their own system of tunnels and burrows – an extension they graciously allow us to use.’

‘And Kristabel’s very fussy about who she takes a shine to,’ Yatsu added.

‘I thought at first that someone was playing a joke on me.’

‘I can see that a felci would be a surprise to you, for all you’re used to talking to your wolves.’

‘How do they get in here? Usche told me there are only a few well-guarded entrances to the place.’

This amused the two men. ‘You’ve hit on one of the many mysteries that surround the felcis,’ Yatsu said. ‘And one of Andawyr’s greatest banes.’ He laughed. ‘He gets so frustrated. They just come and go as they please and no one’s ever found out how they do it. They seem to be immune to the Power in some way.

‘I imagine someone’s asked them?’ Antyr said, striking for the obvious.

‘Oh yes, many times,’ Yatsu said, still laughing. ‘But to no avail. All they ever say is we’re too young to understand.’

‘That’s odd, she said I was old – or part of me was.’

He had half expected more laughter from Yatsu at this but, instead, the Goraidin pursed his lips appreciatively. ‘Interesting. Felcis know a great many things that we don’t, for sure. I can’t hazard what she meant but it could well be significant. I’d mention it to Andawyr if I were you.’

‘She said she was going to do that anyway. She seemed very amused about it.’

‘They laugh a lot, felcis.’

Antyr was hesitant about his next remark. ‘I noticed that she had very powerful-looking claws and teeth. It occurred to me that she could be quite fierce. Are they dangerous?’

‘Very,’ Yatsu said simply. ‘But not gratuitously so. They’re not like people, they’re like most other animals. If you want to see how dangerous they are, you have to provoke them – and at some considerable length, I might add. But then you take the consequences.’ He drew a finger across his throat. ‘On the whole they prefer to cut you down with a caustic comment rather than anything else, but those claws can open you from top to bottom and those teeth can snap your thickest bones like twigs.’ As was often the case when he spoke on such matters, Yatsu’s matter-of-fact delivery added a vividness to what he was saying that many a storyteller would have envied. Antyr winced. ‘They’re mountain creatures,’ Yatsu went on. ‘Their claws are designed for burrowing through the rock, and designed very well. And they can eat rocks with those teeth, though I’ve a feeling they only do it to watch us cringe at the noise it makes.’